Guide by: goofylikeyou. Click here to go to the original source in Reddit.

Introduction

Summoner’s War can first appear to be 100% RNG based which is the random number generator. But there are ways to work towards getting great monsters in your party without relying on the RNGsus (Jesus pun). This isn’t a list of good 2 or 3 star monsters, this is a list of the best monsters you can obtain from farming. That is, you can eventually get each of these monsters by going to the right spots. When getting started with the game it’s difficult to know who to focus on or what is good. Here’s a simple guide to the first 10 monsters you should be trying to get and working on. These monsters you can start working on from the very beginning and you could complete the whole set by level 20-25 if you work hard. I started working on these at level 22 and in 2 weeks I was able to get all on the list. The amount of runes you need and leveling to do for all of them will keep you distracted and busy where you won’t be desperate to get mystical scrolls for a while. Once you have these monsters you’ll have a rock solid team that is capable of many end game battles.

There are 5 1/2 two star monsters on this list (vagabond sometimes is). Two star monsters are so much more common than 3 stars and because of this it allows you to increase the skills of your monsters so much easier than a 3 star monster. I want to emphasize that a fully maxed skill 2 star monster is often way better than a no skill natural 4 star monster. You’ll feel awesome when you awaken and max the skills of any of these two star monsters and be much stronger because of it.

Hellhound (Fire) ★★ – Awakens to Sieq

Everyone gets him to start out with. People call it the glass cannon. It has a decent bite but very squishy. Because of this he’s bad to use as defense in the arena because people can often one shot him. It’s ok to feed him other hellhounds and level him up to 5 stars. Awakened he has a very nice group buff, which when combined with other attackers can work in great combination. For runes you can do attack% on slots 2/4/6 and give him blade and swift runes. The swift is so you can buff your team before anyone attacks. You’ll be able to find hellhounds to feed him in the shop, unknown scrolls and Faimon.

Howl (Water) ★★ – Awakens to Lulu

Because she’s a 2 star monster you can come across her quite naturally and often. You can find her in the shop, from unknown scrolls and she drops at Hydena. Because she is so common and frequently found it makes upgrading her skills quite easy and fast. Also, because she’s a 2 star monster she’s one of the easiest to awaken. If you can fully max out her skills and awaken her he is a powerful healer. During battle, she can heal 3 out of 4 turns repetitively! Having a heal that often is amazing. She can heal even if your monsters have heal blocking debuffs on because his 3rd skill removes a debuff before healing. I think she’s a lot better of a healer than your starting fairy. I suggest taking her to 4 stars. With a max skill Lulu you’ll have a hard time finding a better healer for a while. But later in the game Lulu is just too squishy to bring to some battles. Lulu almost doesn’t make the list because so many people prefer Konamiya (next on our list) and he proves himself to be useful even as 5 or 6 stars.

Garuda (Water) ★★ – Awakens to Konamiya

Another 2 star monster. Once again because he’s only 2 stars it’ll be easy to find him in the shop, and unknown scrolls and it makes it easy to awaken him into Konamiya. Like Teon, his resurge skill make your battle more versatile. He shines after he’s awakened and you encounter fights that debuff the whole team. This bird will remove all harmful effects from your entire team and then heal. With his skills all maxed out he can heal the entire team every other turn using resurge on himself. This is incredibly helpful in higher level dungeons and TOA. Some people prefer him over Lulu. He is easily worth bringing up to 5 stars and can even go to 6 stars if you really like him.

Pixie (Wind) ★★ – Awakens to Shannon

Because the pixie is 2 star it also makes it easy to up her skills quickly and awaken her (becomes Shannon). She can be found from unknown scrolls or even for sale in the shop! She pairs best with the awakened wind griffon (Bernard). Bernard + Shannon are so great of a combo that you often see level 40 players using them in their Giant’s Keep B10 team! If you have this combo, it’s worth it to bring Shannon to 5 or even 6 stars!

Warbear (Wind) ★★ – Awakens to Ramagos

Yet another amazing 2 star monster. Warbear can be found for sale in the shop, summoned from unknown scrolls, or drop in Telain forest (only the fire ones). Because they are so common it means it will be easy to skill up your wind warbear. It’s also not very painful to awaken him. You’ll want to maximize his HP using energy runes with HP% attribute in slots 2/4/6. Once awakened he gets a skill that does damage equal to the amount of HP he’s lost. So if you have a warbear with 10,000 hp total, and half his life is gone, he’ll be able to do 5,000 dmg in one hit. This can easily be your hardest hitter for a very long time. I’ve seen him destroy bosses. He’ll be very helpful and effective all the way into 5 stars and maybe even 6 stars.

