Fagan RAI and Zaerog CORE are the newest Festival Exclusives to be introduced, along with a free appreciation medal to exchange for one of them. For many this is a rather hard decision as both bring unique and strong contrivances that will be appealing in their own regard. This guide will attempt to go as much in-depth into the strengths, weaknesses, and potential applications of both to help make this decision a little easier, as well as help determine what form you should make if either are rolled in a Godfest. Summary at the bottom if you want to get straight to the point.

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Fagan RAI (before transformation)

Stat Lv.99 +297 HP 1853 2843 ATK 1312 1807 RCV 116 413 Judging Kouryu Emperor, Fagan – Rai

戴天の黄龍帝・ファガン -RAI-

Dragon [5630] Active Skill: Change to Supreme Kouryu Emperor, Fagan – Rai

(22 ➧ 22) Leader Skill: 5x ATK when 5 or more combos

[1/25/1]

Fagan introduces a new mechanic of evolving into a completely new card when using the active skill within a dungeon. This comes at a cost of a 22 cooldown, where you’re stuck with an awful card prior to his transformation. The greatest challenge of using him is having the skillboosts necessary to transform as quickly as possible, which is significantly easier when cooping as the skillboosts combine between both teams, just note this is not the case in 3p mode.

Fagan RAI (after transformation)

Stat Lv.99 +297 HP 7899 8889 ATK 2319 2814 RCV 437 734 Supreme Kouryu Emperor, Fagan – Rai

天極の黄龍帝・ファガン -RAI-

Dragon [5631] Active Skill: For 2 turns, bypass void damage shield effects

(10 ➧ 10) Leader Skill: 20x ATK and 2x HP & RCV for Dragon type; 50000 additional damage when matching 5 or more colors

[4/400/4]

This form of Fagan has arguably the most impressive leaderskill out of anything in the game, boasting fantastic survivability between 4x HP and RCV, an impressive 400x ATK, as well as dealing 50k damage to handle anything that has resolve when matching all 5 attributes. On top of a drastic leaderskill change, this form also deals incredible personal damage with his four 7c awakenings. In additional to all of that, his active skill grants a two-turn void, allowing him to forego needing the VDP awakening to do damage against anything with said void.

As a leader

Can easily handle all content in the game, but the glaring problem is the teambuilding. His remarkable leaderskill multipliers only apply to cards that are dragon typing, as everything else will be total dead weight, which may already present challenges to some with a limited box. Additionally, having the skillboosts to ensure Fagan can transform will be the crux of your builds, solo or coop, as his measly 25x mult and lack of any defense will not get you far in any dungeon. Fortunately strong farmable options exist to solve this problem. Whaledor will be the primary choice for most as he offers a generous 5 skillboosts, seconded only to Valeria who also sees constant usage on Fagan teams if available. In JP with the rerun of the Draconic Orchestra, the “farmable” Rikuu and 5★ from the REM base Dolq received buffs giving them 5 skillboosts in solo or coop as well. Between their other characteristics, these two can serve as stronger alternatives to Whaledor if you happen to own them.

Damage and actives

The second area of concern is damage. With four 7c’s per lead (assuming you pair with another), it’s seldom a problem, but may find issues in the later stages of certain dungeons. For reference, each Fagan will do 45mil from just a 7c and match of 3 lights, with no other outside factor like attribute advantage, killers, etc. This value can be bolstered with orb enhances, where something like equip Brachydios can give perhaps the greatest boost in damage if equipped somewhere. Another option is equips on your Fagans that give other offensive awakenings, but just note that Fagan’s skill will not activate unless an enemy with a void shield is present, so plan your equips and timing carefully if you don’t want the secondary active coming up when unwanted. Of course the final way to increase personal damage are killers. Unfortunately, Fagan is dragon type only, giving him a weak selection of available killers, with few dangerous spawns existing of either type. Skill delay resists may seem like a logical second choice especially when considering getting base Fagan’s 22cd active up immediately, but these may be harmful depending on your assists, plus endgame dungeons like aa3 don’t feature any skill delays until floor 5, which you won’t get to unless Fagan is already transformed.

Going back to possible damage problems in later stages of dungeons, your solution will be using actives that generate a multitude of orbs and/or a burst, as regular boards paired with Fagan’s active will not kill most bosses. A bicolor board works well, with a 10c board of perfect 15/15 color distribution allowing each Fagan to deal roughly 292mil. A common trend is some damage void spawns having resolve, making application of these bicolors troublesome. Burst actives can forego this problem, and considering your team will consist of multiple skillboosts, Carat is by far the best option. Paired with a rainbow board and Fagan’s active, you’ll be able to blast through any spawn in the game. The next best alternative would be something like Apolluo, giving a strong yet short burst that will allow both Fagans to output likely enough damage for whatever the situation calls for. Omega also seems like a sensible choice, as you have a 3.4x burst from the Fagans alone.

