As I play through this game, I will post all information below. Please bear with me. It will take some time.


....In Progress

Players can go solo or play with up to three friends. Permadeath ensures that once you die as a survivor, your character is gone for good.

How Multiplayer Works
When you first begin State of Decay 2, you can choose between playing Offline, by Invite Only, or with Friends Only. Note that you can change these settings at any time over the course of your game.

Important: If you want to be able to pause your game, Offline Mode is the only setting that allows you to pause - which means you cannot pause in an online mode even if you have not invited other people to your game
When choosing to play multiplayer, keep in mind that the host stands to gain the most, as there are a few limitations for incoming players on what they can loot and bring back to their own communities. Players can choose one of the following tasks in multiplayer:

Volunteer to Help: Using your radio, you can choose to Volunteer, which sends you into matchmaking to place you in another person's game.
Call for Help: Also using the radio, you can choose to Call for Help, which will make you the host of an online session and matchmake from those who are currently volunteering to help.
Looting in Multiplayer
In a multiplayer session, each player will see loot in different color-coded containers - and a player can only loot items that share their color. However, if you wish to trade - any item dropped a player is free for anyone to take.

To return any loot you find back to your own community, you will need to drop them back in the host's Storage Locker. It's linked to the Storage Locker at your own base, so a host doesn't have to worry about theft. Influence gained in another player's community will automatically transfer back to your own community.

The only resources you cannot bring back with you are larger resources that can only be carried - like fuel or bigger crafting materials. These valuable resources can only be used for the host's community, unless you leave the mulitplayer session with the rucksack on your back. Donating them to your host's base will give you a small amount of influence points.

Save your Influence for your first two outposts instead of using them on trading.

Prioritize outposts that provide water/electricity to save on build spaces in your Home base. It might be expensive, but it's worth it as most other outposts do not provide much.

Pay attention to what your community wants in an outpost. Building structures they're interested grants your community bonuses.

If you're trying to increase a person's standing but don't want to take them out, have them turn in supplies. They'll gain a little Influence with each bag they turn in, even if they didn't find it.

When your vehicle is parked at the base in a parking spot, you can hit a button while looking in your trunk to automatically transfer everything in the truck to your base's storage.

You can squeeze in more than one vehicle in your parking spaces - just look for the word "parked" when pulling in. Although if you move bases, only the vehicle listed in your Base menu will move.

If your Morale is low, visit the Base tab in the menu and view the Morale tab to get a breakdown of your score.

Use the Base menu to quickly assign facility actions, like having community members clear trash or repair a facility.

Performing Facility actions increase your base's threat level. You can view your threat level in the Base tab of the menu.

Early game when you have limited storage, use vehicles parked at the base to safely store extra supplies so they don't decay.

Don't forget to upgrade your facilities! Doing so improves their capabilities.

If you miss a survivor's mission, they'll be disappointed, but they'll sometimes bring it back up again, giving you another shot. Try to complete these when you can.

Help Enclaves when they request supplies. It takes away from your community, but they usually offer something helpful in the long run.

You can withdraw rucksacks and other supplies from your base's storage. Use this to complete goals that require you to gather supplies if you're having a hard time finding them.

In State of Decay 2 you are able to choose a leader for your community. To do so, you must achieve Hero standing with one of your community members first. Choosing a leader will unlock a Leader Project, a large Facility upgrade, and one small Facility upgrade for building. The Leader's type will determine which facilities will become available and also the Leader's legacy.

About the Leaders
There are four leader types in the game: Builder, Sheriff, Trader, and Warlord. Before you choose a leader you can check in advance which survivor will become which type upon getting assigned as the leader. Choosing a leader is not permanent, you can demote them in case you want to assign another survivor as the community's leader, however the demoted survivor will drop back into a citizen. They'll also suffer a morale penalty, but it will disappear after a while.

If you build any of the leader-specific facilities, but lose or demote the leader afterwards, the facilities will stay and remain fully functional, allowing you to have multiple Leader Projects at the same time.

When you complete a legacy with a given leader type, it will permanently unlock you a Legacy Boon for your future communities.



Builder
We must fortify and defend our base to keep the people we care about safe and sound.

Builder leaders will concentrate on making the perfect base that'll last for generations. They always want to make quality of life improvements for the community members and fortifying base defenses to keep them safe.

The way to rebuild civilization is simple: we build. And we start by making our own home a fortress of self-sufficiency.

Builders will unlock the following facilities:

Leader Project: Sniper Tower (Free Sniper Cover)
Large Facility: Luxury Barracks 2 (5 Beds, +Morale)
Small Facility: Generator 3 (1/2 Fuel*, No Noise)
*Depends on which difficulty you play.



Sheriff
Our first priority is to protect the innocent, and deliver swift justice to those who would harm them.

Sheriff leaders will concentrate on restoring law and order. They always try to help people in need - community members and other Enclaves alike - while dealing with hostile survivors to keep others safe.

I stand for justice, applied fairly and swiftly wherever needed. Those who question my resolve rarely do so twice.

Sheriffs will unlock the following facilities:

Leader Project: Field Hospital (Heal All Infection or Injuries; Obsoletes Infirmary 3)
Large Facility: Lounge 3 (Boost all XP rates)
Small Facility: Shooting Range 2 (Train Shooting or Train Wits)



Trader
We have to fight scarcity by producing valuable goods and trading them for necessities.

Trader leaders will concetrate on getting in contact with other survivors for trading. They always look for opportunities to make and find luxurious trading goods and to make business from which both parties will benefit.

It's simple: A rising tide lifts all boats, and a thriving barter system lifts all communities. By helping our neighbors, we help ourselves.

Traders will unlock the following facilities:

Leader Project: Trade Depot (Summons Traders)
Large Facility: Farm 3 (+4 Food per Day)
Small Facility: Still 2 (Make Luxury Items)



Warlord
We establish peace through strength; build an arsenal and destroy all outside threats.

Warlord leaders will concentrate on becoming the dominant community in the area. Survival of the fittest is their motto and their policy is the classic "if you're not with us, you're against us" - and they mean it. They are cruel, violent and kill everyone who shows any signs of disapproval or resistance.

If we show weakness, we don't just invite our enemies' aggression, we deserve it. By striking first, we ensure we strike last.

Warlords will unlock the following facilities:

Leader Project: Armory (Make Any Ammo)
Large Facility: Spartan Barracks 2 (8 Beds, -Morale)
Small Facility: Fighting Gym 2 (Train Fighting or Train Cardio)

Understanding what each leader brings to your future communities helps you prep for harder difficulties.

