MultiVersus tier list: Who to pick to win
In MultiVersus’ debut season, its meta is hardly set in stone. Player First Games is regularly deploying patches and hotfixes that shake up the power dynamic of its characters, including recent tweaks to Finn’s cheesy backpack attack. We’re sharing our tier list of its diverse 18-character roster, but expect these rankings to change regularly.
We’re also getting four new characters throughout the season, including two members of the Gremlins, a DC super, and Rick Sanchez. This list is written from the perspective of an average player, but high-level and professional play has been considered.
MultiVersus tier list Season 1
S-Tier
Bugs Bunny
The king of cheese. Whether you’re climbing the top 30 leaderboards or floating in the mid-ranks like me, encountering a Bugs in 2v2 is scary, but predictable. The snarky wabbit has proven to be the most popular pick among the best MultiVersus players (opens in new tab) because he can do it all: smash your face up close with a bat, send screen-filling ACME rockets across the stage, punt airborne foes to the depths of cartoon hell, and summon pies at will. He’s the whole package, but probably not for long: his entire suite of air attacks got nerfed in the Season 1 patch (opens in new tab), and at this rate, more tweaks could follow.
Finn
The crowned prince of cheese. Finn is a lot less cerebral than Bugs, but that’s exactly what makes him dangerous. His sword gives his basic attacks longer reach than the numerous fist-punchers on the MultiVersus roster. He can also charge attacks while moving, useful for baiting out dodges from a nervous Superman no matter where he goes. And of course, spamming his high-priority, hard-hitting, easy-to-land backpack attack remains an easy technique.
A-Tier
Batman
I’ve yet to see players who are better at getting in my face and staying in my face than Batman mains. Played casually, he can land fun combos that apply Weaken to enemies. Get a little more serious, and he’ll be grappling across the stage every few seconds to deliver a swift kick to the face. Despite his Batarang’s increased cooldown, he excels at poking from range and closing the distance with decisive strikes.
Superman
You’d think Superman would derive his MultiVersus power from his super strength, rapid punches, or ice breath, but when it comes to the Man of Steel, it’s all about that side-special grab. If you see a blue man in red underpants flying toward you, run for the hills: his grab will connect, and if you’re anywhere near the edge of the stage, it’s already over. Yes, it’s a cheesy strat that rings a bit cheap to this casual platform fighter fan, but it’s a reliable way to punish overaggressive players who miss the dodge.
Shaggy
EVO champion Nakat said it best when he dubbed Shaggy the “Mario of MultiVersus.” He’s an all-arounder: a dependable brawler at close-range with some seriously powerful moves (his neutral attack, down air, and side special are all easy finishers against even sub-100 damage enemies), and that’s before he charges up his Ultra Instinct form, which boosts his attacks and applies a full stack of Weaken. In my book, he has the best ratio of fun to play and easy to win, but don’t expect experienced players to get caught in his slower attacks.
B-Tier
Morty
Morty has only just debuted in MultiVersus, but it’s clear he has a lot of potential as a Bruiser/Mage hybrid. His ranged laser attacks aren’t as reliable or deadly as Velma’s piercing word bubbles, but Morty’s utility belt of gadgets allows him to combo attacks from afar without the elaborate setup of Tom and Jerry’s tennis volleys. While Morty has a live grenade in play, his next laser will always hit and detonate it. Morty is a bit slower in melee range (his neutral side attacks feel similar to Jake) and you probably won’t get much use from his weird Plumbus move, but his adaptability is making him a quick favorite in 2v2.
Velma
Velma’s dominance at EVO spoke for itself, but at the middle tiers, her inherent difficulty as a ranged support character becomes clear. Her unique ability to shoot lock-on word bubbles from anywhere on the stage is notable (and annoying), but unless she’s expertly supported by an aggressive teammate, her limited melee options make her easy to bully. Velma is hard to solo queue with, but gets stronger with a partner connected in voice chat.
Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn plays like the Assassin equivalent of Shaggy: simple to pick up with hard-hitting combos, but just simple enough to easily counter. It’s a tough life for Assassin characters who aren’t named Finn. The extra 14% damage received means there’s less room for mistakes, and besides the fact that her confetti blaster and pop gun are super satisfying to land, there are more reliable, less squishy characters that hit just as hard.
Iron Giant
Speaking of easy to bully, Iron Giant is in a similar boat. Against a team that isn’t tailoring its playstyle to counter him, the gentle giant gets to step all over the dueling duo with monster special attacks, craterous butt stomps, and a scrap ball projectile that doubles as melee. His size works against him as soon as enemies realize his massive hitbox is an all-access pass to hitstun him so often he can never land a meaningful blow.
