Alchemy Stars Example Teams Per Element
A guide by Team BethelFrankel
Updated 7/20/2024
Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to provide players with a selection of high-level sample Alchemy Stars team compositions that can be used across the game’s four elements: Fire, Water, Thunder, and Forest. With some minor exceptions, these sample teams are not budget team compositions, but rather meta teams that utilize the game’s best units. Players can follow these examples as-is if they have the specified Aurorians or use them as starting points to develop other team comps depending on the Aurorians they have available.
For specific team-building questions or questions about this guide, consider joining the Team BethelFrankel Discord. There’s also a Codex Guide made by top5goat that details teambuilding in that game mode.
Terminology
Following are definitions of several terms used throughout the guide.
- Core Aurorians: The Core sections of each team write-up describe the units that allow the team to function. These units are key to the way the team works.
- Choice Aurorians: The Choice sections of each team write-up describe units that can be added to the Core team members as desired by the player. Typically, Aurorians in this section are used in addition to the Aurorians in the Core section, rather than in place of them.
- Multi-Tile/Single-Tile/Multipurpose: Team Compositions that specialize in dealing with enemies that cover multiple tiles, single tiles, and work equally well against both multi- and single-tile enemies, respectively.
For more information about individual Aurorians, we recommend checking out the Community Tier List maintained by Team BethelFrankel.
What If I Don’t Have One or More of the Core Aurorians?
Many of the sample teams in this guide are designed around a specific Aurorian (the Aurorian named in the team title). For example, Goldie is the lynchpin of Forest’s Enhanced Tile comp; without her, the team becomes much less consistent. Unfortunately, if your account doesn’t have these key Aurorians, the sample teams may be less effective or not work at all.
That said, there is room for flexibility. Damage-dealing Aurorians (usually, but not always, Detonators and Snipers) can be substituted for other characters with similar attributes. Often, this means a decrease in damage output, positioning, or team utility, but not to the point that the team composition becomes unusable. Likewise, Converters can often be replaced with other Converters, usually with the trade-off of less overall conversion.
Note that these are samples; they’re not intended to be the be-all, end-all of team comps for the game. So if you’re not able to use them, that’s okay! There are still many more viable comps that can be built in each element.
Fire
Victoria: Elegy’s Dark Tile Team (Aka Elegy Hyper)
Core:
Victoria: Elegy: Victoria: Elegy is Fire’s unbelievably broken Dark Tile DPS. Her first Active Skill deals DEF-ignoring damage equal to 200% of the team’s lost HP to an enemy you deem worthy of destruction. Her Equipment adds even more damage (35% of the team’s lost HP) to the unlucky enemy marked by her Active Skill when she passes over Dark Tiles. It's to the point where, even without other Dark Tile units, she’s absolutely overtuned as a dps. If that wasn’t enough, her Chain Combo and Normal Attack damage are incredibly good. She’s easily the game’s best DPS unit, and in Dark Tile teams it’s not even close. Plus, if you have her at BT3, she also generates red Dark Tiles every time you drop below or go back above 50 Sanity, which feeds right back into her absurd damage.
Batia (BT3): Batia is Fire’s premier Converter, and she’s also a fantastic Dark Tile unit. We wrote an entire guide on her here, but the gist of it is that she uses 5 energy to generate Dark Tiles, with an increase of 5 energy per Dark Tile generated (before MBT). She also converts tiles in seven different shapes, some of which can provide a full three contact points on multi-tile enemies. Getting the ideal shape is a little RNG, but you’ll never get less than two contact points. On top of this, Batia does great damage by replacing the Burn status effect with Enflame, bypassing Burn immunities and dealing more damage than Burn on anything that isn’t a high HP boss. When played well, Batia is incredibly strong, averaging 3 Dark Tiles for every Active Skill cast after her first. Pairs great with units like Uriel.
Nails: Sacred Rite: Nails: SR effectively acts as Elegy’s BiS support in her own element. Sporting ways to drain the entire team's HP fast while creating dark tiles, he’s effectively the full package. His damage is also pretty good, meaning he’s not merely dead weight. He can also effectively be a 0CD red dark tile converter when the team's HP is <30%. Extremely risky, but well worth the payoff.
Jeno: [Only for content that doesn’t force you to go mono element (Codex, Elysium, and Into the Abyss)] Jeno + BT3 Victoria: Elegy is quite possibly the most broken combo in the game. Jeno can easily drain the Sanity of the team, allowing BT3 Victoria alter’s Dark Tile conversion effect to constantly activate. On top of that, he can drain the team’s HP incredibly fast on turn 1 by repeatedly drawing cards, meaning that Victoria: Elegy will be able swap the team’s Sanity and HP right away and dish out obscene damage right from the start. He can also buff your second DPS (Dantang, Algol, even Hati). Just know that you won’t want to use his card buffs on Victoria right away since most of her damage comes from HP loss scaling. For more information, top5goat wrote a section on how the duo works in the Codex Guide.
Choice:
Algol (BT3): Algol is one of Fire’s best dark tile generators. With her Active Skill, she can select three tiles (four at MBT) within a 3x3 grid (12-tile diamond shape at MBT) to become Dark Tiles. With sufficient red tile conversion support, this is ideal for creating red Dark Tile contact points. She is a bit reliant on others for converting red tiles, but with Lorelei or other units that create red contact tiles easily, she’s core to the team. Otherwise, you’re probably better off dropping her for someone like Dantang.
Dantang: She’s basically core to any Fire team, but she benefits a lot from Dark Tiles teams since Aurora Time resets her Equipment effect (critical Normal Attacks) for the Aurora Time turn and Dark Tiles allow her to retrace her contact points. Plus, she can help Algol generate Dark Tile contact points very easily.
Carleen: Smoldering Soul: Fire’s mix of teleportation and conversion, Carleen: SS can contribute a whole lot to the team due to her flexibility.
Uriel (BT3): Uriel is one of the best flex slots in this team. Her conversion can help generate a bunch of tiles, and her Equipment directly synergizes with Batia, boosting the team's damage by a decent chunk. If you have her at MBT, she’s arguably Core.
Lorelei (BT3): Fire’s column converter returns again to demonstrate why she’s so good. Her conversion output makes the team much more consistent.
