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Characters / Ghostrunner

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A page for characters from Ghostrunner.

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Introduced in Ghostrunner

    The Ghostrunner 

Ghostrunner 74 a.k.a Jack

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ghostrunner_tv_tropes.PNG
"Who am I?"

Voiced by: Carl G. Brooks

"My name is Jack!"

The protagonist of the game. He is a cyborg who was programmed for fighting using a blade and ninja-like agility. Defeated by Mara when attempting to prevent her takeover, he is eventually found by a resistance group called the Climbers who fix him up, allowing him to finish his job. But since his rebuilding, he began to change.

  • Affectionate Nickname: Zoe calls the Ghostrunner Jack, apparently after a comment her friend Diego made about him being "all jacked up" when they were repairing him. The Ghostrunner eventually takes it as his actual name in his final confrontation with the Architect.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Heroic subversion. The Ghostrunner was meant to be a mindless if effective security robot, but as you progress, he exhibits more and more of a personality, empathy, and self-determination until he actively revolts against the Architect when he realizes that Adam is just as callous and cruel as Mara.
  • Amnesiac Hero: He doesn't remember his past and seek for answers. It is revealed he never had a past life, being built in laboratory from a single human cell.
  • Anti-Hero: He's not very sociable and has no problem butchering his enemies, but he's fighting a tyrannical Mad Scientist and a manipulative A.I trying to control him and everyone else in Dharma Tower.
  • Artificial Limbs: The Ghostrunner's left arm is replaced by a crude mechanical version after the original was ripped off by Mara.
  • Badass Biker: In the second game once he finds himself some wheels.
  • Berserk Button: Subdued, but he clearly does not like it if you imply that he's just a machine.
  • The Blank: His robotic head doesn't have a face, possibly to makes him intimidating or more ninja-like.
  • Bullet Time: He has the ability to increase the speed of his brain by grabbing a power-up, giving the impression that everything around him is frozen.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Inverted. Jack was always a bio-machine, but (supposedly) because of the modifications made to him by the Climbers, he expresses more humanlike traits.
  • Cyber Ninja: What he essentially is.
  • Cyborg: To what extent is unclear but he is treated more as a tool than a person, even if he bleeds after Mara tears of his left arm. When asking the Architect who he was before the conversion, the latter reveal him that he the human part of him was grown in a laboratory, meaning he was never really a human.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: He is dressed in all black and speaks with a ghostly voice, but he is on the side of good.
  • Deadpan Snarker: By the second game he becomes slightly more emotive and more sarcastic, moving from The Stoic into this.
    Connor: "See those huge doors ahead?"
    Ghostrunner: "No."
  • Dodge the Bullet: He can uses his super speed, giving him more time to see a bullet and do a quick dive to move away from it.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: It's less that he dislikes guns so much as he's specifically programed to not use them. When he complains about it, the Architect claims that Katanas Are Just Better, as they won't accidentally destroy the Tower's remaining technology from stray fire and collateral damage, while the Ghostrunner is supposedly "fully equipped to deal with every manner of projectile". The Ghostrunner retorts that the Architect clearly has never been in a fight, which he agrees upon without seeming to grasp what that actually means.
  • Everyone Has Standards: The Ghostrunner may be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of the Keymaster's keys, if not more, without much remorse from him, but he is however repulsed by the thought of having to use the Overlord ability which allow to take control of a key to force them to kill and then be in turn killed after fullfilling this task.
    Jack (to the Architect): You are worse than Mara!
  • Finger-Twitching Revival: The final shot of the game is the Ghostrunner, supposedly shut down after deleting the Architect, tightening his grip on his sword.
  • Glass Cannon: He can wipe-out entire troups with a single slice and even beat near indestructible opponents such as T-073-M, but if he gets hit once, he dies for good.
  • Good Feels Good: As he admites to Rahu in the second game, he aids the people of the Dharma and the Interface Council because it "feels right".
  • Good Is Not Soft: He may be on the side of good but he is nether peaceful nor particularly affectionate, going on a gigantic killing spree.
  • Good Samaritan: While he is a killing machine first, Jack will always interrupt his mission to help someone in distress simply because he thinks he should.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: He has one of these, which allows him to travel.
  • Grew Beyond Their Programming: Being programmed to be a killing machine, he was not supposed to feel empathy or compassion but he does anyways, insisting on saving the people that the Architect is willing to sacrifice. This latter blame the Climbers for injecting the Ghostrunner with emotions when they rebuilt him.
  • Hand Seals: He does this when using an ability or entering the Cybervoid.
  • Handy Helper: He starts of as this for the Architect who lack a physical form in the real world and rely on Jack to help him. Until the Architect wants to take it too far and take over the Ghostrunner's body.
  • Heroic Mime: Subverted. He starts off as silent but when the Architect asks him to talk back, he finally does. Considering that the whole game is inspired by Hotline Miami, this may be done as a nod to Jacket from said game.
  • Hitman with a Heart: He may be a killing machine tasked to kill Mara, but deep down, he does care about protecting the people of Dharma Tower, even if he isn't programmed to.
  • In the Hood: He wears a hoodie courtsey of the Climbers.
  • Literal Disarming: In the introduction cinematic, his arm gets ripped off by Mara. The Climbers replaced it with a robotic one.
  • Laser Guided Tyke Bomb: He was created in the sole goal of killing Mara.
  • Last of His Kind: There used to be 100 Ghostrunners. By the start of the game almost all of them are dead or have gone missing, and Jack is the only one remaining who is taking the fight to the top of the Tower.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • "Ghostrunner" is a name that was given to its kind due to their cyber-camouflage ability.
    The Architect: Video surveillance cameras, motion sensors, body scanners - they don't see you. That's why you were called GHOSTrunners.
    • His individual nickname "Jack" comes from the fact that Diego found him all "jacked up" when salvaging him.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Delivered by the Ghostrunner as he finishes off the Architect during their Battle in the Center of the Mind.
    The Architect: No! NO! I will not be deleted by a mere tool! I forbid you, Ghostrunner!
    The Ghostrunner: My name is Jack.
  • No Mouth: He doesn't have a mouth which begs the question of how he can talk.
  • One-Man Army: He was intended to be part of a hundred Ghostrunners, but being the sole survivor, he ends up doing the job all by himself.
  • Protagonist Title: He is the Ghostrunner which is also the title of the game.
  • The Quiet One: He isn't too fond of talking, Zoe is the one iniating most of the conversations.
    Jack: You both talk too much!
  • Real Men Wear Pink: A deep-voiced Cyber Ninja whose only known skill is killing enemies and never stopping; also, one of his unlockable swords is the TsuruGR Nini-Chan, which is decorated all over with an adorable Sanrio-like squirrel mascot.
  • Robot Names: His actual name is GR-74 but he would rather be called Jack.
  • The Unchosen One: Jack was simply a regular Ghostrunner among the 100 of them, not having any special abilities of his own. Nobody expected him to be the Last of His Kind.
  • Wall Run: He has the ability to run off walls, which combined with his grappling-hook makes him very mobile.
  • Weapon Twirling: While running, he will occasionally twirl or spin his sword.
  • You Are Too Late: In a way. Zoe reveals that Jack was supposed to be Climbers' hidden trump card that, once he's activated, would let them triumph over Mara and her forces. He only activates after the Climbers had been crushed, too late to help them in their fight. So he gets it done all by himself.

