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Best Low Tier Characters in Fighting Games You Should Try
Not every character is equal, but even the worst on the tier list can have an impact. Whether winning tournaments or just annoying your friends with knowledge checks, try out these fighters.
Over time, developers have made gains when it comes to creating a roster that is balanced from release. This wasn’t always the case, sometimes resulting in balance being all over the place with characters so broken they required being heavy nerfs or even outright bans.
Games like Dragon Ball FighterZ, for example, had characters struggle forever until the developers got a clearer idea of where they wanted to take them. Beerus is now considered one of the strongest characters, despite being at the bottom of the tier list for years.
Some characters haven’t gotten that kind of love, staying at the bottom for their game's lifespan. Those poor unfortunate souls can still be worth playing and even shock players who aren’t prepared to take advantage of the low tier’s weaknesses.
Big body problems
In a fight, being fast and unpredictable is a trait that many of the best characters possess. The hulking, ‘up close and personal’, titans are simply going to have a harder time moving around the screen. Their slow attacks give players a large window to evade the startup and come packaged with a lengthy recovery to punish. This is perhaps the most common low tier archetype.
Some giants do shine at the top of tier lists, such as Abigail in season 3 of Street Fighter V, but often their build and fighting style works against them. The reason developers anchor these characters down is because they know they have to restrain these monsters. If they could move quickly across the stage, the damage they’re capable of would devastate the roster, be it through grabs or monstrous pressure. These characters can melt health in the right situations.
Jack 7, Tekken 7
Jack Tekken 7
© Bandai Namco
Jack is the icon of big body low tier heroes. He’s been a permanent fixture in the series, but in Tekken’s 7th mainline installment, he’s on the lower end of the tier list. Despite this, America’s premier player, Anakin has always used him and sees immense success.
Jack’s a huge character, relative to the rest of the cast, and lacks the movement speed high level Tekken is known for. He also lacks variety, considering some characters in Tekken have movelists with a daunting amount of options. Not Jack. But this simplicity is also his strength.
Anakin uses his mastery of Jack’s simple gameplan to force the opponent to play by his rules. His ability to wade through the suffocating top tier characters and set up his own field is ridiculous and Jack is the perfect vessel for him to display this. Anakin uses the threat of Jack’s Jackhammer to get in the opponent’s head, and read their response. He builds on this by poking with lows, and forcing his opponent to consider his next move very carefully.
Potemkin, Guilty Gear
Potemkin Guilty Gear
© Arc System Works
Before Guilty Gear Xrd, Potemkin was a good character. However, in the last two installments of this series, Potemkin has been near the bottom if not the worst character in the game. He can’t run like a lot of the other characters can. He actually has no dash whatsoever, not even an airdash. Slow buttons, lack of pressure in the middle of the screen and very committal approach options (Hammer Fall) keep him from darting across the battlefield like most of the cast can.
He can do damage, though. Potemkin’s signature move, Potemkin Buster, is a devastating command grab. This move does almost a third of most characters' health. Its speed is tied with the fastest JABS in the game. His backdash is invincible for all 20 frames except the very last, and a single frame to punish his backdash means you can often turn the opponent’s oki against them.
Most people know Potemkin for his grab, but he has some of the highest damage corner combos with the right hits. From the universal overhead, 5D, Potemkin can stun and kill characters outright with enough resources. On lower health characters, he can TOD them with zero initial meter.
FAB, one of the greatest Guilty Gear players ever, has always used Potemkin. They’ve taken the character further than anyone else in the last stretch of years. Reaching EVO finals for Guilty Gear Xrd in 2018. Doing all that with a character most people consider to be the worst in the game is a feat that deserves so much respect.
Hyper offense, but lacking otherwise
Fighting games are all about being the most efficient at reducing your opponent's health to zero. The challenges on the way to this goal are unique to each character. Stereotypical bottom tiers are lacking in a variety of ways in comparison to the rest of the cast.
Sometimes only one or two things might hold a character back from being great, if not top tier. Power comes in all types of ways, and these characters' strengths are often just as good as the characters at the opposite end of the tier list.
