State of Decay 2 is a hard taskmaster. Undead Labs’ survival sequel lulls you into a false sense of security, holding back the zombie horde for you to gather your materials and upgrade your base of operations, only to strike when you least expect it, killing members of community permanently and decimating your home.

Think you can hack it against the undead? These are the best zombie games against which to test your zed-smashing mettle.

None of that happened to us, of course, but we are here to make sure you can keep the horde of undead at bay and that your excursion to the infested locales of Cascade Hills, Meagher Valley, or Drucker County is as smooth and as pleasant as possible - despite the whole apocalypse thing, naturally.

Ok, we’ll come clean - cleaner than a zed, at least - we did make plenty of mistakes during our time with the game. You can find out about that, how we are finding the game in our review in progress and performance verdict, and our adventures in the game’s brand new multiplayer mode. But, to help you learn from our mistakes, here are our top State of Decay 2 tips.

Never travel alone