    The Architect (Unmarked spoilers) 

Adam Hamada a.k.a The Architect

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/architect_1_2.jpg
"You're alive. Can you hear me? They are already looking for you."
Click here to see Adam. 

Voiced by: Mark Dodson

"You can call me, Architect."

Adam the Architect, named as such since he designed the Dharma Tower, used to be the co-leader of the place, alongside Mara. He was eventually betrayed and killed by the latter but managed to have his memory saved in the Cybervoid.

During the events of the game, Jack being operated through the Cybervoid, hear his voice in his head guiding him through the Cybervoid and tasking him to defeat Mara. During the journey, the two learn to know each others better...or for the worse.

Due to the sheer amounts of spoilers here, all of them have been unmarked.

  • Alliterative Name: Adam the Architect.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Architect was intended to be an exact replica of Adam, but his humanity was not fully preserved, leading to creating a cold and calculating mind.
  • The Alcoholic: Not the Architect we deal with in the game but the real Adam might have been one - every single audiolog of his in the main game has him pouring himself a drink or already being drunk.
  • Alternative-Self Name-Change: To distinguish the real Adam from his computer copy, the latter is solely referred to as "The Architect" while the former goes by his proper name.
  • Artificial Intelligence: Essentially being a mind within a machine. He controls the Cyber Void, a virtual dimension. It's unclear how much presence he can have in the real world, but he is connected to multiple devices, including the Ghostrunner.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: The final conflict between the Architect and the Ghostrunner happens in a cyberspace area within the Ghostrunner's cyborg mind, as each fights for control of his body.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While he is the Ghostrunner's Only Friend at first, and a somewhat charming fellow, as soon as Zoe turns out to be alive, he reveals that he left her for dead because she wouldn't be useful to his goals. It only gets worse since then.
  • Brain Uploading: How the Architect was created. It is a digital copy of Adam, co-founder of Dharma Tower.
  • Came Back Wrong: The real Adam attempted to continue his plans after death by copying his mind into a computer beforehand. However his empathy and humanity did not make the cut during the Brain Uploading process.
  • Create Your Own Villain: An audiolog in Project_Hel implies that he may have subjected Mara to Unwilling Robotization, or at least somehow modified her body without her knowledge. It certainly explains her turn against him as well as her fixation on forcing evolution on others, as Adam justified whatever he did to her with the need to adapt.
  • Control Freak: He likes to keep things under his control and does not like it when things don't go according to plan or when his tools get uppity, like when Jack decides to take a detour to save people of the tower. Adam created the Architect as a copy of his mind in the first place just so he could still run things when his body dies. Even his endgoal involves this - he wants to create a utilitarian society where people are robbed of their free will and are forced to act and live their lives according to the plan he would lay out.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: In this case, the fact that he is a computer program means he lacks a soul altogether, as opposed to his human self.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He spends most of the story as a disembodied voice, so he has little else to do but cynically snipe at every other character in the game.
    • Zoe tends to be the victim of this more often than not.
      Zoe: We thought once you [Jack] awakened, you'll lead us to victory and help us avenge the Architect.
      The Architect: I'm touched.
    • Heck, via Apocalyptic Log, one of the first things he's known to have said is snark:
      Adam: "I've achieved the impossible. A fully sentient artificial intelligence that will carry on my will and see my plan [...] To Dharma Tower! To humanity's future! To you, Architect!
      [Sound of wine glasses clinking]
      The Architect: You do look rather sily holding both glasses yourself, Adam. If it's social occasions you require my assistance with, I suggest equipping me with a body. Or an arm, at the very least.
  • Deathly Unmasking: Sort of. He is only seen in person right before being killed.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Adam's final audio recording is his realization that Mara and the Architect both intend to kill him and usurp full control over Dharma Tower. He sounds extremely frustrated that his plans have utterly failed, resigned to not caring about dying anymore to being a hundred years old, and background noises suggest that he's messing up his workstation.
  • Digital Avatar: He has one in the form of a holographic head. He also turns out to have an avatar looking identical to his human-self which when killed causes him to die for real.
  • The Disembodied: Being an A.I., he laments the fact that his creator did not gives him a robotic body so he could interact fully with the real world. He got close to take over Jack's body near the end.
  • Evil Doppelgänger: He turns out to be this to the real Adam. As they are two separate people and the Architect is merely a corrupted copy of his creator.
  • Exposition Fairy: He guides Jack through his journey, tells him what are his goals and answer his questions regarding Jack's past, abilities, and the Cybervoid.
  • Final Boss: He becomes the final antagonist that Jack has to deal with.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears glasses and is very cold and calculating, not thinking twice about sacrificing others for the greater good.
  • Grand Theft Me: Once it becomes clear that the Ghostrunner won't blindly follow his order and let him take control of Dharma Tower, he attempts to destroy Jack's mind so he can take over his body.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: His influence continues to haunt the sequel, as he had converted Gyges into a cyborg as punishment for his espionage, leading to the birth of Mitra, who attempts to destroy Dharma out of spite for what Adam did to him.
  • Insufferable Genius: Adam was very smart and very arrogant because of that, though as the game continues it becomes apparent that he's not quite as genius as he paints himself to be.
  • Lack of Empathy: He never shows concern for anyone, always justifying his apathy as "for the greater good". It turns out he only cared about getting control of Dharma out of megalomania; Mara even outright states he lacks empathy.
  • Manipulative Bastard: His entire plan revolves around manipulating the Ghostrunner through lies and ommission of crucial details about his situation.
  • Mirror Character: He is this to Mara. Both of them were responsible for the founding of the Tower, have now lost their original human forms, employ Cyber Ninjas to do their bidding, and possess grand goals to forcibly save humanity regardless of what their citizens actually want as revealed at the end.
  • Mutually Unequal Relation: He has no regards for Zoe whom he views as a distraction in his goal. The fact that she actually looks up to and wants to avenge him does nothing to change that.
  • The Needs of the Many: He opposes Jack when trying to deviate from his main objective to save people, as it would be a waste of precious time for a larger-scope saving.
    The Architect: Sometimes sacrifices are necessary for the greater good.
  • Nerd Glasses: He sports a pair of these.
  • No Full Name Given: Only known as Adam, most likely his first name.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Similar to Mara. He genuinely does want to create a stable society free of chaos and corruption where everyone would be provided for and humanity could survive. Unfortunately, his means and methods to achieve this are far from kind, and the society he has in mind is also very elitist.
  • Spirit Advisor: He can only be heard by the Ghostrunner as he lives in the cyber void which is connected to the software of the latter. He serves as a voice guiding Jack through the journey.
    The Architect: Just think of me as a voice in your head...
  • Virtual Ghost: He is meant to invoke this, as he is a computer copy of Adam who replaces him after his death.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about him without revealing his true nature.
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: As a Virtual Ghost of the founder of the city, he knows everything about it and can hack almost every software.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He attempts to take over and delete the Ghostrunner's mind after Mara is defeated, knowing well that Jack would turn against him. He fails.

    The Keymaster 

Mara a.k.a The Keymaster

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mara_ghostrunner.PNG
"What will you do if you kill me, puppet? Let him consume you?"

