The Lamplighters Leagueis an XCom-liketurn-basedstrategy gamethat pits a plucky band of ne’er-do-wells against The Banished Court, a world-spanning evil conspiracy, in a race to get to a magical, apocalyptic tower. All set in pulp-inspired 1930s that calls to mind Hellboy, Indiana Jones, and the works of HP Lovecraft.
You command a group of Agents in your quest, each powerful and unique. However, they’re not built equally, and in your journey, you’ll need to pick and choose which ones to take and which ones to spend your skill points on. If you want to know which of these rogues are the best at fighting The Banished Court, here are the Agents of the Lamplighters League, ranked.
Nocturne, an Agent available with the special edition or as a separate DLC, is not included in this list. For some players, including here at TheGamer, she is bugged and has no skill tree as of this writing. As such, she is not included in the rankings.
10Jianyi
Jianyi is a swordsman who switches between mid-range pistol attacks and melee sword attacks to achieve a flow state that has him cutting down foes back to back. At least, in theory. Unfortunately, his kit is too clunky to live up to the fantasy of a swordsman assassin.
Pistol attacks grant him stacks of Flow, which increases crit chance on his melee attacks. Melee criticals grant him extra turns with his Furor ability, allowing for more actions. In practice, his ranges often put him in awkward positions, and losing Flow every turn makes it difficult to maintain a stockpile of it. Even in the best scenarios, his turns often feel inefficient compared to the other Agents, needing way too much setup to be effective.
9Purnima
Purnima is an ace sniper who does one thing, but she does it frighteningly well. Unfortunately, she’s very map dependent, and the game doesn’t often accommodate her, but when it does, she drops bodies left and right. As a sniper, she works best on high ground and over long distances.
In her element, she does some big damage. However, the game doesn’t inform you what kind of map any mission takes place on, so bringing her is a gamble. She benefits greatly from targeting marked enemies, but since her best shots take two actions to perform, Purnima works best when others do the marking for her, so it’s natural to pair her with Eddie on deployments.
8Fedir
A bear of a man who uses his rage, good old fisticuffs, and a surprisingly potent shotgun (it can’t miss!) to protect allies and destroy enemies, Fedir is one of the more fun — if not the most effective — Agents in The Lamplighters League, serving as a bruiser-tank. His main gimmick is that, when he’s hit, he gains Rage until the end of his next turn, granting his abilities bonus effects.
With his Provoke ability, he has no trouble getting hit, but without a healer on hand or some Medkits ready, he might go down quicker than you’d expect. At least he’ll never succumb to stress, since his Brutality passive means that as long as he’s hitting enemies in melee, he’ll always lose stress faster than he can gain it.
7Judith
Judith is a versatile tank who excels at protecting her teammates and herself, thanks to her trusty shield, though her Sticky Grenade and pistol means that she’s not limited to bashing enemies either.
Of the two tanks, Judith is the heftier one, sporting a greater health pool, the ability to gain armor in combat, and the ability to Fortify an area. The latter is particularly potent, since all damage to allies in that area are halved until the effect expires. However, she doesn’t mitigate Stress nearly as well as Fedir, so ensure you compensate for that when you decide to make her the center of attention.
6Eddie
A bank robber-turned-mercenary, Eddie specializes hosing down the battlefield with lead, his twin revolvers allowing even his basic attack to shoot twice. Light ‘Em Up is his most powerful ability, not only Marking a bunch of enemies for greater damage, but flushing them out of cover as well — making them easy pickings for your other gunners.
Strangely enough, his own damage is only so-so, unless he blows the cooldown on Bullseye on a Marked target or performs his Signature Barrage. Also, he has no defensive abilities, leave him alone and cornered, he’s a sitting duck.
5Ana Sofia
Once a member of the Magdalites, an order ofmystical pacifist healers, Ana Sofia has the distinction of being the only healer on the team. She uses healing items more effectively than the other Agents, and her revives are more effective as well. Her Signature move Restore is a full heal over a large area.
Ana Sofia functions best as a healer-support for the team, since her non-healing effects let you use your other Agents more effectively and even give them extra turns. Once upgraded, Restore also returns one Signature charge to affected allies, giving them another use of their most potent abilities. She’s mediocre as an attacker, but has a double-shot SMG which works in a pinch.
4Alexandrite
A scholar and master illusionist who excels at sowing chaos on the battlefield, a well-played Alexandrite will quickly throw enemies into disarray, laying down illusory flames, turning enemies against each other, and eventually causing them to break from the Stress. She has one of the best Stress Breaking abilities in the game, Tether, which links two enemies and gives them one Stress every turn.
Should one of them Break, the other will as well, making it a two for one special. Joining forces with Celestine, the two can ensure the enemies are all vulnerable to one-shot kills pretty quickly. Unfortunately, her Signature skill is rather mediocre, summoning Phantasms that deal weak damage and operate on a shoddy AI. They make for good distractions, if nothing else.
3Celestine
A master mesmer and killer assassin who terrorizes foes before killing them, Celestine is a fearsome Agent, especially when working in tandem with Alexandrite. Of the two, Celestine is more effective, since she has the ability to regain Signature ability charges and is even better at stacking Stress.
Mesmerize makes an enemy fight on your side briefly, and though they suffer from AI woes as well, they do far more damage when they attack. Even if they don’t get to, the other enemies will target mesmerized teammates, doing your work for you. Upon performing a Coup de Grace on a stress-broken enemy, she gets back a Signature ability charge, something she can do easily with her Curse ability, and her penchant for poison.
2Lateef
A master thief and the master of misdirection, Lateef is untouchable in all but the wake of the direst misplays (or versus AoE effects). He gains Evade stacks, which ignore attacks directed at him, like they’re nothing. His base passive gives him one for every move action he takes, and by the time you’re halfway through his skill tree, your abilities will pile them even higher.
He does decent damage with his pistol, but his real value comes from his ability to take the heat off your less dodgy agents. His Signature move, Decoy, doesn’t have a proper taunt, but seems to be the preferred target of enemies when it appears.
1Ingrid
The most powerful Agent in the Lamplighters League is also the first one you get. A veritable storm of fists and fury, Ingrid is head-and-shoulders better than her compatriots. This power comes from her borderline overpowered action economy.
As a melee attacker, her attacks are also move actions, allowing her to zip around the battlefieldserving knuckle sandwiches. She has a robust suite of actions that allow her to reposition enemies, move after an attack, as well as multiple reliable means of applying Knockdown.
All of this is tied together with the best Passive ability in the game: Killer Instinct, which gives her a bonus action every time she kills an enemy. With some strategy and sound use of the other Agents, she can kill half the enemy forces before they can even act.
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