Honestly this video came at such a perfect time. I just finished my first Nightmare Zone and was planning on tackling Lethal from this point on. Thank you for all the State of Decay 2 content it has been incredibly helpful since starting the game.
I remember watching some of your older videos and completing my first lethal zone playthrough. I just have to say that you explain and articulate the game and what you're doing so well. You're really intelligent with a chill personality so I see why you are so popular on here!!
love this channel, and I've learned so much about state of decay 2. Brian is the mean reason why I found the courage to kill the plague hearts by using melee weapons.
The luxury items sold for less than normal cuz the enclave was still neutral to his community. Once they become friendly, they offer better buy/sell prices. Once they become allied they offer even better prices again. I’m sure Brian knew this considering how much he’s played this game, but I suppose he just wasn’t thinking about it at the time.
Five years I've been watching you and I'm still learning. The concepts of going slow, stealthy and just being smart is subtle and not readily apparent when you are beginning. Perfectly displayed. Not just that but hella entertaining too.
Cujo was the name of the dog in the Stephen King book of the same name. Kojak was the name of the dog in the Stephen King book The Stand. Kojak was mans best friend and guardian while Cujo was basically a incarnate of Satan. Loved both stories.
My best tip for newer players - especially lethal zone - aim for at least trying to zero out your resource loss. While you are losing resources due to the day ticker, you have have a timer over your head. If you can zero out all of your losses or start gaining resources through outposts or enclaves, you have as much time as you need or want. On a side note - the first enclave with the curve ball active were 38 each (normally 34) and then it was 51 for those same quality items was because the second enclave started off friendly from the call in. So you got the advantage in selling at friendly. I try to refrain from buying resources if possible until Allied to unlock the allied purchase discount to really maximize the influence gain and loss.
You converted me to rationing, Brian. The bigger the community, the bigger the benefit! It's the difference between +5 food and +0 food in my community. Great to see you back in this awesome game bro!
Excellent guide! I understand most mechanics in this game with around 500 hours of gameplay, but Lethal still kicks my ass sometimes. It's always nice to see some new strategies.
Picked up this game over the holidays and happened across your earlier new player series. Finishing up another game before i start this one but needed to let you know you do super high quality work with these vids. Very appreciative. Peace!
New to your channel. Everything is crystal clear, spelling is impecable. I'm not native to english and I understand everything without any subtitles (Tough I had to switch my game to Eng so the tips and advices make more immediate sense IG). Your explanations are no bullshit, tempo is not too fast, not too slow, thank you very much. Not only it is a very good guide, but I also had a good time simply watching it. Thanks again.
I underestimated it at first but Drucker County literally drove me insane on lethal. Not only because of lethal but also because of bugs, especially when my truck got stuck so bad, even getting unstuck didn't work as my whole community got surrounded by hordes and hordes of Jugs and Ferals, no escape even for me. I was at the verge of a melt down but I rage quit then and there and honest to god it's my first proper rage quit in 20+ years of gaming... I oddly still love this game for some reason
Yea unless you're very confident in your driving abilities and/or really know Drucker I wouldn't do my first lethal attempt there; lethal's tough enough you don't need to lose cars and/or people to the horrible terrain and having to know all the driving short cuts.
I'm glad to see you're still doing SoD2 content! I've tried Lethal in the past inspired by videos like this, but after a few hours I got myself into an unescapable corner. I just find Lethal too stressful to play :P but I do enjoy watching your mastery of the game!
I've just gotten into State of Decay again, first time playing 2 and the highest I've finished is Dread. Looking forward to a fresh tutorial, a lot of the SOD2 content is over a year old :)
i don't need to watch the guide but i'm going to watch it x) cause i love state, i love you and i always learn something from you when you play the game
Didnt know you but.....amasing video. I love the way you explain your train of though so the less experience players like me can understand and follow the why of your many actions. I liked state of decay but since seeing this vid i see the game from a whole new perspective. Normally i would start a community and just finish and leave or not even finish it and jump to other game. Since this vid im allready in the third community trying diferent aproaches and dificulties. Good job men.
I don't understand why everyone is so down on Providence Ridge map for first learning this game. I started by doing the tutorial and went from green zone to nightmare playing this map as my initial foray into higher difficulty settings. For lethal, I think it's ideal because it all but guarantees you long-arms, sidearms and both light and heavy crossbows in the first ten minutes of play due to the gun store / military checkpoint and the camp grounds. Another often overlooked benefit of Providence is that it's easily divided up into quarters. Early game you stay small in the starter base, take the fruit stand as an outpost and work the northeast quadrant. After looting out the area and maxing out the food stand, move on. early to midgame you move into Rosie's, take the nearby water tower or electrical substation outpost and work the center area while gathering your people and getting them all up to snuff in fighting and/or shooting. Then you swap to the clearing the western third of the map by taking the Warehouse and cleaning out all the materials-heavy houses under construction while you max out your people's fifth skills working your way down towards the radio tower just northeast of the firehouse. Once you've got the people and skills to take the firehouse, you get to work clearing the bottom half of the map working your way west by taking another food stand between the firehouse and the Lumber Mill. At that point it's all just grinding out the few remaining hearts and the legacy mission. Personally, I skip taking the Firehouse as I prefer the Lumber Mill to it, and I usually snag the Chapel with the extra beds option just get all the morale bonuses and leave myself the sixth outpost slot as a floater for when I need to dump loot out in the sticks, but another good option is to grab a fuel or medical outpost along the midline east-west road. Anyway, TLDR: I highly recommend Providence Ridge as a good option for a first attempt at Lethal. My only caveat is to take a Mechanic or a Driver as this map is very demanding of fuel if you're into doing all the side missions. Also, if you bring legacy characters, make sure you snag a medium vehicle upgrade kit before importing them as this map has a lot of driving between stuff on long mostly-clear roads and it thus tempts you to both loot-goblin and drive fast, which invariably leads to not swerving around zombies as much as you should.
