ARKNIGHTS: ENDFIELD CHARACTER TIER LIST (V1.5)
Table of Contents
Talos-II is into Version 1.5 Phase 1. The Sunderblade rotation popularised by Zhuang Fangyi in v1.2 is still the bar for Physical-adjacent burst, v1.4 put Arcane at the top of the Nature lane and Liino at the top of the support pile, and Phase 1 has now released Typhoeus on the Winter Hunt banner: a 6-star Nature Striker who fights from the air, converts Hunting Arrows into guaranteed Nature Bursts, and strips the shield stacks on the new Snowy Forest enemies without a finisher operator. Squads still win or lose on how cleanly they chain status applications, consumptions, and reaction triggers. What Typhoeus changes is the axis you fight on, because hovering takes her out of reach of the ground attacks that decide most melee-dense fights. This tier list ranks every operative in the global roster against that updated bar, and the long-form sections below explain every placement in detail so you can argue with the rankings instead of taking them on faith.
If you are new to the system, the high-level model is simple. Physical damage is governed by a "build then consume" cycle around Vulnerability stacks. Arts damage layers four elements (Heat, Electric, Cryo, and Nature) that compound through Bursts and Reactions. Every meta-defining operative in Version 1.5 is a specialist somewhere in that loop: an enabler that builds the right stacks, a consumer that capitalises on them, or a hybrid that does both inside one rotation.
The rankings below pull together two months of v1.2 community testing, the full v1.3 and v1.4 cycles, CN server feedback, and post-launch v1.5 testing including timed clears and single-target damage calculations. If you have not yet read the foundational mechanics, the inflictions and reactions guide and the damage formula deep dive are essential reading and pair naturally with this article. Placements also assume you are checking what you are actually fighting: the enemy database carries the resistances and stagger thresholds these rankings are measured against.
For pull planning around the live Winter Hunt banner, jump straight to the Typhoeus SS-tier deep dive below or the outlook section near the bottom. Otherwise, work through it in order: the deep dives reference mechanics introduced in the first section, and the team comps reference the operatives covered in the second.
Quick Answer
The current best DPS in v1.5 is still Zhuang Fangyi on raw ceiling, with Yvonne the benchmark single-target boss killer and Laevatain unchallenged at AoE wave clear. The headline pull of the patch is Typhoeus, who debuts in SS as a Nature Striker built around aerial Nature Bursts and scales up the more targets she is given. The best support remains Liino, covering healing, a team ATK Boost, Electric and Nature Amp, and SP refunds for Electric operators from one slot. The surprise of the patch is Xaihi, promoted to S: her Combo Skill drives Corrosion to tier 4 alongside Liino-class Amp values, which is why she, and not Liino, takes the fourth seat in the fastest Typhoeus team. Ardelia remains the best free support, applying both Physical and Arts Susceptibility through Corrosion shred. Arcane holds the Nature lane and is the single largest swing in any Typhoeus lineup, and Mi Fu is the self-sufficient Physical Guard whose Qingbo Triplex rotation consumes Vulnerability into Crush damage.
11 SS-tier and 7 S-tier operators define the current meta in v1.5. Before pulling for any of them, cross-reference the team tier list, because synergy matters more than raw tier for clearing endgame content, and a coherent A-tier comp will outperform a mismatched SS-heavy roster. For the Contingency Contract endgame event the rankings shift toward survivability and reaction enablers, so we rank every operator with full progression data individually on the Contingency Contract operator tier list, where picks like Estella and Wulfgard punch above their general-purpose tier. For the mode's mechanics, rewards, and team codes, see the Contingency Contract hub.
The Tier Rankings
Here are the current Version 1.5 rankings in full, refreshed for Phase 1. Operators are bucketed by how much utility they add to a top-end squad, not by raw rarity, so a couple of the 5-stars below sit higher than 6-stars in the same role, and the reasoning lives in the per-card notes. Click any operator portrait to jump to their full breakdown, which is the character page with build recommendations and Artificing notes for most of the roster, and the build guide for operators whose progression data has not landed yet.
Read the tiers as bands rather than strict orderings. A unit at the top of A-tier outperforms one at the bottom of S-tier in plenty of stages, especially once you account for team synergy. Use the cards for quick lookup, then read the deep dives below for the reasoning that drove each placement.
SS Tier: Meta-Defining
The SS tier is reserved for operatives that define the meta. Each kit either anchors an elemental archetype on its own or bridges two systems in a way nobody else does. Every premium endgame composition includes at least one of the units below.
SS Tier
Meta-Defining - Universal utility, massive AoE, or unique mechanics
Typhoeus
★★★★★★
NatureVersion 1.5 Phase 1 limited headliner and the first operator who fights from the air. Her weapon class is Arts Unit, not a new bow class, so every Arts Unit already in your pool is legal on her. Two resources run the kit: Hunting Arrows empower her aerial attacks and fire a guaranteed Nature Burst regardless of what is on the target, and Signs accumulate from every team Nature Burst plus every Infliction stack she consumes. About 73 percent of her damage is Nature Bursts, so you build her team from Nature stack sources rather than raw damage buffs. Her Battle Skill and Ultimate both put her in a Hovering state that evades ground attacks, and that Battle Skill strips the shield stacks on the new Snowy Forest enemies without needing a finisher operator. She scales up against two or more targets and leans hard on Corrosion with the right enablers.
