Update 14.5 Part 4 drops five new Vanguard Familiars and one new unit into Anime Vanguards, and it shuffles more of the board than the small version number suggests. Existing picks like Sakura, Escanor and Smith all got touched, and the familiars attached to them change how much a team can afford to field. Here is where everything from Part 4 sits, and what earns each placement.
Quick answer: Meliodas, the new battle pass unit, is the strongest addition in Update 14.5 Part 4. Every new addition lands in the Must Have band, with Meliodas at the top and Medea at the bottom.
Update 14.5 Part 4 tier list: All new additions ranked
The ranking runs across four bands, from Must Have at the top down through Meta, Sub Meta and Support. Everything introduced in Part 4 clears the bar for Must Have, so the useful question is the order inside that band rather than which tier anything falls into.
| Addition | Tier | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Meliodas (battle pass unit) | Must Have | Applies destruction, slow and despair debuffs; counts as burned for Escanor’s passive |
| Griffith | Must Have | Scales off sacrifice stacks, needing 700 to reach maximum power |
| Saber | Must Have | 40% curse and holy buff, plus a Blight effect adding another 30% |
| Sol Badguy | Must Have | 50% damage and 20% range to video game units; 50% crit rate to Guilty Gear characters |
| Medea | Must Have | 40% buff to curse and holy damage, with weak personal damage output |
Why Meliodas is the best unit in Update 14.5 Part 4
Meliodas stacks three debuffs that other units have to specialize in. Destruction opens enemies up to more damage, slow buys your carries extra seconds in range, and despair piles on top of both. Getting all three from a single placement is what pushes him past the rest of the Part 4 lineup.
He also plugs straight into an existing pairing. Escanor’s passive buffs key off burned enemies, and Meliodas counts as burned for that check, so running the two together turns a conditional passive into something you can rely on every wave.
Note: Meliodas comes from the battle pass, not a summon banner, so acquiring him is a matter of progressing tiers rather than luck.
Griffith and the 700 sacrifice stack ramp
Griffith has one of the highest ceilings of anything added in Part 4, but he asks for 700 sacrifice stacks before he is fully maxed out. In long modes where waves keep coming, that number is reachable and the payoff is real. In shorter modes that end well before he finishes stacking, you are paying a full slot for a unit that never gets to its actual numbers.
Treat him as a mode-dependent pick. If the stage ends early, slot something with immediate output instead.
Saber vs Medea for curse and holy damage buffs
These two overlap almost exactly, which makes the comparison simple. Both hand out a 40% buff to curse and holy damage. Saber then applies Blight, which adds a further 30% on top of that base buff, so the same team slot produces meaningfully more damage.
Medea’s problem is that her buff is all she really offers. Her own damage output is underwhelming, so she contributes little beyond the aura. That is why she sits at the bottom of the Part 4 order despite still being worth owning.
Sol Badguy: Video game unit and Guilty Gear buffs
Sol Badguy is a category buffer rather than a damage dealer. Every video game unit on the field gains 50% damage and 20% range, and Guilty Gear characters specifically pick up 50% crit rate on top. The range portion matters more than it looks, since it lets buffed units cover more of a map from the same placement.
His value scales directly with how many qualifying units you already run. On a team with only one video game unit, he is a modest addition. On a team built around them, he is the piece that makes the rest work.
Sakura, Escanor and Smith changes that shift placements
Part 4 did not only add characters. Three existing picks changed enough to move within the ranking.
| Unit | What changed |
|---|---|
| Sakura (Heaven) | An upscale cuts the deployment and upgrade cost of Fate units by 70% |
| Escanor (Pride) | Can now be paired with Meliodas, who counts as burned to trigger his passive buffs |
| Smith | A new menu for crafting masterworks, opening quests, and buffing fire and berserk units |
Sakura’s 70% cost reduction is the change with the widest reach. Cheaper deployment and upgrades on Fate units means you reach your full board earlier in a run, which compounds across every wave that follows. Smith’s new menu is less about raw numbers and more about consolidating crafting, quests and fire or berserk buffs into one place you actually use.
How these rankings were decided
Placements weigh raw damage contribution, how much of a team’s output a unit multiplies, how fast it reaches full strength, and how many modes it stays useful in. A unit that needs a long ramp or a narrow team composition is ranked below one that performs the moment it hits the field.
This ranking reflects Anime Vanguards as of Update 14.5 Part 4, September 2026. Tier lists are opinion shaped by testing, and balance passes can move any of these placements.
If you are deciding where to spend limited time this patch, the order is straightforward. Push the battle pass for Meliodas first, since he improves teams you already run and turns Escanor’s passive into something dependable. After that, Saber is the better of the two curse and holy buffers, Sol Badguy pays off only if your board is built for him, and Griffith is worth the investment as long as your preferred mode runs long enough for 700 stacks to matter.
