State of Decay 2: Beginner’s Guide – Everything You Need to Survive

Whether you’re picking up State of Decay 2 for the very first time thanks to a recent sale or Game Pass, or perhaps you’re returning to the zombie survival game after an extended time away, you’ve likely noticed the game isn’t holding your hand. It’s certainly not as hardcore as, say, Project Zomboid, but it’s not a casual affair, either. The tutorial covers the bare minimum, and then you’re dropped into the zombie apocalypse. What now?

This State of Decay 2 beginner’s guide is designed to answer that question and more. Below, you’ll find everything a new player needs to know, from picking your first map to managing morale, scavenging efficiently, and even taking down a Plague Heart!

What is State of Decay 2?

State of Decay 2, developed by Undead Labs, is a third-person open-world zombie survival game. Unlike most zombie survival titles, this one doesn’t focus purely on combat. Oh, it’s there, of course. You’ll smash a zombie’s head with a sledgehammer, like usual. But SoD2 prioritizes community management. You control a rotating roster of survivors, each with unique skills, traits, and personalities. As these survivors, you’ll scavenge for food, medicine, building materials, ammunition, and weapons. You’ll establish and upgrade a home base with many of those resources.

Sadly, death is permanent here. If a survivor dies out on a loot run, they’re gone. That tension is part of why the game proves so entertaining and replayable. It has that “one more turn” feeling locked down!

Choosing Your Starting Map

State of Decay 2 offers multiple maps, each featuring a different layout, resource distribution, and difficulty curve. As a beginner, your map choice matters more than most players realize.

The Maps

• Trumbull Valley: The original map from State of Decay, redesigned for State of Decay 2. It’s widely considered the most beginner-friendly map, with plentiful resources, an intuitive layout, and a strong narrative thread.
• Drucker County: A flat, sparse map with excellent resource density but relatively open terrain without much character. I would rate this one as moderate difficulty. It’s also one of the buggiest, in my experience.
• Cascade Hills: A hilly map that’s occasionally confusing to navigate for new players, but offers excellent large base options. This one is, yet again, moderate difficulty, primarily due to the terrain and navigation.
• Meagher Valley: Wide open farmland, excellent base designs, and plenty of resources. To some, it feels emptier than the other maps, though.
• Providence Ridge: A dense, forested mountain town with defensible base locations, winding roads, and plenty of loot opportunities. It’s an intermediate choice, to be sure.

Your First Base: What to Build and Why

Once you’ve picked your map and survivors, you’ll start in the open, with a broken-down vehicle and three survivors who desperately require shelter.

What to Build First

Once you make your way to the starter base, you’re tasked with constructing your first facility. You should focus on:

• Infirmary: Cures Blood Plague infection, heals injuries, and allows you to craft medical supplies. This is easily one of the most important early-game facilities to construct.
• Beds: If your base doesn’t come with beds, go ahead and construct a bedroom facility early to ensure your survivors have somewhere to rest and recuperate lost stamina.
• Workshop: You’ll run through melee weapons quickly, so build a Workshop to repair weapons and craft basic items.
• Garden/Farm: Survivors need to eat, right? Ensure you have plenty of food to account for daily usage by constructing a farm plot to reduce pressure.

Don’t build too many specialty facilities early on. It’s tempting to plop down a shooting range, gym, or lounge for morale bonuses and training, but they can wait. Focus on survival first.

Resource Management Explained

State of Decay 2 tracks five main resource types: Food, Medicine, Fuel, Ammo, and Materials. Your base consumes resources daily based on your population and active facilities. It’s your goal, as community lead, to keep them in the green.

Storage

All resources are stored at your base. With a rucksack on your back, walk up to the storage facility in your base and deposit the pack. When you loot a rucksack out in the world, you must walk it back or deliver it via vehicle. It will not teleport back home for you; that’d be too easy!

Outposts

Claiming a resource outpost is one of the most efficient ways to stabilize your resource income. When you claim a fuel depot, for example, it provides your base with a small amount of fuel per day. As such, prioritize outposts near your base for the resource type you run through fastest.

Influence

Influence is the in-game currency. You earn influence by completing missions, trading with allied enclaves, killing special zombies, and depositing resources back at base. Use it to claim outposts, trade with allies, and unlock unique community actions from the radio and base.

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State of Decay 2

State of Decay 2, developed by Undead Labs and published by Xbox Game Studios, is an open-world zombie survival game with a focus on building and managing a community of survivors.

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Scavenging Tips for Beginners

• Search Quietly: Hold down the search button when looting a container to slowly and silently check its contents. You can search fast if you’re in a hurry, but doing so attracts nearby zombies.
• Watch Encumberance: Survivors can only hold a set amount of weight, and rucksacks do count toward this. If you’re encumbered, your stamina drains quickly. Plan your loot run, bring along a vehicle if you’re far away from home, and keep an eye on your weight limit.
• Clear Buildings First: Before you start looting those glowing containers, clear the entire building, room by room, of zombies. You don’t want one jumping on your back when you’re searching a footlocker.
• Use the Trunk: As mentioned, bring along a vehicle if you’re traveling great distances from your home base. The trunk is invaluable for loading up additional loot without having to make multiple trips.