Liino
★★★★★★
ElectricVersion 1.4 Phase 2 headliner and the first universal support since Ardelia. Dazzling Focus enters Vocalist Stance for a team-wide ATK Boost, in-range HP Treatment, and periodic Electric ticks; Dawnstar Concerto enters Cosmovoice Stance to heal the squad, force Electrification across a large area, and hand out Electric Amp and Nature Amp at the same time. Her Electric Skill Recovery talent refunds 10 SP every time another Electric operator casts a Battle Skill, which is why she has already displaced Gilberta in the premium Zhuang Fangyi shell. The caveat that keeps her honest: she is a support before she is a healer, almost all of that value rides on stance uptime, and her Combo Skill needs a second infliction source on the board to fire.
Arcane
★★★★★★NatureVersion 1.4 headline limited Nature Caster (Li Zhiyan). Array Arcana flips her role by stat sheet: INT state is a Corrosion DPS whose Gloompurge ultimate force-applies Corrosion and shreds resistance, WILL state is a controller that groups, imprisons, and spreads Arts Susceptibility for a hypercarry. The most flexible unit shipped so far, but build-dependent: you must commit to one stat, and her ceiling wants a Cryo or Electric partner (Xaihi, Tangtang) to react against her Nature. Signature Type 42: Solemn Phalanx pushes the INT damage build.
Zhuang Fangyi
★★★★★★ElectricThe defining DPS of Version 1.2. Loops Sunderblades through the 'Empyrean of Truth' ult state, where her first Battle Skill is free and Combo cooldown is slashed by 400%. Demands Ultimate Gain Efficiency investment but ceilings nothing else in the roster.
Laevatain
★★★★★★
HeatUnmatched AoE burst. Builds Melting Flame stacks off teammate Heat Inflictions, then her Twilight ult turns basic attacks into a self-sustaining Combustion loop. Clears v1.2 Umbral Monument waves faster than any other unit.
Ardelia
★★★★★★NatureFree launch 6-star and the most universally useful support in the game. Corrosion shred applies both Physical AND Arts Susceptibility, making her plug-and-play in every team.
Yvonne
★★★★★★
CryoPremier single-target boss killer. Brr-Brr-Bomb β consumes Cryo/Nature inflictions to force Solidification while feeding her ult energy. Cryoblasting Pistolier ult stacks Crit Rate + Crit DMG for an execution window.
Tangtang
★★★★★★CryoMost flexible operative on Talos-II. Full-screen time-stop ult immobilizes bosses; Combo Skill triggers on any Cryo Infliction or Arts Burst, so she slots into any team needing a burst window.
Rossi
★★★★★★
PhysicalHybrid Physical/Heat carry. Her Combo Skill 'transforms' Arts Inflictions into Vulnerability stacks; Razor Clawmark debuff stacks Physical DoT and susceptibility. Perfect Timing combos reward execution mastery.
Gilberta
★★★★★★NatureThe Physical/Arts hybrid bridge. Gravity Mode pulls scattered packs; her ult applies Arts Susceptibility scaling with target Vulnerability stacks. Innate AoE healing often removes the need for a dedicated medic.
Mi Fu
★★★★★★PhysicalWuling Watch captain and v1.3 banner unit. Qingbo Triplex chains three battle-skill moves — Cloudtrapper pulls and groups, Trail and Mangle consumes Vulnerability into Crush, and World Splitter detonates a Physical Crush AoE. Self-shielding on Combo and a 50 SP refund on the pull keep the rotation lean; pairs naturally with Pogranichnik for Breach and Chen Qianyu or Lifeng for Vulnerability feed.
The throughline across SS is role compression. Laevatain anchors Heat, Zhuang Fangyi anchors Electric, Yvonne anchors single-target Cryo, Mi Fu is a self-contained Physical Guard, and Arcane covers Nature as the Caster who both carries and enables through Corrosion and Array Arcana. Typhoeus is the Version 1.5 addition and the only operator who fights from the air, which turns melee-dense packs from a threat into a non-event. Liino remains the clearest case of compression on the whole grid: healing, a team ATK Boost, Electric and Nature Amp, and an SP refund engine, all from one slot and all without caring which element your carry uses. The rest (Ardelia, Tangtang, Rossi, and Gilberta) bridge systems instead of doubling down on one. Skip an SS pick only if you already have another covering the same archetype.
S Tier: Optimal Assets
S-tier is where the meta gets opinionated. Each operative here is the best in the game at one specific job, and every premium endgame comp is built around at least one of them. They do not headline a team the way SS units do, but skipping them leaves a hole that nothing in A-tier can fill.
S Tier
Optimal Assets - Core anchors for elemental cores or team archetypes
Last Rite
★★★★★★CryoFree-to-play-friendly 6-star Cryo DPS. Greatsword combos stack heavy stagger and freeze/shatter burst — strong AoE potential in mono-Cryo setups with Xaihi or Tangtang.
Pogranichnik
★★★★★★PhysicalCornerstone battery for Physical teams. Generates SP and applies Breach, lowering Physical DEF while fueling the team's burst cycles. Best partner for the Endministrator or Rossi.
Camille
★★★★★★HeatThe Heat analogue to Pogranichnik and the cleanest Heat enabler the roster has shipped. Firefang Vesperwings plants Heat Susceptibility and Weaken on the carry's target; his Combo Skill refunds roughly 20 SP and grants party-wide Link off any marked target, and Sanguine Downpour returns about 30 SP before priming a free enhanced Combo. A pure force multiplier, not a carry: pull him if you run Laevatain, skip him if your Heat lane is empty. The first non-standard-banner male 6-star.
Endministrator
★★★★★★PhysicalFar from a placeholder protagonist. Originium Crystals immobilize enemies for an ult-fueled detonation. Doubles as either a primary DPS or a secondary Vulnerability consumer.
