Overview
Notice This list is heavily outdated for how much Farewell to Arms has changed the game in terms of characters, such as the official introduction to Rainbow Chest Runs making characters better than they were before, one big example being Singleplayer-Only Cultist. Because of these massive tier changes, the Cosmic Creep spawns being very unlucky for me, and End-of-Semester College Work, I currently have neither the ability nor time to update this Character-Tier Guide with the new characters, nor edit existing characters with up-to-date info. That is not to say this Tier-List will be abandoned; Considering that this newest update will be Gungeon’s last, It will only be fair to go out in style when updating this list for the last time as well; Pictures w/ gun stats, image-based examples of certain items, etc., basically making the whole reader-experience more aesthetically pleasing to read through, while adding in professionalism to the whole thing, however it will take extensive time to do so, especially with college work happening at this time. TL;DR, The info in this list is outdated, but is not being abandoned; I will be updating this list once I have both the ability and time I currently lack, but expect it to be a few weeks to a month down the line. This is my personal Tier List based on the character’s starting equipment, how much skill a character would have/need, their Risk/Reward, along with long-term Viability a character would have/need. This guide expects you to have some sense of the game’s item types, mechanics, ect. This won’t be a very flashy guide, as it’s more of a description of what each character in this game would be capable of, rather than a TL;DR, funny lols guide. Pictures might come in the future if I feel like updating this guide down the road, and will be continually updated the more updates release for EtG, so this might be susceptible to change. Also, no Mods are allowed/considered when viewing each character; pretty self-explanatory.
How I Rate Characters in Detail, and What the Tiers Mean
The characters are rated by what they bring to the table. They are evaluated by looking over what each character’s starting kit brings to the table, as well as their Early-Game, Mid-Game, and most importantly, End-Game potential, each with varying amounts of worth. Their viability, Unique Attributes, Strengths, and Weaknessess are all taken into account on how strong/bad each are.
I value RNG somewhat seperatly of the character’s actual potential worth, and use Signs as how Consistant characters are depending on RNGsus:
+ (Plus Sign) = Extremely consistant, little need of good RNG.
No sign = Normal, fluctuating consistancy, sometimes in need of some good RNG.
– (Minus Sign) = Bad, Unstable Consistancy, in Heavy need of Good/Great RNG.
Lastly, the Letter Tiers are categorized from best to worst. Some letters might not be used as there might not be any character whom would belong in the specified category with said traits.
The Ranking Template is as follows:
S = The Best-of-the-Best Characters w/ Outstanding Performance whom accels in generally any situation, having very little weakness if played to their fullest potential.
A = Great overall Performance with great potential, with weaknesses that can be often covered for with some items and/or the presence of a good gun selection.
B = Good overall Performance with decent potential, with some weaknesses that can often be covered for with some items and/or the presence of a good gun selection.
C = Alright overall Performance with limited potenial, with glaring weaknesses that would potentially require a decent set of items/weapons to determine their potential.
D = Mediocre overall performance with very limited potential, with glaring weaknessess that will require a good set of items/weapons to determine their potential. While completely playable, they will suffer from lacking qualities when compared to how good the rest of the characters are.
F = Bad overall Performance with little to no potential, with huge, crippling weaknesses; some that that cannot be covered with any kind of items/weapons.
S+: The Bullet
Unsurprisingly, The Bullet basically would be the Overall best character in generally any situation. It’s unfortunate that the Alt. Costume is pretty bad in the “awesomness” factor of Gungeon, otherwise he’d be my #1 favorite character.
His starting weapon is, in my opinion, the best in the game; starting with Blasphamy makes the Bullet very strong on its own, allowing to you completely decimate the first few floors so long as you have full health. Adding in how it can destory incoming projectiles makes Blasphamy one of the best defensive weapons in the game. These traits instantly gives this weapon end-game potential without the need of many passive items, all the way through Bullet Hell, just for the defensive capabilities, giving the weapon a kind of Solid long-term viability most weapons only dream of having. Effective use of Blasphamy gives the Bullet the Highest amount of Early-game independance from the need of different weapons/items out of any other character in this game.
