Snowbreak: Containment Zone Operative Tier List (May 2024)
Snowbreak: CZ has a ton of characters to choose from. To help you figure out which ones are the ones you want to invest your game time and resources into, we've put together this Snowbreak: Containment Zone Operative Tier List to help you make that decision.
Disclaimer : Please be reminded that Tier Lists are not 'definite' measures of the character's strength and potential. There are a lot of factors to be considered like the characters' availability, their synergy with your team, their utility, equipment, etc. As such, please use our tier lists as what they're meant to be - a guide. Use tier lists to help you decide whether you'll want to invest resources and time to build a character. At the end of the day, it's you who will decide which ones you'll use based on preference and performance.
Tier List Considerations
* Manifestations: Whenever you get duplicate copies of an operative you already own, you'll also get their respective "Extracts". Spending these extracts will unlock permanent stat bonuses and additional buffs to their skills and abilities. Some characters' potentials are locked behind these manifestation levels - some of them might be underwhelming by default but will become exceptionally powerful as they gain access to said manifestations.
* Support Skills: Support skills are only available when the operative is not on the field. Of course this does not determine their entire effectiveness as a combatant so we're not going to rank them based on how effective their support skill is.
* Signature Weapons: The game has a lot of weapons to choose from and each operative has their own signature weapon. While their signature weapon will complement their kit extensively, this doesn't mean that you can't use other weapons that they have. Basically, as long as you have an orange-tier (5-star) weapon, give it to your most powerful or favorite operative.
* Tier Ranking:One important thing to point out is that low-tier operatives we list here doesn't mean they're completely useless or unplayable. Clearing the game's missions is relatively doable, as long as you have an adequately-built operative, no matter the tier.
Tier List Summary
Here's the summary of our tier list for operatives available at the time of writing. We will also be providing detailed explanations for our choices in the SS and S tiers.
SS Tier
The operatives under this tier are exceptionally powerful and you should prioritize investing in their growth, as well as giving them the ideal weapons, logistics, and selecting recommended neuronics.
Yao-Winter Solstice
Weapon: Sniper Rifle
Skill DMG Type: Thermal
Role(s): Primary damage dealer, heavy single-target damage
Yao - Winter Solstice is an exceptional ranged DPS character. She wields a skill that loads a potent thermal bullet capable of causing explosions upon impact, also disrupting the target's special abilities. Yao's skill becomes especially devastating when she lands headshots, easily resulting in five-digit damage numbers.
Additionally, her support skill excels in area control, launching foes into the air, inflicting thermal damage, and applying a burning damage-over-time effect. Finally, her ultimate ability grants her super armor, rendering her resistant to all damage types and granting temporary access to a more powerful thermal weapon. The downside of that special, temporary weapon is that you can't reload it using normal means and is only good as long as your ammo for it. These can be alleviated by her Manifestations since most of the upgrades from them are geared towards her ultimate.
Furthermore, Yao - Winter Solstice is that she's one of the five operatives you can choose for free from the Elite Recruit event, which players can unlock after reaching Adjutant (player level) 35. So if you're not particularly looking for a specific character from the selector, she's definitely worth picking.
Acacia-Kaguya
Weapon: Pistol
Skill DMG Type: Frost
Role(s): Crowd-control, debuffer
Kaguya - Acacia boasts a versatile skill set that allows her to effectively deal with multiple enemies at once. Her normal skill enables her to launch projectiles that orbit around her, inflicting damage and impeding the movement speed of nearby enemies. With neuronic improvements, she can deploy more of these projectiles, granting them the added capability to freeze enemies and prime them to receive increased damage from Kaguya's subsequent attacks.
When not on the field, you can rely on her reliable support skill where she throws a dart that revolves around the targeted area. This dart not only deals damage but also lowers the resistances of enemies within their area of effect. This debuff enhances the team's damage output.
The cream of the crop of her arsenal lies in her ultimate ability. Once again, she hurls a formidable projectile that lingers at the designated target area, unleashing devastating damage upon any enemy caught within its radius. When upgraded, her ultimate will also be able to suck in enemies, grouping them together conveniently and vulnerable against follow-up AoE attacks or explosives from your squad.
Kaguya doesn't need high Manifestation levels to be effective so that makes her quite a reliable unit from the get-go. However, if you decide to pursue improving her manifestations, you'll further improve her kit's AoE, resistance reduction value, duration, and more.
S Tier
Operatives under this tier are still highly valuable so in case you missed out on the SS tier characters, these S-tier operatives will still make your life easier when tackling challenging missions.
Lyfe-Wild Hunt
Weapon: SMG
Skill DMG Type: Frost
Role(s): Crowd-control, medium-range DPS
This Frost-oriented version of Lyfe has outstanding crowd-control abilities, thanks to her reliable application of the Freeze effect that also immobilizes enemies for a short amount of time. She can launch numerous homing Frost Fangs that trigger small explosions upon impact. The number of Frost Fangs she can fire at a time and the chance of freezing and immobilizing enemies can be improved through neuronics and manifestations. In fact, all of her Manifestation levels are geared towards the improvement of her Frost Fangs, like decreased ammo consumption, increased ammo capacity, and enhanced damage.