Builder Boon - (Amenities): Power and water to community non stop. Huge bonus
Trader Boon - Traders visit you at your camp upon you calling them
(Favors):
4,000 influence points
A visit from a trader

Sheriff Boon - They give you daily income of resources every day that passes.
(Charity): Starter Package Arrives One time.

AR-15 package
20 x 5.56 mm Rounds
Utilities textbook
3x bottles of strong painkillers
3x bottles of stimulants

civilian uzi carbine
20x .22 cal rounds
computer textbook
3x bottles of strong painkillers
3x bottles of stimulants

M1-A
20x 7.62 mm Rounds
Mechanics Textbook
3x bottles of strong painkillers
3x bottles of stimulants

Model 870
20x 12g shells
cooking textbook
3x bottles of strong painkillers
3x bottles of stimulants

Warlord Boon - You only get one of these packages on any map you pick to start
(Mobilization):
2x M4A1
Sighted M4A1
Model 99-50
200x 5.56 mm Rounds
30x .50 AP Rounds
20x Frag Grenades

Best boons "per my experience is Builder and Sheriff"

Save your ammo! Not only does shooting draw fire, but it's not always easy to find ammo for the weapon you're carrying.

Once you unlock special moves after upgrading your Fighting stat, use them as often as you can as they have invincibility frames and force zombies onto the ground, allowing for quick and easy kills
When dealing with infestations, simply run over most of the zombies with a car.

If they're hiding in a house, just press "C" to trigger the car horn, which will attract all nearby zombies. If there is a screamer inside a house, then just back off enough that he'll walk towards you but not yell, and then run into him when your car can hit it.

Using the door of your car to hit zombies as you drive by does not damage the overall integrity of your vehicle, but doors can eventually be ripped off by zombies attached to the side.

Bring a bunch of explosives with you when you're ready to take on Plague Hearts. Get in a safe place and keep chucking explosives at the heart to destroy it quickly. Once it's destroyed all zombies around it are killed too, so it's better to take care of it as fast as possible.

There is a much more efficient way of taking down Plague Hearts. You just need 2 frag grenades or pipe bombs, when your facing the Plague Heart throw the grenades/pipe bombs (one on each side) at the Plague Heart. It is guaranteed to die.

If you have a .50 caliber rifle, use it take out a Plague Heart in only a few shots.

If you are in a 1v1 with a zombie, instead of mashing attack until they're on the ground and executing it, simply approach it, dodge behind it and use the stealth kill. As long as you're behind the zed, this technique works, and will save your melee weapon integrity.

Ranged weapons are ideal for dispatching enemies from a distance, and are especially useful against enemies that you don't want to engage in melee combat, like Hostile Survivors and Freaks.

Ranged weapons are divided into several categories, each with it's own strengths and weaknesses.

Lever-Action weapons have been added to the game. Since the Mare's Leg is a Lever-Action Pistol, it will never break or jam

Revolvers are powerful but loud. They never break or jam, however they have small magazines and their reloading can take a while.

All Sidearm Shotguns are either pump-action or lever-action so they never break or jam.

Bolt-action rifles have slow fire rates, however they never break or jam.

If your vehicle is stuck on top of a rock or an object and you can't flip your vehicle, you can fix this in multiplayer. First, get another player in your game. Then get another vehicle. With one player in the vehicle that is stuck and the other player in the other vehicle, you can ram the stuck vehicle with the moving vehicle(not full speed). That should knock it loose.

Hold down LB while on a ladder to climb faster or slide down. Climbing cost stamina, but sliding down doesn't cost anything.

Always try to look for resources when you go out to explore. Put them in the trunk of your vehicle and carry back as many as you can so that you don't have to look for resources all the time.
Try to gather all the resources from buildings near your Outpost early on at night. Exploring close to home is less of a risk, so doing so at night when you're weak early on will help you make the most of your evenings more safely.

If you flip your car by some unfortunate circumstance, you can flip it over manually by interacting with the front of the car as if you were repairing it.

When surveying an area, if you spot a vehicle you can see how much gas it has if you look at it on your map.

Pick up textbooks, even ones that your current character can't learn. They sell for high amounts of Influence when you trade with other people, so even if your characters can't learn them, they are probably the most valuable source of Influence that I've found so far.

Utilize the radio to get materials when you are low on supplies. They are a fast and efficient way of getting what you want quickly without needing to try and randomly find the materials you want. You can only do this every few minutes, however, so don't rely on it entirely.

Stock up on Vehicle Repair Kits for any damage you might deal to your cars. Making sure to pick up as much fuel as possible is also recommended.

If you take a survivor traveling with you that is from a different enclave (group), you can talk to them to trade valuable items while investigating new areas. This allows for fast Influence gain without needing to go back and forth between new areas. Once that person from the group has run out of Influence, you can go to a different enclave and have them come with you instead.

Your travel buddy will get tired. If you don't change that person they'll eventually just run back home without warning.

You'll generally want to prioritize helping enclaves over survivors if you're not short on supplies. Single survivors only give you one thing, but enclaves can help you in the long-run.

Try to drive safely. You can destroy your vehicle as you mow down zombies and hit other obstacles on the map.

Bloaters and Jugganoughts are your vehicle's worst nightmare. Avoid hitting Jugganoughts at all costs and if you hit a Bloater, jump out as soon as possible. The gas will stay on the car long enough to remove all your health.

When scavenging an area, bring a car with ample storage space. You can load multiple rucksacks in the back, but only carry one on each survivor.

Use enclave followers to help clear difficult areas. Often an enclave or survivor will ask you to help them and will follow you. Most of the time there is no time limit, so use this as an opportunity to have an extra helper. Clear infestations, destroy plague hearts or explore new territory. You can also bring a survivor from your home base, resulting in two followers.

When you start a new community, if you replay the tutorial you can max out your stamina on your lead character by clearing the first parts of the army base then runing back and forth until your stamina skill is maxed. When playing in a community, an easy place to max. out a character's stamina is on a bridge, as you can easily see incoming or attracted zombies.

State of Decay 2 inflicts ailments on player characters over time like fatigue and trauma. Fatigue happens if your character is out and about too long. The longer they're out running and killing zombies, the more fatigued they become. This limits the character's stamina bar.

Trauma happens after a character takes a big hit from a zombie or other enemy. This has to be cured with rare medical items or the Infirmary facility. Learn more about this in the section below.

