Kicking is an attack in Dead Island. It can be used to stop charging zombies in their tracks as well as allowing players to kick a downed zombie to ensure a kill. Kicking is the only attack that can never be interrupted, though as of patch 1.3, kicking now uses a significant amount of stamina. A kick does low damage and medium knockback, allowing you some breathing space if you need to swap out a weapon, reload, gain some stamina or heal up. It also stuns Walkers for a short period of time after being kicked, but Infected will just scream and run at you again.
If you kick while coming down in the air at a zombie, it will instantly knock them down if the kick connects, but it will cost significantly more stamina than normal if that happens. This is called a flying kick. However, it is useful to get a quick kill when needed from higher elevation.
Stomping[]
As you get further down the combat skill trees, you'll find that you are able to stomp on the head of a downed zombie to ensure a kill. When you unlock the skill, you need a zombie who is on the floor without any stamina. You must also have at least one-quarter of your own stamina available to do this. Aim at the zombie's head and the press the kick button. The hero will then place their foot on the head of the zombie before bracing themselves and stamping down hard on the head, causing it to shatter and explode. This will instantly kill the zombie, regardless of health or level. However, this is slow to kill and not advised if there are multiple zombies around.
An improved version of the stomp is available further down the combat tree which removes the wind-up time of the move. Instead of carefully placing their foot on the head and stamping down, the hero will instead just jump up and land on the head with both feet, instantly crushing the head. This is far quicker and less dangerous than the previous stomp, making it a far more viable move to use when you need to quickly kill an enemy in the middle of a fight.
Notes[]
- Multiple kicks may sometimes be required to knock down a zombie.
- Attacking a downed enemy will reset their ragdoll time. In other words, you can stop an enemy from getting back up indefinitely by attacking it, even with kicks. This does not deal much damage however, and drains stamina steadily.
- Kicking while in mid-air will deliver a flying kick, which deals more damage and knocks down most zombies in one hit, but drains more stamina. As you progress through the levels however, jump-kicks will not knock down enemies in one hit. This is more so if you are playing with another player. (Confirmed PC, Logan Lv 55 with 3 players.)
- Kicking a zombie onto another zombie will often make it fall as well. This domino effect can be used at the player's advantage against tightly packed groups.
- A great way to use kicks against 'Infected' (fast moving zombies) is to wait for them to come at you and properly time a jump kick while pushing backwards. This backward type kick does a great job of stopping them quickly, knocking them down, and the timing is easier than a forward or straight up jump kick.
- Kicking a zombie into a pool of water can drown it in 15 seconds or less depending on how much health the zombie has. This only works on the original Dead Island. In Riptide and the Definitive Editions of both games, they removed the ability for zombies to drown, so keeping them in water will do nothing.
- Upon unlocking the second tier of your Combat Skill Tree, you will also unlock the Stomp move, which is triggered by aiming at a downed enemy's head and pressing the kick key. This move instantly kills any enemy, even Thugs, Butchers and humans. The initial Stomp move is rather slow, but choosing the last skill in the Combat Skill Tree upgrades it to a much faster double feet jumping Stomp.
- Using the Stomp is a good way to get some extra experience. The stomp attack shatters the zombie's head, thus granting experience for the "shatter" and the kill. It is also useful for conserving weapon durability.
- You can't use a kick to knock down enemies other than Walkers, Infected, Drowners or Mutated Scientists. All other special infected are immune to being knocked down by kicking, though it will still interrupt their attacks.