With the game being 5 years old, expect a variety of Brawlers like these to break the game before their emergency nerfs.
- The general consensus about Rosa is that she snapped the meta into pieces upon her release. Her Super, Tough Stuff, charges up ridiculously fast, and it absorbs 80% of all incoming damage to for 6 seconds. Now, this may not seem like much, but since Rosa's attack, Stone Fists, is really quick, functioning much like El Primo's, but without the subpar range, she can put up a shield, get up close and personal with foes (who they can't touch due to the shield and high HP), put up ANOTHER shield as soon as the first one runs out, go to whale on someone else when the first prey dies, and repeat. Oh, and her Star Power? She recovers 200 HP per second just for standing in grass, meaning that if someone actually manages to chip through both the shields and the high HP, she can just hightail it into the nearest bush and she'll be fresh as a daisy. She can essentially Power Creep all the other Heavyweights, being far more sturdy and having the strength to back it up. She was nerfed very quickly, taking 10% off Tough Stuff's damage reduction and a little bit off its duration, but it was too little, too late, as she still holds a leafy grip around the meta. And the worst part? She's only a Rare Brawler.
- Before Rosa, Leon was pretty infamous for making all the other short ranged Brawlers obsolete. He was pretty squishy, but had almost as much DPS as Shelly without having to get right on top of enemies. His special was what brought worries about the game becoming a Pay to Win. His Super outright makes him invisible that lets him close the distance with zero skill and rip apart the backline, while promoting the kind of campy behavior that is frowned upon in most shooter games. Your best hope when you see a Leon go invisible? Just run like hell. There was a reason he was nerfed six times...
- All of the pet summoning Brawlers in Big Game before they got nerfed. The turrets and minions' strength are tremendously ramped up alongside the main Brawler, so that any team fighting a big Nita, Pam, Penny, and Jessie are basically fighting two boss level enemies that can easily be replaced. Even after the nerf, they are still a pain in the ass to deal with, since the buffed-up boss Brawlers can fill up their Super in seconds by killing off the smaller Brawlers.
- Sprout was the best thrower when first released. Its shots seemed like they had short range, but seed bombs slide on the ground before exploding, giving it an insane advantage over other throwers, even though its damage was the worst. Its super spawns a large amount of temporary walls, which not only gives Sprout cover in maps without much walls, but also lets it instantly lockdown a lane. It could even be used to wall off a Brawl Ball goal so the enemy, or even your own team, can't score.
- Edgar on release was just fucking insane! Sure, he may be squishy, but with his super, that also automatically charges, even faster than Darryl? He turns into an outright killing machine. He can leap onto anyone and just with a few clicks and taps, your enemy is reduced to nothing. And your super is recharged. It doesn't help that he has the fastest reload speed in the game (even faster than that of El Primo, as a matter of fact) and he heals a little health when he hits an enemy. His gadget makes him a force to be reckoned with, since it effectively gives him a free charge of his Super, allowing him to pounce on and maul anyone he likes at his leisure. His star powers either give him more health for his attacks, or deal an extra 1000 damage to wherever he is landing, which all help with taking down enemies. And worst/best of all? He has barely any counters other than a set few like Bull. His only real weakness was encountering another, stronger Edgar, since the difference in health and attack (and therefore health healed per hit) puts the weaker one at a definite disadvantage, but other than that, he was a total monster. This isn't just an angry kid. This is a kid who will Take. You. Down. Well, supposedly until he got nerfed multiple times. Again.
- The newer Star Powers are powerful, but usually trade one good ability for another. This isn't the case for Rocket Number Four, the new Star Power for Brock. Unlike most Star Powers, it's just an outright upgrade over his other Star Power which deals scratch damage in a small area. Rocket Number Four gives Brock four ammo bars which does alot of good that are not obvious. The fourth shot gives Brock the ability to put down almost everyone in the game without reloading, and allows Brock to charge his super immediately without having to reload. It can easily save Brock from ambushes, or deal with the heavyweights. Supercell was not joking when they wanted Star Powers bigger and better.
