Why AK-47? 7.62 × 39 mm would be kinda hard to loot for this audience.

Pistol.

End of list.

First Aid Kit - Zombies are dangerous but so are infections from minor cuts and lacerations. Gotta prep for the unexpected.

Machete - Most effective and common sense weapon as all the others require some level of skill or maintenance and only the machete would be good at making pointy sticks for improvised spears.

NVGs - Something people forget about is that when the power goes out you're going to be looting some dark ass buildings even during the daytime. Stock up some batteries or a charger and looting just got so much simpler. Plus, if you hear a bump in the night, you can go looking for it without letting the neighborhood know where you are, like with a flashlight.

Water purifier - You can go approximately 3 days without water and the pipes stop working when the electricity does. That river and lake isn't safe to drink, neither is the rainwater, and do you really want to whip out your firekit and draw attention just for sippy sips?

Boring picks but I think these are the biggest bang for your buck. Everything else will take so much just to maintain that it isn't worth it. Including doggo.

No bicycle?

... and maybe three other items of s-mart

Jeep: unparalleled utility. It'll die eventually, fuel is finite, but it'll let me establish.

Shotgun: need a weapon, and while not the strategically beat weapon, I have an image to maintain.

Water purifier: water.

Machete: backup weapon, infinitely useful tool, more rugged than the katana.

I think this combination gives me a good shot at establishing a base of operations, securing the area, and settling for long-term. Between the jeep and the machete, most obstacles can be overcome, and scavenging is easier and quicker. Strategically, the crossbow is probably the best weapon just due to the reusability of the ammunition, but it's not infinite and what you gain in that, you lose in ease of use, which is paramount in a stressful situation. Opting purely for usefulness, the pistol (assuming subsonic rounds and as quiet as possible) probably offers the best balance between reliability and forgivingness, but I like shotguns.

Water purifier is a pretty easy one. Gotta have water, and while most of that will come from rain or scavenging, there will inevitably be periods of literal draught. Finally, the machete. A knife, a backup weapon, a crowbar. Good for clearing small-medium vegetation. Honestly, the uses are limitless, perhaps second only to the jeep.

Honorable mentions:

Dog. If it's pre-trained, top tier. If you have to train it, mid at best plus another mouth to feed.

Any other firearm: mostly preference, each has pros and cons

Body armor: depending on the zombies, top tier (walking dead style, feral gonna bite you zombies) or reeeally not useful (anything spread by spores, fumes, fluids, etc.)

Gas mask: invert the body armor.

Motorcycle: quicker, less utility than Jeep. I wouldn't say it's the worst pick

Everything else is either marginal utility at best (cb radio, NV goggles) or easy enough to scavenge (flashlight, first aid supplies, tent, honestly everything else on the list.)

Since you can easily scavange most of these things you only need the hard to find stuff, and stuff that will help you scavange. So body armor and the ak to keep you alive. Axe to help get into places for supplies. Jeep to haul your shit. Drive down to dicks and load up on the rest.

Long term you need a spear and knife for weapons. A horse and cart for hauling shit. Dog for guard duty. And ways to get water and food.

I would opt for the crossbow, machete and axe then use those to commendeer better equipment. Specifically that choice of weapons because axe is useful for chopping trees, machete is a weapon that doesn't require ammo and it's a lot easier to make crossbow arrows than bullets. Also take the night vision goggles in the off chance they're the super high tech kind and not the ir lighting based kind because you'll never just "find" one of those otherwise. Then use that stuff to basically steal everything on this list and more.

Chainsaw Body armour Mask Shotgun

doomguy

Purifier, Jeep, NVG's, magically silent pistol. If pistol is just realistically suppressed, I'll take the machete.

Water hard, gotta get around to loot, gotta see to loot, gotta be able to wack Z's without too much ruckus.

This post brought to you by too much dayz.

dog x4, ez

I wanna know what kind of zombies I'll be dealing with. Slow shamblers? Fast runners? Intelligent undead?

Project Zomboid players be like: where's the crowbar?

But if I had to choose, the body armor, machete, fire axe, and the mighty katana.

PS: in my current PZ playthrough, 3 months and 5k kills in, and just found my very first katana. (lowest loot setting, highest zombie pop).

Body armor - protection against bites Crossbow - silent weapon, semi unlimited ammo, hunting Machete - good weapon/tool Fire axe - for looting abandoned buildings/emergency escapes.

Then I'd head off into the woods and start building a tree house.

Parachute cord should really be on the list, though.

I'm fine with three! Tent, Flashlight and Camera. That way I'll have the easiest way out by being the sidecharacter who gets murdered during the exposition before it all goes to shit.

So many questions like is the bullets in the gun and gasoline in jeep and batteries in flashlight? Also if yes are there any sources for more consumables?

Tent, water purifier, machete, first aid kit