Characters / Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)

The Guardians of the Galaxy

The Guardians in General

Not the Gardeners of the Galaxy^note Check the addendum!

A newly formed team of heroes-for-hire, formed following the war, when Rocket and Groot attempted to capture Peter Quill for the bounty Yondu had put on him. Peter befriended them, forming the team. Recently they recruited Drax the Destroyer after the later escaped from Prison, and Gamora.

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• Adaptation Amalgamation: The Guardians are a mix of their comic and Marvel Cinematic Universe versions:
  • Peter's backstory is similar to his backstory in the movies: Rather than becoming an astronaut after his mother died, he was kidnapped on the same day by aliens and raised among the Ravagers as a child; he also comes from Missouri rather than Colorado. He also shares his movie self's obsession with 80's music and pop culture, and is more unscrupulous mercenary than space cop. However, like in the comics, he's the half-Spartoi son of Spartax royalty, and his mother was killed by aliens rather than by cancer. This version of him also has less attachment to Yondu and the Ravagers, and is a war veteran (with his role in the Galactic War serving as an analogue to his comic self's involvement in the Phalanx Conquest).
  • Drax, like his MCU self, is an alien rather than a reincarnated human. However, he retains the part of his comics backstory in which he was made into a weapon against Thanos by Mentor and Kosmos, and his family was killed by Thanos rather than by Ronan the Accuser. His personality (and appearance) are also closer to that of his comic self; see Adaptation Personality Change.
  • Rocket retains his MCU origin of being the result of painful experimentation, but grafted to this are details of his comic background on Halfworld.
  • As Gamora's MCU version is already pretty close to her comic version, the version in the game is little different. She does retain the film version's complicated history with her adopted sister Nebula, while retaining the comic version's previous involvement in intergalactic war and history with Richard Rider.
• Adaptational Personality Change: As per Adaptation Amalgamation, the Guardians here are a mixture of both their MCU and comics selves, with their personalities ending up distinct from either:
  • Like in the movies, Peter is goofy and has elements of being a Manchild, such as being preoccupied with 80's culture. Like in the comics, however, his morality is fairly straightforwardly heroic despite his past as a Ravager, and he's overtly concerned with being a good leader and maintaining the team's cohesion. He also has more history with the galactic community as a whole, is a war veteran like in the comics, and has more emotional baggage.
  • Gamora is far more open and friendly than her movie counterpart, having had the benefit of years of character development that her comic self had and her film self did not. She's also quicker to joke around and trade quips than either her movie or comic version.
  • While Drax shares his MCU version's literal mindedness and associated inability to understand metaphors and proverbs, he is more insightful and intelligent, similar to his post-2004 comics self. He's also depicted as a far more spiritual and tragic figure than in the movies or the comics, not only still grieving his lost family, but being deeply affected by them supposedly being denied his people's afterlife.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Inverted. Unlike the movies, Peter and Gamora are not an Official Couple, and don't even really get any Ship Tease. However, this is actually a reversion of the movies' initial Adaptation Relationship Overhaul; in the comics, Peter and Gamora were never romantically involved (until the movies came out and they hooked up in the comics for synergy).
• Blood Knight: All of them. Every single member is a reckless adrenaline junkie who loves to cause havoc: Gamora and Drax are very bloodthirsty and take great pride in their killing ability, Rocket has an explosion fetish, Groot happily approves of destroying plants he doesn't like and Peter's usually the one ordering the carnage. Many Huddle Up conversations are about grounding the team so they don't get lost in the fun.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Everyone. All of the Guardians have pretty hefty emotional baggage they currently struggle with, especially Rocket.
• Dysfunction Junction: All the guardians have various personality flaws.
  • Peter is immature and suffers from terrible organization and an inability to plan things out long term. He's also stuck in a borderline toxic positive mindset in response to trauma - he's unwilling to listen to harsh truths and tell them to other people and he makes promises he can't keep in fear of disappointing others.
  • Gamora appears the most stable, but she has terrible self loathing issues over having to kill Nebula, her sister. She at one point harbored suicidal thoughts, which Mantis had to help her out of. She also has extra baggage due to being Thanos' daughter and the resulting abusive childhood.
  • Drax has lost his family, and this affects him deeply. Even more so the fact that based on his people's faith, they died in a manner that denied them access to the afterlife.
  • Rocket is an abrasive, often mean person. He carries heavy baggage and trauma from his early life as a lab experiment and the incredible suffering he went through.
  • Groot is Groot. But also the last of his kind, and with no one who can understand him besides Rocket and Mantis. His pleasant attitude also makes him very passive when it comes to interpersonal conflicts, playing Team Switzerland regardless of what's going on.
• Family of Choice: All of them have lost people close to them and are deeply broken but find solace in each other and, despite their fighting, truly consider each other family.
• Heartbroken Badass: All of them are coping with the traumatic loss of their loved ones.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A human former pirate, the galaxy's deadliest woman, the galaxy's last talking tree, a foul-mouthed bio-experiment, and a Literal-Minded Proud Warrior Race Guy. Their newest addition is a half-Kree pre-teen with superpowers, whose lineage would make her a target for the Kree Purity Council.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Zig-Zagged: Drax in particular has disdain towards Gamora both for having worked as an assassin for Thanos and having betrayed him. Gamora is standoffish from most of the team. But Peter, Rocket and Groot get along fairly well (the later two in particular having been partners-in-crime). Rocket even expresses a fondness for when it was just him and Groot and Peter, despite his otherwise rough exterior.
  • Played straight as a major subplot is Peter and Rocket having a falling out over Peter's decisions and failure to live up to Rocket's efforts. For a portion of the game Rocket's basically just following Peter because he has no other options.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Once the team goes through their fair share of hardships and Character Development together, they stop complaining and voicing their distrust for one another and start complimenting and enjoying each other's company, though they all make jokes at each other's expense, it's a lighthearted version of the trope.

Star-Lord

Star-Lord (Peter Jason Quill)

"Trust me, kiddo! We got this!"

Voiced by: Jon McLaren

The Leader of the Team. This version of Peter was kidnapped by the Chitauri when he was 13. He escaped from their prison and joined the Ravagers under Yondu. Alongside the Ravagers he fought in the Galactic Civil war, particularly on the infamous battle of Mercury, before breaking away from them and sending Yondu to prison when the latter's immorality crossed a line. With a Ravager bounty on his head, he was almost captured by Rocket and Groot, but convinced them to come work with him, founding the Guardians.

