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The following tables are the unofficial Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare tier list of player units . These lists were made and approved by members of the official DA:ZW wiki's Discord. The purpose of these lists is to help newer players decide which units to prioritize purchasing and aid higher-level players in choosing which units are worth using, so both sides make better-informed decisions on what to spend their resources on.

The main criteria of ranking units are based on:

General performance during gameplay;

Price-to-effectiveness ratio;

Growth of potential through upgrades and/or special abilities;

How well they perform without buffs.

Certain units are placed in the "+" or "-" level of their tiers as a compromise to the question if they deserve a higher/lower place.

Please note that tiers for units can move with new updates, be it unit nerfs/buffs, or whole gameplay changes. Bugs and glitches, however, are not a factor when considering moving units up or down their previous tier since they are unintentional.

The tier lists focus on the main game and Skirmish only, with very few exceptions. Due to gameplay differences in events, they all require specific units that are chosen without taking these ranks into consideration.

Tiers Explanation

Main Game

S – All around good units with little to no flaws. There are almost no reasons to use anyone instead of them.

– All around good units with little to no flaws. There are almost no reasons to use anyone instead of them. A – Solid units who can be used throughout the entire game. They still have some flaws or are outclassed by S tiers.

– Solid units who can be used throughout the entire game. They still have some flaws or are outclassed by S tiers. B – Decent units who can be used for more than a half of the game, but may be required to be replaced with stronger units later on.

– Decent units who can be used for more than a half of the game, but may be required to be replaced with stronger units later on. C – This tier mostly lists units who offer something crucial for progression, but are overly specific in the kind of help they offer, like countering certain damage types or completing a particular mission with a 3-star rating. Units who can be efficiently used for less than a third of the game, give or take, also fall under this tier.

– This tier mostly lists units who offer something crucial for progression, but are overly specific in the kind of help they offer, like countering certain damage types or completing a particular mission with a 3-star rating. Units who can be efficiently used for less than a third of the game, give or take, also fall under this tier. D – Units who are too weak to be used for missions completion, but are not entirely unplayable.

– Units who are too weak to be used for missions completion, but are not entirely unplayable. E – Units who have only very niche uses, and even then get outclassed most of the time.

– Units who have only very niche uses, and even then get outclassed most of the time. F – Units in this category are considered borderline useless. There's no point in using them for campaign progression due to their impracticality and major flaws.

Skirmish

S – Meta units, who proved to be very powerful in Skirmish, up to the point of being unfair in certain comps.

– Meta units, who proved to be very powerful in Skirmish, up to the point of being unfair in certain comps. A – Units, who support their teams well, but are also strong on their own.

– Units, who support their teams well, but are also strong on their own. B – Solid units, who can prove to be very effective, but are tied to their team composition closer than those in higher tiers.

– Solid units, who can prove to be very effective, but are tied to their team composition closer than those in higher tiers. C – Mediocre units, that still can work in specific comps or as fillers for cheap teams.

– Mediocre units, that still can work in specific comps or as fillers for cheap teams. D – Units which have some hard-to-ignore flaws in Skirmish, and so are discouraged from use.

– Units which have some hard-to-ignore flaws in Skirmish, and so are discouraged from use. E – Units that are generally not worth running in any team composition.

– Units that are generally not worth running in any team composition. F – Very inefficient units, which almost harm your team by being a part of it.

Main Game

S+ S S- A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- E E- F+ F

Unit Notes

Marine Due to a bug related to the "???" reaction text, Marine is currently broken. While not completely unusable, he can randomly freeze and stop attacking his opponents.

Even though this greatly underpowers him, intentionally moving Marine down several tiers is detrimental, since after a bug fix he will be a good unit again.

For now, the wiki staff recommends not investing in Marine too heavily until this bug is resolved. Marine's commentary below reflects his performance from before the bug was found. You can read his commentary by pressing [Expand]. Marine is the most powerful out of all spam units. While only having slightly higher damage than most other units in the fighter class, he has a very small courage price, fast preparation time, and knockback that can greatly increase his survivability. His insane attack speeds allow him to cause great amounts of damage to single targets when properly upgraded, even shredding most enemies to pieces before they manage to deal him any considerable damage thanks to his generally high crit rate. These simple yet effective abilities allow Marine to perform heavy pushes on enemies as a primary attacker and provide support to other units at the same time as a result. With all these upsides combined, Marine can be undoubtedly called an absolutely essential unit for main game completion.

