What you need to know
- Dying Light 2's new Gut Feeling Update overhauls the game's combat to make it much gorier, while also adding a variety of new highly requested features.
- The game's new gore systems are very similar to Dead Island 2's F.L.E.S.H., with many fans comparing the two melee-focused zombie titles and kicking off a "gore war."
- The Gut Feeling Update also adds gear transmog, weapon crafting, new in-game bounties, and a new player hub website called the Pilgrim Outpost where players can earn Pilgrim Coins and purchase new gear for their character with them.
- The update's full patch notes can be found in the section at the bottom of this article.
While the parkour-heavy zombie game Dying Light 2: Stay Human was generally well-received when it launched on Xbox, Windows PC, and other platforms last year, one thing fans disliked about the sequel was the feel of its combat. Compared to developer Techland's original game, Dying Light 2 didn't have nearly as much gore or dismemberment, and as a result, many felt that cutting through hordes of the infected wasn't very satisfying. Now, though, Techland has addressed those criticisms with the Gut Feeling Update — a huge patch for the game that overhauls its physics and the brutality of its gameplay, while also adding a variety of other highly requested features.
The highlight of the update is the goretastic revamp of Dying Light 2's action, as fights are now significantly bloodier and players can maim and butcher zombies in a variety of ways. Techland has added new visual and sound effects to sell the viciousness of the combat, too, including plenty of visible bones and innards. It's actually quite similar to the incredible Fully Locational Evisceration System for Humanoids (F.L.E.S.H.) in Dead Island 2, which launched after a tumultuous nine-year development cycle just a day after the Gut Feeling Update came out.
Many players are already directly comparing Dying Light 2's new gnarly dismemberment systems and Dead Island 2's F.L.E.S.H., kicking off something of a "gore war" between the two titles. Regardless of which game's gore is considered better, though, fans of bloody and barbaric zombie combat are feasting right now (hopefully not on human flesh).
In addition to its combat overhaul, the Gut Feeling Update has also brought some other welcome additions to Dying Light 2. This includes gear transmog so you can choose the visual style of most of your equipment without sacrificing stats; a new weapon crafting system with upgradable weapon blueprints and stat-altering affixes; new in-game daily and weekly bounties that award XP, gear, and other rewards when completed; and the introduction of the Pilgrim Outpost, a website where players can activate bounties, raise their Pilgrim Reputation, earn Pilgrim Tokens, and spend them on new pieces of gear in the Armory shop.
Below, you'll find the full patch notes from the Gut Feeling Update that go over every new feature and system added in extensive detail.
Dying Light 2 Gut Feeling Update 1.10.0: Patch notes
Here are the full Gut Feeling Update patch notes, taken directly from Techland's website:
Combat Improvements, including Brutality and Physicality
As the name of the update suggests, in this patch, we focus on the physical combat and brutality that revolves around it. Top up your slay-game, and brutalize both Infected and Human type enemies.
- Cut Demolishers – and everything else – in half.
- More dismemberment!
- Every limb can be cut in 3 places.
- New visualizations of damage done to enemies (visible bones, ribs, eyeballs, etc.).
- VFX adjustments for blood and guts.
- Players can rip out a chunk of flesh and leave a hole in the enemy’s body.
- “Spill the beans” takes on a literal meaning with the possibility of ripping the guts from your foe.
- New hit detection code for improved enemy reactions to being hit with a weapon.
- More smashed head variants.
- “Domino Ragdoll” introduced, where enemies can fall on each other, with a proper reaction to the force and weight that pushes them.
- More ragdoll improvements for immersion and emergent gameplay.
- Added an ability to dismember enemies through collisions with environment objects.
- Support for Biters seamlessly falling from high ground, including rooftops.
- Enemies can pass burning and electrocuted effects to each other.
- Added new hit reactions and improved some of the existing ones.
Gear Transmog
We know how important it is to maintain the best stats in the game and look good while you do. That said, we have introduced a Gear Transmog feature that will help you slay enemies with style! You can now Modify the visuals of most of your gear pieces by using a new slot called “Appearance.”
Weapon Crafting
To slay enemies with style, you need the proper weapon, and we understand how durability makes you cycle through your arsenal and how hard it is to loot good weapons. With Weapon Crafting, we offer you full control over your loadout.
- Crafting will happen with… Craftmasters (hooray!).
- You will need to obtain weapon blueprints by exploring The City or claiming them as a reward. Then, you can find your claimed blueprints at the Craftmaster’s shop.
- IMPORTANT: Blueprints are upgradable – the higher the blueprint level, the better the weapon quality you’ll get. A blueprint’s level dictates damage, durability, modification slots, and the number of affixes.
- Affixes (additional stats like “Increased damage against Humans +20%”) are randomized when a weapon is created – so good luck, Pilgrims!
- Crafting, as always, requires resources.
Pilgrim Outpost Introduction
Pilgrim Outpost is here! A new Hub for all Dying Light fans is open with some new, long-demanded features. Visit pilgrimoutpost.com, where the one and only Spike is already waiting for you. Activate bounties and complete them in game to receive new Pilgrim Reputation Points.
These points advance you through Pilgrim Reputation Ranks, and with each rank, you get Pilgrim Tokens.
You can spend them in the Armory, where you can buy unique weapons and outfits from a Pilgrim Outpost merchant. We regularly update the items on offer. With Pilgrim Tokens, you can also buy an Outpost Drop, where you can get random crafting materials and weapons. If you’re lucky, you can get one of five completely new Pilgrim Weapons that are exclusive to the Pilgrim Outpost.
