State of Decay 3 Closed Beta Announcement

The State of Decay 3 Closed Beta Starts October 13

Survivors, the next step is here. The State of Decay 3 Closed Beta opens on Tuesday, October 13, and we’re bringing more of you into the game than ever before.

For the past several months, our alpha players have been playing the game, breaking it, and telling us exactly what they think. A lot of what you’ll see in the beta exists because of that feedback. Now we’re ready to widen the circle.

How to Get In

Alpha players: you’re in. Every current alpha tester will be brought into the Closed Beta automatically.

Everyone else: we’re sending a new wave of invites on October 13. Sign up and complete the short onboarding survey to be considered here: https://playtest.stateofdecay.com/

Didn’t get an invite? Stay signed up. We’ll keep testing and keep expanding access, so there will be more chances to join.

What to Expect in the Closed Beta

If you haven’t been following along, here’s what’s waiting for you, including what’s changed since the alpha.

Survival means food and water

Food and water are now both daily rations, and going without them hurts. A starving community takes real penalties to health and stamina, not just morale. Water also feeds crafting and facilities, so every resource decision connects to the next one. Resources now tick down smoothly through the day instead of all at once, so you can always see where your community stands.

Your base is an engine you have to run

Facilities are cheaper to build but cost more to keep running. You might own more facilities than you can afford to operate at once, and deciding what to switch on is part of the game. Staffing survivors with the right expertise at facilities makes a huge difference here. A strong agriculture or construction specialist can turn a struggling settlement around.

The Plague War is coming for you

Plague Nests are the epicenter of the threat. They grow networks of plague hearts toward your settlements, and those hearts strengthen over time from severity one to severity three. Over a single playthrough you could face hundreds of them. Let them get close and they’ll blockade your settlement: zombies surround you, supply lines go dark, harvest sites go offline, and your settlement’s faith starts to slip. Choose to weaken the network heart by heart or cut the head off the snake by taking on the Plague Nest. Each nest has its own layout, defenses, and behavior.

The beta includes the Chem Plant, Slaughterhouse, Aeronautical, and FEMA nests.

Smarter, scarier zombies

Zombie perception and distractions have been overhauled since the alpha, so stealth and noise matter more than ever. Each zombie type plays differently, and bloaters are now a real battlefield tool, especially once you add fire.

You’re not the only community out there

Enclaves are full communities with their own needs, settlements, and stories. Visit them anytime to trade or ask for work. Earn their trust by bringing what they actually need, and you’ll unlock better deals, radio commands, and access to your supply locker from their base. Once you’re allied, you can bring the entire enclave into your community, along with their settlement. You can run up to three settlements and move survivors between them freely.

A world built for the long haul

The map is big, so we’ve made it easier to stay out in the field. Outposts let you swap survivors, drop off loot, and rearm far from home. Harvest sites provide ongoing resources, as long as you can staff and protect them. You can also radio home to have a vehicle you’ve found retrieved for you, loot and all.

Weapons that feel different

Caliber matters now. A .22 and a 5.56 no longer hit the same, and your skills and ammo supply shape which guns make sense for your community. Weapons, vehicles, and clothing can all show up with their own looks, and backpacks are now purely cosmetic so your survivors can look like themselves.

Play solo or with friends: it’s the same game

State of Decay 3 plays the same whether you’re alone or with up to three friends. In co-op, every player has full access to the shared world: recruit survivors, run missions, and manage settlements independently. Want to run one base while your friend runs another? Go for it.

Quality of life and polish

A new tutorial for players jumping in for the first time

More missions, better woven into the world

Fully dressed buildings and new landmarks across the map

Locker sorting by category, a clearer fire mode selector, and quick access to every survivor’s inventory

Improved performance

A Note on Work in Progress

This is a test build, and you’ll see that. Some character dialogue still uses placeholder synthetic voice while voice recording continues, some UI screens are temporary, and plenty of numbers will change as we tune. That’s the point of a beta: we want to see how you play, what feels great, and what doesn’t, while there’s still time to act on it.

Help Us Build It

State of Decay 3 has been shaped by players from the start, through the Player Council, then the Alpha, and now the Closed Beta. Small requests have made it into the game, and so have big debates. We don’t build everything that’s asked for, but we read it, we discuss it, and we explain our thinking when we land somewhere different.

The beta is the next step in that work, and it won’t be the last. We’ll see you out there on October 13.