Why Are Spears So Good In Project Zomboid? 

mom grandpa is still arguing over spears

Spear is OP even back in medieval age, It's easy to use even for militia/peasant, a good weapon for formation, good weapon to take down 1 expensive 10 years hard trained soldier with only few peasant

"Why are spears so powerful?" That's just real life canon. Turns out physics hasn't changed one iota since cavemen discovered the pointed stick. Pointed stick is still the best melee weapon.

Hell yeah Retanaru called me awesome

Note that the spear attack speed bonus is a glitch that removes its recovery time in between swings. You can get a similar effect with any weapon using shove-canceling (swing, shove immediately at the end of the swing animation, then cancel the shove before it plays by immediately attacking with the weapon again). Spears however somehow get this effect for free, but only when you hit a zombie; it's recovery time is much higher when swinging at air.

Another thing to mention: the further you physically are from a zombie, the safer you are. Aka why using guns is "safest" and pose the least risk for bite, using a spear buts you further away from a zombie, meaning if you screw up you have time to correct. Try making big screw ups with a knife against a horde. You will be dead

Spear make my ooga booga brain happy

The absolute pain of the animation locking stab is the closest we get to the spear being balanced Correction: maybe people attempting to spread misinformation on the spear's mechanics are its balancing mechanic lmao Keep people confused so they can get killed over it As for the modding suggestion, once you open the doors to modding, there's little that matters. Sure, I could make the spear that much more reliable by removing the animation, but at that point, why not make all the other melee weapons reliably and/or regularly one-shot zombies too? At what point is the line drawn?

Spears are the sole reason why my favorite occupation is viable to play. The Burger Flipper.

The more I know about the mechanics in this game the more I'm impressed it's not a total mess at first sight. So many of the mechanics in this game seem like complete spaghetti programming inconsistent with every step, like the 'jaw stab' working completely different than 'spear stab' despite being so similar at first sight.

The Baldur's Gate music is great for project zomboid content! Wouldn't mind some in-depth technical analysis of Baldur's Gate mechanics ;D

Always so succinct and informative. Truly the best zomboid content creator

I've been making spears to level carpentry, so figured I may as well use them. They're good at killing, but durability and weight mean I'm always keeping another weapon as a backup. I just can't be grabbing backups from my bag while getting chased halway through horde clearing. Too much risk, so a short blunt on the hip is a must. And every time I go out zombie hunting, I end up dropping even more spears than I break just to make room for loot.

imagine loosing your 50 hour playtime full stats character because you used a spear and you got locked in a killing animation

More tips(haha get it) from a spear enjoyer If you have 10 fitness and are in an normal weight group(not over/underweight) provided you are not at the drowsey moodle, you can actually swing forever without getting tier 1 endurance moodle. Once you go drowsey/get into a bad weight group/are overencumbered you will need to descend back to the realm of reality and rest eventually. Edit:So ok, I just did some spear fighting in 16x louisville on a old save. They must of changed the endurance usage in a shadow nerf to directly target 10 fit spears users so that *Eventually* you tire out. It took 73 swings from a spear to go from 100% to the tier 1 exertion moodle, 67/73 swings were one shot's with the spear. In the beginning of the game just use the one shot spear animation if your low on strength. Its 9 times out of 10 more efficent to just pack multiple spears in your trunk than spent 10 hits to kill something. You can fit a crafted spear into a fanny pack with organized, no this does not make any sense. Sometimes I randomly come across old wooden spears instead of the new crafted spears. I'm pretty sure they come from the robber meta events in car crashes/the stores. The old wooden spears weight 1.3 instead of 1.7 but you can't use them in crafting recipes. Other than that they are identical. They're just cool to have lying around. You can put a near broken machete on a spear to be able to repair it with wood glue which is more efficent than the adhesive tape/duct tape. If you remove the machete, it'll reset the machetes repair stacks. Kind of in exploit terriotory but I won't judge. Put a crate on a chainlink fence, the zombies path to it and you can stab them through the fence with the spear for 0 risk. You can figure out when your character is going to do that special crit by the swinging animation, the character will take a wider/faster swing than normal. If you run britas weapon pack, you can toggle the garden fork as a throwable weapon, throw it into a zombie, kill it, then take the spear back as a throwing weapon to reset the repair stacks. Its useful considering if you have lucky and max carpendry you will restore 60-75% of the weapons health. Still kind of in exploit terriotory but like I said, I don't judge. Its anecdotal evidence but I swear the stop to kill spear animation goes off way less if you are holding two directional keys, at least in my experince. I think the character stopping to swing might also have something to do with how many zombies are within a cone, I had one situation where I was being chased by 5 zombies besides the massive horde behind them but there was only one directly infront of me and the other 4 were about 3/4's a tile to the sides but same distance to the character, character really stopped to kill that one.

