If the zombie apocalypse happens it’s vital that society tries to rebuild in the aftermath of the undead coating the planet. This is true for the new open world game – State of Decay 2 – that tasks players with managing a community of survivors. While it’s important to manage your supplies and address the needs of your growing band of humans, you’ll eventually need to expand. This is done by obtaining plots of land that are scattered throughout the world and declaring certain locations as “safe areas.” Here’s a breakdown of how to pick the best Outposts and what ones you should grab first.
What is an Outpost?
For the unfamiliar, almost any building that can be explored can be converted into an Outpost. These locations are not bases and cannot be upgraded with facilities. Instead, any controlled location will permanently make the building and area around it safe. Players can visit this location to either change their characters or drop/pick up supplies. The only thing that cannot be stored at this location safely are rucksacks, which must be manually deposited at your base.
Finally, Outposts will give a player’s community daily resources based on what that location can actually produce. Some areas will only give food while others offer up a mix of different resources. Players can see what resources they will collect by examining the building either in the mini-map or by the white flag inside the actual structure. Houses are the only unique type of Outpost, as they give beds instead of consumable resources.
What are the Best Outposts?
When picking an Outpost to purchase you will need to consider the following two factors:
- What the Outpost offers
- Where the Outpost is located
In State of Decay 2, each area is divided up into a series of different cities, suburbs, and towns. As the game goes on you’ll need to make longer and longer drives in order to reach areas that haven’t been searched. Because of your limited inventory space, this means you’ll have to make a lot of drives back and forth to your base. It’s critical to have an Outpost in at least every major town on the map. Not only will this provide a safe haven, but allow you to increase your productiveness when looting.
Remember to tailor the Outposts you acquire early on to support the needs of your community. If you’re having trouble locating meds then turn a pharmacy into an Outpost or a restaurant if food is running low. For those that are obtaining a solid supply of resources across the board we recommend focusing on anything that provides fuel or medicine first. These are two of the most used resources in the game. Rucksacks of medicine are also good trading material and occasionally needed to finish NPC quests.
Your own community will also have troubles that use up resources, regardless of what’s happening. The two most common are a waste of food or meds, so having Outposts to balance out this eventual loss is quite helpful. Building Materials was the only thing we didn’t need an Outpost for because they aren’t consumed daily and State of Decay 2 is littered with these rucksacks.