Five Essential Resources in State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition

State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition has plenty of objectives to complete, but it won’t take players long to realize that the main story missions are almost an afterthought. We’ve been on the same mission for quite some time, scavenging houses for supplies instead of running straight to our objective and completing it.

The thing is, you have to do that. You have to think about what your base needs to survive, and not just about how to progress the story. You have to walk into a house and decide what you’re going to carry and what you’ll leave behind.  Sometimes those decisions aren’t the easiest, but today we’re going to help you understand the five essential resources in State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition, and how they can help you stay alive.

Food

This is obviously one of the more important resources, but luckily it’s one of the easiest of the five to find. It comes in many different shapes and sizes, and for the most part players should have no trouble keeping their base well fed in the early stages. For example, while exploring one house over from the Church, we were able to find a Rucksack full of Food, which is about eight rations and more than what we needed to keep everyone full for a day. Keep tabs on how much Food your base consumes so you know when you’ll need to get more.

Medicine

While important, Medicine is the second most common resource of the five. Sick or injured members of your base will use one unit of Medicine per day, and it’s not uncommon to find it in homes, warehouses and of course, a hospital. Each time you loot a Medical item, it should provide about three to six units of Medicine. If it’s six, you can expect to keep one injured member of your base supplied for six days. If you have six injured members, that’s enough Medicine for one day. We think you get the idea.

Ammunition

Working out how much Ammunition you need is far more complicated than how many survivors you have at your base, so rather than try to explain that, we’ll help you find it. For starters, you can get some in houses, but your best bet is military stashes, gun shops and even warehouses. The key is making sure you have the right type of Ammunition for your weapon. We’ve made this mistake in the past, so try to ensure you can successfully load your weapon before setting out on your next journey into a hoard of zombies.

Materials

This is one of the rarest of the five resources, and you’re definitely going to need it if you want to do things like upgrade your home or move to a new one. To find materials, focus on construction sites and warehouses, noting that each Rucksack full of Materials will increase your stockpile by 15. If you wish to move to a new home (from your starting site of the Church), you’ll need at least 30 materials, as the next smallest site is the Kirkman Residence. The largest home site is the Trumbull County Fairgrounds, and that requires 50 Materials. Use them wisely.

Fuel

Last and quite frankly least, we’ll talk about Fuel. It’s valuable in that it can be used for explosives, but it is never automatically consumed like the other resources, meaning that players are always in control of how much they have and how much they will use. Still, if you want to find it, your best bet is to check a gas station or warehouse, and the Rucksack will bring five barrels of Fuel back to your base. With the Lifeline DLC (included in the Year-One Survival Edition), players can use Fuel to put Propane Tanks around the base to defend against zombies.

Of course, as you’re running about trying to gather up all of these supplies, you might want read up on some of our State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition combat tips, or if you’re a returning player from the Xbox 360 version, see how you can transfer your data to the Xbox One.

If you’re looking to get your hands on all of our State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition content in one place, visit our State of Decay guide and become the ultimate survivor.