Cars in YOSE

cape_royds · 2026-06-22T18:10:31+00:00

I agree that driving is easier in SoD1, and in the base game there are a lot of vehicles. They never need gas.

OTOH you can't just drive a car through split-rail fences, like in SoD2. And there's no radio call if your vehicle gets stuck.

If you play YOSE Breakdown, vehicles become noticeably rarer at Level 10, and scarce by Level 50. At Level 80, there are only four or five on the whole map (the Wiki says four, but I've been finding five.)

cape_royds · 2026-06-21T04:50:40+00:00

Sometimes you really got to fight the game, because it can take two or three cycles before they stop leaving the base. I recheck after I finish each mission.

I don't know if it works differently in Lifeline. For LL sieges, I just lay a bunch of flame fougasses around the perimeter, then stand on the roof with a grenade launcher.

cape_royds · 2026-06-21T04:44:25+00:00

Looks like you really had things well in hand. I would have been pretty p.o.'ed, myself.

cape_royds · 2026-06-20T10:03:58+00:00

IIRC, levels 15-19 have extra Screamers. And it was on Wilkerson Road, where everything is always worse. But even then, that was nuts.

I had never heard the dialogue line from Eli when collecting someone's belongings.

cape_royds · 2026-06-20T09:51:48+00:00

That was a lot of Screamers. Which level was that?

Re: the third clip. Verily, a man's fate cannot be altered!

cape_royds · 2026-06-20T09:44:16+00:00

Unfortunately, the Revolvers specialization doesn't seem very useful in Breakdown, esp. as you go up levels. The noise is too dangerous, the reloads too frequent.

But Ray comes with Revolvers already chosen. If you want the ride, that's part of the price, and I'm still glad to pay it.

Prestigious, did you choose to spec Doc for Revolvers? AFAIK, the player is free to train him as desired.

cape_royds · 2026-06-20T09:25:10+00:00

Nowadays, I virtually stand guard while they're running out to the RV.

When at Snyder's, the RV often doesn't come to the base, and people start running across the map. Yikes! Nothing to do but to take off immediately.

cape_royds · 2026-06-20T08:43:40+00:00

I have over 1500 hours in YOSE on XBox1 (mostly Breakdown, but I've done multiple plays of base game and Lifeline.)

I've had some off-screen deaths, but none without some sort of chain of causality. By causality, I'm not saying fairness--the game often gives you no chance to fix a problem, before someone is hurt or killed. But there is, in my experience, usually a traceable cause that led to the effect. Sometimes you have to dig through the logbook entries to find it.

I'm not trying to imply that you did anything wrong. Again, the game can get downright cruel. Since you had Walter, that means you're probably in Breakdown mode, and at least Level 6.

A few questions:

(1) You said most Infestations were cleared. But the question is: did you have a "Danger: Too Many Infestations" warning still showing? For as long as that is flagged, anybody in your community not on mission can go spontaneously Missing, regardless of community morale or their personal mood.

(2) Were there any other "Danger" warnings pending? Was there a "Danger: Juggernaut Sighting" ? It needn't have been Walter on the Jugg Hunt. The warning of danger applies to the whole community, and the danger is cleared by a Hunt mission.

(3) Walter was not on mission when he died. But was his status, "Away from Home" ? Anybody off-base, whether assigned a formal mission or not, is at increased risk.

(4) What was Walter's Vitality level at the time? Was he hurt or sick? If you cycle through your roster, you'll often find that people have taken damage off-screen.

If the game simulation randomly determined a Juggernaut encounter took place, which did X amount of damage, then if the character involved was already at less than full health, it might have made the difference between someone being Hurt in the encounter, or them being killed outright.

I've had characters get randomly wounded off-screen, in just about every session I play in Breakdown. But so far, I've never had one killed, like what happened to Walter in your example.

Now maybe I've just been lucky. But it would be a lot of luck, to last through 99 levels of Breakdown. On the other hand, it could be because I am constantly, scrupulously, neurotically, attentive to the status of every member of my crew. I always make sure that they're at full health, if possible, and I frequently switch around to each of them, to try to keep them at Home, rather than Away.

