Characters

There are four characters that you get to choose from in the beginning of the game. This guide will explain the benefits and downfalls of each one, and help you choose the best one to suit your ability and desired experience. Although they each make for a great gameplay, be careful that you don’t choose one that’s too hard for a beginner, if you aren’t already a moderately talented first person shooter.

Logan Carter 

Logan is a master of throwing weapons, and he has the lowest stamina which governs how often you can attack and how long you can sprint. The benefit to this is remaining further away from your enemies while you attack them, when you are able to. Also, your items don’t get damaged from tossing them in the way that they do when you use them in melee style. This way you can always use a weapon without ever having to repair it, as long as you only use it in projectile fashion. Although his lack of stamina can harm is ability to attack, he makes up for it in part with his fury attack which allows you to hit multiple enemies. Upgrade his rage whenever possible.

He’s also a pretty balanced guy to play with. Aside from his expertise and attacking style, his skill trees also reflect easy-to-use features. For example, different weapon types are easy to improve equally across the range.

Despite his balanced nature, making use of his distance-attacking necessity is more difficult than melee style. For this reason, you probably shouldn’t choose him as your first character if you are an inexperienced gamer. This way you won’t have to worry about keeping distance and finding times and places to recover your stamina, which is crucial.

Purna 

Purna is the most well balanced character, and is a firearms and “security” professional. She sure doesn’t wear the clothes for the job (hey, she’s on vacation), but her performance is second to none. The problem with her mastery is that there are nearly no firearms in the early stages of the game. So at this time, just upgrade her combat tree and fight your way through it. By the time guns become available and bountiful, you’ll be plenty ready to use them. Purna also makes a great support character, in the case that you’re playing with a group of allies.

Purna is also the only other character with the Fury attack, which allows you to attack multiple targets at range in this instance. The coolest thing about her specialty is that she can fire guns with effects like explosive, electrical, and incendiary (fire). She also carries nearly double the amount of ammunition of the other characters.

Especially because of the lack of ranged weapons in the early game, she’s not really recommened for noobie players. Don’t try her first unless you’re already a good FPS combatant.

Xian 

I think it’s pronounced like the name “Shawn”, but it doesn’t really matter. She’s a “sharp weapons”, aka knives, master, with the greatest amount of stamina in the game. She’s also rediculously quick, which makes her a ton of fun to play with. It’s like you can hop in and out of melee position with zombies as quick as a ninja, striking them and then dodging out before they can even hit you. Awesome. Upgrade her stamina to keep her speed up. Not just for fun, but for performance.

Her ability to dodge is also a necessity for survival, since her health is pretty low. Although it’s normally easy to maintain a high attack to attacked ratio, be careful around groups that could swarm you, as it could be a quick death for her.

The skill called Sharp Expert is something you better get when you can.

Sam 

Sam B, real name Phil Lamaar, is a tank of a guy, and an expert with the blunt weapons. That’s an awesome talent, because there are tons of blunt weapons throughout the game. In fact, if you are looking for the simplest character to start in the game with, try this guy. Oh, and he sings “Who Do You Voodoo” too, which is great… if you’re into that kind of thing. Make use of his fury, which makes him even more resistant to damage.

This guy is practially made for your first time through the game. You’ll have a blast destroying the undead with bats and sledgehammers, without having to worry so much thanks to his ten percent extra health, and handy damage resistance. Where he can’t just plainly tank, fury and bombs will be an easy remedy.

Now you probably know who you want to play with first. Don’t forget about the others, though, as you’ll probably want to continue playing after you’ve beat the game once. At this point, you might as well start over with a different character for a different kind of fun, rather than just go back through with the same person you already mastered. Better yet, just download a Dead Island trainer at the home page.