State of Decay 2

State of Decay 2

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SoD2 Tips and 100% Achievement Guide (or how I learned to love the comfy post-apocalypse)
By Shindragan
A guide organizing the achievements to give you an idea on how to 100% the game, includes free tips and links to sources you might find handy. Welcome Home.
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Introduction


Welcome achievement hunters!

I love hunting for achievements on games that are "me" and State of Decay is right down my alley.
Postapocalyptic shooting, looting, base building, permadeath, mysterious AI, oof! so many qualities!

The juggernaut edition comes with all current existent DLCs including the big ones: Heartland and Daybreak which each has its own little game space and achievements.

As for the walkthrough or gameplay its fairly easy, you get story missions and side objectives, when you exit the game it might take a minute or two for the missions to re-appear on your map.

The exception to the above is enclave missions in the main campaign story that, if ignored long enough, will disappear forever but dont worry, another enclave will move in after a while but the previous enclave might stay permanently hostile to you.

However, some missions have multiple checkpoints and if you exit the game, you will have to start the whole mission over which is supper annoying if you have to drive to four different places all over the map, drive to 2, decide to take a break for lunch, come back and find out you have to start all over again.

You will have to play Heartland one and a half times, since some survivors can only be recruited in a specific story: Keesha for Quincy's story and Brock for Larisse's story and Quincy/Larisse has also an specific achievement tied to what they can each build at base. There is also a choice between Isaac and Vic after surviving a siege at home base an hour or so into the story.

As for difficulty, it does matter for achievements but you can change difficulty mid game with a few rules, so do check out the section I wrote below warning about it.

If achievements wont unlock for you, try reconnecting your steam and xbox accounts by going to multiplayer (bottom left at the main menu) and clicking on managing account link, then exit the game and restart it, achievements should unlock as you go into the main menu again.

If you have trouble with the linking of steam-ms accounts, try resetting yoour credentials like instructed here: https://gtm.you1.cn/app/495420/discussions/0/3100105230746020366/

If you have a question or you have a comment that can improve the guide please leave a comment below.

Alright then!
Lets get started!

Edit: Thank you for the awards! 🙂
Campaign Story Info
Achievements will be naturally unlocked as you progress the game, some are affected by difficulty so check the next section on how to change difficulties to find out what you keep and lose when doing so or.. you know, you can start a brand new game in Nightmare and have fun.

Story Progression
To finish a campaign you need to destroy ALL plague hearts in your territory, choose a Leader and when that's done, finish the Leader's Legacy mission.

Each character has a leader trait out of four (Warlord, Trader, Sheriff and Builder) they are randomly assigned and then you choose one of these characters as a leader, its leader trait will unlock the Legacy final missions.

You can read more about legacies and their bonuses here:
https://state-of-decay-2.fandom.com/wiki/Legacy_Boons

As for plague hearts, in most playthroughs there will be already marked down in your map, if they aren't, I suggest finding a Survey car and roam the main roads looking for them, a drone that you can unlock with the last command center upgrade will also help with this.

Final Mission and New Game +
Right before the final mission, the game will ask you if you are ready to finish the campaign since when you finish a campaign, the community (map save file) will be deleted, you will lose everything in your base and world except for all your survivors and all the gear they can carry (rucksacks included) but you can only choose up to 3 survivors for the next playthrough, the rest of the survivors will be there in a community pool.

So the general idea is to reach the final mission, load up the 3 survivors you want for the next playthrough with everything you want then start the game.

When you plan to go for [Over the Rainbow] and [Tried and Tested] you should plan your four playthroughs accordingly including which type of leader you have already done and which type of leader you want for Nightmare Legacy missions.

Vehicles
The car is your most valuable friend in State of Decay 2, I miss mowing down hordes as easy as in SoD 1 but its alright, if you like that playstyle you can sacrifice some base options to make your car more sturdy with the autoshop facility but in general, the car will break down easy if you just crash into every zed you see.

Although, I read that if you hit them in reverse, with the back of your car, the damage wont be as bad.

I strongly suggest you bring at least an extra gas cas and repair kit, you never know when you could get stranded out there.

I preferred light and fast vehicles the best, even if they only had four inventory spaces, getting quick where I wanted to go was more important to me than bringing back 2 or 3 extra rucksacks.

Weapons
The best weapons can be found in weapon cases and each map has a predefined spot where you can find these. Check out this link: https://state-of-decay-2.fandom.com/wiki/Weapon_Cases

The images in the link, the maps, will tell you where the best loot is in your map, most of these cases are hidden behind rocks or inside shipping containers, some you need to climb on something to get to it.

Tried and Tested Achievement
Tried and Tested
Complete the legacy arcs for all four leader types while in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone.

This one gets its own section since its a big one.
I suggest you tackle these legacy arcs in a certain order and by gathering strong survivors and equipment from playthrough to playthrough.

Since you can bring 3 survivors from run to run, your first playthrough should be focused on something easy that gives you good survivors and rare gear.

I suggest you opt out of starting with the normal survivors and getting random ones instead (even though Im not sure its possible if its your first time), the thing is, rolling the dice can get you good survivors with great traits and quirks like Driving, Fishing, Lichenology, etc. (see: https://state-of-decay-2.fandom.com/wiki/Quirk_Skills)

If you can grind Daybreak for a day, you can get a Red Talon Survivor which is one of the best survivor builds out there.(See: https://state-of-decay-2.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Talon_Contractors)

Also to get the best weapons, you can grind weapon cases spots (see: https://state-of-decay-2.fandom.com/wiki/Weapon_Cases), check the loot maps in the link.

