This is easy to solve. But first, what is happening: When any Unreal game starts (i.e. you play a level) the Engine will possess a pawn / character for you.
This can either be a pawn that is already in the map (you can see this in the Thirdperson Template) or if none is available, the Engine spawns the pawn specified in the Game Mode (that’s how the Firstperson template works, for example), at the location of a PlayerStart, or just in 0,0,0.
So in your case, Unreal takes the “Default Pawn Class” in your GameMode and spawns that pawn right at the beginning of the game (as there is nothing else there, we haven’t loaded in anything at this point after all). Meaning, your default pawn will get loaded in the empty root level, even before the loading screen appears. You obviously don’t need that, as your sublevels will have their own pawns.
So, first thing, go into GameMode and enable “Start Players As Spectators” (as seen in the video)
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https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Mp_79MJEIhcjGXTOTM_M8jTXtSzP0bHMsj6wRORQhIb8KJRBnggSZ1SFGccHC_rVwRz11lXpDKxDSd56oqFp3WxV54Noy0WqIcbHnqG7N__V9302pJnUVsOzpOYMM4K35mHij1Ii
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And also “Delayed Start” if it is in your GameMode (only relevant if you are using the extended GameMode and not the simplified GameModeBase).
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https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7f3YZBDTFbpby8neNRtqUQem998IiebzeWHUIHVz3ZGbWRFEDmGW1T1iIcUpjcECR39G8KH1eeVQMrvzbxAg9ecUO8SRXaY94ndJteLadSPXBufDLw508l-4efF6eZLAwiIfW3KI
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With the above, the game will no longer spawn your default pawn at the start.
Now, in order to have different pawns in different sublevels (or pawns at all), you have several options:
- (As seen in the video) Place your desired pawn into the sublevel (make sure the correct sublevel is active in the Levels tab, otherwise you will place it into the root level) and in the pawn’s details set “Auto Possess” to “Player 0”
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https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/EgTlw4LfTpJ3i6ylyeH0YWCGDFglzJ_qbY9ibCvRhVXQjmi3HmKGl2PJ9Edzw1uqNIyufE7v7kLJN60ZGdKVpf9UE6yR5t3UehmRtd-iBVCn_LlbjpF9P-3kX7gmuIZwGzFwhUhG
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- From Blueprint. You could use “Spawn Actor From Class” and “Possess” on BeginPlay (or hook it up to one of the various dispatchers that the LSS has available, see demo map “06_AdvancedEventHandling_Map” for examples).
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https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/bsOSW6Qkn9jxUu1SvzCmwvWJIDD5Cc1aFd_Q4KLLqbbmm0L7iOPq5qCm0d_4sJdsaKSsmCSMqqWAcz14efYWzxj-n_nEQ3u-gsDa6ETIgvJ_acMsn-DqAircvoS4LGJg-p6NnNgv
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- LSS has its own Pawn Handling feature that will mimic the default way the Engine spawns Player Characters / Pawns, but on a per sublevel basis. You will need to use a slightly different setup than just filling in level names in the LSS Actor’s details, instead, you would create a settings file for each level and feed that to the inputs in the LSS Actor. This feature has been introduced in the last update and is the recommended and most versatile setup.
I will link the appropriate part of the documentation below and there’s also a whole demo level dedicated to this feature, see \Maps\15_PawnHandling_Map.