Which crossbows and firearms to look for and keep.
Intro
Once you have played the game for a while, your stockpile of weapons starts to grow. There are weapons to be scavenged in gun shops, military installations, police stations, and random houses. Every plague heart you destroy will drop guns. Hostile NPCs you kill will drop guns. You can trade for them, collect them as bounties or mission rewards, or pick them up from loot drops you called in.
When the weapons start piling up, it leads to a question: which ones are worth keeping, and which ones are just cluttering up your inventory? If you are running low on parts, which ones can you afford to scrap?
SoD2 weapons have many different properties, and it’s seldom the case that one weapon would be unambiguously, in every aspect, better than another: e.g., if one weapon has a scope of a bigger magazine, it’s usually also heavier. This makes it harder to trim out unnecessary weapons from your collection.
In this guide, I’ll be looking at the selection of ranged weapons on offer and which weapons are best suited for which purpose. All the analysis is based on the assumption that we are playing on lethal difficulty, where the going is toughest. For that reason, I’m not going to consider what to arm your followers with, since you can’t bring any anyways. And I am not going to take coolness into account. If you want to run around with your favorite gun because you like how it looks or kill juggs with a crossbow just for the challenge, go right ahead. Of course, gun collectors are also going to keep a lot of guns that are not particularly practical.
Lastly, I won’t consider weapon repair expenses. Find yourself a salvage furnace or two, and running out of parts will cease to be an issue.
Different Tools for Different Purposes
Regular zombies and freaks other than juggernauts
These are the most common types of threats you’ll come across. Regular zombies, plague zombies, bloaters, and screamers will all go down with a single headshot (or any shot, in the case of bloaters), which means weapon power or caliber doesn’t matter. Blood ferals will take three headshots, but ammunition type is irrelevant in this case as well: a 22LR will do the job just as well as a 7.62. Blood ferals also become briefly invulnerable after each headshot, which means automatic weapons aren’t any better against them than single-shot weapons. Some people might be inclined to blast away at hordes with full-auto weapons, shotguns and the like, but that strikes me as something done for funsies rather than for practicality.
Juggernauts
50 cal weapons are by far the easiest choice against juggs (though a CLEO heavy sniper, a grenade launcher or a Starshank launcher is equally effective): you need four shots (which don’t need to be headshots) and a finisher, and you’re done. If you are low on 50 cal ammo, a different approach is a high DPS weapon with enough capacity to get the job done without reloads. Testing has revealed that 7.62 is unusually cost ineffective against juggs (meaning it costs relatively much to craft the required ammo), but if you save 7.62 ammo for purposes like this, it doesn’t matter that much. If the weapon is silent, that’s a bonus, but juggs will make noise during the fight in any case.
Plague hearts
When working with firearms, you have a couple of options against plague hearts. The mildly cheesy option is to find a line of fire from outside the building and then shoot at the thing from the roof of your car; IME this is possible in at least 90% of cases. If you can’t or won’t do that, the other option is to go inside. For that, you’ll want high DPS weapons with as much capacity as possible.
If you kill every plague heart in a lethal map with guns, it will take a huge (but not unfeasible) amount of ammunition. Since the most efficient way of producing ammo is the “Sort Ammo” action in your storage facility, you’ll probably be shooting at hearts with lots of different guns. In this case, weapon power very much does make a difference. As a rule, rifles are better than SMGs or sidearms. There are also a few especially powerful guns that we’ll get to later.
Hostile NPCs
There are a few different tactics for taking out a hostile enclave. 50 cal rifles are arguably the easiest, since a headshot will kill enemies instantly, but you may run low on 50 cal ammo. A second option is to use zombait or a noisemaker to call in zombies, then retreat to a distance and help the zombies with something silent, like a crossbow. Or you might just charge in and kill the enemies with overwhelming firepower. For that, you’ll want good power or DPS as well as sufficient capacity.
Base Defence
Community members that you are not playing as won’t use up any ammunition, whatever weapon they may be using. Given that, there’s no real reason not to give them 50 cal weapons if you have them. They are the best option against juggs and will also kill regular zombies with a single shot even if it’s not a headshot. A fully automatic weapon like a BAR or a Raider’s AR-15 is not a bad choice, either. Note that the weapon needs to be full auto only, not select fire, because otherwise your team members will shoot in semiautomatic mode.
Car Retrieval
I added a category for cases when you just want to get to an objective with minimal fighting on the way. Going on foot to pick up a car is such a situation: you want to go lightweight and avoid any trouble on the way, but still need enough firepower to kill the occasional feral, especially considering that you can’t retreat to the top of your car. This is perhaps the best use case for light crossbows, but maybe take a silenced pistol as well.
