Welcome to our Goddess of Victory: Nikke Tier List! Goddess of Victory: Nikke is a shooter game where you swap between the five members of your squad and build a team that bounces off each other to kill the bad guys efficiently, depending on the mission.
All in all, having properly leveled characters is a tad more important than having the most fine-tuned optimized team, but it can give you a serious edge that saves the resources you need to level them in the first place. Even the weakest Nikkes in the game are at least useable, with some being particularly overpowered standouts, with most being quite good while requiring some thought with their use.
Note that we arrange this tier list without taking bugs into account: While bugs with certain characters do improve or hinder their effectiveness, sometimes drastically, we expect these bugs to be fixed in short order, and therefore taking them into account will make this list less future-proof.
Bugs to keep in mind include any Nikke with ammo extension skills occasionally making ammo infinite and Bazooka and Sniper Nikkes having skills that get the damage multiplier from charging their normal shots. If a Nikke has a bug specific to only them, we’ll write it down in their description. That way even if they’re in a high spot on the tier list, you know to wait until they get their bug fixes before deploying them.
X Tier – Loveable WMDs
The X tier has some really overpowered or incredibly commonly used Nikkes. They’re typically good in any team you put them in, and if they are specialists instead, they’re so good at their specialties that they’re the first pick for their jobs. You’re usually gunning for them on the Recruitment screen.
Snow White
ASSAULT RIFLE, IRON, III, ATTACKER, PILGRIM, PIONEER
Burst Damage, Penetration Attack, AOE Spam
Snow White is a pretty good example that shows why Pilgrim Nikkes are generally considered a bit busted compared to other SSRs. Snow White buffs herself for 8.28% ATK for 5 seconds while doing an extra 82.8% ATK damage every 30 shots. Considering she’s using an Assault Rifle with 60 shots, this will occur very, very often.
Every 15 seconds, she also hits enemies in an AOE for 144.73% ATK, and buffs herself further with a 26.1% crit rate boost for 10 seconds. Her 40-second cooldown Burst Skill is pretty nuts: She pulls out an anti-ship rifle, which hits for 499.5% of her ATK before you charge it. Wait 5 seconds, and it will do 1000% of that damage! It also penetrates enemies, hitting many of them at once. If you have her, use her.
Liter
SMG, IRON, I, SUPPORTER, MISSILIS, MIGHTY TOOLS
Cover Repair, Cooldown Cutter, Good For Long Battles
Just like Dolla, Liter gains ever stronger and more buffs as she sees more Full Bursts, allowing her to excel in long fights. She can reduce skill cooldowns by 2.34 seconds, then 2.7 seconds, then 3.17 seconds depending on how many Full Bursts have been done so far.
She also cycles between boosting mag size by 48.17%, Crit Damage by 12.46%, and ATK by 14.42% for 5 seconds each. She has another weird skill: Every 15 seconds, she picks out 2 of your teammates with the lowest HP and repairs the wall they hide behind instead of them directly.
This can be quite useful when paired with berserkers like Guillotine, but anyone can appreciate being able to hide from gunfire. Oh and her Burst Skill boosts everyone’s ATK by 66% for 5 seconds every 20 seconds. If you have Liter, use her right now!
Harran
SNIPER, ELECTRIC, III, ATTACKER, PILGRIM, INHERIT
Spreading Viral Attack, Buff Stacker
Harran is a walking WMD, able not just to spread a virus around to eat Raptures, but also buff her own ATK with every kill she takes. Every time she shoots something, there is a 25% chance she inflicts a debuff on them that causes 17.28% ATK damage every second for 5 seconds. If that target is killed while the Virus is active, it is guaranteed to spread to 2 nearby targets.
She also gets piercing shots at full charge along with a tiny Crit Rate boost of 1.84% and can stack 3.02% ATK 15 times by killing enemies, with each stack lasting for 10 seconds. This buff only lets her keep the stack active more reliably as she starts blasting several mooks at once with her piercing shots. Her Burst Skill is very straightforward: 999% ATK damage applied to the whole screen. Ouch!
Privaty
ASSAULT RIFLE, WATER, III, ATTACKER, ELYSION, TRIANGLE
Ammo Reduction, Reload Speed Booster, Bring Last Shot Skill Procs
Privaty is one of the weirdest Attackers in the game. When she’s part of a Full Burst, she does two fairly normal things, and one seemingly idiotic thing: Privaty boosts everyone’s ATK by 23.61%, boosts their Reload Speed by 51.16%, and reduces their magazine sizes by 50.66%, all for 10 seconds.
What’s the point of making everyone reload faster if you’re gonna cut their mag size anyway? Turns out, quite a lot of Nikkes, including herself, have skills that they only perform with the last bullet in their mag. By reducing their ammo cap and boosting reload, they’ll spam those skills more often!
As for what she does with her last bullet, she deals a decent 85.79% of her ATK as extra damage, and a Geneva Convention-violating 1089% of her ATK as even more damage if the target is Stunned. This ties into her Burst Skill, which hits the whole screen for 457.87% of her ATK while stunning everything for 3 seconds. Best of all, you can get her free from rookie missions like Diesel!
Dolla
SNIPER, WIND, II, SUPPORTER, TETRA, TALENTUM
Buffer, Excels In Long Battles, Cooldown Cutter
Dolla is pretty weak in short battles, but the longer the fight goes on, the stronger she gets because her buffs are based on how many times she’s done her Burst skill. When hitting Full Burst., she can reduce skill cooldown by 1.82 seconds if she’s done it once, 2.2 seconds if twice, and 2.6 seconds if thrice. She’ll also raise ATK by 7.52%, then add 4.21% Crit Rate, then add 13.22% Crit Damage, all for 5 seconds.
She also raises everyone’s ATK by a cheap and cheerful 16.16% for 5 seconds every 10 seconds, and her actual burst skill hits a high DEF target for 734.69% of her ATK with a cooldown of 20 seconds, which also gets shortened by her Full Bursts. Bringing her with other cooldown cutters can ramp up the Burst spam pretty crazily.
