Character Guide: Bruiser, Wrangler & Glider
Meet the four Mycopunk characters — Bruiser, Wrangler, Scrapper, and Glider — plus how to switch employees, level them, and build upgrades.
Meet the Four Mycopunk Characters
Four employees are on the Saxon Industries payroll in early access — Bruiser, Wrangler, Scrapper, and Glider — and each one answers the same question differently: how do you stay alive while everything on the map wants you scrapped? All four hit hard and all four are friendly to a first-timer, so the real distinction is the gear strapped to each frame. More hires are expected as early access continues, so treat this roster as a snapshot rather than a finished list.
| Employee | Signature gear | Movement identity | Plays like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bruiser | Shield and ground slam | Grounded by default, but upgrade paths add serious mobility | A front-line anchor who controls space |
| Wrangler | Grappling hook and dash | Horizontal repositioning and fast gap-closing | A duelist who picks fights and leaves on his terms |
| Scrapper | Grappling pole and jetpack | Vertical routes and unexpected angles | An aggressive brawler who attacks from above |
| Glider | Wingsuit and shoulder-mounted lock-on missiles | Airtime and gliding traversal | A ranged pressure pick who punishes from height |
The important detail that trips up new players: your employee does not lock your loadout. Every weapon in the game can be used by any class, and there is no primary/secondary split — you equip any two weapons and both are fully yours. That means choosing among the Mycopunk characters is really a choice about movement, defensive tools, and how you want to open a fight.
If you want to see how each one's signature gear reshapes a run before you commit, this breakdown of the four employees in action walks through their kits in early missions.
How to Choose Your First Employee
Because every class is viable, don't agonize over tiers. Pick the fantasy that sounds cool to you, then learn the map with it. The table below matches common player preferences to a starting pick.
| If your instinct is... | Start with | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| "I want to hold a doorway and not budge" | Bruiser | The shield plus ground slam gives you a defensive tool and a crowd-control panic button in one kit |
| "I want to be everywhere at once" | Wrangler | Grappling hook and dash turn distance into a suggestion |
| "I want to fight from angles nobody expects" | Scrapper | The grappling pole and jetpack open vertical routes the other three have to earn |
| "I want to delete things from the sky" | Glider | Wingsuit airtime plus shoulder-mounted lock-on missiles keeps you above the mess |
Your other early decision is the first weapon unlock. Two options appear after the tutorial, and neither is a trap:
| Starter weapon | Strength | Best first pick if... |
|---|---|---|
| Swarm Launcher | Short-range crowd control with a "death from above" feel | You plan to jump into high-hazard missions and want crowd control in the build immediately |
| DMLR | Medium-to-long-range rifle with a high-damage single-target laser mode | You plan to start on more forgiving difficulty and want flexible range |
Either way, you can unlock the second option fairly quickly, so treat the choice as a head start rather than a commitment.
Switching Mycopunk Characters Without Losing Progress
Swapping is painless. Head back to the hub, open the pause menu, and click your character to change employees at any time while you're there. Plan the switch before you pull the lever at the drop pod, since the drop pod is where you confirm a mission, choose difficulty, and set swarm intensity.
What carries over and what doesn't is where new players get confused:
| Progression | Shared or separate? | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Resources (Gats, Romys, Gusula, Bizia, Yuko, Saxonite) | Shared | Spent on unlocks for any employee or weapon |
| Unlocked weapons | Shared | Any class can equip any two |
| Upgrade inventory | Shared | But each copy must be slotted into a specific gear grid before it applies |
| Employee level | Separate per employee | Each level grants one skill point |
| Weapon level | Separate per weapon | Each weapon has its own upgrade grid size |
| Player level | Combined | Your player level is the sum of all employee levels |
The practical takeaway: experiment freely with Mycopunk characters, because nothing you earn is wasted.
