Video Game / Brawlhalla

Here we see a viking fighting against the bride of a Japanese demon. This is completely normal, by the way.

Brawlhalla is a Free-to-Play Platform Fighter developed by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Blue Mammoth Games, who also created Dungeon Blitz, and published by Ubisoft.

The game takes place in Valhalla, where its only inhabitants are those who died in fame and glory (or infamy), mythical beings, beings of a different planet, and people who just want to fight other people. In Valhalla, combatants called Legends from all sorts of times and places fight in a seemingly never-ending tournament to be known as the greatest warrior of all time.

In essence, Brawlhalla sticks to the staples of the platform fighter subgenre; you and up to seven other people fight to build up damage on one another until someone is knocked out of the ring. In some modes, you gain points by KO'ing opponents, in others, you lose a life if you're KO'd. The person with the most points or the last man standing wins. This is the standard mode, but there's also 2V2 modes, and even a side-game called "Brawl Ball", which is pretty much a strange combo of American Football and Soccer.

What makes Brawlhalla different from most platform fighters — and pretty much most fighting games, period — is that your moveset is already, well, set. Where most fighters in other games, in general, have unique movesets to them, Brawlhalla has none of that, and all normals are the same for each character. What Brawlhalla does have are three unique systems — weapons, stats, and the gravity cancel ability.

Stats are the main character modifiers. Each character is given a value between one and nine in four categories; Strength, Dexterity, Defense, and Speed. Each stat, depending on how low or high it is, can change a character's playstyle. They work as follows:

• Strength determines how much damage your attacks do and how hard your attacks knockback enemies.
• Dexterity determines how fast or slow you recover after using normals and special attacks.^note This basically means how long you sit on your butt after doing any kind of attack.
• Defense is how much damage you can take and how far knockbacks send you.
• Speed is how fast your character moves.

Stats aren't the only thing here, though. The name of the game in Brawlhalla is weapons. Each character has two of thirteen possible weapon types that they can use by collecting weapon drops throughout the stage (with the occasional bomb or mine). No two characters have the same two weapons, and similar to the standard moveset^note dubbed by players as "unarmed", the normals are the same for each character. However, each weapon has three special moves called "signatures"^note dubbed as "sigs" by the community that are unique to each character, and every character has six of them. The weapons are as follows:

• Axes (Relatively slow, hit hard, wide hitboxes.)
• Blasters (Low impact, but varied move sets. Arbitrary Weapon Range.)
• Bows (Difficult, but Awesome, narrow hitboxes, good combo capabilities.)
• Cannons (Slow, relying on steady combos, with good hitting power.)
• Gauntlets (Very short range, fast and hard to dodge. A few grabbing moves.)
• Grapple Hammers (Hit harder and slower than axes, with a superior range. Two grabbing moves.)
• Greatsword (Long range and powerful, but very slow. Surprisingly good combo capability.)
• Katars (Short range, fast but relatively strong. Good aerial mobility.)
• Rocket Lances (Awesome, but Impractical or Difficult, but Awesome, depending on your proficiency. Good mobility.)
• Orbs (A weird weapon, certain moves can bounce off of walls and the ground.)
• Scythes (Fast, weak hitting power, but several grabbing moves. Unorthodox movesets.)
• Spears (A polyvalent weapon, with medium speed, generous hitboxes, and easy-to-learn combos.)
• Swords (Weak but fast, easy to master. Useful for cranking up damage.)

Brawlhalla also has no blocking, instead favoring dashing and dodging. In place of that, however, is the ability to gravity cancel — that is, using a ground move in the air.^note Usually referred to as "gc" in the community. Because of this, combos and mixups can be much more complex.

The game was first playable in Early Access in April 2014. Its open beta began in November 2015 and was given a full release in October 2017. A PlayStation 4 version was released at the same time as the official release, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions were released on November 6, 2018.

The Characters page needs to be updated, and more images need to be added.