Centi
LAUNCHER, IRON, II, DEFENDER, MISSILIS, MIGHTY TOOLS
Shield Spammer, Boss Blocker
Spam, spam, spam! Centi is a good example who shows why shields in Nikke are so awesome. On paper, her team shield skill looks rather weak: A measly 6.38% of her max HP for 5 seconds, but cast rapidly every 9 seconds.
In a game like Cookie Run Kingdom, this would be worthless, but Nikke’s shields don’t allow heavy damage to overflow into HP: Her shield is weaker vs rapid attacks, but will stop boss-level nukes dead in their tracks, even if the math says it would kill the target through their puny shields!
This allows her to make boss fights much more forgiving. Her shield is cast very often and stands a decent chance of saving you from missing a red circle target, which usually results in at least half of everyone’s HP immediately getting deleted without at least 1 hp worth of shields blocking it.
She can also shave that already fast cooldown by 9.16% every time she fires her bazooka at full charge and scores a hit. Her Burst Skill cooldown is also quick to the draw at 20 seconds. Her Burst deals 145% of her ATK as damage to 5 foes at low HP while reducing their DEF by 14.54% for 10 seconds. Bring her for bosses with nuke attacks, while avoiding levels that spam her right back, such as normal levels and bosses who summon minions.
Laplace
LAUNCHER, IRON, III, ATTACKER, MISSILIS, MATIS
DPS, Manual Use, Mook Sweeper
Laplace has one of the more powerful yet difficult-to-use Burst Skills in the game. Her bazooka transforms into an oversized deathray, which fires for 5 seconds. It can deal a ton of damage, but you need to keep it trained on the enemy for the whole 5 seconds to do so, and the AI is pretty stupid about it. This means using manual aim when her burst appears.
Other than that, she can also boost the AOE of her normal bazooka shots with a stacking buff that also turns the laser into a true damage attack when full, deals extra damage to Bosses when you hit a red circle target, and hits harder with her last shot in the mag. Powerful, but in the words of gamers everywhere, you need to “git gud” using her.
S Tier – Tactically Wholesome
If X-Tier is all the overpowered characters, S-Tier is generally more sensible yet still highly effective. They’re often used in conjunction with X-Tier characters to better round a team out for a certain fight since they tend to be more specialized.
Drake
SHOTGUN, FIRE, III, ATTACKER, MISSILIS, MATIS
AOE Attacker, Shotgun Spam Team, Bugged
A strong offensive Shotgunner who excels at sweeping crowds, Drake has a rather nuts Burst Skill that does exactly that. Drake’s Burst Skill not only increases her mag size by a beefy 72.18% for 10 seconds, but she also throws out an aimed AOE attack that hits for 1254% of her ATK. Normally, that kind of damage is reserved for piercing or single-target attacks, rather than area blasts!
She also bullies 3 low HP enemies on the screen with a 98.5% ATK strike every 10 shots she connects with (And with a shotgun, it takes effort to miss!), and she buffs everyone’s Hit Rate (ie their effective range) and ATK by 11.85% for 10 seconds every time a Full Burst happens. As with any Nikke with ammo extension skills, she may occasionally bug out and gain infinite ammo.
Poli
SHOTGUN, WATER, II, DEFENDER, ELYSION, ACPU
Shield Generator, DEF Buffer, ATK Buffer, Berserker’s Best Friend, Bugged
Poli is one of the most reliable buffers and lifesavers in the game and pairs well with anyone who relies on getting the tar beaten out of them to hit hard. Her Burst Skill is a fairly short 5-second 22.57% HP shield based on her own HP instead of the target’s HP. Along with a decently big 44.55% ATK boost for 10 seconds.
She also raises DEF by 23.51% and shares damage of both herself and 2 low HP teammates for 10 seconds every 20 seconds, though this has a bug that can prevent her from buffing an extra teammate. Lastly, she has a small but easy-to-proc 10-second 5.46% ATK boost for the whole team every 5 shots she fires.
While her Burst is 40 seconds slow and might break Burst chains a bit too easily for comfort, she’s a good pick with the more reckless damage dealers like Guillotine, who you want to keep alive without healing too much.
Rapunzel
LAUNCHER, IRON, I, SUPPORTER, PILGRIM, PIONEER
Healer, Max HP Booster, Revival
The only Nikke who can revive fallen teammates, Rapunzel is a very powerful healer, as expected of a Pilgrim. With their utterly disgusting drop rates, they better be good! Her Burst skill not only heals allies for 40.83% of her own max HP, but she will also randomly pick any 1 dead teammate and pray them back to life, with a pretty big 81.67% of their HP to boot.
On top of that, if she’s been dinged badly and at below 30% HP, she stuns the whole screen for a second. Now, what would make this powerful skill balanced? An absolutely continental cooldown of 60 seconds. This means you will be unable to do Burst Chains as often as any other characters unless you bring another Burst I character on the team, which sacrifices DPS for safety.
She also heals 3 low HP teammates by 4.03% of her own max HP every time she launches a full charge bazooka shot, and she pops a Max HP buff of 8.19% and HP Potency of 13.65% every 15 seconds. Those two buffs last 20 seconds though, so they might as well be permanent! Overall, being a Pilgrim and slowing down squad DPS is her main weakness, since limit breaking her is a pain in the butt.
Scarlet
“ASSAULT RIFLE”, ELECTRIC, III, ATTACKER, PILGRIM, PIONEER
DPS, Crit Berserker
Assault Rifle my bum, does that sword look like a rifle to you!? A powerful damage dealer whose sword is functionally identical to an assault rifle, Scarlet can, just to spite physics, slash people 400 meters away from her. She can do it pretty well too thanks to a relatively powerful and consistent self-buff she can easily deploy.
After every 10 hits with her sword, she raises her own ATK by 23.15% for 5 seconds, which can stack up to 5 times. It’s really darn busted, though she loses 4.01% of her own HP every time she does this, which ties into her next skill. She raises her own Crit Damage by 6.61% if her HP drops under 60%. She also has a 30% chance to stab anyone who hits her for 138.24% of her ATK.
