Arknights: Azure's 3rd Anniversary 5★ Selector Tier List

As part of the 3rd Anniversary celebrating event coming soon, all players will receive a 5★ Selector Ticket for free among other rewards. This ticket contains all gacha 5★ Operators from release up to Toddifons.

This tier list ranks which Operators will provide the biggest boost to your team, whether you are a veteran or newer player, and with an explanation as to why. Extremely niche or heavily outclassed Operators are excluded from this tier list for clarity. 

Before we start, keep in mind that higher tiers don’t necessarily represent a significantly higher powerlevel difference with lower ones. This tier list takes into account Operator availability and niche viability, so Operators in higher tiers, while likely much more applicable than those in lower ones, are not directly better. Remember that Operators are not ordered within tiers.

Operators in this tier are not necessarily more powerful or widely applicable than those in the next tier, but they have not shown up on any previous selector so they may take priority for players who already took advantage of the prior selector. For newer players, this tier may be considered an addendum to the next.

Widely regarded as the most powerful 5★ in the game, Elysium boasts an incredible set of abilities that make of him the prime support in many scenarios, providing an unmatched role compression that not even the 6★ archetype can achieve. Elysium boasts an incredible rate of DP generation, strong buffs for Sniper Operators, and through his Monitor Skill an amazing mix of wide-ranged slow, Defense debuff and Invisibility reveal. As a Standard Bearer Vanguard, he also benefits significantly from Potentials, so this might be worth considering even if you already own him.

Shamare is one of the most powerful debuffers in the entire game, able to halve the Attack and Defense of enemies in range of her cursed doll for a really great uptime. Cursed Doll allows Shamare to provide immediate and strong support from anywhere in the battlefield to essentially anywhere with a deployable tile nearby, giving her amazing versatility and very low reliance on positioning. Shamare is best paired with rapid-burst physical Operators that can take advantage of her Defense debuff, particulary Snipers such as Exusiai or Ash.

Operators in this tier are significant outliers in term of general 5★ powerlevel, with tools that can perfectly compliment or in some cases rival those of 6★ Operators. Despite their rarity, these Operators often find their way into squads full of top-tier ones due to their irreplaceable strengths.

Specter used to be considered the strongest 5★ Operator in the game thanks to her unique Invincibility effect, which lets her tank and even take down enemies you would otherwise not be able to stall for very long. While her stocks have fallen recently due to the release of Specter the Unchained, an arguably better version when we get the Module Upgrade system, there’s no denying that Specter still has a very strong presence in the meta thanks to her Bone Fracture. A certain upcoming event will also allow her to be deployed alongside her alternate version, eliminating this concern entirely and, in fact, making her even stronger through faction buffs.

Easily one of the best picks in this selector for newer players, Lappland is a relatively easy to use Operator with good damage and Arts conversion that skyrockets in viability when her main niche — applying silence — is viable for whatever event is currently going on. Silence is a very polarized mechanic that can either snap entire events in half or do literally nothing, but even without this tool Lappland remains a very solid option as a damage tool.

As a general rule, Medics in Arknights are judged based on what they do other than healing. In this regard, very few can claim to be worth as much as Warfarin’s insane Attack buff through her Unstable Plasma Skill, which also has a pretty good uptime for dealing with powerful threats. While some Operators definitely benefit from this buff more than others, it’s generic but strong enough that she can turn any burst DPS Operator into a veritable killing machine.

Operators in this tier are generally outclassed by their 6★ alternatives, but they can nevertheless still provide quite a lot to your team if you lack their specific niche. These Operators can put in a lot of work and at times even carve unique niches that their higher-rarity counterparts may lack.

Blue Poison is a solid and easy to understand Sniper with decent multi target capabilities that scales pretty well with further investment. Blue Poison is definitely more fit for newer players still gathering their bearings, as she excels during the early chapters, but with good enough investment she can remain a solid and cheap source of consistent physical damage even later on. Do not rely on her Arts-inflicting poison though, it is pretty worthless.