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This game contains examples of:

• Action Girl: All the female characters are this, both in the sense of being a fighting game, plus having done legendary acts for them to be admitted to Valhalla.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Val decided to be evil after gaining sentient thought, but likes watching Kung-Fu movies with Brynn when not in the tournament.
• Aliens Are Bastards: Lord Vraxx, a planetary conqueror and arguably one of the most evil members of the cast.
• All Swords Are the Same: All of the swords in the game offer the exact same moveset (besides signatures), "swords" ranging from things like broadswords and katanas, to iron pipes and even nailbats.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Asymmetrical characters' skins are just mirrored when they turn around, so Ada's green eye or Mirage's hair switch sides. However, there is also an animation showing the character switching which hand holds their weapon, making them all literally ambidextrous.
• Animal Battle Aura: Some legends project an animal aura for some of their signature moves. Bodvar has a bear one, Jhala has one of a dragon she has presumably slain, Sir Roland may have one of his horse, Queen Nai has some snake spirit attacks, Thatch has a shark and Kaya has a mammoth. All of these auras are physical enough to be an actual part of their attack in some way.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The mall allows for full refunds of items you either purchase by accident or just realized you hate. However, you're only allowed three, and after 90 days, you can't get a refund.
  • If you redeem a code that unlocks a legend skin, you also get that legend unlocked for free if it's not already unlocked.
  • All legends bought with gold are refunded upon buying the All Legends DLC.
• Animated Armor: Jhala's village had to regularly fight off suits of haunted armor.
  • One of Kor's alternate skins turns him into this.
  • Magyar is one animated by souls.
• Asian Fox Spirit:
  • Yumiko is a kitsune in the form of a woman and uses fox fire with her bow and talisman, which she uses as a hammer.
  • As of the Season 1 Battlepass, a Kitsune sidekick is available, albeit for the gold battlepass players only (if they progress through enough tiers).
• Artificial Brilliance: Extreme and Chosen bots are able to frame perfectly respond to player inputs as well as each other's inputs, allowing for insane and inhumane team combos.
• Artificial Stupidity: ...but unfortunately, they're not perfect either. They can still be combo abused because the moves they sometimes make are not actually the best response.^note Such as the bot performing an unarmed down air after being hit by a spear side light. Because unarmed always loses to clashes, a spear down light will take priority over the down air. You can even backdash and perform another side light to repeat the cycle until you can swap the side light for a more powerful move The weaker bot difficulties also fall under this category in general due to sometimes having slow response times, allowing someone to just spam specific moves on certain weapons to endlessly rack up damage without the bot doing anything to stop it.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Everyone who loses their weapon. It's actually pretty ineffective, given that you lack your specialized heavy attacks — although it can be useful at a very short range or to surprise opponents, and some of these unarmed attacks come out pretty fast. This is also the basis for Wu Shang, though he prefers gauntlets.
• Bargain with Heaven: Some of the fighters have this, having residence in Valhalla without actually dying or hailing from another afterlife or plane of existence.
• Bears Are Bad News: Bödvar is stated to be half bear, and very much was bad news to everyone he ever fought.
• BFG: Whole cannons are one of the available weapons, featuring large hitboxes and high priority attacks. They have great mobility and string potential, but are held back by a predictable moveset that requires unpredictable movement.
• BFS: Compared to normal swords, greatswords are more than twice the size, towering over even the largest legends. They boast great range and damage, but have trouble against faster weapons such as bow or katars.
• Big Ball of Violence: The logo features some of the characters fighting with a dust cloud obscuring them.
• Black Comedy: Somewhat common, The Ikrusk and Thatch in particular.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: How katars are wielded. They're extremely fast and offer a lot of mobility and mix-up, but don't have as much range as most other weapons.
• Blown Across the Room: The primary method of eliminating your opponents.
• Blood Knight: A few legends fall under this category; it is kind of a given that in a tournament full of badass warriors, some would revel in the battle.
