Dying Light 2: Bows, crossbows, and changing ammo guide

Compared to its predecessor, Dying Light 2 doesn’t have traditional firearms. Instead, the game’s ranged weapons are mostly bows and crossbows. That can be a downer for some, but, trust me, these armaments will still trivialize most encounters. Here’s our Dying Light 2 ranged weapons guide to help you with bows, crossbows, and how you can change ammo types.

Note: For more information, check out our Dying Light 2 guides and features hub.

Dying Light 2 bows, crossbows, and ammo guide

Where to find bows in Dying Light 2

Although I did explore quite a bit of the game world, I didn’t notice a bow weapon in Dying Light 2 until halfway through the campaign. To be frank, I don’t even remember where I found my first one, except that I was already in the Central Loop (at the start of the A Place to Call Home mission).

From that point onwards, I started paying more attention to the loot. Here’s what I’ve discovered:

• During a mission called The Shoe, you’ll find the Paper Clip bow on a dresser inside Lawan’s apartment.
• A couple of Military Airdrops (THB-M30 in Downtown and THB-1N4 in Saint Paul Island) have bows next to the crates.
• The Radio Tower in Newfound Lost Lands (Newfound Land Military Array) has a bow on one of the ledges.
• Vendors may sometimes sell bows of varying rarities (i.e., I got an artifact Rust once).

Where to find crossbows in Dying Light 2

The crossbow in Dying Light 2, meanwhile, is an entirely different matter. As far as I know, there’s only one kind, the PK Crossbow. You can obtain it by taking over Facilities and assigning them to the Peacekeepers. The PK Crossbow, as well as all the blueprints for elemental bolts, are given to you automatically as a tier 4 reward. Compared to bows, which have a sort of “nock, draw, and loose” animation, crossbows are semi-automatic and can be fired quickly.

Why these ranged weapons are so good

Although firearms would’ve been welcome in any zombie apocalypse game, bows and crossbows in Dying Light 2 remain viable due to several key reasons:

• You can stay at a distance to snipe your enemies. Due to clumsy AI, some infected won’t even bother jumping or rushing your location if you’re on a higher platform. For instance, you can make quick work of the Revenants in GRE Anomaly encounters by shooting them and sidestepping their poison blobs.
• Unlike the melee weapons with durability issues, ranged weapons don’t have the durability system for you to worry about. All you need to do is craft ammo and have a lot to spare.
• Ammo acts similar to the mods of melee weapons in that they provide elemental effects. However, unlike weapon mods, ammo types can’t be upgraded. That brings us to…

Crafting and changing ammo types in Dying Light 2

As mentioned earlier, crossbow bolt blueprints are automatically given once you have the PK Crossbow reward. As for arrow blueprints, you’ll need to purchase these separately from Craftmaster NPCs. Next, open your Crafting menu -> Ammunition tab to see what you can create. Here’s the gist:

• You can make basic ammunition — 10x arrows or 10x bolts — with 10x scraps and 1x feathers.
• If you need a particular elemental ammo, you’ll need those scraps, feathers, and 1x of a specific material. For example, 10x Fire Arrows need 1x resin and 10x Shock Arrows need 1x wiring.
• Feathers can be found in birdhouses on rooftops. These are spots that would often have other objects, such as honey, chamomile, or crates.

Once you’ve crafted ammo, just equip your bow or crossbow in Dying Light 2 and fire with the left-click button. If you have certain combat skills, like Precise Aiming, you could even press the Ctrl key to zoom in.

If you do need to change ammo types, then you’ll need to activate the weapon scroll wheel (i.e., hold “3” by default). Select the bow or crossbow, then press “Q” or “E” to cycle through the ammunition types that you have. Do remember that the ammo type switches to the default/basic variant anytime you load, respawn, or sleep.

Note: There’s also another ammo type that lets you turn humans into infected zombies.

Dying Light 2 is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.