Characters / Transistor

Main Characters

Red

Red

^{Click here for Red's database image.}

AGE: 27
SELECTIONS: Music, Linguistics
REASONS CITED: Declined

Voiced by: Kristin Wilson (Speaking), Ashley Barrett (Singing)

The player character and a popular singer in Cloudbank. Trace of the Crash() Function.

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• Action Survivor: Red was just a singer before taking up the Transistor, though the Man in the Transistor insists she was never a pushover.
  "That's my star. You could always take care of yourself just fine."
• Badass Boast:
  I'm going to find the thing that's doing this and I'm going to break its heart.
• Broken Bird: Her lack of voice may obscure this, but the events of the game are clearly not kind to poor Red. Let's start with the fact that she's an avid singer who gets her voice taken from her, her friend is killed and stuck in a sword, and murderous things start roaming the streets. The Spine's affect on the Transistor's mind has her pleading to him to hang on, and the terminals near the end of the game have her wondering if anyone else is still alive.
• The Chanteuse: Before she was forced to fight for her life and lost her voice during the attack.
• Driven to Suicide: Faced with being the last person left in Cloudbank, she instead Processes herself with the Transistor and is reunited with her friend in the Country.
• Fatal Flaw: Her fear of her own power to affect change; One of the main things the story emphasizes with Red is the powerful and controversial nature of her voice, to the point where some of her audiences are driven to outrage by some of her songs. Red seems aware of the dangers of this, and often tries to keep her more intense opinions to herself - this can be seen most succinctly when she types at a Terminal, where she'll often censor her more inflammatory comments in favor of simplistic ones, even as it becomes more blatant that the Camerata's actions are dooming Cloudbank to destruction. One could argue her decision to be Together in Death with the Transistor is in part the final culmination of this - the way she sees it, she was never cut out to truly affect change in the world; why start now?
• Fiery Redhead: A brilliantly passionate singer with the bright red hair to match.
• Foil: Subtly, to the Camerata - Grant and his cohorts seek to affect genuine, lasting change to Cloudbank through the Process, and their efforts end up dooming the whole city, including themselves; Red has the capacity for powerful change thanks to her penchant for speaking her mind intently, but she also fears her ability to do so, and opts to end her own life rather than reshape Cloudbank in her own image.
• Heroic BSoD (heh): If you get to a Terminal after several key points in the game, you can watch her type out her feelings on the terminal and then deleting the entire message before retyping and submitting the intended message. One of the longest ones comes during the return visit to Cloudbank.
• Heroic Mime: Red, lacking a voice due to partial Processing, prefers to let her actions do the talking. She can perform battle grunts and even hums at one point, but talking or singing is out of the question.
• Meaningful Name: Going through the files of the game proper reveals one of her names to be "Muse".
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Shared with her friend. When Red takes the Transistor away from the Camerata, they lose control of the Process and cause it to spread out of control. Not that she had any way of knowing this until it was far too late.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Red wears a motorcycle jacket over a (messily) shortened cocktail dress. The jacket belonged to her dead friend who got stuck in the Transistor after taking the hit for her.
• Silent Snarker: Voicelessness aside, Red does get a few moments to display a sense of humor in the online message boards. When she's not getting mad or being crushed by despair.
• The Speechless: She lost her voice to the Camerata's botched attempt to Process her. Since she was a singer, she does not take this well.
• Suddenly Voiced: Upon reuniting with her lover in the Country.
• Super-Speed: Red when executing a plan. After planning mode will enter a cooldown which disables most of her skills, though not Jaunt or any function upgraded by it.
• Trauma Conga Line: The events of the game are definitely one for her. She's nearly killed, her lover dies saving her, she loses her voice, she's hunted by a persistent unrelenting enemy and doesn't know why, and then at the end of the game she's the only living being in Cloudbank, and nothing can undo the destruction the process has caused or bring back the people who were Processed. Including her lover.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: The quote under Badass Boast? The thing in question was making the Transistor lose his mind. She was not happy with this, and she was not speaking metaphorically. For the finale of the boss fight proper, she does it literally.
• Waif-Fu: She who uses a sword nearly as tall as her to beat up Mooks of varying levels of hugeness (including one who is as tall as a small building).

The Transistor

The Transistor/Unknown/"Mr. Nobody"/Auden

^{Click here for The Transistor's database image.}

AGE: ??

