Twenty One Pilots Tier List (Breach Update)

Aha! The updated Twenty One Pilots tier list is finally here! And will presumably be the last all-songs-ranking for a while as, by the sounds of it, Tyler and Josh are going to take a well-deserved break.

My previous ranking can be found here.

Couple informational notes:

1. The Line is specifically the live version from the Game Awards. The original version would still be in S or S- somewhere, but not top 10. I just looooove the scream and prefer the shortened version.

2. Once again, I note that I do not rank songs from Regional at Best that have a Vessel version -- I only rank the superior Vessel version.

3. I also note once again that it's not a perfect list -- I did not go through every comparison and double-check every ranking/compare every song to both their neighbors to confirm it's sitting in the perfect spot.

4. I note: This is NOT a tier list of what songs I think are the best, but RATHER which songs are my favorite. Obviously I think there is a correlation between the two, but there are various instances (prime example is Redecorate, I think) where I recognize the song is amazing (great production, lyrics, meaning, vocals, sound etc.), my enjoyment of the song just doesn't match.

Some thoughts:

    More B-Tier and C-Tier Songs

I really tried to be more honest with this version. Not that I was dishonest in other versions, but I tried to avoid as much as possible the thought of "But I love that song" even if in reality it's not my favorite. This is reflected in the fact that B Tier and C Tier are much more full than they used to be.

 
I think as TOP's discography became larger, it's become more clear which songs I gravitate back to to relisten and which songs I tend to skip over. This has allowed me to more easily to identify which songs I should truly rank lower.

(Man, remember when their discography was small enough where I had a sidebar dedicated to my rankings of all of their songs? And I updated it regularly in small adjustments instead of in these bigger revamps?)

    Trees Dethroned from Number 1

I put Next Semester as my favorite instead of Trees! Trees has long held my #1 position, but I think of, and most often want to listen to, Next Semester the most frequently out of any TOP song. In my previous ranking, Next Semester was #5, so after considering it, I decided to shift it to #1. 

Interestingly enough, Downstairs' existence is another reason I decided to shift Trees down off number 1. For as long as I can remember, the ending of Trees was my favorite conclusion/piece of any TOP song. That now belongs to the ending in Downstairs. Because Trees was dethroned in this, for some reason that felt like additional permission to drop Trees' ranking to #2.

In general the rankings mean the following:

S: Favs of all time, goated.

A: I love these songs (obviously this love scales down as you get to A-)

B: I like these songs (obviously this like scales down as you get to B-)

C: This is where I start getting much more mixed opinions and, especially as we slip down further in the Cs, I would say I don't like the songs. They still have redeeming qualities, though, and I do enjoy occasionally relistening to these songs, especially those in C+.

D: I don't care to listen to these songs and do not like them.

F: I actively dislike these songs quite a bit.

December 2025 Journal Entry

        Blue Prince (again)
        (contains only minor trophy name spoilers and minor spoilers for the strategy of beating the game in one day)
        Well, if last month was the month of Blue Prince, then this month was the month of... Blue Prince again? Yep. I'm honestly surprised it didn't happen with a different game first, but Blue Prince is the only video game this year to successfully dominate my video gaming time in not just one month but two. To be fair, it only dominated the 2nd half of November and the first half of December, so it really was just a timing thing to be counted for two months, but yeah.
        My enjoyment of the game has gone downhill, unfortunately. The game slowly shifts away from what I originally fell in love with. Instead of a rouge-like puzzle game, it just becomes more and more exclusively a puzzle game. You become so overpowered that the rouge-like elements become an after-thought, even a hinderance/annoyance, to testing things/solving the puzzles.
        That being said, I still adore the game and would recommend it highly. And when I spend a while away from the game, I become excited to dive into trying to solve the puzzles yet again. But, yeah. Enjoyment has definitely dropped.
        We've stayed true to not looking anything up* and only have two trophies left (one trophy being 'get all the trophies', so effectively only one trophy, which is the 'solve all 8 inner sanctum room puzzles' (we're only missing one sanctum key and already know the answer to the puzzle in the room)). What's kind of unfortunate is I think my enjoyment/satisfaction would have been much higher if I had just given up at some point and looked up how to do everything else.
        We've poured hours and hours into staring at/talking about random things that we don't even know if they mean anything. These hours have not been enjoyable. However, these hours did lead to a couple of really tough puzzles being solved which I am quite proud of.

