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, Tajemniczy towarzysz, 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 Pancerz and carries Trening wojskowy — a passive that improves accuracy, reload speed, and charge speed for every gun. His active item Zrzut 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: Broń boczna marines (infinite ammo)
• active item: Zrzut — drops an ammo crate at your feet
• Passive: Trening wojskowy — better accuracy, faster reload and charge
• Starts with 1 extra Pancerz

Skazana

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

Her Rewolwer budżetowy is reliable, and the Obrzyn shreds anything at close range. The Denerwujące zdjęcie passive briefly auto-reloads her gun and boosts damage after she takes a hit. The Koktajl Mołotowa can zone enemies or set up consistent burn damage.

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

• Starting gun: Rewolwer budżetowy (infinite ammo) + Obrzyn
• active item: Koktajl Mołotowa — thrown fire bomb
• Passive: Denerwujące zdjęcie — brief auto-reload and damage boost when hit

Łowczyni

The Łowczyni brings a reliable toolkit and excellent utility.

The Kusza deals high single-target damage and can one-shot many early enemies, and the Zardzewiała broń provides a consistent fallback. Her Pies companion digs up extra dropped items after clearing a room and barks near disguised Mimiks.

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

• Starting gun: Zardzewiała broń (infinite ammo) + Kusza
• Passive: Pies — barks to identify Mimiks, 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.

Zaufane wytrychy open chests with a 50% chance without spending a Klucz. Rozbrajająca osobowość gives a 15% discount at all shops. Schowek 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 Specjał łotra is mediocre, so early floors demand careful play.

• Starting gun: Specjał łotra (infinite ammo)
• active item: Zaufane wytrychy — 50% chance to open a locked chest without a Klucz
• Passive: Rozbrajająca osobowość — 15% shop discount
• Passive: Schowek — extra passive item slot

Hidden Characters

Robot

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

He replaces health with Pancerz entirely — he has 6 Pancerz containers and no heart slots. Hearts and healing items restore nothing for him (they convert into a small amount of Łuski instead), and picking up a Mistrzowski nabój grants him one piece of Pancerz. His Baterie dla nabojów passive turns some shots electric and makes him immune to damage from electrified water. Rozpylacz chłodziwa drops a pool of liquid that slows enemies.

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

• Unlock: the Zepsuty telewizor only appears in the Właściwy Loch Giwer elevator shaft once you have opened that floor's shortcut with Majsterkowicz; carry it down to the Kowalka in the Kuźnia and let the hand-over cutscene finish (Pilot's Schowek makes carrying it easier)
• Starting gun: Prawa dłoń robota (infinite ammo)
• active item: Rozpylacz chłodziwa — creates a slow-field liquid patch
• Passive: Baterie dla nabojów — some bullets become electric; immune to electrified water
• Has 6 Pancerz instead of hearts; each Śmieci picked up grants +5% damage

Nabój

The Nabój plays completely differently from everyone else.

The starting weapon Bluźnierstwo 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 Człowiek-nabój 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 Nabój
• Starting weapon: Bluźnierstwo (melee sword, infinite 'ammo')
• Passive: Człowiek-nabój — 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 Odrzut Rewolwerowca), 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 Właściwy Loch Giwer, Kopalnia czarnego prochu, 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 Odrzut Rewolwerowca) + a random gun + a random passive item
• Strength: starts with about two chests of gear, so it plays above average
• Cost to play: 5 × Kredyt Hegemonii

Gunslinger

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

His starting gun, the Odrzut Rewolwerowca, can be thrown at enemies for damage when reloading, but his real strength is the Gałki licza 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 Licz in Bullet Hell to start a Gunslinger run; during that run you must get the Nabój Zdolny Zabić Przeszłość from the Kowalka in the Kuźnia and kill the Gunslinger's Past to unlock him permanently
• Gunslinger cannot be unlocked on a blessed run (Blessed Mode)
• Starting gun: Odrzut Rewolwerowca (infinite ammo)
• Passive: Gałki licza — every gun automatically triggers all of its synergies
• Cost to play: 7 × Kredyt Hegemonii

Co-op Character

Tajemniczy towarzysz (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 Ciasteczko przyjaźni, which revives a downed partner, and the passive Numer 2, which raises her movement speed and damage while her partner is dead. Her starting weapon is the Pistolet na strzałki — low damage but infinite ammo.

Numer 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: Pistolet na strzałki (infinite ammo)
• Active: Ciasteczko przyjaźni — revives a downed partner
• Passive: Numer 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 Kowalka will not give her the Nabój Zdolny Zabić Przeszłość, but it is not needed); reaching her Past unlocks Numer 2 and the Słoneczny oszczep

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