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Summoners War: Chronicles
Summoners War: Chronicles is a real-time MMORPG. There are 3 characters that players can choose to play from, each player can eventually get support from up to…
Summoners War: Chronicles can feel overwhelming when you first open the monster book. Nat 3s, nat 4s, nat 5s, LDs, collabs – and everyone in chat swears their favourite is “S-tier”. This list is for new and returning players who just want straight answers: what should you actually build with your limited time, gold, and Devilmons after the March 6, 2026 (v4.15.521180) patch?
Instead of trying to print a giant spreadsheet of every monster, I’m focusing on the units that define the current meta – the ones that keep showing up in raids, arena, and high-end PvE, and that feel good on a fresh account and at endgame. Along the way, I’ll explain how the tier logic works so you can judge new pulls yourself.
The four big criteria I use match what serious Chronicles players actually care about:
I’ve played through early-game, alt-account rerolls, and late-game raids, and the same faces keep floating to the top. You’ll see a lot of familiar nat 5 families from classic Summoners War here – Beast Riders, Paladins, Mermaids, and more – because their kits translate disgustingly well into Chronicles’ real-time combat.
Think of this as your “if I pull this, I build it” list. From #1 down, everything here is worth heavy investment on almost any account, and I’ll call out when a monster is more niche or PvP-focused so you don’t sink resources into something that won’t help you clear the content you’re actually stuck on.
If there’s one family that feels borderline unfair in Chronicles right now, it’s the Beast Riders. Every element of Beast Rider shows up somewhere in high-end content, and on a newer account they basically act as a “skip difficulty” button once you gear them properly.
The big reason they sit firmly in S-tier is how many boxes they tick at once. Between the elements you get a mix of huge single-target damage, strong multipliers on skill rotations, and nasty utility – think defense breaks, crowd control, strips, and turn manipulation. In real-time fights where positioning and uptime matter, Beast Riders keep pressure on bosses and enemy players without ever feeling like dead picks.
On my main account, the moment I pulled a Fire Beast Rider she instantly replaced three different DPS projects. She shredded story bosses, hard-carried path of growth stages, and still had a home in late-game raid comps thanks to her multi-hits and reliable debuffs. I didn’t need to change my team around her – she just slotted in and made everything faster.
From a criteria standpoint, Beast Riders hit the jackpot: nat 5 rarity and top-end stats, overloaded skills that synergise with almost any summoner class, and excellent performance in both PvE and PvP. That’s exactly why every serious tier list, from Pocket Gamer to community spreadsheets, keeps them planted safely in S-tier after each balance patch.
If you’re wondering who to six-star and skill up first after your starter carries, a Beast Rider of any element is the greediest but also the safest investment you can make right now.
Where Beast Riders are your flash, Paladins are your foundation. I still remember the first time I took my Light Paladin into early-field raids – my whole party’s survivability jumped so hard it felt like we’d secretly dropped the difficulty. Chronicles loves throwing chunky AoEs and nasty debuffs at you, and Paladins just don’t care.
Paladins combine tank-level stats with support-level utility. Across the elements you get thick shields, damage reduction, provokes, heals, and cleanses. Crucially, these effects are spread across their kit so they’re contributing something valuable on almost every cooldown. In PvE, that means forgiving clears where your squishier DPS can actually stay alive long enough to do their job. In PvP, a well-built Paladin turns aggressive comps into a headache; you either commit everything to kill them or you get ground down.
From a tier-list criteria angle, they’re the poster child for versatility. You can run Paladin in story, chaos dungeons, raids, field bosses, arena defense, even some control-heavy RTA comps. They don’t fall off when your gear improves – they scale with it, because better HP and DEF just pump their shields and mitigation higher.
The only “downside” is that they’re not fast clear machines; early-game players sometimes underestimate them because raw damage feels more exciting. But if you want a monster that will stay in your core teams from day 3 to day 300, Paladin is that unit. If you pull one, you build it – no matter what content you’re focused on.
Every time I start a fresh account in a gacha MMO, I hunt for one unit: a reliable healer with cleanse. In Chronicles, that slot is absolutely owned by the Mermaid family. They won’t top damage charts, but they’re the reason you survive long enough for damage to matter.
Mermaids bring two things most early-game and mid-game teams desperately lack: consistent sustain and status control. Between the elements you get strong single-target and AoE heals, cleanses to strip poison/bleeds/defense breaks, and often some form of crowd control or damage mitigation stapled on. That combination is priceless in PvE where bosses stack debuffs that can delete your whole team if you don’t answer them.
