FragPunk character tier list: Best Lancers ranked & explained

1 11 minutes read

FragPunk character tier list: Best Lancers ranked & explained

FragPunk has a number of different characters to choose from, all of which have different abilities and a reason to pick them. However, there are some that are significantly better than others.

Going into this tier list, it’s important to bear in mind that Lancers can be swapped at any time. When compared to Valorant, you don’t have to worry about how good a character is on attack and defense in FragPunk. So, if a character isn’t that great on offense or defense

And, though every Lancer is OP in their own way with high-impact kits that have a meaningful effect on the game, there are a few who really stand out from the rest. Considering that it’s difficult to unlock characters in FragPunk (especially if you’re free to play), you’ll want to be spending your unlock tokens on the right Lancers.

Here’s every character in FragPunk tiered and explained to give you an idea of who’s the best.

Best characters in FragPunk ranked: Full tier list

Tier	Character
S	Kismet, Serket, Pathojen, Jaguar
A	Hollowpoint, Chum, Sonar, Nitro
B	Zephyr, Broker, Spider
C	Corona, Axon

Here’s a quick rundown of what each tier means:

S: The best of the best, good on attack and defense, incredibly reliable with tools that are universally useful
A: The middle point of balance. These characters have unique tools that make them worth picking, but either have less use cases than S Tiers or are just a bit worse
B: Not bad, but not great. These Lancers either take a great deal of effort to learn and use or have a very specific niche they fit into
C: There’s always a better option

S-Tier characters in FragPunk

Kismet

NetEase

For players skilled enough to use her, Kismet can solo carry games. Her abilities are fairly basic but extremely impactful, giving her the ability to scan enemies, clear space, and walk through any choke point she pleases.

However, good game sense and coordination are required to get use out of an ability like Walk on the Wild Side. That’s the most unique thing about her kit, giving her invulnerability and invisibility at the cost of being unable to see enemies.

Whether you want to play up close and get the jump on your opponent or play at long range and be unpredictable, she’s a great pick.

Kismet Abilities

Ability	Description
Hello, Goodbye	Generates a frontal scan of all enemies in range.
Misery Angel	Throws a bomb that deals damage to enemies in range, regardless of intervening barricades.
Walk on the Wild Side	Enter Rift Walk stage, becoming invisible and invulnerable, but unable to see other Lancers and gadgets.

Serket

Serket is poised to be the queen of competitive play. Her throwable can deny entry to an area entirely, making it good for both taking a point and defending it. She also has one of the best smokes in the form of her tornado, slowing enemies who don’t move away from it.

But the real highlight is her teleport, Station to Station. Not only does this allow her to TP to an entirely different location while stealthing her, she can also use this ability to scout out points and figure out where enemies are hiding.

Sure, she can’t see who’s who, but having info on where the enemy is sitting without them knowing they’ve been spotted is extremely useful, especially when paired with someone like Kismet. Serket may seem unassuming when you first play her, as she doesn’t directly do damage with any of her abilities. But she’s a top-tier choice in the hands of someone who can use her.

Serket Abilities

Abilities	Description
Station to Station	Conceals Serket and allows her to place a controllable beacon. Within a limited time, she can teleport to the beacon’s location. Enemies within the beacon’s view are displayed as sandstorms.
Gold Dust Woman	Releases a dust tornado that moves forward slowly, blinding and slowing enemies in range.
Dilemma	Throwable gadget that drags enemies in range towards it.

Pathojen

If you’re looking for a fantastic all-rounder who has all the tools you could need, Pathojen is the one. Area denial, walls that can block space, and an AoE heal give you everything you need in pretty much any situation.

Considering that FragPunk doesn’t have many one-shots (unless you get the right combo of Shard Cards), her heal is much more useful in a game like this than something like Valorant or CS that has one-shot headshots on rifles.

Pathojen may not be the most glamorous character, but she’s an incredibly solid pick and a great Lancer to learn the game on.

Pathojen Abilities

Abilities	Description
Emotional Rescue	Throws a biomedical device that creates a healing field, restoring health to all allies within its zone.
Shroom Wall	Erects a destructible fungus wall on the ground or in a doorway.
Killer Queen	A throwable trap that can be activated manually or triggered when an enemy approaches. Lancers within its range will receive damage over time.
Chemical Romance (Passive)	Pathojen is immune to poison damage.

Jaguar

FragPunk is a very aggressive game in comparison to most other tactical shooters, but Jaguar takes it to the next level. He wants to challenge in pretty much any scenario, with his significant movement speed increase making him fantastic for getting into site.

