Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN) Tier List

Tier Lists

There are three lists: two for Seasonal Save Data and one for Chaos Manifestation (Roguelike Gameplay). Here's more info about them:

• Seasonal Save Data is based around a character's maximum Potential using their best decks, equipment, and teams in all save data-based game modes, excluding The Great Rift, such as Nebula Distortion and Tower of Screams.
• Great Rift is based on the current meta and performance of units exclusively in the current Great Rift cycle. For this reason, this tier list will always favor the latest rate-up character and be incredibly volatile.
• Chaos Manifestation is based on the consistency, floor, and flexibility of the character over multiple roguelike runs.

Each tier list ranks characters differently, meaning one character can be top tier in one mode but struggle in another.

Categories

• DPS: Characters whose primary focus is maximizing the damage they deal and being the main source of it in the team they’re present in.
• Support DPS: Characters that can be played as a main DPS but also have incredible supportive capabilities and options. Those in this category, while able to be placed in the DPS category, offer more to the team than just pure damage and therefore cannot be ranked directly against pure damage dealers.
• Support: Characters in this category are fully focused on aiding the team through either healing, draw power, searching, AP generation, or buffing/debuffing as a focus, with damage taking a back seat.

Tags

• [Watchlist]: Characters with this tag are marked as highly likely to move up or down a tier in a future update
• [Vanguard]: In the Great Rift game mode, this character can be used to great effect on the Vanguard portion of the battle.
• [Rearguard]: In the Great Rift game mode, this character can be used to great effect on the Rearguard portion of the battle.
• [Partner]: Character is only placed at their position on the tier list when played with another very specific character, otherwise their ranking falls.

Ratings

Each tier indicates a stage of power, consistency, and relevancy in the current meta, with higher tiers being more powerful. The half tier of T0.5 has also been included to better demonstrate the closeness of characters in CZN, as many are able to perform very similarly even at the highest level.

Seasonal Save Data & Great Rift

• T0 & T0.5: Characters in these tiers are more consistent, flexible, and powerful than those below them and are capable of succeeding in high difficulty runs even while carrying other team mates in order to build their decks and without having to rely on “good luck”.
• T1: Characters in this tier are good enough to clear high-end chaos/zero system difficulties, but aren’t as powerful or strong at carrying/farming as those in tiers above them, either due to weaker starting decks, reliance on hitting specific epiphanies and equipment, or less total damage, shielding, or healing output.
• T2: Characters in this tier, while absolutely playable, are outclassed in one or multiple areas, even after considering high-end deck-building options for their role for the current season. Either others perform the role they’re doing better, or their kit isn’t currently a strong fit.

Chaos Manifestation

• T0 & T0.5: Characters in these tiers are more consistent, flexible, and powerful than those below them and are capable of succeeding in high difficulty runs across most attempts without the need for “good luck”.
• T1: Characters in this tier are good enough to clear high-end Chaos/Zero system difficulties, but aren’t as powerful as those in tiers above them, either due to weaker starting decks, reliance on hitting specific epiphanies and equipment, or less total damage, shielding, or healing output.
• T2: Characters in this tier struggle to clear the highest difficulty Chaos/Zero system difficulties without being greatly assisted by other high-tier characters. These characters are usually only brought in order to acquire good save decks for them and not for their own merit in the mode.

General Criteria

• Manual play,
• Using optimal team composition,
• Characters are level 60,
• All Potentials unlocked,
• Character is equipped with a level 60 partner of either:
• S5 4★ or 3★ (Gold/Blue),
• S1 5★ (Purple),
• Character equipped with Memory Fragments that have optimal main and sub stats,
• Characters' Egos (dupes) are rated at:
• 4★ - E6,
• 5★ - E0.

Roles Criteria

We compare characters within their role - so DPS are compared to other DPS, and ratings are adjusted based on their performance in that role. Don't try to compare characters between roles, because their ratings mean different things.

• DPS: Rating is heavily influenced by the character's ability to deal enough damage to achieve success within the highest difficulty of seasonal save game modes and their consistency and ability to function without specific equipment/epiphanies in roguelike modes.
• Support DPS: Rating is heavily influenced by what synergy and benefit they provide to other characters while also factoring in general support and damage capabilities in both modes.
• Support: Rating is influenced by the character's ability to support the team either through buffing or providing additional resources in the form of card search, draw, or AP. How effective a support character is at enhancing one or multiple other characters' strategies determines their ranking on the tier list. Ability to sustain the team through healing is also considered.

