Children of Morta is an action role-playing game roguelike centered around the Bergson family who live on the titular Mount Morta, and are tasked with defending it from an evil force called the Corruption. With singleplayer or co-op as options, every character has a different fighting style, showing off a myriad of skills and weapons to take to the fight.
Though you’re encouraged to play all the characters, since leveling them gives unique permanent buffs to share with their other family members (except Yajou’Majouj), some of them definitely perform better than others and provide an easier and more fun time in their battles.
8 Joey
Cousin to the Bergson children, Joey is a big, burly dude who scatters his foes with a mighty swing of his two-handed hammer. Unfortunately, the character is much more fragile than the fantasy would lead you to believe and the best thing about him is that if you level him, he buffs the family’s rage gain and Guardian Rage duration, which is fantastic for the characters who have powerful Guardian’s Rage moves.
His primary attack is powerful and hits a decent area, but his slow swings leave him open to counterattack. His Smite moves are also heavy hitters, especially if you upgrade it with the ranged Divine Smite, but his Whirlwind is a cool-looking letdown. Joey is lacking because if you look at his abilities, he’s supposed to be a big guy who trades hits and wins – one of his skills facilitates that, but it’s not a play style that’s rewarded since the cost is health, something not found reliably.
7 Apan
Though not a member of the Bergson family, Apan aids them against the Corruption. Added as free DLC, she is support-oriented, but on her own, she’s not very good. Her kit is focused on slowing enemies and then punishing the afflicted, while also shielding herself and her allies. Her primary attack is decent and covers a wide area, but has too little knockback and too much delay to keep her safe. While her magic glyph can knock enemies away, it takes too long to cast and doesn’t do enough damage to be worth maintaining.
Apan's Asva Thunderclap with its upgrade, however, is a powerful yet flexible ability that stuns and damages enemies in a wide area, but with an upgrade can be narrowed to do bigger damage. She also makes health globes heal more and appear more often, which is nice but not game-changing.
6 John
The Bergson family patriarch, John is the first character you play in Children of Morta. He keeps enemies at bay with his shield and cuts them down with wide sweeps of his longsword. As a starting character, he’s quickly overshadowed by his flashier family, but if you level him up, he can be a beast in his own right. His Heaven’s Strike and Heaven’s Grace abilities, for instance, deal some of the highest bursts of damage in the game to multiple enemies with alarming regularity and should be prioritized.
Though his special is less remarkable, allowing him to block damage in one direction at the cost of stamina, it can be upgraded to deal retaliatory thorns damage and with a move that stuns in a big area around him. His family abilities grant the rest of the family more health, health regen, and every three minutes, he can shield other characters from fatal damage, making him the rock that anchors the Bergson family.
5 Kevin
The middle child of the Bergsons, Kevin uses twin knives to deadly effect along with some trickery to keep himself alive. As the Rogue, Kevin’s gameplay is high-risk, high-reward, putting forth some big damage at the cost of eating some big hits if you’re not careful. His primary is short-range but quick and as he lands hits, he hits even quicker. The danger lies in that the attack speed buff decays if not maintained, meaning you have to decide between damage and safety.
His kit is focused on either keeping him alive or having him do more damage, exemplified by Shadow Cloak since it makes him vanish for a few seconds - and if you get the Execute upgrade, allows him a wide-sweeping attack that can instantly kill common enemies. He provides his family with higher critical damage, which isn’t reliable but can provide a nice boost of damage when you do land a crit.
4 Linda
The eldest of the Bergson children, Linda uses a bow to feather enemies from afar while her mastery of music keeps closer enemies at bay. She’s one of the safest characters to play in Children of Morta, given her long range and ability to move while shooting and having an AoE stun at close range. Unfortunately, her damage is on the lower end of the family to balance out how safe she and she struggles against crowds.
However, her Guardian’s Rage turns her into a machine gun, able to turn most normal enemies and elites into dead pincushions and take out a good chunk of any boss’ health bar. Linda also provides the family with a movement speed boost, which is mediocre at best.
3 Mark
The Bergson’s eldest son, Mark is a martial arts master, controlling the battlefield with his whip and staff before dispatching foes in a flurry of punches and kicks. Mark has the shortest primary attack range in the game, but a strong knockback and almost no cooldown between hits means that most enemies will be on the back foot, and he has a step-in dash to close gaps. He excels at controlling the flow of battle with good positioning and the most cohesive skills in the game.
If you need some enemies to beat up, his Scourging Whip brings them to you in a big area in front of you, stunned while Swirling Staff knocks enemies away in a circle around him if you feel crowded. His armor ability showcases similar flexibility, when fully buffed, it mitigates enemy damage at the cost of some gauge and if you keep it high, it boosts your damage. His family abilities are focused on evading, at first a boost to evade regeneration and later a while extra evade, a potent buff that opens up many possibilities.
2 Lucy
The youngest of the Bergson children, Lucy is a pint-sized powerhouse who controls fire, wind, and the arcane to devastate hordes of enemies. Though she is a ranged caster, Lucy defies the trope of the squishy magician. She has it all: damage, defense, utility – even her family ability which grants the others extra gemstones at the start of the run is one of the best, second only to Mark’s. She can bring the damage with her primary ability, which shoots fireballs at long range, at increasing speeds until they spawn Sidewinders for even more damage.
Though she’s rooted while she attacks, she’s not in much danger since she has a bevy of defensive tools such as Whirlwind, which traps and damages enemies, and Decoy, which creates a clone that enemies prefer to target until it dies and a long evade. Best of all is her Protective Ward, which gives her a shield that negates one attack if she stands still for eight seconds, up to three times if fully upgraded.
1 Yajouj’Majouj (Ancient Spirits DLC)
Born from the forbidden union between a goblin and a human, Yajouj’Majouj is a ranged caster only available in the Family Trials game mode. Yajouj’Majouj is likely the most powerful character in the game, but requires you to constantly flip between their two forms, Yajouj and Majouj.
Yajouj fires rapid bolts as their primary and homing spirit embers, while Majouj has a slower-firing but area-damaging grenade and a huge area stun that draws enemies into its center. Hits with their secondary moves supercharge the attack speed of their primary moves. The key to mastering this union is knowing when to switch, and what order to deploy their moves and when to deploy them, but if you do, you can clear out whole screens of enemies with relative impunity.