State of Decay 2 will continue to evolve in 2022, upcoming update changes Infestations system

What you need to know

• State of Decay 2 is an ongoing post-apocalyptic community survival game that pits players against hordes of dangerous zombies.
• Undead Labs has supported the title for years with constant updates and new features, which will continue through 2022 with brand-new content.
• One upcoming update will revamp Infestations, making them more communicative, and a more direct threat to players and their communities.
• Players will be more aware of how Infestations work, while Infestations will actually specifically target players and can even take over outposts.

State of Decay 2 is a fascinating survival game from Undead Labs and Xbox Game Studios, which tasks players with carefully cultivating a community of survivors constantly under threat from hordes of zombies and violent Plague Hearts. SoD2 wasn't a perfect game when it released despite its intriguing premise, but Undead Labs has surprised players by constantly tweaking and adding to the experience for over three years with plenty of updates. In a recent State of Decay 2 stream, the team detailed some of their plans for future support, including an upcoming update targeting the Infestations system.

Undead Labs has plans for several content updates for State of Decay 2 in 2022, which will continue to integrate various game mechanics and previous updates to create a more seamless experience for players. The team utilizes internal and community feedback to dictate the direction of future updates, which has resulted in State of Decay 2 being a substantially different (and massively improved) game compared to its initial release back in 2018. One major update currently in the works will rework how Infestations work in SoD2.

Infestations are an important system in State of Decay 2, in which hordes of zombies can take over buildings in the area. In the planned future update, Undead Labs is looking to implement the following changes:

• More transparent communication and UI. Undead Labs wants to make it more clear to the player exactly how Infestations work, including how hordes can be dispatched from large Infestations to create new Infestations in adjacent areas, and how imminent potential threats from Infestations are.
• Infestations are more dangerous. Infestations are currently relatively random, and once in place don't pose any active threat to players (numerous Infestations can reduce morale, but don't actually increase the danger). With the update, Infestations will be considerably more dangerous, with several important changes including:
  • Infestations will be able to create new hordes over time to establish new Infestations, which will seek to grow in the direction of player bases and outposts
  • Infestations will possess the ability to take over outposts and wrest control of those areas from players by sending hordes to attack them
  • Infestations will be able to lay siege to player bases and communities using created hordes
• Plague Hearts create Infestation hordes. Infestations will be created by Plague Hearts, which now have an increased feeling of intelligence and conscious violent intent towards players. Plague Hearts have a chance of creating zombie hordes, which can establish Infestations in new buildings, and then grow from there.
• Many other changes and tweaks. These are the biggest changes, but Undead Labs is working on a huge number of smaller tweaks and additions to tie in with these changes, including considering the possibility of allowing players to install defensive traps at outposts, considering how Infestations are formed after all Plague Hearts are destroyed, and more.

These changes and more all work together to ensure that Infestations pose a very real threat to players, especially at higher difficulties, and make it much more consequential for players to ignore the growing number of Infestations on the map (something that many players do with how Infestations currently work). Of course, this update is one of many Undead Labs is planning for 2022, all of which will further improve the zombie surviving experience in State of Decay 2 beyond what the game was at launch.

Undead Labs is also actively working on SoD2's sequel, State of Decay 3, which is expected to be a massively expanded game over its predecessor. The title is pretty mysterious, but is being built by a larger team and is backed by the full support of Xbox Game Studios. Undead Labs is also known to be expanding its team, going on a recent hiring spree.

State of Decay 3 currently doesn't have a release window, but when it releases could very well be one of the best Xbox games for zombie survival fans.

If you haven't experienced State of Decay 2 yet (or it's been a while), the game is currently available through Xbox Game Pass and is absolutely worth visiting.