Sub choice

Aside from subs that have multiple skillboosts, the remaining slots should be prioritized with cards that will cover any attribute not present for Fagan’s 50k FUA damage. If possible, you may want something that has the FUA awakening itself, as 5 of all colors isn’t always guaranteed. Whatever utility a dungeon calls for can be relegated toward assists, as the viable subpool for Fagan is quite limited. If you coop or have an alt account, this issue can be completely dismissed as one side can bring the skillboosts, opening up more options to choose to cover more damage or utility. Subs with multiple killers can work great, better dealing damage toward troublesome spawns and leaving the trash floors to the Fagans. For more general purpose damage sticks, perhaps nothing is better than base Roche , with her uncompromising TPA damage. Halloween Cotton is another solid choice, covering FUA as well but only covers one other attribute.

Miscellaneous usage

Outside of endgame content clearing ability, Fagan’s usage either as a farming lead or general purpose sub is quite limited, mainly from the problems previously mentioned. With an unconditional 400x toward dragon types, he seems like a viable option similar to how Verse can be, however most farming teams may prefer to use buttons to sweep floors, so the high leaderskill mult might be redundant. Additionally, the base form offers no skillboosts and the skill needs to be used in order to achieve a usable lead, so that severely limits team compositions. Even as a sub for farming teams or otherwise, his cooldown and initial need to transform is a turn off. Other damage void void cards with lower cooldowns exist and will serve the same purpose as a transformed Fagan if the skill is what is needed. Most other teams won’t have the necessary amount of skillboosts to have Fagan up, and while the early floors generally aren’t troublesome anywhere, you’ll be carrying dead weight for a while. The active might also prove unnecessary, as most teams strong endgame teams can make effective use of the VDP awakening without consistency issues. Rainbow teams however will love to have this, but if you’re going to use Fagan for this purpose, he might as well be the leader. Of course content will always be the determining factor in judging the effectiveness of something, and while outdated, Fagan could see great farming use in something like a3 or 3pa, solo or coop, as a 3 match with the 400x mult should kill any floor.

Additional pairings

Outside of dual Fagan pairings, one popular option is pairing with Rikuu . You already will have a dragon typing and rainbow focus, so little needs to be said about the compatibility offered. Some advantages include an extra 5 skillboosts to start, making this a viable solo option, as well as a shield for annoying gravity spawns and increased recovery to fully heal up from them. Disadvantages include needing rainbow to be effective, as dual Fagans can deal damage regardless, and the loss of transformed Fagan’s active skill. Only having 2 turns of damage void void may mean you’ll have to stall in order to be able to kill boss floors following other bosses who have damage void, versus blasting through all of them with a combined 4 turns, although stalling will be easy when factoring in the impressive survivability.

Equip

Stat Lv.99 +297 HP 5899 6889 ATK 2319 2814 RCV 437 734 Imperial Blade, Kouryu Polaris

神刀・天極星黄龍

Dragon [5632] Active Skill: For 4 turns, increase combo count by 2

(20 ➧ 20)

If Fagan’s transformed version didn’t impress you, he also comes with an equip that’s essentially a 3-in-1 paired with a long cooldown active if you only care for the awakening that also has a universally strong skill. Without sounding contradictory, this conglomerate however is fairly replaceable, as the mix of team HP, skillboost, and cloud will have seldom impact on your team as a whole, as one or two of these may prove redundant when factoring in the rest of the team. If you’re missing either a SB equip or cloud res equip this can be nice to have, as you can move him from team to team to fulfill the specific role, making this form a potentially tempting option for newer players or those with small boxes.

Verdict

An undeniably impressive card after transformation, covering just about every mechanic a dungeon will throw at you from the leads alone. However there are huge limitations to what subs you can run and many players won’t be able to make an effective team. Fans of coop or who have an alt should love this, as both accounts can obtain Fagan, making d/c runs in endgame content for half stamina a breeze. His usage is pretty much limited toward endgame content clearing, where he is quite strong in that regard but nothing overly spectacular when comparing other popular leads. If you’re newer, definitely go for the equip, as the universal utility provided is substantial. If a Rikuu pairing looks appealing, then you may want to spend your exchange coin on Zaerog instead and find a friend using Fagan.