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• '80s Hair: Naturally styles his hair based on his home time period. In the past, he styled his hair in a long mullet as a thirteen year old. Now, it's a poofy pompadour with an undercut.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: After they killed his mother, the Chitauri took him as a political prisoner to keep Spartax from joining the Resistance. Since he was valuable alive, Peter survived three years unable to communicate with anyone until Yondu was made his cellmate, the two working together to escape a year later. When telling this to Gamora, she notes that he must have gotten used to death as prisoners who weren't valuable were forced into gladiatorial arenas where they fought to the death. Peter isn't so sure, but he does say that he stopped expecting his cellmates to last very long. He's also frustrated that his father, King J'Son of Spartax, never bothered to help him in any way, even refusing to see him when he visited Spartax after the war.
  Peter: Even had a speech prepared and everything. "Hey, dad! It's me, your son [who] you left to rot in a Chitauri prison?" It was either that or punch him. I was undecided. Still am. [...] He was too busy to see his own kid?! Yeah, I got the message loud and clear! I lost everything I ever loved because of him, and he wouldn't even look me in the eye!
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • In comparison to both his comic and film counterparts, the former having been an antisocial jerk while the latter was a selfish criminal who had no heroic intentions prior to meeting the other Guardians. Here, Peter is genuinely heroic, left the Ravagers prior to meeting the Guardians for his own reasons and was at least respected for his smalll role in the War, according to background information. Also both he and his MCU counterpart chose to betray Yondu, but while the film version did it simply for money, this version of Peter helped the Nova Corps arrest Yondu when he chose to kidnap a kid, which Peter disagreed with.
  • The film version of Peter has clear emotional maturity issues and is prone to not realizing how his actions affect his teammates, especially when it comes to his emotional needs versus their own. Peter in the game is far more emotionally aware and empathetic. He often notices when something is off with his teammate, and is generally the first to try to approach them about it or talk them out of their worst instincts. He rarely willingly antagonizes them the way his film counterpart does.
• Adaptational Wimp: Not Peter, but his gear. In his MCU incarnation, Peter's helmet allows him to be outside in space for an extended period of time. In the game, he reacts as well to being spaced as the rest of his allies, which is to say, not well.
• Air-Dashing: Made possible with a short burst from his jet boots when he's in the air.
• Alternate Self: While using the Continuum Cortex, which apparently enables travel across space and potentially realities, Peter overhears an alternate reality where he apparently never left Earth and his mother was still alive, and he's going out with someone named Janey (to his disbelief). Mantis also mentions several other timelines and versions of Peter, including one where she is his ex-wife.
• The Bard: Peter played a bard in his teenage Dungeons & Dragons group. In gameplay, he also is more focused on inspiring and organizing his more powerful comrades, most powerfully when he plays his music.
• Beware the Silly Ones: 80s-pop culture-loving goofball he may be, Peter is still an experienced pirate and scavenger who helped contribute against the Chitauri in the Galactic War.
• Butt-Monkey: Being the player character, we thus get to see most of Peter's problems up close and personal. And boy does the universe have it out for the man, given how many falls, explosions, and rough hits he goes through. Even the rest of the Guardians constantly give him crap both behind his back and directly in earshot.
• The Casanova: Though we don't see it often, many characters talk of Peter's habit of seducing women, often for one-night stands. He's apparently fairly successful at it, though we're told his attempts to do it with Mantis when he first met her didn't pan out so well. Though Mantis mentions that in another timeline she's his ex-wife.
• Character Catchphrase: "You're a valued member of the team" borders on one. It starts as an awkward if earnest attempt at building team cohesion, but it slowly degrades into a platitude that frustrates the rest. It's clear that this mantra stems from Peter's fear of confrontation and disappointing others. Once the team resolves their issues, it finally becomes an earnest compliment.
• Character Development: Peter goes from a nice, if not a non-confrontational person who relies on appealing to someone's good side and distracts himself from making hard decisions, to an assertive, more down-to-Earth person who understands how to face reality.
• The Confidant: If you learn as much about Rocket's past as possible during the game, during the epilogue, it's noted that Peter continued to serve as a sort of private confidant for Rocket's personal issues.
• Cool Mask: His visor, built and programmed by Rocket. It automatically activates when he needs it, such as in battle or in potentially hazardous environments.
• Cruel to Be Kind: In order to save Nikki from the influence of The Promise, he has to destroy the happy illusion that it has her trapped in.
• Delinquent Hair: Sports quite the poofy crew-cut pompadour throughout the game with clear pride. It's both commented on and made fun of by other characters.
• Disappeared Dad: Peter's father, King J'Son^note as confirmed by this video on Peter by Eidos Montreal, left Meredith to protect her and Peter, presumably because of the Galactic War according to what he told her. While in prison on Chitauri Prime, Peter had hoped his father would come to rescue him in one way or another, but he never did. After escaping with Yondu Donta, Peter tried to confront his father later on, only to be rejected by security. It's left unclear how Peter's father felt about the situation as, while kidnapping Peter did work in keeping the Spartoi Empire out of the war, the fact he chose to not see Peter suggests that he doesn't care that much about his son. Not helped by the fact that the game doesn't have so much as an image of him to go off of.
• Disco Dan: Like his MCU counterpart, Peter's influences and style are inspired from 1980s pop culture. Justified since the last time he was on Earth, he's abducted during that time period.
  Peter: (quoting a film while balancing over an empty shaft) "We'll hit the coast, get together, have a few laughs..."
• Elemental Weapon: Has his classic Element Gun.
  • The wind power pulls enemies and objects towards him, and stuns enemies in miniature tornados.
  • The lightning shot fires electricity that stuns enemies and bounces between nearby enemies.
  • The ice shot covers things and people in ice. Frozen enemies can be shattered.
  • The plasma shot deals high damage and ignites enemies with major damage over time if it staggers them.
• Friend to All Children: Can show a strong affinity to kids if the right dialogue choices are made to Nikki. This was also the reason why he left the Ravagers as he disagreed with Yondu's decision to kidnap a child. It is also exploited against him in Knowhere, if the player decides to play the bad guy with some child pickpockets, resulting in him losing some much-needed credits.
• Good Is Not Soft: Probably the most morally upstanding member of the Guardians, but even he has no issues with killing if he has to defend himself or others.
• Grenade Spam: Quill's "Eye of the Hurricane" skill has him jump as he disperses a multitude of grenades, causing moderate damage in a large circle around him.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Peter is half-Spartoi and half-human.
• The Heart: He's very focused on keeping the team together, and In the final mission gets credited for keeping the Guardians together by Rocket and Gamora. He also tends to try to talk them away from their worse instinct and is always the first to show concern about their mental wellbeing.
• The Hero: Peter's a fairly heroic character, and of the team the most central protagonist.
• The Leader: Of the Guardians. They actually hold him to that title, expecting him to maintain morale, come up with plans and organize jobs. A major part of his arc is him finally living up to the mantle, which includes learning to pull rank on the rest. Once he does this, his team actually starts listening to him and actually completes actions that prior Peter had to tell them to do, showing that with their greater respect towards him they work better as a team.
• Lovable Rogue: As usual for the character, though he's arguably closer to this trope than the films due to being an Adaptational Nice Guy and already being a Reformed Criminal at the start of the game.
• Manchild: Less so than his MCU counterpart, but still show shades of this. Peter does not have his shit together, and, for example, the Journal, which is written from his point of view, seems to be written in crayon and has childish drawings of his teammates and people they've met. However, the game ultimately focuses more on Peter's childlike fear of disappointment and confrontation, as well as anxiety over his found family disintegrating if he doesn't keep them happy. You can have Peter tell his reflection that he's still a kid himself while processing the fact that he has to take care of Nikki.
• A Minor Kidroduction: The game has you begin play as Peter during his 13th birthday until it cuts to present day as an adult many years later. The game periodically returns to this period, first as flashbacks, then as Peter's Promise-made illusion. Finally, young Peter appears before Star-Lord in a nightmare, urging him to take responsibility as The Leader he is.
• More Dakka: When he uses his "Fan the Hammer" skill, Quill unloads both his elemental guns in a rapid-fire hail of shots, which can deal a lot of damage to anyone he's aiming at.
• Named After Somebody Famous: In-Universe, Star-Lord is a rock band Peter really liked. He and his mom we're planning to attend a concert of theirs before the Chitauri showed up to take Peter away. His jacket's Star-Lord patch is the same one from his 13-year-old self's demin vest, in fact. Unfortunately this causes some confusion; for example, Adam Warlock thinks that Peter's the guy behind the Star-Lord band's "pitiful poetry".
• Nice Guy: The nicest of the Guardians, being diplomatic, and constantly wanting to get the team to work together. He's even the most vocal about doing things for the sake of just being good.
• Parental Substitute: Despite not being Nikki's biological father, he (and more-or-less the Guardians) are willing to take care of Nikki by the end of the story.
• The Pollyanna: Quill is relentlessly optimistic, to the point he has relatively few dickish dialogue lines for the player to choose, but it's increasingly obvious it stems from his fear of confronting himself and others with harsh truths. This only serves to make the team cagey about their problems and himself to placate them with promises he can't possibly keep. Notably, his issues with Rocket are resolved only when Peter blatantly pulls rank on him and threatens to shoot him after he refuses to help save Drax, which shows to Rocket that Quill is finally ready to put his money where his mouth is. By the final few missions, while he doesn't lose his optimism, he starts to acknowledge the less pleasant outcomes of their current situation, like possibly having to kill Nikki to stop the Magus from destroying the galaxy.
• Purple Is Powerful: His predominanly-white Element Guns feature purple as their secondary color. They are also the most versatile of the team's weapons (save for Rocket's multi-form blaster).
• Raised by Grandparents: Peter's maternal grandparent's helped their daughter bring him up on their family farm. Interacting with several objects around the Quill home reveals they passed away a short time before Peter was abducted by the Chitauri.
• Red Is Heroic: A good-intentioned adventurer whom sports a red jacket for his default outfits.
• Reformed Criminal: Used to be a member of the space pirates known as the Ravagers during the war, but eventually agreed to help the authorities imprison Yondu in return for a pardon for his crime. However, he was clearly a Justified Criminal as he was abducted by the Chitauri when he was just thirteen and placed in a prison, because he was the son of the king of Spartax, where he met Yondu. Given his situation, he had no other options but to join Yondu (though he acknowledges that Yondu could have also dropped him off at a Nova Corps base); and while he says he enjoyed being with Yondu, when his rescuer kidnapped a kid, Peter decided to leave the Ravagers and help the authorities arrest Yondu.
• Related in the Adaptation: Not in the game, but according to Mantis they got married in an alternate timeline but eventually divorced. In the game he apparently becomes Nikki's new parent after Ko-Rel's death, and the epilogue mentions that she sometimes calls him dad. Neither of these things are the case in the comics.
• Rocket Boots: Quill is equipped with jet boots, which grant him a lot of mobility in and out of combat. He can use short bursts to do flips, cross large pits and reach higher location that he could have by simply jumping. In combat, he can do a sustained jet with "Vantage Point", which raises him in the air for a period of time. The higher position allows him to dodge most attacks and analyze the battle from above.
• Royal Bastard: He was the result of a brief relationship between a human woman and a Spartoi king. However it is Downplayed as, at one point in the game, Drax does suggest that Peter returns to Spartax and claim the throne in order to acquire a fleet to battle the Church; Peter and Rocket quickly explain that Spartax was raided early in the war for its tech, and for some reason, you apparently can't even land on the planet anymore. This leaves the fate of Peter's father unknown, while also making his status as prince irrelevant.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Prone to this, to Rocket's amusement. Gamora also at one point makes Peter scream for her own amusement.
• Tempting Fate: Really, really, really has a bad habit of running his mouth about how something can't be as bad as they think it'll be, usually right before life decides to show the contrary. There's a point where it goes from simple optimism, to being hilariously naïve to hope the universe doesn't take a steaming load upon the team.
• Tricked-Out Shoes: He has his classic jetboots to hover, fly, and generally keep up with the rest of the team.

