Every character ranked for the game's last balance patch — with the strategy that makes them work, the hole that gets them beaten, and the exact patch note that put them where they are.
Learn these first
Tier lists are downstream of these. If you only remember three things from this page, remember these — they explain why the top of the list looks the way it does.
Matches in Aces are lost by broken rackets far more often than by clean winners. Every mistimed block chips durability. This is why defensive characters sit at the top and why Dry Bowser's passive is the single strongest trait in the game.
Trick Shots generate energy, Zone Speed burns it, Zone Shots spend it to threaten rackets. Characters with long, cheap Trick Shot range effectively print money. Characters who must sprint to reach balls are permanently in debt.
Raw shot speed only wins if the opponent can't get there. Reach and Trick Shot coverage turn winners into rallies, and rallies favour whoever is spending less energy. Power is a finisher, never a gameplan.
The ranking
Ordered within each tier. Click any name to jump to its full breakdown. Dot colour = character class.
Full breakdown
Playstyle, optimal strategy, and the weakness a good opponent will find inside three games.
No characters match that filter.
Cheat sheet
Not hard counters — Aces has no rock-paper-scissors — but these are the tendencies that show up over a long set.
Absorbs power characters until their energy runs dry. Struggles against Tricky characters whose curve pulls them past the edge of their reach advantage.
Shreds rackets on blocks and punishes slow, angled setup shots. Loses to anyone who simply returns the ball and makes them cover the court.
Extreme cross-court angles beat pure footspeed and drag walls off the baseline. Folds against power because their own shots don't threaten rackets.
Outruns curve before it lands and never lets a balanced player settle. Runs out of finishing power against anything that can block comfortably.
Curve lands outside the reach of even the widest wall. Gets flattened by anyone who steps to the net and takes the ball before the bend happens.
No losing matchup, no winning one. Genuinely fine, and the correct pick if you want the character to stop being a variable while you learn the mechanics.
Receipts
The balance history, condensed. Repeated nerfs are the clearest signal a character was dominant — and the final two patches are the ones most tier lists on the internet never got updated for.