Enter the Gungeon is a bullet hell dungeon crawler by Dodge Roll, published by Devolver Digital and released on 5 April 2016. Four misfits descend through a gun shaped fortress looking for a weapon that can kill their own past, and the run gives them over 200 guns and hundreds of items to find on the way down. Every room is a bullet pattern puzzle solved with a dodge roll that grants brief invulnerability and a blank that wipes projectiles off the screen. Runs last roughly 30 to 60 minutes, nothing carries over except permanent unlocks bought with Hegemony Credits, and the difficulty curve is famously steep.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best builds, equipment worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
Dodge roll invulnerability and blanks
The dodge roll gives a short window where bullets pass straight through you, and it also flips tables into cover and carries you over pits in some cases. Blanks are the panic button: each one clears every projectile on screen and staggers most enemies, and you start every floor with two of them. The two tools cover different problems, since a roll answers a single pattern you can read while a blank answers a screen you cannot.
Item combinations the game highlights in blue
Certain guns and items become far stronger when held together, and the game tells you it has happened with a light blue arrow above your head and a name in the pickup popup. In the Ammonomicon and on the map screen, selecting an item highlights everything it pairs with in the same light blue. There are well over 300 of these named pairings, and examples include Cold 1896, which dual wields the Colt 1851 and Cold 45 and doubles both magazines, Arctic Warfare, which lets the A.W.P. freeze enemies for 62.5 percent more damage, and Breakfast Club, which halves the Wind Up Gun reload and adds 60 percent fire rate.
Curse and Coolness hidden stats
Curse rises when you take cursed items or open certain chests, and it makes enemies faster, adds jammed variants and raises the stakes across the whole run. At 10 curse the Lord of the Jammed appears and hunts you, which is the hard ceiling on greed. Coolness works the opposite way, cutting active item cooldowns and improving item drop chances, and it comes from things like clearing rooms without taking damage.
Keys, chests and chest quality
Keys are the tightest resource in the game because almost every chest needs one, and chests come in brown, blue, green, red and black tiers with steadily better contents. Spending a key on a brown chest early is usually a mistake, since the same key on a red chest later returns far more, and Bello's shop sells keys when the floor has not dropped enough. Some chests are mimics that attack when opened, which is why a careful player shoots the chest once before touching it.
Master Rounds for flawless boss kills
Killing a boss on Chambers 1 through 5 without taking a single point of damage awards a Master Round, which is a permanent extra heart container for that run. Five Master Rounds turn a fragile run into one that can survive the Forge and Bullet Hell. It is the mechanic that pushes good players to fight bosses patiently rather than trading hits, because two extra containers matter far more than thirty seconds saved.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our Enter the Gungeon combat guide.
Builds Overview
| Build | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Marine | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| The Pilot | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| The Convict | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| The Hunter | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| The Robot | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our Enter the Gungeon builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Equipment Guide
| Equipment | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Marine Sidearm | The Marine's starting pistol and the strongest of the four default sidearms, with infinite ammo and enough damage to carry a full floor if nothing better drops. | Early floors and any moment when your good gun has run out of ammo. |
| A.W.P. | A bolt action sniper rifle with a tiny magazine and heavy single shot damage, awkward on trash and excellent on bosses. | Boss fights and any run where you have picked up a frost related item. |
| Patriot | A heavy rotary gun with high sustained output, one of the strongest raw damage guns in the game and a reliable boss killer. | Late floor bosses where sustained damage matters more than mobility. |
| Vulcan Cannon | A spin up minigun with an enormous ammo pool and a wide spray, built to delete crowded rooms rather than snipe. | Packed rooms on the Hollow and the Forge where enemy count is the problem. |
| Black Hole Gun | Fires a singularity that pulls in enemy bullets and enemies alike, briefly turning a bullet hell pattern into an empty room. | Emergency clears in boss phases where blanks have already been spent. |
Marine Sidearm: The Marine's starting pistol and the strongest of the four default sidearms, with infinite ammo and enough damage to carry a full floor if nothing better drops. It is why the Marine is the standard first pick for a new player.
A.W.P.: A bolt action sniper rifle with a tiny magazine and heavy single shot damage, awkward on trash and excellent on bosses. It anchors several named item pairings, including Arctic Warfare with frost items, which adds freezing and a 62.5 percent damage increase.
Patriot: A heavy rotary gun with high sustained output, one of the strongest raw damage guns in the game and a reliable boss killer. It also forms the Gunderlord pairing with Ice Breaker, which connects its shots with electricity.
Vulcan Cannon: A spin up minigun with an enormous ammo pool and a wide spray, built to delete crowded rooms rather than snipe. The spin up delay means you have to commit before the room becomes dangerous rather than after.
Black Hole Gun: Fires a singularity that pulls in enemy bullets and enemies alike, briefly turning a bullet hell pattern into an empty room. Ammo is scarce, so it works as a second blank rather than as a primary weapon.
