Best cards in Dead Island 2's Skill Deck and how to use them
Collect cards and combine them to make yourself one powerful zombie-slayer.
The Skill Deck in Dead Island 2 is a revamped version of the skill tree that feels more fun and interactive thanks to the use of unlockable cards. Ultimately, these cards and how you arrange them in your Skill Deck will determine your strengths and weaknesses as a zombie slayer, and can make taking on hordes an absolute blast.
You can use the Skill Deck to make yourself as strong as possible, or give yourself a challenge. Combine cards with one another, and with your arsenal of weapons, and you can switch up your build to adapt to any situation. It’s one of the best things about Dead Island 2, and can lead to some pretty diverse ways of fighting around HELL-A.
Here’s how to use the Skill Deck in Dead Island 2, and some of the best cards to try out.
How to use the Skill Deck in Dead Island 2
You’ll have access to the Skill Deck early on in Dead Island 2, but there won’t actually be all that much to do with it until you’re well on your way through HELL-A.
The Skill Deck features four categories of cards, with a number of slots for each. These categories are Abilities, Survivor, Slayer, and Numen.
Ability cards will, as you might’ve already worked out, give you a new ability to use in battle. You’ll be able to equip three core abilities at any time, one will be Defense, giving you the ability to block or dodge attacks. The second is your Jump Kick, which can give you the ability to perform various jump-kick attacks. Finally, you’ll have a Special Attack, too; this can be a ground slam, a slide, and so forth.
There are two additional Ability slots for Fury-related cards. Fury is an innate ability you’ll unlock in Dead Island 2 that lets you unleash your own inner zombie on hordes. The Fury slots are for your Fury Skill, and Fury Special Attack; these cards will grant you special abilities to use during your Fury, or to help you build Fury.
The next set of cards in the Skill Deck are Survivor cards. These are cards that will often help with boosting your health, stamina, or damage, usually as a result of one of your abilities. For example, the Quake card will give your Ground Pound ability a major force boost, and the Pain Threshold card will give you a minor boost to damage after a successful dodge or block.
After these cards, you have your Slayer cards. These cards will give you special buffs, normally as the result of your zombie-slaying. Examples include The Limb Reaper card, which allows you to regain health for successfully maiming zombies, and the Breakdancer card, which will give you a moderate boost to agility and attack speed after slide attacking a zombie.
Last, but not least, you’ll have Numen cards. You can only equip two of these at a time. These are powerful cards that can result in lots of damage. My favourite has to be the Corpse Blossom card, which sees all zombies slain with fire, shock or caustic detonate in a huge explosion of the same damage type.
What is Autophage in Dead Island 2?
Now that you know all about the types of cards you can unlock, there’s one final thing you should know; some cards are known as Autophage skills. These are special, powerful cards that you can equip that will ultimately buff you, but they can debuff you too. The more Autophage cards you have equipped, the higher the debuff you will experience.
You can equip as many Autophage cards as you’d like. After equipping one, you’ll reach Autophage Tier 1. Equip two to reach Autophage Tier 2, and equip three or more Autophage cards to reach Autophage Tier 3. The respective buffs and debuffs that come with each Autophage Tier are shown below.
How to unlock new cards for the Skill Deck in Dead Island 2
New cards for your Skill Deck are unlocked naturally as you progress through Dead Island 2. You’ll gain them from quest completion, levelling up, and from defeating some particularly nasty enemies that are known as Apex Variants.
Best cards to use in Dead Island 2’s Skill Deck
Ultimately, the best cards to use in your Dead Island 2 Skill Deck depend on two things. The first is how you like to play; do you prefer long-range combat, or smashing skulls in with a melee weapon? The second is the challenge at hand; are you about to battle it out with a Crusher, or have you a fiery horde chasing you down?
Fortunately for you, you can switch out cards as and when you please, so you need not stick with a single set-up. Though, there are a few cards I had a lot of fun with, and some which packed a real punch during tougher fights.
- Ground Pound - Ability
The Ground Pound card gives you an ability that allows you to drive a forceful blow into the ground. This not only makes a little distance between you and troublesome hordes, but drains enemies stability too. It’s a great way to gain space, before going in for a ruthless attack. Fortunately, this card is unlocked relatively early in Dead Island 2, too.
- Scream - Fury Ability
The Scream card allows you to emit one hell of a scream while in Fury mode. This will weaken any zombies it hits, so you can go in for the kill immediately after. It’s also incredibly satisfying to scream back at those annoying Screamer enemies.
- Safe Space - Survivor
The Safe Space card will let you heal while also making some distance between you and enemies. I’m a big fan of this card because it would allow me to be greedy when trying to damage enemies, as long as I escape quickly enough to heal. Whenever you use a med-kit with this card equipped, a forceful explosion occurs that, much like your Ground Pound, will drain the stability of nearby zombies.
- Hot-Footed - Survivor (Autophage Card)
The Hot-Footed card is one of the Autophage cards I mentioned earlier. This card has to be used alongside the Drop Kick ability card. Whenever you use your Drop Kick attack successfully, the targeted enemy will be ignited. The downfall here is that using your Drop Kick attack will then drain your health, but if you’re confident enough, this combination is quite fun.
- No Mercy - Slayer
The No Mercy card will let you deal additional damage to any zombie affected by a harmful status effect, such as fire, caustic, and electric. If you manage to upgrade a few of your weapons so that they can trigger these status effects, this card makes fights feel much easier; electrocute or ignite an enemy, and the next few hits are a breeze.
- Hunting Season - Slayer
The Hunting Season card is great for those who like to pick their fights from a long-range, before going and securing the kill up close and personal. If you hit a zombie using a ranged weapon or a weapon throw, you’ll receive a moderate damage boost for your melee attacks! Throw those shurikens and finish them off with a melee of your choice. Good fun.
- Corpse Blossom - Numen
Numen cards aren’t unlocked until much later in Dead Island 2, which makes sense, considering they’re some of the most powerful and fun to play around with. The Corpse Blossom card is my favourite of them all; zombies slain using fire, shock, and caustic damage will detonate into a powerful explosion of that same damage type.
If, like me, you love causing explosion after explosion, this card is the GOAT; although, it’s easy enough to take damage from these explosions, so I recommend pairing it with the Safe Space card!
For more on Dead Island 2, take a look at our tips, tricks, and other guides for getting the most out of HELL-A.