Learning to fight against infected and hunters will be essential to your progress in The Last of Us 2. Our combat guide has got you covered with combat tips and other tricks to surviving!

Combat Guide and Tips

Environmental Advantage

Hiding behind obstacles can help you sneak your way closer to unsuspecting enemies for a stealth kill. Take note of the environment before diving into a fight, this way you can avoid taking damage while slowly reducing the enemy numbers or have a place to hide if you ever need to heal yourself.

How to Stealth Kill | Stealth Tips

Aim for the head!

Shooting a target in the head will conserve ammo, and allow you to dispose of threats quicker. Upgrading a weapon's stability will make this much easier to nail consistently!

How to Upgrade Weapons

Running Away

While stealth is usually the best option, in certain situations, you may want to just run away entirely. This is especially true when you are faced with a large group of runners and clickers together. Trying to fight the runners can make it easy for a clicker to one-shot you, so if possible, try and get past them all.

How to Run (Sprint)

Throwables and Stunning Enemies

Stunning enemies by throwing a glass bottle or a brick is an effective way to get close to an enemy. Be sure to use them on unsuspecting or approaching enemies as much as you need to.

Listen Mode to Locate Enemies

Using Listen Mode can help you pinpoint the exact location of a nearby enemy and which direction they are facing. Use this to your advantage to take out enemies easier and more effectively. Keep in mind that Listen Mode will also allow you to see the Scent Trail that you left, which can get you into trouble if there is an enemy dog.

How to Use Listen Mode

Prone In Tall Grass

Fighting outside in an open area can make you vulnerable to enemy attacks, especially if you are fighting against a large group. You can hide in the tall grass to prevent the enemies from spotting you this can help you close the gap between enemies and trim down their numbers by killing them stealthily.

Use melee attacks when cornered

When an enemy gets to close to you, trying to pull up your weapon and aim will only lead to them getting a hit in first. When an enemy is coming in for you and they get too close, unleashing your melee attacks (default = □ button) is sometimes the best get-off me option.

Keep in mind that this is better for weaker enemies like hunters or runners, and will prove much less effective against clickers.

Know your enemy!

Different enemy types will call for different modes of combat, so be sure and know who you're up against. For example, runners can be taken out in a number of ways, and when many present themselves, it is sometimes best to just take them out with whatever weapons you have in you.

Clickers, on the other hand, are completely blind, but if they hear you and are able to get in close, they can one-shot you in an instant. For this enemy, you'll usually always want to take the sneaky approach, walking lightly to get near them, then taking them out with a stealth kill.

Keep an eye on your health!

Your health is shown next to your ammo, on the bottom right of the screen. Taking hits from runners and other enemies will deplete your health, so you'll need to heal up before it runs out. Using a Health Kit will allow you to restore some HPーbut beware that you are vulnerable while healing! Make sure to get to a safe spot to heal before you can hop back into the action.

Increasing Your Accuracy

You can increase the accuracy of your shots by upgrading the stability of your weapon on the workbench. However, if you want to save your scavenged parts for other upgrades, you can try crouching or going prone to increase the accuracy of your shots without having to use scavenged parts.

Note: You can further increase your aim using the Hold Breath skill from the Precision skill branch.

List of Skill Upgrades

Work Smart, Not Hard!

There are some situations where you will have to fight against infected enemies and human enemies at the same time. You can use this to your advantage by using a glass bottle or a brick to lure the infected near the humans, which will cause them to fight one another, and significantly trim down their numbers without you having to risk your own life.

Being Smart with Human Stealth Kills

Human enemies tend to communicate with each other when they are hunting for you. Try to take them out when they are alone to reduce the chances of you getting found. If you try to kill an enemy while they are talking to someone, they will immediately figure out that you are close by.

Also, human enemies will alert other humans to search the area whenever they see a dead body. Be sure to get away from the body quickly after you execute a Stealth Kill!

Making the Most of your Companion

Performing a Stealth Kill on an enemy with a companion will automatically cause your companion to perform his/her stealth kill to a nearby enemy. This is an extremely effective when trying to eliminate enemies who are working together.

Your companion will also join in combat when you are under attack, so sometimes you might want to play it safe and let them do some of the work for you!

New Routes

You can break glass windows for new routes and better positioning during combat. However, this can give away your location and draw attention to nearby enemies because of the loud breaking sound.

Last of Us 2 Tips and Tricks

Tips & Tricks