Any Knox Country citizen (the few who remain alive, at least) might know that the worst thing that can happen is being around during the helicopter event in Project Zomboid. Whether you’re new to the survival game or not, you should know that the sound of a helicopter blade spinning is a bad omen. While many might think someone is bound to rescue them, that’s far from it. This pesky helicopter is there just to ruin everyone’s day.
Helicopter Event, Explained
[This guide includes information from the PZwiki, hands-on experience, and the mechanics from Build 41. It will be updated if anything changes in future builds]
For the unaware, Project Zomboid has a category of meta events, which includes the aforementioned helicopter event. While other things might happen sporadically when playing, this one is undoubtedly the scariest.
During certain intervals, players will hear the sound of a helicopter around the location. The vehicle’s model or shadow will not appear, though. However, this is the queue for the event’s start. Once that happens, certain things will occur:
- If the player is outside, the helicopter will stay on top of the player, following it.
- When the player is indoors, the helicopter will just roam for a while and disappear, only to return later.
- If the helicopter spots the player and watches them go inside a building, the vehicle will hover above the building for a while and then leave.
With this out of the way, what’s the big deal about the helicopter event in Project Zomboid? Well, as you might’ve guessed, this vehicle isn’t a quiet one. Being around during a helicopter’s spawning means that Zeds will be drawn to your location, which isn’t the greatest thing.
Surviving the Helicopter Event
Once you hear the helicopter of doom because there really isn’t any other name to give it, you can do a few things to avoid it.
- If you’re inside:
- In the fortunate case of being indoors during the event, the best thing you can do is stay put and look for a window. Since Zeds are attracted to noise, any zombies around the vicinity will move toward the sound. If there is a horde nearby, this one will move as well and might even come across your building. That’s why having a window close is important. First, it is useful as you can spot the horde’s movements, and second, you can use it to escape.
- If you’re outside:
- The obvious thing to do here is run. However, that’s quite the basic answer. We recommend running toward a town’s outskirts and walking through lines of trees. This will allow you to lose any Zeds that might be tailing you and let you find a safe spot to wait for the event to end.
Spicing Up the Event
Assuming the vanilla helicopter event in Project Zomboid isn’t scary enough, you can spicy things up by getting the Expanded Helicopter Events mod. This is one of the best mods, which adds many new things that range from raiders shooting at you, finding a crashed helicopter, and even getting supply drops. I recommend this one as it also fixes some of the base game’s event shenanigans, such as the helicopter always knowing your location instead of being able to hide from it in a “realistic” way.
