If you are new to the game series, then this State of Decay 2 Beginners Guide will help you be acquainted with all game mechanics of the game and some tips and tricks as well which will help you survive in the world of State of Decay 2.
As you start the game, there are very few tutorials so there is a chance that the game may become too overwhelming for you right from the start.
To counter this, we have curated this State of Decay 2 Beginners Guide that will guide you on how you can start the game and get settled it easily.
State of Decay 2 Beginners Guide
We have detailed everything there is to know about different game mechanics in the game so that you can easily start the game and be right top of it instead of mindlessly roaming around in the massive world of State of Decay 2.
Our tips and tricks will ensure that you stay on top of the game and survive as long as possible.
Scout Areas
When you start the game, you will have to scout the areas to help you find special locations around the map. Point of interests are marked with a question mark at the start but if you manage to find a scouting location such as radio towers, signposts, or tall buildings.
Look around and aim at the question marks to scout these locations. Once the circle is complete, you will add know what type of location is that and it will be added to your map as well.
Look around and aim at the question marks to scout these locations. Once the circle is complete, you will add know what type of location is that and it will be added to your map as well.
When you are scouting a location, a meter is shown at the top of the screen, which shows the progress of your scouting. With each building you scout, this meter continues to fill up until all locations have been scouted in the area.
This helps you a lot, as you can head to specific locations when you need a certain item. Once you are done scouting the area, you can use your map or the radio to look for certain locations.
Using the Map
The map is very crucial in State of Decay 2. As you scout more locations, the map is continuously filled with important information about the world around you.
It will show you what type of building is located where which type of resources can be found in them and will also enable you to find vehicles and military outposts.
Depending on your need, you can use your map to look for certain buildings. If you are short on fuel, you can use the map to look for gas stations.
Hospitals will provide you with medicines while gun shops and police stations will give you ammo and weapons.
Similarly, you can look around for grocery stores and houses to find some food. Always use your map, as it will help you stay aware of your surroundings.
Using the Radio
Another great source of finding specific resources in the world is by using your radio. Radio is not only used for finding resources but it can also be used for a number of other purposes.
For instance, it can be used to find other survivors, call for help, volunteer for stuff and help you in case you are stuck in the game somewhere.
Open the radio menu and it will list different options on the right side of the screen. You can pick anyone you like. Some of the options are free but some of them will require stars. You can choose to locate any sorts of resources in this menu such as food, medicine, and fuel.
Scavenging Tips
When you are in a location where there are plenty of scavenging options, check your top-left side of the screen and it will show you exactly how many containers are present in the area that can be looted.
Since the game is open-world and does not really give you directions on how you can approach scavenging locations, this is a great help and it helps to determine how much more loot can be expected in that specific location.
Make sure to visit libraries and bookshelves in houses, as you will find different textbooks. These textbooks are very important as they allow you to upgrade a survivor’s talents or learn new types of specializations.
Finding textbooks on medicine or mechanics or a crafting book will either increase that survivor’s skill or add a new specialization in their skills tab.
Using Vehicles
State of Decay 2 has usable vehicles and we recommend that you use them for getting around. They make playing the game very easy and serve different purposes.
You can store supplies in the vehicles, move around in them and you will also be much safer while inside these vehicles. However, there is one thing new in the second game and that is vehicle maintenance.
Vehicles now require maintenance if you want to keep them running. Apart from different supplies, you must always keep fuel with you, as you will need to refuel your vehicles every now and then to keep them going.
To refuel a vehicle, head to the rear of the vehicle and hold the corresponding key until a vehicle is topped up.
You will also need to repair damaged vehicles. To repair a vehicle, you will need to use a repair kit.
As the vehicle is damaged often, make sure you keep a good amount of toolkits handy as well. You can craft them at workshops or find them in the wild as well.
To repair a vehicle, you will have to go to the front of the car and press and hold the corresponding key until the repairs are complete.
There are different sorts of cars present in the game so they will have unique storage options. Bigger cars will offer you more storage space while smaller cars will give you much less storage space.
However, bigger is not always the better, bigger cars will be slower than the smaller cars and will also consume more fuel.
They are a good way to store any extra resources that you find while exploring the map and are out of personal inventory space.
Vehicles can also be upgraded once you have access to the auto shop in your base. This is a story progress related unlock so you will have to keep playing the story until you get it.
You can then upgrade your vehicles with a variety of options such as making them stronger and faster. Each vehicle is unique so the upgrades they get are also unique to vehicles.
