Identity V: All Hunters RANKED!
NOTE: This article is not yet updated for Season 25. HOWEVER, the above video is, and also includes Night Watch. So check that out :))
Identity V is such a hidden gem of a game. I was introduced to it by a good friend of mine, and ever since then, I've been hooked! I don't really love playing as Survivors, which is why I am going to have said friend write that article, but playing as Hunters? So fun. I may not be the most experienced player out there, but I still think my opinions are pretty objective and I think a casual player will find a lot of worth from this article! I will be ranking them in Tiers, with the D Tier spanning from 0-14 points, the C Tier 15-19 points, the B Tier spanning from 20-24 points, the A Tier spanning from 25-29 points, the S Tier spanning from 30-24 points, and finally, the S+ Tier, which boasts a perfect 35 points. This is one of those games where an experienced player can do well with any character, but, of course, the higher tier Hunters are higher tier for a reason. Like most other Identity V Hunter tier lists, the three main criteria in this article will be the triple C's: camp, chase, and control. Anyway, without further ado, RPG Ranked presents... Identity V: All Hunters RANKED!
D Tier
25. Hell Ember
Score: 5/35
Oh, how I used to love this guy! Back when I only had three Hunters unlocked? This guy was my main for some blasted reason. But turns out all of those three Hunters I bought first were also bottom tier Hunters... I should've done some research way back then! Anyway. Now to talk about why Hell Ember sucks. I'll just go in order with his abilities. First of all, his Awaken ability. With the Infernal Soul trait, Fury accumulates until you gain a Fury charge, which allows you to summon a phantom or awaken a puppet! Phantoms allow you to chase and camp, whereas Puppets allow you to teleport and camp. However, for those somehow not in the know, let me explain the issues with these seemingly-viable abilities. The Phantoms and Puppets are extremely slow and pitiful, and they take a lot of effort to summon... heck, getting yourself purposefully stunned is the best way to charge your Fury meter! Sure, they can be decent at camping for a double hit, and putting a Puppet next to a chair to spot nearby survivors can be nice, but even then, a well-coordinated team of survivors can easily dismantle puppets and kite to contain Phantoms until they disappear. Outside of the Phantoms and the Puppets, Hell Ember's chase is, in my opinion, the worst in the game, as he is incredibly slow and has no way of dealing long0range damage or buffing his movement speed. Overall, Hell Ember's camping is his only use, and even then, other Hunters can do it much better. D Tier for sure.
24. "Nightmare"
Score: 6/35
At first, I thought this guy wasn't that bad. But after playing him and comparing him to other hunters, I realized he sucks. His skillset offers two things: better short-range attacks in the form of dives and the ability to send out ravens to track down Survivors and teleport to them. When using Spy, after a short period of time, "Nightmare" can dash forward to hit the enemy with a normal attack. However, if you are pursuing a Survivor anywhere outside of an open field, the Dive ability is very easily counterable and becomes a very unreliable chase ability. The saving grace of "Nightmare" is his great Raven ability, which is essentially a better version of the Hunter skill, Teleport. With the Raven, you can teleport to any cipher machine, in-use Rocket Chair, or Survivor who has been revealed. He also has one other ability, which allows him to walk a bit faster while not in pursuit—but this doesn't remedy his weak chase and camp. Overall, since he can teleport and track down Survivors fairly well and get around the map decently fast, I find "Nightmare" to be just a smidge better than Hell Ember.
23. Smiley Face
Score: 10/35
Having only one ability, Smiley Face seems like the easiest character to use on surface level—heck, his difficulty is a 1! However, there is quite a bit of nuance and skill that comes via his Rocket Modification External Trait! Okay, so normally, his Rocket Dash allows you to have very high mobility and chase an enemy down rather well. Using Rocket Modification, you can increase your speed, mitigate the limit on how long you can dash, and increase the amount of time it takes for Survivors to heal! This all sounds great, but Smiley Face definitely has his issues. One, he is reliant on what he is able to collect throughout the map, or else he isn't good. Two, even though Smiley Face has decent chase in wide, open areas, when obstacles are introduced, a simple kiting strategy can easily shut down a Smiley Face. Three, he has weak camp and map control! And last but not least, though he is chase is pretty good, it is heavily reliant on one ability that takes a while to use! Overall, decent enough at chase that I find him quite a bit better than the last two Hunters, but his camp is probably the worst of any Hunter in the game.
