There are a lot of fearsome enemies in Undead Labs’ State of Decay 2, but the toughest is the mountain of flesh known as the Juggernaut. This special zombie is a massive, bloated beast that can output an insane amount of damage. Due to their tanky design, it can be tough to bring these beasts to their knees, especially for an ill-equipped survivor.
Here’s a breakdown of how to kill the Juggernaut and ensure that you don’t become zombie food.
Juggernauts are perhaps the easiest enemies to spot in State of Decay 2 thanks to their size. These ghouls tower over everything else and you can typically hear them coming thanks to their loud footsteps. However, their awareness isn’t terribly high and it’s pretty easy to sneak past one if they’re alone. Because of this, we recommend engaging Juggernauts only when you absolutely have to. You will waste a ton of ammo fighting them, especially if this monster has other zombies around him – which he almost always does.
If you do need to kill a Juggernaut we suggest using shotguns, high powered sniper rifles, and explosives. Pistols and melee weapons don’t do a ton of damage, plus it’s important to keep your distance from this zombie. The Juggernaut has a very powerful grab attack that you want to avoid at all costs. Keep an arm’s length away from him and if possible try to always stay behind him. This is only really possible with a second player or NPC who can draw the behemoth’s aggro.
For solo players, try to use explosives such as grenade’s, pipebombs, or C4. These do a ton of damage to this monster, especially if you can trigger the bomb right when they walk over it. Once the explosives go off, begin pumping shotgun rounds into his head. Make sure to backpedal if the Juggernaut is still walking. This big guy is quite fast for his size, especially if he initiates a charge attack. No matter what, always try to fight a Juggernaut outside in an open area. Fighting one indoors is suicide unless you have a height advantage on him.
After you do enough damage the Juggernaut will fall to his knees and you can execute an insta-kill move. Run up to the front of the zombie and hold RT+X to enter a small animation where your survivor climbs onto the ghoul and stabs him in the face. This only works if there’s enough space for the Juggernaut to stand with you on his back. We had a few instances where performing this move in a store or house was simply impossible. If this happens to you, just start shooting him in the head until he either dies or gets back up.
The various sniper rifles you can buy from the exotic merchant are by far the best weapons. Their accuracy is very high and you can typically drop Juggernauts from quite a safe distance. However, ammo is both expensive and hard to come by, so only use this in a pinch. Ultimately, the best strategy is to soften them up with explosives and then use a shotgun to quickly take them down. Yet, if you can avoid a fight entirely then just do that instead – they are rarely worth the trouble.