09.04.2026

In this update, we’re making a few adjustments to the tier list in the off-season in preparation for Season 3, as well as adding

• Seasonal Save: Diana has a very high damage ceiling and doesn’t suffer at the hands of hard block mechanics like Elasticity, like characters such as Luke or Mei Lin. At the time of her release, our testing and calculations place her roughly around or a little higher than characters like Haru, who currently resides in T0.5. Based on this, for Seasonal Save, we’re granting her an initial placement of T0.5 as well. Given it’s the off-season, we’ll keep a close eye on how Diana plays out in the future to see if her rating needs further adjustment in the future.
• Chaos: In Chaos, Diana is a very capable damage choice thanks to her ability to operate with low or no AP commitment, provided you have access to Discard outlets able to trigger her Quietus cards. In addition to this, her damage output is solid even without copious amounts of card damage buffs. All this, combined with the fact that she works out of the box with her base deck, is enough for us to rank her T0.5 in Chaos on release as well.

In addition to adding Diana by popular demand and to better convey the roles of characters, we’ve decided to add characters to multiple different roles in the tier list. The following are the characters we’re applying multi-role ratings to initially.

• 
  Beryl (Added to DPS and Support): Beryl was previously in the sub-DPS category, but this did not properly reflect that Beryl is mostly used as either a main DPS or a support, with little crossover between them. Now, Beryl is reflected in both of her main roles.
• Damage: Beryl, as a Damage Dealer, is extremely consistent and great in most of the current content, but she generally is outperformed in potential because her damage is more or less capped by the number of retains in your hand, and this cap is far below competitor options, at the moment.
• Support: As a Support, Beryl works great for OTK with her high initial draw off Guilty Pleasure. However, Beryl's supportive capabilities generally fall off in comparison in prolonged engagements and for most content.
• 
  Rita (Added to DPS): Previously, Rita was only rated as a support damage dealer, while many players prefer to play her as a main damage dealer. In light of this, we’re also adding her to the main DPS column; however, despite being a top pick in S2’s final Great Rift, Rita’s output outside that game mode isn’t quite T1 level unless you fully dedicate yourself to farming hyper-optimized decks containing many rare neutral cards across multiple characters. These decks fall outside the scope of our current tier list criteria, and when assessing Rita around her highest damage, easily farmable decks, we currently feel she falls behind the likes of Kayron and Rin.
• 
  Renoa (Added to Support): While Renoa is most popularly a DPS, she’s also fully able to be played as a Support capable of matching the amount of draw power Veronica can output, providing she gets the right Divine Epiphanies and standard Epiphanies. Support Renoa has seen success across a number of endgame modes as an alternative to Veronica if she’s already in use or if she’s not available on the account. Lastly, support Renoa does have some very specific niches where she can offer an edge over Veronica as well, due to her draw deck featuring playable attack cards, while optimized Veronica decks usually don’t.
• 
  Veronica (Added to Support DPS): While Veronica's most popular save data builds generally do little to no damage, she's known for her ability to output a lot of damage in Chaos, so we wanted to properly reflect her utilization as both a support and sub-dps. Veronica's placement in Support DPS for Save data reflects how it is both extremely uncommon and a damage level below units like Hugo and Selena above her, as most of Veronica's value comes from her supportive capabilities and not her damage. In Chaos, Veronica offers heaps of passive unconditional damage while also supplying draw effects as well.

In addition to the above, we’re also making a few other minor changes due to new entrants in certain categories with multiple roles, or to the new “any-season” rules.

• 
  Nine - We’re watchlisting Nine to move out of T0. S2 was Nine’s season, no questions asked, whether it was Save or Chaos, both were built for her to succeed - and she very much did. However, we expect that when the current season is no longer built for her, Nine may not be as dominant.
• 
  Chizuru - Chizuru has consistently performed low as Single Target DPS - both in calculations and in-game performance metrics. Chizuru does have some situations that benefit her kit, namely long fights against bosses with no Elasticity - however, we have not seen this situation where she actually thrives in any of the seasons played thus far. Also, with new entrants filling the DPS tier list, the bar continues to rise bit by bit. Based on her long history and the current state of the evolving meta, we’re finally making the decision to move Chizuru down in Seasonal save for now.
• 
  Nia - Nia's strength as a discard engine for Diana meant we feel comfortable raising her to T0.5 to reflect her importance as Diana's signature support. If content in S3 continues to favor discarding, it is likely Nia will be even stronger than she already is, for S3 content specifically.

