Excry Tier List: Best Characters Ranked
The best characters in Excry are Vantra (S-tier, core buffer for almost every team), Corvane (S-tier, highest single-target burst), and Mira (A-tier, the cheapest unit that still clears endgame content). If you are building your first competitive roster, invest in Vantra first, then Corvane, then Mira — those three carry you through roughly 80% of the game’s progression content before you need a single niche pick.
Below is the full ranking by role, with notes on team fit, investment cost, and where each unit actually shines. Rather than a flat “best to worst” list, this is organized as four tiers (S through C) across five functional roles, because a character that is S-tier as a healer can be C-tier as a DPS, and the tier list only makes sense once the role is fixed.
Quick Comparison: The Picks Worth Building First
This table covers the ten units most players will actually field. “Investment cost” measures the number of duplicate copies needed to reach a competitive power level, since Excry’s ascension system is duplicate-gated. Per the game’s official patch notes and character stat pages, costs run from 0 duplicates (base kit only) to 6 (fully ascended).
| Character | Tier | Role | Best For | Duplicates Needed | Key Stat (Lv. 80) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vantra | S | Buffer / Support | Every team, all content | 2 | +38% team ATK buff, 4-turn uptime |
| Corvane | S | Single-Target DPS | Boss fights, raid scoring | 3 | 2,140 base ATK, 310% skill multiplier |
| Mira | A | Multi-Target DPS | Budget builds, wave clearing | 0 | 1,720 base ATK, hits 3 targets |
| Halbrecht | A | Tank | Survival stages, PvP front line | 1 | 9,400 HP, 42% damage reduction |
| Soris | A | Healer | Sustained content, no-heal debuffs | 2 | Heals 22% max HP per cycle |
| Drenn | B | Debuffer | Defense-heavy enemies | 1 | -30% enemy DEF, 3-turn duration |
| Ilva | B | Buffer | Speed-tuned burst comps | 3 | +18% team SPD, 5-turn uptime |
| Rask | B | Single-Target DPS | Early progression only | 0 | 1,410 base ATK, 240% multiplier |
| Toven | C | Tank | Filler until Halbrecht | 0 | 7,100 HP, 28% damage reduction |
| Yssa | C | Healer | Very early game only | 0 | Heals 14% max HP per cycle |
S-Tier: Build These First
Vantra — the character the whole tier list revolves around
Vantra is the single highest-value investment in Excry, and it is not close. Her core skill applies a team-wide +38% ATK buff with four turns of uptime against a five-turn cooldown, which means she maintains near-permanent uptime with only one duplicate to reduce the cooldown. No other buffer in the game does this at two duplicates. She fits into literally every team archetype — burst, sustained, PvP, raid — because the buff is percentage-based and therefore scales with whatever DPS you pair her with.
Who she suits: everyone. If you have not built Vantra and you are past the early game, that is the single largest power gain available to your account.
Main trade-off: her personal damage is negligible. She is a pure force multiplier, so she does nothing for you in content where team composition is locked to solo units.
Corvane — the boss-killer
Corvane carries the highest single-target damage ceiling in the game at 2,140 base ATK and a 310% skill multiplier, according to the character stat page. He is the reason raid scoring is dominated by Corvane-led teams. The catch is the duplicate requirement: at zero duplicates his cooldowns are punishing, and he only becomes genuinely S-tier at three duplicates, where the skill rotation lines up cleanly with Vantra’s buff window.
Who he suits: players who have already built a support core and now need a damage carry for boss content and raid ladders.
Main trade-off: expensive. Budget roughly three times the resources of a zero-duplicate unit, and he is close to useless in wave-clear content where his single-target kit wastes turns.
A-Tier: Strong, Efficient, Slightly Narrower
Mira — best budget DPS by a wide margin
Mira is the answer to “who do I build when I have no duplicates?” She needs zero copies to function — her base kit already hits three targets at 1,720 ATK, and she clears wave content faster than Corvane until Corvane hits three duplicates. She is A-tier rather than S-tier purely because her single-target damage falls off hard in boss fights.
Who she suits: new and mid-game players, and anyone who needs a functional second DPS without a duplicate investment.
Main trade-off: she has a low ceiling. Once you own a fully ascended Corvane, Mira gets benched outside of multi-target stages.
Halbrecht — the tank that actually survives
Halbrecht’s 9,400 HP and 42% damage reduction make him the only tank that reliably survives endgame PvP front lines without a dedicated healer glued to him. He only needs one duplicate to hit that damage-reduction breakpoint; without it, he sits around 34% and can be bursted down by focused fire.
Who he suits: PvP players and anyone stuck on survival-oriented stages.
Main trade-off: he contributes almost no damage, so pairing him with two low-damage supports can stall your clear times.
Soris — the sustain healer
Soris heals 22% of each ally’s max HP per cycle, which scales with your team’s HP rather than her own stats — meaning she stays relevant without heavy investment. She is the only healer who can push through stages that apply healing-reduction debuffs, because her heal is calculated before the debuff is applied rather than after.
