Arms of God All Characters: How to Unlock Every Hero in Early Access
All Characters: How to Unlock Every Hero
Ten characters. Each with a unique active ability, a dedicated skill tree, and a mechanical identity that changes how you approach every run. Three are available from the start. Seven require specific unlock conditions — some straightforward, some obscure enough that the community didn't figure them out until week two.
This guide covers every unlock condition confirmed as of June 2026, what each character actually does in combat, and which ones are worth targeting early based on playstyle.
Character Overview Table
| Character | Unlock Condition | Damage Focus | Active Ability | Difficulty |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| The Templar | Available from start | Balanced (Physical) | Divine Shield — 4-second invulnerability, 45s cooldown | Easy |
| The Inquisitor | Available from start | Fire | Purifying Flame — massive fire AoE centered on character, 30s cooldown | Medium |
| The Stormcaller | Available from start | Shock | Chain Lightning — hits 8 targets, prioritizes elites, 25s cooldown | Medium |
| The Paladin | Defeat Act 1 boss | Holy / Melee | Holy Ground — consecrates area, healing 5% HP/sec for 8 seconds, 60s cooldown | Easy |
| The Zealot | Reach wave 20 without taking damage | Fire / Glass Cannon | Martyr's Fury — lose 30% current HP, gain 80% damage for 10 seconds, 35s cooldown | Hard |
| The Seraph | Collect 10,000 total souls across all runs | Holy / Ranged | Wings of Judgment — flight for 6 seconds, raining holy projectiles below, 50s cooldown | Medium |
| The Bishop | Complete Act 2 with 3 different characters | Holy / Support | Sanctuary — deploy barrier that blocks enemy projectiles for 6 seconds, 40s cooldown | Medium |
| The Prophet | Merge 50 weapons across all runs | Shock / Summoner | Call Relics — summon 3 autonomous turrets for 15 seconds, 55s cooldown | Hard |
| The Martyr | Die 20 times (cumulative across all runs) | Balanced / Risk-Reward | Final Sacrifice — on death, explode for 500% weapon damage and revive with 25% HP, once per run | Hard |
| The Exorcist | Defeat 500 elite enemies across all runs | Shock / Debuff | Banish — banish targeted elite enemy for 8 seconds, dealing damage over time, 35s cooldown | Medium |
Starter Characters (Available From First Run)
#### The Templar — The All-Rounder
The Templar is the game's tutorial character for good reason. His active ability, Divine Shield, gives you 4 seconds of complete invulnerability on a 45-second cooldown. This is the ultimate learning tool — when a boss winds up an attack you don't recognize, pop shield and observe the pattern safely.
Best for: Learning enemy patterns, first-clearing new Acts, consistent runs where you don't want surprises.
Weakness: Jack of all trades, master of none. The Templar has no damage-scaling passive, no elemental affinity bonuses, and no unique weapon synergies. He clears slower than specialists. A 35-minute Templar Act 3 clear becomes a 22-minute Inquisitor clear once you know the enemy patterns.
Skill tree priority: Max the cooldown reduction nodes first (reduces Divine Shield cooldown from 45s to 30s). The defensive stat nodes second. Damage nodes last — your damage comes from weapons and blessings, not the Templar's anemic damage passives.
#### The Inquisitor — The Fire Specialist
Passive: +25% fire damage, +15% burn duration. The Inquisitor is the highest-damage starter character and arguably the strongest character for progression once you understand enemy patterns.
His Purifying Flame ability deals damage in a radius around him, scaling with his fire damage bonus. At max rank with fire blessings stacked, this ability alone can clear an entire wave room in Act 3. The cooldown is short enough (30 seconds base, 22 seconds with skill tree investment) that you can use it once per wave.
Best for: Fast clears, fire-focused builds, players who want to kill things before they become threats.
Weakness: Zero defensive tools. No shield, no heal, no escape. If you get surrounded with Purifying Flame on cooldown, you die. Positioning is everything.
Skill tree priority: Ability damage first, cooldown reduction second, fire damage passives third. Ignore the HP nodes — if you're playing Inquisitor correctly, HP shouldn't matter because everything should be dead.
