Characters / Arknights - The Reunion Movement

Arknights Characters
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Factions: Rhodes Island | The Reunion Movement | Dublinn | The Military Commission of Kazdel | Allied Factions | Enemy Factions | Miscellaneous factions & characters | Nation States (A-M | N-Z) | Enemy Units Index

What are you made of?

The primary antagonist faction of Arknights, Reunion is a movement and organization dedicated to the liberation and fair treatment of individuals with Oripathy infection. Oripathy infectees have, since the beginning of the Catastrophies and the advent of the era of Originium, been shunned and ostracized (particularly once symptoms can no longer be concealed) for fear of being contagious and due to longstanding lack of knowledge about Oripathy.

Reunion is dedicated to ending this cycle of oppression... but the movement's new leadership seemingly has very little interest in peaceful protest or reconciliation (or even activism, as the game opens), and have increasingly taken to brazen terrorism and assault to further their goals. As the game opens, Reunion is engaged in the destruction of the nomadic city of Chernobog and becomes embroiled in a conflict with Rhodes Island... the conflict that you, Doctor, must help steer Rhodes through.

As a group

• Accomplice by Inaction: The more radical members hold this belief towards fellow infected who simply wanted to live normal lives. "Innocents" are not in their vocabulary, if someone doesn't actively take a stand against how the Oripathy-infected are treated then they are considered fair game.
• All for Nothing: Possibly the grim fate that awaits them even if they are victorious: their enemies dead, society collapses, and Infected rules over all. Unfortunately, it still will not save them from dying painfully from their Oripathy which is described to have a 100% mortality rate if not treated. The only treatment and relieving of symptoms comes from their main enemy, Rhodes Island, who is most likely destroyed or scattered at that point, considering their 'take no prisoner' approach. Kal'tsit even Lampshades this when she asks Crownslayer if Reunion even thought about what they would do to Lungmen if they managed to seize it.
• Army of Thieves and Whores: At least a chunk of their forces are made up of gangsters and other assorted "lowlifes" (though folks like Talulah certainly have opinions on why Oripathy victims disproportionately end up this way). A few of the other leaders, though, seem to hold Reunion's rank and file in similar disdain to their opponents.
• Back from the Brink: Chapter 9 reveals that a new Reunion movement, now led by Nine, is beginning to make strides once more to protect the Infected their way.
• Dark and Troubled Past: A recurring theme for all Infected who have to resort to following Reunion's destructive methods, the leaders themselves being no exception.
• Dwindling Party: By Chapter 7, most of the remaining leadership has been killed off (Faust, FrostNova, Patriot, and Skullshatterer), with only Talulah, Mephisto, Crownslayer, and W left—and with W having turned out to be The Mole, Mephisto going through a full Villainous Breakdown and deserting, and Crownslayer having genuine conflicts on loyalties herself after the truth she was seeking Revenge for being revealed by Kal'stit—Reunion's survival is pretty grim, especially with how disposable the whole movement is in truth for Talulah. By the end of Chapter 8, the only one left to lead the remnants of Reunion is Nine, who wasn't even one of the original leaders.
• Faceless Goons: Many of their members wear face-concealing headwear, from lowly thugs all the way to those in leadership position such as Big Bob and Skullshatterer.
• A Father to His Men: While they are on the antagonistic side, most of Reunion's leadership greatly cares about their subordinates and their safety, which in return their troops are more than willing to sacrifice their lives when their leaders endangered or died. To name a few: Skullshatterer's men do everything they can to retrieve his body while under fire, FrostNova gets extremely angry when her comrades are hurt, and Big Bob refers to his men as his brothers. The only twisted example and the exception is Mephisto, while he refers to his men as his brothers in glowing terms, he treats all his men as expendable because he's a necromancer and thus doesn't have to care if his men are alive or dead.
• Foil: To Rhodes Island. Both organizations seek to improve the lives of infected people, but while Rhodes Island is trying to do it through medical and other means largely recognized as legal by the various nations of the world, the Reunion Movement seeks to tear down the establishment that ostracized them and replace it with something better... regardless of how much violence that takes. This is even lampshaded in Chapter 2, where Exusiai and Franka discuss why some of the Infected had to choose between Reunion or Rhodes Island, wondering what makes one faction different from the other.
• Heel–Face Turn: After Chapter 8, Kashchey is defeated and Talulah is put into Rhodes Island custody, allowing Nine and Guard to seize control of Reunion. Under their leadership, they turn Reunion into a much more moderate organization, still committed to helping the Infected from the shadows but rejecting wanton violence.
• In the Hood: The vast majority of their foot soldiers wear hoods to conceal their identity.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Red versions of their troops are always the elite version of that particular archetype, with far more durability and strength than their standard counterparts.
• Not Helping Your Case: Amiya's speech in Episode 7 explains why Rhodes Island fights Reunion despite both sharing the common goal of improving the lives of the Infected: if war breaks out between Ursus and Yen, then Reunion (and by extension, the Infected) would be scapegoated for starting the war. If society sees the Infected as warmongers, no one would be willing to help them out. Turns out, that's the point of Reunion all along due to Kaschey and Theresis's machinations after finishing their purge of more moderate and well-meaning elements to have the Reunion crisis and the resulting outrage thanks to them scapegoating the Infected will allow them to fulfill their own respective agendas.
• Poverty Food: Reunion troops allegedly aren't very well-fed. According to Ethan, who's a Defector from Decadence, the standard ration for his unit are hardtacks, that are so poorly-made that they're hard as rocks, even by hardtack standards.
• The Purge:
  • Talulah was secretly trying to carry this out by eliminating the Reunion members she couldn't control or were committed to the organization's original ideals, since Talulah at this point was possessed by Kaschey and he was looking to turn Reunion into his own personal False Flag Operation group.
  • A heroic version of this occurs when Nine takes control of Reunion and does everything in her power to remove all of Talulah and Kaschey's influence in the organiztion, completely reforming it.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Reunion orginally started off as this, consisting of Ursus army deserters, Sarkaz mercenaries, downtrodden peasants, and urbanites exiled from their homes due to Oripathy. However, after Reunion is reformed, it begins collecting members from all over Terra, similar to Rhodes Island.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Originally established as a well-meaning social movement to liberate and lobby for the fair treatment of Oripathy infectees, then it changed once the radicals took charge.
  • At some point, their activity stopped being peaceful and their methods became much more radical, up to and including full-blown violent riots, public sabotage, and terrorism. At the time of the game's setting, blowing up huge cities populated by millions is apparently routine behaviour for them. There's a good reason for that.
  • Their first major action ends with the destruction of an entire city along with untold numbers of dead civilians. It's all but stated that they plan to do the same thing in other cities, starting with Lungmen.
• Systematic Villain Takedown: Reunion's leadership make their appearance relatively early in the story (though just as silhouettes) and are taken down over the course of the story. Skullshatterer is killed off in Chapter 3, Faust dies in Chapter 6 which renders Mephisto mentally incapacitated, FrostNova switches sides at the end of Chapter 6 and dies, Patriot is killed off at the end of Chapter 7. And finally Talulah is defeated and captured by Rhodes Island in Chapter 8.
• Theme Naming: All of their real names, save for Talulah, Patriot and Mephisto's real names, are distinctively Russian. This makes sense considering the majority of them came from Ursus.
• Underestimating Badassery: Chernobog falls in a single night because Ursus was underestimating the unrest of the Infected. However, later on it is shown that Ursus actually is behind the majority of Reunion's military strength, and they deliberately slacked Chernobog's defense so they can use Reunion as a Pretext for War. This victory over Chernobog in return caused the low level Reunion mooks to underestimate their next target Lungmen, and they get slaughtered en masse for it.
• Unwitting Pawn: Although the plot makes them out to be the main antagonistic force from the get-go, later plot threads actually paint them as more of a pawn in a much larger scheme instead.
  • Despite the claim from common Reunion mooks that their attack on Lungmen is to win them a home, Talulah has always intended to destroy it, which is further elaborated upon in Chapter 8 as a plot of Kashchey to incite even more war between Yen and Ursus through the destruction of two of their major cities.
  • "Darknights Memoir" also explains the seemingly common presence of Sarkaz mercenaries among Reunion ranks: the usurper king of Kazdel, Theresis, is using Reunion as a False Flag Operation to distract the other countries from attacking his kingdom, which is still recovering from its civil war. Chapter 10 reveals that he's already returned Kazdel to its former strength, but wanted Reunion to keep everyone off guard so that he could get all his pieces in position.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: As noble as their goal may be, Reunion members aren't above massacring innocents to further their own plans. Even Mephisto, one of the cruelest and most hated (by his own teammates, even) commanders believes in Reunion's vision, albeit in his own twisted way.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Nearly half of the Reunion commanders have white hair and a twisted dedication to their cause.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: At least from the perspective of those who believe in Reunion's cause (such as a soldier named Ivan in Chapter 3), they want to end oppression and discrimination for the sake of their Infected kind, even if they had to use force, revenge or violence in sending a message to the governments they deem to be corrupt, such as Ursus. Ivan also expresses that this faction is a much better place to be a part of, compared to the harsh conditions he suffered in the hands of the non-Infected. However from the POV of other factions such as Rhodes Island, their destructive actions (like what they did to Chernobog) make Reunion viewed as terrorists or rioters.

Notable Figures

Talulah

Talulah Artorius

^{Click to see The Deathless Black Snake.}

^{Click to see her appearance in flashbacks.}

Variations: Talulah the Fighter, The Deathless Black Snake
Race: Draco
Artists: 唯@W, m9nokuro (Talulah the Fighter)
Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese, anime)

The mysterious new leader of the Reunion Movement, "Talulah" is the one responsible for beginning Reunion's transformation from a disorganized protest group into a genuine paramilitary force. She also seems to possess terrifying Arts powers unmatched by any other Infected...

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• Actor Allusion: A female leader with dragon motifs using fire-based powers with a sword and voiced by Sakamoto Maaya... Where have we heard of that before?
• All of the Other Reindeer: She was called an affliction in Lungmen, while Wei admits to never loving her. Swire says that when they were at elementary school, Talulah was bullied when she was protecting Ch'en, Swire, and Yuhsia.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: She's a specialist in dealing true damage that ignores all defenses, with her close-ranged attacks inflicting massive amounts of true damage during her first battle, and her Burning Breath debuff inflicting increasing amounts of true damage over time. As the Deathless Black Snake, all of her basic attacks outright ignore defenses.
• The Atoner: As of Act II, Talulah has changed to this after recovering from her Demonic Possession and Cynicism Catalyst; hardly the extreme Cult of Personality she once was under Kashchey's control, instead willingly allowing herself to be a Living Figurehead within Nine's reorganized Reunion once broken out of Rhodes Island containment to create a haven for Infected there.
• Battle Theme Music: Confrontation (m_bat_talulah), which transitions to Talulah Artorius (m_bat_talulah_hard) when the Deathless Black Snake enters their second phase.
• Being Good Sucks:
  • At least in a world like Terra. Almost everything that Talulah does for her ideals and other people was criticized by Patriot and his guerrillas, until they eventually learn to respect her. What is worse, when her kindness and ability to forgive may have led to Alina's death, Talulah only spirals into depression afterwards. Even while leading Reunion through a tough battle with Emperor's Blades, their reveal of her lineage causes her compatriots to question and whisper behind her back. All of this eventually lead her to crossing the Despair Event Horizon in the village.
  • However, after she's recovered from her Demonic Possession allowed by her crossing of the Despair Event Horizon, Talulah's idealism returns healthily and takes every criticism to heart, seeking atonement for her actions by refusing to be beaten down by the world around her any longer.
• BFS: Wields a broadsword longer than she is tall, long enough that she drags it behind her in the fights against her in Chapter 8. It even has an effects on gameplay, the sword is long enough that her melee attacks can hit several of your operators at once.
• Big Bad: The biggest threat shown so far. She is responsible for transforming Reunion Movement from a ragtag bunch of infected people into a full-fledged paramilitary organization, as well as masterminding riots and uprisings in many different places.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Big time after her Face–Heel Turn, pretending she still cares about her allies when she's more than willing to send them to their deaths to further her goals. She made no attempt to hide this when Faust called her out for using Mephisto's trust in her. In the next chapter, she mourns for Faust and FrostNova's deaths in front of the Phantom Crossbowmen and asks for some time alone, only for her to ask the Sarkaz mercenaries to dispose them in secret. However, if the Split Personality trope below and Ines' observation during the events of "Darknights Memoir" are anything to go by, then there is an implication that someone else – heavily implied to be her abductor Kashchey – is possessing her mind and overtakubg her former personality after visiting an unnamed village in a flashback in Chapter 6, becoming the new "Talulah" that many Reunion's leadership know currently.
• Black-and-White Insanity: This is basically her Fatal Flaw, albeit Invoked by Kashchey. As seen in Chapter 8, this comes from her 'wager' against Kashchey; Kashchey believes that humanity is inherently evil and has to be ruled by strength, but Talulah believes that evil only comes from circumstances like upbringing and indoctrination, which she may be able to remedy through education. This results in her sticking very adamantly to her beliefs, because she couldn't afford to give into Kashchey's even if he may have a point lest she will "become him" when that happens. As Alina had feared, she only needed to trip once to lose against Kashchey, as the nature of his wager forces her to play the role of a saint in order not to lose, which is not humanly possible. Her actions under Kashchey's Arts, in his and Amiya's own words, are technically still her own, because even if Kashchey is now in control, those evil thoughts still originated from her.
• Broken Bird: Talulah was once a hot-blooded woman who fought passionately for her cause. After all of being betrayed, losing her closest companion as a result, seeing the depravity others will sink to in order to keep Infected at bay followed by years of manipulation by Kashchey who corrupted everything she built, she’s long lost her spark. Even after being freed of Kashchey’s control, she’s no longer what she once was, with her default expression being a wistful frown.
• Curtains Match the Window: While in various official art her eye color alternates between brown, yellow, and even red, in flashbacks her eyes are shown to be the same silver color as her hair. They go back to being silver in the aftermath of the final battle, after Kashchey loses his hold of her. In the prison cell, her eyes are mysteriously shown as red, but she appears to still be in control of herself.
• Cynicism Catalyst: What the village incident truly is to her. It was at this point where her faith in humanity starts to slip beyond control, enough for Kashchey to take over. Even before this, the reveal of her lineage has made people in Reunion distrustful of her, which makes her doubt people unlike before. By the time she investigated a certain village, she noted to herself how it's unlike her to snoop around due to her own suspicion of the village, out of fear for her beliefs to be crushed down by another tragedy.
• Damage Over Time: Can inflict the Burning Breath debuff on Operators, which burns them for roughly 30 seconds and deals true damage per second that increases in intensity as the debuff lingers. In her final battle while under Kashchey's full control, she can do this to two targets at once, along with her basic attacks and several of her other attacks also inflicting the debuff.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: The Deathless Black Snake has very high HP and two health bars, the second of which boasts a whopping 50% HP buff compared to the first, giving her a towering 125000-150000 total HP depending on the map. What really makes her this is that not only does she have high mixed defenses, she'll passively halve all damage dealt to her by burning targets, which will often be most of your team considering that she has four ways of inflicting it, one of which being her basic attack.
• Demonic Possession: In Chapter 8, it's revealed that Kashchey possessed her throughout the entirety of the story, warping her into the monster she appeared to be. When his control is beaten out of her, the real Talulah immediately eases up and surrenders willingly to Rhodes Island.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Chapter 8 reveals her to be such, as Kashchey was using her as a body to fulfil his own agendas, and once his control over Talulah is broken, she immediately surrenders to Rhodes Island of her own volition. Not only will Reunion continue to be used as a rallying symbol for Infected even after Talulah's willing disbandment of the organization, it's indicated in the chapter's ending that there'll be many more threats for Rhodes Island to clash with, not just Reunion, starting with the Victorian struggle for its throne.
• The Dreaded: Her mere presence in the first chapter is enough to force the Rhodes Island rescue team to retreat immediately, with Nearl even calling her a living monster.
• Face–Heel Turn: According to Faust, Talulah drastically changed after visiting an unnamed village. Chapter 8 shows it is not by choice, however. The flashback stages of Chapter 8 elaborate in great detail how it unfolds, and ultimately ends with Talulah going on a rampage and burning it and everyone there to the ground before succumbing to Kaschey out of despair.
• Family of Choice: When asked by Alina if she ever wanted to return to her family, Talulah answered her by declaring that she, and by extension the rest of Reunion, were her true family.
• The Fettered: Before her change, Talulah shows a great sense of morality and responsibility, hence she tries her best to change the situation of Infected in Ursus almost by her lonesome by shedding as little blood as possible and doesn't allow Patriot nor the Shielders to execute those who tried to leave Reunion.
• Foil:
  • To Ch'en. Both show a distaste of Wei Yenwu, but where Ch'en becomes an officer to change Lungmen for the better, Talulah just wants to blow it off the map.
  • To Amiya. Both are idealists who are trying to change the world for the Infected and sometimes bite more than they can chew, except Talulah failed in the end due to worse circumstances plaguing her efforts and having to carry Reunion practically by her lonesome, whereas Amiya receives a lot of support from many capable and influential allies and inherits a solid platform to convey her ideals through in the form of Rhodes Island.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Her speaking in Third-Person Person in 2-8 and 6-6 serves as a hint that the current "Talulah" might be a different person altogether, which is very much the case.
  • The main story has a lot of build-up or hints of the connection between Ch'en and Talulah. Starting from Chapter 2, Ch'en has a very awkward silence when the Doctor brings up Talulah's name, with Wei Yenwu even asking her if the name is familiar. In Chapter 4, Ch'en heads off alone away from Rhodes Island when she heard of Talulah's voice from a distance. In Chapter 5, there's a cracked photo frame of the two girls in their younger years. And in Operation 5-9, a flashback has Wei Yenwu explaining how Ch'en's sword, Chi Xiao, is a unique dragonslaying sword. That information can be connected to certain lines of dialogue in the first chapter, where Talulah is called "she-dragon" by both Nearl and W.
• Graceful Loser: After being defeated in Chapter 8 and having Kashchey's control literally beaten out of her, Talulah gracefully surrenders and willingly enters into Rhodes Island's custody as a political prisoner.
• Happily Adopted: She was adopted by an old couple after running from one village to another following her murder of Kashchey. Her grandma knows she's lying about her origins, but accepts and loves her regardless.
• The Heart: She is this for Reunion – she gave to it all her heart, hopes and dreams. As well she was the one who had a vision for a peaceful future and gave directions to achieve it. Her empathetic, fair and charismatic leadership was a glue that held the whole structure together. With her fall, Reunion followed shortly afterwards.
• Hell Is That Noise: Deathless Inferno is heralded with a serpentine rattle and a monstrous draconic roar, followed by a building crescendo of burning and horror as a parade of hellfire sweeps across the battlefield.
• Helpful Mook: Surprisingly she is one in R8-3, R8-5, R8-8, and R8-11. Talulah the Fighter will walk around the map like a boss character and help you kill the mooks with her fire Arts, to protect the Ursus civilians. In JT8-1 however, she stops being so nice.
• Heroic BSoD: Alina's death serves as one. When Talulah discovered the dying body of her best friend, she came very close to a mental breakdown. It was implied that the murderers might have been the deserters that she refused to kill on orders of guerrilla and instead exiled from Reunion Movement, thus, in her mind, allowing this event to occur. Alina calmed her down by saying that she knows why they did this. Even so, Talulah took this loss extremely hard as she carried back her dying friend while unconsciously leaving a trail of flames behind her and a Reunion soldier noted how she is less lively months after said event.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: She feels this way despite the things she has done for Reunion, going so far as to claim that she hasn't bled for them enough. Considering the death of her best friend in the hands of the people she tried to help and her own comrades' distrust of her after discovering her lineage, it's understandable.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In her conversation with Eno and Sasha, she dearly wishes for them to remember Reunion as their friends instead of fighters (hence they're still using their real names at this point), nor for them to follow in anyone's footsteps so they can fight their own battles instead. In return, she doesn't change her name so that she can be remembered as a normal Infected who rebels and a friend to everyone else. To top it off, by keeping her true name she claims to want to be a consistent person, where her thoughts completely match her actions, implying her frequent self-doubt and deeper underlying issues within herself.
• Ironic Name: Despite her mastery over fire-based Arts, the name "Talulah" is Choctaw for "Leaping Water".
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Talulah's allies (such as W) and foes (such as Nearl) alike would address her as "she-dragon", which is also her mythical motifs.
  • In Operation 5-11, Fumizuki called her "Tal".
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Wears a torn, yet beautiful dress to mow down enemies before her, befitting of her noble origins. Subverted in the flashback where she used to wear a more practical military uniform. In her Deathless Black Snake form, the fringe of her dress goes up in flames, giving it a more eerie effect.
• Last Ditch Move: Whenever one of her two life bars gets depleted in the last fight of Chapter 8, she unleashes Deathless Inferno, during which she saturates the entire stage with waves of fireballs that, unless you have a bunch of medics or high enough RES (read: E2 Nightingale), will wipe out every deployed operator while a bunch of quick enemies try to sneak through your now wide open defenses. On H8-4 no enemies try to sneak through, though the fireballs will kill the civilians on the right if not blocked, which is arguably even worse.
• Like Parent, Like Child: According to Wei, Talulah is extremely similar to Duke Kashchey, who raised her to be his heir. It is later revealed that he is currently inhabiting Talulah's body as a second personality.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Despite sharing the same mother with Ch'en, Talulah is a Draco instead of a Lung, although she's said to take after her mother in appearance. This is due to her inheriting most of her racial traits from her father, Edward, who's a Victorian nobleman from Londinium of Draco blood.
• Living Figurehead: What Talulah has voluntarily become as of Act II after her Heel–Face Turn for Nine's version of Reunion to create a safe haven for the Infected throughout the world as part of her atonement.
• The Lost Lenore: A platonic version. The death of her best friend Alina hit Talulah extremely hard, to the point where the normally reasonable and kind woman wanted to take revenge on her friend's killers, though Alina refused to let her do it. The incident was so traumatic that Talulah forgot everything surrounding it, and months later she's noted to be more down than before, suggesting that she's still mourning Alina.
• Magnetic Hero: Fits Talulah rather well before her Face–Heel Turn, since over the course of her flashback, she is seen as an extremely kind and empathetic person, trying to save as many infected people from the patrols of Ursus Empire as she can, and eventually some of them joined her ever expanding group due to her charismatic personality and passion that she shows for her ideals. Not only that, she eventually earned respect from Patriot who disagreed with her ideals before, who finally agreed to follow her way. Unfortunately, it all ends very tragically for everyone involved. Yet despite her failure in the end, as Nine put it it's hard to deny the flame Talulah has lit for the Infected community.
• Meaningful Name: 'Talulah' may come from the Gaelic name Tuilelaith, which was derived from Irish tuile "abundance" and flaith "princess", together they mean "wealthy princess", fitting for her noble origins and the fact that the mythical Kashchey steals princesses to keep for himself.
• More than Mind Control: While the things Kashchey did while possessing Talulah are indeed his own, he can't actually do anything Talulah doesn't want him to. Which heavily implies that she is so psychologically damaged and utterly crushed after burning down an entire village in a fit of rage, betraying her ideals in the process, hating herself for it, that she neither can endure the pain, nor has any will and strength left to resist Kashchey's possession.
• Motive Decay: This is what Alina was mostly concerned about, as Talulah is trying to defeat an invisible enemy in the form of Ursus' cruelty, and might lose the sight of that once she inevitably loses the things close to her heart in her fight against Ursus, from which her real battle will start. Unfortunately for her, this is exactly what happened after Alina died, as she desperately tried to cling to her ideals, which got mercilessly shattered when she encountered a group of villagers who cruelly murdered starving Infected.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She felt incredibly horrified by what she has done to a village that she condemned as irredeemable based on her assumption of what they have done to starving Infected. Unfortunately, she had no time to repent as she had unwittingly destroyed her own ideals, driving herself into utter despair to make room for Kashchey's possession.
• Mythical Motifs: She's a Western Dragon as she's confirmed to be a Draco in Chapter 6. Interestingly, her half-sister is a Lung (Eastern Dragon).
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Her second fight gives her the lovely title of The Deathless Black Snake. Yikes. And if that doesn't give away what you're in for, nothing will.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her desire to help the deserters sustain themselves after leaving Reunion ends in the murder of her best friend Alina, who was trading with villages for food.
• Odd Name Out: Among her family and closest relatives. Despite being born to parents of Yen (Chinese) and Londinium (British) descent, and whose immediate family adhere to the cultures of Lungmen (Hong Kong), Talulah has a name of Native American/Gaelic roots.
• One-Woman Army: Her first appearance involves her curbstomping Rhodes Island forces by her lonesome. It takes Amiya using her Chimeric abilities and Ace's sacrifice to stall her, and even then she wasn't harmed much.
• Parental Substitute: She was the one who took Eno and Sasha in when they were starving in the tundra and wouldn't have survived otherwise. Not long after, she called them and Alina her family. In return, Eno (now Mephisto) very much respects and looks up to her as the closest thing he has to an older sister and authority figure.
• Playing with Fire: Her Arts talent allows her to spontaneously melt and ignite things around her. She is powerful enough to instantly turn a city square into charred ash, or vaporize any ammunition fired at her. For comparison, not even Ifrit, Rhodes' most powerful flame-based Caster in lore, has demonstrated anywhere near this level of power. Interestingly, Talulah doesn't quite see her Arts as fire manipulation, but she decides not to elaborate further on this because of its complexity.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Talulah delivers this just before attacking the Rhodes Island rescue team in Chapter 1.
  Talulah: This is the price you must pay for slaughtering your fellow Infected. I shall grant you an ending that I am quite fond of... Disappear.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She played this role to Patriot and his guerrilla's harsh treatment (read: death penalty) of deserters before her Face–Heel Turn, acknowledging that not everyone will pledge loyalty nor is a warrior like them, as the Infected just wants to do whatever it takes to survive even if it means defecting their group.
• Rebel Leader: Leads an Infected rights movement that openly opposes Ursus Empire for their harsh policies against the Infected... through radical means as can be seen in their violent takeover of Chernobog and attempt to do the same with Lungmen. Albeit it started out as a relatively peaceful group that fights off Ursus patrols to free their persecuted kind, then things took turn for the worse when Talulah became possessed.
• Rebel Prince: She begun her life as a Rebel Leader by killing her adopted father Duke Kashchey for ordering her to kill a political rival, as per his 'duty' as a ruler. Talulah killed him in defiance to his claim that Talulah will be just like him.
• Rousseau Was Right: Talulah's ideology and beliefs revolve around the idea that every human being is fundamentally good and the evil things they do are rooted in their circumstances that force them to act such way. Too bad for her, it seems that fate has something against her, throwing her from one agonizing tragedy to another, eventually leading to her Despair Event Horizon.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She may be the "daughter" of Duke Kashchey with a vast fortune to inherit from, but she wants none of it and spends her life after eventually escaping his grasp on helping the common folks and later starting a movement that helps the Infected.
• Sad Battle Music: Talulah the Fighter gets Loneliness in JT8-1. It's one of the most depressing tracks the game has to offer.
• Sanity Slippage: Something that started in Talulah long ago as a result of her attempt to desperately hold onto her humanistic ideals in the world of Terra, but became more pronounced after Alina's death. Talulah didn't manage to recover by the time of her meeting with Emperor's Blade who revealed the truth about her lineage, thus sparking doubt and distrust in Reunion towards her, which further caused her sanity to erode. By the time of the village incident, she was already so depressed and exhausted that she gave in to Kashchey's Arts as she witnessed the result of her rampage in the village. To make matters worse, before his death Kashchey claimed that his Arts is doing this to Talulah, making it easier for her doubt and hate herself, which eventually leads to her hopes and dreams being crushed by the cruel reality and herself.
  Kashchey: My Arts have only accelerated your process of knowing the land, of questioning yourself, of doubting yourself, of hating yourself, and of reflecting what you've done again and again.
• Sherlock Scan: Thanks to her high education, perceptiveness, deductive abilities and observation skills, she has a penchant for this.
  • This is how she deduced the village where her future adoptive parents lived would not kill her for being Infected.
    Talulah: Your village wouldn't do that. I saw your harvest was good, a celebration campfire had just gone out, there were beasts of burden in their stalls, and decorations hanging outside the walls...
    Your village won't kill me, because you wouldn't feel at ease afterwards, I doubt your village would be in a celebrating mood.
  • This is not the only example of her logical feats. Talulah found the location of the guerrillas in the tundra based on her knowledge of how common patrol operates and where their most likely route will lie, and her prediction on what the guerrillas will do to secure themselves against their forces, thus arranging a meeting with them.
  • The village incident was also where Talulah displayed this ability, she understood that something suspicious was going on in that village when she didn't find the common waste that Originium tools and harvest season produce, thus eventually leading her to granary.
• She Who Fights Monsters: FrostNova said that Talulah was once a good person who genuinely fought for the Infected, and asked Rhodes Island to bring back her old self in her final moments.
• Split Personality: Implied. At the end of Chapter 2, she addresses a certain "Talulah". Ines from Darknights Memoir used her Arts on Talulah and saw her with two shadows, confirming that she isn't really herself after the change. Said split personality turns out to be Duke Kashchey, her adoptive father who has been possessing her all along.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Talulah basically has the same face and horn shapes as Ch'en, only in different colors.
• Third-Person Person: She rarely does it, but when Talulah does, the first instance of it is a Wham Line, and it's implied that she might have a split personality. Later chapters reveal it's not a coincidence.
• Turns Red: Gains a colossal DEF and RES steroid when she hits 50% HP. As the Deathless Black Snake, when first slain, she'll unleash a devastating full-screen Arts firestorm before reviving with significant ATK and HP buffs.
• The Un Favourite: Wei has always loved Ch'en, but apparently never feels the same for Talulah. By his own words, the only feeling he has for Talulah is guilt.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Played with post-Chapter 8. She is no longer a villain, and is known as a terrorist among several nations for her past actions, but it’s shown that even after Chernobog there are still many Infected who don’t know about the full picture and view her as an inspiration. Nine and Guard deliberately exploit this in order to encourage Infected with nowhere else to go to follow Reunion and provide them with hope, even though they know what she’s really done.
• We Used to Be Friends: She's a childhood friend of Ch'en, more specifically her half-sister as they share a mother. There is a photo of them together as children in Ch'en's bedroom. It's later revealed she was also this with Swire and Lin Yuhsia and often got beat up for defending the three from bullies at school.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: This is what her personality is implied to be before her change according to FrostNova, and it's outright confirmed in Chapter 8, with how she believes people to be good at heart and circumstances tend to force them to treat Infected with prejudice. She's also shown as being rather forgiving, even wanting to give deserters one week worth of food for their travels instead of letting them be hanged by Patriot's guerrilla for their betrayal.
• Wham Line: In a cutscene near the end of Chapter 2, Talulah explains why she plans on attacking the city of Lungmen. But why in the world would you Talulah, suddenly call yourself in third person?
  Talulah: I didn't come back here just to return everything that has been taken from the Infected. I will also... make him pay. Above all... Don't you think that... things are getting very interesting? Don't you agree... Talulah?
• You Remind Me of X: Whenever Wei Yenwu and Princess Fumizuki talk about Talulah, they remember Duke Kashchey.

