Dead Island 2 / Characters

Dead Island Character Index
Dead Island | Riptide | Escape Dead Island | Dead Island 2

Tropes relating to the characters introduced in Dead Island 2.

For tropes related to Sam B, see his folder on the Dead Island sheet.

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The Slayers

In General

Action Survivor: Even more so than the first game's heroes. Unlike the Banoi Survivors, who had people in their roster who benefited from having formal combat training prior to the outbreak in the form of Xian Mei and Purna, the HELL-A Slayers are all comprised of civilians who just had the crap luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That said, the Slayers are just as capable of kicking copious amounts of undead ass just like their predecessors.
Badass Abnormal: At the start of the game, it's gently hinted that the Slayers have been changed in some way by their brief brush with the infected. By the end, that's been made explicit; Fury mode lets them punch zombies in half or vomit acid, many of the later skill cards involve displays of super-strength or wielding energy, they've got distinctly accelerated healing ( Tisha puts a crossbow bolt through the Slayer's right hand in the finale and within a couple of minutes, it's like that wound never happened), they can sense the approach of Apex Infected, and their durability is such that you recover on the spot from what was likely meant to be a fatal wound once Lola pulls Tisha's arrow out. The package also includes telepathy, or at least being in some kind of hive mind with the other Numen.
The Chosen One: In the Haus DLC, the AI Konstantin reveals that he sent the couple that the Player Character encountered after the plane crash with the clear intent for them to infect the PC so they could survive Hell-A and make it to the Haus to stop the Dark Brains from destroying the Ark and the minds preserved within. Konstantin did this by using its predictive algorithms to foresee the best outcome which explains why all the Schroedingers Player Characters were all on the same plane in the same section; the future Slayer you picked was the one Konstantion saw as its best shot at stopping the Dark Brains.
Cyborg: After the Haus DLC, the Slayer has been implanted with the same Brink implant as the other Ascended in Haus, enough that they can act as a Body Backup Drive for Zahra during her Missing mission while trying to get her uploaded to the Ark. After they realize this, the Slayer swears to tell no one else about their new status.
The Determinator: All of the Slayers have the drive to get out of the City for their own reasons, even if they have to fight through every single last zombie to do so. This is actually the last crucial step to surviving full Autophage exposure.
Everyone Has Standards: Across the varying levels of morality held by a group of people surviving a zombie apocalypse, each one of the Slayers makes the decision to stay behind and try to protect the trapped Joshua and unconscious Angelica.
Hypocrite: They're bitten early in the game and prove to be The Immune despite some early symptoms. When Michael gets bitten, however, they agree with Sam that he should be killed immediately rather than giving him the chance to prove he won't turn despite knowing about possible immunity at that point. However, this does become a case of Hypocrite Has a Point as Michael does in fact turn into a Runner while the others are arguing, forcing the Slayer to put him out of his misery before he can bite Emma.
The Immune: They were all bitten during the introduction by a zombie, but did not turn. Jacob comments that his blood is "red gold" due to the value of whatever antibodies are making him immune.
Gender-Equal Ensemble: There are six slayers in total, three male and three female.
Nice Guy: Some of the Slayers are ruder or more arrogant than others, but all six are genuinely willing to help other survivors that they encounter.
No Full Name Given: The Slayers are only known by their first names. Their last names are never revealed. The director and narrative designer said in a Reddit AMA that this was a deliberate stylistic choice.
"What our Slayers are becoming - who they WILL be, is far more important than who they were. The old world is dying and with it, all the things that made us who we are."
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Subverted. They opt to stay behind and defend an injured couple from encroaching zombies during the intro. This gets them bitten with the character in question even ranting that they were trying to help as they stomp the zombie's head in. Thankfully, they're The Immune, and becoming infected only made them stronger.
Primal Stance: When the Slayers enter fury mode, they adopt a much more hunched over posture, briefly going feral like a zombie.
Psychic Link: After they awaken their fury and become Numen, the Slayers can telepathically communicate with other Numen, including ones that lose themselves and become zombies.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Slayers are currently comprised of a eccentric Black-British Stuntman with a dry wit, an Asian-American paralympian Thrill Seeker, a Fighting Irish Roller Derby skater, a Cowardly Lion male stripper, a Spicy Latina Badass Biker, and a Crazy-Prepared Karmic Thief.
Refuge in Audacity: How all six of them got on the plane in the first place. Amy and Carla actually get on the plane with this in-universe as the military is actually impressed with how they managed to get to the plane on time.
Schrödinger's Player Character: Played With. While the Slayers you don't play as are never seen in-person after the intro, files found on Reuben's desk near the end of the game show pictures of them.
Tainted Veins: The fury actions turn the slayers' veins red.
Tarot Motifs: Each Slayer is represented by one of the Major Arcana, representing an aspect of their respective personalities.
Vampire Refugee: While they are immune, the Slayers' immunity doesn't prevent the side effects to the zombie infection, namely the powers that come with being a zombie, a raging headache, and the instinct to engage in cannibalism. At several points in the game, the Slayers struggle with balancing their humanity against their fury and at one point succumb to the cannibalism instincts the zombies have.

Jacob

Voiced By: Okezie Morro (English)

"Cheer up, Sunshine, you're with me!"

A British stockbroker-turned-stuntman.