SELECTIONS: Declined

REASONS CITED: "Still figuring things out."

Voiced by: Logan Cunningham (Speaking), Darren Korb (Singing)

More accurately, the man inside it. A man with a mysterious background who was killed with the Transistor, his soul now inhabits the sword. Trace of the Breach() Function.

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• All There in the Script: The game files depicting his human form reveal his real name is Auden, which is also the game's working title.
• Assimilation Backfire: The Transistor has Processed more than a few people, but when it got to him he teleported himself and Red several blocks away in an instant.
• Badass Boast: Red gets a few of them, but the Transistor's not about to let her have all the fun.
• Bigger on the Inside: When Red places the Transistor on the Cradle, it drags her and Royce inside it, trapping them in its inner world, which resembles a land of green hills and wheat farms, but with darkened skies and several building-sized Transistors overlooking the landscape. It's also implied the Process came from there.
• BFS: A few inches away from being bigger than the girl who carries him around.
• Blown Across the Room: Breach() in base form always do this. Keep this in mind when you try to follow up with other functions().
• Deadpan Snarker: Since Red can't talk, the Transistor keeps up a running commentary to her throughout the game. More than a few jokes are thrown in there.
• The Faceless: What we know of him: he is a tall, muscular man with a square jaw, fairly dark skin, and a full head of dark brown to black hair. He has bandages on his hands. He wears a jacket with a golden inverted triangle on the back. We know nothing else of his appearance.
• Faceless Eye: The Transistor's midsection has an eye-like structure on both sides. It's also from there where it fires Breach() and Get() projectiles.
• Handwraps of Awesome: He wears these in his human form, implying he has a background in fighting. Indeed, the game files will also refer to him as “Boxer."
• Heroes Love Dogs: He’s a good-natured man who quickly takes to Luna, a friendly stray Fetch process.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Towered over Red in his human form.
• Living Weapon: In a sense. It can communicate with those who have been processed and integrate them into itself, gaining new abilities. The dominant personality seems to be Red's friend, though it's suggested she only hears him and not anyone else in the Transistor because they have a close relationship.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Whenever the, or rather, A Spine shows up it starts affecting the Transistor and making him act drunk and delirious, losing his memories in the process. If you drop into the Sandbox, he'll recover for a bit — and ask you to ignore what he's saying as you return to Cloudbank.
• Mysterious Past: The Transistor’s database has no information on him because of his decision to withhold from registering any while he was alive, leaving the player unable to access his previous name or identity. We only learn a few things about him through off-hand remarks directed toward Red, his girlfriend.
• The Nicknamer: The Transistor seems to be a subtle example. New enemy types are just referred to as "Process" until he names them, and a couple of them just get named when he insults them ("Creep" and "Jerk".) When he's being driven to delirium by The Spine he even ends up lazily naming a new enemy type "Man".
• No Name Given: He deliberately refused to enter any of his information into Cloudbank's database. Advancing his information profile is an exercise in finding more elaborate ways to say 'no data available.'
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Understandable as he can't exactly get around by himself anymore and Red is the only other living thing he encounters during the game. He also begs this of Red as she decides to kill herself.
• Reality Warper: Essentially the purpose of the Transistor, but it only seems to work in heavily Processed areas.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Red's nameless boyfriend sealed into a weapon.
• Spanner in the Works: The Camerata's plans were going off without a hitch until he jumped in front of the Transistor to save Red.It's implied Sybil planned for him to die. Although, not for losing control of the Transistor.
• Taking the Bullet: He saves Red from the Transistor before the start of the game, getting hit with it and processed instead of her.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He loves Junction Jan's flatbreads, especially the Sea Monster.
• That Man Is Dead: Tries to invoke this towards the end. His comments about longing to touch Red again show that he's lying though.
• The Unreveal: Because none of his information is in the database, none of it is accessible to the Transistor. All the player will ever know about him comes from what he says in the game itself.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: It absorbs the "Traces" of people and turns them into Functions, but it's only able to do so if they are dead and did so recently. If they're still alive, it can still record some info and create a Function out of it. According to Asher, this can preserve those who died inside the Transistor for eternity.

The Process

Process in general

The invisible movers and shakers behind Cloudbank, the ones who make everything run smoothly, following orders without thought. Things started getting hairy when they showed up in the foreground.

