Players (Gi-hun's Team) | Game Staff | Other Characters
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In General
- Animal Motifs: Altogether, the players all share the horse; their exploits in trying to win the games are observed, commented and bet on the same way race horses are. They are given various numbers, and the Front Man even compares the competitors to horses.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Most of the players start doing this once they realize they've lost a game or are about to die.
- Asshole Victim: Zig-zagged and deconstructed. While a few aren't nice, and some are criminals and killers, the show makes it clear that none of them deserve to die for the whims of wealthy people's bets, no matter how awful or good they were. Money and desperation motivates most of them, with one pair of players being a married couple hoping to win and rebuild their life. Those who return for round two know they might die, but some aren't prepared to commit murder or sacrifice someone for themselves. In fact, it's this realization that no one deserves this fate that motivates Gi-hun to refuse to escape to America to see his daughter, turn around, and prepare to take it down once and for all. Doesn't mean several of them will be mourned upon their deaths, though, such as Deok-su, his gang and Player 244.
- Beauty Inversion: Naturally, the players are made to look as dowdy and "plained down" as possible, because of their situation. Even Sae-byeok, who is played by a real life model (Jung Ho-yeon), gets this treatment. The exception is Sang-woo, who often grooms himself well despite the circumstances and even attempts to commit suicide in Episode 2 while still dressed impeccably.
Word of God is that Sang-woo wanted to look perfect even in death. However, in the penultimate episode, Gi-hun, Sae-byeok, and Sang-woo all look quite sharp in tuxedos. - Crazy-Prepared: Certain players amongst them came prepared upon their return to the game island after their initial release, having known what to expect.
- Sae-byeok held her breath when the sleeping gas in the van was released, and pretends to be unconscious throughout her trip there. She manages to sneak in a knife through sleight-of-hand with a Guard's pocket while they changed her clothes.
- Mi-nyeo manages to sneak in a capsule of cigarettes and a lighter via her Victoria's Secret Compartment in her pants, avoiding the guards' detection. The lighter ends up becoming a Chekhov's Gun.
- Dysfunction Junction: All of the players (except for Il-nam, who is actually rich and just participating to have fun) are there because they're so deep in poverty that being out in the real world is a Fate Worse than Death. They also each have a trauma-riddled backstory relating to their debt and destitution. Even after learning that losing means they'll be killed, 93% of the players return voluntarily to continue playing.
- Dwindling Party: Due to the nature of the games, the players are progressively killed group by group, and the bonds they form are only short-lived. By the end of the games, only Gi-hun survived and becomes the winner.
- Face Death with Despair: As a Deadly Game, many of the contestants face immense despair in their final moments as they're at the mercy of the game's pink-clad executioners, sobbing, begging, or otherwise showing a complete loss of hope.
- No Name Given: With the exception of the main characters and a few minor ones, the rest of them are all referred to by their designated numbers and called "Player [Number]".
- Not What I Signed Up For: Zig-zagged. After the first game, some of the players expressed they were told they would play a game and be "eliminated" if they failed to follow the rules, not shot like fish in a barrel for losing. None of them were given a warning that death would be the price, and a few beg to go home. After the initial voting, which does give everyone an out and a fair chance to choose their fate, the players who return to the game lack that excuse, as the game masters point out rather coldly but accurately. Â
- Sadistic Choice: Play a game where you have long odds to win and will forfeit your life if you lose, or go home and either be mired in debt, threatened by loan sharks, or sent to jail. While a few players elect that they would rather face the debt than an all-but-guaranteed death sentence, most of the others feel they don't have a choice. In Gi-hun and Sang-woo's case, they're trying to save their mothers from their worst mistake and to restore their honor.Â
- Tracking Chip: They have these installed behind their ears. The Guards scanned these to confirm the identities of returning Players after their initial release.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: While the Front Man tells his staff to keep tabs on the contestants who don't return after the first game, we never hear about what happened to them afterwards.
- You Are Number 6: The contestants have names, but the people running the games give them shirts and jackets with numbers on them and address them as "Player", followed by the number on their shirt/jacket.
Gi-hun's Team:
See here. noteDeok-su's Gang:
In General
- The Psycho Rangers: They serve as this throughout the first half of the series, opposing Gi-hun's team.
- The Big Bad: Or rather The Heavy for Jang Deok-su, being the leader of the gang of players causing the most trouble for the protagonists.
- The Dragon: Player 278, being his Number Two who accompanies Deok-su up until Game 4. He also comes off as The Starscream, as he has no problem playing against his "boss" during a game of Marbles.
- The Evil Genius: Byeong-gi AKA Player 111, who (besides being a mole for the game staff due to his malpractice experience) acts as an informant of the next games to Deok-su's gang.
- The Brute: Players 040 and 303. They're dumb muscles who are mostly used for intimidation.
- Dark Action Girl: Han Mi-nyeo, The Smurfette Principle of the group who is very outspoken, actually comes up with clever ideas to Deok-su's advantage (i.e. giving Deok-su the lighter, cutting in line for seconds), and briefly enters a relationship with Deok-su. She ends up kicked off the gang during the game of Tug-of-War and joins Gi-hun's team as The Sixth Ranger.
Player 101 (Jang Deok-su)
"We're in Hell here. There's no rules in Hell."
Played by: Heo Sung-taeOther Languages
A gangster trapped in gambling debts to fellow gangsters.- Asshole Victim: After spending the whole game killing, stealing, and being a complete piece of shit to get ahead, his death by Mi-nyeo's hands, falling through the bridge during the fifth game, is pretty well-deserved. No tears were shed on his behalf.
- Ax-Crazy: A low-functioning sociopath who easily gets triggered into violent, murderous outbursts.
- Bait the Dog: He repeatedly promises to be faithful to Mi-nyeo when it suits him, only to cruelly abandon her when he thinks it won't suit him. Case in point where he returns her cigarette lighter after she smuggles it to him for the honeycomb challenge, thanking her for saving his life only to refuse to have her on his team for the tug-of-war.
- Big Bad Wannabe: While he puts up a tough front and is one of the primary antagonists for the series, he's a coward prone to dirty tactics who doesn't even make it to the final game.
- Blood Knight: He's ruthless and not above resorting to violence and murder to get rid of other players. During the tug-of-war game, he repeatedly shouts out "die!" to the other team, was ecstatic that he successfully killed ten more players, and laments not going against Gi-hun's group."What a shame, I wanted to kill you guys myself."
- The Bully: He's used to getting his way in life through intimidation and violence, and this is how he plays the game.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: During the Glass Stepping Stones round, he assures Player 407 that he won't kill him, since he needs him to cross so he himself can.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In the tug-of-war game, his group easily overpowers the opposing team.
- Death by Woman Scorned: Is ultimately taken out by Mi-nyeo.
