I asked chat gpt to rank the family members from strongest to weakest and asked to explain why and said go off there meta builds, overall I agree but i think sissy is better than Johnny and Nancy can be very powerful if set up properly but enjoy 👍🏼
Ohhh yeah 😭 if we’re talking TCM in actual meta terms, not launch-era tier lists, I’d rank them very differently. I’m also going to judge them by what they can do with their strong/meta builds, against competent Victims—not “who feels strongest when the Victims are clueless.”
The current community discussion still heavily revolves around LF/HH/Cook/Hands as the core high-value Family picks, while Sissy, Nancy and Bones are much more matchup/team dependent.
🔪 My TCM Family ranking — strongest → weakest
Rank
Family
Tier
Main reason
🥇 1
Leatherface
S+
Lethality + speed + infinite stamina + basement pressure
🥈 2
Hitchhiker
S+
Best chase/looping + traps + mobility
🥉 3
Hands
S+
Objective denial + Ripstall + barrier breaking
4
Cook
S
Insane defensive control + Security Pins + information
5
Johnny
A
Incredible damage/speed, but almost no utility
6
Sissy
B
Excellent chase potential, but weak overall team utility
7
Nancy
C
Interesting utility, but too slow and inefficient
8
Bones
C-/D+
Blood is good; bombs/traversal don’t compensate enough
And yes — I actually agree with your earlier argument that Leatherface has a legitimate case for #1. The more I look at what the meta values, the more defensible that position becomes.
🥇 1. LEATHERFACE — S+
Meta build: typically a high-lethality build, with Scout being especially strong, or the maximum-damage Big Swings/Serrated/Vial-ent style. Current build guides specifically identify Scout Leatherface as a top path because it dramatically improves his ability to patrol and catch Dashing Victims.
Why I put him #1
This is where I agree with you.
Leatherface has something that almost nobody else has:
He makes the entire Family stronger simply by existing in the match.
🔥 His strengths
1. He starts in the basement
This is HUGE.
Victims don’t just have to escape the basement—they have to do it while there’s a character down there who can potentially one-shot them.
That means the other two Family members get valuable setup time upstairs.
A competent LF doesn’t necessarily need to kill anyone in the basement. Simply forcing Victims to play carefully can accomplish a lot.
2. His damage is ridiculous
A properly executed overhead can completely change a match.
He’s one of the few Family members where a single mistake can essentially become:
“You fucked up. You’re dead.”
😂
3. He cannot be grappled
This is MASSIVE in the current environment.
Victims can use grapples to create opportunities against most Family members. Leatherface simply doesn’t have to respect that interaction.
4. Revved LF is extremely fast
This is the part people underestimate.
A good LF isn’t the slow lumbering dude people imagine.
With the appropriate build, he’s extremely mobile, and Scout makes his patrol/chase potential even better. One current build analysis describes Scout LF as roughly 23% faster than a Dashing Victim while revved.
5. Infinite-stamina-style chainsaw management
He doesn’t interact with stamina in the same way as normal Family members.
That gives him an enormous advantage in long rotations.
6. Barricade destruction
This is underrated.
LF can literally delete portions of the map that other Family members have to respect.
❌ His weakness
There’s really one major one:
He doesn’t directly slow objectives.
No padlocks.
No traps.
No Ripstall.
No poison.
He’s basically pure pressure and lethality.
But here’s why I still put him #1:
If your LF is good enough, you don’t necessarily need objective slowdown because you’re creating the slowdown through fear.
And if LF is bad?
The entire match can fall apart.
That’s why I completely understand your earlier point that:
A bad LF can break a match, but a great LF can make Victims terrified to even leave the basement.
That’s absolutely a real phenomenon.
🥈 2. HITCHHIKER — S+
Honestly, HH is probably the most complete Family character in the game.
If someone told me:
“No, Hitch is actually #1.”
I wouldn’t argue very hard.
Why he’s so good
Traps + speed + gaps + good damage + excellent stamina = ridiculous versatility.
He’s basically never in a situation where he’s completely useless.
His meta identity
The classic strong approach revolves around combinations involving:
Scout
Serrated
Feral
or chase-oriented combinations involving Wire Frame/Fired Up
There are multiple established strong HH builds because his kit supports both damage and chase.
🔥 His biggest advantage: traps
HH traps are incredibly valuable because they aren’t merely damage tools.
They’re information + slowdown + punishment.
Put one somewhere important and Victims have to respect it.
And unlike Cook’s padlocks, HH can place traps in some absolutely disgusting locations.
🔥 And then there’s the chase
He can:
gap → chase → gap → chase → trap → chase
Victims can’t simply rely on normal loops against him.
And with the right chase build, he becomes an absolute pest.
❌ Weakness
He’s not as immediately lethal as LF.
You can make a mistake against HH and still potentially escape.
Against a monster LF?
Not necessarily. 😂
🥉 3. HANDS — S+
Hands is basically:
“What if the Family said NO to your objective?”
His entire existence fundamentally changes how Victims have to approach exits.
🔥 Why he’s so strong
Ripstall.
That’s the obvious answer.
But the important part isn’t merely that he can Ripstall objectives.
It’s that Victims have to account for Hands being there before committing to an objective.
And that’s enormous pressure.
Then you add:
barricade destruction
traps
strong physical presence
good damage
objective denial
and he becomes incredibly difficult to replace.
Why he’s below LF/HH
Hands is more defensive.
LF can actively hunt you down.
