Best Chrono Trigger Characters TIER LIST
This Best Chrono Trigger Characters Tier List will give you the rundown on the best and worst party members in Chrono Trigger so you can build the best team.
If you’re playing Chrono Trigger, especially for the first time, you’re going to want to know which characters are the best and which ones you’ll probably want to leave on the bench. This best Chrono Triggers characters tier list will help you do exactly that.
This Chrono Trigger characters tier list takes into consideration each character’s usefulness throughout the game, not just at the end when they’re fully developed and have all their best equipment and techs.
S Tier – Chrono Trigger Characters
Crono
When it comes to the best Chrono Trigger characters, no one really holds a candle to the main character, Crono, which is great because he’s required in your party for most of the game.
He has the strongest physical attack except at extraordinarily high levels that you’re unlikely to achieve without cheating or grinding for hours. He has the best magic damage, despite not having a particularly high magic stat, thanks to Luminaire. He even has a decent amount of utility provided by his Raise spell.
From beginning to end, Crono pulls his weight on the team and then some. Even towards the end of the game where he’s no longer required to lead your party, you’d be insane not to include him whenever he’s available.
A Tier – Chrono Trigger Characters
Ayla
Ayla may not have access to magic of any kind, but that doesn’t stop her from being almost undeniably the second best party member in the game. Her physical attack power is phenomenal and rivals Crono’s, eventually surpassing him at level 99 when she gets her final fist upgrade.
Ayla and Crono’s dual tech, Falcon Strike, is probably the most useful, economical and damaging move in the game, all things considered. Even though it only hit in a line, almost every major threat in the game happens to come in a line formation, including all phases of the final boss, so it might as well be a hit-all attack. It does exceptional damage and only costs 4 MP each.
Ayla also has access to Charm, the only stealing skill in the game, and since Chrono Trigger is an old school jRPG, there are a ton of quality missable items and pieces of equipment that can be obtained via liberal use of the Charm skill. You’ll want Ayla in your party for sure.
Robo
Robo, who, like Ayla, is completely lacking in magic, easily ranks as the 3rd best character in the game. Despite not having magic, he has much greater skill versatility than any of the other characters and, somewhat counter-intuitively, the best heal spell in Heal Beam.
Heal Beam, aside from Frog’s Heal spell, is the only multitarget healing ability in Chrono Trigger, and it’s vastly superior to Heal. It scales very well with the magic stat so, even without using any of your magic capsules on Robo, it still outheals Frog’s Heal spell, but if you dump the magic capsules that you do get into Robo, he’ll be full-healing your team every cast for a measly 3 MP.
Robo also gets great damaging skills, including access to a variety of elements (Shadow, Fire and Light). His Rapid-fire Fist (Uzzi Punch in the SNES version) is one of the straight up most powerful attacks in the game. In later variations, he gets access to a weapon called Apocalypse Arm which deals 9999 damage on critical hits, although it doesn’t critically hit very often. Still very handy.
Finally, when it comes to techs, Crono, Ayla and Robo has access to a cheap target-all triple tech that does fantastic damage.
B Tier – Chrono Trigger Characters
Frog
Frog has many of the same benefits as Robo but, overall, is not quite as good. He has a heal all spell, which is nice, but not as good as Robo’s. He has a decent physical attack and a few attack skills, which are all nice but, again, not as good as Robo’s, and he has target-all magic damage, which… you guessed it, is not as good as Robo’s.
Still, if you don’t like Robo for whatever reason, Frog makes a fine replacement. If I’m being honest, I think Frog looks so much cooler than Robo that it more than makes up the difference, but if we’re talking strictly gameplay, Robo is the better party member.
Frog, like Robo, has a good triple tech with Crono and Ayla, except his is single target and it takes a tremendous amount of Ayla’s MP to use.
Magus
Out of all the Chrono Trigger characters, Magus is the king of magic damage. Or, he would be, except Crono’s Luminaire is better than Magus’s Dark Matter. Still, Magus has a huge magic stat and access to every element of magic, which can be very useful in a game where hitting enemy weaknesses usually has powerful secondary effects like paralyzing them or dropping their defense to zero.
The main problem with Magus is not in his skillset or his stats, it’s that he doesn’t get any double or triple techs with Crono, which really limits his effectiveness since he can’t synergize with the rest of the team in the same way Ayla, Frog and Robo can.
He also doesn’t have anything going for him except magic damage. He has no utility skills of any kind and his physical damage is limited to just his standard physical attack, which is, while not terrible, nothing to write home about.
C Tier – Chrono Trigger Characters
Marle
For a character who sacrifices all offensive potential in order to be a dedicated support character, Marle is not even a very good support character. She doesn’t even get a target-all heal spell!
Her physical attack is very bad. Her heals are not good, since they’re only single target. Her magic power is middling at best. The only things separating her from the pack are her Haste spell and her Arise spell, and even those are of limited utility.
Haste is a fantastic buff for sure, but Auto-Haste is prevalent on more than enough endgame equipment to make casting it not worthwhile. Meanwhile, Arise is a great spell, but it’s not so much better than Crono’s Raise spell or the Athenian Waters you can buy at any shop that it makes for a compelling reason to drag Marle along.
If you’re looking for a healer among the Chrono Trigger characters, both Robo and Frog are vastly better options, and both provide their healing without sacrificing offense.
D Tier – Chrono Trigger Characters
Lucca
Lucca, like Magus, is a dedicated mage, and she does a decent job of it. The problem is, she has all the same problems Magus has and worse. In the endgame, Lucca mainly exists to cast Flare over and over again. Flare does damage on par with Dark Matter and Luminaire, but it’s all Lucca can do.
Magus can at least use a variety of elements and make use of a fairly decent physical attack. Lucca can’t even do that. There is very little compelling reason to ever include Lucca in your party over any other character. When it comes to Chrono Trigger characters, Lucca is definitely the worst.
That about covers it when it comes to the Best Chrono Trigger Characters Tier List. Be sure to check out the Games Section or the Main Page for more game guides like this, and click here for more content related to Chrono Trigger.
