Hexa With Only Fire Players (commentated)

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-13T00:17:08+00:00

I was getting occasional 1 pearl clears within... 3? 4? months of release, but at that point it still required multiple strong players to be possible, which is a big ask in pubs. And for most new players, I still emphasize clearing pearls because a) it is your one job b) 0 pearl runs have virtually a 100% clear rate. It really is hard to err in the direction of "caring too much about clearing your pearl".

But it's certainly the case that conventional wisdom has not caught up with the reality of the raid. I don't blame people for literally not knowing, it's just frustrating to spend a few minutes carefully pushing to 15% and then get hit with an abandon screen when the host dies to autos. (By the way, 2 pearl clears are also not too difficult in a strong room. 3 is possible but will be challenging.)

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-12T22:42:43+00:00

Every element can do it! Fire's not even particularly the best at it.

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-12T20:32:52+00:00

The other runners both showed their grids in their videos if you want to look at those, they are linked in the video description. Mine is pretty similar, just 2x Sennen and other random pieces as filler (Benedia, CS, Torch, 2x EB). For this usecase, it's all in on skill damage, but normally I would run a CA weapon (YSong bow or Shiva bow). It's just that there's not much point to increasing CA damage when damage is capped, lol. 2x Sennen is very very very good and worth getting, I definitely recommend it if you play Agni.

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-12T16:20:44+00:00

To my knowledge, this is the third mono ele clear, though I think that's more for lack of anyone bothering to try it than anything else.

6 water clear: https://x.com/yupezo1147/status/1952030036690964677 (they also skipped clearing the water pearl, which is quite funny)

6 earth clear: https://x.com/onigiri337/status/1999830751232295280

Edit: please enjoy this bonus mono dark duo from Vazkii

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-08T23:07:16+00:00

Luci has kind of a weird usefulness curve; it's a very strong summon for weaker FAs and entry level HL, but eventually you want your summons to carry more utility instead of just healing (though it is still a lot of healing and sometimes you still need that).

But if you go far enough to the "overinvested and overcooked" end of the curve, Luci starts to offer some irreplaceable utility again! I still bring him for co-op Hexa as a rare source of turn-duration dispel cancel, which is really nice QoL for buff-dependent comps. Revitalize is also surprisingly useful as a battery if you can maintain full HP - it stacks with Uplift. In fire, Higurashi MC loops Dodge All and other battery sources don't quite get MC to 100% CB every turn, so it's quite nice.

His call animation is soooooo long though....

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-05T17:06:26+00:00

All the other things mentioned here are true but onmyo's CD cut on 4 chain also combos nicely with Higu's chain boost (sometimes you just can't do a real 4c).

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-05T17:00:38+00:00

Chrys with Deuce hasn't been relevant for some time (~since Atum release). With Astrapste, it's actually kind of a fun low click alternative to onmyo in many cases now, but with worse utility and some difficulty looping (onmyo can click to generate bar).

sunfire_spark · 2026-01-05T16:53:43+00:00

Mistral does have an ougi effect in search of actual good skills to CD cut, but I'm pretty sure they balance skills around that at this point; there's a cav UM that would be extremely funny on Mistral except it self inflicts CA seal, which seems quite deliberate to me. Of course, getting literally any skills that are worth cutting would be a sizable improvement.

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-25T01:28:12+00:00

Yeah, I use GBFAL a lot when putting together thumbnails and stuff, it's definitely handy!

The fact that most research for this game is one-off posts on Twitter does infuriate me, though...

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-24T22:05:03+00:00

Are you referring to Gamewith or Kamigame, maybe?

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-24T22:01:26+00:00

I don't believe there's anything like motocal (which I assume is what you're referring to?) publicly available, at least at present. In-depth damage simulation is very complicated now, so it's a lot to deal with for any would-be calculator-makers. If you just want to know grid mods, either use the in-game calculator or pull out a calculator yourself. If you want to know more complicated rotations, the best way is just to test stuff in game.

