Best Dead Island 2 slayer and full characters list

Dead Island 2 characters are not necessarily as fondly remembered as in some other zombie franchises, but with their distinct abilities and strengths and weaknesses, you can quickly find a favorite. Every playable character is a distinct personality that you are driving through the experience. With that in mind, here are all of the slayers in Dead Island 2 that you can play as.

At launch, there is a total of six slayers that you can play as. Each Dead Island 2 character has abilities that help them stand out from the rest. Here’s all Dead Island 2 characters listed. Be sure to check out the Dead Island 2 map size and all the details about Dead Island 2 co-op.

What is the best Dead Island 2 slayer

Jacob is solid pick for your first playthrough. He’s arguably one of the most balanced slayers with a decent spread of toughness, great stamina, critical damage, agility, and the best peak health in the game. Jacob’s only tangible weakness is low resilience to status effects, meaning he won’t last long when he catches fire, steps in caustic sludge, or gets electrocuted. Jacob’s innate skills also set you up nicely for an aggressive playstyle. Feral is a stackable damage boost that builds up for successive attacks. Critical Gain boost the critical damage of critical hits when his stamina is low, but also regenerates stamina, giving the mouthy rocker plenty of wind when taking on large hordes.

Our second pick for the best slayer is Dani. The rockabilly has a fairly balanced set of skills – toughness, critical damage, agility, peak health, resilience, and the best stamina in the game. Her only weakness is health recovery, but you can mitigate this by having a stock of Med Kits at all times and picking all the protein bars you come across when out exploring Hell-A. Her Thunderstruck innate skill triggers a forceful explosion for all heavy attacks, while Bloodlust regenerates health for quick successive attacks, mitigating her low health recovery somewhat.

Full Dead Island 2 characters list

Here’s a full list of Dead Island 2 characters you can choose from:

Amy

Amy is a Paralympic athlete that is built on speed. Her first ability is Relief Pitcher, which regenerates her stamina when she hits an enemy with a thrown weapon. If you are properly kitted out, you can keep fighting for a very long time. Her second ability is Divide and Conquer. She gets a damage boost whenever she attacks a zombie isolated from a group.

Bruno

Bruno is a character that likes to stay slippery while in combat. With his Rapid Reprisal ability, he gets a boost to his agility after dodging or blocking attacks. This pairs perfectly with Backstab, which gives him additional damage when attacking zombies from behind.

Carla

Our next Dead Island 2 character is a former stunt daredevil. Carla thrives in situations where she is one false move away from death. When her health is low, she becomes a tank with her Dig Deep ability, increasing her toughness stat. Additionally, when zombies surround her, Mosh Pit gives her more damage.

Dani

Dani is an aggressive roller derby star who loves to deal fast and heavy damage to her enemies. Bloodlust regenerates health when multiple zombies are killed back to back. Thunderstruck will have her heavy attacks be followed by an area-of-effect explosion to deal extra damage.

Jacob

Among the Dead Island 2 characters, Jacob slides in as the charismatic rockstar of the slayers and loves to get in the face of his enemies. Sometimes literally. His Feral ability gives him a damage boost when killing multiple zombies back to back, and Critical Gains increases critical damage when he is out of stamina.

Ryan

Ryan is a former exotic dancer that apparently has experience with fighting off hordes of people trying to jump on him. His Seesaw ability restores health to himself when he knocks a zombie onto the ground, and Retaliation increases his force stat when he dodges or blocks attacks.

Now you’ve got the low down on the Dead Island 2 characters, check out our other guides, including the Dead Island 2 cast and the Dead Island 2 crossplay capabilities for those than want to play with pals on other platforms.