Honkai: Star Rail Tier list (November 2024)

Categories

• Damage Dealer - Characters that focus on dealing direct damage and can perform their role unhindered by enemy type, enemy element or team composition,
• Specialist - Characters that excel under specific circumstances carrying a unique role that often requires a different and divergent playstyle,
• Amplifier - Characters that do not focus on dealing damage but instead amplify the damage other teammates deal by granting allies buffs or debuffing enemies,
• Sustain - Characters who are capable of keeping the team alive with their abilities.

Special tags

Tags are split into 3 categories: Pros, Cons and Archetype which represent the most defining features of a character's kit and the current meta archetypes they fit into. Archetype tags indicate a connection between characters with that tag e.g. Acheron requires debuffs to work and Silver Wolf applies them. Here is a full list of all current tags and what they mean:

• Break - the character belongs to the Break archetype focusing on Break Effect and Break Efficiency,
• Debuff - the character belongs to the Debuff archetype applying one or many debuffs or has a kit that directly relies on them to function,
• DoT - the character belongs to the Damage-over-Time archetype specializing in applying and/or amplifying DoT effects,
• FuA - the character belongs to the Follow-up Attack archetype benefitting from, buffing or delivering powerful Follow-Up Attacks.,
• Advance - the character can manipulate the turn order by either action advancing their allies or themselves,
• Buff - the character can apply various Buffs to help their teammates,
• Delay - the character can delay enemies and hinder their actions in battle,
• Energy - the character can recover the teammates energy,
• SP-Friendly - the character is substantially more skill point friendly than other characters in their role.
• SP-Unfriendly - the character is substantially more skill point un-friendly than other characters in their role.

Meta Lines

Meta Lines categorize each section of the tier list into a power bracket. Here are the four brackets:

• Apex Characters (T0 & T0.5) - characters in this bracket are the cream of the crop. They can do outrageous amount of damage, provide massive buffs (or debuffs) or keep the team alive no matter what the enemy throws at them. They simply can achieve the best, most consistent and accessible results in their best teams, allowing you to easily clear the content,
• Meta Characters (T1, T1.5, T2) - characters in this bracket make clearing the content a breeze, but compared to the Apex characters they require more work from your side. Either their team options are more restrictive, they require bigger Relic investment or they possess a notable weakness or downside. Still, they are all great and won't disappoint you if you give them what they need to shine,
• Niche Characters (T3 & T4) - characters in this bracket are lacking in one or many fields of their role. These characters still possess the ability to clear all content with the right build, endgame blessing, team or enemy line-up but have much lower play rates and success rates than Meta and Apex characters,
• The Forgotten Ones (T5) - characters in this bracket struggle. A lot. Either their kits simply don't work in the mode or they require a ton of investment and love to be able to work. Just avoid them unless your husbando or waifu landed here and you believe in the power of love.

Half tiers

To further define the tier list and correctly represent the power level of each character in relation to each other we have added half tiers to the higher tier brackets. Under our previous system a tier rating jump of 1 tier rating made it difficult to position characters accurately, often leading to multiple characters ending up in the same tier despite a clear power and utility difference.

Criteria

• Manual play,
• Using optimal team composition/support characters,
• Character level 80,
• All Major Traces unlocked and skills upgraded to level 8,
• Character equipped with level 80 non-limited 4★ or 5★ Light Cone (including the 'standard' Light Cones),
• Battle Pass Light Cones aren't taken into account because you can't obtain them without spending,
• Character equipped with 5★ upgraded gear with optimal Main Stats and Sub Stats (with 24 desired sub stats out of a possible 54),
• Eidolon level 0 for 5★ characters,
• Eidolon level 0/6 for 4★ characters.

Roles

We compare characters within their role - so damage dealers are compared to other damage dealers and the ratings are adjusted based on their performance within the role. Don't try to compare characters between roles (for example an amplifier with a damage dealer), because their ratings mean different things.

• Damage Dealer - Rating is heavily influenced based on the characters ability to deal enough damage to achieve the 3-star objective, the easier and more quickly achieved the higher the rating,
• Specialist - Rating is heavily influenced based on the damage they provide, defense or efficiency boost created by the unique teams these characters create or the utility they provide against certain encounters,
• Amplifier - Rating is influenced based on the damage amplification abilities of the character and the utility they provide to the team,
• Sustain - Rating is influenced based on the characters ability to keep the team alive and the utility they provide. The more utility and higher the safety, the higher the rating.

