Smack Talk Character Tier List
1.0 ranks with lobby size in the footnote and the microphone in the scoring.
This character tier list is for players who already finished getting started and can recover without looking at Shift. If you cannot, use beginner picks instead. Ranks assume a working mic, English overlay, and a host who did not cap the room at two players.
S — lobby warpers
- Cowboy — Ledge guns, sayable recovery, still a problem after Quick Draw trims. Dedicated guide: Cowboy.
- Chef — Sushi Train plus chops plus lid interactions. Dedicated guide: Chef.
- Magical Girl — Blasts that scale into FFA. Armor on the super has flipped; even without it the kit spaces people out.
- Diver (four-player) — Solid mantas rewrite recoveries. Drops a tier in messy eights. Guide: Diver.
A — winning kits with a tell
- Frog Wizard — Fireball plus a recovery that got end-lag cut. Dies to guns if you float on habit.
- Pigeon — Gobble with movement is a chase tool. Collab bird that outgrew the joke.
- Duck — Cadence three-piece is disgusting in quiet rooms, inconsistent in noisy ones.
- Samurai — Koi still a lane after lifetime nerfs. Honest sword-and-projectile hybrid.
- Teacher — Detention ult and a wide home stage. More A in four-player, B in blender FFA.
- Wolf — Terrifying in 1v1 and four-player, free food in eight-player crossfire.
B — real, not free
- Fighter — Palms and fists, no excuse if you like short words.
- Doctor — Needle history of nerfs, movement on windup, weird but functional.
- Cop — Stun buffs made the kit adult. Still wants compact stages.
- Alien — Wormhole mixups, extra damage on several lines. Requires overlay homework.
- Pirate — Horizontal kill throws on ship, clunky on island.
- Business Man — Faster kit after the April sweep. Still a commitment character.
- Macho Man — Team-mode mascot, grab-adjacent wrestling, less FFA.
- Fish — Bubble and slap. Partner to Pirate, not a secret S.
C — party specialists
- Gorilla — Ground Pound is a trap for the gorilla more than the lobby.
- Bug — Pogo is a skill check against the up-attack cap.
- Santa — Coal and gifts, seasonal brain, real but slow.
- Fast Food Worker — Supersize damage was gutted. Refill hitbox is the remaining joke.
- Barn — Animal sounds in an eight-player voice game is a lifestyle, not a rank.
- Cat / Rat — Community duo. Overlay-first; treat as C until your room has a lab rat.
New — 1.0
- Power Ranger and Kaiju — Shipped with the city stage on 27 August 2026. Fun, referenced, under-documented. Play them, then argue later. Context on version 1.0.
FFA modifier
Move Cowboy, Chef, Magical Girl, Frog Wizard, Pigeon up. Move Wolf, Cop, Macho Man, Diver, grab-heavy Aliens down. The modifier is the entire point of how to win. If you only play 1v1s in Discord, ignore it.
What would change this list tomorrow
A stun patch. A microphone patch. A Ranger kit that is secretly three projectiles. Read patch notes before you screenshot this page into an argument. Then keep two mains from different bands so a single nerf does not delete your night.
Tier lists in this genre are opinions with footnotes. The footnote here is always: can you say the recovery while jumping? If the answer is no, the letter grade is decoration.
How to argue with this page without wasting a lobby
If you think Duck is S, specify quiet four-player. If you think Cowboy is A, specify jail. If you think Kaiju is already broken, post a clip with the overlay visible. Argument without overlay is fanfic. The players hub and patch notes are the citation format.
A healthy room keeps this list on a second monitor and still locks the two mains they can shout. The S tier is a warning to cover guns. It is not homework. If your friends only own the game because the trailer was funny, play beginner picks and island, then come back when someone asks why they keep losing to sushi.
After each named patch, move at most two fighters. If you reshuffle the whole alphabet, you are reacting to mood, not hitboxes. Date your opinions. This page is dated by the 1.0 roster: 27 names, city stage in the building, Ranger and Kaiju still in New.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common Smack Talk questions.
Why is Cowboy above Wolf?
Range plus a usable recovery scales into eight-player FFA. Wolf's dash is stronger in small rooms and weaker in crossfire.
Are Cat and Rat low because they are bad?
They are low because public notes are thin. If your overlay shows a gun, they will climb. Check Shift.
Where should complete beginners look instead?
The beginner picks list, which ranks phrase comfort over FFA win rate.
Is lid tech enough to keep Chef in S?
Lid tech is a bonus. Sushi Train and chops are the actual rank. See Chef.