- Didn't Think This Through: Deok-su and several other players started the night brawl on the 3rd night after realizing players are free to kill each other outside of the games. On the 4th night, he plans on doing it again, but Gi-hun points out that, with the final games coming up, his henchmen will want to eliminate their strongest competition and take control of his gang. This notion clearly shakes him, and he not only calls off the riot, but stays awake all night.
- Dirty Coward: He talks tough, but whenever the tables turn against him, he starts sweating and quivering. In the fifth game, he refuses to go ahead once he's at the front of the pack, demanding that someone else take the risk of figuring out the next tile to jump on for him, not to mention how much he panics once it becomes clear that Mi-nyeo plans to take both herself and him out of the game.
- Disc-One Final Boss: As the most unambiguously evil contestant and the one set up as Gi-hun's main enemy in the games who gets killed by Mi-nyeo in the fifth game as revenge for his betrayal. This leaves Sang-woo to act as the Final Boss for Gi-hun.
- Disney Villain Death: He plunges to his death in the fifth game, dragged off the platform by Mi-nyeo.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Deok-su beats another contestant, No. 271, to death when the latter complains about how Deok-su's gang screwed some players out of their food by cutting in line for seconds, then breaks his bottle of soda during the ensuing scuffle. The guards' apathy to the situation emboldens him and his henchmen as they plan their next move, as noted below.
- Dumb Muscle: He's big and strong, but not nearly as smart as he'd like to think he is.
- Face Death with Despair: After becoming the front of the group during the bridge game, Deok-su is put in a position that all but guarantees certain death for him, and decides to hold up everyone else so that they can die before him. His favorite victim, Mi-Nyeo, decides to pull a Heroic Sacrifice by falling with him to their deaths, giving everyone else a chance to live, and Deok Su breaks down into pathetic begging and screaming as she prepares to drag him off a bridge.
- Faux Affably Evil: As stated under Pet the Dog below, Deok-su offers some words of encouragement towards the player in front of him during Glass Stepping Stones... only for him to grumble curses at said player after he fell to his death, so the encouragement was likely because his life depended on the person ahead of him clearing enough tiles for Deok-su to reach the end. His treatment of Han Mi-nyeo also qualifies as this.
- Hate Sink: Out of all the contestants, and even antagonists of the show (with arguably the exception of the VIPS), he's easily the most unlikeable one. Selfish, backstabbing, and violent, his death at the hands of Mi-nyeo is nothing but deserved.
- The Heavy: Deok-su is the one causing the most personal trouble for the heroes and is the most antagonistic of all the players. That said, he's still just another player, unlike the Front Man or the Host.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The only reason he dies is because Mi-nyeo kills him in a murder-suicide, which she wouldn't have done if he hadn't betrayed her or been as cruel as he was, especially since she starts off the games completely devoted to him and willing to follow his every word.
- Hypocrite: During the fifth game, he insults and threatens the players that go before him if they take too long to jump to a 50/50 chance of death. But once his turn comes around, he himself refuses to take his turn, saying that he'd rather take everyone with him than sacrifice himself to help them.
- Ironic Name: The name "Deok-su" means "morality", which is something he doesn't have.
- Jerkass: Is established early on as a ruthless criminal and bully, and even if his charisma gains him several allies early on, he won't hesitate to throw them under the bus, as No. 278 learns the hard way during the marbles game.
- Karmic Death: After spending the majority of the games bullying and deceiving others, he meets his end plummeting to his death with Mi-nyeo, the one that he picks the most on, and one that he repeatedly screwed over (in more ways than one).
- Lack of Empathy: He's displayed a callous disregard for other players' lives all throughout the games, but it's especially notable when Player No. 069 kills himself out of grief due to letting his wife die in the fourth game: while the others look saddened and horrified, his only reaction was to smirk at how there's now less competition for the grand prize.
- Made of Iron: He endures having a knife wound in his leg stitched up without anesthetic, and then immediately has sex with Mi-nyeo in the bathroom, which is not a gentle activity.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: He's the most evil and psychotic of the Squid Game players. Already a brutal gangster known to have committed crimes that landed him in debt to underground elements, Deok-su contrasts the other players, who fear for their lives and dislike making opponents die, with his bloodthirsty enjoyment of the game's brutality. He is introduced bullying Kang Sae-byeok for being a woman (and North Korean refugee), then spends the series being a Jerkass to the other players, killing them whenever he can get away with it, and even treats his own allies as expendable pawns. He also proves to be a Dirty Coward in the fifth game where he risks everyone's lives to force another player to endanger themselves instead of him. Despite not being a member of the Squid Game organization, he matches their cruelty and lacks the redeeming qualities of the Front Man and the Host while being a more personal enemy to hate.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Once he realizes that the guards will not stop him from killing fellow players, even between games, he starts a riot after lights-out as he and his henchmen attempt to murder as many contestants as possible to improve their odds of survival.
- Never My Fault:
- After the Honeycomb game, Deok-Su and his gang take second helpings during meal time, leaving 5 players without their food. When one of the players calls him out for it, Deok-su blames said player for having a problem with it.
- During the glass bridge game, he refuses to proceed when he finds himself at the front of the line. However, he accuses the player behind him of holding everyone else up, for refusing to skip in front of him.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Deok-su is prone to abandoning his allies the moment he no longer thinks they will benefit him. In the fourth game, he and his Dragon prove more than willing to turn on each other. Gi-hun uses this to stop the "culling" by asking him who his men are going to kill once all the weaker player are dead.
- Numerological Motif: Deok-su's assigned number is 101, a palindrome number that can be read in two ways (either forward or backwards). This represents how Deok-su is two-faced in nature, as he uses brute strength, lackeys and backstabbing to intimidate the competition, but take that power away and he's a sniveling coward.
- This number also has literary significance indicating great fear and danger. From his first introduction, it should be clear that he's a threat.
- Obviously Evil: He's an intimidating hulk of a gangster with a snake tattoo on his face, and was introduced as a smug, xenophobic, woman-beating bully.
- Oh, Crap!: After cursing a contestant who fell to his death due to his overconfidence in game 5, he realizes that he is now at the front and that his chance to live is slim to none. Therefore, he turns around and pressures all the contestants to go in front of him, wasting precious time. He also has another one when he is restrained by Mi-nyeo and is about to fall to his death with her.
- Pet the Dog:
- Even though he's a bullying Jerkass, he's one of the few players who doesn't push anyone to their death in the fifth game. He promises not to shove the player ahead of him and even offers some words of encouragement when the man begins faltering. Deok-su frustratedly insults him once he falls to his death after getting their hopes up, but at least he never pushed the guy. However, this was more likely done out of pragmatism than compassion. As Deok-su himself states, he needs the player ahead of him to pass the glass safely so he could too. Thus, pushing others off the bridge risks his own survival chances. All it takes to get them moving during a jam is an empty threat coming from a person like him.