Anti-Hero: His description on the Dead Island website outright calls him one.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: His innate skills "Feral" and "Critical Gains" are both designed to encourage players to adopt a hyper-aggressive playstyle. The former skill grants Jacob a stackable damage buff every time he attacks an enemy in quick succession, while the latter skill restores Jacob's stamina any time he scores a crit, which also gets a damage buff. He also shares the skills "Serial Killer", "Hack and Slash" and "Group Therapy" with Dani, which allows them to gain buffs to their attack and attack speed as well as replenishing Stamina through killing.
Berserk Button:
- One of the only times you'll hear Jacob get angry is when he confronts Burt at the end of "Coast Guardian." He later admits that his father "didn't stick around," so abandonment really sets him off.
  Jacob: A hero commits!
- Jacob, like many of the other Slayers, gradually becomes fed up with the antics of Amanda Styles. Especially after discovering she left the safety of Emma's gated villa in Bel Air to get more footage of the zombie outbreak at the Pier and continues to manipulate him into killing zombies in elaborate ways for her fans. When Amanda tries to imply that she'll continue to milk his kills for content, Jacob flips out and says Amanda must be "taking the piss" if she thinks that he's gonna help her out again.
Cigar Chomper: More of a cigarillo but clinging to a landing gear of a passenger jet while it's taking off and keeping it in your mouth more than keeps the spirit of the trope.
Deceased Parents Are the Best: He loves his mom a lot, often talking to her as if she were still alive.
Establishing Character Moment:
- The official reveal trailer shown at Gamescom focuses entirely on Jacob as he goes through his daily routine while "Hollywood Swinging" plays in the background. He wakes up in a trashed Hollywood villa surrounded by empty liquor bottles and cigarette stubs, shakes off the hangover to check himself out in the mirror, where he sees the veins of his eyes are turning black, then promptly swaggers off to embark on a grocery trip for more booze and meds while mauling every single zombie standing in his way. Jacob eventually returns home, casually deals with a zombie intruder by blasting it to bits with an explosive round, only to realize he forgot to pick up some batteries for his TV remote while he was out. So, he grabs a katana, waves hi to some neighbors, and steps right back into the fray of an undead-infested Los Angeles. This establishes Jacob as a fearless hard-drinking Action Survivor who is not only thriving quite well in the apocalypse, the man is arguably having the time of his life.
- In the intro movie, Jacob gets onto the last evacuation flight out of Los Angeles by hanging onto the landing gear and riding it up into the plane's cargo bay, all with a lit cigar in his mouth and a grin on his face.
Failure Hero: Discussed. Jacob considers himself a failure while investigating a slew of missing persons cases that result in finding the missing person zombified. The missing persons quests are the one time Jacob gives himself a Self Deprecating nickname, calling himself "The Lone Idiot". The one time things are looking like a success, the person runs out of sight and gets attacked by a zombie.
Jacob: Oh the irony. The humanity! I was this close to actually rescuing a missing person!
Gratuitous French: He peppers his conversations with French, introducing himself as Monsieur Badasserie on occasion.
Handicapped Badass: Jacob is blind in his right eye, but his limited field of vision doesn’t stop him from slaying his way through Hell-A.
Hidden Depths:
- Underneath that devil-may-care attitude and reckless abandon, Jacob enjoys reading and quoting Shakespeare.
- He was close to his late mother, to the point where he'll occasionally talk about her as if she's still alive. If nothing else, Jacob's conscience apparently speaks with his mother's voice.
- He's actually a major-league movie buff, which may have played a role in why he decided to pursue a career in Hollywood. When interacting with Curtis Sinclair, Jacob reminisces on watching Sinclair's films with his mother and expresses how she would've loved to have met him. He's also familiar with Emma Jaunt's filmography and pokes fun at her over her role in God Spider.
- Jacob is also a proud geek. He's a fan of the Space Fox 2250 franchise^note and interacts with the movie's lead actress Sarah Sheppard by playfully pretending to be a member of her character's fictional crew. He makes a cheesy Zero Wing "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" pun while retrieving a bass guitar for Rex. And given his tendency to use Wakanda as a synonym for "Awesome", Jacob is also a fan of Black Panther.
- He's the only slayer who recognises the elevator on the Monarch Studios set to be a facade before it actually opens. He still waits for it however, reasoning Michael is probably somewhere on the other side.
Hiding the Handicap: The reason Jacob is always wearing sunglasses? To hide his right eye, which has such a severe cataract he lost vision.
In Harm's Way: He hates doing absolutely nothing and is described as having a "reckless disregard for self-preservation".
Jack of All Trades: Jacob is the most well-rounded Slayer of the bunch, boasting a balanced stat distribution, the highest peak health stat in the game, and innate skills that encourages players to adopt a highly-aggressive playstyle based around hacking and slashing his opponents non-stop. While Jacob does have the lowest resilience in the game, which means he can be knocked down rather easily, this is mitigated by the sheer utility and flexibility of his strengths whereas other Slayers tend to suffer from some degree of Crippling Overspecialization.
Katanas Are Just Better: Jacob is showcased wielding a Katana as his melee weapon of choice and is seen posing with the blade prominently in both promotional materials, his tarot card, and the official cover art of the game.
Pistol Whip: In the official 2022 reveal trailer, Jacob's slaughters dozens of zombies by bashing their skulls in with the butt of his rifle, which is outfitted with spikes.
Self-Applied Nickname: He's nicknamed himself "Jay" or "Jay-Jay" and insists that's what his friends call him, but no one (in Hell-A at least) ever calls him this.
Self-Deprecation: Calls himself "The Lone Idiot" while out searching for missing persons due to the likelihood of his efforts being all in vain.
Smoking Is Cool: Every trailer and promotional material he's in has him smoking. His Critical Gains skill card also portrays him with a cigarette in his mouth.
Stock British Phrases: Given that Jacob is a Brit in origin, he has a tendency to use British phrases throughout his dialogue.
Stunt Double: In-Universe. Before the apocalypse, and after his mother died, Jacob worked as a stuntman in Hollywood.
Sunglasses at Night: Always seen rocking a pair of shades.
Talking to the Dead: Jacob regularly talks to his deceased mother, whether just giving her an update on his current situation or asking her to look out for the people he fails to save in heaven.
Tarot Motifs: Jacob is The Emperor, the fourth card in the Major Arcana. It represents leadership, decisiveness, and taking control of one's life.

Amy

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/di2_amy_render.png

Voiced By: Skye Bennett (English)

"Chalk one up for team living!"

A quick-witted Paralympian athlete, going from runner's high to zombie slaying.

Artificial Limbs: Amy's right leg from the knee down has been replaced by a prosthetic with an American flag pattern. It doesn't provide any special abilities or anything, but it's just as handy as any human foot at crushing in zombie heads.
Establishing Character Moment: The first time players see Amy, she jogs up to a military checkpoint and tells an amazed soldier that she's just arrived on foot from Long Beach, after giving up her spot on an evac shuttle. This was a 20-kilometer (12-mile) run through infested territory, but Amy was simply too fast for any of the zombies to catch her, showing her athletic endurance and selfless personality.
Fragile Speedster: Statistically she has high speed but low health.
Handicapped Badass: She has a prosthetic leg but can kick just as much ass as the other slayers. Her reason for wanting to get out of Los Angeles instead of waiting it out is that she's qualified for the Paralympics tryout next week.
Ms. Fanservice: She's a professional athlete so her outfit is a sports bra and track pants, leaving her entire stomach exposed. While Jacob is the "face" of Dead Island 2, Amy's the one who got the limited edition statuette made out of her.
My Greatest Failure: In the Haus DLC Amy's dark secret she shares during the Rites is that she once stole a potential boyfriend from her sister; despite not even liking the guy with heavy implications that she harbored resentment towards her twin, something she regrets in the present.
Ship Tease: Seems to get a small one with Ryan during the intro, as she gives him an appreciative side-eye and a hint of a smile while they're seated together on the evacuation bus, which he reciprocates. The mood's ruined once they see another evacuation bus self-ignite because one of its passengers turned, though.
Sore Loser: Her bio has "losing" listed as something she hates.
Tarot Motifs: Amy is Strength, the eighth card in the Major Arcana. It represents self-control, strength of character, and virtue over brute force.
Thrill Seeker: Her bio states that she loves killing zombies because of the constant risks and on-the-fly thinking it brings.
Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Her prosthetic leg has an American flag pattern on it, tying in neatly with her being a Paralympian hopeful.

Dani

Voiced By: Michelle Fox (English)

"Zombie ass-kicking services at competitive prices!"

An Irish retail worker and roller derby skater.

Black Sheep: The Haus DLC has Dani revel during the Rites that she is The Unfavorite to her mother (or at least perceives herself to be) compared to her more traditional sisters.
Chain Lethality Enabler: Her unique skills grants her buffs as she kills. "Serial Killer" and "Group Therapy" not only buff her attack and attack speed when killing enemies but also allow her to replenish stamina.
Establishing Character Moment: Dani gets onto the evac flight at the start of the game by smuggling herself into the cargo compartment in a big trunk covered in band logos. When she runs into Jacob, who is also a stowaway, she playfully steals his cigar, to which he just smirks and shrugs. This establishes her rebellious but good-natured character.
Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Her hair is dyed green, and she's noted to love breaking rules.
Tarot Motifs: Dani is the Wheel of Fortune, the tenth card in the Major Arcana. It represents the inevitability of fate, for better or worse.
Tattoo as Character Type: She's covered in ink; full sleeves on both her arms, ink on her right leg, and a heart on her chest and is described as the most rebellious of the slayers.

