Frustrating being able to auto expert void zephyr but not being able to find a coop team that can clear it to save my life.
Also, a reminder that we are one week away from MG rewards giveaway. Time to clear more MG.
To re-iterate to newer folks, endgame progression now goes: Eolian Phantom Strike for anti-Volcanic Chimera weapons -> Volcanic Chimera for VC weapons -> Standard HMS to do Standard Volk -> Standard Volk to either get a maxed Flame Tree or a 0UB 6* weapon -> eHMS to build Wind HD1 weapons for HMC -> eHMC for Water HD1 weapons -> mHBH to build fire HD2 weapons -> eVolk to build MUB 6* weapons or mHMS to build wind HD2 weapons -> mHMC to build water HD2 weapons.
It's important to keep in mind, however, that eHDTs and mHDTs are basically optional. Because you gain gold Volk materials in weekly chests from stand Volk, you'll eventually have a 6* MUB weapon every 50 weeks, which is equivalent to a MUB HD2 weapon. So instead of going into the eHDT/mHDT grind cycle after clearing sVolk, you can just stay put there and eventually go directly into eVolk after 50 weeks of grinding sVolk weekly chests if you don't enjoy HDTs. They're essentially two alternate paths to the same endgame, just a matter of which one you prefer to do. You do need to do eHDTs though to get 5-star adventurers their full 70 MC, whereas 4-star and 3-star adventurers just need orbs from sHDTs.
Once you acquire a T2 0UB Volcanic Chimera weapon, you can tackle both sHMS and sVolk. Once it's MUB, you can directly tackle eHMS with it. T2 MUB VC weapons are so strong that not only are they only beaten by HD2 weapons/MUB 6* weapons for general content, they have over 300 more strength and nearly 300 more Might off-element than 0UB on-element core weapons, and still have more Might and Strength than a MUB core weapon in exchange for less HP and the third weapon skill.
You can use your sVolk clear reward to either max out the Flame Tree for more passive stats, or grab a 6* 0UB weapon. For the tree, you can get the first 10 levels from just silver Volk drops, so the question is whether you want to have the materials to immediately max out the tree for an additional 5%/5% stats, or immediately grab a side-grade to a T2 MUB Volcanic weapon. In 9 weeks of weekly chests you'll have both either way, and will then start slowly working towards a MUB 6* weapon if you don't plan to tackle mHDTs to do eVolk ASAP.
Instead of fully grinding for a T2 MUB Volcanic Chimera weapon, you can also just grind Volcanic Chimera until you have a T2 0UB Volcanic Chimera weapon, clear sHMS then sVolk, use the sVolk drops for a 6* 0UB weapon for eHMS, and basically immediately start the eHDT grind from there if you want to start that ASAP.
For the Light/Dark cycle, I would honestly just say to wait until we get the dark or light equivalent of Volcanic Chimera, because that will substantially lower the current barrier to entry. This month's Mana Spiral update aimed at dark adventurers may also shake up the meta potentially.
Thank you for writing this up! It will be a huge help. Looks like Eolian Phantom is up today so Ill be grinding that for a bit.
EDIT: I was able to craft the Chimeratech Officer sword!
Is there an equivalent for Ice Axes or wands? Looks like the only VC weapons are Flame element. Which makes sense, I just wasnt sure if there was another weapon that would be a go to for Gala Eli. Looks like maybe the Permafrost Crash?
Thank you for writing this up! It will be a huge help. Looks like Eolian Phantom is up today so Ill be grinding that for a bit.
EDIT: I was able to craft the Chimeratech Officer sword!
Is there an equivalent for Ice Axes or wands? Looks like the only VC weapons are Flame element. Which makes sense, I just wasnt sure if there was another weapon that would be a go to for Gala Eli. Looks like maybe the Permafrost Crash?
This probably won't help your decision, but Mitsuhide is so much fun to play. She honestly might be my favorite Light character right now (sorry Halloween Elisanne), I love her.I should prob start saving wyrmite and tickets... But I really want mitsu
To re-iterate to newer folks, endgame progression now goes: Eolian Phantom Strike for anti-Volcanic Chimera weapons -> Volcanic Chimera for VC weapons -> Standard HMS to do Standard Volk -> Standard Volk to either get a maxed Flame Tree or a 0UB 6* weapon -> eHMS to build Wind HD1 weapons for HMC -> eHMC for Water HD1 weapons -> mHBH to build fire HD2 weapons -> eVolk to build MUB 6* weapons or mHMS to build wind HD2 weapons -> mHMC to build water HD2 weapons.
