Part of the Sea of Conquest Tier List Series:

Tier List Hub: How these rankings are built.

Heroes Hub: How the hero system works.

Ship Tier List: The hulls they crew.

Best Heroes for Ships: Turning rankings into lineups.

Quick Answer

The current meta flagship core is Toothsome Tom as captain, with Chien and Callahan Durrach alongside him. Two independent 2026 sources agree on this, and it has been stable through recent patches.

The best Epic in the game is Cursed Ed — a universal damage amplifier who stays in the formation long after most Epics get benched. If you are free-to-play, he matters more to you than any Legendary you cannot promote.

One correction worth acting on today: Cordelia does not belong on your flagship. Her healing scales with the damage her ship takes, so she performs better on a high-ATK side ship. Putting your best support on the flagship is an intuitive mistake that costs real throughput.

Read This Before the Rankings

Three caveats that make the difference between using a tier list well and badly.

There are two combat modes, and they rank differently. Naval Warfare fields up to 3 heroes per ship against monsters, forts and ships. Close Combat is a 5v5 turn-based mode. Most published tier lists — including the most-cited one — rank Close Combat only. A hero can be excellent in one and unremarkable in the other.

Star level beats tier. A 6-star Epic outperforms a 2-star Legendary, consistently. This is the single most important fact in the game's progression, and it inverts a lot of tier-list advice. Build what you can actually promote.

Availability is part of a hero's real rating. A hero you can never promote is a worse investment than a slightly weaker hero whose shards you can farm. Collab heroes in particular are one-window-only — no Sea of Conquest collaboration has ever been documented as rerunning.

The Flagship Core

The flagship now supports five hero slots, and the last two are role-locked:

Slot 4 — Master-at-Arms: defense heroes only
Slot 5 — Surgeon: support heroes only

The current consensus core:

Slot	Hero	Why
Captain	Toothsome Tom	The current meta flagship captain across multiple 2026 sources
Core	Chien	Defense and damage mitigation — described as the pillar of flagship defense
Core	Callahan Durrach	Flagship shielding; a clear powercreep addition
Master-at-Arms	A defense hero — Yuji, Obi or Akhlut the Anchor Lord	Role-locked slot
Surgeon	A support hero — Umar is the F2P pick	Role-locked slot

Alternative captain: Old Ahab, who supplies fleet-wide shielding and is easier to rank up than the newest Legendaries because he sits in the standard Conch summon pool. For most players building toward the meta rather than already there, Ahab is the realistic answer.

S Tier

Heroes ranked S in the current lists (v1.1.740, August 2026):

Flagship and defense: Toothsome Tom · Chien · Callahan Durrach · Old Ahab · Akhlut the Anchor Lord (aggro-pull tank) · Yuji

Damage: Alonso · Crow · Cecilia Schafer · Luna (Gunner, Cutthroat) · Lester (Blaze captain, applies burning) · Ophelia (Artillery captain) · Griffin (AoE artillery/strategic carry) · Bones (Cutthroat captain, single-target burst) · Sharky (artillery burst first mate)

Strategic and control: Kalomira (the newest hero as of v1.1.740, and the standout pick for strategic ships) · Boa (see the caveat below) · Erik (best non-SP strategic captain)

Collab: Mai Shiranui · B. Jenet — both from the KOF XV event

Long John Silver and several others round out the tier.

The Boa caveat. Rankings for Boa range from B to S depending on the source, and the reason is star level: she is roughly B+ at 6 stars, A+ at 12, and only S+ once upgraded to her Naga Enchantress form. She is also VIP-crate gated. Any list ranking her flat S without that context is misleading you.