Crownslayer

Crownslayer / Lyudmila

Race: Reproba
Artist: 唯@W
Voiced by: Sayaka Senbongi (Japanese, anime)

A Reunion squad leader and one of Talulah's trusted lieutenants. A specialist in infiltration and assassination, her extraordinary stealthiness and agility have made her an expert at her job and extremely hard to capture.

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• Achilles' Heel: Shift abilities. Crownslayer is the only boss to have the lowest weight of 1, which makes her incredibly vulnerable to being pushed and pulled around, counteracting her ability to dash into your defenses; on maps with bottomless pits, she can often easily be knocked into the pit for an instant kill, making the fight almost effortless. In addition, she's one of the only bosses that can have their ability silenced, which will take away her only asset and leave her with only her subpar stats to back her up.
• Animal Motifs: Originally believed to be wolves, as Projekt Red calls her a "fake wolf", but according to the official artbook, she is actually a Reproba, a race associated with hyenas and aardwolves.
• Battle Theme Music: Doesn't really have one of her own in the main story, but she gets two themes when she's fought in Pyrite Gorge.
• Blown Across the Room: Crownslayer is the only boss in the game with no push/pull resistance whatsoever. This has made her infamously vulnerable to being launched around, especially if the map offers a Bottomless Pit to shove her into.
• Breath Weapon: The source of her invisibility is the ability to create an impenetrable fog from her mouth using Arts.
• But Now I Must Go: END 8-1 reveals that Crownslayer decided to return to Siracusa in order to find her former mentor and request for them to teach her again so she could get stronger. But before that, she hands over the leadership of Reunion to Nine, believing that the remnants of Reunion would do better under Nine's leadership than they were under her.
• Curtains Match the Window: Has red hair that matches her eye color.
• Dual Boss: Joins forces with Skullshatterer in BH-4.
• Evil Redhead: Although more misguided than outright evil. Her late father who had the same hair color, is noted to be a selfless man and a Doting Parent to the young Lyudmila.
• Flash Step: She can bypass your defensive lines simply by warping behind your units.
• Freudian Excuse: Joined Reunion and allows wholesale slaughter of civilians just so that she can find Kal'tsit and take revenge against her, the woman whom she believes had led her father to his death.
• Glass Cannon: She has a fairly respectable HP and ATK stat of B, so she's no slouch in a fight if need be, and her RES of A makes her hard to kill with Arts damage. Still, her DEF of C makes her more vulnerable to Physical damage; but given her position as The Sneaky Gal among Reunion's leadership, she's still more than capable of bypassing your operators if you're careless.
• Gratuitous Russian: Her real name comes from Slavic words lyudu "people" and milu "gracious, dear", which makes her "people's beloved". Her father who had a strong sense of justice knew what he was going for when he named her.
• My Greatest Failure: She later expresses her regret for not going out of her way to save Skullshatterer and Misha, whose father she has killed, believing they probably wouldn't have died had she been there for them instead of W.
• Number One: Appears to be the closest thing Talulah has to one in Reunion, as seen from this image◊, and also seemingly the other leader who believes the most wholeheartedly in Reunion's ideals outside of, say, Skullshatterer. Chapter 6 subverts this after her motivation for joining Reunion is revealed and Kal'tsit divulges the whole truth behind her father's death, allowing Crownslayer to rethink her actions and eventually desert.
• Poor Communication Kills: She offed Sergey, Alex and Misha's father, as soon as he confessed that he was the one who sold out her father and his fellow scientists who were researching the mysterious sarcophagus to Ursus. Had she given him the chance to speak in more detail, Crownslayer would have found out that Kal'tsit wasn't a traitor and Sergey did it to protect his newborn daughter Misha.
• Recurring Boss: Crownslayer is fought multiple times across the story, serving as a midboss in the first four chapters. She's also the only boss to appear in a supply stage, in the second Vanguard/Supporter chip stage.
• Smoke Out: Her Arts ability allows her to emit smoke from her throat, which she uses to obscure battlefields before striking. However, she never uses this ability in game.
• The Sneaky Gal: Within Reunion, she handles infiltration and assassination operations.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Contingency Contract's "Operation Pyrite", she's the featured boss on the permanent map, Pyrite Gorge. Not only is she immune to silence in this level, giving her the "Wolf's Fang" contracts significantly buffs her HP and RES, massively reduces the cooldown of her blink while making it cover more distance, and increases her weight so much that it's borderline impossible to even make her budge. Under these conditions, Crownslayer can No-Sell just about all of the strategies that trivialized her in all of her prior battles, and instantly went from a joke boss to a legitimate reason for frequent losses on the Pyrite Gorge.
• Warm-Up Boss: Unlike other Reunion head honchos, she doesn't inflict devastating damage with her abilities, her teleportation can be disabled by Operators like Lappland, and her AI is far more exploitable. All of this helps ease the players into fighting the more varied members of Reunion while still posing a challenge, given her ability to bypass Operators.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Her reason for being in Reunion. She accuses Kal'tsit of selling her father Ilya out to the Ursus government, who was a colleague and an old friend of her. Turns out this wasn't the case as Kal'tsit couldn't convince Ilya to abandon the facility as he was determined to take the secret of the research to his grave and she barely managed to escape herself. This is also the reason why she assassinated Skullshatterer's father; he was the one who initially snitched Kal'tsit's research group to Ursus Empire.
  • Happens again duing IL Siracusano, where Projekt Red ruthlessly killed her teacher who was like an adoptive parent to her in the interim after leaving old Reunion for being a "wolf", implicitly revealing her teacher to be one of the "Fangs" of the Signore dei Lupi, then leaving Crownslayer to wallow in her powerlessness as she is Beneath Notice to Projekt Red due to not being a Fang.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears in the fog she created to catch Kal'tsit (at first), and is never heard from again... Until END8-1, where she abandons Reunion and heads to Siracusa after learning the truth and witnessing Talulah's defeat.
• The Worf Effect: Both in game and in the plot, Crownslayer is supposed to be a powerful enemy as a Reunion leader. However, in-game, her vulnerability to push and pull effects makes her the most laughably easy boss to fight (4-4 can be beaten with ONE operator, and there are quite a few that can be used to do so). In the plot, Crownslayer is easily defeated by Rhodes Island operators whenever she encounters them, particularly in her battle against Kal'tsit and Projekt Red. This is painfully averted for her appearance in the Pyrite Gorge (see Took a Level in Badass above).

W

W

Race: Sarkaz
Artist: Lowlight Kirilenko
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu (Japanese, anime)

A Sarkaz mercenary serving as a Reunion squad leader. Wild and unpredictable, she specializes in using explosives to inflict massive damage to her targets.^{Click here to see spoilers}For tropes related to her playable version, see Arknights Snipers.