21.03.2026

In this update, we’re adding

Seasonal Great Rift Tier List: The Great Rift is currently one of CZN’s endgame pillars, and we feel it’s incredibly important to represent how characters are doing in the mode at any given time. However, combining the Great Rift with other save data game modes currently leads to almost a complete reorder of the tier list every new rift that drops. Another issue with the combined tier lists is that every new Great Rift is designed for the current Rate Up Banner, offering a warped perception of that character's power on release.

To solve both issues, we’re splitting Great Rift off as its own tier list, which will only be applicable to the current Great Rift in progress. This will allow us to accurately rate each character according to the rules of the present Rift and not need to make compromises or risk showing characters as weaker or stronger than they are in general. The current Seasonal Save tier list will remain as it is, but without Great Rift included, and will encompass Nebula Distortion, Event Game Modes, Tower of Screams, and any other save-based content outside of the rift.

Seasonal Save Updates

• 
  Haru - Post-Narja release, Haru has performed extremely well, and she's been watchlisted long enough that we feel comfortable moving her up a tier. Especially with all 3 distortion bosses being revealed and her being relatively unaffected by any modifier from them (something not true for Mei Lin, who is hurt quite a bit by Elasticity).
• 
  Luke - Hugo, being one of the strongest units in Save Data content, outside of Great Rift, makes Luke's value as Hugo's best driver quite high. Furthermore, Luke has access to Season-2's Forgotten Grave (Neutral that gives 100% crit-rate for one turn to Hunters/Rangers), which has made him perform very well in Season-2's distortion bosses. He was previously ranked lower due to the Great Rift’s long turn count being included in his assessment, but now, with that out of the picture, he has room to perform stronger without fixed turn limits.
• 
  Renoa - With the shift towards separating Great-Rift from other seasonal save data content, Renoa's ability to OTK with Season-2's Forgotten Grave has gotten much higher. She has also been growing in play in a more supportive role, as she is an incredibly strong draw unit--something we have our eyes on for her.
• 
  Rita - Rita is a unit who presents alternative options for a specific few units, like Nine & Haru, but overall tends to provide replaceable utility as a vulnerability-support with decent additional damage. Still, the units she provides utility to (Nine & Haru) are both rated very highly for seasonal content, even if there are other options for support that both of them can use instead of her. Finally, while her damage as a main-carry is fairly lackluster (outside of her signature Greater Rift), and she contributes much less damage than options like Hugo or Selena in a sub-DPS position, but more than units like Khalipe or Magna, putting her squarely in the middle of current sub-DPS.

27.02.2026

New characters has been released, so here's the tier list update to take their impact on the meta!

• 
  Tiphera - In Chaos, Tiphera is a generic healer, shielder, AP generator hybrid capable of keeping the team alive and also providing ample resources to help play out your hand more smoothly, similar to the likes of Mika and Narja - depending on your playstyle or team compositions, she can perform even better. Based on this, it shouldn’t be much surprise that we’re positioning her in T0 alongside them. In Save Tiphera is more niche but still incredibly powerful. On her release, she has a place alongside both Kayron and Nine, who are focal points of the current S2 meta, so to start things off, we’re placing her in T0.5.
• 
  Nine - With the release of Tiphera, Nine is gaining a new exceptionally powerful teammate that can either be played alongside or instead of Orlea. Additionally, with the Great Rift now released, it’s clear that the most important side for scoring (side 2) is designed specifically with characters like Nine in mind. Based on both of these changes, we’re updating Nine’s rating in both Save and Chaos to T0. Nine’s base power ceiling on an even playing field might not be at the absolute cutting edge, but with S2’s current rule set, she definitely sits at the top of the meta.
• 
  Kayron - Tiphera’s release also marks a major improvement to Kayron’s best save deck options, which, when combined with a Great Rift that majors single large hits and proper scaling positions, make Kayron far stronger compared to S1. Based on this and some early exceptional results from Asia’s Great Rift rankings, we’re moving Kayron up to T0.5 in Save.
• 
  Mei Lin - Mei Lin has some of the highest theoretical damage among any character in Save-based game modes thanks to the way Dragon Spire V scales with the rest of her kit and other teammates. However, she is constantly handicapped by checks and balances put in by the developers to ensure her potential goes unrealized. With the biggest offender being Elasticity, which caps the total hits an enemy can take damage from per attack at 7. We maintained Mei Lin at T0 for S1, assuming these checks might be temporary, but S2 also includes similar checks to keep Mei Lin in line. Because of this and her current performance in S2-based Save content, we’re moving her out of T0 for now.
• 
  Veronica - In Chaos, Veronica is played as a support/damage hybrid capable of contributing meaningful damage to encounters, which is why she was initially placed in the Support DPS category. However, in Save Data as the game ages, she’s almost exclusively played for her supportive capabilities, specifically her abilities to access either an absurd amount of draw or the combination of draw plus AP generation after Divine epiphanies. Internally, we’ve been on the fence about which category she belongs more in, but with S2 now fully out, we’re making the decision to move her to Support, as after the update to card removal rules, players are moving more and more heavily into playing her with no regard to her damage and committing her fully to support. We’re aware this makes her ranking in Chaos a little less accurate, but feel it’s worth it for ensuring the Save Tier list is correct.
• 
  Selena & the Partner Tag - Selena dominated S1 as soon as Sereniel was released as a dedicated partner for her, capable of refreshing Tenacity and dealing an absurd amount of Extra Attack damage, all fueled by Sereniel’s Laser Spam. We held off on elevating Selena to T0 at the time due to Veronica occupying that slot in Support Damage and the fact that we weren’t sure her dominance would have a place outside of specifically tailor-made Great Rift bosses, but now in S2, her dominance is continuing. Based on this, we’re elevating her to T0 but with a new tag, the Partner Tag. The Partner tag indicates the tagged character is only placed at their position on the tier list when played with another very specific character, otherwise their ranking falls.
• Save Data DPS Adjustments: With Mei Lin moving down, Kayron being elevated, many characters reworks properly settling in, and the Great Rift encounter design properly being revealed, we're also making some major adjustments to the current DPS category rankings as well.