Live Ammo is one of the best passive items in the game as well (sadly exclusive to Bullet & cannot be unlocked for other character use). The extra roll damage is a great fallback when you get hit w/ Blasphamy still being your only weapon, but the negation of contact damage greatly increases your kill rate when using Blasphamy, as well as being immune to even Jammed Contact Damage, making him the Second best pick for Cursed Runs, and #1 best for Challange Runs.
The Bullet’s biggest weakness lies in Blasphamy as well; It requires you to be at full health in order to effectivly use Blasphamy offensively. If you take health damage once, you’re no longer able to shoot sword beams, serverly harming your damage output and forcing you to fight Point-Blank range w/ Blasphamy. This, however, generally only comes into play when you take accidental damage during the first floor or two, as he most likaly won’t have decent back-up weapons to mitigate this early-game. This generally does not become an issue end-game, as you’ll be using Blasphamy for its projectile-destroying effect more than its offensive abilities, unless you have good passive items to bolster its damage output to keep up with damage other weapons will be doing.
The Bullet is generally considered by many to be the best, and it clearly shows; He is a force to be reckoned with.
*Post-AG&D Update*
The Bullet, in my opinion, is still the best after this update, and requires no rank changing. In fact, he is probably one of the best characters to be able to attempt the newest additions in Gungeon, from the Resourceful Rat fight (due to Blasphamy being just that good of a utility/out in some of his attacks), to even the new Advanced Dragun phase three fight.
A: The Robot (S Rank Pre AG&D)
His unmentioned passive is that he gets 5% increase damage for every Junk he has. While this passive seems abit lackluster, it does come in handy considering this is The Robot we’re talking about. This lessens the harm of a lack of key drops & weapon shortages, and indirectly makes him the best partner for Ser Junken.
His Robot Right Hand is the best Non-Special Projectile-based starter weapon in the game, being able to kill Floor 1 Gun Nuts in one clip, good RoF & range, as well as starting with Battery Bullets, innately increasing overall accuracy. Its even possible to ace the first couple of floor bosses in a decent pace using the Robot’s Right Hand, giving him some good early-game independence from the need of other weapons.
His Coolant Leak is highly underappreciated as well; While the general strategy to use it for is to wet the floor and electrify it via Battery Bullets for good AoE damage, it has other applications. For some reason, people seem to forget it’s usefulness as a great Utility. The Coolant Leak has the ability to extinguish fires, including the fireplace in the 1st floor, giving instant access to the Sewer Entrance (assuming you have the keys for unlocking said entrance), and can douse out Fuses on Trapped Chests.
His big weakness is the fact that he is entirely reliant on Armor for health, causing some Health-Based items/weapons in the game to be useless for him, with armor being the rarest random drop from room clears & often expensive to buy from shops mid-game and end-game. This is generally why most people consider him to be the hardest character to play, some saying he is very bad because of this, having him seem like the Blue Baby of Gungeon. There is no doubt that he is hard to master because of this, but the Armor-as-Health gimmick, along with his Coolant Leak & Junk Passive actually gives Robot two Unique kinds of Viable Strategies/Synergies no other character could ever dream of having.
1: Ammolets
Let’s start with the lesser of the two advantages the Robot’s Armor-Health Gimmick has. Ammolets normally are not too useful or game-changing, as you’re exclusively limited to use Blanks in order to give off the Ammolet effects, or specialized items such as the Elder Blank or the Owl to give off the Ammolet Effect’s consistently, which are not that often to run into. With the Robot however, the usefulness of Ammolets skyrocket, as Armor Hits give off Blank Effects, also utilizing any Ammolet effect you have w/ the Robot to the entire room, as though you actually did use a Blank (this is also probably the only time Enraging Photo would ever be remotely useful). This can technically apply to any character who has obtained some armor, but the Robot is the only character who starts with a Surplus of it, effectively triggering Ammolet effects much more frequently, as though it’s a revenge effect for when the Robot’s armor takes a hit, and since the Robot literally lives on Armor, Ammolets have the best home with him.
