Community Perk Strategies

This is the community guide for strategies on perks. This page aims to detail common strategies around perks, such as which ones to get for different situations, when to buy perks, and the order in which they should be obtained.

Quick Revive

Quick Revive allows the player to revive twice as fast and reduces health recovery time by 50%. It is mainly a support perk that helps in close encounters with zombies.

Normally, Quick Revive is either bought last or not even bought at all. Other perks like Juggernog and Double Tap are more useful to players in early rounds. Mule Kick becomes useful in later rounds and sometimes takes Quick Revive's place. But, "support" players usually buy Quick Revive in case things begin to go terribly wrong as they do in high rounds.

If a player joins a server in the hard late rounds, it is advised to not buy Quick Revive as their first or second perk. The player should probably buy Juggernog or Double Tap first since if they dont have the health or weapon damage to keep Quick Revive, chances are it will be lost as fast as it was purchased.

Double Tap Root Beer

Double Tap Root Beer increases fire rate and potentially doubles the damage dealt by duplicating bullets fired.

Wasteful use will cause the increased fire-rate to eat up reserves. However, the doubling of weapon damage will generally allow the player to conserve ammo.

Double Tap is the most important perk in Project Lazarus since it is the only offensive perk, meaning that it helps the player kill zombies faster and more efficiently, allowing the next round to begin sooner. Every other perk is defensive in nature (with the exception of Mule Kick, being more akin to a hybrid of the two types), meaning that they help the player better survive zombies but do not significantly help the player actually kill zombies.

If a player dies in later rounds and does not have enough points, it is recommended for them to only buy Double Tap Root Beer until they save up points for the reasons above.

Experienced players may prefer to wait until later rounds to purchase Double Tap since players receive more points by killing zombies in more hits. Shooting a zombie in the head once to kill it grants 100 points while shooting a zombie in the head twice to kill it grants 110 points from damage points.

The rate of fire increase is most noticeable on fast-firing weapons such as SMGs. However, it will also drastically increase the recoil felt by the player. It is perhaps most useful on more powerful, slower firing weapons to allow them to have a better rate of fire while better utilizing the double damage effect.

It is often useful to also have Speed Cola due to the fast depletion of a single magazine.

If you press [F] to rebuild the barrier right next to the Double Tap machine, a player can buy Double Tap and drink the bottle while the barrier rebuilds itself as long as he/she stays in between the barrier and the machine.

Juggernog

Juggernog doubles the player's health, allowing them to sustain five hits from zombies before going down instead of three.

Juggernog's health increase makes a big difference in later rounds. By protecting the player from getting downed and death, it also protects the player's other perks, which will disappear if the player is downed. This increase to survivability makes it an absolute necessity for high rounds and arguably the most important perk in the game.

Traditionally, Juggernog is bought first since it is foolish to buy other perks while the player can die in just three hits and lose all perks. Experienced players may prefer to buy Double Tap Root Beer first if they are confident in their ability not to die early and want increased damage output right away.

If a player enters a hard late round with no gear, it is recommended for the player to accept the fact that he/she will probably die with or without Juggernog equipped. Instead of buying Juggernog first, the new player should camp around geared players to survive and focus on obtaining good weapons. New players in high rounds should buy Double Tap Root Beer first.

Speed Cola

Speed Cola allows the player to reload weapons and rebuild barriers faster.

It is not critical for survival and is considered a supplementary perk that should only be bought if the player has a surplus of points. Double Tap Root Beer and Juggernog are the most critical perks.

This perk is useful to quickly mow down zombie hordes when reload time becomes a problem.

In later rounds, Speed Cola enables players using weapons with strenuously long reload times, such as Remington 870 and M249 SAW, to survive. Speed Cola also makes fortifying barriers for points much more efficient.

Mule Kick

Mule Kick allows the player to have three weapons instead of only two.

It is valuable and greatly aids survivability. Mule Kick allows advanced weapon load-outs.

Do not put favorite weapons in the third slot from Mule Kick. Getting downed erases all perks and, thus, the weapon in the third slot.

As such, do not use the Mystery Box right after buying Mule Kick. If a high-tier weapon, like the Ray Gun, appears, equipping it automatically places it into the third weapon slot, where it will be lost upon getting downed.

After buying Mule Kick, immediately buy a cheap weapon such as the B93 Raffica. Now, the player controls what weapon goes into which slot.

Notes on Weapon Slots

• Players must remember which weapons are in which slot since this information is not displayed on-screen.

