Character Tier List – September 2023

By going through this article we hope that you will be able to:

• Know which characters are the strongest in the game
• Which character to avoid / which characters are the weakest
• Understand our justification of the character tier list
• Why the characters within the tier list will shift to a higher or lower tier in the coming months

Overview

Launch week for Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis began on 7^th September 2023 and new players were wondering what characters to focus on in order to build a strong team from the start of the game to get a good chance to reach the end game comfortably.

After testing the game for ourselves through the BETA testing period and confirming the similarity of available characters, weapons and skills on launch day, we present to you our very own character tier list to help you new players to get ahead in the game and avoiding wasting resources on characters that are not META at the moment.

Before going to the character tier list, we would like to highlight that:

• You are going to be able to use every character in the game
• Character's weapons that you obtain during your summons will give you access to different elemental attacks, different physical attacks, single enemy attacks, AOE attacks, supportive buffs skills, offensive de-buff abilities, and healing techniques
• Having access to those things via weapons and gears is what makes these characters either stronger or weaker than others
• Therefore, one character might be at [B-] tier today but next month will have access to a overpowered weapon during a Stamp 1 or Stamp 2 featured weapon banner and will shoot up to SSS tier
• This tier list is NOT FUTURE PROOF and thus, we will actively update you the players in our website every now and then about the shifting of characters within the tier list (we hope you will come visit us again when the updated tier list comes!!)

Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis Character Tier List: Launch Week - September 2023

Tier	Character
S Tier	Cloud Strife Aerith Gainsborough Matt Winsord
A+ Tier	Barrett Wallace Zack Fair
A- Tier	Tifa Lockhart
B+ Tier	Glenn Lodbrok Lucia Lin
B- Tier	Red XIII

S-Tier Units

These units are simply the best of the best compared to all the other available characters in the game at the moment. Typically, these units are the most powerful and versatile characters to include in your team based on their access to available weapons and gears in the game right now.

Cloud Strife

[S Tier: Super Reliable DPS Unit – Single Target]

• Cloud is designed specifically to be a single-target DPS unit
• Shines during boss fights; will be the main DPS carry for the team during  important battles
• Consistent with what he does best – take down the enemy with the most HP with ease
• Currently has access to weapons and gears that gives him lightning elemental attacks
• Considering that many enemies are weak to lightning damage, Cloud is the MVP when given lightning elemental damage
• Has access to Hardedge that decrease enemy’s defense
• Versatile character that can be a supportive DPS unit too when equipped with Crystal Sword which gives him an AOE healing skill

Aerith Gainsborough

[S Tier: Beloved Supportive AOE Healer]

• We would like to stress this one fact: AOE HEALING CHARACTERS AREVERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE WHEN BUILDING A TEAM
• Aerith needs only one weapon in this game – Fairy Tale
• Fairy Tale gives her the ability Curaga A++ which has a ‘high requirement’ for it to be casted BUT the skill gives out an excellent heal when your team needs it
• Believe us, you will need that heal as you progress deeper into the game in the coming weeks and months
• During BETA, Aerith has saved my team so many times I personally fell in love with her… Play style
• For new players, we recommend that you re-roll for her Fairy Tale weapon
• Although Aerith has access to other weapons that gives her AOE magic damage skills and so on, Fairy Tale is what makes her enter into the S-tier

Matt Winsord

[S Tier: Your Secondary DPS Boss Murderer or Supportive AOE Healer]

• Matt’s highlighted weapons are Stingray and Prime Number
• Stingray – magical damage dealing weapon that decreases the enemy’s magic defense
• Prime Number – Gives you one of the best AOE healing skill
• We believe he is deserving of the S-tier placement because you can either use him as a secondary DPS boss killer or you can use him as your main healer for your team
• His versatility gives you the flexibility for your Ever Crisis gaming account to mix and match Matt with other characters to tackle the game’s content

A-Tier Units

Barrett Wallace

[A+ Tier: Reliable Debuffer, Tanky and Excels in Clearing Small Mobs Fast]

• When it comes to “time trials”, having Barrett to clear waves would make a whole lot of difference in battles
• Barrett’s debuff skill can make a stubborn tanky enemy easier to kill
• The idea is to have Barrett clear those mini mobs that come alongside the enemy boss so a main DPS character like Cloud can focus on the big fry
• Barrett also debuffs the boss and helps Cloud cuts down the big baddie like butter being stab with a hot knife
• The reason why Barrett is in A+ tier is because he acts as a secondary DPS unit which can be easily replaced with characters from the S tier (not mentioning that main DPS units can also debuff the boss by themselves)
• Is Barrett useful? Yes
• Is Barrett overpowered? Nope. Rather he is to my personal opinion has the most balanced design in terms of having a little more survivability, can dish out damage reliably and can debuff the enemy (cheaply with his weapon War Machine)

Zack Fair

[A+ Tier: Just another DPS Boss Killer]

• Amazing in boss fights
• His 5-star Zweihander gives him the Slashing Thrust ++ skill that deals 940% physical non-elemental damage – mind-blowing
• The only reason that Zack is lower than Cloud is because on launch week, the featured banner was giving Cloud all the love and attention which creates the situation where “what Zack does – Cloud does better”
• We are predicting that Zack will not be stuck at the A+ tier indefinitely and will definitely move up the ranks once he becomes more versatile via new future weapons and gears

Tifa Lockhart

[A– Tier: Gives The Nerf Hammer to the Big Baddie’s Attack]

• Her weapons like Tiger Fang Gloves and Sonic Striker allowed her to debuff both physical and magical attacks, making her a valuable asset to the team
• BUT because the nature of the game requires us to kill the boss FASTER and not to survive longer, I believe that it’s more important to debuff the enemy’s defense to create a pathway for the main DPS of the team to kill the boss faster
• Debuffing the enemy’s attack power is a unique niche in her design but less important than defense debuff

B-Tier Units

Glenn Lodbrok

[B+ Tier: The Barrett Wannabe]

• Basically, Glenn’s design makes him a sub-DPS / debuffer unit
• The reason we feel Glenn is a “Barrett Wannabe” is because Barrett’s debuff skill applies to the whole group of enemies while Glenn’s debuff (at least from his ‘Piece of Cake’ weapon) target’s a single enemy only
• Some might say that his debuff skill is great during boss fights but considering that in time gated battles, an AOE defense debuff will be more superior to mow down the enemies more quickly
• Additionally, as a sub-DPS we felt that Tifa is more stronger than Glenn when it comes to filling up that sub-DPS role within a team and therefore we placed Glenn in the B+ Tier

Lucia Lin

[B+ Tier: If Only Her Silence Skill Could Effect Bosses]

• Has the potential to be an S Tier character if AND ONLY IF that silence skill of hers could actually effect bosses (then again, that would be too OP and make the game too easy)
• Other characters does her role better when it comes to deal either single target or AOE damage

Red XIII or Red

[B– Tier: Jack-of-All-Trades Support Version]

• Wants to be an AOE healer but easily outshone by Aerith and Matt
• Wants to be a sub-DPS magic damage dealer but other characters does it better
• Wants to be a debuffer but Tifa, Barrett and Glenn has access to better debuff skills
• Red XIII is not a bad character just to be clear, his design doesn’t have a clear direction of what his role is suppose to be in a team
• If regen gets buffed in the future, he could become more valuable
• Players are better off dumping resources to Aerith and Matt if a dedicated healer is needed
• Players are advise to dump resources to Cloud or Zack to be the team’s DPS carry
• For the role of sub-DPS, it’s best to invest in Barrett, Matt and/or Tifa