Shortly after starting South Park: The Fractured But Whole, you will have to choose one of three character classes. While you will have more character classes you can choose from later in the game, your first encounter with classes will only offer three to choose from.
This article helps you figure out the best class in South Park: The Fractured But Whole so you can determine which of these three starter classes works best for your play style, as well as which second and third classes to add once you have them available.
Keep your eyes on this article as we’ll be adding more information on the other classes so you can determine which character classes are the best when you eventually gain access to all of them.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole – Best Classes
At the moment there isn’t a single best class in the game, but as long as you don’t mind being right in the middle of the action, the Brutalist is hard to beat, especially once you add a Cyborg or Elementalist secondary class to really buff up their protection abilities. As the Brutalist, you can inflict massive amounts of damage, but you have to be close for most of your attacks. If you prefer not to be so close to the enemy, you may want to check out the other classes below.
We’ll be covering all of the classes so you can determine which one is best for you and how you want to play the game. Keep in mind, you can change classes by heading back to The Coon’s lair and sitting down at the table again. Just make sure Cartman is there or else you’ll have to wait for him to return. In addition, most of the friends you get to join your party will cover almost every class in the game.
Craig, Kyle, and Jimmy will be some of the first friends you recruit. Craig is a Brutalist, Kyle is a Blaster variant, and Jimmy is a Speedster. These three allies won’t have the exact same abilities as you would if you select their class, but they’ll serve the same basic purpose. Whichever starting class you select, you can find allies to cover the other two.
Starting Classes
When you first begin the game you can choose from three starter classes. Pick the class that best suits your combat style. You want to opt for the Blaster if you’re into ranged attacks, Brutalist for heavy damage and close quarters combat, and Speedster for double attacks in a single turn.
Blaster
- Ranged Damage Dealer (DPS)
- Best Second Class: Elementalist
- Best Third Class: Gadgeteer
- Best Fourth Class: Plantmancer
The Blaster class is essentially a ranged damage dealer. While you can attack from close range, it’s generally best to position yourself in the back lines away from the action. Not only are you generally safer in the back lines, but you can still dish out considerable damage and even inflict damage over time with some of your attacks. The main downfall of the Blaster is that you can sometimes position yourself in the way of your other party members, especially if they need to heal another member, or if they’re also trying to use ranged attacks.
Triple Burn
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Three squares in a line directly ahead.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – Burn
Triple Burn is a great starting attack for the Blaster. It hits for moderate damage and inflicts Burn, which adds damage over time for the next few turns. Start off a fight with this attack and your target will continue to take damage throughout the fight.
Heat Wave
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – The three vertical squares directly in front of your character.
- Damage – High
- Trait – Knock Back
Not only can Heat Wave hit three enemies if they’re standing in a vertical line directly in front of your character, it also adds a knock back effect that can inflict additional damage if the enemies hit something else. This is also one of the Blaster’s most damaging attacks, but it lacks range to compensate for the additional damage. Position well and use this attack to move your targets out of position.
Plasma Beam
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – All six squares in a horitzonal line directly in front of your character.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – None
While the Plasma Beam is the Blaster’s lowest damage attack, it has the longest range and can hit up to six enemies if they happen to be lined up directly in front of your character. While it’s rare to hit every enemy with this attack, due to its vast range you can usually hit at least two or three enemies if you position well.
Backfire Blast (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Up to three squares ahead of your character.
- Damage – High
- Traits – Burn, Gross Out
The Blaster’s ultimate ability inflicts heavy damage in a wide area in front of your character. In addition, it adds both a Burning and Gross Out damage over time effect. While generally an ultimate attack will finish off remaining enemies, if this doesn’t end a fight, the additional damage over time should take down anyone who survives in another turn or two.
Brutalist
- Hard-Hitting Damager Dealer (DPS)
- Minimal Range
- Best Second Class: Cyborg
- Best Third Class: Assassin or Gadgeteer
- Best Fourth Class: Martial Artist
The Brutalist is a damage dealer like the Blaster, but they lack the range. They hit very hard, harder than any of the other starting classes, but they have limited range on most of their attacks. They can inflict a damage over time effect like the Blaster, but positioning is key when playing as the Brutalist. All of their attacks have a knock back effect, which can you used to reposition an enemy and inflict damage on multiple enemies at once. The Brutalist can take down enemies quickly with their powerful attacks, but they’re generally the first to get hit for their troubles. If you’re good at positioning yourself away from enemy attacks, you shouldn’t have much issue playing as a Brutalist.
