It's a big day for Dying Light 2! To mark the game's second anniversary, it's just received its biggest update ever in the form of the "Firearms Update", and there's even a new "Reloaded Edition" of the game now on the Xbox Store.
That "Reloaded Edition" bundles the base game along with the "Bloody Ties" DLC, and interestingly the price doesn't seem to have changed at all - it's even currently discounted down to just £29.99 / $29.99.
As for the Firearms Update, this incorporates a bunch of new weapon types, Survivor and Elite Missions for co-op players, visual improvements across all platforms including Xbox, a new enemy variant and much more!
Here are the full patch notes for the Dying Light 2 Firearms Update on Xbox:
Firearms
Pilgrims, you have been heard! Finally, we are adding firearms to Dying Light 2 with Firearms Update. Any player who logs into the game before 7 March will be able to claim a free Harran Pistol from their stash! If you want to follow the story, and earn more firearms-related goodies, simply complete the “Lost Armory” quest, meet Jai, the Watcher, and learn how they reappeared in Villedor. We have prepared four types of these weapons for you (each with its own unique type of ammo):
Pistols — when things go wrong, a reliable sidearm can save the day. It’s your basic firearm;
SMGs — high firepower and capacity, harness its recoil to seize the edge in close quarters combat;
Rifles — the perfect package of precision and power;
Shotguns — deadly in point-blank range, your go-to crowd control tool.
Raise your reputation rank with the newest Agent and get access to the other firearms (learn more in the Survivor missions paragraph)! Keep in mind that as powerful as they are, they are still rare in Villedor — ammo doesn’t grow on trees (though you can find some bullets stashed around the world, look carefully in the convoys), so you’ll have to be smart about when to go in with guns blazing. If you want to try this out right away, we have special Firearms Challenges and community maps dedicated to firearms.
New board quests, including one with old friends
Be sure to visit one of the boards with this Update, as we have prepared some new quests there. Next week, you’ll even be able to meet fan favourites from the first Dying Light — Tolga and Fatin! You must check what they’re cooking this time…
Survivor missions & Elite missions
With the Firearms Update we have prepared something new for CO-OP enthusiasts — Survivor Missions and Elite Missions! Embark on this activity with your friends (or solo, if you really, really dare…) and earn Watcher Tokens that you can use to buy exclusive items, including new firearms! This feature is unlocked alongside your first pistol, so be sure to complete the “Lost Armory” mission — upon completion, for the next 3 weeks, you’ll get access to 3 additional missions each week. Be sure to complete Bounties based on Survivor missions to raise your reputation with the new character — Jai, the Watcher — and unlock new items!
Anniversary Bounties
There is no anniversary without the celebration! This time around, you’ll need to complete special Anniversary Bounties to earn festive rewards that honour the whole history of the Dying Light franchise — Acolyte Outfit, Nocturnal Tribal Machete, and Scorpio! The infamous hybrid weapon will be the very first reward, so there will be plenty of time for everyone to get their hands on it, as we’ve prepared a total of 12 bounties to fulfill over the next three weeks. Complete all of them to get 50 Pilgrim Tokens! Remember, you'll still need a Pilgrim Outpost account to unlock these fabulous rewards, as well as to grab a free Welcome Pack containing a pack of crafting materials and an Extinguisher. Be sure to head to the Pilgrim Outpost to start the Bounties.
Environmental upgrades
It's a good idea to dress up for an anniversary, so we'll be visually enhancing various aspects of Dying Light 2! Some bigger, some smaller — be sure to find them all! These enhancements will be available for all the platforms:
• Improvements to foliage system — trees and grass models were upgraded,
• added variety to building interiors in Region 2,
• visual changes to some of the locations in the city —for more realistic look,
• car improvements — some car models have been replaced with new ones and others have been improved. The logic for vehicles placement on the roads has also been revised.,
• more environmental storytelling,
• various environmental assets upgraded (eg. crates, furniture, mailboxes),
• new skybox textures,
• fixes to lighting system,
• Biters and Virals look overhaul — upgraded models and clothing,
• hair quality improvements,
• water reaction improvements.
New enemy variant
Two years in the Villedor is plenty of time for enemies to adapt to Aiden’s new arsenal and techniques, so we decided to add a new enemy to the roster — Renegade Grenadier! With the Firearms Update, we’re also improving already existing enemies, which will now be smarter and have a more balanced damage output:
• Electric Biters and Virals elemental effects are now less lethal and can be avoided with a timely dash;
Identified and fixed Spitters toxic damage pool stacking and balanced Spitters mortar attack frequency;
• The duration of Elemental Goons’ elemental puddles has been reduced and now allows for melee attacks when approached from a right angle;
• Banshees now make use of the Goon Caller’s size.
Nocturnal weapons
Nocturnal is on returnal! The occasion is unique, so we'll be adding even more Nocturnal Weapons to the game, and now you can really feel how powerful they are - as we rebalanced them as you asked! 11 new ones are waiting for you to find them:
• Nocturnal Medieval Mace
• Nocturnal Engine Bludgeon
• Nocturnal Verbum
• Nocturnal Ishmael
• Nocturnal Heavy Duty
• Nocturnal Monarch
• Nocturnal Reliable Axe
• Nocturnal Stud
• Nocturnal Enso Katana
• Nocturnal Smash
• Nocturnal Construction Hammer
Remember, don't feel too safe with them at night, it might fool you!