Her Burst Skill is a screen wide 849.15% damage strike, with an additional 10-second 19.57% crit rate boost if it happens while she’s below 50% HP. Just like Guillotine, she’ll appreciate having Poli as a teammate. That insane stacking ATK buff mixed with her crits pretty much gives her the best raw DPS in the game., provided you have someone who can keep her alive without healing her too hard.
Rupee
ASSAULT RIFLE, IRON, II, ATTACKER, TETRA, TALENTUM
Iron Element Buffer, ATK Buff Self Stack, Team ATK Buff Spammer, Bugged
Rupee has one weakness so overshadowed by her strengths that it is generally considered a non-issue. She can raise the crit rate by 2.24% for 10 seconds and any buff stacks by 1… on Iron element teammates. It’s annoying, though the rest of her powers make up for this.
Every 30 shots with her rapid-fire assault rifle, she buffs herself for 13.8% ATK for 15 seconds, and it can stack up to 5 times for a total of roughly 70%! Its long duration mixed with her rapid-fire attacks means she’ll stay this powerful more or less constantly.
She can also buff the team’s ATK with her Burst skill if she has full stacks for 19.8% for 5 seconds, every 20 seconds. Oh, and it hits in an AOE for 274.28% of her ATK. Not very impressive until you remember that big fat stacking ATK buff she gave herself! She also has a bug that makes not stacking buffs permanent while she’s around, so enjoy it while it lasts!
Alice
SNIPER, FIRE, III, ATTACKER, TETRA, UNLIMITED
Piercing Attack, Lifesteal, Charge Buffer
Alice is a good choice to bring for mook fights thanks to her highly reliable pierce. When she’s above 80% HP, all her basic shots can pierce enemies, and if she’s below 80% HP, she gains lifesteal to go back up to 80% HP!
Not only can she use this to kill stacked targets, but this also lets her focus high-value targets and end-level enemy leaders down more reliably than other snipers, since her shots can’t be blocked by mooks. She works well with Sniper and Launcher Nikkes too since she can boost Charge Speed and Charge Damage every time a Full Burst happens on her watch.
She can also boost her own ATK by 55.12% and her Charge Speed by 80.15% for 10 seconds every time she pulls off her Burst Skill. Not someone you bring to a boss battle, but someone for general everyday combat, or if said boss summons minions that block the way. Give her a healer buddy if you’re not confident her lifesteal can keep her HP bar past 80%.
Noah
LAUNCHER, WIND, II, DEFENDER, PILGRIM, INHERIT
Taunt Tank, Defensive Buffer
Noah’s smug jerkwad smile seems to rub off on her weapon. She has a passive that taunts anything she hits with her rockets and lowers the targets’ ATK by 7.82% for 2 seconds, provided they were fired at full charge.
She also has a passive that reduces the damage teammates take by 8% for 10 seconds, though there is only a 10% chance it procs every time something shoots her. Her Burst Skill is pretty good, if annoyingly slow on a Burst II character: 40-second cooldown for a taunt that raises everyone’s DEF by 99% for 10 seconds, and makes everyone immune to all damage for 3 seconds.
Pray her burst is ready every time you miss a Boss’ red circle target, so whatever party-killing horror they throw at you falls flat on its face. And that her slow cooldown doesn’t screw up a Burst chain!
Sugar
SHOTGUN, IRON, III, ATTACKER, TETRA, CAFE SWEETY
Shotgun Focused Buffer, Self Buffer, Infinite Ammo Bug, Severely Bugged, -1 Tier with Bug
Sugar loves shotgunners as much as she loves motorbikes and coffee so sweet you can’t taste the coffee. She has a 20% chance to buff her own Crit Damage by 16.39% and Reload Speed by 12.12% for 10 seconds. On a Full Burst, she buffs her own crit rate again by 13.2% for 10 seconds and crams a whopping 83.08% extra shells in all Shotgunners’ magazines for 10 seconds.
When paired with her Burst Skill, which increases her ATK speed by 68% for 15 seconds, this could have led to a positively illegal amount of buckshot filling the screen, but unfortunately, her ATK speed buff is bugged to the point of uselessness.
Her other bug, the ability to accidentally give every shotgunner on the team infinite ammo, prevents her from going down too many tiers. Bring her if the enemy likes getting in everyone’s faces, so the Nikkes can have a fun, wholesome shotgun party.
Admi
SNIPER, WIND, II, SUPPORTER, MISSILIS, TRIANGLE
General Buffer
50.91% faster reloads for 10 seconds on a 20-second burst skill! And that’s not even mentioning the Crit Damage boost that comes with it. Admi is a generalist buffer who takes measures to ensure that the team both lives longer and deals damage. While that quick reload buff is handy for everyone, she mostly works better with charge attack uses since she can boost Charge Damage by 9.59% for 20 seconds every time she takes 20 hits.
She also gives a pretty good 10-second 28.65% Damage Reduction buff every 20 seconds, so there’s really no way to use her wrong, even if she does work better with Snipers. A good pick for most teams, and better with Nikkes who favor bigger weapons.
Exia
SNIPER, ELECTRIC, I, “SUPPORTER”, TETRA, PROTOCOL
ATK and DEF Debuffer
Exia is a Supporter who helps the team out not by buffing them, but by making enemies miserable with some fairly basic but reliable debuffs. Her passive debuffs enemy ATK and DEF by 13.77% for 5 seconds every time she hits something with the last shot in her mag, while also buffing her own ATK by 16.8%.
The self-buff can stack 5 times and lasts 15 seconds, which paired with her sniper rifle’s low ammo capacity, makes this easy to reach. Her Burst Skill looks fairly lackluster but comes out quick at 20 seconds like with most Burst I Nikkes: She hits 10 high DEF enemies for 122.32% ATK damage and lowers their defense.
