Tekken 6 Tier List: Best Characters [Ranked After Testing]

Tekken Tag and Tekken 7 have overshadowed Tekken 6 somehow, and many players have spent a lot of their time on Tekken Tag and thus missed out on the brilliant storyline this game had to offer with some unreal mechanics for its time that hasn’t dated till this date. The game is seeing increased interest from the audience and thus, we at exputer decided to make a Tekken 6 Tier List to help them pick the best characters.

Here are our picks summarized: 

Here is a complete look at the full Tekken 6 Roster:

S-Tier 

The S Tier consists of Tekken Characters that are the best and tick the majority of the aspects that we talked about earlier. They have a unique skill set and their moves can help you in counter-hitting and jumping, and like that they have a good recovery. Other aspects are also there where the developers of the game have given them an edge over others. Let’s talk about the Tekken 6 best Characters.

Emillie De Rochefort

She is certainly not on the list of best characters of Tekken 7 but in Tekken 6 if you have good knowledge about how to handle her then she is one of the best and for some the best character in Tekken 6. Her movement is the best in-game in my opinion, while the way she blocks aids you a lot in the game.

Nina Williams

Nina is an offense-based character with great tools that make the attack the best form of defense for her. Since the game’s block featured is not overpowered and has little impact on the matchup unlike other Tekken games, you will be pleased to pick Nina Williams.

Lee Chaolan

Nina has a good wall carry but Lee has an even better wall carry that results in great wall damage. The wall pressure of Lee is a key aspect and he also has an immense punishing ability from a launch. Use the float cleverly and Lee Chaolan can be a devasting force.

Alisa Basconovitch

Her style is poking and is best suited if you have a defensive game plan. We would recommend her for beginners in the game. The reason she is on this tier is that she is a good starting point for anyone new to Tekken 6. Her ease of use has been the major reason she is part of the S-Tier of our Tekken 6 Tier List.

Armour King

I would call Armour King a traditionalist. With a good hop kick and some amazing special moves like the wind god fist and the mashima wave dash which can be devasting. His throws in our opinion are only second to the king but we felt that if you use his chain throws properly then they are better than that of the King. He is an allrounder who is good at everything, pretty much everything to be precise.

Yoshimitsu

He is not your usual character. You need to think out of the box while using Yoshimitsu. The chief reason for his inclusion on the S Tier of in this Tier List is because if you use his skillset correctly, which mind you is hard then he is a solid character to play with.

Devil Jin

Since his introduction into the Tekken world, we have always seen him at the top of the tree. He is devasting in offense among the Tekken 6 characters and likewise reliable in defense. He hails from the Mishima family and possesses the devil’s powers.  A very well-rounded character, with the launching hell sweep that is a move that makes him a cheat code at times, and this move has been the major reason for his inclusion on the S Tier.

Kazuya Mishima

This character is the epitome of being strong. Standing strikes are his specialty. The standing punishment he can give to an opponent is the strongest point of Kazuya and is one of the major reasons for his inclusion in the S Tier of our Tier List. That being said, you need to use his offensive abilities with caution as he is more suited for a defensive style. His offensive skillset is limited but the few options he has can be very devasting.

Bryan Fury

Bryan’s core skills are similar to that of Kazuya Mishima but there is a difference, his attack inflicts more damage and he is a defensive poking character. You can use him with Mr. Naps to form a devasting partnership. His mobility is very good and he is a whiff punisher. His special taunts are very different and unique and thus earned him a place on the S Tier. Very few characters have taunts and it all started in 2003 with Bryan Fury.

Jin Kazma

Jin Kazma is very versatile with some amazing abilities. The i10 punisher might not be the sole reason for his inclusion on the S Tier but it certainly is one of the major reasons. He is good at wall play, with good carry option and deadly combos at the wall. The power crush is one of his weakest points and many gamers don’t use him because of that as he doesn’t seem to fit in their style of play but if you are not one of those that rely on power crushes then surely Jin is a great pick from Tekken 6 Characters.

You Might Want to Read: Last Cloudia Tier List

A-Tier 

The characters that are part of the A Tier are by no means bad characters, in fact, in some aspects, they can dismantle the characters even from the S Tier. The reason they are included here is from our experience in the game and they were lacking aspects with respect to which we set this tier list. You can disagree with it and we will not deny your opinion as it was a very hard decision to separate these characters from the S Tier. 

Raven

King

King is a character with whom the majority of the players will be comfortable but he is very hard to master. It requires a lot of in-game time with the king to be able to master him. It is a misconception that since he is easy to pick as a novice in the game and thus he is a simple character but if you dig deep you will know how hard it is to master a king once master you can have a character that can rip apart anyone of the Tekken 6 characters.