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• Artificial Brilliance or Artificial Stupidity: On both sides of the scale. They prefer to attack in groups and sometimes coordinate attacks while waiting in the background to heal themselves, but they sometimes have strange behaviors such as blindly going into the battlefield. Others, such as Badcells, are intentionally unpredictable because of their nature (in the Badcells case, they are literally corrupted data), or they just do their thing.
• Ascetic Aesthetic: The areas they control tend to be white in color with blocky structures. Turns out it's the "base state" of the city.
• Dug Too Deep: Why they "came" into Cloudbank. Thank you, Royce!
• Eldritch Abomination: They look pretty alien...And it's just looks. They're just rampaging service robots.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: No motivation or personality, processing Cloudbank because that's what they're programmed to do.
• Light Is Not Good: Aside from Badcells, they're dominantly white in color...
• Non-Malicious Monster: Most don't actually understand they're hurting anyone, they're just returning everything to factory settings.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: ...and their eyes are all red.
• Villainous Crush: The only exception to their Processing are posters of Red. At least one of which has Snapshots clustered around it, taking picture after picture.

Creep

Creep

As dangerous as they are annoying, Creeps are one of the most basic Process types. They cannot attack whilst moving. Diligent workers, like drones in a hive.

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• More Dakka: It's upgraded version fire three beams in spreading pattern. It hurts just as much as its previous version (unless you're standing at point blank) but make it more effective at tearing down covers.
• You Will Not Evade Me: At higher levels, their beams drag Red to them in addition to causing damage.

Jerk

Jerk

Troublesome, ponderous Processes that constantly hammer the ground around them, making it unsafe to attack them up-close. Enhanced versions can retaliate to attacks and reel foes in. Obsolete, supposedly.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: Their weak spot is right in the back. Combining Breach() and other moves makes it easier to take down during a Turn().
• The Juggernaut: Doesn't stop pounding for anything.
• Smash Mook: Their main attack routine is simply to implacably advance, hammering the ground. You cannot hide — only run.
• Turns Red: At higher levels, any hit that would drop them below 500 health (fatal or otherwise) instead negates any damage beyond that threshold and makes them double in size for added speed and damage. This means high damage, high planning cost functions like Cull() cannot kill them in one hit.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Stronger versions have a Get()-like attack that drags you to them, which they fire off at regular intervals.

Operator

Operator

Makes Processes until it runs out, then it just sits there.

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• Mook Maker: Spawns other Processes, until its supply runs out or you destroy it, whichever comes first.
• Sinister Geometry: A white rectangular prism, with red eyes at the center of each side.

Younglady

Younglady

Tends to newly-formed Processes. When harmed, teleports and spawns a weak shadow-copy. Both the original and the shadow-copies are invincible when their eyes are closed. Later marks periodically spawn Badcells. Royce finds their appearance unsettling because they imply that the Process is intelligently adapting to mimic humans.

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• Mook Maker: On multiple levels.
  • When damaged, they teleport and leave a 1 HP copy of themselves behind, which has the same attack as the original does.
  • Higher versions will occasionally spawn Badcells, though only one or two at most.
  • When killed, Youngladies spew out more than a dozen cells which will turn into Badcells if Red doesn't collect them quickly.
• More Dakka: Their standard attack is a red rapid laser that on higher levels turns into a very damaging attack.
• Teleport Spam: When attacked, Younglady teleports to some other part of the arena and leaves behind a copy to attack you. She can't do this if stunned, but the stun will only take effect after the initial teleport.

BadCells

BadCells

Weak, but don't underestimate them. Higher marks of BadCells move fast, can slow Red down, and have a shield that stops them from getting one-hit-killed.

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• Artificial Stupidity: It will keep fumbling around covers or zips around randomly if it does not have line of sight to you. Justified in that Royce's research indicates that they are merely corrupted data.
• Fragile Speedster: Small, fast, agile, and die in one hit from anything. Two hits, if they have a shield.
• Last Stand: According to Royce, they're what happens when a Process is stripped down to a Cell and its data is corrupted but doesn't self-destruct, transforming into a BadCell.
• Permadeath: They don't drop cells on death, being permanently destroyed in the process.
• Taking You with Me: Explodes into an Area of Effect speed-reducing debuff when destroyed.
• Zerg Rush: In larger numbers, they are very deadly, but each usually have less than 15 HP. In New Game Plus or late game, seeing greater than 10 of them is a given.

