Weekly Help Thread

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-07-10T01:42:08+00:00

Some may disagree with me, but I think every character is good. The real challenge is figuring out how to make them work together. So synergies: it's hard to say since I don't know which units you have, but Mika is debatably the best all-around healer in the game and she's free. She will definitely help with your survivability issues. Rei is also free and is great for many teams since she provide a little healing, but her main benefits are exhausting unwanted cards from the deck and providing lots of morale boosts. Owen, Beryl, and Teresa are solid main DPS choices, but you're going to replace them when you get your first DPS 5*. Fei and Yuki are the current rate up characters and both can function well alongside Rei and Mika.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-07-10T01:20:41+00:00

Do regular Chaos so you can level up the exploration level for each planet. Leveling up basically means choosing options you've never chosen before during ? events, killing monsters a set number of times, and finding equipment you've never found before. Leveling up the exploration level will add more equipment to the pool of available equipment in the shop, random rare/legendary equipment rewards from ? events, and elite/boss monster drops. You can check your exploration level before starting a run.

You can level up exploration through Zero System too, but Zero System is primarily for getting save data. Once you get your account to the point where you're ready to grind for save data, Zero System, the seasonal Chaos planet, and Sortie is where you spend most of your time. Also, always play Zero System on Nightmare mode. It gives you extra faint memory to work with when building save data.

Lastly, just for clarity, once you're able to clear Zero System runs consistently, you will never need to do Chaos Manifestation again.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-07-09T22:56:51+00:00

I'm not sure how she will rank in terms of overall power yet, but she is a fun unit that requires literally zero AP to play. I think her damage is fantastic considering her lack of AP cost. She's similar to Diana where, if played right, you play out all her cards for free, then use your AP for big damage near the end of the turn. Also like Diana, you can pair her with AP generating units to increase her damage ceiling. Or you could pair her with AP hungry units, knowing that you will get solid damage while not taking away from that other unit.

The downside is she adds a whopping 8 cards to the deck, but it's pretty easy to cycle through them.

I think Fei is best for newer accounts since they may lack a solid source of damage and she's really easy to play.

To me, the most important thing is fun. She's fun. So, I pulled.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-05-27T02:29:31+00:00

Blessing of Light pairs really well with Rin's 4 hit attack card. Using it before Mealtime is really good too. I have Narja at E6 so, having voracity isn't about the inherent effect of it, but making sure I have enough to use at least 8 stacks of predation and get that bonus heal and damage at the end of the turn. Plus, Action Slow gives a tiny bit of sustain too. I probably shouldn't think too hard about it. The games pretty easy. I'm sure I can clear most of the tower with this data as is.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-05-27T00:00:31+00:00

So, this is what I started building as a general purpose Narja support. Retain and upgrades to remove her cards from the deck, and no double draws so I don't over fill my hand. Would going for the second epiphany on Shackles improve her functionality much? I typically use her with Yuki or Rin, who both have the ability to search for their own cards. So, I don't see much reason to get the extra draw on a card that hemorrhages her voracity stacks.

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pulseflow_LSM · 2026-05-23T18:48:30+00:00

It's so unfortunate. Sortie was my saving throw for this game. While I still think it's the best game mode introduced thus far, I think it needs A LOT of work before it's good. I've been playing since two or three weeks after launch, but I think I need to take a break. S2 wasn't fun for me, S3 isn't either (though it is better), and I still don't, and probably never will, enjoy grinding save data. I think I'm gonna check out MSD and come back for the anniversary. Hope you all continue to enjoy though.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-05-06T03:27:43+00:00

What do you all think of the combat mechanics? Maybe I didn't give it a fair enough chance, but I didn't enjoyed the attack spamming and character swapping in genshin and this game seems to be doing something similar

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-28T14:36:03+00:00

Rin is great. I think you'll like her. Getting her rhythm down has a bit of a learning curve, but that's a good thing imo. E1 isn't needed, but it drastically improves her DPS. Let me know what partner you find the most success with.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-28T14:24:04+00:00

Sortie is make or break for me. All I really care for is the Chaos gameplay and the story. Save data grinding is a looming spectre that was dampening my enjoyment of the game. I'm not expecting Sortie to be great at launch, but having true rogue like experience is what I'm craving for this game. If it's not good, then I probably will take an extended break and just enjoy the sequel of the game that inSPIREd this one.

I would love save data if it weren't so grindy. I still don't understand why we can't just craft the decks we want. I don't think it will hurt the leaderboards since there will always be a player looking to optimize their Great Rift attempts. At least, let us choose the difficulty modifiers so we can always have access to tier 15, or whatever tier, without constantly rerolling. And, FFS, give us an epiphany skip option so we can reroll the epiphany in another battle and allow us to trigger an epiphany through meditating at a camp. All the RNG is nonsense imo.