Voiced by: Sheila Morris

"I'm not here to rule you. I'm here to save you."
Mara is the second creator of Dharma Tower, alongside Adam. She betrays him at the start of the game, kickstarting the events of the plot and the Ghostrunner's mission to end her.
  • Big Bad: With the Architect not appearing in Project Hel, Mara serves as the sole antagonistic villain for the DLC story with The Climbers and Bakunin serving as Hero Antagonists for Hel.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Shares the role as main antagonist with The Architect, though for the most part serves the most prominent of the two before her defeat.
  • Combat Tentacles: They tear off the Ghostrunner's arm in the opening cinematic, and she uses them to make stabbing and sweeping attacks during her bossfight.
  • Evil Former Friend: She was Adam's closest associate who helped him build the tower and develop some of its biggest technological marvels. The Architect portrays her as an evil tyrant who betrayed him but in truth she is no more evil than the Architect himself, and may have become like that because of him in the first place.
  • Evilutionary Biologist: Compared to Adam whose specialty lied in digital solutions Mara is a biologist. In the past she was responsible for the gene therapy that extended her and Adam's lives and in the present she biologically and cybernetically enhances humans so they could survive outside of the Dharma Tower (turning them into barely sentient monstrocities in the process).
  • The Heavy: She is the primary antagonist with much of the plot revolving around traveling to the top of the tower to kill Mara and end her tyranny.
  • Iron Lady: She is the female leader of Dharma Tower and a very cold-hearted and in no ways affectionate person.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: Mara only calls flesh-and-blood humans by names, while referring to the Ghostrunner and Hel exclusively as "puppet" or "machine" and to the Architect as "monster".
  • Mad Scientist: She's a scientist who performed unethical experiments on people transforming them into feral cybernetic abominations.
  • The Master: More specifically known as the Keymaster.
  • Meet the New Boss: At first it looks like Mara's takeover shattered Dharma Tower's golden age, but later it becomes apparent that things really weren't much better under the Architect.
  • Monstrous Humanoid:
    • Mara has augmented herself with cybernetic enhancements that covers most of her body, such as long mechanical arms.
    • She also creates some, as those... things that chase the Ghostrunner and explode on contact are her doing.
  • No Full Name Given: Like Adam, only her first name is known.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite her claims that she's trying find a way to allow humanity to survive the toxic air outside the tower, the fact that her subjects become cybernetic beasts without any intelligence, while Mara would have full control over them suggest that all Mara really cares about is spreading her influence throughout the world through her abominations.
  • Power at a Price: Her end goal is to force onto everyone freakish augmentations just so that they can repopulate the broken Earth outside Dharma Tower.
  • Pre-Final Boss: Jack kills Mara in the penultimate level, where The Architect then reveals his true nature and becomes the Final Boss of the game.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Her two primary colors are a good indication of her personality.
  • She Is the King: She is known as the Keymaster rather than mistress.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: She killed Adam so that she can become the sole ruler of Dharma Tower and to say she's an unjust ruler would be an understatement.
  • Villainous Valor: When Jack reaches the top of the tower to face her Mara doesn't try to flee and hide, instead putting up an impressive fight before Jack kills her.

    T-037-M 

T-037-M a.k.a Tom

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tom_ghostrunner.PNG
"Oh. This is troublesome."
"Welcome to Amida Elevator Station. Have a safe trip."
A security robot the size of a building. It was created by the Architect to block the way to Amida Station but since it is used by Mara against him and the Ghostrunner, it has to be destroyed. It serves as the first boss.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Its giant exposed wires are weak enough that only three hits need to be done to defeat Tom. However getting to them is the real challenge.
  • Beam Spam: It gets very generous when it comes to using laser rays on the Ghostrunner.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: What it essentially is.
  • Laser Hallway: The first phase of its fight involve climbing at the top while avoiding a plethora of laser beams. It's as hard as it sounds.
