Xenogears is two games wearing one cast, and it never tells you the same nine people aren’t good at both. Maria does 0 or 1 damage on foot — no combos, no real weapon, a frail body that mostly stands there and takes hits. Strap her into a Gear and she pilots one of the strongest machines you’ll own all game.
So the best party in Xenogears comes in two rankings, not one: who earns a slot on foot, who earns one in a Gear, and why the answer depends on which of the two battle screens you’re looking at. Understand the split and everything else settles — including the freedom to ignore my picks and bring your own.
Why the same nine rank twice
Speed decides the foot game. Battles run on an active-time gauge, so a faster fighter simply acts more often — sometimes twice before a slow one moves at all. That’s not a tiebreaker; it’s the main axis the whole roster sorts along. On foot, damage comes from Deathblows, the physical combo strings you build up and unleash. Ether — the game’s magic — is mostly weak here, with a few named exceptions: Billy’s healing, and the elemental Ether that Elly and Emeralda carry.
In a Gear, the numbers come from a different place. Stack an Ether Doubler with a Power Magic accessory — or the right E-Circuit — and Ether-based attacks slam into the 9999 damage cap every turn. Suddenly the character whose magic did nothing on foot is deleting bosses. That inversion is the engine behind half the surprises below.
The Ether Doubler and Power Magic pairing is the documented backbone of every top Gear damage dealer in Japanese play. It isn’t a fringe trick — it’s the standard the strongest pilots are built on.
There’s one more Gear-only wrinkle. After the defence of Shevat, holding a Gear’s attack level at 3 gives it a 10–30% chance each turn to flip into Hyper Mode LATE GAME, and the odds climb as its HP falls. Fei’s ultimate Gear ignores the dice entirely and enters at 99%. None of this exists on foot.
Here’s the part most players walk past: when your Gear monster flops on foot, it isn’t bad luck or a bad level-up — the two layers reward opposite things, and a character built for one is often dead weight in the other. Read them as two separate rosters and the whole cast makes sense.
On foot — who to field
On foot, Citan runs it. He’s the fastest character in the game and, oddly for a speedster, also the one with the most HP — so he acts constantly and refuses to die. His damage keeps pace with Fei early, then pulls clear once his sword comes online, and until Billy shows up he’s your only healer. One character covering offence, survivability, speed and healing is why he gets called an outright cheat.
Fei sits just behind him, for a plain reason: he’s almost always in the party, so his Deathblow combos tend to be the furthest along. He’s strong and fast, and his spells are forgettable. Emeralda is the third pillar — the second-fastest fighter in the game, with Ether that beats Elly’s on range, power and hit rate. Do her optional sidequest and her adult form LATE GAME adds a flat damage bump on top. Billy is the last of the genuinely strong four: his guns hit hard and he owns the best healing in the game, which papers over his thin HP and defence.
Below that, the drop is steep. Elly is a capable Ether body but slow and only around for stretches of the story, so she rarely earns the investment. Bart is fine — decent attack, handy support techs — but he does Fei’s job slightly worse, and once the roster fills he’s redundant. Rico is the trap: he looks like a bruiser, and he is strong, but he’s the slowest character in the game — he takes one turn while Citan takes two — his Ether defence is low enough that magic melts him, and his throw-based Deathblows whiff on large enemies entirely.
Then the two you bench. Maria does 0 or 1 damage a hit with no Deathblows to speak of; on foot she’s a summon button for her Gear and nothing more. Chu-Chu is a mascot who misses often and hits soft. Neither belongs in a serious foot party.
Don’t grind levels hoping a weak character catches up. A character’s non-HP stats at level 99 land in the same place no matter how you get there — you can’t reset-farm a better Maria. A bench pick on foot stays a bench pick on foot.
In Gears — the order changes
In Gears the list reshuffles. Fei still tops it — his final Gear, Xenogears, is the best machine in the game outright, with that guaranteed Hyper Mode and a cap-breaking super. After that, the names you benched on foot come roaring back.
Rico’s El-Stier is a real contender for strongest Gear once you fit it with a speed-favouring engine — the exact weakness that sank him on foot, erased by a part. Maria’s Seibzehn is top-tier the moment you get it and barely slips the whole game; her on-foot uselessness never comes up in a cockpit. Emeralda’s Crescens is fast and hits hard, clearly a cut above the mid machines.
