Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 Stay Human drops Aiden Caldwell into Villedor, a walled city where the infected own the streets at night and two human factions argue over what is left. Progress is measured in Inhibitors injected, skills unlocked and facilities handed to the Peacekeepers or the Survivors, and most of the game's friction comes from not knowing which of those to chase first. This page organises our Dying Light 2 coverage in the order a first playthrough needs it, from the opening hours in Old Villedor to the Waltz fight at the end.

Your first hours

Start with our beginner tips: do not rush, respect the level recommendations on missions, spend early Inhibitors on stamina rather than health, and move by rooftop in daylight while saving building interiors for night, when the infected empty out of them. The first quest that catches people is The Only Way Out, whose "meet the people of the Bazaar" objective never completes through dialogue; our People of the Bazaar walkthrough explains that finishing the two market side quests, Cheers! and The Spark of Invention, is what moves it on, and that idling half an hour of real time for Hakon's radio call is the slow alternative. Once the prologue is behind you, up to three friends on the same platform can join through the Online Menu; the details are on our co-op page.

Building Aiden

The mechanics guide is the long read on how the game's systems fit together. Its core is the two skill trees: kills feed 24 combat skills such as Dropkick, Perfect Parry and Power Attack, while rooftop running feeds 24 parkour skills, several of which also demand a stamina total. That stamina only rises through Inhibitors, three per upgrade, and our health and stamina page shows where six easy ones sit in the opening districts. Our leveling page then ranks the XP sources, with Metro Stations, Military Airdrops, GRE Anomalies and the night bonus at the top.

Loot, gear and money

Everything you pick up is explained in the items guide, from the 63 Inhibitor locations our writers mapped to the vendor that sells each of the 62 blueprints. Two systems around that loot trip up new players. Weapons cannot be repaired outright; fitting a mod restores 50 durability per slot, which our weapon repair page covers along with when to bother. And locked chests and cars need crafted picks, so read the lockpicking page before Hakon's lesson in Markers of Plague. For cash, our money farming page covers Dark Zones, Crystal Cores and the co-op duplication glitch, and the outfits page explains the six clothing slots and the stat bonuses attached to them.

Safes hide some of the best early loot, including Inhibitors. Our safe codes guide covers all seven, four in Old Villedor and three in the Central Loop.

Taking the city

Villedor changes shape as you claim it. Clearing a windmill, water tower, electrical station or metro station activates a facility, and our faction assignment guide explains what handing its zone to the Peacekeepers (traps) or the Survivors (ziplines and airbags) does, and why it never touches the ending. Four bandit camps become shelters once their lieutenants and leader are dead, and restored metro stations become fast travel points from the Central Loop onward. Off the critical path, the nine Trinity graffiti murals are a compact collectible run, and our easter eggs guide rounds up the Dead Island record, Spike's piano rendition of the Dying Light theme, the Crane reference and the hidden hoverboard parkour trial.

The last boss

The story ends with Waltz, the doctor who experimented on Aiden, standing between him and his sister Mia. Our Waltz boss guide breaks the fight into four stages: a straight brawl on a circular platform where you back off from his shockwave leaps, a smoke phase where standing in the centre and reading his movement is the whole trick, a rage phase after he injects himself where UV Mushrooms or an Immunity Booster help while he lunges and throws debris, and a finale in Aiden's monster form where a few hits finish it.

When the game misbehaves

Our PC fixes page lists the system requirements and works through the infinite loading screen, the game refusing to launch over missing DLL files, the 0xc000007b error, the PlayStation CE-34878-0 crash, the RVTfix.nfo workaround, co-op that will not connect and the Denuvo driver error. A separate black screen fix covers the bug that swallows the ending: wait five minutes, verify the game files on Steam, and only restart as a last resort.

Frequently asked questions

What should I spend my first Inhibitors on?

Stamina. It gates both climbing and several parkour skills, and our tips page treats it as the more valuable of the two main stats early on.

When does fast travel unlock?

When the story reaches the Central Loop. Powering an Electrical Substation there turns discovered Metro Stations into travel points; the Peacekeepers' Floating Fortress and the Main Terminal Settlement can be reached the same way.

Do faction choices affect the ending?

No. Assigning zones changes the local NPCs, side quests and structures only. The ending turns on the main story decisions and the Waltz fight.