The main issue with starting on providence is it forces you to move out of the starter base way sooner then the main 3 maps. And outside of the main starting area which is the best in the game the resources get very spread out and force players into plague territory constantly once the starting area is looted. In turn that forces players to have to play more aggressive and play with a faster pace with will get people killed a lot of the time. But I will give you it has one of the best starting areas for loot but the travel it requires it so much and you will be risking waking up so many hearts left and right
Can't believe the game is still being updated! I've played it on and off over the years, always on highest difficulty. I find that I really only enjoy the early part tho, when resource survival is more an issue, having to make do with what you have, saving ammo, etc before it devolves into more of a "zombie shooter" game. When I get too many powerful guns and ammo and a very stable base, I restart the game to go back to the early game I love. I also only use newbie and random survivors to get more of that "desperate survivors just trying to get by" feeling.
Just got done with my first playthrough of Dreadzone after watching most of your new player guide from last year and I think I'm gonna be watching this in it's entirety. I can't wait to clear it myself, thanks for the vids!
Drucker has great loot availability around starting base. My last Lethal start on Cascade was brutal as far as ammo, fuel, and gas, but that could have been because bad luck with getting a black hearts on the map early and having to keep outpost traps running. Also didn't get anyone with trader the entire game so couldn't use the depot to call in some rucks.
Glad I found this channel the other day, and now this series. This game is always such a fun watch cuz it's like each survivor has their own mini story. And love all the info and tips. Definitely a new sub!
José makes me think that its better to be a warrior in a garden then a gardener in a war =) Love your content Brian keep up the good work thank that wife of yours for letting you come and hang with us =)
Hey Brian......Great New Player Guide for Lethal !!!!.....I have one Big Complaint with the guys at Undead Labs, the Special Weapon Cases that I've worked pretty Hard to find... NONE of them had a weapon in them, Other than a melee....they had high value trade items or ethanol !!!!!.....Shouldn't there be an Actual Weapon??? A Rifle or Pistol that's otherwise really hard to find ???.... I never thought of alcohol...tampons...cigars as a Special Weapon
Super interesting thank you! 🎉 I just started the game for the first time (thanx for Brian) and there's so much to learn. Having a very good time and even more so after learning all this. 😃✌️
Thank you for this play through series! A dear friend and I just picked up SOD2 and are loving it. We've started on easy mode for obvious reasons but, it's really helpful to have this sort of prep for the top tier difficulty run throughs. I look forward to viewing your entire series. #Subscribed
1:21:14 there are different trade values you can get for selling items. At the bottom of each “luxury item” in its description it’s has a category system such as high trade value, extraordinary trade value, usually better the descriptive word is the better it sells for. Haha
I was following this guide, was going great got a crossbow-got the fuel-fixed up the car. Drive 5 ft. and my car ran into a sign that glitched the car and made it catch on fire.
I started a new lethal community with fresh characters. I couldn't figure out how to pick characters that weren't in my legacy pool. So I did the tutorial. As usual your buddy gets infected during the tutorial and you drive away into the unknown to start the game. I spawn in at my starter base and see the guy only had 30 seconds left to live from blood plague and he promptly died as I panicked trying to remember how to check him into the infirmary to pause the timer. Wonderful start to my new adventure lol.
Hey Brian, just a bit of constructive criticism here, but I wish you would've talked about Hero Bonuses a bit when rolling for characters. I'm one of those players who prioritize Hero Bonuses over Traits in my community, and I've had several people ask doubts or not even know what Hero Bonuses were, how to get good ones, or how they worked; in the SoD2 discord channels. I agree it's not a new player thing but I urge anyone who's going for a Lethal Playthrough to get at least good or great Hero Bonuses, if not the Excellent ones like Hygiene Standards, Meal Plan, Morning Yoga, Tough Negotiations, etc. So glad you're doing another playthrough guide again. I loved all the previous guides you have, and its one of the reasons I'm at least semi-decent at the game right now. Keep the good work up mate!
I loved the part in the beginning where you explained how you are gonna be explaining things 🤣🤣🤣 Seriously though, these guides are so informative and entertaining at the same time! You’d be an amazing teacher! Thank you!
I had it 3 times now that when I started a map the first curveball was "out for blood" on day one, which is an active plague heart with a big circle where Zs are very aggressive and stronger than usual, constantly running around trying to f you up^^ I wonder how that would be on Lethal...
Me and my friend first started off at dread, learnt the mechanics beat the game and then jumped into lethal. It was hard at first in the beginning but we survived trumbull valley.
There are specific buildings Red Talon recruits can spawn in for each base and that warehouse the starter enclave spawns in is also the only one for this base UNLESS there's an enclave within a certain distance of it it which point it diverts to "secondary spawning mechanics" and will spawn them further away and in different, unpredictable locations making it take WAY longer if you're rerolling for a good RT recruit (RT recruits follow some similar spawning rules to enclaves; RvidD has an insanely detailed video on it as well as almost every game mechanic). So if you're planning to add one to your community early on on Cascade do that before finishing "Material World".
1:09:12 That said, deliberately causing a search crash can be useful (though dangerous) for pulling plague zed out of Plague heart territory-- but if you have an outpost with traps enabled nearby it can be free.
