Welcome the our new Shadow Fight 4 Arena Tier List! Shadow Fight 4: Arena is the latest game in the main series of Nekki company. Nekki continues to update its game, which was released on November 3, 2020. Unlike Nekki’s previous games in the Shadow Fight series, this game introduced the arena and provided players with the opportunity to play online. Not only that, but Nekki also added the story mode to Shadow Fight 4: Arena through updates. The unique graphics and amazing combos featuring powerful characters leave players amazed. Of course, the tier list of the powerful characters has also been added to our website.
Shadow Fight 4 Arena Tier List
You can battle against other players in the arena and participate in exciting PvP battles with your friends. Thanks to the realistic graphics and easy controls, you will experience a console-level fighting experience. Additionally, in the PvE story mode, you can engage in battles with AI opponents and embark on new adventures in the world of Shadow Fight. If you want to achieve victory in multiplayer mode, create your team and defeat all the heroes of your opponents. But before that, have you ever wondered which are the best characters? Shadow Fight 4 Arena Tier List is now live!
T0
T1
T2
T3
TIER 0 CHAMPIONS
This is the highest tier in a tier list, reserved for the most powerful or effective options in the game
Ironclad
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: A heavyweight fighting champion and a tough nut to crack, Ironclad is a prime example of Legion toughness. Though he may only use his fists, Ironclad’s moves are fast and hard-hitting, with a good period of Unbreakable on most of his moveset. As such, Ironclad is best used aggressively, with a fast-thinking head that can pressure the opponent into making punishable moves. While Ironclad has no ranged attack, thanks to his perk, Non-Stop, he is immune to flinching from ranged attacks as well as some debuffs caused by them. For this reason, characters that have a playstyle emphasis on ranged attacks, like Yukka, Shang, Sarge, or Hong-Joo will find that their attacks will leave them even more vulnerable against Ironclad. Lastly, his signature perk, Stubborn as a Mule, gives Ironclad Stubborness Charges with each attack against him that increase his physical defense. Characters that have high combo attacks like Shang, Hong-Joo, and Jet will find that they will be giving Ironclad more Stubborness Charges than they can keep up with.
Weaknesses: Ironclad’s moves are generally short-ranged, and it takes a bit of time for their Unbreakable period to kick in. Characters with very fast attacks and/or good range can easily intercept Ironclad; examples being Kibo and Ling, with their fast-striking katanas. Without High Pain Threshold, Ironclad is also highly vulnerable to Shadow moves, which ignore his Stubbornness. Ironically, quite a few of the same characters who give him many Charges can also power through his defenses. Shang, Fireguard, and Jet are all fighters that can assault Ironclad with a barrage of shadow moves While Non-Stop does make Ironclad highly resistant to ranged attacks, not all fighters’ ranged attacks are completely useless against him. Helga, with Smite Shot, will still strike Ironclad with a Smite – an especially effective advantage if Repentance is active. With Jack Bulwark’s Heated Gun, his ranged attack will still do significant damage to Ironclad. Yukka, when equipped with either Shade’s Revenge or Teamwork, can knock Ironclad out of his feet as the Critical Hit inflicted by Shade can bypass the unbreakable state supposedly activated by Non-Stop. Azuma, with his Consequence Management ability can also knock him down if Ironclad is hit with a ranged attack whilst in Shadow Form, as the attack also becomes Critical Hit, which again bypasses unbreakable states. You can decrease and reduce the risk of this weakness by choosing the Persistence talent on level 2.
Eternal Adrenaline: Due to how Adrenaline works, normally you can only gain four charges of Adrenaline without removing them. Using both Shadow Respite and Eternal Stubborness will allow Ironclad to constantly gain Adrenaline charges after building up lots of Stubbornness. This playstyle is incredibly effective against characters with a high number of attacks or combo-based characters, mostly Dynastians and Heralds.
