AFK Journey Tier List for best characters

Alsa is a Mage who combines good single-target damage with the ability to control the battlefield by creating walls and stunning enemies. She synergizes well with other characters that can apply CC effects and also works well in Dream Realm in full magical teams.

Antandra is the best A-level tank who can taunt, CC and debuff enemies while protecting allies with shields. She shines in double tank teams and her only issue is her faction being full of strong characters, so adding her to the wishlist is hard to justify early on.

Arden is the go-to dps carry in mid to late game thanks to his great AOE damage and self-contained CC-based kit that gets better with more CC characters in the team. Used in the Eironn team in both PVP and PVE.

Atalanta is a Marksman character who specializes in Crowd Control and Area Damage. Generally not worth investing in, but while her damage is lacking and her CC is inconsistent, she can still be used for her CC if you have no better options, paired with Arden or Carolina to boost their damage.

Berial is an Assassin who prays on isolated enemies, quickly dealing with them. His issue is that he gets easily countered by formations that 'stay together' and despite his single target focus, he doesn't do that well on bosses.

Brutus is one of the best tanks for high deficit AFK stage pushing thanks to his immortality gimmick. He is meant to be used with physical damage teams thanks to his PDEF Shred and Damage Taken debuffs, but is usually just paired with Odie and other maulers for the AFK stage mauler stall team with Antandra, Koko, and Smokey.

Bryon is a magic Marksman who can summon a Falcon and who focuses on debuffing enemies while killing them quickly. Once you unlock his EX weapon he also gains the ability to revive once per battle. While not the absolute best, Bryon still performs well in all game modes, especially at high EX weapon levels, except for very high deficit PVE content, which favors HP%-based damage.

Carolina is a damage dealer who specializes in debuffing and CCing enemies and who has synergy with other CC characters. She's a late bloomer who is part of the Eironn meta team.

Cassadee is an AoE-focused mage who also can buff her allies. She shines in Magical teams as she also can reduce the enemy's MDEF, which makes her great in Dream Realm, but she requires investment to work there.

Cecia is a summoner who can deal great damage and CC enemies. Thanks to her summon, she can turn the battle into 6vs5 and keep the backline occupied. She shines in PVE scenarios as part of the mauler stall team and can tank a lot of damage in the frontline, for a DPS character, when paired with Antandra. While early on she can be used in Dream Realm, later her damage falls off there, and in PVP she ends up being too slow once Eironn teams enter the meta.

Damian is a Support who can heal and buff allies and debuff enemies. While early on he is just average, things change once he unlocks his EX weapon upgraded to +5 - that's where he becomes one of the best PVP characters in the game, thanks to being the fastest healer while also providing Haste to the team. While Damian doesn't have the sheer healing output of Hewynn, he gets his AOE heals out much earlier, which can help the team survive the initial burst from burst damage teams.

While Dionel's damage output is great, he lacks a dedicated buffer that can allow him to use his kit fully and you need to stack 2-3 different buffers to bring him fully online. As a C/H character, raising him will take you much longer compared to other factions, but his damage output is insane if you manage to do so.

Eironn early on feels terrible to play, but everything changes once he unlocks his EX weapon. After that he can instantly gather enemies in one place at the start of the battle and debuff them, setting up his team for a combo wombo. He makes progression a breeze past Mythic+ and is widely used everywhere except for Dream Realm.

Fay is a Support who can both heal and buff her allies. Sadly compared to other supports, both her healing and buffs are underwhelming - she's trying to do both and fails at both.

You can consider Florabelle as Cecia's sister. Both focus on summons and their performance is very similar across the modes - they have the same advantages and disadvantages. Still, what sets Flora apart is the synergy with other summoners once you get her EX to +10.

Granny is a great tank who is only inferior to Thoran, but in some teams she actually outperforms the undead menace. On top of being a great tank, she can also debuff and CC enemies and heal herself, allowing her to outlast the enemy team.

Hewynn has great numbers on paper, in terms of raw healing output and defensive buffs, but can be too slow without Rowan or the Enlightening Spell artifact, as she relies entirely on her ultimate, which makes it hard to use her as solo healer despite her great healing output. Damian is used instead when a faster healer is required. Best used at Supreme+ where she gets access to Haste.

Igor is one of the most annoying enemies you will face in PVE and PVP. He jumps around the battlefield, cheating death while at the same time chipping at your team's HP. While he was nerfed just before the game's release, he is still a menace on PVP defense.

Kafra is a niche damage dealer/healer/debuffer hybrid who specializes in supporting melee-focused teams as he can only heal allies that are close to him. On top of the heals, he can also CC enemies and decrease their defense, allowing him to do many things at once. But remember that you need a specific melee-based team to make him shine.

