The Nightmare Mode Update Is Live!

Welcome to your Nightmare, Pilgrims! Update 1.16 adds the highest difficulty level to the game, as well as a massive influx of DevTools functionalities, adjusted the nights with Infected tweaks, and some smaller, yet significant, changes. So without further ado — let’s see what we’ve cooked up for you!

Nightmare Mode
If you like challenges, we’ve got what you need. Nightmare Mode is our new highest difficulty for those wanting to truly experience the nightmarish reality of the Dying Light universe. Enemies are most cunning and brutal. They will put up even more of a fight now, which is important, as you’ll now realize everything you’ve relied on in previous playthroughs aren’t so reliable! And survival becomes essential with limited information and UI elements. To sum up the Nightmare Mode experience:

Level 5 Chase with Tyrants
Being in a menu no longer stops the game — Watch out as you are crafting stuff in real-time! Luckily for you, the Pause menu works as normal though
Flashlight now dims and flickers when in constant use, and can even cut out
Lower immunity from each inhibitor
Higher chance of looting rare quality items
Survivor Sense shows only weapons and quest items
Tactical Stamina — Regeneration takes longer to kick in, and when exhausted, you’ll only be able to shove until your stamina is full once again
Player armor and resistance reduction
Higher stamina drain when paragliding at night
Volatiles have shorter sight, but Chases trigger faster
Stamina regenerates at a slower rate
Health does not regenerate automatically
A larger amount of Legend Points is awarded
Players lose all Legend Level XP towards the next level up on death at Level 50 and above
Efficiency of Boosters has been reduced

Moreover, if you manage to finish the game (or NG+) on this difficulty, you’ll unlock the exclusive Waltz Outfit. Please note: This reward requires you to complete the entirety of the main story on Nightmare difficulty! Are you brave enough to enter the Nightmare?

Night Changes
The Nightmare Mode Update will also incorporate various changes to the night itself. We grouped these changes into two sections: all difficulties and Easy/Normal.

Changes made in all difficulties:

Lowering the number of Volatiles, mostly on the rooftops
Volatiles are also receiving these nerfs:
Vision arc decreased to from 100 °to 90°
Recognition time changed for 1-6s (min-max)
Lowering the number of Spitters in the night population on Difficulty Ranks 1-6
Reduced range of hearing player's footsteps for Biters
Reduced visibility of flashlight for Biters by 50%
Reduced vision range of Spitters and Suiciders

Changes made only for Easy and Normal:
Increasing the recognition time for Volatiles:
2 secs, if player is very close to a Volatile; up to 7 secs if player is 20 meters from Volatile
Removal of Volatiles from Chase Level 1:
No additional Volatiles spawn during Chase Level 1

Co-op for Community Maps
Grab your friends and wreak havoc together on maps created by you, our community, because co-op is here! Try to prove yourself as the best Pilgrim amongst your pals or just enjoy the crazy scenarios designed by our players as a group!

But what’s co-op on Community Maps without the Community Maps? That’s why we’re adding a whole bunch of new DevTools functionalities, so our creators can come up with even more creative, challenging and diverse maps. Your toolbox has been expanded with:

Pixelated visual filter
Additional prefabs in the Editor
More gameplay scripts to be overridden
Colorful rubber skins for meshes
Bloody Ties assets!

And yes, we heard you! We’re also adding a low gravity functionality! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Gear Loadout System
In response to your requests, we are introducing the Gear Loadout System to Dying Light 2! In the Inventory menu, you can now switch between 4 customisable loadouts to quickly equip the gear, weapons, consumables and accessories that suit your current needs and playstyle.

Cutscene Improvements
With the Nightmare Mode Update, we’ve updated over 70 scenes and dialogues to improve the overall quality of the cinematics. There’s a lot of changes in terms of improved lighting, smoother (or more advanced) animation, special effects, and many other qualitative changes that should be visually noticeable to the player!

What’s changed?
Character animation improvements
Refinement of camera animations
Improved dialogue lighting
FX upgrade
Improved transition from dialogue to combat
Numerous qualitative improvements to dialogue
Interaction with some NPCs will be more immersive

Power Shot Skill Rework
We reworked the Power Shot skill to give players more agency. Now, when you charge a power shot, your reticle will begin to shrink. Release it at the right moment to fire a perfect shot for extra damage!

Tactical Stamina Management Mode
We’ve added a new stamina management mode - Tactical Stamina! An intrinsic part of Nightmare mode, with this turned on, stamina regeneration takes longer to kick in, and when exhausted, you’ll only be able to shove until the bar is full again. This preset can be selected via the Game Options panel. And no, you can’t switch it off on Nightmare difficulty!

Main Menu Redesign
The latest update will refresh the design of the Main Menu by enriching its visual layer. Now, the character outfit will be better presented here. Additionally, we want to make the Events & Alterations, Special Offers, and Community Maps more visible by introducing a new information panel on the right side of the screen.