Jake
This stretchy doughball may just be the most versatile close-range brawler of the bunch, but you wouldn’t know it because he’s not as annoying as Finn. Jake’s sweeping neutral attacks are slow and easy to dodge when he tries to charge them, but he also swings in a wide radius that makes him especially good at punishing both enemies at in a single blow (his neutral up, for example, is an axe shop that swings a full 180-degrees around him). And then there are his air moves: a stretchy air punch that crosses one-third of the screen and can be aimed, and his neutral-down skateboard that let’s him literally style on foes desperate to leap up to safety. He has trouble against some characters higher on this list, but a good Jake can work around it.
LeBron James
I did not expect LeBron James, a guy who plays basketball, to sport one of the most diverse, difficult to master movesets in MultiVersus. His entire deal hinges on keeping hold of his basketball, and though it can be tempting to pass the rock to a buddy or bounce it off an enemy for a quick rebound, the punishment for becoming ball-less is huge. LeBron loses most of his might and has to land a hit with some of the slowest moves in the game to get it back. He’s one of my favorites, but not who I pick when I’m itching to win.
Garnet
With her feet planted firmly on the ground, Garnet’s punches can instill the fear of god. Similar to Iron Giant, you need a few things to go right to enjoy her in an average matche, and similar to Jake, she’s slow. She struggles at chasing down popular characters like Finn or Bugs and has few options to close the distance.
C-Tier
Tom & Jerry
The hardest character(s) to play in MultiVersus also happen to be the coolest. To seriously play Tom and Jerry is to always be thinking about future attack setups. A fully-charged tennis ball can snipe enemies into oblivion from across the map, but that can only happen once you’ve deployed Jerry, passed him a ball, and timed his return lob perfectly. Laying one of these elaborate mouse traps is satisfying, but not recommended for casual players who just want to punch dudes. T&J are one of the few characters with both a high skill floor and even higher skill ceiling. EVO co-champion Void made it work against the dominant Bugs/Velma combo.
Arya Stark
As a fellow Assassin, Arya has the same 14% health debuff as Harley with a harder moveset to get acquainted with. True to the character, Arya is a precise, pokey fighter who lives and dies by her ability to dodge and land backstabs for bonus damage. She has little to worry about in a 1v1, but her single-target attacks become a hindrance when she gets ganged up on. There’s clearly a high skill ceiling here and the average player simply isn’t there yet.
Wonder Woman
A Tank that truly delivers on the role, Wonder Woman relies on her teammate to bring the pain while she supplies the armor. Nakat made great use of her armor at EVO 2022, but without a solid team dynamic, there’s not much going for MultiVersus’ default free unlock. With no particularly flashy combos and weight class that makes her easy to ringout early, it’s no wonder she’s not popular.
Reindog
One of MultiVersus’ few true support characters, Reindog isn’t usually a smart pick. He’s all about keeping distance and supporting his ally with tractor beams and fireballs, but enemies in the know won’t let him slip away. There simply isn’t anywhere to run on MultiVersus’ flat, featureless arenas, leaving Reindog on the backfoot by default. That said, he does hit hard (if slowly) and is particularly good at ringing out enemies who are already beat to a pulp.
Taz
I was one of the launch-week MultiVersus players calling for Taz’s nerf, and I got my wish. He remains a fun and easy character to pick up, but without the pre-nerf bite of his tornado spin, the rest of his kit isn’t impressive.
D-Tier
Steven Universe
Steven has similar struggles as Reindog. He’s a lover-not-a-fighter who can’t really avoid a fight. He also has these tiny, short-range punches that I find particularly hard to land compared to more experienced butt-kickers like Batman. The best that Steven can do right now is give both himself and his teammate an instant bubble shield (on cooldown), which can really turn a fight around in the hands of an expert. But in the hands of most players, Steven’s a liability just asking to get four-stocked.
EVO 2022 Winners
What won at EVO 2022
🥇 First place:
Wonder Woman (Nakat) / Tom & Jerry (Void)
🥈 Second place:
Bugs Bunny (Mirrorman) / Velma (RoseJ)
🥉 Third place:
Batman (Synume) / Shaggy (Leviathan)
Fourth place:
Velma (T1FF4NY) / Superman (Stahly)
Unreleased characters to be added to our MultiVersus tier list
We don’t know where these new fighters will fit in, but with Morty out the door, it sounds like Rick could be next. We imagine the mad genius will make use of the show’s iconic portal gun, especially as it’s visible in Rick’s hand in promotional art released by the studio. I’d put money on a reference to Pickle Rick, too.
- Rick
- Black Adam (DC Comics)
- Stripe (Gremlins)
- Gizmo (Gremlins)
