Unit Rankings

Warning!
Ratings are maintained by FFBE subreddit's Discord. Newbie questions and question whether a certain unit is good or not should be asked in #global-help. If you have experience with the game you may freely discuss unit ratings in #wiki-unit-ratings. These lists provide a rough estimate of units' utility when used by newbies. Veterans should assess the unit based on their needs instead. *Units that have summaries, but not ratings are too weak to use outside of extremely* narrow circumstances.** The ratings for attackers are calculated using a unit builder based on specific criteria. Visit Unit Rating Notes. Updates: Read recent changes here.

Unit Ratings (7★ Units)

Only units that can be awakened to 7-star are rated.

Please keep in mind that each list considers that players have fully ability awakened a unit's kit.

Please read the in-game news to learn how to awaken a 7★ to avoid any confusion or mistakes.

Unit Ratings (7★ Units)
Unit	Role	TDH	Base	Links/Notes
Wilhelm	()	-	20.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Mercenary Ramza		-	20.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Awakened Rain		-	19.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Barbariccia		-	19.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Demon Rain		-	19.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Grim Lord Sakura		-	19.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Hyoh		19.0	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lilith		-	19.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Queen		19.0	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Aloha Lasswell	()	18.5	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ayaka		-	18.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Circe		-	18.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Dracu Lasswell		18.5	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Malphasie		-	18.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Rem		-	18.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Trance Terra		-	18.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Zargabaath		-	18.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Beatrix		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Eiko		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Knight Delita		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Nalu		18.0	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Onion Knight		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Seaside Nichol		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Tidus		18.0	17.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Dark		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Flame		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Aileen		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Estark		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Nyx		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Orlandeau	()	-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Reberta		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Light		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Emperor		-	17.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lucius		-	17.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Prishe		-	17.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Viktor Marchenko		-	17.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Dragonlord		-	16.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Gilgamesh		-	16.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ignis		-	16.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lightning		-	16.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Livid Shantotto		-	16.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Olive		16.5	16.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ramza		-	16.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ace		-	16.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Adam Jensen		-	16.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Delita		-	16.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Luneth		-	16.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Seabreeze Dark Fina		-	16.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Shadow Lord		-	16.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Squall		16.0	15.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Citra		-	15.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Dark Fina		-	15.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Marie	()	-	15.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Rinoa		-	15.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Dark Knight Cecil		14.0	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Marquis de Léon		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit

Unit Ratings (6★ Units)

Only units that can be awakened to 6-star are rated, since 5-star units are now generally obsolete.

The archives (>6 months unupdated) for 5★ Units, 4★ Units, and their non-5★ roles and 6★ roles are still available.

Unit Ratings (6★ Units)
Unit	Base Rarity	Role	Abilities Awakened	Base	Links/Notes
Ayaka	5-star		18.0	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Heavenly Technician Lid	5-star		-	18.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lotus Mage Fina	5-star		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Maritime Strategist Nichol	5-star		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Seaside Nichol	5-star		-	17.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Rena	5-star		-	17.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Zargabaath	5-star		17.0	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Joachim	4-star		-	15.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Eiko	5-star		-	15.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Awakened Rain	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Basch	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Circe	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Citra	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Chow	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Estark	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Fryevia	5-star		14.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Ignis	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Malphasie	5-star	()	-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Mercenary Ramza	5-star	()	14.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Nalu	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Onion Knight	5-star		14.5	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Difficult to chain with DW.
Raegen	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Reberta	5-star		14.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Tidus	5-star		14.5	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) May be difficult to chain with.
Trance Terra	5-star	()	14.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Best when spark chaining.
Wilhelm	5-star		14.5	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Yuna	5-star		-	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Aileen	5-star		14.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Barbariccia	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Blossom Sage Sakura	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Christine	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Explorer Aileen	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Grim Lord Sakura	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Hyoh	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Knight Delita	5-star		14.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Lila	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Magic damage skills use SPR scaling.
Lilith	5-star	()	-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Lunera	5-star		14.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Mediena	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Orlandeau	5-star	()	14.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Ramza	5-star		14.0	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Roy	5-star		14.0	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Sephiroth	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Tilith	4-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Veritas of the Dark	5-star		14.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Veritas of the Earth	4-star		14.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Veritas of the Light	5-star		14.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Warrior of Light	4-star		14.0	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
White Knight Noel	5-star		14.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Aloha Lasswell	5-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Barusa	4-star		13.5	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Charming Kitty Ariana	5-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Demon Rain	5-star		13.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Emperor	5-star		13.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Fayt	5-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Illusionist Nichol	4-star	()	-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Can confer tank role on ally, Time limited unit
Kunshira	5-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lexa	4-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Libertus	3-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Loren	5-star		13.5	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Lulu	5-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Marie	5-star	()	13.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Mystea	4-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Nyx	5-star		13.5	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Prishe	5-star		13.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Rosa	4-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Shylt	4-star		-	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Yun	5-star	()	13.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
2B	5-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
A2	5-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Ang	5-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Aura	4-star		13.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Cagnazzo	4-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Dragonlord	5-star		13.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Garnet	4-star		13.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Kryla	5-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Ling	4-star		13.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Lucius	5-star		-	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Meliadoul	4-star		13.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Minfilia	4-star		13.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Noctis	5-star		13.0	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Olif	4-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ozetta	4-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Prompto	5-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Rasler	4-star		13.0	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Rinoa	5-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ryumynui	4-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Shatal	4-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Soleil	4-star		13.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Vagrant Knight Rain	5-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Verun	4-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
White Witch Fina	4-star		13.0	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Yan	4-star		-	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Ace	5-star	()	12.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Agrias	4-star		12.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Aria	4-star		12.5	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Atoning Dragoon Kain	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Beatrix	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Camille	3-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Charlotte	3-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Chloe	4-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Cloud	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Cupid Artemios	4-star		12.5	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Emperor Shera	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Fidel	4-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Fohlen	5-star		12.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Olive	5-star		12.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Pure Summoner Rydia	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Randi	5-star	()	12.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Ray Jack	5-star		12.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Rem	5-star		12.5	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Rico Rodriguez	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Rikku	4-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Shadow Lord	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Viktor Marchenko	5-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
William	4-star		-	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Zidane	3-star		12.5	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
9S	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Adam Jensen	5-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Ashe	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Bran	4-star		12.0	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Divine Soleil	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Elfreeda	5-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Emilia	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Gilgamesh	5-star	()	12.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Gladiolus	5-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Kupipi	3-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lara Croft	5-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Great unit for farming, Gains levels 2x faster, Time limited unit
Luka	4-star		12.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Mario Frigo	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Moogle	4-star		12.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Pirate Jake	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Refia	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Roselia	3-star		12.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Santa Roselia	4-star		12.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Shinju	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Squall	5-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Überkilling Machine	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Ukiyo	5-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Veritas of the Heavens	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Veritas of the Waters	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Victoria	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Wadow	4-star		-	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Y'shtola	5-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Balthier	5-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Beach Time Fina	4-star		11.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Delita	5-star		11.0	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Fina	2-star		11.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Ability awakenings (non-essential) Story Unit - Gains levels 2x faster
Goken	4-star		11.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Ilias	4-star		11.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Iris	3-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Kuja	3-star		11.5	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) (Flare Star awakening non-essential)
Luneth	5-star		11.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Macmedi	4-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Pecciotta	4-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Pyro Glacial Lasswell	5-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Queen	5-star		11.5	8.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Rubicante	4-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Flame	5-star		11.5	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Xon	4-star		11.5	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Great unit for farming
Yang	4-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Yuri	3-star		-	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Amelia	4-star		11.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Crowe	4-star		11.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Dark Knight Cecil	5-star		11.0	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Desch	4-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Duke	5-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Elza	5-star		11.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Jiraiya	5-star		-	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Kaede	4-star		-	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Livid Shantotto	5-star	()	-	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Orochi	4-star	()	11.0	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Ravus	4-star		-	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Setzer	4-star		11.0	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Silvia	4-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Václav Koller	3-star		-	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Chizuru	4-star		10.5	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Nameless Gunner Jake	5-star		-	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Tinkerer Carrie	4-star		-	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Aranea	5-star		-	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Black Cat Lid	3-star		10.0	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Cecil	3-star		10.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Cerius	3-star		10.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Firion	3-star		10.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Kaliva	4-star		10.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Orran	4-star		-	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Vaan	3-star		10.0	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Zyrus	4-star		10.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)

Unit Summaries (6★ Units)

2B

Physical damage dealer with solid output.
Innate dual wield and varied weapon selection make her easy to gear.

