Selecting the Dead Island 2 character you want to use can be a difficult choice, particularly as you have to make this decision at the very beginning of the game with little information to base it on, and you're then tied into it for your playthrough. Each of them have their own specific strengths and weaknesses determined by their stats and skills, but there are three that stand out from the others. In my opinion the best Dead Island 2 Slayers are Carla, Jacob, and Ryan, as they can dish out plenty of damage while still being tough enough to roll with the punches. Dani, Bruno, and Amy, on the other hand, have fewer useful abilities and skills to lean into, making them somewhat weaker choices.
There's plenty of factors to consider when deciding in Dead Island 2, as each character has seven stats that dictate their health, damage, speed, and other skills. Every Slayer also has two character specific abilities that can sway your decision, depending on your particular play style. As an example – Carla receives a damage boost when surrounded by multiple enemies, while Amy gets a damage boost by attacking lone zombies.
Let's take a look specifically at a tier list of the best Dead Island 2 characters first, so you can make a fast choice. We've also got a breakdown of what all the stats actually mean, as well as closer look at each character. Bear in mind that if you're wondering how to change outfit in Dead Island 2 to customize the look of your character, you'll need to wait for that feature to be added.
Best Dead Island 2 characters
- Carla
High Resilience and Toughness mean Carla can soak up basic and elemental damage, while her Mosh Pit skill gives her a useful damage boost when surrounded. Most of her other stats are average, bar lower movement speed and the lowest Critical Damage. - Jacob
Good, if middling, stats all round. His Feral skill is useful, giving a damage boost when attacking quickly in succession. Has the lowest resistance to elemental attacks. - Ryan
Basically a tank with high Stamina and Resilience to soak up basic and elemental damage, with skills that focus on knocking zombies down and getting health for doing it. He is the slowest character however. - Dani
High Stamina and that's about it. Health recovery isn't great, countered by a slight health regen when killing multiple zombies quickly, and she can trigger explosions with heavy attacks but it's a limiting way to play. - Bruno
Low Health and Toughness aren't great, while skills like Backstab - which boosts damage from behind - isn't much use. He does the highest Critical Damage though if you think you can maximise that. - Amy
The fastest moving, but least tough character with low peak health. Her other stats are all average but her skills, which involve getting a Stamina Boost for throwing weapons and attacking lone zombies, aren't particularly useful.
While each character has a unique and interesting mix of abilities and stats, Carla, Jacob and Ryan stand out as the best, with good stats and useful skills. You'll often be fighting large numbers of zombies, so anything that rewards you for being near lots of enemies, or doing plenty of damage quickly, is good.
Dead Island 2 slayer traits explained
Each Dead Island 2 slayer has 7 traits which dictate their health, damage output, speed, resilience and more. This is what they mean in more detail:
- Toughness - how much physical damage you take from attacks. The higher it is, the less damage you take.
- Stamina - how many special moves and attacks you can do before needing to recover.
- Health Recovery - how quickly your health recovers.
- Critical Damage - how much damage critical hits do.
- Agility - base movement speed.
- Peak Health - maximum health
- Resilience - protection against fire, shock and caustic damage, and related status effects.
As you'll see below marked in bold, every character has one trait that's at the highest level and one that's at the lowest. It's worth bearing in mind what those are and the effect it'll have when making your choice.
Every Dead Island 2 character stats and abilities explained
Dead Island 2 Jacob
- Toughness - 3
- Stamina - 4
- Health Recovery - 2
- Critical Damage - 3
- Agility - 3
- *Peak Health - 5
- *Resilience - 1
Innate Skills
- Feral - minor stacking damage boost from attacking in quick secession.
- Critical Gains - critical hits with low stamina boost critical damage and regain stamina.
Jacob has some good general stats, although he's weak to elemental damage which could make some enemies tougher. The damage boost from quickly linking attacks is useful though because you'll be fighting a lot of crowds.
Dead Island 2 Bruno
- Toughness - 2
- Stamina - 3
- Health Recovery - 3
- *Critical Damage - 5
- Agility - 4
- *Peak Health - 1
- Resilience - 3
Innate Skills
- Backstab - moderate damage boost when attacking from behind.
- Rapid Reprisal - avoiding attacks with block or dodge boosts agility.
Bruno has the highest Critical Damage and good speed but not much else. His ability to get more damage attacking from behind really isn't that useful when you're being mobbed. While the speed boost from dodging isn't awful, but doesn't really help you much in combat.
Dead Island 2 Carla
- Toughness - 4
- Stamina - 3
- Health Recovery - 3
- *Critical Damage - 1
- Agility - 2
- Peak Health - 3
- *Resilience - 5
Innate Skills
- Mosh Pit - minor damage boost near multiple enemies.
- Dig Deep - toughness boost when health is critical.
Carla is one of the best characters in the Dead Island 2 with great resistance to damage of all types, and she also gets tougher the lower her health falls. While she has the lowest Critical Damage of any character, her boost to damage inflicted when near multiple enemies is incredibly useful.
Dead Island 2 Dani
- Toughness - 3
- *Stamina - 5
- *Health Recovery - 1
- Critical Damage - 3
- Agility - 3
- Peak Health - 4
- Resilience - 2
Innate Skills
- ThunderStuck - heavy attacks trigger a forceful explosion on impact which affects enemy stability and stuns them.
- Bloodlust - regain health when killing zombies in quick succession.
Dani has good Stamina and overall health but that's about it. Her ability to regain health from chaining enemy kills is useful, and her heavy attack explosions are good but slow. She's not a terrible choice, just a limiting one.
Dead Island 2 Ryan
- *Toughness - 5
- Stamina - 3
- Health Recovery - 3
- Critical Damage - 2
- *Agility - 1
- Peak Health - 3
- Resilience - 4
Innate Skills
- Retaliation - block and dodge give a moderate boost to Force, which drains zombie stability and can make them vulnerable.
- Seesaw - regain health everytime you knock a zombie over.
Ryan is basically a tank: slow but able to take a beating, with skills that let him build up his ability to knock over zombies and then regain health for doing so.
Dead Island 2 Amy
- *Toughness - 1
- Stamina - 3
- Health Recovery - 3
- Critical Damage - 4
- *Agility - 5
- Peak Health - 2
- Resilience - 3
Innate Skills
- Relief Pitcher - regain Stamina when you hit a zombie with a thrown weapon.
- Divide and Conquer - minor damage boost when attacking lone zombies.
Amy is probably the worst character in the whole game. She's the fastest and that's about it. She can't take much basic damage and her skills revolve around throwing Dead Island 2 weapons (which you'll want to then find and pick back up), and attacking single zombies in a game where you're often fighting five or six at a time.
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