Special shoutouts to coauthors Yjndae and Chrysothemis for helping with tests, pointing out bugs and tricks I missed, and giving their thoughts on this guide as well as my previous works! They’re both awesome PTN players and give reliable advice, please support them!

Upcoming crimebrands:
These are early thoughts, and will need more thorough testing before they enter the main guide. I often change my mind about these after testing, or new tricks/synergies are discovered. Also, I use scuffed translation names I came up with on the fly; refer to Jiu Jiu’s Twitter/Bluesky or the S1N site for better ones. https://s1n.gg/crimebrands 

• Light in Darkness (1,2,3) - TOA 10 - War Apostle

• During battle, obtains one “Dim Light” stack every 3s, for each “Dim Light” stack, increases 14 Magic Penetration for self, up to 15 stacks. When using Ultimate, obtain 5 stacks of “Dim Light”, up to once every 3s.
• What in the Behind the Mask Magic version is this? That’s 210 Magic Pen, the same as 210 ATK bonus against most bosses?? If you proc every Ult window, this ends up taking less than 9s to fully stack, very feasible even in DZ. A good generic Magic Damage set, drop it on whoever you need some kind of damage set on but don’t know what to use.

• Murky Cave (1) - TOA 10 - War Apostle

• When battle begins, obtain DEF reduction of 150, and Magic RES increase of 150. When using Ultimate, obtain 150 Magic RES increase, lasting for 20s. Can trigger at most once every 20s.
• A Slot 1 piece that Yugu can finally make use of with Oasis, though the gain is very minor (like… 36 extra MRes shred on Oasis…). Will probably sit on her (or Dove)! Can also be considered for bosses dealing very high magic damage, but that’s malder territory.

• End of the Road (3) - Echoes of Phantasm - Cracks Between the Records

• Most recent Sinner who moved obtains a 12% Magic Damage increase.
• This is an interesting piece! I guess you have to make sure you remember to move your main DPS, but this is pretty neat as a 3rd piece for say, Yugu or OwO in Arcane CRIT. Also alright as a Pioneer/Heavy Contamination substitute on a DPS, but it’s better to just have it on a support. Curiously, if the holder of this crimebrand is killed, the effect still works on allies.  Also, if you swap two units, the one considered to have moved most recently is the one who was swapped (e.g. if you move Eleven onto Jelena to swap their places, Jelena is considered the one who last moved). This snapshots onto summons! You can see who has it with the blue arrows under their feet (the red circle is Last Stand)

• City of Gold (1,2,3) - Surveillance Order: Rahu

• When dealing corebreak (as in completely breaking the enemy, not just core damage), increases damage to corebroken enemies by 60% for 12s. This effect has a 12s cooldown, and can only be triggered 3 times per battle.
• This is lowkey cooking?? Will be great on any DPS that can corebreak such as 000, Vautour Bleu, etc… Clashes with Heartache for obvious reasons unfortunately, but 60% is a huge gain and Embrace of the Dead found in shambles. It’s sad that Augustus cannot use this properly because her ECB can only corebreak once.
  

•  Bloom Into Ashen Silence (1,2,3) - TOA 11

• Increases ATK by 100, increases True Damage Dealt by 20%.
• Likely intended to be the dedicated set for the 3.0 Anniversary Limited Sinner. This turned out… not very good unfortunately!
  

•  Despair’s Salvation (1,3) - TOA 11

• When using Potestas that costs more than 1 Chief Energy, obtain 1 Chief Energy. Can only trigger 2 times per battle.
• Likely intended for Last Stand, as the other more meta Potestas aside from Empower. This means as we have 3 Chief Energy at the start of a fight usually, we can start the fight with 2 stacks of LS instead of 1. If you have an S4 L.L., that means starting with 3 stacks of LS instead of 2. I’m not sure it’s worth it taking up slot 1 and 3 in an environment where a lot of people need Paradise Regained to cope with the annoying amount of corebreaks needed, and there are useful single slot pieces like End of the Road, but could probably find use somewhere somehow.

What are Crimebrands?

Crimebrands are the equipment used by your Sinners during combat. Once you get past level 40 and upgrade Sinners into Phase 2, you can equip Crimebrands. They grant extra stats and also certain effects; this guide aims to explain these effects, and thus teach you how to evaluate what to use in what scenario.

