INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Soccer Spirits. You may feel lost in the beginning because there seems to be a lot going on–and there is. This guide is to share what I wish I knew a year ago.
For reference, I’m currently rank 124, >2600 rating in PVP, didn’t reroll, run mono-thunder, and have been playing for 18 months with roughly $15 per month spent. I’ve heard and seen enough to help out new players, but I don’t know everything. Take this guide with a grain of salt.
For specific guides, go here and here. For FAQs, go here. For a tier list, go here. For gameplay pointers, go here. This guide is just to give you the big picture and help you avoid bad decisions–to walk you through the beginning. It will skim on the gameplay mechanics, so read elsewhere if you’re confused about that.
With that in mind, let’s begin.
SOCCER SPIRITS BEGINNER’S WALKTHROUGH
TL;DR:
WAIT UNTIL RANK 30 TO DECIDE YOUR TEAM
CHOOSE TWO MAIN COLORS OR GO RAINBOW
REROLLING
Your tutorial roll is always a 4*. Below are the stronger 4*s. Be extra happy if you get them.
- Eden. The best 4*. Has a place in many endgame teams.
- Valkia. Has unique support skills and helps you clear a lot of PvE content.
- Mira/Juno. The heal is great, and their buffs are useful.
- Blue dragon/Rize/Constance. Good strikers, but will become obsolete later.
- Jackson/White Tiger. Good passers, similar deal as the strikers.
- Durahan/Ari. Great frontline supports, gives lots of damage to your striker.
- Rosaria. The cutest forward passer with a speed buff.
- Morgana/Clarisa. Good long passers with backline support skills.
After the tutorial, check your inbox for new player rewards. Use the 300 crystals and 5 tickets to draw, then reroll with the password change method. You can only create up to 3 different nicknames on the same device, so always overwrite your last nickname so you can use it again.
What to reroll for
- Autism tier: Reroll for a 6* that is not named Shu. Get ready for hundreds of rerolls.
- Hyperautism tier: Reroll for Vonchi or Duran. Get ready for thousands of rerolls. Consider selling your account if you got them.
- Tryhard tier: reroll for a striker. Check the list below.
- Caveat: you have a 16% chance of getting a legendary striker at rank 30, which may relegate your 5* striker to the bench.
- Normie tier: reroll for any good 5*. Check the tier list and keep the qt3.14s/fuccbois that you like
- If the card has “New” at the top of the picture (instead of “Classic”), consider keeping. They’re gacha only and very hard to draw.
Is rerolling necessary?
No. If you don’t like rerolling, just proceed. You’ll have difficult matches against other rerollers, but you’ll live. Skip ahead to the early game section. Anyway, regardless of what you choose to do, your first priority in this game is getting a striker.
Why a striker?
Your striker is your most important unit because they can win you games even when the rest of your team is trash. Winning = GP. GP = better units.
You will be building your team around your striker. That means you will either commit to the striker’s color or go rainbow. You might want to check the ssherder site to see if its style is to your liking.
Pick ONE, and only one striker. You don’t want to spread your resources thin on two strikers.
The list below is also a tier list. Sort of. In reality, every striker is scary when they have the proper team supporting them, but not all teams are easy to make and to pilot.
| For the rerollers: know your chances A 5* player has a 5% chance of dropping. There are ~80 5* players in this game, and only 10 of them are good strikers. The chance of rolling a good striker is thus around 0.6%; for a specific one, it’s 0.06%. Rolling until you get a specific one is suicide, but you’re welcome to try. Rerolling for a legendary, let alone a specific one, is reroll hell in the truest sense of the phrase. But there are records of someone getting the Bell he wanted after 156 rerolls and losing his sanity. If you’re greedy and want to try for a better roll after a good one, make sure you can return to that roll: make a brand new account so you can refer to that roll while you reroll and rollback to that roll after you reroll . When you get sick of the whole process, you can return and get a nice referral bonus. |
STRIKERS
Sharr: Pure firepower. Kills most things in two hits and eats whirlwind units alive. Rated highly because her damage increase (DI) mechanics can carry you through every challenge the game offers. Her PvP suffers from not having penetration power, but that’s easily remedied by the right formation.
Vitos: Suicide striker. Gains earth-rending raw power at the price of damaging himself with every shot. Requires a lot of investment, but with incredible long-term returns. He has a disadvantage against Light goalkeepers, which are popular, but that doesn’t hinder him by much.
Griffith: Deep penetration. Like Sharr, her DI will devastate goalkeepers, but unlike Sharr, she will struggle to land critical hits. A good striker for PvP because she has tons of penetration power and DI, thus countering what most defenses are building against other strikers (i.e. damage reduction (DR) and critical resistance (CR)).
Ravian: Double tap. Deals % HP and DI to the line, but with diminishing effectiveness. Building around her can be tricky since you need good frontline stealers or high reflex units that can keep up. But in the chance that she gets her combo going, it’s going to be very painful.
Lucid: Slut for passes. Has the highest one-shot damage with Solar Eclipse activated, but requires some setup which is harder to do in PvP. Scales better with a strong assist rather than her own strength, which means you need to hypermax at least two units to unlock her full potential. Climbs the colosseum faster than other strikers.
