I recently finished STRANGER SAGA -Stranger Bach and Iskiyeld’s Ambition- and wrote down my thoughts right after the credits rolled.
While my memories are still fresh, I’d like to share my personal— and admittedly subjective— evaluation of each unit.
Hopefully, this will serve as a small guide for those wondering how to build their characters, or who to rely on as their core members.
All class evaluations are based on the classes I actually promoted them into during my own playthrough.
Therefore, if you’ve changed a Civilian into a different class, your experience may differ significantly — please keep that in mind.
Note: Since I’ll be touching on late-game usability as well, anyone who’s sensitive to spoilers should turn back now.
I also analyzed some of the damage and stat formulas for estimation purposes, so you might enjoy checking those out alongside the evaluations.
*I usually play in Japanese, so there might be some spelling mistakes. Please forgive me. *
Tier S
Bach
Warrior → Battle Master
Our protagonist. A pure top-tier infantry unit, boasting both exceptional firepower and durability. With high Speed as well, they can almost always trigger follow-up attacks against non-Scout enemies, while rarely being taken down by enemy combos. HIT% is nearly 100% in almost all situations, AVD% is just behind the top tier, and the chance to trigger a one-chunk critical with a lethal strike ranks among the best. MDEF is noticeably lower compared to other stats—about two notches down—but even so, it’s roughly average among all units and high for physical-specialist characters, allowing them to survive magic attacks by leveraging his high HP.
As an individual combatant, he is extremely well-rounded. Most stages can be handled advantageously by making him block narrow passages or stand on magic circles to counterattack while chipping away at enemies. Stats favor solo charges, so when enemies approach from two directions, the strategy “have him hold one side while the rest of your team handles the other” works effortlessly.
For equipment, the Heal Ring, which restores 5 HP each turn, synergizes perfectly with solo-charging tactics. This allows the unit to carve through enemies and maintain defensive positions without needing a dedicated healer.
That said, the unit’s strength comes with a drawback: he is absent for a significant portion of the story. If you’re concentrating experience on him alone, this can become tricky, so plan accordingly.
In the end, I kept wondering, who exactly is this person…? But perhaps the simplicity of being “just a stranger” fits the game’s concept perfectly, and somehow adds to their charm.
Taylor
Civilian → Barbarian → Berserker
An ace front-line unit with nothing to sacrifice. With extremely high ATK, the SPD to strike multiple times against most enemies, and HIT% that hit almost 100% of the time, her potential as a pure attacker is unquestionable. Defensively, she possesses standard stats for a front-liner.
Her true brilliance, however, lies in how well she synergizes with the Barbarian’s 1–2 tile attack range.
You can safely throw axes from a distance to eliminate enemies without exposing her to danger, thanks to her top-tier offensive performance. Or you can use her standard defensive stats to serve as a temporary wall when the front line is about to be breached.
Being able to attack safely also means she avoids taking hits, and in many cases she outlasts even dedicated tanks who purely soak damage.
More importantly, she can organically adapt to the flow of the stage: attack from a safe range → block enemies as a meat shield → handle emergencies → return to attacking safely… There’s no other character with this level of situational flexibility.
Throughout most scenarios, she remains invaluable as a multi-role unit that always provides some solution.
Vera
Mage → Sorcerer
According to my data, she delivers by far the highest raw damage. Her absurdly high MAG stat, combined with very high SPD, allows her to unleash double-cast spells of overwhelming power, vaporizing even bosses in an instant. Especially in the late game, equipping the Ancient Ring and fully specializing in offense turns her into a ridiculous powerhouse that can take down virtually any enemy.
Even before the late game, her damage is enough to one-shot enemies without any equipment, so equipping the Running Ring to boost mobility is also highly recommended. She becomes a “cannon-wielding skirmisher,” a unit that dominates the battlefield with both raw power and agility.
Tier A
Anastia
Lady Lord
Our heroine. Her defining feature is the unique command “Encouragement,” which allows allies to act again.
There are many ways to make use of her abilities:
- Use a magic circle’s healing effect twice
- Have allies attack or heal twice
- Send a frontline unit as a wall to maintain the battle line
- Adjust damage to optimize training efficiency
However, her own stats are among the lowest for front-line units, and relying mainly on Encouragement makes it difficult to earn experience. This can result in insufficient combat power and make leveling up challenging.
