Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN) Tier List (Updated)

Categories

• DPS: Characters whose primary focus is maximizing the damage they deal and being the main source of it in the team they’re present in.
• Support DPS: Characters that can be played as a main DPS but also have incredible supportive capabilities and options. Those in this category, while able to be placed in the DPS category, offer more to the team than just pure damage and therefore cannot be ranked directly against pure damage dealers.
• Support: Characters in this category are fully focused on aiding the team through either healing, draw power, searching, AP generation, or buffing/debuffing as a focus, with damage taking a back seat.
• Shielder: Those in this category all supply the team with immense shields as a focus, but also support the team in many other ways as well.

Special Tags

• [Hybrid]: Characters with this tag display properties of two categories instead of one. The other category they could be ranked in is specified in their tag. Note support DPS all operate as having the [Hybrid] tag and won't possess it to prevent redundancy.
• [Draw]: Character has cards that provide substantial draw power to the team.
• [Search]: Character has cards that provide non-personal card searching on use
• [Break]: Character possesses a stronger-than-average potential to deal high tenacity damage
• [AP-]: Character is very AP hungry and requires a large amount of the team's resources or an AP-generating support.
• [AP+]: Character either generates a ton of AP for the team or requires very little to function themselves, allowing more to be used for the team.
• [Upgrade]: Characters can function while playing minimal or no cards due to much of their power residing in upgrades or signature class mechanics.
• [AoE]: Characters possess incredible AoE potential, notably above average.
• [Buff]: Characters possess buffing capabilities that work on other characters and that far exceed the standard amount in kits.

Ratings

Based on the fact that so many characters are viable and all can be strong, there is far less separation in the Chaos Zero Nightmare tier list than in other games we support. Because of this, there are only three tiers at release: T0, T1, and T2 - with the differences between them also smaller than those in other titles.

• T0: Characters in this tier either have irreplaceable effects that are difficult to match, even with Divine Epiphanies and top-tier equipment. And or are notably more powerful at both average and high levels of deck building, allowing them to be more effective for more players in general across the board.
• T1: Character is competent and has one or many outstanding deckbuilding options that make them viable in endgame and capable of completing content without trouble.
• T2: Characters in this tier, while absolutely playable, are outclassed in one or multiple areas, even after considering high-end deck-building options for their role. Either others perform the role they’re doing better, or their kit isn’t currently a strong fit for Basin of Hyperspace.

General Criteria

• Manual play,
• Using optimal team composition,
• Characters are level 60,
• All Potentials unlocked,
• Character is equipped with a level 60 partner of either:
• S5 4★ or 3★ (Gold/Blue),
• S1 5★ (Purple),
• Character equipped with Memory Fragments that have optimal main and sub stats,
• Character equipment follows these rules:
• Best Unique equipment included,
• The other two slots are filled with the strongest global equipment choices (that can drop from shops and in any Chaos Manifestation),
• Both 4★ and 5-★ characters are rated at Ego 0,
• The following deck-building rules apply:
• Divine Epiphanies are not included,
• Optimal Epiphanies are assumed for all characters,
• Two desirable copies are assumed per character deck,
• All cards that are optimal to remove are removed.

Roles Criteria

We compare characters within their role - so DPS are compared to other DPS, and ratings are adjusted based on their performance in that role. Don't try to compare characters between roles, because their ratings mean different things.

• DPS: Rating is heavily influenced based on the character's ability to deal enough damage to achieve the 3-star objective; the easier and more quickly achieved, the higher the rating.
• Support DPS: Rating is heavily influenced by what synergy and benefit they provide to other characters while also factoring in general support and damage capabilities.
• Support: Rating is influenced by the character's ability to support the team either through buffing or providing additional resources in the form of card search, draw, or AP. How effective a support character is at enhancing one or multiple other characters' strategies determines their ranking on the tier list. Ability to sustain the team through healing is also considered.
• Shielder: Rating is influenced heavily by the character's ability to output strong and consistent enough shielding to survive endgame while also bringing more to the table through supportive effects or enough damage to make a difference.

