PC Cheats
This page contains a list of cheats, codes, Easter eggs, tips, and other secrets for Dead Island for PC. If you've discovered a cheat you'd like to add to the page, or have a correction, please click EDIT and add it.
Easy 'I want one of those' Achievement/Trophy
Unfortunately an upgrade does not count toward this achievement/trophy, it has to be a complete mod using any available Blueprints. It does not matter which weapons you make or how many of each. The Deo-Bomb (side-quest reward) is probably the easiest to make, only requiring two Deodorant and one Duct Tape; or the Meat Bait, requiring three Meat and one Duct Tape. These items can generally be looted and purchased with ease.
Submitted by: manoahmaelstrom
Easy 'Gesundheit!' Achievement/Trophy
Medkits will be scarce throughout the entirety of the game. The best option for this is to use whatever cash you have after completing the game to buy the remainder of what you need and use them all in a row while standing in some fire. You can start a new game and grab the one in the bathroom of the first room in the Prologue, use it and reload the checkpoint to farm this. You can also load Chapter 18 in a NG+ as well, there will be a handful lying there in the beginning.
Submitted by: manoahmaelstrom
Easy 'Light my fire' Achievement/Trophy
Using a Molotov is likely your best bet here. Throwing a Meat Bait out will easily group them and keep them off you. During Act 2 you can exit the church and see an ambulance on a bridge to the right. Head across it and aggro those zombies and the few at the end of the bridge as well. Run back and stand on top of the ambulance to get a group of 10, then drop your Molotov on top of them.
There are multiple other places throughout the city to get this as well. Use a pistol from far off to aggro zombies and jump onto a car or truck. You can run around the area quickly to find more, then go back. Shoot anything in the distance so that they come to you.
Submitted by: manoahmaelstrom
Easy 'Steam Punk' Achievement/Trophy
Any weapon created using either the Shock Mod or Torch Mod will unlock this achievement. The Torch Mod is the first you'll come across as a reward from the "Counsel of Despair" side quest. The Shock Mod is a reward from the "Black Hawk Down" main story quest.
Submitted by: manoahmaelstrom
Chrome 2 Poster in Dead Island
During "Born to be Wild," talk to Mike Davies in the hotel and head into the next room with the work bench. Continue to the room with the computer and look for the Chrome 2 poster on the wall. Chrom 2's developer, Techland, is also the producer of Dead Island.
Hidden Nude Pictures
Head to the mayor's office in City Hall in Act 2 (before the zombie attack). Behind the painting on the back wall in the room behind the dies are three photos of a partially nude woman.You have to knock the painting down to see them.
Submitted by: snowman_rjk23
Kill a Suicider Without Using Weapons
First of all, The Suicider is your friend. He's your personal mobile explosive device and is always ready for action. Suiciders can be found alone or amongst a group of enemies. When they are found in a group, run towards the Suicider, brushing it as you pass. It will build up and explode giving you time to get a safe distance while killing the enemies directly surrounding it. Simply running past the Suicider doesn't guarantee it will blow up and running head on into it is, well... suicidal!
Submitted by: ninjarage
Quick Kills with Blades
When being approached by Walkers or Infected, wait until they get a few feet from you before you defend against them. Simultaneously take a step back and swing your melee weapon at them "aiming at the head" for higher damage output. Walkers and Infected usually take a huge swing at you when they get near you so performing this technique makes them miss while giving you the opportunity to decapitate them. It works nearly every time as long as your weapon's condition is at least 50% or better.
Submitted by: ninjarage
Joe Dirt Reference
The name for the person in the laboratory is "Joel Dirt."
Submitted by: yoromomo
Infinite Money and Shotgun Ammo in the Laboratory
In the Laboratory, there are three safes with no locks containing about 3-5,000 in loot. There's usually a 2/3 chance for money to appear. You can leave the laboratory area through quick travel to another area (Resort, Moresby, Jungle) and come back to open the safes to get more money.
After completing the sidequest for Will in the laboratory, shotgun ammo will be made available to you on the table in the room he is in.
Submitted by: yoromomo
Skip Eating Animation
If you are in a rush when eating or drinking items to regain health simply hit KICK right when you take that first bite or sip to skip the rest of the animation.
Submitted by: bigdsnack
Floating Propane Tank Exploit
During two or more player games, while using a pick up truck, have a player load a propane tank in the back of a pick up truck, climb in the back. The propane tank will start to slide back and eventually drop out of the truck and follow you, the player in the truck can shoot the tank killing any group of zombies near the tank, works very well while trying to turn off the 5 fire hydrants.
Submitted by: bufftandor
Item Duplication
In solo mode, go to a checkpoint and drop the item you want to duplicate -- you can drop your entire inventory. Kill yourself (deodorant bomb, molotov etc.) and when the respawn countdown appears, pause your game and reload the checkpoint. Everything you dropped will be in on the ground AND in your inventory. You won't lose any cash for restarting the checkpoint.
Weapon Duplication
Using the digital fighting control scheme, hold the LEFT TRIGGER to aim your weapon. Hit the DROP (Y/TRIANGLE) button RIGHT as you hit the RIGHT TRIGGER to throw the weapon. With the correct timing, you should throw one weapon and drop an identical one.
Infinite Diamonds
Method 1: In Chapter7, City Hall Part 2, after you kill the mayor, collect the diamond in his safe. Head back to the sewers then turn around and go back to the mayors room. The diamond should reappear back inside the safe. You can sell these for $1500 and it helps for the mods that use diamonds.
Method 2: When you get to the City of Moresby, there is a safe house/fast travel spot called Square. Inside one of the refrigerators is a bottle of champagne. You can take this bottle to the resort for the Time For Booze continuous quest and if you fast travel back, the bottle will be back in the fridge to take again.
