Tekken 7 Tier List

Since it was first released in 2015, Tekken 7 has seen regular support from both developer Namco Bandai and some of the best players within the fighting game community. After four season passes, we reckon that the sizable roster might be hard to parse for a newcomer to the game, so we’ve decided to rank the fighters of the latest King of Iron Fist Tournament into categories and tell you a bit more about them, too.

Inside of each tier the characters are actually just listed alphabetically, as there’s not much point in having tiers if we’re also doing ranking within the individual tiers themselves.

Akuma

Fahkumram

Geese

This very guest star crowded tier is only for the best of the best. Akuma, Fahkumram and Geese are powerhouses with a lot of utility in their movesets. It is a bit of a shame that Tekken 7’s S Tier doesn’t have many actual Tekken characters in it, though. Akuma plays like Street Fighter and Geese plays like The King of Fighters. Players who prefer those fighting games can at least take part with little adjustment though, which is nice.

Fahkumram is new. Added in 2020 by Bandai Namco as DLC 14, the Muay Thai user is good at pressuring opponents with often annoying mix-up attacks. In universe, the furious and rather oddly proportioned man is a traditional fighter, unlike previous Westernized Muay Thai user Bruce from Tekken 2.

Jack-7

Jin

Julia

Kazumi

Leroy

Miguel

Paul

Raven

Shaheen

These decidedly Tekken characters are very good. Jin, Jack-7, Julia and Paul are long standing staple characters of the series. They’re popular and for good reason, with good combo potential and individual styles and advantages. Kazumi on the other hand has tigers that will do her attacks for her. It’s hard to compete with that. Leroy is beginner friendly, a quick fighter that excels at parrying. Shaheen is good at punishing whiffs with counter attacks. Also, Miguel from Tekken 6 is here. Miguel is still good.

 

Anna

Alisa

Bryan

Claudio

Dragunov

Hwoarang

Heihachi

Kazuya

King

Law

Lee

Nina

Xiaoyu

A lot of the Tekken 3 roster is here in the B Tier of our Tekken 7 Tier List. They’re still fun to play but don’t quite make the cut for the higher levels without a very talented player behind them. I’m looking at you, Hwoarang and Lei. Tekken 7 newcomer Claudio is a fast fighter that performs exceptionally well at mid-range.

Bob

Devil Jin

Feng

Ganryu

Lei

Leo

Lucky Chloe

Negan

Noctis

Josie

Julia

These characters can probably do well, but you’ll have to work harder to win a fight with them. Devil Jin is just Jin from Tekken 3 except with laser beams, which at this point is business as usual. Lei and Leo are great choices if you want to keep your opponent guessing what you’ll do next. Josie basically replaces Bruce from Tekken 2. Leather clad guest stars Negan and Noctis are both only okay. They’re not bad. It was probably worth inviting them to the King of Iron Fist Tournament for the marketing anyway.

Asuka

Lars

Lili

Panda

Kuma

Kunimitsu

Zafina

All of the D Tier characters return from previous Tekken games and to be honest most of them haven’t changed much. They’re fine. Lars is simple to learn and flexible to use. It hurts a bit to put Lili and Kuma so far down this list, as outside of a competitive setting, I still think they’re neat. Lili’s spin kicks and low punishes will forever be cool to me regardless. Zafina returns to show us she’s still just Lei except worse.

Armour King

Eddy

Eliza

Gigas

Katarina

Marduk

Yoshimitsu

These characters are all playable but will often struggle to win against characters I’ve put into higher tiers. A lot of them are easily punished, have strange controls or just don’t have enough techniques that make them worth picking when compared to other fighters. If your friend —or whoever you’re fighting in a competitive Tekken situation— doesn’t know how to block you can always just pick Eddy and then mash the kick buttons, I suppose.

 

Please keep in mind when reading this list that Tekken 7 is a complex game with a lot of moving parts and that the competitive meta and viability of any given character’s utility is moving at all times. We intend to keep this list up to date as player sentiment about characters changes, balance patches happen or new characters are added to the game.  Do you think that we misplaced someone? Let us know in the comments below. Also why not check out another one of our tier lists, like this one for Pokémon Unite?