In Dying Light: Platinum Edition as well as the older versions, the possibilities are endless thanks to the seamless integration of parkour, melee combat, and zombies. Truth be told, the options are sometimes dizzying and so is the parkour, especially for newcomers. You'll easily get swarmed by even the lowliest of zombies if you just treat Crane like a happy-go-lucky tourist in Harran.
So it makes sense to be careful with the skill allocation. In total, there are three main skill trees in the game; Survivor, Agility, and Power. You'll want to be wise in picking the skills, particularly in the beginning. Wasting them on a blind build can make Dying Light frustrating on higher difficulties. So make sure to prioritize these skills early on as they will carry you to the late game.
Updated March 2, 2022, by Sid Natividad: It's worth playing Dying Light in preparation for Dying Light 2 Stay Human and when it comes to acquainting yourself with the franchises trademark union of parkour and zombies, it pays to know well the Dying Light best skills. After all, these abilities will allow you to breeze through the game.
Some skills or abilities are simply better than others or can be taken advantage of more easily to provide the most cost-efficient benefits. This Dying Light skills guide has thus been expanded, so you can better take your pick of among the best Dying Light skills.
15 Brutal Grapple - Agility Tree
Requirements:
- Level 9
- Grapple
Sometimes, relying too much on weapons in Dying Light doesn't result in a good grasp of the game's combat system because the game actually gives you plenty of resources to take on the infected, even without weapons. A case in point is the Grapple ability in the Agility Tree.
You can improve this skill immensely by picking the Brutal Grapple upgrade which knocks down enemies who have been grappled, opening them up for ground finishers. It works well as a good combo with the Stomp ability, letting you dispatch infected quickly without the need for any weapon.
14 Focus - Power Tree
Requirements:
- Level 8
- Conserve Weapons
With that said, even the Brutal Grapple and Stomp combo doesn't always work, especially when against human goons or special infected enemies like Volatiles. For such cases, it pays to invest in skills that increase the damage output of all melee weapons in the game.
Focus is one such ability and it easily turns most weapons into trucks as long as you keep hitting them consecutively. Focus makes it so that striking the same enemy gives a damage boost with each hit. For boss fights, this ability can be rather priceless as it makes the whole struggle a lot easier.
13 Kill Frenzy - Power Tree
Requirements:
- Level 11
- Focus
While you're at it, you might as well grab Kill Frenzy which is the succeeding skill tile of Focus. Kill Frenzy is a more generous and brutal version of Focus as it also gives a damage boost as long as you keep killing zombies. Each zombie killed will grant a power bonus for 10 seconds and this duration keeps getting refreshed with each kill.
While it might not be that useful in one versus one boss fights with no minions, it's very handy during Night Runs when staving off zombies while fighting Volatiles. Moreover, this passive skill can be a lifesaver, especially when you're surrounded by too many zombies.
12 Leg Breaker - Agility Tree
Requirements:
- Level 6
- Slide
For those of you who want an alternative to Brutal Grapple when knocking down zombies to set them up for Stomp, then Leg Breaker can be a great substitute. If you unlock this skill, you'll be able to press the kick button while performing a slide (run + crouch) in order to kick the legs of any unfortunate bipedal creature along the way.
The best part is that it can also be used as an escape move in hairy situations. Viral zombies usually go down in one hit but larger enemies will be unfazed but will still take regular kick damage. Even so, it's a great weapon for when you have no choice but to go down a nasty corridor or deadly street.
11 DIY Grenades - Survivor Tree
Requirements:
- Level 8
- Elemental Throwing Stars
It does get tiring having to manually knock down hordes of zombies and curb-stomping them one by one. At times, you will want to just deal with them with one loud bang. DIY Grenades allows you to do this as it's a Survivor skill that lets you craft some improvised grenades.
They're not just explosives though. These grenades come in four flavors: regular, bleeding, freezing, and toxic. So those who want to avoid attracting more hordes can opt for less loud and more tactical options such as toxic or freezing. They can also be surprise aces during boss fights.
10 Drop Attack - Power Tree
Requirements:
- Level 10
- Ground Pound
Drop Attack is one of the best ways to quickly dispatch an enemy without much of a confrontation. All you have to do is the press and hold the attack button while you're in midair and once the blow connects, Crane will perform a finishing move on the poor target.
This has numerous applications in practice. For one, you can easily take out problematic infected, such as those with spit attacks, and make encounters easier. The Drop Attack maneuver can also be a clutch move that's handy for close calls. It also makes fighting against human enemies armed with ranged weapons an easier affair.
9 Stomp - Power Tree
Requirements:
- Level 9
- Combat Adept
Many times in Dying Light, you'll often be surrounded by numerous infected. You'll often wish that there was some way to make quick work of them so that you can go along your merry scavenging way. Stomp is the answer here. It does have some annoying pre-requisites but they're manageable.
