Congratulations! If you've stumbled upon this guide, you're probably somebody that got tired of all the farming required to make one of your mods do a minuscule increase in damage or make your lockpick slightly more durable, which is perfectly understandable, considering how some of the crafting requirements quickly get ridiculous! Allow me to preface this with the fact that this method requires no modding, cheating, or finagling with the game files whatsoever, what you're doing is legitimate and just using framework that's already there, you won't get in trouble.

Now, for the setup, we need to go to a specific spot on the map, and, conveniently, this spot is one you'll reach very early on after you arrive in the city!

So, step one, we're looking at Old Villedor, in the district of Trinity.


Step two? We're looking at the Bazaar, specifically, the side where the main gate opens up to the avenue that leads into Houndfield. Look at where the black cursor is for an idea of where you need to be.


Now, if you've reached this location? All you have to do is wait for night to fall, or have it already be nightfall, and then we're all set to move onto the meat of the matter in Step 2.

Now, if you've played DL2 any extent of time, you like already know what a chase is. Don't know? Simple, a chase is when a Howler, either by spotting you or being attacked by you, gets irate enough to, well...Howl. Either that, or you kill one, because killing one instantly starts a chase even if it doesn't howl. Not silent killing, though, that won't start a chase. Remember, if you're killing one? Kill it loudly.

When this is done, a chase begins, and Virals will begin spawning from openings all around your immediate vicinity to give chase! The entire goal of a chase is to, well...Run away, and try to outrun the horde in order to escape, but here's the kicker: What if...We didn't run away?

What if, instead, we utilized the fact that a chase effectively provides us with an infinitely respawning supply of Viral-tier infected to start tilting the market in our favor? If you can already see where I'm going with this, then you're going to understand perfectly well what I'm getting at. "But, Ordinal, wait!" I hear you begin poking holes in my method. "Won't the infected overrun and kill us if we try to fight against a chase?" To which I reply "Great question!" before holding up a UV stick. "Not if we've got one of these."

That's a fun fact for those of you that didn't know! UV lights not only cause a strong hostile reaction in Virals, but they also deter Volatiles, who will not dare to venture and attack you if you're within the radius of one. These also have the benefit of restoring the durability of your compromised immune system, which means, as long as a UV light is readily available, you can theoretically last the entire night outdoors without breaking a sweat. Speaking of said UV lights:

This is the front of the Bazaar. Notice that giant purple glow between the two guard towers? That, my friend, is a very, very high-power UV light, which will not only provide you with a way to recover your immunity, but will provide you with a safe spot for whenever the Volatiles start showing up, more on that later!


Let's go down the ingredients required to make this zombie cake come out tasting delicious!:

Step 1: It needs to be nighttime, the earlier on in the night, the better.
Step 2: You're going to need a Howler.
Step 3: Aggravate/kill Howler to start a chase.
Step 4: Go back to the front of the Bazaar, shown in the above photo.
Step 5: Lure Virals just outside range of the UV light, kill them, lure in a new batch, rinse and repeat.

Wondering where you can find a Howler? That's easy! Just check where the black cursor is on the map here, which is, conveniently, just a short walk down the avenue out in-front of the bazaar. You'll find that multiple howlers spawn here very consistently, and you can just whack one before running back to start farming!


Now...Onto section 3, where we cover the more specific parts.

Obviously, you're going to need a lot of Virals to get the amount of infected trophies you'll need to upgrade a lot of your gear, and, unfortunately, that means you need a lot of dead Virals! Thankfully, again, a chase provides you with infinitely respawning ones as long as the chase lasts, but we need to go over the levels of the chase, which are split up into four tiers, as follows:

Chase level 1: The level it starts at after you kill or are spotted by a Howler, most often, two Virals will be present at all times to pursue you in this, but larger groups can spawn from time to time.

