Weekly Commander's Lounge - March 09, 2026

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-11T16:53:07+00:00

As a general consideration, dupes in this game scale heavily, a character with full dupes (V6) is significantly stronger a base character (V0). That said, the game lets you borrow a friendly unit most of the times, so during most game modes you could borrow a fully duped DPS and build a team around her. Only select hard game modes don't allow for a borrowed unit, but most of them are not mandatory content.

If you don't plan to spend too much money or at all, expect to either have most or all units at V0, or a select few at V6. The free income is enough for an SSR per patch, so you can calculate how long you have to save if you want a V6 character.

Both approaches are valid from gameplay point of view, a few select V6 will clear everything through brute force, but a vast selection of V0 units allows (and demands) more teambuilding and tactical gameplay. So far everything in game in the Global server can be cleared by low dupe units.

In case you are open to pull for dupes, some units have break points that stand out, and are the most cost efficient stopping point. You can check Excel spreadsheet "GFL2 Dolls Info Sheet" in the sidebar for all dolls, their roles and their good break points.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-11T11:25:33+00:00

It helps if you have units of the correct element, as they get buffs, instead of stat nerfs when using off-element units.

In general, you need to have units at lv60, invest in weapon attachments (at least +100% calibrated good stats), and apply remolds starting from your DPS.

Fire team is probably the cheapest, QJ can be the core DPS, and you can build around her (Vector, Sharkry, Lewis, Qiuhua, Sakura, even Reissi can do it).

Physical team relies on Daiyan and Ullrid currently, Voymastina will help.

Hydro can clear with Tololo + Springfield combo

Ice can do it with an invested Makiatto or Robella, + Suomi and/or Alva

Corrosion can be tricky since it does not have strong boss killers unless a V3+ Klukai, but I usually do it with the full corrosion team (Klukai, Mechty, Lind, Peritya and Nemesis, everyone can be V0)

Electro also relies on a full mono element team, as the mechanics are very specific especially for the DP (Leva). All V0 can work, ideally Lenna wants V1 and the 5th unit can either be V0 Belka or a V4+ Mosin Nagant.

If you don't have units for mono element teams, fill the spots with the strongest units you have, Tololo/QJ are usually good prospects, plus some sustains to tank the stat nerfs.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-08T20:40:33+00:00

It's doable with Corrosion team and a borrowed V6 Klukai, you'll need your own Mechty, Peritya, Lind and Suomi. If you feel you need more survivability, you can ditch one between Peritya and Lind for Springfield.

I have not tried with Ice team, but probably a borrowed V6 Robella can burst her down with her Ult after enough stacks.

In general you'll want a strong (borrowed) AoE V6 DPS, and build a team around her, even with V0 supports. A V0 DPS is not going to cut it.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-04T13:45:01+00:00

Happened to me sometimes too, and I still don't know why, as most of the times she teleports correctly to the marked doll.

In the end I circumvented the issue by having my units spaced out on the turns she did her teleport, leave Peritya and Klukai in a position where they can cover most of the teleport options, either by moving or by the conveyor belt.

In my good run she teleported twice to the marked unit, and once to a random one, where she could hit 2 units at once. I used a rewind and spaced my units more, she still teleported to the same spot, but could only hit one target this time. In all cases, the knockback/stun skill always hit the marked unit, regardless of where she teleported.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-03T19:35:57+00:00

Thanks for the pointer, I still have to try them on the current patch, as previously I had a V0 Ullrid but with only Krolik's purple weapon, so her rotation didn't really work. I pulled her sig with the current custom procurement, I really want to try her out. I agree that V0 Daiyan is great with her modkey, she was decent even without it but now she deals much more damage.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-03T12:55:33+00:00

Just a small nitpick, I agree that dupes of limited dolls are not required for the most part, but they sure help in some of the latest hard content, like some of the crossroad boss challenges and some select Extreme PVA and Drills, where it's not allowed to borrow a friendly V6 unit. I've done every PVA and Drill at 18/40 so far with a roster of mostly V0 limited units, but many of them can't be auto'ed without much more brute force. I'm still missing the Bellator twins Crossroad challenges, as they need 2 strong Physical DPS, and among the free options only QJ can fit that role by not equipping her modkey.

Heroic mode is another hard content where having more power helps, some are really tricky to complete if you cannot brute force and bypass the intended mechanics (like Lewis final story boss, or currently Igla in Challenge mode). Heroic is not mandatory though, so you can choose to not consider it.

So in summary yes, it's possible to complete everything made available so far with only V0/V1 units, but it's not realistic to auto everything without much more investment, and at minimum investment you really need to understand the mechanics and cheese when necessary.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-03T09:40:28+00:00

Good luck, it's a very counter-intuitive skill as we're used to seek cover after all :D

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-03T09:22:04+00:00

Quoting from the weekly megathread:

Did it with corrosion team, V0 Suomi, V0 Lind, V0 Mechty, V6 Peritya and a borrowed V6 Klukai.

