Dying Light 2: How to Make the Game’s Toughest Choices
Dying Light 2's toughest choices will leave you debating what you're supposed to do, but this guide should make the consequences of those choices a little clearer.
This article contains spoilers for Dying Light 2.
Dying Light 2’s choice system isn’t quite as expansive as some fans hoped it would be based on the hype for the game, but there are certainly a few choices in the massive RPG that will likely leave you frozen in fear as you debate what the “best” decision is.
As always, what you decide to do in these situations will ultimately come down to your personal preferences and whatever you feel is “right.” However, the absolute toughest choices in Dying Light 2 typically make it very difficult to know what is “right’ or what, exactly, will happen based on the choice you make. That’s why we’ve assembled this guide that covers some of the game’s most difficult choices. While we’ll try to avoid giving you the blow-by-blow recap of the exact consequences of your actions whenever possible, this article will offer a little more information about the game’s toughest choices that should make it a bit easier to understand the consequences of your actions.
On that note, you’ll notice that we’re not covering Dying Light 2‘s “ending choices” in this breakdown. While some of the choices referenced below will impact the game’s ending, Dying Light 2‘s various endings are so expansive and complicated that it’s really just easier to talk about them in a separate (and significantly more spoiler-heavy) article.
Dying Light 2: The Raid – Return to Aitor or Find Sophie?
An early story mission called “The Raid” sees you and some other Survivors assault a bandit camp before returning to a motel where Sophie is supposed to be. However, Hakon warns you not to go into the motel and to look for Aitor instead. What do you do?
Choosing to go see Aitor will end your current mission and start you on a new Peacekeepers questline. Choosing to go see Sophie will trigger a boss fight against her bodyguard (which rewards you with a rare weapon for your trouble). After the fight, you’ll be able to either calm Sohpie down or egg her on. Choosing to calm her down will initially side you with the Survivors and send you on a new quest. Agitating her will sour your relationship (though you will still be able to help Sophie later if you choose to do so).
If you want to side entirely with the Peacekeepers for either narrative or rewards purposes, it’s best to choose to go see Aitor. Otherwise, it might be worth going to see Sophie just to acquire the weapon you get from the fight. Since this decision doesn’t lock you into supporting either the Peacekeepers or Survivors for the rest of the game, though, you shouldn’t worry too much about the immediate consequences that may seem more important than they actually are.
Dying Light 2: The Water Tower – Help or Fight Jack and Joe/Peacekeepers or Survivors?
One of the earliest, and most important, main quests in Dying Light 2 tasks you with taking over a water tower from Jack and Joe: two guys who have rigged the place to explode. This multi-choice mission asks you to first decide what to do with Jack and Joe and then decide if you want to give the water tower to the Peacekeepers or Survivors.
The Jack and Joe choice really isn’t that complicated. The initial choice to either fight the pair or negotiate with them both lead you to the more important choice: “Help Jack and Joe” or “Do Not Help Jack and Joe.” If you choose to help them, you’ll let them go free and open up a new side quest later in the game. If you choose to fight them, you’ll kill them, gain some XP, and lock yourself out of that sidequest. Helping them is generally the better option, but fighting them is a viable option if you need the XP or just feel like doing it for your own reasons.
As for the water tower…well, as we said in our guide about whether to side with the Peacekeepers or Survivors, you’re able to give structures to both groups at any point in the game, so you’re not committing to one faction or the other at this time. If you are going to side with one faction all the way through the rest of the game, give the water tower to that one. If you’re mixing and matching, give the first water tower to whoever offers the initial reward you want the most.
Dying Light 2: Welcome On Board – Juan or Jack Matt?
This crucial main story quest involves two equally captivating figures: Juan and Jack Matt. Before the quest is over, Juan will ask you to either side with him or help Jack Matt.
If you choose to help Juan, you’ll start a new mission that leads to you unlocking a new safehouse. If you choose to help Jack Matt, you’ll be asked to rescue Demoulin from a horde of Infected.
Unless you have a particular role-playing preference based on your faction choice or wish to complete one mission or the other, it might be best to help Juan just for the safehouse reward. Ultimately, though, this choice is just the lead-in to the next choice we’re going to talk about…
Dying Light 2: The Broadcast – Do You Give the Signal to Frank, Jack Matt, or Juan?
