1.3 Tier List and the Best Characters as of September 2024

Here's our Wuthering Waves Tier List for Version 1.3 as of September 2024. We rate which 5-Star and 4-Star characters are the best Main DPS, Sub-DPS, and Support characters. We update this guide daily, so check out the latest changes to rankings here!

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Character Tier List			Echoes Tier List
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1.3 Best Character Tier List

Overall

Main DPS

Sub-DPS

Support

Tier	Characters

Tier	Characters

Tier	Characters

Tier	Characters
	N/A

Note: Characters are unordered within each tier.

Latest Tier Updates (Ver. 1.3 - Phase 2)

Character

Tier Updates

Youhu NEW

(Overall) (Support) (Sub-DPS) • A support-subDPS hybrid capable of providing multiple effects in battle from healing to vibration strength depletion efficiency. • Obtaining said effects are locked behind an RNG system which holds back Youhu's capabilities and consistency. • Can only buff Resonators that deal coordinated attacks making Youhu pretty niche when it comes to team building. • Works with the strongest team right now, the Jinhsi-Zhezhi team, but does not directly buff Jinhsi. Youhu only buffs Zhezhi's coordinated attacks.

The table is updated as of Youhu's release in Phase 2 of Version 1.3.

Poll: Who is the Best Character?

With so many different characters to choose from, we're curious to know who you think is the best character in the game. Vote now for the best character in Wuthering Waves and let us know your reasoning down in the comments below!

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Top 3 Characters from Version 1.2

Top 1	Top 2	Top 3
Jinhsi (223 votes)	Changli (150 votes)	Jiyan (49 votes)

Tier List Explanation by Rank

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SS Tier Characters

Character	Explanation
Yinlin	Overall:	Sub DPS:
	Yinlin is a great sub-DPS that not only provides bonuses for Liberation DMG and Electro DMG, but also sends out Electro coordinated attacks for extra damage. This enables Yinlin to deal damage even when off-field, increasing her value even more.
Jinhsi	Overall:	Main DPS:
	The best Main-DPS character that deals an insane amount of damage with her Skill and burst damage with her Resonance Liberation. Her multipliers are insanely high that it can decimate any enemy that comes her way.
Zhezhi	Overall:	Sub DPS:
	A great Sub-DPS unit that provides buffs on characters that scales off Resonance Skill with bonus amplification of Glacio DMG. She is the first limited character that can buff Resonance Skill and proc coordinated attacks which extends her value even when off-field.
Xiangli Yao	Overall:	Main DPS:
	A great Main DPS unit that slows down enemy movement and deals a lot of damage to enemies as long as you know how to use him. He relies a lot on Resonance Liberation DMG so any character, weapon, or Echoes that buff it works great with Xiangli Yao.
Shorekeeper	Overall:	Support:
	Shorekeeper is a versatile support unit that grants Crit buffs to any ally within her Resonance Liberation's field, while also continuously healing them. Shorekeeper has further utility, such as damage amplification, knockdown recovery, and K.O. prevention. She synergizes well with many DPS characters in this tier, such as Jinhsi and Zhezhi.