Istvan: Scarred Pith: [Mostly for Codex] The Elegy + Jeno duo generates so many dark tiles that Istvan: Scarred Pith basically always has more than enough energy to double chain whomever your on-element Captain is (team: on-element DPS, Jeno, Istvan: Scarred Pith, Batia/Algol/Whomever, and Elegy).
Ryza’s Dark Tile Team
Core:
Ryza (BT3): The Main Character of her own game is one of the best units in the game. We have an entire guide on how the Tactical System works here, but the jist for Ryza is that she uses 20 AP to cast her active skill, and then regenerates 10 AP every round. Her active deals a huge chunk of damage to enemies, and then absorbs Dark Tiles in the range of the active, similar to Minos with Enhanced Tiles, and converts the Dark Tiles into Red Tiles. With her T2 and T3 chain, she generates a Dark Tile randomly inside its area.
Patricia: Ryza’s partner in crime who helps build the Tactical System even faster. With Patricia, you have two options, either use both active skills, or use the AP Patricia generates for just Ryza’s Active. (You can learn more here.) With Ryza, you can easily fast track the tactical system, and even max it out on turn 7! She pairs perfectly as a Detonator that also converts on the team.
Algol (BT3): Fire’s Dark Tile generator gets even better as Ryza effectively turns her into a 2CD 3 Tile Dantang. (4 with MBT) Algol also benefits from the immense Dark Tile generation from both Ryza and Patricia, building her EQ and making her damage go even higher.
Choice:
Nails: Sacred Rite: Basically a slightly worse version of Algol in this team, Nails can provide selectable Dark Tiles on either a 0CD or 1CD if you opt to use his second variant. Unlike with Elegy, the team doesn’t care about going into low HP, in fact it can be quite detrimental when playing with Patricia. That said, he’s still a great option as a flex slot, and the Crimson Blessing he spawns counts for Ryza’s EQ as well.
Eicy (or any 4 Tile Converter): The 4 tile converters pair very well with the teams as they Align with Ryza’s and Algol’s Effective CD. If you don’t need Eicy’s healing, then Matthieu or Faust would be the better option here.
Carleen: SS: Another Team in which Carleen: SS thrives in. Carleen: SS acts as both another converter and teleporter for the team. She can help the team’s conversion be more consistent when using 4 tile converters as her mobility and conversion can help ease the RNG, and her decent damage output makes her the complete package.
Batia (BT3): An option if you want to play a more consistent team at 3CD, Batia’s dark tile generation can help Ryza fast track the Tactical System, all the while being a select tile converter for the team. She also converts the burn that Ryza and Patricia apply with their chains to Enflame, which helps boost their damage against targets with low max HP.
Hati and Elegy (Multi-Tile)
A composition that leverages Hati’s insane damage with supporting aurorians and other damage dealers.
Core Aurorians
Hati (BT3 R3): Hati, thanks to her “jumping” Chain Combo, still deals solid non-burst turn damage and better sustained DPS over the course of a stage since she doesn’t need to be directly next to an enemy to hit every enemy tile. In addition, her Equipment adds a maximum of 50% extra damage (60% at R1) at 30% HP, although aiming for under 40% offers more survivability while also increasing the range of her jump to add more positional flexibility. R3 is preferred to increase Active Skill damage on multi-tile bosses. Due to her reliance on getting as many chains as possible, she very much prefers units that either generate a lot of red tiles for her to use on later turns, or units that make getting the minimum required chain much easier. Hence the Converters in Choice.
Victoria: Elegy: As it's going to be a common trend throughout this document, Elegy is so overtuned that she’s basically BiS in any team you put her in. For Hati in particular, they both love to be at low HP to deal more damage. Her second Active even allows her to heal back in a pinch! Unfortunately for Hati, Elegy damage will eclipse hers in this team, leading to the question of whether or not Hati is just a slave for her at this point.
Nails: Sacred Rite: Just like with Elegy, Nails can fast track Hati’s HP loss and provides conversion, enabling Hati to deal even more upfront damage. His healing can be a lifesaver if the situation demands it.
Choice Aurorians
Eicy: The bread-and-butter 4-tile, 2CD converter. Using her alongside Lorelei and Maggie will allow for more potent burst turns. Plus, she can heal with her Chain Combo every 3 turns, which makes managing HP more forgiving.
Jakine: Jakine is a very interesting support for Hati. Her skill, which can be used every turn, has two effects: Making the first tile you step on chromatic (aka rainbow), and sacrificing 15% max HP (10% if you have her at MBT). This can both help with accessing longer tile chains on non-burst turns and with getting to Hati’s ideal HP levels. Her Equipment works very well with her kit, granting the team a small shield whenever a team member sacrifices HP to add more survivability. Worth noting that if you’re running Nails: Sacred Rite in this team, then it's not the greatest idea to pair the two unless you really want more HP drain.
Smokey (BT3): Conversion, teleporting, and decent damage. As a nice boost, Smokey also deals additional damage to enemies on red tiles.
Carleen: SS (BT3): Similar to Smokey, she acts as the teleporter for the team. If you have BT3, you can use her on turn 1 to set up your other converters.
Lorelei (BT3): Fire’s column converter has quite a few tricks up her sleeve, namely her second Active Skill. It allows her to convert a tile into a damaged red tile in 1 surrounding cluster. This red tile can act as an extra contact tile, giving her more consistency and control on top of an already overpowered first Active Skill.
Uriel (BT3): Although Uriel’s primary use in this team is as a board-wide reset converter, a forgotten part of her kit is the Burn stacks inflicted by her Chain Combo (and her Equipment). In addition to providing extra DPS through the DoT effect, Uriel’s Equipment also provides a damage increase for Fire Aurorians: 1.5% for each stack, up to a maximum of 5. At max stacks, this results in a 7.5% party-wide damage increase. This buff is persistent even after the burst turn, further fueling Hati’s off-turn chains.
Maggie (MBT): Maggie is primarily used in this team composition for her high conversion output and matching CD with Lorelei. In addition, she can provide better damage output than expected due to a misleading translation of her Equipment. For every 8 normal attack combos, her Chain Combo gets a stacking 5% damage buff (as well as a reduced Chain Combo tile requirement); in other words, at 16 normal attacks combo, she gets a 10% damage buff, 15% damage buff at 24, and so on.
Mia: Lustrous Soul: An offensive option that has strong defensive capabilities. If you don’t have Elegy, she’s one of the best DPS units to pair with Hati.
