1 in 500 State of Decay 2 owners are finishing the game on nightmare. Top 5 tips you need in order to do it.

Where did I get that stat? Well when you destroy all the plague hearts in a nightmare zone this will pop up: “Achievement Unlocked — 0.2% of players have unlocked this”

It has been brutal. But from the first time I played State of Decay 2 I felt like it needed a harder difficulty. So after SEVERAL failed nightmare playthroughs I finally got enough momentum and knowledge around how to execute a nightmare playthrough quickly and efficiently and wanted to share this info.

#1 – You really need to come into the game with a bunch of stuff from another playthrough

I personally am very strict about following the lore of this game. If you are bringing in materials from normal difficulty playthroughs or you started the game in normal and then set it to nightmare I think you have broken the game and cheated in my opinion. Bringing in items from past lives is totally fine because you can conceivably imagine three players from another town entering into a “nightmare” town.

So I would put a material ruck on all of your incoming characters. The first thing you need to get up is a medical bay to start healing your people. Outside of this:
– One person with automechanic skill is essential
– 200 rounds of ammo
– M16s and M4s with silencers on them
– A few high end melee weapons
– 200 spare parts
– Press for making 5.56 ammo (ESSENTIAL)
– 12 pipe bombs or napalm
– Vehicle upgrade kits

#2 – Never touch a zombie with one of your vehicles — vehicles are literally the only thing keeping you alive in nightmare

I cannot stress how important vehicles are. I drop into areas where I need to loot, I grab the stuff, and I get out as quickly as possible. Even with silencers you are going to alert zombies and a horde so big will come you simply can’t handle them. The hordes are just too huge in nightmare to even begin facing them.

#3 – When you get into a sticky situation just quit out of the game

I know this is a scummy way to deal with bad situations but it is technically “fair” and you are following the rules of the game. If I am without a car and 3 ferals spawn on me and I have no ammo I am going to quit out. If 2 Juggernauts show up and start ripping my beloved base members in half I am going to quit out.

#4 – Keeping the autoshop up and creating repair kits has been the most important thing for me

I never ever touch a zombie with my vehicle and they still break down constantly. Do you know why? Because you can run through a house, grab the ruck, go out the back window and jump in your vehicle. Because vehicles take about an hour to get moving you are always going to have about 4 or 5 zombies hanging off your vehicle. Every second they are touching your car they are doing huge amounts of damage to it. Within seconds in nightmare it has blown up and caught on fire and you are screwed again.

#5 – A few final tips

Thankfully in nightmare you are usually drowning in influence points. I would rather spend 175 influence on an ammo ruck than going out and looking for it most of the time.

These things were a godsend for me:
– Emergency supplies drops — drops in gas for you
– Calling traders in to my base — just to get more ruck
– Would recommend trader leadership. Warlord was difficult.

These things were useless:
– Airdrops / mortar. Doesn’t even work most of the time.
– Assault plague heart ability. Didn’t even work most of the time.