Tier Lists

This page goes over tier lists that identity the powerful and weaker items founds in S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International. These were primarily created by Bioness with Discord community input. If you want like to provide suggestions please send a message via Discord. This page is opinion-based and is not an objective measure of SV power. Refer to the Builds page for various SV builds that work well in game.

## Chip

This tier list covers the Chips that power your SV. Please refer to the Chips Stats page to get a breakdown on the state differences. There are two tier list, one that focuses on standard gameplay or Player versus Environment (PvE), and another that focuses on Player versus Player (PvP).

Some explanations:

* Chips that have high stat totals, horizontal and square sights, and high useful stats (Aim weapons, Protect, Speed, Accuracy) are rated higher.
* Chips with slower leveling experience (Type B) and low Chip health are rated lower for the PvE Tier List.
* Differences between chips of the same type are often minor, with the biggest differences in ratings being weight and stat total.
* Wolf and Tiger/Lions have the highest stat totals and high stats in good skills. This makes them extremely flexible.
* Horses have the best Aim weapon stats with decent Protect and Speed. Horse-3 (Zebra) does suffer from lower stat totals.
* Cats have the highest Speed stats, Jump stats, and sight sizes. Cat-1 has a higher stat total than other Cat Chips.
* Turtle has great defenses and a high skill total.
* Dogs have great overall stats, but aren't the best in anything.
* Dolphin, Fish, and Shark have similar stats, but Dolphin is the only one with the faster Type A Experience. Fish-2 is the lightest, Shark is the heaviest.
* Bears are great for melee focused builds, but level slowly.
* Bird Chips are the missile/lock-on specialist, unfortunately most lock-on weapons have significant downsides compared to auto-aim and melee weapon.
* Rat and Rabbit Chips are among the lightest chips, but they have the lowest stat totals, lack high stats in useful skills, and level slowly.

PvE Tier List

* This is what you should look at when playing through the story mode normally.

PvP and Optimized Tier List

* This tier list is what you should use when you when playing against other players or if you fully optimize your chip. Fully optimized chips can be obtained through specific experience grinding methods or using cheats.
* Leveling speed and Chip health have no effect on this tier list. Stat totals have less effect, especially if your SV only uses one weapon type.
* The biggest differences between this and the above list are that the Fish, Sheep, Rat, and Rabbit chips become stronger, while Bear chips get weaker.

## Option Modules

Explanation of the tiers for Option Mods.

* Optimal - These two are the supreme mods. Coprocessor-640 provides 3 seconds of O.C. and 1.2% Protect, allowing you to stack this and only this. Bonsai Tree is when you want more Protect and a bit of Critical Hit without wanting more O.C. These two can be the only mods you will ever use and you will be right to only use them.
* Strong - If you want to go a bit less Meta. These are still great and can be used without making yourself that much weaker. Notably SV Cover provides great armor and 0.8% Protect. While the New SV Model Plans provides a bunch of stats, without committing to any one thing.
* Good-Viable - These are good to use, especially if you just want to run a bit more O.C.. The SV Models provide a bunch of smaller stats, but the stat distribution is not as good as the New SV Model Plans.
* Flawed-Viable - You can use these, but there are better option modules in the tiers above. Not recommended to use.
* Weak - These have low stats, or have stats that don't impact much. Nearly all the mods here are worse at what they do than the above tiers with one exception. The Meteorite is the exception, but is too heavy to be considered useful. Never use these.
* Useless - These have almost no stats, literally no stats, or stats that don't matter in game at all. Stocks make money, but should never be equipped. Insurance isn't worth using. Never use these mods in game.

## Brand

This Tier List shows the overall capabilities of the SV brands. The differences between brands are fairly minor with the exception of the Elint-Re SV. You should play what you like over what is listed here.