Fire meme-ing 101

Introduction

This document is not meant to be an all-in one overview of everything there is to know about Fire. Rather, it is intended to be a general reference that is useful for new players looking to play Fire. Maybe it might also have some useful information for more experienced players too.

If you’re reading this in the future, some things might become out of date as Cygames changes things and if I’m too lazy/busy to edit this document. Caveat emptor.

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Finally, I would like to state for the record that Socie x Yuel is OTP. Haters can send their Haterade to [email protected]

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Fire weapon grids

This section assumes you already know how weapon skills work. If not, read the wiki page on Weapon Skills. The strength from your weapon grid comes from both the raw stats as well as the element-specific weapon skill on the weapon. The actual element of the weapon is not very important.

It also presumes you have a basic understanding of the damage formula (although you don’t need to know all the nitty-gritty behind it). Again, read the wiki page if you need background reading. The key takeaway is that, generally speaking, a mixture of modifiers is good, and concentrating your modifiers works when you have really good modifiers.

Fire weapon grids can get surprisingly complex. The next few sections will cover basic cookie-cutter grids for Magna, Elemental, and Primal weapon grids, as well as how these vary.

Optimization and min/max is generally overrated. However, if you are looking to really fine tune your weapon grid, I recommend you use a calculator to do so. Two recommendations are:

• GBF.xzz – Very intuitive and quick to use thanks to the graphical interface that looks just like your in-game weapon grid. However, comparing grids can be difficult. Also, this calculator is Japanese only.
• Motocal – A very advanced calculator that is bilingual Japanese/English. Very useful when you want to compare and tweak since it can run simulations of different combinations of weapons. It can also compare dps over time between weapon builds from multi-attack stats in your weapon grid. However, because of the additional functionality it’s not as easy to use as GBF.xzz and not as quick when you just want to check a single weapon grid.

Magna weapon grid

The basic grid

Your basic grid looks something a bit like this. Fire was once the joke of Magna grids. But thanks to Xeno Ifrit Axes and Shiva, you can really punch people as hard as a pissed off kangaroo raging on ‘roids.

Now that we have a general view what the basic grid looks like, let’s talk about the choices, and how you might vary this grid up.

Starting up

When you initially start a Fire grid (especially if you’re new to the game), you won’t be able to jump straight into SSR weapons. Instead, you’ll need to use SR weapons as placeholders.

As you do your daily Colossus Normal and Hard showdowns, you will receive SR weapons which have a Fire ATK boosting skill. Use these as placeholders in your grid while you farm your way to the SSR grid.You probably won’t want to level the skills on these weapons too high, since they’re just placeholders. You can use them as fodder to increase the weapon skills on your SSR weapons later on however.If you’re a cheapskate, then you can stop at Skill Level (SL) 2 since it’s neutral in fodder (use 2 SRs to get 2 SR worth of fodder). It’s not uncommon for people to go a bit higher if they feel a need. Going above SL4 or 5 though is probably too much though.

As you clear through or leech Omega raids and spend your pendants, you’ll eventually be able to start adding in SSR weapons.

SSR Magna weapons

Fire only has one relevant SSR weapon that drops from Colossus Omega Magna raids. That’s the Colossus Cane Omega.The Colossus Cane has the unfortunate problem of having the lowest ATK stat out of all SSR Omega weapons with an ATK skill.While most Omega grids will run 6+ of their chosen SSR Omega weapon, because the Colossus Cane is so weak, Fire grids can go with only using 5+ Canes. Because of how strong some of your other weapons are, the 6th Cane gets cut.Unlike Wind/Light/Dark, you don’t have alternative SSR weapons that drop from Omega raids which are relevant to your grid. (Anything without an ATK stat is useless.)Get your base grid of 0* Canes first, and then focus on uncapping them one at a time. This is so that once you hit HL you can start immediately 4* FLB uncapping your weapons.If you ever need to take out a weapon in your grid (e.g. for Flohrenberk) then it’s also easier to take out a 0* weapon when you’ve been MLB’ing your Canes one by one than taking out a 1* Cane from a grid of all 1* weapons.

What about leeching Twin Elements or Athena?

Some players look at the Twin Elements and Athena drop tables and see cool and different SSR weapons. These raids also seem more exciting that a boring diet of Colossus Omegas. There’s also no Dimension Cleave to deal with.

However, it’s not recommended for players trying to put together their base Fire Magna grid to leech these raids. The specialty SSR weapons that drop from these raids may have an ATK stat on them, but they’re not typically used in a regular Magna grid. (For now, let’s pretend Ancient Ecke Sachs don’t exist). You want weapons with a Magna weapon skill type. 

Furthermore, eventually you will want to FLB uncap your Canes. Each FLB uncap requires 200 Fire Quartz. Unless you are a whale, your main source will be reducing spare SSR Colossus Summons (aka Colo selfies).You need about 10 selfies for each FLB uncap. That’s a ratio of 10 selfies for each 4 Canes. Selfies don’t drop from Twin Elements or Athena. So stick with Colossus.

Magna Omegas may be boring, but they’re good for you. Just like your vegetables.

Actually that’s an awful analogy. Vegetables are great, and if you don’t like the taste of them it’s probably because your parents just served you bland overcooked boiled vegetables or something. A better analogy might be… writing up technical documentation? I dunno.

Just do your Magnas. They’re good for you.

The other stuff – Normal Weapons

With 5 out of your 9 main weapon grid slots taken up by Magna weapons, you fill up the remaining slots with weapons that have Normal and Unknown weapon skills. A split of two and two is perfectly fine and gives you a good balance of modifiers.

Bahamut Weapons

	Like most elements Fire enjoys running teams with Erunes and Humans. So your ideal Bahamut Weapon is the Bahamut Dagger. Just be aware that it only has the dual-race skill post-HL. (Your main character counts as all races though)
	It’s possible you might run a majority Erune and minority Human team when you’re starting out. Erunes are pretty good. Plus, fluffy ears are always a plus.Pre-HL, the Bahamut Dagger won’t help your Erunes. As such, it may be worth thinking about getting a Bahamut Spear for the boost to Erunes.This requires some extra work to obtain the extra Bahamut Horn. If your only purpose is to use this as a placeholder before the Coda Dagger, don’t bother skilling it up. But it is a very noticeable boost when you’re still starting out if you run lots of Erunes.
	Fire has a number of quality Draph characters. If you happen to pair Draphs and Humans together a lot, your focus should instead be on a Bahamut Sword.The Bahamut Sword actually benefits both Humans and Draphs in its first few forms, although the bonus is slightly less to the dual-race nature. However, once it reaches its Code form the bonus is the same as other Bahamut weapons.This is much less common a choice however, since Fire’s strongest characters tend to be Erunes and Humans.
	If you find yourself running a lot of Erunes and Draphs together, you may want to consider the Bahamut Spear instead. As stated above, the base form helps Erunes. The bonus to Draphs arrives in the final stage of upgrading.

Celestials Weapons

The weapons from the Rise of the Beast (aka Celestials) are fairly strong weapons and a good choice for your grid. This event comes around approximately every two months, so obtaining a Celestials weapon should not be too difficult.

	The Ray of Zhuque has pretty good stats for a free weapon, and also comes with an SL15 Normal II ATK skill. That’s good. It’s also not race restricted the way a Bahamut weapon is. Bahamut weapons also suffer from having a maximum cap which makes stacking them inefficient. So this is an excellent way to get more Normal type damage modifier.With the recent Celestials update, you can now upgrade you katana with three different power-ups. Let’s cover them.
	The Ray of Zhuque Regus has a HP skill (which also goes to SL15). No drawbacks, no fuss. Probably the best upgrade for most players.
	The Ray of Zhuque Pontus gives your MC blind immunity when used mainhand. This is supposed to synergize with the Ninja class skill Haze, which applies a self-blind.However, the Ninja class is bad so it basically doesn’t matter. The only other katana wielding class is Swordmaster whose main purpose is slimeblasting.Don’t bother with this upgrade unless in future some crazy new class comes out which for some bizarre reason is only held back by a Blind self-debuff. Or there’s some crazy new raid which non-stop applies a 100% blind or something. I dunno.
	The Ray of Zhuque Malus gives you a damage cap increase. This stacks with other sources of damage cap increase, such as the Seraphic Weapons (see below). Unfortunately, the Magna fire grid doesn’t often operate at the damage cap so this is kind of wasted.
	The Zhuque Lyrewings looks pretty cool. It has fairly weak stats since it is a Harp type weapon.This is best kept as a mainhand weapon. This is not worth going out of your way to farm just to use in your main weapon grid.

The other stuff – Unknown Weapons

The other weapon modifier you want in your grid is Unknown type weapons. There are many good options to choose from here.

	The Xeno Ifrit Axe is the current king of Unknown weapons not only in Fire, but in the game as a whole.It’s an Axe type weapon, which is the class with the second highest ATK stats in the game. It also has an FLB uncap, which means you get an SL15 modifier.But what truly makes this stand out is the fact it doesn’t have a Big weapon skill. It boasts a Massive weapon skill, which 28% better.The downside is that these can only be obtained from the Xeno Ifrit Clash event. This event has elemental resistance, which means the only efficient way to farm this is with a Water team. C’est dommage.Since the Xeno Ifrit Clash event is new, it is not clear how often this event will be run. But more time to build that Water grid I suppose.When upgrading this weapon, Forge it in the shop instead of using the regular FLB uncap method. Not only is the material cost lower, but you don’t get the second skill or bonus Ougi ability unless you specifically Forge it. If you regular FLB uncap this, you also can’t undo the process and Forge it again later.
	If you’re unable to farm a full FLB Xeno Ifrit Axe, you may have a few regular Xeno Ifrit Axes. Perhaps they are 0* weapons.Even if it’s a 0* weapon, these are still worth using. Thanks to the Massive skill, an SL10 Xeno Axe is still as good as an SL15 Large Unknown skill. That’s… actually really good for a 0* weapon. And hopefully puts into context how strong thee weapons are.While it lacks the second skill in its base form, the regular Xeno Axe still has its amazing Ougi. So even the basic Axe is a very strong mainhand weapon.Thanks to Varja and True Xeno Ifrit Anima now dropping from the raids, it is strongly recommended that even new players should leech Xeno Ifrit raids. At the very least, buy one copy of this weapon from the shop for its amazing power.
	The Sombre Axe (aka Pinya Axe) is the next best alternative for players who either can’t farm Xeno Ifrit, or who lose all will to live after spending hours grinding that event for flip chest that don’t contain Xeno Axes.The Pinya Axe was once one of the best Unknowns in the game thanks to (again) being an Axe type weapon and having an FLB uncap that gave it an SL15 weapon skill. Along with the Sausage Axe its was completely unique as an SL15 Unk weapon. It’s still good, but now overshadowed by the True Xeno Ifrit Axe.If you don’t have the full FLB Axe, an FLB Pinya Axe is better than a 0* Xeno Ifrit Axe thanks to the higher base stats while providing the same strength of Unknown modifier. If you only have a single 0* Ifrit Axe for example, getting a Pinya Axe is an excellent counterpart to your grid.If you’re not strong enough to farm for an FLB Pinya Axe, a lvl 100 MLB SL 10 Pinya Axe is just slightly stronger than a 0* Ifrit Axe. As soon as you get a 1* uncap, the Xeno Ifrit Axe becomes stronger than the MLB Pinya Axe.This… really says a lot about Xeno Ifrit Axes huh.The Ougi animation is hilarious by the way.These Axes can only be obtained from the iDOLM@STER collaboration event. The particular iDOLM@STER event in question is run about every 6 months or so, which means they are not too hard to obtain.
	The Rose Queen Wand is a staff type weapon, just like your Colo Canes. It has no FLB and therefore no SL15 weapon skill.The second skill, which lessens Wind damage, is interesting. But as a Fire player you take less damage from Wind naturally due to type advantage.It’s also locked behind HL (Rank 101+). There are are no time restrictions on obtaining this, which is nice. But not really recommended you go out of your way to farm unless you’re desperate. It’s not a very good weapon.

Seraphic Weapons

The third anniversary update brought us a new unique weapon designed specifically for on-element fights. Fire was given the Sword of Michael (aka Mika Sword). It looks pretty badass.

The Seraphic weapons are unique in that their unique Blesing skill not only increases your damage when fighting on-element, it also increases your damage cap when fighting on-element. While Magna Fire has trouble hitting the damage cap, the large boost to damage when fighting on-element is really, really good.

The SSR Mika Sword should always be used in your grid when fighting on-element. The on-element damage boost is absolutely ridiculous.Assuming you are using the cookie-cutter build shown earlier, you will likely drop the Zhuque Katana. While the Katana is good, the Mika Sword has a Majesty skill which is also Normal type.

The SR Mika Sword is an okay weapon. In its SR form it only has the Blessing skill, and the effect is much lower.Depending on how advanced your grid is, you may not even want to use this.For new still struggling to put their grid together, this is better than another SR weapon of equivalent level, especially when playing on-element. However, SSR Colossus Canes will be better than this SR weapon. It really needs its SSR form to shine.Given how deep into the story you need to be to uncap this (and the absolute pain of Bastion Block farming…) this is not a newbie friendly task.

Mainhand Weapons

Once your main grid is done, you need to think about what weapon you use as your mainhand. Here is a list of commonly used mainhand weapons.

Primary mainhand weapons
	WarlockHawkeyeBandit TycoonDark Fencer	The element changed Guild War Dagger is basically the best dagger for all classes that use Daggers regardless of the element you play. Get one ASAP.
	SuperstarElysianDrum Master	The element changed Guild War Harp is basically the best Harp for all classes that use Harps. It may not reign supreme in all elements, but it does in Fire.So get one. Elysian is a really good class. The Heal and Debuff increase is also great.
	BerserkerApsara	True Xeno Ifrit Axes are just amazing. It’s like a better GW Dagger, while also have that delicious Massive SL15 stat.When you use it mainhand, the second skill kicks in. Your MC now gets a echo on autoattacks and Ougi versus foes with a Burn debuff. It’s a 20% echo, which is pretty sweet.The Burn chance is applied after the check to apply extra damage from Burned foes on Ougi. So no double dipping. Well, you can’t have everything in life.If you needed more motivation to make a Water team, this is it.
	BishopSageHoly SaberSpartan	The Ifrit Halberd is the best F2P spear for Fire. It comes with the ATK skill in its initial form, which is good for non-HL players. Bonus crit skill on FLB is just gravy.If you’re hard farming Xeno Ifrit you’ll naturally pick up several of these on the way. (Or more than several…) Otherwise, you will need to buy these from the Event shop.Normally when you buy an item from the Rotating Showdown event shop, the price increases significantly (especially for the 4th item onwards).However, the Xeno Ifrit and Xeno Vohu Manah event stores in the shop have duplicated items and are independent. So if you only need a few copies of a summon or weapon, alternate between buying them from the regular and Xeno shop. This will reduce the mats you need to farm significantly.
Situational mainhand weapons
	Sage	Nirvana is a situational weapon for Sages when you just need more healing and a functionally invincible main character. You sacrifice the ability to use Double Trouble III on Sage however.Also, you don’t actually need that kind of sustain unless you’re trying to solo HL raid content or something.It also takes a ton of mats to make, mainly Staff Stones. This is a big deal for Fire. Staff Stones are really hard to come by, and you need 200 for each FLB Colo Cane.If you’re making a weapon to unlock Row IV classes, Nirvana is not recommended for most Fire players.
	WrestlerLuchador	The element changed Guild War Fist is a mainhand of choice with most elements which need a Fist weapon and one of the best Fist weapons in the game.The GW Fist Ougi effect is useful and it’s a good weapon. The Fist classes aren’t super popular in Fire since other classes offer more. But it still can be fun to play if you’re looking for something new.The SSR Colossus Fist is only good for a throwaway weapon when you’re levelling a Fist type class. Don’t actually use it for serious stuff.
	HawkeyeBandit Tycoon	Oliver is a Class Champion Weapon that is incredibly useful mainhand for the passive increased drop rate and boosting your Treasure Hunt power by 1.You only need to forge the Oliver replica into the SSR version to get this passive. If you just want to wanpan things with extra drop rates, stop here.Otherwise, you’re going to have to element change this bad boy, which is pretty expensive to do. But at least you can use it with the rest of your Fire team.
	MysticWarlockHermit	The Septian Burner comes from the Celestials event. While it doesn’t have an ATK stat, it does have a drop rate increase skill like the Oliver.Its skill is weaker than the Oliver, but it is not explicitly class-locked. So you can run this in any class that can use Staves.Useful when spamming Angel Halo and using the Mystic class.
	SuperstarElysianDrum Master	The Zhuque Lyrewings are an okay weapon if you don’t have a GW Harp.The passive damage over time to your party is not that great in a regular Magna grid. However, it does have very interesting uses if you ever build a weapon grid with Enmity.
	Pls no	If you have enough Gold Moons (or dollarydoos) to buy either the Damascus Knife or Gae Bulg… why are you making a Magna Fire grid instead of an Agni Primal grid?(Let’s pretend it’s not possible for people to scroll up in a document.)Also please consider donating to my Siero Ticket fund.

Elemental weapon grid

Elemental x Elemental grids generally rely on a mixture of modifiers since you have no weapon skill boosting aura. You won’t need to MLB Shiva to start using Shiva x Shiva, although it helps.These grids can become really fussy really fast. Let’s focus on a basic cookie-cutter build first, and then discuss how you might adapt this.Please be aware that the advice here is fairy generic. If you are looking to min/max, there are so many things you will need to consider (e.g. EMP skills, passives, weapon proficiency, etc.). If you’re at this stage and want to fully optimize your grid, you need to sit down in a calculator and math this out.

The basic grid

A baseline for an Elemental grid would be Mainhand // 3x Unknown // 3x Magna weapon // 3x Normal Weapon. This gives you an even spread of modifiers all across the damage formula.

Making changes The law of (Semi-)Equivalent exchange

There are many ways you can deviate away from this cookie-cutter build. A sample of changes that can be made is below.

Changes you can make
More Xeno Ifrit Axes	If it’s not obvious by now, Colossus Canes are weak stat-wise.At the same time however, Xeno Axes are really, really good from having so much crammed into that Massive SL15 skill, and having excellent stats.It’s perfectly fine to start cutting Colossus Canes and replacing them with the more powerful Xeno Ifrit Axes. Since you aren’t running a weapon skill boosting summon, you don’t need to worry about having a minimum number of weapons in each category.You can run a lot of Axes if you take this to the extreme. The real question here, is mainly just how much stamina you have before Cygames nerfs Fimbul you’d rather quit than grind Xeno Ifrit Clash any more.
Using different Normal type weapons	For the Normal modifiers, using 2x Bahamut Weapons and the Celestials Katana is fine. This lets you expand from the Bahamut race restrictions and use more characters. However, Bahamut weapons do cap. Making a second Bahamut weapon may also be a waste of resources for some people.Using 2x Celestial Katanas and 1x Bahamut Weapon is an acceptable compromise instead, thanks to Cygames adding in another Katana to the Celestials shop.If you have the money for it, you can start fitting in Crimson Fingers here. You may not have an Agni to boost the weapon skill, but they’re still really, really good. Better ATK than Gislas good.
Doing something completely different	Want to run 4x Xeno Ifrit Axe, a Bahamut Axe, an element changed GW Axe, and then run a Cosmos Axe? You can totally do this in an Element weapon grid. So long as you have a mixture of modifiers, you’re good to go.Remember to test your grids in a calculator first to see how well it does.

Primal weapon grid

Similar to discussing Elemental grids, it makes sense to focus on a basic cookie-cutter build first, and then discuss how you might adapt this.Again, please be aware that the advice here is fairy generic. If you are looking to min/max, there are so many things you will need to consider (e.g. EMP skills, passives, weapon proficiency, etc.). If you’re at this stage, you need to sit down in a calculator and math this out.

The basic grid

Let’s start with a basic cookie-cutter F2P grid. After going over this, we’ll look at how to improve it.

So what goes into this grid then?

	The Erichthonius (aka Athena Spears) is what really makes Agni grids tick. In addition to a regular ATK stat, this spear also comes with Trium. Trium gives you DA and TA in your weapon grid.This is a good thing. Free DA and TA in your weapon grid is amazing. This makes echo skills especially good because you get extra mileage out of that bonus damageIt does have a minus HP penalty attached to it however. Some players will recognize this as being very similar to Cortanas in a Dark grid. Athena Spears are basically a Fire expy of Cortanas.
	The Sword of Pallas (aka Athena Sword) conveniently comes with a HP skill to negate the HP loss from Athena Spears. They also drop from Athena raids, so you’ll pick some up naturally from leeching Athena for Spears. Neat.The general rule of thumb is that one Athena Swords offset the HP loss from three Athena Spears. The above grid has two for #aesthetics (#30fps). However, these will eventually be cut for better weapons.If you’re looking to pendant part of your Agni grid, focus on spending the pendants on Athena Spears however. The Sword is not as critical and have several substitutes (see below).
	Yeah that’s right. Xeno Ifrit Axes. They’re good, eh?
	The Ray of Zhuque is boosted by the Agni summon aura. Since it has an SL15 Normal II skill, this is pretty nice.
	The Colossus Cane is really only here to have a mix of modifiers in your grid. Agni didn’t suddenly give it magical powers unfortunately.

What about Bahamut Weapons?

This is a question that often comes up when discussing Primal grids. Bahamut Weapons are generally not used in Primal grids because Bahamut Weapons provide a Normal type modifier. The Weapon skills boosted by Primal Summons are also normal type.

This makes them much less attractive versus in a Magna grid, where they are an incredibly slot efficient way to get a Normal type modifier. If you’re looking to get a mixture of modifiers in a Primal grid, you want to be splashing for Magna and Unknown modifiers instead.

Making changes Deviation remediation

Apart from the multiattack from Athena Spears, the basic Primal grid is not a massive improvement on the basic Magna grid. This is because over half of the grid does not have an FLB uncap.

So how do we improve upon this grid? The answer will depend heavily on quite a few factors, including how much money and/or Gold Moons you have in order to obtain Crimson Fists.

	Crimson Fingers are basically Gislas but with more ATK. A Large Normal II ATK skill combined with a Medium Enmity skill make this weapon a monster.If you could, you’d have as many of these as possible. But most people will be limited in how many they can get.Each Crimson Finger you get will replace (in order) the Colossus Cane, a Celestials Katana, and then the Sword of Pallas.Once you start to pass the (approx) 4 Crimson Finger mark, you start thinking about running Agni x Agni. This is because you now have enough weapon skills that benefit from Agni, and you can quickly ramp up damage thanks to double boosted Enmity modifiers.As you start to reach Agni x Agni territory, you can consider cutting one Athena Spear to make room for more Crimson Fingers. Because of the dual Agni summon aura, you will still have comparable trium.If you not a whale but want multiple of these, you can spend your Surprise Tickets to pick up Gold Moon weapons such as Crimson Fingers. If you want to speed up the uncapping process, you can then use the free Damascus Bars in the shop or gifts from events to uncap them.Note that you only get the second skill at level 120, which requires the FLB uncap. You unlock the uncap, you will need to clear a special quest in Ch 3 (Port Breeze Archipelago).
	The Ray of Zhuque Regus has a HP skill on it. A Small SL15 HP skill is about the same as a Medium SL10 HP skill. (14% vs 15%)This means that using a Regus katana provides a notable damage increase from an Athena Sword but still provides a very similar level of HP and offsets the Athena Spear HP loss. A very good upgrade for even F2P players.
	If you’re fighting something on-element, you want the SSR Sword of Michael. Same deal as always, it’s really good on-element. And Primal grids can actually feasibly hit the damage cap, which makes the damage cap increase ability fairly relevant.The Mika Sword has a HP skill on it, which means you can swap out a Sword of Pallas to fit this into your grid. You do lose a little bit of HP though.
	Ecke Sachs is a funny looking weapon. Apart from looking like something you’d use on a barbecue, it’s a weapon with even less ATK than a Colossus Cane. At first it seems like a joke, but it does have something that makes weapons very good. It has dual weapon skills.In fact, it technically has triple weapon skills. It has a Medium ATK, Medium Crit, and Small Enmity skill all in one package. This is what makes it so special. Think of this like a Tiamat Gun with much less ATK, no SL15, but gives you a crit buff to compensate.How strong is the crit buff? At SL10 you have base 5% chance to crit for 50% more damage. When boosted by a single Agni Summon, this increases to a 11%. And Agni x Agni pushes you to a whopping 17% chance to crit.Since this is a Normal modifier crit skill, each instance of crit has a separate chance to proc. So if you’re running multiple of these, you have the chance for the crit skill to proc several times and apply that 50% increase repeatedly.If you are making an Ecke Sachs F2P grid, you replace weapons in the same order as you would with the Crimson Fingers.Bonus tip: You can tell the difference between a regular Ecke Sachs and an Ancient Ecke Sachs by seeing if there’s a shiny light thingy behind the twigy stick.
	The Benedia (gun) is SSR Rackam’s character weapon, while the Ixaba (katana) is SSR Sturm’s character weapon.They are fairly unexciting weapons currently, outside of having Normal II weapon skills and having really high ATK stats since they are gacha weapons.However, Cygames has confirmed they intend to give all Grand Series character weapons really special FLB uncaps. As we’ve seen with Murgleis (SSR Katalina’s Sword), these uncaps are pretty good.At a minimum, these weapons will get a Normal III skill (aka Massive boost to ATK). Combine this with an extra 50 levels of ATK base stats and these will be formidable. The only question then is… what will the second skill be?These have the potential to shake up Agni grids. If you have copies of these weapons, hold onto them.

End-game Magna weapon grid

So let’s say you’re deep into HL end-game, you really want to make an anti-Wind Fire grid. You also don’t have an Agni, so you can’t experiment with Primal grids. What do you do?Well, there just so happens to be something you can do. Welcome to the new world of Colossus x Colossus grids.Wait, what? Double Magna summons?That’s right. Buckle your seatbelt Dorothy. ‘Cause Kansas is going bye-bye.

The basic grid

So what in the dickens is this monstrosity of a grid, and why does it work?

Let’s talk about Ancient Ecke Sachs.

Talking about Ancient Ecke Sachs

In the section on Primal grids, I mentioned how Ecke Sachs is triple weapon skill crit stick. This is also true for the Ancient Ecke Sachs weapon. It has the exact same skills and stats as a regular Ecke Sachs….

…except not really. This is because Normal and Magna crit skills work differently.

Crit skill	Stacking type	Effect of multiple weapons
Normal	Multiplicatively	Each weapon has a separate chance to proc and apply bonus damage.e.g. 3 Ecke Sachs gives you three separate instances of crit. The game will calculate for crit rolls three times at a base 5% (boosted by Agni Summon). For each successful instance of crit, your damage is increased.
Magna	Additively	All weapons combine to calculate the chance to proc a crit skill and applies a single instance of crit.e.g. 3 Ancient Ecke Sachs gives you 3 x 5% = 15% chance to crit. This can be boosted by Colossus Summons.

If you run a Colossus x Colossus summon pool, this means each Ecke Sachs gives you 15% chance to crit. If you run 7 Ecke Sachs that means every attack you make is guaranteed to crit. This is how your anti-Wind grid operates.

While the Ecke Sachs themselves have a pretty low base ATK stat, this is somewhat mitigated by the enmity skill. But wait, there’s more!

Enter the Dragon Fashionista

That’s right folks.

Since your grid is so heavily Magna based, Korwa works well in such a set up. The multiattack is lovely, but the 145% Normal type ATK buff is key in helping push your damage up. After enmity kicks in, it’s not unreasonable to push close to damage cap or even operate at the damage cap against weaker bosses.

Of course, using Korwa off-element carries with it the, by now well-known, drawbacks. Namely, you have to sacrifice ¼ of your frontline, and there is ramp up time involved.

However, it’s a price worth paying for power.

If you don’t know how to use Korwa or need a refresher, read the Korwa 101 section in Wind Meme-ing 101.

Turn and face the strange

Because of the minimum 7 Ecke Sachs (and 1 Seraphic Weapon) that you run in your grid, there’s very little room left for anything else.

One ch-ch-change you can make is to run 6 Ancience Ecke Sachs instead. This lets you add in an extra Xeno or Baha Weapon into your grid and increase your base damage.

The choice of Colossus x Colossus summons also restricts your Summon grid somewhat too. For example, let’s say you pulled a Shiva (congrats!) and you’re really reluctant to part ways with it. After all, it’s pretty amazing. Stats, call ability, looks, he’s got it all. Can you still run this setup without running double Colossus?

Sure. The big drawback from not running double Colossus is that you only get 10% crit stats from each Ecke Sachs. However, if you’re willing to manage this drawback (e.g. run more Ecke Sachs, Odin Summon, Apsara MC, EMP skills, etc.) you can reach a point where mathematically you can still operate at basically constant crit levels. This is something for you to math out however.

Likewise, if you run a Xeno Axe mainhand is it better to have a Bahamut Weapon or second Xeno Axe in the main grid? Again, the answer is math it out. Are you running Korwa? What buffs do you expect to have active? What enmity level will you play at? The quick and easy answer where a basic calc says the Bahamut weapon is more slot efficient doesn’t take into account your personal context.

Can I use Ancient Ecke Sachs in a regular Magna grid?

Sure. You can do whatever you want in your weapon grids.

Is using a few Ancient Ecke Sachs better than Colossus Canes in a regular Magna grid though? This is a more complicated question.

Again, remember:

• Ancient Ecke Sachs have a lower ATK stat than Colossus Canes (which are already one of the worst basic Magna weapons);
• They only have a Medium ATK skill instead of the Large ATK skill on Colossus Canes; and
• They currently don’t have a FLB uncap so you can only get SL10 instead of SL15 on Colossus Canes.

Getting crit procs for that delicious 50% damage increase is awesome. But the key behind the Colossus x Colossus setup is hitting the 100% crit breakpoint. If you only run one or two Ancient Ecke Sachs, you give up a higher baseline and consistent damage from Colossus Canes and put your trust in RNGesus to pull through for you. Over time, your damage will be higher from the spikes due to crit. However your damage is also less consistent.

“What about the enmity skill?” I hear you ask. This is… not an easy question to ask. Whether the Enmity is beneficial for you will depend on several other factors. These include the rest of your grid, how many Ancient Ecke Sachs, what HP level you want to play at, etc.

If you’re serious about looking into this, sit down with a calculator.

Or just yolo it. Don’t let someone on the internet tell you how to have fun in Granblue Fantasy.

Just be aware that if you’re only doing this to get around the Colossus grind… you’re going to be REALLY disappointed. Ancient Ecke Sachs have a lower drop rate than the Canes themselves.

Water boat other elements?

The theory behind double Magna summon set-ups is not shallow enough to be restricted to just Fire. There’s another wave you can apply it currently.

Water grids have access to Ancient Auberons which beach also come with their own dual weapon skill weapon. Well, more like quad skill weapuns? Dam, if you like having multiattack are you in for a whale of a time. The Summon raids really are a great aquaintance for end-game players.

It’s also a Medium crit skill weapon, but you only have Small ATK. You do get natural DA to offset it. Again, this is something you’re probubbly going to want to math out. If you fathom how it works for Fire, you can just combrine the same principle to Water grids. There’s snow way to easily say what’s doplphinately best for you. Just ponder it out in a calculaketor.

Fire Characters

With the introduction of EMP skills, many former mediocre characters have suddenly become pretty good. Likewise, changes in other updates such as new classes can quickly shake up how things play.

Originally Yuel, Clarisse, and Percival were considered the “core” for Fire. But with the introduction of Elysian, new appreciation for dps in Metera and Magisa, Summer Beatrix, Esser 5* uncap, Anila’s buffs, etc. it’s no longer so clear cut. There are some fairly bad characters in Fire, but also a lot of excellent characters.

Experiment with whom you have, watch videos of characters you don’t have to get a feel for them, and work from there. This will serve you better than just being told cookie-cutter teams and not understanding why they work or what their limitations are.

Also, playing with your favourite waifu/husbando is really the whole point of Grindblue Fantasy.

Screw you haters, DOKKAN is CORE.

Character notes

Below are some general notes about Fire SSRs and a few notable SR characters. The purpose of this is just for new players to get a feel for what their characters do, and to see if there are any characters they might enjoy playing with.

If you need a comprehensive explanation or unbiased evaluation of them, you might be better off reading Gamewith/Reddit/Discord/something.

I generally won’t mention EMP or EMP recommendations here. This isn’t an in-depth guide to playing each character, and not all EMPs are out currently.

Also don’t place your faith in tier lists. Understand what makes characters good or bad, and understand why and how to use them.

5* SSR Characters
Note: 5* characters require a TON of grinding to get them to max lvl. Going from lvl 80 to 100 is like grinding out lvl 1 to 80 more than twelve times all over again. But the bonuses are totally worth it. They also get shiny new Ougi animations too!
Yuel	One of two Erunes in the game with a tail (thanks to being a member of royalty), Yuel is an excellent character that fits in many teams.While not having the highest raw damage, she does have a lot of utility. A teamwide echo buff, Heal and Clear, self-DA buffs, and a teamwide damage buff, she does a lot of work.Be aware that Ceremonial Fire applies the Heal before the Clear. This means if you’re under a Curse or Zombie debuff, it won’t clear the debuff before healing you.She also has unique in-battle dialogue with BFF Socie.Yuel is voiced by Kana Ueda. You may know this Kansai dialect swinging voice actor from roles such as Rin Tohsaka from the Fate/Stay series, Sakura Aizawa from Hayate no Gotoku, Hayate Yagami from Lyrical Nanoha, Yumi Fukuzawa from Maria-sama ga Miteru, Saki from the titular “I’m pretty sure mahjong doesn’t work like this”, and one of the Kittan sisters from Robots with Drills.
Magisa	If Yuel brings Clear for you, Magisa is her counterpart with Veil.Fair unremarkable until her 5* uncap, Magisa gains a neat double-sided 4th skill on her final uncap. The loss of hp every turn seems bad initially, until you think about it as a self-enmity activator. Sanction also has a 1.16m damage cap, similar to an Ougi. So there’s also that.Her passive damage increase during OD also stacks with general assassin skills.Magisa is voiced by Sayaka Ohara. You may know her as “Ara ara” from Aria, Erza from Fairy Tail, mini-LELOUCH VI BRITANNIA and Milly Ashford from “omg Season 3??”, Ilya’s mom from the Fate/Stay series, crow girl from Prison School, Beatrice from Umineko, and Yuuko Ichihara from xxxHolic.
Sir Burnsalot	Percival Sir Burnsalot is the hardest working employee at Cygames. Every day he works hard to make sure he sells entire crates of TCG cards and other merchandise all by himself to legions of adoring fangirls.While not making $$$, Sir Burnsalot is also a really good character. Let’s put aside the doubled nuke with healing. That’s somehow the least interesting thing about him.Firstly, Fear. One of the unique skills in the game that very few characters have access to. Raids will love it. You will love it. Rejoice vassal, for your King is here!Secondly, check out what his passive and 3rd skill does. That’s a ton of self-boosting stats. He hits like a truck, smacks enemies with one of the best debuffs in the game, and looks good while doing it. Wew.While not being one a pretty boy, Ryota Osaka also voices character such as Ryota Murakami from Gokukoku no Brynhildyr, Marco Bott from Shingeko no Kyojin, Yamada from Yamada-kun no Nananin no Majo, Mikleo from Tales of Zestiria, Kazuya Makigami in Persona 5.
Regular SSR characters
Agielbra	His substitute skill lets him tank big single target or multi-hit single target boss charge attacks. So that means you can sacrifice him to Nezha HL 50% trigger. Apart from being a walking shield, he also has a self-enmity buff and an enmity based nuke. He looks at Summer Beatrix and Gawain and weeps.While not looking after his lovely daughter, Agielbra is voiced by Unshou Ishizuka. He’s done roles such as Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop, Ginzou Nakamori from Detective Conan, Satan/Hercules from Dragon Ball, Hohenheim from the Fullmetal Alchemist series, the narrator in Pokemon, Heiji Kozenigata from Gintama, another dad in Hajime no Ippo, Kaiba’s dad from Yugioh, Annie Leonhart’s dad from Shingeki no Kyojin, adoptive dad and got blamed dad from Gundam 00, and Joseph from this hipster series no one has ever heard of called Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Aliza	A Draph princess who kicks her Erune fiancee’s butt cause that’s what love is all about. Her kits is all about buffing herself and kicking other people with her rocket powered kneecaps.Wait what?Crit up and damage cap up make her excellent at fight on-element and just giving Wind enemies that cross your path a massive beatdown. Not so useful off-element however.Aliza is voiced by Natsumi Takamori. You may know her as eyepatch girl from Another, Souna Sitri from High School DxD, 3rd squad leader in Deadman Wonderland, Misaki Kamiigusa from Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Miku-nyan from iDOLM@STER, and another Jojo alumni playing some character called Jojo.
Anthuria	Anthuria is an Erune who is incredibly fond of you, loves dancing, and her entire kit is built around her dodge mechanic. Her kit was indirectly buffed now that the game calculates dodge proc before blind chance, so can you still get the dodge buffs even when blind triggers.She has an unfortunate problem of fiercely blushing easily.Anthuria has one of the most sultry voices in Granblue, which makes sense. She is voiced by Yuu Asakawa. She’s done roles such as Leone from Akame ga Kill, Rider from the Fate/Stay series, Motoko Aoyama from Love Hina, Shiryuu Chou’un from Ikkitousen, Arnett McMillian rom Freezing, Hibiki Tsukahara from Amagami SS, the school nurse from Shinmai Maou no Testament, and several roles in things you shouldn’t watch if you’re still a child.
Guitar man	Guitar man is into rock and/or roll and is here to GET. YOU. HYPED.DO YOU FEEL THE HYPE? GET HYPED CAUSE THIS HYPE TRAIN HAS NO BREAK CHOOO CHOOOOO.He also has a self-multi attack buff, but can also end up killing himself from the hostility increase. Why do rockstars all die so young?Rockstar man is voiced by Kishou Taniyama who has done roles such as Kittan from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Fortis931 from a certain magical Index, Jean Kirstein from Shingeki no Kyojin, Natsuki Shinomiya from Uta no Prince-sama, Shuuji Sakaki from Zettai Karen Children, and Takayuki Narumi from Kimi ga Nozomu Ein.
Clarisse	Clarisse is core. Apart from having a dual single-sided -DEF debuff, she is unique in having two plain damage skills. That’s pretty sweet. Dispel and Duration effects are a bonus. Her voice lines are the best.Second strongest alchemist in the game.5* uncap when?Clarisse is voiced by Ayane Sakura. She’s done roles such as Isshiki Iroha from Oregairu, young Yozora from Boku wa Tomodachi, Haru Onodera from Nisekoi, Uravity from Boku no Hero Academia, Nao Tomori from Charlotte, Kokoa from Gochiusa, Yuzuki Kurebayashi from Selector Infected WIXOSS, Yuiko Enomoto from Love Lab, Natsumi from Non Non Biyori, Solution from Overlord, Moa from Show by Rock, Levi from Trinity Seven, and a cross-dressing vampire from High School DxD.
Ghanagoza	He wants to punch things but his kit doesn’t exactly let him do many things other characters do better. RIP.The talent of Kiyoyuki Yanada was not wasted in roles such as one of the Divine Generals in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Takenori Akagi from Slam Dunk, Toraichi Tamiya from Aa Megami-sama, Andreas Darlton from “Code Geass is getting Season 3 everyone”, and Andre Camel from Detective Conan.
Heles	Fire Heles wishes she was her Light version. You can tell she’s a really old character because her kit is pretty dated. For example, her Nuke skill is fairly weak at 200-250% damage which is worse than some SR nukes.That being said, her EMP skills do let her put out a decent amount of damage when the enemy is in OD and she has two crit EMP nodes.Her claim to fame however is being the chairperson of the Oneesama society.Heles is voiced by Yumi Touma who is pretty old school. Shes been in roles such as Bellandy and Urd from Aa Megami-sama, Kikyou Yoshikawa from magical index gets hunted by bad people, Chun-Li from Street Fighter, Yui Hongo and the cat from Fushigi Yuugi, Hinako Ninomiya from Ranma ½, and Shuun Andromeda and Hyouga Cygnus from Saint Seiya.
Metera	Fire Metera has a Seal system. There’s some fancy things you can do with it, such as Delay like a Dark Fencer. But honestly the biggest use is as an 80% self-echo with 83% uptime for more damage.Yes that’s right. 80% self-echo with 83% uptime. Lucio eat your heart out.Her fate episode where she goes shopping for new clothes is paired with Fire Sutera’s fate episode. So if you have both characters you can watch shopping episode from both perspectives.Metera is voiced by Ryouka Yuzuki. You might know her as the Princess of the True Ancestors from the Fate/Stay Night universe, Satsuki-sama from Kill la Kill, one of the princesses in Princess Lover!, I’m-too-cool-for-a-jacket girl from Trinity Seven, and the homeroom teacher in Oregairu.
