Tier List/Shark3143/Shadow

Portrait	Name	Tier	Role	Preference	Notes
	Gala Gleo	S+	Attacker Support	All	Gala Cleo has proven herself to stand far above the rest of the cast. Not only does Cleo deal high damage herself, she also heavily increases the power of her teammates through her strength buff zones and ability to apply lengthy defense downs to her enemies. Cleo is extremely well-suited for Mercurial Gauntlet, since the stationary target ensures all allies will stay within her strength buff zones, and her damage and support are so valuable that she sees huge success even off-element. Cleo has also proven to be the premier adventurer for High Jupiter, since the fight mechanics favor ranged characters, her damage output is top notch, and multiple Cleos stacking defense downs is very favorable for how damage calculates. Cleo's support value skyrockets in raids, as her strength buff fields and defense downs can support all 16 members of the raid, not just her own team.
	Ieyasu	S	Attacker	All	Ieyasu has very high damage output thanks to his natural strength, great choice of elemental weapon, and bleed. Applying bleed makes his S1 do absurdly high damage when it procs, dealing almost as much damage over time as the initial use of the skill at one stack, and easily exceeds it with multiple stacks. He has increases to both critical rate and critical damage to augment his damage, and the self regen from his S2 helps him maintain High HP = Crit, which is important since even his bleeds can crit. Ieyasu is only held back by the absurdly lengthy four second animation on his S1, but the skill is still crucial since so much of his damage output is through bleeds. Ieyasu is a good choice for High Jupiter, as he has great damage output and a full resistance to paralysis, and the decent range on blades and his long iframes can help him attain reasonable damage uptime.
	Delphi	S	Attacker Support	All	Delphi’s kit is highly unusual, but effective. His poisons are about ten times as powerful as most poisons, so he should equip a Force Strike damage wyrmprint to increase the damage of the force strike poisons applied by his Poisonous Cage passive. Since his Poisonous Cage passive reduces his own strength by 60%, Delphi functions far better with strength dragons that get his strength back up to baseline value, as opposed to the commonly used Shinobi. Delphi is a great pick in Mercurial Gauntlet and High Jupiter’s Trial, as both bosses have a 0% resistance to poison, and his automatically charging skills continue to charge even when he’s forced to fully disengage from High Jupiter to deal with fight mechanics.
	Natalie	S	Attacker	Mercurial Gauntlet	Natalie’s potential is extremely high at low health. Her S1 scales its damage up to double power based on how little health is remaining, and her HP Below 30 = Strength & Attack Rate passive is a huge DPS increase in its own right. Natalie is also capable of reaching low health efficiently without wasting time taking damage, as her S2 will reduce her to 20% health if she’s not already in low health. She is extremely strong in Mercurial Gauntlet, where it’s safe and reasonable to avoid all incoming damage, and she even sees use off-element since her damage is so incredibly high. Versus High Jupiter, she only really excels in 4DPS team compositions, since she doesn’t want to be healed by her teammates.
	Botan	S	Attacker Support	All	Her S1 does incredible damage thanks to bleed, and she has access to a team-wide 15% strength buff on her S2 to further her contribution to team DPS, as well as access to a great damage skill from the 5.3 shadow lance. Her high damage, long range, and HP co-ability have proven to be massively valuable for High Jupiter’s Trial. She isn't fully resistant to paralysis, but she's strong enough for High Jupiter’s Trial that it's worth compromising slightly on damage wyrmprints to equip a Para Res print such as Castaway's Journal, and her HP co-ability makes it easy for her to entirely skip out on King of the Skies.
	Yaten	A+	Attacker Support	All	Yaten’s kit is entirely built around energy synergy⁠—he’s able to quickly generate huge stacks of energy, and his passives give him massive benefits from doing so. His Energy = Strength & Critical Rate as well as his Energized: Strength passive give Yaten numerous strong buffs with which to deal large amounts of burst damage from his boosted S1. His S2 charges very quickly and generates two stacks of energy for the team, so he’s able to energize his teammates as well as himself. Yaten can be a difficult pick for High Jupiter, as close ranged weapons struggle to maintain good damage uptime compared to longer ranged weapons.
