Brawl Stars Tier List — August 2026 (Season 53 Windstock)
Updated August 7. Season 53 “Windstock” is live — it started August 6, 2026 and runs to September 3, replacing Season 52 NanoNoodles. The two Seasons were shipped together in Update 68 as one story, and the mechanic carries over rather than resetting: NanoPowers keep working in Windstock, and Windstock adds Fusions — 106 of them across the same four rarities (Baseline, Augmented, Cybernetic, Quantum), earned from Smoothie Drops instead of NanoDrops. A Fusion is a stronger variant of a NanoPower and replaces it on that Brawler, so the seasonal power layer gets deeper this month, not wiped.
Correction to our own earlier version of this page. We previously told you Supercell published no notes for the August 4 maintenance. That was wrong — the notes exist in full, and they matter, because they split into two separate lists that most tier lists smash together. The NanoPower list only edits seasonal powers. The general balance list edits base kits, and it was all nerfs, no buffs: Starr Nova (health 4,000 → 3,700, reload 1,400 → 1,600, Power Level: Maximum capped 30% → 20%, Floaty Time 10s → 7s), Damian (fire punch and explosion both 1,000 → 800, Super speaker bounce 800 → 400, speaker health 2,000 → 1,500), Crow (main attack 380 → 320), Bolt (Super shield 40% → 30%, Super charge from moving −23%), 8-Bit (Super charge rate 99 → 80), Max (Super charge rate 92 → 80), Griff (Piggy Bank radius 800 → 600) and Surge (unload 400 → 470, Power Shield ammo 2 → 1).
Two names we previously reported are now corrected. Sirius’ base kit was never touched on August 4 — only his NanoPowers were (shadow health 40% → 30%, shadow spawn 8s → 16s), and those apply solely in modes running the seasonal modifier. Edgar’s “buff” was also NanoPower-only (Super auto-charge 100% → 150%); his base kit is unchanged. Reporting a NanoPower change as a power-level shift is the single most common error in Brawl Stars tier lists right now, and we made it too.
How to read the letters below. Tier letters are a measurement — the top-200 win/pick composite sampled before August 4, which is the last complete dataset that exists. The ▼ markers are derived from the published notes, not re-measured. We keep the two apart on purpose: nobody has post-August-4 match data yet, so any list that confidently reshuffles its board this week is guessing. Where a letter and an arrow disagree, that disagreement is the most useful thing on this page.
Two independent reads, deliberately kept separate: noff.gg tracks win and pick rates from the top 200 players in the world and refreshes daily, and Brawl Time Ninja publishes real-match adjusted win rate plus a community list carrying 131,241 votes collected since August 3, 2026. Where both agree, the verdict is safe. Where they split, the row says so — that split is usually the most useful information on the page.
| Tier | Brawler | What the data says |
|---|---|---|
| S | Surge | The only pick that is S-tier in every cut we checked — top-200 24-hour meta, top-200 30-day general, and the Brawl Time community list. Still the safest single Brawler to own for ranked, and the August 4 trim was the mildest on the board: unload speed 400 → 470 and Power Shield reload ammo 2 → 1. ▼ mild. |
| S | Edgar | S in both top-200 windows and the community list, and the most-picked Brawler in Solo Showdown at 11.58% — but his Solo Showdown win rate is only 36.9%. Elite in coordinated play, a trap in solo queue. Read the next section before you main him. |
| S | Sirius | Ranked #1 in the top-200 24-hour meta and the single most popular Brawler right now; 49.8% win rate at 9.43% pick in Solo Showdown. Brawl Time places him one step lower at A — the gap is popularity, not power. His base kit was not nerfed on August 4; only his NanoPowers were, so outside seasonal-modifier modes he is exactly as strong as this measurement says. |
| S | Starr Nova | Took the heaviest nerf of the August 4 pass ▼▼ and the letter here is a pre-nerf measurement. Her new Hypercharge in Update 68 pushed her to a 69.4% adjusted win rate and S in the top-200 24-hour meta — then August 4 cut health 4,000 → 3,700, slowed reload 1,400 → 1,600, halved the ceiling on Power Level: Maximum (30% → 20%) and pulled Floaty Time from 10s to 7s. Four separate stats on one Brawler. Expect A, not S, once post-patch data lands; we will not pretend to have measured it yet. |
| S | Nori | The Season 52 newcomer, and the team data is blunt: Nori/Nori/Nori is the single most-winning composition recorded, at 53,000 wins — more than double the next comp. She also appears in six of the ten most-winning trios. 55.3% Solo Showdown win rate. |
