Wuthering Waves tier list for the best characters

Our Wuthering Waves tier list for the best characters covers who the best DPS, sub DPS, and supports currently are to help you decide who to use on your teams.

The free characters Wuthering Waves provides you with are actually very good for clearing story content, but it’s also important to have multiple characters and teams ready to take on different combat scenarios, as even the best characters can’t brute force their way through everything.

Below you’ll find our Wuthering Waves tier list, as of its launch version 1.0 in May 2024.

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Wuthering Waves tier list explained

Understanding how good 5-Star and 4-Star characters can be is useful when deciding which Banner to pull on, or who to invest your resources into, but keep in mind that having a team of 5-Star characters is not essential to clear content in Wuthering Waves.

It’s more important how you build a team around each individual combat scenario than including only characters considered a high tier on your team, especially if their abilities don’t sync-up.

Our tier list factors in how desirable a character is to have in all combat scenarios, not just their ideal set-ups. This covers fighting through story content, taking on challenging bosses, and fighting through the Tower of Adversity and Depths of Illusive Realm endgame modes.

Additionally, if there are two characters who perform similar functions, but one does it better, then it’s likely they won’t be placed in the same tier – but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the character in the lower tier!

Make sure to read the reasoning for why we’ve placed a character in a certain tier instead of just basing your decisions of where they rank when making choices on how to build your teams. Often a lower-tier character can clear a lot of content, they just can’t do it as well, or as quick, as similar ones we’ve ranked above them.

Lastly, keep in mind that any tier list is a subjective analysis. Although we’ve taken into consideration how useful the community finds somebody, there’s no right answer when it comes to where one should be placed.

Wuthering Waves tier list

We have far more details below in each individual tier list that we highly recommend reading before deciding anything on what characters to upgrade, but to give you a general idea of where each character sits during the 1.0 launch version, we’ve abbreviated this information in a simple table below.

At a glance, here’s our current Wuthering Waves tier list:

Keep in mind that even lower-tiered characters can be amazing in their ideal situations, or with a dedicated team built around boosting them.

Divided into their tiers, here’s detailed information of what we think of every character in Wuthering Waves:

Wuthering Waves tier list for SS-tier characters

We consider these SS-tier characters to be the best of the best in Wuthering Waves due to their incredible support capabilities, or passive and active attacks that add more benefits to your party than just raw damage potential.

In alphabetical order, here’s our Wuthering Waves tier list S-tier character:

Name	Rarity	Element	Weapon	Picture	Reasoning
Verina	5-Star	Spectro	Rectifier		Verina does a lot of things very well, including healing and buffing attacks, and she can even stop an ally from dying and provide them with shields. Add to this that her buffs apply no matter what Element your teammates are, and she’s readily available to slot into and improve almost every team you can think of in Wuthering Waves!

Wuthering Waves tier list for S-tier characters

These S-tier characters excel in their perfect combat scenarios or team comps, and have very few downsides to using them. In alphabetical order, here’s our Wuthering Waves tier list for every S-tier character:

Name	Rarity	Element	Weapon	Picture	Reasoning
Jiyan	5-Star	Aero	Broadblade		Jiyan is one of the highest DPS characters in Wuthering Waves, so it’s a helpful bonus that he has a very easy playstyle with both AOE and single-target damage capabilities. This makes him playable in almost all combat scenarios, but just keep in mind that you need to make sure to activate his Resonance Liberation as often as possible to get the most out of his kit.
Calcharo	5-Star	Electro	Broadblade		While Calcharo is an excellent DPS attacker (one of the best in Wuthering Waves, in fact), you really need to study his kit to achieve his huge damage potential. This involves executing near perfect combos while taking advantage of ‘swap cancelling’, the trick of swapping to another character to stop his combat animation playing to work some more damage into your rotations. Calcharo is only as good as the person playing him.

Wuthering Waves tier list for A-tier characters

These characters have a lot of potential to excel in their perfect combat scenarios or team comps, but they either have limitations that make them slightly awkward to use, another character does what they do better, or they aren’t versatile enough to fit in multiple teams.

In alphabetical order, here’s our Wuthering Waves tier list for every A-tier character:

Name	Rarity	Element	Weapon	Picture	Reasoning
Baizhi	4-Star	Glacio	Rectifier		Baizhi is a great healer and attack buffer who you get for free just by playing through the story of Wuthering Waves. As a bonus, she can even protect an ally from dying once you unlock her sixth Resonance Chain. The only issue with Baizhi is that she’s not Verina. If you need another support across multiple teams, however, Baizhi is a top pick!
Danjin	4-Star	Havoc	Sword		For a 4-Star, Danjin does an amazing amount of damage, and can help you clear even the toughest endgame content. However, she’s a high risk, high reward type of DPS, as Danjin consumes her own health as part of her kit. If you’re good at dodging, parrying, and reading enemy attack patterns, then you’ll probably really enjoy Danjin’s speedy, berserker-type playstyle.
Encore	5-Star	Fusion	Rectifier		Encore is a great ranged and melee hybrid DPS whose kit revolves around activating her Resonance Liberation as often as possible for huge burst damage. She’s a pretty easy character to play and understand, but as of launch, she doesn’t have the best sub DPS or support options. If characters who synergize with her better are added, however, Encore would become one of the best DPS characters in Wuthering Waves.
Mortefi	4-Star	Fusion	Pistols		Mortefi is basically the king of 4-Star attack buffers, especially if paired with a main DPS who uses heavy attacks in their rotations (like Jiyan). Even without a heavy attacker on the team, Mortefi provides useful buffs with his Resonance Liberation. Keep in mind that even though Mortefi is very useful at Resonance Chain 0, he has incredible Resonance Chain upgrades that make him even better.
Rover	5-Star	Spectro	Sword		You need to upgrade the Spectro Rover’s Resonance Chain to unlock their true potential, but as you get their Wavebands for free, this isn’t much of an issue. While the Spectro version of the Rover doesn’t really excel in any one role, they are a great support option due to their Outro Skill stopping time for a short while, buffs to Spectro teammates, and for their healing abilities.

