Project Zomboid stable build 42.22.2 released on 9 November 2026. It brings a handful of new mechanics, a large batch of multiplayer fixes, and quality-of-life improvements across the board.
New content and mechanics
- Ladder support has been added to the game.
- Crowbars can now be used to force open locked doors and windows.
- Characters holding two heavy items, or a heavy item and a flashlight, will drop the primary item in hand-to-hand situations.
- A recipe has been added to refill lighters using gasoline and a funnel.
- Raccoon skulls can now be used in animal skull necklace crafting recipes.
- Sleeping is disabled (with an explanatory tooltip) when a character has an active Bad Smell moodle.
- Player-crafted makeshift radios and walkie talkies now use fixed encumbrance values instead of randomised ones.
Sound improvements
- Dozens of new sound effects added for equipping and unequipping melee weapons and throwable items.
- New ladder footstep sounds that vary by ladder material and footwear type.
- New sound for climbing Sheet Rope.
- New sound effect for the Burpees exercise.
Multiplayer and gameplay fixes
- Fixed the doppelganger character bug, where a player's character could be duplicated at a chunk edge and potentially killed. Damage calculations have been moved server-side as part of this fix.
- Fixed dedicated servers freezing with an "Entity is already registered" error.
- Fixed a server hang caused by IsoGridSquare.BurnWalls interacting with multi-tile objects.
- Fixed players becoming stuck on the "Loading Map" screen.
- Fixed trailer physics and towing desync issues in multiplayer.
- Fixed the "All Known On Start" sandbox map option not working in multiplayer.
- Fixed bandages still appearing on remote players after removal.
- Fixed whisper chats closing server-wide when a player disconnected or respawned.
- Fixed vegetation not updating with seasonal changes in real time.
- Fixed car keys appearing next to untouched cars after a player left and returned to the area.
- Fixed deadbolts: players can once again lock external doors from inside without a key.
- Fixed an exploit where un-barricading could cause planks to exceed inventory capacity.
- A security vulnerability related to eMudhra digital certificate validation has been fixed.
- JRE integrity checks have been added to detect modifications to the Java Runtime Environment.
What this means for your server
All players must update their game client to 42.22.2 before they can connect to a server running the same version. Mods may need updates to remain compatible, particularly those that touch crafting recipes, encumbrance values, tile definitions, or ladder and door mechanics. The patch also includes server-side security and anti-cheat improvements that apply automatically once the server is updated.
Mods that affect crafting, encumbrance, tile definitions, or door and ladder behaviour may break after this update. Check for updated versions before bringing your server back online.
Always take a backup of your server before applying an update, so you can roll back if anything goes wrong.
Updating your RiverHosting server
- Make a backup of your server before you update.
- Update your server to
42.22.2through the panel. - Check that your installed mods have been updated by their authors and are compatible with the new version.
If you run into any problems, visit riverhosting.com/support and the team will be happy to help.
Read the full patch notes on the official announcement.
- Switch games anytime
- Automatic backups
- DDoS-protected NVMe