By the way, Crimebrands generally only affect whoever is equipping them, unless it says “allied units/allied Sinners etc.”. For example, Creation only affects its holder, but Pyral Rebirth affects all allied summons.

Definitions

First, some definitions so we can discuss the next sections clearly:

• A **Sinner** is the main being, the person/robot maid/child of Mania you pulled in the Gacha.
• A **Unit** is any movable entity/thing. This includes Sinners, their summons, and sometimes even enemies.

• Example: Shrooma is a Sinner. The mushrooms she creates, with their own stats and HP bars and location, are not Sinners. However, Shrooma and her mushrooms are all considered Units.

• An **Ult/Ultimate** is the second ability in a Sinner’s skill list. ECBs that say “New Exclusive Ultimate” such as Serpent’s, also count as Ults.

• **Skill Damage** is a type of damage (as opposed to “Normal Attack Damage”). If not specified, most Ults count as Skill Damage.
• You can test if a damage is “Skill Damage” by using L.L.’s Ult on the Sinner, which should buff it. However, you do need to account for the bonus ATK she also gives.
• Another option is testing using Path of Doom; this works as expected (correctly) on summons, unlike Illusory Moon and Asura.

• A **Basic/Normal Attack** is the first ability in a Sinner’s skill list.

• Most basic attacks are classified as **“Normal Attack Damage”**. Rarely, some have special effects that are not considered Normal Attacks, and this will be specified (Healing, or even Skill Damage).
• You can test if a damage is “Normal Attack Damage” by making the Sinner stand inside Lady Pearl’s [Substitute Stage], which should buff it.

• **Passive 1** and **Passive 2** are additional skills a Sinner has. They can vary a lot in function, but if they deal damage, they are usually a type of Skill Damage (unless specified).

• Serpent’s P2 [Ophidian Domination], is a spinning attack. It is not stated whether it is Skill or Normal Attack damage. Thus, as a passive, it is likely to be Skill Damage. Testing the spin damage with L.L. and Lady Pearl confirms this.

• A **Main DPS** is a Sinner whose primary job is to do tons of damage to enemies.

• Examples: Deren, Shalom, Mantis, Shrooma, Lamia, Dreya, Bianca…

• A **Support** is a Sinner whose primary job is to either buff the damage of a Main DPS, or otherwise ensure they can deal damage (e.g. by keeping them alive)

• Examples: L.L., Hecate, Eve, Che, Ariel, Thistle…

• A **Corebreaker** is a Sinner who has great value in being able to easily deal Core Damage to enemies.

• Examples: Labyrinth, Thistle, Hecate, Che, Donald, Raven…

• **Core Damage** is damage that reduces an enemy’s Cores.

• **Corebreak** refers to landing the final hit of Core Damage on an enemy that reduces their Cores to 0, and actually puts them into the stunned “Breaking” state.
• However in casual chat, you might see these used interchangeably. Examples: “Hecate can deal 2 corebreaks” and “Hecate can deal 2 core damage” mean the same thing.

• A **Stat Bonus**/Attribute Bonus (when talking about Crimebrands) refers to the extra buff granted by equipping that specific piece of Crimebrand. You do NOT need the entire set to benefit from a single piece’s Stat Bonus.
  
• A **Set Bonus**/Set Buff refers to a bonus activated only when the entire set of a Crimebrand is equipped on the same character. It is the bunch of text at the bottom of a Crimebrand’s description.
  

• A **Burst Window** refers usually to when you have corebroken the boss and they are staggered, taking bonus damage. You will try to throw all your damage out at them during this time in a “burst”, hence the term.
  
• A **BiS** is “best-in-slot”, basically someone’s best set of equipment (in this case, crimebrands).
  
  

Why is Energy Important in Path to Nowhere?

In most games, you chase after damage stats to deal big numbers. In Path to Nowhere this is still true, but another stat is also very important: Energy.

You can see how much Energy a Sinner’s Ult costs on their pages.

Generally speaking, most Sinners default to regenerating 1 point of Energy per second. You can take this to mean that, for example, Shalom can usually only use her Ult for the first time after 34 seconds into the battle. However, with her shackle bonuses and using Corridor Echo, she can use her first Ult just 8 seconds into the fight, and of course reuse it again later on.

Consider as well that in the main method of regularly farming Hypercubes, Broken Frontlines, you want to finish the entire stage in under 50 seconds to earn all the rewards. This means bonus Energy = Time saved in PTN, thus its value in Crimebrand sets.

