Combat plays a vital role in Dead Island 2 as the game world is filled with zombies and tons of other undead creatures that are out to get you. You will need everything at your disposal to survive in the game, so it is important that you understand the vital combat mechanics of the game quickly and this Dead Island 2 Combat Guide aims to do just that. Here you will find general tips and tricks and a lot more information on different combat mechanics featured in Dead Island 2.
Combat Guide – Dead Island 2
With this Dead Island 2 Combat Guide, you will easily learn everything there is to know about combat in Dead Island 2 along with
Choose Your Starting Slayer Carefully
When you will first boot Dead Island 2, you will be offered a selection of Slayers to choose from. These Slayers act as different classes that you can pick and each of these Slayers come with different skills and stats that determine their role in the game. The Skill cards are also unique to each of these classes, and you can check them before you pick the one that suits your gameplay style.
One thing that you should keep in mind while choosing a Slayer is that while the Slayers might come with different starting abilities, all of them can learn the skills of all other Slayers eventually with story progression and you leveling up your character. The basic difference between the Slayers comes with some basic skills such as Blocking instead of Dodging and vice versa along with Flying Kick instead of Drop Kick and vice versa. All Slayers can eventually learn the other skill as you play through the game, so it is not a big problem.
Manage Your Stamina
While normal attacks do not cost you anything, the much beefier heavy attacks will cost you your previous stamina, so it is vital that you keep a look at your surroundings before you go on a heavy attack spree. Sometimes you might waste your stamina on smaller enemies and when a larger one arrives, you might be out of your stamina to land a powerful blow.
Make sure to size up the entire horde before you start landing powerful blows because a much-powerful zombie might be just around the corner. Special attacks include flying kicks, dash strikes, ground pounds, and similar attacks which require stamina. Sometimes it might appear like normal attacks are working fine but sometimes it is better to land a much more powerful special attack and get rid of a lot of enemies at once rather than spamming normal attacks for a long time.
Understand Weapon Profiles
Just like every zombie has its own unique strengths and weaknesses in Dead Island 2, each weapon in Dead Island 2 comes with its own unique weapon profile as well. While pretty much all weapons will deal damage to all types of zombies, there are certain weapons that will deal extra damage to enemies if you are using them properly. For example, the headhunter weapons are good for popping zombie heads and if you target zombie heads a lot more. If they are unable to kill the zombie instantly with a headshot, they will deal massive damage to the zombie.
Similarly, some of the weapons are excellent for crowd control and some of the weapons are excellent for breaking off zombie limbs. Make sure that you understand the unique weapon profiles and use the weapons accordingly. Apart from understanding the weapon profiles and using them correctly, you can also take advantage of the elemental statuses that some of the higher-level weapons offer. These elemental weapons are the best ones to use in Dead Island 2 and you can land some pretty sick combos and kill shots with their elemental statuses. However, even with this, you need to know which elemental status works against which zombies because certain enemies are immune to certain elemental statuses.
Target the Enemy’s Weak Spots
While the zombies in Dead Island 2 come in all shapes and sizes, one thing is common between all of them and that is their weak spots. Each zombie type comes with its own unique weak spot, and you can exploit it to dispose of them quickly. You should know that one thing to figure out a zombie’s weakness is to look for its core strength. Among the different zombies, the runners need their legs to run, the Crushers need their arms to land powerful crushing attacks, and the Screamers need their mouths to scream to make your ears bleed.
Simply shoot the runners in their legs, Crushers in their arms, and the Screamers in their faces to maim them and give you a breather. Similarly, if any other zombie attacks you, shoot at what makes that particular zombie type strong and you will be slaughtering everything that comes your way fairly easily. Always look for zombie weaknesses, choose a weapon that works against them and let loose your trigger finger. Some of the melee weapons come with great bonuses and maiming abilities as well so always keep some handy with you.
Have a Diverse Weapon Selection At Hand Always
Since Dead Island 2 features a large number of diverse enemies, you will need a diverse collection of weapons to dispose of them as well. Make sure that you are always equipped with weapons with different profiles, status effects, melee as well as ranged weapons. Upgrade all of them properly and look after them because the weapons will save you in every combat scenario. You must use the right weapon at the right time if you want to survive in the game. Understand the enemies and use the weapons that work best against them to kill them.
Use Chem Bombs to Clear Various Hazards
Once you have unlocked the Chem Bomb Curveball, use it often to clear different environmental hazards such as fires, caustic puddles, and much more. Dead Island 2 has a lot of different Curveballs for you to try out and play around with but make sure that you always keep the Chem Bomb Curveball handy because it will save your skin in a lot of situations.
Scavenge For Resources and Ammo
Dead Island 2 gives you a huge playground to explore and combat plays a critical role in it. It means that if you are exploring the game, you will need to be fully prepared for any sort of confrontation with the dead army, and for that, you should always look around for any sort of resources, weapons, and ammo that you find lying around or in hidden areas. Look for storage boxes, drawers, or any sort of storage furniture that you come across to collect every little thing that you find. Weapons that you find will need ammo and crafting advanced melee weapons will require resources so make sure that you are always looking for more stuff.
The rooms and storage areas that require fuses for unlocking them are treasure troves for potential zombie slayers. These are locked areas, and they have the best amount of resources and ammo along with plenty of useful resources for all of your escapades so make sure that you are always moving around with a few fuses in your inventory as you never know when you might come across such a place. These locked areas will give you ammo for your weapons, resources for crafting, and even medkits which you will use for your health regeneration.
Use Headphones If You Can
Sound is one of the most powerful weapons in Dead Island 2 since it features an open world, and you never know when the flesh-eating zombies will jump you. If you are wearing a good headset, when a zombie is approaching your location, you will easily identify where it is coming from, and you can quickly turn around and take care of it. It is a small thing but if you use it effectively, you will be able to save up on health kits a lot more.
General Combat Tips and Tricks
- Look for and aim for exploding zombies as they will help you dispatch other zombies that are near them quickly. There are different types of zombies that explore in the game so make sure to look out for them and use them to dispatch large groups of zombies quickly.
- If a zombie is a little far and you cannot get to it, you can throw your weapon at it to finish the job. You can always pick up a thrown weapon later even if it is inside a zombie.
- Cure your status effects with Medkit before they take away too much of your health. The Medkit can not only heal you but also remove all status effects that you might have.
- Look for environmental hazards and use them to dispatch zombies quickly.
- Zombies have levels too and if you see an enemy with a red skull next to their health bar, run away because you will not be able to defeat them with anything.
- Try to land charged attacks when you have time to instantly kill a zombie with a critical attack.
- Stomp downed zombies to crush their skulls and instantly kill them.
That is all for this guide. If you want more help with Dead Island 2, you can check out the guides linked below:
- Fast Travel Guide
- Beginner’s Guide
- Weapons Maintenance Guide
- Where to Find Curtis’ Safe Key in Dead Island 2
- Sewer Vat Puzzle Guide
This concludes our Dead Island 2 Combat Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.
