History Main / CharacterTiers

*** The characters introduced through DLC have all been unique cases similar to Little Mac or Ike from ''Brawl'' in that at first, they tend to perform well if not dominate the meta game until players get enough match up familiarity to counter them. Of all the characters introduced through DLC, Mewtwo was initially considered to still be a low-tier mess, even after having been buffed from ''Melee'', until a series of patches nullified or alleviated most of his weaknesses and turned him into a viable high-tier fighter. Fellow ''Melee'' veteran Roy wasn't as lucky and remains low on the tier list, largely due to his bad approach. Lucas plays about the same as he did in ''Brawl'' as a low/mid tier character. Ryu is considered to be high-tier, since his being a JackOfAllStats in his home series plus his combo oriented style of play from said series translates well to a ''Smash Bros.'' game.

*** Corrin is currently perceived as a solid mid to mid-high tier because of his/her unique shapeshifting moves and an ability to pin his/her opponents into the ground which can then be cancelled into another move.
*** Bayonetta was so overpowered at release due to her absolutely killer aerial game and combo ability that an infamous patch was dedicated solely to nerfing her ''and no one else'', bringing her down from unquestionably the best fighter in the game to just very, very good.

** '''P Tier''': The bottom (Potato) tier. Consists of characters who [[ArtificialStupidity have no AI]], very poorly made characters, {{JokeCharacter}}s, and those that [[CantCatchUp just can't keep up with the more modern B Tier fighters]]. With good reason, it has been DemotedToExtra due to how boring the fights can get. Even though P Tier tourneys have been discontinued and matches no longer show up in matchmaking, Gold members can free just about ''any'' of them for an in-game price and request them in exhibitions (either to see if there are any promising characters unfairly put in or just to troll the viewers).

* '''Mid Tier''': The "[[TheRedMage average]]" guys. They are usually here because they have an advantage over at least one Top or God tier character, but have too many flaws to be used effectively elsewhere.

** Character who sit in their God Tiers are generally those who influence the game in a much bigger extent than the rest of the cast, such as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Caeda and Rena]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Sigurd]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Hector]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Ephraim]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius POR!Boyd and ROlf, and RD!Haar]], and then there's [[GameBreaker Robin]] -- the PlayerCharacter [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening from ''Awakening'']].

* ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'''s hundreds of character combos haven't been ranked into complicated tiers, but the many gods available have. They are usually divided like this:
** High: Kikubaaqudgha, Okawaru, Sif Muna, The Shining One, Trog, and Vehumet
** Middle: Beogh, Elyvilon, Lugonu, Makhleb, and Yredremnul
** Low: Ashenzari, Cheibrados, Fedhas Madash, Jiyva, Nemelex Xobeh, Xom, and Zin.
*** Actually, the race/class combos are tiered right when the player starts a new game. Upon selecting a race, the class options are either lighted (recommended) or not (not recommended). After picking a qualifying combo, starting weapon type or starting god are ranked in similar way.
*** Though all the gods except Cheibriados and Xom are all regarded as very powerful, it's just some are harder to use than others

