ASTD Tier List (May [cy) All Star Tower Defense All Units Ranked

If you landed here looking for an honest ASTD tier list that isn’t just a recycled wiki dump, you’re in the right spot. I’ve been grinding All Star Tower Defense X (and the original ASTD) for way too many hours, and I’m breaking down which units actually carry runs in 2026 — and which ones look cool but flop hard.

Here’s what you’ll get out of this guide:

• A full S-to-D ranking of every unit worth caring about
• Why each one is placed where it is (no empty lists, I promise)
• My personal top picks for Story, Infinite, and Raids
• Tips, common mistakes, and pro tricks I learned the hard way
• A quick FAQ at the bottom for the stuff people keep asking

Trust me, I’ve been there — pulling for a unit because some YouTube thumbnail screamed “OP” only to find out it falls off three waves later. This list is what I actually use when I rebuild a team after every update.

Quick heads up before we dive in: “ASTD” today usually means one of two games — the original All Star Tower Defense or the newer All Star Tower Defense X (ASTDX). Most of the 2026 meta talk is about ASTD X, so that’s what I’ll focus on. I’ll drop a note for original ASTD players near the end too.

What Is ASTD (and ASTD X)?

All Star Tower Defense is one of the biggest anime tower defense games on Roblox. You summon units inspired by anime legends (Naruto, DBZ, JJK, Demon Slayer, One Piece, etc.) and place them on a path to mow down waves of enemies.

The game blew up because of a few things:

• Anime crossover roster — almost every popular anime is repped here under “legally distinct” names
• Endless content — Story, Infinite, Raids, Gauntlet, events, you name it
• Deep team building — units, traits, hidden potential, ascensions, the works
• Constant updates — new units, balance shifts, and seasonal events keep things fresh

ASTD X is the newer, cleaner take from the same dev space. It launched with a tighter unit roster and modernized mechanics, and honestly? It’s where most of my playtime goes now. The meta moves fast — Update 6 alone shuffled the rankings hard, with Dark Wing dropping from S-Tier to B-Tier due to its extremely high placement cost.

I started playing during the early days when Goku (sorry, “Koku”) was the answer to every problem. Things have changed a lot since then.

Roblox All Star Tower Defense Tier List 2026 (Ranked)

Alright, here’s the meat of it. I’m ranking units based on real performance across Story, Infinite, and Raids — not just paper stats. DPS, range, AoE, utility, and cost-efficiency all factor in.

S Tier (Best of the Best)

These are the units that genuinely change how a run feels. If you’ve got any of them, build your team around them.

Unit	Role	Why It’s S-Tier
Xero	Support	The meta support. Massive utility buffs and range boosts that turn A-tier carries into S-tier monsters. Mandatory in any serious comp.
The Strongest One	DPS / Boss Killer	Sukuna from JJK. Hits like a truck, solid range, deletes priority targets. High upgrade cost is the only catch.
Michishibo	DPS	Demon Slayer’s Kokushibo. 0.01% pull rate, but absurd DPS with chaining attacks and night-condition buffs. Late-game Infinite king.
Frieren	All-Round DPS	Best overall stats unit in the game. Reliable, scales beautifully, and fits literally any team.
Zaruto (Beast Cloak)	DPS	Naruto’s Tailed Beast mode. Strong sustain damage with great burst windows.
Supreme Leader	DPS / Burst	Big damage, big AoE, transformation ability that resets fights when you need it.
Sky God	Nuker	Reliable nuke-style damage. Less consistent than Michishibo but way easier to actually pull.

The S tier is your “build your team around these” tier. If you have one, you don’t need to swap. Period.

A Tier (Still Cracked)

These are very good — they just need a slightly better setup or a support buff to truly shine.

Unit	Role	Why It’s A-Tier
Freezer (Final Form)	DPS / CC	Frieza, basically. Reliable DPS with solid range, freeze effect is clutch for crowd control.
King Kaoe	Support	Drops a damage amp that pushes nearby A-tier units into S-tier territory. Criminally underrated.
Blood Commander	DoT DPS	DoT specialist with monster range. Bleed damage stacks ridiculously well in Infinite.
Sorcerer Killer	Bleed / AoE	Bleed and AoE hybrid. Damage feels lower than Blood Commander, but AoE makes up for it.
Ziek (Beast Giant)	Hybrid	Rock-solid stats and damage. Great early pickup that holds up well into mid-game.
Fire Officer	Single-Target DPS	Pure single-target burner. Melts priority enemies fast.
Yuni	AoE	Solid AoE, great on maps with tight chokepoints.
Ikki (Hollow)	DPS / AoE	Bleach-inspired. Strong range, decent AoE coverage.
Explosion Artist	Burst	Burst queen. Inconsistent on bosses but melts wave clears.
Neymar (Trapper)	Niche Support	Weird but powerful. Great in specific Infinite Mode setups.

A tier is where most of your team will live unless you’re swimming in S-tier pulls.

B Tier (Solid Mid-Game Picks)

These do their job. They won’t win you Endless runs, but they’ll get you through Story and most of Infinite without crying.

Unit	Role	Why It’s B-Tier
Ramen Grill-Master	Farmer (MUST PICK)	Cash flow MVP. Almost every team should slot him in early. Don’t sleep on him.
Stampede	DPS	Decent damage, lacks the range of higher tiers.
Borul	DPS	Reliable but unremarkable. Fills a slot.
Gen	DPS	Mid-range damage dealer. Works in early Infinite.
Killer (Serious)	Early DPS	Surprisingly clutch in early stages with good damage and range.
Shirtless Magician	DPS	Fun unit, outclassed by upgraded variants.
Handsome-Jo	DPS	Same story — fun but replaced quickly.
Vegu	DPS (Pre-Evo)	Holds the spot until you ascend him into Super God Vegu.
Dark Wing	DPS	Was S-tier in Update 5. Strong, but Update 6 placement cost hurts hard.

