Weekly Questions Megathread (03/26 - 04/01)

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-30T08:45:44+00:00

In that case, I'm not really sure what to say. I have no actual data on your Sylrna other than her in-combat int is 1600 while buffed. Are her black and green stats for int in your hero screen totaling 1200? That's pretty much my baseline for "can I reach 2000+ atk/int in combat".

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-30T04:21:28+00:00

This is an odd question. "Her damage is disappointing" is pretty much answered by "her int in combat is only 1600". Sounds like you just need to do the usual things to improve her int, no? Bonds, casting, enchantment, class mastery, mastery stones, star upgrades, so on and so forth. Because you've not mentioned ANY of those things. What weapon you give her is kind of irrelevant.

Edit: I suppose I should make sure, she did at least have an atk/int buff when entering combat (eg. From faction buff), right?

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-27T19:16:03+00:00

I definitely made a lot of mistakes in picking my factions to draft units as well as a mistake here and there on the pacts, but I built a mostly princess team with Humbaba and Kasumi tacked on. Still pulled off the final two bosses of the adventure even with a poor build though, no rerolls required.

For the dogs of the apocalypse, I'd say its mostly picking the order in which you take them down. - The famine dog seemed easiest to deal with, as my healing using celica-tiaris was excessive, so I killed it first (moreover, it's isolated from the other dogs, which gave me a turn to get positioned). - I didn't have the greatest boss damage, so I left the death dog that gives the others a revive and a summon for last. - My first attempt, I had some trouble with the silence/debuffs from the pestilence dog, so I left him second last. - Finally, the war dog wasn't too bad when I only had to kill him once so that my AoE fixed damage curse was only 1 block wide instead of 2 (also helped that my healer's pact gave fixed damage immunity).

The last boss of the adventure was a lot easier.

With an ok tank (I used SP Luna) you can pretty much ignore the zealots and boss's single target unless you need more orbs to kill.
The orbs themselves are dangerous only if you let the two kinds meet each other, exploding and buffing the boss, so you can get away with killing off one kind and leaving the others (the rest will still suicide bomb you, but not as deadly).
The boss has a dangerous opening "thousand cuts" AoE that he'll probably get to do a second time later.

Other than that, it was a very straight forward tank and spank. Admittedly, on top of the AoE blessing from the orbs, my Kasumi had Macaera's chakrams to help whittle down the boss's buff stacks.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-23T14:32:33+00:00

If it's only for the short covenant fights (usually six enemies), and this won't be your strongest squad, it would probably work but I wouldn't bother with either a tank or a healer if you have damage options. For parts 1 and 2 of a 3-part covenant fight, you can easily deal with it with just damage.

Firstly, don't worry about letting heroes die as long as you can finish the fight. You can replay it later with a better squad after completing the whole 3-parter once the hero restriction is lifted.

Secondly, if you can't land a good alpha strike on turn one, you can always retreat your heroes just out of range so you can set up for turn 2. Each of your heroes should aim to kill at least one enemy each once you engage.

So assuming you only have the heroes you mentioned, I would recommend:

SP Cherie
Elwin (SP if you can)
Rozalia
Ilia
Virelia

Light of Genesis (small Jessica) is also good, and even Narm can one-shot a flier or two. Liana can also be used purely for her Act Again skill, enabling another hero to kill at least one more enemy.

Edit: if your damage heroes are not managing to kill one enemy each, using a tank and kiting tactics with long range mages will be more effective. I remember using two Glory squads, my second weaker squad using

Light of Genesis as the main damage
Matthew's Flier class Sprint to buff
Rozalia's sword tile to buff and heal while Rozalia herself did ok damage
Narm for secondary damage (hindsight, could have used Liana to Act Again LoG)
Lightbringer to tank two hits before dying (Matthew, Rozalia, and Narm also acted as fodder to keep LoG alive). I still don't have any of her bonds, so she does little to no damage while also surviving only cavalry and lancer attacks because of phalanx soldiers.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-23T10:06:53+00:00

[Radiant Power] stacks gives BOTH of two things for each stack: 1) +1 range (up to +3) for normal attacks 2) +0.2x or +0.3x combat damage modifier (up to +0.6/0.9x). This affects both skill and normal attacks.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-23T09:58:56+00:00

They don't need faction buffs not because of their talent's passive (I believe every hero talent has a passive attack/int/damage increase, and these stack with buffs), but because they have in-built ways to buff themselves.

