Qrow/UnitTierList

Updated for v1.13.12.0, Dec 2025

Preface

S Tier: This unit is BiS/game defining and I have to work around it in a specific manner

A Tier: This unit is above average and is still somewhat game defining

B Tier: This unit does what it says on the box, and does it well

C Tier: This unit variates from doing what it is made to do in some way, or does not perform it's function well

D Tier: This unit is buildable, but is not good

F Tier: Unbuildable/garbage category

Unclassifiable: Outside of a role/etc

Ratings are for larger team games.

Constructors

S Tier

Welder: Construction man wielding a gun. Annoying to deal with at all points of the game, especially since it's a tank in addition to being a constructor with a gun.

Convict: Extremely annoying for air to deal with, not so much for ground, but bolsters a lot of shieldballs and enables frontline reclaim potential.

A Tier

Constable: Construction man with jump and a purple gun? Not as good as welder, but very good early game.

Conjurer: A tier for annoying cloak imp strats.

Conch: Pretty neat for its damage reduction ability and has Djinn morph now.

B Tier

Weaver: When you need to go over a hill to get a mex, it's fine.

Mason, Quill: Completely average unit.

C Tier

Wasp, Crane: Used exclusively for backline expansion in team games, after the swift scout.

Strider Constructors

Funnelweb: A Tier, Frontline reclaim king that happens to have insane shield. Very annoying for air to deal with. Why this unit has 40BP is beyond me.

Athena: A Tier. Very cool unit that seems a criminally low amount of play, but is very good when used correctly and enables entire strats.

Commanders

S Tier

Engineer: Blueprint is a pretty insane mechanic that is underutilized, but ultimately very capable of propping up fronts in some situations. Having longer range building and higher BP is also very useful. Besides recon, this is almost the only commander worth building.

Recon: Gets out of a lot of situations that are usually reasons why you don't move your commander forward. Required on hill and lava maps for obvious reasons.

A Tier

Strike: Has area jammer! Other than that, pretty average.

B Tier

Guardian: Just fine. Has interesting stuff going on health wise, but not much else.

Raiders etc.

S Tier

Glaive: BiS raider, does many things out of its class that it should not be able to do.

Bandit: The only thing giving Glaive any competition at its job.

Scythe: With micro, maybe the best raider/target removal unit in the game. You can get insane value in team games off of rushing four of these and sniping coms. Also acts as a vision tool in a pinch.

A Tier

Scorcher: Not really great versus other raiders, but seems to excel at blasting down anything slow or heavy, including coms. Scorcher rush is still not an awful idea sometimes.

Pyro: Very good with micro early game, stays situationally useful into mid game on some maps. Quite good.

Kodachi: Very good early game, seems to become quickly outclassed even in raiding in mid and late game. Also dies to two magpies while being somewhat expensive.

B Tier

Dagger: Takes awhile to get enough critical mass to make up for only having alpha.

C Tier

Blitz: This is more of a midgame raider, but it seems to make up for a few of Koda's shortcomings. Kinda slow and damage is just ok, though.

Duck: Pretty okay on water maps, otherwise spamming it is kind of a meme.

Anti-raider / Escort

Bolas: A Tier. Singlehandedly props up hovers in some weird situations that I often seem to find myself in.

Venom: A Tier. This unit does a lot of multi-purpose lifting of all sorts in the spider factory, and is perhaps one of the two viable units to make in a 1v1 situation with spiders. Borderline S tier.

Archer: B Tier. Solely anti-raider, really no other uses. Has okay damage.

Scouts

Flea: S Tier. Unparalleled vision and has far more uses than are obvious.

Puppy: A Tier. You will not reclaim that field. Also very good at denying raiding in-territory for cost.

Dart: B Tier. Okay as a scout, but has too much mental stack involved with micro for it to be used well most of the time.

Dirtbag: B Tier. B tier is a generous grade... probably. Really triggers TAW lobbies, but is not remotely useful.

