Summoners War

Summoners War Beginner Game Guide

April 11, 2020

Summoners War (F2P) Newbie Guide

Contents

1 0. Introduction
2 II. Leveling progress
3 III. Cairos Dungeon
4 IV. Rift Dungeons
5 V. Farming and farmers
6 VI. Appendix I: General Monster info
7 VII. Appendix II: Arena
- - 7.0.1 Starting AOs
  - 7.0.2 Starting ADs
8 VIII. Appendix III: Mechanics Questions & Answers

0. Introduction

Background

I take too many notes, I do. Silly things…like tracking hundreds and hundreds of dungeon runs, or what teams I was able to beat X dungeon with at what level. Hell, I started two alt accounts just so I could run hundreds of low level dungeons without wasting energy on my main account so I could get a better picture of the drop rates.

ANYWAY.

This “guide” (and I use the term loosely) is a compilation of those notes into a form that I hope will be useful to at least one person.

ONWARD!

Goals

Just to give you an overview, I’ve seen this bit of advice thrown about, and it’s kind of mirrored my accidental progress, but seems solid anyway:

Toa 50
Giant B10
ToA 100
Dragon/Necro B10 (depending on units)
Raiding
Homunculus
PVP

I can break that down a little, at least based on my progress. Note that this is completely depending on your monsters and runes – you may have a setup that lets you get to ToA 70 but you still can’t auto Dragon B7, for example. Also this is based on ToA 1.0 (old ToA).

Elemental B6 dungeons, reliably awaken 3*s
Giant B6
Dragon B6
ToA 40
Elemental B8s, reliably awaken 4*s & 5s
Giant B7
ToA Hard 30
Giant B8
Dragon B7
ToA 50
Giant B9 OR SKIP with friend’s rep or crystals
Giant B10
ToA 70
Elemental B9-10s
Dragon B8
Arena F3
ToA Hard 30
ToA 80
Dragon B9 OR SKIP with crystals, etc.
ToA 100
ToA Hard 40
Dragon B10
ToA Hard 50+
Necro B10
ToA Hard 60+
Homunculus grind begins
ToA Hard 80+
Arena C1+
ToA Hard 100

So, depending on where you are in that process, when you are making a new 5* or 6*, you want to ask yourself: “Which monster will best help me finish this goal and move on to the next?”

Elemental dungeon, xp farming, etc. all happen along the way with the same kind of guiding light.

You can start raiding whenever you want, but there’s not much point until a) you have runes worth upgrading and b) you can at least do R3, so I’d place it somewhere after DB10 & ToA 100. More later once I start caring about raids – right now I can only do R2-R3.

Crystal use

I recommend saving all your crystals for the 750 packs at least until you get to level 40, or get a decent selection of nat4s. OR, if you are the hyper efficient type, save all your crystals for double xp refills and eventual GB10/DB10/NB10 farming. Me, I like monsters, so I spent > 50% of my crystals on 750 packs until I had enough nat4s.

NOTE: Due to the addition of the world boss, crystals are now a bit more plentiful, so you’ll probably have significantly more crystals than I did leveling up.

NOTE2: Due to the addition of the free 12 hour boosters when you 6* something plus event rewards, the number of double xp boosters you’ll need to purchase via crystals has been drastically lowered. I almost never buy double XP anymore – generally the 12 hour boost is enough to get me at least 2 5* fodder, sometimes 4, and then event rewards & DB10 angelmon cover the last 2.

However, IF you are super lucky and get multiple nat 5s or really good nat 4s, then feel free to stop with the 750 packs and just use your crystals on double xp and refills. There’s a bunch of math out there saying that the mana packs (I think…) are the most effective way to spend your crystals, so there’s that…but me I’d rather have monsters.

You should be able to afford your first pack around level 20 – depending on Com2Us events – and another pack every 3-5 levels after up to 40. For comparison, my main account purchased 7 packs by the time it hit 40.

DEVILMON

Make sure you get these EVERY SINGLE WEEK EVER as your primary glory purchase. Seriously. They are that important. Just leave a single crappy monster in your defense to keep your rank down so you can farm other easy defenses. This is incredibly important.

Void’s general rules for devilmon usage

My general rules for devilmon has been (across my 3 accounts)

Amazing nat5 – if you get something game changing that can also farm (ex: Zaiross, Verad, any Chimera, Anavel, Praha) before you fuse Vero or Baretta.
Vero or Baretta – whichever you fuse first, max first
Vero or Baretta – note that Baretta doesn’t need #1 maxed
Chasun – max S2 & S3, only needs S1 maxed when you start raiding or care about AD/GWD/Raid (and you might not even use her in raids).
Nat5s you will definitely use all over the place (ex: OGs, pandas), or a really good farmer if you still don’t have one (ex: Alicia)
Choice other nat4s – people will argue what constitutes this, but these are some that come to mind: Lisa, Briand, Emma.
I have done these and would NOT recommend them: Platy, Acasis.
Nat5s you will use sometimes, but regularly (ex: Sigmarus for DB10, ToA 100)
Vanity nat5s (ex: sub par nat5s like water monkey king and dark polar queen)
nat4s you are experimenting with

And of course, don’t devil anything with a 3* counterpart! This includes all 3 star monsters and some 4s like Chloe and water/wind taoists. Chloe in particular…you will pull SO MANY Michelles and Rinas that you’ll get her skilled up eventually.

Summoning stones

My general rules for summoning stones:

“core four” aka “progress monsters” – they will help you far more than the others

Chasun
Verde
Briand
Galleon

Those are the nat4s I would suggest any new player save their stones for. Don’t have one of them or better nat5 (Briand is the only one “easily” replaceable by a nat5, and even that is arguable)? Keep saving stones. Once you get those four, then move on to these:

Hwa
Lisa
Orion
Lushen
Chloe

Depending on your tastes (I can’t stand Chloe or Lushen, personally…BUT if you get two Lushens it’s hard not to run a double Lushen AO). Lisa & Hwa will help you speed up PVE (some ToA bosses, Raids) as well as helping you in PVP, Orion/Lushen/Chloe are 100% PVP monsters.

Until you have the “core four” OR you can successfully complete GB10/DB10/ToA100/C1, I would save my stones for their rotations.

II. Leveling progress

Here are some guideposts as to where some of my accounts were at a given level. I’ve noted the earliest levels that I was able to AUTO a dungeon – even if it’s not at 100%. I’ve noted NO if I specifically tried a dungeon at that level and failed. I wasn’t always able to try a given dungeon at a given level, so you may be able to do some earlier. These are just notes as to where my F2P alt accounts were able to do the dungeons.

Level 1-14

The “intro to the game” levels. You should concentrate on learning the basic systems: runes, elemental relationships (like baiting the AI with “weak element” tank), and the strengths of the monsters you luck into. Hopefully you’ll have 1 or 2 decent 3 stars from unknown scrolls by now, or maybe even have found a mystic scroll or 2 in the dungeons.

While progressing through the map content, concentrate on working on a team (or a few teams) that can be successful in the dungeons, as you’ll need to spend days and days farming energy to activate 3 and 4 stars later on.

Also, try and find as many friendly folks as you can with 6 star reps, as you’ll probably need them if you want to complete Faimon and get your Light/Dark scroll before you start making your own 5 stars.
You also want to at least know who your farmer is going to be by level 15 or so so you can work on making them your first 5 star. They will speed up your progress in making other 5 stars. See the list below for common/easy to acquire & cheap to outfit farmers.
WARNING: RAOQ IS A NEWBIE TRAP. People constantly recommend Raoq, but the amount of time and mana it takes to make him able to farm Faimon 1 Normal at close to 100% is ludicrous. He needs something like 1600 ATK, which requires GODLY runes at 5 stars, or 6 stars with very good runes. He’s not worth focusing on as your main farmer unless you happen into godly runes or really want to 6 him. If you happen to find one, get him up to 5* and use him in secret dungeons or to farm Tamor 3 hard or something, but don’t think that you have to make him you faimon farmer.

Farm the highest difficulty map zone you can – preferably one with runes you actually want, and hope for some decent 2-3 star 2/4/6 % runes along the way. These levels will go pretty fast until 15ish.

NOTE: TRY AND TIME YOUR LEVELING UP TO WHEN YOU HAVE 0 ENERGY. Otherwise that free refill is wasted. Dungeons give less XP than scenario levels and secret dungeons give ZERO xp if you don’t complete them. So if you are at 99% xp and have a full pile of energy – get any SD you can from chat spam and grind that for mana until you are almost out of energy, then go ding off a scenario level.

Now (this wasn’t the case for my first 3 accounts) you’ll get the water magic knight around level 5-7. She’ll be in most of your teams, even against wind scenarios, just because a nat4 is quite strong early on. She’s a great starting farmer, and can farm faimon normal easily at 5* and faimon hard at 5* as well with 4* despair/xx runes at level 12. Watch for them in the shops and low level giant runes, try for spd/atk/atk. Revenge and nemesis are great offsets.

Two star monsters to look out for:

Wind Pixie->Shannon: One of the best two stars in the game. People use her well into late game.
Fire Harpu->Colleen: A solid support unit. She heals and provides an ATK buff, as well as having solid debuffs including a healing blocker, which is very useful on the Wind dungeon boss. She’s also one of the best “farmable” all around Necro AND raid units.
Water Garuda->Koniyama: Another competitor for “best 2 star”. Great cleanser, supreme PVE utility in automode and exceptional utility if you are going to manual as his #2 basically lets you pass his turn to any other unit.
Wind Warbear->Ramagos: He can be your first farmer, and can farm Hydeni 5 Hell at five stars/level 35. He needs max skillups and energyx6 runes with hp% x3. Hp% runes should be at level 9-12.
Dark Salamander->Decamaron: You’ll have to farm this one from the dark secret dungeon, but it’s worth doing. His awakened passive makes him very useful in dungeons, especially water dungeon B5 and higher.
Water Howl->Lulu: Possibly the best easily acquirable and skillable healer (also cleanses!). Generally you’ll get one from a US before 200 or so scrolls, but he can also be farmed in Hydeni.
Wind Yeti->Rakajah: Solid dungeon healer as his heal is bigger the more LIVING party members you have. Yes, his heal gets worse as monsters drop – so if you’re running a team with a rezzer, he might not be the best fit. Also, since he has a slow, he can be used in Necro teams.
Fire Warbear->Ursha: A really solid early game tank with an aoe that does decent damage. Not much use past 4 stars, but a good candidate for “use until useless then fodder to make a 5 star”.
Dark Warbear->Gorgo: Solid PVP unit that can be build really tanky as his attacks scale with HP. His 3rd is an autocrit+autostun, so you can build him for crit damage without crit.
Fire hellhound->Sieq: You are given one of these at the beginning of the game. He’s solid damage and worth 5*ing (and 6ing for some) due to his use in so many AO combos.
Water Hellhound->Tarq: An amazing “fun” unit. Used in some really fast speed Dragon runs, but requires absolutely nuts runes.
Fire imp->Cogma: Does decent damage and is fusion material, nothing wasted in leveling him up to 4/30.

Three star fire/wind/water monsters to look out for:

You are HIGHLY unlikely to get a specific 3 star unit this early in the game. Honestly, just about whatever you get is worth using and at least taking to level 25 so you can use them later as fodder. However, these are some units to watch out for. DO NOT fodder them until you are confident that you know what you are doing.

Wind E Priest->Michelle: You will probably get at least one of these. I think I saw 11 of them before I saw the water version. I would suggest saving at least one – the rest most use for fodder for the fire version (a very desirable nat 4), as she has some niche roles. See this comment for some.
Water Mystic Witch->Megan: One of the most sought after 3 star units. Much of the early PVP metagame revolves around having a fast Megan. She’s also useful in dungeons. Don’t stress if you don’t get her – I was well into level 40 with 150+ scrolls opened before I got her.
Wind Griffon->Bernard: Another staple 3 star that is useful all the way to Giants B10 and ToA. Farmable from Tamor, but the drop rates are low (but not as low as Raoq!).
Water Warbear->Dagora:Can farm Faimon 1, slowly. Also can be farmed from Mt. White Ragon. I wouldn’t bother with him, but some do.
Water and Wind Battle Mammoths: New additions, and my favorite new 3 stars in a while. Water is a tanking BEAST who does almost no damage, and wind can do decent damage as well as cleanse. When max skilled, Talc (water) is comparable to Ahman healing wise with the caveat that he can be silenced or have his CD reset (like in Dragon B10) BUT, on the flipside he’s easier to rune and he provides that DEF buff and he does nothing other than taunt. Ahman does his non-taunt sometimes when you really just wish he would have taunted.
Fire Inferno->Tagaros: I seem to get these from unknown and mystic scrolls on all my accounts early on. He does great AOE and is very helpful in doing early secret dungeons. You may not want to take him all the way to 5, but he’s certainly worth taking to 4/30. I prefer him over Fire Grim Reaper because both his AOEs hit hard. However he is very slow and weak. Without the proper team to support him he’s splats before he can do anything. With a speed leader and/or Megan he can hit quite hard in AO…but he may also die before he gets a 2nd hit. Since he has 2 AoEs, some rune him despair, but I haven’t tried this yet – if I were going to do so, I’d probably rune him despair/focus hp%x3.
Fire High Elemental->Kahli: Solid single target damage and she’s fusion material so you can leave her at 4/30 and fuse her later. However, she becomes very useful again later game AO when the meta turns tanky, so it’s not a bad idea to level up two – one for fodder and one for the long run.
Wind Serpent->Ermeda: Very tanky, also removes debuffs. Not a farmer, but useful in early PVE. Great for Vrofagus and Faimon 1-4, etc. Honestly the water serpent is usable if you get it in your first couple monsters too, but wind seems more generally useful. Some use it mid and later game AO/Guild wars as a specific counter to Rina.
Fire inugami->Raoq: As I said, he’s a newbie trap BUT he’s still a solid monster. Don’t pursue him, but if you find him, use him. He’s a very rare drop from Faimon, but can also spawn from scrolls. He provides pretty solid (if random) damage in the early and mid game and, I’ve heard, can be a beast late game if you have beast runes (but who isn’t….).
fire elven ranger->Adrian: Great necro unit
wind elven ranger->Erwin: Not as generally useful as Adrian BUT can be good for certain comps, since he has a crit lead.
fire harg: He’s like a fire Konamiya with better stats and a worse cleanse/heal.

Three star L/D monsters to look out for

Here are some nat3s to look out for, just in case you get really lucky from your faimon or monthly scroll. I’m not going to go into too much detail on these, just flag them so you know not to fodder (you shouldn’t fodder non-farmable L/D units, but some people love foddering…).

light inugami->Bella: One of the most useful units in the game. He’s farmable, but you may pull him from a scroll before farming. I’d call that a win – much begging saved.
Dark battle mammoth->Basalt: An AMAZING unit. Great for ToA and many other places.
light battle mammoth->Marble: Good damage unit vs. high HP targets (ToA bosses, water dungeon, etc.). Not an awesome early game unit – generally he’s a unit you bring in when you can already do something, he’ll just make it faster.
Dark griffon->Varus: Great pvp unit, very reliable stunner.
light werewolf->Eshir: Amazing pvp monster
dark werewolf->Jultan: PVP monster – not as good as Eshir, but still very good
light garuda->Teon: You’re given this dude for free. Don’t fodder him, he can be your DB10 rezzer if you don’t get anything else.
dark grim reaper->Thrain: aka “king of ToA hard”. Definitely hang onto this guy and feed him other reapers along the way until you need him. You’ll be very upset at yourself if you don’t.
dark yeti->Kumae: Veromos fusion mats, very in demand just for that, but also a decent Necropolis unit as both his attacks slow and his damage scales with HP.
light frankenstein: Good necro unit
dark harpu: decent necro unit

Three star monster families to save for skillups

These are monsters you won’t necessarily build, but should not fodder until you either have enough to max skill their better siblings OR have max skilled their better siblings or a superior monster (like a killer nat5).

Mammoths for water/dark
Hargs for wind/dark – wind is a nat4s
elven archers for fire
taoists for water/dark/wind – water & wind are nat4s
living armor for wind/dark
serpents for dark/wind/water/light
~fairies for neal – not necessary as you can use the 2* wind ones
harpies for dark
werewolves for light/dark
griffons for fire/wind
inugamis for light/fire/dark
high elementals for fire
bounty hunters for fire
mystic witches for water
penguin knights for wind/light/~dark
franks for well, most of them are usable but fire>light>water>wind/dark sorta
epikion priests for fire, maybe water – fire is a nat4

A note on fusions

Also, especially with respect to 3 star monsters, BE AWARE of the fusion hexagram and how it works, and which monsters you need to save to fuse later. See the wiki page and the image included below for a nice summary (CREDIT: DrZip, from this thread):

Short list of the rarer ones (in my experience):

Fire & water martial cat, water grim reaper, wind minotaur, wind lizardman, fire beast hunter, dark yeti (drops from SD, but it’s a rare drop and everyone will be clamoring for it, making it tough to get in sometimes). Some of these are now available via guild points, so that’s an option. I wouldn’t buy them in pieces – rather I would save up 800 guild points just in case they dropped mid-way along the purchase process.