9S

Support unit with decent stat breaks, several imperils, and a 30% party mitigation buff.
Unfortunately, his dual-stat breaks are split the wrong way-- ATK/DEF and MAG/SPR, rather than ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR, which means you need a second breaker to survive the first turn anyways.
His LB is a tad more powerful than his on-demand breaks, but only when maxed, which may not be worth the investment.

A2

Physical damage dealer with solid output.
Innate dual wield and varied weapon selection make her easy to gear.
Her primary chaining move, Offensive Heal Combo, has unique chaining frames which means the chains may break depending on various factors. She's best paired with herself.

Ace

Without ability awakenings, he is unremarkable.
With ability awakenings, he becomes a good instant mana battery, which is useful for story events, as well as trial bosses that drain MP.
He provides powerful imperils for fire, light, and lightning.
His personal damage output is fairly low, or too rng-based to be practical.

Adam

Adam wants to be a provoke tank. Unfortunately, he can't provoke.
Leave him on the bench.

Adam Jensen

Mid-tier lightning physical chainer with innate dual wield.
Has a 45% full break.
Lacks chaining partners, and his chains always break in the middle.

Agrias

Without ability awakenings, she's an average light chainer with not enough ATK.
With ability awakenings (more specifically, Divine Ruination +2), she can chain that 7-hit ability with Orlandeau and the rest of the DR family.
Her own damage is still not great due to her stats, but she'll see some use in 10-man trials if you need a chaining partner.

Aileen

Solid earth physical chainer.
Her ability awakenings change the number of hits and thus hit frames of Piledriver, so you'll need to awaken your own Aileen if you want to chain with a friend's.
She's a walking chainer, which means that her chains may break on some enemies depending on where the game has them positioned.
Has a bit of utility-- minor AoE MP regen and earth resist.

Aloha Lasswell

Good wind/water physical chainer with innate dual wield.
Chains with the Divine Ruination family.

Amelia

Has innate dual wield for guns only.
Can be used as a physical chainer if you're desperate, but her damage is very low.

Ang

Good physical fire chainer. Unlike most units, his chaining move is delayed by a turn, but will always spark chain perfectly with a copy of himself.
After spending several turns chaining, use his limit burst, which is the source of most of his damage.

Aranea

Aranea wants to be a physical damage dealer. Sadly, she's not very good at her job.
Her damage output is alarmingly terrible for a unit of her rarity.

Aria

Good healer with AoE 100% revive and support spells.
As with most 3* and 4* healers, she needs a dualcast materia (or Holy Wand) to shine.
Can also provide a bit of MP regen for the party, although it can be hard to fit this in since she can't heal on the turn that she uses it.

Ashe

Non-elemental magical chainer with healing effects attached to her damage skill (Heaven's Fury).
She can also use Thundaja to serve as a competent (but not amazing) solo damage dealer.

Ashteroze

Can break ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR, but the breaks are a bit subpar. Could be useful if you're new and desperate for a breaker.
The rest of her kit is poison focused, so completely irrelevant.

Atoning Dragoon Kain

Physical chainer with elemental flexibility.
His damage output is okay but not amazing.
Lacks chaining partners.

Aura

Decent wind physical chainer.
Finding chaining partners will be nigh-impossible since friends won't be using her.
Her ability awakenings increase her damage significantly, but she still falls far short of being top tier.

Awakened Rain

Extremely durable magic cover tank and provoke tank.
Has a 60% MAG break and 60% stat buffs.

Ayaka

Ayaka is an excellent healer. She has access to Curaja, Reraise, Esunaga, Full Life, and Dispelga, allowing her to handle all of the standard healing duties better than almost any other unit in the game.
Has innate dualcast, and can serve as an MP battery for the team by using Dedication.
Is immune to Stop and can cure it.
With her ability awakenings, she can also slightly fill the LB gauges of teammates and grant Stop immunity.

Balthier

A mediocre solo physical damage dealer with elemental flexibility.
He takes a couple of turns to ramp up as he goes through his rotation.

Barbariccia

Excellent AoE wind magic chainer.
Can provide MP regen and lightning/wind resistance.
Her personal MP consumption is a bit on the high side, so she may have trouble on longer fights without a battery.

Bartz

Dated physical damage dealer with a focus towards wind.
Can suicide to refill an ally's HP/MP. Also has Entrust.
With ability awakenings, can suicide to provide reraise to one ally.

Barusa

Physical cover tank and provoke tank.
Without his ability awakenings, he's mediocre at best. With them, he's extremely durable and an solid unit overall.
Can buff physical or magical mitigation for himself or an ally, with an accompanying DEF or SPR buff, respectively.

Basch

Amazing cover tank-- can cover either magical or physical attacks (but can only cover one type at a time).
Has an excellent gear selection, making it easy to gear him for elemental resistances.
Has great dual-stat breaks for ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR, as well as slightly stronger single-stat breaks for all four stats.

Beach Time Fina

Standard healer with a standard kit. Not awful, but nothing special, either.
Can provide a bit of AoE MP regeneration and aoe water resist.

Beatrix

Good (but not great) light physical chainer.
Her chains will always break in the middle when dual wielding, which hampers her damage output significantly.
Her LB is a very strong ATK/MAG break, which will drastically reduce boss damage.

Black Cat Lid

A mediocre physical solo damage dealer.
Has killer effects that cause her to deal bonus damage to certain types of enemies, but she's very lackluster outside of those specialties.

Blossom Sage Sakura

Works very well as a solo damage dealer on fights where you can't fit two chainers into your team composition. It takes her a few turns to get going, but once Quick Final Thunder is stacked up, she hits hard.
She also brings some solid utility to the table. She can regenerate the team's MP, provide immunity to all status ailments, increase mitigation, and even buff a few elemental resists.
Her AoE damage via Quick Rebel Intention is okay but not amazing.
Her limit burst is a lot less useful than you'd think, since it takes so long to fill and only chains with a copy, and you'd rather run two chainers than two copies of her.

Bran

Decent physical lightning/light chainer and a competent mana battery.
Thunder Clap is Bran's chaining skill, dealing AOE Light and Lightning damage, while imperiling those two elements. The damage is fairly low by today's standards, but AoE physical chainers are relatively rare.
Elven Song provides AoE HP/MP regen.

Cagnazzo

Durable provoke tank who is good at his job and nothing else.
He can't take any other actions while provoking.
His equipment selection and stats aren't amazing, but the extremely high mitigation on his provoke makes up for it.

Camille

Physical chainer that can use water or earth.
She can chain with either Aileen or Tidus, both of whom are extremely powerful, making her a good budget option for players who don't have a good chainer of their own and want to pair up with a stronger friend.

Cecil

Physical cover tank who can only protect one ally.
He's badly outdated and should not be used unless you're just starting out and lack better options.
Can also provide a bit of AoE healing.

