Be the Zombie

Be the Zombie is a free downloable content for Dying Light. It is one of the playable multiplayer modes available in the game.

Overview

Initially set as a pre-order bonus before coming free to players, Be the Zombie is a gamemode where players can invade other player's games, if enabled.

Invading players control the Night Hunter, a superior player-controlled infected with an unlockable skill tree, to defend its nests (serving as a spawn point) and kill any attacking player survivors until their limited lives run out. As a human survivor, the player will be alerted of the Night Hunter invading and must search and destroy the nest to prevent it from respawning. Once the player controlling the Night Hunter finishes synchronizing with the survivor's game, both players will be placed at random places around the map, the nests will spawn, and the map will automatically be set to night time. While only one player can control the Night Hunter, human survivors can be allowed up to four players.

When playing the Night Hunter for the first time, they will be put and be introduced into a tutorial before they can select matchmaking to find a player to invade.

Strategies

Combos and Strats for the Hunter

• Try to combine your UV suppressor with UV block, if you stick your spit, an inexperienced human is 99% going to die. The way to do it is UV Spit > UV Block and then Pounce to finish off the attack
• If you surround the human to a corner, its is quite easy to stick a spit on them and attack them, these locations are quite common in the slums. But do be aware, it can work against you, if you get backed up in a corner, you're the one going to die. 
• Do not waste your energy on charging spit sniping, every decent survivor knows how to avoid them pretty easily, unless you can aim pretty accurately and fast while being fast, don't use it. Don't waste spits like candy either, its a huge thing to manage them, but please do use them. 
• The best blind spot the survivor has from pouncing is above, silent pounces, when you basically tendril of something higher than you and falling down, is a good way to catch the survivor off guard. When they get pounced, they have a split second to use their uv, if you can mess with their timing or make them run out of uv, good for you. 
• Movement is a key part in BTZ, use tendril sprint, sprinting right when your tendril hits the ground, or jumping right when your tendril hits (tendril jump) the ground really gains up speed, if you add the strafe keys, such as tendriling jump to the left hold w and a, and for tendril jumping to the right pressing w and s, It will really confuse players, but be warned this is a very advanced technique and takes hours to master it.
• The above-stated use of momentum can also apply to tackles and ground pounds. If you are moving through the air quickly and tendril to the ground at a shallow angle, you will keep your momentum while running for a short time, which can let you tackle a human immediately after landing.
• Missing a pounce and flying into spikes kills you instantly, and has rather strong magnetism to the spikes, causing unpredictable impalement. If a human is standing still, facing you but not UV lighting you, they may be trying to lure you into killing yourself. Ground Pounding them instead can get them impaled, tackling can do the same, but missing can easily net the same suicidal results.
• Your Ground Pound gives you a small window of UV immunity after landing a hit, letting you escape with a tiny amount of energy. This can be used to make a quick escape while completely drained of energy, as landing the attack also gives you a sliver of energy, just enough to tendril to a roof and fly away.
• Ground Pound attacks can disable flares, so Ground Pounding a human hiding in flare light and pouncing moments later can sometimes be an effective strategy. In the Country Side map from the Following DLC, you can ground pound a human player's buggy to flip it, which also turns off its UV lights, should they be on. If surrounded but near a buggy, ground pound it to give yourself a short window of escape.
• Your tackle ability is both a deadly weapon and a deadly liability. While landing a tackle does respectable damage and elevation can lead to massive damage, plus the ability to impale humans on spikes are all good, missing a tackle is easy to do and can be fatal. Running into spikes after missing is instantly fatal, and you are often going to get hit a few times after missing one. A lesser known aspect of tackling is that it can be used on buggies in the Countryside, which can be an effective way to stop a buggy, giving a window of opportunity to spit on it or flip it.
• If there is an opportunity to use your LeapFrog move, take it. There is usually not too much risk to leap frogging, and it can sometimes net you a few kills. Remember, however, that you have to target humans with your pounce button before landing on the first human, otherwise you will not be able to jump to the next victim. Leap Frogging always kills the first human, despite you not biting them, and they cannot be revived. If you have the Pounce Slam skill, any human hit by it is free game to leap frog onto, they cannot move, or use their UV light, even mid pounce. If you try leap frogging, but the second target puts something in between you, you still finish the pounce animation early, letting you give chase moments after landing a pounce.