Now lets talk about the legacies, if you get a legacy in Dread mode, the legacy wont be useful in Nightmare mode so you have two choices:
1)Play in Nightmare mode from the start
2)Play in Nightmare mode without any Legacy

I suggest the 2nd one, legacies are super useful but not as useful as playing some missions in Dread instead of Nightmare.

Check the Next section for more info on how to tackle this achievement.
Nightmare mode and Changing Difficulty Mid Game
Difficulty
Nightmare mode might sound super difficult but its more annoying than hard.

The hordes are very unforgiving and are everywhere but with a couple of good survivors you shouldn't have problems tackling this mode.

You will also have extra base AND item crafting costs, morale penalties, more zed siege threat, increased effect of plague and damage on your survivors, more hearts, human enemies often headshot you, less loot, less vehicles.

In nightmare everything above is extra but also your survivors eat more, ferals travel in pack of 3 (which will probably get you killed if you dont have an energy drink to outrun them), the XP gains are penalized, you wont be able to take a dump without some zed hearing you and humans will headshot you within seconds.

You can read more about difficulty here:
https://state-of-decay-2.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty_Options

Red Talons and New Game+
But all is not lost! You can bring your best 3 survivors from previous playthroughs and all their gear (rucksacks included) into the run you plan for Nightmare.

The best survivors are from the Red Talon company which you can purchase with prestige points which you can get from playing Daybreak mode.


Red Talon survivors have amazing abilities, in fact, their four core traits are so special than when you max them out, they have ALL the abilities of all four core traits specializations making them the best survivors in the game. As for their quirk trait, the ones with Infrastructure and Hacking are the best in my opinion. When you recruit a Red Talon Operative, their quirk trait will be random but you can dismiss the operative if you dont like this trait (you can see his trait if you choose to Learn about Survivor) then dismiss him/her to get your prestige points refunded.

A survivor with Lichenology, Fishing or Recycling are also great picks.
Check out a full list of them here: https://state-of-decay-2.fandom.com/wiki/Quirk_Skills

Human Enemies
Nightmare Humans enemies are lethal, the only easy way to kill them is with headshots or lots of explosives, they have tons of health otherwise and they can go down like six or seven times until they finally die. So yeah, try to headshot these bozos, bring a red talon or someone with gunslinger so you can aim for the head more easily.

You might want to attract hordes of zeds to their base but be mindful that once a zed sees you, he will ignore everything else to get you, even if there is another human nearby shooting shotguns around its face. Having both zeds trying to eat you AND humans trying to blow your head off is super dangerous but its a viable option. A car honk might be handy here.

Since humans are so deadly, I feel like the Builder legacy is the easiest Legacy to finish up in Nightmare mode since the final mission involves killing a small group inside your base where everyone can help you.

Next is the Trader's, since you also have backup in the final fight and its potentially the only fight if you do the legacy mission. This is the legacy I suggest you use for Nightmare mode.

The Warlord mission will take you around town threatening or fighting with enclaves with only a follower as backup.

But the Sheriff final battle is the worst you have to fight 6 enemies at once instead of the usual 3 without backup, sure, if you kill the leader the rest will stop, but its really hard to find him among all the rest.


For my recommendation: Dread Builder->Dread Warlord->Dread Sheriff->Nightmare Trader

Or you can switch Builder for Trader, Dread Trader will give you 4k influence at the start of a Dread Zone and leave Nightmare Builder for the end, which is the easiest legacy to finish.

Changing Difficulty
Once you have your survivors ready, you can start a nightmare mode OR to make it easier, start the game in Dread mode instead then change the difficulty mid game.

When you change difficulty you keep:
  • Stash
  • Survivors & their gear
  • Influence
  • Resources
  • Parked Cars

Map gets reset so you lose:
  • Your base (You get sent back to the default one, you DO NOT get refunded)
  • Your enclaves
  • Your plague hearts
  • Your outposts

Be careful when changing to a higher difficulty, survivors eat more, facilities cost more.
There are a ton of plague hearts so I recommend you bring a lot of explosives (I loved C4)

Since the map gets reset you can farm rare loot gun cases this way as well as military outposts.

https://youtu.be/0QYVeTS6kfs
Plague Hearts

Plague Hearts look very difficult to handle but with some smart moves, you can learn how to kill them quickly.

Just remember that after the plague heart loses a certain amount of health it will explode with a gas that WILL permanently injure you and give you a lot of plague IF you stay near it, it will also call for help (and spawn some zeds nearby) so run away when it starts to explode.

You can tell its about to go off when it lights up and gets bigger like in the picture above.

One strategy to kill a plague heart is to sneak into the plague heart house, kill the 4 plague zombies that spawn in there, put some remote detonated explosives, wail on it until its about to explode for the first time and RUN!

Detonate the explosives from a safe distance. 2 or 3 C4 explosives should do.

You can also snipe the heart with a good weapon, but its very tricky since the heart must be in the line of sight through a window or something. A BFG that you can buy from 1500 influence should do the trick in two shots but be ready to run because they are super loud.

