State of Decay: Year-One

Original Guide was published here: http://sweatypistol.com/state-of-decay-breakdown-guide-to-un...

This guide is more of a walkthrough on how to effectively and efficiently unlock all of the heroes in Breakdown. Leave a comment below on how I can improve the guide.

*Per II Rich Hobo II you will need to have Lifeline Installed for the 4 Lifeline challenges to show.

Level 1

The Bruiser – Eli Wilkerson – 100 Blunt Weapons Kills

Kill 100 zombies using blunt weapons such as lead pipes, batons, bats, frying pans, etc.

The Cop – Owen Lykins – 50 Pistol Kills

Kill 50 zombies with pistols. You can do this at anytime, but I recommend pairing this with level 4’s The Sniper, as the pistol was my gun of choice to earn headshot streaks.

The Believer – Pastor William Mulroney – Earn 500 Fame

This hero will be unlocked naturally by completing missions, scavenging and returning rucksacks to base.

The Father – Thomas Ritter – Max Out Every Type of Facility

This achievement can also be paired with another achievement: Land Usage. There are two strategies to getting this. The first is making sure you unlock this hero at either level one or two, since the difficulty drastically increases at three. I personally recommend unlocking this hero at level three or four. At level three you can be more efficient by unlocking The Defender, The Biker, The Scholar and The Healer. All three of those heroes require you to craft items, and these items require you to max out certain facilities. If you wait until level four, it will become more difficult, but you can also pair those previous heroes with The Survivor, which requires scavenging 150 resources.

The Dealer – Raymundo Santos – 400 Kills with Car Door

Unlocking this hero will take some time, but it is recommended that you do this either level one or two while vehicles are bountiful. To kill zombies with your car door, press and hold X while you are driving and line up the zombie with the door.

The Scholar – Charley Marshall – Complete All Research Projects

This requires a Library and other upgraded facilities such as a Munitions Shop and Infirmary. Make sure to pair this with The Father, which is detailed above. If you don’t do the research when you have these upgraded facilities, you will be spend twice as much time having to rebuild these facilities.

The Tragedy – Jacob Ritter – Get Torn Apart by Zombies

You most likely will earn this naturally in later levels by having one of your community members be torn apart by either a pack of zombies, a feral or a juggernaut. Note that if your beginning hero is killed, you will lose all current progress.

The Killer – Alan Gunderson – Kill a Dying Community Member

This hero is one of the most difficult to unlock, mainly because there is no cut-and-dry method. You need to get a community injured or sick enough for the Mercy Shot mission to appear. Most forum comments say that you need to have no medicine, no medical facility, no doctor in the community and get a non-friend (a member you cannot switch to) gravely ill before the Mercy Shot mission will appear. My mission appeared finally in level four when I stopped trying to get this because I was more concerned about finishing The Father. I put in about five or six hours into level four and had almost all of my 15 community members sick and three of them were gravely ill, which should be the precursor to the Mercy Shot. I upgraded the medical facility to an infirmary, ended my session for the night, and when I came back in the morning the mission was waiting there for me. The community member was a friend but was not a hero. Now, I can’t say what methods are more accurate, just what has worked for me. If you need to get someone sick, ask them to accompany you and run over two bloaters with your car, and they should become gravely ill shortly after they return. Just make sure they don’t die.

The Sacrifice – Erik Tan – Go Out In A Blaze of Glory

You only need three things: a community member you are willing to sacrifice, a molotov cocktail/grenade and a pack of zombies. Equip the cocktail, go out and find a pack and let them kill your member. Right before you die you should be able to press RB and drop the cocktail, killing the zombies and unlocking this hero.

The Taskmaster – Cpt. Diane Montressor – Play for 10 Hours

Will come naturally by playing.

The Joker -Royell Vincent- Create 10 Snacks

You can do this any time as long as your facility has a cooking area/kitchen. Each time you create snacks, it will take one food resource and five minutes to complete.