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• A Day in the Limelight: The "Darknights Memoir" event side story serves as this for her, showing her life before she joined Reunion and the events leading up to it (and a little after, too).
• Batman Gambit: Her taunts to Misha result in Misha attacking Rhodes Island and getting killed. W confirms at the end of Chapter 8 that she did this on purpose so Misha's key could never fall into the wrong hands.
• Bearer of Bad News: In Operation 3-5, W arrived on the scene to distract Hoshiguma and simply to toss a phone to Amiya. That phone then links a live call from Misha telling her friend that she's now supporting Reunion's fight instead of Rhodes Island.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: In their first meeting, W tells Theresa that she has no real name, like many Sarkaz who are expendable and just going to die on the battlefield alone and forgotten, anyways. Theresa tells W that they'll give W a name after the war because she deserves one, and this was the start of W's loyalty to her.
• Brutal Honesty: When she explains how the conflicts that happened on Chapter 3 are all because of the plans involving Misha.
  W: My, oh my, what a dilemma we have. Misha, so many more people are going to die because of you... What a pity.
  Misha: You're really getting on my nerves, W. You won't get anything from me.
  W: Wooahh, scary~
• Cloudcuckoolander: W can become absent-minded even at serious times, as Hoshiguma describes her to Ch'en in the beginning of Chapter 3.
• Cryptic Conversation: Her entire conversation with the protagonists in Operation 1-12 is laden with vague statements, hinting that W might know more of Rhodes Island than our heroes do.
  (When W meets Amiya) I don't expect you to know who I am... But, I know that person next to you.(When W catches a glimpse of the recently-awakened Doctor) —Don't be so hasty, I have some information you might be interested in.
  (After fighting the protagonists) Ahh... What a nostalgic feeling!
  • As shown in "Darknights Memoir", she knew and worked with the Doctor, Kal'tsit, and Amiya in the past during the Babel days. Not that the Doctor would remember that due to the amnesia and Amiya was presumably too young to remember it.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In Operation 1-11, W easily defeats Adnachiel who tried to fight her alone. Luckily, the Sankta survived in order to compile his report to Rhodes Island.
  • She's on the receiving end at the end of Chapter 7. The chapter stresses at several points that Patriot and W are the only remaining Reunion leaders left. After Patriot is killed, she's encountered by the Doctor and Kal'tsit in the chapter's epilogue on the way to Talulah and talks with her quickly break down, setting her up to be the penultimate boss. Kal'tsit has Mon3ter toss her through the wall and out the building before W can even finish her opening taunt. It was all an act and Kal'tsit was actually helping W escape. ...painfully, apparently.
• Cute and Psycho: Subtle at first.
  • In the early chapters, she's only around long enough to be shown taking a rather subdued but entertained view of things, to the point where her demeanor is focused more on her being a Dragon with an Agenda. It's also subtle in her design thanks to the greyed colors that can distract from how she's dressed in a frilly skirt. However, it really shows by the time of the Operational Intelligence event where W has some extremely giddy facial expressions and takes an extremely perverse glee in all the chaos and destruction around her, as she playfully tries to woo Flamebringer to her side with promises of battle and death. The cute and psycho factor is really ramped up in her artworks as a recruitable operator and remains that way when she returns to the story in chapter 6 and beyond.
  • She used to be more subdued about it in the past and partially acted it as a homage to the original W, but seemingly snapped for real later on after Theresa died. Some of it is still an act to fit into Reunion, but it's speculated by a Rhodes Island Sarkaz employee that she's Becoming the Mask.
• Deadpan Snarker: She throws insults and sarcasm whenever other characters try to mock her. Although she mostly says these to her allies.
  • The Brutal Honesty that she says to Misha (as written above) ends with a snarky comment on how the little girl's verbal threat sounds scary.
  • In Operation 4-4's cutscene, she compares Mephisto to a limbless kid who would want to put make-up on W's face using only his mouth.
• Demolitions Expert: Serves as one for the Reunion Movement and her mercenary group before she joins Reunion.
• Glass Cannon: With a D for DEF, she is the most fragile of any Reunion Leader thus far. That being said, she's more than capable of doing a lot of damage by herself.
• Good All Along: There are numerous signs that W has her own secret agenda that doesn't necessarily align with Reunion's. W is actually an Operator from Babel, the predecessor of Rhodes Island looking to take revenge on Talulah and Reunion's benefactor Theresis, and is working as a double agent.
• Idiot Hair: Has three hair strands that stick out, with two on the sides that give an impression of cockroach antennas.
• I Did What I Had to Do: While she presents her mask as always during the act, the anime implies that her cruel act of instigating the deaths of Skullshatterer and Misha were not something she takes personal pleasure in either despite being necessary as she speaks matter-of-factly all by her lonesome in what seems like a self-justification.
  W: And that's why, all's well, in the end.
• Just Toying with Them:
  • She's just playing you around in your first encounter with her in Operation 1-12. She lets all of you go anyway after seeing how Rhodes Island fights. If the battle would've dragged on for too long, she says that it would become boring, and W hates boring things.
  • "Darknights Memoir" has many moments in the past where she'll toy with the last survivor of an enemy squad before killing them. Fortunately, by the time she's fighting Rhodes Island, she's The Mole so they end up being spared, even if it ends up being for naught in some cases like Scout's.
• Lack of Empathy: W doesn't feel any remorse after Skullshatterer's death, explaining that the others can't count on him because he doesn't care for his comrades anyway. It turns out she has a lot of remorse for her murdered comrade Ines. In fact, she probably had no remorse for Skullshatterer because of her remorse for Ines, considering that Ines was working for Reunion when Talulah killed her thus displaying just how much Reunion cares about its comrades.
• Legacy Character: The reason she's called W is because she looted the gear of the previous W. To take a fallen Sarkaz's equipment is symbolic of taking their identity. She didn't know that at the time but went along with it after being told about the tradition.
• Mage Killer: Given the damage she's capable of, her HP and RES being A-ranked, it is a very bad idea to use Arts-based damage on her.
• Mini-Boss: Can be fought in one of the missions from the roguelike mode, "A Familiar Face".
• Mythical Motifs: Demons. She wholeheartedly adapts Sarkaz's mercenary lifestyle.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: W convinces Skullshatterer to head straight and kill the Doctor, suggesting that their death would severely weaken Rhodes Island. But unfortunately in doing this tactic, Skullshatterer got himself quickly killed by Amiya.
• No Name Given: So far, she's the only major Reunion leader whose name is yet to be revealed. "Darknights Memoir" reveals she literally doesn't have an original true name. She states that this is actually rather common with many Sarkaz, who are expendable and will just die on the battlefield alone and forgotten anyways.
• No Ontological Inertia: If W is defeated before her bombs go off, they instantly fizzle out of existence and the operators they're tagged onto will take no damage.
• Obfuscating Insanity: "Darknights Memoir" shows that W isn't the trigger-happy terrorist she is in the main story. Rather, it's a persona she crafted in order to better blend in with the loony bin that is Reunion. An old Rhodes Island employee wonders In-Universe if she's Becoming the Mask, though.
• One-Letter Name: Or one-letter codename, to be specific.
• Ornamental Weapon:
  • She carries a Laterano firearm, but she doesn't actually use it in combat, preferring to blow up enemies with explosives instead. This is explicitly pointed out in her enemy data bio in the Enemy Units Archive. She still doesn't even as a recruitable operator, as she uses a grenade launcher for her normal attacks.
  • Based on the visual profiles of her weapon, it's all but confirmed to be a Mk 18 Mod 0, a Mythology Gag and nod towards W's former concept as the sixth member of Girls Frontline's AR Squad.
  • "Darknights Memoir" reveals it's a keepsake from the original W, which might explain why she doesn't use it.
• Pet the Dog: At the end of "Darknights Memoir", W found two children in the city ruins and guided them to the nearest hospital despite their apparent distrust and hostility. She stayed with the injured child and guarded him until the other returned with medicine and supplies.
• Promoted to Playable: W was officially announced as a recruitable 6-star AoE Sniper in Hypergryph's 1-year anniversary livestream. Instead of as a Reunion member, she is identified as a member of Babel instead, which is the precursor of the current Rhodes Island.
• The Mole: W is a Babel operator who joined Reunion as a stepping stone in her plan to take revenge on Reunion's benefactor, the monarch of Kazdel, for destroying Babel. This desire for vengeance eventually extends to taking down Reunion too when Talulah kills W's friend Ines at Chernobog for knowing too much. Hints of something not being quite right with her can be spotted early if you're vigilant, as she A) never outright kills any Rhodes Island operator she encounters, both in and out of gameplay, since Adnachiel survived his stand-off with her, and B) she doesn't actually die on-screen when you're fighting her, with bringing her down to critical HP prompting her to pull a Smoke Out instead.
• Smoke Out: Unlike every other unit, which keel over and fade away when they die, W pops a smoke grenade and vanishes instead. Considering how she's operating as a mole for Rhodes Island within Reunion, it would make sense for her to bail out before she actually takes critical damage from who's ostensibly her own faction.
• Spanner in the Works: Cruel as her actions were in instigating both Skullshatterer and Misha's deaths; W manages to buy both Lungmen and Rhodes Island time by preventing Talulah from being able to start Chernobog back up immediately with the key assigned to them, which pulled Talulah away from having a direct presence in the assault on Lungmen just as she had with Chernobog—weakening their attacking forces exponentially, costing Reunion a majority of their forces including four leaders^note Faust and FrostNova dying, Crownslayer abandoning her post after being confronted by Kal'tsit, and Mephisto going catatonic out of grief—and allowing Reunion's various enemies to regroup and bolster their numbers against them to put an end to the corrupted organization. In enabling this, W had deliberately sabotaged both Kashchey and Theresis's plans for Reunion to start a catastrophic conflict between Ursus and Yan that would fulfill either of their objectives and reveal their hands in egging on the conflict.
• Stepford Smiler: A personality she consciously decided to become after learning the original W was like that.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Operation 1-12, W openly states that she doesn't get along well with Talulah (W doesn't even address her by name either, just calling her as "she-dragon"), and she's simply doing whatever task is given to her. Of course, at that point in the story, W's probably figuring out how to destroy Talulah since Talulah recently murdered one of W's closest life-long comrades back at Chernobog.
• Temporary Online Content: Like Nian, W can only be rolled during the duration of her banner.
• Undying Loyalty: "Darknights Memoir" reveals that she was — and still is — loyal to the late Theresa, a Sarkaz royalty.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: W's ability to almost instantly take out Operators with her bombs is to help get across to the player that they will need to remove Operators from the field at times to adjust with the flow of gameplay and that this is an essential part of beating maps from now on.
• When She Smiles: Her artwork switches from her stoic NPC art to her smiling operator art after she found a home with Babel. Back then the smile was genuine, although by the time she's joined Reunion, it's the smile of a Cute and Psycho Stepford Smiler, with her old mercenary comrades noting she's more unhinged than ever before.
• Why Am I Ticking?: One of her attacks has her tossing a timed bomb at one to two of your operators, which explodes after three seconds and W will make counting gestures to telegraph its activation. The playable version of her has this as her 3rd skill.

Skullshatterer

Skullshatterer / Alex

Race: Ursus
Artist: 唯@W
Voiced by: Risae Matsuda (Japanese, anime)

A Reunion leader who possesses both significant combat ability and a borderline fanatical dedication to his cause. In Chapter 2, he leads an operation in Lungmen, where he seeks to retrieve the girl named Misha for some unknown reason...

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• Accomplice by Inaction: How he justifies massacring innocents during his talk with Misha; they are complicit on the plight towards infected (which he is part of) and, even, participate in lynching them. To him, they deserve the same fate as he, and the fellow infected, have suffered at their hands.
  "...Innocents? Hah. Who's innocent? When Chernobog implemented the quarantine, did any of them speak out against it? When Ursus sent us to die in the mines and the frozen wastelands, did any of them do anything about it? Did any of them ever stand up for us?!"
• Adaptational Sympathy: While the anime adaptation still has his general personalities, it puts more emphasize on his emotional vulnerability. As the result, he comes across as less a mad zealot and more a confused kid swept up by machinations beyond his understanding. The anime also changes his last words; instead of cursing Amiya for defending herself against him, he desperately cries for his sister.
• Animal Motifs: Implied to be bears due to his Ursus race and the fact that he's Misha's brother, but his face is never seen.
• Ambiguous Gender: While the narration and his unit description refers to him as a male, notice that Skullshatterer's outfit completely covers him from head to toe, with the only distinguishing physical feature being his rather feminine legs. Misha takes advantage of this after Alex's death, taking on his mantle as the new Skullshatterer with nobody the wiser.
• Anti-Armor: Skullshatterer's grenade rounds rend any operator they hit and halving their DEF for several seconds.
• Anti-Villain: He might condone the wholesale slaughter of civilians and Rhodes Island personnel, but his primary motive is to return home together with Misha and he is genuinely devoted to Reunion's ostensible goal of Infected liberation, which is more than can be said of a few of the other leaders.
• Back from the Dead: He is seemingly resurrected after Amiya fatally wounded him. In reality, the second Skullshatterer is actually Misha wearing her brother's clothes.
• Battle Theme Music: Normal01
• Berserk Button: It has something to do with his sister Misha. Skullshatterer became so enraged when Amiya confirms that Rhodes Island turned Misha over to Lungmen. While Skullshatterer just asked calmly before, there's a drastic change in his emotions after hearing the answer.
• A Day in the Limelight: He's the main antagonist of Chapter 2, that chapter and the next one also detail his shared backstory with Misha and his motivations for joining Reunion.
• Dual Wielding: Wields two curved swords that give him the rare ability to attack both at range and in close combat. His sword strikes deal far more damage than his signature grenade launcher, making melee combat with Skullshatterer highly unfavorable.
• Dying Declaration of Hate: As he dies, he bitterly declares that he will never forgive Amiya, and Rhodes Island by extension, for fighting on the side of those who oppress the Infected.
• Early-Bird Cameo: His silhouette and gas mask are visible in the background CG featuring the Reunion leaders on Operation 1-6.
• Establishing Character Moment: Skullshatterer makes his first on-screen appearance in Operation 2-5, being glad to find Misha alive and well. Misha is his sister, and his mission is to find and bring her home.
• The Faceless: He is never depicted without his gas mask. Even when Amiya takes the mask off after killing him (again), his face is not shown on-screen.
• Freudian Excuse: As a child, he saw his mother killed by a mob after she tried protecting her children after the mob learned he was Infected. The trauma of this incident made him the person he is today.
• Glass Cannon: Insomuch as he does a lot of AoE damage and has a RES of B, and a DEF of C... which makes using Casters on him a very bad proposition, especially since he's more than capable of cleaning out your ranged tiles of any operators. That said, while Arts damage is not recommended to use against him, he can still be hurt just fine with Physical damage.
• Grenade Launcher: Carries a pair of them, though unlike most firearms, Skullshatterer's launchers look like they were cobbled together from salvaged parts. Operators struck by the grenades will have their defenses temporarily halved.
• Harmful to Minors: See Freudian Excuse above.
• Hypocrite: He accuses Rhodes Island of being traitors to their fellow Infected and indiscriminately killing his fellow Reunion members. Amiya calls him out on his hypocrisy by pointing out that Reunion attack them first, killed or hurt many Innocents (both Infected and non-Infected) for not siding with them, and their actions have not helped Infected rights in any way while Rhodes Island has.
• Locked Out of the Loop: It is said that he didn't know the reason why his father Sergei is absent from his life; Crownslayer had assassinated him for snitching Crownslayer's father to Ursus Empire in exchange of his family's protection..
• Mage Killer: Due to his RES of B and his massive HP of S, he can take a lot of Arts damage, and combined with the Anti-Armor and AoE properties of his grenades, he can very easily kill off your Casters, Supports, and Medics with his ATK stat of A+. That being said, his DEF stat of C requires heavier use of physical damage and tankier operators.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • He's slow to move, especially since he frequently pauses to fire grenades, but he has a huge amount of HP and decent RES, and deals high area damage while also cutting the DEF of units he hits. And if he gets within melee range, his melee attacks are even more punishing - not even counting the fact that he Turns Red at half health.
  • The challenge mode of 3-8 buffs the HP of all Reunion members significantly, including him, therefore he'll stay around longer to wail on your operators with his devastating attacks. Not even Defenders can survive him until he dies without significant amount of healing. Good luck.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: It should come as no surprise that someone who calls himself Skullshatterer would find massacring civilians to be completely justified. This absolutely terrifies Misha at first, as the Alex she remembers would never do such things.
• Recurring Boss: He is fought in 2-10 and 3-8.
• Self-Made Orphan: While Skullshatterer didn't directly kill his father, he cooperated with Crownslayer, who only has murder in her mind, to track him down. He didn't appear to have any remorse for this.
• Splash Damage Abuse: His grenades deal heavy damage in a wide area, which couples with his DEF-reducing ability to devastating effect.
• Straight for the Commander: At W's suggestion, Skullshatterer launches an ambush attempt at the Doctor, only to be foiled and fatally wounded by Amiya.
• Parental Abandonment: His father Sergei disappeared from his life when he was young, and his mother was murdered after the Ursus Infected Patrol Squad discovered that his family contracted Oripathy. Chapter 6 revealed that Sergei sold out the Chernobog scientists to protect Skullshatterer and his sister after the Ursus Empire held them hostage. Skullshatterer eventually helped Crownslayer tracked down the man to assassinate him for his role in the death of Crownslayer's father Ilia, who was the leading scientist in the Chernobog research group.
• Dual Boss: Is backed up by Crownslayer in BH-4.
• That Man Is Dead: He refuses to be called by his old name, Alex, name-dropping this trope almost word-for-word.
• Turns Red: He gains a massive attack boost once his health is brought down to half. This is especially damning when you try to block him, as his melee attacks can now kill just about anything in one or two hits.
• Undying Loyalty: As harsh and straightforward Skullshatterer might be to his enemies, this is how his team treats him with. Two of the Reunion members even forced their way into the fight just so that they can recover Alex's corpse, then those at their home base desperately tried to revive him. Even just the mere image of Skullshatterer (It's actually Misha taking Alex's uniform and weapons) walking again on the battlefield after the real one died was enough for the remaining forces to view this as a miracle and have their morale boosted.
• Unwitting Pawn: Reunion does not need Alex - they need Misha. Misha has the key of Chernobog Control Tower, given to her by their father, and the key is a loose end for Talulah's ultimate plan for Chernobog. The moment Skullshatterer finds Misha, that's the moment he outlives his usefulness. And he becomes doubly so by getting involved with W. W deliberately provokes him into attacking the Doctor directly, even though the Doctor is sitting inside the enemy's line and safely guarded by many operators, both to see if she can get the Doctor assassinated and to use Skullshatterer's most assured death to further manipulate Misha into giving up the key. Skullshatterer is essentially a pawn puppeteered by two different chess players fighting for supremacy.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Your first encounter with Skullshatterer is a test of how good you are at planning out your operations and multitasking, as you're more than likely going to run into Defender-4 drones, which will buff the DEF of all affected Reunion members. Not to mention the fact that he's very likely going to take out your ranged operators fairly quickly, and he'll be supported by Heavy Defenders at that. The only thing that makes fighting Skullshatterer the first time easier is the fact that while his RES is fairly high, his DEF is only so-so.

Mephisto

Mephisto / Eno

^{Click to see his appearance in flashbacks.}

^{Click to see Mephisto "The Singer".}

Other Variations: Mephisto "The Singer"
Race: Liberi
Artist: 唯@W
Voiced by: Kōhei Amasaki (Japanese, anime)