Avywenna
★★★★★ElectricPromoted to S in v1.2 as Electric teams stabilize around Zhuang Fangyi. Thunderlance handles packs and bursts hard during stagger — best budget Electric DPS in the game.
Chen Qianyu
★★★★★PhysicalFree enabler for early Physical teams. Frequent Lift effects build Vulnerability rapidly, feeding Endministrator and Rossi's Crush consumption.
Xaihi
★★★★★CryoThe 5-star who outperforms most 6-stars, and the pivot of the strongest Typhoeus comp. Her Amp values sit in Liino's class out of a 5-star body, and her Combo Skill applies Inflictions fast enough to push Corrosion to tier 4, which is the specific thing Liino cannot do and the reason she takes that slot over her in the top Winter Hunt team. Still the Cryo battery and healer that Yvonne and Last Rite cores are built on. The honest caveat: her ceiling is tied to Corrosion being as strong as it currently is, so she rises and falls with that meta rather than standing on raw stats.
Pogranichnik is the highest-priority pull in this tier because nothing else generates SP at his rate while applying Breach in the same window, and Camille sits beside him with the same SP-positive role on the Heat side. Xaihi is the new arrival, promoted out of A for Version 1.5: she pairs Liino-class Amp with Combo Skill Inflictions fast enough to drive Corrosion to tier 4, which is what wins her the fourth seat in the best Typhoeus team over Liino herself. She is the strongest argument on this list that rarity and tier are different questions.
A Tier: Specialists
A-tier operatives are specialists. They shine inside specific team compositions and fall off when used outside them. Most of the list below is 5-star rarity, which makes A-tier the easiest band to fill out without committing limited pulls.
A Tier
Specialists - High-performance in specific team compositions
Akekuri
★★★★HeatUniversal SP battery. Flexible enough to slot into nearly any composition — pairs especially well with Laevatain by spoon-feeding her Heat inflictions.
Lifeng
★★★★★★PhysicalLong-reach melee DPS providing Physical Susceptibility and knockdown control. Solid v1.2 anchor for budget Physical comps lacking Rossi or Endministrator.
Ember
★★★★★★HeatDurable hybrid tank. Provides team shielding while contributing to Heat reactions — essential for Physical Shred comps that need a frontline.
Wulfgard
★★★★★HeatConsistent Heat enabler and the best budget partner for Heat carries like Laevatain or Ember.
Perlica
★★★★★ElectricStarter Electric Caster who forcibly applies Electrification with zero setup. The default opener for any Zhuang Fangyi rotation.
If you are building toward a specific elemental core, the A-tier picks tied to that element are usually a better investment than chasing a second SS unit in another archetype. Roster breadth wins more fights than vertical investment in v1.5 endgame, and Perlica in particular does more work than her placement suggests: she is SP-neutral, and she anchors the Typhoeus team that posts the highest calculated single-target damage.
B Tier: Situational
B-tier operatives are reliable but niche, useful in the right team and skippable everywhere else. None of the units below are bad picks, they simply have a narrow window where they outperform A-tier alternatives.
B Tier
Situational - Reliable but niche operators
Antal
★★★★ElectricBest-value 4-star support. Massive Damage Amplification for Electric and Heat teams running on a tight roster.
Arclight
★★★★★ElectricHigh-speed SP battery for Electric rotations. Pairs natively with Zhuang Fangyi's Combo cycle.
Alesh
★★★★★CryoCryo SP battery. Useful for solidification comps but outclassed by premium options once Yvonne or Tangtang lands.
Snowshine
★★★★★CryoF2P tank-healer hybrid. Stabilizer for defensive Cryo comps and a strong Dijiang Nexus assignee for Mood recovery.
Da Pan
★★★★★PhysicalHigh-stagger Physical specialist. Niche but reliable for stagger-focused Physical setups lacking Pogranichnik.
Estella
★★★★CryoNiche Physical/Cryo hybrid. Provides Physical Susceptibility but generally outclassed in v1.2 Cryo comps.
That window narrowed in v1.2 when the meta stabilised around Sunderblade rotations and hybrid Shatter compositions, and nothing through v1.5 has opened it back up. Build B-tier operatives only when a specific stage demands their utility, and prioritise A-tier shells the rest of the time.
C Tier: Lower Priority
C-tier operatives are outclassed by higher-rarity options. The list exists so completionists know which units to skip when prioritising investment.
C Tier
Lower Priority - Outclassed by higher-rarity options
Neither pick is unusable, but every other tier offers a stronger ceiling for the same resource spend. Treat C-tier as a reference rather than a build target.
Combat Foundations: Statuses and Reactions
Endfield separates damage into two parallel systems. Physical damage moves through a stack-and-consume cycle anchored on Vulnerability. Arts damage layers element-specific Inflictions that escalate into Bursts and, when mixed with a second element, into Reactions. The cleanest teams carrying into Version 1.4 are still the ones that touch both systems through hybrid units like Rossi and Gilberta, and that hybrid baseline is the single biggest behavioural change from the launch meta.
On the Physical side, every status application either builds Vulnerability or consumes it. The first Physical effect applied to a clean target always converts into a Vulnerability stack regardless of its named status, Lift, Knock Down, Crush, and Breach all funnel into the same counter. Vulnerability caps at four stacks. From there, the strategic question is timing: build more stacks for a bigger payoff, or consume now to keep the squad's burst windows aligned with the rest of the rotation.
Physical Status Reference
The table below is the at-a-glance reference for which Physical statuses build Vulnerability and which consume it. Treat the "Strategic Impact" column as a checklist when you draft a Physical team. You need at least one consumer in the squad, and you should have at least two distinct builders that overlap in cooldown windows.
