The Best Axolotls In AK-xolotl

Summary

• Different characters in AK-xolotl have unique abilities that can significantly impact gameplay.
• Each character, like Alien or Enigma, offers advantages and disadvantages in terms of stats and abilities.
• Choosing the right character based on playstyle is key to maximizing upgrade potential and chances of success.

AK-xolotl is a top-down roguelike shooter, where quick reflexes and tactical decision-making wins you the day. Like most games in the genre, it has a cast of characters with different abilities and stats. In this case, they’re adorable little amphibians.

But don’t let their cuteness fool you, as the titular axolotl are murder machines, ready to mow down the other woodland creatures that get in their way. While they’re all quite capable, some of them are just better than others.

10

Alien

The Alien’s ability to give you an extra upgrade slot on each of your weapons might not seem all that useful, but if you got the cash to burn, then they might just clutch you the win.

Starting a playthrough with the Alien, you won’t really feel the difference save for its above-average speed, especially since you don’t encounter your first blacksmith till biome two. However, with up to four opportunities to see the guy, you can rack up some impressive upgrades and the extra ones might just get your weapon from good to brokenly powerful.

9

Imp

Theoretically, the Imp’s ability is quite powerful, since items are a great source of power, and this lil’ devil generates them for free. In practice, because of the rather long charge time and randomness, it ends up being good, but not great, and arguably not worth the trade-off for survivability.

However, play long enough, and survivability becomes much less of an issue as you learn shot patterns and enemy movements. At that point, Snack starts to feel like dead weight since you end up using it far less often. This is where the Imp truly shines, and if you use it at every opportunity, you gain an astounding number of items by the time you get to the final boss.

8

Rock

True to his name, Rock is hard to break, or at least harder than the other axolotls. Free of any bells or whistles, and otherwise average in every way, Rock’s value comes from his sheer hardiness. In addition to having a really high base HP, he can increase his max HP more than any of the other ‘lotls if you really need the extra padding.

While it might seem a little boring, unlocking this purple dude is a blessing to new players, since he allows them more than a few extra mistakes. This value doesn’t go away when you get better either, unless you’re a bullet-dodging virtuoso. This is especially true when you activate the chaos modifier that removes post-hit invincibility.

7

Skull

This bringer of death specializes in guns, which is great because there’s a lot of them in AK-xolotl. The extra max ammo and reload time that you’d normally get from items is pre-baked into his kit, and in fact stacks with them.

While he no longer gets melee weapons, he also gets the benefit of rarely needing to close in and expose himself to extra danger. Which is great, because he has an average move speed and below average health, which is only slightly mitigated with starting shields.

6

Friendly

A smile goes a long way, which is probably why this pleasantly pink axolotl gets such a hefty discount. Most importantly, this discount applies to the blacksmith as well, which gets you that +3 WMD or kickass murder blade even quicker.

While you’ll always need the skill to stay alive, Friendly allows you to bridge that gap with money by allowing you to buy extra items and upgrades earlier than the other axolotls, effectively allowing for an economic victory. The stats aren’t too bad, either.

5

Clown

If you want to win economically and through twitch reflexes, or you’re a nihilist who wants to risk it all and win big, you can’t go wrong with Clown. You have above-average speed and boy, you’re gonna need it since those doraditos disappear fast.

Winning with the Clown necessitates you put yourself in terrible danger for big bucks, since the best way to collect is to fight up close with melee weapons or shotguns. It’s much harder and arguably more dangerous to try to collect from afar, since you’ll often need to roll into danger to grab that sweet loot.

Of course, to the victor go the spoils, and a successful run ends with you having maxed out your weapons a few biomes ago and stacked them with so many items.

4

Robot

Holding still in a game like AK-xolotl is a bad idea, only good for the very skilled or the very dead. Robot rewards the latter with one of highest damage boosts available in the game, trivializing almost all the early fights and chunking down enemies in the later ones.

The key to success with Robot is a keen eye and good timing, so you know when to stop moving and fire off a shot or two. Standing in the calm of a storm made of bullets is the essence of Robot. For this reason, you’ll want to stick to powerful single shot or burst-fire weapons since your bullets will clutter the space and make enemy bullets that much harder to see.

3

Draco

What’s better than two weapons? Three, obviously. And Draco happens to accommodate just that and all the benefits that a third weapon entails. Triple wielding allows you a little more flexibility in the battlefield, letting you keep weapons that operate in close, mid, and long ranges.

Running out of ammo also no longer becomes an issue with your extra weapon, because unless you miss every shot or jacked up enemy health to 200 percent, you’ll get to the stage boss and their sweet free ammo boxes before you run dry. Yes, Draco is a little squishy, but the three Shields means that you have some breathing room to pick up some more hearts.

2

Bee

Sometimes, the best upgrade is one you don’t even think about. While the action is hot and heavy, you might not notice the yellow numbers letting you know that Bee landed a crit. But if you’re tuned into the rhythm of battle, you’ll start to notice that your enemies, on average, are dropping a lot faster.

Playing Bee necessitates no playstyle change, so you’re free to go at it however you want: ranged, melee, sniping, or flooding the field with bullets– Bee’s ability is always doing the work. Well worth it for having slightly below-average health.

1

Enigma

Enigma’s damage dealing is far more visible than Bee’s. After all, unless there’s a lot of ammo flying downrange, it’s hard to miss the extra bullet you often spit out. Truth be told, Bee and Enigma effectively do the same thing in different ways: passively increase your total damage output.

With Enigma, you want high-power single-shot weapons like sniper rifles or bows, since every time your passive procs you effectively triple your damage if all the bullets land. This is less true with automatic weapons and especially shotguns since an extra bullet ends up being a smaller percentage of the damage the more lead you fling downrange.