Returning to Jae-Yong and he feels so difficult to push now, I feel as though I’m contributing very little to the team most matches

Damage gadget used to make Jae-Yong broken back on release but now it’s not even that strong and Jae-Yong struggles in any scenario where his back’s against the wall

Any certified Jae-Yong players willing to give me some advice or even just a pointer to a Youtube guide from Bedlam or something? Would be appreciated, only one guide to Jae-Yong on this sub and that was back when he was S tier so a lot of it’s probably outdated

this might get removed and I won’t be surprised tbh

I did not make this tier list to invalidate anyone, even if you main a brawler that I put at the bottom that says absolutely nothing about you and you could still be a great player

Edgar kinda isn’t that overpowered but I think mostly the hyper buffie is just broken as heck

I am not applying niche situations to this like “Oh if you’re playing only against single shot brawlers as Gigi she’s super high skill” this is an overall ranking not a ”what about this scenario” ranking

S tier:

Gem Miners: Jacky is in a HORRIBLE position right now and desperately needs buffies. Dyna-Mike also isn’t in a great position and in my opinion has a lot of potential for tweaking his unlockables to make him more interesting and less toxic. Carl is a classic staple for F2Ps and is almost always a healthy brawler for the meta.

Biodome: … I mean, literally all three of these mfs are poor in the meta right now and heavily powercrept by other options. Most especially Rosa. Rosa and Sprout in particular have been awful for so long, and I really think they‘re in dire need for buffies.

Mexican Entertainers: El Primo is dogshit, powercrept and needs buffies badly. Amber is also very bad and needs buffies, especially considering I’ve heard from Amber players that her unlockables are very mediocre. Poco is… fine right now, but is constantly having his head pulled under the water by new Supports powercreeping him. He can’t keep running from his base kit issues forever, so I think he needs buffies arguably as bad as the others.

A tier:

Pirates: Darryl is pretty bad in the meta, and Penny and Tick are both brawlers constantly drifting throughout the meta that also have rusty kits that could use updates.

Mystic Wanderers: Sandy and Tara aren’t very good right now and Sandy especially has kind of bad unlockables, Gene is a healthy brawler and buffies for him are a good idea.

Junker Family: Pam is falling off despite being a pretty healthy brawler meta-wise, Jessie has recently risen up but in my opinion probably still has a fragile spot in the meta, and Nani could be doing better.

Townsfolk: Barley is powercrept right now and could really use buffies, Piper… as much as I hate to say it, is a F2P staple and keeping her good should be a priority, and Byron, well, maybe not so much but his unlockables are kind of unimpressive in my opinion and could use a polishing.

B tier:

Starr Force: Ruffs is healthy for most metas, Squeak and Eve are both very bad right now and Eve especially is powercrept with unimpressive unlockables.

Stunt Show: Bonnie is very bad right now and especially has terribly made unlockables, Janet isn’t staying afloat and Stu… well he’s actually very good right now but hey this is the B tier not every trio here has three straight brawlers that need buffies

Turbo Theater: All three of these guys are bad right now, although whether they’re bad due to their unlockables or due to other factors is debatable (Except for Buster imo buffies could tune him up beautifully), plus they’re kind of a recent trio…

Goldarm Gang: Sam is in DESPERATE need of a rework, and especially concerning his unlockables since they’re terribly balanced. Pearl also has very poorly balanced unlockables even if she’s very good right now, and while Belle is still very good and probably will continue to be, I feel as though powercreep is slowly but surely wearing her down. She could use a boost back up.

Brawlywood: Gray’s fine, but Lola could definitely use a hand and Mico… oh jesus, Mico… I mean yes Mico’s unlockables are a problem and should be addressed, so Supercell might have to face their demons with him…

Castle Courtyard: Moe’s swag for the time being but his unlockables aren’t well balanced and I feel like he could fall off, Grom definitely needs a rework that buffies could give him and Ash… is also swag for the time being and his unlockables are fine so actually maybe this trio’s only so high because of Grom

Ghost Station: Chuck is just in dire need of some crumbs, man… like Shade is doing well right now and Gus isn’t really drowning (Although his unlockables also could use some fine tuning… very one-loadout brawler) but Chuck alone makes this B tier…

C tier:

Snowtel: FUCK no these three bastards are all about being oppressive and toxic, a meta moving them to the top would be quite possibly the worst meta in history.

