If you've ever picked up a gun in Project Zomboid and tried to use it immediately, odds are you found that they suck with no skill in Aiming. At low levels, everything except the shotguns are borderline unusable. Despite this, Aiming is bar none the most powerful skill in the entire game for clearing zombies, though most powerful overall is Tailoring simply due to the shenanigans you can do with layering. This guide is going to tell you how to use guns and not just ring the dinner bell before running out of ammunition.

Guns offer multiple advantages over melee weapons - first and foremost being range. You cannot get scratched, lacerated, bit, or dragged down if you've got twenty feet between you and a horde, unlike with a melee weapon. The second advantage is that guns do not rely on your physical strength as far as damage output goes. If you're exhausted, tired, and hungry and you're trying to use melee, your damage is going to be reduced to a pittance. Guns do not have this issue - a bullet is a bullet, the most any of those negative moodles will do is reduce your accuracy, which is scarcely a problem at higher levels of Aiming anyways. The third advantage is easy horde clearing, particularly with shotguns - guns are LOUD, and while this is a double edged sword, if you bring enough ammo with you, you can realistically clear out huge chunks of a town by playing smart.

This section is going to be very brief. Essentially the only setting you should change in regards to the loot distribution is the abundance of ammunition, which I prefer to bump up a bit. Guns themselves should stay at Rare, unless you want to drown in duplicates, or are running a weapon mod which floods the loot tables with ♥♥♥♥, like Brita's.
In order to make the spending of ammunition have a meaningful impact on clearing out a town, you should turn Respawn Hours and Respawn Unseen hours to 0, which completely disables Zombie respawn. Note that zombies will still spawn until the peak day, but after that point, their population can only go down. In order to make the game more challenging without respawn, you should bump the population modifier up from what you normally play on.

Properly setting up your character is an important part of actually getting guns to be anywhere usable, and you're offered three different ways to go about that - choosing the Police Officer or Veteran jobs, and picking the Hunter trait, which all provide some sort of boost to your Aiming skill. These pre-Apocalypse jobs and traits provide perhaps the most useful benefit of all beyond just starting with levels in those skills already, and that is a permanent boost to all experience gained with those skills. A character starting with one level in a skill provides a +75% permanent experience boost, going up by 25% per level, up to level 3 for a maximum boost of +125%. This SIGNIFICANTLY saves on ammunition used when grinding, as you get greater returns on what is already a precious resource being permanently spent. Even just taking Hunter significantly speeds up the process of leveling Aiming.

Police Officer and Veteran both provide bonuses to the Aiming and Reloading skills. Both jobs give the same amount of Reloading skill, at +2, but Police Officer gives the better immediate bonus to Aiming, with a +3, alongside a +1 in Nimble for a very cheap 4 points, which can be increased to level 4 Aiming if you take Hunter. In addition, Police Officer gain the Marksman trait, which increases their accuracy independent of the Aiming skill.

On the other hand, Veteran sacrifices the point in Nimble as well as a point in Aiming for the unique 'Desensitized' trait, which completely disables the Panic system from day one of the apocalypse, which is a godsend as your character's accuracy will severely decrease when panicked, leading to more wasted shots. You can take Hunter along with Veteran to get the full +125% experience boost to Aiming, but this will leave you at a very hefty -16 points, with the 8 points Hunter costs, and the 8 points Veteran costs, meaning you'll have to take a few more negative traits to deal with it.

You don't have to take Police Officer or Veteran to make effective use of guns - taking Hunter is generally a viable alternative if you plan on doing something else, like making a Carpenter with Handy so you can make rain collectors on the first day. Not only does Hunter give the first level of Aiming, you also gain a level in Trapping, which is essential for long term survival for catching meat (particularly, Rabbits), a level of Sneaking, which is pretty good, and a level of Short Blade, which has dubious usefulness since most people prefer any other weapon type. Again, you get permanent +75% XP boosts in these skills, assuming you don't have other traits or occupations impacting them further, and that +75% helps a LOT.

