Guilty Gear Strive is Arc System Works' frenetic and characterful fighter that continues the insane story of the Guilty Gear franchise with better than ever graphics and gameplay. With a roster now featuring 23 characters, there’s plenty of variety. But who is the best? Stay with us as we put the Guilty Gear Strive fighters into a tier list.
Guilty Gear Strive Fighter Tier List
Below is our tier list of Guilty Gear Strive fighters. Beneath that we’ll go over why each character has fallen into that bracket.
S Tier
- Ky
- May
These characters have features about them that make them hard to counter, simple to play at all levels, and just have an advantage in all matchups. Ky’s super easy to execute Dust attacks do very quick damage, and are easily combo-able. May, similarly has a lot of instant damage, and a spammable dolphin move that only gets more potent as the user increases in skill.
A Tier
- Sol
- Giovanna
- Baiken
- Testament
- Bridget
- Sin
Characters in A Tier have only one or two bad matchups, and are very flexible or adaptable, but will often lose out to a S Tier pick. Sol is the consummate all-rounder, and Sin feels very similar. All of these characters have very simple combos to learn, but take time to master.
B Tier
- Potemkin
- Axl
- Ramlethal
- Leo
- Anji
- Goldlewis Dickinson
- Chipp
In B Tier, these are usually part of some kind of archetype, like grapplers, or have a more complex fighting style. Potemkin is great in the right hands, but as a grappler, he can be out ranged and defeated by a skilled, higher-tier player. Ramlethal has a few quirks in her gameplay that makes her just a bit to complex to be higher tier. Many of the characters here suffer from similar issues.
Related: Guilty Gear Strive New Character Guide: Sin Kiske Playstyle, History, and Lore
C Tier
- Faust
- Millia
- Nagoriyuki
- I-NO
- Jack-O'
- Bedman
Characters in C-Tier are either heavy gimmick characters, like Faust, or just not effective enough to be used by most people. Jack-O', for example, is a pet-based fighter that needs a lot more execution to effectively use her Servants. In the right hands, these fighters are still deadly.
D Tier
- Happy Chaos
- Zato
These characters are auto-loss in almost all cases against someone of equal skill. Any character can be mastered and used effectively, but we’d recommend putting your time and effort into someone higher in the tier list.
For more Guilty Gear Strive news, guides, and more, check out Guilty Gear Strive Patch Notes: Version 1.26 on Pro Game Guides.
Michael lives in the UK, but wishes he lived in Eorzea. A life-long gamer, Four years ago, he ditched a "real" job to write about video games for a living, and hasn't looked back. When not guiding players how to get the latest mounts, crafting recipes, and in-game goodies, he spends his time nurturing an unhealthy addiction to MMOs and gacha games.
I think this list has a bunch of flaws, as it reads more like a “difficulty tier list” rather than an actual tier list.
Happy Chaos being bottom 2? Sin being A tier? (Which, since I last checked, was unanimiously considered the most flawed character in the game right now.) and Happy Chaos and Zato being “auto-loss in almost all cases against someone of equal skill.” which is proven flat out wrong by multiple tournaments (Like UMISHO winning EVO).
I think this tierlist is very potentially misleading, especially to newer players, though I think it would be pretty alright if it was labelled something like a “difficulty tier list” or something. Though I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume he primarily plays MMOs and Gacha (according to his bio anyway) and plays fighting games casually.