Part of getting 100% completion for Aliens: Dark Descent is finding a bunch of items called Datapads and Xenotech Blueprints. To help you achieve that goal, we're going to look at all Aliens: Dark Descent Dead Hills collectible locations.
Aliens: Dark Descent is an immersive survival game that puts you in command of a squad of skilled colonial marines (5 classes). Your mission is to halt an insidious alien infestation by employing effective strategies and wielding the best weapons at your disposal.
The very first mission you take in the game is called Dead Hills. Though Dead Hills is just the start of your campaign to stop the alien infestation, you can already begin collecting Datapads and Xenotech Blueprints.
Aliens: Dark Descent Dead Hills collectible locations
There are 19 total Datapads and two Xenotech Blueprints you can collect in the Dead Hills. Fortunately, the Dead Hills can be broken down into several different areas to make your search for collectibles a bit easier.
One thing to take note of is that not all collectible can be obtained on your first deployment to Dead Hills.
Dead Hills Datapad locations
- Agricultural Laboratory: there are two Datapads in this portion of the map - one in the northeast section of the lab and the other in the southwest room.
- Bar: there's only one Datapad here and you can find it just north of where it says "Bar" on your map.
- Community Center: there's one Datapad that can be found in the southwest portion of this building.
- Generator Room: there are two Datapads here, but you can only get one on your first deployment to Dead Hills. You can find the second one while searching for the Smuggler's Datapad.
- Level 2: you can get one datapad in the northwest corner of this location.
- Mine Entrance: this area is inaccessible during your first time in Dead Hills, but know that there are two Datapads that can be found here.
- Sheriff's Office: this building has a total of four Datapads that can be collected.
- Slaughter House: you can obtain three Datapads here, but you can only get the third one when investigating the shipping container manifest.
- Veterinary Clinic: there is one Datapad here, found in the southwest portion of the building.
- Warehouse: this area only has one Datapad, but you can only obtain it on your second deployment to Dead Hills while searching the quartermaster's computer for supplies.
- Workshop: this area only has one Datapad.
And that makes 19 Datapads. But you're not done with the Dead Hills just yet, as you can also obtain a couple of Xenotech Blueprints in the area.
Dead Hills Xenotech Blueprint locations
There are two Xenotech Blueprints in the Dead Hills - the Chitin Kevlar Plates and the Extraction Device. You can get the Chitin Kevlar Plates very early on in the game, but the Extraction Device is only obtainable at the end of your second deployment to Dead Hills.
- Chitin Kevlar Plates: you can find this blueprint near the start of your first deployment to Dead Hills inside a room on the 2nd floor.
- Extraction Device: you'll get this blueprint when you loot the Xenomorph Queen inside Mineshaft-1 at the end of your second deployment to Dead Hills.
And that's all of the collectible locations for the Dead Hills. Have fun fighting off Xenomorphs while trying to find them!
What do collectibles in Aliens: Dark Descent do?
As you already know, there are two types of collectibles in Aliens: Dark Descent - Datapads and Xenotech Blueprints. Datapads are mostly just there for you to collect, but Xenotech Blueprints actually offer benefits for your squad.
Let's take the two blueprints found in Dead Hills as examples. The Chitin Kevlar Plates will give you a passive bonus of increasing your squad's Armor Points by 1 while the Extraction Device gives you the ability to heal a marine from Facehugger implantations.
So even if you aren't aiming for 100% achievement, you might still want to find some of these collectibles to have a better chance at surviving.