Cedona

Physical DPS with very poor damage output.
Has some weird counter abilities that might be useful if the proc chances weren't so low.

Cerius

Can provide powerful increases to fire, ice, lightning, and dark resistance.

Charie

Very weak support unit.
Can provide mediocre buffs to DEF/SPR via her LB, and has a bunch of other irrelevant skills.
Do not use.

Charlotte

Without her ability awakenings, Charlotte is an average physical-based cover tank with some additional utility (AoE MP regen), but her stats are a bit too low for her to safely soak up large amounts of damage.
Her enhancements aren't a massive upgrade, but they do slightly improve on every aspect of her.

Charming Kitty Ariana

Excellent ability-based healer with built-in dualcast for most of her moves and lots of utility.
In addition to standard healer fare like AoE healing and ailment cures, she can provide reraise, break resistance, and elemental resistances.

Chic Ariana

Weak magic chainer.
Also has a couple of elemental skills that are even worse.

Chizuru

Dated AoE physical chainer.
Phantom Shadow is her best skill, but that's not saying much.
Ability awakened Molt gets her 2/5th of the way towards full evade.

Chloe

Support unit that can provide 70% buffs to any elemental resistance.
Can also provide some damage boosts by imperiling enemies, granting magic killer effects to your other units, or breaking DEF/SPR.

Chow

Excellent magic cover tank with amazing utility and great gear selection.
His LB is arguably the strongest skill in the game, combining powerful AoE mitigation with massive party-wide MP recovery.
Other useful abilities include AoE Stop and Charm immunity, powerful self healing + reraise, and Curaga.
Look at him. He is the best dog, and he deserves hugs and treats and love.

Christine

Powerful ice magic chainer.
Snow Burial is her main chaining move. It chains perfectly with Trance Terra's awakened Chaos Wave.
She can also create her own chaining partner by using Hand in Hand on an ally, but the damage is unimpressive.

Circe

Powerful water magic chainer with noticeable ramp-up time. She can also use wind/earth instead of water, but her damage drops drastically if you do so.
Her damage is very low until you use her limit burst, which unlocks several much stronger moves.
She relies heavily on gear and buffs to increase her limit gauge fill rate.

Citra

Very weak magical light chainer with some support capabilities.
Chains with the Divine Ruination family.
Her damage is terrible, but she can buff the party's magic mitigation, fill the esper gauge, and provide some extra healing.
Her evocation damage moves are also very weak.

Cloud

Mediocre physical solo damage dealer, with the bulk of his damage output loaded into his LB.
Can also be used as a decent (but not great) chainer, but finding friend partners will be difficult.

Cloud of Darkness

Dated physical damage dealer with some very weak ailment cure and elemental resistance skills.

Cor

Subpar solo physical damage dealer.
Has a 40% ATK/MAG break, which could be decent for new players that don't yet have anything better.

Crowe

Mediocre support unit with a 30% mitigation buff.
Can grant single-target buffs of 100% to a single stat, provide a bit of healing, or use her LB to buff elemental resistances.
With her ability awakenings, she can also restore a small amount of MP to allies.

Cupid Artemios

Prior to ability awakenings, is an awful unit that should not be used for any reason.
With awakened Flash Barrage, he becomes a competent solo damage dealer.
Unfortunately, he has a passive that can cause him to suicide by covering female units, which is especially problematic if you're using a female tank like Mystea or Ozetta.

Dangerous Ariana

Weak magic damage dealer with some equally weak stat buffs.
Can increase LB fill rate for the party.

Dark Fina

Without ability awakenings, she is a very weak solo magic damage dealer.
With ability awakenings, she's a weak magic chainer.

Dark Knight Cecil

Solo dark physical damage dealer.
Without ability awakenings, his skills are suicidal and deal very little damage. Do not use.
With ability awakenings, his skills do decent damage... but will still kill him.
- When Dual Wielding, a well timed heal between two sets of hits will allow him to survive, albeit still at low HP.

Delita

Without ability awakenings, he has absolutely no skills worth mentioning.
With ability awakenings, he can provide strong DEF/SPR breaks and minor AoE MP regen, but is still not worth using on harder encounters.

Demon Rain

Without his ability awakenings, Demon Rain is terrible and should not be used.
With his ability awakenings, he has the ability to draw attacks and mitigate damage which, when coupled with his boosted enhanced passives, allow him to tank much more effectively.
His counters are even more effective with boosted attack passives and damage modifiers.
However, if you gear him for ATK, his survivability may suffer to the point that he'll have trouble surviving, so his counters are primarily useful for the LB and esper crystals they generate.

Desch

Support unit with not enough to offer.
Learns 4 different "Spark" skills which debuff two stats at a time, but the most useful combinations (normally ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR, available from other units) are glaringly missing. His atypical combos might save time in specific trials, but are not as useful generally.
With his ability awakenings, he can consistently imbue allies with lightning, but this is typically not useful enough to be worth bringing an otherwise useless team member.

Divine Soleil

Serviceable ability-based healer.
Her actual healing output is lower than that of most other healers, but she can grant mitigation to specific units while healing, which helps to make up the difference if most of the damage is concentrated on a single unit (like a cover tank).
Has access to single-target reraise. Also, her LB grants a large stat buff to all allies and cures breaks.

Drace

Weak support unit with a couple of stat buffs and minor MP restoration.
One of the only units in the game that can cure Stop without dispelling other buffs.

Dracu Lasswell

Awful damage dealer both before and after his ability awakenings. Do not use.

Dragonlord

Magical damage dealer with the hardest hitting on-demand ability in the game.
Burns through insane amounts of MP (150 per turn), which makes him extremely difficult to use on any fight that lasts more than a couple of turns.

Duke

Weak ice physical chainer.
On top of his mediocre modifier, his chains will always break before the last hit, which limits his damage even further.

Eiko

Excellent healer and summoner with innate dualcast.
Can both heal and fill the summon gauge at the same time, or provide an LB fill rate buff and fill the esper gauge simultaneously.
Can AoE cure stat breaks.

Elbis

Terrible physical fire solo damage dealer.
Do not use.

Elfreeda

A mix between a breaker, provoke tank and counter-based DPS. Unfortunately, she does not excel at any of those roles.
The lack of mitigation on her provoke means that she'll typically die to harder-hitting bosses unless she is extremely well geared, and even that may not be enough.
Her ST breaks provide a dispel and are serviceable at best, but due to the low turn duration on her provoke skills she won't have that many turns to use them. Clever Smile has special mention here as it breaks both offensive stats while also having a provoke attached to it, rendering most of her other breaks null.
Note that the dispel attached to her single-stat breaks will dispel other breaks, which typically means that they're a very bad idea unless you have another unit to reapply an ATK/MAG break.

Elza

Solo damage dealer/breaker.
Prior to ability awakenings, she's extremely weak. Even with her awakenings, though, her damage is relatively unimpressive.
Has good DEF/SPR breaks, but they are probably not worth the cost to awaken them.

Emilia

Weak physical chainer with innate dual wield for daggers.
Her modifiers are low, but she can chain with Onion Knight's Splendors or Onion Slice abilities. Unfortunately, this attack is locked behind a setup move.

Emperor

Solo fire magical damage dealer who takes many turns to get going, but deals very high damage once he gets there.
Fire From Below increases in damage with each use up to a cap, reaching its maximum potential after nine uses.
Control is a massive MAG buff and SPR break, but also reduces the SPR of your own units, which may get them killed if you don't have a way to deal with it.

Emperor Shera

Competent fire physical chainer.
Has AoE break resistance and a decent DEF/SPR buff with attached fire resistance.
Finding friends to chain with will be extremely difficult.

