Hedgehogs are the characters which players control. They are the bread and butter of Hedgewars. This page explains the main properties of hedgehogs.

Basics

Each hedgehog is the member of a team, has health, a name and a hat. Other properties such as grave, voice, etc. are part of the team.

Controls

See Controls for basic movement controls.

See also Chat commands for silly taunts and speech bubbles.

Combat and movement

All hedgehogs are subject to damage and can be pushed around the map by explosions and explosions. When a hedgehog takes damage, the total damage received will be shortly shown above its head.

Hedgehogs can:

• Walk and jump
• Use all weapons and utilities (→Weapons Manual)
• Collectcrates
• Trigger mines, sticky mines and air mine

Air mines are particulary nasty, because they also chase hedgehogs.

With the “Artillery” mode from the game modifiers, hedgehogs can't move by walking. In the style “No Jumping”, hedgehogs can't jump.

Death and resurrection

When a hedgehog loses all health on the ground it dies. At the end of the turn, it explodes, causing up to 30 damage and leaving a grave. Hedgehogs also die (without grave) when drowning, using kamikaze or using piano strike.

Graves can be resurrected by Resurrector. A resurrected hedgehog will have a very subtle halo effect. This does not have any gameplay effect.

Water

Hedgehogs can't swim either, so any hedgehog falling into water will drown. The damage dealt to the hedgehog before drowning will be shown shortly after, but it is always the health of the hedgehog at minimum.

A flying saucer will keep a hedgehog safe from drowning.

Effects

Hedgehogs have a number of effects which change their properties, for better or worse. Most effects have status icons.

Invulnerable

Hedgehogs may become invulnerable for the rest of ther turn by using the invulnerable utility.

Invulnerable hedgehogs are immune to almost all forms of damage (including Sudden Death damage) and are immune to poisoning, but they can still drown. See Invulnerable for more information.

There is also a game modifier which enables the invulnerability shield for all hedgehogs permanently, even when it is not their turn.

Vampiric

Hedgehogs may turn into vampires for the rest of their turn by using the vampirism utility.

Vampiric hedgehogs will suck out 80% of all damage dealt to any other hedgehog in their turn time and add it to their own health.

There is also a game modifier which turns all hedgehogs into vampires permanently.

Poisoned

Hedgehogs can become poisoned by the poisonous clods from an old limburger or the foul eggs from Birdy.

A poisoned hedgehog will lose 5 health per turn, but it can not die from poisoning. Poison can reduce the health down to 1.

Poison can be cured by collecting a health crate.

Frozen

Hedgehogs can be frozen by the freezer ray. Frozen hedgehogs are unable to take their turn, so the next available hedgehog in the team will take the turn instead.

Frozen hedgehogs also take 50% less damage and are much harder to push away by brute force.
Frozen hedgehogs still take full Sudden Death damage, however.
Frozen hedgehogs can not be poisoned. But poisoned hog will remain poisoned after it gets frozen. A poisoned frozen hedgehog only takes 2 damage per turn.

If the entire team is frozen, they have to skip the turn entirely.

Normally, a frozen hog will eventually “melt” after 3 rounds of being frozen, but this process can be speed up by various means:

• Being seduced (→Seduction): This is so heart-warming, the hog will instantly melt. This is the fastest method to melt a hedgehog.
• Flames: Fire still hurts a bit and only a lot of fire will be able to completely melt a hedgehog. It is less efficient than seduction.

Resurrectable

This effect is relatively uncommon and is only used in special game modes. It is used in the AI Survival game modifier and a couple of styles like Racer or Capture the Flag. This is not to be confused with resurrector.

A so-called “resurrectable” hedgehog is (almost) immortal. It will be immediately resurrected when it would die, be it by health loss or drowning. When resurrected, it re-appears at a (usually random) safe location on the map. In the unlikely event the hedgehog has absolutely no solid ground to stand on, the resurrection will fail and the poor unlucky sod dies.

Resurrectable hedgehogs don't have any special appearance. The mission panel will mention it if hedgehogs are being revived.

Absent

This is only possible in online games. If during a game played online, the player leaves their hedgehogs behind (by leaving the game), all hedgehogs in the team will become translucent and automatically skip turns. Registered players can return and reclaim their team.

See Leaving a game for details.

Roles

King

The king in King Mode is very unique. See King Mode.

Other roles

In some styles, hedgehogs get special roles with unique weapons or capabilities. See Mutant, The Specialists.

Hats

Each hedgehog can have its own hat (or none). The hat is usually purely decorational but in some game modes it symbolizes the hedgehog's role.

Read more about hats at Hat.