Ryan

Voiced By: Ronan Summers (English)

"Look, you can trust me... I'm- I'm a firefighter, right?"

An exotic dancer (pretending to be a firefighter) that was trapped in L.A. during the outbreak. He's on a mission to get back to his little brother no matter what, neither the undead or the living can stop him from going back home.

Adaptational Wimp: In the original 2014 version of the game, Ryan was more of a generic macho white guy, seeming to fulfill a similar role as Sam B did in the original game. The 2023 version instead makes him a goofball deconstruction of said archetype.
Bavarian Fire Drill: Ryan uses his fireman costume and a fire extinguisher to pretend he's with the emergency services and get on the evacuation plane.
Becoming the Mask: The intro starts off with him pretending to be a fire fighter to get onto the last evac plane. Over the course of the story he becomes the last real Emergency Responder Hell-A has.
Big Brother Instinct: His main priority is to find his little brother, still trapped in Fresno. The Haus DLC confirms that said brother is (in Ryan's words) "special" and lives with Ryan, adding to the fear that Ryan feels about his safety.
The Caretaker: Is implied to be the sole caretaker of and provider for a developmentally disabled younger brother.
Chippendales Dancers: Ryan's profession pre-apocalypse, as a firefighter themed stripper.
Cowardly Lion: Most of the other Slayers are adrenaline junkies who're thrilled at the idea of fighting through the zombie apocalypse. Ryan, on the other hand, is barely holding it together. Even on the character selection screen, he's visibly terrified.
Determinator: His description states that nothing will stop him from reuniting with his brother.
Establishing Character Moment: Ryan's introduced in the bathroom having implied to have changed into his fireman costume, emptying his backpack of his stripper gear save for a "Big Bro' keychain and grabbing one of the bathroom's fire extinguishers before running out and telling the bystanders outside he's a fireman. Fitting for a man whose job requires him to slip into roleplaying easily and who is close to his younger brother.
Firemen Are Hot: The reason he's wearing firemen's clothes is that it's one of the sexier costumes for male strippers.
Hates Being Touched: Ryan mentions a few times in both trailer material and the game itself that he hates people grabbing hold of him, most likely from his time as a stripper dealing with clients getting handsy without permission.
Heroic Build: As befitting a male stripper, he's ripped and they're not for show either as he has high health
Mighty Glacier: Statistically he has high health but low speed.
Mr. Fanservice: Naturally, given he's a stripper. He's more muscular compared to Bruno and Jacob, Amy gives him an appreciative glance when she's seated next to him on an evacuation bus, and his game description says there's more to him than just 'rippling pecs'.
My Greatest Failure: More like a character flaw than a failure, but in the Haus DLC Ryan admits during the Rites that caring for his mentally-impaired younger brother is taxing and he sometimes wonders if his life would be better if he was alone. Ryan apologizes to his absent brother after saying this as he's ashamed of this feeling despite the whole reason he's where he is in the game is because he wanted to get to his brother in Fresno to make sure he's safe.
Only Sane Man: Not exactly per se, but Ryan's overwhelming emotion is a combination of confusion and utter exasperation at any given moment.
Pink Is Erotic: In the opening cutscene, Ryan is shown emptying his bag and some pink handcuffs fall out. As a character, Ryan is only pretending to be a firefighter so he can get on the plane to escape, he's actually a stripper and it's suggested that he does have sex with clients.
Sentimental Homemade Toy: The only item that Ryan brings with him on his (ultimately failed) attempt to escape HELL-A by plane is a handmade keychain with a good luck message from his brother. The construction is very colorful and looks like something handmade by someone very young. Though its unclear if his brother is a fair bit younger than him or if this is simply due to what's implied to be a developmental impairment.
Stripper/Cop Confusion: Ryan takes advantage of a version of this trope in the opening, making use of his firefighter themed stripper's outfit to trick his way onto an evacuation flight.
Tarot Motifs: Ryan is The Tower, the sixteenth card in the Major Arcana. It represents the Pride Before a Fall, a radical shift in fortune, as well as the possibility of something positive blossoming in its wake.

Carla

Voiced By: Carolina Ravassa (English)

"Ay güey, we gonna hang around forever? Let's hit the gas and fuckin' go!"

A motorcycle stunt rider.

Amazonian Beauty: She's attractive and has the most muscular physique out of the female Slayers.
Blood Knight: Carla is unique among the Slayers in that she greets every new challenge and fight in the game with the same maniacal glee. She's aware that the best thing to do is leave L.A., but while she's there, she's going to have as much fun with the zombie apocalypse as she can.
Braids of Action: Her long hair is tied back into twin braids, which keeps it out of the way while she beats the undead to a pulp.
Critical Status Buff: Her "Dig Deep" innate skills gives her toughness a boost when her health falls to critical.
Establishing Character Moment: Carla roars up to the evacuation flight on a dirt bike, tosses her keys to a guard, and gets on. This makes her one of only two Slayers who didn't sneak onto the flight somehow (The other being Amy), although she did skip the queue. Her character selection screen even shows her putting down a zombified passenger on the plane with a feral smile.
Gratuitous Spanish: "Puta madre!" borders on being Carla's catchphrase.
Ms. Fanservice: Just like Amy, she's quite attractive. While Amy leans into the slim but athletic side, Clara is more muscular and amazonian.
Tarot Motifs: Carla is the Lovers, the sixth card in the Major Arcana. It represents temptation, choice, and love in all its forms.
Thrill Seeker: Her bio lists that she’s an adrenaline junkie who does motorcycle stunt riding and hates being bored.
Wrench Wench: Her job pre-apocalypse was a mechanic and post-apocalypse she uses those skills to DIY mod her weapons to be even more effective against the undead.

Bruno

Voiced By: Jay Rincon (English)

"Lady Luck's still on our side!"

A street hustler who targets other scammers.

Back Stab: One of his innate skills, giving him a moderate damage boost when attacking zombies from behind.
Best Served Cold: One of his tattoos indicates he prefers his revenge to be cold.
Character Tic: When Bruno is stressed out, he tends to count down numbers in order to keep calm.
Devious Daggers: He's a knife specialist, and worked as a hustler most of his adult life.
Establishing Character Moment: Bruno gets onto the evac flight by taking a photo of another survivor's credentials and passing them off as his own.
Hustler: His "career" pre-apocalypse was being a con-man, specifically targeting other scammers as he hates corruption.
Karmic Thief: Generally portrayed as one, as the targets of his cons are other scammers who target those who are actually innocent.
Knuckle Tattoos: Sports a set of card suits on the knuckles of his left hand in addition to several Hebrew characters on the knuckles of both hands.
My Greatest Failure: In the Haus DLC Bruno reveals during the Rites that he regrets his lapsed relationship with his grandmother who considers him Brilliant, but Lazy and was taken in by a conman, something Bruno feels he could have prevented if he'd been around and he vows to get all her savings back.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's Lil Pump (or the similarly colorful and heavily tattooed 6ix9ine to some) in a hat.
Shout-Out: His character description from the Dead Island website makes reference to another Bruno who no one ever talks about.
Smart People Wear Glasses: Is the only slayer to wear glasses and he's noted to be the one who always has a plan. Pre-apocalypse, he used his smarts to work a pretty good hustle.
Take a Third Option: Not exactly in gameplay, but his personality is always looking for a way out, a solution to whatever the problem is. Even finding out he's been bit has him reveal his bite to Michael and say "It's a secret, and we're going to figure it out...together."
Tarot Motifs: Bruno is The Hermit, the ninth card in the Major Arcana. It represents wisdom, solitude, and self-reflection.

