I'm not sure how much info I want to get here, how much time I'll have to do it or where ADHD will take me, but feel free to comment or reach out to me with requests or info. I hope even in this unfinished state some of this stuff is useful to someone

1. CARDIO

2. WITS

3. FIGHTING [thanks to Protectron @Steam]

3.1. CLOSE COMBAT (no melee weapon)

When maxed out this is actually quite good. The zeds have a high chance of being knocked down with each strike and you get the front execute when maxed out. Just quickly mashing the attack button will also have your character switch quite well between 2-3 zombies at a time, keeping them stunned or knocked down. There is also the dodge behind the zombie for an execute. The execution of downed zombies is the best in the game, tied with Striking's golf swing. The special attack iis a shove that sadly does not really have a very high chance of knocking down a zombie.

3.2. ENDURANCE (doesn't favor any weapon type, can be good with Heavy Weapons with right specializations)

Since the specialization gives no bonuses to any of the weapons (unlike the others), even the weapons in the game with the most Lethality will be highly ineffective. However, a good portion of Lethality with Heavy Melee weapons is still good since you're stunlocking every zombie in front of you for as long as you have Stamina. The three Blunt weapons with the highest Knockdown are RTX Crusher, Persian Meel and Danforth Slugger. While the Endurance character will knock down the zombies easily enough with these (and some of the biggest Heavy Melee weapons), you don't have the good Executions that Striking does, so it is still worse than Striking. That's why combining Endurance with Powerhouse and Discipline to use Heavy Melee is your best bet. The two executes are both good; one is very quick and the other knocks down zombies around you. The special attack flips the zombie on its back and always results in the quick execute if you press E, so it's pretty useful. The Groundbreaker Shovel and Enigmatic Axe are the best Heavy Melee weapons in the base game.

3.3. STRIKING (Blunt weapons)

What this specialization is best at is knocking zombies down, so good crowd control. Even if the weapon's Knockdown bar is just half-full, a maxed-out Striking specialist will knock the zombies down with 1 strike most of the time because of the bonus to Knockdown. As long as there are zombies aggroing nearby, the Executes are going to be the golf swing. The other execute, the head crush, is slow and one of the poorest in the game - but it is thankfully only happening when there are no zombies within grabbing range (unlike Endurance with Blunt weapons). The special attack, Grand Slam, is pretty effective. It is guaranteed to knock down multiple zombies at once if they're standing close enough together. The best Blunt weapons in the game are the Sweet-Spot Bat (Bounty Broker), Apocalypse Bat (Ultimate edition radio call), High-end Escrima Stick, L6 Steel Mace, Barbed Wire Bat (BB), Bilge Rat Shovel (BB) and Cricket Bat (BB).

3.4. SWORDPLAY (Bladed weapons)

What this specialization is best at is insta-killing regular zombies through the Lethality stat. Unlike Striking's Knockdown, most Bladed weapons will not be very effective at doing this, though. The only weapon in the base game that will make a maxed-out Swordplay specialist instakill his/her way through a horde of zombies reliably is the Bastard of Belleau Wood, which Lethality stat is almost maxed out (around 90% full bar). So there's 1 tier 1 weapon among blades. There are a bunch of tier 2 blades, though, and they can still slice through a horde - it's just more likely that you will have to strike twice or thrice a few times. Those weapons are Echo-2 Mamba, Parang, Bowie Machete, Katana Machete, Ancestral Talwar (BB) and Ceremonial Bayonet, The special attack is a leg swipe, and it is pretty good at dealing with armored zeds, which is otherwise a weakness for blades. The frontal execute is unlocked at skill level 7, and it is great. Swordplay's weakness is that the weapons have low impact, which makes them poor against Ferals, Juggernauts and Plague Hearts. They can also only strike one zombie at a time.


