Units Tier List

The following tables are unofficial Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare units tier lists. These lists were made by wiki staff, with extra input from our Discord members.

The purpose of these lists is to give an insight on how well each individual unit works when compared to their alternatives. It doesn't takes team powers into account, and only considers unlock requirements when it's actually relevant. Because of this, when it comes to choosing what unit to buy, it's best to refer to Progression Guide instead.

The main criteria of ranking units are based on:

* General performance during gameplay;
* How well they perform without buffs;
* The part of the game at which a unit becomes available (early missions, late stages, etc.);
* Reliance on upgrades and/or special abilities.

The list is always open for updates. They can be caused by significant nerfs/buffs, whole gameplay changes, or sudden discoveries made by community members. Bugs and glitches, however, don't affect tiering.

*The tier lists focus on the main game only, with very few exceptions.* Due to gameplay differences in events, they all require specific units that are chosen without taking these ranks into account.

### Tiers Explanation

* **S** – All around good units with little to no flaws. They work in every team, and there are almost no reasons to use anyone instead of them.
* **A** – Solid units who can prove useful throughout the entire game, but still have some flaws or are outclassed by S tiers.
* **B** – Decent units who can be used for a large portion of the game, but tend to have downsides that bring their potential down.
* **C** – Units who are only consistently useful throughout a third of the game. They might have something great to offer but it requires a lot of effort to use effectively, or is held back by multiple issues.
* **D** – Units who aren't strong enough to be used for missions completion, but are not entirely unplayable.
* **E** – Units who have only very niche uses, and even then get outclassed most of the time.
* **F** – Units in this category are considered borderline useless. There's no point in using them for campaign progression, and even casual replays, due to their impracticality and major flaws.

The leftmost unit is considered the top of its tier. Respectively, the rightmost is considered the bottom of its tier.

## Main Game

* S
* A
* B
* C
* D
* E
* F

 Rogue | Even without considering that he is a direct upgrade of Jailer, Rogue's **ridiculously** high base damage makes him one of the best burst units in the game, in part thanks to very low courage cost, allowing to combine him with other fighters for devastating results. He is only held back by his moderately low attack speed, and preparation time, which become downsides in certain situations most other fighters prove to be of greater help in. It doesn't helps that he also suffers from having the lowest base agility in the game, meaning you need to properly min-max him to achieve tolerable results.

 Mechanic | The main source of appreciation for Mechanic lies in his unique perk. Since he can knock enemies back and his sledgehammer is a guaranteed critical with an extra multiplier, he can be used as either a burst damager, or an extra source of push force. Both approaches provide valuable aid to Mechanic's teammates, although their usefulness varies from mission to mission. The unit is also held back by his moderate preparation time, which can prove to be a major hinderance, to the point that you are better off using a different fighter.

 Glenn | Glenn's unique revival perk allows him to be used as a special spam unit since he can take on several big hits and still keep fighting some time after getting knocked down, while dishing out good damage thanks to his fast attack speed. While his potential is fairly promising, Glenn requires proper investment into his upgrades, as he feels inefficient at his lower levels, mostly because of his medium courage cost which could be used for sending out more spammable units that can do double the damage at a shorter period of time, and maybe even provide knockback. Glenn also has a problem of not being useful anywhere outside of mid-game. It gets even worse with three final stages having a large presence of zombies who completely nullify his ability, making him just a more expensive spam unit in majority of end-game missions.

 Molotov | When judging Molotov, it's hard to ignore the elephant in a room in a form of Red Barrel which outclasses the cocktail in just about everything. However, even without any comparisons, Molotov's performance leaves wishing for the best. It's unable to deal much damage to enemies since its fire pool lasts for a fixed, short period, its preparation time is unjustly long, and the rage cost is too high, considering the little impact Molotov makes. Without resorting to Patriots, there's not much reason to use Molotov even in scenarios where rage is plentiful, as it just can't do much. The only thing that it excels at is efficient corpse burning, as its AoE circle allows to make more precise shots – an element that RB sorely lacks. It's also a bit of a crutch for players who struggle with timing RB blasts against hordes of fast enemies, but getting the hang of that trick is just another part of the game's learning process, which also manifests through Grenadier's signature throw – another thing that can outclass Molotov.

 Queen | Queen can be viewed as Grenadier with a more potent grenade ability and degraded stats. Her grenade launcher can fire many more grenades and her special ability allows her to create fire pools with them, but Queen's relatively low stats for a melee unit with slow attack speed make her inferior when it comes to close combat. It only gets worse with her very high rage cost. Because of it, Queen's ability shows to be a winmore in practice, since by the time you get to play her, majority of enemies are already dealt with. There's also a problem of realistically never wanting to use Queen over other expensive rage abilities, like Generator, and her dying way too fast for such high price. In the end, the sole reason to use Queen is in case player wants to mess around with her grenades in some missions. There's really no reason to risk using her for completion, even with team powers taken into account.

## Skirmish

The ranking for Skirmish is currently under revisions.

 Bosses