Survivors

Emma Jaunt

A famous horror movie actress and Sam B's ex-girlfriend.

Arranged Marriage: Emma genuinely disliked her husband Robert, and tells the Slayer that their marriage was a publicity stunt. If Robert even has a bedroom at Emma's house, you never see it in-game.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: As annoyed as she can be at Michael's worship of her, she does genuinely care about him and is completely distraught when he is bitten and subsequently killed.
Awful Wedded Life: If she's to be believed about her marriage.
Broken Bird: Subtle but listening to how awful her life was with her husband and Andrea's comments show that she's a woman that's been beaten down by the dark side of Hollywood.
Color Motif: She's associated with the color white, she wears a white shirt and her mansion has a white aesthetic.
Improbable Weapon User: When Emma catches up to you in the Hollywood Boulevard subway station, she's covered in blood and holding her Romero statue. The implication is that she's beaten at least one zombie to death with it.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On the surface, Emma seems like any other spoiled actress who doesn't give a damn about anybody other than herself. However, she does occasionally show a softer side towards the people close to her, and her housekeeper Andrea remarks that Emma was always a nice girl, but slowly changed when she let her fame get to her head. Not helped by her husband.
The Load: As a pampered actress, Emma has practically none of the skills necessary to survive a Zombie Apocalypse and spends most of the game taking shelter in her mansion. This changes during the game's final act, where she puts her pistol to good use helping Sam and Patton fight off waves of zombies while they all try to rendezvous with the Slayer. And as noted above, its heavily implied she used her Romero award to bludgeon a zombie to death.
The Lost Lenore: To hear Sam's version of the story, he abandoned Emma 15 years before the game despite genuinely caring for her due to what amounts to fame-induced stupidity. The implication is that as soon as Sam heard L.A. had been hit, he dropped everything to make sure Emma got out, despite having to fight his way into the city on foot.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Between Emma's dark hair, British accent, and focus on famous horror/action roles, she's highly reminiscent of Kate Beckinsale.
Odd Couple: She's a wealthy young and attractive British actress with Rich Bitch tendencies while her ex-boyfriend Sam is a boisterous and hedonistic Gangsta Rapper who rose from the hard streets of New Orleans. In spite of their conflicting personalities, the two do genuinely care about one another.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Possibly just a consequence cutscenes only having one script for NPCs, but when the player character explains that they can escape if they make it to a CDC doctor in Santa Monica who needs their blood to make a vaccine she responds: "Oh, you're the star of the show now? Break a leg", she even says this to Amy, who runs on a prosthetic leg.
Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: Emma and Sam used to be an item over a decade prior to the game's events until the latter effectively abandoned her in a highly publicized breakup. When Sam arrives in LA specifically to save Emma's life, its clear right out the gate that she is still bitter about the messy circumstances that caused them to drift apart in the first place. But by the end of the game, its heavily implied they'll get back together again after escaping the city with the Slayer's help.
White Is Pure: She's associated with the color white, as shown by her shirt and how her home has a white aesthetic. As a character, Emma is portrayed as a pampered celebrity who can't get her hands dirty and she spends the majority of the game hiding in the mansion, which remains unsullied by the zombie outbreak. In the third act, she does leave the safety of the mansion to find the slayer and she's covered in blood by the time she finds them.

Michael Anders

Emma Jaunt's personal assistant and biggest supporter.

Hidden Depths: Despite his sycophantic tendencies he won at least one award for mentorship in a Hollywood career development program. And that's not even counting the fact that he managed to get from Bel-Air to his house in Beverly Hills, survive a siege of the zombies at his house, get to the studio, and take shelter in Emma's trailer even with a Slobber stalking him. Sadly it didn't stop him from being bit but even then he managed to withstand the Autophage for hours when most people turned in seconds.
Nice Guy: Interactions with Jessica Kwon, and Andrea the Housekeeper show that he was generally an affable guy even if the person wasn't someone that could help Emma's career. The worst he did was be rude to Rikky Rex calling him a has been, and well.... if anything he was being polite
Nice to the Waiter: Andrea, Emma's housekeeper is pissed when she thinks the Slayer and Sam drove him off and got him killed. Combine that with him winning a Mentorship award and Jessica having nothing but nice things to say about show that he wasn't two-faced when Emma wasn't in the room.
Sycophantic Servant: A rare heroic example. He blindly agrees with his boss Emma on damn well everything and glorifies her constantly, but he genuinely has her best interests at heart, to the point making a dangerous journey across Hell-A to retrieve a trophy from the zombie-infested Monarch Studios just to try and cheer her up. This results in him getting bitten and eventually turning, leading to the Slayer executing him just before they leave for Santa Monica.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Michael hardly does anything in the time the Slayer knows him except being a Yes-Man to Emma. According to Andrea, when the Slayer and Sam showed up, he felt like he was drifting into the role of a Satellite Character in Emma's eyes, leading him to recklessly try and prove he's still useful. Unfortunately, his plan involved heading to Monarch Studios to get a trinket for Emma which lead to him being bitten by a zombie and eventually turning, then dying when the Slayer was forced to kill him.
Yes-Man: To Emma. He just can’t help himself but to kiss his boss’ ass.
Zombie Infectee: Gets bitten during his journey to the studio and tries to keep it hidden from both the Slayer and Emma until he starts turning.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Once he begins succumbing to the Autophage he tries to comfort Emma -and himself- by believing he must be immune like the Slayer. Unfortunately, he is not.

Reuben Reed

A CDC doctor running a survivor shelter in Santa Monica.

False Friend: He's got an extremely friendly, if stressed, demeanor, which doesn't hold up under scrutiny.
Final Boss: He's the final boss of the main story as a Mutator.
Manipulative Bastard: Turns out, Reed was the one responsible for causing the Autophage outbreak in Los Angeles and killing thousands of people. In addition, he was lying to immune patients, promising to get them out of the city when in reality he was subjecting them to inhumane experiments in a bid to find a cure.
Papa Wolf: Extremely protective of his daughter, and would much rather she stay in the safehouse rather than go out on missions into the city.
Tears of Remorse: In his final moments before turning, he tearfully apologizes to Tisha when he reveals that he tampered with her as a fetus to turn her into a source for the Autophage cure.
Transformation Horror: As he's running out of time, he tests out his experimental procedure on himself, but ends up becoming the Final Boss, a King Mook version of the Mutator called the Reubenator.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He started the Autophage outbreak in Los Angeles and carried out horrendous human experimentation (including on his own daughter when she was a fetus) all in the name of finding a way to stop the Autophage, reasoning that sacrificing a few million people is worth saving billions.

Tisha Reed

Reuben Reed's rebellious daughter who wants to do her part in combating the outbreak.

