Dead Island Definitive Edition Survival Guide

Survival Guide for making it alive through Dead Island Definitive Edition.

Movement

Vehicles and Fast travels

Dead Island spans across large maps with far too many miles upon miles of land to explore on foot. Cut a chunk of your traveling time by exploiting the Fast Travel feature. Locations that you can access via Fast Travel become available only after you've visited the area at least once. You can also use vehicles to cover more ground much more quickly.

Back Pedaling is your friend!

When zombies are coming at you to enjoy a tasty bite of face simply swing for the head while running backwards, this way they can't hit you and can turn them into mush.

Doors

If you travel though a door into a hut, area, or section close it behind you if you can. This prevents Zombies from sneaking up on you, also protects you since Zombies don't seem to be able to get through closed doors.

Dodge!

Each character is fit enough to perform a directional jump, a necessary survival technique that lets you dodge attacks. To do this, press the analog stick in the direction you want to dodge while simultaneously pressing the jump button. Your character can jump sideways and backward to avoid attacks. Careful, though, this move uses stamina.

Know When to Run!

Pretty basic stuff here, if you start feeling overwhelmed get the heck out of dodge and run for it. This usually isn't an issue if you are playing co-op (especially with a high level player), but going solo you can find yourself in precarious situations; you're low on health, ammo, or you've just warped your pipe over the heads of too many zombies. Instead of being Rambo in these situations a good way to stay alive is to pull a Forrest Gump.

Safe Spot

Always plan a route to a local safe spot to retreat to when faced with enemies -- when playing solo, this is a vital player skill that cannot be ignored. Failing to do so will get you killed constantly. If you don't mind losing time, money, and resources (damaged/broken weapons are auto-saved) then by all means you may try to out-horde the horde. But for most players, this is the way to go.

Keep An Eye On The Radar/Minimap

Collectible Items for continuous quests will show up to remind you about the quest. If skulls begin to pop up, it means there is a survivor nearby! Rush to their aid, and you may find a reward/quest that can provide you with an early advantage!

Tracking side missions or continual missions will allow you to see the icons better (they appear as red instead of white). Use a mix of mission tracking and waypoint setting to get your bearings on Banoi Island.

Fighting

Kicks Require Little Stamina

Many of your character's major actions, such as sprinting and swinging a weapon, use up a portion of character's stamina bar. However, until the latest patch kicking didn't expend any energy. Post-patch, this action requires 10% of your maximum stamina.

Kicks are still handy; couple it with a jump to deliver a jumping kick that knocks down all but the strongest of zombies (Thug, Ram, Butcher, etc.).

Jump Kicks Are Potent

If you jump and deliver a kick, that blow is strong enough to knockdown all but the strongest of enemies (Thugs, Rams, etc.). Against Walkers and Infected, the jumpkick will knock them down to the ground, giving you enough time to decide whether to fight or flee.

Figure Out Swing Distance to Optimize Damage

One of the cooler aspects of Dead Island's combat is its use of contextual melee attacks. Your character's proximity to the target can lead to interesting and creative ways of attacking. If he is too close to perform a fully extended swing, he might end up using the hilt of a knife to conk the zombie's noggin. This results in lowered damage, of course, so get comfortable with your swing distance to guarantee landing those hard, damaging hits.

How to avoid nasty surprises

Most players will probably figure this one out on their own, but Dead Island delights in the nasty trick of making zombies play dead. If you want to be extra sure not to get a pants-wettingly unexpected attack from behind, give every corpse in an area a good kick in the ribs to see if it's dead-dead or undead. Kicking is more advisable than using a weapon as smashing the head of a genuine corpse in is just a bit mean and will do some pointless damage to your weapon.

