Heroes are the main characters in the video games Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide. The four Hero classes are Tank, Assassin, Jack-of-All-Trades, and Support. If more than one person is using the same class/character, then they will both appear in game as that character. Each class has unique skills in their skill trees which are enabled by spending skill points earned for each level up. Purchasing skills can provide bonuses to certain abilities or unlock new combos or finishing moves. The skill trees are Fury, Combat, and Survival.

Every Hero has their own Fury skill which is in relation to their specialty. Their Fury skills enable them to to attack (without using stamina) with a personal weapon, or just their fists, that has infinite durability and extra damage.

Sam B

Sam B, the Blunt Weapons expert, serves as the "Tank" of the group and has the ability to sustain heavy damage while handling numerous foes at the same time. His Fury skill allows him to punch enemies with extra strength. Because of his durability and expertise with the most common type of weapon, he is often considered the easiest character to use.

As a Blunt Specialist, he has numerous skills that increase the damage and durability of blunt weapons found in the game. His main element of use is the blunt exclusive Impact which increases Blunt Damage. His support skills are more inclined to increasing resistance to enemy damage.

Sam's best weapons are the Gabriel's Sledgehammer with the Tesla Mod, a Home Run (Non-Crafted), a Metal Kanabo with the Medieval Mod or Heavy Duty Mod, or a Shocking Crowbar.

Xian Mei

Xian Mei is the Bladed Weapons expert and is considered the "Assassin" of the group due to the nature of edged weapons dealing high damage and her extraordinary speed and stamina. Her Fury is to attack her enemies with a short knife in a frenzy of stabs and slashes. Unfortunately, she's the most fragile character of the team which makes her the hardest Hero to use (as stated by most of the community), even near the end-game.

As a Blade Specialist, she has her skills inclined to making her blade attacks more effective and more likely to inflict critical damage. Her main element is poison and her exclusive bleed weapon effects (similar to bleed effects added on blunt weapon mods which sharp weapons naturally do not have access to). She is able to survive onslaughts through her support skills, which further enhances her stamina and the effectiveness of medkits used on her.

Her best weapon is the Eviscerator with the Deathstalker Mod or, if it is too hard to acquire, the Zed's Demise with that modification. She has the longest Fury duration and is also the one who gains Fury points the fastest, which can be gained by simply scoring three critical kills, which is very common. She is capable of one-hitting a Thug with a non-critical or non-elemental shot, assuming she has her skills placed on right and she is using a high tier Eviscerator.

Bladed weapons are naturally less durable, especially Katanas and Wakizashis, and also require a large amount of money to repair. One may also keep a Machete with a Hot Rod Mod to have something for beating down Walkers and Infected and also serving as a combo by setting poisoned or poisonous enemies on fire.

Logan Carter

Logan Carter is the Throwing Weapons expert and the "jack of all trades" within the team. His Fury allows him to throw an infinite amount of knives at nearby enemies.

Most of his skills are inclined towards improving his throwing ability and how he should be versatile in general. He gains skills that are very exclusive to him such as being able to retrieve a thrown weapon without needing to pick it up again and dealing damage to multiple targets with a single throw. He also has skills that make him effective with both edged and blunt weapons. He also is the only Hero with the more reliable bonus from using alcohol. His greatest weakness is his low stamina which, despite hampering his ability to fight in melee, is somewhat meaningless since throwing does not consume stamina.

Unlike the other Heroes, Logan is much better suited with using the developer items due to the fact that throwing weapons do not reduce durability. He can use the Mindblowing Military Knife for popping five Walkers or Infected in a single throw with a chance for the weapon to boomerang and for him to just do it again without having the hassle to pick up the weapon again. He can have the Homerun Baseball Bat and force an impact on multiple targets.

If the player does not intend to use the developer items due to how they break the game drastically, they can still depend on the more natural weapons in game. Because of how he is effective with both blunt and edged weapons, he can use weapons such as Eviscerator for a damage dealing throwable, or a Sledgehammer with Tesla Mod for incapacitation. His options are almost limitless.

Purna

Purna is the "support specialist" within the team and the Firearms expert. When her Rage mode is activated, Purna uses a Revolver with unlimited ammunition. Her Fury can be further upgraded with providing bonuses to nearby allies such as health regen and increased damage and also in the duration and the number of targets she can take per shot.

Most of her combat skills are optimized towards making her guns more effective and, initially, increasing her ability to use edged weapons. Bonuses range from increasing damage to reducing recoil. Basically, most of her combat skills are there to give additional bonuses in using firearms. Her support skills are what make her what she is. She offers an aura that improves nearby Heroes even to the point of improving the durability of their weapons. She is also the only one with the skills that support in improving ammunition and she is also the only one with the skill to have a higher chance of getting a rare weapon.

Her best weapons are the Legendary firearms (the McCall's 9mm, the Crowd Pleaser, and the Defender of the Motherland) which may be modded with an element of either shock, fire, poison, or impact. Her shotgun blasts are extremely effective because of the fact that shotguns treat the head as a limb (meaning, the head contains its own health, instead of merely amplifying damage for the removal of the base health).

It is suggested that she always brings enough materials for making bullets (such as Metal Scrap) so she wouldn't be forced to switch to a melee weapon just because she ran out of ammo.

John Morgan

John Morgan is the new playable character in the game Dead Island: Riptide. He is a former sailor in the United States Navy and an expert in hand-to-hand combat. He was on vacation until he was taken to a military ship within the Banoi peninsula which unfortunately became shipwrecked near Palanai Island. John was imprisoned due to the fact that he refused to kill innocent civilians and, once he was bitten, he learned early on that he was immune to the virus.

John Morgan's expertise is Blunt Weapons and Sharp Weapons which makes him, in essence, a Melee Specialist like Sam B and Xian Mei, although more flexible since he's not restricted to one type of melee weapon. He can still fare well without a weapon, although this is inadvisable when fighting against multiple undead enemies. Overall, he is something of a Jack-Of-All-Trades with balanced stats.

Trivia

• In the early parts of the game, the Heroes can be heard exclaiming whenever they killed zombies. For example, they can be heard exclaiming about zombies not staying down, showing remorse for the infected survivors they have killed. In later parts, they stopped exclaiming them. This could have somehow shown psychological development of the Heroes.
• The blood type of all the heroes is O negative.