Wuthering Waves Tier List – Best Characters (Version 1.1)

Tier List Overview

Welcome to our tier list where we go over the best characters in Wuthering Waves. If you’re here for the purpose of rerolling, you can check out our Wuthering Waves Reroll Guide as well. Before we dive into the tier list, I want to provide many disclaimers.

Wuthering Waves is not a game where chasing the meta or top tier characters is required. It’s a single-player pve game where enjoyment is your goal.

Different characters have vastly different combat styles and aesthetic, and you should ultimately go for what you will enjoy. Even if your character is in the lowest tier, with enough investment and/or skill, you can still tackle endgame content.

Some players will enjoy games based on dealing the most damage possible or playing meta characters. Having stronger characters will also let you push through hard content faster or with less investment in levels or weapons.

Ultimately, this tier list is for your reference to draw your own conclusions about what you want to do.

Lastly, Wuthering Waves is still in its infancy. While there are tons of theorycrafters out there, the meta can shift dramatically when new techniques/strategies are learned.

Wuthering Waves Tier List

Tier	Resonator
S+	Verina, Jinhsi, Yinlin, Jiyan
S	Encore, Rover (Havoc), Sanhua, Mortefi
A	Jianxin, Calcharo, Danjin, Baizhi, Yuanwu
B	Lingyang, Rover (Spectro), Chixia, Taoqi, Yangyang, Aalto

Character Breakdowns and Reasoning

In this section, I’ll briefly cover every character and why they’re rated the way they are. Starting from the top:

Verina: S+Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spectro/Rectifier

Recommended Teammates: Anyone

Verina is a Standard Banner character, meaning you can roll her on the Novice Banner/Selector Banner or any future Limited Banner.

Her main role is as a support. Verina’s passive grants an ATK bonus for the team when using her skill. Her outro skill further buffs the damage of your team. This outro buff also persists even if you swap between characters, making her buff one of the best in the game.

Verina’s Liberation heals the entire team while also marking enemies. While attacking marked enemies, Verina will perform a Coordinated Attack. While this doesn’t deal much damage, it provides a strong synergy with Jinhsi. More on that later.

Lastly, her second passive allows you to avoid fatal damage once every 10 minutes. While this may not be extremely useful, getting one free revive against a Hologram boss is nice to have.

Overall, Verina is the most flexible character in the game. She buffs every character’s ATK/DMG, provides healing, and has coordinated attacks. In the current meta, the strongest possible team will almost always have Verina in third slot.

Jinhsi: S+Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spectro/Broadblade

Recommended Teammates: Verina, Yinlin, Yuanwu, Mortefi, Taoqi*

Jinhsi is the most recent Limited 5-star, and she does incredible damage. Her playstyle is also fairly straightforward, and can be considered a Burst DPS rather than a true “Main” DPS.

Jinhsi will gain stacks of Incandescence when your team hits enemies and more stacks will accrue if they are coordinated attacks. This makes characters like Yinlin, Yuanwu, Mortefi, and Verina great teammates.

After going through her rotation, her empowered skill will fire a giant nuke, consuming all your stacks.

When it comes to teammates, the coordinated attack resonators are the priority. Taoqi is a consideration because her Outro Skill buffs Skill DMG. However, this is generally more for reaching higher screenshot damage numbers rather than having a fluid team with consistent damage.

Yinlin: S+Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Electro/Rectifier

Recommended Teammates: Calcharo, Yuanwu, Verina, Jinhsi, Havoc Rover, Encore (anyone really)

Yinlin is an Electro character that boasts high damage while also not taking up a lot of field time. You can only attack with one character at a time, so being able to spend less time on Yinlin is a big advantage.

Her Outro Skill buffs both Electro Damage and Liberation DMG, making her an excellent Sub DPS alongside Calcharo or Yuanwu to use up more on-field time.

Outro buffs don’t persist if you swap away from the intro character, but combining her damage window with Calcharo leads to high damage output.