Locate Unassailable Ground to Fight On

Zombies are generally retarded when it comes to A.I. routing. And unless they find some way to shoot you (there are no Smokers, Boomers, Hunters, Pukers, etc. here) there is no way for them to attack you (save by throwing their hand weapons or spitting acid, which is uncommon). Once you are atop some obstacle where the zombies cannot attack you, but you can attack them (stomp, crouched melee), you can take your sweet time wasting them without fear of injury.

Vehicle Kills

Vehicles are tough (not indestructible), so you may find them easy to use to commit vehicular homicide. While the experience you get from using a vehicle to kill enemies is the same (without the benefit of extra XP from breaking appendages), vehicles don't break like your hand-weapons. Additionally, vehicle kills tend to garner fewer items (money drops, etc.) from zombies.

Watch For the Blast Radius

It seems any explosive weapon in Dead Island has a greater blast radius than you'd think. Practice safe detonation by keeping your distance at all times. Even if you think you're far away enough, get even further away.

Alternately, you may try imposing a closed door between you and the point of detonation. Closed doors act as indestructible barriers for enemy detection and explosives.

Weapons

Upgrade Only Worthwhile Weapons

Upgrade decent weapons as soon and as frequently as you can. In fact, some characters possess skills that lower the cost of upgrading weapons. Note that until you actually reach Levels 7 to 10, you may not find any non-white lettered weapons or items (colored items are more unique/rare).

Spend the time to upgrade worthwhile weapons, and don't be afraid to sell them once you've gained levels and acquired better equipment. Once you hit the maximum level, you should make an effort to keep a core base of weapons (about six) that you can rely on to get you out of a mission; the other weapons would be "disposable" and used up on your way into completing a mission.

Repair Weapons Often

It helps to have a full arsenal of different weapons at your disposal so that you can cycle their usage and avoid inadvertently disabling a weapon due to overuse. While a weapon with low durability will lose some effectiveness, it's to your advantage to use a weapon until it breaks (since it will retain its base damage).

For the record, the weapon doesn't disappear into the ether if it breaks; it just gets rendered unusable. You may still repair it (from 0%) at any workbench.
Repairing weapons always sets durability back to 100%. Repairing weapons with 70%, 80%, or 90% durability eats up more cash than using the weapon until it's nearly destroyed and repairing it completely later.

Thrown Weapons Are Not Worn Out

If a weapon is thrown, it does not damage its durability. For Logan Carter, this has obvious advantages once he has his Boomerang skill upgraded. For other characters, you can throw weapons while standing on an object where zombies cannot attack you, but you may still retrieve your weapon when crouched.

Make Combo Weapons

Throughout your tale of survival, you come across weapon mod blueprints that you receive either from completing quests or from thorough exploration. These blueprints enable you to throw together a vast number of combinations to create a better and badder weapon or item for use against the feral horde.

However, creating modified weapons costs a lot of money. Repairing them is also a money-pit. Weigh carefully the result of your creation (it is a 100% accurate preview in the Creation window) before committing resources into making something you loathe to use. The money you save may be better put towards upgrades or repairs.

Additionally, modified weapons may experience less durability than the base-form. When creating a modified weapon, the preview of the result is your best gauge of whether the time and effort you put into it is worth it.

Collect Explosives (Deo-Bombs, etc.)

DEO-Bombs are unlocked by an easy sidequest early in the game is to get painkillers for Mick Fler at the Lighthouse safe zone. You can locate Lighthouse after assisting John Sinamoi relocate his brand of survivors from the beach to the Lifeguard Station (a story mission). Painkillers are found in the Lifeguard Station.

Once you have the DEO-Bomb unlocked, you can combine two Deodorants and one Duct Tape to create a moderately potent explosive early in the game. When you are faced with groups of undead or a single Thug, throw a DEO-Bomb in their face (keep your distance) and kill them without endagering yourself. You should be able to stack 20 to 30 DEO-Bombs in one inventory slot, and you should always have a few for "just those moments" when explosives work wonders.