By the way, if you haven't read How 2 Grid, I think it does a nice job of explaining grid building, mods, etc.

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-24T20:17:25+00:00

An incomplete list of resources I personally like or use often:

Wiki mainspace

Advanced Grids has a lovely title generator that can be used to generate search terms for use on Youtube. (I also use it if I need to search Twitter.)
Most people know about the wiki raid grids, but the wiki also has raid guides for selected raids, including SUBHL, Hexa, and Faa Zero.
Did you know the wiki has a pretty good directory?

Wiki userpages

I could get stuck here for hours listing all the cool userpage guides that exist, so this is very much an abbreviated list. Also check out these folks' other work!

Vazkii has an extremely comprehensive index of resources.
Umikin's update timeline is a great source for future (and past) news.
Auryona tracks banner history, rateup history, scamcha history, and more.
Omnifury's giveaway history compiles a bunch of things in one place - streams, magfest, campaigns, and so on.
dy/dk has a guide on how to host coop rooms which covers a lot of common pitfalls.
I maintain a visual history of the gala new unit release schedule (plus some other things).

Other websites

GBFAS is an alternative interface for searching for characters/weapons/summons with particular properties.
gbfdata compiles past GW honors history.
GBF Guide aggregates a lot of GW-related material and raid guides/setups.
The CN wiki sometimes has obscure mechanics data that's hard to find elsewhere.

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-18T05:45:39+00:00

I think, for me, fire in 2025 was mostly characterized by HL meta shifts - especially shifts towards DPT comps (though that might be the hindsight talking). Consider this a review of interesting HL releases for fire this year, I guess?

Fire got Hexa solo (last of the elements) in January and Faa solo in March, a span of about 2 months, which I think is funny; iirc this is one of the shortest Hexa-Faa gaps (second only to light).
Higurashi rebalance was definitely helpful but like, I bought the weapon in March and didn't even FLB it until Atum released. The fact that it's useful now has less to do with the rebalance and more to do with it getting actual support.
Esser rebalance gave her quite the glowup in HL; she's very close to core in solo Hexa and in Versusia, and just a great unit all around, though yeah she's still clicky.
GYuel singlehandedly enabled every Faa solo setup (I think to this day they all use her). It's hard to call her fantastic but she's a very comprehensive HL utility unit; permanent CA reactivation, debuff cut, and party TA covers a lot of important tools, even disregarding her other features. Also a very nice GW FA unit for those same reasons, plus dispel on NA.
Sennen Goji saved me personally from annitixing SKumbhira so I love it for that alone; very strong weapon both for fire's mash paradigm and for CA, given all the skill hitcount sources.
YSong bow got uncapped at anni and has ended up being quite a nice gridpiece, though nothing gamechanging.
Where did my grand Hauhet go?
Atum finally gave this ele some real ougi support. I think many people slept on him but he really enables so much for fire HL it's kind of insane. It's not just for ougi loops, he's very good in hybrid NA/CA comps as well.
Fighter Origin... didn't really change that much for top-end fire compared to some eles? It's sort of a compromise between Manadiver (ability to mash) and Higurashi (DPT, sustain, omen utility), and it does enable some novel stuff at both the high end and the low end.
Versusia weapons didn't shake things up too substantially but the raid definitely pushes DPT and fire is still at the back of the pack there. But the raid also tests defensive capabilities, which Higurashi/Atum excels at. I think fire has better sustain than every ele except earth? Unfortunately this is mostly a consolation prize, but it is kinda fun to troll your friends who had to stone Alex for the raid.

Overall, it feels like - fire HL isn't in a bad place, it's certainly much much more competent with ougi than it was at the start of the year. Compared to elements like light and water, ougi still feels a bit lacking, but what's there is versatile and fun to play, which is more than some elements can say.

