Best Characters In Dead Island 2 [Pros & Cons]

Dead Island 2 has a range of six characters that we have tested out, and each of the characters presents a different playstyle, stat allocation, innate skills, and so on. Players might need help with figuring out what the Dead Island 2 Best Characters might be, therefore a detailed insight on a ranking of the Slayers might be useful!

Below listed are the characters in the game, and our rankings and their overall stat allocations. 

Slayers	Ranking	Toughness	Stamina	Health  Recovery	Critical  Damage	Agility	Peak Health	Resilience
Jacob	1st	3/5	4/5	2/5	3/5	3/5	5/5	1/5
Ryan	2nd	5/5	3/5	3/5	2/5	1/5	2/5	4/5
Carla	3rd	4/5	3/5	3/5	1/5	2/5	3/5	5/5
Dani	4th	3/5	5/5	1/5	2/5	2/5	4/5	2/5
Bruno	5th	2/5	3/5	3/5	5/5	4/5	1/5	3/5
Amy	6th	1/5	3/5	3/5	4/5	5/5	2/5	3/5

Jacob 

Stats	Stars
Toughness	3 stars
Stamina	4 stars
Health Recovery	2 stars
Critical Damage	3 stars
Agility	3 stars
Peak Health	5 stars
Resilience	1 star
Feral	Jacob receives a stackable minor damage boost when attacking in extremely quick succession.
Critical Gains	Jacob’s critical hits when stamina is low get a moderate crit damage boost and critical hits will regenerate his stamina.

Kicking things off, the first of the Dead Island 2 Best Characters on our list is Jacob. Jacob is essentially an anti-hero, who is an absolute badass and hones his rockstar flair with ease. Whenever his mom ended up passing, he left everything behind in order to pursue his dreams of becoming the biggest Hollywood stuntman the world had ever seen. 

• Jacob hones his peak health as it is one of his biggest attributes that we have tested out. With a total of 120 base HP, it allows him to survive in nearly every way, shape, and form. 
• After that, his stamina takes second place in being his most effective stat as his base stamina is 110, which can become extra handy in combat. 
• His Crit damage, toughness, and agility all rank in third, as they are given three stars, and are all 100 as its base stat. 
• His health recovery and his resilience are probably one of his biggest weak points as they are the lowest base stats when Jacob is first used. 

Pros	Cons
High Damage	Requires skillful gameplay
Excellent peak health	Poor crit damage
Incredible Stamina	Extremely low resilience

Skills 

Since Jacob is considered to be one of the Dead Island 2 Best Slayer, he will have a total of two innate skills which can only be used by him, and no other playable character can replace them. 

Feral 

One of his first innate skills essentially provides Jacob with a stackable minor damage output enhancement, which is carried out anytime he is unleashing attacks one after the other in quick succession. It is also known as Frenzy. 

• His feral skill has 5 stacks, and during those stacks, the more damage we were able to deal to zombies, the higher the damage output continued to be.
• When the innate skill was tested out and it was continued to be used in the battle against zombies, a total of five stacks meant that there was at least a 35% plus increase in the overall damage output, which, if kept up, can be insanely good. 
• One conclusion that was drawn was that weapon choice will matter greatly on the total amount of damage increase that was received from the innate skill, whereby a few weapons only provided a 25% damage buff with the five stacks, while some provided 30% and more. 

Critical Gains 

Moving onto the second skill for the Best Dead Island 2 Character, it will be known as Critical Gains which grants Jacob the ability to gain a crit damage increase anytime he is able to land critical hits whenever his stamina is low. During this, if he is also able to land crit hits, then he is also able to regain his stamina. 

• The main caveat with this is that Jacob already has a pretty high base stamina to begin with, therefore getting that down and drained is a challenge in and of itself. 
• This can typically be carried out if he was tested using a heavy weapon and he continuously was attacking one after the other using his first skill, with which Critical Gains would actually prove useful. 
• While this skill might be difficult to lay out practically, it can still be extremely fun, and all in all, Jacob is an excellent, all-rounder Slayer. 

Ryan 

Stats	Star Rating
Toughness	5
Stamina	3
Health Recovery	3
Critical Damage	2
Agility	1
Peak Health	3
Resilience	4
Retaliation	Ryan gets a moderate force boost anytime he is using block or dodge in order to avoid an incoming attack.
Seesaw	Ryan is able to regenerate HP anytime he causes knockdown to a zombie that he is in combat with.

Moving on, the second of the Dead Island 2 Best Characters will include Ryan, who can be ranked second. Ryan is essentially more than just an exotic dancer, and while he is extremely stubborn and sarcastic, he has always been on a mission to return to his little brother, and he will do anything it takes in order to get back to him, regardless of whether he might be alive or dead. 