“The Broadcast” is an especially long Dying Light 2 quest that eventually sees you reach the top of the VNC tower. Once you get there, you’ll need to decide whether to side with Frank, Juan, or Jack Matt. Whether you’re able to side with Juan or Jack Matt depends on who you decided to help during the “Welcome on Board” mission.
If you side with Frank, he’ll decide to start broadcasting music across the city and send you on a quest to start tracking Renegade communications. This choice will also open up a relationship option with Lawan later in the game (if that’s something you’re interested in). If you choose to help Jack Matt, he’ll start broadcasting Peacekeepers propaganda across the city (which also gives him a more prominent role towards the end of the game). If you help Juan, the Jack Matt scenario will still play out, but Juan will start listening in on the broadcasts. This will unlock additional side quests that see you dig up a little dirt on Jack Matt and eventually have an additional confrontation with Hakon.
This is a very tough choice. If you’re going full Peacekeepers, you’ll help Jack Matt during the Welcome on Board mission and this one. If you’re going “anti-PK,” you’ll probably side with Juan (which also opens up the most additional content). If you’re a little more neutral and are more interested in forming a relationship with Lawan (as well as opening up certain ending options), then Frank is probably your best option.
Dying Light 2: True Friends – The Fate of the Dog and What to Do With Dominik, Scott, and Moe
This is “just” a sidequest, but it certainly offers one of the toughest choices in Dying Light 2.
This mission involves a boy named Dominik who has befriended a stray dog named Buddy. If you keep talking to him, he’ll eventually tell you about two kids named Scott and Moe who have gone missing.
This mission will eventually lead you to Buddy, who is sadly dying. You’ll then have to make the difficult choice to either put Buddy out of his misery or leave him to die. There’s nothing you can do to save him, so this decision is really up to whatever is easiest on you. Your choice here also doesn’t really have any far-reaching consequences beyond what you think is right.
What happens next is a little more complicated. You’ll basically need to decide what to tell Nerys about Scott, Moe, and Dominik, and you’ll need to decide what to tell Dominik about Buddy. Specifically, you have to choose between these three dialog options:
“Buddy died saving Scott and Moe” – Choosing this option will ensure that the boys don’t get into trouble and that Dominik just knows that Buddy was a hero.
“Scott and Moe lied to you” – While this option is technically the honest reply, Dominik and Nerys will be upset to learn that Scott and Moe got Buddy into the situation that led to his death. Nobody will be happy to hear the full story.
“Scott and Moe will tell you everything: – Choosing to let Scott and Moe tell Dominik what happened to Buddy certainly won’t make Scott, Moe, or Dominik very happy, but it will earn you the respect of Nerys who appreciates that you forced Scott and Moe to do the right thing.
Your choice here really just comes down to your personal preference. It may alter some dialog options later on when these characters appear again, but you’re really best off doing whatever you think is right.
Dying Light 2: Aitor – Which Petal Will Save Aitor’s Life?
During the “Aitor” quest, you’ll be put in a position where you need to decide whether to save Aitor’s life or let him die. While the doctor believes that there is an herbalist who can help save the badly beaten Aitor, Aitor’s wife is concerned about this “witch” who she believes will try to hurt him. What makes this decision so tricky is that it’s kind of hard to tell who is being completely honest with you. Is the herbalist really trying to save Aitor, or are they secretly trying to kill him?
This decision comes down to three smaller choices that will ultimately determine Aitor’s fate:
Give Aitor the Small Petals – Aitor will live if you give him the small petals, which will eventually lead to you running into him a little later in the game.
Give Aitor the Big Petals – This will kill Aitor, and Aitor’s wife will believe that the herbalist intentionally gave you the wrong medicine in order to assassinate him.
Refuse to Give Aitor Any Petals – This will result in Aitor slipping into a coma. It’s essentially the neutral option between saving him and killing him, so it’s best used by those who are role-playing the game in such a way that supports that approach.
Dying Light 2 Revolution/Into The Dark – Help Hakon or Leave Him to Die?