As near as I can tell, all the fusable monsters have their uses. And hey – they are the only semi-guaranteed way to get nat 4 and nat 5s!

Baretta: If you have a choice, I would prioritize Baretta simply because he is so incredibly flexible – ToA, dungeons, PVP, AD…pretty much everywhere.
Mikene: If you build her for 100% crit, her #1 freezes on every hit (need acc, of course), and she’s a rezzer with a meh heal…she has her uses. Some ToA floors, occasional AO/GW. NOTE: Post-buff, she’s a bit more useful – I even use her in ToA/ToA hard. She’s now my #1 recommended option for F2P dragon teams.
Susano: Generally useful unit that I lucked into from a scroll and fused away without a thought. I later fused another to test out as a faimon farmer (vamp/blade). He hits pretty hard if you need a single target water hitter.
Jojo: I’m not experienced with bomber teams, but he seemed solid while I had him. I’ll fuse another and test more eventually.
Arang: Very solid single target DPS, but a bit of a glass cannon. Can be used in NB10 as well.
Argen: I fused him away and never had much use for him along the way, but his kit looks interesting, especially if you need a general resist leader and haven’t pulled a better one. Plus, if you build your team for it, his #3 can hit like a truck full of other, smaller trucks. Has some use in NB10 teams as well (NickDaGreek built an F2P team around him).
Akia: She wound up betting more decent than I expected. Rage/blade and she puts out decent damage along with her heal block. It seems like she’s a unit that perhaps needs skillups more than others do to shine, but she’s not bad at all. I opened another from a scroll, and will work on her eventually unless I pull a better aoe heal blocker.
Queb : Combo unit with Katarina, also pretty solid GW buffer in general.
Wind Kung Fu Girl: least useful 4* fusion, or maybe tied with Akia.
Sigmarus: Damage beast. If you can make him, do it.
Katarina: I’ve seen mixed things about her. I’ve used her a couple of times via reps and wasn’t impressed for the amount of time it would take me to make her. She really needs a Chloe, Neal or Water Horus to shine (invincibility buff) – if you lack those, I wouldn’t put any urgency into building her. She was the last nat5 I fused and I STILL haven’t bothered to 6* her yet. Eventually I’ll do it when I have a good runeset for her.
Veromos: Ahh the new guy. He is super flexible and useful and, if you have both sets of mats, I would recommend focusing on him before Sigmarus as his kit is very unique, whereas Sig is just damage and more damage. In particular, he can make Fire B7 and up – which is just generally a pain unless you have some really good units – MUCH easier.
Fire panda – Bella replacement and/or slight upgrade in NB10, also can be used in DB10 and a great monster for starting to build a raid team.

A note on four star monsters

Just in case you get any. DO NOT FODDER ANY OF THEM. Even if people tell you they suck. Especially people in game chat; many idiots and trolls there. Plus even a bad unit can get a buff later on to be made good (see the many gallons of tears over the Fedora buff).

Also, the more stars, the better the base stats, so any four star is worth using before level 15, just for the stats!

Low level Runing notes:

Rune Types

As soon as you can start farming Garen hell, get multiple 2/4/6 HP% energy runes. I spent days on this and the time was not wasted. At low levels, it’s great exp, and at this point in the game you can put energy x6 runes on just about any monster.
Once you start getting better monsters and becoming more familiar with stats and runes you can start using things like blade and fatal runes, as they will be the next ones you can start farming in hell. These go on your offensive (and rarely some supports, like undines, that need to crit to proc some effect) units.
You’ll probably want to acquire some swift runes from Mt. Ragon Hard as well (unless you can run Hell) as units like Shannon and Megan can really benefit from even shitty swift runes.
Focus is a GREAT offset for support units. Bella, Shannon, etc. should all be swift/focus to start so you can get some acc in there without having to waste a slot on slot 6 accuracy.
Rage runes are used more in late mid->late game as you often can’t get enough crit (except on certain units like Light Imp/Taru) to make it worthwhile. Statistically, they are pretty close to fatal in performance, but a bit better in the right circumstances. Don’t use rage (or Crit Damage in slot 4) unless you have at least 65% (more is better) Crit Rate.
Guard runes are used on a few early game units (golems), but often aren’t useful until you get specific mid and late game units (primarily wind and dark living armors, fire, light and water frankensteins).
Violent runes are awesome. Some units like Koniyama benefit from even shitty violent runes but, for the most part, you want good ones – and they are rare.
Revenge runes are pretty solid, and very useful in necropolis and raids. Early on, you may not reap much benefit from them.
Will & Nemesis runes are heavily PVP oriented, so hold onto the good ones but maybe don’t slot them until you understand their uses.
Destroy runes are, sadly, at this point still pretty much useless. Use them in broken sets if you get a good one.

See HERE for a great visual guide to rune stats.

How to rune, early game

Your offensive units should be atk/(cr or atk)/atk.

If you get a unit that scales with speed (ninjas, rakshasas, chimeras if you are super lucky), use spd on 2.
Fatal/blade is probably going to be your go to combination but if you really need to crit, you could run bladex3.
Your support units should almost always use swift (and eventually violent) if you can and have spd on 2, and then hp on 4 and 6. Things like Garudas, Bella, Shannon, that kind of thing.

Most don’t need defense, but if you get a good defense rune and don’t have a HP rune AND they don’t have any stats that scale with HP, it’s OK to use a DEF slot 4 or 6.
Focus is generally the best offset here, but you could also use guard, energy, revenge, will or nemesis.
DON’T use slot 6 resist runes. Slot 6 accuracy runes are also usually a waste, unless you get really good substats.

What to choose for you free rune sets

Go with the offensive sets. You can use them on an early farmer (unless you are using Veromos), or a strong nat4-5 attacking unit.

Leveling Guideposts:

Note: Depending on your monsters, you may be well ahead of these, or well behind. Don’t worry too much, but it’s something to shoot for. I did it with terrible monsters, you should be able to as well.

Level 6:

Magic B1

Level 8:

Magic B1-B3

Wind B1-B2

Level 12:

Dark B1-B3

Fire B1-B3

NO: fire B4

Level 14:

Water B1-B3

NO: Water B4

Level 15-24

“Mid early game” stage. OK I just made that up, but around this point you should start being able to awaken a few 3 stars and maybe even a 4 star if you are really, really lucky on your high drops (RNG is RNG).

Around here you should be able to start doing elemental/magic B4s. This will make awakening much easier. Pre-B4, awakening anything takes a ton of energy and may not be worth it for anything beyond 2 stars.

You should have at least a handful of awakened 2 stars: Ramagos, Lulu, Teon, Koniyama, Colleen, etc. maybe some generic dps like wind or water elementals or some generic beef like fire or water warbear or water golem. If you get very lucky, you may hit on enough mids to awaken 1 or 2 3 stars.

By 20 you should be able to farm 2 star SDS easily, and maybe start on some of the easier 3 stars. Make sure to get the following if they haven’t dropped: fire harpu, water garuda, wind warbear, dark salamander. It may take 2 separate SDs and a few energy refills. That’s OK, these monsters are generally worth it. Water Garuda is for Fire and dark dungeon and TOA. Dark Salamander is for Water dungeon. Wind Warbear is for farming and fire harpu is just a generally useful 2 star – heal+buff+good debuff.

You may start seeing some of the “killer app” light SDs pop up: vagabond, inugami, bearman and, to a lesser extent, fairy. If you can reliably get 2 (or maybe even 1) point in them, then start racking up the points as you want those monsters (especially vagabond and inugami).

By the early 20s, you are starting to break into B5s, and thus mids are becoming more accessible. Start awaking your best 3 stars!

Also, somewhere around here you should be able to do the first level of the Hall of Heroes. Save your energy for these! You’ll need like 300-400 energy, maybe up to 600 if your luck is bad. Drop rates are shit (30-45%), but be patient – even if it’s a crappy 4star (Fire Kung Fu Girl) you should still get one. You never know when they might get a buff. Plus, it’s a nat 4! If you don’t have any others, even fire Kung Fu Girl is good.

You should try to clear Faimon normal somewhere in this range. You will most likely need solid rep monsters. Don’t get your hopes up, about the L/D scroll though, it will suck ;). So far I’ve gotten: light elemental (semi usable), light hellhound (total trash), dark werewolf (maybe useful at low level?).

Also, make sure you are planning/preparing (lining and leveling fodders) for (or have already acquired) your first 5 star by 23-25, earlier if you can. It should generally be a farmer. It’s hard to go wrong with wind or water warbears. Both easy to acquire and skill up, and can farm various hell levels. See the farming section for more info.

Leveling guideposts

Level 15:

Wind B1-B3

NO: Wind B4

Dragon B1

*ToA unlocks

*ToA 9

*PVE: Up to Vrofragus 1 Normal

Level 16:

NO: Dragon B2

*Farming: Garen Hell: get lots of energy 2/4/6 hp% runes!

Level 17:

Garen hell cleared

Mt siz hard cleared

Dark B1->B4

Light B1->B4

Magic B1-B4

NO: Dark B5

Farming: Garen Hell

level 18:

vrofragus normal cleared (wind serp)

up to faimon 4 normal

Level 19:

Dragon B2 (manual crystals at mini boss)

Giants B1->B3

Wind B1->B4
NO: Magic B5

NO: Giants B4

farming: Mt Siz Hell

First 750 pack on account #3

Level 20:

Dark B1->B4

Fire B1->B4

Light B1->B4

Magic B5: need 4500 HP

Dragon B1->B3

NO: Giant B4:

Level 21:

Wind B1->B5

NO: Magic B6

Level 22:

Mt white hard cleared

Level 23:

NO->YES: Fire B5

Kabir Hell cleared

#3: First 5 star (Ramagos)

Level 24:

Giants B1->B4

Water B1->B6

Wind B1->B6

Faimon normal clared with reps.

Level 25-30

“The part where leveling really slows down and you grind a lot”. OK that’s basically the entire rest of the game, but this was the point where I noticed leveling getting slow and found myself spending all my energy just doing elemental dungeons or whatever.

You’re getting really close to (or already have) your first 5 star. My second account 5 starred Ramagos at level 26. I forget who was my first on my main account…probably Raoq. Hyper focused players will have a handful of 5s and maybe even a 6. Once you get that first 5 star, make some kind of plan for your 2nd and 3rd so you don’t find yourself suddenly stuck in dungeon progress waiting on 2 and 3 star fodder or something.

You should be comfortably doing elemental B5s by now and starting into B6s – which means time to awaken those 3 stars! Maybe you’ll get lucky and after the 4rd or 5th 3 star of a given element you’ll hit upon enough highs to awaken a 4 as well. I wouldn’t set out to awaken a 4 star until you are comfortable in the relevant B6s, preferably B7s if you are patient (odds are about 2x as good in there for same energy cost) – plan on it taking at least 2 full days of energy (and maybe some refills), so about 2 weeks.

25-30 feels really similar. There was no big shift in what I was doing at any point in there. Just keep grinding away on dungeons to activate your 3 and 4s, slowly make more 5s to improve your dungeon teams and maybe make a plan for your first 6.

Early 5 star units

For your first team of 5s beyond your farmer, look at ones that will be usable in multiple scenarios, so 1-2 DPS of different elements and multiple supports.

Bernard, Shannon and Koniyama should be in your first group, plus whatever DPS units you’ve pulled. If you have Bella or Talc, they should be in there as well – both really need skillups, Talc especially. If you can get Ahman to 90%+ crit, then him as well.

NOTE: From what I’ve heard, if you pull a Chasun (or potentially Ariel/water archangel – much less likely!) you can get by without Ahman, as the 3 of them all fill the “pure healer” role. Anyway, in the unlikely case you pull one of those, you can put off begging for a while. Ahman does still have a place, so you may want to farm him anyway.

I’d do Shannon first since she’s the most fragile, then the others in whatever order you feel necessary. Once that dungeon core is in place, you can start either branching out to other elements based on what you need for progress or making 5* fodders for you first 6.

Leveling guideposts:

Level 25:

*Kellan in arena – I couldn’t beat him until 40.

*150 crystal reward

*Farming: Mt. Siz Hell->Kabir Ruins Hell

*#2: TOA 14+

*#3: TOA 23+

*#3: 2nd 5 star: fire lich

26:

NO: Dark B6

Magic B6

*#2: First 5 star (Ramagos)

*#2: Ahman & Darion acquired, awakened

*Farming Telain Hell

*Mt. White Hell cleared, Telain Hell cleared, Hydeni Hell cleared, Tamor Hell cleared with reps

28:

#2: First Fusion: Baretta

#3: Magic B6

#3: 3rd 5*: Raoq

#3: 4th 5*: Shannon

29:

*#2: Started planning/working on 2nd fusion: Argen after lucky wind mino from scroll

*#2: 2nd 5 star: Tagaros

30:

#2 +3 : Giant B5

#2 : Fire B6

#2 : NO: Dragon B4

#3 : NO: Magic B7

#2: TOA 19+

#3: 5th 5*: wind undine

Level 31-40

Also “Late early game”->”Early mid game”. More bullshit I just made up! In this range I always forget to check and see if I’m about to level up…it’s so rare that I’ve forgot and wasted some energy refills, so beware!

You should be able to auto all the elemental B6s by now and maybe manual some B7s or B8s if you are patient (I’m not, I just wait until I can auto).

The vast majority of time in here is/should now just be focused on buffing up your stable of monsters in preparation for the B7s and Giant b6+. You *should* have a decent stable by now even if your scroll pulls have been shit. You should have either the following monsters (at 5*), or a nat4 or 5 replacements for them:

*A farmer!!! – CRUCIAL, first priority. 5 or 6 stars.

*Shannon – general buffer, despair user, glancing hit appliery. Very hard to replace.

*Bernard – speed buffer and boss debuffer, tough to explicitly replace, but not always needed

*Koniyama – cleansing for PVE, turn order manipulation for PVP. No replacement, get at least one no matter what, no excuses. If you don’t want to build a second, you can potentially use a good immunity buffer (wind undine, fire brownie, water death knight, etc.) or cleanser (rebecca, wind undine, etc.) for stuff like fire and dark dungeons.

*Bella – Debuffer, buff remover, healer – very hard to replace

*Backup healer: Talc, Colleen, Lulu or nat4(Chasun, Emma) or nat5 upgrade.

*Baretta – hopefully you’ve been able to fuse him by now. He’s too damn useful not to and should be your first fusion priority if you have options. You can use him everywhere.

With those monsters + whatever else you’ve found, you should be able to manage all the B6s and most B7s and start on B8s.

There’s really not much more to be said for this point in the game other than: GRIND, GRIND, GRIND. Focus on making the 5s you need and starting to prepare for (or making) your first 6. I was only able to make a 6* before 40 (39) on one account, so if you can get one lined up before then you’ll be ahead of me. I know I see P2W accounts in the arena with multiple 6s in their 20s all the time…kinnnnda frustrating.

Note that if you have a farmer that farms fast enough at 5 (water magic knight, or a well runed Sigma or Tyron on Faimon 1 Normal), but wouldn’t be useful for dungeons or ToA, you could choose something else for your first 6. It’s all incredibly variable and depends on what you have.

Also, see here for a nice guide to midgame progress.

Leveling guideposts:

31:

#2: 3rd 5*: Shannon

#3: 6th 5*: Bernard

#3: Fire B6, NO: Light B6

32:

#2: water B6

#2: farmed Bella

#2 4th 5*: Baretta

33:

#2: 5th 5*: Chasun

#2: Magic B7

#3: Wind B6

34:

#2: 6th 5*: Tyron

#2: Fusion #2: Argen

#3 8th 5*: Koniyama

#3 TOA 27

35:

#2: Water B7

#2: 7th 5*: Bella, 8th 5*: Bernard

#3 9th 5*: Colleen

#3: farmed Ahman

36:

#2: TOA 27, TOA 29

#2 9th 5*: Koniyama

#3: NO: Fire B7, YES: Wind B7

37:

#2: 10th 5*: Julie

#3: 10th 5*: Ahman

#3: Magic B7

38:

#2: Fire B7, Wind B7

#3: fusion #1: fire sylph, ToA 3x, ToA Hard 10

#3: 11th & 12th 5*s: fire sylph, fire rakshasa

39:

#2: 11th 5*: Eshir

#2: fusion #2: fire succubus

#3: giants B5 & B6, Dragon B5, Fire B7

#3: 1st 6*: Antares

40:

#2: 12th 5*: Yen, 1st 6*: Tyron, ToA 34, ToA Hard 19, Magic B8, Light B7, Dark B7, Water B8, Wind B8

#3: 5*: water mammoth, light ninja, water kfg, dark death knight, wind succubus

#3: Dark B7-B8, Light B7, Magic B8, Water B7-B8, Wind B8

Level 40-50

You guessed it: the grind eternal. Lots more fun things start happening though as you can start autoing B8-B10 elemental dungeons, Giants B8, etc. Better runes, faster awakening of Nat4s and 5s – you may even have pulled a nat5 by now (I wouldn’t expect one until you’ve opened 250+ scrolls, but RNG is RNG).