Every team needs a good entry fragger. Jaguar fills that role and then some. Combined with his ability to track enemies through walls and cage them, his traps are also great for post-plant due to having some of the highest DPS in the game out of any ability.

If you’re a hyper-aggressive player, this is the Lancer for you.

Jaguar Abilities

Abilities	Description
Live Wire	Deploys an electrical shock trap that deals damage and slows nearby enemies, as well as adding a “Hunter’s Last Gift” to them.
Electric Avenue	Summons electrified cages around enemies in front of you. Enemies within the cages will be tagged with a “Hunter’s Last Gift.”
I Can See For Miles	Displays the number and direction of enemies ahead and detects enemies with low health and enemies with “Hunter’s Last Gift.”
Hunter’s Last Gift (Passive)	After being affected by Jaguar’s skills, enemies carry “Hunter’s Last Gifts” for a period of time. When active, enemies with “Hunter’s Last Gifts” are detected.

A-Tier characters in FragPunk

Hollowpoint

Hollowpoint’s game plan is a simple one: Hold a long sightline and make sure no one can get through it. Her Railgun is at the core of her kit, with it being FragPunk’s most reliable one-shot kill. A body shot at up to 30 meters will do the job.

However, the Railgun’s optic also allows her to see right through the smoke screen she can deploy, making it incredibly difficult to push on her if she’s already set up. Unfortunately, the long reload on this railgun makes her easy to overwhelm, and she doesn’t have many tools to stave off a 5 man push.

Abilities	Description
Meteora	Uses a single-shot railgun with variable optics when aiming down sights, the weapon charges and reveals enemies in the field of view.
Smoke Screen	Releases a forward-moving smoke screen. Enemies caught in the smoke will be displayed as silhouettes.
Paparazzi	Deploys a trap that automatically attaches to a nearby enemy and exposes the enemy. The gadget can be destroyed or removed by interaction.

Chum

When it comes to smoke characters, Chum is one of FragPunk’s best. His ability to create a huge wall of smoke he can bend to his will is great for both attacking and defending, and it’s the absolute best part of his kit even if it’s a fairly basic ability on paper.

As for the abilities involving Chomper, these are some of the most fun mechanics in the game. You can feed a little robot fish explosives and send him flying at people. How cool is that?

However, these abilities are a bit clunky and less effective than a lot of other AoE damage Lancers in FragPunk.

Abilities	Description
Chomper	Release Chum’s best friend, Chomper! Chomper patrols the area he’s deployed in and will chase down enemies to bite them. He is destructible.
Explosive Bait	Place explosive bait that sticks to walls and explodes when triggered. When Chomper is fed this bait, he enters Explosive Mode and follows Chum, charging enemies to explode on contract.
Smoking Bait	Throw bait that generates smoke when it hits the ground or collides with a surface. When Chomper is fed this bait, he enters Smoke Mode and starts releasing a constant stream of smoke. Holding the fire button lets you control Chomper’s direction

Sonar

Sonar is a bit of a niche choice, you won’t see her very often in matches. However, she’s got some great tools that are all good for one thing: Area denial. If she’s got vision on you, you’ll know it immediately. Her ability to create knock up zones stops bomb site rushes in their tracks.

And, if you’re on offense, the ability to deafen footsteps is incredibly useful. Especially if you’re pairing Sonar with Zephyr. She may not do damage, but Sonar is an incredibly solid defender with a few tricks for attacking.

Abilities	Description
Echolocation	Deploys an echolocation device that periodically reveals surrounding moving enemies.
Sonic Surge	Launches a sonic wave that exposes all enemies it hits. The wave releases a delayed sonic blast that knocks back, dazes, and further exposes enemies in range.
Sound of Silence	Dampens footsteps of the player and surrounding teammates. Grants immunity to enemy Echolocation scans.

Nitro

Nitro is the quintessential sentry turret character. She sets up on a point, tosses turrets down, and just waits for people to run at her. The fact that she can defend a point by herself justifies an A-tier placement on its own, but she has a few other tricks up her sleeve.

Her drone may have relatively low DPS, but it’s much better used as a tool to scout out enemy positions and act as a distraction. And, while her wall has some uses, it’s one of the weaker area denial tools in the game.

However, Nitro hard counters invisible characters, with her turrets automatically detecting people like Zephyr and Serket. If you’re getting flanked by Lancers who are slipping past you, Nitro is a great choice.

Abilities	Description
Chug Chug	Deploys a multi-function tactical combat drone that can be controlled remotely.
The Wall	Places a wall of shields formed by three pieces of cover across the designated location.
Mr. Pewpew	Throws a sentry turret that fires automatically.