22. The Ripper
Score: 13/35
The Ripper isn't necessarily unviable, but he is very much outclassed by other Hunters. Jack's chase is actually rather good, but it is heavily reliant on charging up and landing shots with Fog Blades. Once fired at a Survivor, you can chase them well and you can become Hidden in Mist. His chase essentially relies on if you can land these Fog Blades, or otherwise, you are screwed. A good Survivor will be able to dodge these not-so-long-range blades, and your pursuit opportunities would be shut down. Overall, The Ripper has potential to have good chase and good movement speed, but his way of doing so is shaky at best.
21. "Undead"
Score: 14/35
The abilities of this character? Very strong at crowd-control, pursuit, and mobility. However, even though his attacks when overcharged can break pallets, cover tons of ground, and kill people in one move, he has some glaring issues that prevent him from being a good Hunter. First of all, his dash is very unreliable outside of open areas, just like Smiley Face and "Nightmare." Two, if he overcharges too much, he can be heavily penalized. Three, even though his chase is great, his camp sucks. Why? Due to his garbage Surrogate ability, he doesn't eliminate Survivors via Rocket Chairs... this allows Percy to be countered extremely easily via a well-executed Cipher Rush. Overall, his Kinetic Dash Hit, Charged Strike, and Frequency Conversion abilities are all quite good, but since his kill method is abysmal, this hunter is no better than a high D Tier character.
C Tier
20. Evil Reptilian
Score: 15/35
This Hunter may be a hopping baller, but is he great? No. His Preying Leap allows him to traverse the map quickly via jumping, and he can crash down to attack at any time. Once Fatal Crash is unlocked, he can smash into a Survivor and quickly incapacitate them with a normal attack! Once Mania is unlocked, he can triple jump, giving him even more mobility! However, here's the problem with Preying Leap. You can get around the map very easily, but the leaps and crashes are too unprecise to land effective attacks. Essentially, the Evil Reptilian is just a better version of "Nightmare" that still has a lot of flaws. Overall, the Evil Reptilian has some of the best map traversal in the entire game, but his camp sucks and his chase is good, but unreliable.
19. Gamekeeper
Score: 16/35
Hooks and traps. It's like Junkrat and Roadhog combined, but in Identity V. The Gamekeeper can hook to objects to choose well, and then hook again to bring in the target. He can also counter prolonged Survivor containment with traps so you can double hit or Terror Shock the opponents. Utilizing Traps and the hook well allows Gamekeeper to be incredibly dangerous at high presence, especially because of Thorny Hook. Gamekeeper is one of the few Hunters who can Terror Shock from a distance, and both his camp and chase are pretty good! However, his traps tend to be rather counterable, and since his hook isn't as good as many other Hunter abilities, overall, he is just a very mid Hunter.
18. Clerk
Score: 17/35
Clerk is the weirdest, newest, and possibly the hardest Hunter in Identity V. the gimmick of this Hunter is to record yourself and Survivors to play back actions and use them to interact with the environment. This allows you to attack twice in a row with a well-timed replay, lift pallets, reverse decoding on cipher machines, break pallets, et cetera. The biggest draw to the Clerk is that it can nullify the effects of pallets better than any other character in the game save The Breaking Wheel! This really helps the Clerk to have some great chase capabilities! While recording Survivors, you can see them through walls, and via the Inspect ability, you can see if any Survivors are at a certain location... and it can be used almost indefinitely! Overall, with her ability to nullify the effects of pallets and find Survivors easily, as well as reverse decoding, the Clerk is a great Hunter! However, many Hunters can do her job much better, so she is just decent.
