Here's a good reason why Sara is at least mid tier=



She's the only character that can stop the rhino mounted monsters from destroying a door they spawn next to. This happened to me, and no, pepper spray was not involved. On Drill Pod, her speed + run 3 ability becomes crucial to also sniping Keepers (since they have a global effect). When playing Drill pod, I believe she is high tier. Extremely situational? Yes. But the amount of risk she mitigates is really worth it.

Naturally everyone plays differently, and will find place heroes a bit differently. Personally, I think the list is 100% accurate per its title: its his list. Thanks for the write up

I found Red Plume to be very powerful and should rate Skroig higher, otherwise, I find your hero review quite accurate. I have to use Nanor all the time!

DrakenKin wrote:
Before we start with the rating, I have to explain a bit about the way I play the game. Take this a small crash course / tips section :



1) Economics are very important. Heroes are good, but being able to afford multiple rooms full of the best turrets is even better. For this reason I value operators greatly, and operators who can also fight even more.

2) Speed of movement is also very important. Since I rely on turrets, the main use of heroes is operating modules and filling the gaps in my defense, as in running to the spot where I am having trouble or where waves are getting stronger than expected. For this reason I'd rather have a decent fighter who can run fast, than a amaaazing fighter who's slow as hell. (Yes I am looking at you Gork.)

3) DoTs (damage over time abilities) are amazing. Having a few powerful monsters is rarely a problem. But having huge waves with a flood of monsters is when you start to sweat. For this reason I value greatly those 20-25+ damage per second abilities as they help immensely. They quickly make it so your hero can one shot kill a monster, instead of needing 2 or 3 hits, which adds up quickly when you are dealing with multiple waves.

4) I often don't turn on rooms intentionally, so I can farm dust. Setting up kill rooms with heroes and turrets is very important, and having a hero with repair makes things convenient as he keeps that room functional and frees your attention to take care of other things. Another reason to use operators / repair heroes. Most of the time I try to get 3 operators and one dedicated fighter / room opener.



To the list then :



Great :

• Max. Extra dust for opening doors, up to +3 at level 15 is amazing and makes him almost a must in every team. Extra science per turn, especially at start helps a lot too. + he can buff damage for himself and all present heroes, AND operate and repair AND run like the wind to where he is needed? Amazing.
• Hikensha. Very similar to max in that he can operate, repair, gives science and is faster than most. However Hikensha is one of the best fighters in the game with sacrifice. Huge damage boost + damage all monsters through DoT ; he can clear multiple waves by himself and hardly drop a sweat. I like to play random, but if i picked my starting heroes they would be Max + Hikensha everytime.
• Nanor. An under appreciated hero I feel. His is the only one with a skill that damages all the monsters on the floor at the same time, and with enough science, you can keep spamming it. This alone puts him up there with the best. Very nice hero for the drill.
• Ken. Fast moving, can repair, but mostly he's a DPS powerhouse thanks to his active abilities.
  
  

Good :

• Gork. One of the best fighters in the game, gets speed and attack from his actives, has taunt to protect others, good stats, pays for his own healing by getting food from kills, and gets damage boost for every monster in the room. Pretty amazing, and if that wasn't enough he is the hero with the most health in the game, making him one of the best at soaking damage and survive those kamikaze monsters. The only reason he's not on the "great" list is his slowness, thus can't really move him around where needed fast and you have to play him mostly as a big stationary turret, keep in mind he's even slower than a hero carrying the crystal. oO'
• Elise. Another hero who can both operate and fight. She could have been great, but end up only good because her wit is low and without items she will mostly be a very slow moving fighter. I am probably very biased against slow heroes, but hey, this is my list.
• Golgy. Probably a very underrated hero. Can operate, can slow down monsters, augments dust income by up to 30%, and can even hold her own in a fight and is pretty fast. All around good, best used in huge rooms with turrets so both her slow and dust bonus can be maximized.
• Opbot. Again fighter operators are very precious, and this one is good at both. He needs a boost to his (floor wide) health regeneration ability or his industry per kill ability to truly become great, but he's a good all round hero and a good starting choice.
• Rakya Pulmoni. She almost ended up as average, but her bonus to big rooms with turrets and her damage each second lets you deal with multiple waves very nicely, almost as well as Hickensha. Her high wit doesn't hurt either, and she makes a good starting hero for racking up resource stockpiles.
  