Kibo
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: Being a “Glass Cannon”, Kibo’s damage output is extremely high. Kibo has one of the highest attack stats in game, only behind Lynx, Butcher, Hong Joo and Itu. Additionally, if she accumulates enough Shadow Energy, she can utilize her special ability, “Shadow Onslaught” which grants her the powers to dash forward when she is executing any attack using her katana. Thanks to “Shadow Onslaught”, Kibo is a great counter to turtling/camping players. Her large distance and unpunishable attacks will close distances very quickly. Kibo awards experiences players with her aggressive approach.
Counters: Kibo’s fast attacks and range can punish many characters, such as:
Monkey King: Her attacks can interrupt his swiftly or knock him out of ascension.
Ironclad: Kibo’s mobility can grant her the ability to move around Ironclad easily, punishing missteps with ease. Be wary! If you mess up against Ironclad, you may end up getting countered instead.
Marcus: Kibo’s range and speed will punish Marcus with ease.
Sarge: When played correctly, Kibo can punish all of Sarge’s attacks, and simply outspeed his approaches.
Midnight: While not recommended, Kibo’s fast attacks an cancel Midnight’s attempts to use her shift.
Weaknesses: Despite her fast shadow energy gaining with landed attacks, Kibo’s Shadow Bar will drop drastically if she misses and she will lose her chance of utilizing Shadow Onslaught, which is her bread and butter for her offensive capabilities. On the edge can counter the weakness, but this requires Kibo being on low health, which is highly risky due to her relatively low HP and defense stats.
Azuma is the worst possible enemy any Kibo player will face in the arena, due to his neutralization being able to stop Kibo from even utilizing Shadow Onslaught, thus making her helpless against the Feldsher. Other anti shadow characters like Kate and Helga are not quite as good against Kibo though, due to Kibo’s absurdly quick shadow gaining rendering Kate’s shadow draining redundant, and Kibo’s reliance of shadow energy but not shadow abilities means she can avoid the risk of getting hit by Helga’s smite easily, even if Helga has Repentence.
Kibo also has low health and defense, which can be easily exploited by the opponent to take a large chunk of her health away should she made a mistake. Opponents with good countering abilities like Jack Bulwark and Sarge can put more damage on her than what she can put onto them with their Fractures and Will Suppression abilities respectively. Opponents that has a rather defensive playstyle with massive health and defense stats, like Ling and Ironclad, can tank her onslaught easily and return damage back to her as well. Her shadow attacks are amazingly powerful, but both Thousand Cuts and Mentor’s Trick has a long windup, which means opponents can easily dodge her shadow attack, which will waste her entire shadow bar and her Shadow Onslaught along with it, if she doesn’t play her cards right.
Ling
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: Given the fact that he is the first character the players get to control in Shadow Fight Arena during tutorial, Ling has less aggressive style compared to Kibo, who wields the same weapon style. Apart from his easy learning curve for beginners, he also has a flask which he can drink in before pouring them out in a large radius, but unlike his counterpart in Shadow Fight 3, he can only pour them out at the front near the ground, not to the air or not pouring at all. Ling’s most notable and dangerous skill is his Slashing Strike. After executing 2 successful attacks in a row, the third one will bypass opponent’s block and guarantee a critical hit, which does pack a big bunch in terms of damage. However, if Ling is hit before he is able to get the 3rd consecutive hit, the counter resets. This combined with Ling’s moveset containing no moves that have a 3rd hit, ensures that this ability is not too overpowered. This makes Ling a great character for punishing mistakes from opponents, but can also deal some serious damage when situation calls it. ling can deal a lot of damamge and one of the bast ways to activate shalshing strike is by counter attack with attacks or the basic attack and then the damage added toger deals a lto fo damage.
Weaknesses: Though Ling’s katana is fast and has sufficient range to hit short-ranged, aggressive characters, the recovery is very slow. Missed attacks can leave him quite vulnerable to heroes with longer ranges, such as Shang, Azuma, Hong-Joo, and Monkey King. Some heroes’ spinning attacks, like Kate’s and Lynx’s, can also possibly avoid Ling’s slashes and counter with their own attacks. ling is also weak against some legions heroes like ironclad can block break when taking damage so iron clasd is a good clunter for ling
Azuma
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: Azuma is the bane of existence for all heroes who use Shadow Energy as their main powers. His skill, Neutralization, prohibits the opponent from using Shadow Energy, as well as the skills that require it to function. Also, his Consequence Management skills can knock his opponent out of Shadow Form if he connects an attack, dealing increased damage and knocking down the enemy. Neutralization is effective against Heroes reliant on rapid use of Shadow energy, such as Kibo and Fireguard, while Consequence Management finds more use against Heroes who linger in Shadow form for longer periods of time, such as Shang, Midnight, and Jack Bulwark.
