[ Guide ] Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remastered Demon Tier List

While the English release of Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remastered is still a while away, you’ll be thanking us for our foresight in making this handy dandy tier list to avoid maybe one less endless ENEMY TURN scenario. Jokes aside, you can, of course, finish the game with your favourite demons by manipulating game mechanics like the turn press, innate resistances and inheritable skills that can make the same demon vastly different from playthrough to playthrough.

BASICS

The tier list is based on a given demon’s:

• Number of resistances
• Difficulty on inheriting skills
• Initial level
• Fusion difficulty

Physical damage wins out magical damage, as physical damage can continuously be raised as you level up even when your STR is capped (40). Magic damage will be capped according to your MAG stat (also 40). Thus inheritable physical skills have more weight, namely Thrust, Weapons, Claws, Fangs. This also means a demon’s ability to become a magic dealer will not be considered, but as long as they have skill slots free, you can throw in a magic-based skill as needed as all magical skills can be inherited by any demon.

You may see some demons with low initial levels still be ranked highly. This is because all demons can be capped out fully with mitama and levelled beyond 99. The game’s max level is 250, but visually you will only see this as lv. 99. This just means that lower initial level demons can still outclass others.

TIER S DEMONS

Vishnu	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Deity	3	None			Prayer, Hades Blast, Radiance
Resist	Phy, Fire, Ice, Force, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Repel	Expel
Nul	Death
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Shiva	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fury	3	None			Victory Cry, Hassohappa, Megidolaon
Resist	Phy, Fire, Ice, Force, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Nul	Expel, Death
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Beelzebub	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Tyrant	2	None			Deathflies, Victory Cry, Megidolaon
Resist	Phy, Ice, Elec, Force
Repel	Expel, Death
Nul	Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Claw
Metatron	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Seraph	5	None			Fire of Sinai, Victory Cry, Debilitate
Resist	Phy, Fire, Elec, Force
Nul	Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust
Surtr	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Tyrant	3	None			Attack All, Ragnarok, War Cry
Absorb	Fire
Weak	Ice
Nul	Death, Mind, Nerve
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
The Harlot	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fiend	3	None			Focus, Beast Roar, Dekunda
Repel	Phy
Absorb	Elec
Nul	Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Bite

These demons have generally many resistances, immunity to status effects and nullifying instant deaths. Exceptions will be noted, namely:

• Surtr
  • Packs a physical attack dealing fire-based damage, thus can be boosted by relevant fire-boosts
  • To make him more durable you’d want a slot to nullify ice damage e.g. Void Ice / Drain Ice / Repel Ice
  • This ends up making Surtr hard to customize, but the sheer firepower he packs makes it worth while
• Beelzebub
  • Only 2 innate skills means he can be fit into any role
  • Cons: mutating Hamaon, Mudoon or Diarama will be needed if you want him to learn Iron Claw, the highest DPS Claw ability
• Harlot and Beelzebub deal the highest single target damage through Iron Claw and Hell Fang
  • Sacrifices the least HP out of the Tier S demons
• Metatron
  • Least customizable demon, but many useful support spells e.g. Tarukaja, Debilitate
  • Also possesses arguably the best in-game passive, Victory Cry

TIER A DEMONS

Futomimi	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Kishin	4	None			Focus, War Cry
Resist	Phy
Nul	Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust
Seiten Taisei	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fury	3	None			Hassohappa, Tarukaja, Sukukaja
Nul	Phy, Expel, Death
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Aciel	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Tyrant	2	None			Victory Cry, Hell Fang, Hades Blast
Resist	Fire, Ice, Elec, Force
Nul	Expel
Repel	Death
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Bite
Albion	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Entity	3	Diarama			Hades Blast
Nul	Phy, Ice, Expel
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Michael	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Seraph	2	None			Deathbound, Victory Cry, Megidolaon
Nul	Fire, Ice, Elec, Force
Repel	Expel
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Hell Biker	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fiend	2	None			Hell Exhaust
Nul	Fire, Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Absorb	Force
Inheritable Skills	Thrust
Matador	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fiend	2	None			Red Capote, Dekunda, Focus
Nul	Force, Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon

All demons featured in this tier do not have weaknesses, but fall short in several places in having lesser resistances and non-mutatable innate skills for less flexibility. Noteworthy demons in this tier are:

• Aciel
  • Victory Cry, Hellfang, Hades Blast being the best combination of innate skills
  • Highly customizable and easiest demon to fuse
• Michael is an especially tricky demon due to requiring sacrifice for fusion, making it hard to get a desired skill set
• Metador and Hellbiker have somewhat useful innate skills and pack a good number of resistances
  • Also has access to Physical skills like Thrust
• Futomimi
  • Has good resistances but 4 innate skills make him less flexible to use

TIER B DEMONS

Titania	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fairy	2	None			Prayer
Resist	Fire, Ice, Elec, Force
Repel	Expel, Death
Inheritable Skills	None
Atropos	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Femme	3	Bufudyne, Ziodyne, Zandyne, Megidola			None
Nul	Expel, Death, Mind
Inheritable Skills	None
Lachesis	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Femme	3	None			Rakukaja, Sukukaja
Nul	Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	None
Cu Chulainn	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Genma	3	Retaliate, Zandyne			Sukukaja
Repel	Force
Nul	Expel
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Valkyrie	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Wargod	2	Counter, Diarama, Agilao			None
Absorb	Fire
Nul	Expel
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Loki	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Tyrant	2	Mudoon, Mana Gain			None
Resist	Phy, Fire, Ice, Elec, Force, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust
Ongyo-ki	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Brute	3	Megido, Mudoon			Victory Cry
Nul	Phy, Death, Mind, Curse
Weak	Expel
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Pale Rider	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fiend	2	Megido, Mudoon			Bright Might, Dark Might, Pestilence
Nul	Ice, Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Red Rider	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fiend	2	None			Dekunda, Wind Cutter, Terrorblade
Nul	Elec, Force, Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	Thrust, Weapon
Daisoujou	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fiend	2	None			Prayer, Meditation
Nu	Expel, Nerve
Repel	Death
Absorb	Mind, Curse
Inheritable Skills	None
Black Rider	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Fiend	2	Megidola			Megidolaon, Soul Divide
Absorb	Ice
Nul	Expel, Death, Mind, Nerve, Curse
Inheritable Skills	None
Lilith	Race	Innate Skills	Mutatable Skills			Notable Skills
	Night	2	None			Hell Fang
Resist	Fire, Ice, Elec, Force
Nul	Expel, Death
Inheritable Skills	Bite

Most of the demons in this tier do not have weaknesses, and even have pretty good resistances. However, their inheritable skills aren’t up to par and it takes a lot of effort to make them viable. Some specific examples are:

• Valkyrie and Loki
  • No weaknesses and quite a few mutatable skills, making them super flexible
  • However, mutating their skills as well as levelling them up will require a fair amount of investment
    • Example skill set 1: (DPS + debuffer + recovery support + buff) – Focus, Pierce, Hades Blast, Delibitate, Prayer, Samrecarm, Tarukaja, Victory Cry
    • Example skill set 2: (DPS + buff + canceler + recovery support) – Focus Pierce, Hades Blast, Tarukaja, Rakukaja, Dekaja, Dekunda, Prayer, Victory Cry
• Titania, Lachesis, Atropos, Daisoujou, Black Rider all have good resistances, hampered by their inability to learn Physical skills and are forced into healing / support / debuff roles
  • They can be made into Magic DPS units, but as we’ve established, Magic Damage gets hard-capped late game and thus not as efficient
• Pale Rider and Red Rider can learn Physical skills, but their innate skills are bad
• Lilith has good resistances but only has Hellfang and cannot inherit Hades Blast
• Cu Chulainn has no weaknesses, but resistances are subpar
  • Seiten Taisei ranks higher due to having Null Physical
• Ongyo-Ki has good resistances but weak to expel
  • Will need a skill slot for void expel
  • Requires sacrifice for fusions, so RNG is involved despite customizable innate skills

CLOSING WORDS

To reiterate, yes, you can play through the game however you like. We are simply offering the best options for your time, for something to work towards as you yourself figure out what best matches your playstyle.

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster will be available in the west in Spring 2021 with Dante available as an add-on paid DLC.