We have a favor to ask.

After six years and nearly 40 free updates, we're asking for your nomination in the LABOR of LOVE category. We've never done this before, but since the end of this year also marks the the end of content updates for State of Decay 2[www.stateofdecay.com], this is the time. In fact, there's no better time to leave your favorite zombie survival sim with a li'l badge of honor!

The Labor of Love award is for older games that boast a vibrant community and have continued to create content over the years. Hey that's State of Decay 2!

It's a special and bittersweet time for us at Undead Labs. We loved making this game for you and every positive interaction with you gave us the energy boost we needed to keep going, dig deeper. From your feedback, we made State of Decay 2 into the great game it is today.

Just a few highlights over the years:

• The Bounty Broker
  
• Customizable Outfits
  
• Customizable Difficulty
  
• Plague Territory
  
• Homecoming
  
• Fields of View
  
• Forever Communities
  
• Curveballs

We would be thrilled to earn your nomination.
Thank you for your belief in us.

So Long and Thanks for all the Brains! - In this update we are addressing long-standing issues, introducing various Quality of Life improvements, and permanently unlocking previously gated or seasonal content, such as the Wizard Van and Winter outfits.

This is our final update for State of Decay 2, but this is not the end of the journey! We are now shifting all our focus and resources to development of the upcoming third instalment, State of Decay 3.

We’ve packed the world with plenty of loot. Keep an eye out for these newly released outfits, scattered throughout containers for you to scavenge.

Hats

• Fire Fighter Helmets (4) - Black, Blue, Yellow, and White
• Fedora (4) - Tan, Black, Gray, and Brown
• Pilot Cap (3) - Navy, Brown, and White
• Outback Hunter (4) - Dark Brown, Light Brown, Black, and Brown
• Gambler Hat (5) - Black, Prairie, Woodland, Stormcloud, and White
• Trucker Hat - Fitz
• Campaign Hat (2) - Park Service Black, and Park Service Beige
• Combat Helmet (6) - Reactor Security Team, Raven Black, Operation Jungle Tangle, Operation Explosive Dusk, Coyote Brown, and Desert Sand
• Aviator Helmet (3) - Nightjar Squadron, Crop Duster, and Midnight Bomber Black
• Buccaneer Bandanna (3) - Gunner Black, Powder Monkey, and Cursed Waters Green

Outfits

• Gas Station Jacket (3) - Spiroil, Little Piggy Towing, and Goodweather Air
• Firefighter Turnout Coat (1) - Tan
• Basic Tee (5) - Alba Hotdogs, Dirty Bird Espresso, Swine and Bovine, County Fair, and Wooly Bugger
• Pirate Jacket (2) - Driftwood, and Seaweed
• Kraken Hoodie (2) - Yellow, and Purple

 
We’re making all content, including the previously time-exclusive items, available to find in containers throughout the world.

Hats

• Cattleman Hat - Undead Green
• Combat Helmet - Shaggy Jack
• Hockey Mask - Gruesome Killer
• Jack O' Lantern Mask - Fiery Grin
• Scarecrow Mask - Grim Stitch
• Swine and Bovine Mask
• Winter Beanie (5) - Candy Stripe PomPom, Decay PomPom, Light PomPom, Nightmare PomPom, and Snowflake PomPom

 
Outfits

• Juggernaut Jacket (3) - Jugg Heart, Jugg Skull, and Shaggy Jack
• Ninja Hoodie (2) - Age of Empires II, and Anniversary Logo
• Outlaw Vest - Sea of Thieves
• Swine & Bovine Apron
• Ugly Sweater (5) - Blue Snowflake, Candy Cane, Decay the Halls, Holiday Nightmare, and Reindeer Lights

Vehicles - The following vehicles have a chance to appear in the world

• Rhames V - Tiger Claw
• Brogan Rapscallion - Pizza Cat
• Brogan Rapscallion - Anime Team
• Miragra - Flaming Demon Skull
• Miragra - Barbed Heart
• Vagabond - Gambler
• Pilato - Kraken
• Wizard Van

Weapons - The following weapons have a chance to appear in the world

• Titan Bat - Melee Weapon: Blunt
• Zed Piercer - Melee Weapon: Blunt
• Zed-Swatter - Melee Weapon: Blunt
• Skullsplitter - Melee Weapon: Bladed
• Grass Cutter - Melee Weapon: Bladed

Quality of Life Improvements

• Water will Slow Vehicles - Water resistance will now reduce vehicle speed while travelling through lakes and waterways. Be sure to choose the right vehicle type for the job as each handles differently. A 4x4, for example, will outperform a Sports Coupe in the water.
• Community Inventories - While over in the base, you can now access individual Survivors' inventories from the Community screen, allowing you to quickly view or equip their items, transfer items between you, or store their gear (including rucksacks) into base storage. No more hunting around the base to find the Survivor you need!
• Zombie spawning has been removed after certain noise events - Failed search crashes and door slams will no longer spawn new zombies. These noise events will now simply attract already existing zombies to the location.
• We’ve reduced the distance at which characters automatically attempt to climb down from ledges. Additionally, characters will no longer attempt to climb down unintentionally whilst the player is aiming, which could often lead to some frustrating moments.
• Rucksacks can now be deposited at claimed Landmark Outposts.