How to Sleep/Fix Fatigue
After playing a bit of State of Decay 2, your survivor will naturally get sleepy. State of Decay 2 requires you to play each character in your community this way.

In order to sleep, go back to your base and swap characters. After a few in-game hours, the character recovers from fatigue. You'll receive a notification when this happens.

You can drink things like coffee and energy drink to push off fatigue, but we have yet to find anything that completely takes it away. Craft coffee and energy drinks at your base's kitchen if you have one.

If you don't have enough beds in your community for every person the characters recover slower from fatigue.

Your companion also gets fatigued. Be sure to swap that person out and let them rest too or they'll eventually abandon you and run straight home while killing zombies along the way.

How to Cure Trauma
Trauma prevents a character from being able to get back to full health, and if the trauma is bad enough, it can also limit their stamina. Trauma can also impact their mood. You can get a detailed report of the exact trauma a character suffers from in the Community tab.

You can cure trauma with items like first aid kit or with an action at your base's infirmary. If you don't have an infirmary because you don't have a character who has some sort of medical skill, get on that right away. You can randomly find medical textbooks that teach the medical skill in infirmaries, ambulances, and other medical structures.

If you have the standard infirmary at your base, you can heal your active character at any time so long as you have at least 3 medicine in storage. There's also an option to heal the entire community's trauma if you have enough resources and meet the skill requirements. Even better, if you have an Infirmary level 2 or better, your characters will recover health AND trauma over time so long as they're at the base.

Melee - Close Quarter Weapons (Backup)
The following is a list of known Close Quarter Backup Weapons.

RUSTY SCREWDRIVER

Weight: 0.5 lbs
Durability: Unbreakable
Stats: N/A
CHEF'S KNIFE

A classic chef's knife, just long enough to wield in combat when you don't have something better.

Weight: 0.5 lbs
Durability: Unbreakable
Stats: N/A
COMBAT KNIFE

A blade built specifically for close combat. When the moment's right for this weapon, you'll know it.

Weight: 0.5 lbs
Durability: Unbreakable
Stats: N/A
K-BAR

Used with pride by generations of US military personnel. Not the kind of thing you ever stop carrying, once it's yours.

Weight: 0.5 lbs
Durability: Unbreakable
Stats: N/A

Melee - Close Quarter Weapons
There are many different kinds of close quarter weapons, ranging from hatchets to crowbars. If you know of another close quarter weapon, be sure to add it to the list!

Hatchet
Crowbar
Pipe Wrench
Wooden/Metal Bat
Cutting Machine Blade
Machete
Replica Bastard Sword
Parang
Kukri
Rebar Blade
Transmission Mace
Nail Puller
Mail-Order Wakizashi
Ultralight Axe
Katana Machete
Breaching Hammer
Sweet Skull Sword
Monogear Axe
Razor-Edge Machete
L6-Steel Mace
Bastard of Belleau Wood
Trench Tool
Mower Blade Sword
World War I Bayonet
Tactihawk

Ranged - Guns
There are many different kinds of ranged weapons in State of Decay 2, ranging from pistols to assault rifles to shotguns. If you know of any other guns, be sure to add it to the list!

SP101 Tassie Devil
BML-40
M4X1 DMR Heavy
DEVGRU X12 Inflitrator
M99X1 Timberwolf
M4A1
SP101 Devilette .22
Model 99-50
AR-15
G17
Model 70 Classic
SP5K
JL94 Civilian
Vector Ultracompact RT
Spec Ops Vector SMG
Mac-10
Civilian Uzi 22 Carbine
MAC-V
Arctic Warrior
King Vulture .44
G18 Auto Custom
Hunter's Viper
B50FG
MP5K Spec Ops
Bolt Scout
MP5A2
MP5A2 Spec Ops
Sleeper Cell PPK
PPK
870 Sawed-Off
P-07
Raider's Uzi 22
930 SPX
CM1-A Breacher
SCAR-H RT
Hunter's Model 29
KSG
Sighted AK-47
Hunter's Bolt Scout
SOCOM II
SOCOM II-RT
Eternal Guard's Infinite Rage
Prepper's AK-47
GSG-W
Operator's M4A1
M4X2 Lite SSW

Welcome to Heartland, the lone State of Decay 2 story mode (at least, until the Trumbull Valley DLC was released). You'll notice that you don't get to select a difficulty level when you start Heartland, because it's selected for you. It's essentially Nightmare+, where the rules are all set to Nightmare level, save for the added bonus where everything on the map has blood plague. Every zombie. Every feral. Every bloater, Every Juggernaut. Everything has blood plague. Considering these two things, I would heavily suggest saving Heartland until you've run through the base campaign a few times on Dread or Nightmare levels. Given that, this should be one of the last modes you complete.

Some more changes from the main campaign:

You get to choose from two sets of survivors when starting the game: Quincy/Helena, or Larissa/Aunt Fiona. This choice changes the story of the first 1/3 of the game, as well as each pair having their own sets of story related achievements related to them, so you'll have to run Heartland at least a time and a half to unlock all achievements. Given this, you cannot import characters from other game modes or start with any other characters outside of these two sets (so, sadly, no importing fully levelled, fully stocked characters here). This guide will assume the selection of Larissa/Aunt Fiona for its initial playthrough, but feel free to swap this out, as you'll cover both set of characters at some point anyway.

There is only one base in the game, Jurassic Junction, and you will occupy it very early in the campaign as part of the story missions. While its position is pretty fairly "meh" (the Heartland Trumbull Valley map is essentially a big circle, so the base is on the circle road at least, though not near any big towns), Jurassic Junction is absolutely STACKED with awesome built-in facilities (see the Jurassic Junction section below for more details). You get four small and four large open slots from the get-go, as well as a plethora of build-ins that can be maximized by the different survivors you recruit during the game. To put it another way, if Jurassic Junction were a base in the main campaign, it would be the best base on all the maps, bar none. Outside of its mediocre position, you will love this base.

Speaking of which, unlike the main campaign, there is a set maximum number of survivors you can recruit (8 per run, 9 if you exploit a game glitch), and they are always the same people. This is good, as there are achievements tied to recruiting everybody. The bad news of course is if someone dies, they are irreplaceable, so make sure to keep everyone alive, as there are achievements tied to this as well.