All of the above notwithstanding, some players simply don't give a damn about this trope and will simply use whichever characters they want. It can also be a sort of SelfImposedChallenge. After all, anybody can probably beat the game with enough practice if they're using a God-tier character . Beating it while using a Low- or Bottom-Tier character is a BraggingRightsReward in and of itself.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': The competitive ''Smash'' community maintains tier lists for each game decided upon by top level players on Smash Boards. Most tournaments are composed exclusively of high and top-tier characters, because other characters are generally seen as too weak or too finicky to be competitive. Special tournaments are sometimes run where players are restricted to playing mid-tier and below characters.
** The original game on Nintendo 64 has a small cast of 12 fighters making for a much closer gap character balance wise. Isai, a well known smash 64 player, is known for being the only player in the 64 community to be consistently good ''with all 12 characters'' in tournament play.
*** Melee tournaments often feature both Star Fox reps, Sheik, Marth, Jigglypuff, Princess Peach, Captain Falcon, and the occasional use of the Ice Climbers, Pikachu, Yoshi, Dr. Mario, etc. Special note goes to Fox and Falco who are considered the best and second best characters in the Melee metagame respectively due to being good at just about everything. The former has [[SomeDexterityRequired a high learning curve]] ) but when properly played is a sight to behold. In fact, Fox is so good that a community meme known as 20xx was spawned as a result. [[labelnote:Explanation]] 20xx is a hypothetical year in which the meta game has been pushed as far as it can go making Fox the only character worth playing anymore. Of course, every Fox is played to perfection and as a result, rock paper scissor matches are held for port priority. Whoever wins that wins the actual match. [[/labelnote]]
** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' has a single borderline god-tier character - Metaknight. Universally considered the best character in the game, he dominates most of the cast with extremely fast and safe attacks, excellent recovery and edgeguarding capabilities, and unrivaled ledge game. He has one or two matchups against other top tiers that ''might'' be considered 50-50, but many are skeptical. He was been dominant enough in the competitive scene for many fans, and some tournaments, to support banning him.
*** After MetaKnight are the Ice Climbers who some would argue are better than MetaKnight in some ways due to being too good with chaingrabs.
** Brawl also has the odd case of King Dedede, who isn't generically overpowered, but is so strong against a small number of characters that those characters are essentially non-viable in tournaments.
** Thanks to the occasional balance patch and a roster that's ten times more balanced than Brawl's was, the tier lists in ''For 3DS/Wii U'' has a case similar to ''Street Fighter 4''[='s=] where the bad characters aren't that much worse compared to the top tiers and even bottom-tier characters are capable of impressive tournament placing, given some effort. That said, pre 1.06 patch, Diddy Kong was seen by many as the new Meta Knight due to a frustratingly good down throw to up-air combo many came to call "Hoo-hah". [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome It got so ridiculous that at one point, it was common to see Grand Finals of Smash 4 tournaments where both players used him.]] Diddy ended up getting nerfed throughout two different patches; although initially perceived to have dropped from top to high tier, players who mained him discovered that although he was indeed less powerful in certain areas, his greatest strengths remain untouched, and he retains his top-level placement.
*** With that said, Sheik, a character who was already universally considered back in the Melee days to be top tier has since become ''the'' best character in the meta game. Even patches haven't nerfed her all that much if at all.
*** The characters introduced through DLC have all been unique cases similar to Little Mac or Ike from Brawl in that at first, they tend to perform well if not dominate the meta game until players get enough match up familiarity to counter them. Of all the characters introduced through DLC, Mewtwo was initially considered to still be a low-tier mess, even after having been buffed from ''Melee'', until a series of patches nullified or alleviated most of his weaknesses and turned him into a viable high-tier fighter. Fellow ''Melee'' veteran Roy wasn't as lucky and remains low on the tier list, largely due to his bad approach. Lucas plays about the same as he did in ''Brawl'' as a low/mid tier character. Ryu is considered to be high-tier, since his being a JackOfAllStats in his home series plus his combo oriented style of play from said series translates well to a ''Smash Bros.'' game.

* ''StreetFighter III: Third Strike''. It was supposed to make the game more balanced, given the complete and obvious advantages certain characters had over others, and it did so for half the characters. The others simply moved around between tiers

* David Sirlin (who did balancing for StreetFighter and Puzzle Fighter HD Remix) accepts that perfect balance is impossible, as characters with differing abilities will always have advantages and disadvantages over each other, but believes that the God Tier and Garbage Tier should be empty, and that no specific character-versus-character matchup should give more than a 6-4 advantage (meaning that if equally-skilled players play ten matches, the character with the advantage should at most win six and lose four). His own games (Kongai, and especially the tabletop games Puzzle Strike, Flash Duel and Yomi) go through ''years'' of playtesting and tweaking in search of this.
* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'' has 56 characters, and therefore tiers are inevitable. The unique thing is that the current god tier isn't banned, but are actually favoured for tournament play simply because all the options and tactics available to them mean that they're also the most interesting characters to play in the game. There's also the fact that the game is less dependent on individual characters and more on team synergy. Some good teams aren't totally dependent on the god tiers, but instead team them with lower tiered characters who have really good assists that make the overall team stronger.
* In ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'', the Japanese developed a different tier list for the characters (partially because unlike in the United States, the players didn't stop thinking that Anime/{{Karas}} was a broken character), using two tier lists - one for the overall character performance being the point (combat) character and another for the character's assist. Roll isn't considered the lowest tier (she's mid), and her assist is ranked high in the tier list, upping her rank as a JokeCharacter to LethalJokeCharacter.

