Destiny: Rising Character Tier List - Who You Should Be Picking!

Updated: We’ve added more info on each character’s roles to our Destiny: Rising tier list.

Destiny: Rising puts you in the shoes of 12 powerful Guardians, each with their own explosive special abilities and cataclysmic super moves, as you fight familiar enemies from the Fallen, Cabal, and Hive.

However, Destiny: Rising works differently from other versions of Destiny. Each character can only use one type of primary weapon and one type of heavy weapon, which puts a completely different spin on how you build your character and makes your selection more important than ever. Now, only certain characters can use certain Exotic weapons!

For example, the Iron Banner-aligned character, Wolf, is one of the few characters who can use auto rifles, while the legendary Warlock, Ikora, prefers grenade launchers and rocket launchers.

To help you get familiar with the different Guardians available in Destiny: Rising, we’ve put together this character tier list that compares the relative power level of everyone you can get. Or, if you’re trying to figure out who you should add to your collection, we’ve also included a full list of each of the Destiny: Rising characters, along with the weapons they can equip and their abilities.

Destiny: Rising Character Tier List

Why These Destiny: Rising Characters Are the Best

Jolder plays closest to the aggressive Titan archetype from Destiny and Destiny 2, with huge ground-slamming abilities, a shield throw, and a shield bubble. The only real downside is her kit. Wielding a SMG and a Sword, you can feel a little bit stuck at range, but in close-to-medium quarters, she feels incredibly dominant.

Estela, on the other hand, works from long-range, summoning illusionary allies to deal damage on top of her regular weapon damage using a "Corruption" resource. Unlike other summoner characters, Estela can direct her summons’ aggression by using the Misfortune debuff, which focuses all of their power on single targets but then creates a domino effect as that debuff spreads to other nearby enemies. But that's not all, because attacking debuffed enemies not only triggers extra damage but also powers the engine that fuels the rest of her abilities by granting her even more Corruption to use.

I’m tempted to put Wolf and Finnala in the S-tier because they’re the only characters who can use auto rifles and the Exotic Sweet Business is just so brilliant. Wolf, though, is just an incredible all-around character with a great toolbox of weapons, hard-hitting special moves, and the ability to be deadly at any distance. As if that wasn't enough, his Ultimate even has some extra support features, giving your whole squad enhanced movement.

Finnala isn’t quite as strong, despite also having access to auto rifles. She works more like a tank with the ability to pull enemies close to her and deal damage over time with the Burn status. Luckily, she also boosts her own survivability as she does this to increase her damage resistance. But unless we get a really good sword, it feels like she's missing that punch that would take her to S-tier.

Tan-2 is a unique character who switches between damage and support modes, building up energy by hitting enemies to power up his abilities. The slow-firing scout rifle and sniper DPS make him less hard-hitting on his own, but his powerful healing and versatility make him a huge asset to a squad. But once you master his toolkit, he can deal a lot of damage, too. Ironically for a fiery character, his Sunset fireball applies a damage-over-time debuff that also increases a target’s susceptibility to damage, creating a snowball effect that literally melts enemies.

Umeko is a monster of a survivalist who offers an incredible amount of utility to her teammates in the form of debuffs that make enemies more susceptible to damage. This makes her an invaluable ally both when dealing with mobs and, more importantly, with bosses. Such a massive damage buff for your whole team is the definition of an S-tier ability, and everyone will want to be your friend if you're using Umeko.

Gwynn is a solid character based around collecting Void Spirits to heal herself and buff her main ability. However, only wielding a handgun and a shotgun, she lacks range and is less effective in fights where she’s facing fewer mobs, like against bosses. That said, she has good survivability and self-healing and a very good engine that allows her to repeatedly spam her Void Dance ability, which makes her a fun character to play with good crowd control.

Xuan Wei has a very good close-range combo where he tethers and pulls enemies toward him with one ability, then pushes them away with another or hits them with a shotgun. This seems incredible in PvP, but it feels a little one-note in PvE content.

Ning Fei is a decent character who is both fun to use and has access to some interesting abilities. But he’s a bit of a "jack of all trades, master of none." While his automatic crossbow is a great power weapon that gives him a lot more utility at range than his abilities would suggest, his summons aren't as good as Estela's, his close-range damage isn't as good as Jolder, Xuan Wei, and various other characters, and he feels less useful as a quick agent of chaos than Umeko.

Attal has a very nice and impactful Arc missile ability that deals good damage while keeping her healthy, as well as a versatile heal that can target both herself and her allies. Spamming these solid abilities also gives her a full clip of super ammo that deals extra damage. Add to that a kit that lets her operate at a variety of ranges, and you have a flexible and fun character. That said, in terms of impact in a small squad, the other characters feel like they contribute more. However, Attal is still a great early-game character because you can get the Exotic handgun, Crimson, from the daily login event at the game's launch.

Kabr is an interesting defensive character who plays similarly to the base Titan in Destiny on console and PC, placing defensive shields for your team to shoot through and generally messing up enemies with blinding grenades. Given his defensive utility, you'd think he's good in a squad, but, in practice, his low-health shields and very narrow flashbangs don't have enough of an impact to make up for his offensive weaknesses and justify his spot in a group.

While she has decent abilities, Ikora's reliance on super-slow-firing grenade launchers and rocket launchers makes her overall DPS incredibly slow. However, this might be due to a lack of testing in a squad. It could be that with other players to draw aggro, her area of effect has a better chance to shine. As it stands, though, Ikora feels weak and like everyone else you're playing with is having more fun than you are.

Destiny: Rising Character List:

To find out when and where you can get each character, check out our Destiny: Rising codes page. Or, to know when and where you can get each character, here is the Banners schedule.