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The Receivers
The Protagonist
The Protagonist
A fresh-faced Receiver initiate who started their training not long before the Mindkill. Not much is known about their life beyond that.- Audience Surrogate: They don't have a given name or backstory, all that's known about their life is that they recently started Receiver training.
- Featureless Protagonist: Considering that they only see themself in the mirror as a gun range target, and their gun just floats in front of them, there's no way to tell what they actually look like.
- Fragile Speedster: Physically fit they may be, they are absolutely no hardier than an average Real Life human.
- The Gunslinger: Of the "Trick Shot" variety. However, unlike most other examples, they don't do any Awesome, but Impractical moves with their guns like Gun Twirling. They're purely practical, having an in-depth knowledge of their firearm and using it purely for efficiency.
- Heroic Mime: They don't speak, considering that there's nobody else directly to talk to, but they do write their own notes to express their thoughts.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Downplayed. Since all firearms in the game are handguns, accurate long ranged shots are difficult to achieve between the simulated ballistics and the natural aim wobble of their weapon - but destroying enemies across entire cells, or striking small weak spots on armored turrets, are entirely possible by a skilled receiver.
- Le Parkour: Downplayed, they can't run or jump off walls, but they're seemingly very physically fit, capable of jumping onto small platforms and steel beams to get up to places unconventionally.
- One-Man Army: Can take on hordes of Killdrones all on their own… if they are skilled enough.
The Survivor
The Survivor
Voiced By: Leo Wiggins
The person who speaks to the player in the tapes. They were chosen by the Receivers to speak the messages to initiates because of his ability to hear their messages very clearly.- Exposition Fairy: Explains a lot about the Receivers' cause, firearm operation, history, etc. with each tape you collect.
- It's Personal: Leo Wiggins mentions that he lost his brother to The Threat
and no longer dismisses The Threat as a mere abstract, philosophical construct as a result.
Luis
Luis
- Papa Wolf: He misses his daughter and strives to find her in a post-Mindkill world.
Charlene
Charlene
A Receiver who managed to find a way to write encoded messages.- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Out of curiosity, she found a liquor cabinet in a safe room and got absolutely trashed... despite being armed with a gun. While she didn't injure herself with her firearm, she did end up writing misleading notes in her drunken stupor that say "DON'T TRUST OTHER RECEIVERS!" and "IT'S ALL LIES" by accident. The Threat takes advantage of this and uses those notes to mislead Henry.
- Contrived Coincidence: If she hadn't gotten drunk, she wouldn't have written the misleading notes. If she hadn't written the misleading notes, the Threat wouldn't have sent them to Henry. If the Threat hadn't sent them to Henry, he wouldn't have been mislead into thinking that the Threat is good.
- Nobody Poops: Averted, she talks about how she needed to find resources to stay alive. Since the Receivers are in a series of buildings, finding shelter isn't hard, but much to her surprise, the water taps still run and the refrigerators always have fresh food in them. This implies that the bathrooms work too.
Henry
Henry
A veteran Receiver who trained for several years.- Dramatic Ammo Depletion: He was about to take aim at a turret, but his gun jammed, and he thought he was about to die. However, the turret didn't shoot him, and when he inspected it, he noticed that the ammo box was empty. Besides the turret there's a note of Charlene's that says "DON'T TRUST OTHER RECEIVERS!" which misleads him.
- Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe example. After the above Dramatic Ammo Depletion incident, he starts to believe that the Threat is actually a force of good, and that the Mindkill is actually an Ascention.
Unnamed Soldier
Unnamed Soldier
Micha
Micha
Alex
Alex
The Librarian
Q
Derrick
Derrick
The Mongoose
Maggie
- Action Girl: She does dangerous tricks to get into hard-to-reach places, so other Receivers can learn how.
Mitch
Mitch
Threat Recoverees
Rich, Jenn, John, Mike, Greg, Bob, Alex
- The Anti-Nihilist: Jenn became one as she realized the power of human connections and existence in Reality A.
- Bullied into Depression: This happened to Alex and contributed to her suicide attempt.
- Deadly Gas: After locking his gun and ammo away, Bob tried to kill himself with carbon monoxide in the garage. Fortunately, it failed, although barely.
- Le Parkour: After recovering from a suicide attempt, Greg took up parkour as a hobby and a stress relief.
- Resist the Beast: Most of them highlight the importance of removing firearms from yourself if the Threat tries infecting you with suicidal or violent thoughts.
- Video Wills: Mike's Threat Echo takes on an audio recording variant of this.
The Benefactors (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
The Benefactors
What's left of the Receivers who were removed by the Mindkill. They are responsible for the manifestation of most helpful items, and remain in Reality A.- Good Counterpart: Regarded by Charlene as one to the Threat.
The Threat
As a whole
Some sort of malevolent entity that's been around for a very long time, at least since the beginning of the 20th century.
- Big Bad: They're the ones behind the Mindkill and who deploy killdrones to go after Receivers.
- Cessation of Existence: The Mindkill did this to anyone who didn't mentally prepare for it.
- The Conspiracy: A very secretive entity targeting Receivers in an attempt to prevent them from awakening. Exactly what sort of organization it is, whether extraterrestrial, human, corporate, or otherwise, is unclear.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: If you find a Threat Echo tape, they will use this to try and kill you. However, they can't stop you from emptying your gun beforehand.
