Ready to go in depth on a game with a starting roster of 182 characters? We had some trepidation as well, but Diaphone has boldly undertaken the task of ranking each and every one of the character select screen figures for a full Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero tier list.
To help bring method to the madness, Diaphone welcomes Sparking Zero tournament player (and often winner) Voxelizing. Together they articulate what kind of specific tools and abilities make for strong, weak, and mid tier fighters in Sparking Zero, and spend a full three hours putting together a final ordering.
There are seven total tier categories on this list including: Broken (2 characters), top tier (15 characters), high tier (25 characters), full power (four characters), insta-spark (43 characters), afterimage strike (8 characters), viable (24 characters), and not viable (61 characters).
The two characters at the top of the pile are not ones you’d expect when it comes to general power levels or notoriety. Dr. Gero’s Androids 19 and 20 are considered the most broken characters in the game right now, and are even being banned from tournaments thanks to their obvious overpowered status.
The reason these two shoot up above the pack so rapidly is the fact that their ki gauges do not diminish beyond a certain point. Every other character must manage their ki with more attention and tact, but both 19 and 20 can spam ki abilities and manipulate the fight in ways that reduce the competitive aspect down to nearly zero.
It’s also worth pointing out that this list was compiled before the recent patch that nerfed Yajirobe. Somewhat similar to the aforementioned androids, the sword-wielding character wound up much more powerful than intended thanks in part to his Sensu Bean ability that grants full health.
Yajirobe was initially amid the “broken” category with 19 and 20, but has since fallen. Diaphone noted in the corresponding X post that he knows the character is worse, but he isn’t sure where he ultimately has landed.
If you don’t want to wait for three hours, you can see the end result (which is so large it’s divided into two images) by simply clicking on the thumbnails below. To hear reasonings behind any and all of the picks, check out Diaphone’s full video. The discussion is time-tamped to fairly detailed degree, so you can jump around to hear about the characters you’re most interested in first.
Click images for larger versions