I am a very casual player, like i only play on green 😂, and i would say watching ur guide made my playthrough so much enjoyable because of everything i learned from u So thank u very much 🙏🌟💖
the worst of this lethal difficulty is the god damn Ferals. I mean... You can run away from Juggernauts, Screamers, Bloaters (assuming you can react quickly and avoid them when you drive) but you can't really kill a feral if you're all alone, at best, you can run zigzag and climb on top of cars, but nothing else, especially if you don't have a gun or anything on you than a melee weapon.
Yup I did that a couple times where I maxed on easy and went to lethal but I do that just to craft everything I need to destroy the hearts and when I go to lethal I destroy all the hearts and stuff finish get my boon and move on but I dont recommend that for any new player if they are not used to playing lethal so your 100% correct on that one 👍👍👍. After getting the boons tho I started playing it at start and not maxing out on easy
Something I find quite useful with this part is where you talk about the "Move an established community vs using three legacy survivors" thing. You make a lot of salient points about what happens when you take an existing community into Lethal Zone for the first time. However, from personal experience using my own Forever Community, I found it extremely possible (and relatively easy) to basically overgear and overbuild your community to take a lot of the sting out of Lethal going into it for the first time. One thing you didn't mention is that if you take an established community into a new map, you choose which base to start in. You don't have to start in the starter base. If you build up a lot of influence before moving maps, you can go into Lethal in a very, very powerful base like Whitney Field in Meagher Valley. Now, the thing about Whitney Field is that you can start to farm Standing and Influence without leaving the base. Getting your Survivors back up to Hero and taking advantage of their Hero Bonuses. This is important if you have a very well built community with, say, three Meal Plan survivors, 3 Hygiene Standards survivors, and filled out with other survivors with strong Hero Bonuses. You can build up lots of Plague Resistance and drop the punishing food requirements before even beginning to explore the map. If you have a couple of Red Talon survivors with, say, Gut Packing and Mobile Operations then that also massively boosts your infection resistance and makes your vehicles not quite so squishy. Another thing is, if you take time to prepare, you go into the base with a LOT of resources already available to you. And a lot of slots ready to build the things you need to make Lethal far less of a challenge. You can build a Field Hospital and an Infirmary to run double Primary Care, making blood plague basically a non-issue. You can build a trade depot to make resource scarcity a non-issue. If you use the other difficulties to build up a large stockpile of ammo (particularly 50 cal ammo), and take your survivors out with a Timberwolf as their primary weapon, then it makes Plague Ferals extremely easy to deal with, since you can just one shot them. Spend time customising your survivors to all get gunslinging and you barely ever have to worry about them. Also if you use the other difficulties to craft a large number of fuel bombs and scentblock then you also make plague hearts far less of a problem. If you prepare well, then you can essentially turn Lethal into Nightmare with Plague Ferals and persistent zombies after killing a heart. Even max difficulty Lethal. The only thing you really have to learn are skills that don't come from the game. Skills you do a good job of teaching in these guides. Knowing when to fight and when not to fight, being quiet and not overextending yourself, and not taking on everything just because it's there. The biggest thing about Lethal isn't the spawns or the toxicity of Blood Plague. It's learning how to play it the way it wants you to play it. Because you're right, it's not like the other difficulties. What this does do is turn the difficulty into a very different experience. Not the kind of experience you show in this guide. And that can either be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. If you want the full, terrifying, survival horror experience then yeah, don't do what I just said. Because it makes Lethal Zone rather easy. Go in with three new survivors and play the difficulty how the developers probably intended you to. However if you have a long standing community you've brought up through the difficulties and want to get your last set of boons for completions sake, then... well, my Forever Community ended up spending well over 100 days in lethal without a single character death, getting all the boons, and waking up all the hearts on a map just to farm sieges out of boredom. It's very possible to use an existing community but you have to put in a fair bit of prep work first and watch things like this to see how to approach things beyond just overpowering them.
Love the SOD2 throwback. Honestly a lot of the recent games you have been playing I wasnt interested in. I really wish you had kept up your BG3 playthrough, but I know that game is kinda hard to livestream. SOD2 is always a solid vid
In lethal zone, A simple group 5-6 zeds that surprises you at the wrong moment can be your undoing. It turns the early phase of the game in a stealth game, I LOVE that. In my experience, a surprise blood feral/feral pack is the #1 way a new lethal zone player will go down. #2 is blood plague, plain and simple, regardless of the source. Try it out with survivors you don't care about. I used to dislike the game on dread but I have a ton of fun on lethal.
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Hello Brian! He didn't give me a Crossbow. I got the 2 plague samples in a different way. I captured the outpost that gives ammunition. I activated the mine traps. I went there with the car and honked like crazy. The many zombies rushed towards me, but the traps killed them. If a zombie is killed by a mine, the plague heart does not wake up :)
It does make me laugh when I see you looking down to your left to see what Chat is saying when you do these recordings, good habit to have though. Your interaction is key to this community
Dude ive tried SOD soooo many times and just never had fun plus i felt it was hard af and too much todo but not enough todo it.... BUT!! After watching so many of these videos, you make me want to try again more and more. Ive learned soo much i feel more confident in success! Also im the kind of player i hate losing a mission nd have to try to beat everyone that comes up. You showed me its not neccessary in this game ❤ You da DOPEST OF THE DOPE!! 😂
1:15:13 it took me a little while but i’ve done 5 test runs just spawning and running the crossbow route. all 5 times i ended up with one. more often than not it was 1 in the first location and none in the barn. on the 4th run i found 3 crossbows. 2 in the barn. It’s a pretty small sample size but i had to sate curiosity
i really don't say this much with streamers, but dude you are awesome at this game, unlike some people who play this game like a idiot. you know what you're doing, you do the do's not the don'ts. you give tips as you play. I've gotten a crossbow from a gun shop. keep playing this game. i learn so much from you. I'm only here for your SOD2 videos. so great job. unlike some you have a brain for this game. keep it up!