You can also play Yinlin with other DPS characters. Calcharo and Yuanwu simply make use of her Outro Skill’s Electro DMG buff. However, you can still run Yinlin alongside characters like Rover, Jiyan, Encore, etc. This makes her a very flexible character that strengthens almost any team.

Jiyan: S+Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Broadblade

Recommended Teammates: Mortefi, Verina

Jiyan was the first Event 5-Star character and is our last S+Tier pick. If you have Jiyan and his weapon, his damage is extremely high. Without his Event Weapon, you won’t necessarily outperform other DPS characters, but you have other forms of utility.

Jiyan is able to group light enemies with his Liberation State attacks, helping out on stages with many enemies. His Skill and Liberation also attack very quickly, making it easier to parry enemy attacks.

A majority of Jiyan’s damage comes from his Liberation state, which turn his attacks into Heavy Attacks. This makes Mortefi one of his best teammates, as Mortefi buffs Heavy Attack DMG with his Outro Skill.

Overall, Jiyan is a very strong DPS character with both ease of use and grouping.

Encore: S-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fusion/Rectifier

Recommended Teammates: Havoc Rover, Yinlin, Verina, Sanhua

When it comes to 5-star DPS characters, Encore has some of the highest damage in the game. While she doesn’t have a dedicated Fusion DMG Subdps, her damage is still very high.

However, this is “on paper.” Maximizing Encore’s damage requires precise timing, attack ordering, and animation cancelling. This doesn’t always pan out when you’re trying to target multiple enemies, dodge attacks, etc.

Even still, the fact that her damage is one of the highest in the game makes her worthy of S-tier. She’s also quite flexible, being able to be played as a hyper carry DPS or as a quick-swap DPS.

Overall, we recommend pairing her with other DPS units that don’t require too much field time like Yinlin, Havoc Rover, or Sanhua.

Rover (Havoc): S-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Havoc/Sword

Recommended Teammates: Danjin, Taoqi, Sanhua, Yinlin, Encore, Verina

Once you complete the available story, you’ll be able to unlock Havoc Rover (sorry if spoilers). This isn’t a novel concept, as we see similar concepts done in other games.

In the case of Rover, the Havoc version does a lot more damage compared to Spectro. The main differences are that Havoc Rover’s Forte Circuit has an enhanced state, increasing damage, and their outro skill also deals damage.

Havoc Rover’s Liberation damage also has extremely high scaling compared to other characters. Rover can be played as a hyper carry or as a Sub DPS as well.

Furthermore, the Dreamless Echo deals a lot of damage, and this damage increases if Havoc Rover used their Liberation. This applies to any Dreamless Echo, meaning you can use 3 Dreamless Echoes on 3 Havoc Resonators. With low investment, a team full of Dreamless Echoes can do a lot of work.

Sanhua: S-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Glacio/Sword

Recommended Teammates: Encore, Havoc Rover, Calcharo, Danjin, Chixia

Sanhua is a character that everyone will get for free on their 5th Day Login Reward. She is a Glacio Sub DPS unit, with a Basic Attack DMG buff on her outro skill.

This makes her a decent teammate for just about any character. Most characters will use Basic Attacks to some degree, but some prioritize other things like Heavy Attack.

Her Skill, Intro Skill, and Liberation generate Ice on the field, which you can detonate with her Heavy Attack. This allows her to play as a Sub DPS very easily, requiring little field time to utilize her abilities.

You can do a full rotation to fill her Concerto Energy, or quickly use her Skill/Liberation to deal quick damage and swap off.

Sanhua and Yinlin are both very universal Sub DPS units. However, Yinlin simply deals more damage with her off-field capabilities. If your Main DPS deals mainly Basic Attack DMG, then Sanhua may be a better teammate than Yinlin.

Mortefi: S-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fusion/Pistols

Recommended Teammates: Jinhsi, Jiyan, Encore, Havoc Rover, Danjin

Mortefi is a strong off-field DPS, which already gives him potential. You can only attack with one character at a time, so having damage while off-field is valuable.

