Dying Light: Prison Outbreak

[Part of the Dying Light diary - spoilers ahead!]

After dealing with Rahim we find ourselves back at the fishing village where we meet up with annoying smart asses Tolga and Fatin, who we've been collecting junk for. This time they need a military grade sonar device at a camp that we need to rappel to - from the top of the tall bridge.

Fortunately Jim is sober during this and we make it across to the fully stocked camp, wiping out the zombies milling about and looting it dry. After delivering the device to the pair we then decide to visit the prison, via dingy (does the quarantine not stop ships?) and boy are we in for a surprise.

It's storming when we arrive and after fighting the very well armed soldiers outside (full gun fight this time, as they are too dangerous) we make our way into the interior facing hallways and rooms / arenas filled with zombies, even volatiles! This eventually leads to a fight against three massive, armored juggernauts who take forever to slay (especially the last one whom DL had to whirlwind strike with his axe)!

Probably need to skip all the prior fights to do this faster.

Our reward when we get to the armory is three rooms filled with gear and locked chests, but only 30 seconds to loot... WHAT? I just manage to swipe a few trivial items that aren't locked down but ultimately feel that the reward was not worth the risk. At least it was fun. With lighter pockets, we sail back to the slums.

Insight: Humans are just as prone to head shots as everyone else, and if they are using guns you might as well use guns too. There will be less overall noise if you kill them fast.

Dying Light: Darwin Award

[Part of the Dying Light diary - spoilers ahead!]

Despite being repeatedly told to just chillax in the Tower, Rahim had taken the explosives Jade brought back and decided to take a small crew to explode a not so nearby volatile nest. We find his team all dead on the overpass, and he himself hiding in a train car because I guess he was ambushed by zombies? What do you mean there'll be zombies in the zombie nest? DUHHH.

The idiot then hands us the explosives which HE HAS ALREADY ACTIVATED and tells us to finish the job. With just 4 minutes that doesn't leave us much time to argue so we run for it, right into the construction site nest, planting bombs in the midst of all types of zombies.

Better get running!

Being the fastest, I'm the only one who reaches the highest floor (only 4th floor accessible) where the actual volatiles are but with no time to spare I just plant the last bomb and run for it, making it out with 20 seconds to spare. My brothers had found lower exits and were ahead of me at this part, and from a safe distance away we then watched the whole structure implode on itself. It was very impressive.

A short trip back to Rahim revealed he had turned, and I gleefully break his neck. Idiots don't deserve to live.

Insight: There is a neck break skill you can unlock to use against everything else which will 1 hit kill them but requires you to get behind your opponent. It does not work on volatiles. I tried.

Dying Light: Fighting Back

[Part of the Dying Light diary - spoilers ahead!]

Before returning the zombie innards to Dr. Zere, we decide to harvest some shrooms for a witch and test a new bomb against the volatiles in a tunnel. The tunnel is particularly interesting as we go during the day, and find the monsters lurking inside.

We decide to take potshots, and seeing that they can't walk out into the sunlight - eventually arrow all of them down. The bomb is planted and as planned activated at night just as a new squad of volatiles wanders in to suffer its effects.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

There are more volatiles outside though, and these come running at the sound of the explosion but this time I make the call to stand and fight since we have new UV flares. These are effective in keeping them back, though they occasionally can pounce through the light. We slay a great many of the scum and gain lots of XP for as long as the flares burn.

The tide quickly turns once the last flare goes out though, and we are forced to grapple our way out of the swarm, returning to retreat and evade mode. Exciting and fun, but also very dangerous! We eventually rendevouz at Dr. Zere's lab, who examines the bolter guts and excitedly tells us this could be the first step to a cure! Oh, you mean we shouldn't be killing all the zombies? Whoops.

It's then that Rahim gives us a call asking for immediate help.

Insight: While volatiles are pretty scary, a headshot is a headshot so remember to aim. Once alerted they get really good at dodging though. ;)

Dying Light: Temp Survivors

[Part of the Dying Light diary - spoilers ahead!]

Clearing the school let a new small group of survivors in, led by the now one legged mayor who is being hunted by assassins. Naturally we help, finding these guys were sent by Karim who declares the mayor to be a scum. This proves true as he abandons us after we get him and his group a helicopter ride out of there. At least he left some supplies. Karim is there to tell us "I told you so".

We also find another group that camped out on a roof top of a building with electrified scaffolding. Alas, the on switch for said defense was at the base of the building which effectively trapped all of them up there to cyanide their way out.

Only those bit turn.

