When you set out to unlock all monsters you are the monster makes one thing clear: you have to earn them through pure destruction. The starting Kaiju is available immediately, but you'll need to accumulate 1,000,000 destruction points to unlock The Kraken, destroy 100 tanks for Mecha-Kong, and survive the 13-minute nuclear strike to access the Terror-Moth.
There isn’t a person on Earth who hasn’t fantasized about leveling a city skyline. Joshua Hughes’ indie reverse-bullet-hell You Are The Monster (released June 18, 2026) distills that intrusive thought into a pure, 13-minute dopamine loop. Blending the horde-survival mechanics of Vampire Survivors with the gleeful collateral damage of Destroy All Humans, the game tasks you with one simple objective: smash everything. But the real depth lies in expanding your roster. This guide covers the exact requirements to unlock every playable giant monster currently available in the Early Access build.
Base Roster and How to Unlock All Monsters You Are The Monster
When you first boot up the game, you aren't handed the keys to the entire kingdom. You start with a single, highly capable beast: Goliath. Think of Goliath as your classic, radioactive reptilian brawler. He is the foundational tool you will use to farm your first few runs and learn the game's escalating threat mechanics.
Goliath’s kit is straightforward but devastating. His primary attacks involve a massive ground slam that shatters low-level buildings and a sprinting charge that knocks aside intervening obstacles like cars and buses. Because you are a giant target, taking damage is inevitable.
One thing that giant monsters apparently have in common with Grand Theft Auto protagonists is a wanted level. The more collateral damage you cause, the larger the response from the authorities. You start by stepping on local police cruisers, but within minutes, you are fending off SWAT vans, drones, and snipers. Goliath's kit is perfectly suited for this early-game escalation, but you will quickly find yourself outmatched if you don't aggressively seek out the glowing green health orbs dropped by fleeing citizens. To survive long enough to unlock the rest of the roster, you need to understand this core gameplay loop: destroy property to level up, eat civilians to heal, and manage your cooldowns to survive the military.
Destruction Milestones to Unlock All Monsters You Are The Monster
The Early Access version of the game features four distinct monsters, each with their own unique skill trees and three special abilities. Here are the exact progression requirements you need to hit to unlock the remaining three.
1. The Kraken Unlock Requirement: Accumulate 1,000,000 Total Destruction Damage across all runs.
Described aptly by early PC Gamer previews as "sort of a cross between a lobster, an octopus, and a minivan," The Kraken is the premier crowd-control monster. Unlike Goliath, who relies on blunt force trauma, The Kraken excels at area-of-effect denial.
Its signature ability is a vacuum maw that sucks civilians and light vehicles right into its mouth. This makes farming health orbs significantly easier, allowing you to sustain your rampage well into the later stages of the military escalation. Because The Kraken is a hybrid creature, its movement feels distinctly different from the bipedal Goliath. It slithers and scuttles, making it slightly harder for linear tank shells to hit you dead-on. The vacuum ability isn't just for healing; it also disrupts the pathing of smaller military units, pulling them out of formation and clumping them together for a devastating tentacle slam. You will likely unlock The Kraken naturally after your first five to ten runs, provided you prioritize leveling skyscrapers rather than chasing individual police cruisers.
2. Mecha-Kong Unlock Requirement: Destroy 100 Military Tanks.
Once your wanted level reaches the mid-game threshold (usually around the 6-minute mark), the military stops sending SWAT vans and starts deploying heavy armor. Tanks are dangerous because they can chip away at your health from off-screen. To unlock the cyborg ape Mecha-Kong, you need to actively hunt these tanks down.
Mecha-Kong is a high-mobility, high-burst-damage character. His leap slam allows you to close the distance on sniper nests and artillery lines instantly, while his EMP blast temporarily disables all mechanical units in a wide radius. The EMP blast is arguably the most overpowered defensive ability in the Early Access build. When the screen is cluttered with drone lasers and incoming airstrike markers, triggering the EMP gives you a crucial three-second window to reposition. Farm the 100 tank kills by deliberately stalling your runs around the 8-minute mark, letting the tank squads spawn in before wiping them out.