        My current gameplan is to get the last trophy without looking anything up and then spoil myself on everything else.

        I could write and talk a lot more about Blue Prince. 

        *I just remembered: During our many attempts to complete the game in one day, I got discouraged and watched the video of the world record speedrun to see if there was any big secret we were missing. Nope, they did it just the same as one of the paths we had plotted. We did take a couple small strategy pieces from the video, though. Before we were drafting the closet to the right of the entrance hall at the very start, but instead copied them and started doing it from the top -- a small difference that probably doesn't change a crazy amount in the grand scheme of things (but is probably better considering the fact that the world record did it). We also started focusing more on saving a reroll for the outer room.

        Christmas
        Christmas was a blast. Most of the Jamieson crew got to stick around for a while longer than they did last year, which was awesome.
        Played some Moving Out 2 and some Overcooked 2. Overcooked 2 is a ton of fun. Moving Out 2 is, uh, not.
        Hadn't gotten to play Smash Bros for the past few months with Ben up at college and all, so I got my fill of that, which was great.
        Got Sky Team for Christmas and played through all the base game scenarios. Expansion is currently coming in the mail. Great game.
        Had the last session of the Mistborn 2025 Campaign in person -- just like how we did the last session of the 2024 Campaign last year in person. Great session. Epic moments. Really good epilogue stuff for our characters. I have loved both the 2025 and 2024 Campaigns.
        Filmed two videos for PerazzoBrothersGaming, first one out already, second one out hopefully later today.
        Played a lot of Dominion this year, which was wonderful; I love that game so much.
        Played various other board/card games -- Finca, Raccoon Tycoon, Brass: Birmingham, Liar's Dice, Flip 7, Burst, DroPolter, Things in Rings. My favorites being: Brass: Birmingham, DroPolter, Sky Team, and Dominion

        DroPolter but Mouth
        Okay, this deserves it's own header thing, haha.
        So. DroPolter is one of the board games I referenced above. It's a wonderful simple game in a small box. In this game you have five differently shaped objects in your hand. You flip over the top card of a deck which shows you the items you need to drop. Everyone races trying to get those objects out of their hand first (using only the hand that has the items in it -- your other hand can't help).
        If you win the round, you get a bell and if you get to five bells, you win. The trick is you put the bell into your hand with the rest of your objects. And if you ever drop the bell from your hand, you lose that bell. It's a beautiful catch-up mechanic -- the more bells you have in your hand, the more difficult it becomes to safely drop the correct items. 

        From that information you might be able to deduce what DroPolter but Mouth is, hahaha. Now, important note: NO, we did not use the small little choking hazard items that you use in the normal game (which would also be very gross to put into your mouth). Instead you put five differently flavored lifesavers into your mouth (which all have a hole in the middle, so, uh, theoretically not a choking hazard). Each game piece displayed on the cards is associated with the different lifesavers. Through taste, you had to spit out the correct lifesavers in order to win the round.

        It was TOO funny. We were cackling so hard while discussing it beforehand and when we actually played it. We got me, Joseph, Ben, and Eric to play. Ben won and I got second. We got our first couple rounds on video and it's mostly us trying to control our laughter so we could actually try to win the round. After the first couple rounds, we managed to focus up and have some semi-competitive rounds that felt half luck based but half getting surprising decent at identifying individual flavors.

        Joseph said DroPolter but Mouth was probably the hardest he laughed in 2025.

        Failed to Finish Twenty One Pilots Tier List
        Was having a really tough time with the early stages of it, so finishing just kind of didn't happen. And then Christmas happened and stuff.

        Job Starts Up Feb 2nd, Oh Boy Oh Boy
        Will be spending my first couple months in Colorado and then somewhere else that I don't know yet after that.

November 2025 Journal Entry

        Random side note: I updated last month's journal entry with two pictures of me and Hannah dressed up for Halloween, so check that out there if you want.

Blue Prince

        Well, if last month was the month of not Hades II, then this month was the month of Blue Prince.

        Note: No spoilers are below so you are safe to read on:

        Heard the game was good. Knew it had rouge-like elements, which is amongst (if not my) favorite genre/mechanic. Saw that I could use it through game share with Andrew's library. Started playing with Eric on his birthday. We proceeded to pour a lotta lot of hours into it in the next week and a half.