Note: Neutralization can also prevent the talent Shadow Finale from working as it prohibits Shang from using Shadow form. Therefore, you can finish Shang right away if you deal a fatal blow while he is in Neutralization.
His weapon of choice, the naginata Improved Pruner, is a long-ranged, powerful polearm. It tends to aim high, so it makes a potent anti-air. Characters such as Marcus and Kate will struggle to fight with their longer recoveries and shorter ranges, while more mobile characters like Monkey King and Jet can find their options more limited by Azuma’s anti-air capabilities. Lastly, Azuma’s ranged attack is very fast, and if used correctly and unpredictably, can make the opponent reconsider fighting him even in close quarters.
Weaknesses: Neutralization is much less effective against Heroes who do not use Shadow energy, such as Helga, Hong-Joo, and Monkey King. Though it works on the Shadow Beast, Consequence Management will not take effect, and it is not reliant on Shadow Abilities for damage. Consequence Management also finds less use against Heroes who do not use Shadow Abilities as their main source of damage or can use it without having the risk of being countered, such as Ironclad, Ling, Yukka, and Lynx. Sarge is also immune to Consequence management, thanks to his Unique Ability, Shadow Squad Leader, which makes him invincible while he is in Shadow Form.
Azuma’s naginata, while potent, is slow and can only target distant and upper areas effectively. Low mobile attacks, like the Dynasty down kick, can possibly strike below his attacks. Due to the long recovery, missed naginata attacks can be deadly. This danger is increased further with heroes that have equal or greater ranges; Hong-Joo and Shang, for example.
TIER 1 CHAMPIONS
This tier is just below T0-tier and includes characters or strategies that are still very strong and effective, but not quite as dominant as those in the T0-tier.
Shang the Monk
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: Thanks to being a Shadow Energy Adept, Shang is able to gather Shadow energy quicker than most heroes, to the point that anything less than Kate’s improved shadow draining abilities is at most a nuisance. Once in Shadow Form, Shang benefits from Shadow Protection; rather than damaging his health, attacks instead reduce his shadow bar. This not only affords Shang protection from mistakes, but also makes his Shadow form harder to keep down against anti-shadow heroes like Helga, who can at most reduce the amount of attacks Shang can make.
Shang’s weapon, the Guandao, not only has long range but is also quite fast in both startup and recovery when compared to other heroes with long-ranged weapons, making it highly versatile. His special and spinning attacks also have a high number of attacks. Due to this, Shang’s weapon attacks make good pokes to gain Shadow energy.
shang is a strong character that can attack medium speed deals moderate damage or a lot of damage if combos have been made also if equlpped the talent gloom explosion it can break comobos and highdamaging attacks such as fire guards explosion and lynx shadow ability and kibos shaodw abilly
Weaknesses: While most anti-shadow heroes are not as effective against Shang, Azuma makes a decent rival to him. With a fast ranged attack that can interrupt Shang’s combos, equal weapon range, and Consequence Management that can end Shang’s shadow form should he make a mistake, Azuma can easily counter any overconfident Shang.
While Shang’s weapon and shadow attacks are highly versatile, they are quite long and can be interrupted by things like Yukka’s Shade and any character that can enter invincibility on command like Sarge or Marcus. and bulwark The same goes for his Shadow form abilities.
