Revision 9

DragonSword: Awakening has nineteen playable Heroes. Each Hero has a distinct Status Ailment ability, which is the primary thing that differentiates them mechanically from one another.

All Unlockable Through Play

Under the Buy-to-Play Model for the Western release, every Hero is obtainable through the story and in-game activities. No Hero is locked behind gacha pulls or extra paid purchases beyond the base game. Hound13 has stated on record that all heroes originally intended for World 1 are included in the package and obtainable through story progression and gameplay. This is a deliberate departure from the Korean free-to-play version, which used gacha to distribute heroes.

Where They Fit Into Combat

Status Ailment variety is the clearest way to understand what a Hero does. One Hero might specialise in stacking a particular ailment; another might chain debuffs that set up big burst damage. Players extend those ailments with Active Skills and close with Signal Skills through the Switching Signals tag-team system, so the practical question is which ailments and which Signal Skills the player wants to have in their active rotation.

Named Heroes so Far

Nine Heroes are publicly named as playable as of the early-June 2026 pre-launch campaign. The first six (Lute, Castella, Aria, Kalien, Theresia, and Ornette) were revealed through April and May 2026; three more, the knights of the Orbis Royal Castle (Cerese, Reina, and Kalsion), were introduced in the Orbis Kingdom Hero Teaser at the start of June 2026. A separate public name, Johnny, is recorded as a travelling companion of Lute but has not been confirmed as one of the nineteen playable Heroes; he is listed in the Companions and Side Cast section below. The remaining identities will be revealed through the rest of the run-up and the June 2026 Steam Next Fest demo.

Post-Launch Heroes

Hound13 has confirmed that Ryza will be the first Hero added after the July 2026 launch. She could not be included in the initial roster because of implementation issues and is the studio's top priority for the first post-launch character addition. Her kit and Status Ailments have not been detailed yet.

Companions and Side Cast

Three named characters travel with Heroes but have not been confirmed as playable members of the nineteen-Hero roster:

Heroes of Old

Sixty years before the events of the game, a Dragon nearly destroyed the continent, and six legendary Heroes of Old rose to drive it back. Those six are not part of the playable roster; they are a lore element. One of the main pre-launch quest hooks is that the modern party is tracing the footsteps of the legendary Heroes across the continent to uncover their hidden secrets.

Becoming the Dragon Sword

The title of the game is in-universe as well as marketing copy. Hound13 describes the central question as whether the modern cast, led by Lute, can truly become the Dragon Sword, savior of the continent. The Dragon Sword is not a weapon item; it is the title borne by whoever rises to take on the Dragon threat. Whether the player's Heroes earn that title, and what happens if they do not, is the spine of the main story.

Related

• Status Ailments - the combat layer every Hero is built around.

• Active Skills and Signal Skills - the mid-combo and finisher layers each Hero contributes to.

• Buy-to-Play Model - why every Hero is unlocked through play rather than through gacha.

• Continent of Orbis - the open-world setting the Heroes share.