Other criteria affecting the ratings

Each tier list rates characters based on their average value in the specific game mode it represents. The higher a character is rated on the tier list the greater their power and more widely they can be used effectively in the mode. We consider:

• Flexibility - how the characters kit functions against various enemy types, amounts of enemies and their ability to perform when not fighting against enemies vulnerable to their element,
• Investment - some characters require specific limited 5★ units, heavy investment in certain relic sets or an abundance of sub-stats in order to function at the highest level. Each of these points impacts the rating in a negative way. - the more the character requires to perform well, the bigger the impact,
• Utility - recently released characters possess abilities that lie beyond their defined role, for example Amplifiers/Sustains that can deal decent damage. The more a character helps the team outside of their role, the bigger positive impact on their rating it has.

18/11/2024

In our previous Pure Fiction update we marked a number of characters with the potential to move up or down on the tier list (our watchlist). With another round of data, testing and community feedback we’re following through on all these changes:

• [Jiaoqiu] T0.5 T0. Since his release, Jiaoqiu is one of the highest performers in Pure Fiction and in this phase he has continued his dominant performance. While previously he was mostly used with Acheron (and he elevated her to new heights) in this phase he's also being successfully played with Kafka/BS (in DoT teams) but also with Himeko (Crit version). We believe he’s earned his place in T0 because of that.
• [Feixiao] T1.5 T1. A Hunt character being so high in PF? What is this blasphemy. No, we didn't lose our minds (at least we hope so) as Feixiao is being played in this mode as an enabler for Herta and Himeko - both characters rely on enemies being often broken and Feixiao can easily do that, procing the kurukuru / nigasanai wa super often.
• [Seele] T1.5 T2. As someone wise said, balance must be kept - one Hunt unit has risen in the ranks and another has to drop. Kidding aside, Seele has continued to remain a niche choice outside of Shatter being present in the Pure Fiction Phase. We’re lowering her rating by a tier to reflect this.
• [Jingliu] T2 T3. Jingliu continues to face challenges in Pure Fiction this phase. As outlined previously we’re lowering her down a tier and now she's entered the Niche category.

Other Pure Fiction changes:

• [Yunli] T0.5 T0. Yunli continues to surprise us. She is able to stand on her own (hypercarry teams) but is even stronger when combined with other synergistic damaging characters (dual DPS teams with Feixiao, Himeko, and Jade) making her incredibly flexible. Despite being used in a myriad of teams, Yunli boasts some of the highest average scores of the mode - regardless of the Phase buff she always delivers. Flexibility, high performance and consistency - based on this we’re raising her to Tier 0.
• [Acheron] T0.5 T0. Since the release of Jiaoqiu, Acheron performance in Pure Fiction drastically improved. The Foxian fixes most of her issues, allowing her to reach new heights in this and other modes - regardless of the Phase-specific buffs. Because of the shown consistency, we're raising her to T0.
• [Ruan Mei] T0.5 T0. Ruan Mei is the queen of diversity and to this day retains one of the highest use rates in all modes. The release of Rappa grants her one more, especially potent top tier team specifically in her Break-focused niche. With a stronger top-end on her teams and continued widespread use we’re raising her back to Tier 0 alongside Robin. The data might not always be on Ruan Mei’s side, due to her being used in such a wide variety of teams but there is no doubt she’s part of multiple of the strongest Pure Fiction teams right now.
• [Gepard] T3 T2. While his younger, gambling-addicted brother, is the king of Shielding, Gepard has shown great performance in the last few phases - those who don't have Aventurine are finding success with Gepard once he's properly build. We're raising him from the depths of Niche tier because of that.
• [Serval] T4 T3. Serval has seen a uptick in performance, but not big enough to raise her from the Niche tier. Still, at least compared to a lot characters - even those limited ones - she actually sees some usage and somehow works.
• [Argenti] & [Himeko] T0 T0.5. Double whammy! Himeko and Argenti are without a doubt two of the strongest Pure Fiction characters in certain phases, landing them at the top of the tier list (and in our data) on many occasions. But at the same time, both of them have phases when they struggle and even fail to reach 30k - usually phases where the enemy weaknesses do not favor their element. We expect these characters to continue to be a hot topic, but we will be lowering their ranking for now based on their lacking performance in the last 3 phases (so what's being taken into account for the purpose of the tier list).
• [Bronya] T1 T1.5. Tingyun and Pela both see frequent and competitive play in Pure Fiction, popping up in a variety of team compositions capable of scoring very well. We feel Bronya doesn’t quite fit alongside these two in the current state of endgame in terms of performance or flexibility - usually being a 2nd, 3rd or even 4th pick support in most high scoring teams. For these reasons we’re moving her down a tier.
• [Asta] & [Hanya] T1.5 T2. Another double whammy! Asta and Hanya’s play rate and performance has been in steady decline with the introduction of new units and higher difficulty in Pure Fiction. This combined with Bronya moving down to Tier 1.5 is the reason we’ll be moving both down a tier.
• [Qingque] T3 T4. Another bad phase for our Gamba Gremlin. Her damage just isn't enough anymore and we're dropping her down a tier to better reflect her place in the meta.
• [Lynx] T2 T3. With the drastic increase of difficulty in the last phase, Lynx issues were exposed. She struggles to keep the team alive and the additional benefits she brings aren't enough to justify using her other other Sustains.
• [Trailblazer Fire] T2 T4. We have recently moved Fire MC to Sustains (from Specialist) and we're adjusting their rating to better reflect their strength.