His Liberation allows him to coordinated attack whenever the active character hits with a Basic or Heavy Attack. The coordinated Heavy Attack will deal more damage, and this has a short cooldown. Because of this, Mortefi synergizes with DPS units that use a lot of Heavy Attacks.

His outro skill also provides a large buff to Heavy Attack DMG. This makes him the perfect teammate for any Heavy Attack DPS like Jiyan.

While Mortefi is very specialized in his role, his current synergy with Jiyan makes him a meta Resonator. Mortefi can also pair with Jinhsi for his coordinated attacks to build up Incandescence stacks.

While these two pairs are premier choices, you can pair Mortefi with just about any team, as his Sub DPS role makes him very flexible.

Jianxin: A-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Gauntlets

Recommended Team: Anyone

Jianxin is a jack of all trades but a master of none. Her kit provides a little bit of everything: Liberation DMG buff outro skill, enemy grouping, shielding, and healing.

However, her Forte Circuit generates quite slowly and takes a while to cast. This makes her a bit lacking when it comes to Sub DPS roles. Swap cancelling does appear to work for Jianxin, so this helps alleviate things a bit.

In terms of comfortable gameplay, Jianxin is one of the best. Grouping is currently quite effective in Tower of Adversity. While the hardest levels are single-target encounters, many stages have multiple enemies. Grouping enemies can help you clear and 3 star floors much easier.

However, I do think that once players are able to clear the Tower stages easier, Jianxin will lose value when the goal is beating the Hazard Zone, which consist of boss encounters.

Calcharo: A-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Electro/Broadblade

Recommended Teammates: Yinlin, Sanhua, Verina

Like Jiyan, Calcharo is an on-field Broadblade DPS character. He can also pair well with Yinlin to make use of her Outro Skill. While Calcharo’s damage is quite good, we place him lower due to his clunky animations/playstyle.

Even if you swap-cancel Calcharo’s animations, you lose out on Outro Skills like Yinlin if you do so. This puts him in a bit of a lose-lose situation. If you don’t swap-cancel, you can make use of Yinlin’s Outro, but have to play through his full animations.

In the hands of a skilled player, Calcharo can deal high damage and be rewarding to play. However, we feel that for the majority, his clunky kit leads to an overall loss of damage.

Danjin: A-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Havoc/Sword

Recommended Teammates: Havoc Rover, Sanhua, Taoqi, Mortefi, Yinlin, Verina

Danjin is a strong 4-star DPS that can be played as both a Main DPS and Sub DPS. Her damage isn’t as amazing as in CBT, but it’s more than enough to clear content.

She plays a “berserker” style, where her attacks will drain her life in exchange for dealing high damage. She also has a bit of healing built into her kit, so she can also be played without a healer if you’re daring enough.

Her Sub DPS role also comes from her Outro Skill which grants a Havoc DMG bonus. This pairs her very well with Rover (Havoc) as a duo.

Overall, she’s a solid DPS resonator that can act as your main on-fielder, or as a Sub DPS to fill up downtime from your other DPS.

Baizhi: A-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Glacio/Rectifier

Recommended Teammates: Anyone (except Verina)

Baizhi is the last character that you receive early in the story. She is a healer character with most of her kit revolving around healing party members.

Her Skill will heal party members while also dealing a small bit of off-field damage. Baizhi’s passive also makes it so that her Skill provides a small ATK buff, similar to Verina.

She can use the Healing Echo Set to grant an ATK buff to the team after healing. This is very easy to do since Baizhi’s Skill will heal allies.

Overall, Baizhi is a healer like Verina, but Verina has much more offensive capability with her ATK buffs and Outro Skill buff.

Even still, you can utilize Baizhi very well on a 2nd or 3rd team for Tower of Adversity, since options are quite limited right now for healing supports.

