Characters

There are eight playable **characters** (including DLC) in *20XX*. You can change characters in The Ark at any time, simply by moving up to the character capsules and pressing {Activate Thing} beside one of them.

## Character Stat Mechanics

For all characters, when Attack Strength and Power Strength has a value of +0, the base damage dealt is 10 before weapon multipliers are applied. Each point of Attack Strength or Power Strength above 0 adds 1 base damage, while each point below subtracts 0.5 base damage. Attack Strength and Power Strength have a lower limit of -18 (resulting in a base damage of 1), but no upper limit. Attacking Repros also base their damage off of your own Attack Strength or Power Strength.

All level pieces are designed to be completed with characters with +0 Run Speed and Jump Height - no mobility upgrades are required to win a run. Each point of Run Speed or Jump Height above 0 increases the respective stats, but has diminishing returns after +8 (half effect), +16 (quarter effect) and +32 (tenth effect). The gains do not diminish any further after +32 Run Speed or Jump Height. Run Speed has a minimum value of -5 and Jump Height has a minimum value of -1.

For cases in which stat modifiers would lower a stat below its lower limit, the stat is lowered to its lower limit, and the excess decrease, though it has no effect, continues to be tracked. Subsequent stat increases must neutralize the accumulated excess decrease before they can raise the stat above its lower limit again.

## Character Weapon Mechanics

Most weapons can be manually charged by holding the {Primary Fire} key. Unless otherwise specified, charged attacks deal double the damage of a given weapon and ultracharged attacks (only possible while Dracopent's Claw is equipped) stacks the charge bonus again, normally dealing triple damage.

## Base Game Starting Characters

The initial characters, Nina and Ace, both have 8 Maximum Health and Maximum Energy.

### Nina

Nina is one of the two main protagonists of the game, the other being Ace. She is a ranged fighter, starting off with the N-Buster, which fires small yellow pellets. She has blond hair, a blue helmet, blue armor, and, due to the aforementioned N-Buster, only one hand which has a yellow glove. In terms of gameplay, she and Ace play similarly to X and Zero from the *Mega Man X* games, the former of each pair being ranged fighters and the latter of each pair excelling in melee combat.

Unlike Ace, Nina's weapons generally only have piercing properties when charged with the {Primary Fire} button.

Additionally, for weapons other than the Scatterblast, bosses will take damage from up to three shots in rapid succession before they gain invulnerability frames. (Bosses take damage from up to an entire Scatterblast burst at once before they gain invulnerability frames, but subsequent bursts during a boss' invulnerability frames will have no effect.)

### Ace

Starring as the game's other main protagonist, Ace is a melee fighter, sharing most of his gameplay with Zero from the *Mega Man X* games. He starts off with the A-Saber, who attacks with a three-swing combo. All of his weapons have enemy-piercing properties, and can attack certain parts of enemies which Nina cannot. Ace has red armor and black gloves, and his eyes appear more robotic.

Additionally, for weapons other than the Plasma Blender, bosses will take damage from an entire combo from a weapon before starting their invulnerabiltiy frames - although hits after the first only deal 75% damage. Only attacks from a single combo will hit and reset an enemy's invulnerabiltiy frames, attacking with a different combo or an attack not part of the combo will have boss invulnerability frames work as normal. (For Plasma Blender, as it technically doesn't combo, boss invulnerability frames are halved instead.)

## Downloadable Content Characters

Downloadable Content Characters, or DLC characters, are additional characters introduced after the game's release which must be purchased separately before they become playable in any game mode (no DLC is required to play a vanilla character along with someone else using a DLC character in coop play). All character-specific armaments for these characters are unlocked by default. When playing on a console (Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One) these characters are unlocked by beating the game instead as the DLC is not available for purchase on these platforms.

### Hawk

Hawk is a Power specialist. She starts with 8 Maximum Health and Energy and -5 Power Strength; in exchange, her weapon, the Siphon, lets her leech Energy from enemies, allowing her to use Powers much more than other characters can.

In the PC version, Hawk is DLC. On consoles, Hawk can be unlocked by beating the game in any mode except Rush Job.

Rather than having 5 different weapons to obtain from Diamond Chests, Hawk instead starts with a unique Power in addition to her Siphon and can obtain her four other unique Powers from Diamond Chests (like all other characters, Hawk can only carry up to 8 Powers at a time).

### Draco

Draco is a Primary Weapon specialist. He starts with -4 Maximum Energy. Draco cannot charge his weapons normally - instead, he can store up to 2 Dracocharges (regenerating 1 every 2 seconds). These Dracocharges can be consumed to fire a charged shot. Unlike the other characters, Draco can carry up to 8 different Primary Weapons at any time, but he can only carry a single Power. Additionally, after defeating a boss, the boss' Power has a 50% chance to be replaced with any alternate Primary Weapon, including those normally exclusive to Nina or Ace. However, Draco cannot receive any of a character's starting weapons - so N-Buster, A-Saber, and The Siphon are unavailable to him.

In the PC version, Draco is DLC. On consoles, Draco can be unlocked by beating the game in any mode except Rush Job.

## Revenants

 **Warning: This section contains major spoilers. Read at your own risk.**

Revenant characters, unlocked upon first-time completion of a Defiant run with at least 3 Skulls active, are prototype versions of the starting characters which start off with inferior stats, have inferior weapons or reduced access to weapons, and are unable to equip Core Augments. In exchange, they have a slightly higher base chance of encountering Very Safe Labs, and they gain greater positive effects from Prototypes.

To select one of the revenants, hold Up while selecting the capsule that corresponds to the non-revenant version of the character.

### Vika

Vika is the prototype version of Nina, wielding a weapon which functions identically to the N-Buster, with the exception of dealing half damage.

### Jest

Jest is the prototype version of Ace, wielding a weapon which functions identically to the A-Saber, with the exception of dealing half damage.

### Autumn

Autumn is the Revenant version of Hawk. Unlike Vika and Jest, Autumn wields the same Primary Weapon as Hawk, The Siphon. Autumn starts with -10 Power Strength, and has a 0.5x multiplier to her Attack Strength. Autumn also starts with 4 maximum energy instead of just 2 like the other Revenants. Additionally, due to Revenants not normally finding Diamond Chests during their runs, Autumn has a 50% chance for a Boss' Power to be replaced with one of Hawk's Powers.

### Dvorac

Dvorac is the Revenant version of Draco. Unlike Vika and Jest, Dvorac wields the same Primary Weapons as Draco, and can even pick up alternate Primary Weapons. Dvorac has a 0.5x multiplier to his Attack Strength, and can only store a single Dracocharge, as well as starting with only one maximum energy.