Do you wish to be a warrior, a mage and a rogue? Do you wish to be very versatile, able to handle all situations? Do you wish to have the ability to wreck havoc on mages? Then the adventurer is for you

The adventurer is the first unlockable class in the game, after you beat up Humprey. His starting loadout are....unconventional, to say the least. His shortsword deals the same damage as the greatsword, but with faster attack speed and lower range. The lantern deals damage and nullifies ALL magic, but leaves him exposed to melee attacks. His amulet is a ranged stun, and is arguably his most reliable tool, but damage-wise is very weak. The starting adventurer in summary is very good at killing mages, but leaves something to be desired against melee enemies, at least until you get his emberforge upgrades.

Cyril Palmer was an adventurer, formerly cartographer, hailing from the Fenns, the same land that the Warrior hails from. He was not born magically gifted, yet he still got visited by the mysterious and enigmatic Silver Eye. Haunted by dreams of the Silver Eye, he was then led to the Amaranth Keep by the silver eye, seeking for answers. Throughout his journey, he encounters an old wizard, and he must eventually confront the shadow, if he wants to know what the silver eye is/

-Versatile emberforge upgrades that allows your adventurer to have varieties of combination of abilities and emulate most of other class mechanics
-Can nullify ALL magic through simple use of lantern, and the lantern deals decent damage.
-Starts with a simple yet effective stun projectile
-Shortsword deals the same damage as greatsword while attacking faster as well, resulting in higher DPS than warrior without relying on bacckstabs.
-Decent HP, only beaten 2 HP by rogue, and he can potentially has the highest health-recovery in the game.
-Crit Wispfire Torchs, AKA "KILL EVERYONE AROUND YOU"

-While he can be versatile, his abilities for the most part are highly situational. The torch demolishes mages, yet forces him to stand for at least half a second, which means you are free to hit by melee enemies
-His range is a little bit on the low side, as such he needs to get close to the enemy.
-He's reliant on emberforge upgrades, as such levels with hard first few floors such as the endless are very difficult to do as adventurer.

The adventurer playstyle varies wildly, due to how game-changing his upgrades are, but in general adventurers use shortsword. Shortswords has short range, but swings fast, and he starts with lantern and a stun. As such, as adventurer, target melee enemies first, so you can safely use the lantern to handle mages. Since his sword swings fast while dealing normal amount of damage, he can quickly do 2 swings to kill most enemies, or swing and then use lantern to kill enemies while protecting him from projectiles. His power attack comes quick, so he can use it as gapcloser.

The adventurer is the only character (outside of Paladin, who's intentionally overpowered) that starts with the ability to stun. The stun can be chained and works on all enemies, even stopping certain boss attacks. However, as soon as the stunned enemy gets hit, they wake up and goes back to their business. Ideally, the stun is used to isolate a tough enemy so you can deal with crowds, so you don't waste stuns, but the stun is also useful for just stopping the enemy. A necromancer wants to rez his allies? Just stun and poof, problem solved! Melee enemy charging towards you? Stun and he just stops! And since the lantern only drops from crates, enemies frequently drops stun charges, so abuse them if you can!

The adventurer can be played aggressively or defensively, depending on the upgrades you pick. In all cases though, the adventurer relies on his abilities quite extensively, Don't be afraid of running of amulet charges, as enemies will drop amulets often. Do be resourceful with your lantern though, since they only drop crates.

So in terms of playstyle, the adventurer plays like a ratblade warrior, but where's the warrior always have a shield, the adventurer instead has crowd control abilities that allows him to play strategically and control the battlefield. But the adventurer isn't stuck with this, and through the emberforges, he can get other abilities to change his playstyle.

Your sword and lantern might suffice in the first few floors, but as the level progresses, the adventurer's shortcomings, such as short range, and lack of reliable defensive mechanic becomes even more pronounced, and if you are stuck only with those items, you gonna have a bad time

Through emberforges, he can emulate other class's mechanics. He can get a shield, a dagger, a greatsword, and even dashes. This allows him to have unmatched versatility, and makes him arguably the class with most replay value. It also allows him to have combinations of abilities that are otherwise unavailable

Bitter Wind

The only crit boost item in adventurer arsenal, this sword has an additional effect in making your charged attack goes faster. This essentially turns your power attack into a near-instant gapcloser, which allows you to eliminate ranged enemies faster as well as repositioning yourself faster. Just like other crit boost weapons, it increase crit chance by 4%/7%, depending on the level.
Flicker

Flicker turns your power attack into a charge that pass through projectiles and enemies, similar to rogue's Tormernter upgrades and spellsword power attack without stun. Note that the dash can't ever apply bleed, unlike the other dash items which I will cover later. This gives adventurer a pseudo dash that hurts enemies by 15 damage, and since he doesn't have abilities that requires energy, this means he can spam power attack, unlike say a rogue and a spellsword, who needs energy to dash. Note that adventurer can trap himself in crowds with the power attack, so be careful when using this sword against crowds. Level 2 reduces energy cost, allowing you to spam even further.
Sunnebrand

