Blue Archive Tier List: Best Units in Global [October 2023]

This is a Blue Archive tier list for the global version of the game. It monitors the performance of each character in every type of raid currently available in the game.

If you’re interested in more Blue Archive content, we have a Blue Archive beginner’s guide that can help you get to grips with the general basics of the game before starting it.

You might also be interested in our Blue Archive coupon codes page for free pyroxenes to spend!

Blue Archive Tier List

This is the main Blue Archive tier list. It should give you a good idea of who’s strong in each aspect of the game. Including:

• Binah
• Chesed
• ShiroKuro
• Hieronymus
• Kaiten
• Perorozilla
• Hod
• Goz

You can filter units in the Blue Archive global tier list with the following criteria:

• Unit Type
• Unit Damage Type
• Unit Roles
• Unit Rarity
• Unit EX Cost

Blue Archive Tier List: Unit Summaries

This is a general summary of many units currently available in the global version of the game—massive thanks to Hespathus for putting a huge amount of effort into compiling the list.

Iori

An extremely powerful unit. Not only does her EX skill cost a laughably low amount, it has a high multiplier on every shot and also does AoE damage to targets behind the initial one. This allows her to both boss and waveclear effectively. Her sub skill synergizes perfectly with her EX as well due to the fact that her EX skill forces her to leave cover. Her only weakness is that being a sniper she tends to overkill enemies and that her EX has a rather long animation.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Hibiki

Hibiki is a very strong damage support. Her EX skill is relatively low cost and yet can easily clear entire enemy waves, and she also provides what is effectively a teamwide damage buff for a sub skill (albeit one that predicates on you critting first). Her normal skill has a decently sized AoE so it will often hit multiple enemies, and is also good for breaking enemy cover.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Haruna

Haruna is a very vanilla unit. She shoots, she ducks behind cover, she shoots again. Her kit is simple but effective. Her attack steroid from her sub skill is always active due to characters having to stay still to attack, and her EX skill is a huge nuke that is effective at both bossing and wave clearing. Overall, a very good character.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Shun

THE pvp god character, who is also okay in pve. Her main draw is the battery effect she provides at the start of every battle which allows you to spam EX skills more liberally, helping you waveclear faster. She will also pretty much one shot all medium sized enemies. However, this does come at a price. Her EX skill is basically unusable outside of bosses and she has a tendency to waste DPS due to her low attack speed if she hits a low health enemy.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill

Hina

Hina is a very strong explosion damage striker. Her EX skill has a massive range which allows her to wave-clear effectively and she also comes with several self-steroids that makes her a DPS monster against single target enemies as well. Her normal and passive skills, along with the fact that she is using a MG as weapon, all synergize together allowing her to be a monster of an attacker.

The main drawbacks of using Hina are the fact that her EX skill is very expensive (7 cost) and that she has a tendency to stand out in the open without cover (like most MG characters). Her mood is also unhappy (-10% attack) in all areas outside of city terrain (Very happy, +20% attack), which is pretty painful for later story chapters (Chapter 7 PTSD anyone?).

Skill leveling priority: Passive skill -> Main Skill -> Sub Skill

Aru

Gehenna supremacy anyone? Aru is a powerful explosion damage attacker that excels at dealing with clusters of enemies. Her EX skill has a huge cast range allowing you to potentially snipe annoying mobs that are hiding behind cover as well as picking off enemies attempting to flee (sushiman anyone?). Combined with her passive and sub skills, her EX skill can easily do a massive amount of damage. Her main drawbacks are that she’s a sniper, so her attack speed is slow and she will often “overkill” enemies which is a waste of DPS. The AI for snipers also makes them prioritize cover which can lead to situations where she’s running up in front of your tank. Her EX skill radius is also rather small, which you will notice in later chapters where enemies aren’t as clustered.

