Editorials
Tips and Tricks for Surviving in ‘Dying Light’
Life in Harran can take some getting used to. The laws and unwritten rules that govern today’s civilized society went out the window as soon as the city was quarantined from the outside world following a nasty outbreak that turned most of its citizens into the flesh-eating undead. For some, survival means taking from others. But this isn’t DayZ, so we’re going to need to try something else.
I’ve learned some tricks during my time with Dying Light, some of which I’m going to share with you today. My hope is you’ll glean something that will make your experience with this fantastic horror game a little more enjoyable.
Ready? Let’s go.
It’s More Fun With Friends
This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Dying Light is exponentially more enjoyable if you have at least one other friend to share the experience with. They’ve even added random challenges that make co-op play more interesting by adding a layer a light competition to the mix.
The game supports up to five players in a game, but who’s that popular?
Come Up With Your Own Story
Techland is not particularly adept at constructing interesting stories, relying instead on satisfying how fun it is to use specially modified weapons to carry the game. Dying Light offers a stronger narrative than Dead Island, but it’s still weak.
Mute is always a viable option, as is coming up with your own story, if you’re feeling creative. You can also do what I sometimes do for games that are fun to play but not all that interesting to follow and listen to a podcast. I powered through the entire Serial series during Dragon Age: Inquisition’s quieter moments.
Save Your Mods
The weapons you’ll find in Harran can be improved by using blueprints and mods. The latter is found by completing quests, saving survivors, and looting police vehicles. When you get a mod, try and resist the urge to immediately use it on one of your weapons. The reason for this is you’ll almost definitely be swapping out your arsenal with better gear all the time, so it’s better to save up a few mods for when you find a weapon you’ll be using for some time.
It won’t take long. Loot is everywhere, and the shopkeepers’ inventories change every day and every time you gain a Survivor level. I also suggest buying blueprints from merchants when they’re available, because they’re never there for very long.
The Floor is Lava
There are no vehicles in Dying Light, so your own two legs will be your only way of getting around this wide open city. This means you’ll want to get that Agility level up fast, as it unlocks new parkour abilities — like the grappling hook, which descends from the heavens when you reach level 12 and immediately makes this game so much better — that make getting from point A to point B easier, faster and way more fun.
There are two ways to become a freerunning master — more on that in a sec — and the first is to run, jump and slide over everything. Just pretend like the floor is lava and stick to the rooftops.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Contrary to all those spooky trailers, the night is your friend. Harran gets significantly more dangerous when the sun goes down. Going out is worth the increased risk mostly because it doubles the XP you gain, so growing those Agility and Power levels takes a lot less time.
Another bonus to going out for some fresh night air is the precious supply drops that land at night can’t be looted by bandits. If you can make it past all the Volatiles, those supplies are all yours.
Get Those Supply Drops
Unless you absolutely cannot go for them, when you feel the telltale rumbling that signals an imminent airdrop, always go after them. Secure enough of them and you’ll never have to worry about flares or medkits, and turning them into the Quartermasters grants a massive amount of Survivor XP.
Secure Safe Houses
Scattered about the city are buildings and fenced-off areas that are well-lit enough to provide shelter for runners seeking safe haven at night. Before they can be used for this purpose, they need to be secured first. Securing as many of these as you possibly can early on will make nightime excursions a lot less terrifying.
Wait to Repair Weapons
Techland has done away with workbenches in this game, but weapons can still be repaired. However, each weapon can only be repaired a certain number of times, depending on its quality. For example, orange tier weapons can be repaired more times than a basic grey tier one.
To optimize the limited number of repairs you have, hack away or bludgeon Zeds until the game lets you know your weapon can’t take any more abuse, then repair it.
Certain Abilities Rock
Overall, I much prefer the skill trees in Dying Light to the more specialized ones in Dead Island. There are only a few I had no desire to invest skill points in, and even those were mostly two-handed abilities I’d never use because a true survivor never double-fists it. One-handed weapons all the way, baby.
Some of the abilities I highly recommend you invest in would include the Shield, because it’s unbelievably useful against human enemies. The head vault skill is great, too. Not only does it grant a decent amount of XP upon every use, but it also makes getting around a lot easier.
The head stomp — one of my favorite abilities in Dead Island — is also worth it. It’s satisfying and makes clearing a zombie-infested street simple. Just jump on a car and squish the heads of the zombies as they try and climb on the hood.
Do it right and you’ll get nary a scratch, I promise.
Bombers Suck
Of course Dying Light would have an enemy that explodes, it is a zombie game after all.
The Bombers are particularly nasty because they tend to insta-kill even the hardiest of runners with their too-overpowered kamikaze attack. They’re easily identifiable from the front because they have their insides on their outsides, but they look like any other zombie when seen from behind.
Use the Environment
Harran is lousy with environmental hazards. Car traps and electrified fences require certain skills before they can be used, but there’s plenty out there that you can make full use of from the beginning. If you see a puddle of water sitting on a tarp, lure some ghouls to it for a shocking good time. If you see a barrel or a wall with spikes on it, kick a zombie onto it to kill it instantly. Making use of these traps will net you bonus XP that will make improving your runner that much easier.
That’s most of what I’ve learned so far. I hope it helps. If you have some lessons of your own, feel free to share them with us in the comments below. Good night and good luck!
If Techland’s past work — Dead Island — has you unsure about Dying Light, I called it a “flawed, gorgeous, and alarmingly addictive.” It’s not without some jank, but it’s significantly less so than their other open-world zombie game.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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