  • Level in Boss Clothing: While it is considered the first boss, Tom being more of a building than anything else, it comes of more as a platforming challenge than a true fight.
  • Robot Names: T-037-M, which if you interpret the numbers as letters spells "Totem".
  • Some Call Me "Tim": Its full name is T-037-M but for simplicity's sake, it is referred to as "Tom".
    The Architect: T-037-M is a mouthful isn't it?

    Hel 

Hel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hel_ghostrunner.PNG
"GR Seventy-Four located."

Voiced by: Eileen Anglin

"Killswitch component not found."
An iteration of Ghostrunners created by Mara to do her bidding. She is the second boss of the game, with Jack chasing her down for a power she stole.
  • Ax-Crazy: As the DLC progress, Hel becomes more bloodthirsty and psychotic indiscriminately slaughtering countless people.
  • Blood Knight: DLC Hel shows traits of being one such as when Bakunin refuses to surrender to her, she simply says "good" before battling him.
  • Breakout Villain: Originally just one boss fight, Hel proved to be popular enough to become the playable Villain Protagonist in the DLC
  • Death Means Humanity: The DLC Hel indirectly denies her own humanity in accordance with this trope when she says she cannot die as she's not alive to begin with.
  • The Dragon: In Project_Hel, as her role is to kill Climbers for Mara and to stop subordinates who turn against her.
  • Exclusive Enemy Equipment: The Ghostrunner's Coup de Grâce on her involves beheading her with her own sword. It gets unlocked for normal use after, and like all swords in the game, it's one-of-a-kind.
  • Evil Knockoff: The Hels are intentionally designed by Mara to be this for the Ghostrunners.
  • Hidden Depths: The DLC Hel displays hints of having these beyond just being an unhinged murderer. It is implied she actually hates her existence and she clearly despises Mara for how she was treated by her. And then there's her sparing the unconscious Ghostrunner and hiding his existence from Mara, which opens a whole new box of interpretation.
  • King Mook: She's a boss version that combines the two sword-wielding enemies in the game: she's only vulnerable after being parried like the Japanese-speaking Ninja mooks introduced before her, and evades the player to toss Sword Beams like the Computer Voice teleporting mooks introduced after her.
  • Mirror Boss: She's intended to be similar to the Ghostrunner in her fight: both demonstrate extreme agility, frailness, and fight almost exclusively with swords.
  • Promoted to Playable: Project_Hel promotes her to this.
  • Power Limiter: The DLC reveals that Hel has one that prevents her from using her abilities to a capacity that it damages her chassis. It seems to also function as a Restraining Bolt, because as soon as Mara deactivates it Hel openly rebels against her.
  • Robotic Psychopath: Compared to the main game Hel who looks like a flat robotic enforcer the DLC Hel has a distinct personality - that of a murderous psychopath. An audiolog reveals that personality changes are an inherent side effect of the Hel creation process, so it could be that turning psychotic is inevitable for Hels, and the one we encounter in the main game just hasn't gotten there yet.
  • The Sociopath: Hel displays many traits of one including being an Ax-Crazy murderer who shows a Lack of Empathy for butchering her victims, viewing emotion as weakness and prioritizing satisfying her bloodlust over following Mara's commands before eventually deciding to turn against her.
  • Sword Beam: Her ability to shoot waves of energy from her sword. The Ghostrunner can copy this.
  • A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The DLC Hel kills Bakunin by impaling him with her sword, and in the end of the DLC she has another Hel run her through with that one's sword. It's not Karmic Death only because Hel actually surives the impalement and dies by suicide moments later. Also during the Golem fight Hel damages the Golem a bit by dropping vats of molten metal on it - until Diego piloting the Golem uses Golem's lasers to drop another vat on Hel instead.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Hel apparently runs on it - when playing as her the Ghostrunner's energy meter that powered his skills is replaced by a Rage meter. Its capable of fitting enough energy to power multiple Surge acivations (compared to the Ghostrunner's where you need a full meter to fire off one Surge) and if it's above a certain level it activates a Deflector Shield that lets Hel survive one hit. However the Rage meter also depletes on its own with time.
  • Villain Protagonist: Hel is a blood-thirsty Robotic Psychopath that also happens to be the main character for the DLC.
  • Voice of the Legion: The echo let by her robotic voice gives this impression.