A sadistic Reunion commander who revels in the death and destruction caused by the organization. While most of the organization dislikes him out of his sadism and callous attitude towards his men, he is unusually close to Faust. He is also a Medic whose Arts abilities allow him to catalyze Originium infection, letting him transform fallen Infected into nigh-invincible zombies that follow his orders.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Just about everyone in the story hates this guy, and for good reason. Unlike some of the other Reunion members, it's rather clear that the other Reunion leaders (save for Faust and Talulah) absolutely despise him, and his underlings serve him more out of fear than respect. His men readily scorn him whenever he's not in the vicinity. The other Reunion leaders had even considered purging him from the organization, only being prevented by Patriot coming to his defense. Revelations in Chapter 6 imply this is because Mephisto is the only Reunion leader who approves of Talulah's new and more aggressive personality, and thus became more extreme and fanatical in his actions.
• Abusive Parents: His father used to beat him for any reason, such as leaving home or laughing. It only gets worse over time.
• Alas, Poor Villain: He might be the nastiest and most unlikable Reunion leader, but it's hard to not sympathize with him after he's reduced to tears when Faust sacrificed his life in '"Partial Necrosis", especially once you learn his backstory and how much Faust means to him. Then the game hits players with another dose of this when his attempt to turn a new leaf results in him being transfigured into a Tragic Monster, and Rhodes Island is forced to take him down as he internally makes peace with his life and companions.
• All of the Other Reindeer: There was something about Mephisto in his childhood that caused people to look at him differently and mistreat him. As he put it, he doesn't feel like he belonged to his home.
• Ambiguous Situation: He was last seen in a comatose state and it's currently unknown whether he's still alive or not, given his rapidly declining health due to the sarcophagus incident.
• And I Must Scream: It's A Fate Worse Than Death for those he revives as zombies, to the point where his minions are terrified of the prospect of him reviving them. His zombified Reunion troops thanked Ch'en for the Mercy Kill when she killed them for good. He winds up on the receiving end of this when transformed by the sarcophagus.
• Angst Coma: The sheer trauma of losing Faust (after their promise to live together and all) leaves him with this in Chapter 6. He gets back up mere hours later in Chapter 7, but has fallen deep into depression.
• Animalistic Abomination: His mutant "The Singer" form caused by his use of the sarcophagus in Chapter 8. It visually resembles a vaguely draconic white bird, but it's painfully easy to tell that something's very wrong about it...
• Animal Motifs: Birds. Chapter 8 reveals that he's a Liberi after using the sarcophagus transformed him into a vaguely birdlike creature, with Kal'tsit speculating that the sarcophagus forced him to take on "his oldest aspects".
• The Anticipator: Mephisto already knew that Ch'en would come to him at the rooftop of the L.G.D. headquarters for their confrontation, welcoming her and mocking her for being predictable.
• The Atoner: Deconstructed. Mephisto only realized his mistakes when his best friend Faust sacrificed himself to save his life, which strongly suggests that he wouldn't stop committing crimes otherwise since in his mind, he's only doing this to protect both of them, and he lost any reason to continue his atrocities when Faust died. But more importantly, his decision to enter the sarcophagus is based on the fact he's grieving so hard for Faust that he wishes to completely erase his suffering and mend the flaws that lead to his mistake, not necessarily because he felt that the things he did were morally corrupt. His Chapter 8 monologue corroborates this further as Mephisto laments how much pain he's in since people often hurt him for 'messing up' that he can't help but hurt them too to fight back.
• Ax-Crazy: Exhibit A. Mephisto is deeply mentally ill, incredibly violent and sadistic, and his childhood backstory heavily implies he doesn't understand the distinction of right and wrong in the first place, as he often justifies his violence as something righteous if he believes his friends would approve of it. Though he used to be far more subdued about it before Reunion's radicalization.
• Bad Boss: He treats all his minions like pawns and sometimes even commands them as if they were chess pieces. In Chapter 6, out of desperation, he even forcibly accelerates his zombies' infection to the point where they're consumed by primal agony and unleashes his horde on everyone, friend and foe alike, which warrants intervention from Faust.
• Battle Theme Music: Shares "LongmenBatBoss" (or "落子无悔", roughly "No Regrets" in the official OST) with Faust in 5-10. In M8-8, Mephisto "The Singer" has the more somber and depressing Story of the Dead Singer (BatMephistoVariation) and Lullabye.
• Beneath the Mask: Implied at the end of his backstory. He's not always genuine about what he claims to believe in, even in front of Talulah, hence he relies on Faust to tell him what to do to reassure himself. In Chapter 6, it's made apparent that Faust has repeatedly told him to do the things he truly wanted, knowing that Mephisto originally never wanted to kill anyone if it wasn't for the abuse he had to endure and losing the one joy he could have in his life. True enough, he stops acting like a homicidal maniac after Faust's death and tries his best to make decisions based on his own judgement.
• Biblical Motifs: Being based on a bird, his pairing with Faust who's a snake likely alludes to the biblical symbolism of their respective races.
  • Doves in particular, which are potentially what caladrius is based on (see Mythical Motifs below), are regarded as the symbol of peace (oh the Irony). Whereas Faust's snake motif is regarded as representative of evil, as in the story he accidentally led Mephisto, who was once a pure and sinless child, to fall into his own madness by fighting back against those who have wronged him.
  • In the biblical version of the story, the snake tempted Eve with a forbidden knowledge, a reverse parallel to the Faust myth where Mephistopheles offered Faust knowledge of black magic in exchange for his soul.
  • Later on, he was guided into evil once again by yet another snake, Duke Kashchey.
• Big Sister Worship: Seems to hold complete faith in Talulah's vision, albeit in his own twisted way (just like everything he believes in). This is Deconstructed in that Mephisto outsources all moral authority to Talulah, meaning that once she underwent Demonic Possession by Kashchey, he willingly becomes more brutal out of Blind Obedience. He trusts her plans very much to the point when he fails his mission in Lungmen due to the absence of the promised Reunion forces, he keeps waiting for them anyway until Faust snaps him out of it and later Mephisto continues to dismiss the possibility that she may have left him and Faust for dead. If their flashback interaction in Chapter 8 is any indication, it's easy to see why Mephisto looks up to her so much, which makes Kashchey using his faith in her to guide him on the path to being a sadistic monster even more tragic. In the Chinese version, Mephisto refers to her as 塔露拉姐姐 (Tǎ lù lā jiějiě)^note  lit. big sister Talulah.
• Black-and-White Insanity: To Mephisto, those who are against Reunion are sinners while Faust and Talulah are always right and just no matter what, making him impossible to reason with and contributing to his mental instability. He explains that he trusts no one but Faust and Talulah, so he will always follow the latter even if her current self is nothing like how she was before.
• Blood Knight: He easily finds pleasure on the battlefield, which is also the first impression that you could get from him in the prologue chapter. Although if Chapter 5 is of any indication, he plays out these tendencies in a hope to get himself killed and die as a martyr.
  Mephisto: Your combat tactics as well as your personal configuration were intriguing.
  Medic:' ...Intriguing? You think that the carnage of battle is... intriguing?
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: As a mentally stunted child, Mephisto neither understands or operates on conventional morality. Rather, he's content with letting Faust and Talulah dictate his thoughts and actions, is so gullible he would take anything from them at face value regardless of how incompatible it is with reality, and as a result tends to apply anything he learns to the extreme. At the same time, for how much he reveres them, he has such a warped perception of reality and morality to the point he fails to see why Faust would take issue with his atrocities, since he believes in their promise to survive together and thus has no reservations about letting other people take the fall for their sake.
• Body Horror: A physical side effect of getting revived by Mephisto's necromantic powder. Originium crystals would enlarge and protrude from within the Infected's body.
• Break the Cutie: Mephisto's life in a nutshell. He went from a sweet child to a mentally unstable one from constant abuse and wrongful guidance, then into an apathetic one after Faust's demise.
• Cheated Death, Died Anyway: If you let him pass in M8-8, a hidden scene will be unlocked where he's revealed to have survived, followed by Kal'tsit's plan to perform a surgery on him to turn him back to normal Infected since he would contaminate the whole area otherwise if left alone. She allows the Doctor to decide his fate after this, but his life will be cut short regardless as the mutation of his infected organs has caused his Oripathy to progress rapidly, permanently damaging his body functions.
• The Chessmaster: Subverted. This is what he would like to believe himself to be, as his plans crumble easily when something beyond his expectation interferes with them. Although he displays substantial tactical acumen as a commander, in the end most of his accomplishments are done by forcefully controlling his subordinates with his Arts.
• Chess Motifs: In the prologue chapter, he commands the Reunion forces by using the Algebraic notation of chess tiles, as well as naming his selected target as if they were chess pieces. Even Amiya puts a lampshade on this mannerism.
  Mephisto: Now, Casters. Move to C7. Capture their Rook!
• Childhood Friends: With Faust, they were the only friend of each other.
• Classy Cane: His staff doubles as a walking cane.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: His "Singer" form is a unique example — while undeniably stronger and more capable than his original self, it's also shown that said form is a mindless brute who doesn't really have any control over himself, only being driven forward by his intrinsic desire to sing.
• Combat Medic: While he normally lacks offensive abilities, his Singer form in Chapter 8 can both heal and support teammates while packing a slew of offensive abilities as well.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are:
  • In Operation 4-4, Mephisto was aware that Jessica's group is eavesdropping on his conversation with W, saying a variant of this line to taunt them to come out of hiding.
  • He says this again in two more instances in the latter half of Chapter 4, this time he's actively pursuing his target while mocking them (especially Amiya and Frostleaf) to come out.
• Cosmic Plaything: The sheer amount of times he actually tried to do the right thing only for it to backfire on him makes you wonder if the universe has a specific hatred toward him.
  • His kindness toward Faust subjected Mephisto to even worse bullying than he was already receiving, and eventually resulted in him being infected with Oripathy.
  • His devotion to Talulah made him vulnerable to being corrupted when Kashchey pulled a Grand Theft Me on Talulah.
  • Finally, his attempt to erase his current personality via the sarcophagus not only failed utterly, but turned him into a living biohazard that had to be put down at the end of "Roaring Flare".
• Deadly Gas: His Singer form has the ability to disperse a layer of toxic gas every time it loses a certain amount of HP, which deals True Damage Over Time to all Operators and can stack multiple times if he takes enough damage too quickly, with catastrophe often following. In his second phase, the HP threshold for him to release the cloud is lower.
• Death Seeker: Chapter 5 shows many hints of this as he kept taunting Ch'en and Amiya to kill him. Granted, he has been feeling this way for most of his life, not seeing anything good in being alive after everything he went through. Faust doesn't take his suicidal tendencies very well as Amiya could detect sorrow and turmoil in him and Mephisto had the gall to mention their promise to survive again in Chapter 6.
• Despair Event Horizon: First time when he lost his ability to sing, only deciding to stay alive after Faust convinced him to live together by swallowing an Originium himself. Later in Chapter 6, he mentally shuts down after witnessing Faust's sacrifice. He recovers somewhat in Chapter 7, still so deep in despair as he walks towards the sarcophagus the amnesiac Doctor was seen being excavated from in Chapter 0, in the hopes of losing his memories along with his pain and imperfections.
• Deus Exit Machina: This is given a Lampshade Hanging on the cutscene of operation 3-6 wherein the panicked Reunion members desperately try to revive Skullshatterer and his men with first aid, wondering why Mephisto refused to come when they needed him in those dire times. This is actually foreshadowing his healing powers later on.
  Reunion Member: If he was here, we would've been able to save so many people!
• Driven to Villainy: His past aside, what ultimately made him into the sadistic and callous individual he's known for today is Talulah's words that he should act however he sees fit for the sake of the future of the Infected, even accepting sacrifices to that end.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Sports this permanently after Faust's death. As one of Faust's men and FrostNova point out, he has the eyes of someone who has lost hope. Although the sprite doesn't fully reflect this, his CGs from then on purposefully hide his face.
• Evil Counterpart: To the Doctor. He’s a medical expert with the same disregard for his troops like the pre-amnesia Doctor, even using the same chess motifs. Later he ends up in the same sarcophagus that the Doctor was transported in, although it yields a different result.
• Fatal Flaw: His Blind Obedience. Mephisto's poor upbringing and lack of proper guidance have made him into a very naive and gullible child who will believe and do anything Faust and Talulah told him and distort them with his own twisted mindset. This backfires on him spectacularly when a Kashchey-possessed Talulah takes advantage of this, guiding him down a dark path and catalyzing his descent into madness. Faust's last moments had him telling Mephisto that he would be happy if Mephisto has his own ideas to follow rather than blindly trusting him or Talulah.
• Faux Affably Evil: Addresses Ch'en as Madam or Officer throughout their confrontation in Chapter 5, despite obviously bearing ill will.
• Foil:
  • Both Skullshatterer and Mephisto joined Reunion for the infected people's rights, but the way they behave and their backgrounds over the course of the story couldn't be more different.
    • Mephisto follows Talulah out of Blind Obedience, while Skullshatterer genuinely believes in Reunion's cause.
    • Both are Climax Bosses in their respective Season Finale, but were completely different in terms of combat skills. Skullshatterer is a genuine fighter and a Recurring Boss in the climax of the second and third chapter, while Mephisto is a Non-Action Guy and relying on his friend Faust and his undead troops to do the weightlifting to the operators near the end of the fifth chapter.
    • Mephisto came from a broken family that he ended up destroying using his powers while Skullshatterer had a loving family and spends the second chapter of the story trying to link up with his sister, Misha.
    • While having a terrible past and sympathetic motives, Skullshatterer, or rather Alex, is a raging Hypocrite who believes Rhodes Island to be wrong for siding with Lungmen despite that fact Reunion just sacked Chernobog and ultimately dies unrepentant for his crimes by Amiya's hands, in the middle of the third chapter no less. Mephisto, meanwhile, is not remotely shown as sympathetic despite having had it even worse than Skullshatterer, but after he hits the Despair Event Horizon, he realizes how far he has gone and attempts to try and become The Atoner.
  • He's also one to W, both being zealous followers of their respective leaders, indulging in their own madness as a result of something grave that happened to their idols.
    • While both fight for the betterment of their own kind, as explained above Mephisto only does so because he's following Talulah's own desire to save Infected, whereas W genuinely wishes for the liberation of the Sarkaz race.
    • They both suffered from extremely harsh childhoods, as a result W grows up to be a highly independent woman with a great sense of self-agency, determined to be nobody’s tool despite her job as a mercenary. Meanwhile, Mephisto is so used to having Faust look after him, by Faust's own words he hasn't started thinking for himself, resulting in a frail sense of self and extreme emotional dependency on those he trusts, making him easy to manipulate as Talulah successfully made him her puppet, despite having the power to control others like puppets.
    • While they come across as unsympathetic jerks, W deep down feels guilty about the innocent people she has killed, like Misha and Rhodes Island operators. Whereas Mephisto suffers from a general Lack of Empathy due to his lack of trust in people and as a result can be extremely cruel to anyone who's not Faust or Talulah, but is visibly nicer to those he considers friends than W usually does to her own.
• Foreshadowing:
  • His necromantic abilities are hinted at several times before they are revealed in Chapter 5. Rhodes Island expresses suspicion about his ability to perfectly control his minions like mindless chess pieces, and in Chapter 4 a Reunion soldier panics at the sight of Amiya's black Arts as they're the same color as Mephisto's, screaming about "not wanting to end up like Mephisto's men".
  • His curiosity of the Doctor is brought up again in Chapter 7, his entry to the sarcophagus seems to become a plot point for the later content updates as Doctor and Kal'tsit are on their way there at the same time.
  • His race, Liberi, is actually hinted in his battle in Chapter 5 before his transformation in Chapter 8. When he heals his allies, it can be noticed that his healing animation features feathers.
• Freudian Excuse: He suffered from constant abuse as a child from his father and people around him, yet still managed to stay relatively sane thanks to Faust's presence and singing. The last straw was when a woman force-fed him Originium and infected him with Oripathy, which led him to snap and use his newfound powers to kill all those who harmed him and Faust. Talulah used to keep him under control after he joined Reunion and encouraged him to seek his own path, but after she changed for the worse, so did Mephisto.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Amiya makes it clear that however much that Mephisto suffered, it doesn't really excuse his actions at all. It should be noted this is before we see just how much the world flat out rejected any of his attempts to actually be a good person.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From a shy, gentle child treated as a punching bag by everybody to a child terrorist hell-bent on killing non-Infected and anyone that opposes Reunion.
• Good Powers, Bad People: Mephisto is not much of a fighter, instead acting as medical support to his underlings. But he uses that same power to keep his minions alive through horrifying conditions, even the icy jaws of death.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: A part of his mental instability. He tries to maintain an air of a cruel, manipulative chessmaster, but he will quickly devolve into angry screaming if something doesn't go his way.
• Happiness in Slavery: Mephisto is perfectly content with answering to Talulah's demands and doesn't want to choose for anything else. Although this is arguably zigzagged as he privately voiced his concern about what he's supposed to do to Faust. This is subverted once Faust dies, he stops caring about Talulah's plans.
• Hate Sink: As if his acts of cruelty in the main story themselves weren't horrific enough for players and in-game characters alike to hate him.
  • The expanded lore revealed in "Children of Ursus" basically have him being responsible for some of the worst atrocities ever committed, where he basically locked a bunch of students from different schools together when Patriot wasn't looking and allowed their ration to run out. Predictably, some of them had to resort to killing and possibly even eating each other in the ensuing hunger, the most affected of which is Gummy, who still has severe lingering PTSD beneath her happy facade. Even if he wasn't responsible for the storage fire nor the food shortage, it goes without saying that their fates likely wouldn't be as horrible as it was had they been left in their own schools. It is saying something when Amiya, who tried to find any sense of decency within most of Reunion's leaderships, found his actions unforgivable. Her Kirk Summation near the end of "Necessary Solutions" sums up his loathsome personality very nicely.
    Amiya: I have no empathy to spare for the likes of you, at least for the time being. [...] Not all Infected are the same. You and Miss FrostNova have nothing in common. Not everyone in Reunion is a psychopath like you.
  • While Chapter 7 of the main story attempts to subvert this somewhat, the timing of the release and the suffering the known victims had to endure and their resulting trauma make it understandably rather difficult for the players to sympathize with him at this point. Chapter 8 turns this around by pushing the Alas, Poor Villain vibes to their peak, to the point where even those who hate him tend to admit feeling at least a bit bad for him.
• Healing Factor: All the zombies he creates have seemingly limitless vitality and can quickly regenerate from just about any wound inflicted on them.
  • In-game, this translates to all of his Possessed minions passively regenerating HP over time, with the regeneration getting stronger in his presence. The Enraged Possessed turn this on its head, losing HP over time instead.
  • This trope also extends to Mephisto himself, who could heal all his injuries in the flashback of his childhood after becoming Infected.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: While his reasons for doing so are not necessarily pure, Mephisto does attempt to turn a new leaf in Chapter 7 by using the sarcophagus to try and remove his memories. Chapter 8 shows that not only did this not have the intended effect, it transformed him into a horrific creature that spreads Originium mutation at a massive rate, forcing Rhodes Island to put him down to prevent the new mutation he caused from spreading. All the while, he can only bitterly make peace with his fate.
• Hidden Depths: He used to love singing, which served as a coping mechanism for his childhood abuse, but the Oripathy forced on him seemingly ruined his ability to sing forever. When Faust asks him what he truly wants after he murdered his abusive family, all he can say is that he wants to sing, but can't anymore. However, FrostNova recounts the moments when he tried hard to sing a few years ago. And in Chapter 7, he indeed sings to the remnants of Faust's squadron despite how terrible he sounds. In the end, singing is one thing Mephisto can never quite give up on and in fact the only thing he ever wanted in life besides Faust's companionship, to the point where even after being turned into a near-mindless monster by the Chernobog sarcophagus, the only part of his psyche that isn't destroyed is his desire to continue singing, from which Kal'tsit figures out this is how Mephisto primarily deals with emotional stress.
• Idiot Hair: Has two strands of hair that stick out somewhat, it's more obvious in his chibi sprite.
• Irony: He has bird motifs and at one point even becomes a large one, but he lost his ability to sing long ago, and the wings he gained in his bird form are too fragile to support his body to fly.
• It's All My Fault: As revealed in his final monologue, this is how he came to view people's hatred toward him. Ironically, in his attempt to not make any mistakes, he tried to follow the people he cares about to the letter, with horrifying results as can be seen throughout the story.
• Kids Are Cruel: The most visibly young out of Reunion Movement personnel, yet undoubtedly the most sadistic.
• Kill It with Fire: Mephisto has a thing for burning people 'who defiled the world' (ie. non-Infected) alive as part of his twisted sense of justice. It started in his childhood to get rid of the people who tormented him.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • After Faust sacrifices himself to stop Mephisto's madness when he unleashes his herd to attack everyone indiscriminately, he breaks down completely and becomes dead on the inside, not unlike the people he turns into living zombies.
  • With his grotesque transformation in Chapter 8, he becomes exactly like those transformed by his Arts, locked into a state of perpetual suffering while unable to perceive anything around them.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Faust is one to him, as he tends to lose his temper whenever anything happens to him. When Faust is injured at the end of Chapter 5, Mephisto nearly breaks down. And when Faust is killed in Chapter 6, he crashes into the Despair Event Horizon hard.
  • This is further elaborated in their backstory. Mephisto has no will to live, the only reason he bothers staying alive is because he promised to survive together with Faust. Talulah alluded to this, saying Mephisto needs Faust to give his life value.
• Luminescent Blush: Downplayed. He always has slightly rosy cheeks in his sprite (both art and chibi), perhaps to emphasize his youth.
• Made of Iron: Mephisto's zombie herd becomes so durable that they can withstand firepower that would have blasted a city's fortified walls. An L.G.D. agent wonders if those creatures ever feel pain or not.
• Madness Mantra: "I need to go forward" and "being alive is a good thing", which he repeated throughout his monologue after being turned into a bird monster.
• Make an Example of Them: In his attempt to mock and lure the Rhodes Island members out of hiding/stalking, Mephisto brought out groups of people that they captured from the sub-city, and burn them up as "effigies". The Doctor had to cover Amiya's eyes in this scene, but Frostleaf describes it anyway when Amiya insisted on knowing what's going on. Worse, he even had the audacity to engrave a huge logo of Reunion on the burning side of the building. Mephisto even name-drops this trope word for word and explains its purpose.
  Mephisto: Make an example out of those ten percent... and the other ninety percent fall into line.
• Missing Mom: He overheard his mother wasn't at home for some reason.
• Morality Pet: Not only is Faust the only one he doesn't treat with disdain or callousness, Mephisto's interactions with him are characterized by a highly unusual amount of care considering his normally psychopathic tendencies. He even reminds Faust several times to prioritize his safety above all, which is uncharacteristic considering he treats all his men like expendable pawns. After you learn that Faust is his only companion throughout his entire life, this makes a lot more sense.
• Mythical Motifs: Despite his obvious reference to a devilish figure, ever since his race is confirmed, he's also likely based on a caladrius, a snow-white bird in Roman mythology renowned for its healing powers.
• Necromancer: While he doesn't strictly resurrect the dead, he can effectively revive slain Infected as mindless zombies by manipulating the Originium in their bodies, greatly enhancing their durability and removing their abilities to feel pain. This apparently isn't the most pleasant process for the subjects, since they thank Ch'en when she offs them. He can kick this ability up a notch by making his herd aggressive enough to attack anyone on sight except himself and Faust and turn anyone they bite into a part of the herd, at the cost of destroying their egos completely that they will no longer listen to Mephisto. This is apparently due to their Oripathy infection being accelerated to the point their life force is being consumed from the inside out, so they're reduced to their primal aggression and losing HP instead. This side of his ability is likely fuelled by his own hatred as it's the only emotion Amiya can detect in the herd's otherwise emotionless selves.
• No Cure for Evil: Inverted. When you finally face off against one of the most evil, uncaring and cruel of Reunion's leaders who shows no regard for the lives of any of his underlings besides Faust and revels in the death and destruction Reunion causes, it turns out that he's a medic. As in, the same "no offensive abilities whatsoever and only heals teammates" medic class that all other medics in the game are. This is likely meant to emphasize his necromancer abilities to regenerate his zombie minions, but he can heal Faust and himself as well.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The universe seems to enjoy making the few good deeds he performs backfire on him in the absolute most miserable way imaginable. The kindness he shows Faust as a child results in him not only being bullied by other children, but also leads to someone shoving an Originium crystal down his throat, causing him to contract Oripathy. His desire to assist Talulah in helping the Infected gradually twists him into a monster who commits atrocities to that end due to Kashchey-possessed Talulah encouraging his absolute worst traits. Finally, his earnest attempt at redemption turns him into a raging monster that doubles as a living biohazard, and ultimately results in him being put down like a mad dog. It's no wonder he's such a total bastard — anytime he tries to do something remotely good, the universe rewards him with complete and absolute misery. The only time when it's averted is when he saves the Phantom Crossbowmen from a certain doom in Talulah's hands, resulting in them teaming up with the guerrillas and R.I. personnel throughout the events of Chapter 8.
• Non-Action Guy: Like your Medics, he's a Support Party Member and cannot actively raise a finger against any of your operatives. That is, until Chapter 8.
• One-Winged Angel: His attempt to use the sarcophagus and erase his memories in Chapter 7 goes horribly wrong as of Chapter 8, mutating him into a feeble-looking Originium monster resembling a cross between a bird and a dragon, albeit made of pale flesh and with exposed Originium crystals all over his form, along with a dark halo-like crown. Not only does he lose his sense of self in this state aside from a desire to continue singing, he passively spreads Originium particles that induce bizarre mutations in all living beings they come in contact with.
• Ornamental Weapon: Wields a dagger and a Tokarev handgun that he never uses on-screen.
• Pet the Dog: Rescues Faust's men in Chapter 7, who are about to be wiped out by the Sarkaz mercenaries under Talulah's orders. He even offers to sing for them. They are understandably baffled by his sudden shift in attitude, suspecting this might be a part of Talulah's scheme.
• Power at a Price: Amping up his Arts causes his zombies to go wild, becoming far more aggressive and powerful while giving them the ability to turn anyone they attack into one of their own. However, this comes at the cost of totally destroying their egos and reducing them to a barely sentient state of primal madness - not only will they become unable to take any further orders from Mephisto, leaving him unable to control them, they'll attack anyone that isn't him or Faust on sight, even if they're an ally. In-game, the Enraged Possessed are blessed with incredible stats that make them a serious threat, but will constantly take Damage Over Time from their accelerated infection consuming them from the inside out.
• Power Glows: The crystal on Mephisto's staff is said to glow whenever he uses his necromancer Arts, his sprite animation shows this as well.
• Power Incontinence: After being transformed by the Sarcophagus, he no longer has control over his ability to create and sustain Possessed, with any unprotected living things near him being rapidly mutated into Originium aberrations and driven to protect him without any input on his part.
• Psycho Supporter: He is all too happy about dedicating himself to the radicalized Reunion to the point that others who belong to the same movement are disgusted by his actions.
• Red Herring: Most of Chapter 4's plot seem to set him up as that chapter's main antagonist, even when the newly-introduced Yeti Squadron had ice-based characteristics unlikely to be Mephisto's own powers. This trope gets a Lampshade Hanging from Frostleaf and especially from Mephisto himself when he's about to reveal the real deal.
  Frostleaf: Mephisto is a nobody. There's something wandering in this city... that is far more terrifying... The Yetis. If we run into them, we'll be in serious trouble.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: His name is derived from Mephistopheles, a demon from German folklore, featured in the Faust myth.
• Sad Battle Music: A soft lullaby plays during his second phase in Chapter 8. It's a song Frostnova used to sing for him to ease his nightmares.
• Sanity Slippage: While he already had a few screws loose after the mess that was his past, Talulah all but admits further catalyzing his descent into madness in order to further her own goals.
• Self-Made Orphan: Sicced zombified infected children on his abusive family as an act of revenge and self defense.
• Sherlock Scan: Mephisto is shocked to know that his powder sticks to Ch'en's body, which makes him easily and correctly deduce that Ch'en is also an Infected.
• Shrinking Violet: Apparently his original personality before turning the way he is, as the story even dubs him as Timid Child before introducing his name in Chapter 8.
• Smug Snake: He always likes to boast about how flawless his plans are, but he immediately starts to break down when things don't go his way, such as when Amiya and Blaze foil the trap he laid for Ch'en, as well as the absence of promised Reunion reinforcements.
• Stepford Smiler: Of the mentally unstable kind, partially because that's what he believes Faust wanted. In his childhood, he liked to smile and laugh despite his miserable home life and his family being more inclined to physically abuse him for it. When he questioned this, Faust encouraged him to keep himself that way, not knowing the circumstance behind the abuse. The result wasn't pretty.
• Stone Wall: Despite being a medic with no attacks - one that looks like a kid no less - he's actually surprisingly sturdy, and packs good RES to soak up Arts attacks, although his DEF is on the low side.
  • In the challenge mode of map 5-10, he's very likely to be the last man standing on the Reunion side due to his grossly inflated HP and DEF^note 550 DEF and 126,000 HP - for reference, Patriot at his prime has 60,000 HP, and it would take you a looooong time of non-stop wailing on him, while he can't do anything about it because of his status as a Support Party Member, aside from sporadically healing himself for a tiny amount. Thanks to that, this trope also applies to the Possessed Junkmen he controls as they become much harder to kill with Mephisto around to heal them and their already constant HP regeneration, turning the map into a tough DPS check.
  • In M8-8 as his mutated form, while his damage output is fairly low outside of his Damage Over Time, not only does he have higher HP than any other boss fought at that point^note 60000-70000, which is more than Talulah herself and even more than the Deathless Black Snake before she Turns Red. along with two health bars, Mephisto will enter a hibernative intermission phase once you burst down his first phase, where he will summon a shield while constantly healing himself for 200 HP each second. Said shield buffs his DEF by 2200 and his RES by 50, making him Nigh-Invulnerable without mass debuffs and damage amplification. This phase lasts for about 100 seconds or until he is somehow burst down before time runs out.
• Support Party Member:
  • His only move is to heal up to three allies at once, much like an AoE medic. In addition, he provides a buff as long as he's alive which causes all Possessed enemy units to have their passive HP regen doubled.
  • In his Chapter 8 battle, although he retains his healing ability, he switches out the regeneration buff for increasing the ATK and ASPD of all Possessed units while he's alive. The former effect is amplified once he Turns Red.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The result of him working with quite literally anyone except Faust.
• Terms of Endangerment: Mephisto nicknames some Rhodes Island members depending on their animal motifs. He usually says these when intimidating his enemies or trying to lure them out of hiding:
  • "My dear rabbit" or "The Rabbit of Rhodes Island" for Amiya.
  • "Kitty" for Jessica.
  • "Little fox" for Frostleaf.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Or at the very least shows none of his sadistic tendencies after waking up from his Angst Coma, even having his own Pet the Dog moment with the remainder of Reunion soldiers.
• Toxic Phlebotinum:
  • His Originium Arts manifests as a powder that latches on to his defeated Reunion members, reviving them as mindless zombies and inflicting gruesome Body Horror. It only sticks itself on the Infected though, friend or foe alike, as it briefly happens to Ch'en.
  • The mutation he undergoes in Chapter 8 causes him to uncontrollably release Originium dust that affects all living beings, including non-Infected, and induces bizarre mutations that are abnormal even by his standards. In battle, this manifests as a toxic cloud he releases whenever he takes enough damage, which deals true damage over time to all operators on the map for a duration and can stack multiple times if he takes too much burst damage.
• Tragic Monster:
  • Instead of erasing his memories, the sarcophagus made him into this in Chapter 8, losing most of his personality in the process but retaining his desire to sing. As a result, he's still trying to sing in this form by emitting sounds as if he was a songbird. Tragically, Rhodes Island has no choice but to put him down as he sings due to the special infection that's caused by the Originium particles he's spreading.
  • His inner monologue as he's being put down by Rhodes Island is absolutely heartbreaking. Knowing he will get hurt and beaten everywhere he goes, he desperately convinces himself how precious life is and therefore, he has no choice but to move forward while his friends who have walked alongside him have left him behind. It finally ends with his defeat and a tearful goodbye to the people in his life.
• Trauma Conga Line: It's no surprise he ends up the way he is considering his childhood consists of being bullied, horribly abused at home, left behind by his mom with his abusive dad and then getting Originium shoved down his throat so that he can't sing anymore. Years later, the only adult he trusts decided to exploit his absolute faith in her by driving him further towards insanity for her own agenda. And finally, his one and only friend chooses to die so that he can live. At this point, he has lost interest in Reunion's conflict and spends his time trying to erase his memories to forget the pain. Even before then, Mephisto implied to never want to live in the first place as he found it to be painful and meaningless, only staying alive out of a promise he made with Faust. Yet it doesn't stop life from being absolutely merciless to him once again as his attempt to erase his memories ends with him being transformed into a monster that can't even be called an Infected anymore and locked into his own misery that can only end when he lost consciousness. While he didn't die at the end, he likely won't live for much longer as said mutation has damaged his body functions beyond repair and his infection rate will rapidly increase.
• Troubled Fetal Position: He 'sleeps' this way in his Singer form, before entering his second phase to recover his health.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Kids usually aren't going around leading militarized assaults on cities and committing atrocities like Mephisto does.
• Uncertain Doom: If spared in M8-8 and the player unlocks EG-3, Mephisto would survive his gruesome transformation (albeit in a comatose state) and is taken to Rhodes Island. While Kal'tsit said she can perform a surgery to revert him back to normal, she points out that Mephisto will eventually succumb to his worsened Oripathy due to his transformation, but will leave the final choice to the Doctor. Regardless of his fate, he vanishes from the story and is never seen again after Chapter 8.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As Eno, he was kind enough to feed the then homeless Sasha bread, teach him to read and sing for him. FrostNova's musings and snippets from Talulah's backstory show that before Reunion's radicalization, he was a pretty well-behaved kid despite still suffering from trauma.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Faust and Mephisto were overwhelmed by Ch'en and Rhodes Island in the final battle of Chapter 5, but they managed to flee by jumping off the building.
• Villainous Breakdown: From the end of Chapter 5 onwards, after he lost control of the LGD building, he's driven into desperation as his forces are slowly being cornered in Lungmen, eroding whatever sanity he has left (if he still had any of it at all) and resulting in him unleashing his upgraded herd to rampage through the city.
• Villain Teleportation: While no longer "villainous" by any stretch of the word post-Chapter 6, during his boss appearance in Chapter 8 as "The Singer", he can warp around the map, a newfound ability as a result of his transformation.
• We Can Rule Together: He tries to convince Ch'en to join Reunion, knowing the latter's connection to their leader, Talulah, and their similar hatred towards Wei Yenwu. It didn't work at all.
• We Have Reserves: He shows zero regard for his own minions and has no qualms throwing them to their deaths if it gives him an advantage, and even encourages Faust to do the same in the anime. To be fair, most of his minions are undead.
• We Used to Be Friends: As hard as it is to believe, Mephisto used to get along just fine with FrostNova, with the latter singing him a lullaby to help him cope with his nightmares when he was younger. With Reunion's radicalization changing him for the worse, FrostNova seemingly has forgotten most of it and condemned him until her last breath. Despite that, Mephisto sings her song to the Phantom Crossbowmen after her death as a tribute and wonders why he can't be as good of a singer as she was.
• Why Won't You Die?: Mephisto says a variant of "why are you still alive?" when he saw that Amiya and the Doctor returned to Lungmen, defying his expectations that they would've been killed by FrostNova in Chernobog.

