Back 4 Blood cards: stack your deck with the best

Back 4 Blood cards - Walker looks concerned
(Image credit: The Game Awards)

The best Back 4 Blood cards won’t help you if you don’t know how to use them, and with the hordes of Ridden out for brains, we all need advice. While none of the cards in the deckbuilder are useless, there’s a difference between a solid gold pick and something with a little less value. 

Back 4 Blood Guide

Back 4 Blood

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Back 4 Blood update: everything from Tunnels of Terror DLC

Back 4 Blood crossplay: how to play with friends

Personalizing your decks to each of the Back 4 Blood characters is one of the best parts of the shooter, but it’s important to fine tune them to get the most out of each run. Don’t overlook some of the simpler cards either, as they can be critical to your resource economy which can decide if you’re successful in a run.

Maybe you prefer to lay down sniper support with Jim, and could use a nice scope early on in a run, or maybe you’re taking too much damage as Holly from pesky Ridden? There are cards that can help with those, as well as countless other scenarios out in the zombie-filled field. Here’s what you need to know about the best cards in Back 4 Blood

 Back 4 Blood cards

Back 4 Blood best general cards

Back 4 Blood cards - The deckbuilder with a deck being built

(Image credit: Turtle Rock)

These cards are ones you’ll probably consider for a lot of different decks, either because they’re general, or simply because they’re that good. 

Admin Reload

  • When you stow your weapon, it reloads.

As the difficulty gets higher, you and your team will have less room for error. Intense corruption cards and the number of Ridden ramp up with each tier. Being able to rotate between your primary and secondary (or double primaries, if you’re using Two is One and One is None) constantly can keep you alive and eliminate dead time spent reloading.

Weaponsmith

  • Allows the ability to unbolt attachments from weapons outside of Saferooms. Team Effects. Unbolting attachments costs 400 Copper. Additional copies played reduce its cost by 100 Copper. 

The ability to take off attachments from weapons is a game changer. This card lets you move key attachments to a new weapon or even pop one off for an ally to use when not in the saferoom. Getting that extended magazine or scope to the right person at the right time, or being able to scavenge one off a weapon you find is a huge advantage. 

Knowledge is Power

  • +10% Weakspot Damage. Allows players to see values for damage they deal and enemy health bars. 

Being able to see how much health a Mutation has makes when to retreat and when to push a much easier consideration. It’s a standard card for nearly every deck so it is readily available and the 10% bonus damage is always going to be relevant. 

Cold Brew Coffee

  • +15% Reload Speed, +25% Aim Speed, +25% Weapon Swap Speed, +25% Use Speed. 

The swiss army knife of cards, Cold Brew Coffee finds a home in most decks for giving you a suite of bonuses across every important category. Weapon Swap and Reload Speed are key, and the ever-useful Use Speed even applies to picking up teammates, so never undervalue it. 

Back 4 Blood best cards for your economy

Back 4 Blood best cards - A first aid kit costing copper to use

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Copper is both your access to utility and healing, and the currency you use to upgrade your weaponry. These cards will give you a boost, either granting you more copper or getting you more items to reduce the burden on your copper. 

Share the Wealth (Team Effect) 

  • Each teammate gets 100 Bonus Copper at the start of each level. 

By the numbers, Share the Wealth outperforms all other copper cards, putting 100 copper directly in the hands of every member of the team at the start of each level. This is ideal, giving you both reliable and frontloaded copper to spend on upgrades in each saferoom at the cost of just a single card. 

Utility Scavenger

  • You can sense nearby Quick accessories. More Quick accessories spawn. 

No matter the run, no matter the difficulty, getting additional Quick items in your run is an amazing boon. Whether it’s a tool kit, a defibrillator, an ammo pouch, razor wire or stun guns, utilities are invaluable. This card highlights Quick accessory items for you, helping you find and stockpile the useful resources. Other scavenger cards are pretty good too so don’t overlook them even if Quick accessories have the edge. 

Back 4 Blood best specialized cards

Back 4 Blood best cards - A warped ridden mutation

(Image credit: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)

You won’t use these cards for every deck you build, but they’re great choices in their specialty area. Consider them highly if your playstyle matches up. 

Bodyguard

  • When a teammate within 5 meters is attacked, you instead receive 50% of that damage. Can trigger once every 3 seconds. 

If you’re looking to be a team player, Bodyguard is an amazing choice. Canceling nearby hits on your allies to take them yourself is selfless if you have the health to spare, but what puts Bodyguard over the top is the fact that it’s  going to make your team take 50% less damage on one hit every 3 seconds. A well organized team can take advantage of this effect by focusing their healing, as well as the best armor and damage mitigation on people with Bodyguard. 

Patient Hunter

  • Every 0.75 seconds you Aim Down Sights increases your damage by 10% (up to 3 stacks). 

A cornerstone card for anyone running sniper rifles, Patient Hunter gives you free damage for every aimed shot you take and makes shooting weak spots even more effective. Perfect for a Jim build, or anyone who prefers to play with a similar style, it’s one of the best single card bonuses for your offense. 

Medical Professional 

  • First Aid and Defibrillators also recover 15 Trauma Damage and 1 Extra Life.

A real star on Doc, Medical Professional is big on anyone who plans to build around being the support healer of the group. The ability to use Defibrilators to recover an Extra Life is massively useful for picking other players up after a near-death experience. 


Sarah Richter
Contributor

Sarah (She/Her) is a contributor and former Senior Writer for TechRadar Gaming. With six years of experience writing freelance for publications like PC Gamer, she's covered every genre imaginable and probably a few she made up. She has a passion for diversity and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling, and loves worldbuilding. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, roguelike, and RPG entries, she still finds time for offline hobbies like tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.