Major Tier list update March 2024

37 Comments

1. Really puts into perspective how broken Red Hood is. Aside from being the only unit to have 3 versions of bursts (for now), the backlash from the community made her damage insanely good, so much so that she’s basically the top unit for every game mode

   • Which makes it all the more depressing to realize that I missed her by 1 month despite knowing about Nikke and wanting to try it out but procrastinating…

     I hope she gets a rerun soon, because she, Naga, and Alice are the only SSS META Nikkes that I’m missing.

     • you can still roll her, she’s in all banners. Same for black scarlet. they are both not limited

2. Absolutely stellar work. Finally the tier alphabet is corrected!

3. I love how all rankings are hinged on “Is she like Red Hood?”

4. I can’t take this tier list seriously anymore, especially after the story rank nerfs on SBS and A2. I hope your ST boss nuker like Alice and Maxwell can clean up mob waves before bosses on high deficit hard campaign to have them higher in story than screenwipers even though both of them rely on and complement each other for different phases of the stage.

   A2 continues to stay 8 in PvP despite the new realities of her and Emilia combination for burst battery, the fact that she hits 3 targets instead 2 and can bypass immunity burst gen reduction, while clip shotguns can’t because they are considered single target and if they hit immune units, they generate zero burst. Yet all of clip SGs are ranked above her?
   At this point I just feel like you have a personal hatred against this character.

   Rosanna still being 8 in PvP even though she’s BiS B1 in scarlet + jackal teams.

   • Using the same thought, it feels like you’re grasping at anything just to prove that A2 is the best character out there. Don’t get me wrong, she’s good, but for PVP, if you’re trying to justify using A2 for burst gen, you’re better off using standard speed teams. I’m not a huge PVP guy, but I always see burst gens being B1 or B2, with B3 reserved for the nuker/damage dealer. Plus, there’s that weird lag when releasing a full charge in A2, which makes it actually slower for burst gen

   • For PvP you’re mostly correct. PvP tiers wasn’t updated yet. SBS and regular Scarlet is the highest rated attackers outside of the big three (RH/Modernia/Alice). Scarlet is rated 0.05 above SBS due to still having niche use even when you have RH/Modernia/Alice. SBS is generally better than Scarlet, but you will never use SBS if you have the big three.

     story: Modernia > Alice > Noir(+blanc) > Scarlet > SBS > Maxwell > Emilia(+rem) > A2/SW

     Where do you want to bump A2 to? Trying to rank her higher than this is crazy.

     • For A2, storywise she could’ve stayed 8.7 as she’s a viable unit to run with bunny team as a screen wiper.
       SBS can be a stronger unit than Modernia in screen wipe in some hard campaign stages, especially weak to earth ones, she basically carried me at hard campaign 14. So her story rating reduction is also unjustified.

       PvP-wise, A2 should be rated minimum 8.5. It’s a crime she’s rated below clip SG when her burst gen is higher than those vs defender + biscuit teams. The comment above talking about slower attacks does not take into account that she hits three units and her burst gen is higher than regular RL (right now in arena, countering two of the three meta teams if the CP difference is similar, requires running multiple rocket launchers to not feed jackal burst and also be able to generate burst vs biscuit + defender teams so any comment about whether a B1 or B2 unit is better should be disregarded – you have 5 units, you can always slot in A2 somewhere in between and currently there are video examples of A2 + Emilia battery combo in YouTube activating characters that are otherwise unpractical in PvP at the moment).

     • One more thing to note is that SBS + A2 work great together. In fact, there’s some speculation about a new campaign clear team not including either schoolgirls or bunny girls, consisting of Liter, REM, A2, SBS, Modernia (or Xludmilla). While this team is heavily skewed (multiple abnormal/pilgrims/limited chars), its ceiling could potentially be above any other “Meta” combination at the moment. It’s still being tested tho

     • PvP isn’t updated (yet) as the main focus was Story. Also been planning a PvP tier update, and been talking to peeps who PvP all the time. Admittedly our PvP Tier list is extremely dusty so your Concerns are extremely valid!