Combat Basics: Fighting Zombies Without Dying

Depending on your difficulty level, combat is more dangerous than it looks in State of Decay 2. On lower difficulties, it’s trivial. On higher, well, sometimes running is a viable option, guys.

• Melee vs. Ranged
  • Despite the massive collection of firearms in the game, melee always felt like the focus of State of Decay. Guns make noise and draw in hordes. Use melee weapons for regular zombies whenever possible, and save the guns for Juggernauts or Ferals.
• Executions
  • When you sneak up behind a zombie or find one on the ground, you can stealth your way forward and execute them with a stamina-consuming strike. It’s the most reliable way to kill a zombie quickly and quietly. It’s Y on a controller or E on a keyboard.
• Stamina Management
  • When you fight, sprint, climb, or carry too much in your pack, your stamina depletes rapidly. In the middle of a fight, that’s a death sentence. Sometimes, you need to back up, recover some stamina, then re-engage. Or, carry stamina-replenishing items with you, like energy drinks or snacks!
• Dodge and Stab
  • A go-to for me personally is to time a dodge toward a zombie as they rush forward, then immediately hit the backstab attack to instantly take down a standard zombie foe. You can dodge with B on a controller or C on a keyboard.

Special Zombie Types

• Screamer — Draws nearby zombies to your position with its ear-piercing shriek. Prioritize taking this diva down fast and quietly whenever possible.
• Bloater — An unmissable mass of zombie flesh that explodes in a cloud of toxic gas upon death. Try to take them down from afar with a headshot.
• Feral — Fast, aggressive, and most certainly lethal in close quarters. Use a gun…or run. Don’t fight one in melee unless you have a powerful weapon and high Fighting skill.
• Juggernaut — The largest and most powerful special zombie type. Heavily armored, hard-hitting, and slow; use explosives and high-caliber rounds to take them down.
• Blood Plague Zombie — A unique variant of the usual zombie horde, albeit infected with the Blood Plague. Their attacks can infect survivors. Note the red-glowing eyes!

The Blood Plague: What It Is and How to Deal With It

Blood Plague is, besides the undead, the core threat in State of Decay 2. It’s an infection that spreads via bites and attacks from Blood Plague Zombies (the ones with red eyes).

When a Blood Plague Zombie attacks, there’s a chance to infect your survivor. The infection meter is shown as a red meter in the bottom left of the HUD. Once it fills, your survivor dies and reanimates as a zombie, which is demoralizing and most certainly a setback.

Treating Infection

• Plague Cure — The only surefire way to treat Blood Plague is with a Plague Cure. Shortly after starting a new game, you’ll receive a call from a nearby enclave asking for help acquiring Blood Plague Samples. Once you deliver two, they’ll provide you with the recipe for a Blood Plague Cure, which you may then craft at an upgraded Infirmary.
• Blood Plague Samples — Speaking of Samples, you can acquire them by destroying Plague Hearts (dangerous but lucrative) or hunting Blood Plague Zombies.

Plague Hearts: How to Destroy Them

When it comes to State of Decay 2’s endgame loop, prepare yourself. Plague Hearts are the main objective, and each map will have a set number, depending on difficulty. Your goal is to destroy them all and complete the final mission.

What They Are

Plague Hearts are pulsing biological masses embedded in buildings around the map. They spawn a stream of Blood Plague Zombies, making the surrounding area more dangerous to loot and traverse. They’re also your primary objective, as previously mentioned. You need to clear the map of them to escape.

How to Destroy Plague Hearts

• Scout First — Once you know where the Plague Heart resides, scout the area for escape points, entry points, zombie accumulation, and to start planning your assault.
• Bring Fire — Plague Hearts are weak to fire and explosives, so bring along Molotov Cocktails, Grenades, and Thermite.
• Clear the Area — When you attack a Plague Heart, it calls out to infected zombies in the area, meaning you’re constantly under attack. You can make the first few waves easier by clearing the immediate area.
• Plague Cure — Don’t forget to bring at least one Plague Cure. It’s not uncommon to catch a bout of the plague when fighting a Heart, as it releases bursts of noxious fumes.
• Bring a Friend — Don’t forget about the game’s co-op! If you have a friend willing to hop on for twenty minutes, bring them along to fight the Plague Heart.

Morale, Community, and Keeping Survivors Happy

In State of Decay 2, your community’s morale affects more than you can see, including stamina recovery rate and effectiveness. Low morale spirals into infighting, survivors leaving, or costly mistakes.

