The WINNERS and LOSERS of Metal Slug Tactics

#gaming #tierlist #guide
Everyone is usable, doesn't mean everyone is equal.
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00:00 Intro
01:00 Topic
01:56 Tiers and How They Work
04:50 Marco
06:42 Tarma
09:26 Eri
11:21 Fio
13:48 Clark
15:23 Ralf
18:53 Leona
21:29 Nadia
25:08 Trevor
27:30 Roundup

[@quatr04]

Trevor can learn Fio's passive, Enthusiasm. Which gives bonus action whenever a special action is used. Combine this with his 2 Adrenaline move Flying Sword, and you get to move enemies in position for sync attacks multiple times in a single turn. You can also learn Adrenaline generating passives either on him or the other team members which will enable you to use Flying Sword infinitely.

[@fps_maniac7937]

What might change your mind about tarma is his giant fist skill, at lvl 1/2 its simply a decent way to pull in specific enemies in a straight line to trigger sync into your team "sync trap" positions, this helps massively early on as your team probably isnt very mobile, but once giant fist hits level 3, this becomes a freely aimable skill, and provided you have adrenaline boost on sync passives like team leader and team player in play, this essentially turns tarma into a blackhole easily dragging every enemy you want into a 3 character sync everytime you want and does it for practically free adrenaline. He enables even the worst characters just by the ease of setting up syncs with him

[@809handy9]

i was just gonna say this, i had an extremely easy win with tarma + marco, giant fist at lvl 3 literally free, only had to generate 3 stamina set them up on a 3 sync attack on turn 1 and that was the end of it

[@PickyBeggar]

@@fps_maniac7937 I've had a TON of success with Tarma because of this skill specifically. I've also had lots of success with pretty much any skill that will carry dodge over and stacking with killer pose. Also, while his primary weapon is melee I feel like not enough focus was put on the fact that in early levels there will be plenty of enemies he can one-shot with that even without syncs. I feel like he must have just not played with Tarma too much or something? I dunno, but in fairness I don't like building tier lists for rogue-lites like this one anyway because tiers change drastically based on the skills you get access to during a run.

[@PickyBeggar]

@@809handy9 I had a game where I had a passive that gave Tarma 2 adrenaline for every kill and a level 3 giant fist so I was able to put him in situations where I could clear a map of 10 or 11 guys on the first turn, absolutely crazy.

[@nathanaeldiegofariassantos4926]

Just finished a run with Tarma+movement on frag and Ralf+that passive attack boost on kill and I was cleaning 5/6 guys straight on the last levels, just keep pulling enemies to Ralf, he was doing 8/9 damage on base pistol, after you run out of enemies to synch, you just dinamite punch to keep boosting the attack, if in a boss fight just save the last action to use your highest damage ability, insane this combo

[@eriktheshitposterm.i.a6760]

Tarma is absolutely broken imo, especially the Spotlight skill, which made any damage taken by allies transfered to Tarma AND it lasted for the entire mission, pair it up with a debuff that take in effect each time an unit was attacked, like Clark's Sidestep, along side with Mimic, the entire enemies would delete themselves, just make sure Tarma is on a damage negating tile and have high dodge

[@user-un8jx8yo7z]

Trevor really doesn't need the majority of his kit. Shinobi III is insanely broken. The special action does everything. Teleports him across the map massive damage with sync combos, boss destroyer, can delete every enemy on the map before the enemies have a chance to do anything. Just watched someone on lieutenant basically infinitely loop with a Macro, Eri, Trevor team. I think he was using shinobi more than 5 times a turn it was ridiculous. Shinobi II is good enough make him a strong party member on it's own because it's a lot of movement, low adrenaline cost, dmg, bonus actions all into one skill. Flying Blade is also insanely good I found out. Trevor and Eri can just keep killing shit if you abuse her trampoline and flying blade everything.

[@choychunhou575]

I thought of using Marco, Leona, Trevor and see how they one shot bosses😂

[@ggary04]

On Lt. but how about on General? I've just unlocked 4 star and am curious if the game gets harder. Eri is pretty much the same... I was screen wiping on LT. with her as well and I'm hoping the game gets a bit more challenging on what I'm assuming are the last two difficulties.