Faust

Faust / Sasha

^{Click to see his appearance in flashbacks.}

Race: Pythia
Artist: 唯@W
Voiced by: Shun Horie (Japanese, anime)

A quiet Reunion commander who leads the Phantom Crossbowmen, an elite team of snipers. He's an extremely proficient Sniper who often works with Mephisto, using his crossbow to launch devastating long-ranged attacks while his Arts give him unprecedented stealthiness.

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• Animal Motifs: Snakes, as seen from his tail and the scales on his face. Amiya even refers to him as one.
• Automatic Crossbows: This is his handheld weapon. Gameplay-wise, it allows him to snipe at any operator without range limitations.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He was able to easily deduce a flaw in Amiya's empath powers. While Amiya can feel and manipulate emotions, and read past memories, she cannot predict thoughts. Faust caught her by surprise when he shoots Amiya while they were talking.
  Faust: You can read my mind.
  Amiya: No, I just felt it.
  Faust: So, you'd have no idea what I'm thinking.
• Battle Theme Music: Shares "LongmenBatBoss" (or "落子无悔", roughly "No Regrets" in the official OST) with Mephisto in 5-10. This theme plays again when he returns as a boss in H5-4 and 6-7, as well as the Deserted Factory map in Contingency Contract.
• Biblical Motifs: Being based on a snake, his pairing with Mephisto who's a bird likely alludes to the biblical symbolism of their respective races. In Christianity, snakes are commonly depicted as representative of evil in contrast to the purity of caladrius and doves. Which is what he technically did when he accidentally wished death upon Mephisto's abusers, leading to the gruesome murder of the latter's family in Mephisto's own hands, tainting him with sin for the first time and creating the basis of his insanity, not unlike Adam and Eve's original sin in the Bible.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: His Arts only makes him invisible. His crossbow shots that almost break Nearl's arm are gained through pure training.
• Childhood Friends: With Mephisto, they were the only friend of each other.
• Cold Sniper: Rarely talks and wields a massive crossbow with immense destructive power.
• Critical Hit: Every so often, he can launch a critical attack consisting of a purple bolt that deals anywhere between 200%-250% more damage, depending on the map. Considering how much he already hurts normally, you better hope whatever operator he's targeting is stacking DEF.
  • Contingency Contract modifiers can take this up a notch, where Faust's purple bolt can deal as much as 12038 damage in a single shot, occurring every five shots. Nothing short of invincibility will save you here.
• Despair Event Horizon: He effectively loses all motivation to live after seeing Mephisto unleash his undead monsters to attack friend and foe alike, killing many Reunion soldiers. He concludes that there's nothing he can do to save Mephisto from himself, except leaving the job to the person in question.
• The Dreaded: Faust's group is known as Reunion's "Phantom Crossbowmen", a title that even Rhodes Island operators like Blaze have heard of. They are named after their ability to camouflage while shooting from several directions.
• Establishing Character Moment: Faust makes his presence known in the prologue chapter by responding to Mephisto's call for backup, and attempting to snipe Nearl with his ballista. Fortunately, Nearl blocked the shot, but what makes the situation worrying for Rhodes Island is that they can't even spot where Faust really was, since the next shots came from different directions.
• Gender-Blender Name: His real name, Sasha, can be both a male and a female name.
• The Ghost: In Operation 0-10 of the prologue chapter, where he saved Mephisto by distracting Nearl with his ballista. Faust's image was initially concealed in shadow, but gets revealed when he regrouped with his fellow Reunion figure.
• Gratuitous Russian: Sasha is the diminutive of "Alexander" which means "defender of mankind", fitting for a selfless individual who dedicates his life to his childhood friend and comrades in arms.
• Harmful to Minors: Not only was he a homeless kid living in the sewers who got into frequent fights with other infected children, he witnessed the kid who fed him bread and gave him books to read getting beaten up for his generosity. Said nice kid finally snapped and killed the people who ever wronged him and Faust, and then encouraged to be a terrorist by the very woman who took them in. Mephisto's body count and sadism only snowballed from then on and Faust could do nothing but watch and keep himself quiet out of fear of influencing him for the worse like he did in the past.
  Faust: How many people died in front of you? How many people died in front of me? How many people died because I did something, and how many people died because I did nothing?
• Intangible Man: Like the Wraith enemies, Faust cannot be blocked by melee operators. Combined with the fact that he has a surprising amount of health, losing maps because Faust slipped through your lines isn't too uncommon.
• Invisibility: His Arts power allows him to render other people invisible as long as they don't make sudden movements. In battle, his stealth renders him invulnerable for the first few minutes he's in combat. He uses this ability to hide his squad, the Phantom Crossbowmen (representing in-game as Invisible Crossbowmen), giving the impression that he is capable of firing from many directions at once. In Chapter 6, he can push this ability to the limit by camouflaging his squad as they're making their escape at the cost of his infected organs breaking.
• Last Request: His last request to Mephisto despite the things he has done is for him to live on even if he's alone.
• Long-Range Fighter: One of Faust's main boss abilities is being able to strike any operator on the map regardless of range, meaning whoever you last deployed is getting peppered with crossbow bolts. Although there's nothing stopping him from firing at enemies at point-blank range.
• Loved by All: Whether among the leadership of Reunion or within the common soldiers, Faust is well-liked and respected by everyone, in contrast to Mephisto. Some even loudly claim that Faust should ditch Mephisto and are exasperated that the two boys are inseparable. Even Kashchey laments his death, having expected Mephisto to die instead, even if it's only because he's losing a very competent pawn.
• Morality Pet: To Mephisto, who shows careless disregard for everyone except Faust. Doubles as Living Emotional Crutch as Mephisto nearly loses it when Faust gets injured at the end of Chapter 5, and in Chapter 0 the former reminds him that his safety is the most important thing.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He was horrified to find out that he has accidentally made a vengeful murderer out of Mephisto because Faust was enraged by the abuse that was inflicted on his only friend who has done nothing to deserve it. As a cherry on top, Mephisto asked him if he did well since he accomplished what was asked of him. Since then, he vowed to live together with him and help him find happiness without having to kill anyone for it.
• Not So Stoic: In the flashbacks of Chapter 6 and 8, it's revealed that he wasn't the quiet person he is now, even being shown as rather blunt and expressive compared to the timid Eno. His stoic persona is likely the result of Talulah and Mephisto's change and his despair for his inability to do anything about it.
• Palette Swap: The boss enemy "Rusthammer Warrior" from the Integrated Strategies mode is essentially this, from having the same battle pose as Faust to using the same skills (including being unblockable). The only differences beside their appearance is the Soldier's overall higher stats and them sacrificing the ability to deploy ballistae in exchange for dealing Arts damage with their critical strikes.
• Poor Communication Kills: Almost literally. What partially leads him to sacrifice himself to let Mephisto and the Phantom Crossbowmen evacuate safely is his own fear and inability to make himself clear that he never wants Mephisto to commit so many atrocities for the sake of both of them. Namely, the main reason why Mephisto catalyzes his herd to run wild in Chapter 6 is because he's desperate enough to believe that the herd is their only means of survival and FrostNova won't come to their rescue like Faust believes. She does eventually, but by then Faust has died and Mephisto has hit the Despair Event Horizon in the process.
• The Quiet One: Due to rather tragic reasons. Faust's candidness as a child unwittingly created part of the foundation of Mephisto's insanity, as the latter blew the meaning of his words out of proportion when Faust ranted about how Mephisto's abusers should be destroyed. Since Talulah changed for the worse, manipulated Mephisto to further insanity and Faust's attempt to persuade him not to follow Talulah ended in vain, he no longer speaks up whenever Mephisto does something horrible out of fear he'll just make things worse for him.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Like Mephisto, he is named after a character from the Faust myth, specifically the titular character.
• Street Urchin: As a child, he used to live in the sewers of Ursus.
• Suicide by Cop: This is partially why he decides to go on a last stand against Rhodes Island and the LGD despite being in no condition to put an actual fight.
• Tranquil Fury: The best way to describe how he feels as he watches Mephisto drive his herd to attack other Reunion soldiers, with a mix of sadness, disappointment and self-deprecation that he eventually gives up on living. The anniversary livestream showcases this by having him grab Mephisto by the collar to scold him before sending him away with the Phantom Crossbowmen.
• The Turret Master: He can plant invincible crossbow turrets to harass operators by dealing constant damage to them.
• Undying Loyalty: Unsurprisingly to Mephisto, however this trope takes a whole new level once you learn his backstory. They made a promise with each other to survive together and as a token for that, Faust swallowed an Originium from the mines to make himself infected and share Mephisto's grief. He made it his life mission to keep Mephisto on the right path that when Talulah drove him towards cruelty again, Faust remained true to his promise. Once Mephisto unleashes his undead horde in Chapter 6, even as Faust is at his limit, he allows himself to die to Rhodes Island's attacks and asks Mephisto to survive by himself, likely as a last ditch effort to set him straight.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Faust and Mephisto were overwhelmed by Ch'en and Rhodes Island in the final battle of Chapter 5, but they managed to flee by jumping off the building.
• Wise Beyond His Years: In stark contrast to Mephisto, he displays a lot of maturity for his young age in the way he speaks and acts as can be seen in his interaction with GreyThroat. He's also a highly respected commander in Reunion, as he started off as a kid who couldn't take charge nor aim well with a crossbow. But after learning from the snipers, training hard and sparring with other soldiers under FrostNova and Patriot's guidance, he became the captain of the Phantom Crossbowmen. This makes sense considering he has to look after himself since early childhood and later on Mephisto. His squad launch their crossbows to honor his sacrifice and FrostNova acknowledges him as a good soldier after learning about what he did.

FrostNova

FrostNova / Yelena

^{Click to see her second form.}

^{Click to see her appearance in flashbacks.}

Other Variations: FrostNova "Winter's Scar"
Race: Cautus
Artist: 唯@W
Voiced by: Ayahi Takagaki (Japanese, anime)

A cold and aloof Reunion leader who leads the Yeti Squadron, a force of elite warriors specifically trained for arctic combat. She's also an extraordinarily powerful Caster with mastery over ice-based Arts.

