Everything you can unlock in Pass the Fear: hunters, difficulties, Red-rarity and Mythic items, golden weapons, the Training Room and what to prioritize first.
Pass the Fear Unlocks & Unlockables — Everything and How to Get It
Pass the Fear gates almost everything interesting behind progression: most of the hunter roster starts locked, the difficulty ladder unlocks through clears, the best loot pool (Red-rarity and Mythic) is effectively locked behind higher tiers, and post-launch patches kept adding unlockable layers — golden weapons, the Training Room, the Item Encyclopedia. This guide catalogs what unlocks, how to unlock it, and what to prioritize.
Hunters: How the Roster Unlocks
The launch roster is seven hunters, and most of them start locked. Destructoid's hunter tier list describes the system plainly: "We have many more options, and most of them will remain locked at first. Once you clear the early game stages, you will gain access to more hunter options to start your run."
What is documented:
- Jester starts unlocked (the free starter).
- Clearing early game stages opens the rest of the roster — stage-progression unlocks rather than purchases or currency.
- The demo's four hunters were Jester, Lanny, Marcus and Jenny; Long Tong and Stella joined at full release, and at least one source reports a possible eighth unlockable (unverified).
Priority: unlock the S-tier pair (Long Tong, Jenny) early — stage progression reaches them quickly, and their kits are the strongest onboarding-to-endgame picks. Full rankings are in the characters guide.
Difficulties: The Stage-Gated Ladder
- Only Journey is available at first.
- Originally, higher tiers opened by clearing content (the early guidance was "defeat at least two bosses").
- Since patch 7.26: clearing Hard directly unlocks Nightmare, Hell and Reality — the single most valuable unlock in the game, worth three tiers at once.
If your goal is to open the full difficulty ladder, skip the intermediate climb: build for a Hard clear (one Battle Scar is manageable) and the top three tiers unlock together. Details in the difficulty guide.
The Loot Pool: Red Rarity, Mythic, and the Hidden Ceiling
The best items in the game are locked behind the difficulty ladder:
- Higher difficulties expand the loot pool — Red-rarity items and Mythic relics only drop on tiers where the pool includes them.
- Red rarity has multiple paths (per the launch build guides): rare drops, forging up at the Forge/Blacksmith, and natural red uniques that ordinary weapons cannot be forged into.
- Mythic weapons come from forging at the Blacksmith — patch 7.26 even added a 1-second cooldown on rerolling after a Mythic forge result, confirming the path.
This makes "unlock progression" and "unlock items" the same activity: clearing harder tiers opens the pool, and the pool makes clearing harder tiers possible.
Golden Weapons (Update 8.5)
Update 8.5 added the newest unlockable layer:
Per the official Update 8.5 patch notes: "Added golden versions for Weapon and Weapon Parts. After clearing The Blood Moon Has Arrived difficulty, you can obtain the corresponding skins for the weapons you carried at the time of clearing."
So: clear The Blood Moon Has Arrived difficulty, and the weapons you carried get golden skins. Cosmetic, but it is the first confirmed completion-reward loop for the weapon system. The updates guide tracks the full patch history.
Systems and Meta Unlocks
- Team Talents — the squad-wide meta layer added at full release; unlocks and levels through account progress (see the progression guide).
- Training Room — Update 8.5: talk to Dummy in camp to enter a room where you can freely configure and test builds. Unlocks as a camp feature; no requirements documented.
- Item Encyclopedia — Update 8.5: browsable from the system menu; unlock conditions displayed in-game (patch 7.25 fixed a display issue with unlock conditions).
- Story fragments — permanent base stat boosts collected in chapters; see the story guide.
- Tarot slot restrictions — patch 7.27 relaxed some restrictions, effectively unlocking more card combinations.
What to Unlock First (Priority Order)
The launch-era community consensus:
- Clear early stages → unlock the hunter roster (Jenny and Long Tong are the prizes).
- Clear Hard → unlock Nightmare, Hell, Reality (the triple unlock).
- Farm Nightmare+ → open the Red/Mythic pool (the build ceiling).
- Update 8.5 content — Training Room for testing, Encyclopedia for planning, Blood Moon clears for golden skins once your builds can handle it.
The Red/Mythic pool only matters once you can survive the tiers that drop it. Health → armor → move speed in Squad Points, then the pool opens itself. Order matters more than ambition.
FAQ
How do I unlock characters in Pass the Fear?
Clear early game stages — most hunters start locked and open through stage progression. Jester starts unlocked; Jenny and Long Tong are the strongest early prizes, with Long Tong and Stella new for the full release.
How do I unlock higher difficulties?
Only Journey is available at first. Since patch 7.26, clearing Hard directly unlocks Nightmare, Hell and Reality together — no need to climb the ladder one tier at a time.
How do I unlock Red rarity items?
Red-rarity items and Mythic relics are part of the higher-difficulty loot pool: rare drops, forging up at the Forge/Blacksmith, or natural red uniques. You need the tiers that drop them first.
How do I unlock golden weapons?
Clear "The Blood Moon Has Arrived" difficulty (Update 8.5) with weapons equipped — the weapons you carried at the time of clearing get golden skins.
What should I unlock first?
Roster (clear early stages) → Hard clear (unlocks three difficulty tiers) → Nightmare+ farming (opens the Red/Mythic pool) → Update 8.5 content (Training Room, Encyclopedia, golden weapons).
Related Guides
- Pass the Fear Progression & Meta Guide
- Pass the Fear Characters & Hunters
- Pass the Fear Difficulty Levels Explained
- Pass the Fear Achievements Guide
- Pass the Fear Walkthrough & Run Guide
- Pass the Fear Updates & Patch Notes
Official resources: Steam store page · Official patch notes · Destructoid hunter tier list
Last updated: August 13, 2026 — unlock systems through Update 8.7 (V1.0.491, August 7, 2026).
More Pass the Fear Guides
Every Pass the Fear hunter explained: roles, starting skills and numbers for Jester, Lanny, Marcus, Jenny, Elena, Long Tong and Stella.
The Pass the Fear co-op guide: how to set up Steam and LAN lobbies, join rules, item sharing, revives, the DPS panel, and the best co-op team roles.
The Pass the Fear community guide: r/roguelites discussions, Steam Community hub debates, the official Discord and X account, and where to find builds.
Pass the Fear controller support and keybinds: the default controls table, how to remap with mouse side buttons and stick-press, and keyboard vs pad verdict.
The complete Pass the Fear wiki and guide: how the roguelite bullet-hell works, every hunter, the build system, difficulties, co-op, and whether it's worth it.
How long is Pass the Fear? Estimated single-run length, time to beat the main game, 100 percent time, and what affects your playtime, with honest sourcing.
How to play Pass the Fear: controls and keybinds, the camp hub, the full run structure, how the 12-hour clock works, and what you lose when you die.
Pass the Fear mods: the honest state of mod support, no official tools or Workshop, player-made mods status, and the workarounds that actually exist.