Estark

Excellent physical chainer with innate wield.
Can chain with Orlandu's Divine Ruination, and similar attacks.
Has a 60% ATK break.

Eve

Like his brother Adam, Eve has various skills that help him to survive damage, but nothing that lets him actually protect his party.
He's awful. Don't use him.
Those abs, though.

Exdeath

Weak mage with bad skills, terrible gear selection, and poor base stats.

Explorer Aileen

Great physical chainer. She's best off using earth weapons so that she can elemental chain with regular Aileen and take advantage of her imperil. Unless you have TDH gear, give her dual wield, rather than using her innate doublehand.
She's a walking chainer, which means that her chains may break on some enemies depending on where the game has them positioned.
Has excellent utility in the form of a 50% ATK/MAG break.
Can chain with Aileen, Camille, and Lara Croft.

Fayt

Mediocre physical chainer with great elemental flexibility.
He can imbue himself with several different elements, and imperils every element with his LB.
However, his chains always break, which severely hampers his damage output.
Can also function as a competent solo damage dealer with Blade of Fury.

Fidel

Subpar physical chainer.
Only really notable for chaining with Fayt, but the chains will always break.

Fina

For a starting healer she is quite serviceable with Curaga, Raise and Superior Healing (which can cleanse most ailments). She can provide additional utility with Entrust.
She can equip her exclusive equipment which provide decent stats, but more importantly a steady source of MP regeneration.
Her enhancements aren't particularly necessary, and it may be better not to spend the crysts and gil on such minor upgrades.
As you begin to move into endgame content, she falls off in effectiveness, and you'll want to look for other, better healers.

Firion

Dated solo physical damage dealer.
Without his ability awakenings, his damage is awful.
With them, it's something approaching usable against the enemy types he has killer passives for, but is still not great.

Fohlen

Mid-tier physical wind chainer.
Gets Mirage (physical evasion) as a bonus from his chaining move.
Finding chaining partners will be difficult.
Can reduce encounter rate in exploration missions.

Fryevia

Hybrid ice chainer able to reach high MAG and deal excellent damage.
Despite her innate Doublehand effect, she's better off being built for dual wield with an emphasis on the MAG stat.
Her frames change with her enhancements. With Frost Flower Blitz +2, she chains perfectly with Orlandeau and the rest of the DR family.
Is locked into dealing ice damage, which can cause problems against ice immune bosses.

Gaffgarion

Without ability awakenings, he is a poor dark attacker with suicidal skills. Do not use.
His ability awakenings increase his damage somewhat, but not by enough to make him worthwhile.

Garland

Awful damage dealer both before and after his ability awakenings.

Garnet

Prior to enhancements, she's an average healer/summoner combo. She has access to the basic Curaga and Raise. She does extra damage when evoking espers, which can help to one-shot bosses from certain thresholds when used to cap a chain.
Prayer to the Eidolons and her LB (coupled with her innate High Tide) allow her to build the esper gauge quickly (and without your units needing to attack).
After enhancements her Raise turns into a Full-Life (essentially) and her Curaga receives a slight boost in effectiveness. Her summoning damage is also boosted considerably.

Gilbert

Weak support unit.
Has terrible stat buffs and a bit of AoE MP regen.

Gilgamesh

Without ability awakenings, he is a poor physical chainer.
His ability awakenings significantly improve his ATK and damage, but his damage is still subpar at best.
Finding chaining partners will be nigh-impossible.

Gladiolus

Gladiolus is a physical cover tank.
Unfortunately, he has no utility, and the 3* and 4* physical cover tanks are usually a better option.
He does have some damaging moves, but if you gear him for ATK, he has trouble surviving, and if you gear him for survivability, his damage will be awful.

Glauca

Weak dark/light physical chainer.
Daybreak Darkness can chain imperfectly with Knight Delita.

Goken

Subpar physical chainer.
However, he is one of the very few physical units that can AoE chain.
Several of his skills allow him to chain with other units-- for instance, Falcon Kick can chain with Sephiroth's Octaslash. However, these skills require you to take time to unlock them for a single use, and this makes him a poor chaining partner.

Grace

Prior to her ability awakenings, she is a literal suicide bomber who can blow herself up to deal mediocre damage.
With her ability awakenings, she can instead use Destroy Arm to deal similar damage without dying.
However, her low stats means that she's still fairly weak.

Grim Lord Sakura

Good magical chainer requiring her own TMR to optimize MAG and HP. Can use either nonelemental abilities or a dark/fire mix.
Has some good utility. AoE break immunity, several elemental resist buffs, a DEF/SPR buff, single-target reraise, and a handful of AoE ailment immunities.
She burns through quite a bit of MP, and may have trouble on longer turns. She has the ability to kill your own party members to restore her MP, but that's quite a downside.

Grinfield

Extremely weak physical/hybrid chainer.

Hayate

Very poor solo hybrid damage dealer, both before and after his ability awakenings. Do not use.
Can reduce encounter rate in exploration missions.

Heavenly Technician Lid

Powerful support unit with the best breaks in the game.
Arms Dissolver, Magic Absorb, and Attack Absorb will drastically reduce enemy damage. Her limit burst is even stronger, cutting enemy damage by 91%.
She can also provide AoE MP regen and (somewhat unreliable) 30% mitigation.

Helena

Physical solo damage dealer with poor stats and even worse modifiers.
Has innate dual wield, but only for guns, daggers, whips, and throwing weapons-- none of which have high ATK in the first place.

Heltich

Subpar magical chainer or awful solo damage dealer.
Liberation is likely to get him killed, so don't use it.

Hyoh

Strong fire/lightning physical chainer.
His damage will skyrocket if you have access to True Doublehand gear, putting him on par with some 7* units. Without that gear, though, dual wield may be preferable-- it does very slightly less damage, but cuts his MP consumption in half.

Ignis

Good buffer who requires setup turns.
His clunky rotation can be a serious problem on many fights, especially if units are dying, but if you can work around it, he gets the job done.
Consider using Cradle of Horns for buffing on turn 1 before his buffs are set up.
Can imbue allies with certain elements.

Ilias

Support unit that covers several uncommon niches.
Capable of using any item (most notably Elixir) on the whole party.
Can make allies fully immune to ailments via Immunization, provide break immunity, restore MP, cure ailments, and buff DEF/SPR.
However, most of his skills must be unlocked by using another skill first, and many of them only last for one turn.

Illusionist Nichol

Unique support unit able to turn any ally into an AoE physical cover tank.
Can break ATK/MAG by 45%.
He works best with provoke tanks and particularly durable non-tank units, such as Zargabaath.
He can dualcast most of his abilities.
His LB grants AOE mirage, as well as HP and MP regen over 3 turns.

Iris

Decent ability-based healer.
Her actual skills are pretty good, but she periodically has to spend a turn to unlock the ability to dualcast them, and taking a turn off from healing can get your units killed.
MP costs are quite high, causing her to run dry very quickly.
Can restore the MP of allies.

Jiraiya

Mediocre hybrid fire/lightning hybrid chainer.
Finding chaining partners will be nigh-impossible.

Joachim

Great buffer who relies heavily on his LB.
Once it's up, he provides 124% DEF/SPR, 30% mitigation, and HP/MP regen.
His non-LB skills are a lot less useful.
Consider giving him Cradle of Horns for turn 1 buffing. Items that help him to fill his LB more quickly are also a good choice.

Kaede

Subpar physical chainer.
Has a slight amount of utility. Minor ATK/MAG buff and very minor LB fill rate buff.

Kaliva

Prior to his ability awakenings, he is basically unusable.
With his ability awakenings, his damage is still unimpressive. His healer skills are even worse.
Has a good water/ice imperil.

