Grimlight Character Guide - The Best Characters to Strengthen your Team
Last week, we gave our own personal opinions on what could be the best characters in Grimlight, for those who are looking to reroll in this game in order to get a head start. On this occasion, however, we merely limited ourselves to naming the characters and classifying them into a few different tiers, depending on their power and usefulness, but didn’t really dive deeper into what actually makes them good.
For this reason, we aim to give a more detailed explanation on the best characters in Grimlight and what makes them so great, so that you can get an idea of what to look for in the game’s current meta, and come up with your own tier lists. Alternatively, if you’re just looking for the quick and easy rundown of the best characters in this new tactical RPG, we suggest checking out our Grimlight tier list.
For the rest of you who want to get a closer glimpse on what makes the best Grimlight characters so great, read on!
S Tier
As mentioned in our tier list, this category corresponds to those characters that, due to their superior stats and skill sets, can essentially carry the entire team on their backs and lead them to victory, without the need for external assistance. These are the ones that are just too good to pass up, and the ones you’ll definitely be aiming for if you’re rerolling in Grimlight:
- Bathory (4*, Warrior, Dark)
It’s no wonder why Bathory is regarded as one of the best characters in Grimlight. She’s a dark-type Warrior unit that absolutely thrives on the frontlines, due to her superior damage output, her self-sustain abilities, and her self-buff that continuously applies a stacking ATK boost as the fight goes on. And aside from being a powerhouse in terms of damage potential, Bathory can turn 10% of all the damage she inflicts into HP, thanks to her life steal passive, which turns her into a defensive powerhouse that’s very hard to take down.
Bathory is one of those characters that you simply upgrade, outfit with the best gear, and set her loose in the frontlines to do her thing.
- Winter Queen (5*, Mage, Water)
While Winter Queen doesn’t have the sustainability of Bathory, she more than makes up for it in sheer damage and CC.
Starting off with the fact that her basic attacks inflict damage in an AoE, and can also apply a debuff to the targets’ movement and attack speeds, making her into an absolute goddess when it comes to crowd control, merely by using only her basic attacks. And as if that wasn’t enough, every three basic attacks, her next projectile will target two random enemies and apply a frost debuff on them, which can then prime them for freezing using her active skill. This is because Winter Queen’s “Blizzard” active skill deals moderate damage in a large area, but completely freezes targets that are afflicted with the frost debuff.
Winter Queen might not be the easiest character to use, and in fact we recommend turning off auto-skill when using her in your team, but she’s a very powerful contender for best character in the game due to her CC and damage output.
- Cinderella (5*, Ranger, Water)
Depending on how you use her, Cinderella can either be the worst or the best character on your team, mostly because her skills require using them at the correct moment to achieve maximum effect. As such, whenever you have her on your team, it’s much better to disable auto-combat and play manually.
Cinderella, simply put, shines brightly due to her active skill, Magic Hour, which deals 12 basic attacks spread randomly across all the units in the enemy team. The practical upshot of this is that, the fewer enemies left alive, the more damage this skill can potentially inflict on the same target. And if there’s only one enemy left, such as in the case of a boss enemy, this skill can instantly inflict 12 attacks on them, dealing heavy damage that only the toughest bosses will be able to survive.
Aside from her nuking capabilities, Cinderella also offers a balanced kit, starting each battle with a personal shield, and also increasing the energy acquisition of the entire team by passively granting them +5 energy every 3 seconds. All of these skills combine to make her into a vital asset to any players who manage to recruit this character to their rosters.
- Aurora (5*, Mage, Light)
Aurora’s importance is twofold: First off, everyone starts with her already on the team, which makes her into a quintessential unit for every formation. And secondly, her kit is a great contender for one of the best AoE skill sets in the game.
Essentially, most of Aurora’s attacks deal damage in an area. From her basic attacks, to her passive and active skills, her kit thrives for dishing out moderate damage to the entire enemy team, or at least to those within the area of her attacks. However, this comes at the expense of her single-target potential. Specifically, she’s not very good at fighting against bosses.
Nevertheless, the fact that the vast majority of stages will put you against hordes of lesser enemies makes Aurora into a great addition to any formation.
A Tier
The units in this tier are composed of characters that, while almost as strong as the ones above, are much better suited for playing as a team, as opposed to the others that can actually carry the team to victory, regardless of the team composition. Nevertheless, when used correctly, these units can be as powerful as the rarest and strongest characters in the previous tier.
