Project Zomboid puts a heavy emphasis on survival elements, and health is no exception, a laceration wound could take a player's character down fast if left untreated. Wounds can come from a variety of sources, from the zombies themselves to car accidents to climbing through broken windows. These wounds are often the demise of new players, as it isn't immediately clear what must be done for them to heal and stay uninfected.
Lacerations are fortunately among the more "basic" types of injuries and can be dealt with quickly and reliably. While other types of wounds can require specific tools to heal and lots of time, lacerations can be dealt with using improvised medical supplies in a few days. All lacerations are survivable unless they came from a zombie; zombie-caused lacerations have a 25% chance to infect players with the Knox Infection (if it wasn't disabled or tweaked in the sandbox settings to emulate other zombie media), which will always be fatal after a few days in Project Zomboid.
At the very least, lacerations require bandages of some kind; most often, these are ripped sheets gained by ripping up clothes and other fabric. Better bandages will last longer and decrease the risk of infection, but basic ripped sheets are perfectly fine if treated well. If players come across a pharmacy during their adventures, plenty of adhesive bandages and regular bandages can be acquired. Adhesive bandages do a better job than ripped sheets but aren't reusable. Regular bandages are by far the best bandage to use in Project Zomboid because they last the longest, can be reused, and can also have disinfectants applied to them to aid in recovery by reducing the chance of infection.
Healing & Bandage Uses in Project Zomboid
To bandage a laceration in Project Zomboid, players can simply open the health menu, right-click on the wound in question, and select which bandage they want to use. If they happen to have disinfectant or alcohol on hand, these can also be applied directly to the wound before bandaging to further lower the chance of infection. Every once in a while, the bandage will become dirty, and to avoid infections players should remove and replace those bandages when they can. In addition, players' hunger affects the speed of wound healing; being well-fed speeds up healing, while being hungry slows it down.
Players will want to avoid infected wounds whenever possible, as they'll cause health loss and eventually death if left untreated. However, even infected wounds will recover with just bandaging; as long as dirty bandages are replaced, the infection will eventually go away. In addition, while less effective than using them before infection, alcohol and disinfectants will greatly speed up recovery from infections.
Wounds in general cause issues, but fortunately lacerations rarely cause serious issues, since they can be dealt with in nearly any situation. Of course, if the laceration was caused by a zombie, players should be wary of the Knox Infection, but in most other situations, lacerations are a preferred outcome; the other wound types can be far more debilitating in Project Zomboid. Players can bandage it up, disinfect it if possible, keep the bandage clean, and eat plenty of food, and the wound will go away in no time.
Project Zomboid is available on PC.