2: Cursed Runs
This is by far the Robot’s Biggest Advantage. For people who does not know, If you kill the past of at least one character, the Hero Shrine becomes available as a usable, functional shrine. Using the shrine then will give you the option of being able to instantly obtain a Curse Value of 9; One point away from having the Lord of the Jammed spawn. Most people who does know this write this off as a simple handicap method to give more challenge. However, there are legitimate advantages doing Cursed Runs, as you gain a b*tchin’ load of money from enemy kills, sometimes more than what you might know what to do with mid-end game, often making up for Key & Armor drops, and giving you more options to be able to buy more expensive items from the shop, sometimes S-Rank ones.
While the limit of items & weapons may be harmful due to the curse value, alot of the risk in dealing with a Cursed Run as the Robot is heavily mitigated. The Robot’s Armor-Health and starting kit plays a huge role in his Cursed Runs, giving you the edge in three ways no other character can give you.
Firstly is Jammed Enemies; Due to how Armor works in nature, even if Jammed enemies hit any character w/ Armor, the damage will still be limited to One Armor, not Two armor or one armor & a Half-Heart. The Robot having Armor-Exclusive Health grants him a huge loss of risk when facing Jammed enemies, as the danger of losing more health than what was bargained for is permanently gone. And because of how Jammed enemies drop much more money, you will basically be swimming in money under most cases without much added risk.
Secondly is how Curse also severely increases odds of a chest being trapped with a Fuse. As stated before, The Robot’s Coolant Leak effectively negates the issue of losing potentially necessary items/weapons early in a run due to this Curse side-effect.
Lastly is how Curse works in nature; While it increases odds of Ammo Box drops and Highly increases Money Drops, it highly decreases odds of Keys to drop, potentially forcing you to bust open chests and losing items. Because of how the Robot has the innate damage boost passive from Junk, having to destroy chests as a last resort when you don’t have keys are not as crippling, assuming you do get Junk to drop.
Even if you don’t plan on doing a Cursed run, the risk of gaining Cursed Weapons/Items will still be heavily mitigated due to all of the advantages stated above.
*Post-AG&D Update*
The Robot goes from a standard S Rank down to an A rank due to the update. The advantage in using the Robot in the newest update is that he is the best character to initially whittle down the Gnawed Key’s pricing due to Cursed runs being even more rewarding since the update increases the normal drop rates on everything from Money to Keys.
However, this is also one of the reason why he goes down in ranking: Outside of unlocking the Gnawed Key to be purchasable to fight the Resourceful Rat, Cursed Runs are not as rewarding/worthwhile overall as it once was. Since the money drops are somewhat higher overall, the advantage of doing Cursed Runs for easy shop purchases goes down a little. However, what really tanks the usefulness of doing Cursed Runs nowadays is two things:
1: You lose out on the ability to use some very powerful synergies during Cursed Runs, due to some synergies needing items giving Curse.
2: Due to the introduction of Wall Mimics and Item Stand Mimics, It is much more dangerous to trust almost anything in the game when doing runs with high curse levels, especially since Wall Mimics can do the following:
- Appear in the literal fireplace in floor 1.
- Can appear in any boss room that isn’t Wallmonger (I think) or High Dragun.
- Can be Jammed if Curse is high enough.
- Gives pitiful money drops, even when Cursed.
While Item Stand mimics can do the following:
- While one is easy to kill, there can be more than One if you Ace the Boss (one for the standard reward and the other for the Master Chamber), making things extremely problematic to keep up with if you’re unlucky enough to have both Item Stands being Mimics.
- Can both be Jammed if Curse is high enough.
You’ll be running into so many of these things with a Curse Value of 9 that you’ll be suspecting Pots and Tables to be mimics. While the 2nd reason might not seem that bad, keep in mind this is the Robot we are talking about; he has no easy way to regain health.
He is by far still a very good character to play as normally, and he is still technically the best character to tackle Cursed Runs with, but the indirect difficulty increase of Cursed Runs, with the heavier penalties to having high Curse makes Cursed Runs not as important to calculate in the Robot’s Tier Ranking as it was before.
A-: The Pilot (B- Rank Pre AG&D)
I have a huge love-hate relationship with the Pilot. On one hand he has very good item presence and the potential to be an amazing character, as well as having a cool alternate costume, and while on the other hand, he can sometimes have some of the worst runs I’ve ever had.
