Hidden character

How to unlock Death

Stay on one map for about 12 minutes until Death appears, let that hit land on your health, then ride the bus out before day 8. Endless runs do not unlock the character.

Updated 2026-11-02

The sequence the guides agree on

1. Play a normal run, not Endless. Several Steam and Reddit threads say Endless never settles the unlock.
2. Remain on a single map until the timer is around 12 minutes. JingShing, the German guide, and the Japanese notes all use that window.
3. Death hunts you. A shield-only hit is the disputed case: one Reddit thread says the hit has to spend health, not just armor.
4. Leave on the bus while you are still alive. A Steam reply puts it as touch Death, then escape on the bus.
5. Do this before day 8. One thread says the first seven days; the bug discussion says the first eight days. Completing it within the first seven follows the narrower advice.

I looked for a second method that asks you to collect 10 to 15 floating skulls. The keyword notes mentioned it. The guides, the discussions, and the wiki page do not. I am not carrying a method that has no player source.

What the scythe does after the unlock

Death starts with the Scythe, an S-shaped weapon that occupies eight backpack cells. The community wiki describes a revive: if you fall, the scythe breaks and is replaced by a weaker Scythe Blade, and the blade is a 2 by 1. Damage also rises by 5 for each character level. A Steam discussion calls the character 'not OP' and tells people not to rush the unlock just for power. That matches a weapon that spends itself the first time you die.

The same discussion points at the Copy Shop as a way to duplicate the scythe before a dangerous map, so the revive is not a one-time object. I treat that as a player workaround, not as a rule written by the developer. The 1.0 notes say the Reaper drops one duct tape. They do not retune the scythe's revive. Crits above 100 percent now reach a higher tier, which matters if you stack crit on the blade after the scythe breaks.

How I would spend the first run on Death

The scythe is melee and huge, so the backpack is tight from minute one. The Japanese notes and the melee threads pair Death with a health kit pile and either the katana or the spear. Version 1.0 raised katana damage by 25 percent, which is the only numeric buff I will attach to that pairing. I would not call Death a starter. Survivor still has the empty six cells. Death is the unlock people search for, and the payoff is a spare life that deletes the weapon that granted it.