** In contrast, in ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'', the top 3 in ''CS'' are now Bang Shishigami, Litchi Faye-Ling, and Ragna the Bloodedge - all of whom are combo-oriented characters instead of zoning characters. Litchi has numerous combos which can lead into resets. During one of her combos, she will inevitably (and it WILL always happen) get enough heat to end her combo with a knockdown and follow with her Great Wheel super, which is used to trick the opponent when they get up, repeating the process. If played correctly, she can trap you in a corner and shred you to pieces. Bang went from bottom tier to top due to several of his hitboxes being altered, and many of his moves come out much faster. His basic combos can also deal around 4000-5000 damage. Ragna is like Litchi and Bang combined: he has a large amount of reset opportunities with his new Belial Edge and oki game, but utilizing this takes the simplicity of using Bang.

** ''Continuum Shift Extend'' is also considered to be very well balanced. Thanks to the damage nerf, characters that can produce high damage like Ragna, Valkenhayn and Hakumen tend to be high in tier list.

* Similarly, Koei designed VideoGame/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms and NobunagasAmbition to be historically accurate. As a result, both games are unbalanced, and both have at least one scenario where Cao Cao and OdaNobunaga (respectively) are at least twice as powerful as the second strongest force.

** Thanks to the occasional balance patch and a roster that's ten times more balanced than Brawl's was, the tier lists in ''For 3DS/Wii U'' has a case similar to Street Fighter 4's where the bad characters aren't that much worse compared to the top tiers. That said, pre 1.06 patch, Diddy Kong was seen by many as the new Meta Knight due to a frustratingly good down throw to up-air combo many came to call "Hoo-hah". [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome It got so ridiculous that at one point, it was common to see Grand Finals of Smash 4 tournaments where both players used him.]] Diddy ended up getting nerfed throughout two different patches; although initially perceived to have dropped from top to high tier, players who mained him discovered that although he was indeed less powerful in certain areas, his greatest strengths remain untouched, and he retains his top-level placement.

** In 3rd edition, versatility (how many problems a character can contribute to solving) is often at least as important as power (how powerful the character's abilities are for problems) in tiering. In one popular system, the top tier is characters who, with the right spells prepared, can solve nearly anything the GM can come up with as a standard action. Lesser tiers either have [[CripplingOverspecialization less versatility]] or [[MasterOfNone less power]]. For example, Druids tend to be high/top-tier due to their highly versatile magical powers which include conjuring and purifying food and control the elements as well as the ability to transform into various animals, as are Wizards, who depending on whether or not they prepared the right spells and still have spell slots the cast them, can either be a UselessProtagonist or effectively overcome any challenge; Fighters on the other hand tend to be low-tier as they are unparalleled allies in battle but have few useful skills outside of Intimidate (i.e, outside of a fight, the only thing they're really good for is ''preventing one''). In general, while a character of any tier can be a GameBreaker with the right factors, only a high-tier character can be a [[StoryBreakerPower Story Breaker]] - imagine how ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' would have turned out if Gandalf could teleport any distance, read minds, identify any item instantly, and make anyone [[NoSell immune]] to mental influence... and that was just a fraction of his abilities.

** In 3rd edition, versatility (how many problems a character can contribute to solving) is often at least as important as power (how powerful the character's abilities are for problems) in tiering. In one popular system, the top tier is characters who, with the right spells prepared, can solve nearly anything the GM can come up with as a standard action. Lesser tiers either have [[CripplingOverspecialization less versatility]] or [[MasterOfNone less power]]. In general, while a character of any tier can be a GameBreaker with the right factors, only a high-tier character can be a [[StoryBreakerPower Story Breaker]] - imagine how ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' would have turned out if Gandalf could teleport any distance, read minds, identify any item instantly, and make anyone [[NoSell immune]] to mental influence... and that was just a fraction of his abilities.

** Thanks to the occasional balance patch and a roster that's ten times more balanced than Brawl's was, the tier lists in ''For 3DS/Wii U'' has a case similar to Street Fighter 4's where the bad characters aren't that much worse compared to the top tiers. That said, pre 1.06 patch, Diddy Kong was seen by many as the new Meta Knight due to a frustratingly good down throw to up-air combo many came to call "Hoo-hah". [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome It got so ridiculous that at one point, it was common to see Grand Finals of Smash 4 tournaments where both players used him.]] However, Diddy ended up getting nerfed throughout two different patches, causing other players to have to learn him more thoroughly; overall he's seen as having dropped from top tier to high tier.

