A Chimera Squad Weird Tier List

So I've been considering how the agents of Chimera Squad stack up next to one another ever since the game's launch. I figure I'll make this to get my thoughts off my chest. Chimera Squad is a very interesting game and I've been considering its mechanics for a respectable amount of time. Chimera Squad boils down to a game about manipulating the timeline to achieve a certain objective. Rescue/escort the VIP, kill the enemy, destroy a reinforcement objective, etc. In a game like this, units can be divided into three categories of tactical roles based on how they affect the timeline.
* Offense (can kill units, removing them from the timeline and also from the game)
* Offensive Utility (can attack while impairing/manipulating enemy units, reducing the impact of their actions or cancelling those actions entirely.)
* Defensive Utility (can impact allied units in a variety of ways, improving the effectiveness of allied turns on the timeline, or can trade own health to negate enemy actions through tanking hits effectively)

Every unit in Chimera Squad can fulfill some amount of each of these tactical roles. Patchwork is a great example of this, as she has elements of all of these tactical roles prominently in her character. Her Chaining Jolt is pure offense, dealing 4 ap damage to any target, more to robots. Her Shock Therapy promote is an example of offensive utility, adding a chance for either disorient or stun to her Chaining Jolt, allowing for damage and CC. Her Stasis Field can serve as offensive or defensive utility skill, either canceling an enemy turn or protecting a vulnerable ally. When ranking agents, I find it is best to rank them in three tier lists by their ability to provide these different functions, as a good squad requires all of them and knowing who is best can help in choosing who to add to fulfill what roles. In addition, four other factors should be considered in general.
* Scaling (how effectively the unit grows over the game. primarily through promotions, but weapon tech, items are also factored.)
* Weapon Type (how common a unit's weapon type is, how many other units they share it with.)
* Action Economy (how effectively the unit's actions can be transformed into meaningful impact on the timeline.)
* Synergy (how well the unit works with other units through combos or tech sharing)

With that said, I'll start with Offense. Note that units which have no outstanding offensive abilities, units such as Terminal, will not be directly considered here. I don't think it is fair to judge a unit on merits that it has no capability in. Units have roles and should be judged within them.

Offense Tier List
1st Place
Blueblood : Self-explanatory, really. Blueblood is by far the strongest offensive character in the game. He makes pistol tech worth investing in. His numbers are absolutely insane compared to the rest of the cast, and his AOE and single target damage remain consistently high due to his ridiculous scaling from items and promotes. His promotions are all incredible, with Faceoff being a highlight that serves as an "i win" button for most encounters when properly facilitated. He can gain Lightning Hands through Artful Fathom and benefits heavily from most every bullet item. He comes with a built-in Reflex Grip, the best attachment in the game, giving him a massive boost to action economy and saving you from finding one for him, a fact that separates him from anyone else. He's far from a free win, with his fragility being a particular pain point, but with minimal support he can easily cover the offense for an entire squad all on his own. Absolutely broken. Tremble before the sound of the police. 2nd Place
Godmother : Godmother was someone I underrated at first, due to the monolithic power of Blueblood. However, with a good amount of support, Godmother can shine in a similar light. Shotgun + Reflex Grip is a combo that can steam through many challenges in the game, and Godmother is the best user of that combo. Her ability to use Alpha Strike in combination with Reflex Grip is disgusting, giving her the best action economy in the game. Shoot, move, vent, shoot move scatter, shoot shoot vent, she can blow anything up with that many MC shotgun bursts and has a versatile skillset that can offer a vast amount of options for both single target and AOE damage. She also is far from reliant on Alpha Strike, with many reliable tricks of her own to remain effective outside of it. Good action economy, shotgun tech, and good AOE contribute to her success, and although she will require a great deal of investment and an early Reflex Grip to get going, she can easily carry as much weight as Blueblood, although her higher cost does land her a lower placing. Her promote 5 training deserves a mention as well, gaining it will free her from the need to use an auto-reloader, allowing her to use expanded mags to reliably avoid any reloads from slowing her down, letting her vent, scatter and shoot with near impunity.