4. SHOOTING

1. CHEMISTRY

• unlocks Still
  
• improves crafting of incendiaries and recovery items

1.1. MUNITIONS

• unlocks Firesafe Storage (Ammo/Fuel)
  
• improves yield of ammo production at the Workshop
  
• allows crafting of thermite, C4, and improved ammunition
  
• +10 Max Ammo Storage

1.2. PHARMACOLOGY

• allows crafting of strong painkillers
  
• improves yield of meds production and crafting of recovery items at the Infirmary
  
• +10 Max Meds Storage

2. COMPUTERS

• unlocks Command Center 3 and Spy Drones

2.1. ELETRONICS

• unlocks Solar Generator
  
• allows crafting of C4
  
• +25% Parts Salvaged from Weapons

2.2. PROGRAMMING

• allows use of assault drones
  
• allows crafting of remote box mines
  
• lowers cost of Plague Disruptor (Cell Tower)
  
• -15% Most Radio Cooldowns

3. COOKING

• unlocks Kitchen 2
  
• allows preparation of feasts (Morale/Stamina boost)

3.1. CUISINE

• improves yield of food production
  
• increases Morale bonuses from feasts
  
• +6 Morale (community)
  
• +15% Influence gained

3.2. NUTRITION

• allows crafting of Nutritious Snacks
  
• increases Stamina boost from feasts
  
• reduces Stamina penalty from rationing
  
• +10 Max Health (community)
  
• +10 Max Stamina (community)

4. CRAFTSMANSHIP

• unlocks Forge and Barracks 2
  
• allows weapon crafting

4.1. CONSTRUCTION

• unlocks Heavy-Duty Storage (Materials)
  
• allows crafting of Storage facility mods
  
• can make Materials from parts
  
• +1 Labor

4.2. METALWORK

• allows the creating of marterwork melee weapons
  
• can make Materials from parts
  
• +15% Weapon Durability (community)

5. GARDENING

• allows yield boosting for Farms, Gardens and Hydroponics
  
• allows growing Meds in Farms, Gardens and Hydroponics (Herbalism specialization only)
  
• unlocks Food Outpost 3

5.1. AGRICULTURE

• unlocks Farm 3 (Food) and Garden 3 (Food)
  
• +1 Food/day

5.2. HERBALISM

• unlocks Farm 3 (Meds) and Garden 3 (Meds)
  
• +1 Meds/day

6. MECHANICS

• unlocks Workshop 3
  
• allows crafting of homemade crossbow, toolboxes and box mines

6.1. AUTOMECHANICS

• unlocks Auto Shop
  
• allows crafting of vehicle upgrade kits, toolkits and advanced toolkits
  
• +25% Fuel Efficiency (community)
  
• +50% Vehicle Stealth (community)

6.2. ENGINEERING

• allows crafting of homemade scoped crossbows and advanced muzzle attachments
  
• -33% Weapon Repair Parts Cost

7. MEDICINE

• unlocks Infirmary 3
  
• allows crafting first aid kits
  
• reduces cost of Emergency Medicine
  
• offers Health boosting at Infirmary

7.1. SURGERY

• unlock Injury-recovery actions at Infirmary
  
• +20 Max Health
  
• offers Medical Advice (Radio Command)

7.2. PATHOLOGY

• offers Infection-reduction at Infirmary
  
• +50 Infection Resistance (community)
  
• offers Medical Advice (Radio Command)
  
• extracts Plague Samples more often

8. UTILITIES

• unlocks Hydroponics
  
• boosts Power and Water duration

8.1. ELECTRICAL

• unlocks Solar Array (free Power mod) and Refrigerated Storage (Food/Meds)
  
• +25 Parts/day

8.2. PLUMBING

• unlocks Latrine 2
  
• improves Latrine Morale bonuses
  
• +20 Max Stamina (community)

Some specializations, like Metalwork and Engineering are fairly useless because you can find/buy better items without them, while others just offer better benefits, like Plumbing increasing Stamina for the whole community against Electrical's redundant or marginal benefits.

