Holly is one of the eight original playable Cleaners in Back 4 Blood. Armed with her trusty bat “Dottie”, she is able to swing through her way through hordes of Ridden.
Characteristics and Starting Weapons
Holly Characteristics
Grand Slam: Holly recovers 10 Stamina when she kills a Ridden.
Cardio: +25 Team Stamina
Tough As Nails: +10% Damage Resistance
Self Defense: Start with a Stun Gun
Holly Starting Weapons
Primary Weapon: 870 Express
Secondary Weapon: Bat
Preferred Playstyles
Holly’s characteristics make her the best melee tank in the game. Her innate 10% damage resistance helps her absorb damage while her stamina recovery on kill keeps her melee output flowing.
Doorway Bruiser
One of the best tactics when facing a horde of ridden is to have the team camp in a room with a single entrance and have Holly swing her melee weapon at the doorway.
Her stamina generation on kill helps her continue swinging and clogging the doorway until the horde is all dead.
It helps to crouch and have the card Down In Front during higher difficulties to ensure you don’t get shot by teammates.
Preferred Weapons
Primary Weapons
Holly players shouldn’t melee all the time right? Sometimes it’s just better to bring a gun to a gunfight. Depending on what your team needs and what you’re comfortable with, you can alter her playstyle with your primary weapon choice.
Secondary Weapons
It’s no surprise that Holly’s best secondaries are all melee weapons. They let her take advantage of the many melee-oriented defense cards.
Bat
Affectionately named “Dottie” by Holly herself and her starting secondary weapon. It has the lowest Firepower (40) of all 4 melee weapons but makes up for it with a wide swing arc that hits multiple Ridden in a cone arc. The bat also has the second-highest Mobility rating among melee weapons at 90.
Stamina per swing: 15 Stamina
Machete
The Machete is the only other melee weapon that hits multiple enemies in an arc. Compared to the Bat, it has advantages with more Firepower (46), has the fastest swing of all melee weapons, and costs less stamina per swing.
However, these advantages are offset by having slightly less range. Overall, it is a better melee weapon to have.
Stamina per swing: 10 Stamina
Hatchet
Stamina per swing: 10 Stamina
The Hatchet lets Holly move as fast as possible with a Mobility rating of 100. Unlike the Bat and Machete, it uses a vertical swinging motion and only hits targets directly in front of her. It also has the shortest range of all 4 melee weapons.
However, the Hatchet makes up for it by having the 2nd highest melee Firepower (80), the 2nd fastest swing, and tied with the Machete for the lowest stamina cost per swing.
Fire Axe
Stamina per swing: 20 Stamina
The Fire Axe is the slowest, most stamina-using, lowest mobility, heaviest hitting melee weapon with the longest range. Players can offset the Fire Axe’s slow swing by equipping melee swing enhancing cards.
Holly players who choose the Fire Axe will do so for 2 reasons:
- Chance at 1-shotting Mutations when targeting Weakspots
- Reliably 1-shot normal Ridden when stamina is low
Appearance Options
Players can choose to change Holly’s complete look with preset Outfits or through individual pieces from Item Set pieces. Changing her appearance is purely cosmetic meaning it doesn’t change her stats or hitboxes.
Outfits
Upon release, Holly has 4 outfits with only B4B Original unlocked at the start of the game.
B4B Original
Plucky In Pink
Battle Hardened
ZWAT
Item Set
Head
Original
Total Apocalypse
Body
Basic
Softball Star
Death’s Head
Tie Die
Total Apocalypse
Legs
Basic
Kinda Camo
Neon
I’ll Live
Total Apocalypse