Skirmishers and Fire Support

S Tier

Scalpel: In the year 2025, people do still not understand how to fight this unit, and yet it is still made of paper. Glass cannon, but works based off knowledge checks. You will find purples that lose to this unit.

A Tier

Fencer: Muffa unit. Damage is meh but they have big scary range and in swarms can be very annoying.

Buoy: King of one sided fights, pretty much never gets bodied but bodies other units in its category very hard.

Felon: A tier in shieldball, C tier everywhere else due to cost.

Recluse: Multipurpose skirm/eventually riot unit once there are a bunch, very good in spider fights. Made of paper.

Crab: Easily countered, but often no one does, and once these stack up they are nigh impossible to get rid of. Theta god unit.

B Tier

Moderator: Pretty inflexible unit as far as comps go, but occasionally useful. Kinda bodies magpie if they aren't microed.

Rogue: Really, really good in shieldball, but gets run up on by everything else.

Dominatrix: After recent impressive performances and people figuring out how to play to support it for big value, this one moves up.

C Tier

Ronin: Government-issue skirm, government-issue quality. Only there because it has to exist.

Bulkhead: Noob trap unit. Is okay, but damage is a little lacking.

Riots

A Tier

Reaver: Quite good DPS on a body with good regen. Very good in the comps it tends to be run in with cloak.

Mace: Pretty good multipurpose unit, props up a lot of hover early game.

B Tier

Ogre: Expensive and made of paper (for a tank). OK DPS, but a lot of flaws kinda negate the benefits.

Redback: If this had better movement, it would be much higher than B tier.

Ripper: Solves problems that ravager can't. Purely functional, nothing cool.

Outlaw: Used to really good effect in tournaments recently as a frontline screening tool. Has more uses than previously thought.

C Tier

Dante: All too often just reaches the front line and dies without making cost. A little bit of a noob trap, but situationally useful.

Scallop: Just used with lobster, sucks otherwise on account of poor speed.

Claymore: Solves problems hover can't otherwise solve, but generally poor.

Assaults

S Tier

Cyclops: Damage sponge with a huge gun and a slow, pretty much the epitome of BIG ASSAULT unit.

Minotaur: Very tanky, very annoying to deal with, almost always makes cost.

A Tier

Ravager: Balls of this end large team games more often than you would expect. Quite good at making a road for other units to follow.

Grizzly: Very good at standing at the front of a area and making it dangerous to approach. Arguably more of an area denial unit in teams, but also very annoying to fight 4 of these pushing into your front.

Halberd: Underused to a pretty extreme degree, these are cheap and if you have a target in mind they can usually push far enough to kill it.

B Tier

Jugglenaut: Usually dies to air pretty quick. Also very slow, deals a lot of damage to itself, etc.

C Tier

Thug: Only shieldball fodder, no other use. Why does the gun suck so much?

Jack: Usually a noob trap and doesn't make cost. Occasionally can clear out bases or defenses.

D Tier

Hermit: 50 of these will push a location for you, but will also donate a copious amount of metal.

Knight: I'm not sure that I have ever actually seen this unit be a good choice in any given situation. Very slow, inaccuracy on the gun sucks.

Artillery

S Tier

Impaler: Porc BEGONE.

Emissary: Very strong in team games in most situations. I'm honestly 99% sure this is more due to a psychological reaction than it being very strong, but it does make areas very dangerous to stay in.

Lance: Very good delete button unit. However, kinda gets bombed instantly 99% of the time, and also can miss a lot without proper vision.

A Tier

Firewalker: Expert in remote raider removal. Expensive and gets bombed a lot.

B Tier

Merlin: Really good at pushing fronts, also really good at getting bombed. An expensive specialty solution.

C Tier

Phantom: Noob trap unit. Situationally useful, but far too often gets fight ordered and dies to something random.

Sling: If these are spammed it becomes very strong, but they almost always get smacked by a phoenix at the moment.

Unclassifiable

Tremor: Noob trap unit that gets built and does a whole lot of nothing.

Badger: Unbuildable outside of certain situations. When there is a firewalker or phoenix, completely unusable.