Fetch

Fetch

Dog-like Processes, Fetches are fast and deadly. At higher marks, they can turn invisible and stun Red with their attacks. Royce's notes indicate they're the first sign of actual aggression he's seen.

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• Heel–Face Turn: The Help() function allows Red to summon Luna, a honey-colored Fetch that's allied to her side until it's killed or the battle ends. Two, if Spark() is used as an upgrade. Luna can also be found at the Sandbox.
• Invisibility Cloak: 2.0 versions and up gain the ability to use Mask() for a few seconds, rendering them invulnerable to attack as long as its up.
• Lightning Bruiser: Faster than Red, more HP than most enemies, and has one of the most damaging attacks that also causes stun.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: They attack by barking.

Clucker

Clucker

Eggs with legs, Cluckers act as artillery/fire-support units. Higher marks generate slowing trails, and their projectiles create Turn()-disrupting fields on impact.

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• Gathering Steam: Cluckers are slow to move at first, but the longer they go without being attacked, the faster they get.
• Glass Cannon: It has less HP and Armor than most attack Processes, but those shells do a lot of damage. This is amplified at higher levels.
• Power Nullifier: At higher levels, their blasts leave a field which immediately ends your Turn() if you touch it.
• Punny Name: They look like eggs. With legs. Because they use artillery-like attacks, you could even say they shell you.

Cheerleader

Cheerleader

Looking like tiny radar dishes, Cheerleaders generate protective shields around their target. Higher marks amplify their target's attack strength and periodically shield themselves.

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• Deployable Cover: Provides an Invincibility Power-Up at Level 2 for other processes and at Level 3 itself. The thing malfunctions whenever an object is in the way or they are too far from their target.
• Shoot the Medic First: Similar to Weeds below, you'll want to take out Cheerleaders quickly — especially as the difficulty increases.

Weed

Weed

Stationary and weak, Weeds heal nearby allies and generate a disruptive field to harm nearby enemies. Higher marks generate more Weeds when struck.

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• Asteroids Monster: In a sense. Upgraded versions of Weeds will spawn more Weeds in the area when killed, sometimes more than one. Fortunately, the spawned Weeds don't produce any more when you kill them.
• Shoot the Medic First: Enemies that are damaged will seek out Weeds, so cut them down quickly.

Snapshot

Snapshot

Floating cameras, essentially, Snapshots predict where you will be, and attempt to blind you with their cameras. Higher marks generate a field that obscures your view in Turn() mode.

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• Confusion Fu: Snapshots attack where you're going to be, not where you are, making them vulnerable to this.
• Interface Screw: They occasionally take snapshots of Red if they have line-of-light, causing a picture of Red to cover the center of the screen. Its 3.0 version creates a fog of war in Turn() mode that either covers itself (if you're far away) or everything else (if you move close enough).

The Spine

The Spine

A massive Process, the biggest individual ever seen. Its mere presence messes up the Transistor.

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• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A massive snake/dragon like Process the size of a large building.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Gigantic stinger tail, harassing you both outside and inside the boss fight.
• Beam Spam: Its laser-slash-machine gun thing will quickly chew through covers and is always aimed where Red is. It also has area-of-effect so you can't just keep running.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: It has about as much health as the final boss and multiple stages similar to that of the Jerk, so it will take quite a while to kill.
• Flunky Boss: When its health is reduced by a certain amount, it will become briefly invincible and spit out a bunch of cells that turn into Badcells. It will do this several times before you beat it.
• Jump Scare: How it makes its introduction. First you're riding an elevator up Red's apartment building, and then whoosh!
• Mind Rape: Not as severe as most examples, but its mere presence screws with the Transistor's head.
• Musical Theme Naming: Named in-universe by the Transistor after one of Red's songs.
  The Transistor: The Spine of the World!
• Stationary Boss: It doesn't move its head around during the fight, only turning to shoot you.

Man

Man

Large humanoid Processes, Men are most powerful in groups as they grant special effects to each other. They can launch ominous black projectiles called Haircuts that home in on you, detonating on contact for extreme amounts of damage. Royce seems very concerned by their appearance, and their manifestation is what compels him to install the Process Limiters in the Transistor.