• Bottomless Magazines: Blasters never require reloading, even those that clearly use solid ammunition, like Barraza's shotguns. Bows seem to materialize arrows as well, and most Legends who wield a bow don't seem to sport a quiver. Finally, cannons are almost always shaped like Renaissance-era, powder-laden one-shot cannons, but all are effectively multi-shot.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: a couple of legends do this.
  • Koji; his weapons are a sword and a bow.
  • Ember also counts, being a ranger (katars are short swords).
• Cartoon Bomb: They appear as a gadget that you can pick up and throw at your opponents, and even have a couple game modes that are about them.
• Cast of Snowflakes: The setting of Valhalla means the fighters can be from all across space and time. The first six characters, for instance, are a viking, a wild west marshal, some sort of mystery alien, a galactic conqueror, a caveman, and a jungle queen.
• Choice of Two Weapons: Each character has a unique set of two weapons that they carry.
• Cool Versus Awesome: This game has various characters ranging from an alien to other types of characters such as a cowboy, some monster hunters, several valkries and many more; it's common to see them fighting each other.
• Cowboy: Cassidy, being a marshal of the old west, is the Cowgirl variant.
• Contemporary Caveman: Gnash would count, since he seems to be able to talk and is placed next to a cast that is mostly from what can be considered recorded history, while Gnash's exact time of origin is unknown.
• Crapsack World: The Ikrusk. A good year is when the scorpion swarms thin out the vampires. The Cyberpunk future whence Ada and Val come, and the post-apocalyptic world Barraza comes from also count.
• Crossover: In addition to Rayman and Ezio being their own character and a Lum King as a Sidekick, there are also "Epic Crossovers", which brings in characters from basically anything in the form of skins for already existing characters.
  • Rivals of Aether: Ranno ^{Skin of} Wu Shang. Is the first crossover skin, but isn't actually considered a Crossover.
  • Shovel Knight: Shovel Knight, Black Knight, King Knight, Specter Knight, Plague Knight, and Enchantress ^{Skins of} Gnash, Orion, Sir Roland, Nix, Caspian, and Fait, respectively. Also came with Plains of Passage as a stage.
  • Rayman: Globox and Barbara ^{Skins of} Cassidy and Brynn
  • Hellboy (2019): Hellboy, Nimue, Gruagach, and Daimio ^{Skins of} Cross, Dusk, Teros, and Mordex, respectively
  • Adventure Time: Finn, Jake, and Princess Bubblegum ^{Skins of} Jhala, Kor, and Lord Vraxx. There's also a stage based off the Tree Fort. Lady Rainicorn appears as part of PB's Rocket Lance attacks, and the Rainicorn Rumble KO effect includes her, Lumpy Space Princess, and several Candy Kingdom denizens.
  • WWE: The Rock, John Cena, Becky Lynch, and Xavier Woods ^{Skins of} Sentinel, Hattori, Gnash, and Bödvar, respectively. There's also a WWE themed game mode called Brawldown. Later, a second wave of skins was released that includes Asuka, Roman Reigns, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and The Undertaker. ^{Skins of} Queen Nai, Teros, Ulgrim and Thor, respectively
  • Steven Universe: Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Stevonnie ^{Skins of} Petra, Xull, Kaya, and Val. There's also a stage based off the Crystal Temple. Malachite appears as a KO effect.
  • Tomb Raider: Lara Croft appears in both her modern and classic looks. Both of them are skins for Diana.
  • Ben 10: Heatblast, Four Arms, and Diamond Head ^{Skins of} Ada, Kor, and Caspian respectively. A new stage based on Galvan Prime, KO effect of Vilgax, podium called the Omnitrix, and the Morph game mode were all included.
  • The Walking Dead (2010): Rick, Daryl, and Michonne ^{Skins of} Barraza, Ember and Koji respectively. It also includes a watchtower podium, a walker KO effect and a Walker Attack survival mode A second wave brought Negan and Maggie. ^{Skins of} Jaeyun and Jhala
  • Kung Fu Panda: Po, Tigress and Tai Lung ^{Skins of} Wu Shang, Asuri and Mordex respectively. Crane, Mantis, Snake and Monkey appear in some special moves, while Master Shifu appears in a special KO effect
  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ^{Skins of}Leonardo for Jiro, Raphael for Ragnir, Donatello for Mirage and Michelangelo for Val. Splinter appears in some special moves. A new stage based on the Turtles' sewer lair, KO effect of Shredder, podium called Turtle Power and the Crew Battle game mode were all included.
  • Street Fighter: Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma. ^{Skins of} Petra, Wu-Shang and Val respectively. Following these skins, a new game mode, Street Brawl, transforms Brawlhalla into a 2D fighting game with walls for stages and health bars. A second wave brought skins for Ken, Sakura, Luke, Dhalsim, and M. Bison ^{Skins of} Petra, Lin Fei, Cross, Rayman, and Thor respectively.
