Zed's Item Tiers
Tired of the same loot everywhere and losing the thrill of exploration? Zed's Item Tiers adds a probability-based rarity system to Project Zomboid: almost any item can roll as Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, or Legendary when it enters the world. Higher tiers are genuinely stronger—lighter bags, deadlier weapons, tougher clothes—so scavenging and crafting stay interesting instead of flat. New highlight: tiered clothing now has active Thermoregulation behavior, not just static stats.
How it works
- Tiers are assigned when items spawn or appear in containers; Common items behave like vanilla (no tier bonuses).
- Each tier has a default spawn weight (see Tiers below). You can tune probabilities in the mod’s Lua if you want a stingier or more generous economy.
- Tooltips show the item’s tier and the bonuses that apply to that item type, so you can compare loot at a glance.
Tiers (default chances)
- Common — 80% — White (no bonuses)
- Uncommon — 16% — Green
- Rare — 3.2% — Blue
- Epic — 0.64% — Purple
- Legendary — 0.16% — Gold
New: Thermoregulation (clothing)
Thermoregulation is now an active mechanic. On insulated clothing, tier bonuses dynamically adapt insulation while worn:
- All clothing from Rare tier and above gets Thermoregulation.
- If covered body parts run hot, insulation shifts down (cooling support).
- If covered body parts run cold, insulation shifts up (warming support).
- The shift range is tied to the item's Thermoregulation bonus, so higher-tier clothing adapts more.
- Thermoregulated clothing also self-dries faster when wet.
Bonuses by item type
Bonuses only apply where the item actually supports the stat. Thermoregulation is one of the headline systems now. In practice:
- Weapons: damage, crit, handling-style stats where applicable; weapon weight needs the optional Java path (see ZombieBuddy).
- Clothing: bite/scratch (and related) defense, run speed, vision and hearing modifiers where relevant, plus thermoregulation on insulated gear: while worn, insulation nudges toward what your covered body parts need (hotter → less insulation, colder → more), and tiered clothes with thermoregulation dry faster when wet.
- Containers: capacity, encumbrance reduction, max item size where supported.
- Drainables: fluid capacity where the item uses a fluid container.
- Literature: mood-related stats and reading speed where the book supports them.
- Flashlights / battery gear: lower drain where hooked.
- Food: improved hunger reduction on higher tiers where the item is food.
- Legendary style bonus: all worn Legendary items provide a small mood/stress boost, so yes, your cool bellybutton piercing finally has gameplay value.
Crafting
Crafted output tier follows your ingredient tiers in a Factorio-style way: the result is never worse than the “floor” set by your best ingredient tier, mixed inputs influence the roll, and relevant crafting skill can slightly improve (or worsen) the outcome. Recycling good components into better gear is part of the loop.
Optional: ZombieBuddy
ZombieBuddy enables Java-side bonuses that pure Lua cannot apply cleanly—most notably weapon weight. The mod is fully playable without it; you just skip those Java-only perks.
Compatible mods
FAQ
Q: Is it safe to add/remove on existing saves?
A: Yes.
Q: What game versions were tested?
A: 42.13 - 42.16.
Q: MP support?
A: Not tested.
Q: Load order?
A: Try to place it last in the list.
Links
GitHub[github.com]
[ko-fi.com]
Workshop ID: 3707251461
Mod ID: ZItemTiers
