Dead Island Tips - Part 3b The Resort Quest

Having rescued Sinamoi he now asks if you can get his key card from his bungalow and open up the Lifeguard Tower for them. A Quest and a Guide line now appear.

Exploration

It is possible to just follow the guide line between quests, but this means missing out on some extras. Some areas of the map are unreachable, some will state that "You are now leaving the Playable Area", some areas are one big physical glitch with transparent textures or invisible walls. For now I'll assume following the guide line.

Speeding about

I dealt with running in the Hotel it certainly helps the character get around, but it uses up stamina which is also required to fight with melee weapons - the only ones currently available. As such running everywhere is not advisable.

Back to the quest

Heading to the bungalows listening is an important thing to do as all the enemies will make different sounds when approached or within range. Knowing what and how many of an enemy are nearby allows adequate preparation. I'll detail the enemy types in a separate entry for the time being assume any prone body may be an enemy and kick it to make sure.

Medicine and Health

All these enemies means that at some point your health will take a knock. Health can be refilled using medi-kits using a control key or, more often, by eating or drinking snacks that are lying around. Any item with health benefits will display a med-kit symbol when the crosshair is directed at it.

Back to the game

Following the guide line will mean passing by pools - enemies can drown. Knock them over into water and they will take damage until they regain their feet. Reach the bungalow and a new icon will appear on the mini-map - a red clutching hand. This icon means there is something that can be picked up to fulfil the requirements of a quest. Red means it's required for the active quest; white for a quest not currently being done.

Collect the key-card and follow the guide line back to Sinamoi who will then direct you on to the Lifeguard Tower along the beach where a congregation of enemies await besieging a guy in a car.

Enemies

A new icon appears on the screen - a skull. As with the hand it's white if part of an unactive quest, red for an active one. It denotes a 'special' enemy to kill normally one that will lead to some type of reward. In this instance killing the infected around the car will allow the occupier to lead the player to the nearby hut in which a workbench can be found.


Workbench

Indicated by a crossed hammer and blade the workbench is the icon to keep an eye out for and will be the most used and visited  item in the game. At a workbench it is possible, for a price, to repair, upgrade, or modify a weapon.

1. Repair - a melee weapon degrades as it's used as indicated by the white encircling line around the weapon icon. A damaged weapon starts to lose any bonuses it may have. Cost to repair is exponential it is therefore cheaper to repair a 10% degraded weapon 10 times than a 100% degraded weapon once.
2. Upgrade - The majority of weapons can be upgraded four times. Doing so increases bonuses to the weapon's attributes.
3. Modification - Once a blueprint is found or awarded a suitable weapon can be modified using the non-weapon pick-ups found. This can be something as simple as increasing a particular attribute or imparting some new element such as electrocution or poison. Some blueprints also allow the creation of items such as ammunitions or grenades.

Back to the game

Continue on to the Lifeguard Tower and use the control panel next to the gate to unlock it. Another congregation of enemies appears and a hint about some of the objects scattered around.

Throwing items.

It is possible to throw any weapon; this means of course that the player needs to switch to another weapon rather quickly. Much better to throw one of the objects cluttering up the world in this instance a propane tank. At this point the game states that throwing and shooting propane tanks is a good way of clearing out a group of enemies such as being faced now. This is excellent advice or it would be if it were possible (okay likely) that any of the characters (except Puna) have a gun at this point.

Follow the game's advice and it'll just go clonk. If the player had a gun this would have been automatically equipped once the tank has been thrown ready for it to be shot. Manage to hit one of the group with the tank and it will only do minor damage. As it is the group need to be taken out the old fashioned way.

Back to the game.

Enemies outside finished off time to open the door and to welcome a cut-scene and a new enemy type - thug. Again I'll detail him along with the others in a later entry; for the time being keep away when he starts to swing and dart in for a quick hit when he roars.

Head through the station and clear out the rest, then head upwards and to the radio to call in Sinamoi for another cut-scene leading to a liberated station that can be explored.