- Cowardly Lion (3*, Warrior, Nature)
Sometimes, simple is better, and Cowardly Lion is the prime example of this, with a basic skill set that lets her deal decent damage to her target and all enemies around her. Furthermore, she also has a passive skill that automatically restores a percentage of her health every few seconds. In this regard, she’s in a similar category to Bathory, with her damage and survivability potential, but at a much lower scale in the case of Cowardly Lion.
Still, the fact that you get this character for free from the very beginning is quite a compelling reason to keep her around and upgrade her to get the most out of her.
- Tin Knight (3*, Guardian, Water)
Another Grimlight character that you get from the very beginning. The Tin Knight’s offering is simple: She’s a Guardian with the ability to stun an enemy every few seconds, and with a massive passive resistance to magical attacks. And while she lacks the wide range needed for a tank to keep the enemy team’s attention on them, she’s very durable and a great unit for the middle row of the frontline, since this is where most of the enemies will attack.
As we mentioned just now, you’ll get Tin Knight from the beginning, and you really don’t need anything else when it comes to tanking. Sadly, her kit comes at the expense of actual damage, so you won’t be soloing enemies with just her on your squad. For this reason, you’ll want to compensate with as much damage as you can get.
- Snow White (5*, Guardian, Light)
While Tin Knight is available for free right from the beginning, you’ll actually have to try and reroll if you want to get Snow White early on in Grimlight, though her offering is more than worth the trouble, at least if you’re in need of a good tank for your squad.
One of her best features is that her active skill, aside from dealing damage in a moderately-sized area around the target, also applies a damage down debuff on the affected enemies, reducing their ATK by 25% for 10 seconds, essentially crippling their damage output for a long time. On the other hand, she also has powerful support capabilities, as she can passively apply shields to the entire team at the beginning of each wave, massively reducing the damage that everyone takes.
Last but not least, Snow White has the ability to come back with 50% of her HP when she falls in combat, which is only usable once per combat. And whenever she revives with this trait, she’s shielded from all harm for 3 seconds, giving her the chance to score some free hits on the enemy.
- Dorothy (5*, Sage, Light)
One of the most straightforward support units in the game, with the ability to shield all her allies with a barrier that can protect them for a percentage of her max HP. And while she can protect her allies from being harmed, she can also heal the four nearest allies for 200% of her ATK on every fifth basic attack.
With Dorothy on your team, you’ll have all the protection and healing that you will ever need. And while we usually suggest going for a more offensive approach, she is definitely one of the best healers in Grimlight. And this is without mentioning that her mere presence on the field will increase the PRES and MRES of the entire team by 5%, increasing their resistance to all types of damage.
B Tier
These are the units that are neither good nor bad, but that you’ll want to replace with better characters as soon as you unlock them. The vast majority of the characters in Grimlight will fall into this tier, especially since most of the units in the game are actually viable to a degree, and only a scant few can really be classified as “bad”. Nevertheless, being passable is not the way to go in these games, so you definitely won’t want to spend too many resources on these units.
- Geppetto (4*, Mage, Dark)
Pinnochio’s would-be creator and father is an anime magician in Grimlight, and also quite a formidable asset in the battlefield, especially since he can summon puppets and marionettes into combat to do his bidding. One of his attacks even lets him summon a fearsome version of Pinnochio to rise and slam the ground hard, dealing tons of damage to enemies in an area and launching them into the air for a few moments.
Geppetto is great since he can also summon additional characters to the field after every fifth basic attack. These units inherit a percentage of Geppetto’s ATK, DEF, and HP, and march into the field to fight in his stead. He can summon up to five of these minions at any given moment, giving him the potential to overwhelm his enemies as the fight goes on.
- Gretel (3*, Mage, Fire)
Both Hansel and Gretel appear in this game, and while their offering is decent, they have an important caveat, in that in order to unleash their full potential, they BOTH have to be on the field, which would fill up two of your slots that could’ve been used for something else.
Case in point, Gretel is a Mage with skills to buff herself and increase her own ATK by 20%, and that can also deal AoE damage on every basic attack. Furthermore, if Hansel is on the field as her ally, Gretel gains another 20% ATK buff on top of her previous boost, making her deal decent damage on every basic attack.
Despite these passive boosts, she doesn’t have any damaging skills nor anything to provide support to her team, or to cripple her enemies, which diminishes her overall contribution to the team, without necessarily making up for it since she doesn’t do that much damage, regardless of her buffs.
- The Huntsman (3*, Ranger, Nature)
This character has the particularity of, similar to Gretel, having no actual direct damage skills. However, he can buff his ATK by a whopping 30% for 10 seconds with his active skill, and he has a natural +10% critical chance on every attack. This combination makes him into a force to be reckoned with, especially if buffed further by his allies.
