How to Open Locked Doors in Project Zomboid: Crowbar Guide for Build 42.22, Plus Ladders

For years, the classic question in Project Zomboid has been how to open locked doors without a key, and the honest answer was always some mix of smashing windows and chopping doors to pieces. Build 42.22 finally changes that. The Indie Stone’s newest update lets you use a crowbar to force open locked doors, windows and gates, and it also makes the ladders scattered across Knox Country climbable. This guide explains how to open locked doors in Project Zomboid with the new crowbar option, what can and can’t be forced, how your character affects the odds, and which methods still work on the current Stable build. It reflects Build 42.22 on the Pre-Release branch as of October 30, 2026, and details may still change before it reaches Stable.

How to Open Locked Doors in Project Zomboid at a Glance

• Build 42.22 (Pre-Release): carry or equip a crowbar, right-click a locked door, window, garage door or fence gate and choose to force it open.
• Find the key: building keys are most often found on zombies that were inside or near the building.
• Break the door: an axe or sledgehammer chews through doors fastest, but it is very loud.
• Use a window: smash it, clear the broken glass and climb through.
• Sledgehammer: the “Destroy” option removes doors and even walls entirely.

How to Play Build 42.22 Right Now

The crowbar and ladder features are part of Build 42.22, which The Indie Stone released on October 27, 2026 on a new branch called Pre-Release. This branch replaces the old Unstable branch for early testing. The current Stable version is still 42.21, and the developers plan to keep every new build on Pre-Release for at least one week before it moves to Stable. If you don’t want to wait, here is how to switch:

1. Back up any Project Zomboid saves you care about.
2. Right-click Project Zomboid in your Steam Library.
3. Select “Properties”.
4. Open “Game Versions & Betas” and pick “Pre-Release”.

The backup step matters. The Indie Stone says existing 42.21 saves should not be affected, but it explicitly warns against moving a long-term singleplayer save to Pre-Release without a backup, because it can’t guarantee that save will keep working in the final release. The branch is mainly meant for modders, server admins and players who like to test.

Many houses in Knox Country start out locked, which is exactly where the new crowbar option comes in.

How to Force Open Locked Doors With a Crowbar

Until now, the crowbar was mostly a durable weapon and a tool for prying off barricades, picking up windows and lifting floor tiles. Opening a locked door with it was only possible with mods. In Build 42.22, it becomes a real break-in tool:

1. Equip a crowbar or simply carry one in your inventory.
2. Walk up to a locked door, window, garage door or fence gate.
3. Open the right-click menu on that tile and choose the option to force it open.
4. If the attempt fails, try again, but keep an eye on your crowbar and your character.

According to the official 42.22 patch notes, this is what the crowbar can force open:

• Locked doors: both wooden and metal doors.
• Jammed or locked windows: with a chance to break the window if the attempt fails.
• Garage doors: also covered by the new right-click option.
• Locked fence gates.

What you can’t force: security doors and jail cell doors are too strong for a crowbar, so you still need a key or another route for those.

What Affects Your Chance to Force a Door

Forcing a door is not an automatic success. The Indie Stone lists a few factors that decide how well it goes:

• Door type: some doors are simply harder to force than others.
• Strength: a higher Strength level raises your odds, while weak characters struggle more.
• Burglar: characters with the Burglar trait get a bonus to succeed and are quieter while forcing. Burglars already had a lower chance of breaking window locks before this update, so the occupation gets even better for looters.
• Crowbar wear: the more times you fail, the higher the chance that you damage your crowbar. That matters, because the crowbar is one of the most durable tools in the game but can’t be repaired.
• Muscle Strain: every attempt builds up Muscle Strain, about as much as hitting a door with a crowbar would.

Our tip: if you plan to loot a lot of houses on a new run, the Burglar occupation is now a strong pick. If you play another occupation, train Strength and don’t spam attempts on the same door with a badly worn crowbar. A sore character with a broken tool in the middle of a town is a bad combination.

Other Ways to Get Through Locked Doors in Build 42.21 Stable

If you stay on the Stable branch for now, or you are facing a security door, these methods still work:

• Look for the key: keys can turn up in counters, dressers and crates, but they are far more common on the corpses of zombies that were inside or near the building. Hover over a key in your inventory and the doors it fits are highlighted in yellow. Any door can be locked or unlocked from the inside without a key.
• Break the door down: you can hit a door with melee weapons until it breaks. The axe is the most efficient choice with 35 door damage per hit, and the sledgehammer does even more with 40. The crowbar only deals 8, so it is a poor tool for bashing doors. Breaking a door makes a lot of noise, so expect company.
• Destroy it with a sledgehammer: with a sledgehammer equipped, the right-click “Destroy” option can remove doors, walls and other tiles outright. Sledgehammers are rather hard to find, though.
• Go through a window: open or smashed windows can be climbed through. After smashing one, remove the broken glass from the frame through the right-click menu, or you risk cutting yourself while climbing. You need a weapon equipped for that, and smashing a window with bare hands always causes bleeding. Smashing glass is loud as well.

A small bonus fix in 42.22: The Indie Stone repaired a bug that stopped players from locking external doors from the inside without a key, so deadbolts work again for securing your own base.

How to Use Ladders in Project Zomboid Build 42.22

The second headline feature of 42.22 is the first stage of usable ladders. The ladders already placed around Knox Country can now be climbed:

• How to climb: move close to a ladder and press E (the default interact key), or use the right-click menu on the ladder tile.
• Zombies can’t climb ladders: that makes rooftops and high platforms a useful escape route. The developers still recommend checking below before you climb down, in case something is waiting at the bottom.
• Fixed in place: ladders currently stay where the map places them. Any ladders you moved before the update should remain where you put them.
• Pools and rooftops: The Indie Stone points out that empty pools are a little less scary now, and that you can finally climb to the top floor of the Rosewood Fire Station.

With a horde on your heels, a quiet way into a building or up onto a roof can save your run.

Other Useful Changes in Build 42.22

• Pushing with full hands: if the items in both hands would normally stop you from pushing a zombie, your character now drops the item in the primary hand and pushes anyway. Large two-handed items like a generator are dropped.
• No sleep with a Bad Smell: you can’t sleep while the Bad Smell moodle is active, for example from generator fumes or too many corpses.
• More actions while walking: you can now open ammo boxes and shotgun shells, rip clothing and sheets, swap batteries and more while on the move.
• Lighter refills: a new recipe refills lighters with gasoline and a funnel on a surface.
• Multiplayer fixes: the duplicated “doppelganger” character bug is fixed, and PvP damage is now calculated server-side.

Should You Switch to Pre-Release for the Crowbar?

If you are starting a fresh run or just want to try the new features, the Pre-Release branch is an easy way to play with crowbars and ladders today. If you are deep into a long singleplayer save, back it up first or simply wait, since 42.22 is meant to reach Stable after at least a week of testing. Either way, the crowbar is now one of the first items worth grabbing: it is a solid weapon, it pries off barricades and in 42.22 it finally lets you open locked doors in Project Zomboid without waking up the whole street. If you enjoy survival sandboxes with deep systems, our guide on how to breed cows and sheep in Rust is worth a look too.

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Picture Source: The Indie Stone