Types of Weapons Explored I
Pistols
There is no sense in using pistols against juggs or plague hearts. They are mostly for regular zeds, which means caliber and full auto capacity don’t matter, and we are mostly interested in magazine capacity and whether there is a holo sight. The ability to zoom in is perhaps not that important if you have the snap aim ability, but I prefer to have it in any case, to take out screamers and bloaters from a longer distance. Noteworthy weapons include:
- MAC-10. Fairly easily available and has a large mag, but no scope.
- MAC-11. I believe this one has the largest ammo cap of any sidearm with its 32 rounds of 9 mm.
- Pistols with holo sights: Precision G17 (easy to find), P220-9 Elite (larger mag but hard to find), Czech M8 (large mag but poor scope).
- The 22LR pistols are all weirdly bad, but for ammo preservation purposes, you might end up using the Extended Mk3.
- The G18 Auto Custom is a special case due to its extreme DPS and ammo capacity. Pair it with a Spec Ops Vector when taking out hearts on the ground.
Revolvers
Revolvers are not very powerful; they have a poor ammo capacity, and they can’t be suppressed, which makes them poorly suited for much of anything. Unless you like playing Rick Grimes, you only need to keep one around for bounties. There is, however, one revolver you absolutely want to have, and that’s the Gold Fever Revolver from the Trifecta pack. This is the most powerful .44 weapon in the game and, in fact, the most cost-effective weapon in the game for destroying hearts.
Shotguns
Shotguns can’t be suppressed, and they generally have limited capacity. You might fool around with hordes with them or maybe give one to someone on base guard duty, but really, you just use them against hearts.
As best I can tell, all shotguns are equally powerful. The DEVGRU X12 Infiltrator has been suggested as the best weapon against hearts, but probably due to its drum mag and scope. If you want to save some parts, use a pump action like the C1-A Ursus.
If we followed the in-game classification, the next weapon categories would be assault weapons and rifles. I’m going to break these into smaller categories since there are some significant differences in the weapons within those categories.
SMGs (full auto, pistol caliber, short barrel) and PCCs (semi-auto, pistol caliber, short barrel)
These weapons seem perfectly decent at first glance, and anyone playing will probably end up using them. However, they’re not great against juggs or hostile NPCs, and pistol caliber rifles are better against hearts, which means SMG-type weapons are mostly good against regular zombies. These all go to the main weapon slot, so you can’t use them at the same time as a more powerful weapon. If you don’t take a more powerful weapon with you, the Prepper’s 10/22 has more capacity than almost any of these, the Spec Ops Vector being the exception. That one also has exceptional DPS, making it suitable for more or less any purpose.
Pistol caliber rifles (long barrel)
The game has a few pistol caliber (9 mm or .45) weapons that come with a long barrel. These have downsides compared to SMGs like less capacity or a heavier carry weight. They are, however, the most powerful weapons in their calibers, which makes them an efficient option against hearts. The T4/M2 is capable of automatic fire, whereas the RC-9 and the Trail Blazer S2K have scopes on them. In .45, there are two options, and the Doomsday Carbine is the better one.
Assault/battle rifles (rifle caliber, full auto/burst capable)
Most assault rifles are quite similar to SMGs in that they are perfectly capable weapons for many purposes, but there just tend to be better alternatives. Against regular zeds they are loud, heavy and wasteful; against juggs 50 cals are better, and most assault rifles lack the capacity to finish the job without reloading; in base defence, they can be good if they are full auto only, but I would still prefer 50 cals if available. That leaves plague hearts and hostile NPCs as the main uses, plus juggs and base defence as a secondary option after 50 cals.
A few weapons stand out in this category. First, you can make a Masterwork Assault Rifle if you have the Improvised Weapon Station from the Trumbull Valley Pack. This is the most powerful 5.56 rifle in the game, and it also has a big enough mag to kill a heart without reloading. There are other high capacity 5.56 rifles, but if you have this, there is no reason to bother with them (except the full auto only Raider’s AR).
The unusually powerful weapons in 7.62 are Golden Honcho from the Trifecta pack and the FAL. FAL is the stronger one, but it has a modest ammo capacity. A few other 7.62 rifles have the capacity to kill a heart without reloading, which makes them an option for quick kills on the ground. Prepper’s AK is good; Eternal Guard’s Infinite Rage is overkill; Stormbringer is possible, but worse than Prepper’s AK.
The full-auto-only options in 7.62 are the Raider’s AK, plus all BAR variants.
Non-automatic rifles (rifle caliber, semi-auto/lever action/bolt action)
Almost all non-automatic rifles lack the ammo capacity to be useful. They are equally pointless against juggs or non-jugg zombies. There are better options against NPCs, for car retrieval, or in base defence. That leaves only a couple of exceptions worth mentioning. The Prepper’s 10/22 is both the best main weapon against non-jugg zombies and the best .22 weapon against hearts. And in .357, the lever-action rifles are your best option against hearts. The Scoped Big Hank is hard to find, but probably the preferable one.
