130+ characters exist, but the game only names a handful itself. Every officially named character and what the game says about them.
Nivalis Nights Characters: The Ones the Game Itself Names
Nivalis Nights has more than 130 characters and ION LANDS has never published a roster. Across every official source we can reach, the game only ever prints ten personal names, and exactly three of those people have a full profile written by the studio. There is no named protagonist, and there is no published voice cast. That is not a gap in this page — it is the state of the record as of 30 September 2026, and everything below is transcribed from Valve's achievement list, the official Steam news feed and the publisher's FAQ thread.
How many characters are there, and where is the list?
The only official number is one sentence in the studio's Community Q&A of 31 March 2026:
With more than 130 characters, side quests are a big part of the experience. Each character has their own goals, background, and personality, and how you choose to interact with them will lead to very different dialogues and outcomes.
That is the entire roster disclosure. No names, no portraits, no district assignments, no relationship chart, no list of who can be romanced. The same post promises "getting to know its main characters" without ever naming one. Launch-week character databases across the web advertise 130-plus entries; the honest total we can verify from Valve and ION LANDS is the ten names below, and we would rather hand you ten sourced ones than 130 guesses.
Who is the protagonist? You are, and that is deliberate
There is no protagonist with a name. The official FAQ answer to "Can I customize my character in Nivalis Nights?" is the whole story:
Currently, Nivalis Nights does not offer character customization. The game is designed to place you directly at the center of the experience, without the use of a virtual avatar. The only visible parts of the body are your arms and hands.
The view is first person and the developer says that is intentional, "as we want the player to experience the immense scale of the city and to truly feel immersed." So there is no face, no body, no name field and no option to rename yourself. The character creation page covers what you can shape instead, and the third-person page covers why the camera stays where it is.
The only character profiles ION LANDS has ever written
ION LANDS ran a "Character Spotlight" series inside its monthly community blogs. Scanning all 34 posts currently in the official Steam news feed, only three ever carried that header: September 2024, October 2024 and May 2025. The series then stopped, sixteen months before launch. At the time the game was still called Nivalis — it was renamed Nivalis Nights on 30 June 2026.
Thaddeus Carmunis, the 92-year-old who hands you the noodle bar
The first spotlight, September 2024: "A 92 year old business owner on the brink of retirement," gruff but friendly, tired of city life, with a long grey beard and the look of a man who has worked his whole life for very little reward. The October post adds the part that matters mechanically — "With Thaddeus' retirement looming, he leaves you his noodle bar in Meridian Market." That bar is where your business starts, and where you meet the next character. He opens with the game's thesis in five words: "Be cunning or be kind."
The September 2024 and December 2024 posts spell it CARMUNIS. The October 2024 post spells it "Thaddeus Carminus". Steam's own achievement list sidesteps it with the title "Thaddeus Mystery". We are not going to pick a winner; if you see both spellings in the wild, that is why.
Banor, the employee already behind the counter
The October 2024 spotlight. "An old man with a distinctive white beard and round spectacles," 64, an ex-restaurant owner whose aches are starting to get in the way, and the first person you meet "when you take on the daunting task of running your first restaurant." The write-up is unusually blunt about his voice: charming, but "often over-shares or makes bad jokes. Occasionally he'll come out with something wise though." You inherit him along with the noodle bar, which makes him the first hire your business guide should assume you already have.
Salt Pete, the ferry robot at the docks
The May 2025 spotlight, and the newest character profile the studio has published. A tall, blocky robot with a straw hat and two large glass eyes, found near the docks, running a makeshift ferry he describes as "little more than some riveted sheet metal." Cheerful with a mean streak he makes no effort to hide, he bickers with the other robots at the harbour and will drag you into it, but he loves listening to his passengers' stories and will not discuss his own past. His self-assessment: "I make this crossing safely 95% of the time, all of the time!" The store page sends you to the same docks to take your own boat out on the water, which is the other half of the fishing loop.
Caleb, one sentence and no profile
Salt Pete's spotlight names one more character in passing — "that old dustbin Caleb called me a bad sailor" — as another robot at the harbour he bickers with. No profile was ever written for Caleb. That is his entire official footprint, and a good illustration of how thin the record is: a throwaway insult is currently the most we can say about him.
The names the achievement list hands you
Everything else the game names arrives through Steam achievement titles, which is why the full 120-achievement page is the closest thing to a published cast. These are the nine titles where the name in the title is a person, with Valve's own description column. Rates are a snapshot taken at 16:22 UTC on 30 September 2026, day two after launch, and Steam floors them at one decimal place.
| Achievement | Official description | Unlock rate |
|---|---|---|
| Where is Ava? | (none published) | 0.1% |
| Find Salma's Brother | (none published) | 0.1% |
| Fauxter's Band | (none published) | 0.3% |
| Mask for Iann | (none published) | 0.1% |
| Thaddeus Mystery | (none published) | 0.1% |
| Rat Whisperer | Help rat whisperer Gladstone on a secret mission during curfew. | 0.1% |
| Ma Gomba's Gift | Grow poisonous mushrooms for Ma Gomba. | 0.3% |
| The Lost Captain | (none published) | 0.1% |
| Lost Child | (none published) | 0.1% |
Read the table carefully and the limits show up immediately. Seven of these nine have no description at all, which means Valve publishes neither the unlock condition nor whether they are secret. Gladstone and Ma Gomba are the only two people Valve names anywhere in an achievement description — everywhere else, a character name appears in the title and the text is blank or generic. Every one of these nine sits on the 0.1% or 0.3% floor, and the story ones cluster with the 100-quest system rather than with exploration.
