All Characters Guide: Starting Loadouts & Traits
Every playable character in Enter the Gungeon: each Gungeoneer has a unique starting loadout and passive traits, and choosing the right one shapes your entire run strategy.
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, ナゾの従者, 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
ソルジャー
The ソルジャー is the most beginner-friendly character.
He starts with one extra point of 
アーマー and carries 
軍事訓練の記録 — a passive that improves accuracy, reload speed, and charge speed for every gun. His active item 
トランシーバー drops an ammo crate at his feet, refilling his held gun (it cannot be used when that gun is already full).
The ソルジャー 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:
制式ピストル (infinite ammo) - active item: トランシーバー — drops an ammo crate at your feet
- Passive: 軍事訓練の記録 — better accuracy, faster reload and charge
- Starts with 1 extra アーマー
プリゾナー
The プリゾナー hits hard right out of the gate, starting with two guns for strong early damage.
Her 
安物のリボルバー is reliable, and the 
ソードオフ shreds anything at close range. The 
宿敵の写真 passive briefly auto-reloads her gun and boosts damage after she takes a hit. The 
モロトフカクテル can zone enemies or set up consistent burn damage.
The 宿敵の写真 only pays off once she has been hit, which is why the プリゾナー is built for players who like high-risk, high-reward offense.
- Starting gun: 安物のリボルバー (infinite ammo) + ソードオフ
- active item: モロトフカクテル — thrown fire bomb
- Passive: 宿敵の写真 — brief auto-reload and damage boost when hit
ハンター
The ハンター brings a reliable toolkit and excellent utility.
The 
クロスボウ deals high single-target damage and can one-shot many early enemies, and the 
さびたピストル provides a consistent fallback. Her 
忠犬 companion digs up extra dropped items after clearing a room and barks near disguised 
ミミックs.
That bark saves a lot of 
キーs: when a chest looks suspicious, walk the 忠犬 past it before deciding to open it. Some of the ハンター's value does depend on luck, so the payoff is not consistent.
パイロット
The パイロット has the weakest early combat but the best long-term economy.
使い慣れたロックピック open chests with a 50% chance without spending a キー. 
巧みな話術 gives a 15% discount at all shops. 
隠しコンテナ 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 
ローグスペシャル is mediocre, so early floors demand careful play.
- Starting gun: ローグスペシャル (infinite ammo)
- active item: 使い慣れたロックピック — 50% chance to open a locked chest without a キー
- Passive: 巧みな話術 — 15% shop discount
- Passive: 隠しコンテナ — extra passive item slot
Hidden Characters
ロボット
The ロボット is a high-skill pick: once you understand アーマー management, he is extremely powerful.
He replaces health with アーマー entirely — he has 6 アーマー containers and no heart slots. Hearts and healing items restore nothing for him (they convert into a small amount of 
ケーシング instead), and picking up a 
勝者の弾 grants him one piece of アーマー. His 
バッテリー弾 passive turns some shots electric and makes him immune to damage from electrified water. 
冷却剤 drops a pool of liquid that slows enemies.
Most importantly, picking up 
ガラクタ gives him a stacking +5% damage boost each (
純金製のガタクタ counts too) — so never drop or sell it. With no healing available at all, keeping アーマー topped up is everything.
- Unlock: the
こわれたテレビ only appears in the メインガンジョン elevator shaft once you have opened that floor's shortcut with 
修理屋; carry it down to the 
鍛冶屋 in the 鍛冶場 and let the hand-over cutscene finish (パイロット's 隠しコンテナ makes carrying it easier) - Starting gun:
ロボットアーム (infinite ammo) - active item: 冷却剤 — creates a slow-field liquid patch
- Passive: バッテリー弾 — some bullets become electric; immune to electrified water
- Has 6 アーマー instead of hearts; each ガラクタ picked up grants +5% damage
ブレット
The ブレット plays completely differently from everyone else.
The starting weapon 
背徳の呪具 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 
セルフ弾 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 ブレット - Starting weapon: 背徳の呪具 (melee sword, infinite 'ammo')
- Passive: セルフ弾 — 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
パラドックス
The パラドックス 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 
スリンガー), 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 パラドックス 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 メインガンジョン, ブラックパウダー採掘場, 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 スリンガー) + a random gun + a random passive item
- Strength: starts with about two chests of gear, so it plays above average
- Cost to play: 5 × ヘゲモニークレジット
ガンスリンガー
The ガンスリンガー is the hardest character to unlock and is the pre-mortem form of the 
ゾンビキング.
His starting gun, the スリンガー, can be thrown at enemies for damage when reloading, but his real strength is the 
ゾンビキングの目 passive — it makes every gun automatically trigger all of its synergies.
Paired with items that form synergies, any build is hugely amplified, and the ガンスリンガー late-game firepower is unmatched.
- Unlock (hardest in the game): as the パラドックス, defeat the ゾンビキング in Bullet Hell to start a ガンスリンガー run; during that run you must get the 過去を始末する弾 from the 鍛冶屋 in the 鍛冶場 and kill the ガンスリンガー's Past to unlock him permanently
- ガンスリンガー cannot be unlocked on a blessed run (
Blessed Mode) - Starting gun: スリンガー (infinite ammo)
- Passive: ゾンビキングの目 — every gun automatically triggers all of its synergies
- Cost to play: 7 × ヘゲモニークレジット
Co-op Character
ナゾの従者 (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 
フレンドクッキー, which revives a downed partner, and the passive 
ナンバー2, which raises her movement speed and damage while her partner is dead. Her starting weapon is the 
ダーツガン — low damage but infinite ammo.
ナンバー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: ダーツガン (infinite ammo)
- Active: フレンドクッキー — revives a downed partner
- Passive: ナンバー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 鍛冶屋 will not give her the 過去を始末する弾, but it is not needed); reaching her Past unlocks ナンバー2 and the
太陽の光のヤリ
Still not sure who to start with? 
Beginner's Guide & Tips covers recommended starter characters and the basics worth knowing on your first runs.