• The Horde spit is a good idea to distract the humans, forcing them to direct their attention away from you so that you can pounce. If a horde spat human climbs to get away, use a Ground Pound or tackle to get them where your horde pals can reach. Keep pressuring them on the roof tops, and let the horde do the rest. Be a bit careful though, as the Horde can actually kill you sometimes, its very rare, but on occasion if one Gas Tank blows another up, his explosive tank can fall off and kill you if you're unlucky.
• Sometimes, humans will grapple to a roof you are standing on, if they do, you can tackle before they climb up, which they cannot dodge. a tackle from high enough can be fatal, as unlike with a Ground Pound, humans are stunned until landing, and cannot do anything while in mid air. You can even ground pound a human off of a rooftop and follow it up with an unavoidable mid-air tackle, which, combined with any fall damage they take after, is most of the time a guaranteed kill.
• In co-op, only spikes or a successful pounce will instantly kill a human; Suiciders, ground pounds, claws, and tackles will allow them to be revived by their teammates. Attack a downed human with your claw to deplete their bleed-out time.
• Do not let the humans gang up on you - you can be killed in 2-4 hits, so use your mobility and UV Shield as much as possible when they attempt to focus on you.
• Humans will often sprint at you in an attempt to land a drop kick. Unlike with your tackles, which they can dodge, you have no method of countering a drop kick other than simply staying out of reach. Getting kicked into spikes is instant death, although in the panic of close quarters combat this usually does not happen intentionally. Being kicked is not the end of the world, as you get a moment of UV immunity while getting kicked, so you may still be able to flee. You can sometimes ground pound the human before they land the kick, although the timing seems to be more in the humans favor, so its a better idea to just not get kicked in the first place.
• Keep in mind that the Horde, UV spit, and sense suppressor spits explode, so you can get away with an indirect hit or simply sending it in their general area. You can often turn humans into makeshift bombs by sticking one of them, making them panic and run, spit in tow, to their allies, potentially soaking an entire team, and sowing chaos among them.
• When a human climbs a nearby ledge, you have the option to pounce them (though they have a brief window of opportunity to use UV on you), tackle them, or ground pound (to knock them off the building and deal some fall damage).
• Avoid getting under humans as much as possible, as a DFA (Death From Above) is very hard, if not impossible, to see coming, and like your pounce, is a guaranteed death if it connects. It is possible, however, to use this to your advantage, by luring humans into jumping off buildings to their doom, but try to keep in mind that DFAs have quite wide margins for error.
• Avoid being killed at all costs. Getting killed will buy the humans a good amount of time, and allow them to destroy a nest completely unhindered.
• Downed humans can be used as bait. When a human attempts to revive another, the healing animation leaves them both vulnerable. The Night Hunter can take advantage of this by using either UV, or Horde spit, and pouncing them both when the one human has been revived. Another, slightly more taunting move to pull is using a Toxic spit on the downed human, which will likely prevent any other humans from helping them without taking significant damage, and allows you to finish them off with claw attacks. However, if no spits are available, the best way to avoid a downed human from being revived is by tackling any human that attempts to heal them, and swiping at the downed human to speed up their death. Again, the animation leaves them vulnerable and it is impossible to dodge a tackle mid healing-animation. An update reduced the revive timer from 30 seconds to only about 15, giving survivors much less time to help downed allies.
• If out of all spit, or are just starting out as the Night Hunter, one easy way to catch the humans off guard is to use the tendrils to move around the map at random. While doing this, make sure to stay in an area where you can see them. This is a strategy that causes the humans to use their eyes more than their Survivor sense, which allows you to easily catch them off guard. Once you see a blind spot, take it and use it for a pounce attack. Note that it only works if you can move faster than the humans are searching, meaning try to make them focus on you instead of their map.
• Once unlocked, Spit Smash becomes a very effective killing tool, as a UV spit smash and the Acid spit smash combo is very hard to survive. All spits can be used in a smash attack, but they cost 2 spits instead of one, making these attacks very hard to pull off unless on a 1v4 match, where spits recharge much faster.