  • G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow ^{Skins of} Thatch and Koji respectively. A new stage set in the territory of the Arashikage Clan was included.
  • Castlevania: Simon and Alucard ^{Skins of} Jhala and Ezio respectively. A new stage based on Dracula's Castle was included.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang, Toph, and Zuko ^{Skins of} Wu Shang, Kor, and Hattori respectively. A new stage based on the Western Air Temple was included.
  • Tekken: Devil Jin, Nina Williams, and Yoshimitsu ^{Skins of}Zariel, Lucien, and Jiro. Also came with Mishima Dojo as a stage.
  • Halo: The Master Chief and the Arbiter ^{Skins of}Isaiah and Sidra. Also came with a Halo-themed fighting stage.
  • Spongebob Squarepants: Spongebob, Patrick, and Sandy Cheeks ^{Skins of}Rayman, Teros, and Cassidy. Also came with Bikini Bottom as a stage.
  • Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano ^{Skins of}Ezio (both Anakin and Vader), Val, and Asuri. Also came with a stage set on Mustafar.
• Crossover Cosmology: Direct references are only made to gods of Norse myth, but angels and demons rub shoulders with grim reapers, Valkyries and Japanese fox spirits.
• Cyberpunk: The world outside Miami Dome appears to be this, if the MBFC's Upload Enslavement Initiative and Val are anything to go by.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Hattori swapped blood with a demon so she could defeat his brother and save her sisters. Then she became his bride.
  • Cross made a deal with a demon while fighting in WWII, gaining the demon as a weapon until his last fight. Since Brawlhalla conveniently offers infinite fights, Cross is eager to stay.
  • Thatch won his Ghost Ship from the Devil using "The Devil's own double-headed coin", which is now in Cross's hands.
• Death as Comedy: We know of very few of the actual deaths that happened to the Legends for them to arrive in Valhalla, but a few of the ones that we do know of are somewhat ridiculous. For instance, Sir Roland originally wasn't going to be able to enter Valhalla, as he was on a deathbed instead of dying in battle. So a Valkyrie came to him and punched him to death, technically counting as him dying in a fight and allowing him entry.
• Developer's Foresight: One of the taunts you can purchase has your character getting the "Deal with it" sunglasses dopping on their face in the case of Lord Vraxx and Kor, they get a special pair of sunglasses to fit their one-eyed face. A skin of Scarlet has sunglasses for each eye on them. Other skins which have the eyes (and therefore glasses) located elsewhere (such as the octopus skin for Azoth) or in the case for the Jake skin for Kor, stretched vertically. If the skin has some accesory with eyes (like a bone helmet or an animal companion) they will get glasses as well.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • In 2v2 competitive play, there's a crazy way to rack up damage called a "black hole". You start by hitting an enemy with a neutral normal (usually a string-based weapon such as swords or gauntlets), having the enemy knock back into your teammate, they hit the enemy with a neutral normal, have them knock the enemy towards you, and repeat for as long as possible. This is insanely difficult to DI out of and is crazy to watch when pulled off. Obviously, the two things keeping this from being broken is that it's easy to drop when two people are involved, as well as if one of the enemies aren't caught in it, they can pressure with a signature and knock one of the enemies out of being able to hit the trapped player. And even getting a 2-man black hole is difficult in itself.
  • Scythe and bow are both notable for their unorthodox movesets. Scythes have the active input mechanic which alters certain attacks based on directional input, while bows tend to be reliant on diagonal attacks for maximum effectiveness.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Kor has rock-based attacks, being a living rock, and Mirage seems to disappear into sand for some of her attacks.
• Double Jump: All characters have a triple jump by default, and are able to cancel all momentum once while in the air, and can make aerial attack to get a final upwards momentum boost if the need arises AND can change their momentum using aerial dodges which effectively serves as yet another jump.^note Said attack, called "recovery" or "rec" by the community, also has an "exhausted" version that doesn't go as high, using one of your jumps in the process.
• Dual Wielding:
  • Blasters, gauntlets, and katars are all given in pairs.
  • Jiro's sword signatures have him pull out a second sword to either use them both or to give to a shadow clone to wield. Ulgrim does the same with axes, forming a second out of raw energy.