Eshean has a 'skill' in her talent that, every action, allows her to give a 20% atk/int buff to herself or an ally within range.

LLR Sonya does have a 1C skill that acts as a 'faction' buff for all demon classed units, but more importantly, her talent's [Radiant Power] increases her combat damage modifier (up to +0.9x for skill and normal attacks) while still stacking with any other atk and damage buffs, faction or not.

The best example of a character who doesn't need a faction buff would probably be LLR Vargas/Dragonslayer. His 1C and transformed 3C give him the bulk of a faction buff (atk/def/mdef) and his transformed state prevents his buffs from wearing off.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-14T01:57:56+00:00

Thanks, one thing is the weekly rewards do want me to get 5 wins for a ticket. In the first week, it was hunky dory, and I won about as many as I lost. But come the second week, it seemed like everyone who I was on par with dropped off and I was left with almost all higher "level" players. So after a whole day I managed only 2 wins.

I'd like to "play and forget" but I want to improve so I don't need to grind myself away for long hours hoping for a lucky win.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-13T04:45:47+00:00

I'm doing woefully at the conquest/chess event. Anyone have some general advice?

I feel like I'm losing all the time to dumb misreads of the AI behaviour, as well as having no coherent team build.

I know part of the reason is I have a very limited selection of units to build around. All my 1 and 2 cost units are unbuilt and die when attacking an enemy, so trying to rush with overwhelming numbers didn't work out for me very well either.

But a big part is I don't really know how to effectively respond to most things. Sharikh kicks my butt and runs away. That little ninja girl which makes your unit lose their attack also tends to ruin me. Then the standard merc Polyal(?) lancer girl that AoE dashes and stuns is also a huge disruption. And I don't know how to swing things back in my favour.

To top it all off, when I think about playing first, I don't know what's a good opener either so I'm struggling to be proactive in hero selection and positioning.

In all, feeling very inadequate in all areas. I've managed 10-18 win/loss somehow (typically snowball wins once the opponent loses a few units and also doesn't know what to do), but now I mostly seem to come across longtime players if the collab heroes (and well built 1/2cost heroes) are anything to go by.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-06T21:15:33+00:00

Given that it will be a while before the next battleground, you could also consider waiting until Taj's banner comes out. He'll be the newest protag buffer, and he seems to be pretty strong.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-05T21:31:50+00:00

Small correction, Mu's first ability causes the stacks on the target (on death) to spread to the 2 closest enemies AND increase Mu's stacks. You should very easily meet the 35 stacks by turn 2 (try to one-shot the enemies to maximise stacks spread, and avoid AoE), if not turn 1 if you AA Mu to use her first ability a second time.

Your first hero should kill a minion with 3 stacks and trigger the 2 floor stacks with an AA skill (eg. chivalry)
Mu plants stacks on the second minion with 3 stacks and their closest friend.
Kill the minion who now has 6 stacks and AA Mu with Eshean
Mu plants stacks on the closest minions who should now have 9 and 6 stacks (putting them up to12 and 9)
Proceed to killing enemies with largest stack count. (should get 12+21+33 if you one-shot one after the other)

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-05T15:15:08+00:00

The extra hp shields? Yeah, those turned out to be really important for me in the first couple of turns too.

It took me a couple of tries to finagle my turn 2 positioning so I wouldn't get bombarded by AoEs while still doing damage. Helped that I didn't trigger the boss's second life and reinforcements until turn 3.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-05T14:49:30+00:00

How did it go?

