With more than a dozen characters to choose from at launch, Fragpunk already has an interesting meta-game of Lancers – each with their own powerful unique abilities and best use cases.
Based on our experience with Fragpunk, as well as insight from Fragpunk creative director, Xin Chang, we’ve come up with a Fragpunk launch tier list to help you make the right choice when it comes to both attacking and defending.
Obviously, your Lancer isn’t the only consideration to make in Fragpunk. The best Lancer in any given situation could change based on which weapons you have available (if you died in the last round, you can’t pick the same weapon again), as well as the Shard Cards your team has picked. However, at this point in Fragpunk’s lifecycle, there are a few Lancers who are better than others in most situations you will encounter.
It’s also worth remembering that this tier list is based on Fragpunk’s main game mode where players take turns planting and defusing a bomb at two sites around the map. You can also play team deathmatch and casual modes in Fragpunk, but according to the game’s development team these casual modes aren’t really supposed to be balanced. In these situations, just choose whichever Lancer you want to practice with or want to grind up XP with.
When it comes to ranked play though, you will need to be much more selective and perform a specific, strategic role on your team. This Fragpunk tier list tries to take that into account, while also considering the power level of each Lancer individually too.
Fragpunk Tier List:
Attack
- S – Sonar, Kismet
- A – Corona, Serket, Hollowpoint, Pathojen
- B – Broker, Axon, Zephyr, Jaguar
- C – Spider, Nitro, Chum
Defend
- S – Hollowpoint, Sonar
- A – Broker, Jaguar, Nitro, Pathojen, Kismet
- B – Corona, Serket, Zephyr, Axon, Chum
- C – Spider
Which Lancer should you pick when attacking in Fragpunk?
Fragpunk is deliberately designed to create overloads when attacking and defending. When there are two bomb sites and five players, the defending team can only ever split their force unevenly between the two spots they’re supposed to protect.
An efficient attacking team will use this fact strategically and attack quickly, directly and in large numbers.
Rushing quickly to a specific bomb site with most or even all of your attacking team is apparently a very strong strategy. So much so that the Fragpunk development team has found it difficult to balance.
“In our tests we found that players who can rush are very strong,” Xin Chang, Fragpunk creative director told VG247 in an interview. “To take an example, we don’t feel like it’s very healthy to have lots of characters who can rush into the point because it’s not very technical. It’s very hard to defend them and makes the core gameplay more boring because you can just rush every time and take the spot.
“For this example, we will nerf these kinds of characters. But if a character is strong in controlling the map or slowing the pace, we think it’s okay. We think that’s healthier. It’s good to keep that in the game and we don’t want to make that kind of change, even if it’s strong.”
But while attempts have been made to make rushing weaker, it’s still a very viable strategy in Fragpunk, especially if you build your team around it.
“This combination is very strong when rushing,” Chang said of which Lancers to choose when attacking.
“The first is Sonar, she can use a skill to make your footsteps silent, so your opponents don’t know you’re rushing. The second is Zephyr, she can become invisible and get into the point, and the third one is Sekret who can turn into a scorpion and teleport into the area. Finally, Corona can dash in and flashbang.”
When attacking quickly, information is an incredibly important commodity, allowing you to spot camping defenders and their fortifications and breeze past them without being surprised.
This means that Sonar and Kismet are incredibly good attacking characters, because they can both easily reveal the opposing team, while also having other useful abilities.
Sonar, for example, has a footstep muffling ability which is extremely good for rushing, allowing you to catch the opposing team unaware.
Kismet on the other hand can not only identify opponents, but has an explosive grenade which damages through solid objects, letting her dig out entrenched defenders and gain the upper hand in a resulting gunfight.
Other great options include some of the best movement-orientated Lancers: Corona and Serket.
Serket is like a rushing version of Kismet, in that her secondary abilities allow her to unseat hiding defenders and pull them out into the open. This is while her main ability allows her to move extremely quickly through a map and catch enemies unaware.
Corona on the other hand is probably one of the best one-on-one Lancers in Fragpunk. This is because of his underrated flashbang ability which blinds enemies after a short delay. You basically get to a choke point, wind up the flashbang, then pop out just as it fires and can easily mop up any waiting defenders while they’re disorientated. This obviously combos extremely well with his dash ability which makes your location unpredictable.
Also in A-tier I’ve put Hollowpoint and Pathojen. If you’re good with a sniper, Hollowpoint is just brilliant all-round. But slightly less good than on defence when you can set up camp and watch long sight-lines with your one-shot, one-kill sniper.
Unlike healers in other games, Pathojen can meaningfully contribute to an attack with a regular primary weapon, making her a versatile and valuable member of an offensive team. Just because you’re not setting up shop, her support skillset can still turn the tide of a gunfight and will also be invaluable once you switch to defending a planted bomb. One of the main ways that defenders can win is by wearing down attackers with traps and explosives so they gain the upper hand when it comes to trading down health in a one-on-one gunfight; Pathojen removes this advantage.
Other decent, but less powerful attacking choices include Broker and Zephyr.
