State Of Decay

• try to avoid destroying cars with reckless driving, there are limited numbers of them around. Oh and leaving them parked outside your base can repair them over time if you have an upgraded workshop. I'm not saying dont smash zombies with cars ever, just try to keep a few in repairs so you aren't always hunting around for another as the game progresses

• firing guns attracts zombies. This makes guns bad. You can make silencers in a workshop that stop this or find them in the world. These make guns great. Or at least the guns you can attach silencers to. You can totally mow down a horde like nothing with a silenced weapon or severely thin out a crowd in a fight.

• Blunt weapons seem to be better than edged. They last longer and put zombies on the ground faster.

• Nimble characters are great because they can get a sweep kick that puts multiple zombies on the ground

• When a zombie falls on the ground do the finishing kill move because as far as I can tell you are invulnerable during it.

• You can pick a specialization and character upgrades on the second tab of the menu. The game tells you this nowhere and you don't want to play and miss out on sweep-kicks

• At some point you can move your base. Don't pick the location the npc suggests with the treehouse. On the same side of town there is a trucking place that is bigger and better. I think after you visit the house he wants he makes you drive to like directly outside of it. There are other places that might be better I'm just less sure of them because they are outside of town with less places you can build outposts around them. Also scavenging is easier in town because obviously there are more buildings around.

• The game doesn't explain this too well but you should build outposts directly around your base. You can put traps in the outposts on the building menu (though they may go in automatically). The traps kill passing zombies and prevent the hordes from making it to your base which is good because defending it constantly is bad.

• Oh and if you find resources in places you intend to turn into outposts its probably not best to take them immediately because they get slowly transferred to your base when the area is turned into an outpost. So if you find a lot of food in the house you intend to turn into an outpost you could take it and get like 15 food units immediately or it will serve as a very constant source of food units. I'm not sure for how long but it seems to be quite a while.

• Oh and finally when building stuff. Most of it happens fairly quickly but some stuff way down the chain can take 4 hours or as I've heard 24 hours gametime. Set those going when you are finished playing. When you come back the next day it will be finished because the game keeps track of real world time too. Its weird like that.

• This game is tough. Resident-Evil-1-as-Cris tough. Be patient and don't grow discouraged if you seem to be on the bottom of a manure displacement ditch, it becomes easier once you start using your head instead of your cojones to survive.

• Characters vary in their tolerance of damage but even the badasses will get killed if you are not careful about where and when you fight. Unlike Resident Evil, zombies respawn. Getting into a seemingly easy fight can end up with your character limping home with a sliver of life left. As the damage accumulates your characters will incur wounds which give you a vitality penalty until you are treated. This is very dangerous in a game with no healing items. There are painkillers (which remove penalties temporarily and won't heal), wounds don't magically fix themselves after snorting/smoking green+red herbs. Once you switch characters, they'll go into rest or the infirmary if you built one and start recovering.

• Initially you only have two characters that you can switch between so, again, be very, very careful. As you complete missions, your friendship values with the person will grow and you'll be able to switch out with them. Once you have 5+ friends, you may become riskier.

• Melee is a very viable option in this game. Marcus can turn into a stimulant-jockey that jack knives the zombies into the grave. Remember to dodge and weave and roll. Melee requires you to kill the zombies one by one. Slow, yes but stamina regenerates. Ammo doesn't.

• This is probably a bug but the game is hard enough that this won't break it. As you discover supply caches (fuel, meds, ammo, construction materials and food), you'll be tempted to call the scavengers to get someone from the base to lug out what you cannot carry. You can get at least one extra supplies if you call the scavengers first and then take the last bit of supplies. Cheating, yes but in a game where resources do not respawn it can be necessary.

• Workshops repair weapons and cars every dawn. All weapons you leave in the stash will get repaired periodically. Don't destroy weapons just because they are about to break. Stash'em in the inventory and take something else. Cars left in the safehouse parking spot will get repaired. You can run out of cars too.

• If you find a cool weapon but don't have space to carry it home? Don't be afraid to eat/use pills/snacks or to destroy distraction items like firecrackers or flares so you can free a spot. I'm still bitter because I left a Mosin-Nagant in a gun shop, didn't carry it home and when the game entered simulation mode...someone went and nabbed it.

• Zombie hordes are dangerous and running them over with cars will damage the car so you'll need to be creative to deal with them. If a horde is heading to the base, try driving around with a car and slam on the horn. The zombies will start pursuing you. Lead them to a goose chase and then dump the car and make your way home.