Dead Island Tips - Part 3a The Resort basics

Having learnt the basics of the game in the Hotel; it now throws that out of the window. The player revives in a hut with no guide line, no goal flags and no information on what to do next. Experimentation will hopefully lead to trying to leave at which point a new quest point will become available - Find a weapon. Again no guide, no flag. The 'weapon' in question is a paddle by the door.

Weapons

They come in four types - Blunt, Sharp, Firearms and Thown. When looked at each weapon displays a set of statistics applicable to its type. For the Blunt and Sharp that are, or will shortly become, available they are:
Damage - Maximum amount of damage that can be inflicted on an enemy's health.
Force - Maximum amount of damage that can be inflicted on an enemy's stamina.
Durability - Roughly how many times an enemy can be hit before the weapon requires a complete fix.
Handling - The higher the figure the less stamina it takes to use.

As well as this each weapon has a required usage level that the character needs to reach before it can be used. Weapons names may be prefixed with a 'type' such as Flimsy or Strong that indicate bonuses to a particular attribute of that weapon.

In essence the higher the number the better the weapon.

Weapon switching

With more than one 'weapon' it's now possible to switch, in this case between the paddle and fists, using the weapon wheel. Note that use of the weapon wheel does NOT pause the game. The wheel has seven available slots (which become unlocked as the character progresses) and weapons can be equipped into these slots via the Inventory screen.

The Inventory

I mentioned in the Hotel section to grab anything that was found in bags etc because there was no limit to those types of items that could be carried. I made the distinction because there is a limit to the number of usable items that can be carried and that includes weapons.

Once this inventory is full any attempt to pick up an item that requires such space will display a recycle-type circled arrows icon and a "Hold". Doing this will drop the currently equipped item and replace it with the one being picked up. In order to prevent this the player must access the Inventory screen and drop an unwanted item or purchase a skill that provides more inventory slots if such a skill is available at that time.

Back to the game

Weapon found it's now possible to step outside. The character that needs to be rescued is displayed with a circled health bar above their head. If their health drops to zero the quest has failed and needs to be started again. In this instance rescuing this guy means killing those attacking him.

Combat

Point the crosshair at an enemy and use the attack command when they're in range of the weapon. This can be determined by a double horizontal bar appearing above their heads. The red bar indicates their health, the yellow bar their stamina.

If the crosshair is red a weak area (normally the head) is targeted that will result in more damage being inflicted. Repeatedly hitting the attack command while the crosshair is red will build up a combination of attacks that will result in even more damage being inflicted.

Keeping them at bay

A weapon that is always available and doesn't need equipping is the Kick move. Kicking uses no stamina and will cause the enemy targeted to back off slightly. [Update - with the latest patch Kicking now uses stamina, but not as much as swinging a weapon]

A bit too close

If an enemy closes they can grapple. A two part command will appear that requires to be followed in order to push them off.

Hit them while they're down

Once an enemy loses all stamina they will fall over. Hitting them while they are in this position will cause more damage then if they were standing. Hitting any prone enemy will also prevent them from getting up.

Dying

While playing with others it is possible for one of them to revive any other fallen player with no consequence otherwise after roughly 7 seconds the character is respawned at a point close to where they died with a random amount of their money removed.

Back to the game

Person saved it's back to the hut and a new quest to undertake.