By now you should know what is what. Have goals and your shit together, all that. Of course you still won’t know everything, but you should at least be able to ask better questions. No more “What do I do now!?” and more “I’ve got a solid ToA team but I’m stuck on level 50, what can I work on to clear this stage?”

To reiterate, the general plan is something like GB10->ToA 60->DB8/NB8->ToA 100->DB10/NB10->Arena

I’ve seen teams that can do GB10 with only 2 6*s, but I had to 6 4 of my units…everyone is going to be different depending on what nat4s and 5s drop for you (if any) and what shop runes you find on the way up, luck in GB6+, etc.

Early mid game runing notes

Here are some general notes on how to rune. Generally, once you’ve farmed GB/DB/NB10 for a couple months each, you should start developing an innate sense of what to keep and what to burn, here are some guidelines to get you started:

General

For offensive runes, at least 2 of: spd, CD, ATK/DEF (not both!), CR (attack subs)
For defensive runes, at least 2 of SPD, HP, DEF (tank subs)
For support runes, SPD+ at least one of ACC/HP (support subs)
Desired stats should be within 2 of max roll. So if a rune can have +6 of a stat per skillup, sell anything with 4 or less of the desired stat unless you want to gamble on double/triple rolls. I’ll keep low rolls if the rune has a good role on another desired stat – stuff like max crit/low speed or anything with high speed.
If it hits the non-desired stat (or even if it only hits once if you are picky), immediately sell
For legend runes, at least one of the above if you’re trying for 4x. Almost any legend rune with good speed/CR is worth keeping to try and max speed or CR. Same kind of thinking if you want other stats, but speed & CR are the ones I go for. I have a few >20% HP/DEF subs sitting around and no place to use them since they have no speed.
For raid monsters, you want RES as well

Specific sets

Swift: Has to have either SPD OR 2 of atk/cd/cr (for swift nukers). If it’s SPD+junk, and fails to hit spd 2 times, sell.
Rage/fatal/vampire: has to have 2 of SPD/ATK/CD/CR
Violent: I’ll keep any rune that has the potential to hit SPD 2 or 3 times, sell if I don’t get at least +10 or another good sub.
Despair: has to have SPD unless you are going for a despair nuker (Amir, Zaiross), in that case 2 of SPD/ATK/CD/CR (standard attacker subs).
Blade : has to have CR for the most part. Because that’s why you are using blade in the first place, right? Might as well do it better.
Nemesis/will/shield: has to have SPD. Then standard support (+hp/def/acc/res) or attack (atk/cr/cd) – I avoid mixed runes for the most part to simplify.
Revenge : sometimes I’ll do revenge runes without speed, since you don’t need as much in necro.
Guard/energy/endure/destroy: Other than guard on Copper and endure on raid monsters, I pretty much just use these for broken sets and only keep the best looking ones. Energy, in particular, I don’t find to be very good. Destroy is almost as bad BUT at least has an active effect and can be used on some troll monsters or where you have an open 2set and don’t need revenge/etc.

Monster Boxes

11/03/15 : I split out the monster box section to a separate file: Void’s SW Journal, because this one was getting huge (90+ pages!).

III. Cairos Dungeon

Elemental Dungeon Drop rates

The following were calculated from 200 runs of B2-B10 (50-150 B10, still working on that one) and at least 100 runs of B1. Sample size isn’t huge but it seems like it’s enough to give a good general idea.

The bottom # is the average size of the drop.

For the magic dungeon drops, the first % is the % chance of a l/m/h in general, the second is the chance of it being a MAGIC l/m/h.

ELEMENT	B1	B2	B3	B4	B5	B6	B7	B8	B9	B10
US	29.4% 1.17	28.0% 1.25	27.5% 1.33	19.5% 2.56	22.1% 2.50	15.5% 2.82	12.0% 2.17	9.5%2.37	6.8%4.9	1%4.0
low	47.1% 1.13	48.5% 1.21	44.0% 1.35	37.5% 2.29	35.7% 2.77	43.5% 2.61	31.0% 3.94	36.0%2.63	27.2%2.38	40.4%1.64
mid	9.8% 1.0	13.0% 1.12	16.0% 1.22	25% 1.16	29.2% 1.28	27.5% 1.27	34.5% 1.57	27.0%2.69	38.8%1.72	40.4%1.64
high	0%	2.5% 1.0	2.5% 1.0	3% 1.7	2.5% 1.0	4.0% 1.5	12.0% 1.29	14.0%1.32	13.6%2.65	16.4%1.29

MAGIC	B1	B2	B3	B4	B5	B6	B7	B8	B9	B10
US	33.0% 1.21	32.0% 1.3	34.0% 1.38	24.0% 1.98	16.0% 2.59	14.8% 2.60	11.0% 4.09	6.0% 4.17	4.5%4.11	1.79%4.0
lmagic#	52% 41% 1.2	48% 39.5% 1.3	42.5% 37.0% 1.35	38.0% 33.5% 2.12	41.0% 35.5% 2.69	33.5% 30.0% 2.92	26.0% 22.5% 3.82	29.5% 29.0% 4.16	32.0% 32.0% 4.23	8.9%8.9%4.80
mmagic#	12%9% 1.0	14.5% 11.5% 1.0	19.5% 15.5% 1.10	28.0% 23.5% 1.98	37.0% 26.5% 1.43	45.0% 39.5% 1.30	46.5% 36.0% 1.39	45.0%33.5% 1.69	36.5%29.0%1.52	57.1%39.3%1.50
Hmagic#	0%	1.0%1.0% 1.0	1.5% 1.0% 1.0	4.0%4.0% 1.0	4.5%4.5% 1.56	6.0% 4.0% 1.25	12.0%11.0% 1.09	15.0% 13.5% 1.33	18.0%13.5%1.52	26.8%21.4%1.75

Note: Secret dungeon rate is about 5%, angelmon 2-5%, rainbowmon 2-3%, mystic scrolls ~1%.

Average energy cost per essence

Note: this does not count energy drops and regeneration, it’s just a flat comparison of energy invested. Basically, for every X energy invested, you should get about 1 of the relevant energy over a long enough period of time (RNG is VERY streaky!).

Shading denotes dungeon cost: 4 (B1-B2), 5(B3-B4), 6(B5-B7), 7(B8-B10) energy per run. The lower cost per run is why it’s cheaper over long periods of time to get magic mids from B4 than B5. Generally though, if you can run B5 you can run B6, so you should be doing B6 for the occasional high essence. The 85.7 for magic highs in B5 is a little misleading, as I think that’s just the result of only landing on magic highs – there were so few dropped there wasn’t as much chance for random elemental variance. I suspect that with about 500 runs, this number would creep up or B6 would creep down. Compare elemental B4 to elemental B5 where every drop is the right element. In that case, my B5 number is probably a little high and needs another couple hundred runs…

Magic:

Note: this is factoring OUT the random elemental essences, hence the lower #s than the elemental dungeons.

	B1	B2	B3	B4	B5	B6	B7	B8	B9	B10
l	8.1	7.8	10.0	7.0	6.3	6.9	7.0	5.8	5.1	52.3
m	44.4	34.8	29.4	10.7	15.8	11.6	12.0	12.3	15.9	17.8
h	N/A	400.0	500.0	125.0	85.7	120.0	50.0	38.9	34.1	18.7

Elemental:

	B1	B2	B3	B4	B5	B6	B7	B8	B9	B10
l	7.6	6.8	8.4	5.8	6.0	5.2	4.9	7.4	10.8	6.6
m	40.8	27.6	25.6	17.2	16.2	17.1	11.1	9.6	10.5	10.5
h	N/A	160.0	200.0	142.8	240.0	100.0	38.7	37.8	19.4	33.1

Secret Dungeons

By 25 you should be strong enough to farm a 3 star secret dungeon in, at most, 2 sessions (depending on the element and specific monster).

At 26, account #2 could farm 3 star secret dungeons pretty well. Clear level 6 then quit, as it takes way too long at this point (unless you have 5 star units or really good 4s) and can reliably clear B8. By doing this, I was able to get light bearman in 50 minutes with this team: 4/30 light sylph,4/30 shannon, 4/29 tagaros, 4/30 fran, 4/30 olivine

These are the ones you want (at minimum):

Light inugami->Bella: One of the most useful support units out there. He (or she!) is better at healing tanky teams due to his/her heal being % based.
Light vagabond->Darion: Another top support.
Light bearman->Ahman: Another really solid support unit. Takes better runes than Bella and Darion do to start (needs 85%+ crit +as much HP as you can get), but can really help smooth the PVE process with his reliable healing. The strength of his heal is based on HIS HP so, kind of opposite to Bella, he’s better at healing lower HP teams with his frequent low volume healing compared to Bella’s slower, heavy heal. Unless you pull something like a Chasun or an Ariel, you’re probably going to want him in many of your ToA and dungeon teams. Prioritize him over Darion.
Light fairy->Neal: I never used her (although I did get one), but others swear by her. Mostly for taking advantage of the AI by baiting with a weak element then using her invincibility buff. She’s decent in Necropolis as well.
Dark Yeti->Kumae: Needed for the dark infrit fusion. It’s a rare and high demand SD, so grab it when you see it, but don’t stress as the fusion process is long. He’s also a solid slower for Necropolis.
Dark salamander->Decamaron: Mentioned before, his passive makes both his attacks do damage based on enemy MAXHP, he dots and does -ATK debuff. Water Dungeon boss killer +more. Keep in mind that if you already have a unit or two who trivializes the water dungeon boss – something with a ton of dots (Orochi, for example), then you should pass on Decameron, as his usage is pretty limited. I basically only bring him out for Water B6/B7/B8. That being said, to me he was worth the investment (4/30 violent/focus hp%/hp%/def%) to make the water runs that much faster.
Light imp->Taru: Paired with an ATK buffer like Megan he can help you climb the AO ladder. Not much use outside of that. Run him rage/blade with enough crit to hit 100% on his #3 (35% over the built in 15%).

For the others, just get what it feels like you need. Lacking fire aoe? Grab fire magic archer or fire inferno. Still missing Shannon? Farm up some wind pixies. Need skillups for Bernard? Farm water or fire griffons, etc.

A note on awakening

A note on dungeons and awakening: You will be doing this for HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS AND OH GOD WHY? Especially for awakening 4 and 5 stars…it’s one of the most tedious aspects of a game that has many tedious aspects (and yet is still very good?? Whaaaat? Maybe it’s just addiction…). Suck it up and either start farming or uninstall the game. The latter may be better for your sanity. RNG is a harsh mistress.

General notes on the elemental dungeons

B1&B2 can generally be done with any bullshit team. They are generally not worth farming for essences.

B3 seems to want a team of mostly maxed 3 stars, often with a certain HP cutoff (say 4500+ or 6000+).

B4 seems to want a solid team of 4 star units, on average.

B5 generally wants a very solid team of 4 star units with decent runes for their level (level 6-9 3-4 stars)

B6 generally wants a team of all 5 stars. Same for giant B6.

B8 seems to want a team with multiple 6 star units and very solid/durable 5 stars for the rest.

B9 is often a sweet spot if you still rarely fail B10 or B10 is just too slow.

B10 you’ll just stumble into once you have a team of 6*s with solid runes.

These are just general guidelines, and vary based on how strong your units are. If you have a team of all nat 4 and 5s (or just really strong supports like Acasis), you will probably be one “step” ahead. Say maybe you can do B7 or B8 with no 6 stars units, etc.

General speed leaders are very useful at least up to B7 – and Baretta is one of the best (the best that I have access to, certainly), and he’s fusable! So focus on him as your first fusion if you don’t open him from a scroll.

Key dungeon units for the early game

Listed in order of ease of acquisition.

water garuda->Koniyama: best cleanse and turn passing
wind pixie->Shannon: defense, plus potential for glancing debuff and CC with despair
water howl->Lulu: heal and decent cleanse. You will most likely outgrow him, but good to start.
dark salamander->Decamaron: great damage and debuff against bosses, water dungeon MVP
light vagabond->Darion: defense and great debuffs
light inugami->Bella: buff removal, defense break, heal
light bearman->reliable heals, once runed
wind griffon->Bernard: great debuffs and speed buff. Can take forever to farm him in Tamor.
fire sylph->Baretta: fusable natural 4 speed lead with good aoe DOT and ATB reset

Less Key, but useful units

Listed in no specific order.

fire harpu->Colleen: good debuffs + heal/ATK buff. Better when manual, but OK auto.
fire viking->Geoffrey: his buff removal passive is an alternative to killing the invulnerability towers on floors like Magic B4.
wind serpent->Ermeda: buff removal on #1- not as reliable as fire viking, but it’s there
wind elemental->Taharus: dots for water boss
wind yeti->Rakajah – his heal is stronger the bigger your team is, so best at team size 5

Specific notes on dungeons

Dark

Dark has a bunch of dots, so cleansing is important BUT you can get by with just solid healing.

key units: Koniyama, dark ifrit (fusion)
team template: {SPEED LEAD} {DPS} {CLEANSE} {SUSTAIN HEAL} {UTILITY}

Dragon

Dragon also has a bunch of dots, cleansing is critical because dragon damage is boosted by the dots.

key units: Koniyama, dark ifrit (fusion)

Void’s DB10 guide

Here’s my “easy” 5 step guide to DB10:

auto gb 10, including 6* Vero, Bella – both max skilled
Your GB10 team should be able to do DB8 L-R-Boss, farm that for a month or two to get the violents you need for Vero, Bella, Rezzer & Support. If you have really good swifts, that may be good enough, but I had everyone on violent before DB10.
pick a rezzer: Teon, Mikene, Briand are the most common listed in order of usefulness imho.

They can all potentially do it at 5* with tanky enough runes.
Teon should be violent/xx hp/def/hp or something like that with +20 or more speed from subs. He needs max skills.
Mikene can be run a couple different ways, but the easiest is probably tanky swift/blade or violent/blade, spd/hp/(hp or def) if you want her to work at 5*. At 6*, it’s generally safer to switch slot 4 to crit rate to boost her #1. She doesn’t need skillups, but if you do have extra undines, boosting her #3 is enough.
Briand should be despair/focus hp/hp/hp or spd/hp/hp to start. He benefits from devils, especially for later ToA auto usage.
pick a DPS, two basic paths:
Sigmarus (becomes your leader)

fuse sig
6* sig
Spd/(cd/atk/cr)/hp to start, as your subs get better move #4 to CD and potentially 2 & 6 to atk. You want at least +25 SPD.
use any other 6* dps – favor Water, but fire/light/dark is fine too. Ex: Theomars, Stella. Hwa is NOT a good choice for tower teams as she can slow down your runs and get you killed. She’s good for straight boss later

Pick a Support: Secondary healer or cleanser

If you have Verde, put him here as Verde+Bella is enough healing. bladex3 spd/CR/HP is often the starting build. Go for as much speed, crit and HP as you can get. From there, the goal is to eventually upgrade to violent/revenge or triple revenge, depending on what kind of Verde you want. Once you upgrade runes enough, switch to his lead to speed the run up even more. If you can’t do it with that team, put Verde in the DPS slot and get a support as normal.
Talc is my favorite here as he can do the job fine at 5*, max skilled. Violent/xx spd/hp/hp
Konamiya should be solid here too, but may need to be 6* or have really good runes. violent/xx spd/hp/hp
Emma would be great, but need her heal maxed thus making her not a great option for early players. violent/focus spd/hp/hp
Chasun should be able to do it, but would need to be very tanky
Colleen can do it and, surprisingly, can even work well in a straight boss team, taking over for your rezzer once your runes are good enough.
Other relevant nat4s like Mihyang (heal+semi-cleanse) might also work. Basalt might work as well, etc.
Lulu could potentially do it if you are screwed for healers
Your team is: Vero (lead), Bella, Rezzer, support, DPS (if Sig, make him leader)

After you’ve done L-R-B boss for a while, your runes will eventually get good enough to move to R-B or straight boss.