08/11/2024

We also made several changes to the Apocalyptic Shadow tier list and here's what has changed:

• [Robin] T0.5 T0. The FUA archetype took the meta by storm, reaching the heights of the Super Break archetype and in some cases, even outperforming it. Robin is the key member of the FUA archetype, so placing her anywhere but in the T0 makes zero sense - that's why we have raised her where she belongs.
• [Bronya] T1 T0.5. Bronya fall from the meta and her resurgence deserves to be studied. While initially, Sparkle outperformed her in most teams, the tables has been turned (or rather flipped) and Bronya now has more meta DPS that she is commonly paired with (Boothil, Feixiao and to lesser degree Acheron), drastically improving her performance in Apocalyptic Shadow (and in other modes).
• [Imbibitor Lunae] T1.5 T2. The E0 Cooler Daniel is struggling. A lot. While his damage output is still decent, it pales in comparison to what Feixiao, Boothill, Firefly and Yunli can do. Adding the SP issues on top of that, paints a sad picture for our Dragon who struggles to keep up with other damage dealers and whose performance continues to drop.
• [Seele] T1.5 T2. Similar to Imibibtor Lunae, Seele doesn't have a good time in Apocalyptic Shadow. Her unique mechanic doesn't work that well there, which lead to plummeting performance and usage rates in the last few phases and we have decided to drop her down a tier because of that.
• [Qingque] T2 T3. The Gamba Gremlin also struggles. Her multipliers aged badly and even if the RNG is on your side, the amount of damage and breaking she brings to the table is not enough in AS to make her worth using and she only shines where the phase buff lends her a hand. Because of that we're dropping her to the Niche category.
• [Misha] & [Hook] T4 T5. Bad damage, bad breaking, bad performance. That's a short summary for Misha and Hook struggles in Apocalyptic Shadow and the reason why they were dropped to the Forgotten tier.
• [Black Swan] & [Kafka] T1 T1.5. DoT continues to disappoint in every mode and it's time to drop them again in Apocalyptic Shadow. Their damage just isn't there and they can't break stuff fast enough to make them worth using in this mode over other characters. Hoyo, we beg you - do something nice for DoTs!
• [Xueyi] T1.5 T2. Xueyi simply isn't used when there's no Quantum weakness and compared to other characters who sit in T1.5 she stands out as the weakest 'link', so we have decided to drop her down a tier to better reflect her position in the current meta.
• [Silver Wolf] T1 T1.5. Despite the Implant issues being fixed in Apocalyptic Shadow, Silver Wolf simply lacks good teams where she can be used. Mono Quantum is nearly as dead as DoTs and outside of Quantum teams, the Implant isn't enough and it's hard to justify using her over other Amplifiers that bring way way more to the table. Also, with the game being older, people have more DPS build (allowing for better elemental coverage), so Silver Wolf isn't as important as she was in the past.
• [Yukong] T4 T5. Well, the fox is dead as she's overshadowed by virtually every other Amplifier in the game. She requires way too much effort to honestly barely being able to do what others in her role can do and similar to other modes, we're dropping her to the Forgotten tier.
• [Gallagher] T0 T0.5. Lingsha has proven to be way stronger than we anticipated and after doing further testing, we have decided to drop Gallagher down half a tier. If you look strictly as Sustain potential, they are roughly equal, but Lingsha brings so much more breaking and damage to the table, it's not even funny - and those two are very important in AS. She's basically an Erudition unit in disguise who also is strong enough to keep the team alive even if you build her pure damage. Wait, this was supposed to be changelog for Gallagher, not another praise post for Lingsha. Overall Gallagher is still a great character, but Lingsha just offers MORE so keeping them in the same tier in Apocalyptic Shadow doesn't make sense.
• We're also looking into Aventurine as Lingsha is just too good in AS, but we need more data and do more tests before considering having Lingsha as the only T0 Sustain in this mode.
• [Fu Xuan] and [Huohuo] T0.5 T1. The victims of Gallagher dropping to T0.5. If you look at the data for the last 3 phases (so what's considered for the purpose of the tier list), Fu Xuan and Huohuo are closer to Luocha's performance than to that of Gallagher. But looking past the data, both are second or even third choice in the two reigning archetypes (FUA and Break) as they simply don't bring enough things to make them first choice. Huohuo energy regen isn't needed there (but Yunli loves it) and Fu Xuan also often gets one-shot by massive AoE attacks or an onslaught of smaller ones (since enemies Speeds continue to increase) and the 12% Crit Rate (fixed!) just isn't that enticing as it was in the past. They are still strong sustains, but the meta favors the 3 remaining Apex sustains more than them currently. Though, things can change in the future and if they will, we will revisit their Apex placement in AS.

