Thread: Provenance's Beginner's Unit Tier List

Introduction

I have played and leveled 11 free ($0 dollars spent) accounts from level 1 to 80 using various leveling techniques and unit combinations. From my experiences I tended to gravitate towards leveling key units because of how fast and efficient they made the experience of grinding through to the point where I can comfortably do dailies, clear challenges, pass Immortal Beast, and do most (if not all) event missions. Which is ultimately the goal of all Aigis players.

All this experience culminated into my DMM account (where I have spent some money on). Even when pulling in premium units I found myself relying on most of the follow S and A tier units as the core of my formation. Whether I am clearing the ‘Far-East’ story missions, tackling the very difficult ‘Magic City’ themed story missions, or attempting 7+ stamina Event missions.

All in all, this is purely from my own experiences. Others will have different play styles and most of the time that completely hinges on your shrine luck. But I hope this serves as a good general guideline one can follow.

Keeping with the 'free' theme, the list will focus exclusively on free units, trading post units, and Gold and below premium units. Side note: you can absolutely clear all (events included) of the current missions available to us with Gold and under units.

Hope this helps those who are seeking a 'direction' for leveling their formation.


The List

S Tier

• Katie
• Alissa
• Daniela
• Iris
• Leeanne

A Tier

• Dorca
• Calliope
• Soma
• Valerie
• Phyllis
• Elaine
• Bernice
• Julian
• Chloris
• Pallis
• Monica
• Chydis
• Spica
• Bashira

B Tier

• Verotte
• Christopher
• Eunice
• Cuterie
• Kerry
• Stella
• Themis
• Fedora
• Mehlis
• Cypria
• Barbastroff

C Tier

• Giovanni
• Mortimer
• Cecily
• Betty
• Stray
• Yuyu
• Betty
• Lauren
• Rosalie
• Robert
• Cyrus

D Tier

• Chizuru
• Sanosuke
• Crave
• Gustav
• Harissa
• Gina
• Kojuro
• Garrett
• Conrad

Breakdown

S Tier

These are your core units. They take priority as units you would want to level, class change, and 100% affection first. These units will be useful no matter what point you are at in them game. Whether trying to clear ‘Gate Defense’ for the first time or tackling a ‘G’ tier event map. As your army evolves some of these units might be replaced on your primary team but will always find room as a sub. Another thing to note is the fact that these units are all free.

I want to go as far as to say that 6 out of 7 times when you begin a mission Katie will be the first unit you place. Unit reinforcement is the most important skill in the game, bar none. Unit deployment cost balancing is integral to the gameplay. Being able to deploy powerful units earlier will open up new tactics and placements, as well as making missions clears exponentially easier.

Iris is a no brainer. The healer is the single most important unit. Iris being a free gold tier healer will elevate her to being your primary healer over Allyssa in no time. Even in the future if you manage to acquire higher tier healers (of which there are only 3 at the moment) she will serve you well as a secondary or third string healer (there are more maps that require 3+ healers than you think, especially in the near future).

Leanne might be a curious choice to many but she is the only free heavy armor you get. She is statistically superior to both Benard and Garrett when it comes to defense. And that is what you are supposed to get from heavies in the first place. One of the core tactics of the game is the heavy + mage unit combo. There is not a single more potent and efficient combo in the game in the general sense. The direct upgrade to Leeane is Bernice. Even if you manage to pull Bernice (or in extreme cases, Gellius or Deine) Leeanne will always find a place as a sub. There will be many opportunities and missions that will require using 2 or more heavies.

Archers are your core range dps choice. Daniela completely outclasses all Archers below Platinum by a wide margin. She is free and you get a ton of copies of her. She is easy to level, and if you are willing to wager a bit of your future you can cost reduce her as well. Almost all Silver-only guides to clearing missions include Daniela. Demonstrates how capable of a unit she is.


A Tier

These units are high priority units. A few units are no-brainers but there are a few curious choices.

First off, Bernice and Pallis would be S-tier. However, them not being ‘free’ makes them A-tier. I would definitely classify them as A+.

Pallis is the best non-Platinum mage. She is superior to all male mages in DPS (skill included) and being a Silver unit, easier to level and pull from the shrine than Mehlis. If there is an event where she is a drop on a specific mission map you should try to get her. Being part of the mage-heavy core tactic makes her a core unit as well.

Bernice is a powerful and ‘relatively’ easy premium tank to get. Even on the DMM version many top tier players have Bernice as their primary tank. She is one of only 4 Awakenable ‘pure’ heavy tanks in the game, including the DMM version. The other 3 being Gellius (platinum), Deine (black), and Maribel (event only). Definitely a must keep and is a direct upgrade from Leeanne.

Another case for A+ tier are Spica, Bashira, and Chydis.

The most common opinion is that Spica is the most important archer in the game. But being a Platinum unit, she is not easy to level. Also acquiring the needed amount of Demon Crystals for her is not an easy task. Spica is also extremely squishy compared to even Daniela, making her placement crucial. Aside from her cons, she does boast the second highest raw damage output of all Archers and has a powerful passive after awakening. Archers being a core class makes having a second Platinum archer quite useful. Chydis is in the same position. Chydis is the best all-around healer in the game currently if you can somehow deal with her HP pool.

