Sam Tier List for Serious Sam: Shatterverse

Launch-week ranks, not gospel

The five Sams are not hats. Each one ships unique modifiers that change a run, and the July 2026 playtest made that official. This list ranks them for launch week on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S using those notes plus early reviews. It is not a year of patched infinite data. Behaviour already moved ultimates closer together once. They can do it again.

Tier	Sam	Why the letter
S	Alien Sam	Raw damage, Quad Wield, four-arm frontline
S	Cartoon Sam	Fast dash recharge, bigger explosions, rim control
A	Retro Sam	Decoy aggro after the one-second fuse buff
A	Orphan Sam	Buzzsaw portal that spikes in 4–5 player rooms
B	Broken Sam	Hold-the-line veteran, solid, less flashy

If your lobby size disagrees with a letter, trust the lobby. Orphan Sam is an A because of groups, not because she solos every sniper map. Broken Sam is a B because he is less flashy, not because he cannot clear. Read the child pages on the Players Hub before you spend Catalyst Orbs to ‘fix’ a letter.

S-tier: damage and movement

Alien Sam sits in S for raw damage. Enots Mas is the first friendly Aludran Reptiloid in the series, he has four arms, and Quad Wield is a named ultimate that multiplies whatever you were already firing. In a packed arena he deletes the cluster the rest of the squad is trying to manage. That is why launch-week play puts him high. It is also why five Alien Sams is a bad composition: you get a lot of barrels and no peel. Play him as the frontliner, not as the entire roster.

Caveats: Quad Wield was rebalanced toward the other ultimates, so it is not a free lieutenant skip. Energy guns still overheat. Late pistols still feel obsolete; four of them do not become a minigun. Solo Alien Sam is strong and also greedy about standing in the worst tile. If you cannot melee-execute under pressure, the S-tier damage will not save a dead Reptiloid.

Cartoon Sam sits in S for movement. Playtest notes are the source, not a vibe: he walks slower because of short legs, his dash recharges faster, and explosions are bigger by default. That package wins arenas that punish planted players. He is the rim runner in a five-stack and the reason a solo player can leave a slam telegraph. TechTimes used him as the example of why kits are not reskins. Believe the short legs, then spend the dash.

Caveats: the slow walk is real. If you refuse to dash, he is not S. Behaviour has not published a named ultimate for him the way it named Quad Wield and decoys; the kit is the modifier list, and you should experiment instead of inventing a cartoon hammer. Explosion size is a gift until you steal execute targets or stand in your own blast. Pair him with boom Intel in the builds guide, not with a sniper identity you saw on a thumbnail.

A-tier: control, with conditions

Retro Sam is A for control. He is the low-poly First Encounter look, voiced by John J. Dick, and his decoys wait about a second before they explode. That delay is a playtest buff so they can pull aggro into the blast. In co-op he is the reason an add-wave looks at the wrong Sam. In solo he is a panic button that is not another dash. He is also the on-ramp most players start with, which would normally park a character in B. The fuse change and the unique modifiers keep him in A.

Caveats: he loses a raw damage race to Alien Sam and a mobility race to Cartoon Sam. Analog Stick’s clone description is accurate and so is the complaint that specials stay on the same three levers. Wide arenas with bad pathing make decoys look like a novelty. If your five-stack already has two control kits, buy a frontliner instead of a third Retro Sam.

Orphan Sam is A because of 4–5 player groups. The portal of shredding buzzsaws is a blender on a choke, a revive tile, or a lieutenant add-spawn. Analog Stick said it is great in large groups and also said the kits feel simple after many runs. Both things are true. In a full lobby she is the reason a doorway stays dead. In a silent solo on a sniper map she is a woman dropping saws on empty air.

Caveats: there is no buzzsaw shield or invuln bubble. The special is static. She needs teammates who look at the floor so Cartoon Sam does not dash through the blender. Rank her S in your head only when four friends are actually in the session. Rank her B for yourself if you only play offline. The letter on this page is the group case, because Shatterverse sold 1–5 player co-op on the box.

B-tier: solid on purpose

Broken Sam is B. He is the older, jaded Boomer Sam, the hold-the-line veteran, the I’m too old for this kit. One upgrade path heals him when he uses his ultimate, and that heal is self-only. Behaviour has not published a flashy named toy for the rest of the button, and this list will not invent one. He is solid. He is less flashy. That is the honest launch-week read.

Caveats: B is not a ban. A doorway still needs a Sam. Five-player wipes often start because nobody held a lane while the S-tier Sams chased clips. Broken Sam is the adult in that lobby. He will not out-burst Alien Sam or out-dash Cartoon Sam. He will still clear Serious difficulty with a planted minigun and the self-heal path. If your stack already has a dasher, a Reptiloid, and a portal, he is the correct fourth or fifth pick even though the letter is lower.

Unknown ultimate details are a ranking tax. Until the rest of the button is documented, we refuse to slide him into A on vibes. Experiment, then come back if a patch names the kit.

How group size moves the letters

Solo and offline are real. Co-op is 1–5 with cross-play and peer-to-peer. The same Sam is not the same letter in every size.

• Solo: Alien Sam and Cartoon Sam stay S. Retro Sam stays A. Orphan Sam slides toward B unless you create the crowd for her. Broken Sam stays B and may feel better than Orphan Sam because the self-heal does not need friends.
• 2–3 players: mix one S and one A. Do not double Alien Sam until both of you can revive without standing in Quad Wield.
• 4–5 players: Orphan Sam’s A is doing extra work. Broken Sam’s B is also doing extra work because someone has to hold the back door. Five of any letter is still a bad idea.

Unlock order does not have to follow S-tier. You start with one Sam, usually Retro Sam, and the other four cost Catalyst Orbs. Analog Stick unlocked them in a little over two hours, or about four partial runs. Buy the hole in your squad, not the highest letter. The Players Hub table is the shopping list. This page is the argument.

How to disagree with this list

If Cartoon Sam’s walk speed is ruining your life, he is not S for you. If you only play five-stacks on voice, Orphan Sam may be S for you. Write that on a sticky, then still read the builds guide so the letter is attached to Intel instead of a mesh you like. When a patch lands, start at the updates hub and the launch notes before you screenshot this table as a crime.

We will not add a secret sixth Sam. We will not pretend Inverse Sam is playable. We will not move Broken Sam to F because he is old. The roster is five. The letters are three. The rest is a run.

These ranks exist so a launch-week player can spend orbs without pretending a YouTube thumbnail is a patch note. Take Alien Sam if you want the damage argument, Cartoon Sam if you want the dash argument, and everyone else when the lobby actually needs them. Then go prove the letter on a lieutenant instead of quoting this table in party chat like it shipped on a stone tablet.