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• Action Bomb: Haircuts will explode on contact with Red or on death. The explosion is fairly powerful, enough to reduce Red to critical in one hit. Fortunately, other enemies are vulnerable to the blast if you trigger it by killing them.
• Bishōnen Line: Men are the strongest of the Process, and the most human-looking.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Men come in four different flavours: green-haired are Sturdy, purple-haired are Shooty, grey-haired are Stealthy, and red-haired are Speedy.
• Elite Mook: They are the ultimate form of the normal Processes. Since you only meet them in Fairview and in the tests, seeing Men constantly in New Game Plus is both a given and an annoyance.
• Gathering Steam: Haircuts, like the Cluckers, move slowly to start but quickly gain speed the longer they're alive.
• Godzilla Threshold: They are the reason Royce created the Limiters in the first place. You are not enabling limiters to the Transistor's power, you are disabling the limiters of the Process.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: You can cause death by Haircut (hah) by setting it off near a Man. One of the Backdoor tests demands you to do this.
• Intangibility: Stealthy Men can render themselves intangible while not attacking, represented by the Men becoming transparent. They can't be attacked while it's active and all other Men in the battlefield will be protected the same way until the Stealthy Men are slain.
• Mook Commander: Men are this to each other. Each brand of Man not only has a special effect on itself, it shares its effects with other Men. This makes the combination of Sturdy and Stealthy particularly obnoxious, as all the time they spend intangible is time they also spend healing.
• Pun: Damage from a Haircut is called a "Shave". Doubly so when you consider the 'two bits!' part, and that the process is all about data.
• Regenerating Health: Sturdy Men regenerate health at a steady rate, healing themselves back to full in around ten seconds or so.
• Shave And A Haircut: Source of the name for their attack.
• Spam Attack: Shooty Men fire Haircuts at an accelerated rate. It's not so noticeable with one, but when four Men are on the field sharing the effect, it becomes apparent.
• Super-Speed: Speedy Men gain sudden bursts of speed that allow them to close in on Red and deploy Haircuts in an instant.

The Camerata

Sybil

Sybil Reisz

AGE: 30

SELECTIONS: Supervision, Organization

REASONS CITED: "I love people!"

Voiced by: Kristin Wilson

A community organizer who secretly plans the Camerata's hits. First major boss of the game. Trace of the Help() Function.

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• Ax-Crazy: Absolutely batshit after being processed. She sits there sobbing, then comes at you with her parasol, rambling throughout the fight and repeating herself two or three times.
  Sybil: [talking about how Red 'stole' the Transistor] Give it back give it back give it back!
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At least, according to the Transistor. When the player finally meets her, she's been Processed and is a little... loopy.
• Bullfight Boss: Charges you repeatedly with her parasol.
• Damaged Soul: She’s the only animate character you meet mid-processing, and she only gets more dehumanized throughout the fight.
• Flunky Boss: She'll spawn some Creeps, Weeds, and Cheerleaders during the fight.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Like with all the Camerata, she wasn’t expecting things to go to hell in such a big way. The big difference is the player is there to witness her corruption and eventual death. By the end of it all, she’s dead on many levels, not just physical.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Unable to even establish a friendship with Red, she deceives the Camerata into murdering her lover.
• If I Can't Have You…: After seeing Red's relationship with the unknown man, she used her Camerata connections to try to "persuade" her otherwise. It apparently ended up with her throwing the Transistor at Red in a fit of jealous fury.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Her bone-headed attempt to kill Red left the Camerata without the Transistor. Without it, the Process went out of control, destroyed all of Cloudbank and sealed the fate of its people.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: It's implied that she told the rest of the Camerata that Red would be alone so that her friend would be killed when they attempted to process her.
• Never My Fault: During her boss fight.
  Sybil: Help us help us help us won't you we only wanted your help!
• One-Winged Angel: Her boss fight is against her "processed" form which resembles her made into a white robotic monster version of herself.
• Parasol of Pain: Her post-Processing weapon of choice, used like a lance.
• Psycho Lesbian: After being Processed, she goes full psycho on Red.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: She has one glowing red eye after being processed.
• Super Mode: When Help() is installed in one of the Transistor's passive slots, it gives Red a 25% chance to use Kill() each time she activates Turn(). Kill() turns Red into a being of pure energy that can do 500 damage with a single attack during the Turn()'s duration.
• The Unintelligible: After being processed her voice now sounds harsh, grating and genderless. Sadly since you only get to meet her while she is in this form, pretty much all her dialogue is virtually impossible to understand without subtitles.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It isn't clear if she knew Red's friend would Take The Sword, but in any case it's her prompting that started everything going to hell.
• Villainous Breakdown: After defeating her, she is reduced to really small thing when her dress shatters, and left wriggling on the ground sobbing the entire time unusually loud. Even after getting her Trace, she is still crying.
• Villainous Crush: Fell in love with Red while assessing her for the Camerata's plans.
• Yandere: Plotted the death of her crush's boyfriend because she couldn't have her.

