The ten new characters
Primal Dread adds ten characters: Archaeologist, Arsonist, Caveman, Droid, Mad Scientist, Poacher, Survivor, Time Shifter, Variant and Veteran. Each has a win achievement, which is how the full roster can be checked in-game.
Ten new potatoes arrived with Primal Dread, and the roster is checkable in a way most DLC rosters are not. Every character in Brotato has a "Win a run with..." achievement, so the ten new names appear as ten consecutive entries in the game's public achievement list. That list is where the table below comes from.
The developers described four of the ten in the launch post, in their own words, and left the rest to be discovered. That is a deliberate choice, and this page respects it: where there is an official description, it is quoted in substance; where there is not, the page says so instead of inventing a mechanic.
Ten potatoes
| Character | Achievement | What the official notes say |
|---|---|---|
| Archaeologist | Win a run with Archaeologist | Digs up crates from dig sites, and gets stronger with every crate |
| Arsonist | Win a run with Arsonist | Listed in the achievement roster; no mechanic described in the notes |
| Caveman | Win a run with Caveman | Listed in the achievement roster; no mechanic described in the notes |
| Droid | Win a run with Droid | Listed in the achievement roster; no mechanic described in the notes |
| Mad Scientist | Win a run with Mad Scientist | Listed in the achievement roster; no mechanic described in the notes |
| Poacher | Win a run with Poacher | Creates a hunting area; kills inside it make the Poacher much stronger but bring less money |
| Survivor | Win a run with Survivor | The shop does not offer weapons, per the 1.2.0.1 fix that stops mutations copying it |
| Time Shifter | Win a run with Time Shifter | Taking a hit slows everything around it, except itself |
| Variant | Win a run with Variant | Listed in the achievement roster; no mechanic described in the notes |
| Veteran | Win a run with Veteran | Built for facing swarms with no time to heal |
Reading that table honestly: four characters have a documented hook, one has a quirk that surfaced through a patch note, and five are names you will meet in the character select screen.
Four with real hooks
Archaeologist is the crate character. Dig sites produce crates, and every crate makes it stronger. The launch post frames it as an Indiana Jones reference, which tells you the loop is exploration rather than raw combat: you are rewarded for going to the dig, not for standing still and shooting.
Poacher is the area character. It creates a hunting zone, and every enemy killed inside that zone makes it stronger, at the cost of those enemies bringing less money. It is a scaling engine paid for with your shop economy, and it has its own page because the placement decisions deserve one.
Time Shifter is the panic button. Take a hit and everything around you slows down except you. That is a defensive trait that doubles as an offensive window: the second after a hit is when you can reposition and clear the pack that just touched you. It rewards players who can use a bad moment instead of dying to it.
Veteran is the swarm character. The notes describe a one-potato army used to facing crowds without time to heal, with a joke about not having time to bleed. The design implication is straightforward: no healing downtime means you want mitigation and clear speed rather than regen.
One documented quirk
Survivor is the odd one. The shop does not offer weapons, which is a huge structural constraint in a game built around six weapon slots: you get your weapons from somewhere else, or you do not get them. Patch 1.2.0.1 had to stop mutations from copying that effect, which confirms both that the trait exists and that it is a penalty rather than a bonus.
That makes Survivor the natural pick for anyone who wants an item-first run, and the natural pick for the Mutation path, because a character with few weapons has nothing to lose from a stat that duplicates items instead.
Why ten, when Abyssal had fourteen
Abyssal Terrors shipped fourteen characters. Primal Dread ships ten, with more weapons and more items. The trade is visible in the content list: 10 characters, 17 weapons, 40 items versus 14, 16 and 30-plus.
That is a design choice, not a downgrade. A character is the most expensive kind of content to make legible, because each one needs a trait, a stat spread, an unlock and a place in the roster. Ten characters with a new stat system attached is a different budget line from fourteen characters bolted onto the existing one.
How to try them without wasting runs
The ten all unlock the same way: win a run with them, per the achievement list. That means the roster opens up as you play, and it means a character you cannot win with is a character you cannot check off.
Three notes for the first week:
- Do not start with the five undocumented ones. You will spend a run learning a mechanic nobody has written down. Start with Veteran or Archaeologist, whose hooks are described, then branch out.
- Pair the character with a path. Item-first characters belong on Mutation; weapon-first characters belong on Mecha. The Evolution overview explains the split.
- Check the achievement list after each win. If the entry is not there, you did not win with that character, whatever the run summary said.
No ranking, and why
It will not rank the ten by damage, because no official damage numbers exist and the roster is two days old. It will not describe a mechanic that the developers have not described. And it will not pretend the five undocumented characters are blank: they have traits, they have stat spreads, and they are in the game; they simply are not documented in public yet, and you will meet them in the select screen.
For a role-based shortlist rather than an alphabetical roster, see best characters by role. For the character the developers teased twice, see Poacher.
Checked 2026-11-04 against the 1.2.0.1 build and the public Steam achievement list.