Similarly to the previous Operator, Platinum is a very solid option for a Sniper that’s simple enough for new players to utilize. In contrast, though, Platinum prefers to take care of more dangerous, singular threats through her superior range, damage and multipliers. She doesn’t carry earlier chapters as easily, but arguably scales better later on thanks to the aforementioned higher Attack and range extension, which more experienced players will be able to take advantage of.

Despite finding harsh competition in Nightingale’s unmatched mitigation abilities, Ptilopsis still manages to carve a niche for herself through powerful burst healing and, most importantly, support in the form of her Talent, Skill Aura. While Ptilopsis is deployed, all other Operators with Auto-recovery Skills will trigger their Skills 30% quicker, potentially boosting the overall damage and survivability of your team by a decent amount.

While overall a worse and more streamlined version of Saria, this archetype’s unique role compression and strengths make Nearl a very worthwhile option to consider for teams that lack the former Operator. Thanks to her tankiness and strong healing abilities, Nearl can fulfill the role of a traditional defender and, in many cases, act as a medic for the entire party (or, at least, for herself).

Operators in this tier are still very strong, but need specific situations or different gameplay situations to truly shine. The Operators in this tier will definitely spice up your party compositions and may even be optimal in some scenarios, but are generally not the best pick unless you really know what you’re doing.

While not as widely useful as a regular Sniper, Firewatch boasts powerful Skills that make her quite a strong Operator regardless of her “less conventional” archetype. Her Camouflage lets her deliver powerful shots while remaining completely invisible to enemy attacks, all with a massive uptime that lets her trigger this Skill constantly, and her Tactical Tranceiver, while significantly harder to use, can provide quick and heavy bursts of damage to multiple enemies in range.

Summoner Supporters are generally not the best option for newer players, but more veteran ones may be able to take advantage of Mayer’s kit to perform special clears and aid in their trust-farming endeavors. While generally a worse (and harder to use) option compared to Scene, Mayer still has a niche as a good applier of Stuns across the map, which will see some spotlight in Integrated Strategies 3: Caerula Arbor’s higher difficulties.

Kafka is an incredibly niche Operator focused on inflicting Sleep on a Fast-Redeploy timer. Sleep itself is generally considered to be the worst crowd-control effect of them all, as very few Operators can even interact with the mechanic, but this all changes for very late endgame content (such as Risk 30+ Contingency Contract), where stalling tactics may be mandatory. For players who don’t intend to take on these challenges, Kafka is likely one of the worst options on this ticket. For those who do, however, she may as well be a necessity. Just make sure you know exactly what you’re doing before you select this option, and even moreso if you do decide to raise her.

April is a very unique kind of Sniper, far removed from the hands-off playstyle one might expect from the aforementioned Blue Poison or Platinum. Instead, April’s niche lies in her quicker redeployment timer, allowing her to act as a sort of helidrop for more dangerous threats, instantly activating her Flexible Camouflage and giving her a similar DPS to Platinum and Camouflage for a while. If you are looking for a more standard sniper, do not bother with April. If you are looking for someone to spice up your available options, though, she can be quite strong in capable hands.

All three of these Operators are more fit for the second and third tiers in terms of their powerlevel alone, but it is important to denote the caveat that, one way or another, they are all free for all players to grab. Texas can be easily obtained through the Pinboard Mission rewards, while Projekt Red and Liskarm are obtainable through the small selector tickets all players receive after starting the game.

Projekt Red and Liskarm should be considered strong choices if the small selector has already been used, while Texas should likely be less prioritary unless you already have a large amount of the Operators in this list and are hunting for Potentials, which greatly benefit Texas as she is a Vanguard. In this case, Projekt Red is also a strong target for additional Potentials, though in these considerations you should probably prioritize maxing out Elysium instead.

Finally, players who already have most if not all the Operators in this tier list at comfortable Potential levels may consider purchasing their first copy of FEater if they lack her, as she can be quite a capable Base worker overall. Of course, this is a rather extreme case, and while players at this point will likely see more objective value out of FEater than any other Operator not presented in the list, the gain is pretty minimal compared to any other Operator the player is willing to use just for fun. Still, an option to consider in regards to value optimization.