Griffon (Wind) ★★★ – Awakens to Bernard

During your visit to Tamor desert, hope to get a Wind Griffon. He drops here and can also be acquired rarely from an unknown scroll or mystical scroll. By hanging out in Tamor desert long enough you will eventually get him. Once awakened, Bernard works best in combo with Shannon. The two of these are extremely powerful at taking down giants, doing TOA, or just out on a mission. For runes, all that matters is that his speed is 160+. So get a +spd rune in slot 2 and give him a swift set. Many of the high level players have a 5 star Bernard on their island because of his great support.

Inugami (Fire) ★★★ – Awakens to Raoq

While you get through Faimon you could get a Fire Inugami. He drops there and he might show up from a unknown scroll or mystical scroll. There is no secret dungeon for him though. The wind and water inugamis drop in Garen and Telain forests. You may spend some time in those places getting the runes you want and leveling up. If you do, chances are you’ll eventually get a pack of inugamis from there. This will help skill up your fire Inugami. Once awakened to Raoq, this guy becomes tenacious and an excellent attacker. Rune him with %Atk and %Crit chance. He’s great in the arena, and great to help your other guys level up. His innate skill gives him an extra turn if he gets a killshot. This means he can run through low battles quickly killing everyone with one shot and not letting anyone have a turn. This guy is worthy of going to 6 stars!

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

On Sunday is when the light dungeon is available. During this day people may come across the light special dungeons. There are three of these special dungeons that are incredibly awesome monsters. Simply hang out in general chat rooms and watch for people unlocking these special dungeons and ask them to invite you as a friend. Don’t spam that you’re looking for dungeons because you’ll get people inviting you who don’t really have it and it’s annoying to everyone else. If it goes well you then can use their special dungeon. To get the most of these special dungeons requires a strong team of AoE (Area of Effect) or attacks that hit all enemies. Unless you’re in level 35 or up you’ll probably have to do the dungeon 2 or 3 times to get all 40 pieces required to summon these. It’s worth it because you will eventually get it. To prepare for Sunday you’ll want 5-10 free slots open on your friends list and a bunch of energy saved up. You can get energy from special events, rewards, or shop bonuses. There’s an event going on now that if you login during two times of the day you’ll get 20 energy for being on. Keep these energies saved up for Sunday so you can get the most out of the special dungeons once you get in.

The next 3 monsters can be acquired in special light dungeons. They are in order of what you should go for first.

Inugami (Light) ★★★ – Awakens to Belladeon

The awakened light inugami is a fantastic support monster.

He lowers the defense of the enemy, removes their buffs, and heals your whole party. I often see him in high level Giant’s Lair B10 teams because of this.

People like to put +Spd, %HP, %Acc runes on him.

Vagabond (Light) ★★★ – Awakens to Darion

The light vagabond is a natural 3 star monster. The wind and water vagabonds are only 2 star and somewhat common found in the shop and unknown scrolls. So grab these when you see them to increase Darion’s skills. The thing that makes Darion great for so many people is his passive skill which adds defense. This is quite useful and makes your team last longer. For runes you want to use energy and hp% runes in slots 2/4/6. Darion is absolutely worth taking up to 5 stars even 6 stars.

Bearman (Light) ★★★ – Awakens to Ahman

Imagine this for a healer, every time you hit you heal the entire team for over 1,000 hp. That’s Ahman. The trick though is to get his crit% up to 100% since he only heals when he crits. Secondly it’s important to get his HP up since he heals based on 12% of his max HP. In slots 2/4/6 go for hp%/crit%/hp% using blade and energy. He’s great paired up with Konamiya since Konamiya can cleanse debuffs and then Ahman is free to heal. This guy may not shine for you until later in the game when you can actually get his crit% up to 100%. Your first goal is to get his crit up to 80%. He is worth taking to 6*.

What’s next

After you get a base army established the next thing you can start working towards are fusions in the fusion hexagram. It will take you a long time to gather all the materials for a fusion so it’s probably a good idea to look at the list of monsters needed and start saving them for later in the game.

** Update **

The comments below have pointed out this list may not be exactly what you should first work on. Here are the controversies.