Best Back 4 Blood characters

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Here's the best cleaners and characters in Back 4 Blood to play as.

Back 4 Blood best characters
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

The best Back 4 Blood characters, or cleaners, might be a matter of opinion in some ways - Evangelo shouldn't be anybody's favourite when it comes to personality - but stats are a different matter. Each playable character in Back 4 Blood has their own abilities or stat boosts, not to mention a certain secondary weapon that they carry with them into the battle. We'll lay them all out below with the info on the best character to choose in Back 4 Blood, so you're ready to know how you're wearing when you wander into the Ridden.

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Best Back 4 Blood Characters

Back 4 Blood

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

There's currently a total of eight characters in Back 4 Blood, each with their own abilities and skills to pick from, though they're not entirely equivalent. Not only that, but you'll also need to know how to unlock Back 4 Blood characters, which we've put together a helpful guide for. 

That being said, if you're picking between the eight characters prior to wandering into the campaign, you'll need to know who's best. Here's three characters you should absolutely be considering when starting a mission.

Mom

Back 4 Blood best characters

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
  • Can instantly revive a teammate once per level.
  • +1 team extra life
  • +1 support inventory

The grumpy granny of the group, Mom is a powerhouse for keeping your team alive. She's a frontline support cleaner, able to revive a single character with no item needed, and helps boost everybody's overall durability with that extra life. An 1-Up and a quick-revive power can turn a hopeless situation around in an instant, and make Mom an essential choice when it comes to the higher difficulties.

Doc

Back 4 Blood best characters

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
  • Can heal each teammate for 25 health once per level
  • +20% healing efficiency
  • +25% team trauma resistance

Carrying on the healing theme, Doc restores health well and should be your pack mule for all the healing items, as she's the one best equipped to make the most out of them. 20% healing bonus might not sound like much, but over the course of a campaign that's a huge amount of health restoration. Combine that with a little out-the-gate healing boost and an added trauma resistance across the team, and Doc will do a lot for overall survivability.

Hoffman

Back 4 Blood best characters

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
  • Chance to find ammo after killing a Ridden
  • +1 offensive inventory
  • +10% max team ammo capacity

We're probably into the slightly less essential cleaners now, but everybody's favourite John Goodman impersonator can do a lot to keep your ammo supplies high, so he's not that inessential. Hoffman's ability to functionally draw ammunition from his kills mean that the team can focus less on bullet conservation and more on firepower - nobody wants to be scrounging for bullets when an Ogre is giving you the side-eye. 

Karlee

Back 4 Blood best characters

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
  • Sense nearby hazards and mutations
  • +1 quick inventory
  • +50% team use speed

Karlee has two abilities that bring her above the rest - her passive ability to highlight nearby threats, and her serious boost to the speed at which you can all use items. It's a general upgrade overall and focuses on Karlee's skill as a kind of agile scout, scanning ahead for danger and dashing back to pick up her teammates in times of crisis. Give her cards to match, and she'll do a lot to keep you safe.

Joel Franey
Joel Franey
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.