Batter

**Ganji Gupta**, also known as the **Batter**, is an Assist/Rescue Hybrid Type and Difficulty 2.5 Survivor available for purchase after completion of the prologue. He is one of **43** playable Survivors added to Identity V.

—Ganji Gupta (Deduction Quest No. 10)

## Appearance

Ganji is a well-built, sinewy doll with tanned skin, thick, curly black hair pulled into a dark blue bandanna, frowning, furrowed, thick black eyebrows, and brown or dark blue button eyes cross-stitched with white thread. Multiple scars slash across the bridge of his nose.

He wears a loose, unbuttoned white shirt with loose, rolled-up sleeves, light tan trousers with white leg guards, and leather loafers. A red sash is tied around his waist, and he wears a shiny black leather wristguard on his right wrist. He also wears white cricket gloves, silver earrings, and a thin leather necklace with silver beads. Tears are visible in his right shoulder, left wrist, and right leg, showing cotton stuffing. He carries a wooden cricket bat with the handle wrapped in black linen bandages in his right hand.

## Gameplay

The Batter is an assist/rescue-type Survivor who can use his Cricket Bat to hit cricket balls in specific directions and velocities, in which the longer it is held, the further the Hunter will be knocked back. He can also unleash a Rampage, in which case any balls connecting with the Hunter will stun them upon hitting an obstacle, though after that a cooldown of 40 seconds is required before triggering another Rampage. When a teammate is hit within 18 meters of him, he will gain a movement speed boost of 50% for 10 seconds as long as he is not being pursued, though a cooldown of 60 seconds in needed to trigger the boost again. He has a severe decoding debuff of 20% as well.

### External Traits

Below is a list of Batter's external traits. For more in-depth information, please check the individual pages.

### Character Statistics

Below is a list of Batter's statistics. To view other Survivors' gameplay data, please view **this article**.

### Tips

**Please press "Expand" to see tips.**

* The Batter starts off the match with 3 Cricket balls.
	+ Fallen/used Cricket balls on the ground will have a golden glow and slight pillar of light above them showing their location.
		- The color of the pillar of light will change based on the accessory equipped.
	+ Used Cricket balls can be retrieved as long as they are not destroyed by the hunter.
* Aim the hit slightly to the left of the crosshair, as it is not entirely accurate and the ball tends to launch slightly towards the right side.
* When a teammate is hit, Altruism will activate which allows you to run faster for a relatively long period of time. Use this speed boost to transition towards the kiter to help them or prepare for a balloon rescue.
	+ Note that it will not activate if the survivor being chased is within 18m.
* Activating Rampage can reset the cooldown for your Cricket bat and allow you to attempt to use it again immediately.
	+ Be careful about activating Rampage, as cricket balls hit in Rampage mode will always be destroyed, not only if they miss.
	+ It is best used after a normal Cricket hit since the cooldown is reset.
	+ Pro players will use a normal Cricket hit, activate Rampage to cancel the cooldown, then immediately cancel Rampage so the ball will not be destroyed when hit
	+ Try not to use balls while Rampage is active unless you absolutely have to, since you cannot retrieve your balls when used in Rampage mode.
* A hunter will only be stunned if they are knocked back into an obstacle while Rampage is active. Normal cricket balls will not stun, even if the hunter gets pushed into an obstacle.
	+ Note that the cricket ball will fall in front of where the hunter ends up, and will need to be retrieved before it can be used again. It is important to pick up any fallen cricket balls before the hunter can destroy them.
	+ The further back the hunter gets pushed, the longer the stun duration.
* Instantly tapping to activate the ball prevents it from landing too far from you. You can tap the skill button to knock back the hunter and dip in to quickly retrieve the ball.
* Instead of attempting to stun the hunter, Batter is best used to cancel hunter animations.
	+ Be ready to cancel skills like Bloody Queen's mirror or Naiad's harpoon recall, which can put them on cooldown.
	+ Batter is best used for balloon rescues as the hunter is in the ballooning animation, which will free the survivor instantly instead of locking them in an animation.
* You can cancel hunter animations through pallets and windows, similar to how Cowboy can use his lasso through the same obstacles.
* Batter can be great for looping obstacles like the carousel on Moonlit River Park or the Shack building on many maps.

## Concept / Design Notes

### Official News

Hit the bat hard and scored a hat-trick. Reborn from the ashes, stepping into the land of "hope". With extraordinary skills and a great sense of mission, he will surely bring more excitement to this chasing contest!