Kefka

Mage with very low damage.
Can escape from battles, so that you can go replace him with a better unit.

Kelsus

Very weak delayed physical chainer.
Has innate dual wield for fists only.

Killian

Physical fire solo damage dealer with poor output.
Relies on unlocking the ability to quadruple-cast his abilities, but his modifiers are low enough that his damage is still unimpressive.

King

Absolutely awful solo physical damage dealer who focuses on using his basic attack.
Output is very, very low and his attacks take forever.
Has innate dual wield for guns only.

Knight Delita

Without ability awakenings, a mediocre damage dealer. With them, he's an excellent physical lightning chainer.
His limit burst is one of the strongest ATK/MAG breaks in the game and will drastically reduce the damage of bosses who are not immune to it. He also has a much weaker on-demand break for those two stats.
He gets a massive amount of %ATK from his passives post-enhancements, which makes him quite strong even with minimal gear.
Is locked into dealing lightning damage.

Kryla

Solid support unit with 50% breaks and imperils.
She can dualcast almost all of her abilities.
Can AoE dispel all allies and enemies, and deal fixed damage.

Kuja

Subpar magic lightning solo damage dealer. Requires his ability awakenings.
Can buff lightning resistance for the party by 100%.

Kunshira

Mediocre hybrid chainer with lots of elemental flexibility.
Has innate dual wield for swords and rods.
Can buff various elemental resistances.
Finding friends to chain with will be nearly impossible.

Kupipi

Mid-tier healer with innate dualcast.
Can buff DEF/SPR by 109% via her LB.

Kupolkan

Weak support unit that can buff elemental resistances.

Lara Croft

Physical chainer with low modifiers.
Can chain with enhanced Aileen and Explorer Aileen, making her a decent budget partner.
Has innate dual wield for daggers, whips, throwing weapons, and guns.

Lasswell

Extremely weak physical damage dealer.
Do not use.

Lexa

Solid magic wind chainer with Tornado and Aeroja.
Has innate dualcast.

Libertus

Competent physical cover tank who typically requires a setup turn.
His cover is extremely weak unless you use his provoke the turn before.
Can AoE buff mitigation by 30%.

Lightning

Terrible physical damage dealer, both before and after her ability awakenings.
Do not use.

Lila

Physical damage dealer with unusual mechanics.
Her strongest skills scale off of SPR rather than ATK, and she should be built accordingly.
Can imbue and imperil several different elements, and triplecast her abilities after a setup move.
Has a decent AoE chaining move.

Lilith

Good physical/magic cover tank.
She's better at covering magic than physical, due to her lower DEF.
Can grant AoE break immunity and chain with the Kingsglaive family.

Ling

Excellent support unit with a versatile kit.
Can break ATK/MAG (45%), restore MP to allies, cure ailments, raise dead allies, and use Entrust.
With her ability awakenings, she also gains the ability to buff mitigation and elemental resists after setup.

Livid Shantotto

Weak magic solo damage dealer and an even worse chainer.
Her chaining moves all cost LB crystals, which she can't generate without using them in the first place, and her stacking abilities are lackluster.
Her HP is alarmingly low, sitting at around 3k in BiS gear, which means that she dies to almost anything that hits her.

Loren

Physical lightning/wind chainer with innate dual-wield and good utility, but mediocre damage.
Her strongest attacks are locked behind a setup.
Can break ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR by 45%. Her ability awakenings increase this to 50%.
Finding chaining partners will be difficult.

Lotus Mage Fina

Excellent healer with access to Curaja, Esunaga, Full Life, and Dispelga, allowing her to handle all of the standard healing duties. She is also one of the few units with Reraise, which can be dualcast alongside her other spells.
Also has great utility. She can restore the party's MP, provide AoE reraise with her limit burst, and buff all elemental resists.
Has some very limited damage potential which she could use on turns when you don't need as much healing, although this is typically not significant or worthwhile.

Lucius

Mediocre physical chainer.
Chains with the Kingsglaive and Octaslash families.
Has innate dual wield.

Luka

Competent ability-based healer. Requires ability awakenings to be worth using.
Has a powerful 20-turn heal over time effect, and can heal and cure ailments at the same time.

Lulu

Competent AoE magic water/lightning chainer.
Has innate dualcast.
Her damage is heavily reliant on her counter imperil proccing, which makes her inconsistent.
Finding chaining partners will be very difficult.

Lunera

Requires her ability awakenings.
Elven Song turns her into a good support unit, capable of providing powerful stat buffs and massive HP/MP recovery.
She also has a few offensive skills, including a chaining move, but their damage is very low.

Luneth

Mediocre solo physical damage dealer.
Requires ability awakenings to deal decent damage.

Macmedi

Very weak physical chainer with some minor support capabilities.
Can grant immunity to ailments and has a 45% full break.
Has an attack with Onion Slice frames, but it's a walking chain, so it will break with dual wield.

Malphasie

Extremely powerful dark or wind hybrid chainer with powerful counter breaks.
Can chain with the Divine Ruination family and the Tornado family.
Has a chance to counter attacks with a 60% ATK/MAG break, drastically reducing enemy damage output.

Marie

Specialized support unit that excels at her niche.
Has innate dual cast.
Can provide powerful elemental resistance buffs.
With ability awakenings, can grant ailment immunity and AoE healing.

Mario Frigo

Subpar physical chainer.
His primary attack has the same frames as Divine Ruination, giving him several possible chaining partners.
Can break ATK by 45% and buff LB fill rate by 100%.
In the absence of TDH TMs, he should be built for dual wield, not Doublehand.

Maritime Strategist Nichol

Extremely powerful support unit with access to a wide range of potent abilities.
Can massively buff all stats, regenerate HP/MP for the party, provide mitigation, buff elemental resistances, and cure breaks. Almost all of his abilities can be dualcast via Linked Stance.
Burns through a lot of MP, so try to give him gear that will help to sustain his usage.

Marquis de Léon

Terrible damage dealer.
Do not use.

Maxwell

Very weak physical damage dealer.
Can hypothetically form long chains with her LB, but finding a chaining partner will be absolutely impossible.
Can apply a self-reraise effect.

Mediena

Powerful ice AoE magic chainer.
Has significant ramp-up time and no utility to speak of, but once she gets going, her damage output is absurd.

Medius

Extremely weak physical chainer with a death wish.
His damage is terrible, and his innate Draw Attacks will frequently get him killed.
Do not use.

Meliadoul

Mediocre support unit who becomes significantly better after her ability awakenings.
Has slightly subpar breaks (40%) and can provide single-target reraise.
Her ability awakenings bring her breaks up to 50%, which is a significant upgrade. She still doesn't have a ton of versatility, however.

Mercedes

Very weak water physical solo damage dealer.
Has a large water imperil.

Mercenary Ramza

Prior to ability awakenings, he is a terrible excuse for a damage dealer.
With his ability awakenings, he becomes an extremely powerful provoke tank with immunity to all ailments and excellent utility.
He can break ATK and MAG by 45% with Blade of Justice, which then unlocks even stronger 60% breaks.

Minfilia

Support unit that can buff any elemental resistance and provide decent stat buffs.
Also has access to AoE immunity buffs for Stop and certain ailments.

Miyuki

Hybrid chainer with poor equipment selection and very, very weak damage output.
Has innate dual wield for katanas, daggers, and throwing weapons.
Do not use.

Moogle

With ability awakenings, Mog Barrage +2 can chain perfectly with Tidus. Also, he can imbue his attacks with almost any element.
Can provide AoE stop immunity.
Unfortunately, his stats are low and Camille is a better and more accessible budget partner for Tidus.