23/10/2024

[Rappa] has been added to the tier list.

We also made several changes to the MoC tier list and here's what has changed:

• [Acheron] T0 T0.5. Despite the release of Jiaoqiu who made Acheron much better, when comparing Acheron teams to Feixiao teams, Acheron falls a bit short. To be clear Acheron isn’t weak. But Feixiao has proven she's on another level, not in just one, but multiple teams allowing her to clear MoC stages effortlessly - even without her best support, Robin, you can still use Bronya, if you don't have Topaz, you can use Moze or Hunt March. Acheron has options as well but those options aren’t as potent as Feixiao - on the top-end, her best team alongside Jiaoqiu can’t reach the heights Feixiao can and on the lower-end, Feixiao only presses the advantage. In the future when/if Acheron receives more teammates we feel her team ceiling and floor can increase, but currently, Feixiao has won the battle of supremacy and will be the sole T0 for now.
• [Jingliu] T1 T1.5. Compared to other damage dealers, Jingliu didn't receive any new teammates that would allow her to perform at higher level for quite some time. Furthermore, hitting for 200k was insane back in the day, but when playing the newer and shinier damage dealers, seeing those numbers makes you think you build the character wrong. Because of this, her performance in MoC continues to drop as her damage output simply isn't enough to deal with the ever-increasing difficulty of MoC.
• [Seele] T1.5 T2. The HP of enemies continues to increase with every new phase and even the well geared Seeles are starting to struggle to continuously trigger Resurgence. The enemies that we're fighting recently in MoC (most of the Penacony ones) also don't help with the core mechanic of Seele and both her usage rate and average performance reflect that, so we have decided to drop her down half a tier.
• [Kafka] & [Black Swan] T1 T1.5. Life is not good for DoT fans. Kafka and Black Swan's damage output isn't good enough anymore and the DoT procs tickle the enemy rather than doing any meaningful damage. This lead to a big drop in both performance and usage rates in the last few phases as there simply are better options to run. They really need a dedicated DoT support to make them viable again. Hoyo, please make DoTs great again - we beg you!
• [Xueyi] & [Luka] T2 T3. Both shine bright when the MoC phase features enemies matching their element and a buff which benefits them. Outside of a strong phase here and there, they routinely fade into obscurity shortly after. This fits our definition of the Niche category to a tee - because of this we feel both characters are more accurately placed not above the META line but at the top of the NICHE line.
• [Trailblazer Fire] T4 T5. Outside of some very niche uses in Acheron teams, the Fire version of the MC sees very little play. Part of this is their losing battle against the much stronger, and popular Imaginary version and part of it is a lack of a solid niche. Because of this we're dropping them to the Forgotten tier.
• [Sparkle] T0.5 T1. Similar to DoTs, the hypercarry archetype struggles to compete with Break and FUA in the current meta. From the top damage dealers, Sparkle is mainly paired with Yunli and Acheron (and even there she can be replaced) and outside of them, none of the characters she is played with are considered meta as they struggle to perform well in MoC. Because of this, we think Sparkle isn't Apex tier material anymore and we're dropping her to T1.
• [Yukong] T4 T5. Yukong who? Jokes aside, Yukong simply has no place in the current meta and even Imbibitor Lunae doesn't use her anymore, so we've decided to drop her to the Forgotten tier.
• [Blade] T2 T1.5. Blade's average performance in the last few phases surprised us. He's being commonly used in dual DPS teams with Yunli, Feixiao, Clara and Jade, but outside of that there are even some hypercarry teams using Blade. Blade damage isn't as good as it was back in the day, but he makes up for it with the frequency of his attacks which help with breaking enemies in AoE scenarios (plus he has a FUA attack). So he's managed to keep his relevancy in the current Break/FUA focused meta and we have decided to raise him up a tier because of that.
• [Bronya] T1.5 T1. With the release of Feixiao, Bronya has added another solid spot in top tier teams to her portfolio. She has been a top pick for Boothill since his release and now serves as a strong Robin substitute in Feixiao’s teams, allowing you to use her elsewhere or if you don’t have her yet. Because of that we feel she deserves the raise to T1 tier.
• [Pela] T1.5 T1. Pela still remains the champion of F2P and new players. She's very universal, easy to build and easy to use, so we have raised her to T1 which better showcases how good she is - especially that she's still being commonly played with Acheron after Jiaoqiu release.

