Dambuster Studios

Dead Island 2: who is the best slayer in the game? Differences and features

There’s plenty of characters you can choose to play as in Dead Island 2, so we’ll tell you what their differences are and which one might be best for you.

Update: Apr 21st, 2023 15:48 EDT

Dead Island 2 is finally here, after a long seven year wait full of delays and other issues. And thankfully, the game is pretty fun! But some players have been stumped just by trying to start up the game by the staggering amount of choices you get straight from the get-go. We’re here to help you out with this extremely important decision.

Dambuster Studios’ title offers up six different “Slayers”, playable characters each with their own personalities, voice acting, stats, perks, and abilities. Which means that while they’re all available to grab and play as from the beginning, some may not be very friendly to new players. All of this freedom of choice ends up being a little difficult to read given that all of their features and characteristics are revealed to you before you’re able to get accustomed to the way the game works, and unfortunately, this is an extremely important choice that’ll affect the way you play through the entire game. Once you pick a slayer, you’re stuck with it until the end of the story.

We’ll try to break down each one into something a little more understandable, so you can choose which one suits you better than the rest.

Every Dead Island 2 Slayer - differences and features

Amy

Amy has low toughness and health, but she excels in agility and critical damage. What this means is that when you play as her, you’ll be dashing around zombies while dealing a lot of damage. She doesnt have a lot of health so you’ll want to stay at a distance and use ranged weapons, or you’ll need to avoid getting hit altogether if you want to survive.

These are all her stats:

Toughness: 1
Stamina: 3
Health recovery: 3
Critical damage: 4
Agility: 5
Peak health: 2
Resilience: 3

Amy’s inate skills

Relief Pitcher : Amy regains STAMINA when hitting a zombie with a weapon throw
Divide and Conquer: Amy gets a minor DAMAGE boost when she attacks isolated zombies

Jacob

Jacob is probably the best choice for every kind of player, not only because he’s the one in the game’s cover art, but also because he’s the most balanced one of all the Slayers. His resilience of 1 means that he’s easy to knock down, but his Health is the highest one there is of the 6 available choices, so he’s easy to survive with.

These are all his stats:

Toughness: 3
Stamina: 4
Health Recovery: 2
Critical Damage: 3
Agility: 3
Peak health: 5
Resilience: 1

Jacob’s innate skills

Feral: Jacob gets a stackable minor DAMAGE boost when attacking in quick succession.
Critical Gains: Jacob’s CRITICAL HITS when stamina is low get a moderate CRITICAL DAMAGE boost and regain STAMINA

Dani

Dani is also fairly balanced, but benefits from staying in the fight and close up to her enemies with melee weapons. However, she has the lowest Health Recovery in the game, which means that while she can take some hits, she’ll need to be careful of not rushing into every consecutive fight. However, her perks make her really good at clearing zombies that are bunched up, which in turn heals her.

These are all her stats:

Toughness: 3
Stamina: 5
Health Recovery: 1
Critical Damage: 3
Agility: 3
Peak health: 4
Resilience: 2

Dani’s innate skills

Thunderstruck: Dani’s HEAVY ATTACKS trigger a FORECFUL explosion on impact
Bloodlust: Dani regains HEALTH when slaying multiple zombies in quick succession

Bruno

Bruno has the best critical damage of all the Slayers, but with his low health he’s more of a glass cannon. Suited for sneaking up behind zombies and dealing critical strikes, he’s meant to be played as a sort of assassin, finishing up fights before they get too difficult to handle. You’ll have to run in, strike, and run out of hordes of zombies if you want to play as him.

These are all of his Stats:

Toughness: 2
Stamina: 3
Health Recovery: 3
Critical Damage: 5
Agility: 4
Peak health: 1
Resilience: 3

Bruno’s innate skills

Backstab: Bruno gets a moderate DAMAGE boost when attacking zombies from behind
Rapid Reprisal: Boost Bruno’s AGILITY and HEAVY ATTACK CHARGES when he avoids attacks with a BLOCK or DODGE

Carla

Carla is probably what you would call a tank in any other game. Her extremely high resilience means she’s made to stay in the fight taking hit after hit without being knocked down, and her health recovery helps with this as well. Her skills also complement this by making her deal more damage while surrounded by zombies.

These are her stats:

Toughness: 4
Stamina: 3
Health Recovery: 3
Critical Damage: 1
Agility: 2
Peak health: 3
Resilience: 5

Carla’s innate skills

Mosh Pit: Carla gets a minor DAMAGE boost when close to multiple zombies
Dig Deep: Carla gets a moderate TOUGHNESS boost while her health is critical

Ryan

Just like Carla, Ryan is all about tanking hits. The biggest difference is that this specific slayer is a little bit more tactical when it comes to his gameplay, since his innate skills are all about dodging and blocking zombies, so instead of rushing in he’s better at holding his ground.