3rd Place
Claymore : Claymore was also someone I underrated as Blueblood is just that good. His combo, Shrapnel + Nade, is quite good and the fact that it always hits, shreds, and can rupture lends him a great deal of general effectiveness in most situations. He works well with Godmother, as they stack shotgun tech and leading with Claymore and Alpha Striking with GM gives two strong offense turns before the enemies even act. His action economy improves with his final promote, Barrage, although his scaling is lackluster. He benefits less from Reflex Grip as he likely wants to shrapnelnade his opening turn, which can't benefit from a Reflex Grip, and wants to generally use both his actions for his abilities or movement. His promotions are effective enough, the highlight being the free rupture on his fourth promote. His ability to synergize with a stronger offensive unit gives him greater strength to outpace other offensive units, although his slow mobility will need to be assuaged through defensive utility. Slow mobility does make him far worse on hostage rescue maps, so beware; Claymore is artillery and artillery is slow but strong.
4th Place
Torque, Patchwork : Both Torque and Patchwork are all-rounder units, with a focus on offensive utility for Torque and defensive for Patchwork. They wield mediocre 3-5 weapons with no way to boost their raw damage output short of tech. Torque is slightly better than Patchwork due to there being three SMG users as opposed to the two AR users. Their abilities are acceptable in terms of the damage they bring to the table, but you don't bring them to the table for that damage most of the time. Torque and Patchwork offer much more in other areas, and as such if you're looking for more raw offense in your squad, look further up. If you aren't looking for much more offense and want a balanced choice, look right here.
5th Place
Axiom : Axiom has shotgun tech, nuff said. Synergy with the better shotgun users makes him acceptable if other shotgunners are in training or otherwise unavailable. Axiom has pathetic scaling due to melee weapons not getting a tech and comes to rely on Reflex Grip + Shotgun for his general offense. Quake is cute but in terms of "i win" buttons it is outclassed by most everyone. Reflex + Shotgun is strong enough to get mileage out of him, but the difference between him and Godmother is night and day. In addition, he is worse than units like Torque and Patchwork due to simply having less effective offensive skills. Smash is acceptable, but its raw damage is less than impressive, it is more so a CC tool than anything. He's alright, but only because he gets to use the beeg 6-8 gun. And the Axiom shotgun glitch is pretty funny too.
6th Place
Everyone Else but Zephyr : Everyone else is limited to non shotgun tech, and lacks many relevant offensive skills. They can perform offensive roles, but often will just use their actions in other ways. Cherub could get his own tier for tech sharing with Blueblood, but his own offensive capabilities with a pistol are minimal enough that it isn't worth speaking of. Verge has good accuracy, crit, and can use Banish and Serial well but ARs are a 2 unit weapon type and Verge already needs a lot of investment to use Puppeteer well, which is more so his primary role.
Zephyr-th Place
Zephyr : A terrible offensive unit with no scaling to speak of, promotions that make you hate that we've gone back to EU/base XCOM 2 and have to choose between promotes, and no ability to use Reflex Grip. Momentum allows her to move after attacking, but is far from equal to a Reflex Grip, making her action economy mediocre at best. I think she would be far better if momentum could allow her to attack twice, this would add more options whilst also allowing her to stand out by saving you from needing another Reflex Grip. It'd be strong, but it'd make up for literally having no tech but armor. As it stands, she is worse than literally anyone else at providing offense in the late game. Except in the early game, where she is fantastic at it. She has high mobility, guaranteed hits, respectable damage, the pinnacle of early game traits. She can't be rated in the same manner as any other offense units because she is far too polarized. She drops like lead in terms of viability as the game goes on, but her early game is one of the best. Worth using if you have units like Shelter, maybe Blueblood, who require some scaling to get going, as she can carry the early game on her shoulders. She'll sit in spec ops for the rest of the game, but that's not a bad role by any means.

Finally, the next tier list, Offensive Utility. This tier list will be more based around abilities than anything else, thing such as weapon tech aren't really considered here, more so what the unit can do and how quickly they can do it.