***Weird neighbors, caught in the whirlpool of public opinion***

***Talented golfer, struggling to ignite hope***

Even if one's personality is distorted by the conspiracy of a foreign land, and one's talent is bound by a high wall piled up, one still has to break free from fate and strive to ignite that insignificant hope.

The batter's attire is very professional, including cricket uniforms, shin guards, batting gloves, batting bats, etc. The blue turban on his head and the red belt around his waist represent the strategy and enthusiasm bestowed on him by his hometown. This is the secret of his invincibility on the court. Facing the new pursuit that is about to start, the batter has dignified eyes, a fierce look, and a desire to win. Only by doing his best and at all costs can he have a chance to win and achieve his goal of returning home.

### Social Media

"Even the gentlest people cannot stand blind deception. After fleeing from his guardian's house, Ganji still had no where to live in the world."

According to our launch plan and plot arrangement, we wanted to introduce a sporty, talented and fierce male survivor, and the skill planner gave us a set of implacable survivor skills with a strong restrictive skill set, but since the skill set was too restrictive for the essence and it's original setting was too modern to fit Identity V's world, we chose to reconstruct the skills, and the three main characteristics were long-ranged, with strong interference abilities and low risk. The combinations of these elements reminded us of cricket, a sport that allowed long-range attacks and was also very popular in the twentieth century.

The origins and publicity of the sport forms the core of Ganji Gupta's backstory. The Batter's destiny begins to fall along with the development of cricket. His extraordinary talent is not allowed to emerge, because of his status and the politician's agendas. This forces Ganji to change from a person with a gentle temperament to someone who must fight fate with forceful means. At the same time, he is a maniac patient, which fits the criteria for his skill.

### Design Sketches

In terms of styling, we referenced the standard model of a cricketer in the early 20th century for his hand-held object and character model, which fits the context of him training in a foreign country; we kept some elements of his hometown to show his background; in terms of personality, we use the burns to show his experience as well as his fierce and maniac characteristics.

## Change Log

May 13th, 2021
* Buff: The Batter will now warm-up before battle, removing his Rampage cooldown at the start of the game. When the game begins, he can now focus his energy to enter Rampage state directly.
* Buff: He can now enter the Rampage state while moving.
* Buff: Rampage's duration has been increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
* Buff: When the Batter is on Rampage, his "Athletic" will be boosted, increasing his vaulting speed and pallet dropping speed bonus from 20% to 40%.
* Buff: Rampage can now be manually stopped by the player.

December 2nd, 2021
* Nerf: Increased the action speed of a Hunter destroying Batter's Cricket Ball.
* Nerf: Reduced the maximum distance of the Batter knocking back a Hunter from 5.08 meters to 4.14 meters (uncharged) and from 10.15 meters to 8.18 meters (fully charged).
* Nerf: Reduced the maximum duration of stun inflicted against a Hunter by the Cricket Ball on Rampage from 3.75 seconds to 3 seconds.

June 30th, 2022
* Nerf: Increased time required to get a full charge from 1.5 seconds to 2.2 seconds, and decreased the distance for which the Cricket Ball could knock the Hunter back by 10%.

January 4th, 2024
* Adjustment: The Mechanic's Doll and the Journalist's Illusions no longer trigger the Batter's Altruism after being hit.

## Trivia

* He is 1 of 14 survivors that have a 'secondary role' which classifies them in two categories. (This can be seen on the paperclip when viewing Survivor Profiles.)
	+ He is classified as both an Assist and Rescue role, Assist appears to be his primary role while Rescue is his secondary role.
	+ He was previously an Contain/Assist Type Survivor until his roles were changed to Assist/Rescue in the May 19th 2022.
* He and "Undead" are the last playable characters that aren't identity switches to receive both worn clothes and deductions on the later seasons after their releases as all of the recent playable characters now receive both worn clothes and deductions upon release or soon after.
* His last name, Gupta, is Punjabi, implying he hails from the Northern Indian state of Punjab.

## References

1. ↑ Can drink Dovlin
2. ↑ A Website confirming the (former) Voice Actor of **Batter** and Night Watch - https://zh.moegirl.org.cn/%E5%AE%89%E5%BF%97
3. ↑ Ganji's eyes are shown to be brown in his official concept art and sprites, while his in-game model appears to have dark blue eyes.
4. ↑ https://id5.163.com/news/official/20201221/26476\_922866.html
5. ↑ https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4586352899790047