State of Decay is a zombie survival game that was developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Studios in 2013. The story of the game is somewhat secondary, but it follows the travails of a group of survivors as they try to survive in and then escape Trumbull Valley. However, the main point of the game is to see how long the player can keep their group of survivors alive as they loot resources and weapons from across Trumbull Valley. The game received two DLCs in Breakdown and Lifeline.
The game has been remastered several times over the years and has even received a sequel with another on the way, but this hasn't slowed down the vibrant modding community that has aimed to customize, improve, and build upon the base of State of Decay.
Updated November 12, 2021 by Josh Davison: While the modding community of the first State of Decay remains vibrant and passionate even after all these years, it would less than ideal to overlook the modding community that has also gotten to work on the sequel. State of Decay 2 mods are just as ambitious and expansive as those available for the first game. The community for this installment is just as eager to improve the game, iron out some of the flaws, and add their own vision to this community-based survival zombie game. To reflect that, this list has been updated to include some of the best mods for State of Decay 2 as well.
15 Community Editor Allows For A Look Behind The Curtain
Many State of Decay 2 mods aim to help the player cope with the often cruel randomness of the game. Sometimes one's best survivor gets ambushed with seemingly no chance of escape or survival. Sometimes the community desperately needs food and ammunition, and there is none to be found anywhere.
The Community Editor seeks to give the player a new edge by allowing them to change various elements of their save file. This allows a second chance at saving a survivor community that they might have grown attached to and are unwilling to watch wither and die. This one was developed and uploaded by Nexos Mod user KaiHeilos.
14 Mod Manager Streamlines Integrating Mods Into State Of Decay 2
Sometimes, State of Decay 2 mods can clash with one another. Most video games aren't really made to be tinkered around with post-release by so many outside developers. The wrong combination of mods can keep a game from running properly.
Thankfully, the State of Decay 2 Mod Manager lets players look through the various mods they've downloaded, see which mods are compatible together, and even help different State of Decay 2 mods run more smoothly together. Many PC releases have a mod like this, and they are always a godsend. This mod was also made and published by KaiHeilos.
13 Short Night Makes It Easier To See The Dawn
Nights can be a particularly punishing time in zombie games. Any zombie game that has a day-night cycle, from Days Gone to Dying Light and even Minecraft, make it clear that the night belongs to the monsters. In addition to the obviously reduced visibility, nights in State of Decay 2 mean more active zombies and more special infected to ruin a perfectly good supply run.
Short Night from Nexus mod user killeraltair shortens the night so that players are more likely to live to see the dawn. To compensate, it also lengthens the daytime in State of Decay 2. Making a more pleasant experience for the player is a foundational concept in the modding community, and State of Decay 2 mods take the same approach.
12 100 Inventory Slots Allows For More Lucrative Supply Runs
The inventory system of State of Decay is one of the more finicky elements of the game. Like its zombie game cousin, Resident Evil, the inventory system can seem restrictive to an almost unrealistic degree at times. This is something modders have tackled in both State of Decay games.
The Vehicles Have 100 Inventory Slots mod by Nexus modder Justiny/choojustin seeks to resolve this by going spectacularly far in the other direction. At the end of the day, it's possible to fit a lot of stuff in a car with enough determination, so why not just say the player can shove 100 units of inventory in their car?
11 Ideal Community Generator Creates An Ideal Society
It's hard to say who would survive a real zombie apocalypse. There's no guarantee that it will only be the most hardened and skilled survivors, as life is more chaotic and unfair than a video game. This manifests itself in both State of Decay games, with a random set of survivors that aren't necessarily able to fulfill all of the duties that a survivor community would need.
The Ideal Community Generator tackles this issue. Many State of Decay 2 mods try to compensate for how unfair the random number generator can be in these games, and this mod by Nexus user evilgrin75 does the same. It allows the player to personally construct their survivor community so that the RNG doesn't completely ruin an attempted playthrough.
10 Skilled Survivors Stay Home Keeps Players From Losing Useful Allies
From here on, all the mods will be for the first State of Decay. Survivors in State of Decay have different skills and perks attributed to them. Despite that, each one of them will, at some point or another, leave the home base to go out and gather supplies. This means that the player will almost certainly have to rescue them out in the wilderness within a certain amount of in-game time, or else that survivor will perish.
Skilled Survivors Stay Home comes from modder star-mystyk, and it keeps this from happening. Survivors such as medics and cooks will stay home instead of going out to get themselves killed.