His Starting weapon is his Laser Pistol, and it’s garbage for a starting weapon. Okay damage and RoF, decent Clip Size, but Terrible accuracy & range makes this weapon arguably the worst starting weapon in the game. Anything not basic bullet kin enemies past the 1st floor will generally take either the entire clip, or 1 1/2 clips to kill with this gun, making the Pilot the most reliant on the need of guns out of any other character, especially Early-Game.
Bad starting weapon aside, he has some of the best starting items out of every character in the game, making him much more well-rounded and places him as high on the tier as he is. His least-best one is Disarming Personality, which slightly reduces shop prices. As an item drop or buyable mid game, it’s a mediocre passive to get from a chest compared to others, however starting with the item gives the Pilot the advantage of buying good items earlier in the floor, or saving money until the end of a floor to spend on an extra item you might need, such as a Key. It doesn’t come in handy often enough to notice, but it does indeed help in giving you the very needed key purchase for that one Shadow chest you have no key for after the floor was swept clean.
His second starting item exclusive to the Pilot, Hidden Compartment, allows him to innately have 10% max ammo increase and a second Usable Item slot. While the Ammo increase won’t come in handy too often, the real advantage is being able to hold onto two different usable items at a time, something only the Backpack can do, one of the few good D-Rank items in the game, or the Utility Belt (and yes, they do stack). This can give the pilot an edge in versatility to be able to house two powerful usable items, such as two invulnerability items, a heal item and a offensive item, etc.
His usable item is are Trusty Lockpicks, giving a potential safety net from when floors have a lack of keys, especially Early-Mid Game. It can either open a chest/door for free, or permanently lock said chest/door even when you do have a key at a 50/50 chance. This gives the Pilot the ability to open things you normally couldn’t, or things you wanted to avoid opening due to needing a key to unlock, such as locked gates leading to a lackluster chest and a Blank, or regular brown chests as one of the two guaranteed chest spawns. It can even be useful for getting you into the Oubilite w/o needing to use one key or any keys, saving on resources while also giving easier access to extra floors. When used properly & with care, you could gain more items than you potentially could with other characters Early-Mid game, theoretically giving you a great item/weapon presence.
Of course, the keyword here is “theoretical.” This man is extremely reliant on the items and weapons you find in the first and second floor, to the point that unless you get a great/godly item/weapon mid-game, your not going to perform well. The early-game will really determine the run you are going to get. If you get a good start with decent weapons/items, you’re generally going to have a good run, but if the items/weapons you find are mediocre/lacking, You’re not going to have a good time trying to get past the mid-game. The amount of RNG this character relies on is the most out of any other character in the game, and is the only character where RNG plays a major role in his ranking position.
*Post-AG&D Update*
I am happy to give The Pilot the A- Rank position he Deserves, up from his B- Rank. While he is not too useful in trying to tackle on the new AG&D events/challenges in his own unique ways outside of Disarming Personality giving you a tad more room for Emergency Early-Game purchases when saving up to buy the Gnawing Key, and the Lockpick indirectly being a better Safety-Net item in case you’re saving on money, he is much more of a force to be reckoned with due to one reason alone:
He is the absolute best character to get Synergies with.
Due to Hidden Compartment giving a second Use Item slot, he can theoretically get two different Synergies that requires a Use item, or have one Synergy w/ a use Item, and another Use item to complement it. Have you ever seen what a “Pot of Gun Friendship x +1 Bullets” Synergy does when you activate Double Vision as well?
Not only that, he is the only realistic character to get the “Extremely-Stupid-But-OP-If-RNGsus-Loves-You” Synergy of Chest Teleporter x Teleporter Prototype, “Telefrag”, since it requires two Use item Slots to ever get, requiring the Backpack or Utility Belt for any other character, which is not realistic to obtain. Of course, he still is in a minus rank due to having to heavily rely on the game to give a good Weapon Kit to stand a chance in the later floors of the game, but his ranking is bumped up an entire letter purely because of how well he can obtain and use Synergies.
B: The Cultist (C- if Singleplayer)
His Starter weapon is his Dart Gun, which is surprisingly decent. It has okay-to-good damage, alright RoF & range, but a below-average clip size. This is basically a much more Practical Rusty Sidearm, as the Dart Gun reloads faster, shoots farther, and has projectiles that travel faster, while having the same Damage-per-Bullet, and Negligible RoF & Knockback Differences. While it’s a decent weapon to use for the 1st floor, it can be pretty tedious to try and damage bosses with it, though since you would (Hopefully) be killing the boss(es) with your fellow Player 1, it should not be that bad if you don’t get a gun in the 1st floor.