Brutal Bash
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – One square directly in front of your character.
- Damage – High
- Trait – Knock Back
While the Brutal Bash does not have a lot of range, it makes up for this with high damage and the ability to knock back a target. If you knock an enemy into another enemy or object, they can take additional damage, and the enemy they hit will also take a small amount of damage.
Wrecking Ball
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – Up to four squares away directly in front of your character.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – Knock Back
The Wrecking Ball attack is the longest range attack in the Brutalist’s arsenal. It will hit a single enemy that is up to four squares away from your character, and it will knock the target back into another enemy if they’re positioned behind your target. Since the Brutalist is generally a close range fighter, this attack also moves your character directly in front of your target once the attack is over. You can start the attack from the back lines and you’ll end up in the front lines.
Gastro Smash
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – One square directly in front, behind or to either side of your character.
- Damage – Moderate
- Traits – Knock Back, Gross Out
Not only does the Gastro Smash knock back your targets into another enemy (if they’re lined up), it also adds a Gross Out damage over time effect that will keep damaging the target for the next few turns. Like most of the Brutalist’s attacks, it doesn’t have much range, but it can hit all enemies in close proximity around your character, so if you position well and stay close to your targets range shouldn’t be an issue. While it doesn’t inflict as much damage as some of the Brutalist’s other attacks, it can hit multiple enemies and add damage over time for a bigger impact.
Full-Force Fisting (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – One square directly ahead of your character.
- Damage – High
- Trait – None
While the Full-Force Fisting inflicts a ton of damage, it can only hit one target and that target has to be right next to your character. If you have one particularly difficult enemy that’s causing your problems, finish them quickly with this ultimate attack, otherwise you may want to use an ultimate that will hit more enemies.
Speedster
- Fast Attacks
- Minimal Range
- Best Second Class: Pyschic
- Best Third Class: Assassin
- Best Fourth Class: Plantmancer
As a Speedster you won’t have a lot of range on most of your attacks, and you’ll only be able to hit a single target with the exception of the Supersonic Dash attack, but you’re also faster than other classes. The Speedster has the ability to use two attacks in one turn while sacrificing their next turn with their Double-Edge buff. This works extremely well if you need to finish off an enemy before they launch a big attack. As long as you pay close attention to your positioning and avoid big damage attacks from opponents, Speedster can end fights quickly early in the game.
Quantum Fist
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – Two squares in all directions.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – None
A moderate damage attack that can only hit an enemy two squares away from your character in any direction. If the target is one square away you cannot use this attack. This works very well in conjuction with a Brutalist or any other class that attacks from close range. However, when partied with a Blaster or other ranged classes, positioning can become an issue.
Double-Edge
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – Self Buff
- Damage – None
- Trait – None
Buff yourself so you can take two more actions that turn. The downfall of this technique is that you will lose your next turn. You basically want to use this ability when you think you can end a fight or at least finish off a single target, especially if that target is preparing for a big attack.
Supersonic Dash
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – All three squares in a horitzonal line directly in front of your character.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – None
If you’re up against multiple enemies, the Supersonic Dash is the only ability the Speedster has that can hit them. Unfortunately, they have to be lined up directly in front of your character to hit them with it. While the range allows the Speedster to attack from the back or directly in front of an enemy, it can still be difficult to align all of your targets so they can be hit with the Supersonic Dash.
Hyperspace Fury (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – One Square directly in front of your character.
- Damage – High
- Trait – Knock Back
The Speedster’s ultimate attack will only hit a single target. However, it will knock them back into another target if they’re lined up correctly inflicting heavy damage to the initial target and light damage to any enemy they’re knocked back into. The single target limitation isn’t great, but the high damage can finish off most enemies in a single attack.
Secondary Classes
After you complete the mission to bring Cartman an item from Freeman’s Tacos, he will call you back to the Coon Lair in order to give you a secondary class. You can choose from Psychic, Elementalist or Cyborg. Selecting a secondary class gives you three new abilities, plus a new ultimate attack, that you can select. Unfortunately, you can only have three normal abilities and one ultimate attack active at any given time.
Once you add a secondary class, you can select any of your current abilities to replace with your new secondary class abilities. This gives you the option to mix and match abilities between your original class and your new secondary class, creating a dual class.