Finally night descends and we can go hunt for the bolter zombie Dr. Zere wanted. On the way to the train yard my bros get spotted by volatiles and have to go running, meaning I'm the only one that reaches the spawning ground, which of course is crawling with more volatiles.

I employ all my thief skills to find the damned thing but just can't seem to find a clean way down. With dawn about to break, there's no choice - I just jump in which turns out to be good timing. All the critters run as the sun rises (I'd be dead otherwise), but I spot my green covered target and fire off one arrow. Boom. Headshot.

Soon after we're up to our elbows in bolter guts. Dr. Zere will be pleased.

Insight: Bolters are weak and don't actually require a headshot. As long as you hit them, they should die.

Dying Light: Junk Collectors

[Part of the Dying Light diary - spoilers ahead!]

Side quests continue, as we clear a motel, unlock caches and pawn shop supplies, fetch chocolates and movies for Gazi the hilarious retard and help General Jeff at the makeshift Fort Jefferson to turn on the gas for his "firewall" defense (which results in his entire safe zone exploding).

Shields keep you alive against explosions. And bullets.

Their usefulness drops as you level up though.

We also climb a freaking high bridge to collect the bridge lights which doesn't result in fun times for Jim, but we certainly all have fun with a gun challenge provided by a zombie movie producer who gives free temporary firearms and unlimited ammo to kill zombies in a time limit.

Eventually we make it back to the Tower where Brecken is losing his people and his morale. Jade suggests we go raid one of Rais supply dumps at a nearby school so we do, arrowing the thugs inside and find a supply of dynamite. Almost as good as antizin I suppose?

We are rewarded with a grapling hook which makes travel faster exponentially, though not so much for DL who likes to loot every single corpse. On the flip side, this means we have an over supply of junk that clears some of the lesser fetch quests. What Dr. Zere asks for next though is something we don't have... the insides of a "bolter" zombie.

Insight: The grappling hook trivializes escaping from volatiles, as long as you remember to have it equipped and aren't caught in an open field.

Dying Light: Team Arrow

[Part of the Dying Light diary - spoilers ahead!]

Despite the whole, "we're out of antizin and turning into zombies soon" issue - we collectively decided that it was side quest time - saving some woman from a rapist, helping the loon who calls himself Gas Mask Man (guess why) to retrieve his treasure from a lake, and supplying a "pregnant woman" with way more booze than required.

At one of the fishing settlements I also finally get my hands on a bow and some arrows, and after discovering it can silently one shot zombies and brigands if you hit the head - both my brothers quickly followed suite and we basically became Team Arrow.  Suddenly, the city got a lot safer, easily cleaning out the Stuffed Turtle shopping mart quarantine zone with our new weapons.

Oliver Queen would be proud.

We even got kill these pushers of "fake antizin" while screaming "YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY!". Ok, maybe I was the only one saying that. In my head. The arrow dodging volatiles were still a threat though, and proved it when we attempted to turn on the main power generator at night. Having a horde of walkers in the way didn't help, but we were forced to retreat until morning.

The next day we cleaned up all the walkers in the surrounding area, then just camped the power switch until night fell, making this a much easier task than previously thought. Afterwards, Jim decided to gift us Ranger Bows - an even stronger upgrade to what we already have.

Insight: Bows are ranged, silent, and are one of the best weapons in the game.

Dying Light: That's not Rais

[Part of the Dying Light diary - spoilers ahead!]

Turning on the comms is not enough to satisfy Karim, so we are next sent to get protection money from a bunch of local outposts which is easy enough as no one really wants to get Rais' ire. In between we are collecting air drops, even killing Rais' dudes for it, and sneaking around at night past the volatiles.

We also came across the Sunny Apartment quarantine zone and cleared it room to room. Having a pistol from a police car certainly helped a little. The Underground Parking quarantine was much harder as it had patrolling volatiles who needed to be dodged while looking for supply crates amid the alarmed cars.

Survivor sense somehow gives you x-ray vision when it comes to volatiles.

DL took up distraction duty with his favorite firecracker / molotov combo while Jim and I did the searching. At the end I think there was only one volatile left as the rest had burned from DLs efforts.

Despite all our hoop jumping, Rais decided to only pay with a handful of antizin instead of the original two crates worth. His next task involves some sort of perversion with Jade so we tell him "We'll think about it," when in reality we were thinking "Can't we kill this guy now?". Our loyalty to the GRE also wavers more when they advise we -should- just hand Jade over.

Insight: While firearms are bad outdoors in that the sound attracts everything, you should definitely make use of them indoors - unless trying to sneak of course!