17. Wax Artist
Score: 18/35
With reduced recovery times and long-range damage and stuns, you'd think that the Wax Artist would be one of the best Hunters in the game. And in some regions and servers? The Wax Artist is. Due to how the map selection works in this game, the North American servers have just been riddled with walls and unopen areas. Whereas all of the maps tend to suffer from obstacles (hindering characters like Smiley Face and "Undead"), this isn't the case on as many maps when it comes to the walls in the way of the Wax Artist. On Eastern servers, the Wax Artist is extremely dominant! At least that is what I've heard, anyway. But I digress. Why I say all of this is because some people may argue that the Wax Artist should be placed lower, and some would argue that it should be placed higher. So I placed it near the middle in terms of points. Moving on from that, I'll explain some crap now. The Sputter ability lets you stun from range, and once you have enough Presence, so does the Solid Wax ability. Once you get Molten Wax, the Wax Artist becomes extremely fun to use, and in theory, it is pretty dang broken! However, building up to high Presence in the first place is an issue since a good Survivor team can kite around an area where there are tons of walls and windows! Sure, you can disable ciphers and windows temporarily with wax, but that'll cause you to run out of energy very fast, and a good Survivor will just move on to another window! Overall, even though Wax Artist has great abilities, if you go up against a good team, getting high enough Presence is very difficult, so Wax Artist is no better than C Tier.
16. Mad Eyes
Score: 19/35
Mad Eyes is a very interesting case. At first glance, his chase and camp suck. But once you figure him out? He is quite good! The thing about Mad Eyes is that, through accessing consoles, he can literally attack Survivors anywhere on the map without even moving an inch. No other Hunter has anything even close to that in terms of range! However, outside of being able to do this? He has nothing. Mad Eyes has to rely on very smart placement of walls to have good camp, and it takes too long for you to access your portable console for you to have good short-range chase. However, once you master the use of the rather clunky console mechanic, you can build walls to deal damage, trap enemies, or block consoles, chairs, and exit gates! So, Mad Eyes requires a lot of skill, right? What puts him in C Tier instead of something higher like B, A, or maybe even S? The fact that Survivors can drain the energy from the consoles via hacking them. Because of this, Mad Eyes's whole skillset can be taken away from him if the Survivor team is smart enough! If one player is decoding a cipher and one his hacking a console, then there is very little hope for Burke to do anything. Overall, Mad eyes can become very deadly once he is mastered, but since he can be taken down by an intelligent team of Survivors very easily, he cannot rank any higher on this list.
B Tier
15. Photographer
Score: 20/35
Of all the Hunters in Identity V, the Photographer is perhaps the most varied in terms of effectiveness. The Photographer is sadly very much luck-based, as this Hunter heavily relies on you being able to assume where Survivors are located in the Photo World. Now, if all of the Survivors were cipher rushing Joseph as a group, you could easily get a team kill... S Tier Hunter right there! However, if all of the Survivors are doing there own thing and you can't find them in the Photo World, you waste a ton of valuable time and the Photographer ends up becoming a low D Tier character. The usefulness of Joseph just relies on how the Survivors decide to take you on, and if they understand all of the nuance that comes with the Photo World. Overall, this guy is unreliable, but has the potential for greatness.
14. The Feaster
Score: 21/35
This character is very basic and one note... but he is a pretty dang good Hunter. With his tentacles, Nightmare Attack, and great basic attacks, The Feaster can both camp and chase from long-range with his tentacles! Outside of attacking from range, the tentacles allow you to use Shape of Terror to heavily debuff enemies around them, and Nightmare Gaze allow you to double-hit enemies as well! The biggest downside is that good Survivors can strafe in a way that it confuses tentacles and causes them to not land their attacks. Survivors can also take them down, which is annoying. Overall, The Feaster is very powerful, but other than its attacks? The Feaster isn't distinct enough to match up with the other stronger Hunters on this list.
13. Wu Chang
Score: 23/35
Wu Chang is a very strong and versatile Hunter! With the umbrella allowing you to buff and debuff enemies with the Infinite Nirvana ability, and with Lost Soul and Spiritless, you can mess with Survivors in a very helpful way! Being able to teleport and chase Survivors using the umbrella is also great, and this is the best way to switch between souls! Speaking of switching between souls, the biggest draw of Wu Chang is the Dual Soul ability. The White Guard is a master of chase, as you move fast and have good charged attacks! And on the other hand, the Black Guard is a master of camping, as you have fast stun recovery and attack! Overall, with great buffs, debuffs, and versatility, Wu Chang is amazing, but doesn't have the range and powerful abilities of the next Hunters.