In my opinion the best Specializations to have in your communities are (in no particular order):

• PROGRAMMING (COMPUTERS) - Drone Strikes are really powerful and 1-hit Plague Hearts up to Nightmare and deal 80+% damage to them in Lethal and the reduction in cost for Plague Disruptors can make life easier even on Lethal
  
• PATHOLOGY (MEDICINE) - the extra plague resistance to the whole community is always welcome and the ability to farm plague samples more efficiently can help craft Biochem items and plague cures
  
• NUTRITION (COOKING) - the decrease in rationing penalties can make life easier at the start in higher difficulties, but it's the bonus to Health and Stamina of the whole community that is really interesting (people say Nutritious Snacks are very good, but I haven't tested them)
  
• SURGERY (MEDICINE) - the bonus to Health for the whole community is the most useful benefit
  
• PLUMBING (UTILITIES) - Hydroponics are very useful, Latrines can help mitigate Morale in higher difficulties and the bonus to Stamina for the whole community all together make this a very versatile skill to have
  
• ELETRONICS (COMPUTERS) - being able to craft C4 can make killing plague hearts easy, but it's a costly method
  
• MUNITIONS (CHEMISTRY) - the other half to being able to craft C4, can craft ammo more efficiently
  
• PHARMACOLOGY (CHEMISTRY) - being able to craft Strong Painkillers can be useful on higher difficulties and is one way to farm Influence, together with NUTRITION can craft Energy Drinks more efficiently
  
• AGRICULTURE (GARDENING) - for max Food production to sustain a large community or for crafting for Influence
  
• HERBALISM (GARDENING) - for max Meds production for crafting Strong Painkillers, has a more niche use, the Quirk Skill Lichenology is a better version of this because it provides +2 Meds/day instead of 1
  
• AUTOMECHANICS (MECHANICS) - being able to make toolkits is very valuable, plus the bonus to fuel efficienty, vehicle stealth and resistance can make a difference in higher dificulties

STAMINA


HEALTH


PLAGUE RESISTANCE


*Die Hard Veteran is exclusive to Red Talon Operators

COMMUNITY BONUS

HYGIENE

FIREWATCH FORTRESS (Starter Base)

RUSTY ROSIE'S (750 Influence, 4 Survivors)

It's in a good location, it's defensible, doesn't have a whole lot of space, but nice built-ins if you like driving around, the problem is the failed CLEO drop which requires some work and locks a large slot space until cleared

WESTEN BUILDER SUPPLY (750 Influence, 4 Survivors)
3 parking spots, 6 small slots, 2 large slots

The unique thing about this base is the large storage for all resources

PRESCOTT FIRE STATION (3500 Influence, 8 Survivors)

LUNDEGAARD LUMBER MILL (2625 Influence, 8 Survivors)

CLARINGTON HOUSE (Starter Base)

Like all other House starter bases, this is a pretty solid one that can carry you a long way. You only get 1 free small outdoor lot, since the other 2 will go for Infirmary and Workshop, but you get a kitchen (which can enact rationing if Food is low and create consumables) and the Master Bedroom (which gives 2 beds and a small Morale bonus)

CAMPO KELENQUA (500 Influence, 5 Survivors)

An upgrade to the starter base, but probably not as good as Mazzara Farm. You get 4 small slots and 2 large slots, you keep the kitchen, get an Old Well that provides base-wide Water and the beds are more os less the same. Not the best location, but not the worst either. A very middling base.

COUNTRY CHURCH (250 Influence, 4 Survivors)

This is actually a downgrade from the starter base. You get 1 extra parking space, 1 large slot and a Watchtower, but you lose the kitchen and better beds. Not worth it.

Mazzara Farm (500 Influence, 5 Survivors) - this is an actual upgrade from the starter base. Better beds, you keep the kitchen, get a Well House that provides water to the whole base (useful if you don't have the Builder boon, useless if you do) and 2 extra large slots. The location is somewhat central. If the starter base feels too small, this is a good middle option, though it's not much harder to get the next base which is way better.

SQUELONES BREWING COMPANY (750 Influence, 6 Survivors)

One of the best bases in the game. It's in a central location with easy access through the road and open fields. It also gets great built-in facilities: 2 stills for making booze, a water tank that provides Water to the whole base (great if you're not playing with Builder boon, useless if you are), a Tasting Room for Morale bonuses and a Keg Cooperage that acts as a Staging Area, boosting construction and covering Materials upkeep (and it's also clearable for 1 extra large outdoor space). Plenty of slots to build make this a flexible base too.