Who she suits: players pushing long-form content where attrition matters more than burst.
Main trade-off: two duplicates needed to smooth out her cooldown, and she offers no offensive utility at all.
B-Tier: Situational but Genuinely Useful
Drenn — the defense-shredder
Drenn applies a -30% enemy DEF debuff for three turns. Against the game’s high-DEF bosses, that debuff is worth more total damage than slotting a second DPS, which is why he appears in optimized raid comps despite his B-tier personal stats. He only needs one duplicate to extend the debuff to four turns, which is the breakpoint that makes him worth running.
Trade-off: against low-DEF enemies he is a wasted slot. He is a counter-pick, not a default.
Ilva — speed tuning for burst comps
Ilva grants +18% team SPD for five turns. In speed-tuned burst compositions, that is enough to let your DPS act twice before the enemy’s first turn, which trivializes some PvP matchups. The problem is the three-duplicate requirement — below that, the uptime gaps make her strictly worse than running another damage dealer.
Trade-off: extremely expensive for a niche role, and only worth it if you are already committed to a speed-comp PvP team.
Rask — fine until you replace him
Rask is the tutorial-tier single-target DPS. At 1,410 ATK and a 240% multiplier he clears early story content comfortably with zero investment, which makes him a reasonable placeholder. Do not spend ascension materials on him; every material you put into Rask is a material not going into Corvane.
C-Tier: Do Not Invest
Toven and Yssa are functional early-game units that exist to be replaced by Halbrecht and Soris respectively. Toven’s 7,100 HP and 28% damage reduction are adequate through roughly the first two chapters; Yssa’s 14% heal per cycle keeps a team alive in tutorial content but cannot keep pace once enemy damage scales past chapter four. Neither is worth a single ascension material.
How to Decide Who to Build Next
Work down this decision list in order. It resolves the build order for the vast majority of accounts without needing to theorycraft.
- Do you have Vantra at two duplicates? If no, that is your next build. Nothing else in the game returns as much power per resource.
- Do you have a functional DPS at zero duplicates? If no, build Mira. She requires no duplicates and carries wave content immediately.
- Are you clearing boss or raid content? If yes, push Corvane toward three duplicates. Below three, he underperforms Mira in mixed content.
- Are you dying before your DPS finishes? If yes, build Halbrecht to one duplicate for the 42% damage-reduction breakpoint.
- Are you running long attrition stages? If yes, add Soris at two duplicates.
- Are you hitting a specific high-DEF wall? If yes, Drenn at one duplicate is cheaper than ascending a second DPS.
As a rough resource benchmark: a zero-duplicate unit costs about 1 unit of ascension material to bring online, a two-duplicate unit costs roughly 4 units, and a three-duplicate unit costs roughly 9. Per the game’s official patch notes, duplicate acquisition is rate-limited per banner cycle, so a three-duplicate carry realistically represents three banner cycles of saving. Plan your build order around that constraint rather than around raw tier position.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the best character in Excry overall?
Vantra is the best overall character because her team-wide ATK buff applies to every composition and every content type, and she only needs two duplicates to reach permanent uptime. Corvane has a higher personal damage ceiling but is narrower and far more expensive. If you can only build one character, build Vantra.
Is Corvane worth building without duplicates?
No. At zero duplicates, Corvane’s cooldowns leave large gaps in his damage rotation, and Mira will out-damage him in most content at a fraction of the cost. Corvane becomes genuinely worth the investment at three duplicates, where his rotation aligns with Vantra’s buff window.
What is the cheapest team that can clear endgame content?
A team of Mira, Halbrecht, Vantra, and Soris covers all five roles at a combined cost of roughly five ascension units — two for Vantra, one for Halbrecht, two for Soris, and zero for Mira. It will not top raid leaderboards, but it clears progression content reliably. The main weakness is single-target boss damage, which is where you would eventually swap in Corvane.
Should I invest in Rask or wait for Corvane?
Do not invest in Rask at all. He functions adequately with zero investment through early content and exists purely as a placeholder until you pull a real DPS. Every ascension material spent on Rask is a material delayed from Corvane or Mira, and those materials are rate-limited per banner cycle.
Which characters should I never build?
Skip Toven and Yssa entirely. Both are strictly worse versions of Halbrecht and Soris, and their base kits are adequate for early chapters without any investment. Also avoid pushing Ilva past whatever duplicates you happen to pull unless you are specifically committed to a speed-tuned PvP composition, since her three-duplicate requirement is the steepest on this list relative to her niche role.
How much does duplicate investment actually change a character’s tier?
Substantially. Halbrecht moves from functional to endgame-viable at one duplicate, Drenn’s debuff becomes worth a roster slot at one duplicate, and Ilva only becomes playable at three. This is why tier lists that ignore duplicate count are misleading — a B-tier unit at the right duplicate breakpoint often outperforms an S-tier unit sitting at zero.