The practical read of that table is that Crush and Breach are interchangeable consumers in most rotations, but Breach pulls ahead in long fights because the defence shred lingers after the burst lands. Crush is sharper for execute windows on low-HP bosses where you need every available stack converted to damage in one beat.
Arts Reaction Matrix
On the Arts side, applying the same element twice triggers a Burst, immediate damage plus an Infliction stack. Mixing elements triggers a Reaction. The damage of a Reaction scales off the number of pre-existing stacks of the first element when the second one is introduced, which is why supports like Perlica and Wulfgard are so valuable: they preload high stack counts before the carry actually consumes them. Arts Intensity is the stat that ties this together. Each point adds a 1% multiplier to Reaction damage and duration, which is why gear like the Eternal Xiranite set is the default for Caster supports rather than raw ATK% pieces.
Shatter is the bridge mechanic that hybrid teams now exploit aggressively. A Cryo unit applies Solidification, a Physical unit immediately consumes it, and the squad clears single-target damage checks that pure Cryo or pure Physical comps would lose to. Once you start seeing every Reaction in the matrix as either a setup or a payoff for Shatter, the rest of the current meta clicks into place.
SS-Tier Operative Deep Dives
The operatives below are the meta-defining picks in Version 1.5. Each one either anchors an elemental archetype on its own, bridges two systems in a way that nobody else does, or both. Read these in order, because the comp recommendations later in the article assume you have at least a passing familiarity with each kit. Typhoeus from the live Winter Hunt banner gets her deep dive at the end of this section, alongside the two Version 1.4 headliners Arcane and Liino; Mi Fu's is consolidated in the meta Outlook section further down.
Zhuang Fangyi: The Electric Hypercarry
Zhuang Fangyi released as the premier 6-star Electric DPS in mid-April and fundamentally altered the Electric meta within a week. Her Battle Skill, Mantra of Sundering, consumes Electrification stacks on a target to fire Thunder Strikes, with damage and Sunderblade output scaling off the consumed stack level. The kit reads as "stacked damage tax on whoever set up the Electrification", and because almost every Electric support in the roster does set up Electrification, she slots into pre-existing teams without forcing a rotation rewrite.
Her real ceiling is the ult, Smiting Tempest enters the Empyrean of Truth state, where she gains interrupt resistance, her first Battle Skill cast becomes free, and her Combo Skill cooldown drops by 400%. The result is a near-continuous loop of Electrification upgrade → consumption → Sunderblade detonation. The catch: she demands serious Ultimate Gain Efficiency investment to keep that state up during long boss encounters. The Zhuang Fangyi build guide covers the rotation in detail and includes the breakpoint numbers you need to hit before the ult uptime becomes self-sustaining.
Tangtang: The Universal Enabler
Tangtang is the most flexible operative on Talos-II right now. She is nominally a Cryo Caster, but her kit functions as sub-DPS, support, and ult-window enabler at the same time. Her ultimate triggers a full-screen time stop that holds bosses in place, including endgame Umbral Monument fights, and that single utility is enough to justify her SS placement on its own.
The deeper reason she shows up in every premium comp is that her Combo Skill triggers on any Cryo Infliction or Arts Burst, not just her own. That clause means she slots into almost any composition without forcing a rotation rewrite. Her Battle Skill applies Cryo Infliction and Arts Susceptibility in the same hit, making her a clean replacement for Xaihi in premium Cryo cores once you have her built.
Laevatain: The Queen of Heat
Laevatain is still unmatched at AoE wave clear. Her gameplay loop centres on Melting Flame stacks, which she builds by absorbing Heat Inflictions placed on enemies, often by teammates like Akekuri or Wulfgard. At four stacks she gains Heat Resistance Ignore and her Battle Skill detonates into a wide-area forced Combustion, which is the single best AoE damage event in the v1.2 roster.
Her ultimate, Twilight, turns her into a frontline juggernaut. Her enhanced basic attacks apply Heat Infliction on the third strike, creating a self-sustaining Melting Flame loop that does not require teammate setup for the duration of the buff. Pair her with Ardelia for Corrosion shred and she clears v1.2 Umbral Monument waves faster than anything else in the roster.
Yvonne: The Single-Target Precisionist
Yvonne is the answer to "what kills the boss." Her Battle Skill, Brr-Brr-Bomb β, consumes existing Cryo or Nature Inflictions to force Solidification, and the act of forcing it generates massive Ultimate Energy for her. The result is a self-fueling ult cycle that no other unit currently matches against single high-HP targets, which is why she has held the boss-kill crown since launch despite Zhuang Fangyi's arrival.
During Cryoblasting Pistolier, her enhanced basics stack Crit Rate and Crit DMG, culminating in a Final Strike that consumes any remaining Solidification for a second burst. She is famously poor at AoE, pair her with Gilberta to cluster enemies before she opens fire, otherwise she will burn her ult window on the wrong target.
Gilberta: The Gravity Strategist
Gilberta was underrated through technical testing and has since become an SS-tier staple. Her Battle Skill, Arcane Staff: Gravity Mode, creates a gravity well that pulls scattered enemies into a single point, applies Nature Infliction, and sets up clean AoE bursts for the rest of the team. That single mechanic is worth more in v1.2 endgame than most operatives' entire kits.
Her ultimate, Gravity Field, applies an Arts Susceptibility debuff that scales with the number of Vulnerability stacks on the target, which is what makes her the bridge unit for hybrid Physical/Arts comps. She also passively heals the squad when striking multiple enemies, often removing the need for a dedicated medic. See the Zhuang Fangyi + Gilberta synergy guide for combined rotations and a worked Umbral Monument example.
