Your unit roster decides how fast you clear waves, melt bosses, and push high-level content in Anime Vanguards. The current meta rewards teams that blend one heavy carry with a stall unit and an economy support, so the goal is rarely to stack eight raw damage dealers. The rankings below sort every viable unit from SS down to D across Story, Infinite, Boss Rush, Raids, and Elemental Tower play.
Quick answer: Build around an SS-tier carry such as Rogita (Super 4) for single-target damage or God (Above Heaven) for AoE, then add a stall unit like Ice Queen (Release) and an economy support like Demon Leader (Control). That carry-plus-stall-plus-economy core clears nearly all current content reliably.
Anime Vanguards tier list (SS to D)
Higher tiers bring game-changing mechanics like time-stop, mass freeze, or no-slot summons. Lower tiers stay usable early but get outclassed quickly as your roster grows.
| Tier | Units |
|---|---|
| SS | Demon Leader (Control), God (Above Heaven), Song Jinwu and Igros, Gujo (Infinity), Lich King (Ruler), Rogita (Super 4), Ice Queen (Release), Alocard (Vampire King) |
| S+ | Demon Hybrid (Chainsaw), Demon Leader, Brolzi Super (Wrathful), Conqueror vs Invulnerable, Savior (Rebirth), Diablo (Renacimiento), Shinobi Sage (Friendship), Skele King (Rock), Divalo (Requiem), Teacher (Final Stand), Lord Friezo (Emperor), Quetzalcoatl (Sun God) |
| S | Iscanur (Pride), Pink Villain (Celestial), World Destroyer (Old), Hollowseph (Pure), Okorun (Turbo), Isdead (Romantic), Agony Shinobi (Force), Student (Enraged), Savior (Moonless), Koguro (Unsealed), Renguko (Purgatory), Explosive Demon (Bomb), Cursed Shinobi (Black Flames) |
| A | Deceiver (Monster), Horsegirls (Racers), Igros (Elite Knight), Astolfo (Rider of Black), Ice Manipulator (Admiral), Company Captain (Hybrid), Armored Mage (Requip), Elastic Captain (Pirate), Fastest Shinobi (Flash), Delusional Demon (Blood), Saber (Black Tyrant), Slime (King) |
| B | Warlord (Of the Sea), Fallen Angel (Pistols) |
| C | Manipulator (Spider) |
| D | Gazelle (Zombie), Leo (Fangs) |
SS-tier units and what makes them meta-defining
SS-tier picks do more than deal damage. They bring map-wide AoE, hard crowd control, self-replenishing summons, or economy buffs that change how you build an entire board.
| Unit (Rarity) | Why it ranks SS |
|---|---|
| Demon Leader (Control) [Secret] | Her chain passive cuts placement cost by 10% per chained unit and grants 30% more damage to chained Demon Hunter allies, making her a top economy and scaling enabler. |
| God (Above Heaven) [Secret] | Huge AoE burst erases dense waves, and time-stop freezes enemy movement to protect the whole team in the late game. |
| Song Jinwu and Igros [Vanguard] | Summons shadow soldiers that use no placement slots, building a self-replenishing frontline with no upkeep. |
| Gujo (Infinity) [Secret] | Wide-area stuns and slows through domain expansion while keeping a top-tier damage ceiling. |
| Lich King (Ruler) [Vanguard] | Spawns durable shadow units that hold an almost permanent frontline, freeing slots and cash for pure DPS. |
| Rogita (Super 4) [Vanguard] | Highest single-target damage in the game and can also damage enemies by exploding, making him the premier boss killer. |
| Ice Queen (Release) [Vanguard] | AoE freeze locks waves in place for long stretches, pairing well with slow but powerful DPS. |
| Alocard (Vampire King) [Vanguard] | Stacking bleed over huge areas with steady sustained damage, ideal for whittling down multiple lanes at once. |
S+ tier hyper-carries and core supports
S+ units form the backbone of optimized teams. They lack the full-map dominance of SS picks, but their raw scaling carries the hardest end-game stages, especially when grouped into synergy compositions.
| Unit (Rarity) | Why it ranks S+ |
|---|---|
| Demon Hybrid (Chainsaw) [Secret] | Damage doubles when his meter fills, and bleed detonation creates burst windows. Needs Demon Leader for peak output. |
| Brolzi Super (Wrathful) [Vanguard] | Buffs his own damage on crits and clears crowded waves with massive AoE, but demands heavy economy investment. |
| Conqueror vs Invulnerable [Secret] | Breaks enemy armor with a hybrid damage style, excelling against tanky late-game enemies. |
| Savior (Rebirth) [Vanguard] | Devastating wave-clearing burst with large range, though it needs a strong early economy to reach final tiers. |
| Diablo (Renacimiento) [Secret] | High-scaling AoE with burn synergy that punishes grouped enemies, a strong mid-to-late anchor. |
| Shinobi Sage (Friendship) [Secret] | Boosts allied shinobi through synergy passives and scales into a late-game powerhouse with a ninja team. |
| Skele King (Rock) [Mythic] | Buffs allies and slows enemies with freeze, acting as a force multiplier for survivability and DPS. |
| Teacher (Final Stand) [Secret] | Gets dramatically stronger in critical moments, ideal for defending the final waves of legend stages. |
| Quetzalcoatl (Sun God) [Exclusive] | Exceptional anti-air coverage shuts down flying enemies while applying burn and steady damage. |
Best DPS and synergy picks for competitive play
Competitive rankings that account for tournament and PvP play lean heavily on shinobi synergy. Agony Shinobi (Force) sits at the top of the synergy chart because of one passive. When it carries a Nose familiar, it spawns Ninjutsu units from your hotbar on every attack and bypasses the Monarch placement limit, which lets it slot into almost any top team.
Shinobi Sage (Friendship) follows as the most efficient damage dealer. In its 9-Tailed Rampage state it outputs enormous DPS across a circular AoE several times larger than most carries, and it can keep moving while attacking. Pairing it with Agony Shinobi or Shinobi God (Infinite Dreams) keeps that rampage state active almost permanently. Yomomata (Captain) rounds out the top DPS group as the strongest full-AoE option, scaling its damage with Burn stacks and synergizing with Choy Jong En (Guild Leader) and Hebano (Clematis) for burn-over-time teams.
| Unit | Optimal trait | Familiar | Memoria |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agony Shinobi (Force) | Monarch | Nose | Shall Know Pain |
| Shinobi Sage (Friendship) | Monarch | Birb | Trust of Others |
| Yomomata (Captain) | Monarch | Burning Blade | Blazing Inferno |
How to build a reliable team
The most consistent boards follow a simple rule. Lock in one strong carry, add a unit that stalls enemies, then back both with an economy support so you can place and upgrade everything on time.
Note: A few units depend on heavy upgrade investment before they shine, including Savior (Moonless), Savior (Rebirth), and Brolzi Super (Wrathful). If your early economy is weak, lean on cheaper holdovers from the A tier until you can fund them.
Treat the lower tiers as temporary. B, C, and D picks like Warlord (Of the Sea), Manipulator (Spider), and Gazelle (Zombie) fill gaps while you grind, but every one of them gets replaced once an SS or S+ unit comes online. Match your carry to the mode, keep one stall and one economy slot reserved, and the rest of the meta sorts itself out.
