Introduction
This is by no means a definitive guide to PvP, Apex League, or other game modes that are player versus player. The meta is constantly changing with the release of new characters and changes. However, the tier list will try to evaluate what we have as of the written date. The tier list does not also evaluate in any hard metrics the win rate of certain characters or synergy between each other as they are put within a vacuum.
Tier List (PvP)
| Tier | Simulacrum |
|---|---|
| S |  Meryl  Nemesis |
| A |  Cocoritter  Huma  Crow  Zero |
| B |  Tsubasa  Samir  Shiro |
| C |  KING |
Right now, the metagame overall seems to be resisting and maintaining your shield. This means that characters who help you maintain your shield and general tanking and cheesing will be the ones that are the most advantageous.
From what can be seen, what a lot of people tend to do is build charge with any character that has a decent charge rate and then at least two defensive characters who either heal or have defensive utility. Remember that in PVP, all your characters are given A6 (Advancement 6), so you are given the full extent of their kit. Defensive options and status effects are very important when it comes to winning PVP rather than overall DPS.
Shields in PvP work differently than any shields you've applied in PvE as they will block soft control statuses, but once your shield is broken, you are sent to a stunned state, and all the annoying statuses can now be freely applied. It often becomes the game that has a lot of status effects and who lets their shields go.
S Tiers
Meryl
Although not required to win in PVP, she makes PVP a bit of a cakewalk with easy usage and not a lot of setups needed to win. Her discharge knocks people up into the air, and then using your skill creates a world of hurt and quickly destroys any opponent's shields as she currently has the highest single target shield break in the game. As laid out previously, you gain all of their advancements in PVP, so one of the more important advancements is A6 which is that when you switch to the weapon, you are immune to controls when the shield is active. The reason this is so important is that status effects do a lot right now, especially freeze and volt being the more annoying ones, so being able to mitigate them is of high importance. Her other advancements, such as A1 and A3, are another set of tanking buffs which contributes to her annoyance in PVP as she both breaks your shields hard, CCs you hard, and then to top it all off, has resistance toward controls. Super armor again with some attack strings can prove to be annoying if not dealt with properly.
Not required to go high, but one of the better characters in PVP. It's a simple to use character; the only thing keeping those from climbing with her is their own skill.
She both breaks your shields hard, CCs you hard, and then to top it all off, has resistance toward controls.
Nemesis
Given you have A6, she becomes one of the better units in PVP. Naturally, a healer with some damage and some annoying control effect of volt hurting your buffs and occasionally paralyzing means she is a massive annoyance in PVP. She gets stronger the smaller the arena as the acquisition of A6 within her kit gains her another turret. A3 also increases the electrode's annoyance effectiveness by the ring lightning. Overall she's proven to be a huge annoyance in PVP as her kit helps survivability with her totems, healing, and a stat buff to go with it. She truly does become an all in one character once you get A6, and PVP shows that.
There, of course, is the interaction with double volt resonance, but as we lay out later, its application is not as great on Samir as it is on Crow.
Overall, she's proven to be a massive annoyance in PVP as her kit helps survivability with her totems, healing, and a stat buff to go with it.
A Tier
Cocoritter
Topping up the higher end of the A tier we have cocoritter, the dedicated SSR healer. A lot of her kit, when you consider her ascension, contributes a lot to PVP and counters many of the characters in the S tier realm. A1 helps healing and also brings a free weapon charge for yourself. This motivates a more passive playstyle and a bit of spamming. A3 helps against control effects that are again prevalent in PVP, which means she generally has an excellent counter to the more annoying units in PvP. All her other advancements are simply healing boosts which is nice.
She isn't perfect as you're playing in the hopes that the other players are using annoying control effects, and Coco still doesn't directly counter Meryl. The overall utility of healing and defensive playstyle can still be countered with suitable composition and execution. Still, you'll see an annoying combo of Coco and Huma floating around in PVP.