Another way is to establish an outpost nearby if you can, the zeds cant spawn inside a safe zone, so you can just wail on it like its shown in the video.

https://youtu.be/9RGQnlhmm44

Want to share your plague heart strategy or video? leave it in the comments :)

♡ 𝓡𝓮𝓮𝓶 ريم ♡ suggests:
I use 3 Grenades and it kill the plague heart super fast , just don't throw all of your nades fast :D one after it explode another and another
Anti-PlagueHeart tactics
Submitted by ZeroGman
I find the cheapest and easiest way to kill a Plague Heart is 4 pipe bombs (I bring 6 just in case I suck) and one of those remote boombox lures.

Step 1: Clear spawned zombies in building.
Step 2: Place remote boombox outside of building on the opposite side of where you'll be.
Step 3: Toss 1 pipe bomb (or whatever explosive you use) at plague heart
Step 4: Trigger remote boombox
Step 5: Toss the rest of your explosives while crouched at plague heart to kill it.
Step 6: Sneak out of building unless you feel like being mobbed.
Storyline Achievements (Main Campaign)
You will unlock these as you finish the campaign, some are tied to difficulty level.

The flow is: Choose map->Choose Leader->Kill all hearts->Finish Leader Legacy Missions

Map achievements
You will get these as soon as you establish your first base on the map.


The Forest for the Trees
Claim a base on the Providence Ridge map.


Dam Fine Territory
Claim a base on the Cascade Hills map.


Tilting at Windmills
Claim a base on the Meagher Valley map.


Ten Thousand Gallon Hat
Claim a base on the Drucker County map.

Difficulty Achievements


Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Enter a Dread Zone.


Rage Against the Dying of the Light
Enter a Nightmare Zone.


Over the Rainbow
Complete a legacy arc while in a Nightmare Zone.


The First Hurdle
Destroy a plague heart in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone.


Peerless
Kill all plague hearts in a single Nightmare Zone.


Throw Your Love Around
Reach maximum morale while in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone.

Tried and Tested
Complete the legacy arcs for all four leader types while in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone.

Electing a Leader achievements
You can elect a leader, then demote him (she/he will only lose Hero status) then elect another.


Nice Moves There
Elect a Sheriff as the Leader of your Community.


Mediocre!
Elect a Warlord as the Leader of your Community.


Can We Fix It? Yes We Can!
Elect a Builder as the Leader of your Community.


Doctor Terminus
Elect a Trader as the Leader of your Community.

Leader Facilities
These can only be built in Big Slots while you have a certain leader type enabled.
You dont have to build these in all legacy missions but you should, since, you know, its there.


Mercy Hospital
Build the Field Hospital facility at your base. (Sheriff)


Enemy at the Gates
Build the Sniper Tower facility at your base. (Builder)


Citizens First and Solders Second
Build the Armory facility at your base. (Warlord)


Who Runs Bartertown?
Build the Trade Depot facility at your base. (Trader)

Plague Hearts Achievements
*Heartland DLC has Hearts too, not 100% sure they count, but Im pretty sure they do.


Heart of Darkness
Destroy a Plague Heart.


What We Do in the Shadows
Destroy a Plague Heart at night.


These Dreams
Destroy 5 Plague Hearts.


Total Eclipse
Destroy every Plague Heart in your Territory.

*Depending on difficulty, you might have to destroy from 6 up to 18 hearts in a run.

Legacy Achievements
Just complete a game to get its legacy.


I Am the Law
Complete a campaign with the Sheriff's Legacy.


Be Still My Dog of War
Complete a campaign with the Warlord's Legacy.


If You Build It, They Will Come
Complete a campaign with the Builder's Legacy.


Speedy Delivery
Complete a campaign with the Trader's Legacy.

Other


The Next Generation
Start a new Campaign with Survivors from a completed one.
Chores and Killing Achievements
Most of these counters carry from playthrough to playthrough unless its specified.

Easy ones


Toothpaste Piñatas
Search 10 Containers.


No Stone Unturned
Search 100 Containers.


Breach and Clear
Secure 5 Sites by exploring every room and killing every zombie.


Every Piece of Trash in Town
Secure 25 Sites by exploring every room and killing every zombie.


Sorry for Party Rocking
Destroy an Infestation.


The Purge
Destroy 10 Infestations.


I Got You a Pony
Deliver a Rucksack to your Storage Facility.


I Got You a Pack Mule
Deliver 50 Rucksacks to your Storage Facility.


Welcome to the Jungle
Recruit a new Survivor to your Community.

*You can recruit a new survivor in the main campaign by doing side missions for enclaves or stray survivors, when you get an enclave to Allied, you can recruit ONE of their members, the rest will leave town. Use the Learn More about Survivor option to pick the best one.


No More Strangers
Earn enough Standing to promote a Recruit to Citizen.


Gotta be Larger than Life
Earn enough Standing to promote a Citizen to Hero.


Bring the Brouhaha
Cause a commotion while searching a Container.


Construction Complete
Build a Facility at your Base.


Paradise City
Build 10 Facilities at your Base.


Through a Glass Darkly
Survey 5 Sites with your Binoculars.


Silent Cartographer
Survey 50 Sites with your Binoculars.


Friendship is Magic
Work with 5 Enclaves to make them your Allies.


Can Buy Me Love
Earn Influence by selling 10 items to Enclaves.


Black Friday
Spend Influence to buy 10 items from Enclaves.


Sayonara
Have a Survivor within your Community die.


Holding Down the Couch
Switch to a different Survivor when you become Fatigued.

*When your character has the Zzz symbol on their blue stamina bar, talk to another survivor and switch characters, you can also get it if you do this from the survivor roster, I believe.


Call Me Any Anytime
Call in a Radio Command.

*You can open the radio by opening your inventory then pressing the appropriate key.


