Dying Light 2 Modding Tutorial

Do you want unbreakable weapons? Unlimited arrows? Or swinging around like Spiderman in Dying Light 2? You can! This is the modding tutorial for Dying Light 2.

Dying Light 2 (DL) is an interesting game, to say the least. It has many bugs, indeed. However, it has a decent story, an immersive map, and enjoyable gameplay. Furthermore, it’s easily moddable. And I am a sucker for a moddable game.

From my experience modding games, it’s definitely one of the easiest to do. Even though its modding capability is nowhere near Skyrim or PoE: Deadfire (at least for my current skill), it’s still easy enough to mess around some value.

Tools for Dying Light 2 Modding

First thing first, let’s talk about some tools. For DL2 modding, all you need is compressing software (I use 7zip) and a text editor (I use Notepad++). Both of them are free and easy to use. Furthermore, Notepad++ has a Compare plugin that’s really useful for modding this game – I’ll explain later.

How about image or model editing software? Well, as far as I know, there is no texture or models mods for this game yet. So, I honestly don’t know whether it’s possible or not – for us to use or add a new texture or model from outside the game.

At the time of this writing, most of the mods are just editing values in the game. There is a complex modpack currently, Chainsaw Modpack V2, in the Nexus which adds new weapons and many other things. However, since I haven’t finished the game, I don’t want to mess around too much. You could, if you’re interested, open the .pak files from that mod to see what’s inside.

Dying Light 2 Modding

Without further ado, let’s talk about the tutorial. This is the directory that you want to open if you want to install new mods or start modding:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dying Light 2\ph\source”

It’s the default for Steam installation. You should replace the Steam folder location if you install it in a different folder.

In this folder, you will see a data0.pak and data1.pak. When you install new mods, you want to add new .pak in this folder. For example, a data2.pak. However, if you want to create your first mod, let’s open the data0.pak. We can use 7zip for this task. I also assign 7zip to open .pak files by default to make it faster – just by double-clicking it.

Inside the data0.pak, you could see many files and folders. However, if you want to mess around with the gameplay, you should probably look at the “scripts” folder first.

For this tutorial, let’s say you want to have unbreakable weapons. What you need to do is go to the “player” folder, inside the “scripts” folder. This should be the directory (inside the 7zip) for that:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dying Light 2\ph\source\data0.pak\scripts\player\”

In this folder, you will find 3 files: “player_variables.scr”, “player_variable_easy.scr”, and “player_variable_nigthmare.scr”. Open those .scr files with Notepad or Notepad++. Find “MeleeWpnDurabilityMulReduce” in the files and set the value to “0.0”.

In the “player_variables.scr”, you could also find some values to make the game so much easier. For example, you can change “InfiniteArrows“, “false” to “true” to have unlimited arrows for your bow. Another example? You could set “AntizinDrainBlocked” to “true” so you could have an infinite immunity at night.

One of the most interesting changes that I use currently is modding the grappling hook in the game. You could still find the value inside the “player_variables.scr”.

  1. Param(“GrappleSwingEnabled”, “true”);
  2. Param(“GrapplePullEnabled”, “true”);” add this and the previous line to the file so you could unlock grappling hook earlier. You should enable “Expert grappling hook controls” in the game options.
  3. Change “RopeHookAllowThrowOnNothing” to “true” to allow you to throw a grappling hook on nothing and pull yourself like a Spiderman.

Dying Light 2 Mod Editing

Admittedly, I owe this knowledge to the good people in the modding community of Dying Light 2 Nexus Mods. For example, the trick to unlock the grappling hook early without having to wait until the end of the game comes from Doffpack who created the Early Grappling Hook mod. Meanwhile, I checked the files inside the Spider – Aiden mod from Fisto to enable the grappling hook to throw on nothing.

You can also use the same method to learn more options. Sure, sometimes, you could get lucky when there is someone in the ‘Post’ section (in Nexus Mods) explaining what line to change in order to create the same effect. However, if there is no one explaining, here’s how you could replicate the mod for yourself.

Like I said previously, you need a Notepad++ because it has a Compare plugin. You could install the Compare plugin by finding it in the “Plugins” tab in Notepad++. You need to take the files out of the compression before you could start comparing. Let’s use the Early Grappling Hook mod for this example.

First, you need to take out player_variables.scr from data0.pak (default game folder) or any other mod that contains the same file. And then, you need to take out player_variables.scr from the Early Grappling Hook mod. Open both of them with Notepad++. When there are only two of them opened in the Notepad++, press CTRL+ALT+C to start comparing the files. There is a yellow highlight if there is a difference between the two. In this case, you will find a yellow highlight in the line containing this: “Param(“GrappleSwingEnabled”, “true”);”.

This method is important to learn because of how the modding work too for Dying Light 2. You could only have 1 player_variables.scr among your mods. So, if you want to, for example, install mods for the grappling hook, unlimited stamina, unlimited durability, infinite immunity, faster movement speed, and any other that uses player_variables.scr you have to edit/merge the lines manually.

You could also use this method to edit a mod if, for example, it’s too OP for your taste without bothering the original modder. Or, this method is also crucial when there is an update for the game but the modder already left the scene – therefore, you could update the mod yourself using the updated files (take it out again from data0.pak).

Bonus tip, you could use Notepad++ to edit/view a .scr file directly from 7zip by adding this line:

“C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe” -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin “%*” in View and Editor, under the Editor tab in 7zip Options.


That’s it! Now you could create, update, or edit a mod by yourself or even merge conflicting mods. Sadly, as I said previously, it’s only about editing the existing value that’s already in the game. However, still, now I really enjoy my time with Aiden — grappling and paragliding everywhere I want without too much constraint.

Yabes Elia

Yabes Elia

An empath, a jolly writer, a patient reader & listener, a data observer, and a stoic mentor

One thought on “Dying Light 2 Modding Tutorial

  1. I must admit. Reading such dedicated instructions always warms my heart. No fancy words, no advanced tech language, just honest guidance and complete detail of everything a beginner should know.
    We are strangers but I want to say thank you.

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