I walked into a ranked match with half my charms swapped and my hands shaking. Two seconds later I realized I was fighting with a paperweight strapped to my wrist. You learn fast which charms cost you the game and which ones buy you seconds of control.
I write guides for players who want fewer surprises and more wins. I’ll tell you what I pick, why I pick it, and the small habits that make those choices stick. This tier list is a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.
Crowds in the arena behave the same: they chase burst and punish predictability. Best Spirit Charms in VV Ultimatum
You want charms that help you win fights, not punish you for trying. The best picks are reliable, low-risk, and easy to trigger under pressure. Below I rank the PVP-relevant charms and note a few PVE standouts where they matter.
- S-Tier — rock-solid choices, minimal downsides
- A-Tier — excellent options, slightly more trade-offs
- B-Tier — situational winners if your playstyle matches
- C-Tier — niche or underpowered compared to peers
- D-Tier — traps, gimmicks, or straight-up harmful
Now for the individual Charm rankings.
You’ll notice the best players stack consistent pressure without gambling. S-Tier Charms
| Charm | Effect | Ranking Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Haze of DeathTier 3 | • Your critical attacks applies Cursed (50s CD) | • The best Charm since it applies a strong debuff, has no downside and can be proc-ed on the same target multiple times unlike Ruler’s Gaze |
| Blazing SpiritTier 3 | • Parrying a basic melee attack ignites your blade with spirit flames (5s CD, +10% damage)• Basic melee attacks not ignited by flame deal reduced damage (-2% damage) | • Most of the time you’re not landing a lot of M1 attack chains in PVP and are instead parrying and striking• This means that most of the time Blazing Spirit is just a straight-up damage boost |
| Struggler’s SpiritTier 3 | • Landing three basic attacks when below 25% HP boosts your damage by 20%• Take 20% less damage below 25% HP | • A massive damage and defense boost |
| You’re In My RangeTier 3 | • 35% defense towards gap-close abilities• Your next basic attack or critical is empowered after being attack by a gap-close ability (45s CD) | • Just a free defense boost against common abilities plus an offense boost for free |
| Resourceful SpiritTier 1 | • Your aerial launcher counts as a critical attack dealing more damage and applying all crit effects | • Only S-Tier with specific synergies like Haze of Death and other crit effects |
Which Spirit Charms are best for PvP?
Short answer: S-Tier. Haze of Death, Blazing Spirit, Struggler’s Spirit, and You’re In My Range are the ones that change fight tempo without asking you to gamble. They give you windows of control and pressure that stack with basic mechanical improvements—parry timing, spacing, and cooldown awareness.
A common sight in ranked lobbies: players soldering damage stats without a plan. A-Tier Charms
| Charm | Effect | Ranking Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Flawless SwordsmanTier 3 | • Dealing damage without being hit will build “Perfection”. While “Perfection” is building gain up to a 15% damage buff towards enemies, at half stacks or more all damage is fire damage.• Getting hit or leaving combat makes you lose all stacks with a 10s cooldown before you can gain more stacks. | • High skill-cap on this charm but it’s a free damage boost if you parry and dodge well which is really good |
| Ranged Warrior&Close and PersonalTier 2 | Ranged Warrior• +6% Kido/Ranged damage• You take 3% more damageClose and Personal• +5% Weapon/Hakuda damage• You take 2% more damage | • Really good damage buffs for the main skill tree builds |
| Ruler’s GazeTier 3 | • Performing a manual rushdown activates “Geass”• Whilst “Geass” is active, issue a command to the opponent to halt, allowing for a free follow-up.• “Geass” cannot be used on the same target twice, and has a cooldown. • Being in “Aura” ignores the first restriction.• Enemies affected by “Geass” have their damage taken reduced by 35%, additionally, if blade caught the cooldown will continue as normal. | • The halt is an amazing combo extender and starter since it’s basically a mini stun• Would be S-Tier if it didn’t have the limit of once per target |
| BlademasterTier 3 | • Your bladed basic attacks inflict deep gash stacks on your opponent• Your bladed basic attacks deal 90% less damage• Upon reaching 3 deep gash stacks, deal 110% of all of the damage you would have done normally | • Both a nice damage burst and a way to surprise your opponent since they won’t be expecting as much damage due to your initial attacks being weaker |
| DominationTier 1 | • Max AP is increased by 0.15x | • Best Tier 1 in the game since AP is good for every situation |
How do Spirit Charms change your build?