- He initially votes to discontinue the games even while other, more sympathetic characters like Sang-woo and Sae-byeok vote to keep them going. Although his reasons aren't altruistic (not wanting to risk his life playing the games fairly, preferring to gather his gang together to rob them blind), his choice nevertheless gave those who wanted to go home the chance to leave.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He is introduced bullying Sae-byeok just because she is female and North Korean.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once he gets cornered by some gang members, he quickly makes for the edge of the bridge and jumps off.
- Smug Snake: He's extremely confident that he's the toughest, smartest guy in the room, but he only survives the games through dumb luck and other people helping him, with the exception of the first one. Whenever he's not on top, his tough-guy facade crumbles quickly.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Deok-su is one of the cruelest players of the games, being happy to intimidate or murder the competition and showing a general Lack of Empathy. His despicable nature is represented by the snake tattoo on his neck and face.
- The Sociopath: The reason why he is the vilest out of the contestants. He is certainly no stranger to killing and doesn't feel the slightest bit of remorse for any of his murders or betrayals.
- Tattooed Crook: He's a gangster with a large snake tattoo on his neck which parallels his true nature.
- Teeny Weenie: Mi-nyeo insults him about his penis size before killing him.
- This Is Gonna Suck: His reaction once he realizes that he picked one of the more difficult shapes for the second game.
- Token Evil Teammate: Reconstructed. While it's true that all the characters have to kill, he's the only one to show himself as being totally willing to do it before the games, including hurting, injuring, and killing others just because. Several examples include;
- Being the only confirmed murderer before the games and being antagonistic to Sae-byeok when they first arrive.
- Being the contestant who takes advantage of killing between the games being allowed, instigating a nighttime riot to murder as many contestants as possible.
- Being the only person on his team to enjoy killing the other players in Tug-Of-War, as even his teammates are left horrified at the events.
- Undignified Death: Being left sputtering in frustration after a woman insults your penis size before she drags you screaming to your death is a suitably embarrassing death for such a smug bastard.
- Ungrateful Bastard: He repays Mi-nyeo for saving him in the second game by leaving her to die in the third and fourth game. She gets her payback in the fifth game by taking him with her as they fall through the glass.
- Villainous Breakdown: During the fifth game when Mi-nyeo wraps her arms around his body and has them both fall to their deaths off the glass bridge, he starts panicking and angrily berating her before screaming for his life.
- Villains Want Mercy: Despite fearing death as much as every other player, Deok-su would never admit this and maintains his veneer of snarling indifference. Thus in the fifth game, when Mi-Nyeo is about to pull them both off the bridge, he pathetically breaks down and fruitlessly begs her to let him go.
- Would Hit a Girl: He's clearly not above physically attacking women, as evidenced early on with Sae-byeok and murder of a female contestant who rumbles him for cutting in line and later on when he excludes Mi-nyeo ahead of the third game.
Player 111 (Byeong-gi)
"I'm just barely escaping death every damn day."
Played by: Yu Seong-Ju Other Languages
A doctor who fell into disgrace after a malpractice lawsuit.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The guards need him to harvest the organs of dead players, so they tell him what the next game is ahead of time so he can survive; in turn, 111 allies himself with Deok-su by giving him hints on the upcoming games, hoping this will give him some protection.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: He eventually gets executed by the Front Man alongside the corrupt guards as punishment for cheating.
- Dead Guy on Display/Make an Example of Them: Gets his dead body hanged along with that of the corrupt guards as a warning to the players.
- A Death in the Limelight: He gets a lot more attention and characterization in "A Fair World."
- Doctor's Disgraceful Demotion: Player 111 is a doctor who has entered the Deadly Game due to an incident of malpractice. His medical expertise gets him recruited for an Organ Theft racket run by a team of guards.
- Eat the Evidence: When he finds a note displaying the next game slipped into his food, 111 pauses just long enough to read it before quickly swallowing the note.
- Everyone Has Standards: In comparison to the rest of his team, Byeong-gi reacts to 278 mocking the team they just killed in Tug-Of-War with a small, forced smile, whereas the others all properly laugh about it.
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: He decides to team with Deok-su of all people because of his raw brute strength, which is favored in a game like tug-of-war, in exchange of giving him information about the round.
- Mad Doctor: Wanted for malpractice and currently part of an organ-harvesting ring. Plus, as the stress of the games steadily escalates, 111 begins to noticeably crack under the strain.
- Only One Name: Only his forename is given.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Wears spectacles, an early indication of his intellectual specialties.
- Sanity Slippage: The stress of having to perform complex surgery while on starvation rations and sleep deprivation begins to strain his composure over time, to the point that he's reduced to screaming in panic when his source of info on the games unexpectedly dries up. This leads to him having a meltdown and attacking the guards, killing one and fleeing into one of the playgrounds - where the Front Man catches and executes him for cheating.
- Sleep Deprivation: A combination of stress and the need to defend himself from rival players after lights-out means that 111 isn't getting as much sleep as he should. As a result, it becomes harder and harder to perform the operations the guards need him to perform.
- Suddenly Shouting: The first sign that 111 is starting to lose it is when he admonishes the guards to stop questioning Jun-ho, then suddenly erupting into enraged screaming in mid-sentence.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's a doctor and he certainly has some capabilities even though he was sued for malpractice. However, he isn't the strongest player, which leads to him having to ally with Deok-su during the tug-of-war despite seeming to know this isn't a good idea.
Player 212 (Han Mi-nyeo)
"I’ll be way more help than either of these wimpy little girls. Plus, I’m good at everything except the things that I can’t do."
Played by: Kim Joo-ryoungOther Languages
A manipulative fraudster who claims to be a poor single mother.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After the first game, she's the first person to get on her knees and beg the guards to let them go free. A lot of others soon join her and begged to be sent home.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: She's understandably pissed at Deok-su's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and she ends up taking both herself and him down to their deaths, which gave the others a fighting chance to win the stepping stone game.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Mi-nyeo initially serves as The Friend Nobody Likes and comic relief, until she was rejected by everyone in the fourth game. She has the last laugh, as she has never been in real danger of her life, and in the fifth game, she kills two people: Jung Min-Tae and Deok-su, the latter of which having humiliated her earlier, and was the main antagonist until that moment.
- Blatant Lies: The idea that she's 19 years old. Nobody believes her. For the record, her actress is 45.
- Chaotic Stupid: Her alliance with Deok-su is a terrible idea, but she seems to genuinely believe he loves her despite all evidence to the contrary. She forgives him after he betrays her the first time. Sae-byeok notes that her lack of honesty with others, including attempting to bully, manipulate, or force them to team up with her is instead slowly reducing her chances of anyone choosing to pair with her. This ultimately might be what helps her keep her word to Deok-su and get him killed, even at the cost of her own life.
