The Best Skill Cards for Jacob in Dead Island 2

Jacob, our resident stuntman, hasn’t a care in the world except for making the undead even more dead. But if you really want to turn Jacob into a masterful killing machine in Dead Island 2, you’ll need the best Skill Cards to make a powerful build. The right ones will complement his strongest stats and compensate for weaker ones, allowing him to hold his own during the storyline and in co-op. There are plenty to choose from, but I hope these suggestions make your selection easier.

The Best Skill Cards for Jacob in Dead Island 2

[Updated on April 25, 2024 – updated images and added info about weapons]

Jacob is the Slayer equipped with the highest Peak Health stat. Funnily enough, he’s also the character that seems to lack any self-preservation trait. It’s why he can’t help but throw himself so freely into danger. But he also lacks Resilience. So, the best way to handle Jacob is to ensure he does as much damage as possible to end the fight fast.

You can help Jacob and his build considerably by choosing the best Skill Cards in Dead Island 2. It all begins with his Innate Skills that focus on making him a strong hitter:

• Feral: Attack in quick succession to receive a stackable minor damage boost
• Critical Gains: If low in stamina, receive a moderate Critical Damage boost and gain your stamina with critical hits

Jacob’s stats are well-balanced despite the Resilience. Some of his best Skill Cards mirror the likes of Dani, but we want to do more damage to multiple zombies via status effects. This way, we can take more down quicker and better protect ourselves from getting overwhelmed by heavy hits. These are some of my favorite Dead Island 2 Skill Cards for Jacob:

• Abilities: Dodge, Drop Kick, Dash Strike, Surgical Focus, Scream
• Survivor Skills: Corpse Bomb, Hot-Footed, Lightning Strike, Serial Killer
• Slayer Skills: Group Therapy, Hack and Dash, No Mercy, Voltaic Scream
• Numen Skills: Anger Mismanagement and Corpse Blossom

Best Skill Cards for Jacob – Explained

Abilities

Jacob’s Ability Cards are versatile and make his Dead Island 2 build far too fun. The right ones let us launch, damage, and weaken zombies:

• Dodge: Stun zombies and regain stamina with well-timed dodges
• Drop Kick: A forceful Jump Kick that can launch regular zombies
• Dash Strike: Weaken zombies by dashing forward and striking them
• Surgical Focus: Build Fury when you maim zombies, but lose Fury if you take damage
• Scream: Select the Curveball button while in Fury mode to scream and weaken nearby zombies

Survivor Skills

One thing you want to do with Survivor Skill Cards in Dead Island 2 is take advantage of Jacob’s high health pool. Some offer great status effect damage at the cost of health, but with his pool where it is, you can afford to lose some of it:

• Corpse Bomb: Zombies you kill in Fury mode explode
• Hot-Footed: Drop Kick will ignite zombies at the cost of your health
• Lightning Strike: Dash Strike will Electrify zombies but drains health
• Serial Killer: Receive a temporary damage boost when you kill a zombie

Slayer Skills

Whenever you’re building any character, you want their skills to cooperate. So, my favorite Slayer Skill Cards for Jacob pair perfectly with his Dead Island 2 Innate Skills. This way, you cause even greater damage:

• Group Therapy: Killing zombies in rapid succession restores stamina
• Hack and Dash: Temporarily boost attack speed when you kill zombies
• No Mercy: Receive a moderate damage bonus if you attack zombies who have negative status effects
• Voltaic Scream: Scream Electrifies any nearby zombies

Numen Skills

With Anger Mismanagement, Jacob can stay in Fury far longer thanks to his higher health pool. As for Coprse Blossom, it works hand-in-hand with the rest of his status effect skills:

• Anger Mismanagement: Maintain Fury mode with your health bar until you reach critical health
• Corpse Blossom: Zombies who die from status effects explode and transfer effects to nearby zombies

Best Weapon Type To Complement Jacob

I know how random weapons are in Dead Island 2, but that doesn’t mean you can’t focus on certain types to work with Jacob’s Skill Cards. Corpse Blossom is an incredible Skill. If you want to use it more, try to keep elemental weapons in Jacob’s hands.

Besides that, our stuntman is adaptable enough to handle melee and ranged weaponry. Ranged might be better suited if you want to focus on pure damage, but melee is ideal for taking advantage of his health pool, especially in co-op mode.

Now that you know how some of my favorite Jacob skills and certain weapon types work together, you can play around with the build. You’ll find out just how delightful it is to explode and send zombies flying left and right through the air.

Dead Island 2 is available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.