Best Dead Island 2 skill cards: Abilities, Survivor, Slayer & Numen cards

You'll want to know the best Dead Island 2 skill cards for the Abilities, Survivor, Slayer, and Numen cards, so you can create the best possible build to deal with the undead roaming the streets of Los Angeles.

Dead Island 2 is an action role-playing game much like the original, but this time it ditches the skill tree in favour of a skill card system that lets you swap in and out passive and active abilities easily. If you can't quite figure out which skill cards are most worth using, check out our breakdown of the best Dead Island 2 skill cards by category. 

• You may also want to check out our selection of Dead Island 2 tips, which covers ten ways to ensure you survive the undead apocalypse. 

Best Dead Island 2 Abilities skill cards

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There are a total of five slots for Abilities skill cards in Dead Island 2, with each slot except the Fury skill slot giving you a different active ability you can use during combat. Each slot has its own cards that can be swapped in, giving you a bit of room to switch up what active abilities you use. 

Here's our selection of the best Dead Island 2 skill cards:

Defence skill slot - Dodge

• One of the best abilities in the game and a must-have in combat, as it lets you escape damage and a well-timed dodge will let you counter-attack an enemy. 

Jump Kick skill slot - Drop Kick

• The Drop Kick is a powerful attack move that sends enemies flying, giving you a good zoning tool that also deals damage. 

Special Attack skill slot - War Cry

• War Cry is perfect during cooperative sessions, as it boosts you and your team's toughness, while weakening enemy zombies, essentially making it easier to kill them.

Fury skill slot - Surgical Focus

• Surgical Focus is a strong autophage card that lets you build Fury by maiming zombies, though the drawback is that damage will drain Fury instead. If you can master dodge and get in your hits, you'll have no trouble building Fury.

Fury Special Attack skill slot - Overhead Smash

• This card lets you perform an Overhead Smash during Fury mode, allowing you to unleash a strong ground attack that affects enemies in a radius.

Best Dead Island 2 Survivor skill cards

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The Survivor skill card slots relate to keeping you alive during your adventures, with many of the cards giving you passive buffs to Fury generation, health, and more.

Here's our selection of the best Dead Island 2 Survivor skill cards:

Survivor skill slot 1 - Ravenous

• Ravenous is one of the best Survivor cards by far, letting you replenish your Fury in Fury mode by killing enemies, so you can stay in the mode for even longer. 

Survivor skill slot 2 - Pain Magazine

• A well-timed block or dodge will trigger a recharge boost for your active Curveball, allowing you to use them more frequently.

Survivor skill slot 3 - Rallying Cry

• This card makes the War Cry Abilities card even more powerful by buffing it with health regeneration and negative status removal. 

Survivor skill slot 4 - Safety First

• Safety First lets you regain health after landing a well-timed dodge or block, allowing you to stay in the fight for longer.

Honourable mentions - Shin Shrapnel, Invigorating, and Safe Space.

• You may also wonder how to fast travel in Dead Island 2, so check out how to get around LA quickly.

Best Dead Island 2 Slayer skill cards

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The Slayer skill card slots are for the cards that improve your combat abilities, making you even more effective in the art of zombie slaying. 

Here's our selection of the best Dead Island 2 Slayer skill cards:

Slayer skill slot 1 - Surgeon

• Surgeon lets you gain a damage boost whenever you maim a zombie, which is a common occurrence, meaning you'll gain a damage boost that's incredibly easy to consistently trigger. 

Slayer skill slot 2 - Janus Rage

• Janus Rage gives players two bonuses: when your Fury meter is full, you get a boost to toughness, and when your Fury meter isn't full, you get a boost to damage. This means you'll always have a passive on that's making you stronger with this card equipped.

Slayer skill slot 3 - Skull Skewer

• Skull Skewer lets you trigger a powerful explosion whenever you hit a zombie in the head with a thrown weapon (including Curveballs), which can help you thin out entire crowds of zombies. 

Slayer skill slot 4 - Deadeye

• With Deadeye, hitting a zombie with a Curveball will trigger a recharge boost that can stack, allowing you to keep using them more frequently.

Honourable mentions - Hunting Season, Corpse Bomb, and Volatile.

Best Dead Island 2 Numen skill cards

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The final slot is for Numen cards, which you unlock very late into the game after learning more about how your infection works. These offer huge bonuses with very strong effects, though some of them come with big drawbacks. 

Here's our selection of the best Dead Island 2 Numen skill cards:

Numen skill slot 1 - Seismic Stomp

• Seismic Stomp makes it so that every time you hit a zombie with a skull stomp, an explosion will occur that drains the stability of nearby zombies and causes them to bleed. 

Numen skill slot 2 - Corpse Blossom

• Corpse Blossom is perfect for players that favour elemental damage on weapons, as any time you kill a zombie with an element, they will explode into an explosion with that element's damage type.

That's our full breakdown of the best Dead Island 2 skill cards, and now you know what cards to select for the Abilities, Survivor, Slayer, and Numen skill slots.

Our all Dead Island 2 key locations so far guide will allow you to collect every key in the game, so you grab all the most powerful weapons. 

For more Dead Island 2 guides, keep reading GGRecon.