Character from Wuthering Waves doing the Lion Dance

Wuthering Waves Character Tier List (May 2024)

This tier list ranks all the currently available characters in Wuthering Waves as of launch from the best of the best in S Tier all the way down to the woeful D Tier characters. Use this list to help you figure out who to build and try and pull for!

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Wuthering Waves Character Tier List

Wuthering Waves has some of the best combat to date in the gacha game category. This can make any one of the characters you can obtain in the game feel awesome to play. Truth be told though, they are certainly not all built even. As you reach the tougher content in the game, such as the higher level boss fights, this will quickly become apparent.

Luckily like most gacha games when they first launch, you get a whole bunch of pulls you can use from the get go and even some special banners to use them on to get those sweet 5 star characters rolling. With that in mind, here is our ranking of all the characters currently available to pull in Wuthering Waves.

TierCharacter
SJiyan, Verina
ACalcharo, Encore, Mortefi, Baizhi
BLingyang, Danjin, Jianxin, Rover (Spectro), Sanhua, Yanyang
CChixia, Yuanwu
DAalto, Taoqi

S Tier Characters

Large imposing man posing in Wuthering Waves

Kicking off the list is the current strongest main damage dealer in Wuthering Waves, Jiyan. He looks badass and as the general of an army, has the moves and damage to back it up! He’s currently the star of the limited character banner and will only be around on that banner for a few weeks. So if you want the most powerful damage dealer in the game that will carve up enemies, you should consider using your hard earned Astrite to pull for him!

Verina is the other top tier character who belongs in the S tier. She is the little healing and support legend that you can acquire with standard pulls on the beginner banner, character selection banner and standard banner. If you don’t manage to pull her on the beginner banner, you should absolutely consider setting her as your choice on the selection banner. She’s got unrivaled healing abilities and is unlikely to be replaced for quite some time making her VERY valuable. She’ll fit pretty much any team comp beautifully with those sweet heals!

A Tier Characters

Cute young character holding her doll in Wuthering Waves

Encore makes for a powerful 5 star main damage dealer if you don’t yet have Jiyan or are skipping him. She’s got amazing cleave abilities that make her very good at dealing with up to three enemies at a time. Plus she’s adorable, just look at her!

Calcharo is your other best main damage dealer option and is also a 5 star character. He’s got some serious moves on him and he feels very agile and quick to play. He’s got better single target damage than Encore, but less options for dealing with multiple enemies at the same time.

Mortefi is an exception 4 star hybrid character who can dish out some great damage with his pistol at range as well as well as some nice buffs for main damage dealers. When swapping him out for example he grants a hefty boost to your damage dealers heavy attacks.

Baizhi is the go to 4 star healer option that can tide you over until you acquire Verina. She’s got some awesome ice type moves and can provide off field healing to the team which is excellent. She’s still a league behind Verina but certainly pretty solid.

B Tier Characters

Small half wolf half human character posing in wuthering waves

Lingyang is a very unique 5 star unit that has a lot of potential that didn’t quite play out like I had hoped. It’s perhaps more an issue with the game play and could be fixed, in which case he’d be much higher tier. As it stands, he has the ability to essentially ‘fly’ using his Ultimate ability as he dashes around attacking enemies. This is awesome in theory but in practice it causes issues with being able to correctly dodge enemy attacks and even hitting certain enemies due to hitboxes not quite accounting for the extra dimension of movement he brings. He is a super unique character and has a very cool playstyle but an update is needed to fully realize his potential for now.

Danjin is a really good 4 star main damage dealer if you’ve yet to pull one of the 5 star options. She consumes her own HP to fuel her attacks which results in a high risk high reward playstyle. You’ll want to use her with a healer for the best results or risk her going down a fair bit.

Jianxin and the main character Rover are decent hybrid characters than can deal some respectable area of effect damage while also adding a bit of healing or shielding into the mix. Sanhua and Yanyang are on par with these characters but are 4 star options. Sanhua has great cleave damage for dealing with a couple enemies at a time and Yangyang has a swap out ability that regenerates energy making her a good match for characters that love to Ult.

C Tier Characters

Chixia is a 4 star main damage dealer but should be your last resort for this role. With a 4 star guaranteed every 10 pulls it’s pretty easy to pull an upgrade over her such as Danjin who does a fair bit more damage. Yuanwu has some cool abilities where he can place an Electro field to buff the character standing in it. He also deals off field damage which is nice, however his damage is kind of low compared to other characters.

D Tier Characters

We’ve arrived at the dreaded D Tier where poor Aalto and Taoqi sit. I never like to see characters being so significantly weaker than the rest in gacha games. Unfortunately Aalto just hits like a wet noodle in his current state and Taoqi has healing that is the equivalent of putting a band aid on a wound – it just ain’t going to cut it. They’re cool looking characters but I’d recommend avoiding investing resources in to them (unless you absolutely love them for their personalities).

That covers it for our Wuthering Waves character tier list. As of launch that’s how the current characters are stacking up from S rank through to D rank. Hopefully you’ll get some amazing luck on your pulls and fill up on plenty of high ranking characters to use!


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Alex Berry
Alex Berry has been a freelance contributor at The Escapist since January 2023. His coverage ranges from funny takes on the latest games to a whole bunch of guide content on such titles as Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, and various new games. Alex is a jack of all trades when it comes to games, playing almost every new title that shows promise. From RPGs to shooters, all the way through to sports games, he plays it all, although he does have a soft spot for turn-based RPGs having started out his gaming journey with a copy of Pokémon Red on the original Game Boy. Alex has a master's degree in Business and is fascinated by online game economies, often spending a lot of time finding ways to maximize wealth in these games (but he should really be doing that in real life instead).