For R-B, just keep testing your team there as you upgrade until you find you can keep up with all the dots – you may need to make sure your support unit is a backup cleanser if Vero can’t keep up.
For straight boss, you’ll start by swapping your rezzer for Megan (or Chilling if you have him). Ideally you want a unit that can speed you up AND help strip the dragon’s immunity.
Units like Spectra are also great here because he’ll increase the time it takes the tower to tick.
Units like Hwa and Stella are great because, providing the boss isn’t buffed, the increase the time between the boss’s attacks giving you more time to cleanse and your single healer (Bella) more chances to violent and heal you.

Fire

Fire also has a bunch of dots, but cleansing is CRITICAL as the bombs will one shot you. Up to B5 you should be able to burst the boss down before bombs go off, but for B6-B7 you will probably want TWO cleansers unless you have the DPS.

key units: Koniyama, dark ifrit (fusion). Fire mystic witch and Lulu can also work here, but Lulu’s cleansing AI seems terrible to me.
without Veromos, the jump from B7->B8 can be rough, but B8->B9 is fairly smooth. Without Veromos (he replaces both cleansers), I’ve found that a very strong sustain heal unit in place of CLEANSE#2 or a good immunity buffer (fire AA, Chloe…sorry fire brownie, haven’t been able to make you work here yet) can do it. A fast Ahman is the easiest/F2P route.
team template: {SPEED LEAD} {DPS} {CLEANSE} {SUSTAIN HEAL} {CLEANSE#2/UTILITY}

Giants

Giants has a mix of things, but generally deals a lot of damage so you want strong supports that can keep you alive (or rez you). Shannon, Bernard, Darion, Bella, Ahman – all the generic supports that everyone mentions over and over again tend to shine here. Buffs vary by level, but you want a) something to help you survive the giants huge hits and b) something to heal you back up. Defense buffs (Shannon, Darion), ATK debuffs (Darion, Bernard) and buff removal (Bella) all help with #1 and heal/rezzing with #2. Defense debuffs are always key for bosses just to speed things up.

Light

Light dungeon has very high armor and low hp, so defense break is important (but you can get by without it if your team is tanky enough to last – it will just be a long run, enemy buff removal is also very helpful.

Light also seems to hit the hardest (?), so keep that in mind.

Magic

Magic dungeon is kind of middle of the road for everything. Generally you just need an “all around” solid team. Elemental composition doesn’t matter, so you can put your best team forward.

{SPEED LEAD} {DPS} {DPS} {SUSTAIN HEAL} {UTILITY}

Necropolis

Necro requires really specific teams and, in my opinion, is pretty fun to theory craft for. You’re going to want:

3-5 multihit units to break the shield
1-2 healers
speed buffer if possible
speed debuffer if possible
heal block if possible

Note that even though the boss battle speed caps your team, they will still attack in speed order. This is CRUCIAL to your team building – you want to set their speeds up so the shield breakers go first, then after the shield is reliably broken you debuffers go, then your dps hits list. So a sample F2P team might look like, in speed order:

shield breaker->shield breaker->Colleen (finishes shield or debuffs atk/heal)->speed debuffer->dps

Obviously the more roles you can combine into one the better team you can get, so the above morphs into something like this (AS AN EXAMPLE! I haven’t tested this specific team) with actual units:

Lucasha[multihit on every attack, lead to boost Hwa’s damage]->Bella[heal, low chance of defense break]->Colleen[heal, atk buff, 2 multi-hits, heal block, atk debuff]->Windy[speed debuff, speed buff, crit buff]->Hwa[dps, speed debuff]

Also, generally all your units here will be runed violent/revenge or revengex3, so when luck is with you the shield gets broken much earlier. Seriously, there seem to be so many more viable and interesting teams for this dungeon than say, starting DB10 teams or something. Have fun with it! Use a dark harpu or something! 😉

Water

Up through B5 the bosses extra HP is pretty reasonable, but at 6 and especially 7+ it starts scaling up really hard. If you lack a solid 4 star unit relevant to this dungeon (a dotter like Orochi, etc.), you might want one specialized unit to speed up B6+.

By a specialized unit I mean a heavy dotter like Taharus (wind elemental) or a dotter+enemy MAXHP scaler like Decamaron. Both of them can be left at 4/30 for this. For Taharus you want crit, acc and hp – whatever runes get you enough HP to survive to the boss and reliably stack dots. For Decamaron just acc and HP will do. Something like a bunch of SPD or violent runes will also help speed the boss up a bit.

B8 has a nasty aoe heal block at the boss, so a cleanser or HP leveler/etc. is needed if your units aren’t super tanky.

key unit: Decamaron (dark salamander) – it’s almost like he was made specifically for this dungeon. Taharus (wind elemental) also works if you get his stats right so he can dot reliably. Get one or the other and get him to 4/30, that will last at least up through B7.
team template: {SPEED LEAD} {DPS} {DOT} {SUSTAIN HEAL} {UTILITY}

Wind

Wind dungeon boss heals. B6+ it’s a full heal so you need a ludicrous amount of DPS or heal blocking or cool down reset for the left tower (you can’t reasonably kill it). Heal blocking may be the easiest.

Once you get to the higher dungeons (B9?) with the invulnerability tower, I just kill the towers. You should be using a Baretta, so by the time tower #2 is dead, tower #1 is almost gone and you can either burst that down or ignore it and let dot overkill finish it off.

key unit: For B6-B7 auto, something with a heal block! Ex: Colleen (fire harpu), jokers, death knights, werewolves. I wind up manualling the boss a lot and using Baretta’s #2 to reset the heal tower cooldown.
For the levels with the invincibility tower, Baretta or another heavy (and or AOE) dotter helps a ton. Hwa can slow things down because the towers never take a turn, so you have to manual a bit with her and change targeting so the dots can kill them.
{SPEED LEAD} {DPS} {HEAL BLOCK} {SUSTAIN HEAL} {UTILITY}

Template notes (F2P options):

{SPEED LEAD} = Baretta, Fran.
{DPS} = your main DPS, Sigmarus is best F2P option
{DOT} = wind elemental, dark salamander, water charger shark
{HEAL BLOCK} = fire harpu, dark death knights, fire succubus, werewolves if desperate
{SUSTAIN HEAL} = fire harpu, water mammoth
{UTILITY} = light inugami, wind griffon
{CLEANSE} = water garuda, fire mystic witch, wind mammoth (garuda is best bet)

Example teams

These are teams I have actually used. Where known, I’ve noted the account level that I was first able to auto the dungeon before the unit list. Many are F2P teams but as I actually acquire decent nat4s and 5s, I move away from those teams.

Underlined units are NOT F2P.

Dark

B1: whatever

B2:

#2:9: 3/20 water fairy, 3/20 fairy queen, 3/20 wind serpent, 3/5 hellhound, 3/5 wind elemental

B3/B4:

#2:17: 4/27 Fran, 4/25 wind serpent, 4/10 Ramagos, 4/25 Elucia, 4/13 Koniyama

B5:

#2: 23: 4/20 light sylph, 4/30 Lulu, 4/30 Sieq, 4/29 Shannon, 4/20 Koniyama

#3: 26: 4/30 Fran 4/29 Lulu 4/25 Koni 5/29 fire lich 4/28 Sieq

B6:

#3:26: 4/30 Fran 4/29 Lulu 4/25 Koniyama 5/29 fire lich 4/28 Kai’en

#2:30: 4/30 Fire Sylph 4/26 Darion 4/30 Koniyama 4/30 Lulu 4/30 Fran

B7:

#3:40.1: 5/35 Baretta 5/30 Bernard 5/30 Koniyama 4/30 Koniyama 6/40 Antares

#1:40.2: 5/35 Baretta 6/40 Julien/Sigmarus 5/35 Koniyama 5/35 Ahman 5/35 Bella/Rebecca

B8:

#3:40.1: 5/35 Baretta 5/30 Bernard 5/30 Koniyama 4/30 Koniyama 6/40 Antares

#1:40.2: 5/35 Baretta 6/40 Julien/Sigmarus 5/35 Koniyama 5/35 Ahman 5/35 Bella/Rebecca

B9:

#2:40.2: 5/35 Baretta 6/40 Tyron 6/37 Chasun 5/35 dark ifrit 5/35 Bella

#3:40.2: 5/35 Baretta 6/37 Hwa 5/35 Bella 5/30 Koniyama 6/40 Antares

#1:40.5: 5/35 Baretta 6/35 Ahman 6/40 Sigmarus 6/35 Bella 5/30 Dark Ifrit

B10:

#2:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 6/40 Tyron 6/38 Chasun 6/30 Veromos 5/35 Bella

#1:40.5: 5/35 Baretta 6/35 Ahman 6/40 Sigmarus 6/35 Bella 5/30 Dark Ifrit

#3:40.6 40 Baretta 6/19 Bella 35 dark ifrit 40 Talc 40 Acasis

Dragon

B1: whatever

B2 (manual crystals at stage 3):
#2:19: 4/29 Fran, 4/27 wind serpent, 4/25 fire vagabond, 4/26 Elucia, 3/17 Koniyama

B3:

#2:20: 4/30 Fran 4/15 Shannon 4/25 Suri, 4/20 Lulu 4/25 Colleen

#3:31: 5/23 wind undine 4/30 Koniyama 5/19 Shannon 4/26 Taharus 5/14 Bernard

B4:

#3:31: 5/23 wind undine 4/30 Koniyama 5/19 Shannon 4/30 Diaz 5/14 Bernard

#2:35: 5/35 Baretta, 5/27 Chasun, 5/35 Tyron, 4/30 Bernard, 4/30 Koniyama

B5:

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta 5/35 Raoq 5/35 Bella 5/35 Kuhn 5/35 Koniyama

#3:39: 5/35 fire sylph 5/35 fire rakshasa 5/32 Ahman 5/35 Bella 5/35 Antares

#2:40.2: 6/40 Tyron 6/28 Chasun 35 Julie 35 Baretta 5/27 Koniyama

B6:
#1:40.1: 5/35 Baretta 5/35 Koni 6/40 Julien 5/35 Bella 5/35 Ahman

#2:40.2: 5/35 Baretta 6/28 Chasun 5/27 Koniyama 5/35 Bella 5/35 Yen

B7:

#2:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 6/38 Chasun 5/35 Shannon 5/35 Bella 6/30 Veromos

#3:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 6/40 Hwa 6/35 Acasis 5/35 Koni 5/35 Bella

#1:40.9: 40 Baretta 40 Amir 40 Ahman 40 Bella 40 Vero

: 6/34 Verde 40 Ahman 40 Vero 40 Bella 40 Baretta

B8: right->boss

#1:40.9: 40 Baretta 35 Bernard 40 Ahman 40 Bella 40 Veromos

#1:40.11:40 Sigmarus 35 Bernard 40 Ahman 40 Bella 40 Veromos

#2:40.9: 40 Veromos 35 Bernard 40 Chasun 40 Bella 40 Shannon

b9: boss

#1:40.14: 40 Verde 40 Vero 40 Bella 40 Mikene 40 Shannon

#1:40.15: 40 Verde 40 Vero 40 Hwa 40 Ahman 40 Bella

#2:40.13: 40 Vero 40 Velajuel 40 Eshir 40 Theomars 40 Bella

B10 LRB:

#1:40.13 6/39 verd 40 chandra 40 vero 40 bella 40 baretta

**NOT 100% – probably like 60%**

#1:40.15 40 Baretta 40 Vero 40 Bella 40 Ahman 35 Koni

#1:40.xx 40 Sigmarus 40 Veromos 40 Bella 40 Verde 40 Briand

#1:40.2x 40 Verde 40 Sigmarus 40 Veromos 40 Bella 40 Briand

#2:40.15 40 Sigmarus 40 Veromos 40 Bella 30 Talc 35 Teon – See here for more info.

#2:40.21 Sig(l) Vero Bella Megan Briand : 2:59-3:15

#3:40.14 40 Vero 40 Bella 40 Talc 40 Platy 40 Theomars

#3.40.15 40 Vero 40 Bella 40 Talc 30 Vanessa 40 Baretta

#3:40.25 Sig(L) Vero Bella Talc Briand : 4:07

B10 RB:

#1:40.25 40 Verde(L) 40 Vero 40 Bella 40 Sig 40 Briand

#2:40.32 Verde(L) Vero Bella Sig Briand – 3:25

B10 boss:

#1:40.3x: Verde(l) Vero Bella Sig Chandra : 3:20

#1:40.4x: Verde(l) Vero Bella Sig Megan5: 2:39

#2:40.4x: Verde(l) Vero Bella Sig Megan5* : 2:10-3:15

#3:40.41: Sig(L) Vero Bella Spectra Megan5*: 2:13-2:58

B10: Guide.

Fire

B1: whatever

B2/B3:

12: 3/24 water fairy, 3/24 fairy queen, 3/23 wind serpent, 3/13 water fairy, 3/16 fire hellhound

B4:

#3:19: 4/30 Fran 4/29 wind serpent 4/15 fire lich 3/25 Lulu 3/20 Koniyama

#2:20: 4/30 Fran, 3/10 water bounty hunter, 4/20 Lulu, 3/20 fire inferno, 4/20 Colleen

B5:

#3:22: 4/30 Fran, 4/24 Lulu, 4/30 Elucia, 4/22 Sieq, 4/30 fire lich {DPS}

#2:23: 4/26 light sylph, 3/25 Koniyam, 4/30 Fran, 4/30 Lulu, 4/30 Sieq

B6:

#2:30: 4/30 fire sylph, 4/30 Darion, 4/30 Lulu, 4/30 Koniyama, 4/25 fire brownie

#3:31: 5/17 Bernard, 4/30 Koniyama, 4/25 Koniyama, 5/35 Raoq, 5/35 fire lich

#3:31: 4/1 water sylph, 4/30 Koniyam, 5/21 Bernard, 5/35 Raoq, 5/35 fire lich

B7:

#3:39: 5/35 Fire Sylph, 5/35 Koniyama, 4/30 Koniyama, 5/35 Ahman, 6/35 Antares

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 Bernard, 5/35 Shannon, 5/35 Koniyama, 5/35 Ahman

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 DPS (water phoenix), 5/30 Rebecca, 5/35 Koniyama, 5/35 Ahman

B8: (double bomb towers)

#1:40.2: 5/35 Baretta, 6/40 Sigmarus, 5/35 Koniyama, 5/35 Atenai/Ahman, 5/35 Rebecca/Kro/Bella

#1:40.2: 4/20 Lumi, 6/40 Sigmarus, 5/35 Koniyama, 5/35 Mikene, 5/35 Susano

#2:40.2: 40 Tyron 35 Baretta 5/29 Koniyama 6/30 Chasun 35 Bella

B9:

#2: 40.2: 40 Tyron 35 Baretta 5/29 Koniyama 6/30 Chasun 35 Bella

#1: 40.6: 35 Baretta 40 Sigmarus 40 Bella 6/35 Ahman 6/35 Veromos

B10:

#2:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 6/40 Tyron 6/38 Chasun 6/30 Veromos 5/35 Bella

Giants

B1/B2: whatever

B3:

18: 4/29 Fran, 4/27 wind serpent, 3/25 fire vagabond, 4/26 Elucia, 4/17 Koniyama

20: 4/30 Fran, 3/10 water bounty hunter, 4/20 Lulu, 3/20 fire inferno, 4/20 Colleen

B4:

24: 4/30 light sylph, 4/20 Koniyama, 4/30 Sieq, 3/20 Megan, 4/30 Fran

24: 4/30 Fran, 4/26 Lulu, 4/30 fire lich, 4/11 Shannon, 4/30 Elucia

B5:

#2:30: 4/30 Fran {SPEED LEAD}, 4/30 Shannon, 4/25 Darion, 4/30 Lulu, 4/30 Huan {DPS}

#3:31: 5/23 wind undine, 4/30 Koni, 5/19 Shannon, 4/26 Taharus, 5/14 Bernard

#2:35: 5/35 Tyron, 5/29 Shannon, 5/22 Bella, 5/30 Chasun, 4/30 Huan

B6:

#2:36: 5/35 Baretta, 5/31 Shannon, 5/26 Bella, 5/31 Chasun, 4/30 Huan {DPS}

#3:39: 5/35 fire sylph, 5/35 fire rakshasa, 5/35 Ahman, 5/35 Bella, 6/30 Antares

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 Sigmarus, 5/30 Darion, 5/35 Bella, 5/35 Ahman

B7:

#1:40.3: 6/40 Sigmarus, 5/30 Water beast monk, 6/25 Bella, 6/25 Shannon, 5/35 Ahman

#2:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 6/38 Chasun 5/35 Shannon 5/35 Bella 6/40 Tyron

B8:

40: Bernard, Shannon, Bella, Darion, Ahman :

*not my team, info from this Thread with unit stats for completion.