Your videos are always a breath of fresh air. I am glad you include even obscure mechanics (bugs?) like pushing retaining the one hit kill property for a short time (I've also definitely had it just do damage/stun a zombie without killing them, no clue how that happens) and the animation lock protection. I only wish you mentioned that the OHK animation happens regardless of movement, which is a startlingly common misconception that is already breeding even in comments here.

Excellent explanations as always. I don't usually use spears often, but I am convinced. I'd like to try being a spear main.

Damn, this makes me wanna replay zomboid again lmao Ngl kinda wish I had more people to play with since all my friends irl ain’t really into the game

Spears are so disgustingly satisfying, i hope they hold up in B42

Honestly I've gotten the 1 shot animation when fighting multiple zombies at once. It's the primary reason I don't use spears that often. I got enough holes in my clothing from using spears. hehe

I never knew there was a Bob & Kate event in build 41. Big 2011 throwback.

Crazy. I was listen to the bg3 ost paused it then opened your video thinking it was still playing

The nerf of spears with weapon attachment still hurt though. They became far too heavy.

Axe main here. Spear stunlock mechanic killed me too many times. I knew that sometimes that failsafe against animation with multiple zeds doesn't work, but only thanks to your video I now know exactly why. And it makes spears no go for me, as with other weapons being somewhat surrounded is not a problem as long as you can kill everything fast enough. But in the same situation you can never be safe from spear stunlock.

The spear. Perhaps the first real weapon man made. Though it changed in exact shape and length, it persisted until the 20th century in the form of bayonets. For the Napoleonic Era, it was seen as the real weapon of the infantry, the tool to hold back the enemy or to drive him from the field. The first spears predate humans by hundreds of thousands of years. Man has used it to kill all its foes from beasts to fellow man. It should be no surprise it's the premier weapon of a zombie apocalypse. There is simply no tool that can replace the pointy stick in its usefulness and ease of creation.

the spear is the weapon that conquered nations the pike is the upgrade of the spear

Don't ever do the sprint charge, it has a chance to bug out and make you unable to attack until you land another spear charge.

I thought carpentry improved the durability of spears?

good thing to know when using spears in the early game is its faster to equip it to your back and press 1 than it is to just equip in both hands, great for when it inevitably breaks after just a few zombies

Nice, you got the kate and baldspot event!

I died three times to the animation locking and I refuse to use spears anymore even pitchforks are a danger alert for me

I kinda needed being told I'm awesome at 7am on a monday, going into another fulfilling work day.

I don't know how to feel about this channel. From one side I really like the insights and getting to know how the game ticks better. But on the other hand this kind of knowledge inevitably turns a game into a minmax experience where it feels like I'm trying to get the most efficient gameplay at the cost of immersion and fun. Can't help it 😂 I don't remember where I heard it but there is a quote that goes something like "given the opportunity, a player will optimize the fun out of a game" and at least for me I feel like this is the kind of information where ignorance is truly a bliss

A good spot for extra knives early on is any trailer park, the zombies there can have full hp hunting knives on them, along with beef jerky and meat sticks which are great to keep around when you want to lose weight.

1:57 okay I got instant anxiety the moment that popup appeared and I couldn't see the zombie :D

All im hearing is that axe + lumberjack is easier to use and does more damage per swing when in a group

Supurb survivors mod+spears=unstoppable army

Spears are literally some of the best melee weapons IRL as well Countless times, people forget just how historically significant the spear is

or... instead of leveling maintenance for several in-game months... jack a car, drive to louisville and grab 10 combat knives at most that lasts you the entire early game by the point you level up maintenance to where spears can be utilized, you already have ∞ molotovs molotovs are the only thing that matters during mid or late game because the zombies respawn so rapidly you can basically just drop every single other weapon down the trash once the ramping starts there's no need to craft 10s of spears to clear hordes and watch your durability/fatigue, if you can just throw 1 molotov completely redundant

I used to be a spear main until I used a machete on a long term survivor that had around 8+ maintenance. He could one shot zombies without having to rely on the long, finicky spear one shot animation. This one shot strength was tied to my wakefulness though. during the first half of the day when he was the strongest / most awake it was one shots, then two or more after that. I only tended to use my machetes during those strong hours, as that maximized their usage. But it was easy to play around. Any time I needed to get some serious killing done I slept on it and got to work in the morning. Only using my machetes while I had one shot strength made sure they lasted for hundreds of zombies each, even before repairs. Just for fun, and to challenge the insane strength I was feeling with my machetes I went to the warehouse in muldraugh and let off a few shotgun blasts to pull in the horde. I put a machete on my back, one in each hand, then dropped my backpack and got to work. That is the only character I've ever had that could handle the huge numbers that a shotgun brings in, without resorting to fire. It was an absolute bloodbath.. Wooden spears and garden forks are still amazing, and I use them frequently. But machetes will forever onward be my weapon of choice on a long term character when some real killing needs to be done.