30.10.2025

Initial release of the tier list. Also, to demonstrate the thinking behind how decisions are made for each character, we’ll be posting a Launch Log explaining why each character placed in T0 is where they are:

• 
  Hugo - Hugo is capable of dealing some of the best single-target damage in the game when set up correctly, thanks to his numerous and easy-to-access Extra Attacks. What makes him T0 on, though, is that he does this while not needing any specific cards in hand. Hugo’s damage is mostly “free” or passive, as any skill card grants him Hunt Commence and any targeted card triggers it, making him incredibly consistent no matter what you draw. Add to this the fact that his core strategy is upgrade-based and starts with Outbreak of War, and Hugo is basically always executing his game plan the same way every time. Lastly, what pushes Hugo over the edge is his absurd synergy with Tressa and the fact that he has access to outstanding card economy options of his own, with multiple ways to either search or draw more.
• 
  Tressa - Tressa’s, like Hugo’s, current best deck is also upgrade-based and possesses Outbreak of War, meaning her strategy is just as consistent. Also, like Hugo, she doesn’t rely on any specific hand and only needs any source of healing in order to work, something that can be found on many combatant cards and even partner effects. This, combined with her synergy with Hugo, forms one of the more dominant compositions at launch as both characters quickly establish their upgrades, then for the rest of the fight can execute it unhindered regardless of the state of your resources, deck, and cards you draw.
• 
  Veronica - Card draw is key to many strategies' best performance, and Veronica has the best currently in the game, with a lot of it costing 0. This, combined with the fact that all of her own deck is essentially upgrades outside of the draw cards themselves, makes her the ultimate deck thinner, easily capable of drawing all your key combo pieces every turn after her initial set-up. This is all on top of the fact that she can deal the majority of her very solid damage all for free, while executing the above makes her a dominant choice in many team comps that need draw power.
• 
  Mika - Mika is currently the only character with a base deck capable of generating AP a role that is incredibly in demand. She is also fully capable of sustaining a team in endgame without compromising her best deck at all, putting up some of the best healing numbers of any character. As one of the only characters that dramatically expands your available resources to perform actions each turn, the question often isn’t if you’ll run her but why you can’t run her twice.
• 
  Khalipe - Khalipe is capable of shielding enough to keep you alive in endgame while also dealing enough damage to be the damage dealer of the team herself. This, on top of the fact that damage is AoE and that she has great utility and supreme team flexibility, makes her the clear best shielder at the time of release for us.

In addition, we’re also watch-listing two characters immediately, as we’re confident in their placement based on our testing up to this point, but new discoveries made recently have benefited both tremendously. These characters are

Nia

Dimensional Cube

• 

  Dimensional Cube
  - The Dimensional Cube is an accessory equipment that can be purchased consistently in every run from the shop after achieving level 30 exploration in Blue Pot, thanks to the fact that every shop in Zero System can be refreshed 5 times for free. Here is what it does: Grants the wearer +10% additive damage whenever any character discards any card anywhere, with the exception of the end-of-turn discard.
• 
  Nia - Nia is currently the number one enabler of Dimensional Cube with her Ego Skill that discards the entire deck, triggering the cube for every single card it had - 20 cards is a +200% additive multiplier to everything for the turn. Nia’s other discard cards, of course, also work. Nia’s Curiosity is a semi-search double discard, equivalent to +20% and essentially a Morale stack for free, etc. This one equipment reinstates Nia as one of the best buffers despite not having any buffing in her kit. The reason we’re not immediately raising Nia is that while the cube is strong, if there is equally powerful equipment that does what the cube does without needing her, she might lose this new niche.
• 
  Luke - Luke’s biggest problem is that while he hits incredibly frequently, he lacks a strong way to scale those hits to a point where they’re competing with characters in the tier above him. Dimensional Cube may completely change this. As an example, Rapid Fire II hits 3 times and generates 3 Handgun bullets per Crit, if all Crit, that’s 6-hits, but the multiplier is a pitiful ~30% on each shot. But if you discarded the whole deck with Nia’s Ego skill before use, each shot may now be ~230% massively elevating the power of this one card. Again, we’re still in the test phase of this new style, so that’s why Luke is just watch-listed for now.