• The likelihood of the Blood Donor Enclave Arc appearing has been adjusted to match that of the other Arcs.
• The Blood Donor Morale Bonus has been adjusted to +6 Community Morale, down from the previous value of +15, which was deemed too strong.
• The following weapons can be obtained as rewards for defeating the Black Heart and killing a Jugg during the Gargantua Mutation Curveball: RTX Piranha, RTX Rampart, RTX Cyclone, RTX Cyclone Tactical, and MCX Osprey RT.
• In response to community feedback that it was appearing too frequently, the delay and cooldown for the Bangernomics Curveball have been somewhat increased.
• There is now a chance for new characters to receive the Blood Donor trait.
• Prone Zombies set up to ambush now have an increased sight range from 1m to 6m, allowing them to react more quickly to approaching characters.
• The health of the Gargantua Mutation Juggernauts has been increased for each level of Impact in the Curveball Settings.
• The Haven Device has been rebalanced to improve it’s overall effectiveness. It will now have a noticeable presence over the course of multiple waves during a base siege.

 
Gameplay Fixes

• Improved the reliability of the automatic ladder interaction which would sometimes fail, causing the character to walk right over the ladder and fall from a height.
• You can now build a staging area after claiming the Leeds Concrete Silos landmark. Additionally, the previous issue of the ‘Elimination of Daily Materials Cost’ stacking has been resolved.
• Using heavy weapons now correctly grants Endurance XP as intended.

Zombie and Combat Fixes

• Fixed a bug in which Zombies sometimes became unresponsive after getting stuck in their idle state.
• Fixed an issue in which the finisher prompt appeared when a finishing move could not be executed due to lack of stamina.
• Fixed an issue in which Zombies would sometimes attack and magnetically teleport towards survivors on upper levels.
• Fixed an issue where a downed hostile human would remain incapacitated indefinitely.
• Resolved an issue where melee attacks missed when they should have hit.
• Fixed an issue where Ferals could instantly destroy certain vehicles by attaching to and attacking specific points.
• Resolved an issue in which Blood Plague Bloaters were not appearing in Heartland Hordes.

Curveball Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Radio Silence Curveball could not appear correctly in Drucker County, Cascade Falls, and Meagher Valley.
• Resolved an issue where Ignited Zombies during the Fuelling the Plague Curveball were not receiving any damage from weapons.
• Resolved an issue where Armored Zombies persisted after the Lost Platoon Curveball had expired.
• Removed the unintended instances where the same Curveball could appear twice simultaneously.
• Resolved a bug that caused Curveball objectives to be unpinned or removed from the Goals menu when their Optional Objective was completed.
• Resolved an issue where some Curveball effects did not update after changing Impact in the Curveball settings.
• Fixed an issue where the Vicious Rumours Curveball displayed incorrect values when adjusting the impact in the Curveball settings. Previously, the ‘Less Influence Received from Selling’ minor effect had major values, and vice versa, causing the curveball to reduce the influence gained from trading more than intended.
• Resolved various issues where the Vicious Rumours Curveball did not increase the radio prices for the Independence Pack and the Locate Plague Heart radio command.
• Adjusted Vicious Rumours to display the correct sell prices when the Curveball is active.
• Adjusted the Curveball Stamina action effects in 'Up and At Em’ and ‘Under the Weather’ to account for all stamina-cost actions.
• Reimplemented the damage warning that triggers when entering the Toxic Miasma of a Black Heart.
• Fixed an issue in which Curveballs appearing could cause a crash on multiplayer.

Mission Fixes

• Resolved a crash issue that occurred when approaching the mission location for one of the ‘Mysterious Broadcast'.
• Resolved the issue where Zombies from infestations were not spawning in taller buildings (such as the Factory Husk in Heartland), which prevented clearing the infestation and potentially blocking certain missions.
• Resolved an exploit in Heartland where the CLEO Supply drop mission could be bypassed by leaving the site and returning to zero Zombies, which auto-completed the mission. Now, the mission will be abandoned and must be redone.
• Resolved an issue in ‘Living in a Materials World’ where the optional objective might be impossible to complete under certain conditions.
• Resolved an issue in ‘Builder Legacy: Useful Utilities’ where Energy Drinks now count towards completing the objective of building an item that requires power or water

UI and Settings Fixes

• Reduced max curveball cards visible in the journal and introduced enhancements to the functionality, user interface, and reliability of the Curveball Journal Page, including correct presentation of different languages in the prompt bar.
• Resolved the issue of community names being truncated on the community selection screen.
• Resolved an issue where the FOV value reset after updating the Accessibility settings.
• Fixed issue with luxury crates missing exclamation marks on certain items.
• Resolved a bug where the vehicle UI indicated it was destroyed even after being repaired with a toolkit.
• Resolved an issue with inconsistent appearance and function for the 'Drop' prompt on your character inventory when interacting with a vehicle trunk.
• Resolved an issue where the Locker Icon disappeared at short distances, making it difficult to find.
• Resolved an issue where the Curveballs have Awoken notification appeared every time a session was reloaded.

