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Wuthering Waves tier list: Who is the best character?

Here's our ranking of the best Resonators in Wuthering Waves

Promotional art for Wuthering Waves showing Yangyang and the male Rover standing in a desolate landscape.
Image credit: Kuro Games
Jeremy Blum avatar
Guide by Jeremy Blum Guides Writer
Updated on

Looking for a tier list of the Resonators in Wuthering Waves? As of its release, Wuthering Waves boasts 17 characters known as Resonators, and this number goes up to 18 if you count the fact that the main player character, the Rover, has both male and female appearances. You can control three of these characters at once as you traverse Wuthering Waves' expansive world, swapping them in and out on the fly to combine attacks into truly devastating combos.

As is the case in any gacha game, there are some Resonators who are a bit more useful than others, and well worth the effort it'll take to pull them. In this guide, we've crafted a tier list of all Resonators in Wuthering Waves, and outlined our top five picks for your team.

In this guide:

Wuthering Waves: Resonator tier list

This tier list ranks all Resonators currently available in Wuthering Waves from the very best characters to the worst. We've ranked them according to their usefulness with regards to damage and support skills. Don't worry if your favourite Resonator hasn't ranked particularly high - we'll update this list accordingly with new rankings as Wuthering Waves' meta changes.

S-Tier Calcharo, Danjin, Jiyan, Verina, Yinlin
A-Tier Baizhi, Encore, Jianxin, Mortefi, Sanhua
B-Tier Aalto, Chixia, Lingyang, Rover, Yangyang
C-Tier Taoqi, Yuanwu

Of these Resonators, you'll start Wuthering Waves with either the female or male Rover, and you'll obtain Baizhi, Chixia, and Yangyang by progressing through the game's first chapter. Sanhua is unlocked after completing 5 Daily Logins, and Yuanwu is unlocked after running through the endgame Tower of Adversity mode.

For more on these characters and their respective Rarity, Attribute, and Weapons, check out our guide to all Resonators in Wuthering Waves.

Who is the best character in Wuthering Waves?

At the moment, the best character in Wuthering Waves is Verina, a tiny support Resonator who packs a mighty punch in terms of healing capabilities. She can be used on every single team, so read our S-Tier list below to check out our take on her skillset.

S-Tier Resonators in Wuthering Waves

The following Resonators made our S-Tier in terms of ranking, and are standout characters in terms of Wuthering Waves' meta. One of them, Yinlin, technically isn't available yet, but considering how excellent she was in Wuthering Wave's closed beta, she more than deserves a place in these top ranks.

Calcharo

The Resonator Calcharo in Wuthering Waves.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Kuro Games

Calcharo is a 5-Star Electro Resonator who wields a Broadblade. He's a pretty boy mercenany with silver hair, and his DPS is especially ridiculous if you can execute continuous combos and swap him out for other characters at the right moment to keep damage output high. He also builds up stacks of Cruelty and Killing Intent with successful usage of his skillset, and he can exchange these stacks to pull off more powerful Heavy Attacks. It takes practice to perfect these attack patterns, but if you want extreme damage, Calcharo is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with.

Danjin

The Resonator Danjin in Wuthering Waves.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Kuro Games

Danjin is a 4-Star Havoc Resonator who wields a Sword. She boasts a berserker-style playstyle that revolves around her HP decreasing in exchange for dealing more damage. This makes her one of Wuthering Waves' trickier characters, but when paired with a healer like Verina, she's superb for clearing the field of enemies and tackling bosses. Danjin is easily the best 4-Star Resonator at the moment and more than capable of hanging with her higher Rarity peers.

Jiyan

The Resonator Jiyan in Wuthering Waves.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Kuro Games

Jiyan is a 5-Star Aero Resonator who wields a Broadblade. He's got turquoise hair, suave dragon garb, and excellent damage-dealing capabilities, and he's available as Wuthering Waves' first 5-Star Banner. Jiyan slashes especially hard upon activating his Liberation state, which turns all of his attacks into empowered heavy attacks. Similar to Calcharo, he works best with a Resonator who can buff his heavy attack damage or Aero stat.

Verina

The Resonator Verina in Wuthering Waves.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Kuro Games

Verina is a 5-Star Spectro Resonator who wields a Rectifier. Don't let her childish appearance fool you into thinking she's not capable, as this young botanist is possibly the most versatile Resonator in Wuthering Waves, and certainly the best support character. She just might be broken regarding how useful she is, as her passive skills grant attack bonuses for your team, her Outro skill continues to boost attack, and her Liberation ability heals everyone while marking enemies, who then suffer damage. At Union Level 40 she also unlocks the Grace of Life Inherent Skill, which protects a party member from fatal damage. Extraordinarly useful!

Yilin

The Resonator Yilin in Wuthering Waves.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Kuro Games

Yilin is a 5-Star Electro Resonator who wields a Rectifier. She was an extremely popular character in Wuthering Waves' beta, but you'll have to wait for Wuthering Waves' second Banner update to unlock her in the final game. You can look forward to stellar Electro damage and a skillset that marks enemies, making them susceptible to bonus damage even with Yilin off the playfield. Even if her final build differs from her beta incarnation slightly, Yilin will still be an S-tier character more than worth the wait.