Mechanic While Mechanic's stats are not impressive at all, it's his strong perk that makes him a force to be reckoned with. Thanks to his additional damage attack, he's able to dispatch a majority of zombies in one hit and deal major damage to tankier enemies, making him a highly reliable damage support unit in almost any situation. Additionally, compared to that of a majority of other units, Mechanic's special ability increases his usefulness exponentially. With the ability to go on seemingly endless killing sprees, Mechanic becomes the absolute best unit for single-handedly stopping incoming swarms of enemies and effortless destruction of large zombie hordes. When strengthened with Fury buff, all these tactics can even be applied against enemies with medium to high health. The combination of all these upsides makes a fully upgraded Mechanic with his special ability unlocked one of the absolute best units in the game. Unit Notes

Turret Turret's very high DPS and ability to be placed virtually anywhere make it a very efficient stationary unit for both offense and defense. While it has long preparation time and high rage cost, it's damage output makes it a near-essential rage ability to use throughout later stages of the game.

Red Barrel A direct upgrade to Empty Barrel, Red Barrel is a very versatile unit, as it can be used in a variety of ways thanks to its high health, ability to manually detonate, and leaving behind a fire pool upon destruction. While it might not have anywhere close to the drop damage as its empty predecessor and slightly higher rage cost, its overall higher damage output cannot be overstated.

Policeman Policeman can be considered the tankiest unit in the entire game with a very large health pool for a ranged unit and possessing a unique melee resistance. Since all zombies have melee attacks, this allows Policeman, with proper support, to come out alive out of basically every and any encounter. Even without help, Policeman proves to stand his ground and never go down without a fight. His shotgun is very efficient for clearing swarms of enemies and dealing lots of damage to a single target at close range. His only disadvantage is his slow movement speed, although, this can be somewhat circumvented with his special ability which also increases the speed of all other actions upon reaching half health. Unit Notes

Cashier Abnormally high stats for a fighter type unit, especially the highest melee damage among all units, in combination with low courage cost and fast movement speed makes Cashier a wonderful melee unit with raw power. At high levels, he is even able to tank one hit from a Charged Zombie, making him a better alternative to other spammable units for the majority of missions where Charged Zombies tend to appear frequently throughout. His damage output increases drastically with his special ability that makes his critical hits do four times the damage instead of the usual two times, only adding to his usefulness. Unfortunately, in some situations, all these pros get negated by Cashier's serious con: very slow attack speed. In addition, he has no perks, making him crutch on his powerful crits to be at least somewhat special. Unit Notes

Grenader Grenader is praised for his simple yet powerful ability to throw a high damage grenade since it's very efficient for clearing out large swarms of weaker zombies, which make up the majority of enemies in most early missions. Grenader is also capable of standing up for himself thanks to his good melee damage, very high attack speed, especially for a damager, and high base health. It's important to point out that Grenader is praised so much mostly because of him being able to carry most early and mid-game mission, which makes him an essential unit for campaign progress. Just like the majority of other damagers, he becomes quite inefficient starting from Stage 7 and may need to be replaced with another unit.

Generator Generator is a great stationary support unit, helping players to progress during any mission it's used in with its ability to spawn courage packs. Thanks to its extremely high health, it can be used as a strong shield for blocking enemies, with the explosion and subsequent fire pool upon destruction as a bonus. Unfortunately, these advantages are traded off by Generator's very long preparation time and very high rage cost. Chances are, it might not even see much play during a mission if it can be completed relatively fast, or if other rage abilities are higher in priority of being placed down on the battlefield. Funnily enough, both of these disadvantages become negated towards the endgame as mission completion starts taking much longer. Generator's uses shine in later stages as the longer times to complete missions will almost guarantee that it'll be able to provide more courage overall and its high health may come into better use. Unit Notes

Sonya Sonya can be considered possibly the best unit with the high rate of fire perk as she supersedes her predecessors by a number of factors: she has fairly high DPS thanks to her fast firing pattern and reload time, high health for a ranged unit, and strong close quarter combat abilities. Her critical hit being able to knock enemies back can very often save her life and extend her time spent piling on huge amounts of damage against enemies.

Empty Barrel Empty Barrel is a highly versatile stationary unit that can be used for offense, defense, and support. While its health is pretty low, it can still work as a temporary obstacle. Its drop damage can easily destroy weak enemies or just deal a considerable amount of damage to tankier threats. While Red Barrel certainly outshines it because of its higher damage output, Empty Barrel's lesser price makes it easier to use during missions where rage meter builds up rather slowly.