Koko is a support who can reduce the damage her allies take on ultimate, as well as provide a wide variety of buffs to herself and allies, making her amazing from start to finish, in all game modes. Her only weakness is her expensive ultimate, which can be mitigated using Rowan. She will automatically make any team tankier as long as she can get her ultimate out in time.

Korin is a decent damage dealer for bosses, used when his mobility and shields are required. Can be used in story up to a point but falls off in high deficit stages. Needs Mythic+ to be used to his full potential.

Kruger is the best PDEF debuffer in the game. Sadly, outside the Dream Realm, he is not used anywhere else, and even in Dream Realm, he is not always the best option as Magic Damage and True Damage are more commonly used. Early on, a few copies of him will let him do his job, as his debuff is permanent so he needs to only apply it once and even if he dies, it will remain on the boss, but he will still need more copies at higher difficulty versions of the boss to survive long enough to apply his debuff.

Lucius is a tank who shields his allies. While early on, he does a great job, he quickly gets overshadowed by other tanks and is relegated to the off tank/shield bot role as he's not strong enough to solo tank. Has seen limited usage in Dream Realm and Battle Drills for extra sustain from his shields, thanks to his Seasonal Skill providing Haste and Damage buffs to the team making him slightly better in scenarios where raw damage output matters more.

A healer who doesn't provide any utility to his team and who instead focuses on pumping out insane healing numbers. Works perfectly well with Talene, but struggles to compete against other healers in other teams.

Lumont is a tank that has big issues staying alive compared to other tanks and even if you heavily invest into him, this doesn't change. Has seen limited use in a strategy to gather enemies together for Smokey to kill in high deficit stages, but is generally useless otherwise. Has access to teamwide Haste and Damage buffs thanks to his current Seasonal Skill.

Lyca is a I-can-do-it-all character who can deal decent AoE damage, buff allies and debuff enemies at the same time. She has a niche in the Dionel team thanks to her instant ATK SPD buff, but is not used much otherwise, as other characters can often do what most of what she does better than her, be it buffing or debuffing.

Marilee is the best Dream Realm damage dealer who sadly is average everywhere else. Once she unlocks her EX weapon, her normal attacks deal True Damage, making her even stronger.

Mirael is a pyromancer who wants to see the world burn. Sadly, she's not as good as her desires and her performance as a damage dealer is a bit underwhelming - her damage is lacking and she doesn't have any utility in her kit to make up for that. Her Seasonal Skill attempts to fix her slow kit by granting her Haste on ultimate, but by the time you get her ultimate up most of the team will be in bad shape, and it won't be enough to finish off the enemy.

Niru is a unique support who can heal his allies and make them immortal, allowing for pretty interesting combos with other characters that make some PVE content trivial. Still, he really needs his EX weapon to be consistent and it's hard to use him before he unlocks it. His current Seasonal Skill gives him some more breathing room to protect more allies.

Odie is one of the best A-level damage dealers in the game who shines in both PVE and PVP content. The combination of Poison, the ability to instantly kill enemies on low HP, and the massive Energy recovery that happens when he kills someone, make him a monster who can quickly kill the whole enemy team by himself.

Parisa is a DPS and buffer hybrid who is often paired with a DPS focused on auto-attacks. While her damage potential is decent, she's heavily reliant on enemy team formation to shine which often leads to her doing nothing. Should you invest heavily into her EX weapon however, she becomes an absolute menace dealing consistent burst damage within the small AOE of her attacks.

Phraesto is the best stall tank in the game who makes pushing high deficit a breeze, but only if you heavily invest in his copies. Compared to other Cele/Hypo characters, he isn't as versatile when it comes to other content, so F2P players should look at other options.

Reinier is the best C/H character who already works with just a single copy (unlike the other characters in those factions). He can switch positions between ally and enemy, disrupting the backline. Best Dream Realm debuffer with EX weapon unlocked.

Rhys is a damage dealer who traverses the battlefield on his bird, harassing the enemy with a barrage of attacks. His damage potential is decent, but he suffers because he tries to specialize in both single target and AoE damage simultaneously, which leads to him being just okay at both.

Rowan is the best "battery"-type healer in the game, used mostly in PVP scenarios where getting ultimates out before the enemy can decide the outcome of the match. Often paired with ultimate-based characters such as Cecia and Hewynn.

Salazer is a damage dealer who focuses on the enemy with most HP in the battle. Sadly, in a lot of cases, this will be the tank and while Salazer damage scales with the target's HP, he lacks the burst damage needed to actually kill the chunky targets.