• There are exceptions to allowing yourself to run out of stamina, but this should only be used as a last resort, meaning that it should only be used if the humans have one life and you have one nest left. The first step is to make yourself open and once you have their attention, run towards an area that is completely open. It must have no structures to climb on, this can also work if the nest is near no climbing structures. Once the humans are out in the open, have them go towards you with an attack such as a tackle, then hit them with a Horde spit or if you have more than one do all of them. This will leave them vulnerable to the horde's attack, although they may be able to escape if they are equipped with boosters or grappling hooks.
• When using a Horde spit, one way to catch them off guard is to use it on the opposite side of the human's view on a nest. This can only effect them if you do it at the right time, meaning that you have to do it when they are just about to reach the nest, but they can not see you use it. It helps to count how long it takes for the spit to explode before doing this. An alternate idea is if you are on a bridge and they are coming to attack you, hide behind a van and then use a spit on it where they can't see it before running or getting to high ground. Once they are hit, then pounce them to kill them.
• When a human resorts to using a flare (even though you cant pounce them), there are ways to do damage to them with out entering the light's range. If you achieved the Sky Drop Ground Pound ability, just get above their heads and then ground pound them to destroy the flare, damage them, and get yourself into a perfect position to pounce them while they are stuck in mid-air.
• Arial Ground Pound lets you charge a Ground Pound in the air, and then drop straight down, unleashing the attack on landing. This can be used as a spit smash, letting you drop down from above and spit players caught in the blast. Be careful about using this, as once you start dropping with a charged pound, you cannot move in the air, and this can cause you to miss the attack, and get killed.
• In the Countryside, humans can use buggies to get around. You can grab onto these buggies and start smashing the driver, who takes three hits to die. Be wary of humans getting out to kill you, as you will stay on the buggy until holding your attack cancel button to get off. Humans can also ram into things to smash you off, and if they ram into spikes, you will die.
• In the Countryside, if you use a horde spit on humans in an open field, this can easily kill them. With no where to climb, suiciders can easily kill off a human.
• Mutation 1 Hunters can use a Sense Suppressant spit, which disables their survivor sense, essentially blinding them for an entire minute. To make the most of this opportunity, do not howl, as this can be a dead giveaway of your location, instead just follow the spit indicator, which will be above any affected survivors. Once you close in, move around on foot, as your tendrils make a lot of noise, and try to strike from the dark, or from below if possible. They can still use their UV lights while suppressed, but if you play it right they wont know where to point them.
• If a human uses camouflage, a red ? will appear where they used it, and it will remain there until they either use another camo, or it wears off. Camouflaged humans will appear red in the game world, but will not be visible though walls or on your map. You can still attack them if you can find them, and the best way to find them is to go near the nests, and the head towards where they were last seen, as camo is often used to help the humans get to the nests safely. Of course, if the nests start being damaged, it means the camouflaged human made it there, and that should be where you go next.
• Sometimes, humans will pull a gun and start shooting at you. Despite simple logic saying otherwise, this is actually a prime opportunity to go ballistic on the shooter. Guns do pathetic damage against the Hunter due to balancing, and closing the gap can let you deal some significant damage while they try to shoot you. Going after a human in a confined space is still a bad idea though, as they can still quickly switch to a melee weapon, all of which out damage your claws. Keep in mind that shotguns do still hurt quite a bit though, but not enough to one shot you, and are near worthless at point blank range against a fast moving Hunter.
• When you use the horde spit try and stay on the ground since while the survivors are attacking you the bombers can run behind them and kill them also if you go up on a roof most likely the survivors will chase you and they will be safe from the bombers the only true bad thing about being on the ground is that you are extremely vulnerable to getting DFA
• Holding the jump button allows you to scale up walls.
• To get a speed boost, use your tendrils while sprinting and hold it until you're on the ground. This can also be used to tackle the human if you're in the air, pretending to be distracting them.
• If the human dodges your tackle, you can spit on the ground below you since they will be going after you to hit you.
• If the human dodges your tackle, run towards them and ground pound them if they're in front of spikes. Most humans are gonna assume you're trying to tackle them twice.
• A good tactic is to spit on the human after a successful tackle or ground pound since it's most likely gonna hit and stick to them.
• To counter DFA, you must be sprinting and when you see the human flying to you in slow motion, spam E. It depends on your timing and might require a bit of training, but it works.
• Use your tendrils and if unlocked, the UV block to get away if your stamina is below 25%.

