State Of Decay 2 - May 22nd Release

Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Cutlery said:
I'm at work right now, but later tonight I'll load up the game and think about the other stuff I've forgotten.

Oh...Builder leader. The sniper tower is what you need on lethal, especially when you're first starting out. 5 minutes cooldown 50 cal sniper fire will save your bacon every time.

I don't use impaler. I literally have been rolling with the Miagra and it's upgrade ever since. Cars are rare and running to get them is very risky, so I just drive the one.
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You can call in an Impaler as soon as you start the game, no need to worry about finding a correct base car and then making an upgrade kit. It's covered with spikes even more thoroughly than the Mad Norma/Zedbuster truck is, absolute bane of blood ferals although they can still kamikaze a door in one shot if you let them approach from the side. Guzzles gas and only has 4 spots in the trunk though, so I definitely miss the Wichita.

I haven't even left the starter base yet but yeah I'll probably go with the sniper tower assuming I even have a builder in my current 4. *edit* Just checked. 2 traders and 2 warlords. Reminds me of my 12 man forever community which has like 7 traders and 3 warlords.
 
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Vorph

Vorph

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Yeah, I only play on Lethal but man is there a whole world of difference between coming in fresh and coming in with three Red Talons that are fully loaded with guns, crafting stuff, building mods, skill books, and plague samples. I like a middle ground where you bring the rifle/pistol/melee/knife you want but empty their backpacks, and no more than one RT dude. Mostly because my favorite guns are from the fat man and it annoys me to not have access to at least one MPX and Danger Dog PPSh-41 if I'm playing during the wrong season (actually not even sure those two guns are ever available at the same time without modding).

In the end though, it doesn't really matter how you start out. As long as you can make it over the first big hump and get yourself access to ScentBlock, everything becomes trivial.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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and of course my starting special enclave for this playthrough is the car mechanics which means I have to either let them disband or do a fight that triggers double juggernauts.
 
Cutlery

Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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Yeah, you have to be super choosy at the start.

I'd let them fail and recruit them. Good news...automechanics are useful members.
 
Cutlery

Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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Pathology, absolute must to start with. You really want the reduced costs for plague curing. Increased collection is a bonus, but my pathologist is a base queen, he very rarely wanders around outside. He's actually kind of a bad character too, I just haven't found anyone better with medicine to replace him, so he sits here for awhile.

Automechanics is super great to start. Reduced costs for making repair kits is awesome too. After you get situated, just bulk craft kits and tear down the auto shop for more useful shit.

My other "starting" character is my RT demolitionist. Demo lets you make C4 with one character, and I use C4 for plague hearts in a rotation with other methods. Melee some, C4 some, bloater gas some, etc. Spreads out the cost.

When I'm roaming around on lethal out scavenging, generally I always carry this shit.
20220801192656_1.jpg


I use xbows for scavenging because bolts are quieter. I also keep normal meds and energy drinks on me, but I don't keep a full stack so I've got more space to loot. Generally it's 2 and 2. I just looted 2 and 2 off some bullshit, and had to use one to take out a Jug/BF horde, so that's why i'm offset. Never ever ever go out anywhere without energy drinks and pills. It's way too easy to get caught off guard by something and get ended on lethal.

Always park your car like that, so no zeds can get on the front, always enter from the passenger side so your door doesn't get ripped off by the shit chasing you, and then your trunk NEEDS to have a gas can, at least one repair kit, and however many plague cure you think you're gonna need. I was doing a lot of co-op when I was playing, so we just threw bigger stacks in there. You absolutely, positively cannot leave home in a vehicle without a plague cure. You won't make it home alive.

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Go heavy weapons, always. The only time you can get away with not having heavy weapons is if you have gunslinger. Also, if you take swordplay, you need discipline to make it worthwhile, otherwise you're gonna be fixing your fucking swords every time you have to unsheath it. Very annoying. I was taking Marathon based upon how good marathon is in the first game, but backpacking is king shit legit. If I don't hit powerhouse on a levelup, then backpacking is a great place to be. Marathon means not using stamina when you're running. Backpacking means more stamina for running, or fighting, or jumping, or, well, fucking everything.

Lethal is awesome. You're gonna lose a few dudes here and there learning some shit. But at some point...you'll just stop losing dudes, and you won't be able to remember the last time you did.
 