Zephyr’s invisibility is sure to be very popular around launch, but I find her to be a bit situational and liable to getting found out against better players. For example, I feel like the development team have nerfed her footsteps to sound like an elephant crunching through the rainforest. I actually like her more on defence, where she can lie unseen in a specific area, before popping out to pick off enemies.
Broker on the other hand is solid, I think borderline A-tier and I might move him up, but just a little bit slow in offensive situations. For instance, his rocket launcher’s projectile moves a lot slower than you might think, so even though it’s great for turfing out defenders it’s quite easy to dodge outside of a chokepoint.
Which Lancer should you pick when defending in Fragpunk?
Defending in Fragpunk is difficult. When so many Lancers have great one-on-one offensive abilities, it can be tough to hold back the tide of a well-executed rush.
This means that when playing defense, you need to focus on working together with your team and thinking about how your abilities combine to overcome your opponents.
“There are a lot of defensive characters,” Chang explained. “Jaguar can use many traps as a passive, or Broker. Anyone who can spring traps can defend.
“But in effect, in real matches where 3 or 4 players rush together, one character has no possibility of stopping them, even if you’re defending. So that’s why we think rushing is a little unhealthy, because the defenders by themself can be very strong, you can’t catch 3 or 4 people at the same time.”
In a high-stakes, low TTK shooter like Fragpunk, well-honed snipers are extremely powerful. This means that Hollowpoint’s ability to wield both a one shot, one kill sniper and a regular full-auto primary is very strong – so much so that her ammo count has caught big nerfs between the beta and launch.
“With Hollowpoint, we didn’t nerf the gun itself, but the bullet count,” Chang said. “When you make the shot, it’s still with a TTK of zero and you still feel very satisfied when you get the shot, but the bullet count is low and refilled by time. Before that, it had 12 bullets which was very strong. But now you need to wait and it’s not so strong but you still get the same shooting experience.”
The threat of Hollowpoint being able to hold down a sight line and instantly take out anyone on the enemy team makes her a must-pick in the right hands.
Alternatively, Sonar is brilliant on both offense and defense. Her revealing radar provides vital information and allows you to fortify and defend a bombsite much more effectively. Similarly, Kismet is just a great all-around Lancer whose detection and explosive damage are perennially effective.
One way to defend against rushing through chokepoints is with AoE, and Broker can hold down a lane with both his rocket launcher and grenades on hand.
Broker is one of the simpler Lancers to understand, but the speed and splash damage of his rocket launcher projectile takes some getting used to. It’s best used to counteract rushing tactics from the attacking team. Unless a No Doors Shard Card has been played, most maps have really tight chokepoints somewhere around the bomb site to try and alleviate some of the attacking advantage. If you can hit multiple enemies with one rocket, you give your team a massive leg-up in the battle.
For his secondary ability, you can use the grenades as an offensive weapon, but they also persist if you spread them on the ground – letting you essentially use them as mines around a point. The enemy team will need to dispose of them – thus alerting you and your teammates to their whereabouts – or if they just wander into them then you’re at a big advantage once an actual gunfight breaks out.
After AoE, the other way to defend chokepoints is with traps and scoring damage to give you the advantage in subsequent gunfights is absolutely key. This points you towards
Two of the main trap-placing Lancers are Nitro and Jaguar. Nitro’s automatic machinegun turret is stealthy, strong and massively distracting for enemies caught in its fire. This makes her one of the best defensive Lancers for fortifying a position and tipping gunfights in her favor once enemies wander into her killzone. However, I find her signature Chug-Chug remote control robot a little underwhelming. Its speed makes it great for reconnaissance, but its poor offensive capability makes it feel weak – it’s not like the RC-XD from CoD, for instance. With that said, information is very strong in Fragpunk and viewing it as a recon tool which allows you to plan your defence makes more sense.
Jaguar on the other hand is a trap-placing hero who’s more focused on actively stopping rushes than passive fortification. His lightning traps are good, if a lot less far-reaching than Nitro’s, but he can contribute a lot more to an in-progress firefight than other defensive Lancers.
His Lightning Cage secondary ability slows and blinds enemies through a chokepoint, which you can then combo with his T ability to reveal them. This area control pairs well with Broker, but you can also just mop up anyone caught in the storm yourself. This is a powerful tool against rushing if used correctly, which automatically makes Jaguar one of the better defensive Lancers.
Alongside these Lancers, Pathojen is an obvious choice who allows defenders to replenish their health after repelling attacks. If the attacking team doesn’t have a Pathojen of their own, this then gives the defence a big advantage in gunfights.
Zephyr is an interesting defensive choice because, like on offense, she’s a bit of a lone wolf who can seem like she doesn’t offer much to the wider team, but can pull off huge clutch moments if she catches the enemy team napping.
Despite being a more offensive-minded Lancer, I find that Corona actually isn’t bad when defending. He can move quickly between bombsights depending on where help is needed and win one-on-one gunfights with enemies that break through other defences.
Finally, I’m not sure about Spider. I need more time in real combat situations to test out his skillset but it just seems very situational. Maybe that situation will turn out to come up in every single match and I’ll happily move him to where he belongs.