Anti-Heavy and Bombs

S Tier

Widow: A one-fits-all solution for your anti-heavy needs!

A Tier

Racketeer: Very annoying to fight against if spammed, but otherwise a waste of metal.

Scorpion: A anti-heavy unit often used as everything but an anti-heavy unit. Usually as metal donation, but really good if properly used.

B Tier

Snitch: Very good, but often gets bonked by something random in team games.

Imp: See snitch.

Limpet: See imp.

C Tier

Skuttle: When you just gotta yump someone.

Ultimatum: Anywhere from A to D tier depending on the player.

Support and Utility

S Tier

Lobster: A unit that doesn't belong in Zero-K, but is in Zero-K nonetheless. Enables so many annoying strats and probably has more potentially than we even know of yet.

Djinn: Really cool unit that enables some of the most insane strats in the game, but is made of paper. Best use cases put it in S.

A Tier

Iris: Enables some pretty good cloak strats and is a midgame staple in fronts in TAW.

Aspis: Makes it slightly harder for phoenixes to ruin your day. Situationally useful, but more often than not unconditionally built.

Placeholder: Potentially completely broken, but its range and HP are poor enough that something generally manages to kill it.

B Tier

Hercules: Meme unit for comnap, and also for taking striders to a front.

Charon: Really good if not revealed early on, but in a lot of team games there's too much AA to use this well.

Planes

S Tier

Swift: Swiss army knife of Zero-K, does everything you ask of it, and with micro becomes a anti-raider unit!

Magpie: Currently defines air meta (and more specifically anti-air meta) in team games. Absolute menace if the enemy gets started, but somewhat easy to counter.

Likho: Bigger magpie that is good against everything, but very expensive.

Owl: You will get yelled at if you don't make this as the air player. Very good for making sure fronts don't evaporate due to artillery.

Phoenix: Does everything you could ever ask for.

A Tier

Odin: Good for shielding fronts, or blowing up stationary targets. Seems to be generally pretty solid at getting into backlines.

B Tier

Raptor: Pretty bad, loses to a lot of other air units it absolutely should not be losing to.

Raven: Very good in com-snipe rushes, but gets bodied quite a lot in other situations.

C Tier

Thunderbird: Made of paper for the price of gold leaf. Situationally useful against (small and vandal-less) shieldballs and other balls of units.

Unclassifiable

Sparrow: Quite strong with the boost if you need to scout and only scout, but otherwise not very useful.

Gunships

A Tier

Trident: Very good against planes, but very slow. About as good as air based AA gets.

Blastwing: Much better post buff, now ruins the day of a lot of different units.

B Tier

Harpy: Very good unit! Skirmisher and somewhat raider all in one, if for a price.

Gnat: Basically only used for securing down large units or coms.

Krow: Okay as a rush, far less okay as an actual air units, especially in TAW.

Locust: I have seen evidence lately to support that this may be worth building in more situations than previous thought.

C Tier

Revenant: Is okay as a rush, but otherwise kinda dwadles too long and is slow. Easily scouted.

D Tier

Nimbus: Annoying in numbers, but is still generally a noob trap.

Anti-Air (mobile and static)

A Tier

Angler: Anti-magpie, and by extension anti-everything else in the air unit. Almost S tier.

Razor: Kills gunships, but not much else. But it's really good at killing gunships.

Ettin: Anti-magpie, which bumps it up to A in the current meta.

Tarantula: Pretty good at being annoying to kill and also doing good damage. I think it is very underrated at the current moment.

B Tier

Vandal: Blobs of this are cheap and kill everything.

Toad: Its just okay. It does decent damage, has jump, etc.

Artemis: Makes magpie players build a silo, and occasionally makes cost if it can surprise players. Otherwise made of paper.

Thresher: Quite good against magpie, especially in conjunction with other AA. Damage is a little low.

C Tier

Chainsaw Quite bad, especially against magpies. Maybe okay versus raven and phoenix.

Flail: It sounds like it hits like a truck, but is quite expensive and slow, and really does not do enough damage to justify building this.