Giles and Elegy (Single-Tile)
As the name suggests, this team composition utilizes Giles’ substantial damage output on single-tile targets while also providing a good deal of flexibility in choosing the Aurorians who will support him. Aim to have at least two tile-generating converters (as opposed to resetters and teleporters) on this team.
Core Aurorian
Giles: Giles is a powerful Sanity system Sniper who can refresh his active upon killing an enemy. Each subsequent cast of his Active Skill doubles the Sanity required, but also does double the damage. There are two possible ways to ramp up Giles’ Active Skill damage: 1) using killable mobs, and 2) using Sanity Mirages, which also refresh his Active Skill when killed. Mobs is the preferred method, as it avoids the annoyance of the Bleeding effect applied by Sanity Mirages. For stages with mobs, you’ll want to aim for 55 Sanity (1 cast per turn over three turns or 2 casts on the same turn) to access the extra Chain Combo hit while avoiding Sanity Mirages. For stages where there are no mobs available, aim for 25-40 Sanity for a few turns so you can kill Mirages with his Active Skill. It’s not advised to go under 20 Sanity (which reduces your healing output to 20%) until the final turn, as Giles may need to dip into the HP bar when Sanity is at 0.
Victoria: Elegy: While Victoria: Elegy tends to far outclass Giles in his own teams, they still have strong mutual synergy together - particularly with BT3 Elegy. Victoria's incredible amounts of Sanity restoration allows Giles to spam his Active more, while Giles' constant Sanity drain can both be used to lower team HP through Elegy's second Active, and to allow Elegy to make full use of her BT3 conversion. It is worth noting, optimally speaking, that it is worth prioritizing Victoria: Elegy's damage over Giles in almost all cases; that being said, the team shines best when attempting to nuke down an enemy and saving a use of Elegy's second Active to properly nuke on both Giles and herself can be worthwhile.
Choice Aurorians
Novio: Fire’s best healer, who also provides a shield with his Active Skill. Shields are helpful with Sanity characters because they can be consumed as Sanity replacement instead of HP. If you are going to take damage or will be at low Sanity before triple-casting Giles’ Active Skill, Novio will be invaluable.
Eicy: In addition to her conversion, Eicy’s healing output is very helpful. Indeed, Giles likes being at high health when casting his Active Skill later in battles, when Sanity is low. Her healing is less essential when Novio’s on the team, but her conversion still makes her useful.
Genevieve: In addition to the small healing she provides with her low CD Active Skill, her teleporting can help achieve better positioning around single-tile enemies, as Giles does double damage when his Active Skill selects the tile the team is standing on. It takes a little extra planning to use Genevieve most effectively, but it can be worth it for the extra Active Skill + Chain Combo boost if you have team slots to spare.
Jeno: While it is outside of the scope of this guide to mention off-element synergies, Jeno (with or without May) allows Giles to do more damage, and get at low Sanity faster for increased Chain damage. Often featured in speedrunning, Jeno’s mix of ATK buffing and sanity restoration can allow Giles to do some truly heinous things. Unfortunately for Giles, Jeno is often better with Victoria: Elegy to form the single most broken duo in the game. See Jeno’s section in the Forest element for more info.
Jona Hypercarry (Multi-Tile and Mobbing)
A composition leverages the contact tiles provided by several converters for Jona to maximize her normal damage.
Core Aurorians
Jona (BT3): Due to her very powerful normal attacks and her two turn ATK buff, she has damage that rivals many SS tier units while also having good mobbing. In order to reach these heights, however, she needs at least 6 contact points, so her paired-up converters are key. Her chain is also strong for mobbing if the situation arrives.
Lorelei (BT3): Same role as the above team, but even more imperative as Jona really wants those contact points.
Batia (BT3): Explained previously, she’s one of Fire’s best Converters, and her Select Tile conversion makes Jona teams even more consistent.
Dantang (BT3): Dantang acts as a Fire Hiiro, freely selecting two tiles to convert to red, and dealing great damage on top of that. She’s a perfect fit in this team, allowing you to full circle with ease. Worth noting is that, if you have MBT Lorelei (or are willing to play with Rinne), you can fully ditch Maggie and go for a 3CD team with Dantang. (Jona, Rinne/Lorelei, Smokey, Carleen: SS, Dantang)
Choice Aurorians
Sinsa (BT3): Sinsa’s DEF shred comes in very handy in buffing Jona’s normal attacks. While the team's damage is already very high, he can make it even better on a burst turn. Do note that Sinsa does want to be in the second slot on the team to stack his DEF shred faster and let his teammate get the most out of it.
Eicy: If you need a bit more conversion on top of needing healing, then Eicy is your best shot. Her conversion also allows Jona to have a strong second turn if you already have a full circle on the first.
Gram: Acts as a secondary teleporter for the team. Gram’s teleport can act as a way to set up Lorelei’s Second Active for another contact tile. Also a good dps himself.
Carleen: SS (BT3): Similar to Gram, she acts as a secondary teleporter for the team. If you have BT3, you can use her on turn 1 to set up Maggie, freeing up Smokey’s teleport to set up Lorelei’s Second Active.
Maggie (MBT): See above.
Smokey (BT3): Smokey’s primary purpose in this comp is to set up Maggie’s cross conversion with her teleport. That said, she also deals decent damage along the way. Worth noting that if you have MBT, her red tile generation can be both useful for future red tiles and making sure Lorelei’s chain hits as much as possible.
Zhong Xu (BT3): A hassle-free way to guarantee full circle contact points in this comp. While he does have ways to push enemies out of the way, most of the time he’ll be a worse stand-in for Dantang. Still good to have around, however.
Tiny One: Same as Zhong Xu, but is a 3 star so everyone has her.
Lilica’s Shield Team (Multipurpose)
Lilica-centric team comps offer similar damage output to the multi-tile Hati comp discussed earlier, but offer greater flexibility in choosing the Aurorians to pair with her. Because of the variety available, we’ve developed a separate standalone document that covers Lilica-based teams in more depth.
Read the Lilica team comps document here.
Water
Azure and Fia’s Water Monster Team (Multipurpose)
Azure and Fia are the two monster damage-dealing Aurorians in Water. If you have the flirty sexy lady and the shouty child, you’ll basically be set for any content that requires a Water team.