As a result, her low durability becomes more apparent in the late game. To maximize the value of ally re-actions, it’s beneficial to place her in positions where she may take some hits. Feeding her experience points, even gradually, increases her flexibility.
She never reached advanced classes due to limited experience, yet her presence on the front line remained valuable until the very end, thanks solely to the power of Encouragement — which is why she receives this evaluation.
Haino
Civilian → Knight → Paladin
A power-focused farmer. As a Civilian in the very early game, he boasts the highest ATK and DEF, making him easy to level up. Naturally, he was the first unit I promoted.
I wanted to try a more mobile unit, so I chose Knight for his class change. He became a character with nearly the same offensive and defensive stats as the protagonist, but with higher movement—a perfect package. He was undoubtedly the ace of the early to mid game, and remained a key unit even in the late stages.
What stands out most is how he combines high mobility with strong Attack and Defense. This allowed him to act as a tank in two ways: positioning to block and defend, or eliminating enemies to secure safety, repeatedly saving the rear-line allies.
As with most physical units, his MDEF is low, so caution is advised.
From the mid to late game, however, his SPD starts to lag slightly, resulting in taking double attacks and accumulating damage, or sometimes failing to finish off enemies. Since this is a game where even a 1-point difference matters, there were times late game when just 1–2 points of Defense made the difference between holding the line and failing. I think if he had promoted into the Soldier line, his Defense would have been rock-solid even in the late game.
In short: Knight is ideal as a mobile early- to mid-game tank, while Soldier promotion is preferable if you want to maintain solid durability in the late game.
Claudio
Scout → Assassin
Top-tier across the board: ATK, DEF, HIT%, AVD%, and CRT% in mid game. Even his MDEF is unusually high for a physical unit.
He boasts performance on par with the protagonist of Chapter 2.
His only “drawback” is a luxurious one: he is so strong that experience points tend to funnel into him, making it harder for other members to level up.
That said, his offensive power gradually starts to fall behind around mid-game. During that period, it can be frustrating to see his raw character power lag. However, hi makes a comeback in the late game, especially once the magic-sword-wielding units appear.
He proved invaluable as a mobile, damage-dealing anti-magic-sword tank.
Silvie
Elf → Elf Rider
The sole healer in Chapter 2, and beyond that a reliable support unit who balances ranged bow attacks with HP recovery.
Due to the game’s mechanics, if you select actions in the order “Heal → Attack,” a unit can act twice in a single turn, making her output per turn higher than it might initially appear.
Her healing and attack power are slightly lower than Aribel’s, but her high mobility makes her extremely dependable as a last-minute rescue unit.
Broken Elf speech aside, she’s undeniably cute.
David
Mage → Sorcerer
A magician with extremely high MAG and SPD, but low HIT and LUK.
His low HIT is subtly problematic, resulting in a hit rate of only around 92–95% even against weaker enemies. This means he can miss when it really matters.
Low LUK also makes landing a one-chance Critical difficult.
On the other hand, his raw MAG and SPD put him among the top damage dealers in the party.
His SPD is high enough to outspeed naturally slower Scout units, allowing him to consistently output high damage.
Equipping the Magic Ring further boosts his MAG, enabling him to one-shot even classes he would normally struggle against, such as enemy Mages or Griffin Knights. At this point, as an attacker, there’s almost nothing to fear (
except Vera).
Aribel
Healer → Bishop
The ultimate pure healer. In fact, this game only has two dedicated healers—her and Sylvie—so simply being a healer makes her incredibly important.
Her HP, DEF, and SPD are low, and her healing spells have a range of only 2–4 tiles, making it extremely difficult to reach the front line if there are enemy archers. Trying too hard to heal can put the lifeline of the team—her—at risk, so always keep an eye on danger zones.
Promoting her to Bishop grants her offensive magic as well, allowing her to contribute on both attack and defense. In this game, selecting actions in the order “Heal → Attack” allows a unit to act twice per turn, enabling truly integrated offensive-and-defensive maneuvers.
Felix
Archer → Sniper
A bow unit who joins early but remains strong all the way through the late game.