It's important to keep in mind, however, that eHDTs and mHDTs are basically optional. Because you gain gold Volk materials in weekly chests from stand Volk, you'll eventually have a 6* MUB weapon every 50 weeks, which is equivalent to a MUB HD2 weapon. So instead of going into the eHDT/mHDT grind cycle after clearing sVolk, you can just stay put there and eventually go directly into eVolk after 50 weeks of grinding sVolk weekly chests if you don't enjoy HDTs. They're essentially two alternate paths to the same endgame, just a matter of which one you prefer to do. You do need to do eHDTs though to get 5-star adventurers their full 70 MC, whereas 4-star and 3-star adventurers just need orbs from sHDTs.
Once you acquire a T2 0UB Volcanic Chimera weapon, you can tackle both sHMS and sVolk. Once it's MUB, you can directly tackle eHMS with it. T2 MUB VC weapons are so strong that not only are they only beaten by HD2 weapons/MUB 6* weapons for general content, they have over 300 more strength and nearly 300 more Might off-element than 0UB on-element core weapons, and still have more Might and Strength than a MUB core weapon in exchange for less HP and the third weapon skill.
You can use your sVolk clear reward to either max out the Flame Tree for more passive stats, or grab a 6* 0UB weapon. For the tree, you can get the first 10 levels from just silver Volk drops, so the question is whether you want to have the materials to immediately max out the tree for an additional 5%/5% stats, or immediately grab a side-grade to a T2 MUB Volcanic weapon. In 9 weeks of weekly chests you'll have both either way, and will then start slowly working towards a MUB 6* weapon if you don't plan to tackle mHDTs to do eVolk ASAP.
Instead of fully grinding for a T2 MUB Volcanic Chimera weapon, you can also just grind Volcanic Chimera until you have a T2 0UB Volcanic Chimera weapon, clear sHMS then sVolk, use the sVolk drops for a 6* 0UB weapon for eHMS, and basically immediately start the eHDT grind from there if you want to start that ASAP.
For the Light/Dark cycle, I would honestly just say to wait until we get the dark or light equivalent of Volcanic Chimera, because that will substantially lower the current barrier to entry. This month's Mana Spiral update aimed at dark adventurers may also shake up the meta potentially.
super helpful, thanks! Question: Since both the Void weapons and the HD T1 weapons have the +30% bane, are they roughly equivalent? And it's really the HD T2 weapons that are so much stronger they let you tackle the other dragons? Since they don't have a bane I'm not sure how they compare to a void weapon with a bane... I'm assuming much stronger?
I'm still a bit confused on how to "switch" between dragons since all the dragons only drop material that's good for crafting weapons that are good against themselves - not necessarily other dragons. (e.g. volk only drops mats to craft fire weapons - how does that help me fight high mercury?)
Look at the stats on the weapons. The Void bane fire sword we've been talking about, Inferno Apogee, has 362 strength at MUB.
The HD1 equivalent, Crimson, at 0UB? 657 strength. There's no comparison; Voids are far weaker. You can get by with starting with Voids for some of the fights, but you should upgrade to HD1s as soon as possible. Especially because your might will rocket up and keep you from being paired with other Void-users more often, so the entire team will be a lot stronger. And yes, the raw strength on an HD2 makes it stronger at 0UB than a MUB HD1 even without having bane.
And how Volk (which is to say, Agito) works for weapons is completely different than the high dragons, to be clear. Fighting Expert Volk lets you make fire 6* weapons even though he's wind and you're using fire characters, yes. But for high dragons, you're getting materials that are for HD weapons of the same element as the dragon you fought, making it a cycle. You fight eHMC to make water HD1s, eHBH to make fire HD1s, and eHMS to make wind HD1s, going around the cycle to craft/unbind. Same goes for eHZD for dark HD1s and eHJP for light HD1s.
(As a side note- Spiral requirements are a little similar to Agito. To get all the nodes you'll need high dragon orbs, along with a single tail if they're a 5*, but they're from the dragon you'd fight with that character rather than the same element as them.)
somehow got Agito weapons confused with the Dragon weapons then, okay. Thanks! I think I got it, mostly. Cleared standard HMS 3 times, once with Emma&Chimera and twice with V!Hildegarde&5T3. Definitely much easier with stun resistance. Now to do that 3x per week until I can craft the green HD weapons and try to clear standard Volk?