I did a test and remade 10 cascade hill playthroughs. idk what youre talking about there always being a crossy in that barn because out of 10 times I only got 3 standard crossbows. lol so maybe they changed the chance? and all 10 times the shed the first enclave was in was already fully looted before they move in lol
fire throwables to stun them for a bit if theres normal houses around run thru them to confuse their AI park your car as Brian said and enter thru LEFT SIDE also enter said side when ferals are on that side so they cant get you thru right door and just reverse and escape as Brian said explosives and especially stun grenades to stun them smoke grenade to mask yourself and peacefully shoot them one by one while they can do nothing to you potentially run around with a shotgun + pistol since headshoting them with shotgun is much easier and ofc stamina items stamina items stamina items and carrying around 1 plague cure at all times if you are not confident about lethal zone but yeah N1 tip would be know where your car is since that should be your N1 escape plan in case things go bad (you could also cheese them by climbing on the car but thats up to you) also if you exit game and get back in all zombies around you will reset so you could also cheese most things in the game like that but do that on your "expense of fun"
Dodge back and attack as it's diving for you, right when it's in close. Don't attack from mid-range because they either counter attack or dodge back. Every hit they take, they will poke their head up and roar. Headshots then work well, but only after a second. They are immune to damage then (pretty sure) so don't waste the ammo.
saying where feral is, than finding him in a completely different direction. lol. Either your headphones are busted or you have coordination issues :-D.
Crazy that you say the leap from Nightmare to Lethal is astronomical; I haven't tried Lethal yet but I just finished a community on Dread and stepped up to Nightmare and holy shit was that 0->100.
No luck you have good luck my friend I never loot those... things cuz I never get loot I just get loot from people's houses and their garage if they have one 😂😂😂
This guide came out perfectly. I just had a lethal community and took a HUGE hit and lost 2 of my community members from just my own stupidity and trying to keep an enclave from leaving (plague attackers), who ended up dying right next to me. Had to walk away, but nice to get a refresher and still even learned a better strategy. Thanks Brian! Love the content!
How does one max out Wits in a few seconds? Last i checked it was the slowest skill to level because you only level it by looting and stealth kills. And to get no search crash at all you need to max wits and then max stealth so that alone will take a lot more then a few seconds especially on lethal zone where skills take AGES to level.
@BrianMenard If you grab a zombie from behind, shove him forward, dodge towards him IMMEDIATELY, and stealth kill him, it maxes out in like four kills. The timing is a bit awkward if you're not used to it. And it maxes out both Wits and Stealth; it's like three stars per kill. It's insanely broken.
Honestly this video came at such a perfect time. I just finished my first Nightmare Zone and was planning on tackling Lethal from this point on. Thank you for all the State of Decay 2 content it has been incredibly helpful since starting the game.
I remember watching some of your older videos and completing my first lethal zone playthrough. I just have to say that you explain and articulate the game and what you're doing so well. You're really intelligent with a chill personality so I see why you are so popular on here!!
love this channel, and I've learned so much about state of decay 2. Brian is the mean reason why I found the courage to kill the plague hearts by using melee weapons.
Facts
Back at it again. Keep up the great work and content my dude 👍🏿
Thank you so much !!!
The luxury items sold for less than normal cuz the enclave was still neutral to his community. Once they become friendly, they offer better buy/sell prices. Once they become allied they offer even better prices again.
I’m sure Brian knew this considering how much he’s played this game, but I suppose he just wasn’t thinking about it at the time.
Is it better to just wait to sell to allied enclaves?
@@bigarm4598 Unless you are desperate for influence at the moment, I think yes. I hardly ever sell to neutral or friendly.
Once they become allied they just sell for better prices. Like a rucksack 175 to 125. If YOU want to sell something, friendly unclave is enough
Five years I've been watching you and I'm still learning. The concepts of going slow, stealthy and just being smart is subtle and not readily apparent when you are beginning. Perfectly displayed. Not just that but hella entertaining too.
Cujo was the name of the dog in the Stephen King book of the same name. Kojak was the name of the dog in the Stephen King book The Stand. Kojak was mans best friend and guardian while Cujo was basically a incarnate of Satan. Loved both stories.
kojack was aslo a cop show lol
@@lancelusco7448 Yep. My parents used to watch it.
Is this normal campaign mode or is this heartlands?
@@Thelilantjr normal is way harder then heartland now lol
My best tip for newer players - especially lethal zone - aim for at least trying to zero out your resource loss. While you are losing resources due to the day ticker, you have have a timer over your head. If you can zero out all of your losses or start gaining resources through outposts or enclaves, you have as much time as you need or want.
On a side note - the first enclave with the curve ball active were 38 each (normally 34) and then it was 51 for those same quality items was because the second enclave started off friendly from the call in. So you got the advantage in selling at friendly. I try to refrain from buying resources if possible until Allied to unlock the allied purchase discount to really maximize the influence gain and loss.
You converted me to rationing, Brian. The bigger the community, the bigger the benefit! It's the difference between +5 food and +0 food in my community. Great to see you back in this awesome game bro!
