Neighbors Suburban Warfare Characters — Full Roster and Abilities

A Neighbors Suburban Warfare characters list starts with nine names: the eight original neighbors plus Gwen, who arrived with the 1.0 launch on 29 September 2026. Every neighbor has a distinct kit, a small portrait icon in the match HUD, and perk progression that unlocks as you play. This page gathers the official roster, what each neighbor actually does in a match, and how perks and unlocks work.

The Full Neighbors Suburban Warfare Characters Roster

The official Meet the Neighbors page is the canonical source for portrait names and lists eight neighbors: Doreen, Kevin, Chad, Kim, Gramps, Mary-Jean, Louie and P.A. The Steam launch post added Gwen as a ninth. The Steam store description also describes the roster in archetypes rather than names, calling them the friendly grandma, the cute boy, the kind grandpa and the perfect dad.

Neighbor	Archetype	Signature theme
Doreen	Granny brawler	Boxing gloves and a graceful uppercut
Kevin	Neighborhood menace	Slingshot with steady aim
Chad	Rival dad	Vacuum tool that pulls enemies in
Kim	Repair specialist	The only neighbor who can repair structures
Gramps	Team healer	Umbrella defense against seagulls
Mary-Jean	Controller	Ranged root and lockpicking
Louie	Melee bruiser	Ultimate that scrambles enemy controls
P.A.	Backdoor specialist	Cannon placement and map mobility
Gwen	1.0 newcomer	PomPom Impulse ability, added at launch

The match HUD carries this roster into play: portrait cards across the top show your team and the enemy team, with shared team counters for money and structures beside them. Reading those portraits is the fastest way to know which abilities you are fighting around.

What Each Neighbor Brings to a Match

The official store copy only names Doreen and Kevin in detail, so most of the practical read on the roster comes from community play. A widely viewed Early Access walkthrough sorts the neighbors by what a team actually needs rather than by raw damage.

• Kim is the only structure repairer and pairs the highest damage with the fastest time-to-kill, which the guide calls close to mandatory.
• Mary-Jean owns the only ranged root in the game, a short-cooldown wall hack, and the fastest lockpicking income.
• Doreen is the tankiest character and the strongest melee damage over time, and a later patch limited her to one per team.
• Gramps is the dedicated healer and only shines when the rest of the team is worth keeping alive.
• Chad is described as the direct answer to Doreen and can also pull enemies with a vacuum.
• P.A. pressures the back of a map, jumps around roofs, and can delete the super jackhammer outright.
• Louie is rated the weakest pick in the same walkthrough, a melee bruiser whose ultimate briefly reverses enemy controls.
• Kevin is mobile and small enough to crawl under boards, but has lower health and slingshot damage.

Those ability and strength readings come from a single community walkthrough recorded during Early Access, so treat the rankings as directional rather than final, to confirm. The official tier list page collects them in one ranking.

Perks and Progression

Perks sit on top of each neighbor's base kit. The community wiki describes per-neighbor perk progression alongside a level cap of 20 during Early Access, and the Steam store page confirms that playing unlocks epic skins. Beyond progression, the Steam listing also shows wishlist-style character customization tagged on the store, so cosmetics are part of the long-term loop.

A community Kevin guide shows the shape of the perk system with four examples. Each perk is a trade-off rather than a straight upgrade:

Perk	What the guide says it does
Fitness	High damage at high health, lower damage at low health
Woodworking	More damage to structures, less damage to players
Gardening	Reduced damage taken on your own property, more when trespassing
Incendiary	Replaces the scatter shot with gasoline-covered pebbles that set areas on fire

Those perk effects come from one player's early-access guide, so confirm the exact numbers against the live build before building a plan around them, to confirm.

Gwen and the 1.0 Roster Change

Gwen is the roster headline of 1.0. The Steam launch post for 29 September 2026 lists "a new neighbor: Gwen" among the release features, and a follow-up post describing Early Access backer rewards names her as the newest hero while confirming that backers received every neighbor unlocked. Patch 1.0.3.2 on 1 October 2026 then increased the damage on Gwen's PomPom Impulse ability, which is the first documented balance pass on her kit.

The same patch also touched other neighbors: P.A.'s cannon cooldown was reduced, Mary-Jean's bunny slipper maximum damage was reduced, and Gramps' healing was slightly reduced. That single patch is a good reminder that neighbor balance is still moving.

Which Neighbor to Pick First

For a new player the honest answer is different from the tier list. Kim is the safest pick if you want to help a team immediately, because nobody else can repair structures and her damage ceiling is high. Kevin is the friendliest pick for learning the map, since his grapple and small frame make traversal forgiving, even though the same guide rates his damage low.

• Pick Kim if you want to be the neighbor your team cannot replace.
• Pick Kevin to learn routes, jumps and house layouts without being a liability.
• Pick Mary-Jean if you like farming money and controlling fights from range.
• Pick Doreen if you would rather hold ground than chase kills.
• Avoid stacking duplicates, since patches now limit at least some neighbors to one per team.

Whichever you choose, read the guide for economy routing and the how to play page for the opening loop, then check the tier list once you know which role you enjoy.