DFFOO Global Character Tier List

So having played a lot of DFFOO, we have compiled a tier list for global on recommended units you should be using.

Update: Check out the updated tier list here.

Now keep in mind that all characters at the current level can clear ALL regular content without much trouble. So it is more of who does a certain job better. Just because your character is a low tier doesn’t mean he/she can’t finish the job.

The characters are graded at how well they perform a certain role compared to the rest. We have categorized the list into these primary roles. Some characters can be in multiple categories.

• BRV Attacker
• HP Attacker
• BRV Battery
• AoE
• Healer
• Buff & Debuff
• Melee DPS
• Ranged DPS
• Magic DPS
• Tank

And the tiers will be:

• S – Excellent units and best at their jobs
• A – Good units and great at their jobs
• B – Average units and decent at their jobs
• C – Mediocre units that need improvement compared to the rest

S Tier

Squall

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Melee DPS

Now squall is one of the best BRV attackers due to his 1 bonus hit when < 250% initial BRV mechanic on Solid Barrel. If that condition is fulfilled, you can easily fill up your BRV bar to near max with just one Solid Barrel attack. That makes him a very good BRV shaver.

His second skill Blade Flurry complements his first skill by being able to shave some BRV while dealing HP damage at the same time. You can’t go wrong with Squall as your mean BRV/HP attacker.

Cloud

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Debuff, Melee DPS

Cloud is the all rounder that does everything pretty well. He doesn’t excel in 1 particular category, but he does provide utility and damage. Paralysis is excellent (enemy loses 1 turn), especially if you have Ogrenix weapon that further improves the chance of that.

His second skill Finishing Touch guarantees a knock up and allows your team to shave off more BRV or get extra attack turns. The only downside is that it only has 1 charge.

Vaan

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Melee DPS, Magic DPS

Oh boy. Vaan is a solid attacker that decimates enemies. He is much like Cloud as a hybrid BRV/HP attacker, but does more damage than Cloud but with less utility.

Both his skills do BRV+HP. First skill is non-elemental while the second skill is wind elemental, so it will do well against enemies weak to wind.

Terra

Role: HP Attacker, Magic DPS

Terra’s role in the game is simple. Chant and destroy! Her attacks are unique as you chant to improve your HP attack. With a high turn rate on both her skills, she does very good damage.

First skill also grants attack and max BRV up. Second skill grants attack and speed up. Once you enchant, you also get 1.5 more BRV per attack.

Laguna

Role: BRV Attacker, AoE, Buff & Debuff, Ranged DPS

Laguna is a very strong character due to his utility. He does great damage against BOTH single and multiple targets. He has the passive that allows both skills to deal 1.6 more BRV damage if he attacks a single target.

His first skill lowers enemy speed and defense down while giving himself and attack buff. His second skill lowers enemy attack. The only downside to Laguna is his speed, but that can be mitigated using his first skill.

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A Tier

Tidus

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Debuff

Tidus is the faster version of Squall as his first skill Quick Hit allows him to whittle down enemy BRV multiple times. It won’t hit as hard but you will get more turns.

His second skill will inflict speed down sometimes, but if you manage to get Brotherhood sword (35cp!), it will inflict defense and attack down as well, giving him a nice mix of HP, BRV and debuff combo all in 1 skill!

Zidane

Role: BRV Attacker, Buff & Debuff

Zidane has fast speed and is able to shave enemy BRV with Stellar Circle while giving a small chance to apply speed down to enemy and speed up to himself. When both triggers, Zidane will get a lot of turns.

Free Energy can inflict defense down, allowing you to do more damage. You can use this skill with 80% BRV and get the most out of it!

Hope

Role: BRV Battery, Support

Now Hope is very good as both his skills are damage mitigation while providing BRV to the entire team. His BRV gain is based off his attack, so you will want to get his attack stat as high as possible by upgrading his weapon.

Shell and Protect gives 50% damage mitigation against magic and physical attacks for 5 turns respectively! That is huge, especially against tough bosses. It really prevents your characters from getting BRV broken.

Yuna

Role: BRV Battery, Support

Much like Hope, Yuna provides excellent BRV with Esuna, especially if you have her weapon. Esuna also removes all debuffs on your entire team with her weapon. Her BRV heal is also very high turn rate, allowing her to move multiple turns sometimes against slower enemies.

Cheer gives the character 1.2x more BRV. Pump this on Squall or any BRV attacker and it becomes a god sent skill.

Warrior of Light

Role: Tank, Support

He is one of the few tanks in the game right now. What makes him good is his Shield of Light, which gives a shield to protect your teammate or himself from getting a BRV break from enemies after using an attack.

His second skill Throw Buckler will draw enemy aggro to him as long as the enemy isn’t using an AoE attack. That means he can shield himself and use Throw Buckler to take 0 damage while your other teammates can dish out damage or debuffs!

 

Cecil

Role. AoE, Melee DPS, Support

Cecil’s does well against regular monsters due to her AoE attack. However, his skills does reduce his HP by a small percentage. So you will want to use it against bosses.