Grant

Administrator Grant Kendrell

AGE: 55

SELECTIONS: Civics, Judgement

REASONS CITED: "Cloudbank of course."

An Administrator of Cloudbank and the leader of the Camerata. Trace of the Tap() Function.

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• Decoy Leader: Late in his career he served in nearly every possible public service position possible. But as an "Administrator" (the top position) he found he was doing nothing more than maintaining The Process and the computerized direct-democracy, with no real authority.
• Democracy Is Bad: He was a strong believer in this, planning to make everything in Cloudbank more permanent and meaningful, less suspect to the whims of the majority. Said plan involved having people absorbed into the Transistor, essentially killing them.
• Driven to Suicide: He kills himself out of guilt for what the Process has done.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Set up as the Big Bad, and has an intimidating appearance, but he's described as being dear friends with all the Camerata, and by all accounts he truly loves Asher.
• Life Drain: His function Tap() does this when active, doing massive damage and returning a percentage of it to Red. Using it to upgrade other functions also gives them that effect.
• May–December Romance: Evidently, married to Asher.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Aside from a cutscene where he's shown directing the Transistor to stab Red, he goes unfought.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When he realized the Camerata's actions led to Cloudbank and its people's destruction, he was unable to bear it and killed himself.
• Posthumous Character: Though the time of death listed is fairly recent, Red never gets to meet him alive after the assassination attempt, while Asher at least has an online conversation with Red before following him.
• Straight Gay: Well, less visually coded than Asher at any rate. We never hear from the man himself, so that's about all we know on the matter.
• The Unfought: Grant ends his own life approximately 45 minutes before Red reaches the top of the tower.

Asher

Asher Kendrell

AGE: 28

SELECTIONS: Writing, Valuation

REASONS CITED: "Self-expression."

Voiced by: Cristopher Saphire

An OVC writer whose questions about Cloudbank led him to join Grant. Trace of the Void() Function.

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• Camp Gay: Downplayed but still notable.
  • If you look very close at some of the art, he's wearing guyliner.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: Void() inflicts the Voided status, which increases damage by 75% against those who're suffering from it. It can stack up to three times, increasing bonus damage by up to 225%.
• Driven to Suicide: He kills himself not long after Grant, not wanting to be apart.
• May–December Romance: His messages to Red imply he's in a relationship with Grant, and then you see that they have the same last name...
• Motive Rant: Leaves messages for Red as she scales the Highrise tower where he and Grant are hiding, explaining vaguely what the Camerata's motivations were.
• Right-Hand Cat: Asher is always portrayed with a mostly-black cat riding on his shoulders. It's easy to miss, but the cat can be seen in the Kenrdells' hideout perched atop what may be a server.
• Taking the Heat: Somewhat. He makes a public confession over the OVC that the chaos erupting in Cloudbank is the fault of the Camerata, naming all four members. However his phrasing puts the weight of blame on himself, despite having the least direct support role of all the members.
• Together in Death: "We always said that if we were to fail, we would do so together, as one. See you in The Country."
• Undying Loyalty: To the Camerata's ideals, and more than that, to his husband Grant. His disposition is even listed as "Loyal".
• The Unfought: Asher joins Grant around 15 minutes before Red reaches the top of the tower.

Royce

Royce Bracket

AGE: 37

SELECTIONS: Engineering, Mathematics

REASONS CITED: Declined

Voiced by: Sunkrish Bala

A scientist and member of the Camerata working in the remote Fairview district of Cloudbank, where so many of the city's finest have gone missing. Trace of the Flood() Function.