    Zoe 

Zoe Avila

Voiced by: Lindsey Vega

The last member of a decimated resistance group known as the Climbers, Jack first gets into contact with her via an SOS broadcast that he picks up.

  • The Heart: Compared to The Quiet One/The Big Guy Ghostrunner and the Deadpan Snarker/The Smart Guy Architect, Zoe's wholehearted emotion and kindness easily makes her this.
    • Project_Hel DLC and the second game reveal she is also this among the Climbers, as Connor's more pragmatic and cynical moves clearly don't sit that well with her.
  • Mission Control:
    • Zoe shares this role with the Architect for a big part of the game. Notably, she actually does more to help Jack than what the Architect does, as she occasionaly hacks into the Keys' comms to listen in on their talks and diverts them away from the Ghostrunner's path with false orders, while the Architect only gives Jack directions.
    • Continues on in the second game, though now she has to share this role with even more people.
  • The Not-Love Interest: She and Jack are very close and greatly care for each other, but strictly in a platonic way.
  • Nice Girl: Zoe is a compassionate woman who cares for the freedom of everyone living in the tower and unlike Adam and Mara, she doesn't try manipulating Jack for her own ends.
  • Sole Survivor: She's the last surviving Climber, or at least she believes herself to be.
  • Survivor's Guilt: Displays hints of going through one in some of her transmissions.
  • Trap Is the Only Option: In the build-up to Mara's fight, Zoe recieves an SOS message from the Climbers. Jack points out the obvious possibility that it's a trap, but Zoe can't ignore it because there's a chance that it might be genuine. Since she survives to the end credits, either it wasn't a trap, or she fended for herself.
  • Unseen No More: In the second game, where she and the Ghostrunner frequently talk eye-to-eye.
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: While she's not omnipotent like the Architect seems to be, she provides information about the consequences of Mara's politics on the civilians and the discoveries of the Climbers to help Jack.
  • Wrench Wench: Zoe was the one who primarily worked on restoring the Ghostrunner, and she's very good with machines in general.
  • You Are in Command Now: She becomes the new leader of the Climbers after Connor gets killed.

Introduced in Project_Hel

    Adrian Bakunin 

Adrian Bakunin

Introduced in the Project_Hel DLC. Bakunin was one of Mara's troop commanders - until he decided he'd had enough and defected, deciding to side with the Climbers against Mara. In response Mara sends Hel after him and he serves as her first boss fight.

  • An Arm and a Leg: Loses his right hand at the end of his fight with Hel. By the second game he receives a cybernetic replacement.
  • Badass Normal: A regular well-trained human, he serves as a tough boss fight to Hel, keeps up with the Ghostrunner as an ally in another boss fight, and later fights Madhu and lives to tell the tale.
  • Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Has this dynamic with one of his unnamed leutenants.
  • Defector from Decadence: He had been serving Mara for some time before the games but he balks at the purge Mara orders him to commit and tries to switch sides.
  • Defiant to the End: He refuses to be taken in by Hel when she comes for him, and keeps refusing even after she beats him in a fight and cuts his hand off. So she just kills him. Subverted for the sequel, where he shows up alive.
  • Exclusive Enemy Equipment: Hel takes his sword from him after she kills him, leaving her own in his body.
  • A Father to His Men: He clearly cares for the lives of his subordinates, and they return the sentiment with their loyalty.
  • Grenade Spam: His main tactic in his fight is to hover over the platform where the battle takes place and shower Hel with grenades.
  • Hero Antagonist: He's a conscientous man who defects from the service to a tyrant because he genuinely wants to stop people's suffering. Sadly, you play as said tyrant's psychotic robotic assassin, so he has to die.
  • I Want Them Alive!: Mara actually wants him captured and not killed, but he proves to be too uncooperative and Hel doesn't care about following Mara's orders that much to begin with...
  • King Mook: He's this to the regular jetpacker enemies introduced in the DLC. Compared to them his grenades have a much larger blast radius.
  • Last Breath Bullet: The last thing he does after his health is depleted and before the fight moves into a scripted Blade Lock sequence is to drop onto the platform, sending out a shockwave that kills you if you don't jump over it in time. Since this is the first time he does anything like that it can completely blindside you if you're not staying on your toes.
  • Last-Name Basis: In the second game most people refer to him by his last name.
  • Made of Iron: He manages to survive getting his hand cut off and getting impaled by Hel to show up for the sequel. He similarily shows up now worse for wear after Madhu defeats him off-screen and tosses him into a Bottomless Pit right before the Ghostrunner's eyes.
  • Named After Someone Famous: Shares his last name with Mikhail Bakunin.
  • Noble Demon: In his own words, he was fine with holding a gun to the people of the Dharma Tower heads on Mara's orders, but actually pulling the trigger was where he drew the line.
  • Oh, Crap!: Has a brief one when he realises that Mara sent Hel after his people.
  • Still Wearing The Old Colours: He still wears his Key armour and insignia by the second game, long after Mara has been deposed.