Asuma can just knock him out of shadow form if equipped him with shadow finale its useless
bulwark have shadow fortress
kate can steal his shadow energy with skillful liquidator
Jet
Strengths
As suggested by her character description, Jet is an extremely agile and versatile fighter. Her weapon of choice, the Composite Glaive (called Fireflies), is arguably the fastest weapon in the game. It will do a lot of damage if Jet is able to chain her attacks as a whole. This combined with her Wasteland Harmony ability, which increases attack damage every time Jet hits the opponent, allows Jet to deal heavily increased damage, making her a deadly adversary who must not be taken lightly.
Jet also has access to kicks, specifically the front, spinning and heavy kicks that are not available to anyone else due to her ability to summon glass pillars using Shadow Energy and her unrivalled agility. While those kicks may not do much damage, they work extremely well on countering reckless moves and will do a lot of damage if Shadow Harmony takes place, which these kicks will also charge along with the attacks of the Composite Glaive.
Shadow abilities of Jet deal good enough damage, yet have very long startup which makes it predictable, so use it wisely. With Jet, not being hit is not just a careful trait you must have when playing this game at any time, but also her talent relies on it. Getting hit will reduce 2 Harmony charges, which decreases damage. Although she can gain back very quick, but still maintaining a combo at full charges is hellish to enemy health bar.
Fireguard
Strengths
Fireguard cannot gain any Shadow Energy from making attacks or receiving attacks. Instead, he can automatically regenerate Shadow Energy infinitely. He also has 4 Shadow Abilities, shared with Shang and Azuma (with all respective talents for new Shadow Abilities selected), and are versatile enough to cover all positions on the ground.
Fireguard can also breathe fire on opponents like a ranged weapon, called Flamethrower. That ranged weapon has short range, but takes about the same time to wind up as most ranged weapons and can burn the opponent, making them lose health over time.
If Fireguard takes fatal damage, he can activate the Countdown protocol, in which his body will flash for a few seconds before exploding in a huge radius and dealing enormous damage to any opponent unfortunate enough to be caught in the explosion.
These perks combined make Fireguard a great character for punishing mistakes and also dealing a decent amount of damage if the situation calls him. However, due to the fact that he can automatically regenerate Shadow Energy and the versatility of his Shadow Abilities, it makes him one of the most popular characters for “campers”, along with Ling.
TIER 2 CHAMPIONS
This tier includes characters or strategies that are considered to be average or balanced in terms of their strength and effectiveness.
Marcus
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: Marcus’ Giant Sword not only deals tremendous damage, but also covers a lot of distance which allows him to easily counter opponents’ missed attacks. Also, with the Legion’s Hero talent, he can hard counter opponents that can only stay in Shadow Form for a short amount of time, like Fireguard or Kibo.
However, it is when he obtains the Through the Glitch ability (which can be obtained instantly with the All-Consuming Chaos talent) that allows him to become the real deal. When that ability activates, his Unbreakable Intervals will now warp him out of existence, allowing him to evade hits completely. Also, his attacks now become much faster, especially with the heavy attack which is now much faster and has less recovery, allowing for spams with little risk of being punished. Shadow Lord and Shadow Warrior are better when they are combined. So when characters like Jet and Kibo hit Marcus, it can be like a life-saver or a combo breaker.
Weaknesses: Despite his strengths with the Through the Glitch ability, he is just not good when he does not have the ability. Not only are his attacks slower than a turtle without it, the moves also have a long recovery time, allowing the opponent to perform roll + throws with no risks whatsoever. Also, due to him being slow, Marcus is weak when he is cornered by agile characters like Jet and Kibo. So use kicks and then punches if you have distance to make a comeback.
Helga
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: As an Abdicator of the Light, Helga excels at dealing with anti-shadow heroes. She herself has no shadow abilities, and other anti-shadow heroes like Azuma and Kate use shadow abilities themselves, making them more vulnerable to Helga’s assaults.
Similar to Kate, her sword’s strength lies in its agility. Versatile and agile, it is capable of hitting many areas and can easily build up the Power of Light.
Weaknesses: The Power of Light may be strong, but even it has limits. It cannot, for example, pierce the invincible defenses of Sarge’s shadow form, nor can it break through Shang’s shadow protection to deal real damage. Smites strike hard, but it still takes a small amount of time for it to hit. If the opponent can move fast enough, they can completely dodge the Smite and strike back at Helga.
