Team Building
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Teambuilding is arguably the most difficult part of the game. There are many allies available with skills that can be like reading a small book. This guide should tell you where to begin. Examples for each sort of team will be given, along with potential substitutes or lists when possible.
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Starting Out With SR (and R) Allies
First and foremost, whether you are a new or old player, you will want focus on a team that you will be able to use in almost all content. This kind of team has guides built around it, including video guides you can copy. If it sounds too good to be true, it's not! It's very simple!
Your SR allies that you gain from the common pool are your saviors! You get more copies of these no matter what you're summoning, so they are easy to eventually ascend to the max. You will need to raise their Intimacy to the max as soon as you can, and get their potential to 6, or 9 if you are working on harder challenges. If you are starting out, by a 3☆ ascension, they should be carrying you well until you eventually can get them to 5☆.
If you're struggling early on to obtain a particular SR, the R version is an acceptable substitute. They will be even easier to ascend to 5☆, their Intimacy takes less gifts to max, and their Potential only has to go to 6 to fully max their stats.
General Setup
This team can be used to clear general stages in both story and events. Most every setup follows this style, including a Support, Healer, and damage dealers.
- A Support ally (Olivine) raises the entire party's attack.
- A Healer ally (Yakumo) will keep the party healed each turn so that nobody dies.
- Several Striker class allies (Aster, Edmond, Quincy) are used to deal damage every turn.
- A Striker with a very strong ultimate (Quincy) can be used to deal massive damage to a boss.
Boss Stages
For boss stages, often the same strategy can be employed with a team consisting of a Support, Healer, and damage dealers. However, some bosses have particular gimmicks or needs that cannot be met by just healing and hitting them. When that happens, you must know who can counter those gimmicks, and who to replace. In the case of replacing, always start with what is often called the sub DPS, which are the damage dealers that do not have strong ultimates. If we use the general example above, that would mean replacing Aster or Edmond.
Guardian Setup
In some cases, you may need a Guardian to take damage for you. SR Morvay is notably one of the best Guardians in the game thanks to his ultimate, where his taunt on ultimate draws the boss's attack toward him, and his shield absorbs the majority of the damage. Use him in place of another damage dealer when there is a requirement for a Guardian, or you find you need to attract an enemy attack in this way.
Guard Break
In the case of a boss using Guard, you will need an ally that can use Guard Break. SR Dante is the easiest choice for this because of his Guard Break on attack. SR Quincy does have Guard Break on his ultimate if needed, but often Guard Break is needed before Quincy can reach his ultimate.
Stop Bosses from Healing
While it is less common, some bosses, such as Rin in Chapter 10, will constantly heal themselves and negate your damage. In this case, adding SR Kuya to your party will solve the problem. His Recovery Down ability is rare so he is very important to build, unless you are lucky to have an alternative.
Combinations of the Above
At times you will have to deal with multiple boss gimmicks. Similar to the above setups, you once again want to replace the damage dealing allies that deal less damage than the others. Until you begin more advanced teams, having that one strong ultimate attacker will be your savior.
Intermediate Builds with SSRs (Ultimate Focus)
Once you start gathering SSRs and have them built to a 3☆ ascension, you may begin to insert them into teams to replace the SRs above. Generally, you want to keep the SRs in your team until the SSR has reached this point because the passives at 3☆ and 5☆ are extremely important. Those passives add strong skills or bonuses, so having an SSR in the party under 3☆ will only be a detriment except in rare cases, so in general it is advised against doing so.
If team building still is something you are not comfortable with, you will want to focus on creating teams similar to the SR teams built in the early stages. This means that focusing on Allies that Deal or Buff Ultimate Damage is your best bet for making a successful team. You will simply begin by replacing allies in the SR team with allies that do similar things.