- The Unfought: Whoever or whatever's behind the Threat, you don't get to confront them directly.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Has quite the habit of turning probability in their favor, making it even more dangerous than ever to get electrocuted by drones, holster carelessly, or fall more than a couple yards.
Turret
The first and most common killdrone. They sit in place and wait for passing Receivers to shoot them.
- Ambushing Enemy: Sleeping turrets start off deactivated until the Receiver walks in front of their motion sensors. This makes them more difficult to detect.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Its operating components can be shot at to damage it. The camera and ammo box are the easiest points to hit, but hitting the motor will stop it from being able to track you, and hitting the battery destroys it outright.
- Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Even if you don't shoot the ammo box, it only has so many bullets inside, meaning that if you dodge enough of its gunfire, it'll run dry and be rendered useless.
- Flipping Helpless: They're not bolted to the ground, so if you can tip them over, they become far less dangerous because they won't be able to aim properly. They can still shoot you if you walk in front of them though.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Comes with 2 extra varieties, one which plays this straight, and the other which inverts it. Proto-turrets' internal components are completely exposed and can be seen, making shooting them easier. The armored turrets have heavy plate armor that shields their components from the front. The only handguns that have a chance of punching directly through the armor are the Desert Eagle and Colt Single Action Army, as they both use high-caliber Magnum rounds.
- Piñata Enemy: There exist very few floor turrets in Awake that are proto turrets, but each of them note drops 1-3 additional rounds.
- Sentry Gun: Duh.
Shock Drone
The second killdrone. They hover in the air and patrol designated locations searching for Receivers. If they see a Receiver, they will rush them down with a taser to deliver a heartstopping shock.
- Airborne Mook: They're the only killdrones that can fly.
- Attack Drone: They are small flying automated weapons.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Just like turrets, their operating components can also be shot. Their battery (on the back of the body holding the camera) can be hit easily if the drone is facing away from you, or the rotors can be targeted if it's rushing you down.
- Fragile Speedster: When on the move, they're fast and nigh-impossible to hit, but a single shot or a bad crash will usually be enough to put them down.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Glancing shots that strike the drone's body but miss the motor or the battery can instead split the body in two, with the battery and camera hanging by a thread. Often followed by the drone losing control and disabling itself against a wall, or otherwise being rendered harmless as it can no longer see the player, or fly straight even if they manage to see them.
- High-Voltage Death: Their mounted tasers are designed to deliver a shock so powerful that it puts the victim into cardiac arrest.
- Logical Weakness: It has light construction which, while giving it the ability to fly and move pretty fast, makes it very fragile. Crashing into something will damage if not cause it to fall outright. And if it's hit by large calibers like .45ACP or .50AE, it will shatter into tiny pieces.
- Recognizable by Sound: The characteristic whuzzing sound they make when hovering gives away their presence.
- Static Stun Gun: Their mounted tasers are their method of attack.
Security Camera
This killdrone is fairly self-explanatory. This wall mounted camera can't harm you directly, but if it sees you for long enough, it will ring an alarm bell, alerting all turrets and drones near it to your location.
- Insecurity Camera: They don't raise an alarm when shot or hacked, and their alert radius is barely longer than their normal sight radius (which is shorter than the standard sight range of turrets or drones).
- Patrolling Mook: They scan the nearby area and can alert turrets and drones to you.
- Support Party Member: If the room you're in is empty, their alarm, while annoying, won't do anything to you. If the room you're in is full of Shock Drones, start running.
Secret Enemy (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
The Stalker Entity is a large, floating, and vaguely hornet-like robot. When activated, it teleports around the player several times until it manifests fully, and then lunges forward and kills by impalement.
- Guide Dang It!: Outside of Holiday Mode, it's only activated with a random chance by shooting the gong in certain parts of the level, or by collecting a certain tape.
- Holiday Mode: Debuted in the Halloween 2020 update, and could be triggered by shooting pumpkins scattered throughout the level, with five guaranteeing a spawn if it didn't appear already.
- Intangibility: Whenever it isn't fully manifested, your shots do not damage it.
- Interface Screw: It makes the lights around it flicker. Shining your own flashlight at it makes the flashlight flicker as well. Lastly, when the Stalker Entity is ready to attack, the player is slowed down to a near halt.
- Puzzle Boss: It doesn't have exploitable weaknesses like other killdrones do; merely shooting or running towards it just forces it to teleport. The only ways to destroy it are to leave yourself open for its lunge attack, and - in the very brief window available - either shoot it point blank, or succeed in hacking it.
- Recognizable by Sound: When triggered, the Stalker Entity periodically makes grinding metal noises as it teleports. To a lesser extent, the music plays a slightly more intense tempo for as long as it's chasing you.
- Single-Stroke Battle: You and this entity do not attack each other until it gets close to you, at which point both are counting on a single attack.
- Stalker without a Crush: It continually teleports to follow you while in the process of manifesting.
- You Will Not Evade Me: Once triggered, it will keep stalking and teleporting around the player, and will not stop until the player collects the required tapes to advance, or one of them dies. Shooting it while its light is yellow just forces it to teleport elsewhere, as it hasn't fully manifested yet.