Core Aurorians
Azure: Azure is a top-tier Detonator who, thanks to her Cerulean Mirage summon, doesn’t even need Breakthroughs to do massive damage. The Cerulean Mirage provides conversion, as well as letting Azure do damage to enemies within the summon’s zone during non-burst turns. For a long time she was considered an auto-include in any Water comp, and even though those days are over, she’s still an incredibly flexible and powerful unit.
Fia: Like Azure, Fia doesn’t require any Breakthroughs to dish out damage. Her damage primarily comes from two sources: her Active Skill and her Equipment. Fia’s Active Skill places Bait Marks on the field that gain increased damage and range each turn, up to 3 turns. In addition to the damage, any enemy hit by the Kyllo attack gets 5% DEF shred (stackable, and ideal for burst turns). When traveling over blue tiles, Fia’s Equipment Skill provides a healthy team-wide damage increase by applying the Damp effect to enemies, which increases elemental counter damage by 10% (15% against Fire enemies). It also boosts her personal damage by hitting the surrounding cluster when she “turns” (see image below for a visualization of her turning). Fia can kind of do it all, supporting her team while also offering great damage output on her own.
Fia advancing on blue tiles. Green parts of the path indicate turns.
Bethlehem (BT3): Bethlehem is a limited unit for good reason. Selecting 5 tiles to convert is excellent, even at 4CD, enabling long tile chains that might not otherwise be possible. She also provides a strong ATK buff to Water teammates as long as they cast active skills. Note that if your Bethlehem is MBT, her CD goes down to 3 and she can pair with MBT Carleen instead.
Barton (MBT) or Ruby (BT3): Cross converters with preemptive conversion sync up with BT3 Bethlehem’s 4-turn CD. They’re also preferred here for the sheer volume of conversion output. Since Ruby rarely uses her diagonal conversion, she and Barton are equally functional; Ruby has higher ATK and better scaling on her Active, while Barton has diagonal attacks.
Choice Aurorians
Tina (BT3): If additional conversion is needed or if you don’t have enough of the Core converters for this team comp, Tina’s ability to convert and connect three tiles in a row can be the difference between accessing a long tile chain or not. She’s a little tricky to work with and has somewhat low conversion output, but the flexibility of her Active Skill can go a long way.
Hydrad (MBT): A double chainer who will also double Azure’s Cerulean Mirage-based Chain Combo. Note that when he’s used with this specific comp and the recommended BTs, his skill will have to be delayed 1 turn.
Philyshy: A healer who also shields and teleports. Use her if you are going to take lots of damage. Her teleport can help position the cross converter better.
Raphael (BT3): A board-wide non-blue tile resetter, with healing and damage on top of that. Very useful if you need some healing, although she can’t heal nearly as much as Philyshy.
Vice Keen Sight: The best Sniper for bossing. She will target one enemy and disregard the others, building stacks whenever she hits said enemy or takes damage from them. Vice KS scales very hard if you give her the time to build up stacks. This means she likes being captain, which works fine since she has good non-burst turn damage and offers a lot of positional flexibility since her Chain Combo has global range. The same qualities that make her excellent at bossing also make Vice KS unsuited for mobbing, so take basically any other Water Sniper if you’re going to be dealing with a lot of mobs.
Schwartz Almighty Clamor (BT3): A strong detonator who also boasts high 1x1 damage. Schwartz deals HP% damage through both his Active Skill and by using normal attacks after collecting the Blades they generate; while he is powerful on his own, he appreciates additional conversion and teleports to help collect his Blades.
Corax (MBT): Corax is a powerful detonator and one of the few units in Water that has pre-emptive strike teleportation at a reasonable investment. He also works incredibly well with Fia to boost his damage by a significant margin.
Sheol’s Dark Tile Team
Core Aurorians
Sheol: Sheol is the premier Dark Tile DPS unit in Water, capable of handling any sort of content (mobbing, 1x1, 2x2) with ease and requiring no breakthroughs in order to do so. Her Investment system allows you to gain buffs that boost her damage dramatically as long as you gather enough Capital in order to do so. She gains one Capital every 5 blue tiles or every time she walks on a dark tile, which can stack up very quickly in a team like this.
Rebecca (BT3): Rebecca acts as Water Dark Tile’s premier support, selecting and converting one tile into a Dark Tile, and then converting the 4 closest surrounding Blue Tiles to Dark Tiles. She also inflicts “Immersion” on enemies, allowing her to deal potent DEF-ignoring damage as long as she casts her chain on enemies.
Vergil: Vergil acts as a budget yet potent option in Dark Tile teams. He acts as the primary converter on the team, converting up to 4 dark tiles on a single burst turn (when MBT on 3CD). This allows both Sheol and Rebecca to stack up their damage much faster.
Bethlehem (BT3/MBT): Bethlehem can serve as either an amazing flex slot at BT3, or straight up the primary converter in this team at MBT. (And at BT3 if you’re willing to burst on a 4CD) With both Rebecca and Bethlehem, you can effectively make an entire circle full of Dark Tiles around the enemy. This is extremely crazy in of itself, and allows the team's damage to be ludicrous. Her ATK buff is incredibly good for the team as well.
Choice:
Wilhelm (BT3): Wilhelm is a Select Dark-Tile Converter with the Sanity System. He selects two tiles with his active, converts them into Water Dark Tiles, and drains the team's Sanity by 2 for each tile within the range. He inflicts "Blood Daze" via his active and chain, which strips the enemies defense by 3.5% per stack, up to 3. Because of this and the Sanity System's own defense shred, he can shred up to 20.5% of the enemy's defense! That being said, his low burst turn tile generation means that he requires a lot of backing in order to be as good as he can be. Thankfully, both Sheol and Rebecca are Select-Tile converters, and with other conversion options, he has enough for him to carry on.
Zarya: Due to Zarya’s split-turn conversion, she can act as a converter on both the burst turn, and the turn right afterwards when there’s still blue tiles left over from any Dark Tiles used the turn before. She’s a flexible option, even offering a little healing, too.
Azure: Azure is here not just because she’s Azure, but also the fact that her own conversion is on 0CD, which benefits the team quite a bit.
Kleken: He’s a standard 4 tile converter, but if playing on 3CD, his MBT allows him to generate 6 tiles for the team, alleviating potential tile quantity issues.
Cena: Fulfilling his role as the healer on this team fairly well, Cena can also move Dark Blue tiles with his ability, which can help reduce tile RNG.