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• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: He speaks in a very soft but also very weird way, with pauses in very weird locations.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: The stripes on the sleeve of his coat are on his right side in his profile and in cutscenes, but his character model is flipped for some reason and puts it on the left side.
• Ambiguous Disorder: While clearly a genius, Royce seems to have trouble putting his thoughts into words. He speaks in a very slow, stilted cadence; he often pauses randomly to find words, repeats himself several times for no clear reason, or trails off into low mumbling in the middle of a sentence.
• The Atoner: Unlike the other Camerata, he decides to work with Red to try to save Cloudbank from the Process.
• Affably Evil: Dispassionately decides to murder you to escape the Transistor. If you die during the fight, he even thanks you for letting him go.
• Dragon-in-Chief: By the time the player even hears of him Grant has already killed himself, leaving Royce the sole member of the Camerata left and the primary antagonist of the game.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: From his trace file, he tried his damned best to create his architecture for Cloudbank, but citizens keep wanting new stuff built on top of it. Designing creations that could fit all needs didn't work either.
• Dug Too Deep: He found the Process when searching the city in a fugue, but Royce admits it's probably equally as likely that the Process found him.
• Final Boss: He's the last battle of the game.
• Gibbering Genius: As described above, his strange speech patterns also make him qualify for this trope.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Upon acquiring a Transistor of his own.
• Mad Scientist: He understands the Transistor in a way nobody else did, and was — for a time — able to control the Process. Unusually (for a Mad Scientist), he even made some adjustments, adding safeguards and other measures to help keep the Process in line.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: He and Sybil are the ones responsible for the destruction of Cloudbank and the death of all its inhabitants. He was the one who found the Process and the Transistor in the first place.
• Mirror Boss: Uses his own Transistor, complete with Functions and Second Chances. Unlike you, however, he is able to field more functions than should be possible, though he has less overall chances.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Who gets to go first? How about...me."
• Southern-Fried Genius: Has a trace of a southern drawl and is a certified genius.
• Unreliable Expositor: It's unclear how much of what he says is true, if anything, but the Man in the Transistor at least says to trust him.
• Verbal Tic: He has a habit of repeating himself, oh yes, repeating himself.
• Villainous Breakdown: The only time he breaks out of his smooth tone is when he's defeated, where he pleads to not be processed as his voice fades away into static.
• Vocal Dissonance: Royce looks young, serious, almost generically handsome, with sophisticated dress. But his voice is high, frail, almost elderly, and he speaks very casually and in a scatterbrained manner. It's disconcerting, to say the least.

Other characters

Lillian

Lillian Platt

AGE: 33

SELECTIONS: Physics, Negotiation

REASONS CITED: "Problem solving."

The youngest individual to be elected chairwoman of the OVC. She retired a mere two years later for 'personal reasons'. Trace of the Spark() Function.

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• Area of Effect: Spark() used in an active slot has this effect, showering explosive particles in a small radius. Using it in upgrade slots may cause other functions to gain Splash Damage.
• He Knows Too Much: She left OVC to look for Maximilias Darzi and was subsequently caught by the Camerata.

Preston

Preston Moyle

AGE: 29

SELECTIONS: Reflexes, Machinery

REASONS CITED: "I want to go fast and go far."

A speed demon like no other, Preston Moyle built his own bikes. One day he simply disappeared, leaving everything but his fastest bike. Trace of the Jaunt() Function.

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• Flash Step: Jaunt() as an active skill.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: A recording of his final moment is his laughter of joy as he take his bike for a ride in the canal, alone and over speed limit before it cuts off, implying that this happened.

Shomar

Shomar Shasberg

AGE: 29

SELECTIONS: Trickery, Comedy

REASONS CITED: "Everybody wears a mask, right?"

A lover of pranks, and Trace of the Mask() Function. When he disappeared, many of his fans thought it was just another one of his stunts.

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• Alliterative Name: Shomar Shasberg, sort of like Harry Houdini, a fellow "Magician".
• Ambiguously Jewish: His first name is Hebrew, meaning 'guardian', while his surname could well be Ashkenazi.
• Master of Illusion: One way he entertains the people of Cloudbank, given that they think he can somehow make a building disappear:
  "Poll: Traverson Hall Disappearance Another 'Shasberg Stunt'"/>
• Memetic Badass: In-universe, to the point where when the city starts disappearing, a portion of the city assumes it's another of his pranks.

Wave

Wave Tennegan

AGE: 40

SELECTIONS: Awareness, Debate

REASONS CITED: "Big ideas that's why!"

