Dying Light 2 zombies: What are the Dying Light 2 infected types?

Last Updated: February 2, 2022

Techland’s Dying Light 2- Stay Human is the next generation look at the zombie parkour series the developers have actively worked on over the last decade. While Dead Island and Dying Light 1 were the development team’s first foray into the game’s niche style, Dying Light 2 is very much the magnum opus, having two games to learn from. And one of the ways they have learned from that is by changing to the way the Dying Light 2 zombies work.

In this game, the Dying Light 2 zombies have got a bit of sprucing a lot, especially with the zombie pandemic now a generation in. Meanwhile, the devs have stripped away some of the nasties from the first one, adding some new ones in that players can learn more about while retaining the old faithful.

Dying Light 2 zombies and their life cycle

One of the game’s new features is the degenerate zombie life cycle. While you play through the game, you will notice an evolution of the zombies. Those freshest retain some human elements, and their appearance is less decayed. Then, there’s the biter phase, while others can either become volatiles or degenerates. Degenerates infected are marked by the zombies yellow and orange puss, marking the UV tumours and burns on their bodies. These are much slower than normal zombies, but they can hurt a lot. Meanwhile, the Volatile path is not entirely explained, but they seem to be the Apex predators in evolutionary terms. They tend to live in areas that had the most military or scientific areas, meaning they are likely the strongest hunters that evolved.

As you get through the game, you will encounter these various zombie types and stages of life. In addition, you’ll also recognize the turning viral phase. As you play through the game, those side characters with very little plot relevance or random encounters you don’t get round to saving turn into virals. They retain some of their humanity and can be heard talking. However, they have the strength and speed of a viral, in some instances, some may be as strong as a volatile. You’ll also learn more about this as you play through the main story. 

Dying Light 2 infected

While the developers have teased the Dying Light 2 zombies throughout the game’s development, we now know the arsenal of infected. There’s the usual range of common infected you’ll stumble upon during the day. Meanwhile, some reappearing baddies are in Dying Light 2’s dark zones or at night, with a few new additions here and there.

Dying light 2 common infected

• Biter: The regular shambler, some can pick up pace and power walk towards you, but those are few and far between.
• Degenerate biter: Orange puss-filled biter, which is part of the life cycle as mentioned earlier. Tend to be slower but can hit just as hard.
• Gas tank biters: Same as the ones from Dying Light 1, they tend to slap you about and have a gas tank on their back that you can shoot to initiate a detonation sequence. Or they blow up immediately upon contact with fire.
• Irradiated biter: These are biters that glow green. They tend to have a hazardous aroma around them, and are typically found near large acid spills, especially around military convoy locations. Other than they are the same as regular biters.
• Riot gear biters: Armored zombies that are still biters, tend to be slightly tougher than most biters thanks to their body armor. Typically themed with riot gear around supply convoys, military convoys, or in peacekeeper attire. 

Dying Light 2 special infected

Below are the Dying Light 2 zombies considered special. If you want to kill these, you’ll likely encounter them at night, especially in the late game. Morso, some are quite common, such as Virals at all stages of the game, while some are only located in special places like GRE open-world areas. Also, there are different rarities and difficulties to these Dying Light 2 zombies. This is important as you need to farm special infected as part of the game’s blueprint upgrade system, which you can read up via the link we provided.

• Banshee: A lady infected with long claws for weapons. She can also jump off the shoulder of biters and attack you from above. You come across a Banshee during the gam’s prologue tutorial. The eagle eye out there may see the faint resemblance to the Butchers from Dead Island.
• Bolter: A passive zombie brought back from Dying Light 1. These zombies will run away from you and are normally objectives as part of Dying Light 2’s encounter system.
• Bomber: Bombers are back from Dying Light 1. They only appear in the mid to late part of the storyline. This Dying Light 2 zombie blows up when they get close to the living, but swift kills on them cause them to die like any other infected and remain lootable.
• Demolisher: The toughest and tallest of the baddies. They tend to charge and or throw objects at the player. Demolishers tend to hit really hard, but their attacks are telegraphed and easily dodgeable. Bea ware, you cannot block their abilities as they are considered heavy attacks. You can come across these as regulated and degenerate versions.
• Drowner: A Dying Light 2 infected that was rumoured thanks to a trailer released a while ago. They are supposed to have connections to the water and have bones sticking out their arms that act as fins. As it stands, we did not see one in the game despite our 40-hour playthrough in the review copy. Maybe they are cancelled or withheld for now. All we know is it has a familiar comparison with another Dead island-themed enemy.
• Goon: Goons are the big zombies that wield two-handed weaponry. They tend to overhead attack with their two-handed giant maces, slap with their arms, and spin overhead to knock players off ledges. You can quickly trade with these guys and dodge their abiltiies rather easily as they are quite slow, so don’t be too intimidated by them.
• Howler: Howlers are theinfected foghorns that come oout to play night. These Dying light 2 zombies prefer to scream at their enemies when they are aware of their existence, initiating chase sequences with Virals. You can easily avoid these guys, and you can takedown one sot them from stealth.
• Rags: A zombie that is not actually in the game, but conversations with PKs through the story reveal they exist. PK eyewitnesses or urban legends say there’s airdrop like cloth that hang from ceilings inside buildings. The rrags can come to life and pounce on their prey. Perhaps Rags are something Techland may add to the game later like it did with different themed volatiles in Dying Light 1 – The Following. Feel free to reach out by clicking on the author’s social accounts on his author profile if you want to talk about them as a fun theory conversation.
• Revenant: Revenants are a boss-like creature that only comes out to play in certain areas of the open world. These are marked with GRE nighttime areas. They tend to raise the dead from body bag dumps, shoot guck at you like Spitters, and jump around the arena. You cna get unique trophies from these guys.
• Spitter: Spitters are like the hags from DL1, except they stand far back from the player and hurl green and yellow biles at players. They are archer-like characters and perch on top of structures to better harass their pray. They also tend to have meager HP that you can kill with a swing from a decent weapon or drop-kicking them off their perches. 
• Viral: Virals are the fast parkour zombies that do more damage than the regular biter. They are all over the place at night and can chase you up buildings and climb surfaces easily. They can come out in the day for a brief period if noise sources like when exploding gas tanks go off, but the UV tends to force them back after a short period.
• Volatile: The ultimate bad of Dying Light. This is one of the toughest infected Dying Light 2 infected. They have lots of health, pack a lot of damage, are fast, and can one-shot you. They tend to be in Dark Zones, such as GRE Quarantines or in main story missions.

Read More: How to kill a Volatile in Dying Light 2.