All About the 6 Playable Characters from Children of Morta

Find out who all the six characters in Children of Morta are


Published: September 7, 2019 2:00 PM /

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All 6 characters can be seen in key art for the game

Children of Morta has been out for a few days now, and a whole bunch of people have already got into this excellent game developed by Dead Mage and published by 11-Bit Studios.

Players have a lot of options for how to play, and it might be a bit hard to decide which of the six Children of Morta characters you'd like to play as.

I've put a fair amount of time into the game, so I can give you the lowdown on every single one of the six mighty Bergsons! Read on to figure out which members of this fighting family best suit your gameplay style!

Before we break down each of the individual Children of Morta characters, there are some important things to keep in mind.

You do not have access to all six members of the Bergson family from the beginning; only John and Linda Bergson are accessible right away. Kevin, Mark, Lucy, and Joey must be unlocked (in that order, mind) before you're able to play with them.

Unlocking the other Bergsons is often a simple matter of playing enough runs. For example, you will gain access to Kevin after a few attempts at any of the game's levels, regardless of whether you win or lose.

Although there are six characters, they each fit into one of three archetypes. John and Joey are burly brawlers with high HP pools, Kevin and Mark are rogue-ish characters that emphasize quick strikes and dodging, and Linda and Lucy are ranged fighters that excel at a distance.

Each of the characters has its strengths and weaknesses, but you'll probably find a particular archetype you prefer. If you like Linda, give Lucy a try and see how she compares. If you enjoy dashing around with Kevin, you'll probably like Mark. You get the idea.

Each character eventually gets "Corruption Fatigue," a penalty to their overall hit points. This caps out at 90%; while you could keep playing with the weakened character (and I certainly did when trying to max out John), it's ill-advised and inefficient.

Leveling up each of the Children of Morta characters is a good idea because of the bonuses they can provide to the rest of the family. If your favorite character is down with Corruption Fatigue, do a few runs with someone else until they recover.

You could, of course, select someone from the same archetype, but why not try out something new as well?

Now that we've got the basics down, let's break down the members of the Bergson family! We won't just be describing the characters, though - each and every one of the six Children of Morta characters has its own gameplay video so you can see them in action!

John can be seen
John is an all-around great starting character.

John Bergson

John Bergson is the patriarch of the family. Son of the wizened magician Margeret and brother to the blacksmith Ben, John is a well-rounded hero with some of the strongest defensive capabilities in the game, and he's also one of the default characters you'll begin your adventure with.

Controls for this particular character are relatively simple. Attacking swings his sword in a broad arc and you can also hold up his shield. If you attack with his shield up, you'll attack from a more protected posture but consume a small portion of his stamina.

Taking hits on the shield also consumes stamina, and you won't be able to hold it up any longer if your stamina runs out.

John also has an ability to rain swords down on enemies, but they land on relatively random targets. You can't really predict where they're going to go, so it's best used to soften up enemies before finishing them off with your sword and board.

Papa Bergson is all about keeping things simple, and that is reflected in his rage ability. For a short time, you'll become invulnerable, allowing you to thin out the herd or get those last few hits in on a boss.

Out of all of the Children of Morta characters, John probably ranks the highest in sheer survivability.

Bear in mind that you can buff up his defense beyond the starting stats by increasing his natural armor and increasing his stamina. He may not be the fastest fighter, but he sure is one of the sturdiest.

One final and highly important note: His level 20 bonus grants a 1 hit point per second regeneration to everyone in the family, John included. This is a critical ability to unlock, and I cannot emphasize how useful and important it is to get him leveled up to 20 as fast as you can.

Linda can be seen
Linda is your ranged specalist.

Linda Bergson

Linda is the second of the Children of Morta characters that you'll have available from the beginning of the game, and her playstyle is vastly different from that of her father. While John works best getting up close and personal, Linda excels at attacking from range.

Her bow works well enough when standing still, but its true strength lies in her ability to shoot on the move. This consumes stamina, but you can extend this duration through her skill tree.

Alternatively (or in addition), you can buff up her damage when firing without moving and rely on her two dodge charges to survive in battle.

Linda's second ability rains a fiery arrow with an AoE effect wherever you click. This is great for dealing with crowds, shooting around obstacles, or finishing off a bad guy in style. It does more damage than her base attack and affects a wide area, so you should get used to using this as often as possible.

Her third ability takes a little longer to unlock, but Harmonic Slam can be critically important if used correctly. Simply put, this is an AoE stun that is cast around Linda, allowing you to back away from enemies who have gotten too close.

Finally, Linda's range is great for mowing down enemies or taking out a huge chunk of a boss's health bar. Her attack speed gets a lot faster, allowing her to fire off a lot of shots in the relatively short duration that it lasts.

Linda is fantastic in open areas, but you're going to have some difficulty using her for boss fights or arena challenges. The most important thing is to manage your dodge charges well—run out at the wrong time, and you're going to take a lot of damage.

Kevin can be seen
Kevin plays completely different to your two starting characters.

Kevin Bergson

 

Kevin Bergson is, in every sense of the word, a rogue. He is the first of the Children of Morta characters that you unlock and also the first character in the "rogue" archetype.

Kevin does poorly in a stand-up fight unless you keep getting in a lot of hits, and even then an enemy might get a swipe in. That's why he comes equipped with three dodge charges, the most out of any of the Bergson family. Hit an enemy two or three times, dodge, lather, rinse, and repeat until dead.

The Fan of Knives ability is great if you get surrounded or want to finish off the bad guys. It's exactly what it says on the tin—a circle of knives fires out all around Kevin.

His most useful ability, however, is arguably Shadow Cloak. Kevin goes invisible for a short time and can either use it to escape or close the distance on an enemy unmolested. The latter scenario is often the better choice, as he has a chance to instantly kill weaker enemies on the first attack. Be quick, though—it doesn't last forever.

