Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN) Tier List

Tier Lists

There are two-tier lists, one for Seasonal Save Data and one for Chaos Manifestation (Roguelike Gameplay).

• Seasonal Save Data is based around a character's maximum potential using their best decks, equipment, and teams in the Nebula Distortion and The Great Rift game modes. Of the two, significantly more value is placed on The Great Rift game mode.
• 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.

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

• 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.

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.

15.01.2026

Season 1 made major changes to CZN’s endgame while also introducing a host of quality-of-life additions. The combination of these changes, alongside brand-new, far more challenging content, resulted in deck-building strategies being taken to the next level to optimize for a level of difficulty not seen in the game before the season started. The result of all of this was a far greater understanding of what’s strongest for each game mode by everyone.

With Season 1 now over, we’re making some major updates to the tier list based on all the learnings of the season, plus the introduction of

New things:

• Tier 1.5: Now that we have more characters and the difference between their power level is more apparent, we’re introducing another tier in order to be able to more accurately represent the power gap between characters within each category.
• Unique Cards: Unique card blocking is now at the forefront of optimal deck farming in Chaos-related game modes. If you want the best odds of getting a card duplicate you want, you’ll want to be running the character your deck building for alongside 2 other characters with as many unique cards as possible (they cannot be offered as duplication choices). Because of this, we’re adding Unique Card potential as a minor part of the Chaos criteria. In the event that new, much harder Chaos content is released that cannot be “farmed,” we’ll consider removing this addition, but until then, we want the tier list to reflect what’s currently optimal in the mode as much as possible.
• Shielders: Currently, shielders aren’t a popular choice in either Chaos or Save data game modes. In this update, we’re adjusting the whole category, ranking everyone there down a tier to reflect their current position in the meta, as no shielder currently satisfies all the criteria in order to be considered T0. In Save data, we had planned to adjust rankings in a similar fashion, but with the release of Narja and all shielders being Def Damage dealers, we’ll instead be holding off to see if Narja can improve the relevancy of any of them.

Now let's talk about

• Chaos: In Chaos Narja heals, brings great AP efficiency, deals solid single target and AoE damage, and buffs all while possessing the potential to convert 3 of her cards into unique via Epiphanies (on top of one of her cards already starting with unique). That’s up to 4 total unique cards or 80% of her total card pool, which, when combined with her strong all-around kit covering almost every base all by herself - we strongly feel she’s worthy of the tier 0 spot.
• Save: Narja has a lot of save data deck options, almost too many, all of which are powerful in their own niches and teams. With that said, the majority of those decks are currently at or around the power level of current supports, with the sole exception being Cassius and his ability to generate his way out of control in any encounter he’s allowed to set up. We believe Narja has potential to grow as more characters are released, especially if they play into her Def-Buffing playstyle, but right now, she doesn’t feel like she overpowers current options with the community's current understanding of her kit.

After season 2 begins, we’ll be doing another major update of the tier list based on the new equipment, encounters, and neutral cards made available.

26.12.2025

In this update, we’re adjusting the tier list based on the newly released Great Rift setup as well as adding

• 
  Sereniel - At the time of her release, Sereniel had already proven she’s a force to be reckoned with in both Chaos-based game modes and Save Data modes.
• Chaos: In Chaos Sereniel’s main strength is her absurd unconditional Tenacity damage that often leads to one or multiple Ravages per turn, which unlocks the rest of her kit, allowing her to add back cards to snowball more damage and even more ravages. It would be one thing if this strategy relied on specific Epiphanies to work, but it doesn’t - even Sereniel’s base cards perform at an incredibly high level, and most of her epiphanies are not only viable but further add to this strength. All this adds up to a very capable and well-rounded character in the mode.
• Save: Sereniel isn’t the highest output single target DPS in the game, losing that title to Mei Lin and other similar multi-hit scalers, but she is very well suited to the current meta, specifically the current Great Rift, which is basically designed around her. Even looking past this, though, Sereniel has a strong enough kit and team options that she’s absolutely able to stand above the pack when optimized, especially if you’re willing to go a step further and invest in multi-Ravage set-ups using Selena’s Tenacity restoring cards. In the current seasonal endgame, Sereniel is definitely a tier 0 unit. We’ll review her rating again when the shilling stops, but given her incredibly high ceiling, only limited by the amount of Ravages you can achieve per turn, we don’t expect her to fall too far behind even once it stops.
• 
  Selena - Before Sereniel's release, Selena lacked a home in any top-end teams; now, after her release, she very clearly has a niche and a position by her side. Selena is capable of refreshing the enemy's Tenacity bar multiple times per turn, allowing Sereniel to continually generate and add back her lasers. She is the only character that can enable this currently and is one of Sereniel’s stronger save data teammates. Based on this, we’re raising her save data rating up a tier.
• 
  Yuki - Before this update, Yuki’s rating was propped up by her strength on side one of the previous Great Rift. Now, in the new great Rift, Yuki is seeing very little success which, combined with her just okay performance in Nebula Distortion, is enough to knock her down a tier for now.