Rossi: The Hybrid Catalyst
Rossi is the cleanest example of a hybrid DPS in the roster, dealing both Physical and Heat damage in the same rotation. Her defining trick is her Combo Skill, Moment of Blazing Shadow, which converts Arts Inflictions on the target into Vulnerability stacks, letting the squad treat any Arts unit as a Vulnerability builder for her. That single conversion expands her viable supporting cast by half the roster.
Her Battle Skill applies Razor Clawmark, a debuff that ticks Physical damage and amplifies both Physical and Heat sources. She rewards Perfect Timing inputs on her combo triggers with extra Critical Rate and damage, which makes her one of the few units where pure execution skill meaningfully lifts the damage ceiling. The Rossi build guide covers the timing windows and the gear recommendations that make the timing more forgiving while you are learning the loop.
Arcane: The Dual-State Nature Caster
Arcane is the Version 1.4 headline limited 6-star Nature Caster (real name Li Zhiyan), and the most flexible operative Endfield has shipped. Her signature mechanic, Array Arcana, reads her stat sheet and hands her one of two completely different jobs. When Intellect is at least her Will she is an INT-state Corrosion DPS whose Gloompurge ultimate force-applies Corrosion across its area, shredding enemy resistance for the whole team before cashing out on the second cast. When Will is higher she becomes a controller who groups scattered packs, imprisons them, and spreads Arts Susceptibility to feed a hypercarry.
The catch, and the reason her placement carries a caveat: she is build-dependent. Splitting Intellect and Will dilutes both states, so you have to commit to one and gear for it. Her INT ceiling also wants a second element on the enemy for her Nature to react against, which is why her cleanest teams pair her with Cryo enablers like Xaihi and Tangtang. Her signature Type 42: Solemn Phalanx is near purpose-built for the damage build. For the full skill priority, weapon, gear, and rotation breakdown, see the Arcane build guide.
Liino: The Universal Support
Liino is the Version 1.4 Phase 2 headliner, a 6-star Electric Supporter on a polearm, and the first operator since Ardelia who improves a team regardless of what that team is doing. Her kit runs on two stances. Her Battle Skill, Dazzling Focus, deals Electric damage and drops her into Vocalist Stance, which parks a team-wide ATK Boost on the squad, applies HP Treatment to operators in range, and ticks additional Electric hits on nearby enemies for the duration. Her ultimate, Dawnstar Concerto, heals the whole team and enters Cosmovoice Stance, forcibly applying Electrification across a large area while granting Electric Amp and Nature Amp on top of the continuing ATK Boost and healing.
The piece that pushes her into SS rather than S is the talent line. Electric Skill Recovery refunds 10 SP to any other Electric operator who casts a Battle Skill for 30 seconds after her Combo Skill fires, and Delightful Harmonics itself triggers off any Arts Infliction or Reaction while she is in Vocalist Stance, returning 20 Ultimate Energy each time. In an Electric squad that means her stances effectively pay for themselves, which is why she has already displaced Gilberta in the premium Zhuang Fangyi shell: Zhuang is the most SP-hungry carry in the game and Liino is the only unit that solves that problem while also healing and buffing.
Two caveats keep the placement honest. She is a support before she is a healer, so against the hardest sustained damage profiles you still want real defensive cover rather than treating her Treatment as the whole plan. And almost all of her value rides on stance uptime, which makes Will, Ultimate Gain Efficiency, and Treatment Efficiency matter more on her gear sheet than raw ATK. Her signature polearm Bedazzling Night Debut is the clean best-in-slot, with Golden Age as the best free 6-star and Cohesive Traction as the strongest 5-star. Run three-piece LYNX when you want her carrying the sustain and Eternal Xiranite when the squad already survives comfortably, remembering that Eternal Xiranite does not stack with a second wearer. For the full skill priority, weapon, and gear breakdown see the Liino build guide, and for a worked four-operator rotation see the Liino, Zhuang Fangyi, Arcane and Perlica team guide.
Typhoeus: The Aerial Nature Hunter
Typhoeus is the Version 1.5 Phase 1 headliner and the first operator in the roster who does most of her fighting off the ground. Start with a correction that changes what you can equip her with: her weapon class is Arts Unit, not a new bow class. The greatbow is her character model. Every Arts Unit already sitting in your inventory, the same pool Zhuang Fangyi, Ardelia, Arcane, Gilberta, Xaihi and Perlica draw from, is a legal option for her.
Two resources drive the kit in sequence. Hunting Arrows empower her aerial attacks: she starts a fight with four, each one fires a guaranteed Nature Burst regardless of what is already on the target, her Combo Skill refills all four, and her Ultimate hands back two. Signs accumulate from every Nature Burst anyone on the team triggers and from every Nature Infliction stack her aerial attacks consume, and eight of them unlock her Combo Skill. About 73 percent of her damage comes out of those Nature Bursts, which has a direct team-building consequence: a support who lands two more free stacks per window does more for her than one who adds 20 percent damage.
The part that will not be power-crept is the movement. Her Battle Skill and her Ultimate both put her into a Hovering state where she deals continuous damage and evades ground-based attacks outright. Against the melee-dense packs that fill most Endfield content that is not a damage bonus, it is a different way of taking the fight. Her Battle Skill also strips the shield stacks on the new Snowy Forest enemies on its own, so the squad does not need to hold a seat for a finisher operator.