Wuthering Waves tier list for B-tier characters

Our B-tier characters are very good against their ideal opponents, while also tending to have some sort of special ability that can make them a viable option – though maybe not the best – during other combat scenarios.

In alphabetical order, here’s our Wuthering Waves tier list for every B-tier character:

Name	Rarity	Element	Weapon	Picture	Reasoning
Jianxin	5-Star	Aero	Gauntlets		On her own, Jianxin is perhaps the hardiest character in Wuthering Waves, as her kit has everything she needs to stay alive solo. However, this is a downside when it comes to building teams, as she doesn’t offer enough support, or her own personal DPS numbers, to help allies, or excel in an attacker role. Jianxin isn’t a bad character, it’s just that there’s no real synergy for her in the current roster.
Sanhua	4-Star	Glacio	Sword		Sanhua’s value lies in her incredibly quick field time, building up Concerto Energy with speed, allowing her to activate her Resonance Liberation and Outro Skill often to increase her own damage potential, as well as provide attack buffs for allies. However, there is a catch to this, as you really have to pay attention to Sanhua’s unique Forte Gauge bar, as it requires you to time her hits at the right moment, as displayed on the bar.
Yangyang	4-Star	Aero	Sword		Yangyang’s Outro Skill provides Concerto Energy for the next character, which is very useful for those who rely on building this Energy for their unique damage and buff potential. She can also group mobs of energy with her Resonance Liberation. These are useful abilities, but not the most useful, which is why we don’t rate Yangyang higher.
Yuanwu	4-Star	Electro	Gauntlets		Yuanwu offers Vibration Strength depletion with his Outro Skill, helping you Immobilise enemies, but the main appeal of Yuanwu is his Electro sub DPS capabilities. Generally, you’ll want to activate his Resonance Skill as often as possible to create a Thunder Field that deals Electro damage when allies hit a target. This is useful, but we think the general attack buffs other supports provide are more useful than this bonus Electro damage.

Wuthering Waves tier list for C-tier characters

Our C-tier characters have a place in some specific situations, but offer very little – or no – additional benefits. Some might just be hard to play with no damage or buff advantages when compared to similar characters with an easier playstyle.

In alphabetical order, here’s our Wuthering Waves tier list for every C-tier character:

Name	Rarity	Element	Weapon	Picture	Reasoning
Aalto	4-Star	Aero	Pistols		Aalto’s Outro Skill buffs Aero damage, so he’s a decent ally for your Aero attackers, but apart from this, his kit is sorely lacking. You need to create Gates of Quandary with his Resonance Liberation in order to shoot through them to increase Aalto’s DPS, but even this doesn’t bring his damage potential up to the heights of other DPS or sub DPS characters. He does have a very speedy and slick playstyle, but this isn’t enough to make him a contender amongst the best supports or sub DPS characters in Wuthering Waves.
Chixia	4-Star	Fusion	Pistols		Chixia is a ranged character who needs to spend a lot of time on the field to get the most out of her kit. Both of these reasons make her very easy to play, but to the detriment of your team’s overall damage. While Chixia might not be your first, second, or even third pick for teams, you can use her if you just want a breezy time speeding through the story content – we just don’t recommend adding her to your Tower of Adversity teams if you can avoid it.
Lingyang	5-Star	Glacio	Gauntlets		Placing a 5-Star so far down on our tier list might seem harsh, but Lingyang’s kit makes him a very awkward character to play. You need to activate Lingyang’s Resonance Liberation to get the most damage potential from him, but doing this makes him fly. That may sound cool (and it certainly looks cool), but it’s actually incredibly hard to manoeuvre and fight like this. He also doesn’t do as much damage as other 5-Star DPS characters, so we only recommend using Lingyang if you really like the flashy looks of his flying attacks.

Wuthering Waves tier list for D-tier characters

Our D-tier characters can see you through story content, but they’re not really going to help you with endgame bosses and combat scenarios unless you build an incredible team around them – and even then you might struggle.

In alphabetical order, here’s our Wuthering Waves tier list for every D-tier character:

Name	Rarity	Element	Weapon	Picture	Reasoning
Taoqi	4-Star	Havoc	Broadblade		There just isn’t really a place to slot Taoqi in Wuthering Waves right now. She boosts Resonance Skill damage with her Outro Skill and grants shields as part of her Forte Circuit, but apart from this, Taoqi doesn’t really do anything else that others can’t do a lot better.

Hopefully our Wuthering Waves tier list has helped you in deciding what characters to upgrade, but do keep in mind that the game is more about how effectively you build a team, rather than how good one individual character performs in their role.

All the best building your teams in Wuthering Waves!