Finally, unlike the main campaign, there are no random events or missions - all the missions are preset and always come in the same order. The goal of Heartland is to complete these preset missions; unlike the main campaign, you do not have to clear out plague hearts or elect a leader and complete their quest chain. Having said that, Heartland does introduce a new "meat-wall" obstacle (literally), the Plague Wall, which operates just like a Plague Heart, but with 3x the strength. A bit of good news, you don't have to face these at full strength until the end of the campaign (you fight a weakened one mid campaign), nor do you have to hunt them down yourself. Each plague wall battle will be part of a pre-set quest.

And with that, we can begin our Heartland walk-through! And unlike the main campaign where I can only give you detailed tips and general advice on how to advance, the preset missions allow me to walk you through Heartland step-by-step!

First, though, let's talk about the one and only base on the map - Jurassic Junction. As part of the main quest, you will be "forced" to occupy this base as your new home, and you will stay here for the entirety of Heartland. The bad news about this is that Jurassic Junction is generally far away from most points of interest on the map, so you'll be driving a lot. This disadvantage is mitigated by the fact that, unlike campaign mode, missions don't have timers on them, so time isn't as much of a factor. As well, one of the facilities in Jurassic Junction provided four (!) fuel resources a day, so gasoline won't be much of an issue like it can be in the campaign. Oh, and one last factor - Jurassic Junction is the best base in all of State of Decay 2, bar none.

First off, let's list the build-ins:

Barracks (Clearable) -- Your standard barracks from the SoD2 campaign. You can keep it or clear it. Keep in mind that with going for all recruits, you'll need a total of ten beds, so you can keep this, upgrade it to a Spartan Barracks for more beds, then use the level 2 Lounge to offset the morale loss and add the final two needed beds; or you can clear the Barracks, and use a Sheltered bed Facility, Lounge and a +2 beds outpost (usually the house right behind Jurassic Junction to prevent ferals from spawning back there) to cover your bed needs. I go with the latter, but the former works just as well.

Base Defences -- Get this repaired immediately! This will fix the walls around Jurassic Junction, and allow for one armed guard, though at a cost of one ammo per day. Upgradable with Captain Logan to Superior Defenses, which allow for two defenders at a time, at the cost of 2 daily ammo. As well, you'll get a +20 stamina for all your survivors upon upgrade. The armed guard(s) makes this facility vital, especially in the early stages of Heartland.

Basic Kitchen (Clearable) -- Same as the kitchen from State of Decay 2, but with the ability to upgrade it to a Hunter's Kitchen (upon recruiting Reba), which also grants you: free morale, a survivor stamina bonus, the ability to make nutritious food and +25 to your maximum food storage. Keep this don't clear it, as the morale bonus you get with Reba is well worth it. Plus, you're not hurting for small facility slots anyway...

Basic Lab -- Your Heartland replacement for the Workshop (or at least one half, the other half is the Repair Depot). This is where you make ammo and explosives. It starts out simple, but depending on if you're able to recruit Keesha (if you start as Quincy) or Brock (if you start as Larisse), you can upgrade it to make ammunition (Keesha) via the Demolitions Lab or better explosives (Brock) via the Outlaw Chem Lab.

Farming Complex -- A super farm! Its first level grows +2 food per day. If you have water supplied to your base, the second level will provide +4 food per day. If you have Malik (and you recruit him at the same time you occupy the base, so you should), you can upgrade the Farming Complex to level 3, granting you +6 food and +2 meds! This won't cover all your food and med needs, but it puts a serious dent in your requirements and may even be enough if you scrounge a lot.
Fuel Extractor -- +4 fuel per day and +100 fuel resource storage. No need to upgrade this facility or have a special survivor to activate its benefits. Simple and awesome!

Medical Tent -- Heartland's answer to the infirmary. Upgrade to level 2 to enhance health, and add plague injury resistances on all your survivors, as well as craft enhanced plague cures (NOTE: just make the basic plague cures here, as you want to use as many as possible before end game to speed up one of the end game achievements. See the Playthrough One Achievement Clean up section below for details).

Repair Depot -- The "other half" of the workshop, but smashed in with the Forge and Auto Shop as well, the Repair Depot is where you can repair or salvage weapons and craft toolkits. Again, it starts out simple, but depending on if you've started as Quincy or Larisse, you can upgrade it to make melee and ranged weapons (Quincy) via the Weapons Depot upgrade or vehicle upgrade kits (Larisse) via the Vehicle Depot upgrade.

Unused Medical Annex - Medicine's advanced skills in building form, the Unused Medical annex is at first useless. Depending on whether you recruit Vic or Isaac mid-game, you can upgrade the Annex to a Trauma Pharmacy (Vic), which gives you the same abilities as someone with the base game Surgery skill (i.e. rapid recoveries), along with the ability to craft Med Kits; or to a Plague Annex (Isaac), which gives you the same abilities as someone with the base game Pathology skill (i.e. quick plague curing). along with the ability to craft ScentBlock, ZedEye, and Zedrenaline. Both are nice additions, you can't go wrong with either.

If that isn't good enough, you have three more large facility slots (four if you clear the barracks) and three small facility slots (four if you clear the kitchen). But given all of your basic needs are met with the build-ins (food, fuel, beds, eventually medicine) you have a lot of room to play with in terms of what to build.

Given the above, here are my recommendations for facilities to build on your open facility slots:

Large Slot One: Lounge, of course (have you been reading this guide?). Get this to Lounge 2 for the extra beds and the morale boosts.

Large Slot Two: Staging Area at first, replaced with the awesome Utilities Complex once you recruit Chavez.

Large Slot Three: Sniper Tower. You know me and my love for Sniper Towers, and we can build one here in Heartland without worrying about Leadership roles. Place this one at the bottom right corner of the base for maximum effectiveness (your base will besieged a lot in Heartland, and most of the zombies will attack from the front and the front-right). Plus, the Sniper Radio Call is the best ability in the game, so use it often (especially against plague walls). Finally, its better to have people on the walls shooting than on the ground with the potential to run out the front door to fight (yes, this happens a lot), and Sniper Tower (with +3 guards) combined with the Superior Defences (for +2 guards) keeps at least half of your survivors safe up on the towers.

Large Slot "Four": Scrap the barracks and replace it with the Drone Uplink, as you'll need it for an end-game achievement.

Small Slot One: Place a sheltered bed in the lone empty inside slot, and upgrade it to +3 beds when you can. This will allow you to scrap the Barracks and replace it with the Drone Uplink at mid-game.

Small Slot Two: A garden, upgraded and converted to med production. You'll need a LOT of meds in Heartland, especially for some of the later achievements.

