Here’s a guild to help you pick the best traps and bait to use for trapping animals for food in Project Zomboid.
Leveling Trapping
- Trapping XP is rewarded only when you collect an animal caught in your trap.
- The larger the animal size the more XP.
- The Park Ranger occupation and Hiker, Hunter traits will give you starting points in the Trapping skill, unlocking bonus XP which is quite useful as trapping is hard to level.
- Higher trapping skill improves the chance of catching animals and unlocks trap recipes.
Don’t forget to read that Trapping Skill book, you’ll want the XP boost for this skill.
Types of Traps
| Trap | Materials | Skill | Strength | Animal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mouse Trap | Cannot be crafted | – | 50 | – Mouse (30%) – Rate (25%) |
 Stick Trap | 2 units Twine | – | 15 | – Small Bird (40%) |
 Snare Trap | Saw 1x Plank 2 units Twine | Lv. 1 Trapping | 10 | – Squirrel (30%) – Rabbit (30%) |
 Trap Box | Saw 4x Plank 7x Nails | Lv. 2 Trapping Lv. 1 Carpentry | 15 | – Squirrel (25%) – Rabbit (30%) |
 Trap Crate | Saw 3x Plank 5x Nails | – | 15 | – Squirrel (30%) – Rabbit (30%) |
 Cage Trap | 5x Wire | Lv. 3 Trapping | 20 | – Squirrel (40%) – Rabbit (40%) |
| Except for the Park Ranger occupation all craftable traps require having read the applicable Hunter Magazine. | ||||
When a trap fails to catch an animal the trap strength will determine whether bait is lost or if the trap is destroyed. This is checked every in game hour.
Both the Stick Trap and Trap Crate are great options. They don’t require any Trapping Skill to craft and don’t use up too many materials.
Trapping Zones and Bait
Animals can only be caught in specific zones. Therefore you should take some consideration into choosing your trap type based on the zone you are placing traps in.
You’ll also need to be careful which bait you use as certain animals are only attracted to specific bait.
| Animal | Trap | Zones | Bait |
|---|---|---|---|
 Mouse | – Mouse Trap (30%) | – Farm (60) – Trailer Park (60) – Town (50) – Vegetation (20) – Forest (10) – Deep Forest (10) | Cheese (60), Processed Cheese (55), Peanut Butter (40), Chocolate (30), Tomato (35) |
 Rabbit | – Cage Trap (40%) – Trap Crate (30%) – Trap Box (30%) – Snare Trap (30%) | – Deep Forest (15) – Forest (12) – Vegetation (10) – Trailer Park (2) – Town (2) | Carrot (45), Cabbage (40), Bell Pepper (40), Lettuce (40), Potato (35), Tomato (35), Corn (35), Apple (35), Banana (35), Peach (35) |
 Rat | – Mouse Trap (25%) | – Farm (50) – Trailer Park (40) – Town (30) – Vegetation (20) – Forest (10) – Deep Forest (10) | Cheese (60), Processed Cheese (55), Peanut Butter (40), Tomato (35), Chocolate (30) |
 Small Bird | – Stick Trap (40%) | – Farm (35) – Town (30) – Vegetation (30) – Trailer Park (20) – Forest (20) – Deep Forest (20) | Bread (50), Bread Slice (50), Cockroach (50), Cricket (50), Grasshopper (50), Worm (50), Cereal (45), Corn (45) |
 Squirrel | – Cage Trap (40%) – Trap Crate (30%) – Snare Trap (30%) – Trap Box (25%) | – Deep Forest (15) – Forest (12) – Vegetation (10) – Trailer Park (2) – Town (2) | Cereal (45), Peanuts (40), Peanut Butter (45), Popcorn (40), Peach (35), Apple (40), Orange (40), Corn (40), Lettuce (40), Bell Pepper (30) |
- Using food as bait will remove 5 hunger from the food item.
- Only the Mouse Trap and Stick Trap are effective in farm zones.
- Farm, Town and Trailer park zones are great for Mouse Traps with Cheese or Peanut Butter.
- Squirrels and Rabbits are best found in the Forest and Vegetation zones.
- Catch Rabbits with vegetables, Small Birds with bread and insects and Squirrels with Cereal and Peanuts.
Fruit or vegetables must be fresh when used as bait.
How to Trap
- Pick a target animal and zone to set up your traps.
- Craft Trap that can be used to catch the target.
- Place trap and add bait that the target animal is attracted to.
- Move at least 75 tiles away from trap.
- Wait at least 1 in game hour before checking traps (you can just check a few times a day).
- You may need to re-add bait and/or replace destroyed traps when your traps fail to catch animals.
Rabbits and Squirrels can only be caught between 7PM and 5AM.
