Heroes are the playable characters with which the player explores the dungeon. Two can be chosen from the beginning, and additional heroes can be found in the depths of the dungeon and recruited. The game is over when all heroes die or your crystal is destroyed. Each hero has a different set of skills as well as different strengths and weaknesses.
There are 28 heroes in total: 4 available from the start (*), 12 available for unlock, 10 gained by owning the appropriate DLC (✝), and 2 secret heroes. Each character falls under one of the following factions: Crew, Prisoners, Natives, or Secret.
List of Heroes[]
Crew[]
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Crew heroes all have the Got Your Back passive skill, gaining +10% defense from sharing a room with another crew member. They have the highest recruitment and leveling costs. It costs them a maximum of 1771 food in total to reach level 15, and level 10 is roughly the median. In other words, it costs as much food to get from level 1 to 10 as it does from level 10 to 15.
Prisoners[]
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Prisoners all have the Pack of Dogs skill, providing +6% extra attack power when sharing a room with another prisoner. They have medium recruitment and leveling costs, but after level 10 their Defense no longer increases when leveling up. It costs prisoners 1706 food to reach level 15, and level 10 is roughly the median.
Natives[]
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Natives have no common skill, though they gain higher than average stats at higher levels. They have the lowest recruitment and leveling costs. It costs natives 1469 food to reach level 15, and level 11 is roughly the median.
Secret[]
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Secret characters can only be played or unlocked under special circumstances. They have no common skill. It costs secret characters 1740 food to reach level 15, and level 10 is roughly the median.
Recruiting and Unlocking Heroes[]
Heroes spawn randomly in the dungeon, not unlike the merchant. Provided at least one hero slot is open, the player can then hire them in exchange of a certain amount of Food,
the cost of which depends on the hero's level and their faction. If all four hero slots are already filled, the new hero can only be hired if another is either dismissed or dies.
If found but not hired, additional heroes will remain stationary and attack passing enemies like a secondary module. Assuming they are not killed, an unhired hero will remain and be available for hire until the floor is escaped.
In order to unlock a hero and hire them at the start of future runs, players must find and recruit them, and then either escape three floors or finish the dungeon; if the character dies or is dismissed before this, the hero must be found again and the attempt done over.
Actions[]
Automated Actions[]
A hero does the following actions as long as there are specific objects in the room
- Repair Modules
- Operate major Modules
- Fight Monsters
- Open Chests and pick up resources found in rooms (interrupted if there are monsters in the room)
- Pick up Dust
- Run past monsters if assigned so
Special actions[]
The player can order heroes to take special actions (ones that aren’t automatically activated):
- Open a door
- Interact with a merchant or artifact
- Pick up / Drop off the Crystal
- Exit the level
Improving Heroes[]
Heroes gain better skills and stats by leveling up, which is not done by killing enemies, but by using Food (The higher the level, the more food is required). Skills are automatically unlocked at specific levels and provide passive bonuses or active abilities.
It is also essential to find and equip suitable Weapon, Armor and Devices to increase the heroes' damage output, survivability or give them additional skills to survive the dungeon.
Healing Heroes[]
In basic game modes, as soon as a battle ends, all heroes are automatically healed up to full health. However, the player can choose to spend Food in the middle of a battle to heal a percentage of the hero's health. This may be accomplished by pressing the Hero's 'Heal' button located directly next to their portrait (this button is only available when the Hero's HP is less than 100%), or alternatively, by pressing 'H'.