Chase level 2: After lasting long enough at level 1, level 2 will start, this sees Virals start spawning reliably in packs of four, but again, larger groups can spawn in besides this.

Chase level 3: This is where, if you still have a chase going on, you'll want to run back into the UV light and stay there until the chase ends. At level 3, Volatiles start spawning, and these nasty sodders will kill you in only a few swipes or a single pounce. They're faster, more aggressive, and more dangerous than Virals, and you can forget about taking them on in one-on-one combat unless you've got a UV light or a ranged weapon. Volatiles tend to spawn pretty quickly after level 3 is reached, but sometimes they take a while to show up, which means, if you're feeling risky, you can get a few more batches of Virals in before you call it quits.

Chase level 4: This is where the balance of power flips if you've managed to survive this long! Specifically, while level 3 chases spawn in a single Volatile alongside 3-4 Virals, level 4 chases flip the scales and spawn 3-4 Volatiles alongside a rare single viral. You heard that right! Volatiles. Alongside this, once you've reached chase level 4, you no longer have to worry about losing your chase if you kill all the infected, level 4 chases remain permanently until sunrise or until you run into a safezone to lose them on purpose. Fun fact! If you have a bow that does enough damage and shock arrows, you can use the spot in this guide and just shoot the Volatiles down before they get close, then go loot them all after you hide in the UV lamp or sunrise rolls around. Easy unique trophies and a whoooole lot of valuables!

Also, before I forget, level 1-3 chases will end if you kill all the Virals/Volatiles and another one doesn't aggro on you in time. New batches of chasing infected will still spawn as long as there's one still fighting you, though, so if you want to kill the rest then play ring-around-the-rosie with the last one until his buddies show up, you can do that. You can also venture SLIGHTLY away from the front area to hook over to the side and grab some extras from their spawn points, images to follow!

Specifically, if you need to know how to convince a few more Virals to spawn fast, turn your view to the right after exiting the Bazaar, and you'll see this wall.


Located right next to this wall, behind the black car, is a hatch that acts as a Viral/Volatile spawn point during chases.


The space under this moving truck and the semi behind it also qualifies as a Viral spawn.


So, if you just run over to this general area real quick, don't venture farther than the truck, another group of Virals should spawn, and then you're free to double back and lead them to your farming spot!

REMEMBER: Just like in DL1, bodies and loot will despawn if you get too far away, it's fine to run off and kill a Howler to start the chase, but once you're in-front of the Bazaar and have started farming? You do not want to wander away from the front of the Bazaar until you have ended the chase and gathered up all the loot. This includes going back into the Bazaar. Once you're farming? You stay out front until you're done, don't go wandering off. If you've got more than one player, then someone can go out and round up Virals/kill more Howlers while another is staying back at the Bazaar to keep the loot pile from despawning, but I'd still advise against it.

This is also why I advise against maintaining the chase once Volatiles start spawning, because if a Volatile kills you? By the time you've respawned back inside the Bazaar, all the loot you piled up out front will despawn. Don't run the risk, when they start showing up, just step back into the UV light and end the chase.

If you've managed to do this right? Then, well...Congratulations! Odds are you've managed to net upwards of 20-30+ dead Virals, which will likely net you a good deal of uncommon, rare, and even unique zombie trophies! That's right, Virals can drop rare and unique trophies, which is exactly why this method is the one I'm using. Even if the odds are only a tenth of a chance, killing a Viral and getting a trophy you'd need a Volatile kill for makes it more than worth the effort.

Also, before I forget, once enough bodies have piled up in an area, DL2 begins 'culling' corpses, likely to preserve GPU usage. This is actually something you want to happen, though, because it replaces all those cullied bodies with a little loot wallet that you can pick up by just looking at it and tapping F. Compared to how you'd usually have to manually hold F and search every single body compared to just quickly being able to tap your way through looting the wallets of several dozen downed enemies? It's a welcome change of pace.

