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HUNGER features six playable characters at Early Access launch. Each character, called a Living, has a unique background rooted in the game's Napoleonic setting and a distinct set of unlockable Passive, Tactical, and Ultimate abilities. Abilities are not rigidly locked: players customize each character further through deep Mastery trees with over 100 available talents, allowing for wide build variety within and across characters. Additional character types are planned for post-launch updates during Early Access.
Playable Characters
Character | Background |
|---|---|
Hugo | An ex-French nobleman and nihilistic aristocrat |
Eva | An assassin and thief who grew up in the slum districts of Paris |
Serene | A survivor of a slave revolt, hailing from the Isle of Santa Dominga in the Caribbean |
Marie | A battle nun descended from a Cistercian sect nestled high in the mountains |
Gabriel | A special forces cavalryman of Napoleon's Grande Armee, bound by the code of noblesse oblige |
Otto | A Prussian mercenary who sustains the squad through their access to armor crafting and repairs |
Each of the six is built to loosely fill a role without locking the player into it, and the developers have stressed that none of them is wholly sympathetic. Surviving the World After the End demands brutality and the willingness to cut losses and run, so every Living is painted in shades of gray, drawn from a deliberately varied set of cultural backgrounds.
The personal histories of several characters, including Gabriel, Marie, Hugo, and Eva, have been explored in official lore prologues that set up their place in the World After the End.
Otto was introduced under the name Abel and renamed during the third technical test, a change the studio attributed simply to the character being Prussian. Official key art produced before the change still carries the earlier name, so older promotional images and the current roster disagree on that one label.
The six are the launch roster rather than the final one. Work on additional Living has been under way alongside the main development effort, intended for introduction after launch, and no names or backgrounds for them have been published.
Progression and Customization
Every character levels from 1 to 100, unlocking talents through their Mastery tree. Players who wish to explore a radically different build can use additional character slots that unlock at progression milestones, keeping each Living as a distinct identity. The voluntary Prestige mechanic resets a character to level 1 and clears their Mastery trees in exchange for exclusive legendary cosmetics, offering an optional route for long-term players. Prestige cosmetics are introduced in tiers, with later Prestige tiers planned over the course of Early Access.
Character abilities have been through a full rebalance since the third technical test. The studio's stated reason was that some abilities had become defining parts of a playstyle while others, designed much earlier in development, had fallen behind as the rest of the game evolved. The mastery system was restructured at the same time, separating ranged and melee progression into their own paths.