5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting State of Decay 2

Free Skill Slots Are Actually a Good Thing!

Before you even take control of your survivors in State of Decay 2, you’ll have to pick a couple of starter characters. Each character in the game has their own unique traits which can affect the morale of your base, and skills which they’ll develop and utilize as you play through the game. For example, the Cardio skill will improve the more you run and climb around the environment. As such, seeing a survivor that you can recruit with only four skills rather than the usual five may seem like a waste of your community’s resources, but think again.

There are various different skills that you’ll need far more than others in State of Decay 2. A free skill slot actually means that you can teach that survivor a new skill if you can get a textbook on the subject. Computer skills, in particular, seem pretty hard to come by and are required to level your Command Center to level 3. You’ll find the textbooks lying around quite a bit as you’re scavenging, though, so whenever you can, get yourself a survivor with a free skill slot. It’ll save you a lot of time and effort recruiting someone with the specific skill you need further down the line.

Bring a Follower Everywhere

State of Decay 2’s big new feature over its predecessor is its co-op multiplayer, allowing four players to head out together and take on the hordes of undead roaming the streets. Just because you’re playing solo, though, doesn’t mean you have to go on every adventure on your own. And actually, you really shouldn’t.

Not only will bringing an extra survivor with you mean that you’ll have someone else to help you thin out any zombie hordes that come chasing you down, but it’s also an extra rucksack you can fill with crafting materials and resources. Just press Y to talk to a survivor at your base and enlist them. They’ll follow you around and you can switch to them at any time by pressing Y to talk to them again. Then, fill up their rucksack with whatever your other survivor can’t carry and change back.

Save Your Influence for the Biggest and Best Outposts

When you first start going about scavenging for materials and resources to grow your community of survivors, you’ll be told to just claim an outpost. Don’t go and just take any outposts you can afford, though. In fact, you’ll benefit far more in the long run if you save up as much of that precious Influence as you can for some of the bigger and better outposts in State of Decay 2.

There are three different types you’ll likely find on your travels. Those which simply offer a safe space and maybe some extra beds. The more useful ones that add an extra unit of a specific resource to your base’s reserves every day, and finally the utilities outposts that provide base-wide power or water. Of course, as you move up through these, the more expensive the outposts will set you back. While 2,000 Influence for an outpost may seem a lot, having a constant source of power to your base is well worth it, and you’ll be rewarded with better crop yields and more crafting options as a result.

Upgrade Your Infirmary ASAP

If it wasn’t already obvious, fighting a group of zombies with a machete is fun, but dangerous work. Unless you’re able to master the art of dodging and managing your stamina effectively, it’s more than likely that one or two of your survivors are going to take a bit of a beating. Trauma, injuries, fatigue, and the Blood Plague all have the ability to render your survivors as good as useless if left untreated.

That’s why you’ll want to make sure you’ve got an Infirmary in your base and upgrade it as soon as possible. This may require the Medical skill, too, so make sure you recruit a survivor early on with this. A level 2 Infirmary will mean that survivors resting at your base passively recover from all of the above (aside from Blood Plague). You’ll also get more beds in your Infirmary to help keep Blood Plague victims alive while you sort a cure, should you need them.

Medical, Computer, and Mechanic Skills Are Very Valuable

We mentioned it briefly before that certain skills were way more useful in State of Decay 2 than others, and while we mentioned Computer by name, we thought we’d shed some more light on the other useful skills and exactly why you’re going to need them.

As we’ve already mentioned, Medical skills are incredibly important if you want to go about upgrading your Infirmary to ensure your survivors recover from any injuries or fatigue as quickly as possible. Computer skills are needed to level up your Command Center to level 3 which grants you another Outpost slot among other things, and the Mechanic skill allows you to craft Vehicle Repair Kits – an absolute god-send in a world filled with zombies that damage your vehicle every time you hit one.

Sure, those shooting and fighting skills may seem the most important when your in a tight spot surrounded by zombies, but for the overall development of your community, it’s these that’ll really give you a helping hand.