#1:40.4: 5/35 Baretta 6/21 Shannon 5/35 Atenai 6/30 Bella 5/35 Bernard – ~80%

#2:40.4: 35 Baretta 35 Shannon 40 Chasun 6/20 Bella 5/33 Bernard

#1:40.5 5/35 Baretta 6/30 Shannon 6/30 Bella 6/30 Ahman 6/40 Sigmarus

#3:40.5: 40 Baretta 40 Acasis 35 Bernard 35 Bella 6/37 Talc

B9:

Borrow an uber Chow rep to solo and never look back!

#1:40.7: 35 Baretta 40 Sigmarus 40 Bella 6/35 Ahman 40 Veromos

B10: Note: Boss has 45% Resist

#1:40.7: 40 Veromos 6/35 Shannon 40 Bella 40 Ahman 35 Bernard

#1:40.18: 40 Veromos 40 Shannon 40 Bella 40 Lagmaron 35 Bernard

#1:40.4x: Lagmaron(L) Bella Shannon Vero Amir : 2:10

#1:40.54: Lagmaron(l) Bella Hraesvelg Vero Amir: 1:55

#2:40.6: 40 Veromos 6/35 Shannon 40 Bella 40 Chasun 6/30 Eshir

#2:40.24: Sig(L) Bella Chasun Vero Teshar : 2:00

#3:40.7: 40 Veromos 40 Acasis 40 Bella 40 Talc 35 Bernard

#3:40.14: Sig(L) Vero Bella Chasun Amir : 2:30

Not my teams:

Finally beat Dragons B10! (Farmable team) from summonerswar

Veremos6, Ahman6, Bella6, Megan5, Darion5

Sig (L), Belladeon, Bernard, Konamiya, and Shannon

Farmable and fusable Dragon B10 Team from summonerswar

Baretta6, Ahman6, Kona6, Mikene6, Veramos6

Light

B1/B2:

8: 3/15 water fairy, 3/15 fairy queen, 3/15 wind serpent, 2/15 fire hellhound, 2/15 wind elemental

B3/B4:

17: 4/23 Elucia, 4/22 wind serpent, 3/25 Taharus, 3/23 Ramagos, 3/21 Lulu

20: 4/30 Fran, 4/20 Rakaja, 4/20 Colleen, 4/25 Suri (DPS), 4/20 Spectra (MISC)

B5 (right tower->boss):

23: 4/30 Fran, 4/25 Rakajah, 4/25 Lulu, 4/25 Shannon, 4/15 Spectra

B6:

#2:3?: 35 Baretta 30 Decameron 35 Chasun 35 Bella 5/30 Bernard

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 Julien, 5/35 Ahman, 5/35 Shannon, 5/35 Bernard

#3:40: 35 Baretta 40 Antares 35 fire rakshasa 35 Bella 5/30 Colleen

B7: one of the hardest B7s without the right comp

#2:40.1: 35 Baretta 40 Tyron 35 Chasun 35 Bella 35 Eshir

#3:40.1: 35 Baretta 40 Antares 35 fire rakshasa 35 Bella 5/30 Ahman/Colleen

B8: Right->Boss

#2:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 6/30 Veromos 6/38 Chasun 5/35 Bella 5/35 Shannon

#1:40.4: 6/40 Sigmarus 6/35 Bella 5/35 Baretta 5/35 Dark Ifrit 6/35 Ahman

B9: Right->Boss

#2:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 6/30 Veromos 6/38 Chasun 5/35 Bella 5/35 Shannon

#1:40.9: 40 Sigmarus 40 Bella 40 Baretta 40 Veromos 40 Ahman

B10:

#1:40.9: 40 Sigmarus 40 Bella 40 Baretta 40 Veromos 40 Ahman

Magic

B1:

6: 3/8 water fairy, 3/8 fairy queen, 2/8 fire hellhound, 2/9 wind vagabond, 2/4 wind elemental
*NO RUNES

B2:

8: 3/15 water fairy, 3/15 fairy queen, 3/12 wind serpent, 2/14 fire hellhound, 2/10 wind elemental

B3:

8: 4/15 Fran, 3/15 Rakajah, 3/15 fire griffon, 4/15 wind beast hunter, 4/15 Sieq

8: 3/15 water fairy, 3/15 fairy queen, 3/12 wind serpent, 2/14 fire hellhound, 2/10 wind elemental

B4 (right tower->Boss):

#2:17: 4/27 Fran, 4/25 wind serpent, 4/6 Ramagos, 4/24 Elucia, 3/7 fire serpent

#3:19: 4/25 Fran, 3/20 Rakajah, 3/25 Colleen, 4/20 wind beast hunter, 4/20 Sieq

B5:

#3:19: 4/30 Fran, 4/28 Elucia, 4/30 wind serpent, 4/21 Kai’en, 4/25 fire lich

#2:20: 4/30 Fran, 4/27 Suri (DPS), 4/18 Shannon, 4/21 Lulu (HEAL), 4/26 Colleen (HEAL)

*Level 3/3 star runes, all 4500+ HP.

B6:

#2:26: 4/30 Fran, 4/30 Koni, 4/21 Darion, 4/9 Decameron (DPS), 4/30 Lulu

*not 100%

#3:28: 4/30 Fran OR 4/26 Wind undine, 4/27 Koni, 4/29 Shannon, 4/27 Bernard, 5/32 fire lich

#2:29: 4/27 fire sylph, 4/30 Shannon, 4/30 Lulu, 4/10 Decameron, 4/27 huan

B7:

#2:33: 5/30 Baretta, 5/20 Chasun, 5/20 Shannon, 4/25 Bernard, 4/25 Draco

#3:37: 35 Ahman 35 Bernard 35 Antares 35 Shannon 35 Bella

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 Sigmarus, 5/35 Shannon, 5/35 Bella, 5/35 Ahman

B8:

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 Bernard, 5/35 Shannon/Michelle, 5/35 Bella – ~50%

#2:40.1: 40 Tyron 35 Yen 35 Baretta 35 Chasun 35 Bella

#3:40.1: 35 Baretta 35 Ahman 38 Antares 5/30 Shannon/Talc 5/35 Bella

B9:

#1:40.4: 5/35 Baretta, 6/24 Shannon, 6/33 Bella, 6/40 Sigmarus, 5/35 Ahman

#2:40.4: 5/35 Baretta 40 Tyron 40 Veromos 40 Chasun 6/32 Bella

#3:40.4: 40 Baretta 35 Talc 35 Bernard/Mihyang/Colleen 40 Acasis 35 Bella

#1:40.13: 40 Verde 40 Baretta 40 Bella 40 Veromos 40 Amir

B10:

#1:40.7: 40 Baretta 40 Chandra 40 Veromos 40 Bella 40 Ahman

#2:40.7: 40 Baretta 40 Tyron 40 Veromos 40 Bella 40 Chasun

Necropolis

B1-B3: whatever

B4:

#1:30 Lapiz 30 Tarq 30 Shihwa 30 Colleen 40 Bella

5/21 Shihwa 35 Lapis 5/15 Colleen 30 Arkajan 30 Rakajah

#2: 35 Lapis 5/30 Tarq 5/18 Colleen 5/18 fire kobold 5/15 Rakajah

#3: 35 Lapis 35 Eva 5/13 Arkajan 40 Bella 35 Colleen

B5:

#1: 40 Sigmarus 30 Lapis 35 Bernard 30 Colleen 40 Bella

#2: 35 Lapis 5/30 Tarq 5/18 Colleen 5/18 fire kobold 5/15 Rakajah

B6:

#2: 35 Colleen 35 Rakajah 35 Tarq 35 Zibrolta(L) 35 Lanette

#1:40.16 5/34 Zibrolta 40 Bella 35 Colleen 30 Sera 40 Hwa

#2:40.11 35 Zibrolta 35 Tarq 35 Colleen 35 Windy 40 Eshir

#3:40.9 35 fire 9t 35 Vigor 40 Bella 35 Colleen 40 Hwa

B8:

#1:40.18: Bella6*->Hwa6*->Colleen5*->Rigel6*->Sigmarus(l)6*

Bella->Colleen5->Rigel6*->Zibrolta5->fire barb5

#2:40.14: Bella6*->Colleen5*->Aegir6*->Zibrolta6*->Windy5*

#3:40.12: Bella->Hwahee128->Grego124->Colleen110->Antares103

B9:

#1:40.20: Bella164->Hwa140->Colleen139->Rigel133->Shihwa(L)129

#2:40.14: Bella6*->Colleen5*->Aegir6*->Zibrolta6*->Windy5*

#3:40.12: Bella->Hwahee128->Grego124->Colleen110->Antares103

B10:

#1:40.20: Bella164->Colleen139->Rigel133->Hwa131->Shihwa(L)129

#1:40.28: Bella->Colleen->Shihwa(l)->Hwa->Fuco

#1:40.4x: Colleen->Lisa->Shihwa(l)->Xiong Fei->Fuco : 2:58-4:30

#1:40.54: Colleen->Shihwa(l)->Xiong Fei->Dusky->Fuco: 2:34-3:02

#2:40.19: Bella->Colleen->Adrian->Zibrolta(l)->Hwa : 3:37-4:00

#2:40.43 Colleen->Xiong Fei->Chilling->Zibrolta->Hwa(L) : 3:27-3:49

#3:40.30: Bella->Colleen->Shihwa(l)->Grego->Fuco : 2:22-2:59

Water

B1/B2: Whatever.

B3:

14: 3/22 water fairy, 4/14 fairy queen, 3/19 wind elemental, 3/11 wind warbear, 2/9 water howl

B4 (right tower->boss):
18: 4/27 Fran, 4/25 wind serpent, 4/5 Ramagos, 4/24 Elucia, 3/5 fire serpent

20: 4/30 Fran, 4/20 Lulu, 4/18 Shannon, 4/27 Suri (DPS), 3/13 Lukan (WHATEVER)

B5:

24: 4/28 light sylph, 4/16 Koniyama, 4/30 Lulu, 4/30 Suri (DPS), 3/11 Decamaron

24: 4/30 Fran, 4/26 Lulu, 4/30 Ermeda, 4/11 Shannon, 4/6 Taharus

B6:

24: 4/30 Fran, 4/26 Lulu, 4/30 Ermeda, 4/11 Shannon, 4/6 Taharus

?: 4/30 Ramahan, 4/30 Taharus, 4/30 Shannon, 4/30 Rakajah/wind magic archer/etc.
*2-3 STAR teams

B7:

#1:40: 5/35 Bernard, 5/35 Julien, 4/30 Rizak, 5/35 Koniyama, 5/35 Ahman

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 Bella, 5/35 Ahman, 4/30 Rizak->DPS, 4/20 Decamaron

#3:40.1: 35 Baretta 4/10 Decameron 35 Bella 35 Ahman 5/30 Shannon

B8:

40: 5/35 Baretta, 5/35 Bella, 5/35 Ahman, 5/40 Sigma, 4/30 Decamaron

*~50%: Needs more HP and/or a cleanse. Bella->Koni wasn’t enough

40: 6/40 Sigmarus, 5/30 water beast monk, 5/27 Bella, 4/30 Decameron, 5/35 Ahman

#2:40.1: 35 Baretta* 35 Chasun* 35 Bella 30 Decameron 35 Yen

#3:40.2: 35 Baretta 6/31 Hwa 35 Bella 35 Talc 34 wind sylphid

#1:40.2: 35 Baretta 40 Sigmarus 30 Decameron 35 Bella 35 Koniyama

#1:40.3: 40 Sigmarus 5/30 water beast monk 6/27 Bella 30 Decameron/Orochi 35 Ahman

B9:

#3:40.4: 6/33 Baretta 40 Acasis 5/35 Bella 5/35 Talc 4/30 Decameron

#2:40.4: 5/35 Baretta 40 Chasun 6/32 Bella 40 Veromos 4/30 Decameron

#1:40.6: 40 Sigmarus 5/35 water beast monk 40 Bella 5/25 Orochi 6/35 Ahman

B10: right->boss

#3:40.7: 40 Baretta 40 Acasis 40 Bella 40 Talc 6/34 Veromos

#1:40.10: 40 Vero 40 Amir 40 Bella 40 Ahman 40 Sigmarus

Wind

B1/B2: Whatever

B3:

15: 3/25 water fairy, 4/19 fairy queen, 3/22 wind elemental, 3/7 Ramagos, 3/21 Sieq

B4:

19: 4/30 Fran, 4/28 Suri (DPS), 4/20 Shannon, 3/20 Tagaros, 4/25 Colleen

B5:

19: 4/30 Fran, 4/18 Lulu, 4/30 Ermeda, 4/15 Sieq, 4/26 fire lich {DPS}

21: 4/30 Fran, 4/28 Suri (DPS), 4/21 Shannon, 3/23 Tagaros, 4/27 Colleen

B6:

24: 4/30 Light Sylph, 4/30 Sieq, 4/30 Shannon, 4/30 Colleen, 4/30 Fran

*Need Colleen or some heal blocking unit for reasonable and reliable clear time

33: 5/21 Bernard, 4/24 Colleen, 5/35 Raoq, 5/35 Antares, 4/30 dark death knight

33: 4/30 Ahman, 5/24 Colleen, 5/31 Bella, 5/35 Antares, 4/30 dark death knight

B7:

#3:36: 4/30 Ahman 5/24 Colleen 5/30 Bella 5/35 Antares 4/30 dark death knight

#2:38: 5/35 Baretta 5/34 Chasun 5/23 Bernard 4/30 Colleen 5/32 Bella

#1:40: 5/35 Baretta 5/35 Bella 5/35 Ahman 5/35 Raoq 5/30 Darion

#3:40.1: 35 Baretta* 5/31 Colleen 35 Bella 40 Antares 5/20 Dias

#1:40.3: 35 Baretta 30 Dias 35 Raoq 6/33 Bella 35 Atenai

B8:

#2:40.1: 35 Baretta 35 Chasun 40 Tyron 4/30 dark death knight 35 Bella

#3:40.1: 35 Baretta 35 Ahman 35 Bella 40 Antares 5/20 Dias

#1:40.3: 5/35 Baretta 4/30 Dias 5/35 Raoq/Jun 6/33 Bella 5/35 Atenai/Ahman

B9: right->left/boss

#1:40.5: 5/35 Baretta 35 Chandra 35 Veromos 6/33 Bella, 6/35 Ahman

#3:40.5: 40 Baretta 40 Acasis 35 Belladeon 35 Colleen 5/32 Dias

B10: left->right->boss

#1:40.9 40 Baretta 40 Veromos 40 Amir 40 Ahman 40 Bella

TOA

TOA 100 f2p/farmable guide here.

A note on killer ToA units

Despair/cc units:

fire sylph->Baretta: An absolutely amazing ToA unit. 6* and skillmax him when you can. In addition to ToA, he’s useful in early & mid game arena, GW and essence dungeon farming.
light succubus->Aria: HoH unit from before my time. Amazing control unit.
wind ifrit->Amir: built in stun on his #2, good candidate for despair runes with a second aoe
dark ifrit->Veromos: He is (or can be) in every team you run, except Necropolis. Very reliable stun once skillmaxed, and he cleanses!

General use:

light inugami->Bella: Like Vero above, except people use Bella in Necropolis.
wind penguin knight->Mav: A new addition to the toolkit, he provides a speed buff, condition removal AND team cooldown reduction – which lets your aoe stunners/dotters/ATB manipulators/etc. go that much sooner.

ATB/speed manipulators:

fire vampire->Verde: He makes everything better, especially ToA.

wind griffon->Bernard: if you don’t have a Verde, he’s can provide similar team speeding, to a lesser degree
fire griffon->Spectra: The reverse Verde…sorta. Denies the opponents teams and provides decent damage via his #2.
Hwa: good single target damage, very good single target atb reduction and a slow+dots

Taunters

any unit with a taunt (Ahman, Talc, Mav) may be very helpful versus certain bosses. I’d say you want at least one, just in case.

My default ToA teams:

#1: Baretta(l) Veromos Bella Briand Verde – this team can auto 1-99, manual on bosses 60+. UPDATE: This team was eventually able to auto 1-100 (including all bosses), depending on rotation.

#2: Baretta(l) Veromos Bella Tyron Chasun – auto to 90ish, manual on bosses 50+
UPDATE: This account was eventually migrated to the same team as #1.

#3: Baretta(l) Veromos Bella Acasis Talc – auto to 80ish, manual on bosses 50+

(Basically Baretta-Vero-Bella-STUNNER-SUPPORT)

ToA 100 teams:

For the old toa boss:

1: Baretta Vero Bella Verde Hwa

2: Baretta Vero Bella Chasun Theo

3: Baretta Vero Bella Colleen Hwa

For the new boss:

1: Veromos Tesarion Verde Bella Sigmarus

2: Veromos Tesarion Chasun Bella Sigmarus

3. Baretta Veromos Bella Chasun Hwa

Raiding

I don’t feel my knowledge here is yet as relevant as it could be (I’m currently working on smoothing out my R4), so see here for an amazing raid guide. Keep in mind what I say here only goes up to R4 – it will be a long, long time before I hit R5.

