Bend Studio brought Days Gone to PC on 18 May 2021, two years after the PlayStation 4 release, with unlocked frame rates, a wider field of view and ultrawide support. Deacon St. John rides through post outbreak Oregon across six regions, from Cascade in the north down to Crater Lake, and his bike is the only transport he gets. Hordes are the reason to stay: the Old Sawmill horde alone packs roughly 500 Freakers into one moving mass, and there is no version of that fight you win by standing still.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best characters, weapons worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
Bike fuel and durability
The bike burns fuel on every ride and takes damage from crashes, Freaker hits and gunfire, and both are fixed with scrap and gas cans looted from the world. Running the tank dry far from a camp means pushing it on foot at walking pace, which is the game's quiet difficulty spike and the reason fuel cans are worth carrying.
Camp Trust and credits
Each encampment tracks its own Trust level and its own credit balance, so everything you earn for Copeland does nothing for Hot Springs. Trust 1 needs 5,000 points, Trust 2 needs 12,500 and Trust 3 needs 25,000, and each tier unlocks weapons and bike parts that only that camp will sell.
Freaker hordes
A horde is a single crowd of Freakers with a daily routine: it feeds, drinks and returns to a cave or building to sleep. The largest, at the Old Sawmill, runs to about 500 bodies, and clearing one means attractors, pipe bombs, Molotovs and a chokepoint rather than a straight firefight.
NERO checkpoints and injectors
Every NERO checkpoint needs its generator restarted with a fuel can, then its speakers disabled before you can take the injector inside. There are 30 injectors across the six regions, each adds 25 points to Health, Stamina or Focus, and collecting all of them takes each bar from 100 to 350.
Survival Vision and Focus
Survival Vision highlights tracks, loot and enemies through cover at no cost and is how you follow ambush trails and hunting paths. Focus is separate, slowing time while aiming down sights and draining the Focus bar, which is why the Focus injectors matter for anyone relying on headshots.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our Days Gone combat guide.
Characters Overview
| Role | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stealth Trapper | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Horde Runner | S | Scout the horde's route in daylight while it sleeps, set traps at the chokepoint, wake it with an attractor and keep backing away in a wide loop, never letting the crowd get an angle around you. | Stamina first and by a wide margin, then Health, then Focus |
| Marksman Bounty Hunter | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Melee Brawler | B | Fight in doorways and narrow paths so only one or two Freakers reach you at a time, and always keep a spare melee weapon since durability runs out mid fight without warning. | Health, then Stamina, then Focus |
| Explosives Specialist | A | Bait groups into pre placed remote bombs, use attractors to move Freakers away from a camp before entering it, and keep Molotovs strictly for Breakers and Ragers rather than ordinary Swarmers. | Stamina, then Health, then Focus |
Horde Runner (S-Tier): The build the whole game points toward. High Stamina, a crowd control primary and a bag full of explosives, used to funnel 300 or more Freakers through a gap where the crowd cannot spread out.
Melee Brawler (B-Tier): A resource light build for players who want to stop spending ammunition on Newts and Swarmers. Crafted melee weapons like the spiked bat and the fire axe kill in one or two swings and are rebuilt from scrap in seconds.
Explosives Specialist (A-Tier): A build around crafted ordnance rather than guns, which suits the ammunition scarcity of the first half of the game. Pipe bombs, remote bombs and Molotovs cost scrap and rags that the world hands out constantly.
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our Days Gone builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Weapons Guide
| Weapon | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Drifter Crossbow | An upgraded crossbow supplied through Iron Mike's camp, with better damage and accuracy than the starting version and access to explosive and poison bolts. | Silent ambush camp clears and any approach where waking a nearby horde would end the attempt. |
| MWS | An assault rifle available early with a clear step up in stopping power over the starting weapons. | Marauder camps, Ripper outposts and general open world defence at medium range. |
| Chicago Chopper | A drum fed submachine gun modelled on the Thompson, with one of the highest rates of fire and largest magazines in the game. | Horde fights and any moment a crowd of Swarmers closes to under fifteen metres. |
| SMP9 | A compact stockless submachine gun carried in the sidearm slot, firing fast with good accuracy but a limited magazine. | Emergency close quarters defence and clearing Newts in tight interiors. |
| .50 BFG | A heavy sniper rifle that removes most enemies in a single hit, including armoured militia and larger Freakers. | Breakers, Ragers and picking off camp leaders before an assault starts. |
Drifter Crossbow: An upgraded crossbow supplied through Iron Mike's camp, with better damage and accuracy than the starting version and access to explosive and poison bolts. Bolts are recoverable from bodies, so it costs almost nothing to run.
MWS: An assault rifle available early with a clear step up in stopping power over the starting weapons. Most human enemies, Rippers included, go down in two shots, which makes it the default primary for the first half of the story.
Chicago Chopper: A drum fed submachine gun modelled on the Thompson, with one of the highest rates of fire and largest magazines in the game. It is the standard horde weapon precisely because it does not need reloading every few seconds.
SMP9: A compact stockless submachine gun carried in the sidearm slot, firing fast with good accuracy but a limited magazine. It exists to give a rifle build a close range answer without giving up the primary slot.
.50 BFG: A heavy sniper rifle that removes most enemies in a single hit, including armoured militia and larger Freakers. Ammunition is scarce and expensive, so it works as a specialist tool rather than a main weapon.