- Chewing the Scenery: She's really over-the-top with her shouting, even during dire situations like almost getting caught by the guards and when her team is about to lose in the tug-of-war game.
- Compulsive Liar: She lies constantly in order to impress whoever she's looking to get in with. No one buys it.
- Deadly Hug: During the fifth game, she grabs Deok-su in a hug and pulls him down with her, causing them both to fall through a glass panel to their deaths.
- Death by Irony: She spends most of the game trying to team up with the strongest side and play up her value. Her last moments involve pulling a Heroic Sacrifice and taking down the man that she claimed to love when seeing he would condemn the survivors for his selfishness. Even the VIPs were impressed that she had it in her.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: She has no qualms about harassing the staff of the games. Not just the workers, and especially the armed soldiers and manager.
- Disney Villain Death: She falls to her death with Deok-su in the fifth game.
- Dying Smirk: She smiles maliciously before taking Deok-su with her to their deaths.
- Enemy Mine: She joins Gi-Hun's team briefly during the tug-of-war game to get back at Deok-su's betrayel.
- Et Tu, Brute?: She was shocked and devastated when Deok-su wouldn't put her on his team for the tug-of-war game then he proceeds to embarrass her in front of everyone when she starts begging him. Needless to say, she swore to get revenge on Deok-su for it.
- Everyone Has Standards: She's absolutely disgusted by Deok-su cowardly trying to make someone else go ahead of him in the stepping stone game, and calls him out on damning everyone else to die because he's too much of a selfish wimp to man up before eventually killing him and herself.
- Eviler than Thou: Mi-nyeo's final act in the game was to go up to Deok-su, the most ruthless player in the game, and intimidate him before grappling him and swandiving with him onto the glass.
- Face Death with Dignity: Despite generally subverting this, she goes happily to her death when the time comes.
- Fatal Flaw: As this video highlights
, Mi-nyeo hates turning down opportunities to benefit herself and being seen as weak. She'll fight for her own life, but rarely shows kindness to someone unless it benefits her. Her last moments show her selflessly pulling a Heroic Sacrifice so that at least a few people get a chance to survive the Stepping Stones bridge, while getting revenge on her paramour. - Female Misogynist: Has these tendencies, as she tends to belittle other girls when sucking up to others.
- Femme Fatale: She tries to play up this role around Deok-su, but she's not particularly good at it.
- Foreshadowing: When she applauds her team for winning the tug-of-war game, she says that she felt at her most powerful when she was leaning backwards as part of Il-nam's strategy. She would use the same method to kill Deok-su and herself in the fifth game.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Obsequious, loud, a Compulsive Liar, prone to making unusual comments, and overall unpleasant. She also oversells her abilities to play the games, insisting repeatedly that she's "good at everything except the things I can't do." No wonder no one wants to team with her in the marble game though it's the best thing that could have happened to her at that point, as she gets to sit out the game for not having a partner.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: She somehow managed to sneak some cigarettes into the game, as she smokes a bit during her bathroom break and even slips Jang Deok-su her lighter during the honeycomb game.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Her allegiance flips as frequently as her mood swings and usually at the whims of whoever she can convince to move her forward in the games. Her first real act within the main cast is helping Sae-Byeok investigate the vents in the facility, but when not much comes out of it she seeks the graces of Deok-Su and his murderous crew, until his gang ditches her because they consider her a liability in the coming games, leaving her having to partner up with Gi-Hun’s team. She ultimately, arguably, settles on the face side of things, as she gets a self-sacrificial revenge kill on Deok-Su to let the others advance.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Despite her unctuous nature, she refuses to let Deok-su damn everyone to die in the stepping stone game, so she kills both herself and him to give the rest a chance. It works, and this act even reveals a fake glass panel for the others.
- Hidden Depths: While it was only the phrase "Excuse me", she can speak English without too much of a Korean accent.
- Horrible Judge of Character: She figured that Deok-su of all people would be the best to team up with in the games and assumed he would not betray her after she helped him advance to the next round. She is rewarded for that choice. On the other hand, she would have likely been one of the many who were killed in the night fight if she hadn't joined Deok-su's gang. She seems to adopt this as a general survival tactic, trying to buddy up to whomever she perceived to be the strongest guy even when she joined Gi-hun's group. What she really misjudges is not other people's characters, but her own desirability and seductive powers.
- I Gave My Word: A rare non-heroic example of this trope. Even though she has nothing to gain from doing so, and at the cost of her own life, she kills Deok-su because she told him she would kill him if he betrayed her, which he did.
- I Have a Family: She begs like this after realizing the games are deadly. However, then subverted, because despite being one of the loudest characters to try and get freed, when she does, she comes back.
- Jerkass: Sleazy and unpleasant to be around, to the point that nobody wants to even team up with her in the marble game.
- Large Ham: She's as unhinged and kooky as it gets. Probably the best case is her constantly screaming about her bowel movements as Sae-byeok crawls through the vents.
- Ma'am Shock: She doesn't like it when Gi-Hun addresses her with ajumoni, the Korean honorific for middle-aged women, because it implies she's old. Some localizations even have Gi-Hun address her as "grandma".
- Motor Mouth: She never stops talking, leading to the others trying to distance themselves from her as much as possible.
- Must Have Nicotine: She's so desperate for a smoke that she resorts to smuggling cigarettes and a lighter into the games via a certain body cavity. Plus, she goes so far as to argue with the guards and threaten to piss on the floor just for an excuse to get into the bathroom, where she can smoke in private.
- Mysterious Past: She's the only one among the major characters whose background outside the games is unknown. While she claimed to have a newborn child when begging to be let go early on, given her Compulsive Liar tendencies this may very well also be a lie.
- No Indoor Voice: When she talks, everyone knows.
- Numerological Motif: Mi-nyeo's number 212 is a palindrome that can be read two ways (either forwards or backwards) as well as starting and ending with '2'. This signifies her two-faced nature of hiding her Manipulative Bitch tendencies with an obnoxious loudmouth upfront.
- Another way to see her number is that every digit in 212 is a direct increase of every digit in 101 (Deok-su's number) by one. She was always one step ahead of Deok-su through manipulation, and for betraying her, she dragged him down to their deaths in the fifth game.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Once she starts getting quieter after the fourth game, something is clearly up with her. It's because she's grown fed up with Deok-su backstabbing her and decides to take him down with her during the bridge game when he refuses to move ahead of the others.
- Pet the Dog:
- She steps in to stop Deok-su from starting a fight with Sae-byeok after the latter pulls a knife on him, flirting with him; Mi-nyeo seems to draw the line at a ten on one fight against a tiny girl. Later when Sae-byeok follows her to the bathroom and indicates she wants to go into the vents above the other woman's stall, Mi-nyeo puts aside all her negative traits and works well with her, as she helps her up there, keeps the guard from coming in for a while with her Bad "Bad Acting" and sets up an innocuous scene just in time for when the guard came to see what was going on.