Submitted by: jmaster7797
Never Dull Your Weapons
No matter the weapon, no matter the level, throwing your weapons never dulls them.
Submitted by: bigdsnack
How to Get 'Oh, No You Didn't'
This one will require a bit of patience but is not a difficult one to get. When you come across a ram kill all other enemies around it. Then constantly dodge its attacks and either hit it, throw weapons or shoot it. That's the easy part. The problem is it may catch on fire seeing as the first occurs when you first come to the church and there is a fire there. Just lead him away from it and you will be OK. When he was very low health wait for him to charge, move out of the way and tackle him from behind (from behind because he cant hit you and there will be more damage dealt to him) and do that until your need for a shiny new Achievement or Trophy is fulfilled.
Submitted by: bigdsnack
How to Get 'Light My Fire' and '10 Heads Are Better than One'
Getting these two Achievements / Trophies requires the same technique. In the city, simply run around and have a bunch of zombies follow you, get to a car or truck and stand on top. When they are all within range either kill ten in a row a row with head shots or throw down a molotov.
Submitted by: bigdsnack
Avoid Zombies by Climbing Cars
Although there are a lot of rooftops in Moresby, to get away from zombies, jump on the hood of the car, and the zombies can't touch you. If you crouch and aim right, you can kill them from the safety of a car roof.
Submitted by: dv94sharpshooter
Friday the 13th Reference, Machete and Chainsaw
Once you get to the jungle, try and go to the middle of the map and north. there is fast travel location and town, with a bunch of new side quests up there. Once you are there, travel south down a narrow path. After coming down the hill, you will see burned bodies crucified on posts and a couple buildings. Once here, save your waypoint just to know exactly where you are. Continue walking up and you will a gang of zombies there who are attacking a huge guy with a gigantic machete. His name is Jason, hockey mask, white shirt, he even talks about brains and mumbling crazily -- clearly a Friday the 13th reference.
Jason can kill you in one swift hit, so be careful. He's super fast and coming at him head on can cost you money. It's hard to run from him once he is on you. The easiest way to kill him was to bring a vehicle down from the village above his location.
You don't have to kill him to get the chainsaw either, but there is a ladder you can climb up, and a door. Go in, and look around til you see an altar, and there is the chainsaw. It can't be upgraded. It does 10 hit points and is really handy for clustered zombies like in Moresby. Just aim for the head or whatever limb you want to sever, and just watch the limbs fly. The Chainsaw regenerates and so does Jason. You can also get a Machete from the fallen Jason.
Submitted by: awill07
Easy Early XP
When you are in the hotel and the voice tells you to go to the maintenance room, keep going down the hall until you have to run away from the zombies. DO NOT GO INTO THE MAINTENANCE ROOM. Once you pass into the next hall you should see a zombie in a doorway to your left, directly after that there is a door you can open. Open the door run in and only let one zombie in. Make sure you close the door behind him then once inside start kicking him until he falls down then crouch and keep punching his head. It will take about 2 or 3 minutes because the zombie is level 50. Once he is dead you should get around 1300 XP. Just retrace your steps to get another zombie. You can do this as much as you want as long as you don't run into the maintenance room.
Submitted by: mattshack27
Resident Evil Umbrella Corporation Reference
The umbrellas in Dead Island resemble the Umbrella Corp. logo from Resident Evil. Coincidence? Probably.
Instant Save
I find it frustrating that the game NEVER saves. To save whenever you like, simply go to Options, select 'Controls' and set the fight style from analog to digital or vice-versa. The game saves every time you do it.
Submitted by: greggyv
Easy Thug Kills
When fighting a thug first wait for him to swing a couple times making sure not to let him use your face as a punching bag. When he stops and roars or if you are close and he stopped swinging just run up and hit is arms. Once you have one just wait for him to swing with the working one and repeat the process. You will either break them with a blunt weapon or cut them off with an edged one. Either way he isn't nearly as dangerous. Now just run around him and try to get behind him so he doesn't bite you. Just keep swinging for the back of the head and eventually the giant will make a less then graceful plummet to the floor. Or you can shoot him in the face or throw explosives. Those work mighty fine too.
Submitted by: bigdsnack
Easy "Can't Touch This" Achievement/Trophy
This Achievement is quite simple, all you need is an upgraded hammer and patience. When you find a hammer go to the money collecting work benches and upgrade it all the way. Then venture out and when you find a zombie do your best to make sure it is a one to one fight. Have the zombie chase you and after its first swing kick it. When it is down kick it in the legs or chest until it has low health and finish it off with a hammer to the brain. Also, if you accidentally curb stomp the zombie and kill it with kicks it wont count against you in the counting to 15 kills with a hammer, without being touched.
Submitted by: bigdsnack
Quick Kick
You may exploit the animation of your melee kick -- the faster your foot recedes, the sooner you can kick again. Fore-shorten the kick animation by standing directly over a prone enemy; clever players will notice the kicks come out a little faster (you still need to spam the kick button though).
Drowning Zombies for XP
If you're scooting along the island solo or with a party and you have zombies chasing you, simply run into the water, kick them and watch them drown. Easy way to get XP and not die from trying to melee the crap outta zombies.
Submitted by: greggyv
Dead Island License Plate
The license plate on the truck you find all the car parts for says "D34D 1574ND"
Submitted by: guyknownasnate
Find the Family from the Trailer
Remember that first epic Dead Island end-to-beginning trailer we all fussed over? Well, you can find the family shown in the trailer in the game, too! Here's the original trailer:
Here's where you'll find them in the game:
Submitted by: stephanie-ign