- 8-BIT, despite his god-awful speed, was pretty unbalanced when he was released, as despite that, he has exceptional health, attack, and range. His Super also boosted his already-powerful DPS and also affected his teammates. When his second Star Power 1-UP (Which was later known as Extra Life) was released, everything went downhill from there. Basically, when 8-BIT dies for the first time, he instantly respawned and could attack others while he had his invincibility shield up. As long as you made it till the end, you wouldn't be able to lose. Fortunately, for everyone who was free-to-play, his SP was nerfed so you can't attack until the shield has dissipated. As of Season 3, Extra Life was completely replaced with a new Star Power called Plugged In which boosts 8-BIT's speed within a certain range which extends slightly outside his Damage Booster. However, this has instead led to fears of 8-BIT becoming a game-breaker again as this has shot up his viability in 3v3s, coupled with subsequent updates that saw his HP increased, the release of his destructive second gadget, (tripling the amount of bullets his next main attack fires, making it a complete threat for Heist and Siege) and his Super's boost increased to 50%.
- The Gadgets introduced have been very hit or miss, but some Gadgets are just outrageously better than others:
- Gale's Gadget is so powerful that it will put the enemy at an immense disadvantage if they don't have their own Gale. The Gadget spawns a permanent jump pad that Gale can aim in any direction. This pretty much guarantees that Gale and his team will reach the middle first, making it easy to secure objectives like the Gem Mine. Fortunately, as of Season 3, his Gadget got nerfed hard. Still, it is very useful in Hot Zone for early control.
- Emz's and Gene's Gadgets push Brawlers away, which will almost always give Gene a free escape and it also pushes enemies right into Emz's sweet spot. These two Gadgets basically turned the two into meta Brawlers, since a button that gets enemies off your back is universally useful. Both Gadgets have since become more balanced.
- Colt's second gadget, Silver Bullet. It literally breaks through walls and Brawlers with his combined attack damage, while not making a sound. That is scary for sure. It's similar to Brock's Rocket Fuel, but Silver Bullet is much more dangerous, since its piercing lets to smash through any walls it passes and the bullet deals slightly more damage than Colt's normal attack. This is insane since Colt's extreme DPS is only balanced by the fact that it is split up between projectiles, but the Gadget fires a single meatshot that would make Piper blush. All these traits caused the Gadget to shot Colt from being a bottom tier Brawler to being the BEST BRAWLER in the entire game. Fortunately, the January 2021 balance changes nerfed the Gadget's damage from an entire burst to merely two bullets, balancing it and keeping the community appeased.
- Bea's second gadget, Rattled Hive. This gadget spawns bees that circle away from Bea and do more damage the further they fly. When it was released, the bees dealt an impressive 1000 damage at maximum range! Even with a slight rework that changed the bees pattern to cluster in one area like a roller coaster ride, the nerf still BARELY hurt it, making it a top tier gadget. However, it was finally hit with a hammer when a new nerf not only reduced the maximum damage to 600, but also cut down the speed and area swept out by the gadget. To make up for it, now 4 bees are added.
- Tick's second gadget, Last Hurrah. This gadget shields Tick for 1 second, giving him total invincibility, before blasting nearby enemies away with 1000 damage and knockback. This gadget just literally covered Tick's only weakness, being unable to handle being ambushed, and turned him into an unstoppable mine machine! Can't approach him? You'll have mines rained upon you and you can't do anything about it. Approach him after all that STUPID pain? Welp too bad! A gadget is activated and you go down. All of that pain for nothing. Fortunately, for anyone who was annoyed by this, the June 2021 balance changes nerfed Last Hurrah's shield protection from 100% to 50%.