Huma
Pure defensive cheese is the name of the game. She'll often be seen with nemesis or Coco and does fairly decent AOE with her skill that helps break shields once into ax form. She gains a lot of defensive utility and power with her advancement, even in her ax form. Similar to Meryl, she suspends the target, which is another annoyance as this comes about strictly from skill rather than a discharge. A technique important to note here is that her skill also prevents you from switching weapons. If the enemy estimates you should have discharge soon, they can prevent that from happening, so be careful when charging a Huma if your discharge is close.
Her kit becomes useful in PvP and similar to all the other high up on the PvP tier list if there's a gimmick to be abused, then they're somewhere up here.
Crow
Crow has High damage in a burst window and good advancements. PVP often relies on shield breaking and the burst damage after shield breaking, which means Crow has a high rating in this scenario. Advancements all increase crit, cdmg, and damage in general. There is a bit of tech if you want to utilize him to his full potential but for the leaners among you, it is there. One of the harder characters to properly use in the game, but in PvP, the pure burst potential is hard to pass up.
Zero
Interesting tech with a lot of defensive utility lands Zero somewhere around here. He won't be as good as Coco in my opinion, as the ease of use isn't as good on him as it is on Coco however, he has a bit of tech that players may not be fully familiar with his unique discharge and shields. With advancement, his viability increases as you greatly reduce his cooldown with A3, a mix of buff and healing makes him a fairly good character in PvP. The familiarity I personally have with him is a bit poor however, I can definitely feel his strong usage in PvP.
B Tier
Tsubasa
Tsubasa is rough, all things considered, for her as a Main DPS role and her supporting role in PvP. There are many negating buff characters in PvP currently, and her role is in an odd place within the PvP game as her auto attacks can easily be dodged, and arrows can be inconsistent targeting-wise. However, she still has high damage buffs since you gain stacks very quickly due to advancements. Her skill doesn't stun as no obstacles present, so it's a poor skill due to only doing damage. Tsubasa's kit sadly does not align with PvP's metagame currently however, it would be unfair to call her bad as the buffs, and general kit does help you win in situations where you need to burst someone down.
Samir
I know Samir has a bit shocking of a rating, but a lot of her kit is focused on DPS, straight DPS, and her kit reflects said usage. She's not bad, but her importance falter a bit compared to the other characters. This is because burst damage is more important but her stride is consistent damage. Her poor anti-air compounded with moves attacks that rely heavily on endurance downgrades her rating. She is still a good character overall in PvP because her general damage is still great, but one could argue she's not the overwhelming force she was in PvE anymore.
Shiro
Interesting advancements, and her gameplay does somewhat align with PvP. If you happen to shatter with Shiro and then stun lock them, then it's essentially good game from there as she'll bring you the pain once you're stuck within her area of effectiveness. She will stun you hard when the discharge extends past the shield, and the skill is scary considering her A6 increasing crit. Her A3, while I can see its usage is a bit limited and composition specific, so you will have to know what you're doing. In that perspective, she's a bit similar to Crow in that you are required to do some setup to use properly, and sometimes you won't get the opportunity to find the chance for the setup. She's a lot stronger than the first impression though her usage by the playbase doesn't seem too high in PvP currently. This may be due to her horrible charge rating and her rather difficult setup compared to Meryl's ease of use. Despite this, I'll give her a conservative B until I see more from her.
C Tier
KING
Advancements that don't do much for PvP, no real gimmicks, stuns, or potential for odd interactions, and no charge to speak of means King sadly is the lowest of the SSRs in PvP. A pure stat stick at heart with the most beneficial advancement being A1 with a useless A6 and a gimped A3 for PvP means he is not that great. There's no defensive utility here, and his advancements bring nothing to the table again for PvP. Don't get me wrong, he still has good shield breaking, but that's about it, the charge is poor, and I'd rather work with the other characters in PvP. He can still work, but I can't see him being that great compared to the other shield breakers we currently have.
Advancement that doesn't do much for PvP, no real gimmicks, stuns or potential for odd interactions, and no charge to speak of means King sadly is the lowest of the SSRs in PvP.
