Remnant 2 Archetypes Guide — All 14 Classes, How They Work, and the Best Picks

Remnant 2 has 14 playable archetypes — the game's name for classes — and none of them are locked to your character forever. You pick one of four starters after the tutorial, then unlock the other ten through merchants, hidden quests and DLC, and eventually run two at once in a dual-class system. This guide covers every archetype in the game: how the class system actually works, every unlock method with the exact item and cost, each class's perks, skills, trait and starting gear, the best picks for solo and co-op, and the pairings the community swears by.

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Official resources: Steam store page · Remnant 2 Wiki (Classes) · IGN Remnant II Wiki · Gunfire Games · Official Remnant 2 news

What Are Archetypes in Remnant 2?

Archetypes are the class system in Gunfire Games' third-person co-op shooter, which launched July 25, 2023 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. If you played Remnant: From the Ashes (2019), the difference is the single biggest change between the two games: in the first Remnant, your starting class only decided your opening gear, and every character eventually evolved into the same three endgame archetypes. In Remnant 2, your archetype is a real build decision that stays relevant the whole run.

You begin the game archetype-less with generic gear, then pick your first class after the tutorial when Wallace in Ward 13 offers you the archetype selection screen. Every archetype is built from the same five pieces:

• 3 Skills — active abilities on cooldowns. You unlock the first at level 1, the second at level 5 and the third at level 10, and you can swap between them freely out of combat.
• 5 Perks — passive bonuses, one of each type: Prime, Damage, Team, Utility and Relic. They unlock in that order from levels 1-5, then get upgraded versions from levels 6-10. The Prime perk is the class-defining one (the Medic's extra relic charges, the Handler's revive dog) and upgrades twice, at level 5 and level 10.
• 1 Archetype Trait — a unique stat bonus that levels up with your archetype for free. Once your archetype hits level 10, that trait becomes usable on any other class (spending regular trait points).

Each archetype also has its own starting gear, and its Engram item — the thing Wallace crafts so you can equip it — can be slotted into either your prime or secondary slot.

How the Archetype Leveling System Works

Every archetype levels from 1 to 10 on its own. Leveling unlocks your skill slots and perk upgrades as described above, and each level of the class also levels its unique trait. Two numbers dominate the discussion here:

• Archetype level cap: 10 per class.
• Trait point cap: 60 total, and archetype traits don't count against it (more on that below).

XP works like this, per the Remnant 2 Wiki: if you're running two unmaxed archetypes, XP is split between them — a 70 XP kill gives 35 to each. If one is already at level 10, the leveling one gets the full 70. That makes dual-classing slower while you're still raising two classes, so a common trick is to max one archetype to 10 first, then level the second one at full speed while still getting its trait for free.

Trait points, which buy upgrades in the general trait pool, come from killing bosses, finding Tomes of Knowledge, and taking down Aberrations (random super-elites). IGN's wiki confirms the hard cap at 60 trait points — past that, tomes and bosses stop rewarding them. Your four starting core traits (Vigor, Endurance, Spirit, Expertise) come with five free points to spend, and there are 21 traits total in the game.

Per the official IGN Remnant II wiki (Trait Point Cap), "Remnant 2 allows you to collect a maximum of 60 Trait Points. After you reach 60, Tomes of Knowledge and bosses will no longer award additional points."

Dual Archetypes: Unlocking the Second Class Slot

The second archetype slot — the dual-class feature — unlocks once your character has earned 10 trait points. Since bosses and tomes hand out trait points steadily through the campaign, most players hit that milestone right around the Labyrinth Sentinel boss fight in the game's third area, which is why many guides (including the Fextralife wiki) say "defeat the Labyrinth Sentinel" and others say "collect 10 trait points" — they're describing the same moment from different angles.

What the second slot gives you:

• Any archetype you've unlocked can go in the prime (first) or secondary slot.
• The secondary archetype keeps its Damage, Team, Utility and Relic perks, its trait, and its skills — but you do not get its Prime perk from the secondary slot. Prime perks only come from your prime class.
• Your equipped class combo generates a combined class name (e.g. a Medic/Hunter pair shows up as a distinct title like "Field Medic" — the naming is automatic, which is how other players read your build at a glance).
• Both classes level simultaneously with the XP split described above, but their levels are tracked separately — if your prime is level 6, your fresh secondary still starts at 1.