       As for A2 Concerns, I have a couple of reasons why she’s ranked at “A”, but it is perfectly valid that you can see her as “S” Material.
       1. She’s basically a harder to slot Emilia, and locked behind 2 (now 3, bc of rem) teams to even do anything quite meaningful. AKA, she needs strong/healer Supports or the raptures would’ve long ended the team. And I believe that she shouldn’t be a tier higher than Emilia.
       2. She NEEDS a single target Damage dealer paired with her, while the DPS’s at higher tiers above her are perfectly capable of doing both “Screen Wipe” (Depending on Alice and Red hood Aim) and ST damage (Except Maxwell)

       As for Scarlet Black Shadow
       1. Yes, she’s very strong, overwhelmingly strong as a Nikke in story, but she’s simply too hard to buff. SBS provides too much attack on her burst, so buffers like Liter and etc can’t provide too much more damage
       2. Her synergy with Tia/Naga is rough, she can’t take advantage of their kit too well as her skill procs can’t core hit, while the higher tier DPS’s can perfectly synergize, which makes Screen clearing/Boss killing more trivial for them, but they can also do well without, while also providing other utilities. As for Blanc/Noir synergy, the debuff only lasts one wave.
       3. I’ve had stages where i’ve had 100%~ Elemental damage advantage on Scarlet Black shadow (4 ED rolls + cube), AND still preferred using a Modernia, simply because Tia/Naga core buff + SBS’s Damage can simply get diluted so much due to a lot of mobs on screen. Modernia simply does not have this issue, she’s also vital against hit count Raptures, which is already pretty much an account brick if you don’t have Modernia at those stages

       So i ranked her similar to Scarlet, a Nikke that can replace the must pick characters in some certain stages. But i can see your argument of why you think she can be placed a tier higher. I simply didn’t feel too comfortable placing her to “SS”

       I’ll test out rem with RL’s (Emila/A2) as having a 2 Good AoE screen clearers + an extra flex slot does sound rather enticing, but that’s rather a strong point for Rem than anything, and have mentioned as such in my early thoughts.

   • We got an A2 glazer here, long story short, there are better units than A2 now, stop crying if your favorite character gets a lower rating

     • More like sensing people that haven’t tried using anything different than JK/Alice/Modernia/RH team because they can’t leave their comfort zone. I have all of those units and I still use A2 even on 45% deficits

     • There’s a reason broken characters are used more often, and there’s also a reason why glazers must find anything to prove that their favorite is the best

     • Yeah, broken characters are used more often because people without hands or skills can’t progress without them for sure.

   • A2 is poop for campaign. There is zero need for aoe wave clear as the enemies don’t come into the stage all at once. As long as you kill them in the order they arrive, which any group of characters can do under burst even at 40%+ deficit, they will die before they can attack, making it the same as if you killed them all at once. In fact most times having an uncontrollable AOE is actually undesirable because it takes away the ability to stall the next wave’s arrival by leaving some alive until you’re ready. The boss itself is almost always the hardest part of the stage and AOE is completely and utterly useless here as only the boss hp matters.

     • You practically described A2s strongest point as a weakness. It is exactly because mobs come in waves and not all at once that she’s better screen wiper than burst screen wipes because her aoe is in her basic attack, not in a skill that’s casted every 40 seconds.

       Stalling is something that takes manual play to succeed, you can always team cover to make sure the uncontrollable aoe won’t hit. If the issue is in the mob dying in one hit, easiest solution is to either not target specific range of units (since A2 basic attack isn’t universal screen attack, it hits all enemies in specific range), or leave the elite mob with low hp as long as it’s not needle or something that can one-tap your Nikkes.

5. The new style of tier list is rather promising, but regarding the ranking of the characters I have a doubt, particularly on the SSS category, are all the characters in this category really at the same level as Red Hood. By that I mean that Red Hood is a unique character with the ability to enter an explosion on her own, so I found it normal that until now she was alone in her category, subsequently Alice was added which seems deserved to me given the strength of the character but Litra, Tia and Naga are of the same level, personally I doubt it, so in this case if we put the Tia, Naga duo we could as well put the Bianca duo, Nera. In conclusion, the new style of the tier list is really good but is the total overhaul of the categories and characters inside it really relevant? I still take this opportunity to highlight what a great job you do in general, this site and all this information/updates are mostly managed by you, so I wanted to thank this work which I think guides a majority of players myself included, this is also why I am taking the time to comment for the first time, because I appreciate your work which you do remarkably well.
   Ps: I am not English so this message was first translated by Google translate, so please excuse any grammar, spelling and syntax errors.

   • Liter is the most broken B1 support with CDR, cover repair, and huge attack buff. School girls gives attack buffs too, healing, core hit buff, and taunt (though needs proper play to not die). They have a high skill ceiling, but the buffs they provide is really good, specially when used together, that they’re almost a staple for late game campaign. You can think of the tier list as how easy it will be to clear campaign when using a certain character. Lower tier means you’re gonna be fighting for your life just to finish a stage, while top tier (meta) means it’s as easy as playing on auto

   • On PC you can put your mouse on a nikke to see a pop up with detailed rating numbers, but nikkes are also are sorted from left to right (strongest to weakest). RH > Liter > Tia/Naga > Alice.