Praise the sun! This item gives you additional 1/2 health regeneration, depending on level. as well as 4%/6% item drops from enemies. This is the only upgrade in the game that offers additional healing, no other item in the game have this effect (except pets, which can be stacked for a whopping 27 health recovery) As a kicker, enemies also drops more amulet charges, so you can use your amulet ability more often! Do note that half fountains heals half of the normal fountain , and since half of 17 is 8.5, the game rounds it into 8. so half fountains are 1 HP less effective than normal fountains. Either way, this sword allows you to make more mistakes than you normally wouldn't
Red Death

Sunnebrand's edgier twin, this sword reduces your healing by 3. What do you get from this drawback? A whopping 7%/10% chance to instantly kill enemies! Less healing means that you need to play more careful, because you can't afford to make many mistakes, but the instant kill works on nearly every enemy (except bosses, otherwise it would be too OP). That pesky purple demon with his 8 direction fireball? One swing and boom, if you are lucky, he's dead! And the proc can occur on multiple enemies, so sometimes you can wipe an entire room from a single power attack! And it even works against minibosses! Take this sword if you are confident in your skill, or if you just want that satisfying death bolt sound effect.
Giant Knife

Do you hate your short range? Then you can get warrior's sword instead! You do swing slower, but your sword has huge range, so you can hit enemies out of their melee attack reach! And your power attack hits more enemies, and also uses slightly less energy to use! Level 2 reduces energy cost even further, so you can flex on the Warrior by spamming power attack!
Isarach's Dirk

The adventurer can now even flex against the cultist, since he can now have her knife! Sure, you don't get the invi + blind combo of cultist, and you don't have her extra backstab damage bonus, but you still have her power attack which is a knife throw, and you can still deal backstab damage similar to rogue. The adventurer dirk throw has lower energy cost, which can be reduced further in the level 2 upgrade, so the adventurer can now do the lure and bait strategy as well as play the ranged game, and with certain other items, he can even go stabby-stabby with the invisibility lamp and stuns, since stunned enemies are auto-backstabs, but if he finds invisibility potion, he can demolish bosses and rooms in seconds, just like the rogue.

Wispfire Torch

Lantern have larger radius as well as deals instant 15 damage on use. Note that the DOT seems to become weaker, since 20 HP enemies still survives the entire torch. Normally, you need to wait for 15 hp enemies such as mages and invisible rusher to die, but with this, pressing the lantern button will instantly kill them! Great for clutch save, or if you are spamming it to deal damage, but if you crit, it deals 30 damage, and crits also double the AoE, and suddenly you wipe out the entire room! Level 2 makes the radius larger, so it can kill enemies further away!
Shadowfume Lamp

Lantern gives you stealth in addition to repelling projectlle and burn enemy. The stealth can throw off melee enemies, although sometimes some of them are still aggroed to you for a while. The brief stealth also allows you to reposition yourself, so you can find better room to attack and dodge. The stealth last for quite a while, so you can be invisible before entering the room to find a better position to attack. Or if you have the dirk, use this to gain a free backstab.
Tamed Sprite

Lantern turns into a sprite that follows you around and repels magic and burns nearby enemy. Not having to stand to use allows you to not worry too much about melee enemies, although the damage leaves a lot to be desired. Sprite can turn certain rooms into easy kills since the sprite absorbs 99% of the projectiles while you are running around with your sword, do note that if you are too close to the enemy, the projectile sometimes will just hit you anyway, so keep some distance between the enemy. Level 2 last longer, so you use less sprite charges.
Zephyr Boots

Allows to dash really far and also bleeds enemies you pass through. You can change directions while dashing so you can zip around enemies, although you will wish for more charges, since it's very easy to run out of dashes since it only drops from crates. It does have weird interaction with amulet of unseen, in that it somehow gives the amulet dash ability to bleed enemies it pass through, making for some weird synergy. Level 2 dash lasts further, so you can dash more distance.
Orvar's Shield

Miss the ability to block? Then don't worry, the adventurer also have a shield! Orvar's shield is special in that any melee attacks that hits your shield gets deflected and stuns back your opponent, making dealing with melee enemies easier. Level 2 has 20% of chance to not use a charge when it blocks, allowing the adventurer to block more in geeral
Black Satchel Bomb

Drops a timed bomb that explodes after 3 seconds, dealing huge damage and stuns enemies. Requires you to either bait the enemy into the bomb, or stunning them and then dropping the bomb, if you want to hit anything with it. The bomb also knocks back enemies, which is annoying if you want to chain bomb enemies to death. Level 2 have larger explosion and deals 20 damage instead of 15, so it now one shots most enemies.

