State of Decay 2 is a deep, punishing survival game that rewards strategy, foresight, and mastery of its many systems. These 32 advanced tips will help you thrive even on Nightmare and Lethal difficulties. Let’s get tactical.
1. Vehicle Safety
Most vehicles allow repairs from the hood—great for safe fixes while surrounded. The Miragra starter vehicle even lets you refuel and access the trunk from the hood, making it a powerful early-game asset.
2. Healing Mechanics
Interrupting a bandage animation (e.g., by dodging or crouching) doesn’t cancel healing. Bandages and painkillers heal the same amount, but bandages are easier to find, even if costlier to craft.
3. Dealing with Blood Ferals
Don’t have a spiked car? Perform a reverse 180° turn with doors open to hit and kill ferals without engine damage.
4. Silent Entry with Crossbows
Crossbows can silently break windows. Wait until the glass despawns before climbing through to avoid making noise.
5. Smoke Grenades = Invisibility
Smoke grenades render you invisible to enemies, including blood ferals and hostile humans. Use them to destroy plague hearts safely—they’re more valuable than cures in tough runs.
6. Red Talon Food Math
Red Talon hackers only use 1 extra food per day, even on Lethal difficulty, due to how food consumption is calculated.
7. Inventory Trick
Crafting uses parts from your inventory first. Cancel the craft afterward to “deposit” those parts into your locker—great for freeing space during scavenging runs.
8. Funnel Defenses
Block base entrances to funnel zombies into kill zones. Fewer entry points = more controlled defenses.
9. Stamina Trick
Use the grab-and-shove combo to conserve stamina in melee fights. Shove grabbed zombies into others for knockdowns and free executions.
10. AI Followers and Guns
AI followers don’t consume ammo and can fire burst mode even if guns aren’t loaded. Non-followers only use full-auto weapons in burst mode.
11. Beds Are Overrated
Beds don’t reduce fatigue or accelerate recovery—skip them unless you’re chasing morale bonuses.
12. Trader Boon Strategy
Start on a lower difficulty with the Trader Boon (4,000 influence), then increase the difficulty without losing your influence windfall.
13. Heavy Weapon Animation Cancel
Cancel heavy weapon swings with dodge + crouch after the hit connects. This allows faster chaining of attacks.
14. Invincible Vehicle Setup
Impaler and Zedbuster can become nearly invincible if their left side is parked flush against a wall, preventing engine damage from zombie hits.
15. Plague Heart Disturbance
Leaving plague heart zones allows them to “cool down” after disturbance. Understand how long to stay away to control infestations effectively.
16. Infestation Rewards
Destroying a plague heart clears infestations—but clearing level 3 infestations manually gives better rewards like rare mods and high-tier weapons.
17. Siege Farming
Triggering a level 3 siege infestation grants 300 prestige. Keep only one active to keep the fight manageable and reap rewards.
18. Plague Sample Trap
Use screamers to lure hordes into outpost minefields for infinite plague sample farming, especially on Nightmare or Lethal.
19. Sheriff Legacy Cheese
During the Sheriff Legacy finale, snipe the enemy leader from afar to end the mission without a direct fight.
20. Weekend Trader Boost
Start new Lethal/Nightmare games on weekends to buy vehicle upgrade kits from mysterious traders early.
21. Fast Skill Leveling (Fighting & Wits)
Use push → execute → dodge → repeat to quickly level both Fighting and Wits.
22. Wits Grinding Simplified
Crouch, stealth-execute, and spam dodge to passively level Wits—no complex tricks required.
23. Explosives vs. Fire
Explosives deal even damage across their radius. Fire-based items (molotovs, thermite) must hit directly to be effective.
24. Bloater Cloud Trick
Use road flares to ignite bloater gas clouds without harming plague hearts or yourself—great for precision clearing.
25. Juggernaut and Feral Mechanics
Use .50 cal body shots for juggernauts. For blood ferals, wait 1 second between headshots to ensure hit registration.
26. Killing Ferals in Melee
Alternate between spamming attack and dodge to kill ferals—even with no stamina.
27. Rucksack Management
Store extra rucks in car trunks. Even if a car is destroyed, its trunk inventory remains accessible.
28. Double Staging Efficiency
In Cascade Hills, combine a Staging Area with the Landmark Outpost to cancel out material costs and gain net-positive production.
29. Red Talon Trader Exploit
You can refresh Red Talon trader stock by restarting the game. Useful for infinite utility access and restocking items.
30. Fix the Freezing Bug
Rebind the “View” button on your controller to bypass the soft-lock bug caused by interacting with mission traders.
31. Efficiency Resources
Use tools like RvidD’s Google Sheets to optimize plague heart clearing and community setups down to the last bullet.
32. Miscellaneous Pro Tips
- Approach screamers from 90° angles to avoid detection.
- Finish bounties in easy mode, then claim rewards in harder difficulties.
- Lower shadow settings for better headlights at night.
- Cure infected survivors by sending them to your legacy pool.
- Create fun “headless zombie” moments with explosives or glitchy finishers.
By mastering these advanced strategies, you’ll gain a huge edge in surviving and thriving in State of Decay 2. Got a favorite tip of your own? Drop it in the comments—and happy hunting, survivors.
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