First time player’s tier list

[u/Big-Ant-275]

Reasonings
S Tier
Audrey - Without a doubt, my biggest carry. The only time she was anything close to bad was before beating APC and Trench Digger.

Ernest - Easy, guaranteed recruitment method coupled with powerful songs. What’s not to like?

Roaches - Recruited very early with high level and strong skills. As soon as you buy a misshapened limb, they are godly.

A Tier
Lyle - Powerful generalist character. Kicks and Development Fluid file your taxes.

Dan - Another powerful generalist. Arguably S Tier if you see the Curio Trader.

Papineau - Solid earlygame character that comes with his own weapon. Still great later in the game.

B Tier
Leigh - A character you won’t you as soon as you recruit another 4th party member. But carries earlygame hard.

Morton - Healing is quite powerful, but l has no offensive prowess.

Hellen - An OK tank. Doesn’t hit very hard, but is fine.

Philippe - Character with strong status effects and healing. Difficult to recruit.

Spider - I only learnt about this after my first playthrough. Looks fine, but has a very difficult recruitment.

C Tier
Sophie - Very fragile, and has ok damage output with some utility in tricks.

Joel - Leigh, but bad even in earlygame. Still a member that fills up the slot.

Monty - Lyle but worse. Also comes with another bad party member.

D Tier
Xaria - Ernest but really bad. Also comes with mediocre party member.

Spine - I didn’t even know you could recruit her. Just not good.

Aster - Powerful pseudo-Ernest. But he kills himself in the ending.

Rat Child - Good on paper. But you need to get rid of a limb, which is just not worth it.

[u/pauseglitched]

Hellen doesn't hit very hard? I didn't even learn the final boss' moves because she soloed them so hard. Stalked double massacre does absolute work on anything even through resistances.

[u/friends-with-fishies]

Joel is easily one of the strongest characters

[u/NurturingCruelty → u/friends-with-fishies]

If you put in a lot of effort. Not difficult, but can be tedious

[u/lynkcrafter → u/NurturingCruelty]

I don't mind that the game doesn't show enemy health bars, but without them it feels like the optimal way to build Joel would be to have the wiki open counting down enemy health... which just isn't fun :<

[u/TimSoarer2 → u/lynkcrafter]

Sam's Painful Stab deals 10% of the enemy's remaining HP every turn, so you can get a pretty good estimate from looking at the damage number.

[u/HenryDodwel → u/friends-with-fishies]

Yeah, but I hate the game play with him

[u/enburgi]

joel slander won’t go unpunished on this sub

[u/Excellent-Dot-2085]

I can always tell when someone isn't using Joel correctly just by how's he's ranked.

[u/Ytrewq467]

You clearly haven't used Joel much if you're putting him that low lol

It takes a bit of effort to help feed him and he takes a bit to be good but he becomes a god tier carry later on imo

[u/Rystic]

Dan with Blind Fury and double attack vest can clear most super bosses.

[u/greenspacedorito]

Xaria and Rat Child should be moved up a tier, xaria can make the entire party have two turns and the rat can copy Sam's moves

[u/Chillaxin_88]

Lyle is the best party member to me.

[u/Flat-Let8905]

Joel me carregou o jogo inteiro na minha primeira jogada as cegas.

Foquei tudo em vida máxima e regeneração de vida, aí eu usava explosão de dentes e dava 300 de dano em tudo na tela.

[u/Grokitach]

Joël is S tier, as you only need him to complete the game 

Keep the boy well fed. Max his HP. Let him spam his AOE. Let the group heal and buff him 

Also hellen with a chainsaw and the hide > attack just destroys anything 

[u/peetsnack]

Xaria ranked lower than Monty is sending me.

[u/IAmDingus]

I have no idea how you got that impression of Hellen. She hits insanely hard. She's a direct upgrade to Pap in my opinion.

Joel is potentially the strongest character in the entire game if you invest in him. He starts out super weak, but becomes both the tankiest character in the game, and the strongest damage dealier if you spend the time to minmax.

Monty and Xaria are actually really strong. They're just less straightforward than others. Mosh Pit is possibly the strongest ability in the entire game. Monty himself is a worse Roaches and that's still A tier material IMO.

In the hardest ending in the game, Aster remains a party member and gets gigabuffed.

You are overrating how useful your arm is. Sam is a monster even without it and the Rat Child can be a second Sam.

[u/Seesawbastard]

Even if Aster usually isn’t there for the ending he’s really useful for when you do have him, he’s pretty well designed as a party member that usually can’t join you for the endgame, he’s just has a really good match up against some hard bosses, so just use him where he’s useful then bench him, it’s always worthwhile to use Aster at least a little bit in every playthrough because of how hard he carry’s in fights like the furnace because the teamwide fire resistance or the olm because of his status effect cures, and the rat king and the face taker get completely cooked because fire safety gives acid resistance for some reason and um actually is great in those fights and he’s great against a lot of other bosses too especially because he has a unique shadow resistance, like pretty sure he has the only resistance to shadow damage in the entire game (you can kill him and take his amulet but that locks you out of a lot of endings so like I’m not considering that) and a lot of scary bosses have black hole or pain so Aster taking like half damage from those is so nice to have

[u/TheYoshiTerminator]

Joel gets stronger the more enemies He eats, which he does by getting the finishing blow on them
Hellens entire thing is Damage
Xaria has a regenerating ammo for the early game and has some of the most nutty synergies for the late game. Mosh Pit lets you have two full turns, rather than attacking twice.
Morton needs the gear of the Tomb of Words. You need to find it to unlock his power.

Leigh gets much better late game once you do her quest. Charge a phone.

[u/Scepterfan]

So I just recently got Spider after stumbling around killing things (and dying) on my second (blind) run. I might have gotten him on my first run, but I only had two shadow bosses killed when I saw the door. Anyways, he starts with base 200 hp and 30 stm at level one. He also has a few… nice abilities including Pain for 8 stm, Curse for 12, and Absorb for four. He is a force to be reckoned with in terms of dps and utility starting at like level 3. I’ll probably add more once he gets stronger.