How the Tier List Works
What SS/S/A/B/C mean on this site, plus how we cross-check tier sources — including the 4 newest combatants still confirmed by only one source.
A tier list ranks characters by overall usefulness across story progress, boss fights, and farming efficiency — not by a single stat or a single fight. This site publishes a tier rank once we can confirm it against real sources, and the 7DS tier list now covers all 23 combatants from SS to C. Most of them are cross-checked against at least 2 independent community sources that agree; the 4 newest combatants (Escanor, Merlin, Elizabeth, Clotho) are so new that only a single community reference has rated them so far — the tier-list page marks those four "1 source" until a second source catches up.
What a tier grade actually measures
A useful tier grade weighs how a character performs across different content types — clearing story content quickly, contributing meaningfully in tough boss fights, and farming efficiently — rather than a single damage number from one test. A character can rank differently for "story" versus "boss" versus "farming" purposes, which is why single-number rankings without context are usually less reliable.
Why most ranks need 2 sources
A single source (one player's clear video, one calculator run) can be wrong, outdated, or built on an unverified assumption. Cross-checking against at least 2 independent sources catches those errors before they reach a published ranking. The only exception right now is a handful of combatants too new for a second source to have rated yet — those are marked "1 source" on the tier page instead of being hidden, so you always know exactly how confident a rank is.
What the "1 source" label means
Escanor, Merlin, Elizabeth and Clotho currently carry a "1 source" tag on the tier list because this site's two performance-based community references haven't rated them yet; only a single community rarity-and-role reference has. Treat their tier as provisional and lean on the mechanics guides — weapon system, elements & roles, gear sets — for extra context until a second source lands and the label is removed.