While this looks weak, you have to remember that she is likely hitting DEF-debuffed enemies with her massively boosted ATK stat thanks to her easily maintained stacking ATK buff. After 5 stacks, that 122.32% damage, which also hits twice at full stacks, goes a long way. A useful choice for general combat, though perhaps she should get reclassed as an Attacker instead.
Milk
SNIPER, WATER, I, ATTACKER, TETRA, CAFE SWEETY
Lifesteal, Crit Booster
Milk might as well be a permanent crit boost because her crit buff’s requirement is simply to keep her HP at 80% and above. Difficult to pull off with other Nikkes, but Milk’s Burst skill, which already does 367.34% ATK damage to an area, comes with lifesteal for the whole team, so it’s no problem for her.
She also has a skill that procs every 20 seconds that buffs ATK for two Nikkes with high ATK by 31.83% for 10 seconds, which is generally reliable. She’s worth bringing to a fight since the general team composition has a pair of DPS Nikkes in it.
Guillotine
MACHINEGUN, ELECTRIC, III, ATTACKER, ELYSION, EXTRINSIC
Berserker, Clutch Pull, Needs Shields
If you’re having a particularly tough time with a boss, you may want to send in Guillotine to saw their head off with a machine gun. The more HP she loses, the more damage she deals. This makes her useful in boss fights where you can lose a lot of HP from a single mistake, or can generally get chipped away pretty hard.
She works well with Nikkes that provide shields or healing, but especially shields since that lets her take more hits while her HP technically stays low. After all, while you want Guillotine at low HP, you don’t want her dead.
Ludmilla
SUBMACHINEGUN, WATER, I, DEFENDER, TETRA, UNLIMITED
Taunt Tank, Extremely Bugged, -3 Tiers with Bug
Ludmilla has the potential to be one of the best tanks in the game if the developers start cleaning their bugs. She can reduce damage against herself by a whopping 50+% for 15 seconds and increase the team’s defense by 12.93% when maxed out. This is all in service to her taunt, which is currently bugged and doesn’t aggro enemies.
This means her juicy damage-reduction self-buff gets wasted because she isn’t the one taking all the hits from the enemy while it’s active. Perhaps wait until she gets a bugfix before using her, upon which she may become truly amazing. While the bug is active though, she might as well be bumped down to C-Tier!
Isabel
SHOTGUN, ELECTRIC, III, PILGRIM, INHERIT
Boss Buster, Buff Stacker
Usually, Pilgrims are the cream of the crop in Nikke. Players typically consider them the true SSR, since other SSRs are much more common and Pilgrims tend to have much more insane Burst Skills. Isabel tries to be this but winds up suffering in general use. She relies on powerful stacking buffs to make herself hit harder, but this means she needs to wait for her 40-second cooldown, a weakness shared with other Burst III buff stackers.
Thankfully for her, there is no listed time before her stacks dissipate, but most fights won’t last long enough for her to reach full stacks. Instead, she works best in long drawn-out battles that allow her to reach full stack, usually chapter-end bosses with multiple stages. If you have Isabel, keep her on the bench until the end of a chapter, then toss her in to nuke the boss.
Pepper
SHOTGUN, WIND, I, SUPPORTER, MISSILIS, SERAPHIM
Healer, CQB Damage Dealer, Use Manually, Moderately Bugged, -1 Tier While Bugged
Too bad a bug gives her problems with her main shtick, otherwise, she’d be one of the better healers in the game. Pepper is unique in that her Burst Skill immediately gives teammates a stack in whatever stackable buffs they happen to have, including herself! Her healing becomes more powerful the more stacks she gets.
Unfortunately, stacking buffs are currently bugged, so she’s not able to be used at her full potential, though using her manually may make things easier in that regard. She also hits surprisingly hard for a Supporter, so she can help with DPS if the enemy composition likes getting in your face. Again, we put her high up despite her bugs because we expect the devs to fix them.
Brid
ASSAULT RIFLE, WATER, III, ATTACKER, ELYSION, INFINITY RAIL
Burst Damage
Brid is about as brutally, smoothbrainedly blunt an Attacker as you can get: Her skills can either give herself an ATK boost or deal immense damage to a single target. And by immense, we mean a normal skill worth 200% ATK in a single blow, and a maniacal 1237.5% ATK damage Burst Skill, albeit targeted toward the enemy with the highest DEF. If she’s at full HP, her burst skill hits twice!
Keeping her at full HP is quite difficult since enemies are always constantly shooting, so make sure to put some Burst II or I healers on the team to fill her HP bar up right before she uses her Burst skill, to make this easier. You can also get a Defender Nikke with a taunt before the healer so Brid doesn’t take any damage.
Novel
SMG, IRON, II, “DEFENDER”, TETRA, PROTOCOL
Debuffer, Debuff Spammer
Fast cooldowns and a powerful debuff that increases the damage her target eats make Novel less of a Defender and more of a Supporter for your DPS Nikkes. Her only defensive skill protects herself with a stacking DEF buff of 13.5% up to 5 times, stacking once every time she takes 100 hits.
Everything else is for better offense! She has a DEF debuff skill that, while not very strong at 7.05% DEF Down for 5 seconds, is spammy with a 10-second cooldown. Her Burst Skill takes the cake, also having a quick cooldown (20 seconds), increasing the damage taken by the enemy with the highest ATK by 67.5% for 5 seconds.
This makes Novel excellent for bosses where there’s only one target to deal with, but she isn’t too good against mooks since they won’t last long even without her around.
A Tier – Still Pretty Good
This is where good but relatively overshadowed Nikkes go. Most of the Nikkes here tend to have a set of good skills hampered by one or two annoying flaws. You’ll find a lot of the better SR Nikkes here, since they tend to have very good skills yet suffer from their lower maximum level of 160, compared to SSRs’ max of 200.
You might do well using the SR Nikkes here first before even using Nikkes from the higher tier, if only because you can limit break SR Nikkes far more quickly. At the very least, level the SR Nikkes first while deploying S and X-Tier SSRs through the Synchro Device.
