Choosing the right units in Anime Expeditions can dramatically improve your progression, whether you’re clearing Story Mode, pushing Infinite stages, or farming endgame content. While nearly every unit has a purpose early on, only a handful remain valuable throughout the entire game. Building around these top-tier characters will save you resources and make it much easier to complete difficult stages. This tier list is based on the current launch meta shown in the provided rankings. Keep in mind that future updates, balance patches, and new characters may change the overall meta.
Anime Expeditions Tier List Explains
- S Tier Meta-defining units that excel in nearly every game mode.
- A Tier Excellent alternatives with strong performance throughout Story and endgame.
- B Tier Good early and mid-game units but eventually replaced by stronger options.
- Support Utility units focused on buffing, debuffing, or crowd control rather than raw damage.
- Farm Economy units that generate money during battles and are essential for efficient progression.
How to Build Your Team After Update 1
You should not simply fill your team with the highest damage characters. A balanced setup will usually perform better because damage dealers need support and crowd control to reach their full potential. A simple team-building structure is:
- Start with one or two main DPS units.
- Add a strong support unit such as Puppet, Shadow, Cubert, or Bio Insect.
- Bring at least one crowd control unit, such as Salmon Sorcerer.
- Keep a slot for your farm or economy unit.
- Use the final slot to counter the stage or complete your main team synergy.
For the new units, the best pairings are also fairly clear. Prodigy Rage benefits heavily from status effects, Bio Insect is strongest when given enough time to scale, while Cubert can fit into almost any team containing fast attackers. For a physical follow-up setup, Carrot, The Drink, Vegetable, and String Demon can work together to create a much more specialized combination.
How the Anime Expeditions Tier List Works
The units are separated into several roles. Each role is important because building a team with only high-DPS characters is usually not enough to handle difficult stages.
- Best: Units that can perform multiple important roles or are extremely powerful in the current meta.
- DPS: Main damage dealers that should receive most of your upgrades.
- Support: Units that increase your team’s damage or improve the performance of other characters.
- Crowd Control: Units that slow, stun, stagger, or rewind enemies.
- Utility: Units with unique mechanics such as copying attacks, blocking enemies, repositioning, or creating additional attacks.
The strongest teams normally combine several of these roles instead of filling every slot with DPS characters.
Best Crowd Control Units
Crowd control is extremely important in Anime Expeditions because slowing or stopping enemies gives your damage dealers more time to attack. These units can be especially useful against fast enemies, bosses, and difficult waves where enemies would otherwise reach the end of the path too quickly.
1. Salmon Sorcerer Grade 1
Salmon Sorcerer remains one of the most reliable crowd control choices. Its abilities provide consistent slowing and staggering, making it easy to fit into different teams.
Crumble Away provides a 20% slow throughout its upgrades, while Plummet can stagger enemies when they enter the inner portion of its range. With the right setup, Salmon Sorcerer can provide even stronger slowing effects.
Its main advantage is consistency. You do not need a complicated team around it to get value, which makes Salmon Sorcerer useful in many different modes.
2. Shadow Divine
Shadow Divine is much more than a damage unit. Its Spirit can stun enemies, while Shadow Realm can rewind enemies toward the beginning of the path.
That rewind effect is extremely useful because it effectively gives your team additional time to damage enemies. Shadow also provides a damage increase to magical units, allowing it to contribute both control and support.
3. Puppet Telekinetic
Puppet has one of the strongest emergency control abilities in the game. Complete Control can move enemies backward for a short period, which can save a run when a boss or group of fast enemies gets dangerously close to the base.
Because Puppet also provides damage amplification and other utility, it remains useful even when its crowd control is not the main reason you bring it.
4. Razor Jaw Hunter
Razor Jaw combines damage with crowd control. Its Roar performs an area attack, applies stagger, and can increase its critical chance depending on how many enemies are hit.
Endless Slashes also allows Razor Jaw to move across the path while attacking enemies. This makes it useful against enemies that manage to get past your main defensive area.
5. String Demon Awaken
String Demon Awaken uses Cocoon of Carnage to control enemies. After enough regular attacks, it can cocoon enemies and keep them stunned until the cocoon is destroyed or the effect expires.
The cocoon also receives additional hits before breaking, allowing String Demon to provide both control and extra damage.
