Feeling like you're making a good decision on your starting roll can be tough. What else are you looking for in your first 10 rolls besides SSRs? What about if you 10 pull a few more times? How do I know which rares are all-stars and which ones are traps?

thanks for the cover art Turtle!

Who are the Best Starter Pokemon SSRs?

Cagliostro [wf name="cagliostro"] is Completely Unmatched

Her kit is overloaded - providing permanent buffs to effective healing [MAX +25%] and skill damage [MAX +100%] whenever she is healed. These aren't bound to a specific element, so in my mind, she is the best utility adventurer in the game. For difficult content, most non-enmity (low hp) teams are running at least one healer. The second best starting unit (Philia [wf name="wind_oracle"]) also has a strong burst-heal like Cag, but her abilities only benefit wind characters.

[wf special="cagliostro"]

Cagliostro's skill damages units in a large area, adds multiple hits to your combo-count, and heals all combatants (co-op friends included). Its skill weight is on the costlier side at 580, for good reason.

Here are a few other adventurers for a relative baseline.

adventurer skill-weight Inaho [wf name="fox_oracle"] 630 MC-kun [wf name="alk"] 500 Erza [wf name="nurse"] 467 430 (thanks tezogo) Dokkan [wf name="clarisse"] 430 Arisa [wf name="arisa"] 380 Gilslad [wf name="berserker"] 290

Some of the off-element lvl70 Fluctuating Labyrinth (new solo boss rush) auto-teams I've seen lead with Cagliostro, likely because her power flip is easy for the AI to keep up with breaking the bosses.

Philia [wf name="wind_oracle"] is Simply "Comfortable".

Leading with her will give your wind characters +115% ATK as long as you can keep them above 60% HP. Additionally, as a leader, her [Main] ability will always be primed: when a wind team member's HP falls below 60%, they recover up to 30% HP (scales with nodes) once per battle.

Her staff-type power flips provide very brief float and penetration buffs, and makes it easy for you and the AI to target break-points. The duration of these buffs increases with the level of the power-flip (yellow, blue, green).

I tried the best I could to trim these down to the frame that the team lost float, but it's still approximate durations. Especially unsure of green power-flip duration

[wf special="wind_oracle"]

In addition to the burst-heal (favoring wind characters), Philia's skill also buffs your party with float. Float is useful against gravity and wind hazards, and will let you dash upwards to continue your combo (where you would normally roll back down towards your flippers).

You can also sustain your combo if your team has momentum from the previous flip. By not flipping right away, the team will sometimes bounce off of the flippers or bottom of the stage, which will allow you to dash back at the enemy again.

While not quite as universal as Cag, Philia can still unison-sub onto off-element teams easily, as her heal is still quite strong, and float is almost always a useful buff. She is particuarly strong on water teams led by Alice [wf name="alice"], and can provide additional uptime for Thaniel Lanner [wf name="spry_sailor"].

"What other SSRs should I reroll for?"

With the above two adventurers in mind, here's a rough priority list for your secondary SSR:

Cag Philia Best [wf name="fox_oracle"] [wf name="wind_spgirl"] Great [wf name="clarisse"] [wf name="pirates_girl"] Good [wf name="prince_zero"][wf name="dimension_witch"][wf name="brown_fighter"][wf name="veteran_hunter"] [wf name="prince_zero"][wf name="dimension_witch"][wf name="brown_fighter"][wf name="veteran_hunter"] Niche [wf name="bodysuit_trooper"][wf name="ruin_girl"][wf name="mercenary"][wf name="onmyoji_boy"][wf name="wagner"] [wf name="bodysuit_trooper"][wf name="ruin_girl"][wf name="mercenary"][wf name="onmyoji_boy"][wf name="wagner"]

This is just a recommendation! If you want to start with any other SSRs because of their art, skills, element it does not affect the ability to clear endgame content manually (this list is written from a farming perspective: GMO free).

Team Synergies and Some Terminologies:

Fever [wf name="fox_oracle"][wf name="outlaw_panther"][wf name="oni_girl"][wf name="lady_gunner"]

Compositions built around fever try to accelerate charging it using skills or abilities, and they deal a significant burst of damage during BREAK/DOWN with their huge %ATK spikes "while in fever".

You can increase the fever gauge while you're dealing damage (it decreases slowly while no damage is being done). When your fever gauge is full, fever mode activates. This mode will usually add boosters to the stage that "guide-rail" your party towards the center of the stage (stage-effects vary from boss to boss). It also seems that using fever boosters makes it easier to inflict DOWN status, which lets you inflict increased damage.

Skill Haste [wf name="arisa"][wf name="wind_spgirl"][wf name="cat_fighter"][wf name="wind_oracle"]

The new weapon that drops from Fire Fluctuating Labyrinth gave wind combo teams a big power spike. With it (and a few duplicate copies), wind is close to on-par with thunder teams, using a different game mechanic: equipment/souls.

