Dying Light 2 Essence of Survival Guide: Close Your Eyes or Don’t?

A fetching sidequest is made available upon retrieving Lucas’ brass knuckles from Maya. If you backtrack towards the small shack you met Hakon at before heading into the tunnels, there will be two women at one of the entrances. Talking to them will present you with some dialogue choices. Here, we’ll discuss the outcome of both choices and the Essence of Survival quest that comes from it in Dying Light 2.

The Essence of Survival dialogue choices in Dying Light 2

Two short-haired women, named Dianne and Nyra, have been discussing something about the essence of survival. As you approach them, Aiden will interrupt their conversation to question what they’re talking about. Nyra will then ask you “Wanna find out? Just close your eyes.” Her tone does seem a bit suspicious. Here are the outcomes of both choices.

Don’t close your eyes

If this is your response to Nyra’s question, Aiden will be mistrusting of Nyra’s intentions. It doesn’t help that Dianne sarcastically feeds into your suspicion. Nyra will then tell her to knock it out with the answers. Nothing happens here other than a funny little interaction.

Close your eyes

If you choose to close your eyes, you’ll do so. Nyra then asks you what do you perceive? You’re then posed with another set of choices to pick from. Here, you can pick either Smells or Sounds. Picking Sounds will only give you more dialogue.

Picking Smells progresses the sidequest further. In a rather hilarious fashion, Aiden will then start to smell something awful, like literal feces. It’s probably because they got a bit of the fertilizer from a rooftop garden and made him smell it while he had his eyes closed.

You’re posed with another set of choices. The white option will only give you more back story of who Nyra is. She used to work in a fragrance manufacturing company, thus linking reasons why she’s very keen on the human sense of smell. The option to progress the quest forward is to ask what is the essence of survival.

She then gives you the task of bringing her 1 Lavender and 1 Metal Part— or Scraps. Once you do that, bring these requested items back to her. Her fragrance concoction is loved by Aiden, only to be told that it was New Car Smell.

The rewards for completing the quest are 3 UV Bars, a vial of her “Turn Me On” perfume, and an Artifact Collectible of the perfume’s recipe. Those UV bars can definitely come in handy should you find yourself in a dicey situation at night.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human is out now for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S/X, and PC.