This is thanks to his extremely high ATK, HIT, and LUK—essential stats for an attacker—combined with ample SPD.
He can deliver consecutive high-damage attacks at near-guaranteed HIT%, and his ranged attacks provide frequent opportunities to trigger Critical hits. Even late-game bosses that other archers can barely scratch for 1 damage take 6–8 points of chip damage from him.
His DEF is naturally low, as with any archer, but he is far from a one-hit casualty; he can usually survive at least one attack.
Overall, he is a high-damage specialist with just enough durability to avoid disaster, making him one of the easiest and most reliable archers to use.
Leticia
Civilian → Archer → Sniper
A lucky girl boasting an astonishingly high LUK of 9 at Level 1. Her MDEF is also a respectable 8.
At Level 1, her stats lean slightly physical with 4 ATK and 2 MAG, but her physical Defense is weak, making her a straightforward candidate for archer-focused development.
When raised as an Archer, she becomes a unit that trades off a little of Felix’s raw power for exceptionally high MDEF, effectively serving as an anti-mage specialist. Her MDEF is so strong that even right after her class change, she can reduce magical damage to just 1. Combined with her ranged advantage, placing her in areas populated by enemy Mages lets her single-handedly take them down in no time. Conveniently, the game introduces mage-heavy stages just as she hits her class change, giving her immediate opportunities to shine—and she continues to see frequent action afterward.
Overall, she’s a unit that hits exactly where she’s needed, and hits hard.
Lugentz
Archer → Sniper
He went through a rather turbulent development path, exposed to the randomness of stat growth.
Upon joining, his ATK and HIT were roughly on par with Felix, but his LUK was among the lowest in the entire party. As archers rely on multiple attacks to maximize damage output, his low LUK reduced his expected damage, making him underperform compared to other archers in raw damage.
However, his true strength lies in his DEF and MDEF, which far exceed typical archer standards.
His durability is high enough to be considered “soft frontline” level. For archers, who often provide fire support from the rear, this is extremely valuable: even when enemies break through to the back line and could potentially one-shot other units, placing him in the gap allows him to reliably absorb the attack. Using the openings created by him, you can then safely let other units chip away or finish off enemies, creating a very stable strategy.
Since the back line party often moves as a group, having him there—even if only one—provides a safety net that can recover from player mistakes. Highly recommended for careless players like me.
Tier B
Ena
Civilian → Scout → Fencer
A speed-type unit with high HIT and SPD.
Honestly, she was difficult to handle until she became a Scout. At that point, there were few situations where enemies could attack twice, and no opponents had extremely high %AVD, so Ena’s strengths weren’t fully utilized. Even if she could perform double attacks, her base ATK was too low to deal significant damage.
However, things changed once she promoted to Scout. The enemy began fielding fast, high-Avoid Scout units that could strike twice.
Eina’s high HIT% and reliable double attacks make her perfectly suited as a counter to enemy Scouts. Against Scout units, she actually outperforms Batch in raw effectiveness.
From there, I further promoted her to Fencer and equipped the Power Ring and Fortress Sword (+3 ATK, +2 DEF). This resulted in a substantial power-up: she could consistently unleash high-damage double attacks as a top-tier melee attacker, and her durability noticeably improved thanks to enhanced DEF combined with her naturally high AVD%.
Cellia
Civilian → Mage → Rune Lancer
Her offensive stats are among the lowest not just for starting characters, but across the entire cast, yet she boasts extraordinary LUK—translating to high CRT%—and top-tier MDEF.
Honestly, the early game was quite rough. She couldn’t defeat many enemies, and her high Critical rate was underutilized due to the lack of attack opportunities.
When I was unsure how to handle her, her DEF grew surprisingly well. I took a chance, promoted her to Rune Lancer, and ran her as a tank—an absolute success.
- Against magic users, her high MDEF completely shuts them down.
- Against physical units, her improved DEF lets her endure, while her Rune Lancer melee magic exploits enemy weaknesses.
- With counterattacks, the high number of attack opportunities provides more chances to trigger Criticals, offsetting her lack of raw power.
Everything synergized perfectly, turning her into a dual-purpose physical/magic tank who could chip away enemies on counterattacks—a role no one else could fill.