| A | Bolt | Was the sleeper of the patch — read the nerf before you grind him. Highest adjusted win rate of any Brawler at 75.7% on only 1.82% use, plus a new Hypercharge in Update 68 and S-tier over the top-200 30-day window. But August 4 cut his Super shield 40% → 30% and reduced Super charge from moving by 23% ▼ — both of the things that made the win rate look untouchable. Low sample already inflated the number; the nerf lands on top of that. Still likely strong, no longer a free lunch. |
| A | Brock | S in both top-200 windows and the most team-flexible pick on the board — he anchors three of the ten most-winning trios (with Byron/Piper, Mandy/Piper, and Edgar/Piper). 44% Solo Showdown win rate. |
| A | Damian | A-tier in both sources with a 70.0% adjusted win rate at a modest 1.10% use rate — but August 4 hit him about as hard as Starr Nova ▼▼: fire punch and explosion damage both 1,000 → 800, Super speaker bounce 800 → 400, speaker health 2,000 → 1,500. A 20% cut to his main damage and a halved Super. Treat the 70% as historical. |
| A | Griff | S in the top-200 24-hour meta, A on Brawl Time, and a fixture in top trios alongside Edgar and Nori. August 4 shrank Piggy Bank’s explosion radius 800 → 600 and widened Keep the Change’s spread by 55% ▼. |
| A | Emz | S in the top-200 24-hour meta and the partner in the second most-winning trio recorded (Edgar/Emz/Nori, 25,000 wins). Brawl Time is cooler on her at B. |
| A | Chester · Crow · Bibi · Colette · Cordelius · Leon | The Brawl Time A block. Bibi is corroborated by the top-200 list and the third-best trio (Bibi/Edgar/Nori, 19,000 wins); the rest are solid picks that the very top of the ladder simply plays less. One exception to check: Crow lost main-attack damage 380 → 320 on August 4 ▼, a 16% cut, so he is the weakest name in this block right now. |
| B | Mortis | Biggest disagreement on the board. S-tier in both top-200 windows — and a 31.1% Solo Showdown win rate, one of the lowest of any popular Brawler. He is genuinely strong in expert hands and punishing in everyone else's. Ranked B here because most readers are not top-200. |
| B | Rosa | Another split: S in the top-200 24-hour meta with a 69.8% adjusted win rate and 54.2% in Solo Showdown, but the Brawl Time community votes her all the way down at D. The hard numbers favour Rosa; the community read has not caught up. |
| B | Colt · Kit · Max · Meg · Pierce · Bull · Kenji · 8-Bit · Spike · Rico · Otis · Stu | Reliable mid-board. These win games when the map suits them and lose to a well-drafted S-tier comp — fine to play, not worth grinding a new Brawler for. Two took August 4 nerfs ▼: Max (Super charge rate 92 → 80) and 8-Bit (Super charge 99 → 80, Extra Credits cooldown 15s → 18s, ally speed from Plugged In 15% → 10%). |
| B | Mandy | Update 68 buffed her main attack from 2,600 to 2,960 damage, and she now shows up in a top-ten trio (Brock/Mandy/Piper, 15,000 wins). Rising, not yet A. |
| C-D | Everyone else | Roughly 106 Brawlers exist and both sources agree the long tail is genuinely weak this patch — the balance spread scores a Gini coefficient of 0.43, which Brawl Time itself labels "mediocre" balance. Playing a C or D pick into an S-tier draft is a self-inflicted handicap. |
Wendy — the 106th Brawler, landing mid-August
Wendy is a Mythic Support and she is not playable yet — she arrives in the second week of August 2026, inside Windstock. She is not ranked on this page for the obvious reason that no win rate for her exists. Her published kit, though, reads like the strongest shield support in the game, so it is worth knowing before she unlocks:
- Trait: walks over water, and charges her Super when her shields take damage — so she is rewarded for shielding into pressure rather than away from it.
- Attack — Blow Dryer: 2,400 damage, and it shields as it fires: 1,386 to herself, or 2,000 to a teammate she hits.
- Super — Planet Protector: a deployed generator that absorbs 75% of all damage taken by Wendy and any teammate inside it.
- Gadgets: Wind-Powered (short jump, 15s) and Green Grenade (slows every enemy hit and briefly stops them healing, 15s).
- Star Powers: Slowing Shield (enemies inside the generator are slowed) or Solar Shield (+2,000 healing on the generator).
A 75% team-wide damage absorb is a large number by Brawl Stars standards. Treat her as a likely high-tier Support on release and re-check this page once real match data exists — we will not letter her before that.
Ask Emily who to push →Tell Emily your trophies and which Brawlers you own — she maps this list to your account in ~30s. Free.