[@rajkanishu]

@@choychunhou575 I just finished a run on the second difficulty with them, I destroyed a convoy in 1 turn and dealt half a health bar worth of damage in one attack to the Jungle boss

[@PickyBeggar]

Seriously, not putting Trevor in S or at least A tier is criminal in my opinion.

[@ggary04]

@rajkanishu The game is pretty easy on the first three star difficulties. I'm going to tackle 4 star after I unlock Nadia & Leona. Hopefully 5 star is hard because while the gameplay is damn near perfect I'm not getting the challenge most Roguelites offer.

[@andrewshaw278]

This really helped me plan ahead my team synergies. I still only have the base trio.

[@giacomomasi8718]

Interesting point of view. My only gripe would be Marco he would fit into the A category. I understand your reasoning but the damage Marco can dish in bosses is intense (the double shot) and let's not ignore the tactical strike. But the one element Marco can really do is if he have a special action cost zero, action economy for the win...

[@XpistolinX]

When the demo released I made a run entirely center on Tarma and he was just an immortal god of heavens, Fio and Marco where just helping with the syncs and enemy displacements

[@ggary04]

Is it just me or is this game incredibly deep and satisfying... I'm about 20+ hours into the game and at the point where I just unlocked 4 star. Which wasn't really hard once you grasp bonus actions and moves paired with other goodies. I've got a good grasp on Marco, Eri & Fio and just started playing as Trevor, Clark & Ralph so that I can unlock Nadia & Leona. My biggest question is how challenging is 5 star General?

[@TitaniumLegman]

That's what I'm saying man, there's a lot of depth to this one, way more than I expected. I'm excited to see how 5 stars is as well.

[@ggary04]

@TitaniumLegman Yeah initially I thought it was gonna be a standard Tactics clone and never really understood the decision to stick with only 3 squad members... It totally works though. If the games lacking anything it's the variety of maps... I would have loved to see 2 more areas but hey maybe we'll get some Dlc with that and added characters.

[@Wuusup]

For max difficulty, you need to kill 80hp miniboss on level 1 with 5 dmg ads. Eri and Marco,Leona, Nadia is S tier, having aoe and ability's to damage boss twice are absolutely crucial. Trevor, Fio is at the bottom, not enough damage and need 1 specific ability to be good. Everyone else is typically good if you can build them through a couple of levels.

[@JohnPaul-su8qn]

I disagree with Fio, what she lacks in outright burst damage she makes up for utility. Her meticulous load out is more than enough for the max difficulty, her accupunture boost is outright broken allowing you to pretty much ignore mechanics, use it on her and her weapons hit twice which is nuts at 8 damage with 16 ammo. Her passive allows her to move around assisting in synchronization.

[@adrianalexanderveidt344]

Tatsumaki Knife + Oversized (Available to only Tarma and Trevor) and they can one-turn-kill anything with the right setup. That alone puts them in A or S tier in my opinion. The setup just requires to put the enemy you want to kill (even bosses) and your two other members with Dodge 3 in range of the Tatsumaki. Then just keep swinging the knife infinitely.

[@mystic-arc]

Solid list! But as enemy density goes up on the higher difficulties, I think Leona becomes pretty clearly the best. Combining Overkill with Special Rush lets her create 2 clones with every kill, over and over, and Light Speed lets her do 5 damage per clone that she's got. On my last run, she got 16 clones on turn 1 of the final boss and one-hit-KO'd him!

[@MINUANOGAMING]

Try Shinobi Trevor whenever you have a chance, he's the highest damage dealer in the entire game, it feels unfair to the enemy team at times lol

[@Heckinincorgnito]

I don't usually comment on videos, but i felt the need to say something about your nadia ranking. I think you are doing her a major disservice. Her explosive duo loadout is incredibly strong. Map 1, mission 1 she can easily do 12 damage to a target and 8 to at least one other target. Lizard, move a character by it, sync with nadia when it explodes, it drops a mine which can then explode. 4+4+4. If you feed her some syncs, she gets monstrous. Wormhole is also incredible. Drop a mine where you need it and give bonus action/move? Yes please! I get that her mines blow up for no reason sometimes which is annoying, but she isnt the only character with bugs (looking at you, fio, with your nudge sync passive that crashes the game... but she is still top tier?). Nadia is strong and very consistent. I used her in a team with clark and trevor and it got wild