Scalable Player FOV Correction
After the Firearms update, many of you started asking about more FOV (field of view) flexibility and we’ve delivered. With the Nightmare Mode Update, we are adding a slider allowing you to reverse the distortion of the player character when changing the FOV. When set to the default (100%), the player character appears the same regardless of the FOV value and when set to zero, the player character scales accordingly to the FOV.

Grappling Hook Customization
The update also introduces a new skin type, a bespoke one made for one of the most important tools in a Nightrunner’s arsenal: their Grappling Hook! Be sure to visit the Pilgrim Outpost to grab the First Pilgrim Grappling Hook skin for free and swing through the Villedor in style!

Game Updates
Apart from all the big news from the Nightmare Mode Update above, we’ve also introduced the following fixes and improvements to the game:

CO-OP
Fixed the issue disabling joining multiplayer via Quick Join
Fixed the issue in the “Ferry Tale Endings” quest causing the generator to turn off and on when attacked by multiple Biters, resulting in failing the mission
Fixed the issue where blunt attacks to the head counted towards the “Off With Their Heads!” Survivor Mission Bounty
Improved accuracy of online status information in the Friends section of the Online menu
Player icons on HUD are now differentiated with different colors
Player icons on HUD are now properly hidden if the Immersive HUD option selected
Player icons on HUD are now visible while using the extended HUD option
Fixed and tweaked several TPP animations
Fixed the issue with the “Boss Raid” bounty only progressing for the player who last hit the boss when in a full party in any Elite Survivor Mission
Fixed the animation for Wall Run Kick in TPP
Fixed the animation of swinging the weapon while the camera is pointed towards ground
Fixed the missing swing animation upon attacking with the Grubby Bat

Gameplay
Fixed Virals being able to successfully perform jump attacks by turning in mid-air towards players, even if they dodged. Additionally, the frequency of Viral jump attacks has been lowered
Increased Firearms damage values:
+25% of base damage on all Firearms
Sniper Skill (Legend Levels) will now give +2% damage per each point, instead of +1%
Addressed the issue with the Bounties tracker being stuck on 3/6 or 6/6 Bounties
Fixed the Renegades not spawning properly during the “A Place to Call Home” main quest, blocking further progress
Fixed the blocked by a car transition to the Central Loop
Fixed the camera while unlocking a windmill cutscene
Fixed the game still running underneath the credits after the alternate ending from the new story path
Fixed the Adaptive Triggers sometimes not working unless a weapon with Adaptive Triggers was held just before
Fixed the issue causing kills with explosive knives counting towards the Improvised Weapons Bounty progression
Fixed the Alpha Demolisher not having damage resistance to headshots
Fixed the issue with the “Drive By” Bounty completing by hitting Infected instead of killing them
Added Combat and Parkour XP to the Firearms quest rewards
Fixed the issue sometimes blocking the player from climbing the lamp poles
Fixed the missing VFX fire for Molotovs when thrown from higher places in a certain location
Fixed the prolonged black screen sometimes happening at the end of the "Now or Never" quest
Fixed an issue where animations sometimes did not blend correctly after performing a vault jump with crossbow equipped
Fixed the issue with Lawan sometimes changing her position right after the dialogue in the “A Place to Call Home” quest
Fixed the issue where the Banshee’s jump attack cannot be dodged in the Prologue
Fixed the issue where perfect dodge sometimes didn’t work during fights with Demolishers, causing player to get stunned
Fixed the despawning NPC after finishing “The Black Widow” quest

Technical
Fixed several rendering issues present on the ground, concrete, and lights in the Prologue
Fixed the error that sometimes failed to load the audio voice-over metadata file after launching the game in the Bazaar
Fixed the bug causing internal memory running out after a few minutes of gameplay
Fixed the improper rendering encountered during 'Priceless' Elite Survivor Mission
Fixed the graphical corruption occurring when several HUD icons aligned
Fixed the graphical glitches that sometimes showed after changing video quality and the upscaler
Fixed the textures that sometimes improperly rendered in a specific room of Central Loop
Fixed the mural collectable clipping through the roof of a kiosk in Central Loop
Fixed the projectiles' trails sometimes being improperly displayed
Fixed the game sometimes crashing on the loading screen when starting NG+
Fixed an issue that sometimes did not play death screams on enemies’ deaths
Fixed the inconsistent LOD0/LOD1 materials in R02 overpass
Fixed an issue blocking the selection of any sfx in audio prefabs in the DevTools Editor

UI
Redesigned the Audio Output menu to make it more clear
Fixed the text on "Bacon's Cipher" going outside the UI frames
Added the “Buy Max” feature, allowing players to buy all the available items without choosing the amount
Corrected typo in the “Split The Marrow” Bounty description
Fixed the issue sometimes incorrectly showing negative values or previous statistics during the Survivor Missions ending screen
Fixed an issue sometimes incorrectly showing a death screen when dying by leaving the mission area and due to lack of immunity