Cyborg
- Support – Reposition Enemies
- Best First Class: Brutalist
- Best Third Class: Assassin
- Best Fourth Class: Martial Artist
The Cyborg doesn’t inflict a lot of damage, but they do add a lot of various status effects and repositioning opportunities. They work well when paired with a Brutalist because they generally allow the Brutalist to become even more of a tank for the team and make up for the lacking damage of the Cyborg. Most of the Cyborg’s abilities will add damage over time, knock back, pull in or enrage targets. Everything you need to control exactly where you want your enemies positioned so you can set them up for big attacks.
Faraday Uncaged
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – One square directly in front of your character.
- Damage – Low
- Traits – Knock Back, Shock
You won’t get a lot of damage out of the Faraday Uncaged attack, but it knocks back the target and inflicts them with Shock. When an enemy is Shocked they take low damage after every turn and inflict any directly adjacent enemies with low damage as well. This is a great ability to use when your enemies are bunched together, or at the start of a fight so you can get the most out of the damage over time effect of Shock.
Fatal Attraction
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – Three squares directly up, down, left or right of your character.
- Damage – Low
- Trait – Pulls
Fatal Attraction is more about repositioning an enemy rather than inflicting a ton of damage. It attacks enemies directly in front of your character, as well as enemies to the left, right or directly behind. However, while all of these targets will take damage, any enemies directly in front will also be pulled toward your character, repositioning them. You can use this to setup other attacks that need enemies to be close together to get maximum effectiveness.
Ganz Technique
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – Attacks the third square directly in front of your character.
- Damage – None
- Traits – Block, Enrage
The Ganz Technique serves two purposes, it gives the caster Block and gives one enemy target Enrage. Block is basically a shield that lasts for one turn and will deflect damage unless hit by a knock back attack. Enrage is like Taunt or Provoke from other RPGs. It causes the target to only attack the person who cast Enrage on them until the effect wears off. You won’t get any damage of this ability, but it can allow one party member to tank a target, protecting the rest of the party.
The Big Guns (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – Three squares directly in front of your character.
- Damage – High
- Traits – Knock Back, Slow
Like many other ultimate attacks, The Big Guns inflicts a considerable amount of damage on any enemies within three squares directly in front of your character. In addition to the damage, it also adds a Slow effect and knocks your targets back, potentially causing more damage. The Slow effect limits how many spaces a character can move on their turn, which can be helpful in keeping your back line safe from attack.
Elementalist
- Support – Buffing and Enfeebling
- Best First Class: Blaster
- Best Third Class: Gadgeteer
- Best Fourth Class: Plantmancer
The Elementalist is another support class, but instead of healing it focuses mostly on hitting multiple enemies with attacks that inflict damage over time or make them lose their next turn. While the Elementalist can inflict a small amount of damage, it works best with the Blaster class so you have a mix of support and offensive abilities that can almost all be used from a distance.
Hydro Helper
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – Two squares in any direction.
- Damage – None (Self Buff)
- Traits – Cleanse, Heal, Attack Up
The Hydro Help is an ability that can buff yourself or another party member. It can hit any allies within two squares of your character and heal, cleanse and give them increased attack damage. Cleanse will remove most negative status effects such as Burning or Gross Out. This is one of the best support abilities in the game and should be used when your party is in need.
Ice Prison
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Two squares in all directions.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – Chill
Like most enfeebling attacks, Ice Prison doesn’t inflict a lot of damage. Instead, it causes a Chill effect on the target. When a target is Chilled, they lose their next turn. This is extremely useful when an opponent is setting up for a big delayed attack and you need more time to finish off the enemy or simply move your party out of the way.
Sand Trap
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Cross-shaped pattern directly in any direction.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – None
Sand Trap is one of the few attacks in the game that will hit multiple enemies as long as they are positioned correctly. While it doesn’t inflict a lot of single target damage, the ability to hit up to four enemies at once can make up for the lack of damage if you can position the enemies appropriately.
Elemental Onslaught (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Three squares in all directions.
- Damage – Low
- Traits – Shock, Chill
Like a true support class, the Elemental Onslaught ultimate doesn’t inflict much damage. However, it has a wide attack range making it easy to hit the entire enemy party. It inflicts a small amount of damage to all targets within range and adds Shock and Chill effects. That means they will take damage over time for the next few turns, damage any enemies directly adjacent to them, and lose their next turn. This can be a huge turning point in any fight if you can get the proper enemies with the attack.