Front line stat requirements

R	def	hp	EHP	Back line
3 – 2-3 front	900	20,000	47,000	13,000-15,000
4 – 2-3 front	1000	25,000	63,000	13,000-15,000
5 – 2-3 front	1500	25,000	81,000	18,000
5 – 4 front	1000	25,000	63,000	18,000?

Team composition

For starting teams, you’ll want something like:

2+ healers, ideally 1 smart
1-2 cleansers, depending on speed of cleanser.
At 200+ spd, you can generally get by with 1

2-4 front liners
Critical debuffs: slow, atk down, heal block, glancing

So, a 100% attainable team might translate to something like:

Front: Bella Xiong Fei Darion/Dias

Back: Kona Colleen Ran

That would give you: 3 random heals, 1 smart heal, damage reduction (from Darion or Dias, which reduces you def/hp rune requirements for the rest of the team) and cover all your debuff bases, although XF is not the best source of glancing. This team would be fine for R3, but take pretty solid runes for R4.

A potentially better (losing Bella’s “smart” heal can hurt some teams) team with some good nat4s might be:

Front: Chasun Xiong Fei Dias

Back: Lisa Colleen Hwa

Skeleton:

Front: HEAL Xiong Fei SUPPORT

Back: CLEANSE Colleen DPS

Unit by unit breakdown:

Chasun (luck), once you max her #1, gives you a semi-reliable source of glancing, as well just generally just being beefy and able to sit in the front and eat damage (for R4 at least). Yes, she’s rather rare, but everyone wants her and you should be saving summoning stones to try and get her and the other “chase” nat4s (Verde, Briand, Galleon, Lushen, Chasun) – odds are you’ll get one eventually. Probably within 1000 summons :P. Emma is also great in this spot and provides the crucial glancing.
Xiong Fei (fusion) is a great “filler” unit for R4 that fills a number of roles: valuable debuffs, beefy enough for front line, some sustain heal, a great leader skill, and can potentially deal decent damage with his #3. I’ve heard that he may fall off in R5, but he’s solid enough to be worth building for R4, GW, NB10. I’ve maxed him on 2 accounts and am working on the 3rd, no regrets.
Dias (HoH) is generally regarded as one of the better R4 supports due to his damage reduction passive, tankiness, and 3 relevant debuffs. He also provides that crucial 30% resist lead. Fedora provides the same debuffs and a cleanse, if that works better for your team and someone else has a resist lead.
Lisa (luck) is generally regarded as the best R4 cleanser. She needs 200+ speed to solo cleanse. Fedora and Delphoi (and others) can also work here but I like Fedora better due to his other skills being relevant.
Colleen (farmable) should be in every raid team (until you know enough to know why and how to replace her). Just build her and be done with it. She’s amazing for NB10 as well, so it’s not a wasted unit.
Hwa (luck) is generally regarded as one of the better DPS units for raids. She provides the much needed slow debuff but her passive ATB pushback is also amazing for raids. Other (non-nat5) contenders, based on the rest of your team include Stella, Ardella (SD), Fuco, Rigel (Hoh), Ran (HoH). All want full skillups, if possible (with some saying hold off on maxing Ran & Hwa’s #2, if you can).

IV. Rift Dungeons

Now that we’ve had these for a while, and I’ve ground out second stage (chosen element) homunculi on all my accounts, I figured I should probably add something about these.

Keep in mind that the highest I can get is A+ in most dungeons, A in the rest, so I can’t tell you how to build an SSS team (short answer: get god mode runes!).

General info

Since debuffs don’t work in the active state, buffs are really strong in all the beast raids – primarily attack, speed and defense buffs, but crit rate, bubble shields and recovery are all solid buffs as well if you can fit them in without weakening your team. Units that fill multiple roles are, as always, in high demand. Think units like Randy who provide multi-hit in for dark beast and sustainability (defense buff) and average damage increase (CR buff).

The following information is NOT COMPREHENSIVE and drawn primarily from my experiences on my 3 accounts. So I’m mostly going to talk about monsters I actually have or have tested, not everything under the sun.

I’ll provide some simple templates that should at least get you to B- if your runes are decent (F2-F3 runes, violent where relevant, 160+ SPD violent on supports).

AOE = should be self explanatory, but something with good AOE of the relevant element (in this case, NO WIND) like Julie, fire/light/dark samurai.

DPS = single target dps like Theomars, Laika, Ardella

SUSTAIN = something that makes your units last longer while alse providing damage. Light/wind/water drunken master, Hwahee & Perna all do this by bringing damage and healing, while something like Randy does it by bringing defense buff and damage.

ATKBUFF = something that brings ATK buff (generally when you can’t run Colleen or don’t have Chasun). Shannon is a non-ideal option. Wind barbaric king and Hwahee are better ones.

MULTI = multi hit monsters like you would use in Necropolis. Shihwa, wind/water/dark liches, kung fu girls, etc.

NOTE ABOUT THEO: I’ve avoided putting Theo in every team in a DPS slot so as not to appear to claim he’s easy to get…but if you have him you probably should. The only A/A+ team I don’t use him in is Wind.

Fire

Fire is all about having enough aoe to take out the minion waves that spawn so they don’t destroy you. Being able to survive a couple missed minions doesn’t hurt either. In general, what seems to work best (for me) is 1-2 healers and 4 AOE dps. You also need at least 2 monsters that can survive in the front line, and as many of your monsters to be water as you can to take advantage of the glancing and 15% extra crit.

Template:

Front	Back
Bella Lapis(L)/Colleen	Lapis/Colleen Sigmarus AOE DPS/AOE/SUSTAIN

Relevant attainable units:

Lapis is actually pretty solid here, however she will require 6*ing and maxing her S3 will help a bunch. She can frontline with a good vampire set, or potentially a HP or DEF rune.
Colleen : She’s not water, but you should have built her already, so she’s sort of an auto-include into starting teams. ATK buff is huge here, and she can solo heal an A rank team at least with NB10/R4 runes. Can frontline with really good runes.
Sigmarus : You should have fused one by now for GB10/DB10/ToA 100, right? Her aoe should wipe the minions at each stage – the trouble is getting her to use it at the right time. This is why you bring 3-4 aoe units… before fire beast I didn’t really aim for violent runes on Sig, now I am, because every proc is a chance to make up for a missed or wasted AOE.
Theo : You probably have one by now, right? Apologies if not… anyway, he provides defense break for the groggy stage and good damage as well as a good leader skill option.
Bella : Not recommended long term, but he’s solid for starting teams, bringing the heal during awake stage and the critical defense break during groggy.
Kahli : provides two relevant buffs and hits really hard, doesn’t need def break so hits hard during both stages.

Nat4s

Verde : as much as I’ve seen people say that Verde is a waste here, I haven’t found a better unit to replace him and, especially on violent, he can help one of your aoe units make up for a wasted turn and maybe blast the minions before they blast you.
Fire lich : with good runes, his aoe can wipe the minions, and it’s on a low-ish cooldown (3 turns). Speed debuff is also helpful in groggy stage. He’s NOT great here, but if you have one, it’s somewhere you could use him.
water/dark lich : really good damage during groggy, occasionally takes out minions. Don’t built one for this, but if you already have one built, you can use it here.
Water nine tails : has a solid aoe and some self sustain, could be a frontline DPS.
Water/dark kung fu girl: she can do crazy damage in groggy state, and her S3 can occasionally take out a couple minions – but she’s mostly here to wreck the boss during groggy. Also brings a defense break. She fills a similar role to Theo here although does it slightly better.
fire/light/dark samurai: They all have a solid aoe as well as the potential to trigger their proc aoe at any time – and when the proc is up they are guaranteed to use that skill next. I haven’t built any of these for this role, but it seems like they could be decent here.
Light/water sylph: They have two aoes, so if you build them for damage (and potentially violent), they could do well here.

Water

Key skill here is ATB boosting to offset heal loss, then a couple healers to actually heal that up – all the while doing DAMAGE. So if you can compress all that support into two units and go hame with 3-4 damage well, you get the drift.

Template:

Front	Back
Bernard Bella	DPS DPS SUSTAIN/ATKBUFF DPS/Colleen

Colleen is less than ideal due to fire element, so replace her with Chasun if/when you can, this will also let you remove Bella, depending on rune quality.
Bernard will someday be replaced by a DPS unit (post A+ I think)

Relevant attainable units:

Bernard : You’ve got him, he’s wonderful here, use him.
Bella: Same as fire, good starting unit, remove when you can.
Theo: damage + leader skill
Mav : speed buff and CD reduction. Not amazing here, but could work well in the right team.
Megan: ATB boost, atk+def buffs. Sadly her S1/s2 are useless here.
Purian: ATB boost, crit buff and solid damage.
Amir: Not great here because his two aoes are wasted, but his S2 hits really hard, and he may be the best wind damage dealer you have.
Katarina: I use her on acct3 because I have no other options (currently building Shumar to replace her). You can use her to get to A at least.
Shumar (dark hellhound) : his passive is triggered by the HP freeze effect – might as well get a bonus out of something that will happen anyway.
Copper : solid frontline with great damage. One problem is that he’s usually built slower, but he’s still a pretty good option, especially if you’re lacking frontliners.

Nat4s

All the crazy healers are going to be helpful here: Chasun, Emma, Mihael, etc.
wind/water/dark lich – if you have one built for necro, also great here
water/wind assassins – solid damage with def break on S1 plus extra utility from S2

Wind

The trick on wind is to out heal the shock debuff – if you can do that it deals significant damage to the boss (and keeps you from dying). One thing to note is that the damage from the debuff will go through invincibility, and is affected by defense. So defense buffs and high defense units are decent here.

Template:

Front	Back
Xiong Fei(L) Colleen	DPS DPS DPS SUSTAIN

Relevant attainable units:

Xiong Fei – Solid front line, brings recovery buff for awake phase and def break for groggy phase.
Colleen – Heal+ATK buff
Bella – good for starting out, but try and replace when you can.
Randy – damage + def buff. He’s not the best here, but if you’ve got one already built he’s solid, especially given the interaction between defense buff and the shock damage.
Huan – he’s pretty solid here.

Nat4s:

All the crazy healers are going to be helpful here: Chasun, Emma, Mihael, etc. Emma less so because of elemental weakness, but if you’ve got nothing else she can help for a bit.
Fire undine – good frontliner and solid heal but needs maxed skills to shine. S1 brings nothing sadly. Not the best, but she’s in one of my A teams, so she’s not bad.
Verde – good until you get something better
Fire nine tails – if you’ve got one built for necro, she’s solid here with some self sustain as well as branding for the groggy state.
Fire anubis – good front liner, S2 hits hard in groggy state and his shield can help hold off the shock damage killing a weak unit.

Light

For light you want hard hitting attackers that do SINGLE hits (no multi hit), as the damage is apparently lowered for multi-hitters.

Starter Template:

Front	Back
Bella Colleen	DPS DPS DPS DPS/Sustain

Relevant attainable units:

Theo – really hard hitting single target damage on his S1 (S2 does less against the shield, but brings DEF break for groggy)
Copper (and other defense based nukes) will do well as long as they are fast enough.
Colleen – still here, doing her heal + attack buff thing. Not the best for this, since she multi-hits, but you’re using her for her S3 anyway.
Sigmarus – for some reason I never thought of bringing him here, but he helped push one of my teams to A. Helps if he’s on violent.
Katarina – if you have nothing else, she’s not terrible. Even without ignoring defense, her S3 hits OK since it’s all on the same target.
Huan (wind drunken master) – he is quite good here. His rune requirements are a bit high, but he’s a viable F2P option. Starter runes: Spd/CR/ATK, move to SPD/CD/ATK then ATK/CD/ATK when you can.

Nat4s:

Hraesvelg (wind barbaric king) – seems to be a key unit that took me to A+
Chasun – replace Colleen with her when you can, unless Colleen is working out fine for you.
Fei – people say multi hit is bad here but things like Fei with insane skills may be the exception ;).
Xiao Lin – I haven’t 6d mine yet, but she hits about the same as Fei without ignore defense and can hit much harder if you stack debuffs in groggy phase, so she should be fine.

Brief A+ guide

See my extensive A+ guide on reddit here. I’ll condense it for the purpose of this larger guide.

Notes:

We are going for the “easier” (imho) route to A+ in light: do 2,000,000 damage before the boss kills you.
You’re probably going to need R4/NB10 auto quality runes, especially Colleen.
You want 2+ DEF breakers and, if you can, at least 1 brander.
Shoot for 140+ speed on all monsters without SPD on 2, 160+ for SPD on 2 monsters.
Front line: 22,000 HP/750 DEF to tank the 2nd shield hit in 3rd wave.
Back line: 12,000HP/750 DEF to tank the 2nd aoe hit in the 3rd wave

F2P A+ Template:

Front	Back
Colleen TANKYDPS	LEADDPS FASTDPS BESTDPS SUPPORTDPS

Colleen : R4/NB10 Colleen : SPD/HP/DF, 200+ TOTAL (with leads, towers) speed. From my testing, Colleen needs about +60 speed to keep up with a Chasun here since she only has one heal. However, if you have a good SUPPORTDPS, she may be able to run slower.
TANKYDPS : This is the absolute hardest slot for an F2P player to fill. Hopefully by this point (NB10, R4+) you’ve pulled something that will work well here (I use XingZhe & Chow), if not see the discussion in the guide linked above. Basically you want something that not only can survive, but also either has a good damage output or drastically increase the damage of your team. Copper might be a good place to start. Mav works for SOME people, but not me.
LEADDPS : A unit that provides a relevant, damage increasing leadership skill and contributes good damage. Theomars is going to be the best F2P option here probably.
FASTDPS : A unit that hits hard and scales with speed works here. Really you can use any DPS, but most people will have a Tarq, Susano, etc. built by now.
BESTDPS: For many F2P players, Theo may be your best dps. If he’s not, put that unit here. If you have multiple options, go for one with brand+def break.
SUPPORTDPS: Ideally this DPS fills in whatever is missing – an extra defense break, a backup heal (especially if you are running Colleen), and extra ATK or SPEED buff, etc. Generally this should be a nat4 (Hraesvelg is amazing here), but Huan (wind drunken master) is an attainable option here.

Better/Nat4 A+ Template:

Front	Back
Chasun XiaoLin (vamp, R4+)	Theo(lead) Stella Hraesvelg +1

Dark

Multi-hitters are the key here, just like necro. In fact, you can probably start with your necro team +1 and do alright. If possible, try and make it so your frontliners are the monsters with the least multi-hits- Theo, for example, is a good front liner, because he’s mostly good in the groggy stage.

Template

Front	Back
Colleen XiongFei	MULTI MULTI MULTI MULTI

Relevant attainable units:

Randy (fire bounty hunter) : I like him here because he brings multi hit, damage, team damage (CR buff) AND team sustain (DEF buff). He’s also a unit you might already have for a Copper+Randy GW combo or something.
Ran – from HoH, especially if you’ve got one built for necro.
Xiong Fei – multi hits, tanky, and sustain. Good front liner.
Theo – Good old Theo, always willing to hit stuff hard. I put him in the front line so he gets frozen, since he’s best in the groggy phase anyway..
Colleen – Another great spot for her (build one already!).

V. Farming and farmers

The basics

What is farming? Well…if you haven’t played a Korean game before…it’s something you’d better get comfortable with real quick! OK but seriously generally when someone says “farming” it translates to “doing the same thing over and over again” where “the same thing” translates to “the most efficient thing I can do with my current monsters to acquire resource X” where X is experience, essences, mana, etc. Efficiency can be considered in terms of energy or or time – generally F2P players are more concerned with energy (since we don’t buy more) than time (time efficiency comes into play during free energy or double XP events where you want to get as much XP as you can before that event runs out, even if it’s not the most efficient use of your energy).

For the purpose of this section of the guide we’re talking about farming XP.

When someone talks about their “farmer” or their “bus driver” they mean a single monster that is powerful enough to clear a level entirely by themselves, as all their “fodder” (ie the monsters to be leveled, generally weak or unruned monsters being leveled up to 3/4/5/6 star other monsters) will die quickly. The common advice is to make your first 5 star monster one that is capable of bus driving in a good xp zone so they can help you make more 5 star monsters. Faimon 1 normal/hard/hell and higher are preferred because they tend to give higher energy returns.