Skill leveling priority: Sub skill -> Passive skill -> Normal skill

Kotama

Kotama is the only buffer in the game currently, and also happens to come with a potent attack down. This makes her invaluable in content such as raid, and the fact that her EX also only costs 3 makes it very easy to add it into your DPS cycle. As the cherry on top, her sub skill is attack up for your entire team, although she will require the use of whale tears to 3* uncap for that effect.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Tsubaki

Ah. Tsubaki. The character that if you don’t have you keep rolling the gacha until you do. A must have character. Like Yuuka, she is also an evasion tank except unlike Yuuka she is capable of equipping bags on her slot 2. At t4, bag gives +1k defense which makes her insanely durable. Her normal skill also saves you a lot of SP that you would normally spend on keeping her healthy and her sub skill gives a deceptive amount of damage reduction considering how often she has to reload. Her EX skill is very useful due to its huge range and relatively low cost, allowing you to interrupt deadly boss special attacks. Amazing character.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill

Karin

Karin is the strongest attacking special in terms of single target damage. Her EX skill is a very powerful single target nuke that does massive damage at a relatively low cost. Her normal skill contributes extra damage every now and then with an rng stun, and her sub skill is a free attack buff which is always useful for increasing DPS.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Nonomi

Nonomi is your main wave clearing for pen units. Not only is she a free 3* from the beginner tasks, she can also dish out serious DPS. While her EX skill is relatively costly, it’s basically a mini Hina EX with a wider spread. Her main and passive skills are also large self damage steroids, and while her sub skill only really works on bosses (NOT CHESED/BINAH), any extra damage is always nice.

Skill level priority: Main Skill -> Passive Skill -> Sub skill

Hanae

Hanae’s EX skill offers the highest healing for a single target in the game over its duration. This makes her incredibly efficient as it means she wastes less healing and when paired with her normal skill, your tanks effectively become immortal. She is also the only healer in the game to have a damage increasing sub skill, which makes her an auto-include for things like raid boss where you need healing but also as much dps as possible.

Skill level priority: Sub Skill -> Passive Skill -> Main Skill

Serina

Serina is probably the best healer in the game currently. She is the only healer in the game to offer a passive heal to your units for 0 cost. Even if her EX skill was awful, that alone would make her a staple unit, but not only is she able to keep your units constantly topped up via her normal skill, her EX skill offers a huge amount of utility. It is cheap so that it is efficient for skill cycling, it has a decent multiplier and can also be used to reposition your units. Her only real downside is that she’s not a farmable unit.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Shiroko

Shiroko is a simple and efficient explosive attacker. With two self steroids, a powerful and cheap single-target EX skill and a nuke for a normal skill she is great at providing sustained DPS as well as helping cycling. What’s more, she’s even a farmable 3*. Great unit with no real drawbacks outside of limited AoE and the fact that she’s abydos (RIP skill books/discs). Also, her AI can be a bit wonky.

Skill leveling priority: Passive Skill -> Sub Skill -> Normal skill

Hifumi

Hifumi is not a typical DPS unit. She’s a support unit, and it shows with her equipment slots. She doesn’t have access to watch in slot 3, instead having access to a necklace which increases the duration of her debuffs. Her main draw is her sub skill, which increases her cost regen every time you use her EX skill for 5 seconds, which is basically a 10% refund (at skill level 1). Not to mention, her EX skill, although costly at 5 cost, taunts all enemies and can soak up a tremendous amount of damage making boss fights much easier. All in all, a great character. Just don’t expect her to be topping the DPS charts.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Hoshino

Hoshino is another shotgun tank. She needs heavy investment, however, unlike the other shotgun tanks, she becomes very viable once you get a few skill ups and a T4 bag. Her normal skill allows you to save SP on healing her while her sub skill also makes her tankier while she is charging forwards with her EX. At level 3, her EX becomes an extremely powerful CC tool, allowing her to interrupt boss/enemy special attacks.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill

Midori

One of the twins. She is one of the few options for efficient single target DPS that yellows have, and is very efficient at her job. Her EX only costs 3 so it is efficient to use for cycling as well as having a very high multiplier for the cost. She also helps to top up your parties HP reducing the need to bring a healer (although don’t count on her to completely replace them). Her main downside is that you need to run her with Momoi for maximum efficiency, which is restrictive for team compositions.

Skill level priority: Sub Skill -> Passive Skill -> Normal Skill

Momoi

One of the twins. Momoi is significantly more replaceable than her sister. Her EX, while being efficiently costed, has a very low multiplier. Her attack stat is also relatively low, and for some reason she also has boots for her slot 1 item, which gimps her DPS even more. Her normal skill is also more or less useless in pve. Still a decent character, but replaceable, and like her sister, needs you to use both to maximize effectiveness.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Passive skill -> Normal skill

Akane

Akane is rather lackluster in most PVE content. Like Maki, she only shines in content where this is a single enemy due to her EX being a defense break. Unlike Maki however, she has no self damage steroids and with her weapon being a handgun, she has one of the lowest attack stats in the game. Only use her for things like raid or credit stage.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Sub skill -> Normal skill

Akari

Akari is a powerful sustained DPS monster. She not only has a relatively cheap AoE nuke for mobbing, she also comes with two self attack steroids (albeit RNG ones). These both stack with each other which means she gets a huge amount of free stats. Best of all, she’s a farmable character with several nodes! Her only main drawback is that during transition phases, her buffs have a tendency to drop off so she takes a while to get going.