What Priority for obtaining Crimebrands?

Stormy Memories

There are several ways to obtain Crimebrands; the first one you will likely learn about is Stormy Memories, which you get 3 chances to farm every day. Clear these as part of your dailies.

From the 3rd stage onwards, there is a chance for these stages to drop the Yellow S-Rank Crimebrands, listed in bold text here. 

As of Yingying’s patch, you can choose which S-Rank Crimebrands drop from each day. E.g. if you pick Corpse Mark, Buried Within, Depths of Oblivion, and Corridor Echo, if an S-Rank Crimebrand drops, it will definitely be from one of those four sets. You have to clear the stage in the bottom right corner for this to apply; the old stages inside the Memory Anomaly tab are not targeted.

**All stages will have a chance to drop the following B-Rank sets:**
Providence, Syndicate: Glory, Justice, Eastside: Dream

**Memory Anomaly:** *Mon, Thu, Sun*

**Buried Within, Corpse Mark, Reunion Day, Depths of Oblivion, Depth of Restricted Area, Corridor Echo,** Obsession, In Host’s Name, Final Prologue

**Impression Anomaly:** *Tue, Fri, Sun*

**Bleak Star, Nomad, WhiteSands Apostle, The Pandora Cage, Singularity, Creation,** Shackles of Life, River of the Dead, Tuning: Zero

**Resonance Anomaly:** Wed, Sat, Sun

**Tethered Souls, Bloodbound Oath, Scarlet Bewitchment, Premonition, Paradise Regained, Creed of Bulwark,** Hope, Fury, Blue Rain

Generally speaking it’s good to have at least 2-3 full sets of each Crimebrand, but some are more useful than others. This means when you get to pick a Crimebrand (e.g. in Crimebrand Packs), there are definitely some worth choosing over others.

In the Crimebrand Pack for A and S, you can only choose those that come from Stormy Memories. We recommend choosing the following, in order:

**A-Rank: Tuning: Zero, Hope**
Tuning: Zero and Hope widely see general use, as Energy is always nice to have in PTN. Final Prologue is a generic healing set and nice to have, but not particularly important to complete, so you will probably benefit from choosing these two more.

**S-Rank: Corridor Echo, Paradise Regained, Creation, **

**Corridor Echo** here deserves additional mention: it is probably the most-used Crimebrand in the game, and is notorious for new players not having enough of it. Unless you desperately need a Paradise Regained or Creation piece **and** already have 3-4 pieces of Corridor Echo, always choose Corridor Echo if you get the chance.

**Crimebrands marked with an *asterisk have notable bugs or quirks; see the dedicated tab for those.)**

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Syndicate: Glory (1,2,3)

***Magic Damage +15% and damage received +25%.***

Pretty straightforward “starter” damage set, and you’ll likely use this for a while as a new Chief as you try to farm for better Magic sets. You’ll put this on Magic DPS units like Lamia or Luvia Ray, preferably those with ranged attacks as it’ll be easier to keep them safe from the downside of taking more damage.

Providence (2,3)

***Attack +6%.***

This is… fine? It’s just very underwhelming, don’t use it. Unless you have literally nothing else to use, then equipping this is better than having nothing. That being said, typically you won’t have anything to use for slots 2 and 3 with Tuning: Zero, so you can use Providence with it when you’re just starting out.

Justice (1,2)

***After using an Ultimate, all Sinners except the caster increase 5% Attack for 10 seconds.***

Justice is often used even into the endgame on support units such as Labyrinth, L.L., Lisa etc: basically units who can either frequently cast their Ultimate, or tend to use their Ultimate right before a burst window.

Eastside: Dream (1,2,3)

***Normal attack damage +15%.***

This is the Normal Attack version of Syndicate: Glory, basically. Another straightforward “starter” set that’s good for units like NOX, Zoya, Lady Pearl, etc who chiefly rely on their Normal Attacks to deal damage.

Hope (2)

***Initial Energy +5.***

Energy bonuses are considered valuable in PTN, so Hope is very often used as an all-round “well I need to put something in the 2nd slot” Crimebrand. Hold on to as many of these as you can.

Fury (1)

***After using an Ultimate, recover 20% self HP immediately. Can be triggered once at most, for every 8 seconds.***

Finds some niche uses on Sinners who can Ult fairly frequently (a Labyrinth who might be getting sniped by enemies as she’s spinning around the map), or an Endura who needs to tank a whole bunch of damage (e.g. EX stages). Not meta, but a nice utility piece that comes in handy at times.