What Hurts Morale:

• Food shortages
• Overcrowding
• Unresolved community conflicts
• Survivor deaths
• Negative traits
• Broken facilities

What Helps Morale:

• Food surplus
• Completing missions
• Helping survivors
• Having a Lounge or other morale-boosting facilities
• Resolving community drama
• Treating injuries or Blood Plague

Managing Problematic Survivors

When you first start a game, you’ll note that each survivor has a set of traits and skills. Those traits vary wildly, and some offer buffs while others offer nothing but pain and headaches. If a survivor has a negative trait, they can tank your community’s morale.

It’s okay to exile a survivor and take the hit to morale in the short run. It’s a hard call, especially when you don’t have many to work with, but sometimes necessary.

Enclaves

As you play, you’ll occasionally encounter Enclaves scattered about the map. Some of them are friendly; others, not so much. Completing missions for the friendly groups improves your relationship, allowing you to trade or recruit their survivors. However, recruiting a survivor from an Enclave will dissolve the community.

Vehicles and Fuel

While it’s true that you’ll spend loads of time on foot, shouldering down doors and looting containers, State of Decay 2 does heavily rely on vehicles for traversal. They’re useful for transporting resources, emergency escapes, and traveling across the map.

To use vehicles effectively:

• Remember that fuel is finite —As you drive, you consume fuel, just like in real life. Always check to ensure you have fuel in your vehicle, and carry at least one spare gas can in the trunk.
• Load the trunk — Speaking of the trunk, it’s okay to spend one slot on a fuel can, but keep the rest open for loot. You can fit rucksacks in the trunk, each taking up a single slot, along with miscellaneous items. I recommend the cargo van!
• Run zombies over…strategically — Your first instinct while behind the wheel of a truck is to ram through the small horde of zombies, right? Don’t! Doing so quickly deteriorates your vehicle. Instead, reverse into them. Backing into a zombie doesn’t put as much strain on your vehicle as using the front. Alternatively, pop open your door (Y on a controller), and sidecheck a lone zombie or two.

Multiplayer and Co-op Basics

While it’s certainly not the focal point of the game, State of Decay 2 does offer co-op.

How It Works:

• You can join a friend’s world as a helper, bringing along one member of your community to assist in their world.
• The second player’s character won’t gain any standing while playing in the host’s world, but can still collect items and resources and develop a survivor’s skills.
• Permadeath is active in multiplayer, so either player may lose a survivor if they’re not careful.

Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

Having spent countless hours playing the game myself, introducing numerous friends and family members, and interacting with members of the State of Decay 2 community over the years, these are the most common beginner mistakes I see new players make:

• Ignoring resource drain! By not checking your daily resource consumption, you set yourself up for a sudden food or medicine crisis.
• Fighting everything! You don’t need to kill every zombie you stumble upon. Sometimes, stealth and avoidance are the best strategies, especially early on.
• Ignoring the Infirmary! One of the first modules you should build for your base is the Infirmary. Blood Plague will kill your survivors without one.
• Looting too far from home! Early on, especially before you have a functional vehicle, looting too far from home will lead to an untimely demise. For the time being, stick close to your neighborhood.
• Attacking Plague Hearts unprepared! They’re not meant to be taken on using starter equipment, so gear up first before you dive into one.
• Forgetting to repair weapons! Your weapons will break over time. A melee weapon with low durability is an excellent way to lose a survivor, so keep your Workshop active and repair regularly.
• Not switching survivors! Every survivor deals with fatigue over time. An exhausted survivor has heavily reduced stamina, which means less sprinting and dodging in battle.

FAQ

What is the best starting map for beginners in State of Decay 2?

Trumbull Valley is the most beginner-friendly map, in my experience. It has a balanced resource spread, a familiar layout (especially for those who enjoyed the first game), and enough structure to teach you the game’s mechanics without feeling overwhelming.

Can you play State of Decay 2 solo?

Yes, the entire game is designed around solo play. The co-op mode is optional and, if you’d prefer, you never have to interact with multiplayer whatsoever. I rarely do.

What happens if a survivor dies in State of Decay 2?

Death is, unfortunately, permanent in State of Decay 2. If a survivor dies, they’re gone from your community forever. If they turn into a zombie and you must put them down, you’ll endure a severe morale penalty for doing so, sadly.

How do I cure Blood Plague in State of Decay 2?

Blood Plague is cured with a Plague Cure. You can find these throughout the game world, purchase one from allied enclaves, or craft one via an upgraded Infirmary using Blood Plague Samples.

How many Plague Hearts are there on each map?

The exact number varies slightly by map and difficulty, but typically ranges from 9 to 10 Plague Hearts per map. You must destroy them all to complete a run and unlock the final mission.

How does influence work in State of Decay 2?

Influence is your in-game currency. You earn influence by killing special zombies, depositing resources, completing missions, and trading with other enclaves. You can spend influence to claim outposts, recruit survivors, and trade goods with other communities.