You can carry around sixteen weapons at a time, including eight in your [Weapon Wheel], including melee weapons of various qualities and later on, a variety of ranged weapons. A veritable arsenal by any standards. Sometimes, however, that’s not quite enough, and should you need extra firepower to throw at enemies - literally! - you’ve got Curveballs. This page will explain what Curveballs are in Dead Island 2 and how to use them.

View Full-size

1

2

3

(1 of 3) You can use Curveballs to create patches of tasty meat that’s irresistible to lesser zombies,

What are Curveballs in Dead Island 2¶

Curveballs are throwable objects with a variety of effects, depending on the exact Curveball. Some, like the Shuriken, directly deal damage to enemies, while others, like the Chem Bomb, inflict debuffs (Traumatized and Soggy) and put out fires. Some don’t even directly target zombies, like the Meat Bait, which is thrown on the ground, where it lures nearby lesser zombies to it - they’ll even ignore you to go gorge themselves on this fetid treat! Then you have the classics, like Pipe Bombs and Molotovs, which give you some damaging AoEs.

When the right Curveball is used, they can be quite useful, but they’re also usually fairly situational. Curveballs aren’t substitutes for proper ranged weapons, either, as their usage is incredibly limited - they don’t have ammunition, instead they’re single-use item that have a cooldown, so you won’t be spamming them, but on the plus side they don’t cost you any resources (besides time) to replenish. Using Meat Bait to distract trash mobs while you focus on unaffected apex zombies or troublesome ranged enemies, dousing enemies to make them more susceptible to electrical damage, or picking off priority targets from a distance with shurikens are all good examples of using Curveballs to make your life easier, and since they don’t cost you anything, you might as well use them whenever possible!

You can access Curveballs via your inventory, just enter your inventory menu and navigate over to the Curveballs tab. Two Curveballs can be equipped at once, and it’s worth noting that they have separate cooldowns. You can use Curveballs by pressing the / button, and you can swap between equipped Curveballs by pressing the button.

View Full-size

1

2

(1 of 2) You can find Curveballs as you explore - most are on the beaten path, but some may elude you if you’re not observant.

As you explore, be on the lookout for new Curveballs. The first one, Meat Bait, will be given do you during the main quest [Bel-Air Brawl], while the Chem Bomb can be found during [Room Service for Major Booker], but the Shuriken is just embedded in a vehicle in Bel-Air, enroute to the Halperin Hotel. You’ll get some of them during the main questline, but others require you to keep an eye out.