The class synergy is the real endgame of Remnant 2's build system. A classic combo is Medic (prime) + Challenger (secondary): you keep Regenerator's relic-charge economy while stealing Challenger's survivability perks without giving up your healing. We'll cover pairings in more depth at the end.

All 14 Archetypes at a Glance

Here's the complete roster as of The Dark Horizon DLC (September 2024). Eleven are in the base game, three come from paid DLC.

The 4 Starting Archetypes

You pick one of these four after the tutorial (plus Gunslinger if you pre-ordered). The other three remain buyable in Ward 13, so nothing is permanently missable. All four unlock items cost 1,500 Scrap, then Wallace charges 1,000 Scrap + 10 Lumenite Crystals to turn the item into an equippable Engram — roughly 2,500 Scrap and 10 Lumenite per starter class.

Challenger — the melee tank

The Challenger is a close-range bruiser built around survivability and stagger. Its trait, Strong Back, lowers the dodge weight threshold so you can wear heavier armor and still roll properly. The signature skill is Juggernaut, which gives you 3 stacks of Bulwark, +15% movement and melee speed, +50% melee damage and reduced stamina cost for 25 seconds. War Stomp (150 damage in a forward cone up to 7.5m) is your horde answer, and Rampage turns you into a berserker: each kill stacks RAGE for +2.5% ranged damage, and at 10 stacks you BERSERK — auto-reload and doubled Rampage effects for 15 seconds.

The Prime perk Die Hard is the reason people pick Challenger first: on fatal damage you don't die, you become invulnerable for 2 seconds, heal to 50% and punch the ground for area damage. Ten-minute cooldown, resets at World Stones. It's effectively a second life in every boss fight.

Starting gear: AS-10 "Bulldog" shotgun, Silverback Model 500, Iron Greatsword, Bruiser armor set.

Handler — the dog class

The Handler brings a permanent canine companion that attacks, taunts and — thanks to the Bonded prime perk — revives you when you're downed, healing you to 50%. Solo players love it because the dog is a second body: it draws aggro, self-revives, and keeps your damage bonuses flowing through Pack Hunter as long as you're near it (a patch even added melee damage and melee crit to Pack Hunter to make the class less gun-only).

Its three skills — Guard Dog (+15% threat, -20% damage taken), Support Dog (howl that reduces damage 15% for allies within 20m) and Attack Dog — let you toggle the pet's role from tank to buffer to DPS. The trait Kinship reduces friendly-fire damage to your own companion, which matters more than it sounds in a game where your own AoE can hit your allies.

Starting gear: Blackmaw AR-47, Tech 22 machine pistol, Rusted Claws, Trainer armor set.

Hunter — the precision DPS

The Hunter is the classic long-range damage dealer. Its trait Longshot adds up to 600 weapon range, its prime perk Dead to Rights extends your active skill duration by 2.5 seconds per 65 base weakspot damage (i.e., headshots), and Hunter's Mark is the bread-and-butter skill: an aura that marks all enemies within 35m, boosting your damage 15% against them and giving the whole party +10% crit chance on marked targets.

Later skills — Hunter's Focus (bigger weakspot window) and Hunter's Shroud (brief invisibility + guaranteed crits) — turn it into a burst assassin for Apocalypse runs. The trait synergizes with anything that rewards range, and the class pairs with almost everything.

Starting gear: Huntmaster M1 scoped rifle, Repeater Pistol, Steel Sword, Nightstalker armor set.

Medic — the healer

The Medic is the only dedicated support class in the base game and a permanent co-op staple. Its prime perk Regenerator refunds a spent relic charge after you restore 350 total health to allies — which means the more you heal, the more heals you have. The trait Triage boosts all healing done.

Skills: Wellspring (punch the ground to create a 3m healing spring that restores about 10 HP/s and speeds up blight decay for 15s), Healing Shield (shield all allies within 25m for 100% of their max health for 10s), and Redemption (a 30m shockwave that revives downed allies and restores 50% of their max HP over 10s). Redemption alone makes Medic the best "oops" button in the game — it can save a full wipe mid-boss.

Starting gear: XMG57 Bonesaw LMG, Service Pistol, Steel Flail, Field Medic armor set.