A Tier
12. The Violinist
Score: 25/35
The Violinist's Demon Notes are quite literally overpowered! With three stacks of them, you can decrease movement speed by 12% and decoding, healing, and gate-opening speed by 50%! Terrifying String Music allows the player to deal long-range damage, and when you vibrate the ability with Infinite Movement, it can be great for AoE damage! Also, with Rhapsody, Violinist can attack very fast, stack up Demon Notes, and ignore the backswing on attacks! Overall, the Violinist is just a bit better at chase and camp than the B Tier Hunters, but not quite as great as the rest of the A Tier Hunters.
11. "Disciple"
Score: 26/35
I'm just going to admit it... I despise playing as "Disciple." She may just be my least favorite Hunter in the game to play as other than Hell Ember and "Nightmare". But subjectivity aside, there's no denying that Ann is an amazing Hunter! With her Swoop ability, she can send her cat toward Survivors to inflict various effects. Once a cat clings to a Survivor, one option is to intimidate a survivor to disable them from decoding, healing, and using their items. Even better, you can enter the Paralysis Area of the Survivor to obtain a guaranteed two-hit kill! This is great for camping and chasing! Last but not least, you can also teleport to Survivors that the cat has clung to! Overall, with great camp, chase, debuffs, and great damage output, "Disciple" is a fantastic hunter.
10. Soul Weaver
Score: 27/35
With Webbing and Spinning, Soul Weaver is a chasing master. Entangling enemies with three layers and/or speeding yourself up with three layers will make you a speed demon and a master of chase! Add the long-range Web Attack ability, and you not only have a good attack, but an amazing debuffer. In addition to great chase, Soul Weaver can use Cocoon Death to more reliably kill enemies and camp! The biggest thing holding Soul Weaver back is its very slow energy regeneration, but that isn't as big of a detriment that many Hunters have, so it isn't too big of a deal. Overall, as any good Hunter can, with the abilities to effectively chase, camp, buff, and debuff, the Soul Weaver is just really great.
9. Axe Boy
Score: 28/35
This Hunter is something else! He can plant Peaceful Pines to create Restful Roads or to utilize Resentful Souls! With Restful Roads (or by absorbing Resentful Souls), you can amplify your speed very well to have great chase! There isn't much else to say about this Hunter... Overall, Axe Boy has extremely high mobility and amazing chase, but not as good as the next few survivors. Still though, the top of A Tier is a pretty hefty achievement!
S Tier
8. Naiad
Score: 30/35
The Naiad is the first Hunter in the S Tier for a reason... she is the first Hunter on this list that has great crowd control capabilities! Though she doesn't have the long-range attacks of some of the previous Hunters, she makes up for it in her high movement speed and her ability to control the map via covering it with water. Once water covers a Survivor, their interaction speed will decrease, and once their Humidity is high enough, you can deal a sizable chunk of damage! On top of being able to deal good damage in a large area on the map, you can charge forward and hit Survivors with Surging Tides to give them a ton of Humidity! Overall, with great crowd control, map control, and movement speed, Naiad is an amazing Hunter!
7. Guard 26
Score: 31/35
Thank heavens Guard 26 doesn't have a score of 26... I'm glad he is one of the best in the game! Why do I care so much? Because Guard 26 is my favorite Hunter in the game! And it isn't even close! Okay, well never mind. Sculptor, Wax Artist, and Geisha are up there, but still not as fun as Guard 26! Up against really good Survivor players, Guard 26 may not have the best chase, but it is still pretty good... especially against inexperienced Survivors! However, there is no denying that Guard 26 is unmatchable in terms of crowd control and camp! With remote bombs and time-controlled bombs, Guard 26 can adapt to any situation, all while controlling the crowd. Overall, Guard 26 is very simple, but also very powerful.