Candyland: No. Berry isn’t suffering from powercreep, Chester is doing very well, and Mandy… well actually buffies wouldn’t be a bad idea for her but she’s still not like El Primo or Jacky level.

Deep Sea: Clancy and Otis are great right now and buffies would be entirely unnecessary. Hank could use buffies but also just buffs maybe since giving him buffies would mean giving Clancy and Otis buffies

Swamp of Love: Okay, let’s get this out of the way. The point of buffies, at least for this state of the game, is to fine-tune old trios so they can keep up with new brawlers that powercreep them. This is why I don’t have a lot of sympathy for most of these recent trios. They ARE the new brawlers. They ARE the powercreep. Admittedly as far as recent trios go Swamp of Love is definitely one of more needy ones but still all three of these brawlers have their niche and I wouldn’t say they’re drowning.

Enchanted Woods: Another recent trio. Lily doesn’t need buffies, Trunk is a relatively new brawler and also is a decent brawler imo this is just an off-meta for them, and Cordelius has good unlockables so buffies probably aren’t the way to go with him

Velocirapids: Buzz is good and doesn’t need buffies especially since his unlockables are very well designed. Doug is a tricky brawler to balance so giving him any buffs at all is risky, let alone buffies. And Pierce… FUCK NO. Do I have to say more?

MadEvil Manor: Hell no. Lumi is very good in the meta and Draco and Damian have great unlockables so buffies are not necessary for them. Besides, need I remind you, OLD brawlers, POWERCREPT brawlers, not NEW and POWERCREEPING brawlers like Damian

Katana Kingdom: :/ By far in last place of any complete trio for needing buffies. All three of these brawlers are good, have good unlockables, and are very recent additions to the game. Although I have a sinking, sinking feeling the favoritism for this trio may win over again and they’ll get buffies early…

Yeah that’s about it thank you for reading mwah bye

Very much willing to explain any placement on this list if asked, I would’ve put it in this description but don’t have the time

Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo also count for this ranking so if you’re reading those maybe don’t bother checking the comment section

I swear this guy has literally everything and I feel compelled to ban him literally every game, any other broken S tier I can counter but I just have no idea what to do about this guy.

He has absurd damage, absurd range, CC, for some reason a fuckass free 1200 shot for every ammo he picks up and an undodgeable Super. Even if you can dodge his shots he can just feed off your teammates to oppress you.

What are the counters to this guy, especially in Hot Zone? I’m at a loss, because even if a brawler can avoid his main attack his Super is just impossible to deal with unless the Pierce player messes up.

Even with my burning hatred for Crow and Piper even I have to admit they have badass Prestige 3 titles

Pearl has recently made an insane comeback in the meta after a recent buff to her heat charge that has made her an incredibly viable pick in Ranked both as a safe pick and counterpick. If used right, Pearl can both drive some top meta brawlers into the ground while also being very difficult to properly counter herself. Yes, balance changes have just dropped, but let’s be honest here, a lot of the top meta will remain largely the same, so I think Pearl is still going to remain relevant, especially considering she’s gotten no nerfs herself.

However, despite the fact there are a lot of people who don’t actually play Pearl that say she requires no skill to use due to having a relatively simple kit, Pearl in fact does feel significantly worse if you don’t know what you’re doing with her, so I’ll run down the basics on how to use her properly, and even offer what kind of matchups she works into and what she might struggle with, so if you’re here just looking for how the hell to deal with Pearl you’re in luck

Loadout:

Unfortunately Pearl is one of those brawlers with a badly designed secondary kit. You will pretty much always want to run Overcooked and ESPECIALLY Heat Shield, since Made with Love and Heat Retention are both painfully underwhelming and don’t contribute nearly as much to Pearl’s kit.

Actually playing Pearl:

Pearl is almost entirely centered around her heat mechanic. At low heat she will do basically nothing but tickle enemies and at high heat she is nigh unstoppable.

In almost every game, whenever you are out of heat, you will want to step back for a moment and fully recharge your heat meter. For the majority of every game Pearl should keep her shield up as it’s key to her high survivability.

You can use one main attack at full heat and still keep Pearl’s shield, so most of the time, you should use your main attack once at full heat and then wait until full heat again.

The exceptions to this rule are when you need to confirm a kill or are already retreating and want to stop an enemy from chasing you down. In both situations you want to make sure you won’t get punished for cancelling your shield. Don’t get reckless.