(while I work on getting V!Hildegarde a VC weapon too)
No, Volk is wind element that you run with fire characters. Chimera weapons are totally fine for Standard, so you can start on that already. If you want to heal, I'd use HLowen over Hilde if you have him, though.
...you also need to be doing Expert to get the tails you need to make HDs, to be clear. You don't get the higher level material from Standard weeklies like with Volk, unfortunately. Standard HMS is only going to get you the high dragon spheres that you can use for Spirals, to buy and level that dragon's Fafnir facility (increases dragon stats, which are small enough that it's mostly just useful for helping to barely survive HP checks), or trading for copies of the actual high dragon (5* with aura of 30% HP+STR at MUB). It's true that you do use those spheres for the weapons, too, but they drop more on Expert so they've never been close to being the bottleneck.
The good news is that Expert weeklies are good enough (for each run you'd get 1-3 tails from drops, 3-5 tails from weekly) that even just those 3x a week should get you pretty close to an HD1 weapon/unbind each week on average.
I need expert to get HD's? dangit!... fine.
(I didn't mean craft HD greens TO fight Volk - I meant do both those things at the same time. Fight Volk to get fire weapons and fight HMS to get wind weapons)
So by clearing standard HMS I've done not much, short of now meaning i have two hurdles to overcome instead of one - eHMS and sVolk. ooookay :D
(now please don't tell me I also need to clear eVolk...)
This probably won't help your decision, but Mitsuhide is so much fun to play. She honestly might be my favorite Light character right now (sorry Halloween Elisanne), I love her.
If you have Fleur though, Mitsuhide isn't exactly needed, despite her being a step-up from her. That being said, if you like the character that's all that matters, and Mitsuhide's kit is so much fun. If you do try for her, I hope you get her!
I feel like I ought to rewrite my mini-progression guide to be more step-by-step, since I use a lot of assumptions, acronyms, and lingo that is probably going over the heads of newer folks.
Thank you for writing this out. I've been trying to figure out how to progress to high dragons, but just haven't been able to process the acronyms along with the information.Here's a more complete step-by-step guide on the endgame progression. Light/Dark doesn't have as smooth a progression path, and I'd honestly wait until they do add it in the form of Dark or Light equivalents to the Volcanic Chimera.
(SNIP)
Thank you for writing this out. I've been trying to figure out how to progress to high dragons, but just haven't been able to process the acronyms along with the information.
I can try to write up a little thing going over the other dragons in a similar way tomorrow, if that'll help? I do worry that the dark Spirals are going to immediately make it dated, but it's probably better than nothing.
I can try to write up a little thing going over the other dragons in a similar way tomorrow, if that'll help? I do worry that the dark Spirals are going to immediately make it dated, but it's probably better than nothing.
Great to hear. Any terms or acronyms I use that you're unsure about? It's hard for veterans to pick up on what specifically isn't common knowledge at this point.
Nothing as such. It's more of a me thing than anything, as I'm on a lot of medication at the moment. Just having everything that needs to be done step by step is perfect, as I can concentrate on one part at a time.
How's Euden for the "beginner" endgame stuff (that is, standard volk and possibly eHMS? I've cleared sHMS a bunch of times in the past but I backburnered it a while ago) He's the first character I finished the mana spiral and Chimeratech weapon for and his might has skyrocketed, but I have plenty of other great characters I could use instead.
Here's a more complete step-by-step guide on the endgame progression. Light/Dark doesn't have as smooth a progression path, and I'd honestly wait until they do add it in the form of Dark or Light equivalents to the Volcanic Chimera.
Here is a Glossary of acronyms and terms I use in case you're not 100% about what I mean.
Step 1: Eolian Phantom Strike
Reward: Anti-Volcanic Chimera Weapons
The Eolian Phantom Strike is a Void Battle that is up Mondays and Thursdays, with a x2 drop on Monday. Defeating the Phantom will give you water weapons that are meant for fighting the Volcanic Chimera. Keep in mind that you can only make Axe, Lance, Bow, and Staff weapons.
Step 2: Volcanic Chimera Strike
Reward: Chimeratech Weapons
The Volcanic Chimera Strike is a Void Battle that is up Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, with a x2 drop on Sunday. Defeating this boss rewards the strongest weapons you can obtain before endgame. You need to defeat the Expert difficulty specifically for the gold Chimera drops needed to make a T2 Chimeratech weapon, as the Standard difficulty only drops the bronze and silver Chimera items. Keep in mind that you'll also need to craft the related Smoldering Manticore weapon before crafting the corresponding Chimeratech weapon.
