In this article I want to talk about the state of the Be The Zombie (BTZ) PvP mode in Dying Light in 2025.
For those who don't know: this is a mode where up to 4 survivors fight against the Night Hunter — a special zombie with spit attacks, tentacles and other abilities.
The last balance changes to PvP were made way back in 2021, when the DLR modification by the well-known modder Fear was officially added to the game.
This modification slightly improved the balance, but in the end it was harshly criticized — and it turned out to be complete shit that partially ruined the game.
And nobody decided to make normal changes, so in fact the game now remains in the shitty state it was in many years ago.
If you play as the Hunter, you'll only encounter sweaty tryhards and cheaters who have been playing 1v1 as survivors for years, using the most overpowered tactics and perfect nest spawns.
If you play as survivors, the chance of finding a decent Hunter is close to zero — experienced players don't want to play as him because it's too difficult and exhausting (i.e. you can very easily get your ass kicked). And if someone does join you, it'll be newbies who just bought the game and understand nothing about this mode.
The main part of survivor gameplay is the so-called Lobby Simulator — where you wait for a normal Hunter for 15 minutes — and that's if you're lucky. Sometimes you have to wait a whole hour.
Cheaters in this game are a separate topic, almost every player plays with some kind of tweaks, cooldown improvements, weapon or animation enhancements — and other shit I don't want to talk about. So don't be surprised if you think every second person you play with is a cheater. Or why they deal damage so fast, why they hit so far with their weapon.
I've played Dying Light for several thousand hours and witnessed most of the PvP evolution. And I can only say one thing — it has degraded and become many times more difficult over the years.
In Dying Light, survivors have fixed weapon damage. The more players — the weaker their hits, but the stronger the Hunter's buffs.
But 90% of matches are played in 1v1 format, and here hell begins:
The survivor has enormous damage, while the Hunter has a long respawn and only 5 nests with 2 larvae each.
The survivor can dictate nest spawns by choosing the ideal map simply via being in a certain location when the match starts — flat terrain, locations where volatiles simply don't spawn, and definitely water nearby, where the hunter can't do anything when the survivor decides to jump in there.
The Hunter only gets the worst location, and against him — a skilled player who often spams overpowered tactics and can play however he wants.
The Hunter's task is to destroy 10 lives of the survivor (by the way, the survivor only needs to destroy 2 larvae on each nest (there are 5 of them), and destroying each takes only 10 seconds).
But here's the problem: survivors have too many ways to kill the Hunter, while the Hunter has too few guaranteed combos.
Actually, most of the gameplay completely depends on the terrain you're fighting on, and most often the terrain won't be in your favor.
And these are just the most commonly used tactics, but in reality there are many, many more.
But all of this is countered:
There's also a Duo mode in the game where it'll be even harder for the Hunter to play, since the damage is almost the same as in 1v1 mode. And there are two survivors shining flashlights at you, and each one can catch you with the same two-handed weapon after a missed tackle.
You can only have fun in lobbies with 3-4 people, it's really fun there, since the hunter has faster spit regeneration, faster respawn, and more shit happens on screen.
BTZ is a mode where 40% depends on skill, and 60% — on luck, map and overpowered tactics.
If you think I'm biased against survivors — no, joining a new match you'll understand that everything I wrote is the complete truth.
A newbie has nothing to do here — playing will be quite depressing, and you'll just want to delete the game. And if you're experienced, you'll either camp with a two-handed weapon or use various macros or other not fun to play against tactics, or suffer as the Hunter.
No. Unless you're a masochist or you like eating shit.