Days Gone is out now and we enjoyed it despite some noticeable technical issues. But if you’re plowing through the Oregon wilderness as Deacon St. John anyway, here’s some early, helpful tips to make your ride through the open road an easier one.
Lifting and coasting
Your bike is your only mode of transport in Days Gone, but it also has the issue of being limited with fuel and makes a rowdy noise that will bring all the Freakers down your way. To eke out your fuel mileage, try lifting and coasting.
Just like driving a real car or bike, letting go on the gas once in a while and let the momentum carry you for sometime will save some fuel, especially if you are going downhill. And not revving the engine means you make less noise, something to keep in mind when going through areas with Freakers wandering around.
Strategic parking
If you need to engage on a Freaker nest, or go to any area where you could see a potential Horde hanging around, try parking your bike strategically. Have it turned to the opposite direction from where you come from. So if things get hairy you can just rush to the bike and leg it.
Also, don’t park the bike out in the open. Freakers will tip over the bike if they see it and that means you need to spend valuable seconds straighten it up before climbing on it.
Another tip, if you have to get the bike up before riding it, remember to hold square until you see Deacon hops on to the seat. Holding it mid-way will just have him put the bike up- not something you want if you are about to get swarmed by Freakers.
The mini-map
This is a small one, but when you are on the bike, the mini-map is slightly zoomed out compared to the one when you are on foot. Once you unlocked the skill to have resources highlighted on the mini-map, keep this in mind. You better stop your bike while on top of the resource icon or prepare for a little stroll.
Darn Speaker
When you first encounter a NERO checkpoint through the story progression, there’s going to be two speakers just up top the building. Other checkpoints will usually have more than that.
So if you want to avoid summoning a Horde, check the wire lines above you to see if there are any more speakers- usually there’s one in the small guard booth of the checkpoint entrance.
Also, you can turn off the generator after turning it on. So if you missed some of the speakers the first time, you can immediately cut off power and careful search the checkpoint again.
More Ammo
While you can buy ammo at merchants at camps, you can also buy it through the gun lockers in safe houses. This will use camp credits based on the region you are in. Say, if the gun locker is in the starting region Cascade, funds will be deducted from Copeland’s camp.
Also, camp credits are localised to each particular camp. So if you need more money to buy stuff in one camp, consider clearing up ambush camps in the region and turning in bounties to that camp.
There are surely more tips out there, but hopefully, this should help you get going in the first few hours. Also, check out our review of Days Gone here.