Brotato: Beginner-to-Advanced Guide

How to win Brotato runs consistently: stats, the shop, weapon classes, economy, character picks, and how to climb from Danger 0 to Danger 5 and the new Nightmare difficulty.

Researched September 2026 — current as of patch 1.1.15.4 (May 27, 2026), after the free All Pain No Gain update, with the Primal Dread DLC announced for late 2026. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

A run is 20 waves. Waves get longer and harder. Wave 20 ends with a boss fight. Endless mode lets you keep going after that.
Weapons fire automatically. You only move. Manual aiming is an option if you want it.
Materials are both money and XP. Pick up the green drops. Levelling up gives you a stat upgrade choice at the end of the wave.
The shop comes between waves. Buy weapons and items, lock the ones you want to afford later, and reroll when nothing fits.
You hold up to 6 weapons. Two identical weapons of the same tier merge into the next tier (tiers I to IV).
Weapon classes give set bonuses. Several weapons from the same class (Gun, Blade, Elemental, Precise and so on) grant a stat bonus.
Each character changes the rules. Their modifiers often push you toward one damage type or playstyle. Build around them rather than against them.
Economy early, power late. Harvesting and cheap early items snowball into a stronger late game.
Winning unlocks harder dangers and more characters. Each Danger win with a character is tracked separately.

Core Loop

Wave: survive the timer, kill enemies, grab materials, and break loot crates (they give items).
Level-up screen: pick one of the offered stat upgrades for each level gained.
Crate screen: keep or recycle each item you found in crates.
Shop: buy, lock, reroll or recycle weapons.
Repeat until wave 20.

Materials left on the floor when a wave ends go into a bag and pay out during the next wave, so you don't lose them.

Stats Explained

Primary stats

Stat	What it does	Notes
Max HP	Damage you can take	No cap
HP Regeneration	Passive healing over time	Strong with Armor
Life Steal	Chance for hits to heal 1 HP	Triggers at most every 0.1 s (10 HP/second max)
Damage	+1% to all damage per point	Multiplies everything
Melee / Ranged / Elemental Damage	Adds to that weapon type's base damage	Scaling depends on each weapon
Attack Speed	Attack faster	Capped at 12 attacks per second
Crit Chance	Chance to crit	Capped at 100%
Engineering	Powers structures (turrets, landmines, gardens)	Core Engineer stat
Range	Weapon reach	Minimum range is 25
Armor	Reduces incoming damage by a %	Diminishing returns, but always good
Dodge	Chance to avoid hits	Capped at 60% (70% for Cryptid, 90% for Ghost)
Speed	Movement speed	Uncapped. Makes kiting easier
Luck	Better item rarity and drop chances	Strong early in long runs
Harvesting	Materials and XP at wave end	Grows 5% each time it pays out. The economy stat

Curse is an extra stat from the Abyssal Terrors DLC. It spawns cursed enemies and cursed shop items with extra power and risk.

Useful secondary stats

Consumable Heal, % Materials Healing, % XP Gain, % Pickup Range, % Items Price, Explosion Damage/Size, Bounces, Piercing, % Damage against Bosses, Structure Attack Speed/Range, Burning Speed/Spread, Knockback, Double Material Chance, Free Rerolls, Trees, % Enemies, % Enemy Speed and % Reroll Price. Hover over any stat in the run to see its exact effect.

The Shop: How to Spend

Waves 1–5: get a usable weapon set and economy (Harvesting, Luck, cheap stat items). Don't overspend on rerolls.
Waves 6–12: commit to a damage type and a class. Merge weapons toward tier III and IV.
Waves 13–20: pile on survivability (HP, Armor, Dodge, Regen) and damage multipliers. Get ready for the elites and the wave 20 boss fight.
Lock a key weapon or item if you can't afford it yet. It stays in the shop for the next wave.
Recycle weapons you've outgrown for materials.
Reroll prices go up each time you reroll in the same shop, so reroll with purpose.

Weapon Classes and Set Bonuses

Weapons belong to one or more classes. Holding several from the same class gives that class's bonus, and the bonus grows with more weapons. Some examples:

Class	Typical focus
Gun	Ranged damage and range
Precise	Crit chance
Blade	Life Steal and melee
Blunt	Armor and knockback
Elemental	Elemental damage and burning
Primitive	Max HP and cheap weapons
Medical	Healing and regen
Tool	Engineering
Unarmed	Dodge and attack speed
Explosive	Explosion size and damage
Heavy	Big hits, slower weapons

Weapon stats and set bonus values change with patches, so read the tooltip in your version. The shop shows set progress when you hover a weapon.

Characters: Where to Start

Brotato has 62 characters when you include DLC. Five are available from the start:

Starter	Style	Tip
Well Rounded	Balanced stats	The best "learn the game" character
Brawler	Unarmed specialist	Stack Dodge and Attack Speed with fists
Crazy	Precise weapons with huge range	Knives and other precise weapons deliver crits from far away
Ranger	Ranged damage and range	Guns: SMG, Minigun and other ranged options
Mage	Elemental damage	Can't scale melee damage, so go all-in on elemental weapons

Easy early unlocks:

Chunky: die once.
Old: kill 300 enemies.
Lucky: collect 300 materials.
Mutant: kill 2,000 enemies.
Generalist: collect 2,000 materials.