Videl, Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Videl DBFZ
© Bandai Namco
In DBFZ, oppressive, mixup oriented offense is favoured rather than enforcing frame advantage and preying on gambling with the opponent’s defensive options. Videl has many strengths, foremost being her mixup potential.
With her special move ,Videl Rush, she can get in and chain into an overhead or opt to do her crossover kick, which is commandingly plus on block. From any of these options, she can call her assist and create 50/50s. Videl can follow any of these up with a command grab, making it much harder to defend against her mixups.
Videl notoriously has the ability to continue combos with her air launcher, down + heavy in the air. She is the only character in the game who doesn’t need the “Smash!” property to super dash after her air launcher.
Videl is also no slouch on defense, with an invincible reversal knee, and a wakeup counter super that powers up her helper, The Great Saiyaman.
There is one core thing about DBFZ that Videl is lacking: reflect. Reflect (4S) makes your character invincible to physical and ki attacks (still vulnerable to throws). When Videl inputs 4S, she dodges instead of reflecting. Characters’ attacks will simply pass through her. This sounds strong, but it often leaves her in dangerous situations where a successful reflect would have pushed the opponent away, creating an advantage for the defender.
Despite this, Videl still sees representation at a high level. Players have won big regional events such as Summer Jam 2021 using her.
Rainbow Mika, Street Fighter V
Rainbow Mika SFV
© Capcom
R Mika has some faults. She has stubby normals in a game all about footsies and knowing your opponents range. Without much in the way of projectiles, she relies on commitment heavy neutral tools like her slide, as well as her dropkick to try to force plus frames.
Once she gets in though? R Mika is absolutely fear inducing. With her terrifying command grab game, she destroys health bars if you guess wrong. If you hold the throw, she can often continue her pressure as she dashes up on your wakeup.
R Mika has had to contend with other characters with oppressively strong v triggers and lengthy normals that keep her out, but still remains as a pretty popular character. NuckleDu, one of the best NA SFV players has used her for years, winning Capcom Cup 2016 and sustaining high results despite Mika’s tier placement getting lower and lower.
Luffy, a french player with a long fighting game history also uses R Mika, and has been placing very well for the games entire lifespan.
Team 300%, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
UMVC3 Dante, X-23, Ironman
© Capcom
To close the list out, we decided to have an entire team strategy rather than just one character. Featuring Dante, X23 and Iron Man in that order, this team is the definition of all or nothing.
Dante is a popular, strong character who’s often seen at least in high tier on anyone’s tier list. X23 and Iron Man? Not even close, but, they each have their own key strength that the strategy relies on.
X23’s 3 bar super makes her invisible, and the next attack she lands is unblockable. Coupled with Dante’s Jam Session assist, this creates an impossible situation for the defender. After a kill, as the opponent’s next character is coming in, assuming the setup is performed correctly, they have virtually zero answer to the command grab after getting locked down by Dante’s assist.
The question is how do you get that first kill to set up that situation. Well, Iron Man is the answer. Dante starts the game playing neutral as normal, but on any hit, he’ll tag into Iron Man using a Team Aerial Combo (TAC). TACs are bugged in UMvC3 so,if you limit grounded contact to 1 frame at a time, the hitstun of the combo doesn’t scale properly, therefore enabling infinites. Not everyone has access to infinites, but Iron Man has a plethora to choose from. Killing with the infinite leaves the player with the meter to set up X23’s super, and boom, the game is probably over.
X23 is subpar by herself, and Iron Man can fly but isn’t nearly the quick moving threat someone like Magneto can be. Combining their abilities and using Dante as the crux of the operation yields immense payoff if you hang in there.
Dapvip is THE Team 300% player. There’s footage of him playing this team from nine years ago, and he still plays it today. Featured in many exhibitions and tournaments, he often takes the game before the opponent has had a chance to do a combo.
These players prove you can play anyone you want in most games. People who put in effort are usually rewarded in fighting games, and it’s a key thing developers want to continue incentivizing. Games from 20 years ago have yet to be figured out, and strategies and styles of play are waiting to be found that will turn the meta on its head. These players found what worked for them, and saw success most players only dream of.