Action Girl: Despite Reuben's objections, she leads a team of scavengers on supply runs while armed with a hunting crossbow. She even beats down a nearly-feral Player Character when she finds them in her father's secret lab before putting a crossbow bolt in them that nearly kills them.
Amateur Sleuth: She forms a little group called the "Mushroom Club" to try to get to the bottom of Reuben's shennanigans. So named because "they keep us in the dark and feed us shit, like a mushroom."
Bratty Teenage Daughter: She is highly rebellious towards her father due to his overprotectiveness of her.
Living MacGuffin: Before his transformation, Reuben reveals that he had genetically modified Tisha while she was still a fetus so that she can produce the Autophage cure in her body. However, that means he intentionally doomed her to be forever harvested for the cure like livestock if this was discovered.
Protectorate: Reuben is heavily protective of Tisha to the point where he refuses to let her out of sight. How much of this is because he genuinely loves her and doesn't want to lose her like he did his wife, or because he doesn't want to lose the chance he gave humanity by making her a Living MacGuffin cure for the Autophage is up in the air.
Trail of Bread Crumbs: A good way to see if Tisha has been through an area are the crossbow bolts with LED blinkers on the end that she leaves everywhere she's shot zombies.
Unwanted Assistance: She chafes under her father's attempts to protect her by grounding her in the Serling Hotel, as she doesn't want to be held back while other people need her help.

Lola Konradt

A famous tech mogul and the creator of the OSK operating system that runs on almost every mobile network.

Early-Bird Cameo: If you go back for a second run through the game, you'll recognize Lola as the disappearing survivor you spot in the plane crash site.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: She is essentially a female version of Steve Jobs, running a tech company with many similarities to Apple Inc., down to the layout of their stores and how ubiquitous their mobile phones are.
Hidden Agenda Hero: While she does assist the Slayers, her ultimate motives for them and the Autophage in general remain a mystery, other than she is trying to foster the growth of more Numen.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's arguably this if she's telling the truth about the Numen being humanity's evolutionary answer to surviving the Autophage, as she's responsible for triggering the Slayers' transformation into a full-fledged Numen by letting them fall into a sewer pit of sentient flesh that spawns a horde of zombies they're barely able to escape from.
White Hair, Black Heart: She has white or platinum hair and apparently wants the Autophage to run its course so the Numen can emerge as the next step in human evolution, even if that means the previous iteration of humanity gets screwed.

Patton

A scarred military veteran and die-hard movie fan who lives in the sewers beneath Bel-Air.

Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He's clearly not all there anymore, completely obsessed with horror movies and Emma Jaunt's work in particular, and has no problem with, even seeming downright gleeful, performing a crude autopsy on a Crusher with his bare hands.
Creepy Good: Is a bit off from his isolation in the sewers (a bit of lore hints that he was down there even before the LA outbreak) and his facial burn scar, but Patton is ultimately a good person.
Facial Horror: The accident that wounded him left roughly half of his face horribly burned and scarred.
Nice Guy: Despite his idiosyncrasies and odd behavior at times, Patton is a genuinely nice person. He goes out of his way to save the Slayer from zombies in the sewers and even brings them to his hideaway to five them a place to rest.
No Full Name Given: "Patton" is the only name he gives when introducing himself. It's unclear whether it's his first or last name, but likely last.
Organ Drops: He discovers this mechanic by digging around inside zombies. Everyone's skeptical until he demonstrates how their inhuman organs can do stuff like make a tiny steel hammer strong enough to explode zombie heads.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Holy fuck yes. The accident that scarred him clearly traumatized him. He's obsessed with movies to a clearly unhealthy degree, is afraid of piloting a helicopter again, and even has a mini panic attack when he has to leave the sewers for the surface. Thankfully, his idolization of Emma helps win him over to helping the Slayer's allies escape Hell-A.
Trap Master: Rather than face most of the zombies in the Hell-A sewers head on, Patton has chosen to fill his neck of the woods with booby traps to take care of them when they become a danger or get too close to his home base.

Amanda Styles

A content creator who's trying to use her platform to get the truth out about what's happening in post-outbreak LA.

Affectionate Nickname: Amanda calls every Slayer "bestie," because she never actually gets their names.
All for Nothing: The data blackout on Los Angeles means Amanda hasn't been able to successfully upload any of her footage. Her last broadcast ends up in the Slayer's pocket, on the hope that the Slayer might find a way to get it out there eventually.
And Then John Was a Zombie: During her penultimate mission, she reveals one of the zombies got to her while she was setting up her final video. She then emerges as a Runner the Slayers have to put down.
Apocalyptic Log: Amanda's shifted from a career as an Internet personality to using her platform to document and broadcast the LA outbreak from the inside. To go by a journal you can find in Ocean Avenue, her pre-apocalypse content was focused on jokes and pranks, including one that's gotten her banned from Burger '66. Her last recording is footage of herself as she succumbs to the Autophage and becomes a Runner.
Cute, but Cacophonic: Downplayed. She's an attractive twenty-something young woman, but her voice is a little too high to be easy to listen to, especially when she's egging you on to kill zombies.
Final Girl: She seems to be this due to being the implied Sole Survivor of the GOAT Pen (a team of online streamers and influencers) when the Slayers first meet her.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Amanda strings the Slayers along to help her out with recording the outbreak's events and even deceives them into running headfirst into a crowd of zombified celebrities that they have no choice but to kill in order to escape, before threatening to release more zombies onto some innocent survivors she's holding hostage. But ultimately, her end goal is to get her footage out onto the internet as a warning to the rest of the world about what's really happening in Hell-A, and she reveals she was just lying about having hostage survivors so the Slayers would put down her zombified self in front of the cameras to prove the outbreak is real and not clickbait.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Visually, she quite resembles Amanda Cerny.

Robert Steele

Emma Jaunt's husband.

Domestic Abuse: He shot Emma's dog for sleeping on a very expensive couch.
Jerkass: Emma hardly ever has a nice thing to say about their marriage together. In a journal entry, it's shown that Robert even planned on leaving his wife in Hell-A until his talent agent explicitly told him to take Emma with him when he evacuated.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He only appears during the opening cinematic and even then we only see him twice. First is when he's bribing the way through the military checkpoint at the airport with his wife and Michael. Next is when he attacks a fan on the plane after succumbing to his infection, resulting in it being shot down and stranding the Slayer and Emma in Hell-A.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Robert probably thought he didn't have to worry about his declining health when he was escaping Los Angeles. Unfortunately, that choice resulted in the deaths of many people from their plane being shot down to prevent the outbreak onboard that he caused from getting out.
Zombie Infectee: Unbeknownst to his fellow passengers, Robert had already contracted the infection and was taking great pains to conceal it, even resorting to bribing any suspicious military officers into looking the other way. But in the end, despite his best efforts to escape Hell-A, the Autophage within his veins would ensure Steele's venture was doomed from the start.

Andrea Salazar

Emma's housekeeper of 15 years.

Gratuitous Spanish: Breaks into Spanish quite frequently, as it's her native language.
Reasonable Authority Figure: She pulls a gun on you when you first meet her, but you have been bitten. However after you've been shown to not only be immune, but jumped into the fray to save her family, she warms up considerably. It might be Emma's mansion, but it's Andrea's house.
Team Mom: She moved her son, daughter, and daughter-in-law into Emma's relatively secure Bel-Air mansion as soon as Emma left. She's also reasonably kind towards the Slayers, who generally reciprocate.
When Elders Attack: She's initially distrustful of the Slayers, due to them being bitten, and threatens to kill them a few times before ultimately calming down. In "Rage Quit," she's had enough of Emma's bossiness and Sam B's laziness and slaps both of them with her slippers.