- Mi-nyeo sincerely praises the old man, thanking him for his tug-of-war strategy. Given that she uses it later, to take down Deok-su, that wasn't a lie.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: She's one of the most morally dubious players, and at one point starts slinging racist and xenophobic insults at Ali when he points out her hypocrisy.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis: She references the bullet-dodging scene in The Matrix at one point, but refers to the film as the "guy swimming backwards" as she didn't exactly know the title. When Ali correctly guesses the film's name, she starts throwing xenophobic remarks at him (likely out of taking offense).
- Quirky Curls: Her hair is naturally wavy, and her personality matches her carefree attitude. Unfortunately, this just leads everyone around her to find her annoying.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She finally calls out Deok-su for being a Dirty Coward and even makes fun of his dick size right before she plunges both of them to their deaths in the fifth game.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Double Subverted. Her being the only one without a partner during the fourth game causes her to be dragged away in fear by the guards, with everyone presuming its to be executed... then it's later found out she got to sit out the entire round. Then in the fifth game she's a lot more quiet and serious and then kills Deok-su along with herself.
- Small Name, Big Ego: She's constantly talking herself up and insisting that anyone should be lucky to have her on their team. No one buys it.
- Taking You with Me: During the fifth game, she gets her revenge on Deok-su for betraying her earlier by grabbing onto him and jumping off the bridge, causing them to fall to their deaths.VIP: Hell hath no fury like a Woman Scorned.
- Token Evil Teammate: To Gi-Hun's team during the Tug-of-War game, as she only sides with them because of being dumped by Deok-su's team and nobody else wants her, but they're forced to accept her as she is the only unselected player left.
- Tranquil Fury: While she was loud and bombastic early on, she gets a lot more serious by the time the fifth game starts after Deok-su throws her under the bus one too many times. She's finally had enough once he tries to take advantage of her again, so she gets her revenge by calmly insulting him and dragging both of them down to their deaths.
- Trouser Space: She manages to smuggle in a lighter and cigarettes during her return to the game island, having stored them in a capsule in her... private parts. The lighter becomes surprisingly helpful for the second game.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: After electing to go back to the games, she smuggles cigarettes and a lighter by stuffing them up inside of her vagina.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: She gets to sit out the fourth game entirely as a consolation prize for no one picking her as a teammate.
- Woman Scorned: After Deok-su callously rejects her, she makes him pay dearly.
- Younger Than They Look: During their taunt-to-taunt game, she calls Deok-su "an old man", to which the latter takes offense. She challenges him to guess how old she is. He goes from 49 to 19, and she answers with a "bingo". Considering her Compulsive Liar tendencies, however, this isn't likely truenote .
Players 278, 040 and 303
From left to right: 040, 278, 101 (Deok-su), and 303, with 212 (Mi-nyeo) and 111 (Byeong-gi) in the back
Played by: Ja-Hyoung Kwak (Player 278), Lim Ki-hong (Player 040) and Kim Dong-won (Player 303)
Deok-su's core gang of "friends" in the games.- Asshole Victim: They're a bunch of sadistic and perverted bullies who are just as bad as Deok-su and murder their fellow contestants in order to get ahead, so it's not surprising that not one person mourns any of them when all of them eventually die.
- The Dragon: Player 278 serves as this to Deok-su.
- Dumb Muscle: 040 and 303 are mostly used for intimidation.
- Fat Bastard: 278 is noticeably chubbier than the other contestants. 040 and 303 are Lean and Mean while Deok-su is Large and in Charge.
- Gang of Bullies: They follow Deok-su and do as he says.
- Giggling Villain: Player 278 has a tendency to giggle when he's winning. It gets on Deok-su's nerves.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: 040 wears his hair long and in a ponytail and is one of the few contestants with a prominent mustache.
- Hate Sink: They steal food, kill their fellow contestants in order to get ahead and laugh at terrible jokes.
- No Honor Among Thieves: During the marbles game, Player 278 takes delight in mocking Deok-su when he's winning. He refuses to switch games until the guard forces him to.
- No Name Given: Despite getting a lot of screen time and lines, none of them are named. Especially noticeable in 278's case, who actually refers to Deok-su by his name, but never gets a name himself.
- Number Two: Player 278 is Deok-su's Dragon.
- Oh, Crap!: 278 after realizing he and Deok-su need to battle against each other, and later after he loses the marble game.
- 040 as well, when he realizes he's out of marbles.
- Profane Last Words: Player 278 shouts "You're all assholes!" at a guard just before he's killed.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Player 278 isn't very physically intimidating, so he's constantly praising his "boss".
- The Quiet One: Player 303 gets the least amount of lines and screen time. Player 040 is shown dying and talks more frequently.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: 278 tries to run away after losing the Marbles game. He doesn't get very far.
- Smug Snake: Played With. 278 becomes increasingly smug and unpleasant during the Marbles game, but it's because he's winning. It's only because of Deok-su's Loophole Abuse and dumb luck that he loses.
- The Starscream: 278 has no problem playing against his "boss" Deok-su during the Marbles game.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In round 4, Player 278's death by submachine guns (when previously most failed players are executed by pistols) distracted Ali from his own game, allowing Sang-woo to quickly replace the bag containing the marbles with another bag that has only pebbles while Ali isn't looking, which ultimately leads to Ali's death.
- Villainous Friendship: Averted for the most part. Deok-su and 278 are constantly seen bullying other players together, but when they're forced to battle it out in the Marbles game, they immediately end their alliance.
- Played straight with 303 and 040, who seem to genuinely be on very good terms and respect Deok-su.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite partnering up with player 040 during the marble game, player 303 disappears in that episode. When Player 040 gets shot, he's playing against someone else, indicating they switched partners, even though the rules specifically state this isn't allowed. Furthermore, the player who beats 040 has a index which can be partially read as "_26", yet no player with an index matching those two digits is among the sixteen to play the bridge game, making this appear to be an outright continuity error.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Mi-nyeo and Sae-byeok warn the men that Deok-su will betray them as soon as he gets the chance, and they're right: during the Marbles game, Deok-su and 278 are turned against each other and neither seems very upset.
Other Players (by round where they were eliminated):
Round 1
Player 118 (Oh Yeong-uk)
"Red Light, Green Light? The thing we did as kids in the playground?"
Played by: Hong Woo-jinOther Languages
"Please, help me. Please. I don't want to die."
A player who starts out the first round standing near Gi-hun.
- Decoy Protagonist: Initially, his interaction with Gi-hun and him getting quite a few lines before the "Red Light, Green Light" game makes it seem like he's being set up as a supporting character, but ends up being killed shortly after.
- Hope Spot: He survives being shot once and begins crawling away while begging for mercy. Then he's shot again and killed.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: After being shot, he grabs ahold of Gi-hun's leg and pleads for his help, before finally being killed off.
