You've been running through Muldraugh for three days. Your boots are soaked with blood, your character is "Anxious," and the only thing talking back to you is the emergency broadcast system on a handheld radio. It’s lonely. Project Zomboid is, by design, a story about how you died alone. But naturally, everyone wants to know how to find characters in Project Zomboid because, honestly, talking to a wall gets old after the fifty-fifth bowl of stir-fried cockroach.
The reality is a bit of a gut punch for new players.
If you are playing the vanilla, unmodded version of the game right now, you aren't going to find any "characters" in the sense of living, breathing human NPCs. They don't exist yet. The developers at The Indie Stone famously had NPCs in the very early builds (shoutout to Kate and Baldspot), but they pulled them to rework the code from the ground up. We've been waiting for their return for years.
The Great NPC Drought
Right now, the "characters" you see are just you. Or the walking corpses of people who used to be you.
When people ask about finding characters, they’re usually looking for survivors to trade with, fight, or recruit. In the base game, you’re basically a legend in a graveyard. You might hear a scream in the distance or a gunshot—these are "Meta Events." They aren't real people. They are sound files triggered by the game to move zombie hordes around the map. It’s a bit of a trick, really. You run toward the sound of a shotgun thinking you’ll find a friend, but you just find 300 zombies who also heard the noise and a very empty forest.
It’s frustrating. I get it. You want that The Walking Dead vibe where you stumble upon a camp of survivors.
How People Actually "Find" Characters Today
Since the official Build 43 (which promises NPCs) is still the Great White Whale of gaming, the community took matters into its own hands. If you want to find characters in Project Zomboid, you have two real paths: Multiplayer or the modding scene.
Let's talk about the Superb Survivors mod. This is the gold standard, though it's notoriously janky. It’s the primary way people inject life into the Kentucky wasteland. Once you install it, characters actually spawn in the world. You’ll find them barricaded in houses or wandering the streets with baseball bats.
I remember the first time I used it. I walked into a Gigamart in West Point and saw a guy named "Keith" frantically shoving canned beans into a backpack. I didn't even know what to do. I just stared. Then he saw me, yelled "Don't come any closer!", and sprinted out the back door. It changed the game entirely. Suddenly, I wasn't just looting; I was competing.
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Where These Characters Actually Hide
If you're using mods like Superb Survivors Continued or Subpar Survivors, finding characters isn't just about luck. The code usually dictates where they appear.
Most NPCs in these mods gravitate toward "Spawn Points" that mirror where players start. You’ll find them in residential areas with high density. They love the gated community in Riverside. They love the posh houses in Rosewood.
But here is the nuance most people miss: The "NPC spawn rate" setting in your sandbox options is god. If you set it too high, the game engine will scream for mercy and your frame rate will tank to 5 FPS. If it's too low, you'll never see a soul. Finding them becomes a game of checking high-value loot locations like police stations or gun stores, where the AI is programmed to seek out weapons.
The Multiplayer Reality
If you aren't into mods, the only way to find characters in Project Zomboid is to join a persistent multiplayer server. This is a totally different beast.
Finding people here isn't like finding an NPC. It’s dangerous.
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On a high-population server, you find characters by looking for the "Player Footprint." Look for broken windows that weren't there yesterday. Look for "corpse piles" that aren't just random—if you see twenty zombies dead in a neat pile in the middle of a road, a player did that. They are nearby.
Pro tip: Use the in-game map. Many servers have "Safezones" or player-run hubs. If you want to find characters, head toward the landmarks. People naturally congregate at the Louisville mall or the military checkpoints. Just don't expect everyone to be friendly. In my experience, about 40% of the characters you find in multiplayer will try to take your shoes and leave you for dead.
Why Your Search Might Be Failing
Maybe you have the mods installed, but the world is still a ghost town.
Check your "Start Year." If you've survived for six months, the "find" rate drops significantly because, well, everyone else died. The AI characters in these mods aren't immortal. They get eaten. They get sick. They starve.
Also, look at your "Spawn Area" settings. Most mods don't spawn characters in chunks you've already visited. You have to go into the "fog of war"—the unexplored parts of the map—to trigger the generation of new survivors. If you’ve spent 50 hours inside a single base in Muldraugh, you aren't going to find anyone new. You have to move.
What the Future Holds
The developers, The Indie Stone, are working on a massive "Human NPC" update. This is the "Build 43" roadmap. When this drops, "finding characters" will become a core mechanic of the game. They’ve talked about "story arcs" and "family trees."
Essentially, the game will generate a history for every character you find. You might find a diary in a house, and three towns over, you’ll find the person who wrote it. That’s the level of depth they’re aiming for. It's not just about finding a body; it's about finding a life.
Until then, we’re stuck with mods and the unpredictable chaos of multiplayer servers.
Actionable Steps for Your Current Save
If you want to find characters right now, do exactly this:
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- Back up your save file. Modding Project Zomboid mid-game is a great way to break your world.
- Install "Superb Survivors Continued" via the Steam Workshop. It’s the most stable version currently available for the latest build.
- Adjust Sandbox Settings. Go to the "NPC" tab in your sandbox options and set the spawn rate to "Low" or "Normal." Do not go higher unless you have a NASA computer.
- Head to Louisville. It’s the most densely populated area. The more buildings there are, the more chances the mod has to "place" a character inside one.
- Listen for the "Shout." In the mod, NPCs often yell when they see zombies or other players. Turn your volume up.
Don't go looking for friends in the woods. You won't find them there. Characters—both modded and real players—are attracted to the same things you are: food, warmth, and walls that aren't made of glass. Stick to the urban centers, keep your weapon drawn, and maybe, just maybe, you won't be the last person left in Kentucky today.