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon

"Scoff!"

Voiced by: Alex Weiner

The result of experimentation done by Kree on Halfworld to turns animals into super soldiers for the War. Rocket is the only one to successfully escape. He met an imprisoned Groot and freed him, the two teaming up, first as bounty hunters, then with Peter Quill to co-found the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: And that's saying a lot considering it's Rocket we are talking about, but in this continuity Rocket has a fear of water due to being put into vats of water whenever he was experimented on on Halfworld that isn't present in other versions of the character. Also, the character who generally serves as his love interest, Lylla, died during their escape from their captors, in a way that one-ups her fate in the Telltale game: instead of dying in Rocket's arms, Lylla pushed Rocket out the door and died to the lab's sentry bots, which Rocket heard. He never even got to bury her properly.
• Badass Adorable: He may have the body of an adorable raccoon, but he is a fierce, trigger-happy combatant.
• Berserk Button: Aside from the usual ones related to his species, Quill at one point calls Rocket a perfectionist, and Rocket very calmly says to never call him that again. Turns out that it reminds him of the head scientist who experimented on him and the other uplifted animals on Halfworld. Being compared to that "perfectionist" disgusts Rocket.
• Brutal Honesty: Skirts the line between this and just plain cruelty, which Drax notices. When exploring the wrecked Hala's Hope, he repeatedly tells Quill that Nikki is most likely dead, well after the point where Quill tells him to knock it off.
• Character Development: Probably one of the most drastic changes thanks to how self-serving and abrasive Rocket would be at any moment's notice. He goes from being only interested in his own needs and gratification to looking out for others and putting his own life on the line and fears aside to protect those he considers his friends outside of Groot.
• Cluster F-Bomb: In addition to his liberal usage of "Flark", one of Rocket's skills is named for this trope. It's also a clever bit of wordplay as the Cluster Flark Bomb is clearly a cluster bomb meant for clusterflarks.
• Concussion Frags: With "Glowing Pains Grenade", Rocket can throw a concussion grenade that shocks enemy in a large area and deal light stagger damage.
• Dare to Be Badass: Shades of this with Quill - he likes him, but he's tired of his empty, placating promises and indecisiveness. They make up not after Quill finally delivers on a promise, but when he threatens to pull rank (and his blasters) on Rocket into helping Drax.
• Demolitions Expert: The resident "lover of explosives," Rocket is the one who delivers the most firepower besides Peter.
• The Engineer: The Milano's Engineer. A point of friction is that while the Milano does belong to Peter (or at least did initially), it is Rocket who does most of the work to keep the ship in flying condition, something Rocket feels Peter takes for granted when he keeps referring to the Milano as "my ship".
• Everyone Has Standards: He’s an insensitive jerk most of the time, but even he’s sickened by the sight of the Church of Truth draining Faith from people, as it reminds him of his time on Halfworld.
  • When he sees the Worldmind ignoring the fugitive ships' calls for help, he's flabbergasted; as much as he hates them for being self-important, he knows that ultimately, the Nova Corps are supposed to be helping people.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: For about half the game, if not more, Rocket is only truly liked by Groot, with Drax, Gamora and even Peter all clearly frustrated and annoyed by him, even contemplating leaving him behind a couple of times. Their reasoning for not doing this is that his skills as The Engineer means he's too valuable to lose.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Being great with machines makes Rocket the designated mechanic of the team. Particularly the explosive sort.
• Gravity Master: With "Gravistack Grenade", Rocket can throw a gravistack grenade which projects an antigravity field immobilizing any enemy caught in it in the air.
• Grenade Spam: Rocket's basic skill is "Cluster Flark Bomb", which makes him throw a bomb dealing moderate damage over a large area.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Because of his traumatic past, it takes very little to set Rocket off. Half of time he's in a perpetual state of anger.
• Hypocrite: Rocket can kind of come across this at times, even Gamora had called him out a little for it.
• I Am Not Weasel: Despite being a cybernetically made raccoon, he takes offense if you call him a raccoon or a rodent.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: He hates being called, or even implied to be, an animal.
• Jerkass: Rocket has an abrasive and argumentative personality, and the one most often at odds with the rest of the team. Him and Peter eventually have a falling out midway through the game. He has little regards for other people's possessions - most of all Peter's.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Deep down, Rocket does care about his team and about doing the right thing. He's also always very caring about Groot's wellbeing in particular. It's just that a lot of bad experiences have left a once-naïve Rocket jaded from all the galactic backstabbing he (and Groot) have been though, so he always acts like an asshole to protect himself. He also does care for Quill, even as much of a front as he puts up. In the first chapter when the floor at one point collapses under Quill's feet, Rocket is clearly terrified that Quill may have died, and when Quill jumped off of an exploding hanger to save Nikki, the rest of the Guardians later tell Quill that Rocket was extremely worried about his safety, though he tells them to shut up about it.
• Lack of Empathy: It takes a lot to get Rocket to show genuine compassion for anyone. Unfortunately, he tends to drown the group with casually insensitive comments on people who they’re trying to save dying.
• The Lancer: Manages to share this role with Gamora while also being The Smart Guy. He butts heads the most with Peter, and has a contrasting personality to him. As Groot naturally follows Rocket, it also makes Rocket the closest thing the team has to a second-in-command.
• More Dakka: Rocket's ultimate skill is "Five Barrel Barrage", during which he deploys a large multi-barreled gun cum missile launcher, shooting straight in front of him and dealing good damage over an area for several seconds as he throws everything into combat.
• Manchild: Drax notes that Rocket’s mentally older than all of them, but emotionally the youngest.
• Manly Facial Hair: This version of Rocket has a beaded-up beard, making him look more seasoned as a mercenary and engineer.
• Never My Fault: Many of Rocket's grievances with Peter are valid, but he himself will never admit fault, even though he categorically screws up several times. He often blames them on Quill's choices instead, which isn't entirely wrong. Some of it appears to come from trauma, as a lot of the experiments he endured were about sensory deprivation and directly taking away control, like drowning him.
• Pet the Dog: For as much of an asshole as he is, Rocket is almost unfailingly kind to Groot and tries his best to watch out for him, which serves as a heavy indicator as to Rocket's softer side.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Instead of scoffing, Rocket just says "Scoff." Peter calls this out at one point.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rocket does this during Chapter 6, temporarily leaving the Guardians of the Galaxy along with Groot, who seems to be against the idea despite joining him.
  Rocket: See you never, flarkbags!!!
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: An especially noisy one, but it eventually becomes clear that most of Rocket's behavioral issues are borne out of PTSD from his time on Halfworld.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: The effect is lessened somewhat by the game's space profanity, but Rocket curses more than almost every other member of the team combined. At one point, he admits that half of them are made up on the spot.
• Sociopathic Hero: Borders on this at time. Rocket is the one with the least qualms about killing or stealing.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Many of Rocket's Guardian abilities involve grenades of various effects.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After he conquers his fear of water to save the Guardians in Lamentis, Rocket becomes noticeably a little more amicable and a little less grumpy through the rest of the story. He's still mischievous and lacks tact, but his interactions with the crew (especially Peter) are much more sincere.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Rocket has hydrophobia. From the liquid-filled tanks in which he'd be put in for experimentation. Getting wet fouls his mood even more. Getting over it to save the team is a big part of his character arc. In the epilogue he installs a Jacuzzi in the cargo bay of the Milano.
• Vague Age: He skirts around the question when Gamora asks him. He's fifteen years old, which he says when Gamora points out that Nikki is a whiz with tech at age twelve.

Gamora

Gamora Zen Whoberi Ben Titan

Voiced by: Kimberly-Sue Murray

Daughter of Thanos, also known as the "Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy". During the war, Gamora turned on her father, fighting his forces alongside the Nova Corps. When the war ended, no one had use for an assassin like her, or wanted to trust someone who had betrayed her father—even if that father was the Mad Titan. Peter would eventually invite her to join the Guardians.

