Weapon durability is always a controversial decision that has gamers at odds and this isn’t any different with Dead Island 2. While you’ll probably start out with a basic piece of wood as a weapon, you’ll eventually equip much more interesting ones. This is where you start to find a favorite and begin to wonder, can weapons break permanently?
I’ve never been a fan of weapons breaking permanently in games even though it can work when it’s done right. The idea is usually to encourage players to try other items and experiment a little bit. Since you never know what’s out there if you become too attached to the same weapon.
Can Weapons Break Permanently in Dead Island 2
Understanding How Max Durability Works
It’s time to use those fisticuffs and some curveballs when your weapon breaks.
Every weapon has a different amount of max durability which indicates how long it will last. So if you find yourself stabbing a ton of zombies with a low-durability spear, it’s going to quickly break. This can lead to a not-so-fun surprise if it breaks mid-combat. Because your character will switch to using their fists which are better than nothing, but not by much.
Fortunately, if you have another weapon equipped in your radial menu, you can quickly swap over to one of those. However, you won’t be able to use the broken weapon until you find a workbench and spend some money repairing it.
This broken Bo Staff costs $4,101 to completely repair back to full. But, it is a much higher level item than what a beginner will see.
So don’t worry too much about using your favorite weapon, but try not to get caught off-guard when it breaks either. On the bright side, you can find at least one safe house in each district where a workbench is available. Otherwise, you can sometimes find them randomly out and about in HELL-A.
While upgrading a weapon’s level is where the expensive costs come in, repairing isn’t quite as bad. Even though it can be tough when you’re first starting out in Dead Island 2 and don’t have much money. With that said, our 10 Best Dead Island 2 Tips and Tricks guide has some money-making tips in tip 8.
What Damages Your Durability
Let sleeping zombies lie.
It’s important to mention that your weapon takes damage when hitting either alive or dead zombies. While yeah, technically, all zombies are dead, I think you know what I mean. Therefore, if you start whacking away at a dead zombie on the ground, expect to lose durability.
Aside from that, you won’t lose durability when doing finishing moves or counterattacks. This can be a useful way to prevent damaging your weapon, but I wouldn’t be too concerned about it. Also, hitting stuff like explosive red barrels, fire hydrants, or windows, for example, won’t damage durability either.
How Weapon Perks Impact Durability
As you unlock rarer weapons with more perk slots, you can add all sorts of enhancements.
Once you start upgrading your melee weapons with mods and perks, you can also change their max durability. This can work both for you and against you depending on what you want. For example, the Reinforced perk increases durability and force but reduces attack speed.
Whereas other ones like the Enhanced perk will increase damage at the expense of some durability. But, you can experiment with different perks if you don’t mind losing some resources. This is because you can replace perks at a workbench whenever.
Ranged weapons won’t break as melee weapons do. But, instead of perks reducing durability, they can reduce other stats like magazine size.
That aside, the last thing worth knowing about durability and weapons breaking in Dead Island 2 is about guns. All ranged weapons don’t have durability so you don’t need to worry about them breaking. Instead, you’ll need to get ammo however you can to keep using them.
That’s all there is to this in-depth Dead Island 2 guide on if weapons can break. Fortunately, you likely won’t break many weapons since there are so many to find. Especially when you get higher rarity ones with more perk slots.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.