Legend Levels improvements
The "Good Night, Good Luck” patch was a step towards making Legend Levels more challenging. We gathered feedback from our fantastic community and influencers and decided to introduce a number of improvements based on that! The Legend Levels are now more accessible than ever now, with a rebalanced progression as we tie them into the natural end-game activities. From now on, you’ll keep your Legend Level XP when resurrected by Survivors. But that’s not all! We’ve added another 50 levels, so you can now reach a Platinum Tier and try out five brand new upgrades:
Master — reduces stamina cost of all weapons attacks;
Immortal — heal on damage dealt to enemies with melee weapons;
Expert — increases damage done with skills;
Tank — reduces damage taken;
Hero — gives a chance to land critical hits with all weapon attacks.
Due to this addition, we’ve adjusted the price of the respec for lvl 250 and above — it’s now 50 000 gold coins. Moreover we have added the effects of the Sniper upgrade to the Hunter upgrade, and Sniper upgrade will be now solely for firearms. The Survivor upgrade has also been reworked to increase the stamina damage dealt by all weapon attacks.
Think we are done here? We are also adding Legendary Bounties (which would only be given after completing a weekly bounty), Legend Levels XP as a reward from upcoming event bounties, and an additional XP multiplier for New Game+!
Game Updates
Apart from all the big news from the Firearms Update above, we’ve also introduced the following fixes and improvements to the game:
CO-OP
Fixed a duplication glitch allowing players to pick up DLC items they did not own — including event and shop items;
Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented the use of Nightrunner Tools after joining a host session.
Gameplay
With the arrival of firearms, we reimagined how bows and crossbows should work. We rebalanced them, so now they will fit into a different niche:
Buffed bows — longer charged shots will deal more damage, bullet speed is increased, greater damage dealt to distant enemies;
Adjusted crossbows — comparable damage to firearms at close range, magazine size changed to 4, and headshot multiplier has increased to x3.2
• Tweaked Aiden’s scream frequency when taking toxic damage;
• Fixed an issue with crystal cores missing while looting chemical crystal containers;
• Removed the invisible wall that sometimes appeared in elevator shaft during “Honey” quest;
• Resolved bug which made throwing knives and shurikens show incorrect values;
• Adjusted the guards from the “The Show Must Go On” quest blocking the entrance even after finishing the mission;
• Tweaked the issue which caused sometimes double kick execution from one activation;
• Fixed an issue with dropkicks sometimes causing the player to clip through the door, leaving the player stuck in a room;
• Fixed an issue with objective marker sometimes being placed improperly in the “Bloody Ties” DLC;
• Fixed an issue with the Pilgrim Missions pop-up window sometimes randomly appearing during gameplay;
• Fixed an issue with human enemies sometimes not running away from ignited gas tank on Biter's back;
• Cleaned some elevator shafts from floating terrains. Now you’ll be able to climb seamlessly;
• Fixed the knife power attack sometimes not consuming stamina;
• Fixed Infected ability to chase the player even through the walls of inactive electrical stations;
• Fixed visibility of UV flares smoke;
• Destroyed Biter’s gas tanks now disappear properly after the explosion.
• Tweaked the bug disallowing new weapons to be constructed with inventory full, but available space in the stash.
Technical
• Fixed multiple instances of meshes not showing properly or missing textures in Trinity, Houndfield, Garrison, and Downtown districts;
• Fixed an issue with assets sometimes clipping through each other in the Houndfield and Trinity districts;
• Fixed an issue where the natural light was present inside the Water Tower during the day, despite there being no windows or doors;
• Tweaked Jack Matt to be properly displayed during the dialogue in one of the missions;
• Various environmental assets are now properly displayed;
• Fixed the crash that sometimes happened when progressing to the second region;
• Tweaked textures that sometimes were missing on barricades and towers;
• Removed cables improperly displayed on the antenna;
• Fixed an issue sometimes spawning player behind the walls of Metro Station after unlocking that location;
• Fixed an issue sometimes spawning player inside the atrium after respawning;
• Tweaked the possibility to get stuck while climbing on a top of a fireplace;
• The lighting is now displayed properly while changing visual quality from Low to Raytracing;
• Updated and fixed the textures of cars around the game;
• Fixed an issue causing game to freeze after clicking large miniature Appearance table in Gear section;
• Tweaked the lighting display in various structures, rooms, and elevator shafts;
• Tweaked the problem when players were able to get stuck outside Bazaar during NG+;
• Removed part of the roof sometimes floating incorrectly in Garrison region;
• Fixed an issue with no mesh asset sometimes showing up in Maya’s hideout;
• Fixed an issue with Aiden’s voice sometimes being quieter outside of cinematic dialogues;
• Fixed an issue where sometimes gas tanks and electric boxes appeared floating in the second region;
• Fixed the issue with objective "Get inside the chapel" sometimes not updating after reaching the chapel;
• Tweaked an issue with windmills sometimes not being displayed properly during cutscene;
• Patched an issue, where dropped weapons could not be picked up;
• Fixed some instances where the player can sometimes get stuck in assets;
• Fixed the issue with thy skybox sometimes not showing textures during storm weather;
• Tweaked the dock floor, which sometimes becomes invisible when viewed from below;
• Fixed the problem with sound not triggering during picking up various heavy objects;
• Patched various crashes and FPS drops;
• Tweaked an issue with player sometimes being stuck between PK’s in the VNC Tower;
• Fixed the title crashes when quickly pressing ”Change user” while having a guest account connected.
UI
• Sorting by damage when advanced weapon view is active now takes into consideration base damage, legend affixes and gear bonus, instead of base damage only;
• Updated the visuals of the UI in the menu;
• Fixed rectangle above the completed quest details;
• Tweaked improper phasing in the Metro Stations tutorial;
• Tweaked the issue removing text and description displayed for the Grappling Hook Crosshair setting in the HUD Menu;
• Tweaked the issue where certain polearm names and descriptions were missing;
• Enhanced the visuals of tutorials throughout the game.