• Dump Stat: Dexterity. The stance system allows you to add one point to a given stat at the expense of one point from another stat, and Dexterity is usually considered expendable. This is because its only purpose is to reduce cooldowns on attacks, theoretically producing tighter combos. However, most weapons' combos don't benefit from anything but very high Dexterity, so one extra point isn't going to make a noticeable difference.
• Eskimo Land: Kaya appears to be from this kind of background, though sometime in the past (since she rode mammoths).
• Eternal Recurrence: Queen Nai believes Ragnarok to be something like this, invoking the Mayan long count and subsequent doomsday themes.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: Koji, of the non-armored variety.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Valhalla.
• Expy:
  • Bödvar is based very closely on Bödvar Bjarki from The Saga of Hrolf Kraki.
  • Thor, Loki, and Munin are all direct copies of their namesakes in Norse mythology...with some modifications. Loki, for example, is a master of using multiverses and portals, while Munin is a rock star.
  • Similarly, Ulgrim is one of the unnamed Sons of Ivaldi from Norse mythology. His lore even references the contest that the Norse gods set up between the Sons of Ivaldi and the dwarves Brokkr and Eitri.
  • Red Raptor is clearly an Expy from the Super Sentai franchise.
  • Zariel is based on Sariel, an archangel from Hebrew mythology.
• Fantasy Pantheon: Outside of the Norse gods, a host of different gods populate the Brawlhalla universe - some directly reference real Earth myths, and others don't.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Everyone. Even crossover characters who normally have five fingers now only have four. Some legends have even fewer fingers.
• Guest Fighter:
  • After the acquisition of Blue Mammoth Games by Ubisoft, Rayman was added to the game, coming out on the same day as the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One versions of the game.
  • Because Crossover skins are an official type of skin, we have Shovel Knight characters, Hellboy (2019) characters, Adventure Time characters, and many more.
  • The introduction of Ezio Auditore marks the second guest character who has a full original moveset instead of just being a premium skin.
• Guide Dang It!: Some of the Battle Pass missions require you to win using specific characters. Some of them like "Characters native to Asgard" or "Members of the Valhallan Ladies' Book Club" can be deduced from reading the lore entries, but others like "Characters used to win the (X) tournament" or "Characters who include "bot" in their bot name" are just obscure enough that you'll either try out until you come across them or just go out and google them.
  • This has been mitigated with an update that lists all such attributes for each character in the "Meet the Legends" page.
• Guns Akimbo: The blasters always come in a pair. They offer great combo and coverage potential at the cost of Arbitrary Weapon Range and little to no diagonal capabilities.
• Hand Cannon: Thatch's guns can shoot cannon balls.
• Holiday Mode: Christmas, Halloween, "Back to School", St. Patrick's day, Valentine's day, "Summer Break", and other special events (that usually accompany the release of a new character, or a new movie coming out) all come with special skins, taunts and colours that can only be purchased during the event's duration.
• Honor Among Thieves: Subverted with Lucien, who was part of a group who were loyal to him... but at some point, he decided to turn them all in to turn his own profit, and actually did better without them as a lone criminal.
• Horror Hunger: It's implied that Mordex ate the fellow monster hunters accompanying him on his expedition after turning into a werewolf; that said, Mordex wanted to be a werewolf, and probably didn't care or feel any remorse for them anyway.
• Horny Vikings: Bödvar is certainly a viking and has a horned helmet.
  • Lord Vraxx has a viking skin which has REALLY big horns and lampshades the trope's historical inaccuracy.
  Alien Vikings DID have horns on their helmets, because aliens know what's cool.
• Hunter of Monsters: Before she died, Diana hunted monsters for a living and killed vampire kings like it was nothing. Even demons feared her.
• Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: The Fangwild is "a spacetime anomaly much like a black hole" and travelers would "inevitably be torn to shreds" if passing through it.
• An Ice Person:
  • Mordex uses ice magic, which he stole from an ice witch.
  • Kaya is from a land of ice, and uses it to enhance her bow and spear and for many attacks formed from whole cloth.
• Impossible Thief: Caspian's hat — among the things he stole before stepping foot in Valhalla are The Mona Lisa (which was replaced with a portrait of Caspian with a Mona Lisa Smile), the city of Kiev (all of it), and August 32nd (or, as his lore states, "some time for himself").