His Active Item is the Friendship Cookie, which can instantly revive a fallen teammate if used, however it is a One-Use, and cannot be found in normal gameplay, not even in Multiplayer. It is a very nice usable to start out with, and unlike Marine w/ his Supply Drop, you have room to store the 1st Usable you find since you have Player 1’s Usable Slot. It can be very valuable if either Player dies and needs an Emergency Revive in case both teammates are at low hp. It is an effective One-Use fallback tool, considering it’s basically a Hero Pig for the dead player without having to waste a Chest to revive them. The only Con to this is that if the player dies and drops a very good Usable w/ no available trash chest to revive them with, either player still alive will be forced to waste the Cookie or leave the dropped usable behind unless you have a Backpack, Utility Belt, or if the living player is a Pilot w/ only Lockpicks. It will never not be useful considering it’s a free 1-Up on the spot, but an item that helps you not get into the position where someone dies could be a better choice than an item that helps a person who already did die.
His Best Trait is his Passive Item, Number 2, which only comes into effect when Player 1 dies. If the Cultist is the only one alive, he will get a Flat 41% Damage Boost and be granted a Movement Speed increase of 2, the exact same amount as the Ballistic Boots, the best Obtainable Flat-Speed-Increase Item in the Game. This can be an absolute life-saver if playing Multiplayer, helping you greatly in getting the clutch boss win, or stay alive long enough to revive Player 1 in some way.
“Holy Gee Whizz, this all sounds like it might make Gungeon Runs a little too easy! Imma grab my friend now!”
Don’t touch that phone/Discord tab/Steam Chat tab/whatever people use now to communicate, there is increased risk with playing Multiplayer: a whole 40% Max HP Increase for Enemies. This may not seem like much, in fact combining the damage both players does to singular enemies will kill them fast, however when fighting in big rooms you will often be fighting your own shares of enemies each, and because of that hp buff, splitting up will result in you killing enemies slower than you would think, potentially risking damage taken. Not only that, Bosses still have the same DPS-Limit as to how much damage they can take at once, therefore it not only makes it feel as though killing the boss is slower than it really should, but having 2 players playing in the same Boss fight basically doubles your chances of someone getting hit, causing the duo to miss out on the Master Chambers fairly consistently.
However, a helping hand in killing enemies is not at all a bad tradeoff, as rooms are normally cleared much faster than playing singleplayer. Not only that, Synergies can, and will, be utilized between the two players, meaning both players can use synergies such as Gunderlord to have better weapons out, etc. Add in the fact that this counts for Usable Items, and you basically start out with the best part of what makes Hidden Compartment from Pilot good; being able to have multiple synergies utilizing Usable Items. While he does lack the full utility of the Pilot, having a Player 2 drastically helps in having Synergies & killing enemies, giving the Cultist a solid B Rank.
So About that Double Ranking…
You might be wondering why the Cultist has a Singleplayer Ranking, and why he is so low playing Solo. Firstly, Solo-Cultist Runs are entirely possible to pull off so long you have a spare controller to plug in, and kill Player 1 on the 1st room of the 1st floor, meaning you can skimp out in needing a second person to have you play as a Cultist yourself. However, I strongly recommend against this Unless you’re going for a true 100% Game Completion by getting the Alt. Costume for Cultist, and you have no means of playing Co-op legitimately.
The Cultist functions to be a Player 2, not a Player 1, because he’s balanced to be a Multiplayer Character, not a Singleplayer Character.
“It can’t be THAT bad! You don’t even have to worry about the Health Increase Co-op gives anyway!” If only it was just that.
Firstly, playing Singleplayer Cultist basically means 2 things right off the bat; Your Friendship Cookie is Useless, and your Number 2 is Always Active. Optimally, you would want to have Pilot as Player 1, because he can give you the best Starting Usable Item out of the rest of the cast, so at least you have Lockpicks going. A Number 2 for a Singleplayer Cultist also just means that, when comparing the Max HP buff enemies get & the Number 2’s Damage stats, you only get a 1% damage Increase and a Speed Increase of 2, which is virtually the equivalent of starting with Ballistic Boots, but without the Synergies you can get.
