Okay, so this was supposed to be a much cheerier article where I get to show off the newly redesigned tier list that I spent a lot of time and effort working on. And it's still that, because I worked hard on it and nothing will stop me from giving it its time in the spotlight. But the mood has decidedly soured a bit. Not only has Chenxing - Jade Arc effectively powercrept the entire DPS roster, but the just-recently released, supposedly-mobbing-focused Enya - Tempest is somehow able to keep up with her. Good grief. Let's get into it.

Tier List v2

After many long hours spent in front of a maybe-memory-leaking WordPress page editor, the new and improved tier list is here! This redesign aims to fix a lot of the issues that the old layout had, and packages everything in a more compact, sleeker interface that also provides more information about how and why an operative has a certain rating.

You may recall that on the old tier list, many operative entries were full-blown reviews. This is an ancient holdover from when the tier list existed as nothing more than a Google Docs file that had to contain everything as an all-in-one resource. With it having been moved to a full-blown website for a while and me finally adjusting my workflow to (finally) produce standalone operative guide articles, these are no longer needed, character entries can now be shortened down to small blurbs explaining their ratings. Alongside this, operatives now have separate ratings for the three categories that they're evaluated in (Neural Simulation, Supreme Battleground, and general content), which should help provide a better idea of an operative's all-around capabilities. In addition, there are also extra sections with extra information about their unique capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

This does leave the problem of older operatives no longer having "articles" about them, though. I've kept them saved as "legacy reviews" for now, and I'm honestly not sure if I want to keep them posted elsewhere. On one hand, it's better than nothing. On the other, many of the reviews have not aged well due to me being too busy to update them over time, and the new builds page is enough to get you most of the way. Leave a comment somewhere I can see what you think.

So please, take a look at the new tier list page, I hope you'll find it to be a much better experience.

Let's Talk About Powercreep

I'm just going to say it as bluntly as possible: Chenxing - Jade Arc is problematically strong.

If you remember Cherno - Enigma's initial release and how it shattered the limits of what people thought was possible from a DPS operative, this is kind of the same thing. Except now, we're more used to this "second generation" of DPS operatives and how far they leave older releases in the dust. So when I say that Chenxing is absurdly strong, it's saying a lot. She kind of breaks the meta in the same way that Cherno did, except that Chenxing can more easily burst for higher damage, and can do it faster. This has had far-reaching consequences, the most notable of which is her ability to fundamentally break Neural Simulation bosses. Compare these two Lament of Yehrus runs, for example:

The first video shows a highly-skilled, well-planned run featuring a near-entirely-maxed-out team with good execution and innovative strategies to clear the pillar phase as quickly as possible. It's an amazing showcase of skilled play at the highest level.

And the second video shows me doing none of that, and killing Lament of Yehrus faster anyways. This is a team with much less investment (nine Manifests and three SSR gacha weapons, for those keeping track), on a run where I don't even play properly. I was essentially screwing around for the first ten seconds because I didn't feel like stacking arrows with just charged shots, and yet my clear time was almost two seconds faster - which might as well be an hour in the competitive landscape of Neural Simulation. A more optimal run with this team could do it even faster, adding further insult to injury.

As you can see from the second video, this time savings was made possible by Chenxing being able to simply one-shot Lament of Yehrus from 80% HP, entirely skipping the pillar minigame altogether. Lament of Yehrus' main gimmick is its pillar phase, basically being just a punching bag otherwise. So for players looking to improve their times, the main point of improvement is in optimizing and practicing their pillar breaking strategy. There were also skip strategies as well, abusing a Freeze bug with the boss, but these required very high team investment and required heavy amounts of resetting for favourable RNG. But no more. As long as you're willing to stack up your arrows, you too can skip the Yehrus pillar phase, and probably set a new personal best time in the process.

I don't really care that Chenxing - Jade Arc is a "wedding operative," as if this gives her a free pass to kick every other DPS in the game down a peg. This isn't healthy for the game. Having this amount of burst damage this easily accessible is a problem. At higher investment levels, Chenxing is able to steal basically any boss that other operatives can't kill before Chenxing's able to stack enough arrows onto it, a time period that can be as low as just over five seconds on some bosses.

So then, it's even more concerning that the newly released Enya - Tempest can beat her to the punch.

Yes, she can only do her big burst of damage once. Yes, her mobility is relatively limited when she's in her standard skill generating U-Energy for her ult. None of this matters. The fact that a character with mobbing-focused abilities is able to even be in the same Neural Simulation conversation as Chenxing - Jade Arc, a character who herself had already created a paradigm shift in the DPS meta, is absurd. Thanks to a Deiwos passive that enables her to have her AoE cake and eat it too in boss fights, Enya is able to not just match, but even beat Chenxing's performance in some cases.