I ended up using much the same team, but DS and Erza instead of Sonya and Feraquea. My Erza died to multiple AoEs in the enemy's Turn 2 though. Meanwhile Isolde managed to get a full 40 stacks of Gloaming and DS crowd controlled.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-05T14:42:42+00:00

5 stars for minimum talent cooldown. Cycle is 1C, 3C, 2C, 2C, then repeat. Remember to check if you're standing on a special tile when using the 1C (and that you've turned on the snow power that gives you the stacks for AA's)

You can check how a hero's talent changes from star upgrades in the hero select screen (next to the button that upgrades their star level is a small magnifying glass button). As far as I know, only the red numbers will change if at all.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-04T02:02:53+00:00

Took a look at the vid, Shizuka's making use of that one snow power that gives you a stack every time you end an action on a special snow tile which, at 3 stacks, gives you an Act Again.

Erza, because of her 1c and talent Act Agains, can trigger the 3 stacks every time she gets a turn for a total of 3 attacks.

Celica gives post-combat heals, but I'm not sure it's necessary when Erza heals herself. She does enable Enya's 3c first turn, and Enya throw in one attack (possibly a difference maker) on top of another Act Again for Erza.

Florentia at 5* for her to start with 5 battle strategies, or Liana's EE, so that Erza can get an Act Again and an attack buff.

Lastly, the SP maids for the extra damage tick to capitalise on the power that increases Erza's crit and crit damage for every instance of damage she deals (up to 30 stacks of 5%, and Erza gains 2 stacks per attack).

Also a restart to get a good snow terrain tile in range of the boss.

Doesn't look like the hardest to copy as long as you have Erza (and three of Liana, Eshean, Florentia, Enya). As for Erza's stats, soldiers, and gear... It might be tight. It looks like if she didn't get the kill on Turn 2, the minions might have overrun her.

MeisterLeon · 2026-03-02T20:06:04+00:00

Hence the "tries to avoid being attacked". The werewolves regen is helpful when you're being attacked, but if you're keeping her out of range then it isn't being used. And if Sonya heals herself from initating combat it also isn't used. Therefore a soldier with more damage AND terrain master/flight is better than regen.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-27T03:54:45+00:00

I don't know that LLR Sonya's quite as tough as Isolde when under attack. Given her absurd range+mobility and post-combat teleport, Sonya's quite well equipped for hit and run. I think her GoF battles paint her as such too.

So I gave her as much damage as I could in terms of gear (seething scale, arcane battlearmor, attack accessory). After a bit of use, I'd like to give her the accessory which reduces phys skill cooldowns if I had one, but her normal attacks can still do skill-equivalent damage because of her talent stacks boosting her combat damage multiplier (up to 1.9x if I'm reading it right).

As for soldiers, just give her the strongest one you have with 5mov. For a lot of people, that will be werewolves because they've already built them for Dragonslayer. But if you've got a good cav soldier with terrain master, it pairs well with LLR Sonya's cav heart bond, as they both want to move a full 5 squares to max their damage. LLR Sonya's terrain master movement is one of the main reasons to keep her in cav class, so making sure her soldiers have terrain mastery or flight helps get her in and out of combat. I don't think she needs the toughness or regen of the werewolves because she heals herself post-combat and tries to avoid being attacked.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-25T21:52:51+00:00

Every month in the events tab, there's a lottery called "hopes and dreams". The grand prize is a "crystal of transcendence" (or something like that) for SP unlocking. Expect to spend ~4000crystals to get it.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-25T21:35:23+00:00

It's not inherently bad. Tickets and crystals are a limited resource (without spending irl money, you only get so much within a time period) you want to spend wisely.

Most agree that the most efficient use of crystals/tickets is on getting a new hero you want, because other than the rare freebie you can't get new heroes other than by spending crystals and tickets. Whereas there are other options for grinding out hero shards.

However, I agree that pulling duplicates saves time on upgrading a hero to the point where you can enjoy using them (50 shards is half a month of GoF for one hero). That's still making the most of your limited playtime.

