Neverness to Everness: Tier List and Best Characters for Team Building

Neverness to Everness launches with a small enough roster that your account’s value sits in a handful of characters, not a wide web of niche counters. That makes the meta easy to read once you cut through the noise: one main DPS stands clearly above the rest, the support slot has a small set of high-value picks, and the disagreement starts in the crowded middle.

The short version

• Best main DPS / safest reroll target: Nanally. She is the clearest top carry and the unit you want to anchor your account around.
• Best support investment: Esper Zero — a top-tier, high-value support/sub-DPS you can get for free.
• Strongest fallback carry: Baicang. He is a high-ceiling S/A-tier carry, not a consolation prize, but he asks more from the player.
• Best long-term project: Chiz. She is not a day-one dominance pick, but she can reach full Awakening through the Tycoon system, so patient and low-spend accounts can build her over time.
• Skip early: Aurelia and Edgar sit near the bottom of the current meta and give the weakest return on scarce launch resources.
• The engine that ties it together: the Esper Cycle. Build one damage pattern and make the whole team serve it.

How to read this tier list

This ranking weighs three things that actually move account progress: how reliably a unit performs in both boss and mob content, how much team building it needs before it feels good, and how efficient that investment is in a launch economy where upgrade resources are tight. That last point matters most. A character can look strong in a showcase and still be a poor early pick if it only becomes consistent inside a narrow Esper Cycle shell.

One thing worth saying plainly: the support slot is contested. Esper Zero is the safe top-tier pick, but Jiuyuan is not the automatic best support — he lands S tier on some lists as a hybrid and only B tier on others, and several supports such as Sakiri, Fadia, Haniel, and Hotori can rank above him depending on the team you are building. Treat the support choice as roster-dependent, not a single locked answer.

S tier: the safest characters to build around

Nanally — best main DPS

Nanally is the standard for main DPS and the safest top-tier reroll target. Her value is not just raw numbers — it is coverage. She stays relevant against single targets and groups, so she is rarely the wrong answer for the content in front of you. A launch DPS falls off when its damage only works in one scenario; Nanally avoids that, which is what makes her the cleanest banner investment.

She also simplifies team building. You do not need to force a second carry beside her. Build the rest of the team to extend her damage windows and keep her acting safely, and most of your account planning gets easier. If your goal is a fast, low-risk start, see our reroll guide for how to land her quickly.

Esper Zero — best support investment

Esper Zero is the support to prioritize. He is a top-tier, high-value support/sub-DPS, and because he is free, he carries enormous account value with no banner gamble attached. If Nanally is the cleanest carry, Zero is the cleanest accelerant: he improves multiple team shells instead of demanding a full niche roster before he becomes useful. That flexibility is exactly why he profiles as one of the best support investments in the game.

• Best overall reroll or first-banner priority: Nanally
• Best free support to invest in: Esper Zero
• Highest-ceiling fallback carry: Baicang

A tier: strong characters with more conditions

Baicang — the high-ceiling fallback carry

Baicang is the carry to understand if you skip Nanally, miss her banner, or simply do not want to center your account on one limited hyper carry. He is a genuine high-tier, high-skill-ceiling DPS — S tier on some lists, A tier on others — not a consolation prize. The catch is the skill floor: he rewards strong execution and a team that can keep the fight stable long enough for his damage pattern to pay off. If you want steadier, less burst-dependent play and you are willing to learn his rotation, he is the best alternative carry in the launch pool.

Jiuyuan, Sakiri, Haniel, and the contested support slot

This is where the meta stops giving one clean answer. Jiuyuan is a strong hybrid support — top-tier on some lists, mid-pack on others — and he is not the locked best support over Esper Zero. Sakiri, Haniel, and Fadia all have real cases as supports or sub-DPS depending on the shell you are running. The practical rule: pick the support that improves the team you actually have, not the one a single list crowns. If your core is already set, any of these become easier to justify; if your roster is thin, lean on Esper Zero first because he asks the least of you.

Chiz — the best long-term project

Chiz is the most unusual name here because raw launch strength is only half the story. Unlike most premium gacha characters, she can reach full Awakening through the Tycoon system and long-term play. That changes the math: a unit that starts slightly below the top but is realistically acquirable and improvable over time can matter more than a stronger character you can never meaningfully progress. For early power she is not the obvious answer over Nanally or Baicang, but for patient or low-spend accounts she is one of the smartest projects in the roster. Treat her as a progression investment, not a day-one pick.

Lower tier right now: Aurelia and Edgar

Aurelia is a main DPS built around her Jellyfish Blasts, and she can keep attacking while moving by holding dodge in Staccato. The problem is not that she lacks damage or mobility — it is that she sits low in the current meta (C tier), so the resources you would pour into her go further on stronger carries. She is playable, just not an efficient foundation piece at launch.

Edgar is the weakest of the easy low-tier calls (D-tier survival). His healing is tied to a stationary area, which is awkward in boss fights that force constant repositioning — support that only works when the fight cooperates is hard to depend on. Neither character is worth early Awakening materials when better DPS and support engines exist.

Team-building rules for the Esper Cycle meta

The Esper Cycle is the central team-building mechanic in Neverness to Everness, and the biggest mistake players make is stacking four individually “good” characters with no cycle plan. The better approach is to pick one damage pattern and make the whole team serve it.

• Use one real main DPS. Nanally or Baicang is the center of the damage plan, not one of two competing carries.
• Add one premium enabler. Esper Zero is the cleanest pick here because he improves team flow, not just sheet damage.
• Use the third slot for extension, not duplication. This is where a support like Jiuyuan, Sakiri, or Haniel earns its place if it fits the shell.
• Keep one flex slot. Use it for sustain, control, or whatever your roster has that preserves uptime in real content.

The Nanally hypercarry shell is the model: Nanally as the sole primary DPS, Esper Zero as the engine, a secondary support to stabilize rotations, and one flex slot for survival or utility. Nanally gains more from clean uptime and good support than from sharing the field with a second hungry DPS. The Baicang shell follows the same logic but rewards patience over burst — protect his setup, keep control of the fight, and avoid overlapping roles.

Common mistakes

• Treating Jiuyuan as the locked best support. His placement swings between S and B tier across lists. Esper Zero is the safer support investment, and the rest of the support slot is roster-dependent.
• Writing off Aurelia as a no-damage unit. She is a mobile main DPS — her issue is meta placement (C tier), not a broken kit.
• Running two main carries. Pick one DPS and build the cycle around it instead of splitting resources between competing damage dealers.
• Spreading Awakening materials thin. Deepen one proven core before investing in mid-tier picks.
• Chasing Chiz for early power. She is a long-term Tycoon/Awakening project, not a launch-day carry.

Reroll, pull, and Awakening priorities

For gacha efficiency the order is clear. If rerolling is part of your plan, Nanally is the best first target. If you miss her, Esper Zero is still a high-value account starter because premium support ages better than mediocre DPS. If you lack Nanally but can build a team around Baicang, that is the most reasonable pivot rather than chasing weaker carries. Before you commit dice, read our breakdowns of pulls, board, and pity and where to grab free pulls at launch.

Practical takeaway

The part of this tier list least likely to change is also the part that matters most for planning: Nanally is the clearest top DPS and best reroll target, Esper Zero is the safest support investment, Baicang is the highest-ceiling fallback carry, Chiz is the long-term Awakening project, and Aurelia and Edgar are the weakest early investments. Pick one main DPS, anchor the team to a single Esper Cycle, and spend your launch resources deepening that core instead of spreading them across the contested middle.