Ravenswatch: Best Playable Characters, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Ravenswatch
  offers online co-op for a more fun experience, with distinct folk-hero themed characters.
• Updated with the major
  Fall Of Avalon
  update, featuring eight playable characters with unique skill-sets.
• Characters like Scarlet and The Snow Queen provide powerful damage and abilities for players to master.

For as many roguelike games as there are, there are few that allow players to play cooperatively online. Ravenswatch, however, features online co-op that arguably makes the game more fun, though players can also enjoy the game in single-player.

Ravenswatch’s world and playable characters are themed heavily around folk-heroes and old legends, giving the game a distinctive visual flair. With its recent 1.0 release marking the end of its run in Early Access, there’s never been a better time to delve into this challenging action rogue-like.

Updated on October 1st, 2024, by Harry Ted Sprinks: Ravenswatch, developed by Passtech Games (the team behind the unique action roguelike, Curse Of The Dead Gods), recently left Early Access, heading into 1.0 with a major update that added a new character to the game. This, along with the game’s additional talents and balance changes, has shifted the balance of the game dramatically. With nine playable characters now available, and each run taking over an hour to complete, it’s helpful to know what each character is capable of.

9 The Pied Piper

A Long-Range Character With Low Damage

The Pied Piper is one of the weakest characters in Ravenswatch, though he’s arguably more helpful in multiplayer, where he has a team that can draw enemies away from him. The Pied Piper’s damage output is relatively low when compared to other characters. However, he also has a long-range attack.

Because of this, the Pied Piper is one of the safest characters to play in Ravenswatch, as he doesn’t need to get close to enemies. While he’s a great choice for beginners, the Pied Piper remains one of the weaker characters, despite having a fair amount of utility in his toolkit.

8 Geppetto

A Quirky Character With A Slow Start

Geppetto is an interesting character with a unique playstyle, as his damage relies on the various auto-attacking dummies that he can create with his trait. However, as a result, Geppetto’s damage is somewhat hampered at the beginning of the game.

This makes Geppetto a hard character to get off the ground, though he scales relatively well into the late-game and can generally provide a lot of support to his teammates. Geppetto’s dummies are especially useful, as they can block projectiles and draw aggro, allowing Geppetto to easily revive team members in online co-op while his dummies distract their enemies.

7 Beowulf

A Tanky Character That Can Hold His Own

Beowulf is a strong and tanky character that can hold his own in many encounters. His Wyrm-empowered abilities are great at taking out large groups, and his shield helps protect him against projectiles and enemy attacks. Furthermore, Beowulf’s spin attack allows him to both initiate on enemies and retreat from combat.

Unfortunately, Beowulf’s close-range attacks and difficult-to-maneuver spin attack subjects him to a great deal of danger. Regardless, it could be argued that Beowulf has access to some of the more powerful talents in the game, making him a relatively strong character.

6 Melusine

A Powerful Character With A Strange Playstyle

Melusine takes a little getting used to, as she cannot attack and move at the same time. However, once players get used to switching between stances, Melusine can be extremely powerful. Thankfully, Melusine is able to maneuver about the battlefield fairly easily, allowing her to weave between enemies and keep herself out of danger.

Melusine is arguably more powerful when played in online co-op, as she can more easily attack enemies from afar while her team draws their attention. While Melusine doesn’t have as many AOE capabilities as the other characters, her Water Bomb ultimate is able to deal massive damage in a large area.

5 Sun Wukong

A High-Risk, High-Reward Character

Wukong is one of the newer additions to Ravenswatch, and features a risk-reward playstyle that won’t be for everyone. Wukong’s trait allows him to make use of two unique stances: one that allows him to deal (and receive) more damage, and another that allows him to recover health.

As a result, Wukong can be especially difficult for beginners to get a handle on, as in order to deal damage, he needs to be in his Yang stance, but this also makes him vulnerable to being one-shot, or at the very least taking huge amounts of damage. While in this vulnerable state, however, Wukong’s potential damage output is massive. Mastering the balance between both stances is essential to succeeding as Wukong, but mastering his defense ability – a powerful parry – is even more integral. Once players have mastered this hero, however, he can be tremendously powerful.

4 Carmilla

A Mobile Hero With A Risky Toolkit

This latest addition to the Ravenswatch is a stylish and ridiculously mobile hero with a risk-reward play-style that’s full of highs and lows. There’s a lot to take in with Carmilla, especially at first glance, but her diverse abilities and talents allow for expressive gameplay. Carmilla is centered around her Blood mechanic, a thematic system based around her nature as a vampire.

Carmilla uses Blood to get the most out of her abilities, some of which spend the valuable resource when used a certain way. Blood can be gained in a few ways, but if the player runs out, they are able to consume their health points instead. This isn’t ideal, however, as HP isn’t easy to come by via her toolkit. Each of Carmilla’s abilities are so diverse that they provide her with a great deal of mobility, damage, and AOE, making her a fluid character that scales brilliantly with talents. However, Carmilla’s abilities can take some getting used to, and her Power forces her to stand still, contradicting an otherwise mobile set of abilities.

3 Aladdin

A Powerful Support Hero

Aladdin’s modest damage output is made up for by his versatile ultimate and his ability to buff team-mates. This makes Aladdin tremendously more powerful in multiplayer, as he’s able to give players a head start with his Wishes, which grant consumables to everyone in the party.

One downside to Aladdin is his quirky special ability, which involves throwing his blades toward enemies and being unable to attack as a result. This does, however, enchant his blades and allow him to deal more damage, but it could be argued that Aladdin is left weak until he acquires the right talents. Despite these downsides, Aladdin’s supportive utilities make him one of the most powerful heroes for larger teams.

2 Scarlet

A Strong Damage Dealer With A Lack Of Control

Scarlet is one of the most powerful heroes in the game, with her only downside being the lack of control players have over her form. During the day, Scarlet is a glass-cannon with heaps of maneuverability and a defense option that renders her intangible, but at night she becomes a tank-like wolf with the ability to self-heal.

However, Scarlet’s combo-point system allows her to deal massive damage, though this does require some skill to execute. When played correctly, Scarlet can out-damage many of the other characters in Ravenswatch, especially with the right talents.

1 The Snow Queen

A Powerful Combination Of AOE And Single-Target Damage

The Snow Queen is currently one of the strongest characters in the game, as she is great against both single-targets and large groups of enemies. Many of her abilities allow her to chill enemies, while others allow her to deal bonus damage to enemies that she’s chilled.

With a strong close-range AOE that allows the Snow Queen to keep enemies away from her, and a great deal of agility gained through her defense ability (which allows her to ice-skate around the map), the Snow Queen is an agile character with an extreme amount of survivability and damage potential. Combined with her ultimate abilities (one that focuses on a single target, and another that focuses on massive AOE), the Snow Queen is arguably the strongest character currently available in Ravenswatch.