• Improvised Weapon: The origin of orb. Dusk created the first instance of the weapon with just rocks and magic. Though he DID need 200 years to craft it and another 200 years to master its use.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Val developed sentience by accident.
• Karma Houdini: Any of the Legends that were evil in life but somehow have a seat in Valhalla. Some were just amoral, others dealt specifically with demons and dark magic. Special mention goes to Mordex, who backstabbed and killed many people, one of them being fellow Legend Diana (who is appalled about him being allowed in there).
• Knight in Shining Armor: Sir Roland fits this trope to a T. His weapons are even the stereotypical sword and lance.
• Laser Blade: In addition to Ulgrim, who forged his weapons to use hardlight/energy tech to form their blades, many character skins and Epic character skins offer laser blade weaponry as weapon skins.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler
  • Finn's mechanical arm from when he lost his arm in season 6.
  • One of Garnet's signatures reveals she's a fusion.
  • Stevonnie, a fusion of Steven and Connie.
• Left for Dead: In Barazza's backstory, he was shot in the chest - yet returned to kill the Gaslords, who shot him in the first place.
• Magitek: Ulgrim's hard light/laser axe and the energy chainsaw that comes from the back of his lance-drill may point to something like this.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Scythe and greatsword legends. Battle Boots soon to come.
  • Scythe's active input mechanic means that most of its moves have variations dependent on what direction you hold after hitting your opponent. Certain signatures also offer this mechanic, such as both of Mordex's down signatures, or Fait's orb down signature. Greatly increases the weapon's mixup game, and certain variations of moves can outright kill.
  • Greatsword's stance mechanic is entirely unique as the stances only last about a second after performing a grounded light attack, and moving or jumping out of it cancels the stance. There are multiple different stances and assorted patterns, but the attacks are generally categorized into three groups: the Opener, the Bridge, and the Closer. The Opener comes out on the ground only, and are usually a weak hit to set up for a Bridge or Closer. The Bridge can only come out after an Opener and must be in a different direction than the Opener. The Closer can come out of a gravity cancel, after a Bridge, or after an Opener if it's in the same direction as the Opener.
• Meaningful Name: Quite a few legends' names have significance to their characters:
  • Arcadia: an arcadia is an idealized pastoral paradise (which her kingdom of Arcadia is supposed to be).
  • Azoth: Azoth is a substance in alchemy which was supposed to be the animating spirit of the body. Azoth, an undead king, is constantly being brought back to life by his followers.
  • Cross: A reference to the term "double-cross" - a maneuver that Cross used quite a bit in his lifetime.
  • Diana: Diana was the Roman goddess of the hunt, and the legend Diana is a monster hunter.
  • Fait: A punny spelling of "fate." Fait is a fortune-teller, so she can see people's fates.
  • Kor: His name is basically "rock" backward. Fitting for a golem.
  • Magyar: Magyar is the Hungarian word for "Hungarian." An odd choice, since Magyar is from Batavia, a region in the Netherlands.
  • Mako: A mako is a species of shark.
  • Mirage: A mirage is a desert phenomenon where refracting light causes phantom images. Mirage, a desert-dwelling legend, uses a magic-based fighting style which relies heavily on false images like mirages.
  • Nix: Nyx was the goddess of the night and the underworld (the world of the dead) in Greek Mythology. Nix is a reaper, so the name fits.
  • Onyx: Onyx is a type of stone, and Onyx is a human spirit trapped inside a stone statue.
  • Petra: Petra is the Greek word for stone. The legend Petra wields an especially powerful type of stone as a weapon...
  • Scarlet: Scarlet is a redhead.
  • Sentinel: He acts as a sentinel, or guard, for the people he protects.
  • Sidra: Sidra is named after the Gulf of Sidra on the coast of Tunis, where corsairs like her operated in real history.
  • Teros: The Minotaur's name is a corruption either of the Latin taurus or Spanish toro, both of which mean "bull."
  • Tezca: He's named after Tezcatlipoca, an Aztec god whom his lore implies he channels in his signature attacks.
  • Vector: A vector is a mathematical quantity with a magnitude and direction - very useful for pilots such as Vector.
  • Yumiko: Her name means "bow child" in Japanese (a reference to her using bow).