- Take a Moment to Catch Your Death: Survives the first shot, but not the second.
Players 250 and 324
"Dumbass got caught."
"Holy shit. This place is huge!"
Played by: Park Ji-hoon (Player 250) and Lee Han-sol (Player 324)
Two young male participants. They were the first ones eliminated throughout the whole course of the game.- Blood from the Mouth: Player 324 vomits blood to show he's not kidding after getting shot and dropping dead to the ground.
- Decoy Protagonist: At first, it seems that they'll stick around long enough to the show's comic reliefs after having enough screentime to establish their personalities, but are the first two casualties of the game.
- Flipping the Bird: When the players' photos are being taken, 324 sticks out his tongue and flips off the camera with both hands.
- Please Wake Up: 250 has this reaction, along with Oh, Crap!, when he hears a gunshot and 324 falls down. As soon as he gets the green light, he approaches 324 and nervously says that he was eliminated, and to quit "the show" and get up.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Player 324 is the impulsive red, Player 250 is the exasperated blue.
- Sacrificial Lamb: While not named, they were given some screentime to establish their personalities and dynamic, but were the first ones to die to showcase the brutality of the games.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After realizing that 324 really is dead, 250 tries making a run for the entrance doors, with his inevitable murder solidifying to the rest of the players the seriousness of their punishment, and inciting mass panic.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Their dynamic added some comic relief to the show before being the first people killed off.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Their deaths solidify the seriousness of the game and give everyone else a huge wake-up call.
- Those Two Guys: Share this vibe as they were close friends before the game, introduced together and died within moments apart from each other.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Became the first two deaths of the very first game.
Player 306
Played by: Yang Mi-seon
A contestant who was close enough to 250 that she was spattered by his blood. She panicked and was also killed.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: She, like any other player (bar Il-nam), had no idea elimination in the games meant death. So when Player 250's blood got on her face and she realized what it truly means to be eliminated, she screamed before getting shot dead.
- Crowd Panic: She kicks this off when she screams after the first two contestants are gunned down.
- Screaming Woman: It's an appropriate reaction to when an innocent man is shot in front of you for playing a game wrong and his blood splatters your face.
Voting Round
Player 066
"You're doomed if you don't let us go!"
Played by: Won Choon-gyu
A contestant who demands to be released from the Squid Game after witnessing the deaths in the first round. Unlike most of the contestants who asked to leave, though, he actually refuses to come back.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never shown or mentioned what happened to 066 and the other thirteen players who don't come back.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: He is one of the few players that decides he'd rather face his debt and terrible life, whatever it is, rather than gamble on certain death or be complicit in murder.
Round 2
Player 119 (No Sang-hoon)
"Such a young kid...How did you end up like this?"
Played by: Yun Don-sunOther Languages
A contestant who made it through the first round, but narrowly lost the second. Before he was eliminated, he uncovered a secret about the guards and the system.- Better to Die than Be Killed: When he was cornered by the guards, after realizing one of them is a young man, aims a gun at his own temple and pulls the trigger.
- Death Before Dishonor: Unable to bring himself to harm his teenage hostage, he opts to shoot himself.
- Despair Event Horizon: He's so stunned by the Awful Truth that the guards are young, ordinary people that he decides to just turn the gun on himself.
- Sanity Slippage: When he realizes he lost the second round, he snaps and attacks the guards.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: He came very close to passing the second game. Had it not been for his umbrella's broken handle, he could've passed the second round.
- You're Insane!: Despite that he's the one losing his sanity, he screams this at both Player 322 for trying to interfere with the vote and then at the Pink Guards when he loses Round 2 complaining why the shapes on the sugar honeycombs wildly varied from triangle to umbrella.
Player 209
"Please spare my life."
Played by: Hyun Jin
A contestant who's given the circle shape to cut out during the sugar honeycomb game. She is startled when 369 dies and breaks her honeycomb as a result, and is subsequently eliminated.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Like 369, she pleads for mercy, but in vain.
- Mauve Shirt: She's given a tiny bit of attention as one of the contestants who beg to be let home after the first game, but otherwise gets little development before being killed.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: She was so close to cutting out her shape, and she could have passed the second round quickly had it not been for 369's death distracting her. Made worse with the fact that the circle is the second-easiest shape to cut out.
Player 369 (Park Ju-un)
"Killing everyone out there was a... game to you, huh!?"
Played by: Yoon Seung-hoon
A contestant who's given the umbrella shape to cut out during the sugar honeycomb game. When he breaks his honeycomb, he begs for another chance, but doesn't get one.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He pleads for his life with the guard assigned to watch him.
- Face Death with Despair: Once his dalgona breaks, he slowly pans up on the verge of tears as the pink guard before him prepares to fire into his skull.
- Pretty Little Headshots: He's shot in the head, but while he leaves a trail of blood behind him when his body falls down the slide, his head itself remains intact except for the little bullet hole.
- Sacrificial Lamb: His job is to essentially give a hands-on demonstration of how hard the umbrella shape is to cut out.
Special Round
Player 198
"Excuse me. Those people... they took food twice, I saw them."
Played by: Kim Hee-seo
A contestant who catches Deok-su and his minions cut in line during lunch.- Gory Discretion Shot: The camera obscures her as Deok-su stabs her to death.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: During lights out, Deok-su stabs her in the neck.
- Laser-Guided Karma: How Deok-su sees her death.
- Leeroy Jenkins: She could've kept her information to herself (as Deok-su warned her to) or discreetly let the guards know that they were sneaking seconds, but decides to share it out loud immediately with EVERYONE.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her good intentions only cause more death and misery for everyone.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She only gets three short scenes, but her actions cause the deaths of many players, including her own.
- The Stool Pigeon: She rats out Deok-su and his gang as the one’s who have been stealing food.
- Too Dumb to Live: She outs Deok-su and his gang as a bunch of thieves in front of everyone. Not a very wise decision, considering they're a group of bloodthirsty criminals. During lights out, Deok-su specifically targets her first and kills her as revenge.
- Unexplained Recovery: Despite being murdered during the riot, she still finds enough strength to take part in the tug-of-war game, at least according to a quick shot we see of the scoreboard.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her outing of Deok-su is what led to 271 confronting him and getting murdered. This led to the realization that murder between the games was allowed.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Like Gi-hun, she assumes the guards would punish Deok-su for his actions, but instead, they do nothing.
Player 271
"We may be in debt, sir, but that doesn't justify killing us all!"
Played by: Min Tae-yul
A player who survived the first two games, but later received no food because Deok-su and his gang took seconds. He tried to fight with Deok-su to get his drink, but Deok-su overpowered him and beat him to death.
