Unit Tier List

A practical Candy Kingdom Defense tier list covering Jake, Finn, Lemongrab, Lich, and Magic Man, plus evolution steps and upgrade priorities.

What a Useful Candy Kingdom Defense Tier List Actually Measures

Most rankings hand you a letter and walk away. A better test asks three questions: does the unit contribute the moment you place it, does its upgrade path actually change the wave, and how much investment does it swallow before it becomes worth the slot? This Candy Kingdom Defense tier list runs on those questions instead of raw rarity.

Immediate contribution. Can the unit hold a lane at its first level, or does it leak until you pour five upgrades into it?
Upgrade payoff. Do the levels add damage only, or do they add area coverage, crowd control, or reach that changes where you place the unit?
Investment cost. Coins, challenge materials, and trait rolls all compete for the same pool. A unit that needs everything is not an S-tier pick for a fresh save.

The letters below are build guidance, not a scoreboard. Use them to decide what to raise first, then adjust once your squad stops failing at the same wave every run.

Candy Kingdom Defense Tier List at a Glance

Tier	Units	What earns the spot	Main trade-off
S	Jake (evolved direction), Lich	Lane-wide area damage that erases clumped minions	Both demand heavy investment; Lich comes from a low-odds portal drop
A	Finn, Princess Bubblegum (evolved), Magic Man (evolved)	Dependable openers and carries with real control effects	Evolved forms are expensive and slow to bring online
B	Lemongrab, Rainicorn	Specialists that add something a plain damage unit cannot	Narrow roles; weak as your only damage source
C	Billy	Large damage numbers, poor practical output	Awkward attack pattern relative to the cost

A unit near the bottom of this Candy Kingdom Defense tier list can still be the correct purchase at the right moment. A specialist that complements a working defense is valuable; the same specialist dropped in as your only damage dealer will lose you the run.

Unit-by-Unit: Who Carries and Who Waits

Jake: The S-Tier Opener

Jake's stretching attack covers a wide area from one placement, and his evolved direction pushes that toward full-lane coverage. A fully invested Jake with a top trait was wiping entire waves solo at wave four — but that is a maxed unit with the best modifiers, not a day-one expectation. The practical read: Jake is the safest early investment, and his evolution is worth planning around from your first few clears.

Finn: The Starter That Keeps Working

Finn starts as a campaign entry point and stays relevant because of his in-match upgrade, Meteor Strike. Keep two systems separate in your head: combat upgrades bought during a wave, and permanent hero growth funded from the lobby. Develop Finn when he is already holding your opening. Do not pour permanent resources into him while his lane keeps failing.

Lich: The Portal Chase

Lich sits near the top of this Candy Kingdom Defense tier list for one reason — its area damage is on another level compared to most of the roster, and it outclasses Rainicorn as a damage pick. It is also the hardest unit here to obtain, since it comes from a random portal rather than a banner or a shop. Everything else about Lich is straightforward: four upgrade stages, each adding reach or damage.

Princess Bubblegum and Magic Man: Expensive Carries

Princess Bubblegum's evolved direction transforms what it hits, and in side-by-side play it looked stronger than an evolved Magic Man. Magic Man himself scales into a genuine wave-deleter: roughly 160K damage with about a five-second spawn timer, rising to around 200K with a spawn timer closer to 4.7 seconds once maxed. Survivors get transformed and stunned, which stalls a lane long enough for your other units to finish the job. Both are A-tier — strong, but slow and costly to bring online.

Lemongrab: The Specialist Worth Promoting

Lemongrab summons lemons, and the evil version summons stronger lemons that also stun for a short window. Those summons walk out of his portal and out of the floor trails he creates, and they hit for around 18K each. The cadence is slower than a basic summoner, which is the real cost. Placed behind a solid front line, that trade is worth it — a supporting role, not a replacement for your main opener.

Rainicorn and Billy: The Bottom of the List

Rainicorn channels high damage into a small area, which makes it decent rather than great; it struggles when minions arrive in a wide spread. Billy is the clearest skip. Despite impressive raw damage numbers, the attack pattern is poor and the unit underperforms its cost. Leave Billy out of serious lineups until you have resources to spare.

Lich: Unlock Odds and Every Upgrade Stage

Lich does not come from a shop. It drops from a portal that appears in Infinite (Endless) mode: every 10 waves, there is a 30% chance a portal spawns, and each portal has a 5% chance to produce a Lich. Multiply those together and a 10-wave checkpoint works out to roughly a 1.5% shot.

Queue Infinite mode instead of a campaign stage.
Clear waves in blocks of 10 and check for a portal at each checkpoint.
Open every portal you get — it is the only path to the unit.
Keep the rest of your defense functional so a long run does not collapse while you are hunting.

Stage	What changes	Practical effect
1	A long spike erupts from the ground	First real ranged threat
2	Lich opens its mouth and bites at minions	Adds close-range clearing
3	Animation shifts into a flourish	Damage continues to scale
4	Same attack, higher damage for more coins	The endgame damage tier

If you want to see each of Lich's four upgrade stages before committing coins, the visual difference between stage two and stage four is the fastest way to judge whether the investment fits your build.

Evolution Prep: Materials, Challenges, and What to Skip

Evolutions are gated behind challenge materials, not currency. Open the evolve screen for a unit and it lists exactly what is missing; if you own the material, you evolve on the spot. Evolving Jake, for example, needs six more sandwiches, earned by winning Act 5 in the Ice Kingdom — and the game will teleport you toward the right challenge.

Evolved target	Base unit	Prep decision
Alien Jake	Jake	Keep base Jake carrying the lane while you farm materials
Adult Finn	Finn	Separate the evolved goal from Meteor Strike spending
Elementals	Princess Bubblegum	Treat it as a different kit, not a flat upgrade

If a unit never appears in the evolution menu, it simply does not have an evolution yet — Flame is one example. Do not save materials for a form that does not exist.

Traits, Stat Letters, and Where to Spend

Every unit's stats carry a letter grade, and those grades come from the reroll system: F, E, D, C, B, A, S, and Z, with Z at the top. The Reconditioning Chamber uses Juice in the flow, so plan a spending limit before you start rolling. Chasing a Mythic trait is a long project — keep the squad that already earns your resources intact while you work on it.

Grade band	How to read it	Action
C and below	Baseline or below	Candidate for a reroll once the unit is maxed
B to A	Solid, playable	Keep and move on to another unit
S to Z	Strong modifiers	Build around it; do not reroll over it

Situation	Spend here	Reason
Losing early waves	In-match upgrades	Immediate effect on the current run
Clearing comfortably	Permanent hero growth	Compounds across every future match
Hero maxed, grade low	Stat letter grades and trait rerolls	The only remaining power gain on that unit

FAQ

What is the best unit in Candy Kingdom Defense? Jake is the safest answer for most players: cheap to start, wide stretching coverage, and an evolved direction that clears whole lanes. Lich competes for the top spot on raw area damage but is far harder to obtain, since it depends on a portal drop in Infinite mode.

How do you get Lich? Play Infinite (Endless) mode and watch for a portal every 10 waves. There is a 30% chance a portal spawns and a 5% chance it produces a Lich, so expect a long grind rather than a quick unlock.

Is this Candy Kingdom Defense tier list official? No. It is an editorial recommendation built on how units behave across upgrade levels, how much they cost to bring online, and what role they fill in a working defense. Use it as build order guidance, not a fixed power ladder.

Do all units have evolutions? No. Units like Flame have no evolution at all, and the evolve menu is the fastest way to check. If a form is not listed, the materials do not exist for it yet — spend those resources on a unit that already contributes.