    Sasamori 

Sasamori

The commander of Mara's forces involved in the Operation Precipice - Mara's crackdown on the rebels in the Base district. He only appears in the Project_Hel DLC.

  • Foil: To Bakunin as another one of Mara's commanders but his complete opposite in morals and character.
  • General Ripper: He's fully loyal to Mara's orders and drowns the Base district's uprising in blood with no hesitations or concern. At one point he lifts the engagement restriction against civilians for his troops, ordering them to shoot people unaffiliated with rebel groups on sight if they interfere with their progress.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: An audiolog reveals that he was the one who came up with the idea and the procedures on how to disable a sector's air filtration systems if the direct assault fails. When Mara turns off air filters during the main game she's working off his notes.
  • The Voice: Hel never meets him and only hears his voice over Keys' transmitions. Considering her track record it was probably good for his life expectancy.
  • We Have Reserves: He doesn't seem to have a lot of sympathy for men dying under his command. At one point when he hears a transmission of his men overwhelmed by rioting mobs he only has words of disdain for their incompetence, and later if Hel takes out a group of Keys under his command he only reports losses to Mara because it was a case of a friendly fire.
  • Yes-Man: To Mara. He never questions any of her orders and just does what she says.

    Connor 

Connor Muller

Introduced in the Project_Hel DLC, Connor is the leader of the Climbers.

  • The Chessmaster: He's very calculating, pragmatic and politically-minded in going for his goal.
  • Dartboard of Hate: He has a darts board in his office in the second game - with the Architect's photo stamped to it.
  • Double Agent: An audiolog reveals that he was actually a registered informant for the Keys. Judging by how he acts in the second game, his true allegiance lied with the Climbers after all.
  • Everyone Has Standards: He's not above using the Ghostrunner as the Climbers' lethal enforcer, but he at least tries to resolve matters via diplomacy and politics before sending in a cyber assassin.
  • Full-Circle Revolution: Jack as well as some of his other followers subtly accuse him of being on his way to turning into yet another unilateral dictator of the tower, but Connor denies it. Since he gets killed before his ambition gets realised, we can't tell if their accusations were accurate.
  • Good Is Not Nice: He is driven to bring freedom to the Dharma tower and to building a functioning democratic government unifying all people who live within it. He's also ruthless and pragmatic in pursuit of his goal and he's not above intimidating, coercing, strong-arming and killing those who do not wish to fall in line with this vision. He's also abrasive and callous on a personal level, to the point that while his followers greatly look up to him as a leader, they don't really like him as a person. Conversely, after he's killed they do mourn him, but can't help but admit that Connor was a dick and likely had it coming.
  • It Has Been an Honour: His final "See you at the top, Diego" sounds very much like this.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: Mitra cuts his head off in the middle of a group meeting.
  • Mission Control: One of the people who act like this this for the Ghostrunner in the sequel.
  • Rebel Leader: He's the more cynical version of the trope, where he approaches his rebellion against Mara with a pragmatic and calculating outlook, projecting the image of an idealistic and fiery leader but actually being more manipulative than he lets on.
  • Rousing Speech: Gives one over the public broadcasting system, urging the people of the Base to take arms and start an open uprising, taking the fight to Mara's Keyes, giving their lives if necessary to throw off Mara's tyranny. Notably, privately he's not planning to join the fight himself, and urges his other closest followers to do the same.
  • The Unfought: Hel never catches up with him.
  • The Voice: In the first game we hear him from his transmissions but never see the man in person. He may be one of the Climbers Hel glimpses right before her fight with Diego but it's not certain, and none of them clearly appears like a leader figure either so we can't tell which one he was.
  • The Unfettered: He strives to liberate residents of the Dharma tower from their oppressors and build a stable society in it - but he's not above underhanded and bloody methods of achieving it.
  • Unseen No More: As of the sequel, where he not only gets a visual avatar for his messages but the Ghostrunner regularly meets him face to face.

    Diego 

Diego

Briefly mentioned by Zoe in the main game he makes a proper appearance in the Project_Hel DLC. A member of the Climbers and a talented mechanic, he faces Hel as the final boss of the DLC.

Introduced in Ghostrunner 2

    Saul 

Saul Dyson

The Climbers' medical specialist.

