In this post, I thought I'd collect all the feedback I've given in the past regarding popular mods and why they are not part of this collection right now.


I love both of these mods. They add a ridiculous amount of gear to the game and it looks fantastic as well. Brita's Guns also works in conjunction to Arsenal Gunfighter which adds a ton of functionality to firearms as well as lots of hotkeys. So why is it missing?

Reason 1 is that both mods are incredibly bloated, both in size and in content. Brita's Guns are over 700 MB, the armor pack is 3 GB. That's G as in GIGAbytes. This adds unnecessary time to the download speed of this collection, considering just two mods would make up half the size of a list with over 300 mods.
The content bloat is simply due to the sheer amount of individual items added by both of these mods. Do you really need 8 variations of the same pair of stockings? Do you need the same military pants with 12 different camo patterns?
Other mods also included in this pack fill the gaps to add items for those of you who enjoy collecting military gear. Trust me, there's plenty of cool-looking stuff out there, as well as armour that borders on OP - Especially with the Armor Absorb system by kERHUS (also included).

Reason 2 is the incompatibility with Advanced Trajectory Realistic Rework, a core combat mod that's included in 'Sophie'. Arsenal adds a bunch of modern-day sporting bows, thrown weapons and other fun apocalypse items such as flamethrowers, noob tubes and chainsaws. Many of the specialised ranged weapons do not work right with the aforementioned mod.
For your primitive ranged needs, Kitsune's Crossbows and Way of the Bow are included, which both work correctly with the trajectory mod.
As far as conventional firearms go, I have chosen to use Vanilla Firearms Extended as THE gun mod for this list. The guns added by this are appropriate to the setting and fit in nicely with the Vanilla balancing.

NOTE: Both Brita's Guns and Armor are included right now!


A mod that's slightly too big for its own boots. While the weapons in this mod are much closer to Vanilla than Brita's is, the balancing is kind of all over the place. In my opinion, VFE is superior to Firearms B42, which is why it got the spot as the definite gun mod.


Probably one of the most popular mods out there. Works great with The Last Of Us overhauls. I've not included this mod because this list is intended to be a Vanilla++ experience, which also means you're supposed to start just after the outbreak happened (with Vanilla erosion settings being an option).

However! Adding 10 Years Later to this list is possible if you really want it! Just switch Immersive Hunting for its 10 Years Later version and be sure to tweak the sandbox settings to better reflect the passage of time and you should be good!


This includes any of Snake's mods.

Remember Hydrocraft? If you don't - This was basically a complete overhaul of the game with incredible amounts of new recipes and end game goals. But it came at the cost of basically not being compatible with the majority of mods on the Workshop.

This is the same for Snake's mods. The author cares little for compatibility with other mods, because his pack in and of itself can be used to act as a game overhaul. The classic question asked in many a mod's comment section nowadays is "Is this mod compatible with Snake's mod pack?" and the answer is almost always "Probably not."

Many of Snake's features are covered by smaller individual mods. The whole pack is not and never will be compatible with this list.


This was included in this list until v1.7. Removing it was a hard call, as I've played with Filibuster's suite of cars literally for years. However, I strive for visual cohesion in this list and the fact of the matter is that his cars have yet to receive their animation pass.

Most cars added in this list are part of KI5's fantastic portfolio, specifically the ones updated or created since late 2022. All of these feature animated doors, trunks and hoods as well as visible passengers. Until Filibuster's cars receive their graphical overhaul, they are out of this list.

And yes, vanilla cars look bad too, but I am including Shark's overhaul for them, bringing them into 2023 Project Zomboid.


Very cool mod, makes inventory management a game in and of itself. Unfortunately, it doesn't play nicely with all the other mods out there and there's some incompatibilies, most obviously with Tidy Up Meister (included).

Since I don't want to revamp the whole list just for this one mod and because it does stray a little far from the Vanilla gameplay experience, I am not including Inventory Tetris.


Items suitable to their surroundings scattered about on floors and tables - What's not to love? Well, the performance hit. Populating the world with crazy numbers of additional 3D objects does take its toll and this is why Item Stories (and its various sub mods) is no longer included.


Another mod I used to play with all the time. Unfortunately, there are many bugs and issues hidden beneath its slick facade. Since there are plenty of other clothing mods already included, there is simply no need for AuthenticZ with its potential issues. Sorry, no Zombie hit lists!


I still don't know why, but towing sucks ever since they updated to b41. Cars veer off to the sides when you're towing them and they seem to slow you down excessively sometimes. Better Towing aims to fix this while also adding plenty of different ways to tow (and hand breaks!). Unfortunately, this mod is outdated and will not receive any more updates due to the author being hired by the devs (yay!). You'll have to bear with the wonky towing of b41, sorry.


Autotsar has some truly creative vehicle mods. Most of them are fully animated, too! However, I felt like having a bunch of them was simply too much - since each vehicle also adds a corresponding magazine that you can read to learn the upgrade recipes. There's plenty of different cars to find and upgrade (KI5's cars also often have optional armour upgrades) without diluting the loot pool further.

I did include his farming vehicles though!



--- wip ---