Originally a vicar, Wave became one of Cloudbank's biggest 'alternative broadcast personalities'. Then everything changed when he met the Camerata. Trace of the Load() Function.

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• Cannot Keep a Secret: His commitment to informing his listeners prevents him from keeping any secrets. Of course, the Camerata isn't accepting of that.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Load() used as an active and passive skill.

Niola

Niola Chein

AGE: 34

SELECTIONS: Empathy, Politics

REASONS CITED: "Everyone deserves the best."

A very popular, outspoken activist. Spent most of her time helping improve underdeveloped regions, educating habitual non-voters about their rights, and advocating for under-represent groups. Trace of the Bounce() Function.

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• High-Class Glass: Her portrait shows her wearing a monocle over her left eye.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Dedicates herself to helping other people while expecting nothing in return. Suffers from public backlash from people who oppose her work and the Camerata noticing her.
• Pinball Projectile: Bounce() as an active skill.

Henter

Henter Jallaford

AGE: 49

SELECTIONS: Psychology, Deduction

REASONS CITED: "I believe the future can be parsed."

A Cloudbank Investigator. Trace of the Ping() Function.

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• He Knows Too Much: Jallaford has a reputation of never stopping his investigation once he gets curious. Then he saw something in Cloudbank. The Camerata decides to deal with him before he knows anything further.
• Retirony: He is 49, close to retiring. The Camerata arranged for the news of his retirement so nobody is suspicious.

Farrah

Farrah Yon-Dale

AGE: 26

SELECTIONS: Meteorology, Chemistry

REASONS CITED: "Sky looks blue cause we want it to."

Cloudbank's first sky painter who change the weather according to the public vote. She violated her duty by painting the sky of Goldwalk to woo her suitor. The Administrator were after her when The Camerata offered a way out. Trace of the Switch() Function.

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• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her hair is white and fluffy, like a cloud. Likewise, her clothes are also flowing and poofy.
• Charm Person: Switch() as an active and upgrade skill causes certain Processes to temporarily switch to your side.
• Meaningful Name: Yon can mean "far distance" (derived from 'yonder'). A dale is a kind of valley: valleys are noted for having a good view of the sky.

Olmarq

Olmarq

AGE: 22

SELECTIONS: Strength, Concentration

REASONS CITED: "What's life without a little risk?"

Reckless quarterback of a local sports team who didn't seem to know his own strength, inflicting an injury in almost every match and causing the introduction of several new safety measures. Eventually retired, due to the reputation he was developing. Trace of the Cull() Function.

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• Expy: His face is quite reminiscent of the protagonist of a certain other Supergiant game. His team is called the Hammers, to boot.
• Only One Name: His profile only sites him by one name, which is presumably his last name.

Maximilias

Maximilias Darzi

AGE: 31

SELECTIONS: Design, Aesthetics

REASONS CITED: "Pursuit of Beauty."

A fashionista who one day disappeared, supposedly into the Country. Trace of the Purge() Function.

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• Going Cold Turkey: Completing parts of his file reveal that his creativity was driven by substance (ab)use. He later felt he had to stop. But that costs him his artistry so he went back to old habits until The Camerata came.
• Damage Over Time: As an active Function, Purge() fires homing swarms of parasites that corrupt and damage enemies for three seconds. It also reduces their speed to only 30% during the Purging effect's duration. When used as an upgrade, it allows other Functions to purge as well, whether by contact or by spawning more Purge() swarms.

Bailey

Bailey Gilande

AGE: 32

SELECTIONS: Acquisition, Statistics

REASONS CITED: "To shape the present, and the past."

A historian. She was the one to have updated the city's outdated and incomplete archives into what it is today. Trace of the Get() Function.

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• Ambiguous Gender: Her profile uses female pronouns and calls her "Ms.", but her gender on the side is simply listed as "X", suggesting she's non-binary.
• Ice Queen: Implied. Bailey does not socialize and prefers to devote her time to her work.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Get() as an active Function will pull enemies towards Red. When used as an upgrade, it allows other Functions to do this as well.

Amelia

Amelia Garbur

An associate editor of a news agency in Cloudbank. She authors many news reports that the player can read on the OVC terminals throughout the game.

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• Face Death with Dignity: Final news from her in Box Office's OVC terminal.
• Last Stand: She led the last surviving group of Cloudbank's population to a refuge, before the Process breached it and killed everyone. She was the last to be killed, seconds after Red entered.