Hey survivors! This update brings exciting new missions to support the American Red Cross[redcrossblood.org] (#SummerofSurvival), customizations, new challenges, and more. We're introducing Curveball events with a fresh twist, along with a new control panel to tailor them to your liking. Plus, we've implemented a raft of quality-of-life improvements and major bug fixes.

Red Cross Event
The undead may crave it, but survivors desperately need it too! Undead Labs, in partnership with the American Red Cross, urge you to donate blood. By giving blood, you give a bit of yourself to help save a life! The blood supply is critical. Blood cannot be saved or stockpiled. Don't let the blood banks run dry - donate today and become a real-life hero! Find out more at https://redcrossblood.org/sod


Together, we survive!

• New Special Enclave - With one member missing and another critically injured following a disastrous skirmish, an Enclave is desperate for help. Are you prepared to give your blood, sweat and tears to save them?
New Cosmetics - Unlock three new cosmetic rewards from assisting the new special enclave!
• Blood Donors Jacket - Not all heroes wear capes… Some wear Jackets!
• Blood Donor Basic Tee - Time to make Zombies donate their blood to the floor!
• Blood Nurse Basic Tee - This nurse seems totally trustworthy, nothing to worry about...
[/*]
• New Traits - Two new traits have been added as part of this mission. These traits will be applied to some members of the new special enclave.
  • Blood Donor Trait - “Donating blood has always been my thing. Before the apocalypse, the need was constant.”
    • +15 Morale
    • +100% Resting Trauma & HP Recovery
    • +3 Levels to Cardio
  • EMT Driver Trait - “I responded to an emergency, when I got there, the scene was full of the undead.”
    • Grants Driving Skill
    • +4 Levels to Cardio
      • Allows Cardio Specializations
        • Powerhouse
        • Backpacking
      • New Hero Bonus - EMT Vehicle Delivery
        • Grants a radio command to request and have one of the following vehicles be delivered:
          • Ambulance
          • Bloodmobile
• Bloodmobile Permanently Unlocked - The Bloodmobile is BACK and this time it is here to stay! Unlock it as part of the new special enclave missions, or through the new EMT Driver trait!

Nighttime Improvements
We’ve implemented changes to address some of the issues players encountered during the night.

• Stronger Flashlights - In this update we have made the flashlights stronger, making them a far more useful tool for both exploring the world at night, and dark indoor locations during the day.

• Better Night Time Lighting - We have also slightly adjusted the overall night time lighting to make it a bit brighter and more readable.

New Curveball Settings

Choose Your Own Apocalypse! - The new control panel located on the Curveball screen lets you customize events – balance, frequency, impact – it's all up to you!

• Toggle Settings - Within the Curveball screen you'll be able to enable these settings, or keep with the default Curveball experience.
• Balance Slider - The Balance Slider allows you to adjust the type of Curveballs you receive, such as tipping the balance in favour of more beneficial events. Alternatively, if you're up for a fight you turn karma against you for more of a challenge!
• Frequency Slider - The Frequency Slider allows you to adjust how often new Curveballs will appear. Using this option you can prevent any more occurring, or crank up the speed so new events will be right around the corner.
• Impact Sliders - There are two Impact sliders! One affects the positive Curveballs, the other affects the negatives, and between them these sliders determine the presence they have on your play session. They can influence the following:
  • Duration - How long that type of Curveball will remain in the world if it is timed.
  • Effect Strength - How strong the modifiers are within the Curveball. For example, an effect which increases the amount of damage a zombie deals will be even greater if the Impact Slider is high.
  • Range - Curveballs that have a visible area of influence will have an increased size on higher impact.

New Curveball Events

• Bangernomics - Keeping your rides running smoothly even before the apocalypse was a pain. Nowadays keeping these heaps of junk on the road is even more problematic. This Curveball affects the handling and performance of your vehicles.
• Smoke Storm - The wind has carried over a dense, thick plume of smoke from a mysterious explosion at a chemical plant a few miles out of town. This Curveball creates a suffocating smog that lowers your visibility.

More Quality of Life Improvements

• 
  Home Base Minimap Marker - A new marker on the minimap will always point in the direction of your home base, so you don’t need to keep placing down a waypoint each time you want to head home. This new home base marker can be toggled on and off in the HUD settings menu.
• Threaten Enclave Check - We have added an ‘Are you sure?’ confirmation on the act of threatening another Enclave, giving you a chance to back out.. if you’re having second thoughts.
• Enlist Followers from the Community Screen - You no longer need to run around searching for a specific follower. When in range of your home base you can now directly enlist a follower to join you from the Community screen.