Now that you've completed the pre-game stuff and made your character, it's time to actually shoot the guns. You know, when you actually find one, that is. The police stations in the spawn towns are all fairly easy to get to, except for West Point's, which is in the center of town (read: virtually inaccessible early game unless you mess with the initial starting population), and Muldraugh's has the problem of being on the highway, which is where all the zombies tend to congregate. West Point also has a gun store on the east end, behind Twiggy's, but unless you get lucky with sledgehammer spawns you aren't getting in there on day one. Rosewood has one of the highest concentrations of locations to acquire guns out of all spawn towns, between the Police Station next to the Fire Station (which is a popular base location to begin with), the Prison and its armories (which, due to their proximity to the cell blocks, necessitates clearing the prison lest you get trapped and mobbed), the research facility out in the woods (which spawns a bunch of military zombies who have a chance of carrying a gun, along with one singular gun locker), and the army surplus store up the highway, which is unique in that you only need an axe to break a door down to get at the guns.

It's important to note that unless you spawned as a Police Officer with Hunter, you're still going to have some form of accuracy debuff with all of the guns you're likely to find, but this is actually negated fairly easily with handguns by attaching a laser and a sight.

Find a shotgun and ammo for it. The JS-2000 is the best, with the double barrel right behind it, and then the sawn off versions of both should be ignored since they suck due to reduced range, increased spread, and being louder. The shotgun may not be the death trap it once was, but it's important to remember that guns are loud. When you take a shotgun into town to clear it, you'll want to pack a LOT of ammo, as you're going to basically bring the entire neighborhood down on your head.
Now, you may be asking "Why use a shotgun to grind when I can basically use a handgun right off the bat?", and the answer to that is because the shotguns hit multiple targets at once thanks to their spread. When you hit a target with a bullet, you gain XP from it. Usually this is a pathetic amount, but assuming you're either Police, Veteran, or have Hunter, that amount is boosted according to the aiming skill you started with. Now, assume that for every landed shot, you gain 1.5 points of experience in Aiming, before any modifiers like pre-apocalypse skill or an aiming book from a mod. Shotguns can hit four targets at once, so that's 6 points of experience for every shot fired that hits four zombies. But wait, there's more! You're not actually getting 6 points every time you hit four zombies, you're *actually* getting 24! The way shotguns work is that they take the number of zombies that have been shot in that frame, in this case four, and multiply the XP earned from that hit by that number of zombies, so each of those four zombies is worth 6 XP instead of 1.5, and this is without taking the XP boosts from Cop/Veteran/Hunter into account, but you get the point.

Pistol caliber weapons that let you use an offhand item like a flashlight. Fairly quiet in most cases, but some are useful as pocket noisemakers to draw zombies away from a part of town.
"Beretta my beloved..."
The archetypal 'Wonder Nine', and the only one in game because The Indie Stone aren't likely to add the Glock 17. Boasts the highest magazine capacity out of any handgun at 15 rounds, plus one in the chamber. Has very solid accuracy rating and 9mm ammo is plentiful. Damage is the lowest out of all non-revolver handguns, and with the changes to gun crit chance, you really feel it since you can end up magdumping single zombies and doing squat to them. Requires level 4 Aiming to reach 80% accuracy on any given target, and level 6 to reach 95%. Can be brought down to level 5 if you have a laser sight.

I have a standing offer for anyone at TiS who reads this that I will provide oral sex to whoever adds a rare M9 variant based on the 92FS Inox. Please, god, I want an Inox.

"muh two World Wars, muh stopping power, muh reliability..."
With the changes to gun crit chance, the M1911 is a much more attractive choice due to the higher damage output compared to the M9, with only a slight tradeoff in accuracy. Has the worst magazine capacity of any non-revolver handgun in the game, at 7 rounds, plus one in the chamber. Takes .45 Auto, ammunition and magazines for it are slightly less plentiful than for the M9. Boxes of .45 are inexplicably a whole pound each. It's not too bad, honestly. Requires level 4 Aiming for 80% accuracy, and level 6 for 95%, which can be brought down to 5 with a laser.

