Samurai Shodown Tier List

So you’ve just started playing Samurai Shodown and aren’t sure which characters are good? Well, you’re in luck, as that’s exactly what our Samurai Shodown tier list is here to help with. In this very guide, we rank all of the characters from S tier to D tier, with S being best and D being worst. That way, you can focus on filling out your party with S and A tiers to ensure that you perform well, skipping the B-D tiers. We’ll also include a description of the tiers so you know what they actually mean.

Samurai Shodown is the latest entry in the long-running fighting series that sees you picking your favourite character and taking on opponents. Unlike Tekken and Street Fighter, Samurai Shodown focuses on blade-to-blade combat, and features a story to complete.

You can learn more about it on the official site. We also recommend checking out our Genshin Impact TCG decks, Genshin Impact codes, and Genshin Impact events guides.

Samurai Shodown Tier List

Before we move onto the tier list proper, here’s a description of how our tiering system works so that you can make sense of it.

What Do Our Tiers Mean?

Here’s a brief explanation of each of our tiers:

• S Tier: Characters in this tier are the absolute best that the game has to offer. You should prioritise unlocking these and increasing their power. One of these can carry you through the entire game, and a full party will make most of the endgame content trivial – provided you focus on growing their power.
• A Tier: If your collection is lacking in S tiers, A tiers are great for filling gaps. These characters are still great in their own right, but they just lack a little something when you compare them to an S tier. Use them when you need to, but drop them when you can.
• B Tier: During the early phases of the game, you’ll likely rely on a party of a single S tier and a bunch of B tiers. These characters are quite easy to get, and are solid, if unremarkable. Definitely swap them out for A tiers and S tiers, but don’t be ashamed to use them if you need to.
• C Tier: This is when we get into ‘bad character’ territory. C tiers are, much like D tiers, some of the worst characters in the game, but they often have niche uses. They might be really strong in a particular game mode, or during a certain phase of the game. Take a close look at their skills and judge accordingly.
• D Tier: Characters in this tier are simply never worth using. They’re the worst characters in the game, suffering from severe balance issues, and will underperform at all points in any modes. Don’t use them if you can avoid it.

S Tier

God tier characters. Try and reroll for one at the beginning as they will power you through the game, then create a party out of them at endgame.

• Charlotte
• Genjuro
• Jubei
• Nakoruru
• Shizumaru
• Ukyo
• Yoshitora

A Tier

Solid characters that are great for filling gaps in your party when you don’t have enough S tiers.

• Earthquake
• Galford
• Gongsun Li
• Hibiki
• Iroha
• Mina
• Sogetsu
• Tam Tam

B Tier

These characters start strong but fade later on. Don’t be ashamed to use them, but do swap them out as you unlock S and A tiers.

• Basara
• Cham Cham
• Haohmaru
• Hanzo
• Kazuki
• Wan-Fu
• Warden

C Tier

In certain game modes, or at the beginning, characters in this tier can excel. Mostly, they’re useless though.

• Darli
• Kyoshiro
• Rimururu
• Shiki
• Wu-Ruixiang
• Yashamaru

D Tier

Never use D tiers unless you can’t avoid it. They’re awful at all game modes, and at all phases of the game.

Samurai Shodown Tier List FAQ

Still unsure about our tier list? Got questions about Samurai Shodown in general? Hopefully our tier list can help!

What’s A Tier List?

We should probably have answered this question at the beginning, eh? A tier list is, quite simply, a list of all of the characters in a specific game ranked from best to worst. In our case, S is the best characters with D being the worst, and A, B, and C filling the gaps.

The purpose of a tier list is to help you determine which characters to use at all stages of the game. We try and make our tier list as useful as possible by explaining our tier system.

For example, there are instances where certain characters are excellent during the beginning of a game, but fade later on. Or, they could be good at a certain game mode. We’ll always try and make this clear.

How Did We Select Our Samurai Shodown Tier List?

We used a number of different sources when selecting our Samurai Shodown tier list, but, primarily, we judge based on our personal experience with the game. As a result, it is bound to be quite a subjective list, but there’s no getting around that.

To determine the rankings, we both experiment with the characters in the game (if unlocked), as well as theory-craft based on skill descriptions and raw statistics. That’s why you’ll see our tier list change so much when a game first launches, as we’re in the testing phase.

It’s also worth noting that we do scour communities, like Reddit, for community feedback. If the general consensus is that a specific character is strong or weak, we will reflect that in our tier list. That way, it’s got a certain degree of objectivity.

We’ll wrap this section up by reminding you that tier lists are subjective by nature. Your experience may vary completely to ours, so take it with a pinch of salt.

When Do We Update Our Samurai Shodown Tier List?

You can expect to see an update to our Samurai Shodown tier list whenever a new character is introduced. It might take us a while to test the character for ourselves though, so expect a brief delay.

We also update the list whenever a big balance patch hits, as this will throw the meta out the window. Again, there may be a brief delay as we experiment with the changes and update our rankings.

Glen Fox

Head of Editorial

Glen has over a decade's worth of experience in gaming journalism, writing for Pocket Gamer, Pocket Tactics, Nintendo Life, and Gfinity. When he's not badgering everyone about the dangers of passive text, you can probably find him playing Wild Rift.