• Disengage from Locked Doors - It’s now really easy to walk away from a locked door without using force to open it.
• Cancel out of a Failed Grapple Animation - Previously, when trying to grapple or assassinate a Zombie from the front you could be locked into a failed animation which prevented you from performing other actions for an extended period of time. This could prove frustrating and was often no fault of the Player. It is now possible to dodge out to cancel this animation.
• Freak Spotted Voice-Over - The "Freak spotted" voice-over can be misleading, as it sometimes plays when a Survivor detects a Freak that's not actually visible. To improve accuracy, the spotting call will now only trigger when the identified Freak is within the Survivor's line of sight.
• Cinematic Kill Cam Toggle - During decapitations of undead enemies, the game can transition to a "Zombie Finisher" camera animation. While undeniably cool, this effect isn't universally preferred and can sometimes disrupt gameplay at inopportune moments. It can now be toggled on or off within the GAMEPLAY settings menu.
• Zombified Community Members Marked - Upon becoming a zombie, deceased community members are now marked with a coffin icon, making identification and retrieval of their belongings easier.
• Trunk Space Increased for Certain Vehicles - The Ambulance and Bloodmobile have increased from 9 > 15 trunk slots, and the Trumbull 4x4 and Burninator have increased from 6 > 8.
• Curveball Adjustment : Gargantua Mutation Objective - The Curveball which mutates Juggernauts to be even harder now has an objective. Killing a Gargantua Jugg will end the Curveball and award 150 Prestige points.
• Curveball Adjustment : Black Heart Damage Thresholds - The Black Heart will perform more frequent expulsions and calls for reinforcement when reaching certain levels of damage.

XBOX One Crash Fix
Players on Xbox One have reported crashes due to memory issues, often occurring within an hour of gameplay. To address this, we've implemented a fix that will automatically detect memory overload before a crash occurs. A short, 2-3 second loading screen will appear to free up memory, preventing the crash and ensuring a smoother gameplay experience.

Other BUG Fixes

• Removed the unintended, unfair situation in which zombies could suddenly magnetise towards you with a grapple / tackle attack, despite dodging past or away from them.
• Fixed an issue in which the Black Heart wasn’t awarding the correct loot after being defeated.
• Fixed an issue with incorrect values assigned to the Zombie Toughness modifier that affected a few Curveballs.
• Small UI & UX Improvements to the Curveball screen and notes.
• Fixed an issue with key binds on the radio, inventory and character menus not working correctly.
• Fixed a bug in which nothing was being spawned during an Infestation mission, preventing it from being completed.
• Fixed a title crash caused from Curveballs becoming active when relaunching a community.
• Fixed a title crash caused when a Player is searching inside a loot container while the Fuelling the Plague Curveball is active.
• Fixed an issue with the Juiced Up Curveball ending too soon.

A Collection of Quality of Life Improvements

With today's update we are addressing a few issues which have been affecting Players, while also implementing improvements. Here's what we've included:

• Quality of Life Improvements and Tweaks
  • You now have the ability to deposit your rucksacks at upgraded outposts (Level 2 or higher).
  • There is now a ‘Take All’ action for Containers, for the survivors that need to grab everything and run!
  • There is now a 'Drop Item' action directly from Containers, making it easier to shuffle and transfer personal items around.
    • This action has also been added to Vehicle Storage (Trunks)
  • You can now remove weapon attachments from selected ranged weapons in the Supply Locker without needing to equip them first.
  • The Zombie Trappers and The Cannibals enclaves can now appear once per map (instead of once per community).
  • Minor Bloater improvements: The VFX and damage of the gas burst are better matched, so it no longer looks and feels like you were damaged unfairly.
    • To compensate the Bloaters will now also try to get slightly closer to your survivor before exploding.
  • Better completion counter on Curveballs with objectives. e.g. Under the Weather and Missing a Few Bolts will now read 0/3 deposits instead of 0/1 three times.
  • A minor change that allows more characters to potentially get the Blood Plague Survivor trait.
  • Expansion of new randomly generated character names and nicknames added to the pool when creating a new survivor.

• Black Heart Curveball TweaksIt’s been mentioned that the Black Heart can be too dominating on a community, especially when it rolls early, so we made some adjustments to make it feel more balanced and less punishing.
  • The Black Heart Curveball will now only appear after 6 days have passed (or 2 when moving maps)
  • The Black Heart Toxic Miasma effect will stop dealing damage sooner (at a higher health threshold), rather than right down to a slither of health remaining. Damage per tick stays the same.
  • Damage V/O added when taking toxic damage to give additional warning, while also feeling more realistic.
  • Improved VFX for Black Heart Plague Miasma
  • Reduced the fuel drain speed for the Black Heart Thick Miasma effect.
  • Reduced the growth speed for the Black Heart Growing Dominion effect.
  • Balancing changes to the fire resistant Black Heart Zombies (slower, and cause less sickness/plague build-up per attack)

• BUG Fixes
  • Trumbull Valley CLEO mission edge case fixed. Previously it was possible to end the mission without getting the CLEO device, and then be subsequently unable to get it.
  • Fix for a crash when attempting to access CachedCommunity after shutdown.
  • Sentinel Mutation Curveball and the Hyper Auditory Mutation Curveball can no longer roll at the same time; it was an awkward combination as they contradict each other.
  • Minor Curveball Journal improvements. Fixed UI clipping, and slight adjustment to automatic font resizing.
  • Miscellaneous text and localization improvements.

