Update February 2024: If you're looking for the Yardstick bow now, the good news is that it's easily available. The vendor at the Fish Eye seems to stock one permanently, so you can rock up any time and buy one. If, however, your experience is different, the original post below may still be of use.
Also, remember the Yardstick is a level 9 bow, so you'll still need to hit that level first.
There are a lot of weapons in Dying Light 2 to get your hands on, but after the 1.2 patch, there's a new bow in town that's an absolute must-have. It's called the Yardstick and, well, it is.
The weapon has been seen before, by way of buried files and dev menus on the PC version, but it's now officially available to all on PC and console. The same patch also introduced high-level bows to the game, at last, so you can get one of these at Level 9. And you'll want to.
Getting one will require an amount of RNG success but instead of roaming the streets of Villedor hoping to stumble upon one, there is one place you can go and a method you can employ that will guarantee you a Yardstick. Here's how to get the best bow in one of the best Xbox games of 2022.
How to get the Yardstick in Dying Light 2
The Dying Light 2 Yardstick is now the best bow in the game, dealing 353 damage at Level 9. The Composite is also a good bow, but both are better than the previous options like the Nails or the Twitch Drops exclusive, the Legendary quality Funkadelic.
It very much appears that the Yardstick is a Level 9 bow, with the Composite being its alternative up to this point. I've spent a fair amount of hours looking for the Yardstick, and it wouldn't appear at all while my character was still Level 8, with only Composite bows dropping. As soon as I hit Level 9, the reverse seems to happen. So, the first part of getting one appears to be hitting max level.
This means hitting Level 25 for combat and Level 25 for parkour and unlocking every item in the respective skill trees.
When you're at Level 9, one guaranteed place to get yourself a Yardstick is from the vendor at the Fish Eye Canteen in Central Loop. Obviously, this means needing Old World Money to buy one, but with perseverance, you'll see one appear. It isn't cheap, though, costing around 40,000 to buy.
The thing to do is visit the vendor during the day. If there's a Yardstick, great, snap it up. If not, you need to reset the vendor.
Head down to the rest spot at the Fish Eye (it's fairly close to the vendor) and sleep twice so you wake the following morning. Go back to the vendor, check again. Rinse and repeat this process until you see the Yardstick. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to take as long to appear assuming you're at Level 9 as this similar method does for getting a Pyramid Blade.
You can also follow the same process at the vendor on the PK Floating Fortress. In my experience it drops more regularly from the vendor at the Fish Eye, but if you're at the Fortress definitely check out the vendor there as well.
It's not the most exciting thing to do, but it works and it shouldn't take too long.
The Yardstick
The Yardstick comes at an important time for Dying Light 2 players. With the recent changes to the Korek Charm, there has been a swing towards using ranged weapons over melee. Ranged weapons don't have a durability score, so they don't break, and since arrows only use a small amount of scrap and feathers, they're easy to craft.
The Yardstick dishes out 353 damage, with no mod or charm slots, so that's what you get. But, pair it with a full ranger build and you can increase that substantially. For example, my current loadout adds a 67.3% damage buff to the Yardstick, which is huge. Aim for the head and regular infected enemies will drop with a single shot.
The Yardstick is also handy against human enemies, again, aiming for the head. You'll need multiple shots for the tankier ones and those wearing helmets, but the range is so good you can be quite far away and do serious damage.