Gremlin: Gets nuked by phoenix, but does okay damage.

Hacksaw: Always trades cost 1-1 with Magpie, which makes it potentially buildable.

D Tier

Crasher: Pretty much the worst mobile AA in the game at the moment. Expensive dwadles due to rover pathing and speed is okay but the range sucks.

Other Static Defences

S Tier

Lotus: Unmatched at its job. A LLT a day keeps the raiders away.

A Tier

Stinger: Very annoying to fight around, because steering skirms into it always means sacrificing at least something. Props up a lot of stuff that usually doesn't have great options for skirms.

Picket: Still good for a multitude of uses, and the range and flex aa is always good.

Cerberus: Quite good on a lot of maps presently played a lot in TAW lobbies, and tends to act as safety zone buffer around hills. Quite good since enemies routinely donate metal getting rid of it.

B Tier

Faraday: Good at stopping raider and curiously enough, good at anti-air. Still a questionable build in a lot of circumstances.

C Tier

Gauss: Okay, but overused in teams and not good. The gauss gimmick doesn't pay off enough to be useful.

Newton: Anti-odin turret. Not used for much else at the moment.

Stardust: Only really great when put on a pillar, used to be better pre-overheat nerf but here we are.

Desolator: This has showed up a lot in team games recently, and was somewhat stronger than I remember it being. Still bad.

D Tier

Lucifer: Almost always a noob trap metal donation.

Tactical Missiles

S Tier

Shockley: The only way to get rid of heavy shields that isn't donating 5 billion thunderbird.

Zeno: I have been pleasantly surprised at how strong this is. It is definitely capable of winning games in a single blow in some situations, and has tracking.

B Tier

Eos: Good at blowing stuff up, but often hits unscouted shields for no value. Could be A tier depending on player.

Inferno: Also often hits for no value on shields. Could be A tier.

Unclassifiable

Quake: Terraform BEGONE.

Endgame

S Tier

Detriment: Anywhere from S tier to F depending on the player, but often starts resign votes as soon as it hits the field.

A Tier

Paladin: Pretty good and TAW staple unit for pushing fronts. Unmatched at its price point.

B Tier

Trinity: Only useful when it's a surprise. Far too often team games try to play around it and waste a ton of resources.

Zenith: Simply okay. Underperforms often and is somewhat random.

C Tier

Starlight: In the entire time I have played Zero-K, I have maybe seen people build this 10 times. Egregiously expensive.

Bertha: Only useful if you have a target lined up to (maybe) hit.

Disco Rave Party: Better than it used to be, but nowhere near its former glory. Seals out games okay, but won't win them for you.

Water maps

Assume any water-capable unit not mentioned here has the same rating as it would on land.

S Tier

Conch: The absolute body on this guy. The only sea con that's actually good.

Siren: Pretty much defines how ship is played at the moment. Does a lot of stuff for one unit and has one billion HP.

A Tier

Envoy: Strong, but dies in the face of air or any real resistance. Give it a claymore back you cowards.

Claymore: Notably cross counters lobball in some situations, which means there are now two reasons to build this unit.

Seawolf, Duck: They're both okay and do the same job. Seawolf is a little expensive.

Scylla: This is a pretty expensive way to get a tacsilo that can't throw Shocklies... but if it blows up the opponents' entire economy, who is counting?

Urchin: Boring, reliable and effective. Unlike Lotus it can't shoot at gunships or Commander drones, which can be an issue.

B Tier

Shogun: In every game I have recently seen this in, it instantly died to air as soon as it reached the front. Fine if it lives.

Mariner: Completely average.

Mistral: Props up ships in some strange interactions with other factories that I seem to run into a lot.

Hunter: Scout go brr. Just fine as a scout.

C Tier

Zephyr: This unit does a lot of damage but doesn't appear to ever do as much damage as I expect it to.

Cutter: Also a fine scout, but not much else.

Corsair: Clears out surface level water units and defenses pretty well.

Reef: I get annoyed at this unit a lot as an air player, but I suppose it could be useful.