When Seven Deadly Sins: Origin launches, players will quickly realize that team building isn’t just about picking your favorite characters. The game revolves around elemental teams, burst mechanics, and kit synergy, which means some characters naturally dominate the early meta while others are more future investments.
After extensive beta gameplay and testing different combinations, certain units clearly stand out. Some are universal picks that fit almost any team, while others shine only when paired with specific elements. This guide breaks down the launch Seven Deadly Sins Origin tier list, explaining why each unit sits where it does and how they actually perform in real gameplay.
S-Tier Units (Best Units in the Game)
These characters define the early meta. If you pull them, you can safely build your team around them.
Meliodas
Meliodas is easily one of the strongest characters available at launch. His biggest strength is his versatility between different weapon forms, especially the Sword and Dual Sword kits.
During early progression and raids, the Dual Sword build is incredibly valuable because it offers lifesteal through the ultimate ability. Since the entire party shares one HP bar, that healing effectively keeps the entire team alive. In tougher fights like Red Demon or other bosses, this sustain becomes extremely important.
Later in the game, once players start mastering boss patterns and dodging mechanics, the Sword form becomes the real damage monster. His kit revolves around triggering Darkness Burst, and when the burst meter fills up, Meliodas gains massive damage bonuses.
In simple terms:
- Dual Sword = survivability and sustain
- Sword = massive burst damage
Once burst mode activates, Meliodas can unleash some ridiculous nukes. Because of this scaling potential, he will likely remain relevant even when stronger characters release later.
Jericho
Jericho might look like a simple DPS at first, but she brings something extremely important to the table: burst gauge generation.
Her Dual Sword kit allows her to teleport behind enemies whenever she lands a critical hit. This mechanic is surprisingly powerful during combat because enemies constantly move and attack unpredictably. Teleporting behind them not only keeps Jericho safe but also lets her maintain constant damage pressure.
But the real reason she ranks so high is her ability to fill the burst gauge quickly. Since burst mode amplifies team damage significantly, characters who help trigger it faster automatically become valuable.
Jericho essentially works in any team because she contributes:
- Strong DPS
- Burst generation
- Safe repositioning during combat
That flexibility alone makes her one of the most consistent characters in the game.
Diane
Diane is a core unit for Earth-element teams, and her kit provides both control and durability.
One of her strongest tools is Petrify, which turns enemies into stone and completely incapacitates them. While petrified, enemies also take 50% increased physical and earth damage, which can massively boost the damage output of Earth-based teammates.
Her Nunchuck build in particular is extremely strong, offering both damage and burst gauge generation. On top of that, many of her passives increase defense, which may sound minor but becomes very helpful in longer fights where bosses deal heavy damage.
Diane isn’t just a DPS — she’s more of a defensive anchor for Earth teams that enables other characters to deal massive damage.
Manny
Every team needs a strong support character, and Manny fills that role perfectly.
She provides several powerful buffs that benefit almost any team composition:
- Critical damage increase
- Ultimate damage boost
- Defense reduction on enemies
- Cooldown reset for allies
Because of these buffs, Manny functions similarly to the classic “universal support” archetype seen in other RPGs. You can slot her into Earth teams, Dark teams, or mixed compositions without losing value.
Another advantage is how quickly she can enter combat, apply buffs, and rotate out. That makes her extremely smooth to play.
If Meliodas is the damage king, Manny is the team amplifier that pushes everyone’s damage higher.
A-Tier Units
These characters are powerful but slightly more situational than the S-tier units.
Elaine
Elaine focuses heavily on burst efficiency, making her extremely valuable in teams that rely on burst mode for damage.
Her abilities can:
- Increase burst gauge generation
- Reduce incoming damage
- Improve elemental burst efficiency for allies
This directly benefits characters like Meliodas, who gain massive damage increases during burst phases. Because of that synergy, Elaine works especially well in teams built around fast burst activation.
While she may not always feel as impactful as the S-tier units individually, her utility becomes obvious during longer fights.
If the game introduces more burst-focused characters later, Elaine could easily move into S-tier territory.
King
King is another key character for Earth compositions. His abilities provide some incredibly strong buffs specifically for Earth allies.
One of his passives allows him to accumulate Magic Points, which can eventually provide up to an 80% attack boost for Earth units. That’s an enormous buff and can dramatically increase the damage output of characters like Diane.
He also provides additional Earth damage boosts and various supportive effects that strengthen the entire team.
The main limitation is that his buffs are mostly restricted to Earth teams, which is why he sits in A-tier instead of S-tier.
Still, if you plan on running an Earth composition, King becomes almost essential.
B-Tier Units
These characters are good but eventually get replaced by stronger options.
Tier (SR)
Tier serves as one of the few healing characters available early on, which automatically makes her useful.
Her healing abilities work not only for your team but also in co-op battles, making her particularly helpful during raids.
Another interesting advantage is that her effectiveness comes mainly from her skills rather than her ultimate ability, meaning she doesn’t compete for shared magic points with other characters.
This allows DPS units to use their ultimates more frequently while she continues supporting the team.
Hendrickson
Hendrickson is a strong support for Dark-element teams.
His abilities provide:
- 20% Darkness attack boost
- 20% additional damage bonus
While these buffs are strong, they don’t contribute as much to burst generation as characters like Jericho or Elaine. Because Meliodas benefits heavily from burst activation, those characters tend to be preferred.
Still, Hendrickson remains a solid choice if you’re building a Dark-focused composition.
C-Tier Units
These characters have potential but currently lack strong team synergy.
Tristan
Tristan actually has some impressive buffs, including:
- Increased elemental burst efficiency
- Fire defense reduction on enemies
The issue is simple: there isn’t a strong Fire team yet. Without proper DPS characters to support, his buffs don’t reach their full potential.
If powerful Fire characters release later, Tristan’s value could rise significantly.
Grimoire
Grimoire has some interesting mechanics related to Magic Point generation.
One ability restores magic points when a burst is triggered, which could help maintain ultimate ability rotations. This makes him somewhat useful as a resource battery for teams that rely heavily on ultimates.
He’s not amazing right now, but he definitely has future potential.
D-Tier Units
These characters simply lack strong synergy or impactful abilities at launch.
Draden
Hower
Gil Thunder
Drafus
Most of these characters revolve around buffing elements that currently lack strong DPS units.
For example:
- Hower buffs Wind teams
- Draden supports Fire
- Gil Thunder focuses on Lightning effects
But without strong core DPS characters in those elements, these buffs don’t translate into real performance.
In the future, when new characters like Merlin or Escanor arrive, some of these units could become far more valuable.
The early meta in Seven Deadly Sins: Origin revolves around burst mechanics and elemental synergy.
Right now, Earth teams appear the most complete, with characters like Diane and King forming a powerful core. Meanwhile, Meliodas remains the most dominant DPS thanks to his scaling burst damage.