Charms change rhythm. An aura-heavy build wants different charms than a bait-and-punish bladed setup. Use tools like the VV Discord, Steam forum threads, and high-level YouTube breakdowns to test synergy—then prune until every charm pulls its weight.
You’ll see these options in mid-rank matches—some shine, others are wishful thinking. B-Tier Charms
| Charm | Effect | Ranking Reason |
|---|---|---|
| A Song of Fire and ThunderTier 4 | • When above 1.25x AP, your melee attacks are imbued in flame, dealing more damage. If below 25% max hp, your high-damaging melee attacks have a chance to inflict scorch (10s CD)• When above 1.2x AP, your kido attacks inflict thunder, dealing more stun. If below 25% max hp, your high-damaging kido attacks have a chance to inflict electroshock (10s CD) | • Despite Tier 4, this Charm is very situational for both of its effects• In reality, you won’t get to proc the low HP effects a lot since they work only on low HP and are chance-based on top of that• The AP-specific ones are also a bit situational so all in all this is a powerful Charm but you won’t get to use it as reliably as you think which is why it’s B-Tier |
| FrostwalkerTier 2 | • Dealing a high-damage Kido attack will imbue you in frost for 12.5s or until consumed• While frosted your next basic attack will freeze your opponent (25s CD) | • Very Kido build-specific and situational but can help you setup a combo which is really good |
| Soul SnatcherTier 3 | • Landing any Kido move on a below 11% HP enemy will instantly knock them after a short delay | • Decent in duels and really good in teamfights so it’s a bit situational since it’s also build-specific |
| Shonen SyndromeTier 3 | • Display the move you’ll use in chat but upgrade it by 2 levels (Does not work past level 6)• 20s CD between upgrades | • This is a decent Charm with free benefits but it’s nothing overwhelmingly good so it’s B-Tier |
| Last Man StandingTier 3 | • If an ally is knocked within 90 meters of you, heal for a percentage of the enemy’s HP pack• Regeneration from all sources is halved | • Only good for boss raiding/team fights for quick free heals |
| Quick GritTier 3 | • Landing 3 different non-barrage attacks on the same person within 5s smites them granting a 40% damage buff on the most recent attack (40s CD) | • Similar to Blademaster but a bit more awkward to land• Still pretty good in PVE but harder to use in PVP |
| GolemTier 2 | • Taking 25% base damage within 2.5s will activate rock armor for 15s (45s CD)• While rock-armored, gain 7.5% damage resistance | • A nice little situational defensive boost that’s not the strongest but can save you from some good damage ocassionally |
| Heat BurstTier 2 | • Replace your Aura buffs with Heat• When Heat activates automatically heal 37% max HP and gain max AP | • Pretty good for baiting when low HP to cause enemies to overstep/waste CDs and then heal to counterattack |
| Mysterious Stranger (Him & Her)Tier 2 | • Him: 8% chance to aid you when dealing physical melee damage (30s CD)• Her: 8% chance to aid you when dealing ranged Kido damage (30s CD) | • Pretty decent when merged due the drastically higher chance but probably low B/high C-Tier by themselves |
| Await the OpeningTier 3 | • Your parries now posture break• Your parries are worth 50% as much posture damage | • Such an extremely high skill requirement on this to be good that’s it downright situational and based on how well you parry and the ping/latency of the server you’re playing at |
You can spot these in casual matches where players aren’t optimizing for pressure. C-Tier Charms
| Charm | Effect | Ranking Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Raid BossTier 3 | • For every nearby enemy gain a stack of battle fever, for every nearby ally lose a stack of battle fever, up to 10 stacks• For every stack of battle fever gain a 5% incoming defense, and 3% more damage, both increasing up to 3.5 times• At 3 stacks gain weaker Curtain Call, at 4 stacks become immune to movement slow, at 5 stacks your lifesteal doubles at 30%, finally at 7 stacks your M1s periodically proc Perfect Flash• When your battle fever is empty and allies are nearby take 10% more damage | • Situational since it’s only good when outnumbered• Plus, players within your race/faction count as allies which can ruin the Charm |