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S Tier Characters

Character	Explanation
Calcharo	Overall:	Main DPS:
	Calcharo is the premier Electro Main-DPS unit that can dish out a great amount of Electro damage with both his Skill and Liberation. With the introduction of Yinlin, he now has a really great sub-DPS that pushes him to greater heights.
Encore	Overall:	Main DPS:
	Encore is a great choice for a Fusion DPS in the game. She is a Main-DPS character who focuses on pure damage with no cares in the world. When Encore enters Cosmos Rave, she deals an insane amount of Fusion DMG. She can be quite squishy though as her Cosmos Rave state does not provide any type of crowd control at all compared to Jiyan. This can potentially be a problem if you're getting hit a lot considering Encore's Cosmos Rave only lasts for 10s.
Verina	Overall:	Support:
	Verina provides both healing and buffs for your entire party using her entire kit. She also periodically does coordinated attacks that deal Spectro DMG while healing the currently active character. However, Verina lacks the Crit Rate and Crit Damage buffs that the Shorekeeper provides.
Jiyan	Overall:	Main DPS:
	Jiyan is a great DPS units that can deal amazing single-target and AoE damage to take on any enemy in the game. His Ultimate can group smaller enemies which is also a means for crowd control. Compared to top tier DPS units like Jinhsi, it will take more time for Jiyan to clear out enemies in endgame content due to his lack of burst damage.
Rover (Havoc)	Overall:	Main DPS:
	Rover (Havoc) is an great damage dealer that allows for easy activation of their Dark Surge state. They have high burst damage capability thanks to their Resonance Liberation, but their Basic Attack is where they shine the most. Just make sure to hone your dodging skills as you need to maximize the Basic Attack damage you deal during Dark Surge as much as possible. Their unique interaction with the Dreamless increases Havoc Rover's burst damage potential, easily clearing both single and multiple enemies in a short time.
Changli	Overall:	Main DPS:
	Changli is a great main-DPS units that can deal huge amounts of Fusion damage with her fully-stacked Forte Circuit. She can even self-buff her ATK after using her Ultimate, to deal even more damage. Changli can even take on a role of a Sub-DPS thanks to her Outro Skill, but generally we would not want to do that as she can deal an insane amount of damage as a Main DPS and take up too much on-field time.
Mortefi	Overall:	Sub DPS:
	Mortefi has a mechanic that allows coordinated Fusion attacks to follow whenever you attack enemies. This ensures Mortefi deals damage even when off-field, exponentially increasing Mortefi's value in fights. He is also a 4-star unit so you can get him quite easily. His value also increases even more when the on-field DPS uses Heavy Attacks which is quite common for most DPS's in the game.
Sanhua	Overall:	Sub DPS:
	Sanhua is one of the best Sub-DPS in the game, providing Basic Attack DMG Deepen for 14s to the next character who takes the field. She also deals pretty decent damage but relies heavily on making sure she detonates the ice structures using her Heavy Attacks.
Danjin	Overall:	Main DPS: Sub DPS:
	Danjin is a great DPS to have as a free-to-play player. This character can dish out huge amounts of damage as long as you can properly manage her HP-drain mechanic. This may be quite hard to do when facing tougher enemies, so player skill plays a big role in making sure Danjin survives fights.

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A Tier Characters

Character	Explanation
Jianxin	Overall:	Main DPS: Sub DPS:
	Jianxin is a solid middle ground for being both a Main and Sub-DPS in Wuthering Waves. She can hold on her own as a Main-DPS, providing grouping and AoE damage against multiple enemies. Her Outro Skill also buffs Resonance Liberation DMG so she can be a great Sub-DPS as well. Similar to Spectro Rover, this jack-of-all-trades situation caused Jianxin to fall off compared to other characters that have a defined role in the meta.
Rover (Spectro)	Overall:	Main DPS: Sub DPS:
	Rover (Spectro) is a jack of all trades, providing great Sub-DPS capabilities by executing time stop with their Outro Skill while showing glimmers of Main-DPS capabilities with her high-damage Resonance Liberation. Unfortunately, this resulted in the Spectro Rover falling off compared to other characters that have pure Main-DPS or Sub-DPS roles.
Aalto	Overall:	Main DPS: Sub DPS:
	Aalto can be seen as a good Sub-DPS unit that can buff Aero DMG while holding on his own by dealing a decent amount of damage. This, however, is being outclassed by the likes of other Sub-DPS like Mortefi by dealing damage even if off-field.
Yuanwu	Overall:	Sub DPS:
	Yuanwu is a Sub-DPS unit that, similar to Mortefi, follows up with coordinated Electro DMG even when he's off-field. He could also reduce the enemy's Vibration Strength, which is basically the toughness bar below certain enemies. However, this only applies if the enemy is inside the circle of effect so it could be easily avoided by mobile enemies in Wuthering Waves.
Baizhi	Overall:	Support:
	Baizhi is a pure-healer you can run when you do not have the Shorekeeper and Verina. She can burst-heal using her Resonance Skill and Liberation as well as continuously heal and buff the next character that takes the field for 36s. Unlocking her Inherent Skill 1 also provides ATK boosts to the next on-field DPS that picks up the Euphonia that You'tan generates. Baizhi is worse than Verina because her buffs only apply to the next character that swaps in - not to the entire party. This essentially limits the flow of switching when using Baizhi versus Verina.
Youhu	Overall:	Sub DPS: Support:
	A healer-support hybrid that can provide multiple buffs and effects in battle from healing to vibration strength depletion efficiency. Unfortunately, the buffs are obtained by rolling a kit-based RNG system that proves to be extremely inconsistent when used in teams. Though you can force some effects to happen, the effects will be random most of the times and can sometimes mess up rotations. In addition, her Outro Skill only buffs the incoming resonator's Coordinated Attack which is pretty niche in itself. We only have a handful of Resonators that can use coordinated attacks, so Youhu's value decreases even more.