Support Replacement
If you choose to replace Olivine, you will want to use a strong Support ally that has skills that will raise the damage of your attack in general or your ultimate skill. The text will often read as one of these:
- "ATK +(X% of user's ATK) to all party allies"
- "Ultimate Skill damage +X% to all party allies"
Healer Replacement
Almost any Healer will do for any party, so replacing the Healer is a simple task. If you are presented with many options, choose ones that give additional buffs, such as those that increase Ultimate damage. Additionally, there are two sub-categories of Healers to consider.
Burst Healers
Healers that give heals on the turn you use them are called Burst Healers. They are the most common, leading to quick heals in most cases. You want to use them when you need quick healing, such as right after a boss has used their ultimate and brought your HP dangerously low. These Healers will simply have text that says:
- "Heal all party allies by X% of user's ATK."
Heal-Over-Time Healers
Healers that heal at the end of the turn because of their skills are called Heal-Over-Time Healers, or Turn-By-Turn Healers. The healing continues even if you do not act for several turns. You want to use these sorts of healers if you are guarding or performing actions that may keep your Healer from healing each turn. They will have text that says:
- "Turn-by-turn heal party allies by X% of user's ATK"
Guardian Replacement
Guardians are a bit more complicated to replace. Even experienced players still use SR Morvay. With his 3-turn ultimate having both taunt and a shield, he satisfies most boss requirements. If you find yourself wanting or needing to, however, the main thing to consider is which boss you are fighting. You need to pay attention to how many turns between taunts are required, because many Guardians with 4-turn ultimates may not meet the requirement. As such, it is recommended to choose a Guardian with a 3-turn ultimate unless you know it will be fine otherwise.
Please note that it is very recommended to use a Guardian that has taunt in some way, as the entire point of a Guardian is to take damage for the party. As such, the common pool SSR Dante is not ever recommended.
Guardians with a Shield
Guardians that generate shields are often the best choice in boss fights unless otherwise noted (there are a few battles that make shields a detriment, but these are rare). By generating a shield, these Guardians can withstand attacks that may hit harder than their normal HP allows. There are even some Guardians that shield not just themselves, but the entire party.
Guardians that Taunt on Basic Attack
Guardians that Taunt are essential against bosses. While most taunt on their ultimate skill, there are a few that taunt on their basic attack. These are useful when you may need to taunt in quick succession, since they do not rely on their ultimate cooldown the way other Guardians do. The downside of this, however, is you must guard when you do not want them to taunt. Taunting every turn means they constantly take damage, which could kill them prematurely if your Healer cannot keep up.
Striker/Saboteur Replacement
Strikers and Saboteurs are the damage of the party, but often only one will be relied on for the most damage. Thus, replacing these falls into two different categories, your main damage and your sub-damage members. Strikers and Saboteurs are often interchangeable since both deal damage, but check the skills of your other allies to make sure they support both types. Many earlier units only gave buffs to Strikers, so it is recommended to focus on them.
Burst Damage Dealer (Nuke)
Strikers that have a high multiplier on their ultimate deal burst damage, and may be called Nukes. Generally, you will wait until this Striker/Saboteur has his ultimate ready, then use all ultimates at the same time to cause the most damage on the enemy. This ally will go last so that they have the maximum amount of buffs on their skill when the use it.
Support Damage Dealers
Strikers that have lower multipliers often play a support role rather than a damage one. They usually have skills that will increase party damage or make the enemy take more damage. Look for those with these sorts of skills to enhance your main damage dealer's ability:
- Target takes +X% damage
- Party deals X% more Ultimate Skill damage
Advanced/Specialized Builds
Once you have grasped how to form a party with classes in mind, you may find there are many allies that mention damage unrelated to simple ATK or ultimate damage. You may also find that setting up a team with a different formation would be more beneficial to you. This is often the case with high level boss stages, so congratulations for making it this far! We will first deal with other types of damage, then move into advanced team setups.
