Skip to main content

All Curveball locations in Dead Island 2

Your bread-and-butter method for dispatching the undead in Dead Island 2 will always be the strongest blunt or bladed melee weapon you have on hand. There’s certainly no shortage of shovels, knives, gardening equipment, and even swords to choose from, but you can also mix things up with some throwable items as well — and we don’t just mean throwing your weapon. Curveballs, as the game calls them, are more like skills that can be equipped than weapons since they work on a cooldown timer rather than ammo. Your character can only hold two at once, but there are 13 in total to experiment with. You’ll be given one by default, but the rest are up to you to collect. Here’s a full list of all the Curveballs in Dead Island 2 and where to find them.

How to get all the Curveballs in Dead Island 2

A molotov cocktail on a table.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’ll list off the Curvballs, their locations, and their effects in the order you should naturally come across them while playing Dead Island 2. If you miss one, you can always fast travel back to the area to collect it later. While you can only have two Curveballs equipped at any time, you can swap them out no matter where you are, so feel free to try them all out and change up your loadout depending on your current situation.

Recommended Videos

Meat Bait

Given as part of the story by Carlos in Emma’s house, this lets you throw out a chunk of meat that explodes on impact into a pool of meat(?) that attracts all nearby zombies to it.

Shuriken

On your way to the Halperin Hotel, the Shuriken are lodged into a car door directly in front of you. Using these throws out three Shuriken in a horizontal spread that travels a short distance before falling. They don’t do a lot of damage, but can stagger and even remove limbs if you aim them well.

Chem Bomb

This is the second unmissable Curveball and is given to you inside the Halperin Hotel to put out a fire. It is good for more than just fire control, though, since you can use it to make zombies wet and susceptible to electricity.

Caustic-X Bomb

Keep your eye out for “The Rav-Ages of Caustic-X” sidequest if you want to add this to your arsenal. Completing this quest will reward you with a bouncing bomb that deals some damage, but is mainly used for applying the Melting status on zombies and leaving behind damaging acid.

Electric Star

You’ll be taken to the Brentwood Water Reclamation Project plant during the “Justifiable Zombicide” mission. While there, make sure to snag the Electric Star sticking out of the safety sign on the fence. If you missed it, you can also purchase it from Rodriguez later on. This Curvball is a straight upgrade over the Shuriken since it functions exactly the same, but is electrified.

Pipe Bomb

While going through the checkpoints between Beverly Hills and Monarch Studios, keep an eye out for an open crate with the Pipe Bomb in it on one of the tables. This is a basic timed explosive, so toss it into a group for maximum damage.

Molotov Cocktail

When you’re brought into the Brentwood Sewer during “The Heart of Darkness” mission, the Molotov will be in the office next to the Filtration Access and Servicing room. If it wasn’t obvious, this flaming bottle will light any zombie hit with it on fire, plus leave a lingering patch of fire on the ground.

Electric Bomb

This is another Curveball tied to finishing a sidequest, this time the “Jo’s Rainy Day Stash” quest. Think of it as a Pipe Bomb, only replace the explosion with a dome of electricity that is great for stunning groups.

Flashbang

You’ll need to pony up $2,500 and buy this Curveball from Rodriquez once you’ve completed the “Cremains of the Day” sidequest. What you get is a weapon that inflicts Traumatized on zombies, meaning they’re stunned and available to be counterattacked.

Sticky Bomb

Bring Dougie at the Serling Hotel $1,500 and he’ll part ways with the Sticky Bomb. This is just your old Pipe Bomb, but now it will stick to any surface — or zombie — it hits.

Bait Bomb

This is another item Dougie will sell you, this time only after you beat “The Search for Truth” main mission. For just $3,500, you can get what is essentially your Meat Bait and Pipe Bomb stuck together. Zombies will all close in on the bomb before it detonates

Nail Bomb

For the final Curveball you need to invest your cash in, you can buy the Nail Bomb from Ezekiel for $1,500. This is a simple explosive, but with the added benefit of inflicting Bleeding on anything it hits.

Military Grenade

Once you complete the “Boz Makes a Bang” sidequest for Hana, which you can only get after beating “The Rav-Ages of Caustic-X” and “Dez and the Mother of Satan” quests, you will be given the final Curveball in Dead Island 2. This high-explosive detonates on impact no matter what, which could be a good or bad thing depending on the situation. It isn’t all that much more powerful than any other explosive, but the utility of it not having a timer makes it useful.

Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox has been a writer at Digital Trends for over five years and has no plans of stopping. He covers all things…
Stalker 2: tips and tricks to survive in The Zone
A mutant with a split jaw screams in Stalker 2.

If you come into Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl expecting your previous experiences with shooters to carry you through the game, you're in for a rude awakening. This is still an FPS, but it is more of an immersive sim and hardcore survival game than anything else. You will need to adopt a very different playstyle to survive in The Zone, which is filled with mutants and bandits all ready to end your journey in a flash. The game expects you to learn its most important lessons the hard way, but you can avoid a lot of that frustration by picking up these essential tips and tricks for Stalker 2 before you dive in.
Save a lot and often

This point cannot be understated. Saving in Stalker 2 should become a reflex after doing almost anything. If you make it to a town, save. After you manage your inventory and are about to go back out into danger, save. If you hear a nearby confrontation you want to investigate, save. After you survive a gunfight, save. This isn't just because death comes so fast and you can end up losing quite a bit of progress, but also because Stalker 2 is a bit buggy, and backing up your save might end up saving your playthrough.

Read more
Stalker 2 preload guide: release date, file size, and preorder
A Stalker from Stalker 2 looks off in the distance with a radioactive symbol behind him.

It is almost time to put on your gas masks and head back into the exclusion zone as Stalker 2 is due to arrive later this month. This series was a cult classic on PC, and many fans had been eagerly awaiting for a true sequel to arrive, making it one of the most anticipated upcoming Xbox games in addition to PC. However, the development suffered many delays over the years, the most recent being directly related to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, where the development team was located. Despite all that, Stalker 2 is ready to put us to the test in a hardcore shooter where every choice and step could be our last. Make sure you're ready to return to Chornobyl with all the preload information we have available.
Stalker 2 release date

Stalker 2 will be released on November 20, but a specific time has not yet been given.
Stalker 2 file size
https://x.com/Stalker2News/status/1856030921033674943

Read more
All Call of Duty games in order, by release date and chronologically
e3 2021 missing games call of duty

Call of Duty is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. The original Call of Duty set a new standard for first-person shooters, the series' online multiplayer work has been a must-play for gamers for nearly two decades, and Warzone has been one of the top battle royale experiences of late.

The series has coveredĀ a lot of warfare, from World War II to futuristic fictional wars in 2187, but never in any set order. Players have been bounced around from era to era with each annual COD release and even revisited the same conflicts multiple times from different perspectives through direct sequels and remakes.

Read more