Wipes & seasons
The world restarts on purpose. Here's what that means for what you built, and how the next one gets decided.
Why wipe at all?
A long-running Zomboid save ends the same way every time: the people who were there first hold everything worth having, the map is stripped, and anyone joining in month four is playing a different, worse game. Wiping is what keeps the server joinable.
It also lets the mod list change. Mods cannot meaningfully be added or swapped mid-season without breaking saves, so a wipe is the only honest moment to do it.
What survives one?
Nothing in the world does. Characters, bases, vehicles, stashes and safehouse claims all go. That is the point — everyone starts the season on the same footing.
What carries over is everything outside the save: your account, your Discord roles, and whatever reputation you earned by not being the reason a rule got written.
How does the next mod list get picked?
Not by one person at 2am. Candidate mods go on a planning board, get argued over, and the ones that survive become the season's list — then the list is validated against its own dependencies before anything is installed.
Map mods are the usual trap: they conflict with each other, they need tile packs nobody lists, and a bad one costs the whole season. They get the most scrutiny.
When is the next one?
Announced in Discord ahead of time, never sprung on people mid-week. If you want warning before a wipe, that's the place to get it.