     There is almost not a single team where you wouldn’t use liter if you have liter available, so she’s by far the best B1 unit. Tia/Naga is the best support duo in the game and you almost always want to use them if possible. Alice just barely makes it into SSS tier, but her extremely strong boss capability helps her stay in SSS for now.

   • Hello, the other 2 comments already explained the reasoning, but I just wanted to say, thank you for the nice words!

     I’d say the re-haul is somewhat relevant as:
     1. PvP has nothing to do with PvE, so it is removed from “Combined” Rating (PvP will be updated, extremely dusty tier list), which lead to Red hood not being the solo “Combined” SSS anymore

     2. The ones who are meta in story are just pretty far from Nikkes are just usable, therefore I felt the need to clarify, and would be easier for me to place Nikkes on top in the future as well

     But that’s just my opinion! Thank you again for reading and the nice words

6. Its not easy to make a good tier list, but honestly there is so much things wrong here you cant even take it seriously. For example Centi is absolute beast energy generator if you spam shots with her, you can burst up in 2 seconds from 0. This makes her one of best characters for story, especially hard mode missions under power level. But she has score 8.0 xD Sure you can spam burst energy with some other nikkes but its a lot slower and in stages where you get 1shoted by raptures it makes difference. Rapuzel is also a lot better than the score she got, she has one of strongest heals, you can do lidl burst gen with her and ress is very handy in story, for bosses shes worst but finds place in 5 team events. There is also no pvp score, why not?

   • Hello! Yes, Centi is “low”, and there’s a couple reasons!
     1. If running her, she automatically “steals” a spot from Tia/Naga or Bunnies, which is already a crime.
     2. The meta DPS’s ranked above her (Red hood, Alice, A2, Emilia) can literally do a similar job of burst gen’ing AND provide damage, it makes no sense for her to be ranked above those DPS’s, or equal
     3. She has quite a bit of “substitutes” so she’s not even special in that regard!
     4. While I do agree that Centi has a slight edge in stages where extreme burst gen is important (Raptures in where when they are preparing attacks already when you are quite LITERALLY LOADING IN), those stages are far and between, and can be worked around upon.

     For Rapunzel
     No, she’s not good in late game campaign at all, heals are worthless there as the raptures will one shot. More DPS is mandatory, slotting a 60s CD Nikke is not the play, especially in the B1 slot.
     Rapunzel has barely been used in team 5 (by leaderboard Raiders) in a while, and now, there’s Rem, she gets booted out even more from that mode. And her heal are definitely not “One of the strongest”

     • @Shikicum “You’ll understand once you get to late game campaign”, i beat campaing and doing 18 hard, thats around 440k power level while i have 300k, is that late game enough? ^^

       @Valkkin Well i dont agree with most you said, but not like we have to agree. I have fully geared noir/ blanc and almost done tia/naga, tested many different comps and centi/rapuzel does a lot better job for me most of the time, i still switch comps sometimes tho, blanc/noir works better for bosses usually. I understand im saying blasphemy where everyone uses tia/naga or bunnies, but somehow i clear stages on way lower power level than most players (i check clear info stages) and it works better for me. But hey, everyone follows boring meta and thinks its the only way possible to play.

       1. well it would be hard not not take their spot as burst 2 character
       2. she generates burst way faster than red hood, like twice faster. It obviously depends on enemy positioning a lot
       3. yes her abilities are mid or even weak, she gives 1 hit shield, lowers def with some dmg, she does a lot better dmg than other supports with good splash tho and that is more than enough with burst generation

       About rapunzel, well thats strange i check leaderboards comps and shes used pretty much every time for 5x team event by top players, or pretty much anyone since those events require heavy healing. Either you misread me or we playing different game.

     • 300k / 440k isn’t particularly impressive. You probably have filtered by day instead of all time (^), and aren’t actually seeing the all time low scores. You’re free to post proof otherwise.

       As for Rapunzel. Top 50 Leader board % usage. She’s barely even used in team 5. You’re literally factually wrong.

       https://imgur.com/a/pPMM3Ml (S11)
       https://imgur.com/a/XYwGH0A (S10)
       https://imgur.com/a/pPMM3Ml (S9)
       https://imgur.com/a/2FKoYm2 (S8)

       You’re free to disagree, but, it looks like Centi / Rapunzel isn’t looking great.