Gunslinger — the Pre-Order Class That's Also Free

Gunslinger was the pre-order bonus: anyone who pre-ordered any edition started with it. If you didn't pre-order, it's still fully unlockable in-game — it's just gated behind the campaign. Progress the story, and once you've reached the later worlds, go back to Mudtooth in Ward 13 and keep asking for stories in campaign mode until he hands you the Worn Cylinder (exhausting his dialogue in Adventure mode won't work). Wallace converts it into the Iron Cylinder Engram. On later characters, once it's unlocked account-wide, you can buy the item straight from Wallace for 1,500 Scrap.

The class is all about gun handling and ammo economy. The prime perk Loaded means activating any Gunslinger skill instantly reloads both weapons and grants a short window of infinite ammo — with Quick Draw (six fast-draw shots, ~52 base damage each, auto-targeting within 25m) you can dump an entire mag for free. Side Winder and Bullet Storm add more burst and sustained fire options, and the trait Ammo Reserves raises your total ammo pool, which keeps you firing when every other class is hunting for pickups.

The 6 Secret Archetypes

These are the classes you find in the worlds rather than buy in the hub. Every one of them has a specific item that Wallace turns into an Engram for the standard 1,000 Scrap + 10 Lumenite Crystals.

Alchemist — Losomn sewer event

In Losomn, stand near a sewer gate and the Manticora will drag you into the sewers. Defeat it and you get the Mysterious Stone → Philosopher's Stone Engram. The Alchemist is a consumable-focused buffer: its skills are throwable vials (Stone Mist for defense, Frenzy Dust for +20% fire/reload/melee speed and +15% movement, Elixir of Life for healing), and the prime perk Spirited stretches your concoction uptime. The trait Potency boosts consumable effects. It's a sleeper pick for co-op where one player keeps the whole team juiced.

Engineer — N'Erud's hidden turret class

The Engineer is so well hidden that most players find it by accident — or not at all. In N'Erud, the Alien Device is tucked away in the fog in Timeless Horizon or The Eon Vault (progress the story until you can explore those areas). It crafts into the Drzyr Caliper Engram.

The Engineer wields deployable heavy weapons: Vulcan (a minigun you can carry or deploy as an autonomous turret), Flamethrower (devastating against Root enemies in Yaesha and Root Earth), and Impact Cannon (a railgun-style heavy hitter with a shotgun-style AoE when deployed). Perks lean into it: Metal Worker boosts skill and heavy weapon damage, Magnetic Field gives allies near your turrets 15% damage reduction, Heavy Mobility speeds you up while carrying heavy weapons, and Surplus refills heavy ammo on relic use. The trait Fortify adds armor. Deploy two turrets, drop a flamethrower in the doorway, and you've become a one-person defensive line.

Explorer — beat the game

The Explorer is the post-campaign class: defeat Annihilation, the final boss, and pick up the Broken Compass → Golden Compass Engram. Its whole kit is about looting and moving: prime perk Lucky boosts item discovery, trait Swiftness raises movement speed, and the skills Plainswalker, Gold Digger and Fortune Hunter push speed and drop rates further. You wouldn't main it for damage — you'd use it to farm materials, which makes it a great second slot for endgame grinding.

Invader — Root Earth's assassin

The Invader comes from the last area of the game. You need the Dreamcatcher melee weapon (found in Losomn after the Nightweaver's web); in Root Earth's Corrupted Harbor, pick up the Escalation Protocol amulet, then swing the Dreamcatcher at the body to create Walker's Dream. Use it to summon and defeat Bane, which drops the Wooden Shiv → Serrated Root Blade Engram.

The Invader is an evasion specialist: trait Untouchable widens the perfect-dodge window, prime perk Shadow drops clone decoys that draw aggro, and the skills Worm Hole (teleport), Void Cloak (brief invulnerability) and Reboot (reset your own cooldowns) make it the hardest class to actually hit. High skill ceiling, extremely satisfying once you master dodging.

Archon — the most complex unlock in the game

The Archon is famously locked behind the game's biggest checklist — the "cosplay as Ford" puzzle. Requirements include: Invader at level 5 (with Worm Hole equipped), Explorer at level 10 (with Fortune Hunter equipped), a specific loadout (Leto's Amulet, Amber Moonstone, Black Cat Band, Zania's Malice, Anastija's Inspiration, the full Realmwalker armor set, Ford's Scattergun, Cube Gun, Labyrinth Staff and the Void Heart relic), and then finding a corrupted gate in the Labyrinth that only opens with that exact setup plus the Biome Portal Key. Inside is the Backrooms — you have 90 seconds to grab the Strange Box before you're kicked out. Wallace turns it into the Hexahedron Engram.