  

Average / Meh / On the boring side

• Troe. He's decent enough, but between his low defense, and his useless abilities scamper and missed again, he doesn't shine at all. Mostly a boring / very average hero with nothing that gives him a real edge.
• Skroig. Just OK, nothing spectacular, and many heroes are better. Red plume you say? Sounds good on paper, but only lasts 4 seconds. In practice it doesn't do much, especially with a 3 door cooldown. Most fighter heroes have good stats and good passives, having an active that you can only cast every full moon doesn't make him good. It needs a buff.
• Mizi. She's situational. Good stats, but nothing amazing when it comes to abilities. She's mostly good for ships where you can't use weapons like the library, as her damages scales well without them.
• Warden. A dedicated operator with good wit, however he moves slowly, his stats are low, his attack delay is too slow and his main ability further makes him incapable of fighting. Seeing as we have heroes that are both good operators and good fighters, I don't see why I would ever pick him. His ability to make more dust is rendered useless basically because he can't fight at all, and in most situation having a hero who can fight is infinitely more useful than a bit extra dust.
  
  

Mostly bad / needs a buff :

• Deena. Mostly bad because she doesn't really have a role. Her wit is too low to be a main operator. Placebo and paramedic are abilities in dire need of a buff and feel weak in practice (even a simple module has more health regen). You can use her to open doors, but many heroes are better so why would you?
• Joleri. Reduced dust is bad. He has nothing spectacular that would compensate for such a drawback.
• Sara. Currently the absolute worst hero in the game in my opinion, mainly because of her low low health. Goes fast, but can't do anything good when she gets there except die or soak up your food reserves. There are other things you need on a scout / door opener other than speed. Even if you plan on running around to fight where needed, her stats are too low to make a real difference compared to others. Her low health is abnormal, often she will die faster than you can even realize she's being attacked. She's a real carebear and even with good items you need to constantly watch her to keep her alive. Too much work, she really feels like half a hero... like she's supposed to find an uber armor in the dungeon that would complete her or something.
  
  

I don't like fast heroes. I mean, I don't care about speed. Nice they can run, but can they fight? I don't get what is useful with Sara + aftershave.

I agree with most of your list. But I see one glaring misjudgment; Skroig. Statwise she is average. She has fairly high health, average defense with KDiB, above average damage and beneficial Soylent Green. She has all the making to be a DPS hero. However, she has broken actives.



Last Supper - Active at lvl 2 can essentially give you the DPS equivalent to another strong DPS hero. Only 2 door cooldown. It's no Armchair General but makes up for it with a slightly shorter cooldown.



Red Plume - The single reason why you would choose Skroig over another hero. It's 6 seconds at level 3. That's 6 seconds of possibly the strongest disable skill in the game for the several reasons.

1. Your characters will take essentially little to no damage. This makes it far better than any Me First passive/active. In most cases, spamming heal against a large wave will cost more than refreshing Red Plume once or even twice a round.

2. You can use it as a root. Shares a similar usage as Golgy's Web or Sara's Neurolite. You are guaranteed that the monsters in the room, stay in the room.

3. It can potentially do more damage than Kneecap and similar skills.



For 6 seconds you get the absolute best of 3 different skills. It can get even better if you are creative enough. True it still only last six seconds, but in dire times you can refresh it. No other skill can save your butt if you messed up or under prepared as well as Red Plume. All you need is a small stockpile of science.





