Leadership Legacy Missions & Choosing A Leader - State of Decay 2
Leaders in State of Decay 2 are an important part of your Community and required for completing the game. There are a total of four different Leaders you can choose from and they include Builder, Warlord, Trader and Sheriff. If it is your first time playing the game it's recommended you don't do the Warlord or Sheriff quest lines. Especially if you're playing on a higher difficulty setting as these two Leadership quest chains involve fighting other Enclaves and you can get downed with a single headshot on higher difficulty.
Once you have a Community member reach max Standing (Hero) you'll be able to promote them to a leader in your Community. You can increase your Standing by completing quests, turning in rucksacks, killing Freak zombies and Zombie Hordes. It's strongly recommended that you increase the Standing on every single member of your Community as there will be a special Community benefit/reward when you reach max Standing.
Who you choose as a leader in State of Decay has great significance on your current Community and future play throughs. Keep in mind that once a leader is chosen you can easily demote them by speaking with them in your base. Their standing will be reduced to 0 but there is no other penalty.
Every leader in State of Decay 2 comes with different benefits, these are talked about in much more detail below. To summarize though, every leader is able to build a unique Large Facility and upgrade two existing Facilities. The Warlord's Large Facility is probably the most useful overall, since it allows you to craft almost any ammo without an Ammo Press.
The most useful exisiting Facility upgrades come from Sheriff and Warlord; which allow you to upgrade the Gym and Shooting Range to train Cardio and Wits. With all of these Facility upgrades you could literally train every single skill to max on your entire Community.
Tip: You can promote someone to a leader in your Community and build/upgrade Facilities then demote them. You will keep the upgraded Facilities even after demoting them and choosing another leader!
Last but not least, when you complete the game with a certain Leader you'll unlock a boon (pictured above). Each of these boons can be applied to your Community in future play throughs, giving the game a little bit replay value. If you plan to play through the game more than once then I strongly recommend you choose Builder as your first leader. Their boon grants your base permanent Power/Water which is invaluable.
Builder Leader Benefits
Out of all the Leader Legacy Missions Builder is by far the easiest to complete. This is basically the only leader I chose for my Community once I unlocked every boon available, mostly because at that point all you care about is finishing the Legacy Missions as quickly as possible to complete the game and move on to your next Community.
As for the Builder's benefits, they're all pretty much garbage aside from their boon. Generators are a waste of a base slot once you get an Outpost that gives you power (or just use the Builder Boon), Barracks aren't that useful in a large slot and your base (even on Nightmare) has no need for a Sniper Tower to protect it. The Radio Command for Sniper Cover is pretty good though, but I typically don't use the radio commands when playing.
Builder Leader Project: Sniper Tower (Sniper Cover for Base + Radio Command)
Builder Large Facility: Luxury Barracks 2 (5 Beds with Morale bonus)
Builder Small Facility: Generator 3 (1 Fuel, no noise)
Builder Boon: Permanent Power/Water to your base
Trader Leader Benefits
Traders are the second easiest Legacy Missions to complete in the game and they also provide you with one of the better boons for future Communities. As far as the Facilities that you can make as a Trader... The Trade Depot is arguably the second best Large Facility that you can make with a Leader. By using the Trade Depot you no longer have to farm for any resources, you can just constantly call in the traders that you need and purchase the resources you want.
Neither of the other existing Facility upgrades are that good for the Trader. Thankfully the Trader Legacy Boon is pretty nice, it grants you 4,000 Influence when you claim your first base and has a Trader come visit you so you can spend that Influence. This Trader will belong to a nearby friendly Enclave that also appears on your map at the start of each game.
Trader Leader Project: Trade Depot
Trader Large Facility: Farm 3 (+4 Food a day)
Trader Small Facility: Still 2 (craft Luxury items)
Trader Boon: When you claim your first Base you'll get 4000 Influence and a Trader will visit you
Sheriff Leader Benefits
Sheriff is one of the harder Legacy Missions to complete but it gives you one of the better boons, arguably the second best boon in the game depending on how you play. When you complete the game with a Sheriff as your Community leader you'll receive a Boon that deposits items into your Supply Locker each day. The very first deposit you get into your Supply Locker happens immediately at the start of a new Community and it typically consists of a powerful gun and consumables.
If you like to speed run through the game then Trader is probably better but if you like to take your time, Sheriff will probably give you more items over all. As for the Facilities, Sheriff's Leader Project is Field Hospital which does everything Infirmary 3 does just better. This isn't a very useful building as the Infirmary does a good enough job.
You'll also be able to upgrade the Lounge to rank 3 which increases the XP rates of your entire Community, this is a decent upgrade to the Lounge but still 'meh' considering you can level up almost all of your skills with the Gym/Shooting Range. The last Facility that you can upgrade as a Sheriff is the Shooting Range which will let you train both Shooting and Wits; this upgrade is one of the better ones available to you.
Sheriff Leader Project: Field Hospital (Heal all infections and injuries)
Sheriff Large Facility: Lounge 3 (Increased EXP for Community)
Sheriff Small Facility: Shooting Range 2 (Train Wits)
Sheriff Boon: When you first start your Community a powerful weapon and top of the line consumables will be deposited into your Supply Locker. Each day additional items are deposited into your Supply Locker.
Warlord Leader Benefits
Much like Sheriff, Warlord is a difficult Legacy to complete since it involves fighting other Enclaves. When you complete the game with a Warlord for your Community Leader you'll receive a boon which deposits three M4A1s into your Supply Locker, Ammo, Frag Grenades and a Model 99-50. This is generally considered one of the worst boons because you can acquire most of this yourself very early on.
The Warlord Leader Project allows you to craft an Armory which is an extremely useful building if you want to craft Ammo but don't have an Ammo Press. Spartan Barracks are crap but the Fighting Gym is really good as well, it'll effectively let you max out both Fighting and Cardio on your entire Community at a very low cost.
Warlord Leader Project: Armory (Craft any Ammo)
Warlord Large Facility: Spartan Barracks (8 Beds - Morale)
Warlord Small Facility: Fighting Gym 2 (Train Cardio)
Warlord Boon: These items are deposited into your Supply Locker at the start of a new game: 2 M4A1s, 1 Scoped M4A1, Ammo, Frag Grenades and a Model 99-50.