You may have noticed sometimes characters have different stats and abilities in Challenge mode, This guide will not only show you the Perfect Partner for each character to unlock hidden buffs and cutscenes but also how to best play each character down to weapon choice, handgun choice and overall tips.

Perfect Coworkers also come with a cute cutscene!

If you can try to avoid grenade launchers, the missile variants are fine but for actual grenade launchers the damage, reload speed, and weird arc don't really lend themselves to being too useful 90% of the time. You're almost always better off using a real gun with or without Piercing ammo.

If you have to choose Turrets will always be better than barriers as they both stop enemies and the barriers in this game are made of paper mache so why not have a barrier that shoots.

You shouldn't fully neglect the defense upgrades but you also don't have to hit lvl 5 on it 3 is more than enough to wait for repairs should you take prolonged damaged.

If you quit out to title screen and come back your weapon will be gone, along with every barrier and turret you've placed. that is why I take some time to focus on handgun types and why they matter.

Piercing Ammo Gadget will always be king... need I say more?

If you can't find your desired handgun of choice twice in a row just take what the games gives you. The standard handgun is there solely to make your life miserable.

Lisichka is a hard hitting DPS focused character and while she may fire slow at the start she is still one of the best characters to pick for Challenge mode.

Lisichka's Perfect Coworker is Hector Granting her +1 Reload Speed and +1 Fire Rate

You should prioritize maxing out her firing rate at the start as she already does incredible damage especially with her first shot per mag. Take handgun C on her as with said first shot ability she can delete problematic enemies with one shot and 1-2 shot most others things with it. Being a sniper focused character actually helps her as they are some of the best weapons in the game with piercing shots but do try to avoid the single shot ones, even if the damage is good you NEED crowd control and they simply fire too slowly. Shotguns are good too Try to avoid other weapons if possible.

Abrek is fairly RNG dependant as her gadget is her main gimmick and while there are great and versatile combos you need to first obtain a gadget, nontheless she is still a strong choice.

Abrek's Perfect Coworker is Krasavka granting her +1 Magazine Capacity and +1 Cooldown Reduction

Her stats basically mirror Snezhinka with more cooldown reduction and 1 less damage. The extra durability on ARs is fantastic as they are very balanced weapons overall and have great DPS and crowd control abilities. Abrek's main gimmick is constantly using her gadget which leads to some seriously broken combos, allowing her to have piercing shots whenever she likes, a constant barrage of Multi-missiles or even one shotting bosses with guardian cannons. Depending on your gadget of choice you'll be using it 1-3 times per wave as each kill reduces its cooldown by one second I highly recommend trying the 3 I mentioned above as they're all super strong but feel free to experiment. Obviously ARs are very good just try to stick with them and try to get Handgun C incase of emergencies.

Dezik is a crowd control and DPS queen, probably the best in the game right now due to her ease of use and raw damage output.

Dezik's Perfect Coworker is Anita Granting her +1 Damage and +1 Knockback.

Dezik fires more shots with shotguns and her handgun, simple as that. Handgun C is the best choice due to its higher damage basically tripling the handgun damage and easily able to use up to days 80-90 with ease. Try to get shotguns on her and only use them or your handgun as everything else is honestly a letdown to the C handgun with multishot(and the handgun doesn't cost credits). When you do start stacking shotguns your life becomes EASY the extra shots per trigger pull makes quick work of anything on the screen and if you're lucky enough to get the piercing rounds gadgets you've basically won every single boss encounter with 2 buttons. I have no other words she's simply perfect.

Dochka is a capable yet RNG focused character, strong with the right run but its hard to gain momentum and keep it with her.

Dochka's perfect Coworker is Snezhinka granting her +1 Reload speed and +1 Magazine capacity
(Note Snezhinka doesn't appear as a teammate therefore you're better off going with whoever)

Dochka's main draw is that everything she shoots becomes explosives, this is both good and bad. Good because this gives you some serious crowd control. Bad because this means she cannot make use of Sniper's piercing or the Armor piercing rounds gadget. I also can't confirm this but it feels like her damage on weapons is decreased slightly. Handgun B is actually her best option as it lets her crowd control much better and while Handgun C will let you deal more damage the firing rate will slightly hinder her innate crowd control capabilities. Dochka also really doesn't need grenade launchers, in fact you should go for shotguns and SMGs instead as the higher fire rate of SMGs makes crowds a breeze and helps with the lackluster damage, and Shotguns pretty much turn you're screen into a nuke letting you only worry about bigger targets such as bosses. A Gadget to help her mediocre damage is advised, something like the guardian cannon or flamethrower will do just fine.