Full breakdowns in our Days Gone weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Cascade | Opening region, available from the start | Copeland's Camp shop, early bike upgrades, the first NERO checkpoints |
| Belknap | Opening region, available from the start | Hot Springs Camp weapon stock, Tucker's bounty missions, additional NERO injectors |
| Lost Lake | Mid game, unlocked by story progress | Drifter Crossbow, Iron Mike's bike upgrades, Rikki's mechanic services |
| Iron Butte | Mid to late game | Old Sawmill horde clear, Ripper camp loot, high value NERO checkpoints |
| Crater Lake | Late game, reached through the main story | Wizard Island and Diamond Lake shops, top tier weapons, the militia storyline |
Cascade: The northern forest region where the story opens, thick with trees and short sightlines. Copeland's Camp sits here, built on Mark Copeland's radio broadcasts about personal freedom, and it is the first place to spend credits.
Belknap: More open than Cascade, with wider roads and longer engagement distances. Hot Springs Camp, run by Ada Tucker as a forced labour operation, trades better weapons than Copeland does once its Trust rises.
Lost Lake: Opened after the No One Saw It Coming mission, and home to Iron Mike Wilcox's camp, the one settlement actually trying to rebuild something democratic. It supplies the Drifter Crossbow and better bike parts.
Iron Butte: West of Lost Lake and south of Belknap, dry, industrial and heavily contested by Rippers. The Old Sawmill horde and its 500 Freakers sit in this part of the map, which makes it the region that tests a horde build properly.
Crater Lake: The southern region and the endgame, dominated by the Deschutes County Militia. Wizard Island is Colonel Matthew Garrett's fortified stronghold and Diamond Lake is the militia outpost under Captain Derrick Kouri.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Fuel governs the early game more than ammunition does. Keep a can strapped to the bike, top up at every abandoned vehicle, and buy the larger tank upgrade before any cosmetic bike part.
- Trust is per camp and so are credits, so decide early which encampment you want to shop at. Selling Freaker ears, meat and plants at that one camp reaches Trust 3 far faster than spreading deliveries evenly.
- NERO checkpoints follow the same pattern every time: find the generator, feed it a fuel can, then disable all the speakers before triggering the door. Missing one speaker calls every Freaker within earshot.
- The 30 NERO injectors are split across all six regions and take Health, Stamina and Focus from 100 to 350. Stamina first is the correct order, because running out of stamina during a horde fight is what actually kills you.
- Hordes have schedules. Scout one during daylight while it sleeps in its cave or building, plan the funnel, then come back and wake it deliberately rather than stumbling into it at night on the bike.
- Attractors are the most undervalued craftable in the game. One thrown at a distance moves an entire horde off a road, out of a camp approach, or into the pipe bombs you already placed.
- Survival Vision costs nothing to use, so use it constantly. It marks ambush trails, hunting tracks, loot inside buildings and enemies through walls, and it is how you find the ears and plants that pay for camp upgrades.
- Ambush camps respawn marauders if you leave survivors, so clear them completely. Each cleared camp also removes a set of road traps that will otherwise wreck the bike at speed.
- Melee weapons break. Craft a spiked bat, keep a fire axe as backup, and repair with scrap rather than relying on one weapon through a long Ripper camp.
- Screamers are the priority target in any Freaker group. Their scream pulls in everything nearby and turns a manageable fight into a horde encounter you did not prepare for, so remove them first with the crossbow.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Trying to fight a horde in the open, where 300 or more Freakers spread out and surround you within seconds, instead of using a chokepoint with an escape path behind it.
- Spreading missions and supply deliveries evenly across camps, which leaves every camp near Trust 1 and locks the good weapons behind thresholds of 12,500 and 25,000 points nobody has reached.
- Riding everywhere at full throttle and arriving at a mission with an empty tank and a damaged bike, with no scrap or fuel to fix either.
- Skipping NERO checkpoints because the speaker puzzle feels slow, then hitting the mid game with 100 Stamina and no way to survive a horde chase.
- Wasting rifle ammunition on Newts and lone Swarmers when a crafted melee weapon or a recoverable crossbow bolt does the same job for free.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many regions are in Days Gone?
Six: Cascade, Belknap, Lost Lake, Iron Butte, Crater Lake and Highway 97. Cascade and Belknap are open from the start, and the rest unlock through story progress.
What is the biggest horde in Days Gone?
The Old Sawmill horde, which runs to roughly 500 Freakers. It is the benchmark fight for a maxed out Stamina build and needs attractors, explosives and a proper chokepoint rather than a straight gunfight.
Where do I get the Drifter Crossbow?
Through Iron Mike's camp at Lost Lake, once the region is unlocked and Trust is high enough. It is a straight upgrade over the starting crossbow, with better accuracy and access to explosive and poison bolts.
How many NERO injectors are there and what do they do?
Thirty, spread across the six regions. Each adds 25 points to Health, Stamina or Focus, so collecting all of them raises each bar from its starting 100 to a maximum of 350.
Does the PC version differ from the PlayStation 4 release?
The 2021 PC version unlocks the frame rate, widens the field of view, adds ultrawide support and improved draw distances. The campaign content itself is unchanged from the 2019 original.
More Days Gone Guides
- Days Gone Best Builds
- Days Gone Tier List
- Days Gone Walkthrough
- Days Gone Beginner's Guide
- Days Gone Tips & Tricks
- Days Gone Weapons Guide
- Days Gone Combat Guide
- Days Gone Boss Guide
- Days Gone Maps & Locations
- Days Gone Crafting Guide
- Days Gone Classes & Characters
Similar Games
If you enjoy Days Gone, check out these related guides:
- Helldivers 2 Guide: action game with similar mechanics
- Black Myth: Wukong Guide: action game with similar mechanics
- Monster Hunter Wilds Guide: action game with similar mechanics