        I control the character, Eric takes notes, and we make decisions together. It's a blast. All but maybe 3 of the hours we have in game we've done together. Eric has enjoyed many puzzle games in the past (ex the Myst series) and it's been great to spend this time with him.

        The game is so good. I've been absorbed and that absorption has only recently petered off -- for the first few irl days of Eric and I playing, I thought that it might shockingly overtake Silksong as my Game of the Year. After another week of playing Blue Prince, I'm sticking with Silksong as of right now, but, like, seriously been loving my time with Blue Prince.

        And the part I think I would enjoy least, note-taking, Eric does instead, which is fantastic. I don't think I necessarily dislike notetaking (a good example of this may be the several pages of notes I wrote to plot out everything I needed to do to 100% Stardew Valley -- but that falls more into a to-do list thing than a puzzle-game-note-taking thing, so idk), but I think my enjoyment of note-taking would only extend so far before I find it tedious. For example, I didn't want to take notes and remember stuff about *spoilers* so Eric did it instead, which was great.

        We've gotten 10 out of the 16 achievements without looking anything up anything online (except *very minor spoilers that has no consequence to how we play* and *minor spoilers which we would have seen unfold if we had just waited a couple days*). I currently intend to get all 16 in this same fashion. I have a feeling that *minor achievement spoiler* and *minor achievement spoiler* are going to be quite tough, though, but we'll see.

Pickleball

        Referenced last month getting back into pickleball and going practically every chance I get. This has continued through this month. Playing better than I ever have, I think. Ready to face off with Ben once he gets back for Christmas.

Lorcana

        Been quite invested in Lorcana this month. Listening to podcasts a lot (Podcana and ArtaCast being my favorite ones, although ArtaCast has recently gone on hiatus for a bit). Bought some sealed product, half of which I've set aside for a Lorcana draft with my family over Christmas. Playing some games, watching some games, thinking about the game.

        It's been a lot of fun, but it ultimately leaves me kind of unsatisfied as what I really want is to go to a local scene and compete there. So I'm really hoping that where I move to next will have one.

        Speaking of which:

Very Happy Job Update!!

        Last month I said I was doing interviews for two different jobs, and I ended up getting both offers!! Seriously so grateful and relieved and happy. It feels so nice to have my next step in place.

        I accepted the Implementation Consultant role with Fast Enterprises -- which is the same role my cousin Joseph currently has. I'll be working on Tax or other related software with state governments.

        Further details (start date and job location) are still pending. They have various locations across the U.S. and I could theoretically end up at any of them. They do allow you to put down preferred regions, but it is ultimately up to them. I put my availability date as January 5th, so I'll likely start sometime in January.

        Very excited and happy:)

Auzzy Update

        Got a good chunk of writing and outlining done at the beginning of the month! I hit my original goal of 10,000 words, which makes me happy. I think I still have another few thousand to go before the first very rough draft is complete, which is why I updated the goal shown on the right-hand side to 13,000. I'm close enough to the end where I have a pretty good idea what's going to go down and how things are going to wrap up, which is exciting. I think it will also mean finishing up the first draft will go by pretty quickly when I can manage to sit myself down to write again.

Mission Journal Transcription Progress

        Another great update dealing with the progress bars on the right-hand side. Put forth consistent effort into transcribing every day for a couple-few weeks. Over half way done! I stopped transcribing every day once I started playing Blue Prince, which is unfortunate, but also is fine. Plan to make more progress this upcoming month.

Found Various Lost Artifacts from my Past

        My dad located a couple of bins in the garage that contained many things which I've been ecstatic to be reunited with again.

        These treasures include:

• My various yearbooks from both high school and elementary school (one of which I've been looking for for the past couple of years to get hands on a particular signing from a friend. I told my friend about it, he didn't remember it, I told him I would send him a photo of it, I couldn't find the yearbook, now I have found it and successfully sent a photo of it to him)
• My collection of gray jackets I've worn throughout my childhood. I always wore a gray jacket growing up and got new ones as the years went on. I now have the precious collection of them again (I think there's 5 or so in total, I'd have to go count).
• Nametags from Elders from my mission. Elder Wilkins, my follow-up trainer, gave me one, and Elder Taylor, an Elder in one of my districts I became very close with (I just realized, I'm actually wearing the tie he signed and gave to me as I type this blogpost).
• A string color bracelet thing I wore for a chunk of my mission that was meaningful to me. I'm considering wearing again now that I have it again.
• Other random memorabilia from my mission and trinkets from other times.
• Various letters I received during my mission from close friends, alongside two cards written in and given to me from Pam and Apoorv, two wonderful people I had the blessing of teaching on the mission.
• A journal with 5 or so entries from 2011 of my trip to go see Andrew's mission in Iowa -- I think I might transcribe and post those to this blog to preserve them at some point.