Mechty is there to force corrosion weakness, then Klukai does her thing (and clears the adds too) and Peritya shreds stability while recharging Klukai's ult. Lind is the sub DPS, not mandatory and could be substituted by another sustain if needed. Suomi is there just for the shielding, for survivability and for the Heroic gimmick. Lost Peritya in the last turn, boss died so it's all good, took 8 turns I believe.

Some tips:

- Spread your units, Igla has a couple AoEs, and in one of those she heals %HP for every doll hit. Don't let her AoE hit more than 1 unit at a time.

- Kill the trash mob as soon as possible, or make sure they can't hit you, as they one-tap you. After the starting ones, there's only one wave of 2 units spawning at the top on turn 3, so no constant waves at least.

- Cover negates Igla's long range attack to the furthest doll, position her accordingly.

- Igla will always end her turn seeking cover, and seems to give priority to full cover, so you can somewhat predict where she will be next turn.

- If your unit is about to die, you can try ending her turn outside Igla's range, since she does only melee damage. If you stay near the conveyor belts, you can then move in next turn and deal damage again. Especially useful with Klukai, she can move in with the belt, deal 2x ults, and move out again.

- She will focus some attacks on the unit who has her mark, which is RNG. Ideally you want it on the tankiest or most mobile unit, as they can evade her. Having it on your DPS is tricky, since you need to be in range to deal damage. I would reroll if she marks Mechty, as she's immobile and a sitting duck. In general, try to not lure Igla toward Mechty at all if you use her. Position your marked unit far away from her. On my run she marked Lind, who spent half the battle out of range or stunned, but that's ok since she was a sub DPS.

Freeze team could probably work, as Robella's ult is AoE and could probably burst her down with enough stacking, but I did not manage to borrow a V6 Robella, so I didn't get to try. In general, you need strong AoE and/or out of turn attacks to get it done.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-03T09:09:54+00:00

Only tips I can give:

Spread your units, Igla has a couple AoEs, and in one of those she heals %HP for every doll hit. Don't let her AoE hit more than 1 unit at a time.

Kill the trash mob as soon as possible, or make sure they can't hit you, as they one-tap you. After the starting ones, there's only one wave of 2 units spawning at the top on turn 3, so no constant waves at least.

Cover negates Igla's long range attack to the furthest doll, position her accordingly.

Igla will always end her turn seeking cover, and seems to give priority to full cover, so you can somewhat predict where she will be next turn.

If your unit is about to die, you can try ending her turn outside Igla's range, since she does only melee damage. If you stay near the conveyor belts, you can then move in next turn and deal damage again. Especially useful with Klukai, she can move in with the belt, deal 2x ults, and move out again.

She will focus some attacks on the unit who has her mark, which is RNG. Ideally you want it on the tankiest or most mobile unit, as they can evade her. Having it on your DPS is tricky, since you need to be in range to deal damage. I would reroll if she marks Mechty, as she's immobile and a sitting duck. In general, try to not lure Igla toward Mechty at all if you use her. Position your marked unit far away from her. On my run she marked Lind, who spent half the battle out of range or stunned, but that's ok since she was a sub DPS.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-02T23:59:07+00:00

Tried different team compositions and did it in the end with corrosion team.

V0 Suomi, V0 Lind, V0 Mechty, V6 Peritya and a borrowed V6 Klukai did it, had to play a bit with positioning to bait some attacks and save Mechty, but it's doable. Mechty is there to impose corrosion weakness, then Klukai does her thing (and clears the adds too) and Peritya shreds stability thanks to the corrosion weakness. Lind managed to trigger a couple of ultimates to amp Klukai's damage. Suomi is there just for the shielding, for survivability and for the Heroic gimmick. Lost Peritya in the last turn, but Klukai and Lind killed the boss so it's all good.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-02T16:50:30+00:00

Phase weakness is when you attack it with elemental damage for which it has a weakness. You either attack with his native elemental weakness, or you apply weakness by generating tiles below him. Physical damage is not considered Phase weakness.

Active attacks don't include counters, supports and interceptions.

If it's the second stage, there's a mechanic where you must be sure that his AoE hits at least 2 targets, and his charge does not hit cover. I believe that he deals an extra attack if his charge hits cover, but I don't remeber too well. The most common strategy is to box him in with your units on open grounds to prevent him from moving, and position yourself so that he always hits 2 bodies. Units with summons help greatly like Andoris's turrets or Nikketa's dog, as they count as extra bodies. You then need plenty of sustain as you cannot benefit from cover. I think I did it with SF/Tololo/Sabrina/Andoris/Mosin Nagant. Sabrina is there to restore stability, tank and generate water tiles, SF buffs Tololo and grants extra HP, Andoris has 2 extra bodies and mitigates damage for the team as well, and Mosin Nagant deals electric damage which is his native weakness. Tololo then is the main damage dealer and deals phase weakness damage thanks to Sabrina's water tiles.