6. Hermit
Score: 32/35
Our newest Hunter currently seems like a mix between "Disciple," Prospector, and Prisoner. With electrical charges, the ability to essentially teleport, with crowd control, two-hit capabilities with AoE stuns, and the ability to completely mess with how ciphers are decoded, Hermit is easily one of the strongest Hunters at this point, even if he has only been out for a bit. He'll probably fall a bit once he is nerfed and such, but overall, he is an AMAZING hunter at the moment and I'm super excited to keep playing him. Honestly, he will probably become my new favorite Hunter once I get the hang of his abilities!
5. Bloody Queen
Score: 33/35
I find Bloody Queen and Geisha to be just about the same in terms of how powerful they are. The only reason I rank Bloody Queen lower is because her recharge time is a little bit too long for me to say she is better. However, I think this balances out by the fact that if the Survivor looks at Geisha, her abilities are disabled. Personally, I find the recharge time to be more annoying, but either way, I think they are about equally as good. Simply put though, Geisha has the best chase in the game, and Bloody Queen has the least counterable chase in the game. There is almost no way to kite a good Bloody Queen, and because of that, Bloody Queen is one of the best Hunters in the game.
4. Geisha
Score: 33/35
Like I said, I find Bloody Queen and Geisha to be on par, but I personally like Geisha better. In fact, I like Geisha a lot better, as she is one of my favorite Hunters in the game! With her butterflies, she can chase and teleport with almost no recharge time, and though it can be countered, it is still amazing. Overall, Bloody Queen and Geisha both rank near the top of S Tier and are interchangable in my mind as two of the best Hunters in the game.
3. Sculptor
Score: 34/35
Using sculptures, you can completely mess up kites and deal huge damage while controlling the path of the Survivor you are attacking! This Hunter is extremely dominant in both camping and chasing, and is honestly not all that hard to get the hang of! You can attack horizontally and vertically with the Sculptures of Wisdom and Agility, and with enough Presence? You can chase Survivors with the homing Sculptures of Nobility, as well as gain access to the Hieroglyphic Graveyard ability, which allows you to fight from a top-down perspective! Overall, with sculptures being effective at both chase and camp, the Sculptor is easily one of the best Hunters in the game.
S+ Tier
2. The Breaking Wheel
Score: 35/35
Now we have reached the best of the best when it comes to Hunters. These last two Hunters are two of the most complicated by far, but it is worth learning them because, though they are complicated, they are amazing. With The Breaking Wheel's Execution Wheel ability, The Breaking Wheel can increase his movement speed by 80%, immunize himself from all control effects, and break pallets instantly! His main way of dealing damage comes from his Spike ability, which can be utilized in a different way by each of the three brothers to do good damage! The eldest brother's Reticent ability allows you to trap and slow and inflict a spike. The middle brother can use his Pessimistic ability to inflict spikes in a large radius in human form, and the youngest can use his Ridicule ability to inflict spikes in a large radius when switching between forms. Once spikes are inflicted, when the Breaking Wheel attacks, it deals extra damage! This allows for extremely good camp and extremely good damage, and with his mobility, he also has amazing chase. Overall, this Hunter is so powerful and is only matched by one other...
1. Dream Witch
The Breaking Wheel may be complicated, but I think the Dream Witch is even more so. Regardless of that fact, Dream Witch has been dominating the game ever since Season 4 when it came out. If you've played her extensively and have gotten the hang of her, you know what I mean! Overall, with insane map control, good pursuit, and all the crazy crap that her followers can do and such, Dream Witch is the best Hunter in Identity V. And there's no question about it.
As a bonus, I will rank all of the Hunters by how fun I find them to play as:
24. Hell Ember
23. "Disciple"
22. Gamekeeper
21. Smiley Face
20. The Ripper
19. "Nightmare"
18. The Feaster
17. Wu Chang
16. "Undead"
15. Dream Witch
14. Clerk
13. Mad Eyes
12. Bloody Queen
11. Naiad
10. Soul Weaver
9. Evil Reptilian
8. Photographer
7. Axe Boy
6. The Breaking Wheel
5. Violinist
4. Wax Artist
3. Geisha
2. Sculptor
1. Guard 26
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