Guilty Gear Strive Tier List – Best Characters

Guilty Gear Strive is the latest fighting game to launch for the Fighting Game Community. Like all new fighting games, there’s been a race to determine who the best fighters are and how they match up. Now that the dust is beginning to settle on the game, however, here’s a Guilty Gear Strive Tier List, ranking the characters in the game from best to worst.

Rankings Explained

S Tier: The best characters in Guilty Gear Strive. They are clear, strong characters with great moves, combos, damage and defence.

A Tier: The A Tier characters are picks that are clearly good but do have a weakness, require a specific strategy, or a highly skilled player to work.

B Tier: Guilty Gear characters that are clearly balanced. They have multiple strengths and multiple weaknesses. Either that or they are countered hard by any A and S tier pick gatekeeping them from climbing higher.

C Tier: Characters that are unfortunately a little underpowered, causing them to lose games simply because they lack aspects others have.

D Tier: Terrible picks that should be changed or buffed in some way.

S Tier: Sol Badguy.

A Tier: Chipp, Zato, May, Ramlethal, Giovanna.

B Tier: Leo, MIllia, Nagoriyuki, Ky, Potemkin, Axl, Faust.

C Tier: Anji, I-no.

S Tier

Many new players and the pros alike are seeing a lot of success with Sol. He has the best combos, move set, and dominates the Balance classification. As a result, he sits as the clear favourite and best character in the Guilty Gear Strive Tier List.

A Tier

Chipp started as one of the worst characters in the Guilty Gear Strive Tier List due to perceptions of the character in beta. However, despite notions of being a bad character, Japanese FGC pros like GO1, Dogura, Kojikog and Kyamei have worked out that the character is really effective. Depending on who you ask, they are either an S or A Tier pick. Either way, the glass cannon seems to have a style that makes him strong, but the weakness of his lack of defense means in Gaming Verdict’s logic, he is an A tier pick.

Zato is one of the most powerful characters in Guilty Gear Strive, largely due to his Shadow form, Eddie. The reason why is because of the tactical positioning of the character, as the opponent has to monitor both the human and shadow form against their will. Essentially, Eddie applies melee damage to opponents, while Zato gets to sit back and relax as his opponent succumbs to the shadows.

May is by far one of the most popular characters in the game due to her strength and ease to play. While she is nothing like Sol, she is still very good. Her weakness is a reliance on charging opponents. Once you know her moves and she charges at you, she becomes predictable. That said, only the highest level players can counter her, which explains why she works well for most players.

Ramlethal is a great hybrid character, despite her classification as a Shooting character. She relies on two massive swords, which she launches in a straight line, or extends to slam into the ground. Alternatively, she’s fine with using her hand and knees in melee combat, although those moves are few and far between. Either way, if you can control the space well on Ramlethal, you’ll no doubt see lots of success.

Giovanna is one of the rusher classes in Guilty Gear. Her whole schtick is about speed, and she performs it very well. Furthermore, her ranged capabilities are okay, with a poke that is difficult to block and a long-range dash thanks to her Trovao move. Although, it is very telling when Giovanna player’s close in for the kill. Her gimmick centres on taking on her green wolf form. When that happens, it is an easy read to prepare a counter, despite being a difficult feat to achieve.

B Tier

Leo is one of the more average Balance characters in the Guilty Gear Strive Tier List. He certainly pressures his enemies with glee, but can find himself easily zoned to many of the characters ranked higher than him. Leo is best used when Zweites Kaltes Gestober baits the opponent’s block angle, putting him in a good position to excel when in the melee range. Otherwise, his offence is easily blocked due to his clear animations and wind up times.

Millia is another high-speed character that was previously disregarded as another glass character. However, she has gained some traction with players since the full game’s launch. The reason for her B tier classification is because she is very difficult to succeed with. When she gets her combos, dashes, and air time right, she can hit for one of the longest hit streaks of any character. It is just hard to apply this consistently in most games.

Nagoriyuki is the hardest hitting character in Guilty Gear. The concept of the character relies on his blood gauge, which puts him in a Blood Rage. This reduces his HP during the rage but extends his range and improves damage. This is the ideal kill phase for all Nagoriyuki players, although, misplaying it spells disaster.

Ky is a solid learning option for anyone new to the game. He has decent combos and moves, although doesn’t hit as hard as other Balance characters. We highly recommend ky because of this, as do the developers on their website based on their difficulty star rating.

Potemkin is one of the game’s only grapplers. The core of this robot’s kit is to grab hold of someone and then beat, kick and throw them all over the place. Due to this playstyle, characters good at melee and/or ranged can do more damage before Potemkin can set the game’s pace. Potemkin needs mastering before knowing its true potential, but that will take some time before ascending the Guilty Gear Strive Tier List.

Axl is a dedicated range character with strong damage and a solid range. However, it appears he has an awkward deadzone, and can spend most of the time trying to escape to get back to his optimal damage output range. Once when he is there, the situation can look rather dire for the opposing player. Like others, he has clear strengths and weaknesses,  hence his spot in the B Tier of the Guilty Gear Strive Tier List.

Faust‘s Unique classification reflects his weird playstyle. The combination of having to get close with his steel claws, variations of his scarecrow and his long-range thrust make him tricky to set up. Furthermore, the developers list him as a fairly hard character to play, which likely explains the inconsistent results players are experiencing.

C Tier

Anji is by far one of the most challenging characters to play. His rather annoying Butterfly ability is slow-moving, which needs the advantage to work effectively. Also, it’s only when he gets to parry a heavy attack with Suigetsu No Hakobi that he can adequately attack. In addition, he has a rather high skill ceiling, which means players have to invest a lot of effort to make the character worthwhile. This may change as the playerbase gets more experienced with the game.

I-no is the newest character to the Guilty Gear Strive universe. One reason she is so low on this list is because people simply are choosing stronger or more established characters. In the games you do see her, keeping her grounded has often been the key to victory. Once players get used to her airborne playstyle, she might perform better. But as of now, the character’s inexperience is her downfall.

This concludes our Guilty Gear Strive Tier List. Let us know how you rate the characters in the game as the dust settles on the hottest fighting game this summer. If you’re looking to get into the game, why not look at Eneba for a deal on the title?