Like Kate, Helga’s conventional attacks have weak amounts of Unbreakable. They also do not deal a lot of damage. As such, against opponents who are skilled at avoiding Shining Dashes and Smites, Helga will have trouble chipping away at their health; especially if the opponent is one of high health, such as Ling and Emperor and marcus in his normal state.
Jack Bulwark
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: Jack is able to tank hits with Unbreakable States. His successful attacks also put fractures on his opponents. Each fracture drastically increases the damage the opponent receives from attacks. Not only does the Fractures help Jack, whose physical attacks are not exactly impressive, deal a lot of damage, but they also persist between rounds should Jack fall to the opponent, allowing the next fighter to quickly finish off his opponent.
When his opponent is in Shadow Form, Jack activates his “Shadow Fortress” ability, which turns his shield’s Unbreakable State into an insurmountable wall. Those “walls” do not just protect Jack from anything – they repel them and knock back the opponent, leaving the opponent vulnerable to anything that Jack would love to pull off on them.
Weaknesses: Jack’s attacks make excellent counters, but are not the best offensive attacks. They are very slow, and can easily be avoided and countered if fighting a defensive opponent.
TIER 3 CHAMPIONS
This is the lowest tier in a tier list, reserved for the weakest or least effective options in the game.
Yukka and Shade
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: Yukka has mastered a special technique with her dadao. When she uses the dadao’s heavy slash, the second hit which Yukka throws an overhead forward slash at the opponent will carry an effect called “Guillotine”. When the Guillotine attack is not blocked, it will remove all open wounds on the opponent, dealing massive damage for each one.
She also possesses a modified moveset for the Dadao, which she viciously swings the heavy weapon at the opponent with a ridiculous amount of strength, and knocks the opponent farther than normal.
Weaknesses: Despite Yukka’s incredible offense capabilities, she is, like most other characters who bolster an extremely efficient fighting style with very high offensive potential, is a glass cannon. Her base 85 defense stat is better than other glass cannon characters like Kibo and Lynx, but is still very frail considering her fairly low HP.
Ironclad is the one character that Yukka users must avoid at all costs, since he not only does not receive knockback from Shade’s block breaking strategies, but he also gains more defense with each hit he has taken from Yukka’s attacks, which, with Yukka’s mediocre Shadow Attack power, means that Yukka will have a hard time taking him down.
Jack Bulwark with the Quick Reaction talent is also one of the characters Yukka users must avoid, since Shade’s block breaking strategies also do not work on him. Lastly, the new update which increases the knockback opponent receives from Yukka’s attack does not help her chain attacks due to the distance and can prove problematic against opponents who have more range than her, like Marcus, Hong-Joo, Kibo with Shadow Onslaught or even Jet.
Emperor
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: What is truly horrifying about Emperor is the Shadow Beast residing within him. When his Shadow Energy bar is full, he can transform into a Shadow Beast, casting an explosion which has a large radius and deals massive damage to anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the explosion radius.
After that, the controlling player plays as the Shadow Beast with no way to revert back to the Emperor himself. The Shadow Beast uses the claws as its weapons, and is unable to perform any kicks. Its attack will deal Shadow damage, which makes his attack pretty formidable now, and all its attacks steals its opponent’s health, but at the trade off of having its current and max HP cut by half. Despite the Shadow Beast constantly being in Shadow Form, it cannot use any Shadow Abilities until it has a fully charged Shadow Energy Bar, which lets it use Shadow Abilities, once before it is required to store up Shadow Energy for another one. The Emperor has various talents which improves his capability as a Shadow Beast and his capability to accumulate Shadow Energy in short order.