Danger unlocks: winning Danger 0 unlocks One Armed, Danger 1 unlocks Bull, Danger 2 Soldier, Danger 3 Masochist, Danger 4 Knight and Danger 5 Demon.

Abyssal Terrors DLC characters: Sailor, Curious, Builder, Captain, Creature, Chef, Druid, Dwarf, Gangster, Diver, Hiker, Buccaneer, Ogre, Romantic.

New in All Pain No Gain: Wounded, a glass cannon that dies in one hit but starts with +8 Harvesting and +5% Speed, and whose shops and crates skip Max HP, HP Regen, Life Steal and Armor items. You unlock it by winning a Nightmare run.

Restricted level-up upgrades (patch 1.1.15.2)

Characters whose effects make certain stats useless no longer get those upgrades on level-up (they can still appear after wave 20 in Endless):

Character	Removed from level-ups
Wounded	HP Regen, Life Steal, Max Health, Armor
Mage	Melee Damage, Ranged Damage
Chunky	Speed
Hunter	Harvesting
Cyborg	Melee Damage, Elemental Damage
Technomage	Melee Damage, Ranged Damage
Sailor	Harvesting
Golem	Life Steal, HP Regen

Build Archetypes

Archetype	Characters	Key stats	Notes
Ranged gunline	Ranger, Soldier-style runs	Ranged Damage, Attack Speed, Range	Kite in circles. Many guns share a class bonus
Crit melee	Crazy, Knight	Crit Chance, Melee Damage, Attack Speed	Precise weapons like knives
Elemental	Mage, Technomage	Elemental Damage, Attack Speed	Burning shreds swarms
Engineering	Engineer, Builder	Engineering, structure attack speed	Turrets and Landmines do the work. You focus on surviving
Tank	Knight, Bull-style runs	Armor, Max HP, Regen	Walk through crowds. Needs enough damage to kill elites
Economy snowball	Farmer, Entrepreneur-style runs	Harvesting, Luck, cheap items	Weak early, very strong late

Danger Levels and Difficulty

Danger 0–5: each level adds tougher enemies, elites and horde waves, and stronger bosses. Wins unlock the next level for that character.
Danger breakdown (per the wiki): D1 adds new enemies; D2 adds an elite or horde in wave 11 or 12; D3 makes enemies deal 12% more damage with 12% more HP; D4 raises that to 26% and has elites or hordes across waves 11 to 18; D5 raises it to 40% and spawns two bosses (each with 25% less HP) at wave 20.
Nightmare (from the All Pain No Gain update): a new top difficulty for experienced players. On top of Danger 5 it gives enemies +60% damage and HP and +10% speed, and adds environmental projectiles and obscuring fog.
Accessibility options let you change enemy health, damage and speed if you just want to see content.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mixing damage types. Six weapons that each scale from a different stat means none of them scale.
Ignoring Armor and HP until wave 15. Elites and the final waves punish glass builds unless the character is built for it.
Standing still. Keep moving in wide circles. Corners are death traps.
Over-rerolling early. Reroll costs climb, and early materials are better spent on economy.
Buying items the character can't use (like Melee Damage on Mage). The newer restricted upgrades help, but for most characters shop items aren't filtered.
Forgetting to lock. If you see the weapon that completes your set but can't afford it, lock it.

Advanced Tips

Merge toward tier IV. Two tier III copies of your core weapon beat four different tier I weapons.
Speed is defense. Higher movement speed makes kiting and material collection much safer.
Trees and Luck: extra trees mean more consumables and crates, which is why tree items are popular in economy runs.
Save materials for the late shops. Late-game shops are more likely to have higher-tier items. Luck helps too.
Know your boss answer. Before wave 20, make sure you can either kill the boss quickly (% Damage against Bosses, burst) or survive a long fight (Armor, Regen, Life Steal).
Co-op: local co-op supports up to 4 players. Recent patches made fog of war scale per player and fixed 3 and 4 player shop UI overlap.
Title screen: since 1.1.15.3, the title screen follows update/DLC timelines and goes back to Default two weeks after a major update. Choose one manually in Options > Video if you want to keep it.

What's Coming: Primal Dread DLC

Primal Dread is Brotato's next DLC, a jungle and dinosaur themed expansion with a new soundtrack by Adonai. A signup playtest started in August 2026, and Blobfish says it's planned for end of 2026. The team is also teasing a showing at The Triple-i Initiative on October 8, 2026.

FAQ

How many waves are in a Brotato run? 20 waves in normal mode. Endless mode continues past wave 20.

What's the best character for beginners? Well Rounded to learn the game, then Ranger or Crazy for easy early wins.

What does Harvesting do? It gives you materials and XP at the end of each wave. It's the main economy stat.

What's the dodge cap? 60%, except Cryptid (70%) and Ghost (90%).

How do I unlock Nightmare difficulty? Nightmare is the top difficulty added in All Pain No Gain and sits above Danger 5, so you need to be clearing Danger 5 first; check the in-game difficulty screen for the exact requirement. It keeps every Danger 5 modifier and adds +60% enemy damage and HP, +10% enemy speed, environmental projectiles and obscuring fog. Winning a Nightmare run unlocks the Wounded character.

Is Abyssal Terrors worth it? If you've unlocked most base characters, yes. It adds 14 characters, the Curse stat and new content.

Does Brotato have online co-op? Brotato is built for local co-op with up to 4 players. Steam Remote Play Together works for playing with friends online.