Tips and Tricks

*These are some tactics that have been used by your fellow survivors. Some of these will be really helpful in certain scenarios and will save yourself from getting harmed.*

## Key Bindings

Make the game easier for yourself by changing your Key Bindings.

## Purple Challenges

Solo/Duo: Destroy the legs of several infected and keep the crawlers alive to control the difficulty of the challenge, this prevents a chaotic amount of zombies constantly spawning around you, meaning you will have more time to hit your headshots (less ammo wasted) and take less hits (save money on meds).

Another tip is to use a blend of Damage vs Infected and Damage vs Mutated, for example I just wear my SMG bossing gear, but use the "Little Miser" (Scorpion SMG) as a stat booster + infected killer (as my 2nd weapon), with a Mac-11 as my boss killer. You don't want to use the expensive ammo to kill 50+ infected.

## How To Calculate Your Damage

The formula for calculating your damage is; Base Weapon Damage \* (Head Shot / Body Damage) \* (Damage Vs Infected / Damage Vs Mutated).

If you don't understand that, then a simple way to do it is to click on View All Stats, find your equipped weapon on the stats screen and see what the Damage amount is (not your inventory, also the HS% is automatically calculated for you on the View All Stats screen), then open the calculator on your computer and type in your weapon headshot damage for example, and then find your Infected Damage % and add that % to the calculator.

For example:

Scout: 14.6 Damage dealt to Head + 67% Damage vs Infected = 24.382 which is 24.38 HS dmg to infected. (Calculate it in that order, HS dmg 1st, and then Infected/Mutated dmg last).

This means that in order to get the highest amount of damage, you want to aim to keep your Headshot / Body and Infected / Mutated damage at a 1:1 Ratio, due to how the damage is calculated. If you have 120% Damage vs Infected and 80% Headshot Damage, then you will deal less damage than a player with 100% Damage vs Infected and 100% Headshot Damage.

## Looting Street Bosses

* Solo: Either run away from the dead bosses to lure the horde away, and then run back to search before they can catch up, or shoot one leg off from each infected to prevent them from sprinting or respawning after a kill.
* Team: Same strategy, or just cover each other whilst looting.

## Stalker

The Stalker boss is un-killable for now, and has to be fled. Entering an outpost will make him stop chasing you instantly, otherwise you will have to avoid him for 5-10 minutes. Once he gives up the change will award the player with some EXP.

There is unique music that plays a few seconds before he appears (if you have music enabled in the settings). You'll now he is coming when the sound of heavy breathing begins.

With a little luck he can be cheesed if you are inside a building. If you find yourself in a room with one door when the heavy breathing begins, you can run in front of the door to block him from entering. Be aware, as you only have a few seconds to do so. Stand around for 5 minutes, and once you open the door you will escape him and receive XP. This ONLY works the first time he is supposed to spawn, not if he is already chasing you.

## Boss Guides

There's a section in the wiki that has a guide for every boss, which can be found here.

## Boom Headshot!

Shooting at the head is the most effective way of killing both infected and mutated.

Keep in mind that melee weapons cannot deal headshot damage (Only Body Damage). However hitting the head with the killing blow can destroy it, preventing infected from becoming crawlers.

## Kick Boxer

The Kick ability can be used to kill leeches without wasting ammo, or knockback up to 3 zombies.

Just try not to use Kick at a bad time and get stuck in the animation whilst being attacked by a boss.

## Levelling Up / Prestige

Gaining the buff from outpost attacks and then killing bosses or doing purple challenge events is a great way to level up fast.

At max level (50) you gain a prestige point and an Elite Enhancer for every time you gain 5,000,000 EXP (whilst still gaining a Rare Enhancer every 500,000 EXP. The Prestige progress can be found by clicking on "Full Stats".

## Being Efficient $$$

* In order to be efficient with your money and ammo you have to use cheap ammo such as .32 ACP, 20 Gauge, 5.56mm Rifle Rounds and maybe .357 Magnum Rounds (also melee/chainsaws) for killing the infected and looting.
* For killing the mutated bosses, you should be using a higher level ammo and weapons, such as a Sawn-off shotgun with 12 Gauge.
* Worth noting that it's efficient to use the Sawn-Off compared to the Mannberg 590M because of the massive damage per shot compared to the Sawn-Off, making the Sawn-Off more efficient than the Mannberg 590M by a significant amount. However if you do use the Mannberg 590M, killing the harder bosses like the Tendril and Titan will be much easier.
* You can also avoid bosses that you struggle with, as all bosses give the same random loot (Just different amounts of EXP).

## Fast Missions

* You can complete most missions time efficiently by using the DF2Haven website to know exactly where the mission item or giver is located at.
* DF2 Haven Mission Guides are filled out by anybody kind enough to write down the location of the mission item (daily, as the missions are reset daily).
* You can now also speak to the Trainer NPC to trade in all mission items (apart from buyable items such as bandages and antibiotics) to complete the missions, instead of going back to every single mission giver.

## Stat Booster

Your 2nd weapon slot can be used as a stat booster by equipping a weapon with lots of good Global Stats, such as Sprint Speed, EXP Gain, -Incoming Damage and Damage vs Mutated/Infected. Any stats that start with "Weapon" such as "Weapon Headshot Damage" aren't global, meaning it will only affect the weapon whilst it is equipped, whereas "Damage vs Mutated" will affect both weapons.

## Outpost Attack!

If you are getting overwhelmed during an Outpost Attack, you can start shooting off a leg of each infected to make it easier. It is better to have a zombie crawling and not respawning instead of one sprinting at the door and instantly respawning after you kill it. However, you need to still need to kill zombies to get the Outpost Buff reward, so it's best to have about 7+ crawlers alive if your soloing.

## Melee Tips

* As shown in the video, do a 180 degree spin after hitting the zombie for extra safety until you have better stats to be able to plough through zombies with your attack speed and damage.
* Left Click and Right Click attacks deal the same amount of damage and animation/attack speed, with Right Click sending you further forward which is good for faster consecutive kills and moving like Mike Tyson with high attack speed.
* Use right click with high attack speed to move faster than sneak speed and surprise attack enemies in a small room (Not necessary if you can easily kill the infected fast).
* Small chance of your melee attacks doing 0 damage and knocking the zombie down briefly.

## Chainsaw Tips

Whilst killing the infected, I find it best to aim down towards their knee for 2 reasons; firstly it will usually destroy their legs so they can't chase you. The main reason is to potentially instantly kill any leeches that spawn from the dead body as the host dies, also due to looking down, there's a decent chance of you seeing the leech as you fight.

I believe the Hedge Trimmer cosmetic can still be used to give other chainsaws further attack range, which is good for back pedaling against certain bosses to not get hit whilst damaging them.

## Map Marker!

If you didn't know, a map marker exists and can be placed by left clicking anywhere on the map (right click to unmark), which will be visible in-game whilst running around.

The first tip is to use it for boss hunting, I personally use it to mark the start of the level 30 zone, so then I know not to run past the marker when bossing (to stay inside of the level 30 boss zone).

You can use it to mark Comers and Sons or the Outpost after you finish looting/bossing.

Half way through bossing/looting and need to head back to restock your supplies? Place a marker at your current location so you know where you left off.