Techland decided to lean heavier into their RPG elements for the second installment in the Dying Light franchise. Compared to the first game, instead of crafting items to survive the night, you create weapons of mass destruction to fulfill that post-apocalyptic hero fantasy.
There are so many recipes and blueprints in Dying Light 2—from throwables, consumables, and weapon modifications; there’s always something magnificent you can build from scavenged components. Additionally, you can upgrade these blueprints to increase their powerful effects. However, to do that, you’ll need a lot of infected trophies, among other rare materials.
You can enhance each recipe a total of eight times, with every level demanding more parts from your stash. The problem is that collecting infected trophies is a dangerous affair since you can only loot them from enemies known as special infected.
In order to get infected trophies in Dying Light 2, you’re going to have to invest time to grind for it. This guide will attempt to show you the most efficient way to do so, what you need to prepare, and some convenient locations for your benefit.
What are Infected Trophies Used For?
Infected trophies are one of the most coveted components in Dying Light 2 because they’re used to upgrade blueprints and recipes. Therefore, it is important to collect as many as you can if you want to fully max out Aiden’s tools.
Normally, enemies scale with your level as you progress through the game. Enemies, both living and dead, hit harder and can tank more of your hits. Furthermore, stronger enemies like the heavy human soldier start spawning after a certain level.
You have to overcome the new challenge with the help of your perks and shiny tools. Installing weapon mods and upgrading their effectiveness levels the playing field against powerful opponents. The status effects each element apply also help for different situations.
For example, Fire spreads to nearby enemies, making it perfect against a horde of common infected. While Bleed lacerates enemies dealing damage over time, an ideal element against bosses.
The recipes for throwables and consumables could also benefit from infected trophies.
The fundamental medicine recipe is one of the best choices to upgrade first. Investing materials in enhancing it makes it heal more while keeping its low cost to create. Moreover, it’s mainly useful since the more efficient military medkit is in short supply in the game.
Meanwhile, for the throwable category, I always upgrade the Molotov since it’s cheap to craft but effective when improved. Throwing Knives are also surprisingly potent against annoying zombies like the Spitter and Bolter.
Improved grenades, mines, and remote C4s are almost required to deal with the more challenging enemies like Goons and Demolishers. Lastly, enhanced UV lamps come in clutch during situations where you overstay your welcome at night.
Naturally, you can only enhance these and the plethora of other blueprints and recipes with the proper materials. That’s why if you’re having a hard time with the game, consider spending some time to get infected trophies.
Preparation to Farm Infected Trophies
As anticipated, you’re going to have to fight tons of special infected to get infected trophies in Dying Light 2. Therefore, good items and gear are needed to ensure you live through the morning.
First and foremost, you’re going to need high-leveled gear. Whether you’re a tank, brawler, medic, or ranger, it’s up to you to maximize your weapon and armor loadout to your preference.
Next, you’re going to need a fully maxed-out UV flashlight. The UV flashlight can dramatically increase your odds to fight dangerous special infected. You can use the light to temporarily incapacitate zombies, especially Virals and Volatiles, letting you hit them uncontested or safely escape.
You can find the UV flashlight by reaching the “Welcome on Board” quest by following the main story.
There’s a vast difference between the base-level UV flashlight and the fully upgraded one. Cone size, battery life, recharge rate, and flash effect are all amped up when you invest in it, and these buffs can make the endeavor way easier.
You need precious military tech to upgrade nightrunner tools like the UV flashlight and paraglider. There are two easy to access military airdrops in Old Villedor. You can find military airdrop THB-22B near Barney’s hideout at Horseshoe, while you can find military airdrop THB-17U to the north on the top of Jack and Joe’s bandit camp.
You can also get military airdrop THB-04B at the top of Saint Joseph Hospital if you have enough stamina.
Thankfully, they restock after a while, so you can keep going between the three to gain more military tech and valuable loot. Unfortunately, there’s no official information for how long it takes to respawn, but it should be about 30 real-life minutes (give or take) after you leave the area.
A few items go a long way to keep infected at bay.
Craft a few boosters to keep your stamina up—choose either a Muscle Booster to swing for more damage or an Endurance Booster to increase your overall stamina.
The UV bar is one of the best craftable items in the game, and it’s easily missed since you have to purchase it from a merchant. It is a throwable stick of UV light that would protect you from infected in a small area. An essential item for braving the night.
Powerful explosives like mines and remote C4s are so effective against Volatiles in the later stages of the chase. With the latter, you can deploy it in advance and blow it up when the time is right. Plus, the loud noise summons more infected, which is what you want to get infected trophies.
Lastly, a bow or the PK crossbow using regular or special arrows are cheap alternatives to taking down Volatiles compared to explosives. Make sure you’re at a safe distance away because they can overwhelm leap at you if you’re within distance.