• Ryan’s toughness is one of the main reasons that he was tested to be ranked second since he is an incredibly tough Slayer and enemies really can’t hurt him all that much, which is also the reason why toughness has become his strong suit. 
• Other than that, we also think that Ryan is incredibly resilient as well, which is also showcased and proved by the raw stats, as his base resilience will be 110. 
• Apart from that, his stamina, health recovery, and peak health are all pretty average, and it is stabilized at around 3 stars. 
• His weakest stats include his Critical Damage, and his Agility, which makes him a pretty slow Slayer. 

Pros	Cons
Excellent Toughness	Extremely low agility
Incredible resilience	Poor crit damage
Solid crowd control
Solid tank

Skills 

When it comes to his skills, Ryan has a total of two innate skills which contribute towards him being one of the Best Dead Island 2 Characters. His two main skills include Retaliation as well as Seesaw. 

Retaliation 

First things first, one of his first skills is Retaliation, which essentially grants him the ability to receive a pretty significant Force Boost anytime he is carrying out a dodge or a block in order to avoid any incoming attacks from the enemy’s end. 

• Using the Retaliation skill can prove to be extremely useful whenever it is combined with Seesaw, which is the second innate skill, as they synergize insanely well. 
• Whenever an enemy approached us in combat, Ryan’s first skill would be used to gain the Force Boost, which would then be used to trigger his Seesaw skill, and the cycle would repeat. 

Seesaw 

Another skill that Ryan will use is known as Seesaw, with which he is able to regenerate a solid amount of HP anytime he is able to do something as simple as cause knockback to a zombie. 

• His skill allows him to simply regenerate a certain amount of HP anytime he causes knockback to an enemy, and it can be paired extremely well with his Retaliation skill since whenever the enemy stops being knocked back and starts to attack you, you can then gain a force boost while you’re at it. 
• Since Force is the driving force (nice pun) needed to knockback opponents in Dead Island 2, the more force that is achieved, the more times the knockback can be carried out on enemies. 

The one main caveat with using these skills will be that there isn’t a significant amount of crit damage boost or a faster attack combination, which allows his overall damage output to be pretty limited in general. 

Carla 

Stats	Star Rating
Toughness	4
Stamina	3
Health Recovery	3
Critical Damage	1
Agility	2
Peak Health	3
Resilience	5
Mosh Pit	Carla gains a minor damage enhancement when close to multiple opponents.
Dig Deep	Carla gets a moderate enhancement to his toughness while his HP is critical.

Next up, the next Slayer in question here is Carla, and while she isn’t at the top of the list for being one of the Dead Island 2 Best Characters, she is still pretty incredible as she is a stunt rider who is able to take on any kind of challenge with ease, and she is able to take part in any kind of adventure.

• Carla’s winning stat includes that of her overall resilience. She is incredibly resilient and has the highest base resilience out of all Slayers. 
• Coming in in second spot is her Toughness which has four stars, which makes her even tougher to competition with enemies. 
• In the third spot, her Stamina, health recovery, and Peak Health are all pretty average. 
• Her Agility and her critical damage are probably her weakest challenges. 

Pros	Cons
Excellent resilience	Extremely low Critical Damage
Incredible toughness	Poor agility
Mosh Pit ability is broken
A solid option for beginners

Skills 

Carla has a total of 2 skills, and while she may not be the Dead Island 2 Best Slayer, her skills are still pretty solid, as both they include Mosh Pit as well as Dig Deep. 

Mosh Pit 

One of her first skills is Mosh Pit, with which Carla is able to gain a minor damage boost whenever she is close to multiple zombies that might be attacking her in the first place.  

• One good thing about Carla’s skill is that since there are zombies present almost anywhere in Dead Island 2, it’s like her skill remains active 24/7 which allows her to gain the damage boost more often than not. 

Dig Deep 

As far as the second skill is concerned, it is known as Dig Deep, with which she can gain a solid amount of toughness boost anytime her HP is low. 

• The toughness boost is insanely nice, and it ends up being activated anytime she has around 1/3 rd of her HP left. 

Dani 

Stats	Star Rating
Toughness	3
Stamina	5
Health Recovery	1
Critical Damage	3
Agility	3
Peak Health	4
Resilience	2
Thunderstruck	Dani’s heavy attacks are able to trigger a forceful explosion on impact with opponents.
Bloodlust	Dani can easily regenerate HP whenever she slays multiple zombies one after the other.

Moving on, our next target is Dani, who is a badass and absolutely true to herself. She doesn’t give a damn whether anyone likes her foul mouth or not, and she is able to drill through opponents without any difficulties. Unfortunately, she is not among some of the Dead Island 2 Best Characters. 

• Dani’s stamina is probably one of the main reasons why we chose to play her in Dead Island 2, while her peak health is also an incredibly good reason to use her. 
• Apart from this, her toughness, Crit damage, and agility are pretty average, though they add to her kit. 
• Her weakest points have to be her Resilience as well as her overall Health Recovery. 

