All melee weapons featured in Dead Island have the following parameters (the only exception is a Chainsaw, which has only Damage and Rate of Fire parameters):
Damage — The amount of damage dealt from an attack (initially).
Force — This parameter reflects the damage done to a target's stamina (often when slicing off limbs or breaking bones).
Handling — The higher this value is, the easier a weapon is to handle, the faster it can be swung (for melee weapons), the less stamina it takes to use it.
Durability and Condition — Durability defines the maximum number of attacks this weapon can withstand before breaking. The Condition is the current state represented by a white bar around the weapon icon.
All firearms featured in Dead Island have the following parameters:
Damage — The amount of damage dealt from an attack (initially). Varies from parts of the body attacked and the distance.
Accuracy — Determines the chance of hitting the target while not in ADS (Aim Down the Sights).
Rate of Fire — The amount of rounds fired in a given time (usually per minute).
Reload Speed — How quickly the firearm can be reloaded.
Each weapon has its own rarity level, though the base attributes are still affected by the character's level and skills. Normally, rare weapons are more expensive than their common variants and are more costly to repair and upgrade. It should be noted that though most rare weapons seem to have better attributes than their common variants, the situation with rare firearms may be different in some cases.
Common (White) — The most basic item that can be found almost anywhere.
Uncommon (Green) — Items that give above average stats.
Rare (Blue) — Gives more bonus stats of its base item.
Unique (Purple) — Gives an even more significant amount of bonus stats.
Legendary (Orange) — Considered the most powerful of the type of item it is based on.
Named (Orange) — They are the most unique items in game, and are usually better than the weapon they are based on. They may not be considered a better weapon against another weapon (such as McCall's 9mm vs Heavy Pistol).
All weapons in Dead Island can be categorized as either a melee weapon or a firearm. But they can be broken down further as a specific type of melee weapon or firearm, each with its own unique attributes.
There are a variety: Claw Hammers, Sledgehammers, and Nail Hammers.
Claw: Medium blunt damage, short range, medium durability, low stamina usage.
Sledge: Heavy blunt damage, medium range, heavy durability, massive stamina usage.
Nail: Medium blunt damage, short range, medium/heavy durability, low/medium stamina usage.
All use a downward swinging motion, one from right high to low left, then from mid left to low right. Has a completely separate swinging motion to downed opponents.
High cutting damage, medium durability. Low to medium stamina usage.
Uses two separate swinging sets. One being a three-swing, right to left, left to right, right high to left mid. The other being a two swing, right high to left low, left high to right mid.
Some weapons have special effects. These effects are displayed to the right of a weapon's normal stats with a symbol and a number. The symbol determines the type of effect and the number determines the intensity of the effect.
Name
Icon
Description
Shock
Electrocutes and stuns the target after a critical hit, doing minor damage over the duration of the electrocution. The target seizures around his location and rarely stays in place. Bodies that still contain the shock effects may cause damage to players and other zombies standing above or next to it.
Higher rank number may mean a longer duration of stun, a higher bonus of electrical damage, or a combination of these effects.
Sets the target on fire after a critical hit, initially doing minor damage the duration of the burning. Bladed weapons with this effect modded will not set targets on fire on a critical hit. Targets set on fire will still have ability to interact with the player. Targets with poisonous vapors coming from it will burst into flames with a single hit of a fire-modded weapon. Zombies that are stationed in water are immune to fire effects. Bodies that still contain the fire effects may cause damage to players and other zombies standing above or next to it.
Higher rank number may mean longer duration of flames, higher bonus of fire damaged, greater chance of setting target on flames, or any combination of these effects.
Causes the target to bleed after a critical hit, causing some damage over the duration of the bleeding. The bleeding effect will cause the target to lose it health gradually until its dead or the effects stops. Targets seized by bleeding effects will still have the ability to interact with the player.
Higher rank number may mean longer duration of bleed, higher bleed damage, or any combination of these effects.
Poisons the target after a critical hit, causing the target to vomit, incapacitating it, and dealing damage over time. Poisoned targets can be engulfed by a weapon modded with a fire effect without the need of scoring a critical hit. Standing above or next to a body of a zombie with poison effects still intact will stop the player's health regeneration or poison the player if they're exposed to it for long enough time.
Higher rank number may mean longer duration of vomiting, higher damage deal over time, or any combination of these effects.
Impact damage, specific to blunt weapons, causes the target to fly away from the direction of the blow upon a critical hit. They have similar visual effects of that of Shock, but do not deal damage to anyone standing above an impacted body.
The only thing known about Mindblow is that it exists on only one item in game, Developer's No. 4 Craft. It causes zombies' heads to explode when contact is made with the zombie.
Critical Chance
Greater chance of scoring a critical hit. Higher number means a higher number of added percentage of scoring a critical hit. This effect is usually coupled with any of the effects listed above. Critical Chance usually is an increase by an even integer.
Other
Some mods, like Shark Mod and Heavy Mod, all exclusively to blunt weapons, may not seem to do anything at all, but although not listed, they increase the critical hit damage and force of the weapon by a higher grade than other mods. Note that even if the Piranha Mod and Shark Mod have added blades, it does not cause Bleeding effects.
It should be noted that a weapon that is affected by a character's skill will have numbers in parenthesis beside the base numbers. For instance, Sam B. has skills that affect blunt weapons, so anything modified by his skills will have numbers in parentheses but not bladed weapons. The same thing goes with Purna and firearms.
It should be noted that people who want to use the chainsaw should be efficient in their usage, as the chainsaw does not deplete with the durability of the weapon but the amount of time that the player set it rotating, this is probably because that the chainsaw uses gasoline and once used up the player cannot refill it.