@Fedsmoker4455 I totally agree! Watch any of my content and you will see zero cheats, cheese or OP :)
Is this normal campaign mode or is this heartlands? 😊
Normal@@Thelilantjr
Excellent guide! I understand most mechanics in this game with around 500 hours of gameplay, but Lethal still kicks my ass sometimes.
It's always nice to see some new strategies.
I started my official lethal community and I didint get jumped by three farels at the beginning surprisingly
Started sod2 few days ago an watched all your videos on new players guide before I started literally helped me understand the game cheers bro👌🏻
Picked up this game over the holidays and happened across your earlier new player series. Finishing up another game before i start this one but needed to let you know you do super high quality work with these vids. Very appreciative. Peace!
New to your channel. Everything is crystal clear, spelling is impecable. I'm not native to english and I understand everything without any subtitles (Tough I had to switch my game to Eng so the tips and advices make more immediate sense IG). Your explanations are no bullshit, tempo is not too fast, not too slow, thank you very much. Not only it is a very good guide, but I also had a good time simply watching it. Thanks again.
Thank you so much !
I underestimated it at first but Drucker County literally drove me insane on lethal. Not only because of lethal but also because of bugs, especially when my truck got stuck so bad, even getting unstuck didn't work as my whole community got surrounded by hordes and hordes of Jugs and Ferals, no escape even for me. I was at the verge of a melt down but I rage quit then and there and honest to god it's my first proper rage quit in 20+ years of gaming... I oddly still love this game for some reason
Yea unless you're very confident in your driving abilities and/or really know Drucker I wouldn't do my first lethal attempt there; lethal's tough enough you don't need to lose cars and/or people to the horrible terrain and having to know all the driving short cuts.
Good shit !! Love it
I'm glad to see you're still doing SoD2 content! I've tried Lethal in the past inspired by videos like this, but after a few hours I got myself into an unescapable corner. I just find Lethal too stressful to play :P but I do enjoy watching your mastery of the game!
I've just gotten into State of Decay again, first time playing 2 and the highest I've finished is Dread. Looking forward to a fresh tutorial, a lot of the SOD2 content is over a year old :)
i don't need to watch the guide but i'm going to watch it x) cause i love state, i love you and i always learn something from you when you play the game
Didnt know you but.....amasing video. I love the way you explain your train of though so the less experience players like me can understand and follow the why of your many actions. I liked state of decay but since seeing this vid i see the game from a whole new perspective. Normally i would start a community and just finish and leave or not even finish it and jump to other game. Since this vid im allready in the third community trying diferent aproaches and dificulties. Good job men.
I don't understand why everyone is so down on Providence Ridge map for first learning this game. I started by doing the tutorial and went from green zone to nightmare playing this map as my initial foray into higher difficulty settings. For lethal, I think it's ideal because it all but guarantees you long-arms, sidearms and both light and heavy crossbows in the first ten minutes of play due to the gun store / military checkpoint and the camp grounds. Another often overlooked benefit of Providence is that it's easily divided up into quarters. Early game you stay small in the starter base, take the fruit stand as an outpost and work the northeast quadrant. After looting out the area and maxing out the food stand, move on. early to midgame you move into Rosie's, take the nearby water tower or electrical substation outpost and work the center area while gathering your people and getting them all up to snuff in fighting and/or shooting. Then you swap to the clearing the western third of the map by taking the Warehouse and cleaning out all the materials-heavy houses under construction while you max out your people's fifth skills working your way down towards the radio tower just northeast of the firehouse. Once you've got the people and skills to take the firehouse, you get to work clearing the bottom half of the map working your way west by taking another food stand between the firehouse and the Lumber Mill. At that point it's all just grinding out the few remaining hearts and the legacy mission. Personally, I skip taking the Firehouse as I prefer the Lumber Mill to it, and I usually snag the Chapel with the extra beds option just get all the morale bonuses and leave myself the sixth outpost slot as a floater for when I need to dump loot out in the sticks, but another good option is to grab a fuel or medical outpost along the midline east-west road.
Anyway, TLDR: I highly recommend Providence Ridge as a good option for a first attempt at Lethal. My only caveat is to take a Mechanic or a Driver as this map is very demanding of fuel if you're into doing all the side missions. Also, if you bring legacy characters, make sure you snag a medium vehicle upgrade kit before importing them as this map has a lot of driving between stuff on long mostly-clear roads and it thus tempts you to both loot-goblin and drive fast, which invariably leads to not swerving around zombies as much as you should.
The main issue with starting on providence is it forces you to move out of the starter base way sooner then the main 3 maps. And outside of the main starting area which is the best in the game the resources get very spread out and force players into plague territory constantly once the starting area is looted. In turn that forces players to have to play more aggressive and play with a faster pace with will get people killed a lot of the time. But I will give you it has one of the best starting areas for loot but the travel it requires it so much and you will be risking waking up so many hearts left and right
Can't believe the game is still being updated! I've played it on and off over the years, always on highest difficulty.
I find that I really only enjoy the early part tho, when resource survival is more an issue, having to make do with what you have, saving ammo, etc before it devolves into more of a "zombie shooter" game. When I get too many powerful guns and ammo and a very stable base, I restart the game to go back to the early game I love. I also only use newbie and random survivors to get more of that "desperate survivors just trying to get by" feeling.
Just got done with my first playthrough of Dreadzone after watching most of your new player guide from last year and I think I'm gonna be watching this in it's entirety. I can't wait to clear it myself, thanks for the vids!
Drucker has great loot availability around starting base. My last Lethal start on Cascade was brutal as far as ammo, fuel, and gas, but that could have been because bad luck with getting a black hearts on the map early and having to keep outpost traps running. Also didn't get anyone with trader the entire game so couldn't use the depot to call in some rucks.
