Dead Island 2: SoLA - How to get the Ripper and Sawblade Launcher legendary weapons

SoLA is the second story-based DLC for Dead Island 2. This time, you’re heading straight to a festival grounds—think Burning Man or Coachella—that’s teeming with the undead.

Fear not, because our Dead Island 2: SoLA guide has all the information you need to acquire the two legendary weapons added as part of the DLC—the Ripper and the Sawblade Launcher. Note: This article contains minor spoilers.
 

How to start the Dead Island 2: SoLA DLC

You can start the Dead Island 2: SoLA DLC once you’ve reached a main story mission called Beach Offensive. This will allow you to select the SoLA destination from the fast travel board at the Blue Crab restaurant.

Later portions of SoLA only become available once you’ve progressed further into the main story campaign, after reaching the Rage Quit mission.

 

Legendary weapon: Ripper - Mods and perks

The Ripper is one of two legendary weapons in Dead Island 2: SoLA. It has the following characteristics:

• Mod: Superior Melee Punctuator Mod - Converts your weapon to inflict bleed damage and gives a major damage boost. Successive hits to zombies also apply the bleeding effect.
• Perk: Empowering - Critical hits and heavy attacks do increased damage.
• Fixed Perk: Revolutionary - Attacks increase your blade’s speed. Heavy attacks and counter attacks increase it most. At full speed, Revolutionary triggers a supercharged state of increased damage.
• Fixed Perk: Skilled - Killing a zombie gives a moderate damage boost to heavy attacks, and they charge up faster.

The Ripper is a great weapon to have for close-quarters combat. Keep slaying opponents to continuously rev up the sawblade.

 

How to get the Ripper legendary weapon

You can get the Ripper legendary weapon in Dead Island 2: SoLA by purchasing it from a vending machine in Grace’s hideout. Here’s a quick summary:

• Once you have access to the SoLA DLC campaign and fast travel to the destination, you’ll receive a quest called Bad Vibrations.
• Go to the marked location to find Grace’s hideout. As soon as you approach the door, a new Apex zombie type known as the Whipper will appear.
• The Whipper uses its tentacle-like arm to strike from afar. It can also inflict the Muzzled status effect, which prevents you from activating Fury Mode.
• After dealing with the Whipper, enter Grace’s hideout and speak with her. Then, check the vending machine in the basement. You should be able to purchase the Ripper for roughly $33,000.

Legendary weapon: Sawblade Launcher - Mods and perks

The Sawblade Launcher is the second obtainable legendary weapon in the SoLA DLC. It has the following characteristics:

• Mod: Superior Ranged Mutilator Mod - Gives a major physical damage boost. Successive hits to a zombie apply the weakened effect. Hitting a weakened zombie replenishes stamina.
• Perk: Tactical Reload - Killing a zombie gives a moderate boost to reload speed.
• Fixed Perk: Threefer - Fully charge and fire for a powerful shot with increased damage that slices through multiple zombies. Tap fire for a shot that does increased limb damage.
• Fixed Perk: Top Up - When this weapon is stowed, it gradually reloads.

The Sawblade Launcher has two firing modes. The normal firing mode shoots a single projectile that deals high damage to limbs. The charged firing mode, meanwhile, can only be used when the magazine is full. The weapon then shoots all three bladed projectiles to strike and pierce through multiple opponents.

 

How to get the Sawblade Launcher legendary weapon

The Sawblade Launcher legendary in Dead Island 2: SoLA can only be acquired once you’ve completed the entire story DLC’s campaign. Here’s a list of the missions/quests that you must undertake:

• Bad Vibrations
• Beauty and the Beat
• S**t Hits the Fan
• Dance For Me
• Shifting Sands
• The Beat Is On
• Don’t Stop Retrievin’
• Saving Grace
• The Sound of Violence

Below, we'll give you a quick rundown of what you can expect from the SoLA DLC, and talk you through some of the trickier parts of the campaign.

 

Beauty and the Beat: Investigate the Beat at the Fusion Point

After chatting with Grace in Bad Vibrations, you’re told to investigate the Beat, a mysterious soundwave that has turned thousands of festival goers into mindless undead. In the Fusion Point location, you have to search for a way to fix the sound system:

• Check the note near the DJ deck.
• Enter the kitchen of the Die Wurst Die restaurant. Defeat the Sound Tech zombie and pick up the note.
• Head to the back of the Aspen Cold Beer bar. Climb up the crates and break through the windows. You should find another zombie with a note.

Once you’ve gathered all the clues, you may activate the Psykesonic Mood Speaker. This device causes multiple zombies to appear, most of which will go near the speaker. Kill the ones that are linked via red energy beams to overload the device.

When a speaker is overloaded, you can pick up an object called an Orgone Ball. Throw this at clusters of ghouls nearby to deal area-of-effect (AoE) damage. With the vicinity cleared of hostiles, interact with the DJ deck again to get a short cutscene.