Citizen Z
Call in 25 Radio Commands.


Rucks in Trucks
Transfer an item from a vehicle's inventory directly into your base.

*With the trunk open, look in the bar below to see which button you need to press to instantly transfer items from the trunk or your inventory into the stash.

Killing Achievements


Flash Mob
Destroy a Horde.


Crowd Control
Destroy 25 Hordes.


Blind Justice
Kill a Feral.


Barley and Spoiled Blueberries
Kill a Bloater.


From the Top of My Lungs
Kill 4 Screamers.


Glutton for Punishment
Kill a Juggernaut.


No Gut, No Glory
Kill a blood plague juggernaut.


Piggyback Ride
Finish off a Juggernaut with a melee execution.

*After the Jugg stumbles for the 3rd time, it will take a knee, quickly run to it and press the button to melee execute it.


Fly Your Freak Flag
Earn 1000 Influence from killing freaks.


Puppies and Kittens
Kill 100 Zombies.


Walkers and Biters
Kill 1,000 Zombies.


Others and Wights
Kill 10,000 Zombies.

*These 3 counters are active across playthroughs but I read kills made by followers or friends in co-op do not count. Best way to grind this is to drive around killing hordes with a sturdy vehicle and lots of kits.

Kiffaz reports you can get this while playing Daybreak.


Road Warrior
Kill 50 Zombies with your car door.


Am I the Only One Zen Around Here?
Kill X plague zombies with crossbows. (50)


Difficulty Based Achievements
Close Call
Destroy an XL Horde (a large horde with two Screamers and a Feral) while in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone.


Is There No One Else
Destroy 100 hordes in Dread Zones or Nightmare Zones.


Welcome to the Dread Zone!
Have a survivor within your community die while playing in a Dread Zone.


Enjoying Your Stay?
Have three survivors within your community die in a Dread Zone or Nightmare Zone.


Called for Backup
Play in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone with another human being.

*Host or Join Multiplayer


Pound of Flesh
Craft a case of bulk plague cure while in a Dread Zone or Nightmare Zone.

*You can do this in the Infirmary.

Blood Farmer
Extract 20 plague samples from plague juggernauts in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone.

*You dont need to get the kill, your other survivors can kill it.
You only need to pick up the package.


True Grit
Survive until Day 100 while in a Dread Zone or a Nightmare Zone.

*Building a stable community is really easy with the right facilities and outposts, equipping your survivors with good weapons is a must to survive heavy sieges, I like assault rifles and BFGs.

Twiggy The Giraffe reports: It turns out the answer is no, joining a MP game will NOT reset the True Grit achievement if the player joining you is playing on Green Zone. As long as it's not YOU, the host, who is playing on Green Zone at any given time (don't switch to Nightmare or Standard either!), you should be fine and the achievement will not lock. c:

Lethal Update
With the new steam update, we have the new Lethal Difficulty achievements.
Luckily for us, we dont have to fight humans or finish the story to 100% this new update.
Unluckily, this mode is really, really hard.
So i suggest you bring your best survivors packed with your best weapons to this one since you need to kill a Lethal difficulty Plague heart AND juggernaut.


Bless Me Now With Your Fierce Tears
Begin a session with minimum difficulty set to Lethal.

IF you are not getting this one when you make your first settlement, there is something wrong with your link to your microsoft account, go out to the main menu and go to multiplayer to restore it.
I have a section around here about it if you continue having trouble.


Lilac and Spoiled Gooseberries
Kill 25 blood plague bloaters.

Bloaters are found every minute or so if you stick to the main roads, you will achieve this one while looking for the Jugger or the heart.


Retrieve Biomass
Kill a plague heart with minimum difficulty set to Lethal.

Plague hearts are very common in this difficulty and you can find them straight away on Day 1.
If you are having trouble locating one, use the radio.
Best way to kill this one is using nightmare mode tactics, or cheese it by sniping from the top of a car if found in a location with lots of windows like a gas station or small shop/building.


Barbershop Quartet
Kill one each of the four blood plague freaks with minimum difficulty set to Lethal.

Every freak but the Juggernaut can be found straight away on Day 1, for the Jugger, you might need to wait until the start of Day 2 for them to show up. I found my first jugger right outside my base after my first night, heck, it wasn't even daylight yet on Day 2 and he was there.
Specialization and Bounty Broker
Specialization
You get these when you get enough XP in a specific core skill to get it MAXXED, go into your character screen and level it up into an specialization to unlock the achievement.


I Ran So Far Away
Choose a Specialization for the Cardio skill.


Knowing is Half the Battle
Choose a Specialization for the Wits skill.


Wax On, Wax Off
Choose a Specialization for the Fighting skill.


Short Controlled Bursts
Choose a Specialization for the Shooting skill.




The Game is Afoot
Accept a bounty from the Bounty Broker.

*The Bounty Broker is always marked at the center of your map, go there, talk to him and accept a bounty.


It Looks Good on You, Though
Unlock an outfit by completing a bounty from the Bounty Broker.


Bounty Collector
Complete 5 bounties for the Bounty Broker.


Collect 'Em All
Complete 25 bounties for the Bounty Broker.
Special Achievements

War Rig
Use the Auto Shop to create an armor upgrade and apply it to a vehicle.

*Crafting upgrades cost a bunch of material resources and parts, be mindful of your base running
out of material resources when crafting these! Apply the key by visiting the parking spot of the car you want to upgrade.


