Welcome Home to Trumbull Valley
The Homecoming Update brings the story of State of Decay back to where it all began: the idyllic community of Trumbull Valley. This map has appeared twice before in the game’s history, but never before has it been this gorgeous, this detailed, and this full of places to search and loot to find.
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll discover in the Homecoming Update. Read on for more details!
- New Core Map! Trumbull Valley joins the roster of towns that welcome your new or ongoing community.
- New Missions! This map includes several new missions ONLY available in Trumbull Valley. Some continue the stories of familiar faces such as Ray Santos and Mickey Wilkerson, while others introduce new storylines to the valley.
- New Stuff! By exploring Trumbull Valley you can discover ten new weapons, a dozen new hats and outfits, and an exciting new thrown explosive … all of them unique to this map.
- New Bases! From the tiny Checkpoint Delta starter base to the massive Farmland Compound, Trumbull Valley offers six new bases for you to claim and make your own.
- New Bounties! The Trifecta Pack offers 12 new bounties to complete, themed as three collect-them-all sets of matching weapons and backpacks.
- Game Improvements! You might think that a new map and a new bounty pack is enough for an update, but we’ve been busy with additional targeted improvements as well.
We hope you enjoy the new content and improvements in this update. As always, thanks for playing State of Decay 2!
— the Undead Labs development team
Trumbull Valley, Like Never Before
A smaller version of the Trumbull Valley map previously appeared in State of Decay 2: Heartland. The Homecoming Update delivers a full-size version of Trumbull Valley for the core game, reintegrating the Mount Tanner and Fairfield regions to the map. Long-time players can now explore every bit of the area they remember from the first game (and that they’ve been asking for on the wishlist).
As part of transforming Trumbull Valley into a core map, we also tweaked the landscape and visuals in many places. This allowed us to add plenty of new sites to scavenge, along with new sights to behold.
The Trumbull Saga Continues Here
The stories in Homecoming take place after State of Decay 2: Heartland and form part 3 of the Trumbull Saga, a story that began all the way back in the original State of Decay.
By exploring the new Trumbull Valley, you can see how this region has evolved since the original game. The landscape shows the impact of key characters, factions, and events of the past two years of the apocalypse. Many familiar faces from prior chapters of this saga return in Homecoming, resulting in the revival of old rivalries … and the birth of new alliances.
If you haven’t yet played through the stories of State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition or State of Decay 2: Heartland now’s a great opportunity to brush up on the history of Trumbull Valley … but don’t worry, you’ll be able to keep up even if these stories aren’t fresh in your memory.
Unique Discoverable Content
Trumbull Valley is the first map to offer a wide variety of items that you can’t find on any other map. To discover these weapons and outfits, you’ll have to search the map, complete missions, and talk to local survivors.
- FAL: This ubiquitous rifle is a Network favorite, handed down from survivor to survivor.
- AKS-74U: Once used by Soviet special forces, this weapon is durable, compact, and easy to use.
- Škorpion 61: A fast-firing sidearm favored by many Network operatives (and our wishlist).
- SVD: A grizzled, adaptable rifle useful in many scenarios.
- APC9 RT: A modern submachine gun never fully deployed to the global forces of Red Talon.
- MCX Osprey RT: A robust, modular weapon system intended for hard use in the field.
- Souvenir Caveman Club: A perennial top seller at the Jurassic Junction gift shop.
- Dino Jawblade: A lovingly hand-crafted display piece that’s dangerously lethal.
- Eli’s Mighty Socket Wrench: Another fine product from the Big Ass Wrench Company.
- Wilkerson Special Reserve: An explosive bottle of the Wilkersons' infamous Batch #11.
- Tanner Ranger Hat: Brush up on your local lore before putting this one on.
- Trumbull County Sheriff Hat: A symbol of those who protected the valley’s highways and byways.
- Pilot Cap (Midnight Black): Once worn by those who would slip the surly bonds of earth, but now mostly a fashion statement.
- 3 Trucker Hats: Jurassic Junction, Little Piggy Towing, and Fork in the Road Diner.
- 3 Basic Tees: Chilichonga on a Stick, TRexpresso, and Red Talon Security.
- 3 Gas Station Jackets: Big Daddy Auto Repair, Wheelock Tires, and Bronto Gas.