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• 24-Hour Armor: Downplayed: She's always wearing her armored pants and boots, but she usually changes into a tank top when on the Milano. Drax mentions that he's weirded out by her ability to put on her combat armor so quickly. Her answer?
  Gamora: I use a lot of body lotion.
• Action Girl: A skilled assassin and agile warrior who's ready for any situation.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: She makes no mention to her comic self's romantic history with Richard Rider, leading to the conclusion they were simply allies.
• Ambiguously Bi: Mantis reveals in a different timeline that her and Gamora were in a relationship, and that it was pretty serious, but they don't pursue it here.
• Blade Brake: Out of combat, Gamora can help by planting her sword on a wall, helping Quill reach vantage points by catching and boosting him up.
• Blood Knight: A more subdued version than Drax, but it's pretty clear she enjoys a good battle just as much as him.
• Cain and Abel: Much like the films, she and Nebula have a complicated relationship that ended when Gamora killed her, an act which haunts her still.
• Character Development: Gamora is aloof and distant from the rest of the Guardians by the time the group starts, and has trouble communicating anything to her teammates, making her a lone wolf amongst the group. As time goes on, she becomes warmer, more cooperative, and claims to love them due to how close they've all grown.
• Combat Parkour: Gamora is incredibly agile, capable of wall-running and leaping to great heights, in and out of combat.
• The Confidant: When finding collectibles relating to a Guardian's past, Peter has the option to discuss their significance with the character they relate to. With Peter's own collectibles, Gamora is the only one who asks about them and therefore becomes the only one Peter opens up to about his own issues, including his frustrations with his father. After learning that Nikki might be his daughter, she is also the one he discusses the situation with the most. Gamora gives Peter some advice on being honest with Nikki, and Peter says that if anything happens to him, he'll count on Gamora to bring Nikki back alive.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often sarcastic, especially to Drax when he openly expresses his mistrust about her past.
• Death Seeker: After she defected from Thanos and fought against him in the Galactic War, Gamora was unable to find anyone willing to hire her for work. It got even worse when she killed her sister Nebula when she apparently tried to kill her, putting her on a downward spiral. Because of this, she started to have suicidal urges until she met Mantis, saving the former from a close assassination attempt and directing her to a planet where she could get the help she needed. When she joins the Guardians, she mentions not having those thoughts any more during a private conversation with Peter, owing it to Mantis and the Guardians for the help and acceptance, respectively.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: This is highly implied to be why she joined the Guardians. Following the end of the Galactic War, Gamora found great difficulty trying to find work due to her background of being Thanos' adopted daughter and assassin, and it was starting to affect her self-worth. Killing her sister didn't help with matters, either.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Has since grown out of this mindset, but after betraying Thanos and joining the Resistance, Gamora still saw things like painting—something she once saw Ko-Rel doing—to be a sign of weakness. While investigating Ko-Rel's quarters, Gamora will comment on Ko-Rel's painting, recognizing now that her interest and talent in art was always one of her strengths, not a weakness (an outlook undoubtedly beaten into Gamora by Thanos).
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: When serving Thanos, Gamora and Nebula had a competition over who could make the worst pun when killing a target, which was borne as a coping mechanism for being killers in Thanos' grasp. She kept this trait after reforming as she can often be heard saying puns when an enemy is killed. In one conversation, when Peter comments that he thought she just had a lame sense of humor, Gamora, rather than take offense, agrees that she does have a lame sense of humor.
  Gamora: KNIFE to meet you!
• Flash Step: Demonstrates this with her skill "Shadow Strike", she dashes several time, disappearing in and out of sight, dealing either heavy damage to a single enemy or moderate damage to a cluster of enemies.
• Glass Cannon: Gamora is actually better at dealing raw damage than Drax (who specializes in building the enemy's stagger bar and making them vulnerable), but is only after Rocket for the teammate with the least amount of defense.
• Heroic BSoD: Gamora has this during two moments of the game.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Gamora is noted to not being able to carry a tune, much to the protest of a braying Kammy. This doesn't stop her from joining in on singing, though, especially when singing is exactly what the team needs to escape being locked in their own ship.
• Kitsch Collection: Gamora collects and plays with dolls and action figures, a lot of them being incredibly ugly and creepy. She's doing it to keep her sister's memory alive. When they were kids, Thanos gave them both dolls seemingly as a selfless gift. Once Gamora lost hers, he revealed it was to teach them about attachment and promptly torched Nebula's doll, driving a permanent wedge between the sisters in their childhood. Gamora reveals this to Peter should he purchase a doll for her as a gift from Knowhere, but omits Nebula's eventual fate before the story brings it up during their second visit to Knowhere.
• The Lancer: Serves this most directly to Peter as the second most heroic member of the team.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Likes to collect kitschy, creepy dolls, and greatly enjoys the promise of bloody fights. Her passwords are also all related to death.
• Not So Above It All: Gamora tends to be the most serious of the group with Drax, but when push comes to shove she's not above engaging in antics - she pretends to drop Peter off a cliff to make him scream, for example.
• Red Baron: "Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy." In a private conversation, Gamora notes that it's a title attributed to her past as Thanos' assassin, but she first earned the title after a mission with the Resistance where, ironically, no one died. Specifically, the mission in question was a stealth operation in Chitauri Prime that resulted in the Resistance kidnapping the infant Queen, ending the Galactic War. Ko-Rel had initially brought Gamora for the mission because the former wanted the Queen dead; but Gamora was horrified by the plan and refused, opting to steal away the infant Chitauri ruler instead. Gamora herself isn't entirely sure why this was the start of her being the "Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy" by everybody.
• Statuesque Stunner: With on the semi-heels she wears, she’s an inch or two taller than Star-Lord.
• Trauma Button: Seeing children be manipulated by people like Thanos and Raker is enough to make the normally levelheaded Gamora go ballistic.
• Tyke Bomb: Was raised by Thanos to be an assassin when he "adopted" her at five years old.

Drax the Destroyer

Drax the Destroyer

Voiced by: Jason Cavalier

A Kathatian warrior. Thanos massacred all his people during the Galactic War, including Drax' daughter and wife. Drax eventually sought out and killed the Mad Tyrant - or so everyone says. Drax himself is not so sure, having lost consciousness during the fight, and kept seeking the truth of the titan's fate, engaging in wholesale slaughter of anyone who might know or be near anyone who knew of Thanos' fate. Eventually disgusted with his own actions, he turned himself in to the Nova Corps and served a sentence in the Kyln. Now freed, he was invited to join the team by Peter.

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• Adaptational Badass: He might have killed Thanos. Even if he didn't, he believes he still fought the Big Bad of the Marvel universe all on his own and seemingly beat the mad Titan bad enough for him to go into hiding.
• Adaptation Species Change: Drax was a superpowered human in the comics but he's an alien here like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe though he's named a Katathian here.
• Alternate Self: While using the Continuum Cortex, which apparently enables travel across space and potentially realities, the team overhears an alternate reality where Drax was spending time with his still-living daughter.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Downplayed as he's still a hero, but during the start of the game he doesn't trust Gamora at all due to being an assassin and the adopted daughter of Thanos. He also shows little trust towards Rocket due to knowing his personality and for being a rodent. Peter calls him out on this by pointing out that Drax himself is a convicted mass murderer while Peter is a former pirate, with Drax's only response being that they keep their word while Gamora and Rocket can't be trusted to do the same. However, after the team saves him, he drops this later on, and not only starts acknowledging how helpful and invaluable Rocket and Gamora are, but also calls Gamora and Rocket by their names, which surprises everyone.
• The Big Guy: Tall and muscular and generally the strongest member of the team physically (All of the other Guardians together can barely restrain him). He's also probably the least smart of the team, leaving technical problems to Rocket and Peter to resolve.
• Blood Knight: He lives for a good fight and is quite vocal about it.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He's a howling berserker in combat, but otherwise the most sentimental person on the team besides Groot.
• Character Development: He views Gamora with open weariness and hostility, and considers Rocket a beast to be thrown to get the job done at early parts of the game. As it goes on, he slowly admits that their skills and they as people are not to be looked down upon, and comes to accept them as true friends.
• The Comically Serious: Much of the humor with Drax comes with his stoic, blasé tone even as he suggests weird things or reacts to all the zaniness around him.
• Dumb Muscle: He's treated that way by some of the team (Gamora and Rocket in particular). But in reality he zigzags the trope - as a Katathian, Drax has very different social norms from the rest of the team, alongside his Literal-Minded side. But when you get pass his oddness, Drax is actually deeply insightful and spiritual.
  • While investigating the Hala's Hope computer systems, Drax expresses some very basic knowledge of computer operations, suggesting that Rocket turn a computer off and on rather than use Percussive Maintenance that he'd propose if the player has him try to operate terminals. He also wonders if the Worldmind is busy "rebooting" itself, admitting to a surprised Rocket that he was debating if "rebooting" or "reloading" was the appropriate word.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Appropriately for Drax, quite literally, his tattoos are in fact ritualistic scars made to mark events in his life. Some examples he mentions are:
  • The day he became a man.
  • When his wife accepted his proposal.
  • The day of their wedding.
  • The birth of their daughter.
  • When Thanos killed them.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: His "Katharian Charge" skill has him charge through the battlefield, heavily staggering any enemy that stands in his way.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: When Drax uses the "Destroy" skill, he stabs an enemy with his knives then spins rapidly, eventually letting his foe go. The thrown enemy becomes a projectile and can stagger other enemies.
• Ground Pound: The gist of his "Pound and Pummel" skill. He jumps and then pounds the ground as he lands, dealing light damage in a circle around him except for the single foe at the center of his attack.
• Heartbroken Badass: Drax still grieves for his wife and daughter, since, to his culture, living and dying for something purposeful ensures one's place in the afterlife; and because Thanos' murder of them was simply an act of cruelty, Drax believes they were denied entry and banished into the frosty hell of Sarduth. This leads him to be the most susceptible to the Promise.
• Hidden Depths: As seen under Heartbroken Badass, Religious Bruiser, and Literal-Minded, this version of Drax has a lot more going than first appears. He seems far more aware in general of his own shortcomings, and is making an active effort to improve himself. He also shows a strict sense of honor compared to the rest of the team, and generally tries to hold himself to a higher standard. While Drax is a Blood Knight who relishes a good fight, and perhaps the most prone to violence and Murder Is the Best Solution alongside Rocket, Drax nonetheless shows a willingness to only use violence on those deserving of it (such as traitors to the Nova Corps), or worthy of his strength (such as strong monsters). He's been a remorseless killing monster before, much like Thanos, and he does not want to become that again. This can be seen in game where Peter and the rest of the team treats him as Dumb Muscle but that changes as they begin to know him and his pain.
• Hopeless with Tech: A quick discussion in a server room makes Rocket realizes Drax has zero idea about engineering or computers, so he has no clue about Rocket's job. If you mistakenly chose him for to hack a console he declares he is about to smash it only for Rocket to say he'll hack the thing. What little knowledge he does possess is also extremely basic.
• Insistent Terminology: Among other things, Drax will often refer to technology and borderline-mystical occurrences, like Peter's Spartoi Element Guns and the Continuum Cortex's giant transparent hand, as "sorcery". The other Guardians have gotten so used to it that they can predict when he might use the term, making the times he isn't more noteworthy.
  Drax: This is—
  Gamora: Sorcery?
  Drax: I was going to say dizzying.
  • He also is very insistent to note that he only maybe killed Thanos whenever it comes up. He has zero memory of the act and isn't convinced he actually managed it.
• Invulnerable Knuckles: Handwaved as being his Kathatian biology when Gamora wonders how he can destroy obstacles without even a scratch on his skin.
• The Juggernaut: Downplayed. Gamora outright doubts that the rest of the Guardians could capture him after he's brainwashed by the Promise. Mantis is able to beat and sedate him, but she notes that he killed them all in other timelines.
• Literal-Minded: Like his MCU counterpart, Drax has a poor grasp of figurative speech, like proverbs, idioms and metaphors. He actively tries to learn it, though, even impressing Quill by actually nailing a couple of similes. He also understands the "Star-Dad" joke and laughs heartily at it. He also has some knowledge of acronyms like AWOL (absent without leave), as it describes the missing Richard Rider.
  Drax: AWOL. Then who is running Nova Corps?
• Mighty Glacier: Slow, but incredibly powerful in combat.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: His people are great monster hunters, and he also takes great pride in explaining the traditions and faith of his people to the others.
• Real Men Wear Pink: The Epilogue reveals that he can knit, and made mittens for the team out of Kammy's wool.
• Religious Bruiser: The only Guardian who is confirmed to firmly believe in some sort of afterlife, which actually contributes to his emotional pain. According to his religion, how his wife and daughter were killed means they would be denied access to Ultath, the Kathatian equivalent to Heaven and Valhalla, which he reveals to Peter during an optional conversation while also noting that Peter's mother also suffered the same fate. Though when told of the Christian concept of heaven, he's relieved for Peter that his mother is somewhere pleasant…but ultimately, that's not where Kathatians go, so it's of little relief to him.
• Super-Strength: Drax is the physically strongest member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. His strength allows him to lift or topple heavy objects or break walls with a single punch.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After helping Drax overcome his trauma and let go of the past, he becomes much more jovial, laughing, singing and even telling Rocket he wouldn't throw him to solve any problem.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: In the comics, Moondragon is Drax's daughter from when he was a normal human. As he is now an alien with a wife and child who died before the story began, Moondragon appears to be unrelated to him in this continuity with her cameo in the Nova Corps database.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Never wears a shirt in his default outfit, no matter the environment. Turns out to be ironic as his race hates the cold (to the point that hell in their religion is frozen over.), with Gamora asking why he doesn't just wear a shirt.