The more bounties you complete, the better gear you can get. Every week, you get six unique bounties to complete. If you finish them all, you’ll get additional Reputation points.
In-game Bounties
For those thirsty for new challenges, we have new Daily and Weekly bounties:
- Bounties are introduced after the prologue.
- Bounties are divided into the following categories:
- Daily – one simple Bounty per day.
- Weekly – one challenging Bounty to be completed within a week.
- Finishing Daily and Weekly Bounties will grant you in-game rewards (like experience points – or Legend points if you’re already playing Legend Levels).
- For every 5 either Daily or Weekly Bounties completed, you’ll receive an additional reward – Bounty Bonus Box that has the possibility to drop exceptional weapons and other equipment.
Highlights
This update brings a number of major changes that will impact gameplay. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights in this update.
Teleporting to other players in co-op.
- Players in a co-op session can gather teammates during common interactions (for example, to talk with an NPC or go to sleep).
- Ability to dismantle weapons to receive crafting resources.
- Two-handed weapons received some love with the ability to add mods to them.
- Possibility to switch on/off in-game event participation.
- Rebalance of the number of Howlers during the night.
- Players can knock over enemies by sliding into them.
- More special infected encounters during the day.
On top of that, we’ll be releasing a variety of skin bundles in the upcoming weeks. With those, you’ll look outstanding in The City!
Game Update
Apart from all the big news from the Gut Feeling update above, we’ve also introduced the following changes to the game:
Co-op
- Improved stability related to the host’s game crashing when another user attempts to connect.
- Aiden’s head animation is now displayed properly when turning around while hanging from a pole or pipe.
- Fixed a game crash for the host or peers upon finishing the Carriers 3 side quest.
- Fixed an issue where the host could encounter a black screen during dialogues.
- In-game music no longer stops playing when the player is downed in the Bloody Ties challenge.
- Functionality of mines is fixed.
- Adjusted the Respawn button prompt to be more intuitive for players.
- Players are now able to see the distance to teammates when downed in co-op sessions.
- Players will no longer see multiple icons when joining a co-op session.
- Players in co-op are less likely to spawn in the model of an NPC after dialogue or a cutscene.
- Notifications about inability to join co-op sessions have been improved to reflect more accurate information to players.
Gameplay
- Huge groups of Tyrants and Volatiles will no longer be spotted in the open world.
- Fixed an issue where players couldn’t complete Achievements.
- Players can no longer perform a Knife Takedown and instantly kill infected with a higher level than Aiden.
- Fixed a bug where Biters would grab Aiden one after another.
- It’s easier to aim for the head with a baseball bat.
- Adjusted stamina consumption for higher-tier weapons.
- Players will be able to escape from a Volatile if QTE Hold Mode is enabled.\
- The attack animation on some weapons is now faster, making all the attacks have the exact timing.
- A proper light is present in multiple places between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. and during specific weather conditions.
- Fixed an issue where Hakon would become unresponsive, show improper behavior, or not follow the correct path in various quests.
- Fixed an issue with loot missing from the Sunken Airdrop.
- Human enemies no longer die instantly after removing their masks.
- Improved Spitter’s damaging actions.
- Added missing textures on The City map.
- Fixed an issue where craft plans were missing, resulting in blocking game progress.
- There will be a proper time change when the player dies during the “Get to the Safe Zone” objective.
- Fixed multiple issues related to Aiden being respawned incorrectly.
- The correct animation is played when the “Ground Pound” skill is used.
- Aiden’s model will no longer lose collision upon jumping through certain points of the Artist Workshop, Trading post, and Rooftop School.
- Players will no longer be moved under the map when changing to any of Legendary Level outfits.
- Instant Escape stabbing audio fixed.
- Fixed an issue where Play from Chapter was not available under some circumstances.
- Players can no longer see what’s under the map during the X13 quest.
- Players can no longer obtain an unlimited amount of spears during the last fight in the Bloody Ties DLC.
- Improved sound for the taunt animation done by Renegades.
- Shadows related to players’ movement will be rendered correctly.
- No more Waltz waltzing around after the game is completed – he will no longer spawn randomly.
- Dynamic Competitions won’t trigger near Hubs as often.
- Blocked revealing discoverables and detectable zones during dynamic competitions.
Technical
- Improvements to memory usage and performance in longer play sessions.
- Updated XeSS to 1.1. XeSS is now the default upscaler on ARC.
- Improved foliage lighting.
- Improved dissolve dithering to better simulate transparency.
- Improved water reflections, turbidity, and refraction.
- Improved shadows with ray tracing enabled.
- Improved specular reflections on chemicals.
- Improved volumetric shadows.
- Memory usage optimization.
- Fixed mesh flickering on some models.
- Fixed an issue where the game crashed when Photo Mode was spammed during the Windmill or Antenna panel animations.
- Fixed left-hand grip animation.
UI
- Fixed missing text from the Stash, Respawn, Bounty, Fast Travel menu, Inventory, Crafting, and Collectibles menus.
- Fixed text translations when starting parkour challenges before acquiring the paraglider.
- The health bar is now visible during the grab animation.
- The stamina bar depletes as usual upon Aiden’s death and respawning.
- Fixed minor typos and translation errors.
Dying Light 2 is one of the best Xbox games for fans of intense zombie action. Its fluid parkour mechanics make it stand out from other games in the genre, and thanks to the Gut Feeling Update, combat against its infected just became way more satisfying and visceral.