Other than that, Sara and Joleeri can be ranked higher depending on the team composition. But I feel they are too situational and require a specific playstyle so bottom tier is fitting. The only hero that I believe is truly bottom tier is Deena. She just doesn't shine anywhere. Her healing abilities are pretty mediocre. If you want an average hero, choose Max. He has an added addition of a broken passive that makes most of the ships easy mode.

You forgot the bonus heroes, Josh and Kreyang.



Kreyang: Being able to slow down enemies on the entire floor is amazingly useful and he makes a decent operator. Only downside is that he relies on active research, otherwise he's not very powerful. He also has Endless Expert but since it comes at level 6 it kinda loses its early-game potential.



Josh: Not much of a fighter, but easily the best operator in the game, and he can boost other heroes while operating on his own with Armchair general. A real beast with the Library pod.

myrec wrote:
You just said that Sara is good cause of Juggling ? Really ???

Assuming by 'juggling' you mean running between 2 rooms constantly, causing monsters to glitch in the doorway, no. Sara stands in one room. Monsters enter. When they enter, things happen in a very specific order. First, they're slowed. Next, the turrets get a 'free' shot. Assuming they survive 3-5 KIP cannons hitting their spleen, they then become a valid target for heroes. The heroes run up to and attack them. If they're STILL alive, the long hero attack range compared to the monster's often allows a second attack before they get to retaliate. You don't have to give a single order, yet you get a round of turrets, 2 hero attacks and another round of turret shots not far off, all before your guys even get attacked.

Shadowsand wrote:
Just had to post when I saw you put both Joleri and Sara in the bottom group.



First off, okay, Joleri reduces Dust. But she reduces a drop rate which is already tiny (I'd guess MAXIMUM of 10%, probably closer to 5?) by a tiny percent (is it 10% or 20%?) either way, in the end you're talking about 1 less dust every 100-200 enemies killed. Considering her base stats and abilities make her fast, tanky AND decent dps, I think that's a very small price to pay. She's easily the best all-round character in the game. Notice 'best all-round' doesn't necessarily mean best overall.



Now, on to Sara. Yes, she starts of insanely squishy, no denying that. However, even if you ignore the crazy speed and late-game strength (both discussed in earlier posts), the main reason I like her is a game I had very recently. Basically, I had a kill room, like you do, with 1 neuro stun module, a bunch of KIP cannons, Sara and another character wearing a zone device (grants neurostun lite, same as Sara's early on). Monsters would walk in the door, grind to a halt, then die before they could even attack, because monsters are apparently targetable by turrets before they're considered 'inside' the room for most purposes. Even the few ones tanky enough to get properly inside, due to melee heroes having a longer attack range than most monsters, one swing from Sara and whoever else was there, and they still died before they could attack her back.



Granted, it was only THAT powerful because I effectively had 1 x Neurostun 4, 1 x Neruostun Lite 1 and 1 x Neruostun Lite 2 all in the one room, but even with just Sara and a single Neruostun there, it's still pretty strong. Not saying she deserves a spot at the top, but I think putting her at the bottom is just plain unfair to her.

You just said that Sara is good cause of Juggling ? Really ???

Just had to post when I saw you put both Joleri and Sara in the bottom group.



First off, okay, Joleri reduces Dust. But she reduces a drop rate which is already tiny (I'd guess MAXIMUM of 10%, probably closer to 5?) by a tiny percent (is it 10% or 20%?) either way, in the end you're talking about 1 less dust every 100-200 enemies killed. Considering her base stats and abilities make her fast, tanky AND decent dps, I think that's a very small price to pay. She's easily the best all-round character in the game. Notice 'best all-round' doesn't necessarily mean best overall.