Hi Retanaru huge fan - I was wondering if I play sprinters do you recommend getting nimble?

Spears forever mod is really good and also exstra trait mod has a spare trait. The mod also allows you to attach knives to your spear. There’s also an anime mod that allows you to buy clothing with money, it also has some melee weapons and 2 of them are spears that you can buy with money add from wallets and credit card

Counterpoint: Stone axes are the better weapon compared to spears.

Cool. Waiting for basements so I can make a spear wielding mole man.

I have a question. Strength influences killing with criticals? It is necessary to have strength 10 or with strength 5 it kills Thaaaaaanks

BABE WAKE UP RETANARU UPLOAD A NEW VID

I used to think the same about spears, until I started playing with random zombies. 1% runners is all it takes to make the spear the worst weapon in the game. You have a lone zombie in front, do the instakill mechanic, but oh no, a sprinter you haven't seen is comming from a mile away and got your neck from the side because the animation takes a long time.... Not to mention I was able to play wtih 7% sprinters in the end of that playthrough. Yeah, spears are THE BEST weapon in the game.... without runners.

Spear go stab stab

Another thing not mentioned is MULTI-HIT. because of the range of spears, you might kill 4-5 zombies with crit. it only works if you have melee mutli hit, but it can skew the calc even more into spears. with modded spears from salvage, road signs, or just welded metal rods, it becomes the best weapon in game.

I used to be an Axe main for the longest time until one day I stumbled upon Spears. Completely rebuilt my default character loadout and have never regretted it.

I thought im going insane but the background music was actualy from Baldur's Gate 3

I still think it looks silly that the player slaps the zomboids with the spear most of the time instead of stabbing.

I just realised a major drawback of this game, and a possible way to nerf spears (at least the crafted ones)- in a 'realistic' zombie survival game, where the devs nerfed firearms so heavily, somehow no one on the team researched how real melee weapon works. A potential and lethal problem with spears, and a lot of other melee weapons in this game, is that they can and will get stuck in your targets. Bat or nightstick? Sure, they are fine. A hefty woodaxe? Unlikely to get stuck in flesh or bone. Spears made out of non-specialised lumber by hand though, they WILL get stuck more often than you might like. A short blade stabbing or cutting from the front is also prone to be stuck. This is a huge problem on the battlefield, and in a zombie survival scenario. That's why better equipped soldiers carried sidearms like swords, in case their main weapon becomes unable to be retrieved. I am not pushing for the spear to be nerfed in damage or range, but shoddy wood spears should have a chance to be stuck in a zombie per attack, especially lethal attacks. It is still viable facing a small number of zombies, as it should be. This will make lone spearmen think twice before engaging a horde, as it should be. Carrying extra ones still helps, but not as much, as it should be. And the animation - spears are strictly stabbing weapons, especially if you do not attach anything to its tip. The default animations is frankly quite comical, you might cause a nasty wound like that, but zombies do not feel pain. Shorten the stab animation, and make it the default one for realism. Or, with the new crafting system coming in 42, craft your own halberd by fixing an axehead under it, glaive by turning the tip into a blade ect. Cure the shaft with oil to make it durable. There are information all over the internet, but the devs don't like doing research apparently.

Me when half of the street is full of dead bodies and broken spears (mostly broken spears) Spear goes brrr

Spears are goated IF AND ONLY IF fast shamblers are the fastest zombies. Their need to have 2 zombies in their view cone (to prevent the lock in stab animation) makes dealing with flanking sprinters potentially lethal

At the end of the world. There was one thing to rely on. Pointy long stick kill good.

can't wait for blacksmithing to put the spear back on top where it belongs

I like the BG3 music playing in the background😅

Because of the very unfortunate stab animation with the spears, I choose to use short blade which usually does the same job at max level and doesn't run the risk of the animation happening.

lol at the baldurs gate music

Honestly the whole meta weapon thing has never caught on with me I heckin love killing a horde with a plunger and saucepan.

Spears are awesome, but I've also started to realize that knives/Short Blade are HIGHLY underrated. After watching Pr1vateLime do CDDA in Louisville last year, he was able to take literal hordes out with screwdrivers and kitchen/hunting knives, without tiring. Whenever they were about to break, he'd just find extras on the corpses he created.