Societte	The other Erune in the game with a tail because of her royalty ancestry, Fire Socie is primarily used for her ability to give your entire party a stacking multiattack buff. Giving your entire party an echo on Ougi is also cool.While she doesn’t attack when dancing, she does passively gain Ougi bar. She can also be used as a passive hostility redirect (although it is not a forced redirect like other skills in the game).A not-quite-Phalanx is also nice to have.She has use outside of Fire in Grande teams, since she gives a much welcome multiattack boost as well as cutting down on animation time due to dancing.BFFs with Yuel. She can be pretty shy at times.Socie is voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi. She’s done roles such as our titular butler from Hayate no Gotoku, Macaron from Amagi Brilliant Park, Akari Hinomoto from Digimon, Kaede Nagase from Mahou Sensei Negima, has an actually reasonable mahjong power in Saki, lawyer sister from Working, dokkan science teacher from Yuru Yuri, and Hikage from Senran Kagura.
Flaretato	Zahlhamelina is really hard to write, so everyone calls her Flaretato.Flaretato is named after her signature skill Flare. Have you ever said to yourself “I wish everyone did more damage”? Yes? Well, you need a Flaretato.The Flare effect changes based on the amount of time it’s been active. The wiki page has a rundown of how it works. To tell how long a Field Effect has been active, click on the Flare icon in the top left of the raid screen. Viramate does have the feature to just give you the timer though.She has some defensive skills and is useful when on-element vs Wind. Her passive Enmity acts similar to an SL10 Large Enmity skill which is actually better than you might first expect. Gives crit on Ougi. All of this means she’s good in Ecke Sachs set-ups.Flaretato is voiced by Yumi Hara who has done roles such as Lilith from Trinity Seven, Takane Shikou from iDOLM@STER, Albedo from Overlord, and Takanya from Puchimas iDOLM@STER who is now a meme.
Zeta	Hanakana’s talent is wasted.Screw you Cygames for putting new Zeta in Dark.#NewZetaIsALie #NotMyZeta #5StarUncapWhenShe’s BFFs and besties with Beato.UPDATE: ZETA FANS REJOICE FOR THE JULY BALANCE PATCH HAS COME AND SHE NOW HAS ANYTIME ASSASSINZeta is voiced by Hanakana. Time to for a wall of text.Onodera from Nisekoi, Mayuri Shiina from Steins;Gate, Ruri Gokou from Oreimo, Nadeko Sengoku snake girl from the Monogatari series, Charlotte Dunois from Infinite Stratos, Kanade Tachibana from Angel Beats, Hana Midorikawa from Prison School, Akane Tsunemori from Psycopass, Tooko Amano from Bungku Shoujo, Seryuu Ubiquitos from Akame ga Kill, Shiemi Moriyama from Ao no Exorcist, Zessica Wong from Aquarion Evol, Aoi Futaba from Asobi ni Iku yo, the titular character and Mato Kuroi from Blackrock Shooter, hetrochromia Kobato Hasegawa from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukenai, Cleo Zaubraff from Break Blade, Mayuka Nasu from Buddy Complex, Yuki from Cencoroll, Roka Shibasaki from D-Frag, Chiaki Nanami from Danganrompa, Shiro from Deadman Wonderland, Hanazawa from Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Noi from Dog Days, Anri Sonohara from Durara, I could have been Shirou Emita, Zera from Fairy Tail, Rana Linchen from Freezing, Raphiel from Gabriel DropOut, Angelica from Gunslinger Girl, Kuzuha Doumoto from Gahure Yuusa no Aesthetica, Nanako Matsutaka from HenSemi, Charlotte Dunois from Infinite Stratos, Karuta Roromiya from Inu x Boku, Sakura Hanazona from Kaichou wa Maid-sama, Mahiru Hyuugga from Kamisama Dolls, Zange from Kannagi, Megumu Touzokuyama from Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara, the titular character in Kobato, Hana from KochinPa, Misaki Takasaki from Koi to Uso, Yukiko Mifune from Kotoura-san, Tsukimi Kurashita from Kuragamehime, Ayse Khadim from Ladies vs Butlers, Alvis Hamilton from Last Exile, Mutsumi Suginami from Little Busters, Kougyoku Ren from Magi, Beatrix Monroe from Mahou Sensei Negima, Mayumi Saegusa from Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, Chiaki Muramoto from Megane na Kanojo, Kureha Sakamachi from Mayo Chiki, Mari Kuramoto from Mekakucity Actors, the titular character from Morita-san wa Mukuchi, Yuuki Miyata from Moshidora, Shiika Anmoto from Mushi-Uta, Risa Hanakago from Nagareboshi Lens, Manaka Mukaido from Nagi no Asukara, Minori Nakazawa from Nourin, Naho Takamiya from Orange, Susukihotaru Otomo Youkai Zakuro, Sharon Rainsworth from Pandora Hearts, Potemayo from Potemayo, Kagari from Rewrite, Tomoka Minato from Ro-Kyu-Bu, Kuro Matsumi from Saki, Kagami Yagami from Sasami-san, Yuumi Sajima from Schoolgirl Strikers, Kozue Naruse from Seikiatsu Occult Gakuin, Fumika Mitari from Sikon no Qwaser, Kusano from Sekirei, Yuuka Kobayakawa from Shoujo-tachi Kouya wo Mezasu, Amaki Suwa from Strike Witches, Marimo Bandou from Teekyuu, Mikan Yuuki from To-Love-Ru, Erii Haruue from yet another magical index, Rize Kamishiro from Tokyo Ghoul, Natusme Tsuchimikado from Tokyo Raves, Rumi Yokoi from Tonari Seki-kun, Chizuru Yamazaki from Turnover, Jiemei from Ushio to Tora, Anna from Wake up Girls, Yuu Naruse from Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangartemo Omaera ga Warui, Noix from Yakimochi Caprice, Mikoto Asuka from Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo, Sonoko Nogi from Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru, Ryouko Kaminagi from Kaminagi, Konoha Amagi from Zetman, and Syrup from Zettai Bouei Leviathan.I bet you didn’t even notice the duplicated show did you?
Limited SSR characters
Note: Can only be obtained during certain Legfest gacha periods
SSR Rackam	Once a complete meme, he’s now actually pretty respectable. His Duration skill (which is how all minus enemy charge bar skills got their name) does significant work. If it didn’t inflict Convulsion, you could probably perma-break mode any boss.Stack his spitfire so you do more damage, auto things, Ougi. If you’re playing an Agni grid where you prefer to just auto things down instead of spamming Ougi, the increased damage cap is actually quite interesting since you can feasibly hit the cap.Increased Skill Damage and Mode Bar Cut EMPs are hilarious.Rackam is voiced by Hiroaki Hirata. This man is Benny from Black Lagoon, the narrator and other side characters from Digimon, Gojyo Sha from Saiyuuki, Rindou Amamiya from God Eater, Jaromir Lipsky from Monster, Genma Shiranai from Naruto, Bunta Fujiwara from Initial D, Sanji from One Piece, Ryoutaro Tsuboi from Sword Art Online, and Kotetsu Kaburagi from Tiger & Bunny.
Sturm	Sturm is one of the newest Legfest Limited characters. Similar to her Partner Drang, she has a toggleable stacking buff on her second skill. Like Drang, you can maintain maximum stacks of both if you’re willing to micromanage a lot. If not, just keep her in offense mode. If you’re already capping -DEF then the other form doesn’t help.Double nuke skill is fairly standard by now. The Burn is nice if you have a Xeno Axe mainhand.Her big punches/stabs come from from her third skill Redouble and her passive. Read what they do.They basically turn her into an auto-attacking monster. There’s… really no other way to describe it. 56% uptime is really good as well for a buff like this.Her fate episode is locked behind quite a few chapters of the story however. So might not be the most convenient for new players. She also can’t be used in a lot of the story chapters for lore reason.Her passive means that even if you’re not triple-attacking, you still get very good dps on single and double attacks from the bonus echo. It really adds up. This ability is newbie friendly however.Sturm is voiced by Kanae Itou. She has done roles such as Sena Kashiwazaki from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Yui from Sword Art Online, Elsie from Kami nimi no Shiru Sekai, Ruiko Saten from it’s magical index time again, Suzuka Kurihara from Kate/kaleid liner Prism Illya, Ohana Matsumae from Hansaku Iroha, Eris from Asobi ni Iku yo, Airi from Queen’s Blade, Sanae Nagatsuki from Ika Musume, Grey Wolf from Kemono Friends, Kanon Kanase from Strike the Blood, Aoi Ogiyama from Ro-Kyu-Bu, Amu Hinamori and Diamond from Shugo Chara, Nana Deviluke from To-Love-Ru, and Ai Ebihara from Persona 4.