Volume
SMG, WIND, I, “ATTACKER”, TETRA, PRIMA DONNA
Offensive Buffer, Cooldown Cutter
Volume is a strange Attacker who acts more like an offensive Supporter. She can boost the whole team’s crit chance by 31.59%, speed up Burst Skill Cooldowns, and increase everyone’s Crit Damage. Even her way of dealing out damage is a buff: A 5-second self-buff of 12.6% ATK every time she kills an enemy, which results in reliable damage.
Her Skill Cooldown buffs are the best reason to bring her since she can make the difference between a partial Burst and a Full Burst, though she needs the Full Bursts in the first place to get it done. Bring her for long battles if you want to use her, and make sure you have some fast Burst IIs and IIIs coming after her.
Her main weakness is her reliance on Crits (Crits are hampered by the game’s damage math compared to ATK), but that cooldown cutting is always a good sight.
Yan
LAUNCHER, FIRE, I, SUPPORTER, TETRA, TALENTUM
Vortex Attack, Offensive Buffer
If all you look at is the math, Yan comes out as one of the least effective offensive buffers you can get. Her buff percentages for ATK and CRIT Damage are puny, both at less than 3%. She has one thing that makes her quite special though: Her Burst skill pulls all enemies within her attack range toward her crosshair on impact.
This allows the rest of your squad to hose them down a lot more easily. Use her against levels with big mook swarms so other Launcher Nikkes can sweep it clear and leave the enemy leader open to attack. Pair her with bazooka users or anyone with piercing shots for some very satisfying bulk kills.
Yulha
SNIPER, FIRE, III, ATTACKER, TETRA, TRIANGLE
Buffer, Short Duration Extreme ATK Buff
Yulha, while powerful, is a bit of a dice roll when it comes to her most awesome skill, which isn’t even her Burst skill. Her Burst skill is a fairly basic all-screen attack that does 400+% of her ATK’s damage. She also has a passive that boosts her Crit Rate by 24.53% for 20 seconds if she takes 30 hits, which is pretty good considering a lot of hit proc skills can take upwards to 100 hits to activate on average.
It’s her second skill that takes the cake: Every 30 seconds, she boosts the whole team (It says it affects 5 allies with the lowest HP, but there are only 5 Nikkes to a team!) ATK by a deranged 90.75% for 5 seconds, and on top of that, share the damage taken by everyone for 10 seconds. That nearly double damage skill would be truly insane if it procs right before everyone dumps their Burst Skills, but is still welcome even with just normal attacks.
You may try timing your team’s Burst Skill cooldowns to match it either by Bursting manually or using a team composition that has cooldowns tailored to it, but that won’t be easy. Especially since that cooldown is so long (30 seconds for a non-burst is molasses) and using a tailor-made Yulha nuke team would require other Nikkes with equally terrible cooldowns or cooldowns that are a dividend of 30.
Yuni
LAUNCHER, FIRE, II, DEFENDER, MISSILIS, WARDRESS
General Support, Lifesteal, Disabler
Yuni, despite her penchant for causing pain in both her team and the enemy, is a pretty good support Nikke, especially if she’s paired with other Launcher or Sniper Nikkes. She can make their weapons charge 8.97% faster for 10 seconds, increase their magazine size by a single shot, and raise everyone’s defense by an honestly measly 2.77% for 10 seconds.
All in all, not bad when put in a bazooka team. On top of this, her Burst Skill not only damages enemies in an AOE, but it also immobilizes the victims for 5 seconds, useful for Launcher Nikkes who might have trouble with moving targets.
She also has a decent Burst Skill cooldown of 20 seconds, so she can keep pouring the disables reliably enough. Just remember that she’s an SR though: She can only go all the way to level 160, meaning she’ll drop off in effectiveness toward the late game.
Epinel
SMG, WIND, III, ATTACKER, MISSILIS, NEPENTHE
Self-Buffer, Close Combat DPS
A character with powerful, reliable self-buffs… if it weren’t for her choice of weapons. She can buff her ATK by 13.86% up to five times, with a single stack coming from a single kill.
She also increases her crit rate by 5.05%, and Crit damage by 6.4% for 5 seconds each when her last shot hits a target. Her use of an SMG is very limiting because of its damage falloff, so if you want to use her, bring her to a fight full of personal space-invading enemies.
Maxwell
SNIPER, IRON, III, ATTACKER, MISSILIS, MATIS
Needs Enemy Crowds, ATK Booster, Transforming Weapon
Maxwell’s kit is more or less made to deal with crowds despite being a Sniper Nikke. Her Burst Skill turns her rifle into a single-shot pierce gun that deals 813.42% of her ATK, which can go through multiple enemies. She also boosts Crit rates by 4.83% and Crit damage by 13.91% whenever there are 5 non-Nikke enemies on screen.
And the cherry on top, a Full Burst gives 2 high ATK teammates 4.48% faster weapon charging and a 10-second ATK boost of 43.1%. You generally don’t want to bring her to a boss fight, so send her in to stomp mooks.
Noise
LAUNCHER, ELECTRIC, I, SUPPORTER, TETRA, PRIMA DONNA
Healer, Taunt, Heal Over Time, Slow Cooldown, Extremely Bugged, +3 Tiers with Bug
A taunt, a defensive buff, and a powerful yet slow heal over time Burst Skill, it seems Noise’s biggest weakness is her cooldown mixed with her being a Burst I Nikke. She taunts whoever she blasts for 2 seconds if she fires her bazooka at full charge while raising her own max HP by 15.16% for 5 seconds.
She can also reduce the damage the team takes by 10.66% for 20 seconds every time she gets hit 20 times. Her most powerful skill is her Burst, which heals her whole team over time for 2.47% of her own max HP every second for 10 seconds while boosting everyone’s Max HP by 49.5% for 10 seconds, thus further increasing the raw HP count healed.