Avoid Infection Zombies
Often on your journey, you will come across zombies that have red glowing eyes. They are more common during the nighttime but they are also sometimes encountered during the daytime.
These zombies will cause you to get infected if the infection meter is completely filled. Each time, such a zombie lands an attack on you, part of the infection meter will increase. Do not let this meter to be completely filled.
If this meter is filled, you will become infected and will have to find a cure before the timer runs out. If you fail to find a cure before the timer runs out, your character will permanently die and turn into a zombie. You can avoid getting infected by a number of ways.
Make sure that you build an Infirmary in your base as soon as possible. From there, you can purchase different upgrades that will increase your resistance to getting infected.
You can also develop cures at the infirmary or perform infection therapy. They will require resources such as the Infection Therapy requires three plague samples, which you can obtain from the red glowing-eyed zombies, or from the plague hearts they protect.
This therapy will increase the resistance against infection but it will not cure the infection. To cure the infection, you will need to develop and consume a cure at the infirmary.
Base Building Tips
Your base in the safe zone of the map and it provides you with a location to store all your resources, survivors and build different useful structures such as auto upgrade shops and infirmaries. Each base has a specific number of slots to construct buildings.
As you progress through the game, you will get bigger bases that will have increased number of slots for you to build buildings.
Your first base must have an infirmary because it will allow you to cure infected and heal the injured survivors.
A workshop is also useful as it allows you to create different weapon attachments and thrown explosives. As you unlock bigger bases, you can add auto shops and gardens in the mix as well.
Similar to buildings, you have a limited number of outposts. Outposts are areas that you have completely cleared out and have claimed them as your outposts. These are safe zones and allow you to resupply here.
Outposts provide a number of different functions part from being safe zones. They can provide you with water, supplies, food, power, etc. with outposts.
Managing the Survivors
You will meet new people and add them to your survivors’ list. They will eventually form a big community, which you will be required to manage effectively. As you take these survivors out with you, they will become hungry, tired, exhausted, injured or even infected.
You will have to keep an eye on all the survivors and make sure that you do not exhaust them too much. Take good care of them, feed them well and make them happy to stay in your community.
Exhausted survivors will have lowered maximum stamina and health so it is wise to keep a constant rotational cycle going in your community to keep all of them healthy and up to full stat bars.
Understanding Character Progression
Each action that you perform in State of Decay 2 increases the effectiveness of that skill by a certain amount.
This means that to make a character better in that specific skill, you must perform that action repeatedly and your character will become proficient in that action or skill.
There are different skills that you need to monitor in order to determine the skill level of your character.
The development of your character will depend on these skills and traits. All other abilities are dependent on these skills.
Level of proficiency determines how well the character can perform these skills. You can work towards for four basic skills. These include Cardio, Fighting, Shooting, and Wits.
Cardio dictates your character’s stamina. Greater stamina allows a character to run or fight for a longer amount of time. As you spring around and fight with more people, your Cardio will keep increasing. Resting and eating a snack restores your stamina to its full.
Fighting skill determines how well your character will fair during melee combat. As you reach new fighting levels, your maximum health is also increased allowing you to take greater amounts of damage.
You can also choose a specific weapon specialty once you have reached level 4 allowing your character to perform special attacks with that specific weapon. Similar to other skills, engage in more fights to get better in this skill.
Shooting skill dictates your character’s ranged combat effectiveness. As you reach higher levels, your character becomes more effective with weapons such as firearms and it greatly reduces the recoil and accuracy of your weapons. Using firearms more make you better at Shotting.
Wits can also be called luck as it determines your skill of unlocking containers, chests and other useful locked items.
Reaching higher levels makes you more efficient as the noise is reduced and your unlocking speed is also increased. Collecting supplies increases your Wits skill.
Managing Communities
In State of Decay 2, you will need to create communities that thrive and are self-sustaining. Throughout your journey through the world, you will encounter a large number of survivors.
Sometimes they will be alone while sometimes you will even come across groups of survivors.
They will be willing to join your community if you help them. This is not a requirement as some of the survivors will join your community as soon as you ask them without asking any favors in return.
As you find and add more people to your community, each character will help build your community in unique ways.
Some of them will offer you help with various chores, some will provide different useful items for your community while some will even provide help during missions.
It is important that you keep a healthy community going as try to find as many survivors and bring them back to your home base, as they will make your survival easy.