[@KingOfTheUraken]

Tried every character... Trevor should be higher on the list, probably self sufficient with shinobi alone he can litteraly destroy the oppenent even in higher difficulty. Run for the 4-6 adrenaline, then shinobi your way to attack ennemie, maybe replacing them with flying sword... Get some more adrenaline for frags... Keep on. Even at low level it is a blast.

[@lexipuff8253]

Marco is a staple in all my teams. Mid game, he just team syncs and Marco Salvo 3's a grenade launcher to snipe bosses down. Richochet melts bosses. Eri is good at team syncs because of bounce, Juggling grenade is a good way to conserve her grenade launcher ammo, and the ridiculously broken trampolines level 2 and 3 are so OP. Fio is broken with the ridiculously cheap Acupuncture. The rest of her kit is good. Nadia is Tesla Ammo and a grenade launcher spam. Get mine passives and that teleport enemies to mine skill, and you can just send Vehicles or big threats "to the cornfield" where your gunbot deposits mines on roof tops -- cheap cost and free action. She can also spend her early game just self-syncing with her gunbot to do 6 dmg on the first level. These 4 I mostly rotate through on the final difficulty since they allow me not to have to manage special weapon ammo so much. Marco Salvo and a high damage modded grenade launcher just wrecks stages and the Mummy Desert Boss. The following characters I cannot beat high difficulties with, and my runs with them feel like huge slogs to get through. I don't get Tarma -- he just become a grenade launcher assisted by Marco Salvo 3. All he does is dodge for himself, but Fio is just so much better for the team with her spammable acupuncture. I don't get Clark - his skills cost too much adrenaline and do bad damage. His weapons are low damage and low ammo. I used Ralf once and didn't get much out of him I used Trevor once and he was okay with the 5 damage sword but I don't remember using his skills. I haven't gotten Leona yet.

[@Aaron-dt9pu]

Eri is my favorite character by far. Super fun to use her skills

[@NoxComet]

You're definitely sleeping on trevor. The main reason you liked fio and ralph also applies to him, Shinobi is an insane ability you can use to clear so many enemies in one turn. You should really try it out.

[@brenz36]

Also you can jump back and forth on a boss if there's two open spots to land shinobi. You can do this until you run out of adrenaline, super OP if you have bit banked.

[@user-un8jx8yo7z]

He has more good skills than I thought but it's kind of annoying that half his kit is mind control related stuff once you start unlocking all his abilities and passives. The assassin part of his kit much better than mind control.

[@supercoolguy99]

I've never built Trevor with his Mind Control, I think he is second to Ralph for dealing damage with his Flying Blade and Shinobi actions, the latter giving him the best mobility in the game and melts bosses. Try Trevor without Mind Control! :)

[@TitaniumLegman]

I've toyed with him in this build a bit since I made this list. I'm coming around to it. 👀

[@GerMorden]

I totally disagree on your ranking of Nadia. If anything, she is capable of giving a run for her money to Eri and even Fio because of how insane her capabilities can become, especially with any abilities that give adrenaline on successful sync attack. Wormhole III uses only 1 energy, can move a mine 10 squares away and gives a bonus move and attack guaranteed, Tesla Ammo allows you to spam special weapon (so with Marco Salvo, and Expertise, you can legit spam her grenade launcher all day long even at lvl 1), Hidden Bomb allows you to turn entire battlefield into a goddamn minefield, which when paired with Energize, Wormhole and an ally with an attack that gives bonus action on kill will allow you to clear entire battlefield in a single turn and have some mines for a freshly spawned enemies next turn, too! Her only weakness is her absolutely awful starting kits, not letting her shine until midgame.

[@zomgordhaxor]

Oversized (Tarma or Trevor) with AoE knife -> 2 other agents with 3+ dodge near boss for 1 turn K.O.