You don’t necessarily need to hit anything at all with Pearl’s main attack to get value off of it. Like the title states, Pearl is a pressure brawler: Just using her main attack will scare any enemy who has an accurate idea of how powerful it is and make them back away, letting you push ground and run them into a corner.

Try to reserve your Overcooked gadget for when you believe you’re going to hit the majority of your cookies on a target.

As for Super: Pearl has one of the more niche Supers in the game, but it still can be incredibly useful if used right. It has three main use cases: A. Confirming a kill once you‘ve fully pushed your enemy into a corner, B. Slapping away any aggressive brawlers that might‘ve jumped on you, and C. Opening up the map by breaking walls.

During A and C you want to make sure no one else is around to take advantage of the fact you’re now out of heat and need to recharge. This is why Knockout is one of Pearl’s best modes.

B seems like the most braindead use of Pearl’s Super, but in my opinion it can actually be the easiest to screw up. Pearl’s Super does have a slight wind up before it actually hits, so it’s possible for an enemy to back away, jump over it, or even just straight up kill you before you can fire it off. It can be a little hard to keep your head straight when an assassin is jumping you, but please make sure they won’t just jump over your Super somehow because then you’ve lost all your heat and are a free kill. For example, if an Edgar jumps you with his gadget charged, wait until he’s used the gadget to use your Super since if you instantly Super once he lands he might just use the gadget. Yes, you could try timing the Super perfectly, but it probably won’t kill him quite yet and then you’re at no heat and he gadgets into you and is on top of you again and… I’m going on a tangent.

Yeah, for a brawler with such a simple kit, I’m sure you didn’t expect so much information to take in.

So when should I use Pearl?:

A lot of the time, actually. In most cases you will not get punished for simply picking Pearl, as her weaknesses aren’t really concerned with being counterable.

Although before I continue there is one type of brawler that can bully Pearl: Other long range brawlers with high damage output. Examples being 8-Bit, Brock, Pierce, etc. Most of these brawlers except for 8-Bit can still be killed relatively easily if you catch them in your effective range, but still, keep an eye on them, and if you’re reading this to counter Pearl, there you go. That’s what you pick into her, but keep reading, because I’m also gonna cover Pearl’s biggest mechanical weakness.

Since pretty much every mode favors brawlers that apply strong pressure, Pearl can work just about anywhere if drafted and played right. However, she will be more consistent in passive modes where she can recharge her heat without getting punished more reliably.

And yeah, ironically, this is the main problem with Pearl: Yes, she‘s very good at pressure, but she does not respond to getting pressured well at all. As soon as push comes to shove, she loses heat, becomes weaker, and immediately struggles to do much of anything at points in the match where you most need to do something. Like when you’re trying to defend a goal in Brawl Ball, or your safe in Heist, or need to win a 2v3 in Knockout, just any situation where Pearl is already in a poor position, she will not work well. Even her Super will have lackluster damage at low heat, although if you really need the CC it can still be helpful.

So the main key to playing Pearl? Keep yourself in a safe position of power for as much of the match as you possibly can. An assassin jumping you isn’t necessarily “push coming to shove,” because you can still respond incredibly easily if you’re at max heat and just kill them. Keep at a safe distance where enemies can’t burst you, use your powerful main attack to force people back or punish them if they try to stand up to you, and of course, work with your team when they‘re trying to push ground because they are important too.

That’s about all I have to say. Y’know, even though Pearl has faced the allegations of being a boring brawler for a long time, I think that actually holds far less ground nowadays than before. Most of the match with Pearl, you are, in fact, in the center of the action, being one of the more important players on the map. It’s also funny how one of the sweetest brawlers as a character probably has one of the most ruthless gameplay styles.

No abilities no outside vehicles or tools (Save for Chuck’s train since he’s attached to that thing 24/7) just duking it out brawler to man

(I’m not very strong just a somewhat out of shape teenage guy)

The main cause of these stages I think is the fact by the time you’ve actually reached Sam’s skill floor and can do some decent stuff with him, your enemies are still pretty bad at the game and don’t know how Sam even works, so anecdotal fallacy kicks in because you’re kicking ass with him for a while.

Then of course eventually you hit the wall where people actually know what they’re doing and realize Sam is actually comically counterable and predictable

Still probably my favorite brawler in the game to play but man do you just need to pray on matchmaking lol

I normally like pretty much every new brawler’s personality even if I don’t like their gameplay but Wendy’s lines might genuinely be my least favorite in the game. No hate to the voice actor herself but she genuinely feels like she’s putting no effort into her delivery, although even that would only save like 40% of the lines as the others are cringey attempts at slang.