Full breakdowns in our Enter the Gungeon weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Keep of the Lead Lord | Chamber 1 | First Master Round, early chests, the Gungeon's first shop |
| Gungeon Proper | Chamber 2 | Second Master Round, mid tier chests, NPC rescue rooms |
| Black Powder Mine | Chamber 3 | Third Master Round, minecart routes, higher tier chest spawns |
| Hollow | Chamber 4 | Fourth Master Round, red chest spawns, the route toward the Forge |
| Forge | Chamber 5 | Fifth Master Round, High Dragun kill, access to Bullet Hell |
Keep of the Lead Lord: The first chamber and the calmest floor in the game, with the Bullet King, Gatling Gull and Trigger Twins as possible bosses. It is where you should be building the run rather than spending it, so keys and blanks saved here pay off two floors down.
Gungeon Proper: The second chamber, with tighter rooms and enemies that shoot in patterns rather than lines. The Beholster is the boss most players meet first here, and its shifting eye patterns are the game's first real reading test.
Black Powder Mine: The third chamber, which adds minecarts, explosive barrels and environmental damage on top of the usual patterns. Cannonbalrog and the Mine Flayer are the bosses, and the floor punishes players who fight next to anything red.
Hollow: The fourth chamber and a clear difficulty step, with dense rooms, water hazards and the Wallmonger among its bosses. Runs that reach here without Master Rounds usually end here.
Forge: The fifth chamber, a lava works that ends with the High Dragun, the game's headline boss. Almost every run that dies with a strong build dies here, and clearing it is what unlocks the deeper content behind it.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Dodge roll through a bullet rather than away from it, because the invulnerability window is short and rolling backwards usually lands you in the next wave.
- You start each floor with two blanks, so spending one on a room you cannot read is correct rather than wasteful.
- Use a blank next to a cracked wall to open the secret room behind it, since shooting the wall alone does nothing.
- Fight Chamber 1 to Chamber 5 bosses patiently, because a no-hit kill grants a Master Round and a permanent extra heart container for that run.
- Do not spend keys on brown chests on the first floor, since the same key opens a green or red chest two floors later for far more value.
- Shoot a chest once before opening it, because a mimic will react and you would rather fight it on your terms than while reaching for loot.
- Watch your curse total when taking items from Cursula or cursed chests, because at 10 curse the Lord of the Jammed spawns and hunts you.
- Clearing a room without taking damage raises Coolness, which shortens active item cooldowns and improves drop chances, so patience compounds.
- Check the Ammonomicon when you pick something up, since it highlights in light blue every other item that pairs with it and tells you what to keep an eye out for.
- Sell unwanted items to the Sell Creep in the Breach for Hegemony Credits, which buy permanent additions to the item pool for every future run.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Rolling away from bullet patterns instead of through them, which wastes the invulnerability window and moves you into the next wave.
- Saving blanks for an emergency that never comes, then dying on Chamber 4 with four unused blanks in the inventory.
- Opening every brown chest on Chamber 1, which burns the keys that would have opened a red chest on Chamber 3.
- Taking every cursed item on offer without tracking the total, then meeting the Lord of the Jammed at 10 curse with a half built run.
- Trading hits with bosses to end fights faster, which throws away the Master Rounds that make the Forge and Bullet Hell survivable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which character should I start with?
The Marine. He starts with the strongest default sidearm, Military Training for better accuracy, a Supply Drop for ammo and one point of armour, which absorbs a hit that any other character would pay for in hearts.
How do the item combinations work?
Certain guns and items pair up for a named bonus. The game shows a light blue arrow above your head and names the pairing when it triggers, and the Ammonomicon highlights everything an item pairs with in the same light blue. There are well over 300 of them, from Cold 1896 dual wielding two revolvers to Breakfast Club cutting the Wind Up Gun reload in half.
Does anything carry between runs?
Guns and items do not. What carries is unlocks: Hegemony Credits spent at the Breach add new guns and items to the pool for every future run, and rescued NPCs open new services. The run itself always starts from scratch.
What are Master Rounds?
Killing the boss of Chambers 1 through 5 without taking a single point of damage awards a Master Round, a permanent extra heart container for that run. Collecting several of them is the difference between a run that stalls in the Hollow and one that clears the Forge.
How do I unlock the later characters?
The Bullet unlocks by finishing the game, and the Robot by completing it with the four starting characters plus the Bullet. The Paradox and the Gunslinger sit deeper still, with the Gunslinger requiring you to complete his past as the Paradox. The Gunslinger starts with Lich's Eye Bullets, which grant every pairing a gun could have without needing the partner item.
More Enter the Gungeon Guides
- Enter the Gungeon Best Builds
- Enter the Gungeon Tier List
- Enter the Gungeon Walkthrough
- Enter the Gungeon Beginner's Guide
- Enter the Gungeon Tips & Tricks
- Enter the Gungeon Weapons Guide
- Enter the Gungeon Combat Guide
- Enter the Gungeon Boss Guide
- Enter the Gungeon Maps & Locations
- Enter the Gungeon Crafting Guide
- Enter the Gungeon Classes & Characters
Similar Games
If you enjoy Enter the Gungeon, check out these related guides:
- Risk of Rain 2 Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
- Hades Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
- Darkest Dungeon Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
