Exiled Survivors Best Characters: Who to Play First

Exiled Survivors advertises up to 30 characters, and the game’s data confirms two dozen of them by name. The store page’s pitch — “unlock up to 30 characters” — undersells how different they play: each character is a starting kit and a trait, which means each one pushes you toward a different skill family from the first offer screen.

This guide groups the confirmed roster by archetype and tells you who to start with.

The archetypes

The roster splits into five groups. The names below are the characters confirmed in the game’s data.

Melee bruisers — Knight, Crusader, Raider, Reaver, Brawler, Skirmisher, Kobold. The in-your-face group. These kits push you toward swords, hammers and spears, which means Melee Focus and Melee Area Focus in the passive pool. They are the easiest characters to learn on because their skills work without aiming, and the hardest to master because melee means standing closer to the thing that kills you. If you play one of these, Movement Focus is not optional.

Casters — Arcanist, Sorcerer, Wizard, Elementalist, BattleMage, JackOfAllTrades. Pure magic kits: orbs, beams, arcane barrages, elemental strikes. They lean on the Elemental and Arcane skill lines and the elemental Focus passives. The JackOfAllTrades is the generalist — no single specialty, which makes it the most forgiving and the least explosive.

Elemental specialists — Pyromancer, FireTamer, FrostWeaver, ArcticMage. Single-element kits that commit you from the first offer. The FireTamer feeds the fire line (fireballs, fire vortices, infernal rains, Ring of Fire and its enchantments); the FrostWeaver and ArcticMage feed the frost line (winter orbs, ice shards, blizzards, freezing slashes, permafrost marks). Specialist characters are the strongest in the late game because their starting kit already biases the weighted offer pool toward their element.

Ranged physical — Ranger, Marksman. Arrows, crossbow bolts, darts and volleys. These two feed the Crossbow and Arrow lines — the S-tier families — and they are the safest beginners because their damage works at every range. If you want the strongest skill families in the game backing you up, start here.

Specialists — Trapper, Shaman, PlagueDoctor, Vampire, Undead. The weird ones. The Trapper feeds the trap and mine lines; the Shaman feeds totems and nature; the PlagueDoctor feeds poison, plague and miasma; the Vampire and Undead feed bleeding and the undead themes. These are the highest-ceiling characters and the hardest to learn, because their lines reward planning — placement, status stacking, attrition — over raw clear speed.

Who to play first

Ranger or Marksman. The Arrow and Crossbow lines are the strongest families in the game, they work at all ranges, and they teach you the offer screen without punishing positioning mistakes. Start here if you have no other reason.

Knight. The classic pick. A melee kit with no complexity: swing, walk, level up. You will learn the game’s most important lesson — keep moving — because melee punishes standing still immediately.

FrostWeaver or FireTamer. If you already know the genre and want to see what committed builds look like, an elemental specialist shows you the Focus passive engine working from minute one.

Avoid starting with: Trapper, PlagueDoctor, Vampire. Not because they are weak — because their lines depend on systems (status stacking, placement, attrition) that the game never explains. Play them third, after you know what a Focus passive does.

How characters unlock

The game uses several unlock condition types, all visible in its data: kills with a character, victories, timed unlocks, boss kill-time records, total kills, skill-damage milestones, and learning specific skills. In practice this means:

Play who you enjoy, and the roster opens itself. Almost every condition is something you do anyway by playing — wins, kills, boss clears.

Boss kill-time records matter. Some characters unlock on beating a boss fast, not just beating it. If a character refuses to unlock, the answer is usually a faster boss clear, not more bosses.

Timed unlocks exist. A few characters open on playtime or event timers. There is nothing to optimize; log in, play, wait.

The full list of confirmed characters: Arcanist, ArcticMage, BattleMage, Brawler, Crusader, Elementalist, FireTamer, FrostWeaver, JackOfAllTrades, Knight, Kobold, Marksman, PlagueDoctor, Pyromancer, Raider, Ranger, Reaver, Shaman, Skirmisher, Sorcerer, Trapper, Undead, Vampire, Wizard — with more in the roster beyond these.

The one thing to remember

Your character does not determine your build — it biases it. A Knight can end up running a frost build if the offers go that way. What the character really decides is your first five minutes and which skill family the weighted offer pool favors. Pick the archetype whose favorite family you want to see more of, and let the unlocks come on their own.