State of Decay 2 isn’t just a zombie game where you bash heads and fire off explosives for fun. Every step you take matters and contributes to your survival or imminent, permanent death.
You will find yourself in various different situations that require different combat tactics. While you can choose to use only one mode of combat as a challenge and build for your character, realistically you should bounce back and forth depending on what the situation asks for. Below is some advice on how to handle these situations and when you should use certain tactics.
9 Use Guns For Crowds
A big risk factor in State of Decay 2 is noise. The game urges you to make as little noise as possible. The smallest sound can attract a screamer nearby, who can then attract a horde of zombies, or worse, another freak. To be on the safe side, keeping track of the noise you make on the road and the passive noise your base makes is important.
But there aren’t guns in the game for no reason. There are times where you simply must use guns and they’re just fun to use anyway. One of the situations you should switch to a gun in is when there are too many zombies. Whatever your limit is on how many zombies you can melee at once, you should switch to a gun and start shooting away once that limit is hit. This helps you down zombies quickly before you get overwhelmed.
8 Your Truck Is Your Best Friend
The most fun part of the game is running over hordes of zombies with vehicles. The best option, honestly. By running over zombies you have zero risks of injuring or losing survivors. It’s also extremely satisfying.
The one thing you have to watch out for is freaks. Specifically ferals and bloaters. If you run over a bloater, it will gas your car and severely injure you and anyone inside. You’ll have to jump out and allow the car to air out. Ferals on the other hand can be run over, but it can be very hard since they will dodge your car with insane speed and can break open your car doors easily. It goes without saying that you also can’t run over a Juggernaut.
7 Utilize A Juggernaut’s Weak Spots
The most menacing type of zombie out there. Juggernauts eat bullets for breakfast and seemingly can’t be hurt. They have a few weaknesses that can help you end fights with Juggernauts quickly before more damage is done. You just have to be prepared. If you’re not stocked, maybe it’s time to run.
One of the Juggernaut’s weak spots is in his back. Make sure to aim there or at his head to deal the most damage. The next thing you need to do is only use heavy hitting weapons. Explosives and shotguns. Don’t waste pistol ammo, hit hard and hit where it hurts.When you see the Juggernaut kneeling down, seemingly for a breather, that’s your queue to insta-kill him. This animation gives you a window of time to walk up to him, press E, and stab him in the head. If you miss this window, the fight continues for longer.
6 Let Your Friend Take Feral Bait
Ferals are hard to kill. Their head isn’t in the normal location a head would be to aim at because they crawl on all fours. Not only that, but they have insane speed and can tackle you instantly. You either have to be quick and precise with your aiming or let someone be bait.
If you have a companion with you, or you’re playing with a real friend, allow the feral to attack them. By doing this, it gives you time to aim and miss shots without compromising your own health. It will be easier to shoot the feral and kill it since you’re not the one being tackled and can take the time to aim.
5 Stealth And Patience
Sometimes you will need to use stealth. Not often, but if you get yourself into a pickle a lot then stealth may be for you. You can find yourself in a situation with no bullets and low health stats. While a horde is around the corner.
If you’re looting a building quickly before you go back to recover at your base, you’ll want to stay away from danger or from getting overwhelmed. Too many zombies and too little health means you should wait out the horde or stealth your way past them.
4 Combo Your Dodge With The Insta-Kill
An extremely efficient mode of killing zombies one-off is this way. With a couple of zombies or even with just one, allow one to get close to you, run towards it and dodge through them to get behind them. Once you dodge behind them, you have to instantly turn around and press E.
When you sneak up on a zombie, you can press E to instantly kill them by stabbing their head or choking them out. When you dodge behind an already aggroed zombie, you can still perform this if you’re fast enough. This is a tactic everyone should always do since it takes zombies down in seconds.
3 Use Melee Only
Another option is only using melee. This makes way less noise which can benefit your survival. It can also be a danger to your survival if you have to melee through hordes, though. If it isn’t an overwhelming amount of zombies, melee is always the best option.
Using a gun is too quick. If combat is one of your favorite parts of games, using only melee will be better for you. It allows you to practice techniques that will help in overwhelming situations and it feels more satisfying since you’re doing a bunch of moves instead of clicking a button.
2 Take Down Screamers First
If you see a screamer in a location you need to be, it needs to go down first. For instance, if you’re clearing out an infested house, ignore every zombie and go for the screamer.
Screamers will attract more zombies. That’s their job. If you start mowing down zombies and leaving screamers for last, the horde will never end. They will keep calling more enemies until you become overwhelmed and unable to attack. This will lead to a survivor’s death! They are also just annoying and if you’re close to them while they scream, you become stunned.
1 Kill Bloaters Before They Even See You
Bloaters are the most passive type of zombie and the most annoying in State of Decay 2. If they spot you, they don’t even run, they just sludge on by until they fart and injure you from the gas. What’s annoying about them is how they will be lying down doing nothing. They are green and therefore camouflage most of the time. You’ll find yourself accidentally running over them more times than you’d like.
The moment you notice a bloater, shoot it before it gets close or before you get close. Sometimes your companion will shout about seeing a bloater or you can see its icon on the map to know for sure if you have a hard time spotting them yourself. The gas they emit is very toxic and will put a survivor on their death bed before you even make it to your objective.
