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.

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).

Bounties

General Bounty Tips

• If you need to loot a certain number of items, each item in the stack is counted. Picking up 6 scrap is finding 6 items.
• For the case of bounties / challenges, only medicine made with honey and chamomile and medkits are considered "healing". So you can use a regeneration booster, or leech life with the Tremere charm or Legend skills.

Streak Dailies

I don't know what else to call these, but when you view the Bounties screen, there are a few that pop in there each day that you don't get from an NPC like Sola, Harper, Spike, Jai, or Shen Xiu. You get awarded for doing 5 in a row.

Friendly Neighborhood

If you've not yet claimed Lower Dam Ayre, bandits (basically plainclothes renegades) spawn on the bridges nearly every time (though that link is 2 years older than this article and may be out of date).

Unfortunately Shen Xiu missions, where there are more than 20 renegades, take place at 4 AM and that counts as "night".

In my runs, renegades spawn less often in old Villedor and on Saint Paul Island. I find them most often around New Dawn Park and to its west and south.

Shopping Spree

Items looted counts each item in the stack, so this goes fast. Use a regeneration booster if you need to heal, as they don't count.

Unknown Title

Use guns or your bow / crossbow. Spears and other throwables don't count as ranged here.

Abnormal Performance

You need to land 10 hits in a row without getting hit, stepping in acid, etc. Rather than try to fight one of these guys carefully, I think it's easier to equip knuckledusters and attempt to get off 10 quick attacks as fast as possible. On nightmare difficulty, these guys have lots of hitpoints so there's bound to be a stretch where you get off 10 hits before getting hit.

The Cleansing

Biters count, so this is easy.

Volatile Hunt

If you don't want to fight volatiles at night and risk getting overwhelmed, there will be just 1 or 2 in a GRE building in the daytime in the second-highest floor.

Headshot Fiesta

It works with melee but is so much faster with a bow or gun.

No Time for That

If you can't easily kill Volatiles, recall that you can slide into a Dark Hollow at night, and the Volatiles won't follow you in.

Harper the Nightrunner

Find him in New Dawn Park after a certain point in the game.

Activated My Trap Card

Do Jai's mission "Priceless" to fight a Demolisher at the end.

Precise Incision

Head east across the boats from Shen Xiu and climb up the wall. Walk past the building to your left, and then look across the street to the left. There's a spitter in the grass there.

Cornucopia

Once you've racked it up you can just go to sleep and get credit.

Predator

I roam the streets south of New Dawn Park looking for Howlers. I kite the biters away and sneak up for the takedown. Using arrows to "silently kill" them doesn't seem to work.

Diversion

Do GRE buildings. Lots of sleepers.

Paint it Black

Easy, buy a ticket from him and then fast travel to the Trinity Metro near the Bazaar and do a mission. Don't forget to buy a ticket from him first.

The Great Escape

Time to use the skill you never use: Block Charge. Run at a viral on the edge of a rooftop, press and hold V, and you'll tackle him off the roof. You can fall as far as you want and you will not take damage. I've done it from the VNC tower.

Disarmed

Exploder and Suiciders are fair game for headshots, but run away after you land the headshot, so you aren't next to them when they blow up.

You Shook Me

Exploders count, but you gotta kill them before they explode on purpose. If you don't have a throwing knife handy, a poke with your grappling hook will trigger their explosion without pulling them toward you.

Aerials

Banshees look like hags but are brown instead of green. If you fight the Goon just southeast of New Dawn Park, he will yell for the aid of banshees during the fight. If you have a glitched or otherwise OP weapon, dequip it so you can get in more hits.

Deathwish Granted

Both the kind that sprint at you and the Exploders that make a garbled sound and then self-detonate count for this. The Downtown Dark Hollow that is closest to the northwesternmost point in New Dawn Park spawns exploders (suiciders) all day and night.

A Break In

Harper Regular Missions grant crystal cores as rewards. You can do two in a row and it counts as a single daytime even though each mission starts at noon. You can also do GRE buildings in the daytime, if you can handle volatiles just fine.

The Apex Predator

You can find them on rooftops at night on occasion, or at the highest level of chase when playing on Nightmare.

If you want to cheese this, you can play on Nightmare until the chase level maxes out and Tyrants spawn, then drop the difficulty to Easy before you engage them.

A Nightrunner's Footsteps

All virals have them (including plaguebearers), as do hag tracks. If you are strong enough to fight through the night, you can accumulate samples quickly by killing Volatiles.

The Darkest of Places

GRE buildings that you've already completed can become Volatile hives at night. Don't forget to open the side doors on each level, since the bottom exit will be clogged with guts. Certain Dark Hollows can also accommodate a hive and may randomly spawn one.

One Wrong Step

If your dropkick is too powerful (kills Bolter instantly), use Block Charge (V on PC by default).

If choices you made during your campaign make a sunken city not-so-sunken, you can find Bolters on the eastern fractured highway just south of the southernmost point of Newfound Lost Lands. There will be three there, and a few on the ground too!

This reddit post has some cool tips on Bolter spawns.

Silent Night

Use any weapon and make any amount of noise, just don't start a chase. You could do this with grenades if you wanted.

Clear out a GRE building at night to make this quick.