The best part? You can easily repeat this strategy over and over again, as long as it's night, you've got the weapons (or the dropkick) to keep killing Virals, and you're willing to put in the time and effort for it! I've found that I can usually get a single farming 'trip' done in about five minutes, and can usually fit two or three of them in per night. Don't forget that all the valuables you loot off the Virals will also pad your wallet and help you stockpile for the Craftmaster upgrades you'll likely need in the future!

It's also worth noting that, should you want to keep your farming tidy or you're a dropkick enthusiast like me, you'll generally want to get the Virals up against the wall of this little newspaper kiosk. Players that've unlocked the dropkick skill can also kick Virals into this for a nearly guaranteed instant kill every time, and it has the handy side-effect of stockpiling up their corpses so you don't need to run all over the place to loot!


And, if you've successfully read through this entire guide, then...Kudos! You're now knowledgeable in the sacred act of farming zombies...So get out there and get to tilling the field!

Still looking for some ways to better spice up your farming experience? I've tallied some good things to keep in mind down here for you to refer to as you may need them.

#1: If you're feeling particularly brave, you can actually get away with farming Volatiles using the same method in this guide, and they offer much more in the way of valuables to sell alongside a reliable supply of unique zombie trophies. The best method to do this is the following:
-Have a bow.
-Have electric arrows.
-Have distance between yourself and them.
Thankfully, because of the fact that the farming spot in my guide has Volatile spawns primarily along that right wall, this means you can remain in that spot and just shoot them down with the bow as they try to close the distance! Fun fact, Volatiles have a flinching animation for whenever they get hit and take enough damage, the shock effect of an electric arrow seems to cause this automatically, and if there are multiple Volatiles close together, the shock will cause all the ones hit by it to do the same flinching animation. So just...Shoot the Volatile, it flinches, then shoot it again. If you've got an 80+ damage bow, you can expect to reliably kill one with 2-3 arrows. Don't try this outside Villedor, though, because if you thought a level 2 Volatile was tough? A level 5 is a nightmare.

Also keep in mind that Volatiles do insane amounts of damage and have a lunge that can instantly kill weaker players. So, basically? Do your best to bow them to death at range, and if they start getting too close? Run back into the UV light.

#2: Don't worry about noisemakers or meat-bait when a chase is active. As long as the chase isn't lost, Virals and Volatiles will keep spawning from their respective points in the environment, although you may have to go closer to those spawns [such as the ones depicted by the right wall of the Bazaar in my guide] to get them to show up if they don't spawn right away. It seems like said spawns are rendered inactive if a player is considered 'too far' from them, likely because of how you're supposed to be running during a chase and the developers want infected to keep spawning near you to keep the pressure on.

#3: While I'm aware that this guide is specifically about farming zombie trophies, it's also a good way to farm money! You'll usually get enough valuables from the Virals to be worth a couple thousand by the end of a run, and you'll have looted several thousand more from the raw cash drops off their bodies. If you're Volatile farming, meanwhile? You can expect to pull in anywhere from 5-15K a night, as long as you're careful, loot them effectively, and aren't being killed by them or letting the loot bags despawn.

#4: If you want to make the most of this farming method, I'd suggest you do so before you've beaten the game! Primarily as, once you beat the game, if you decide to keep playing with that savefile, all enemies and encounters in the world scale to your level to 'provide a more rewarding challenge', a component that I'm not entirely sure I agree with. The reason why this farming method works so well is because you're able to farm level 1-2 zombies that will give you the same rewards as level 8-9 ones, Virals and Volatiles alike, but if you beat the game and try to use this method, every one that spawns will be scaled to your exact level, which means you'll be dealing with enemies that are not only much more spongy in terms of taking damage, but you'll be dealing with Virals that have unlocked their pounce ability and Volatiles that can easily kill you in a couple hits. Want to get the best blueprints and craftable items? Do this before you've beaten the game! Trust me, you'll thank me later.