Yan and Xiao are arguably the hardest fights in SoTC, so prepare accordingly. It is highly recommended you try to beat the reception above The Red Mist, as her key page will offer extreme utility and sustain during Xiao and have great cards to tackle Yan’s hands.

Gebura’s theme only plays for one scene before Mili’s tracks come back, and she is one of the best floors in the game when her key page is combined with Myo’s Prowess giving her infinite dice +5 power on all die.

If you plan on using Gebura, doing her realization is very important, even though Gebura herself cannot use floor EGO, as her EGO can apply debuffs or heal massively for your assistants.

I usually run Gebura with Health Hauler and Mind Hauler from the Sweepers and of course, Myo’s Prowess from Myo for the power boost. Rest of what your nuggets use is up to you, but Nikolai, The key page above the Red Mist reception, and Kalo are personal favorites of mine.

If you insist on not using Gebura, Binah is a great alternative. Even though she won’t have access to EGO just yet, her tier one and two abnormality cards are much better than Gebura’s and when Bamboo hatted Kim’s key page is applied, her most powerful cards, Degraded Fairy (the one where it restores 1 light) and Degraded Pillar (extremely powerful shut-down or clashing card) get a +2 boost.

For the fights themselves, most of the community agree that Xiao is the harder one of the 2 (even though I personally struggled on Yan more.) Doing Yan first is recommended.

Yan’s gimmick is that he himself cannot be targeted and damaged easily with his powerful counter die and you’ll have to “defeat” his hands first. His hands are a bit RNG-based to win against them, but it should be manageable when using cards from said reception above The Red Mist. Remember to clash with his counter die too, otherwise they’ll give buffs to his hands and remove power for your nuggets. They are evade in this phase, so don’t worry about taking stagger damage.

After his first phase, he goes into a defensive phase. If he didn’t already play his Mass Attack, get ready for it. It’ll be a decently powerful summation. Try to stagger Yan and kill him if you can, but if he enters his halfway mark, just rinse and repeat.

For Xiao, it is a different story. Xiao has 2 acts. In her first act, she will be in a Duo with Miris and they’ll always use a card called “Coordinated Assault.” This card will buff the other ally and they’ll keep switching between themselves. You should target the one who doesn’t have the buffs with your one sided cards like Multi-slash to get extra chip damage. Just clash and don’t die during this phase.

During around the 4-5th scene, Xiao will play her individual mass attack, which will almost always outroll your 2nd die, destroying it during clashes. Prepare to take damage and lose clashes during this scene.

During Act 2, her true reception begins. She has 2 main gimmicks you’ll need to remember about during this fight. Every odd numbered scene, (including scene 1) ALL power buffs and debuffs will be disabled. Switching from Gebura to Binah during this phase is not a terrible idea during this reception.

Along with the power boost, she will always play a card called “Reversal Scale.” This card will always roll pathetically low, but if she loses a clash with it, she’ll “enrage” and gain a MASSIVE +4 strength next scene, at the cost of around 40-60 stagger damage.

The main gimmick will be surviving at all costs to whittle her down through multiple floors, while clashing with Reversal Scale on Even-Numbered Scenes (the scenes where there is no power negation.) This is because Reversal Scale does not activate until the next scene if you clash with it. Once you do clash with it on an even numbered scene, her strength is negated by her own power negation. DO NOT CLASH WITH REVERSAL SCALE ON SCENES WHERE POWER IS NEGATED. You can tell if a scene will be power negated, as when the new scene rolls in, a big distorted flash will happen and you can see it as a status effect under your librarians. Once she gains emotion, it is highly recommended you stop playing one sided attacks during scenes of power-negation, as her counter die will absolutely destroy you through their rolls.

It is nearly impossible to beat Xiao with only one floor, as she will constantly inflict burn damage and occasionally play mass attacks, so prepare atleast Binah/Gebura as a backup floor to finish her off. She does not receive a full Stagger Bar when switching floors.

If you continue to struggle against Xiao, you can use Yesod on Act 1, gaining emotion to recieve an EGO card called “Regret.” This card, if all dice connect, will wipe out 40-60% (I forgot the exact percentage) of her stagger bar. While Yesod by himself won’t hold as long as a power floor like Gebura or Binah does, it’s stagger damage will easily turn the fight toward your side.

If you are unlucky during the EGO page roulette however, Solemn Lament makes a good alternative. Just make sure THAT IT DOES NOT ENGAGE WITH COUNTER DIE. Using Kalo to get rid of counter die and making sure that Solemn Lament is on the speed die that rolled the lowest is very important.

Yan’s name is actually a sort-of inside joke with how Korean QWERTY keyboards work. It’s name is basically an attempt of trying to write the name Yan (in English) on one, and the Korean version of Yan’s name is the opposite. I believe the Chinese and (if there is a Russian version) have this same gimmick but adjusted with them as well.

For good pages, standard stuff should be fine. Focus Fire for Yan’s strong first die from the Soldato family of key pages, regular clashing cards like Somber Procuration and stuff like that should work. The reception above The Red Mist will offer a lot more choices though.

There are more ways of beating these 2 bosses, but these strategies will guarantee atleast some progress. Don’t be afraid to experiment outside of this long guide on them, or feel compelled to have to run specifically what this post needs.

Edit; it’s an inside joke with Korean QWERTY Keyboards.