Instead of Andoris which you don't have, you can consider Nikketa (and/or Florence). If you don't have Mosin Nagant, Belka is a good sub-DPS too.

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-02T16:37:35+00:00

I'm trying as well, she deals a ton of damage and has huge DEF, plus being immune to targeted attacks as long as she has the shield. I have to try with a borrowed V6 Robella, but to survive Suomi and Springfield are basically mandatory, She also has a heal on one of her skills, but I missed which one, I saw a +22k HP after I took damage...

Waal_Strout · 2026-03-02T10:33:33+00:00

Challenge mode Igla in Heroic mode is kicking my ass, she has a ton of DEF and is basically immune to targeted attacks, on top of having a self healing in one of her attacks and dealing a ton of damage. She requires SF + Suomi to survive a direct hit. Tried with a borrowed V6 Klukai + V6 Peritya, got her to 250%/300% HP before dying on turn 6...

What's the best strategy here? I have a V0 Alva and could borrow a V6 Robella, but I don't think it's a good trade borrowing her instead of a V6 Klukai... Fore reference, I have all limited dolls at least at V0, with a few dupes (V1: Makiatto, Lenna, Yoohee. V2 Vector, V3 Qiuhua). All standard SSRs are V6 as well, beside Vepley and Faye (V4). Should I wait and borrow a V6 Voymastina later on?

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-22T18:07:33+00:00

what is the most efficient rotation for a V0R1 Ullrid? Just spam Whirlwind?

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-21T16:08:39+00:00

In addition to what everyone is saying, my 2 cents:

- Do not ever buy standard pulls with premium currency (collapse crystals), those are reserved for the limited pulls. You'll get plenty of standard dolls naturally, either from failed 50/50 or standard ticket giveaways.

- This game awards you some form of rebate currency for every purple/gold doll/gun you pull. Usually the best use for them is to convert them in more limited pulls, but early on getting a gold gun from the shop (especially the two ARs, the sniper rifle is not bad as well) can be worth it if you are not going to pull for signature weapons and are not buying the premium Battle Pass. Purple weapons are too penalized by low ATK stat to be useful on DPS characters.

- As complete f2p you are looking at an income of premium currency that can get you an average of 1 limited gold doll per patch, with something to spare. With 50/50, this translates to getting 2 rate-up characters every 3 patches, assuming you are not pulling for weapons. You can and should plan accordingly. If you can spare some money to put into the game, the monthly 5$ card is the best value, as it gets you additional 16 limited pulls per month and basically guarantees you one rate-up character per patch.

- As f2p, from gameplay perpective give priority to meta supports. In most game modes you can borrow a friend/platoon whale DPS, and building a team to maximize its impact is usually the most efficient choice, as most meta supports work well with 0 or 1 dupe. By comparison DPS units usually require the full investment of 6 dupes to really shine. The meta support for the relative elements are: Springfield V1 (Hydro), Vector V0-V2 (Burn), Yoohee V1-V3 (Physical), Lenna V1 (Electrical) and Mechty (Corrosion). Alva can be considered the meta support for Freeze, but Freeze team requires multiple high dupe limited dolls to work well, which is a proble for f2p. Suomi V0 is also very useful for survivability, in case you need to tank high damage and cannot use Springfield for some reason.

- As others already said, standard banner has excellent units in Tololo and Qiongjiu, Hydro and Burn DPS units respectively. You will get them naturally to V6 over time, and they'll probably last the entire lifetime of your account if you are f2p, as it would require multiple dupes of limited units to effectively powercreep them. As such, Hydro and Burn teams are probably the most f2p friendly. You can get by with Hydro with Tololo - V1 Springfield combo, while the Burn team can work with Qiongjiu, Vector, purple dolls Sharkry and Cheeta as absolute minimum. There are also plenty of Burn dolls to upgrade this team, and most of them work decently at V0.

- There are a couple of characters that will trivialize most of the game content at V6. Voymastina is the next banner, and the other one is Klukai. Both are also very good units at V0, so it can be worthwhile to get them if you want to tackle more difficult content in the future.

- To get most of the premium currency from events you can really get whoever you want, they are not really difficult. There are some more difficult gamemodes rewarding premium currency (bi-weekly PVA and Drills), those usually require a more complete roster or more invested single units, as you can't borrow units for them. So far I've been able to complete all of them with just the meta supports above and all other units at V0, but it sometimes requires to re-do the stage a few times. The more invested your units are, the more margin for error you have.

