In this The Last of Us: Part 2 Combat Guide, we will guide you on how you can get better at combat in The Last of Us; Part 2. Being a survival game, combat plays a vital role in The Last of Us: Part 2 and it is critical that you get better at combat as soon as possible because enemies are deadlier and more in number this time around. We have curated this combat guide in which we will share some tips and tricks with you regarding different combat mechanics of The Last of Us: Part 2 that will ensure that you get up to speed with combat in the game quickly.
Combat Guide – The Last of Us: Part 2
Our The Last of Us: Part 2 Combat Guide details everything that you need to know about combat in The Last of Us: Part 2.
Choose Optimal Difficulty Settings
Naughty Dog has programmed a highly detailed difficulty settings mechanic in the game which suits players of a great skill level. Whether you are a hardcore gamer or just a casual gamer who wants to experience the story, the game can be tailored exactly according to your needs. While starting the game for the first time, you are offered a large variety of difficulty options. Choose anyone that suits you and proceed with the game. After the game has started, you can head over to options and opt for the difficulty tab that will allow you more options. This section allows you to change different sub-elements of the difficulty such as the enemy’s awareness level, the number of resources you find in the world, and even how much damage the enemies deal with you.
Change every setting that you want to ensure that your story is according to your own playstyle. If you miss this at the start of the game, you can do so later as well, so you do not have to worry about anything. Simply go to the settings and adjust whatever you want to change and play the rest of the game accordingly. If you want to challenge yourself, you can go for the pre-built harder settings as well or make the game your worst nightmare by going to custom settings and ramping everything up. Play the game however it suits you well.
Always Craft Items in Advanced
During certain combat scenarios, you will be completely overwhelmed by enemies, be that humans, runners, or clickers. For this very reason, you must ensure that you always have plenty of items in your inventory so that you can use them when the need arises. For instance, you must always have one of each item in your inventory. This is the most ideal situation. Save powerful weapons and items for powerful enemies and try to look for more resources along the way to ensure that you can craft some items in an emergency if you really must. Make sure that you are always equipped in the game for emergencies.
Use Stealth to Clear Stragglers
Nearly in all areas, there will be a few enemies that will be guarding the perimeters for intruders. These will be much farther from the rest of the enemies so you must try to kill these enemies without alerting any of the others silently. Killing them silently will ensure that the rest of the enemy camp is not alerted to your location or presence and then you can move in silently to nag in a few more stealth kills. Only start firing your weapons when you are sure that there is no other way to deal with the enemies. You can go back into stealth mode as well by staying away from enemies and out of their sights.
Deal with Dogs Quickly
One tip that is directly related to the previous one is that you must deal with the pesky dogs first. These dogs do not have to see you find you. They can smell you from a decent-enough distance and they will track you down even if you are in the hiding. This makes dealing with these dogs a priority matter. Most of the time, if there are dogs in the area, you can say goodbye to stealth because there is no way of killing the dogs silently. You can use your listening sense to see their paths and lay down some bombs to kill them. This will naturally alert the enemies and make them take more aggressive search routers to find you. In simple words, if you see some dogs in the area, take them out first and stealth is not an option in these areas since they will sniff you out.
Always Distract or Stun Enemies with Random Items
Another useful mechanic from the first game that has made its way to the second game is the ability to pick up random items like bricks, bottles, and stones and use them for distracting enemies. You can find these easily lying around the stages and use them to either distract enemies to make them go away from you or throw them at enemies to stun them and make your way clear for a melee kill. If you see a couple of enemies standing together, always use these items. These are super-effective against the infected enemies of the game as well.
Try to Reserve Your Ammo Where You Can
The Last of Us: Part 2 is a survival game to its core which means that you will have limited resources to survive with. This includes ammo as well. Ammo is scarce in the game and chances are that you will not always have the ammo for your favorite weapon when you need them the most if you keep firing them away even at easier enemies. Try to conserve your ammo for heavies and if you are a happy shooter, change your playstyle to a more conservative shooter. Only shoot when you are sure that the bullets will hit the enemies and resort to traps, melee weapons, and other means of killing when you can. Never spray your bullets on enemies because you will chew through your ammo quickly this way. Always check the dead bodies of your enemies. They mostly drop ammo after you kill them.
Lay Down Traps for your Enemies
You will have plenty of bombs and other traps with you that can be laid down and used as traps or baits for your enemies. Try to anticipate their paths and lay down some bombs and tripwires that will explode every time an enemy comes near to them. However, you will need to be careful because once an explosive device explodes, there is no more stealth in the area and all enemies will start actively looking for you. During such a phase, it will be much harder to anticipate enemy movement patterns.
When Everything Else Fails, Run Away
There will be many moments in the game when you will feel extremely overwhelmed by enemies. Both human and infected enemies will always try to box you in from different sides so if you are feeling extremely helpless, you can leave everything and start sprinting to the next area. Very few instances will require you to clear the area to move forward. Most of the time, if you just spring past the enemies, they will just be left behind if you move to the next area. Both human and infected enemies can be avoided this way. Just make sure that you do not die while trying to run away from the enemies.
For more help with the game, make sure to check out more guides linked below.
This concludes our The Last of Us: Part 2 Combat Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.
