# Project Zomboid Build 42.9.0 UNSTABLE Released

- Product: Project Zomboid (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/project-zomboid)
- Vendor: The Indie Stone
- Date: 2025-06-10
- Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/108600/view/498323476114836481
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/project-zomboid/releases/2025-06-10-build-42.9.0-unstable-released

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **added** — Zombie spawn map is now generated automatically using seed-based noise to create varied spawn configurations
- **added** — Implemented ragdolls vs explosives physics, making pipe bombs and aerosol bombs much more effective at damaging and killing zombies
- **added** — If a player is 1 skill level short of a recipe requirement, having an item that teaches the recipe in inventory or vicinity allows it to be used as a reference to perform the recipe
- **added** — Added recipe for dying clothes using Industrial Dye
- **added** — Added container outlines to mannequins
- **added** — Context-menu options for picking up animals, skeletons, getting bones, and butchering now highlight the animal corpse when enabled
- **added** — The Add Corpse context menu in the butcher-hook UI shows item icons and highlights the corpse when an option is highlighted
- **added** — Added new animations for being shot in the chest, shoulder, left side, right side, and from behind
- **added** — Added new sound effect for zombie thumping wood to differentiate from thumping doors
- **added** — Added new sound for removing wooden plank with crowbar animation
- **added** — Added new sound when grabbing chicken or turkey from hatchery
- **added** — Added new Armour Hit Sounds for Firearms and Melee
- **added** — Added Aramid Thread item for use in armor and leather type crafts alongside Sinew Thread
- **added** — Added recipe to harvest Aramid Thread from bulletproof vests, limb armor, and firefighter clothing
- **added** — Added Screen Filter option under Textures section for better control over zoom levels that appear blurry
- **added** — Extended placement UI now has both rotation and movement in the same interface
- **added** — Added feedback to build panel to explain why some builds cannot be done
- **added** — Added missing entries for fawn leather in leather drying rack
- **added** — Added sandbox setting to disable Home VHS tape spawns being unique
- **changed** — Updated M16 full-auto sound
- **changed** — Wildlife noise, wolf and owl sounds will not occur until 4 weeks have passed for players in urban foraging zones or within municipal region zones
- **changed** — The state of an active vehicle alarm is now saved and restored so quitting and reloading cannot cancel a vehicle alarm
- **changed** — Researching items and looking at maps will replace the item back in the original container
- **changed** — Adjusted ragdoll impulse inconsistencies across ammo types with tuned physics hit reactions to match caliber impact classification
- **removed** — Temporarily removed raccoons climbing fence abilities due to pogo-raccoons
- **changed** — Equipped tissues will now muffle coughs

**UNSTABLE WARNING - DUE TO CHANGES TO THE ZED SPAWNING SYSTEM SOME UNEXPECTED SPAWNS COULD OCCUR IN EXISTING SAVES - UNSTABLE WARNING
**

##### _How do I subscribe to the Unstable beta branch?_

[expand type=details expanded=false
]

**NEW**

- Zombie spawn map is now generated automatically.
 -- Two levels of noise are applied to the spawn map to generate a variety of Z spawn configurations.
 -- Noise is seed-based so each new game will return a different configuration, unless a specific seed chosen.

Details:

An improved Zed Spawn Heat Map system has been implemented. The Heat map is now generated automatically based on certain tiles' locations on the map. Each of those selected tiles is given a certain radius of influence and a zombie spawn multiplier. For instance, Military tiles will have a large radius and a high zombie multiplier, while Vacant tiles (ie: broken windows for instance) will have a medium radius and a low zombie multiplier.

This system is also coupled with a seed-based cell noise that subtracts from the aforementioned zombie spawn heat map in order to break the predictability of, for example, always having lots of zombies next to a military base.

There are two noise levels overlaid on top of each other which will provide variety on a residential scale and on a district scale. ie: Sometimes a normally busy building will have no zombies (or at least fewer zombies), and sometimes and entire street or block will be voided of zombies (think LV)

The system will work with all modded maps and allow workshop mappers to adjust their heat map if they are not happy with the generated result.

This system does not drive the presence and the number of zombies inside houses, this is done through an entirely other system, it only affects Zombies spawning outside buildings.

We will be adjusting the tiles selection (that generate those areas of infleunce) so as to make sure there are not too many weird edge cases, but overall we hope that this will be a much more robust system that will provide a more consistent Z distribution and a certain level of surprise.

You can look at what it looks like in debug mode under the map options. In the images attached to this post you can see the zombie heat map of Muldraugh (the brighter it is the more zombie are spawning), while the other is the exposed cell noise with those two scales made visible.

It is also an intention that the tendrils of the noise will allow for some sort of empty corridors that should allow for easier sneaking between locations too, although clearly zeds have the ability to move and drift having spawned.

- Implemented Ragdolls vs Explosives physics.
- Explosives such as Pipe Bombs and Aerosol Bombs are now much more effective at damaging and killing zombies.
- Explosives now use physic hit reactions when enabled.

- If a player knows a recipe but is 1 skill level short of being able to fulfill a skill level requirement to perform a craft recipe, having an item that teaches the recipe in their inventory or vicinity will allow for the item being used as a "cookbook" type reference to perform the recipe.

- Added recipe for dying clothes using Industrial Dye.
- Added container outlines to mannequins.
- The "Pick Up Animal", "Pick Up Skeleton", "Get Bones" and "Butcher Animal" context-menu options now highlights the animal corpse, when the option is enabled.
- The "Add Corpse" context menu in the butcher-hook ui shows item icons, and highlights the corpse when an option is highlighted.

- Added new anims for been shot in the chest, shoulder, left and right as well as from behind

- Added new SFX for Zombie thumping wood to help players better differentiate them from thumping doors
- Added new sound for removing wooden plank with crowbar animation
- Added new sound when grabbing chicken or turkey from hatchery
- Updated M16 full-auto sound.
- The existing "wildlife noise", wolf and owl sounds, will not occur until 4 weeks have passed for any player that happens

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/108600/view/498323476114836481]_