Level 2

The Friend – Ed Jones – Reach Level 2

He is unlocked once you repair the RV and decide it is time to leave the valley.

The Phoenix – Becca Collins – 100 Kills with Fire

You can either do this as a standalone or pair it with The Moustache, which is level five and requires you to get 50 kills with a shotgun. If you pair them together, you will need to make sure you find the Cleo Incendiary Shotgun, which can be found at Cleo drops or in the warehouse near the fairgrounds. Use molotov cocktails on hordes if you are doing this as a standalone.

The Enthusiast – Lyanna Carter – 100 Light Edged Weapon Kills

Just kill zombies with hatchets, swords or any other edged weapon. Will happen naturally as you play.

The Dead Man – Andy Pimms – Kill five Bloaters

Requires finding and killing five bloaters. It is not difficult to kill them, it just requires a little bit of patience to find them. The likelihood of bloaters spawning increase as your level increases.

The Hunter – Lincoln Voss – 50 Rifles Kills

Don’t actively go after unlocking this hero until you reach level four. You can double dip as you try to earn The Sniper, which requires 25 headshot streaks. A headshot streak is killing five zombies with headshots in a very quick progression. Try to find hordes as they usually have eight to 10 zombies.

The Mother – Heather LaRue – Cook A Feast

You need a community member with a cooking attribute. I unlocked this in level three with a non-hero NPC character. You will also need a cooking area, five food resource, two influence and it will take 30 minutes.

The Commander – Alicia Hawkes – Complete three Surveys

Look on your map for the binocular icon. These represent survey areas, which are tall buildings that allow you to survey the area. Just climb up to the top, hold LT over each ? and you are done.

Level 3

The Convict – Sam Hoffman – Reach Level 3

Just repair the RV and leave the valley.

The Judge – Judge Constance Lawton – Perform 50 Executions

You perform executions by pressing LB and Y together near a downed zombie. At this point executions are vital to your survival as level 3 increases the difficulty drastically.

The Mentor – Carl Parsons – 50 Revolver Kills

Try to get this along with The Sniper in level four, since you will get at least 125 kills if you are a perfect shot to get The Sniper.

The Fighter – Amelia Crasman – Kill five Ferals

If you get any feral hunt missions, make sure to do them before they expire. I would recommend doing this as soon as possible, as ferals can easily kill your community member in the higher levels.

The Healer – Doc Hanson – Create Stimulants or Painkillers five Times

This is the level I recommended earlier in the guide to get this along with The Father, which is maxing out all the facilities. You will just need extra medicine resource and a fully functional infirmary. Create the stimulants/painkillers five times and this hero is yours.

The Biker – Joel Macon – Create Weapons in the Workshop five Times

Similar to the above, just create a workshop and create five items. I created five suppressors and unlocked this hero.

The Gardener – Calliope Morris – Grow 10 Food in the Garden

Once you’ve created the garden, just grow food 10 times to unlock this hero.

The Defender – Kilohana Young – Craft 300 Rounds of Ammo

You need to get a munitions shop, which is an upgraded workshop. Once you have the munitions shop, I would suggest crafting smaller ammo such as 9mm or .22 to get the highest yield in rounds. It should only take six or so crafts.

Level 4

The Gunner – K.C. Winters – Reach Level 4

Congrats, you’ve just left the valley for a third time.

The Survivor – Job Wilkerson – Scavenge 150 Resources

Clear out buildings and bring back rucksacks of any resources until you reach 150. If you are trying to do this quickly, look for materials since they come in 15 per rucksack.

The Hero – Marcus Campbell – 100 Heavy Weapon Kills

This can be done with weapons like the shovel or sledgehammer. Just make sure you do it 100 times to unlock this hero.

The Rebel – Zeika Rivera – 50 Assault Rifle Kills

Just choose your favorite assault rifle and head out hunting some zombies.

