Welcome to the Street Fighter: Duel tier list for global! After almost 1 month of playing, I can make a tier list for early-mid game progression for F2P players.
Currently, I am stuck on 20-3 as F2P player. It is very possible to get this far if you utilize a few key mechanics such as interrupting combos and befriending whale friends and borrow their SS or higher M. Bisons.
The list is rated based on how well each character helps your progress to mid game, which is around chapter 21+ and higher, where you start to focus on upgrading gear and pushing your main team to SSS and higher. At this point, the progress is really slow and requires lots of breakstones for your characters to get past level 200+. This list also takes into account their Fighting Spirit equipment.
Legend
- S Tier - Top unit(s) that can help push your progression past tough stages.
- A Tier - Good units that will impact your progression.
- B Tier - Decent and useable in the team.
- C Tier - Not the most optimal.
- D Tier - Fodder material.
S+ Tier
M. Bison is the undisputed best character that can help you progress past tough stages. Just by having 1 copy of this man, he will be your frontline tank that won't die unless your whole backline dies. This means that if the enemy team doesn't have any attacks that can easily breach the backline, you can cheese your way to victory against teams with much more combat power than you. Each additional copy of him will improve his damage, making him much more of a threat.
Unlike other infernal or master units that need multiple copies to be effective, he just needs 1 and can do a decent job.
S Tier
Mad Ryu is the easiest character to build a team around as he is given on day 2 of your fresh account. He starts off as a decent single target damage dealer until level 121, where he gains the passive of launching his super if he kills an enemy or when his HP is below 50%. At higher levels, he can launch an additional super below 30%.
This makes him a very snowbally unit that can wreck enemy teams if he gets to reset and kill enemies. His fighting spirit improves his damage further as well. He does have low hp and can die easily since his skills require him to sacrifice a small percentage of his health.
Having a unit like Elena or Sakura that can heal him or shield him (Abel) will help with his survivability.
Elena is a premium healer that can also provide damage reduction or attack buff for all allies. Her passive can also buff the strongest attacker, making them do more damage and be slightly tankier. Once you unlock her fighting spirit at SS, her heal becomes a lot stronger as she gives additional regen. At +5 and if she is in the assist slot, she can give your team damage reduction right at the start of battle.
She shines the most in modes such as Boss fights, Shadoloo City or Global Operation, where healing is necessary in keeping the team alive. She is best paired with Mad Ryu to help him survive to unleash those hadokens.
One of the key units in pushing story and tower content thanks to his skill 2, which allows him to interrupt the enemy combo chain, stopping their attacks and therefore allowing your team to survive. This means you can win against enemies with much higher combat power than you.
He does start off relatively average until he gets to level 121, which unlocks his passive that gives him a total of 126 speed, making him faster than Chun Li, giving your team 1st hit advantage for the most part.
Aside from being speedy and can interrupt combos, his fighting spirit allows him to stun on his normal attacks. On top of that, once you get the fighting spirit to +5 and unlock his assist skill, he will buff your entire team's speed by 20 at the start of battle, which is huge in PvP.
Here is a video by Colyrne explaining this mechanic:
Abel is a bit underrated, but he is a very good damage mitigator thanks to his shield being able to block hits. So if you are up against strong enemies that deal BIG damage but only hits once or twice, he can literally keep your backline DPS alive. This works best against units like C. Viper and the M.Bison statue in Shadaloo City, who are units that can one shot your DPS if you are not careful.
In battles where the enemy team have much higher combat power, these shield blocks will come in clutch to buy enough time for your DPS to dish out damage.
A Tier
Chun Li is very strong as she is a combo bar filler unit, especially when equipped with fast enchant. The other unit faster than her at global launch is Beast Zangief (at level 121). Aside from that, having her on the team usually means you always go first and start your own combo. Having high crit on her works really well as it increases the combo gauge, allowing your team to combo back to back.
When her fighting spirit is unlocked to +20, she further boosts the entire team's speed and combo gauge when using whirlwind. The downside of her is that she is hard to pull early on until you get access to the wish list.
Cammy is the best boss killer and is a very strong single target DPS. All her skills have armor break, allowing your entire team to deal more damage. Her skill 3 hits particularly hard and can one shot many tanks even when she has lower combat power.
She is also relatively fast, only 2 speed behind Chun Li. Once her fighting spirit is unlocked to +10, her skill 3 cannot be interrupted and will do well against pesky enemies such as Beast Zangief or E Honda, who can stun and stop her damage.