Groot

Groot

"I am Groot!"

Voiced by: Robert Montcalm

A flora colossus from Planet X, and the last of his kind. Groot met Rocket and the two have been friends ever since. Working as bounty hunters, then forming the Guardians with Peter.

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• Bad Liar: If you try to sell him as a monster to Lady Hellbender, she reveals that he told her their plan to free him an hour later. In fairness, Rocket had told Peter that he wasn't a monster and it wasn't something Groot could fake.
• Barrier Warrior: During combat, Groot can sometimes grow a wooden shield to protect himself from attacks.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The team's gentlest member, but still perfectly willing to crack skulls in a fight. He's also apparently capable of making some really vicious threats, such as his making the Cotati let them into the ancient cave, though we never get to hear the details.
• Caring Gardener: Groot's "room" in the cargo hold is overflowing with plants he cultivates and collects from the places the Guardians visit.
• Combat Tentacles: Groot's Green Thumb powers allow him to rapidly grow roots. His basic skill "Entangle" allows him to tie up a crowd of enemies with roots for a time. His other skill, "Uproot", makes him throw enemies in the air instead as his roots propel them upward.
• Cultural Rebel: Hated how his species had enslaved a race of small sentient animals, similar to Rocket, and often befriended them.
• Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Somewhat Downplayed. After the Worldmind chose to leave over wanting to help fight the Universal Church of Truth, along with the Milano getting damaged from attack from Captain Glory. The bad luck finally got the better of Star-Lord and caused him to lash out at his own teammates, causing them, with the exception of Drax, to storm off. In any case, Groot definitely seemed upset as well. He would've spoken something, but he gets cut off.
  Groot: I am-
  Star-Lord: Don't. I just...can't do this right now.

• Green Thumb: As a Flora Colossus, Groot is able to grow roots rapidly. He can use them as combat tentacles, create bridges over moderately large gaps, or lift platform high with the roots. He also has access to other power, notably a healing ability.
• The Heart: Groot is the only one in the team with his shit together — he stays positive and doesn't bicker. Peter openly calls him the team's rock.
• Last of His Kind: He's the last living flora colossus.
• Nice Guy: Groot is friendly with basically everyone. He's the only member of the team who never snaps at the other, which also makes him very passive. Even when Rocket has his falling out with Peter, Groot remains friendly to both.
• Odd Friendship: Even ignoring their vastly different personalities, by the standards of Groot's people their friendship would be strange as they had enslaved a species similar in appearance to Rocket.
• Static Character: He's the only one of the team who doesn't undergo any major character development. He already gets along with the entire team, and his only real issue is that being closer to Rocket than the others, when Rocket leaves, so does he. But he's otherwise friendly to them even then. He has no emotional baggage that he struggles with.
• The Unintelligible: As usual, since the team doesn't have expensive enough universal translators to cover his language and only Rocket understands him. Deconstructed because he isn't actually using one to do so - he just got to know Groot and made an effort to learn the subtleties of his different "I am Groots"; Quill takes it to heart and by the end of the game begins to slowly grasp some of the nuances in his speech.
• The Wise Prince: He was royalty on Planet X, and apparently the White Sheep among his family, which surprises Peter and Mantis.

Nova Corps

Ko-Rel

Centurion Ko-Rel

Voiced By: Judith Baribeau

Commander of the Hala's Hope, and an old flame of Peter's during the Galactic War, 12 years ago.

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• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the comics, Star-Lord never has any sort of relationship with Ko-Rel, but in the game, they're former love interests to one another on either side of the law.
• By-the-Book Cop: Ko-Rel is noted for her strict, disciplined attitude.
• Exact Words: Before they hooked up, she told Peter they shouldn't be doing this. Quill assumed it was just a cliche, but in the present, the team explains that she literally committed a capital offense for her race by mating with a non-Kree.
• Good Parents: She prioritizes Nikki's safety when arguing with the latter about sneaking into restricted areas, which Peter points out was Ko-Rel being "lovingly concerned" for her daughter, not simply anger. While investigating Ko-Rel and Nikki's quarters, Peter finds that Ko-Rel has let Nikki keep some Kree comic books, despite the Kree council being notably strict on what entertainment is allowed for their people. Most importantly, Ko-Rel has spent twelve years protecting Nikki from the Purity Council and its Accusers wanting to execute her for not being a "full-blooded" Kree.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Dies protecting Nikki from the Magus.
• Killed Off for Real: She did die in the QZ. Peter and Nikki both have to come to terms with it during the game's climax.
• Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe, and barely avoided. The deaths of Ko-Rel's husband and first child during the War left Ko-Rel devastated, to the point that she eventually led a stealth mission to assassinate the infant Chitauri Queen as retaliation. Gamora, whom Ko-Rel had brought for this purpose, was against it when a less lethal option was available. Ko-Rel eventually came back from that event horizon by saving an infant Nikki from the purity council and raising her as a daughter.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Implied with Ko-Rel's decision to save an infant Nikki from the Kree Purity Council, influenced by the deaths of Ko-Rel's first child and husband to the Chitauri.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: Her spirit appears in Peter's Promise vision to break him and the rest of the Guardians out of the fantasy.
• Related in the Adaptation: Is the adoptive mother of Nikki Gold, while in the comics the two exist centuries apart and in different realities.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She dies shortly after chapter 2 entering the Quarantine Zone. Subverted, in that her ghost sticks around to help the Guardians and later Nikki out of their Promise visions.

Nikki Gold

Cadet Nicolette "Nikki" Gold

Voiced By: Romane Denis

Twelve year-old daughter of Ko-Rel and eager cadet of the Nova Corps.

