How to Add a Safezone on a Project Zomboid Server
Safezones give survivors a protected place to store supplies, organize their base, and enjoy a few moments without another player helping themselves to the canned goods. Project Zomboid calls these protected areas safehouses. Server owners can allow players to claim their own safehouses or limit safehouse creation to administrators.
Safehouses and Non-PVP Zones are different. A safehouse protects a claimed base and controls who can access it. A Non-PVP Zone is a public area where players cannot enable PVP or hurt one another.
Enable Safehouses on Your Project Zomboid Server
Navigate to your Nodecraft dashboard.
Locate your Project Zomboid server and click Panel.
Stop the server.
Click Game Settings in the menu on the left.
Open the World tab.
Scroll down to Safehouses & Claiming.
Enable one of the following settings:
Enable Player Safehouse: Both regular players and administrators can claim safehouses.
Enable Admin Safehouse: Only administrators can claim safehouses. Leave Enable Player Safehouse disabled if you want claims restricted to administrators.
Decide whether to enable Allow Fire Damage in Safehouses.
When enabled, safehouses can still be damaged by fire.
When disabled, safehouses are protected from fire damage.
Click Submit to save your changes.
Start the server.
Claim a Safehouse In-Game
Once safehouses have been enabled, join your server and locate the building you want to claim.
Enter an eligible residential building.
Make sure the building is not already claimed by another player.
Right-click an interior floor tile.
Select Claim Safehouse from the context menu.
Confirm that you want to claim the building.
If Enable Admin Safehouse was selected, your character must have administrator access before the claim option will appear. Our How to Become Admin on a Project Zomboid Server guide covers how to assign that access.
Manage Your Project Zomboid Safehouse
The safehouse owner can manage the claim by right-clicking inside the building and opening the safehouse menu. From there, the owner can view the claim and add or remove other players.
Only players added to the safehouse should be trusted with access to the building and its supplies. The apocalypse is already difficult enough without discovering that someone used the last can of beans.
Why Is the Claim Safehouse Option Missing?
If Claim Safehouse does not appear, check the following:
Confirm that the server was restarted after enabling safehouses.
Make sure either Enable Player Safehouse or Enable Admin Safehouse is enabled.
Confirm that the building is residential and has not already been claimed.
Try a different building. Spawn buildings and some non-residential locations cannot normally be claimed.
Make sure another player is not currently occupying the building.
Confirm that the claiming character meets any survival-time requirement configured in the server files.
Temporarily disable mods that may affect buildings, maps, multiplayer permissions, or safehouses.
Build 42.20 corrected an inaccurate message that could appear when attempting to claim a safehouse from too far away. However, some residential buildings may still fail the game's eligibility checks. If an apparently valid building cannot be claimed, test a different residential building before assuming the server setting is broken.
Final Thoughts
Safehouses help players establish protected bases without removing the survival elements that make Project Zomboid dangerous. They can protect a claim from other survivors, but they do not make the building zombie-proof. Keep the doors locked, barricade the windows, and try not to burn the place down five minutes after claiming it.
Need Help?
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