Note that before you have a solid 5 star farmer, you’ll probably just be grinding with an entire runed team. You should be able to do Garen hell and Mt. Siz 1-3 hell by level 20ish. That will net you 1200 xp per 5 energy run and, while it isn’t great, it’s enough to start getting monsters up to 3/25 and 4/30 at least. ALSO: Focus on getting the % runes you need. Hp% from Garen 2/4/6 and ATK% from Mt. Siz 2 at least. Mt. Siz 3+ starts getting noticably harder, but basically once you get the runes you need, just push your grinding up to as high a level as you can auto. The higher you get, the more XP you’ll get for your energy investment.

Some farming statistics

Note: There are much better stats for some of these zones available if you dig around. I just did 100 runs on each to grab some averages. Note that this does NOT count your natural energy regen, as that is variable based on the glory building.

Name	xp/energy with 3 fodder	mana/energy
Hydeni 5 Hell	1304	659
Tamor 3 Hard	1049	623
Tamor 3 Hell	1320	664
Vrof 4 normal	950	800
Vrof 4 hard	1074	643
Faimon 1 normal	1076	1013
Faimon 1 hard	1246	1005
Aiden 1 normal	1152	1034
Aiden 1 hard	1297	968
Faerun 1 normal	1226	1094
Chiruka 1 normal	1386	1198
Chiruka 4 normal	1323	1042

Yep, Faimon 1 is pretty good…this is why I say if you have a solid 5 star that can mow Faimon 1 normal, no need to stress about 6ing it UNLESS you are certain that doing so will take you to the next level.

I recently discovered that my Veromos and Antares could farm Faerun 1 normal. It’s not quite as fast, but it’s very efficient. The downside is mostly 1* fodder instead of hellhounds. Faimon is really hard to beat…. but if you are just leveling units and don’t need 2* fodder, the new zones look to be more efficient.

Common farmers:

Disclosure:I don’t have/use all of these farmers, so many #s are pulled from reddit comments.

Lapis (Water magic knight)

The newest edition to the game, and basically Com2Us’ gift to you! A free farmer! With despair/X at 5* awakened she can do faimon 1 hard. Don’t bother with any of the other starting farmers unless you pull a Soha or something, just go with Lapis. EASY.

Faimon 1 hard: 5/35 despair/xx spd/atk/atk

Faimon 1 hell: despair/revenge, atk/crit/hp: 19763HP, 1453atk, 905def, 143spd 76%cr, 89%cd, 22%res, 14%acc. See comments here.

Raoq

Fun, super RNG based unit – both RNG to get him, and RNG to get lucky on farming. Very expensive to get him to 100% F1N or F1hard. I’d recommend other options. If you really want a 3* F1N farmer, Kuhn is cheap.

Tamor 3 Hard: ~1200 ATK : obtainable at 5/35 with l12 3-4* runes.

Faimon 1 normal: 1500+ ATK OR 1100 ATK + 140+ speed. See comment here.

Faimon 1 hard : 1800+ATK, 100% crit OR 80% CD

From here and elsewhere.

Ramagos

Mt. Siz 2-3 hell: 4/30, sometimes earlier

Hydeni 5 hard: 4/30 with a decent amount of hp. Max or close to max #2 & #3 skills.

Telain 1 Hell: 5/22 14k hp

Telain 4,6 Hell: 5/25 16k hp

Hydeni 5 Hell: Semi-reliable around 5/20 with 14k HP and maxed skills. Reliable at 5/35 with 18k HP and maxed skills.

Aiden 1 normal: 18k hp 20% res

Aiden 1 hard: 18k HP, 40% res

Aiden 1 hell: 6*, 100% res

Chiruka 2 hell: 6*, vamp/energy 28k HP, 738 def, 40% res, 118 speed semi-auto. OR endure/endure/energy with 32k HP.

From here.

Dagora

Faimon 1 normal: 5/35, energy x6 hp%x3, decently leveled runes and skills

Faimon 1 hard: 22k hp, 550 def – 5* with level 9 runes

Faimon 1 Hell: 30k hp, 800 def

From here and here.

Rina

Faimon 1 normal: 5/35, stack hp & resist

Faimon 1 hard: 6*, 100% resist or 5* with 4 turn CD heal and +12 runes.

Some info on her farming stats here.

Supposedly Dagora is faster across the board, and much easier to get and skill up…so unless you want a 6* Rina for some other reason I wouldn’t bother, as her other uses are limited, as far as I know – primarily she seems to serve as an AD speed bump (not hard for a serious team to defeat, just a little time consuming).

Acqus (water charger shark)

A recent addition, see here for a good commentary on what it takes to get Acqus rigged for Faimon hell. Also here. IMHO he’s kind of a trap, as his rune requirements are high-ish.

Luan (water martial artist)

Another recent addition.

Faimon Normal: 4* max skilled, vampire/whatever.

Faimon Hard: 5*/20+ max skilled, vampire/whatever.

Malaka (water kobold bomber)

Faimon 1 normal: 5/30ish, fatal/focus

Faimon 1 Hell: stats here.

Tyron (water sylphid)

Faimon 1 normal: 5/30ish despair/focus

Faimon 1 hard: 6/35ish despair/focus

Soha (water nine tails)

Faimon 1 normal: 4/30 vampire/revenge spd/atk/atk 4-5* runes all level 9

Faimon 1 hard : 4/30 vampire/revenge spd/atk/atk 4-5* runes all level 9

Su (water rakshasa)

Here’s good info on runing Su for it.

Less common but farmable farmers:

Kuhn

Faimon 1 normal: 5/25ish. Get +25 speed from passives or swift set, then stack defense for the rest.

Tamor 3 hard: same

From my post here.

Kumae

Faimon 1 normal: 5/35, vampire/energy spd/hp%/hp% or def%, 14k HP +9-12 runes

See the comment here and the entire post for good info.

Ragion

Famion 1 normal: 5/24 (probably earlier). See my post here for more information.

Telain 3 Hell, Hydeni 5 Hell: 5/30 or before. Vamp/guard

Chiruka 1 normal: 5/30 for a 3 minute, ~80% clear. Vamp/guard (revenge would be better). 1180def, 106 SPD

Talc

This one kind of surprised me. I tried running him through Faimon 1 normal for laughs and he was able to do it the first time I tried. He’s the first unit I’ve tested able to farm Faimon 1 normal at four stars (disclosure: Maybe Dagora can too, I haven’t tried). Now, that being said, he’s super slow. He only has one attack and it does TERRIBLE damage and doesn’t scale with HP or anything…but hey, if you happen to find one and don’t have anything else…

Later, in the process of 6*ing and skillmaxing one, I discovered he can easily (comparatively) farm hard and hell as well. Easily BUT SLOWLY.

Faimon 1 normal: 4/27ish, 12k+ HP and maybe a little resist.

Faimon 1 hard: 5*/ something

Faimon 1 hell: 6*/35+ violent/X.

From my post here.

Sath

See here for some notes on the necessary stats for normal. He can farm faimon VERY fast but the rune requirements are quite steep.

Other farmable farmers:

Sigmarus

Faimon 1 normal/Tamor 3 hard: 5/35, good runes

Vrof 4 hard : in between

Faimon 1 hard: 6/40, very good runes

Veromos

Faimon 1 2 normal: 5*/25 or 6*/10 swift/focus

Faimon 2 hrd: 6*/25 swift/focus

Aiden 1 hard : 6*/40 vio/xx spd/hp/def. See here.

Ferun 1 2 3 normal : 6*/20 swift/focus

Ferun 1 hard: 6*/30 swift/focus 4-5* runes at level 12

Ahkhamamir

aiden 1 normal : some time before 6/24 despair/blade spd/critd/atk%

aiden 1 hard: some time before 6/24 despair/blade spd/critd/atk%

aiden 1 hell: 5* with average vampire runes or 6*/40 with good to very good non-vampire runes.

Susano

Faimon 1 normal : 5 star, decent fatal/? runes

5/25ish, vamp/energy atk%/atk%/atk% ~1050atk UNAWAKENED
Faimon 1 hard : 6 star, fatal/? decent runes

Faimon 1 hell : 6 star, very good vampire/? runes

Info from here and here.

Tagaros

See the thread here for discussion. I’m currently working on one on acct #2 to try out. So far it just isn’t working for me – he’s a glass cannon in the truest sense – especially considering he’s so slow! He goes last in almost every fight, meaning without a speed leader and/or Megan he generally gets destroyed in AO and doesn’t do much as a solo farmer either. Note that this is with standard fatal or rage/blade setups. I still need to try something tankier like spd/hp/atk% or something and see if that evens it out enough for him to farm.

Other farmers:

Most natural 5s and many natural 4s can farm a zone or two once decked out with a set of level 12 runes (note that often 4 of these runes need to be vampire, and those can be hard to come by!). Some need more work than others, but they have high enough stat bases that you can probably find a spot for them. That being said, it’s not always worth it, so make sure to do some research before you try and turn your nat 4 support unit into a farmer.

Some nat4s I’ve tested who can farm faimon 1 normal at 5/35

Water kung fu girl rage/blade

water succubus vamp/?

water nine tails vampire/revenge

Some nat4s I’ve tested who can farm faimon 1 hard at 6/40

Tyron despair/focus or violent/blade (almost any Tyron build)

Baretta despair/focus spd/hp/hp MAXED skills

Other random farming notes

Hraesvelg can farm aiden 1 hell on pretty attainable runes. Mine was able to do it starting around level 35 with rage/broken spd/CR/atk. +600 atk, +36 SPD, 89%CR 136%CD. If you can do +25 speed with atk/cd/atk that should be good too.

Acasis can do Faimon 1 normal and Aiden 1 normal at 6* (not 5!) ~25 or so, swift/focus.

Acasis can do Aiden 1 hard at 6* ~level 30-35, despair/focus

A thread and video of 5* wind lizardman doing Aiden hell.

VI. Appendix I: General Monster info

I already covered the monsters I think you should look out for, so here I’m going to try for a very, very general monster overview of 2 & 3 star units and commonly referenced 4 stars, especially as pertains to newbies in case you want a quick lookup in the same document.

If I don’t mention the element version you are curious about, I consider it fodder in most circumstances. If you know otherwise, then you are probably past the point where you need this guide.

Two stars

Elemental : Wind can be used in water dungeons, water is an OK tank once awakened but eventual fodder, fire is easy fodder. Dark is good for the Akroma ToA Hard level – max out his 3rd skill if you pull him.
Garuda: Water is one the best 2 stars in the game and should be awakened, max skilled and 5 starred in your first 5-6 five stars. Water is also wind nine tails fusion mats, so you should level 2.Wind has an unresistable stun, fire has an attack bar and speed boost – both are food if not needed for those roles. Light has a rez and is given to you, Dark is a reliable dotter for water dungeon if you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BETTER (you probably do).
Harpu: Wind is Fire Succubus fusion mats. Fire is amazing utility and perfect for Necropolis and raids. Dark (3*) can also be used in Necropolis.
Hellhound: Fire is very solid dps and given to you at the beginning of the game, water has some use in guild wars offense and other experimental team comps (supposedly 3 Tarq+good dps=Conq1 in arena if you are so inclined), but don’t bother until you specifically know what you are doing. Dark can be useful with very good runes. Water is fun.
Howl: Wind is Fire Joker fusion mats, water is useful up to 4/30 at least as early/mid game healer and cleanser.
Imp: Fire is water undine fusion mats. Light can help you climb early arena when paired with an ATK buffer.
Pixie: Wind is one of the best two stars in the game, water is wind vampire fusion mats.
Warbear: Wind and Water are excellent first farmers. Dark (3*) is a solid GW unit. Fire is a solid PVE unit up till 4/30, then eventual 6* fodder. Water and light are 3 star units.
Yeti: Fire is a water ninja fusion mats. Wind is a decent dungeon healer. Fire is an OK starting tank. Dark a 3 star unit and is dark ifrit fusion mats.

Three Stars

As I think I mentioned before, just about ANY 3 star is usable if you pull it before 20 and it fills a role you lack (X element tank/dps, certain buff type, whatever.), so I’m not going to mention that over and over here.

There’s absolutely no harm in taking them all the way to 4 star/level 30 and using them for 6 star fodder later. However, I would not probably not burn the time/energy farming essences to awaken a monster I was using like that.

Amazon : Wind amazon is wind 9 tails fusion mats.
Battle Mammoth: Water can farm faimon 1 normal. Wind has a nice full party cleanse if you don’t have Koniyama yet. Dark is one of the best nat3s in the game, if not the best.
Bearman: Light is in very high demand as a reliable healer. Water is fusion mats for water undine. Wind is fusion mats for water ninja.
Beast Hunter: Fire is fusion mats for fire succubus. All are decent single target DPS early on if you have nothing else.
Bounty Hunter: Water has a nice speed/atb buff, fire has a nice def/crit buff. Nothing special, but they are totally usable in early game PVE. Fire gets used in GW with wind living armor or fire frankenstein.
Charger Shark: I like these. Fire seems the worst of the bunch. Water can be a farmer but takes more work than it’s worth IMHO, stay away. Wind is a solid leveling/newbie monster, but I’m not sure if he has a place in mid to late game. Dark can hit really hard and light doesn’t seem to be very useful.
Cow Girl: All are decent in Necropolis, with water being the most useful in that role.
Drunken Master: Post-buff, water, wind and light have potential in various rift teams – wind/light in wind, all 3 of them in water and, with their ignore def on S1 + decent multipliers on S3 they provide a good combo of damage and healing (like Hwahee) that can potentially be useful in generic PVE or PVP (still needs testing).
Elven ranger: wind & fire are solid necro units, especially fire. Water has some potential in ToA (hard?). Light looks to be the least useful – but don’t fodder it!
Fairy: You start with water, she’s OK and her sleep is unresistable (seriously). Light is a solid unit for exploiting the computer AI. Wind can be used in very, very specific teams as her damage on #3 scales with debuffs on target, like Kro (dark inugami) and Argen (wind vampire). UPDATE: Since their first attack is now multi-hit, they have some use in Necropolis – fire is best for this.
Frankenstein: Fire is good in pvp in the same way Copper is good. Water is good in late game pvp when you have amazing runes. Light is a great necropolis unit. Jury is still out on wind and dark.
Harg: Fire is a lot like Konamiya (potentially useful in DB10), wind is a great raid cleanser (4*), light is just weird, dark is a solid PVE healer, and water seems kinda meh to me.
Golem: Water is fire joker fodder and can farm faimon 1 normal with 5 stars and limited investment. Wind is water horus fodder. Light is good in PVP. Dark is not currently useful.
Grim Reaper: Water is water undine mats, and also used in ToA hard for dots if you don’t pull a dark grim along the way. Fire is better than average early game dps and has a heal blocker on #3 aoe. Occasionally used for faimon farming, but takes 6 stars and a decent investment I think. Dark is amazing unit for ToA hard. Light can be used in wombos.
Harpy: Wind is wind 9 tails fusion mats, water is fire succubus fusion mats. Fire is a solid Necropolis unit, dark is decent PVP dps. Light is the fastest ATB booster in the game.
High Elemental: Fire is wind 9 tails fusions mats and used in late game AO. Water and wind are really underwhelming. Light has some neat GW tricks, dark seems Meh.
Imp Champion: fodder all around. Seriously hate pulling these guys and I get so many.
Inferno: Wind is water undine fusion mats. Fire is very solid early->mid game aoe and handy for secret dungeons. Water has some use in specific arena combos, very high speed requirements but a great ATB buffer.
Inugami: Water is water ninja fusion mats. Fire is Raoq (:P). Wind can be a useful dungeon or wind speed leader until you get something better. Light is incredibly good and should be farmed. Dark has uses in specialized teams.
Living Armor: Fire is wind vampire fusion mats. Wind is great in PVP (moreso in GW, but some use in AO). Water and light are kindameh – BUT light can frontline raids with good runes. Dark I’ve seen used in a number of ways (including HoH B3) and I would build if I could pull one.
Lizardman: Wind is wind vampire fusion mats. Water can be used as a late game (6 star) faimon hard/hell farmer. Light and dark have minimal uses.
Magic Archer: Water is fire succubus fusion mats. Fire is fire joker fusion mats. Wind is a solid late game raid dps unit (high rune requirements).
Martial Cat: Fire is fire succubus fusion mats. Water is water phoenix fusion mats.
Minotaurus: Wind is wind vampire fusion mats. Almost as bad as imp champions, even after the last round of buffs.
Mummies: Water is a decent ToA stunner and water horus fusion fodder, the others don’t seem particularly useful (yet).
Mystic Witch: Water is insanely in demand as an early->late game AO unit, also good in DB10 face teams – can stay at 5* pretty much forever. Fire has some use as an early game cleanser. Others don’t get used.
Penguin Knight: Water has some use in PVP due to his auto-crit #3. Wind is an amazing ToA support unit post-buff. Dark is one of the few aoe defense breakers, so he’s worth using for that. Light can be used as a raid cleanser if you don’t have anything else.
Salamander: Wind is fire sylph fusion mats. Fire is fire succubus fusion mats (and a 3 star unit) and occasionally used in ToA Hard. Dark is the perfect unit for water dungeon. I’ve seen light used in R4-R5 (with very good runes).
Serpent: Fire is fire sylph fusion mats. Water can be used in DB10. Wind is a great anti-fire tank and I’ve even seen it used in DB10. Dark is really solid for PVP (especially if you don’t have Galleon), ToA and even HoH.
Taoist: Fire and dark are 3 stars, fire seems the worst of the bunch. Light is a nat4 and absolutely amazing. Wind is a nat4 and decent for ToA. After the most recent buffs, water and dark are amazing for ToA Hard (pair with Spectra for perma stun).
Vagabond: Light is good, dark is also used in late game PVP. Fire is not bad as a PVP taunter either. Wind may have some use with the ATB reset and water seems the worst to me.
Viking: Fire has some use in early game as a dungeon buff remover and is fire panda fusion fodder. Dark has some use in early game as a general speed leader – especially once Fran is no longer available. Dark and fire are 3 star units, the rest are 2.
Werewolf: Fire is fire joker fusion mats. Wind is wind valk fusion mats. Water is decently useful PVE and occasionally used in Necropolis. Light is amazing PVP unit and Dark is great AD/GWD unit.

