Martial Arts - Ten Unarmed Fighting Styles for Project Zomboid

Martial Arts - Version 2 expands unarmed combat with distinct fighting stances, linked combinations, directional dodges and paired attack animations. Start with Brawling, then learn additional styles and unlock stronger techniques through practice.

Single-player is supported. Multiplayer remains in testing. The extensive animation system may still produce bugs.

Ten fighting styles

• Boxing: jabs, hooks, body shots and uppercuts.
• Muay Thai: 22 combinations using punches, kicks, elbows and knees.
• Karate: punch-and-kick combinations with five heavy-attack choices.
• MMA: mixed strikes, takedowns and ground pound.
• Taekwondo: linked, spinning and jumping kicks.
• Brawling: available immediately, with a special mastery upgrade.
• Wrestling: strikes and paired slams, including powerslam and screw piledriver.
• Jiu-Jitsu: close strikes, throws and ground elbows.
• Pak Mei: close-range combinations, sweeps and directional hit reactions.
• Military Combatives: a Krav Maga-inspired selection of practical strikes.

At Brawling mastery 3, the style automatically becomes Dragon of Dojima, preserving its progress. Further mastery unlocks its selection of 22 combinations and four heavy attacks.

Learn and develop your techniques

Read a magazine or select a starting trait to learn a style. Successful hits develop both the shared Martial Arts skill, levels 0-10, and individual style mastery, levels 0-5. Fitness practice provides slower training.

Five skill-book volumes improve learning. Every two Martial Arts levels add 25% faster style-mastery learning, reaching 125% at level 10.

Use the Martial Arts window to select styles, inspect unlocks and equip a heavy attack. Strikes consume stamina even when they miss, while injuries and exhaustion affect combat.

Default controls

Both hands must be empty. Equipping an item in either hand suspends martial-arts combat.

• Aim + attack: unarmed attacks.
• K: open the Martial Arts window.
• Backtick: cycle styles; select None for normal combat.
• Aim + R: equipped heavy attack.
• Z: stance dodge.
• Shift + R: selected Karate running special.
• Space: cancel an MMA takedown or ground pound.

Bindings can be changed in Options.

Settings and compatibility notes

Each style has sandbox controls for attack speed, damage and stamina consumption, plus optional door damage.

If using Martial Arms, its server stance-freeze issue was fixed in version 0.3.3.