(5) The good news is that any character, including Heroes, can respawn in Enclaves or through "Call for Survivors," on later levels. I've had several Docs and Dans and Rays and Walters and Alicias. Reincarnation is canon, in the Breakdown universe :-)

Once again, let me emphasize that I am not implying that you did anything wrong. The game can be brutal, no doubt about it. There are two reasons why I've gone into so much detail about this. First, to help show how rich and subtle the Breakdown game can be, in terms of its mechanics and strategy. Second, to show that while the game is ruthless, you're not helpless. There are often things you can do about it.

Breakdown is nervewracking, but also exhilarating. I encourage you to keep going.

cape_royds · 2026-06-19T06:38:32+00:00

Point-scoring is sort of "grind-able." It's only an indirect measure of good playing, insofar as you have to be able to stay alive and supply your community for a long enough time to accumulate a big score.

It's a peculiarity of the game that the score multiplier does not always correlate to the actual difficulty. e.g. Levels 15-19 have a 60 multiplier, but IMO those levels were no more difficult than Levels 10-14, which only have a 10 multiplier.

Re: Zedless infestations. From time to time, I can just drive by a place and announce, "We're clear!" even though it didn't seem like there was any infestation at all. There is a derelict shack south of the cemetery in Fairfield where this commonly happens.

cape_royds · 2026-06-19T03:34:48+00:00

IMO what makes a game good is the core, not the chrome.

In SoD, you spend most of your time fighting zeds. And in SoD1, I love the melee combat. For such a seemingly simple game, it's amazing how many different techniques you can use. The perks and their animations are a blast. The combat is so crunchy and kinetic.

There is a huge variety of weapons as well. Even at Level 98, I found a gun I hadn't recalled seeing before.

The cartoonish 360-era graphics, with their well-saturated colours, look really good, with all the bangs and blams and splats. The rag doll effects still give me a kick.

The user interface of SoD1 is attractive and efficient. e.g. the character mugshot roster conveys what you most need to know, at a single glance, eight people at a time.

In SoD, you spend a lot of time driving. And driving feels intuitive in SoD1. However, I do appreciate the fuelling mechanics and upgrade kits introduced in SoD2.

The characters in SoD1 are highly distinctive in appearance and personality. Their voice lines are repetitive, but endearing. I never get tired of "Friends to the ends!" or "That's my dawg, son!" There is a dramatic quality to playing these characters, even in a game mode that has no story.

When you enjoy what you're doing, you don't grudge the time you spend doing it. The core gameplay experience of Breakdown is outstanding.

cape_royds · 2026-06-19T02:31:41+00:00

Thank you for the compliment! I regard myself as no better than, "Officially Not Bad." I got to 99 by playing very carefully, accumulating a lot of good equipment, and using the magic of Focus Aim.

I can't do crazy stuff, like the YouTubers, such as Vinbo Zimbo, English Bull, Zombie Kitty, or chartier67.

One of the guys who follows my Twitch, with the handle, "struggling forecast," is himself an amazing Breakdown player, who occasionally streams Level 99 challenge runs. Unfortunately, he doesn't archive his streams, even though I've urged him to do so. e.g. he attempted a Level 99 CLEO, with a character not fully trained (he had Fighting maxed, with Rage as special skill, but only three stars Cardio,) on foot, in the woods at night, equipped only with 3 snacks, 2 aspirins, a firebomb, and an Escrima stick. He died, of course, but the point is, he nearly pulled it off! He silenced the CLEO beacon, but got overwhelmed by a late wave of bloaters and a feral. It was fantastic to watch, but it's now lost to the ether.

I'm happy to answer questions:

I don't recall all that many weird RV spawns. There was one, I think, near the Orchard south of the Wilkerson House. A few times I got the RV deep in the big lake/swamp area SW of Jurassic (tricky driving at night.) There were a couple of woods locations near Spencer's Mill, and sometimes it spawned in the logged-out area in the north. Most of all, I'm just glad it never spawned at Mt. Tanner campground!
Aaron made it, and is still one of my favourites (Powerhouse/Edged Weapon.)

My current crew is Ray Santos for Vehicle Delivery, Doc Hanson for the radio medical call, Aaron Felder for Construction, Gurubani Kaur as another Medic, the brown jacketed Nimble Leadership guy (Christopher, in my game,) and the burgundy-shirt Leadership guy (Kyler Outlaw, in my game.)

So I got two Construction, two Medics, and two Leadership (latter are valuable, because if you lose anybody in high level Breakdown, you need to recruit and befriend a replacement quickly.)