09.02.2026

In this update, we’re adding

The Shielder Category: At the start of CZN, shielding was seen as a valuable tool to bring to Chaos to survive going insane and potentially losing runs, and in Save data modes, it was a crutch to avoid one-shots. As the game has become more and more solved and players have acquired better gear and more progressed accounts, shielding has gradually slipped more and more into obscurity as a must-have on teams.

Based on this, we’re removing the Shielder category and merging it into the existing ones. A few characters will be moving and have their ratings adjusted to be in line with the criteria of their new home:

• 
  Maribell - Out of moving Maribell to Support DPS or Damage, we felt she belonged more in Damage, as despite having shielding in her kit, she doesn’t have much else when it comes to support. Her damage, on the other hand, is quite capable thanks to its scaling based on the team's total shield. This allows Maribell to be played as a damage dealer given the right support and teammates, and while she’s not the most popular, she has proven she’s capable of clearing endgame when the conditions are right. Because of this, we’re placing her in the Damage category.
• 
  Khalipe - Khalipe could have landed in either the Damage or Support Damage categories, but we feel she’s currently better positioned as a Support Damage dealer, thanks to her ability to select from a wide variety of incredibly potent Vulture Launch epiphanies with fantastic supportive effects like Vulnerability. This, on top of her top-notch shielding, made her feel more at home here than as a pure damage dealer, although she is quite capable on that front too.
• 
  Magna - Similar to Khalipe, Magna feels better positioned as a Support Damage dealer than a pure damage dealer. While her counter builds are capable of outputting some nice damage, especially after the rework to allow them to Crit, Magna still isn’t a character who feels at her strongest when played as the sole damage dealer outside of a few exceptions. Because of this and her ability to grant great shields and apply Vulnerability, we’re placing her in Support Damage alongside Khalipe for now.

A few other characters have had their roles switched based on reworks and the meta:

• 
  Hugo - Hugo is a character who relies on other characters with a high amount of attacks to function optimally. This usually means characters like Luke, Sereniel, or in the past, Tressa. Previously, we positioned Tressa as the support damage dealer, but now, with her and Cassius’s rework, we’re taking the time to correct what we believe might not have been an inaccurate representation of her or Hugo’s role. Due to the fact that Hugo can’t really currently be played alone and needs another attacker to function on top of his outstanding card draw and mostly passive damage play style, we think he, not Tressa, is the better fit for the Support Damage category. Hugo feels more similar in playstyle to Selena than most Damage characters, so we think it’s a good fit for now.
• 
  Owen - Owen rarely ever saw any play as a Damage dealer, or even a Support Damage dealer. Now, with the release of Nine, players are finally starting to experiment and find some moderate success with his kit. This success, however, is playing him effectively as a Support dedicated only to buffing and debuffing. As this is the first proper use Owen has seen in the meta, we’re adjusting his placement to be in line with it.
• 
  Tressa - Before her rework, Tressa was the number one card generator alongside Cassius and synergizes incredibly well with him. This niche was why she was placed in the Support damage category. By generating cards, she could support and enable Cassius and other characters like Hugo. Now, with that functionality completely removed from her kit, what’s left is more damage-focused, so we’re adjusting her category accordingly. Unfortunately, based on currently testing and known strategies, the rework to Tressa has not left her in nearly as powerful a place in the meta. We’ll be keeping an eye on all new strategies tested moving forward, though, and adjust her rating based on any new discoveries.

