Wanderburg Captains and Unlocks: The Five the Devs Have Named
Wanderburg Captains and unlocks: the five Captains named in official patch notes, the four between-run unlock categories, and the reroll rule.
Steam lists four between-run unlock categories: vehicles, Artifacts, Captains and modules. These are separate from getting bigger inside a run — they are permanent unlocks that decide how your next run starts and which builds you can play.
What each category is
- Vehicles: which moving fortress you start with.
- Artifacts: run-carrying power-up items.
- Captains: commanders that give the castle and crew different abilities.
- Modules: the pool of available weapon and siege modules.
Those four categories and their between-run nature are official. The full roster and unlock order are still unpublished.
Five Captains the patch notes actually name
Starting with the 11 and 12 September hotfixes, the developer stopped writing only the category name “Captains” and began naming them in the Character Buffs section, numbers included.
These are the five that appear in official notes:
| Captain | What the official notes changed | Version |
|---|---|---|
| PatchyThePirate | Enemy cannon bonus damage 50% → 25% | 0.9.10 |
| Kapitalstus Maximus | Gold penalty −30% → −15% | 0.9.10 |
| Huntress | Extra ability cooldown 50% → 40% | 0.9.10 |
| Tankbert | Nitro regeneration penalty from 50% slower to 30% slower; also nerfed earlier in 0.9.6 | 0.9.6 / 0.9.10 |
| Duelist | Extra damage taken while boosting 50% → 20% | 0.9.10 |
Read those numbers for who is being cut down and who is being let off, not to memorise percentages. The 10 September batch mostly reduces penalty-style downsides, which means a few high-maintenance Captains became easier to play.
The 9 September notes also include a line about fixing “Captain localization/description”. Captains are a proper localized system, not a hidden collectible.
Unlock more, reroll more
The 12 September notes confirm a rule tied directly to unlocking: every 6 unlocked modules grants +1 New Module Reroll, and every 6 unlocked Artifacts grants +1 Artifact Reroll.
A reroll is a chance to swap out an option you do not want in the level-up draft. So unlocking is not just collecting.
That is also the practical link to Modules and Unlocks and Builds and Upgrades: a wider pool means builds come together more reliably.
Community rosters and tier lists are not official
Community rosters list far more Captains than the developer has named, along with “best Captain” rankings. Those are player testing and speculation.
The developer has never published a full roster, stat sheet, or ranking criteria. If you want to use community conclusions, treat them as candidates worth testing and verify them in a run of your own.
Names quoted from media reviews, such as Norbert, Tank Bert and Fire Wizard, are also media hands-on wording — they do not even match the official spelling. The official spelling is Tankbert.
How to verify
Start with the four unlock categories on the Steam store page, then read the Character Buffs section of the official hotfix posts.
This page reflects the official wording as of 0.9.10 (2026-09-12). If the developer publishes new Captain names or numbers later, those take precedence.
Sources: Steam store page, official Press Kit, Steam announcement 0.9.6, 0.9.7, 0.9.10; community rosters and tier lists compiled from grindnstrat.com and gamers.wiki (player and media claims, not officially confirmed).
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