Thunder
Reinhardt’s Dark Tile Team
Core:
Reinhardt (BT3): Remember when this was Tiare’s Dark Tile team? Yeah… While Reinhardt has always been a great combination with Dark Tile units simply because she was the element’s best unit, the buffs she received for the game’s third anniversary gave her proper synergies with Dark Tiles, increasing her scaling with Dark Tile units even further. On a team with Chen’ni and Rachel, Reinhardt can buff the entire team’s ATK by 21% on turn 1! You might have to play for 4CD burst turns if your Reinhardt isn’t at MBT, but the payoff is well worth it.
Rachel: Rachel is one of the strongest converters in the game. She generates 2 yellow Dark Tiles (3 at BT3 and 4 at MBT) on 3CD, giving her the highest conversion output in the game. On top of that, thanks to her Equipment her personal damage lets her keep up with other DPS units. You really could not ask for more from a Converter for this team.
Chen’ni (BT3): On top of being one of Thunder’s best general-purpose converters, Chen’ni can also serve as an incredible DPS when paired with Reinhardt and Rachel. When her Dark Tiles are combined with the huge number that Rachel generates, Chen’ni can consistently deal her Equipment-buffed Normal Attacks. In combination with Reinhardt’s team-wide ATK buff increase the team’s average ATK tremendously, Chen’ni’s these special Normal Attacks out-perform basically every other DPS unit. And if you have her MBT… well, then she becomes a destroyer of worlds and arguably the best converter in the game.
Istvan: Scarred Pith: As long as you’re not playing content that requires mono-element teams, Istvan is core to this team. With an Active Skill that can potentially double all of Reinhardt’s Air Beacon Chain Combos (burst turns, Aurora Time, and the post-burst turn), he can outperform Florine, who only doubles the burst turn. On top of that, he generates Dark Tiles for the entire team and benefits from the team’s great Dark Tile generation.
Choice:
Tiare: It’s a bit sad that the former main DPS of the team is now only a choice unit, but that’s just how the Reinhardt cookie crumbles. But even with Illumina Grand Marshall’s (re)ascendance, Tiare still scales wonderfully with Dark Tiles thanks to the way she inflicts weak spots that can later be broken to do heft splash damage. Do note, though, that her weak spots are applied starting with the closest side of the highest HP enemy, meaning that she really wants Dark Tiles to be placed on all sides of enemies so she can do more damage. She’s the best DPS for the team’s fifth slot, but she’s not necessary at all.
Axelia: Axelia both heals the team and generates Dark Tiles for the full squad to abuse. When Tiare is on the team, Axelia’s ability to place Dark Tiles anywhere on the field helps ensure that Tiare can get Dark Tiles right where she prefers them—next to enemies. Do remember that she doesn’t convert tiles to yellow, so you’ll need to make sure the rest of your conversion is properly set-up to allow her to maximize the Dark Tile placement. Also, if you’re doing content that requires multiple teams (like Codex), you’ll get more mileage out of Axelia in teams with Roy or Irridon than this one, so keep the bigger picture in mind.
Florine (BT3): While Florine could be considered Core since with her ability to double Reinhardt’s Chain Combo, she’s not always the best choice for a couple of reasons: 1) the team is mostly strong enough without her, 2) Istvan: Scarred Pith can serve a similar role, and 3) she faces stiff competition from Tiare as the fifth slot DPS. Plus, since the team mostly does damage via Normal Attacks and Dark Tile effects, her Chain Combo doubling isn’t as effective as it could be—especially if you’re running a healer. Istvan: Scarred Pith is a much better double-chainer for the team due to his targeted Chain Combo doubling and Dark Tile. That’s a lot of reason she’s not the absolute best choice, but don’t misunderstand—she’s still a fantastic unit to pair with this team.
Reinhardt’s “Affordable” Team (Multipurpose)
This team is mostly meant as a classic version of Reinhardt’s teams. If you don’t have Rachel and Chen’ni, then this team is right for you.
Core Aurorians
Reinhardt (BT3): The game’s second limited unit, Reinhardt is nominally a Sniper, but turns into a pseudo-Detonator during her burst turn and the following one. Reinhardt’s Active Skill places beacons on up to four tiles on the field, which each take damage and do splash damage to adjacent tiles as a part of her Chain Combo. And, if that wasn’t enough, she also has a team-wide ATK buff for Thunder and Illumina Federation Aurorians that grows stronger each passing turn. When placing her beacons for single-tile or 3x3 bosses, you’ll want to make a T-shape centered on the enemy.
Florine (BT3): Thunder’s double chainer, Florine justifies her 6* rating compared to the 5* double chainers with better base ATK values during the doubled Chains (95% to 85%, respectively). Her Active Skill also reduces the Chain Combo tile requirement by 1 tile for the entire team, making it even easier to achieve higher Chain Combo levels—including in Aurora time. She has great synergy with Reinhardt as she doubles Reinhardt’s beacon-targeting attack too.
Nemesis (MBT): Nemesis is a straightforward cross converter, but she also gets a useful interaction with the fourth core Aurorian in this team.
Choice Aurorians
Chen’ni (BT3): Chen’ni is one of Thunder’s best converters. Beyond that, as a damage dealer Chen’ni benefits from the Dark Tiles she creates since her Equipment scales with the number of Dark Tiles she crosses for even more damage. On top of all of that, Reinhardt’s ridiculous attack buff allows Chen’ni’s normals to deal astounding damage, letting her function as a DPS herself. The main caveat with Chen’ni is that she can require thoughtful positioning to maximize conversion usage, which can be tricky without a teleporter, especially on teams with Nemesis. Despite that, Chen’ni is an amazing converter for this team.
Pollux (BT3): Pollux serves as Thunder’s column-wide converter. She doesn’t teleport like Carleen and Hedy, instead shifting an existing column of tiles to the left or right when converting. She can also displace a single-tile enemy if it’s standing on the selected tile. Using her can be a bit of a headache, but she works well with Nemesis since she can shift Nemesis’ converted column to provide two full columns of yellow tiles next to each other.
Irridon: A converter who places two yellow Prism Tiles, which each generate two additional yellow tiles in a straight line in the direction from which you arrive on the Prism Tile. This means that Irridon can convert up to 6 tiles, but with more pathing restrictions. When triggering Aurora Time, the starting tile of your original path will become a Prism Tile. Use if you need more raw conversion.