Bashira would be S-tier if it were not for her being Platinum. Platinum units are expensive to level and class change for newer players. It will take many weeks of grinding to level up and grind your team to a level capable of unlocking the higher level challenge quests necessary to farm Platinum spirits as well.

Monica is here solely for her passive to boost Demon Crystal drop rates. Demon Crystals is the most important currency in the game. Some of the most powerful units come exclusively from the trading post and with awakening around the corner, so is the Awakening Fairy.


B Tier

Middle of the pack units. They are useful in their own way but are not priorities for leveling. They all have a niche that a team may require to clear specific missions. Some units here have better alternatives that are free or easier to get.

Fedora can make a case for being A tier but I found it hard to rank her higher because for one she is not free and her skill is underwhelming. Even if you do manage to pull her I feel you will get better mileage by leveling Dorca over Fedora. Dorca being silver and free makes her much easier to handle. After maxing Alissa and Iris, one would generally want to try to max Dorca, but if you manage to pull Fedora in the process, then maxing Fedora over Dorca is an option.

Another interesting B tier candidate is Cuterie. Affection is a second way of making your units stronger. In all cases as you progress you will want to increase your unit's affection as well as leveling them. Getting a tiny boost to the rate you get affection items can be helpful. Otherwise Cuterie would be a D-tier unit. You can make a strong case here for Cuterie being lower tiered but I value all the small 'boosts' one can get, no matter how miniscule, as a free player.


C Tier

Below average units that already have better alternatives that are free or easier to get. A curious choice here is Yuyu. She is second most powerful witch in terms of a raw damage but is offset by her abysmal HP pool. In 95 cases out of a 100, you will get better mileage out of Chloris and Calliope over Yuyu. She is not worth the resources to raise at all. A witch’s shorter range makes Yuyu susceptible to direct attacks or indirect splash more often than not making achieving 3-stars on many missions hard. This is from personal experience of using Yuyu extensively on both Nutaku and DMM.


D Tier

Don’t even bother with these units. They are a waste of resources to raise. These units all have better alternatives that are easier to get and level or have better skills, passives, and affection bonus. The entirety of the Samurai class is here. They are simply too expensive to use and their unique ability to attack all units at once is underwhelming at best. A premium platinum Samurai would be ranked higher, but would probably be a C+ tier at best. Too many better options and versatile combinations out there.

I would hardly classify Verotte as B-tier. she's pretty much outright useless. fact is, Giovanni outclasses her because range is what you use a pirate for, and Giovanni has it going for him as a male while Verotte is just...nah.

which actually comes to one key thing: are you basing this on DMM stat patch, current nutaku status, or current nutaku units based on their potential in the future?
because Stella is only B-tier based on potential, C-tier based on current. Also if based on potential, yuyu would be B-tier instead of C-tier, because after AW she beats Cloris by a wide margin. her higher attack speed also makes her a better choice when it comes to clearing some risky strategies, in particular the current DMM event's 7 stam map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFEoMBI5Oe0
following that strat by sennen war, I actually placed yuyu where he placed calliope. granted calliope's attack speed does the job as well, but I find having yuyu's attack speed makes it safer.

Betty is actually B-tier by DMM standards, due to gold farming. and if you can skill AW her she's probably your only reliable assassinator.
I also find it hard to put christopher and Dorca is 2 different tiers. granted dorca would likely be the choice for 3rd healer, but fact is she's not actually much better than christopher, and christopher has it going for him as a male. which is why I also think she's only really B-tier.

as for Pallis, A-tier is right, but I wouldnt say she is S-tier. sure she has higher attack than valerie by a fair bit after affection, and her attack up skill is much better, but as a beginner, I went with leveling valerie because I needed him as a male anyway and he has much better attack ignoring affection boost (and hell if I have enough affection items for Pallis I would've been a veteran)

Elaine and Calliope are seriously lucky to even be placed in A-tier here. by DMM standards both would be nothing more than B-tier.
Conrad isn't D-tier btw. sure he is harder to mincost compared to mortimer, but hell he still has better hp and atk than mortimer, and works way better than him as a duelist. deserving on C-tier IMO.
Robert is B-tier. sure trust items aren't worth much, but hell he still is a male healer that also can eventually be AW'd. just that makes him deserving to be on equal terms with christopher, and arguably even better.

Not bad but needs more focusing on free and silver units and how to use them generally in specific maps. Btw what are those magic city and far east story missions can you explain it? Do they give same prizes like normal missions do? (silver units and sc)

I get the rest of S tier but why is danielle even above B?

If we are talking about current nutaku:
You severely lack enough silver archers to CC both bashira/spica AND daniela
Besides you get bashira early enough to CC her for thursday's daily (very impt to get bash up)
or you can delay your CC-ing of your other units by CC-ing daniela. (witches need 1, archers need 3..count and you'll know its not enough to share your silver archers)

Guessing you want to keep 6 silver archers for bash/spica since nutaku gives silver drops like how dmm gives plats.