RURAL POLICE STATION (500 Influence, 5 Survivors)

An interesting choice with some unique possibilities. It's got a built in Ammo Press for .22 call, 9mm and 12 gauge and it's the only base in the game that can craft Smoke Grenades. The cells can be upgraded to negate the Morale penalty - since beds are basically useless, it's a downside. It has few small slots (only 1 free after building Infirmary and Workshop), but 2 large slots. The location isn't great either, right on the top of map.

WHITNEY FIELD (1750 Influence, 8 Survivors)

Another of the best bases in the game. It's very versatile with 5 small slots (clear the beds) and 3 large slots, it's very defensible with 2 watchtowers and an open layout so you have both a clear view and clear lines for shooting. Speaking of which you can call sieges using the Announcer Box. With a well equipped team you can farm Influence fast and easy. The only downside is the location, but it more than makes up for it.

Influence is used for pretty much anything in SoD2: claiming bases and outposts, trading, using radio commands and recruiting Survivors from the Legacy Pool/friendly enclaves.

NOTE: There's a 9999 cap for Influence, anything you earn past that point is wasted, so just keep that in mind before you go on a spree.

#1 BEER

You'll need:

• Still 2 (requires Chemistry, Trader leader)
  
• Bartending (not required, but highly encouraged)
  
• Gardening (for Farms/Gardens and improving the yield of all Food facilities)
  
• Agriculture (not required, but can be beneficial since it gives access to Garden 3 with Trader leader and you'll need Gardening anyway for increasing yields)
  
• Utilities (not required, but Hydroponics are more flexible than Gardens/Farms since they can be built indoors, but require water, electricity and a Survivor with the skill to function)

For this you'll want a good Food surplus to convert into booze, so lots of Gardens, Hydroponics and Farms with Compost Bin mod and the boosted yields from Gardening.

Having a Survivor with the Bartending skill or being allied with the Moonshiners enclave gives you an extra item when crafting beer so it's highly recommended. Without it, you'll get 204 Influence for 3 Food. With it, you get 306 Influence for the same cost, a 50% increase in value.

The Still 2 is a pretty flexible facility, being able to provide base-wide water, convert food into fuel and ethanol for crafting other stuff.

Building a Trade Depot (requires Trader leader, which you'll need for Still 2 and Farm 3 anyway) allows you to summon traders to sell your production to and also an Influence income, but it's not really necessary.

Having Survivors with Scrum Certification or Design speeds up the crafting. Having high morale has the same effect, so recruiting Blood Donor Survivors (which each grant +15 Morale) or ones with Morale bonuses can be beneficial. Just remember that crafting faster also goes through Food faster.

Arguably the best base to do this is Schelones Brewing Company at Meagher Valley. It comes with 2 built-in Stills that give you Chemistry for free. Also has a built-in facility that gives base-wide water.

#2 STRONG PAINKILLER

You'll need:

• Infirmary 3 (requires Medicine)
  
• Pill Press (increases yields)
  
• Pharmacology (required to craft Strong Painkillers)
  
• Medicine (required for Infirmary 3)
  
• Herbalism/Lichenology (for converting Food faciltilies into Meds)
  
• Agriculture (not required, but unlocks Garden 3/Farm 3)
  
• Utilities (not required, but unlocks Hydroponics)

For crafting Strong Painkillers you'll need 1 Meds + 2 Ethanol with this setup and it'll get you 204 Influence.

To really make this work you'll need a few Gardens/Farms/Hydroponics generating Meds. So you'll need Herbalism (specializes from Gardening) or Lichenology (a rare quirk skill that also brings +2 Meds/day income). Jug of Pesticide mod increases yields. Remember to use Boost Yields action as well.

For Garden 3 you'll need Agriculture. For Farm 3 you'll need Agriculture and Trader leader. For Hydroponics you'll need Utilities.

If you're running low on Ethanol, you can set up a Still 2 (requires Chemistry, Trader leader). It can convert Food into Ethanol and also provides base-wide water in case you need it.