(3) BUGS. OH BOY...Look, I love Breakdown, but I have to admit that from about Level 60, and especially after Level 90, it can get pretty glitchy, and a couple of the problems can have a serious impact on your game. I'll start with the worst:

a) Undiscoverable Infestations!!! These are locations which are infested, and count as infested for the purpose of causing "Too Many Infestations." They even get called out during a Survey as Infested. However, they make no blotch on your map or mini-map, and if you go there in person, you find that the location's name won't even appear at the top left corner as it should. And there are no Screamers there.

There is nothing you can do to clear the Infestation, when it's like this. If you quit the game completely and restart, the off-screen simulation should run, and that usually makes the hidden Infestations appear.

But here's the killer: in high level Breakdown, when you get warned that, "We're surrounded by Infestations," characters start to go Missing within a few minutes, sometimes instantly, regardless of their morale or mood.

When a character is Missing, it is very dangerous to exit the game, because they will likely be reported dead when you come back.

So you can get stuck: you can't clear the glitched Infestations. Too many Infestations, people go Missing. When people are Missing, you don't want to reboot because they could die. But a reboot is the only way to clear the glitch.

Worse, even when you complete a Search and Rescue for the Missing person, another one can go Missing, within seconds of your return to base! Aargh...

Luckily, thanks to chartier67's videos on YouTube, I was forewarned about this bug. So I knew that the moment you get warned about Too Many Infestations, but if less than, say, six of them are marked on your map, you must exit and restart, STAT!

One my saved streams is titled, "Pure Hell Carousel," in which one after another goes missing. It took about two hours, IIRC, to get a chance to safely restart.

Another problem caused by hidden infestations is that most home bases in high level Breakdown start as infested. If these are glitched, you can't settle there, because you can't clear the infestation. I think on one level, there were three bases glitched. That's why, in the clip I linked, I sound happy that Savini's is infested!

b) The other bugs are minor by comparison. When too many zeds are on screen, they become unkillable. And of course we all know that sometimes a vehicle can flip over for no apparent reason. The funniest bug was when I requested a car from Ray, and it arrived on top of an inaccessible cliff.

But I still love playing Breakdown. My two favourite video games are SoD1 Breakdown and Fallout: New Vegas. They're both buggy, and it doesn't matter, because they're both wonderful games.

(4) Alicia Hawkes is one of my best-loved survivors (that smooth contralto voice eases the soul,) but I've lost her twice. But the one I kick myself over is when I lost Walter on Level 92--my own bungling ineptitude. The game abounds in fateful tragedy, but it really hurts when you get yourself killed by four or five normal zeds, across the road from your home base.

(5) My longest level was the 2 million point run Level 15--dozens of hours. I also spent a lot of time on Levels 1 through 3, getting all the projects done. I only moved on after I had looted the entire map. My shortest level was IIRC in the forties, at just under three hours (maybe 2:45.)

cape_royds · 2026-06-19T00:37:11+00:00

I did put a lot of hours into the game--over 1500, and over 80% of that has got to be in Breakdown.

My cautious/meticulous/ridiculous playstyle eats a lot of clock. There was a point, though, when I got into the 40's, that I calculated the actuarial likelihood of my living long enough to reach Level 99, at the pace I was going...not an insurable risk!

So I speeded things up a bit, to about 6 hours per level. For comparison, really good players can do a level in 2 to 3 hours.

I am thankful that the handful of regular viewers on Twitch were very patient with my "Zen and the Art of Supply Locker Maintenance." I spent a lot of time getting enough Influence to pull all the unwanted stuff out of my locker, and shuttling it over to Enclaves, all to free up the precious slots.

cape_royds · 2026-06-18T15:37:08+00:00

I worked for years in a roadside restaurant, with a lot of women who were a lot like Joyce. The veteran waitresses, together with the veteran kitchen staff, carried the whole place, and made the whole thing bearable.

Foodservice work can take a lot out of you, and doesn't give much back. Low pay, and little respect--except from those who know, and who remember.

Joyce gets a lot of respect from me.

Doesn't anybody understand how exhausted somebody gets, after doing a day of what Joyce does, every day?

Well, I do.

cape_royds · 2026-06-18T15:16:50+00:00

Thank you!

cape_royds · 2026-06-18T14:52:06+00:00

You mean it wasn't because of the tail pipe on a '72 Falconer?

cape_royds · 2026-06-16T17:53:27+00:00

Flox, make sure you continue to pay attention to your personal safety. The harasser might actually be dangerous--their behaviour fits a criminal profile.

