Anime Vanguards runs on a simple truth: your unit selection determines whether you breeze through Infinite Mode or fail at wave 30. A team with Alocard (Vampire King) and Savior (Moonless) steamrolls content that destroys players stuck with Nazuka and Rukio. The difference isn’t skill or luck — it’s tier awareness.

This tier list ranks every Anime Vanguards unit based on Update 11.5 Moonless Sky meta performance. From S-tier game-breakers to D-tier units you should never invest in, understanding which characters actually deliver helps you spend gems wisely instead of wasting them on mediocre summons.

Quick Reference: Alocard (Vampire King), Savior (Moonless), and Lich King (Ruler) sit at S-tier. Alocard is the most versatile unit in the game. Savior has infinite damage scaling for boss content. If you’re new, focus on pulling any S-tier unit and building your team around it.

Understanding Anime Vanguards Unit System

Before tier rankings make sense, you need to know how units work in this tower defense game.

Unit Types: Characters fall into three categories. DPS units focus on raw damage output, killing enemies quickly. Support units buff allies or debuff enemies, amplifying your team’s effectiveness. Utility units provide crowd control through freezing, stunning, or slowing enemies.

Evolution Changes Everything: Base units are weak. Evolved units are completely different. A B-tier base unit can become S-tier after evolution. Factor evolution potential into every summon decision — units with strong evolutions are worth the investment.

Traits Matter: Every unit has traits that significantly affect performance. Monarch is the best overall trait, providing excellent stat increases. Corruption III and IV are essential for damage-focused units. Rerolling for Monarch on your top-tier units is worth it.

Rarity Doesn’t Equal Power: Legendary and Mythic units aren’t automatically better. Some Epic units outperform Legendaries in specific roles. Judge units by actual performance, not rarity labels.

S-Tier: The Meta Dominators

These units define the current meta. If you pull one, build your team around it.

Alocard (Vampire King) — The most versatile unit in Anime Vanguards. Applies Bleed, inflicts Wounded status, and deals full AOE damage immediately upon placement. His Vanguard Familiar boosts Wounded damage by 35% while applying Slow to bleeding enemies. Works in every game mode without weaknesses. Absolute priority summon.

Savior (Moonless) — Insane DPS and utility combination. The 10% stacking damage passive means his damage scales infinitely the longer he attacks the same enemy. His nuke ability reaches 3000% damage when all three stocks are used. Dominates boss content where sustained damage matters.

Lich King (Ruler) — Ultimate utility and control. The Caloric Stone ability lets you place any unit you own, effectively giving you an extra team slot. His spells through Arcane Knowledge provide team support in multiple ways. Unobtainable through normal summons now — only available via trading. If you can trade for him, do it.

Brolzi Super (Legendary/Wrathful) — The only non-evolved unit competing with evolved S-tiers. Devastating burst damage, excellent scaling, and strong in all content. Base Legendary Super Brolzi is already S-tier — evolving him makes him even more broken.

Gujo (Infinity) — Post-evolution, Gujo gains damage boost, freeze passive, and SPA reduction. The freeze control plus high damage makes him dominate both story content and competitive modes. Requires evolution to reach S-tier, but worth the investment.

Tuji (Sorcerer Killer) — Evolved form brings significant damage buff and brand-new passive. Excels at boss fights with consistent damage output. Strong across all game modes after evolution.

A-Tier: Excellent Competitive Units

A-tier units are powerful and worth building teams around.

Yomomata (Captain) — Converts defeated enemies into summons that overwhelm waves. Excels in Infinite Mode where enemy density works in your favor.

The Smith (John) — Scales damage buff based on enemy HP. Exceptional against high-HP bosses where his damage ramps up the most.

Choy Jong En — Best damage-over-time dealer outside god tier. Strong in extended fights and raids where sustained damage outweighs burst.

Ice Queen (Release) — Premier utility with battlefield-wide freezing. Expensive at 10,000¥ but worth every coin for the crowd control she provides.

Haruka Rin (Dancer) — Top-tier buffer amplifying team effectiveness. Essential for optimization-focused players pushing high waves.

Diablo (Renacimiento) — Update 11.5 addition with strong sustained DPS and excellent AOE coverage. One of the better units to grab from the new Underworld Dungeon shop.

B-Tier: Solid Mid-Game Options

B-tier units work for progression but you’ll want to upgrade eventually. Use them until you pull A or S-tier replacements.

Vigil (Power) — Exceptional support when paired with stun, freeze, or timestop effects. Dramatically increases team damage output in the right comp but needs specific synergies to shine.