Specops Theoretically, Specops can be considered Sonya's direct upgrade, given that he shares the same stats as her while also possessing many powerful perks and resistances, allowing him to provide both great support and serve as a primary source of damage. His close combat abilities are a step up from hers as well since every melee attack causes knockback. Unfortunately, he has a high cost for a high rate of fire unit. His greatness weakness, however, is his worse accuracy. Deploying him closer to enemies to circumvent that downside will usually put his own life at slightly greater risk. Still, while his DPS may not reach the same level as Sonya's, Specops makes up for it with his additional perks to grant him better survivability overall in more situations, which makes him a good alternative to her in some missions.

Carlos Carlos is a great unit for mid-game as he has higher DPS and speed than Gunslinger, providing better offensive support. Despite that, his low health isn't much better than Gunslinger and he has a notably slow reload speed. A slow reload affects his overall damage output and can leave Carlos vulnerable in the face of fast enemies without proper support. He can still be efficiently used throughout the majority of the game since his low courage cost and long firing period are quite advantageous.

Agents Possessing three unique perks, Agents prove to be very powerful as a whole unit. Being able to clear out all enemies presented on the battlefield from the start, they can guarantee the player a 3-star rating for a majority of missions. As a pair, they have very high DPS and tend to survive longer since they basically backup each other. Unfortunately, when separated or if one of them is killed, they behave no differently than any other pistols-wielding ranged units since their true strength lies in their "akimbo-like" firing pattern. Also, they aren't really useful for anything but obtaining every star in a mission or challenge in the first place. Unit Notes

Lester Since Lester is identical to Farmer in terms of virtually everything, he has the same pros and cons as his year-round available predecessor. However, his DPS is slightly higher as he has a noticeably faster firing speed and reload time. This proves to be a game changer in combination with his special ability, especially in later missions where high DPS is very important.

Ranger Ranger can be considered a quicker and somewhat more powerful version of Policeman – he has notably higher speed and a slightly higher DPS. His chance of dealing high amounts of damage across more enemies increases greatly with his special ability that makes him able to knock enemies back with his shot. This ability can also prove helpful in keeping non-resistant enemies away during reloads. However, Ranger's relatively low health and high courage cost make him harder to use in situations where Policeman would fare better since his dodge is rarely performed and his special ability is quite niche. His bullet resistance is also highly situational in the main game compared to Policeman's melee resistance.

Redneck Even though he is the very first unit in the game, Redneck has a surprisingly high potential as he is a great spam unit, having very short preparation time and decent damage output. Even though he is really useful, at some point in the game his lack of abilities and resistances will become harder to ignore. However, it's still realistic to complete the entire game with him always being a part of your team.

Jailer Jailer is a solid unit thanks to his very low courage cost and useful stun perk, being able to deal with some enemies without much support. Even though he is impressive in theory, in practice he can't deal with large hordes of enemies, and his medium preparation time does not allow him to be the most ideal spam melee unit since he can't stay alive for too long in case his perk lets him down.

Glenn Glenn's unique revival perk allows him to be used as a special sort of spam unit since he can take on several big hits and still keep fighting some time after getting knocked down. With his special ability unlocked, he can even do it a second time. While his potential is fairly promising, Glenn requires proper investment into his upgrades, as he feels somewhat inefficient at his lower levels, mostly because of his medium courage cost which could be used for sending out other units. Unit Notes

Medkit Medkit is a great support tool to use thanks to its ability to heal human units within its radius, helping to keep them on their feet. Its healing effect can also help mitigate the damage caused by fire or poison. While it can be helpful in nearly any mission, it's not that useful during ones where units are expected to die easily or where offensive rage abilities prove to be better for support.

Berserker Berserker is a powerful and fearless unit that can be used for very aggressive plays. His unique double attack provides great DPS while his fast movement speed allows him to charge into fights quickly. While Berserker is a very strong unit in his own right, his perk to inspire fear into nearby allies might cause trouble, especially during missions where it would be more preferable to have several units on the battlefield at once. Additionally, he is not recommended to use during missions where rage meter builds up slowly.