Psychic
- Support – Buffing and Enfeebling
- Best First Class: Speedster
- Best Second Class: Assassin or Gadgeteer
- Best Fourth Class: Plantmancer
The Psychic is not in your party to inflict massive amounts of damage. In fact, only your designated healer is likely to do less damage (and even that is debatable). The purpose of the Psychic is to buff your party members and cast enfeebling abilities on your enemies. They can heal and give your party shields with their ultimate ability, lower the defense of an enemy, or confuse an enemy, all while inflicting moderate to low damage. It’s best to pair the Pyschic with the Speedster so you can use the Double-Edge ability to gain two ability uses in a single turn, then buff yourself or an ally and use the second turn to attack with one of the Speedster’s other abilities.
Cerebral Blast
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Three squares in a four direction cross pattern extending from your character.
- Damage – Low
- Trait – Defense Down
The damage of Cerebral Blast isn’t great, but the ability more than makes up for the lack of damage by inflicting Defense Down on all targets hit by the attack. Once afflicted with Defense Down, your enemies will take more damage from every attack during the next few turns. If you have some heavy damage dealers in your party, this could easily allow the fight to be over very quickly.
Dazzling Flash
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Any enemy within three squares.
- Damage – Low
- Trait – Confuse
While this ability doesn’t inflict a ton of damage, it inflicts an enemy with Confuse. This causes the target to attack, heal or buff the nearest ally or enemy. It’s not quite as useful as Charm, but it can prevent an enemy from focusing on a weak member of your party (just keep them away from the confused target), or even make the target attack your enemies if you position them well using knock backs or just keep your allies away from the Confused enemy.
Psi-Shield
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – Any ally within two squares.
- Damage – None (Self Buff)
- Trait – Protection
The Psi-Shield grants the target the Protection buff. This is essentially a shield that will last until enough damage is inflicted to remove the shield. You can use this at the start of a fight to give yourself or an ally extra health, or use it after yourself or an ally has been damaged as a pseudo-heal until you can use a real healing ability or a healing item.
Chakra Cleanse (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – Infinite
- Damage – None (Self Buff)
- Trait – Protection
The Psychic’s ultimate attack is a buff to your entire party. It heals and casts Protection (a shield) on yourself and all party members. Both the heal and shield offer the same magnitude of buff (moderate), which should help to keep your party in the fight for at least another turn or two depending on how rough the fight has been up to that point. While this doesn’t inflict any damage, it’s a huge benefit if you’re losing a fight.
Triple Classes
Completing The Talk 2: The Gendering side mission and Cartman will call you back to the Coon Lair for Origins 3: The Visitor. The security code changes to 1-3-6 (Get Scrambles Fast). Head down into the basement and sit at the table to select between Gadgeteer and Assassin. The same rules apply, while you now have access two three more normal abilities and a new ultimate attack, you will have to replace an existing ability to use any of your new techniques.
Assassin
- Hard-Hitting Damager Dealer (DPS)
- Minimal Range
- Best First Class: Brutalist or Speedster
- Best Second Class: Cyborg
- Best Fourth Class: Martial Artist
The Assassin shares a lot of similarities with the Brutalist and works well as a third class for a Brutalist/Cyborg combo. However, if you’re using a Brutalist as a tank, staying in the front lines and taking as many hits as possible, it’s not a good pairing for the Assassin. While the Assassin has limited range and hits very hard (much like the Brutalist), they also have multiple abilities that turn them invisible after an attack, leaving them fairly safe, but also unable to tank any hits like a Brutalist can. They work well when paired with an offensive Brutalist or a Speedster, allowing the Assassin to hit doubly hard, then go invisible to stay relatively safe.
Quick Cut
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – One square directly ahead of your character.
- Damage – High
- Trait – Bleed
Quick Cut has minimal range, but more than makes up for that with solid damage and the additional Bleed effect on the target. If the Bleed effect is not cleansed, the total damage Quick Cut is higher than almost any other normal attack in the game. Of course the extremely low range of the attack helps to balance the big damage you can get off of it. More often than not you’ll have to put yourself in danger to use the attack, but the damage is definitely worth it.
Shadow Swap
- Base Stat – Spunk
- Attack Range – One square in all directions.
