Evan Smith 
It’s been 6 years since players have been able to scour the zombie infested Trumbull Valley from State of Decay. This time around things are different: Plague hearts, as well as State of Decays 2’s new plague freaks, will be running rife in the Valley, with the DLC adding over 8 hours of story-focused gameplay and has available pairs of survivors with their own stories.
The Last Wilkerson
“In ‘The Last Wilkerson’, a defiant young woman travels to Trumbull Valley, along with her loving but emotionally distant aunt, in search of her estranged father. When her father doesn’t turn out to be who she thought he was, she must grapple with her identity in order to find the strength to fight the growing threat of blood plague that is overtaking the valley.”
Searching for Santos
“In ‘Searching for Santos’, a grizzled ex-con must pair up with an idealistic young partner and travel to radio-silent Trumbull Valley in order to track down a valuable ally. These unlikely companions must overcome their differences and learn to work together before the insidious blood plague overtakes the valley.”
This guide will offer general advice for surviving and thriving during State of Decay 2’s Heartland DLC; it won’t be relating to any specific story-based content.
Jurassic Junction
Jurassic Junction is the largest home site ever in State of Decay 2; it’s given to players right at the start of the Heartland DLC. It comes with the following amenities…
- 4 Parking Spaces
- Base Defence slot
- Fuel Extractor
- Medical Tent
- Farming Complex
- Basic Kitchen
- Basic Lab
- Repair Depot
- Barracks
There are 6 empty slots which the player can choose to build in; the aforementioned amenities can also be scrapped and repurposed to the player’s desire. Jurassic Junction is a well equipped home site, it puts you in a strong position to start pillaging Trumbull Valley.
Influence
Influence is the currency of State of Decay 2 and it returns in Heartland, fulfilling the same function. It can be used to trade with friendly enclaves, allowing the player to purchase useful items, such as resources, ammo and weapons.
Influence can be quickly stacked by selling excess items to friendly enclaves such as ammo and melee weapons. Valuables can be found throughout Trumbull Valley, these are high value items that can be sold for large amounts of Influence.
Radio
The radio has many functions within State of Decay 2’s Heartland DLC. It’s most useful function for beginner players is the ability to trade small amounts of reputation to locate resources. This is exceptionally useful for when your community is going through a hard time or if you can’t be bothered to complete the survey points around the map.
Resources
Resources are found by scavenging various buildings and locations around Trumbull Valley. All resources can either be broken down into individual components, or deposited at the players home base in order to benefit the community. Resources are continually used to maintain the player’s community and need to be continuously collected in order to survive. There are Five types of resources to scavenge:
- Food – Vital for maintaining happiness within the player’s community
- Medicine – Medicine helps keep everyone in the communities health at its maximum capacity
- Ammunition – Ammunition is often found within gun stores and makes certain that your weapons are locked and loaded for the fights ahead
- Materials – Materials are used for expanding and upgrading the player’s home base, they can be found within building sites and garages
- Fuel – Fuel is used to maintain vehicles parked at the player’s home base, it can be broken down into fuel cans used to keep cars running
Survey Points
The Survey points located around Trumbull Valley are a vital addition to the players arsenal when trying to survive the zombie threat. These climbable towers offer the player an opportunity to map out the locations of valuable scavenging points, various vehicles as well as plague freaks and hoards.There are a total of 10 Survey points in Trumbull Valley; these can be completed at any time throughout the DLC. Some players may find it helpful to complete all of the Survey points before advancing the story, however it is equally practical to complete them as the story takes you around the main locations of Trumbull Valley.
Plague Samples
Like the main game, the blood plague is a constant (albeit sometime arbitrary) threat. With conscious planning, one shouldn’t find themselves running into too much trouble. Regardless, it’s necessary for the player to stockpile as many plague samples as they can get their hands on; NPCs are liable to contracting plague too and can often take a lot of damage when clearing out plague hearts
Plague samples can be obtained in bulk from clearing out the plague hearts located around Trumbull Valley, or they can be alternatively obtained from the bodies of plague zombies. Plague zombies can be recognised by their blood red skin and Bright red eyes.
Plague Hearts
The Plague Hearts can seem intimidating at first but with the right know how, you’ll be able to destroy them in no time. Plague hearts are most easily taken out with the use of explosives. Explosives can be found throughout the world and also crafted at the players home site.
As well as this, you might want to bring a item that distracts zombies like the boombox or firecrackers. As the Plague Hearts become damaged, zombies swarm the player, it is important to be equipped with a good melee weapon and a character proficient in fighting.
Skills
Each character within State of Decay 2 has a set of skills; some skills such as cardio, wits, shooting and fighting are universal amongst all characters. Community skills like cooking, gardening and chemistry are specialist skills. These skills either are pre-learnt by a character before they join your community, or can be taught by finding a skill book on the map.
Skills can be levelled up in various ways: Universal skills are improved by practising their designated activities (i.e. fighting, running). Community skills are levelled up completing tasks within the community relevant to the skill (i.e. harvesting crops to improve the gardening skill).
Each of the skills can be ranked up to 7 stars, at which point the player has a choice to specialise in a certain branch of that skill. Specialisations bring unique upgrades to a character’s skill set and make surviving the blood plague in Trumbull Valley a whole lot easier.
These starter tips should make your stay in Trumbull Valley a hell of a lot easier. Remember to keep an eye on GameRVW.com for more video game guides.