His most valuable skill is his second skill, which allows your team to do guaranteed knock ups, allowing them to shave off more BRV. Cecil, though, is quite slow and normally goes last.

King

Role: BRV Attacker, Ranged DPS

This guy is pretty underrated and no one uses him as much. He is a pure BRV breaker. His second skill Reload just replenishes his first skill Rapid Bullets. He does very well in long drawn out fights.

He is also quite speedy and therefore gets a lot of turns to attack. I would recommend him if you can’t get Squall’s weapon.

Bartz

Role: BRV Attacker, Melee DPS

Bartz shines against bosses that can do a lot of damage. His first skill Doublehand becomes stronger as you use it more than 2 times.

His second skill can shave off 50% of the enemy’s BRV once you have used Doublehand twice. It is very good against strong Bosses when they can charge up well over 6k BRV.

Onion Knight

Role: BRV Attacker, Melee DPS, Magic DPS

Onion Knight gives both physical and magic damage. He can shave BRV with either the first skill (provides Ice damage) or second skill (gives speed bonus).

All in all, he is versatile and remember to bring him against enemies that are weak to ice.

Firion

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS

He is one of the few characters that can heal himself through his attacks. This is useful against the current co-op Dragon boss.

His second skill Seize Attack is actually ranged and does bonus damage when above 50% HP. This synergizes well with his first skill. He is also speedy when above 50% HP.

Setzer

Role: BRV Attacker, AoE, Ranged DPS

Setzer is actually really good as he can prevent enemies from gaining BRV for 2 turns. That means you can use it against bosses that are looking to charge up their BRV with a strong attack.

His second skill does good BRV damage and can break shields. When he runs out of abilities, he gets a buff to all his stats.

He is very useful but he may drop off in later patches.

Shanttoto

Role: BRV Attacker, Magical DPS

With chapter 6 added, this new BRV breaker mage has good versatility with 2 elemental magical attacks in wind and darkness. Both skills start hitting harder under 50% max HP.

She is best used when fighting against enemies that are weak against wind and darkness. Also useful in chapter 6 hard mode as most units are resistant to physical melee attacks.

Like most mages, she will be on the slower side.

Balthier

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Ranged DPS

Balthier can steal buffs from his enemies with his first skill and deal decent HP damage with his second skill. With his 5 star armor given due to the his character event, he is also good against his special 70 co-op, which requires buff stealing.

If you can pull his weapon, he will be very useful and deals good BRV damage as well.

Ramza

Role: Support, BRV Regen

Ramza is a great support attacker. His bread and butter skill is definitely the second one, which is a 5 turn (9 turns with 35 CP weapon) BRV regen every turn. This is great as it gives great battle power over time and can sometimes save your team from getting BRV broken. I would say he is the BRV version of Aiko, who provides HP regen instead.

His first skill increases his attack and max BRV slightly. Gives Ramza a nice regular attack boost. The only downside to Ramza is he doesn’t have a BRV attack, making him more of a support attacker. All in all, I won’t complain about his skillset though.

Eiko

Role: Support, BRV Party Steal, HP Regen

Eiko has great utility due to the fact that she can HP regen every team member every round, so she will keep your party healthy when they take damage.

Her second skill smite can deal some thunder BRV damage to the enemy and give that to the entire team. That’s super useful and she will be a reliable support for quite a while.

Vincent

Role: Ranged, BRV Attacker

If you currently lack a Fire or Thunder BRV attacker, Vincent can fill both roles very well. Deadly Beast Flare reduces fire resistance and initial BRV of the enemy and Livewire Shot reduces their thunder resistance and attack. Having the Dark Shout will extend both Vincent’s debuff duration and potency of both skills.

Faris

Role: Ranged, BRV Attacker, Debuff

Faris is a strong debuffer if you can get her 35CP weapon. With that weapon, your second skill’s debuffs (Atk Down, Def Down, Poison) are much stronger and a higher chance to land. She relies on using his skills twice and both her BRV attacks become stronger.

She is great against enemies weak against water and also a strong BRV shaver. As for speed, she might not be the fastest, but her hard hitting BRV attacks are good enough to have her be part of your team.

B Tier

Vivi

Role: BRV Attacker, Magic DPS

Vivi isn’t a very popular choice, but he can deal some decent damage with his magic attack fire. Against the Gaia Behemoth and Chimera, he gets 50% bonus due to both bosses being weak to fire.

His second skill Focus increases his max BRV bar slightly and makes him deal more damage. I would say his only downside is his slow speed.

Rem

Role: Support, Healer

Rem can cure allies and herself based on her attack power. Currently, its not to useful since you can clear a lot of content via pure attackers. Her second skill Swap Turns is situational but can be very useful in boss fights!

Tifa

Role: BRV Attacker, Melee DPS

Now Tifa’s skillset revolves around getting as much BRV bar as possible. Beat Rush is a decent BRV shaver. Her second skill Battle Cry doubles her current BRV, allowing her to do a lot of HP damage. A decent fighter no doubt.

