Yesterday, Techland announced the release of the free Dying Light 2 Gut Feeling update. It's a rather big one, following up on the promise made by Tymon Smektala of the studio's plan to take the game to the next level.

　　First and foremost, the Dying Light 2 Gut Feeling update is focused on greatly improving the game's combat. It is peculiar that Techland is releasing this on the same day that Dead Island 2, a rival game and the sequel in the franchise it created, launches with an explicit focus on satisfying zombie-slaying combat.

　　Anyway, players can now expect to be able to cut zombies in half, thanks to the more detailed dismemberment added with this patch. Each limb can be cut in three places, according to the developers, and players can even rip flesh out of their enemies' bodies, leaving a hole. Visually, they'll see popped eyeballs, exposed ribs and bones, and more variations of smashed skulls.

　　The underlying physics has been enhanced, too. Enemies can now fall on top of each other (even dropping from rooftops) with proper weight and force, and status effects like burning and electrocution now transfer from one zombie to another if they're close enough. Ragdolls have been improved, and so have enemy reactions to hits.

　　Another addition of the Dying Light 2 Gut Feeling update is weapon crafting, handled by the Craftmaster NPCs. Players will have to unlock weapon blueprints while roaming the City before heading back to the Craftmasters to create them, provided they own the necessary resources. Blueprints are upgradable, so the higher they are, the stronger the weapons will be. The crafted weapons will have randomized affixes, though, leaving that part of the crafting to pure luck.

　　The game also features a Gear Transmog features now. It's pretty self-explanatory, really: you'll now have the option to modify the aesthetics of most gear pieces thanks to a new slot called Appearance.

　　Techland even created a new website called Pilgrim Outpost. Dying Light 2 players can now head over there to activate bounties in-game; completing them yields special reputation points, and as you rank up, you'll get Pilgrim Tokens that can be used to purchase unique weapons or an Outpost Drop that comes with random stuff (including some crafting materials). There will be six unique bounties every week, and completing them all in time nets bonus reputation points.

　　Dying Light 2 Gut Feeling also upgraded the Intel XeSS upscaling option to version 1.1, making it the default setting for Intel ARC graphics cards. Additional technical improvements include memory usage optimization, better foliage lighting, transparency, water reflections, specular reflections, ray traced shadows, volumetric shadows, and more.

　　Last but not least, Techland activated a new live event, Viral Rush, running through May 4th. Completing its goals will unlock the Rahim bundle (two exclusive skins and a weapon).

　　In June, Dying Light 2 is scheduled to get an improved night experience and a smoother parkour system, though 2023's meat will be the open world DLC launching before the end of the year with a new location, new story, and new weapon types.