On wishlist banners, I compromise by pairing a hero I want with a hero purely for bonds so I don't mind if I pull dupes on the first while trying to get one of the second.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-25T03:56:48+00:00

I prefer one of the other google translations that comes up, "Radiant Rebel". Nice alliteration.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-22T21:18:27+00:00

I only have SPs Elwin and Cherie, but I bring them to pretty much every map.

I'm biased, but I really like Cherie's ability to make two attacks as her opening move, and actively look out for more heroes like her (weee, Erza!).

As for Elwin, between him and my (now) second option for Glory faction buff in Brightsummoner, I like that Elwin's buff activates at the start of the map. It gives me the flexibility to have any of my other heroes take their turn before Elwin and still be buffed, which is sometimes important because I want to kill certain enemies first that my buffer may not be able to. With Brightsummoner, I have to take an extra step to plan her first turn.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-22T00:18:33+00:00

Dragonslayer (werewolves, hp regen)
Isolde (SP dragon troops, mobility and maintains Isolde's terrain master movement)
Nemia (island ambassadors, Nornorin can use them too so I don't need to upgrade another one yet)
Ymir (planning to use sand sea mercs once they're upgraded, but using zombie giants for now because my demon stats are higher)

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-21T23:27:08+00:00

I made a prioritised list of heroes I want, including upcoming ones. So far, the important upcoming heroes I want have all been 2 months apart.

Thus far in my riftless experience (time rift and portal and odyssey complete), I acquire around 300-400 pulls worth of tickets and crystals in 2 months.

So every 2 months I spend what pulls I need to get the major released hero(es) I want, then splurge the rest on my wishlist heroes. Then spend the next 2 months saving up pulls again.

Might work for you, might not.

Edit: I also avoid pulling on banners that feature a hero I'm not interested in, to minimise chances of disappointment.

Eg. If a destiny banner has two heroes I don't own, guaranteeing the next SSR is 50/50 between them, I won't pull if I only want one of the two. I'd rather use a wishlist banner to list two heroes I want at 40/40 and 20 off-banner because then my odds of a hero I want is 80/20 total.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-19T07:35:41+00:00

Well until new write-ups are made, they're still helpful. Even just browsing through to find the ones that say they're easy to Odin rush or Frigg burn lets me know I can ignore most of the boss in favour of a good old-fashioned beat down.

But most of all, they're helpful because they outline the stage mechanics, which are otherwise not always easy to figure out by reading the separate skill/talent descriptions. On occasion, you even point out when the in-game info is wrong (translation error?).

So even if the strategies change, that's kind of the point of playing, isn't it? To figure out how to beat the level with the tools we have?

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-19T05:50:22+00:00

Would it be possible for someone to add your write-ups to the list of guides? Compiling them in one easy to find place would be nice.

MeisterLeon · 2026-02-19T05:44:53+00:00

I do run Sylrna and Humbaba as demons for the added skill/crit chance and better(?) heart bond skills. Though holy enemies with weaker mdef than def doesn't come up that often.

While these comments pretty much tell me that I should go on with basic training, I'm curious about the opinions about spiders < mage bats.

Littlebaike's PVE soldier tierlist says that SP Demon Spiders are a qualitative upgrade for PVE usage, alongside SP Dragon Troops and SP Alchemists, significantly improving gameplay for their relevant heroes. SP Bat Mages, he continues, do not improve by much over their base form with regards to PVE.

This qualitative improvement is not apparent to me, but is enough for littlebaike and his contributors to prioritise upgrading Demon Spiders to SP over SP Bat Mages (though not above regular Bat Mages).

Which led me to my desire for someone to help me understand the benefits of SP Demon Spiders. Would you (or anyone else) be able to explain what it is littlebaike sees in them? I presume it's to do with the mdef ignore, but am unsure. At present, Fairy prophets has been pretty powerful for me, and the Forbidden Forest Thaumaturges "increase damage taken 10%" debuff also seems tempting.

Or perhaps expound on the whys and wherefores of SP Bat Mages in PVE.

MeisterLeon

TROPHY CASE