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• Animal Motifs: Rabbits, due to her Cautus race. More specifically, arctic rabbits.
• Back from the Dead: When FrostNova is defeated, she will stand back up and revive herself with buffed stats. While other self-reviving bosses were added later, she was the first one to use such a mechanic, which caught many a player off guard. Lappland with her Spiritual Destruction cannot prevent this.
• Battle Theme Music:
  • "永冻症 (yǒnɡ dònɡ zhēng)" ^note  lit. "Permafrost" , which serves as her boss theme with a One-Woman Wail and Orchestral Bombing in full force to emphasize her danger to Rhodes Island.
  • She later gets FrostNovaEvolution ("尽归霜雪", roughly "Frost and Snow" in the OST album) for her last battle, and then FrostNovaEvolutionHard ("Абсолю́тный нуль температу́ры", or "Absolute Zero" in the OST album) for her bonus battle in H6-4, both of which reuse the Leitmotif from her original theme.
• Blood from the Mouth: She coughs blood after your first encounter with her. Patriot then warns her not to put so much strain on her body as her abilities can have ill effects.
• Cast from Lifespan: Chapter 4's epilogue has Patriot (though unnamed) asking a defeated FrostNova not to overexert herself, implying that her powers come at a price. This is possibly the case with most Arts operators, as Blaze mentions she can only do her ultimate ability once a month too, and is presumably the reason why Reunion can't just let FrostNova and Talulah steamroll their enemies every single battle. In Chapter 6, this is all but confirmed—using her abilities accelerates her Oripathy to the point where she dies right after her final battle.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Earlier in Chapter 4, Frostleaf narrates the legend of the mythological creature known as the yeti, the rumors about a guerrilla group called the Yeti Squadron and their mysterious leader having deadly ice powers. Sure enough, the protagonists found out that the new type of Reunion group in that city is indeed the Yeti Squadron. And near the end of this chapter, FrostNova makes her debut, along with an Establishing Character Moment that proves her to be the Yeti leader that the rumors spoke of.
• Combat Pragmatist: Frostleaf tries to chant a Magical Incantation for her own Arts, how did FrostNova react to this? By freezing the girl's tongue to interrupt her.
• Curtains Match the Window: Both her hair and eyes are white/grey in color.
• Death from Above: She can summon a pile of ice spears to stab the random tiles around her, instantly killing the operators standing on them, and leave the tiles frozen, making it impossible to deploy anyone else on those spaces for the rest of the mission. These ice spears bypass any invincibility effects your operators may have such as Nian's damage-nullifying shields or Specter's Bone Fracture.
• Delicate and Sickly: She can't use her Arts for an extended period before losing consciousness.
  • Even the other Reunion members are well aware of her ill condition and have gotten used to it, such as when Patriot is concerned about her health in Chapter 4, and when Mephisto wonders if Rhodes Island managed to escape FrostNova in Chernobog because she passed out "again".
  • At the end of Chapter 6, her Oripathy has progressed to the point that Originium leaks through her skin and forms black crystals with water molecules in the air as her body continues to heat up. After giving it her all, her extremely cold body has become warm as she can touch the Doctor before dying.
• The Dreaded: Often dubbed the "Yeti" by those who have heard of her exploits. While this also extends to her Yeti Squadron, the rumors about them liken FrostNova to a monster figure who can freeze the land where it walks, and is compared to the winter's chill.
• Due to the Dead: It's revealed in "A Light Spark in Darkness" that Rhodes Island honored FrostNova's death by naming one of their medications after her. One that's intended to treat exposure to cold temperatures, no less.
• Dynamic Entry: In Operation 4-9, Frostleaf tries to confront and kill Mephisto by herself, but her feet suddenly get frozen as the Yeti Squadron arrived on time. Then Mephisto comes out speaking like a master of ceremonies and making a dramatic introduction for his fellow Reunion leader, FrostNova.
  Mephisto: All right, I need to introduce you to a new friend. Ahem— next up, put your hands together for the real star of the show... The nightmare of the northwest tundra, the master of the Yetis. Miss... Frost... Novaaaaaaaa! She will freeze every bit of your flesh, every drop of your blood... Bit. By, Bit!
• Early-Bird Cameo: Her silhouette can be seen in the background CG of Operation 1-6, standing close to Patriot as the Reunion figures are watching the Catastrophe fall. She does appear again in the cutscene of Operation 1-10, but remains unnamed with the narration labelling her as "???".
• Energy Absorption: She can kill others by absorbing all of their body heat, and this is implied to be one of her most powerful abilities that she saves up as a Last Ditch Move. She tries to pull this one at the end of Chapter 4, but gets interrupted by Frostleaf's own ice powers.
• Establishing Character Moment: She has two near the end of Chapter 4:
  • Her dramatic entrance shows how the rumors about her and the Yeti Squadron are true, that with FrostNova's ice powers, she can turn the surroundings into a deadly frozen environment. Remember that burning building and the "effigies" of people that Mephisto set aflame previously? FrostNova dropped the temperature so quickly that those things completely froze, with the building now having an ice-layered symbol of the Reunion Movement on its front.
  • In the epilogue, she coughs blood quickly after the fight ends, hinting that FrostNova is ill and that using her powers takes a toll on her health. Afterwards, Patriot appears to remind FrostNova not to use her abilities too much. This hints that the two Reunion figures have a close relationship with each other.
• Flying Weapon: FrostNova's black weapons float around her.
• Gratuitous Russian: Yelena is the Russian form of Helen, means "shining light", just like a nova in the space that her code name might imply. The appearance of 'FrostNova' might be short and transient, but one that is lethal and impactful.
• Heel–Face Turn: Downplayed in how she, like Patriot, is never evil in the first place, and she takes up Rhodes Island's offer to join their ranks in her dying breath. When the "Roaring Flare" update awarded players medals whenever a Reunion leader was killed (after the stage in which they were last fought), Yelena's is on a silver background in stead of the usual red, with Rhodes Island symbol looming over Reunion's, cementing her defection to RI.
• Hell Is That Noise:
  • Her introduction is accompanied by the literally bone-chilling, bone-cracking sounds she made as she approaches.
  • The sounds she makes when she stands back up after her first gauge of HP is depleted.
• Hidden Depths: She likes making hot drinks as outside heat can't enter her body so she can enjoy the heat that travels through to her stomach. Her hobby is mixing alcohol with spices, with some sugar mixture to make some kind of candy. She pranks the Doctor with this despite their status as enemies because they don't try to kill her while she's unconscious.
• Human Resources: It is said that the Originium Ice Crystals that carry her Arts and empower the Yeti Squadron are the Originium crystals that the Yeti Squadron chipped off from her body.
• An Ice Person: She's on a similar power level to Talulah, except instead of fire, she can turn everything around her into ice and instantly freeze her enemies. Oripathy has made her body so cold that those who touch her ever so slightly will be severely frostbitten.
• Just Toying with Them: After the fight with her on Operation 4-10, she admits that she's just holding back too much. But even then, it's up to debate on how much FrostNova really did exert, as she started coughing blood afterwards.
• Last Dance: In her final fight, she draws out the full extent of her powers that would otherwise harm her comrades, but since they've perished and she's dying from Oripathy either way, she's free to go all out.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Or rather daughter in this case. Just like Patriot, she can revive once per fight. She is also fully committed to fighting for the Infected. Both FrostNova and Patriot ultimately fall to their Oripathy after their final battle out of sheer stubbornness to accept their fate.
• Magic Music: She sings in order to channel her ice magic. The narration surrounds the lyrics with musical notes. The anime animates this with Frostnova singing Lullabye in the Japanese language instead.
  ♪"Sleep, my children. Sleep. Hedgehog dolls and teddy bears... ♫ Sink quietly into black. My broken puppets and dolls."♪
• Ominous Fog: If the area suddenly becomes freezing cold and gets surrounded by a thick mist out of nowhere, then the most probable cause is that FrostNova and her Yeti Squadron are nearby.
• One-Hit Kill: Anything that's on a tile that she decides to freeze will be instantly killed, regardless of their defenses, HP, or even invulnerability.
• One-Winged Angel: The finale of Chapter 6 is basically her turning into this, throwing everything she can at the player in order to defeat Rhodes Island since she no has anything to lose. Unfortunately for her, Phlebotinum Overload occurs, and she ends up killing herself from overexertion, collapsing just a few steps short of the blue base.
• Palette Swap: The boss enemy "Frozen Monstrosity" from the Integrated Strategies mode is essentially this, using the same skills as FrostNova and being even more dangerous than her with her 80 seconds invulnerability after spawning and doubling the redeployment time of any operator knocked out by her while frozen.
• The Prankster: She muses to The Doctor after they ate her super-spicy candy that, she used this trick until no one falls for it anymore, so when she sees a chance, she can't help it.
• Punch-Clock Villain: She and her Yeti Squadron have no particular animosity towards Rhodes Island other than the fact that they just happened to end up on opposite sides of the conflict, to the point where both factions even temporarily team up to rescue the Doctor and FrostNova when they are trapped in a cave.
• Red Baron: She's known in the rumors as the "Yeti". But if Mephisto's dramatic introduction of FrostNova is anything to go by, she's also known as the "Master of the Yetis" and the "Nightmare of the Northwest Tundra".
• Redemption Equals Death: During her last moments, FrostNova agreed to come over to Rhodes Island's side before dying. She remains an honorary member. Though downplayed since FrostNova was never really evil, and Rhodes Island show respect to her before their final battle.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation:
  • She attacks by creating blades of magical ice, and can also manifest black ice blades to turn the surrounding ground unusable. In her second encounter, she is constantly surrounded by several swords of black ice, due to her terminal Oripathy causing Originium to leak through her skin and crystallize on contact with water in the air.
  • From the "Untitled World" animation video, she materializes black shields out of nowhere in order to protect herself from Blaze's chainsaw.
• Start X to Stop X: The fight between FrostNova and Frostleaf can be summed up as "fighting ice with ice", although the former is stronger in terms of raw power (she almost froze Frostleaf's body), while the latter had to rely on her friends' teamwork and coordination just so that all of the protagonists can escape.
• Status Effects: She can use radial nova attacks to do heavy damage while halving the attack speed of all operators struck. In her second battle, she can also freeze operators solid to render them helpless.
• Tragic Ice Character: FrostNova and her personal retinue the Yeti Squadron, despite their snow and ice motif, are highly empathetic Family of Choice fighting for the true ideals of the Reunion Movement. Unlike the previously fought Skullshatterer or Mephisto, Rhodes Island only crosses sword with FrostNova out of their duty to their respective group, even working together when the situation calls. Several scenes show the Yeti Squadron either as warm friends or affable enemies. Yeti Squadron gets wiped out doing a Heroic Sacrifice and FrostNova swears fealty to Rhodes' ideals in her last breaths, with Rhodes Island accepting her as a posthumous member.
• Tranquil Fury: FrostNova has a constant deadpan expression to her face while she's on the field, but you can tell she's deadly serious about taking you down.
• Theme Music Powerup: In operation H6-4, the battle theme shifts from Snowmonster to FrostNovaEvolutionHard as soon as she arrives, notably, this was the first level with two battle themes.
• True Companions: She is very close to her Yeti Squadron, who are all the fellow children she was enslaved with in the Ursus Empire's mines. In Chapter 6, the entire Yeti Squadron sacrifice themselves to hold the L.G.D. back long enough for FrostNova to be evacuated. She is naturally not happy to find out about this and the next time they meet, she lashes out at Amiya in her grief-stricken rampage.
• Turns Red: After using her revive, she gains a 50% ATK boost. In later fights against her in Chapter 6, she also becomes invulnerable for 25 seconds straight after her revive, while gaining access to a plethora of new attacks.
• Unflinching Walk: At the climax of Chapter 6, FrostNova pulls one of these against a defensive combo of Amiya, Blaze, and GreyThroat, casually shrugging off their attacks and defeating them in two moves. Just as all hope seemed lost, however, her Arts overload came back to bite her hard in the ass, and she keels over dead just two steps shy of the blue base.
• We Used to Be Friends: As hard as it is to believe, Mephisto used to get along just fine with FrostNova, with the latter singing him lullaby to help him cope with his nightmares when he was younger. With Reunion's radicalization changing him for the worse, FrostNova seemingly has forgotten most of it and condemned him until her last breath. Despite that, Mephisto sings her song to the Phantom Crossbowmen after her death as a tribute and wonders why he can't be as good of a singer as she was.

Patriot

Patriot / Buldrokkas'tee

^{Click to see his appearance in flashbacks.}

Race: Sarkaz (Wendigo)
Artist: 唯@W
Voiced by: Banjo Ginga (Japanese, anime)

A former general of Ursus who defected to Reunion once he grew dissatisfied with Ursus' treatment of the Infected. He commands his troops with honor and dignity, while personally leading a specialized squad of guerrilla soldiers.