Now, on to Sara. Yes, she starts of insanely squishy, no denying that. However, even if you ignore the crazy speed and late-game strength (both discussed in earlier posts), the main reason I like her is a game I had very recently. Basically, I had a kill room, like you do, with 1 neuro stun module, a bunch of KIP cannons, Sara and another character wearing a zone device (grants neurostun lite, same as Sara's early on). Monsters would walk in the door, grind to a halt, then die before they could even attack, because monsters are apparently targetable by turrets before they're considered 'inside' the room for most purposes. Even the few ones tanky enough to get properly inside, due to melee heroes having a longer attack range than most monsters, one swing from Sara and whoever else was there, and they still died before they could attack her back.



Granted, it was only THAT powerful because I effectively had 1 x Neurostun 4, 1 x Neruostun Lite 1 and 1 x Neruostun Lite 2 all in the one room, but even with just Sara and a single Neruostun there, it's still pretty strong. Not saying she deserves a spot at the top, but I think putting her at the bottom is just plain unfair to her.

But she actually has a higher defense than most characters at level 15, and her HP isn't nearly as fragile anymore. Yes, before floor 12, she's weak, but after all characters are level 15, her ability to take damage becomes only slightly below average- taking away her weakness. Her single utility saves games, and the occurrence is much more frequent than every 12 runs... I've had it happen twice in my current drill run (so it's just your word against mine, for the time being). A high scoring drill player would likely experience the rhino bug more so than average, necessitating her even further. She's also good as a final floor character. If you do not expect to survive the current floor you're on, Sara is the best character to have to run the crystal prematurely.



Player skill can negate Sara's fragility, but player skill cannot do as much for the Rhino bug(?).



...Is it a bug? Given that they reduced explosion damage in the latest patch, which is way less of a gamebreaker than fast door rhinos, I'd say yes.



The point is, she's extremely good at one thing: Speed. Even if she has extremely bad at Health, it still makes her useful in a variety of select situations. My problem with your tiering her as bottom is that you've worded it as if Sara has NOTHING to offer over other characters, and that is completely wrong, imo.

Rhinos that destroy doors next to them for me is a bug. It happens rarely, but when it does it is about 50% a loss on easy because they keep destroying doors.



I don't have a problem killing them with Max, no scrambler (most of the time i have it from an item anyways) but he can run deep with a couple of healings. I won't take sara just to prevent a loss every 12 runs, she's way too situational and dies in a blink... She might prevent hippos, but I might lose to something else because she's overall the weakest hero. (As I said everytime I get her on random she dies so fast I can't do anything, and I don't want to babysit her since my playstyle is very turret / offhand oriented.)

Before we start with the rating, I have to explain a bit about the way I play the game. Take this a small crash course / tips section :



1) Economics are very important. Heroes are good, but being able to afford multiple rooms full of the best turrets is even better. For this reason I value operators greatly, and operators who can also fight even more.

2) Speed of movement is also very important. Since I rely on turrets, the main use of heroes is operating modules and filling the gaps in my defense, as in running to the spot where I am having trouble or where waves are getting stronger than expected. For this reason I'd rather have a decent fighter who can run fast, than a amaaazing fighter who's slow as hell. (Yes I am looking at you Gork.)

3) DoTs (damage over time abilities) are amazing. Having a few powerful monsters is rarely a problem. But having huge waves with a flood of monsters is when you start to sweat. For this reason I value greatly those 20-25+ damage per second abilities as they help immensely. They quickly make it so your hero can one shot kill a monster, instead of needing 2 or 3 hits, which adds up quickly when you are dealing with multiple waves.

4) I often don't turn on rooms intentionally, so I can farm dust. Setting up kill rooms with heroes and turrets is very important, and having a hero with repair makes things convenient as he keeps that room functional and frees your attention to take care of other things. Another reason to use operators / repair heroes. Most of the time I try to get 3 operators and one dedicated fighter / room opener.