How to Farm Infected Trophies
Now that you’re all geared and stocked up, you’re ready to hunt down special infected. Though there are different methods to specifically farm for each tier of infected trophies, I highly recommend starting with uncommon infected trophies first.
For one thing, you only need uncommon infected trophies for the first few levels of upgrades, which means that you can buff up your gear to last longer. Another reason is that you’ll still need a hefty amount of uncommon infected trophies in the later tiers.
On top of that, while grinding for uncommon infected trophies you’ll also run into a few rare infected trophies. If you stay long enough, you’ll also have the chance to loot unique infected trophies if you managed to kill a Volatile.
Uncommon Infected Trophies
Uncommon infected trophies are looted from three zombies:
- The Viral, fast-moving zombies that climb obstacles.
- The Howler, a special infected that screams, alerting other zombies and starting a chase.
- The Spitter, mutated infected that can spit dangerous projectiles at you.
The first task you need to do to get uncommon infected trophies is finding your farming spot.
Uncommon Infected Trophy Farming Spot
A great farming spot is an area near the street where you can easily trigger a chase when spotted by a Howler. Ideally, it should be elevated so that common infected won’t get in your way. But it’s not a big deal since you can also farm combat points from them.
Your farming spot should be near UV lights. Place yourself nearby safehouses and buildings with UV lights so you can end the chase whenever you feel overwhelmed. You can also quickly regenerate your immunity if it falls too low.
Most importantly, your farming spot should have one entry point. In addition, it should have an area that can act as a bottleneck for the infected to charge at you. Standing your ground at a place with multiple entry points is an inevitable death waiting to happen.
Bridges and ledges are prominent examples of bottlenecks. Even the simple protection of a UV light on the building is enough to keep infected from surprising you.
Here are a few farming spots you can try to get uncommon infected trophies:
Farming Spot 1: In the Trinity district at Old Villedor, go to Cillain’s safe house located in the center of the region. It’s the nightrunner hideout found at the south of Alder windmill.
This is one of the best spots to get infected trophies because it’s fortified and enclosed. There are two hanging bridges that you could use to funnel enemies through. Additionally, the UV light protects the area so that you can easily slip away from trouble.
As much as possible, don’t camp near the shack because the chase might end. Instead, stay as long as you can on the opposite roof because the vents act as a spawning point for Virals.
Farming Spot 2: Again, in the Trinity district. There’s an open truck on the south side of the Bazaar. Start a chase and climb into the back. It’s a contained area where you can safely wail on the infected as they attempt to climb inside.
Also, there’s a door leading to the Bazaar directly in front of this spot. There are UV lights at the gate for a quick getaway. Not the most effective site, but it’s very safe for your first run.
Farming Spot 3: Right in front of the PK fortress in the Wharf, there’s a large gate with UV lights. It’s fairly protected since barricades and sandbags cover your sides. You can dip in and out of the light to fight the infected on the street.
The advantage to this spot is that there’s a craftmaster behind the gate. So you can use this if you just want a quick run to upgrade a few blueprints.
Farming Spot 4: Found in Culvert Island in the northeastern region of the Garrison district, there’s a long hanging bridge that you can use. There’s no other way the infected can surprise you because UV lights are all over the island.
Though it is not the most efficient spot compared to the rest, it still deserves mention because the nearby area is crowded with zombies. This is an excellent spot if you’re also looking to farm combat points because of the non-stop action.
If you lack a good weapon or you want to farm uncommon infected trophies early, you could always kick virals down from high places.
Tips and Tricks for Acquiring Uncommon Infected Trophies
Once you find your designated farming spot, it’s time to look for trouble.
Look for any nearby Howlers; they’re easy to spot because they have their own icon. Ideally, you want to approach them within their vision so that they alert the horde. You could even kill them and loot an uncommon infected trophy.
A safer strategy is to throw knives at it from the rooftop. Make sure you don’t run away too fast to avoid losing the chase. Either way, you should aim to start a chase.
Start running towards your farming spot, but don’t go into the UV light. Instead, monitor your chase level on the bottom of your screen; if it starts blinking, then that means you’re about to lose them. So, stay in an area away from the UV light but not too far so you can quickly escape.
When the Virals start catching up, don’t start swinging at them immediately. If you kill the infected as soon as they arrive, you’ll lose the chase since there are no enemies around. So instead, use your UV flashlight and UV bar to stall them.
Pick them off slowly and allow more to respawn to join the encounter. There are a few combat skills you can rely on to make this endeavor less painful.
The Grapple perk, which allows you to throw attacking enemies, gives you a way to incapacitate enemies while saving stamina. In addition, I recommend following up with the Head Stomp perk to conserve stamina and weapon durability.
The Windmill perk is an easy answer to a crowd of unruly infected. You can wipe out the Virals surrounding you with one clean sweep. Lastly, Dropkick is a valid “get off me” tool that you can use if you need to instantly kill Virals by punting them off the rooftop.
