Awakener Guides¶

A flexible, high-damage support whose abilities vary according to the realm she's used with.

Chaos "24" deals enough single-target damage that she's a viable endgame DPS against bosses. Ultra "24" is also very strong in Faded Legacy, but got nerfed into the ground in Astral Reign.

"24" likes teammates who can grant aliemus to fuel her exalt spam, or who synergize with poison (in Aequor) or counter (in Ultra).

Some of the hardest stages fill your hand with crap and seal you so you can't do anything. Alva counters them by getting rid of seals and symptoms, while providing shields and vulnerable with her exalt.

At E3, she can be a DPS that sets up burst combos with Combat Stance and Precision Slash. This works best if her team makes lots of shields and can copy or replay her cards.

Doll is the best weakness applier among all standard characters — great for surviving harder difficulties on a new account.

Equivalent Exchange can discard symptoms and status cards inflicted by enemies, useful for overcoming mechanics in specific fights.

She also generates a bit of healing and aliemus, and her high base Keyflare Regen makes her a good keyflare bot.

A versatile aliemus battery who brings big DMG amplification buffs and access to both weakness and vulnerable at E1. She shines in poison teams, but works as an aliemus support anywhere.

Her true strength is in boss fights, where she deletes 25-30% of a boss's HP bar and gives your team a massive boost in Finale Form.

At OE, she can carry boss fights by herself.

A utility support who draws cards, copies card effects, and gives you 2 extra arithmetica every turn when roused.

He can set up near-infinite combo turns in Faded Legacy, but falls off in Astral Reign because of the soft cap on cards played per turn.

Works best with teammates that want to combo off and play a lot of cards.

A bruiser who can generate huge shields with her defense card in addition to huge damage.

Her damage starts low, but she rapidly gains Base DMG and STR by playing cards with Fiamma and resetting with 0-cost Hyperflares. After ramping, Hyperflare can one-shot bosses.

Kath needs E3 and her posse to work. She likes teammates who provide STR and crit buffs, as well as arithmetica to fuel her Combust cycles.

Karen's exalt banks 3 arithmetica you can use at any time (and applies random buffs at E3). This makes her a cheap but effective support for characters that need a lot of arithmetica. She applies decent poison in Astral Reign too.

While her skills are weak, they can be retained for defensive utility at the right moment, or simply held so they don't go back into the deck.

OE makes her a top-tier arithmetica support.

One of the best defensive awakeners. When invested and loaded up with death resistance stats, an E3 Lily can outheal all incoming damage and carry the entire team.

She deals a surprising amount of damage as well, making her a strong secondary DPS.

Lily works best as the main shielder and healer in poison teams, but she can fit in any team that has trouble surviving.

A damage dealer who uses 0-cost Blade of Defiance combos to power up her exalt. While she's decent at clearing mobs, she struggles with sustained damage on bosses with a lot of HP.

Her Over-Exalt deals bonus damage equal to 15% of the enemy's max HP. This boosts her damage a lot and makes her worth bringing as a support purely for her OE.

A strike-centric DPS whose E1 gives huge damage buffs from triggering death resistance.

By intentionally dying, then using her exalt, chaining 8 strikes, and finishing with Shining Crush, Mouchette can pull off some of the highest-damage combo turns in the game.

She works best in short stages, as her playstyle means you probably won't survive to turn 10.

A solid defensive support and combo piece. Her unique exalt takes your existing shield and multiplies it, which is amazing for shield scaling teammates like Sanga and Alva.

Nautila's exalt can support counter teams by converting counter into AOE damage. At E3, it also blocks incoming debuffs, useful for many boss fights.

Nymphaea's exalt instantly triggers poison, speeding up the long time poison teams usually take to kill enemies. She also boosts teamwide poison in Astral Reign stages, and her high base keyflare regen makes her a solid keyflare bot.

Works best in a team full of poison characters. Nymphaea's rouse makes her a decent poison applier, but she takes ages to ramp up, making her impractical as a DPS outside of boss fights.

A shielder who gives a burst of temporary STR with his exalt, making him a good teammate for characters that rely on STR to deal damage.

Ogier scales well with investment and becomes crazy good at +12 and level 90 with +12 wheels. Before that, he is unfortunately outclassed by many other characters.

A niche support who is mainly used to remove counter from enemies with Wax-Hot Desire.

Pandia can be a main DPS at low levels. In Faded Legacy stages, her exalt can convert counter into high damage.

She was caught in the crossfire when Astral Reign rules nerfed Ultra "24", making her sadly unusable as a DPS for most endgame content.

A solid if unremarkable keyflare support. Her exalt is the main reason to use her over other supports: searching for any card and reducing its cost to 0 is very flexible and powerful.

She works best with teammates that have high-cost cards or specific cards they need.