Krasavka is perhaps the most boring choice but not a bad choice. Her stat boosts are nothing to scoff at and the shot grouping can help with split second decisions.

Krasavka's Perfect Coworker is Abrek granting her +1 Magazine Capacity and +1 Cooldown Reduction

Krasavka doesn't have much going on with her, your SMGs are better and you gain incredible stats after sleeping in the barracks. Handgun C is the preferred choice here as on days with the stat boosts it really is fine to carry you but beyond that you should grab an SMG. anything besides the SMG C will do here. She also doesn't perform terribly with any other weapon types. Piercing Ammo gadget is once again king here allowing her to easily crowd control with her high RoF locking down enemy positions assuming your knockback is high enough. Sadly the mobility you get for choosing her doesn't really come into play a whole lot in challenge mode, she's more suited towards Story mode.

Hector is a strong choice for long term sustainability, both with her increased Credit allocation and devastating ability to use overwhelming bulletstorms to keep enemies in the ground.

Hector's Perfect Coworker is Lisichka granting her +1 Reload speed and +1 Fire Rate

High Attack and Firing rate from the start makes Handgun B her preferred choice making it a puesdo AR for when you don't have a weapon. LMGs are all you want to use on her but ARs and Shotguns don't perform terribly either. The Reload speed buff for LMGs make even the Advanced Machine Gun B reload feel acceptable. Speaking of which you want to focus on the advanced LMGs for her, Variant A is good for Raw DPS where as variant B lets you flood the screen with bullets super effective with, you guessed it, Piercing Rounds gadget. You may still run into dry spots and feel you don't need the piercing either so multi-missile also becomes a great panic button when you do need to reload for those longer waves or boss fights.

Anita is probably the 3rd strongest in challenge mode due to her economy power. with defenses costs less or sometimes 0 and constant healing it lets you focus more on your personal ability to kill enemies with ease

Anita's Perfect Coworker is Dezik Granting her +1 Attack and +1 Knockback

Anita's preferred handgun is C simply to help you chunk tankier targets should you choose to focus on green defenses at the start of your run. As Challenge mode is the late stages is mostly just placing down said green defenses having a character making that easier or just free will always be strong, its usually worth it to stack a lot of defenses in the early waves to then boost your own power later because they cost less and only get stronger the more you put down as you have a limit of 1 per day. ARs will always be a strong choice, and if you don't want the piercing ammo gadget then the flamethrower or multi missile are your best bets as they can quickly deal with bombers or groups of enemies chipping away at your barriers or turrets. The natural HP regen also acts as a comfy barrier to rely on should you not have a barrier turret setup at the time or choose to ignore defense upgrades.

Poster Girl of the entire game and she's pretty good, more tuned for late game but very strong all-rounder given her infinite options

Snezhinka's Perfect Coworker is Dochka granting her +1 Reload speed and +1 Magazine capacity

Improved accuracy and all weapons have additional durability, this lets her pick any starting point she wants but should you still favor just grabbing a handgun in the early stages then both work but I prefer handgun C. The Elite Rifle and Molten iron squad are very rare in early game to my testing but once you do get one you can snowball easily, if you're lucky you can hold onto the elite rifle for weeks in game and it's easily the best gun in the game as of right now, and yes it's even stronger with Piercing ammo. Don't feel the need to go for her Electrothermmal cannon it's good but better to keep setting up turrets and barriers in challenge mode. With 3 extra days of molten iron squad help you can effectively have constant use of them if you're luckily enough letting you breeze through challenge mode as it also lets you set up more turrets and barriers. TLDR She's Anita but slightly better endgame but you have to manage your economy better.

Well there you go! You can now go play whatever character fits your playstyle and dominate challenge mode, None of these are exclusive to gate defense or power plant defense so don't be afraid to try out the strategies on either. Feel free to comment anything you feel needs to be added or if you think I should change something feedback is always welcome!

I wish you all happy days and I wish Snezhinka and Marfusha can one day hug each other again.

- Currently 8th place Cyalide