*** The characters introduced through DLC have all been unique cases similar to Little Mac or Ike from Brawl in that at first, they tend to perform well if not dominate the meta game until players get enough match up familiarity to counter them. Of all the characters introduced through DLC, Mewtwo is considered by many to be a low tier mess despite being buffed a good bit from his ''Melee'' days. Lucas plays about the same as he did in ''Brawl'' as a low/mid tier character. Roy and Ryu are considered to be high tier material, Roy especially because of his significant improvements from ''Melee'', while Ryu's status as a JackOfAllStats in his home series plus his combo oriented style of play from said series translates well to a ''Smash Bros.'' game.

*** And now we have two more DLC characters, Corrin and Bayonetta. Corrin is currently perceived as a solid mid to mid-high tier because of his/her unique shapeshifting moves and an ability to pin his/her opponents into the ground which can then be cancelled into another move.
*** Bayonetta on the other hand like Ryu is combo oriented though her ground attacks aren't anything special. Her true strength lies in aerial combat being able to hit her opponent multiple times at dizzying speeds with copious use of Witch Twist, AfterBurner Kick, and her regular aerial attacks. Bayonetta also has an excellent recovery (up special then mid air jump and then up special again). If that wasn't enough, her counter move Witch Time slows down time for the affected opponent with higher damage percentages resulting in them being stuck in Witch Time a few seconds longer. This gives Bayonetta enough time to summon the limbs of demons (her smash attacks)to possibly KO her opponent.

* The ''Pinball/{{ACDC}}'' pinball machine has tiers regarding its songs. At the beginning of the game, and after hitting some milestones, you're asked to pick a song, which changes the rules of the table. Naturally, different sets of rules would contain different high-scoring options and different ways to exploit the rules, and this means that some songs are considered to yield higher scores than others. Although there are disagreements on which song is the best to use due to differences in play style, some songs are far, far less popular than others. (You will hardly see "TNT" or "You Shook Me All Night Long" in competitions, for instance.) All of the top players know exactly how each song stacks up against the others and why, and this knowledge is essential to doing well in tournaments.

It seems inevitable when you've got a game with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: the time will come when the only thing left is to try and figure out whether [[Franchise/FireEmblem Lowen's]] early joining time and superior supports make up for his crappy strength growth. It can be a polite discussion or a FlameWar; a debate of logic and reason or a contest to see who can stick their fingers in their ears the longest. It usually gives birth to legions of {{Scrub}}s and StopHavingFunGuys. If the game happens to have a competitive scene, expect even more of this.

* A big thing in the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' fandom, where the participants don't stop simply at unit performance. They also take into account joining time, joining requirements, joining level, starting stats, stat growths, weapon options, support options, elemental affinity, promotion requirements, and other, additional abilities in their quest to accurately rank the characters. Due to [[{{Cap}} the way]] [[RandomNumberGod the system works]] in ''Franchise/FireEmblem'', the vast majority of characters are at least usable if you really want to play them, and so the tier lists are mostly arranged by merit of which characters are most helpful for Ranked or low-turn playthroughs. The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' community's mantra in these debates is "personal experience means nothing"; just because a character worked out for you does not make that character good; you may have simply gotten lucky with the {{Random Number God}}dess. The community judges a character's stats based on averages for their level progression.

** In ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed Hot Pursuit 2'', the PC version has classes, in PS2 you can tell the tier by the police car that chases you, though the corvette tier, featuring cars from the Corvette Z06 all the way to the Ferrari F50 was wider than the actual tier wherein players of a similar ability would have a decent chance to win (excluding unlucky mishaps).

** Notable on the God tier are Anime/GaoGaiGar, Zeorymer [[spoiler:taken further by Great Zeorymer in J]] and the Aussenseiter (Daitrombe) as well as its pilot [[strike:Elzam]] Ratsel in every game they're in. The Black Selena HM in all games Nadesico is in except W. The Vaisaga also makes a good case for this in OG at least, but on the GBA version of OG 2 you can only get it on your second playthrough and it's kinda hard to get. You can get it your first time through in the PS2 version though. Also, strangely, the Gundam X Divider can be deadly without many upgrades in Alpha Gaiden, as well as Kamille and his Zeta Gundam, which Kamille is God tier (Better stats than ALMOST every other pilot in all the games I've seen, even more than Char and Amuro), and the Zeta is Top to High most the time. If it's not the best MS in the game, you can just switch him.

