All Characters Guide: Starting Loadouts & Traits

Enter the Gungeon has multiple playable characters. Four are available from the start; four more are hidden and must be unlocked through gameplay. A further second-player character, Mysterious Companion, is exclusive to local co-op (see Co-op Character). Each character has a distinct set of starting weapons and items, plus passive bonuses that change how you approach every run.

Starting Characters

Marine

The Marine is the most beginner-friendly character.

He starts with one extra point of Armor and carries Military Training — a passive that improves accuracy, reload speed, and charge speed for every gun. His active item Supply Drop drops an ammo crate at his feet, refilling his held gun (it cannot be used when that gun is already full).

The Marine rewards steady, unhurried play: stand still to get tighter shot groupings, and lean on the steady ammo supply to keep firing from a safe distance.

• Starting gun: Marine Sidearm (infinite ammo)
• Active item: Supply Drop — drops an ammo crate at your feet
• Passive: Military Training — better accuracy, faster reload and charge
• Starts with 1 extra Armor

Convict

The Convict hits hard right out of the gate, starting with two guns for strong early damage.

Her Budget Revolver is reliable, and the Sawed-Off shreds anything at close range. The Enraging Photo passive briefly auto-reloads her gun and boosts damage after she takes a hit. The Molotov can zone enemies or set up consistent burn damage.

The Enraging Photo only pays off once she has been hit, which is why the Convict is built for players who like high-risk, high-reward offense.

• Starting gun: Budget Revolver (infinite ammo) + Sawed-Off
• Active item: Molotov — thrown fire bomb
• Passive: Enraging Photo — brief auto-reload and damage boost when hit

Hunter

The Hunter brings a reliable toolkit and excellent utility.

The Crossbow deals high single-target damage and can one-shot many early enemies, and the Rusty Sidearm provides a consistent fallback. Her Dog companion digs up extra dropped items after clearing a room and barks near disguised Mimics.

That bark saves a lot of Keys: when a chest looks suspicious, walk the Dog past it before deciding to open it. Some of the Hunter's value does depend on luck, so the payoff is not consistent.

• Starting gun: Rusty Sidearm (infinite ammo) + Crossbow
• Passive: Dog — barks to identify Mimics, digs up extra room-clear loot
• The dog also acts as a companion that can interact with certain NPCs

Pilot

The Pilot has the weakest early combat but the best long-term economy.

Trusty Lockpicks open chests with a 50% chance without spending a Key. Disarming Personality gives a 15% discount at all shops. Hidden Compartment adds an extra active item slot, letting him carry two active items at once, and raises max ammo by 10%.

He scales dramatically once he gets items — but the Rogue Special is mediocre, so early floors demand careful play.

• Starting gun: Rogue Special (infinite ammo)
• Active item: Trusty Lockpicks — 50% chance to open a locked chest without a Key
• Passive: Disarming Personality — 15% shop discount
• Passive: Hidden Compartment — extra passive item slot

Hidden Characters

Robot

The Robot is a high-skill pick: once you understand Armor management, he is extremely powerful.

He replaces health with Armor entirely — he has 6 Armor containers and no heart slots. Hearts and healing items restore nothing for him (they convert into a small amount of Casings instead), and picking up a Master Round grants him one piece of Armor. His Battery Bullets passive turns some shots electric and makes him immune to damage from electrified water. Coolant Leak drops a pool of liquid that slows enemies.

Most importantly, picking up Junk gives him a stacking +5% damage boost each (Gold Junk counts too) — so never drop or sell it. With no healing available at all, keeping Armor topped up is everything.

• Unlock: the Busted Television only appears in the Gungeon elevator shaft once you have opened that floor's shortcut with Tinker; carry it down to the Blacksmith in the Forge and let the hand-over cutscene finish (Pilot's Hidden Compartment makes carrying it easier)
• Starting gun: Robot's Right Hand (infinite ammo)
• Active item: Coolant Leak — creates a slow-field liquid patch
• Passive: Battery Bullets — some bullets become electric; immune to electrified water
• Has 6 Armor instead of hearts; each Junk picked up grants +5% damage

Bullet

The Bullet plays completely differently from everyone else.