Blue Rain (1,2,3)

***Movement +6. This set cannot be stacked. Only 1 set will be in effect.***

Does what it says on the tin. Not really useful, you’re better off using something else in basically all situations.

Scarlet Bewitchment (1,2,3)

***When not attacking, Attack is increased by 1% per second, stacking up to 20 times. Reset after attacking.***

Used to be recommended for some sinners whose Normal Attacks are healing, but fell out of favour as it just takes too long to build up. It’s also an S-Rank, 3 piece set that you have to pray to get from farming Stormy Memories, so it doesn't even have the excuse of being a budget set. Not used anymore.

Premonition (1)

***When dealing Core Damage, True Damage (Attack *120%) is added.***

Not used, better sets available out there. The damage value isn’t enough to justify it.

Paradise Regained (2,3)

***Creates a spirit available for capture every 15 seconds. When someone in this set captures one, 1 Core Damage will be immediately dealt to the monster with the most number of cores on the field. Up to 2 spirits can exist at the same time.***

Paradise Regained will immediately spawn one spirit 15 seconds into the battle, and continue to do so every 15 seconds. If you put this set on two Sinners, then two spirits will be spawned, and both will be able to collect spirits no matter whose set actually spawned them.

If you try to use a Sinner who isn’t wearing this set to pick up the spirits, they will disappear but no Core Damage will be dealt to any enemies.

This sees use surprisingly often especially in maximum depth/difficulty runs of EX Stages or even the Tide of Ashes, because corebreaking is so vital to the battle system of PTN, so it’s good to get one or two sets at some point.

Creed of Bulwark (2)

***Block +1***

Can be used as part of a set for Endura units if you’re struggling to fend off big waves of enemies. Matches nicely with In Host’s Name, which gives bonus damage taken reduced for each enemy blocked, and the slots work out perfectly.

You can also put this on a Fury Sinner to turn them into a 2 Block unit, which lets them act even better as the tank as they usually have decent HP and DEF stats while dealing good damage. This also means they can block some enemies that require 2 blocks, allowing you to not be forced into leveling/bringing an Endura Sinner for that stage.

Tuning: Zero (1)

***Gain 3 Energy points after using Chief Skill. Can be triggered once every 10 seconds.***

Widely used piece, probably even more so than Hope. When the set effect is triggered consistently across long battles, this is the reason certain top-level strategies like Shield Stacking can work. Even in normal story mode or short fights like Broken Frontlines, the energy regen is just really nice anyway.

Shackles of Life (1,2,3)

***Crit Damage +50%.***

Not particularly worth taking, as only a few Sinner have innate Crit Rate bonuses to make use of this piece decently, and they all have better sets to use.

*River of the Dead (1,2)

***At the start of the battle, skill damage is increased by 30%. The effect will disappear after casting an Ultimate.***

This set functions quite strangely and is generally not recommended for use at all due to how buggy it is; see the “Known Bugs & Tricks” section for more info.

WhiteSands Apostle (1,2,3)

***A chance to Stun the target for 2 seconds when attacking. Guaranteed to trigger for monsters with core(s). Can be triggered once every 10 seconds.***

Another very very niche utility set; you can perform some weird challenge runs with this (e.g. very easy to trigger with Shalom), but this falls more in variety/utility than a meta set. Avoid using this unless you know what you’re doing in a self-imposed challenge EX or Mania Training run. The chance to stun on enemies without cores seems to be around 30%.

The Pandora Cage (2,3)

***For every 3 normal attacks, 1 extra Physical Damage (Attack*80%) is dealt to the enemy attacked on the 3rd time.***

Does what it says. Not particularly worth taking most of the time, besides on Langley sometimes due to a unique interaction with her P1. On other Sinners, you’re usually better off grabbing Embrace of the Dead or something else.

Singularity (2)

***After moving, your Attack Speed increases by 12% for 10 seconds.***

This sounds simple on paper, but Attack Speed actually does not scale linearly in PTN. You may refer to this page about “Attack Speed Breakpoints” https://s1n.gg/articles/attackspeed-threshold  Path to Nowhere: Attack Speed Thresholds for a full breakdown, but TLDR: because attack speed is calculated via frames, you have to hit a certain amount of bonus attack speed (a “threshold” or “breakpoint”) before that Sinner actually starts attacking faster. Otherwise, they will actually keep attacking the same amount of times per second. Thus, if this 12% is insufficient for your Sinner to reach the next breakpoint, it’s entirely useless. Currently, there are no Sinners which this piece is meta on.

