Update 1 reshuffled the top of Anime Origins. Seven units arrived on September 5, 2026 — Rainu Harto (Sword Saint), Shali (Hellsnipe), Emmy (Spirit Arts), Sobaru & Beti (Forbidden Library), Jolius (Spirit Knight), Prisla (Sun Princess), and Kenshen (Battosai) — and two of them walked straight into the overall meta conversation. Everything below ranks the units that are worth your Gems, evolution materials, and trait rerolls, not the ones you delete after wave 10.
Quick answer: Build Madaro (Edo Tensei), Cursed Lover (Pure Love), or Valcrad (Unleashed) as your first real carry, add Bon (Purgatory) for buffs and Goju (Honored One) for crowd control, and roll Immortal or Overseer on the carry and Hustler on Bluma (Data Analyst).
Anime Origins Update 1 unit tier list
Rankings weigh sustained damage, role coverage (ground versus hill versus hybrid), how much a unit lifts the rest of the team, and how reliably you can actually obtain it. This list reflects the Update 1 build.
| Tier | Units |
|---|---|
| S — meta | Madaro (Edo Tensei), Cursed Lover (Pure Love), Valcrad (Unleashed), Rainu Harto (Sword Saint), Sobaru & Beti (Forbidden Library), Aneko (Queen), Bon (Purgatory), Goju (Honored One), Tango (Star of Festivals), Bluma (Data Analyst) |
| A — excellent | Igritto (Commander), Starku (Primordial), Tojei (Sorcerer Killer), Noroto (Linked), Sosuke (Eternal), Vegita (Super), Goki (Super 3), Konpatchi (Unleashed), Shinoru (Butterfly Dance), Melio (Assault), Mykie (Toman), Roxi (Mage), Yoto (Calamity) |
| B — situational | Gyutari (Upper Moon), Itsugo (Dangai), Zeldo (Piety), Itsoda, Leorio |
| C — early game only | Tranko, Choto, Rose, Semanu, Toki, Kingo, Neli, Hido, Kengako, Kashi, Noriba, Shanji, Itsumaru, Bolthunder, Meywa, Tango (Epic) |
Why the S tier looks like this
Madaro is still the least risky slot in the game. Heaven’s Pressure keeps repeating area damage on marked enemies, Sosano Time carries his scaling into long runs, and Heaven Splitter is a 500% damage slash that reaches up to three times his normal range. He also resists crowd control and covers both ground and air, which is why he almost never gets benched.
Cursed Lover works differently. He stores up to four copied Active Abilities with their original effects and cooldowns, so his ceiling is set by the rest of your roster rather than his own numbers. Lingering Queen’s Heads and a five-hit Love Beam totaling 300% damage keep him relevant even on a thin account. Valcrad is the boss answer instead — built-in crit, permanent range growth off crits, bleed synergy, summons, and a Coffin Trap that stuns each boss once for seven seconds.
Bon and Tango both come out of Raids, which makes them the best free-to-play power spike available. Bon is a hybrid that buffs a carry with food effects, chips in real damage, and adds income on top. Tango pairs long-duration stuns with Brittle, so he raises team damage while holding a wave in place.
Update 1’s own contributions land high. Rainu Harto and Sobaru & Beti both sit in the overall meta bracket, and Sobaru & Beti double as one of the stronger hill options — useful, because hill and hybrid coverage is the thing that actually walls ground-only teams during flying waves. Goju rounds out the top with Infinity for self-defense plus a slow and time-stop package that buys damage windows in Raids and Infinite.
Note: Sosuke has been power crept. He was a launch-window S-tier ground unit and he still works, but newer ground damage has passed him, so treat him as a strong stopgap rather than a long-term investment target.
Best units by role
| Role | Top pick | Solid alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Hybrid (air + ground) | Madaro (Edo Tensei) | Bon (Purgatory) |
| Ground damage | Cursed Lover, Valcrad, Tango | Igritto, Tojei, Starku |
| Hill | Aneko (Queen), Sobaru & Beti | Vegita (Super), Roxi (Mage), Itsoda |
| Crowd control | Goju (Honored One) | Melio (Assault), Aneko |
| Buffs and support | Bon (Purgatory) | Shinoru, Mykie (Toman) |
| Farm | Bluma (Data Analyst) | Leorio, Bon as an off-farm |
Madaro and Bon are the only hybrid units in the game right now, so if you have neither, every loadout needs a dedicated hill unit. On the economy side, Bluma builds Training Data from allied kills inside her range and hits +30% Income at 380 Data, which is why she pays off most in Infinite and other long modes. Leorio is the cheap Epic stand-in until then.
