The Bazaar Tier List: Hero Strengths and Meta Builds

The Bazaar tier list helps you identify the carry items and combinations worth building around. Dragon Harp gives The Dragons an especially powerful centerpiece, while heroes such as Vanessa and Mak have flexible paths into their winning boards. Your hero choice matters because each brings a different puzzle: assembling enough damage, surviving the setup, and finding support pieces that work together.

The Dragons: Dragon Harp Leads Their Build Options

Dragon Harp stands above The Dragons’ other featured builds, delivering an exceptional payoff without demanding an elaborate setup. Its supporting options include Amp, Light Drone, Energy Shot, Dragon’s Breath Mints, Star Projector, and Black Lipstick.

Guzheng offers another powerful direction. It builds Tempo, provides sustain, and gains late-game one-shot potential through the Multimeter Crit Charge package. That built-in sustain reduces its dependence on ideal enchantments.

Adjust your positioning around the Notes you actually receive. Their placement is semi-random, so a fixed board diagram cannot account for every run. Superfan remains another build direction, with pieces such as Event Poster, Dragon Statue, Maracas, and Hoodie.

Official page: The Bazaar (playthebazaar.com)

Vanessa: Tortuga Offers Flexible Pivots

Tortuga’s strength is how naturally it connects Weapon and Aquatic builds. Its use of Friends leaves room for several supporting combinations, making it a reliable midgame pivot rather than a carry that demands one exact board.

Image: Steam / Tempo

Flying Fish, Piranha, Narwhal, Vampire Squid, and Shipwreck appear among its supporting pieces. Look for Tortuga when your existing Weapon or Aquatic board already gives it useful support. Preserve those connections while replacing items.

Vanessa also has Slumbering Primordial and Anchor build paths. Anchor’s supporting package includes Clamera, Rowboat, Figurehead, and Shipwreck.

Patch 20.0 changed several relevant values: Tortuga’s damage became 400/800, down from 450/900, while Rowboat’s cooldown changed to 5/4 from 5/3. Account for those changes when judging an older board’s damage and timing.

Dooley: Critical Core Controls the Pace

Critical Core supports a rapid activation strategy, usually within a Tech package, while leaving room for off-hero items. Its central challenge is damage output: frequent activations need a payoff that actually ends the fight.

Image: Steam / Tempo

Nitro, Chronobarrier, Fiber Optics, Arc Blaster, and Railgun feature in this build. Build enough damage into the engine before adding more support for repeated activations.

Weaponized Core offers another direction with Motherboard, Remote Control, Nitro, Chronobarrier, and Fiber Optics. Launcher Core instead has a package featuring Micro Mach, Thrusters, Terry-Dactyl, Z-Shield, and Levitation Pad.

Patch 20.0 changed Motherboard’s cooldown from 5/4/3 to a flat 4. Fiber Optics’ Charge changed from 1/2 to 1/1.5, so its upper-tier contribution became smaller.

Pygmalien: Private Hot Springs Combines Burn and Control

Private Hot Springs brings together repeated Burn, Freeze, and Regen. Its three-second Freeze effect pressures boards that cannot eliminate it in a single hit, while Regen helps it withstand opposing damage over time.

Image: Steam / Tempo

Cold Room, Snow Globe, and Ice Cream Truck feature alongside it. Keep the defensive side of the board working while Burn builds pressure. This setup’s strength comes from extending the fight while disrupting the enemy.

Pyg’s Gym and Double Whammy provide other build directions. The former includes pieces such as Tusked Helm, Wrist Warrior, Yo-Yo, and Haladie; the latter includes Gramophone, Belt, and Pawn Shop.

Patch 20.0 also doubled Pitchfork’s damage values to 40/80/160/320 and reduced Flail’s cooldown from 7 to 6.

Mak: Flexible Potions and Strong Burn Scaling

Mak’s Potion builds have considerable flexibility through Potion Distillery, which lets you reroll enchantments. Vitality Potion can become a win condition with Fiery, Toxic, or Obsidian. Use those enchantment interactions to shape the build around your actual Potion lineup.

Eternal Torch provides another route, with very high Burn output and the ability to start working toward it from Day 1. It needs time to develop, while Blank Slate can support the early and middle portions of the run.

Staff of the Moose takes a defensive approach through its passive immunity effect. Pairing it with Ritual Dagger creates exponential scaling.

Patch 20.0 reworked Dragon’s Breath into a Reagent. It gains Burn when you Heal or Regen and receives Fiery when transformed, if able.

Karnok: Lost Blade and Runic Claymore Reward Different Engines

Patch 20.0 gave Lost Blade and Runic Claymore distinct identities.

Lost Blade has a cooldown of 6, Multicast 2, and deals damage equal to 10% of your Max Health. Healing or applying Slow grants 50/100 Max Health. Connect its health-based damage with effects that trigger that health growth. Self-Slow remains a useful foundation for Karnok builds.

Runic Claymore instead combines Lifesteal with critical scaling. It deals 300/600 damage on a cooldown of 7, gains damage equal to five times its Crit Chance, and increases your items’ Crit Chance when you Haste.

Wild Bear offers another health-scaling direction. Hydra Tree makes its Enrage triggers easier to activate.

Jules: Giant Sub Balances Damage and Durability

Giant Sub combines Shield, Regen, and Burn in a fast, durable setup. Dragonmelon adds bulk and can pair with Durian for a Shield conversion direction. Its supporting Food and Tool options include Pizza Cutter, Meat Tenderizer, and Corkscrew.

Giant Lollipop and Froyo Cart provide alternative builds. Giant Lollipop’s package includes Jumbo Wok and Dishwasher, while Froyo Cart features Decanter, Ice Swan, Sorbet, and Zarlic.

Arrange Jules’ board around the Stoves and Coolers placed during your run. Their random placement makes adjacency decisions specific to the board.

Patch 20.0 reduced Meat Tenderizer’s cooldown reduction from 8% to 5%. Ice Swan’s cooldown dropped from 6 to 5.

Stelle: Flying Packages With Different Payoffs

Stelle’s featured build directions include Stellar Swallowtail, Lightning Rod, and Space Laser.

Stellar Swallowtail appears alongside Ornithopter, Gatling Gun, Darts, and Hangar. Lightning Rod has a package featuring Cauterizer, Flare Gun, Weather Machine, and Pilot’s Wings. Space Laser’s supporting options include Ornithopter, Sirens, Observatory, and Flycycle.

Patch 20.0 changed Space Laser’s cooldown to 34/30 from 32/28 and Stellar Swallowtail’s to 6/5/4 from a flat 5. Use the cooldown for your item’s actual tier when planning its support.

The same patch reworked Oxygen Tank: it heals 10% of your Max Health, Hastes your other items for 1/2/3 seconds, and receives 2 seconds of Charge when you Repair. Connect those effects when building around Repair.