You’d think there’s potential for cool voicelines, she’s an disillusioned scientist who’s broken away from Starr Park’s unethical practices for the sake of a better world, that sounds cool as shit, but they barely do anything with that and just make a bunch of lame puns around greenhouses and stuff

I swear Bolt is such a polarizing brawler, whenever I see him in Ranked I start panicking as to what I can counterpick into him… what should I be choosing to counter him with or should I max a new brawler

I didn’t exactly agonize over designing these ideas, feel free to give critiques but idk if it’s worth it to lecture me about how terrible I am at balancing if that’s what you wanna do

Also CREDIT TO u/Dragolitron FOR CONCEPT FOR ’FAMILY RECIPE’

They seem to be focusing on the oldest trios first, so that leaves the most recent ones out of the question, at least until we see them break this pattern

Might make a more in-depth weekend ranking if I’m feeling cute idk

u/GoldarmGangMain more like u/GoonerarmGangMain

(Post-release means no, Ziggy, Gigi, and Pierce’s Mythic skins don’t count, let’s be real all of them are lowkey mid anyway)

C tier:

Blue:

Don’t get me wrong he’s kind of funny, and there was nothing wrong with how he was done as a character, but I think it’s for the best Blue was a super early death. Not just for plot reasons, but also because I think the “Hot guy” joke would’ve seriously worn out its welcome over time, especially considering he has little substance aside from that. Okay character, glad he’s in the show, but also glad he died second. Also his dead body is probably my favorite of the bunch

Green (BEFORE REVEAL):

Not gonna hold you Green is an obnoxious bitch. He pisses me off 70% of the time he speaks. “Awwww look at the poor innocent guy, no one likes him even though he’s really heartfelt and sweet” SHUT UP. MOST OBNOXIOUS CLICHE IN THE BOOK. In Episode 1 he is mildly tolerable, and I appreciate his encouragement for Purple to open up about herself, but that’s pretty much it. At least he doesn’t get a lot of screen time until… well, we’ll get to that.

B tier:

White:

Kinda like Blue except better, in the sense he’s also a one-note character that probably deserved to go early, but also I found him a lot funnier than Blue and I think he could’ve lasted longer, unlike Blue who definitely would’ve been annoying anywhere past Episode 2. I like the tease in Episode 9 where Green can’t properly mimic White’s voice, kind of a nod to how White’s VA was only hired for one episode due to being expensive.

Cyan:

Sweet and has a few gags, and also obviously plays a core role in some other character’s arcs (Purple and Black), but those two are doing most of the heavy lifting. Otherwise, Cyan is fine and all, and definitely makes the show better by existing but not really anything special on her own.

Lime:

Again, I think the writers really made a good choice with the first three deaths because all of them probably would’ve gotten stale very quickly. Lime is another one, he’s pretty kooky and simultaneously funny and kind of charming for it, but he has very little substance and pretty much no emotional connections with anyone in the cast. His death was genuinely kind of gnarly though holy

Orange:

Suffers from, yet again, not a lot of substance to her character. I feel like that’s an extremely common theme for every character I’ve covered so far. But Orange is actually a pretty fun character to watch and I love how she’s kind of just a horrible imposter. Like I read one critique of the show complaining about how “Orange is completely incompetent as an imposter.” … yeah, she is. That’s the entire point, the show itself acknowledges this. Personally I find it hilarious, and I like how you almost think she’s the only imposter and are confused where the show’s gonna go after she’s ejected, only to realize later… there’s a second one. And not a dumbass this time.

A tier:

Yellow:

Kinda seems corny in the first episode, but becomes incredibly endearing over time, to the point it kinda hurts seeing her voted out for a pretty obvious plant by the imposter. At least the other crewmates get a body to remember them by, Yellow’s just… gone. Frozen in the vastness of space. One of the nicest, wisest characters, given probably the worst fate.

Black:

Starts as a pretty simple “The Only Sane One” trope, before actually becoming a really compelling character once Cyan is dead. It’s interesting seeing her try to come to terms with the fact she pushed away a person who genuinely wanted to be her friend, and honoring Cyan’s memory by realizing that she was genuinely onto something. If you really think about it Black was the only reason Red and Purple could survive by the end. Great character, and I especially loved her death scene, it was extremely well done, even more so than the others.