* ''[[VirtuaFighter Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown]]'' is largely considered to be well-balanced. Most players agree that Akira is at the top, but he's not overpowered due to the high learning curve required to be decent with him, as well as his lack of full circular attacks. You can watch many matches and see that there isn't any one character who dominates the screen time.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', despite having over 700 Pokemon of varying balance (as well as mons with alternate forms and Mega Evolutions), has taken to heart the game's preaching of using your favorite Pokémon. The most well-known tier system, Website/{{Smogon}}'s, organizes all Pokémon into 6 official tiers and a boatload of Other Metagames with modified rules, with tournaments and friendly battles taking place in any one of the tiers. It is also continuously changing, with Pokémon changing tiers based on usage, and even implementation or removal of [[HouseRules clauses]] and other factors (for instance, the introduction of Eviolite[[note]]A held item that boosts the defense and special defense stats of the holding Pokémon by 50% provided that the Pokémon can still evolve[[/note]] altered plenty of Pokémon placement in tiers).

** Fourth is the [=NeverUsed=] (NU) tier. This tier is, as its name says, composed of Pokémon that are almost never used in higher tiers because of their stats and/or typing is considered to be terrible in higher tier. Or that the Pokemon has a useless ability. As such, it's not hard to find many Pokémon in this tier serve purposes that Pokémon in higher tiers can do better.

** These tiers are constantly changing as data is collected from Pokémon Showdown! and as new games are released. A good example is Charizard. [[note]]Formerly in the Borderline tier, the release of the 4th generation and Stealth Rock (deals damage to Pokémon switching in depending on its weakness or resistance to Rock) dropped it down to the Never Used tier, as Stealth Rock lowered its HP to the point that its most common strategy (sacrificing HP for Substitute and Belly Drum) left it to where any attack would instantly faint it. Now that Gen VI has come and gave Charizard 2 Mega Evolutions, both its Mega Evolution forms have skyrocketed to OU.[[/note]] At the beginning of a new generation, the tiers are typically wiped, anything with a base stat total of over 600 is automatically sent to Ubers (With the exception of those Pokemon with hindering abilities and Kyurem and its Black Form), and the tiers are sorted out from there as the new metagame evolves.
** It is also worth noting that other than banlists (Ubers and Borderline), the placement of a Pokémon is determined exclusively by their frequency of usage, and thus a high tier Pokémon is simply one that is frequently used in that specific tier, even if they would not unbalance a lower tier. Conversely, a Pokémon may be [[KickedUpstairs banned]] to a tier where it is useless, because placement in a lower tier would destabilize that metagame [[note]]For example, Zygarde is UU by usage, but it is in BL because of its great bulk, near-perfect offensive typing, and it can learn [[StatusBuff Dragon Dance, Coil]] and Glare, making it too powerful for UU.[/note]].
** In addition to the standard tier set (which organizes Pokémon on the assumption that anything you can do without hacking is legal) there's Little Cup, where Pokémon must be level 5, must be able to evolve, and must not evolve from anything. Little Cup has its own list of Ubers, OU, and UU, and other modified rules. There's also the many, many, ''many'' Other Metagames with modified rules, such as Almost Any Ability, which allows any Pokémon to use [[ExactlyWhatitSaysontheTin almost any Ability]], which have a completely different set of Pokémon from OU, due to certain tweaks making some previously unviable Pokémon viable [[note]]For example, the RU Braviary now finds itself at the top of the Viability Rankings due to being able to use Gale Wings[[/note]].
** Everything above applies only to Single Battles. Double Battles has 4 tiers instead of 3 (Ubers, OU, UU, NU) and there's no BL. Due to how different Double Battles is compare to Single Battles, most Pokemon were on different tier. For example, Skarmory and Darkrai are in NU instead while Mega Camerupt and Politoed are in OU. Triple Battles doesn't have tiers at all and Rotation Battles aren't even playable on Pokémon Showdown!

** There's also Borderline (BL, which coincidentally can also be the acronym of [[FunWithAcronyms Ban List]]), composed of Pokémon that are too powerful for lower tier, but either it isn't used often enough or just outclassed in higher tier. Since the tier system is based on usage statistics and not on the Pokémon's actual power.

** Fourth is the [=NeverUsed=] (NU) tier. This tier is, as its name says, composed of Pokémon that are never used in higher tiers because of their terrible stats, Ability, movepool, and/or type. As such, you'll find that many Pokémon in this tier serve purposes that Pokémon in higher tiers can do better.