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• Adaptational Wimp: In the comics, she's an adult Mercurian with combat training and natural resistance to heat radiation; whereas here, she's a normal Kree kid with some authority (being a cadet in the Nova Corps) and an affinity for technology. That is, until she's freed from the Soul Stone.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the comics, she has Flaming Hair, but in the game she sports normal, dark blue hair. That is until she breaks from her possession by the Soul Stone and Magus, sporting flaming hair for the remainder of the story. It's implied that she dyed her hair blue to avoid sticking out to the Kree blood status group, as you can find an empty dye bottle in her room.
• Adaptation Species Change: Was a genetically engineered human from Mercury in the comics, but is half-Kree in this game. Though, it was mentioned she might've been conceived on Mercury.
• Age Lift: While Nikki's age in the comics varies and depends on the specific universe she's from, she's generally not portrayed as a child like she is here.
• Badass Adorable: Once she unlocks her powers, the endearing twelve year-old girl becomes a key part in fighting back against the Church and Magus.
• Barrier Warrior: When empowered by the Soul Stone, she makes barriers strong enough to protect everyone from Magus' planet-throwing attacks.
• Composite Character: She becomes the Matriarch of the Universal Church of Truth.
• Demonic Possession: Raker implants the Mind Stone into her palms, causing her to become the Matriarch, avatar and host of Magus, and the primary source of the Promise.
• The Dragon: As the Matriarch, she is this to Raker and Magus.
• Flight: Besides her barrier powers, Nikki gains the ability to fly once she breaks free of her Promise.
• Friendless Background: No other children reside in Hala's Hope, leaving Nikki feeling rather isolated while surrounded by law-abiding adults. She remedies this by secretly reprogramming robots as the closest thing she can have for friends. Despite this, it's implied she still feels isolated until bonding with Peter.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Subverted. Despite Peter's assumption, Nikki is not his biological daughter. However, Ko-Rel's fear that Kree officers would kill her on suspicion of impure blood implies Nikki is still half Kree, half something else. In the epilogue, Nikki (backed by the Guardians) appears in front of the Kree council, telling the Accusers who wanted her executed for being a "dirty-blooded" Kree to flark off.
• Happily Adopted: First by Ko-Rel, albeit unknowingly, and then by the Guardians at the end of the game. Peter in particular becomes her surrogate father.
• Ink-Suit Actor: She's modelled after her voice actress.
• It's All My Fault: Nikki pretends that Ko-Rel will come back instead of accepting that she never will again, because she blames herself for Ko-Rel's death to the Magus. Peter emphatically tells Nikki that she deserves none of the blame for what happened.
• Kid Hero: After joining the Guardians, she is by far the youngest of the team, aged twelve years old.
• Little Miss Snarker: Appropriately as an almost adolescent, she's ready for comebacks whenever she's frustrated or feeling stifled by adults around her.
  Star-Lord: Aren't you a little young for the Corps?
  Nikki: Aren't you a little old for that hairdo?
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: It is heavily hinted that Nova Cadet Nikki is Peter's daughter from a heated moment of pre-battle passion with Ko-Rel. Eventually averted - she is revealed to have been a war orphan Ko-Rel passed off as her own.
• Plucky Girl: As a cadet-in-training, Nikki has a lot of gumption. Even while struggling to escort a convicted Peter doesn't deter her spirit for long. This goes out the window after Ko-Rel's death and becoming the Matriarch. She regains her spirit after breaking free of her Promise.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: After being empowered by her extended possession of the Soul Stone, her hair permanently glows a fiery gold. Though there is implication that her hair was always like that, but she just dyed it blue to avoid sticking out since the Kree take heritage very seriously (you can find an empty container of hair dye in her room).
• Related in the Adaptation: Is the adopted daughter of Ko-Rel, while in the comics the two exist centuries apart and in different realities. After Ko-Rel's death and joining the Guardians, Peter has apparently become her adopted father figure, as the epilogue mentions she occasionally calls him dad, though partly just to screw with him.
• Robot Buddy: Being the only child on Hala's Hope, Nikki's only source of friends are reprogrammed robots (like Itz and Jocasta) she keeps hidden within its walls including her secret hideout.
• Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Ko-Rel's strict discipline grinds against some of Nikki's rebellious methods, leading her into sneaking into places where she shouldn't be within Hala's Hope.
• Tagalong Kid: Nikki sticks out of being the only child residing in Hala's Hope. It's clear that while she aims to be a cadet, the adults around her don't take her seriously and only tolerate her by Ko-Rel's command. She quickly gravitates towards Peter, especially if he treats her with respect. She graduates into Kid Hero once she joins the Guardians by the end.
• Took a Level in Badass: After her powers are unlocked plus being freed from the Soul Stone, Nikki becomes a valuable ally for the Guardians during their fight against the Church and Magus, which earns her a spot in their team.
• You Remind Me of X: Peter notes that he sees a lot of himself in Nikki. Even more so when Ko-Rel dies. This commonality is what Peter can use to help her process her grief, if the player chooses.

Richard Rider

Former Centurion and current Nova Prime.

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• Big Good: He's considered this by the galaxy.
• The Ghost: MIA as of the game's timeframe, with everyone wondering where he's gone and who's leading the Corps in his absence.

The Worldmind

The Xandarian Worldmind

Voiced By: Leni Parker

Artificial intelligence and collective of Xandar's greatest minds, the Worldmind leads the people of Xandar and the Nova Corps.

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• Anti-Hero: Even though most of the galaxy sees the Nova Corps as shining protectors of the peace and justice dealers to the various evils within the galaxy, the Worldmind makes it clear during it's conversation with Quill that the Nova Corps exist for one purpose, and that is the preservation of Xandarian culture. During the crisis with the Universal Church of Truth, it has the Nova Corp disable any refugee ships that approach their headquarters to avoid risking any contamination from potential worshippers on board those ships and chooses to flee the galaxy in the face of what it considers to be an unbeatable threat rather than attempt to protect the galaxy to the bitter end. It isn't a total coward however; if you can convince the Worldmind that it's logic isn't fully sound, it will return at the end to assist the Guardians in defeating the Church.
• The Cavalry: If you plant doubts in its mind about its logic, The World Mind comes along with what is left of the Nova Corps during the final battle and will use the Nova Force to destroy most of the robot priests of the Church.
• The Spock: The Worldmind is very logical and very dedicated to it's primary protocol of protecting Xandarian culture above all else, to the point that it plans to abandon the galaxy to it's fate to fulfill that purpose. The only way to make it eventually reconsider and come back to help is if you appeal to it logically, if you go for a more emotional argument (such as appealing to its duty to protect the galaxy or call it a coward for fleeing), it will find no reason to come back to assist in the Guardian's battle against the Church.
• Voice of the Legion: Speaks with several voices at once, due to being made of Xandar's greatest minds.

The Universal Church of Truth

Grand Unifier Raker

Grand Unifier Raker

Voiced By: Andreas Apergis

An old priest of a religion that boomed and faded during the war. Raker is looking for his "golden god", and due to the actions of the Guardians his church soon proves to be a threat for the entire galaxy.

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• Adaptation Expansion: In the comics Raker's backstory prior to joining the Church is unknown, while here it's explained that he founded the Church with Adam Warlock in the hope his son could be resurrected.
• Adaptational Origin Connection: In the game he founded the Church with Adam Warlock while also being the one who separated Magus from him.
• Alas, Poor Villain: After the Guardians defeat Grand Unifier Raker, you can’t help but feel bad for him before he dies since he was deceived by the Magus and the Promise into seeing his son alive again. He even dies thanking Nikki for fulfilling the promise, with his word choices implying that he's seeing his deceased son again— but only because he himself is at death's door, and he dies still deluded that everything he did was Worth It in the end. Even earlier Warlock describes Raker as every bit as much a victim as everyone else brainwashed by the Church.
• Ambiguously Evil: While Adam believes him to have been a true friend before Magus corrupted him into a fanatic, Peter thinks that he knew what he was doing when he helped Adam separate from Magus.
• An Arm and a Leg: Potentially loses an arm to Gamora during the Guardians' escape from Sacrosanct, and remains one-armed for the rest of the game. Note that this doesn't stop him from defeating Adam Warlock in a one-on-one fight on Knowhere.
• Beard of Evil: This intergalactic Sinister Minister sports an especially prominent white beard.
• The Dragon: The main face behind the Church, though he serves the Church’s true master.
• Final Boss: There is still the Church's true master to contend with after his defeat, but he's the last traditional boss in the game.
• Flying Brick: The power of the Church grants him levitation and high levels of strength in addition to manipulation of Faith energy. He fights Adam and wins, and later catches a punch from Drax.
• The Heavy: To the Magus. Raker is the most prominent member of the Church and the villain who receives the most screentime, but it's the Magus who's really running the show.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Raker believes in the Promise wholeheartedly, but he doesn't give a crap what the galaxy gets out of it. He only cares about being reunited with his late son.
• Power Nullifier: Not actual powers in the story itself, but he can shut off the Guardians' moves for a short time.

The Church's God (Spoilers)

Magus

The inner Darkness inside Adam Warlock, now separated from him and manipulating the church into feeding him and giving him a body.