TL;DR, Singleplayer Cultist starts with Dart Gun, Lockpicks, and Non-Synergy Ballistic Boots.
“Well gee, that sounds pretty good though! Why are you making him a C- still?”
Well, remember how you always need Player 1 dead in order to play Singleplayer Cultist?
Remember how Every Chest turns into a Revival Chest when one player is dead?
That is exactly why.
Playing Singleplayer Cultist Cripples you in a way no other Gungeoneer has to ever deal with outside of Multiplayer; You Cannot Open Chests when you want to. You will Always have to wait until the end of the Gungeon Floor to start opening Chests, after you beat the boss, no matter what. In Floor 1, this means you are ACTUALLY screwed out of a weapon unless you buy one from the shop in the 1st floor, however this is actually the least-worst on Floor 1, since you need to go through the least rooms before getting actual access to chests once Player 1 Respawns after the Boss Fight. In the Later Floors, you will have to go through more and more rooms before hitting the Boss Room, killing him for the free revive on Player 1, rinse and repeat. If you don’t get a good weapon within that floor or Floor 2, then you need to either start wasting chests on early Player 1 revives to get goodies like you normally should, or painstakingly try to kill the boss with very bad weapons. Guns/Items that might be able to save a run going bad might be in that Green Chest you found, and definitely have keys for, but you can’t open it until you find a trash chest in the floor, or kill the boss before you can actually receive an item; Both of which most likely being too late to save you at that point.
Cultist’s Gimped ability of being unable to open Chests as soon as they’re found during Singleplayer Runs makes him much more Luck-Based than he normally should be, as well as losing out on advantages such as Synergies and faster Room-Clearing that would be present in Multiplayer, gives Singleplayer Cultist a C-, very much bordering on D Rank; Being Fast w/ Lockpicks at start is not a valid excuse to put him exactly on par with The Marine because of this.
C: The Marine
Generally considered the best noob-friendly character is the Marine, and this holds true. I consider the Marine as a Lesser Robot for various reasons, but being a knock-off Robot isn’t anything to scoff at.
His Unmentioned (but blatantly obvious) passive is that he starts out with One Armor. This gives him a slightly better Early-Game innately by being able to absorb an extra hit. It’s an alright safety net bonus for the Early-Game, but it’s definitely not going to be anything noteworthy outside of that
His starting Pistol is his Marine Sidearm, and is arguably the best starter weapon out of the 4 starting characters. It has Okay damage, alright RoF, but Good Clip Size and range. It’s very comparable to the Robot Right Hand, with the notable differences stat-wise is the difference of damage (slightly), and the notable difference of Clip Size and RoF, all where the Robot’s Right Hand are superior. The Marine’s Sidearm is able to effectively deal with the early game well enough that he won’t necessarily need a weapon for the 1st floor, giving him some Early-Game weapon Independence, but he would need a weapon before fighting the 2nd floor boss, otherwise it’ll be a long fight, increasing odds of getting hit.
His Usable Item is the Supply Drop. It’s a decent emergency usable that gives you a free ammo pack when used, giving him a decent amount of weapon independence for one floor depending on how good the weapon on-hand is, and how ammo efficient it is. Similar to the free armor piece passive, it’s a decent Early-Mid Game tool, but because of how it’s a One-Use, it won’t really get the Marine far, and can be very replaceable for something as simple and lackluster as an Ice Bomb.
His best Starting trait is his Passive Item, Military Training. It gives him an overall boost to his Accuracy and Reload Speed. I compare this to the Robot’s Battery Bullets as they are similar in function, only except one gives electric rounds while another increases reload. This makes the Marine a well-rounded character for whenever he gains the items and weapons to hold his own in direct combat over some other characters.
The Marine is the Benchmark of what makes a Gungeoner good or bad, and is whom I consider the most Average of the bunch. He can hold his own in generally most situations due to his Military training, but outside of that one item he doesn’t have much more going for him, making him only a C ranking character unlike the Pilot, whom has great Item presence throughout a run. Granted, he could do worse.
