The two lists rank the same ten bots backwards
If you look up a SteamWorld Heist 2 crew tier list, you will find two of them, and they do not agree. They are close to inverted.
| Crew | KosGuides tier | TheGamer rank |
|---|---|---|
| Daisy Clutch | S | 9th |
| Wesley Hotchkiss | S | 1st |
| Chimney | A | 2nd |
| Crowbar | A | 10th |
| Poe Phroggi | A | 3rd |
| Tristan Torque | B | 8th |
| Beacon Potts | B | 5th |
| Sola Fathom | B | 7th |
| Cornelius Column | C | 4th |
| Dame Judy Wrench | C | 6th |
Daisy is S-tier in one and ninth in the other. Crowbar is A-tier in one and dead last in the other. Cornelius is C-tier in one and fourth in the other.
They are both right, because they are measuring different moments.
The S/A/B/C list measures the post-second-skill ceiling — what each bot becomes once you have ground out their second personal upgrade. At that point Daisy’s Studious reduces every Cog cost by 1, letting her stack skills from every job in combinations nobody else can afford, and Crowbar’s Bad Vibes turns every hit into 4 armour-ignoring damage on everything nearby.
The 1-to-10 list measures practical availability — what each bot is worth while you are actually playing. At that point Daisy is a generalist with no niche that needs an expensive grind to fix, and Crowbar’s first skill, Hollow Frame, only matters on maps with high platforms and does nothing on the horizontal ones.
The practical reading: use the 1-to-10 list for who to bring, and the S/A/B/C list for who to invest in.
When the tier list stops mattering at all
Here is the thing both sources quietly agree on, and it is more important than either ranking.
Because you can switch jobs by swapping weapons and then buy skills from other jobs with Cogs, your crew members become increasingly similar as the game goes on. The personal skills are the only thing that still separates them.
On top of that, the fatigue system forces you to use everyone if you want the good bounty rewards. You do not get to run a fixed squad of four.
So the honest advice is: use whatever jobs on whatever characters you like. The tier list only starts to earn its keep in two situations:
- Above Experienced difficulty, where job-and-character pairing is worth real thought.
- In the final zone, where the sharp increase in flying enemies exposes the Brawler’s limits badly.
All ten, with their exact skills
1. Wesley Hotchkiss — the one both lists agree on
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Grenadier | The first Grenade-type utility item used each turn is a free action |
| Veteran Wardog | On kill: +1 damage for the remainder of the turn. Stacks up to 3 times, for +3 total |
He is the only bot both lists put at the top, and the reason is that his two skills feed each other. Toss a grenade as a free action, kill two or three things with it, and then fire your main weapon with +2 or +3 damage already stacked.
He works best as a Reaper or Boomer, because those jobs’ attributes and passives suit Veteran Wardog.
The loop: grenade (free) → kill → fire main weapon buffed. It is hard to argue with it.
2. Rosa “Chimney” Rivets
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Tit-For-Tat | Whenever she takes damage, she immediately deals 2 damage back to the attacker |
| Double Down | Attack twice with her primary weapon every few turns |
She starts as a Brawler, so she has armour abilities already. Keep her healed with something like Adrenaline and just keep charging in — every hit she takes pays 2 back.
3. Poe Phroggi
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Hasty | Unconditional +2 Move |
| Slippery | 50% chance to evade any enemy projectile. On a success the projectile keeps flying as if she were not there |
Her passives are simple and incredibly strong on any class — you cannot pick wrong with her. Late game she becomes an unconventional tank: do not rely on the coin flip, but a hot streak at the right moment wins a mission.
4. Cornelius “Hightower” Column
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Abs of Steel | Invulnerable to all damage until the start of his next turn, and taunts all enemies until then. Ends his turn. 1 charge |
| Body Butter | Upgrades it: free action, +1 charge, 3-turn cooldown |
Cornelius is the panic button. The taunt gives you a free turn of breathing room when the rest of your team is caught out of position — enemies will try to attack him no matter what they were doing. Note the trade-off: Abs of Steel ends his turn, so you are buying a turn, not making a play.
5. Beacon Potts
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Scram | Teleport anywhere the crew can see |
| Sneakstrike | Scram becomes a free action and grants Invisible after teleporting |
Beacon is one of only two crew who start with Sniper levels, which alone makes him worth recruiting. Scram gets him out of danger or into a perfect headshot position.
With Sneakstrike the whole turn opens up: Scram, reload and fire the sniper rifle, all in one turn.
One caveat on Invisible: it stops enemies targeting him, but he can still be hit by explosions and other indirect effects.
6. Dame Judy Wrench
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Harsh Language | Instant 3 true damage (ignores armour) to any target on the map. 1 AP. 3-turn cooldown |
| Sick Burn | Upgrades it: +1 damage, free action, inflicts Burn, and hits all grounded targets within 2 tiles of the primary target (range affected by Aura) |
The first version is merely fine — 3 chip damage that costs an action point. Sick Burn is a different story: free, area, and it sets everything it touches on fire. That makes her essential late, thinning hordes and wearing down bosses on turns when you have no time to attack directly.
Her Aura boosts apply to it, so she pairs with Engineers especially well.
7. Sola Fathom
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Eldritch Beam | A penetrating laser with a full aimline — 5 damage, 10-turn cooldown, cooldown reduced by 1 per kill |
| Secrets of the Deep | Becomes a free action, 10 damage, and she heals 1 HP per enemy scrapped |
Potentially the most devastating single attack you have, and it is entirely a positioning puzzle. Bounce the beam so it crosses as many targets as possible, and then scrap things quickly afterwards, because every kill knocks a turn off the cooldown.
8. Tristan Torque
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Always Prepared | Use Repair items as a free action |
| Believe It | Attacking no longer ends his turn, as long as he still has AP |
The closest thing the game has to a dedicated healer. Always Prepared covers items like the Air Stim and Jazzy Repair Record, which can target any ally on the map — but not job abilities like the Engineer’s Maintenance Protocol. He also recovers 1 HP whenever he heals someone else by any means, so every heal is also a self-heal.
9. Daisy Clutch
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Stun Gun | An auxiliary sidearm. 1 damage, 2 charges, stuns most enemies on hit |
| Studious | All Cog costs reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1 |
Early on she is unremarkable. With Studious she becomes arguably the strongest and most versatile bot in the crew, because she can mix and match job skills to a degree nobody else can afford.
Her Stun Gun also has a specific boss use: bosses can be stunned once per encounter, after which they are immune. Save it for the moment that matters.
10. Barbara “Crowbar” Crowe
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Hollow Frame | Can jump to high platforms others would need a ladder for |
| Bad Vibes | Whenever she damages an enemy, all ground enemies within 2 spaces take 4 damage, ignoring armour |
She starts as a Flanker, so she is exceptionally mobile. Her first skill is situational — superb on vertical maps, near-useless on horizontal ones.
Bad Vibes is what flips her value, and it is why one list has her A-tier. But it takes a long time to unlock, so the practical advice is to save her for one of your last crew slots.
The one that catches everyone out
Whatever list you follow, know this before the final zone: the Brawler’s limits become obvious there.
A large number of enemies are functionally immune to melee — flying drones, ceiling-mounted turrets and the like — and their numbers rise sharply at the end. If you have built a Brawler-heavy crew, that is where it stops working.