"What makes a Deagle gay? Is it because it's big and strong and you want it in your pants?" -Zach Hazard to me on Twitter
I have no words to describe the Desert Eagle in literally any context beyond 'it's stupid.' It's a big stupid gun that fires a retarded huge round and is totally impractical in any situation for carrying it in real life beyond intimidation factor if you have to actually pull the thing out, and it's only popular because of Hollywood, CoD4, and Counter-Strike. Takes .44 Magnum ammo, which is hard to come by as is, has an 8+1 capacity, is tied with the Magnum for the worst base accuracy, and is the second loudest handgun in the game - on paper it's bad, but in practice (with a high level of aiming, that is) it's just alright. I would rather carry an M9 or a 1911 over this thing. Requires level 5 Aiming for 80% accuracy, and level 7 for 95%. Can be reduced to level 6 for 95% with a laser sight. The only use this thing has is as a noisemaker.

The Detective Special
The M36 Revolver is actually not that bad compared to the other two revolvers. It's chambered in .38 Special, which is fairly common, it has the highest base accuracy of all handguns at 65, which is higher than even the M9, and is extremely quiet, with its noise radius only being 30 tiles. The only downsides are that it's the weakest gun in the game, and it only carries a measly five rounds, which isn't that big of a problem at higher levels of Reloading. Requires level 2 Aiming for 80% accuracy, and level 4 for 95%. Cannot mount a laser.

"revolvers are better than handguns they dont jam you only need six shots to bring a man down" -statements dreamt up by the UTTERLY DERANGED
The M625 is statistically worse in every respect compared to the other handguns above except for the Desert Eagle, with the only key advantage it has over them being that you don't need magazines for it. It's the second most inaccurate handgun, and only has six shots. Takes .45 Auto, same as the 1911. Requires level 5 Aiming for 80% accuracy and level 7 for 95% accuracy. Cannot mount a laser sight. If you can't find a 1911, M36, or an M9, I guess you could use worse.

"Do you feel lucky, punk?"
Functionally speaking, it's a Desert Eagle that doesn't need a magazine. Same ammo, worse capacity, same loudness - it's still alright, though the lack of a magazine is a bonus. Requires level 5 aiming for 80% accuracy, level 7 for 95%, and cannot mount a laser sight.


Shotguns offer one unique benefit over every other weapon, and that's the ability to hit multiple targets at once, which is immensely useful for clearing hordes. Unless you have mods, they all take generic shotgun shells, which I'm assuming to be twelve gauge.
The JS-2000 is the best shotgun out of the four available in game due to its tight spread, high damage, availability of ammo, and its capacity. Due to it being fed by an internal magazine tube that can carry six rounds, plus one in the chamber, you only need loose rounds for it, though it is pump action, so if you sprint or shove immediately after firing a shot, you'll need to manually pump it by pressing X. It's also extremely loud, with shots reaching over 200 tiles away, so bring lots of ammo if you plan on using it. Requires level 2 Aiming for 80% accuracy, and level 5 for 95%. Cannot mount a laser.

"Terrorists win."
Functionally speaking, it's a JS-2000 with the barrel sawn off, which naturally reduces the range and vastly increases the spread. It also makes the gun louder, at 250 tiles. While you would think the increase in spread is good considering the zombies are dumb, they actually tend to form into a single file line, which means you want *less* spread, not more. Don't saw off the barrels of your JS-2000s, and cannibalize any random spawn sawed offs for parts for the long barrel JS-2000. Unique in that you do not need any aiming skill to reach 95% accuracy with it.

"And this... is my BOOMSTICK!"
Has a longer range and higher damage output over the regular JS-2000, but has a capacity of only two shells. It could be better, but the JS-2000 is superior and seemingly more common. Does not require any aiming skill for 80% accuracy, and requires level 3 for 95% accuracy.

It's the exact same story as the Sawed-off JS-2000 - it's an inferior version of the original weapon. Does not require aiming skill for 80% accuracy, and requires level 3 for 95% accuracy.