Against the Hunter

• The Night Hunter is weak to UV lights, rapidly depleting its stamina. The Night Hunter can only pounce when its stamina is full, so even a quick flash of your flashlight will stop it from pouncing. Drain its energy completely, and it won't be able to sprint or use tendril locomotion.
• Always shine your UV light on the Hunter when its in range. The only time when you should not do this is if the Hunter uses its UV block skill, during which it will glow bright white, its stamina meter on your screen will become unreadable, and feature a small shield, and, mainly, the Hunter is immune to UV lights. If it starts running, stop using your light, as your just wasting its power, but if it comes straight at you using UV block, keep shining, and do not let it out of your sights, it may be trying to pounce from a blind spot, usually above and behind you. When the Hunter pounces, its UV block is canceled, allowing you to still interrupt it. A lesser known fact is that if you interrupt a Hunter's pounce, it flies over you, and can actually die if it crashes into some spikes.
• When the hunter pounces on another player, take advantage of the hunter's immobility while it kills them - but be careful, as some Hunters have the Leap Frog skill, which lets it jump from one pounce victim to the next moments after landing. If the Hunter starts doing the killing animation, it wont be able to pounce anyone else, but be wary, as Hunters can target you for a Leap Frog before landing their first target, and don't need full energy to jump to another target. Also, keep in mind that the Hunter cannot actually be stopped from killing a pinned human, once it lands the pounce, that survivor is already dead, and the Hunter gets a rather significant boost to damage and UV light resistance while killing the human.
• Stay together, as the Hunter will have less difficulty killing you when you are alone and unprepared.
• The "Camouflage" perk and the Cloak potion works wonders against the Hunter. When you camouflage/cloaked, the Hunter's howl will only show where you were when the camouflage/cloaked was used. Use this to your advantage. Be warned, however, that being invisible is not being invincible, you can still be attacked as normal, and are actually quite visible in the game world, you will glow red, similar to the effects of a spit. You wont appear through walls, but don't be surprised if the Hunter comes after you anyways. Oftentimes, the Hunter will bee line for your obvious destination; the Nests.
• When the Hunter pounces on you, you have a very short moment to shine UV light on it before it locks in. Doing this will disrupt its pounce, saving a potential victim. You can also interrupt its pounce of other survivors, allowing you to protect others who cant use their light 
• You cannot avoid the Ground Pound by dodging, but can use it to get out of range before the attack. You can however, evade tackles if you jump or dodge right before hunter charges forward. Missing a ground pound give the Hunter a long recover time, during which it is defenseless, and a missed tackle boosts you into the air, and makes the Hunter fly back a bit behind you. The Hunter will die if it runs into a spike wall while tackling - but the humans can also get impaled, by being Ground Pounded or tackled into them. 
• Night Hunter spit sticks to everything. While attacking nests, standing still will make you an easy target. Be sure to stay on the move constantly. There is no special indicator to tell you if a spit has stuck to you, or just landed near you. if you start moving, and the explosives indicator stays active, you may have been stuck. A more definitive marker is if you see a colored spit trail in your face briefly. If stuck, don't run to your allies, that is exactly what the Hunter is hoping for, as tagging the whole team could result in a lot of lost lives. instead, back away from your team, while keeping an eye out for the Hunter. 
• When someone gets tagged by a spit, what you should do will depend on the spit. Yellow horde summon spits will call Gas Tanks that will rush in towards the tagged survivors and explode. Purple UV Block spits will disable all sources of UV light, including flares. If tagged by yellow spits, be on the watch for Gas Tanks, they will emerge from man holes mainly, and show up as red arrows on your map. Get to higher ground fast, as they cannot climb, but will instantly kill you if they blow up on you. Make sure to drain the Hunter to at least half of his energy before you climb, to avoid getting pounced. Do not fight the Hunter while being chased by the horde, and do not go for even an easy Death From Above; just because the Hunter dies doesn't mean you won't too. UV block spits will leave you defenseless against the Hunter's pounce if you don't have some flares or nearby teammates. Drop some flares and stay in range of UV light until the spit wears off if you want to survive the next few seconds. The Hunter may come into your flare, be very careful if it does this, as its Ground Pound can disable flares. Using Drop Kicks can help keep the Hunter from disabling your Flares.
• Higher level hunters can also have two more spits; Sense spit, which disables the human's Survivor sense for a while so the Hunter cannot be detected easily, and the Toxic spit which creates a toxic area around where it explodes. Sense Suppressor spit lasts about a minute, which is quite long when a ravenous, nigh unstoppable monster is chasing you. Stay near allies who still have their sense, and use your ears. Tendrils are quite noisy.  
