Dying Light – Boosters and Their Importance in Early Game

Tired of getting your a$$ handed to you in the early game by low level bandits and mere biters? Just follow these few steps to become unstoppable.

The Gist of It

Note: Credit goes to Dark Sun

Potions in games have a bad reputation overall. Such reputation made me ignore the “boosters” in Dying Light in most of my runs. However that was a massive mistake.

Boosters you see can turn you into an unstoppable killing machine ridiculously early. I can not overstate how overpowered they are and they are definitely worthy of going for especially in the early game.

Boosters and What They Do

There are 4 main boosters (excluding Dahlia’s potions):

• Speed
• Night vision
• Resistance
• Stamina

Speed and Night Vision are ok. Night Vision can have quite a bit of utility since your flashlight will inevitably prove unreliable and speed can help you get around quickly, however both of them are auxiliary.

The real meat and potatoes however are the Resistance and Stamina boosters. These two individually are very powerful but combined they make you (almost) invincible:

The Stamina Booster will basically give you infinite stamina. In the early game this is beyond valuable, especially in higher difficulties. Being able to deliver strikes in quick succession without losing all your stamina can mean the difference between life and death.

Speaking of life and death, the Resistance Booster will make the latter almost unobtainable. Being hit while under the resistance booster effects feels like being smacked over the head with a pool noodle. I am not exaggerating. You can go up against a volatile in early game and live to tell the tale no matter the difficulty. Later in the game when human enemies have firearms the Resistance Booster is a must, making bullets practically useless against you.

Setting Up

First and foremost you need to aim for the “boosters” and “boosters XL” skills under the Survival Skill tree. You can get boosters at level 3 and boosters XL at level 6. You can attempt your luck in a relatively easy quarantine zone such as “Stuffed Turtle” in order to level up “Survival” quickly. And of course keep an eye out for airdrops.

It is a good idea to also go for “Crafting Expertise” at Survival level 5 in order to increase the yield of your booster crafting.

To make a Stamina Booster you need 4 common herbs and 1 alcohol.

To make a Resistance Boosteryou need 2 common herbs and 4 algae.

Getting alcohol might be a bit tricky at the early game (car trunks, houses and zombie corpses are the best places to look for it), you might need to balance using alcohol for stamina boosters and Medkits. Besides that all the other ingredients are in abundance from the moment you get out of the tower. Here are the locations you can find them: (Credit to the Dying Light Interactive.

Shortcomings

Of course boosters are not cheats. You still need to put effort in keeping your weapon at a good condition and avoid getting mobbed.

These are obvious, however there is one more issue. boosters do not last for long even with “boosters XL” and you can not stack them or drink another one before the previous one ends in order to be at a constant state of the effect being active. If you are under the influence of a tamina booster for example and you attempt to drink another one before the previous one has worn off, the next one will be wasted.

This makes sense from a balancing perspective. The game developers want to create a window in which you are vulnerable in order to keep you on your toes.

If you want to make the best out of your boosters keep an eye on the meter on the top right of the screen. The moment the timer is under 25% you should retreat in order to either escape or drink another one. This is especially important at night while fighting Volatiles.

Another big shortcoming is that the resistance rooster does not protect against all forms of damage. I am not sure if this is intended or a glitch however explosions (either from barrels or from bomber zombies) and volatile ranged attacks will do as much damage as if you didn’t have resistance on, the same goes for goon and demolisher attacks. I think the same goes for toad zombies but I am not certain. Of course the resistance booster will not save you from falling damage either.

Regardless, some spacial awareness is always advised and in the early game most of these types of damage will not be available so you got nothing to worry about.