Luciana Salazar

A seismologist and Andrea's daughter.

Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: You can walk in on a rare conversation between Luciana and Carlos that reveals Luciana has a wife named Ashley, although the implication is that Ashley's died in the outbreak.
Out of Focus: Luciana spends most of the game working on a laptop in Emma's living room as she tries to figure out what's going on with the earthquakes in Hell.A. She doesn't so much as offer a quest until after the last story mission.

Major J S Booker

The only living survivor in the Halperin Hotel by the time the Slayer gets there. It doesn't last long, as her continued drunken shouts over the PA system draw the attention of a very big zombie.

Alas, Poor Villain: Most of the Slayers agree she deserved to die, but Jacob is surprisingly the bigger man about it and still says he respects that from her point of view, she was holding the line to the end.
Green-Eyed Monster: From what her dialogue over the course of the Slayer's venture in the Halperin, plus a few ambient journals indicates, Booker was majorly jealous of Becki the Bride and her fiancee for unknown reasons and made no secret of it especially when she was drunk. She even apparently abused the military crackdown in LA to crash their wedding. It makes her grisly murder at the hands of the zombified Becki a lot more deserving.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: 'Hero' is a major stretch, but she does this twofold. One is that by being a jerk to Becki and interupting her wedding she winds up causing Becki to stay around and mutate, which wipes out her men. And secondly by executing anyone she thinks is even infected, she killed at least a good handful of immune survivors.
The Voice: She's never met in person before being killed, only heard over the PA system.
We Hardly Knew Ye: The Slayer only hears her voice over the hotel's loudspeakers as they make their way through, and by the time they finally reach her to get her access key, she's already been killed, likely by Becki the Bride.

Francesca

A self-important painter sequestered in her home in Beverly Hills, electing to use the ongoing zompocalypse to perfect her craft and create her "magnum opus"... with the grisliest painting material she can get.

Ambiguously Human: Or more accurately, ambiguously immune. She works with zombie body parts and blood without any protection and has the latter all over her arms, yet doesn't seem to be in any danger of turning into a Runner. In addition, the spiral art on her canvas resembles graffiti in the Brentwood Sewers, meaning Francesca either painted those herself or the Autophage hivemind is planting the imagery in her head, which might explain why she's a Mad Artist if she's a partial Numen that isn't handling things as well as the Slayer.
Cloud Cuckoolander: An eccentric painter living all by herself in the zombie-infested Beverly Hills, asking any "lucky" survivor passing through to help her perfect her paintings by bringing her a variety of zombie-related parts like infected flesh, oversized arm bones, and even mutating hearts, all to achieve her masterpiece.
Mad Artist: One would have to be to consider making art out of the remains of zombified people.
Self-Deprecation: One of her ambient dialogues has her waxing like this out loud, calling herself a "hack" and that she'll never amount to anything.

Jimmy Montana

Star of "The Badge," a cop show that's been on for the last 9 years, and a survivor at the Serling Hotel hideout.

Celebrity Survivor: He's only the second actor you run into in the main questline who's survived the outbreak. Almost everyone else you find is either dead or mutated.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's a slightly more stable Charlie Sheen with a goatee, with some elements of Frank Grillo thrown in.
The Load: On your first visit to the Serling, you can find a list of everyone's chore assignments in the bar. Jimmy isn't on it.
You Are in Command Now: After Dr. Reed's plans involving the Slayer are revealed, the Slayer tells them to man up and be a leader. This makes him channel his TV character and start giving out orders.

Thurston & Cadenza

Lola's... bodyguards? Companions? Whatever they are, they share her status as one of the Numen and are dedicated to seeing her plans through.

A Day in the Limelight: The SOLA DLC heavily features Cadenza as a major supporting character. She demonstrates some kind of ESP attuned to sound that penetrates the veil between alternate realities, and like before in the base game says the Slayer's sound is "different."
Cold Sniper: Thurston is ice cold and his weapon of choice seems to be a sniper rifle.
Tainted Veins: Like Lola, they sport these as a sign of their Numen status.
Those Two Guys: They always appear together with Lola.
The Unnamed: Thurston is only identified in the base game if you have subtitles enabled during the ending.

Sarah Sheppard

An actress who's best-known for her role as Captain Vixen in the Space Fox franchise.

Becoming the Mask: Sarah says at the end of her final side quest that she thinks Hell-A could use someone like her Captain Vixen character, in order to bring hope to the remaining survivors.
Celebrity Survivor: Space Fox is apparently big business in the Dead Island universe. L.A. is covered in posters and promotional materials for the latest film, Space Fox 2250. Upon meeting Sarah, Amy says kids in her 6th-grade class had lunch boxes with Sarah's face on them.
Eyepatch of Power: Her sidekick Sebastian can mention in idle dialogue that Sarah's actually blind in one eye.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: She's somewhere between Katee Sackhoff and a young Kate Mulgrew. And the in-universe character she plays, Captain Vixen, is basically Femshep if she was a TV show character instead of a video game character.
Noodle Incident:
- Sarah never gets around to explaining exactly why she's wearing her Captain Vixen uniform when the Slayers meet her, or why she keeps it on.
- In her second side quest, she asks the Slayer to deal with some inconvenient zombies in one of the Monarch Studio sound stages while she slips in and retrieves some contracts. She refuses to explain why that's important, because it's "not her story to tell."

Curtis Sinclair

A legendary, if reclusive actor.

Cool Old Guy: He's managed to survive through the zombie apocalypse by himself, which he credits to performing his own stunts back in the day and also being a gun aficionado. He even manages to make it from his mansion to Emma's safe zone without assistance.
Coattail-Riding Relative: There is no love lost when you have to put down his Zombified Nephew. Especially as he tried to throw Curtis' favorite housemaid into the path of the zombies to save his own skin.
Dented Iron: Has a bad hip from decades of doing all his stunts. You actually have to power up his chairlift to get him down from the second floor as he can't risk jumping down without dislocating it.
Friendly Sniper: Thanks to his being a crack shot with a rifle, Curtis is very handy at sniping zombies from afar, which has kept him safe until the Slayer could reach him. He's also incredibly jovial and polite, even trying (unsuccessfully, though to little fault of his own) to protect a woman he saw who was being pursued by zombies. And he's consistently polite when asking the Slayer for help to get him down from the upper floor of his mansion.
The Gunslinger: Memorabilia around Curtis's mansion implies that he was an actor in various films like Westerns, which typically have many characters like this, so it's likely he played a few. And he certainly carried the skills of one into his real life in the present.
I Call It "Vera": His personal hunting rifle, named "Peggy", which he eventually gifts to the Slayer towards the end of the story as a Legendary weapon. In an ambient conversation with Sam B. he encourages Sam to do this with his handgun, Sam ultimately deciding to call it Jin because of the help they gave the survivors in Banoi.
Millionaire Playboy: Curtis lives in a very obviously wealthy lifestyle, going by his home and his very successful acting career, and claims that over the years said home has seen "a lot of loving".
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Appearance wise, he heavily resembles Hugh Hefner and Vincent Price, with a dash of Charlton Heston with his skill with a rifle and a Soylent Green reference.
No Stunt Double: Implied by Curtis himself, as he claims his issues with his hip that require his use of the stairlift stem from him doing a lot of his own stunts.