9 Realistic Flashlight Mod Improves The Flashlight
Videogames often have a weird relationship with flashlights, often representing them as a pinprick of light instead of a light source that brightens an entire room. State of Decay, conversely, makes the flashlight into a device that will essentially make a surface glow instead of illuminating them from afar.
Realistic Flashlight Mod comes from SilentResident, and it fixes this discrepancy by tweaking the flashlight mechanics. Now the flashlight actually lights up a surface instead of magically making it glow.
8 NPCs Use Guns Beta Allows Allies To Shoot Something
NPCs in State of Decay seem to be afraid of guns. They always arm themselves with melee weapons when battling zombies. This is likely to keep NPCs from wasting ammo, which is a very precious commodity in State of Decay, but it still limits how helpful an NPC ally can be.
NPCs Use Guns Beta comes from modders free8015 and BIZ and uploaded by user luc1dox, and it fixes this by giving NPCs guns and their own unlimited stash of ammunition that doesn't come from the player's own ammo. Admittedly, this mod is labeled as a beta and hasn't been updated since 2014. As such, it's likely to be quite buggy without any improvements likely to be on the way.
7 Realistic Shadows Mod Provides A Graphical Upgrade
Shadow effects have also been a consistently strange and ill-understood element in videogames. Shadows are, understandably, a weird and difficult thing to program, and State of Decay certainly has some room for improvement when it comes to its shadow effects.
Realistic Shadows Mod comes from SilentResident, and it lowers the contrast between shadowed and unshadowed areas. Before, shadows would practically black out an area. However, this mod tones down the darkness, making the shadows look more realistic and less oppressive.
6 Brant's Military Surplus Adds DLC Weapons To Base Game
The Lifeline and Breakdown DLCs for State of Decay add new weapons to the game, but they don't retroactively act those guns to the prior game modes. This means that Breakdown weapons aren't in the vanilla campaign, and the Lifeline weapons aren't in Breakdown or the vanilla campaign.
Brant's Military Surplus comes from MattyDienhoff, and it fixes that. So long as the DLCs are downloaded, their weapons will appear in the older game modes as well.
5 No Zombie Car Damage Makes Cars True Juggernauts
Plowing a car through a column of zombies is one of the most satisfying things that a player can do in State of Decay, but it's also a quick way to completely brick a car.
No Zombie Car Damage comes from modder BIZ and was uploaded by luc1dox, and it, thankfully, removes the damage that zombies do to cars. The stronger and more durable Freak variants of zombies can still deal some damage to a car, but that's to be expected.
4 QMJS Extended Functions Mod Improves Quality Of Life
Every game can use some large-scale tweaking after a while, and State of Decay is no different in that regard. QMJS Extended Functions Mod comes from modder QMJS, and it's a fairly large-scale upgrade to State of Decay.
Additions and changes include improving the variety of stats, adding new heroes, expanding the home base-building mechanics, makeing morale more of a relevant factor, allowing players to "thin the herd" in certain areas by killing zombies, and that's just a few of the upgrades. It's truly an impressive expansion on the game that adds a lot to the vanilla version.
3 Real Crossbows Mod Gives A Silent Ranged Weapon
Real Crossbows Mod comes from modder SilentResident. It adds a much-needed silent weapon to the State of Decay mix. Silencers were already an element in the game, but they wear out over time and can leave the player with what equates to a zombie alarm in the shape of a gun.
Likely inspired by Daryl Dixon from Walking Dead, this mod adds a silent and realistic crossbow to the player's arsenal that allows them to silently take out zombies from a distance.
2 Backpacks And Pick-Ups Fix With Climbable Pickups Does Just That
State of Decay heavily limits how much a player can transport at once in any vehicle, including the massive pickup trucks that are dotted throughout Trumbull Valley.
Backpacks and Pick-Ups Fix With Climbable Pickups was designed by Tronko, and it fixes this. Instead of locking in a certain amount of backpacks in a pickup truck, the player can instead just toss a bunch of backpacks of a pickup truck and drive them around without as much risk of them falling out. On top of that, the player can also climb into the back of a pickup with less of a hassle.
1 Zombies Don't Run Keeps The Zombies Classic
Zombies Don't Run comes from modder Bloodchylde. The zombies of State of Decay will sprint at the player the second that they detect a living presence. This is unfaithful to classic George Romero zombies as well as Walking Dead walkers.
This mod makes it so that the zombies don't run, because in most media, zombies don't run. They shamble, stumble, and walk towards the player. They aren't athletic runners; they are the low-functioning undead that seeks out only the flesh of the living.