Dead Island 2: How to Get Hidden Skill Cards

Though you get a majority of your Skill Cards during a full run of Dead Island 2 simply by leveling up, there will still be a lot of gaps in your collection. Several more Hidden Skill Cards are secreted away throughout Hell-A. Here’s where we’ve found them. 

Card Sharp: Where to Find the Secret Skill Cards in Dead Island 2

A relative handful of Skill Cards, including a couple of really good ones, won’t simply show up in your deck as you rise to Level 30. Instead, they can be found:

• As rare drops from specific Apex Infected
• As rewards from both story and side quests
• Hidden somewhere in Hell-A
  • One’s even locked behind a totally unrelated Challenge.

This is where we’ve found those elusive Hidden Skill Cards.

For details on what these Hidden Skill Cards actually do, consult our official Skill Cards list. Janus Rage, in particular, is a good set-and-forget Card for any Slayer, while Corpse Blossom basically snaps the game over its knee.

• Carnage: On the desk in the OSK server room on Ocean Avenue. You’ll unlock the door during “The Search for Truth.”

• Clear Sightlines: On the autograph table on the west side of the Monarch Studios lot.

• Corpse Bomb: A rare drop from Bursters.

Screenshot by GameSkinny

• Corpse Blossom: Complete the late-game story quest “The End of the Line.”

• Glass Cannon: Complete the post-game side quest “The Art of War.”

• Heavy Hitter: Keep an eye out as you fight your way down the Santa Monica Pier in “Boardwalking Dead.” One of the zombies can drop the Photo Booth Staff Key, which lets you open the locked door to the Ocean Park Ride Photos booth along the Pier’s southern side. This card is inside on the floor.

• Hot-Footed: Complete the story quest “Plumbing the Depths.”

• Invigorating: On the table at the foot of the bed in Emma Jaunt’s bedroom in Bel-Air.

• Janus Rage: Inside a subway car just west of the fast travel point in the Metro.

• Juggernaut: A rare drop from Crushers.

• Lightning Strike: On the shelves in the secret Randgate lab’s security booth on Ocean Avenue. First available during “The Search for Truth.”

• Pay it Forward: Complete the fourth rank of the Well Read Exploration Challenge.

• Pyro: On the desk in the arcade’s office on the Santa Monica Pier.

• Ravenous: A rare drop from Butchers.

• Seismic Stomp: Go through the burning subway tunnel in the Metro, into the parked subway car afterward. Next, go out the south door, and turn left. The Card is in the corner of this small alcove.

Screenshot by GameSkinny

• Spitting Cobra: Complete the story quest “Boardwalking Dead.”

• Surgical Focus: Complete the story quest “The Final Gauntlet” in Venice Beach.

• Thick-Skinned: On a table on the balcony that overlooks the reception desk in the LA24 building on Ocean Avenue. The building isn’t open until you get back from Santa Monica and the “Scooped!” side quest becomes available.

• Volatile: A (second) rare drop from Bursters.

• Voltaic Scream: A rare drop from Voltaic Screamers.

• Wrecking Ball: Complete the side quest “#Clickbait” in Bel-Air.

As a side note, “rare drop” here is an approximate term. It may be that Skill Cards that drop from Apex Infected are set to appear whenever you’ve killed a certain amount of them, or simply have increasingly good odds of appearing at particular thresholds. They do seem like they’re guaranteed to appear eventually if you just keep picking the right sorts of fights.

Those are the locations for the secret Hidden Skill Cards in Dead Island 2. For more tips and tricks for beating back the zombie horde in Hell-A, stop by our official Dead Island 2 guides hub.