Fulfill your ultimate zombie apocalypse samurai dreams now in Build 41 of Project Zomboid’s early access. Along with a slew of other amazing mechanics and content, build 41 of Project Zomboid has added a new weapon in the form of a katana. A katana is one of the most powerful sharp weapons in the entire game and along with the power comes a great rarity. We will show you where your best chances of finding a katana are in Project Zomboid.
Where to Get a Katana in Project Zomboid
There are basically 2 different places a katana can be in project Zomboid. The first, is found as loot within certain buildings such as nice houses and the gun store. The second place that a katana can spawn is as a weapon that is stuck in a zombie which is getting around the world. Both of these are pretty rare.
Looting a Katana From a Residential Building
There is a chance for a katana to spawn in certain residential buildings in Project Zomboid. If the player ventures into some of the middle-class or wealthy houses and check in the bedrooms, they may sometimes come across a katana. The spawn rate for the katana is very very low.
One of the places it can be found is in the wardrobes and dressers of nicer looking houses. Be sure to check in the kids rooms as well as the parent’s cupboard as there may be a samurai weapon laying amongst the toys and crayons in a kid’s dresser. (No I’m not kidding.)
The Gun Store at West Point
To the south east of West Point lies two important buildings. A bar named Twiggy’s and a gun store. We are going to focus on the latter to look for our katana. There is a chance that this weapon can spawn somewhere in the gun store. To start with, you are going to have to knock down the metal fences inside to gain entry, or break down one of the walls using a sledgehammer as the gun store is locked up tight. After you do this, you will have access to a great amount of weapon loot.
If you’ve checked all of the shelves and cabinets in the gun store and still haven’t found yourself a katana, fear not! In the back room behind the counter there is another room with shelves and wooden boxes. I found a katana the first time I even went looking on the metal shelving there at the back of the gun store. Don’t leave without first checking out that room.
As Loot From a Zombie
Occasionally you can see the undead walking around with items stuck in them from past battles. From knives, to machetes you can find a whole bunch of decent melee weapons just by defeating zombies and taking them out of them. There is a chance that one of these zombies can even spawn with a katana stuck through their stomach. This is an easy win for you as you will get a katana for your troubles but keep in mind these katanas generally have 50% durability when they spawn stuck in a zombie.
How Good is The Katana?
The katana is good. Very good. I’d even wager damage-wise it is one of the most powerful weapons in the game. Even with absolutely no skill in long blades, which is the skill that decides how much damage you do with the katana, the character can generally defeat zombies in 1 or 2 hits. It is incredibly powerful against enemies for this reason. You should generally wield it in both hands but it can also be used one-handed.
When you hover over the katana in-game in the inventory, the damage bar is completely full. Also, the durability is really good. The katana will take a very long time to eventually break and become unusable.
How to Repair the Katana in Project Zomboid
There is currently no way that the player can repair the katana in Project Zomboid. Once the katana is down to 0 durability, the weapon will break and then become unusable. Perhaps in a future update the katana will become able to be repaired. When that does happen, you can expect this page to be updated to remain up to date.
Increasing Chances at Finding Katanas
Apart from just looking in the areas explained above, there is another thing that the player can do in order to improve their chances of finding a katana in-game. Before the game starts, the player is able to choose a difficulty for their game. By selecting the custom sandbox option, you can change many settings in the world and different options. One of the options you can change involved types of loot spawning.
Under the ‘Loot Rarity’ sub-menu you can find options which define how often different types of weapons and items can spawn as loot. Go to the item type, ‘Melee Weapons’ and change this to abundant. Once you start your game, melee weapons now have a higher chance to spawn across the entire world in all containers. This will increase your chances of finding a katana as loot in Project Zomboid.
Spawn A Katana Through Cheats
By following this guide you can enable and access the cheat menu in Project Zomboid. Enabling this cheat menu will give you the ability to add any item in the game to your player’s inventory. Once you have the debug mode enabled in Project Zomboid, select the icon that looks like a mosquito on the right side of the screen. From there, all of the cheat menus will appear on the screen in a list. The one we are looking for is the “Items List” menu.
Once you have selected the Items List menu you will see a new menu appear on the screen showing every item available in the game sorted in alphabetical order. You can scroll down to find the katana, or simply type the word into the search box at the bottom of the menu. See the image above and the circled part of the menu.
Once you have selected the katana item you can add it to your inventory by pressing the “Add 1” button near the bottom of this menu. you can obviously add multiple copies of the item by pressing the other options. That’s the easiest way to get a katana in Project Zomboid Build 41.
To recap, we’ve covered how to loot the katana, where the katana can be found and looted from in Project Zomboid and talked a little about the stats and capabilities of the weapon. Hopefully this guide has helped you find that katana and live out your Michonne role-playing dreams!
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