• Megaton Punch: What the unarmed forward heavy attack on the ground becomes if your target is damaged enough.
  • Cross's gauntlet side signature attack, and now Rayman's gauntlet side and up signature attacks.
• Magical Girl: Fait seems to be based on one, especially with her moon and star themes.
• Multi-Melee Master: Because of the game's two-weapon mechanics, the entire cast can qualify for this.
• Mysterious Stranger: When he was first introduced, very little was known of Orion, and all the characters had their own ideas about him. He was made somewhat less mysterious with the introduction of Ulgrim and his accompanying lore.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Mordex claims that Diana should have caught on to him being a werewolf when she found him sleeping under the porch.
• Ninja: Hattori and Jiro are Ninjas and have sneaky moves, though Hattori's moves rely more on smoke teleportation and Jiro in creating shadow clones.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Just about every legend has one skin that combines several genres. A few examples include robotic versions of Teros, Ragnir, Hattori and Onyx, a viking Lord Vraxx, a space race Cassidy, and so much more.
  • Reno is a cowboy alien bug.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed:
  • Koji (and perhaps Jiro as well) is based on Sasaki Kojiro, a famous samurai from Japan's Sengoku period.
  • Sir Roland is a clone of the real-life Roland, a knight under Charlemagne.
  • Thatch is a copy of Edward Thatch (or Teach), also known as Blackbeard.
• Not Saying The Z Word: In all the content regarding The Walking Dead, every instance of undead humans is referred to as "Walkers". Averted in the rest of the game.
• Our Angels Are Different: Zariel is a warrior angel sent by Paladium from Elysium. They are also the first canonically genderless legend in the game.
• Our Liches Are Different: Azoth, described as a Lich Lord, seems to use magic mostly as a way to power his normal attacks, rather than being the focus of his fighting style. Also, it seems that the seven stones that serve as his phylactery cannot be destroyed, only hidden.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: Teros is a Minotaur. His backstory is even that he was hired by various "villains" because it was the easiest work he could get; in other words, he did serve as a "boss monster" before coming to Valhalla.
• Our Orcs Are Different: Xull is not just a random orc mook, he was the commander of the Iron Legion, he rode a T-rex, and he is obsessed with being in charge, even if it's something like a ladies' book club. He has the highest strength of all the legends at base, even outdoing the Minotaur.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Diana, Caspian, and Dusk all have generic vampire-themed skins. Volkov was later added as a legend with dark magic and a more monstrous flare, and Ezio was given an Alucard crossover skin.
• Our Were Wolves Are Different: Mordex was a man who fully sought out being a werewolf for the power. He also has ice magic and dark magic that he stole from a witch.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: Ada, after being trained for the Black Ops division of a corrupt company, discovers their true goals and promptly exposes them to the media and becomes the worst thing that ever happened to them. She also appears to have some cybernetics at least in one eye, pointing to possible enhancements or experiments.
• Pirate: Thatch is the drunken pirate stereotype, while Sidra is more of the adventuring kind.
• Pistol-Whipping: When Diana has a bow equipped, two of her three special moves cause her to hit her opponent with the bow itself rather than shooting them.
• Platform Fighter: Follows the basic idea of Smash Bros: damage your enemy enough to launch them offscreen.
• Playing with Fire: Ragnir. Being a dragon, this is a given. The rocket lance also has a fire-based attack, and Barraza's signature attacks heavily feature smoke and fire. Lin Fei uses fireballs too, both with her Cannon and her Katars.
• Psychopomp:
  • Nix is a Grim Reaper for hire. She specially has contracts on some of the other Legends, since they broke metaphysical laws to get to Valhalla.
  • Brynn is part Valkyrie, who bring the worthy dead to Valhalla. Most of the fighters got to Valhalla through either her or another Valkyrie bringing them there.
• Rerouted from Heaven: Inverted; despite Valhalla being the Norse equivalent to heaven for warriors, there are a few less-than-savory fighters that were considered worthy or are there through some mistake - precise details are often vague. Namely, we have a demonic mobster, an insane pirate, an alien tyrant, a lich lord^note who is heavily implied to be a Retired Monster who regularly gets dragged out of retirement, much to his chagrin, and a man-turned-werewolf who would do anything for more power.