If you are deciding where to spend summons, chase one carry to completion before spreading resources. A single fully upgraded S-tier unit clears more content than three half-built A-tier ones.
Traits tier list and what each one does
Immortal and Overseer sit above everything else, and the gap is not close. Immortal is limited to one unit per team, so it belongs on your single best carry and nowhere else. Trait Reset is sold in the Gold Shop if you need to reroll.
| Trait | Tier | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Immortal | S+ | +200% Damage, -15% Cooldown, +20% Range, +25% Income; once per match after Wave 10 it restores base power, instantly kills nearby non-boss enemies, and knocks back or slows the rest. Limit of one per team. |
| Overseer | S+ | +20% Damage, -5% Cooldown, +10% Range, plus bonus True Damage worth 30% of damage dealt |
| Ascendant | S+ | +35% Boss Damage, +10% Damage, +10% Range |
| Decay | S+ | +40% DoT Damage, -10% Cooldown, +10% Range |
| Rupture | S | +30% Crit Chance, +35% Crit Damage |
| Stride | S | -10% Damage, -10% Cooldown, +5% Range; attacks build Tempo for up to -20% Cooldown and +10% Range, resetting after 5 seconds without attacking |
| Ace | S | +10% Damage, -5% Cooldown, +10% Range |
| Hustler | S | +15% Range, +30% Income |
| Nimble | A | -20% Cooldown |
| Head Hunter | A | +20% Crit Chance, +25% Crit Damage |
| Hawkeye | A | +30% Range |
| Joker | A | +5% Damage, -5% Cooldown, +5% Range; every stat is randomly shifted 0–25% each wave |
| Fury III / Haste III / Reach III | A | +15% Damage, -12.5% Cooldown, +15% Range respectively |
| Looting, Fury II, Haste II, Reach II | B | +20% Income, +10% Damage, -7.5% Cooldown, +10% Range respectively |
| Fury I, Haste I, Reach I, Scholar | C | +5% Damage, -5% Cooldown, +5% Range, +50% EXP respectively |
Recommended trait per unit
| Unit | Best trait |
|---|---|
| Madaro (Edo Tensei) | Immortal, or Overseer |
| Cursed Lover (Pure Love) | Immortal, or Overseer |
| Valcrad (Unleashed) | Rupture, or Immortal |
| Bon (Purgatory) | Stride, or Overseer |
| Goju (Honored One) | Hawkeye, or Overseer |
| Tango (Star of Festivals) | Stride |
| Igritto (Commander) | Rupture |
| Starku (Primordial) | Overseer, or Rupture |
| Sosuke (Eternal) | Decay, or Stride |
| Tojei (Sorcerer Killer) | Rupture, or Joker |
| Noroto (Linked) | Stride, or Overseer |
| Vegita (Super) | Rupture, or Immortal |
| Aneko (Queen) | Stride |
| Shinoru (Butterfly Dance) | Decay |
| Gyutari (Upper Moon) | Decay |
| Konpatchi (Unleashed) | Overseer |
| Goki (Super 3) | Overseer |
| Melio (Assault) | Overseer |
| Roxi (Mage) | Stride |
| Bluma (Data Analyst) | Hustler |
Tip: never put a premium carry trait on a farm unit. Bluma exists to make money, and Hustler is the roll that does that job.
Element matchups and why rarity is not the whole story
Units fall into Fire, Water, Nature, Ground, Lightning, Light, Dark, and Neutral. Attacks can be effective for roughly a 50% damage bonus or super effective for roughly 150%, while Neutral units deal unmodified damage to everything. The practical result is that a lower-rarity unit with a super-effective matchup can out-damage a Mythic swinging into a neutral one. Neutral picks like Tojei are the safe blind choice when you do not know what a stage throws at you.
Pleiadys Tower after the solo nerfs
Pleiadys Tower stages have been toned down for solo play, so Library of the Dead and Agurya Sand Dunes are now realistic with one strong carry and a support. Sword Saint’s Garden – Trial is the exception and still punishes solo attempts hard. Bring a full team there, or expect to spend a while learning the wave patterns before it goes down.
Placements move when the developers touch numbers, and Update 1’s newest units are still settling as more players evolve and ascend them. The safe play is unchanged: one finished carry, one hill or hybrid answer for flying waves, Goju or Bon for utility, and Bluma once you can afford to give up a combat slot for income.
