Vincent Waltz
Vincent Waltz, often referred to simply as Waltz, is a major character and the main antagonist in Dying Light 2 Stay Human. A former doctor and scientist who worked under the Global Relief Effort for discovering a cure to THV by conducting numerous experiments on children, Waltz was later fired for his unethical tests. Now, enhanced with powerful drugs named Inhibitors and the support of The Renegades, Waltz will stop at nothing to cure his daughter Mia, even if it means the destruction of Villedor, the last bastion of humanity.
Summary
Pre-Fall
Dr. Waltz was a scientist working with the Global Relief Effort. At some point he married an unknown woman and had a child named Mia.
The Fall
Waltz experimented with THV on young children, hoping to both create a perfect bioweapon that made a host merge with the virus without killing or turning the host and create a vaccine to battle a mutated variant of the pathogen. Eventually, he was fired by the GRE when they realized that his experimentations was unethical and immoral but it was too late as the THV soon brought civilization to its' knees leading to the annihilation of a huge part of the human population, culminating in the event known as The Fall.
Post-Fall
After the Fall, Waltz allied himself with Colonel Williams who was the leader of the Renegades and set up his main base in a GRE laboratory where he once again began experimenting with the THV on other Renegades and eventually himself. He later betrays Williams and convinces some members of the Renegades he experimented on to join him. Waltz then starts looking for the rare GRE key that can grant him access to an abandoned but still functional facility called X13 so that he can cure his daughter Mia from the virus and in fact hires the Peacekeeper commander named Lucas to search for it. The former GRE doctor also became infected with a strain of THV during his experimentations which granted him superhuman abilities but with the consequence of also having the instincts of an Infected, particularly the Volatile.
When Lucas finally found the GRE key, Waltz sent a former Nightrunner named Hakon to kill Lucas and give the key to him but it was stolen by Dylan who knew of the dire consequences of the doctor’s actions should he ever get his hands on the key. Waltz and the rest of his Renegades soon begin to chase Dylan, eventually discovering and killing him, although Waltz fails to obtain the Key as prior to this Dylan had already given it to Aiden.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
Waltz was introduced when Aiden mentions him to Spike in the outskirts of Villedor after Spike askes for the reason why Aiden wants to go to the last bastion of humankind. He is first seen in a dream of the past by Aiden when he was still working for the GRE during the child experimentations in The City before the Fall. Waltz is then encountered by Aiden in the present when he kills a defector from the city named Dylan in the Metro Systems after he stole the GRE key from the doctor. Waltz eventually sees Aiden and orders his men to capture him but fails since Aiden manages to evade the Renegades.
Waltz is soon mentioned in the Missing Persons quest by bandits working for the doctor who state that he is looking for the GRE key. He is once again mentioned by Hakon when it was revealed that the former Nightrunner was forced into working for Waltz and killing Commander Lucas who had the Key.
Aiden encounters Waltz upon first entering the Central Loop through a tunnel after Waltz is attacked and seemingly captured by Aiden and a group of Peacekeepers, including the new commander of Old Town, Aitor. The GRE key is then stolen by Waltz from Aiden after which he heads towards an abandoned car factory to activate an old world console by using it. Aiden later arrives in the same factory guarded by a group of Renegades and proceeds to either easily dispose of or sneak past them until he reaches Waltz. Aiden then attacks the doctor but is easily overpowered and is almost choked to death until thankfully being saved by Lawan who shoots Waltz. Due to a side-effect of the experimentations he conducted on himself Waltz begins to turn, showing a behavior similar to that of a Volatile. In the nick of time Aiden takes the GRE key and after a lengthy pursuit manages to successfully escape Waltz together with Lawan.
Later, Waltz sends his Renegades armed with cannons to invade the Central Loop and take it over but the attack fails. However, the attack creates a drift between himself and the Colonel, Colonel Williams, a main enemy for both the Peacekeepers and Survivors. He then manages to deceive both that the assault was launched by his former ally turned enemy, Williams.
Aiden gets in contact with Veronika Ryan and the two meet at the GRE Observatory where Aiden thinks he can find information on Mia. Unfortunately, it turns out that they aren't alone in there and as it turns out Waltz and his Renegades are looking for the two. Waltz finds Veronika while Aiden is busy fighting his Renegades and attempts to get the key from her, Aiden arrives just in time and proceeds to hit Vincent on the head, stunning him and allowing the two run away from Waltz but eventually the mad scientist catches up to them and fights Aiden. Despite getting the upper hand in the fight Aiden's infection begins to act up and Waltz uses this moment of weakness to throw Aiden towards the other observatory. Due to an overconsumption of Inhibitors, combined with the effects from being infect, Aiden temporarily loses control and enters a semi-turned state during which he brutally decapitates and kills Veronika. Afterwards, Waltz gets the GRE key from Veronika's corpse before launching a missile strike thus destroying significant sections of the city and covering them in fog.
With Waltz in possession of the key, he is finally close to executing his plan of going to Site X13 and destroying the city in order to save Mia, who we find out is actually his daughter and also the person Aiden had been looking for thinking while falsely assuming she was his sister. Aiden travels to X13 either with or without Hakon but Lawan meets him there too. In spite of Aiden telling her numerous times that it's dangerous and that she must leave Lawan insists on staying and finds where the missiles are located along with many explosives that can only be detonated manually.
Aiden then confronts Waltz and the two fight a hard battle, during which they both come close to fully turning but ultimately Aiden defeats Waltz. Mia then finally appears and tries to give Aiden the Key but Waltz knocks it out of his hand into chemicals, therefore destroying it. Mia then collapses on the ground and goes unconscious and is taken to a bed where she is temporarily resuscitated. At the same time Aiden is contacted by Lawan who says that she can detonate the explosives in order to stop the missile strikes. Aiden is given a difficult choice to either go after Lawan and stop her from detonating the missiles or take Mia while Lawan detonates the missiles (depending on the player's choice Hakon can save her from dying in the explosion if he is still alive).
Relationships
Aiden Caldwell
Aiden was one of the many children Waltz had experimented on. The drugs given to Aiden had the strongest effect on him and is the reason for his superhuman strength. As a child Aiden and Waltz seemed to have a good relationship but during the events of the game, Aiden despises Waltz and on numerous occasions mentions the inhumane actions he and Mia were subjected to while still only being 5 year old children
Mia
Waltz is Mia's father. Not much is known about their relationship prior to the events of the game but from his actions and dialog it's clear he deeply loves and cares about her, so much so that he is willing to go out of his way to destroy an entire City and kill all who stand in his way just so he can save her.
Lawan
Lawan hates Waltz due to also being subjected to his experiments as a child and he is thus ranked highly on her kill list.
Colonel “The Butcher” Williams
Waltz was the Butcher's right-hand man and the too worked together for a while but Waltz eventually betrayed him and left with a majority of the Renegades by promising to increase their power and abilities using inhibitors.
Factions
The Global Relief Effort
Waltz was the chief medical officer of X13 but was fired after it was discovered he was experimenting on children. However, he worked with his own team of scientists outside of GRE influence so he kept his objective to find the cure going into the Fall.
The Renegades
Vincent Waltz was the right-hand man of Chris Williams but left with most of the Renegades with the promise of enhancing them with inhibitors.
Conversations
| Show: Pilgrim's Path |
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Informant: "Let's get the fuck out." |
Gallery
Waltz in Aiden's flashbacks.
