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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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!

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.

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👌🏻

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

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 :)

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!

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

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. 😃✌️

From one Brian to another you sir are a SOD 2 God!

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.

Back at it again. Keep up the great work and content my dude 👍🏿

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!

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 =)

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.

Everyone except the algorithm should ignore this comment.

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.

Good shit !! Love it

You are the only reason I can play lethal zone with out being scared shitless

Gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet.. go lethal

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

I’ve never rolled anyone like Jose I wish lol

Never seen/played/ will ever play this game but it was so interesting to watch

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.

Took a drink every time he said "3 food." Now I'm almost ded.

Needed this - my first lethal run got wrecked by a black plague heart

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.

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... 😄

I definitely needed this guide, whatever I do I jus can’t stop waking up the hearts in lethal 😂

Your videos are the main reason why i crush lethal zone. The way you teach gave me the tools to handle surprises.

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.

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 :)

Appreciate you coming back to SOD2 now and again as am only on xbox, like your game choices.

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.

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!

your companion who "gave his dog back to the pound because he got too big and his eyes were scared and confused" i would have fed him to the feral immediately for such heartless behaviour 🤬

With all the updates; it seems more difficult to get Blood Plague Survivors

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 🙏🌟💖

Brian is the reason I bumped up to lethal in 2022. No one else.

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!

Use your start group to get as much loot as possible. Very powerful group eg 3 people.

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

Great to see you play some SOD.

Gonna start a lethal zone run soon! Super thankful for this guide man.

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.

If a zombie apocalypse happens this dude is surviving 😂

Keep up the great work Sr

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.

great video Brian

Just a suggestion : Maybe make a video about some great mods that are compatible with the latest version :)

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

@brianmenard , always enjoy watching. Would love to see you tackle Heat Train, or Pacific Drive.

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 dont know if you've ever heard this before, but I really think that you're one of the most calm KZfaqrs out there

Cujo is the name of that dog. It’s a Stephen king book/movie. Love the channel man.

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

Stumbled across your content and gotta say man This is exactly what I'm here for.

I appreciate that Mr. Menard is giving back to the SoD2 community, and I don't want to poo on his efforts. I'm glad he's taking the time to show people A Way to get through this very difficult game mode. But I have played at least a dozen times all the way through on Lethal, and I have NEVER 1) had a player with Hygiene, nor 2) crafted my own Energy Drinks. Not. One. Batch. Having someone with Hygiene to provide blanket plague resistance is NOT "a must." Handy? Absolutely. But Necessary? Absolutely not. Crafting your own Energy Drinks is also NOT necessary. Obviously, you can do these things if you like, but they're not required At All. (I usually start with survivors who have Medicine, Mechanics, and some sort of food production skill - Gardening or Utilities - because people and vehicles WILL need repairs/healing, and people gotta eat.)

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!! 😂

Undead Labs should add "follow" and "wait" commands whenever player go with followers

Good stream, explaining, tbh this is very good dude ! good stream !

Hey Brian I just wanna say your content is always solid and I enjoy your apocalyptic themed games.

Just got back into SoD2 today and this will definitely help when i attempt lethal zone

Having completed a Red Talon solo operator Lethal run, sooo sooo much fun

I’m a bit late but I’ll be watching this whole series 🔥

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...

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

CUJO was the rabid dog movie you were talking about. Great content as usual!

High trade value items are worth 34 normally. Extraordinary trade value is worth 102. So you got a +4 for your items

Doing gods work as always as I see. Thank you for your content, Man.

The bloalters are the omes that get me They just pop up in front me and then I'm infected and die

I know I am a bit late to comment on this video but, "You can bring your legacy survivors with you to make it easier". Brother, they are all dead that is why I am watching this video 🤣

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

hmm i thought "standing" is a big factor 4 the enemy spawn rate, so in that sense legacy survivors would affect difficulty bc high standing legacy survivors would mean u get spawns like the infamous triple feral packs very early on 🤔

I'll be honest, I probably had the most unlucky start to my 2024 playthrough. First character out the gate ended up having three different encounters with ferals one after the other not even a stone's throw away from base. First encounter I had to bail on my car cause a bloater caught me in a bad position and feral chased me away and cause a lot of plague due to my rusty dodging. I would literally escape that one and get chased by another immediately, and then another one after that. I almost managed to escape by going to high ground and then a damned juggernaut would pimp slap the shit out of me with an AOE and kill me with blood plague. I closed the game after that. Playthrough is going better now all my bad luck wore off on that one character.

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 shed you said to grab right away before the enclave moved in turned out to be pre looted for me 😂 what are the odds

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!

can you make a series in lethal mode where you will play the game without choosing your /survivor/community. For instance, the first person you roll, you have to play that survivor/community.

My favorite way to play so far is Lethal map and community but Dread combat, I was thinking about bumping up the combat but tbh after watching this I think I keep it fun and a bit more fast paced, that way I only have to be tense the first few days not the first few weeks lol The vehicles are already so unrealistically soft on Dread I can't imagine them being worse, that's my main gripe with lethal tbh

One important advice from me in lethel is... Make a copy of your save file before doing something dangerous & one you completed difficult Mission... Especially in rolling character Once u Roll perfect character with perfect traits & started a game... Immediately open inventory drop some thing & pick it up then press escape & quit the game... Go to the save location copy the entire folder paste it in somewhere... If things goes south & u want to start fresh... Go to Original save Folder delete the save then copy the save file which u copied in the beginning paste it there... So now u no need to redo rolling character... I am excited for this serious because with new update & New infestation Mechanism Lethal became Unforgiving Hardcore brutally lethal Nightmare Wakeing up 1plague heart... & leaving it without destroyed for few hours means endgame. .. Especially in the beginning... Killing 2 aggravated screamer Or screamer scream wakes up the plague heart In that location... Which make him as a most powerful freak.. & if u planning to destroy Only plague heart in lethal... & that particular plague heart was inside cluster of plague hearts.. It's end game... U should not stop until u clear entire cluster... Destroying only one in a cluster wakes up every nearby plague heart & each send hords to infest building simultaneously... Getting level 3 infestation In map is easy when 3 awakened plague heart is Present in map

Cugo was the dog's name. Crazy Stephen King movie. Dog got rabies.

Now that we can deposit rucksacks at lvl 2 outposts you kinda need to change how you design your outpost loadout now. I'm already redesigning how I run outposts. This change also adds more value to bases I used to avoid due to a bad location.

saying where feral is, than finding him in a completely different direction. lol. Either your headphones are busted or you have coordination issues :-D.

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

29:51 friend casually breaks his ankles

Joined a randoms lethal zone and lost a fully geared character not even 5 min in to a plague feral

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!

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

The Man, the Myth, the Sod2 Legend

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

Nice g slide into that screamer