Mystea

Magic cover tank with excellent utility.
Has limited equipment selection and mediocre base stats, which can leave her a bit squishy.
Can provide AoE resistance to ailments and stop, as well as 42% mitigation.

Nalu

Physical lightning chainer with good damage output.
Has QH frames, allowing her to chain with Tidus and other units in that chaining family.
Is best built using true doublehand effects such as her own TM, even if that is your only source of TDH.

Nameless Gunner Jake

Weak physical chainer with elemental flexibility.
His strongest moves require an unlock and their damage is subpar even then.
Has 45% breaks.

Nine

Terrible solo physical damage dealer.
Do not use.

Noctis

He can do a lot of different things, but isn't very good at most of them.
His damage is third-rate at best, his breaks are split the wrong way, and there are better options for buffers and evasion tanks.
He sees the most use as an alternative to Soleil, providing stat buffs via his LB. Unfortunately, this requires enhancements, at least a turn of ramp-up, and maxing his LB.
Most suited for arena.

Nyalu

Weak support unit/healer.
Has AoE heals and 40% ATK/MAG breaks.

Nyx

Decent fire physical chainer who is hampered by his limited equipment selection.
Has 45% dual-stat breaks, but they're split the wrong way and are thus largely pointless. These become 50% breaks with his ability awakenings.
Innate dual wield.
His ability awakenings increase his damage significantly, but his damage is still lackluster compared to the competition.

Ohga

Terrible provoke tank.
Has a lot of counters which might be halfway decent if he didn't die so easily.

Olif

Solid support unit.
Can buff elemental resistances, mitigation, and provide MP regen.
Also has some weak stat buffs and killer buffs.

Olive

Physical lightning solo damage dealer with high output.
Has a powerful lightning imperil and DEF break.

Onion Knight

Excellent physical chainer with elemental flexibility.
Innate dual wield.
Onion Cutter, unlocked via equipping his TM, is his strongest skill.
Has an extremely powerful DEF break (74%) attached to his LB.
His ability awakenings significantly increase his damage and allow him to imperil and imbue four different elements.

Orlandeau

Excellent light physical chainer.
Ability awakenings increase his damage significantly and give him a 45% ATK/MAG break.
His primary chaining move, Divine Ruination, makes him a compatible chainer with many other units including Fryevia and Sephiroth.

Orochi

Mediocre physical solo damage dealer.
With ability awakenings, can AoE chain with C-C-Cold Breath.

Orran

Mediocre and very niche support unit.
Can slightly buff all elemental resists, restore a bit of MP to allies, and buff certain stats.

Ozetta

Solid provoke tank with built-in mitigation.
Powerful AoE mitigation on her LB.

Papalymo

Extremely weak magic damage dealer.
Do not use.

Pecciotta

Niche support unit that, when geared appropriately, can double as an evasion provoke tank.
Can break ATK and MAG by 45%, or by 40% in an AoE. Also has ST charm attached to the 45% break, although most bosses are immune.
The combination of innate evasion and innate draw chance make him easier to gear as an evasion provoker than most units.
Has Barblizzaga.

Pirate Jake

Mediocre physical chainer.
Innate dual wield for guns and swords.
With dual wield, Feed the Fishes can chain with Doublehand Tidus, but doing so requires frame-perfect timing that can only be consistently achieved with a macro. Due to oddities in the way that chaining works, this will only work if Pirate Jake is in a party slot *after* Tidus, which means that you cannot use your own Pirate Jake to chain with a friend's Tidus.

Popoi

Very weak magical damage dealer.
Its ability awakenings give it some weak breaks (40%) that are split the wrong way.

Primm

Weak hybrid and magic damage dealer/healer.
Do not use.

Prishe

A decent physical chainer with some support skills, but she takes a few turns to build up combos to reach her strong damage skills, which limits her effectiveness.
Her LB can do decent damage while debuffing DEF/SPR (up to -64%).
Utility includes AoE MP regen, on-demand single-target reraise, and AoE reraise at the end of a three-turn combo.
With her ability awakenings, she gains the ability to continually use the final move of her damaging combo once it's unlocked, which allows her to deal incredibly high sustained damage, and she gains excellent elemental flexibility due to imperiling all elements. However, the ramp up time is still a significant downside, and she still lacks strong chaining partners.

Prompto

Mediocre physical chainer with excellent utility.
Can dualcast his abilities, but this causes him to burn through his MP very quickly.
Can AoE break ATK/MAG by 50%, imperil several different elements, break DEF by 45%, and raise allies.
If he is given TDH, his damage skyrockets.

Pure Summoner Rydia

Magic wind/earth chainer and summoner.
Damage output is mediocre at best, but she does have a few chaining partners, such as William and Barbariccia.
Her esper gauge skills aren't that impressive.

Pyro Glacial Lasswell

Easy to gear and has innate dual wield, but has lackluster damage output.
He doesn't chain, and he doesn't work well as a solo damage dealer, so he will sit on the bench for almost every endgame trial unless you're severely lacking in options.
His damage relies heavily on his limit burst, which takes a long time to fill.

Queen

Without ability awakenings, she is nigh unusable, as having to go under 3% HP is very risky, therefore do not use.
With her ability awakenings, she becomes a solid solo damage dealer with excellent AoE MP recovery.
Berserk also gives her massively increased DEF/SPR, making her hard to kill.

Raegen

Excellent fire/ice physical chainer with solid utility.
Has innate dual wield and powerful ATK passives, making him very easy to gear.
Can buff almost any elemental resistance by 50-70% and provide mediocre breaks.

Rain

Poor support unit with outdated skills.
Can break and buff various stats, but not by much.
Do not use.

Ramza

Is absolutely awful until you awaken his abilities, particularly Hero's Rhyme. Once you do, though...
Can provide powerful stat buffs and restore HP/MP to the entire party while singing, making him one of the best support units in the game.
He can also break the enemy's ATK and MAG by 60%, drastically reducing their damage, although these two breaks are on separate skills and he can't use them (or anything else) while singing.

Randi

Requires his ability awakenings to be good.
Solid physical wind chainer.
His best skills are locked behind a setup move.

Rasler

Prior to his ability awakenings, he's an awful cover tank with a very weak chaining move.
His ability awakenings make him into a viable and durable cover tank, although he lacks meaningful utility.
Can AoE buff light resistance.

Ravus

Weak physical chainer.
Can buff dark resistance by 70%.

Ray Jack

Physical light chainer with a habit of killing himself and party members.
Despite doing decent damage, his cover passive can interfere with your tanks and cause serious problems.
His ability awakenings improve his damage and reduce the cover chance, making him less of a danger, but he's still risky to use.

Reberta

Prior to her ability awakenings, she's a mediocre physical chainer.
After her ability awakenings, Death Crimson becomes a monstrously powerful attack that allows her to either partially chain with a copy for massive damage, or function as a potent solo damage dealer.
Mystic Thrust +2 also allows her to AoE chain. Note that the hit count changes with the enhancement, so she cannot chain with unenhanced Rebertas.

Refia

Decent healer with a very standard healer kit.

Reimi

Very weak physical chainer.
Do not use.

Rem

Good healer with innate Dualcast.
Can also deal decent damage with Dagger Boomerang, which will hit twice with dual wield.
Has innate dual wield for daggers.

Rena

Excellent healer and support unit.
Has massively powerful AoE heals, is immune to stop, and can cure stop/all ailments. Most of her abilities can also be dualcast.
On top of that, she can buff SPR and magic mitigation, and her LB provides massive buffs to all stats, along with HP and MP regeneration.
Unfortunately, unlike most healers, she cannot dispel enemies.

Rico Rodriguez

Competent physical chainer.
Innate dual wield.
Can AoE chain, and has Octaslash frames, giving him several chaining partners.
Has ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR breaks (45%).