Small Slot Three: Fabricator Shop. I like all the bonuses it gives, since I tend to haul a lot of gear around. The ultra-light packs and Pro silencers will make your game much easier as well.
Small Slot "Four": Keep your kitchen, as Reba can upgrade it to a Hunter's Kitchen for a massive morale boost.

Outposts: Use two to three for +2 beds each (one of which should be the house directly behind your base preventing feral attacks from the back early in the game), and the rest for ammo (to pay for ammo production and/or tower guards), with perhaps one outpost slotted for meds or food (garden dependent).

As for build order, it's up to you, but I'd recommend getting your Base Defenses and Fuel Extractor up ASAP (you absolutely need ranged defenses in Heartland, and the fuel is definitely needed to get around the map), then worry about food and meds with the Farming Complex and Garden. Get your Lounge up early too for the beds and the morale boost. From there, repair the base in the order you see fit, then start slotting in everything else. Depending on your play-style, feel free to drop (or delay) the Fabricator Shop and rotate in a Shooting Range or Fighting Gym to get your survivors up to max levels.

Quincy: Upgrades the Repair Depot to a Weapons Depot, allowing you to craft advanced melee and ranged weapons (ala a Forge).
Larisse: Upgrades the Repair Depot to a Vehicle Depot, allowing you to craft vehicle upgrade kits (ala a Auto Shop).

Malik: Allows you to upgrade the Farming Complex from level 2 to level 3, adding +2 food and +2 meds (for a total of +6 food and +2 meds).
Keesha: Upgrades the Basic Lab to a Demolitions Lab, allowing you to craft ammunition.
Brock: Upgrades the Basic Lab to an Outlaw Chem Lab Lab, allowing you to craft better explosives.

Reba: Upgrade the basic kitchen to the Hunter's Kitchen, giving extra morale and stamina to survivors, adding +25 max storage to your base, and granting the ability to craft nutritious food (i.e., super snacks).

Vic: Upgrade the Unused Medical Annex to a Trauma Pharmacy, which gives you the same abilities as someone with the base game Surgery skill (i.e. rapid recoveries), along with the ability to craft Med Kits.

Isaac: Upgrade the Unused Medical Annex to a Plague Annex, which gives you the same abilities as someone with the base game Pathology skill (i.e. quick plague curing). along with the ability to craft ScentBlock, ZedEye, and Zedrenaline.
Chavez: Allows you to build the Utilities Complex on a large facility slot, which provides free power and water to the base, with no daily cost, as well as free maintenance costs for all facilities (ala the Staging Area). You want this!

Diana: Allows you to build the Fabricator Shop on a small slot, which allows you to craft ultralight backpacks and pro muzzle attachments. As well, increases all weapon durability by 50%, expands consumable stacks by +2, and adds +10 light and +20 max carrying capacity. A nice-to-have facility (and since you have the room, why not?)

Izzbee: Allows you to build the Drone Uplink on a large slot, which allows you to call for CLEO drop, and allows for Radio Call Drone Strikes and Radio Call Drone Scouting if Drone Hacking is activated. Needed for an achievement (See Playthrough One Achievement Clean up below for details).

Captain Logan: Upgrades the Base Defences to Superior defences, allowing for one extra guard on the defensive wall and granting +20 stamina to all survivors

Suffice to say, recruit everyone you can, as they all give major bonuses. And try your best to keep them alive to keep these bonuses.

During this playthrough, we are going to attempt to get two difficult achievements: Full House, for recruiting 8 survivors during one Heartland run, and Plot Armor, which requires you to have both your starting survivors (in this case, Larissa and Aunt Fiona) alive when completing the final mission.

You'll notice 8 is the maximum survivors you can recruit, so you'll need to make sure you recruit absolutely everybody or else you'll have to do another full playthrough. Following this guide should prevent this from happening, so pay attention to the guide as you complete quests so you don't miss anything.

As for the two starting survivors, as you recruit more and more people into your community, start using Larissa and Aunt Fiona less and less, until towards the end of the game where you shouldn't use them at all. Keep them safe in base to prevent disaster from happening. If one should die early in the game, just restart Heartland.

One or two more tips before you begin: make sure to collect as many parts, scraps of circuitry, and (especially) plague samples as you can as you're playing the game, as you'll need them for later achievements. As well, it may be worth looking at the Playthrough One Achievement Clean up section below to get an idea of the miscellaneous tasks you'll have to perform at the end of the game. Often, you can complete or partially complete these tasks during the game, saving a bit of time between your playthroughs. Finally, do not deconstruct or sell any ECHO Lab guns you may find (their name begins with "Echo S-"). See the Shots in the Dark section of the guide as to why.

When starting Heartland, select Larissa and Aunt Fiona.

Walk along the trail until you encounter the Blood Feral. Nice way to start the story, huh? Do your best not to get too much blood plague when killing it (feel free to use your ammo at this point). Once it's dead, continue down the road to encounter Malik.

Malik wants your help clearing our Jurassic Junction, and has a beat-up, low-on-gas car to take you there (NOTE: this car has LOTS of trunk space, you'll use this car for the rest of Heartland). Clear out the local area of supplies first, then get in the car, and drive to Jurassic Junction. Help Malik clear out the base, then both the base and Malik will now be a part of your community. Finishing this quest will unlock your first Heartland achievement:

You have a bit of time to yourself at the moment, so grab your car and start looting the houses/bathrooms in the immediate area around your new base.

NOTE: It may be a good idea to temporarily park an outpost behind Jurassic Junction in one of the houses, as this prevents Ferals from spawning back there where you have no watchtower cover.

Time to start the Larisse specific quests:

Eventually, you'll be prompted to talk to Malik about tracking down your father. Switch to Larisse, talk to Malik in base (you'll pick up Aunt Fi as a follower automatically), and then follow the quest marker up to Spencer's Mill to meet up with Brock. Talking to Brock, you'll trigger a zombie attack on the bar. You, Aunt Fi, and Brock will need to survive the attack (it's on a timer), and Brock will join you as a follower and prompt you to drive to the Wilkerson Farm. Loot the bar as it should be clear now and head on out.

Drive to the Farm. Mickey won't be home, but Nat will be, so talk to her. Talk to Brock after to accept the Meds rucksack. Feel feel to loot this house as well while you're here. Drive home, drop off all your stuff, and recover if need be. Along the way, you'll be told you can get your auto shop up and running again at the repair depot.

