Characters / Generation Zero

This is a list of characters for the 2019 video game Generation Zero.

Human Characters

The Player

A Swedish teenager returning from vacation to find the entire region deserted and machines having taken over.

• Featureless Protagonist: You can customize your avatar down to what kind of wristwatch they wear, but they otherwise have no characterization at all.
• Silent Protagonist: Never makes a sound besides heavy breathing when sprinting.
• Virtual Paper Doll: You can find hundreds of articles of clothing, ranging from useful (jackets that reduce damage from bullets) to purely aesthetic (jewelry and sunglasses).

Therese

Pontus

Swedish Machines

In General

After an unknown incident in Ostertorn, Sweden, mysterious machines have taken over, killed most of the population, and are now roaming freely.

• Fast-Killing Radiation: Apocalypse-class machines are radioactive. Get close enough, or shot by their radioactive weapons, and it'll start rapidly sapping your health.
• Hell Is That Noise: All machines make unnerving mechanical noises at some point. Some, especially Apocalypse class, are far worse than others.
• Noisy Robots: Can usually be heard long before they're seen, from the wind-like hum of a nearby Runner to the ominous stomping of a Tank.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Calm machines have white optics. Alerted or searching ones are yellow. Once they turn red, however, they'll be after you, so watch out.
• Tier System: All machines come in four variants.
  • Prototype: the base model and weakest, colored a muted orange;
  • Military (or Army): has slightly better weapons and armor, and is colored military green;
  • FNIX: armed with even better weapons, such as flechette cannons and rail guns, and colored gray and red;
  • Apocalypse: the best weapons, heaviest armor, and colored a sickly greenish-yellow with gray chassis.

Tick

Small, four-legged machines that ambush their prey and act as communication relays for the mysterious machine controller.

• The Goomba: By far the weakest and most predictable enemy. Though they come in multiple varieties, they can usually be killed by a few shots with the handgun or a swing from a melee weapon.

Seeker

Flying machines that patrol various areas of the map, searching for the player and non-aligned machines.

• Enemy Summoner: Will call the nearest machines to attack you if they spot you, or you don't disable them or their alarms fast enough.
• Patrolling Mook: Patrols random areas and can spot you from very far away.

Runner

Quadrupedal robots that patrol in packs.

• Robot Dog: Look similar to Boston Dynamics' Big Dog robot, and even occasionally make mechanical barking noises when calm.

Hunter

Humanoid machines armed with heavy machine guns and, depending on class, an array of other deadly weapons.

• Demonic Spiders: Especially until you get much better weapons, Hunters will absolutely be your bane. They tend to come in groups of at least three, and more can come out of the woodwork at any moment. The anti-material rifle of Military and higher classes will especially wreck your day.
• Hell Is That Noise: Apocalypse-class Hunters make otherworldly noises that will make your skin crawl.
• Lightning Bruiser: Will charge you if they detect you, and can run faster than you too.

Harvester

Enormous, slow-moving machines that harvest resources from the world for FNIX.

• Enemy Summoner: Can call Hunters to assist when attacked.
• Mighty Glacier: They're big and ponderous, but equipped with long-range missile launchers that can take out the player in a single silo.

Tank

Giant bipedal walking weapons platforms.

• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Reaper, the single most powerful enemy in the game, is an Apocalypse-class Tank that will begin to appear once your level hits 21. They are classified as a type of Rival, but can spawn anywhere and at random, and include powerful new weapons and an impenetrable shield on top of their usual arsenal.
• Elite Mooks:The biggest and most powerful terrestrial machine in the game by a mile.
• Lightning Bruiser: Can move shockingly fast for such a big machine, capable of covering the distance between you and it in a sprint or two, and they hit really hard.
• Mascot Mook: Show up extensively in the marketing, including the game's Steam icon and library banner, as the most recognizable machine in the game.
• More Dakka: Have a front-mounted machine gun that can shred a player in seconds.
• Starfish Robots: Unlike most of the other machines, Tanks have no direct analogue in the animal kingdom, being simply a pair of big legs with a "head" dangling between them.

FNIX (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Soviet Machines

In General

Introduced in the early 2022 "Landfall" update, Soviet machines roam the regions around and north of the crater in the northern Farmlands.

• Beef Gate: Serve as such to the northern regions, as the flying Firebird will probably be the first one you encounter and can put up a tough fight for the unprepared.
• Tier System: Like the Swedish machine, they come in multiple variants.
  • Scout: basic and lightly-armored, usually with only one or two weapons, and colored beige;
  • Soldier: more heavily-armored, with better weapons and a greenish-gray chassis;
  • Spetsnaz: heavily-armored, heavily-armed, and extremely dangerous Elite Mooks in dark gray-black armor.

Wolf

A tank-like machine that deploys Lynxes and can change between two different forms.

Lynx

Firebird

A massive flying machine armed with a rotary gun. It patrols the skies north of the crater.

• Elite Mooks: Even the basic Scout can take on a Tank and win, while the Spetsnaz can win against multiple Tanks and Harvesters and come out pretty much unscathed. They might be common, but they are not to be underestimated.
• Gatling Good: Even the basic Scout class is armed with an incendiary gatling gun, which it will use on both you and Swedish machines to devastating effect.
• Giant Mook: They're huge and heavily-armored, and their Spetsnaz variants are not to be trifled with, but they're still quite common and can be taken down relatively easily with the right loadout.
• Hell Is That Noise: Their hovering noise is unnerving enough on its own, but they scream when in the midst of battle, and their main gun sounds nightmarish when it's far away.