  • Bit Character: He does not appear in the gameplay and doesn't do anything meaningful in the story either, only serving as yet another person to talk to in the HQ. He doesn't even talk to Jack over the radio, unlike literally everyone else.
  • Cool Old Guy: A friendly fellow in his 60s, he's a doctor for a resistance movement and helps Jack with maintaining his organic parts.
  • The Medic: Climbers' primary doctor, he acts as Jacks' physician of a sort. He is also seen tinkering over Ahriman's body.

    Kira 

Kira Njeri

Mara's research associate before her deposing, and a freelance hacker in the present. The Ghostrunner enlists her help to track down the Asuras.

  • Admiring the Abomination: She is fascinated with Scions, amazed with how much they surpass Creeps.
  • Anti-Nihilist: She does not believe in humanity's inherent special place in the universe or that people of Dharma "deserve" survival, calling Scions an evolutionarily superior species. She still tries to help the denizens of Dharma and refuses to simply lie down and die and leave the place for superior species, and wishes to improve the lives of people. In general she seems to believe in self-determination and self-actualisation above all else.
  • Black and Nerdy: She's black, she's a skillful hacker and she's a connosieur of action movies (even if she mixes them up sometimes).
  • Deadpan Snarker: She likes to occasionally sass Zoe and the Ghostrunner.
  • Defiant to the End: When she sees the Ghostrunner and assumes he comes to kill her she immeidately goes for her gun. He effortlessly disarms her, which she likely saw coming but went for it anyway.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: She is first heard in some audiologs in the first game's DLC, before making a proper debut in the sequel.
  • For Science!: She's not without morals, but her primary raison d'etre seems to be "building cool machines". She's not ashamed of her work with Mara, which involved helping with designing Creeps and Hel - while she laments the loss of life, she claims that it was necessary.
  • Mission Control: Along with Zoe she fills this role the most frequently, and during the sections outside the tower she is Jack's sole contact.
  • Playful Hacker: She's an extremely skillful Cybervoid hacker, at one point even giving Rahu a figurative black eye.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: She defected from Mara some time before the first game once she saw how callous Mara had become.
  • The Smart Guy: She was Mara's right hand when it came to Mara's cybernetic ventures - Mara was primarily a biologist, so she didn't have the necessary knowledge to develop advanced cyborgs by herself.
    Kevin 

Kevin

Kira's robotic companion.

  • Invisibility: He's outfitted with an optical camouflage system, allowing him to pop in and out unexpectedly.
  • Robot Buddy: Kira's robotic assistant who helps her out with things that require getting out of her hideout. He seems to have his own opinions and thoughts, implying that he's running on some sort of AI.
  • Spy Bot: After Kira comes to the Climbers Connor reprograms Kevin to record conversations Kevin listens in on. Talking to Kevin lets you listen to his recordings.
  • The Unintelligible: Kevin communicates solely in beeps and boops. Other characters seem to understand him just fine.
    Victor & Butch 

Victor and Butch

A pair of Climbers troopers seen within their headquarters.

  • Dumb Muscle: They... don't sound very bright.
  • Mauve Shirt: They're just regular Climbers grunts, but by virtue of being posted within their HQ you get to meet them multiple times and listen in on their chatter.
  • Mildly Military: Reflective of the Climbers as a whole - they idly blabber on post and generally don't have too much discipline. Played for drama when the Climbers HQ gets under attack, and they refuse Bakunin's order to cover another Climbers squad that got pinned.
  • Those Two Guys: A pair of grunts talking to each other.

    Ahriman 

Ahriman The Destroyer

A member of the Asura, a group of prototype Ghostrunners who act as the main antagonists of the game. He's fanatically devoted to their leader Mitra, and his efforts kickstart the plot of the second game.

  • Better to Die than Be Killed: He commits suicide out of shame after the Ghostrunner defeats him.
  • The Brute: He brings in the muscle to the Asuras' scheme by subjugating the Hammers gang under himself, recovers Mitra's body, and fights the Ghostrunner personally. He's also the biggest Asura physically, towering above the Ghostrunner and his peers alike.
  • Red Baron: The Destroyer.
  • Starter Villain: He's the first boss the Ghostrunner faces in the second game, dealt with as early as the second level.
  • Super Prototype: One of the Asura, the first four Ghostrunners developed by Adam, more advanced that subsequent serial models like Jack.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Mitra, despite the fact that he did not participate in the Asuras' initial uprising.
    Rahu 

Rahu the Avatar

Another Asura, and their Cybervoid expert.

  • Dead Person Impersonation: He impersonates the Architect before his cultists and before the Ghostrunner once he breaches the Cathedral. He's pretty good at it too, however Jack does not buy it for a moment.
  • Digitized Hacker: He's a master of the Cybervoid, surpassing even the Ghostrunner and the Architect when it comes to what he can do within. Kira manages to briefly knock him out, but only because Rahu was distracted with the Ghostrunner at the moment. He also prefers staying in the Cybervoid than in his physical body, even though initially he had wanted nothing more than to have his body restored. Later, however, he found that Cybervoid offers him more freedom than even his restored physical body, and now he fully prefers being a Virtual Ghost.
  • Heel–Face Turn: He betrays the Asuras and assists the Ghostrunner once he realises that the Asuras' plan involves destruction of the Cybervoid and, subsequently, his death.
  • Level in Boss Clothing: His boss encounter consists out of trying to reach him inside the Cybervoid, not unlike the final boss of the first game. Unlike the Architect, who went down without effort as soon as you got to him, Rahu actually subdues the Ghostrunner once he reaches him instead.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: His cybervoid avatar has multiple arms. His real body, however, has nothing below his neck.
  • Non-Action Guy: Despite being a Super Prototype Ghostrunner Rahu is this, as his physical body was disassembled.
  • Red Baron: The Avatar.
  • Super Prototype: Along with the rest of the Asuras.
  • True Neutral: What he ultimately amounts to. He participated in the Asuras' scheme only because he never had a choice. He switches sides to the Ghostrunner once he sees that it's in his interests, but he doesn't care about helping the Dharma tower beyond stopping the Asuras. Later, he tells the Ghostrunner that his ultimate goal is to be left alone in the Cybervoid where he can simply continue to exist, not bothering anyone and not being bothered himself.