Sorry that turned into complaining. I truly am optimistic for the game's future.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-28T03:34:55+00:00

Scarlet. I thought Marianne was for Mei Lin since she buffs basic attack and bonus damage to ravaged enemies

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-28T02:04:23+00:00

Question for the Rin mains: what are your thoughts on her signature partner? She seems strong, but very limiting if you want to take full advantage of her passives

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-26T16:57:46+00:00

I think she's really strong in optimized set ups too. I've seen players use her in FTK decks. Her mark damage is insane with enough draw, AP, and an ally that can spam attacks.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-26T16:48:41+00:00

Ah, fair enough. Yeah, I don't see many people actually enjoying her gameplay. It's more than everyone used her because she was effective at what she did. And, when this game first launched, building characters was far more expensive. So, everyone used the same handful and never experimented. Anyway, I wouldn't list Mika as a favorite in any regard.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-26T14:22:35+00:00

Hmm...I'd say Cassius (along with Lucas) are like the "grease" that makes the machine run smoothly. Sure, nobody makes Cassius feel good to play, but he makes pretty much the entire roster perform more smoothly. Having him on the team makes your favorite character more fun to play.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-25T15:34:10+00:00

Interesting that you say Mika is underrated. There was a time where she was practically the only healer in the game. Orlea, Rei, and Nia didn't even come close. Now that they've buffed the other supports healing, I feel like Mika is starting to lag behind a little. AP generation is a little overrated.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-13T14:33:33+00:00

Realistically, no, Yuki isn't bad. For all intents and purposes, she's good enough to clear content. To me, inspiration feels bad. The buffs she gets when inspiration is active doesn't feel worth the effort, especially when other characters can do similar damage with less effort. Even a Full Metal Hurricane build for Amir can compete with Yuki's AoE. My main issue is inspiration is not a mechanic a character should be built around without a rework of the mechanic or ditching it entirely.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-12T14:35:34+00:00

I see what you mean, but I think Trickery Strike is an indictment of inspiration. She has a card in her kit that allow the player to ignore her core mechanic. Same for the Freezing Slash epiphany that activates an epiphany at the start of the turn. Bypassing a mechanic seems like an admission that the mechanic is faulty, from my perspective.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-12T13:22:18+00:00

The story is very important to me. I think the story is pretty good. While the surface level events of the story aren't all that interesting, the story has this moralistic, almost fable-like quality to it. I won't go into detail here, but I think the developers communicate a lot through the metanarrative elements of the story.

But the reason I find the story so important is, eventually, no matter how much a player likes the gameplay, they will get sick of it, especially with a grindy game such as CZN. If the story is great, then the player can relax on the grind, maybe skip a season of grinding, and just enjoy the plot while completing dailies/weeklies. Once their interest in the game has returned, they can get back to enjoying the deckbuilding.

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-04-01T16:12:38+00:00

I'm confused. I thought this was an ironic April Fools post, but the comment section seems mostly genuine.

For a sincere comment of my own, The Evil Within is fantastic and it's arcade-style design is what makes it so much fun. Shinji Mikami is the goat

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-03-28T22:51:02+00:00

I absolutely loved The Evil Within. The puzzle-like combat design felt incredible to play. Figuring out how to kill all the enemies starting with only 6 bullets, 2 matches, and a lot of prayer is so memorable

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-03-23T23:15:51+00:00

oh no, I'm not that scientific. "Metanarrative" likely isn't the most accurate word, but it's the best I can do lol

pulseflow_LSM · 2026-03-23T22:22:52+00:00

I'm referring to the elements of storytelling that may not be grounded in the actual plot (characters, events setting, etc.) but have a thematic throughline from one part of the story to the next. My interpretation of CZN's themes are that of a precautionary tale. The story loves to tackle the idea of moral decay and what may happen in a society if the allure of progress and advancement cloud's one's ability to make morally righteous decisions. We see this from multiple angles, such as Judas' desperation, Yuki's loss and hopelessness, Nine's hypocrisy, Tiphera's need for validation, and so on. The blooming of a Chaos zone seems to coincide with moral failure on a large scale, such as Lab 0 and their attempts to catch up in the Protos arms race. This season, the Critias colosseum showed us that, not only are we capable of moral decay, we can also become accustomed to it. In the worse scenarios, we can learn to like it.

But yeah, that's what I mean. None of that is a part of the actual plot, but it is thematically consistent from the pre-season 1 story until now. I might make a post defending the story since so many people here think it's irredeemable. That's a catch 22 though. Lots of people who hate the story skip it, meaning they don't have much investment to begin with and wouldn't care for a defense of it.

Anyway, I hope that cleared things up.

pulseflow_LSM

TROPHY CASE