• Pressing [1], [2], or [3] equips the weapon currently in the player's first, second, or third slot, respectively. Scrolling the mouse wheel also now switches equipped weapons.
• When starting a new game or returning to a game after death, a player has two weapon slots, with the default Beretta M9 in Slot 1. If the player presses [2], nothing happens since there is no weapon in Slot 2. When the player buys any weapon, it is automatically placed in Slot 2 and the player automatically equips the bought weapon.
• After the second weapon is bought and Mule Kick is not equipped, buying any weapon replaces the weapon the player is currently holding with the bought weapon.
• After Mule Kick is bought, the next weapon a player buys is automatically placed into Slot 3.
• Once the player has weapons in Slot 1, 2, and 3, buying any weapon replaces the weapon the player is currently holding with the bought weapon.

Saving and Bulk Buying

It is unwise to load up on multiple perks during early rounds since an accidental death will erase every perk, and the player will not be able to re-purchase them easily due to a lack of points. However, by Round 15, the player's odds of survival are greatly increased by having multiple perks, and players should have surplus points by then.

Do not buy perks until you have a surplus of points. An excessive amount of points means you have enough points so that if you die and lose everything, you will have enough points upon respawning to re-buy weapons and perks. In early rounds, it is more acceptable and common to take the risk and buy perks as soon as the player has enough points. As a rule of thumb, be wary of your points since losing them all upon getting downed costs the player about 10,000 points, or about 100 zombie kills, that he/she spent buying them. The ideal amount of points, or points to have saved up, is 20,000, or 10,000 if the player is experienced.

Note: If a player is solo in a server, he/she cannot be revived, so saving points does not matter, It should also be noted that even if you cannot revive other players, Quick Revive will still reduce health recovery time by 50%. Solo players should buy all perks as soon as possible as to not risk dying at all. Thurthermore once the perk limit has been reached, you can no longer change your perks as the only way to lose them is to die, in solos this is not an option.

If you have a surplus of points:

1. Buy Juggernog first to increase your HP.
2. Buy Double Tap Root Beer next to increase your damage output.
3. Buy Quick Revive (Do not buy if you're playing solo.)
4. Buy either Speed Cola or Mule Kick.

Five Perk Trick

As of May 30th 2020, the Five Perk Trick has been patched.

Normally, a player is only allowed to have four perks at a time. The Five Perk Trick allows a player to obtain all five perks at a time. Almost every experienced player uses this trick, and it makes a big difference in surviving late rounds.

Note that the Five Perk Trick is not "hacking." It has been well-known for quite a while and may even be an intentional feature in Project Lazarus. It takes skill, time, and risk-taking to perform, and it requires 12,000 points. It has become a tradition and sign of skill in the community.

Five Perks Trick video

Method

To have all five perks at a time instead of the traditional four perks:

1. Buy Juggernog, Double Tap Root Beer, and Quick Revive in any order.
2. Save up at least 6,000 points.
3. Do not sprint to conserve stamina as you approach the Speed Cola machine.
4. Buy Speed Cola.
5. While drinking the Speed Cola bottle, sprint to the Mule Kick machine.
6. Spam [F] when near the Mule Kick machine.

​It is also possible to buy Mule Kick and sprint to the Speed Cola machine instead. Both result in the player having all five perks.

Alternative Method

There is also an alternative method to this glitch, although it is unsuggested, due to this method requiring you to save Juggernog and Quick Revive for last. To perform the alternative method:

1. Buy Speed Cola, Double Tap Root Beer, and Mule Kick in any order.
2. Save up at least 4,000 points.
3. Do not sprint to conserve stamina as you approach the Quick Revive machine.
4. Buy Quick Revive.
5. While drinking the Quick Revive bottle, sprint to the Juggernog machine.
6. Spam [F] when near the Juggernog machine.

It is also possible to buy Juggernog and sprint to the Quick Revive machine instead. Both result in the player having all five perks.

Explanation

The game has a mechanic prohibiting a player from having more than four perks equipped at a time. However, a perk does not become equipped until a fraction of a second after the player finishes drinking a perk bottle. Between finishing a perk bottle and having a perk equipped, there is a small window of time in which player actions (such as pressing [F] to buy a perk, repairing a barrier, and buying a wall weapon) are allowed. The game's code prioritizes giving the player the perk he/she bought over the maximum of four perks.

If the developer wanted to prevent the Five Perk Trick, he could make perks activate instantly after the player drinks the bottle or fix the prioritization issue.

Permanent Juggernog

As of June 7th 2020, the Permanent Juggernog glitch has been patched.

Every perk (including Juggernog) is gone after player downed. Permanent Juggernog allows players to have permanent Juggernog after being downed. This glitch is simple and only needs 2500 points. This glitch can alternate the patched 'Five Perk Trick'.

1. Buy Juggernog perk
2. Try to get downed and wait for help

The perk icon will disappear but the additional health is retained. The player will still need 5 hits to get downed after being revived.