State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition Update Adds Infesting Hordes, Sieges and More

Plague Hearts will awaken and summon large Infesting Hordes to reinforce Infestations before laying Siege to your Home Base.

Undead Labs’ State of Decay 3 may still be a ways off, but State of Decay 2 continues to receive support. The Juggernaut Edition received Update 33, “Heart Attack,” causing Plague Hearts to summon Infesting Hordes when “provoked.”

The Hordes generate Infestations and begin a Siege when close to your Home Base. Plague Hearts are dormant as you venture through Plague Territory, but certain actions will increase the alert level. After awakening, you’ll need to destroy it to stop the Infestations, lest they continue the Infested assault.

Players can also destroy Infesting Hordes before reinforcing an Infestation, slowing the latter’s growth. When infested, you’ll no longer receive any benefits from an Outpost. When tackling an Infestation, you can look forward to Juggernauts and Ferals with lots more zombies overall. Target the Screamers first, since they’re essentially directing traffic.

Check out the full patch notes below. State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition is available on Xbox One and PC while supporting up to 4K resolution and 60 FPS on Xbox Series X/S.

Update 33: Heart Attack

Update Details

Plague Hearts

Now all Plague Hearts on a given map start out dormant – that is not actively trying to seek out and destroy your Base. However, they don’t remain dormant forever
Dormant / awake Plague Hearts each have a unique icon on the map and menus
As you explore Plague Territory, certain actions now raise the alertness of a Plague Heart until it fully “awakens” and begins sending out Infesting Hordes
After a Plague Heart is awakened, it will begin sending Infesting Hordes out to create and reinforce Infested Sites along the way to your Base. Awakened Plague Hearts never become dormant again and must be destroyed
Destroying a Plague Heart after it awakens will cause all of its created Infestations to wither over time, losing strength and zombies, until they dissipate on their own

Infesting Hordes

Awakened Plague Hearts begin regularly launching Infesting Hordes out into the world
When arriving at an uninfested location, Infesting Hordes create new Infestations, effectively making an outpost for the Horde
When arriving at a currently infested location, Infesting Hordes increase the Severity of that Infestation, bolstering it with even MORE zombies
Infestations can also generate Infesting Hordes, though this does lower their Severity as a portion of the zombies pick up and follow a Screamer to a new location
If a player owned Outpost becomes infested any active benefits are nullified until the infestation is cleared out
Destroy an Infesting Horde before it arrives at a destination to slow Infestation growth
The more Noise in your base, the faster Infestations grow and spread to your base – quieter bases take longer for Hordes to locate and reach

Infestations

Infestations, once created, have a number above them to indicate their Severity Level. Higher Severity Infestations have more zombies, eventually attracting dangerous Freaks like Ferals and Juggernauts into the mix.
Loot can now drop from killing non-Screamer Freaks present at infestations
Since Screamers control Infestations on behalf of the Plague Hearts, killing all Screamers present at an Infestation will clear the Infestation instantly
The Severity Level of an Infestation is tied to how many Screamers are present, so you always know how many to look for at each Severity
Each Infesting Horde that arrives at an Infestation will increase the Severity Level
Each Infesting Horde that leaves from an Infestation will decrease the Severity Level
When a Plague Heart controlling an Infestation (indicated by highlighting the Infestation on the map) is destroyed, that Infestation’s Severity Level ticks down over time to 0 and eventually clears itself automatically
Infestations also increase the density of the ambient zombie population around them.

Siege Sites

When an Infesting Horde reaches an infestable location close enough to launch a Horde directly at your Base, it may create a Siege Site instead of a regular Infestation. Siege Sites, like infestations can also be reinforced and grow in severity
As long as Siege Sites exist, there is a chance for them to trigger a Siege, which results in Siege Hordes being launched from every active Siege Site toward your Base. This decreases the Severity of a Siege Site, same as Infestations
Siege Hordes are released in waves until every Siege Site has reached 0 Severity and despawn (or Siege Sites are manually killed)
The chance of a Siege triggering is represented by your Base’s Threat. The number of Siege Sites and their Severity both increase Threat. Higher Threat means longer, harder Sieges
Siege Sites can be attacked and pruned before a Siege triggers, just like Infestations
Killing all the Screamers present will also automatically clear Siege Sites

Sieges

Sieges have a chance to trigger based on your current Threat level (higher Threat, the higher the chance and difficulty)
The Siege itself takes some extra time before beginning, with the Siege Hordes collecting nearby outside of your base until they decide to strike
Unlike Infestations which get weaker as their Severity level decreases, the waves of Siege Hordes released by the Siege Sites launch in order from easiest to hardest
Siege Hordes assault the base whether you’re present or not, and once it has been triggered a Siege will only end when all Siege Sites are destroyed or depleted
If your active character was not present and contributing during a wave, you will see a Siege Consequence notification letting you know how your survivors did without you
Siege Consequences are applied at random based on siege sites and your selected Difficulty, but it’s never good: they range from survivor injuries to facility damage or worse
Arriving at your base anytime during a Siege will prevent any Siege Consequences from being applied for that wave and any you’re present for
If you miss a few waves you can still show up late and save the day – all Consequences stop when you arrive before that wave’s end
Prestige is given to the player at the end of the siege based on each siege wave they are present for

Radio Commands

You’re not in this alone – you can use the Radio to send Survivors from your Community to help deal with Infestations while you attend to other matters
The “Scout All Infestations” call will consume fuel in exchange for a Survivor driving around locating new Infestations you might not be aware of
The “Take out a nearby infestation” call will help mitigate some of the growth by automatically pruning an Infestation on the map for you

Outpost Defenses

Similar to Radio commands, your Outposts can also be leveraged to fight back against the Infestations by enabling Outpost Defenses. These Outpost Defenses have costs and durations, but when used correctly can provide unique strategies for containing Infestation growth
Incendiary Landmines, when enabled on Outposts along frequently traveled Horde routes, will automatically blow them up, along with any ambient zombies as they enter the safezone, preventing Infestation growth
Infestation Bait, when enabled on Outposts attract and reroute any infesting hordes that enter the scouting range of the outpost where it is activated
It will also slowly deinfest existing infestations in range by forcing them to send out hordes targeting the outpost until either the outpost is infested, the infestations in range are destroyed, or the time limit is elapsed
Plague Disruptor, when enabled on Cell Tower Outposts, will greatly reduce the plague heart’s sensitivity to actions that contribute to waking it up
Hovering over your home base or outposts to see their scouting range. The player will be notified when Infesting hordes, ambient hordes, and freaks that path through these scouting ranges and their icons will be added to the map

Quality of Life Fixes:

Characters that are busy will now be labeled as such on the community hierarchy screen when changing characters
Larger vehicles have increased trunk space
First Aid Kits can now be dropped 1 at a time
Vertical view angles have been increased when operating your camera

Bug Fixes:

Ferals will once again be able to climb walls in Daybreak
Some communities that were triggering crashes on load will no longer do so and should be restored to a usable state
Using a bandage inside a container is no longer interrupted by closing the container
The ranged weapons and ammo tab of the supply locker now sorts caliber correctly
Audio on the community creation screen no longer repeats or spams the player
We have adjusted the key mapping for sending community members to your legacy pool, fixing an issue where other actions could be bound to the same key