Best characters, by role
For a first DLC run, Veteran and Archeologist are the friendliest because their mechanics work without a build. Time Shifter and Poacher have the highest ceilings. Survivor is the odd one out and suits players who like item-only runs.
There is no honest DPS chart for Primal Dread. The DLC is two days old, there are no official damage tables, and any tier list published this week is a vibes ranking with a table around it. What can be done honestly is a role list: which characters are forgiving on a first run, which ones have the highest ceiling once you understand the path system, and which ones are built for a second player on the couch.
Everything below is grounded in either the official character descriptions or the 1.2.0.0 buff list, which is public and specific.
First runs: forgiving picks
Veteran. The official description is a character used to facing swarms with no time to heal. That translates into a run that does not punish you for the mistake every new player makes, which is standing in the pack too long. You are expected to take hits; the character is built around it.
Archaeologist. Crates from dig sites, each one making the character stronger. The advantage for a first run is structural: the character tells you where to go. Instead of inventing a route through a new arena, you follow the dig sites, and the power curve comes to you.
Farmer. Not a DLC character, but worth naming because 1.2.0.0 changed it: Farmer now starts with a Garden. A starting Garden is a passive income stream from wave one, which is exactly what a new player needs while learning the Jungle's enemy patterns.
High ceiling: the ones that reward planning
Poacher. Kills inside a hunting area make it much stronger and pay less money. The ceiling is high because the scaling is uncapped in principle; the floor is low because a badly placed zone is just a tax. It is the character that most rewards understanding the arena, and it has a full page for that reason.
Time Shifter. Taking a hit slows everything except you. Played well, that is a free reset button every time the screen gets crowded. Played badly, it is a character that only uses its trait when it is already losing.
Survivor. The shop does not offer weapons, per the 1.2.0.1 fix. That is a hard constraint and a high ceiling at the same time: a run that solves its weapon problem another way gets to spend every shop visit on items. It is the natural Mutation character.
Co-op picks
Co-op changes the calculus, because two players split the screen and the enemy attention.
Veteran is the front-line pick. It is built to absorb a swarm, which means it can hold a lane while the other player does damage.
Archaeologist is the economy pick. Crates and dig sites are a shared-resource mechanic in spirit: the character generates value by moving around the map, which in co-op means one player can be productive without competing for kills.
Poacher is the awkward one in co-op. Its zone wants kills concentrated in one place, and a second player killing outside the zone is actively reducing its scaling. If you play Poacher in co-op, agree on the zone before the wave starts.
Buffed veterans worth another run
Update 1.2.0.0 buffed eight older characters. These are not new, but they are the characters whose numbers changed on the same day the DLC launched, which makes them relevant again.
| Character | What changed | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Diver | Enemy health modifier cut from 250% to 200% | The run is meaningfully less punishing |
| Druid | Fruit spawn chance up from 3 to 4 | More sustain without shop spending |
| Dwarf | Engineering every 5 kills instead of 6 | Faster structural scaling |
| Hiker | 5 materials per 8 steps, and no movement penalty | Pure upside; the old penalty is gone |
| Farmer | Starts with a Garden | Passive income from wave one |
| Fisherman | Gold penalty cut from -50% to -40% | Less economic drag |
| Beastmaster | Starts with an extra Rat pet | Extra body and extra damage from the start |
| One Armed | Weapon counts as 3 extra weapons for set bonuses | Sets become reachable with one weapon |
Hiker is the standout in that table. Removing a movement-speed penalty from a character whose identity is walking is not a tweak, it is a rewrite, and it makes Hiker one of the smoothest characters in the game right now.
Picking for your situation
| You want | Pick | Because |
|---|---|---|
| To finish a first DLC run | Veteran | Designed to survive the mistakes you will make |
| To learn the Jungle's layout | Archaeologist | The character's loop is map movement |
| The highest ceiling | Poacher | Uncapped scaling, if you can place the zone |
| An item-only puzzle | Survivor | The shop constraint forces a build |
| A smooth returning run | Hiker | The 1.2 buff removed its main drawback |
| Co-op front line | Veteran | Built to eat a swarm |
| Co-op economy | Archaeologist | Productive without competing for kills |
Two caveats. First, five of the ten new characters have no published mechanic, so they are missing from this list by necessity, not by judgement. Second, the buff list interacts with the DLC in ways nobody has mapped yet: Hiker on the Jungle, with a movement penalty removed, is a different character from Hiker on the Crash Zone.
Five characters still in the dark
No damage-per-second numbers, no win-rate percentages, no "S-tier" labels. Those require either official data or a sample size that does not exist yet. What is here is a set of picks justified by published mechanics, which is the standard the rest of this site holds itself to.
If you want the full roster with the achievement names, see all ten characters. If you want to know how the paths change these picks, see builds and synergies.
Checked 2026-11-04 against the 1.2.0.1 build.