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• Back from the Dead: When his first phase is downed, he will gradually revive himself over the course of the next minute before roaring back into battle with a more offensive skillset.
• Battle Theme Music: battle_patriot, which becomes patriotextra in his bonus battle in H8-4.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Ironically enough, despite being a national hero famed for his honor and loyalty, the three most significant moments in Patriot's life involve him betraying his masters. First was when he left Kazdel, breaking his vow to serve Theresa. Second was when he defected from the Ursus Empire to join Reunion. Third was when he plots to turn against Talulah.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: 2100 DEF, 90% RES, 45-60k HP and very fatal attacks. Need I say any more about his first phase? And all this is in spite of the fact that he's wearing a suit of poorly-maintained Power Armor.
• Death from Above: In his second phase, he can throw his spear as a projectile, which targets the furthest ranged operator from him for 135% of his ATK. Considering how much damage he does normally, this will One-Hit Kill just about anything it hits.
• Death Seeker: He has no wish to die from his Oripathy, and would prefer to die in battle in battle instead. This is evidenced by the fact that he doesn't seem to take very good care of his Power Armor.
• Died Standing Up: The captain dies inches from his enemy, on his feet, his hand outstretched towards Amiya's head.
• Defector from Decadence:
  • Was once the Ursus Empire's most capable general, until he became aware of the horrible atrocities Ursus committed against the Infected and was forced to indirectly kill his own son.
  • He later reveals that the reason why he deserted Kadzel is because he "hates killing". He misunderstood the then-Sarkaz King Theresa as the same kind of warmonger as previous Kazdel's demon lords, and preferred the ideal of Ursus' then-emperor. However, not only it was proven that Theresa was the Sarkaz's Messianic Archetype, Ursus Empire decays after the emperor Patriot betrayed Kazdel for was killed in battle. This put a great blow on Patriot's definition of loyalty.
• Draw Aggro: While his shield is active, he forces all nearby operators to prioritize him over all other enemies. This includes other enemies that can also Draw Aggro.
• Dual Mode Unit: In his second phase, Patriot becomes something of a ranged-melee unit hybrid. His melee attacks are changed to be able to hit both high and low ground, allowing him to strike at ranged operators like the Fanatics of "Code of Brawl" could, while also giving him a spear throw that can nuke your operators from across the map. His targeting behavior also changes, where Patriot will attack even stunned operators, much like any other ranged unit.
• Early-Bird Cameo: His silhouette is seen in a CG artwork of Operation 1-6, standing near FrostNova as the Reunion figures watch the Catastrophe fall.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For a given value of "evil" anyhow. Patriot is the adoptive father of FrostNova, and loves her dearly.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He is not too happy when he hears that Reunion soldiers looted Hellagur's clinic, and even offers to track down and punish them on his behalf. He also doesn't quite agree with the rest of Reunion's violent tendencies, but feels there's no choice. And as Would Not Shoot a Civilian explains, he does not take kindly to anyone harming civilians, to the point where he had his own men hanged for doing that.
• Fatal Flaw: Stubbornness. As much as his nature as a Determinator makes him an insurmountable opponent and defined him as the Living Legend that he is, it also cripples his rationale and makes it just as impossible to change his mind even when he's clearly in the wrong. His need to follow his principles no matter what has cost him almost everything in his life; from his homeland and it's rightful ruler by refusing to side with Theresa by thinking her a tyrant, to unknowingly killing his son by blindly following orders to dispel a riot, his adoptive daughter Yelena by routinely chastising her Wide-Eyed Idealist beliefs forcing her to prove herself comparable to his will until her body finally broke down, and finally his own life at the hands of Rhodes Island by refusing to cooperate with them to take Talulah down despite knowing that she had betrayed Reunion's ideals. It's to the point that a lot of tragedy could have been averted if Patriot simply allowed himself to be more open-minded.
• A Father to His Men: Patriot is very clearly regarded by his subordinates to be an excellent leader and he reciprocates in kind by keeping his troops well disciplined and ensuring their safety whenever possible.
• The Ghost: From the first chapters, Patriot spends his screen time covered in shadows:
  • In his Early-Bird Cameo during the prologue, he's unnamed, does not have any screentime, nor speaks any dialogue lines at all.
  • In Chapter 4, he speaks to FrostNova after her fight with Rhodes Island, but he isn't labeled at all, and yet again, only his silhouette can be seen in the background CG.
• Hell Is That Noise: A high-pitched, monstrous, blood-curdling scream he makes as he throws his spear to snipe your operators down.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Due to his loyalty to Reunion and his insistence that all its leaders remain united, Patriot overlooks some of the members' morally questionable activities to maintain unity. FrostNova points out that this has made him blind to Talulah's slide into darkness, as well as the fact the Reunion leaders are forming factions based on their level of trust in Talulah and her intentions. However, turns out he's well aware of Talulah's betrayal of Reunion despite FrostNova's claims otherwise, but because he is well-aware that him betraying Talulah means splitting Reunion in two - something that he's trying to avoid at all costs because a civil war could end the movement - he couldn't do so until there is a scapegoat that he could put the blame of killing Talulah to.
  • In Chapter 8's flashback, this is shown to be his biggest flaw. While his sense of honor makes him a loyal soldier, this also makes him slow to accept changes. He deserted Kazdel for Ursus because he thought Sarkaz King Theresa was tyrannical, only to be proven wrong. He stayed in Ursus despite the country oppressing the Infected, until he was forced to kill his own son. Lastly, he's the strongest of Reunion's enforcers despite Reunion's Motive Decay. Even before Talulah's Face–Heel Turn, he insisted that every single Reunion soldier to adhere to his Guerilla Shieldguards' almost inhuman discipline and would not hesitate to execute Reunion deserters who no longer want to fight. In the end, Patriot is a Grumpy Old Man too stubborn to change his way, and when he does, it's already too late.
• "Instant Death" Radius: When killed for the first time, Patriot gains an aura that constantly burns all nearby operators for significant amounts of damage. This persists for the rest of the fight.
• Ironic Name: Despite being famed for his loyalty to the causes he supported almost as much as his strength, Patriot's defined by his betrayals of those he swore to follow, even his unflinching devotion to his own principles he voluntarily betrays in the last seconds of his life by ceasing his march on Amiya after coming to the conclusion she is not the Apocalypse Maiden he believed her to be.
• Javelin Thrower: Has the ability to throw his spear anywhere on the map. It also magically respawns on his hand.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: His son was a scholar, while he was a decorated soldier. Instead of how this trope usually goes, Patriot has only pride for his son because he broke the stereotype that the Wendigo Sarkaz can only become warrior-witch. The breaking point of his loyalty to Ursus is because his son, who has no battle training, decided to take up a weapon to fight against Ursus' oppression, and Ursus sent him to kill his own son.
• The Juggernaut: In his Marching Stance, he's slow and often takes a winding route towards the objective. But only a handful of Operators will be able to block and stop him, and usually only temporarily.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He was largely this to Talulah in the old days of Reunion, much to her irritation. Namely, he wanted to protect the Infected living in the tundra and was very much against Talulah's plans to save more Infected living in the south out of fear of getting everyone in their group killed as their movements will be caught in the radar of Ursus military, while Talulah argues it's the only way for them to survive as their resource is thinning out in the tundra.
• Large and in Charge: He's a major figure in the Reunion Movement, probably second only to Talulah herself, and he's absolutely massive. Patriot dwarfs just about every other character in the game on either side by a wide margin, even discounting his horned helm no one even comes close, with most artwork showing him to be well over two meters tall at the least. In the animated PV "End Like This", he's more than twice as tall as Amiya.
• Last of His Kind: Is the last pure-blooded Wendigo.
• Living Legend: As the last pure-blooded Wendigo who's been alive for 200 years, Patriot is practically a legendary figure who commands awe and respect from his allies, and fear from his enemies. His reputation is such that he's basically a big part on why so many Infected sees Reunion as a legit, true movement, and even people like W and Kal'tsit greatly respects him. It's to the point that a crux for Kashchey's plan hinges on Patriot hopelessly throwing his life away for his principles to become a martyr for his Social Darwinist philosophy because of just how legendary Patriot is.
• Loophole Abuse: Despite Patriot's strict orders that Reunion troops not harm Chernobog's civilians, some of them have found a way around the order by manipulating the surviving civilians into killing each other instead, as seen in "Children of Ursus".
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Wields a massive shield alongside his spear. This seems to be the source of his absurd defenses in the first phase of his battle, as it breaks once he transitions into his second.
• Mighty Glacier: Patriot moves at a snail's pace and often takes lengthy pauses in his advance, but his stats are by far the highest of any main story boss as of his release. With a staggering amount of health, very high defenses even out of his Nigh-Invulnerable phase, enough ATK to One-Hit Kill anything save for a super tanky defender (and sometimes those as well), and a revive that modifies his skillset further, he takes a whole lot of effort to stop. For reference, he is the only enemy in the game that has an S rating in three of their stats, while his ATK is still at an A rating.
• Might Makes Right: Having experienced countless wars and triumphing over many foes, Patriot is a firm believer that those who is victorious in a war is right.
  Patriot: War. War, does not care. Not about right, or wrong. It does not, care about, the suffering, or the oppressed, or the enslaved. Off the battlefield, there are. On the battlefield, there are not. You must prepare, for the battlefield. Whoever dies, is wrong.
• My Country, Right or Wrong:
  • Subverted. Patriot got his nickname due to his loyalty to the Ursus Empire. However, he has interpreted his loyalty to Ursus to mean rebelling against the current leadership to secure the rights of the Infected that Ursus oppresses.
  • Even before joining the Ursus army, Patriot was extremely loyal to Theresa, the Sarkaz queen. However, his loyalty is posthumous; he betrayed Kazdel because he thought Theresa was a poor monarch, only to be proven wrong after he had sworn loyalty to Ursus and he stuck with his oath. From then on, every other masters he serve later play with his loyalty, and when he thinks he betrays them for a better cause, it's just playing into their hands.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Patriot remains firmly loyal towards Reunion's ideals, despite him knowing full well Talulah had begun her descent into darkness, because he doesn't want to betray yet another person or ideal after committing so many of them in his life. However, chapter 7 reveals that he does actually wants to stop Talulah, but is simply unwilling to do so if the result will split Reunion in two and basically ended the whole movement in a civil war.
  Patriot: How do I tell, the Infected, their leader, is mad? A traitor? How do I say, she is wrong now, but once right? How do I say, she, who you follow, must now die?
• My God, What Have I Done?: After being ordered to put down a rebellion by force, Patriot was shocked to discover his own son among the dead rebels. This is what motivated him to ultimately desert Ursus and join Reunion.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: In his first phase, Patriot has absurdly high defenses^note 2,100 DEF and 90% RES that make even the strongest attackers do little against him. The only way to defeat him like this is to either heavily debuff his defenses, use dedicated boss killers like Schwarz, lure him into the defense-ignoring landmines given on the level, or deploy an operator capable of dealing true damage like Amiya.
• Noble Demon: He is not particularly evil and gets along very well with Hellagur despite their differences. He notes that he fights with Reunion not because he agrees with their beliefs, but because he wants to keep fighting with his warriors. He also has no wish to fight Rhodes Island and sees it as a genuine tragedy they got pulled into Reunion's war. Not to mention the fact that he has very little tolerance to his own men harming civilians.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: His weapon of choice being a halberd, his reputation as one of the top fighters in Reunion's inner-circle (especially backed up by his being a Damage-Sponge Boss), and the betrayals he'd committed in his life all bring to mind Lü Bu; if a more honorable and competent version of the Three Kingdoms era general.
• Parental Substitute: He adopted FrostNova after he found her as a child in the mines, hugging her body even as her Arts causes a partial necrosis to his Arms.
• Power Armor: Implied, as you can see what looks like an exposed cooling fan on what's left of his breastplate. Though according to Patriot, it's seen better days, and he doesn't seem intent on repairing it.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Is very much this, having previously been part of the Ursus army. He pretty much refuses to listen to anyone or anything, because he only trusts strength. Convincing him that it's better if Rhodes Island and the Guerrilla join forces to fight Talulah does nothing until Rhodes pushes him to the brink of death in battle. And when Amiya, seeing Patriot's life flashes before his eyes with him, tries to soothe him with comforting visions of his family, he goes berserk not only because it proves that Amiya is the Sarkaz King's heir, but also because it will rob him his worthy death.
• Really 700 Years Old: Is actually 200 years old. Wendigos have longer life expectancy than normal humans, though.
• Rousing Speech: Was once famous for these, but unfortunately his infection has ruined his vocal chords, making it difficult for him to speak.
• Screw Destiny: He spends all his life trying his best to overcome what he believes fate has in store for him and defy it at every turn, and refuses to believe anything but himself and his own decisions as a result of this mentality. In particular, the prophecy of the Sarkaz Demon King claims that the next Demon King will become the greatest Catastrophe to the world after they kill the last of the Wendigo. Patriot, being said Wendigo, tries his hardest to live an extremely long life just to prevent it from happening. When Amiya, who is the heir of the previous Demon King Theresa, mortally wounds him, he attempts to crush her with his bare hands in his last breaths. He decides not to do it in the end, and instead trusted that Amiya would not follow the prophecy, thus defying fate one last time.
  His armor is in disrepair and damaged in many places. The blade of his once sharp halberd is now eroded with rust. However, the indomitable Patriot never capitulates, never backs down, and never shows mercy. He has long struggled with fate, and now resolves to slit the throat of fate.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Chapter 11 reveals retroactively that his decision to fight stubbornly against Amiya (before ultimately sparing her in his last moments) due to being the heir of the Lord of Fiend's power destined to Take Over the World was a completely fruitless endeavor as the "prophecy" was never referring to Amiya in any way but instead the revived Theresa as part of the plan of the Confessarius clan has been putting in motion for generations—making his final defiance against fate a fruitless endeavor in the end just like all of his other choices.
• Speech Impediment: His oripathy is so advanced that it even affected his ability to speak properly, forcing him to talk in a very slow manner and make constant brief pauses after every few words he says.
• Status Buff: He passively grants all enemies (including himself) +20% ATK and +200 DEF. He can also activate the special abilities of all his soldiers if they have any.
• Terse Talker: Due to his infection doing a number on his body, he can only talk this way.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Just to add insult to the injury that is the massive buff to his already towering ATK in his Marching Stance, his attacks also strike four times consecutively for good measure, making sure that if anything survives the first blow, they almost certainly won't survive the three that immediately follow.
• Together in Death: After the final fight against him in chapter 7, the furnace where FrostNova's body is burned bursts into a flurry of snow, one of Patriot's men says that Yelena has come to take her father. The end of the "End Like This" PV shows them both hugging in the snow before cutting back to Patriot's lifeless body.
• Unflinching Walk: Nothing makes this guy flinch. Nothing. During his fight with Rhodes Island, shown in detail in the "End Like This" PV, he orders a charge directly at his enemies. It takes a focused bombardment of magic from Amiya, Rosmontis' iron slabs, and Kal'tsit's Mon3tr to even slow him down. While the rest of his squad gets cut down, and his shield shatters under the assault, Patriot keeps on marching.
  Rhodes Island, I advance.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Only relative to the other Boss characters. Patriot's skillset is relatively plain, with an AoE damage aura and spear throw in his second phase, plus the Inspire buff he grants to his soldiers. Compare this to FrostNova's instakill attacks, Talulah's fireball barrage, Pursuer's Dominion, and other esoteric magics. What he does have though, is extreme stats, with S rating in 3 categories.
• Wendigo: Patriot is the last known member of the Wendigo subspecies of the Sarkaz. He has deer-like antlers, and his helm resembled a deer skull, much like modern pop-culture depictions of the creature.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Hellagur, his old friend and ally during their days as generals of the Ursus Army. He strikes up a rather friendly conversation with Hellagur following the fall of Chernobog, and offers to punish several of his own men for raiding Hellagur's Azazel clinic. All of this while the two stand on opposing factions.
• Worf Had the Flu: His defeat is mostly because his Oripathy is so advanced, that he's practically in his death throes when Rhodes Island fights him. Not only that, his armor is too worn because of the lack of maintenance, and his halberd has seen so much service that it's rusted and eroded. He's still an absurdly powerful warrior even in this state, but dialogue from both in-story characters and developers make it obvious that he's nowhere near as strong as he was in his prime.
• World's Strongest Man: Buldrokkas'tee at the prime of his life was considered absurdly powerful to the point of infamy that people who knew of the last great Wendigo held him in reverence, even the fanatical loyal Emperor's Blades who would scoff and foam at the mouth of someone deserting the Empire of Ursus walked softly around him despite being far past the peak of his life and even pleaded for his return rather than seek to challenge him, departing when he refused to humor them further. This is further confirmed by Da Huang, level designer at Hypergryph, that Patriot back in his prime was the single strongest being to ever have lived in the history of Terra and that his age or illness have not hampered his former might that much given how hard it was to kill him.
• Worthy Opponent: Is universally considered by almost everyone who knows of him a very legendary and distinguished warrior who few ever want to be on the wrong side of; even the Emperor's Blades—The Dreaded of Ursus—are not only respectful to him in spite of their general hostility towards others, especially outsiders, but are legitimately worried to tackle him on even with multiple of their number. Even the King of the Nachzehrers, who himself is leagues above most others in strength and could easily take on all of Rhodes Island, admits that Patriot in his prime would have been a worthy candidate to equal himself in a battle.
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Unlike the other Reunion leaders, he goes out of his way to rescue civilians in Chernobog, and even executes fellow Reunion members who harm civilians.
• Xanatos Gambit: His plan to stop Talulah in chapter 7 hinges on how his fight with Rhodes Island will go, and both outcomes are desirable for him. If he wins, then he and his guerrillas can kill Talulah and put the blame on Rhodes Island while claiming that he had claimed revenge on the perpetrators, thus ensuring that Reunion stays united under one leadership. If he loses, then Rhodes Island have proven that they're strong enough to stop Talulah, while his guerrillas is spared from a potentially catastrophic battle and only he alone will have to die.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Has tried to defy the ancient prophecy "The last Wendigo shall fall at the hands of the Demon Lord" his whole life. He dies by Amiya's hands. However, as his end is near, he refuses to kill Amiya, defying fate till his very end by refusing to believe Amiya is a Demon Lord and trusting her by letting her live.

Other members

Guard (Unmarked Spoilers)

Guard

^{Click to see his appearance in Chapter 13.}

Race: Feline
Affiliation: Ace Squad (formerly)
Artists: 唯@W, 伍秋秋秋秋
Voiced by: Chiaki Kobayashi (Japanese, anime)

A former Rhodes Island soldier who participated in the Chernobog operation.

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• Ascended Extra: In the Prologue and Episode 1, his unimpressive codename and standard Rhodes Island uniform give the impression that he only has Nominal Importance. Episodes 7 and 8 show him becoming more significant (with new art to match), to the point of him becoming virtually the vice leader of a reformed Reunion as of Episode 9.
• The Bus Came Back: In Episode 9, he takes part in Nine's operation to break Talulah out of Rhodes Island custody.
• A Day in the Limelight: "The Anonymous Ones' War" is his side story in Operational Intelligence, where he overhears Patriot and Hellagur's conversation about the ideological fight of the Infected.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His codename is literally "Guard". Good luck trying to search info of him without stumbling upon general stuff about the Guard class.
• The Faceless: His face is hidden even in his unique art. His face is finally shown in "The Whirlwind That Is Passion", showing he's a scarred yet rather handsome Feline.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: He defects to Reunion, but isn't much of an antagonist when he returns in Chapter 8 and joins Patriot's shieldguards in co-operating with his former allies. He does oppose Rhodes Island when breaking Talulah out in Chapter 9, though at this point Reunion's motives are more sympathetic and he was very hesitant to do so.
• The Heart: He appears to serve as this for the reformed Reunion, making sure they prioritize helping the Infected over retaliating with violence. Therefore, many members of the new Reunion favorably compare him to Patriot.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Guard ends up dying by "The Whirlwind That Is Passion", following the example of Ace and the rest of their squad, due to staying behind to rescue as many Infected and innocents alike as possible from a exploding building shortly after Reunion arrives into Londinium before it collapses down on top of him.
• Hero-Worshipper: His main reason for staying in Reunion is that he has come to admire Patriot's ideal as the Aegis of the Infected, thinking that his cause is even better than Rhodes Island's. Even if Guard himself doesn't like Reunion as a whole, he believes that as long as Patriot is alive, the cause he supports is a worthy one. When the news of Patriot's death reaches him, Guard exclaims that Reunion is dead along with Patriot, and Talulah killed him.
• I Choose to Stay: At first, he decides to not regroup with Rhodes Island during the Chernobog Incident in an effort to gain more intel from inside Reunion. However, his time with Patriot's Shieldguards turns him into someone far more dedicated to Reunion's true ideal than Rhodes Island's. When he's found by Rhodes Island, he admits to staying with Reunion because he feels he can help the Infected better now than as part of Rhodes. Kal'tsit ultimately "fires" him to free him from his obligation to Rhodes Island.
• Killed Off for Real: Guard ends up dying in Chapter 13, "The Whirlwind That Is Passion", shortly upon Reunion's arrival into Londinium as the escalating conflict catches numerous Infected and non-Infected civilians in danger of the crossfire, resulting in him giving up his life to safely escort many noncombatants from a collapsing building on fire.
• Number Two: As of Episode 9, he essentially becomes the de facto second-in-command of the reformed Reunion.
• Put on a Bus: By the end of Episode 8, his last scene is him restructuring Reunion after the Chernobog-Lungmen Crisis is over.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When he tries to evacuate the Infected that are still hiding in Chernobog, knowing that the city will crash into Lungmen should Rhodes Island fail to defeat Talulah, he gets caught by a Sarkaz mercenary loyal to Talulah. He spends his time being held by his neck singing praises to Patriot, and calls the mercenaries "maggots dancing on the strings of the disgusting schemers running this show".
• The Rest Shall Pass: The post-battle scene of 1-12 shows that he joins his team leader Ace in delaying Talulah so that Rhodes Island can escape with the Doctor. "Operational Intelligence" reveals that Guard survives because Ace and Scout gave their lives to keep him safe.
• Sole Survivor: He becomes the only survivor of Ace's squad (out of fourteen, including Ace).]] [[spoiler:His status as this expires after sacrificing himself to save both Infected and Non-Infected from a collapsing building in "The Whirlwind That Is Passion".
• Suddenly Voiced: He's voiced in the Prelude to Dawn anime.

Nine

Nine

Code name: Only-1

Race: Pythia

Artist: 唯@W

Voiced by: Umeka Shoji (Japanese, anime)

Ch'en's former boss and Infected informant in Reunion, she leaves LGD and Lungmen after the slums purge and later succeeds Talulah as the leader of the reformed Reunion movement after the uprising.

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• Contralto of Strength: She has a very deep voice in the anime, and possesses Arts formidable enough to stand against Amiya and Eblana.
• Double Agent: She was likely part of Wei's secret program that embedded infected LGD personnel into Reunion and the slums to act as informants and spies. Chen's Operator Record reveals that she took the role after resigning from her original position as Ch'en's superior, only to see the conditions of the infected firsthand and end up defecting to Reunion for real.
• Green Thumb: Revealed to be her Arts specialty; which she uses to produce various forms of plant life for combat, such as creating soporific pollen against Amiya during the raid on the Rhodes Island landship to put her to sleep so they can escape with Talulah. In Chapter 13, her Arts are even powerful enough to be used effectively against Eblana's flames.
• Great Escape: At the end of Chapter 9, she raids the Rhodes Island landship and breaks Talulah out of her confinement so that Reunion can put her trial for her crimes against the organization.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Her infection was caused by protecting Ch'en from an Originium bomb, costing her job as she could no longer continue serving the LGD with obvious signs of Oripathy. Unfortunately, Ch'en was still infected to a lesser degree by shrapnel, though her less severe infection allowed her to hide her own Oripathy.
• Mythical Motifs: Based on Medusa, as seen from her hair.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • She bears no ill will towards Rhodes Island and concedes that many of their goals align. However, the one thing she can't let go is allowing Rhodes Island to hold Talulah indefinitely, since in order to save Reunion, Talulah must be put on trial for her crimes against the organization.
  • Despite her many justified reservations towards Talulah after re-capturing them, Nine is accommodating of Talulah rather than hostile towards her as she understands enough about the situation to know its far more complex than a simple betrayal to the principles of Reunion.. At the very least, she allows Talulah to wander the Ursus's countryside for a time to resolve her own personal issues rather than keep her detained because it would help make Talulah more agreeable to the new organization's cause.
  • When Reunion is attacked by Dublinn in Chapter 13, despite still not trusting her, Nine agrees to release Talulah from her shackles so she can fight Eblana, knowing that this is the only way the civilians of Reunion can survive, then actively fights alongside her when the two are seemingly evenly matched.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the Black Cloaks begin purging the slums, Nine decides it's time to leave Lungmen for good.
• You Are in Command Now: With all of Reunion's major leaders either dead, deserted, or captured, Nine steps up to take leadership of the Reunion remnants who still hold to the organization's original principles.
• Wild Card: Her leadership of the Reunion faction during the "Shadow of A Dying Sun" arc ends up being this; as many people aren't exactly sure how to take the revitalized movement with its prior terrorism under Talulah/Kashchey's leadership having painted the name as murky at best to not just the general populace but even among the Infected, and even in spite of her outwardly Reasonable Authority Figure status, people are very unsure about Nine's actual motives to reform Reunion in the first place, which isn't helped at all by the fact it still remains a very militant movement in the present, which catches the eyes of Eblana and Dublinn during Chapter 13, who are hoping either to convert the faction over to their side or crush it completely if it chooses to defy them.

Big Bob

Big Bob

Other Variations: Big Adam

Artist: 唯@W

A Reunion squad leader who is found searching for the titular treasure in "Grani and the Knight's Treasure". Despite being a member of Reunion, he's surprisingly laid-back, and seeks to find the treasure to ensure that he and his men can live comfortable, safe lives.