It’s that time of year, as per tradition simply log in and play State of Decay 2 between December 4th and January 4th and you’ll unlock five holiday hats and five ugly sweaters in your closet. Check the list below for which hats and sweaters you can wear to avoid that apocalyptic chill.

• The Candy Stripe Pom-Pom & the Candy Cane Ugly Sweater
• The Decay Pom-Pom & the Decay the Halls Ugly Sweater
• The Nightmare Pom-Pom & the Holiday Nightmare Ugly Sweater
• The Snowflake Pom-Pom & the Blue Snowflake Ugly Sweater
• The Light Pom-Pom & the Reindeer Lights Ugly Sweater

AND…

In case you missed out the first time these were released, we are bringing back some vintage gifted outfits of the past! Again, simply log in between December 4th and January 4th and check them out in your closet now!

• Green Cattleman Hat - Named for it’s distinctive, traditional crease.
• Anniversary Logo Ninja Hoody - "You see somebody wearing an outfit like that, you just know they're a troublemaker." -- Alan Gunderson, Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.
• Age of Empires II Ninja Hoody - So... archers or cav?
• Sea of Thieves Outlaw Vest - Set sail for adventure. Arr!

ECHO LAB FREIGHT PROTOCOL ACTIVATED - New loot hunting mission will reveal supply crates full of precious cargo, including some new outfit items and variants!

• NEW - Gamblers Hat - Wide-brimmed and perfectly paired with an ace of spades.
  • White Gambler Hat - Are you feeling lucky?
• NEW - Outback Hunter - Offers protection from the harsh outback conditions, not so much from zombie bites though.
  • Leopard Outback Hunter - Unleash your wild side!
• NEW - Fedora - Previously associated with prohibition era gangsters, jazz musicians and now survivors of a zombie apocalypse
  • Ivory Fedora - Keep your friends close but your enemies closer
• Blue Shark Hoodie - You won’t be out of your depth when hunting and scavenging in this.

Influx of Meds is a new beneficial curveball that provides an opportunity for your community to sweep up some health kits and medical resources in a targeted area of the map.

“A wizard van is never late. Nor is it early. It arrives precisely when it means to.“ - Some Wizard.
It’s a magical time of the year so it’s only right to bring back everyone’s favourite holiday Wizard Van for a limited time only! Log in between December 4th and January 11th and summon this special vehicle via the radio menu!

Starting December 1st, the Stay Frosty pack slides back into the Bounty Broker’s selection while the Critical Response takes its leave until next year. Be sure to complete your Trifecta Pack bounties before they leave the bounty broker’s store in the new year!

• Curveball distribution improvement - Improved the distribution of Curveballs to create more of a variety of events to avoid too much repetition.
• BUG FIX : Day Counter Inconsistency - Fixed an issue with the game adding 7 days to the day counter for communities.
• BUG FIX : Localisation improvements - A vast amount of localisation fixes and removing debug text showing have been done across all languages for the Curveball feature.
• BUG FIX : Black Heart Objective - Fixed an issue with objectives not being shown for the Black Heart Curveball.
• BUG FIX : Under the Weather issue - Fixed an issue with the Under the Weather curveball showing as active after the curveball has ended
• BUG FIX : Key binds and gamepad control - Fixed a variety of issues relating to the switching control schemes and remapping inputs.

Tis the season for terrible tales and fearsome thrills. So we are bringing back some frightful favourites for your survivors to gear up and prowl the wasteland. No tricks here, only treats with the return of the Halloween themed Scarecrow, Jack-O'-Lantern as well as our Swine & Bovine Apron and Mask and Hockey Masks for a limited time. Every player who logs into the game between October 25th and November 15th will have these outfit items added to their closet, absolutely free!

But that’s not all, we have more sinister surprises lurking in the dark!
Gear up your survivors and bring down Zombies in style with some new outfit variants as you trick or treat in the apocalypse! Some variants will be given to you upon logging in and some will require a bit of looting to earn…

• Al's Livery Taxi Hat: Proudly driving the Valley for almost a century!... So, take up the reins and continue Al's legacy!
• Raven Black Pirate Jacket: Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarters, or take any from you.
• Jolly Roger Buccaneer Bandana: Even pirates, before they attack another ship, hoist a black flag.
• Teal Kraken Hoodie: Bioluminescence is underrated!
• Barbarossa Red Buccaneer Bandanna: The pirate will sink you with a kiss, steal your heart and sail away.

• Spiroil Mechanic Coveralls: In pretty good condition if you disregard the oil stains.
• Navy Pirate Jacket: We'd be alright if the wind was in our sails...And we'll all hang on behind...
• Dirty Bird Trucker Hat: Express your love for your favourite brand of roadside coffee
• Ninja Lantern Shark Hoodie: In the darkness your enemies will only see teeth!
• Corsair Blue Buccaneer Bandanna: No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it! 