A complex and versatile support. Her exalt gives you the last 3 cards you played last turn, which enables perfect setups for specific DPS she pairs well with. At E3, she also lets you replace your posse with anything you want, for instance getting Voices In Your Head for vulnerable and weakness on demand.

Her DPS build revolves around using dual posse every turn to scale Predetermined Strike. This is slow and not recommended for new players.

An offensive support who gives you money and permanent upgrades as you progress through the exploration. All these small buffs add up to a big damage boost for boss fights.

Ryker is also excellent at drawing cards and searching for cards, making him a good teammate for characters that rely on specific cards to function.

A ridiculously versatile support who can use cards from any character in the team or realm. Their wings do all kinds of stuff too.

Can cosplay as a DPS by spamming Four Wings to stack temporary STR, ending with Six Wings or other high-scaling cards. For new players, this is easiest with an Aequor team.

Needs E2 and lots of arithmetica to work well. Also very complex and time-consuming to play.

Aurita's gimmick is that she hits lots of times, triggering 25+ tentacle attacks in one turn when in Raging Waves stance. This makes her a good character for converting STR and Tentacle DMG into burst damage.

Her actual damage is low, so she needs a team that stacks lots of STR and Tentacle DMG, or another payoff for tentacle attacks such as Faros 's Deep Currents.

A support with good healing over time and consistent access to vulnerable from his exalt. He can multiply counter triggers for one turn, making him a niche but strong counter support.

In fights where you can stall and build counter, Caecus works as a main DPS. His counter scales with STR and critical hits, making him one of the rare endgame viable counter stackers (with enough buffs from his teammates).

Celeste's unique exalt revives you from death once per fight (once every 6 turns at E3). This means that if you have a glass cannon DPS in danger of dying to normal mob fights, Celeste can carry your team all the way to the boss.

Celeste also generates a bit of arithmetica and Tentacle DMG, and her defensive skills can be retained so they don't clog your deck.

A flexible defensive and offensive support with access to both weakness and vulnerable at E3. In a discard-focused team that consistently triggers Aftershock, her Pilots rapidly stack STR and Tentacle DMG.

Corposant is notably strong in story mode and Hectic Skybound Rail, as she easily abuses many Ch. resonance gimmicks. Her Astral Reign soulforge talent makes her deal high damage to Aequor enemies, including Ch.-end bosses.

Faros's exalt is a powerful card selection tool which also provides a nice shield. Going into a fight with her exalt fully charged lets you start with a perfect opening hand, for example starting with all rouses in Faded Legacy stages.

Faros can also be built as a DPS that spams Deep Currents to apply poison. This works best in a team full of poison units, or with a way to trigger a lot of tentacle attacks in one turn.

If you have tons of Tentacle DMG, Goliath's exalt makes tons of temporary STR with Usurp. This makes him the best offensive support for Astral Reign Lemurian teams with Tulu. His ability to steal STR is also useful in some fights.

Goliath is a solid DPS at low levels. His exalt cards and Decapitation Damage scale well with STR, making him good at cleaning up low-HP enemies even at endgame.

The premier do-everything Aequor support. She makes aliemus, applies premium debuffs, boosts team damage, heals you when you're low, and even triggers poison for poison teams. Her only drawback is her reliance on her rouse.

At endgame, Miryam is usually seen supporting GMurphy Lemurian teams, but she works great in any team comp that has blue in it.

A keyflare support with great defense for any Aequor team that needs help surviving.

Her exalt converts incoming damage into damage over time, letting you survive massive attacks, then self-cleanse with Vortex Reversal.

Works well with GMurphy even though she isn't a Lemurian, as she can clear GMurphy's self-inflicted sacrifice.

If you can stack a lot of shield in one turn, Sanga's exalt converts it into significant AOE damage. This makes her useful in stall teams that have trouble killing normal enemies fast.

Sanga can solo DPS at low levels, but she struggles with enemies that have a lot of HP. Unless you have her OE, or a support that multiplies her damage like Saya, she's best used as a supportive secondary DPS.

A support with one purpose: to make your tentacles hit like trucks. With the Tentacle DMG and crit rate from his exalt, other characters can deal high damage with multihit attacks in Raging Waves stance.

At low levels, Abyss Order and tentacle slaps are enough to make Tulu usable as a solo DPS. At endgame he is mainly used as a damage buffer in Corposant or GMurphy teams.

A high-damage support with amazing skills and powered-up tentacle stances — at a cost. Her stance cooldowns and self-inflicted damage force you to weigh her strong abilities against the price you have to pay later.

GMurphy is a viable endgame DPS with OE and high investment. In Astral Reign stages, she works well in all-Lemurian teams with Miryam, Tulu, Goliath, and/or Faros.

A flexible support and DPS for Aequor teams, Pontos massively reduces enemy STR while giving various boosts with his Gaunt cards.