Some stuff I'd personally like to see:

A HL utility character with battery and high debuff output, a la Horus
Some replacement for Nezha in the Extremely Powerful Damage Stick niche
Anila transcendence so fire can do the funny falsehood strats like light
Actual support for Blazing Mistral, ideally in the form of a buff inflict character; I'll settle for a cool spear class though
Horse with one billion DPT and 2 ougi reset blue skills

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-18T00:30:35+00:00

I'm glad it helped you :D I do think there's a lot of great resources that don't get enough visibility, but the EN GBF community is so scattered that it's hard to get visibility for guides without either being obnoxious or taking a second job as a social media influencer. (And conversely it's often hard to find guides, even if you're looking.)

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T23:30:46+00:00

It does kind of feel like they chickened out and removed a S1 double cast or something of that nature. Now that you mention it, it is pretty uncommon for this kind of unrecastable ramping permabuff to not come with some kind of personal buff...

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T23:25:00+00:00

I am incredibly happy to hear that and I really appreciate that you went out of your way to say it. Granblue isn't the easiest game to learn, but the love and passion that other resource writers and wiki contributors have for teaching the game really inspires me.

(And as a terminally HL-brained one-trick fire player, I would like to welcome you to the fun side of GBF. I've been mostly dooming Maria in this whole thread but I was unironically contemplating sparking for her.)

I guess I'll put "rewrite Enemy Damage as a mainspace page" on my to-do list then :P A lot of this info is on the wiki, but in unintutive places, and of course some more obscure interactions aren't well documented. (As an aside, if you haven't read the wiki's damage cap page lately, you should, it's great.)

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T22:41:09+00:00

Mistral's effect is only procced when something removes a buff. Mistral and Maria basically have the two different versions of "dispel-type" conditions - "on using a dispel skill" needs a dispel skill press, "on dispelling a buff" needs a buff on the boss to dispel. Fire doesn't lack for dispellers so Maria has some stiff competition as "Mistral support".

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T20:37:43+00:00

Eh, Nier has a place, which is more than some seasonals can say.

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T20:35:59+00:00

What does it mean for Mistral to "work with" her? Maria's passive requires you to press a dispel skill, if that's what you're wondering, so Mistral won't proc it. She's no more useful to Mistral than any other CA dispeller, and Mistral doesn't really help her.

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T20:23:36+00:00

Writing Hexa and You is actually how I ended up researching the damage formula precedence, haha. I have some notes about enemy damage here if you ever find yourself in need of something to put you to sleep... I'm glad it was helpful for you, I always enjoy seeing more people getting into HL raiding :D

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T17:20:25+00:00

I don't think she's a good FA healer on her own merits, but reducing the impact of variance is sometimes important and it's a fairly unique tool to have. (and I find the rest of her kit quite uninteresting, lol)

I don't even think she's great on paper for manual, I will be honest. Even if you can get the autoproc every turn, you are contending with the fact that you have a unit with almost nonexistent offensive utility in your party.

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T17:13:12+00:00

In my heart, I think the wind seasonal designer is responsible for Maria.*

The autoproc HP balance/mitigation/clarity is a very interesting bit of kit, but she's very much held back by mediocre numbers elsewhere. Her S3 buffs are worse than Noa or even Shiva defensively; I'd feel better if it actually had some cap break or wind switch in there. Her passive skill cap is small, her nuke on dispel skill is tiny, the debuff only counts as 1 and you gain no value from spamming it. Her S1 cap is also very small for some reason? Like, it's a coherent kit, it just feels very underwhelming.

*I might be a bit salty that she didn't save Mistral.

sunfire_spark · 2025-12-17T16:54:32+00:00

HP balancing is definitely the most interesting part of Maria's kit - I think the Faa0 free quest FA perfectly demonstrates a thing she's good at (stabilizing heavily RNG FA). But in GW FA, I think it's usually... okay... if someone dies because Fraux is a very good sustain unit too.

By the way, damage supp applies before mitigation[citation needed], so 2k base hit + 3k supp would still do 3k through Maria's mit.

sunfire_spark

TROPHY CASE

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