Crafting is a crucial combat feature in Dead Island 2, enabling players to maintain and upgrade their weapons. With the right ingredients, weapons can be enhanced with status effect mods, defensive abilities, and perks. While some crafting items are common, others are rare. Among the rarest is the Mutated Heart, a key component for crafting some of the game’s best weapons.
Unlike other resources like Fabric or Chemicals, Mutated Hearts can’t simply be found lying around. Instead, players need to target a specific zombie variant to obtain this elusive item. This guide will explain how to find and farm Mutated Hearts in Dead Island 2.
Understanding Mutators
To get Mutated Hearts, players must defeat Mutators, a unique and formidable type of zombie. These creatures are introduced during the “Search for Truth” mission, and dealing with them requires players to be well into the late stages of the game’s story.
Mutators are colossal Apex zombies with immense health and damage. Initially, they blend seamlessly with regular Walkers, making them hard to spot before they mutate. Learning to identify and defeat them efficiently is essential for farming Mutated Hearts.
Identifying Pre-Mutated Mutators
Before they transform, Mutators can be found among regular Walkers. Thankfully, they exhibit distinct traits that make them identifiable from a distance. Look for Walkers that are bald, extremely emaciated, with greyish skin, shirtless, and wearing cargo pants. Spotting these traits allows you to take them down before they mutate, making them easier to handle and increasing the chances of obtaining a Mutated Heart.
Attack Patterns of Mutators
Mutators have a specific set of attack patterns that, once understood, can make them easier to defeat:
- Slap & Slam: The Mutator swipes at you with its normal arm before slamming its bone-blade arm into the ground, creating a shockwave. This is their most common attack.
- Wide Swipe: Often used after being staggered or when attacked from a blind spot, the Mutator spins and swipes with its normal arm, pushing you back and dealing damage.
- Lunge: The Mutator lunges forward, attempting to stab you with its blade arm. There’s minimal wind-up, so be ready to dodge.
- Bone Barrage: If you maintain too much distance, the Mutator fires bone shards from its chest. Close the gap quickly to avoid this.
- Grab & Devour: The Mutator tries to grab you with its normal arm. If caught, you must complete a QTE while taking bleed damage. Failing the QTE results in instant death.
Best Strategies for Farming Mutated Hearts
The most effective way to farm Mutated Hearts is to kill Mutators before they transform. Here’s a step-by-step approach:
- Identify Pre-Mutated Mutators: Scan crowds of Walkers for the distinct traits of pre-mutated Mutators. This early identification is key to preventing their transformation.
- Use Strong Weapons: Once identified, use a powerful gun to land a headshot. This often kills them instantly, preventing their mutation and making the encounter much safer.
- Late-Game Preparation: Ensure you’re equipped with upgraded weapons and gear. Since Mutators appear more frequently in the late game, being prepared with the best equipment is crucial.
Tips for Success
- Stay Mobile: Mutators are slow but hit hard. Keep moving to avoid their powerful attacks and use ranged weapons to your advantage.
- Target Weak Spots: Even in their mutated form, Mutators have weaker areas such as their legs and unmutated arm. Focus your attacks here to bring them down faster.
- Manage Crowds: When encountering groups of Walkers, prioritize identifying and eliminating pre-mutated Mutators. This reduces the number of threats and makes combat more manageable.
Utilizing DLC Content
While the Haus and SoLA DLCs add more content to Dead Island 2, they don’t significantly change the process of obtaining Mutated Hearts. These expansions introduce a few new Walker variants, but Mutators still spawn in the same locations and drop the same valuable parts.
