"Normal Cats (基本キャラ, Kihon Kyara, Basic Characters) are the first units the player unlocks as they progress through the game's opening saga, Empire of Cats. While they are the first cats the player gets, the group becomes a high-tier collection, and their higher (+) levels and True Forms, alongside their Crazed Cat counterparts make them necessary for many Legend Stages."
- The Battle Cats Miraheze Wiki
This ranking does NOT use the same methodology that’s used throughout this document for ubers. The standard and balance is drastically different than ubers due to them being free units acquired at the start of the game.
It’s also worth saying that the letter grades for this tier list is not proportional to the uber lists. A unit ranking C tier on this list does NOT mean they rank C tier on the uber list, these cats are being distributed in a vacuum.
The general idea of this tier list is that Normal cats will be ranked by their usefulness across the entire game. This includes all portions from Early to Post game. The exception to this is Superfeline who will be ranked at his max level across post-UL content.
Levels and boost are of minimum concern as all Normal cats' + levels accumulate overtime as you log in and clear ticket stages to scale with enemy magnifications as you progress.
Combos are accounted for. However, uber rare combos will not be accounted since Battle Cats is designed specifically to be played uberless.
S: Tank
A: Superfeline
B: Lizard, Fish
C: Gross
D: Titan, Axe
E: Bird, Cat
F: Cow
The latest ranking video I uploaded to YouTube for these cats. The tier list above is the most accurate and recent ranking.
A basic meatshield costing 75c, offering no strong stats except for spammability to distract enemies and protect your attackers behind.
A beefier meatshield with significant HP for his low cost. Tends to survive at least one hit from most enemies in early to late game for nearly unrivaled stalling performance.
A spammable melee attacker with strong against Red. Notable for Empire of Cats, but becomes too cash draining and weak on stats shortly after. Has a notable weaken cat combo and restriction stage usage.
A spammable mid-ranger with single target. Does solid damage from a decent range, has strong against Aliens in true form for Into the Future and is a cost effective attacker.
A rusher with fast speed and rapid attack rate. Good for convenience by farming on easier stages or Treasure grinding. Has poor stats and is cost draining on serious stages.
A melee attacker with high damage but poor HP. Usable only against enemies with point blank range as Bird has awful survivability. Stats fall off quickly. Has a below average research combo.
A melee tank with strong against Red. Has good bulk and damage but is sluggish in speed and quite pricy. Not useful late game, however is one of the strongest Normals on restriction stages.
A backliner with high stats in HP and damage, but wields single target. Stands afar to deal good DPS overtime. Powerful across early to mid game and has good usage on restriction stages.
https://battlecats.miraheze.org/wiki/Lizard_Cat_(Normal_Cat)
A melee tank with high HP and damage, wielding 1 knockback for high sturdiness. Wields KB to occasionally push enemies back. Stats fall off late game but remains a top pick for restriction stages.
A rusher with omni and massive damage against Relics, providing as a mini version of Idi. Notable for shutting down UL 3 crown Relic-based stages and being nearly required to conquer Doremi revenge uberless.
https://battlecats.miraheze.org/wiki/Superfeline_(Normal_Cat)
"Why is Superfeline so high? He's way too difficult to boost."
It's true that he is extremely inpractical to use for most players, however if you were able to max him out to +90, he is very strong against Relics across UL and notable for being required for Babies First for a casual play through and Revival of Origin 3 crown.
"How is Axe Cat not the worst Normal?"
Dark isn't as useless as you'd think. He wields a Medium weaken duration up with Dark Lazer, allowing many weaken units to reach 100% uptime which notably includes Professor Cat Jobs who needs this combo to cheese levels like Primeval Cyclone. But even as a unit, he has 2 notable stages being Hannya Revenge and Doremi Revenge where he can be used viably as a melee attacker.
"On the Crazed list, Crazed Cow is super high while Cow here is very low. This is contradictory, what is the logic?"
Crazed Cow ranked high because of his convenience in farming and rushing easier stages. Normal Cow has the same qualities except he is confined to early game content, as he becomes completely outclassed by his Crazed variant the moment it's unlocked. Knowing this, Cow loses all of his usage as the Crazed variant does significantly better with high speed and area attacks. Rarely do you use both together except for niche stages like Love Metal Hippoe.
"Why is Island Cat so high? He's slow, expensive, and his Red niche is overshadowed by Courier and Roe."
It is true that as a unit, Island is not a good pick especially in later game content. However, I have given Island lots of credit due to his dominance in Normal restriction stages. There are 3 notable stages: Wahwah, Hannya Revenge, and Doremi Revenge. Island is a top pick on all 3 of these stages which gives him a significant advantage over many other Normals.
"If you're running with the above logic, then why isn't Titan higher? He is strong on Normal restriction stages too."
Of the 3 Normal restriction stages, Titan is strong on Wahwah and Doremi. However, the placement before, Dark, is also strong on 2 of 3 Normal restriction stages being Hannya and Doremi. The difference is Dark has a weaken combo while Titan has some small usage as a unit like on Crazed/ Manic Bird.
"Why is Bird higher than Cat?"
These 2 units offer value at completely different points of the game. Cat is valuable as one of your primary meatshields for the entire early game (alongside Boogie and Tank) and only starts falling off once Crazed Cat and Crazed Tank are acquired. On the other end, Bird is useless nearly everywhere (including EOC) but has small usage against Crazed/ Manic Cow, Doremi Revenge, and has a research combo. Cat has more versatility, but Bird directly targets more relevant stages. I prefer the latter option.