Keeping in tune with his rogue archetype, Kevin's rage sends him into a frenzy and amps up his ability to do damage even faster. Throw caution to the wind and get in as many hits as you can; while you may take a couple of hits, it will probably pay off dividends once the enemies you're fighting are dead.

Kevin can make short work of many enemies, but his survivability is low out of the box and he needs to stay on the move. If you're good at timing dodges and attacking when an opportunity presents itself, this might be the character for you.

Mark can be seen
Mark has a number of fast attacks that can pull enemies in or combine together.

Mark Bergson

Mark is the fourth character unlocked in Children of Morta and shares an archetype with his younger brother Kevin. His particular specialty is controlling space, either by pulling enemies closer or pushing them away.

While he has a lot of options, he also is somewhat weakened in his ability to combo all of his attacks together as a result of that flexibility.

His primary attack is very different from the other melee characters in the game. Mark "locks on" to an enemy and will jump towards them as a free action to attack. Ideally, you'll jump in, land a few hits, kill the bad guy, and immediately move to the next enemy.

Mark's second ability is "Scourging Whip," an attack that will draw enemies in closer and stun them. Combined with his rapid attack speed, this will help you quickly finish off groups of enemies in one fell swoop.

Conversely, his third ability is "Swirling Staff," and it does the exact opposite of Scourging Whip; enemies surrounding him are damaged and knocked back. Between Scourging Whip and Swirling Staff, Mark excels at keeping the bad guys exactly where he wants them.

Crowd control specialization even extends to his rage ability. Mark gains the temporary ability to fire off super-powerful punches that affect a wide area and push enemies back.

When the chips are down and his back is against a wall, Mark can come out on top, backflip over any survivors, and finish them off with a few precision strikes.

While Mark is somewhat similar to Kevin, he has much more survivability in exchange for somewhat lesser damage. This is also due to his passive ability Atman's Barrier which builds up armor as he attacks enemies (represented by his Stamina bar).

Take a hit, and the bar goes down and you are more vulnerable. Mark needs to attack to defend himself well, so keep that in mind when in combat.

Lucy can be seen
Lucy is your mage in Children of Morta

Lucy Bergson

Lucy is, first and foremost, easily the most adorable of the Children of Morta characters. She also wields powerful fire magic and can bring ruin to large swathes of enemies.

Unlike her sister Linda, Lucy is incapable of attacking on the move. Kiting enemies requires moving, stopping, attacking, and repeating this pattern until they're dead.

She's much stronger when she can stand her ground thanks to her "Sidewinders," additional fireballs that begin to generate after she's been attacking for about a second. A whole horde could bear down on Lucy and never survive their attempt to close the distance.

Her Cyclone combos well with her primary attack, vacuuming up any bad guys and making them easy prey for her fireballs. Do keep in mind that an enemy hit by a Cyclone is not guaranteed to be trapped. They can and do escape, so always be ready to dodge.

If the bad guys start to get close, Lucy can deploy a decoy, which is almost guaranteed to distract them. Using the Cyclone and Decoy together is a bit silly; it's almost always best to use one or the other.

This is largely because her stamina is consumed by these attacks, and having them off cooldown simply is not enough.

Lucy brings a lot of firepower to bear, and that is best reflected in her rage ability. For a short time, she goes Super Saiyan and fires off a devastating beam of energy, protected by a health bar that doubles in size. You're not invulnerable, but you're awfully close.

Out of all of these abilities, her most critical is Protective Ward (one could say it's the best ability out of all of the Children of Morta characters). If you can manage to avoid damage for five seconds, a shield will spawn around Lucy, blocking 100% of damage from a single hit.

This shield will then automatically regenerate after five seconds of not taking any damage. Lucy can gain up to three of these shields, and it's a really good idea that you max out this skill to level 3.

 

Joey can be seen
Joey plays unlike any other character in the game.

Joey Bergson

To me, Joey is a bit of an enigma. He is easily the largest of the Children of Morta characters and possesses a great ability to lay down AoE damage. He is much like his uncle John with one key difference: while John is oriented towards defense, Joey is oriented towards offense.

Joey has no way to increase his armor or HP in his skill tree—every single upgrade either increases his movement speed or damage. He's best played by gradually backing up and swinging your very slow hammer to hit enemies while staying just outside of their attack range.

Smite is a great way to follow up a hammer hit, and this one-two punch of a regular attack and a Smite can handily deal with most weaker enemies.

His Whirlwind ability allows him to spin around and damage everything near him in a circle, but I found this not as useful and I rarely used it. It can, however, be upgraded with better mobility, and this may be necessary to truly unlock Whirlwind's potential.

Finally, Joey's rage is just like pretty much everything else in his kit: It increases his damage, but it's done in a rather roundabout way. Essentially, he gains a "Thorns" ability. Anyone who touches Joey gets hurt, allowing him to jump into the fray and bring down enemies rapidly.

Joey is clearly intended to be a heavy-damage character, but he does all of this stuff in melee range with a terribly slow weapon.

I can confidently say that he will be challenging to play if you don't at least have John's health regeneration unlocked and/or a health-regenerating item.

And that's it for our rundown of the Children of Morta characters! Each of the game's six heroes is wonderful in their own way, and you're sure to find a favorite!

Which of the Children of Morta characters is your favorite? Are there any particular characters that you dislike? Let us know in the comments below!

This post was originally published in 2019. It's been republished to have better formatting and images.

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
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One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N

More Info About This Game
Learn more about Children of Morta
Game Page Children of Morta
Developer
Dead Mage
Publisher
11 Bit Studios
Release Date
September 1, 2019 (Calendar)
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