Much. Worse.
D: The Hunter
This is the point where some people might begin to question my placement choices, and that’s fine. They may view characters differently than me, which is normal to have opinions of characters. That being said, The Hunter is not that great of a character outside of Early-Game, which is a shame because I like her Alt-Costume the most next to the Pilot’s.
Her starting pistol is her Rusty Sidearm. It has okay-to-good damage, alright RoF & range, but a below-average clip size. The pistol isn’t that bad, it definitely gets the job done, but it’s not a weapon you generally use unless you want to conserve ammo for your second weapon, which will depend on if you don’t find a different weapon to use alongside your second weapon before the 1st boss fight. It lacks early-game potential unlike the Marine Sidearm, so you will often have to rely on your second weapon for the majority of it.
Your second weapon is your Crossbow, and it’s a pretty good weapon to start with. You can often one-shot fodder enemies while 2 – 3 shot shotgun kin with it. It has great Early-Game presence but unlike something like the Bullet’s Blasphamy, it will not get you far in Mid-Game, and it requires ammo to use, which will sometimes break you if you find a lack of ammo or weapons to work with, which happens more often than you’d think. it’s a good weapon to rely on at first, but you should try to replace it quickly, as it will show its age really fast.
The Hunter’s “best” trait to play for in my opinion is that she starts with Good Boy, The Dog. At a 5% chance, the dog can dig up a heart, an armor piece, ammo, a key, a blank or a Glass Guon Stone whenever you clear a room. Statistically the dog would trigger at least once or twice per floor, which seems nice, but that’s RNG at work; there can be runs where you might get the Dog to trigger at the statistical amount, but then there will be runs where he will only trigger twice out of an entire run. If you get the Dog from the chest as another character, he can be nice if you’re wanting to try to get a luck boost in item drops, especially in Bullet Hell, but he’s not worth it as a starting item when compared to what almost every other character starts with. The potential extra drops are nice, but they’re not often enough to warrant playing Hunter for.
I personally didn’t like the Hunter much. Outside of her Early-Game presence, she has almost nothing going for her outside of a potential extra key or a Half-Heart in the run. Had her starting item have been Best Boy, The Wolf, she would have been more interesting to play and would give her a unique edge in offensive capabilities. It would have given her an easy B Rank position, but since we’re stuck with a docile doggo, she sits where she resides in now.
*Post-AG&D Update*
The Hunter remains a D rank, as there are no real ways this update changes how the Hunter plays or what her kit brings to the table. If anything, she is slightly worse since the only thing affected was her Doggo, whom is very slightly worse due to item drops and money being more common to find in general. The Doggo does have a synergy with Wolf, so it’s theoretically easier to obtain that one specific synergy since the Doggo is given at start, but outside of that there isn’t any way that the Hunter becomes a better or worse character pick.
D-: The Convict
Whenever I show my friends Gungeon & they play Convict, and even some of my friends whose been playing for about as long as me, the majority of them did not think the Convict was that great, and my newer Gungeon friends preferred either the Hunter or Marine (the former was more popular). Some people would call it a noob thing to say that something sucks when, in reality, it wouldn’t be that bad. Personally however, I think the Convict deserves every bit of crap people say about her.
Her starting pistol is the Budget Revolver. It has good damage and RoF, meh range and accuracy, but bad clip size. It’s a fairly good weapon to start with, as it can technically kill fodder enemies faster than the other basic characters’ starter pistols due to its good RoF, but it needs to constantly reload due to its bad clip size, lowering its potential DPS, but not by too much. Honestly it’s not a bad gun, in fact it could be argued that it’s almost as serviceable as the Marine Sidearm as far as non-tank enemies goes, but you’re not going to be using the pistol for Boss fights; Unlike the Marine Sidearm, it’s range and accuracy forces you to fight bosses in ranges you wouldn’t normally want to fight in, making the Marine and even the Hunter (b/c of her Crossbow) a better choice for boss fights Early-Game. It’s too lacking to be an independent weapon early-mid game, so get a weapon asap to replace it…
…and no, not even the Sawed-Off Shotgun can save you early-game. Some people even consider the Sawed-Off Shotgun to be worse than the Budget Revolver due to you having to be touching the enemies butt to effectively out-damage the revolver. I’d be generous to say that being Point-Blank range using the Sawed-Off is not too big of an issue in the 1st floor, due to most of the enemies not being dangerous enough to forcibly maintain a fair distance away from them, but if you’re going to be fighting Point-Blank, you might as well have played Bullet, as he is a much safer pick to fight in those ranges, even w/o the Sword Beams. Adding onto that, it’s not a good enough weapon to effectively deal with the 1st floor bosses primarily due to it’s terrible range, accuracy, and RoF, forcing you to actively search for a weapon of any quality that’s better than the Sawed-Off, even from brown chests. The lack of starting weapons good enough to take on a 1st floor boss makes the Convict have the 2nd poorest Early-Game presence, outdone only by the Pilot.