** These tiers are constantly changing as data is collected from Pokémon Showdown! and as new games are released. A good example is Charizard. [[note]]Formerly in the Borderline tier, the release of the 4th generation and Stealth Rock (deals damage to Pokémon switching in depending on its weakness or resistance to Rock) dropped it down to the Never Used tier, as Stealth Rock lowered its HP to the point that its most common strategy (sacrificing HP for Substitute and Belly Drum) left it to where any attack would instantly faint it. Now that Gen VI has come and gave Charizard 2 Mega Evolutions, it has skyrocketed to OU.[[/note]] At the beginning of a new generation, the tiers are typically wiped, anything with a base stat total of over 600 is automatically sent to Ubers (barring special cases like Slaking and Regigigas, whose abilities make them lackluster), and the tiers are sorted out from there as the new metagame evolves.
** It is also worth noting that other than banlists (Ubers and Borderline), the placement of a Pokémon is determined exclusively by their frequency of usage, and thus a high tier Pokémon is simply one that is frequently used in that specific tier, even if they would not unbalance a lower tier [[note]]Quagsire, for example, was OU for a time during Gen VI, but slowly started descending all the way to NU without being banned from any tier[[/note]]. Conversely, a Pokémon may be [[KickedUpstairs banned]] to a tier where it is useless, because placement in a lower tier would destabilize that metagame [[note]]For example, Zygarde is UU by usage, but is currently in BL because of his great bulk, near-perfect offensive typing, and incredible Stat-boosting moves in Coil and Dragon Dance, which made it unhealthy for UU[[/note]].

** The second tier is the [=UnderUsed=] (UU) tier. This tier is composed of Pokémon that are occasionally used. The Pokémon in this tier usually have a problem or two that prevents them from being used easily, or have Pokémon in the upper tiers that fulfill the same purpose, but do it better [[note]] Though it is not unheard of for a UU Pokémon to find a niche in OU or even Ubers, as being on a lower tier doesn't necessarily make them bad (For example, the ORAS Viability Rankings rank Mega Aerodactyl as A-, which is basically the Top Tier, despite being UU for the majority of Gen VI [[/note]]. In UU battles, only Pokémon from the UU and below are allowed.
** In between OU and UU is the Borderline (BL, which coincidentally can also be the acronym of [[FunWithAcronyms Ban List]]) tier, composed of Pokémon that are too strong for UU but not actually used enough to be OU. BL, like Ubers, is a banlist (but for UU instead of OU). Since OU is based on usage statistics and not on the Pokémon's actual power, it also frequently changes[[note]]For example, when Pinsir dropped to UU in February 2015, it immediatly became BL[[/note]].

** Fourth is the [=NeverUsed=] (NU) tier. This tier is, as its name says, composed of Pokémon that are never used in higher tiers because of their terrible stats, Ability, movepool, and/or type. As such, you'll find that many Pokémon in this tier serve purposes that Pokémon in higher tiers can do better. In NU battles, only Pokémon in the NU tier can be used.
** The fifth tier is PU tier.
** In addition to this, there is a tierless metagame aptly titled Anything Goes (AG). It's essentially Ubers, except that the only clause is the Infinite Battle Clause (which means evasion boosting moves, OHKO moves and multiple opponents asleep are all allowed, and teams can have multiple copies of the same Pokémon), and well as certain Pokémon that are ''[[UpToEleven too Uber for Ubers]]'' are permitted here (currently only Mega Rayquaza). It's just as insane as it sounds.

** Everything above applies only to Single Battles. Double Battles has 4 tiers instead of 3 (Ubers, OU, UU, NU) and there's no BL. Due to how different Double Battles is compare to Single Battles, most Pokemon were on different tier. For example, Skarmory and Darkrai were in NU instead while Mega Camerupt and Politoed were in OU. Triple Battles doesn't have tiers at all and Rotation Battles aren't even playable on Pokémon Showdown!