	Sazanka	A+	Attacker	All	She has a powerful AoE S1 that can apply a potent bleed, which alone gives her very high damage output. Her sleep based kit helps add extra utility and damage, but can be invalidated by sleep immune content such as raids and High Jupiter’s Trial.
	Curran	A+	Attacker	All	Curran’s kit is basic, but effective. His skills have great base damage and he also applies the occasional defense down, so his overall damage is higher than most shadow adventurers without bleed.
	Cassandra	A+	Attacker	High Jupiter	Cassandra’s kit is highly specialized for High Jupiter’s Trial, which would be very notable if she wasn’t painfully overshadowed by Gala Cleo. Cassandra’s S2 is a great tool with which to counter unavoidable hits, and she gains permanent strength buffs when knocked to low health up to three times a fight, which is achievable naturally while fighting High Jupiter. Cassandra won’t easily reach her maximum potential in other types of content, so she’s best utilized in High Jupiter’s Trial if Gala Cleo isn’t available.
	Veronica	A+	Attacker	High Jupiter	Veronica’s defining characteristic is that her S1 raises dramatically in power as her HP falls, up to double damage at 1 HP. If Veronica is allowed to remain at low health, her damage output is extremely high. Trying to maintain low health in Mercurial Gauntlet has rough prospects, as intentionally taking damage may not be safe, and it’s likely that her teammates are using wyrmprints that benefit from high or even full health. However, Veronica can benefit from her low health boosts in High Jupiter’s Trial, as the fight has several unavoidable attacks that will naturally damage Veronica without adding any additional risk. In addition, the mechanics and attacks of High Jupiter greatly favor ranged adventurers, making Veronica a viable choice for the fight.
	Alex	A+	Attacker	Mercurial Gauntlet	Alex excels mostly in Mercurial Gauntlet, where she can assume to get perfect uptime on her Full HP = Skill Damage passive. The critical rate co-ability on daggers is unusually valuable in Mercurial Gauntlet, as it has additional synergy with Full HP style wyrmprints with Critical Damage seen commonly in the game mode, such as Seaside Princess and Evening of Luxury. While Alex isn’t well built for other types of content, Light Mercurial Gauntlet is unusually difficult and helps Alex stand out among her peers.
	Audric	A+	Attacker	Raid	Audric is highly specialized to excel at shapeshifting, boasting a 30% increased critical rate in dragon form, and a Dragon Prep passive. While his damage in adventurer form is low, he excels in raids where he can spend large amounts of time shapeshifted. He has a unique niche in High Jupiter’s Trial in which it’s possible to attain sufficient Dragon Prep to shapeshift before the opening blast, assuming all four adventurers equip a Dragon Prep wyrmprint.
	Kleimann	A	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	He has a Skill Damage passive and two attack skills to increase his damage output, as well as access to sleep from his S2 to increase his utility value. Sadly, his force strike passive isn’t too exciting since the wand force strike isn’t very good. Despite his multiple attack skills and skill damage, his damage potential is held back by the below-average charge rate on his S2, and the self heal from the 5.3 shadow wand doesn’t help him exceed at his role as much as a damage skill would have.
	Patia	A	Support	High Jupiter	Patia outputs frequent defense buffs with her S1, and has a strong bleed skill to boot. Her damage output isn’t high since she lacks a quickly charging attack skill, but she’s able to deal some damage while also acting as a defensive support. Patia and her teammates function best with a Healing Doublebuff print such as Odd Sparrows, allowing her to serve as a form of healer, which gives her a viable niche in High Jupiter’s Trial.
	Rodrigo	A	Attacker	All	Rodrigo has multiple attack skills and a decent passive, but his real strength lies hidden in his frame data. He has the fastest S1 in the game, which completes its animation even faster than buff skills, allowing him to quickly resume attacking afterwards. He also has a fast animation speed on his S2, and his DPS is augmented a bit further by his High HP = Strength passive. Unfortunately he has a poor choice of weaponry in the 5.3 shadow sword, which has a low impact self defense buff, so his good damage isn’t enough to keep up with the bleed characters ranked higher than him.