6. Eighth Sword Berserk
Eighth Sword Berserk is primarily a DPS unit, but it also provides crowd control through Dismembered. This effect permanently reduces enemy movement speed.
That makes Eighth Sword particularly valuable because it does not sacrifice its main damage role just to provide control.
7. Cubert
Cubert is one of the most interesting additions from Update 1. It can attach cubes to other units, and those cubes can activate additional effects after the attached unit performs enough regular attacks.
The explosions deal extra damage and apply stun. Fast-attacking units can therefore trigger Cubert’s effects more frequently, allowing it to provide repeated crowd control while also supporting the team.
8. Bio Insect Final Form
Bio Insect is another major crowd control addition. In Semi-Perfect Form, its attacks apply Biogel to enemies.
Biogel slows enemies by 60% for five seconds. When the effect expires, the enemy is stunned for three seconds. This combination makes Bio Insect one of the strongest control options, particularly in long game modes where it has enough time to reach its stronger forms.
9. Carrot Unleashed
Carrot can also provide crowd control after reaching 30 Fighting Spirit and transforming. The transformation allows it to stagger enemies within its range.
It is not as consistent as Salmon Sorcerer or Bio Insect, but being able to combine strong damage with an area stagger effect gives Carrot additional value.
Best Support Units
Support characters can sometimes have a bigger impact on a run than another DPS unit. Instead of simply attacking enemies, these units make your main carries stronger or help them deal with specific mechanics.
1. Puppet Telekinetic
Puppet is arguably one of the most universal supports available. Marionet’s Gaze periodically marks the strongest unmarked enemy in its range, causing that enemy to receive 20% more damage from all sources.
This is especially effective against bosses and elite enemies. Puppet can also create dolls that block enemies, while Complete Control provides a rewind effect.
That means one slot can provide damage amplification, blocking, and crowd control.
2. Shadow Divine
Shadow is one of the strongest support options for magical teams. Shadow Realm can rewind enemies while increasing the damage dealt by magical units by 25% for a limited period.
Using this effect during an important boss wave can give your magical carries more time to attack while also increasing their damage.
3. Crow Blackfire
Crow is particularly valuable in stages with shield mechanics. Its Blackfire effects can remove enemy shields while continuing to deal damage.
Shielded enemies inside Crow’s range can also receive Blackfire stacks, making Crow an excellent counter when shields become a major obstacle.
4. Cubert
Cubert is one of the strongest new support units because its cubes can directly increase another unit’s performance.
Each attached cube can increase the target’s damage by 5% and range by 3%. Multiple cubes can work together, while the cubes can also perform additional attacks and trigger stuns.
This makes Cubert surprisingly flexible. It can support physical teams, magical teams, critical-based characters, transformation teams, and follow-up attack compositions.
5. Bio Insect Final Form
Bio Insect provides several support effects while also becoming a powerful damage dealer. In its earlier form, it can copy part of the strongest unit’s base damage and increase that unit’s damage.
After reaching Semi-Perfect Form, it can create Mini Bio Insects. These summons inherit part of Bio Insect’s current damage and can provide another damage increase to the strongest unit within their range.
This gives Bio Insect a combination of personal damage, buffs, summons, and crowd control.
6. The Drink Juice Box
The Drink works best in physical and follow-up attack teams. Its Precision Slash applies a special mark to enemies after enough regular attacks.
Marked enemies take additional follow-up attack damage and become more vulnerable to physical damage. This makes The Drink especially effective alongside characters such as Carrot and String Demon.
7. Vegetable Prince
Vegetable Prince is designed around transformation teams. When another unit transforms inside its range, Vegetable can immediately trigger its own transformation while also giving the other transformed unit a damage increase.
This makes Vegetable particularly effective with characters such as:
- Carrot
- The Drink
- Prodigy
- Bio Insect
- Other transformation-based units
Its support is more specialized than Puppet’s, but the effect can be very strong when the entire team is built around transformations.
Best Utility Units
Utility units provide mechanics that are difficult to replace with ordinary damage dealers. They can copy attacks, block enemies, reposition characters, move along the path, or activate additional attacks.
1. Cursed Student True Love
Cursed Student is one of the strongest utility units because of Cursed Mimicry. Every third regular attack can copy an attack from the closest unit within its range.
Placement is extremely important here. You want Cursed Student next to one of your strongest damage dealers rather than a farm or support unit.