If we are talking about dmm aigis:
We want a min-costed daniele (i needed archers at the start and i was SO tempted to CC a daniele) but..
Silver archers are SO important as fodder, that despite having so many events dropping them. I still need more even NOW.
3 to CC, 4 to AW = 7 silver archers per Awakened Plat Archer.
Not considering that some units REQUIRE silver archers as well, and you cant buy them off the trading post.

Only way you can afford to get min-costed daniele is you have bad rolls on your premium gacha. Like really bad lucky rolls (get silver but its a silver archer) or flash that ultimate card that bring in them grills.

If you only read one sentence, here is the summary: SILVER ARCHERS = RARE! DONT WASTE TO CC SILVER ARCHER TILL YOU GET MANY

Originally Posted by buttlover

I get the rest of S tier but why is danielle even above B?

because she is easy to get and strong for a cheap archer, and if you get her it's easy to clear many maps (even in silver only or gold and below strats in DMM, most will include daniela for archer)
and another reason is because we don't get Claire, otherwise Daniela would be pushed down to A probably, since Claire > Daniela and isn't all that hard to get, from what I can tell (mainly from gold rush and stuff)

Too many people giving me headaches today. So I'll spent 10 minutes in a nice format explain every single detail of my thought process.

The thing about archers
You get bashira FREE literally within a day of playing. Nutaku's permanent TP has the spica for cheap. 10 SC = spica immediately. 15 if you are unlucky. Or grind it out for 1.5 months. Thats the time it took for my spica in dmm. 10-15 SC/1.5 months for a confirmed plat? SeemsGood.

2 of the best plat archers in its class even by DMM's standard. Both easy to obtain.
Why waste so much affection and 2 silver archers on a danielia that a new player will not min-cost?
(a 9 cost silver archer is very useful on some UP costly maps, but that is out of reach for new players)

Not that daniela is a bad unit, she is a great silver. But you don't need a silver archer that costs 2-3 UP less.
Danielia cost 12. Spica 14. Bashria 15.
Spica and bashria will be with you, pretty much forever. Daniela will fade to super niche.

So if i skip Daniela, how long does it take to level Bashira?
It is about 1.2 times harder to level a plat unit than leveling a silver unit. (According to Exp table from dmm)
But you have an excess of silver from clearing a map. So the mats for CC-ing are definely covered.

So why do people rate Daniela so highly?
Daniela is strong, thats why. But it can be noted that free players, myself included save stam/char by watching videos that guide us through the levels.
Those video makers understand that free players don't have access to strong units. So they use as basic units as possible to showcase the importance of positioning/timing over rarity.

This might lead to a preferential treatment of certain units.

Comparing units for dummies
Comparing unit ________________________ Bashria vs Daniela vs Spica
Easy to Get? ______________________________ ☑ _______☑_______☐*
Easy to Deploy?____________________________ ☑ _______☑_______☑
Strength of unit early?_______________________☑ _______☑_______☑
Usefulness late? (Post Awakening)_____________☑ _______☐_______☑
(*Spica is considered "hard" only because you don't get her immediately. Only after playing for a month or so.)

So what is provenance's tier list based on? Experience and...feelings~ the feels
Bashira you scum, your cat ears cant beat daniele's boobs.

fair enough, that's a legit point buttlover. I'll just add in one more thing where provenance mentioned why bashira is pushed down:

It will take many weeks of grinding to level up and grind your team to a level capable of unlocking the higher level challenge quests necessary to farm Platinum spirits as well.

Tenhou, how long did we take to get to phalanx 2 again? a week? and 2 weeks for you to get the black fairy from tuesday daily for your esther cc?

Conrad in D tier, Eunice in B tier, Kerry in B tier, Elaine of all units in A tier. I'll accept Eunice being there but what are the other duelists doing?

Fedora in B tier below all worse healers (excluding Chydis)

Originally Posted by soranokira

fair enough, that's a legit point buttlover. I'll just add in one more thing where provenance mentioned why bashira is pushed down:

Tenhou, how long did we take to get to phalanx 2 again? a week? and 2 weeks for you to get the black fairy from tuesday daily for your esther cc?

I sure had a plat spirit before i managed to get Bashira to 50 for all i know...
And yes that was at most a week and a half.

The problem with this tier list is that it tries to do too many things at once and ends up being kind of useless and nonsensical. You should decide exactly what you're trying to do.

For example, Bernice is obviously better than Leeanne if you have her, so it's just weird and confusing that she's on a lower tier. If someone got a Bernice early on, he'd be confused by that. If not it doesn't even matter.

Restricting it to free units only or making a proper power level tier list would make more sense imo.

Originally Posted by Tenhou

I sure had a plat spirit before i managed to get Bashira to 50 for all i know...
And yes that was at most a week and a half.

People tend to assume that you need 4 plat fairies when you can just level her to 50 with normal fodder. It's expensive, but it's not like you can use a plat armor on every unit anyway.