Chained Beasts All Beasts: Roster, Unlocks, Variants

What the Launch Roster Actually Includes

Picking the wrong fighter in a chain is not a fashion mistake. It is how a four-player run wraps itself around a pillar and dies. Chained Beasts all beasts are the cast you actually bring into that problem: eight unlockable gladiators, each with variants that shift stats, abilities, and cosmetics. Chained Beasts all beasts also set your unlock goals, because Featherweight Games built the 1.0 roster around distinct animals rather than one human class with a costume swap. If you want a clean lobby plan three days after the October 15, 2026 launch, start with what the studio has confirmed and what players have already named.

Official screenshot · Source: Steam store

The Chained Beasts store page on Steam describes a 1–4 player co-op gladiator roguelike. You fight chained to your group, use the chain or the arena itself, and push through bosses while injuries pile up. Launch notes add the roster math that the store blurb never spells out creature by creature: unlock eight different beasts, then beast variants with different stats, abilities, and cosmetics. That is the whole public definition of the cast as of October 18, 2026.

Treat that number as a checklist, not a tier list. A complete illustrated bestiary is not printed in the official about text. Inventing the missing six names would only send groups into the arena hunting animals that may not exist. Use the in-game select screen as the authority, and use this guide to know what “all beasts” includes beyond the portraits: variants, personal cosmetics, skills, items, and afflictions that can erase a beast’s fantasy mid-run.

Early Steam reviews sit at Very Positive, with 82% of 390 purchaser reviews in favor. That score does not rank individual beasts. It does say the combat loop is landing for most buyers while the roster is still young. One detailed player experience put a strong solo run at about 10–15 hours before shops and afflictions started to repeat, with more time if you stay in co-op. Beast choice is one of the few levers you fully control when the shop starts looking familiar.

Named Beasts Versus the Rest of the Cast

A public index of Chained Beasts all beasts is thinner than the unlock count. In the store copy and the launch posts collected here, Featherweight never prints a numbered list of animal names. Community posts and video titles do name two fighters clearly enough to treat them as real roster members, not fan concepts.

The wolf shows up in community build videos and in player talk about the fantasy of fighting as an animal. Nobody in these sources publishes an official claw combo, health value, or signature skill. What you can say is narrower and more useful: the wolf is in the game, players are already trying to break it with skills and items, and any “unstoppable” claim is a content title, not a balance patch.

The rhino is the other named beast, and it comes with a practical warning. A launch review describes an outfit unlocked when the rhino kills the first boss. In that player’s group, only the person who got the kill received the cosmetic. The rest of the crew, who helped, did not. The reviewer left a negative review over party credit and noted that a developer replied. Until you see the challenge text in your own client, assume beast-specific unlocks may be personal.

That gap is the article’s line in the sand. Chained Beasts all beasts cannot be honestly ranked from marketing screenshots alone. If a guide lists six extra species with health bars and signature moves, and those species are not on your select screen, close it. The studio has also said the full game adds beasts and arenas beyond the demo, so demo memory is a poor census.

Players who want deeper animal fantasy have already said so. One community comment argued that leveling should feed beast-specific power, tossing out ideas like sharper wolf claws or a rhino horn dash. Those lines read as wishes, not patch notes. Do not build a lobby strategy around a horn dash until the game shows you that ability on a variant or skill.

Variants, Cosmetics, and Unlock Rules

When you unlock Chained Beasts all beasts, you are not done with that animal. Launch messaging splits the character into three layers that are easy to mash together in a wiki and expensive to mash together in a run.

The base beast is the unlock. It is a distinct fighter, not a tint. The variant changes stats and abilities, so it belongs in the same conversation as a subclass. The cosmetic changes how that body reads in the blood-sprayed arena. A mercury-skin artwork post on the community hub is a bug report about appearance, not a new fighter. Keep cosmetics in the cosmetics column unless a patch note says otherwise.

Unlock hygiene matters more than a fake tier list. Before a session, open the roster and write down three things for each player: beasts owned, variants owned, and any challenge that names a beast. If the rhino-style boss kill is still outstanding, put that beast on the player who needs the outfit and agree, out loud, who is allowed to take the killing blow. Swapping “for fun” on the last hit is how a four-run grind becomes an eight-run grind.

A few habits keep the variant pile from becoming junk:

• Read the variant difference before you raise the difficulty. “Different stats and abilities” can mean a move you have never practiced while chained.
• Run a new variant on one of the lower settings among the ten difficulty levels. You are learning collision and timing, not proving a rank.
• Keep one player on a familiar beast when everyone else is experimenting. Someone has to steer the chain.
• Snapshot challenge text. If it says the rhino must kill the boss, believe the text over lobby folklore.
• Separate “I unlocked the animal” from “I unlocked the look.” A cosmetic does not mean you have the strong variant.

Money, crowd favor, and shop gear still sit on top of that identity. The store description is clear that experience forges skills, the crowd can back you, and purchased weapons can flip a fight. None of that replaces the beast. It explains why two players on the “same” animal can have completely different days once variants and shops diverge.

Chains, Afflictions, and Beast Game Plans

Chained Beasts all beasts still share the chain. The pitch is slapstick and cruel on purpose: fail to sync and you tangle on a pillar; sync and you trip enemies with the same restraint. Environment kills are first-class tactics for every body. Official combat copy tells you to throw urns, throw foes into urns, charge people into spikes, dump them into a snake pit, or throw your weapon and immediately regret having empty hands.