05/10/2024

We have updated the Pure Fiction tier list based on the latest data (check Pure Fiction Analytics), our own testing and community feedback. Here are the changes:

• [Argenti] T0.5 T0. Despite a bit underwhelming performance in the most recent Pure Fiction phase, Argenti still is one of the best characters you can bring into this mode - this phase was as bad as it could be for him and he still reached nearly 30k average score. After looking at his average performance in the last 3 phases, so what's being taken into account for the purpose of the tier list, and after testing him in various teams, we think he deserves to sit in T0 alongside Herta and Himeko.
• [Blade] T1.5 T1. Blade's average performance improved in the last few phases as he found a new home alongside Jade (though he's not played exclusively with her) - so we have decided to raise him alongside Clara to the T1 tier.
• [Firefly] T1.5 T1. Lingsha has brought a second life to Firefly and enabled her to shine in Pure Fiction - though Firefly is playing a more 'supportive' role in that team, thanks to her insane Weakness Implant ability via her Technique and Skill, allowing Himeko and Lingsha to decimate the waves of enemies.
• [Ruan Mei] T0 T0.5. The watchlist strikes again. After gathering more data and doing more testing, we are pretty sure that Ruan Mei has lost the battle of supremacy in Pure Fiction. Even if this phase wasn't kind to the singing amplifier, she still sits just behind Ruan Mei in average score, but when you look at the performance across last few phases, Robin performs better and is often the first choice in most archetypes - outside of the Break one obviously. Ruan Mei is still an Apex tier character due to her flexibility and ease of use, but Robin is just something else in this mode, so she will remain the sole T0 character (for now).
• [Jing Yuan] T1.5 T2. Time wasn't kind to our general. His performance continues to drop in Pure Fiction as he fails to even reach the 30k points threshold yet again (both in most recent phase and across last 3 phases). Even if you do everything right when playing him, he is outdamaged by newer and shinier damage dealers, who also don't need to worry about LL using his attack either too soon or too late.
• [Moze] T3 T5. Moze just can't keep up with Pure Fiction's pace and while we initially thought he will have some niche uses, we were mistaken. So he's being dropped to the Forgotten Tier where he belongs.
• [Serval] T3 T4. On paper, Serval looks like she has everything you want in Pure Fiction from a DPS, but sadly the reality is cold and brutal. While in the past she actually performed decently well, being a 4-star release character took it's toll on her and her performance continues to decrease, so we're dropping her down a tier.