What makes them S-tier rather than “just another healer” is how well they bridge into late-game content. My Water Mermaid started life as a story and dungeon healer, but she kept finding new jobs – cleansing raid dots, stabilising tower floors, and even anchoring some bruiser PvP comps where outlasting the enemy was the whole win condition.
On the tier criteria, they score slightly lower in rarity than some LD nat 5 monsters, but their skills and versatility more than make up for it. They’re good almost everywhere and essential in content that spam debuffs or chip damage. If you’re stuck in PvE because your team feels like it randomly explodes at 30% boss HP, a built Mermaid is usually the cleanest fix.
Bottom line: she might not look flashy in your summon window, but Mermaids are the quiet MVPs of stable accounts. Ignore them and you’ll end up over-investing in glass-cannon DPS that never gets to shine.
Phoenixes are the first monsters on this list that really scratch that “big number” itch. If Paladins and Mermaids keep you alive, Phoenixes make killing things actually feel satisfying. When I finally pulled a Fire Phoenix on my alt, my clear times in boss content dropped so hard it felt like cheating.
The family’s core identity is high-impact damage tied to meaningful secondary effects. Depending on the element you’re looking at huge bursts, defense breaks, dots, or even revive-style passives that let them hop back up and keep swinging. That mix makes Phoenixes incredible boss killers – they chunk through high-HP enemies while either softening them up for your team or punishing them for focusing the Phoenix.
They’re also one of the more flexible damage families in terms of build paths. You can lean into raw crit damage for PvE nuking, or skew them a bit tankier for PvP bruiser comps where surviving the first rotation matters more than one-shotting. Their skill kits aren’t packed with support effects like a Paladin, but what they do, they do brutally well.
On the tier-list criteria, Phoenixes score sky-high on skills and are strong in both PvE and PvP, even if their pure versatility is a bit lower than Paladins or Beast Riders. They don’t slot into every single team, but when you want a main DPS that actually scales with investment, they’re a top-tier choice.
If your current roster is all utility and sustain and you’re wondering why everything takes ages to die, a Phoenix is exactly the kind of monster that makes your account feel “upgraded” overnight.
Beast Monks are what happens when you ask, “What if my tank also punched people really hard?” They’re classic Summoners War staples that translate beautifully into Chronicles, and I’m always a little relieved when I see one on my side in raids.
Their defining traits are HP-scaling damage, chunky self-sustain, and disruptive crowd control. That combination means they don’t need crazy offensive gear to contribute; you can build them thick with HP/DEF and they still slap, especially in drawn-out fights. Between the elements you get stuns, heals, defense buffs, and counters – all baked into kits that get scarier the longer a fight drags on.
In PvE, my Wind Beast Monk carried a lot of “undergeared” raid clears because he simply refused to die. Even when our mechanics were messy, his heals and bulk bought us the time to fix mistakes. In PvP, Beast Monks are nightmare anchors in bruiser comps – they soak hits, turn them into counter-damage, and punish teams that can’t focus-fire efficiently.
On our criteria checklist, they score well in rarity and skills, and they’re surprisingly versatile: frontline for raids, off-tank for story, pivot piece in arena and RTA. The only thing they lack is the outright game-warping utility of Paladins or the speed of Beast Riders, which is why they land just below those families instead of at the absolute top.
Still, if you enjoy safer, grindy playstyles where your team outlasts rather than outbursts the enemy, a Beast Monk is one of the most satisfying long-term projects you can pick up.
Valkyrjas are where the community starts to argue, and I kind of love them for that. Fire and Dark Valkyrja are almost universally accepted as S-tier burst monsters – they delete priority targets in both PvE and PvP. Water, Wind, and Light versions sit more in the A/B range depending on who you ask and what teams you run.
What unites the family is brutally high single-target damage with useful secondary effects: things like self-sustain, anti-crit mechanics, or extra hits that chew through shields and damage reduction. On my account, Fire Valkyrja has been the definition of a “delete button” – when I absolutely need a boss phase or an enemy carry off the field, she’s the one I line up my buffs for.
The catch is that Valkyrjas are a bit more specialised than the monsters above them on this list. They care a lot about proper setup – attack buffs, defense breaks, and timing – and some of their strongest value shows in PvP where picking off a single unit can flip the whole match. In pure PvE progression, you can clear everything without one, but having one makes certain fights dramatically faster.