The payoff is the game's most broken-sounding class: Tempest (prime) scales mod damage and generation, Flash Caster (trait) makes weapon mods cast almost instantly, and the skills Reality Rune, Havoc Form (a floating lightning form) and Chaos Gate let you spam mods. In a game where weapon mods are already the strongest systems, the Archon turns them into a machine gun. It's the top pick in most tier lists for a reason.

Summoner — Yaesha's Blood Moon class

In Yaesha, wait for a Blood Moon (leave and re-enter the zone until the sky turns red), shoot down the floating Root Wisps for Blood Moon Essence, then buy the Faded Grimoire at a Bloodmoon Altar for 15 Blood Moon Essence (plus 1,500 Scrap and 5 Lumenite Crystals). Wallace crafts the Tomb of the Bringer Engram.

The Summoner commands three minion types — Reaver (melee bruiser), Hollow (ranged), and Flyer (explosive) — with the trait Regrowth giving passive HP regen and the prime perk Ruthless enraging your minions (+30-50% damage, attack speed and movement for 20s) when they take damage. The class is a lawnmower against hordes and pairs hilariously with the Engineer for a full army build. Note: patch notes confirmed the Dominator damage perk now boosts Explosive and Mod/Skill damage rather than just your guns, so the summons hit harder post-2024.

The 3 DLC Archetypes

Each of the three paid expansions added exactly one archetype. All three require owning the respective DLC (each $9.99 on Steam), and each unlock still costs the standard 1,000 Scrap + 10 Lumenite to craft.

Ritualist — The Awakened King (Nov 14, 2023)

In the DLC's Forlorn Coast area, find the cave beneath the docks (hop across the boats to the boathouse), defeat the witch performing a ritual on a pig, and grab the Ragged Poppet → Cursed Effigy Engram.

The Ritualist is a status-effect nightmare: trait Affliction boosts status duration by up to 80%, prime Vile makes your negative statuses also apply Infected (spreading on death to enemies within 5m), and Miasma applies Bleeding, Burning, Overloaded and Corroded to everything within 15m in one cast. Eruption deals 145 damage in a 15m radius that scales 100% per unique status on the target, and Death Wish trades your healing for +35% damage with lifesteal. It's the strongest AoE clearing class in the game — Wrath even adds +12% damage and +10% crit against status-affected enemies.

Invoker — The Forgotten Kingdom (Apr 23, 2024)

In Yaesha's Ancient Canopy, stand between the two sand piles in the sand pit for about 5-8 minutes to drop into a secret room and grab the Old Flute → Spirit Flute Engram.

The Invoker is a skill-spam buff class built around the three Ways — Way of Kaeula, Way of Meidra and Way of Lydusa — which grant elemental skill damage and party buffs. Its trait Gifted boosts skill damage and the prime perk Visionary keeps skills coming off cooldown, making it the best secondary class for any build that leans on skills (it's the standard pairing partner for Archon and Ritualist builds).

Warden — The Dark Horizon (Sep 24, 2024)

In the final DLC's new N'Erud area, find the Weathered Mechanism in a pillar deep past the Waylaid Conservatory → Command Module Engram.

The Warden is a defensive drone master: it deploys Drone: Shield, Drone: Heal or Drone: Combat that hovers with you, and its prime perk Dynamic supercharges the drone, trait Barrier grants shields, and Galvanize/Safeguard/Contingency/Energize round out a kit that massively raises team survivability. Per the tier lists, Warden slots straight into S-tier because the shield drone effectively removes the threat of one-shots in the highest difficulties. It's the archetype that most changed the endgame meta when it landed.

How to Unlock Archetypes Fast (Practical Order)

If you're starting fresh and want the full roster, this is the efficient route:

1. Pick Handler or Medic at the start (best early survivability).
2. Spend your first 1,500-2,500 Scrap on a second starter class in Ward 13 so you have options for the secondary slot.
3. Push to 10 trait points to open the secondary archetype slot — you'll likely hit it during the Labyrinth.
4. While in campaign, exhaust Mudtooth's stories (Gunslinger Worn Cylinder).
5. Clear the game once — that unlocks Explorer (Broken Compass), Archon (post-game Backrooms run) and lets you start farming the others (Alchemist in Losomn, Engineer in N'Erud, Invader on Root Earth, Summoner on a Yaesha Blood Moon).
6. Buy the three DLCs and grab Ritualist, Invoker and Warden whenever you want — each takes under an hour once you know where the item is.