• A new Curveball has been added called "Outlaws Passing Through" which will award 200 Prestige for completing on time.
• We have made it a bit more obvious when Curveballs become active on subsequent playthroughs with a banner informing you they will start to appear.
• Fixed performance issue occurring when Black Heart Curveball is active.
• NPCs will now lay down in beds when tired, sick or injured.
• We patched some exploits with the "News Travels" & "A Well-Oiled Machine" Curveballs that were providing an excessive level of benefits! They are still great, just not game-breaking great!
• Fixed more exploits with loot reappearing after loading back into the game, as well as excessive drop percentages on "Lost Platoon", "Juiced Up" and "High Temperature Z’s".
• Fixed an issue with the second tutorial Curveball (The Lone Raider) not appearing.
• The "A Broken Heart" Curveball is now a timed opportunity: if it’s not destroyed it will recover from its sickness and revert back to a regular Plague Heart, so strike whilst you can!
• Previously, the ‘Bait Crate’ Curveball had some underwhelming loot in the crate. It now contains far better rewards.
• Improved VFX on the Curveball-affected Plague Juggernauts.
• Various localisation and UI improvements.
• A lot of other bug fixes and minor improvements to improve the quality and stability of the Curveball feature.

Join us today as Geoffrey plays through the new Curveball update! Our Free To Play weekend on Steam and Xbox starts NOW! 75% off, our deepest discount ever, so don't miss out!

The very nature of a post-apocalyptic world is one which is unpredictable and often chaotic. The mundane day-to-day of a stable society is now a luxury of the past and in this hostile ever-changing landscape the survivors of the zombie outbreak are required to be ever alert to the changing tides of dangers and opportunities that unfold.

Sooner or later the wasteland is going to throw your community a curveball! An emerging incident, phenomenon or happenstance that will be to the benefit of your survivors or their detriment. Sometimes Lady Luck will be on your side and a scenario will arise that creates a timed opportunity for your community to take full advantage of, such as finding a lost supply crate, a mutational defect in a group of zombies or simply the boost of having a well-maintained base. Other times more sinister challenges will emerge like a mutational advantage in a group of zombies, hostile raiders appearing on the map or even the Plague Hearts themselves becoming more deadly.

The world is changing and you’ll need to stay alert. It’s time to seize the boons and tackle (or avoid) the banes! In this dynamic, changing wasteland, the choices made and opportunities you take will determine your community’s survival or demise.


Curveballs are new events that contain world changing modifiers which can happen at random, or appear as a response to something you’ve done.

• Curveballs contain up to three different effects, these modifiers will change up aspects of the simulation and come in both Major and Minor variations.
  • Major effects will be very impactful, these are the dominant headliners of the event and are denoted by a star symbol in the effects panel.
  • Minor effects are additional modifiers to accompany the Major, they are not as impactful but certainly spice up the experience.
• Curveballs are not always one-shot events, they have a chance to reappear and when they do so you may receive a different combination of effects for a different experience, a previously seen minor effect may now be elevated to a major and vice versa.

We don’t want to give too much away, but you can read a few hints below for what you can expect!

• Zombie & Plague Heart Mutations
  • Zombie Curveballs can occur. Whether it’s through a new mutation or symptoms of decay, zombies can now emerge as stronger or weaker by having their damage, speed and resistances altered.
  • Infestations can be a breeding ground for mutations. Zombies may develop weird side effects or behaviours which will require you to switch up your usual strategy.
  • Plague Hearts also have a chance to change over time, for better or worse. Expect the unexpected…
• Community & Base Changes
  • Sometimes your survivors will have good and bad days. Depending on the Curveball, effects can influence your communities stamina, morale, proficiencies and effectiveness of base facilities.
• World Events
  • Curveballs extend out to many other aspects of the wasteland like looting chances, resource availability, radio actions or even new hostile survivors wandering into town.

• Location - Some Curveballs will be events that only occur at a specific location, this will be highlighted on the map. Whether you want to skirt around the area or drive straight in is up to you!
• Global - Global Curveballs are unescapable, they will be in effect no matter where you are and you’ll just need to take this into account as you traverse the world.

• Timed Curveballs - Some Curveballs are just destined to fade out over time. These will eventually expire and the effects will come and go.
• Objective Curveballs - Some of the worst Curveballs will require you to take action to rid the world of it’s influence. These actions are small objectives, that when completed, will clear up the effects so you can get back to the “normal life” of surviving the apocalypse.

With this new system, a few new UI additions have been made so everything easier to understand when a Curveball starts and when they end.

With these seemingly random things occurring and overlapping each other, you’ll need a way to track what’s happening. This is where the Curveball Menu can help! Every detail you receive will be recorded and visible within this new tab in the menu screen.