Men Without Hats
Shoot the helmet off an Armored Zombie.

*Just shoot the zombie in the head several times until it comes off.


Should Have Read the Warning Label
Contract blood plague by using a plague consumable.

*You can craft or buy these, its specially easy with Issac in Heartland.
Some have long timers but since your plague level wont decrease easily, its fine.


New Lease on Life
Use a training manual to retrain a specialization.

*Every Friday and Sunday, you might get a visit from a Mysterious Trader in the main campaign.
He appears randomly on those days (real life friday and sunday) and sells retraining books for 1500 influence. Buy one of these books and switch to a character who has already an specialization, the book will enable him/her to retrain the specialization.


Sie sind das Essen und wir sind
Shoot off a Flare (or volunteer to help someone who does).

*Join a multiplayer game (heartland or base) or host one.
You can host one by having hosting enabled, going to the radio and ask for help.


88 Miles Per Hour
Hit top speed while driving a Road Racer and wearing any puffy vest from the Closet.

Howdy Howdy Howdy
Kill 3 zombies in 3 seconds with a revolver, while wearing any cowboy hat from the Closet.

*The hardest part for this achievement is finding a cowboy hat, you will eventually find them while you loot places, I found three of them while looting houses, so I think houses has a higher chance of giving you a cowboy hat. The revolver (not pistol) I found from a plague heart, you can probably get one from the Bounty Broker faster than letting the RNG give you one.
https://youtu.be/-qgB8KaZyVU
Heartland Achievements
Survivor Recruiting Achievements


The City-Raised Farmer
Recruit Malik into your Heartland community


The Last Soldier
Recruit Captain Logan into your Heartland community


The Eager Inventor
Recruit Keesha into your Heartland community

*If you play as Quincy, you get Ray story and Keesha, if you play Larisse, you get Nat story and Brock.
You cant have both in a single run.


The Crafty Scoundrel
Recruit Brock into your Heartland community


The Desperate Husband
Recruit Vic into your Heartland community

*Again, if you get Vic you wont be able to get Issac and viceversa.
You cant have both in a single run.


The Mournful Father
Recruit Isaac into your Heartland community


The Lonely Survivor
Recruit Chavez into your Heartland community

*Chavez will appear after fighting the unexpected siege at your base.
Chavez can be found northwest of the plane crash, inside a cave, he should radio you for help if you are nearby.


The Grumpy Hunter
Recruit Reba into your Heartland community

*Reba will appear around the same time as Chavez, she is in a house on your way to the Wilkerson's Enclave (Northeast of your base)


The Shy Maker
Recruit Diana into your Heartland community

*Diana will be recruited after you help her once near a farm barn in the middle bottom of the map and the next time near the East bridge out of Marshall. Some people say this should be done before you destroy the plague wall at the plane. You should get a call while near those places.


The Helpful Hacker
Recruit IzzBee into your Heartland community

*She is the last survivor you will probably recruit and appears near spencer's mill after the plague wall on the plan is gone.


Full House
Recruit 8 different survivors in a single game of Heartland.

Recruit everyone listed above (except the one or the other guys), you get the idea.
Lixo_SLB reports that it doesnt matter if they die after recruitment and you would still get it.


Such Wonderful Toys
Use the Weapons Depot to craft all four of the Network weapons in Heartland.

*You can only do this one with Quincy as a starter survivor in your base.


Max Would Be Proud
Use the Vehicle Depot to craft and use all three vehicle upgrade kits.

*You can only do this one with Larisse as a starter survivor in your base.


Two Heartlands Beat As One
Play Heartland in multiplayer as the host or client


Heartlandia
Complete Heartland while playing alone

*[After you complete the game, It doesn't restore a last checkpoint, it just revives the last wall and puts you nearby, it wont delete anything else]


How Red Was Our Valley
Complete Heartland as the host or client in multiplayer

*Ask for help just before killing the final plague wall, once other players join, finish it together and this will unlock. Plague walls get extra health the more players there are.


Plot Armor
Complete Heartland with both of your starting survivors alive


Trumbull Valley Choir
Kill 25 plague screamers in Heartland


Hunting the Hunters
Kill 25 blood ferals in Heartland


They Grow 'Em Big Around Here
Kill 25 blood juggs in Heartland


Tear Down That Wall
Destroy a plague wall in Heartland

*There are 5 plague walls in a single game, its story related.


The Walls Came Tumbling Down
Destroy 20 plague walls in Heartland

*Because there are only 5 walls in the game, you will need to replay the last battle several times to grind this one (or do multiple story runs), not sure if a multiplayer wall kill counts but is highly probable.

Heartland Achievements (Cont.)

Undeadly Efficiency
Kill 10 or more enemies with a single plague buster

You get plague busters near the end of the game, once you have one, go where lots of zeds are, piss them off and get on a car, their screams will attract more and more, once its ready, wham!


CLEO Can You Hear Me?
Complete 10 CLEO sieges using the CLEO relay in Heartland

*Izzbee will let you build the CLEO relay in your base


Heal Thyself
Use plague cure on your own survivor 100 times in Heartland


Playing Doctor
Use plague cure on another survivor 100 times in Heartland

* You can do both Heal Thyself and this achievement at the same time if you do this method.
When you administer a cure to a follower, it will count both for Playing Doctor and Heal Thyself.

Its been reported you dont need to be fully infected, just being able to use the cure to remove any % of infection works.

So, the best use of 100 plague cures is to switch to your follower and then let him administer the cure to your main.