For example, placing it beside Eighth Sword can allow it to copy a much more powerful attack and significantly increase its value.
2. Cursed Immortal Black Sun
Cursed Immortal Black Sun has a unique playstyle because it does not simply stay in one location. Instead, it moves along the path and continuously damages enemies inside its aura.
Its Black Magic meter changes between different states, giving it different attack areas and damage characteristics.
This makes Cursed Immortal very different from traditional stationary units.
3. Toy Maker
Toy Maker creates toys along paths inside its range. These toys can block enemies and give your other units more time to attack.
When the toys are destroyed, they can also deal area damage. Every fifth summoning cycle can produce stronger mutated toys.
Toy Maker is particularly useful on maps where blocking enemies can significantly extend the amount of time your DPS units have to attack.
4. String Demon Awaken
String Demon also provides utility through String Sync. Nearby units can perform follow-up attacks whenever String Demon attacks.
This can activate other follow-up mechanics and makes String Demon particularly effective in teams built around The Drink and other follow-up characters.
5. Hollowlaze
Hollowlaze is designed for burn-based teams. It converts burn effects into Austere Flames, giving additional value to characters that consistently apply burn.
Flame Emperor is one of its strongest partners because it can spread burn across multiple enemies. Hollowlaze is more specialized than universal utility characters, but the correct team can make excellent use of its conversion mechanic.
6. Carrot Unleashed
Carrot’s relocation ability gives it one of the most interesting utility mechanics in the update.
When targeting another unit, Carrot relocates and both characters immediately perform follow-up attacks for 75% of their current damage. This can activate additional follow-up effects from other characters.
Carrot can also relocate to an empty position. When doing so, it performs a follow-up attack and gains 50% more damage for 15 seconds.
This gives players more control over positioning while also creating additional damage opportunities.
Best DPS Units
DPS units are the characters that should normally receive the majority of your upgrades. Their main job is to eliminate enemies as quickly as possible, especially bosses and high-health targets.
1. Dark Mage Sovereign
Dark Mage Sovereign continues to be one of the strongest magical damage dealers. Its attack cycle switches between Ice and Lightning.
The Ice side can freeze and apply Frostbite before creating additional area damage, while Lightning provides a larger attack and leaves damaging effects along the path.
Because Dark Mage combines damage, area coverage, and crowd control, it remains useful in many different situations.
2. Eighth Sword Berserk
Eighth Sword Berserk is still one of the strongest pure DPS choices. Its abilities provide continuous damage, additional attacks, and special effects against weakened enemies.
As it gets enough takedowns, its Berserk State improves its performance by increasing damage and reducing attack cooldown while adding additional effects.
It is especially effective when paired with supports that increase its damage or help enemies remain inside its attack range.
3. Shadow Divine
Shadow is not only a support unit. Its own damage can also be very strong, especially when combined with its other mechanics.
Its permanent Spirit summon, stun, rewind, and magical damage buff allow it to contribute to several different parts of a team at once.
4. Crow Blackfire
Crow remains an excellent damage dealer for bosses and shield-heavy stages. Its Illusion mechanic stores damage dealt to enemies and releases additional damage when the effect ends.
Combined with its ability to remove shields, Crow can provide excellent sustained damage while also countering one of the more annoying enemy mechanics.
5. Puppet Telekinetic
Puppet has enough personal damage to qualify as a DPS option while still providing some of the best support and control mechanics in the game.
Its combination of damage amplification, rewind, blocking dolls, and personal damage makes it difficult to replace with another unit that performs only one role.
6. Elf Mage Unleashed
Elf Mage remains one of the strongest mythical damage options. Regular attacks generate Arcane Charges, which eventually allow Elf Mage to cast additional spells.
These attacks can cover lines, circles, and larger areas. Mana Burn and Overcharge further improve the damage of its magical abilities.
With enough upgrades, Elf Mage can provide strong wave clear without sacrificing boss damage.
7. Cursed Student True Love
Cursed Student can become an excellent DPS option when its copied attacks come from a powerful unit.
Its performance depends heavily on positioning, so it should be placed next to a high-damage character. When used correctly, its follow-up attacks can provide a significant amount of additional damage.
8. Crimson Brother
Crimson Brother applies Crimson Marks that can cause enemies to explode and leave damaging pools behind.
Its Piercing Crimson ability can repeatedly attack toward a selected point, making it useful against bosses and groups of enemies.