This was in my first grade "School Memories" book. It's TOO good. Seriously so funny and awesome. 

30 Days of TØP in a Couple Days (Revisited)

        Back in August of 2018 I did a thing I came across online. Each day there was a different question related to Twenty One Pilots. I just did all the questions at once and posted my answers over the course of two days. These posts can be found here:

https://whateveriwant7.blogspot.com/2018/08/30-days-of-tp-in-couple-days-pt-1.html

https://whateveriwant7.blogspot.com/2018/08/30-days-of-tp-in-couple-days-pt-2.html

        I've decided it'd be fun to redo these questions 7 years and 4 albums later and reflect on my past answers.

        I've decided to just chuck them all in one blog post instead of separating them like last time.

1. Favorite song

        Current Answer: Trees

        Past Answer: Migraine

        Commentary: Good take from me. Migraine has been my 2nd favorite song behind Trees for as long as I can remember now. We'll see where Migraine ends up on my tier list this time around, but Trees remains king.

2. First song I heard

                    

        Current Answer: Same as before

        Past Answer: I wasn't sure, but A Car, A Torch, A Death is probably my earliest memory because the ringing noise stuck with me

        Commentary: Yeah, as noted in the previous post, Hannah is, ofc, what got me into Twenty One Pilots. So my first time hearing a lot of Self-Titled, Vessel, and Blurryface was hearing Hannah listen to them, so my first song could have been anything (well, not Blurryface. Hannah was listening to them before Blurryface came out).

3. Last song I listened to

        Current Answer: One Way (with Days Lie Dormant currently playing as I type this) [Note: This answer is from about a month and a half ago when I first wrote this]

        Past Answer: Taken by Sleep

        Commentary: Deep pull from past me. I really should listen to No Phun intended more.

4. Are you a fan?

        Current Answer: Same as before, haha.

        Past Answer: Yes? I am confused by the intent of this question. Anyone who actually does this is probably a fan.

        Commentary: Curious if there was some deeper meaning to this in some form that I may never know.

5. Favorite song off Blurryface

        Current Answer: The Judge, and it's not close nowadays

        Past Answer: Not Today

        Commentary: Not Today has definitely been top 3 from the album for me for a long time, so this doesn't surprise me. Curious if it'll stay that way this upcoming tier list. Even if it ends up as 2nd fav from Blurryface, The Judge is just a tier above it and everything else from the album imo.

6. Favorite song off Vessel

        Current Answer: Trees

        Past Answer: Migraine

        Commentary: Same commentary as question 1. I love Vessel so much.

7. Favorite song off Regional at Best

        Current Answer: Kitchen Sink

        Past Answer: Kitchen Sink

        Commentary: My feelings on many songs on Regional at Best have changed quite a bit throughout the years (aka, I've been liking the songs less and less), but I've always had a love for Kitchen Sink.

8. Favorite song off Self-Titled

        Current Answer: Taxi Cab, and it's not close nowadays

        Past Answer: Friend, Please

        Commentary: Friend, Please is a powerful song that I love. I had a friend in high school this song would (and still does) make me think of. I'm curious how much this song was elevated by that fact. The song is meaningful to me now, but it was even more so back then.

9. Favorite song off No Phun Intended

        Current Answer: Drown

        Past Answer: Blasphemy

        Commentary: Man, only have 5 albums to listen to instead of now 9 made it a lot easier to get around to listening to No Phun intended. Trying to answer this question was a big reason why I finally made a NPI Tier List recently. During that process, I decided Drown is my favorite with Blasphemy in 2nd place.