Skill leveling priority: Sub Skill -> Normal skill -> Passive Skill

Chise

Chise is a DPS monster once she has her sub skill. Even though her weapon (launcher) gives her a slow attack speed, her DoT effects will easily rip through enemy HP bars at a rapid pace. Her EX skill is also a rather large AoE which allows her to wave clear efficiently. The main issue with her is she’s a non-farmable character that needs 3* to maximize her effectiveness, as well as her sub skill being gimped by its low activation rate as well as Chise’s inherently slow attack speed.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Passive skill -> Normal skill

Junko

Junko excels in pretty much all content currently in the game. She has an extremely high base attack, a well-balanced skillset and a very powerful self steroid. Her EX skill has a ridiculous multiplier albeit at a relatively high cost, and it also serves to activate her sub skill which allows her to do more and more damage as the fight goes on. Even better, she even has a life saving skill to take full advantage of being at low hp. Whilst also having 3 farmable stages, junko should be a mainstay in any yellow party.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Izuna

She’s mystic Serika. That more or less sums up her kit. However, unlike Serika, she has the major disadvantage of being a front unit. This means that she will often be taking aggro instead of the tank, requiring you to have to micromanage her HP with healing. While her dodge stat is rather high, this isn’t enough as in later chapters enemies become very accurate and you’ll find keeping her healthy to be a chore. The fact that her EX skill also costs 3 is also rather disappointing, as it has essentially the same effect as Asuna (a 1* unit). A decent unit, but one that will be phased out quickly the moment a decent non-frontline mystic DPS comes out.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Passive skill -> Main skill

Saya

Saya is a very undervalued character in pve. Although her EX skill normally isn’t used due to its high cost, her sub skill alone is enough of a reason to bring her. Critical rate increase is a huge DPS increase for most characters, especially once you have access to T4 watch/hat.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Serika

The hero of chapter 7! Serika is probably the best sustained DPS for explosive damage dealers once she gets her 3*. She has 3 self steroids which makes her an absolute monster. Her EX skill buffs stacks with itself (even though very few do), provides her with an instant reload and an attack speed buff. All for the low cost of 2 SP, which makes her a great cycling option too. She also has plenty of farm stages as well being in a good 120 yen value pack if you feel like spending $1. The only problems with Serika are that her EX skill animation is rather long as well as her having no AoE to speak of, so she’s not as effective at wave clearing.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Passive skill -> Normal skill

Fina

Fina isn’t good in general pve. Her kit requires her to stay still to maximize DPS, which isn’t really a thing for most stages, nor does she really have any AoE. Only really useful for the credit stage if you have no blue attackers/raid.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Sub skill -> Normal skill

Haruka

Another shotgun tank. Harukas kit is honestly pretty solid. Her main issue is that her EX skill doesn’t really do anything that a tank should do. It’s pure damage even though she has no self steroids and her attack value is very low, along with giving no utility. She also needs a T4 bag to be even remotely viable.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill

Yuuka

One of the free units that BA gives you at the start of the game, and easily one of the best. Yuuka is a dodge tank, which means that. Well. She dodges. Dodge tanks in BA are generally considered better than traditional tanks because “Just don’t get hit lul”. Her shield offers her a lot of free hp due to how low cost it is. At 3*, she even heals whenever she enters cover, which means less SP spent on healing as well as being farmable. What’s not to love? She has no real issues outside of the fact that she doesn’t use a bag for her second item, which means she drops off very hard in higher tier content due to enemy accuracy increasing to the point where she can’t dodge anymore, and that her AI is suicidal.

Skill leveling priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Note: Leveling her passive skill is complete bait. She has one of the lowest base defense values in the game and she can’t even use t4 bag to augment it.