1st Place
Torque : Torque provides the best utility in the game, hands down, straight up. In terms of her offensive utility, Torque can pull and bind enemies and provide poison status. Toxic Greeting is worth mentioning, even though it is only a breach ability, as it pierces armor and provides poison. The snek snatch is utterly massive in its final form, as it combines Stasis Field with five damage and can't be interrupted whilst also giving Torque one armor, and that's only its offensive capabilities. Not to mention, binding and unbinding provides Torque with great action economy. It is the best ability in the game, available from the start, scales well, is nearly always useful in every possible scenario. Tongue Pull's one disadvantage is that it feels clunky to use at times, although that is the game failing Torque more so than Torque failing us, and she can provide a great deal of offensive utility for those inclined.
2nd Place
Shelter : Shelter is someone I underestimated massively, mostly because Dazzle is a big meme. It's a worse flash bomb that barely does anything most of the time. His ability to move down two enemies on the timeline by his third promote in his one turn gives him beeg action economy. And then he doubles that action economy with shatter at promote 5, an "i win" button. This gives him the theoretical best action economy for offensive utility, probably overall in the game, although he costs a great deal to get there. Early levels are painful for Shelter, but he is the scaling machine. Once he gets those promotions and gets Soulfire he becomes worth his weight in gold, but just like Godmother the higher investment cost makes him lesser.
3rd Place
Patchwork, Terminal, Blueblood : Gremlin Girls are here and they are both respectable at denying or blunting enemy actions. In addition, the almighty god of Offense, Blueblood, graces this tier with his presence. Terminal is the odd one out, as her utility mostly relies on Pin Down and Cooperation. Cooperation is an odd skill, allowing her to hand one of her action points to another ally. In effect, Terminal is only as good at a role as those who surround her, and a Terminal with no cool downs is just a healbot who fires an SMG every round. Regardless, having a drag-down effect like Pin Down is enough to justify her as a great offensive utility unit. Both Patchwork and Blueblood can apply disorient, whilst only Patchwork can apply stun to an enemy. Stun is superior to disorient, with Stun 2 removing an enemy from the timeline and Stun 1 immobilizing or disabling their weapon, depending on the AI's preference. Blueblood, with Warm Welcome and Free Reload, can apply disorient onto two enemies, regardless of range. Patchwork can apply disorient/stun onto an unlimited amount of enemies with Shock Therapy. restricted by proximity only, and gets a big boom for promote 5 that can do the same regardless of promote 4. It is a matter of preference, do you want targeted disorient that deals more damage or big AOE shocks that can disable an army, both are realistically equal in a game where threats vary in danger levels, single target is sometimes better, whereas multi-target abilities can also shine.
4th Place
Godmother, Zephyr, Verge : Godmother is more interesting as her Untouchable and CQC serve as offensive utility that is entirely disconnected from statuses. Untouchable dodges enemy attacks for free, functionally removing them from the timeline if she is targeted, and CQC can occasionally cheese the enemy out of an action if they attempt to approach. CQC is more consistent by far, but Untouchable is disgusting when the enemy targets Godmother. Zephyr is here as well due to her low general viability. Her status is more consistent than Axiom's but she generally lacks due to her single-target nature. Parry is a nice trick, but ultimately fails to make her stand out more, and leaves her vulnerable. Zephyr really needs something more to be able to stand out, but she is respectable due to her early game strength. Her auto-tranq rounds and +1 damage promote is worthwhile enough to justify a spot here. Verge is in a strange spot in the game. I've avoided talking about him because he is difficult to discuss. Stun 1/2 is incredible from Stupor, and Battle Madness is alright. He is entirely centralized around puppeteer, another "i win" button that is by far the strongest available. However, Verge's low action economy makes it hard to set up that puppeteer without investing more resources into him, such as a motile inducer. He has the highest reward, but the highest tactical cost to maintain. He's quite good, but is less independent in his role.
Axiom-th Place
Axiom : Axiom has a crippling gambling addiction and playing with him transforms the game into Russian Roulette. If that's your style, Axiom can be a happy-go-lucky unit with some extreme consistency issues but incredible power when he works well. He is by far the best spreader of panic, both for the player when he rolls a miss and the enemy when he rolls a double panic and stun off a three-man Aftershock smash. Panic is the strongest status, taking away two actions from the timeline most of the time. Axiom's access to this unique status gives him his viability as an offensive utility unit. He is by far the most divisive unit, due solely to this inconsistency. Is he good? Maybe, it's honestly all in the cards. Panic is incredible, and when he gets panic, he is incredible, hands down the best inhibiter. He can either be entirely off this list or at the very top. He is too inconsistent for most I/I masochists but casual players probably love him. Give him and Zephyr some melee tech, for christ sake. Just even AP would help, or more consistent CC. Just call the assembly project Taser fists or something, easy as pie.
