Wuthering Waves has moved fast since its 2024 launch, and Version 3.6 shows just how much the meta has matured. Aemeath's dual-form kit — the newest headline DPS — offers a genuinely higher damage ceiling than anything the game has released before, while Hiyuki has turned Glacio Chafe into one of the strongest damage archetypes currently available. On the support side, Shorekeeper and Cantarella remain remarkably resilient picks, still relevant patches after their original release.
Scope and methodology. This list ranks resonators for endgame PvE content — the Tower of Adversity and Holograms — assuming a reasonably built kit (sequence 0, a good but not necessarily signature weapon, and a solid but not perfect Echo set). Wuthering Waves currently has no competitive PvP mode, so this is a cooperative clear-consistency ranking rather than a matchup-based one. As with most gacha tier lists, team synergy matters: several S- and A-tier DPS units depend heavily on having a matching support or sub-DPS to reach their listed ceiling.
F2P vs. whale. Wuthering Waves has historically been one of the more F2P-friendly titles in this genre thanks to generous pull rates, and that holds true this patch — Augusta and Phoebe stand out as strong, comparatively low-investment picks that reward F2P and light-spend accounts without demanding a signature weapon. Aemeath, Cartethyia and Hiyuki, on the other hand, need real investment (weapon and Echo optimization) to fully separate from the pack, making them more natural whale-tier priorities.
S Tier
Aemeath's flexibility across multiple team compositions makes her the standout pull of the patch, closely followed by Hiyuki, whose Glacio Chafe damage output leads the current Glacio archetype. Cartethyia and Camellya remain elite hypercarries from earlier patches that still hold their own against newer competition. On the support side, Shorekeeper and Cantarella continue to be near-mandatory picks for burst and erosion teams respectively, and Mornye has quickly established herself as one of the most flexible healer-buffer hybrids in the game.
A Tier
A stacked tier full of characters that are excellent without being quite as universal as the S-tier picks. Changli and Jinhsi remain strong, proven DPS options that have simply been outpaced at the very top by newer releases. Carlotta and Zani are both strong but slightly more team-dependent than their S-tier counterparts, while Augusta stands out as an unusually efficient, low-investment DPS pick. Roccia, Phoebe and Verina round out the tier as excellent supporting pieces that make nearly any team better without needing to be the centerpiece.
B Tier
Jiyan, Yinlin, Brant, Lupa, Sanhua and Encore are all still functional and, in several cases, genuinely strong within a narrower niche — but each has been passed by a more efficient or more flexible alternative introduced in a later patch.
C Tier
Calcharo, Baizhi, Chixia and Aalto remain usable for lower-investment accounts or specific budget team compositions, but none of them are competitive picks in a fully optimized Tower of Adversity clear.
D Tier
Yuanwu and Taoqi are largely holdovers from the game's earliest patches — serviceable in the overworld, but not worth building for anyone aiming at current endgame content.
When this ranking might change
Aemeath and Hiyuki are both new enough that their placement could shift once players have had more time to stress-test them against harder Tower of Adversity rotations — treat their S-tier spot as provisional rather than settled. Watch for Kuro's next major update, since Wuthering Waves has a track record of introducing archetype-defining resonators roughly every other patch, and any of the current A-tier hypercarries (Carlotta, Zani, Jinhsi) could be pushed up or down depending on what support kits arrive alongside them.
