State of Decay, disected Spencer's Mill.

The Church

Build a workshop and a bunkhouse, upgrade the tower and the infirmary. Don't bother with the one hour sniper-buff, it's better to have a chef in the crew and treat the crew with grand feasts. Also, the location of the church makes the expanded circle of influence pointless. Why cover more nothing? The expenditure in ammo-resource is wasteful if you realise that this resource has a better yield if you use it for trading.

Spencer's Mill

Build outposts, but build them smart. Their gathering-bonus is pointless due to the way the offline simulation works. Most bonuses apply real time when you play, which moots them like nobody's business. In the case of the outposts this is most prevalent as the gathering applies real time too... That is, as you play, your resource-consumption is neglectable, and what you gathered will be squandered by your deadbeat crew when you log off. It's better to set up the towers with an eye to their destructive side.

There's one 'mandatory' spot and that's the diner at the fork in the road. Another outpost should be situated in the middle of Spencer's Mill, near a crossroads. Situate the rest of them to the east and the west of Spencer's Mill so that you have an inroad into the trailer-park and a free walk to the Bronto gasstation. Upgrade the towers and you'll effectively make hordes a thing of the past.

There's no real reason to relocate as far as I can tell, because of the fact that scavenging can be kept to an absolute minimum. The off-line simulator kills off all resources gathered, so it's better to keep resources at an absolute minimum to prevent hours of careful resource-management go to waste. Morale is always halved and your influence will be as high as your fame. There's no point in having your crew sitting pretty before logging off.

Cherry-picking missions

Don't try to do them all. You'll just develop and ulcer. Some of us old timers might even get a heart-attack. Relax and assign priorities.

• Ally in trouble
• Zed Hunt
• Trading
• Enclaves
• Scavengers
• Strangers

You can hold off on story missions for as long as you like.

The hit in morale for missions not done is in no way steep enough to off-set the missions that you do complete. Your focus should be on amassing fame, so that your starting influence is high when you log on to continue play.

General

Keep Marcus back. Use for the Zed hunt missions. The reason is that when Marcus fights with a friend at his side, his Leadership builds up. When you solo Marcus that sweet ability will never increase. Do the same with other survivors that might have Leadership. Leaders keep the crew in check too, so the higher that skill, the better it is. Therefore, in the beginning of the game, you should constantly switch between Maya and Marcus. Marcus for anything that involves teaming up and Maya for the intitial scavenging and Outpost outrigging.

Don't call for runners. Load your backpack and bring it back yourself. The bonus for doing so is much better.

Search containers with Maya. Her wits skill raises increbibly fast, making her the one girl to do pillage. Don't loot resources you uncover unless you absolutely need them, and whatever you do, don't max out your stores. The off line simulator makes short work of full stores. Keep them near depletion, since when you log on, they will be depleted anyway. Marcus and other Leadership toons will smooth it over.

Only sprint when you're sure you can get away with it. Basically, when you beeline between outposts and are positively in the clear. Don't sprint with a resource-rucksack equipped. In all other cases, use the normal doubletime, unless you need to put some distance between you and a special. This makes Cardio hard to raise, but at least you'll survive long enough to enjoy the eventual increase when it happens. Nothing bites harder than running into three weak zombies with no stamina. You'll die.

When using cars to dispatch zombies, reverse into them. That essentially gives you an indestructible car...

Have fun.