A Tier

Support: Cordelia (arguably the best support in the game — but on a side ship, not the flagship) · Linae (the best support captain, though realistically whale-gated) · Umar (the support captain F2P players can actually build) · Wanda (accelerates rage generation) · Laila (fleet-wide ATK buff, rage restoration, healing, and a 5th skill that prevents ship death) · Madame Lulu (Epic healer first mate, free from the Pirate King's Trail)

Damage and utility: Chizuru (artillery first mate) · Qi Lanting (artillery alternative) · Fifi Chapeau · Jim Hawkins · Obi · Tien (universal buffer/debuffer) · Kartal (cutthroat gunner) · Skorn · Lord Kojo (assassin first mate) · Oscar (Epic artillery amplifier, reduces early rage cost) · Will (Epic blaze first mate, free from Azure Promise day 2) · Cursed Ed (Epic, "jack of all trades" universal damage amplifier — the best Epic in the game)

Fung (strategic gunner) · Molly (one of the best universal gunners) · Eileen (Epic drowning first mate) · Barnacle (drowning captain) · Margaret (cutthroat flex with aggro manipulation) · Magnus (defensive gunner, VIP13-exclusive)

B and C Tier

B: Henry Hell (the starter Rare) · Ned · Mad Dog · Zola (Rare captain) · Tanaka and Adeline (the Season 2 heroes)

C: Betty · Jango · Armstrong

None of these are wasted — they fill seats while you build. The mistake is not fielding them, it is promoting them.

The Free-to-Play Tier List

If you are not spending, the ranking changes completely, because obtainability becomes the primary criterion.

Build these first:

Cursed Ed (Epic). Universal damage amplification means he never leaves your formation, and Epic shards are farmable. The best value hero in the game for a free account.
Madame Lulu (Epic healer). Free from the Pirate King's Trail beginner event — claim it before the 7 days expire.
Will (Epic blaze first mate). Free from Azure Promise, day 2.
Old Ahab. In the standard Conch pool, so he is the Legendary you can realistically rank up.
Umar. The support captain designed for players who cannot build Linae.
Oscar and Sharky. Epic amplifiers with real ceilings.

Do not chase: the newest Legendaries or collab heroes with limited pulls. A 6-star Epic beats a 2-star Legendary, and that is not close.

Collaboration Heroes

Collab	Heroes	Ran
KOF XV	Mai Shiranui, B. Jenet	August 2025
Onimusha	Onimusha (cutthroat first mate)	Season 3
Fist of the North Star	Kenshiro, Mamiya	August 2026

No collaboration has been documented as rerunning. Treat every window as your only chance — and note that one creator estimated roughly $1,000 to take a KOF collab hero to 12 stars, so "getting" one and "building" one are very different projects.

Collabs appear to run on a roughly annual August rhythm, which is worth planning your saved currency around.

SP Heroes

SP heroes sit in a separate top rarity tier, outside the standard Conch pool, obtained through limited-window event spending. Vantanos is one example. They have the strongest kits at full investment and underperform maxed standard Legendaries at low star ranks — the usual trap.

Full detail in the SP heroes guide.

FAQ

Who is the best hero in Sea of Conquest?

For the flagship, Toothsome Tom as captain with Chien and Callahan Durrach. For value, Cursed Ed — the best Epic in the game and the one most players should actually build.

What is the best Epic hero?

Cursed Ed. He is a universal damage amplifier who stays in the formation long after other Epics are benched.

Should I put Cordelia on my flagship?

No. Her healing scales with damage taken by her ship, so she performs better on a high-ATK side ship.

Is a Legendary always better than an Epic?

No. A 6-star Epic outperforms a 2-star Legendary. Build what you can promote.

Are collab heroes worth chasing?

Only if they fill a gap and you can invest properly. No collab has been documented as rerunning, but full builds are extremely expensive.

Why do tier lists disagree about Boa?

Because her power depends heavily on star level and her Naga Enchantress upgrade — roughly B+ at 6 stars, S+ only when upgraded. She is also VIP-gated.

Key Takeaways

Meta flagship core: Toothsome Tom, Chien, Callahan Durrach. Old Ahab is the realistic alternative.
Cursed Ed is the best Epic and the best F2P investment in the game.
A 6-star Epic beats a 2-star Legendary. Promotion beats rarity.
Cordelia belongs on a side ship, not the flagship.
Collabs never rerun. Treat every window as final.

Sea of Conquest Hero Tier List (August 2026): Every Hero Ranked