I had hoped that after the massive jump in DPS performance that Cherno - Enigma kicked off almost a year ago, Seasun would learn from their mistake and dial things back. And for much of the back half of 2024, it seemed that way, with DPS powercreep being more gradual and even some relatively underwhelming releases. However, it seems that Seasun are putting their foot on the gas again, potentially looking to make Chenxing - Jade Arc and Enya - Tempest not just two flukes, but the beginning of a second generational leap. I really hope I'm wrong, but consider this to be me sounding the alarm.

Tier List Updates

View the full tier list here.

According to all known aspects of the Snowbreak meta, there is no way that Enya - Tempest should be able to be competitive. Her base damage ratios are too small to get her AoE-focused abilities to do respectable damage. Enya, of course, is a top-tier DPS operative anyways because she doesn't care what silly tier list editors think is impossible.

Jokes aside - Enya's base damage ratios aren't very impressive, but when given the tools to supercharge her ult with supports like Tess - The Magician, those relatively unimpressive numbers quickly scale up to very scary levels. Combined with her Deiwos passive that further amps up her damage in single-target boss fights, Enya accomplishes the seemingly unthinkable task of matching the ridiculous burst potential of the already-absurd Chenxing - Jade Arc. Of course, this is almost always a one-time burst of damage, but when it hits as hard as it does, you often don't find yourself needing much followup.

So this is a bit of a confusing shift for Chenxing, but it'll make more sense when I explain it. At lower investment levels, Chenxing is about competitive with the rest of the (former) Tier 0 DPS roster, as her burst potential still comes with a relatively lengthy preparation period as she sticks in arrows. But once she reaches M1T2 levels of power, the required amount of pincushioning decreases to a point that her setup becomes less of an issue, enabling unrivalled burst damage potential such that she basically pushes her less-invested self down a tier. This leaves her placement in Tier 0 as a class of one two, with only Enya - Tempest being able to keep up.

Yao is a much-needed Ballistic specialist to rival even the ever-in-demand Fenny - Starshine. While her utility doesn’t quite compare to Fenny’s ability to remove the need to reload, she makes up for it with incredibly potent support buffs to Attack, critical hit, and Ballistic Damage, exactly the three stats that a Ballistic DPS operative wants. Yao is famously not a fan of overtime, but it seems that she’s going to be working some long hours in the Neural Simulation arena and beyond.

The dominance of Chenxing - Jade Arc, a technically-Hybrid-but-more-Ballistic DPS operative, has pushed the entire legacy DPS roster down a notch, and with it many of Enya's best Skill DPS pairings. Making matters worse, all of these Skill DPS operatives - Katya - Dawnwing, Cherno - Enigma, and Siris - Ksana - have been preferring to use Tess - The Magician instead to get their damage buffs while also speeding up their damage rotations. And even with her other self Enya - Tempest arriving as a truly competitive Skill DPS, the lack of shooting in her playstyle means that Exuvia has a hard time building support skill charges to apply the full strength of her damage buffs. Ironic.

As a result, Enya's base capabilities no longer make the cut for top tier, requiring higher investment levels (M2T2) to remain a consistently compelling support pick.

Finally.

I'll be completely honest with you - I've never liked the fact that I had Riptide in Tier 0 ever since she was added there. In my opinion, she was completely undeserving of the rating and only made it in off of the strength of Skill DPS operatives like Katya - Dawnwing, combined with the dearth of Skill support options to go with them. But with much of the Skill DPS roster getting pushed down and shifting support preferences to the point that even Enya - Exuvia has a hard time earning her keep, Riptide also being kicked out of Tier 0 is all but an inevitability.

Pay no mind to the demotion of her rating, that's just the same downward shift that every existing DPS operative got hit by in the wake of the releases of Chenxing - Jade Arc and Enya - Tempest.

Rather, the really interesting thing here is her new high investment rating. Feeding Fritia signature weapon dupes and more Manifests don't fix any of her core problems, but they do make number go up well enough to give Turbo a sizable spread of bosses that she's at least decently competent at, and keep her from falling behind on the treadmill of powercreep.

Surprisingly enough, it’s Cherno’s 4★ variant that’s on the upswing recently, as squishy bosses like Njall - Hardened and Katya - Frostcap give Cherno a high-value use case in delaying their invulnerability triggers long enough to finish them off. She’s still not as versatile as the GOAT Slow support that is Acacia - Redacted, but Cherno having access to Alloy Truth sweetens the deal and makes a compelling case for a promotion.

Chenxing - Jade Arc and Enya - Tempest, and their consequences, have been disastrous for the Snowbreak DPS meta. Who would have thought that being able to one-shot nearly every boss in the game ridiculously quickly would create a massive power gap?

It's all so tiring.

Note: Cherno - Enigma was demoted from T0 to T0.5 and Bubu - The Geomancer was raised from T0.5★ to T0 in an update on 20/02/2025