3. Terror-Moth Unlock Requirement: Survive the 13-Minute Nuke with any monster.
This is the ultimate test of the Early Access build. You Are The Monster doesn't end with you casually walking off into the sunset. If you manage to survive the escalating onslaught of police, SWAT, tanks, jets, and snipers for a full 13 minutes, the military deploys its final failsafe: a nuclear bomb dropped directly on your head.
This unique game-over screen is actually the win condition for a standard run. Taking the nuke to the face unlocks the Terror-Moth, an insectoid monstrosity that attacks with hurricane-force wings and toxic dust. Once unlocked, the Terror-Moth completely flips the script on how you approach the city. Instead of lumbering through the streets, you hover above them. The hurricane wings ability allows you to blow away incoming projectiles, while the toxic dust creates lingering areas of effect that melt infantry and light vehicles over time. It is a high-skill-ceiling monster that rewards precise positioning over brute force.
The Fastest Strategy to Unlock All Monsters You Are The Monster
If you want to speedrun the unlock process, you need to optimize your destruction pathing. Mindless smashing is fun, but targeted demolition is how you scale the progression tree quickly.
Prioritize Dense Intersections The city is your playground, but not all playgrounds are created equal. Parks and suburban sprawl yield very little destruction XP. You want to aim your monster toward the dense downtown commercial districts. Leveling a single skyscraper provides exponential XP compared to crushing a dozen hotdog stands. More XP means faster level-ups, which means upgraded abilities.
Manage Your Cooldowns The biggest mistake new players make is spamming their special attacks. You Are The Monster features surprisingly long cooldowns for its genre. If you use Goliath's ground slam to wipe out a group of fleeing pedestrians, you won't have it available when a squadron of attack helicopters boxes you in ten seconds later. Save your heavy-hitting abilities for the military; use your basic movement to crush the civilians.
Farm the Orbs As mentioned earlier, healing is entirely dependent on gathering health orbs from slain civilians. When the screen fills with bullets and laser sights, your instinct will be to run away. Instead, you need to push forward into the crowds. The Kraken is specifically designed for this, making it the best monster to use if you are struggling to reach the 13-minute mark for the Terror-Moth unlock.
Watch the Skies for Airstrikes While the ground forces are your primary source of damage early on, the real run-killers are the jets. By the 10-minute mark, the military will start calling in airstrikes. These are telegraphed by large red targeting reticles on the ground. You must keep your eyes peeled for these markers. Getting caught in the center of an airstrike will instantly wipe out half your health bar, regardless of which monster you are playing.
Unlocking Endless Mode
Beating a run by surviving until the 13-minute nuclear strike doesn't just unlock the Terror-Moth; it fundamentally changes how you can play the game. Surviving the nuke with a specific monster unlocks Endless Mode for that exact character.
In Endless Mode, the 13-minute timer is removed, and the military escalation continues to scale infinitely. This is where you can truly test the limits of your upgraded abilities. Endless Mode is also the most efficient way to farm the 1,000,000 destruction damage required for The Kraken if you haven't unlocked it yet, as the multiplier for property damage skyrockets past the 15-minute mark.
FAQ: Unleashing the Beasts
Are there more than 4 monsters in the game? Currently, the Early Access build features 4 fully playable monsters. Developer Joshua Hughes has stated that the roughly 6-month Early Access period will be used to add community-requested features, new content, and potentially new monsters based on player feedback.
Can you destroy every building in the city? Yes. The developer confirmed that as your monster grows in size and power throughout a run, you can eventually level almost every building structure with your attacks.
Is there a story mode? Not currently. The gameplay loop is strictly arcade-style horde survival. However, the developer has expressed interest in adding a dedicated story mode in the future if the Early Access launch is successful.
Sources
- You Are The Monster Official Steam Store Page
- PC Gamer: "This city-smashing monster sim is the first game I've ever played where my reward for beating a level is getting a nuke dropped on my head"
- Joshua Hughes Devlog Updates
- r/DestroyAllHumans Developer AMA