Introduction – Survival 101: there will be zombies

Introduction – Survival 101: there will be zombies

Zombies are everywhere in the quarantined city of Harran. However, arm yourself with a blunt instrument (no, not a guitar) and some extra knowledge and as long as you are careful, you should survive.

• Watch that clock – Daylight is the only time to really search for items or complete quests until you are sufficiently leveled up. Make sure to keep an eye on the time (it can be found by pressing the view button (Xbox) to bring up the in game menu system and switching through the panels. Make sure to head for the nearest safe-house when it gets to late afternoon (around 4pm). An announcement from the tower will also warn you if you stay out too late.

• Do sidequests! – Early on in Dying Light, you'll be pretty fragile against the undead. Take the time to complete some sidequests for the experience and additional completion rewards. These will make the story missions a lot easier to conquer. Plus, story missions don't warn you of their difficulty level at all. So it's better to be prepared.

• Meager medkits – Be extremely frugal with you medkits, they are literal lifesavers during tough mission phases and other sections of the game. Avoid using them when just roaming the island. Especially if death will only drop you down a tiny bit of exp (if you have just gotten a survivor level). Try and keep them in reserve for tough sections as opposed to using them willy-nilly.

• Experience types – There are three experience types in the game: survivor, agility and power. Each one relates to how it is obtained. Survivor experience is gained by completing missions, staying alive at night and completing objectives. It is also lost or reduced upon death. So be careful to avoid losing it. Agility experience is earned by performing parkour sequences well and moving through the terrain efficiently (jumping between buildings, climbing towers and various other things). Power experience is gained by taking on the infected with weapons, environmental hazards and traps.

• The Skills – Some abilities are far more valuable and useful than others, especially once you've levelled up each exp type a few times. Consider getting the following as soon as possible in this order:

   

  • Survivor Tree:
    Level 2 – Survival Starter Kit (required)
    Level 3 – Backpacker (holding more weapons early on is a good thing)
    Level 4 – Elemental Throwing Stars (used to gain access to explosives later)
    Level 5 – Crafting Expertise (required to unlock adept tier skills)
    Level 6 – Master Backpacker (max out weapon space early)
    Level 7 – Lucky Repair (chance of not wasting repair makes weapons last longer)
    Level 8 – DIY Grenades (great way of dealing with zombie clusters or Rais's thugs – especially at Airdrops)
    Level 9 – Camouflage (very useful for stealth approach or sneaking up on a special zombie)
    Level 10 – [Optional skill]
    Level 11 – Trap Bombs (zombie distraction + boom, what's not to like?)
    Level 12 – Grappling Hook (best movement skill in the game, a lifesaver and will become your best friend in the second map area)
    Level 13 – Camouflage Attack (gain the ability to kill zombies while remaining in stealth. Genius)
    Level 14+ – [Optional skills]
  • Agility Tree:
    Level 2 – Dodge (required)
    Level 3 – Grapple (becomes ridiculous later when combined with brutal grapple and stomp from the power tree. Plus you can throw zombies of buildings, always a plus)
    Level 4 – Vault (makes escaping zombie crowds easier)
    Level 5 – Health Regen (will save your life many times)
    Level 6 – Freerunning Adept (required to unlock adept tier skills)
    Level 7 – Light drop (another life saving skill)
    Level 8 – Escape (escape biters easier is very handy)
    Level 9 – Instant Escape (even faster escape, great)
    Level 10 – [optional skill]
    Level 11 – [optional skill]
    Level 12 – Freeruinning expert (required to unlock expert tier)
    Level 13 – Health regen II (45 minimum health? Not bad)
    Level 14 – Tic Tac (makes wall climbing easier and quicker)
    Level 15+ – [optional skill]
  • Power Tree:
    Level 2 – Stun (required)
    Level 3 – Kick stun (as kick consumes no stamina, this skill is invaluable early on)
    Level 4 – Sturdiness (more health? Yes please!)
    Level 5 – Combat adept (required to unlock adept tier skills)
    Level 6 – Conserve weapons (essential if you plan on using melee weapons)
    Level 7 – Sturdiness II (more health. Yup, why not?)
    Level 8 – [optional skill]
    Level 9 – Stomp (one of the best skills in the game, conserves melee weapons and is hilarious to boot. Hah)
    Level 10 – [optional skill]
    Level 11 – [optional skill]
    Level 12 – Stun kill (instant kill stunned enemies for fun and profit)
    Level 13 – Combat Expert
    Level 14 – Sturdiness III (max out your health)
    Level 15 – Takedown (combined with camouflage abilities for ultimate stealth)
    Level 16+ – [optional skill]

• Capture safe-houses – As you travel around the map, you'll see red safe-house icons on the map. These are locations you can clear of zombies and then use as safe-houses. Clearing these out pays off big time when you need to reach one before nightfall or when you re-spawn after death (cutting down backtracking time). They also hold your player stash, so you can dump supplies or crafting materials.

• No fast travel – Yup, you'll have to hoof it everywhere here, so be ready for it. You can't just teleport back to a safe house when night is falling (apart from dying of course). So make sure you are aware of the nearest safe-house when the afternoon rolls around.