Dead Island 2 has kicked things up a notch on all fronts, including the available characters players get to choose from at the start of the game. You'll be picking from six Slayers this time around, rather that four that the original was limited to, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Throw in coop on top of that and your choice of Slayer gets even more impactful, so we've compiled a handy guide on the basics.
While Dead Island 2's coop experience isn't as robust as I'd like, it's still a blast and lets you experiment with Slayers you might ordinarily avoid. Your pick is even more important in the single-player campaign – which you can read more about in my Dead Island 2 review – because once you commit to a Slayer, you're tied in for that save slot. And if you're battling through Hell-A alone, you need to play to your strengths.
The Slayers' skills are ties to a Skill Card system this time around, and each one starts with two innate cards that are non-customisable, permanent, and exist outside of that deck. That means you can adapt the deck to your playstyle but base stats vary between Slayers, so choose wisely as they'll be the base foundation for your build. The attributes they start off with are also important to your build.
As I mentioned (a LOT) during our Dead Island 2 Day One stream on the Mirror Gaming YouTube channel, I tried my hand at Carla, Dani, and Amy and found that Dani hit the sweet spot of a great all-rounder and has stamina to boot, which you need by the bucket load to fend off the horde. Of course, your mileage (and play style) may vary so let's dive in to the cast of Dead Island 2 Slayers to set you up for not getting your brains eaten.
Dead Island 2 Slayer attributes explained
Dead Island 2 Slayers have seven attributes with just one maxing out a single category. For example, Jacob has the max possible peak health and the lowest possible resilience, whereas Dani has the max possible stamina and the lowest health recovery. That being said, you can construct your skill deck to replenish health and stamina; in my Dani playthrough I didn't struggle on the health recovery front thanks to my Slayer skill card combo. Here's breakdown of the Dead Island 2 Slayer attributes and what they mean:
- Toughness: This is how much of a beating you can take, plain and simple. If you want a tank, opt for higher toughness
- Stamina: Special moves and heavy attacks drain stamina so the more plentiful your reservoir, the more you can pull off before getting tuckered out
- Health Recovery: Your health actually replenishes over time outside of combat so if you're out of health packs, you're not completely stuffed. The higher the stat in this category, the faster it refills
- Critical Damage: This is the damage your Slayer metes out when pulling off a critical hit. The higher, the better
- Agility: Your Slayer's speed is determined by their agility
- Peak Health: Slayer health is capped depending on the peak health stat
- Resilience: Resilience towards status effects and elemental damage like fire, shock, etc
It's worth noting that the in-game challenges aren't just there for completionists, or to earn extra cash and rewards. You can earn yourself permanent boosts by ticking some of them off, including the following:
- Serial Killer: Boost peak health
- Weapons Expert: Boost weapon damage
-
Slice and Dice: Boost maiming damage
- Batter Up!: Boost Curveball damage
- Crack Shot: Boost rifle damage
- Gunslinger: Boost handgun damage
- Shotgun Shogun: Boost shotgun damage
- A New P.B.: Boost agility
Dead Island 2 best Slayer
The best Dead Island 2 Slayer is going to depend entirely on your preferred playstyle, and – to some extent – your skill. I had my eye on Amy, for example, who has max agility; that's exactly my cup of tea when it comes to RPGs. But she's severely lacking in toughness. I'm terrible at consistently pulling off successful dodges and blocks, so I had to sacrifice a nimble character for the tougher Dani. And it's worked out great!
You can group the Dead Island 2 Slayers into thee tiers; Dani and Jacob strike the perfect balance between speed and toughness; Carla and Ryan are your typical tanks; and Amy and Bruno are fast on their feet but at the cost of toughness. All of them start off with either dodge or block, although you unlock the other not too long after playing. Have a look at the info below, but I'd strongly recommend some hands-on time with the Dead Island 2 Slayers as well before you commit to one.
