Dying Light 2 factions: Who is best between Peacekeepers or Survivors?
Whose side will you take in Villedor?
The various Dying Light 2 factions compete for dominance in the ruined city of Villedor, and it's your job as the protagonist to decide which one gets to rule the roost.
Dying Light 2 offers up two chief Factions: the Survivors, a ragtag group of traders and settlers looking for a home among the wreckage of the city, and the Peacekeepers, a highly militant Faction looking to bring order back to the chaos that's been engulfing Villedor for well over a decade at this point.
Providing an answer to the best Faction in Dying Light 2 isn't easy, since it's going to vary based purely on your own personal preferences. What is a lot easier to outline is the benefits of helping out each Faction, as well as how to help each one rise to power throughout Villedor.
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How do factions work in Dying Light 2?
The two Factions in Dying Light 2 are the Peacekeepers and the Survivors. These two Factions dominate both the minute-to-minute gameplay, and the story of Techland's sequel, providing you with not only gameplay upgrades and adjustments to the world around you, but also different outcomes for the story (no spoilers here!).
Dying Light 2's Factions come up against each other very frequently. Particularly in the opening hours of the game, when protagonist Aiden has only just made it into the city of Villedor, you'll see the Survivors and Peacekeepers at each other's throats incredibly often.
Choosing which Faction dominates the city of Villedor is very literal. Throughout the ruined city, there are crucial structures that you can assign to a Faction of your choosing (more on that below), and it's through this that you'll advance one group over the other. For example, you might assign a power plant to the Peacekeepers, who will in turn provide you with traps around the city for combating the infected.
How important is the Peacekeepers and Survivors choice?
These choices of assigning facilities to Factions doesn't affect the overall story of Dying Light 2. It's really important to remember that when you give one Faction more dominance over the other with upgrades, you aren't signing yourself away to be stuck with them for the rest of the game, as they have zero bearing over the story of Dying Light 2.
There are countless times in Dying Light 2's story where you can side with the Peacekeepers over the Survivors, even if you've given far more facilities to the latter, for example. Therefore, don't think of giving one Faction more facilities as giving them "dominance" over the other, but simply think of them as a way of shaping the city.
That said, as for the faction upgrades, once assigned to a facility they can't be switched over to the other faction, so eye up what upgrades you want from which Faction before making your choice.
Dying Light 2 faction upgrades list
Dying Light 2's faction screen looks like the image below. Every time you assign a facility that you discover in the open world to a Faction, you'll advance them one marker toward the outside of the screen, enabling any upgrades that come with them.
What follows is each individual upgrade for the Survivors and Peacekeepers in Dying Light 2. These upgrades are all listed in chronological order, so if you assign two facilities to the Peacekeepers, you'll unlock the second upgrade listed, for example.
Peacekeeper upgrades in Dying Light 2
- Car Traps - When activated, they can lure enemies in and then explode.
- PK Razor Canon - A mounted canon used to shred enemies.
- Electrical Traps - Manual traps that block off routes for enemies.
- Crossbow Pack - A semi-automatic crossbow and improved bolts.
- Molotov Lanterns - When hit with a projectile, they'll immolate everything underneath them.
- Pendulum Traps - A deadly trap which mows down entire groups of enemies at once.
- UV Trap - A manual trap used to temporarily blind and harm pursuing infected.
Survivor upgrades in Dying Light 2
- Ziplines - Creates additional routes through zones.
- Airbags - Jump up to higher vantage points.
- Landing Bags - Cushion your fall from great heights.
- Survivor Revival - An NPC ally can revive you upon death.
- Air Vents - Improved air vents for greater height with the Paraglider.
- Upgraded Airbags - Cushion your fall from even greater heights.
- Two-Way Ziplines - Improved ziplines that let you travel upwards.
Looking for more help? We have system explainers for crossplay and how to play co-op as well as how long it takes to beat Dying Light 2. For upgrades, there are factions to consider, our recommendations for the best skills and how to get XP fast. As for things to find, there are Inhibitor locations, Windmill locations and our explainer on how to unlock fast travel. Finally, we also explain how to complete the early meet the people of the Bazaar objective and the various Dying Light 2 endings.
Peacekeepers or Survivors: What is the best faction in Dying Light 2?
Well, this is a tough one. As we previously established, your choices assigning facilities to the Peacekeepers or Survivors don't have a bearing on the story of Dying Light 2. As such, the 'best Faction' in Dying Light 2 is really more a case of what you want the city to literally look like.
In short, Survivors are best if you would rather avoid fights, and prefer to explore the rooftops of Villedor.
On the other hand, Peacekeepers are for those who prefer to decimate everyone who gets in the way, be it crowds of infected or bandits. If that's you, then you'll probably want to go with all the explosive options that the Peacekeepers hand you.
Keep in mind that you can absolutely commit to both sides whenever you want. For example, you could assign two facilities to the Survivors to get the Airbags and Ziplines upgrades, and then put three facilities into the Peacekeepers, to earn yourself additional Car Traps, Electrical Traps, and the PK Razor Canon.
This is absolutely a valid option in Dying Light 2, and if we're being honest, using the best of both is probably the best choice. It's best not to view the factions here as having an affect on the story, and instead view them purely in terms of the rewards they offer you.
Don't worry, you can leave all the tough choices to when you're playing through the story, because the facilities you assign to the factions have zero bearing on Dying Light 2's story whatsoever. Simply decipher the upgrades that are the most important to you, and work towards achieving them, rather than keeping one faction as the dominant leader.