Hunter: The Reckoning – Wayward is a hack-and-slash game in which 1–2 players take the roles of hunters while fighting large amounts of enemies, including undead and cultists, using melee and ranged attacks, and magical abilities called "edges".[1][2] Edges have several kinds of effects, such as enhancing one's attacks, or protecting oneself. Using them consumes some of a character's conviction meter, which is recharged with gems that fallen enemies drop. In addition to the basic melee and ranged weapons each character have, players can also collect special weapons with limited ammunition, such as flare guns and shotguns.[3]
The characters belong to different classes that play differently. These include those for the four returning hunters from the previous Hunter: The Reckoning video game – the quick Martyr, the melee-focused Avenger, the magic-focused Judge, and the balanced Defender – and the newly added, strong Wayward,[4][5] and the all-around powerful Risen. Players initially only have access to the Martyr, Avenger, Judge, and Defender; the two Wayward characters are made available by completing a certain area, and by playing through the entire game, respectively, and the Risen is made available by completing the game on its "nightmare" difficulty setting.[5] Each character has a set of statistics, such as strength and speed, which slowly rise as players fight enemies. Characters that are not in use still gain experience, but less than the actively used characters.[1]
Progression is non-linear: players have access to an open-ended hub area, from which they can choose which stages and missions to go to.[2][3] Several of the areas are reused from the first game, but have new goals.[6] Mission objectives vary, and include getting to the exit, finding and rescuing innocents, protecting a character from oncoming hordes of enemies, escorting characters, assembling silver weapons to fight werewolves, and defeating boss enemies.[2][3][6]
