Every playable Gravhound at Early Access launch: Zane, Finn, Dozer, Selene and Luna, their abilities, stats and the co-op roles they fill.
GRAVHOUNDS Characters Guide: All Five Hounds Explained
GRAVHOUNDS launched with five playable Gravhounds, up from the four in the October demo. Each is a dog with a gun, a stat profile and one signature ability, and the differences are large enough that the wrong pick can make a planet feel unbeatable.
Two of the five — Selene and Luna — had no published ability details before release. This guide says so plainly rather than inventing mechanics, and ranks them on what is verifiable: role, stats and how their kits fit a pack.
Official source: GRAVHOUNDS on Steam ↗ — five playable Gravhounds at Early Access launch.
The roster at a glance
| Hound | Breed | Ability | Role | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zane | Doberman | Bark | Panic / crowd push | Low |
| Finn | Shiba Inu | Play Dead | Survival / support | Low |
| Dozer | Bulldog | Bone mines | Area denial | Medium |
| Selene | Weimaraner | Not published | Unknown | Unknown |
| Luna | — | Not published | New at launch | Unknown |
Zane: the panic button
Ability: Bark. Zane barks, knocking enemies back and dealing a small amount of damage.
Bark is not a damage ability. It is a reset. When a melee unit closes, when a revive is interrupted, when the corridor fills faster than your turrets can clear it, Bark buys two seconds. Two seconds is often the difference between a down and a wipe.
Best for: solo players, players learning the swarm timing, anyone who keeps getting caught while mining.
Weak against: ranged enemies outside Bark range, and bosses that cannot be knocked back.
Play style: stay mobile, use Bark to create space rather than to kill, and treat the cooldown as a defensive resource. Do not Bark a single enemy; Bark the wave that is about to reach your turret.
Finn: the survivor
Ability: Play Dead. Finn plays dead, becoming invulnerable and receiving a strong heal; on getting up, a time bubble slows enemies around him.
Play Dead was reworked before launch into the strongest defensive tool in the game. It is not just a self-revive: it is a way to hold a lane alone, absorb a wave that would kill anyone else, and then release a slow field that lets your turrets catch up.
Best for: hard planets, boss fights, solo extraction, any pack that needs one player to survive when everything goes wrong.
Weak against: nothing directly — but a player who uses Play Dead as a crutch stops learning positioning.
Play style: use it proactively when the wave reaches the kill box, not reactively when you are already surrounded. Getting up into a slow bubble is a counterattack, not an escape.
Dozer: the area denial specialist
Ability: Bone mines. Dozer places bone-shaped mines that detonate when enemies approach.
Mines are free area damage. They do not cost a mod slot, they do not need line of sight, and they can be pre-placed before a wave. On a defense objective, Dozer can turn a corridor into a kill zone without firing a shot.
Best for: objective defense, chokepoints, players who like building more than shooting.
Weak against: fast enemies that cross the mine radius before it arms, and open arenas where enemies approach from many angles.
Play style: place mines before the wave, not during it. Refresh them between waves, and put them where the swarm must walk, not where it might walk.
Selene: the unknown
Ability: not published before launch. Selene appeared in the demo as a Weimaraner with a distinct stat profile, but the ability shown in previews was not documented in the launch material available at release.
What is verifiable: Selene is playable, has a full weapon and mod kit, and uses the same progression as the other hounds. Treat her as a stat-and-handling pick until the community documents her ability.
Best for: players who want to experiment, or who prefer her handling and model.
Do not assume: that she fills a specific role. The honest answer is that her kit is unranked until the ability is confirmed.
Luna: the launch addition
Ability: not published before launch. Luna is the fifth hound added for Early Access. She did not appear in the demo, and the launch material did not detail her ability.
The same caution applies: she is playable, and her role is unknown until documented. The character unlock guide covers how to add her to the roster.
Building a pack
A four-player pack should cover four jobs, not four copies of the best hound:
- Survival: Finn.
- Area denial: Dozer.
- Crowd control: Zane.
- Flex: Selene or Luna, once their kits are known.
Two Finns is not a bad pack — Play Dead is strong enough to stack — but it leaves the base without mine coverage and the corridor without a knockback. The best character guide ranks the picks by mode.
Character choice by planet
- Open planets: Zane and Dozer. Bark resets open-field swarms; mines cover the flanks.
- Corridor planets: Dozer and Finn. Mines in the corridor, Play Dead to hold it.
- Boss planets: Finn first, then your highest-damage hound.
- Farming planets: whoever you are leveling. Character progression is shared, so there is no bad choice on an easy run.
What characters do not change
Your deck, your turrets and your research are shared across the roster. Switching hounds does not reset progression, and a build is not locked to a character. That is why the build guide can recommend a deck independently of the hound.
The only thing that changes is the ability, and the ability is worth roughly one mod slot. Pick the hound whose ability covers the moment you are worst at.
If you die while mining, take Zane. If you die at the collector, take Dozer. If you die during the extract, take Finn.
FAQ
How many characters are in GRAVHOUNDS? Five at Early Access launch.
What is Selene's ability? Not published before launch. This guide does not invent one.
What is Luna's ability? Also unpublished at launch. She is the fifth hound, added for Early Access.
Can I switch characters between runs? Yes. Progression is shared, and there is no penalty for switching.
Which character is best for solo? Finn for survival, Zane for crowd control. Finn has the higher floor.
Further reading
Summary
Zane resets, Finn survives, Dozer denies, Selene and Luna are unknowns with real kits. Pick the ability that covers your worst moment. The unlock guide covers the roster path; the best character ranks them by mode.
More GRAVHOUNDS Guides
Build a GRAVHOUNDS base that survives escalating swarms: site selection, four defensive layers, power placement and layouts for solo to four players.
A first-shift walkthrough for GRAVHOUNDS: what to mine, where to build, how pipes pay for themselves, and when to call the ship.
A complete GRAVHOUNDS build for hard planets: rapid-fire crit weapon, turret support deck, Dozer mines and the exact 10-card Mod Deck.
The best GRAVHOUNDS character for solo, duo, four-player packs and boss runs, with the reasoning and the loadout each hound enables.
A practical GRAVHOUNDS Juggernaut guide: arena preparation, phase behavior, turret placement, team roles and the mistakes that wipe the base.
How GRAVHOUNDS builds work: the 10-card Mod Deck, Showstoppers, weapon choices and the stack rules that decide whether a run snowballs.