#3 PARTS

While getting Parts is easy enough if you loot and salvage constantly, a good setup can increase efficiency dramatically. Why are Parts a good trade item? Because they don't change value depending on your Friendly/Allied status with Enclaves and Traders which means you'll never 'lose' value because of standing. Since 1 Parts = 1 Influence, you have max flexibility to clean Enclaves/Traders of all their money. Parts also stack pretty high and are pretty light, so it makes inventory management easier. (Note there's a 9999 cap on Parts inside your Supply Locker. Store them at vehicle trunks when near the cap)

For this you'll need:

• Chemistry (increases yields)
  
• Craftmanship (increases yields, unlocks Forge)
  
• Automechanics (increases yields, unlocks Auto Shop)
  
• Forge (requires Craftmanship)
  
• Auto Shop (requires Automechanics)
  
• Armory (requires Warlord leader)
  
• Workshop (required anyway to be able to salvage items)
  
• Red Talon Workshop (simply for another mod slot for the Salvage Furnaces)
  
• 5 Salvage Furnaces (facility mod that goes in the above facilites, increases Parts yields from salvaging items)

You can increase the yields even higher with maxed Electronics and salvage Hero Bonuses on your Survivors, but at that point it might be overkill.

Install all 5 Salvage Furnaces in your facilities. You can switch Community Difficulty to Green for the lower crafting costs, but it's not necessary. Craft Firecrackers until you don't have any Parts and then salvage them from your Supply Locker. Of course, you can also scrap other items, which should yield more Influence than simply selling them.

IMPORTANT! Salvage Furnaces each have a -1 Fuel/day cost, so uninstall them after you're done and you'll not incur the cost.

You can use high inventory space vehicles like Vans and Ambulances to store the extra parts or set up an outpost near an Enclase for easy access to the Supply Locker.

If you have a Builder leader, the recruit mission can spawn multiple enclaves to trade with. Just make sure to choose 2 decisions for all three enclaves to appear then switch characters to fail the quest and restart.

Mysterious Trader, which only appears Thursdays-Sundays, has the most Influence to buy your stuff. Usually the same is true for Rare Skills Trader and other temporary traders. Be on the lookout for the Parts trader to buy your Salvage Furnaces.

Of course, Trade Depot (from Trader leader) is a good option if you sucked the map dry of money.


#4 SIEGES

This might be the fastest way to farm Influence to be honest. With the proper base setup and geared community, you can get the 200 Influence for surviving the siege in a couple minutes. The first siege will be the hardest since it'll draw all the baddies hanging around your base, but all following sieges will be much tamer in comparison since you'll have emptied the area.

You'll want to equip your non-active Survivors with high-caliber weapons, preferably 7.72mm and 50 cal. The AI handles weapons with a single fire mode better. Full-auto or burst-fire are better, but of course you can mix a few semi-auto weapons. The specific setup will depend on personal preference, so I won't list weapons. While AI don't need ammo in their weapons, it might be a good idea to have every Survivor with full mags and some consumables in case things go south and your current Survivor dies. You do not want an empty gun when you switch and there's a Juggernaut rampaging through your base.

To actually farm this you'll need a base that can call sieges at will.

I'd say Whitney Field base in Meagher Valley is the best for this strategy. It's a pretty open base which helps the AI shooting the zeds and gives you more visibility to control the situation. It has 2 built-in watchtowers which also helps.

Another choice would be Church on the Hill in Cascade Hills, but the base layout isn't as good.

#5 PLAGUE CURE / BULK PLAGUE CURE

Honestly, this requires farming Plague Samples, which I find tedious. Plus I'd rather use the samples for crafting Biochem Station items.

This is completely based on RvidD's video: (I've made this simply because it's easier to use than a video)


If you're like me you'll select the Operator based on their Quirk Skill and Traits are 'bonuses'. So here's what I take into account when I analyse the Operator:

1. Quirk Skill (what I actually want)
   
2. Higher Specialized Skill (bonus #1)
   
3. Lower Specialized Skill (bonus #2)
   
4. Hero Bonus (determined by Higher Specialized Skill)

NOTE: If the Operator doesn't have 2 Specializations, you do not want them. They'll have bad Traits. Also, it's not GUARANTEED you'll get what I write here, it's just more likely.