Satrana is DPS and buffer hybrid. While the buff she provides to allies at the start of the battle is good as it reduces healing received by enemies attacked by them, Satrana has issues keeping herself alive as she's a melee type character who is very squishy, and her damage taken reduction only applies to magic damage. Has seen limited use in Dream Realm thanks to her MDEF shred from her current Seasonal Skill.

Scarlita is a unique support who at the start of the battle jumps into the air to support her allies with shields instead of fighting beside them. After some time, she gets bored and descends on the battlefield to deal massive amounts of damage. Best Celestial/Hypogean character to invest on after Reinier. A lot of her power is locked behind her EX weapon and skill enhancement, with her signature "instakill" ability requiring Mythic+ and +10 EX Weapon, and her massive MDEF and PDEF buff requiring Supreme+.

Seth is an Assassin who specializes in killing small fry, chaining kills through his ultimate, provided he is at mythic+ or higher. At low dupes, he will just die without doing anything, and he doesn't scale well into high deficit stages. If you do find yourself in a situation where Seth can score kills, be it in PVP or PVE, he will dominate the enemy team through his ability to self-heal and "snowball" out of control.

Shakir is a bruiser who can deal good damage and support nearby allies at the same time. He can do a lot of things and what's rare, he actually does it all decently well, allowing him to shine in both PVE and PVP. He's a core member of any Mauler-based team.

Silvina is an Assassin who instantly jumps to the enemy backline at the start of the battle. The issue is that if you don't invest in her dupes, this often is a death sentence as she will die before killing anyone. Her EX weapon makes surviving among enemies a lot easier and with it she's a force to be reckoned with in PVE and PVP.

Smokey & Meerky is one of the best supports in the game who can both heal and buff their allies. While they are the best support you can bring to the Dream Realm, in PVP, they often get interrupted making them useless. At high deficit PVE though, Smokey & Meerky shines through the use of their third aura, which deals massive damage to enemies in a large radius based on their maximum HP, making it one of the best strategies to overcome a large level gap.

Soren focuses on both dealing damage and crowd-controlling enemies, but sadly he's super squishy and often dies before doing anything as he jumps into the fray without any means to keep himself alive.

Talene is a jack of all trades who can be used in any content, but she shines the most in Dream Realm. Compared to most other C/H characters, she already works at L+, but she really wants S+ and EX+15 if you want to use her in DR and PVP. Also, you need to build a team around her to make use of her kit - she's not a plug-and-play type character.

Temesia is a very unique character who fights mounted, ignoring the walls and overall being a menace. She's great in the story to disrupt enemy formation and great in Dream Realm thanks to true damage and self-heal. While early on she also is annoying in PVP, later on, her performance there drops. Her seasonal skill increases enemy physical damage taken, which would be great in theory, but magic and true damage (herself included!) still dominate the meta in all modes, making it not as relevant as expected.

Thoran is hands down the best tank in the game, not through being the tankiest, that title goes to Granny Dahnie, but through his cheat death ability. Besides that, he can also deal a lot of damage - sometimes even one-shotting the enemy tank. And he becomes even stronger with his EX weapon as he can form a pact with an ally, taking damage instead of him and in exchange get healed when the ally deals damage. Thoran is also used as a debuffer in Dream Realm thanks to his current Seasonal Skill.

Ulmus is a Specialist who synergizes with CC characters. He isn't a tank, so don't trust his in-game designation and instead use him in the supportive role. He shines in PVP and in late-deficit pushing when paired with Eironn and Phraesto.

Vala is a very unique damage dealer who has two forms. In one she is snipes the enemy backline with her rifle, in the other, she jumps to the backline to stab and stun them to death. One of the rare characters who can effectively deal with the enemy backline directly, bypassing the tank, but doesn't scale well in AFK stages and is more useful in PVP attack teams. Also, once you unlock Vala EX weapon, she can become invisible, which drastically improves her survivability.

Valen is a damage dealer who performs very well in the early game, easily killing the whole enemy team alone, but his performance drops drastically once you reach the midgame. Then his burst isn't enough anymore and he doesn't have anything else to make up for it.

Viperian is an AoE-focused damage dealer who often can one-shot the whole enemy team. But on top of the damage, he can also drain energy from the enemies, allowing you to win the Ultimate race. He perfectly fits into the Graverborn core with Thoran and Cecia.

Walker is a damage dealer who focuses on Crowd Control. His damage is average, but he makes up for it with excellent crowd-control abilities. His Seasonal Skill also didn't help him much as it requires an Assist or Kill to trigger his shield. Not worth investing in, but he can still be used in a CC-focused team as a CC specialist to help boost Arden or Carolina's damage in a pinch.