Step 3: Standard High Midgardsormr (sHMS)
Recommended Weapon: A 0UB T2 Chimeratech Weapon (I.e. Chimeratech Commander for Euden)
Reward: Access to Standard Volk, the HMS dragon, HMS orbs for Mana Spirals, and the Wind Fafnir Statue
sHMS acts more as a gateway into the endgame, instead of explicitly helping with weapons like the Phantom or Chimera. If you plan to play a DPS, you ought to at least have a 0UB T2 Chimeratech weapon, a 4* MUB Ifrit, a MUB Offensive Wyrmprint, and MUB Glorious Tempest. If you plan to play a healer, you ought to have the 4.3 core fire weapon (Ark Voyager) and a 4* MUB Phoenix; you have flexibility with your Wyrmprints. The amount of Augments/Facility levels you'll need to survive HMS's opening blast varies depending on what weapon you're using, so use this calculator to find out how much you need for the specific build you're going for.
Offensive Wyrmprints would be The Shining Overlord for Swords, Twinfold Bonds for Daggers, Dear Diary for Bows, Kung Fu Masters for Axes, Candy Couriers for Wands, and Resounding Rendition for Blades/Lances. Candy Couriers is a Limited Wyrmprint, but Resounding Rendition is a fine alternative.
Healer Wyrmprints can be mixed and matched depending on what you need. Glorious Tempest if you need a lot of personal survival, Give Me Your Wounded if you need some personal survival/more healing, Castle Cheer Corps if you need skill haste/healing during specific points in the fight (by force striking to get quick SP gain), Pipe Down if you need skill haste/more healing, Jewels of the Sun if you need more damage/skill haste. Chocolatiers is a good Wyrmprint for Verica, but it's limited. The most budget/low investment build would be an Ark Voyager, MUB Phoenix, MUB Glorious Tempest, and MUB Jewels of the Sun because you need 0 Augments or facility levels to survive the opening blast, and both Wyrmprints aren't healer-exclusive/can be used in other endgame builds.
Emma as a buffer is a special case; because she cares more about buffing the team instead of personal DPS, you should give her Halidom Grooms in the Offensive Wyrmprint slot. If you have Chocolatiers, she can use that in place of Glorious Tempest by using her S2 team defense buff before the opening blast, though you'll need to re-calculate exactly how many stats you need to survive the opening blast in this scenario.
Step 4: Standard Volk (sVolk)
Recommended Weapon: A 0UB T2 Chimeratech Weapon
Reward: Flame Tree and 6* weapons
After clearing sHMS, you are immediately ready for sVolk. You can run the exact same build you ran for sHMS because there's no strict HP check. If you've already put Augmenrs into Glorious Tempest, you can just keep running it, otherwise you can change to a more suitable Wyrmprint. Potential secondary prints are Beautiful Nothingness (cheapest option), Jewels of the Sun, Levin's Champion, Crystallian Envoy, Forest Bonds for Bows, Flower in the Fray for Axes, and Flash of Genius for Wands. To figure out what precise Wyrmprint combo would be best for your build, use this DPS simulator and choose various Wyrmprint combos to determine what the best combo is for you.
You can use your sVolk clear reward to either max out the Flame Tree for more passive stats, or grab a 6* 0UB weapon. For the tree, you can get the first 10 levels from just silver Volk drops, so the question is whether you want to have the materials to immediately max out the tree for an additional 5%/5% stats, or immediately grab a side-grade to a T2 MUB Volcanic weapon. In 9 weeks of weekly chests you'll have both either way, and will then start slowly working towards a MUB 6* weapon if you don't plan to tackle mHDTs to do eVolk ASAP.
Instead of fully grinding for a T2 MUB Volcanic Chimera weapon, you can use the sVolk drops for a 6* 0UB weapon for eHMS, and basically immediately start the eHDT grind from there if you want to start that ASAP.
It's important to keep in mind, however, that eHDTs and mHDTs are basically optional. Because you gain gold Volk materials in weekly chests from stand Volk, you'll eventually have a 6* MUB weapon every 50 weeks, which is equivalent to a MUB HD2 weapon. So instead of going into the eHDT/mHDT grind cycle after clearing sVolk, you can just stay put there and eventually go directly into eVolk after 50 weeks of grinding sVolk weekly chests if you don't enjoy HDTs. They're essentially two alternate paths to the same endgame, just a matter of which one you prefer to do. You do need to do eHDTs though to get 5-star adventurers their full 70 MC, whereas 4-star and 3-star adventurers just need orbs from sHDTs.