Don’t attempt to collect your loot now because you’ll be vulnerable. The animation that plays to search the body is too long, and there are just too many corpses.
After a while, their bodies will drop packages and you can collect them faster. Either wait for the natural passing of time or quickly leave the area to trigger it.
Chase levels 1 and 2 should be no problem for you. If ever you’re feeling overwhelmed, drop a UV bar to heal or reset the fight by running to the protection of your safe zone.
Volatiles start spawning on chase level 3. If you’re not fully prepared for this, now is the best time to head back inside your safe zone.
Assuming that you want to continue the chase, this is where tools will come in handy.
No infected will attempt to chase you into the UV lights, even Volatiles. So keep dipping in and out of the light for safety and to hold the Volatile’s attention.
Use your bow or crossbow to snipe the Volatile from a safe distance. But, of course, if you don’t have a powerful ranged weapon, you could always use an upgraded remote C4 to get the job done.
This is pretty much how you get infected trophies in mass amounts. You’ll mostly take home a handful of uncommon trophies, but there’s the occasional rare trophy that randomly spawns.
One last piece of advice: don’t die. You will lose all your potential loot when you die, along with your weapon’s durability and consumed items.
Just back away if you can’t handle the heat. Use your loot to upgrade your current gear and try again. A few infected trophies are better than none, after all.
Quest to Get Uncommon Infected Trophies
If you haven’t gone too far into the main story, you’re in luck. There are two quests that contain a scenario wherein Virals spawn indefinitely. With enough resources, you’ll be able to get infected trophies to your heart’s content.
Caution: there are a few spoilers below.
The first mission is called Broadcast. This quest is part of the main storyline, so you can’t miss it. It’s given by Jack Matt, the leader of the Peacekeepers.
Jack Matt wants to take over the VNC tower, the tallest building in the city. He’s after the antenna located at the very peak of the building to broadcast propaganda to the civilians.
There’s a point in the mission where you have to restore power while Virals attack you. There’s no rush to actually do it, so you could take your time taking out the virals as they come.
There are two doorways you could use to funnel Virals to avoid surprises. Alternatively, there are also two spots with live electricity you could use against the infected.
Exploiting this spot in the Broadcast quest is safe but slow. The most significant advantage is that there’s no other objective to protect, only yourself.
Bring as much healing and weapons as you can.
The second mission is a side quest named Black Widow.
Jolly, the quest giver, is confident that her father’s new girlfriend is murdering her ex-lovers after bleeding them dry of cash. She asks that you look for her last boyfriend, Josh, for any information regarding the accusation.
You’ll find Josh at his hideout near the Fish Eye. There, his UV lights go out, and he’s left unprotected. Then, Virals start crawling inside at a rapid pace to attack both of you.
There are three entrances for the Virals, and they spawn pretty quickly. Farming infected trophies is pretty fast in this instance, and personally, I stayed here for quite some time.
The biggest downside to this technique is that Josh can eventually die, failing the mission. But if you’re able to protect him with UV lights and quick reflexes, you should walk out with a lot of loot afterward.
Flip the fuse in the corner of the room once you’re ready to leave.
Rare Infected Trophy Hunt
Rare infected trophies are the second tier for these upgrade materials. You can loot them from three special infected:
- Banshee, the special infected that leaps on top of other zombies; seen during the prologue and the eponymously named comic book.
- Bolter, zombies with orange boils on their back; runs away from you when spotted. Easy to find since they’re marked when you’re near one.
- Goon, giant zombies with heavy weapons, are usually found near military convoys or caches on the street during the daytime.
Before attempting to hunt for rare infected trophies, try farming for uncommon ones first. While grinding for uncommon infected trophies, I was able to loot the occasional rare trophy, even without any of the special infected in sight.
Assuming you still need more, don’t try to look for the Banshee. They rarely spawn outside of story missions, so there’s no use hunting them.
Goons are doable since they’re easily located by going to a military convoy during the day. The issue is that they’re durable and will put up a fight for just one rare infected trophy.
The most efficient way is to hunt for Bolters.
I suggest searching for them in Old Villedor since they usually spawn on the rooftop. Sometimes, on street level. It’s easy to keep track of both locations in the starting town of the game, compared to the towering skyscrapers in Central Loop.
Once in Old Villedor, start running from roof to roof, keeping an eye out of the blue icon that appears on your compass. If there’s no logo inside the icon, it’s a random encounter like a survivor asking for your help. But, if you see a monster icon, you should go towards it, because that’s a Bolter.
Prepare Throwing Knives if you’re going to get rare infected trophies, it’s not that important to upgrade the blueprint. What’s important is that you can stun the Bolter as it’s running away.