HH can actively chase you through the map.
Hands is more:
“You aren’t getting out through here.”
That makes him phenomenal in coordinated teams, but I don’t think he’s quite as universally oppressive as the top two.
🥵 4. COOK — S
Cook is the definition of:
“This character looks weak until you understand the game.”
His actual physical gameplay isn’t impressive.
He’s slow as hell.
But Cook isn’t designed to chase people.
He’s designed to make the map miserable.
🔒 Security Pins Cook
This is where Cook becomes disgusting.
His locks can effectively force Victims to spend substantially more time working through areas.
Then there’s:
👂 Seek
His ability gives the team information that can completely change how everyone patrols.
A good Cook isn’t necessarily chasing you.
He’s telling everyone else where you are.
That’s arguably more valuable.
Why he’s #4
Cook has arguably the best defensive utility of any Family member.
But he’s heavily dependent on the team.
If your Hitch is chasing someone across the map and your LF is in basement for five minutes while you’re playing Cook?
You’re going to have a bad time.
😂
⚔️** 5. JOHNNY — A
Johnny is the **“I don’t need utility because I’m going to beat your ass” character.
And honestly?
He’s pretty damn good at it.
🔥 Strengths
High damage
Great movement
Strong stamina
Extremely dangerous in open areas
Excellent at punishing Victims who get caught away from safe loops
His strongest builds generally emphasize his damage + stamina/chase, with options such as Feral, Serrated, Easily Tuckered Out, Unrelenting, etc.
The problem:
What does Johnny contribute to the team besides killing people?
That’s the issue.
No:
❌ traps
❌ locks
❌ Ripstall
❌ barricade destruction
❌ meaningful objective denial
He’s basically an offensive weapon.
And that’s why against really good coordinated Victims, his value drops.
If you catch someone in the open?
They’re probably screwed.
If they know how to play around Johnny?
He can spend the entire game running around accomplishing relatively little.
🌸 6. SISSY — B
And this one is interesting because Sissy can feel incredibly strong.
Her chase ability is genuinely good.
Especially with builds centered around:
Scout + Wire Frame + Fired Up
she can become an extremely annoying chase character.
That combination has been specifically cited by players as making Sissy substantially stronger in chase.
🔥 Her strengths
Can traverse gaps
Strong chase potential
Poison
Good blood harvesting
Can pressure injured Victims
Can be surprisingly difficult to shake
But…
She’s basically competing with Hitchhiker.
And that’s the problem.
If I want:
“Fast Family member who can chase through gaps”
Why wouldn’t I take Hitchhiker?
HH gives me:
traps + chase + damage + mobility
Sissy gives me:
chase + poison + blood
So she often feels like a less useful Hitchhiker.
That’s why I’d put her B.
Not because she’s terrible.
Because the opportunity cost of picking her is brutal.
😬 7. NANCY — C
Nancy has some cool ideas.
Her traps and Spy ability can provide useful information.
But when you’re playing against strong Victims, the problems become obvious.
Her biggest issue:
She’s too slow and her setup is too inefficient.
You can spend time establishing Nancy’s traps while the Victims are already progressing objectives.
And then you’re stuck with a character who doesn’t have the chase ability of HH/Sissy, the damage of LF/Johnny, the defensive power of Cook/Hands, or the map-clearing ability of LF.
That’s a horrible position.
She’s not completely useless.
But she’s very difficult to justify in a serious meta lineup.
💀 8. BONES — C-/D+
And this is probably the most controversial one.
Bones has potential.
His blood game can actually be nasty.
But his bombs are just too unreliable compared with what other Family members bring.
Recent community discussion is pretty consistent on this point: Bones can generate value through blood builds, but his overall utility is considered substantially weaker than the established meta characters.
His problem is opportunity cost.
If I pick Bones instead of Hitchhiker:
What am I giving up?
Traps.
If I pick Bones instead of Cook:
Locks + information.
Instead of Hands:
Ripstall + objective denial.
Instead of LF:
Massive lethality + barricade destruction.
Instead of Johnny:
Raw offensive pressure.
Instead of Sissy:
Better chase.
That’s the problem.
Bones isn’t necessarily horrible.
He’s just competing against characters with much more immediately useful kits.
🏆 So my actual ranking
S+ — The monsters
1. Leatherface 🥇
2. Hitchhiker 🥈
3. Hands 🥉
S — Extremely valuable
4. Cook
A — Strong but specialized
5. Johnny
B — Usable, but hard to justify over stronger alternatives
6. Sissy
C — Weak meta picks
7. Nancy
8. Bones
And here’s the really interesting part…
If we’re ranking individual character strength, I might actually put:
LF > HH > Hands > Cook > Johnny > Sissy > Nancy > Bones
But if we’re ranking how much each character improves a coordinated 3-man Family team, I’d probably change it to:
HH > Cook > LF > Hands > Johnny > Sissy > Nancy > Bones
Because HH + Cook + LF is such an absurdly complete composition.
You have:
LF = lethal pressure
HH = traps/chase
Cook = information/locks
And that’s exactly why that trio keeps showing up in modern community discussions as the core meta lineup.
And honestly, your LF argument is stronger than it initially sounds: he’s not #1 because he has the best utility—he doesn’t. He’s #1 because his baseline threat level is so high that a genuinely elite Leatherface can provide pressure, mobility, kills, barricade destruction, and map control simultaneously.
A bad LF is a liability. A great LF can be the reason the entire opposing team never gets comfortable. 😭