Stomp lets you finish enemies that are on the lower ground or in the prone position. That means you can have Crane go high on a platform while being chased by multiple infected enemies and then stomp their heads like rotten pumpkins in a post-Halloween morning.
8 Conserve Weapons - Power Tree
Requirements:
- Level 6
- Combat Adept
Surprisingly, this passive skill is located in the Power tree instead of the Survivor tree. But anyway, it's still an amazing skill to unlock and you can grab it while waiting for Stomp to become available. Conserve Weapons is pretty straightforward: your weapons will last longer.
For some players, weapon degradation in Dying Light is quite an unbearable mechanic. Conserve Weapons eases that woe. This is even more important if you just crafted or found a purple or orange grade weapon that you absolutely cherish and want to protect like a baby.
7 Stun Kill - Power Tree
Requirements:
- Level 12
- Kick Stun
Stun Kill has a lot of pre-requisite skills but the end result is worth it. This active ability grants Crane the maneuver to instantly end any stunned target. Since you've already grabbed the Stun and Kick Stun abilities along the way, then you have plenty of uses for this move.
Heck, the Stun Kill will still be significant even if it isn't dependent on Stun or Kick Stun. That's because the Agility skill tree also has some moves that will stun the enemies. Besides, Stun Kill is essentially a free kill move that you can spam quite conveniently.
6 Freerunning Expert - Agility Tree
Requirement:
- Level 12
Now, on to Agility and movement skills. The Freerunning Expert skill is a no-brainer here. It's quite a ways off and has some Freerunning pre-requisites but you'll be thankful for grabbing it and investing in it once it becomes available.
It's essentially a passive meta-upgrade that makes Crane more athletic. He can run faster, jump higher, and perform parkour moves more nimbly. On top of that, he also gains Agility skills faster so it's a snowball effect of athleticism. You'll also need to squeeze as much parkour agility out of Crane as possible in order to finish some of the hardest bounties in the game.
5 Dropkick - Agility Tree
Requirements:
- Level 4
- Dodge
Here's where the skill synergies come in. Dropkick is a handy skill from the Agility tree that allows Crane to kick any enemy. Depending on the target's size or fortitude, they'll be knocked down. Most human-sized enemies surely won't resist the kick's force.
Again, there are many uses for this but the main thing that comes to mind is its combo synergy with the Stomp skill from the Power tree. You can literally just drop kick targets and then stomp them to death, no need to tarnish your weapons. Another hilarious use for the ability is kicking enemies off ledges so you can fulfill their skydiving bucket list for a few seconds.
4 Vault Stun - Agility Tree
Requirements:
- Level 8
- Vault
Speaking of more synergies, the Vault Stun skill is also another awesome maneuver from the Agility tree that goes well with Power tree skills. It requires Vault, of course, which is also a lovely defensive and evasive skill to have especially for those in a hurry.
Vault Stun will then stun any enemy you vault over. Now that they're stunned, you can't just leave them behind. Because if you also have the Stun Kill skill from the Power tree, then that means it's time to play leapfrog with all the zombies you come across and then kill them like a punk.
3 Forward Roll - Agility Tree
Requirements:
- Level 9
- Light Drop
Too bad it's not just the infected and bandits that pose a threat to Crane but also gravity and elevation. Falling down can take out worrying chunks of health. So to prevent this from happening too much, have Crane pick up the Forward Roll ability.
It's passive and stacks up with Light Drop in order to reduce fall damage. With Forward Roll, Crane will initiate an emergency roll animation that's faithful to parkour. This will negate or reduce any damage he might endure during the fall. Call if insurance for your parkour activities.
2 Camouflage Attack - Survivor Tree
Requirements:
- Level 9
- Camouflage
Camouflage's description sounds boring and makes it seem like Crane will just lie down among the dead bodies and wait for zombie squads to pass by. That's not how it is in practice, thankfully. Camouflage is about Crane dipping his hands into putrid bloody zombie flesh and then smearing their innards and fluids all over him.
It's nasty but it will disguise Crane as one of the infected. This way, most enemies will ignore him. Meanwhile, Camouflage Attack makes it easy to take out the infected one by one while Crane is camouflaged. Those two are the perfect skills for stealth and undisturbed scavenging runs.
1 Grappling Hook - Survivor Tree
Requirements:
- Level 12
Last but not least, a skill or tool that lets you be Spider-Man as much as you can all over Harran. Grappling Hook makes traversal easy and it sort of acts as an alternative for players who forgot to attend to their Agility tree and focused on Survival instead.
In many ways, it even eliminates the need for regular parkour. That's why if you want to keep leveling your Agility tree, then you might want abstain from using the Grappling Hook. For everything else, it's an advantageous perk that shouldn't be missed.