But to get 100 plague cure needs a lot of time and influence so here are some tips:
  • Get Izbee to get that sweet, sweet influence gain through making parts, if you can speed it up with a mod, even better.
  • The still facility also gave me a lot of money but slower by using the extra food.
  • CLEO drops have rucksacks and great guns you can sell.

Now, with that influence, buy plague samples from the Doc and Vic/Isaac, if you are desperate you can buy cures too. Get a Lvl 3 farm converted to meds so you can make normal cures, you will need 100 of them for these achievements.

Once you have the cure, just grind at a plague wall like I did, its important for the wall to be around a huge safe space so you can grind in peace. Check out the video below, skip a little ahead so you can see that you can alternate between two characters to make it faster and faster.

The grind should take around 50 minutes if you havent used cures at all.
https://youtu.be/gBJ6MlalkKY

Shots in the Dark
Find all six different Echo Labs guns in Heartland during a single playthrough as the host

* The Echo series guns can only be found in abandoned military outposts, med tents or roadblocks, they are usually in rectangular green/dark blue crates but they can be sometimes found in other containers like wooden crates and shipping containers.

You will find most of them in Marshall on the east side where the military setup a big operation against the plague walls but failed.

The guns spawn in the crates at random, sometimes you might find 3 echo pistols in a row but I am pretty sure there is a very high chance you can find all the guns in a single run, the game keeps track of what you are left and will give you the last gun in the last place you look, well, this is not confirmed but its my theory after I read about what other people were saying in reddit and the forums.

If you want, you can stash all the guns you have found instead of selling them, people say they get it even though they sold some of them though, other people say it will improve your chances of finding them all if you keep them.

If you are still missing a gun, make 100% sure you looked in all the known locations shown in this video @ 0:50, you might have missed one.
https://youtu.be/RufIydXWWmo
Daybreak Achievements
Daybreak is a game mode where you have to defend a techie from being overrun by the horde.
Its a very challenging mode and I have to admit Im not very good at it.

Best played with friends, this mode is all about not panicking and good use of resources and roles.
I dont have many tips to offer but if you do, leave a comment below, I will make a section with tips if needed.

Aesyle reports:
One of the latest updates changed quite a lot about it.
Max Prestige you can now hold is 99.999. Used to be 9999. That's tenfold increase.
Prestige reward was doubled. Now, when i finish 7th wave, I get about 1900 Prestige total.
Used to be where you got about 800-900 only.
The rewards system has been made faster, giving you one extra reward of lower tiers after you complete wave 7 and havent finished earlier wave rewards.

Normal Achievements


Get Used to Disappointment
Allow the technician to die during a session of Daybreak.


Green Talon
Fail during the first wave in a session of Daybreak.


Human Contact
Play Daybreak with another human being.

*You need to HOST a game to unlock this one. Check your multiplayer options in the Settings while inside the Daybreak session to enable random people to join.

Done in a Single Game


Head to Toe So Player
Allow 24 bags of dropped items to accumulate on the ground.

*You can drop bullets one at a time to make this done right quick.


That was it? This is easy.
Survive to the second wave in a session of Daybreak.


Time's Up
Survive to the fourth wave in a session of Daybreak.


The Infinite Sea
Survive to the sixth wave in a session of Daybreak.


Be My Bodyguard
Reach the third wave in a session of Daybreak without the technician taking damage.


The Moral High Ground is Mine
Reach the fourth wave in a session of Daybreak without any player using guns.

*If you play in single player (or less than 4 human PCs), NPCs firing their weapon do not count against this achievement. So, the AI firing guns is fine. Using explosives instead of guns will make this easier.


Conservation of Splatter
Reach the fifth wave in a session of Daybreak without any player using explosives.

*Easier with friends that have lots of guns, ofc, everyone needs to know not to plant any explosives.


I Was All By Myself
Reach the sixth wave in a session of Daybreak in single player.


Day Broken
Achieve victory in a session of Daybreak.


Flawless Victory
Achieve victory in a session of Daybreak without suffering any player deaths.


Forgot My Breaches
Achieve victory in a session of Daybreak without any wall sections being leveled.


Hoard Mode
Achieve victory in a session of Daybreak after collecting 25 CLEO drops.

Multiple Runs


Magnificent Seven
Survive 7 total zombie waves in Daybreak.


Sleep All Day, Out All Night
Survive 49 total zombie waves in Daybreak.


Guilty Spark
Survive 343 total zombie waves in Daybreak.

*I really suggest you keep track of a counter for this on your own, its maddening not knowing how far you have to go until it unlocks. I almost cried when it unlocked for me, so freaking finally. This will probably be the last achievement you will unlock on your way to 100%


Never Forget the Medic
Heal the technician 12 times in Daybreak.


The Pledge
Earn a total of 500 Prestige playing Daybreak.


The Turn
Earn a total of 5000 Prestige playing Daybreak.


Just a Nibble
Open 0b1111 CLEO Drops. (15)


That Byte Looks Infected
Open 0b11111111 CLEO Drops. (255)


We Don't Need No Education
Repair a wall 12 times in Daybreak.

Prestige Points
These require you to first unlock the item by surviving waves 3, 5 or 7 and then buying things in the main campaign with the Prestige Points you get by calling the Trader or recruiting a Red Talon.

The way unlocks work is that everytime you survive wave 3, wave 5 or wave 7, you get something unlocked but its in order.

Check the next section for the unlock order and a more detailed explanation.


My Own Private Army
Recruit four Red Talon contractors to your home community.