Her support skill allows her to damage all enemies around the player while also freezing and applying DoT on them. Finally, her burst deals massive Frost damage and freezes enemies within range. She's still using an SMG (submachine gun) as well, offering great rate of fire at short and medium ranges. Lyfe - Wild Hunt is one of the free 5-star operatives you can get from the Elite Recruit event.
Ji Chenxing-Ethereal Cloud
Weapon: Assault Rifle
Skill DMG Type: Electric
Role(s): Damage enhancer (mob), medium-long range DPS
Chenxing's bread and butter is her Silk Spiritual Slip skill which allows her to "mark" several targets and apply a "connection" between each of the marked targets. Whenever any operative shoots the marked targets, a portion of the damage is also inflicted on the connected marked targets, allowing her to deal extra damage. When used against large bosses with multiple weak points, Chenxing's spiritual slips will mark these weak points individually. This means you can inflict damage on these weak points at once. Her manifestations are meant to improve her slips but even without manifestations, she can be a reliable damage-dealer even with just some neuronics enabled.
When not on field, Chenxing can still attach special symbols against up to five enemies in front of her, dealing extra electric damage, especially when shot by any operative. You can further improve this skill to include a paralyze effect through neuronics.
Her burst is a damaging AoE field that hits all enemies caught within it several times. The lightning strikes on this field are powerful enough to interrupt enemies or knock them off their feet. With the proper neural skill, you can further increase the damage taken by enemies while they're on the field.
Fritia-Hush
Weapon: Assault Rifle
Skill DMG Type: Thermal
Role(s): Damage enhancer (mob), medium-long range DPS
Fritia uses an assault rifle which allows her to deal consistent damage reliably at medium and long ranges. When she uses her standard skill, she will throw a chain that groups up to five (small) enemies together before exploding, dealing thermal damage while also preventing them from using special skills. Even when dealing against larger enemies, you can still rely on this skill to deal thermal damage and inflict skill interruption as well.
Fritia's support skill buffs the operative on the field with a 5-stack Fire God Protection that reduces damage received and burns surrounding targets. Finally, her ultimate allows her to fire a steady fire blast for a few seconds which she can manually control and will pass through several targets at once. Her manifestations revolved around improving this powerful fire death ray but she doesn't necessarily need those to be effective. Fritia - Hush is one of the free 5-star operatives you can get from the Elite Recruit event.
Fenny-Coronet
Weapon: Shotgun
Skill DMG Type: Electric
Role(s): Shield breaker, short range DPS
Her weapon of choice is still the trusty shotgun. When she uses her skill, she disperses an electrical field that damages enemies and puts her in a state where she earns "Mercy" points for each ammo pellet that hits the target. The more Mercy points she gains, the faster her shooting speed will be. Since each shot releases a blast of several pellets, this allows her to accumulate Mercy significantly, allowing her to dish out even more damage thanks to the ability to shoot more often with the Shooting SPD buff. Since she's a shotgun user, Fenny will be able to easily break through enemy guard, shield, or armor, making her an ideal unit for softening targets up close. Her "mercy point system" can be further improved through manifestations.
Her support skill allows her to apply the same Shooting SPD buff to the operative on the field and finally, her ultimate generates a large AoE electrical field that damages all surrounding enemies while also interrupting their special skills. Fenny - Coronet is one of the free 5-star operatives you can get from the Elite Recruit event.
Siris-The Goldfish
Weapon: Shotgun
Skill DMG Type: Kinetic
Role(s): Tank, Shield Breaker
Siris can apply a personal shield around her, reducing incoming damage and increasing her resistance to interruption. Not only that, if she dodges while this personal protective shield is active, she'll gain a personal buff that increases her damage. With this skill active, you can be more aggressive with your close-range encounters.
When she's not on the field, she can also conveniently deploy a shield that prevents enemy projectiles from passing through but allows you to shoot from the other side and take them out. With a neuronic, you can increase the shield's area and/or apply a movement debuff on nearby enemies. Finally, her ultimate applies damage reduction, anti-interruption, and boosts her movement speed. It's worth getting both neural skills for her ultimate since it allows her to self-heal based on the value of the remaining shield and apply the ultimate's effect to all operatives - perfect for coop runs.
A Tier
These are still relatively reliable units that will shine by investing into their neuronics and manifestations.
* Acacia-Redacted
* Enya-"Big Sis"
* Fritia-Little Sunshine
* Ji Chenxing-The Observer
* Lyfe-Wednesday
* Mauxir-Kitty
* Marian-Queen of Pain
* Marian-Swift
* Yao-Quiet Quitter
B Tier
You can still use units under this tier; however, unless you like them specifically, there are much better options in the upper tiers, as listed above..
* Fenny-Lionheart
* Cherno-Those Two
* Haru-The Ace
* Nita-Hands