Nathan Drake

Nate is a Caucasian male, with dark brown hair and eyes which have changed throughout the games. They appear both blue and green at different points if one looks at the in-game shots in the Official Game Guide for U3. He has a lean muscular physique, a tan skin-tone, and was 5'11 (1,80). His height was then changed in Uncharted 4 and revealed by a former Naughty Dog employee on Twitter as 6'2 (1,87). He has been described as "ruggedly handsome". Nate's face is square and angular, with a cleft-chin and squinty-eyes. His hair is short and spiky, and he usually sports a five o'clock shadow. He usually wears his Shoulder holsters and carried a journal. When he carried weapons, his secondaries are put into the holster while the primaries are put on his back.

Nathan Drake's most prominent trait is his dry humor, even in dangerous situations. This can cause him to appear unprofessional, and Neil Druckmann has suggested Nate's sarcasm to be a slight front for his dark past, which he often keeps to himself. Nate is usually calm and collected, operating well under pressure; however, he can sometimes still let his emotions get the best of him, especially during times of great stress or when things don't go too well for him. This generally leads to bouts of anger and nervous panicking, which are followed by a cynical and dry remark. Drake is also highly intelligent, being self-educated in world history and able to read 15th century Latin and Spanish. Nate is outwardly and genuinely an "everyman" type of person, relating to Naughty Dog's original intention when creating the character.

Even if he struggles to contain his obsession with treasure hunting, he can keep it in check if it becomes too dangerous, such as with El Dorado, Shambhala and Libertalia. However, he did not believe in the risks that came with treasure hunting when it concerned his wife Elena. Despite struggling to put his obsession with treasures behind and leave that part of his life in the past, after the events of Drake's Deception, he seemed to be more resistant to it due to his commitment to Elena. However, he resumed his old career in order to help his brother Sam to help him with a debt from the drug dealer Hector Alcázar as an excuse for the excitement of looking for the pirate's treasure Henry Avery. Coming to lie to himself, he even turned down Sullivan's advice and irritably snapped at him to follow Elena if he wants to be so helpful after she confronted Nate about lying to her for weeks about where he was. He and Sam continued onto Libertalia, but he began to run out of excuses when he learned that his Sam had abused his trust to find the treasure.

As a treasure hunter and thief, he is often confronted by various types of enemies, a prospect that doesn't always deter him. The dangers of his work are part of why Nate is drawn to it, typical of an adrenaline junkie. As a result, he has a callous and somewhat sadistic disregard for his adversaries and kills without remorse, albeit in self-defense. However, he is against cold-blooded executions, as shown when he refused to let Sam kill Nadine, expressed shock and anger at Rafe for killing Vargas even after the latter tried to blackmail Nate, Sam and Rafe for a cut of Avery's treasure they would obtain, or killing defenseless enemies, even offering his help to them after their defeat, such as the case with Flynn and Dante. He also refused to kill a defeated Lazarević to focus on escaping Shambala, though he did leave him to be killed by Shambhala's Guardians (not that he could have saved him anyway). He even attempted to save Marlowe from sinking in the quicksand (albeit in vein), whilst the Lost city of Ubar despite countless efforts of her trying to have him killed. Despite that, he is able to simulate a cold-blooded execution warning without even pulling the trigger, as happened when he grabbed one of Lazarević's soldiers to keep them at bay.

Nate is easy to provoke, makes absurd complaints and sometimes gets violent when an enemy angers him. Most notably when he (albeit a hallucination) believed Talbot and Marlowe had just shot Sully, he became completely enraged and pursued them for revenge.

Nate is extremely loyal to his friends and family, as he risks his life on multiple occasions just to help them. He has a slight phobia of commitment; though willing to get close to others, he simultaneously distances himself — an example being how he and Elena became estranged following their marriage until their reunion at the end of U3. The epilogue of U4 reveals they are still together some years later and even have a teenage daughter.