Spike / Pilgrim Outpost

Open the bounties screen and scroll to the right to find him. You may need to reach a certain point in the game before he is available. Spike was the guy that helped you in the prologue.

Trooper

Use any weapon into which you've installed at least one mod, like a blade that has a frost mod in it. The mod doesn’t have to activate for it to count. You just have to kill the renegade with it.

Underdog

A weapon with no mod slots, such as a bow or some random melee weapon that happens to not have slots will work.

Last Man Standing

Shen Xiu Huntress Missions happen at 4 am (Night), so you need to find them, out in the streets / at hag tracks.

Demolition Expert

Often you can stand on a lamp post over a Military Convoy and drop C4 on the horde below. Easy!

Pro Looter

Harper's Regular Missions will score you some of these.

Stick-up Artist

Remember that a knife throw to the head does more damage, so if you don't think you can one-shot them with a knife, maybe you actually can.

Postapocalyptic Technician

Dismantle items you pick up from renegades or cheap ones you buy in the store.

Dismantling a mod doesn't count. But while I was testing this I noticed I could apply a Frost mod, which costs only blades and scrap, and dismantle it with a chance at getting an oxidizer or battery, which is a higher rarity than its ingredients. Interesting.

Also, don't forget you can dismantle junk directly from your stash without even pulling it into your inventory.

Crafter

Each item in the stack counts. To do this quickly, visit the Plague Witch and search her 4 trash cans outside the building. Sleep twice and repeat if necessary (there's a bed right inside).

Ranged Superiority

Get the spear at the convoy next to Shen Xiu, and kill the spitter that is just to the north of it.

Huntress Shen Xiu

She's southwest of the VNC tower. Once she is available, you can fast travel right to her.

LELELE LELELELELE

There's one at the end of the Huntress Regular Mission, and you can sometimes find them at hag tracks. They're green. The light brown ones are Banshees.

Big Game Hunter

Find hag tracks or do a Huntress Regular Mission.

Welcome to the Jungle

Huntress Regular Missions each have 5 hag tracks, if you don't want to take the time to search for tracks in the city.

On The Trail

Again, Huntress Regular Missions each have 5 hag tracks -- a fast way to encounter these.

Did My Time

Huntress Regular Missions start at 4:00 AM, which counts as "Night" in this game. So you'll need to find them the same place your dad found your mom, in the streets.

Down with the Sickness

I did Huntress Regular Missions to find them fastest. You can cancel out of the mission once the bounty is complete if you want.

Blood is in the Air

Huntress Regular Missions have 5 groups of renegades, each of which can have multiple plaguebearers.

Toxicity

It's funny how this works. When you take out a plaguebearer while not standing in the clouds, you get credit immediately. But if you enter the clouds, credit is taken away. You can complete the bounty and then jump into the toxic fumes and keep the bounty.

Return to Sender

They mean while YOU are in the air, not her. Jump off something and parkour shot her with a shotgun while falling and you'll get credit.

Eye of the Tiger

You can herd up some biters and then shoot into the herd at roughly head-height (biters are different heights) to score this one. Or just hunt for two biters out of aggro range that are the same-ish height and standing close together.

Daylight Prowl

You can fight through a night and then pick up the samples when the sun comes up! Or just kill virals and special infected during the day, and they'll add up. Use guns to attract more Virals as you kill Virals. Hag Tracks give you a bunch, too.

Agile Hunter

If you don't get credit doing this with your bow, try a throwing knife. If you can one-shot a biter with a throwing knife, you can do a single vertical jump (from the ground or the hood of a car or something), hold middle mouse until slow-mo kicks in, aim, and fire. If he dies (even after your legs hit the ground) you get credit. If you play on Nightmare or otherwise can't one-shot them, loosen them up with your weapon or kicks first.

Smooth Criminal

Buy a ticket from her, hop across the two boats to the east, and you'll see two signs on the wall. Interact with the one on the left.

Volatile Trouble

If not fighting at night, you can find Volatiles in forsaken stores and the second-to-top floor of GRE buildings.

The Circle of Life

Fight at night until you get credit. =)

My Precious

Do a Harper's Regular Mission to score one of these. Or fight your way through a GRE building and hope RNG lands you some rarity.

Up Close and Personal

This bounty requires you to have a friend.

Can't Stop

Bows and guns count, but as usual, throwables do not.

The Invisible Man

Use ranged weapons, or take this opportunity to learn proper distance between you and your melee opponents.

What is Yours

Each item in each stack you loot counts. Search trash cans to accumulate scrap quickly and knock this out.

Annoyances

Character puts away weapon and it won’t attack

• You walked into or got pushed into a bush or some other plant or piece of scenery. Don't fight near plants.
• You are on a short slope, like a rooftop slope, so Aiden shifts into a parkour mode or slide animation and puts his weapon away. This can also happen on a small hill like when you fight Poison Alice in Jai's mission.

Character gets stuck on stuff on the ground

You can get caught on bodies and other objects on the ground, particularly around convoys. Bunny hopping in those areas can make it less frustrating.

Why am I being fried by electricity

I played through the entire campaign and all of NG+ before noticing the first two.

1. One of those red electric boxes or something similar was destroyed
2. A biter wearing a power strip and electrical cables was killed
3. Your lightning mod activated (or either of the above happened) while you were on wet ground