Hi, it’s Tymon here. I’d like to start with a huge thank you for your warm reception of our latest Community Update. According to the poll on Pilgrim Outpost, 93% of you were pleased with its content. We’re super glad and motivated, ready to continue working on giving you more!

It’s December, and so it’s the time for winter celebrations in the game! And, boy, do we have some surprises. We’ve prepared a couple of gifts, I can’t wait for you to unpack them! Be ready for a Winter Tales Event, wintry outfits, as well as a little cherry on top: the Winter Tales Update, arriving on December 19th. Small, but so, so juicy!

We know you’re excitedly awaiting Firearms & Tower Raids – let me assure you that they are happening, the team are working behind the scenes to introduce these features as soon as we can. Guns are being especially heavily tested in the game right now and tweaked, with the hope they’ll be ready before long. Take a look at this reminder of how firearms will look in action…

But let’s get back to our smaller-scale Winter Update to get you going. New weapons? For sure! You can expect polearms and nocturnal weapons. The former is a new type of melee weapon to poke the infected with. What’s interesting is that not only the players shall do the poking. We gave some to the enemies as well, so beware of the new, more aggressive, and harder to defeat version of our good pal, the Spearman.

Nocturnal weapons, on the other hand, are another one of our experiments and, in part, an answer to your suggestions that endgame immunity is starting to become too generous. We wanted to create a weapon that gives an evident bonus during fights in darkness, but also is connected to some risk. So, with nocturnal weapons, each hit takes away part of the player’s immunity – but at the same time, they offer huge bonuses against certain enemies or in specific conditions… but only during the night.

While working on new enemy variants, we put a spotlight on our dear Goon. A lot of you said that it’s a slow enemy that does not feel like a threat for the more experienced players. This is why the new Goon will be able to call for allies – it’ll make the encounters much more dangerous. Actually, when designing him, we were thinking about Godzilla, and it was a lot of fun to get reminded of some of the classic scenes from those movies. But the Goon is not all that’s new! We will also see some new variants of the Gas Tank – my personal favorite is the one that can freeze his opponents.

Coming back to the Winter Tales Event I’ve mentioned in the beginning: it’ll be full of entertainment, presents, rewards, and festive atmosphere! Those presents, for example, will come in the form of some DL1-inspired air drops, courtesy of Santa himself! He’s coming to town, bearing gifts, but nothing in Dying Light is so simple – to actually receive them, you’ll need to get on Baka’s good side and run some errands for him. Expect a cool outfit that you’ll be able to earn and collect during the event as well as new winter-themed weapons. I’m pretty much convinced that one of the axes that we have there will bring back some sweet, nordic memories of god-like slaughter. Oh, and one more present from us – free Hakon Bundle! It will be released on December 19th, along with the update and event.

What about snow in Villedor? Why not! For the duration of the event, the city will be lightly dusted with fresh and fluffy snow. And where there’s snow, there are also snowballs, right? Well, snowball fights will be rather brutal, as you’ll be able to throw them at your enemies, freezing them on the spot, and kill them! That’s the holiday spirit, huh? The Winter Tales: Gifts from Above Event will start on December 19th and last all the way into the new year, ending on January 5th. Join the celebration!

I won’t reveal all of the surprises planned for this winter period, but I’m sure you’ll love the festive wonders we have in store for the game. Let us know what you think on our reddit channel!

And this is a good place to thank you all for your support throughout this year. I would like to wish you all the best and Happy Holidays! Stay Human!