Early on in Dying Light 2, it’s drilled into you that an average lifespan in The City doesn’t go particularly far. In a post-apocalyptic world, that’s to be expected, but come on: you’re the main character. The rules don’t apply to you.
Well…mostly. Dying Light 2 can be a fairly tough game, and there are lots of ways that you can find yourself getting killed repeatedly. Missteps can prove fatal when you’re constantly leaping across rooftops, and it can only take a single mistake during combat to leave poor Aiden bleeding out on the floor.
Most of the basics in Dying Light 2 are covered during the game’s opening segment, yet some of the more intuitive elements can take a bit of time to grasp. If you want to speed up the learning process, have no fear: we’ve learned plenty from our time in The City, and here’s six Dying Light 2 tips we wish we knew from the start.
Keep a close eye on your weapon condition
With guns (mostly) out of the question in Dying Light 2, you’ll often find yourself regularly getting up close and personal with zombies. When you’re within biting distance of a horde of hungry zombies, there’s absolutely no worse time for your trusty melee weapon to break.
Whenever you get a moment – either within a safe room or before you take on a mission – take a look over the condition of your weapons. The last thing you want is to have it break in the heat of combat, so weed out any write-offs and patch up any of your personal favourites. Try not to repair the same weapon for too long though, as your adventures across The City will probably turn up some shinier tools with even better stats.
Try to get into the habit of checking through your inventory and weapons fairly frequently, and you’ll find yourself falling prey to melee mishaps far less often.
Don’t get drawn into combat for too long
Just to start, I’ll add one caveat: I know that combat is fun in Dying Light 2. There’s an undeniable thrill to kicking zeds off rooftops, beating down a gang of bandits, and generally putting your (hopefully good condition) weapons to good use.
That being said, your resources – in many cases, even time itself – can be finite. Sticking around to bludgeon to your heart’s content can absolutely get you killed. The noise made by fighting can often attract even more zombies, which – as well as being more dangerous to kill in greater numbers – can make short work of your stamina, weapon condition, and eventually you. Pick your fights – you don’t need to clear out every single pack of zombies you see, and parkour is your best friend for times when fighting doesn’t seem like the best course of action. If you do need to fight, keep an eye on your stamina – try to avoid using up your full bar, and leave a little bit in the tank in case you need to buy yourself some room to fight (or a hasty retreat).
Don’t be too afraid to go out at night
Although zombies are far more dangerous at night, Techland has ensured that there’s a good reason for you to stay up past your bed time.
If you can juggle your limited immunity time and the stronger zombies, some of the scarcest loot in the game is ripe for the taking. This is because while certain buildings are infested with the undead during the day, they’re far safer to explore during the night when they go out to roam. Going at night doesn’t mean nests will be entirely vacant, though – keep in mind that there will still be some stragglers within, so you’ll either need to sneak carefully or expect a bit of a fight. As a reward for taking the risk, these nests house rare crafting materials, equippable gear, and one of the most valuable items in the game. Speaking of which…
Take some time to hunt for some inhibitors
Your best friend in Dying Light 2 are the snazzy little inhibitors you’re first introduced to during the hospital level. As explained there, these inhibitors are the resource you’ll use to level up Aiden’s stamina, health and immunity levels. Although you’ll find some of these inhibitors during main quest stories, it takes three inhibitors to unlock an upgrade. This means that you’ll likely need to do some exploring to boost Aiden’s abilities, and this is incredibly valuable earlier on.
Immunity allows you to stay out at night longer, which gives you more time to explore nests and take your time. More stamina means you’ll last longer during fights and parkour sequences, whilst more health just means you’ll be able to handle a bit more of a beating if all of that goes a tad wrong. You’ll get a notification if an inhibitor is nearby, so make a habit of exploring to earn some early levels – you’ll thank yourself later.
The rooftops are your friends
If you’ve played the first Dying Light, you may already understand the importance of sticking to the rooftops. Zombies are far more numerous down on the street, and staying off the road also means you’ll have a better chance of sneaking past any groups of bandits down below.
As an added incentive, there’s lots of extra loot that can be discovered on the rooftops of The City. If you take a look around you’ll often find things like important flowers for crafting medicine, and fancy weapons that have been hidden by fellow survivors. Sharing’s caring though, so stick to the rooftops – I’m sure they won’t mind if you borrow some of their valuable loot.
Use your survivor senses frequently
Try to use your survivor senses as frequently as possible. The environmental design of Dying Light 2 is fantastic, but loot containers can be a little hard to distinguish from all the post-apocalyptic debris lying around. These containers are often needed to find crafting items, and you could find yourself running low on healing items and lockpicks if you don’t make sure to stay topped up.
Use that survivor sense vigorously, and you’ll never run into that problem – they might be hard to spot, but thee materials are abundant once you have them highlighted.
We don’t want to spoil too much, as there are plenty of surprises in Dying Light 2 that are best discovered for themselves, but these tips come in very handy for getting to grips with your first moments in The City.
Dying Light 2 launches on February 4 for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and PS5.
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