Jessica Kwon

The long suffering daughter of Roxanne Kwon

Asian and Nerdy: An intelligent young woman of Asian descent who's also known to be a medical student.
Intergenerational Friendship: With Michael due to their status as neighbors and Jessica needing a quiet place to study from her mom and Rikky's antics. Their friendship was strong enough that Jessica helped Michael get into Monarch Studios by arranging a distraction for the nearby zombies, though that backfired a little.
Odd Friendship: She apparently hit it off with some construction workers that were renovating a nearby mansion who were unfortunately zombified when she came to them for help.
Smart People Wear Glasses: Wears glasses and is a medical student.
Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Being an adult in college, Jessica is a little older than the 'child' usually is in this trope, but still played straight enough in that she's a responsible young woman who's in medical school, while her mother is a devil-may-care alcoholic who spends much of her time in a never-ending hangover with her musician boyfriend.

Rikky Rex & Roxanne Kwon

The frontman for the band Gods and Whiskey and his current Girlfriend

Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: A very serious version of the trope. Though Jessica does care deeply for her mother, she's only very opposed to her mother's irresponsible lifestyle with constant binges.
Achievements in Ignorance: Despite the ongoing Zombie Apocalypse, Rikky and Roxanne have somehow managed to survive the onset of the outbreak simply by being so plastered that the zombies, even when they're literally skulking about just outside their house, think that the couple are already undead and pay no mind to them.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Roxanne is still proud of Jessica even if she treats her as a buzzkill. She happily tells the Slayers that she's a medical student.
Destructive Romance: While the two of them do love each other and don't abuse each other, they're both quite obviously in a self destructive alcohol fueled spiral. Jessica laments that her mom used to be a rational intelligent woman before she met Rikky.
Glory Days: A passing mention of Michael calling him a Has Been and not even denying it shows that Gods and Whiskey isn't the most popular band anymore.
Slept Through the Apocalypse: Played with. While Rikky and Roxanne knew about the zombies wandering around, and one has to clear them to even get in the house to talk to them, they decided to throw one last "Evacuation Party" before trying to make it out of HELL-A via the planes. However, they got so into the party that they were out for days after, long after the evacuation had ended.
Too Dumb to Live: Inverted. They threw a major party and got too drunk to make it to the Evac point. This actually saved their lives as the opening and later quests show that most of the evac points were over run. Plus they were so passed out that the infected have been ignoring them the past few days.
Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Roxanne is a party animal whose current beau is a rock and roll musician with whom she spends her time either drinking or being hungover with, while her daughter Jessica is a mature, intelligent, and responsible medical student.

The Blue Crab Boys

The cook and a handful of surviving patrons of the Blue Crab Bar and Grill. Alex is the emotional Bruiser with a Soft Center, Trent is the Erudite Stoner, Kai is the even-tempered Nerves of Steel cook, and Bud, for the minute we know him, is kind of a jerk hogging all the blunts.

W.O. Melissa Rodriguez

The last uninfected and only human member of the military garrison at the Venice Beach quarantine shelter

Action Girl: By virtue of being a woman in the military and managing to hold out during a zombpocalypse.
All There in the Manual: Rodriguez's first name has only been confirmed by out-of-game sources like Dambuster's lore AMA on Reddit.
"Dear John" Letter: When her garrison began to lose hope that they could hold back the Autophage outbreak, many began to write these letters. Rodriguez had the better idea to digitally transcribe them and get them sent out to the wider world. That didn't pan out too well...
Fire Keeps It Dead: Combined with Burn the Undead, this is the point of her first side mission when she tasks the Slayer with igniting several mass burial sites near the base. While she was certainly right that burning the zombies is safer than melting them with corrosives (because all the zombie flesh congealed in the sewers and is still alive), this also means there's an uptick of flame-immune fire zombies running around the pits you need to kill.
Heroic Sacrifice: After the Slayer retrieves the USB containing her comrades' letters home, and fails to send them out via the comms due to the signal getting jammed, she implores them to take the letters with them while subtly indicating that when the containment measures in Hell-A completely collapse (and she's certain they will), she intends to literally go down in a blaze of glory to contain it.

Zombies

Common

Walker

Freshly undead zombies.

Flesh-Eating Zombie: The standard in Hell-A.
Hazmat Suit: The characteristic to distinguish the Hazmat variant who are immune to Poison damage and unaffected by Caustic-X.
Immune to Fire: At the same time as being Wreathed in Flames below, the Burning Walker variant is also unaffected by their own inferno or any weapon with Burning damage, averting Burn the Undead tactics.
Made of Iron: Or at least covered with it, as the Riot Gear variant attests since their padded ensemble makes them immune to Melee attacks and Projectile damage, at least until the armor itself is destroyed through repeat blows or they are hit with a weapon of a different status effect.
Razor-Sharp Hand: Played with, as rather than using their bare hands to cut things, the Spiky Walker variant inadvertently uses chunks of broken glass and razor wire embedded in their skin to slash, lacerate, and bleed their victims.
Scary Stinging Swarm: What comes from encountering the Insect Swarm variant, which has an entire beehive growing in the stomach cavity and forms a symbiotic relationship with the insects inside that attempt to sting the Walker's victims in an attempt to repeat the process.
Shock and Awe: Primary characteristic of the Shocking Walker variant, noted as having been exposed to high electromagnetic levels when they turned which caused the Autophage to mutate them into walking supercapacitors. Additionally, they're also immune to attacks or weapons that inflict Shock damage, however, non-variant infected nearby typically aren't, so throwing a Water bomb or a hydration Jerrycan in their vicinity can quickly thin the horde's numbers.
Transformation Horror: The zombie type with the most Variants, and with it, a whole lot of mutated terror.
Why Am I Ticking?: The Grenadier variant wears a vest laden with explosive grenades and any attack melee or ranged will set them off after a short three-second timer. This can be hazardous for a melee fighter but advantageous for a ranged fighter, especially with large zombie groups around them.
Wreathed in Flames: The horrific fate of the Burning Walker variant. It's even specified that the Autophage is generating an unnatural metabolic process that constantly keeps them ablaze. They're even capable of igniting other flammable objects by proximity alone and their attacks will eventually set Slayers on fire too.

Runner

Zombies with a knack for being quick on their feet. They succeed the Infected from the first two titles.

The Berserker: Due to having recently turned, Runners combine their animalistic rage with a body that's free from any major decay and the resulting impediments to tirelessly pursue and attack their victims across large distances. Only death, that of their victim or their own, will cease their onslaught.
Courier: The whole schtick of the EAT Courier variant, likely once a member of an in-universe online food service that now walks around carrying an insulated bag filled with Health replinshables for Slayers' convenience.
Fragile Speedster: As fast as they can be to catch unsuspecting Slayers by surprise, the easiest method to dealing with a Runner is inflicting Sharp or Bleed damage, and especially Maiming their legs.
Immune to Fire: Same as the Burning Walker, the Burning Runner won't be killed by any source of fire.
Razor-Sharp Hand: The Spiky Runner variant combines their cutting power courtesy of the sharp objects embedded in their skin and their speed to inflict many deadly wounds.
Shock and Awe: Shared with the Walker, the Runner's Shocking variant emits a damaging electrical field wherever they go.
Wreathed in Flames: Just like the Walker, the Runner also has a Burning variant that is arguably deadlier because of their speed allowing them to chase down fleeing victims.
Zombie Gait: Directly averts this compared to Shamblers, as their name indicates.