Brown:

… kind of crazy that one scene managed to bolster Brown from a B- character to an A+. The pizza scene during the episode where only five are left was kind of beautiful. This is a man who has lost pretty much the only thing keeping him going… his greatest friend. He has lost all sense of purpose. They’re all doomed anyway, right? Only five of them left. Not like there’ll be people left to cook for, shortly. So one last thing to do: Honor his friend’s memory by trying the ingredient she pushed him to try while she was alive. After this, he’s fulfilled. Notice how even once the imposter shows up, he looks directly at them. No fear for death whatsoever. Only acceptance.

Oh and also he’s a pretty decent character other than the pizza scene too I like his dynamic with Yellow

S tier:

Red:

Disney, take notes, this is a well executed redeemable villain. And I really don’t have qualms calling Red a villain, because he is a pretty terrible fuckin’ person for the majority of the show. He prioritizes his title over the lives of his own crew and antagonizes Purple constantly even though he is the reason Purple is in constant angst. He‘s a spineless shill for Mira, a corrupt business. However, within the last episodes of the show, he comes to realize that his title of Captain isn’t and shouldn’t be his only value as a person. Instead of just sulking and beating himself up, he actually takes steps to redeem himself by taking action and being invaluable help to kill Green once and for all. I’m not saying Red is fully redeemed by the end, because he’s definitely not. He still has the blood of seven innocent people on his hands, and finally doing what he was supposed to do the whole show, dispose of the monster responsible, doesn’t make that go away. But he is definitely changing for the better. I also like how even though he’s pretty incompetent throughout most of the show, there are glimmers of moments where it’s obvious he does have some intelligence, such as his quick thinking for disposing of Orange or his delegation of roles for when O2 is out.

Purple:

In the early episodes of the show Purple serves as a rather obvious red herring, and then transitions into the main character of the show. Her storyline with Red is very well done, and you really sympathize with her. It would be really lazy writing if Red was just always the one in the wrong and Purple was completely righteous in every single altercation, but no, Purple actually isn’t blameless at all during the show. Red was right, she let several crewmates die on her watch, and instead of apologizing or trying to do better, she just shifted all the suspicion on Red, who, by the way, was literally the only person she should’ve known COULDN’T be the imposter as she literally knew him beforehand. Like in the later episodes Purple seriously dropped the ball, I expect one of the common critiques of haters to be that “Purple is just a holier-than-thou Mary Sue” when… no? But also yeah she’s probably the most competent crew member for the majority of the show, which is a breath of fresh air in a cast with a lot of intentionally idiotic characters. Great character!

Green (EPISODE 10):

... hooooooooly shit. Everything I said about Green before is completely erased now. Scratch that, everything I said about Green before IMPROVES my opinion now. His cheery personality may have been annoying throughout the show, but here, at the end where the mask is fully off, the fact he‘s still half using that facade just to taunt Purple makes the final scene so much better. God, what a masterfully written imposter and easily the best part of the show. His schemes are so intelligent that I have literally seen people on this sub not fully understand them and chalk it up to poor writing. It really feels through your first watch like Green was supposed to be a red herring, similar to Purple. Oh, obviously he’s supposed to be a “too happy to be true” red herring to lead you astray, right? No way it’d be that obvious. And he’s literally with groups when the bodies are found! He seems as though he’s hard cleared. Except then in Episode 9, that jarring character break really throws you off. Somehow, it both feels like he’s completely right and also that… something is completely wrong. He lies so convincingly that it almost made ME, the VIEWER, question if he really was innocent. But the one slip-up, trying to play on Red’s arrogance, was what gave him away. And really, that’s the whole reason Green lost in the end. He was incredibly sadistic, intelligent, almost a perfect imposter, but he always underestimated everyone else, looking down on them as inferior. That’s both what winds up giving him away, and what gets him killed.

Overall, this was a surprisingly excellent show. There are still some flaws that keep it from being a true masterpiece, mostly the fact it’s too short to actually develop an attachment even to the characters you want to get emotionally attached to, and also Green is still really fuckin’ annoying the first watch, but I really enjoyed this show. 8/10, bordering on a 9/10. Good shit.

At 1800 trophies rn, mostly push on Brawl Ball or maybe Gem Grab.

Top tiers are pretty much all of the popular choices in ladder right now, but I guess it’s my fault for choosing to enjoy Sam of all brawlers.

I am so excited to see people who have less than 500 trophies on Sam lecture me about his matchups