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B Tier Characters

Character	Explanation
Lingyang	Overall:	Main DPS:
	Lingyang is simply getting outclassed by his standard 5-star peers in the current state of the game, especially those that have great AoE damage capabilities. He also currently does not have a dedicated Glacio support right now and his damage has been subpar compared to other Main-DPS in the game.
Yangyang	Overall:	Main DPS: Sub DPS:
	Yangyang is the first free 4-star character that all players will get. Though she provides decent damage and utility with her Aero grouping, she falls off immediately once the player unlocks better Sub-DPS that provides DMG buffs.
Chixia	Overall:	Main DPS: Sub DPS:
	Chixia is a DPS unit that excels against hoards of enemies because of her mobility and ease of use. She can take on single-target bosses with ease as long as you can reposition and evade properly. When dealing with mobs of enemies, however, you will see this benefit slowly go down as she can easily be mobbed by multiple enemies if you are not careful enough.
Taoqi	Overall:	Sub DPS:
	With the introduction of Jinhsi, Taoqi has found a new Sub-DPS role in her team - providing Resonance Skill amplification while dishing quick-switch damage with her Resonance Liberation. Unfortunately, her glaring problems still exist particularly the split scaling with her Forte and Shields. She could've been a great Sub-DPS-Support hybrid character if the scaling are constant across her kit.

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Tier List Criteria

Ranking Explanations

Tier	Explanation
	Characters rated at this tier are by far the best in slot for the role. If you're looking for someone to fill a role and improve your team, then you should try to pull for these characters above anyone else.
	These characters are only just slightly worse than those in the SS-tier, and can still be great choices for your team. S-tier characters can also be used interchangeably with SS-tier characters depending on your available equipment.
	A-tier characters are still good options to use, but they don't perform on the level of SS or S-tier characters. Unless you're fully optimizing your team, A-tier characters are a perfectly fine option.
	Characters in the B-tier are generally used as substitutes for higher-tier characters, or they fill an extreme niche that only they can accomplish. Think about your team composition and how the character fits in before you commit to upgrading them.

Other Criteria Considered

① Damage Dealt is of the Highest Importance

Dealing huge amounts of damage is very important in a game like Wuthering Waves. This is the most important factor as doing so will make sure that you are clearing content in the fastest way possible. Characters that deal huge damage or help others to deal as much damage as possible are ranked higher in this tier list.

② Flexibility of Team Building

Characters that can fit in multiple teams are also ranked higher in this tier list. Characters that fit the Sub-DPS and Support roles are mostly affected by this criteria!

③ Ease of Use is Considered

Being able to comfortably play the character is also a criterion that we consider for this tier list. Not all characters are created equal, and some characters' kits are a chore to execute. Being able to comfortably use characters usually translates to a better performance, so we have considered that with our rankings.

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