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• Adaptational Backstory Change: While in the comics Magus was a version of Adam Warlock from a Bad Future where he founded The Universal Church of Truth as its Dark Messiah, here he's Adam Warlock's Superpowered Evil Side, having overthrown him as its God.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Adam Warlock speaks heavily with alliterated words and sentences that would tounge-tie a lesser being.
• Big Bad: The main villain behind the Church.
• Dark Is Evil: A giant man made of dark energy.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: The entire point of the final battle is to piss him off enough that he will come close enough to be caught in the Soul Stone.
• Embodiment of Vice: According to Adam, Magus embodies various intrusive thoughts (pride, greed and a desire for worship) Adam had developed after The Universal Church of Truth was founded, made into a Superpowered Evil Side by the Soul Stone.
• Enemy Without: Is all the dark thoughts and desires of Adam Warlock given form.
• A God Am I: As all of Warlock's power with none of his sense of morality, he thinks he's entitled to rule the galaxy as its god.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: His big plan is to use the worship of his brainwashed followers to power the Soul Stone and make himself corporeal.
• Hungry Menace: Magus is constantly described as a hungry, ravenous beast that wants to consume the universe to satisfy its appetite. Quill directly calls it a vampire and Warlock even say that it itself is a "cravenous craving."
• Leaking Can of Evil: Even when trapped in the Soul Stone, he apparently had enough influence to make the Universal Church of Truth a potent force and corrupt Raker.
• Post-Final Boss: He lacks a health bar, unlike Raker, and his "fight" is spent killing groups of Mooks he sends out before the cutscene to defeat him initiates.
• Rhymes on a Dime: He shares all of Adam Warlock's speaking quirks, but is also far more prone to rhyming than Warlock is, which makes him even more annoying to the Guardians.
• Sarcasm-Blind: He can't tell that the Guardians are clapping for him as a show of mockery until Peter straight up tells him that they are.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He has been long trapped in the Soul Stone in the Quarantine Zone until Peter or Rocket accidentally, unknowingly lets him out.

Others

Cosmo

Cosmo the Spacedog

Voiced By: Alex Ivanovici

Cosmo, a Soviet dog launched into space during the space race, who gained sentience and telepathic powers, is the security chief of the space station Knowhere. He is also a very good boy.

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• Badass Adorable: The head of Knowhere's security in addition to being the best boy.
• The Cavalry: If you break the Promise's hold on him, he pilots Knowhere into the final battle, using it to blast to ashes a whole group of corrupted Nova Corps soldiers.
• Chummy Commies: Cosmo remains a staunch communist, disgusted by capitalism. But he's still on relatively friendly terms with the Guardians, mostly.
• Everybody Has Standards: By embracing his Promise, Cosmo has inadvertently left his puppies alone. Should Peter mention the puppies, he'll plead Cosmo not to abandon them they way he had been by his family and the Russian government. The thought horrifies Cosmo.
• Furry Reminder: When he says there's always a catch with "Piotr Quill," a ball machine activates. He interrupts negotiations to grab it.
• Gratuitous Russian: Peppers his speech with Russian. He also calls Peter "Piotr" (Russian equivalent of Peter).
• The Nose Knows: Being a dog and all. It saves Cosmo from succumbing to the Promise if Peter brings it up, as the illusion can fool Cosmo's eyes but not his sense of smell.
• Papa Wolf: Reminding him of his puppies and how they are in danger breaks The Promise's hold on him, and he starts attacking on his way to save his kids.
• Precious Puppy: Has a bunch of psychic puppies (also wearing small cosmonaut outfits). Reminding him of them helps break the Promise's hold on him.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Just like the comics, Cosmo does not like Rocket (as Cosmo is a dog and Rocket is a raccoon), though in this continuity, Rocket is more of an abrasive asshole, so it doesn't feel quite as irrational as in Abbett and Lanning's comic run.
• Uplifted Animal: Was an ordinary dog from the Soviet Union that was blasted into space, but has since become one of the most powerful telepaths in the galaxy as well as seemingly extended his life-span. He also doesn't cast off his nature as a dog. This is in contrast to Rocket, who was made into a cyborg soldier by the Kree and adamantly refuses to be called an animal.
• You No Take Candle: Cosmo is of Soviet origin, so it’s a given that his English speech winds up sounding close to this.

Mantis

Mantis

Voiced By: Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez

The "Celestial Madonna". Mantis is an old acquaintance of Gamora, and has met Peter before. Mantis possesses the ability to peer into alternate timelines, and possesses telepathic abilities. However the former has left her unable to be sure which timeline she herself is in, leaving her a bit of an oddball.

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• Accidental Misnaming: She just can't get Star-Lord's name right, calling him "Sun-Lord" or "Stir-Fry" among others. Same with Adam Warlock.
• Ace Pilot: Surprisingly. While the Guardians go after Raker in the climax, she takes over the Milano and holds her own throughout the massive space battle outside the Church's ship, even performing maneuvers that make Peter and Rocket panic for their ship. Gamora states as such when Star-Lord worries.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: Like the MCU version, she is an alien and her personality is very different from the comic version; but like the latter she is a seer who is skilled in combat and has her comic background of being trained by the Priests of Pama while being known as the Celestial Madonna.
• Ambiguously Bi: She entertains timelines in which she marries Gamora or Star-Lord, but doesn't actively pursue either character here.
• Beware the Silly Ones: She may be excitable and literally scatterbrained, but she's a highly-trained martial artist who can fight, disarm and incapacitate a brainwashed Drax in a matter if seconds.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: She has a pair of blades on each arm that unfold much like the claws of her namesake insect, but they don't see much use.
• Character Catch Phrase: "This is / isn't the one where..." whenever she is making an observation about the current timeline in relation to those she has witnessed.
• Cloudcuckoolander: By far the kookiest incarnation of Mantis. She appears to see multiple timelines at once and is prone to drifting into tangents when speaking with anyone.
  • Mantis claims that she and Gamora had a "sleepover". Gamora clarifies that they were being stalked on some planet and had nowhere to rest. There was also a Mushroom Samba involved, which Gamora conceded was not unwelcome.
• Creepy Good: Due to her powers of foresight, she has very little filter since she often barely realizes which timeline she's actually living through - she's introduced happily asking if Gamora got over her suicidal ideation and she describes violent deaths only partially to tease folks. She's firmly a good person despite that.
  • Mantis invoked this offscreen in order to convince Hellbender to listen to the Guardians. This, combined with the possibility of her monsters being wiped out by the Church, works.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: A spacey clarvoyiant Genki Girl... who handily trounces a Church-enthralled Drax, dodging many his attacks and parrying the others with her mantis blades and subduing him with a Pressure Point attack to the flank.
• Genki Girl: Mantis is highly energetic and prone to shrieks of glee.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Gamora. Besides knowing her the longest, Gamora admits that Mantis is one of the few people she knows she can trust. And while Mantis is pretty candid talking about the Guardians' potential deaths, she shows genuine concern for Gamora's suicidal ideation and is happy that being with the Guardians has made her happier.
• Mad Oracle: Her ability to see so many multiple timelines has made her a bit batty.
• The Nicknamer: Calls Drax "Green Meanie" and Rocket "Little Fuzzy". It's implied this habit comes from Mantis struggling to remember which names they have in all the different timelines she's privy to.
• Ship Tease: A bit with Peter. Quill admits he tried flirting with her in a bar and when asked about them being together, she just says "not yet". It helps that in a different timeline, she's his ex-wife. Though she notes that they're all duds and state that she was more serious with Gamora.

Kammy

Kammy

"Plaaaaah!"

Voiced by: Robert Montcalm

A space llama the Guardians find in the Quarantine Zone. Species name: Galaxius Omnipacus.

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• Alien Animals: Looks and acts exactly like an Earth llama, with a coat of long purple and orange fur and bangs.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Is a purple and orange space llama.
• Canon Foreigner: Kammy was made up for his game and has no counterpart in the comics.
• Chekhov's Gunman: At first, it's an inhabitant of the QZ that winds up staying on the Milano, causing damage by chewing on needed equipment. Then it indirectly saves the team, inspires Peter to try and recruit Hellbender and her monster army, and detects that Warlock is being overcome by Magus.
• Dead Guy Junior: "Kammy" is short for Kamaria, in honor of Drax's late daughter.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: She detects that the Magus is taking over Adam.
• Funny Background Event: Can be seen doing funny things in the background of some scenes in the ship. She can be seen bopping her head to Peter's music at one point late in the game. In the final battle, she can be seen floating in space during a cutscene.
• Running Gag: The llama chewing things in the ship.
• Space "X": A space llama, rather than any other terms for it.
• Super-Speed: Is capable of super-acceleration, which allows it to stay on the Milano after Nova Corps confiscates it. Unfortunately, that's about it.
• Team Pet: Groot takes her aboard the Milano to protect her from the bigger, meaner beasts in the Quarantine Zone, and she quickly makes herself at home. The other Guardians are...less enthusiastic about it than Groot is—especially Rocket, since Kammy chews into vital ship components.