        

(Going to chuck these in here even though I don't have past answers to them in case I redo this 5 years down the line or something)

9a Fav song from Trench

        Morph

9b Fav song from Scaled and Icy

        Formidable

9c Fav song from Clancy

        Vignette

9d Fav song from Breach

        I think I've finally settled on Downstairs being my favorite from the album, but I haven't officially ranked them, so we'll see if this opinion is true once my updated tier list comes out.

10. Underrated song?

        Current Answer: I was cooking with my past answer. Same as before.

        Past Answer: The Pantaloon? I'm not quite sure

        Commentary: So 7 years ago I hadn't ever really looked at the general fanbase's opinions. It wasn't actually until just a couple months ago that I started looking at other people's tierlists. And sooo many people really don't like The Pantaloon; people just really don't like Tyler's vocals I guess. But I've always loved The Pantaloon and still do so to this day. So The Pantaloon is my pick.

11. Overrated song

        Current Answer: Drag Path

        Past Answer: House of Gold

        Past Commentary: I love the song and I've been liking it more recently and it may climb up the ranks (when I get to redoing those), but I still think people like it too much. Ex. Ben and Thomas have it in their top 5/10

        Commentary: House of Gold totally makes sense for my pick; after doing a music video on it, it dropped in my rankings. It's come up somewhat since then, but is still lower than what it used to be at. Vs (as referenced) Ben and Thomas who loved the song a lot.

        Okay okay: Drag Path. The opinions I've been seeing are people putting this into their top 5's, including SKR (my favorite TØP youtuber) putting it at his top 1. My current theory: I've just got a small sample size that all happened to agree. Because golly, this song ain't even top 5 in the album. It's good, don't get me wrong. But top 5 all time? I say nay to that.

12. Song that has the most meaning to me?

        Current Answer: Trees

        Past Answer: Holding On To You

        Past Commentary: This question is brutal. I feel like Holding On To You? Simply because of that one rap that's my favorite rap of all time and it means so much to me [I then quoted the rap, but I won't do so here. The one that starts, "Remember the moment You know exactly where you're going"]

        Commentary: Holding On To You is a fantastic pick, and I think it's probably still in my top 5 nowadays. Trees takes the spot this time. Tally is up there as well.

13. Do you know when Tyler's Birthday is?

        Current Answer: Yes, December 1st, same as my Sister

        Past Answer: Yes, December 1st.

        14. Do you know when Josh's birthday is?

        Current Answer: No, sorry Josh. Although I blame my sister sharing a birthday with Tyler for why I remember his.

        Past Answer: I'm pretty sure it's in June. The 27th? 17th?

I looked it up and it's on June 18th, so I was close. I got the month right, at least.

        Commentary: Wow, I'm surprised I got so close to that last time.

15. Favorite TØP cover?

        Current Answer: Lowkey Mad World

        Past Answer: Cancer

        Commentary: I realize Can't Help Falling In Love is just straight up their best cover, but alas, my current pick is Mad World. I used to love the Cancer cover a lot more than I do now, so that pick checks out.

16. Song I wished was played on the radio

        Current Answer: I swear I thought this before reading my past answer, hahaha: "Golly if Migraine came on the radio, I would POP OFF."

        Past Answer: I don't know all the songs that are played on the radio since I don't listen to the radio a whole bunch, but I guess Migraine simply because it's my favorite.

        Commentary: Most of the time I see my past answer as I read the question since they're right next to each other, but since this answer was a block of text I had that thought before seeing the answer, haha.

17. Least Favorite Song

        Current Answer: Two

        Past Answer: House of Gold

        Commentary: The fact that I ever put House of Gold at the very bottom is kind of insane. I know it took a serious dip, but I didn't know it was that bad. Bounce Man really should be at the bottom of my list, but Two can actively make me feel anxious during parts of the song (even though other parts are simply beautiful and peaceful -- it's a very weird song), so it takes it for me.

        (Side note: This is not including RAB songs that have Vessel versions; I always use the Vessel versions for all rankings and such)

18. Have you seen them live?

        Current Answer: I have not. Honestly not sure why I haven't prioritized it more considering how big of a role they've played in my life.

        Past Answer: No :( But it's not like I've tried too hard to do so. I know a couple people who have. And I have in one of my dreams.

        Commentary: I sadly no longer recall this dream.

19. Which rap verse is my favorite?

        Current Answer: The Holding On To You rap probably still.

        Past Answer: The Holding On To You rap I mentioned.

