Dying Light 2 Weapon Damage and Stamina Cost

About this Guide

Occasionally I take breaks from working on my app to play a game, and Dying Light 2 has been it this past summer. After ALT-tabbing out of the game to take notes (I was most curious about weapon stamina cost and completing bounties efficiently), I decided to turn it into a guide. Weapon information is below. I moved the bounty guide to its own page

Tested on Dying Light 2 ver. 1.24.2p

Weapon Stamina Cost Explained

In Dying Light 2, weapons are either of the "blueprint" or "non-blueprint" variety. Blueprint weapons have no "item level" and rather scale with your character^* (damage output increases as you level up and stamina cost increases with your maximum stamina). Non-blueprint weapons DO have an item level assigned, and their damage and stamina cost remain the same regardless of the wielder's player level.

^*Technically the scaling is based on the levels of the game's host, but in single player, you're the host. To keep it simple, we're talking single player throughout this guide unless otherwise specified.

In a single player game, non-blueprint weapons drop with an item level equal to your character level or lower. In a co-op session, a friend could drop you a weapon with an item level higher than your character level. You can wield this weapon and it'll do its full damage, but also cost its full stamina cost.

Blueprint weapons will always take the same chunk of your stamina meter, even if you have it cranked to 980 with an endurance booster.

Non-blueprint Weapon Quick Attack Stamina Cost = [ Weapon Stamina Cost ] * [ Difficulty Multiplier ] * [ Bonuses ]

Other bonuses include gear bonus, legend bonus, the Volatoy charm, etc. The Volatoy charm actually seems to reduce the stamina cost by more than the claimed 15%.

A bonus like "9% Stamina Restored on Quick Attack" is not a stamina cost reduction bonus like those mentioned above. It's actually better. You get a stamina recharge per enemy hit. If you miss, you get no recharge, but if you hit 5 enemies with your polearm, you probably made a "profit" on stamina. To launch a perpetual assault on Nightmare difficulty, this affix is absolutely invaluable.

Power Attacks cost double the stamina, but have better damage, range, and armor penetration.

I grabbed a bunch of weapons out of my stash and tested their stamina costs. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I tried to get some variety in there.

I didn't bother testing bows, because I never feel like I'm short on stamina while using them. Guns require no stamina to fire, that I have observed.

Quality

Rarity tier of the weapon I had on hand. Apparently the RNG damage ranges have some overlap, as my Artifact version of The Barbarian does more damage than the legendary version.

Weapon

Display name of the weapon.

Durability

Base durability value before mods.

Blueprint

✔️ indicates the weapon was made from a blueprint (stamina costs scale with your maximum stamina)

LVL 9 Damage

For blueprint weapons, I'm showing the damage for a level 9 player. My non-blueprint weapons are all level 9 and have whatever damage numbers RNG yielded in my game (your damage numbers will be different), but the stamina costs are not RNG-driven.

Stamina Cost @ 100

Stamina consumed per attack on normal difficulty when you have 100 max stamina.

Stamina Cost @ 700

Stamina consumed per attack on normal difficulty when you have 700 max stamina (the game's soft cap).

Category

Type of weapon. It's a general predictor of range and moveset, but not always. Note that the Crafting NPCs categories some weapons incorrectly. For example, Knuckledusters like the Beast Claws are shown to be 2H-Slashing when actually they are in their own "Knuckledusters" category. Your gear bonus will reflect the true category.

Moveset

Animation set determining swing pattern and timing.

Quick Attack Range (approximate)

Reach (units) for quick attack. I used Metro floor tiles as units, which look to be roughly a square foot in size (0.3 meters). I think I am accurate to within 0.5 tiles of the true value.

Power Attack Range (approximate)

Reach (units) for power attack. It's very roughly 20% further than a quick attack.

Accepts Charm

✔️ indicates weapon accepts a charm. Almost all of them do.

Max Mods

Total mod slots on weapon (including those with permanently installed mods).

Included Mods

Mod pre-installed and non-removable.

Special Effects

Some weapons do something as simple as apply bleeding on critical hit, like a mod could have done. Other weapons have their own surprisingly customized logic, like the dagger with an increasing damage multiplier.

Attack Speed

Attacks per second (approximate). This was hard data to capture but I think I got close. Most movesets probably actually share a single value (perhaps Greatweapon is 0.95), but that's not always the case.

DPS

Damage per second (approximate). Rough estimate for two reasons. 1) My attack speed measurement is rough, 2) For non-blueprint weapons, this is merely the damage roll I happened to get. Yours could be higher or lower. Another big gotcha: greatweapons and polearms can hit so many targets simultaneously that effective multi-target DPS for those weapons is sky high when enemies are close together (which is often).