With an arsenal of weapons, classes, and tools to choose from, it’s up to you to choose what can fit your playstyle. While the most obvious item to bring in a zombie apocalypse is a gun, some want to be a little more up close to kill the undead. From police nightsticks, and baseball bats, to even a guitar, you have a few choices to do the killing blow, and one of the more effective ones is an axe.

While the choices are plenty for many other things in this game, the game, at least in its vanilla, unmodded form, has only 4 axes to choose from. All have distinct traits and uses, while all are ok for a common task, some of these axes are better suited to something more than others, and so if you happen to have all of them, which do you bring for which occasion? Well, we’ll find that out on this list.

For this list, the list is made at the time of the games’ latest version (ver. 41.78 Steam) and is based on my experience in a friend-hosted multiplayer server, and the items listed are from the vanilla version of the game, meaning no mod items are included. Criteria are based on overall useability either as a tool or weapon.

4. Stone Axe

With a lot of foraging to be done, having one around is doable with the right materials.

Why is the Stone Axe Great?

Previously named the Raw Axe, it’s a nice axe to have when you need to improvise a weapon on the go. Given how zombies can pop out of nowhere in dense forests, you need to be ready with your materials, specifically tree branches and chipped stone with a choice to bind both with twine or rags from your ripped clothing. Either way, you should be good with the Stone Axe for a few use cases, with good things such as the below being a plus.

• Craftable – Can make it anytime when you have the items needed
• Multi-hit – Can hit 2 zombies at most on a single swing
• Lightness – Allows you to carry or hold it without sacrificing that much carry weight

On the material front, you’re not exactly going to actively go out of your way to get the materials needed for the axe as it’s not ideal for those who prefer to do other things, like exploring the map for instance. This is a special tool for those who utilize foraging in this game, and it isn’t exactly the best in terms of durability per se. Sure, it’s light and all, but if the use is equally light in terms of time and damage, you’re better off having something else to use to defend you from a wild zombie coming out of nowhere. Again, for those who are active explorers of the forest and grass areas, this is a nice bonus weapon/item to have.

Stone Axe Details:

• Attack Speed: 3.0
• Damage: 0.5-1.5
• Axe Type: 2-handed

How to Get the Stone Axe:

• Craft by combining tree branches and chipped stone with either twine or rags

3.  Wood Axe

The lumberjack and carpenter’s best friend for base improvement operations, if you want lumber, get this.

Why is the Wood Axe Great?

As the name suggests, the Wood Axe is really good if you want to get that annoying tree out of your backyard, or that forest just sitting on goodies that you can turn into protection for your chosen base. It’s a heavy old thing, but it is meant to be something useful, such as the things below.

• Best damage to wood – As the name suggests, its best use is turning the trees into planks and logs for your needs
• Decent combat stats – While not ideal, if only 1 or 2 zombies approaching you, it is a good enough make-shift weapon

Remember the emphasis on the word heavy. This axe may be large and can be good to hit zombies from a distance, but every swing will cost you some stamina, and if you ever swung an axe or anything heavy around multiple times, it’s bound to wear you out, and in this game, make you prone from an attack. You’re again better off having this as a base item close to whatever wood source you’ll plan to shave off the map as this will be efficient for both time and safety. If you want a piece that can take trees off often and quickly, this axe is the best one for the job. Just remember to save your voice if you plan to yell ‘timber’ on every tree removed from a forest.

Wood Axe Details:

• Attack Speed: 0.5
• Damage: 1.3-3
• Axe Type: 2-handed

How to Get the Wood Axe:

• Search around hardware stores, warehouses, factories, and storage units.

2. Hand Axe

The most mobile and portable of the bunch, this axe is all about in-your-face smashing.

Why is Firefighter Clothes Great?

It’s an axe meant for combat as it’s a good kiting weapon against zombies. It’s one of the best weapons to bring along as it can be placed on your belt, allowing for quick action presses on the keypad for fast equipment in combat. Before we get ahead of ourselves with the benefits, we should list them for an easier callback.

• Single-handed nature – Small enough to wield one-handed and put on a belt
• Fast attack speed – Has one of the fastest attack speeds of any axe in-game
• One-shot potential – Has good chances that one swing can immediately kill a zombie

Again, a combat-oriented axe that has the stats and ease of use against the zombies with somewhat reasonable ease. Its portable nature is both a blessing and a curse as this is a short axe, which is good for carrying around but not for safety when hitting zombies. If you’re not used to taking zombies on near melee range, this is a risky axe to fight with, and while you may have the stamina to get away from them after every hit and go, the moment you miss or overstep, it’s very easy to get bitten and get a debuff to your character which can spell certain doom. The more you practice kiting around and the more you get levels on your axe trait, you should be able to trim decently-sized hoards by yourself, for as long as you can measure your safety in range, damage, and your weapon’s condition.

Hand Axe Details:

• Attack Speed: 4
• Damage: 1-2.5
• Axe Type: 1-handed

How to Get the Hand Axe:

• House drawers and shelves
• Search other zombies inventory

1. Axe

This has the best damage potential out of all the axes just by the swing of it.

Why is the Axe Great?

The Axe, which is modeled as a fireman’s axe, does the most damage in terms of actual hits to take on a zombie. For the most part, when you level it up to a max player level cap of 10, it can one-shot most zombies with a well-placed swing. Should you not be busy killing zombies, here are other things you can use this axe for.

• Strong door breaking damage – Does 35 damage which makes it destroy wooden doors faster
• Slicing watermelons – Being the best axe allows you to slice your grown watermelons easier

With that power to break through wooden doors, any locked area is no problem, for as long as the place you’re breaking into has doors that are wood and not reinforced such as gun locker rooms. It can still do the same stuff an axe could do, such as tree cutting, but it isn’t as effective at the job as the Wood Axe, but then again, that is irrelevant when you meet a wild zombie out of whatever greenery it is hiding in. Either way, should you have this axe, in particular, you should be able to clear your patch of grass and trees fast, and zombies even faster after honing the skills of the axeman.

Axe Details:

• Attack Speed: 3
• Damage: 1-2.5
• Axe Type: 2-handed

How to Get an Axe:

• Search around hardware stores and storage crates around the map, usually in the city areas
• Search abandoned fire stations to get a better chance of getting it

You may also be interested in:

• Project Zomboid Best Weapons
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• Project Zomboid Best Armor
• Project Zomboid Best Axes