Best weapons in Dying Light 2: the best melee and ranged weapons in the game
The best weapons you can find or make in Dying Light 2
Looking for the very best weapons in Dying Light 2? Techland's ambitious open-world zombie parkour-em-up Dying Light 2 gives players many more ways to customise your gear and tools than its predecessor ever did. This extends to the vast array of weapons on offer. Beyond the all-important damage stat, there's a range of things to bear in mind when you're choosing your weapon: does it deal more damage against humans or infected? How many weapon mod slots does it have? How much durability? How long before it becomes obsolete?
Below we'll walk you through the very best weapons we found during our playthroughs of Dying Light 2. These weapons may not stay the strongest in your arsenal forever, but they're sure to be the best of the lot for quite a while. Keep scrolling and we'll also talk about the best weapon attributes and mods to consider using.
When searching for the best weapons in Dying Light 2, you have to consider a few things beyond just how rare it is and how much damage it deals. A large part of what makes a certain weapon great is its set of attributes. These attributes are randomised between weapons (even unique weapons), and they can make a big difference, so pay attention to whether a weapon deals bonus damage against humans or infected, or reduces the stamina required to attack, and so on.
Then there are weapon mods, which is how you can upgrade your weapons beyond their initial state. Most melee weapons have between 1 and 3 mod slots where you can add mods to increase its damage, add critical hit or charge-up effects, and so on. So if you truly want the best weapon possible, make sure you read our section below on using the best weapon mods along with your weapons, because you can't switch weapon mods in Dying Light 2 once you've installed them!
One final thing to consider is loot scaling. As you increase your player level, the baseline damage of newly found weapons increases, which means if you play enough then you'll likely come across ordinary loot that far outstrips anything on this list.
But the below weapons are all still tremendously powerful when you get them, and should easily give you the power trip you're looking for.
Best weapons in Dying Light 2
PK Crossbow
The PK Crossbow is by far the best weapon in Dying Light 2 in my opinion. The only way to get it is to give control of four Facilities to the Peacekeepers - one of the two major Dying Light 2 Factions. The fourth Peacekeeper alignment reward is the Crossbow Pack, which unlocks the unique PK semi-automatic Crossbow and a set of blueprints for crafting different kinds of bolts.
What is there not to love about the PK Crossbow? It features very high damage and an immensely fast rate of fire. It's a ranged weapon, which means you do not need to repair it; and you also don't need to spend resources installing weapon mods to make it great, because it has no mod slots available. The customisation aspect comes in the form of the different elemental bolts, which range from normal bolts to those which stun, explode, bleed, freeze, and poison enemies. Absolutely phenomenal weapon.
Heavy Duty (2H Long Axe)
Heavy Duty is a powerful endgame axe which you unlock once you complete the final story mission in Dying Light 2. Don't worry, you can enjoy its immense strength forever more, because you can keep playing Dying Light 2 after the Epilogue. And it's worth doing just for this massive two-handed beast of a weapon, which should have no trouble cutting down anything in your path.
Not only does Heavy Duty feature fantastic damage potential, but, being an Artifact rarity weapon, it has three mod slots that you can use to boost its damage, longevity, and effects to really get the most out of this lovely little post-Epilogue reward.
Enso Katana (2H Long Sword)
The Enso Katana is the most stylish melee weapon in the game by far. It's another powerful Artifact weapon, and two-handed as you might imagine. It's very easy to carve a path through multiple enemies at once with this long blade, and because of how loot scaling works in Dying Light 2, if you get your hands on it in the endgame it can do incredible amounts of damage, surpassing even Heavy Duty.
Lazarus (Knuckledusters)
The legendary Lazarus knuckledusters are far from the best weapon in the game overall, but in the early game they're pretty amazing. They're unique and very fun, and by the time you get your hands on them, it will usually be the strongest weapon you have for quite a while. Like the PK Crossbow, it has no mod slots, so you can't customise it to extend its life (unfortunately), but it does mean you don't need to expend resources to improve it: the Lazarus is already as good as it will ever be, right out of the box.
You can get the Lazarus knuckledusters for yourself by giving the Water Tower in the quest "Water Tower" to the Peacekeepers rather than the Survivors. If you do this, and choose to go with Aiden rather than Sophie to the Central Loop, then Aiden will gift you the Lazarus knuckledusters as a reward for your loyalty and help.
Best weapon attributes
Weapon attributes shouldn't be discarded out of hand, as they can make a big difference in the effectiveness of each weapon. To view a weapon's attributes, simply hover over that weapon in your inventory. Only the most basic early weapons have no attributes at all; most have between 1 and 3 attributes to enjoy.
The most important weapon attributes to look for are those that deal extra damage against either humans or infected; you should aim to have one of each on your hotbar at all times, and switch between them as needed.
Aside from this, I'm a big fan of power attacks, which you can unlock fairly early on in the combat skill tree. Some weapons have attributes which increase your power attack damage, which makes them perfect for quickly dispatching enemies with one or two powerful heavy attacks.
Best weapon mods
All the weapon mods in Dying Light 2 can be upgraded a number of times to make them steadily more powerful. This means that even the most seemingly useless mod can grow to become extremely powerful if you invest enough resources into it. But it really does take a lot of time and effort to fully upgrade a mod, so here are the mods I'd suggest prioritising to create the best possible weapons:
- Reinforcement (Grip): the only method in the game of reducing the durability loss of a weapon on each attack. You should put this on every weapon you hold dear.
- Empowerment (Grip): increases the weapon's damage. At high upgrade levels this is a huge boost. if you really want to max out your damage, opt for this over Reinforcement - just know that it won't last as long.
- Spark (Tip): applies the Shock effect on a critical hit. The great thing about this mod is crowd control, as the effect also has a chance of spreading to nearby enemies.
- Catapult (Shaft): blasts enemies backwards in a cone in front of you when activated. Great for rooftop fights. I prefer this to the other blast mods as it activates at a time of your choosing, and it's on cooldown, so you can begin a fight with it.
There you have it: with these weapons equipped you'll soon find that it's the Infected's turn to be afraid. If you want to make sure Aiden is up to the task of wielding such weapons, check out our guide on how to find Dying Light 2 Inhibitors. You can also learn how to play with friends in our Dying Light 2 coop multiplayer guide; and now that you're equipped with the best possible weapons, not might be a good time to learn how to farm Infected Trophies.