More free time, so head out with Malik and scavenge the local areas (you'll probably want your car now as lootable buildings are getting further out of your home base radius). As well, start repairing broken facilities at home as you get the materials (especially the watchtower as base and survivor defences are top priority, and the fuel extractor as you'll need all the free gas you can get driving around doing missions). Eventually, you'll get a radio call to head back to the Wilkerson Farm. Switch back to Larisse, and head on out to the Wilkerson Farm again. WARNING: you'll need to take a out a plague heart during this mission, so load up on health and stamina consumables and all the explosives/ Molotovs you can before heading out (you can build some soda can bombs at the Repair Depot if you have the supplies).

Talk to Nat, She'll prompt you to find some detonators (and Brock will be added as a follower). Travel all the way across the map to the Industrial Steel Supply Company on the far west border, and clear out the building/immediate area. Be aware you may run into some hoards and screamers around here. Inside the building, you'll encounter the previously mentioned plague heart. Since its still fairly early in the game it may cause you trouble - my recommendation is to set up another outpost in the immediate area so you can drop back to a safe spot and heal/resupply if needed (and dump supplies from the heart when done). Unfortunately, the new "plague zone" system from a recent patch will force you to set this up a distance away, but its still worth doing even if your outpost isn't in the immediate area. Anyway, once set up, head on in and with Brock's help, tackle the Plague Heart - open the fight with some soda can bombs, then shoot the heart until dead (or have Brock melee it down for you). Loot the heart and the buildings (dropping of excess items at your outpost), grab the detonators, and drive on back to the Wilkerson Farm. Give the case to Nat, and Brock will ask to join your enclave. Accept, and drive Brock and yourself back to Jurassic Junction, and you'll unlock: The Crafty Scoundrel

Next up, Mickey Wilkerson shows up at your base! Talk to him as Larisse, and accept his "milk run" mission. Travel to the orchard house, and speak to Xander. Select the top option here ("Sorry, but if you owe my family, you have to pay up", which will prompt a fight with Xander. Shoot or melee him enough, and he'll surrender. Talk to Xander again and accept the Food rucksack. Talk to Mickey one last time and be gifted the Food rucksack for your base.

More spare time, so feel free to switch to Brock or Malik and scavenge around for more supplies. Eventually, you'll be called by Captain Logan, who wants your assistance on a mission. Drive out to meet him. NOTE: you'll have to fight a Blood Juggernaut along with a zombie horde during this mission, so be prepared for the Juggernaut to show up! My first playthrough I was killed here, so you have been warned. Fortunately, knowing what I know now, there is an easy and safe way to handle this: read on to see.

Drive out to the Run-Down Barn and talk to Captain Logan. Select the mission, then drive out to the supply drop marked on your map. The supply drop is on an island in the middle of a lake, but don't be fooled, you can safely drive over the lake with your car. As you approach the supply drop, a Blood Juggernaut will spawn and immediately attack. USE THE BACKING UP CAR METHOD TO TAKE THE BLOOD JUGGERNAUT OUT (see the Miscellaneous Tips page if you don't know what this is) -- about 10-12 hits to the Juggernaut should kill him. You can use this method to clear out the island of zombies as well. When the coast is clear, hop out and loot the CLEO supply drop. Return the note you found in the supply drop to Captain Logan to complete the mission.

Heading back to base, you'll trigger your first base siege (Nat drags a horde along with her when coming to visit your base). Hopefully, you've armed your survivors with guns and repaired the watchtower by now, as this will help you survive the onslaught. NOTE: during base sieges, your survivors have a very annoying tendency of walking through the front gates to melee attack zombies outside - make sure you keep an eye out for this so a lone survivor doesn't get overwhelmed out in the front areas. Other than that, you've seen these types of sieges before, and with a Watchtower and armed survivors, you should clear this attack easily minus a possible bit of feral trouble. If you have trouble with the ferals, try activating Sniper Support, which should help with automatically taking the ferals out. Anyway, once done, talk to Nat, ending this quest.

This ends the very linear "Part One" of Heartland. From here on in, the calls below can and will happen in random order (and can appear in multiples, just like in the main campaign). Don't sweat it if you do them out of order, just make sure you do them all at some point.

Note: You need to trigger the Diana's mission part one before starting Captain Logan's second quest. It's best to do this straight after the base siege at the end of part one. Do not proceed with the Captain Logan missions until you meet with Diana the first time or you will miss out on her achievement, and possibly the eight survivor achievement.

You'll probably have a few minutes of downtime after part one ends, so you'll want to use this time to trigger the Diana series of quests (they're the ONLY quests that don't trigger through your radio, so they're easy to miss). To do this, drive to the southern portion of the ring road above the town of Marshall, to the point about halfway between Jurassic Junction and the town of Marshall. Here, you'll encounter a northern branch of the road, that itself sections off into three branches (see the map at the top of this page for the exact location). Drive to the end of this branch road, then turn left. At the end of the road, you'll see a barn - hopefully, Diana will spawn here, being attacked by zombies. Clear all the zombies out (ensuring Diana lives), then talk to her. Invite her to join your enclave and she'll refuse, but offer you a gun as thanks. Let her runoff, as you'll see her again shortly.

Note: You'll get the calls in random order from here on in during part two, so the paragraphs below may be out of order. The one quest to not do until I say so is the Captain Logan quest. Make sure to wait on this one until you meet Diana a second time. The other quests listed before that one can be done in any order.

With the Diana part one out of the way, your first call will probably be from Nat. Stock up on explosives and health and stamina consumables and drive on over to the new Wilkerson home. Talk to her -she'll want you to clear out the Wilkerson Homestead, which means taking out the plague heart that has grown there since you last visited. Drive on up, kill all zombies in the immediate area, then use your usual tactics to take out the plague heart (explosives work best). This will complete this mission.

Up next is an easy one - on your way to the previous Wilkerson Homestead mission (or returning from it), you'll get a call from Reba asking for your assistance. Head on over and she'll ask you to pick up her filling machine from the Wilkersons. Select "Accept Mission Eagerly" (again top choice, a theme in this walkthrough), then head over to the nearby Old Moonshine Barn, where Mickey Wilkerson will be waiting for you. Talk to him, and since we're on good terms with him, he'll allow us to just take the machine without issue. Search the barn, collect the filler machine, then return it to Reba back at her house (select one of the top two dialog options to give the machine back to her). Mission done! Head back home and drop off all your supplies and loot, as you probably found a lot during this outing.

With the first Reba quest out of the way, we should now have a radio call from Vic, a man looking for his lost lover, so let's do that one now. Head on down to Marshall in the southwest corner of the map. On the way however, we're going to do a little detour to see if the second Diana quest has spawned yet...