Adam Warlock

Adam Warlock

Voiced by: Brent Skagford

A mysterious man found drifting in space in a strange cocoon. Adam Warlock amassed followers, becoming the original god of the Universal Church of Truth. It’s said he died during the war.

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• Added Alliterative Appeal: Has this down to a language. If he gets on a roll, he will throw in some rhyming and Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness.
• Badass Cape: He adopts his comic counterparts' high-collar cape after the team frees Drax from the Promise.
• Can't Argue with Elves: Warlock is condescending, talks down to everyone and rarely admits his mistakes, even though he isn't omniscient. To his credit, he does acknowledge that his mistakes are many.
• Composite Character: Downplayed. In the comics, Magus was an alternate version of Adam Warlock who founded the Church in a Bad Future where he created a theocratic empire. Here, Magus is a Superpowered Evil Side of Adam's created from the power of the Soul Stone.
• Faking the Dead: When his followers became a dangerous cult under Raker, Adam thought the best thing to do was make their God disappear. The way Raker recalls it, whatever "killed" Adam would do in any other lifeform that can't regenerate From a Single Cell.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: His unfriendliness and imperiousness, among other traits, result in none of the Guardians being particularly fond of Adam. Even Peter, who tries to get along with everyone, is annoyed with his manner of speaking ("vomiting words and doing little else" as Peter puts it) and condescension. Towards the end of the game him and Peter develop a mutual respect, after Adam's knocked down a peg.
• Jerkass: He's a massive dick to the Guardians and he straight up no-sells it when they point out that the entire plot is his fault. To his credit, he is fully cognizant of this. He's also got a big tendency to act imperious and judgmental but without ever offering actual information or insight.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the climax, he goes through great pains to contain Magus and save the universe.
• Made of Iron: The teams attacks barely phase him. He crushes one of Rocket's bombs in his palm, and his only reaction is one of chagrin.
• Messianic Archetype: He clearly wants to be, but he failed miserably.
• Super-Strength: He manhandles the whole team sans Drax with nothing but his bare hands.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He has a propensity for using long, fancy words, made worse by his penchant for alliteration. The Guardians find this very annoying.

Lady Hellbender

Lady Marguerite Hellbender

Voiced by: Sarah Levesque

Infamously badass collector of terrifying monsters and regent of Seknarf Nine.

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• All Amazons Want Hercules: She's immensely attracted to Drax and flirts with Adam Warlock, and she's taller and wider than both men. Towards the end of the game, it's implied Drax somewhat reciprocates.
• Amazonian Beauty: Her prominently muscular build does nothing to detract from her attractiveness.
• Barbarian Hero: Uses a mace in combat.
• The Beastmaster: A collector of exotic beasts, all of which are under her command.
• Dragon Rider: Rides Fin Fang Foom throughout the final battle.
• Enemy Mine: Uses her army of monsters to fight the Universal Church of Truth.
• Establishing Character Moment: When we are first introduced to her, she tells a seller to stop with empty platitudes and just show her what they're trying to sell her. When the beast shapeshifts into a fiercer form and kills the merchant, she doesn't even flinch when it tries scaring her off and allows it to run free under her care before ensuring that the merchant's next of kin receives payment for it. This establishes her as a badass who cares for the monsters she traffics in more so than her own men, but is otherwise honorable.
• Fluffy Tamer: She's affectionate to the monsters in her collection because they are brutal and fearsome, and is able to quickly win over these creatures in turn. Including Fin Fang Foom.
• Glasgow Grin: Which becomes a permanent Psychotic Smirk as it's only on one side of her mouth.
• Ink-Suit Actor: She's modelled after her voice accress.
• No Indoor Voice: She's constantly shouting and hamming up her words. To be fair, she's pissed off for the greater ratio of her screen time.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Literally towards her beasts, and figuratively in the climax when she hands Star-Lord's cassette back to him in the midst of the battle after Rocket launched it as a decoy.
  • After a client is mauled to death by a shapeshifting beast he delivered to her, she orders her men to transfer the money to his next-of-kin.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In the comics, she's a enemy/rival of Amadeus Cho and has never encountered the Guardians. In this game, she becomes the Guardians' most persistent foe.
• Savage Spiked Weapons: She carries a giant mace with spikes adorned to the front.
• Ship Tease: She clearly has an attraction to Drax and makes it clear that she finds Adam attractive. Towards the late game, Drax implies he's at least open to her interest.
• Statuesque Stunner: Lady Hellbender towers over most of the Guardians with her height falling somewhere between Drax (6'6") and Groot (7'10"). She's attractive, but also badass enough that only the bravest of suitors would approach her. She flirts with Drax and he flirts back, but he's more impressed by her famous fighting skills than her battle leotard which the rest of the Guardians find hilarious.
• Super-Strength: Her size isn't just for show. She knocks the Guardians around after they defeat Fin Fang Foom.
• The Unfought: Aside from a couple short skirmishes in cutscenes, the Guardians never fight her directly in gameplay. She doesn't even fight alongside the Dweller-In-Depths.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: She takes a quick liking to Drax due to his fearsome reputation and warrior code, and flirtatiously compliments the equally powerful Adam.

Fin Fang Foom

Fin Fang Foom

The Legendary Dragon of Maklu IV.

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• Adaptational Backstory Change: Here, Fin Fang Foom is mostly just a particularly infamous fearsome beast, one whom Lady Hellbender would want for her monster army. His planet is a frozen Death World with no real technology, with civilization being limited to alien Wendigo tribes. The dragon himself may not be entirely sentient (it's never made clear), and displays none of the telepathy or other more fantastic abilities he does in the comic. He also has no history with planet Earth or Iron Man.
• Adaptational Nonsapience: Is highly intelligent and capable of speech in the comics, but is an animalistic dragon in the game.
• Formerly Sapient Species: His bio postulates as much, mentioning that there are murals of his species walking upright and wearing vestments (like purple shorts).
• Iconic Outfit: The only thing the myths agree on is that, at some point, Fin Fang Foom wore purple shorts. He no longer does by the time we see him, but when he appears, his purple underside combined with his ice armor do briefly invoke the image of Foom wearing purple shorts.
• Shrouded in Myth: As no one's faced Fin Fang Foom and lived, much about him is conjecture or myths. The Guardians have very little concrete detail to go on by the time they fight him.

Meredith Quill

Meredith Quill

Voiced By: Mylene Dinh-Robic (English), France Renard (French)

Peter Quill's mother. She raised him along with her parents following a small dalliance with Peter's father, an alien prince from the planet Spartax. When he parents passed away, it was just her and Peter. She died the day Peter turned 13.

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• '80s Hair: Has a huge volume of hair, which is appropriate for the time.
• Action Mom: Tries to fight off the Chitauri with a shotgun when they come for Peter, though it doesn't last long.
• Almighty Mom: As shown when she inadvertently steps on one of Peter's toys.
• Deadpan Snarker: As shown with this exchange with Peter:
  Meredith: More like an action landmine.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: She's caring, nice, even shares interests with Peter such as a love of rock and roll. She's also dead.
• Mama Bear: Does her best to defend her son from the Chitauri.
• Nice Girl: Kindhearted, compassionate, caring, loving and motherly.

Thanos

The Mad Titan. Gamora's adoptive father. He was killed by Drax during the Galactic War (allegedly...), but his presence still haunts him, Gamora, and the greater universe...

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• Abusive Parent: Gamora does not think highly of him to say the least. In one act of genuine kindness, he gave Gamora and Nebula dolls. But later he revealed it was a sick "lesson" about attachment and burned the girls' dolls in front of them. When Gamora hears an alternate universe where Thanos is proud of his children, she instantly dismisses it as such.
• Alternate Self: While using the Continuum Cortex, which apparently enables travel across space and potentially realities, the team overhears an alternate reality where Thanos is still alive and telling his daughter (either Gamora or Nebula) that he is proud of them. Though given that it's implied that he is still alive at the end of the game, things are left to interpretation and raises questions on whether Nebula is truly dead.
• Greater-Scope Villain: A major villainous figure in the Galactic War that shaped most of the Galaxy in the backstory. It is implied that he is still out there.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: When the Guardians enter Drax's Promise, they encounter Thanos. While taking him down is actually quite easy, he will never stay down, as he will resurrect and multiply endlessly, symbolizing Drax's obsession with killing him and unwillingness to believe he is truly dead. You have to intentionally lose to succeed.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Compared to his MCU portrayal that is more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist Though Avengers: Endgame and the commentary of the directors and writers would later reveal that the MCU potrayal is more of a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist obsessed with proving his genocidal plans being correct than bringing any sort of balance to the universe. This version of Thanos is closer to his comics portrayal where his entire motivation is not to bring any sort of balance to the universe but to gain the love and attention of Lady Death, the personification of death itself. To do so, he would kill anyone and everyone (and planned to kill everyone). Learning this is what prompted Gamora's Heel–Face Turn.
• Posthumous Character: He is dead in the present time. He only has a presence through Drax and Gamora's history and appearing within Drax's mindscape. He was reportedly killed by Drax, but while the Destroyer doesn't find it impossible, he does not remember doing the deed and insists on adding "allegedly" whenever anyone gives him the credit. The end of the game implies he is still alive and will terrorize the universe once again.

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