- Stu, while also packing a considerable punch due to his short unload time, has some of the best, if not THE best mobility in the game. His super is a short dash like Shelly's gadget, but Stu's attack charges it up in a single shot. His shots are fairly easily to land because of their speed, which allows Stu to easily chain his dashes. His dashes also deal knockback, so you can spam it over and over again to perma-stun certain brawlers. What's even worse is that his Star Power, Zero Drag, doubles his dashing range. His only real flaw is is low HP and somewhat short range. However, that is fixed with his Gasoheal and Zero Drag Star Powers which seem to make up for those weaknesses. Following the June 2021 balance changes though, the dash no longer knockbacks the enemies. That being said, Stu remains a popular pick in the meta.
- Belle, being a Marksman, has an INSANELY long range, even longer than Piper, which means that as long as you're not another Belle, you will practically be countered with the longest range in existence. Her main attack also has infinite bouncing between enemies, meaning that even if you are a considerable distance apart [compared to Jessie's and Penny's attacks], you will still be hit by that bouncing orb! Not to mention her super makes you take more damage PERMANENTLY until you die! Her gadget slows you down, and if it adds more insult to injury, her Star Powers either cause her super to make you STOP reloading for 3 seconds or give her a shield. In a nutshell, Belle literally powercreeps so many brawlers and has a stupidly long range. However, the June 2021 balance changes nerfed Belle's main attack bounces, which are now limited to up to 3 bounces.
- The Jurassic Splash summer update made massive changes to the game to make nearly all the heavyweight brawlers powerful. The first change was that all heavyweights can charge up their supers by receiving damage, and the second change made it so that all brawlers respawn with no ammo. The later change really pushed tanks over the edge, since all of them can reload all of their ammo nearly instantly, while the long ranged brawlers that used to torment them take much longer. This has resulted in teams of just heavyweights spawning the enemy since they don't spawn with enough ammo to shoot them down.
- The new Legendary brawler Meg was this the moment she was revealed in the Brawl Talk. Meg in her basic form is pitifully weak, with health on par with Tick and damage below one thousand at max level. However, all that will change when she gets her super. Her super have her summon a mecha and now her basic attack is a devastating attack of 8 fast firing beams that does 336 damage each! Her super mechanic is also changed too while in her mech. Now it automatically charges after 5 seconds, and when using it, it swings forward like Bibi’s attack, and does 3360 damage at maximum level! The only thing preventing the mecha form from becoming a complete monster is the fact that it loses 2% of its health per second, and all external healing sources are reduced by 80%. But the gadget for Meg allows her to heal her mech for 450 health per second for 5 second, recovering 2250 total health! Plus her star power, force field, gives Meg a 35% shield for a mind numbing 30 seconds after her mecha is taken out! Luckily, due to her being a legendary brawler, you probably won’t encounter her much. But if you do, beware her super. Or just kill her when she's in her weak mode.
- If Doug becomes the big brawler in Big Game, you might as well just give up. While many healing based abilities are nerfed in Big Game, Doug's revival super is somehow the exception. This allows him to gain back half of his entire boss bar upon dying which is more than enough to let him charge up another super to repeat the process. The only "counter" is trying to get Doug to low health and tricking him into wasting his super, but even this is unreliable because there will likely be at least one random player that does not understand the strategy and continues attacking, resulting in the super being triggered. And then Doug's super was buffed to heal him to full health instead of only half. How this exploit got past the developers and wasn't immediately dealt with is anyone's guess
- Charlie was an absolute monster before her nerfs. Her attack will return back if it collides with a brawler, wall or reaches max distance, meaning if you're a Tank she could just whip out attack after attack, then her Super will force the enemy to wait until the cocoon's health runs out. This is especially bad in Solo Showdown, but if done right, she could just use her Super, activate her Spiders Gadget, run towards you, and you're dead before you can even react.
- Dear lord, was Kit a beast upon his release. Not even going into his passively-reloading Super and his incredibly fast attack, his Super made him immune to any damage while it was active on friend or foe, which made Showdown a nightmare, as well as his Super being glitched so that it would automatically reload while it was still active on an enemy, effectively stun-locking an enemy into death. Add his Cardboard Box Gadget and his Power Hungry Star Power, and the cat was essentially invincible. Thank goodness for the nerfs he received.