In terms of criteria, they score high on rarity and raw skill power, but they lose a few points on versatility. Fire and Dark deserve their S-tier reputation; the others are more “build if you love them or have the team to support them.”
If you enjoy the feeling of lining up the perfect combo and watching a health bar evaporate, Valkyrja is your girl. Just don’t expect her to replace a Paladin or Mermaid in the “always useful” category.
Occult Girls are the first family on this list I’d describe as “annoying in the best possible way.” They specialise in turning fights into slow-motion slogs for your enemies: slows, stuns, dots, and turn manipulation all wrapped up in adorable packaging.
In Chronicles, where you’re constantly juggling positioning with skill timing, that kind of control is priceless. My Dark Occult Girl might not hit as hard as a Phoenix, but the way she chains slows and stuns keeps dangerous waves from ever really getting started. In tower-style PvE and certain raid phases, being able to lock enemies down is worth more than raw damage.
On the PvP side, Occult Girls shine in comps that want to grind the opponent out. They pair beautifully with Paladins, Beast Monks, and Mermaids – the longer the fight goes, the more value they generate by repeatedly denying enemy turns and stacking damage-over-time effects.
From a criteria standpoint, they’re a textbook example of strong skills and cross-mode usability. Every element has a home in both PvE and PvP, and recent balance passes have generally pushed control tools up rather than down. The only real drawback is that their damage can feel underwhelming if you try to use them as pure DPS instead of the control pieces they’re designed to be.
If your roster is already stacked with healers and nukers but tricky content still feels chaotic, sliding an Occult Girl into your core team often makes everything suddenly feel “manageable.”
Ifrit is one of those rare monsters that’s both strong and realistically obtainable. In a gacha-heavy game, that’s huge. You’ll see fully built Ifrits on whales and free-to-play accounts alike, and for good reason: every element has a relevant job, and you don’t need insane luck to get started with them.
The family leans into hybrid roles: damage plus support, debuffs plus utility. Depending on which copy you pull, you’re getting things like reliable defense breaks, anti-buff tools, or safety nets against harmful effects, all on top of respectable DPS. This makes them ideal “glue” units – when your comp is missing a specific tool, there’s often an Ifrit that patches the hole without forcing you to give up too much damage.
On my first Chronicles account, Water Ifrit was my workhorse for a depressingly long time. He wasn’t the hardest hitter or the most clutch healer, but he was always good enough – story, early raids, basic arena, you name it. That kind of reliability is exactly what you want in your first few six-star projects.
Tier-wise, Ifrits sit a bit below the ultra-premium families but punch well above their accessibility. They score highly on versatility and decent on skills; some elements are borderline S-tier in specific modes, others are more A-tier all-rounders. For new and returning players who don’t have deep monster pools, that kind of consistency is worth its weight in gold.
If you’re staring at your box wondering what to build that won’t be useless later, an Ifrit is about as safe and future-proof as non-LD monsters get.
Sky Dancers are the comfort food of Summoners War: if you’ve played the original game, you already know how reliable they are. Chronicles sticks to that identity: they’re straightforward, effective healers with just enough extra spice to keep them relevant well into endgame.
Across the elements, you’ll find big heals, attack buffs, damage mitigation, and sometimes even revives or clutch damage reduction tools. Crucially, their cooldowns and cast patterns feel good in Chronicles’ action combat – you’re not stuck waiting forever for your next heal, and you don’t have to choose between “heal” and “do literally nothing else useful.” They fit naturally into almost any team that wants to play a bit safer without turning full turtle.
On my side, Wind Sky Dancer has been the backbone of more “first clears” than I can count. When I’m learning a new raid or tower floor, slotting her in lets me focus on mechanics instead of babysitting health bars. Later on, she graduates into more specialised comps where her buffs keep hard-hitting DPS online.
By the criteria, Sky Dancers score highest on usability across modes. They’re rarely the “best in slot” in any single meta comp, but they’re always good, which makes them S/A tier depending on your exact roster. For a lot of players, especially those without premium LD healers, they end up being permanent fixtures.
If you prefer clean, controlled clears over gambling on glass cannons, building a Sky Dancer early will save you an incredible amount of frustration.
Sea Emperors used to feel a bit niche, but the current meta and recent balance shifts have quietly pushed them up the rankings. In both community tier lists and my own runs, they’ve gone from “nice to have” to “actually scary” in the right hands.