Prism tile exemple
Axelia: Axelia is an extremely flexible unit. Her base kit provides a good amount of healing via her Chain Combo and summoned Healing Orbs, but her ability to copy other Thunder Aurorians’ summons (Reinhardt’s beacons, Roy’s bees, and even Irridon’s Prism Tiles) is what really makes her special. Being able to switch between prioritizing healing and providing offensive or conversion support lets Axelia contribute to the team at all times. Do note, though, that a summon must first be placed on the field by the original Aurorian for Axelia to “analyze” it before she’s able to summon it herself.
Roy: Roy can summon Mechanical Bees to the field using 2 Supply Points. When his bees are within Chain Combo range, Roy will heal a percentage of his Max HP. On top of that, summoning bees with Roy’s active will convert the tile to yellow. While the range to summon bees is only 3 clusters (2 if BT0), you can also use 1 Supply Point to convert to yellow the tile beneath an already summoned bee anywhere on the field. Roy can have a maximum of 4 bees on the field at one time (the oldest one disappearing if a 5th one is summoned), and the bees will disappear if enemies step on them. He’s less flexible than Axelia, but can still provide a reasonable amount of support to a team in her absence.
Nadine: Thunder’s low rarity healer, Nadine can summon a lantern that will convert the tile beneath to yellow and provide healing when passed through. Additionally, the lantern has a chance to inflict the Blind effect (30% chance for attacks to miss) on enemies within the surrounding cluster at the end of the turn, and if you step on her lantern, the tile will stay yellow as it respawns. Nadine’s healing is a bit more consistent than Roy’s but she provides less conversion, making her the least flexible of the three healer options.
If you’ve spent your life savings acquiring MBT for every unit in the game, this is the best Thunder team composition money can buy. For the rest of you, just sit back and enjoy fantasizing about how easy the Thunder Spire could be for you if money were no object.
Tessa Hypercarry (Multi-tile)
The idea behind this entire team composition is to quickly build up Tessa’s Equipment stacks, which allow her to detonate a powerful nuke every time she uses her Active Skill. Pairing her with Aurorians who have low CDs on their Active Skills maximizes her damage potential. Because the nuke does damage to 2 clusters, it’s significantly better in multi-tile content, but can work against single-tile enemies. A nice benefit of this team composition is that it’s much more budget-friendly than the Reinhardt teams already covered.
Core Aurorians
Tessa: A very potent damage dealer despite her 4* status. Her potential lies in her Equipment, which deals DEF-ignoring damage within 2 clusters after her Active Skill is used, scaling on the number of Chain Combos Tessa has performed and the number of Thunder Aurorian Active Skills used. As such, Tessa likes being captain to perform Chain Combos more often. Her Active Skill also pulls enemies in either 3 rows or 3 columns to you, offering some targeting flexibility. Just be sure to check whether the enemies being targeted can be pulled, as some bosses are immune to CC effects and thus require you to be next to them to take full advantage of Tessa’s Equipment effect.
Roy (MBT): See the write-up above. Roy at MBT, along with Axelia, can become low-CD makeshift converters by placing bees with Axelia then converting them with Roy’s Active Skill. Place your bees in an order you remember so you don’t accidentally remove a bee whose tile you haven’t converted.
Axelia: See the write-up above. Axelia’s Healing Orbs refund her cubic energy when enemies walk over them, which you can abuse to quickly build up Tessa’s Equipment stacks and convert more of Roy’s bees.
Rachel: Rachel, as with basically every Thunder unit, is Tessa's best converter. Although Rachel does force Tessa into a 3CD playstyle, the fact that she can cast her Active Skill twice in one turn helps Tessa build stacks. Furthermore, Rachel solves the team's issues with first-turn conversion by generating 6 tiles (8 at BT3), making it much easier to burst on the first turn.
Choice Aurorians
Ciel, Beverly: 2CD, 4-tile converters, the base of any team.
Gronru: 2CD, 4-tile converter with a column chain and can proc Paralysis on the enemy.
Unimet: Budget conversion on 1 CD, with added effects at random via items on her selected tile. She can heal if there’s no enemy within 1 cluster; otherwise, she attacks that cluster.
Kya: As a good Courier Union member, Kya is a teleporter. She has 2 skills, but the second unlocks after the team has teleported 5 times. Her first skill lets her teleport in a cross shape on a 0 CD. Her second skill will teleport her to the closest tile adjacent to a selected enemy. Kya herself is kind of underwhelming as a Sniper, but her mobility may be an advantage for a team with lower conversion output and her 0 CD Active Skill builds up Tessa’s Equipment stacks quickly.
Leyn: See the write-up above. Leyn’s first Active Skill has a CD of 0, although on some turns you may end up using it to no effect if you’re not facetanking. Note also that if your Leyn is BT3, you may have trouble lining up his burst turns with your conversion output.
Reinhardt: Reinhardt has a CD of 3 or 4 depending on what BT level you have her at, but her ATK buff and contribution via the Sniper chain off-turn are just that good.
Luke: There’s an argument that Luke and Tessa don’t pair well. After all, while both are good DPS units, one is a Sniper and the other a Detonator, thus making their preferred targets completely different in size. That said, Luke does have a CD of 0 since he gains Scions (his stacks) every turn. Furthermore, he has a fun interaction with Tessa due to his Active Skill and Chain Combo applying a mark to enemies that does damage every time they move. The pull effect of Tessa’s Active Skill counts as enemy movement, adding even more damage to her Active Skill turns.
Pittman: Pittman’s knockback skill, which works on one line in one of 8 directions, has a 1-turn CD. Combined with Luke and Tessa, there’s some real fun to be had in pushing and pulling enemies around the map while also adding to Tessa’s Equipment stacks. For some additional team utility, Pittman also gains stacks whenever the team is hit, which increase ATK and DEF when added and give a shield when lost.
Forest
Goldie’s Enhanced Tile Team (Multipurpose)
The gimmick that holds this team together is Goldie’s ability to transform Enhanced Tiles into Chromatic Tiles using her Active Skill. Since Forest has an abundance of Enhanced Tile generators, Goldie can synergize those units into cohesive teams with highly flexible pathing, less dependency on typical conversion mechanics, and uniquely powerful burst turns.