Wang Jinrei

Wang on the A Tier? You might be thinking I am kidding you, but I am not. He is the most underrated character in Tekken. His parrys are the best in the game for me, as he can parry anything from knees, elbows, etc. His range of throws is very good and it coupled with combos can inflict loads of damage to your opponent. His lows and wave dash will be used very often by many players.

Zafina

We talked about the king and how he is not as easy to use as it seems. Zafina is quite the opposite. The misconception associated with her is that since she has a plethora of stances, it is hard to use her but it is far from reality. A player who plays with the push of a few buttons and doesn’t go into complexities can use her with ease.

Ling Xiayou

You can call him a mixup heavy character on our Tekken character list. The art of Phoenix and the back turn is his specialty. You need to be able to understand every moveset of this character to be able to get the best out of him. If you are thinking, that by just knowing the top ten moves you will be able to get the best out of your opponent with Ling, then you are mistaken. You have to use her entire moveset appropriately.

This is the main reason for her inclusion in the A Tier of our Tekken 6 Tier List. 

Jack 6

If you talk generally about Jack. He plays a defensive game and then pounces on the opponent at the right time. The thing that kept Jack on the A Tier instead of the S Tier is how he is so easy to learn but really hard to master. Like the King. Jack on the other hand has very limited movesets than other Tekken 6 characters making him a character for those who read opponents well.

Paul Phoenix

He is a balanced character whose inclination is towards offense and mixups. The best thing about Paul is that he is strong and will result in loads of damage for your opponent with his moves. He is good at 50/50 and will overpower the majority of the characters. The punishment range for Paul is vast and his deathfist is one of the strongest special moves in the game.

After Armour King and King, perhaps he has the best throw in the game. In our opinion his character is designed with the most precision in the game.

Hwoarang

Multiple stances are a treat with Hwoarang. There is a large option in pokes, and frame traps and he is the king of mixups. On offense, he is very strong and is a pressure-oriented character in Tekken 6. The armored launcher is a move that you can abuse really easily which will frustrate a lot of your opponents but hey we need to frustrate them, as victory is important. The Armored Homing + Block Launcher is a devasting move as well. 

Sergie Dragunov

If you are just starting out in Tekken 6 then Dragunov is a very easy character to understand as his moves are fairly simple to master. He relies on a combination of pokes, counter hits, and whiff punishing. He is good at wall-play. He is very good at frame traps, it is a combination of moves that appear to be punishing but aren’t, so your opponent is hit instead of you when they see the first part and try to punish you.

Heihachi Mishima

The Mishima kit is a must with him like other Mishimas in the game. He is an offensive character and has a plethora of poking and pressure moves. He has strong homing moves that can take a side-stepping opponent to the cleaners and is the best mids in the game. With good strong standing punishment and a strong whiff punishment. Basically, if you ask me, I think Heihachi is great against those opponents who miss moves often. You can then punish them fairly easily with him.

Marshall Law

The Wall game is the strongest point of Marshall Law. It is the best in the game for many, for us, it is not quite but we can’t completely disagree with the opinion of the masses as it does have some truth in it. He is good at safe pokes and is a menace at close range.

The reason he is on this tier is because of his Rare 14 Frame standing punisher move, which is very easy to pull off with a little practice, and if used at the right time it can be devastating for the opponent. 

Asuka

In many moves, Asuka will touch the body of the opponent and will inflict great damage. They are also called crushing moves. Her defensive game is very good and she can evade almost any throwing move if you are smart enough. Against stance-based characters who rely on standing punishments, Asuka can be a menace. The bad things about Asuka are her bad tracking and the mediocre offensive lows which made us put her on the A Tier.

B-Tier

B-Tier characters are average. They have some good moves in the game and can be used to even defeat characters from the upper tiers but it requires loads of practice and patience. Patience in a sense, that you have to grind to get to know the weak points of these characters and practice them till you can identify how they are exploited. It was an easy list but if you crave a hard time with Tekken 6 Characters then picking these characters is not a bad idea.

Steve Fox

If simplicity had a tag in Tekken then Steve would be a good candidate for it. Steve, unlike the other over-the-top characters who use swords, lasers, and other fancy weapons. He has resorted to using his simple few buttons boxing style. For someone new to the game, there are very few characters better than Steve, to begin with.

Miguel

A very linear character among which is the main reason he is on the A-Tier. Besides that, he has a solid set of moves. He is quite restrictive in his movement because of the linearity but the game developers have added some devasting moves to his set. He is very good at the damage and the lows. His whiff punishments are some of the best in-game.

Robert Richards

The third entry on our B Tier of Tekken character list. He is one of the new characters introduced in Tekken 6. He is a very good character and used by Tekken gods like NYC Fab, Pekos, MBC, and Sinchang. He has a good reach, and Robert’s mobility is impressive, looking at his size.