His Fixed DMG is good for clearing mobs, but he takes a long time to kill bosses on his own and appreciates another DPS backing him up.

He works best with E3 and high levels, in Aftershock-focused teams with Corposant.

A supportive DPS who blasts enemies for high damage while boosting your Tentacle DMG and Tranquil Sea shields.

Her exalt takes time to set up, but deals huge AOE damage once prepared. With E3 and her wheel, it can one-shot endgame bosses.

Needs her posse, Reload! skill levels, and soulforge levels. She likes defensive teammates that can stall while she's ramping up.

Agrippa's exalt permanently stacks alert, boosting teamwide shields more and more over time. This makes her the ideal support for Castor stall teams that plan to survive forever.

She can also generate a lot of embryo and trigger poison for poison teams.

At high investment, Colorless Spiral applies a lot of poison with critical hits, making Agrippa herself usable as a poison DPS.

Aigis's unique petrify ability effectively gives you an extra turn in every fight.

She's also the best vulnerable applier in the game, and an excellent keyflare and embryo generator, and her OE grants a +25% Final DMG bonus.

Aigis is a great support for any team, but she pairs especially well with glass cannon DPS who need a turn of breathing room to set up.

A burst DPS who snowballs with kills. He excels at executing enemies that are low on health. He can also generate a lot of STR, apply vulnerable, and heal.

Doresain is strong at low levels but falls off at endgame, especially against bosses with full HP bars and no minions for him to snack on. He works best with STR buffs and another damage dealer that can set up kills for him.

Faint's exalt can stack tons of death resistance, buying multiple turns where you can survive any hit no matter how high the damage. This makes her a top-tier endgame support, as the more difficult a fight is, the better she is compared to other defensive characters.

Faint is often paired with GDoll for boss fights, but fits in any team that needs to live just a bit longer.

Helot's exalt draws two strikes from your deck and multiplies all damage from strikes for that turn. This makes her a fantastic support for strike-based DPS like Mouchette and GHelot.

Helot can also be built as a DPS that focuses on setting up huge Shattering Strikes. However, she needs a lot of setup that clogs your hand with bad cards, and has trouble killing normal enemies fast.

Playing Crimson Shackles 3 times gives you Bloodthirsty Flail, a powerful card with prepare and retain. By copying this card over and over with the Lone Seed posse and Thais, GHelot can set up a full hand of Flails and use her exalt to pull off one-shot combo turns.

Needs E3 and The Lone Seed for consistency. She works best with Aigis or other teammates who can buy time while she's setting up.

A dedicated healer who heals for a ton when you're low on HP. This makes her a good partner for characters that stay under a HP threshold like Uvhash and Sorel.

Leigh makes a lot of embryo when roused, and her OE is a good source of STR too. Unlike Faint, she doesn't have diminishing returns in long explorations, so you can use her to carry your squishy DPS through fight after fight.

A support and secondary DPS who can access many effects with his painted orisons and relics.

By Discovering a lot, Pickman can make a pile of relics and spam Chromaphage for AOE damage and temporary STR. This gives a huge one-turn damage boost to your main DPS.

Works best with a main DPS that relies on their exalt and doesn't need arithmetica. The posse Voracious Resolve is highly recommended.

A tough defensive support who generates Crimson Furnace and makes huge shields with End of Suffering. He also has access to both weakness and vulnerable.

If you copy End of Suffering over and over with the Lone Seed posse and Thais, Salvador can be used as a slow, grindy, unkillable carry.

Works best with high-CON teammates, as your Crimson Furnace scales with your max HP.

A DPS who is completely reliant on other characters to feed her embryos, STR, and damage buffs. While she's weak at low investment, her exalt deals serious damage when enabled by a team of dedicated supports.

Usually seen with Pickman, as he builds STR for her and massively buffs her exalt. She also works well in Aequor/Caro as she triggers lots of tentacle hits in Raging Waves stance.

When a gacha company runs low on money, they release a character like Thais.

Thais is the best embryo maker, an excellent keyflare and aliemus generator, a card copying machine, and an overall ridiculous support who does everything your DPS could possibly want.

At E2 she is the best support for almost every team. The only reason she isn't in every "Works Well With" section is it would be redundant.

A damage dealer who needs to stay under 25% HP to reach his full potential. Unfortunately, his full potential isn't terribly impressive compared to other options.

Uvhash's rouse makes him immune to being sealed. This gives him a niche, as he can ignore mechanics that other DPS might struggle with.

OE makes him a decent if fragile endgame DPS.

A flexible support with good abilities and powerful debuffs. Her high CON boosts your max HP and thus poison cap in Astral Reign.

Her exalt and Bonesick Longing are the biggest poison triggers in the game. This makes her an amazing secondary DPS in poison teams, often outdamaging the actual poison applier.

