Knowing how to crouch in Project Zomboid is important so you can sneak past zombies without drawing attention. This will also help you train your Sneaking and Lightfooted skills so you make less sound while exploring. The last thing you want is a horde of zombies constantly chasing after you.
Unless of course, you’re looking to take a bunch of them out and aren’t worried about getting bitten. Before we dive into how sneaking works in Project Zomboid, it’s worth mentioning that there are several levels of movement. Even though crouching is still one of the best because you can sneak along fences without revealing yourself. Assuming that fence isn’t see-through!
How to Crouch in Project Zomboid
Getting up close for a stealth kill can be tough if you’re not quiet enough.
Crouching is relatively simple since all you need to do by default is press the C button. This will make your character slightly hunch over and walk more quietly. As explained in the Project Zomboid tutorial, you can also use this to sneak up behind a zombie for a stealth kill. But, until you’ve leveled your Sneaking skill up, you may not have much success.
If you’ve seen a video or another player sneaking that’s even lower to the ground, this is because they’re near a wall. When sneaking near walls with C, your character will hunch down a little bit lower. This may be slightly slower than the normal crouch walk, but it could also just be a visual effect.
Using the crouch button to sneak along fences can be useful for avoiding combat.
Another way to sneak quietly is walking slowly by either holding the CTRL button or right-click. You won’t crouch while walking this way, so you’ll be visible if you’re next to a short fence. However, it can help with sneaking up to zombies for a stealth kill as well.
Also, there’s one more way to move worth mentioning if you’re still trying to get around quietly. While crouching with the C button, you can also hold SHIFT to sprint while staying low to the ground. This will make more noise so be careful you don’t accidentally alert nearby zombies.
How to Level Up Sneaking Fast in Project Zomboid
Leveling up your Sneaking and Lightfooted skill doesn’t have to be hard. You don’t even need to sneak that close to zombies.
If you feel like sneaking around is useless because zombies keep noticing you, this may be because your level is too low. Fortunately, this can be one of the simpler skills to gain experience in. All you need to do is crouch while near zombies that aren’t aware of your presence.
The larger the number of zombies you’re sneaking near that don’t notice you, the more experience you’ll gain. Therefore, if you don’t mind attracting some attention, try sneaking near a large group. Just be prepared to get out of there quickly if you don’t want to die. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself reading our Project Zomboid guide on what happens when you die.
Don’t forget that other factors can play a role in zombies noticing you. Like breaking a window or being near a bright light at ngiht.
While crouch sneaking near zombies, you’ll also gain experience in the Lightfooted skill. This will reduce the sound of your footsteps too. And if you want to keep working on your skills for moving quietly, you can work on Nimble as well. But, you’ll need to sneak around using the combat stance instead. This is the CTRL/right-click movement.
That’s all there is to this Project Zomboid guide on how to crouch and plenty of other useful tips and tricks. Feel free to comment below if you have a tip of your own to help other players out. This zombie world is definitely not an easy one to survive in.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.