The Sniper – Mickey Wilkerson – Earn 25 Headshot Streaks

As I’ve detailed in previous portions of this guide, this will be one of the more frustrating heroes to unlock. You need to kill five zombies in quick progression, all with headshots and without missing. You will have numerous times where you get four and then miss or are then attacked. The only really good tip I can give you is to try to get alert hordes and have a suppressor on your gun. This will allow you to get the headshots without alerting other close zombies. Other zombies attacking you from behind while you try to get the streaks is the worst.

The Grenadier – Evan Woodrow – 50 Explosives Kills

I used the grenade launcher to unlock this hero and just drove around finding hordes, which will net you about six-to-eight per shot. You can also kill zombies by shooting propane tanks that are near them. This will also unlock The Bruce, if you can get three of them near the tank.

The Operator – Kelly Eldridge III – Kill 10 Screamers

Screamers are so common in level four that I unlocked The Operator in about half an hour of driving around. You shouldn’t have any issue if you’ve made it to level 4.

Level 5

The Veteran – Maya Torres – Reach Level 5

Congratulations, you are only one more level from finishing this achievement.

The Moustache – Dan Hovenden – 50 Shotgun Kills

Level 5 can be very tough and requires you to live long enough to get more members in your community or you will lose right away. I took Kelly Eldridge with almost completely maxed stats and I struggled early on. Once you have some more members and have yet to move to a stationary home, get your shotgun and start killing zombies near the RV. This will give you backup, as shooting your shotgun will attract hundreds of zombies. Make sure you are stocked on painkillers and shotgun shells and this hero is yours.

The Mercenary – Leon Montague – Kill five Juggernauts

Killing juggernauts is easy when you have vehicles. The big issue is that vehicles are few and far between. If you are going to kill juggernauts with your vehicle, make sure to have lots of snacks as you will be doing lots of running or risk losing your community member. Try to drive around until you find a juggernaut near another unused vehicle.

The Ninja – Shark Hoodie Guy – Perform 50 Stealth Kills

This takes a lot of patience, and I mean a lot. You will often be very close to earning a stealth kill when another zombie gives you away. Don’t give up, just make sure you are swinging extra wide for good measure when sneaking up on your undead foes.

Level 6

The Scientist – Walter DeGrasse – Reach Level Six

You are finally done! Well, if you were just trying to get the achievement. If not, you can continue basically forever or until you are ready for a new challenge.

Here is a complete video guide in tips and how to unlock all challenges in breakdown mode to unlock the all the heroes achievement in the game.

Level 1 challenges

Level 2 challenges

Level 3 challenges

Level 4 challenges

Level 5 challenges

Hi everyone, if you’re like me and only had problems with the one challenge “the killer” I have a very simple solution that is guaranteed to work.

For mercy shot (the killer) - go offline and start up a level at breakdown 5. Do not move into any facilities, stick with the RV.

Gather enough influence to get one of your followers to accompany you, once they’re following you - get into a car with them and run over 2-3 bloaters. Eventually you will get a message saying “*character name* it’s time to go home”. This means that character is now sick. Drive them back to the RV.

Back out to the main menu and switch your day forward by one day via the Xbox settings.

Repeat this process until follower is “gravely ill.” Continue setting day forward by one day until illness spreads to other survivors. The goal is to get someone who is tagged as not a friend to become gravely ill.

Once a follower who is not your friend is gravely ill, complete missions that the radio operator assigns you. Make sure that the follower is at the RV by checking the roster and seeing the “at home” status when completing missions. If follower is not at home simply press “check in” and go retrieve them to make them return to RV.

Eventually, a mercy kill mission will appear. Mine popped up almost immediately after checking in with another follower and telling them to return home. The most important part is to make sure that the follower you want to mercy kill is at home and not away from home when completing missions. This gives the mercy kill mission the highest probability of spawning.

Good luck, hope this helps