Tips for State of Decay Year-One Survival Edition

State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition isn’t a hard game to get the hang of, but it’s not easy, either. Players will be able to move around and learn the controls in a few minutes, but there are finer points that can throw you off if you’re not careful. Luckily, we stumbled into some of these concepts, so rather than leave you hanging out to dry, we figured we’d share a few of our tips to make your journey through the zombie apocalypse easier.

Explore the Map

Exploring is a huge part of State of Decay, especially after you leave the Ranger Station. That’s when you’ll be asked to explore some of the sites scattered about the area, and there are some pretty cool things to find that aren’t marked on your map. We’re not going to spoil this with a list of goods, but we can tell you there’s a at least one gun, and you definitely want to wander past the public rest rooms, following the winding road down to a few cabins.

Searching for Supplies

The HUD (Heads Up Display) in State of Decay will play a huge role in your effectiveness when searching for supplies. For example, when you fully search and pick through a site marked on your map, that site will get crossed out. This lets you know there’s no reason to return to that location. On the other hand, if you have yet to search a site, it might show up with question marks when you get close, or it might tell you what type of supplies are there if you’ve searched it in the past, but didn’t have room in your inventory to carry everything back to base. Keep an eye on your map and HUD to cut down on trial and error.

Inventory Management

At least in the early stages of the game, you won’t be able to carry a lot of supplies, so it’s important to make sure you stay on top of your inventory management. To do this, press Up on the d-pad of your controller. You’ll want to look out for things such as duplicate melee weapons (which aren’t a bad thing), since you’ll want to drop the weaker, less effective option in favor of picking up an item that you need even more. If your melee weapon is about to break, why not slaughter a few zombies to get as much usefulness from it, then switch to the better one?

The Pros and Cons of Vehicles

Vehicles are great for the most part, since zombies are largely ineffective against them, and you can just drive right past (or over) the undead. The problem is the noise they make, as this will draw every zombie in the world (literally, the entire world) to your location. In fact, we’re pretty sure they respawn nearby when you’re in a truck or car. This is problematic if you decide to drive right to the location of your next objective. You’re eventually going to have to get out, and chances are you’ll get swarmed. If the journey is short, consider walking, and if it’s far, consider parking a short distance away.

Safe Zones – Don’t Believe the Hype

Safe Zones are relatively safe, as in there usually aren’t any zombies around, but we’ve been attacked in our base, as well as in other zones that our map informed us were clear. Just because the game tells you it’s safe doesn’t mean that a zombie can’t spot you from outside the zone and wander inside. No matter where you are or how many times you’ve been there before, take a moment to survey the situation before moving in. If there are one or two stragglers in the area, take them out quietly so you don’t stir up the hornet’s nest.

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.