    Naga 

Naga

A gigantic worm-like robot that prowls the wastelands outside of the Dharma tower.

  • Animal Mecha: An enormous robot that looks like a worm or a snake.
  • Level in Boss Clothing: Part of the level is spent attempting to escape it, then, once it swallows the Ghostrunner, to destroy it from the inside.
  • Mechanical Abomination: A destructive robot that the Asuras planned to use as a battering ram in their assault on the tower.
  • Sand Worm: A mechanical variety.
    Madhu 

Madhu the Dismantler

Another Asura, he's the mastermind behind their overall scheme.

  • Big Bad Ensemble: Forms one with Mitra, as while they start on the same side they later have a fallout and split, pursuing different goals.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: He created his Scions as an effort to preserve life on Earth, developing a more robust form that can persevere even in the wasteland outside of the Dharma tower. He doesn't care that his Scions are a ravenous horde of mindless Robotic Undead, since, technically, they are alive as they are capable of stable reproduction, and sentience is not a necessary criteria for being alive. He attacks the Dharma tower in order to obtain its resources so that his Scions could continue propagating further.
  • Evil Genius: He was the one who created Scions as an unstoppable menace, and he also orchestrated the Asuras' attack on the Dharma tower.
  • Monster Progenitor: He's the one who created and perfected Scions.
  • Multiple Head Case: After he hulks out for his boss fight his body gets three heads.
  • One-Winged Angel: For his boss fight, he turns into a towering skeletal giant with three heads.
  • Red Baron: The Dismantler.
  • Stance System: In his battle his body has three "modes", each with its own health bar. In the "red" mode he focuses on melee attacks and in the "blue" mode he attacks from afar. Finally, in the "green" mode he heals, protected by totems that make him invincible.
  • Sinister Scythe: His weapon of choice. Combined with the robe he drapes himself in this gives him a very Grim Reaper-like look.
  • Super Prototype: Along with the rest of the Asuras.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Starts his fight trash talking the Ghostrunner and calling him a cockroach. By the end, he's begging Rahu to save him.
    Mitra 

Mitra the Resurrected

The leader of the Asuras, and the first Ghostrunner.

  • Ax-Crazy: He looks collected at first, but it eventually becomes clear that Mitra is an unstable psycho driven mad by his desire for revenge. He crumbles even further during his boss battle, screaming obscenities and wailing in frustration at the Ghostrunner.
  • Berserk Button: Calling him by his original name pisses him off.
  • Big Bad Ensemble. Makes one with Madhu. They start on the same side but split once Madhu realises that Mitra wants to destroy the Dharma tower outright rather than plunder it for resources.
  • Boomerang Bigot: He's actually an AI replica of the original Gyges, but the revelation doesn't stop him from hating AI's with a passion.
  • Devious Daggers: He fights with a pair of combat knives, and he's a nasty piece of work underneath it all.
  • Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: He wants to destroy the Dharma tower and kill everyone inside because, in his eyes, they are all tainted by Adam's evil.
  • Hero Killer: Kills Connor.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard: Once you defeat him in battle he tries to hurl the Ghostrunner onto a spike protruding from the reactor. Instead the Ghostrunner reels him in with a gapjammer and maneuvers them both mid-air, using his momentum to impale Mitra on the same spike he wanted to impale the Ghostrunner on.
  • Human Popsicle: Was put in suspended animation for his rebellion against Adam. Ahriman finds his body and resuscitates him in the beginning of the game.
  • Invisibility: He's outfitted with an optical camo system, which he uses to vanish and appear in very unexpected places. Like the Climbers HQ.
  • Nonchalant Dodge: Evades from under Bakunin's sword strike without even breaking the tempo of his speech.
  • Red Baron: The Resurrected.
  • Reforged into a Minion: He was originally a man named Gyges who stole Adam's corporate secrets but got caught by him. As a punishment, Adam converted him into a cyborg, making him the first Ghostrunner.
  • Super Prototype: The original Ghostrunner.
  • Sword Beam: Fires these with abandon during his boss fight.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: The real Gyges died under the stress of Adam and Mara's augmentations. Mitra is an AI who thinks he's Gyges.
  • Villainous Breakdown: He starts out cold and collected despite it being quickly obvious that he's a lunatic underneath it all. That calm falls by the wayside as Jack damages him during his boss fight, and he's left swearing and tossing out juvenile insults left and right by the second half.
  • Was Once a Man: Unlike all other Ghostrunners Mitra was converted out of a human. Or so he thinks.

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