 

Beauty and the Beat: Investigate the Beat at the Indie Zone

The Indie Zone requires you to power up the DJ deck first:

• Follow the orange cables to find a breaker panel below the stage.
• The Circuit Breaker itself is inside an enclosure with live wires. You can hop on the crates to avoid taking damage.
• Before placing the Circuit Breaker in the panel, be sure to turn off the water valve at the back of the stage. This prevents your character from getting electrocuted while you’re down below.
• Lastly, there’s a security room near the parked vehicles that you can open if you shoot the two maglock panels. This lets you pick up the Rabbit Punch skill card.

Once you’ve restored power to the DJ deck, activate the Psykesonic Mood Speaker and take out the hostiles. Interact with the controls again for yet another cutscene.

 

S**t Hits the Fan: Mince the zombies

The next mission from Grace is called S** Hits the Fan. At Eco Village, you must turn zombies into mincemeat by forcing them to get ripped apart by an industrial fan. Here are a couple of tips:

• You can stand close to the back of the fan and kick zombies, causing them to get sucked into the rotating blades.
• Alternatively, you can lure zombies to chase you around the fan. Some of them will walk straight into the blades.

S**t Hits the Fan: Defeat the Clotters

As your character attempts to lift the shutter gates, an entity known as the Dirge appears. It then summons two Apex monsters known as Clotters. These foes can shoot streams of gore, as well as disappear and re-emerge from the ground. Their attacks can inflict the bleeding status effect, which is why you should avoid using bleed weapons.

With the gruesome twosome defeated, you should be able to enter the Eco Lounge. Here’s what you need to do:

• Pick up the Hornet’s Nest curveball. It causes insects to swarm around nearby enemies and deal damage over time.
• Check the left-hand side of the back area to find a small room with a button that opens the exit shutters.
• Grab the Concussion blueprint from the workbench.
• In the next area, you’ll find the Ram ability in front of the pool.

Dance For Me, Shifting Sands, and The Beat Is On

We’re almost halfway through the DLC campaign of Dead Island 2: SoLA, which means we’re closer to obtaining the Sawblade Launcher weapon.

Dance For Me:

• From the poolside area, make your way to the main stage.
• Activate the pyrotechnics and other devices. There are multiple Psykesonic Mood Speakers here, which means you have to eliminate several zombie clusters.
• The Dirge will appear again, so you have to run away from it.
• Go to the Utopia area and enter the Eclipse nightclub. Speak with a mysterious woman named Cadenza.

Shifting Sands:

• Return to Grace’s compound, take out the undead, and close the gate.
• Speak with Grace to receive the Explosive Outburst skill card.

The Beat Is On:

The goal is to silence the Beat (i.e. defeat zombies and overload speakers) in the following marked locations: Trader Way’s Daiquiris, Squirm Stage, and Sinamoi’s Bar. When you return to Grace’s hideout, you should also find the Bandolier blueprint on the workbench.

 

Don’t Stop Retrievin’

The closing act of the Dead Island 2: SoLA DLC involves fast traveling to Ocean Avenue and entering the Skope shop. After slaying the undead in the store, you can interact with the device to talk to Konstantin.

 

Saving Grace

Return to the main stage past Eco Village. There, you have to face multiple zombies—including several Apex variants, such as a Firestorm Slobber, Inferno Crusher, and Mutator.

 

The Sound of Violence: How to defeat the Dirge

Head back to the Eclipse bar to witness a cutscene involving Cadenza. The Dirge will then make an appearance and you have to kill it. However, it’s immune to damage until you weaken its defenses. Here’s how to do it:

• Eliminate all zombie clusters near the first two speakers. Then, pick up an Orgone Ball.
• The Dirge should reappear front and center, where a red beam denotes that it’s resonating with the massive Mood Speaker.
• Toss the Orgone Ball to remove its immunity, and keep attacking it with non-bleed armaments.
• After depleting portions of its health, you'll have to redo the entire process with other speakers located in various sections of the facility.

Once the Dirge is defeated, speak with Cadenza and then revisit Grace at her compound. Grace will give you the following rewards:

• Sawblade Launcher legendary weapon
• Sawblade Disk x24
• The Sawblade Disk blueprint, which can be used via the workbench. It costs 1x Metal Parts and 1x Blades to fabricate ammo for the Sawblade Launcher.

That does it for our Dead Island 2: SoLA guide. We hope this article helps you acquire the legendary weapons and other goodies added as part of this DLC.

Those keen on facing the undead hordes should pick up Dead Island 2, available on the Epic Games Store. Continue the adventure with the Expansion Pass, which grants access to the Haus and SoLA story DLCs—and check out our Haus unique weapons guide if you want some help getting the DLC's Hog Roaster and K-rossbow armaments.