#### The Stormcaller — The Chain Lightning Specialist
Passive: +20% shock damage, chain lightning jumps to 1 additional target. The Stormcaller turns every shock weapon into a wave-clearing machine. His active ability hits 8 targets and prioritizes elites, making it one of the best elite-killing tools in the game.
Best for: Shock-focused builds, high enemy-density Acts (3 and 4), players who enjoy watching lightning arcs bounce across the screen.
Weakness: Single-target DPS against bosses is mediocre. Chain lightning needs multiple targets to reach its full potential. Against a lone boss, the Stormcaller's passive and active ability both underperform. You need strong single-target weapons (Hellfire Magnum, Seraph's Judgment) to compensate.
Skill tree priority: Chain count increase (adds 2 extra jumps at max rank), cooldown reduction, shock damage passives.
Early Unlocks (First 10 Hours)
#### The Paladin — Unlocked by Defeating the Act 1 Boss
Most players unlock the Paladin within their first 2-3 hours. The Act 1 boss, the Fallen Crusader, is the game's first real skill check. The Paladin reward is appropriate: a tanky melee-focused character whose active ability heals 5% HP per second for 8 seconds in a consecrated area.
Best for: Melee builds, safe progression through new Acts, players who prefer aggressive positioning over kiting.
Weakness: The healing requires standing still in the consecrated area. Against bosses with heavy area denial (Act 3 boss drops persistent damage pools), the heal zone becomes a trap. You heal 5% per second while taking 15% per second from standing in fire.
Skill tree priority: Heal amount first (scales to 8% per second), area duration second (extends to 12 seconds), area size third.
#### The Zealot — Unlocked by Reaching Wave 20 Without Taking Damage
This unlock condition is brutal. Wave 20 is roughly 25 minutes into a run. Not taking damage for 25 minutes requires perfect positioning, knowledge of every enemy attack pattern, and a lot of luck with enemy spawn compositions.
Strategy for unlocking: Play the Templar. Rush Training Ground movespeed to rank 8 minimum. Use ranged weapons only — melee weapons invite getting clipped. Prioritize knockback blessings to create space. The Templar's Divine Shield doesn't count against the "without taking damage" condition because damage absorbed by the shield isn't damage taken.
The Zealot's kit: Passive: damage increases by 1% for every 1% of missing HP (full glass cannon). Active: lose 30% current HP, gain 80% damage for 10 seconds. At 1 HP, the Zealot has the highest theoretical damage output in the game.
Best for: Speedrunning, high-risk high-reward play, players who enjoy the adrenaline of being one hit from death.
Weakness: Everything kills you. A stray projectile from an off-screen enemy ends your run. This character is not for progression — it's for showing off.
Mid-Game Unlocks (10-30 Hours)
#### The Seraph — Unlocked by Collecting 10,000 Total Souls
Souls are the in-run currency dropped by enemies. 10,000 sounds like a lot, but you collect roughly 500-800 per full Act 1 clear and 2,000+ per Act 3 clear. Playing normally, this unlock happens naturally around the 15-hour mark.
Best for: Holy-focused ranged builds, aerial combat, players who want to see the game from a different perspective.
Wings of Judgment: Flight for 6 seconds. While flying, you're immune to ground-based damage (most melee attacks, ground DoT pools) and rain holy projectiles on enemies below. The projectiles scale with your Holy damage bonus.
Skill tree priority: Flight duration (extends to 9 seconds), projectile count during flight, cooldown reduction.
#### The Bishop — Unlocked by Completing Act 2 with 3 Different Characters
This encourages you to diversify rather than one-tricking a single character. Act 2 is the swamp-themed Act with poison-spitting enemies and a boss that splits into copies. Completing it with the Templar (safe), Inquisitor (fast), and Paladin (melee) gives you three very different experiences.
Best for: Defensive play, support-oriented builds, players who value consistency over speed.
Sanctuary barrier: Blocks all enemy projectiles for 6 seconds. This hard-counters the Act 2 boss's copy phase (where 4 copies barrage you with projectiles) and the Act 4 enemies that fill the screen with bullet patterns. In multiplayer (when it arrives), the Bishop will be essential.