Maki

When it comes to fighting a single enemy, there is no stronger character in the game than Maki. Not only does she bring defense down, she also has a huge self damage steroid in her EX skill as well as extra damage against marked enemies. However, while she is extremely effective against single enemies, the moment there are multiple she falls off a cliff. Her mark is completely random in terms of what enemy it targets, and her AI is plain stupid in that it will often just ignore said marked enemy. Annoying to use in general PVE content but still amazing for things like credit stage.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill

Hasumi

Hatsumi’s kit is a bit odd. She’s a sniper but she’s a sniper that’s meant to be used for mobbing, even though she lacks any form of AoE. However, she makes up for this in that every time she gets a kill she replenishes her ammo and is nearly guaranteed to also 1 shot the next target after that, allowing her to chain kills. This allows for formidable damage output, although her bossing ability suffers for this. Her EX skill is way too expensive for the amount of damage it does, so avoid using it if possible.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Sub skill -> Normal skill

Tsurugi

Tsurugi looks incredibly strong on paper, especially for things like EXP stage. She would go into a large group of clumped up enemies, activate her EX skill and then just go to town forever. However, the reality is she has a lot of issues. For starters, her default clip size is only 2 shots (which makes sense considering what her EX skill does). This means that she is nearly constantly reloading. Her main and sub skill will also only activate if she specifically is the one who gets the killing blow, which is very hard to guarantee given the low rate of fire of shotguns. Another issue is that if she DOES kill an enemy and her normal skill activates, she goes into an animation lock for a good 3-4 seconds, which usually means that the hp she just regained is gone anyway. However, she does have access to T4 bag so she is relatively tanky and she can put out a decent amount of damage due to having 2 separate multipliers on her EX skill. Niche but can be very powerful depending on the stage.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Eimi

WATARETHOOOSE. Eimi is a shotgun tank, which is the type of tank that primarily focuses on. Well. Tanking. The problem with shotgun tanks is that without a T4 bag, they are paper and die too fast to be relevant, and that shotguns also happen to be the worst weapon in the game currently. Eimi is even squishier than the other shotgun tanks, as she comes with no forms of self damage reduction and she relies purely on healing to stay alive. However, with a few levels in her EX skill, she becomes nearly immortal while it is active.She is better than Yuuka for higher tier content due to having access to T4 bag.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Chinatsu

Chinatsu is the welfare healer you’re given at the start of the game. However, unlike the other welfare units, she’s given no farmable stages. This gimps her very hard in terms of her low base stats, as it’s not really worth investing whale tears into her due to more important students needing them (Tsubaki, Serina). She is fairly vanilla, with her normal skill being the most noticeable thing providing a massive boost to evasion to the ally with the lowest % HP. However, the problem with that is that most units have very low evasion rates (the exceptions being Yuuka and Tsubaki), which severely limits its effectiveness.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Kotori

Kotori is an AoE healer as a striker, but also mixed with a DPS for some reason. Her utility is heavily impeded in general due to her EX skill taking a long time to activate and that her healing power stat is very low, meaning her shield is weak. Only really use if you have no other options.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Fuuka

Fuuka. One of the most overtiered units in the game. Although she is decent, she is hampered by the extremely high cost of her EX skill. Being 5 cost means that it’s very difficult to cycle with, and although it can be used to reposition your units to dodge AoEs and other nasty things, it also has the bad habit of causing all your units to abandon cover/stop shooting. Her normal skill is very good as it will always target your tank and make them even tankier, while her sub skill is mediocre due to enemies in PvE seemingly not being able to crit. All in all, a good character hampered by a clunky EX skill.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Neru

Neru is a fragile but powerful attacker. Her unique mechanic is her “ANGRY” mode, where she becomes massively stronger every 30 seconds and her EX skill does an insane amount of damage for only 2 cost. Not only does this allow you to cycle quickly but the DPS output is nearly unparalleled due to also having multiple self damage steroids. However, Neru has the main drawback of being a front position unit. This means she will be competing with your tanks to attract aggro meaning she will often need a lot of healing in order to survive. Another drawback is that for some reason she has charm as her slot 3 item instead of watch.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Passive skill -> Normal skill

Sumire

Sumire has a very confused kit. Her EX has a high multiplier for low cost and her normal skill is a strong attack steroid, and yet her passive and sub skills are both meant for tanks. Her equipment also reflects this as she has a tank gear set up even though she isn’t particularly tanky. Not a very good unit in general for pve, mainly use her if you need a cheap EX skill cycler.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Passive skill -> Sub skill

Ayane

Ayane is a very simple character. She’s a 4 cost healer that heals characters in an AoE with a decent multiplier. Her normal skill isn’t very effective in PvE due to mobs seemingly not being able to crit, whilst her passive and sub skill buff her healing and your team’s survivability respectively.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Sub skill -> Normal skill