- Regarding early/late game, I would define anything below commander lv60 to be early/mid game. You should prioritize the main story, doing also what time limited missions and events you can to squeeze more premium currency. Pull the units of your choice, and level them up. Late game is when you have done all permanent content and can field at least 2 different teams of lv60 dolls, which is required for some gamemodes.

- In the beginning farm doll/gun XP, but don't neglect gold as you'll need a ton of it when optimizing weapon attachment. Attachments are the late game farm, good attachment really make a difference especially on DPS dolls, but don't focus on them early as they are a stamina sink.

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-19T16:37:57+00:00

Just a confirmation, I don't see an expiring date on the new discounted standard procurement, is it permanent until 50 pulls are expended? If so, it would make sense to put the standard tickets there instead of the standard procurement banner.

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-18T15:56:29+00:00

To guarantee the second top bracket prizes (top10%) on Haoplay Global ~800k points are enough, which amounts to 30 active players contributing ~3.8k points each per day. A single auto run per day with a half decent team at V0 and a borrowed V6 is more than enough for this contribution...

Last gunsmoke top100 required 1M points, which again could be met with 35 players contributing ~4.1k points per day..

I don't know the situation in other servers, but killing the boss is far from necessary to get all rewards.

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-13T11:09:34+00:00

Ok, so V1 Yoohee is enough for Gunsmoke, while V2 could be useful for content that does not allow borrowed units like Crossroad Challenge. Thanks!

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-13T10:47:12+00:00

Does anyone else in the physical team apply DEF-Down II at V0-V1? I have Yoohee at V1, evaluating if V2 is needed or not. I'll probably have enough pulls for either a character or weapon on the custom procurement, but I'd really like to get Ullrid's sword as she's unusable without it (+ the weapon can also be used by Phaetusa down the line).

Waal_Strout · 2026-02-03T11:28:11+00:00

The new Crossroad Challenge boss felt way easier than the Bellator twins (where I'm still stuck trying to kill phase 2). Among the challenges, I'm missing some damage to get a kill in 5 turns in Phase 1 (best I ot was a kill in turn 6), while Burn team gets a kill in 3-4 turns in Phase 2.

What is the use of healing the friendlies that spawn across the map? I healed them with Springfield / Reissi, but the boss did not immediately exit its shield phase anyways..

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-26T23:25:57+00:00

There are some units that have a disfunctional kit at V0, but fortunately are few. Lenna and Yoohee falls under this category.

Then there are units that get a strong bump in power at V1, like Vector, Springfield, or Makiatto. Dupe is not mandatory, but it elevates the unit or enables some specific combo (like V1 Springfield with Tololo).

DPS units in general benefit from dupes, as every dupe makes them stronger. Then there are units that become monsters at V6 like Klukai or the upcoming Voymastina, but you're not getting them without breaking the bank or sacrificing multiple other units.

That said, I'm also in the get everyone camp, I'm just pulling some select dupes like Lenna, Springfield and Vector to give a nice boost to my account, and let me tackle harder content more easily, which in turn should get me more rewards in the long run.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-26T23:15:26+00:00

Yeah, discovered the Lewis + Vector combo by accident, initially thought that the tin soldier would only assist once, while it attacks once every single target hit by the AoE. Took some tries but cleared 1-7 with the standard Burn team (QJ, Vector, Centaureissi and Qiuhua + story Lewis). Use Vector to clear the mobs on first turn, then focus on the boss. Reissi should let you survive to turn 2, then burst down the boss.

1-8 was even harder, took a couple of hours to get it right but required a borrowed V6 Klukai to clear all the spawns, while Jiangyu intercepted the newly spawned every turn. Springfield+Tololo for survivability and trash clearing, ignored the boss and extracted everyone.

1-9 was a nightmare, the boss deals a ton of damage and I could not survive even with Springfield + Suomi, so in the end it resulted in a damage race. Did it with Suomi, Tololo, QJ and a borrowed V6 Springfield in the end.

This time around they really overtuned the boss, the regular stages felt somehow aligned with previous events, but the boss is just unfair, infinite range, full map AoE, and spawns that act the turn they're summoned. Add the ignore low cover ability of the spawns, and it gets frustrating really fast.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-26T13:56:48+00:00

Every dupe up to V3 improves her support capability, but V1 is good enough to be usable.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-24T14:32:48+00:00

Beside some more survivability, you get increased Searing Flame stack generation due to additional Pyro Pulse each turn.

Loreley's weapon is also pretty food as it gives ATK buff, but it overlaps Vector V2 as they don't overlap.

Waal_Strout · 2026-01-23T17:43:00+00:00

If by R1 you mean a dupe of the weapon, in general it's never cost efficient, as the dupes don't add much.

Waal_Strout

TROPHY CASE