| Kill ConfirmedTier 3 | • Knocking an opponent will cause them to succumb to your spiritual pressure and cause their head to blow off• Blowing their head off will reduce your output by 5% (Scaling with nearby enemies) temporarily | • Decent for boss raiding but you can just maim and grip them most of the time |
| The IncapableTier 3 | • Your innate base output is up to 105% depending on level going up to 120% based on missing HP• Gain access to a reliquary attached to your waist that is the source of your power glowing based on missing HP• You lose access to transformations, racial abilities, hollow traits and you cannot access your racial progression boss fights | • Better than Heavenly Restriction but still not that worth it |
| Indomitable SpiritTier 2 | • Gain 5% HP from winning clashes• Lose 5% HP from losing clashes | • Overall not that strong and has a downside so C-Tier• Better than Lizard’s Spirit since you can potentially heal more often if you win |
| Superiority ComplexTier 2 | • Blade-catching an opponent will cause you to mock them, increasing Aura gain on the blade catch (30s CO)• Mocked opponents instantly lose 0.2x AP and take 15% increased posture domoge for a short duration | • It’s all positives but it’s not that strong |
| Fortified FighterTier 1 | • Gain 15% defense when posture broken | • A rare-use niche defensive boost but still situationally useful |
You’ll definitely see these on players experimenting without a plan. D-Tier Charms
| Charm | Effect | Ranking Reason |
|---|---|---|
| SwarmTier 2 | • Landing a crit spawns 1 firendly Dragonfly Hollow | • It’s simply very weak and negligible in a fight |
| Lizard’s SpiritTier 2 | • Heal for 7.5% HP when you drop below half health (9m CD) | • Technically not useless but the CD is so long that you would be better off with a different healing Charm |
| Heavenly RestrictionTier 3 | • Your physical attacks are up to 35% more potent, scaling with level• You gain up to 15% more movement speed, and up to 25% more kido defense each scaling with level• Your critical attacks now proc kill confirmed• You cannot use abilities to any capacity | • This is really bad since you need abilites in VV for combos and mix-ups and M1s are just filler attacks |
| Curtain CallTier 3 | • Basic attacks have percent lifesteal if you are at 100% Reiatsu• You no longer passively regenerate Reiatsu | • A trap option that will nerf you since you’ll usually both never be at 100% and losing Rei regen is so bad |
| Warrior’s SpiritTier 3 | • +17.5% melee damage increase on basic attacks• You can no longer flash step• You can no longer Manual Rushdown | • This would be really good for rushdown finishers but it disables it and you no longer FS so it’s not worth it |
| Wraith’s SpiritTier 2 | • Getting hit by 3 different attacks in quick succession will cause you to turn into an invincible wraith for a moment• Take 5% more damage from melee attacks | • You’re usually never getting hit 3 times in quick succession since you’re dodging and parrying so if this is getting proc-ed you need to work on your parrying/dodging |
| Ultimate SacrificerTier 3 | • Break your current output limits and go beyond when popping Aura• Get an uncancellable Aura• You build aura more slowly• Drastically drop your output when Aura ends | • A massive trap option that will ruin your Aura management, horrible Charm |
I recommend matching your charm picks to how you play: pressuring opponents? S-Tier. Team skirmishes? Pick A/B options that give utility. Solo boss runs? Some B/C picks can be surprisingly strong when the encounter is predictable. Your charm loadout becomes a second heartbeat.
That’s the VV Ultimatum Charms tier list. I pair these picks with the Shikai/Res/Schrift moveset guide and active discussion on Steam, Reddit, and the official Discord when testing changes.
Which charm will you swap first after this read?