When characters perform unexpectedly — either exceeding or falling short of expectations — we place them on our internal 'Watch list'. This helps us avoid hasty tier adjustments and ensures that any changes we make are well-considered and accurate. We welcome your feedback! This are the characters being added to the watch list in PF mode:

• [Jiaoqiu] - saying that the Foxian exceeded our expectations is a understatement of the year. Not only he jumped to the Apex tier post his release, but now he's threatening Robin - his average scores were the highest in this phase and he's nearly on par with Robin when you look at the average data in last two phases. Still, we want to gather one more dataset before deciding whether he should join Robin in T0 (as he only was tested in last two phases).
• [Feixiao] - Feixiao had a decent debut in Pure Fiction despite being a Hunt character and we want to observe her more before deciding whether to move her up or keep her in T1.5.
• [Seele] - Seele, outside of Shatter phases, continues to struggle, but we know that in the right hands, she has no issues reaching great scores even in 'neutral' phases. We want to take a closer look on her the next phase, before deciding what to do with her.
• [Jingliu] - Jingliu is on the opposite side of the spectrum compared to Seele and Feixiao. Her performance continues to drop and she even failed to get on the 'scoreboard' in the most recent phase - her usage rate is abysmal and so is her performance. Most likely in the next phase she will drop to the Niche tier.

02/10/2024

We have added [Lingsha] to the tier list. No other changes have been made, but the Pure Fiction tier list will be updated in a few days - we're still gathering data for the current phase.

22/09/2024

We have updated the AS tier list based on the latest data (check Apocalyptic Shadow Analytics), our own testing and community feedback. Here are the changes:

• [Yunli] T1 T0.5. Well, I guess some of you have a deja vu now, because we already made similar change in MoC and PF. Yes, we underestimated Yunli on her release and she's truly Apex level in every mode - even without her Signature Cone. In Apocalyptic Shadow, she performs really well, doing tons of damage and break with her often counters, making her one of the strongest DPS you can bring in this mode (or any other).
• [Argenti] T2 T1.5. Argenti shines in the Aventurine mini game, but he performed really well even before that - his average scores across the last phases are above average (but his usage is really low). And our own testing matches the data, so we have decided to raise Argenti a tier. And guess I can spoil it - he's being raised next week in PF too, so it's a good time for Argenti mains!
• [Jade] T2 T1.5. Jade continues to surprise us with her performance in non-Pure Fiction modes. While she's nowhere near the Apex tier, players manage to find ways to use her strong sides, allowing her to reach respectable performance. We're giving her a nod because of that and are raising her to T1.5.
• [Luka] T2 T1.5. Luka's punches hurt. A lot. His performance continues to improve with every new phase and it didn't make sense to keep him in T2 tier, especially after the last showing. So he's going up just like Jade did.
• [Silver Wolf] T0.5 T1. Well, it was bound to happen one day. Silver Wolf lost her last Apex spot mainly because of underwhelming performance across last AS phases that is caused by her struggling to find a spot in any of the top meta teams. Her Implant Weakness is not as valuable as in the past - people build more damage dealers and aren't forced to rely on her. She's being dropped to T1 for now - potentially she can move even lower in the future.
• [Pela] T1 T1.5. Pela still performs really well and is the champion of F2P players, but when you compare her to other characters sitting in T1 - especially Jiaoqiu - she looks out of place. Because of that we're dropping her down half a tier,but will continue to monitor her in case her performance will improve (or some other changes will happen to the T1 tier soon).
• [Xueyi] T1 T1.5. Xueyi initially looked like a character perfectly made for this mode, but sadly reality check hit her hard. In the data, she's one of the least popular characters with one of the worst scores and our testing confirms that. She only shines when the enemies match her kit perfectly, but outside of that she's pretty useless. We will continue to monitor her, but most likely she will drop further down next phase - as she's way to reliant on the enemies.
• [Sushang] T1.5 T2. A very similar case to Xeuyi - Sushang had her chance to shine but even if there are Phys-weak enemies she fails to perform well, so we're dropping her down a tier.
• [Lynx] T2 T3. Lynx drops from the Meta tier to the Niche tier. Compared to Bailu and Gepard, her performance is underwhelming and she has issues keeping the team alive against the hard-hitting bosses you fight in AS.
• [Hook] & [Misha] T3 T4. Low usage rate + terrible performance in both our data and our testing.
• [Dan Heng] & [Serval] T4 T5. Low usage rate + terrible performance in both our data and our testing.