So we'll go in this order for the Traits you'll get.

1. QUIRK SKILL

• COMBAT MEDICINE - +20 Max Health
  
• DEMOLITIONS - +1 Item Stack Size
  
• FIREARMS MAINTENANCE - +2 Ammo/day
  
• FORAGING - -20% Food consumed
  
• FORTIFICATIONS - +3 Labor
  
• GUT PACKING - +150 Infection Resistance
  
• HACKING - -20% most Radio Cooldowns
  
• INFRASTRUCTURE - +20 Max Stamina
  
• LOGISTICS - -3 Zombie Threat
  
• MOBILE OPERATIONS - +50% Vehicle Endurance

2. HIGHER SPECIALIZED SKILL

• PROWESS - +10 Light Carry Capacity
  
• TACTITCS - +50% Standing Rewards
  
• HEROISM - -40% Injury Severity / +100 Infection Resistance
  
• WARFIGHTING - -1 Bed Used / -40% Fatigue Severity
  /list]
  
  3. LOWER SPECIALIZED SKILL
  
  
  • PROWESS - +20 Max Health / +50% Cardio Experience
    
  • TACTITCS - +50% Wits Experience / +6 Morale
    
  • HEROISM - +50% Fighting Experience / -40% Fatigue Severity
    
  • WARFIGHTING - +20 Max Stamina / +50% Shooting Experience
    /list]
    
    4. HERO BONUS (depends on Higher Specialized Skill so it's a combined choice)
    
    
    • PROWESS - Rooftop Recon (radio command)
      
    • TACTITCS - +75 Influence/day
      
    • HEROISM - +10 Light Carrying Capacity
      
    • WARFIGHTING - +3 Beds
    
    NOTE: I might need to double check some of this info, the video I sourced it from is 2 years old and some thing might've changed. Also, I didn't include *eveything* so what actually matters when I'm making a choice. If you want the all the details watch the video and check the wiki[state-of-decay-2.fandom.com].

Securing a building (checking all rooms and killing all zombies) creates a safe zone where zeds can't spawn (unless you're in plague territory). It's safer to fast search since a crash won't spawn new zeds, but it may attract nearby ones.

Lethal is the highest difficulty the game offers and it's a challenge, but there are ways to smooth the transition and make it much more manageable. It all depends on Setup, Safeguards and Cool Thinking. I'll share what worked for me and what I learned after a few rounds of Lethal.

1. SETUP

If you're trying to start playing on Lethal, but find it too difficult, the best way is to start a new community with experienced Survivors: high skills, desirable traits and good gear. Think what they'll bring to the table from the start, but also long term. The start is by far the hardest, because you'll be scrambling for resources until you can even think about killing Plague Hearts. Have some roles in mind when choosing your team: I go with a scout/looter, plague heart killer and human killer.

1.1. SKILLS

• Programming (or Hacking [Red Talon]) - has 2 important uses: allows you to upgrade your Command Center to 3 (giving more outpost, even 1 extra with Hacking, to a total of 7) and using Plague Disruptor on Cell Tower outpost, which helps immensly with not waking Plague Hearts
  
• Automechanics (or Mobile Operations [Red Talon]) - allows you to craft repair kits in the Auto Shop and when maxed gives bonuses to fuel efficiency and vehicle stealth, both very valuable in Lethal
  
• Hygiene - gives your community extra blood plague resistance, which will probably be your biggest danger together with Blood Ferals
  
• Lichenoloy - gives 2 Meds/day, so it takes care of your Infirmary upkeep, includes Gardening so you can boost your Gardens/Farms and Herbalism if you want to produce Meds for crafting Painkillers
  
• Nutrition - there's a good chance you'll need to ration food at the start of the game, this softens the penalty of doing so and later allow you to craft Energy Drinks more efficiently
  
• Pharmacology - required to craft Strong Painkillers and Energy Drinks, which it also does more efficiently

1.2. TRAITS

• Blood Plague Survivor - immune to blood plague, so extremely OP just because of that, but stupidly rare so don't count on it
  
• Never Been Sick / Incredible Immune System - major bonus to blood resistance, this is important for your Plague Heart killer
  