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', despite having 719 characters of varying balance (as well as mons with alternate forms such as Rotom and Mega Evolutions), has taken to heart the game's preaching of using your favorite Pokémon. The most well-known tier system, Website/{{Smogon}}'s, organizes all Pokémon into 5 official tiers, along with a "semi-unofficial" tier (PU), an unofficial tier (FU), and a boatload of Other Metagames with modified rules, with tournaments and friendly battles taking place in any one of the tiers. It is also continuously changing, with Pokémon changing tiers based on usage, and even implementation or removal of [[HouseRules clauses]] (Such as the Moody Clause, which dropped the usage of Pokémon with the Ability Moody) and other factors (for instance, the introduction of Eviolite[[note]]A held item that boosts the defense and special defense stats of the holding Pokémon by 50% provided that the Pokémon can still evolve[[/note]] altered plenty of Pokémon placement in tiers).
** First off is Ubers. This was formerly not a tier but a banlist (Or, according to Smogon, "A banlist first and a tier second"), as Pokémon in it are only in there so that the OU metagame doesn't suffer. Pokémon in this tier are considered too [[GameBreaker broken]] for standard competitive play. Pokémon in this tier can not be used in any competitive battle unless the rules specifically allow it, or the players agree to use them. This tier is a metagame in itself, since the overpowered nature of all the Pokémon used creates balance. However, when Mega Rayquaza showed up, he was deemed overpowered ''[[UpToEleven even for Ubers]]'', leading to the creation of AG (see below), and the turning of Ubers into a real tier.

** The second tier is the [=UnderUsed=] (UU) tier. This tier is composed of Pokémon that are occasionally used. The Pokémon in this tier usually have a problem or two that prevents them from being used easily, or have Pokémon in the upper tiers that fulfill the same purpose, but do it better [[note]] Though it is not unheard of for a UU Pokémon to find a niche in OU or even Ubers, as being on a lower tier doesn't necessarily make them bad (For example, the ORAS Viability Rankings rank Mega Aerodactyl as A-, which is basically the Top Tier, despite being UU for the majority of Gen VI (and still is, as of January of 2016.)[[/note]]. In UU battles, only Pokémon from the UU and below are allowed.
** In between OU and UU is the Borderline (BL, which coincidentally can also be the acronym of [[FunWithAcronyms Ban List]]) tier, composed of Pokémon that are too strong for UU but not actually used enough to be OU. BL, like Ubers, is a banlist (but for UU instead of OU). Since OU is based on usage statistics and not on the Pokémon's actual power, it also frequently changes[[note]]For example, when Pinsir dropped to UU in February 2015, it immediatly became BL[[/note]]. While some of the Pokémon are good enough to have a niche on OU, such as Mega Alakazam or Tornadus-Therian, some of them aren't strong enough to carry their weight on an OU team (Such as Zygarde).
** The third tier is the [=RarelyUsed=] (RU) tier. Added in Generation V to account for the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters ever-increasing number of Pokémon]], this tier often features Pokémon that can be used competitively but have notable flaws, Pokémon that are simply outclassed by both OU and UU Pokémon, or simply Pokémon that are terrible in OU and UU. Similar to UU, RU has a banlist named [=BL2=], with Pokémon too strong for RU but not used enough for UU.
** Fourth is the [=NeverUsed=] (NU) tier. This tier is, as its name says, composed of Pokémon that are never used in higher tiers because of their terrible stats, Ability, movepool, and/or type. As such, you'll find that many Pokémon in this tier serve purposes that Pokémon in higher tiers can do better. In NU battles, only Pokémon in the NU tier can be used. NU has its own banlist, [=BL3=], which, as of March 2015, has only 3 Pokémon.
*** In September 2014, the previously unofficial PU tier (Whose name doesn't mean anything, it's just a {{Pun}} to imply that these Pokémon suck in competitive battles) became a permanent ladder on Pokémon Showdown!, though it's still not considered an official tier (Pokémon that are PU by usage still show up as NU in the Smogon Pokédex).

** Everything above applies only to Single Battles. Double Battles has a completely different set of tiers (For example, the OU Landorus-Incarnate and the Uber Darkrai are both UU in this metagame, while the RU Amoonguss is OU), while Triple Battles doesn't have tiers at all and Rotation Battles aren't even playable on Pokémon Showdown!

* The ''VideoGame/ForzaMotorsport'' series simultaneously adheres to this trope and subverts it: every car is designated a "performance index", complete with a corresponding tier denoted by a letter grade, but most low-tier cars can be upgraded enough to compete with higher tiers. The Performance Index is calculated from an algorithm that rates the average flying lap time of the vehicle on an imaginary track; so it's possible for cars with a low PI (but tuned to a specific track type) to beat cars with a much higher PI.

