If you are searching for a definitive arms of god all classes guide, the core answer is that your choice among the 10 available heroes dictates your starting primary weapon, unique active ability, and passive modifiers—fundamentally altering how you approach the game's 5-weapon loadout system. Dark Jay Studio's Unreal Engine 5 roguelite auto-shooter is not a passive experience. Surviving all 60 levels and 10 bosses requires understanding which class synergizes with the Aura Emitter, who benefits from the Alchemy Chamber, and why certain heroes break the rules of the Cathedral hub entirely.

Unlocking the Roster: The Cathedral and Bell Tower

You do not start with all 10 heroes. The metaprogression loop in Arms of God requires you to reclaim The Cathedral from demonic forces during Act 1. Once liberated, this sacred bastion serves as your strategic hub. You must spend Souls—the primary currency dropped by defeated demons—to construct specific buildings before you can expand your roster.

Prioritize unlocking the Bell Tower immediately after clearing Act 1 to access the mid-tier classes. The Bell Tower is the dedicated structure for summoning new valiant heroes. Without it, you are stuck running the default Primaris Templar through escalating difficulty tiers.

Hero ClassUnlock RequirementSoul CostPlaystyle Archetype
Primaris TemplarDefault0Balanced Vanguard
TankadinBell Tower Level 12,000Heavy Armor / Holy Damage
PurifierBell Tower Level 12,500Area Denial / Explosives
ZealotBell Tower Level 23,500High Mobility / Laser
InquisitorBell Tower Level 25,000Critical Hit / Electric
BloodletterBell Tower Level 25,500Health Sacrifice / DPS
ArtificerAlchemy Chamber6,000Trap / Consumable Buffs
ExorcistBell Tower Level 37,500Boss Killer / Single Target
ProphetRevelation Pedestal8,000High Luck / Loot Scaling
The AsceticBell Tower Level 310,000Single Weapon / 54 Upgrades
Arms of God in-game screenshot

Arms of God in-game screenshot

The Vanguard: Beginner-Friendly Heroes

These classes offer high survivability and straightforward scaling, making them ideal for learning the 5-weapon mechanical arm system and navigating the early 15 levels of Act 1.

Primaris Templar

The default hero starts with a massive 300 base HP and balanced stat growth across the board. Because this class acts as the baseline for the loadout system, it is the only hero where the "Single Purpose" (kill with one weapon) achievement is intentionally disabled—a quirk noted by the developer in the v0.506 patch notes.

The best build relies on the Aura Emitter and an RF-style aura gun. Once you stack enough area-of-effect Blessings, you can output 12k DPS across the entire screen, trivializing the infernal waves.

Tankadin

Unlocked early for 2,000 Souls, the Tankadin trades movement speed for raw damage mitigation. This class scales exponentially with Holy damage. Your goal is to merge Holy Hammers into higher tiers at the Armory. The Tankadin's active ability grants a temporary invulnerability shield, allowing you to walk directly through dense hordes to snipe elite demons.

Purifier

The Purifier excels at area denial. Starting with innate fire resistance and a bonus to explosive radius, this class dominates the enclosed arenas of Act 2. Equip the Air Strike weapon early. The Purifier's passive trait reduces the cooldown of all orbital and explosive attacks by 15%, turning the battlefield into a constant hazard zone for enemies.

The Glass Cannons: High Risk, High Reward

Once you reach Act 3, enemy density requires you to either out-tank the horde or outrun it. These classes choose the latter, relying on mechanical skill and precise dodging.

Zealot

The Zealot boasts the highest base movement speed in the game but suffers from a fragile health pool. This class starts with the Laser weapon, which pierces through multiple enemies. To survive as the Zealot, invest heavily in the Training Ground's movement speed meta-stats. Your active ability provides a short dash that breaks enemy tracking, essential for dodging the charging attacks of Act 3 bosses.