Glad I found this channel the other day, and now this series. This game is always such a fun watch cuz it's like each survivor has their own mini story. And love all the info and tips. Definitely a new sub!
From one Brian to another you sir are a SOD 2 God!
Keep up the great work Sr
José makes me think that its better to be a warrior in a garden then a gardener in a war =)
Love your content Brian keep up the good work thank that wife of yours for letting you come and hang with us =)
Gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet.. go lethal
Your videos are the main reason why i crush lethal zone. The way you teach gave me the tools to handle surprises.
@brianmenard , always enjoy watching. Would love to see you tackle Heat Train, or Pacific Drive.
Only tried Lethal once, in Trumbull Valley, just two days ago. Lost 2 people after 10 minutes to a feral right in front of the base... 😄
Appreciate you coming back to SOD2 now and again as am only on xbox, like your game choices.
Hey Brian......Great New Player Guide for Lethal !!!!.....I have one Big Complaint with the guys at Undead Labs, the Special Weapon Cases that I've worked pretty Hard to find...
NONE of them had a weapon in them, Other than a melee....they had high value trade items or ethanol !!!!!.....Shouldn't there be an Actual Weapon??? A Rifle or Pistol that's otherwise really hard to find ???.... I never thought of alcohol...tampons...cigars as a Special Weapon
great video Brian
Glad you enjoyed it
Super interesting thank you! 🎉
I just started the game for the first time (thanx for Brian) and there's so much to learn.
Having a very good time and even more so after learning all this. 😃✌️
Needed this - my first lethal run got wrecked by a black plague heart
Thank you for this play through series! A dear friend and I just picked up SOD2 and are loving it. We've started on easy mode for obvious reasons but, it's really helpful to have this sort of prep for the top tier difficulty run throughs.
I look forward to viewing your entire series.
#Subscribed
I definitely needed this guide, whatever I do I jus can’t stop waking up the hearts in lethal 😂
You are the only reason I can play lethal zone with out being scared shitless
1:21:14 there are different trade values you can get for selling items. At the bottom of each “luxury item” in its description it’s has a category system such as high trade value, extraordinary trade value, usually better the descriptive word is the better it sells for. Haha
Each item sells for more depending on your reputation with the survivors with neutral being the worst and allied being the best
Gonna start a lethal zone run soon! Super thankful for this guide man.
I was following this guide, was going great got a crossbow-got the fuel-fixed up the car. Drive 5 ft. and my car ran into a sign that glitched the car and made it catch on fire.
Took a drink every time he said "3 food." Now I'm almost ded.
Never seen/played/ will ever play this game but it was so interesting to watch
Great to see you play some SOD.
I started a new lethal community with fresh characters. I couldn't figure out how to pick characters that weren't in my legacy pool. So I did the tutorial. As usual your buddy gets infected during the tutorial and you drive away into the unknown to start the game. I spawn in at my starter base and see the guy only had 30 seconds left to live from blood plague and he promptly died as I panicked trying to remember how to check him into the infirmary to pause the timer. Wonderful start to my new adventure lol.
I’ve never rolled anyone like Jose I wish lol
Hey Brian, just a bit of constructive criticism here, but I wish you would've talked about Hero Bonuses a bit when rolling for characters. I'm one of those players who prioritize Hero Bonuses over Traits in my community, and I've had several people ask doubts or not even know what Hero Bonuses were, how to get good ones, or how they worked; in the SoD2 discord channels. I agree it's not a new player thing but I urge anyone who's going for a Lethal Playthrough to get at least good or great Hero Bonuses, if not the Excellent ones like Hygiene Standards, Meal Plan, Morning Yoga, Tough Negotiations, etc.
So glad you're doing another playthrough guide again. I loved all the previous guides you have, and its one of the reasons I'm at least semi-decent at the game right now. Keep the good work up mate!
Good stream, explaining, tbh this is very good dude ! good stream !
Stumbled across your content and gotta say man This is exactly what I'm here for.
I loved the part in the beginning where you explained how you are gonna be explaining things 🤣🤣🤣 Seriously though, these guides are so informative and entertaining at the same time! You’d be an amazing teacher! Thank you!
I had it 3 times now that when I started a map the first curveball was "out for blood" on day one, which is an active plague heart with a big circle where Zs are very aggressive and stronger than usual, constantly running around trying to f you up^^
I wonder how that would be on Lethal...
It would be awesome, if they would add clothes with stats. For example:
1. Sneakers
- reduced sound caused by running
- reduced sound caused by walking
2. Running shoes
- improved running distance
- improved running speed
3. Army gloves
- improved weapon control
- improved weapon life time
4. Tactical army gloves
- improved search speed (not faster than quick search)
- reduced possiblity of failed quick search
5. SWAT helmet
- reduced damage
6. Headlamp
- brighter light
7. SWAT vest
- improved plague infection resistance
8. SWAT trousers
- reduced damage caused by falling
Use your start group to get as much loot as possible. Very powerful group eg 3 people.
Me and my friend first started off at dread, learnt the mechanics beat the game and then jumped into lethal. It was hard at first in the beginning but we survived trumbull valley.
With all the updates; it seems more difficult to get Blood Plague Survivors
There are specific buildings Red Talon recruits can spawn in for each base and that warehouse the starter enclave spawns in is also the only one for this base UNLESS there's an enclave within a certain distance of it it which point it diverts to "secondary spawning mechanics" and will spawn them further away and in different, unpredictable locations making it take WAY longer if you're rerolling for a good RT recruit (RT recruits follow some similar spawning rules to enclaves; RvidD has an insanely detailed video on it as well as almost every game mechanic). So if you're planning to add one to your community early on on Cascade do that before finishing "Material World".
