Stonewards Characters Guide

Stonewards is not a classless shooter with cosmetic skins. Each playable dwarf brings a unique ability that bends mining, forging, or surface defense—and the roster grows beyond launch starters through hub meta progression. Banana Tiger Studio ships Miner and Warrior as the two entry characters in public demo and Early Access builds, with additional dwarves unlocking as you complete missions, spend shop currency, and advance quests. This guide explains how character selection works, what the starters excel at, and how to build co-op squads that cover both economy and King defense without four identical loadouts.

Where Characters Are Chosen

Character selection happens in the hub, not mid-mission. After a run ends—King saved or throne lost—you return to the persistent hub camp, pick your dwarf at the character station, choose a mission from the board, optionally shop for meta upgrades, then launch with your squad. Skipping hub visits and re-queueing instantly is how groups accidentally bring wrong roles into horn one.

Hub workflow detail lives in How to Use the Hub and The Stonewards Hub. Treat character select as part of squad prep equal to mission difficulty choice.

Stonewards characters and class abilities overview

Starter Roster: Miner and Warrior

Early Access and demo builds highlight two starters:

Miner

The Miner archetype leans into economy phases—procedural cave time, ore yield, and efficient returns before horns. Miners suit players who commit to primary mining duty in co-op splits or solo players who must optimize every underground window because nobody else gathers ore.

Typical Miner responsibilities:

• Break high-priority nodes near exit paths.
• Communicate ore type and surfacing ETA to defenders.
• Avoid deep branch greed that delays forge and Bonus Card votes.
• Pair with hub upgrades that boost mining yield when available.

Miners are not absent from combat—when horns start, they shoot like everyone else—but their unique ability should amplify mining or resource loops rather than raw front-line tanking. Read in-game tooltips each patch; demo 0.1.x explicitly added clearer ability UI.

Warrior

The Warrior archetype anchors surface defense—wall lanes, elite intercepts, and King body-blocking when breaches open. Warriors fit players who stay surface-adjacent during mine windows or flex as defenders in the common three-defend / one-mine co-op split described in Tips and Tricks.

Typical Warrior responsibilities:

• Hold primary approach lanes during horns.
• Spend stone on Wall Repair for segments monsters actually use.
• Protect campfire windows so downed teammates revive before the next mine phase.
• Coordinate ammo consumption so Crafting Camp output matches horn pressure.

Warrior unique abilities skew toward combat sustain or lane control rather than ore bonuses. Again, trust current tooltips over wiki memory—balance passes move numbers.

Unique Abilities Matter in Co-op

Demo patches through 0.1.10 emphasized per-character unique abilities instead of stat-only differences. Practical squad rules:

• Do not stack four Miners unless you enjoy losing horns while sitting on ore.
• Do not stack four Warriors unless you enjoy empty forges and broken ammo economies.
• Mix roles so one economy specialist and multiple defenders cover the dig–forge–defend loop.
• Re-read abilities after Updates patch notes—Early Access will add characters with new mechanics.

How to Co-op in Stonewards covers callouts; this page covers who you bring.

Unlocking Additional Characters

Starters are not the full roster. Meta progression in the hub unlocks more dwarves over time—mission completion, quest rewards, and shop purchases all contribute depending on build version. Early Access plans explicitly mention more playable characters across the nine-to-twelve month development window alongside new maps and bosses.

Unlock tips:

• Repeat hub missions that list character rewards in quest text.
• Spend currency deliberately—see Builds for whether hub purchases or character unlocks fix your bottleneck first.
• Try new characters on moderate missions before hard tiers; unique abilities change timing habits.
• Track unlock notifications after wave eleven hub extractions when meta rewards spike.

Exact unlock paths will expand post-launch; this wiki updates when patch notes name specific requirements.

Matching Characters to Stations

In-mission stations interact with character choice even though any dwarf can physically use them:

Station	Character synergy
Blacksmith (forge levels, rings)	Economy characters benefit from ore fed into forge; defenders need ring picks that survive surface role
Recycling Camp	Miners convert surplus efficiently when they know node yields
Crafting Camp (arrows)	Warriors should confirm ammo output before next horn
Chest Opener	Any role—assign one player so others craft/repair
Wall Repair (stone)	Warriors prioritize primary lanes
Campfire (heal, revive)	Defenders secure revives before miners re-dive

Station detail crosses Items, Map, and Combat pages.

Character Select and Matchmaking

Online co-op requires same game version across the squad—demo patches enforced this strictly. Character choice does not replace version matching: update Steam before co-op night. Hosts should wait in hub until all players confirm character and mission ready; launching early produces horn one chaos.

Supported player counts remain one to four; solo uses the same roster with harsher timing. Solo players often main Miner economy abilities first, then unlock Warriors for missions that spike surface pressure—personal preference beats generic tier lists.

Build Planning Beyond Characters

Characters set your unique ability baseline; Builds and in-run forge RNG set your ceiling. A Warrior with perfect lane play still loses if Crafting Camp starves; a Miner with perfect ore still loses if nobody repairs walls. Characters are one layer in:

1. Hub meta unlocks and shop floor.
2. Character unique ability and role.
3. In-run forge levels, rings, and Bonus Card votes.
4. Player skill on mine timers and King defense.

Use Best Early Builds after picking a main character for two or three runs.

Future Roster Growth

Banana Tiger Studio’s Early Access roadmap lists additional characters and cosmetics among planned updates. New dwarves may introduce abilities that reshape co-op splits—stay current via Early Access Launch and Updates Hub. Review frames how long EA is expected to run.

Recommended Learning Path

1. Start Miner or Warrior in the hub for your first repeat runs—pick based on whether you die underground or on the surface.
2. Read Getting Started and How to Play Stonewards for loop context.
3. Bring a complementary teammate character in co-op—Miner plus Warrior covers economy and defense basics.
4. Unlock a third character through hub progression and test on a familiar mission.
5. Revisit this page after major patches add roster members or rework abilities.

Related Pages

• Tips and Tricks — role splits and mine timers.
• Guides Hub — full guide index.
• Tools — planners for wave prep and resources.
• Demo Changelog — when ability UI and character systems landed in public builds.

Characters express Stonewards’ co-op identity: specialized dwarves answering distress calls together. Pick deliberately in the hub, sync with your squad, and let unique abilities reinforce—not replace—solid mine and forge discipline.