Weapon Types Explored II
There are only a few 50 cal weapons in the game. They all excel at jugg disposal and are also good for killing NPCs quickly, if you can spare the ammo. They are all equally powerful if you insist on using them against hearts, but they are extremely cost-ineffective in that role. Most of these weapons have their strengths: the M99X1 Timberwolf is suppressed, which is always useful; the B50FG has the largest capacity, so I use it for base defence; and the bounty guns (Otoe Howlitzer and the Spyglass Rifle) are relatively lightweight. The Model 99-50 is strictly worse than the Timberwolf and can be safely ignored.
Launchers
Obviously, none of the grenade launchers are silent, and they have exceedingly expensive ammunition. Given how rare the ammunition is, I haven’t relied on these for anything, but they can be used against juggs or hearts. Against juggs, they are as powerful as 50 cal, and the large-capacity ones have the necessary ammo. Community members using these can do friendly fire, unfortunately.
The Echo-S5 Gas Launcher is strictly useful against NPCs and not zombies. Bloater cloud grenades make for very powerful explosions when the cloud is ignited, and presumably the same is true for gas launcher rounds, but better not hit a door frame or you can easily get yourself killed.
The Pyro Launcher and the Starshank Launcher are meme-y weapons from the Independence Pack. Knock yourself out if you want to play around with them, and they can even be effective, but you won’t miss anything important if you ignore them.
Crossbows
The main selling point crossbows have is that they are the most silent ranged weapons in the game. As such, they are suitable when you don’t want to draw attention to yourself. The light crossbow and the scoped version, Midnight Solstice, are very lightweight and natural choices for car retrieval and similar jobs. Echo-X2 Sniper Crossbow is an option for killing NPCs or clearing out level 1 infestations. Some people like the Echo-X3 Repeating crossbow, but if you use it against regular zeds, you’ll need to carry some extra ammo. The Echo X-1 is more lightweight than the X2, but loses the ability to shoot multiple targets in a row, which is not worth the tradeoff, unless you have the specialization to penetrate with any shot. The Classic crossbow, the Hunting crossbow, and the homemade versions all have better options and can be ignored.
CLEO weapons
A special mention goes to CLEO weapons, which can be acquired if you play Daybreak. They are powerful and easy to aim but fairly heavy and can’t be fitted with suppressors or other muzzle devices. Additionally, you can’t scavenge the necessary ammunition and can only craft it in limited amounts, since crafting it requires electronics, which in turn cannot be crafted.
The heavy sniper variant is as powerful against juggs as 50 cal. CLEO weapons can be useful in base defence as well, or against NPCs.
Summary
22 cal: Prepper’s 10/22, Extended Mk3
9 mm: T4/M2 (or RC-9 or the Trail Blazer S2K), G18 Auto Custom, Czech M8, MAC-11
.45 cal: Spec Ops Vector, MAC-10, Doomsday Carbine
.357: Scoped Big Hank
.44: Gold Fever Revolver
Shotguns: DEVGRU Infiltrator
5.56: Masterwork Assault Rifle, Raider’s AR
7.62: FAL, Prepper’s AK, Raider’s AK, BAR variants
50 cal: any except Model 99-50
Launchers: any except M203 Standalone
Crossbows: Light, Midnight Solstice, X1, X2, X3
CLEO weapons: weapons that go in the main weapon slot, especially the heavy sniper.
Of these, the plague heart killers are:
Prepper’s 10/22
Τ4/Μ2 or other 9 mm rifles, G18 Auto Custom if on the ground
Doomsday carbine or the Spec Ops Vector if on the ground
Scoped Big Hank Rifle
Gold Fever Revolver
Masterwork Assault Rifle
FAL or the Prepper’s AK if on the ground
Any shotgun, DEVGRU infiltrator being the fastest
Other ammo types: please don’t.
So there you have it: 240 ranged weapons pruned down to 30-ish that will render all others obsolete. Before you get your hands on the best weapons the game has to offer, you’ll have to make do with what you have. Against plague hearts, keep at least one gun for each ammunition type and use the most powerful you have, which usually means the one with the longest barrel, and always use a good muzzle device. If you are doing bounties, also keep at least one weapon of each type (lever action, assault, etc.) around in case you get a bounty that requires you to use a specific type of weapon.
And that wraps up our share on State of Decay 2: Ranged Weapons of SoD2. If you have any additional insights or tips to contribute, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below. For a more in-depth read, you can refer to the original article here by miikhei, who deserves all the credit. Happy gaming!