Risk of Rain 2’s next update, Scorched Acres, brings a brand new character to the game named Rex. He is part plant, part robot. He is also substantially larger than the rest of the Survivors, which automatically makes him better.

He is a brand new character to the series, and his design goes in a completely different direction than the other playable characters. Hopoo games wanted to move away from the humanoid design of the other Survivors. Additionally, you can unlock Rex by completing a specific quest, rather than successfully finishing a random secret like the other Survivors.

He has two plant-based abilities and two robotic abilities. His plant-based abilities use health to execute, so you’ll need to watch how many times you use these abilities, or you’re going to have a bad day. Luckily, he comes with a self-healing ability.

One of Rex’s abilities fires three darts out to damage enemies, and he heals himself if the third one hits a target. He can also burrow underground, which appears to be his sprint animation. Another ability lets him fire out mortars straight into the sky that then fall and hit enemies. His Shift ability is a force cannon that he can use to push enemies away. Finally, his R shoots out a seed and grows, and pulls in enemies to it. From there, you can focus them down with your mortars.

The developers said that Rex is designed to excel with items that might traditionally feel weak on other Survivors. Because his kit contains self-healing, he doesn’t need to worry about healing so much but can take advantage of items that you might otherwise avoid to get a good build. Because some of his abilities cost health, he can hurt himself and use things that activates when a Survivor receives damage. As such, his health becomes his central resource, and the appeal of the character revolves around a dance between balancing your health and damage output.

Risk of Rain 2 has been the surprise indie hit of the year. The 3D roguelike action game from developers Hopoo quickly racked up a million units in sales after it launched earlier this year. The game is, for want of a better description, the original game, but the limitation of 2D has gone away for a 3D, third-person, action game.

The game launched in Early Access, and Hopoo plan to have it there for about a year, and then release in full. You can buy Risk of Rain 2 now on Steam.