A UI of the sheet rope placement dialogue in Project Zomboid.
Screenshot by Destructoid

How to make and use sheet rope in Project Zomboid

The rope and the stick, without the stick.

This may well sound strange at face value, but sheet rope is by far one of the most useful items in Project Zomboid. And this includes weapons, too! I’ll explain how to make sheet rope down below, right after telling you why this item is such a big deal.

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Sheet rope is, just as it says on the tin, a simple length of “rope” made from a torn-up sheet or some other piece of cloth. It’s about as rudimentary of an item as a strip of leather, for sure, but it’s really easy and simple to get, you can stock up on dozens of it, and it’s going to allow you to better organize your supplies and get out of dodge if push comes to shove. What all of this means is that you always want to have a few sheet ropes at hand, just in case.

A UI of the sheet rope crafting dialogue in Project Zomboid.
Screenshot by Destructoid

How to make Sheet Rope in Project Zomboid?

Making sheet rope couldn’t be any easier in Project Zomboid. All you need to make it is a set of sheets or any old piece of clothing, with the caveat that you will lose the item in question if you craft sheet rope. While finding sheets isn’t hard, getting a hold of random articles of clothing is way easier as you can take it off of killed zombies and/or loot houses for it. The only important bit is that the clothing in question is made of cotton, as opposed to denim or leather. Obviously, those resources cannot be turned into sheet rope.

What you want to do is to identify the item you wish to turn into sheet rope, then right-click on it in an inventory screen and select the “Craft Sheet Rope” option that pops up. Quite simple, really. And, if you’re just looking to stock up on the item really quickly, you can trigger this option in a zombie’s inventory and instantly craft sheet rope out of all of the viable clothing items it’s wearing. Neat!

One last thing to keep in mind here is that I highly recommend keeping whole sheets around whenever possible. Turn regular clothes you wish to dispose of into sheet rope, instead, as you can use regular sheets to cover windows and prevent zombies for seeing inside of your hideout, instead. That’s a free pro tip for you, right there.

How to use the Sheet Rope in Project Zomboid?

While crafting sheet rope is quite easy and simple in Project Zomboid, actually using it is a tad more complicated. Notably, you need all of the following items in your inventory for this to work:

  • 1x Hammer (of any sort)
  • 1x Nail
  • 1x Sheet Rope (per floor you’re attempting to drop)

When you’ve got all of these at hand, you need to approach a window you’d like to establish as your getaway point, and then right-click and select the “Add Escape Rope” option that appears. From that point onwards, holding the “E” (use) button will have your character use the sheet rope to descend down to ground level. And, unless you’ve selected the “Weak” character trait while creating your survivor, you’ll also be able to climb up the rope as an ingress point. Neat, right?

What makes this particularly handy is that zombies cannot climb sheet rope for obvious reasons. Removing any other access points to the floor of the building you’re setting up as your hideout (i.e. stairs) will make it impossible for zombies to reach you, which is extremely useful. Just keep in mind that you may need several different escape ropes placed throughout your base, just in case a horde sees you going up on one side of the hideout.

Sheet rope can also be used to create log stacks, making them easier to lug around and store for long periods of time. This, however, isn’t nearly as useful as the ability to add your own custom entryways and escape routes willy-nilly.


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Author
Image of Filip Galekovic
Filip Galekovic
A lifetime gamer and writer, Filip has successfully made a career out of combining the two just in time for the bot-driven AI revolution to come into its own.