- Butt-Monkey: His significant appearances are just him begging for his life to a guard and then being utterly destroyed by Deok-su in a fight.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Deliberately made an in-universe one by the Guards to show that fighting amongst contestants is tolerated outside of the games.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Because Deok-su killed him over a bottle of soda and faced no repercussions, the players realized that killing each other is acceptable when they're not playing a game round. 271's death leads to the domino effect of multiple other contestants being killed in the dark.
Round 3
Player 194
"Get your shit together!"
Played by: Woo Yeong-taek
The leader of Team 5, which goes up against Gi-hun's team in a lethal game of tug of war.
- Determinator: Whether it's the sheer adrenaline of not wanting to die via plunge into a deep pit, or letting his team down, he will not give up even when his feet are inches away from the platform.
- Disney Villain Death: He's pulled off of his platform and falls to his death, along with the rest of his team.
- Hero Antagonist: There's nothing that indicates he is a bad guy, just a desperate man in a bad situation. Heck, he motivates his team when it seems that Gi-hun's Hope Spot nearly pulls them off the platform.
Player 245
Played by: Kim Won-jung
The leader of Team 7, which is forced to play a tug of war game against Deok-su and his minions.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Deok-su prioritized picking strong, athletic men on his team, whereas 245's team includes people who aren't very athletic. 245 and his team are thus defeated very quickly and dragged off their platform to their deaths.
- Oh, Crap!: When he realizes he's going against Deok-su, he and his team can only stare at him in shock and fear.
Round 4
Players 069 and 070
Played by: Kim Yun-tae (Player 069) and Lee Ji-ha (Player 070)
A husband and wife pair participating in the game.- Barefoot Suicide: Player 069 takes his shoes off before he hangs himself.
- Death Is the Only Option: Due to being each other's partners in the fourth game, no matter what the outcome is, either the husband or the wife would have to die.
- Despair Event Horizon: No. 069 is driven to despair after having to let his wife die in the fourth game, and after failing to convince the other remaining players to quit the game again, ultimately kills himself that same night.
- Driven to Suicide: No. 069 hangs himself due to the guilt of defeating his wife in the marble game, which, of course, led to her death.
- Establishing Character Moment: Their first prominent appearance is right before tug of war, in which Player 069 refuses an offer from Sang-Woo to fill a gap in his team, since he wants to play together with his wife Player 070.
- Happily Married: They're the only players with an actual familial connection, being two consecutive numbers even. No surprise they picked each other as partners in the fourth game. No. 069 even refused to join Sang-woo's team for the third game unless his wife could come with him and protected her when Mi-nyeo attempted to grab her as a partner.
- Killed Offscreen: Player 070's death is never shown, but it is announced in the PA.
- LOL, 69: VIP 4 bets on Player 069 just because of the innuendo and is disappointed to find that he had hung himself soon after.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Even after winning the fourth round, No. 069 couldn't overcome the fact that he just allowed his wife to die just to get further in the game.
- No Name Given: Throughout their appearances, neither of them are ever given any name.
- Oh, Crap!: Both of their reactions are this when they realize what the fourth game is, and that they would have to play against their partner.
- Together in Death: Another possible reason that he hanged himself and probably joins his wife in death immediately afterward.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Player 069 tried to deliver one to the remaining players for killing their closest friends for the sake of money and pleads them to invoke the third clause again. Sang-woo doesn't buy it and rebutts that nobody is going to quit out of sympathy for him, and leaving the games will not bring his wife back.
Round 5
Player 017 (Do Jung-soo)
"Hold on. Wait one second. I can tell the panels apart."
Played by: Lee Sang-Hee
"I used to make glass for over 30 years. You can't normally tell but... when you look at tempered glass when it's lit from its side, then you can see faint stain marks."
A contestant who used to manufacture and create glass for 30 years. He went thirteenth in the fifth round, and unlike all the other players, he was able to tell the breakable panels apart from the safe ones — at least until the Front Man changed things up.- Drunk Driver: His file, which the Front Man looks at to see how it is he can tell the tiles apart, reveals that he was fired from his job for drunk driving.
- Mauve Shirt: Literally the only contestant left near the end of the fifth game who isn't a main character. Too bad he couldn't make it.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He doesn't tell anyone about his ability to tell apart the glass panels in the fifth game until it's his turn to lead. When Gi-hun calls him out for it, he says it's because the other players are always out to kill him every chance they get, so he kept his advantage hidden until the dangerous players were out.
- Suddenly Always Knew That: His experience in glass manufacturing isn't mentioned at all until the fifth game, which just so happens to require players stepping on glass. Even the game designers failed to account for this despite his background being written in his files, so the Front Man had to turn off the lights to remove his advantage.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: His glass background ends up to be extremely useful in the fifth game, where the players are supposed to differentiate between 18 rows of tempered and normal glass. His advantage is only taken away in the last row, after the VIPs complain that the game is no longer fun to watch due to it.
- Unlucky Thirteen: Zig-zagged. He picks to be #13 in the fifth game of stepping stones, and his glass manufacturing experience of over 30 years makes him able to tell the difference between real glass and tempered glass just by examining the light refraction - thus making Gi-hun, Sae-byeok and Sang-woo very lucky to have him or else they'd have picked the wrong stones themselves. The VIPs complain the games are getting boring thanks to his expertise, so the Front Man kills the lights to make it more of a challenge. 017 loses all confidence, and Sang-woo pushes him into the last set to determine which was the tempered or real glass. Turns out the one 017 tested was the real one.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: He was literally just one step away from passing the fifth game.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Sang-Woo disposes of him when the gamemakers take away his advantage and he begins running out the clock.
Player 021
"Try to remember. I need to get this right for you to live."
Played by: Moon Byung-Joo
A player who went fourth in the fifth round.
- The Ditherer: He can't remember which panel the math teacher showed to be safe, and rather than decide for himself, he passes the choice on to Player 453, though two others start insisting they saw him take different paths. He follows Player 453's advice, which turns out to be a lethal mistake.
Player 062
"That's a 1-in-32,768 chance."
Played by: Lee Doo-seok
A math teacher who applied his mathematic skills to get past the games. He went third in the fifth round.- Awesomeness by Analysis: As a math teacher, it's implied that he used his mathematic skills to get through the games that required them, allowing him to reach as far as Round Five. He even uses this to try to convince Gi-hun to let him partner up in the fourth game. It ultimately doesn't save him in the end, once he manages to calculate his odds of getting through the "Glass Stepping Stones" game and realizes that the chances are slim to none, he resigns himself to his fate and just goes through the glass panels randomly, managing to go through three correct panels before falling to his death.
- Badass Bookworm: Not only is he pretty good with maths, he's said to have played soccer regularly as well, which explains why he survived physical-based rounds like the "Red Light, Green Light", "Tug-of-War", and the nighttime brawl.
- Face Death with Dignity: Realizing his chances to win are almost impossible, he resigns to his fate and tries his best to pass as many glasses as possible before falling to his doom.