That shared toolkit is why a beast’s fantasy can lie to you. A heavy charger still has to stop when a friend is wrapped the wrong way around a column. A fast skirmisher still yanks the team if they sprint the instant a heal applies a limp. Ask one question in the first fight of a new beast: does this body want distance, or does it want to occupy the same tile as the crew? The answer decides who holds the middle of the chain.

Afflictions are the other equalizer. Healing between rounds is a trade. The studio has described more than 70 physical and mental afflictions, and it has named examples that do not care how impressive your variant looked in the lobby. Annoying makes allies liable to hit you if you crowd them, which is a direct tax on tight chain play. Impulsive locks a new skill every second level and forces a purchase at every shop. Infatuated sticks the camera to one ally and grants a 10% damage boost while that ally is looking at you. Player experience adds smaller annoyances, such as colorblindness or dropping a weapon, and run-threatening ones, such as losing arms or staying on fire. A missing eye, a limp, and hallucinations are all part of the wound fantasy on the store page.

One player summed the loop up cleanly: you are trying to become more overpowered than you are nerfed, and you choose the risks. Grind one more level and accept a blind eye, or heal to full and lose a toe that makes sprints trip. That choice is beast-agnostic. It is also the reason a “best beast” list written on day one will age badly. The same wolf or rhino is a different fighter after two bad potions.

Use the arena when the body fails. If vision is gone, stop swinging at blurry pixels and drag foes into hazards the room already labeled for you. If a limb is gone, stop forcing the weapon string that needed that arm and throw whatever is still in the other hand. If Impulsive is about to buy trash, spend the money on the least harmful item instead of rolling into a fight broke and surprised. These are not secret combos. They are the game’s own rules applied to a damaged roster.

Co-op afflictions deserve a second look before you copy a solo build. Annoying and Infatuated only make sense with other bodies on the chain. A solo player never has to solve “my damage buff depends on a friend looking at me.” A couch group does, and same-screen play wants at least one gamepad. The studio recommends a controller in general. If your beast plan needs precise throws, do not discover on fight three that someone is fighting the camera with a keyboard while Infatuated yanks the view toward another player.

Post-Launch Beasts and How to Plan Your Unlocks

Chained Beasts all beasts will grow, but not on the schedule a roster collector might hope for. The October 12 roadmap, written just before launch, put a December update called 1.1 on a new arena, a new boss, a new weapon, and new enemies. That is a new place to take the cast, not a promise of beast number nine. The studio’s wished-for PvP mode sits in the first quarter of 2027, alongside a smaller batch of skills and afflictions. Only after that did Featherweight say it would make sense to add more acts, more skills, more afflictions, more beasts, more variants, and more cosmetics, depending on what players actually ask for.

Plan the next month like a collector who still has to win fights:

• Clear the eight base unlocks before you chase every cosmetic. A missing beast blocks more party comps than a missing cape.
• Assign beast-specific kill challenges to the player who needs them, and do not “share” the last hit unless the text says the party counts.
• On each difficulty bump, change one variable only: beast, variant, or difficulty. Changing all three teaches you nothing.
• Keep a note of which afflictions ruin which fantasy. A charge-oriented variant and a limp is a known bad pair after a single run.
• Re-read patch notes in December for enemy and weapon changes before you decide a beast is weak. The room may have changed, not the animal.
• If you care about PvP later, notice which beasts feel fair when a friend is the opponent, not only when the chain is on your side. That feedback is what the studio said it would watch.

The price context is simple and secondary. The launch discount on the store page is 35% off, $12.99 instead of $19.99, through October 29. A characters guide should not sell you the game. It should stop you from spending those hours re-running a boss because nobody checked who had to land the hit, or from benching a variant you never actually read.

The useful version of “all beasts” on October 18 is therefore short. There are eight. Variants change stats and abilities. Cosmetics are a separate hunt, and at least one of them has already frustrated groups over personal credit. Wolf and rhino are the names these public sources support. The other six are in the client, not in the marketing paragraph. Play them, write down what the variant tooltip actually changes, and let the December arena tell you which bodies were carrying the old rooms.

FAQ

How many beasts ship in Chained Beasts?

Launch notes say you can unlock eight different beasts, plus variants that change stats, abilities, and cosmetics. That is the 1.0 roster size. Extra beasts are something the studio said it may add after the planned PvP work, not part of the December 1.1 arena update as described in October.

Is there a complete public list of Chained Beasts all beasts?

Not in the Steam store description or the launch posts used here. Those sources confirm the count and the variant system. Community material names the wolf and the rhino. Treat any other species name as unconfirmed until it appears on your unlock screen or in a studio post.

Do variants actually play differently?

Yes, according to Featherweight’s own launch summary. Variants are not described as color swaps. They come with different stats and abilities, while cosmetics sit alongside that package. Read the in-game difference before you take a new variant into a higher difficulty or a boss-kill challenge.

Why did only one player get a beast unlock?

Player experience at launch says the rhino outfit for killing the first boss went to the person who got the kill, not to everyone who helped. A developer responded to that review, but these sources do not include a completed fix. Read the current challenge text, assign the named beast on purpose, and do not assume party credit unless the game says so.