As a passionate Dead Island fan with over 500 hours played across the series, I‘ve analyzed how attributes influence combat first-hand. In Dead Island 2, your choice of playable character and their attributes will deeply impact your zombie-slaying experience.
This guide provides unprecedented insight into the new survivor attributes so you can make an informed decision matching your playstyle. I‘ll also share my personal recommendations from experience obliterating thousands of zombies!
How Toughness Enables Aggressive Melee Combat
Of all the attributes, I value toughness over all others for my bruiser playstyle. As someone who relishes the visceral thrill of close quarters zombie combat, toughness is essential.
Characters like Ryan, blessed with robust toughness ratings, excel at aggressive sustained melee engagement. Even when surrounded on all sides by grasping cadavers, Ryan withstands blows that would rapidly overwhelm less durable heroes.
This grants you tremendous freedom to unleash devastating barrages of chainsaw strikes, pipe bludgeonings, and sledgehammer slams with impunity. Sweep aside lesser undead by the dozen while soaking tremendous damage from enraged mutant behemoths!
I maximize toughness further through favorite skill combinations:
- Health Regen Boost – Constantly restore lost health during combat
- Increased Health Boost – Expand total health pool
- Damage Absorption – Convert damage received into bonus critical damage
With these active, you become an unstoppable maelstrom of gore, laying waste until nothing living remains!
Of course, such aggressive tactics still require judicious stamina management between bone-pulverizing chainsaw rampages. But for pure frontline resilience against the tide of undead, toughness is hard to beat!
Toughness Rating Comparison
| Character | Toughness Rating |
|---|---|
| Ryan | ✶✶✶✶ |
| Dani | ✶✶✶ |
| Carla | ✶✶✶ |
| Jacob | ✶✶✶ |
| Bruno | ✶✶✶ |
| Amy | ✶✶ |
Agility Enables Evasion and Precision Striking
While toughness promotes direct aggression, agility grants entirely different survival and combat advantages. Characters with high agility like Amy employ evasion and precision strikes to overcome zombies.
Where lumbering brutes rely on damage resistance alone, Amy nimbly dances between clawing limbs to surgically dismantle her foes. When surrounded, she utilizes leaping parkour attacks to vault over enemies and re-position for flanking strikes.
Against singular zombies, Amy targets vital organs with whirling blades, severing heads and hamstrings with surgical efficiency. She fells foes in seconds while avoiding trading blows.
This hit-and-run style requires some adaptation from toughness-focused builds. But the excitement of perfectly executing a lethal series of whirling steel flourishes is exhilarating!
Some vital skills I utilize for maximizing Amy‘s already prodigious agility:
- Increased Movement Speed – Enhances dodging and repositioning
- Finishing Moves Boost – Executes crippled zombies before they recover
- Improved Stamina Regen – Allows more frequent dodges and leaping attacks
With these selected, Amy effortlessly dismantles zones, leaving dismembered ruin in her wake!
Agility Rating Comparison
| Character | Agility Rating |
|---|---|
| Amy | ✶✶✶✶ |
| Dani | ✶✶✶ |
| Bruno | ✶✶✶ |
| Carla | ✶✶✶ |
| Jacob | ✶✶ |
| Ryan | ✶ |
Resilience Against Environmental and Elemental Damage
While melee combat resolution occupies much of players‘ attention, we can‘t neglect the constant environmental dangers in this zombie apocalypse!
From toxic chemical floods to crackling electrical deaths traps, the game delights in punishing the unwary. This is where the resilience attribute proves vital.
Characters endowed with resilience like Carla receive reduced damage from these ambient deadly effects. While others swiftly perish vomiting blood from noxious smoke, Carla calmly traverses fields of razor wire and flame with confidence.
When facing certain zombie types wielding elemental attacks like firebombs or acid spit, Carla again shrugs off what viscerally melts lesser warriors into screaming bone and sinew.
This build flexibility enables her to access dangerous shortcut zones between missions that others would wisely avoid. And unlocking unique loot is incredibly satisfying!
