Combat Tips For Beginners In The Last of Us Part 2

The Last of Us part 2 combat and fight sequences will definitely test the mantle of any player. The constant fear of clickers lurking around dark alleyways keeps one on the lookout even after a big combat sequence. If you happen to be playing on the Survivor difficulty, then expect to be playing without ammo for the most part. Moreover, the game isn’t very generous regarding the ammo and supplies in general, even at a moderate difficulty setting.

So, in this beginner’s guide of The Last of Us Part 2, we’ll walk you through the tips and tricks you need to know in order to ace at least the first 10 hours of the game. Keep in mind that we’ll try to keep away from the Spoiler territory, but you may expect minor traversal spoilers ahead. Lastly, the game is getting review bombed since its release. We’ll not talk about the story aspects, however, aspect a detailed review shortly. So, without further ado, let’s start:

Explore as much as you can

The Last of Us 2 is a beautiful game; there’s no denying that it feels like a big world with little areas that you explore as the story progresses. Naughty Dog is famous for making huge areas in their games, e.g., Madagascar and Open Seas in the Uncharted 4. You are free to explore and find your way through the big localities in Seattle. The game presents a reasonably accurate rendition of the city you may happen to wander into a familiar locality.

The game gives you a map early on, but unlike other pseudo-open-world games, it only serves as a point of reference. The developers expect players to find their way through the objectives, which lets you explore many areas that have no significance in the main game.

Looting and crafting

It is actually a continuation of the previous tip. There are many reasons why one would explore the optional areas; it may just be the fact that you want to take all in. However, the most important reason is getting resources and supplies. The Last of Us 2 keeps its players on their toes when it comes to the availability of supplies.

Looting is a big part of the gameplay sequence. In between human or infected encounters, you should look for drawers, cupboards, and even shelves in the buildings, alleyways, and almost any area that you encounter. The number of supplies directly correlates with the difficulty settings you chose for the playthrough. The light difficulty features an excess of supplies. As you crank up the difficulty, the quantity of supplies drops significantly. As mentioned above, the survivor mode makes one feel the horrors of surviving a zombie-filled post-apocalyptic world.

Without spoiling anything, if you carefully explore through the sequence right after the prologue, you may end up at the bank where you can find supplies resources and a weapon too.

Lastly, if you are not happy with the number of supplies and want to continue playing at the current difficulty setting, you can alter the number of supplies via the context menu. It will change your difficulty to a custom setting, which will then open a range of customizations that you can check to cater to your experience. Which takes us to our next point

Adjust game settings

Naughty Dog has put in a lot of quality enhancement settings in the game. As mentioned above, one can adjust the difficulty settings as one pleases. However, it is advisable to start with one of the predefined difficulties and then change it to enhance the experience.

These accessibility settings can change how the overall system works. It includes the preception of enemy AI’s, the number of resources, the amount of damage you take, and, most importantly, the usefulness of the allies. It goes without saying that you can edit the HUD too, even the little details like the size of subtitle texts too.

Naughty Dog games have a ton of collectibles, and The Last of Us 2 is no exception. These include artifacts, trading cards, and journal entries. You can use game settings to find these collectibles. There are two ways the settings can help you in finding these. First of all, turn on the enhanced listen mode. It will give out a sound whenever you are in proximity of a collectible. The other option may come under cheating territory, but no one’s judging. Turn on the high contrast mode, and whenever you swipe the touchpad, the colors of the screen will change drastically. It will highlight interactable objects in the environment.

Open every safe

Looting is one of the essential aspects of the gameplay. The game does not offer a bunch of loot, but it has smart puzzle systems that can provide useful resources and upgrades. One of these puzzle systems is both easy to understand and hard to execute. These are (you guessed it) the Safes scattered throughout the world.

The Safes often have training journals that help in unlocking new skills trees and new weapons. The trick to getting these safes open is to look for the codes. These codes are scattered closeby but require an eye of the eagle. You can also find several combinations of the codes on letters. If you happen across a button prompt that wants you to the long-press triangle, it will take you to the next playable area. It would be best if you opened the safe before venturing into the next area. So, the advice is to survey the close vicinity of the safes to find the clues and try to open every safe that you find in your journey.

Dodge and Use bricks and bottles

It is the first of our few tips regarding the combat. If you are low on ammo, try to capitalize on the bricks and bottles scattered throughout the combat area. A well-placed hit can stun the enemy setting you up for a one-hit KO (kill).

Ellie is quick and agile, which makes the combat fast and exciting. Whenever you are battling a bunch of human enemies, dodging is going to be the best option there is. A well-timed dodge and attack can seriously damage the enemy, so mastering the dodging is the key if you want to complete the game.

Molotov is your best weapon whenever you are fighting a bunch of zombies. Just like the last game Clickers are attracted towards the sound and sound of Molotov burning into flames is easy to attract a hoard of clickers to their demise.

Get rid of the dogs

Dogs are our best friends, but in The Last of Us 2, dogs are our worst enemies. They can track your scent and ruin your perfect stealth plan. So, the best combat strategy is to get rid of the dogs as quickly as possible. You can use your listening mode to see your scent trail, too, which will help you know the path of the Dog and its trainer.

The best course of action here is to place a mine so the Dog will eventually walk into the mine and boom. However, it will also ruin your stealth play too. If you are so keen on the stealth aspect, be sure to stay away from the Dog or stealth kill it first and deal with the rest of the enemies later.

Running and hiding

This may seem cowardly, but running away and hiding can be life-saving at times. The Last of Us part 2 offers a plethora of enemies both during human and zombie encounters. There are times when you have to deal with both at the same time. Then there are dogs too that can sniff out. So, if you feel overwhelmed by the number of enemies running to a safer location and planning your way through would most definitely save your life or at least minimize the number of retries.

If you happen to be playing on Survivor mode, running and avoiding enemy encounters would help in most cases. There are circumstances where running would not work, but if you see an opening, then by no means should you feel compelled to take the fight. Simply run and venture into the next area.

There are a few tricks and tricks that you can follow if, like many, you just bought the game. It will not make your life easier, but it will augment the overall experience.