We’ve also populated the map with dozens of discoverable experiences that you can stumble across, from breathtaking vistas and viewpoints, to quirky or even disturbing scenes left by former denizens of the valley. Some of these discoveries unlock commentary from your survivors, while others conceal useful gear. If you’re the type of player who loves exploring every nook and cranny of a map, Trumbull Valley has plenty of surprises for you to find!
Six New Bases
Trumbull Valley wouldn’t be a core map without a plethora of new bases for your communities to try out.
- Checkpoint Delta is a small, easy-to-use starter base. Its location at a key central highway intersection makes it a great jumping-off point for scavenging runs.
- Tranquility Factory demonstrates the ingenuity of post-apocalyptic survivors, showing how to transform a soulless installation into a bastion of inner peace.
- Pterodactyl Ptark stands as the spiritual successor to Heartland’s Jurassic Junction base. Located in Spencer’s Mill, this unique two-level base demonstrates how survivors let nothing go to waste.
- The Red Talon Daybreak FOB is an abandoned high-tech base that includes built-in advanced facilities normally only unlocked by playing the Daybreak mode.
- Fort Marshall is a fenced military base left behind after the Army completed their post-Heartland activities. In addition to valuable built-in facilities, it also offers great scavenging opportunities in the resource-rich town of Marshall.
- The Farmland Compound is a large collection of buildings near the middle of the map, with a view of the surrounding fields. In the right hands, it can become a model of self-sufficiency.
Visit Trumbull Valley Today!
You can explore Trumbull Valley and its secrets by starting a new community and choosing Trumbull Valley from the list of maps. Or you can travel to one of the in-game map exits and relocate your existing community to Trumbull Valley. Either way, you’ll get to see everything that Trumbull has to offer!
Trifecta Pack
The Homecoming Update also includes the game’s twelfth bounty pack, which features a dozen new items you can earn from the Bounty Broker.
The Trifecta Pack is a little different from previous packs, in that it includes three mini-themes of matching items. Each mini-theme includes a melee weapon, a primary firearm, a sidearm, and an ultra-lightweight backpack that are beautifully color-coordinated, allowing your survivors to deck themselves out in glorious style.
- Hard Candy: This brightly colored set includes the Sweet Spot Bat, the MAC-11 Jaw Breaker, the M4 CQBR Mob Stopper, and the matching Hardy Candy Daypack.
- Precious Metals: If you prefer your gear a bit more decorated, you can equip yourself with the Gilded Kukri, the Gold Fever Revolver, the Golden Honcho AK-47, and the Filigree Daypack.
- Race Guns: Perhaps you’re more interested in pure speed? Try out the Armorer’s Wrench, the Czech M8 pistol, the MPX Competition SMG, and the Competition Daypack.
Each of these 12 new items can be earned by completing the appropriate bounty from the Bounty Broker. Collect a coordinated set for each survivor or mix and match to your heart’s content!
New Achievements
We’ve added two new achievements to the game to reward you for exploring the Homecoming Update:
- Lily, We’re Home (30 Gamerscore) — Claim a base on the Trumbull Valley map.
- You’re So Fine You Blow My Mind (20 Gamerscore) — Complete Mickey Wilkerson’s story in Trumbull Valley.
This brings the total Gamerscore available in State of Decay 2 up to 2400! You can also earn Microsoft Rewards for these achievements. Activate your punchcard today on your console.
Other Fixes and Improvements
We’ve also implemented a wide range of targeted improvements and bug fixes to various parts of the game.
Enhanced Ammo Stacks
We’ve rebalanced the stack sizes for all ammunition in the game, raising most of them by 25-100%. The new stack sizes are:
- 80: Pyro Launcher
- 64: CLEO Ammo
- 60: .22 cal
- 40:56mm, 7.62mm, 9mm, .357 HP, .44 Magnum HP, .45 cal, 12g shell, Light Bolt
- 20: .50 AP, Standard Bolt
- 4: 40mm grenade, Starshank
The Assault skill (and the Warfighting skill) now offer a +25% bonus to ammunition stack sizes as soon as you specialize. The bonus increases to +50% at seven stars.
So an Assault specialist (or a Red Talon Warfighter) can now carry 90 rounds of .22 caliber for their Fake-A 47 in a single stack, saving two inventory slots! Thanks for putting this on the wishlist!
(Note that this skill benefit does not apply during Daybreak — though the baseline stack sizes do.)
Combat
- We fixed a bug that caused awkward hitches and pauses between melee weapon swings if you hammered the button fast enough.
