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.

Sources

• Brotato on Steam (store and patch announcements 1.1.15.1–1.1.15.4)
• Brotato Steam news — All Pain No Gain, Primal Dread teaser and playtest
• Brotato Wiki — Characters
• Brotato Wiki — Stats
• Brotato Wiki — main page
• Brotato Wiki — Danger Levels
• Brotato Wiki — Wounded