• You can jump on the hunter from higher ground and kill him in one hit - though be aware that it can pounce you from below if it has full stamina, so be sure to keep it drained of energy. If the Hunter has full energy and is fast, he can pounce you at the beginning of the attack animation. Be aware that, while in earlier versions of the game you could use a Death From Above from almost any height, there is now a height requirement, approximately the height of the top of a transport truck. Do not miss a DFA at extreme heights, as you could end up dead.  
• When going for a Death From Above attack, there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly, make sure you can actually land the attack, keep above the Hunter when falling, and don't jump if its going under something that will block your attack. Face the Night Hunter directly while falling, and keep shining your UV light on it, as the Hunter can pounce you mid air if his energy is full. While there is a height requirement for the attack, this does not mean you should make extreme jumps trying to land one. it is safer to jump for a height you know you can survive a fall from if you miss, and shorter distances give the Hunter less time to flee, and the longer you fall, the less control you have over your descent. If you are covered in horde spit, DO NOT go for a DFA, as missing can get you blown up, and landing an attack locks you in place during the animation, letting the horde close in.  
• Tossing ones weapon at the Hunter can do massive damage, but is ill-advised, as its easy to miss and lose your weapon, but if you think you can land one, a hunter missing even a bit of HP can be killed by a throw. Unlike with other infected, sharp weapons like swords and machetes will not get stuck in the Hunter, instead bouncing off after dealing damage, allowing for them to be picked back up without worry of the Hunter stealing your brand new katana.
• Water used to be infamous for having survivors camp in it, as the Hunter cannot attack you, and the Horde wont try to swim. That was, until, an update brought along a timer that forfeits the match in the Hunters favor if you stay in water for too long. it can still be used briefly for horde evasion, but you are very vulnerable while climbing out.
• Another quick way to kill the Night Hunter would be to use the Tackle ability to deal a small portion of damage, followed by one swing from a heavy weapon, which is enough to instantly kill the Night Hunter. This can be done in quick succession as the tackle ability has very little recovery time, whilst still being able to deal significant damage. To successfully pull this off, the Night Hunter would ideally be immobilized for a short time, such as being completely depleted of stamina from UV light exposure, or from missing a ground pound attack.
• The Hunter ground pound CAN be cancelled, if not already used. Use your dodging skills to lure him into missing his ground pound then while he is recovering throw a heavy weapon which will kill in one hit.
• One handed weapons decrease 40% per swing from the Hunter's health,Charged one handed weapons decrease 90%,Dropkicks also decrease about 40%, Two handed weapons decrease 90% per swing and kicks decrease 5%. Firearms have poor damage output and it decrease less than the kicks about 3%
• Don't rely on your map too much, as it wont tell you exactly where the Hunter is on a vertical scale, you are better off facing the Hunter when he gets near, to prevent being pounced from behind.
• If you need to craft an item, you are better off waiting until the match is over, as BTZ often requires split second reflexes, and being in a menu makes you a sitting duck. If it is absolutely necessary, drop a flare or hide in a safezone, and be quick about it.
• When attacking a nest, have someone keep watch for the Night Hunter, and also be wary of the regular biters around the nest, as they become Night Walkers when the nest is agitated, and these can prove a dangerous distraction.
• While rare, it is possible for some of Rais thugs to be present during the BTZ match. They can actually be a real concern if they are armed with guns, and the Hunter cannot pounce them. If this does happen, and the thug(s) have firearms, the best way to deal with them is to use a DFA to insta kill them, or if available, throw some molotovs at them.
• When the hunter lost all its energy start turning your UV on and of every 1 second the hunter after losing all its energy it takes 1 second until it starts regaining its energy plus you will save some energy for your flashlight.
• if you are the last survivor that dies from a pounce the night hunter for some reason stares into your eyes
• Don't try to stay out in the open as even if you are in a safe zone the hunter still can pounce you and don't stay inside an abandoned house if you want to make sure it has an upper floor and a lower floor just in case the hunter summons the horde or has acid spit
• If your UV light is almost dead throw a flare at the hunter or the floor until you refilled to avoid getting pounced
• If a biter is turning into a nightwalker kick or tackle them out of the animation and they will turn back into a biter since this cancels out the animation.

Gallery

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Videos

• Dying Light - Be The Zombie Trailer
• Dying Light Playing as the Zombie - IGN First
• Dying Light Devs Play Be the Zombie Mode
• Dying Light The Following Official Be the Zombie The Showdown Trailer