To the list then :



Great :

• Max. Extra dust for opening doors, up to +3 at level 15 is amazing and makes him almost a must in every team. Extra science per turn, especially at start helps a lot too. + he can buff damage for himself and all present heroes, AND operate and repair AND run like the wind to where he is needed? Amazing.
• Hikensha. Very similar to max in that he can operate, repair, gives science and is faster than most. However Hikensha is one of the best fighters in the game with sacrifice. Huge damage boost + damage all monsters through DoT ; he can clear multiple waves by himself and hardly drop a sweat. I like to play random, but if i picked my starting heroes they would be Max + Hikensha everytime.
• Nanor. An under appreciated hero I feel. His is the only one with a skill that damages all the monsters on the floor at the same time, and with enough science, you can keep spamming it. This alone puts him up there with the best. Very nice hero for the drill.
• Ken. Fast moving, can repair, but mostly he's a DPS powerhouse thanks to his active abilities.
  
  

Good :

• Gork. One of the best fighters in the game, gets speed and attack from his actives, has taunt to protect others, good stats, pays for his own healing by getting food from kills, and gets damage boost for every monster in the room. Pretty amazing, and if that wasn't enough he is the hero with the most health in the game, making him one of the best at soaking damage and survive those kamikaze monsters. The only reason he's not on the "great" list is his slowness, thus can't really move him around where needed fast and you have to play him mostly as a big stationary turret, keep in mind he's even slower than a hero carrying the crystal. oO'
• Elise. Another hero who can both operate and fight. She could have been great, but end up only good because her wit is low and without items she will mostly be a very slow moving fighter. I am probably very biased against slow heroes, but hey, this is my list.
• Golgy. Probably a very underrated hero. Can operate, can slow down monsters, augments dust income by up to 30%, and can even hold her own in a fight and is pretty fast. All around good, best used in huge rooms with turrets so both her slow and dust bonus can be maximized.
• Opbot. Again fighter operators are very precious, and this one is good at both. He needs a boost to his (floor wide) health regeneration ability or his industry per kill ability to truly become great, but he's a good all round hero and a good starting choice.
• Rakya Pulmoni. She almost ended up as average, but her bonus to big rooms with turrets and her damage each second lets you deal with multiple waves very nicely, almost as well as Hickensha. Her high wit doesn't hurt either, and she makes a good starting hero for racking up resource stockpiles.
  
  

Average / Meh / On the boring side

• Troe. He's decent enough, but between his low defense, and his useless abilities scamper and missed again, he doesn't shine at all. Mostly a boring / very average hero with nothing that gives him a real edge.
• Skroig. Just OK, nothing spectacular, and many heroes are better. Red plume you say? Sounds good on paper, but only lasts 4 seconds. In practice it doesn't do much, especially with a 3 door cooldown. Most fighter heroes have good stats and good passives, having an active that you can only cast every full moon doesn't make him good. It needs a buff.
• Mizi. She's situational. Good stats, but nothing amazing when it comes to abilities. She's mostly good for ships where you can't use weapons like the library, as her damages scales well without them.
• Warden. A dedicated operator with good wit, however he moves slowly, his stats are low, his attack delay is too slow and his main ability further makes him incapable of fighting. Seeing as we have heroes that are both good operators and good fighters, I don't see why I would ever pick him. His ability to make more dust is rendered useless basically because he can't fight at all, and in most situation having a hero who can fight is infinitely more useful than a bit extra dust.
  
  

Mostly bad / needs a buff :

• Deena. Mostly bad because she doesn't really have a role. Her wit is too low to be a main operator. Placebo and paramedic are abilities in dire need of a buff and feel weak in practice (even a simple module has more health regen). You can use her to open doors, but many heroes are better so why would you?
• Joleri. Reduced dust is bad. He has nothing spectacular that would compensate for such a drawback.
• Sara. Currently the absolute worst hero in the game in my opinion, mainly because of her low low health. Goes fast, but can't do anything good when she gets there except die or soak up your food reserves. There are other things you need on a scout / door opener other than speed. Even if you plan on running around to fight where needed, her stats are too low to make a real difference compared to others. Her low health is abnormal, often she will die faster than you can even realize she's being attacked. She's a real carebear and even with good items you need to constantly watch her to keep her alive. Too much work, she really feels like half a hero... like she's supposed to find an uber armor in the dungeon that would complete her or something.
  