A-Tier Resonators in Wuthering Waves

These A-Tier Resonators are great picks, albeit not quite as impressive as their S-Tier counterparts. Pulling one of these Resonators is nevertheless still something to celebrate.

  • Baizhi: Baizhi is a 4-Star Glacio Resonator who wields a Rectifier. Out of the three starting ladies you'll acquire at the start of Wuthering Waves, she's the healer of the group, and will serve as a worthy support until you can unlock Verina. Keep her out of direct combat and focus on using her Resonance Liberation to keep all other teammates healthy!
  • Encore: Encore is a 5-Star Fusion Resonator who wields a Rectifier. Her Cosmos Rave Resonance Liberation ability lets her replace all basic and heavy attacks with more powerful versions, and is stellar as long as it lasts. Frankly, you'll want to keep Encore on the field as little as possible when Cosmos Rave isn't activated, which is the main reason why she doesn't rank higher.
  • Jianxin: Jianxin is a 5-Star Aero Resonator who wields Gauntlets. She posseses a great combination of damage and support abilities (such as parrying enemy attacks or generating temporary shields). This jack-of-all-trades skillset means that her synergy with other Resonators is a bit lacking, but Jianxin's still a worthy choice if you like to punch things.
  • Mortefi: Mortefi is a 4-Star Fusion Resonator who wields Pistols. He makes for superb support thanks to his Violent Finale Resonance Liberation, which deals Fusion damage and applies Burning Rhapsody to all teammates, amplifying their attacks. You'll need to pair Mortefi with a stronger DPS Resonator like Jiyan to get the most out of himn, but he's definitely worthy of A-Tier.
  • Sanhua: Sanhua is a 4-Star Glacio Resonator who wields a Sword. Her skillset revolves around creating ice projectiles and exploding them, which requires steady aim and makes her a tricky Resonator to use around faster enemies. She works best as a sub-DPS who can complement the attacks of a Resonator like Encore or Calcharo.

B-Tier Resonators in Wuthering Waves

These B-Tier Resonators are decent picks, especially in Wuthering Waves' early game. While you may end up replacing most of these characters in time, they still make for excellent supports on your team.

  • Aalto: Aalto is a 4-Star Aero Resonator who wields Pistols. His abilities amp up Aero damage, making him a solid complement to someone like Jiyan or Jianxin, and he can create a Mist Avatar to disorient enemies and draw their attention. He's great for hit and run attacks, and while he isn't as impressive as other Resonators, Aalto is likely to rise in the ranks if he gets buffed in future updates.
  • Chixia: Chixia is a 4-Star Fusion Resonator who wields Pistols. Spunky with lots of burst damage exploding from her guns, Chixia's a good character to get accustomed to Pistols, and serves as a straightforward alternate to Aalto's hit and run style. Once you pull Mortefi, though, Chixia's usability decreases.
  • Lingyang: Lingyang is a 5-Star Glacio Resonator who wields Gauntlets. He boasts a fun lion dance outfit (and was an anthropomorphic cat himself before his design was changed), but has a weak DPS output. He's also woefully lacking in AoE skills, so if you want Lingyang on your team, use him against single targets with his Striding Lion stance activated, which amps up his damage considerably.
  • Rover (Female & Male): The Rover is a 5-Star Resonator who wields a Sword and can specialise in one of two attributes: Havoc and Spectro. This flexibility already makes the Rover better than most other protagonists in other gacha games, though they're still not spectacular when compared to other 5-Star Resonators due to overall low stats.
  • Yangyang: Yangyang is a 4-Star Aero Resonator who wields a Sword. She's one of the main poster girls of Wuthering Waves alongside Baizhi and Chixia, and is the first Resonator you gain for free. While she's very useful in the early game, especially for her AoE Wind Spirals Resonance Liberation skill, her damage output quickly falls off the farther you explore into the story.

C-Tier Resonators in Wuthering Waves

There's only two Resonators on our C-Tier list at the moment. For now, they're simply outdone by the vast majority of the cast, though time will tell of the meta ends up favouring them later down the line.

  • Taoqi: Taoqi is a 4-Star Resonator who wields a Broadblade. She's okay at defensive tactics and has a skill kit all about blocking, building up her Resolving Caliber Forte Gauge, and then unleashing big counterattacks. Unfortunately, there's not much that she can offer compared to other Resonators due to her relative slowness on the field.
  • Yuanwu: Yuanwu is a 4-Star Resonator who wields Gauntlets. He looks slick, and as an older male Resonator in a cool suit, Yuanwu definitely offers up a different flair compared to Wuthering Waves' younger characters. He lacks good buffs, however, and his AoE attacks are unfortunately too small in range to be terribly useful.

That's a wrap on our Wuthering Waves tier list and our picks on the best Resonators in the game. Now that you've gotten the lowdown on characters, head over to our complete list of all Echoes in Wuthering Waves to start getting familiar with the game's awesome monster-collecting system.

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