   • Okay, then what? What can Centi do aside from that? It’s not about what the character does, but more on the value. Blanc can heal, give invincibility, and make enemies take more damage with her burst. Naga can also heal, give core hit buffs, and slight attack buffs. Compare that to Centi who “generates a bit more energy,” plus you get access to Noir/Tia too, which is just objectively better. It’s been months since Centi have been seen at high cp stages because she just offers too little compared to Bunnies/JK. You’ll want more damage more than anything else because you won’t die if you won’t be hit. You’ll understand once you get to late game campaign

   • Centi has fallen off hard due to Tia/Naga, there simply isn’t space for her. You can easily generate burst with Tia, RH or Alice.

7. For some reason, I cannot reply to Valkkin so I’m writing a new comment as a response.

   First, thank you for the detailed answer. My initial message might have sounded a bit harsh and was a bit forced, so I want to apologize and say I have no ill intentions, just I guess I expressed my thoughts a bit more emotionally.

   You have great and valid points as to why you consider some characters a tier higher than others. Though I still believe some factors could be taken into account when comparing different Nikkes. For example, some raptures have no core, or their core is hidden so the core damage might be harder to apply. SBS is very flexible since she can be used both as an AoE unit and ST, which is great in story as in you can use her in both mob waves and boss stages. The negatives in terms of modifiers can also act as benefits by making her reliable and viable option in multiple teams outside of the standard JK/Bunnies (helps people that don’t have any of those pairs). Tia and Alice require high manual expression and high investments (of course I understand that story rating also covers hard campaign performance since your story rating isn’t separated in early and late game). And so on.

   A2 I am leaving aside the PvP aspect. Technically speaking, her story score nerf isn’t that high and won’t change the overall rating, but as you mentioned yourself, more units that can provide the healing needed for her are coming so it is actually becoming easier to place her in a team now, not harder. Her gimmick of being a screen wiper without having to burst also remains unchanged. Your point of Emilia being the better screen wiper is valid, but I believe there aren’t enough Nikkes at the moment that fill the niche A2 does (I think only Emilia and to some extent SBS could fill it?)

   So yeah, points can be brought from both sides. I guess it’s up to people to consider all factors and make their final choice on teams accordingly

   • post your 45% deficit clears with a2

     • Gotta love people that ask to post screenshots of something that cannot be seen once cleared unless I have a friend in my friend list that still hasn’t cleared that stage (and unfortunately, I don’t, since most my friends are higher synchro and campaign).

       Anyway, here’s some recent screenshots of a harder difficulty non-boss stage clear. Stage recommended CP is 410k.

       https://ibb.co/8dbb9h1
       https://ibb.co/SRj6Ccn

     • Seems like my comments are being deleted because they contain links to images, oh well

     • Hey! Images are sent to spam immediately, but i approved it for ya

       The CP deficit is actually 33% (https://nikke.gg/cp-deficit-stat-penalty/), and not 45%

       But, still, a decent showcase on what A2 can do

       ( 58066 + 49806 + 54096 + 57566 + 54233 ) = 273,767 (CP gathered from total of all your Nikkes)
       410000 – 273767 = 136,233
       136233 ÷ 410000 = 0.332

       here’s a 49% CP deficit run, CP difference is much more massive, anymore would be impossible (10% stats)
       https://youtu.be/wb5426TG3dE?si=3ABqEkGeBhvUwOLO

       610k vs 310k

   • Thanks for the approval. Lately, Ive been chilling in hard campaign (sometimes forgetting about it for weeks) so I’ve been slacking a bit, guess my cp is catching up.

     That video you posted is the Japanese micro god I assume? I think he’s an outlier because vast majority of the player base won’t have the reaction and micromanagement he has.

     • Just posted as an example of a more (45+%) deficit. I believe Tia/Naga RH + Mod/alice players semi-casuals can reach 30% CP deficits with rather ease, leaderboards are all tia,naga RH/Mods are all around 40%+, at around chapter 16-17+ with the occasional Alice substitutes.

       Iirc, next wall there is 15-18, good luck.

8. Hey Valkkin, didn’t Emilia get lukewarm reception from your Theorycraft? How is she S tier? You’re saying she’s more viable than Privaty who in my experience fits well or is needed in many teams.

   • Theorycraft, yes, I was rather lukewarm. But her skill 2 works better than expected and at the time, I didn’t know Emilia had the radius of A2, which was a pretty big factor as well.

     My analysis/full guide had a rather better reception of her. However, Emilia is still rather situational and her boss score is in her “high end/best scenario, but realistic” usage. As that’s what you’re gonna be using Emilia in, bosses with multiple parts.

     Sorry if that confused you!

     • I’ve been experimenting on my end if I should really invest; Her large AoE is something I’ve never seen before with other units. Easy wave clear without needing a full screen burst like other units, and her burst cleans up target raptures. I was wondering if she got buffed due to angry Re:zero fans, which could be plausible xD