Real-Time Simulation

After you have saved your game and left, the unique thing about State of Decay is that it starts a real-time simulation off-game. The game will track the resources and survivors that you have left and dynamically affects activities, missions, and random events. While the simulation is processing, it checks your survivors health left, morale, resources, unfinished missions and infestations. Then it randomly shuffles these factors and bring different outcomes to your game when you return to load it.

If you left a healthy, well-stocked, and well-defended file, chances are you will rewarded more for your efforts during your return. Play otherwise, and expect a catastrophic world into your return.

After 24 hours of non-play from the user, the simulation slowly reduces the offline activity until it starts a sleep mode, where the difference between 7 days compared to 30 days won't be that much. Just make sure to return to the game before 72 hours to avoid negative conditions on your game.