Skill tree priority: Barrier duration, barrier size (covers more area for team protection), cooldown reduction.
Late Unlocks (30+ Hours)
#### The Prophet — Unlocked by Merging 50 Weapons
Weapon merging is covered in detail in the merge guide, but the short version: combine two weapons at the shop between waves to transfer stats. Do this 50 times and you unlock the Prophet. The game tracks total merges across all runs, so you don't need 50 in a single run.
Best for: Summoner playstyle, players who enjoy managing multiple autonomous damage sources.
Call Relics: Summons 3 autonomous turrets that fire independently for 15 seconds. The turrets inherit a percentage of your weapon damage and attack speed. With the right build, they effectively triple your damage output for the duration.
Skill tree priority: Turret count (max 5 turrets at rank 5), turret duration (extends to 22 seconds), turret damage inheritance (base 40% of your damage, scales to 65%).
#### The Martyr — Unlocked by Dying 20 Times
Die. A lot. Twenty cumulative deaths across any number of runs. This unlock will happen naturally to most players before hour 5. If it hasn't, you're either exceptionally skilled or not pushing into higher Acts.
Best for: Players who die frequently and want that to be part of their strategy. With Final Sacrifice (once-per-run revive with a 500% damage explosion on death), dying becomes a tactical choice rather than a failure state.
Skill tree priority: Explosion damage (scales to 800%), revive HP percentage (scales to 40%), cooldown on Final Sacrifice (only matters in endless mode).
#### The Exorcist — Unlocked by Defeating 500 Elite Enemies
Elite enemies are the larger, named variants with special abilities. They spawn roughly 3-5 per Act, more in later Acts. 500 elites translates to roughly 100-150 full runs, or 40-50 Act 4 clears. This is the grindiest unlock in the game as of June 2026.
Best for: Elite enemy control, boss debuffing, players frustrated by specific elite types (the Act 3 shield elites, the Act 4 charger elites).
Banish ability: Removes an elite enemy from combat for 8 seconds while dealing damage over time. The banished enemy cannot attack, move, or use abilities. This effectively removes the most dangerous enemy in any wave room for its duration. Against the double-elite spawns in Act 4, banishing one turns a 2v1 into a 1v1.
Skill tree priority: Banish duration (extends to 12 seconds), damage over time during banish, cooldown reduction.
Which Character Should You Start With?
If you're new to bullet heaven games: The Templar. Divine Shield forgives positioning mistakes that would kill you on any other character. Learn enemy patterns from safety, then switch to a specialist later.
If you've played Vampire Survivors, Brotato, or similar: The Inquisitor. You already understand positioning and wave management. The Inquisitor rewards that knowledge with faster clears and more satisfying damage numbers.
If you want the highest skill ceiling: The Zealot. Unlocking the Zealot is hard. Mastering the Zealot is harder. But the speedrun leaderboards (when they arrive) will be dominated by Zealot players who have perfected the glass cannon playstyle.
FAQ
Q: Do I need to unlock characters in a specific order?
A: No. The three starters are always available. The seven unlockable characters have independent unlock conditions. You can unlock the Seraph before the Paladin if you're efficient at soul collection. The unlock conditions are tracked globally across all runs.
Q: What's the fastest way to unlock all characters?
A: Speedrun Act 1 repeatedly with the Inquisitor. Act 1 takes roughly 8-10 minutes per clear, awards ~600-800 souls, contains 3-4 elite enemies, and counts toward the "complete with multiple characters" requirement. It's boring but efficient. A more enjoyable approach: play normally and let unlocks happen naturally around hour 40.
Q: Are there hidden characters beyond these 10?
A: The Steam page and developer roadmap confirm 10 characters for Early Access. Dataminers have found references to an 11th character in the game files (codenamed "The Archangel") but there is no unlock condition in the current build. It may be added in a future update or reserved for the 1.0 release.
Q: Do character unlocks carry over if I delete my save?
A: No. Unlocks are stored in the local save file. Cloud saves are not yet implemented. Back up your save file before experimenting with resets.