Developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony, The Last of Us 2 is finally out in the wild. The structure of the game is fairly linear and straightforward, but the gameplay systems in place here are complex enough to overwhelm some players, and if you’re looking for beginner tips to get started, you’ve come to the right place.
Learn to Deal With Clickers and Runners
Early on in The Last of Us 2, the main infected types you’ll be facing are Clickers and Runners. Runners are your regular zombie type, and Clickers are blind, but are highly sensitive to sound. You can kill Runners with regular melee attacks, but Clickers are much more dangerous and can instantly kill you if you don’t have a melee weapon equipped.
The trick to dealing with infected is to be as stealthy as possible. In a stealthy situation, Runners are far more dangerous as they can spot you visually, so ideally you’ll want to take them out with sneak attacks first.
Because Clickers are blind, you can walk past them as long as you crouch walk slowly. In addition to that, Ellie is constantly armed with a switchblade, which allows you to stealth kill them if you manage to get close enough.
Focus on the Stealth Upgrades for Ellie
Ellie’s a great fighter in The Last of Us 2, but she’ll fare much better as a sneaky infiltrator than as a brawler in an open fight. Just like in the first game, you can collect supplementary pills to unlock permanent upgrades.
The first skill tree lets you upgrade your health, and it’s definitely recommended that you go for the max health upgrades first. But once you get the stealth-focused training manual, you’ll want to get the upgrades for improved prone and crouching movement speed, as well as low-profile stealth kills. These make it much easier for you to kill enemies silently and quickly.
Considering how scarce resources can be even on Moderate difficulty, you should definitely try to be as sneaky as possible to save your bullets.
Always Go For the Dogs First
As sad as it is, you will inevitably have to kill a dog or two in The Last of Us 2. They’re among some of the most dangerous enemies you can encounter in a stealthy playthrough, as they’ll be able to pick up your scent almost instantly and track you down.
The good news is that dogs are easily to kill –an arrow shot with the bow will kill it instantly, and even if you do end up in an open fight, you can kill dogs with regular melee attacks. As long as you kill the dog, you’ll be able to quickly hide again and your enemies will lose track of you, allowing you to resume your stealth tactics.
One thing to note is that dogs are always accompanied by a human. Shoot down the dog with the arrow, then quickly follow up with another arrow on the human enemy to prevent alerting everyone in the area.
Bricks and Bottles Are Useful in Every Situation
Bricks and bottles are the most common items you can find in the game, and you can throw them around to create distractions, disarm traps, and even injure enemies.
When dealing with enemies, you can throw them in any direction to lure your enemies there. This creates an opening for you to sneak up on them from behind for a few quick kills. In addition to that, they’re also extremely useful in combat situations, especially if you don’t have any melee weapons equipped.
You can toss them at enemies quickly to stun them for a couple seconds, then go in for a few melee hits to finish them off. Bricks and bottles can also be used as melee weapons, but the bottle will break within one hit, while the brick only lasts an additional hit.
You Can Always Mess With the Difficulty Settings
The Last of Us 2 isn’t a particularly easy game, and if it ever gets too challenging, you can always turn it down a bit. The good thing about the game is that you don’t have to immediately lower the overall difficulty; there are several settings to choose from.
For instance, if stealth isn’t quite your cup of tea, you can adjust the in-game settings to make it so that enemies won’t notice you quite so easily, while still leaving your damage output intact. You can also increase enemy damage or health separately if you want to up the challenge.
Ultimately, the game can be tailored to suit virtually any play style, and if you ever find yourself stuck, try fiddling with the settings to find an appropriate difficulty level.
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