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With that in mind, let’s take a look at every playable Hero in Across the Obelisk, examine what job they are, what their primary function is meant to be, and rank them all from worst to best compared to one another.

16 Grukli: Warrior

Grukli is the least “tanky” of all the Warriors, functioning much more as a DPS than a Tank. His Innate Trait, Furious, helps him start his ramping Fury stacks faster, leading to some absurd damage a couple of turns in. That said, AtO is a game about fast combat, and all the other DPS tend to do their optimal damage faster than Grukli does. He’s not a full DPS, not a full Tank, and is sort of in this weird middle spot that leaves him at the bottom of this list.

15 Thuls: Scout

While Thuls’ Innate Trait, Nightstalker, makes it incredibly easy for him to inflict some jaw-dropping damage on Turn 1 with something like Ambush or Fan of Knives, he’s designed to be built around Stealth and Poison. And, while Stealth is used a lot by other characters, it’s usually not for its intended “untargetable” purpose and is used directly before using an Attack for its damage buff. Still, Thuls can absolutely wreck opponents if used properly, but there’s no build that Thuls “better” compared to the other Scouts.

14 Evelyn: Mage

Evelyn is in sort of a similar camp to Grukli where she’s stuck between two roles. For Evelyn, she’s caught between being a full-Support or a full-Mage, and more often than not she functions best as a Support, enabling a Healer like Reginald or Nezglekt with Energy/Inspire buffs so they can deal all the damage. Evelyn is meant to be a Mage that works with any Elemental Build, but because of that, she doesn’t “exceed” at any of them.

13 Cornelius: Mage

Cornelius, the Mage with torches for shoulder pads, is a simple yet effective character. To put it bluntly, Cornelius likes fire and making things burn, and he’s good at it. His Innate Trait, Ardent, is basically a free Inner Fire card every turn, and almost all of his other Traits enable Cornelius to stack Burn on his enemies to some pretty outrageous levels.

12 Gustav: Scout

Gustav seems like he would be in a similar situation to Evelyn or Grukli, being a Scout who works as both a Support and a DPS, but it actually works for him rather well. A lot of his Song Spells are fantastic

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Outside of just his Support options, he has a ton of other damage cards to choose from, and his Innate Trait Cantor makes it so that the Stanza system manages itself. Of course, his DPS is a lot lower compared to the other Scouts on average, so he does have some pros and cons.

11 Zek: Mage

Out of all the Mages, Zek is by far the most “high-risk high-reward” thanks to his Pestilent Innate Trait. The more Dark Charges Zek applies, whether it’s through his Perks or his Items, the more at risk he is of self-destructing in the hands of a beginner. But, if utilized properly, Zek can absolutely melt through enemy encounters. His biggest downside, however, is that a lot of Act 3 and especially Act 4 is resistant to Dark damage, so he falls off hard late in a run.

10 Heiner: Warrior

This next ranking will likely surprise a lot of Across the Obelisk fans. Yes, sadly, Heiner isn’t top-tier. When a player first uses Heiner, he’ll come across as the most “tank”-like Warrior, and this Orisa-like Golem absolutely is. For default difficulty or even Madness 1 runs, he’s also pretty great at keeping the whole team covered with Shields and Taunts.

But, Heiner’s main flaw is his lack of Speed. At later parts of a run or at Madness +2 and up, enemies can do a ton of damage on the first turn, so Heiner really struggles in those situations.

9 Bree: Warrior

Next up is Bree, the Warrior that most people unlock last and the one that’s most comparable to Heiner. Bree is designed around her Synergy with the Thorns buff, and she’s a lot of fun to play because of this. But, once again, in Act 3, Act 4, or in higher Madness runs, a lot of enemies start purging or stealing the Thorns from her.

8 Ottis: Healer

Ottis is one of the earlier characters that people tend to unlock, and he’s less of a “jack-of-all-trades” and more able to actually do it all.

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He can be a full Support using his Shielder Trait, he can go full Healer, and he even works well as a Holy Damage Dealer.

7 Andrin: Scout

Another one of the starting cast, Andrin is the default Scout of the game, and while he’s a bit boring compared to someone like Gustav, Andrin is the second-best Scout for a reason. His Trailblazer Trait means he almost always goes first, his Serrated Weapons Level 3 Trait is amazing for building Sharp Stacks, and he can even function as a frontliner pretty well.

6 Wilbur: Mage

Quite frankly, Wilbur is only this high because of how his Traits help the team. His Engineer Innate Trait gives Energize to another hero at the start of each Turn, and it’s so incredibly helpful. But, even past that, Wilbur is the Lightning Mage of the cast, and he does it well. However, he requires a bit of mastery to learn how to best apply his Spark Stacks or what Books to use.

5 Malukah: Healer

Malukah is another one of those characters that can play a variety of roles well. She works great as a Healer and even better as a DPS, but her best role is actually a mix of the two. Because Malukah’s Voodoo Trait heals party members based on the number of Dark Stacks she applies to enemies, Malukah literally heals her team by attacking. So, as long as Malukah incorporates Spells that apply Dark in some way, there’s really no way to “mess up” her build.

4 Nezglekt: Healer

Nezglekt, along with Wilbur, were the two characters added to the game right before it came out of Early Acess, and this Mindflayer-homage character is incredibly interesting.

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Like Malukah, and even a bit like the Watcher in Slay the Spire, he heals the party passively while attacking, but he works based on Sight Stacks rather than Darkness, and this gives him a bit more diversity in the cards he uses or builds players can use.

3 Magnus: Warrior

Similar to how Andrin is a fantastic Scout because he’s the default option, Magnus is much the same. This frontline Warrior was designed to be able to play both Offensively and Defensely, and he exceeds at both. But, the Captain’s Howl that comes with his Initial Cards and his Well Trained Innate Trait are what propel him up this high.

2 Reginald: Healer

Out of all the Buffs in the game, from Sharp to Reinforce and even Thorns, Bless is the best. Put simply, Bless just increases the damage done (and heals received) by +1 per Stack. And, a lot of Reginald’s kit is built around building Bless stacks. When utilized properly, Reginald does astronomical holy damage, applies a ton of Sanctify Stacks so that the party can heal themselves just from attacking, and is even able to directly heal if needed.

1 Sylvie: Scout

And finally, there’s Sylvie, the long-lived Elven Archer. Not only does Sylvie start with her own pet, Harley, by default, but she also has a lot of innate synergy with Nezglekt. Keen Sight, Sylvie’s Innate Trait, gives her more Piercing Damage based on the Sight stacks on the enemy. Combine that with a Nezglekt and her other Traits that make building Sharp stacks easy, and it’s clear as day to see that Sylvie is just the best character in the game, hands down. The only thing she lacks in is Support, but that’s not much of a downside.

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