Four stars

First, here’s a simple visual aid (since people love tier lists!) for the fire/water/wind nat4s. I’ve marked their most common PVE usage with letters on the right, and PVP usage with letters below the images. An underlined letter indicates that I use that monster in that role, and think they are one of the best options to use there. Blue square indicates I’ve 6*d that monster, yellow square indicates I still haven’t pulled that monster.

Keep in mind this is just my opinion, and is targeted at players up to rank C1, things can shift a little past that point.

Tier List

As far is details on individual monsters go, there are extensive posts on reddit about almost every monster, but I’ll give my quick 2 cents about the families here. I’ll include nat5 members of nat4 families just for simplicity’s sake.

Anubis

Fire: great GW unit, can also frontline wind beast raid. Needs maxed S2 to be a threat in GW.
water/wind: they feel almost usable now if you need a dps of that type for PVP, but make sure you don’t have better options first. Still needs another buff.
Dark: can farm faimon hell, has rare aoe brand, seems usable
Light: raids and necro. Would build one if I had him.
Assassin

Fire: least useful and hardest to use of the family. Wait for buffs to build.
Wind: great GW unit, can delete 2 units right off the bat when paired with aoe def break.
Water: raid and DB10. Needs skillups badly.
light/dark: good GW units
Barbaric King

fire/wind/water: Post 3.1.3 buff, these are all decent rift beast monsters, if nothing else. Wind is also a solid GB10 monster. I think fire is the least useful.
dark/light: great GW units, solid rift beast usage as well.
Brownie Magician

Fire : OK if you need an immunity buffer, generally for PVP
Wind: good for AO
Water: great PVP unit
dark/light: niche units, can be good in right context
Death Knight

Fire: I wouldn’t build. Not much use for anymore.
Wind: arguably the best rezzer in the game. Definitely build him if you have him. ToA/DB10/HoH.
Water: good raid unit
Dark: great raid unit
Light: decent DPS with speed lead. Will be better if they ever change his #2 scaling.
Dice Magicians

Fire : generic fire aoe, with occasional extra damage or extra survivability…heavy RNG monster.
Wind : Briand alternate. Should be a decent HoH and ToA monster.
Water : good GWO/AO nuke. Use in a standard nuker comp (with atk buff and def break), don’t count on the ignore defense, hits hard enough without it.
Light : there was some initial hype about him in AO, we’ll see how it plays out.
Dark : Not sure about this guy, would love one to test
Harp Magicians:

Fire : Looks like a solid utility PVP (GW primarily) healer, somewhere between Atenai and Chasun. Should be a decent PVE healer for early to mid game content as well.
Wind : She’s not great. Can be used in some high end ADs & GWDs, but until then I’d leave her in storage.
Water : Potential ToAH monster, maybe specialized GW or AO.
Horus

Fire: the worst horus, hard to find a use for him now (and I’m trying!). Needs a buff imho.
wind/water: good PVP combo units. wind+Copper, water+Katarina.
light/dark: weird/niche units.
Jack-o’-lantern

Water: the most usable of the family. Limited GW usage, DB10 as buff stealer, necro as buffer
Dark : quite good for necro and some elemental beasts (I use him in fire+dark).
The others can be used in necro and that’s generally it.
Joker

Fire: fusable. Good for ToA hard and bomb teams
Wind: chase nat4. Killer AO unit, can be used in speed dungeon teams and GW, farming.
Water: worst nat4 in game?
Dark: very good bomber
Light: niche usage as buff remover
Kobold Bomber

Fire: great necro unit, especially since last buff. Not generally useful elsewhere.
Wind: decent bomber
Water: great bomber with very good #3. PVP, ToA/ToAH
Dark: not generally useful yet, needs another buff
Light: good bomber with good #3
Kung Fu Girl

fire/wind : post buff these are the least useful, but still not bad. I don’t think I would build them, but it would probably work fine if you wanted one for necro or something.
Water : post (most recent buff), VERY good raid and elemental beast monster due to the scaling on her S3
Light: useful as raid dps
Dark: very good, useful wherever dps is useful. Unreliable due to RNG.
Lich

fire/light: the weakest liches and I cannot recommend building them for anything
water/wind/dark: great for necro/raids. Wind is also an easy to build aiden hell farmer.
Magic Knight

water/wind/dark : kind MEH, imho. Wouldn’t build
fire/light: limited GW usage. Fire is also kinda secret tech for wind rift beast, because her passive DOES NOT stack with the healing reduction from the shock debuff – so basically, since you are shocked most of the time, you get the positive (damage reduction) from her passive, and none of the negative (heal reduction, since you already have it from the debuff).
Mermaid

Fire: OK rezzer, decent for Db10, ToA, HoH but for me works best in GW. Needs max skills and has high-ish rune requirements to shine.
Wind: worst mermaid, have only seen one person that said they used her. Very niche?
Water: not super useful, but you can build a ToAH or PVP team around her sleep.
Light: great AD unit due to RNG introduced by her passive.
Dark: great PVE support, AD, GW. Such a good kit. So good.
Neostone Agent

Fire: best raid cleanser. NB10, GW.
Wind: great in GW in the right team (Copper). Limited use elswhere.
Water: great all around support. GB10, DB10, ToA, GW, Raids
Light : very niche, limited usage.
Dark: amazing monster. Doesn’t do much on her own but, like Verde, makes teams go nuts.
Neostone Fighter

water/wind/dark: solid single target dps units if you really need one.
Fire : the most used fighter, decent in GW and can farm Chiruka hell with vamp runes (slowly).
Light: the most compelling one to me, since if you get his damage high enough and you build him as your opening one shotter, he can get a really strong shield from that first kill. GW monster.
Nine-tailed Fox

Fire : great NB10 unit.
Wind: solid wind dps, good in the right NB10 team
Water: faimon hell farmer, decent buff stripper
Light: quirky tanky…could be useful in the right team
Dark: very hard hitting, non-glancing nuke
Ninja

Fire : meh
Wind : some people like, I don’t think he’s worth building
Water: decent faimon hell farmer and solid GW nuker and lead if you really need one.
Light: meh
Dark: Very good, extremely hard hitting non-glancing nuke
Phantom Thief

Fire: not a fan, but some like him. I wouldn’t (and didn’t) build
Wind: same, except that I made him my first 6* and wish I hadn’t. Many will disagree with me.
Water : good AO unit until(or if you can’t) pull a Galleon.
Light : quirky niche unit.
Dark : good GW non-glancing nuke. Like a weaker Theo?
Pierret

Water : useful in AO wombo teams, can farm faimon hell with the right runes
fire/wind/light/dark: niche units with dark being the most usable.
Pirate captain

Fire: decent fire DPS. Better with a bomber
Wind: great GB10 unit, decent GW unit.
Water: chase nat4. Amazing PVP unit and PVE for dungeon speed teams.
Light: not worth building
Dark: great PVP ATB booster
Rakshasa

Fire: great raid dps, GW, NB10, ToA 100, speed DB10.
Wind: NB10 or raid if you have nothing else.
Water: great faimon farmer
Dark: NB10 or Raid
Light: quirky unit that I really want. GW, NB10, raid
Samurai

All are solid dps units worth building if you need that element for PVP. Fire is decent for fire rift beast too.
Light/dark are generally regarded as some of the better aoe nukers in the game.
Sky dancer

Fire: weakest of the family, but still usable. Good in wind and dark rifts.
Wind: chase nat4. Amazing healer. Useful almost everywhere.
Water: great in raids, decent in GW.
light/dark: quirky niche units
Succubus

fire/water/wind/dark : not worth building
Light: old (pre Gildong+Spectra) ToA/ToAH goddess. Still good there.
Sylph

Fire : fusable king of ToA. Max his #2 & #3.
Water: pretty good CC unit. AO, GW, ToA, can farm faimon hard with decent runes. Hell has really high rune requirements.
Wind: decent AO unit with a good AO speed lead
Light: I’ve seen it used very well in HoH. Could also be a second ToA stunner.
Dark: ToA hard if you build a team around the sleeping.
Sylphid

Fire: used in VERY high end ADs (G1+) and speed DB10 (see ProcReady’s video here) and fire rift beast.
Water: I would recommend against building, but can be used in GW and as a generic support in PVE
Wind: build if you have nothing else and are working on GB10, otherwise don’t.
Light: amazing PVE (and GW) support unit.
Dark: Decent post-buff, very similar to Arnold but a little more flexible due to dark element and the team heal (if you’d prefer that to aoe atk break).
Undine

Fire: can be good if you invest heavily into her. Probably not worth it for most.
Wind : can be used in raids (but not ideal), decent in GW in anti-Theo teams.
Water: DB10/ToA/HoH B1-B2(usually quite good enough for B3 for me anyway).
Light: quirky GW unit. Can be used in ToA hard on a few levels, but Neal does that job better, easier.
Dark: very niche, only build her if you have a plan for her
Vampire

Fire: chase nat4. Absolutely amazing monster. Will make ToA, DB10 and many other things much easier
Water: can be used as faimon farmer, generally not worth it
Wind: can be used in necro or raid as DPS
Dark: absolutely amazing unit, can be used most places
Light: really solid GW unit after buffs

VII. Appendix II: Arena

I’m not going to say much here, as that’s a pretty detailed subject and one I’m not really that into. I can hold break C2 and hold C1 easily, C2 occasionally, so I’m far from an expert.

As a newbie, you just want to farm as many glory points as you can for the energy recovery speed building (strange plant), energy + building, and eventually the various stat bonus buildings.

“But how can I do that,” you might ask “When my opponents all have fucking nat 4s and 5s at level 15!?” Welcome to the world of P2W vs F2P. You make sure to defeat all the rivals you can every day and you keep your rank DOWN. Put a single monster in your arena defense so anyone who wants to can defeat you and lower your rank. Then, once it gets below 1000, go defeat as many of the other farming lowbies as you can. Rinse, repeat.

You may not have the monsters to actually try and compete and climb past 1100 or 1200 until well into 40 – it really depends on what you pull and whether or not you prioritize PVP or PVE units for 5 and 6 starring. Hint: prioritizing your PVE monsters will help you more in the long term because they help you get runes.

Starting AOs

Something like Baretta Vero Bella <NUKER>, where the nuker is ideally Theomars or a nat5, will do fine for F1-F2 farming. I used to just auto with that team, skipping the fights that looked like I’d have to manual or lose.
A really basic template for the team you should use after that one is something like <SPEED LEADER> <ATB BUFFER> Galleon <AOE> – without Galleon you’ll it’s much tougher, as he fills two necessary roles (atk buff, def break) in one unit.
If you lack a Galleon, hopefully you pulled a Lushen or two, in that case you can run something like Bernard Megan Lushen Lushen, or <SPEED LEADER> Megan Bernard Lushen.

Starting ADs

Seriously, don’t bother. Farm glory until you can easily hold F3 and start pushing for C1. Just put whatever in there. Good advice I’ve heard repeated is just to use your AO for your AD when starting out, since you’ll already be investing time and runes in them and you probably can’t afford to build extra units for AD yet.

VIII. Appendix III: Mechanics Questions & Answers

Q: What does each buff & debuff do?

A: See the chart here, it’s pretty accurate. The trick to remember is that it affects your TOTAL stat. So say you’ve have 850 base defense and 250 from runes for 1100 total. With Megan’s DEF buff, you now have 1100 * 1.5 = 1650 DEF.

Q: How does attack work?

A: Each damage (and some other types, like the water fairy’s heal) skill does an amount of damage relative to the attack stat. This amount of damage is generally referred to as the skills multiplier. So if someone says that a monster’s first attack has a “300% multiplier”, that means that it will do damage equal to that monster’s TOTAL (after buffs/debuffs/leader skills, etc.) attack stat BEFORE defense. How is that affected by defense and skilling up…keep reading.

Q: How does defense work? What amount of damage does it negate?

A: Use this equation to calculate your damage reduction: 100%-(1000/(1000+3*(DEF))). So if you have 1000 defense, you take (100-1000(/4000)) = 25% damage. To rephrase, you will NEGATE 75% of incoming damage. With a defense debuff on you, you’d still negate 60% BUT the damage you take would increase by 66% (25% vs 40% taken). Two different ways of looking at it. See here for some discussion.

Q: How does accuracy work and how much do I need?
A: See this fucking amazing post. Here’s my tl;dnr summary:

Galleon/Luer/buff strippers/etc. (PVP units): 85%.
Bella/Megan/Lisa/Vero (DB10): 55%
Baretta/Spectra/Tyron/Mav/Thrain/Hemos/Woochi/Briand/Aria (TOA): 45%
Shannon/Bernard (GB10): 45%
Raks/Liches/NB10 debuffers: 45%
Raid units: Minimal acc subs to hit 15%.

Yes, slot 6 acc runes are all but useless – if you have ones with amazing subs, use them on PVP monsters.

Q: How do skillup skill damage %s work?

A: The are multiplicative to the base skill multiplier. For example, if your skill has a 300% multiplier and 30% extra damage from skillups, the new multiplier is 300 * 1.3 = 390%. See here for math/etc.

—-CORRECTION—: Apparently, it adds into a “bonus damage” type section, basically sits where crit damage sits in the equation. So if you do not crit, it looks like it’s increasing the multiplier, as I observed. BUT, if you do crit, it just looks like you’re increasing the crit mult. See here.

Q: How does speed work and what speed stats should I shoot for?

A: Wow, that’s a good question. I don’t think there’s a simple answer (other than more = better)…you can start here for one of the more technical ones I’ve seen.

A2: Also, for a bunch more details, see the in-depth speed tuning guide here.

Q: What are the odds of powering up runes?

A: Shitty? But seriously, see the thread here for lots of info.

Q: How do I rune [X] monster?

A: See this nice guide. I don’t agree with every single suggestion, but it’s very comprehensive and a great place to start.

In general, I follow these basic guidelines:

Does it need to go first (Chloe, Bernard)? Use swift.
Offset is up to you, but it’s usually focus for things with debuffs (Bernard) and energy/nemesis/will/endure depending on what you need. For pvp, on a buffer like Chloe you’ll probably want will to prevent stunning, etc.
Do you have violent runes for it? Use violent. (Violent is OP, sorry).

This is true in *most* cases but there are oddballs like ramagos who benefits more from vampire in most cases.
Offset depends completely on what you need. Think about your goals before you ask someone else.
Do you want it to hit really hard AND you have good crit% subs? Rage and fatal are very close, but rage is slightly better.

As for using atk vs crit damage in slot 4, I’ve seen various suggestions here, but I’d say the bare minimum is 50% crit to use critD. Others suggest as high as 70%. I often use crit% in slot4 if I can get up to 75% or so crit, but I don’t think others do this.
Offset is generally blade to start, but once you get really good runes you can go revenge or nemesis/whatever.
Is it a (hopefully fast) support monster with at least one aoe (Acasis, Baretta, Draco, Shannon, Clara) or two aoes (Tyron, Eredas, Amir) that you want to stun? Use despair.

The basic criteria for despair is : “Do I want to use despair?” You’ll figure out for yourself a bit as to which monsters beyond the ones I listed you might want to use it on.
Offset is generally focus to help boost your acc. 85% would be nice, but I shoot for 50% if I can on supports (Bella, Baretta, Acasis, Shannon, etc.).
What are the best monsters to use despair runes on? A: See here.