Even though he doesn’t require two specific units to achieve the same level of damage boosts like Gretel, The Huntsman is still lacking in team support or any meaningful contributions. In other words, he’s great as a starting unit, but you’ll want to replace him for a much better DPS character as soon as possible
- Scarecrow (3*, Warrior, Fire)
As far as potential goes, Scarecrow is one of the more decent units that you could unlock early on, especially while you don’t have anything better to fill up the ranks. She’s a Warrior unit that can withstand large amounts of punishment thanks to her passive skill that increases her PRES by 10% at all moments. And to top it all off, her active skill lets her stab her pitchfork into an enemy three times, dealing 120% damage each, while also applying a debuff that reduces their PRES by 20%.
In other words, Scarecrow is not only a semi-tanky Warrior unit that’s also relatively common and easy to summon, but she can also soften up targets for your DPS units to deal with. For these reasons, if you’re rerolling and have managed to unlock a powerful DPS or two, Scarecrow would be the perfect unit for increasing your damage output even further, by amplifying the damage that the enemies take.
C Tier
Last but not least, this tier exists only to illustrate the units that you should actively avoid. At least at the moment of writing this guide, these are the Grimlight characters that, for some reason or another, you’ll want to drop, since they will do more harm than good in your team.
- Odette (4*, Warrior, Water)
She specializes in avoiding damage, while actually not doing much of that herself, despite being a Warrior unit. You could make a case for including Odette in a PvP team, since her active skill not only does decent damage, but also silences the targets for 10 seconds, preventing them from using their own skills. However, as far as PvE is concerned, this additional effect is all but worthless in most cases.
Odette also has a few self buffs that not only boost her evasion further, but also increase her attack speed. This can effectively increase her survivability and damage output somewhat, but is still lackluster compared to units that can directly increase their own ATK or DEF.
- Otohime (3*, Sage, Water)
There’s really not much to say about Otohime, except that she’s a prime example of a dedicated healer that can’t do much else other than restore HP. In fact, restoring HP is the only thing that Otohime can do: her active skill is a massive heal that recovers the team’s HP equal to 500% of her attack, and continues to heal them for 100% of her ATK every second for 5 seconds. And as if that wasn’t enough, Otohime also heals the unit with the lowest HP for 200% of her ATK every 2 basic attacks, making her into a great unit for keeping the party topped up.
Nevertheless, her healing prowess comes at the expense of… everything else. Otohime is an excellent healer, but she can’t contribute to the group in any other way, which takes away from her usefulness compared to other supports that can not only heal, but also cripple their enemies or buff their teammates.
- Puss in Boots (4*, Assassin, Nature)
Puss in Boots is like a “lite” version of Cinderella, in that her active skill consists of a multi-hit attack that can damage a target 4 times. And while this skill doesn’t affect random enemies, it also deals considerably less damage, compared to Cinderella’s 12-hit combo, both in number of hits, as well as in damage per hit.
It’s important to point this out since Cinderella is ONLY good because of her burst damage potential, and if you remove it, she would probably fall into this tier, just like Puss in Boots. In other words, Puss in Boots really doesn’t have good damage potential, despite being an Assassin, which somewhat defeats the purpose of a unit who’s supposed to be able to deal maximum damage to high-value targets in short periods of time.
- Vita (4*, Sage, Nature)
Vita is somewhat of an odd character, in that she’s a Sage that can deal damage. But since she’s a Sage, her damage is quite low, compared to other characters, which means that the damaging component of her active skill is somewhat wasted. Regardless, she makes up for this limitation by also healing her allies for 400% of her ATK with her active skill, and increasing their PRES for a duration. And as if that wasn’t enough, with every fifth basic attack, Vita applies a regeneration effect to all her allies, healing them for 50% of her ATK per second for 3 seconds.
On paper, Vita seems like a very competent support. But it’s small details like the fact that she buffs PDEF instead of ATK, and the fact that she doesn’t do much damage at all, the ones that place her underneath other characters with better healing, or better buffs.
We want to stress that Vita is NOT a bad character, and the only reason why we place her in this tier is to illustrate the divergence between what her kit offers, and what her role is supposed to do: In other words, it’s a Sage with damaging skills, despite not being able to do much damage. And it’s an ally that buffs defense and not attack, which goes against the current meta. Essentially, her healing skills are her biggest asset, and those aren’t anything extraordinary when compared to other support characters.
And that’s it for our in-depth explanation on the best Grimlight characters. Do you agree with our assessment of the characters in this gacha game? Feel free to share your own top picks and thoughts in the comments below!
