Back 4 Blood locks half its playable roster away as in-game unlocks. Fortunately, getting them all is pretty simple — or, at least it should be. Solo players are encountering a Back 4 Blood characters not unlocking bug that prevents earning new playable personas. It’s just the latest in a line of speedbumps affecting the launch of Turtle Rock Studios’ Left 4 Dead spiritual successor.
How to fix the Back 4 Blood characters not unlocking bug
Solo players can unlock new playable characters in Back 4 Blood by participating in an online multiplayer campaign. It isn’t currently possible to get Doc, Hoffman, Jim, and Karlee in the B4B single-player mode; a patch is “coming soon” to address the issue.
The official Back 4 Blood development Trello lists “Fix for Doc, Hoffman, Jim, and Karlee not unlocking in Solo Campaign” as a priority problem. Its card now occupies the “Coming Soon” column, which suggests that a new game update is due to arrive anytime now. After downloading the patch on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, or PS4 users will be able to unlock playable “Cleaners” on their own terms.
Unfortunately, there are even more negative side effects to playing Back 4 Blood in single-player mode with bots. The game doesn’t grant players Achievements/Trophies during solo play, plus there are no Supply Point rewards. While some players don’t care about boosting their Xbox Gamerscore or PlayStation Trophy Level, Supply Points are an in-game currency that’s integral to progression.
It’s possible that some players are choosing to go solo due to Back 4 Blood’s controversial voice chat data gathering. There’s no way to opt-out of being recorded, which obviously isn’t ideal. Topping it off, the in-game voice chat channel also isn’t without issues. The dedicated game chat seems to conflict with private party chat on consoles, which is a somewhat strange phenomenon.