When characters perform unexpectedly — either exceeding or falling short of expectations — we place them on our internal 'Watch list'. This helps us avoid hasty tier adjustments and ensures that any changes we make are well-considered and accurate. We welcome your feedback! This are the characters being added to the watch list in AS mode:

• [Robin] - Feixiao release made FUA even stronger and the characters that are part of the meta FART team simply dominated this phase (but not only them). Still, we want to wait one more phase to see how they will settle into the meta, before considering raising Robin to T0 tier.
• [Sparkle] - Well... Our resident trickster been having rough last few weeks. She struggles to find a spot for herself in the meta as none of the best teams in AS need her and we're considering dropping her from T1, but we want to give her one more phase before we pull the trigger - maybe she will surprise us.

Also, the Apocalyptic Shadow Analytics now features a new section that shows the data across last 3 phases of this mode, so what's being taken into account when we create the tier list. Here's a sneak peak of how it looks like (MoC already has a similar section):

One more thing for today - since we have updated the MoC Analytics to include Feixiao and Moze, we gathered more data on Acheron and Jiaoqiu. Acheron will stay in T0 for now and Jiaoqiu has been raised to T0.5 - he elevates Acheron, allowing her to perform at the highest level, but also sees usage in other teams (Dr. Ratio, Imbibitor or DoT duo - though they perform worse than the Acheron team where he feels at home).

10/09/2024

We have made some edits to the changelog to clarify a few things and fix some wording issues.

We have updated the MoC tier list based on the latest data (check MoC Analytics), our own testing and community feedback. Here are the new additions:

• Added [Feixiao] to the tier list:
• We're placing Feixiao in T0 and keeping Acheron alongside her for the time being.
• In our pre-release testing Feixiao exceeded all our expectations and completely obliterated the current phase of Memory of Chaos. We are certain she is one of, if not the strongest, CRIT-Based single target damage dealer in the game. She also has incredible team diversity and options at all investment levels from free to play all the way up to high spenders. We know she is deserving of Tier 0 but that poses the question - should Acheron remain alongside her?
• Acheron has been at the top of our MoC tier list since her release but as of late has begun to show signs of losing her edge. At the same time Follow-Up and Break archetypes has continued to gain improvements via new Relics or characters - this led our team to begin strongly reconsidering her place at the top. This all changed with the release of Jiaoqiu - a character tailor made to synergize with Acheron who has now proven on his debut to greatly increase her performance while also performing very well himself. As a result of this Acheron has seen one of her best MoC showings yet while having an incredibly high play rate.
• Between Feixiao's explosive performance in testing and Acheron's sudden massive power boost thanks to Jiaoqiu we want to give both team archetypes the time needed to settle into the meta before making the call on Acheron and Jiaoqiu’s final placements. We'll revisit Jiaoqiu and Acheron's placements again sooner than our usual update with our decision.
• Added [Moze] to the tier list.

And here's the list of changes we made:

• [Yunli] T1 T0.5. Yunli has more than proven herself as one of the most powerful damage dealers in MoC even without her signature Light Cone - with it she’s even stronger. She thrives in multiple team compositions, both premium and F2P, and is absolutely Apex character material. Because of this we’re very happy to move the greatsword user into Tier 0.5 where she deserves to be.
• [Clara] T1.5 T1. Clara has been consistently usable and strong in MoC’s with enemies that either hit quickly or multiple times per action - and over time we’ve seen an increase to both. Like the recently released, and now Apex tier, Yunli her team compositions are also flexible and strong for both spenders and F2P alike, especially as she’s a standard banner character. Clara has her place in the meta and sees consistent use and improvements (Follow-Up Buffs) while most other 1.x characters are experiencing the effects of power creep and a lack of support. In our testing Clara also consistently overperforms compared to characters she shares a tier with. For all these reasons we’re raising clara up from Tier 1.5 to Tier 1.
• [Topaz] T1 T0.5. Topaz has seen strong meta representation and relevance thanks to her synergy with Clara, Dr Ratio and now Yunli. But with the release of Feixiao that is only going to surge to new heights. Topaz is one of Feixiao’s best teammates and a part of one of the new strongest teams in the game FART (Feixiao, Aventurine, Robin, Topaz). Based on both her new and existing synergies with some of the best characters in the game we’re raising her into the Apex category of tiers.
• [Robin] T0.5 T0. We had Robin slated for an upgrade to Tier 0 in this Memory of Chaos (MoC) based on her past performance and continued relevance in the meta. However, the release of Feixiao has only solidified this decision. Robin's synergy with Feixiao has made her value undeniable, reinforcing her importance within top-tier team compositions. Without any shadow of a doubt, Robin is now officially moving to Tier 0, a well-deserved placement given her outstanding contributions to the current meta.
• [Huohuo] T0.5 T0. Huohuo has been the go to sustain for many team compositions when playing with performance in mind (tuning and manual play) - thanks to her energy regeneration, cleanses and ATK% boost for a while now. Because of this we’ve had her on our radar as a candidate to join Aventurine in T0 for a while now. The release of Yunli tipped the scales as Huohuo gained another top tier character that she wants to be always partnered with and who she elevates to new heights.
• [Black Swan] & [Kafka] T0.5 T1. As previously discussed, DoT has not been performing at the apex level for an extended period of time. We’re following through on our decision to lower both Kafka and Black Swan as a result of this and their continued lack of support. We expect these characters are likely to return to form when the developers finally give DoT some attention again.
• [Silver Wolf] T1 T1.5. Silver Wolf still retains a solid position in the meta when her services are needed, but we believe she no longer measures up to the current meta relevance and performance of units like Jiaoqiu or Tingyun who remain in T1. As a result, we are adjusting her tier rating downward to more accurately reflect her power level relative to the other units she shares her tier with.
• [Jing Yuan] T1.5 T2. Jing Yuan performed below expectations in the last few Memory of Chaos phases - based on our own testing, player gathered data (across last few phases), and community feedback. While in the most recent phase his performance has improved, it's caused by low play rate (below 1%) leading to skewed results at the hand of a few players. In scenarios like this where a character exceeds expectations but has a low play rate we double our efforts in testing them in order to understand whether it warrants inclusion in the current round of evaluations or not - we specifically test the teams that overperformed in said data. Overall, after manually testing him, we found out that Jing Yuan struggles to find a place in the current meta and that's the reason of his drop in popularity and rankings. And he's not alone there - most 1.x limited damage dealers are starting to show their age and most likely others will join him soon.
• [Qingque] T1.5 T2
• [Bailu] T2 T3
• [Serval] T3 T4
• [Misha] T3 T4
• [Dan Heng] T4 T5
• [Herta] T4 T5
• [Hook] T4 T5

Each of the characters without a dedicated reason for the rating change has one or multiple of the issues:

• Lack of Meta impact suited for their tier.
• Play rate consistently below expectations.
• Underwhelming / inconsistent results across multiple phases of testing.
• Not having enough meaningful & dedicated Support to match increasing game difficulty.
• Victims of power creep compared character's who share the same Niche but with far superior performance or support.
• Suffers at the hands of new enemy mechanics.

When characters perform unexpectedly — either exceeding or falling short of expectations — we place them on our internal 'Watch list'. This helps us avoid hasty tier adjustments and ensures that any changes we make are well-considered and accurate. We welcome your feedback!

• [Jingliu] - Jingliu hasn’t been seeing the play rate, performance or meta relevance she previously retained for quite some time now - with this MoC being a particularly underwhelming showing for her. Jingliu hasn’t received any major dedicated support since the time of her release, only seeing minor improvements or variations through Ruan Mei, Sparkle and Robin. None of which are designed for her and are usually much better played in other compositions they synergise better with.
• [Acheron] & [Jiaoqiu] - As mentioned earlier we’re placing both an “Express” watch list to check how they perform against Feixiao. Acheron can maintain her spot or drop to T0.5 while Jiaoqiu can potentially move to T0.5 depending on how they will perform in our testing and the community's hands in the near future.
• [Jade] & [Argenti] - Previously, we placed both Jade and Argenti on the watchlist as potential candidates for tier promotion. However, upon further testing and analysis of our collected data, neither has been able to sustain the strong performance initially observed. Despite their early promise, both characters have fallen short in their recent showings. As a result, we will maintain their current tier placements for the time being and remove them from the watchlist.