I love using AI companions. In Mass Effect, I play Engineers so I'll have turrets and drones. In Diablo 2, way back in the day, I used to try to get Amazons from the first area into the final act. I like the challenge of using AI followers to the maximum of their abilities. I feel less lonely, and there's a whole sidegame of "Can I keep them all alive this time?"

This is what I've learned.

1) Give them guns.

This rule is multifaceted. On the one hand, it's not super useful for your community members to stutter step their way toward a zombie that is closing on you, potentially moving even slower than the zombie. Giving them a gun allows them to engage at distance.

On the second hand, gun-armed survivors keep a greater distance between themselves and any potential zeds. They will (almost) never RKO you by sprinting into your backside, trying to be helpful, only to immediately pivot away because you were kiting ten of them and they didn't realize. This doesn't happen with guns. Your community members will never run toward you if you're fighting zombies. They will either shoot, reload, or flee in the opposite direction.

On the third hand, gun-armed survivors who are engaging with multiple targets will more-or-less stay put, giving you a little bit of room to range forward and engage any larger packs of zombies. Your goal is to put yourself between any source of zombies (say, an apartment building that is emptying out at you) and them. You want to give your friends time to shoot, reload, and shoot some more. This means you need to pick your approach vectors carefully, and try not to let yourself get boxed in.

The Rosewood Prison is a good example. There's a narrow fence opening, and nearly all of the zombies will be coming from within those buildings, funneled through that opening. HOWEVER, that area is surrounded by dense forest. You don't know what's lurking behind the tree line, and guns are very loud. So, set up your people, get between them and danger to slow it down, but keep your head on a swivel.

2) Form a posse.

One gun is helpful, but in all of my worlds there are too many zombies for one AI with a gun to help with. They will attract more than they can manage. I bring one follower if I'm just putzing around the town I know I've already cleared, but I bring five (the most I can fit in a vehicle) if I'm going somewhere new. Five guns being fired from the same 3x3 meter area are going to attract the exact same number of zombies (all of them within hearing) as one gun.

3) Survivors are not marksmen.

Even when they have high Aiming, the survivors are volume shooters. Give them a gun with 30 shot magazine, because they are at their most vulnerable when they are reloading. They tend to stand their ground pretty well if they have bullets left when a zombie is approaching, but they flee in EVERY DIRECTION AT THE SAME TIME when they are empty.

M4, AR15, M16, M14. Get the Brita mod, and the mod to let Superb Survivors use those guns. Put scopes on the guns, because the survivors *will* engage from greater distances if they can.

4) Get comfortable with the pause button.

Most of the games menus stop working when the game is paused, but the Superb Survivor menu is not one of them. If you are getting surrounded, buy yourself time to stop and think.

5) Armed AI are worse at running away.

When everything has gone to ♥♥♥♥, and it will despite all your best planning, your community members will struggle to find a safe direction to run if they are carrying a gun. They need distance so they can stop, stand still, and reload, and the AI will get stuck sprinting two meters left and right as approaching zombies come at them from all sides. This is "Divide by zero" as far as Superb Survivors are concerned.

This is where the pause button comes in handy. When ♥♥♥♥ is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and you need to get out, give them back their melee weapons. The AI will sprint past and around any chasing zombies much more aggressively with an axe in their hand than they will an empty gun. This allows you to retreat the way you came, find a safe spot, and switch them back to their guns so they can reload.

6) Give them body armor

Obviously.

7) Give them a place to "Stand Their Ground" to function as guards at your base.

Build them a little guard pen. Double layer chain link fence, 2 meters apart, usually allows your guards to stand on one side and engage through the fence. Don't use the Guard function, because you can only set that in one place. Keep Guard in your back pocket.

8) Do not put guards above ground. They will not shoot down.

I really wanted this to work, but it doesn't. Your community members will only engage with zombies that are on the same level as them.

9) Permanent Guards that are on Stand Your Ground use fewer PC resources.