Vorph

Vorph

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Cutlery said:
The only time you can get away with not having heavy weapons is if you have gunslinger.
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Whatchu mean "If"?
nogunslinger.png


Seriously though, any character I have without gunslinger and with a 5th skill I can't easily replace never leaves the base. Useless fucks can get all their xp from watching videos. Only exception would be someone with Marathon/Stealth/CC, at least they're good for speed looting.
 
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Cutlery

Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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Vorph said:
Whatchu mean "If"?
View attachment 425667

Seriously though, any character I have without gunslinger and with a 5th skill I can't easily replace never leaves the base. Useless fucks can get all their xp from watching videos. Only exception would be someone with Marathon/Stealth/CC, at least they're good for speed looting.
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I don't run gunslinger on everyone. Base queens get sharpshooter for the enemy piercing shots. You also don't really need gunslinger once you've got a sniper tower or a rooftop sniper enclave.

Powerhouses really don't need it, because they've got heavy weapons for dealing with ferals. Flashbangs also deal with ferals really well.

Ymmv if you are on xbox, but with mouse/keyboard, gunslinger is a perk, not a necessity.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yeah I do all of those things except I'm still learning to be careful about how I leave the car parked. I started with a gardener, mechanic, and medic, recruited a RT hacker and demolitionist, then lost the gardener.

Biggest problem is that it's been forever since I've had to use unleveled characters, so jumping straight from farting around in regular with maxed out characters and all the juiciest loot in the game to a fresh Lethal start is about as hard a difficulty jump as is possible. I might just wait until the legacy update hits before I put more time into my lethal community.
 
Cutlery

Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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gardening kinda shit on lethal too. You get all your food from outposts on lethal. But, hacker and demo will set you up just fine.

Just spend a lot of time sneaking, you get your kills from stealth as you're looting houses looking for halfway useful shit. Honestly, the game is the most fun when you have jack fuck all, and single digit resources. Every single find is a score.

Fucking driveshaft club? Woohoo! Going plagueheart killing, brb.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
42,320
50,326
Vorph said:
Yeah, I only play on Lethal but man is there a whole world of difference between coming in fresh and coming in with three Red Talons that are fully loaded with guns, crafting stuff, building mods, skill books, and plague samples. I like a middle ground where you bring the rifle/pistol/melee/knife you want but empty their backpacks, and no more than one RT dude. Mostly because my favorite guns are from the fat man and it annoys me to not have access to at least one MPX and Danger Dog PPSh-41 if I'm playing during the wrong season (actually not even sure those two guns are ever available at the same time without modding).

In the end though, it doesn't really matter how you start out. As long as you can make it over the first big hump and get yourself access to ScentBlock, everything becomes trivial.
Click to expand...
whats so good about the danger dog? all silenced weapons seem like they're still super loud on lethal but if I had to pick anything, it would be the two .22 echo weapons since revolvers and bolt actions dont take durability damage.
 
Vorph

Vorph

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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It's been a while but going from memory as to why it's the best gun in the game -- high capacity but reloads much quicker than anything else with a large mag, integral suppressor, no inflated durability loss from either the suppressor or the hidden stat, and 9mm is almost as efficient to make as .22.

And yeah, for the pistol slot I usually carry around the Echo revolver. The Echo rifle is good too, but I think carrying a revolver and a bolt action is too risky. You only need one free durability gun, and the other one needs to be a 'shit just hit the fan' option imo. None of the other .22 rifles are good because they all have inflated durability damage and cost too much to repair.

For plague heart runs, I always went with MPX (the .357 version for killing the heart) + MAC-11 Jawbreaker (for mowing down ferals). Those are both from the fat man too.
 
Vorph

Vorph

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Not sure I really get what it is / why people asked for it... you can recruit as many (8? or do they let you have 10 now without having to jump through a bunch of hoops?) characters as you want from the legacy pool instead of just starting with 3, and the game doesn't end when you complete the leader quest?
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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9 is the softcap, 12 is the hardcap.

Somewhat related, it looks like Undead Labs poached some senior Volition people for an office they opened up in Champaign. I saw 3 senior artists, the studio founder, and some production staff as well with LinkedIn profiles saying they started working for UL in November last year.
 
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