While the general consensus on Dead Island 2 for the first couple of days after its release was 'fun, but lacking in content', players are quickly discovering this just isn't true. There's a ton to do in this game besides the main story quest, and there are actually quite a few Side Quests that aren't even available until players complete the last story mission.
Coast Guardian is one of them, and it's a Dead Island 2 Side Quest that requires players to backtrack to Venice Beach and walk past the lifeguard tower on the beach behind the Police Department. As players walk past it, they'll notice that a lot of zombies seem to be crowding around the door to the tower, and a scared voice is coming from inside. After clearing out these zombies and stepping into the hut, players will meet Burt who will assign the Coast Guardian Side Quest to them.
Save Burt & Search For 'His Survivors' At The Police Station Nearby
After meeting Burt the Lifeguard and dealing with his obvious facade of bravery, this airhead has players searching for his Survivor friends near the Police Station first. Heat out from the Lifeguard Tower and start running towards the Police Station building directly to the east. As soon as players get close enough to the front of this building, their objective will change to 'Burt's survivors might be hiding. Clear the area of threats! and they'll be tasked with clearing out all the zombies hanging around the cop cars out front. The majority of these zombies are Bursters, and they're pretty grouped up by default, so a well-placed explosive Curveball can thin the crowd out very quickly.
Surprisingly, that's all players actually need to do at the Police Station. They don't need to search the inside or look in any of the closed rooms (as they probably already did during the Cold Pork quest), both the player character and Burt just assume that none of the survivors are here simply because they're not hanging around out front. In any case, it doesn't matter which Dead Island 2 Slayer the player picked, they all sort of insinuate here that this might mean Burt's survivors aren't among the living anymore.
But, despite all this, Burt manages to stay hopeful and assumes that this probably means they made it to the stores on the boardwalk as they had planned. So, from here, players are going to want to keep heading east to the stores along the boardwalk, looking for one called 'Venice Kitchen' in particular.
Find Out What 'Really' Happened To Burt's Survivors At The Venice Kitchen
The second objective of the Coast Guardian Side Quest is incredibly similar to the first. Players will get close, and see a lot of zombies hanging around, the objective then tells them to kill them all, and they'll do it. Once all the zombies loitering in front of the Venice Kitchen are dead, players will then want to activate the switch on the left-hand side of the Venice Kitchen garage. As it slowly opens, players might be expecting to see a few starving survivors, but there's just one Slobber named 'One of Burt's Group'. So, it's pretty safe to say that they didn't make it.
As soon as the Slobber notices the Slayer, they'll call all their nearby Walker, Runner, and Shambler friends to ambush them. Kill the member of Burt's Group as well as all its ambush pals, and the player character starts immediately calling Burt out on the fact that these 'survivors' have obviously been dead for days.
Head Back To Burt, Save Him Again, & Hear His Apology
As players start walking back to the Lifeguard Tower, their player character will keep ridiculing Burt for being airheaded enough to forget that a few days is absolutely long enough for allies to die from starvation, exposure, or (more likely) being eaten and subsequently turned into undead.
Burt starts to panic and tries to 'play it cool' while obviously attempting to run away, only to get interrupted by zombies again and re-trapped inside his Lifeguard Tower. Usually, based on most of the other Side Quests in Dead Island 2, this is the point in the quest where the NPC gets bitten or killed off-screen, but surprisingly Burt is totally fine (outside of being trapped). So, after players go back and clear out all the zombies surrounding the Tower (which includes a Crusher), they'll be able to walk inside, hear Burt's 'apology', and turn in the quest.
Coast Guardian Side Quest Rewards
After Burt apologizes for being a coward in the face of the Zompocalypse, the player character gives him a pretty well-worded pep talk before the Side Quest automatically completes. The first thing it rewards players, even before the 'Side Quest Complete' message pops up, is the Served Cold Ability Card. This Autophage-based Ability is a Defensive option for building Fury since the other two Autophage Perks are heavily centered around Offense. With it, players will build Fury from Blocking attacks or taking any sort of damage from zombies at all, which is incredibly handy.
Besides the Served Cold Card, players will also receive the standard 3,000 XP they usually get from all the other Dead Island 2 Side Quests. All-in-all, it's a pretty short Side Quest that has a pretty substantial Skill Card reward, so it's absolutely worth checking out if players are still finding themselves having a blast with Dead Island 2 in the post-game content.
Dead Island 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.