	Zace	A	Attacker	All	A strong 3* adventurer with good strength, two attack skills, and an increased Skill Damage passive, which is valuable since he also has access to a 3rd attack skill from the 5.3 shadow lance. However, his skills are held back slightly by their lower base damage. He does have a bit of utility value since his S1 can apply blinds.
	Erik	A	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	Erik has good strength, two good attack skills, and a passive that increases force strike damage. 75% blindness res and his AoE coverage makes him a good pick for Light IO. His damage output is solid, but he’s slightly held back since he can’t utilize the critical damage boost from the 5.3 shadow axe very well, as he doesn’t have increases to his critical rate built into his kit.
	Althemia	A	Attacker	All	Althemia is a usable pick for High Jupiter’s Trial, since the fight is easier on ranged adventurers, she has okay damage output, and she can cap out her resistance to paralysis without heavily compromising on damage by equipping Revolutionary Magic. It’s quite hard to justify picking her as she still remains in the shadow of Gala Cleo and Veronica, but that doesn’t mean she’s a weak character. She can also perform decently in Mercurial Gauntlet, where it’s completely reasonable to assume perfect uptime on her Full HP = Skill Damage passive.
	Norwin	A	Attacker Support	Imperial Onslaught	Norwin possesses a kit that leans entirely into the blind affliction in a manner comparable to Nefaria. His Blindness = Team Strength passive sets him apart, which allows him to buff the entire team's strength for 10 seconds when he successfully inflicts blind. His own damage is high for a bow adventurer, since he has access to three attack skills between his own kit and the 5.3 Shadow bow, plus he gets large amounts of boosted damage versus blinded enemies thanks to his Blind Punisher passive and boosted S2. His whole kit is easily invalidated by enemies who resist the blind affliction, but he performs well if it works. When comparing him to the very similar Nefaria, Norwin’s damage has an edge over her thanks to his team-wide strength buffs, but Nefaria would be better suited to carrying allies much weaker than her since she focuses entirely on her own damage.
	Nefaria	B+	Attacker	None	Nefaria’s kit is based entirely around inflicting blind and increasing her damage against blinded enemies. Applying blind has some utility value, and she does get to fight safely from range, but her damage output isn’t impressive and her contribution can be invalidated in content with blind-immune enemies such as raid battles. Blind Punisher could be theoretically very powerful on the break through synergy with dragon transformations, but it’s quite hard to justify using Nidhogg to apply blind if better choices are available.
	Berserker	B+	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught Void Battles	Berserker is very well-suited for Void Jeanne, since he’s immune to blind and swords are very good at spamming force strikes. As such, Berserker can easily break Void Jeanne even as the only team member wielding a Divinity Penetrator weapon, which is critical to ending the fight quickly and smoothly. Berserker remains a poor choice for most other content due to his low damage output and mediocre core 5.3 weapon, but he’s well suited for Imperial Onslaught if nothing else. He’s unsuited for High Jupiter as he lacks paralysis resistance, close range melee weapons are unfavorable for the fight mechanics, and he doesn't deal very much damage.
	Vice	B	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	He lacks natural strength and base skill damage, but he does have access to multiple attack skills and Broken Punisher to help salvage his low damage output, and he might occasionally put a target to sleep.
	Taro	B	Attacker	None	His two attack skills give good coverage for hitting multiple targets and access to the 5.3 shadow blade is a great perk since it gives an additional attack skill. However, the slow animation speed on his S1 and poor passives hold Taro back, and his damage output isn’t as high as it could be.
	Orion	B	Attacker	None	He has a coherent kit for damage thanks to Flurry Devastation, two attack skills, 50% Skill Prep, and access to a 3rd damage skill through the 5.3 shadow dagger. Unfortunately for Orion, his skills have very low base damage, and in general it’s hard for a dagger character to do high damage since their regular combo is weak.
	Vida	C	Attacker	None	Vida’s damage output is painfully low, but she does at least have some level of utility value through blind applications.