This is a collaborative project where anyone can contribute to create a complete and definitive Tier List for Arena Battle Mode in Skylanders Swap Force.
As before, I’ve copy+pasted the final ‘Giants tier list for us to use as our starting point. The rest is up to you guys to discuss where each Skylander, old and new, should be placed or moved until we can make this Tier List as complete and accurate as it can possibly be. With all the new game mechanics added in Swap Force, there will likely be many changes to the playing field that we’ll need to discover, so we have a lot of work ahead of us!
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>> NOTICES - Please read! <<
- A lot of properties of the old pre-Swap Force Skylanders such as damage numbers and attack speeds have dramatically changed. Many of their Tier positions from ‘Giants aren’t correct any more, so to help us re-arrange them so we can start putting the new Skylanders in, the S Tier has been condensed down to the basic set of the most overpowered Skylanders, with the rest moved down to the (now very bloated) A Tier. We now need to focus our efforts on the A Tier by test-battling all of its Skylanders against each other and moving those Skylanders down or up tiers where appropriate. Remember that a Skylander only qualifies for S Tier if it can compete with some of the overpowered Skylanders that are currently in the new S Tier.
While we’re doing this, any new information about the new Skylanders in Swap Force is appreciated as always, but keep in mind that we may not be moving the new Skylanders into tiers much until we’ve re-arranged most of the old Skylanders first. - It’s currently undecided how we will account for the Swapping mechanic of the “Swaplanders” in the tier list. The TEMPORARY MEASURE is that we will only be making listings for all four upgrade combinations of the MATCHING top/bottom halves only (IE: Wash Buckler and Blast Zone but not Wash Zone or Blast Buckler) until we can establish a better method of dealing with the combination mechanic. I am open to all suggestions for how this could be done!
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Post Guide:
1st Post: Information
2nd Post: Tier List (All versions of the game)
3rd Post: Unsorted Skylanders list (All versions of the game)
4th Post: Unused
5th Post: Unused
6th Post: Unused
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How Things Work:
- This Tier List only applies to PvP / Arena Battle Mode and no other modes!
- There is currently only one list for all versions the game. Separate tier lists for certain versions will be made if any mechanical differences between versions are discovered.
- There is an individual listing for both upgrade paths of each “Series” of every Skylander, as well as any variants that impact on gameplay. Series 2 variants are marked with “S2”. Series 3 variants are referred to by their full names.
- Giants and Swaplanders are (currently) included on the same list amongst the other Skylanders.
- LightCore variants, Legendary variants and colour variants (eg: Dark Spyro) are not listed. Assume they are in the same tier as their normal variant.
- IMPORTANT: Skylanders are not listed by order of power within each tier, so there’s no such thing as "upper" or "mid" B Tier, etc. The Skylanders are actually arranged in each tier by element groups in the following order: Magic>Tech>Earth>Air>Fire>Water>Life>Undead. Within each element, the Skylanders are listed as follows: Original Skylanders>Series 2 Newlanders>Giants>Series 3 Newlanders>Swaplanders
- This Tier List assumes all characters to have completed an equal number of Heroic Challenges, the effects of which being otherwise negligible.
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HOW TO POST IN THIS THREAD:
When deciding in what tier a Skylander should go in this thread, we like to be thorough, so simply posting things like “Character X should be in Y Tier. Character P should be in Q Tier. Etc” isn’t enough.
Remember that the Tiers are not just a "power rating" of sorts that shows how good people think a Skylander is: To qualify for being in a particular Tier, the Skylander has to be able to compete with most of the other Skylanders in that Tier, whilst also not being able to compete with some of the Skylanders in the Tier above. Only after you're sure of these two things should you propose what Tier a Skylander should be in!
If you want to help out in this thread, a good post should do the following:
- Back up your suggestion about a character’s tier with a reason. For example, you could use an experience you had while playing with or against that character.
- Tell us what combat strategy you are using with/against that character: What attacks are you using, how are you using them, and why does it work? How is the opponent’s character attacking you in return, and is it effective?
- Compare that character with the other characters in the nearby tiers! Tell us why your character is as good as the other characters in the tier you are suggesting, better than the characters in the tier below, and maybe even why the character is not good enough for the tier above.
- Finally, do not be afraid to tell us about what is wrong with a character as well! A character can be good enough to be in a certain tier even despite a few disadvantages.
Some Battle/Research Tips:
- Think about the skill level of your opponent relative to you. Ideally, you should try to ensure your opponent is as good at the game as you are, and that neither of you have anything to prove or disprove.
- Ensure that the competing Skylanders are equal in level, and either have no Heroic Challenges completed or all Heroic Challenges completed.
- You may wish to avoid having power-ups, food or even Arena Hazards.
- If you want completely fair ‘tests’ for research purposes, then make most things random such as the arena, what Skylanders are used and which player controls which Skylander.
- EDIT: From Earth-Dragon: "My suggestion for anyone who really wants to make a good list is to avoid testing and recommending on your favorite characters. I hardly give my 2 cents on Terrafin or Gill Grunt cause I can't tell if I want Gill Grunt higher because he really should be higher or if I just like him."
See also: Nibelilt's Tier List Clarifications Thread! //forum.darkspyro.net/spy...php?topic=60463
FINAL DISCLAIMER: Of course, these tier lists, as with any tier list for any game, are only meant to be taken as guidelines for the purely objective ability of each Skylander in an imaginary situation where the two opponents are of equal skill. In a real life situation, different people have different skills, strategies and play styles, so you should always remember that it’s these factors that ultimately decide the effectiveness of each Skylander you use. You should go by your personal play styles and use the Skylanders you like instead of going by everything on these tier lists!