This works on abilities that move Sinners, like Labyrinth ,Deren, etc. You can check by looking for blue “speedy” lines on the character after they move, this is Singularity’s particle effect.

Creation (3)

***Damage caused by summoned creatures increases by 25%.***

Very strong piece as it’s a single slot. You don’t need many (just one or two is fine), but it’s very nice to have if you use summon Sinners like McQueen and Shrooma, and forms part of their strongest sets.

Obsession (2)

***Automatically dispels 1 negative effect from self every 15 seconds.***

Similar to other niche utility sets, it’s not generally used. Avoid using this unless you know what you’re doing in a self-imposed challenge run and have a plan.

In Host’s Name (1,3)

***Damage taken is reduced by 8% for each enemy blocked.***

Matches nicely with Creed of Bulwark to form a defensive set for an Endura.

Final Prologue (1,2,3)

***Healing is increased by 25%.***

Generic healing set that sees use into the endgame. Just a nice set overall to throw onto any healer.

There’s an interesting exception with Macchiato; if you equip this set on her, she does not gain the healing bonus. However, if you equip this on an allied Sinner, the healing that ally receives from Macchiato will increase.

Reunion Day (1,2,3)

***Recovers 3 Energy points when a normal attack lands a CRIT hit. Can be triggered once every 3 seconds.***

Most often used on Bai Yi as she has a lot of innate CRIT rate and the main purpose of deploying her these days is for her Ult, so you want lots of energy. This can be used sometimes for Energy regen purposes on other CRIT units like Deren or Mantis if you don’t have Inversion Slash. Not really worth to specifically aim to get and many other sets are better for damage, but not completely useless.

*Depths of Oblivion (1,3)

***Ultimate damage is increased by 1% every second, up to 30 stacks. The effect will be reset after the Ultimate has been used.***

Another weird and buggy set, further detailed in the “Known Bugs & Tricks” section. Do not recommend using this in general.

Depth of Restricted Area (1)

***After the battle starts, does not get damage from normal attacks for 20 seconds.***

Some niche uses for this, since it’s a single slot piece. Can be placed on a support or tank (Endura) unit who would otherwise take a very painful hit from a boss or elite monster within the first 20 seconds of the battle. You can use this in certain cases in say, Broken Frontlines (BFL), as some bosses hit really hard and equipping this will allow your tank to eat most of the attacks for free.

Corridor Echo (3)

***Initial Energy +8.***

Extremely valued crimebrand piece in PTN. NEVER throw these awaye. This sees use all the time as the 8 energy is very useful to get your units charged up faster. Pretty much someone will use it in every team comp.

We recommend targeting to farm the following sets in this order:
***Bloodbound Oath → Nomad → Corpse Mark → Tethered Souls (Arcane CRIT) → Buried Within (Summon) → Bleak Star***

Bloodbound Oath (1,2,3) - Stormy Memories (Targeted)

Increases healing effect by 25%. When healing a target with less than 50% HP, also reduces damage taken by the target by 15% for 8 seconds.

Finally an S-Rank set for healers! Very good, basically becomes Final Prologue and Rift Palace thrown together on your healer. Will come in handy for stages that deal astronomical amounts of damage like Mania Training.

Nomad (1,2,3) - Stormy Memories (Targeted)

After using the Chief’s Potestas, all enemies take 12% more damage for 5 seconds. This set cannot be stacked. Only one set will be in effect.

Great set for supports to use particularly in boss fights. 12% is a lot, and the condition is super easy to fulfill as you will be throwing out Empowers/Last Stand to attack enemies anyway.

Corpse Mark (1,3) - Stormy Memories (Targeted)

When breaking a core, generates a sprite on the battlefield. This effect can be triggered up to once every 5 seconds. Sinners who collect a sprite receive a 10% Attack boost for 10 seconds. Up to 2 sprites can exist at the same time.

The ATK Bonus duration goes well with the duration of the average corebroken phase, so this can go on a support that is able to corebreak, and you pick up the spirit with your DPS.

Tethered Souls (2,3) - Stormy Memories (Targeted)

When at least 3 units of the same class are on the field, Magic Damage increases by 15%. When at least 4 units of the same class are on the field, Magic Damage increases by an additional 15%.