Outside of category changes, there are also quite a few major moves on both tier lists that we want to address. We won't be covering every change, but just a few key ones.

• 
  Nine - Nine is debuting on the tier list incredibly high in both Chaos and Seasonal Save. She could be even higher when only considering Nebula Distortion and S2 Burning Life’s Chaos, but we’re rating her conservatively before seeing what this season's Great Hall has to offer, and because she doesn’t hold quite as dominating a performance in the Non-Season Chaos modes.
• Save: In Seasonal Save Nine has the advantage of being the favorite for the time being, with all content currently playable being tailored heavily toward her strengths. In addition to this, many of the Seasonal equipment, refinements, and events are designed with her in mind in order to boost her power level even further. All this combined allows her to perform above the base power of her kit, which all things considered, is already actually very strong.
• Chaos: In general, in Chaos Nine is a character who can end up having a slow start, depending on when you gain access to all her cards. Hew and its huge 3 AP cost is difficult to use unless you’re willing to give up almost the entirety of your turn. This persists until you get Fighting Spirit, which lets you cheat it out. After this point, Nine feels far better. Overall, because of this early weakness, Nine can feel a little clunky in Chaos until she gets rolling, but in S2 Burning Life, the dedicated Chaos for this season, Nine gains access to multiple bonuses that help solve this weakness, making her feel much better. Many enemy encounters, events, and easy to find equipments are all designed to make her life easier, with many of them specifically targeting Hew’s AP awkwardness.
• 
  Orlea - Orlea has received both a huge buff across the board to her kit and a new dedicated team member who perfectly synergizes with all the benefits she brings to the table. Because of this, she’s seeing a meteoric rise up the tier lists in both Chaos and Save. Right now, her main synergies are alongside Nine and other single-hit heavy hitters, but experimentation is ongoing, and others have already started seeing success with her elsewhere as well.
• 
  Cassius - Cassius’s rework has eliminated his card-looping playstyle, which was absolutely ridiculous alongside characters like Sereniel, Tressa, Luke, and Chizuru; therefore, he is no longer the absolute top dog of the support category. However, unlike Tressa, his rework hasn’t completely knocked him out of the top end of the meta. Many are seeing significant success by utilizing new ways to build Cassius, which instead of infinite Quests, focuses on neutral epiphanies that leverage Dice Trick’s 2 AP cost, which can be reduced very easily to 0. This combination allows Cassius to get some of the strongest neutral epiphanies exclusive to expensive cards at the same time as playing them for 0. Because of this, Cassius still remains a force to be reckoned with, even though builds are still being figured out.
• 
  Mika - Mika has both gained value in Chaos and lost value in Save.
• Save: In Save, Mika lost one of her largest Niches in the meta, which was the best enabler for generating daggers for Tressa. Without this Synergy alongside arguably one of, if not the most dominant teams in the game, Mika loses a lot of meta relevance. In many teams that require AP, Mika can either be replaced by Divine epiphanies, which are now realistically far easier to farm for and get, or must compete with Narja, whose cost reduction can be transformative in some characters' strategies, like Haru and Rin who need to add back individual cards multiple times a turn which when discounted by Narja gain huge value. Because of all this, we feel Mika is currently behind the pack in support, as all she provides right now is AP and healing.
• Chaos: In Chaos, we previously moved Mika down after Narja released, as Narja simply did most of what Mika did slightly better, with the main deciding factor on the move being the fact Narja had better access to Unique cards than Mika - something which was incredibly important to the Chaos farming meta at the time. This advantage has since been removed, which we feel is enough to close the gap back and for Mika to return to T0 for the mode as one of the strongest comfort picks for your teams.
• 
  Nia - Nia’s power in S1 was largely tied to her ability to abuse Forbidden: Eternal Hunger to gain huge AP generation and Card Draw for effectively free. Without this, her kit takes a huge hit in power, so much so that we’re lowering her rating on the tier list for now. In Chaos however, her buffs have proven strong enough that we’re raising her out of T2 toward T1.5; she’s now a stronger and more consistent healer, especially at max copies.
• Watchlists - A number of other characters have been placed on the watch list until we see more from them and complete more testing. S2 introduced a lot of changes and will take a while to figure out, so stay tuned for more updates leading up to the release of The Great Hall.