Y’Shtola

Role: BRV Battery, Magic DPS, Debuff

Y’Shtola has a lot of utility with her magic stone attack. It delay’s the enemy’s turn by 1. It doesn’t do a lot of damage, but you can manipulate turns with this skill.

Her second skill recover’s her teammates BRV based on her current BRV. Too bad it doesn’t increase hers.

Yda

Role: BRV Attacker, Melee DPS

Yda is speedster once you use her first skill Snap Punch. She is able to gain multiple turns. She can shave BRV pretty well while doing

Her second skill Touch of Death can poison enemies. While it does well when the poison lands, but other than that the BRV damage is quite mediocre. Keep in mind poison will keep enemy BRV low even when you have already broken their BRV shield.

Yuffie

Role: Support, Ranged DPS

Yuffie is quite a situational character. She excels against strong enemies that can inflict debuffs and have high BRV attacks. So she does well against bosses.

Her first skill allows her to steal enemy BRV and add it to her attack. So if the boss has 8k BRV, you still that on top of what you have and deal that damage as well.

Her second skill transfers all the debuffs to the enemy. This is situational and only useful against monsters that like to inflict debuffs.

Edge

Role: Tank, Melee DPS, Magic DPS

Edge is versatile and provides magic attack with shock. Its useful against enemies weak to thunder.

His second skill Smoke Screen is a little bit of a disappointment though, Only gives 1 turn evasion, so you can’t really tank much.

Penelope

Role: Healer, Support

Penelope is a pure support that can speed up your entire team. She can also heal the team with a regen skill over 3 turns. Right now, not too useful, but once stronger enemies are out, regen will become very useful.

Yang

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Melee DPS, AoE

Yang is an all rounder that has a bit of everything. He doesn’t excel in anything but he does decent damage due to Focus + Kick combo.

His small AoE attack is rather insignificant though.

Steiner

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Melee Magic DPS

Steiner does bonus damage versus humanoid creatures. Not much of a bonus but better than nothing. His first skill can inflict attack down and does BRV+HP damage.

His second skill has the fire element and will be useful against enemies weak to fire (Gaia Behemoth, Chimera).

Shadow

Role: BRV Attacker, HP Attacker, Ranged DPS

Shadow’s first skill is very good if you can KO an enemy as it gives an 8 turn attack buff. His second skill Wild Throw is random, so you can’t determine who it hits unless its only 1 enemy. So use it against a single enemy.

Galuf

Role: Tank, Dodge

Galuf has a very useful ability in dodging attacks via cover and blade block. Both skills synergise very well. As a tank, the best use of him is the current 60 co-op against the Death Dragon. He can help cover or dodge deadly 1 hit attacks.

His damage and speed is nothing to write home about, but he has enough utility to be useful in manual play.

Zell

Role: BRV Attacker, BRV/HP Attacker, AoE

Zell only gets his first 15 CP weapon that improves Punch Rush and Burning Rave. The interesting mechanic of Zell’s skills makes him a fun one to play.

Each time you use either Punch Rush or Booya, he gains the Duel buff and unlocks Burning Rave and Meteor Barrage. Both skills will consume the Duel buff once you use the one of them. Burning Rave is an AoE attack that deals BRV/Hp damage to the target and then 10% HP to other non targets. Keep in mind that Burning Rave is actually ranged.

Meteor Barrage does good BRV/HP attack as well and has the Thunder element, making it useful against enemies weak to Thunder.

Layle

Role: Support, Ranged, Magic

Layle is a hybrid physical and magical ranged attacker. His normal attacks count as physical, but his skills counts as a magic attack.

His first skill Field Burst does BRV magic attack and makes enemy vulnerable to knock ups. His second skill is a BRV/HP attack that has a very high chance of knock up.

I would say he is a support attacker and complements a team that has knock up abilities like Cloud or Cecil. Since both Cecil and Cloud have physical knock up skills, Layle stands out as the magical knock up character. However, his is not 100% guaranteed, so most people would still pick Cloud for the chase role.

His 15 CP weapon is alright that boosts his first skill and increase chances of knock up but nothing to write home about.

His future 35 CP weapon is something you want to pay attention to though. It greatly improves the knock up chance and raises all allie’s BRV!

C Tier

Vanille

Role: Debuff, Magic DPS

Vanille is just a pure debuffer that takes away enemy advantage. She can inflict defense down on her first skill, but it does poor damage.

Her second skill is valuable against enemies that like to buff themselves. It has a low usage count, so it isn’t too good in long drawn out battles.

Her damage is quite mediocre to be honest.

Sazh

Role: Support, BRV Attacker

What a disappointment. his take aim is only useful against bats and he only gains an attack buff if the enemy has a debuff. Very situational. His second skill Attack boost gives bonus critical and attack up.

Wakka

Role: BRV Attacker, Debuff

While Wakka can blind enemies, it is only useful against strong physical attack bosses. You can use him in co-op against strong bosses like Skeleton Dragon, but you will need to time it before his physical attack.

While he is a BRV attacker, his Great Daring has a gambling element and requires some luck to trigger all his buffs. Very situational character unfortunately.

Why Wakka, why???