I was particularly blown away when she single-handedly held her own against late-game mixed enemy squads.
By the end, she became the most reliable tank in the party, but getting to that point was quite a struggle—hence this evaluation.
Graham
Civilian → Archer → Bow Shooter
A high ATK, HIT, and LUK unit with low SPD—a glass cannon built for critical hits and one-shot potential.
While operating as an Archer, his low SPD meant he rarely triggered double attacks, limiting his damage output despite strong stats.
After promoting to Bow Shooter, a new strategy emerged: leveraging his high single-hit damage and Anastasia’s Encouragement to grant extra actions, increasing both the number of attacks and Critical opportunities. This solidified his role as a reliable attacker.
This tactic naturally involves keeping him at the rear of the formation, allowing him to repeatedly attack while mitigating the impact of Anastasia’s low DEF—making the pair highly synergistic.
However, his base Movement is only 2, leaving him almost immobile. Equipping a Running Ring is recommended to give him minimal mobility and fully exploit his capabilities.
Cheryl
Archer → Sniper
High LUK and decent ATK and HIT, but her SPD is just below the threshold for consistent double attacks, making her somewhat unreliable as a damage dealer.
More importantly, she has the lowest HP, DEF, and MDEF in the entire party. Her paper-thin armor makes even stray ranged attacks potentially fatal, making positioning extremely tricky.
Personally, I enjoy a playstyle where ranged units can freely spam attacks without much concern—but her stats and mount just didn’t align with that approach, which is why I ended up giving her this evaluation.
Regis
Soldier → Armor Knight → Full Plate Knight
A well-balanced infantry unit with above-average MDEF for a physical frontline unit.
Early on, she’s unremarkable, rises to become a mid-game ace, and then falls off in the late game—a character whose value shifts dramatically depending on progress.
Upon joining, she’s basically a slightly improved version of Batch in MDEF, and honestly quite plain. Despite being infantry, her ATK and DEF are similar to Haino, who promoted to Knight, and her lower Mobility makes her nearly a lower-tier substitute. At this stage, enemy magic isn’t very threatening, which also works against her.
However, the moment she promotes to Armor Knight, she transforms into an overwhelmingly powerful unit with immense Attack and Defense. At this point, Regis is godlike—throw her into the middle of enemy lines and she can tank both physical and magical damage while cutting down foes at terrifying speed on counterattacks.
Her raw power is insane. Equipping a Killing Lance, she reaches 31 ATK and 12 SPD at Level 7—a monster capable of dealing 20 damage twice in a single turn to boss-class enemies, reigning as an unstoppable powerhouse.
Yet this advantage fades in the late game. Due to damage calculation mechanics, even a single point of DEF makes a huge difference, but Regis is a balanced unit. Her SPD also struggles against late-game enemies.
She ends up taking 3–4 damage per hit—even from attacks that a fully defensive tank could reduce to 1—and despite her “Full Plate Knight” title and appearance, she’s relatively fragile. In my playthrough, her DEF was only 1 higher than Ena with a Fortress Sword, making her a rather unreliable tank.
If you assume “Regis will cover the infantry tank role, so I don’t need another Civilian-to-Infantry unit,” you’ll regret the thin frontline in the late game—I certainly did.
Robert
Knight → Paladin
A very standard cavalry unit. Aside from slightly lower MDEF and modest SPD, he feels like a scaled-down version of Claudio, but with higher movement.
The extra movement is nice in theory, but in STRANGER SAGA, where enemy attacks can hit hard, charging forward can easily lead to being surrounded and taken out. On the other hand, holding him back wastes that mobility, making his role somewhat tricky.
It’s also a bit unfortunate that Haino, the ultimate farmer, has a higher Paladin aptitude, and ends up being a cavalry unit superior to him in both offense and defense.
Tier C
Marcella
Civilian → Mage
I honestly never quite figured out how to make full use of her…
Aside from slightly physical-leaning ATK and above-average MDEF, all her other stats are generally low.
She’s too middling to go all-in on offense, and not durable enough to serve as a frontline tank.
In my playthrough, her DEF developed somewhat despite being a magic user, so I tried using her as a “slightly sturdy mage.” Even so, she eventually fell out of the starting lineup.