Zaerog Core (base)

Stat Lv.99 (+297) Lv.110 (+297) HP 4836 (5826) 5561 (6551) ATK 2450 (2945) 2818 (3313) RCV 378 (675) 435 (732) Hidden Phantom Dragon King, Zaerog∞ Core

秘界の幻龍王・ゼローグ∞ -CORE-

Dragon [5633]

Active Skill: Reduce HP by 50%; For 1 turn, increase orb move time by 3 seconds

(1 ➧ 1) Leader Skill: 2x HP for Dragon type; 9x ATK when matching 2+ Dark combos; 2x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when below 80% HP

[4/324/1, 43.75%]

An offensive powerhouse, beating out all other cards in personal multiplier with the exception of base Ranger Slayer and her higher ATK stat. This form will be the main appeal compared to the lackluster UVO form, as the sub and lead potential is far greater.

As a leader

This form boasts impressive survivability paired with a strong ATK multiplier, but comes at the cost of massive team restrictions and orb hungriness. Being under 80% for the shield and minor ATK boost is no problem at all with Zaerog’s 1cd suicide active, although the double dark match can prove troublesome. While 6 orbs doesn’t sound too bad and popular row leads like Ina need that many but can still clear content fine, you’ll likely need to rely on constant active use to ensure consistent uptime of your ATK multiplier, which unfortunately makes up the majority of the offensive part of the leaderskill. Another glaring problem with the double orb match is poor VDP potential, needing 12 orbs minimum to fully activate which can be inconsistent even with active use.

One way to compensate for these weaknesses was using a 7×6 lead swap. The bigger board will prove much more consistent and the 1cd active makes a lead swap early fairly easy. A good lead to start with is Diaochan and while she’s off type and color, provides great utility and 4 skillboosts via super awakens. Zaerog on 7×6 has proven to be quite effective in endgame content clearing ability, both in consistency and speed.

Sub selection

Like Fagan, you’re limited to dragon type only to take full effect of Zaerog’s leaderskill, but this form is even more restrictive as you really want a dark focus. Almost no other strong 50% HP options aside from Roche exist, although there’s no shortage of usable 7c ones . Damage however does not need to be the focus of your sub choice, as both Zaerogs cover that easily. Even VDP is covered by the leads if you choose to roll that super awakening, so the best choice in subs are ones that can support Zaerog’s damage and consistency. No better sub exists for this role than Nergigante for this triple OE, strong orb generating active, and 4 skillboosts from super awakens to aid in 7×6 lead swapping. Most teams would prefer to run two of him to reap the benefits of a pseudo-system of dark skyfall. Your other subs, or last sub if leadswapping, can cover any other resists or utility needed, with a plethora of options existing to cover cloud resist or tape resist .

Another applicable strat is to use Kurolooping , as the constant suicide from one Zaerog will ensure your damage is covered every turn with the autoheal making any hits from potential preempts the next turn not a problem, although you do lose the shield when healing from 50% to 90% making gravities an issue. Zaerog being a 4x HP and 1x RCV lead means his natural recovery will be on the weaker side, and while you do want to maintain lower HP, this is generally not a concern with his active, so the increase in survivability comes with almost no downsides.

As a sub

For any 50% HP focused team, this is where this form truly shines and will likely be a mainstay on most every team centered around this awakening. The biggest argument against this form is the SamSho cartridge existing that offers the same suicide effect on a 1cd. While subbing this equip is serviceable, Zaerog is by far a better replacement for his actual stats and awakenings. Even on certain teams that may not boost his ATK such as Ranger Slayer or Dark Omega , his damage will still be significant assuming you make a 7 combo.

Having the constant suicide available makes these 50% HP teams much more suited toward endgame content since you can constantly heal up without worrying about losing your damage for the next floor. Another popular application of 50% HP teams is training arena 2 with leads like Veroah or Rheven taking advantage of hard hitting subs and actives like Chuan to get past the large damage checks, and while the cartridge or satan as a sub is serviceable to limit recovery and keep your health below 50%, Zaerog is by far the best option for his skillboosts and damage.

On most other regular teams, he can still find plenty of use from his great personal damage, being serviceable even above 50% HP, and 1cd active allowing for certain utility like a damage absorb void active to be up ASAP, making dangerous spawns such as Machine Athena in a5 and aa3 less of a concern. Although dark is stacked with strong VDPs, this form can beat those out assuming you get the 7c activated, and his 1cd suicide basically serves as a burst to ensure his damage is at its full potential.