Basic Attack Damage
After Ultimate damage, Basic Attack Focused Allies are the most common type of damage. As the name implies, they are allies that do more damage on their basic attacks than on ultimates. This is because their skills often come with follow-up damage, meaning they hit multiple times when they use their basic attack. This is especially useful if you need to inflict multiple hits on an enemy, or if you find it hard to line up your ultimate turns properly. You want to look for this text in the skills and passives:
- On Basic Attack: 'Follow-up attack on target (X% ATK)' (For attackers or supports that grant the skill)
- Basic Attack damage +50% (As a passive for attackers)
- Party deals +X% Basic Attack damage (For support skills)
Hybrid Builds
Unlike previous teams, you may choose to have multiple Supports that grant more basic attack damage, or you may decide to use multiple strong basic attackers rather than just those that support the party. Alternatively, if you have Supports that grant the follow-up skills, you could also put anyone with a strong attack in the party to take advantage of a hybrid party. Just remember that with this type of team, your basic attacks are what are strong, not your ultimates!
Turn-by-Turn Damage
Allies of this type deal turn-by-turn (TbT) damage, also known as damage-over-time (DoT), bleed, or poison. This is simply damage dealt at the end of a turn to the enemy. This type of damage can be inflicted multiple times to a single enemy, which could take large chunks of the boss's health off at a time once enough has been stacked. Often it is accompanied by allies that will debuff the enemy, making them take more turn-by-turn damage. It is very useful when you may have to guard a lot, as the enemy will still take damage from what you already previously inflicted. Look for skills mentioning turn-by-turn damage:
- Deal turn-by-turn damage to target (X% ATK) (For attackers)
- Target takes X% more turn-by-turn damage (For debuffers)
- Party deals X% turn-by-turn damage (For supports)
- Turn-by-turn damage +45% (As a passive for attackers)
The drawback is that the damage is dealt once the turn is over, meaning if you were required to deal a certain amount of damage that turn, it will not count toward it.
Trigger Damage
Trigger damage is a newer sort of damage dealt when certain conditions are met by Allies that have Trigger Skills. For attackers, this is often just as simple as adding an attack when they attack, which works similarly to follow-up damage explained above, only it is buffed by Ultimate damage instead. For Guardians, the trigger is usually the Guardian being attacked. For Healers, they will act on heal. Look for skills with terms such as:
- When attacked: attack target (X% ATK) (For guardians)
- On attack: attack target (X% ATK) (For attackers)
- On Ultimate Skill: "Attack target (X% ATK)" (For attackers)
- On attack: 'Heal user by X% of user's ATK' (For healers)
Because trigger damage counts as Ultimate skill damage, using Supports that buff Ultimate skills works just as well or better for these teams. Currently the main drawback of this type of skill is simply the lack of allies that use it.
Be wary of non-Guardians that attack when attacked. They do not guard after using this skill and may end up dead, especially if it is accompanied by a taunt.
One-Turn Build
The gimmick of completing a stage in one turn relies mostly on Cooldown Modifying Allies, particularly Supports that will make your ultimate user's damage enormous. There should be one Striker or Saboteur that deals massive amounts of damage after all the other characters act. While it may not always result in a single turn clear, it drastically reduces playtime.
Unfortunately for most players, this build requires both specific allies and high investment into each one. Typically, they would need max potential and 5☆ ascension, but they can be a goal to work toward in the future.
3-Turn Ultimate Setup
Allies that have ultimates with 3-turn cooldowns are often paired together to make their ultimates timing align. The entire party, including the Support and Healer also meet this requirement. Often multiple stronger damage dealers are used, but because they have a 3-turn cooldown, their ultimates may not be as strong as those that have a 4- or 6-turn cooldown. However, by utilizing this method, being able to use the ultimates all together in a short time produces quick results that may even beat those stronger damage dealers.
Pseudo-AoE Ultimate Setup
Similar to an ultimate focused build, this setup focuses on a single strong damage dealer. However, this time, the damage dealer in question attacks multiple targets at once. Counter to what their skills say, you want to use these allies when there is only a single boss so that every attack they do will hit the same target. Even if their multipliers are low, if a skill with 100% ATK hits the same target 5 times, that is a 500% ATK skill and makes it extremely strong.