There are 50 combo weapons in total included with Dead Rising 2: Off The Record (which is incidentally my favourite Dead Rising title in the series) and not all of them are created equally. This is a top 10 countdown of my personal favourites, so grab your duct tape and let's begin.10 - Fire Spitter
At number 10 is the Fire Spitter - literally a children’s toy that has been altered to fire out flaming ping pong balls. One of few ranged weapons that is actually decent against large hordes of zombies - as the balls will bounce from head to head, spreading the flames as it goes. It’s also a very useful weapon when going for some of the gold medal challenges in Sandbox Mode. It’s not brilliant against psychopaths, but for those who don’t like getting up close and personal with melee weapons - it’s not bad.
Next we have the Paddlesaw - literally the poster weapon of Dead Rising 2 - it’s two chainsaws taped to each end of a canoe paddle - which you can swing side to side and around and around to cut through the endless hordes in seconds. The screen will be awash with blood in no time at all and all that will be left is a mountain of severed limbs. So why is it so low down on my list? Two reasons really - the first is that both chainsaws and paddles are relatively hard to find, so it’s not an easy weapon to make without planning ahead. And secondly, it’s one of those massive weapons that you can’t store in your inventory bar - try and swap it for something else, you’ll just drop it. Need to refill your health? You’ll have to drop it… Thus it’s not a very good choice for psychopath boss fights as more often than not you’ll be picking it up and putting it down again rather than actually using it...
At number 8 we have the Weed Tendonizer - unfortunately another massive weapon that cannot be stored in the players inventory. Created by combining a weed whacker with knives, Frank can pull on the cord and aim the rapidly rotating blades at the exposed ankles of any nearby zombies - slashing their arteries and causing them to bleed out on the floor. It has a fairly high durability and thus can be used to take out large groups or safely slice yourself a pathway through the more densely packed areas of Fortune City’s exterior. It's not ideal for use against psychopaths, as it's rather slow - but does come in handy during several of the Sandbox Mode challenges for racking up kills and PP quickly.
Next on the list is the Pole Weapon - a pretty run of the mill combo weapon created by taping a machete to a broom. These two items are fairly common, brooms being found in most janitors closets and machetes often being wielded by the looters - the Pole Weapon is an easy to make and easy to use weapon with a very long range - allowing you to attack hordes of zombies or psychopath bosses whilst keeping a comfortable distance from their attacks. I found it rather useful throughout the story playthrough and used it in multiple situations. It was one of a handful of weapons on this list I often kept in my inventory in reserve. At first glance it may seem boring, but it's actually pretty good.
Next we have the Tenderizers - some pretty brutal and badass gloves you can make using MMA gloves and a box of nails. Frank literally pokes nails through the holes in his leather gloves in order to make extreme brass knuckles! In addition to pulling off some serious MMA-style jabs and punches, pressing button combos can also result in some satisfying kicks to finish off the new pincushion in front of you. Unfortunately they have a relatively short range and aren’t great against large hordes of zombies - but they do fairly well against a single psychopath or smaller groups of the undead. Fairly abundant materials for making them too - MMA gloves are found in sports stores and the gym and you practically trip over boxes of nails everywhere you go.
At the halfway point is the Holy Arms - literally a toy sword and shield set that has been perforated with dozens of nails - ah, nails - you have so many uses, it seems. Instead of thinking of them as an offensive weapon and a defensive shield, the Holy Arms is actually two offensive weapons with defensive moves available - the shield manages to both block and batter at the same time while Frank waves the spiky sword around like a madman, severely puncturing anything that dares to get in his way. The downside, like many other combo weapons is the lack of training swords one can find in Fortune City - they can more or less only be found in the Atlantica Casino and the Slot Ranch Casino (and a few other awkward places) so if you’re a fan of using them like I am - I recommend stocking up when you next pass through.
It's hard to beat the classics - the first combo weapon you are introduced to, the Nail Bat is a fairly decent go-go combo throughout the game. The first maintenance room outside of the safe house is always stocked with the means to build one and baseball bats and nails are relatively common commodities. I often kept one in my inventory to fall back on when all of my other weapons had broken. A fairly decent weapon for quickly dispatching zombies and not a terrible choice when dealing with psychopaths either - the nail bat may be cliché but you can't argue with results.
The laser sword feels odd getting the bronze medal in this list - as when is a blade made of solid light that can cut through flesh like butter a bad choice? Well, it’s not a *bad* choice - quite the opposite, they’re great weapons - fast, high damaging and they come in a variety of colours! The problem with them is that they’re fairly awkward to make - as one of their main components, flashlights are also in close competition for other combo weapons and items such as the Money Hacker. Gems are relatively easy to find in large quantities in jewellery shops - but flashlights can be harder to find, unless you frequently encounter looters. As the laser sword also attacks fast and deals damage fast, it often falls victim to the boss battle nerfing - the more consecutive hits you get in, the less damage you’ll do… It’s still awesome to slice zombies in two though.
Coming in 2nd place we have the Defiler - the frankly obscenely overpowered weapon made by duct taping together a sledgehammer and a fire axe - creating a frankly unstoppable powerhouse that can simultaneously bludgeon and slash both zombies and psychopaths. The only downside is that it's quite a slow and bulky weapon and psychopaths with fast attacks and those who dodge a lot can be quite hard to strike consecutively. Plus - sledgehammers and fire axes are fairly uncommon items and are seldom found together. That aside, the sheer satisfaction on Frank’s face as he smashes a group of zombies into oblivion with a 50-pound swing is awesome.
And at #1 we have my personal favourite combo weapon, the knife gloves. Now, I've chosen these over the Defiler for three reasons. 1, they are a lot faster - yes the Defiler may do more damage overall but the longer wait time between swings leaves you vulnerable to attack. 2, they're easier to make, as boxing gloves are readily available in sports stores and gyms and knives, cleavers and other pointy objects are found in abundance pretty much everywhere. And 3, they're useful against both the horde and psychopaths - their speed is useful when dispatching groups of zombies or slicing yourself a path through - and you can easily get in several slashes in a row during the boss battles then run away to allow the damage nullifier time to wear off. Plus, what isn't there to love about going slash crazy with a pair of Goddamn boxing gloves with KNIVES sticking out of them? You're like a cross between Little Mac and Wolverine!