9. Lady Giant Envy
Lady Giant Envy is a strong and relatively affordable DPS choice. It has multiple placements, can create stone walls, and gains an additional rock attack after a certain number of regular attacks.
Its Giant form temporarily increases its damage and range, making it a useful option when you need a reliable damage dealer without building an extremely specialized team.
All Best Units in the Current Meta
The highest category is reserved for units that do much more than simply deal damage. These characters combine multiple valuable mechanics and can remain useful across different modes and team compositions.
Dark Mage Sovereign
Dark Mage remains one of the strongest magical units because it combines several important roles.
Its Ice and Lightning cycles provide different forms of area damage, while Ice gives it access to freeze and Frostbite effects. Lightning provides additional path damage.
This means Dark Mage can deal damage while also controlling enemies and clearing waves.
Shadow Divine
Shadow Divine is arguably one of the most complete units in Anime Expeditions.
It provides:
- High damage
- Permanent summons
- Stuns
- Enemy rewind
- Magical damage buffs
- Strong utility
Its ability to perform several roles at once makes it valuable in both normal teams and specialized magical compositions.
Eighth Sword Berserk
Eighth Sword remains one of the best choices for players who simply need a powerful carry.
Its consistent damage, additional attacks, weakening effects, and Berserk progression allow it to remain effective throughout difficult content.
Even though it focuses heavily on damage, its movement-speed reduction effect also gives it some crowd control value.
Crow Blackfire
Crow continues to stand out against bosses and shielded enemies.
Its stored damage mechanic provides strong additional damage, while Blackfire allows it to continuously remove enemy shields.
This combination makes Crow more than a normal DPS character because it can directly counter a mechanic that can otherwise slow down your entire team.
Puppet Telekinetic
Puppet remains one of the safest units to include in almost any team.
Its 20% incoming damage mark can increase the team’s overall damage against important enemies. It can also block enemies with dolls and rewind enemies with Complete Control.
Having all of these mechanics in one slot is why Puppet continues to be one of the most universal choices.
Prodigy Rage
Prodigy Rage is the first major new unit to enter the top meta group.
Its transformations provide repeated area attacks, while its status-effect passive allows it to scale against enemies affected by different debuffs.
Father and Son Spirit Energy adds powerful focused damage, making Prodigy useful for both clearing groups and dealing with bosses.
Its biggest strength is the ability to become even stronger when the rest of the team consistently applies status effects.
Bio Insect Final Form
Bio Insect earns its position because it can eventually perform almost every important role.
It can copy damage, buff nearby units, slow and stun enemies, summon Mini Bio Insects, increase its range, improve its area attacks, and permanently scale through Bio Reset.
It takes longer to reach full strength than many other units, but that investment pays off in extended game modes.
Cubert
Cubert is the other major new unit that reaches the top category.
While Cubert is not necessarily your main DPS, its cubes can increase damage and range, create additional attacks, and stun enemies.
More importantly, you control which units receive the cubes. This makes Cubert useful with many different team archetypes.
It can work with:
- Physical teams
- Magical teams
- Critical teams
- Transformation teams
- Follow-up teams
- Fast-attacking units
Multiple Cuberts can also work together to create a larger cube network, making coordinated teams even stronger.
The Best New Physical Team
Carrot, The Drink, and Vegetable are particularly interesting because their abilities complement each other.
A strong setup can revolve around:
- Carrot: Creates follow-up attacks and provides strong critical damage.
- The Drink: Improves follow-up attacks and applies physical weakness.
- Vegetable: Gains power from nearby attacks and benefits from transformations.
String Demon can also be added because its String Sync mechanic creates additional follow-up attacks.
This setup can become one of the strongest physical teams introduced with the update, although it requires more specific team building than units such as Prodigy, Bio Insect, or Cubert.
The current Anime Expeditions meta heavily favors powerful DPS characters supported by strong economy and utility units. S Tier options like Shadow (Divine), Puppet (Telekinetic), Cursed Student (True Love), and 8th Sword (Berserk) are among the best investments for long-term progression, while True Saint (Holy) remains one of the strongest free units available for new players. Pair these characters with Roman or Stone Alchemist to maintain a healthy economy during battles, and you’ll have a team capable of clearing Story Mode, farming resources efficiently, and tackling endgame challenges with confidence.