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• 24-Hour Armor: He still wears his armor even while relaxing at Siesta beach in "Heart of Surging Flame". Other beachgoers even comment on this.
• Aerith and Bob: His name literally is Bob. The only other remotely normal-sounding name among Reunion's top brass is Talulah and even then it's still a far cry from the sheer ubiquity of... Bob.
• Battle Theme Music: Gets two themes in Operation Lead Seal, which he shares with Mudrock.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: At the conclusion of "Grani and the Knight's Treasure", as a sign of gratitude to Carol forgiving him and giving his share of the treasures, Bob and his men helped in reconstructing the village properties destroyed by the bounty hunters.
• Big Damn Heroes: His first appearance is him helping Grani and Carol escape from some bounty hunters.
• Bounty Hunter: What he describes himself to Grani and Carol after rescuing them. Although like the other bounty hunters in Dewville, he's more of a treasure hunter given the event's plot.
• Call to Agriculture: After gaining some of the eponymous Knight's treasure, he leaves Kazimierz to Columbia to farm hops and make beer with it. According to his letters to Mudrock in at the end of "Knight's Treasure" and "Twilight of Wolumonde", he appears to be quite successful. In "Ceobe's Fungimist", he's spotted as one of the encounters, and will engage R.I. for daring to trespass his property.
• The Cameo:
  • He shows up briefly during "Heart Of Surging Flame" as a tourist identified as "Male Tourist B". Amusingly, he's still wearing the exact same heavy suit and mask that he wore before, much to the confusion of another tourist he was chatting with.
  • "Phantom & Crimson Solitaire" has two nodes referencing him. "Columbian Brewer" is an encounter with the option to buy some of Bob's beer from a group of merchants, and "Bob's Beers" is an operation involving taking back supplies to make said beer from ruffians.
    You take a close look at the beer in your hand. It reads, "Bob Farms Originium Slug Brew." The name feels familiar to you.
  • "Mizuki & Caerula Arbor" briefly mentions him (through not by name) in the node "Overseas Export", with the player having the choice to buy his beer.
  • He returns in "Expeditioner's Joklumarkar" as the owner of a successful supermarket chain named "Bob's Emporium" in Sami, serving as the setting of "Wish Fulfilled" nodes where one of his employees gives you a collectible for free.
• Chainsaw Good: His primary weapon is a massive chainsaw.
• Defector from Decadence: After experiencing sub-standard living conditions in Reunion, he and his men decided to quit the faction and seek the treasures in Dewville for wealth. At the end of the event, they are now peacefully residing in Columbia.
• Dual Boss: Joins forces with Mudrock in Operation Lead Seal's permanent map.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Unlike the final bosses of later "Public Affairs" events, Big Bob is the only one who doesn't have his own battle music.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of the "Knights' Treasure" event, Grani and Carol gave Big Bob his share of the treasure so he can move to Columbia with his brothers.
  • After the Happy Ending Overide of being arrested by the Columbian Tax Bereau during Integrated Strategies 3, Integrated Strategies 4 shows that because of the popularity of his beer, he was able to gather enough wealth to not only escape jail, but expand his business northwards to Sami, complete with brick-and-mortar stores.
• The Faceless: He's never seen without his bulky blast suit.
• Foreshadowing: He constantly questions and mocks the goals of Rhodes Island when he learned that Grani is working for them. What other faction has strong opinions against Rhodes Island? The Reunion Movement, and Bob reveals that he used to be a part of that faction.
• Final Boss: Of "Grani and the Knight's Treasure", his Big Adam variant notwithstanding.
• Friendship Trinket: Bob tosses a Kazimierz coin to Grani as a parting gift before he sets off to Columbia.
• Happy Ending Override: Integrated Strategies 3 casually mentions in an Encounter that Big Bob was arrested by the Columbian Tax Bureau and is currently rotting in prison.
  • This is in turn overriden in Integrated Strategies 4 where it's revealed that Big Bob managed to bribe his way out of prison and now runs a successful supermarket chain in Sami.
• I Am Big Boned: Bob justifies his huge stature and Stout Strength as him being this instead of having excessive body fat as his armor would have him appear to be.
• Inconsistent Coloring: The color palette of Bob's artwork differs from his battle sprite's, where his suit has practically no red coloring. If anything, the artwork resembles more the design of the Defense Crushers.
• Injured Limb Episode: His leg was injured by the bounty hunters during their escape in the forest. And because he was already limping in a cave, Bob chose to stay behind.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • How his boss fight plays - he's fairly slow, takes a while to even get going and is very susceptible to slowing effects, but even on the story map where you face him, he has 22,000 HP, eight hundred Defense, and an almighty 1,900 Attack. (By way of comparison, FrostNova in 4-10, the hardest story boss during Bob's event debut had slightly more HP but about four times less Defense and six times less Attack.) Anyone who isn't a dedicated Defender will get one-shot by him if he reaches them. And during the Challenge stages? His stats are even higher than that.
  • Big Adam, a Palette Swap of Big Bob with higher stats, including a nuclear 2700 Attack. Even Defenders will have trouble dealing with this version.
• Mini-Boss: Is possible to encounter him in "Ceobe's Fungimist", in the appropriately named mission "Big Bob's Farm".
• Old Soldier: He doesn't address it directly on the nose, but a fair bit of his later dialogue does suggest he was a member of the actual Reunion Movement before Talulah began reforming it, and that's part of the reason he isn't nearly as "hardcore" as the Talulah-led Reunion crew Rhodes Island is having to deal with in Lungmen during the main story chapters.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Compared to the calm and collected persona that he shows for most of the event, Bob suddenly devolves into ranting and mocking Rhodes Island after Grani reveals herself as an operator of that faction. Fortunately, he calms down after accepting that she is still too innocent and young to understand him.
  Big Bob: That's right! When the Infected were slaving away underground, locked away in remote places, or being killed for no reason, where was Rhodes Island?
• Palette Swap: Big Adam, who appears in Extra stages, is basically Bob but colored red and with even higher stats. His description speculates that the two may or may not be different individuals. Additionally, the Defense Crushers encountered from Chapter 5 and up are just further recolors of him, albeit equipped with hammers instead of using chainsaws.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He isn't particularly hostile and doesn't buy into Reunion's more hardcore beliefs, and only joined Reunion as a method of survival due to being infected. Though, unlike FrostNova, he briefly display some animosity towards Rhodes Island.
• Red Herring: To give Grani and Carol some time to escape, he seemingly attempts to pull off a Heroic Sacrifice by revving his chainsaw against Reunion goons. But it turns out that no fight occurred at all, they are Bob's friends who also defected from Reunion.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he realized he wasn't going to get what he wanted out of Reunion, he made a plan with his brothers to leave the organization, seize the Knights' Treasure, and use it to fund a their own settlement in Columbia.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Big Bob's major discontent against Rhodes Island is that they, despite harboring superpowered monsters like Skadi, seemingly do nothing to the global plights of the Infected. Grani provides a counter-point by stating that Rhodes Island is a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond in the grand scheme of things and they could not hope to reach every single Infected in the world, yet she still affirms Rhodes Island's goal to help the Infected. Big Bob still isn't convinced, and simply assumes that Grani is still a child who's too idealistic to understand the reality of how Rhodes Island operates.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Despite technically defecting from Reunion, Big Bob still wears their logo on his pauldrons. He seems to have erased it at some point after "Grani and the Knight's Treasure", however, as by the time he's encountered as "Male Tourist B" on Siesta, his shoulder pads are blank.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: As Integrated Strategies 3 points out, Big Bob is technically a fugitive on the run alongside much of the older Reunion members, despite growing sick of the more militant nature of the organization, still stuck around long enough to be party to their terroristic acts in both Chernobog and Lungmen—couple that with a suddenly wealthy foreigner crossing over into a country is bound to catch the eyes of local taxmen curious to investigate sources as to where that money came from and whom is collecting—and is it any wonder why Big Bob ended up having a Happy Ending Override?
• The Rest Shall Pass: When he, Grani and Carol were spotted by some Reunion soldiers, he decides to stay behind while the two girls hurry to the treasures' location.
• The Team Normal: Big Bob is the only member of the Reunion top brass to utilize entirely mundane attacks, delivered via his chainsaw.
• Wham Shot: Grani is shocked to see Bob being accompanied by the Reunion soldiers and have caught up to the treasures' location, despite him supposedly staying behind in a cave. He then reveals himself and his men as defectors of Reunion, now planning to find the treasures to settle somewhere else.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Unlike his fellow Reunion leaders, who wield Arts, throw explosives, sneak past your defenses with increased agility, heal their minions with Oripathy-based powers, and so on, Big Bob only has one attack: sawing the crap out of your troops with his oversized chainsaw.

Mudrock

Mudrock

^{Click to see their old artwork.}

Artist: m9nokuro

Race: Sarkaz (Gargoyle)

A Sarkaz warrior and one of Big Bob's close comrades, who also defected from Reunion to lead his own regiment of Sarkaz troops. While they appear briefly in "Grani and the Knight's Treasure", they serve a more major role as the final boss of the Twilight of Wolumonde event.^{Click here to see spoilers}For tropes related to her playable version, see Arknights Defenders.

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• Advancing Boss of Doom: Par for the course for an Arknights boss, but Mudrock especially takes the cake due to their ATK stacking nature and Gramophone-hijacking ability. At max stack with their shield active, Mudrock will basically one-shot any operator in their way, with particularly beefy Defenders lasting a little bit longer even with heavy Medic support, so attacking/delaying them with ground-based units is extremely ill-advised in most cases, as they will just steamroll right through. Failing that, the hijacked Gramophones will pound your units to putty for Mudrock to waltz all over them.
• Ambiguous Gender: While every character in "Twilight of Wolumonde" uses the "he" pronoun whenever they speak about Mudrock, the EN build of the game uses gender-neutral pronouns (if at all) when referring to them in the enemy rosters, with their gender and age being listed as "unknown". This is made worse by how the CN build of the game alternates heavily between male and female pronouns, with no definite answer until their playable debut in the Roaring Flare event, where it turns out that Mudrock is in fact a woman.
• A Day in the Limelight: Mudrock, accompanied by their squad and some infected civilians from Leithanien, gets a mini-episode dedicated to them in "Rewinding Breeze", where they were heading back to Kazdel after withdrawing from Wolumonde. After a non-hostile encounter with Logos, Mudrock is recruited to join Rhodes Island, along with at least half of their gang.
• Art Evolution: Mudrock's current CG appearance slightly differs from their initial one from "Grani and the Knight's Treasure". Compare this version◊ to the updated version◊.
• The Atoner: After joining Rhodes Island, Mudrock is determined to fight the injustices of the world to make up for their past mistakes and letting most of their squad die.
• Barrier Warrior: Mudrock spawns with a barrier that increases their HP and attack speed by 50% as long as it's active. It can be destroyed by enough Arts damage, but Mudrock will refresh it periodically.
• Battle Theme Music: An orchestra piece named after themself, with a bit of "Rebel"'s leitmotif thrown in. It also plays on the event's PV trailer.
  • In Operation Lead Seal, They share two battle themes with Big Bob.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Mudrock's squad and the Leithanien rebels are the major antagonists in "Twilight of Wolumonde".
• Cast from Lifespan: One of their soldiers warns them that overusing Arts will cut into their lifespan.
• Defector from Decadence: While nominally still part of Reunion, Mudrock has long since severed ties with the leadership in Ursus due to Talulah's increasingly violent methods.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Their special Arts allows them to create huge "colossi" out of earth. These appear as enemies in "Twilight of Wolumonde", and they don't go down easy.
• Dual Boss: With Big Bob in Operation Lead Seal's permanent map.
• Enemy Mine: Despite feeling disgusted with Wolumonde's local infected rioters, Mudrock and their squad decide to team up with them in TW-8 to fight the Rhodes Island operators for their cause.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: Can use Arts with the earth to detect the presence of any foe, as seen in Rewinding Breeze.
• Everyone Has Standards: Mudrock is not amused about how the infected people of Wolumonde use the name of Reunion to justify their riots, and beg them to outright destroy the whole town.
• Final Boss: Of "Twilight of Wolumonde".
• Gathering Steam: Every time they attack, Mudrock will gain a permanent 60% ATK buff. This stacks up to 6 times, for a maximum effective 460% ATK boost.
• Hollywood Hacking: Every 35 seconds or so, Mudrock will instantly capture the nearest Phonograph turret and turn it hostile. Considering that they're a huge asset and the main way to defeat their Colossi, you better take it back fast.
• Last Episode, New Character: Mudrock, the recipient of Big Bob's letter, appears in the last main episode of "Grani and the Knights' Treasure".
• The Lost Lenore: The already deceased Dr. Atro (Anton in the CN version) was a non-romantic example to Mudrock.
• Mighty Glacier: Mudrock's pretty slow, but they pack incredible durability through a combination of a gigantic health pool, high DEF, and regenerating Deflector Shield, although they're somewhat vulnerable to Arts. And by "somewhat vulnerable", we mean "have to constantly be pounded with Arts" to break through their shield in order to even do damage at all. If they get close, Mudrock also hits like a train, especially with their Gathering Steam trait and the ASPD boost from the shield.
• Power Glows: After stacking three attack buffs, Mudrock's hammer will start glowing. If they stack six, not only will it glow even brighter, but it will let off discharges of lightning whenever they prepare to strike.
• Regenerating Shields, Static Health: Periodically, Mudrock will regenerate their Deflector Shield, requiring constant Arts damage in order to stop them from having it permanently active.
• Revenge: Part of the reason Mudrock and their comrades are attacking the city of Wolumonde is because they're trying to find the one who murdered Dr. Atro, and will not stop the riot until the culprit is found.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After finding out that the murderer, Biederman, was already dead, Mudrock and their gang retire from the town. As far as they're concerned, Wolumonde and it's townspeople will succumb to the permafrost, so there's no point in reclaiming it or take revenge on the rich.
• Survivor Guilt: Mudrock mentions in a letter to Bob that they feel deeply ashamed for the death of half of their squad back in Wolumonde and while heading back to Kazdel, which is part of the reason why Mudrock choose to be employed by Rhodes Island, so they could give what's left of their Sarkaz friends a place to live peacefully.
• Talking to Themself: Has a habit of doing this, much to the confusion of the R.I. operators and his Sarkaz soldiers. Based on the narration when they summons their Colossus, it appears that Mudrock is actually talking to the very ground they stand on, similar to how Earthspirit talks to the Originium crystal on her staff.
• Timed Mission: Played with, since the mission doesn't fail if Mudrock isn't defeated in a certain time span, although it does get harder. Basically, every mission where Mudrock is an enemy can qualify once they've shown up on the battlefield. A boss fight with Mudrock is technically a DPS check, where your operators must output enough Arts damage to break through their shield before it generates back to full (half in TW-S-2) every 17 seconds. Additionally, Mudrock can use their instant-capture ability 35 seconds after spawning, and it has a cooldown about as long, so any fight that gets drawn out can run the risk of them wresting control of your Gramophones and wreaking havoc on your own defenses.
• The Unreveal: Their mask drops off during their defeat animation, but Mudrock's face still remains unseen and they quickly cover it with their arm.

Ivan

Ivan

A soldier of Reunion.

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• Anguished Outburst: When Misha asks Ivan why he joined Reunion, he gives an anguished answer, after which he catches himself and apologizes.
  Misha: Why did you... join Reunion?
  Reunion Member: Why?
  Reunion Member: ...
  Reunion Member: My wife, my child... they were all killed by the Chernobogians. Under Ursus, the Infected were treated worse than livestock. The destruction of Chernobog...? No, no. That is far too light of a punishment... Do you know how much blood is on their hands?! Misha... We've been feared, exploited, humiliated, and persecuted... Just because of the fact that we're Infected. Not for any other reason.
  Misha: ...
  Reunion Member: S-sorry, I got a bit heated. Forget what I said.
• Nominal Importance: He's the soldier who tells Misha why he joined Reunion, and later the first onscreen victim of Mephisto's herd.
• No Name Given: Downplayed. Despite his name being mentioned by Skullshatterer and another Reunion Member, the game simply calls him "Reunion Member".
• Sole Survivor: The rest of his family, which includes his wife and child, were all killed by Chernobogians.
• You All Look Familiar: His NPC art is the art of the white-masked Reunion soldier.
• Zombie Infectee: In 6-3, he's bitten by Mephisto's rampaging Possessed herd and becomes one of them.

Sarkaz Centurion

Sarkaz Centurion

Possessed Sarkaz Centurion

Other Variations: Possessed Sarkaz Centurion, Possessed Sarkaz Centurion Guardian

A particularly powerful member of the Sarkaz mercenaries hired by Reunion. He serves as a Reunion squad leader, commanding his mercenary forces on the front lines.

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• BFS: Like other melee Sarkaz mercenaries, he carries a massive blade into the battlefield.
• Degraded Boss: They start to show up as Elite Mooks in "Darknights Memoir", and Possessed Sarkaz Centurions start showing up around Chapter 8, both of whom fight like the boss version. The only differences are that these versions have slightly lower stats, can hit three targets at once, and have a Life Drain property that lets them heal for 150% of their damage dealt.
• Herd-Hitting Attack: He can hit two targets simultaneously.
• King Mook: The Sarkaz Centurion is essentially a Greatswordsman with a slightly different coat and moveset.
• Mighty Glacier: He's pretty slow to move and attack, but he has good HP and passable defenses that make him relatively tough to take down. His attacks also deal a lot of DEF-ignoring Arts damage to two targets simultaneously, so he can inflict serious harm if you don't kill him quick or field potent healing power.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Due to him not having his own illustration, dialogue, or participation in the story, it's safe to say that the game treats him as just another enemy of the bunch. The possessed version does actually get an artwork, though.
• Sword Drag: He drags his BFS behind him as he moves through the battlefield.
• Sword Plant: His attacks have him stabbing the ground with his sword, triggering Arts explosions under his targets.

Alina

One of Reunion's earliest members, the teacher of early-days Reunion, and Talulah's close companion. See her entry in Nation States Empire of Ursus.

Kevin

Kevin

A soldier of Reunion who has a history with Ethan. In Ethan's Operator Record, Kevin appears as a soda hawker in Lungmen under the name of Ah Hoi.

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• Ascended Meme: "Kevin" was initially a nickname given by players for the various enemy units in certain maps who die by said maps' hazards even without player involvement, starting with the Airborne Soldier in Annihilation: Lungmen Downtown who lands on a Hole; Ethan's Operator Record officially names said soldier as Kevin, revealing that his jetpack malfunctioned during that mission and he survived by landing on a pile of trash.
• Disney Death: He's revealed to have survived his encounter with Rhodes Island in Annihilation: Lungmen Downtown.
• An Ice Person: While assigned to Reunion's Airborne unit, he learned Ice Arts from the Yetis.
• Mundane Utility: Despite not having much talent for Arts, he's able to chill a few bottles of soda, which lets him make a living as a soda hawker.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. There's another Kevin, mentioned in Twilight of Wolumonde as a deceased non-Infected villager of Wolumonde who is survived by his wife.
• Trash Landing: The hole he fell into was a garbage collector, and by the time he regained consciousness the Chernobog Incident was already over.
• You All Look Familiar: His character portrait is based on an Ursus soldier who defected to Reunion, that portrait is used to represent him.

Red, the Redblade

Red, the Redblade

Yes, he's on fire, ignited by a burning desire.

Race: Ursus

Artist: 我妻洛酱

A soldier of Reunion who earned his name through his signature blade, he was an Avenger during the Chernobog Incident. He resurfaces in the side story "A Light Spark in Darkness", where he helps protect Goldenglow from the persecution of a mob. While he still identifies as Reunion, he no longer wears the faction symbol.

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• Ascended Meme: "Redblade" is based on the memetically popular Hateful Avenger foe, an elite enemy that proved to be powerful enough to give players a genuine challenge. This fame increased during Contingency Contracts when many players lacked a fully developed team that was able to defeat him, especially with the buffs he received when certain high-Risk challenges were enabled. The CN fanbase even called that specific enemy the "Red Katana".
• Big Damn Heroes: He has two moments in "A Light Spark in Darkness". His first moment is helping Susie rescue a dying Haze by carrying Haze to a Rhodes Island branch office. His second moment is rescuing Susie when she's kidnapped by Councilor Bishmer and the captain of Caladon's Guards, and after she escapes he disposes of Bishmer's goons with the help of fellow Reunion soldiers.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As shown in "A Light Spark in Darkness", Red is actually a very nice and helpful man, willing to help bail Goldenglow out of her terrible persecution by an anti-Infected mob. Nevertheless, when things get serious, he's perfectly willing to draw his sword and cut down those who truly oppose him to the bitter end.
• Cultured Badass: The "Old Pile of Donated Books" furniture item implies that Red liked reading in the Green Spark.
  Previously, there weren't many Infected who would read in the lighting shop, but the gentleman wearing a mask and scarf was one of them.
• Everyone Has Standards: He does not like the Rusthammers, considering them a group of raiders and thieves, and was unwilling to associate with them to the point of drawing blades until some ex-Reunion members who joined the group spoke up to ease tensions.
• Heel–Face Turn: He stays with Reunion, but embraces their reformed image as a more moderate group after Nine took over their leadership.
• Hot Blade: His weapon is described as "ignited". The Hateful Avengers he's based on activate their blades this way when they've taken substantial damage.
  The blade in the Infected's hands is ignited in a blink, surrounded by blazing embers. The red-hot glow illuminates the rubble; the stone and steel ruins are bathed in the clear hue of fire. And its source, the youngster bearing the searing blade, begins his attack.
• Leitmotif: Although not officially linked to him, "Art of Blade"^note Titled "Operation Blade" in the official soundtrack, the lobby theme for the second Contingency Contract season, is commonly attributed to him due to it being attributed to Hateful Avengers in general.
• Master Swordsman: His skill with his sword earned him his title.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the CN server, since Projekt Red's CN name is simply "Red".
• They Call Him "Sword": After he secures Susie's escape from Bishmer's goons, he turns to his pursuers and introduces himself.
  Red: You know, back in my Ursus days, they all called me "Redblade". You might want to guess why.

Dijkstra

Dijkstra

A Reunion-affiliated hacker from Columbia.

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• The Cracker: For Reunion. His hacking is on par with Closure who struggled trying to undo his hacking throughout the end of Episode 9.
• Great Escape: At the end of Episode 9, he helps Reunion raid the Rhodes Island landship to secure Talulah by disabling Rhodes' facilities and monitoring the operation.
• The Voice: The closest thing to his direct appearence in the story is a voiced message he sent Closure during the Reunion-orchestrated jailbreak of Talulah.

Percival

A Feline woman who was formerly the doorman for the Sunset Street Hotel in Norport.

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• The Mole: She is actually an agent for Reunion, acting as one of their spies in Londinium.
• Shout-Out: She is named after one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
• Spanner in the Works: She inadvertently ends up being one by stealing the Sunset Street Hotel's radio transmitter for Reunion's use. This ends up hindering Rhodes Island's plan to broadcast a distress signal to the Dukes, requiring Ines to enact a far riskier plan.

Norwell

A Victorian optometrist who decides to join Reunion.

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• Non-Action Guy: He claims that besides his immortality, he has no other special powers and would likely be beaten by even Guard in a fight.
• Really 700 Years Old: As it turns out, Norwell is apparently an immortal who has lived for at least two hundred years.
• Revenge: He is convinced that some sort of entity or party has cursed him with immortality and he wants to take revenge on it.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: He despises his immortality due it causing him to outlive all of his loved ones, and seeks a way to permanently kill himself.

Standard Units

For a list of non-boss Reunion units, check under the Enemy Index.

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