Character tier list (The Abyss, Danger 5)

Each character's best starting weapon, 400 simulated runs on The Abyss, Danger 5; score = share of runs that cleared wave 20.

Tiers by rank: the top 8% are S, the next 17% A, then 25% B, 25% C and the rest D.

• Every Danger level and endless mode, in the Crash Zone and in the Abyss (Abyssal Terrors); each starting weapon gets a first pass and the best ones many more runs. The game's waves (enemy groups, sizes, repeats and wave lengths from its wave files, the zone's boss at wave 20, two on Danger 5), enemy HP and damage by wave and Danger.
• Every material dropped is picked up; it is also XP. Harvesting pays at the end of each wave and grows 5% a wave. Crates drop at the enemies' own rates (more with Luck) and give an item of the wave's tier. The character's starting items and weapons are given at the start.
• Shop: 4 slots a wave, each a weapon 35% of the time (a copy of one you hold 20%, one of the same class 35%), tier by the game's odds for the wave and Luck, prices by the game's formula; up to 3 rerolls. Two copies of a weapon combine into the next tier. Level-ups offer 4 upgrades of the game's tiers for that level.
• Purchases and level-ups are chosen greedily: whatever raises damage-to-clear and survival most per material, counting what an item keeps adding later (each wave, level-up or reroll) and the materials it brings back over the rest of the run. Damage: every weapon's DPS by the game's formulas plus pierce, bounce, burning, explosions (also items' explosions on hit, kill, pickup or overkill), lightning and other on-hit projectiles, turrets, landmines and pets; 60% of the wave spent hitting; melee hits 1.5 enemies, explosions 3.
• Survival: 1% of a wave's enemies land a hit when the wave is cleared in time, more the longer they live; damage reduced by armor and dodge (the game's formulas), healed by HP regeneration and life steal. A run ends when a wave's hits exceed what the character can take. That share is the one tuned number: it was set so that the strongest builds win most Danger 5 runs, the weakest few.
• Curse (Abyssal Terrors) by the game's code: enemies spawn cursed at its odds with +150% HP (+2% per Curse) and +25% damage and drop 33% more materials; shop and crate items and weapons come cursed at its odds, boosted by 40% + 2% a wave ± 30% (good values up, bad ones down, weapon damage and scaling up) with Curse of their own; Curse also speeds up endless scaling.
• Endless: after wave 20 the game repeats waves 11–20 at 60 s each and adds int(wave ÷ 10 × 2) groups of its endless enemies; enemy HP grows by the endless factor × 2.25 and damage by the endless factor (RunData.get_endless_factor), prices and rerolls too, and harvesting shrinks 20% a wave. Runs stop at wave 100.
• Steps (Hiker): the game's count, 2 per play of the 0.6 s move animation, faster with Speed, with the character moving 75% of each wave (a model number). Marking (Diver) and bonus damage against burning targets (Chef): the share of a wave's enemies the marking hits or burns reach before they die.
• Not modelled: dodging by moving, knockback, speed (except for steps), elites and hordes, loot aliens, item effects that need standing still or moving, stealing, recycling and locking, effects that last only the next wave.