        Commentary: Just a few months ago (notably before Breach came out) my family asked me what my favorite lyric was from Twenty One Pilots. I thought of this blog post from 7 years ago and answered "I'm not sure about lyric, but my favorite rap is the Holding On To You rap." 

        It's still probably true to this day, but I'd have to look around some more if I wanted to confirm for sure. The rap meant more to me and was more relevant to me/my mental state in the past, so there's a chance something else is more personal to me now.

20. Favorite chorus?

        Current Answer: Okay, I gave a cop-out answer last time, so I'll at least try to come up with something. After a couple minutes of glancing around songs, I'm going to go with the potentially recency bias pick of Center Mass. Golly, I don't know why but it's so good.

        Past Answer: I have no idea

21. Favorite album?

        Current Answer: Gotta give it to my king Vessel for now. I visited this question in a blog post you can find here about a year and a half ago, and it's still fairly accurate to how I feel.

        Past Answer: Regional at Best

        Commentary: Like I referenced somewhere above, my opinions on songs in RAB have gone down throughout the years. Found an old blog post of mine that talked about why RAB was my favorite. Full post here (important part is the last big paragraph). I had a lowkey based take, but, uhhhh, gotta disagree now. 

22. Least favorite album?

        Current Answer: Honestly probably Regional at Best -- don't tell my past self that.

        Past Answer: Blurryface

        Commentary: Curious how much Blurryface dipped in my personal ratings simply because it was popular. But at the same time, kind of a based take to have RAB and Self-Titled above Blurryface (and Vessel > Blurryface as well, but that take is more common. RAB/Self-Titled vs Blurryface is much more mixed in opinions, I think).

23. Most emotional album?

        Current Answer: Is No Phun Intended a legal answer? If not, then, yeah, probably Self-Titled

        Past Answer: Self-Titled

        Commentary: Seriously, almost every song on No Phun Intended makes me immediately feel all the things.

24. Own any of the albums?

        Current Answer: Trench, Scaled and Icy, Clancy, and Breach

        Past Answer: All that are accessible. So, Vessel and Blurryface

        Commentary: I just realized -- I never owned a copy of Vessel and Blurryface, hahaha. Not sure why I said I owned them in that blog post. Hannah owns Blurryface and I would love to own them both, but I don't, haha.

25. Song I want them to cover?

        Current Answer: Some old random cool song that I know; I have no idea. No real interest in them doing covers (but of course would love them anyway if any did happen). Would loooooove them covering their own songs -- specifically RAB if that's possible (aka would loooooove RAB remake pls pls pls).

        Past Answer: Something by Bastille simply because they're my second favorite artist

        Commentary: Half Alive is now my second favorite artist probably; Bastille is a great pick though. Matthew Mole is up there as well contending for #2 I think.

26. Song you listen to the most?

        Current Answer: Uhhh, maybe Next Semester? From newest album (not counting singles that I listened to on repeat before the album came out) probably Center Mass?

        Past Answer: Probably The Pantaloon

27. Own any merch?

        Current Answer: I guess I technically own a yellow bandana I got with the Trench album.

        Past Answer: Nope, because I rarely wear any clothing with words/pictures on them. That's an entirely different discussion

        Commentary: I've gotten to a point where I can but don't frequently wear clothing with words/pictures on them. Twenty One Pilots is sufficiently important to me that I would wear merch if I had it. I'm still picky though, so only some of their merch.

28. Favorite Lyrics?

        Current Answer: This piece from Rawfear has been wiggling in my brain (in a good way): "Learning all that really matters is a slow and painful lesson / It is not pass or fail, but a poisonous progression / Try to micro-dose to immunity, but you'll never, ever get it", but like with the favorite rap, I'd really have to search to confirm it for sure. But right at this moment, it's that.

        Past Answer: That Holding On To You rap

29. Truce or Goner

        Current Answer: Truce

        Past Answer: Goner

        Commentary: The new song Intentions made me fall more in love with Truce. I think historically Truce and Goner have been pretty close on my rankings -- on The Line Update version, Goner is barely beating Truce out by 4 spots. In my upcoming tier list Truce will definitely be on top.

29a (Alternate Similar Question) Favorite Closer?

        Paladin Strait

30. Ode to Sleep or Heavydirtysoul?

        Current Answer: Ode to Sleep

        Past Answer: Ode to Sleep

        Commentary: Ode to Sleep is peak.