Rifles are any other two-handed gun that wouldn't be classified as a shotgun, and there are really only two rifles in-game that are actually worth your time.
Varmint rifle chambered in .223 with a three round internal magazine. Has poor base accuracy, but is relatively long range, which can be further increased by attaching a scope to it to basically turn it into a sniper rifle. Requires level 4 Aiming for 80% and 95% accuracy, and it can be brought down to level 3 for 80% with a fiberglass stock. Garbage for clearing hordes due to being bolt action, but is certainly useful in PVP.*

*Due to a recent change within 41.72 regarding gun crit chance, this and the 788 are borderline unusable as sniper rifles. Essentially, crit chance now goes down with range, so an MSR700/788 with an 8x scope on it will not deal crits nearly as often as when a target is close up, which unfortunately means you won't be able to hit them at all with a scope on if they're up close. This might be changed in the future, but I don't know.

Very similar to the MSR700, boasting identical range stats and modification options. Has higher damage output than the MSR700 due to being chambered in .308, and takes external 3 round box magazines. Requires level 4 Aiming for 80% accuracy, and level 5 for 95%.

"I don't need no teenage queen! All I need is my M14!"
One of the two rifles that is actually worth anything for killing zombies, the M14 is a fairly rare .308 rifle with 20 round box magazines, solid accuracy, great range, and a low chance to jam. You're not likely to be drowning in ammo for it, but at high aiming this thing is insane. Unfortunately, for balance reasons, it's not select fire like the real M14 is. Requires level 6 aiming to reach 80% accuracy, and level 9 for 95%.

"An assault rifle! This ♥♥♥♥'s getting more like 'Nam every second!"
This is the other rifle that's worth anything. The M16 is incredibly rare to even find in the first place, and feeding it is another challenge considering it takes 5.56 ammo, which you're not likely to find much of without changing the world settings. In all containers that have a chance of spawning guns, the M16 has a less than 1% chance of actually spawning in any given loot roll. The only place I've ever found them with any sort of consistency would be the Louisville checkpoint. However, to make up for both the rarity of the gun, its ammo, AND the magazines, you're rewarded with an incredibly high damage weapon that can not only shoot two targets at the same time, but also pierce zombies. It's also select fire, meaning you can waste all your ammo on one crowd. Incredibly prone to jamming, however. Requires level 8 Aiming for 80% accuracy, and you cannot reach 95% accuracy due to it requiring level 11 Aiming which is impossible to get without mods.

Build 41 has massively increased the variety of firearms in Zomboid, but sometimes you just want more. Luckily, the mod community has you covered.

Brita's is by far the most popular choice for adding more guns to the game. From the humble Kalashnikov and the Glock-series (yes, series, not just the Glock 17) to the outright insane fun weapons like the M134 minigun (yes, really.), the M72 LAW, the M79 grenade launcher, and even anachronistic weapons to 1992 like the AN-94, AEK-971, and prototype weapons like the Pancor Jackhammer and H&K CAWS, Brita's is the weapon mod since if you want it, it's probably in Brita's. Requires Arsenal(26) Gunfighter. Disclaimer: Brita's floods the weapon pool a LOT, so you'll probably want to bump up gun spawns slightly.

This isn't as much of a content mod as much as it is a quality of life one. Arsenal(26) enables more gameified mechanics in regards to guns, such as showing when your character is at their maximum accuracy, informing you of a jam, and providing an ammo counter, showing how much is in the magazine, if you have a +1, and how much you have in reserve. You can also see damage rolls and the stats of any gun you pull out, and all aspects of this are customizable. Notably, this includes a framework for other ammo types, extended magazines, and underbarrel weapons, which means if you use Brita's, you need Arsenal(26).

Compared to Brita's, VFE is much more grounded in reality, no LAWs or handheld miniguns to be found here, just a collection of more realistic weapons like the AKM, the MP5 and MP5SD, additional M16 variants, the M4, and the SPAS-12, and so on. If you think Brita's is a little too 'extra', then VFE is the way to go.