Farmer Farmer's low courage cost for a ranged unit, fast preparation time, and spread damage makes him a decent unit. Sadly, his low health and speed are very disadvantageous sometimes, making other shotgun users more preferable. However, ever since the introduction of special abilities, Farmer became a realistic choice for completion of later missions since his crowd controlling double shot is quite efficient, making him a unit worthy of maxing out. Unit Notes

Saw Saw can be considered an upgraded version of Berserker due to his DPS. He possesses a unique attack pattern that makes him deal five critical hits in a row in place of a regular critical hit, which he uses relatively often. He has the same disadvantages as Berserker, but he is slightly more dangerous for the player, because upon death he rolls backward and immediately turns into Monk, a zombie who can cause some trouble with knockback depending on the situation. Despite having a very fast attack speed, Saw does have a short delay before unleashing his crits. Depending on the situation, Berserker may prove to be a better option in situations where swifter attacks are more useful.

Cap Cap's inspiration perk makes him a notable unit, being able to boost his teammates' attack and movement speed. His inspiration perk is especially powerful when there are several units presented on the battlefield. Unfortunately, that's exactly what makes Cap non-versatile, as he crutches on his teammates to provide a large bulk of the damage. Without them or if they die too quickly, he is left to the mercy of enemies with his low health putting him at risk and his damage output only being about average. In combination with his own very high courage cost, Cap becomes a really "expensive" unit to use. Unit Notes

Firefighter Firefighter is a fairly useful and sturdy unit, whose unique combination of poison, fire, and explosion resistances make him a sort of specialist unit for completing missions with zombies who utilize these damage types. Even though he has solid stats, he isn't all that great during missions with other regular enemies and just behaves like any other basic melee unit, and quite a mediocre one because of his slow attack speed.

Austin Austin is praised for his one-of-a-kind perk that allows him to generate coins on kills. As a result, he is capable of farming large amounts of coins, greatly benefitting players by providing them the much-needed currency. However, Austin isn't good as a standalone high rate of fire unit since he has a high rage cost and relatively low health. As a result, he can only be used for strategies revolving around getting the most coins out of enemies rather than for serious mission completion.

Turbo Even though Turbo is just another tanky melee unit, she is more effective compared to the majority of similar damagers. Her incredibly fast movement speed allows her to be used aggressively, and her uniquely strong knockback perk can aid other units by knocking back certain threats for a longer distance. The combination of these advantages shows that she is more likely to provide extra support when necessary, what makes her a formidable unit to use in some missions of stages 7 and 8 – a feat that practically no other damager has. Sadly, she suffers from a very low DPS as her critical hit takes an awfully long time to perform, which ruins her high potential, and her courage cost is still quite high for making efficient plays in later stages.

Queen Queen can be viewed as Grenader with a more potent grenade ability and degraded stats. Her grenade launcher can fire many more grenades and her special ability allows her to create fire pools with them, but her relatively low stats for a melee unit with a very high rage cost make her inferior when it comes to close combat. Unit Notes

Builder Builder is a very important unit for early parts of the game, as he is, usually, the only unit with bullet resistance perk available by the time players reach stage 3. His bullet resistance allows him to deal with gun-wielding marauders easily, and his relatively short preparation time and medium courage cost also allow him to be used during other missions as an extra damager. Unfortunately for him, the player will get access to simply better units than Builder around mid-game.

Willy Willy's shield, stun gun, and his ability to ignore all resistances and knock enemies back make him a very good unit for dealing with any sort of damage-resistant enemies, for locking tanky enemies in place, and for tanking damage himself. While Willy is really promising, his very high courage cost and slow speed hinder his potential almost to the ground. His oddly fast preparation time for a ranged unit is barely useful in almost any situation. In addition, he tends to begin using his shield bash way too early sometimes resulting in a death that could have been avoided if he started shooting first.

Flamethrower Flamethrower is unique for being the only unit to do deliver pure fire damage. He has very high DPS, which is boosted even more by fire debuff he applies. He is especially great for dispatching tanky threats. However, he is obviously useless against fire-resistant enemies, which become more common closer to end-game, and his abysmal health and movement speed almost always require having other units to back him up.

Medic Medic is quite a useful unit as she provides both healing support and extra damage, making her a good choice for missions where keeping other units on their feet would be vital for success, especially if said levels take a long time to complete. Sadly, she is too fragile herself, and her AI logic is somewhat quirky, sometimes resulting in her dropping Medkits in anywhere but preferable spots. In addition, it's highly advised against using her as a standalone ranged unit, because her DPS is fairly low and her courage cost is very high.

