Back 4 Blood is the latest zombie horde shooter from Turtle Rock Studios, the co-developer of the popular Left 4 Dead series. Billed as the spiritual successor to the Source Engine game, Back 4 Blood features not just various characters — known as Cleaners — to play as, but they all also have different passive skills that will change your playstyle as well.
However, when you first start your game, your only options are just four Cleaners: Evangelo, Walker, Holly, and Mom. The other four – Doc, Hoffman, Bill, and Karlee – are greyed out and cannot be used. If you’re wondering why you can’t select them, here’s how to unlock the rest of Back 4 Blood characters.
How to Unlock Back 4 Blood Characters
Evangelo, Walker, Holly, and Mom are the default characters that are available to pick from the start. To unlock Doc, Hoffman, Bill, and Karlee, all you need to do is to finish the first four levels of Act 1 “The Devil’s Return”:
- “Resurgence”
- “Tunnel of Blood”
- “Pain Train”
- “The Crossing”
Once you see the cutscene that shows Doc, Hoffman, Karlee, and Bill fighting the Ridden that means you can use them in your next match.
Unfortunately, if you’re playing Solo Campaign or playing the game offline, you will not be able to unlock the other Back 4 Blood Cleaners. You have to finish those levels in online multiplayer with your friends or other random players. The same goes with getting Supply Points to unlock new Cards. This means while you can play through all the game’s levels alone with bots, I’m sad to say that all progress is locked behind the online multiplayer feature.
Back 4 Blood: Does it Support Cross-Play?
Although it is a weird design decision to be implemented in the game, Turtle Rock Studios has promised it will address the solo progression issue. Back 4 Blood is now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam as well as Xbox Game Pass.