1:09:12 That said, deliberately causing a search crash can be useful (though dangerous) for pulling plague zed out of Plague heart territory-- but if you have an outpost with traps enabled nearby it can be free.
Just got back into SoD2 today and this will definitely help when i attempt lethal zone
I am a very casual player, like i only play on green 😂, and i would say watching ur guide made my playthrough so much enjoyable because of everything i learned from u So thank u very much 🙏🌟💖
Hey, a fellow green zoner! I personally like to dominate the apocalypse! 😂
Hey Brian I just wanna say your content is always solid and I enjoy your apocalyptic themed games.
Just a suggestion : Maybe make a video about some great mods that are compatible with the latest version :)
the worst of this lethal difficulty is the god damn Ferals. I mean... You can run away from Juggernauts, Screamers, Bloaters (assuming you can react quickly and avoid them when you drive) but you can't really kill a feral if you're all alone, at best, you can run zigzag and climb on top of cars, but nothing else, especially if you don't have a gun or anything on you than a melee weapon.
I got my crossbow out the shed past the mechanic shop right b4 the survey point leave ur base and drive straight it's on right side red shed.. mats 2
Brian is the reason I bumped up to lethal in 2022. No one else.
Yup I did that a couple times where I maxed on easy and went to lethal but I do that just to craft everything I need to destroy the hearts and when I go to lethal I destroy all the hearts and stuff finish get my boon and move on but I dont recommend that for any new player if they are not used to playing lethal so your 100% correct on that one 👍👍👍. After getting the boons tho I started playing it at start and not maxing out on easy
Is this normal campaign mode or is this heartlands?
Great guide learning a lot 👍
Something I find quite useful with this part is where you talk about the "Move an established community vs using three legacy survivors" thing. You make a lot of salient points about what happens when you take an existing community into Lethal Zone for the first time. However, from personal experience using my own Forever Community, I found it extremely possible (and relatively easy) to basically overgear and overbuild your community to take a lot of the sting out of Lethal going into it for the first time.
One thing you didn't mention is that if you take an established community into a new map, you choose which base to start in. You don't have to start in the starter base. If you build up a lot of influence before moving maps, you can go into Lethal in a very, very powerful base like Whitney Field in Meagher Valley.
Now, the thing about Whitney Field is that you can start to farm Standing and Influence without leaving the base. Getting your Survivors back up to Hero and taking advantage of their Hero Bonuses. This is important if you have a very well built community with, say, three Meal Plan survivors, 3 Hygiene Standards survivors, and filled out with other survivors with strong Hero Bonuses. You can build up lots of Plague Resistance and drop the punishing food requirements before even beginning to explore the map. If you have a couple of Red Talon survivors with, say, Gut Packing and Mobile Operations then that also massively boosts your infection resistance and makes your vehicles not quite so squishy.
Another thing is, if you take time to prepare, you go into the base with a LOT of resources already available to you. And a lot of slots ready to build the things you need to make Lethal far less of a challenge. You can build a Field Hospital and an Infirmary to run double Primary Care, making blood plague basically a non-issue. You can build a trade depot to make resource scarcity a non-issue.
If you use the other difficulties to build up a large stockpile of ammo (particularly 50 cal ammo), and take your survivors out with a Timberwolf as their primary weapon, then it makes Plague Ferals extremely easy to deal with, since you can just one shot them. Spend time customising your survivors to all get gunslinging and you barely ever have to worry about them.
Also if you use the other difficulties to craft a large number of fuel bombs and scentblock then you also make plague hearts far less of a problem. If you prepare well, then you can essentially turn Lethal into Nightmare with Plague Ferals and persistent zombies after killing a heart. Even max difficulty Lethal. The only thing you really have to learn are skills that don't come from the game. Skills you do a good job of teaching in these guides. Knowing when to fight and when not to fight, being quiet and not overextending yourself, and not taking on everything just because it's there. The biggest thing about Lethal isn't the spawns or the toxicity of Blood Plague. It's learning how to play it the way it wants you to play it. Because you're right, it's not like the other difficulties.
What this does do is turn the difficulty into a very different experience. Not the kind of experience you show in this guide. And that can either be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. If you want the full, terrifying, survival horror experience then yeah, don't do what I just said. Because it makes Lethal Zone rather easy. Go in with three new survivors and play the difficulty how the developers probably intended you to. However if you have a long standing community you've brought up through the difficulties and want to get your last set of boons for completions sake, then... well, my Forever Community ended up spending well over 100 days in lethal without a single character death, getting all the boons, and waking up all the hearts on a map just to farm sieges out of boredom. It's very possible to use an existing community but you have to put in a fair bit of prep work first and watch things like this to see how to approach things beyond just overpowering them.
Love the SOD2 throwback. Honestly a lot of the recent games you have been playing I wasnt interested in. I really wish you had kept up your BG3 playthrough, but I know that game is kinda hard to livestream. SOD2 is always a solid vid
Just a tip If your on Xbox one Trumbull valley crashes the game alot, which sucks cause it’s my favorite map
In lethal zone,
A simple group 5-6 zeds that surprises you at the wrong moment can be your undoing.
It turns the early phase of the game in a stealth game, I LOVE that.
In my experience, a surprise blood feral/feral pack is the #1 way a new lethal zone player will go down.
#2 is blood plague, plain and simple, regardless of the source.