The downside is that 40-second cooldown: On a Burst III, it’s only mildly annoying, but on a Burst 1, it’s incredibly painful since it massively limits how often the squad can do Burst chains. You may need to bring a spare Burst I Nikke with her, but otherwise, she’s a decent pick.
A small note: Her HP boost skill is bugged to the point that it can basically make her immortal by giving her an extremely powerful HP drain. If it occurs, then your only foe is the mission timer.
N102
LAUNCHER, WATER, I, SUPPORTER, MISSILIS, RECALL & RELEASE
Offensive Buffer
N102 is a fairly simple but reliable SR buffer. Every time she fires a fully charged bazooka shot, she increases your highest ATK teammate’s Crit Damage by 10.34%, while putting 3 extra shots in their mag for 10 seconds.
She also boosts the Charge Damage of your highest HP teammate by 25.84% for 5 seconds every 15 seconds. It’s her burst skill that makes her really good: A 10-second ATK boost worth 25.86%, on a 20-second cooldown.
While the boost isn’t the biggest, it is quick, lasts long, and is highly predictable, always boosting a Burst barrage since it in itself is a Burst Skill too, though it does no damage on its own. Her only weakness is being an SR, so she might die too quickly in the really late areas.
Helm
SNIPER, WATER, III, ATTACKER, ELYSION, HONORABLE
Team Lifesteal, Bossbuster
Helm is a powerful but highly specialized fighter. Not only can she deal out damage and help the team deal damage, but she can also make the team last longer in the fight. Her skills include a team Crit Rate boost of 14.64% for 5 seconds when the last shot in her clip hits a target, and during Full Bursts, an extra 11.85% ATK for the team for 10 seconds.
She has a slow (But more or less average for Burst III skills) 40-second Burst Skill that not only hits a High ATK enemy for 1237.5% ATK damage but also lets her and her teammates heal 54.45% of the damage they dish out for 10 whole seconds.
Her burst skill is great on bosses, but hilariously overkill and slow for mook fights, so bring her to break bosses in half. The burst skill doing single-target damage is mistakenly listed as a multi-target attack in the game proper, as of this writing.
Folkwang
ASSAULT RIFLE, WATER, II, DEFENDER, TETRA, NEPENTHE
Healer, Healer Supporter, Shield, Taunt Tank
Take Emma, give her a shield generator, then make her skill cooldowns painfully slow. After that, you get a rough overview of Folkwang. A 40-second skill cooldown on a Burst II skill is painful enough, but there are also 30-second cooldowns on her other skills.
Thankfully, her skills have rather good percentages, able to raise her own Max HP by 44.96% while taunting, give a shield based on 32.9% of her own max HP to two teammates who have the highest ATK, and heal them for 65.81% of her own ATK.
That being said, her cooldowns, especially the fact that she is Burst II while being slow, makes her prone to breaking Burst chains. If you’re using her, it’s because of the shield, because Nikke’s shields are really darn good compared to other games.
Belorta
LAUNCHER, ELECTRIC, II, ATTACKER, TETRA, THE CARRONADES
Charge Booster, Increased AOE
A fairly good Launcher SR, Belorta’s rocket splash damage widens at full charge, which works well with her ability to speed up charging for the whole team. She can also reduce DEF for any enemy she hits every 4 shots. Unfortunately, the DEF Reduction is rather tiny: 3.52% for 5 seconds.
The Charging Speed of 2.82% is also tiny, but at least it lasts 10 seconds, long enough to get several shots out. You’ll probably bring her for the wider AOE to sweep mooks off the screen.
Rapi
ASSAULT RIFLE, FIRE, III, “ATTACKER”, ELYSION, COUNTERS
Starter, Taunt, Generalist, Single Target Attack
You’d think putting a taunt on an Attacker is an incredibly stupid idea, but ironically it works well for Rapi’s job as an easy-to-use SR for rookie Commanders. Her skillset lets her pull double duty as a tank and DPS, useful if you’re starting out and have a limited roster of Nikkes. Her skills are single-target strikes that prioritize enemies with the highest ATK, and one of them comes with a taunt, allowing her to protect other Nikkes in a pinch.
Unfortunately, as an SR, she’ll eventually start getting herself killed with that taunt, especially since she doesn’t have the bulkiness Defenders have. Oddly enough, this being her weakness also has a job: It’s to tell the player that they need to start sending in more specialized Nikkes and learn proper team composition instead of relying on Rapi to do everything. Overall, a very reliable SR and a welcome sight for new Commanders everywhere.
Neon
SHOTGUN, FIRE, I, SUPPORTER, ELYSION, COUNTERS
Starter, Offensive Support, Shotgunner Focused
Just like Rapi, Neon is a starter SR and one of the better SR Nikkes at that, but for completely opposite reasons. If Rapi is a generalist who can fill most gaps on your team, Neon is so hilariously specialized that it loops over and makes her good. She is good at precisely one job: Supporting other Shotgunners!
On a full burst, she gives a painful extra 45.93% extra Crit Rate for the next 2 shots anyone does. This is pathetic on rapid-fire weapons, pretty darn good on Snipers and Bazookas, and a war crime on Shotguns, because every single pellet will likely crit if your enemy makes the mistake of getting in kissing range of Neon’s shotgun muzzle. Pair that with her Burst Skill’s ability to increase all Shotgunner Nikke’s mag size by 3, and you get a buckshot firestorm.
Not exactly a Nikke you’d bring for general use, but Neon with a boomstick-toting riot squad makes for a fun laugh the second you fight a boss that regularly gets in your face. Just remember she’s an SR, so she might fall off in effectiveness later on, though not as fast as other SR Nikkes if you enjoy shotgun spam.
Ether
SHOTGUN, ELECTRIC, I, DEFENDER, MISSILIS, MMR
Shield Generator, DEF Debuffer, Triage Priority
Another good Nikke, hampered by her SR rating. Ether can put up a shield, save the life of a low HP Nikke by prioritizing them for a big damage reduction buff, and she can cut the defenses of 3 enemies on the field. Being an SR though means her max level is only 160 instead of 200, so you’re more likely to use her early in the game, replacing her with an SSR once you grind enough to limit break them a third time.