Dhalsim is a strong AoE attacker that can decimate the backline and frontline alike, especially when he gets to stack up his passive. He can burn enemies and as long as he is protected, he can carry you in slightly tougher matches. He is also a good unit to use alongside C. Viper against M.Bison teams. Dhalsim is slow, so you want a fast unit to help start the combo chain and deal damage.
C. Viper is a very good AoE attacker that can attack the backline directly with her super. All her skills deal area damage and when paired with other AoE attackers will destroy most teams on equal combat power. She is very useful against teams where the tank up front is very beefy and hard to kill. Usually, there will be a squishy DPS in the second or third spot, which is where C. Viper can directly damage them with her super.
Like most DPS units, she is slow and will need a fast unit on the team to start her super and snipe out the enemy back line.
Makoto is a good tank that can clump enemies together and allow your backline to wreck havoc. Her super can buy some time for your team as it juggles them in the air for a short duration. Her passive improves her defense and allows her to tank a bit longer.
When her fighting spirit is unlocked at +5, she can assist one of your units, giving them the ability to gain her own passive which will improve their defense and offense. This can be used to assist tanks, DPS or backline attackers.
Rose is not very good with only one copy, but as a tag member, her skill 2 buffs your entire team with damage reduction and can heal as well.
Until you can get enough copies of her to SS and unlock her fighting spirit, she is best used in the tag role to provide buffs. Do not get me wrong, she is very strong when maxed, but for F2P, that is out of the question early on in the game.
Guy a back line attacker that can completely bypass the tanks. His skill 1 and 2 don't do as much damage, but his super makes up for that by being able to do decent damage to the DPS in the enemy team AND can interrupt potential combos. He is a decent alternative to those that don't have Beast Zangief.
However, he seems to not be able to interrupt in big boss stages. This means he is less effective than Beast Zangief.
Guile is one of the few units with the 1 and 3 combo skill chain. Most units are either 1/2 or 2/3. He can armor break and can deal good AoE DMG. He is squishy though, and requires some protection to not get easily picked apart by enemy backline attackers.
His passive sky rockets his DPS when it stacks. It ignores a portion of the enemy's defense when stacked up. Due to this, he will always deal good damage regardless of enemy defense.
Combat Guile, much like his regular version, also offers AoE attacks and regular ranged attacks. He deals primarily thunder damage and can inflict a lot of pain as time goes on as he can shock enemies.
Honda is high up on the list is due to the fact that he can also interrupt enemy combos (only the front line). He also has a useful skill 3, which allows him to help block incoming ranged attacks. In specific stages such as 11-40, his wall can block Mad Ryu's hadoken, hence preventing a certain death.
He is also very tanky due to his passive, allowing him to buy some time for his ally DPS to dish out damage. His fighting spirit further improves his tankiness/recovery by being able to heal up when getting hit with fatal damage.
Cody is the sleeper key unit that can help you progress in tough stages thanks to his special attack. He gets 1 free combo starter at the start of battle. That means you can start off your regular combo normally AND immediately follow up with another combo chain back to back at no additional cost.
More importantly, his super can pull the enemy backline to the front, stunning him and allowing your team to kill the backliner right then and there. This works great in tough matches with a squishy DPS in the back that is protected by a beefy frontline such as M. Bison, E.Honda etc.
Despite being a B grade unit, he is really essential for F2P players. Here is Cody helping clear 11-40 when severely under leveled.
https://www.reddit.com/r/streetfighterduel/comments/11oh6w1/stage_1140_clear_with_cody/
B Tier
Many units on this tier are usable and work well in a team. However, they are unable to impact your team the way the S and A tier units can.
Also, one of the reasons why Gen and Juri are on this tier is because as F2P, you will have a hard time getting them to SS grade unless you use a credit card. Otherwise, they are S tier characters when fully maxed out, alongside Monster Hunter Ken due to their big damage.
Yun and Yang benefit from having each other on the team, but due to Chun Li and Cammy having faster speed, they are often not used as much. However, they both get power spikes upon being SS grade, unlocking their fighting spirits, which give them extra base speed, hence being able to outspeed Chun Li or Beast Zangief. They are more well suited for mid to late game progression.
Ibuki, who is B grade rarity, is actually quite decent at sniping the backline in the early game if you don't have Guy or C. Viper. She comes in handy in maps where you need to quickly take out the enemy backline. However, she falls off past level 160+.
If you want to check out individual character skills, you can do so here on our wiki.