The 7 best AFK Journey characters, ranked

AFK Journey’s best characters are always there for you. They’re the ones you pull by accident in your first Noble Tavern Recruitments and end up following you all the way to the Trials of Abyss, when they’re still pretty good.

The best AFK Journey heroes, ranked

1. Smokey & Meerky
2. Cecia
3. Rowan
4. Antandra
5. Thoran
6. Koko
7. Reinier

1) Smokey & Meerky

Smokey & Meerky are the best character in AFK Journey. This support duo provides constant area healing, Haste, and Attack buffs through their aroma cloud, making them essential for keeping allies alive and significantly boosting damage. With their EX Weapon in the endgame, they also deal damage to enemy heroes caught in the aroma, enhancing their versatility. Their ability to work effectively as tanks, healers, and attackers makes Smokey & Meerky an essential part of any team.

2) Cecia

Cecia is the premier damage dealer in AFK Journey. Her ultimate, Mr. Carlyle, is a minion that not only immobilizes enemies with a massive area Entangle effect but also damages them with its auto-attacks. With Cecia’s EX weapon, she and Mr. Carlyle steal enemy defenses, increasing their own lethality and durability. This makes Cecia a formidable solo damage carry in many compositions, including in PvP: once Mr. Carlyle is deployed, it becomes really hard to prevent it from decimating the entire backline.

3) Rowan

Rowan is a utility support that excels in accelerating your squad. He’s the only AFK Journey hero who can provide energy to allies in an area, enabling your entire team to use their ultimates faster, often outpacing the enemy. If this advantage allows you to defeat one or two enemy heroes before they can retaliate with their ultimates, the battle is won, courtesy of Rowan. Given that most characters in the game aim to activate their ultimates as swiftly as possible, Rowan is a suitable addition to almost any team.

4) Antandra

Antandra can taunt enemies in an area, reduce her damage taken, become immune to crowd control, and shield one ally, all while also decreasing enemy attack and stunning them. There’s not much else you could ask from a tank in AFK Journey, making Antandra the ideal partner for pretty much any other tank or warrior in the game. If you want a robust frontline to provide your backline with ample time to build up their ultimates, Antandra is a must.

5) Thoran

Thoran is also a great tank in AFK Journey, thanks to his ability to resurrect himself once per battle. Not only that, but his ultimate deals incredible retaliation damage in an area, and he drains enemies’ HP with Soul Plunder. In Mythic+, he can partially absorb damage for an ally, providing him with the team play aspect he lacked before reaching that point. Overall, Thoran excels due to his tankiness and his capability to convert enemy damage into his own with his ultimate, making him a menace regardless of who’s on his team.

6) Koko

Koko is the best offensive support in the game. Her ultimate provides all allies with increased Attack and Life Drain, enabling them to heal themselves by dealing damage instead of relying on her for healing. She reduces the damage her allies take, marks enemies to receive increased damage, and offers single-target healing with an additional Attack boost. These offensive buffs can be so significant that often, replacing an offensive character with Koko results in an overall increase in team damage.

7) Reinier

While Reinier is a Hypogean hero that’s challenging to unlock, they’re worth the effort. They truly shine in their ability to swap the positions of one of your heroes with an opponent, which alone can disrupt an entire team strategy. For instance, relocating a Rowan from the enemy’s backline to your team can effectively disrupt their energy ramping, allowing you to gain the upper hand even if Rowan isn’t dealt with immediately. Reinier excels at targeting key heroes of an opponent’s team and forcing them to operate without them.

How we make our AFK Journey best heroes ranking

Our ranking of AFK Journey heroes considers several criteria:

• Usefulness in all stages of the game is critical. Characters who are strong and useful from the moment you acquire them are preferred. For instance, Cecia is favored over Arden, whose area damage relies heavily on his EX Weapon and specific late-game combos. Cecia is also chosen over Mirael, who becomes increasingly vulnerable as you progress into the later stages of the game.
• Viability in different game modes also plays a significant role. Characters that are versatile across various game settings, such as AFK Stages, Story, Dream Realm, and Arena, are considered stronger. Reinier, who excels both as a formation-breaker in team modes and in dealing single-target damage in the Dream Realm, is rated higher than Kruger, who specializes only in the Dream Realm, and Silvina, who is effective at breaking enemy backlines in team modes but struggles in boss fights.
• Independence is another important factor. Heroes who make a significant impact regardless of the other characters in your squad are highly valued. Smokey & Meerky, for instance, are almost always the best support choices, regardless of your team’s composition. Conversely, heroes like Eironn, Berial, and Igor, who require specific roles and functions from their teammates to maximize their effectiveness, are ranked lower.

For a detailed view of the entire roster of AFK Journey characters, check out our updated heroes tier list. This story is current as of patch v1.1.13, and we will update it was new patches roll out and new heroes release.