Hare

Hare does one job and she does it well: She stuns enemies in a decently sized AoE. This may not sound like much but in later stages where bosses use powerful special attacks (not to mention higher tier sushiman stages), her EX can be the difference between life and death. Its fast animation also means that even if your reactions were slow it often still comes out in time. Her sub skill gives teamwide evasion that is more of a “nice to have” thing than is essential, while her normal skill doesn’t see much use currently due to most enemies being unable to heal in PvE.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Izumi

Ah. The borgar. The crime against humanity. She that spooketh your gehenna rolls and then makes you die a bit inside. Izumi feels like BA looked at stamina in gbf, went “Oh wow this mechanic is broken”, and then pre-emptively decided to nerf her into the ground. She is essentially a backline tank. Which, for obvious reasons, isn’t very good. She’s usable if you have no other options.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Mashiro

Mashiro’s kit just isn’t very well suited for pve content in general. The RNG on her EX skill makes her very unreliable, as well as the fact that it’s useless against any enemies behind cover. Her accuracy bonus afforded from her sub skill is also near-useless in pve as mobs seem to have low to no evasion rate for the most part. There are just better options usually than using Mashiro.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill

Mutsuki

Mutsuki looks like she should be a very strong character. Lots of AoE, reasonable cost EX skill with a high multiplier that’s extra effective against bossing, but she has a lot of issues. Her normal skill rarely ever actually does anything, as the mines can only be summoned within her attack range and enemies usually aren’t actively moving towards the player. Another detriment to her is that she only has her passive skill for a self damage steroid, and that her sub skill is pretty much useless in pve. All in all, better options available but still usable if you have nobody else.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Utaha

Utaha is a very unique character. She summons turrets that both provide your team with extra DPS as well as being able to tank enemy damage, increasing your team’s overall survivability. Her main drawback is that the turrets don’t move with you while you’re transitioning, and that they’re fairly squishy, but even then the amount of utility she provides is outstanding.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Normal skill -> Sub skill

Shizuko

Shizuko is a glorified Shimiko. However, unlike Shimiko, she does have some potential. If you can be bothered to invest into her 3* upgrade, she becomes a really good passive backline unit for things such as raids. Her sub skill, like Saya’s, gives the highest DPS increase for a sub skill in the game currently, and she also, like Kotama, inflicts attack down on the boss with a near-permanent uptime. And yes, those attack downs do stack. Is this costly investment worth it, however, for a pure backline unit, who’s EX skill you will (nearly) never touch? That’s up to you to decide.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Shimiko

Shimiko would actually be a pretty decent character if she wasn’t held back by several factors: her EX skill is more or less useless, and her normal skill is severely hampered by how low her healing power is. All in all not worth using.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Passive skill -> Sub skill

Yoshimi

Yoshimi is basically a worse Hare. Her stun range is smaller and the animation is a bit longer. She is also a base 1* unit so her stats are worse. Nothing else to really say.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Kayoko

Kayoko is a sad character. She has pitifully low base attack/defense, her EX skill is vastly overcosted and she isn’t even farmable to boot. Although her EX has a large range the 6 cost just makes it unusable in practice. Her normal skill has far too low of an activation chance for it to be even relevant, and her attack is so low that even with the high % multiplier on her sub skill, her damage is still pathetic.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Passive skill -> Normal skill

Juri

Juri is a very underwhelming character. On paper, a grouping skill looks very useful, but in actuality it does barely anything. Mobs will just go to the bait then immediately run back into cover usually, whilst the AoE also isn’t big enough to matter. Nor does it count as crowd control for the purpose of interrupting enemies. Just not useful.

Skill level priority: Normal skill -> Sub skill -> Passive skill

Asuna

Asuna is… something. She is the last of the blue attackers and by far the worst. Although she does gain massive amounts of attack speed at 3*, that requires you to actually invest into her. Pure attack speed steroids are also not very effective due to reload speed being unaffected by it. Not worth using over a yellow DPS unless heavily invested into.

Skill level priority: Passive skill -> Sub skill -> Normal skill

Airi

I guess she’s uh. Unique? She has an AoE slow which nobody else offers but it’s extremely overcosted so i can’t really see the use for her.

Skill level priority: Sub skill -> Normal skill -> Passive skill

Blue Archive Official Links

I highly recommend following the official social channels for Blue Archive to keep up to date with the latest game updates and announcements.

• Official Site
• Facebook
• Twitter

That was our complete and up-to-date Blue Archive tier list.

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