Finally finally, we reach Defensive Utility.
1st Place
Torque, Cherub, Terminal : Can you win a game without Terminal's Safeguard? Yes, entirely. If you have sufficient action economy and can manage fights well, damage can be avoided or mitigated to the point where nanomeds will suffice. Although healing is theoretically the best piece of defensive utility, Torque and Cherub beat Terminal at this game overall. Terminal is somewhat unreliable as her cooldowns hamper her a lot more, whilst Cherub has a great "i win" button and Torque laughs at puny humans and their pitiful cooldowns. Cooldowns can be managed but not to an unlimited degree, and the long missions which Terminal wants to go on will typically not allow her to always have cooldowns available, although this can be mitigated by stalling on abusable enemies. Terminal is okay, but Torque is the better terminal in all but healing. Torque has no pathetic cooldowns, she is capable of tongue pulling every turn if she wants. Her final training is also something worth mentioning, as it is the best training in the game. Tag Team is the ultimate maneuver of Torque's, giving her Cooperation but without the cool down and also it can give allies free movement. Broken, absolutely. Tag Team makes Torque a great defensive utility unit, singlehandedly, combining movement with free actions and also it can rescue the VIP and file your taxes and mow your lawn and raise your children. Cherub is the weird one in this tier, but is still great at the role due to his Blueblood synergy. The two are designed to work together and Cherub provides the best defense in the game with kinetic shields and can buff allies directly through Supercharge and that +15 aim for having a shield perk. He is worthless on the offense but supercharge is such a strong "i win" button with Blueblood or Godmother that it serves to propel him to prominence in defensive utility through buffing his allies. Getting there isn't too hard either as Cherub has a good AP subdue that scales damage with charge, allowing him to serve as a knock-out bot to get free intel, and works well with Blueblood who can stack pistol tech with him.
2nd Place
Verge, Patchwork : Verge can function well with a regen-based build that focuses on tanking hits and getting many enemies into the neural network. His dodge training and certain promotes are pre-requisites to this, but once fulfilled, Verge can bait enemy attacks in combination with Terminal support for greater defense. This allows Verge to fulfill a unique spot as a reliable tank, due to his high built-in sustain, which allows him to direct enemy attacks towards himself, freeing up allied actions by allowing certain enemies to be ignored temporarily as they focus Verge. This is an effective utility tactic, although not entirely proactive. Verge's ability to threaten a massive Puppeteer, though, makes it quite viable. Patchwork offers great defensive utility through Stasis Field, Shock Therapy, and, against SC, reprogram. You can reprogram MECs if you're a mad-lad, but most sane people stick to androids, who are plenty good as fodder. In essence, Patchwork is the best utility player for balanced utility. Stasis Field in particular is great at protecting allies and stopping enemies from killing allies or anything else, although her mediocre action economy does put her in a similar situation to Verge, lacking much independence and requiring respectable support, although her action economy is inferior as Chaining Jolt ends her turn, whilst Verge's skills leave him with a free action.
3rd Place
Everyone else : Most units don't provide much directly to their teammates, with their only options being Team Up and possible Motile Inducers or other items.

In summary, there are quite a few options in each role, although some units stand out more than others. I find CS to be decently balanced, most any unit can find some use at some point, and even if a unit falls off, they can still work on the Assembly or Covert Ops. Even with the weakness of some units, most everything is viable within their roles, and those units that are less viable are only less viable due to the great power of others rather than being incapable themselves; every agent in CS is very capable and honestly not one of them feel useless to use. Buff Axiom and Zephyr, give them some damn weapon tech. Maybe give Verge more offensive abilities instead of Mindflay so he isn't so over centralized around Puppeteer. Don't underestimate Shelter, drag-downs are extremely good. Try new stuff, cause most of it in CS is remarkably viable. I thought Claymore was bad cause low move until I tried shrapnelnade and now he's great in non-hostage missions. Every unit has a decently defined role and a unique way in which they go about it, which is the real strength of CS.