Step 5: Expert High Midgardsormr (eHMS)
Recommended Weapon: A MUB T2 Chimeratech Weapon or a 6* 0UB Weapon
Reward: Tier 1 Wind High Dragon weapons (HD1), HMS tails for Mana Spiral (5* adventurers)
After clearing sVolk, you have the option to go into eHMS and start the eHDT grind. You'll want to grind for maxed Augments, maxed Mana Circle/Mana Spiral (for 3-star and 4-star adventurers), and work on your relevant facilities. You'll need to do another stat check in the calculator to guarantee you live through eHMS's opening blast, which hits much harder. Your build can largely stay the same as what you used for sHMS, as the fight is identical, just with much higher stats all around. Healers may also want to use a Chimeratech weapon or 6* 0UB weapon to add additional DPS if needed.
The weekly chests should give enough to craft a wind HD1 weapon give or take a couple extra runs, at which point you can consider going to sHMC/eHMC and going through the eHDT/mHDT cycle.
Step 6: Expert High Dragon Trials/Master High Dragon Trials (eHDTs/mHDTs) (Optional)
Recommended Weapon: Wind HD1 weapons
Reward: Water/Fire HD1 weapons, Fire/Wind/Water HD2 weapons, tails for Mana Spirals (5-star wind/water adventurers)
With the advent of Volk/Volcanic Chimera/Mana Spirals, you can now break into the eHDT cycle through eHMS much easier now. The main reason I say this step is optional for now is not only does the Agito Uprising provide an alternate path, the meta can greatly shift if/when Wind/Water receive similar updates that Fire received. Still, this currently holds the best way to get better weapons for Wind and Water adventurers after core/void/off-element chimera weapons.
The eHMS info for this video is now incredibly outdated, but the rest is still fairly relevant in terms of the HP checks for the eHDTs and some of the meta adventurers. Keep in mind that Gala Elisanne and Jiang Ziya are incredibly meta HBH adventurers that were released after this video. Beyond that, I personally haven't delved much into a lot of the HDTs at all besides HMS/HMC, so others will undoubtedly be able to provide much better advice for them. Brotel is a Youtuber who has done all the endgame content in DL and has made informative guides/clear videos for a lot of it as well, while https://notte.moe/ produces informative written guides from veterans.
This guide was mainly to bring folks up to this step and choose for themselves if they want to go through the eHDT/mHDT grinds or wait until the next Agito boss, so hopefully you're now more informed and well-equipped to make that decision.
Ah, no worries. You weren't the only one that needed clearer instructions considering how confused some folks got in terms of the order of unlocking stuff with my first attempt. Glad to hear it's helpful nonetheless.
Thanks so much for this! This is amazing. Super helpful.
I have one question: Given that HMS uses Stun I get using a stun-resistance adventurer for him, but Volk uses sleep & bog, so should I be switching to a sleep or bog resistance adventurer for him?
E.g. I can probably use either Gala Sarisse or V!Hildegard for HMS since they both have stun-resistance (and I have their spirals already fully unlocked), could I switch to Emma for Volk since I have a VC weapon for her already and she's sleep resistant? Is the only reason you were saying "just use them same adventurer" because resistance isn't a big deal for Volk or is there a different reason?
I started writing the print guide yesterday based on the print recommendations from here, discord, the old guide, and dps simulation. I have only finished the HMS part, and now working backward on the common useful part. But I might start working on eHMC since I am more familiar with that part. I put the link below, please don't spread it outside here before I feel comfortable with it.
[Hidden content]
Edit: I welcome any recommendation and suggestion for print pair and format. The sentences in red are something I am not sure and would like someone to confirm.
Thank you for reading it. I wasn't sure how to word it properly, but it should be slightly better now.I skimmed it and it's looking good!
I will point out that, IIRC, regen healing gets an extra tick from +buff time. So there is that benefit too for using FWHC on HLowen and such, though it's small.
The other thing I noticed is just that your wording for Xania's HMS prints may be a little misleading - you say she can replace either of the prints with EE or RR, but you wouldn't want to run Candy Couriers and RR together.
Another thing is that I am not sure if I should include A Game of Cat of Boar in useful limited print since only Chitose use it
Since the New Year event is ending soon, are any of the limited wyrmprints worth getting four of? I already have 4 Heralds of Hinamoto.