Update 25: Plague Territory

Blood Plague has Taken Over

The landscape of State of Decay 2 has changed. The next map you move to will be peppered with new and improved outposts, but to claim them, you must first defeat the plague hearts whose influence now spreads across the map.

Many of you have already spent some time in this new world by participating in our Public Test Realm on Steam, and it was your feedback that helped shape the final version of these features that we’re releasing today. Thank you!

• Plague hearts now possess the territory around them, requiring you to defeat the heart before claiming nearby bases and outposts.

• Resource outposts can now be upgraded by spending influence. This increases their benefits and unlocks skill training options.

• Each map has a new landmark outpost, which allows you to choose one of three powerful options to benefit your community.

• Survivors can now carry both a primary weapon and a sidearm, opening up new tactical loadout choices.

• Community skills now share many of their advanced benefits with the entire community of survivors.

NOTE: You must move to a new map, change your map difficulty, or start a new community to see the plague territory and outpost upgrade features.

Read further for all the details on these features, plus a whole lot more.

Plague Territory

Plague hearts now project plague territory around them, filling the area with a nasty red mist and making it unfit for human habitation.

• Plague territory is marked by a deep red splotch on the map. Any site within plague territory has a red icon, indicating that you cannot secure or claim it.

• To free a site, you must destroy any plague heart that includes that site within its territory. In densely-clustered maps, that could mean destroying multiple hearts.

Plague hearts tend to congregate where humans do, so expect valuable bases and outposts, as well as denser neighborhoods, to be covered by plague territory.

This change means that defeating plague hearts is no longer just a checklist item you complete before starting your legacy. It’s a day-to-day concern as you plan your community’s expansion.

Upgraded Outposts

Resource outposts — those that grant an income of food, fuel, or another resource — can now be upgraded to unlock increased benefits and skill training options for your community.

• Each resource outpost offers a progression of two upgrades, with escalating costs and requirements.

• The second-tier upgrade doubles the resource income and offers a skill-training action that grants you ready access to strategic skills like Medicine, Mechanics, and Computers.

• A fully-upgraded resource outpost now offers three units of that resource each day (or more, in the case of Food outposts at higher difficulty levels).

Each map now also features a single landmark outpost — a unique claimable site that offers three distinct strategies, each providing a powerful benefit to your community.

• Some landmark outposts offer a choice of three distinct benefits, while others offer a single benefit, but allow you to choose which cost to pay.

• You select your initial strategy when you claim the outpost, but you can change it later from the base screen.

Particularly valuable outposts (landmark outposts, upgradeable resource outposts, and utility outposts) are now marked with distinctive backgrounds on the map screen, allowing you to identify them more easily. So get out there and explore your options!

Thanks to everyone who suggested outpost upgrades on