A place to resupply without traveling all the way home.
Safe Haven
15% chance of missing allies coming home safely on their own. (It is unclear how the bonus stacks for multiple outposts).
Lifeline
Lifeline adds a few structures left behind by the US Military as well as the Red Talon PMC. Setting up outposts in these locations unlocks additional radio calls.
Drone Trailer: Possessing one unlocks radio call Drone Recon. Possessing two unlocks Drone Strike.
Satellite Uplink: Possessing one unlocks PMC Snipers. Possessing two unlocks PMC Reinforcements.
Artillery Site: Possessing one unlocks Incendiary Barrage. Possessing two unlocks Artillery Barrage.
Using Outposts
Creating outposts
To create an outpost, the player must fully search a building and clear it of zombies. Afterwards, select the Establish Outpost option from the Radio menu (which costs 50 influence). After a few moments, a Supply Locker will appear in the building. This locker is used to store weapons and items similar to the base, but does not allow depositing resources (that can only be done at home site).
If the location is outdoor, or too small to reinforce, it is not possible to turn in into an outpost. The exceptions are the Drone Trailer, 'Satellite Uplink' and Artillery Site in Lifeline. All these locations are outdoors, but can be made into outposts.
Safe Zone
An outpost has a radius around it where zombies never spawn in known as a "Safe Zone"; it is also automatically armed with fire traps. If a horde (not single zombies) gets inside the Safe Zone, the traps will activate and destroy the horde, after which.the traps take 1 minute to re-arm.
Resource Cache
If an outpost is established at a location where some resources remain (i.e the location is represented by an Ammo/Food/ Fuel/ Material/ Medicine icon) , that outpost will automatically produce a small amount of that resource per (real-time) day, reducing the daily consumption (known as the Resource Cache Bonus, it is unclear how long this bonus lasts).
Outposts can only produce one type of resource, even if more than one type is found at a location. The resource produced will be the first type available alphabetically (i.e. Ammo> Food> Fuel> Material> Medicine). If a specific type of resource is preferred, remove the other resources first before establishing the outpost.
After the outpost is established the resources can be looted without affecting the outpost type (e.g. a medicine outpost will remain as so after all the medicine is looted).
If an empty building is selected as an outpost (or its resource depleted), the outpost icon becomes a Fort icon (similar to Enclave icon, but green), and the outpost will produce Ammo daily.
Abandoning outposts
It is possible to know exactly which outpost to abandon. Outpost number is displayed on the map when the player hovers the cursor over them (from Outpost #1 to Outpost #8). This number corresponds to the order of that outpost in the Home Site's outpost slot in the Base Management Screen. For example, if player wants to abandon an outpost near Church of the Ascension, open the map and hover the mouse over that outpost. Say that outpost is Outpost #4. Open Base Management Screen and select the 4th outpost from the left, then select the Abandon Outpost option.
Available Actions
Set traps for passing hordes - Cost: 1 Fuel, 1 Influence
Increases safe zone size of all outposts. Effect lasts 2 real time hours.
Abandon Outpost - Surrender this location to the zeds. (Takes one minute)
Strategy
All game modes
Using outposts to cover the paths leading to home site greatly reduces danger of Hordes attacking.
Good locations for outposts include: at the middle of multiple buildings (to prevent hordes from infesting them), at the middle of an un-scavenged zone (to easily deposit found items), at buildings that cover multiple roads.
Spreading outposts apart and setting their traps can allow an entire area to be free of zombies. However, using too many outposts in this fashion will leave most other parts of the map vulnerable to hordes infestation, which will affect morale and hinder missions.
Lifeline
Upgrading the Radio Post to Sat-Comms allows for 2 additional outposts.
Setting up outposts at Drone Trailers, Satellite Uplinks, and Artillery Sites can unlock additional radio calls. In terms of story, it can be assumed that each outpost has characters operating the equipments to facilitate these functions, although in actual gameplay, the outposts operate by themselves.
Notes
When the player establishes outposts at smaller structures, the Supply Locker might spawn outside or fail to spawn altogether.
Survivors in the player's community will leave the homesites and station themselves at outposts (especially if the outpost is far from the player's base). When the player uses a Call For Scavengers radio command from a resource location near the outpost, one survivor from this outpost will come to the location, instead of one from the homesite. This seems to be a random occurence and does not happen consistently.