Sleepers and traps — where the two sources disagree
A tier list that only tells you the popular answer is worth very little, because your opponents already know it. The gap between what people play and what actually wins is where free trophies live this patch:
- The biggest sleeper: Bolt. Best adjusted win rate in the game at 75.7%, and a 1.82% use rate. He got a new Hypercharge in Update 68 and the ladder has not adapted. Small sample means the true number is lower, but the direction is unambiguous.
- The biggest trap: Edgar. Most-picked Brawler in Solo Showdown at 11.58%, win rate 36.9%. He is S-tier with a team feeding him and a coin-flip without one.
- Mortis is the same trap, sharper. Top-200 players rank him S; his Solo Showdown win rate is 31.1%. His ceiling is real and his floor is a loss streak.
- Quiet overperformers. Ash (71.1%), Ollie (71.0%), Jae-yong (70.4%), Trunk (69.9%) and Sam (69.4%) all post elite adjusted win rates at use rates under 0.5%. Low sample, so verify on your own maps before committing — but these are the picks nobody drafts against.
- Nori bends drafts around herself. A triple-Nori composition is the most-winning trio on record with 53,000 wins, roughly double the runner-up. If she is available in your draft, taking her is rarely wrong.
Straightforward rule of thumb: pick from the S block when you want the safe answer, and from the sleeper list when the lobby has learned to counter it.
Best Brawlers to climb ranked with (Season 53 Windstock)
Climbing is not the same problem as winning a single match. You need Brawlers with a high floor, forgiving of a bad teammate, that stay useful across map rotations:
| Goal | Pick | Why it climbs |
|---|---|---|
| Safest single main | Surge | The only Brawler rated S by every source we checked. No map or mode where he is dead weight. |
| Highest win-rate pick | Bolt | 75.7% adjusted win rate and almost nobody drafts against him. |
| Best in a duo/trio | Nori | Present in six of the ten most-winning trios; the triple-Nori comp alone recorded 53k wins. |
| Solo Showdown | Nori (55.3%) · Rosa (54.2%) · Bolt (53.9%) | The three highest Solo Showdown win rates among Brawlers with meaningful pick rates — and all three are far less played than Edgar or Sirius. |
| Avoid while learning | Edgar · Mortis · Kit · Crow | All post Solo Showdown win rates between 29% and 37% despite heavy play. High skill ceiling, brutal learning cost. |
The honest catch: the strongest picks are frequently the ones you have not unlocked or maxed yet, and Ranked gates matchmaking on your account level, not your skill. That is the part of the climb no tier list solves for you.
Brawler rank & unlock options →Surge, Nori, Bolt and Starr Nova only help once they are unlocked and levelled. Get specific Brawlers ranked up, or open the whole roster in one order.
How we rank (methodology)
No opinions were used to build the table above. Every placement traces back to one of three inputs:
- Top-200 win and pick rates (noff.gg) — the ladder's best players, sampled over a 24-hour meta window and a 30-day general window. When these two windows agree, the read is stable; when only the 24-hour window is hot, the pick is trending, not established.
- Adjusted win rate and use rate (Brawl Time Ninja) — real match data with a Bayesian average applied to low-pick Brawlers, plus a community list carrying 131,241 votes since August 3, 2026. This catches Brawlers who win a lot while nobody plays them.
- Official patch notes (Supercell) — Update 68 / Ramen Rebellion, released June 29, 2026, plus the July 8 mid-season hotfix. A further balance maintenance landed on August 4, 2026; Supercell had not published an official patch-notes page for it at the time of writing, so the tiers below still rest on the top-200 win/pick data rather than on the August 4 change list. Balance changes explain why a Brawler moved, which the rate data alone cannot tell you.
Where sources conflict, we publish the conflict and pick the ranking that fits a typical player rather than a top-200 one. That is why Mortis sits at B despite being S-tier at the very top of the ladder — his numbers only work with mechanics most accounts do not have yet.
Refresh cadence: Brawl Stars rebalances every few weeks and each Brawl Talk can reshuffle the board. This page is dated and re-checked against the same sources after every balance patch; the Season 53 "Windstock" update with the new Brawler Wendy is expected in August 2026 and will move these rankings.
Sources
Rates and tier placements consolidated from noff.gg top-200 Brawl Stars tier list (24-hour meta + 30-day general windows, Solo Showdown win/pick rates) and Brawl Time Ninja (adjusted win rate, use rate, top team compositions, community vote). Patch and season facts from Supercell's official June 2026 release notes (Ramen Rebellion, Update 68). Both statistics sources refresh continuously, so exact percentages will drift from the values quoted on this page's update date.
FAQ
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