- Damage – Moderate
- Trait – Invisibility
Shadow Swap has decent damage, not super high, but not all that low, and it leaves your character invisible and unable to be directly targeted until your next turn. However, it also has somewhat limited range, and it can’t be used two consecutive turns thanks to a one turn down time after each use. While you can attack in any direction, the range is only a single square in any direction, meaning you have to be standing very close to your target to use this technique. If your character doesn’t have high movement (the ability to move a lot of squares during your turn), it can be difficult to hit enemies with this attack. Otherwise, this is a very good attack to use when you need to stay safe, but still inflict damage.
Spin Slash
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – Three squares to the left, right, in front and behind your character.
- Damage – Low
- Trait – Bleed
The best aspect of Spin Slash is the long range of the attack. You can hit multiple enemy up to three squares away, which means it shouldn’t be difficult to attack an enemy, no matter where you’re currently positioned. It also causes a Bleeding effect, which will damage the target over time and the end of their next few turns. However, because of the Bleeding effect, ability to hit multiple enemies, and the long range, the initial attack offers lower damage than most other attacks in the game.
Deadly Dive (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Brawn
- Attack Range – Entire Board
- Damage – High
- Traits – Bleed, Invisible
The Assassin’s ultimate attack can only hit one target, but it inflicts high damage and add a Bleed effect so the target continues to take damage at the end of every turn. It also has infinite range and leaves your character invisible after the attack so you can’t be directly targeted until your next turn. This is a great ultimate attack to use if you only need to hit one character and you know you can’t kill them with a single attack. The added Bleed will only be beneficial if the initial attack doesn’t kill, which means it’s not the most efficient finishing move, but it works well on an enemy with a lot of health remaining.
Gadgeteer
- Ranged Damage Dealer (DPS)
- Heavily reliant on positioning.
- Best First Class: Blaster
- Best Second Class: Elementalist
- Best Fourth Class: Plantmancer
The Gadgeteer feels like an extension of the Blaster and Elementalist. The main difference is that the Gadgeteer uses robots and guns to assist during fights. All of the Gadgeteer’s abilities are Brains-based, which also works well when coupled with main of the Brains-based attacks of the Blaster and Elementalist. You can focus on your Brains stat to increase potency to almost all of your attacks when you combine these three classes.
Boom-Boom Buddy
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range (placement) – Two squares around your character.
- Damage – High
- Traits – None
The Gadgeteer builds a robot that doesn’t have a ton of health or inflict much damage, but at the end of its turn it self-destructs and damages any adjacent enemies for big damage. You cannot use Boom-Boom Buddy in two consecutive turns as it has a one turn down time before it can be used again. In addition, positioning is key to ensure the blast hits as many enemies as possible. If the robot blows up with no one around, it’s essentially a wasted turn.
Gigavolt Globe
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – Two squares directly in front of your character. Three squares across on the second square.
- Damage – Low
- Trait – Shock
While the damage on Gigavolt Globe isn’t amazing, it more than makes up for this by not only hitting multiple enemies at once, but adding Shock as well. Shock inflicts a small amount of damage after every turn, and will damage any adjacent enemies as well. The range isn’t amazing, but this is still one of the better attacks to use in conjunction with Blaster and Elementalist attacks. However, due to the short range, it can also work well with Brutalist.
Straight Shooter
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range (placement) – One square directly up, down, left or right of your character
- Damage – High
- Traits – None
This attack allows your character to create a turret that will shoot at enemies. The initial placement of the turret has to be within one square of your character, but it has a much wider attack range and will hit all enemies in a straight line. The turret has a two turn down time, meaning it will be placed on one turn, then you can’t place another turret for the next two turns. While positioning is also important for the turret, it inflicts high damage and can hit multiple enemies if they’re lined up.
Airborne Annihilator (Ultimate)
- Base Stat – Brains
- Attack Range – A 3×3 square block directly in front of the character.
- Damage – High
- Traits – None
The Airborne Annihilator inflicts high damage to multiple enemies, if they’re moderately close together. It doesn’t have a ton of range, but it’s enough to generally catch at least two enemies without much hassle. As far as ultimate attacks go, this is one of the better attacks if you just need to finish off a few pesky enemies. By the time you get this class you will likely have Cartman in your party, who basically has the best damage-based ultimate in the game, so you may not find yourself using this one very much.
Get more strategies and advice, including how to find condoms, in our South Park: The Fractured But Whole game hub!