Zaerog Core (UVO)

Stat Lv.99 (+297) Lv.110 (+297) HP 3236 (4226) 3721 (4711) ATK 4050 (4545) 4658 (5153) RCV 208 (505) 239 (536) Ultima Phantom Dragon King, Zaerog∞ Core

絶天の幻龍王・ゼローグ∞ -CORE-

Dragon [5634]

Active Skill: For 1 turn, bypass damage absorb shield effects; Unlock all orbs; Change all orbs to Fire, Water, Wood, Light, and Dark orbs

(23 ➧ 23) Leader Skill: 1.5x HP for Dragon type; 4x ATK when 6 or more combos; 4x ATK and reduce damage taken by 35% when above 50% HP

[2.25/256/1, 57.75%]

Much less impressive overall compared to the base form. Starting with the leaderskill, it’s pretty strong and straightforward, being comparable to Edward Elric with a dragon type restriction. You can likely clear most content fine with this form, but is really no better than most other endgame content leads out there. The mix of needing dragon type and combos to activate the leaderskill make reliable VDP a much greater challenge for those with a limited box. Zaerog himself will do decent damage from his high attack and potential to take 2 VDP awakenings, but TPA does not pair well due to the damage of each being independent of each other as well as the terrible latent killer selection. Probably the only real appeal of this form is the damage absorb void active, which is becoming increasingly more common to roll, but may still be absent in a lot of player’s boxes.

Equip

Stat Lv.99 +297 HP 5436 6426 ATK 2600 3095 RCV 408 705 Phantom Dragon’s Halberd, Infinity Rage

幻龍槍斧・インフィニティレイジ

Dragon [5635] Active Skill: For 1 turn, 6x ATK for Dragon type

(20 ➧ 20)

Currently one of the best universal damage boosts to any card with no downsides (looking at you Rajang equip ), making this a tempting option to anyone wanting to add some extra firepower to most teams. TPA does have its faults, being a poor match for row teams that won’t have the extra orbs to spare, as well as pairing poorly with VDP because of the reasons aforementioned. This equip will truly shine on cards that already have multiple TPAs, as the damage will increase almost exponentially with each additional TPA awakening available, allowing something like base Roche or super revo Haku to do absolutely insane amounts of damage for practically nothing. This can be great in all contents of the game, especially a ranking or farming one that focus on speed. If you have a developed box that has no shortage of utility or leads, this might be the best choice for you.

Verdict

For anyone looking to capitalize off the 50% HP meta, the base form should be an obvious choice. The damage and utility provided is substantial, and will likely be applicable on these teams well into the future. The UVO form is lackluster and unfortunately takes away some of the potential value this trade would provide, but can be a player’s first damage absorb void active if they’re still actively seeking one. The equip is one of the best for damage, and while this really isn’t a primary selling point, can prove useful if rolled in dupes.

Which do I pick?

There is really no clear answer and entirely depends on your box and wants. For those who coop a lot or have alts to run content, Fagan will be the best pick in this regard. For those with more of a solo focus and have a strong dark box, Zaerog can prove to be an effective leader, especially with a 7×6 lead swap. If you feel like your equip selection is lacking, then consider picking up Fagan for his which can cover up to 3 things. Have any of the strong 50% HP leads? Go Zaerog all the way. If you’re still struggling to make a decision and want the most future proof trade, it’s hard to make an argument against Fagan for his undeniably strong leaderskill when awoken. Of course powercreep is always advancing, but Fagan will be a foolproof coop lead where matchmaking between other players can be easily found. For those wondering what is best in dupes if they happen to trade and then roll what they traded for in a godfest, Zaerog is likely the superior choice from his damage equip and usability in either non equip forms. You really only ever need 1 Fagan if you plan to use as a lead, and even then you could just use something like Rikuu and pair with a friend, as his equip is fairly replaceable as well.

All in all, don’t stress too much about picking one and wondering if you’re missing out on something. In fact, you can wait as long as you want to trade as neither the exchange coin nor trade itself is going anywhere. It’s always best to look ahead to JP news and see if they received anything that might catch your eye which could influence your decision on who to trade for (perfect example: Fujimi Fantasia collab was just announced for NA, where Zaerog teams would love to have Bonta-Kun equip and is a perfect sub for evo Orphen ). Never follow what something like a tierlist says or other players assuming you’re in the exact same boat as them, as your own box will ultimately determine which is the best option.

Cover photo from GungHo NA official website