  

blub wrote:
I also think that Max is the best character to start with. If i don't start Max + Random i usually go Max + Hikensha and sometimes Max + Elise.

Max + Hickensha are by far the strongest start in the game, I don't see what else can be better except maybe Max + Josh for a stronger economic start.



Double operators + double endless expert (+2 Science per turn right at the start) + double extra dust + good stats, speed, and fighting abilities.

I also think that Max is the best character to start with. If i don't start Max + Random i usually go Max + Hikensha and sometimes Max + Elise.

I don't know about other bonuses, but there is a score bonus associated with opening multiple doors.

I do have Josh, and I like his wit bonus, I just forgot to add him to the list. I like when I get him at the start, his high wit gives a very nice boost to industry early, thus indirectly he deals a lot of damage by letting you build more turrets, or at least building them without worrying as much about saving industry. With him you can often get away with making a single industry generator for the first few floors as his bonus is almost 2 free level 1 generators. This frees you to make more food to level heroes and unlock their operator skills, which snowballs quickly and makes a huge different in how successful your run will be.

she's the best character to have if you need to open multiple doors simultaneously

I haven't experimented with multiple doors yet. After unlocking sanitary I play only that exclusively thus fighting multiple waves is out of the picture for me, at least I don't see the benefit. It would be different if there was some kind of bonus for opening multiple doors, but until they implement something like that I'll prefer the slow and steady tactics.

She and maybe Max are the only characters that can be anywhere on the map.

Max is number one on my list and my favorite by far. I don't see any reason to pick her when max exists.

Sara is mostly bad due to her insatiable hunger, but she's occasionally excellent...so she's a decent character. This game tends to favor teams composed of vastly different heroes, yet Sara is at an extreme, almost too different. Another poster on here said it effectively: Sara allows teams to employ strategies that they would otherwise be unable to do. She can't fight, but she can spawn block, she can run the crystal, and she's the best character to have if you need to open multiple doors simultaneously. She's so fast that she opens new strategies. She and maybe Max are the only characters that can be anywhere on the map. I predict that we'll see many players using Sara with success, which may not be mainly attributable to the character's degree of strength, but because she is so different. Keep an eye out for playthroughs with Sara, because they're going to be the interesting ones to watch.



I agree with Deena and Joleri though, their abilities are pretty bad, except Joleri is female, hehe. Noticed that you don't have Josh. Professor Josh and Warden Mormish are very similar in usage, operator with arm chair general, so basically rear operator, except Josh's ability of adding module attack bonus is not merely as useless as the Warden's, and Josh has a passive global Wit aura.

melkathi wrote:
Hmm. Hikensha is a she. Lady Joleri Tulak is a she (the Lady should be a dead giveaway ).



Other than that, we have a different playstyle. Calling scamper useless made me raise a bewildered eyebrow

And what is your playstyle? I think I gave a good idea of mine in the first part of my post.



I think if you have 8 dark rooms, you will have them all on one side with a big kill room and multiple fighter heroes, instead of breaking them into multiple smaller dark areas with a single hero holding each one of them? Is that it?

Hmm. Hikensha is a she. Lady Joleri Tulak is a she (the Lady should be a dead giveaway ).



Other than that, we have a different playstyle. Calling scamper useless made me raise a bewildered eyebrow

Nice tip.



However she still dies to kamikazes. And in general my heroes are there to hold monsters in the kill room with turrets, else they just skip the room and all that turret DPS is wasted. Using her like you say is cute and clever but I tend to always prefer the stable / previsible / safe way of playing instead of relying on getting lucky with items. But if I get her on random ill keep the aftershave thing in mind, thanks.