Silverset Medallion

Stuns 3/4 foes depending on level. Major upgrade for your stun amulet, since it can now stun multiple enemies and can allow you to stun enemies that are behind another enemy. Stunning crowds can allow you to group them up to set up your power swing.
Tears of Ice Queen

Slows an enemy and poisons them. Unlike stuns, slows doesn't interrupt enemies, instead it makes them moves slower by about 50% and attack slower by about 50% too. Best used against high HP mobs such as thorned necromancer and the big demons.
Sunlight Rosary

Throws a projectile that deals 10/15 damage through two foes and cancels projectiles. One of the best projectiles in the game, dealing heavy damage through two foes while repelling projectiles along the way, allowing you to kill ranged enemies just by tossing sunlight
Blast Marble

Flings a short ranged dash attack that deals 10 damage and stagger enemies in an area around adventurer. While at a glance it looks underwhelming, this amulet has many properties that makes it one of the most versatile tool the adventure has. Stagger interrupts any enemy action, preventing them from attacking, and since it counts a dash, it allows you to pass through projectiles unscathed. When paired with lantern, the blast marble can be used to animation cancel the otherwise forced lantern stand, allowing the adventurer to quickly blast enemies with lantern and then using blast marble to move and attack enemies. Level 2 has even larger AoE for the attack, allowing it to hit more enemies.
Amulet of the Unseen

Grants adventure a dash that pass through]enemies and projectiles and leaves an explosion that suns enemies at the end of the dash. The main use of this amulet to enable the adventurer to dash, similar to rogue and adventurer. However, the adventurer dash isn't tied to energy, so adventurers can use them in quick successions and still be able to power attack, although instead he needs to finds charges for the dash, but the charges, unlike the zephyr boots, drops from enemies instead, so he can reliably use the dash amulet without expecting it to run out. As mentioned above, zephyr boots allows the amulet dash to bleed enemies, but even without that, having multiple options to dash, combined with flicker dash, allows the adventurer to dance and zip around the battlefield.
Stormcrown Ornament

Discharges 3 lightning bolts at the cost of 3/2 charges, depending on level. The lightning bolt stuns and deals 15 damage, and covers a lot of areas. Beware that the lightning doesn't hit enemies directly in close range. Make sure your lantern slot is an item that can handle close range enemies such as Orvar's or melee enemies become even more damaging.

The adventurer needs to prepare himself for many situations that can be encountered during an adventure, as such he can get wide variety of consumables.
Vitae Tonic

Standard healing potion, can be very useful for red death adventurers, since extra healing can reduce the drawback red death has.
Time Dust

Grants haste on use. Faster speed means your charge attack covers more distance.
Aged Hourglasses

Slows nearby enemies while repelling projectiles around the adventurer. Save it on very difficult rooms where using a lantern might only result in getting hit by a melee opponent.
Blade Venom

Your next attack poisons enemies and can stun them. Try to hit as much enemy as possible to ensure maximum effectiveness of the venom.
Flash Bomb

Blinds nearby enemies, destroys nearby projectiles, and turns you invisible. Use it to dodge melee enemies, since blinded enemies are essentially stunned enemies.
Fireball

Throws a fireball that deals 20 damage. Fireballs are amazing against crowds, since it one shots most of the crowds, while stunning anyone that survives.
Ogre Oil

Your next five attacks stuns enemies. Five hits that each stuns enemies can allow you to net some easy kills that are otherwise difficult.
Summon Shadow

Summons a shadow clone that deals damage for 10 seconds. The clone doesn't take aggro, but it still deals damage, so it's essentially free damage boost.
Shadowtwist Elixer

Grants persistent stealth for 10 seconds. Since the adventurer normally uses swords, the stealth acts instead for positioning yourself and allowing you to deal enemies one at a time. However, if you have a dagger, this potion turns into a major DPS boost that can down bosses in seconds.

Pathfinder
Increase health recovery to 7. This allows your adventurer to recover more health than anyone else, until you purchase his gift
Deft Scrounger
Defeated enemies has 20% more chance to drop amulet charges. Allows you to use amulet more frequently
Guided By Purpose
Increase maximum health by 5.
Frugal Provisioner
Gives 15$ chance to conserve lantern slot items. Allows you to use the lantern items more
Second Wind
15% increased energy regeneration. The adventurer has 5% less energy regen than warrior, as such he needs to time his power attack carefully, unless he has the energy reduction cost emberforge upgrades.
Adept Artificer
10$ chance to conserve amulet charge. As such, the adventurer can use his amulet charges more frequently than ever.
Flaw Finder
5% chance to crit. Crits on adventurer are special, especially with wispfire, since critted wispfire can often wipe an entire room by their own.
Gift of the Seeker
All class recovers 2 more health. The best gift upgrade in the game, and the reason why maxing adventurer first is a good long-term decision.

The adventurer is derided by some as the worst/weakest class in the game, especially due to his weird starting loadout. Find an emberforge however, and you will able to modify your adventurer into combination of the mage, the warrior, the rogue, the spellsword, and the cultist. And although he's mostly jack of all trades, he has more crowd control options than most classes in the game outside of the cultist, and no other class in the game can get increased health recovery or a chance to instant kill enemies. As such, the adventurer is a class that rewards anyone who sticks with him, and has combination of skills that no other class can get attain.