The starting weapon Blasphemy is a melee sword — he attacks by swinging it, not shooting, and swings can also destroy incoming enemy bullets. At full health, his swing fires an extra wave of light. The Live Ammo passive causes dodge-rolling through enemy bullets to absorb them and heal a small amount of health, and he takes no contact damage during dodge rolls.

With practice you can negate almost all bullet damage through movement and melee — close-range safety is his defining strength — but it demands deep knowledge of enemy bullet patterns.

• Unlock: after defeating at least one Past with any character, Red-Caped Bullet Kin rarely appear in random rooms (they wander and don't attack); let 5 of them despawn (spare them) to unlock the Bullet
• Starting weapon: Blasphemy (melee sword, infinite 'ammo')
• Passive: Live Ammo — dodge-rolling through bullets absorbs them and restores a small amount of health
• No contact damage during dodge rolls; melee fires a light wave at full health

Paradox

The Paradox has no Past of its own and starts every run with a randomized loadout.

That loadout is a random starting sidearm taken from the other Gungeoneers (excluding the Slinger), another random gun, and a random passive item. These random starting items do not count toward Magnificence (unless dropped and picked back up) — see What Is Magnificence?.

That amounts to roughly two chests worth of advantage right from the start, so the Paradox usually opens stronger than average — but every run is different and you have to improvise around whatever you are dealt.

• Unlock: after defeating at least one Past, cosmic rifts appear with a 20% chance in random rooms of the Gungeon, Mines, and the Hollow; step into a rift to gain the paradox effect and finish that run to unlock
• Starting loadout: a random sidearm from another character (excluding the Slinger) + a random gun + a random passive item
• Strength: starts with about two chests of gear, so it plays above average
• Cost to play: 5 × Hegemony Credit

Gunslinger

The Gunslinger is the hardest character to unlock and is the pre-mortem form of the Lich.

His starting gun, the Slinger, can be thrown at enemies for damage when reloading, but his real strength is the Lich's Eye Bullets passive — it makes every gun automatically trigger all of its synergies.

Paired with items that form synergies, any build is hugely amplified, and the Gunslinger late-game firepower is unmatched.

• Unlock (hardest in the game): as the Paradox, defeat the Lich in Bullet Hell (Chamber 6) to start a Gunslinger run; during that run you must get the Bullet That Can Kill The Past from the Blacksmith in the Forge and kill the Gunslinger's Past to unlock him permanently
• Gunslinger cannot be unlocked on a blessed run (Blessed Mode)
• Starting gun: Slinger (infinite ammo)
• Passive: Lich's Eye Bullets — every gun automatically triggers all of its synergies
• Cost to play: 7 × Hegemony Credit

Co-op Character

Mysterious Companion (called the Cultist in Enter the Gungeon) is the second-player character exclusive to local co-op — you cannot pick her in single-player; she is controlled automatically when a second player joins. She has no unlock path of her own, but she does have a Past you can challenge, and her whole kit is built around co-op.

She starts with the Friendship Cookie, which revives a downed partner, and the passive Number 2, which raises her movement speed and damage while her partner is dead. Her starting weapon is the Dart Gun — low damage but infinite ammo.

Number 2 keeps her from being helpless when soloing, but her growth is steady and slow, so she relies on pickups to scale.

• Local co-op only: used automatically when a second player joins; cannot be selected in single-player
• Starting weapon: Dart Gun (infinite ammo)
• Active: Friendship Cookie — revives a downed partner
• Passive: Number 2 — boosts movement speed and damage while the partner is dead (co-op exclusive; unobtainable in normal play until unlocked)
• Has a Past you can challenge: shoot yourself with the Gun That Can Kill The Past to enter it (the Blacksmith will not give her the Bullet That Can Kill The Past, but it is not needed); reaching her Past unlocks Number 2 and the Sunlight Javelin

Still not sure who to start with? Beginner's Guide & Tips covers recommended starter characters and the basics worth knowing on your first runs.