Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Special Characters Tier List – Best Unique Units to Use

In addition to the 23 versatile Jobs available for every unit, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles features 12 unique characters, each with a powerful, exclusive Job Command. Here is our tier list for these special units, highlighting which characters are essential to create a party that can deal with all sorts of enemies.

Note: This Job Tier list is based on Enhanced Mode’s Tactician difficulty, with rankings determined by each unit’s utility at the time of joining and in the endgame, growth potential, and skill set synergy with Jobs other than their unique main Job. The ranking is largely applicable to other difficulty settings and Classic Mode. Screenshots were captured from the 1.0 Steam release.

Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Special Characters Tier List

Tier	Description
S	Game-Breakers. These characters possess unparalleled damage and utility. They can easily solo encounters and trivialize the campaign with minimal effort
A	Powerhouses. Reliable and versatile charactters that excel in their roles. Solid endgame choices.
B	Specialists. Solid characters but with specific niche roles. They often require moderate investment to keep up with S and A tier characters.
C	Situational. Characters who are either hindered by their late recruitment, required grinding, or limited gear and Job options.
D	Unreliable. Character whose unique skillset is generally outperformed by a generic unit.

S Tier

• Cidolfus Orlandeau - The Sword Saint has always been considered as the best character in the game since the original, and this holds in Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles as well, despite some damage nerfs. His starting weapon, the Knight Sword Excalibur, and his Swordplay Job giving him access to Physical Attack-based ranged AOE, ranged equipment breaking, and self-healing, make him an absolute powerhouse that lets him solo entire maps and break the game's difficulty (Recruited in Chapter 4)

• Ramza Beoulve - The main protagonist of Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is not as broken as Orlandeau, but is still an extremely capable character thanks to the his unique Mettle command that gives him access to some powerful support abilities like Tailwind, Steel, and Shout, which increases his Bravery, Physical Attack, Magic Attack, and Speed. His Squire Job, which becomes Gallant Knight in Chapter 4, also provides him with some great equipment options, and the great PA and MA growth make him a highly versatile, customizable character who can deal with any foe in the game. (Recruited in Chapter 1)

A Tier

• Agrias Oaks - The Holy Knight protector of Princess Ovelia is the first powerhouse to join Ramza in his quest, and she stays very useful until the end of the game thanks to her versatility. Her Holy Sword Job Command gives her access to useful Physical Attack-based AOE attacks that can also cause status ailments, while her relatively high Magical Attack can be taken advantage of to give her better support capabilities with the White Magic Job Command. Her lower Physical Attack, however, requires some investment to bring it closer to Orlandeau's or Ramza's. (Recruited in Chapter 2)

• Beowulf Cadmus - The Templar is among the most divisive special characters in the game, but his utility far outweighs his shortcomings. Although his starting Bravery is low and his Physical Attack is not great, the Spellblade Job Command gives him access to status ailment-inducing skills that require no charge time, outclassing the Mystic Job significantly and giving him the potential to take down enemies with a single hit via the Break skill. By increasing his Magic Attack, the Spellblade abilities also gain increased hit chance, making Beowulf even more useful in a variety of situations. (Recruited after completing a sidequest available from the beginning of Chapter 4 - Requires Mustadio to be in the party)

• Reis Dular - While her special Job, Dragonkin, provides situational yet solid utility with ranged attack and support most of the time, her HP, Physical Attack, and Magic Attack growth, and her high starting Bravery and Faith stats make for a versatile character that can make every generic Job shine, regardless of whether PA or MA oriented. (Recruited after completing a sidequest available from the beginning of Chapter 4 - Requires Mustadio to be in the party. Her human form is unlocked after completing a sidequest available after winning the battle in Zeltennia)

• Meliadoul Tingel - The Divine Knight is a solid Physical Attack-oriented character who can break enemy equipment from range with her Unyielding Blade abilities. Although her usability has been improved in Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles over the original by making these abilities deal damage against monsters, Meliadoul is the last special character to join Ramza, and with her limited versatility, she requires more investment than the best characters in the game to shine. (Recruited in Chapter 4)

B Tier

• Rapha Galthena - The Skyseer comes with one of the most unique Job Commands in the game, Sky Mantra, which gives her access to powerful elemental spells that do not require MP, scale with Magic Attack, and ignore her Faith, which can deal very high damage multiple times. Unfortunately, these spells randomly hit their AOE, making them unreliable, even with the increased hit chance at the center tile of the AOE improvement. Still, her high Magic Attack growth and her high starting Faith make her an excellent mage with some time investment. (Recruited in Chapter 4)

• Mustadio Bunanza - The Machinist is the first special character to join Ramza, and his utility stays high for the entirety of the game, thanks to his weapon of choice, Guns, and the Aimed Shot Job Command that can Disable and Immobilize enemies, and turn undead to stone. While his damage heavily falls off later on, requiring the rare elemental guns to keep up with the output of other characters, his utility does not, making him a solid choice for some battles where preventing enemies from acting is more important than dealing damage. (Recruited in Chapter 2)

• Byblos - The unique demon character who joins Ramza out of nowhere after clearing the game's optional endgame dungeon, Midlight's Deep, is a strong monster character with excellent stats and versatile skills that make it useful in various situations. However, being unable to change its equipment and its Job, and its late joining when the game is essentially over impacts its utility considerably, as its only real use is in random battles and the game's final gauntlet of battles. (Recruited after completing Midlight's Deep in Chapter 4)

C Tier

• Cloud Strife - The stranded Final Fantasy VII protagonist has his Limit Break attacks as his Soldier Job Command, but even starting with the Materia Blade required to use them, the enhanced Materia Blade+ obtainable with the Treasure Hunter ability at the highest point of the Mount Bervenia map, and the reduced charge time are not enough to make him as strong as other special characters in the game. Still, he can hold his own with some skills, like the Time Mage's Swiftness to speed up his abilities' charge time, but as he joins quite late, the time investment will not be worth it for most players. (Recruited after completing a sidequest available after winning the battle in Zeltennia in Chapter 4 - Requires Mustadio to be in the party)

• Construct 8 - The Steel Giant is a real powerhouse under the right conditions. Its high Physical Attack makes its skillset extremely powerful, and its immunity to status ailments is a welcome bonus. However, his inability to enter water severely limits his mobility on most maps, and being unable to change gear or Job severely hinders its versatility, making it an extremely situational character. (Recruited after completing a sidequest available from the beginning of Chapter 4 - Requires Mustadio to be in the party)

D Tier

• Marach Galthena - On paper, the Netherseer has the potential of being as powerful as his sister Rapha, but in reality, he leaves a lot to be desired. His Nether Mantra skills, which work like Rapha's Sky Mantra, are more effective the lower his Faith his, but this makes it impossible to build him as an effective mage. Marach's base Job does not have great HP and Physical Attack, so he needs a complete Job change into a Physical Attack-based class to be somewhat useful and take limited advantage of his Nether Mantra unique Job Command. This time investment for a character that essentially ends up being little more than a generic unit makes Marach the worst special character in the game. (Recruited in Chapter 4)

This concludes our Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles special characters tier list. Check out our other guides if you need additional help, or read our review to learn why this game is an excellent remaster of an excellent tactical role-playing game.

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