Yuanwu: B-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Electro/Gauntlets

Recommended Teammates: Jinhsi, Yinlin, Verina

Yuanwu is somewhat similar to Mortefi in that he provides off-field damage, this time for the Electro attribute. He places down a totem which will launch coordinated attacks, and his ultimate buffs the entire party.

However, other parts of his kit incentivize you to play with Yuanwu on-field. His kit allows him to deplete enemy shields faster, which is quite unique.

In the past, Yuanwu didn’t really have a home, but with new releases, he finds himself as a large part of the meta.

His coordinated attacks pair him very well with Jinhsi. You swap to Yuanwu, drop his totem, and swap off. He requires almost zero field time while fulfilling his role.

You can also use Yuanwu as your on-field DPS alongside Yinlin. While he won’t outdamage the likes of Calcharo, he’s much easier to play, scales with defense (letting you tank bosses more), and breaks shield faster.

These two pairings make him a current meta Resonator.

Lingyang: B-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Glacio/Gauntlets

Recommended Team: Lingyang, Sanhua, Verina

Lingyang was poorly received in the CBT, but his performance on release has been quite comparable to other 5-stars like Calcharo. He weaves his Skill and Basics together to form chains, and his Forte Circuit puts him into a mid-air state, empowering your basic attacks.

The main caveat to his enhanced state is that since you are mid-air, you only have access to one dodge. You can’t keep dodging attacks as if you were grounded. This can be clunky in some scenarios, but if you time things well, you should have ample time to dish out damage before going back on the ground.

Having empowered Basic Attacks also pairs him nicely with Sanhua, who will buff Basic Attack DMG with her outro skill. Unfortunately, Lingyang doesn’t provide much value outside of being a weaker Main DPS option.

Rover (Spectro): B-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spectro/Sword

Recommended Teammates: Sanhua, Verina, Danjin, Taoqi

Rover is the main character you start with, and unfortunately, the kit isn’t amazing. Spectro MC can act as a Sub DPS, but the damage is lacking compared to other characters, and there is a lack of buff utility.

Rover’s Outro Skill is a 3 second time stop (slow), allowing you rotate to other characters without worrying about getting hit. However, when compared to powerful offensive buffs, the effect is lacking.

There was potential for Spectro Rover to be good due to S6 shredding enemy Spectro RES. This potentially makes them a good pairing with Jinhsi. However, Jinhsi wants her teammates to deal Coordinated attacks or different type element damage to build stacks.

Because of this, Spectro MC doesn’t synergize well with Jinhsi. Overall, they deal less damage than other characters, and don’t have a good team to be a part of.

Taoqi: B-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Havoc/Broadblade

Recommended Teammates: Jinhsi, Sanhua, Havoc Rover

Taoqi is a defensive support that generates shields. Her Outro Skill is also amazing, providing a large damage Amplify for Skill DMG. This means she can pair well with Skill DMG Resonators like Jinhsi, the upcoming Changli, Sanhua, etc.

You can also use the Healing Set on Taoqi, as her skill self heals, proccing the set effect.

However, Taoqi is very clunky to play. She attacks very slowly and generates her Concerto Energy very slowly. In general, Taoqi is often used to screenshot big damage numbers with her Outro Skill.

But in terms of actual gameplay, we recommend other support characters over Taoqi in most scenarios.

Chixia: B-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fusion/Pistols

Recommended Teammates: Sanhua, Verina

Chixia is one of the free units you get early in the game, and she’s a Main DPS character. Being a ranged character has benefits, as you can attack enemies from a safe range. Enemies will move closer to attack you, but you can avoid by dodging and run around.

Damage wise, Chixia isn’t too far behind the other Main DPS characters. Her kit mainly deals damage with her Basic Attacks and Forte Circuit, which is essentially full damage uptime. Having a ranged DPS can also be a good idea for your 3rd team in Tower of Adversity, since there are only 2 healers in the game.