Rinoa

Mediocre magic chainer or solo damage dealer with solid utility.
She has Tornado, but lacks Aeroja to cap her own chains, which limits her damage potential as a chainer. She can mix in her LB for some extra damage, but it's still not very impressive.
She can also function as a solo damage dealer by using either Apocalypse or Angelo Tackle. The damage on these is okay but not fantastic, and Apocalypse will burn through her MP very quickly.
She can AoE break ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR by 45%, and has Curaga, Full Life, and Aura.

Rikku

Niche support unit.
Can provide AoE reraise via her LB.
Can also buff mitigation by 30% and elemental resistances by 40%, but this is locked behind a setup turn.

Rosa

Solid healer with excellent AoE MP restoration.
Can cure breaks.

Roselia

Solid healer with innate triplecast.
Can restore MP to allies.

Roy

Excellent support unit with powerful buffs and AoE HP/MP recovery.
After several turns of setup, also provides a 45% full break.

Rubicante

Mediocre solo fire magic damage dealer.
Has innate dualcast.
Niche magic damage counters.

Ruggles

Very weak physical chainer.
Can buff earth resistance by 70%.

Ryumynui

Good support unit with decent buffs.
Unfortunately, her best skill is locked behind a setup turn, so there will be gaps in her buff coverage.
Also provides HP/MP regen and an LB fill rate while providing stat buffs.

Sandee

Very weak healer/support unit.
Can grant AoE break immunity and ailment immunity for one turn.

Santa Roselia

Competent healer with a pretty standard kit.
Does not have Raise.
May counter enemy hits with heals.

Seabreeze Dark Fina

Very weak magic damage dealer both before and after her ability awakenings.
Has a 45% AoE full break.

Seaside Nichol

Excellent support unit focusing exclusively on defensive buffs.
Can provide significant DEF/SPR buffs, all three types of mitigation, and some minor barriers.
Unfortunately, his physical/magical mitigation buffs cannot be dualcast, which means he cannot provide much in the way of HP/MP restoration while maintaining those.

Sephiroth

Powerful dark/light physical chainer with many chaining partners.
The Heavens Wept is from the Divine Ruination chaining family, Aeolian Onslaught chains with Onion Slice, and Octaslash chains with Circular Saw.
Is very durable for a damage dealer, and, in a pinch, he can help sustain his own HP/MP with Reunion.
Has a massive 100% light/dark imperil on his LB.

Setzer

Very weak physical chainer.
Has abilities that deal fixed (non-scaling damage), which can be useful for cheesing enemies with very high DEF/SPR.

Seven

Support unit who, with her ability awakenings, can imperil fire, ice, and lightning by 70%, but doesn't bring anything else of value to the table.

Seymour

Weak and terrible solo magic damage dealer.
Has a couple of EVO MAG passives which increase summon damage, but has no way to efficiently fill the esper gauge.

Shadow Lord

Dark damage dealer who burns through his own HP.
His damage is mid-tier, but the fact that he tends to kill himself is a significant problem.

Shatal

Solid provoke tank with built-in mitigation.
Powerful AoE mitigation and break resistance on his LB.

Shine

Weak dark physical damage dealer with poor stats and a terrible equipment selection.
Do not use.

Shinju

Mediocre earth physical chainer.
Her ATK and equipment selection are very limited, but she has Piledriver frames, making her compatible with the Aileen chaining family.
Can buff the DEF/SPR of allies (but not herself) by 80%.

Shylt

Magic cover tank with excellent utility.
Has limited equipment selection and mediocre base stats, which can leave him a bit squishy.
Can provide AoE resistance to breaks and stop, as well as 42% mitigation.

Silvia

Support unit that can provide a wide variety of elemental resistance buffs, as well as AoE immunity to breaks and Stop.
Her skills do very little damage, so it's not worth focusing on her offensive stats.

Snow

Snow serves as an object lesson in how there's more to being a provoke tank than just making the boss attack you-- you have to be able to survive.
Has terrible defensive stats and poor equipment selection. Also, he doesn't have mitigation, which leads to him taking a dirt nap if he tries to tank harder bosses.
Has a decent counter chance, so if he somehow survives the onslaught (spoiler: he won't), he'll generate some LB and esper crystals for your party.

Soleil

Without her ability awakenings, Soleil is basically useless.
With them, she becomes a solid buffer, with high stat boosts to the entire team, along with some weak breaks.
However, she is locked into a constant rotation and does nothing else, which may not be worth a unit slot on harder encounters.

Sozhe

His kit is a weird and terrible mix of bad damage skills and even worse tanking skills.
Do not use.

Sportive Ariana

Terrible provoke tank with bad stats and worse skills.
Can provide AoE mitigation.

Squall

Decent physical chainer with elemental flexibility.
His modifiers are very low, but his LB is powerful. Sadly, it does not chain perfectly.
Even if you do not have TDH, he should be given a two-handed weapon, because the bulk of his damage comes from his LB.

Steiner

Very weak physical damage dealer.
Do not use.

Terra

Weak magic chainer and even weaker healer, even with her ability awakenings.
Chaos Wave deals okay damage, but has to be unlocked by using another ability.

Tidus

Prior to ability awakenings, Tidus is a solid physical water chainer with decent damage modifiers, a strong imperil, and some utility (MP Refresh, Entrust).
His ability awakenings boost his damage into the stratosphere, leaving him as one of the strongest physical damage dealers in the game.
His water imperil is attached to his LB, but his innate High Tide effect means that it only takes a turn or two to charge up.

Tilith

Powerful ability-based healer with a versatile kit.
Can heal all party members to full, or revive all dead allies, but not at the same time.
Goddess's Miracle heals and recovers most status ailments (all allies) in one skill.
Can also buff elemental resistances, grant break immunity, and restore MP.

Tinkerer Carrie

Subpar physical chainer with weak stats and poor equipment selection.
Can partially chain with A2's Offensive Heal Combo.

Trance Terra

Needs ability awakenings to be good.
Deals absurdly high AoE magic damage by dualcasting Chaos Wave - Awakened.
Must spend the first turn using Magical Activation, and needs to use it again once every five turns.

Überkilling Machine

Weak physical chainer with innate dual wield.
Can chain with Onion Slice and similar attacks.

Ukiyo

Competent light/dark/nonelemental magic chainer.
Has some decent utility-- mitigation and light/dark resistance buffs.

Ulrica

Awful physical damage dealer heavily based around counters.
Her stats are garbage, and if she's getting hit enough to deal decent damage, she's probably going to die anyways.

Václav Koller

Weak physical chainer who can temporarily unlock a move with Octaslash frames.

Vaan

Subpar physical chainer with a bit of utility.
Can provide AoE stop immunity.

Vagrant Knight Rain

Solid provoke tank with decent utility.
Has 40% breaks and 60% stat buffs, which are unimpressive but usable.
Has increased LB fill rate and Entrust.

Vargas

Weak fire physical solo damage dealer.

Vayne

Subpar support unit.
Can provide single-target physical or magical mitigation and break resistance to the corresponding stat.
Can buff light/dark resistance and increase LB fill rate.

Veritas of the Dark

Competent dark chainer with some additional utility.
Dark Punishment can chain with Orlandeau's Divine Ruination and other similar moves.
Has an AoE 45% full break and AoE dark resistance.
With his ability awakenings, his damage increases significantly, making him an excellent chainer.

