Phantom Blade: Executioners - Phantoms tier list
S-GAME’s new title, Phantom Blade: Executioners is a bloody, grim take on the ARPG genre, a welcome change from what has been a fairly sanitised genre as of late. And, naturally, when it comes to different characters you can use, the question remains - who’s good, who’s bad and who’s trash?
Phantom Blade: Executioners features characters called Phantoms that you collect in a similar manner to gacha games, slowly unlocking and building your roster. Each of these characters is, in the story, referred to as a sort of “memory” of a past martial arts master in the world of Phantom Blade. By synchronising them to the skills you use during battle you gain a significant stat boost to your attack, but that’s just the start as, like collectible characters in other games, some have unique perks and abilities that differentiate them.
Not only that but rather than traditional blurbs about a character’s backstory, you slowly unlock the stories of each phantom as you upgrade their character. Beginning with a short, enigmatic description and eventually unravelling the entire history of who these past master martial artists once were.
It’s all a little confusing, right? But basically, consider them upgrades rather than characters, even though they have their own unique look and character card. Figuring out which is worth what can still be difficult, however, even with extra resources like the excellent - and surprisingly extensive - Phantom Blade fan wiki available to players.
That’s where our tier list comes in, we’ve ranked every currently available character, or “Phantom” in Phantom Blade: Executioners to give you the headstart on understanding and planning out your play style as you leap into the game. We’ll be leaving out the Phantoms known as “Fodder” as these are designed purely to upgrade your other Phantoms and aren’t technically meant to be used the same way as the others.
So without further ado let’s get started.
Original article by Iwan Morris. Updated by Mihail Katsoris.
1
S Tier
- Regina Fatale
- Darkness Aroma
- Ruthless Black
- Life Reaver
- Merciless White
Image courtesy of the Phantom Blade wiki
Phantoms in the S Tier provide a massive boost to your character’s abilities and the most useful perks. In this tier, you’re looking at those that’ll drastically change your playstyle. Like some of the recent games we’ve covered, there’s a great deal of debate about which to place in this tier, however, there seems to be a general consensus that these characters are currently the peak for Phantoms within the game.
Ruthless Black for example offers an excellent ability that lets you recover health after defeating elite enemies and bosses. For a game which is surprisingly difficult, with a lot of moving parts, this can be a huge boon for keeping you in the fight for longer without having to waste precious revives.
2
A Tier
- Demonic Soul
- Orphan’s Legacy
- Lone Blade
- Lady Moon
- Virid Twinblade
- Deus Ex
- Past Master
- Evil Healer
- Evil Punisher
- Lethal Gaze
- Rose of Thorns
Image courtesy of the Phantom Blade wiki
For A tier we’re looking at characters that don’t quite make it to S tier but are almost always worth using to boost your skills. These kinds of Phantoms may be slotted out in favour of an S tier phantom, but if you don’t have one of those available, they should almost always be your pick above any other.
Lone Blade and Lady Moon are also unique examples, as they are at their most potent when paired together to activate their unique ability. This makes them both extremely useful, however, the nature and difficulty of acquiring them means they both get the same high tier but don’t shoot above to S.
3
B Tier
- Deadly Hook
- Burning Fire
- Ironspawn
- Snake Eyes
- Unmelting Ice
- Dark Lord
- Endless Night
- Eternal Will
- In a Wheel
- Mecha Emperor
Image courtesy of the Phantom Blade wiki
B tier is where you’ll find Phantoms that have general utility and are pretty good in almost all situations. However, because they’re conditional or because their stats don’t measure up they remain here, but not consigned to the lower tiers. This may include characters that provide simple, significant boosts and don’t need other characters to sync with.
Deadly Hook for example is one of the first characters that you’ll get in-game. While their effect is nothing special - a simple damage boost - their perk that adds a unique synced skill which fires out three grappling hooks means that you can easily reposition enemies while doing a hefty 50% damage at the same time. It’s not exactly groundbreaking, but very useful when used correctly.
4
C Tier
- Hammer Smash!
- Fallen Saint
- Cleaved Mountain
- Source of Wrath
- Hiddensword
- Orphan’s Legacy
- Tangs Outcast
- Rueful Mother
Image courtesy of the Phantom Blade wiki
This tier is where we’re placing less useful characters, those that don’t manage to distinguish themselves from others. They can be useful in the right circumstances, or for filling out your other skills, but these Phantoms aren’t anything at all exceptional and don’t necessarily even reach the rank of workhorses in your common skillset. Some may also be good…but require major tradeoffs that make them much less of a sure thing than other, easier-to-use Phantoms.
We’ve also brought up some of the more common characters from D tier, mainly because they offer more substantial stat-boots which actually let them shine somewhat. They’re still not exactly ideal for use, but they can at least help bolster your stats if you’re finding using particular mechanics difficult enough to warrant it. In particular, we focused on attack, since boosting that is a lot better for helping players who are competent enough to land hits than padding their HP or defence.
5
D Tier
- Assistant
- Mergeling
- Crazy Healer
- Swordsman
- Swordswoman
- Sword Martyr
- Staff Guard
- Thrower
- Justice Spear
- Bomber
- Vajra Protector
- Mage
- Dhuta
- Hussar
- Researcher
- Zither Fiend
Image courtesy of the Phantom Blade wiki
Well, we’ve said it before but D tier is where the most lacklustre characters go, and unfortunately, when it comes to large casts of characters - even those used for upgrades in the case of Phantoms - you’re always going to have those that aren’t distinguishing themselves in any way.
We chose to go for characters that only offer stat boosts because the issue with these characters is that the advantage they offer is marginal, and can really be discounted simply by mastering the tools the game offers you. If you’re really hurting and need boosts to HP for example, simply not getting hit and learning to consistently do so will probably be more useful than what these offer you. In other words, like some other low-tier characters you’ll only ever use them when you’ve got nothing at all better.
Characters in this tier like the Swordsman and Swordswoman offer nothing apart from a slim boost to your stats, such as attack or defence. And given that you already gain some fairly decent Phantoms with your first few pulls there’s little reason to use these in any circumstances except to experiment or if you’re exceptionally desperate for that small boost.