[@UlanielsCorner]

I was looking for this comment. Tatsumaki knife. That interaction is broken if it works and I wonder if they will patch it. If not, this is the way, but fishing for oversized will be the determining factor.

[@andrewbarreto5050]

Great video, I was wondering if you were planning on doing more content on this game? Would be nice to hear your opinions or tier list when it comes to passives, specials actions, supplies, weapon loadouts etc.

[@TitaniumLegman]

@@andrewbarreto5050 oh I'm definitely planning on it. I'm working on a sponsored video atm but after that I plan to get back to MST

[@andrewbarreto5050]

@ Nice! That’s great to hear. Found your channel through your MST review. Been enjoying the channel, keep it up!

[@superduper4820]

I was expecting a metal slug tier list, thx

[@Thanosdidnothingwrong.]

Marco, Ralph and Fio for me. I really wanna like Tarma but ughh Nadia and Trevor are absolute beasts when Marco is at 0 SA cost

[@benyaminconn]

Would you be down to make a video on the mission where you defend miners from mummies? It kills more runs for me than anything else

[@TitaniumLegman]

Oh brother, you and me both. I try to avoid that mission whenever possible lol. If I can crack the code on it tho I'd be happy to make a video.

[@rajkanishu]

Definitely the least properly balanced mission in the game

[@benyaminconn]

@@TitaniumLegman having cleared it a couple times now, it seems like the trick is: 1) Check all the enemy attack radius before doing anything else, and use that for target prioritization 2) Body-block aggressively, don't stress too much about getting mummified 3) Attack redirection and decoys are helpful, great mission for Leona or Tarma

[@georgehernandez2156]

Its too dam hard. I can't unlock the true ending because of it

[@DrMechxico]

I’ve been running Marco grenadier, Fio with big gun, and Ralph with a shotgun and no matter what you get very consistent runs

[@rajkanishu]

I've only played on the lowest difficulty and basically tried out every character once and I agree with most of what you said I think I used Fio in every single run so far, the support she provides is simply unmatched and outright negating damage for free at the cost of 5-4 adrenaline is simply too valuable to not have, doesn't even consume an action rofl I only used Ralf once or twice but both those times he felt really good, spamming dash into enemy into kill into do it again plays the game by itself My first win came with Eri jumping around the map dealing 5 damage AoE everywhere and killing everything instantly, sadly I never got to use her again because I wanted to try the others and Fio is just too good to pass up Trevor has been insane so far for me, Shinobi III wins runs on its own (I'm doing a run on the second difficulty right now and upgrading to Shinobi II right as I'm typing this) and even at base level if you use the knife loadout you can basically teleport and delete an enemy instantly for just 3 adrenaline, pretty strong. I agree that mind control feels very clunky for a combination of very limited range and high adrenaline cost though The one time I used Tarma I Remember pulling enemies across the map and instantly deleting them, fun times, but I also used Ralf and he didn't feel as good Agree on everyone else, especially Nadia, I feel like she really doesn't need to lose her gun when deploying regular bots

[@MagnumSanada]

based and GALACTICA PHANTOM pilled

[@asaventurasdopalhacobob350]

wtf, nadia is the best hero by far and tarma has the best skill in the game.

[@superduper4820]

Could you do a video of good team comps? Or like viable squads like for example ikari warriors or something like that

[@Blackout20211]

He was definitely focused on the wrong thing with Trevor. I dont even touch his mind control part. Man gets bonus action after bonus action and is screen wiping. On top of that he's a boss killer. Insane he out him so low.

[@TitaniumLegman]

The problem is, of half a character's kit doesn't work well, how valuable are they overall?

[@malimaui2802]

With 9 characters, 4 mods each, and completely different game styles( not to mention way playthrough is going to play differently because of the random upgrades you get ). It’s probably gonna be hard to rank the characters, I bet some characters gameplay might come earlier to others

[@zombiepete]

I think you have Eri too low. She routinely has double the number of frags as the rest of the team for me. Look for explosive jump and level it up as quickly as you can. She can start deleting 3-5 enemies per turn with little to no help.