Shambler

Older and more decayed zombies.

Attack! Attack! Attack!: Noted as being so intensely driven to savagery by the Autophage that they'll obliterate their own incredibly frail limbs in the process.
Bloodless Carnage: Played With. It's said that you won't see a Shambler bleed because there's no blood to shed as their whole body is on the verge of complete failure. Hacking and slashing them will still paint the area red though.
Zombie Gait: Due to being in the later stages of decomposition, they are extremely brittle and move very slowly.

Apex

Boss in Mook's Clothing: Typical of most of the unnamed Apex infected encountered throughout Hell-A, given their range of unusual attacks, capable of soaking up tremendous damage, and wealthy health pools.

Crusher

Zombies with great strength and muscles as big as their ravenous appetite. Successors to the Thugs from the first two titles.

Elemental Punch: Or rather, Elemental Slam, but the Inferno Crusher variant, being Wreathed in Flames concentrates its namesake inferno in its beefy arms, causing a violent burst of incendiary terror whenever it does its signature AOE attack.
Ground Pound: Their signature move.
Macho Camp: If not for the blood splatter and the cannibalistic hunger, a Crusher would fit right in with this trope.
Mighty Glacier: Walks at a surprisingly leisurely stride while pursuing their victim, but they can take a lot of punishment before going down and can give as good as they get.
Muscles Are Meaningful: Stood next to a Walker, a Crusher's towering height and rippling musculature make it more than obvious that they are a force to be reckoned with all their own.
The Brute: Like their Thug predecessors, they serve as this compared to both Common Infected and among the other Apex types due to their close-range physical attack style.
Wreathed in Flames: The profile of their only Variant, the Inferno Crusher, though largely concentrated in their big beefy arms.

Burster

Walking, talking flesh bombs. Successors to the Suiciders of the previous two main entries.

Action Bomb: Their signature (and only) move, capable of serious damage to less resilient Slayers as well as weaker Infected surrounding them.
And I Must Scream: When Bursters spot the player and start to shamble towards them, they can sometimes be heard either begging for help or apologizing. Implying that if there's any shred of consciousness left in this variant of zombies, they're left with no control of their own bodies, forced to watch as they're made to stumble towards another unlucky survivor they'll end up killing or wounding when they detonate.
Body Horror: Wherever Bursters are found, they all share the common characteristic of having several large tumorous growths on their torsos filled to bursting with revolting (and volatile) substances.
Taking You with Me: If the Creepy Monotone dialogue they spout ambiently as well as right before executing their singular attack is to be believed, every Burster seems to want to give you a hug from sheer loneliness as a pretext to evacuating the explosive contents of their bodies onto anyone in range.

Slobber

Zombies with a big appetite and a big Caustic surprise for unwary survivors. They replace the Floaters of the previous titles.

Body Horror: The Putrified variant appears to be an unfortunate victim of their own attacks as the powerful acid a Slobber uses has desolated their bodies enough that they are infested with what appear to be large, possibly-zombified maggots/slugs all over them, most prominently the gaping hole where their fat belly used to be, now a writhing mass of wriggling creepy-crawlies.
Breath Weapon: Their signature attack, with the main one shooting a torrent of Caustic bile, the Firestorm variant shooting what's described as organic napalm, and the Putrified variant which launches grotesque organic sticky bombs.
Dead Weight: They're extremely overweight undead.
Kevlard: Due to their weight, they are hard to put down, taking a lot of damage before going down.
Long-Range Fighter: While still capable of throwing a (slow-moving) punch and trying on a grab attack, Slobbers are significantly easier to dispose of up close compared to a ranged engagement, where they can easily pin the Slayer down with their Zombie Puke Attack.
Zombie Puke Attack: Like Floaters before them, they can projectile vomit acid bile.

Screamer

Returning from Dead Island: Riptide, these towers of sonic power are a force unto themselves, but Slayers beware of the hordes attracted by their vocal blasting.

Body Horror: A Screamer's name comes from the fact that their lower jaw and most of their throat seems to have been violently ripped out, leaving a portion of their esophagus sticking out that their ear-piercing wail comes from. They also have an unnaturally tall posture and long, gnarly clawed fingers for when they charge into melee attacks.
Enemy Summoner: Since the undead are drawn to loud sounds like car alarms, the powerful vocals of a Screamer attract a large crowd upon their unlucky victims.
Gale-Force Sound: Invoked whenever a Screamer does what they do, capable of forcing Slayers back several feet.
Shock and Awe: The Voltaic variant, which appear to have been created from hospital patients who were prepped for or in the middle of electroshock therapy. Their Autophage infection allows them to conduct the medical shock pads' electricity into their screams, making it powerful enough to affect other Infected who then spread the electrical energy to unwary victims.

Butcher

Our old buddies from Dead Island are back, ready to poke you to death with the bone stakes they have protruding out of their hands.

Barehanded Blade Block: The best way to deal with a Butcher that's actively attacking is to block its attacks, then counter.
Glass Cannon: Generic Butchers encountered out in the world have surprisingly little health. It's possible to take them out with a clean headshot from a decent hunting rifle if you can catch them unaware.
I'm a Humanitarian: A Butcher at low health may run away and eat another zombie's corpse to regenerate. This ultimately is their Fatal Flaw because they become so engrossed in their meal they leave their back exposed to savvy Slayers that managed to chase them down.
Lightning Bruiser: While still fairly squishy, Butchers are very fast, both in movement and attack speed, and can a take a surprising amount of damage before falling. This goes even further with Vicious Butchers, who retains all the tricks of its normal counterpart, but are immune to bleeding damage and have the added ability to heal itself on the fly.
The Spiny: The gimmick of the Vicious variant which in addition to their typical blade arms, also have an assortment of jagged bone structures piercing through their skin and adding more ways to cut and bleed their victims.

Mutator

As if just dealing with zombies wasn't enough, these creatures prove there's something even worse!

Body Horror: They have a huge gaping "mouth" right where their torso is.
Boom, Headshot!: The best bet you have to stop a Mutator before they Hulk Out is to use a high-level, powerful rifle (the Superior rifle, Peggy as an example) and snipe them in the skull while they're unaware.
Hulking Out: On their own, they're extremely emaciated and almost pitiful looking. But if you happen to be careless or just plain unlucky while fighting one, they'll become enraged and show you exactly what you're dealing with.
Mugging the Monster: Not that anyone other than a Slayer is fearless enough to try in the first place, but Mutators have an insidious knack for feigning the appearance of a Common-type Walker at first... until a Slayer is stupid enough to try and attack them. Then the real monster comes out.
Transformation Horror: While a Walker surely won't win any beauty pageants themselves, when a Mutator drops their disguise, they do so by unnaturally elongating one arm, popping a massive bone blade out of the other, and then forming a massive maw with More Teeth than the Osmond Family out of their torso.

Characters / Dead Island 2

The Slayers

Survivors

Zombies

Walker

Runner

Shambler

Crusher

Burster

Slobber

Screamer

Butcher

Mutator

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Index

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Characters / Dead Island 2

Edit Locked

The Slayers

Survivors

Zombies

Walker

Runner

Shambler

Crusher

Burster

Slobber

Screamer

Butcher

Mutator

Previous

Index

Next