Jacob
Jacob is fairly well-rounded with max peak health but abysmal resilience. His other attributes are average with slightly lower than average health recovery and are decent stamina. His innate skills are Feral and Critical Gains; the former gives Jacob a stackable damage boost when attacking in quick succession, while Critical Gains kick in when his stamina is low, giving his critical hits a moderate damage boost as well as replenishing his stamina.
Like Dani, Jacob is a great pick for getting into the thick of the action and as long as you stack Skill Cards to replenish health and/ or stamina, the two Slayers offer a nice balance between speed and toughness. He starts off with dodge.
Dani
My girl Dani may have the worst health recovery of all of the Dead Island 2 Slayers but with the right combo of Skill Cards, that won't pose a problem. Just keep a stash of med kits, and pick synergistic card combos to maximise health replenishment. Dani has stamina coming out of the wazoo so she can get intp the fray like Jacob, and is great for crowd control. She starts off with dodge.
Dani's innate skills are Thunderstruck which gives her heavy attacks a forceful explosion on impact; and Bloodlust which lets her regain health when slaying zombies in quick succession. She's an absolute machine and her Skill Cards allow for some heavenly combos, which is just what you need in Hell-A.
Ryan
Ryan is the toughest of the Dead Island 2 Slayers, his resilience is up there too and he starts off with block. All of his other stats are floating around average except for agility, which is terrible. But when you're as tough as he is, you don't need to worry about such trivial things as how fast you can turn tail and run. His lack of speed, max toughness, and high resilience means he'll have a hard time getting out of hordes but that won't be a problem. What's a little fire, shock., or caustic damage when you're bulldozing zombies down?
Ryan's innate skills are Retaliation and Seesaw; Retaliation gives Ryan a moderate force boost when using block or dodge to avoid an attack, while Seesaw lets him regain health each time he knocks down a zombie. Heavy weapons and knockdown attacks paired with well-timed dodges and blocks gives Ryan a solid foundation to build out from.
Carla
Carla is almost as tough as Ryan but excels on the resilience front which means she's not near as susceptible to status effects as the rest of the Dead Island 2 Slayers. She might be lacking on critical damage but being a solid tank, you won't have to be too concerned about that. There are environmental hazards aplenty in Dead Island 2 and it's easy to get caught up in your fellow Slayer's traps – or even your own! But Carla can comfortably wade in to the horde and take status effects and damage in her stride.
Carla's innate abilities are Mosh Pit which gives her a minor damage boost when close to multiple zombies, and Dig Deep which gives her a moderate toughness boost when her health is critical. She's a beast and you should make the most of her toughness and resilience to get in there and do all kinds of damage. She starts off with block.
Amy
Amy is the most fragile of the Dead Island 2 Slayers, while also being the most agile. She's essentially a glass cannon that should focus on ranged attacks and picking off isolated zombies. As you'd expect, she starts off with dodge, and given that she goes down like a sack of bricks, you need to master and utilise that pretty sharpish. If you manage to do that, you can make use of the counter to tear through zombies should you get swarmed.
Amy's innate skills are Relief Pitcher and Divide and Conquer; the former feeds into the ranged combat, replenishing her stamina when she throws weapons at zombies. Weapons are plentiful in Dead Island 2, and as a general rule, you shouldn't be too precious about them. That goes doubly for Amy – lob spent or common weapons from afar. You can always go and retrieve what you throw so don't panic. Divide and Conquer grants a minor damage boost when attacking isolated zombies so lure them away or sneak up on them to get the most out of this.
Bruno
Bruno excels when it comes to critical damage, but has minimal peak health. Stealth attacks are his friend and he starts off with dodge to make sure you can avoid taking damage which is a must given his poor toughness. Unlike Amy, he's going to have to get a little closer to the action, but he has the agility to supplement the running in-and-out approach.
His innate skills are Backstab for a moderate damage boost when attacking zombies from behind, and Rapid Reprisal that boost his agility and heavy attack charges when he successfully dodges or blocks an attack. You'll need to be a little more strategic than wit6h Amy, but a strong thwack from behind is a good opener to his attacks.