That being said, shields are so good in this game that you may still bring her just to stop boss nukes once in a while if you have no other shield Nikkes in your roster.
Delta
SNIPER, WIND, II, ELYSION, THE SCOUTS
Decoy Deployment
Delta is a strange Defender, considering she doesn’t really do the tanking herself. Her Burst Skill summons a decoy with roughly 90% of her max HP, which distracts enemies for a decently solid 10 seconds.
This would be amazing if she were an SSR, but being an SR means she’ll eventually fall off in effectiveness due to her lower max level. A good choice for newbies or those with less-than-stellar luck. Weird in her skills, weird in everyday life, that’s Delta for you.
Anis
LAUNCHER, IRON, II, DEFENDER, TETRA, COUNTERS
Starter, Damage Sharing
Anis is one of the Nikkes you get at the start of the game and is a blessing to newbies everywhere. As a tank, her only real downside is being an SR, which limits her max level to 160 rather than 200. Her Passive increases her DEF by a hilarious 120% for 10 seconds after she gets shot 40 times.
Her Burst Skill also shares damage across the whole team, which is very useful if your damage dealers are being targeted down: Some of the hurt will transfer to Anis, leaving your squishy DPS Nikkes alive when they should by all rights be dead! Overall, a long-lasting choice for rookies, but you will eventually need to replace her.
Miranda
SMG, FIRE, I, SUPPORTER, ELYSION, ACPU
Pockets Your DPS
Miranda is weird, akin to a TF2 Medic player who only heals their Demoman-playing girlfriend and only helps the rest of the team in a passing manner. Miranda is a very dedicated buffer who focuses solely on a single high-ATK Nikke with her burst skill.
She crams them full of ATK and Crit buffs, specifically a chunky 40.4% ATK and 56.23 Crit Damage for 10 seconds. This makes her great for odd teams with singular damage dealers, but the average team usually has a couple of Attackers in it.
Most teams will leave her home in favor of Supporters that buff the whole team more effectively, though she at least boosts crit damage by 32.99% for the rest of the team too. That being said, bring her if you have an X or S-Tier Attacker on your team but you lack options for a more well-rounded group.
B Tier – Would Still Use Them
These Nikkes are comparatively weak compared to the ones above them, though perhaps they can still be used. That being said, the Synchro Device ensures you often won’t need to put these Nikkes through the wringer that is Surface combat. Don’t hesitate to level them up and use them as Synchro Device professors if you max limit break them since you won’t need to use them anyway.
Signal
SMG, FIRE, II, ATTACKER, ELYSION, THE SCOUTS
Debuffer, Burst Spammer
A nikke who specializes in cramming the enemy full of debuffs and maintaining them, but at the cost of keeping those debuffs small. Her kit involves lifesteal since her Burst lets her eat 40+% of the damage she pours out as healing. Her 20-second cooldown is also spammy enough to be reliable.
She also debuffs enemy ATK and DEF reliably though at a small percentage. Overall, you may need to pick someone with bigger debuffs.
Mica
LAUNCHER, WIND, I, SUPPORTER, TETRA, THE CARRONADES
Ammo Extension, Offensive Supporter
Mica is a good choice to bring if you’re running Shotgunners, Launchers, and Snipers as your team damage dealers, thanks to her ammo extension ability. She extends magazines not by percentage, but by a very direct 2 extra shots. This is pointless on Assault Rifles, SMGs, and especially Machineguns, but utterly comedic when paired with low-ammo weapons like Shotguns, Launchers, and Sniper Rifles.
She can also dent enemy DEF across the whole screen by 13.32% for 5 seconds, and increase her own DEF if she takes 40 hits. As usual, being an SR makes her suffer, but you’ll probably use her longer than usual for that extra 2-4 bazooka shots.
Emma
MACHINEGUN, FIRE, I, SUPPORTER, ELYSION, ABSOLUTE
Healer, Healer Supporter
Emma is likely meant to be used with other healers since her skill increases the team’s HP recovery by 13.33% for as long as her HP is above 90%. This is usually good enough in fights against mooks, though make one mistake in a boss fight and suddenly it’s gone.
She can also do healing herself, using her incredibly slow 40-second cooldown Burst I Skill, recovering 39.6% HP based on Emma’s HP, and healing over time with the same percentage but based on her ATK, for the whole team. You may want to get a different healer if you’re focusing on better DPS because that 40-second cooldown on a Burst I is a problem.
Aria
MACHINEGUN, WATER, II, “ATTACKER”, TETRA, PRIMA DONNA
Offensive Support, Shielder
Aria isn’t much of an Attacker, having skills that mostly support the team. Unfortunately, those skills aren’t as good as what you’d expect of true Supporters either. She mostly boosts Crit chance and damage, without boosting ATK, at fairly average percentages.
As usual, the meta is skewed toward direct ATK boosts right now, but it’s something. Her Burst Skill’s shield, while not as good as shields from other shield-generating Nikkes, can still be a real lifesaver at 37% of her own max HP, as with any shields in Nikke. It also comes with her only true Attacker ability, which lets her machine gun fire 30.37% faster for a cool 15 seconds.
One of the bigger problems with her is the 40-second cooldown on her Burst II skill. Unless you’ve got another Burst II Nikke on the team, she might break the Burst chain early, and she won’t give that shield and fire rate bonus very often. You’re probably using Aria because you think she’s hot (The most valid reason to use any Nikke), you need a slot filler for damage type matching, or because she’s the only one on your roster who generates shields at the moment.
Maiden
SHOTGUN, ELECTRIC, III, ATTACKER, ELYSION, EXTRINSIC
Taunt, Damage Dealer
A weird sort of berserker who, instead of increasing damage as their HP lowers, instead gets a 26.66% ATK buff for 20 seconds after taking 20 hits. For this, she also has a taunt, to make sure she gets those buffs.
