It’s finally happening: Dying Light 2‘s post-apocalyptic civilization has rediscovered guns. As announced months ago, late in 2023, Techland’s latest major content update for Dying Light 2 is all about weaponry, celebrating the game’s second anniversary with a boom and a bang.
The aptly titled ‘Firearms Update’ signals the release of Dying Light 2 version 1.15, and though there’s much more to the patch than just guns, it’s plainly obvious what its main selling point is. Upon installing the Firearms Update, Dying Light 2 players can look forward to five new types of firearms: the Harran/Service Pistol, the Compact SMG, the Military Rifle, and the Combat Shotgun (H&K USP, TEC-9, SG556/ACR hybrid, and kinda-sorta SPAS-12, respectively).
All of these have already been lovingly shown off on YouTube, and most of the models harken back to the original Dying Light to some extent. All players can claim a variant of the Harran Pistol for free before March 7, too, which is a neat touch.
Dying Light 2’s guns are just the tip of the spear
Flashy, loud, and obnoxiously late to the party, Dying Light 2‘s guns are cool and all, but the odds are good that most players have already gotten used to not relying on them. Those who’d prefer to keep not using them are in luck, then, because update 1.15 is positively loaded with an impressive assortment of other goodies, too:
- Improved visual fidelity with better foliage, interior variety, skybox textures, and more
- 50 more Legend Levels and Platinum Tier upgrades
- Tolga and Fatin NPCs (from the original Dying Light)
- Agent NPC (the firearm dealer)
- Survivor and Elite missions as ways to unlock Agent Tokens (preferably in co-op multiplayer, as per the patch notes)
- Nocturnal weapons (11 in total)
- Renegade Grenadier enemy type
- Overhauled Viral and Biter enemies
- Anniversary Bounties
All in all, it’s hard to argue against the merits of Dying Light 2‘s update 1.15 on the basis of added features and content alone, but veteran players will be thrilled to hear that a very long list of bugs has also been fixed, including the co-op multiplayer duplication glitches, missing meshes, and a bunch of other issues. Particularly noteworthy is that both the bows and crossbows have been substantially tweaked, so as to keep them relevant now that the guns are back in:
- Bow-type weapons’ long charge shots deal far more damage, with increased projectile speeds and improved damage dealt to distant targets.
- Crossbow-type weapons are roughly comparable to firearms at close range, with their magazine sizes now sitting at 4 projectiles a pop. Their headshot multiplier has been bumped up to 3.2x to keep them competitive in a broader gameplay sandbox.
Techland had previously clarified that there will be way more content coming to Dying Light 2 over the course of 2024, with the Firearms update being just the start of it. It’s a good showing, too, which is likely to work wonders in keeping the game interesting for weeks and months to come. If nothing else, at least now you can make the volatile infected remember just how painful a boomstick can get, and we can get behind that for sure.
