The family



The family are the main protagonists of Sheltered, the player starts the game with a family consisting of two parents and two children, the players is able to customise the appearance, gender, traits, stats and names of these characters, children start the game with slightly lower stats than their parents, but can eventually become as powerful as them when trained up properly with punching bags and toy boxes.

The family members can still die permanently in Sheltered, they are more important to keep alive than non-family recruits, and it is best to only send the family out on expeditions when starting the game, once enough supplies are obtained to keep recruits alive.

Unlike recruits, family members are marked in red, symbolising the importance of keeping me them alive, family members also cannot be kicked out of the shelter like recruits can.

Extended Family
In the Extended Family quest, the player can travel to a new shelter containing another family member, who can be either an adult or a child, unlike the initial family members, these family members are procedurally generated, and may even have grey skin like most surface survivors, including the children.