Can solo carry at low levels, but works best with a dedicated poison applier on the team.

Viscera Blossoms applies an absurd amount of corrosion, multiplying your damage by 4x and enabling even bottom-tier DPS to clear.

Saya can also funnel aliemus to her teammates, or seed your deck with 0-cost copies of their cards, setting up crazy plays for future turns.

She discards cards and messes with your hand, so she works best with teammates that don't need specific cards to function.

A dedicated card draw support who fills your hand, replays cards from Ultra Space, and sets up multi-card combo turns for your DPS.

Often run in Aftershock-focused teams to draw and discard full hands of cards. In Astral Reign stages, Poof! can trigger Aftershock as well.

Her Astral Reign image relic makes her exalt inflict permanent STR down, enabling silly stall strategies against bosses that don't scale.

A shielder who hoards Onyx Plumes in hand to accumulate shields at the end of each turn.

By himself, he's a great defensive support for any team. When paired with teammates that buff shields like Agrippa and Erica, he can stall the hardest bosses forever.

Castor can deal solid damage by tossing Plumes to inflict corrosion stacks, but you need another source of damage to trigger the corrosion.

Clementine is the best keyflare generator and the best STR stacking support in the game. The unique debuffs from her exalt are multiplicative with weakness, vulnerable, and Final DMG.

She is also an excellent healer when roused, and at E2, her exalt hits so hard that she can end mob fights by herself.

She works best with DPS that rely on STR, but improves basically any team by being on it.

A burst DPS with a lot of small utility bonuses on her cards. At low levels, Skull Reaver scales with last hits and deals a lot of damage.

At endgame Daffodil is used for her Thousand Mirages, which make tons of temporary counter or poison. This enables high-damage combo turns with Arachne, Nautila, etc.

Her OE puts three Mirages in hand, enabling silly burst damage with high investment.

A free keyflare support with a strong exalt that inflicts weakness and vulnerable.

Once roused, she generates temporary alert each time she makes a shield. With Function Overload, she can make a huge shield and a huge one-turn buff to all your shielding.

Usually seen in stall teams with Castor because each Onyx Plume benefits individually from alert, allowing Castor to stack giant shields.

Horla gives a teamwide buff of your choice for the whole exploration, scaling in magnitude with her death resistance, merely by playing any of her cards once.

Carol Psalm is a good source of aliemus which lets you retain arithmetica across turns, useful for setting up specific DPS like Daffodil.

At E1, Horla is also one of the most consistent weakness and vulnerable appliers in the game.

Jenkin's exalt and rouse make buckets of Crit DMG and Crit Rate, making her a strong damage buffer for any damage dealer that can crit. She also does a lot of AOE hits which can be used for popping barriers or tanking Chains of Resentment.

Jenkin can work as a main DPS herself, but needs high levels or STR buffs to do enough damage against endgame bosses.

A finicky but rewarding poison applier. If you babysit Liz enough to set up her exalt, she applies massive amounts of poison with Deadly Flames and becomes the best sustained damage dealer on the standard banner.

Hard to use early on, but gets much better with teammates that give her defense, aliemus, and STR. Also prefers her posse, E1 or better, and a hand size wheel carried by one of her supports.

A burst DPS who revolves around refreshing and abusing the Atonement by Pain buff, which boosts the first card he plays each turn.

Atonement by Pain gets stronger after every fight, making Pollux incredible in long explorations. However, he needs setup and works best with teammates that can buy time.

Needs E1 for consistency and E3 for high damage. OE makes him one of the top DPS.

In addition to giving big crit buffs, Tinct discounts up to 5 arithmetica with every exalt, making her a perfect teammate for DPS that retain full hands of cards for combo turns.

Tinct dispels many debuffs and can even access weakness and vulnerable from her rouse (though not consistently).

At E2, her defense card becomes quite good, making her a usable shielder for Ultra teams.

A defensive support who inflicts a lot of STR down and forces enemies to attack in multiple small hits instead of one big hit.

While Wanda is strong at low levels, she needs high investment to keep up with enemy damage later on. At endgame, she's only good in specific stages that favor her.

Technically usable as a damage dealer, but works best with counter relics or a real DPS.

A solid aliemus battery with a variety of defensive tools. While not the best at anything, she's a low-cost, well-rounded filler option for Ultra teams.

At E3, her exalt lets a teammate exalt twice in one turn. This is useful for characters who deal damage with their exalt, or who need to use their exalt over and over to work.

A complex but powerful support. Her rouse and pursuit multiply the effectiveness of your team's command cards. She also brings good shields and huge DMG amplification buffs.

Arachne's Final Verdict outdamages many DPS, while also ignoring shields and invulnerability, trivializing many boss mechanics.

She works best supporting a DPS that has good cards, but hits hard enough to solo many fights.