The caveats are real but narrow. She wants two or more targets to reach her ceiling, because stacking and consuming Inflictions across a group is what accelerates her Ultimate. She leans on Corrosion, which means she leans on the operators who enable it. And her ceiling is Arcane's ceiling: swapping Arcane out is the single largest drop in any Typhoeus lineup, where every other substitution moves the number far less. For the full skill priority, weapon, and gear breakdown see the Typhoeus build guide, and for the ranked comps see the Typhoeus best teams guide.
S-Tier Specialists
S-tier is where the meta gets opinionated. Each of these operatives is the best in the game at one specific job, and every premium endgame comp is built around at least one of them. They do not headline a team the way the SS tier does, but skipping them leaves a hole that nothing in A-tier can fill.
Ardelia: The Universal Support
Ardelia is the single best target for early F2P investment. She is given to every launch player for free and her Corrosion shred applies both Physical and Arts Susceptibility, universal value, regardless of which carry you eventually pull. She is also the easiest support to gear, since the Eternal Xiranite set is widely farmable. If you only invest in one support to E2 before anyone else, make it her. The opportunity cost is essentially zero and the payoff applies to every team you will run for the next six months.
Pogranichnik: The Physical Engine
Pogranichnik is the SP battery that makes high-end Physical teams legal. He generates resource for the squad while applying Breach to consume Vulnerability stacks at the right moment in the rotation. He is the natural partner for Endministrator, Rossi, and Chen Qianyu, and his presence is often what separates an A-tier Physical comp from an S-tier one. Without him you will spend half the fight waiting for SP to refill.
Camille: The Heat-Side Battery
Camille is the Phase 2 headliner and the cleanest Heat enabler the roster has shipped. He is a 6-star Heat Vanguard wielding a polearm (and notably the first male 6-star to release outside the standard banner pool), but the rarity is misleading: he is a pure support, the Heat-side analogue to Pogranichnik rather than a carry. His Battle Skill, Firefang Vesperwings, plants a marker that ticks Heat Infliction and parks Heat Susceptibility and Weaken on whatever your carry is hitting. His Combo Skill refunds roughly 20 SP and, against a marked target, grants party-wide Link (the same buff Akekuri provides), so he usually replaces Akekuri outright in Heat cores.
His ultimate, Sanguine Downpour, returns about 30 SP, blankets the area in Heat Infliction, and then primes a free enhanced Combo that refunds even more SP and re-applies Link. That is an enormous tempo swing in one button, which is why his rotation is plant-cash-burst-cash and his gear priority is Agility and SP generation rather than ATK or crit. He lands in S rather than SS for one reason: a battery is only as good as the carry it charges. Point him at Laevatain and your Heat lane loops faster and bursts harder; run him with no Heat payoff and he is a glorified SP dispenser. Pull him if you already own Laevatain, and read the full build in our Camille build guide and the partner-by-partner best Camille teams guide.
Last Rite: F2P Cryo Anchor
Last Rite is the most F2P-friendly 6-star Cryo carry available. Her greatsword combos pile heavy stagger and her finishers deal freeze/shatter burst on stacked Inflictions. She requires more setup than Yvonne, but in mono-Cryo comps with Xaihi and Tangtang she still hits hard enough to clear endgame content without needing the Yvonne pull. That makes her the backbone of a lot of mid-budget rosters.
Endministrator: Physical Workhorse
The protagonist is not a placeholder. Their Physical kit centres on Originium Crystals, which immobilise enemies and then detonate when consumed by the ultimate. They function as either a primary Physical DPS or as a secondary Vulnerability consumer in advanced rotations where Rossi handles the main hits. The flexibility is what earns the S rating: the same character can headline a budget squad or backfill an SS-tier one.
Avywenna: Promoted to S in Version 1.2
Avywenna's stock has risen sharply now that Electric teams stabilise around Zhuang Fangyi. Her Thunderlance mechanic handles mid-sized packs and bursts harder during stagger windows, and her output piggybacks cleanly on Zhuang Fangyi's preloaded Electrification stacks. She is currently the best budget Electric DPS in the game and earns the S-tier promotion from her launch placement. One of the largest single-patch movements on this list.
Xaihi: Promoted to S in Version 1.5
Xaihi is the clearest movement on this list since Avywenna's v1.2 jump, and the reason is Typhoeus. Her Amp values already sat in Liino's class out of a 5-star body. What the v1.5 testing surfaced is that her Combo Skill applies Inflictions fast enough to push Corrosion to tier 4, which is the specific thing Liino cannot do, and it is why she takes the fourth seat in the fastest Typhoeus team ahead of a 6-star support.
Everything that made her the most-played 5-star in the game still holds. Consistent Cryo Infliction application matters more in Yvonne and Last Rite cores than the raw stat ceiling of higher-rarity supports, and her healing keeps tight squads alive in Umbral Monument runs. One honest caveat on the promotion: her ceiling is tied to Corrosion being as strong as it currently is, so she rises and falls with that meta rather than standing on raw stats. Keep her away from Ardelia in Corrosion teams, because Ardelia's Combo Skill overwrites the higher-level Corrosion Xaihi is building.
Archetypal Team Compositions
Endgame content rewards committed elemental lanes. The four compositions below are the cleanest rotations carrying into v1.5 and map directly onto the SS and S-tier operatives covered above. Cross-reference with the team tier list for full synergy notes and the Umbral Monument guide for stage-specific tuning, but the bones of every Umbral Monument clear right now are still one of these four squads. Mi Fu slots into the Physical Shred comp; Camille reshapes the Heat archetype as a Laevatain-anchored battery, the canonical core being Laevatain, Wulfgard, Camille, and Ardelia; Liino upgrades the Electric shell directly; and the new Nature Corrosion shell is built around Typhoeus.
