Dragon Ball Legends Tier List: Best Characters Ranked

There are many franchises that might come to mind when thinking of large-scale battles between powerful aliens and earth-shattering gods. Among these franchises, Dragon Ball stands out with its massive cast of characters. Dragon Ball Legends makes use of this cast in more ways than most games do, granting them numerous skills and abilities tied to their most iconic appearances. But with such a massive cast, which characters in Dragon Ball Legends could be considered top-tier?

Related: All Dragon Ball Super Saiyan Levels in Order

Best Dragon Ball Legends Characters

Many top-tier characters can have their effectiveness fluctuate over time due to balance changes and new additions, especially with a long-running game like Dragon Ball Legends. After all, it won’t be too long until even more characters are added during this title’s lifespan. ULTRA Vegito Blue was added to the game not too long ago and he’s still easily competing with other top tier fighters if not surpassing them outright. But you’ll still find plenty of characters that have been undeniably good since their release, and will likely continue to be for quite a long time.

These are some of the best characters you’ll find as of July 12, 2023:

Top-tier characters are those who, so far, have proven the test of time to repeatedly get fantastic results in competitive play. Many other Legends Limited characters don’t currently measure up that well, but a few of them have continued to rival top fighters thanks to special abilities, unique equipment, or Zenkai Awakening. It’s easy to see which ones are being used in high-level play much more often, but even those that are simply “good” can still easily handle themselves. In short, there are more reasons to be excited than disappointed when getting them as part of a summon.

On the other hand, regular Sparking characters can become very dated very quickly. Few of them can manage to even show up in PVP when they aren’t receiving time-limited boosts. Characters like Kyawei, Kahseral, and Magenta are fairly new and seeing widespread play, but only time will tell if they can continue standing up to the competition. The community commonly makes its own tier lists every few months found on places like Reddit, and even these only have a few Sparking fighters at most…with many of them vanishing from the top 20 by the next list.

This doesn’t mean you should ignore all the other Sparking characters, though, as they can still prove to be very effective. Team composition can be more important than you think, and it’s not uncommon for the community to sleep on long-forgotten fighters. Old favorites like Master Roshi, transforming 2nd Form Cell, and revival Final Form Frieza still see plenty of use in PVP today. Unlike a game such as Dragon Ball FighterZ, the sheer number of available characters makes it extremely difficult to plan for every possible outcome — even if you have the best ULTRA and Legends Limited fighters on your side.

What Makes a Dragon Ball Legends Character Top Tier?

Dragon Ball Legends might be a skill-based game, but there are plenty of factors to consider when choosing your fighters. Simply getting good at the game — or using characters that look powerful — won’t be enough. Most of what you’ll need to keep an eye on will be found in each fighter’s details, though some important qualities are a bit harder to find. Here’s what you should focus on when building your team:

Elements

A color that determines which characters a fighter is strong or weak against. An element chart can be seen before each battle, showcasing which elements are most effective against your current enemy.

Battle Style

Determines a character’s greatest strengths. The different styles are Melee, Ranged, Defense, and Support.

Unique Traits

Special abilities that a character has access to during battle, including safe cover changes, health restoration, and damage boosts.

Character Tags

Categories that a character falls under. You’ll want to make sure your characters share as many tags as possible for extra buffs and to make the most out of certain equipment.

Special Equipment

Many pieces of equipment can only be used by specific characters, with a select few having wholly-unique equipment. Unique equipment can, at times, make certain characters incredibly viable where they’d otherwise be worthless.

Z Power

The “star” ranking system that determines how much total power your character can have. You’re unlikely to get a large amount from higher-rarity characters unless you farm or purchase great quantities of Chrono Crystals for mass-summoning.

Zenkai Awakening

After gaining enough Z Power, certain characters will have access to Zenkai Awakening, allowing them to become even stronger. Even without the greatest characters or rarities at your disposal, Zenkai can help almost anyone compete with top-tier foes.

Of course, there’s arguably nothing more important than rarity when it comes to building a team. While a high rarity doesn’t automatically make a character good, you’re immensely unlikely to compete very well when using only low-rarity characters. There are a few exceptions to this such as Hero Hercule, Hero Shallot, and a handful of Extreme characters, but you shouldn’t rely too much on anything below Sparking. These are the three major rarities to keep in mind:

Sparking

A decently high rarity that includes powerful characters. Numerous fighters in this rarity will have special abilities like transformations and assists. While many characters in this rarity can be unimpressive there are some that can easily stand up to the toughest in higher-level rarities.

Legends Limited

Still referred to as Sparking by the game, but in a league of its own. Characters in this rarity will have multiple unique traits, from special cover changes to revivals. They all boast the Legendary Finish mechanic where, depending on the character, using a Special Move or Ultimate Move on a nearly-defeated opponent will initiate a special finisher animation.

ULTRA

The highest rarity. Almost every character with this rarity will have greater strength than practically anyone else. They boost unique ULTRA abilities that boost the effects of leader buffs and character tags, and they’ll use a special entrance animation when showing up on the battlefield.

Best Free (Non-Summon) Characters to Get

By completing certain parts of Dragon Ball Legends, you can get your hands on some fairly good characters. Most of them might not be top tier, but with the right team setup and equipment, you’ll feel like they’re pretty high up there anyway. These free characters can be obtained through the Story and Event missions, forcing you through multiple fights to obtain great party members.

Event missions will always have battles that allow you to obtain certain characters, but some of the most notable ones are in the Special tab. In this tab, you’ll find missions that allow you to obtain characters with high rarities, including Legends Limited Goten, ULTRA Super Saiyan Goku, ULTRA Vegeta, and ULTRA Omega Shenron. If you haven’t been able to get lucky through summons, or if you’re saving Chrono Crystals for upcoming banners, this can be a great way to get a feel for what these high-rarity characters can do.

Above all else, make sure you complete the Story as far as you can to get Sparking Shallot. This character is amazing simply due to his customization potential, allowing you to give him different tags and special transformations. He’s far from invincible, but thanks to how far you can take his strength, he’ll have a place on almost every team you can think of.

Dragon Ball Legends has a meta that’s constantly evolving, and as such, a lot of the information you find here is likely to become dated over time. You’re likely to find some great characters not part of the tier list above, or you might even find that some characters included in the tier list don’t deserve to be there. Regardless, if you’re starting out with the game or faltering in high-level play, it’s still worth taking a closer look at these characters for yourself.