Everyone has their own favorite weapon in Zomboid, it's up to personal preference

If they ever added stabbing spears through gaps in fences and barricades then the Knox event would be on borrowed time

Died 1month25days tonight because of 4:23. Thank you for teaching me its cause of my vision cone triggering stab attacks

I disagree. An Axeman Axe user will always be better than any spear user at the same levels. There is the added bonus of one handed axes allowing for a shotgun or rifle on your back. faster and more versatile. I am glad you mentioned the lumberjack.

Spear gang rise up!

Thanks for calling me awesome!

I always tend to start a run with baseball bat and swap to spears once I've got some carpentry and a little maintenance. If I play multiplayer, none of my friends are willing to go the spear route due to the tedium of constantly producing more even after having killed several thousand zombies. They truly are incredible as long as you use them properly. Occasionally, it's pretty scary when you get a weirdly timed one shot animation with other zombies too close for comfort, though.

Axe vs Crowbar gang : B-but mah weapon !

dude i thought you sounded so weird in this video, then i realized my video speed was set to .90x like 2 videos later

for anyone that has a problem with spears at the start and no durability a good tip is to make more spears than you think you would use when going on a scouting trip i normally carry 5 or 4 in my backpack after im done on my trip 2 or three of those spears have broken and i just put them on the bodies of the dead zomboids

It’s accurate to life

I discovered how useful spears were, didnt know there was a garden fork though

Just started playing with Project Zomboid after forgetting it existed nearly a decade ago. Spears became my go to weapon due to their longer range. Didn't know that they are meta weapons. At first I hated them due to the low durability almost getting me killed. But after a certain incident that I ran out of ammo, all my weapons broken and I only have 4 looted spears and a gardening fork I found, I survived a horde of at least 100 zombies after a night of repeated running and stabbing.

The time I got bitten by zombie B because I was animation-locked killing zombie A, I put down my spear and never picked another up. Axes and machetes for life.

It's fun being awesome.

people with more traits mod running the spartan and berserker and juggernaut traits: "what downside?"

if i had the option between a katana and two garden forks im choosing garden forks

Stayed for the music! Not really, but it made the video better!

The spear one shot animation can be triggered when a solo zombie is walking to you, and you trigger the attack in a specific range from the zombies. I can force this to happen with my poor timing skills about 80% of the time.

I like this guy rambling

i caught 63cm fish with my beatiful spear-hunting knife.

i LOVE spears. They are the best. And i CANNOT WAIT for b42 though i think it will be nerfed becuase forges spears I expect to be EXCELLENT especially relative to how broken the current spears are. Becuase binding stuff to spears is glitched, and you cant repair them great... so really crafted spears are basically the go to. But spear machete if it could be cheesed are the best. Anyways. Love you Rent glad stan spear chads

If you stand still you can get the instakill allmost every time, but truth be told, I dont like spears for dealing with grouped up zombies. Axes or even a baseball bat are usually better at that. But if the zombies are coming in piecemeal spear is the best option.

I have realized that you can farm nimble XP. All alone you can go into aim mode and rapidly hit different variations of WSA and D. Works in most conditions. I have also found if you start stabbing right before the zombie is in range, the stab animation will be triggered.

i lagged thru a stop sign, if your wondering what car it was the 94 ford tarus by ki5 but im pretty sure it should be doable with other cars

I thought I was being a contrarian prefering spears over short blunt

The spear also has one of if not the best reaches in the melee category. The easiest way not to get hurt in a fight is to be somewhere you can hit them without getting hit back. Especally in a game like project zomboid where a single hit can mean death depending on settings and what happens.

I don't like being locked into an animation when i don't want to, but all the benefits make them very appealing

I love spear but have you guys ever been a passive 10/10 lumberjack with a fire axe? got damn

The only thing I do not like about zomboid, and keeps me from using spears until mid game, is they damage clothes. I usually play start in winter and depraved, so having whole clothes is important. lol wish there was a target box system, or low-mid-hi

They should make other types of polearms. halberds, lucernes, etc.

Your channel is as if Decino started making PZ content.

Spears and other poor arms were the main armorment during the pre-firearm era due to its increased reach and relative inexpensive spear tip (less cheap for other pole arms) In Zomboid, spears are made of cardboard and have insanely low durability despite having a wooden pole made of modern breeds of wood

I personally always go with short blunt or axe because i need a free hand because i always carry two backpacks

all I'm hearing is to level spears in your off time no matter what you like classing into

Long as that animation lock happens I am not using spears. It has gotten me a very small number of times, but even 1 was too many.

Spears OP. Nerf spears, buff pens and pencils!

thoughts on burger flipper occupation for a cheap point in maintenance? Handy is quite expensive and carpentry bonus isnt that big of a deal, easy to level and fast with vhs/life and living