Nature Corrosion (the Winter Hunt Shell)
The newest of the four and the fastest tested comp in the patch: Typhoeus, Arcane in her WILL state, Xaihi, and Gilberta, which bursts the Effigy boss in roughly 30 seconds. The logic is different from the Electric shell: you are not building toward one enormous window, you are keeping a Nature Burst loop running continuously and feeding it free Infliction stacks. Xaihi holds the seat over Liino because she drives Corrosion to tier 4. Swap Xaihi for Perlica and you get the version with the highest calculated single-target damage, roughly 71K on a 57-second rotation, which finishes within seconds of this one and asks less of you mechanically.
The common mistake here is delaying that first Combo Skill to buff more bursts. Waiting costs you energy and four whole Nature Bursts; take the reload when it comes. The other one is building the team around damage buffs. A support who lands two more free stacks per window beats one adding 20 percent damage, every time. Full partner-by-partner detail is in the Typhoeus best teams guide.
Electric Burst (Now the Liino Shell)
The Electric Burst team is the defining hypercarry comp from v1.2 and remains unchallenged in v1.4: Zhuang Fangyi as the hypercarry, Perlica and Arclight as the Electrification battery, and a fourth slot for utility. That fourth slot is where Phase 2 changes things. Ardelia or Gilberta were the standard picks; Liino now takes it in the premium version, because her SP refunds feed the rotation below at exactly the step where it stalls, her forced Electrification guarantees there is always a stack to consume, and her healing means you are not paying a slot for sustain. Keep Gilberta in the seat when the stage throws scattered adds and you need her gravity well to group them. The rotation below is the canonical "open with stacks, consume into Sunderblades, detonate" loop that produces the meta's highest single-window damage event.
The most common stumble on this rotation is firing the ultimate too early. Nine Sunderblades is the breakpoint where the chain lightning becomes worth the energy spend; anything below six and you would have produced more damage by waiting one more Battle Skill cycle. Use the on-screen blade counter, not your gut.
Cryo–Nature Crowd Control
Cryo–Nature is the bring-everything-else comp: Yvonne for the kill, Gilberta to cluster the adds and amplify Arts damage, Xaihi for consistent Cryo application, and Ardelia for the shred. This squad's edge is single-target boss fights with messy add waves, which is exactly what most v1.2 endgame stages throw at you.
The tricky part of this rotation is timing Gilberta's gravity well. Pull too early and Yvonne's Solidification scatters before the kill lands; pull too late and the adds escape the freeze window. Practise the timing on Umbral Monument's wave-based stages before you take the comp into a hard boss check.
Physical Shred (F2P Friendly)
The Physical Shred squad is the strongest F2P-legal comp in the game. None of its members requires a limited banner pull, and Pogranichnik is the only premium investment. The rotation leans on Vulnerability stacking and Breach consumption to clear single-target damage checks without needing an SS-tier headliner.
Where this comp falters is sustained AoE, the rotation is built around one big hit per cycle, so wave stages that demand consistent area damage stretch the cooldowns thin. Slot Rossi in for Endministrator if you pulled her; otherwise the comp clears every standard endgame stage given enough patience.
Methodology
Tier placements are based on Talos-II frontier combat performance through v1.2, v1.3, v1.4, and into v1.5 Phase 1, not on theoretical kit reading or pre-patch projections. Mi Fu's SS placement is grounded in live gameplay, and Camille's S placement is grounded in his kit as a support battery whose ceiling is gated by the Heat carry beside him, which is why he sits a band below the self-sufficient SS anchors.
Two placements on this page need their reasoning stated plainly. Typhoeus enters SS on post-launch testing rather than kit reading: her best team posts the fastest timed clear in the patch, and the hovering state removes a whole category of incoming damage, which is the kind of mechanic that historically does not get power-crept. The caveat is that she is the most partner-dependent SS unit on the grid, and the gap between her best and worst supported lineups is larger than for anyone else in the band.
Xaihi moving from A to S is the other one. She is promoted on a specific, checkable claim rather than general esteem: her Combo Skill drives Corrosion to tier 4, which Liino cannot do, and that is what wins her the fourth seat in the fastest Typhoeus team over a 6-star support. Because that value is tied to Corrosion being as strong as it currently is, her placement is more meta-contingent than the rest of the band, and it will move if Corrosion is tuned. Both placements are dated in the header and rankings will move again as the Phase 1 meta settles.
Five criteria drive every placement. The first is role compression: how many distinct jobs an operative covers inside one team slot. A unit that handles damage and utility at the same time earns more weight than a pure DPS, which is why hybrid kits like Rossi and Gilberta climbed into SS. The second is team synergy and dependence: whether the operative slots into multiple archetypes or only one, and whether they hard-require a specific partner to function. The third is burst window reliability: how consistently a kit lands its damage cycle without RNG, animation locks, or dropped stack counts.
The fourth criterion is endgame scaling with Potentials: how much an operative gains from rarity ceilings and dupes. Units that scale poorly past Potential 1 cap their tier ceiling because the meta keeps moving past them. The fifth is ease of execution: a unit that loses 30% of its damage to a missed timing window cannot be trusted in endgame even if the theoretical ceiling is high. Together these five weights produce the bands you see in the rankings above.