Citan drops a notch here. Fenrir is still strong, near the top once upgraded, but it isn’t the runaway that Citan-on-foot is. Bart gets an interesting moment: his Andvari MID-GAME is the first Omnigear you unlock, so for a stretch he’s the strongest pilot in the party before the others catch up. Billy goes the other way — his healing is dead weight in a Gear, so El-Renmazuo settles into the mid-pack.
Elly is the wild card. Her Gear, Vierge, has a special attack called Aerods, and with an Ether Doubler and Power Magic behind it, it’s one of the most broken things you can do to a boss — when she’s actually in the party. Her Omnigear, El-Regrs, never becomes usable in a real fight. The order moved for one reason: Gears reward the Ether-cap combo and a good engine, not the Deathblows and footspeed that decide the other screen.
The characters who flip
Three characters flip hard. Maria is the clean inversion: near the bottom on foot, near the top in a Gear. Rico runs the same way — a liability on his feet, a heavy hitter in El-Stier. Billy flips the other direction: an A-tier healer and gunner on foot who slides to the middle in a Gear the instant his healing stops mattering.
| Character | On foot | In a Gear | Flip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maria | Bench | Top tier | Up hard |
| Rico | Weak | Top tier | Up hard |
| Billy | Top tier | Mid-pack | Down |
| Citan | Best | Very good | Down slightly |
| Fei | Top tier | Best | Holds |
| Emeralda | Top tier | Top tier | Holds |
Citan flips gently — the undisputed number one on foot is merely very good in a cockpit. Only Fei and Emeralda hold their rank across both screens, which is exactly why they anchor the party. The practical takeaway is simple: a character being benched on one layer tells you nothing about the other. Keep a slot open and set it for the screen you’re about to spend the next hour on.
The party I’d actually field
My core three never leave. Fei, Citan, Emeralda. Fei is half-mandatory anyway and pilots the best Gear in the game. Citan is the on-foot number one and holds his own in Fenrir. Emeralda brings speed and real Ether on foot and a fast, hard-hitting Crescens once she’s in the air. Those three cover both screens without a single wasted slot — that’s the whole point of picking them.
Maria: Seibzehn for Gears
Elly: Vierge burst
The fourth slot flexes by context. For on-foot stretches with punishing bosses, Billy rides along for his healing and gun damage. For Gear-heavy dungeons, I’d rather have Maria in Seibzehn or Rico in El-Stier than a strong foot fighter stuck in a weak machine. And when Elly’s around with Vierge, she’s worth a slot purely for the Aerods burst.
Don’t lock your fourth slot. Set it right before a dungeon based on whether you’ll spend it on foot or in Gears — that one swap does more for you than any amount of levelling.
The rankings are for peak performance. Xenogears will let you finish with any three you love — so bring them. — Pierre
That’s the real freedom. Because a character’s stats land in the same place at level 99 however you get there, you can’t ruin a favourite by playing them — so three you actually like will carry you through every story fight in the game. The rankings mark the ceiling; they don’t decide who you enjoy.
From here it’s a reading habit. Glance at whether the next stretch is on foot or in Gears, set your fourth slot to match, and let the core three carry the rest. The cast that looked like nine hard choices turns out to be three easy ones and a slot you adjust on the way through the door.
Common Questions
Who is the best character in Xenogears?
Two answers, one per battle screen. On foot it’s Citan — the fastest character in the game, the tankiest, with the best Deathblows and your only healer until Billy joins. In a Gear it’s Fei, whose final machine, Xenogears, is the strongest in the game. Speed is what wins Citan the foot half.
Is Maria worth using?
On foot, no — she does 0 or 1 damage a hit and has no real Deathblows, so she’s a liability. In a Gear, absolutely: Seibzehn is one of the strongest machines in the party from the moment you get it. Bench her on foot, field her in the cockpit.
What’s the best party for a first playthrough?
Fei, Citan and Emeralda as your core, then a fourth that swaps by situation — Billy for on-foot healing, Maria or Rico for Gear dungeons. Any three characters you like will finish the game, though, so the best party in Xenogears for a first run is mostly the one you enjoy piloting.
Why is my Gear monster useless on foot?
Because the two layers reward opposite things. On foot, damage comes from physical Deathblows and speed; in a Gear, it comes from the Ether-cap combo. A character tuned for one is often dead weight in the other. It’s the design, not a bug.
Should I bench Rico?
On foot, usually — he’s the slowest character in the game, his Ether defence is low, and his throw Deathblows miss large enemies. In a Gear, no: El-Stier is a top machine once you give it a speed engine. Same character, opposite verdict depending on the screen.