Weaknesses: The Emperor is quite tough, but the Shadow Beast is the complete opposite; upon transformation, the Emperor’s health is reduced to 45%. While the Shadow Beast is easily capable of destroying most opponents, weak and strong. Any hero who can manage to avoid its attacks while dishing out damage of their own can fight the beast with much more ease. Shang and Azuma are especially good examples. With his long-reaching combos, Shang can easily gather shadow energy to counterattack the beast before it can even regenerate. Azuma, on the other hand, has excellent options in his kit to contain the beast, and while he may be unable to use Consequence Management against the Shadow Beast, he can still neutralize its shadow abilities, which the beast can be dependent on. Perhaps the most dangerous enemy of the beast, however, is Helga with Light in the Shadows. As long as Helga stays near the beast, she can easily mitigate any healing it might receive and respond with her own attacks.
While the raging Shadow Beast might have its obvious weaknesses, even the stable Emperor himself has quite a few. It can take some time for him to gain shadow energy and transform into the beast. So anti-shadow heroes that can take shadow energy can delay the Emperor’s transformation. Kate is the best example of this, but other Heroes with similar Talents can also slow his metamorphosis.
Kate
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: As a Liquidator, Kate can burn her opponent’s Shadow Energy with any attack, absorbing it into her own reserve of shadow energy. Thanks to this unique talent, characters that need to build up shadow energy over an extended amount of time will find that it will be harder to activate their Shadow Form with Kate around, such as Shang, Ling, Marcus and Emperor.Kate can use her pair of swords in a unique way different from all the other Liquidators, with an extremely agile and versatile fighting style. While her attacks (with the exception of her heavy attack) are not Unbreakable, her moveset is versatile enough to account for many situations. Unlike other Legion characters who can enter the unbreakable state, Kate cannot (except for the heavy attack) but her attacks are fast. She is the only character who has a strong kick and have 3 ammo. Sarge’s invincibility needs shadow energy but since Kate can steal it, he cannot use the invincibility as it is his strongest move.
Weaknesses: While her shadow burning abilities are efficient against heroes who need lots of shadow energy, heroes that can accumulate a full shadow bar in less time see her abilities as little more than a nuisance. Kibo can rapidly accumulate shadow energy, and Fireguard needs to only wait a little more to use his abilities. Characters that do not use Shadow at all are completely unaffected. Unlike other Legion characters who can enter the unbreakable state, Kate cannot (except for the heavy attack). Kate has also low HP, so it is easy to kill her.
Azuma can knock her out of shadow form. Helga can have Smite and Light in the Shadows used against her which deals a lot of damage. Bulwark can have Shadow Fortress against her.
Shadow Fight 4 Arena Tier Tips & Tricks
Nekki Limited is a developer known for games like Vector and the Shadow Fight series. Shadow Fight Arena is their latest release, a PvP fighting game where players compete in 3 vs. 3 battles. The game features realistic fighting mechanics, stunning graphics, and various modes. Players collect Heroes from the Shadow Fight universe, each with unique abilities and Shadow forms.
In the game, players control their fighters using a virtual joystick for movement and modify attacks using buttons on the screen. Attacks include punches, kicks, ranged attacks, and activating Shadow Form. Blocking is automatic when standing still or walking. Defense is important, and players should observe opponents’ moves, block attacks, and use dodge rolls or aerial maneuvers to avoid damage.
Players can activate Shadow Form once the Shadow Energy bar is full. However, they should be cautious and wait for the right moment to activate it, considering the type of Shadow Ability and the current situation. Some Heroes can absorb opponents’ Shadow Energy.
Combos are effective in turning the tide of battle. Players can launch combos when the opponent is vulnerable, and it’s important to vary attacks, including kicks. Ranged attacks can be useful for the first strike or creating distance from opponents.
Players should not underestimate opponents with low health, as they can still deal significant damage. It’s crucial to know the Heroes’ talents and Shadow Abilities to formulate effective fight strategies. Upgrading Heroes and increasing the Account Level provide advantages in battles.
By following these tips and strategies, players can improve their performance in Shadow Fight Arena and achieve better results in battles.
In this article, we present to you the Shadow Fight 4 Arena Tier List, which we have prepared after extensive efforts. We gathered information from numerous sources, considered player feedback, and completed the rankings based on our experiences. We thank you for reading our Shadow Fight 4 Arena tier list, which we believe is the best resource available. Don’t forget to check out our website!