I still wonder—how could she have been raised optimally?
Rosanna
Griffon Knight → Dragon Knight
A flying unit with high ATK, HIT, and SPD, but extremely low DEF and MDEF—an offense-focused glass cannon.
Ideally, you’d want to use her high damage to harass enemies with hit-and-run tactics. However, STRANGER SAGA’s maps are densely packed with obstacles, so situations where enemies are spread out are rare. Most encounters involve tightly clustered enemies.
This means that any position where she can attack is also easily reachable by other enemies, resulting in situations where a simple poke attempt quickly turns into a surround-and-crush scenario, forcing an immediate retreat (and yes, my own playstyle contributed to this).
I managed to make use of her by treating her as a unit meant to push through troublesome enemy positions with sheer force, but in the end, she ended up off the starting lineup.
Lydia
Her unique skill, raises the SPD of the four adjacent units (up, down, left, right) by 5 for 2 turns.
This can allow Batch to consistently trigger double attacks even against Scouts, or let Haino, who specializes in single-hit damage, unleash a double strike—so yes, it’s a strong buff. But whether it’s worth dedicating an entire unit slot for this benefit is debatable.
Subtly, she also plays a key role in developing Cecil. His SPD is extremely low, and as a frontline unit with low HP and DEF, he’s highly likely to take fatal damage if hit twice by an enemy.
That said, my playthrough ultimately focused on bringing together units with higher individual stats, so she fell out of the starting lineup. This is reflected in my evaluation. (Still, I can see her potential—used cleverly, her rating could easily be higher.)
Cecil
Knight
A Magic-Defense-focused Knight—a true anomaly among physical units, boasting the highest MDEF in the game.
Unfortunately, his HIT is painfully low, and his ATK is also weak, making him almost completely unreliable as a damage dealer.
On the other hand, his mobility as a mounted unit combined with exceptional MDEF makes him an outstanding anti-magic tank. He can single-handedly hold off groups of enemy mages and, later in the game, even the swarms of Magic Swordsmen that appear.
However, his lack of offensive power remains a critical weakness, resulting in slower level-ups compared to other units.
Consequently, the gap in overall combat effectiveness grows over time, and in my playthrough, he eventually fell out of the starting lineup.
Elissa
Griffon Knight
Excellent mobility and the ability to pass through obstacles make her highly maneuverable. High MDEF gives her strong anti-magic tank potential, and her SPD is high enough to consistently trigger double attacks.
…In theory, she should be nearly perfect. However, her HP, ATK, and DEF are all very low, limiting her damage output and leaving her durability as a tank questionable. Her high SPD also grants good evasion, but at most around 30%, which isn’t entirely reliable.
Similar to Rozanna, the game’s narrow, densely populated maps make it difficult to fully leverage her mobility for hit-and-run tactics.
Brad
Barbarian → Berserker
ATK is slightly low for an attacker, and both HIT and SPD are average, making him not exactly a character you’d rely on for aggressive plays.
However, his HP, DEF, and MDEF are high—second only to Regis—allowing him to serve as a sub-attacker and sub-tank, temporarily blocking enemy advances while taking ranged hits.
…That said, he’s honestly a bit cumbersome to handle. The root of the issue lies in the poor synergy between the Barbarian class’s 1–2 tile attack range and his stats.
Engaging enemies at 1 tile leaves durability in doubt, while attacking from 2 tiles away underutilizes his defensive capabilities. To make full use of him, he would need to move back and forth along the frontline, but given how dense enemy formations usually are and the lack of repositioning skills in this game, “finding a convenient spot to move to” rarely happens.
A unit like Lugentz, occupying a similar role, can excel by staying back and only acting as a temporary tank when necessary, but frontline units fundamentally exist to block enemy advances. The fact that his survivability is middling makes him hard to use effectively, and as a result, he ultimately fell out of the main lineup.
Wrap up
So, based purely on my own judgment, I put together a tier list.
This game’s balance is unbelievably well-crafted, so there are undoubtedly strategies, class-change routes, and ways to utilize units that I haven’t even discovered.
Take this table as a piece of reading material, and I highly encourage you, the reader, to experiment and customize your own party in your own way.
With that said, enjoy your gaming life!
Thank you very much for reading!