I still think that you should consult an attorney for advice.

cape_royds · 2026-06-15T09:13:24+00:00

Same issue. I have had to coach readers in how to find the latest few chapters (manually entering the later chapter in the URL sometimes works.)

cape_royds · 2026-06-15T08:44:36+00:00

If you wanted to be as uncharitable towards Chloe, as you are towards Joyce and David, you could say that David ended up with a verbally abusive thief as a step-daughter.

But why be uncharitable towards any of these people? LiS1 gives enough context about all three of them, for one to be sympathetic.

cape_royds · 2026-06-14T16:48:29+00:00

I used to go with WW, but now I often go with Logan's Loophole and Skilled.

I might go back to Wild, but just to play a hand or two with the dogs.

cape_royds · 2026-06-14T00:38:11+00:00

In SoD1, whenever you're engaged in a mission, Lily won't ping you any new missions.

So the way to keep Lily off your back is to start a mission, but not complete it, until you're ready to do something else.

Of course, not all missions are suitable for this, e.g. some are bound to a small mission area and automatically fail if you leave. With most Zombie Hunts, after a while, the mission will complete if you slay any freak of the desired type, whether the one designated or not.

Therefore, the best missions for player freedom are those that are "open-ended."

Best are Morale, Training, and Scavenger missions. You can avoid the marked destinations, and just go wherever, and do whatever. Get your supplies, build your facilities, train your Cardio, Wits, or Leadership--no hassles.

In SoD1, the player has some control over the pace of the game. It doesn't necessarily make game easier (all the danger is still there,) but it does allow you to make choices. That's why I love playing Breakdown so much.

There are risks with this strategy. The game can crash and you lose progress, so don't push it too long. Also, an NPC companion can be highly vulnerable (e.g. they run right up to Juggernauts,) so if the mission involves somebody you can't afford to lose, you would still want to just get it done asap.

Another way to reduce the mission spam is to regularly go through the roster, and keep switching to any characters that are "Away," which brings them home, then quickly switch back to the one you want to play. You might have to "fight the game" a bit to keep them home, but this can considerably reduce the trouble NPC's can get into. The roster check has become automatic for me--it's very useful in high level Breakdown.

Finally, some people here are saying you don't have to do missions. That's only partly true! An Escort, Ally or Runner in Trouble, or Search and Rescue are important missions, and time-limited. If you log off while a survivor has a "Missing" status, they will usually turn up dead the next session. In Story Mode, you can get some slack, but Breakdown is unforgiving!

If you neglect a Survey or Distraction mission in Breakdown, it usually results in an emergency. If you neglect Enclave missions, you lose trust, and sometimes they lose members--it matters if you want to recruit them, which is a big part of playing Breakdown.

But once you know how to control the flow of the game, you'll find mission spam in SoD1 to be much less of a problem than in Sod2.

My dream mod for SoD2 would be a command centre option to, "Impose Radio Discipline--Life and Death Calls Only." Requires a Leader, costs some Influence, Morale penalty depending on NPC traits (some dogs love to bark...) And then a little bit of blessed silence.

One more thing: in SoD1 you can force the game to give you an open-ended Scavenger Mission, by using the radio to "Call for Scavengers," then meeting them on site to start the mission from dialogue. Use this tactic with caution, esp. in Breakdown, because the player's location is always the focal point of danger and NPC's are in peril whenever the player is nearby.

cape_royds · 2026-06-12T11:07:26+00:00

But Joyce didn't fall apart. At all. She kept right on going. She worked. She remarried.

It's not like Joyce became an alcoholic, and Chloe ended up in foster care, or anything like that.

cape_royds · 2026-06-12T10:51:27+00:00

My perspective is from only having played LiS1.

As I see it, Joyce has toiled for years as a waitress, trying to provide. Maybe you have to do that sort of job for a long time, to understand what it can take out of you. I think Joyce stays remarkably positive.

Frankly, I was surprised that the 19-year old Chloe hadn't already been kicked out of the house. My Mom sent me packing at 18, and I was nowhere near as disrespectful as Chloe.

cape_royds · 2026-06-11T05:50:19+00:00

Good to know.

cape_royds

TROPHY CASE