• Curveball Entries - This page in the menu will provide information on all events upcoming, active and expired.
  • Upcoming Entries - A Curveball is a result of new and emerging situations occurring in the wasteland. Before a Curveball and it’s effects become active, a survivor may ask to speak to you about an observation. This intel is your forewarning to an upcoming curveball and will be recorded here.
  • Active Entries - When the Curveball appears in the world it will shift up from Upcoming to Active! This is when the situation and effects are live. All active curveballs will be recorded here in the menu for reference at anytime.
  • Expired Entries - Curveballs will eventually come to an end, either from time or the completion of it’s associated objective. Once it has ended it the effects will be removed and the event entry will shift down into the expired section in the menu.
• Details - The central component of the Curveball Menu is where all the details are shown.
  • Event panel - The event itself, it’s description and all it’s active effects can be easily viewed in the central component of the page.
  • Zombie Type - Some Curveballs will only affect a particular zombie type, this will be displayed here.
• 
  
  Effects Overview - Multiple Curveballs can be active at once and it may be tricky to remember all the active effects live and influence the simulation. The details panel is your overview to see them all in one place.
  • Positive modifiers - Effects which benefit your survivors will be marked with a green up arrow.
  • Negative modifiers - Effects which are dangerous to your survivors will be marked with a red down arrow.[/*
    
  • Star symbols next to effects denote that they are Major effects.
• Notes - Life in the wasteland moves quickly and you may not catch everything which gets mentioned on the radio. Your conversations and the observations you make will be recorded in the Notes section of the Curveball Menu, allowing you to easily read through the events that led to the appearance of this Curveball.
  • Open the Notes menu at the bottom of the page to receive the timeline popup revealing who said what on which day.

With some Curveballs being location based and some having objectives tied to them. The map has been updated to help visualise where a Curveball is affecting or where it’s relevant objectives are.
Surviving the apocalypse means a lot can be going on, so when the latest Curveball comes around, new notifications will appear to give you the info you need at a glance.

Notifications will appear whenever a Curveball is

• Starting soon
• Becomes active
• Has ended
• An objective has completed / updated

Every few years, the survivors of the zombie outbreak are reminded that the Blood Plague threatening their communities is constantly mutating and adapting new ways to kill them. Plague Hearts now only seem to act once provoked,  sending out zombie hordes to infest sites, spread towards your base, and besiege your community!

These Infesting Hordes now create and reinforce Infestations, using them as forward operating bases along the path to your community. When Infestations finally arrive within striking distance of your Home Base, they form Siege Sites, which will grow until they are ready to launch a coordinated assault on your base. These new directed Infestations and Sieges are a more deadly and dynamic threat than you’ve faced before, but can also be controlled with a bit of strategy and grit.

Now, your only hope for survival is to push back the Infestations and keep Sieges under control until you’re ready to take out the source of it all: the Plague Hearts.


Plague Hearts

• Now all Plague Hearts on a given map start out dormant - that is not actively trying to seek out and destroy your Base. However, they don’t remain dormant forever
• Dormant / awake Plague Hearts each have a unique icon on the map and menus

• As you explore Plague Territory, certain actions now raise the alertness of a Plague Heart until it fully “awakens” and begins sending out Infesting Hordes

• After a Plague Heart is awakened, it will begin sending Infesting Hordes out to create and reinforce Infested Sites along the way to your Base
• Awakened Plague Hearts never become dormant again and must be destroyed

• Destroying a Plague Heart after it awakens will cause all of its created Infestations to wither over time, losing strength and zombies, until they dissipate on their own

Infesting Hordes

• Awakened Plague Hearts begin regularly launching Infesting Hordes out into the world
• When arriving at an uninfested location, Infesting Hordes create new Infestations, effectively making an outpost for the Horde
• When arriving at a currently infested location, Infesting Hordes increase the Severity of that Infestation, bolstering it with even MORE zombies

• Infestations can also generate Infesting Hordes, though this does lower their Severity as a portion of the zombies pick up and follow a Screamer to a new location

• If a player owned Outpost becomes infested any active benefits are nullified until the infestation is cleared out

• Destroy an Infesting Horde before it arrives at a destination to slow Infestation growth

• The more Noise in your base, the faster Infestations grow and spread to your base - quieter bases take longer for Hordes to locate and reach

Infestations

• Infestations, once created, have a number above them to indicate their Severity Level
• Higher Severity Infestations have more zombies, eventually attracting dangerous Freaks like Ferals and Juggernauts into the mix
• Loot can now drop from killing non-Screamer Freaks present at infestations

• Since Screamers control Infestations on behalf of the Plague Hearts, killing all Screamers present at an Infestation will clear the Infestation instantly
• The Severity Level of an Infestation is tied to how many Screamers are present, so you always know how many to look for at each Severity

• Each Infesting Horde that arrives at an Infestation will increase the Severity Level

• Each Infesting Horde that leaves from an Infestation will decrease the Severity Level
• When a Plague Heart controlling an Infestation (indicated by highlighting the Infestation on the map) is destroyed, that Infestation’s Severity Level ticks down over time to 0 and eventually clears itself automatically