Guard Ironically, despite being Builder's direct upgrade, Guard is no better than him in the main game, as by the time Guard becomes available there are no difficult missions with ranged damage dealing enemies left in the game, at least none that Grenader couldn't deal with. While his high speed for a tanky unit and high damage is actually very good, his slow attack speed and higher cost make him less powerful. He can still be used in a few end-game missions thanks to his special ability that grants Guard a 45 HP shield. Unit Notes

Molotov Molotov is a decent rage ability that is very useful for easily clearing out incoming swarms of zombies. Sadly, it's preparation time is too long to allow it to be efficiently utilized, and Molotov is useless against fire-resistant enemies, which begin making the majority of threats closer to the endgame.

Charlotte Now that Charlotte is available only quite late into the game, her usefulness got severely decreased, as by the time of unlocking her the player will have access to more powerful units. Despite that, she still stands as an OK unit, mostly thanks to her having high damage and near-perfect accuracy, which might come in handy in some specific missions.

Gunslinger As a high rate of fire unit, Gunslinger sorely lacks in damage and health. Additionally, he has a very slow movement speed. These disadvantages are only made worse now that Gunslinger becomes available late into the game when it's likely that the player has already acquired Carlos – a direct upgrade of Gunslinger, and have completed all early missions where his ability might've actually proven useful. Unit Notes

Pepper While Pepper got less unlucky than some other units who have now become a part of the Star Reward system, her later availability has still managed to hurt her potential, as now her already low base damage and DPS feel exceptionally weak. Even if the player wishes to invest in her to improve her and unlock her very useful special ability, it becomes necessary to use better ranged units later in the game.

Nitrogen While Nitrogen certainly has some uses, its ability is still a bit niche, as most of the time, it's easier to quickly eliminate incoming enemies rather than just slow them down. Additionally, its very long preparation time, the fact that it affects friendly units, and a dangerous way of reactivating its ability make it rarely useful. Unit Notes

Carol On paper, Carol's ability is very efficient, as she can easily dispatch certain enemies in one hit, allowing Carol to take enemies out one by one. While her ability is promising, it's hard to find any specific use for it since by the time she becomes available, most enemies just have too much health for her to deal with them. She also requires proper investment into her upgrades, as she is just too weak overall.

Sniper Sniper is mostly considered bad in the main game because of her very long preparation time, which is too much even for a ranged unit. Additionally, the fact that she has a chance to miss her shots makes her less efficient, and her very long attack range barely compensates her slow speed. Her special ability makes up for some of her downsides since certain bullet-resistant enemies are just too dangerous. However, it's still not as efficient to just use other methods of fighting said resistant threats. Unit Notes

Swat Compared to that of other high rate of fire units, Swat's accuracy is laughably terrible. He is exceptionally hard to utilize because of very long preparation time, very high courage cost, his fire ability being tied to RNG, and being terribly weak in general. Unit Notes

Welder Being the only unit with direct barricade targeting and the ability to repair the bus and other objects, Welder appears as a very useful unit, essential for completion of some difficult missions. While that's technically true, Welder has too many disadvantages that seriously hinder his potential: very low base health, an insanely long preparation time of a full minute and a half, and the highest rage cost in the entire game are the main reasons he is just not worthy of being used. Unit Notes

Light Soldier Despite Light Soldier's impressive DPS and health, he became a victim of late character syndrome. He becomes available only at the very end of the game when every other unit in the player's possession is far ahead of him in terms of power, and there are no missions left to complete where damagers are useful. Unit Notes

Red Hood Red Hood can be essentially perceived as Soldier without any resistances, and with some knockback related perks. Due to a plethora of issues related to the fact that he doesn't even function properly as a heavyweight unit, he is near useless. The sole reason he has a higher rank than both the other bad heavyweights is that he has notably faster preparation time, and the way his knockback works can be used for some gimmicky unserious plays. Unit Notes

Chopper Chopper is considered to be one of the worst units in the entire game. While he has impressively high health and slightly higher attack range than other melee units, he has too many disadvantages: his preparation time is terribly long for a melee unit, his manual ability barely helps him, his basic and critical attacks are very slow, and he turns into a tanky Ram zombie on death.

Soldier Soldier is very similar to Chopper – he too has a very high health pool and higher attack range. Unlike Chopper, he doesn't turn into any zombie, has much bigger DPS, and Soldier's health is slightly higher than his. However, Soldier's disadvantages make this unit just as awful as his predecessor: he has very long preparation time, high courage cost, even lower damage, and very slow movement speed for a melee unit. In addition, Soldier's passive perks fall into that category too, mostly because there are better units with them available for the player.

Skirmish

S+ S S- A+ A B+ B B- C+ C C- D E F