B-tier characters in FragPunk

Zephyr

Zephyr is, in a word, annoying. Her stealth is complete, as in there’s no visual indicator that she’s in stealth around you whatsoever. In lower level lobbies, this character absolutely dominates. However, she’s got two big problems.

One, scan characters make her life very difficult and nullify a lot of her kit. If you’re playing anchor well or playing for retake on a point rather than defending it, this isn’t a huge problem. However, the second issue is that footsteps in FragPunk are incredibly loud, and her stomping around will immediately give away that you’re trying to melee someone.

The fact that FragPunk has a balanced stealth melee assassin is a feat, and she’s got her fair share of weaknesses.

Abilities	Description
Midnight Rambler	Enters optical cloaking mode, which cycles between full invisibility and semi-invisibility. Only melee weapons can be used while in this state. Automatically deactivates once firearms are employed.
Fade Away	Selects an area in which Zephyr can become fully invisible when using her “Midnight Rambler.” The cloaking time is unlimited and will not be disrupted when being attacked.
Get Back	Deploys a dagger beacon. Reactivate the skill to teleport to it after a short delay. The beacon can be destroyed. Using this ability will not interrupt the invisibility of Midnight Rambler.

Broker

Every game needs a pubstomp character. Broker’s the one in FragPunk. His mix of smokes to obstruct vision, a rocket launcher to one-shot people (or severely injure them at least) and some mines make him the resident explosives expert.

However, his mines are fairly easy to avoid, making the ability not so great against decent players. Oddly enough, his smoke is the most useful part of his kit in higher level play due to its ease of use and wide AoE.

Broker’s fun, and barrel stuffing someone with a rocket launcher is effective at times. But is he good? Not really.

Abilities	Description
Goddard’s Vengeance	A shoulder-mounted rocket that causes explosive damage and knocks back enemies who are within a certain range.
Smokestack Lightning	Throwable gadget that generates a smoke screen around the projectile.
Cherry Bomb	A throwable energy device that generates multiple energy bombs upon hitting the ground.

Spider

Spider has some of the coolest tools in FragPunk, but they’re ultimately very impractical. If you’ve got enough time to set up teleporters, play corners, and set up for enemies to be teleported right into a wombo combo from your teammates, he can be effective.

But, ultimately, all that stuff isn’t worth the effort when other characters exist who can just do what he does but more easily and more effectively. There’s no need to teleport enemies around when you can just shoot them or blow them up with other characters.

Abilities	Description
Teleporter	Place two teleporters that Spider recall remotely.
Spirited Away	Throws teleportation trap that takes effect after a short delay, teleporting all Lancers in range to the location where Spider initially used the skill.
Spider Web	Places a disorienting trap. Enemies who trigger it are briefly blinded and slowed.

C-tier characters in FragPunk

Corona

On paper, Corona sounds kind of busted. A dash, damage reduction for himself with a damaging molly, a flash. It sounds like he has it all. However, Corona’s got some big issues.

One, his flash going off is entirely reliant on putting himself in a position where people are staring directly at him and requires him to live long enough for its charge to go off. His molly also has a relatively small AoE, and it only gives him that damage reduction when he’s standing in it. His dash is decent and useful for getting out of AoE damage fields quickly, and it’s the best part of his kit.

Corona is very underwhelming and often gets outclassed by other Lancers.

Abilities	Description
Fast Lane	Dashes for a short distance; the dash distance is shorter when moving vertically.
Ashes to Ashes	Throws a device that activates a war zone when hitting the ground, dealing minor damage over time to enemies in its zone, and provides Corona himself with damage reduction and speed booster when he is in its zone.
Hot Head	After a short charge, blinds all frontal enemies looking directly at Corona.

Axon

This character is just fun. If you’re playing him, just put your guns down and keep that guitar out. Toss as many explosives as you want. Have a great time. Is he good? Absolutely not.

His electric guitar is only good up close, his explosives feel significantly worse than other Lancers who have kits focused on them, and his blind immunity is extremely niche and dependent on playing against someone who’s actually using them.

That said, his slide is pretty strong, and there’s chance this passive could push him up to higher tiers if his base kit gets some buffs.

Abilities	Description
Electric Guitar	An electric guitar modified for shooting that deals high damage to close-range enemies. Press the Aim key to quickly throw two “Sticky Fingers” bombs. Every kill made with the guitar replenishes two uses.
Sticky Fingers	Throws a bouncing sticky grenade. Hold down the Skill key to keep throwing. The grenade bounces off surfaces until it sticks to an enemy, or detonates automatically when its timer is up.
Super Freak	When activated, Axon is immune to visual disturbances.
Darkslide (Passive)	When sprinting, Axon can crouch to slide.