Later, as you accumulate more blueprints, you will have access to Molotovs and Incendiary Grenades. Use these firebombs as "soft explosives" to kill a multitude of weak enemies (e.g., a swarm of Infected) without getting close to endanger yourself. Bulking up on explosives will easily allow you to challenge and defeat all but the hardest encounters on your own.

Enemy Levels Scale

You can never let your guard down in Dead Island no matter how many levels you gain. The enemy levels scale accordingly to your own. So, even if you returned to the area where you started ten levels higher -- lo' and behold -- the zombies have evolved just as quickly; that's why it's important to constantly re-evaluate the damage rating of your weapons. Old weapons should be slowly phased out (or used up and discarded) while you search for and acquire new weapons.

Generally speaking, it would be best to locate new weapons to upgrade (maybe one level, if you have the spare cash) rather than constantly upgrade an older weapon, as the return is usually not worth the investment. As you near the maximum level (50...start planning your skill layouts now), you can start to "finalize" your arsenal. But until then, your armory should be constantly evolving as you gain levels.

Mix it up... Melee and Range

Just because you choose Sam-B or purely use melee weapons does not mean you should ignore ranged weapons all together. A good tactic, especially while playing solo, is to mix it up a bit. A successful throw will stun or even knock down an enemy, leaving time to close the distance and make an easy kill.

Misc

Using Medkits

Medkits of various sizes can be found from merchants, dead zombies, and some safe houses throughout the game. These medkits will not only heal yourself, but also your companions if their health is low enough. Simply press X when the heal prompt shows up instead of the "request trade" prompt.

Medkits can also be used to revive a downed companion. Again, simply press X when prompted.

A good way to save on medkits is to have Xian Mei in your party. She has skills to boost the power of any medkit she uses, so giving her all of the medkits to heal the party will heal everyone up to 75% more effectively.

Fast Food... Consumption

Whenever you are in a rush to eat or drink just wait for the first sip or bite of the consumable and kick. This will skip the rest of the animation for you so you can fill down another energy drink or snack bar quickly. If you do it before that first bite though, the animation will restart so remember to wait for the first sip or bite and then kick.

Work to Your Character's Strengths

The four characters you pick out each have specializations in different weapon types. As you'll no doubt come across myriad weapons to pick up, it's best to cater to your character's strength to really capitalize on their damage potential. For example, it would be a great boon to Logan, who boasts a mean throwing arm, to have upgraded weapons that can be easily thrown and retrieved.

Keep Everything You Find

Dead Island is a game about looting and pillaging. Scour the environments for a variety of items like deodorant, lemon juice, and all sorts of weird knick-knacks that may initially come off as useless, but don't throw them away! A lot of these items end up becoming key components for creating powerful combo weapons. Since you have unlimited storage space for non-weapon items, you have no need to discard anything.

Finalize Missions Only If You Have Everything

Some counter/counting problems exist in Dead Island. If a character asks for 5 bottles of alcohol and you only give them 1 or 2, you will need to collect the full quota of 5 bottles of alcohol before you can complete the mission. The previously given bottles of alcohol are not counted for the purposes of completion.

That said, you should make with the hoarding (e.g., Hoarders, Banoi Island Edition) and only talk to NPCs once you have the minimum amount of the item they want (or greater).

Notes

Thank you for reading - also have a look at my other Dead Island guides.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=687660928

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=690374641

[DanishScorpio]

Thanks

[messedupmayhem]

I solo'd my way through a run, I'm at about 75% now and you nailed almost every tactic I use. Very thorough and beneficial.

[DanishScorpio]

Thanks you guys

[FabreFaction]

Great Guide

[Brebs]

Very helpful guide!

[Smilingman]

Awesome guide!

[Just Gravity Bro]

little tip ever find a propane cannister use it infront of an open door in a pinch stops zombies from walking through for some strange reason

[plat]

Nice guide, very helpful for newcomers like me :)

[Zombi Master]

z

[BUSHMAN]

big help....