When approaching Marshall along the south road, turn into the first access road and cross the bridge. From here, you'll see a gas station on your right and a fast food restaurant to your left. A bit beyond this is a small coffee stand on the right side (see map above for exact location). If the quest spawned properly, you'll see Diana here being absolutely mobbed by zombies. Drive up quickly and clear the mob before they kill Diana (be careful but fast here, as it's easy for Diana to die during this event, and you need her to live for an achievement). Once the mob is clear, talk to her and invite her again to join your enclave. Once again she'll refuse, but again will give you another gift for saving here (don't worry, we'll see her one more time).

If Diana isn't where you expect, don't worry - try again after the next mission, then the next, and so on until she appears. You may want to hold off on Vic/Isaac though as the double-recruit glitch requires starting the Captain Logan quest. Instead, scroll down and see if you can start the second Reba questline or the Chavez questline (the second is easier to kick off). Keep checking back until Diana appears. Rumour has it that she may only appear during the daytime, so try during the day and see if that helps if you're having trouble spawning the second Diana encounter.

Either way, back to the Vic/Isaac mission. Hopefully, about this time you'll also have the Captain Logan mission up and ready (see the info box below for more details). If so, drive on over to the western Marshall Warehouse (hey, its my favourite base from State of Decay 1!) Talk to Vic, who will ask you to find his husband. Agree (top option again), and drive on over to Isaac's last known location (though feel free to loot the warehouse before you go). Isaac will be holed up in the blue house in the very southwest of the map - head on in and talk to him. Wanting nothing to do with Vic anymore, he'll ask you to tell Vic that he is dead. Head back to Vic and the warehouse and now you'll have a decision to make:

If you tell Vic that Isaac is dead, Vic will leave the map once you leave the warehouse. Head back to Isaac and let him know what happened, and Isaac will ask you to join your enclave. Talk to him again to accept his offer. If only going for one survivor, I recommend Isaac first to make another achievement easier (see below).

If you tell Vic that Isaac told you to lie about him being dead (the second dialog option), Vic will get mad at Isaac and ask to join your enclave. Talk to him again to accept him into your community. Meanwhile Isaac will be upset and leave the map.

Depending on your choice above, you will unlock one of two achievement:
Drive the new recruit back to your base to finish the mission, but before you do that, read the info box below:

Good news for you achievement hunters, there is a way to glitch this quest line so you can recruit both Vic and Isaac in one run! First, follow the mission above until you recruit either Isaac or Vic to you enclave but do NOT return them to your base. Instead, head over to the Captain Logan mission. Talk to Captain Logan, and accept his request. Doing this will instantly send back Vic/Isaac to your base, having them now count as a survivor in your enclave. With this, the game will restart the Vic/Isaac quest line again. Now simply recruit the other person the second time through the quest, run them back, and you'll now have both people as members of your community in one run, with both achievements unlocked!

Given the above, you'll probably be starting or have started the next Captain Logan mission, so let's walk through that. Remember - you'll want to make sure you do the first two Diana encounters before starting this mission, so if you haven't seen Diana twice yet, hold off on this (and the Vic/Isaac mission if you want to recruit both) until you do. Assuming you've done this, head over to the Deep Green Farmhouse (again, feel free to drive through farmland as a shortcut) and talk to Captain Logan. He'll want you to escort him over to the crashed plane. Drive over to the plane location with him, but don't get too close (Logan will tell you when to stop, so listen for him). He'll talk about the newest threat you'll face, the Plague Wall (imagine seven plague hearts smashed together...) Once he's done, hop into your car again and travel to the house right next to the crash site. Park some distance away so you don't set off the plague bloater (or you'll have to travel to a new location). Enter sneak mode (hold B) and slowly approach the house. Find where the sleeping bloater is, walk up to it, and hold Y to harvest the bloater gland before it explodes on you. Once done, follow the quest marker to the northwest edge of the map to the broken bridge. Listen to Captain Logan's exposition for a bit, then talk to him to "move on" and get a new quest location. Take the short drive to the Abandoned Barn, enter, then climb the ladder and talk to Dr. Hoffman. After some exposition, she'll gift you a blueprint that allows you to upgrade your medical facilities when the blueprint is added to your base inventory. Talk to Captain Logan one last time to finish the quest.

Back to Isaac/Vic for a bit. If you brought back Isaac as the lone recruit or along with Vic using the glitch listed in the info box above, you can now upgrade the Unused Medical Annex in Jurassic Junction into a Pathology Annex (via Isaac) or a Trauma Pharmacy (via Vic). Select the Pathology Annex. This will now allow you to craft plague consumables at the Annex for a cost of 15 plague samples and 2-6 chemicals. Craft a bunch of these (I did Zedeyes myself since I never tried them before), along with a plague cure. Consume the Zedeye until you push your infection meter past maximum (it should take between three and four), thereby infecting yourself with blood plague, unlocking:

Note: don't forget to cure yourself with your crafted plague cure before the Blood Plague timer runs out.

Also, in case you're wondering, the above achievement is not strictly a Heartland achievement, but seeing as it's so much easier to earn in Heartland than in the campaign (i.e., no RNG needed to get the Advanced Biochem Station), I'm listing it here.

Back to missions, and another easy Reba mission should be waiting for you. Having recruited Vic and/or Isaac, Reba should be contacting you again about another favor. Head back to her house and talk to her - she'll want you to retrieve her water tank from Ray Santos. Agree enthusiastically (top option), then drive on over to Ray's Workshop in the center-ish part of the map (feel free to drive through the cornfields for a more direct path there. Ray won't be home, so talk to Grace instead. Grace will be kind enough to give you back the water tank. Loot the workshop for all goodies you can find, including the water tank, then drive in on back to Reba's. Pick either of the two top options to return the water tank for a free ammo press and another mission accomplished (two of three for Reba missions complete if you're keeping count).

Round about now you're probably traversing the west side of the map, which will trigger the Chavez quest. You'll get a radio call from an unknown person, and will be tasked to find the source of the "desperate radio call". To do this, drive around the fields to the northwest of the crashed airplane from the previous Captain Logan quest, and a quest marker will eventually pop up on screen (see map above for exact location). Head to it, and you'll find a small campground among some rocks with one Red Talon soldier manning it, Chavez. Talk to Chavez, and select the option to accept and add follower (the top option). With Chavez in tow, drive straight south to a medical station, and search the station for a plague cure (keeping an eye on Chavez as he's currently injured and infected with blood plague). Search the medial area for the cure, then talk to Chavez - select the top option to give him the cure and recruit him into our enclave. This will unlock:

Take Chavez home to complete the mission.