* HeartsOfIron 2, what tier a country belongs to depends almost entirely on its size and industrial capacity. The strongest countries are, in order: Germany, the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, and France. It's possible to conquer a continent or more with some of the smaller countries (especially Brazil and Argentina, which are far away from the main super-powers), but almost any country on the European continent will either be conquered by Germany or allied with Germany. Same with Japan and Asia.
* ''CommandAndConquerRedAlert 2'' has this for the countries rather than characters. When playing multiplayer with the expansion, Yuri's side is Top Tier and can border on God Tier. For the Allies, Korea and the USA are Top Tier since their special units/abilities don't cost anything extra (USA gets free paradrops, Korea gets about a 50% upgrade to Harriers without a corresponding cost increase), Great Britian is slightly lower on the Top Tier, and Germany and France are Mid Tier - useful, but rarely worth skipping out on either free stuff or long-range instant protection against enemy special infantry units. For the Soviets, Iraq is Top Tier, Cuba is Mid Tier, and Russia and Libya are Low Tier. When facing an Allied player, Cuba drops to Low Tier and Russia & Libya drop to Bottom Tier because often only Iraq can stop hordes of Mirages Tanks (especially in vanilla [=RA2=], without the expansion) if the Allies survive the early game.
* ShiningForce 1 and its subsequent games had this is spades. It made somewhat sense, since there's always going to be those who excel, and those who don't. The problem was that many characters always had decent stat gains, if you're ''lucky'' every five levels. The most notorious bad character that wasn't even a JokeCharacter(but might as well have been) is poor Hanz.

** Character who sit in their God Tiers are generally those who influence the game in a much bigger extent than the rest of the cast, such as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Sheeda and Rena]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Sigurd]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Young Marcus]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Seth]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius POR!Titania, and RD!Haar]], and then there's [[GameBreaker Robin]] -- the PlayerCharacter [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening from ''Awakening'']].

Bayonetta on the other hand like Ryu is combo oriented though her ground attacks aren't anything special. Her true strength lies in aerial combat being able to hit her opponent multiple times at dizzying speeds with copious use of Witch Twist, AfterBurner Kick, and her regular aerial attacks. Bayonetta also has an excellent recovery (up special then mid air jump and then up special again). If that wasn't enough, her counter move Witch Time slows down time for the affected opponent with higher damage percentages resulting in them being stuck in Witch Time a few seconds longer. This gives Bayonetta enough time to summon the limbs of demons (her smash attacks)to possibly KO her opponent.

* Saltybet has five tiers based on how powerful a character is. If a character wins 15 times, it can ascend to the next tier, but if it loses 15 times, it will be demoted to the lower tier. It's not uncommon to see characters who are too good for one tier, only to be completely annihilated by the next tier up. Some characters may even be untiered because of factors such as AI breaking super armor, regularly cause problems such as slowdown, have an unusual gimmick that most normal characters can't deal with, or are just so confusing, not even the creators know how they work.

* Saltybet has five tiers based on how powerful a character is. If a character wins 10 times, it can ascend to the next tier, but if it loses 10 times, it will be demoted to the lower tier. It's not uncommon to see characters who are too good for one tier, only to be completely annihilated by the next tier up. Some characters may even be untiered because of factors such as AI breaking super armor, regularly cause problems such as slowdown, have an unusual gimmick that most normal characters can't deal with, or are just so confusing, not even the creators know how they work.

*** Melee tournaments often feature both Star Fox reps, Sheik, Marth, JigglyPuff, Princess Peach, Captain Falcon, and the occasional use of the Ice Climbers, Pikachu, Yoshi, Dr. Mario, etc. Special note goes to Fox and Falco who are considered the best and second best characters in the Melee metagame respectively due to being good at just about everything. The former has [[SomeDexterityRequired a high learning curve]] ) but when properly played is a sight to behold. In fact, Fox is so good that a community meme known as 20xx was spawned as a result. [[labelnote:Explanation]] 20xx is a hypothetical year in which the meta game has been pushed as far as it can go making Fox the only character worth playing anymore. Of course, every Fox is played to perfection and as a result, rock paper scissor matches are held for port priority. Whoever wins that wins the actual match. [[/labelnote]]

**** This isn't even beginning to mention how Cloud Strife affects the meta game. Wanna know how crazy he is? Top players simply discarded their mains for Cloud and ''still'' did well. Granted he has some of the worst recovery and a very limited throw game, but that's just a small price to pay for his insane priority and being able to smash at ''60% or even less.''