The world of Dying Light 2 is filled with many dangers, both living and undead. You will, no doubt, face a lot of foes as you progress further. Here’s our Dying Light 2 best combat skills guide to help you choose ideal perks.
Note: For more information, check out our Dying Light 2 guides and features hub. Likewise, you can take a look at our best parkour skills guide.
Dying Light 2 best combat skills guide
You’ll obtain more XP for combat if you keep killing mobs and completing relevant objectives. The points you obtain allow you to unlock the best combat skills in Dying Light 2.
I’ve made several suggestions below regarding the best combat skills in Dying Light 2, though I’d like to point out that I preferred a playstyle that was focused on defense and avoidance (i.e., dodging and blocking). Since I was mindful of weapon durability, I wanted to ensure that I was getting a lot of free hits against staggered opponents. Moreover, I also wanted some combat skills that improved the capabilities of bow and crossbow shots. Ranged weapons became my go-to armaments later in the game.
Note: Apart from skill points, these unlocks also require you to reach a maximum HP threshold. You can increase your health by finding more Inhibitors.
| Section | Combat Skill | Required Skill and Health | Effect | Notes |
| Default | Vault Kick | None | Allows you to run up to staggered enemies, vault over them, and perform a dropkick. | You’ll learn this as part of the tutorial section of the game. It’s not really something I relied on often since the controls were a bit jittery. |
| 1 | Perfect Dodge | Vault Kick/0 | You can press the spacebar while moving sideways or backward to dodge. Timing it perfectly just as an enemy attacks you causes them to get staggered. | This is one of the best combat skills in Dying Light 2, allowing you to avoid hits while leaving enemies open. |
| Grapple | Perfect Dodge/140 | Wait for an enemy to strike and push them away; also staggers them. | I wasn’t really using this often. Doing a Perfect Dodge was more than enough. | |
| Grapple Throw | Grapple/180 | Throw the enemy with increased momentum. | See above. | |
| 2 | Air Kick | Vault Kick/0 | Drop on enemies from above and do a power kick. | Completely unnecessary. |
| Vault Power Kick | Air Kick/140 | Sends enemies flying after a Vault Kick. | Similar to the Vault Kick, this was a bit janky to use. | |
| Head Stomp | Vault Power Kick/180 | Stomp on the heads of enemies while they lay on the ground. | This should’ve been a move that’s available by default. Who knew that a human being would need to learn other attacks just to learn how to stomp. It’s okay, but you’re wasting other skill points on the requirements. | |
| Drop Kick | Air Kick/140 | Run at an enemy and dropkick them. | This is like a Vault Kick, but the enemy doesn’t need to be staggered. It’s more useful in a way. | |
| 3 | Perfect Parry | Vault Kick/120 | Block (right-click) just as an enemy is about to hit you. This staggers them and triggers a slow-mo effect. | Similar to Perfect Dodge, this is one of the best combat skills in Dying Light 2. |
| Block Projectiles | Perfect Parry/160 | Block incoming projectiles. | You’ll probably want this down the line since you’ll encounter a lot of archers later in the game. | |
| Deflect Projectiles | Block Projectiles/200 | You can now cause projectiles to get sent back to the attacker. | Get it if you want it, but it’s not required (just blocking or sidestepping the projectiles is fine). | |
| Block Charge | Perfect Parry/160 | You can charge an enemy and knock them to the ground. | This works on humans and undead, and it can help when you’re cornered (or if you want to push them off a ledge). | |
| 4 | Power Attack | Vault Kick/120 | A stronger attack that can interrupt attack animations and blocks. | Fairly useful considering how often enemies would block. |
| Windmill | Power Attack/160 | Charge your power attack and spin around to hit everyone around you. | This has a chance of leaving you open while you’re doing your charge up. | |
| Ground Pound | Power Attack/160 | Jump from above and smash the ground to stagger enemies around you. | This is a bit of a waste since you won’t have a lot of opportunities to do this. It’s flashy, though. | |
| 5 | Stab | Vault Kick/140 | Quickly eliminate a target; requires a Throwing Knife in your inventory. | The animation for this is roughly half a second shorter than the regular takedown. |
| Stab Followup | Stab/180 | Aim a Throwing Knife at another target after stabbing the first one. | This is very Assassin’s Creed-esque. | |
| Ledge Takedown | Stab Followup/220 | Pull enemies to cause them to drop off ledges. | Next to useless. | |
| 6 | Precise Aiming | Vault Kick/160 | You can zoom in while aiming with ranged weapons. | Why this isn’t a default mechanic is beyond me. But, hey, feel free to use it once you’ve got bows and crossbows. |
| Parkour Shot | Precise Aiming/200 | You can aim and shoot (and time slightly slows down) while doing parkour moves. | It’s flashy and cinematic, but hardly worthwhile. | |
| Power Shot | Precise Aiming/200 | Adds piercing and bonus damage to ranged weapon shots. | Well, if you already love using bows and crossbows, this gives them an extra punch. | |
| Serial Shot | Power Shot/240 | Aim then shoot three targets simultaneously. | As of the time of this writing, this ability wasn’t working (I’ve tried). | |
| 7 | Smash | Vault Kick/180 | Jump from above and smash enemy heads to kill them quickly. | This is like an aerial assassination. If Ground Pound simply staggered people around your AoE, then this will kill them. However, your target can’t be aware of your presence. |
| Smash Jump | Smash/220 | After using Smash, you can jump once more to do another aerial attack. | This can let you chain multiple aerial attacks in quick succession. |
Dying Light 2 is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
Published: Feb 3, 2022 04:45 pm