Inquisitor

Built entirely around critical hit mechanics, the Inquisitor pairs perfectly with Electric weapons. The Electric Hammer, when wielded by an Inquisitor, has a base 25% chance to chain lightning to adjacent targets. By stacking critical chance Blessings, you can clear entire screens of lesser demons instantly. However, the Inquisitor lacks defensive cooldowns, meaning poor positioning results in an immediate run reset.

Bloodletter

The Bloodletter introduces a health-sacrifice mechanic. Every active ability cast drains a percentage of your current HP but grants a massive, stacking damage buff. This class pairs best with weapons that offer life-steal or passive regeneration. If you fail to maintain your damage output, the health drain will leave you vulnerable to one-shot mechanics from elite fiends.

Arms of God in-game screenshot

Arms of God in-game screenshot

The Specialists: Rule-Breaking Mechanics

The final tier of heroes fundamentally alters how Arms of God is played, breaking the standard rules of the genre to offer bizarre, highly specialized builds.

The Ascetic

The Ascetic is the strangest class in the game, completely abandoning the 5-weapon mechanical arm system. Instead of fielding five weapons, this hero is locked to a single primary weapon but gains a massive 54 upgrade slots. Early in Early Access, the community thought this was a bug because rolling new weapons in the shop fills those upgrade slots instead of granting a new attack. You must rely entirely on passive modifiers and exponential Blessing scaling to survive the endgame.

Arms of God in-game screenshot

Arms of God in-game screenshot

Artificer

Tied to the Alchemy Chamber, the Artificer relies on deployable traps and consumable buffs rather than direct weapon damage. This class can deploy stationary turrets that inherit the elemental properties of your primary weapon. The Artificer requires meticulous arena control, forcing you to kite enemies into pre-planned kill zones rather than holding W and auto-shooting.

Exorcist

The Exorcist is the ultimate boss killer. This class deals 40% bonus damage to unique elites and end-of-act bosses but suffers a 10% damage penalty against standard swarm enemies. You must build the Exorcist with high-cleave secondary weapons to handle the trash mobs, saving your active single-target nuke for the bosses that spawn at the 10-minute mark.

Prophet

The Prophet starts with an incredibly high Revelation stat (the game's version of luck and drop rate). This class synergizes with the Revelation Pedestals found randomly in levels. While the Prophet's early game damage is abysmal, the sheer volume of high-tier weapon drops and rare Blessings ensures that by the late game, you are fielding a fully merged, indestructible loadout.

Weapon Merging and Metaprogression Priorities

Choosing the right class is only half the battle. Arms of God features a deep weapon tier system where you must merge identical weapons to increase their power.

  1. Upgrade the Armory: Before pushing into Act 4, ensure your Armory is fully upgraded in The Cathedral. This reduces the Soul cost of merging weapons.
  2. Farm the Training Ground: Base stats matter. A Zealot without upgraded base movement speed from the Training Ground will not survive Act 3.
  3. Stack Blessings Strategically: Do not dilute your build. If you are playing the Tankadin, ignore movement speed Blessings and roll aggressively for Armor and Holy damage multipliers.
Arms of God in-game screenshot

Arms of God in-game screenshot

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best class for beginners in Arms of God? The Primaris Templar is universally considered the best starter class. With 300 base HP and no complex gimmicks, it allows you to learn the 5-weapon merging system and enemy attack patterns without being punished for minor mistakes.

How do I unlock The Ascetic? The Ascetic requires unlocking Level 3 of the Bell Tower in The Cathedral hub, which becomes available after clearing Act 2. You will then need to spend 10,000 Souls to permanently unlock the hero.

Can you respec meta-stats in the Training Ground? Yes. You can refund your spent Souls in the Training Ground at any time without penalty, allowing you to reallocate your base stats to match the specific hero you are currently playing.

Why didn't I get the "Single Purpose" achievement? The "Single Purpose" achievement requires you to kill enemies using only one weapon. However, due to the Primaris Templar's baseline coding, this achievement is disabled for that specific class. You must use a different hero, like the Zealot or Inquisitor, to unlock it.