Settlements are the bridge between State of Decay 3's combat, co-op, survivor risk, and map control. They are where scavenging choices should turn into community survival.
This page keeps the settlement topic separate from bases because settlements are about people, pressure, and shared decisions, while bases are about locations and upgrades.
What settlements connect
- Survivor safety and permadeath risk.
- Base growth and resource storage.
- Co-op permissions and shared investment.
- Plague nest pressure around the map.
Open settlement questions
The exact rules for ownership, offline progress, visitor permissions, and resource spending are not fully public. Those details matter because co-op settlement building can feel very different depending on who controls upgrades and consequences.