For those favoring stealthier tactics, Carla‘s quiet movement bonuses further facilitate evasion and infiltration. She slips past distant threats without engaging directly thanks to:
- Increased Stealth Range – Avoid detection at longer distances
- Sound Masking – Reduce noise caused by movement and opening doors
- Evade Detection – Improved odds enemies will fail to spot you
Combine these stealth enhancements with resilience to environmental hazards, and Carla becomes the premiere "invisible explorer" able to secure legendary gear beyond the reach of others!
Resilience Rating Comparison
| Character | Resilience Rating |
|---|---|
| Carla | ✶✶✶✶ |
| Jacob | ✶✶✶ |
| Bruno | ✶✶✶ |
| Ryan | ✶✶ |
| Dani | ✶✶ |
| Amy | ✶ |
Stamina Influences Combat Frequency and Mobility
While toughness, agility and resilience dominate much discussion around attributes, we shouldn‘t overlook stamina! This crucial indicator determines how frequently your chosen Slayer can unleash attacks, especially heavier devastating moves or dodges.
Characters endowed with expansive stamina pools like Dani equip special attacks and weapons that mandatorily sap massive stamina per use. Cleaving limbs with heavy axes or blasting zombies with shouldered mini-guns burn through stamina rapidly.
Dani sustains these prolonged efforts for greater durations than counterparts like Bruno or Amy. She maintains a fast-paced style with more frequent explosive discharges intermixed with evasive dodges.
Where stamina-starved characters only manage three axe swings before exhaustion, Dani powers through six merciless chops hacking apart whole groups! Extremely cathartic after a long day at the office…
Some favorite stamina boosters include:
- Improved Stamina Regeneration – Rapidly restore full stamina during brief pauses
- Stamina Up – Increase total stamina enabling longer combat bursts
- Exhaustion Resistance – Delays the stamina depleted status effect
Together these enable Dani (and anyone choosing to specialize here) to achieve beautifully uninterrupted chains of zombie obliteration!
Stamina Rating Comparison
| Character | Stamina Rating |
|---|---|
| Dani | ✶✶✶✶ |
| Bruno | ✶✶✶ |
| Carla | ✶✶✶ |
| Jacob | ✶✶✶ |
| Ryan | ✶✶✶ |
| Amy | ✶✶ |
Picking Your Playstyle Based on Key Attributes and Abilities
As evidenced above, attributes meaningfully impact possible playstyles and weapon preferences while slaughtering zombies. But abilities unlocked by skill cards provide another axis of customization!
Characters with bonus talents like Jacob‘s innate health regeneration further enable particular builds. He serves as the quintessential "tank" archetype, absorbing otherwise overwhelming punishment through healing and massive health pools.
Meanwhile, Bruno‘s unmatched throwing weapons proficiency rewards accurate ranged harassment and luring foes into environmental traps. Quite thrilling!
So while attributes provide baseline advantages, don‘t underestimate the game-changing boosts available from high level skill cards tailored to a chosen character. These meaningfully expand viable tactics beyond attributes alone.
My Personal Character Recommendations and Why
Based on hundreds of hours exploring prior Dead Island entries and honing effective (delightfully gory) zombie destruction techniques, I have some Slayer recommendations:
Overall Favorite: Dani – Her balanced attributes let me adapt depending on equipped weapons and skill cards specializing in explosives, blades, or firearms as needed. This flexibility paired with great stamina for dodging or dishing damage makes Dani my top choice.
Most Fun Melee: Ryan – When I crave raw cathartic release through endless chainsaw rampages amidst disintegrating zombie hordes… Ryan is the undisputed king!
Most Tactical: Bruno – Employing traps, precise firearm skills, and manipulation of choke points to systematically eliminate threats. Headshotting zombies never gets old!
I encourage all Dead Island aficionados to analyze these attributes closely when selecting your undead-annihilating anti-hero. Their strengths and weaknesses fundamentally empower some playstyles while limiting others.
Choose wisely grasshopper… then commence the slaughter!
