Sword Art Online: Variant Showdown (SAOVS) is the newest mobile game in the franchise that has just recently been released by Bandai Namco to celebrate the beloved anime’s 10th anniversary. Featuring real-time combat with 3D models and original voicework by each character, this action game features a brand-new story unique to the franchise!
Players take on waves of enemies using an elite squad of three members, who switch in and out of battle on the fly while dodging attacks and slamming foes with unique skills and attacks. From healing allies to destroying enemies with a powerful Finishing Blow, mastering the different skill sets of your characters is the key to victory!
This Sword Art Online Variant Showdown Tier List and Reroll Guide will provide some recommendations on who to reroll for to quickly explore the game’s narrative and will serve as a great asset in your journey into Cross Edge. However, there isn’t anything stopping you from simply building a team of your favorites or even multiple versions of a single character.
How to Reroll in SAOVS?
Whether it’s grabbing the strongest character in the gacha pool or your favorite right off the bat, rerolling in SAOVS is simply a breeze, and you don’t even have to delete your data. After finishing the tutorial, the game will reward you with 10 pulls where reroll is possible in this beginner’s pool!
Each reroll may guarantee one SSR character, but with enough luck, you can score several SSR characters or ability cards in the tutorial’s multi-roll!
| 1. | Open SAOVS and go through the beginning cutscenes manually or by skipping them. |
| 2. | Complete the basic combat tutorials of SAOVS. |
| 3. | Begin rerolling by selecting the game’s 10x multi-roll that is given by the app’s prompt. |
| 4. | Watch the ensuing cutscenes or press the ‘Skip’ button to move to your results. SAOVS will indicate the number of SSRs you obtained in this 10x roll by the amount of damage you deal; Wait a moment to see your ‘score,’ as every 1 million damage equals an SSR! |
| 5. | If you aren’t happy with your results, simply tap the ‘Retry’ button to continue rerolling until you’re satisfied. Don’t forget to grab your pre-registration rewards, too! |
Sword Art Online Variant Showdown Tier List
SS Tier
SSR [The Black Swordsman] Kirito
The protagonist of Sword Art Online is a staple in Fire teams, with a good mix between skill effects, power, and cooldown time. Kirito’s skills greatly increase the enemy’s Rush Gauge, and if he’s at full HP his Strength increases by 20%! He can even grant himself HP regeneration via a Timely Switch, ensuring that he’s ready to go once he steps into the playing field.
SSR [The Flash] Asuna
Asuna may be labeled as a Defender in SAOVS, but she plays an indispensable role for Water teams as the game’s only Water SSR character in the gacha pool at launch. Her skill kit focuses on significantly increasing the Rush Gauge through her attacks, passives, and Switch skills, making her an excellent filler slot for other elements while you’re still building your team.
SSR [Dragon Tamer] Silica
Silica is currently the best supporter in SAOVS, as her switch-in effect heals herself and the ally she swapped with by 20%, which helps her activate ally passives easily as many of these passives rely on having full HP. Her switch-in effect buffs the entire team’s Strength by 15% for 15 seconds; 25% if she swaps in via a Timely Switch. Even if her healing is unnecessary for players who can skillfully dodge attacks, her Strength buffs are extremely valuable for almost all party compositions.
S Tier
SSR [Master Macer] Lisbeth
Lisbeth takes a different approach than [The Black Swordsman] Kirito, granting a buff to the switched-in character that allows them to inflict Fire damage for 30 seconds, while also simultaneously increasing their Fire elemental skill power by 5%. If that isn’t enough, the Master Macer can also reduce the skill cooldown of all of her squadmates! Lisbeth’s core skills are also quite powerful but come with high cooldowns even if she can inflict the Stun status.
SSR [Goddess of the Underworld] Sinon
Though her attacks have little impact on the Rush Gauge, Sinon can charge her attacks to deal massive Normal Attack damage. She can also inflict Burns on her enemies, which increases her Strength by 10%.
Mastering the Timely Switch mechanic is important when using this version of Sinon to take advantage of the Burn status effect, but she may not have the opportunity to deal much damage if enemies cannot be inflicted with Burn and prevent her from charging up her Normal Attacks.
A Tier
SSR [A New Start] Kirito
The starter SSR given to all players is a decent Water Fighter that can inflict the Freeze debuff on enemies with his first skill. However, this version of Kirito is likely an SR in disguise as he suffers from mediocre skill damage and Rush Gauge value, and his Switch passives are tame. His ability to activate a Finishing Blow is his saving grace, but don’t expect much from this unit once you move past the early game of SAOVS.
SSR [Speed Junkie] Leafa
Leafa, the Speed Junkie, has a very similar skillset to [A New Start] Kirito, which hurts her potential in the future content in SAOVS. Slightly higher skill damage values and the ability to inflict a damage-over-time effect on enemies aren’t enough to reserve this version of Leafa a permanent spot in Wind teams.
SSR [Will to Fight] Asuna
This version of Asuna is freely given to all players via logging into SAOVS, but she is a downgrade compared to [The Flash]. She trades her skills that help to boost the Rush Gauge for mediocre damaging skills, though Asuna’s passive tries to work around this issue by buffing her Strength based on her remaining HP. She can restore a bit of her own HP, but this mediocre skillset leaves much to be desired in combat.
B Tier
SR [Triumphant] Leafa
SR Leafa is a serviceable character despite lacking a Finishing Blow and lower offensive stats due to her rarity. She relies on keeping her HP above 50% to gain a 10% buff in Strength, and can restore her own HP by Switching into battle; a Timely Switch will increase the amount of HP restored and lower her skill cooldowns.
SR [Together Forevermore] Asuna
Players who are unable to obtain Silica can use this version of Asuna instead, as she can recover a small portion of HP for herself and the ally she switches with through her Switch Skill and her passives. She doesn’t provide much beyond being able to inflict Stun with her first skill.
SR [Rising Hero] Kirito
The SR version of Kirito provides support to his team, increasing the party’s Rush Gauge accumulation by 30% with a Timely Switch and increasing the Switch power of the ally he swaps out of battle with.
He can also inflict Stun and increase his Burst Gauge generation with a combo of 30 hits or more, but this Kirito’s kit is too widespread to allow him to excel in any area in combat compared to other SRs or higher rarity characters in this SAOVS tier list.
What Do You Think About SAOVS?
Sword Art Online Variant Showdown is a celebration of the franchise, and hopefully, this tier list has helped you in starting your journey in this game. Fans of the series should consider giving SAOVS a try, as the game’s biggest draw is its unique story and characters, letting Kirito and his allies interact in ways unseen elsewhere. However, combat is fairly simplistic and a bit slow, so if you’re a newcomer looking for fast-paced gameplay, this may not be the game for you.