There are three wind weapons that increase skill gauge; two of these are based on hitting a certain combo count (30,40), and the last is based on when an active skill is used. By granting your main party three souls from the labyrinth bow, you can quickly chain all three of your skills several more times than other team compositions. Each team member either has a healing skill in their own kit, or is unisoned with a healer, meaning the survivability of the team is superb. It's not uncommon to hit well past 120 combo count on auto mode with this lineup:

This team can auto all elements of the lvl 70 Fluctuating Labyrinth stages.

Penetration [wf name="veteran_hunter"][wf name="spry_sailor"][wf name="dragon_slayer"][wf name="warlock"]

Usually this composition comprises of dark adventurers.

As an example, Liam the SR dark character grants a 5 second penetration buff each time he activates his own skill. These 2-10 second buffs greatly increase your team's ability to score easy breaks on the boss, and allow you to ignore most collisions on the stage.

Characters like Veron and Lanner grant high amounts of +ATK% (60 and 50 respectively) while the whole party has penetration buffs.

Enmity [wf name="dimension_witch"][wf name="minotaur_girl"][wf name="reaper_girl"][wf name="undead_boy"][wf name="nurse"][wf name="fox_companion"]

The classic glass cannon comp.

It grants incredible amounts attack and skill damage while your team is under a certain HP % (usually >50% HP). Falce takes this even further, granting 100% own ATK every time all three characters are coffined and revived [MAX 300% own ATK].

While playing manually, enmity can be a top team, since you can intentionally take damage after starting a stage until you're below 50% HP.

On auto for farming, even with skill-gauge prep, it can take several seconds to have your enmity characters online (not ideal). Additionally, if you're leading with Bercetia, the AI can be pretty unreliable in using her laser power-flip to break or even hit the boss.

One particuarly good niche is setting your team up with Marianne and Chasusu. Marianne will double-cast her ability and quickly allow a Bercetia leader to speed-farm elemental ruins and anything else that can be one-shot. In this comp, I'll usually skill-prep my Bercetia to 100% so that she will get to >50% HP before or during her second laser (on the boss).

Stamina [wf name="cagliostro"][wf name="wind_oracle"][wf name="prince_zero"][wf name="priest"]

Usually a very flexible composition that is focused on keeping the player alive to clear a co-op stage. In the event that you're playing with two stronger players, or trying to get your first clears on hard co-op bosses, tossing in healers with moderate investment can really boost your likelihood of surviving to clear.

With enough healers (especially with one strong burst healer), stamina is an easy framework for a consistent auto team.

Multiball [wf name="pirates_girl"][wf name="ruin_girl"][wf name="kunoichi"][wf name="devil_princess"]

I think that we're missing like one or two core characters to really make multiball viable as a primary team comp. Even with the weapon (100% multiball ATK), this feels lackluster without one solid core element to start with.

Hanabi is a cool one-trick-pony for farming the monthly owl co-op stage, but sort of suffers in longer content after the value of her all fire adventurers 100% skill-gauge at start of stage loses gas.

"Great, I have a starting roll I'm happy with, how do I build teams and what non SSR units should I look for?"

Because I'm so biased towards Cagliostro as a starter, let's talk through building a thunder team with the help of my friend Meep's insights.

Lightning Team Composition

Generally, thunder units have skillsets focusing on either:

fever (breaks) and paralysis

scaling skill damage (SD)

With six team slots at your disposal, double-dipping between the two archetypes isn't that hard.

Yesterday, Meep's team looked like this:



Here are some of his opinions on thunder units:

SSR

Inaho [wf name="fox_oracle"] — easy to use with her stage-wide paralysis and aoe damage skill. She pairs perfectly with Rams because Inaho's skill hits a few frames before Rams' skill goes off (so he gets a +DMG paralysis-bonus for his ability). SD comps benefit from Rams leading with Inaho as his unison sub. Fever comps benefit from Inaho leading with Rams sub.

SR

Lunalu [wf name="fox_scientist"] — skill is frontal aoe, paralyzes and gives thunder res down, and does decent damage (also gets +DMG for paralyzed enemies). I like pairing Lunalu with Cag because their skills target roughly the same area, so auto-battle can aim well.

Regis [wf name="rec_android"] — he's good for SD comps, he has high self SD buffs, and a one-time +50% gauge refill after he casts his skill.

Rams [wf name="thunder_dragon"] — three really strong skill damage scaling abilities, and flexible as a main character or unison sub.

R

Kadzuchi [wf name="oni_girl"] — her skill temporarily gives her a damaging thunder aura and generates fever for each hit. If you slot her into the main party, she'll get +120% ATK during fever mode.

Kuro [wf name="outlaw_panther"] — also fever-based. His skill instant dashes and auto-tracks the enemy, which works really well as a main to Mino [wf name="minotaur_girl"]. Without both, I wouldn't use either of them.