Try it out with survivors you don't care about.
I used to dislike the game on dread but I have a ton of fun on lethal.
Hello Brian!
He didn't give me a Crossbow. I got the 2 plague samples in a different way. I captured the outpost that gives ammunition. I activated the mine traps. I went there with the car and honked like crazy. The many zombies rushed towards me, but the traps killed them. If a zombie is killed by a mine, the plague heart does not wake up :)
Doing gods work as always as I see. Thank you for your content, Man.
Fast searching cost my survivor her life. Never again. Thank you for the awesome & educational content!
01:30:04 Now I know how are you walking home friends when they get drunk... :D
Waiting on the next sod 2 upload but I started a lethal zone and I also got the survey car. And it has been wonderful for going out and doing recon!
Having completed a Red Talon solo operator Lethal run, sooo sooo much fun
It does make me laugh when I see you looking down to your left to see what Chat is saying when you do these recordings, good habit to have though. Your interaction is key to this community
Cujo is the name of that dog. It’s a Stephen king book/movie.
Love the channel man.
CUJO was the rabid dog movie you were talking about. Great content as usual!
Dude ive tried SOD soooo many times and just never had fun plus i felt it was hard af and too much todo but not enough todo it....
BUT!!
After watching so many of these videos, you make me want to try again more and more. Ive learned soo much i feel more confident in success!
Also im the kind of player i hate losing a mission nd have to try to beat everyone that comes up. You showed me its not neccessary in this game ❤
You da DOPEST OF THE DOPE!! 😂
1:15:13 it took me a little while but i’ve done 5 test runs just spawning and running the crossbow route. all 5 times i ended up with one. more often than not it was 1 in the first location and none in the barn. on the 4th run i found 3 crossbows. 2 in the barn. It’s a pretty small sample size but i had to sate curiosity
Thanks for this man
High trade value items are worth 34 normally. Extraordinary trade value is worth 102. So you got a +4 for your items
Undead Labs should add "follow" and "wait" commands whenever player go with followers
i really don't say this much with streamers, but dude you are awesome at this game, unlike some people who play this game like a idiot. you know what you're doing, you do the do's not the don'ts. you give tips as you play. I've gotten a crossbow from a gun shop. keep playing this game. i learn so much from you. I'm only here for your SOD2 videos. so great job. unlike some you have a brain for this game. keep it up!
as soon as he said you get ripped apart by a feral i i got ripped apart 😭
I started a new game and got hit with the black heart/fuel drain curveball right away, it's messing me all the way up 😂
The bloalters are the omes that get me
They just pop up in front me and then I'm infected and die
I did a test and remade 10 cascade hill playthroughs. idk what youre talking about there always being a crossy in that barn because out of 10 times I only got 3 standard crossbows. lol so maybe they changed the chance? and all 10 times the shed the first enclave was in was already fully looted before they move in lol
how do you deal with a feral horde i always die when they aggro onto me
fire throwables to stun them for a bit
if theres normal houses around run thru them to confuse their AI
park your car as Brian said and enter thru LEFT SIDE also enter said side when ferals are on that side so they cant get you thru right door and just reverse and escape
as Brian said explosives and especially stun grenades to stun them
smoke grenade to mask yourself and peacefully shoot them one by one while they can do nothing to you
potentially run around with a shotgun + pistol since headshoting them with shotgun is much easier
and ofc stamina items stamina items stamina items and carrying around 1 plague cure at all times if you are not confident about lethal zone
but yeah N1 tip would be know where your car is since that should be your N1 escape plan in case things go bad (you could also cheese them by climbing on the car but thats up to you)
also if you exit game and get back in all zombies around you will reset so you could also cheese most things in the game like that but do that on your "expense of fun"
Dodge back and attack as it's diving for you, right when it's in close. Don't attack from mid-range because they either counter attack or dodge back.
Every hit they take, they will poke their head up and roar. Headshots then work well, but only after a second.
They are immune to damage then (pretty sure) so don't waste the ammo.
saying where feral is, than finding him in a completely different direction. lol. Either your headphones are busted or you have coordination issues :-D.
Crazy that you say the leap from Nightmare to Lethal is astronomical; I haven't tried Lethal yet but I just finished a community on Dread and stepped up to Nightmare and holy shit was that 0->100.
I dont know if you've ever heard this before, but I really think that you're one of the most calm TH-camrs out there
one of my underated utubers
No luck you have good luck my friend I never loot those... things cuz I never get loot I just get loot from people's houses and their garage if they have one 😂😂😂
This guide came out perfectly. I just had a lethal community and took a HUGE hit and lost 2 of my community members from just my own stupidity and trying to keep an enclave from leaving (plague attackers), who ended up dying right next to me. Had to walk away, but nice to get a refresher and still even learned a better strategy. Thanks Brian! Love the content!
Great vid, thanks!
The shed you said to grab right away before the enclave moved in turned out to be pre looted for me 😂 what are the odds
1:09:31 - If you max out Wits (which can be done in just a few seconds) you make it so you never search crash.
How does one max out Wits in a few seconds? Last i checked it was the slowest skill to level because you only level it by looting and stealth kills. And to get no search crash at all you need to max wits and then max stealth so that alone will take a lot more then a few seconds especially on lethal zone where skills take AGES to level.
@BrianMenard If you grab a zombie from behind, shove him forward, dodge towards him IMMEDIATELY, and stealth kill him, it maxes out in like four kills. The timing is a bit awkward if you're not used to it. And it maxes out both Wits and Stealth; it's like three stars per kill. It's insanely broken.