Core Aurorians
Goldie (BT3): Goldie has two modes: Idol (her default) and Warsong (activated using her Active Skill). Idol will heal and generate Enhanced Tiles with the Chain Combo but not do normal attacks, while Warsong will do normal attacks and a screenwide sniper Chain Combo. Goldie also turns Enhanced Tiles into Chromatic Tiles and allows the team to pass through tiles with enemies on them during the first tile connection after her active use. At MBT, she’ll get CD -1, but there’s a catch. If you use her active while it was ready on the previous turn, she’ll give those effects for the whole turn, Aurora Time included. You’ll usually want her as captain to generate the maximum number of Enhanced Tiles possible.
Naroxel (BT2): Naroxel is the second lynchpin of this team. In addition to generating Enhanced Tiles through her teleporting Active Skill, she also provides a team-wide ATK buff depending on how many Enhanced Tiles have been traversed. Essentially irreplaceable in this team comp.
Jeriah: Jeriah made Goldie teams go from “good” to “best team in Forest.” Her Active Skill scales extremely well based on the number of Enhanced Tiles crossed, meaning she can easily reach upwards of 120,000 damage on her Active Skill in this team. And if that wasn’t enough, her Chain Combo also generates Enhanced Tiles.
Paloma (BT3): A weird, but incredibly potent unit in Enhanced Tile comps. Despite being a Sniper, Paloma can actually go toe-to-toe with actual detonators due to the powerful final damage bonus her Equipment grants to both her normal attacks and Chain Combo. In addition, she also generates 2 Enhanced Tiles (3 at MBT) through her Active Skill. Paloma’s powerful enough that it wouldn’t be wrong to call her Sniper Hiiro; in fact, she might actually be better than Hiiro in this particular team comp due to her absurd damage scaling with Enhanced Tiles, even if Hiiro has more tile placement flexibility.
Choice Aurorians
Hiiro (BT3): Once the undisputed best unit in the game, Hiiro has relegated to being a really good option for Enhanced Tile teams. Her free placement of green Enhanced Tiles is an obvious fit, as is the fact that her ATK scales with and her normal attack splash effect is refreshed by absorbing or the Captain traveling over Enhanced Tiles. The only awkward part of fitting her into the team is that she prefers to be captain due to the way that splash effect works, which conflicts with Goldie. That said, there are actually enough Enhanced Tile-interacting Aurorians now to make a secondary team.
Minos: While he isn’t necessarily core to this team, Minos’ potential contribution should not be underrated since Enhanced Tiles boost his damage. His 1x1 performance has few rivals, and his 2x2 contribution is also pretty good. That said, since Goldie comps have 4 team slots that are basically permanent (Goldie, Naroxel, Jeriah, Paloma), Minos has stiff competition for the fifth slot. When facing 1x1 enemies, he’ll almost always be the best choice, but in other situations you might be better served by picking a different Aurorian. Just be careful with which Enhanced Tiles you absorb with his Active Skill so you don’t mess up your pathing when Goldie activates Warsong Mode.
Siobhan (BT3): Siobhan’s conversion being limited to 2x2 or 1x4 shapes can be sometimes problematic as some of your target tiles may already be green. However, she’s a good fit for Enhanced Tile teams since two of the tiles she converts will be Enhanced. Her Active Skill also has a feature that lowers her CD by 1 if you cover at least 15 tiles during Aurora Time, but you’ll probably only be able to do that in tryhard Desolation Codex runs.
Gabriel (BT3): Gabriel can basically delete a color from the board via a special reset, while keeping all existing Enhanced Tiles and generating a few additional ones. Walking on green tiles will also make her generate Enhanced Tiles. In general, she’s very good for getting to Aurora Time (including during the turns after your burst one), even if there is an RNG element to her Active Skill.
Leo: He looks pretty, and he’s incredibly strong in these comps. He has a Regal-esque second active that boosts his normal damage and enables him to attack diagonally. This active can be stacked, with each cast costing 5 Thorns, which he gathers by—you guessed it—absorbing Enhanced Tiles. Leo gets a Chain Combo boost based on the number of Thorns he has, so whether Leo will use his second active more than once depends on whether you want to focus on normal attacks or Chain Combo. His Active Skill also allows him to generate two Enhanced Tiles if he’s at Refinement 3
Brandy: While she isn’t as good as Siobhan, she does fulfill some niche uses in this comp while also being a strong budget option. First, when she activates her skill, she creates enhanced tiles under enemies (good for Warsong Mode Goldie). In mobbing scenarios, this can help her generate quite a few Enhanced Tiles. Second, her Equipment buffs both Goldie and Paloma’s Sniper Chain Combos (and Minos’ if you’re using him), which makes her damage contribution higher than it seems at first glance.
Antony: The 6 star healer-converter hybrid. With his enhanced tile generation, fine damage, and healing, he can be a good complement to the team when you need more healing. Keep in mind that his active healing is limited to the area the two tiles make, meaning it's quite easy to miss upwards of 7k healing if you mean to use his conversion for contact points.
Building Non-Enhanced Tile Teams (Multipurpose)
In Forest, if you’re not making an Enhanced Tile team, a good chunk of the element’s roster can work. So, rather than put together multiple teams, this section simply points out the best Aurorians for specific team roles.
Multi-Tile DPS (Preferred)
Hiiro (BT3): Hiiro functions very well outside an Enhanced Tile comp, taking the role of a Detonator with excellent conversion utility.
Beryl: A once previously underwhelming unit, Beryl is now a force to be reckoned with her new buffs. Her crystals doing counter elemental damage, on top of increasing the damage dealt by said crystals, means that her damage can scale incredibly hard. However she wants to use her Tier 2 chain combo as much as possible, so she usually runs units like Gabriel to achieve that. She also demands the captain position, which can clash with other DPS units like Barton: Deft Blades. However, if you satisfy these requirements, her damage is second to none outside of the Enhanced Tile team.
Areia: Areia is the previous DPS queen of Forest (since overtaken by Jeriah and several others). This is due to her active being an ATK buff, whereas most buffs in the game are damage ones. Since damage is mostly a formula of ATK - DEF, she gains sky-high stats for her rarity. Additionally, her attacks during her burst turns have a piercing effect, which means she really likes having good converters to ensure she gets the most contact points possible.
Multi-Tile DPS (Secondary)
Barton Deft Blades: Barton’s Active Skill puts him into the superpowered Lone state, which grants his Chain Combo improved AoE and lets his normal attacks hit the cluster around him. He’s a normal attack-oriented mob clearer, but can handle multi-tile bosses as well. His main drawback is the way his Active Skill works. He requires 20 stacks of Lone Energy to enter the Lone state, but because you only need to reach 10 Lone Energy each turn (gained through normal attacks and Chain Combos) to maintain the state, it can overstay its welcome and end up unavailable when you need it for later burst turns.
Lenore: Another excellent mob clearer thanks to her peculiar chain requirements. Lenore is a Sanity unit who prefers staying at 0 Sanity. Her highest tier Chain Combo of 5 rows normally requires a whopping 33 tiles, but that requirement goes down to 15 when the team is under 100 Sanity and becomes 5 when she’s at 0. Because the DEF debuff at 0 Sanity is severe, May is pretty much required for running Lenore. Jeno, too, is very necessary, as Lenore takes a long time to reach 0 Sanity herself. Jeno can help her reach it much faster on top of providing strong utility. These requirements make using Lenore a bit trickier than other multi-tile DPS units, but she’s still quite fun.
Single-Tile DPS
Mythos: An excellent captain against single target enemies thanks to her global range Chain Combo. You may opt to use her active as often as you can as it gets the most guaranteed damage out of her Vis stacks, or, when at MBT, you might save it to increase the critical rate of her Chain Combo.
Migard: Migard is more of a mob-clearing sniper than a boss-fighting sniper. Between her multi-target Chain Combo and her 3-cluster offensive teleporting Active Skill (both of which can execute low HP enemies), she’s pretty much tailor-made for dealing with mobs. At the time of writing, Migard’s ATK is also the highest in the game when she’s at R3.
Joshua: Joshua deals strong single-target damage in a different way than the other snipers on this list. Instead of dealing damage throughout the fight, she instead builds up Wisdom, executing the targeted enemy once Wisdom is equal to or greater than the target’s current HP.
Paloma: Although she shines best in an Enhanced Tile comp, Paloma is a good general use multi-target Sniper.
Converters
Pasolo: A budget converter who places an Enhanced Tile on 1 CD (not preemptive). Said tile can be placed on Abyssal Tiles (the normally impassable holes in the board) to create bridges, but her main draw is that she applies Bleeding.
Pact: A 2CD, 4-tile 5* Converter who provides a bit of healing when targets that her X-shaped Chain Combo hit die (not an especially useful or easy-to-use bit of utility, unfortunately.)
Brandy: A 2CD, 4-tile 5* Converter that was free during the 1.5 anniversary event. Marks half the enemies on the field with “stakeout marks” which boosts the damage of sniper chains by 10% and generates enhanced tiles under said enemies.
Nikinis: A 2CD, 4-tile 6* Converter. Decent Chain Combo in a row shape.
Siobhan (BT3): Siobhan’s conversion, while sometimes unwieldy, is still very effective, especially when you want contact points on a boss.
Hedy: An amazing teleporting column Converter akin to Carleen in Water. She benefits from increased Chain Combo damage. At MBT, she synchronizes with BT3 Hiiro, BT3 Siobhan, and MBT Louise for huge burst turns. Before MBT, though, she’s mostly relegated to the flex slot as a tertiary Converter.
Sikare (MBT:) An excellent cross converter who has HP% cut, which makes her contribute to a lot more damage than is typical for her class. Her sniping Chain Combo can hit multiple targets, making applying the HP% cut easy.
Gabriel (BT3): Gabriel generates enhanced tiles, but she works fine in any team, even off-color. Her 2-cluster Chain Combo is good for a converter. Sadly, her high CD of 4 means that she is dupe-reliant for Preemptive.
Supports
Uriah: The basic 4* healer of Forest. Her Active Skill generates an Enhanced Tile on a green tile when overhealing, and is refreshed when reaching Aurora Time.
Louise: The double chainer of Forest. Louise notably has moderate healing upon reaching Aurora Time, which can go a long way if you do not need a lot of healing in a stage. You will, however, need a lot of conversion to be able to rely on it.
Jeno: This guy can do a lot of things. First, he’s a Sanity unit, which means you can go under 80 Sanity and benefit from the board-wide 10% DEF shred. He can cast his Active Skill as long as you have Sanity (or HP) with each cast adding 5 Sanity to its cost. Second, he’s a buffer, providing significant ATK buffs with his Origin Deck mechanic. Using 3 identical cards will ATK-buff the Captain, while 3 different cards will instead buff the last unit in the lineup. The other combination (2 identical cards and a 3rd one of another type) will restore Sanity and give an extra Captain Swap to let him buff more teammates or even double-buff your damage dealers. Third, he’s a healer who isn’t affected by the Sanity system’s healing penalty, which means he’ll work with 0-Sanity Lenore when Uriah won’t (and with the extra Poison stacks, you will need a healer). Jeno will heal when using combos of cards, and his heal will be stronger the lower the team’s HP%. All in all, Jeno is an amazing support.
Antony: Similar to his role in the Enhanced Tile team, he’ll provide healing to the team when you need it.
Afterword
Thank you for reading this far! We've really enjoyed making this guide, despite all the time it took — and given the scope of the project I think some thanks are due. First and foremost, I'd like to extend my gratitude to Eclogia for spearheading this project. She compiled most of the teams listed here, and this project wouldn't exist without her. Secondly, we’d like to extend a thanks to our discord server for the continuous feedback to help us understand what the guide needed to be helpful for the community.
Finally, once again, I'd like to stress our gratitude to you, the viewer, for reading. It's your interest in this work and support that makes long projects like this rewarding, so we hope that this guide can help give back by illustrating a clearer picture on team building in this game. Until next time.
- Team BethelFrankel
Changelog:
7/20/2024:
- Moved Nails: SR from Choice to Core in both Elegy Hyper and Hati and Elegy.
- Linked top5goat’s Codex Guide in the introduction and in Jeno’s section of Elegy Hyper
7/08/2024:
- Added Wilhelm and Bethlehem to the Sheol Dark Tile Team.
- Replaced Tiare’s Dark Tile team with Reinhardt’s Dark Tile Team.
- Removed Reinhardt’s whale comp
- Added Fire’s Dark Tile team
- Added Elegy to Hati, Giles, and Shield teams
- Moved the converters from Hati’s section to “choice”
5/19/2024:
- Added Tiare’s Dark Tile team to the doc and put Rachel as Core for Tessa teams.
1/1/2024:
- Added the Dark Tile team
11/13/2023:
- Added Dantang to Core for Jona Hypercarry and placed Smokey into Choice.