Bolter’s are fragile and go down without a fight. One hit or a well-placed dropkick is enough to put their lights out. Loot their corpse for your rare infected trophy and find the next one.
There’s isn’t really an efficient way to collect tons of rare infected trophies, so this might take some time. But at least, you’ll also receive some bonus experience to your combat and parkour points each time you catch a Bolter.
How to Get Unique Infected Trophies
In order to get unique infected trophies, you have to fight the last four special infected. Each one of these mutated zombies provides a considerable challenge to take them down.
- Chargers, first introduced in the Let’s Waltz quest, this infected is fully-armored in the front. It charges at you with intimidating speed, and you can only damage it from behind.
- Demolishers, the largest special infected in the game. Demolishers make Goons look like children in comparison. Slow and powerful, they can even throw slabs of concrete or cars straight at you.
- Revenants, mini-bosses found at GRE anomalies scattered throughout the game. It’s agile, can leap away from your attacks, spits poisonous projectiles, and infected summons to deal with you. You need to come prepared to defeat the Revenant.
- Volatiles, the most dangerous infected in Dying Light 2. They are fast, deadly, and can jump towards you from far away, pinning you down. Don’t approach one without proper gear.
As you can see, acquiring unique infected trophies isn’t going to be as easy at the first two tiers. But with enough preparation and careful execution, the task is possible.
Don’t hunt for Chargers if you want to get infected trophies. They rarely appear outside story moments or activities like GRE anomalies.
But if you do find one, make sure to stay near a wall and dodge out of the way. It should be stunned after the impact, and you can hack at its weak spot from behind. Otherwise, stay on a high area and shoot arrows on its soft spot.
Demolishers are scarcely spotted in the early and mid-game, but frequently appear in the late game and epilogue. By the time you’re dealing with them, you should be at the appropriate level to take them down.
The Perfect Dodge perk is going to give you enough time strike back after narrowly evading the Demolisher’s attacks. Bleed is an outstanding element against it helps whittle down its health bar.
Alternatively, there’s nothing a Demolisher can do against you when you start hammering it with arrows from afar. Get ready to dodge when it starts picking up an object from the ground because that’s coming straight at you.
Though it isn’t efficient to farm Demolishers for unique infected trophies, they usually guard a valuable GRE cache with top-tier loot. So it’s still worth it to assassinate these giants.
Revenants are relatively easy to take down once you’re geared up and know what to do against them. However, you should always aim to fight one in its lair because the rewards are more than worth it. Aside from the rare infected trophy, you’ll also receive two inhibitors and other precious loot.
Now, finally, for the Volatiles. Unfortunately, they’re the most efficient way to get unique infected trophies in Dying Light 2. Therefore, if you really want to upgrade your blueprints and recipes to the max, you have to face them.
As mentioned previously, they only start to appear from chase level 3 onwards. Hug your UV light for safety and use your ranged weapons and explosives to take them down.
But, if you just want to hunt Volatiles, there’s an even better way to do so.
How to Hunt Volatiles
I strongly suggest that you prepare your best Ranger gear for this hunt. Volatiles are quick and are not easily staggered. You don’t want to take this fight up close and personal.
The best ranged weapon in the game is the semi-automatic PK crossbow. Unfortunately, you can only get this by assigning four faction structures to the Peacekeepers. The fourth reward tier will grant you this beast of a weapon.
Don’t worry. A high-leveled bow and explosives will also do the job just fine.
Instead of going out into the night, hunt for Volatiles in the day, specifically dark zones.
GRE quarantine buildings contain at least one Volatile floor that you can fight. For immediate results, plant a mine on the entrance to the floor and alert the Volatile with your arrow. There’s no chance for it to leap at you if it’s blown to bits.
Uncleared metro stations are also another area where you can hunt for Volatiles in Dying Light 2. If you go inside during the day, there are a lot of Volatiles just loitering inside the station. Use your survivor sense to identify them from afar.
It’s important to know that each metro station has a recommended level to complete it, which means the enemies inside are stuck to that level.
So if you want to get unique infected trophies, don’t complete the metro in Hayward Square found in Houndfield. The enemies here will stay at level two, and so will the Volatiles inside.
Additionally, the entrance is barricaded with a gate, but there’s a table you can crawl under to get inside. Virals and Volatiles can’t crawl under to catch you on the other side. I was able to exploit this location send arrows to their knees without any threats.
Just keep throwing decoys to attract the infected’s attention and let loose when they’re in range. There’s also more further down that you have to lure yourself.
With high-level gear, you’ll be able to rip and tear through the numerous Volatiles inside. Don’t forget to use your UV flashlight and bars for extra protection.
But if you want to take it slow and steady, simply shoot an arrow into them and slide back to the safe spot.
Alternatively, there’s another low level spot located in Central Loop. Look for the metro located under King William Bridge in the Muddy Grounds district. The enemies there should be locked at level 2 as well.