Four names that get filed under "characters" on launch-week wikis are not people, or not provably people, and they are deliberately kept out of the table above:
- Aseptic is a case, per the achievement text "Solve the Aseptic case!" The case may well have a suspect, but the game has not named one.
- Coffee PoccoCup appears inside the "Coffee Time" description — "Deliver 3 runs of coffee for Coffee PoccoCup" — so it is the thing you run coffee to, not a barista.
- Scorpion is a bare title with no description at all. It could be a person, a gang or a machine. We are not going to decide for you, and it is not confirmed to be the "mysterious serial killer" the store page mentions.
- Ramen Noir is your starting venue, not an owner. It is named in the "Debt Free" achievement — "You did it! Ramen Noir is debt-free" — which is a business milestone, not a person.
Voice actors: the cast was never published
"nivalis nights voice actors" has no answer, and that is not laziness on our part. The FAQ confirms the format — "The in-game audio is in English, with VO for all characters" — so every character is voiced, in English only, with text in eleven languages. But as of the September 2025 community blog the studio was still describing the project as mid-casting: "over 6,000 entries currently under careful review." The store page, the publisher page and the news feed carry no credits list, and we have not verified third-party cast databases, so we are not building a voice actor table on top of them.
Every character has a voice actor somewhere. Not one of them is credited by ION LANDS or 505 Games on any official page we can reach. If a site shows you a name-to-actor table, treat it as unsourced until the studio or the actor confirms it.
What is confirmed missing
Here is the honest negative space, so you can tell at a glance what you are not getting here: the full 130-plus roster, any character's backstory beyond the three spotlights, which district each character lives in, the romanceable list, the ending count, and the voice cast. The map page lists every district the game actually names; pairing that with an invented character home would be guesswork, so we have not done it. The romance page covers what the developer has and has not confirmed about relationships, and the endings page covers the story structure. If a character wiki tells you Ava lives in the Stacks or that Scorpion is the killer, that is a guess wearing a citation.
Official source: Nivalis Nights :: Global Achievements on Steam Official source: Nivalis Nights | How to / FAQs on Steam Official source: Nivalis Nights community news feed on Steam Official source: Nivalis Nights on the Steam store
FAQ
How many characters are in Nivalis Nights? More than 130, by the studio's own figure in the March 2026 Community Q&A. That is the total NPC population, not the number of major characters, and no breakdown has ever been given.
Who is the main character in Nivalis Nights? Nobody by name. You play in first person with no avatar, no customization and only your arms and hands visible, which the developer calls a deliberate design choice.
Who are the named characters in Nivalis Nights? Ten names the game prints: Thaddeus Carmunis, Banor, Salt Pete and Caleb from the three official spotlight posts, plus Ava, Salma, Fauxter and Iann from achievement titles and Gladstone and Ma Gomba from achievement descriptions. That is the complete official set we could verify.
Are there voice actors for Nivalis Nights characters? Every character is voiced, in English only, but no cast list has been published by the studio or the publisher, so we do not publish one either.
Can you romance a character in Nivalis Nights? Relationships up to romance are confirmed by the developer, but no romanceable character has ever been named officially. The FAQ deliberately dodges the question.
Is Ramen Noir a character in Nivalis Nights? No. It is the noodle bar you take over in Meridian Market, named in the "Debt Free" achievement as the business you have to clear of debt.
Related
- Nivalis Nights: All 120 Achievements and How Rare Each One Is
- Nivalis Nights Character Creation: Can You Customize Your Character?
- Nivalis Nights Romance: What the Developer Has Actually Confirmed
- Nivalis Nights Endings: What Is Confirmed and What Is Still Unknown
- Nivalis Nights Map: Every Named District in the Game
- Nivalis Nights Quests and Commissions: The 100-Quest System
- Nivalis Nights Business Guide: Starting Debt, Venues and Revenue
More Nivalis Nights Guides
The official menu post names nine dish categories and four dishes by name. What cooking needs, how recipes unlock, and the 190-dish list nobody has.
Official answers on curfew, day and night opportunities and rain, the achievements that prove it, and the only verified way to change game speed.
505 confirms one specific ending and many possible paths but never published how many exist. What the achievement list reveals about story flags.
Fishing keeps your restaurant fridges stocked and pays on the market. All 24 fish that have a catch achievement, with real unlock rates.
Greenhouses grow produce for your kitchens or the market. The official crop milestones are 1, 5, 10, 20 and every available type.
The city is split into districts with loading screens, not fully open world. Every one of the 19 locations Nivalis Nights officially names.
505 says modding is out of scope, but three BepInEx mods are already live on Nexus Mods. What each one does, and how to install them safely.
505 states the game is single-player with no multiplayer or co-op planned. What Steam's store tags prove, and where the social layer actually lives.