• Infestations also increase the density of the ambient zombie population around them

Siege Sites

• When an Infesting Horde reaches an infestable location close enough to launch a Horde directly at your Base, it may create a Siege Site instead of a regular Infestation
• Siege Sites, like infestations can also be reinforced and grow in severity

• As long as Siege Sites exist, there is a chance for them to trigger a Siege, which results in Siege Hordes being launched from every active Siege Site toward your Base
• This decreases the Severity of a Siege Site, same as Infestations
• Siege Hordes are released in waves until every Siege Site has reached 0 Severity and despawn (or Siege Sites are manually killed)

• The chance of a Siege triggering is represented by your Base’s Threat
• The number of Siege Sites and their Severity both increase Threat
• Higher Threat means longer, harder Sieges

• Siege Sites can be attacked and pruned before a Siege triggers, just like Infestations
• Killing all the Screamers present will also automatically clear Siege Sites

 
Sieges

• Sieges have a chance to trigger based on your current Threat level (higher Threat, the higher the chance and difficulty) 
• The Siege itself takes some extra time before beginning, with the Siege Hordes collecting nearby outside of your base until they decide to strike

• Unlike Infestations which get weaker as their Severity level decreases, the waves of Siege Hordes released by the Siege Sites launch in order from easiest to hardest

• Siege Hordes assault the base whether you’re present or not, and once it has been triggered a Siege will only end when all Siege Sites are destroyed or depleted

• If your active character was not present and contributing during a wave, you will see a Siege Consequence notification letting you know how your survivors did without you
• Siege Consequences are applied at random based on siege sites and your selected Difficulty, but it’s never good: they range from survivor injuries to facility damage or worse
• Arriving at your base anytime during a Siege will prevent any Siege Consequences from being applied for that wave and any you’re present for
• If you miss a few waves you can still show up late and save the day - all Consequences stop when you arrive before that wave’s end
• Prestige is given to the player at the end of the siege based on each siege wave they are present for

Radio Commands

• You’re not in this alone - you can use the Radio to send Survivors from your Community to help deal with Infestations while you attend to other matters

• The “Scout All Infestations” call will consume fuel in exchange for a Survivor driving around locating new Infestations you might not be aware of

• The “Take out a nearby infestation” call will help mitigate some of the growth by automatically pruning an Infestation on the map for you

Outpost Defenses

• Similar to Radio commands, your Outposts can also be leveraged to fight back against the Infestations by enabling Outpost Defenses
• These Outpost Defenses have costs and durations, but when used correctly can provide unique strategies for containing Infestation growth

• Incendiary Landmines, when enabled on Outposts along frequently traveled Horde routes, will automatically blow them up, along with any ambient zombies as they enter the safezone, preventing Infestation growth

• Infestation Bait, when enabled on Outposts attract and reroute any infesting hordes that enter the scouting range of the outpost where it is activated
• It will also slowly deinfest existing infestations in range by forcing them to send out hordes targeting the outpost until either the outpost is infested, the infestations in range are destroyed, or the time limit is elapsed

• Plague Disruptor, when enabled on Cell Tower Outposts, will greatly reduce the plague heart's sensitivity to actions that contribute to waking it up
• Hovering over your home base or outposts to see their scouting range. The player will be notified when Infesting hordes, ambient hordes, and freaks that path through these scouting ranges and their icons will be added to the map

 

• Characters that are busy will now be labeled as such on the community hierarchy screen when changing characters
• Larger vehicles have increased trunk space
• First Aid Kits can now be dropped 1 at a time
• Vertical view angles have been increased when operating your camera

• Ferals will once again be able to climb walls in Daybreak
• Some communities that were triggering crashes on load will no longer do so and should be restored to a usable state
• Using a bandage inside a container is no longer interrupted by closing the container
• The ranged weapons and ammo tab of the supply locker now sorts caliber correctly
• Audio on the community creation screen no longer repeats or spams the player
• We have adjusted the key mapping for sending community members to your legacy pool, fixing an issue where other actions could be bound to the same key

 

Get ready for the latest massive update to State of Decay 2 in Update 33: Heart Attack, launching May 10 and free for all players!

Here's a peek at what you can expect in this long-awaited update:

Every few years, the survivors of the zombie outbreak are reminded that the Blood Plague threatening their communities is constantly mutating and adapting new ways to kill them. Plague Hearts now only seem to act once provoked, sending out zombie hordes to infest sites, spread towards your base, and besiege your community!

These Infesting Hordes now create and reinforce Infestations, using them as forward operating bases along the path to your community. When Infestations finally arrive within striking distance of your Home Base, they form Siege Sites, which will grow until they are ready to launch a coordinated assault on your base. These new directed Infestations and Sieges are a more deadly and dynamic threat than you’ve faced before, but can also be controlled with a bit of strategy and grit.

Now, your only hope for survival is to push back the Infestations and keep Sieges under control until you’re ready to take out the source of it all: the Plague Hearts.

Check back on May 10 for the update and the full patch notes -- you won't want to miss Heart Attack!