*You dont have to have all four of them in the same community, each time you recruit a Red Talon, an internal counter goes up, however, taking your Talon characters from game to game in New Game+ does not count, you have to spend the prestige points for it to count.


Cargo Cult
Build a CLEO Relay facility in your home community.

*The one you can build in Heartland does not count.
*This is the last reward from getting all wave 7 rewards, which means you need to survive wave 7 at least 9 times after you unlock all wave 3 and wave 5 rewards.
*This thing costs 4000 prestige points and needs a large outdoor slot.


Insourcing
Have all four Red Talon facilities in your home community at the same time.

* This means you need to survive wave 7 at least nine times to get the last facility and be able to get this achievement.

*The other problem is to find a base to build all four facilities in, you will need:
  • Bunkroom: Indoor Small Slot
  • Workshop: Indoor/Outdoor Small Slot
  • Watchtower: Outdoor Small Slot
  • Officer Quarters: Indoor Small Slot

*Do not confuse these prefab items with mods, since red talon also sells mods that do not count for this achievement.


Shut Up
Kill a screamer with a CLEO heavy sniper rifle.

*The Heavy sniper rifle unlocks by surviving 8 times wave 7.
Daybreak Unlock Order
Alright, the unlocking of things in Daybreak is kinda special.

So, for example, there are 25 unlocks for wave 3.
If you survive in a single game, wave 3, wave 5 and wave 7, you get 3 "wave 3" unlocks.
You DO NOT get 1 wave 3, unlocked, 1 wave 5, unlocked, 1 wave 7 unlocked.

Once you exhaust all rewards for a wave, you only get prestige points as a bonus.

This means that once you get all 25 "wave 3" rewards, you can only continue unlocking more rewards by surviving wave 5.

So, if you want to get a wave 7 item unlocked, you would need to grind ALL wave 3 unlocks and ALL wave 5 unlocks THEN survive wave 7 enough times to get the thing you want.

I found the unlock chart in this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/StateOfDecay/comments/9i8cju/daybreak_unlock_order/
where user mcshaggin linked this link
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/446454367789252608/488464369693229057/unknown.png

Landmark Update Achievements
If you already have a community before this update, you will need to move to a new map to be able to discover landmarks (new map or change difficulty on your current one). If you, like me, already have the rest of the achievements, change your best community to green difficulty to make it easier for you, after you are done with your map's landmark, move your community to a different map (there is a move community to a new map icon on your map).

When you change difficulty, your map resets but you get to keep influence, characters and stash.
When you change maps, you also get t keep the stuff mentioned above.

There is one landmark per map, so in order to claim 3 landmarks, you'll have to play on 3 maps.
There are reports that the same landmark DOES NOT count for the 3 landmark achievement, they need to be different. There are 4 maps, so you need 3 different maps out of those.

All landmark outposts cost 1000 Influence (500 on Green Zone) to claim them.
If a plague heart is nearby an outpost you want to claim, you will need to destroy it first.

You can easily recognize a landmark outpost by its unique icon on your map, there is no need to go searching for it.

My strategy was simple, I took my best community which had over 4000 influence and first, changed difficulty to green. used the radio to call a car (from DLC), find the landmark, kill plague heart nearby, claim outpost, used car to get to map exit, change maps. Repeat that 2 times and you'll get the A Three Hour Tour achievement, it takes around 1 to 2 hours max.

Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota
Claim a landmark outpost.


A Three Hour Tour
Claim any 3 landmark outposts.


But It Can Be Better
Fully upgrade a resource outpost.


You now can spend influence to upgrade non-landmark outposts 2 times, do so and get the achievo.

*If the achievements are not unlocking for you, you might need to restart your microsoft profile.
On the main menu, bottom middle (to the right) there is an option to change profile.
Do this and MS will ask you for your profile's email and password, relog and when you get back to the main menu, the missing achievements should unlock right away.
Homecoming Achievements

Lily, We're Home
Claim a base in the Trumbull Valley map (outside of Heartland).

You get this as soon as you establish a base in the map.
If you moved maps, you might get this achievement right away.


You're So Fine You Blow My Mind
Complete Mickey Wilkerson's story in Trumbull Valley (outside of Heartland).

Ive been following and adding to this thread here:
https://gtm.you1.cn/app/495420/discussions/0/3042732979950134137/


Basically, I think the game gets glitched when IzzBee calls for the CLEO drops over and over and over again.

You dont need to the the Botanist quests, I dont think.

After taking Mickey to the Homestead, you can find an Old Photo in a nearby stash (NE from Pterodactyl Park, there is a church with a graveyard, go north from there)
According to reports, if you keep the old photo in your inventory, Mickey will eventually contact you about it but you also need to complete Ray Santos 2nd quest, this never happened to me, Mickey never radio called me.

I restarted a new community and the whole storylines, after going to mickey's homestead I immediately went to the secret stash and got the old photo, a new mission immediately started, this didn't happen in my other runs. If you pick the photo you get to call Mickey to meet up at a bar, then you go on a small mission.

In my first run, I didn't call Mickey after getting the photo, that's the glitch, I think.
I believe you should automatically radio Mickey as soon as you grab that picture, if that didn't happen, you're glitched. Someone in Discord reported that he stashed the photo, went to sleep and when he booted the game to continue playing the next day, he called Mickey right away.

You need to do Ray Santos mission to move into the church base of SoD1.
Then Mickey will be available for a final fourth mission and the achievement should pop.

