Dead Island 2 Slayers guide: Who should you take to Hell-A?

Dead Island 2 launches on Xbox today, offering up six wildly different Slayers for you to carve your way through Hell-A with. We've had a chance to play with each of them to find out which ones are slaughterers supreme.

Want to know which Slayer is right for you? With Dead Island 2 now available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and after having a chance to play Dambuster Studios' franchise reboot for our Dead Island 2 review, we thought we'd give you the lowdown on each of the playable Slayers.

Featuring stats similar to the original game, each of Dead Island 2's Slayers is proficient in various styles of play thanks to their Slayer Traits, which offer bonuses like larger pools of health points, increased damage output, and more, all aimed at aiding various play styles. On top of the basic character statistics, though, is Dambuster's new Skill Card system that offers a number of combat bonuses and moves, and each Slayer comes with two innate un-swappable cards from the get-go, once again pushing them into set play styles.

Dead Island 2 Slayer Traits explained

Slayer Traits are pre-defined statistics for each of Dead Island 2's Slayers, which cannot be modified in any way. There are seven Traits in total and each Slayer will have a ranking scale between one and five for each of them — one being the worst and five being the best. Here are the seven Slayer Traits:

Trait name	Effect
Agility	How quickly you can move outside of sprinting
Critical Damage	How much damage you deal with critical hits.
Health Recovery	The speed your health regenerates.
Peak Health	Your maximum health.
Resilience	How much protection you have against elemental damage.
Stamina	How many heavy attacks and special moves you can perform before running out of stamina.
Toughness	How much damage you take from zombie attacks.

Dead Island 2 Skill Card system

Skill Cards are a new system to the Dead Island series and act as a means for you to create loadout-style sets of abilities and bonuses. They can be swapped around at any time, but all of them fall into set categories so you can't create an overpowered character. Each Slayer will be able to equip the following:

Type	Number	Description
Ability	5	These are your basic combat cards and include skills for dodging, jump kicking, and more.
Survivor	4	These are aimed towards health, stamina, Curveball regenerations, and the like.
Slayer	4	As the name would suggest, these focus on dispatching the undead.
Numen	2	These are powerful endgame cards that harness the virus' power.

Each of Dead Island 2's Slayers comes with two permanent cards that are unique to them, offering a slight advantage to different play styles. All of the other Skill Cards can either be found when exploring or unlocked when levelling up or completing missions. Depending on the Slayer you choose, you'll unlock either a Dodge or Block card early on, which when performed at the right time, will stun a zombie so you can use a special QTE counter-attack to unleash a devastating move to damage, maim, or execute them. Performing the counters is used to pull off the gory kills we've seen in the trailers. You can have 15 cards active at any one time, all of which can be changed on the fly, even during combat.

As you level up and progress through the story you'll naturally acquire new Skill Cards for your deck, and as such find the play style you prefer. For this article, we're only focusing on the Slayers themselves and the unique abilities and characteristics they have on offer. While the various characteristics of each Slayer are less important during the endgame, they can make a sizeable difference to how you experience Dead Island 2 during the earlier stages. We've ranked them below based on their early game potential, which some certainly handle better than others.

Dead Island 2 Slayers

Ryan

For the easiest time when starting Dead Island 2, or even a smooth roll through the endgame, Ryan is without a doubt the easiest Slayer to hang out with. Due to his bulk, the former stripper has extremely low Agility levels, so he moves slowly, but what he loses in speed, he makes up for in Toughness and can withstand a tremendous beating. The first Skill Card you unlock with Ryan is Block, which is perfect for his size and naturally feeds his Retaliation skill, which offers him a minor Force boost. While Ryan is a pretty solid choice for any weapon, we recommend you favour two-handed variants like the Fire Axe or Sledgehammer, as that Force boost will help you smash the zombies to the ground and gain that sweet healing boost from his Seesaw skill — which is aided even more with an Impactor mod!

Dani

The Irish rockabilly Dani is up next, offering more damage-focused players a chance to wade into the action without feeling too vulnerable. While Dani can't withstand as many hits as the powerhouse above, her moderate levels are enough to weather any hits that come when she's preparing her continuous outpouring of heavy attacks, thanks to her increased Stamina pool. She plays best when in the thick of zombies, smashing the undead life from their eyes with two-handed weapons, and using Dodge to get up close with targets quickly. Due to her very slow Health Recovery, you're best to be in a throng of enemies to make the most of her Bloodlust skill, which helps her regain health when slaying zombies in quick succession — a feat made easier with her Thunderstruck skill that makes heavy attacks create an explosion when they hit an enemy.

Jacob

Unlike the brawlers above, Jacob excels when using one-handed weapons to swiftly strike at enemies before using Dodge to get out of harm's way. Of the more nimble Slayers, this Brixton-born badass is certainly the easiest to get the hang of. Jacob can survive for longer than the others due to his very high Peak Health, but his lower Resilience means you need to stay far away from elemental damage, as it'll drop you quicker than a punch from Tyson. The key to Jacob is singling out a zombie for a few well-timed heavy attacks to bring his stamina bar down before switching to a flurry of light attacks to make the most of his Feral skill, which will also increase your chance of triggering critical damage to activate Critical Gains. Bear in mind, though, that Jacob doesn't sport the best health recovery, so you may need to strategically retreat from time to time.

Carla

In line with her surly disposition, Carla is another brawler that works well with a two-handed weapon, smashing at hordes of undead. She lacks Critical Damage, but her elemental Resilience and high Toughness levels ensure she can comfortably take a ton of punishment. As you'd expect, her first Skill Card is Block, meaning she doesn't have to move from her position all that much, which is perfect when ensuring plenty of zombies are around her to make the most of her Mosh Pit skill, which gives her a minor damage boost. In the event that she does take a little too much damage, her Dig Deep skill will moderately increase her Toughness levels further so she can stay in the fight longer — or retreat for a short break!

Amy

Amy is fast — like really fast — thanks to her maxed-out Agility levels, giving her a unique play style, but it comes with the caveat of being flimsy when it comes to taking damage. Amy's extremely low Toughness levels mean she needs to keep moving to survive, rushing in with a one-handed bladed weapon for some swift hits before using Dodge and escaping to safety before returning for another round. By using her speed as an advantage, you can easily skirt around a group of zombies to single out the more isolated ones to take advantage of her Divide and Conquer skill for a minor damage boost. Her Relief Pitcher skill causes Amy to regain stamina from a distance when throwing a weapon, which can be impractical at times but a worthwhile risk at others if only to get in a few extra heavy attacks.

Bruno

Finally, we have Bruno, who isn't too bad to play with but his Backstab skill, which gives you a moderate boost when attacking zombies from behind, is a lot of work to take advantage of compared to the other Slayers — zombies are trying to eat you, so will almost always be facing you. He does pick up a Dodge skill early on and has some decent Agility, but having to dodge around for a hit in the rear is a bit of a pain when playing solo, but is a bit easier when you're playing co-op. He does have the highest Critical Damage output of the roster, though, which certainly makes up for the extra work and ensures he is great fun when equipped with any one-handed weapon. You'll need to keep an eye on his health, though, as zombie hits pack a punch when landing on this agile Slayer. If you need to retreat, a well-timed Dodge will trigger his Rapid Reprisal skill, boosting his Agility and offering up some additional heavy attack charges.

So what do you think? Which one of these zombie-slaying badasses will you be travelling to Hell-A with? Drop a comment below and let us know!

More Dead Island 2 stories:

Xbox Series X|S Xbox One

Written by Tom West

Tom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.