They're not pathing (much). They're not making many decisions. They're armed, and they're stationary, and they're protecting your base. My current community has 17 members, of which 12 are ensconced in permanent guard pens. I put up walls, a roof over their heads, and they hang out and shoot.

10) AI Community Members do not (seem to) mind heat or cold.

If you put some guards outside your base, as long as you keep them dry, they will be fine. Leave on the "Manage own food and water" setting, and they will be happy as clams. My guards are stationed two to a pen, because I like the head canon of shipping my community members. I've never witnessed a morale issue, and so far I have had some community members survive for over a month walled in place.

11) Gun-armed community members are a liability inside of a building

Narrow halls. Doors that zombies can and will just pop out of. Limited space. This is where you get RKO'd. Gun-armed survivors struggle inside of a building. If you can, bring one and give them a shotgun. They will engage at very short distances, successfully, with a shotgun. If you are going somewhere tough, bring the firepower you need, but don't be afraid to set three or four of them to "Stand your ground" around the truck/van/bus/helicopter/whatever.

Fortunately, using guns outside of a building tends to lure most zombies out of them, into the open, where you stand a much greater chance.

12) Survivors are a huge liability around doors

We all love how polite they are, closing every door behind themselves, but this can be an incredible problem when it comes to base defense. Imagine sprinting away from a horde toward the open gates of your base only to have a follower step outside and immediately close the gates. You have no momentum, you're scrambling for the E button, and now the sprinters have caught you.

I have demo'd most of the big doors around my base, and I always try to make sure that when a fight is going to happen, I don't do it where a fellow community member might shut a door in my face and get me killed. Fight outside, open area, where you can flee as needed.

13) Be mercenary

I get sentimental about my community. I will absolutely rush toward one of them if I see them getting surrounded. Your survivors, however, will not flinch at running toward the area you just came from, which is very likely to be safer than where they are, and you will both trip if you pass each other too closely.

As near as I can tell, the Superb Survivors are not particularly concerned with keeping you, the player, alive. By comparison, your followers in State of Decay 2 will stop what they're doing to engage with a zombie that is biting you, shooting it from range if necessary, and will leave themselves open to attack in doing so. Those followers are trying to keep you alive. Superb Survivors are not.

Get good at figuring out when everything has gone pear shaped, and retreat. Lead by leading, not by trying to step in and do everything yourself. If you lose someone, you lose someone, but it's'a lot harder to replace the only person capable of giving orders.

14) How to retreat

Follow. Call. Follow. Call. Pause. Switch to melee weapons. Unpause. Run a little further down the road. Follow. Call. Follow. Call. Repeat until you are at a safe distance, and all of your followers are chasing after you, telling you about a guy they used to know named McGrew.

Your community members will attempt to follow you if the path is clear. If the path is not clear, they will flee, and their flee period is determined by their panic (or something) behind the scenes. If you aren't constantly issuing commands, they will turn around when they turn around, but you can force them to reassess if a path to you is possible by issuing the follow command over and over.

15) Steer clear of them

When you have 4 or 5 followers, armed with guns, taking aim and engaging with zombies, do not run through their group. Even though it may look like there's a clear path for you to sprint between them on the most efficient path toward an oncoming zombie, that path will disappear in a second. Circle around.

16) Build your base on one floor

In my experience, once you hit a certain threshold of survivors in an area, they will struggle to navigate their way up a staircase, and pushing them off the stairs is unimaginably tedious. I demo all of my stairs, and build the facilities I need on the first floor. If necessary, I build a staircase somewhere else to get to the roof for water, solar panels, whathaveyou.

***

It's a little tedious to manage them, yes, but let's face it: we're playing PZ. Tedious is the name of the game. I like the hope that comes from hearing footsteps alongside you as you go new places, like you're maybe not the last person alive.

I will update this from time to time, as I am still learning how to get the most out of my buddies, but I feel like I've reached a point where I can get into a fight with 500 zeds pouring out of the Raven Creek quarantine zone, and walk away without losing anyone.