You’ll eventually receive the missions “Revolution” or “Into the Dark” depending on what choices you made a little earlier in the game. At one point during those missions (they play out roughly the same), Hakon will be shot with an arrow. You’ll then need to decide whether to help Hakon or leave him to die.
From a narrative perspective, your choice to help Hakon or let him die is really based on your feelings toward the recent revelation that he killed a Peacekeepers officer and is working with Waltz. If you’re not cool with that, then it’s best to let him die.
From a gameplay perspective, choosing to help Hakon will open up the sidequest “Snipers’ Alley,” which offers the chance to snag some extra XP and retain a good relationship with Hakon. It will also alter the order of some of the main story events that occur shortly afterward. If you leave him to die, the main story will proceed without interruption.
There are immediate consequences to your actions here, but the choice you make at that moment really just helps determine what happens during the next choice we’re going to talk about…
Dying Light 2: No Mercy/Deals With the Devil – Kill Hakon or Let Him Go?
Regardless of whether or not you helped Hakon or left him to die, he will reappear during the “No Mercy/Deals With the Devil” mission (the exact mission name depends on some of your choices). However, what you decided to do to Hakon earlier on determines how you’re able to interact with him during this mission.
If you left Hakon to die, then you’ll have considerably less control over this situation. Basically, you’ll be forced to fight Hakon and the whole sequence will pretty much be automated. The outcome of this fight will narratively match your decision to left Hakon die, but there aren’t really any additional “choices” to consider here.
However, if you chose to help Hakon earlier, then you’ll be able to choose between the dialog options “Let’s not fight” and “Come any closer and I’ll have no choice” (a third dialog option just offers more exposition before you’re eventually forced to choose between those options). If you choose to fight Hakon, you will kill him, and Lawan will appear shortly thereafter to react to what you did. If you choose to let Hakon live, you’ll have to choose between the dialog options: “Do what you need to do” and “Hear me out Lawan, don’t do it.”
The first option will end with Hakon’s death, and the second will allow him to survive yet again. Lawan will eventually find peace with their decision to let Hakon live, and Hakon will eventually go live at the Fish Eye.
We’ll talk about the exact consequences of this choice when we talk about Dying Light 2’s endings in a separate article, but just know that choosing to spare Hakon will open up additional ending options and is one of the decisions you’ll need to make in order to get the “best” ending. If you happen to get more satisfaction out of watching Hakon die, though, then that will may end up being the best ending for you.
Dying Light 2: Now or Never – The Colonel, Jack Matt, or Lawan?
This key mission will play out differently depending on the choices you’ve made so far, but the one thing that won’t change is the fact that you’ll need to decide what to do with the Colonel and the bulkheads that some of the survivors want to open.
What, exactly, happens here depends on some of the things you’ve done up until this point in the game, but there are three possible options you can face in this situation.
If you choose to trust the Colonel, you’ll earn the wrath of Jack Matt but soon be escorted to Waltz’s chambers where you can listen through some of their personal tapes and records. The Colonel will then take you to X13 to confront Waltz. Along the way, you’ll need to fight Jack Matt and the Peacekeepers. The events of that last conflict may play out differently depending on if you saved Hakon.
If you choose to side with Jack Matt, you’ll need to fight the Colonel and his troops. This will lead to Jack Matt opening the bulkheads, which will, in turn, lead you to a new district where you’ll need to chase down the Colonel and confront a small army of incredibly dangerous exploding Infected. If you manage to make if through them (which isn’t easy), you’ll meet the Colonel, learn the location of X13, and then move on to the final mission. The Colonel also dies in this scenario.
Finally, you can agree to “side with Lawan,” and let her try to kill the Colonel. The assassination will be prevented by the Colonel’s wife, which will trigger a fight against the Colonel’s men. Work your way through them, and you’ll eventually confront the Colonel in his office where he’ll threaten to kill you. However, you’re able to convince him to tell you where X13 is right before the Colonel decides to take his own life.
In case you’re wondering, the Colonel is technically telling the truth in this situation, but if the results of siding with Matt or Lawan are more satisfying to you from a gameplay or narrative standpoint, then be sure to do what feels right.
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Matthew Byrd is Games Editor at Den of Geek and an entertainment enthusiast living in Brooklyn. When he's not exploring the culture of video games, he's…