Current fix for the 'Never-Ending Virals' problem? (Nightmare / Post Base Game)

[NorionV]

So I've been trying to figure out what's causing this for a while now. It's been a non-stop problem since I first got to Old Town.

I've come up with a lot of theoretical solutions from Google searches: caused by the Fallon quest (which I finished ages ago), starts in Old Town - ends when you beat the game (I just beat the game a couple hours ago and still having this issue), caused by certain weapon combinations (like fire, I guess, but I never use fire - only really ever electricity or impact), location-based (seems to happen ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ everywhere so not that), and some other stuff that doesn't really apply to me.

I've beaten the game, and wanted to finish all the side quests and start on bounties... but I've got a never-ending posse of 3 to 6 virals trying to murder me at ALL times. And I do mean ALLLLLLL the time. No matter where I go, or what I'm doing, they're everywhere. And if I kill one, another appears shortly after. If I kill all of them in quick succession, the pack returns withing 10 or 15 seconds. (I've actually counted.) I'm currently staring at a small mountain of white loot packages, made almost entirely by virals, if that puts it in perspective.

This makes the post game literally unplayable, mainly due to all of the interaction-based objectives like opening boxes and panels and stuff. And fighting stuff like Goons and Demolishers is proving to be unreasonably difficult with this problem, too. Plus it's just annoying as hell and I can't believe that this would be an intentional part of the game.

Does anyone know how to FIX this? I'm at a loss.

[Blade Master]

You're supposed to finish all the side missions before progressing story, this is the most proper way to play through the game.

Elemental weapons can also cause virals to alert, such as fire, electricity and etc.

[Poppi !!]

I could certainly see the frustration...
Try going full camo as much as possible and you should be able to get around 99% of them. That's been my main approach.

[Blade Master]

Originally posted by _StanleyTweedle_:

I could certainly see the frustration...
Try going full camo as much as possible and you should be able to get around 99% of them. That's been my main approach.

Yeah, camouflage and grappling hook is the best way to get away from annoyances. I personally never get assaulted by many virals, mostly it's 2 or 3 maximum, rarely 4, I easily handle them with tackle and pretty much all the agility skills without having to use any weapon, not even Ranger bow and at Nightmare Game + 100% story. If it's Old Town, tackling them from the building should be quite easy thing to do.

[NorionV]

Originally posted by BladeMaster:

You're supposed to finish all the side missions before progressing story, this is the most proper way to play through the game.

Elemental weapons can also cause virals to alert, such as fire, electricity and etc.

Um, yeah, no. The proper way to play the game is however I feel like playing, lol.

And I read the 'elemental weapons' theory a lot, but it's simply not true. I've been using exclusively electricity pretty much my entire game (I like the chain-stun effect, and how effective it is in rain), and it's never brought the virals down on me like this. In fact, I don't even hear that distant screaming like you do after firing a gun or making something explode. I think I tried fire once and it actually DID have that effect, seemingly, and didn't work as well as electric in general... so I abandoned it pretty fast.

Originally posted by _StanleyTweedle_:

I could certainly see the frustration...
Try going full camo as much as possible and you should be able to get around 99% of them. That's been my main approach.

This is good advice. I often forget about camo, mainly because I can handle most stuff and was doing mostly isolated missions that don't include random virals... story missions, basically.

While it'll be kind of annoying to keep up with the camo, I can't argue that it'll be any worse than what's happening right now. Thanks, mate.

[Blade Master]

Originally posted by Raddok:

Originally posted by BladeMaster:

You're supposed to finish all the side missions before progressing story, this is the most proper way to play through the game.

Elemental weapons can also cause virals to alert, such as fire, electricity and etc.

Um, yeah, no. The proper way to play the game is however I feel like playing, lol.

And I read the 'elemental weapons' theory a lot, but it's simply not true. I've been using exclusively electricity pretty much my entire game (I like the chain-stun effect, and how effective it is in rain), and it's never brought the virals down on me like this. In fact, I don't even hear that distant screaming like you do after firing a gun or making something explode. I think I tried fire once and it actually DID have that effect, seemingly, and didn't work as well as electric in general... so I abandoned it pretty fast.

Talking about Dying Light specifically, it's best if all side missions are done before the story. This'll not only ensure your character is well developed for anything ahead, gameplay wise, therefore you can deal with any kind of threat without being annoyed / frustrated, which a number of people face playing through the game by rushing the story missions, making it difficult and unpleasant experience, but also story wise you won't see that weird moment when Karim suddenly appears alive in the Cease and Desist side mission, while he actually dies in last story mission..

I personally stopped using weapons in singleplayer long before they nerfed chance of alerting virals, perhaps they changed something about weapons.

Use grappling hook if you want to immediately get away from them if you don't have time for camouflage, if you're assaulted with no dead bodies around you'll have to kill at least one zombie to use camouflage, meanwhile virals will attack you, or just use cloak potion.

[Crystalium]

Happens to me from time to time, but since as soon as i hear a viral i jump on a roof, a truck or whatever is high-grounded to crush their head while they climb the fight is quite quickly over and they rarely repop rapidly (i'm in NG+ nightmare)
Obviously you must never kill them with noisy weapons if you want better chances to not attract new ones.
Only when i'm entering a killing spree with shotgun do i have this succession of virals.

[Poppi !!]

In defense of Nightmare mode, those damned things are everywhere and do seem to be able to detect your presence regardless of where you are or what your doing and it's exactly the way it should be ( assuming that a player has honed their skills and is prepared ). Nightmare = neck deep in constant peril.

[NorionV]

I quit the post game and moved on to Following. (Decided to come back later for achievements once I have more legend levels and then dealing with virals won't be a problem.)