The family’s identity centres around AoE pressure and control: strips, attack bar manipulation, and debuffs that make enemies miserable. In Chronicles, where you’re often fighting packs rather than single bosses, that’s huge. A well-timed Sea Emperor skill can wipe away enemy buffs, slow their entire team, and set your own units up to dominate the next rotation.
In PvE, I’ve had great success dropping a Sea Emperor into content that loves hiding behind shields or stacking buffs. Tower stages, certain raids, and some field bosses just become dramatically less threatening when their buffs don’t stick. In PvP, they’re increasingly common in control setups that want to keep the opponent perma-stripped and off-tempo.
On paper, their skills look a bit specialised, which is why some older lists had them lower. But as more strategies lean on buff cycling and turn control, their practical versatility has gone up. They won’t replace your primary healer or carry, but as a third or fourth slot in buff-heavy fights, they punch way above what their pick-rate used to suggest.
If your current teams crumble the moment enemies start stacking buffs, a Sea Emperor is one of the cleanest answers – and a unit that only seems to get better as the meta leans more into layered effects.
Light and Dark nat 5s in Chronicles are always going to be rare, and most players will never build more than one or two. But if we’re talking about raw power, assassins like Han, Striker, and Sylvia absolutely deserve a spot on this list.
The common thread between these LD5 monsters is explosive, targeted pressure. They excel at isolating and deleting priority targets – enemy carries in PvP, dangerous elites or mini-bosses in PvE – before those threats really get to play the game. In coordinated PvP teams, they’re often the centrepiece of “snipe” strategies that aim to turn every fight into a 3v2 as quickly as possible.
When I finally pulled my first LD5 assassin, it didn’t replace my whole roster, but it did change how I approached fights. Suddenly I could build comps around blowing up one key target and then stabilising, instead of always playing straight-up, symmetric battles. That tactical flexibility is worth a lot, especially once you’re deep into real-time PvP.
From a tier-list standpoint, these monsters have absurd rarity and very strong skills, but their versatility is more skewed toward PvP and late-game content. I would never recommend rerolling or whaling just for one of them, but if you get lucky from LD summons, they’re absolutely worth building – just don’t expect them to trivialise early PvE the way a Beast Rider or Paladin will.
Think of them as high-impact specialists: less “account foundation,” more “ace up your sleeve” for when you start seriously pushing endgame PvP or particularly punishing boss mechanics.
Rounding out the list is a unit that doesn’t always show its true value on day one: the Dark Archangel. If Beast Riders are easy to love immediately, Dark Archangel is the monster you grow to appreciate the deeper into Chronicles you go.
His kit leans hard into sustain and control: thick defensive stats, powerful heals or cleanses, and disruptive tools that keep your team stable while choking out enemy tempo. In high-end PvE, that means he can anchor teams through chip damage, dots, or unavoidable AoEs that would slowly bleed out less robust comps. In PvP, he’s the kind of unit that turns every fight into an attrition war you’re heavily favoured to win.
On my own account, Dark Archangel didn’t feel “broken” until I had decent gear on the rest of my team. Once my damage dealers could reliably threaten kills, his value skyrocketed – he kept them alive through punishment, reset bad turns, and slowly tilted long fights in our favour. He’s less a solo carry, more the backbone that lets your actual carries do their job without constantly dying.
Criteria-wise, he’s an S-tier pick for rarity and late-game usability, but his impact is front-loaded into harder content. New players will get mileage from him, but veterans pushing the toughest raids and PvP ladders feel his presence most.
If you’re lucky enough to pull him, treat him as a long-term project: he might not solo your early story bosses, but he will quietly become one of the most important pieces in your entire account once you start brushing up against Chronicles’ real difficulty ceiling.
Chronicles has far more than 12 good monsters, and the meta will keep shifting as Com2uS drops new units and patches. But if you pulled anything on this list, you can build it with confidence – they’ve survived multiple balance cycles and still sit comfortably at or near the top.
For everything else, lean on the same criteria we’ve used here: rarity gives you a baseline, but skills, versatility, and PvE/PvP usability are what really matter. Ask yourself: does this monster bring unique utility, or does it just do a worse version of something you already own? Can it slot into multiple teams, or is it only good in one dungeon?
Do that, and your account will grow around strong, flexible cores instead of short-lived flavour-of-the-month projects – and when the next March 2026-style patch lands, you’ll be ready to adapt instead of starting over.
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