It's around this time that Reba showed up at my base, wanting to talk to me. If we were nice to her the previous two quests and did what she asked, she'll ask to join our community. Accept, to unlock:

It's also around this time that Diana will show up at our home base. If we were nice to her the two times we encountered her, asked for nothing for rescuing her, and tried to recruit her twice to our enclave (essentially, just picking the top option the whole time), she'll turn up at our gates asking to join our community. Talk to her and accept, and this will unlock:

(You may need to be away from base when Reba and/or Diana show up, so if you have some free time, scavenge a bit and they'll hopefully turn up sooner rather than later).

Good news - from here on out, no more having to find events or waiting for triggers, as all events will come in over the radio from now on.

Speaking of which, we'll get a call from a "Mysterious Woman" around this time. This is Izzbee, our last survivor who is recruit-able that we will meet in-game. She'll tell us we're doing everything wrong (possibly true) and to come over and visit her. She's located along the north-central edge of the map, so head over there. Talk to her, and she'll ask you to travel to certain points on the map and read a string of characters over the radio. Accept of course, and the first spot you'll go to is a gas station. Climb up onto the roof (the ladder to access the roof is outside the main building along the back) and the radio dialog will automatically trigger. Next, drive over to the water tower indicated by the quest marker and repeat this exercise (climb both ladders here to get to the round part at the top). Now you'll be directed to loot the CLEO drop that just came down. Follow the quest marker for the last time (for this mission at least) to the Swine & Bovine restaurant. A horde has been attracted by the CLEO signal, so take them out in your favorite way. When clear, climb up onto the roof (this time the ladder is inside the restaurant - head to the back room and turn around right as you enter, and the ladder will be to your right), and loot the CLEO drop. Grab the CLEO Intuition Processor and any other loot you want, then drive the processor back to Izzbee. Once you drop this off, Izzbee will ask to join your group. Accept for:

Drive Izzbee back to your base to complete the mission.

Izzbee allows us to build and operate the CLEO Relay facility, which we need for an achievement. You cannot operate the relay without her, so of all the survivors you've recruited so far, she needs to stay alive the most, at least until you complete 'The CLEO Can You Hear Me?' achievement (see Play-through One Achievement Clean up below for more details)

So, it looks like the game is over and you need to start all over again now, right? Wrong! If you select "Continue" from the main menu, the game will drop you in at the beginning of the "Gauntlet", with only the fourth plague wall left! You can beat this wall over and over, and every time you continue, you'll start in the same place. This fact will help speed up achievement unlocking TREMENDOUSLY, in so long as you remember not to restart the game (there is only one save slot, and if you start a new game, you'll overwrite this current playthrough. Don't do this.)

The Haven Device is a superior Defense facility introduced with Update 26. It reduces your base's Threat level drastically, while also kills zeds attacking or coming close to your base.
It doesn't have a Facility Mod slot.

In-game description: A CLEO-powered zombie warding device. Its effect is much stronger when it is powered, and it is much cheaper to maintain with access to water.

Building Requirements:

Large Slot (Outdoor)
Haven Capsule
8 Scraps of Circuitry
3 / 4 / 5 / 8 / 10 Materials
1 Labor
Facility Actions:

None
Passive Effects:

Haven Protocol (No Sieges, Kills Zombies in Base)
Burning Through Parts (-100 Parts Per Day)
External Power Source (Extended Area of Effect, requires Power)
Liquid Cooling System (Reduced Parts Cost, requires Water)

To unlock this facility you'll need to complete the Meeting CLEO: The Haven Protocol mission on the Trumbull Valley map.

Installing this facility will cause a massive siege before it will start defending your base.

The effect Haven Protocol doesn't actually mean there will be no sieges, but provides -80 Zombie Threat which should be enough to keep your Threat Level at 0 on all difficulties.

When External Power Source is active (facility has Power access), the effect Haven Protocol changes to No Sieges, Kills Zombies in Safe Area.

When Liquid Cooling System is active (facility has Water access), the effect Burning Through Parts changes to -25 Parts Per Day.

Zombies and Freaks wandering into the kill zone of the Haven Device will start glowing green and burn from the inside. After a short amount of time their head will explode (as for bloaters, they pop really quickly). Zombies getting out of the kill zone will turn from glowing green to glowing yellow. However, re-entering the kill zone will once again trigger the green glow and start the countdown to elimination.

Red Talon Contractors are special survivors you can recruit by playing Daybreak.

Recruitment
Red Talon Contractors can be called in through your radio. Open it up, then choose Daybreak. Here you'll see two options to call in Contractors - one is being Red Talon Daybreak Operator and the other one is Red Talon Soldier. They are identical in everything except in their appearance (default outfit). Calling them in costs 2750 Prestige each. Prestige can be earned through the Daybreak gamemode.

Before you would recruit them, you can examine them with the 'Learn about Survivor' option. You're only able to see their skills, however it gives away crucial information about them, allowing you to predict some of their traits even. They also have access to exclusive Quirk Skills which is also visible when examining them. If you don't like them or already have someone with a given Quirk Skill and don't need a duplicate, you can refuse the recruitment. Doing so will refund your 2750 Prestige you spent on calling them in.

You can find information about predicting the Contractor's traits below.

Notes:

If you have 10 or more survivors in your community you can't recruit Contractors (they'll always refuse your request).
In case you're below 10 members but still get your calls refused check your map - having too many enclaves around can cause this issue. Getting rid of a few enclaves usually resolves it. Completing your pending missions can also help.

Skills
Red Talon Soldier
RT Soldiers' Outfit

Red Talon Contractors have a unique set of Core Skill specializations:

Prowess for Cardio,
Tactics for Wits,
Heroism for Fighting, and
War-fighting for Shooting.
These 4 specializations are combinations of all the specializations for the corresponding skill, making Red Talon Contractors the best survivors in the game (skill-wise at least).

As mentioned before, they'll also come with special Quirk Skills. There are 10 of these skills available.

Traits
Red Talon Daybreak Operator
RT Daybreak Operators' Outfit

Red Talon Contractors have their own pool of unique Traits which are only available for them. They will always have four traits when you recruit them. It is possible to predict what they will be based on their shown skills when inspecting them through the "Learn About Survivor" option.

The first trait provides certain bonuses for the Contractor. It is randomly picked from the following 4 traits: