Order Automatica unit tier list

The Units tab of the Codex shows a 5x4 grid of player portraits. That is the launch 20. This list names the units public footage and screenshots have already printed, then ranks the rest as archetypes until your Codex fills the remaining titles. Enemy units are a separate 17-count list; they are mentioned only when they punish a player plan.

S means “build around this if the shop offers it.” A means “always happy to merge.” B means “fills a hole.” C means “Distill bait unless the rest of the board already speaks its language.”

S-tier

Madame — Upon Death: triggers the special ability of 2 adjacent units. She is a combo piece, not a duelist. Cell 5 or any plus-shape with two friends whose abilities you actually want to fire. Pair with Imp, row summoners, or anything that wants to declare twice.

Imp — When Battle Begins: deals 1 damage to all adjacent units. Tiny body, enormous text. Center him when you want to chip an enemy cluster; keep him off your own tanks if the line does not say “enemy.” Always hover.

Pig — When unit levels up: gain extra Essence. Combat stats are a 2/2 joke. Economy is not. Merge Pig, take level-up Indulgences, and buy the rest of the board with the coins he prints.

Hermit (row summoner) — On death, summons 1/1 fish (or equivalent) to empty spots in its row. The entire grid guide exists so you leave those spots empty. S-tier only if you respect the empty tiles.

A-tier

Baker — Start of preparation: give units +1/+1 (wording varies by level). A baker is a shop engine. Keep him alive through preparation; his fight is optional.

Blood Keeper — On kill, if the damaged enemy dies this turn, gain attack and health on the 1 / 3 / 6 curve. Wants to swing from a low cell number after a chip piece has already softened the target.

Life Holder — Upon Death: give adjacent allies health. Cardinal adjacency only. Plant in 5, die on purpose if you have Poison, otherwise let the front collapse into him.

Flagellant — When damaged, gains attack. Wants cell 1 or 2. A backline Flagellant is a different, worse card.

Front-line tanks (Featureless, Silent Executioner, bald 4-defense portraits) — No fancy text, lots of numbers. Initiate S, Adept A. Someone has to sit in cell 1.

B-tier

Hold rat / between-battle item unit — Does not belong on the grid. Park in Hold and collect the free item. Playing it in cell 3 because the shop was empty is a B-tier mistake, not a B-tier unit.

Nurse / medic portraits — Support stats, usually a heal or shield trigger. Fine as a second item holder. Rarely the win condition.

Soldier-cap and construction-hat bodies — Honest stats, modest triggers. Merge them if they are already on the board. Do not Draw Again looking for a third.

Mage / purple-hat row chip — Deals damage across a matching row. Wants a row that faces occupied enemy cells. Empty enemy row = wasted shop.

C-tier (until the board says otherwise)

Random 1/1 leftover portraits — Distill them. The Distill slot is how C-tier becomes an item.

Zombie — Demo communities called a 5/5 Zombie too strong in older builds. Launch-week footage still shows a green undead 2/3 in the Codex; treat current Zombie as “check the printed stats” rather than copying a 2025 forum post.

Manifester — Famous for Distill plus Disposable loops in development builds. If your 1.00 copy still allows the old loop, it jumps to S. If the launch patch closed it, he is a combo unit waiting for the right relic. Test once, then rank for your patch.

Enemy units you should respect

You do not draft the 17 enemy units, but you do draft against them. Summoner enemies fill rows the way Hermit does. Adjacent-damage enemies punish clustered tanks. If the opposing cell 1 is a giant defense number, stop chipping the backline and answer the front. The ranks walkthrough is where those shapes start appearing on Penitent and Adept.

How to use this with the shop

1. Identify the portrait’s trigger family: death, battle-start, damaged, level-up, Hold.
2. Place it in the cell that family needs (see grid and positioning).
3. Merge copies of the family you already committed to.
4. Distill the rest.

If two S-tier units show up and they contradict (Pig wants level-ups, a Poison Madame wants empty item slots and a death), pick one sentence and Distill the other. Split boards lose candles. Pair the survivor with items from the item tier list and a persistent upgrade from Indulgences.

For finished boards instead of letters, open synergy builds.