However, Pistol characters also have a downside. Outside of her Liberation, you can’t hit multiple enemies even if they are grouped. Chixia will be good in single-target encounters, but not as good in other content with multiple enemies. She also can’t parry attacks, which is important for “downing” bosses to get in free damage. Pairing her with teammate who can parry easily will help, but doesn’t solve this issue.

Yangyang: B-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Sword

Recommended Teammates: Any DPS

Yangyang is another free character from the early story, and she’s a simple DPS unit with a bit of utility. Her Skill and Liberation summon cyclones that pull in enemies around it. This is very helpful when dealing with lots of weak monsters in the overworld. The range is quite small compared to Jianxin, but the grouping can still be valuable in the Tower of Adversity.

Her outro skill is her other piece of utility, granting Energy for the character you swap into. Outside of that, her kit mainly consists of dealing Aero damage.

Her damage is lacking compared to other Main DPS, so most will use her for her grouping utility as a Sub DPS/Support role.

Aalto: B-Tier

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Aero/Pistols

Recommended Teammates: Jiyan, Jianxin, Verina

Aalto is mainly a Sub DPS Aero Resonator. His kit doesn’t require too much field time, and it allows you to gain movement speed, letting you dodge attacks or move to favorable positions.

His passive grants him a guaranteed Crit every 30 seconds, which counts down even if he’s not on the field. While you can play him as your main on-field character, you make make use of his quick firing and 30 second Crit much more as a secondary DPS.

Lastly, his outro skill buffs Aero damage, making him a good teammate for other Aero characters like Jiyan. Unfortunately, Mortefi is a better Sub DPS/Support compared to Aalto, so Aalto is lacking a place in the current meta.

If a new Aero DPS releases, they would need to deal mixed damage to make Aalto a top teammate. We already have decent supports for every attack category (Sanhua for Basic, Mortefi for Heavy, Taoqi for Skill, Jianxin for Liberation). As such, Aalto likely won’t find a good home anytime soon.

Methodology

For this tier list, we try to consider a variety of use cases like Tower of Adversity and Holograms. However, the tier list generally focuses on Tower of Adversity. This is because the Tower rotates and generally requires specific things while Holograms are skill tests for players. This tier list is mostly comprised of three factors: Value, Strength, and Utility.

Value

When it comes to value, it’s somewhat of a catch all term. To put it simply, a character is more valuable if their role cannot be easily replaced or replicated.

For example, Verina is extremely valuable, because she is the best sustain/support in the game. She can fit onto any team, and with the lack of healing options, Verina’s value is immense.

A character can also be valuable if they’re flexible. Sanhua is a great example. There are a variety of sub DPS units like Mortefi, Aalto, etc. However, Sanhua’s Outro Skill buffs Basic Attack DMG, which is almost universally good on any character.

This makes her extremely flexible like Verina, thus increasing her value. So while Mortefi might be a better sub DPS for Jiyan, Sanhua is a strong investment as she can work with just about any character.

Strength

When it comes to strength, this part is fairly self explanatory. If a character outputs the highest damage in the game, that should be worthy of a higher rating.

The same goes for Support characters if their buffs are stronger than other buffs.

Utility

The last factor is utility. This refers to things a character provides outside of simply strength. For example, Jianxin provides grouping, which can be extremely useful on some floors in Tower of Adversity. She can be the difference between 3 starring a Floor vs just clearing it.

Another thing to consider are parry windows. Jiyan’s Skill and Liberation both attack very fast/multiple times, allowing for easy parrys against enemies. Conversely, a Pistol character like Chixia can’t really parry at all.

Closing Words

This wraps up our Resonator Tier List for Wuthering Waves. As with all tier lists, things are definitely going to change as the community learns more about the game and optimizes.

Tier lists are also not the ultimate truth. There is enjoyment in tackling fights with weaker characters, and it might even help you improve your combat skills.

Remember that tier lists are always meant as a reference and point of discussion. You should ultimately decide what you want with your account and play the characters that you enjoy.

Thanks for Reading! For more resources, be sure to check out our other Wuthering Waves Guides.