LordKarasuman
New member
Tier List based on Ver 2.2 Mania Difficulty Solo, at 9 Lives per continue, with nothing else adjusted and no CPU partners (in fact, in Mania CPU partners can hurt more than help a lot of the time).
Keep in mind that I'm honestly not the best player so take all of this with a grain of salt.
S [Mania doesn't feel any different from Normal/Easy. 1cc is VERY easy.]
Abadede, Rocky Bear, Shiva (SoR2), Shiva (SoR3), Mr. X, Robot Mr. X
A [Mania doesn't feel any different from Hard. 1cc is consistent.]
Harakiri, Particle, Jet (SoR2), Yamato
B [I can complete both routes on Mania with these characters. 1cc is a challenge.]
Barbon, Zamza, Raven, Neo-X, Tracker, Blaze, Adam, Max
C [I can complete both routes on Mania with these characters. 1cc is a struggle.]
Bruce, Jet (SoR3), Ash, Break, Axel, Skate
D [I can complete at least one route on Mania with these characters. 1cc is impossible.]
Electra (SoR2), Electra (BK3)
F [I cannot or do not want to complete any route on Mania with these characters.]
Galsia, Donovan, Signal, Fog, Hakuyo, Kusanagi, Big-Ben, Bongo, Jack, Slum, Vice, Garnet, MacLeod, Tiger, P-1, Roo, Monalisa
Eagerly looking forward to future versions to see how things change. I find every character from D upward to be fun to use (thank you Kratus) and some of them are probably tiered low because I just don't know how to use them (i.e. Axel). Even the characters in F are fine and capable of giving you a playable experience if you scale things down to Hard difficulty.
Keep in mind that I'm honestly not the best player so take all of this with a grain of salt.
S [Mania doesn't feel any different from Normal/Easy. 1cc is VERY easy.]
Abadede, Rocky Bear, Shiva (SoR2), Shiva (SoR3), Mr. X, Robot Mr. X
A [Mania doesn't feel any different from Hard. 1cc is consistent.]
Harakiri, Particle, Jet (SoR2), Yamato
B [I can complete both routes on Mania with these characters. 1cc is a challenge.]
Barbon, Zamza, Raven, Neo-X, Tracker, Blaze, Adam, Max
C [I can complete both routes on Mania with these characters. 1cc is a struggle.]
Bruce, Jet (SoR3), Ash, Break, Axel, Skate
D [I can complete at least one route on Mania with these characters. 1cc is impossible.]
Electra (SoR2), Electra (BK3)
F [I cannot or do not want to complete any route on Mania with these characters.]
Galsia, Donovan, Signal, Fog, Hakuyo, Kusanagi, Big-Ben, Bongo, Jack, Slum, Vice, Garnet, MacLeod, Tiger, P-1, Roo, Monalisa
Brief Writeups said:Abadede - If you don't want to spend life doing moves, Charge Attack will do 32x3 damage. If you DO want to spend life, Forward Special does 96 damage in one go. The Ultimate Warrior is probably the peak definition of "tuned to kill".
Shiva (SoR2), Shiva (SoR3) - ... Do I really need to explain how good Shiva is?
Rocky Bear - You could probably get by spamming either Charge Attack or Forward Special. You're gonna do obnoxious damage either way. The former gives you terrific range and the latter gives you ridiculous i-frames.
Mr. X - Free long range attacks are one thing, but notice that his regular attacks (the gun swing) have i-frames in their entirety. An easy test for this ability is to go up to Barbon and then spam regular attacks while he does his Rage Attack. Feel free to laugh gleefully as not a single hit goes through. Special is just a stronger version of this attack, giving you a cool 32x2 damage.
Robot Mr. X - Free long range attacks, terrific priority on his attack string, Special is a solid "get off me" move.
Harakiri - Would be higher because honestly, everything he does that isn't his Rage Attack leads into easy juggles. The problem is he takes slightly more finesse to use and some of his matchups (including the mirror against CPU Harakiri) are fairly awkward. He does have mobility issues but Dash Attack is good at mitigating them.
Particle - Everything does big damage, especially your Rage Attack at long range. Just have to get used to the way you move.
Jet (SoR2) - Regular attack (rocket punch) annihilates crowds, but anyone who blocks is going to present a problem and you'll have to attack them from awkward angles. Anything you can't hit with rocket punch you'll just have to hit with Jump (triangle kick). Also, landing his Rage Attack is rewarding but requires finesse.
Yamato - Somewhat lower damage than other bosses but you've got good juggle potential at mid range, Special (teleport slash) provides true invincibility via a getaway, and your Rage Attack is frankly one of the easier ones to land. Down jump attack (center angle jump shuriken) can protect you in case of crowds that lack jump attacks themselves. Fun to use but somewhat technical due to the way his regular attacks and jump attacks behaves.
Barbon - You can probably get by spamming his Special which does a cool 48 damage, as well as his Charge Attack for anti-air. Your Rage Attack is also solid and somewhat easy to land on grounded targets. Not fond of your regular attack though, and you're doing way less damage than other bosses in general.
Zamza - Your safest move is probably Back Attack (slide kick). You do have other solid moves but unlike CPU Zamza you will get hit out of them often so be careful.