B tier is your “I’m building toward better” tier.

C Tier (Early Game Only)

These get you off the ground and that’s about it. Useful for the first few hours, then they need to come out.

Unit	Role	Why It’s C-Tier
Spirit Detective	DPS	Yusuke from YYH. Decent damage early, falls off fast.
Humble-Swordsman	DPS	OK starter DPS. Stats get outclassed by B-tier within a few floors.
Shark Ninja	Cheap DPS	Cheap to place, useful when you’re broke. Replaceable instantly.
Koku	DPS	Goku starter. Nostalgia king, performance scrub.
Tomi	Achievement Unit	Free at Tower Floor 30. Worth grabbing for the achievement, not the team slot.

C tier is fine for Story Mode. Don’t bring them into serious Infinite runs.

D Tier (Skip or Fodder)

These are basically fusion fuel or summon-pity filler. Some have nostalgia value. None of them belong on a real team.

Unit Type	Why It’s D-Tier
3-star starter units	Whatever the game gave you on day one — outclassed by everything.
Lower-rarity duplicates	Fine as fusion fuel, useless on a real team.
Outdated event units	Haven’t been buffed in months and the meta moved on without them.

If a unit’s only job is to die fast so you can place a real one, it’s D tier.

My Top 5 Picks Right Now

If I had to rebuild my entire team from scratch today, here’s what I’d grab in order:

Rank	Unit	Why I’d Pick It First
1	Xero	Non-negotiable support. Build the whole team around him.
2	Frieren	Best all-rounder DPS. Works literally everywhere.
3	The Strongest One	Boss melter for Raids and late-Infinite waves.
4	Ramen Grill-Master	Money printer. Can’t afford the others without him.
5	Michishibo	If you’re lucky enough to pull him, slot him immediately. The damage is unreal.

ASTD Rankings: Tips & Strategies That Actually Work

I’ve eaten enough Ls to know what matters. Here’s the real stuff:

• Always run a farmer. I don’t care how cracked your DPS is — without Ramen Grill-Master or another farm unit, you can’t afford upgrades fast enough in Infinite.
• Match traits to roles. All Star trait isn’t always the answer. Range trait on a melee unit is wasted. Read the unit’s kit before you slap a trait on it.
• Upgrade depth, not width. Three maxed units beat six half-built ones. Pick your carries and dump everything into them.
• Use the 30-minute summon rotation. Banners refresh, and the gem cost is fixed. Save your gems for when a top-tier unit cycles in.
• Buffers > raw DPS in late game. Once enemies hit a damage threshold, a Xero or King Kaoe behind your S-tier carry is worth more than another DPS slot.
• Don’t chase Michishibo. That 0.01% rate is a trap for anyone without thousands of gems banked. Use the Unbound pity system instead.
• Map matters. Some units shine on specific maps because of placement spots. Test your team on each map before assuming it’s bad.
• Redeem codes weekly. Free gems = free pulls. Don’t leave them on the table.

Mistakes to Avoid

I made every single one of these. Save yourself the pain:

• Spreading gems across banners. Pick one banner, commit, hit pity. Spreading thin = nothing good ever.
• Selling units too early. Some units look mid until you ascend them. Look up evolutions before you sell.
• Ignoring traits. A unit with a great trait can outperform a higher-rated unit without one.
• Skipping Story Mode chapters. Story rewards include guaranteed units like Tomi at Floor 30 of the Tower. Free strong units, just play.
• Stacking the same role. Six DPS = wipe. You need a farmer and at least one support. Always.
• Underleveling supports. Support unit upgrades scale their buff strength. Max your buffer or it’s basically a placeholder.

Pro Tips for Advanced Players

This is the stuff Discord try-hards know that beginner guides skip:

• Stack DoTs strategically. In ASTD X, normal DoTs don’t always stack — but the right traits (and certain unit combos) let you bypass that. Blood Commander + Sorcerer Killer is filthy if you get the placement right.
• Hidden Potential rolls matter. Re-rolling on your S-tier carries can swing performance by 15-30%. Save your re-roll currency for your meta units only.
• Range placement > damage placement. A unit hitting 4 lanes from a high-range spot will out-DPS a higher-tier unit in a tight spot. Always.
• Use Mafia Coins on shop-exclusives. Underwater God for 200 Mafia Coins is one of the best deals in the game if you don’t have any S-tier carries yet.
• Track update patch notes. Devs nerf and buff every major update. The ASTD X wiki and Discord drop change logs within 24 hours of patches — bookmark both.
• Co-op for raids. Solo Raid clears are possible but slow. Co-op with someone running a different role (you DPS, they support) cuts clear times in half.

One thing I learned the hard way: never blow gems the day a new unit drops. Wait 48 hours. Half the time they get stealth-nerfed within a week.

Final Thoughts on the ASTD Tier List

That’s my honest ASTD tier list for 2026. The meta is gonna keep shifting — that’s the nature of the game — but the core principles stay the same. Run a farmer, max your carries, slot in a strong support, and you’ll clear 90% of content without breaking a sweat.

For OG All Star Tower Defense players: the tier system on the original game’s wiki uses META Support, META DPS, and META NUKES categories instead of S/A/B/C/D, but the principle is identical — buffers and big-DPS units carry, farmers make it possible, everything else is filler. The most recent original ASTD tier list update on March 23, 2026 added Buddha Chairman (Serious) to the rankings, so check the official wiki if you’re playing OG.

Let me know your favorite unit in the comments below — and if I missed anything cracked from the latest update, drop it. I read every reply and I’m always down to argue about whether Frieren or Michishibo is the real GOAT.

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