How to hotwire a car in Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid will have you escaping hordes of zombies in no time as soon as you start the session. Escaping them is no easy feat and some methods are harder than others. One of these methods is getting into a car by hotwiring it yourself.

Hotwiring cars in Project Zomboid

The main thing to note here is that hotwiring cars by default isn’t an option in Project Zomboid. You won’t be able to perform the hotwiring action successfully unless you have your Mechanics skill at level two and your Electrical skill at level one. The major challenge here is to get those skills to their appropriate levels because it takes a while if you don’t know how to go about it.

Leveling up Mechanics

Your Mechanics skill will go up every time you repair objects. Any task, from putting in a light bulb to fixing a car, will level up your Mechanics skill. Getting the skill to level one will happen soon enough, but level two will take a while and a lot of car batteries.

Leveling up Electrical

This one is a bit easier to achieve. Kill zombies, and make sure you check their corpses. If you come across any electronics, dismantle them to increase your Electrical skill level. Just make sure you keep a screwdriver on you at all times.

The hotwiring process

Now that both of your skills are of the appropriate level, you will need to know how to hotwire the car itself. Simply follow these steps, and you should be well on your way.

1. Open the door of the car by interacting with it. If you can’t open the door, smash the window instead and unlock the door from the inside. Use a weapon if you must.
2. Get into the driver’s seat and access the engine through the radial menu. Choose the “Hotwire Engine” option and activate it.
3. Upon activation, a gauge will pop up. This gauge measures the progress of the hotwiring process. Wait for the gauge to fill up completely before igniting the engine.
4. Ignite the engine, and the car will start. Make sure to escape quickly because the noise will attract nearby zombies.

That is the entire process you must follow, from gaining levels in the appropriate skills to the eventual application, to hotwire a car. Apart from this, another method involves a different character start. More specifically, starting as the Burglar class.

The Burglar’s class ability will allow you to hotwire cars from the start of the game, bypassing the need to level up your Mechanics and Electrical skills. Choose this option if you want to have an easier time hotwiring cars.