30a (Alternate Similar Question) Favorite Opener?

        Gaaahhhh, City Walls or Ode to Sleep, I don't knoooooow. You'll have to wait for the tier list, I refuse to decide right now.

My Favorite Books by Brandon Sanderson (a Tier List)

        It's here! Can't believe I didn't do this sooner. I made a tier list of my favorite books in general back in Oct 2022 (which you can find here), but I refrained from adding most of Brandon Sanderson's works since it had been so many years since I had read many of them. On top of that, Brandon has also released, like, 10 books since I wrote that post, so there's a lot to add.

        Important Note: This is my favorites and is reflective of my experience with them, not what I think is the best nor what the books I would suggest the highest. Obviously my experience with them is going to be strongly correlated with how good I think they are, but this is not always the case.
        Prime example: I don't actually think that Allomancer Jak is a better book/short story than Rhythm of War even though it's two spots higher. I just simply had a good time when I read it last and thought it was cute and so I put it in the "Like" tier. Versus Rhythm of War I feel generally meh about, so I put it in the "It's Fine" tier.

        Okay, so I don't want this post to accidentally turn into 'Give my thoughts on every book I've ever read by Brandon Sanderson', but I did want to make write about a few things.

        Three Small Notes To Start

        Legion represents all three Novellas combined.
        I think the main reason I didn't like Legion: Death and Faxes was because the narrator's voice wasn't my favorite.
        The Eleventh Metal surprised me this reread; I really enjoyed it and thought it worked great as a prequel.

        Lux

        Lux almost assuredly is good enough to make it much higher on this list than the spot it landed on (the bottom of "It's Fine"). I started listening to the book expecting it to be to be a novella length, like, 3-6 hours long. I was trying to blitz listen to the book, not paying the greatest attention to exposition/character backstory/things in general since I thought it would be done soon. Just a simple little listen. Well, after getting quite a few hours deep into the story I realized that it was actually 15 hours long in total. I was not mentally prepared for that. I still wanted to finish it and I just kept listening to it even during times I couldn't fully focus on it.
        These incorrect expectations for what the book was going into it really ended up ruining what could have been a much better experience, I think.

        A thought on rereads and why The Hero of Ages remains my favorite book

        Question: What's the most important read-through of a book, the first or any other past that? I really think the first. Many books you're not even going to reread in the first place. On top of that, surprises/twists/revelations can only be experienced fully on the first read-through.
        (An aside here because I think it's interesting: Music I think is the inverse: You can listen to a song so many times and thus the 100th listen experience is much more important than the first imo.)

        I think this factor is relevant in making this tier list. In certain cases, I give some amount of weight to my first read-through of a book. The prime example of this is The Hero of Ages. For many many years now I have said that it's my favorite book and that continues to this day. But for the past couple readthroughs of the Mistborn trilogy, I've actually been preferring Book 1. Same with various Stormlight books, my most recent rereads of Stormlight 1-3 were all a better experience compared to my most recent reread of The Hero of Ages.
        But, and this is a big but, my first readthrough of The Hero of Ages is by far and away my favorite individual readthrough of any book ever. I. Love. That. Book. And it remains my favorite book of all time.

        None of my other first read-through opinions shine nearly as brightly as Hero of Ages, but it is relevant in much smaller ways in a couple parts of my tier list.

        Dreamer

        I read Dreamer for the first time just recently. It's been worming in my brain, and I like it more and more the more I think about it. I went in knowing nothing about it, which I think was important for the experience, so try to go in blind if you can. It's only 20-pages or so long and worth the quick read in my opinion. I have a copy I could lend if anybody is curious.

        Skyward Flight

        Okay, I don't know why I loved the Skyward Flight stories as much as I did, but I really enjoyed them. Should they be put above the likes of Isles of Emberdark, The Well of Ascension, and Tress? Probably not, but, like for some reason I was just having a blast the whole time when I read them, and you'll notice they're my 2nd favorite thing from the Skyward series. I'm not really planning on ever rereading the series because I didn't like the 2nd or 3rd book, though.
        The three are unsorted amongst themselves -- they all blur in my head.

        Emperor's Soul

        Reread this for the first time in a long while and it was simply a delight. Deservedly earned spot #5. Highly recommend, especially if you want something shorter (it's only 100ish pages).