The tier framework itself is short. SS means meta-defining, universal utility, massive AoE damage, or unique mechanics that nothing else replicates. S means optimal assets, core anchors for specialised elemental cores or team archetypes. A means specialist, high-performance units that excel in specific compositions. B means situational, reliable but niche operators used as budget alternatives. C means lower priority, generally outclassed by higher-rarity options. Rankings will move when the meta moves; this page is updated every patch cycle, and the "Updated" date in the header is the canonical timestamp.
Version 1.5 Outlook: Typhoeus Headlines Phase 1
Version 1.5, Dreamscape of Wind and Snow, opened Phase 1 on September 2, 2026 with Typhoeus on the Winter Hunt banner, running to September 30, with her signature Arts Unit Umbra of Frigid Eventide on the paired Deep Cold Issue. The patch also brought the Snowy Forest region and a new enemy family that carries shield stacks. Phase 2 opens September 24 with a Yvonne rate-up on the new RE-Factor banner type and the free 5-star Defender Purrchena, who will be assessed here once she is live. Pull planning still matters: see the resource budget guide before committing, and keep a 120-pull floor for the featured guarantee.
Typhoeus: Pull Priority for the Live Winter Hunt Banner
Typhoeus is a conditional recommendation rather than an easy one, and the condition is Arcane. Every top-performing Typhoeus lineup runs her, and the gap between an Arcane account and a no-Arcane account is the largest single swing in her team table. If you own Arcane, this is close to a straight yes: you already hold the expensive half of her best team. If you do not, you are buying roughly two thirds of the operator until you get her, though Fluorite and Antal are free stack sources that run the same rotation shape in the meantime.
The second reason to pull is the one that does not depend on any multiplier staying good. Her Hovering state evades ground attacks outright, and her Battle Skill strips the new Snowy Forest shield stacks without the squad holding a seat for a finisher. If melee-dense content is what keeps ending your runs, that is the part worth paying for. Who should skip her? Accounts that already field Laevatain or Zhuang Fangyi for AoE and have no Nature Infliction applicator will feel the least difference. For the full reasoning see the is Typhoeus worth pulling verdict and the Typhoeus build guide.
Liino: The Version 1.4 Universal Support
Liino ran on Good Morning From Your Dawnstar from August 9 to August 30, 2026 and is now off banner, but she remains the highest-value support on the grid and the benchmark any future support is measured against. She needs no signature weapon, no specific element beside her, and no rotation rewrite: drop her into any squad for a team ATK Boost, in-range healing, and a large-area forced Electrification with Electric and Nature Amp attached. Electric rosters get 10 SP back every time another Electric operator casts a Battle Skill, still the cleanest answer to Zhuang Fangyi's SP appetite the game has shipped. For the full build, see the Liino build guide.
Camille: Heat Vanguard, First Non-Standard-Banner Male 6-Star
Camille released June 26, 2026 on the Expunger of Sin banner in Phase 2 of Version 1.3 and now sits in S tier on the grid above. He is a 6-star Heat-element Vanguard wielding a polearm, a Sarkaz operative from the Seš'qa floating city, and the first male 6-star in Endfield to release outside the standard banner pool. His kit is not a primary carry. It is an enabler. His Battle Skill, Firefang Vesperwings, plants a marker on a target that ticks Heat Infliction inside a small area and stacks both Weakness and Heat Susceptibility on enemies caught in it. His Combo Skill consumes Heat Infliction through Arts Reactions to deal damage and refund SP, and against a marked target it also grants a Link buff to the party. His Ultimate is a wide-area Heat detonation that further refunds SP and primes his next Battle Skill into Hunter Pursuit, a free recast that refunds even more SP on hit and forces a Link buff regardless of marker state. The practical read: Camille is a Heat-side analogue to Pogranichnik, a Vanguard who keeps the squad SP-positive while shredding Heat Resistance and amplifying party damage through Link. If you already pulled Laevatain, save for him; he is the cleanest enabler the Heat archetype has had since launch. If your Heat core is thin and you have not pulled Laevatain, prioritise Laevatain first, Camille without a Heat carry to point at is wasted potential. For the full skill priority, weapon, gear, and rotation breakdown, see the Camille build guide.
Mi Fu: Physical Guard
Mi Fu arrived in Phase 1 of 1.3 and closes the Wuling story arc. She is a melee Physical Guard wielding a greatsword whose battle skill Qingbo Triplex chains three moves, a low-SP pull, a Vulnerability-consuming Crush combo, and a wide Physical Crush detonation. She brings no team buffs of her own, so her value is concentrated on the bar: in a Physical core that already runs Pogranichnik for Breach and Chen Qianyu or Lifeng to stack Vulnerability, she pays it all back in burst. If you already field Rossi or Endministrator at E2, treat her as a sidegrade rather than an upgrade.
Arcane: The Phase 1 Nature Push
The Nature infrastructure the community expected arrived in Phase 1. Arcane (Li Zhiyan), a Hongshan Academy of Sciences operative, headlined the first half of Version 1.4 as a 6-star Nature Caster and sits high on the SS grid above. Her Corrosion shred and Array Arcana grouping give Nature teams the reaction-enabler and payoff they were missing, so if you skipped Gilberta and Ardelia at launch, they now pull real weight alongside her. See her SS deep dive above and the Arcane build guide for the full pull-priority reasoning.
Frequently Asked Questions
That is the full Version 1.5 tier reasoning: eleven SS-tier anchors (now led by Typhoeus, the Winter Hunt headliner), seven S-tier specialists including a newly promoted Xaihi, the meta team comps, and the pull-priority calls for the live banner. If you want the squad-level view rather than the per-character one, the team tier list ranks every comp by content type. For pull planning, the resource budget guide is the most useful next read, and the Umbral Monument guide covers the stages most of these comps were tuned against.
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