Raven - Charge Attack (THE KICK) will stuff so many attacks and serves as crowd control, so use it often. Whenever you get a chance, spam his throw infinite (grab, attack attack attack, regular attack x1 or x2, then grab again).
Neo-X - Hilariously awkward to use but he'll get through the game just by virtue of all the i-frames on everything he does.
Bruce - You have probably the longest range melee regular attack in the game, and it comes so fast that it is an easy infinite a lot of opponents ESPECIALLY on BK3 route. However, SoR2 is a miserable battle because of the gamut of Super Armor bosses, against which you can only safely do a piddly amount of damage from Forward Special. Anything that is not one of these Super Armor bosses will melt like snow against a fire to your regular attacks, though.
Jet (SoR3) - You do exactly half the damage of Jet (SoR2) due to the fact that this version of Jet is balanced around being backed up by a pair of Rocket enemies. Combine this with the fact that your Rage attack is much more unwieldy and you have a recipe for disaster as encounters Jet (SoR2) would find easy are much harder for you.
Electra (SoR2) - It's sluggish but your regular attack will serve as a functional infinite on almost every trash mob in the game, with special exception to Tiger martial artists who are just fast enough to squeeze something out to interrupt you, and Electra (BK3) whose irregular rising animation speeds will prompt you to mess up and cause her to annihilate your entire health bar in the blink of an eye. Your only safe move against bosses is your infamous Jump Attack which incidentally will stuff most everything in the game especially due to the fact that its hitbox is about the size of Planet Earth, going so far as to hit behind you. However, you do not output enough damage safely to be able to do anything about SoR2 bosses like Abadede, so route completion is probably relegated to BK3 when you're on Mania. Have fun doing 8 damage to Robot Mr. X. Note that Electra can do her Jump Kick diagonally or vertically (i.e. she can move on the vertical axis when doing it) so abuse that when necessary too.
Electra (BK3) - Realistically speaking, you are an inferior Bruce with some mildly different tricks that do have some utility but ultimately aren't enough to make you out of D Tier. However, you CAN complete BK3 route pretty handily. Your regular attack will be an infinite not only on nearly every regular enemy, but also some bosses. Abuse this as much as you can. Forward Special does 32 damage and will often be your main method of damage bosses. Unfortunately, a lack of other tools mean SoR2 route is nightmarish to the point of impossibility so don't try it. I'm kind of surprised Kratus didn't give her a short backward hop for a Dodge, though I'm not sure how much that would help and it would probably make her even more of a pain in the ass to fight as a CPU opponent.
Galsia - Punch spam is cute when you've got other guys helping you do it. When you're by yourself you kinda suck.
Donovan - Your specials work fine when the CPU knows the perfect positioning for when they land. If you're alone their poor range rears its ugly head and they don't even do any damage.
Signal - If that slide attack didn't cost life you might be able to get somewhere, but probably not because again your damage sucks.
Fog - That punch is annoying but your range is bad and you will get zoned out by a whole lot of other enemies. It's cute that you can grab people though.
Hakuyo - You have a Jump Attack that does similar damage to Electra (SoR2) but with none of the mobility (can't move vertically while doing it) and a terrifically inferior hitbox. Unfortunately it's probably also your only trick because everything else does poor damage.
Kusanagi - The damage these guys do is reliant on there being multiple of them smacking their hits together in a juggle. You're by yourself so you're screwed.
Big-Ben, Bongo - Your damage is actually alright but frankly your movement is awkward, your jump attacks don't cause knockdown, and you're essentially trading life to do attacks that get you anywhere. I could see someone clearing the game with them which would make me move them up a tier but I won't be the one to do it.
Jack - You have no real way of dealing with Double Jet or SoR3 Jet and dropping knives will only hurt you as the most common enemy in the game (Galsia) becomes a magnitude more lethal. Spamming Charge Attack probably won't get you through either, and in the first place if you're going to do that you should at least use Raven.
Slum - If that kick didn't cost life you might actually be able to do something with this guy, but it does so you're boned.
Vice - Like Fog, having a grab is cute but doesn't help enough.
Garnet - Annoying to face, but when actually using her your opponents will weave around you to perfectly avoid your kick before smashing your face in because your melee game is nonexistent.
MacLeod - Long range attacks are fun and cost nothing, but once enemies are up in your face you're probably going to have a hard time. I think there might be something here but honestly, using him is an exercise in frustration.
Tiger - Your Jump Attack is your best thing but it sucks and you have literally nothing else good enough to pull you through a route completion.
P-1 - You do meaty damage at 48 per regular attack hit, but your mobility is awful and the minute you run into a boss who can block, it's over.
Roo - I hate to put the Kangaroo here but despite being extremely dangerous as an opponent, every move you do is going to get stuffed by your enemies and this is especially true when you run up against blockers. Barbon alone will mess your day up.
Monalisa - Congratulations, your big ticket damage attacks are Forward Special and Rage Attack (projectile wave), both of which get canceled out by any jerk who can block. You can do some neat combos using Downward Jump Attack (triangle kick) as a starter, but then you realize you take eons to do the amount of damage D or C characters do with not nearly the same amount of trouble.
Eagerly looking forward to future versions to see how things change. I find every character from D upward to be fun to use (thank you Kratus) and some of them are probably tiered low because I just don't know how to use them (i.e. Axel). Even the characters in F are fine and capable of giving you a playable experience if you scale things down to Hard difficulty.