Last updated: March 11, 2020

In general, my strategy with badges is to (1) enhance the strongest aspects of survivors, and (2) allow my survivors to survive at high levels which means maxing out damage reduction at 80% between your gear, badges, and survivor traits.

I have three categories of badges:
1. Defensive badging to create a tank: 3 damage reduction, 3 health
2. Offensive badging to create a killer: 3 damage, 3 critical damage
3. Balanced badging for the toughest missions: 3 damage, 2-3 damage reduction, 0-1 health (if you can get 75-80% damage reduction with only 2 DR badges, then slap on a health badge to add some bulk)

Here is how I badge (and use) my survivors. Keep in mind that I'm an end gamer that regularly plays to RSL42 and finish the Distance every time, which is what motivates my badging strategy.

Scouts: I use both balanced and offensive badging.
- Scouts with Strong/Ruthless/Power Strike are great to badge offensively in order to build up massive charged attacks.
- Scouts with Iron Skin/Retaliate are great to badge in a balanced manner. These Scouts are perfect in combination with Michonne in medium difficulty levels (level 35-39).
- Survivalist Rick is a stud, and can be badged either way. However, if you are an end-gamer (level 40+ in challenges), he has to be badged offensively to deal maximum damage (200k+ with the right gear and badges).
- Huntsman Daryl can also go either way. Similar to Rick, he was originally balanced for me but is now full offense. This depends a lot on how far you go in challenges. Up to 40, balanced Daryl will help save you a star or two. After 40, you need more firepower, so you should go full offense.
- Carol is a great Scout to go full offense because she has extraordinarily high base damage, but she needs her traits to be rerolled to be more useful.
- Gabriel is the only exception here. His leader trait and base traits make him a great option for defensive badging.
- Top heroes that I like to badge (in order): Survivalist Rick, Huntsman Daryl, Carol (with rerolled traits)

Bruiser: Defensive badging all the way.
- Bruiser damage is so low that it's more important to take hits and stun.
- In some cases, not killing Z's is better on some maps where you have to open a gate and escape. If you can stun a circle of walkers around your survivors, then newly spawning walkers can't reach you.
- Top heroes that I like to badge (in order): Eugene, Riot Gear Glenn, T-Dog, Morgan

Warriors: I use both balanced and offensive badging.
- End-gamers should reroll traits of heroes like Michonne to be more similar to Scout Rick and go with full-offense badging. Note, you REALLY need the Dragon's Tongue to be successful here because of the increased range and Destructive/Tactical trait.
- Balanced badging can be very helpful in GW at levels 38-41. There are a lot of choke points and regular spawns, so Warriors (who can attack more targets than Scouts) can be very useful in these situations.
- Top heroes that I like to badge (in order): Beta, Michonne, Jesus

Assaults: Either balanced or defensive badging is best for Assaults.
- With the recent boosts to melee survivors, Assaults are best used for their ability to stun.
- Assaults have a high base health compared to other ranged survivors, so use them to stun and to take hits on high levels when you are playing with all ranged teams.
- Assault damage is too low to make it worth using Critical Damage badges. Their charged move is also NOT a guaranteed critical attack, so it's even less worth it.
- For farming and grinding out low levels, balanced badging is nice. At high levels of the challenge, go full defensive.
- Top heroes that I like to badge (in order): Rufus, Abe

Shooters/Hunters: Offensive badging, with a few exceptions.
- Shooters and Hunters have a guaranteed critical attack on their charged attacks, so enhance that damage with badges and Ruthless armors.
- Shooters and Hunters don't have enough health to withstand too many attacks. It's not worth trying to maximize their damage reduction.
- Sasha is a possible exception. Because Sasha's leader trait is so useful in so many different situations, some people like to give her a balanced badge set. Like Rick/Daryl, I previously used a balanced badge set on Sasha but am finding that the increased damage is more valuable at the 40+ levels where she gets into one-hit struggles regardless of how much DR she has.
- I also like to give one Shooter and Hunter a balanced badge set for Guild Wars and maps with ranged Freemen. Personally, I prefer Merle and Dwight for this. Both of them already have a great set of traits for PvP (Iron Skin, Retaliate, Bullet Dodge), so I badge them for the purpose of using them against human enemies.
- Tara is the lone exception. She is a good candidate to go with full defensive badges to be used with Bruisers.
- Top Hunter heroes that I like to badge (in order): Sasha, Shane, Alpha
- Top Shooter heroes that I like to badge (in order): Rick, Aaron, Maggie, Tara