All 9 Survivors: Unlocks and Ranks
The roster
Nine survivors, three of whom you never have to unlock. That is not stated anywhere in the marketing, but it falls out of the achievement list cleanly: there are exactly six “Unlock the …” achievements, and SWAT, Tank and Engineer are not among them.
| Survivor | Unlock | Signature ability or weapon | Damage identity |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWAT | Starting survivor | Ricochet (evolves into Ricochet: Shattering) | Kinetic → Slashing |
| Tank | Starting survivor | Bombing Strike (evolves into Bioweapon) | Explosive → Chemical |
| Engineer | Starting survivor | Turret family, including Ice Turret | Ice and area control |
| Huntress | ”The Hunt Is On!” | Bow line | Single-target ranged |
| Ghost | ”Ghost In The Hell” | Kunai Dance | Slashing burst |
| Medic | ”Medic!” | Medical Drone, Syringer | Support and sustain |
| Pyro | ”Fired up! Ready to go!” | Flamethrower line | Fire |
| Mechanic | ”Need A Hand?” | Cooling Mods | Ice conversion |
| Ranger | ”Texas Ranger” — Survival Level 175 | Crossbow, plus Good Boy and Falcon companions | Kinetic, and squad-wide buffs |
Survival Level 175 for Ranger is the only unlock threshold the studio has published as a number. The others are earned through play, and the exact conditions have not been documented officially — this page does not invent them.
Ranks: five each since 1.0
Every survivor has a skill tree with ranks. Version 1.0 added a fifth rank to all nine, along with, per survivor, “2 new synergy nodes, 2 passive improvement nodes, and one passive node with a bonus for the whole team, provided the said Survivor is present.”
That last clause matters more than it reads: a survivor sitting in your squad now buffs the others just by being there, whether or not you build into them. It is the mechanical reason squad composition is a real decision rather than a matter of picking your three favourites.
Ranks 2 through 5 each have an achievement, which is 36 achievements across the roster:
| Survivor | Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWAT | Call of Duty | For Great Justice! | Come Get Some | Main Character Energy |
| Tank | Iron Will | The Juggernaut | The Immovable | The Unbreakable |
| Engineer | Trust Me, I’m An Engineer | Fullmetal Engineer | The King Engine | Unreal Engine |
| Huntress | An Arrow To The Knee | Bullseye! | Won’t See Me Coming | Pro Hunter License |
| Ghost | Bravo Six, Going Dark | Haunting Presence | Banshee Scream | Cutting Edge Technology |
| Medic | An Apple Won’t Keep Me Away | A Vaccine Against Death | Medical Marvel | Universal Healthcare |
| Pyro | Burning Desire | Through The Fire and Flames | It Burns! | Inferno Incarnate |
| Mechanic | Equipment Inspection | Serious Tinkering | Hardcore Underclocking | Sub-Zero Wins |
| Ranger | Lead the Way! | Fed By Hand | YAZS, Queen! | True Animal Lover |
The Survival Level each rank requires is not published. If a guide gives you exact numbers for these, ask where they came from.
Synergies
Cross-survivor synergies went from three to four per survivor in 1.0. Three of the four are tied to specific abilities; the fourth works independently of them. This is why a squad built around one damage type tends to outperform a squad of three individually strong picks — the synergy layer rewards overlap, and the independent fourth synergy means even an off-build survivor contributes something.
Personal mission chains
Every survivor asks for five missions, and each one is its own achievement — 45 in total. Finishing them raises Team Bond, and each survivor unlocks repeatable quests afterwards.
The chains are named thematically, which makes them easy to identify in the achievement list:
| Survivor | Mission chain, in order |
|---|---|
| SWAT | Window of opportunity → Breach and hold → Emergency rescue → No-knock entry → Crisis Negotiation |
| Tank | Breaking and Entering → Criminal Contempt → Aiding and Abetting → Perjury → Aggravated Assault |
| Engineer | Six Thinking Hats → SWOT Analysis → Heroic Theory → Trial and Error → Brainstorming |
| Huntress | React → Recollect → Relinquish → Readjust → Reinvest |
| Ghost | Encapsulation → Compilation → Recursion → Defragmentation → Refactoring |
| Medic | Trauma → Hemostasis → Inflammation → Proliferation → Remodelling |
| Pyro | Exposure → Accelerant → Flashover → Backdraft → Rekindle |
| Mechanic | Observation → Formulation → Hypothesis → Antithesis → Synthesis |
| Ranger | Seeding → Germination → Sprouting → Sapling → Flowering |
The naming is a joke that runs all the way through: the Tank’s chain is criminal charges of escalating severity, the Engineer’s is business-school frameworks, the Ghost’s is software engineering terms, the Medic’s is stages of wound healing, the Pyro’s is fire behaviour, and the Ranger’s is a plant growing.
One patch note worth carrying into this: Trauma, the Medic’s first mission, was made easier in patch 1.0.0c — items required went from 3 to 2.
Leading a run
Each survivor also has a “Survive the night with X as the team leader” achievement, which confirms the team leader slot is a real mechanical position rather than a display order:
Semper Fi (SWAT) · Steel Dawn (Tank) · Told You, You Can Trust Me (Engineer) · Bow Before Me (Huntress) · Way Past The Witching Hour (Ghost) · Impeccable Immunity (Medic) · Phoenix Rises (Pyro) · Armed Through The Night (Mechanic) · Of Birbs And Puppers (Ranger)
Two harder variants sit on top of this: The Lone Wolf (complete a Default run with just the team leader) and You And What Army? (the same on Hardcore). See the game modes guide for what those runs involve, and the survivor tier list for which picks hold up when they are alone.
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