Chasusu [wf name="student_gunsmith"] — buffs leader attack with her abilities, boosting Inaho & Rams even more. If you use her in the main party, she gains 100% skill-gauge and an additional +10% leader ATK. If you are using three damage weapons, I would move chasusu to unison sub. Otherwise, you can use two damage weapons and the world 4 orb on chasusu (with a unison buffer sub) like Kaiyu [wf name="depraved_monk"].

Thanks, Meep!

"But what if I don't have enough of these units to make a full team?"

Here's a really quick summary of other units you might use as stand-ins.

thanks Dolicon and all of the translators and helpers for putting together this EN character list

Fever and Paralysis

Off-element

Nephteim [wf name="ruin_girl"] — fever duration +20%, break/down damage +25%. [Main] Boosts light ATK +60% during fever and fills fever gauge +25% when she's healed.

Dia [wf name="sing_android"] — fever duration +15%, party ATK +35% during fever. [Main] light characters gain health regen (5s) during fever.

Raul [wf name="exorcist_oldman"] — +40% ATK when >80% HP grants regen (10s) during fever. [Main] fills fever gauge +30 when healed.

Amelia [wf name="mermaid"] — frontal water attack that also fills fever gauge. Her unison abilities only benefit water adventurers (+35% ATK fever mode, >60% HP, +20% ATK), and her main skill heals herself for 18% HP during fever.

Clown Tier Memes — Let's Go!

Neska [wf name="casino_dealer"] — wind damage to surrounding enemies, increases fever gauge, chance to buff party attack and attribute resist. Fever duration +10%, +350% down accelerator. [Main] at 77 combos, fever gauge +154 once [dl wp name="dear_diary"].

False [wf name="devil_clown"] — every 30 combos, fever gauge +15%, at 100 combos gain +90 ATK for one attack. [Main] +120% ATK during fever. I guess the clown is good for a short fight where you front-load your skills with skill-gauge % at start of battle.

Margarite [wf name="lady_gunner"] (I get promoted to clown CEO if I'm in a [wf name="prince_zero"] redirect team) — to be continued...

"I still need to hit my meme quota for the week..."



Theorycrafting a Light Team Within the SD/Fever Archetype

Although not as super-effective as lightning, a light team with regen buffs supporting Margarite would probably be fun to play.

At the start of battle, Margarite has the following abilities:

light characters +70% SD

+90% own SD (however, this decreases by -30% own SD for every 5 instances of damage taken)

+100% SD during fever

[Main] light characters +55% SD and weaken immunity when Margarite is >80% HP

So at her best (without factoring the team into things), Marg could have +315% SD throughout a fever mode. You could compare this to Eliya's [+250% SD, +25% ATK, and 20% own SG] (these stats take a while to scale up to). I'll make a few more comparisons below, but for speed run stages where you're ending the boss on a fast first fever (like a minute or less), Marg definitely has potential.

Main:

My first thoughts were to lead with Margarite for a solid unconditional 70% SD. But as I was typing the unison section I realized you'd probably want to swap Margarite with Eliya (so I copied and pasted a few things around)...

Eliya's ability heals herself and deals damage that scales with the number of buffs she has. Importantly, her skill aims similarly to Margarite. If you've ever had or seen Ekleel [wf name="bodysuit_soldier"] fly off into the corner and completely whiff, you'll know why this can help. Eliya also has a skill-battery ability each time her ability is used (granting 10% per cast), as well as +18% SD each time she's healed [MAX +90% SD].

If you're leading Eliya instead (or she's in the main party), she'll be a far more effective gauge battery (Getting another +10% for each light character's skill activating, in addition to +12% SD [MAX 60%]).

Next, I want to have another fever battery, so I thought of Nephteim, which could be budgeted with Raul (they both grant fever gauge with HP recovery in the main party).

Now, I need a way to redirect my damage away from Margarite... Laz definitely seems like the best option especially considering how stacked his skill is (weak RES+, ATK+, All RES+, Regen) and party damage redirection. If Laz dies too quickly, I would replace him with Jelal who takes damage for the leader and has defensive abilities.

Unison(Sub):

Margarite (to keep the fever boosting skill) if you're running Eliya as a lead.

You could slot any healer like Corina or Kaiyu into this composition in the second unison spot, or maybe Chasusu to further funnel our lady gunner.

The last spot feels super meme with Lilica. You probably want another healer, or damage reduction passives for your "tank".

So here's what you're looking at:

[wf name="lady_gunner"][wf name="ruin_girl"][wf name="prince_zero"]

[wf name="lightbullet_wiz"][wf name="priest"][wf name="reporter"]

Closing

You can also use the training dummies and co-op to test these teams out as you make small adjustments or swap adventurers between main and unison positions.

If you're running multiple times with the same group for a co-op boss, just make note of the rough damage you team does on the score screen (this can fluctuate a lot on both auto and manual mode), but allowing for dps swing both ways, you can often times tell the relative power of a team.

Does it stand up to my teammates' total damage?

Am I millions of damage off the mark because the uptime on my leader skill isn't good?

Am I just a pinball buster?