Ray Santos
For me, it took 4 ingame days after CLEO Haven mission for Lily to ask for Ray about some group leaving the valley (Day 7). It might have been the 4 day wait or 2 day wait after I refused helping Izzbee and Chavez with the notebook (the red option said I would abandon the questline forever)

After Lily asks for Ray, wait for at least 10 IRL minutes then check the NW campsite from the farmlands base, Ray should be there, talk to him and move away from the area for a while.
If he isn't spawning on the campsite for more than an IRL hour after the radio call, try changing map difficulty, this is a little bit risky so I advise you do it as a last resort (or you can wait for Undead Labs to patch this bug)

I waited on top of a container a bit far from base and where Ray is and in 20 to 30 IRL mins after the angry call, lily called again asking for anyone to check on Ray, by going to a house west of his campsite, you will find an angry note in a new container on a table, then a map in the kitchen. Getting this stash map will allow you to talk to Ray about it back in his campsite and you will now be able to take him to the Vet Clinic north.

After that story quest is complete, you will have to wait again, it was 20 minutes until Lilly talked to Ray about his situation, 5 minutes after I finished one of Tressie's quests, at that time I didn't get any story quests yet, 10 minutes after that, Ray called the Church of Ascension without any response, no quest to that point yet but I felt I was closer, went to Ray and the church after that called but it didn't trigger anything, decided to wait, this happened during Day 8.

Day 9 came, Tressie came to base and gave me a mod and her missions were complete.
After she left, 15 more IRL minutes and Ray asked me to take him to the church.
Another 10 minutes and Lilly called Tressie about wider distribution.
Night 9, Lilly called Ray about him moving to church, this was 5 minutes after I refused a mission to kill a juggernaut for some consumables.

Started Day 10, nothing. Read about Dog Tags being bugged and I picked them up on Day 8 without triggering anything, still have them in my inventory. I do keep getting new brown side quest missions every 10 to 15m..Night 10.. 15 IRL minutes before Day 11, Alexis called Ray then asked for my help.

I did a Zedbuster mission that appeared every time I quit and continued the game, this was between Ray Church mission and Alexis Mission... I don't know if that helped or not.

Day 11, waiting for the next mission, got a Zedbuster one and since that worked last time, i went ahead and did it but before I could start it, I got the last mission! this was 25 minutes after the last one.

After saving Alexis, I finally got the achievement!
Im guessing the key to all of this was the old photo glitch, I'm no longer sure about Izzy's infinite CLEO drops.

Other notes:
I did the Tressie (botanist) missions, not sure if it matters.

I sometimes exited to the main menu and came back to see if a new mission would pop, it sometimes worked and sometimes it did not. When it worked, I got a mission in around 5 IRL minutes.

For me, missions mostly triggered from 20 to 30 mins with some huge exceptions.
Im not sure if there IS a timer or not, wish we knew more about mission mechanics.

I dont think infestations or enclave block story missions, had a lot of infestations while waiting.

tl;dr its a good idea to trigger Mickey's 3rd mission right away by getting the old photo as soon as you complete the homestead mission.


Follow the thread/forums or get into the official discord server for more info.
You can also read this reddit link if you arent afraid of spoilers.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StateofDecay2/comments/pillv4/spoilers_for_trumbull_valley_quest_chain_i/

https://youtu.be/d3BQYSfvhQI
Outro
...and thats it! This game is really best played with a friend.
Im glad microsoft decided to put the game on steam and let us cross platform and everything, even if it was late.

I wish you all best of luck in your grinds, specially DayBreak, its so tough >.<

Cheers and have a nice day! Im out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svZYh6KvnzM
46 Comments
Argonaut_Jay 6 Dec, 2023 @ 9:16am 
I wish there was a way to cheese the difficulty achievements. I absolutely loathe difficulty achievements. They're so lazy and ridiculous to include as part of their achievement package.

"We can't come up with anything original or fun for you to accomplish so play our game on a setting that makes you hate our game instead" - Developers who do difficulty achievements.
Lixo_SLB 3 Oct, 2023 @ 5:42pm 
Thx to you ^^, another thing you can miss recruitment of Isaac/Vic if you wait too long, Vic will leave, same for Diana, the mission will expired. Not sure but maybe this apply to Chavez too
Shindragan  [author] 3 Oct, 2023 @ 2:47pm 
Thx Lixo, added your comment to the guide. Stay awesome!
Lixo_SLB 2 Oct, 2023 @ 4:59pm 
You can get Full House achievement even if one of your survivor die
zoofoid 27 Sep, 2023 @ 11:11am 
the fall didnt kill him but the zombos sure did haha
ℳℛ ℛ𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉 20 Aug, 2023 @ 1:10pm 
Can you have it where you have the difficulty on nightmare and the rest on green and still can get the nightmare achievements I've been searching all over for a answer?
FormerPresidentGeorgeWBush 8 May, 2023 @ 7:07pm 
You can cheese nearly 100% of the plague hearts if you stand on top of your car since most plague hearts are visible through windows
manof710 22 Apr, 2023 @ 4:40pm 
im sad been waiting like 2 weeks for the achievements to come threw
Agent Nibbles 17 Dec, 2022 @ 3:37am 
Hey I got the Insourcing Achievement but it's glitched. It unlocked for my Xbox account but not on Steam. Is there any reason why this happened?
❃ Galiäna Krüger ❃ 19 Sep, 2022 @ 8:18pm 
Yeah I have unlocked other achievements so far