Mycopunk Employees: All Five Classes Compared
Scrapper is the safest first pick (grapple mobility plus explosives), Wrangler is the team-play pick, Bruiser is the tank, Glider is the highest-skill mobility pick, and the Mycologist is the 1.0 support and controller who must be rescued in Expedition Alpha first.
Mycopunk has five employees, and they are closer to Deep Rock Galactic classes than to Borderlands vault hunters: each one solves movement and team problems in a different way. Picking the right one for your first twenty hours matters more than any single upgrade roll, because employee level gates what you can rotate and craft.
Who each employee is for
| Employee | Identity | Best at | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scrapper | Grapple and explosives | Vertical movement, getting out of trouble | Fragile if you never use the grapple |
| Wrangler | Lasso and repositioning | Team setups, dragging targets into fire | Lower personal damage ceiling |
| Bruiser | Heavy frontline | Holding an objective, surviving crowds | Slow, punishes bad positioning |
| Glider | Air mobility | Flanks, dropping onto objectives | High skill floor |
| Mycologist | Spore control and infection | Support plus crowd control | Must be rescued first |
Scrapper: the default recommendation
The Scrapper is the best first employee for most players because the grapple answers the most common beginner death: being in the wrong place with no exit. Grapple mobility works vertically, which matters in Titan City and in the Incursion facility, and the explosives line gives you a way to clear a pile without standing in it.
The trap is treating the grapple as a movement gimmick. It is a combat tool — repositioning mid-fight, escaping a shatter, reaching a resource pod that spawned high. If you never press it under pressure, you are playing a worse Bruiser.
Wrangler: the co-op multiplier
The Wrangler's lasso is the single most team-friendly ability in the game. Dragging an elite out of a crowd, pulling a teammate out of a bad spot, or yanking a target into a grenade all change the shape of a fight. It is also the ability that most rewards voice communication, which is why the Wrangler feels weak in silent pickup groups and strong with a regular crew.
Its upgrade identity leans into mobility and control: leap force upgrades, pattern-changing movement upgrades and a lasso that scales. In 1.0 several of its cards moved up in rarity, so the Wrangler's power curve now starts later than it did in Early Access.
Bruiser: the objective holder
The Bruiser exists so that someone can stand still. When the objective is "hold this position" or "let the drill finish", the Bruiser's health pool and close-range damage are what buy the rest of the crew time. Killcode, its signature explosive, gained a random element on its explosions in 1.0, which quietly made it a much better area tool.
Bruiser is the easiest employee to play badly and still survive, and the hardest to play well: standing in the open works on threat 1 and stops working around threat 4.
Glider: the mobility ceiling
The Glider is the pick for players who want movement as the answer to everything. It shows up constantly in community discussion, because a well-piloted Glider is almost impossible to pin down.
It also has the highest failure rate. Air mobility means you spend more time in the open, and Mycopunk's ranged enemies are happy to punish that. The Glider rewards map knowledge: knowing where the ceilings are, which gaps you can cross and which drops will kill you.
Mycologist: the 1.0 addition
The Mycologist is the first new employee added since launch, and she is a genuine weirdo. She was a member of the first expedition to New Atlas after the fungal outbreak, trapped planet-side for over a year, and the game leans into that: her kit is built around Sporelift and Fungal Skewer, plus a passive infection mechanic that works as a managed resource rather than a simple debuff.
She is not available at the start: you rescue her in Expedition Alpha, which is why her achievement sits under 1% completion. Once unlocked, she brings a set of upgrades and skins at the same depth as the launch cast, including an Amalgamation-exclusive character upgrade.
Levelling all five, not one
Your player level is not the level of your favourite employee. It is derived from the total level across your roster, and the upgrade rotation tiers unlock against that number. In practice this means the fastest way to unlock better upgrades is to spread play across employees rather than maining one.
The cap is level 30 per employee, and reaching it is its own achievement. Two consequences:
- Play each employee through the tutorial region once: cheap XP, and you learn what each ability does from the other side.
- Later, pick the kit that matches the modifier, not the one you like most.
Who to play in a full crew
The best four-player composition is not four of the same class — the Full Crew achievement expects variety. A Bruiser front, a Scrapper flanking, a Wrangler pulling targets and a Mycologist on crowd control covers every problem a mission throws at you.
Last checked 2026-10-21 against the 1.0 announcement, the Myco-eve developer post, the 1.0 patch notes and the Steam achievement list.