I'm now having loads of fun destroying volatile nests, without a herd of virals following my every move.

Originally posted by _StanleyTweedle_:

In defense of Nightmare mode, those damned things are everywhere and do seem to be able to detect your presence regardless of where you are or what your doing and it's exactly the way it should be ( assuming that a player has honed their skills and is prepared ). Nightmare = neck deep in constant peril.

Nightmare is awesome. I never tried the other difficulties, and probably a good thing I didn't. The way I hear it, there are a lot of handicaps that'd make the other modes far too easy. Just the right amount of frustration in Nightmare, hehe.

It was really JUST the neverending virals. I considered getting a 'No Virals' mod, but I actually like them... just not constantly. Like the danger of being loud - I still want that, you know?

In any case, Following isn't having this problem, so that's good at least.

[Vindred]

This is the kind of problem which deserves an accompanying video. xD

[DedZedNub]

Just wondering out loud:

What Current Side Quests and Story Quests were listed?

There have been posts that some of the quests have situations where Virals appear constantly until completed. I presumed you already checked this from your comments.

But perhaps a part of one of those quests is bringing them on. I can recall a couple periods also, perhaps it was an area of the Slums with a certain quest, but it dragged on a lot on Normal, where the Virals just seemed to keep coming. I wan't shoulder deep in them, but I'd usually get 6-9 in a wave and this kept happening about every few minutes. If that was happening in Nightmare, I'd expect it might end up becoming nearly constant. Dunno.

Anyway, you might want to list what quests are listed on your Quests tab in that save, just to compare.

[15543641354361]

must be the save of the main campaign corrupted, i suggest you take the save of someone else after backup your saves for safety.

[will2k]

Originally posted by Crystalium:

as soon as i hear a viral i jump on a roof, a truck or whatever is high-grounded to crush their head while they climb the fight is quite quickly over

That's what I do too, fastest and quietest way to dispatch them.

I noticed something though.

Now that I reached level 226 (on nightmare), virals waves are no longer 2-3 virals per wave; they're now more like 5-6.

Another thing is that they don't need a noise trigger anymore (gun, explosion, roof collapse, elemental weapon kill...)

I noticed that they spawn at periodic intervals and in some other instances, at pre-determined locations, regardless of your actions.

I could be on a roof top, standing still admiring the scenery and they suddenly show up. I dispatch them quietly, move on to a new rooftop, also quietly, and then 5-7 minutes later, another wave of 6-7 appear again.

In slums for example, every time I reach the bridge between parking lot quarantine zone and bus station, 7-8 virals suddenly start charging from all directions. Like clockwork :)

Other locations i.e are near the apartments building (near Karim tower) and the road near safe house with Dahlia among many other locations.

No complaints though; this makes the game more active and alive and stealth/camouflage more important.

[NorionV]

Originally posted by DedZedNub:

Just wondering out loud:

What Current Side Quests and Story Quests were listed?

I suppose that makes sense, because I'm like 99% certain the retrieval quest for that reporter, Fallon, is one of those quests. There might be more which do this. But I don't know what was listed - I've since moved onto The Following and will just come back when I'm stronger and can murder virals without trouble.

It seems kind of stupid that the presence of a specific quest would cause this, though. For someone that hasn't even reached legend levels and are playing Nightmare, two or more virals can pose serious problems depending on the situation.

Originally posted by Al bundy:

must be the save of the main campaign corrupted, i suggest you take the save of someone else after backup your saves for safety.

Really keen on keeping my character. Will that be possible if I take another person's saves?

And I did want to experience all of the side quests, too... I guess I could get a save that has most of them still open? I dunno. I don't think this would be a good route.

Originally posted by will2k:

That's what I do too, fastest and quietest way to dispatch them.

This doesn't work too well when there are loads of them, though. If you step up on a van and try to head stomp one, there are 5 others climbing that same van and about to ruin you.

And since, for whatever reason, they seem to just keep replacing themselves... you'd be head stomping for a really long time, possibly forever. I'm not sure - I haven't participated in viral slaughter for more than a few minutes at a time.

Originally posted by will2k:

Now that I reached level 226 (on nightmare), virals waves are no longer 2-3 virals per wave; they're now more like 5-6.

Another thing is that they don't need a noise trigger anymore (gun, explosion, roof collapse, elemental weapon kill...)

Basically the issue I'm having. But I wasn't legend when it started. I am now, since I decided to move on to the Following and am not having the viral problem anymore.

Originally posted by will2k:

No complaints though; this makes the game more active and alive and stealth/camouflage more important.

I would agree if it were in 10 to 15 minute intervals or something, kinda like what you talked about above. But mine seem to be neverending.

Like I explained in op: they aren't coming at intervals. Like if i have a pack of 6 virals trying to kill me, and I kill 3, within seconds I can sometimes actually see 3 more running into the situation from the distance.

i.e. 'Never-Ending Virals'

[Blade Master]

Do you have active side quests? If yes, try finishing it all. If not, finish the current main mission and see if virals stop.

Edit: If this is happening at 100% save without any active side/main mission, send me your save files and I'll look at it.

[NorionV]

Originally posted by BladeMaster:

Do you have active side quests? If yes, try finishing it all. If not, finish the current main mission and see if virals stop.

Edit: If this is happening at 100% save without any active side/main mission, send me your save files and I'll look at it.

Well, I would do that, but the reason I came here was because the non-stop virals was making it difficult to do a lot of the sidequests. Like anything that requires me to pick a lock, or mash the use key for several seconds, etc etc.

Don't worry, though. I decided to just hop into The Following, after reading that you can freely trasnfer your character progress between both games. So I'm just gonna play that for the time being, as the viral problem isn't a problem in The Following.