Dead Island 2: How to Find All Beforetimes Collectible Journals

There are a lot of hidden Journal entries in Dead Island 2, some of which are genuinely difficult to find. If you’re looking to soak up all the lore behind Hell-A, here’s where to find all the Journals under the Beforetimes header in your collectibles menu. Broadly, these entries all concern life immediately before, and right at the start of, the “zompocalypse.”

If you’re looking for other Journal collectibles in Dead Island 2, follow the links to our other mini-guides, generally broken up by category: 

• All Main Quest Journals
• All Side Quest Journals
• All It Begins Journals
• All Life in Hell-A Journals
• All The Truth Journals

All Beforetimes Journal Locations in Dead Island 2

Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous: 10

• #1: Tony the Schemer: In Curtis Sinclair’s backyard in Bel-Air, go into the outbuilding that’s marked with the Guest Restrooms sign. You can find this phone on the table in the cloakroom.
• #2: Tony the Mooch: Once you’ve completed the “Death of the Party” side mission, you can unlock all the doors in Curtis’s mansion. This includes the kitchen, where you can find this phone on the island.
• #3: Llama Milk: In Emma’s house in Bel-Air, enter Michael’s bedroom above the gym to find his to-do list on the dresser.
• #4: Staked Out in the Goat Pen Ep. 98: You have to break a window to get into the podcast studio in the Goat Pen house in Bel-Air, but once you do, you can grab this off the desk.
• #5: Tazmanian Daredevil: The really big, really trashed house in Beverly Hills that’s initially swarming with Skull-level zombies belongs to Roxanne’s boyfriend Rikky Rex. Once you’ve been to Venice Beach, Rikky will give you two side quests, the second of which, “The Ballad of Rikky Rex,” involves gaining access to his house’s second floor. This file is on a phone in his recording studio.
• #6: Spin Theory: Look for a phone on a forklift in the storage lot north of the construction site in Beverly Hills.
• #7: Where Are They Now?: Go inside the empty security booth past Sound Stage 7 on the Monarch Studios lot and check the shelves behind the door.
• #8: Re: The Amanda Styles Incident: On Ocean Avenue, if you circle around to the back of the Long Pork Grill, you can climb to the restaurant’s roof. There’s an abandoned observation outpost up here with an ammo cache and this file.
• #9: OSK Customer Service Script: When you unlock the back office of the SKOpe outlet on Ocean Avenue during “The Search for Truth,” you can find this file on the desk.
• #10: Placenta Lasagna: This is in the Autophage-covered subway car on the northwest side of the train platform in the Metro.

Angelenos: 3

• #1: Wedding Invitation: This is in plain sight in the Halperin Hotel’s lobby, next to the ballroom door.
• #2: Workout Plan: Day 3: “Leg Day”: Head to the outdoor gym in eastern Venice Beach and check the floor by the weight benches. This is difficult to spot during the day, but is obvious at night.

Screenshot by GameSkinny

• #3: Send Home the Clowns: This is a tough one to find. During “Boardwalking Dead,” one of the zombies you kill along the Santa Monica Pier may drop the Photo Booth Staff Key. I got it off a Shocking Walker (below).

Screenshot by GameSkinny

Screenshot by GameSkinny

This lets you open the door to the Ocean Park Ride Photos booth along the Pier’s southern wall. Grab the phone off its counter, as well as the nearby secret Skill Card.

Monarch Studios Presents: 11

• #1: Omen to Kill Trailer: Check the DVDs on the side table in Emma’s front hall, behind the stairs.
• #2: The Montana Method: After you reactivate the sKOpe servers in “The Search for Truth,” return to Jimmy Montana’s trailer on the Monarch Studios lot and talk to the sKOpe on his desk.
• #3: Friends Without Benefits: As soon as you enter Stage 3 on the Monarch Studios lot, turn left, go up the ramp, and take this off the table.
• #4: Big Break: This phone can be found on some furniture in the middle of Heroes’ Journey Lane on the Monarch Studios lot. The trick to getting it is that it’s guarded by multiple Crushers when you first visit this map, so it’s not worth the initial hassle.

Screenshot by GameSkinny

• #5: Rise of the God-Spider: Once you’ve opened the “spider doors” on Sound Stage 7 on the Monarch Studios lot, keep an eye out for this script. It’s on a director’s chair in the corner of the jungle set.
• #6: The Badge: Check out the script on the counter in Jimmy Montana’s trailer.

Screenshot by GameSkinny

• #7: Butter the B—h: Vernon Wong’s trailer is outside Sound Stage 7 on the Monarch Studios lot. This is inside on his couch.
• #8: Fifty Shades of Mahogany: Look in the pile of discarded furniture on the north side of Save the Cat Walk on the Monarch Studios lot.
• #9: This Year’s Hottest Toy: DD-09!: Go into the unlabeled trailer in the Monarch Studios zombie-free zone and check out the Space Fox poster on the wall. This is easy to overlook by day, as the glow that tells you it’s a collectible blends in with the poster.

Screenshot by GameSkinny

• #10: The Badge: Trailer: Go to the closed Burger ‘66 on Ocean Avenue and look for the pile of DVDs on an exterior dining table. While these DVDs are always here, taking the post-game side quest “More Than the Badge” activates them as a collectible audio diary.

Screenshot by GameSkinny

#11: Romeros Running Order: Go to the Old Dynasty Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard and climb the west set of stairs to find this taped to the sealed door.

That wraps up the Beforetimes Journal tab, but there’s still more to go. In the meantime, for all your other Dead Island 2 needs, check out our dedicated guides hub.

Featured image by GameSkinny.