Her Enraging Photo is not good either, not even as an item you can find in a chest or a store item (except for I guess an Ammolet Robot Run, but even then that’s pushing it a little), unlike Huntress’ Doggo. The photo gives you double damage for a few seconds whenever you take damage. It’s probably the best way you can do early-game damage as the Convict, but that’s not something you want to actively do, considering you need to damage yourself to activate the effect. This is hands-down the worst starting item in the game because of the “take-damage-to-activate” effect. Health, while not as rare as Armor, is still not easy to replenish most of the time, so it’s never something you actively want triggered. The effect doesn’t even work as an emergency item that well, as the buff doesn’t last long enough to properly utilize it. It’s a silly item for silly people, don’t be a silly people.
Her (unfortunate) best trait is that she starts with a Molotov Use item, Her only worthwhile item. It can be thrown to catch an area on fire for a short time, giving her some decent AoE damage. The big issue with the Molotov is that its a use item that will not get too far Mid-Game, and can be easily replaced by a much better use item such as Decoy, and there are even some guns that causes fires or does something similar,. Hell, there’s even a Molotov Launcher, a gun that’s a Straight-Upgrade only because it’s a Molotov in a Gun slot instead of a Use item, even though it’s still not that great unless you have Fire-immunity. While it’s not bad, it’s effectively worse than the Robot’s Coolant Leak due to him starting w/ Battery Bullets, where he can wet the floor in front of him and dish out AOE damage just as well as the Convict’s Molotov, only in a more controlled, aimable fashion, as well as having bonus utility over the Molotov. If you’re going to be playing the Convict to use the Molotov…I mean…at least you could set yourself on fire to kill yourself on if you ever have the audacity to play her.
The Convict is by far the worst character in this game. She has close-to-no redeeming qualities about her, and the only one alright part about her is easily replaceable. If you ever have the willpower to attempt a Convict run, I pray for you & for RNGsus to be kind to your soul, and if you actually like the Convict, then more power to you, i’ll just be sitting on my money-mountain with my Robot watching and cheering you on.
*Post-AG&D Update*
The Convict remains at a D- Rank, as the update did nothing to give the Convict more use. Her Kit still sucks, Enraging Photo is still an overrated item for the silly, and there are still no niches she can fill, if at all, that other characters can’t do better. I wish I has more to say here about her but I really don’t.
Disclaimer
I basically stated this verbatim as a reply to someone’s comment, but I feel as though it’s an important enough statement to add into the actual guide as a little disclaimer:
In the grand scheme of things, it might not matter whom you do play as. The majority of the character differences are normally only present in Early-Game, as that’s when you’ll be using the character’s starting kit the most. However they are rated as they are because of how each character has different Niches they can fill, as well as some characters having their starting kit being much more long-lasting & impacting throughout the game than others (Why Marine is better than the Hunter and Convict, but worse than the Pilot). If people can play well enough to where they can win runs very consistently regardless of the character’s starting kit, then the character pick might not be as important. However some characters makes said runs go more smoothly than others, which is one of the reasons why I made the Tier List.
Ending Notes
Thanks if you’ve read this list I’ve made. I made this when I was curious about what other people thought of the Gungeon characters and was surprised by the amount of people who’d pick some characters over others. If you think differently than the list I’ve made then I’d be happy to know your opinion and maybe your reasoning.
But remember to always have fun in the Gungeon, and keep the bullets flying.