- Mirthless Laughter: Laughs without humor as he realizes just how badly the odds are stacked against him.
- Senseless Sacrifice: His sprint across three correct panels randomly in the fifth game becomes this, as in the moment of panic, no one could recall which panels he stepped on before falling, leading to more sacrifices to re-reveal the panels he got correct.
Player 096
Played by: Jung Woo-hyuk
A man who begged Gi-hun to let him be the one to go first in the fifth round.- Be Careful What You Wish For: Wanting to be the first player of the fifth game leads to him being its first casualty.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: Before the fifth game begins, players have to pick numbered vests that tell the order they have to play the game. When it was down to only the first and the last vests, 096 begs Gi-hun for the former since he wants to feel in control of his life for once and so he wants to be the first to play the game. He changes his attitude pretty quickly once he finally saw what the game really is about...
- LOL, 69: VIP 4 chooses to bet on 096 after 069 commits suicide out of grief, since it's the closest number to 69. Turns into Black Comedy when 096 is the first to snuff it in the game immediately thereafter.
- Oh, Crap!: Realizes that he just signed his own death warrant by choosing to go first in the fifth game.
Player 151
Played by: Moon Jung-dae
A contestant who went seventh in the fifth round.
- Death by Irony: Met the exact same fate he tried to inflict on 244.
- Disney Villain Death: He gets pushed to his death by 244.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Jumps forward to try and throw 244 forward. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for him.
- Lucky Seven: He chooses to take the number 7 in the fifth game, stating this reason. It doesn't really do him any good though.
Player 308
"Just like that. Great job."
Played by: Hwang Youn-hee
A contestant who went second in the fifth round.
- Disney Villain Death: Like the other contestants who lost in the fifth round, she fell to her death after falling from the bridge.
- Team Mom: She tries to be supportive of 096, but he dies quickly and she dies right after him, so it doesn't work.
Player 322 (Jung Min-tae)
Played by: Lim Ki-hongOther Languages
"I don't have a home to go back to anyway. At least here, I have hope. But out there? I got nothing out there. Let's stay and stick it out to the end! I'd rather stay here and die trying than die out there like a dog."
A homeless, bitter contestant who wanted to win the game to have a house to live in. He went tenth in the fifth round.
- Bullying a Dragon: Tries to aggressively steer the vote (after Round 1 was completed) in his favor to continue the game by being obnoxiously loud then violent as Player 119 tries to beat him up, leading to a guard threatening his life with an AK-47 to regain his composure.
- Disney Villain Death: He gets pushed by Mi-nyeo and deflected off by Deok-su's immense weight off the stepping stones game and to his death without breaking any glass, making his death extremely wasteful as now the others couldn't determine which glass was real or tampered.
- I Just Want to Be Free: He hounds the other players to continue the game to get out of their financial debts. When Player 369 tells them they should all go home, Player 322 reveals he's homeless.
- Jerkass: His status as a homeless person doesn't really excuse him from making a cacophonous ruckus to influence the vote and force the others to let the game continue.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's rather callous to the players who want to leave, but he wasn't entirely wrong about his claim that he actually has a chance to win the Squid Game. He did manage to last pretty late into the game, much longer than the two players he argued with during the voting process in Episode 2.
- Large Ham: He screams a lot of his dialogue across to signal how determined he is to win the Squid Game.
- Lower-Class Lout: He tried to physically assault a contestant who voted to leave.
- Senseless Sacrifice: He got up to Round 5 (the stepping stones game) and was shoved by Mi-Nyeo so that she could get to Deok-Su in order to get revenge for his betrayal. instead of falling on one of the following panes of glass, He instead falls off the rails after Deok-su lets him bounce off without testing a glass, worsening the chances of survival for everyone else.
- Worth It: His sentiments on the Squid Game, including Round 1 which was a Red Light, Green Light game riddled with AI-powered gun turrets.
Player 360 (Ham Young-nam)
Played by: Son Won-kyung
A player who went twelfth in the fifth round.
- Badass Bookworm: His file reveals that he used to be a chemical engineer. He is tough enough to make it to the fifth game.
- Cop Killer: His file says that, after he accidentally blew up a lab and killed two people, he attacked the police who tried to arrest him and beat one of them to death.
- Dwindling Party: 360 is the last survivor of Deok-su's tug of war team. Byeong-gi is executed before the marble game, 278, 040, and 303 all lose the marble game to their partners, 032, 083, 122, and 327 are all eliminated in the marble game after running out of time, and Deok-su himself is killed by Mi-nyeo earlier in the stepping stones game.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Most of the information about him comes from his file, which is very briefly visible during the scene when the Front Man is looking up Do Jung-soo's file.
- The Voiceless: He never speaks.
Player 407
"Do something to make him go! If you don't, I might have to push you forward."
Played by: Ko Byung-taek
A player who went eighth in the fifth round.
- Cutting the Knot: When Player 244 holds up the others by stopping to pray, 407 threatens to push 151 off the bridge unless 151 does something to get things moving again. After 151 gets killed by 244, 407 just rushes up and shoves 244 to his death, clearing the way for the rest of the group to proceed.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's not a very significant character, but he kills 244, who was a relatively prominent player, had a notable personality, and had been given screen time in the tug of war game, the marbles game, and the stepping stones game. His threat to 151, and 244's subsequent reaction, also introduce the strategy of throwing other players onto glass panels to test them.
- Wrong Assumption: He thought he could tell the tiles apart by looking at their colors. He was wrong. (017 later revealed that the trick is to look for stain marks, not colors).
Player 453
"So he went right."
Played by: Yang Mal-Bok
"The left one I think!"
A contestant who went fifth in the fifth round.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: She's among the players who got on their knees and begged to be let go in episode 2. Despite this, however, when given a chance to invoke the third clause to allow the players to vote on stopping or continuing the game, she's the first person who votes to continue - after taking a long look at the vast sum of money in the piggy bank hanging above.
- Bloody Horror: Although her fall is offscreen, the viewer is still shown the gruesome aftermath of her long fall down. Her head is cracked wide open and she's lying in a pool of her own blood and brain matter.
- Killed Offscreen: In the fifth game, she fell off the glass bridge offscreen, with only her pawn being shown falling off the model bridge in the VIP room.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The reason that she is not shown falling from the bridge is that her actress, who was older than many of the other actors, was not capable of safely falling the (real-life) 1.5 meter drop from the bridge. Her death was therefore shown offscreen.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Despite making it as far as the fifth game, she gets little in the way of dialogue or characterization, and is even Killed Offscreen.
- Wrong Assumption: After Player 062's mad dash across several tiles in the fifth game, Player 021 is unable to recall which tiles he went on and approaches 453 for help. She urges him that he went left (he went right), leading to 021's untimely death.