[@komujimaru]

trevor and nadia do so much damage. shinobi and overload

[@SNESGuy-s3s]

Love your content man

[@tomato6765]

just run around enemies with tama and set up coop attack then use dodge skill which carry over and you can easily stack 10 + dodge in one round which also made sure he can eat all the attack easily . really he shouldn't be that low . i know other also have that kind of skills but tama is best at it.

[@rajkanishu]

I think the problem is that he relies heavily on perfect positioning and sometimes the enemies are just not lined up properly, you could support him with extra movement from Fio but at that point you are better off just killing everyone with Leona, Eri or Ralf, who also benefit from Fio's shields unlike Tarma that trades some damage output for defense. Giant Fist is a powerhouse tho

[@iggy3128]

I don’t recall seeing this game in you tier list video.

[@TitaniumLegman]

It wasn't out when I made that list

[@iggy3128]

@ I was wondering how it ranks for you. I already bought it cause of your videos. Keep up the good work.

[@filialuvssquigly7447]

Fio s teir really, i honest dont think she is that good, honestly i would put eri and leona higher than fio, heck i have better luck with tarma than i do with fio

[@christianhdzm]

First!! Eri, Leona and fio or Ralph could be insane

[@quickpawmaud]

Are you ever going to do a titanium leg reveal?

[@TitaniumLegman]

@@quickpawmaud I showed the old joint in a video back in the day after the surgery to replace it, if that counts lol

[@Rayu25Demon]

i want to see whip and heidern

[@fernandoalony]

How can I revive a unit in this game???

[@louisdellalucca8969]

It would be amazing if they added campaigns with other armies And really? Fio is S Tier? I’m using her wrong then!

[@rajkanishu]

At first I fully expected a martian or mummy or recurring boss to be one of the unlockable characters, kinda disappointed it wasn't the case but I'm still hoping for DLC. Also yeah Fio is busted, she's the perfect support that can adapt to any build

[@juliustaylor9920]

Titanium Legman? Sounds like a megaman boss lol

[@user-un8jx8yo7z]

You ain't lying

[@wildcard7075]

anyone have a good strategy for unlocking trevor? I am finding it difficult to beat the game while visiting only two zones. not enough time to power up

[@TitaniumLegman]

@@wildcard7075 have you tried on the lowest difficulty?

[@wildcard7075]

@@TitaniumLegman that answer is either super lazy, or some kind of insult. thanks for your help lol

[@TitaniumLegman]

Don't be a dick, it's a sincere question. That's how I unlocked everyone, by playing through on the lowest difficulty. If you need help other than that just say that.

[@wildcard7075]

@@TitaniumLegman even on the lowest difficulty i find it hard to do enough damage against the bosses. are there any characters/builds that are particularly effective against bosses? Like, i know ralph is a good damage dealer based on your video, but in practice im not having much success with him, given that you recieve so few upgrades on a two zone run.

[@TitaniumLegman]

Early on, especially on lower difficulties, I found it best to stick to the basics. I used Marco, Eri and Fio in their classic loadouts, focusing on getting as many upgrades early as possible. Lean in to Eri's rocket jump if possible as it can hit bosses twice, as well as any bonuses to shots or sync damage on Fio and Marco. The raw damage output of their heavy machine guns can't be underestimated, and on Cadet you can typically mag dump the bosses before they have too much of a chance to damage you. If possible, try to get a metal slug through mission rewards and save that/your special ammo for the bosses to burn them down. That's how I found general success while I was learning the game and unlocking characters. The biggest thing is just making sure you're choosing the right missions for rewards tho. With so few opportunities for rewards, you want to make sure you're choosing battles that give exp, weapon or arsenal upgrades, and you're always getting both the main and sub objectives.

[@beamstalk6475]

so you are saying Ralf = TG Cid

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Nice tier list!

[@Theguywholikedthethinginthevid]

My reason why Fio is best: Dem abs.

[@mlplokura]

I agree Nadia is so bad and extremly BUGGED

[@user-un8jx8yo7z]

I think she's fine but her nerfs due to how her bots work are annoying. If the best strategy late game is to just spam sync attacks, why would you want to drop a robot that takes your way to sync and can only initiate a sync attack? Her aoe damage can be good at clearing enemies and her movement skills are good.