While this sounds sensible on paper, she doesn’t really have the survivability to survive taunting, so she might need a strong healer behind her. On top of this, her taunt (which also comes with a 152.84% Crit Damage buff) only activates every 30 seconds.
C Tier – Seat Warmers
If you’re giving these Nikkes Battle Data Sets, it’s probably because you have them limit-broken fully before any other Nikke. They still throw lead down range and look cute doing it, which is more important than any other consideration. There are other far more effective options though if all you want is a high Rapture body count.
Mary
SHOTGUN, WATER, I, SUPPORTER, TETRA, SERAPHIM
Healer, Shield Generator
A healer who suffers from her skill requirements. Mary generally has a hard time catching up to other healers because of her ridiculous 40-second cooldown (Which is insane for Burst I Nikkes, and more common on Burst III Nikkes) and the fact her skills become less effective when she’s at half HP.
If she’s at half HP, that usually means the rest of the team is too, so she’s not helping when she’s needed the most. Overall, you might be better off with a different healer. Of course, she has a shield, which is always a nice sight, but it isn’t enough to make up for that torturous Burst I slowness.
Soline
SMG, IRON, III, ATTACKER, ELYSION, INFINITY RAIL
Burst Skill Reliant, Needs Max HP
Soline is probably one of the weakest SSRs in the game. Her skills tend not to pair well with her use of a submachinegun: SMGs already have a bonkers-level fire rate, so her ATK Speed buffs do squat for her. Her Burst Skill also needs her to be at Max HP to be effective.
Considering you’re taking at least a little bit of damage constantly even against really weak foes, this is seldom the case. If you plan on using her, make sure your Burst II is a healer of some sort to increase the likelihood of Soline being at max HP when she pulls out her Burst. And do it quickly too, before she gets chipped!
Vesti
LAUNCHER, WATER, III, ATTACKER, ELYSION, ABSOLUTE
Needs Cooldown Boosts Badly
Vesti looks good on paper until you do some simple math. She can stack crit damage buffs every time she uses her Burst skill, and the stacks each last 30 seconds. The problem? Her Burst Skill has a 40-second cooldown!
That means she is virtually incapable of stacking her buffs alone, and she’ll need friends to lower that cooldown to at least 30 seconds to get anything out of it. It doesn’t help that Crit damage is weaker than raw, meaty ATK power in Nikke’s current damage calculations, so there are better options out there. If the lore calls her the strongest in her team ABSOLUTE, then her team is in serious trouble!
Eunhwa
SNIPER, FIRE, II, ATTACKER, ELYSION, ABSOLUTE
Lowers Defense, Use On Manual
Eunhwa is generally a poor choice on auto teams, but a little bit better when you aim her shots manually. She lowers enemy defense by 29% for 5 seconds with the last shot in her mag. The Auto-AI’s not good at prioritizing targets, so if you want to use Eunhwa, control her directly and point her toward dangerous, tough enemies. Otherwise, the rest of her skills are relatively lackluster.
Crow
SMG, FIRE, III, DEFENDER, MISSILIS, EXOTIC
Tank, ATK Debuffer
Crow is highly reliant on her DEF-lowering abilities because her other skills tend not to work well considering her role. She can reduce all enemy DEF by 19.93% for 10 seconds with her burst, which is solid enough. She can also raise her own defense… Which doesn’t matter much since she doesn’t taunt, unlike Ludmilla. There are better choices out there for protecting your squad.
Julia
ASSAULT RIFLE, IRON, III, ATTACKER, MISSILIS, MASTER HAND
Crit Burster
Julia is generally considered decent thanks to her big numbers when it comes to buffing her own Crit chance and damage. Her stacking buffs certainly work better than Soline’s since they pop out when she fires her last shot, as opposed to waiting for her Burst skill to activate.
That being said, the meta as of this writing is focused more heavily on ATK power instead of Crits, so keep this in mind before putting her on your team. Her main weakness is her burst skill’s attack priority, which targets enemies with the highest DEF: This means it does less damage than it should and is not likely to clear the screen of dangerous game-ending glass cannon types.
Mihara
ASSAULT RIFLE, WATER, III, ATTACKER, MISSILIS, WARDRESS
Needs Cooldown Boosts
Her buff numbers pointed at both Crits and ATK are a bit on the low side with numbers ranging from 11-15%. She also has a stacking buff that, much like Soline, requires some cooldown boosts since they rely on her slow Burst skill cooldown.
Worst of all, her burst skill reduces Burst time by a painful 5 seconds for the rest of the team, making them less effective when Mihara’s around! At least she has her SR rarity level as an excuse compared to Soline.
Diesel
MACHINEGUN, WIND, II, DEFENDER, ELYSION, INFINITY RAIL
Tank, Taunt, Ammo Extension, Pre-Registration Reward
Diesel is one of the writer’s favorite characters, but even they must admit this isn’t because of her effectiveness. She has a small 5-second taunt, and she can only give herself DEF and heal herself on a FULL Burst, meaning she needs a Burst III teammate with a short cooldown to be at her most effective…
Or two of them, which is generally a fairly common offensive deployment choice anyway. Her ability to extend everyone’s mags by a cool 56.7% for 10 mags or 10 seconds is quite welcome, though she needs to fire 1000 shots to proc it. Not gonna stop our writer from sending her in though.
Frima
SNIPER, IRON, I, SUPPORTER, TETRA, CAFE SWEETY
Max HP Booster, DEF Debuffer
This lazybones is a sleepy sniper who can increase the team’s Max HP by 30+% while lowering enemy defense. She’s another one worth using on manual control if you’re using her at all since her DEF debuff applies to every 4 hits she pulls off. You’d want that DEF debuff to hit something important!
Her Burst Skill increases the team’s max HP for 5 seconds, usually not enough time to really take advantage of it. You might prefer a more direct healer instead, or a sniper who hits harder.
And this ends our Goddess of Victory: Nikke tier list. If we missed anything, feel free to leave us a message in the comment box below!