Veritas of the Earth

Physical cover tank with some good utility.
Has powerful AoE mitigation on his LB, AoE earth resistance, and 20% AoE mitigation.
His survivability is on the low end for physical cover tanks, so survival may be a problem when going up against harder hitting bosses.
He *can* provoke but usually shouldn't, since it lacks mitigation and will probably get him killed.
With ability awakenings, his survivability is drastically improved and his provoke gains mitigation, allowing him to serve as both a physical cover tank and a provoke tank at the same time, making him into a very powerful tank.

Veritas of the Flame

A subpar solo damage dealer who can use a wide variety of elements.
His strongest move is only usable at random as a counter unlock, and his other attacks are quite weak.
He learns 4 "Axe" skills that can lower resistance (-50%) to fire, wind, earth or dark. Fire is preferred, since he can also lower fire resistance (-100%) via counter.
His ability awakenings increase his damage, but not by enough to make him particularly relevant.

Veritas of the Heavens

Physical wind damage dealer that totally blows.
Puns aside, he's not good. He has a halfway decent chaining move, a good wind imperil on his LB, and absorbs wind damage. Sadly, that's not enough to make him a worthwhile unit.
His ability awakenings focus on his terrible jump attacks and do not making him any less niche.

Veritas of the Light

Solid hybrid light chainer, but unfortunately suffers from being restricted to a single element, one that tends to be resisted quite often.
Her stats and modifiers are a bit on the low side, which means she falls short of doing top tier damage.
Has innate dualwield (guns, throwing weapons) as well as a light imperil to boost her own damage. Her LB has special mention as it is an extremely powerful DEF/SPR break, nearly quadrupling her damage output.
One of the very few AoE chainers in the game.
Her ability awakenings improve her damage output by quite a bit, making her one of the strongest AoE damage dealers in the game. Unfortunately, she is still locked into dealing light damage and has no other chaining partners.

Veritas of the Water

A serviceable healer with access to Curaga, Raise and Esunaga. While she does have an innate dualcast this is locked behind using a particular skill, meaning it will not be available turn 1. Also worth mentioning is an unlockable AoE full break in the same vein as Dualcast.
She's better off using an external source of Dualcast rather than wasting turns to temporarily unlock it.
Her ability awakenings make her Dualcast unlock last for 20 turns and give her some largely irrelevant utility, which makes her a decent budget option for brand new players, but she falls of quickly later on and probably isn't worth the investment.

Verun

Mediocre support unit with powerful AoE stat buffs from his limit burst.
He also has a few imperils and breaks, and the ability to grant killer effects to allies.
Very similar to Soleil, albeit with a bit of ramp-up time before he can get his stat buffs going. Once he does, though, he's arguably stronger.

Victoria

Victoria can be used in one of two ways-- either as a solo damage dealer by dualcasting Firaja, or by chaining with another Victoria using Overflow.
Her damage isn't top tier, but it's solid enough that you can make good use of her if you lack better units.

Viktor Marchenko

Passable provoke tank with self-sustain.
Can buff himself with immunity to ailments, charm, stop, and breaks.
Can cap chains with a DEF-scaling attack.

Vivi

Alarmingly terrible magic damage dealer. His moves run the gamut between "extremely weak" and "fairly weak but kill your entire team".
His ability awakenings get rid of the team-killing downside, but even then, his damage is awful.

Wadow

Weak earth hybrid chainer with a bit of utility.
Can buff earth/light resistance and provide 20% mitigation.
Earthsplit Evasion 2 allows him to chain with the Octaslash family, but the timing is tricky and likely requires a macro.

Wakka

Very weak physical solo damage dealer.
His strongest attack uses random elements, which is a serious downside, especially if the boss has resistances.
Can buff water resistance by 50%.

Warrior of Light

Excellent physical cover tank with solid utility.
Can break ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR by 45%.

Werei

Terrible earth physical solo damage dealer.
Can buff earth resistance by 50%.
His ability awakenings don't make him any more usable.

White Knight Noel

Noel is the most durable provoke tank in the game by a wide margin. Ignore the magic damage aspects of his kit and focus on his survivability-- he will pull all single-target attacks to himself and simply refuses to die no matter what happens.
His unique mitigation stacks with "universal" mitigation (e.g. Rikku's Hyper NulAll)
Damage spells and counters are negligible in boss fights, although his ability to imperil can occasionally be relevant.

White Witch Fina

Competent healer that can restore significant MP to allies.
Lacks Curaga, but her high SPR lets her make do with Cura instead.

Wilhelm

Excellent and durable provoke tank with good utility.
His limit burst provides 54% mitigation to the team for one turn.
Can significantly buff DEF/SPR, boost LB fill rate, and provide more minor ATK/MAG buffs.

William

Decent earth magical chainer with a bit of utility on the side.
Can buff DEF and SPR by 110% (with separate skills), but this comes at the cost of breaking the corresponding offensive stat (ATK and MAG) by 50%.

Xiao

Prior to her ability awakenings, she's an absolutely awful physical damage dealer.
With her ability awakenings, she's an absolutely awful provoke tank.

Xon

Useful for farming and not much else.
Can steal from all enemies at once.
Can copy stat buffs from enemies onto allies. With ability awakenings, this skill also provides break immunity.
Improves drop rates of rare items.

Y'shtola

Competent healer with innate dualcast.
Has a little bit of utility-- 54% AoE mitigation on her LB, as well as a few other largely irrelevant skills.

Yan

Excellent and versatile support unit.
Can provide AoE break resistance, MP recovery, healing, 30% mitigation, and LB fill rate.
Her LB applies AoE reraise and 64% resistance to all elements.

Yang

Subpar physical chainer with W-Ability.
Unfortunately, the lack of TDH options outside of 5* TMs limits his damage severely.

Yda

Very weak physical damage dealer.
Her strongest skills are locked behind a long combo sequence, and even then they aren't very good.

Yun

Prior to his ability awakenings, he is a subpar fire physical chainer.
With his ability awakenings, his damage skyrockets, putting him near the top tier of chainers, and he gains innate dual wield.

Yuna

Excellent healer with some elemental resistance buffs.
One of the few units in the game that can dualcast Reraise.
Also has a few summoner skills, including the ability to partially fill up the esper gauge.
Can significantly buff the DEF/SPR of all allies via her LB.

Yuri

Extremely weak hybrid chainer.
Can chain with Prompto, Reberta, and Sephiroth.

Zargabaath

Excellent and versatile support unit with a diverse set of skills. Stat buffs, mitigation, single-target HP/MP recovery, elemental resistances, and AoE immunity to certain ailments.
His MP restoration is massive but single-target, so sustaining the entire party may be rough as he has to rotate through each ally.
He burns through quite a bit of MP. He can self-cast Rejuvenate to keep himself going, but if you gear him for MP regen, it helps to free up his actions to do other things.
With his ability awakenings, he can also provide single-target reraise with Rejuvenate. They also significantly improve his stat and mitigation buffs.

Zell

Terrible physical chainer with equally terrible utility.
His strongest moves are locked behind 3 turn setups, but they're much too weak to be worth the time.
He has a 60% full break, but it only lasts for two turns and he can only use it after three turns spent unlocking it, which means it's basically useless.

Zidane

Serviceable entry-level physical chainer.
You'll want to replace him with someone better as soon as possible.

Zile

Terrible solo physical damage dealer.
His modifiers are all garbage, aside from moves that are locked behind setup moves. Said attacks either have a chance to fail or to hit your own units.

Zyrus

Weak solo magic damage dealer, both before and after his ability awakenings.
Relies heavily on his LB to unlock W-Ability, but cannot fill it up efficiently and cannot sustain the MP use of dualcasting Blood Pulsar.

Unit Summaries (7★ Units)

Ace

Decent support unit with a bit of bonus offensive potential.
Unfortunately, his buffs are random, but even the worst case is still decent.
He can also cap chains with his LB and imperil fire/lightning/light by 75%.