Devil Kazuya

A character that has a fantastic combination of whiff punishment and general punishment. He is good at defense and has a great sense of space. He is though a very solid option but the reason he is put on the A Tier of our Tekken Tier List is that he is too defensive and offensively he can be a reason for immense pain.

The best approach to play with Devil is to over-rely on his Mishima mixups which are again risky and reliance on one thing is never healthy in Tekken. Weak pokes and being heavily reliant on executions make him an average character. It is really a shame how he has one of the best-punishing moves in the game but the developers have made him very weak in other major aspects.

Baek Doo San

A character that has good stances and is absolutely a master of it. You have a plethora of stances and it is easy to get into an intimidating stance and to get out of it. Baek Doo San is very poke-heavy and has a good range. The worst thing about him is that if your opponent is aware of his poke game, even if he hasn’t mastered Baek or has played a bit with him. It will make your life hell as he is very predictable in many aspects of the game.

We would say that he could have been placed on the worst tier of our tier list but how useful he can be against average players online makes him a proud member of our B Tier. 

Eddy

If you haven’t touched a game controller ever then I would highly recommend Eddy. To explain Eddy, I would use the word “unpredictable”. As you don’t know what stupid move he will pull out, which can result in damage or it may result in a big failure. His standing punishments are top 3 in the game in our opinion while his whiff punishments are not far off. 

Ganryu

Ganryu is a character that requires a lot of patience to play with. You need to evade and then plan your next move. Slowly you need to frustrate the opponent to fall into your plan and then boom, dismantle them. Ganryu is like slow poison, wearing out the opponent and then damaging them all together. Defensively he is very solid but offensively he is horrified to play against the reason he is placed on the B Tier is that he is very vulnerable to low crushes and it is hard to execute his moves.

Lei Wulong

A mixup king, yes Lei is one. There are many moves that are very broad and you need to master each one of them. The wall game of Lei is superb and has good combo damage. His movement is good and he can evade the press easily. His whiffs get an above-average score and have unique movement options that make him a very decent character.

Anna Williams

Anna Williams is like a ticking time bomb. She is one of those high-risk high-reward characters. The more risk you take the more reward but that risk has a fair share of destruction associated with it and one wrong move means you are a goner. A mixup-heavy character with many options. Like Lei Wulong, one of the reasons she is placed on the B Tier instead of the higher tiers is because of her many moves, which require a lot of memorization.

Leo Klisesen

A character that is a center of controversy. Many are confused by the gender of Leo Kilissen. In the Japanese text, Leo Kliesen is referred to with gender-neutral pronouns but in the English adaptations, Leo is referred to with male pronouns. I would say that despite that the character is solid and has a good dame at the wall, great at wall carry, and has amazing tools.

The only major limitation is that it is hard to track with Leo. Klassen has buffs that will blow your mind and are quite underrated in our opinion. The focus on her gender has made many Tekken Players undermine the great aspects of Leo that can make Leo a great character to play with both offline and online.

C-Tier

The Tekken Characters on the C Tier are fairly and are best to be avoided. The upper-ranking characters of Tekken 6 Tier List can be a good option for beginner players. These characters don’t checkmark the major aspects that makes one a good character in the game and thus they are placed in this hall of shame tier of our tier list.

Lars Alexandersson

He is a Tekken 6 Character with no character development. He is known to be a Swedish fighter but there is nothing that justifies this. He is an easy-to-play character and you don’t need to know much about him. Pick him if you are bored but he is cheap and in all aspects a character that one must avoid. No notable Tekken player will pick him and he requires a lot of adjustments. His stance is a joke and I think he is a character best avoided unless you have some emotional attachment to him.

Julia Chang

Executions should be hard and not a piece of cake but with Julia, the term hard is an understatement. It is very hard to execute moves with Julia. The execution is tough, so ideally we expect good damage but the damage relatively is very less. Her block punishments are under par and standing moves are poor. Lows are subpar and the damage she takes from lows makes her a very poor choice.

Against a character with average lows, she will disappoint you let alone low-driven characters. Her range is weak making her a big vulnerability. A character that needs no more explanation and you clearly see why we placed her low in Tekken 6 Tier List.

Law

Pick Marshall Law over him any day. He has many moves but it can easily be evaded with a little study of Law so making him a very linear character. A bruce Lee regen, yes obviously but in Tekken 6 he has been done dirty. He is very annoying to play with and you can hardly master him as he is someone I would pick for spamming and letting luck be the driver of my destiny in matches. He is easy to block, easy to evade and he is very vulnerable. Thus he was placed on the D Tier.