• Unbreakable - major bonus to health, don't get wounds (the greyed out portion of stamina/health bars), very useful against zeds and even more against humans
  
• Hard to Kill / Immortal - not as good as Unbreakable, but good enough
  
• Blood Donor - this is a trait of all survivors recruited from the Blood Donor enclave, it's valuable because of the major Morale bonus, but not required. If you can combine it with a valuable skill or trait then it's very powerful

1.3. GEAR

• Network Signal Booster - gives 2 extra outposts, the best in slot
  
• Advanced Biochem Station - makes overpowered items (ScentBlock and Bloater Gas Grenade) that make Lethal easy
  
• Sanitizing Machine - I've slept a long time on this, it speeds infection recovery: I had trouble at the beginning because my 2/3 of my 3 people team were recovering and so I had no labor do to stuff at base
  
• Handgun Ammo Press - allows crafting of .22 cal, 9mm and .45 cal ammo, all you need to kill zeds
  
• Bolt Crafting Kit - increases efficiency of crafting bolts, less useful overall than the Ammo Press, but at the start you'll be hungry for materials and having to use them for crafting bolts will sting
  
• Prepper's 10/22 (or Fake A-47) (with Advanced Suppressor)- a .22 cal rifle with 50 rounds magazine and zoom, put your best suppressor on it because this will be one of your main weapons against zeds
  
• Echo-X3 Repeating Crossbow - a 10 magazine crossbow using light bolts, completely silent and uses recoverable ammo, best return on investment in the game
  
• Any pistol with a large magazine (20 or 25 rounds preferred) and if possible zoom (with Advanced Suppressor) - it's insurance against plague ferals
  
• Plague Cures (or better yet, Bulk Plague Cures) - you'll get blood plague, the bulk version can be broken down and gives 4 cures for each package, so it's more inventory efficient
  
• ScentBlock - makes zombies ignore you (but plague ferals can still detect you if they get too close) and it makes the game easier by a lot, lasts 5 minutes, enough to kill 3-5 plague hearts in one go
  
• Ammo (bullets) - 1 stack each of .22 cal, 9mm and light bolts
  
• Materials rucksacks on all 3 survivors - food might look the most important at the start, but it's Materials that give me the most trouble because I need to build so much stuff
  
• Groundbreaker Shovel - best Heavy Weapon for killing Plague Hearts, the most efficient method
  
• Spec Ops Vector SMG / G18 Auto Custom (with Advanced Brake) - the .45 cal SMG and the 9mm pistol are both the fastest firing weapons in the game and can delete a plague heart in Lethal in 5 seconds, they're much more Ammo (the resource, not the rounds) efficient, better than using 7.62mm rifles
  
• Stimulants - the best Stamina item in the game, way better than Energy Drinks, but rare and expensive to buy, you can't craft them, 1 stack should be enough to get you started
  
• Strong Painkillers - optional, but regular Painkillers are weak for Lethal so pack those for killing hearts and fighting humans
  
• Medium Vehicle Upgrade Kit - optional and might sound strange, but upgrading the starting car as soon as possible can have a big impact, it's get more inventory slot, which helps with early looting, it gets more resistance and is fairly fast and fuel efficient, all desirable characteristics in Lethal

When it comes to consumables/stackables, bring them in a character that can stack high. That goes for bullets, plague cures, stimulants and so on. Some Survivors can only stack up to 3 while other go to 6 or even higher. Bigger stacks are better, obviously. Take the facility mods and weapons with your Survivor with smaller stacks.

I'm not a SoD2 specialist, I just like collectiing information and editing it in a useful form. There are great content creators, wiki contributors and members of the community who offer helpful advice here on Steam and Reddit.

When I first thought of actually making this guide I started noting down names, but some stuff I honestly don't know whom I got it from. I did my best to name my sources.

So some name dropping in no particular order and not by far complete:

FanAHUN for basically running the wiki

RvidD for creating awesome guides and being active on Reddit with insightful advice

Brian Menard on YouTube for great guides and very useful tips sprinkled in his videos

On Reddit:

On Steam: agentcardinam11, Hassohappa, Protectron