Across The Obelisk: Every Character, Ranked (2024)

Across The Obelisk is a team-based deckbuilding rogue-lite with fantasy role-playing elements baked into the game's story mode. The game enables co-op, so up to four players will choose a party comprised of four heroes, categorized as warriors, scouts, mages, and healers.

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If you're up for a real challenge, you can play solo, but be warned that you'll be managing four different decks at once. When choosing a character, you'll notice that each playable hero within the four generic roles has its own uniqueness and complexity. Finding the heroes that work for you, and work together, is the trick to guiding your team to victory!

16 Evelyn (Mage)

Evelyn is the first playable mage in the game and, as such, serves as a great starting point for new players to fully understand the various types of spell damage and debuffs. She is a jack of all trades, and a master of none, so she can be quickly outshone by other spellcasters. Still, her elemental resistances and the ability to enchant weapons are useful party buffs.

15 Andrin (Scout)

Andrin is Reginald's brother and the first playable scout in the game. His speed is in a league of its own, his ranged attacks are sufficient, as is his melee, and one can explore Bleed and Poison debuffs with his varying kit. Andrin's Wild Hunt ability allows for some impressive stacking of Hunter's Mark, which is a buff, allowing your entire team to deal more damage to the affected enemy.

14 Grukli (Warrior)

Grukli must be unlocked before playing, which is done by completing a fishing event. He's a lovable, wild dwarf who loves to get angry. He's known for stacking the Fury buff, which powers up your damage but also causes stacks of the Bleed debuff. Grukli as a front-liner is viable but can also be tricky, as you'll constantly be gambling with his health points, but the amount of damage he does may be worth the risk.

13 Zek (Mage)

Zek is a rat-man ("I go up at night and steal your cheese") who's playable once you complete his quest in the Sewer Outlet node beyond the Blue Portal. Zek specializes in shadow magic and applying the Dark curse to his foes, which lowers their shadow magic resistance.

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Pairing Zek with a healer like Malukah is a wise choice, as Malukah also specializes and benefits in the application of the Dark debuff. However, late-game story mode enemies have higher shadow resistance, so exploring some of his cold magic capabilities may be beneficial.

12 Cornelius (Mage)

Bust out some literal firepower with Cornelius, the fire mage. You'll unlock him by taking down a cult in Act 2 beyond the Red Portal.

Cornelius can either be a total glass cannon of fire damage and Burn curses, or he can play a supportive role, providing the team with tons of Energy buildup, allowing heroes more actions on their turn.

11 Malukah (Healer)

Malukah is the owner of a potion shop beyond the Green Portal and will only join your adventuring party when presented with a rare ingredient. She specializes in shadow damage, and her passive allows her to heal heroes when she applies the Dark debuff to an enemy, so it's ideal to find a sweet spot between her curses and healing cards. Utilizing the Vitality aura with her kit is an easy way to ensure heroes are topped off, so you can keep focusing on bringing the pain.

10 Magnus (Warrior)

Magnus is a lovable werewolf turncoat and is available at the beginning of the game as the first playable warrior. Balanced in defense and offense, Magnus makes a terrific frontline hero, able to stack and share a considerable amount of Block. However, his kit allows for the minimal application of different debuffs such as Crack, which allows for more blunt damage, or Bleed, which slowly kills enemies over time. He's also a very good boy.

9 Gustav (Scout)

Gustav is a frog bard unlocked by taking on his quest for a new instrument. Gustav specializes in mind damage and party buffs and utilizes the Stanza aura mechanic, which allows for unique cards to be played, depending on which Stanza aura Gustav has applied. And no, sadly, he does not sing the Rainbow Connection at any point in the game.

8 Bree (Warrior)

Bree, the forest warden, is an armored deer. You must aid in her quest before unlocking her. She has impressive maneuverability for a warrior and specializes in stacking the Thorn aura, which deals damage to whoever attacks her. However, she doesn't apply a large number of shields to herself, so expect some damage. All in all, her kit is very straightforward, and she makes an excellent main tank.

7 Thuls (Scout)

Thuls is a lizardfolk assassin whose Poison buildup is unmatched by other heroes. Unlocking him requires you to beat the boss in the Spider Lair, but the challenge is well worth it. Thuls can easily stack Stealth, which boosts the amount of damage you do upon breaking it, for some potentially nasty combos.

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Pairing his high damage from Stealth attacks with his efficiency stacking Poison will send most bosses to their graves. Just be cautious as Poison damage is only dealt after the enemies turn, so if they have time to heal, it could ruin your KO. Otherwise, he's a terrific character for your first win in story mode.

6 Ottis (Healer)

Ottis, the pig in priests garb, is by far the silliest of all heroes. What's not ridiculous is his capability to keep a team alive, and he's relatively easy to unlock, being able to do so within Act 1. As a healer, Ottis applies a shield to his allies, which can synergize with most warriors, and cursing enemies with Sanctify, which gives health back to whoever attacks the affected target. Ottis' starting deck has several low-cost heals, so he's ready to jump in the fray with little to no preparation.

5 Wilbur (Mage)

Wilbur is a tinkering gnome wizard who loves to play with electricity. He takes time to unlock, not fully finishing his quest until Act 4, but the wait is well worth it. Wilbur is an absolute monster at multi-target damage, stacking the Spark curse on one enemy to deal extra damage to the others around the target. His management of the Wet curse also ensures that his electricity packs an extra punch.

4 Reginald (Healer)

Reginald, the brother of Andrin, is the first playable healer at the beginning of the game, and healing is certainly something he does well. Reginald's low-cost healing cards paired with a skill of his like Focus Heal, which increases your next healing card by 100 percent efficacy, allows him to bring back multiple party members from death's door in a single turn.

Of course, this isn't scratching the surface of Reginald's damage-based playstyle, which centers around his holy spells (also low-cost) paired with his Bless aura, which increases healing and damage done with each stack added.

3 Heiner (Warrior)

Heiner is a magical golem you must repair via a quest before unlocking as a playable character. Heiner specializes in Block and Shield auras, making them the quintessential frontline tank, able to take a lot of incoming damage and share some of their defenses with the rest of the party. And combining Heiner's specialty with the card Shield Throw, which lets you deal damage to an enemy equal to the attacker's amount of Block, has the potential to one-hit several enemies.

2 Sylvie (Scout)

Sylvie is your classic elven archer, unlocked relatively early by taking a specific path in Act 1 and venturing through the Blue Portal. Sylvie is the queen of piercing damage, as her kit revolves around applying the Sharp aura, which increases piercing and slashing damage, and applying the Sight curse onto enemies, which gives explicitly Sylvie an extra damage boost ("Legolas! What do your elf eyes see?!")

Her synergy with the Sight application and buff support from other allies makes her an excellent pick for your team.

1 Nezglekt (Healer)

Nezglekt is (basically) a mind flayer who is definitely not taking over your party's mind while plunging their enemies into Insanity. Like Wilbur, you can't unlock them until Act 4, making them a late-game goal. As a healer, Nezglekt's healing is only activated by debuffs applied to the enemy, making the role of support a passive one.

However, Nezglekt's application of Insanity increases their mind damage, heals the party, and causes the enemy to do less damage, which at specific stacks is a devastating tactic. Nezglekt also synergizes well with other characters, like Gustav and Sylvie, who apply similar debuffs to the enemies.

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