With State of Decay 2 just hours away from its official release, we’ve got a list of 10 Things You NEED To Know Before Playing State Of Decay 2. Whether you’re a post-apocalyptic zombie veteran or venturing into the world of the undead for the first time, you won’t want to miss these vital tips.
Watch Out For Plague Zombies!
First and foremost, watch out for this devilish creatures. You can tell them apart from traditional zombies as they are usually a dark, blood red. As well as the typical health damage when they strike you, they also do Blood Plague damage. When you accrue enough of this Blood Plague damage your survivor becomes infected and, if you don’t Cure the Blood Plague, your survivor will be the next target at the end of your barrel.
Resources, Resources, Resources
Resources are vital to your success in State of Decay 2. There are consumables and items that you can find and use yourself but then there are also Community Resources. These resources are special, they always come in the shape of a large sack that you carry on your back. You can only carry a single sack at a time but you can load up your trunk. When you return these sacks to your Home Base, the resources go towards your community. Having enough food, medical supplies and crafting materials ensures your community is safe and maintains a high level of morale.
Vehicles Are Valuable, Don’t Lose Them!
Vehicles are an incredibly valuable resource. They let you travel long distances safely, you can avoid more dangerous zombie types and you can fill up your trunk with tons of supplies each run. Don’t waste your repair kits and fuel early on, especially on vehicles that don’t offer much utility. Find the vehicles that have the most capacity and use those for the start of your journey, ensuring you always return to Home Base with more resources than your last expedition cost. Check out our Vehicle Location Guide to find all the best vehicles.
Choose Your Home Base Carefully
Your Home Base is your central hub. It’s where you do all your construction and where the survivors from your community gather. Whilst the first Home Base is typically picked for you, in the form of a story objective, you are free to choose after that. You can only have one Home Base at a time and when you choose a second, your previous is destroyed. Each Home Base offers different slots for construction so make sure the spots offer what you need. Each map features a “big daddy” base, the base of all bases. You can spot these as they cost 3,500 Influence Points each.
Don’t Explore Too Much
Whilst State of Decay 2 features 3 playable maps at launch, they are not as connected as you would like. The map you start your journey on is the only map you can explore for that Community. If you leave the map via one of the roads that leads to another area, it will completely wipe your progress in your current map and you’ll start again in a new area.
Make A Custom Community
When you first start State of Decay 2, you are given the choice of a few starting communities. Any of these can work depending on your playstyle and approach but there’s a little trick if you want more control. Complete the tutorial with any of the premade communities, the tutorial is complete once you have occupied your first Home Base. Then exit to the main menu and go to Manage Communities. Choose a new community. You will have several options come up, choose to skip the tutorial. This will let you continuously randomize three different survivors to start your community complete with unique and exciting skills.
Pay Attention To Skills
All survivors have the basic skills. Fighting, Cardio, Shooting etc, but there is also a slot for a final skill. These are unique skills that can greatly aid your communities efforts. Some boost experience points rates by up to 100%. Others unlock powerful new moves in combat, and some allow you to build special facilities at your home base. Check out our State of Decay 2 skills guide so you can make sure your starting survivors have the perfect skills.
Tag Up Often
Your survivors are fragile human beings. They can become exhausted or injured during their expeditions. This drastically reduces their overall performance and greatly increases their chances of a serious mishap. You can use many items to replenish stamina but the best way to ensure your survivors are in tip top shape is to switch out often. Visit your beds in your Home Base to switch to other members of your community.
Choose Your Leader Wisely
As your community members earn standing points they can rank up from Civilian to Hero. Once they are at the Hero rank you can assign them as a leader, but choose carefully. There are four types of leaders in the game, and each of the four types will take you on a different set of story objectives. Once you have chosen a leader, you can only replace them by exiling them from your community. Before choosing, make sure your leader is someone you are sure you want to keep with you for the rest of the game.
Don’t Waste Your Outposts
As well as your Home Base, you can occupy Outposts. While the slots are limited, you can occupy up to 6 different outposts alongside your Home Base. Some of the benefits can be very basic, such as additional beds, while others can offer valuable items and assets. Such as free coffee (great for stamina problems) or electric and water supply. Pay close attention to the resources your community runs out of the most. Try to compensate by finding outposts that provide this asset. They are automatically delivered to your Home Base every day, so there’s very little maintenance involved.
Hopefully our list of 10 Things You Need To Know Before Playing State Of Decay 2 has helped you prepare for the onslaught that’s sure to come. Happy hunting!
