Tier Lists
October Update
Welcome to the End of the Year update for our Tier Lists! Closing out this year, we decided to merge the two updates into a single changelog since there weren’t as many new changes on the December update - so, let’s find out what’s new with this one!
Update by Ropalme1914#4339 with contributions from Spark#8888, Raven8#5530, Runner#7562, Mr.Smee#6764, Darkshark#0128, Zoopy3000#0001, Racer#4752.
Tier 0 – SS Hilda joins on her own new subgroup between SS Steven and Lucas as a fantastic damage dealer with great DPS, Sync Nuke, and instant setup - there’s not any particular flaw with this Sync Pair that holds her back outside of the ones above her simply bringing more damage and/or some mixed utility on top of the kit.
Tier 1 – The tier has been a bit reordered, with SS Giovanni being mostly agreed to fit as the one leading the tier with his varied coverage, fast setup move, high damage, and access to Dynamax. SS Erika has been dropped due to her duty not being as valued these days, with a lot of sun options existing, such as SS Morty and Gordie, making her less desirable for sun teams due to her damage being on the lower side outside of Grassy Terrain. SS Korrina was deemed slightly undervalued and got decent partners recently, such as Fall Allister and Champion Calem. Finally, Victor was decided to fit better on the bottom of Tier 1 as the premier Grass Striker at the moment.
Tier 2 – SC Sonia has dropped to lead this tier instead. Archie and Cyrus have moved slightly up, benefiting from the two Greninja Sync Pairs. N & Zekrom have moved up due to their great grid expansion giving them self buffs, a sure crit Sync Move, and more damage, while Summer N has moved slightly up with Champion Calem.
Tier 3 – Having probably the greatest Grid Expansion yet, Kris now leads this tier. Silver has moved a bit up, while Fall Iris has been placed below him.
Tier 4 – NY Volkner has been moved above Cynthia and Brendan, while Nessa goes above Zinnia and Anniversary Steven in the same group with the good new partners she got for her Dark and Water builds. Marnie moves up to the bottom of this tier with her grid expansion, which helps a bit with her buffs and gives some utility, but nothing huge.
Tier 5 – Fall Hilbert has been moved due to Champion Calem even making his Crunch build more workable without the recoil, while Hugh goes on the third subgroup with his high risk DPS, but great Sync Nuke and mixed utility options such as flinch.
Tier 6 – The tier was slightly reshuffled, dropping SC Hilda and moving up SS Grimsley and Summer Gloria due to their new partners. Fantina got Grid expansion allowing her to Sync Nuke, moving up to the last subgroup of this tier.
Lower Tiers – Most units have dropped a subgroup as a result of a cascading effect.
Tier 0 – Champion Serena has been added above Dojo Gloria, having relatively similar kits, but Serena offering more disperse drops, a Master Passive, and more immediate power alongside Rebuffs while Dojo Gloria gets more focused debuffs and Dynamax.
Tier 1 – SS May now leads the tier alone, getting a great partner in SS Hilda. SS Hilbert has been added to the second position, covering 5 whole types very well and being the top Sp. Def dropper in the game, but being a bit less effective outside of the 5 types it covers compared to some other units in neutral situations.
Tier 2 – Having a very strong Grid expansion, Lysandre now is part of the yellow subgroup of Tier 2, transforming his debuffs into buffs with Downside Up and just being much better offensively with Brainpower and Critical Strike 3.
Tier 3 – The Eeveelution Sync Pairs are leading the tier with their surprisingly strong and varied kits that doesn’t even miss EX that much, as their great amount of multipliers compensates and results in a very strong Sync Nuke. Holiday Whitney has been added to the second subgroup as a “great value” Sync Pair - she offers multiple Terrains, making her fit in more teams than almost the entire cast, but she’s not the top setter for any of those Terrains when looking at her direct competition. SS Leaf got a less relevant Grid expansion that helps her nuke and makes her capable of debuffing offenses alongside keeping the poison capability after Mega, mainly making her a better choice on Legendary Gauntlet.
Tier 4 – Colress was added sharing his rank with Lucian, with both having similarities in being debuffers to one of the defenses, Sync Nukers, and being light on gauge, with Colress having faster debuffs and a bit more utility like paralysis and defensive buffs, while Lucian debuffs Attack and is a direct gauge support rather than just someone that uses a low amount of gauges. Ghetsis’ grid expansion was sadly a bit underwhelming, mainly just giving him self sufficiency and getting a small buff. SS N has a pretty problematic kit that lacks cohesion and doesn’t offer the best numbers for the setup required, landing a spot on the last subgroup of the tier.
Tier 5 – Agatha’s grid expansion makes her rather similar to Lodge N as Hypnosis users that can also go on the offensive with decent DPS and Sync Nuke, with Agatha being a bit better at the sleeping job due to being capable of creating chains without external help, something only shared with SS Cyrus.
Tier 6 – Holiday Skyla is now compatible with Anni Skyla, and as such, can make use of Flying Zone - unfortunately, their kits can be redundant at times, making her rise be not as big as some others got at the time.
Lower Tiers – Lodge Serena has been added to Tier 8, being similar to Lodge Lillie in a Attacker debuffer that can also nuke, with Serena adding Speed debuffs to the mix over a chance of SpA, being single target, nuking harder, and using less gauges. Clay got a very underwhelming Grid expansion, and as such, his only change is a subgroup separation from Lorelei.
Tier 0 – Champion Calem has been added to the top subgroup of the tier, having a fantastic Master Passive, high Speed and defenses, being a mixed support, and bringing two types of field effects. The second subgroup of the tier has also been slightly reordered.
Tier 1 – Holiday Jasmine has been added to lead the tier, having a similar approach to SS Aura Cynthia as a defensive support that can bring crit and some Move Up effects, although not being as sturdy as her nor offering a Master Passive, while also adding Super Effective Up to the mix. Hilbert now also shares a subgroup with Aaron.
Tier 2 – Kiawe and Giovanni switched spots due to the former’s better durability being found more valuable recently with the influx of Extreme Battles over the latter's faster setup.
Tier 4 – Glacia was deemed to be underrated before and moved all the way up to Phoebe’s position as a sturdy crit buffer.
Tier 5 – Lodge Elesa has been added to the third subgroup of the tier, having a very similar kit to Lodge Cynthia buffing crit and Sp. Def, but lacking her Move Gauge Acceleration.
Lower Tiers – Brock has been moved from Hybrid to Utility Tier 7 due to his weak Sync Nuke relative to the setup required and nearly non-existent DPS. Cheren got a grid expansion and an EX, but sadly his base kit doesn’t let him move much further than Tier 7. Janine and Lt. Surge also got grid expansions, putting them at Tier 8.
This is our last update for 2022, and despite not having as many old units moving, we got a few quite fantastic new ones, don’t you think? We're always looking for more thoughts and constructive feedback to improve our analysis and articles so make sure to drop a comment below if you want to help us refine our ever-evolving Tier List!
Happy new year, and see you in 2023!
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