Core goal: know which names are safe to treat as playable or recruitable, which are shown but not locked as playable, and what you do in-game to get them, so you are not planning pulls that do not exist. Dev interviews: characters join through story, side jobs, and friendship or gifts, not banners. Extra characters are meant to match city jobs, not "more product to sell."

1The Core Playable Squad

These are the ones TGS demo players and interview threads keep naming as switchable. If a clip only shows these four switching, that is the demo core, not the full launch roster.

NameRole players talk aboutCombat or kit people mention
Captain (you)ACD "Infinite Trigger," male or femaleChaos-liquid tendrils, swinging, environmental melee
TaffyLazy rabbit-eared courier, Yeet SquadGiant mallet that becomes a rideable bike
RichieNCCA cop, overachieverSniper support plus melee arrests
SeymourHacker living in an RVGadgets and tech, mask is a running joke

2Shown and Named, Widely Assumed Playable

Community recaps treat these as the next layer, from official art, trailers, and site bios that fans still use even when bios get yanked.

Alan
Blond social butterfly, student and model, high-tech yo-yos.
Bansy
Pink-haired graffiti artist, paint and laser gun and paint-can grenades. Bio was removed from the site at one point, players still count her.
Aileen
Dream Garden maid-cafe manager, martial arts.
Dila
White-haired investigator, claymore, supernatural.
Lykaia
Fox-eared Prime Minister or NCCA director, two-handed spear.
Mechanika (Meg)
Engineer who can wake machines.
Ringo
D.P.A. liaison.
Anonym and Christina
Newly labeled faces in the release-date trailer. Treat as "named in marketing this week," not as a full kit reveal.
Park unnamed or city-2 faces separately. Players also flag a red bat-wielding woman with a demon tail, Chongxiao's Wei Yinglong, and other trailer extras. Do not put them on a "day-one team" list until a name plus playable confirmation shows up in a trailer or Q and A.

3Decide Captain Gender Now

Community consensus after CBT talk and X recaps: both male and female Captain are expected at launch. Female Captain going quiet in ads is marketing, not a deletion. Dynamic between the two (same person vs siblings) is still unknown.

Pick the look you want to live in the city as, not a "secret second story" you have no confirmation of. Kits are described as the same role with small dialogue differences.

4Plan Unlocks Like Jobs, Not Banners

From the interviews fans keep quoting:

You do not save currency for a 50/50. You save time for the life you want to play.

5Decision Points

Playable or NPC?
Use the community signal
Playable signal: named in a demo switch, has a job loop, or has a personal story the devs mentioned. Trailer-only plus no name equals sightseeing until proven otherwise.
Captain gender
Pick for city life and camera
Not meta. Kits are described as the same role with small dialogue differences.
Who to main first
After Captain
Exploration: Taffy (bike-mallet). Structured combat: Richie. Chaos and gadgets: Seymour. Social connector: Alan (when he is actually handed to you).
Gender ratio
Plan around it, do not wait
Excluding Captain, the revealed cast is heavily female. Confirmed males people name are basically Alan and Seymour. Devs said more characters will follow city jobs, not a promised 1:1 ratio.

Common Mistakes

Working Mental Checklist

  1. Captain (M/F) — you
  2. Taffy, Richie, Seymour — demo core
  3. Alan, Bansy, Aileen, Dila, Lykaia, Mechanika, Ringo — named roster-in-waiting
  4. Anonym, Christina — new trailer names, kits unknown
  5. Everyone else — watchlist only
Unlock path: story, then their job, then their quest, then gifts, then they join the Yeet or ACD squad. When the next trailer drops a name plus switch footage, promote that name from watchlist to core. Until then, do not spend mental energy on a banner that is not coming.