Leveling Your Mycopunk Characters
Here's the part that surprises people — levels do not change your stats directly. They unlock things. Your upgrade grid expands as individual employees and individual weapons reach certain levels, and your account-wide player level opens system-wide perks.
| Milestone | What unlocks |
|---|---|
| Employee or weapon level 3 | Larger upgrade grid for that specific gear |
| Employee or weapon level 6 | Grid grows again |
| Employee or weapon level 10 | Current maximum grid size (no further growth beyond this) |
| Player level 12 | Overtime assignment becomes available — a weekly, difficulty-locked mission with six modifiers and reliable upgrade farming |
| Player level 30 | Ability to rotate upgrade nodes inside the grid, which is huge for fitting awkward shapes |
There is no level cap, but nothing unlocks past player level 30. Grid size is tracked per employee and per weapon, so a maxed Glider does nothing for your Scrapper or your Swarm Launcher.
Skill points deserve their own note. You earn one per employee level, every node costs exactly one point, and you do not need to unlock adjacent tiles first. Points spent in any employee's tree count toward the "spend X points" requirements on other nodes, so you can reach a distant upgrade early — just remember it still has to fit into your grid before it does anything.
Building Each Character: Upgrades and Elements
Every upgrade has a shape, and every piece of gear has a hex grid. More powerful upgrades are rarer, more expensive, and more awkward to place, which turns build-crafting into a packing puzzle rather than a menu choice. Most upgrade abilities stack, but unless the text explicitly says otherwise you cannot equip two copies of the same upgrade. Upgrades with hollow nodes are exclusive and usually elemental, so most builds commit to one element.
| Element | What it tends to do | Build around it by... |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Leans toward healing and self-sustain | Stacking "while on fire" triggers, including upgrades that ignite you when you burn enemies |
| Electric (shock) | Leans toward move speed | Pairing with hit-and-run play and repositioning tools |
| Decay | Applies a debuff that makes targets take more damage | Applying it first, then dumping burst damage |
| Corrosion | One of the shared damage-over-time elements | Testing pairings in the grid to see what it enables |
Three habits make building faster:
- Sweep the maps for hidden crates. These one-time collectibles can hand out up to 17 free upgrades, which is the fastest early boost available to any of the Mycopunk characters.
- Use targeting consumables. The personal access token and premium loot license let you steer which employee or weapon your next upgrade belongs to, and they even work if you activate them mid-mission. They cap at five each, so spend them.
- Recycle duplicates. Crafting costs four scrap for a random upgrade, six for a specific weapon, or eight for an exact upgrade; scrapping unwanted extras is how you fund it. Check stat rolls first, since every drop rolls its own numbers.
Also grab upgrades you miss after the mission from the lost loot dispenser — a despawned pyramid is not a lost pyramid. And watch enemy status effects closely: fire, shock, and gas clouds will chew through you early, before your healing options come online.
Teamwork, Revives, and Friendly Fire
Your team is made of robots, which means death is a detour rather than an ending. When a teammate goes down, they split into two pieces and get flung across the map. Pick up the parts and throw them back together and they revive instantly — no channel, no downtime. Don't leave them scattered too long, because enemies will keep working on you while you play fetch.
If you're separated, hold the default spare-parts call-in key to drop replacement parts right in front of you, and use the same call-in system to bring in the D19 Dart, the current personal vehicle. Three more things to keep in mind:
- Friendly fire is on. Any weapon can drop a teammate, including yours.
- Respawns are limited. The remaining count sits at the top center of your screen; when it hits zero, the mission ends.
- Failure is soft. You keep every upgrade and resource you collected, but you forfeit completion bonuses and end-of-mission loot rolls.
Movement is your real defense. Sliding, mantling, double jumps, and even sprinting backward are all in the kit, and staying in motion is non-negotiable — even Bruiser has movement upgrades worth chasing. Just don't drift so far from your team that a revive turns into a scavenger hunt.
FAQ
How many Mycopunk characters are there right now? Four: Bruiser, Wrangler, Scrapper, and Glider. The game is in early access and more employees are expected later, so the roster will likely grow.
Can you change Mycopunk characters mid-mission? Switching happens in the hub through the pause menu, so pick your employee before you confirm a mission at the drop pod. Bring the class you actually want to level.
Do Mycopunk characters share levels and upgrades? Partially. Resources, weapon unlocks, and your upgrade inventory are shared, but employee levels and weapon levels are tracked individually. Your player level is simply the sum of your employee levels.
What happens when your character dies? You split into two pieces and a teammate has to carry or throw the parts back together to revive you instantly. If your whole team runs out of respawns, the mission ends — but you keep the upgrades and resources you already earned.
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