• Rocket-Powered Weapon: Rocket Lances are oversized lances that have a head almost as big as the legends themselves and have a rocket in the back to use for boosting around or hitting people with. They have extremely good horizontal capabilities and the tools to keep them in situations where they can use said capabilities.
• Rōnin: Koji, both in his default form and with his Ronin Koji skin.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Queen Nai is a proud warrior and magic user who wants to do the best for her people and would fight to the death for them.
• Shock and Awe: Sentinel has electric-based weapons. Thor too, obviously.
• Sinister Scythe: Scythes are a weapon as of January 11, 2017. The users thus far are a werewolf, a Grim Reaper for hire, a mystic star destroyer in human form, a magic-wielding assassin time-traveler, a shadow-wielding ninja, a witch, a vampire, and a raven rock-star.
• Shout-Out:
  • A few of the skins players can buy reference various things, like the Mogar Gnash and Mad King Roland skins.
  • Similarly, the Nightshade Ragnir is a reference to another Ubisoft game series, Assassin's Creed (the included katars skin is even called "Hidden Blades").
  • Ada's title, "Ghost in the Machine", is likely a reference to Ghost in the Shell, or to Isaac Asimov's writings. Her name is a reference to Ada Lovelace, one of the world's first computer programmers (Ada being a combat hacker).
  • Hattori is named after Hattori Hanzō, one of the most famous ninjas of history.
  • The Dark Arts Fait skin description says "You have met with a terrible Fait, haven't you?"
  • The Kill Thrill Hattori skin is described as "Only Hattori, The Bride, and Bruce can pull off this look". Her Kitsune skin reads "What does the ninja say?"
  • One of Barraza's skins has him wear a hockey mask. His guns are even named "The Sequels".
  • Serape Kid Cassidy's description? "There's a snake on my boot!"
  • The "Molten Kor" skin seems to be a shout-out to the homonym raid in World of Warcraft as the description reads "Without a full team, you're gonna get wiped."
  • Appropriately, the Shark Attack skin for Thatch is described as "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
  • When the computer is controlling Isaiah, the player name appears as "I, Saibot".
  • Asuri's "First Day" skin has katars named Hello Katars.
  • Gnash's halloween disguise as a zombie is called The Monster Gnash. The description reads "It was a graveyard SMAAAAAASH!"
  • Dusk's halloween skin is called Dusk 'til Dawn. It's a vampire disguise that looks a lot like Castlevania's Dracula.
• Snowball Fight: One of the game modes involves the players chucking snowballs at each other, but they hit with the force of bombs and can be rapid-fired.
• Soul Power:
  • Azoth uses ghostly skulls for most of his signatures.
  • Nix is a reaper of sorts, so some of her moves use souls to attack.
• Steampunk: Scarlet is from Victorian England, although a very odd version, what with the man-eating apes. Some of her skins even have her use steampunk-styled armor.
• Super Hero: Sentinel is pretty much a cliche of the American Superhero, Paper-Thin Disguise and all.
• Technical Pacifist: Wu-Shang is a monk and prefers not to fight unless necessary; however, given that in Valhalla, he can fight without killing or doing permanent harm, he enjoys fighting in the tournament.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: To get rid of your weapon, you throw it. If it hits someone, it does damage, and can even knock someone out if they're at a high enough percent.
• Transhuman Treachery: Mordex was once a monster hunter and quartermaster of an order of them. He always did it for his own gain however h, to get closer to the supernatural for more power, eventually purposefully getting bit by a werewolf before turning on humankind.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Ulgrim is along these lines, though less isolated than normal for the trope. The rare materials he gathers and proficiency lean more towards this than a normal blacksmith. He does craft for the gods, after all. His reason to be in the tournament is to show off what his creations can do.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: With all the different crossover skins, name any other game where Finn the Human and The Rock can duke it out.
• Valkyries: It is set in Valhalla, and one of the fighters, Brynn, is half Valkyrie.
• Wingding Eyes: Played with. Characters when KO'd (or within the first 3 frames of the RIP emote), will typically display X's on the character's eye(s) if they are exposed. Several other skins avert this like the Adventure Time characters (justified because they have different styled eyes), or any character whose face is never seen.
• Zeppelins from Another World: The stage called "The Enigma" contains two zeppelins in the background.

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