State of Decay Outposts and Safezones Guide submitted by SuperFlik.
The Basics
Once you reach the Church and complete the Surveying Mission to find medicine, you unlock the ability to create outposts in buildings.
The create an outpost, you must first have at least 50 influence, have cleared the building and searched it completely.
Clearing a building involves checking every room inside said building and killing every zombie in and around it. When you check every room, the character you're playing as will give you an verbal cue as to how many zombies are left. If they say something along the lines of "I'm not alone in here," there's a least one zombie left, otherwise, they give the all clear.
When a building is cleared, a "Safe Zone" will appear around the building, this will stay up as long as you're in the general area and make it so that no zombies will spawn within the circle. However, this doesn't prevent them from entering the circle if you make too much noise, or they happen to be walking by.
Now that there's a Safe Zone, you can begin searching the building at a slightly more relaxed pace. When you have searched every search point in the building, it will become fully search, indicated by the question marks (?) under the name of the building disappearing or being replaces with supply icon.
You can now turn this building into an outpost for 50 influence by pressing down on the D-pad and selecting the outpost option.
How Outposts Work
With an outpost built, the icon of the building will turn green and have a small flag sticking out of it on your map. There is now a Supply Locker somewhere in the outpost (it varies from building to building), this is connected to the locker in your base and you can use it to turn in supplies you have on your person, or stock up on new ones. You cannot drop off rucksacks here, you must return to your base to do that.
For each outpost you have, you gain an extra 15% chance of missing allies coming home on their own.
Additionally, the Safe Zone around your base will be covered in mines and other traps that destroy Zombie Hordes without your intervention. When the mines explode, it will take roughly one (1) minute to replenish them. Note that the mines will only destroy hordes and not the stragglers.
Finally, if you left supplies crates in your outpost (a supply icon is still below the name of the building and it's not cleaned out), the outpost will gradually regenerate your supplies at home until the outpost runs out.
Note: if the icon of an outpost on your map is a castle, that outpost is out of supplies
On the Home page of your journal, below your home base, is a list of your current outposts, these are sorted by most-to-least important Resources available.
Selecting any outpost and shifting over to "Set Traps for Passing Hordes" will allow you to expand the size of all your outpost Safe Zones, as well as the amount of mines and traps around the base at the cost of 1 fuel resource and 5 influence. You only need to do this once and it will effect all current and future outposts.
*I currently do not know if you can do this more than once*
Advanced Tips
When setting up an outpost, carefully consider where you put them, outposts are the most efficient way of killing Zombie Hordes, but they will not protect you properly if they're placed poorly.
When setting up your first outposts at the church, consider putting outposts in places such as the construction site to the north or the house to the south of the road leading to the Church. This will prevent one or two hordes from reaching your Home.
When setting up additional outposts, try putting them at street corners and areas with a lot of buildings, this will prevent infestations from growing too close to your Home and can make walking out in the open much easier.
Moved to a new Home and want to move your outposts or simply want to put them somewhere else? Head to the Home page of your journal, select the outpost you want to destroy and press the green "X" button. It will take 1 minute to take down the outpost. The only downside is that if all your outposts are out of resources or two have the same resource, it's impossible to tell which is which before taking them down. Unfortunately this means trail and error.
Again, outposts prevent zombies from spawning within the Safe Zone circles, but they do not prevent the stragglers from wandering in.
Outposts are a godsend in this post-apocalyptic, zombie infested world we live in, they can mean the difference between safety for your group and being over run with hordes.
But how do they work, and why are they important?The Basics
Once you reach the Church and complete the Surveying Mission to find medicine, you unlock the ability to create outposts in buildings.
The create an outpost, you must first have at least 50 influence, have cleared the building and searched it completely.
Clearing a building involves checking every room inside said building and killing every zombie in and around it. When you check every room, the character you're playing as will give you an verbal cue as to how many zombies are left. If they say something along the lines of "I'm not alone in here," there's a least one zombie left, otherwise, they give the all clear.
When a building is cleared, a "Safe Zone" will appear around the building, this will stay up as long as you're in the general area and make it so that no zombies will spawn within the circle. However, this doesn't prevent them from entering the circle if you make too much noise, or they happen to be walking by.
Now that there's a Safe Zone, you can begin searching the building at a slightly more relaxed pace. When you have searched every search point in the building, it will become fully search, indicated by the question marks (?) under the name of the building disappearing or being replaces with supply icon.
You can now turn this building into an outpost for 50 influence by pressing down on the D-pad and selecting the outpost option.
How Outposts Work
With an outpost built, the icon of the building will turn green and have a small flag sticking out of it on your map. There is now a Supply Locker somewhere in the outpost (it varies from building to building), this is connected to the locker in your base and you can use it to turn in supplies you have on your person, or stock up on new ones. You cannot drop off rucksacks here, you must return to your base to do that.
For each outpost you have, you gain an extra 15% chance of missing allies coming home on their own.
Additionally, the Safe Zone around your base will be covered in mines and other traps that destroy Zombie Hordes without your intervention. When the mines explode, it will take roughly one (1) minute to replenish them. Note that the mines will only destroy hordes and not the stragglers.
Finally, if you left supplies crates in your outpost (a supply icon is still below the name of the building and it's not cleaned out), the outpost will gradually regenerate your supplies at home until the outpost runs out.
Note: if the icon of an outpost on your map is a castle, that outpost is out of supplies
On the Home page of your journal, below your home base, is a list of your current outposts, these are sorted by most-to-least important Resources available.
Selecting any outpost and shifting over to "Set Traps for Passing Hordes" will allow you to expand the size of all your outpost Safe Zones, as well as the amount of mines and traps around the base at the cost of 1 fuel resource and 5 influence. You only need to do this once and it will effect all current and future outposts.
*I currently do not know if you can do this more than once*
Advanced Tips
When setting up an outpost, carefully consider where you put them, outposts are the most efficient way of killing Zombie Hordes, but they will not protect you properly if they're placed poorly.
When setting up your first outposts at the church, consider putting outposts in places such as the construction site to the north or the house to the south of the road leading to the Church. This will prevent one or two hordes from reaching your Home.
When setting up additional outposts, try putting them at street corners and areas with a lot of buildings, this will prevent infestations from growing too close to your Home and can make walking out in the open much easier.
Moved to a new Home and want to move your outposts or simply want to put them somewhere else? Head to the Home page of your journal, select the outpost you want to destroy and press the green "X" button. It will take 1 minute to take down the outpost. The only downside is that if all your outposts are out of resources or two have the same resource, it's impossible to tell which is which before taking them down. Unfortunately this means trail and error.
Again, outposts prevent zombies from spawning within the Safe Zone circles, but they do not prevent the stragglers from wandering in.