Feng Wei

On paper, if you look at him he looks solid and well-rounded. He is good at poking and defensive whiff punishment. But he is suffering from an identity crisis and we can’t place him on the offensive characters or defensive characters list. Thus he was put on the worst tier of our Tier List. He has a weak range and his big launch punishing moves once executed will go to waste in the majority of cases as he has a limited range. 

Panda

A very big character is hard to move with. Restrictive movement and a very bad SSR. You can call Panda an unsafe character on everything and despite being risky to play with, the rewards are not as big. Extended combos from your opponent will put Panda down in no time. There is one strategy though that made Panda work for us. Firstly try to understand its movement, if you do so you are on the right path. Then focus on short and slow kicks and don’t try to overreach. As Panda has a terrible reach and thus you have to use short kicks but this is a risky thing and it makes Panda a risky character best avoided.

Wang Jinrei

Wang on the A Tier? You might be thinking I am kidding you, but I am not. He is the most underrated character in Tekken. His parries are the best in the game for me, as he can parry anything from knees, to elbows, etc. His range of throws is very good and it coupled with combos can inflict loads of damage on your opponent. His lows and wave dash will be used very often by many players.

Roger Jr.

A character that is silly and has no right to be on Tekken in our opinion. No good combos, a bad move set, and just an outright horrible character. A good poke game is his only pro but other than that his range is abysmal. He can be pressured with so much ease that you are not able to do anything even if you are a Tekken Veteran. Predictable combos and he can be dismantled by almost any character in the game.

Tekken 6 Tier List Facts

We will now talk about the factors that resulted in these characters being part of their respective tiers in our Tekken 6 Tier list. These are aspects that we observed in our extensive research and the time we put into the game.

The Block Feature

The first thing is the ability to block, in Tekken 6 it is not overpowered and you are good to go if you avoid excessive use of it. Just crouch and then hold back at the same time. It will increase your chances of evading an attack from the opponent and is much more effective. This ability relies on the character a lot, a weak character in the game will not be able to pull it off better than a strong character and you are more prone to damage if you do implement this strategy with a character who lacks certain abilities.

Grabs

Grabs are the hardest thing to pull off in Tekken 6 and you will see it while you play the game. Some players have been successful in pulling it off by smashing the punch button in the starting days of their game but as you go more into the game and spend a substantial amount of it on this game, then you will realize the grabs mechanism is broken in this game. Thus it was very hard for us to judge characters with respect to the grab or in other words a counter but there are certain characters in the game who have special grabs and they can be devasting.

Recovery Frame

The recovery frame is something vital that you need to understand to master Tekken 6. The basis of the tier list is highly influenced by this factor alone. Firstly let’s talk about what a recovery frame is. Basically, it is a cool-down period after a move is performed by your character. It varies for each character, some recover fast some recover slow, and other are other whose certain moves results in a fast recovery while other moves mean a low recovery time. It can be a make-or-break situation and it takes loads of effort in terms of memorizing the moves of each character in the game to be able to master the recovery frame.

Low Parry Combos

The low parry combos are very essential. Pressing the down + forward button to parry a low attack of your opponent will lead to a free minijuggle. You need to be aware of each character’s specific juggle to be able to compete in these low parries. Some characters are brilliant at it while others are bad.

Counterhit

The counter hit is also known as “CH” in the Tekken 6 community. IT is basically when you are performing a move and your opponent hit you before your initiation. This requires muscle memory and is also highly influenced by the character you are using. If you can hit someone right when they are in the middle of the movie. This strategy is very good when you are bombarded with moves by the opponent and the way out is hard or you feel your muscle memory has weaknesses.

Jumping

The plain old jumping, yes it was good in the 90s and the early days of 2D fighting games. In Tekken 6 it is very hard to pull something valuable out of it and in most situations it is useless but there are a few characters like the Armour King who is amazing at it because the jumping stance is one of the core aspects of his move set but besides him, very few characters can help you with the plain old jumping and those we have given importance to this rare ability of Armour King in our Tekken 6 Tier List.

Our Tekken 6 Tier List Criteria

We have played the game extensively and have looked at all the major and minor factors that were important and helped us rank Tekken 6 best characters. We looked at the general gameplay of the game, how the AI in the game behaves, the most overpowered and underpowered moves,s and the special moves beside the normal moves of all characters. The most important ranking factor for us was how one character stands out from others. For example, the game is built such that jumping is not an effective thing to do and the majority of characters fail in it but Armour King stands out where other characters in Tekken 6 fail. This resulted in Armour King getting more weightage from us on our tier list.

Why Trust Us?

Our Tier List at exputer is a result of extensive research with input from veteran Tekken 6 players as well as newcomers. It is not based on the opinion of the ones who played it for eXputer but many people from this niche. It makes our tier list more reliable and gives you correct information backed by real reasons that are justifiable in the end.