Our Brotato guide highlights the best spuds to take into battle
Brotato has made its way to the Epic Games Store, bringing along its unique brand of chaotic top-down action and charming carb-filled characters. It’s a perfect fit for players who enjoy the frantic nature of twin-stick shooters but don’t want to have to contend with juggling attacks and movement all in one go. With aiming and attacking handled for you, Brotato lets you focus on what’s important: dodging enemy fire, picking up materials, and perfecting your build in between waves of enemies.
Of course, with over 60 battle-ready spuds as well as hundreds of weapons and items to choose from, there’s an almost paralyzing amount of variety on offer. Our Brotato guide highlights our picks for some of the best characters to consider checking out the next time you start a new run.
Brotato is free on the Epic Games Store from 11 AM EST on November 28, 2024, until 11 AM EST on December 5, 2024.
Well Rounded
Well Rounded is a great option for newcomers because of its simplicity. It has no negative effects to speak of and provides a 5% bump to speed, +5 Max HP, and a slight boost to its Harvesting stat, which increases how much experience and materials you’ll earn at the end of each wave.
Given how Brotato has a seemingly endless combination of stat and weapon buffs to consider, the Well Rounded tater is a great pick for those who are just starting out, enabling them to learn the ropes without having to worry about picking a character that has a mix of stat bumps and debuffs. Best of all, Well Rounded is available to pick from the start of the game!
Farmer
The aptly named Farmer is a bit of a powerhouse when it comes to…well, farming! Rather than focusing on being a high-damage character, the Farmer’s ace in the hole is its Harvesting stat. Not only does it get an initial Harvesting buff of +20, but that buff also increases by 3% at the end of each wave or by +1 anytime you eat a consumable when at full health. As a result, it doesn’t take long for the Farmer to start amassing massive amounts of XP and materials, even with a 50% penalty to how many materials are dropped by enemies.
The winning strategy is to focus on weapons that can keep the Farmer alive and increase your resource yield, such as the Pruner. In between rounds, you’ll want to spend your material on buying items (which can greatly boost your stats and longevity), re-rolling the shop’s inventory if there aren’t any good items available.
The Farmer can be unlocked by reaching a +200 Harvesting stat on any given run.
Ghost
The Ghost comes with one of the largest starting debuffs to any stat with its -100 Armor penalty almost doubling the amount of damage you’ll take from any enemy attack that lands. Thankfully, it has one trump card up its sleeve: dodging. Not only does the Ghost start with a 30% bump to its Dodge stat (which means you’ll have a 30% chance to avoid any attack right out the gate), its stat cap for dodging has been raised all the way to 90%, as opposed to the regular 60%. With its +10 damage bump to any Ethereal weapon, you’ll want to focus on raising its Dodge stat as soon as possible, and outfit yourself with as many Ghost Axes as possible (they are the strongest non-legendary Ethereal weapon, a class that also provide a bump to Dodge).
To unlock Ghost, you’ll have to reach the (regular) max cap of 60% Dodge while playing as another character.
Speedy
Speedy’s key to staying alive is to never stop moving. Much like the Ghost, it gets a -100 debuff to Armor when standing still, but that can be negated by constantly being on the move. Thankfully, with a +30% Speed bump as well as an increase to melee damage based on your current Speed, you should be able to outrun your enemies if you can keep your damage output and rate of fire high enough. One common tactic is to outfit Speedy with as many Shurikens as possible; while they are a ranged weapon, they scale off of melee damage.
To unlock Speedy, you’ll need to get your Speed to +50% on any run.
Doctor
The Doctor is a bit of an odd one; while its Attack Speed is reduced by 100% right off the bat, it also gets a 200% bump to Attack Speed if you are using a medical weapon. While there are only a small number of these weapon types in the game, the Doctor has access to two of them as part of its starting loadout.
As long as you focus on only using medical weapons, the Doctor can quickly become a force to be reckoned with thanks to its starting buffs to HP Regeneration and Harvesting. As your run progresses, you’ll want to keep your eye out for the Circular Saw, the most powerful medical weapon in the game.
To unlock the Doctor, you’ll need to have a run where you heal 200 HP or more during a single wave.
One Armed
While most other characters can equip up to six weapons at any given time, One Armed is a bit of an outlier. Although it can only hold one weapon, its strength comes from its whopping +200% Attack Speed as well as its 100% increase to any damage modifiers.
Needless to say, you’ll want to keep your eye out for any items that increase your damage output. Focus is a safe bet; it provides a 30% bump to damage (which gets doubled to 60%), and its negative effect of lowering Attack Speed by 3% for each different weapon you have equipped is minimized. Silver Bullet is also a great pickup, since it will give you a total of 50% extra damage against elite enemies and bosses.
To unlock One Armed, you’ll have to successfully complete one run (consisting of 20 waves) with no difficulty modifiers (referred to in-game as Danger 0).
Masochist
Seeing as how you’ll have to complete a run with Danger 3 to unlock the Masochist, it’s very much a late-game character best suited for expert level players, but it serves up a wildly different playstyle that will appeal to those who like to live dangerously.
The Masochist has an interesting gimmick. While it has a -100% damage debuff, it also temporarily gains a 5% to its damage stat any time it loses HP, which lasts until the end of the wave. This means that to unlock its full potential, you’ll need to purposefully take damage, though the risk of doing so is partially offset by its buffs to Max HP, HP Regeneration, and Armor.
Much like One Armed, you’ll want to be on the lookout for a few particular items that synergize well with the Masochist. If you come across Blood Donation, immediately buy it if possible, since it buffs your Harvesting by +40, while also dealing 1 damage to you every second. This ensures that you’ll be dealing more and more damage as a wave progresses, and your increased Max HP and HP Regeneration will mitigate its effects. The same goes for Bloody Hand; much like Blood Donation, it deals 1 damage to you every second, but it also increases your damage output based on your Life Steal stat, which it just happens to bump by 10% anyway.
Knight
The Knight is a close-quarters powerhouse, starting off with +3 Armor and receiving a +2 bump to melee damage for each Armor you have. That being said, it does come with some limitations: It can’t equip Tier 1 (common/basic) or ranged weapons, and any modifications it might have to Attack Speed or Harvesting are drastically reduced.
It’s certainly intended to be used by more seasoned Brotato players (especially since it can only be unlocked by winning a Danger 4 run), but the synergy between Armor and melee damage is hard to ignore for anyone who likes fighting up close and personal.
Demon
There’s a good chance the Demon will be one of the final characters you unlock, since you’ll have to successfully complete a Danger 5 run first. This is probably for the best, since the Demon has one of the most difficult ability pools to successfully employ.
Rather than being subjected to a handful of stat penalties and buffs, the Demon works completely differently from every other character. Instead of using materials to buy items and weapons, you’ll instead use your Max HP as currency. To offset this, the Demon gains Max HP at the end of every wave based on how many Materials they currently have.
It’s a very risky playstyle, to say the least, but there are a few tricks to take advantage of if you’re willing to put it all on the line. During the first 5 to 10 waves of a run, prices at the shop tend to be cheaper, and when playing with the Demon, it’s not uncommon for items and weapons to cost 1 or 2 HP. As a result, if you’re willing to start a wave with only 1 HP, you can make dozens of purchases early on in a run, thus setting yourself up for success later on.
That about wraps it up for our Brotato guide. We hope these tips help you make your way through the endless hordes of otherworldly creatures the game throws at you.
Brotato is waiting for you on the Epic Games Store.
Brotato is free on the Epic Games Store from 11 AM EST on November 28, 2024, until 11 AM EST on December 5, 2024.