- Melee weapons — especially heavy weapons — are no longer as sensitive to players accidentally queueing multiple attacks while button-mashing.
- Finishing moves against zombies can now be prompted and triggered mid-attack, making them much more available in the heat of combat.
- Characters who have specialized their Fighting skill now default to using one of the faster finisher animations if they are surrounded by multiple zombies. So experienced fighters no longer get stuck on the ground, slowly crushing a zombie’s head, while simultaneously getting mobbed by the zombie’s friends.
- The rolling dodge unlocked with Acrobatics no longer automatically replaces the regular dodge. Now you can choose to trigger it by holding the turbo button while pressing dodge (LB + B or Left Shift + C or Middle Mouse). This one was released a while ago, but we forgot to include it in the patch notes.
- Healing from a bandage is no longer interrupted by common getting-around actions like hopping a fence, opening a door, getting into a car, or climbing a ladder. Combat actions will still interrupt it, though.
- The Assault Plague Heart radio command no longer ends abruptly if there are no zombies present when the enclave arrives.
Enemies
- The plague heart’s gas attack now does a reasonable amount of plague damage to survivors, scaled by difficulty level. So definitely keep your distance.
- Hordes now perform an additional check as they spawn, to get out of the way of moving players and ensure that they don’t spawn on top of your car. At higher difficulty levels, this means we’ve closed out one (hopefully final) source of Surprise Road Bloaters.
- You now earn 50 Influence for each 100 zombie kills (rather than 5 Influence for every 10 zombie kills). The payout is the same, but you get it in larger, more meaningful chunks.
- Screamers now shatter nearby windows when they howl for other zombies. This has no effect on gameplay, but it looks neat.
Vehicles
- Survivors now leave the headlights on when they get out of a vehicle, making it much easier to explore at night if you plan things right. Each player can only have one vehicle doing this at a time, so if you switch vehicles, your previous vehicle goes dark. (From the wishlist!)
- Vehicles with plows attached to the front now have more engine health than other vehicles, making them capable of running down more zombies head-on before they explode.
- Followers now work their way into the passenger seat when they get into a vehicle with you, rather than sitting in the back like you’re their chauffeur.
- Followers now get out of vehicles at the same time you do, rather than politely waiting for you to get all the way out first.
Missions
- The Warlord: Weapons for All mission now offers more pragmatic (rather than psychotic) dialogue options, and lets you end the interaction peacefully without having to drive all the way home. The weapon dealers' inventory is also much better.
- The Builder: Useful Utilities now recognizes the Wind Farm as a valid source of power, and doesn’t try to make you double up on generators.
- The (Military Enclave): An Offer to Join mission now unblocks the Learn About Survivor dialogue option, so you can tell what you’re getting into with these people.
- The (Booze Enclave): An Offer to Join mission no longer auto-recruits when you reload the game, foisting survivors on you that you probably did not want (given how they behave during their other missions).
- The teaser mission to escort a stranger to Trumbull Valley now ends with them fading out gracefully at the map exit.
- The Strengthen Our Base mission no longer breaks if you jump the gun and pick up the Materials too early.
- By popular request, the Independence Pack no longer generates random missions and traders. If you want Independence Pack gear, you can still call the trader over the radio at will.
User Experience
- The exclamation point badge on the How to Play menu is no longer visible for every new community you start. This is the most important and exciting fix we have ever made.
- We fixed an issue on the map screen that caused some sites not to highlight the icons for the Plague Hearts that had claimed them.
- Multiplayer clients no longer see all outposts labelled with a negative number.
- The map flyout for outposts now correctly show their upgrade level, instead of always showing level 1.
- Swapping weapons while within interaction range of a character no longer kicks off dialogue with that character.
- In-world mission markers no longer blink on and off for missions that have timers (like sieges).
Community Management
- The Cooked for the Squad Red Talon trait no longer reduces Infection Resistance for the entire community — only for the disgusting individual with the trait.
- The beds in the Lounge facility now count for characters who get a Morale boost from sleeping outdoors.
Exploits
- You can no longer build up unlimited Materials by cycling the Map Difficulty repeatedly while living at the Firewatch Fortress.
- You can no longer cheese CLEO Relay sieges by driving away from base.
Miscellaneous
- We fixed two bounties in the Open Range Pack that were inadvertently offering zero influence for repeated completions.
- We made numerous minor fixes to user interface, environment art, collision, weapon grips, and performance.
