What Happens When You Continue Your Community in State of Decay 2?

So, you’ve decimated the plague hearts, completed your leader’s legacy arc, and are staring down the “Disband” or “Continue” screen in State of Decay 2. The choice can be a tough one, filled with potential for both thrilling new challenges and heartbreaking losses. Choosing to “Continue” opens up a world of possibilities for your established community. But what exactly does that entail?

Simply put, when you choose to continue, you’re given the opportunity to take your current community of survivors, their skills, and their hard-earned gear, and move them to a new map, difficulty, and gameplay experience, allowing you to build on your progress and take on new challenges. Think of it as a New Game Plus mode, but with far more customization and control.

The Core Elements of Continuing

Here’s a breakdown of what you keep, what changes, and what you need to consider when continuing your community:

• Survivors and Their Skills: The biggest draw to continuing is undoubtedly bringing your leveled-up survivors along for the ride. All their skills, specializations, and equipped gear travel with them. This means you can start with a group of hardened veterans, ready to face whatever new threats await. However, those survivors can still die in the next playthrough.

• Locker Contents: Your supplies and resources stored in your Locker also make the journey. This provides a significant head-start, as you won’t be scavenging for basic necessities from the get-go. You can have all the weapons, ammo, and mods that you need for your next adventure.

• Vehicles: All vehicles parked at your base will be transported to the new map, allowing you to maintain that precious vehicular mobility right from the start.

• Map Reset: The map you move to will be completely fresh, just like when you start a new community. This means all plague hearts will be reset, and the map will be ripe for looting. This is a new chance to claim what you want.

• Difficulty Selection: You can adjust the difficulty settings for your next run. Want to ramp up the challenge with Nightmare or Lethal zones? Or perhaps you prefer a more relaxed experience on Standard? The choice is yours.

• Map Selection: State of Decay 2 offers a variety of maps, each with its own unique layout, resource distribution, and challenges. You are free to start in a new location of your choosing.

• Legacy Pool: Before continuing, you have the option to send survivors to the Legacy Pool. These survivors are effectively “retired” from your active community but are available to be recruited in future playthroughs. This is an excellent way to preserve your favorite characters and their unique skill combinations for later use.

The Advantages of Continuing

• Progression and Growth: Continuing allows you to build upon your previous successes. You can refine your strategies, further develop your survivors’ skills, and explore different leader legacies without starting completely from scratch each time.

• Experimentation: You can experiment with different maps, difficulties, and community compositions without losing all your progress. This fosters a deeper understanding of the game’s mechanics and allows you to tailor the experience to your preferences.

• Storytelling: Continuing can create a unique narrative arc for your community. You can track their progress, celebrate their triumphs, and mourn their losses as they face increasingly challenging scenarios.

• Long-Term Engagement: For players who enjoy the core gameplay loop of State of Decay 2, continuing offers a way to extend their engagement and enjoy the game for hundreds of hours.

Things to Consider Before Continuing

• The Grind: While continuing gives you a head start, it doesn’t eliminate the grind entirely. You’ll still need to scavenge for resources, build up your base, and deal with the constant threat of zombies and hostile humans.

• Community Size: With a soft cap of nine and a hard cap of twelve, you can’t recruit an infinite number of survivors. Choose wisely.

• Character Death: Remember that character death is permanent. Even your most skilled survivors are vulnerable, and losing them can be a significant blow to your community.

• Base Building: You will need to establish a new base of operations on the new map. It’s ideal to move after you’ve gained a few community members so you can get a bigger base.

Forever Communities

With the addition of Update 30, State of Decay 2 now allows for Forever Communities. These communities can be played indefinitely, allowing you to build the ultimate zombie survival stronghold.

Legacy Bonuses

Completing different legacy arcs grants you permanent boons that can be applied to new communities or continued ones. Builder legacy is often recommended for first time players.

FAQs: Continuing Your Community

Here are some frequently asked questions about continuing your community in State of Decay 2:

1. What happens to my base when I continue?

Your base and all its facilities are abandoned when you continue. You’ll need to choose a new base upon arriving on the new map.

2. Do I keep my influence when I move to a new map?

Yes, your Influence carries over, allowing you to immediately establish yourself on the new map.

3. Can I choose the same map again?

Yes, you can choose to move back to the same map you were previously on. This will reset the map, including plague hearts and resource spawns, but you’ll retain your community and resources.

4. What’s the difference between disbanding and continuing?

Disbanding wipes your community, and the survivors that you did not send to the Legacy Pool are gone forever, along with your locker contents. Continuing allows you to keep your survivors, skills, gear, and vehicles, and move to a new map and difficulty.

5. What happens if all my survivors die after I continue?

If all your survivors die, the game will end, and you’ll need to start a new community from scratch (unless you have survivors in your Legacy Pool).

6. Can I change the difficulty after I start the new map?

No, you cannot change the difficulty mid-game after continuing. You must choose the desired difficulty before moving to the new map.

7. Do enclaves reset when I move to a new map?

Yes, all enclaves reset, and new ones will spawn in on the new map. This provides fresh opportunities for alliances and quests.

8. How many survivors can I have in my community when I continue?

The game limits your community to a maximum of 12 survivors. Opportunities to recruit become rarer as you approach this limit.

9. What happens to my outposts when I continue?

All your outposts are abandoned when you continue. You’ll need to establish new ones on the new map.

10. Do I keep my leader’s boon if I continue?

Yes, you keep any legacy boons you’ve unlocked. These boons provide permanent bonuses to your community.

11. Is it possible to recruit an entire enclave to my community?

Sometimes enclaves will ask to join you as a group. It’s not always possible, but it can happen.

12. Are there any special items or weapons I should look for before continuing?

Any high-powered weapons, mods, or valuable resources are worth stocking up on before continuing, especially if you plan on increasing the difficulty. The best gun overall is the Eternal Guard’s Infinite Rage.

13. What’s the best map to move to after completing a legacy?

Meagher Valley is a great map to move to due to the number of buildings and the ability to loot.

14. Does continuing affect achievements?

Continuing generally doesn’t affect achievements, but some achievements may require specific actions or scenarios that are easier to achieve with a new community.

15. Where can I learn more about the best strategies for State of Decay 2?

The Games Learning Society website (GamesLearningSociety.org) is a great resource for learning more about game design, educational applications, and community engagement within gaming. While not directly focused on strategy guides, the Games Learning Society explores the broader context of gaming and learning, which can inform your approach to State of Decay 2.