Kirin: Control and ramp. Paralyzes the enemy line and gets stronger with every shot. His combo requires rather specific units, but will dismantle most defenses once it gets going. Like Ravian, he depends heavily on his frontline to follow up on his shots, so he will struggle while transitioning to his scary endgame.
Beatrice: All-rounder. Has every offensive stat built in and gives flexible teambuilding options throughout all stages of the game. Deals huge damage with a critical, but hits like a towel without it. She may be flexible, but if you don’t support her crit rate properly, some games will become straight up unwinnable.
Hiro: Straightforward. Deals honest damage and hits extra hard after a pass. Enables Thunder/Light, a popular team that’s easy to build and strong in all aspects. However, many of those who use him have expressed regret for not picking a cute striker.
Latios: Team player. Middling damage, but heals the team with every shot and has a global buff for Light players. Her heal is great for PvE, but less effective in PvP. Even so, with the right formation, she can stall games out to 40 minutes, leaving your team in top shape while everyone in their team is dead. Extremely strong for Club matches where sustain is a lot more meaningful, but the rewards for Club matches kind of suck.
Blade: Rapid fire. Goes sanic fast after a critical hit and can force quick 1v1 shots, but that’s only if her team is strong enough to retake posession and give her a good pass. More team-dependent than most strikers; she can be good, but only after you’ve sufficiently powered up your other players.
A note on Griffith and Blade — Thunder strikers have a peculiar position in the metagame: they are strong against two of the most common goalkeepers (Kei and Isillia) but weak against the other two (Jin and Black Tortoise). As such, their matches can vary wildly between Easy Mode and Dante Must Die Mode.
Bora: Meter eater. Less power in exchange for spirit and action bar drain, which can be difficult to capitalize on. Better suited for four-front teams with spirit-hungry units and extremely stacked frontlines. You probably won’t have that if you’re a beginner, so avoid using her unless she is your waifu — you’re in for a rough ride.
Uriel: Total lockdown. Recovers global action bar with a shot, but that’s only useful with a great team behind her (read: multiple legendaries). Only stick with her if you’re prepared to make a lot of extra effort and ignore everyone who’ll tell you to reroll. Only for masochists who want a real challenge.
Avoid. Strikers that do not have EEs are strictly inferior to those that do. Take them only if she or he is your waifu/husbando, or you believe that fortune will favor them in the future. That said, they’re still acceptable options in case you’re tired of rerolling and plan on grabbing a new striker down the road.
If you’re tired of rerolling, you can compromise and settle for a good 5* attacker, assist or goalkeeper. This saves you the pain of rerolling for a striker and getting another striker as your legendary later on.
Finished rerolling? Let’s move on.
EARLY GAME
tl;dr:
1.Do story mode to rank up
2.Get penguins to level up players
3.Farm GP in Arena and Colosseum
4.Do daily missions to get FREE RARES
5.Do seasonal missions to get powerup materials
6.Do the daily gold matches
6.1 (optional) Do exp matches and beginner rival matches with 2x EXP on to rank up faster.
7.Reach rank 30 and get your free legendary
Level 1-10
Don’t use your gatekeepers for training yet. They are extremely valuable. Collect them, evolve them, and hoard until you know what endgame cards you want.
Don’t use your 2x EXP immediately. It won’t expire, so save it until you’re ready to powerlevel. Leveling up refills every resource you have, so powerleveling can take hours. Wait for a day where you can play SS for long stretches of time.
Check game settings and turn voices on for maximum thrill, then enjoy the story and rank up so you can do all game modes. Don’t worry if you can’t get the high score rewards from free matches, you can easily auto them later. And no, you don’t get anything by completing the stars. But do clear the 1-2 high score reward ASAP and get Eugene to increase team cost.
If you’re too lazy to do the main story mode matches, there’s a shortcut. Win one match, then menu > stop the other two matches. This will leave you with just enough points to unlock the next chapter.
Go through the player book in the managers’ screen to see player skills and all the Thunder girls. Check the special card section reguarly; you can easily get 360 crystals from completing it. Also, check the players’ story section and look for chain quests you can do. It gives you bonus stats, and completing all of a character’s chain quests gives you dimension stones. A minuscule amount, but it’s worth it.
To gain another edge, do 20 referrals to yourself with the rerolling method. This will get you 300 crystals, a 5* player, and a 5* Littre. If you only want the 5* player, just do it 5 times. Don’t worry, you won’t get banned.
Training your players
Feed 2*s with their duplicates ad infinitum to stack up those clovers; they increase drop rates for farming. This also completes your “Train a player 3 times” daily quest. To save money, use a level 1 base card. Clovers from the high-leveled cards will carry over.
At level 5, check the schedule at the home screen. Go to the space-time continuum on penguin times and use the pengs to level up your key units. The hard penguins are beatable–get a long/forward passer at mid and units with high reflexes at the sides. Put four units at front, and keep penetrating until they’re low enough to kill. After your frontline gets strong enough, you can safely auto the matches.
If you have a unit that’s definitely going to your end game team (e.g. your waifu), just buy penguin matches from the crystal shop and feed the 6* penguins to them. It’s entirely worth it; these matches are a lot easier, give tons more exp, and require less stamina.
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When you have the cost to evolve your players, you’ll want the elementals. The little buggers are savage, so look for a strong friend ace and put them center mid (CM). Since you get 10 crystals the first time you evolve a 3* and above, you’ll want to do this a lot of times, so it pays to friend request people from /ssg/.
At rank 8, clear the Colosseum of Despair and Colosseum of Trials as far as you can. When you can’t go further in CoD, reset. You get one CoD reset per day; use it to farm GP. Yes, the colosseum challenges are bullshit. Don’t be in a hurry to climb high. Same with the Colosseum of Trials — even 25 clears would be a struggle for some high-rankers, so just focus on getting the 50 GP reward.
Once you’re at rank 10, enter arena. Stay away from Super League.
Basic formations
| Striker | Assist | Totem / Stealer | Put your striker to any side, but NOT in the center. |
| Totem/Assist | Defender | Attacker | Put someone tough in the middle |
| Totem | Totem | Defender/Attacker | Put units that buff HP and defense here |
The support slot is up to you, but the player will receive no position bonuses.
In case you’re wondering, “totem” is a general term for units that give position buffs, such as +% HP within the position.
Prioritize the striker, goalkeeper and midline player. Ideally, you want a key 5* player in each of those positions. Farm the early chapters to get a max-superb Ryu if you don’t have a goalie. Win and get that sweet GP + gold. You might lose against other rerollers, but that’s okay. Remember to check arena every 1 and a half hours when you win to keep your streak going.
Completing achievements
Get Lohengrin from the high score reward in free match 1-14 (Metro City Minor League, Cracsus) to farm gold faster. Then buy any penguin match, enter the match, and menu > stop 5 times to easily clear the “enter space-time 5 times” daily. Lastly, scout a 3* penguin for 5 GP to clear the “scout a player” daily. (Note: After you scout 20 times within a 14-day season, you’ll get 100 GP as a season reward, so those penguins are basically free.)
With all the tricky daily missions out of the way, you can now get the player box. You’ll get lots of random 3*-5*s from those boxes; keep one of each for chain quests and sell the rest. Don’t sell the 4* and 5* dupes; use them as Super Training materials instead. Always be on the lookout for good 4*s and their dupes, because you’ll need them for the Colosseum of Trials.
Get whatever seasonal achievements you can. Since you’re a noob, you won’t be able to do all of them, but worry not–the Littre rewards are very obtainable and they’re the most important ones.
Levels 10-30
To get rank 30 ASAP, spam rival matches and Saturday matches with the double exp. They have the best ST to exp ratio, and rivals can be good 4*s. I personally believe it’s better to not do this. Ranking up too fast in this game can make Arena too hard. Rank up just enough to field the strongest team you can.
As you rank up, keep powering up to win the Arena. You are matched based on rank, not team ability. A good benchmark for TA is 100*level. Read this guide if the gameplay mechanics confuse you.
Upgrade your spirit stones, but don’t overdo it. After you get a stone to +9, diminishing marginal returns sets in heavily.
Don’t neglect your 3*s and 4*s. Give them penguins and superb them with dupes, especially your 3* goalkeepers. Learn to love your Bartel/Ogre/Black Mash/Mute; they will be your heroes until you get a 5* goalkeeper. In fact, just super train them to 5*. ST 2*s together to make 3* ST materials, and ST those to make 4* ST materials. Also, it’s fine to use natural 4* dupes as ST mats because they save a lot of time.
Don’t use swirlies. They’re expensive and they’re for endgame cards. The random + stats don’t matter in the early game. Sell the swirlies, but keep the emperor swirlies. They’re extreme evolution materials and they’re hard to get.
Again, don’t spend any gatekeepers yet. Those Littres, Kumas, Meras and Beelzebubs are more valuable later, and you don’t want to invest them before getting your endgame units. Again: don’t spend your gatekeepers. (Evolving neris to 6* and selling it is ok though)
How to spend money, crystals and gold
The beginner’s pack is the best deal you’re ever going to get. The 750 crystals over 30 days pack is also worth it. Those are the best value-for-money deals in this game.
You have a ton of of gold at the start. Be frugal with it. Save as much as possible, and in time you will realize how valuable your gold is.
You will get a ton of crystals for free, and in the lategame you will get a steady stream of crystal income, do don’t worry about running out. The crystal penguin matches are worth it if you have an endgame card who can eat the penguins. The swirly matches, not so much.
Do spend crystals to expand storage space, but there’s no need to immediately spend 300 crystals just for that. This isn’t Valkyrie Crusade. Do it only when you really have to.
Wait until you get 1600 GP to unlock the scout slots with crystals, and don’t spend your gold to refresh scouts. Unlike other mobage, gold is always useful here. More on scouting later.
When you don’t know what team to build, draw. It’s best to do them when you have more options, i.e. now. If you’re trying to get a specific player through draw, the desire sensor will fuck you over. You can wait for their 3x rate, but you won’t feel the difference if you’re not whaling hard, so don’t expect much.
You can get good 5*s through daily boxes, scouting, or events. So if you think RNGesus has some beef with you, you can skip drawing. Just like any other mobage, the rates can be pretty bad, and it’s fairly common to spend 1500 crystals only to get one useless dude from mileage. There are more reliable uses of crystals than gambling, such as refreshes for bosses, penguins, and emergency GP.
You’ll probably end up with a mess of a team at the start. That’s okay. Have fun with your ragtag band of misfits while it lasts, because when you get your legendary at level 30, you’ll say goodbye to them..
Scouting before level 30
I don’t recommend scouting anything under 5*. If you somehow get 1600 GP before level 30 (entirely possible) and start scouting, be careful. Your legendary might not go together with the cards you scouted.
Wait for your legendary to commit to a team, but if you get lucky and find 5*s in your scouts, read ahead to the Scouting section to help you.
And if you ever find this little guy, scout him. SCOUT THE LITTRES.
Post level 30
After getting one of the legendaries, you can commit to a team. Start spending your gatekeepers. Most of the time, the priority for gatekeepers is
Striker=Legend>GK>Assist>Attackers and Defenders*>Totems*
*The last two differ from team to team, so ask if you’re not sure.
Be careful. Once you spend a gatekeeper, you can’t get it back. Not even with a Rainbow Elemental. So if you put a littre inside a unit, be damn sure that you’re going to use it to the end. Tip: to +160 a unit, use 2 6* Beelzebubs to ensure no + stat gets wasted. As a corollary, don’t use black hole swirlies on units you’re going to put beelzebubs in.
When you know what units you’ll be looking for, you also know your spirit stone slots. Put most of your gold into combining unique stones that you can use. It’s the best use of gold in the long run.
Scout superbs. The 1600 GP is totally worth it, but it’s safer to do it after you have your full team. If you got to this point, congratuations, now you’re in superb hell. Start climbing league so you can rage at the AI and shitpost discuss esports with the thread.
LEGENDARIES
These players are broken. If you already have a striker and your legendary is also a striker, switch. Build your team around your legendary and your striker (or your legendary striker) and you will be set for life.
You can choose to ignore your legendary to pursue your own vision of a team. However, you will be filled with salt at opponents who do use their legendaries down the road (speaking from experience).
William: The king of strikers. Has offensive stats turned up to eleven and vaporizes everything when he lands a critical hit, i.e. all the goddamn time. If the active pass gets to him, you win. Like Sharr, he’s handicapped by lack of penetration, and like Vitos, he requires heavy investment. Give him Metatron’s WIll and watch the world burn.
Shu: Colo god. His damage may be modest, but he will grant a massive advantage to his team just with his presence. Put him mid or back, give him action speed, and the ball will arrive in your frontline with a fat load of spirit. His ability to penetrate while healing the line is vital to surviving much of the PvE content. If you get him, build a CoD-oriented team and reap the rewards. Sadly, he’s not that good in PvP.
Jin: The ultimate defender. The one player everyone wants regardless of team. Completely viable off-color and a necessity for many endgame PvP teams. Get backline totems for him and laugh at people trying to kill you in arena–until you face a properly maxed Sharr or William who will rape his ass with a flaming dildo. Also a top-tier backline totem himself if you can switch goalies against Ardor strikers.
Khirel: Insane raw damage. Will kill everything in his path and makes your team do the same. Put him together with a counterattack resistance totem to cover his only weakness. If he can’t fit in your team, then just let him sit somewhere, anywhere, for his Cry of Glory. Not even mono-color totems have a skill that good, and that’s saying something.
Bell: All-in-one. Great totem, stealer, penetrator and (manual) striker. Overpowered as fuck when attacking, great at all positions, and crushes everything when Super Play activates. Putting her with a speed totem will grant you control of the match. Unfortunately, her AI becomes less aggressive after taking damage, but that’s really the only thing that prevents her from soloing the entire enemy team with Unavoidable Destiny.
Leventor: Light’s nightmare. Bypasses enemy defenses to deal massive damage. Has guaranteed criticals and helps his line get the ball back. Becomes an absolute beast when surrounded by his Thunder harem, not so much in a rainbow team. Kills non-Whirlwind goalkeepers just by looking at them; you’ll be raking it in from slaughtering poor suckers who didn’t get a Jin or Black Tortoise.
Duke: Perfect balance. Has everything an attacker needs, few weaknesses, and buffs reflexes, the key stat for midlines. A stand-alone midfielder that can both destroy his opponent and tank their assault. You can use him off-color, guilt-free.
Beth: The offensive gambit. Recovers the team’s action bar with her attacks and active; if she gets to do both, the enemy team is doomed. Put her mid and pair her with Metatron to control the game from the midline. Alternatively, put her back to launch a devastating counterattack. The starting timer on her active skill makes it tricky to use reliably in PvP, but in longer PvE games she’s going to carry your ass hard.
Metatron: The game breaker. Creates global action bar advantage when attacked and attacking, and debuffs HP and reflexes, two rare skills in one. The best CM bar none, opens up a lot of strategies, enables the Dark\Light hybrid, and dictates the metagame. If you’re a madman who would reroll for a specific legendary, go for her. See you next month.
Baltheon: Heavy artillery. Passes for astronomical numbers and doubles as frontline totem/stealer. A match made in heaven for Lucid — their playstyles and skills will perfectly complement each other under manual control. For everyone else, just make sure they can crit and let Baltheon’s big fat pass stats flow through them. A requirement if you want to get a high score for the Colosseum.
TEAMBUILDING
Once you know the element of your legendary and your striker, stick to them. Doing this lets you train and scout your players efficiently. Investing in whatever strong player that comes your way will make you go rainbow (all colors). While it’s strong, you can miss out on some great synergy.
This section is just to ease you into deciding your colors. When you still have a lot of key players missing, teambuilding is largely an exercise in improvisation. Just follow the basic formation and you’ll be fine. It will be a long, long time before you complete your team through scouting, so be flexible and hang in there.
We’re going to talk a lot about PVE and PVP from now, so let’s clear the differences.
| What’s the difference between PvE and PvP? PvE is the story mode, the space-time-continuum, and the aptly-named Colosseum of Despair and Colosseum of Trials. This is the mode where you farm for event cards, crystals, and get a nice bonus of GP. PvP is the the Galaxy League. This is the mode to farm GP and gold. In PvP, all heals are reduced by 50%, making weaker. Some players rely on healing skills and gimmicks, and they will have reduced effectiveness in PvP. Back to Latios |
And from time to time, I will say that someone is manual control only.
| Why is manual control an important point? It’s because the late game PvP, the Super League, is fully automatic AI versus AI. Like football manager, but with cuties. The League rewards will make your team stronger faster, and you will feel awesome when the brown circle on your home screen changes into something shinier. On the other hand, you can choose to ignore your players’ AI disadantages and focus on arena PvP. Plus, everyone with a team that’s not absolutely terrible can get to gold league. But when you get far into the game–and I hope you do–you will inevitably get this urge to pit your team against others’ on equal terms. Back to Lucid |
Single element Aces are a dime a dozen, and have a wide variety of skills. Dual element aces are far fewer. As such, the list below will mention all the dual aces, but only the most common mono aces. Keep a good lookout for them and other ace effects.
Just in case you didn’t know, there are attribute bonuses in Soccer Spirits.
Ardor > Whirlwind > Thunder > Light > Dark > Ardor.
Each element takes 25% less damage and deals 25% more damage against the element it is strong against. It’s very significant to the metagame, as we’ll see.
Caveat: The example teams given below are strictly in color for illustration purposes and are thus far from ideal. In reality, most teams must splash off-color units in order to not die instantly.
ELEMENTS
Mono Ardor – Mediocre. Fortunately, Dark has low presence in mid-low rank PvP, and being strong against Whirlwind, which is popular, gives them an edge. Even though it has some good team-wide buffs, Ardor is best when going hybrid with other elements. Ace Player: Bora, Roina.
Look out for: Elise (boss), Erica, Kevin, Lucius, Sage, Tyler, Victoria, Yuri
Example team:
Nari Elaine Bora
Victoria Lia Lucius
Erica Kevin Yuri Shu
Lucian
Ardor/Whirlwind – Buffs galore. Strong in defense and offense, good selection of players in every position, flexible team compositions, few weaknesses. A good choice for mid-level teams because of its ease to build and its abundance of totems that can be used off-color. Ace Player: Lucian and Lia.
Look out for: Enthia, Kiki, Lucius, Magnus, Vermillion Bird, Victoria, Yuri
Example team: (striker and legend in bold)
Nera Nari Sharr
Linmay Lia Lucius
Yuri Kiki Kevin Magnus
Jin
Ardor/Thunder – A rare beast. Has many offensive options, great critical rate support, and has good defense. Its Ace Player: Jean has cataclysmic potential damage, but he’s manual control only and hard to use effectively (check out this guide). Proceed at your own risk.
Look out for: Cynthia, Hildegard, Iggy, Lia, Nerua, Raklet, Veronica, Victoria, Yuri
Example team:
Luka Iggy William
Victoria Lia Jean Lynia
Lucian Nerua Yuri
Raklet
Mono-Whirlwind – Rebels to the Empire. Their active passes recover spirit, making them easy to chain into active shots. Also known as WWhales, this team needs its two legendaries to cover its lack of extreme evolutions, but will be unstoppable when they have them. Weak against ardor, but then ardor itself is weak. Also the only mono team that can go toe-to-toe with Thunder. Ace Player: Beatrice.
Look out for: Kiki, Linmay, Magnus, Princess Meiran, Qiyou (boss), Silk, Vermilion Bird
Example team:
Beatrice Neraizel Kiki
Vbird Meiran Qiyou
Linmay Enthia Magnus Silk
Jin
Whirlwind/Light – Outlive, outlast. Strong totems, imba reflexes, and no weak strikers, but its aces only give pure defense. Ace Players: Elizabeth, Magnus, Chitose, and Sky. Elizabeth is the free, farmable 5* from Colo that’s easy to full-superb.
Look out for: Anael, Enthia, Mikael, Kiki, Linmay, Vermilion Bird
Example team:
Hiro Neraizel Silla
Linmay Elizabeth Hercules
Magnus Kiki Mikael Jin
Isillia
Whirlwind/Dark– Borderline broken. Dark rounds out WW’s midline with Metatron while WW covers Dark’s lack of defensive options. Can choose from two win conditions: reflex dominance or raw power. Strong, fast, tanky, and has a lot of cuties. Currently one of the most popular archetypes in Galaxy League. Ace Player: Saramir and Silk.
Look out for: Miho, Black Daisy (boss), Magnus, Meiran, Kiki, Shura
Example team:
Vitos Neraizel Alkyde
Dale Saramir Avnore
Kiki Silk Magnus Malcolm
Jin
Mono Thunder – The Empire. With an overwhelming midline, multiple global totems and excellent ball control, they are the strongest mono team right now, losing only to mono Whirlwind. Ace Player: Jury (boss) for early game, Ace Player: Nerua for late game. THE element of choice for waifufags – you can wreck everyone with an all-female Thunder team. Has a separate guide.
Look out for: Cynthia, Guinevere, Hildegard, Iggy, Jury (boss), Nerua, Nute (boss), Veronica
Example team:
Luka Guinevere Leventor
Cynthia Veronica Bell Lynia
Hildegard Nerua Eden
Raklet
Thunder/Whirlwind – Extreme agility. Has reflex and action speed fuckery at all positions and great totems for offense and defense. Whirlwind strikers will not have problems with critical chances in this team, and you will end many games before the enemy team can take even one turn. Ace Player: Zhen Long, Vayne (boss) and Nikita.
Look out for: Hildegard, Vermilion Bird, Iggy, Kiki, Magnus, Silk, Veronica
Example team:
Griffith Veronica Neraizel
Cynthia Nikita Hildegard
Khirel Nerua Kiki Magnus
Raklet
Mono Light – Shiny, but not gold. Like Whirlwind, it needs its legends, and like Ardor, it’s better off going hybrid. Is weak to the most offensive team–will fold over quickly when the enemy thunder team has the ball. Ace Player: Hercules, Leah, Valkyrja Beth (legendary)
Look out for: Anael, Mikael, Milky Way, Latios (not necessarily in striker position)
Example team:
Hiro Milky Silla
Anael Sammy Beth
Latios Leah Mariel Mikael
Kei
Light/Ardor– Strong options everywhere. Wide choice of strikers, has the two strongest totems in the game on ace support, can use Milky + Kevin, its forward passer turns into a tank with the ball, and it can choose between two different ace effects. One of the stronger hybrids and pretty f2p-friendly. Ace Player: Sammy, Milky Way. Has a separate guide.
Look out for: Anael, Kevin, Latios (not necessarily in striker position), Mikael, Silla, Victoria, Yuri
Example team:
Silla Nari Sharr
Sammy Lia Beth
Kevin Milky Yuri Mikael
Isillia
Light/Thunder – The best of both worlds. Combines Light’s defense and Thunder’s offense, but it forces you to use Ace player: Hiro as your striker unless you get Ace player: Haru. Another element that’s easy to build. Do note that you need to evolve Hiro twice to get the dual ace.
Look out for: Anael, Hildegard, Mikael, Nerua, Sammy, Silla
Example team:
Hiro Luka Silla
Bell Jury Hildegard
Mikael Nerua Anael Raklet
Isillia
Mono-Dark – Debuffs their enemies to the ground. No matter how strong the enemy team is, Dark will break them. However, Dark’s strong heals are nerfed by 50% in PVP, they are weak against the most popular goalkeeper, their only assists are a boss and a legendary, and to top it off Bigball bullies them all the time. The element of choice for masochists. Ace Player: Dale, Jeunese
Look out for: Alkyde (Boss), Avnore, Black Daisy (Boss), Jeunese, Malcolm, Ronald, Zibroi
Example team:
Ravian BD Alkyde
Dale Metatron Lilith
Avnore Ronald Verister Malcolm
Zibroi
Dark/Ardor– Legends assembled. Its key players grant either massive control or massive damage, and in many cases, both. Rather than aiming for a strategy, this team wins by sheer force of having the top tier units like Ace player: Elaine, Choi, Angela, Baltheon and Metatron all on color. (Poor Niarose sucks on auto and nobody cares about her.)
Look out for: Angela, Kevin, Victoria, Yuri, Death Queen
Example team:
Baltheon Nari Bora
Dale Lia Orses
Yuri Ronald Avnore Niarose
Lucian
Dark/Light – Strong individual cards. Has good goalies, defenders, attackers, strikers, and Metatron/Beth/Duke/Vonchi, the keystones of high-level PvP. A balanced hybrid for all modes, but its Ace Player: Metatron (legendary) is next to impossible to get, and she’s 99% of the reason to run this team. You can run Black Ivy, but without Metatron it isn’t so hot.
Look out for: Anael, Avnore, Dale, Jeunese, Malcolm, Mikael, Milky Way, Lilith, Sammy, Silla, Virgil
Example team:
Sammy Silla Ravian
Dale Metatron Beth
Mikael Anael Milky Virgil
Isillia
[NO IMAGE]
Dark/Thunder – Alas, the only enablers for Dark/Thunder are Ace Player: Edward, who is a superb boss, and Freyja, both of which are nothing special. Combines Thunder’s pure offensive power with Dark’s debuffs to great effect, but lacks defensive options, so it has to play a bit risky.
Look out for: Alice (superb boss), Avnore, Cynthia, Dale, Hildegard, Jury (boss), Luka, Nerua, Ronald, Veronica
Example team:
Iggy Luka Blade
Edward Metatron Avnore Hildegard
Ronald Nerua Malcolm
Raklet
Rainbow – aka “I just want to use all my legends.” In the midgame, you may end up with strong cards that don’t really have a common element. In that case, there are rainbow aces you can use, but among them Ace Player: Silla is the best. The current PvP is simply infested with her face because it’s so good. If you want to tryhard for PvP, it’s probably better to build Rainbow.
Example team:
Silla Elaine Sharr
Bell Metatron Choi
Kiki Duran Silk Khirel
Jin
In the end, though, colors are not fixed. You don’t have to force yourself into your legendary’s color since they’ll do fine without ace support. Advanced strategies can splash for more off-color units such as a specific assist, and ace effects don’t have to benefit all 11 players on your team. Case in point..
After you have a picture of what team to go for, you can start:
SCOUTING
Rejoice: with scouting, you’ll have full 5* teams without IAP. As in teambuilding, follow this golden rule when scouting:
Striker > Goalkeeper > Assist > Totems > the rest.
This rule also applies with regards to superbing and special training.
If you don’t have a striker yet, refer back to the striker list and look for one immediately.
If you see Legendaries at any point, scout them. Make sure to take a screenshot first for posterity.
If you see Lucy at any point, scout her.
When in doubt after finding a good 5*, post your team and ask.
As for gatekeepers, Littres, Meras and Beelzebubs are must-scouts. Nerises are not a must, but it’s worth it. Kumas, however, are shit. Never scout those perverts.
GOALKEEPERS
Isillia: Scout her. She has high innate resistances without relying on block and thrives in the current metagame. However, she gets weaker as the match goes on, and her triple light slots make the unique stone Ermaltion mandatory. Self-heals like Zibroi and Lucian when attacked, which lends extra survivability for PvE. The f2p’s #1 choice.
Lucian: It’s either this faggot or Isillia. Has good regen and high CR/DR; the best combination of PvP and PvE skills. Having elemental advantage over WW on top of it makes him strong against Beatrice and Kirin. Furthermore, unlike Isillia and Kei, he doesn’t get instagibbed by Leventor, and unlike Jin, he doesn’t die to William, so he’s quite a safe pick.
Zibroi: A god in PvE. Your life in the colosseum and boss fights will be easy with him. Still viable for PvP, especially with William’s popularity. If you get him outside of scouts and want another goalkeeper, he does surprisingly well as CM because of his high Technique.
Kei: Powercreep victim. He has amazing synergy with all the HP totems swarming this game and can be used as a makeshift CM. A reverse Isillia, he gets stronger as the match goes on, but his lack of initial resistances leave him vulnerable to strong first shots.
Black Tortoise: For Whirlwind teams who don’t want the bara grandpa. Can hold against most strikers thanks to her huge crit resist, but gets butchered by Sharr and Griffith who don’t give a shit about critting. Uniquely, her pass turns anyone receiving it into a bulldozer, so BT lines can have 4 defensive totems without trouble breaking out.
Raklet: Pure meat. Can get obscene amounts of HP and defense at the price of low crit resist and no damage reduction. Recommended for dedicated Thunder teams or for people with a fetish for big robotic hands.
Ronald: Good in theory, rare in practice. Even though he has decent damage reduction and crit resist, he’s often seen as a defender. Dark hybrid teams have other choices for both PvP and PvE goalies and Ronald himself is a good totem.
Robin: Meh. Has okay crit resist, HP, and crit damage debuffs in case the crit resist fails, but he’s outshined by Raklet in nearly every way. Skip him for now.
ASSISTS
Silla: gives attack power and low pass effect. Totems for penetration power and even more attack power. Virtually everyone uses this slut, but she needs to be extreme evolved. She’s better as a totem and most people use her simply for her ace, so it’s common to scout another assist after her.
Nari: gives critical rate and high pass effect. Also doubles as reflex stealer and spirit battery. Protects herself against AB control backlines, and recovers her own AB with a pass. Good for strikers with high natural penetration and crit damage. Notably, she can be placed mid to great effect thanks to her high reflex.
Neraizel: gives very high pass effect. Recovers spirit bar with her active pass, making life easier for 1.5 spirit strikers. Ideal for mono-WW teams and good for Beatrice, Kirin and Shanti. Like Nari, she can be a very powerful CM with an additional matchup advantage against Metatron, and out of all the passers she’s probably the strongest lone unit.
Luka: gives penetration power and low pass effect. Like Silla, she’s more used for her utility, and it’s common to pair her up with another assist. Her skillset is good for almost every frontline, but in terms of damage output, she’s far from the top. Word of caution: do not use her active in public spaces.
Baltheon: You will never scout him, but you will be remiss not to try. Gives critical damage, critical rate and extreme pass effect. Has good offense totems and can steal from the enemy with either brute force or reflexes. Pair him with any striker that has penetration and you will lag the game from the sheer damage you’re dealing.
For strikers not mentioned above, you can simply choose an on-color assist or choose from the pass effects you prefer.
Assists can be quite flexible. Rather than being in your element, they need to work well together with your striker. An easy way to do this is to see what stat your striker is lacking, and choose an assist that provides it.
TOTEMS
These units are entirely worth getting off-color, for without them your goalkeeper will die a swift death. Most totems don’t care for elements, so they will be useful even without ace support. Some need to be evolved twice to get the HP bonuses, but it’ll be worth it.
Seriously reconsider when you’re about to skip these guys.
Yuri: The best offense totem. Worth scouting no matter what color you are in. Her pass and attack buff is great for OHKO frontlines, her HP buff is great for the backline, and counterattack resistance is useful everywhere. Hits hard by herself, too. Essential in CoD stages that require an OHKO. If you’re gunning for PvP, be warned that she is in fact retarded and her AI will cost you games.
Kiki: A great scout no matter what color you’re in. Massive pass, HP and speed buffs means she can go backline as a defender/totem, or forward as offense totem. Extremely dangerous when attacking, with or without the ball, and destroys Thunder teams by herself.
Kevin: Always +20% starting action bar to the line breaks the game more than you’d think, no matter what line it’s in. He gives +25% crit resist too with an EE, which is crazy. His damage decrease is great, his teamwide slow is always useful, and his ability to create an untouchable fortress when used with certain players makes him the ideal defense against slow strikers.
Magnus: Do you harbor a specific hatred towards Ardor and Thunder? (Say yes.) He mitigates damage from the two most dangerous offenses, buffs the backline’s speed and HP, and has the durability and reflexes to be a solid defender. An essential sub if you want to survive Sharrs and Williams.
Victoria: Huge reflex totem that dictates the midline metagame. Stands side-by-side with the legendaries in lategame teams. High damage, tanky, has defender AI, revives the line, good at penetrating, good at stealing, good at stopping backlines, can equip strong offense uniques, elemental advantage against whirlwind — the list of her strengths are endless. Absolutely busted in PvP.even if you’re not running Ardor.
THE REST
Personally, I don’t follow the golden rule too rigidly and I keep my options open. Scouting is a cruel mistress, and you WILL run into excellent cards that mess up your scouting order. You may end up better off scouting them anyway. You will also get excellent 5*s from random rewards which don’t fit into your team and make you rethink your perfect scouting plans.
When in doubt, post your team and ask. POST YOUR TEAM. And then ask. If you want to play it safe, just follow Striker > GK > Assist, except when you find Lucy. More on that below. But remember to post your damn team.
Once you’ve got your three cores and defense totems, you can be much more flexible in filling the blank spots. Pray often to RNGesus, for he is a capricious deity.
Special mention goes to the units below: Consider scouting them once you have your three cores.
Lucy & Gerold – These guys are different from the others in this list. They’re managers, they give you massive amounts of raw stats, and they are absolutely necessary for your team. DO NOT SKIP LUCY. She is very rare, and you must have her eventually. Gerold is les rare, but remember that he’s also an endgame manager. Some people say that managers should be scouted only after you have your core players. Others say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Both are right to an extent.
Avnore & Virgil: While HP heals are nerfed in PvP, global action bar recovery can still turn the tides of battle and is well worth the 2 spirit bars. Very useful for climbing the Colosseum. Notably, Virgil has become a main feature of many high-level PvP teams, and if he ever breaks through the line and gets an active off, you just win ridiculuously hard.
Jeunese: Dark Kevin. That alone puts him in a special position. Takes a while to ramp up his teamwide buff, but while doing that he can nuke the GK just with a spirit bar. His other skills don’t help much on defense and on lines other than the forward, so his use is arguably more limited. Still amazing.
Milky way: Machine-gun stealer and buffer. Useful in compositions that need a lot of spirit, but also dependent on full-superb and other combo pieces. If you do want her, keep in mind that she’s going to be a long-term investment.
Random cuties
When scouting, there are these qt3.14s that will tempt you to scout them. Before listening to others’ opinions and/or your dick, you must look into yourself and ask why you play this game: is it for the cute girls, or for a great team? The only correct answer is both, and therefore you should play mono thunder.
Anael – Many anons see her and then ask whether they should scout Anael, hoping that the answer is yes. The answer used to be yes. She is an incredible stealer/attacker, she helps her line stack counterattack resistance. However, she offers no defensive stats to the backline and is too slow for the midline. The Ignition Catalyst nerf hurts her a lot and she’s pretty much unseen in high PvP.
Lilith: This literal semen demon got nerfed back to hell, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s a great stealer. You can get her if she’s on color, but not worth it otherwise. Her lifesteal totem is incredible for PvE and may just let you clear a few extra floors.
Saramir: Not bad, but there are better options. A big downside is that her Overwhelming II overlaps with Jin’s, and they don’t stack. Can be great in the right circumstances, average otherwise. Definitely scout if you need a WW/Dark HP/ATK ace and you’ve given up on finding that Jin.
Delicious child-bearing hips, juicy thighs, serious contender for the biggest tits, has the ara-ara voice, and the least clothed. Get her you faggot.
But in all seriousness, she’s one of the best attackers in the game. Instagibs everything and deletes the enemy team’s action bar if she penetrates from the back. Not that worth it off-color since you’ll have more synergistic options. Has a special place in my heart for being my striker until rank 75, but she likes breaking my heart by shooting at the 1500 HP Jins. Seriously, Hildegard, cut that shit out.
You like this? Really?
Do yourself a favor and get better taste.
But looks aside, she’s a strong offensive defender/stealer. Consider scouting her. No, seriously.
SAMPLE ENDGAME TEAMS (under construction)
This is what teams will look like after all that scouting and whaling. It will take months to get here, maybe years if you plan on staying f2p, so for now just look at these beauties to get an idea of what the veterans are doing.
Note: away formations are flipped right-to-left except for the support slot. So if you set a formation as:
| A | B | C | Support |
The enemy will see:
| C | B | A | Support |
