Survivors:
Sweet Tooth- A town to town serial killer who is enjoying the effect of his wish, and is in an eternal bliss in his very own paradise. He joins the competition just for fun, he has no wish as he is chaos.
Firestarter- A pyromaniac who wishes to see the world burn down to its very last brink (via nuclear hellfire, comparing himself to a Prometheus figure) and let nature take its course, Damian Cole is a disturbed individual whose destiny was to take part in Twisted Metal.
Brimstone- A post apocalyptic preacher with visions of the rapture, used to lead a cult and predicted that the world would end; and when it came true his following became immense. His goal at the end of the day is to ascend to the heavens with his followers.
Thumper- The leader of the urbanized "Zone" in which the remnants of society lived in former Los Angeles; he's dedicated his life to ruling what he believes to be the only leftover piece of civilization (this leftover piece being ruled by his iron grip). He's joined the competition in order to establish his power permanently.
Darkside- An entity feared by the remnants of humanity as an angel of death; almost everyone fears whatever this beast is: Brimstone believes Darkside to be a tool of the devil, Mr. Grimm and his gang are afraid to cross paths; no one wants to be around this thing. Their reason for joining is unknown, but Calypso is uneasy about their presence.
Axel- A wandering soul tortured by the past, and rejection from his father; all he wants anymore is to not be alone. The many years of loneliness has been breaking him down to sheer desperation.
Mr. Grimm- The leader of a nomadic road gang in the wasteland, all they do is ride through the wasteland and survive day to day. With his only true friend being a decaying department store mannequin, he wishes to find the family that he lost when everything went down.
Grasshopper- When the apocalypse arrived, Krista Sparks had been a contestant in Twisted Metal II. Now she's a walking corpse, a shell of her former self who just wants to see her dad one last time.
Hammerhead- Driven by a pair of professional looters, they're always looking for the next loot to fill their "palace"; robbing from anybody they come across. Artifacts from the old world, furniture, food and water, you name it. They're looking for something special this time, and they need Calypso's help finding it.
Pit Viper- A loner type who fights to reverse the apocalypse to give the world a future, she wishes for a face to face meeting with Calypso; either he'll change it or she'll force him to change it.
Meat Wagon- A post apocalyptic paramedic, she searches for a purpose where there is none: all she wishes is to save as many people as she can, possibly revive the population that died while using this apocalypse as a sort of lesson on what not to do for the future.
Shadow- A post apocalyptic mortician, Mortimer Scharf has spent his life helping the souls of victims get revenge on their killers. These days is all the same, with business even skyrocketing for him in the wake of the ongoing apocalypse.
Vermin- Piloting an old pest extermination truck, Jeremy Latchford (nicknamed Goggle Eyes) has dedicated his life to hunting down and destroying the world's vermin which have transformed into absolute monsters in the wastelands of the world. In the many years since he started though his psyche has slowly deteriorated to where he sees EVERYONE as a pest. And now he wishes to rid the world of them all.
Manslaughter- A giant quarry truck driven by what looks to be some cobbled together Frankenstein's monster, it's creator knows no bounds in terms of what he wants: he just wants some good old fashioned revenge for his family's death, and he squares the blame solely on Calypso.
Roadkill- Marcus Kane is still wondering why the nightmare will never end, a constant state of torture continues to envelop his entire life. He knows that he and Needles are one in the same, and with the emergence of his most evil form has led to Marcus deciding to do whatever it takes to erase Needles from existence, even if it means erasing himself as well.
Spectre- Driven by the ghost of an extremely vain horror movie scream queen, with the entire world gone due to the apocalypse she seeks to restart her fame, as well as her self esteem, through becoming an apocalypse goddess and views the Twisted Metal competition as her way to get there.
Junkyard Dog- The direct antithesis of Hammerhead, Junkyard Dog is a trader who sells savage; and he sees this as an opportunity to expand his business tenfold using the wrecks of those he's destroyed along the way. Other than being an opportune capitalist however, his motives are unknown..
Razorback- A violent Australian bandit warchief who seeks to dominate "The Zone" and every community he comes across to satiate his bloodlust; the warchief is amongst the many who seek further destruction in the competition except for the one thing that separates himself from the others: an evil iron will.
Unlockable/Bosses:
Outlaw and Crimson Fury- Self imposed "enforcers" obsessed with re-establishing government; they're based out of Mount Rushmore; one of the only remnants of what has been considered liberty left in the world.
Mr. Slam and Auger- Two dudes in decked out construction vehicles, Simon Whittlebone has picked up a brand new protégé: Buster Cobb and they're back for a vengeance. No longer willing to let Calypso shatter their dreams of not only finishing his grand tower….but rebuilding the cradle of civilization…and they will go out of their way to defeat Calypso's competition by any means necessary.
Cousin Eddy, Rusty & ATV- Three redneck and inbred cousins coming out of the Ozarks; Cousin Eddy and Gene Murell follow their older cousin: the more stoic yet equally ruthless Rusty, in a goal to disrupt the Twisted Metal competition for an unknown goal.
Minion, Talon and Warthog- The headhunters for the gathering army force Apocalypse 9, their leader is unknown but whoever is in control is bad fucking news and needs to be wiped out by any means necessary.
Minion- The demon Minion himself, he rises up in the very last level crawling out of the Holland windmill (or the depths of New Mexico), the gateway to hell. He's also prevalent in certain endings.
Not Unlockable:
Host: Calypso- A being driven by forces unknown, to some he appears as a radioactive hallucination, to some he is the devil himself, to others he is unknown as he has appeared to everyone differently. However, since Twisted Metal 2, he has become a shell of his former self, an unstable force in a world of constant horror.