Pros	Cons
Excellent Stamina	Weak resilience
Incredible peak health	Horrible health recovery
Well-rounded Slayer

Skills 

Dani as probably one of the Dead Island 2 Best Slayers when it comes to her overall stamina, and alongside that, she has two main skills that are called Thunderstruck and Bloodlust. 

Thunderstruck 

With her first skill called Thunderstruck, she is able to carry out a deadly explosion anytime she uses her heavier attacks on opponents, which allows her explosion to hurt any zombie that might be aiming to attack her. 

Bloodlust 

Her second skill will end up being Bloodlust, with which she is able to regenerate health anytime she’s annihilating multiple zombies in quick succession. 

Bruno 

Stats	Star Rating
Toughness	2
Stamina	3
Health Recovery	3
Critical Damage	5
Agility	4
Peak Health	1
Resilience	3
Backstab	Bruno will be able to get a moderate damage increase anytime he launches an attack on the enemy from behind.
Rapid Reprisal	Bruno’s overall agility will be boosted as well as his heavy attack charges whenever he avoids attacks from enemies using his block or dodge.

The next character on our list is Bruno, and this is where things start to get brim for the Dead Island 2 Best Characters since Bruno doesn’t really fit into it. Bruno himself is a hustler who always has a solid plan in his mind no matter what, and while being an absolute mastermind, he is also able to hone his skills in combat. 

• When it comes to his Bruno, his Critical Damage is his highest strength, as it is absolutely broken and he is able to decimate any enemy that dares crosses his path. 
• Other than that, his Agility is also extremely good, ranking in at four stars. 
• His resilience, stamina, and health recovery are pretty average, as they rank in at three stars. 
• His toughness and peak health are pretty weak, as they rank in at two and one stars. 

Pros	Cons
Excellent Critical Damage	Weak toughness
Incredible agility	Lowest peak health
	Needs a specific playstyle

Skills 

While being on topic, Bruno’s skills are pretty okay, and with his two skills, he has Backstab and Rapid Reprisal at his disposal. 

Backstab 

His first skill is known as Backstab, through which he is able to sneak up on any enemy from behind, and when the opponent is least expecting it, he is able to carry out any attack on him, which allows him to then gain a further damage boost from it. 

Rapid Reprisal 

Apart from this, his second skill is known as Rapid Reprisal, and whenever it is used, he is able to gain enhancements in his heavy attack charges as well as his agility, and this is activated anytime he blocks or dodges an incoming attack from the enemy’s end. 

Amy 

Stats	Star Rating
Toughness	1
Stamina	3
Health Recovery	3
Critical Damage	4
Agility	5
Peak Health	2
Resilience	3
Relief Pitcher	Amy is able to regain stamina anytime she hits a zombie using a weapon throw.
Divide And Conquer	Amy will be able to gain a minor damage boost whenever she attacks enemies that are alone.

Last but not least, Amy is most definitely not the Dead Island 2 Best Character, and rather, she is a character that would be least played by us. Amy is incredibly quick-witted, which allows her to be successful in all her ventures no matter what, and she looks forward to every adventure with enthusiasm and solves it as if it were a puzzle. 

• One of the main reasons why Amy might be played by us is simply because of her insanely good Agility. When it comes to her agility alone, she is definitely one of the Dead Island 2 Best Slayer. 
• Other than that, Amy doesn’t really have anything to offer, as most of the vital stats are ranked extremely low, and the ones that aren’t are average at best still. 

Pros	Cons
Excellent Agility	Weak peak health
Incredible Critical Damage	Lowest toughness

Skills 

Last but not least, let’s take a look at her skills, which include that of the Relief Pitcher as well as Divide And Conquer. 

Relief Pitcher 

Her Relief Pitcher skill allows her the regenerate stamina whenever she’s carrying out an attack against a zombie using a weapon throw. 

Divide And Conquer 

Other than that, her Divide And Conquer skill allows her to receive a minor damage boost whenever she attacks isolated opponents. 

Best Starting Characters

Lastly, let’s briefly discuss what the Dead Island 2 Best Characters might actually be whenever we firs started out. 

• Jacob stands strong in the first place due to his abilities, and him having strong peak health as well as pretty good stamina. 
• Ryan comes in second, and apart from his good looks, Ryan boasts an excellent amount of toughness alongside his resilience. 
• Carla would come in third place, with her insane resilience and solid toughness. 

Summary 

And there we have it! All that players need to know about the Dead Island 2 Best Characters and with that, we will wrap up our guide! Make sure to read up on our Dead Island 2 Nikki’s Prize Key guide which will showcase the overall location, as well as the lockbox and its rewards! Alongside that, our Dead Island 2 Jacob guide will show an overview of the character, as well as his skills. 

Alongside that, you can skim through our Dead Island 2 Skill Cards guide which will go through all 5 skill cards in-depth! If you’ve been wondering where the Brock’s Safe Key is located, then our Dead Island 2 Brock’s Safe Key Location will be the perfect guide!

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Photo Credits For Skills: DeadIsland On Youtube