Beatrix	Beatrix used to be a meme. Now, apart from being adorable, she’s also a ridonkulous attacker.You press her third skill and it’s like Ayer where she lowers her own HP and gets bonus Enmity. Then you press her second skill for Overdrive Assassin. Then you press her first skill a few times and turn into a multiattack monster.Then you hope whatever you’re fighting is dead ‘cause she’s really fragile. But normally it will be dead. Very dead.Beatrix is BFFs with Zeta.Beatrix is voiced by your God named Aya Hirano. When she isn’t being Haruhi from Suzumiya Haruhi she has also been Misa Amane from Death Note, Dende from Dragonball, Nobume Imai from Gintama, Ekaterina Kurae from Seikon no Qwaser, Layla Heartfilla from Fairy Tail, Kaoru Akashi from Zettai Karen Children, Paiman from Gatchaman Crowd, Ume Kurumizawa from Kimi ni Todoke, Nanael from Queen’s Blade, Sasha from Saint Seiya, Arisa from Girls und Panzer, the narrator in Nichijou, Minato Nagase from Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka, and Youko Sasakura from School Rumble.
Anila	Like the other Zodiac characters, Anila has an all-in-one singular buff skill which has been significantly buffed since release. It has 43% uptime and does a LOT. Since it counts as a Normal type modifier, she’s really good in Magna grids.Delay is neat, but you know what’s even neater? Free 20% echo. Since it’s a superior damage echo, it can still be affected by being on-type like crits and won’t have its damage reduced if you’re fighting off-element.Now if only she came back into the Gacha pool… Anila is voiced by Aoi Yuki. Her mofumofu roles include Madoka from Mahou Shoujo Madoka, Sonya from Fairy Tail, Komachi from Oregairu, Clementine from Overlord, Victorique from Gosick, Krul Tepes from Owari no Seraph, Noa Takigawa from Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo, Inaho Misora from Youkai Watch, Sousuke Yamazaki from Free, Hana Oshiroi from Ben-To, Varel Jin from Blade & Soul, Tooru from A-Channel, Alice Blanche from Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, Murasaki Kuhouin from Kure-nai, Iris from Pokemon, Hibiki Tachibana from Senki Zesshou Symphogear, Noël Kannagi from So Ra No Wo To, and Rivarun from Yuru Yuri.
Guild War characters
Note: Getting a GW characters requires a lengthy process to upgrade a Revenant Weapon. The wiki page about them contains the steps needed to get one.
Esser	Esser is one of the Eternals. Each member of the Eternals is named after a number, and based on one of the class lines. Esser is named after the number 10, and fashioned based on the Hawkeye class. In more lore stuff, she’s also the older sister of Quatre.Once just a TH and drop rate bot, with her new 5* GW uncap Esser has become one of the strongest of the Eternals.But let’s back up for a moment.Most people making Esser aren’t going to 5* her. Instead, they look at the drop rate increase and say “Yeah I want that.”But does it really matter?Getting a GW character costs a lot of materials, but primarily it’s going to cost you a Gold Bar. While the number of Gold Bars has gone up from before, it’s still a very limited resource.Is Esser just going to sit in the backline for her passive? If so, how much do you hardcore grind stuff such that a 5% placebo increase will change your life versus the grind and Gold Bar needed for a GW character?Be realistic with yourself.Don’t do this because “everyone else does it”. Do it because either you plan to actually use her a lot, you’re going to 5* uncap her, you plan to grind for 6 Cerb Guns next time the Cerberus event comes around, or you just love her and she’s one of your favorite characters.
Pewpewpew	Now, to discuss her 5* uncap.It’s insane.Her Stardust goes from being a mediocre nuke to also being a really good buff skill. It gives herself buffs based on the TH level of the opponent. At TH9 the buff is 100% TA, 30% Fire Dmg Up, and a 30% Echo. Nice.Her second skill now also applies Break Lock. That’s good for chaining with her new 4th skill. Her 4th skill is party-wide Break Assassin. It also applies her Stardust buff to everyone in the party.To be clear – your entire party now has Break Assassin, 30% Echo, 30% Fire dmg buff, and guaranteed TA. It’s literally Ferry’s 3rd skill but better. If your raid (that’s not a HL 6-man raid or HL Bahamut) hasn’t died by Turn 10 for some reason, it’s probably going to die now.Her new Ougi animation is also really sweet. Oh, and there’s a bunch of other stuff too.Esser is voiced by Rina Satou. She has done roles such as Kaoru Tanamachi from Amagami SS, Biribiri from Toaru Majutsu no Index, Negi Springfield from Mahou Sensei Negima, Yuuki Kusakabe from To Heart, Nagi from Eve no Jikan, Honoka Maki from Kiznaiver, Shura Kirigakure from Ao no Exorcist, Candy Lady from Non Non Biyori, Kiyoh Littner from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Yumie Hiiragi from Seikon no Qwaser, Shiori Makimura from Hayate no Gotoku, Tooru Taki from Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, young Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue, Haruka Minami from Minami-ke, Tsutako Takeshima from Maria-sama ga Miteru, and support roles in Zettai Karen Children.
Notable SR and R characters
Beatrix	Halloween Beatrix is proto-type Summer Beatrix. Despite being an SR character, she puts several SSR characters to shame with her damage.She’s good. Look at what SSR Summer Beatrix does. Halloween Beatrix basically does the same but not quite as crazy.Not much else to say. Press buttons. Kill things.
Sutera	When not dining at a Table for Six, Sutera is following in the footsteps of her beloved older sister Metera.Normally you don’t use SR characters once you have a full SSR roster, but Fire Sutera has a self-echo. Only a 71% uptime however, and only a 50% echo. Still very good though and again puts even SSRs to shame. When you’re operating at max damage cap and triple attacks (Agni grid or crit grid) and are trying to squeeze out every last drop of dps, this is where you turn to.Or just use her normally. It’s a 50% echo. Even if she’s an SR character, it’s still a 50% echo. People are willing to build entirely new grids just for 50% more damage. This only takes 1 button press.SSR when?Sutera is voiced by Shizuka Itō. She has voiced Morishima Haruka senpai from Amagami SS, Hinagiku from Hayate no Gotoku, drunk oneesan from Working!, the main love interest in xxxHOLiC, the Queen from High School DxD, one of the cheerleader trio from Mahou Sensei Negima, the lucksack student council president from Saki, the sensible onee-chan from To Heart 2, Wilhelma from Shakugan no Shana, Salvare000 from A Certain Magical Index, red headband girl from D-Frag, Ahri in League of Legends, and Luvia from Fate/Kalied liner Prisma Ilya loli dance.
Sen	Apart from being your best GW betting strategy (not really), SEN is SR power incarnate.Here’s a basic rundown of how to use her kit.Tornado Threat lets you build up Ougi meter. Then start charging with Stunning Strike. Use Flashfury Claw to build more Ougi bar. Her first skill has good damage, but has a long CD. Just save it for the charge bar boost to combine with her third skill.Every turn you charge you store up 130% more damage. It caps at 1000% damage. You max out at 8 turns.This is what lets newer players with underdeveloped grids hit that magical 1.16m Ougi damage cap. You’ll need to experiment to get a feel for how long you need to charge until your capped.Also needs an SSR version.Sen is voiced by Ryou Hirohashi. She’s done roles such as Kyou Fujibayashi from Clannad, Aoi Yamada from Working, Soyo Tokugawa from Ginatama, Alice Carroll from Aria, Sora Naegino from Kaleido Star, Asuka Sakino from Kimikiss, Nagomi Shiraishi from Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka, Chane Laforet from Baccano, Minoru Mineta from Boku no Hero Academia, Eva from Mahou Shoujo-tai Arusu, Komachi Shinoda from Tamayura, Nagisa Daimonji from Catfight Vanguard, and Haro from Gundam.
Barawa	For when your xXxnaruto720noscopeMLG420sephiroth1337edgelordxXx pendant leeching MVP sniping team just doesn’t feel RNG enough.