Wallace's crafting fee is the only real Scrap sink: 1,000 Scrap + 10 Lumenite Crystals per Engram, and the starter-class items themselves are 1,500 Scrap each.

Per the official Remnant 2 Wiki (Classes page), "there are a total of 5 Perk Types, and only one Perk per Type for each Archetype... These passive abilities can be automatically unlocked by leveling up your Archetype, and each one of them will get an upgraded version as you reach the level cap of 10."

Best Archetypes and Pairings in 2026

Tier opinions shift with patches, but the 2024+ consensus (after all three DLCs and the post-Dark Horizon balance passes) looks like this:

• S-tier: Archon (mod spam), Invoker (skill uptime), Medic (relic economy + Redemption), Handler (free revive), Warden (shields).
• A-tier: Hunter, Engineer, Gunslinger, Invader, Ritualist.
• B-tier: Summoner, Challenger, Alchemist.
• C-tier: Explorer (great utility, weak in straight fights).

Honest read: every class is viable through Apocalypse difficulty — B and C tiers are about efficiency, not usability. What actually matters is the pairing:

• Archon + Invoker — the skill/mod machine-gun combo, the standard endgame "everything dies" build.
• Medic + Challenger — unkillable support tank; Regenerator + Die Hard covers both your deaths.
• Handler + Warden — two revives plus shields; nearly immortal in co-op.
• Hunter + Gunslinger — pure gun DPS, absurd weakspot burst with Dead to Rights extending Bullet Storm.
• Ritualist + Invoker — status application on steroids for hard-mode boss farming.

If you're coming from other looters, the class-swap loop should feel familiar: Warframe does the same "collect every class and swap freely" thing with its 50+ Warframes — see our all Warframes guide for the full roster. And if you bounce between characters constantly, Risk of Rain 2's survivor system is the same itch — our RoR2 characters guide breaks down every survivor. When you settle on a class, remember Remnant 2 is built for three-player co-op — our Remnant 2 crossplay guide explains how to drag your friends into your lobby regardless of platform.

Common Archetype Mistakes

• Ignoring the trait cap: maxing every trait is impossible — 60 points across 21 traits (plus archetype traits) means you must specialize. Look at the orange dots on your trait cards: orange = archetype trait, doesn't count against the 60.
• Wasting XP with two low classes: leveling two archetypes at once halves your XP. Max your prime to 10 first, then slot the secondary.
• Skipping the Gunslinger stories: the Worn Cylinder is only granted in campaign mode — if you exhaust Mudtooth's dialogue in Adventure mode, it won't trigger.
• Forgetting Loadouts: the October 2024 update added gear presets (Loadouts) so you can save your archetype + gear combos and swap builds in one button — but only out of combat.
• Buying the wrong DLC class: Ritualist/Invoker/Warden each need their specific DLC installed — the engram items won't exist without it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many archetypes are in Remnant 2?

14 total: 11 in the base game (4 starters + Gunslinger + 6 secret classes) and 3 from paid DLC (Ritualist, Invoker, Warden). Some older guides say 13 — they were written before The Dark Horizon added Warden.

When can I equip a second archetype?

Once your character has earned 10 trait points — which, for most players, happens around the Labyrinth Sentinel boss fight. The secondary class keeps its perks, trait and skills but not its Prime perk.

What is the max archetype level in Remnant 2?

Level 10 per archetype. Skills unlock at levels 1, 5 and 10; perks unlock 1-5 and upgrade 6-10; the Prime perk upgrades at 5 and 10.

Can I change my archetype after starting?

Yes, any time out of combat, with no cost or penalty. Unlocked classes stay unlocked and keep their individual level progress.

What is the best starting archetype?

Handler for solo (the dog revives you), Medic for co-op, Hunter for straightforward DPS, Challenger for aggressive close-range play. All four are available to buy later in Ward 13, so nothing is locked.

Which Remnant 2 archetype is the strongest?

Archon (mod spam) and Warden (shields) lead the 2026 tier lists, with Medic and Handler close behind for their built-in revives. Every class can clear Apocalypse difficulty — pick what fits your playstyle.

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Last updated: August 13, 2026.