Dead Island 2: How to Block | Combat Guide

While Dead Island 2 is a relatively straightforward zombie-killing RPG, there are a handful of things that go surprisingly unexplained by the game’s tutorial. From useful pieces of knowledge like the fact that to get into most houses, you might have to simply break a window instead of search tirelessly for a key to simpler things like how to slot weapons into the weapon wheel, the game relies a lot on players figuring things out as they go.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, plenty of games follow similar conventions, however, Dead Island 2 leaves out some basic explanations that would be nice to know for players looking to get the most out of their time in “Hell-A.” One such mystery is blocking.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to block in Dead Island 2.

More Dead Island 2 guides:

| 5 Most Useful Weapons to Get Early | Character Attributes Explained | How to Play Co-Op | Curtis’ Garage Key Location | Curtis’ Safe Key Location |

How to Block in Dead Island 2

Blocking is mentioned very briefly in Dead Island 2‘s tutorial, however, its explanation is a little confusing. Players are told that they can block by hitting LB on Xbox controllers and L1 on PlayStation 5 controllers in a tutorial pop-up message, however, when doing so, they’ll quickly come to find out that LB and L1 cause them to dodge, not block.

If, like me, you then assume that dodging and blocking are one and the same in Dead Island 2, you’d be sadly mistaken since you’ll still take full damage if hit by an attack while dodging. So, what gives? As it turns out, blocking is a skill that’s unlocked for some characters right from the word go while others need to unlock it.

Characters will either start the game with the ability to block or dodge when hitting LB or L1, but Dead Island 2 doesn’t make that clear in their attribute description when choosing a character at the start of the game. Characters that have lower agility stats like Carla or Ryan will have the ability to block while characters with higher agility stats like Amy and Bruno will be able to dodge when the game starts.

If you chose a character who dodges, you’ll need to unlock blocking as a skill card that’s awarded at level 9. Once you have the “Block” skill card, slot it in and then LB/L1 will be devoted to withstanding attacks instead of avoiding them. Take note that if you block an attack, you’ll still take some damage, but it’ll be reduced. If you block an attack the moment it lands, you’ll be able to counter, same as with doing perfect dodges.

It’s also worth pointing out that not all attacks can be blocked. Heavy-hitting attacks from boss monsters or Apex zombies can break through your blocks and deal full damage, so make sure to keep an eye out for the big hits.