Dragon Ball FighterZ Complete Character Tier List & Rankings

More than 20 combatants make Dragon Ball FighterZ's character list. Here are the fan favorites and newcomers that make up the roster.
More than 20 combatants make Dragon Ball FighterZ's character list. Here are the fan favorites and newcomers that make up the roster.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is poised to lead the flood of top-tier fighting games are slated to land on consoles and PC this year — many drawing on the characters and rosters of much-beloved anime and gaming series. 

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If you’ve been following Dragon Ball FighterZ or developer Arc System Works, you should already have a good grasp of how fighting in FighterZ will play out, as there are plenty of similarities between it and Guilty Gear Xrd when it comes to all-around gameplay mechanics. You’ll also have a good idea what characters are already on the DB FighterZ‘s roster.

While the game’s 3v3 system lets you select a trio of characters from the game’s list of more than 20 combatants, it’s imperative you pick the right characters for the fight at hand — and having them ranked really helps in that endeavor. 

Goku Seeing the Dragon Ball FighterZ Tier List For the First Time

Dragon Ball Fighter Z Character List

Counting different versions of primary characters, there are more than 20 options available in Fighter Z‘s character list, including the all-new character Android 21. While different combos will play out differently for different character variations and teams, there’s actually more to your character trio decision than just combat tactics.

Some character combinations will give you different intro segments that fans of the series will love, and there are special cutscenes triggered when you defeat an enemy with specific character pairings. Try out different list pairings and see if you can find all the Dragon Ball Easter eggs with these characters:

Character Unlock Criteria
  Android 16  Available at Start
 Android 18  Available at Start
 Android 21 Maijin  Complete Story Mode
Beerus  Available at Start
 Buu  Available at Start
 Captain Ginyu   Available at Start
 Cell  Available at Start
Frieza  Available at Start
  Gohan (Teen + Adult)  Available at Start
Goku  Available at Start
Super Saiyan Goku Day One Edition or Getting 500K Zeni or
beating Arcade’s “Hyperbolic Time Chamber Course”
with A-Rank on hard difficulty
  Goku Black  Available at Start
Gotenks  Available at Start
Hit  Available at Start
 Kid Buu  Available at Start
 Krillen  Available at Start
Majin Buu  Available at Start
Nappa  Available at Start
Piccolo  Available at Start
Tien  Available at Start
Trunks  Available at Start
Vegeta  Available at Start
Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta Unlocked with Day-One Edition or 
by earning 300,000 Zeni or beating Arcade’s “Gravity
Spaceship Course” with A-Rank on hard difficultyTien
Yamcha Available at Start

 

Dragon Ball Fighter Z Character Tiers

So how do all of those characters stack up to each other? We’re going to rank each character from the roster from best (S Tier) to good (A Tier) to usable but not as immediately awesome as the others (B Tier).

These rankings are based on preliminary beta impressions and limited time with the game ahead of official launch — and these tier lists are primarily centered on the basic abilities of each character and their combo potentials.

Any character can work for you if you practice enough, especially with Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s auto-combo system preventing players from having to memorize complicated combo schemes. So your mileage may vary depending on your playstyle.

Dragon Ball FighterZ S-Tier Characters

S-Tier characters in FighterZ are the absolute best of the best you can find on the game’s roster. These will often be your go-to fighters — especially when times get tough. 

Character
Android 21 
Adult Gohan
Frieza
Goku Black
Kid Buu
Super Saiyan Blue Goku 

 

Android 21 Android 21 is the main villain of the story, and
loves turning characters into cupcakes!

Dragon Ball FighterZ A-Tier Characters

If you can’t have all S-Tier characters for some reason, you’ll want to try and get some of these A-Tier characters into your party. These characters have a lot of great strengths, so overlook them at your own peril. 

Character
Android 16 
Android 18
          Beerus         
Cell
Captain Ginyu
Goku
Hit
Krillin
Piccolo
Trunks
Yamcha

 

Piccolo  Of course, longtime character Piccolo appears in Dragon Ball FighterZ!

Dragon Ball FighterZ B-Tier Characters

Ok. So why go B-Tier at all? Because B-Tier characters in Dragon Ball FighterZ are awesome, too. Sure, maybe they’re not as powerful as other characters on the game’s roster, but they’re fun to play as and should be given a chance. you never know — maybe you’ll find your favorite in this group. 

Character
Buu
Gotenks
Nappa
Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta
Tien
Vegeta

 

 Vegeta    Anybody dominating in multiplayer with Vegeta? If so, let us know your trick!

Dragon Ball FighterZ Online Rankings

While character lists and character tiers are more a matter of personal preference or player skill, the Dragon Ball FighterZ does include official rankings where you earn Battle Points by winning ranked multiplayer matches.

Ahead of launch — and before the rankings fully open up for all players worldwide — these are the Dragon Ball FighterZ rankings we know about so far:

Ranking
Saibamen
Earthling
Namekian
Frieza Clan
Super Saiyan
Android
Super Saiyan 2
Supreme Kai
Maijin
Super Saiyan 3
Super Saiyan God
Super Saiyan Blue

 

What character trio from this list are you going to play when the official Dragon Ball FighterZ release date of January 26 finally arrives? Let us know who you are most excited to try out, and stay tuned for full guides on each character’s basic abilities and combos.


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Author
Ty Arthur
Ty splits his time between writing horror fiction and writing about video games. After 25 years of gaming, Ty can firmly say that gaming peaked with Planescape Torment, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a soft spot for games like Baldur's Gate, Fallout: New Vegas, Bioshock Infinite, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. He has previously written for GamerU and MetalUnderground. He also writes for PortalMonkey covering gaming laptops and peripherals.