Isdead (Romantic) — Strong damage with useful passives mitigating team weaknesses. Versatile across game modes but lacks the raw power of higher tiers.

Itochi — Legendary unit that fails to meet expectations. Decent abilities but outclassed by A-tier units. Works as a placeholder until better options arrive.

Vogita Super — Another Legendary disappointing relative to rarity. Usable but not worth heavy investment when superior options exist.

Noruto (Six Tales) — Has moments of usefulness but inconsistent performance holds him back. Fine for early content, replace for endgame.

C-Tier and Below: Budget or Replacement Territory

These units work for beginners or fill roster gaps but aren’t worth long-term investment.

C-Tier includes: Alligator, Blossom, Kinnua (decent Epics), Kinaru, Sasuke (Hebi), Obita, Nobaba. Average performance with limited growth potential. Use temporarily, replace ASAP.

D-Tier includes: Nazuka (disappointing Demon Slayer unit), Inosake, Kakashi, Rukio Genas, Luffo, Sanjo, Shinzi, Sosuke, base Noruto. These are the weakest units in the game. Only use them if you literally have no alternatives or need ultra-low deployment cost fillers.

Never invest gems or resources into D-tier units. They’re summoning mistakes, not viable options.

How to Get Better Units

Understanding tiers means nothing if you can’t obtain good units.

Summon Wisely: Gems are precious. Save for banner events featuring S-tier units. Don’t waste gems on random summons hoping for luck. Target specific banners with rate-ups for meta units.

Complete Story and Quests: Story progression and daily quests provide free gems. Interact with every NPC in the hub area — many give free gems on first interaction.

Redeem Codes: Active Anime Vanguards codes provide gems, gold, and sometimes guaranteed summons. Check code lists regularly and redeem everything.

Underworld Dungeon: Update 11.5’s new dungeon rewards Hollow Tokens, evolution items, and specific units like Diablo and Deceiver through the Dungeon Shop. Grind this for guaranteed progression.

Trading System: Unlocks at Level 50. Trade duplicate or unwanted units for ones you need. Lich King (Ruler) and other unobtainable units only come through trading now.

Team Building Basics

Five random S-tier units don’t automatically win. Team composition matters.

Core Structure: Build teams around 2-3 DPS units, 1-2 support/utility units, and 1 economy unit. Sprintwagon is the best economy unit — include him in every lineup for resource generation.

Synergy Matters: Some units amplify each other. Alocard (Vampire King) synergizes with Wounded appliers. Ice Queen (Release) pairs with units benefiting from frozen enemies. Build combos, not random collections.

Deploy Order: Place economy units first for resource generation. Add DPS units to handle early waves. Drop support and utility units as needed when difficulty increases.

Map Adaptation: Different maps favor different strategies. Wave-heavy maps need AOE damage. Boss-focused maps want single-target burst. Adjust team composition per challenge.

Evolution and Trait Priority

Evolution transforms units completely. Prioritize correctly.

Evolution Priority: Evolve S-tier and A-tier units first. Evolved Gujo and Tuji become meta-defining. Don’t waste evolution materials on C or D-tier units regardless of how many you have.

Trait Targeting: Monarch is the best overall trait. Corruption III/IV for pure DPS units. Reroll traits on your core team units until you get optimal traits. Random traits on top-tier units waste potential.

Material Farming: Evolution Madness events double Green Essence drops and halve evolution costs. Save evolution for these events to maximize efficiency.

Meta Shifts After Update 11.5

Moonless Sky update changed the landscape significantly.

New Top Tiers: Savior (Moonless), Deceiver (Monster), Diablo (Renacimiento), and Teacher (Final Stand) are all competitive units. Savior especially disrupts the meta with infinite damage scaling.

Worldlines Reset: Progress wiped, Teacher (Final Stand) is the new Floor 50 prize. Everyone’s chasing the same endgame goal now.

Limited Events: 5 new limited events plus 8 returning events create summoning opportunities. Evolution Madness makes unit upgrades more accessible.

The meta will shift again with future updates. Stay flexible and don’t overcommit resources to units that might get powercrept.

Final Thoughts

Anime Vanguards’ 100+ unit roster ranges from game-breaking powerhouses like Alocard (Vampire King) to complete wastes of gems like base Noruto and Nazuka. Success comes from recognizing which units deserve investment and which ones are summoning mistakes.

Prioritize S-tier units, build teams with synergy, evolve strategically, and never waste gems chasing rarity when performance matters more. A skilled player with optimized A-tier units outperforms someone with random S-tier units poorly composed.

The tower defense meta rewards knowledge. Now you have the tier list. Time to dominate Infinite Mode.