Very Arcane team adjacent (for example, Yingying, Jelena, Vautour Bleu, Raven, Cabernet, OwO/Yugu). The value comes in it being slot 2 and 3, as it allows you to use Path of Doom in slot 1. According to this video https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13GXSYYEMs/?vd_source=b7a2c4b3ac68ae7d3aaffcf0a120104c , Yugu’s Tendency-copying works and counts as one unit for this set. It also seems that Summons count.

Buried Within (1,2) - Stormy Memories (Targeted)

Summoned Creatures deal 30% more Magic Damage.

A viable set with Creation for a total of 55% Summoned Creature damage dealt in a longer fight. Belltower can still win out if you play Arcane CRIT Eleven or spam her Ult a lot, but this opens up Eleven to not be Belltower reliant anymore, and also no longer S3 reliant for long battles. Very good set, even more so for being farmable and free.

Bleak Star (1,2) - Stormy Memories (Targeted)

When no other Sinners are present within the cross area, Life Loss damage increases by 40%.

Dreya. The positional requirement is somewhat annoying though, and Melodious Belltower or Tempestuous Void out-damage this set if you have them.

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Broken Frontlines (BFL)

• Battle Medals

*These cost 1000 per piece, with the exception of Shattered Battlefront (200 each). You earn Medals from playing the Broken Frontlines game mode.*

We recommend buying full sets of these, in order of importance:
***Embrace of the Dead → Nightmare Revelation → Soul Rift → Year One: Perishing Star (Y1PS)***

Embrace of the Dead (1,2,3)

***Damage dealt to enemies in a Breaking state is increased by 40%.***

“Breaking state" refers to when an enemy’s cores all get broken, and it staggers with a white bar counting down. You can slowly buy up 2-3 sets of Embrace of the Dead, as they’re a generally useful damage set. As it’s accessible by patiently farming the Broken Frontlines, as regular game mode, this is the main recommendation for Main DPS units to take.

While it may seem strange to take a set that only deals bonus damage during a certain phase, the biggest problem in this game tends to be the bosses anyway, which you deal with by waiting for them to reveal their cores, breaking cores, then piling on all the damage you have during their corebroken phase. This is because bosses take additional damage while corebroken, so this set synergises with that strategy well.

Nightmare Revelation (1,3)

***At the start of the battle, all allied Sinners will increase both their Attack Strength by 6% and Attack Speed by 10% for 30 seconds.***

Very nice on support units who don’t do much damage themselves to help support their allies. Typically, this is used in BFL as it fits nicely under the duration of the fight (under 50 seconds). Placed above Soul Rift, as this can work for buffing both Magic and Physical damage types.

Keep in mind that this does not stack; only one set of this will work at a time, so do ont bring multiple sets of it on several Sinners.

Soul Rift (1,2)

***Reduces a target's Defense by 4% after every normal attack for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.***

This is basically a form of Defense shred, but only works on Def (not Magic Resist). Pretty nice overall, and worth getting a set.

Like Nightmare Revelation, the effect of Soul Rift does not stack with multiple sets.

Year One: Perishing Star (1,2,3)

***Increases HP of self by 20% and Attack by 15%, but becomes unable to move.***

Sometimes called Y1PS for short. Y1PS is a decent (but niche) alternative for some Sinners so it’s nice to have one set on hand, but not a very high priority. It’s better to collect more sets of Embrace of the Dead over Y1PS when you’re just starting out.

This can see some use on Sinners like Eve and Shrooma who do not necessarily have to move themselves, but it is not their optimal set.

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Excluded from the buy list:

Shattered Battlefront (2,3)

***At the start of the battle, Attack is increased by 15% for 30 seconds.***

Shattered Battlefront is… alright? Its bonus is just very underwhelming for what you get, so even though it’s cheaper than the rest, you might as well just save up the Medals for the other sets.

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Surveillance Order

• Surveillance Emblems

*These cost 500 per piece. If you are F2P and active daily, you obtain around 500 Emblems per Surveillance Order by reaching level 60 on it. If you pay for the Advanced Surveillance Order (cheaper), you get 160 bonus Emblems upfront, and if you reach the maximum level of 100, you get another 1600 Emblems. If you buy the In-Depth Surveillance Order, you get 900 bonus Emblems upfront.*

We recommend buying full sets of these, in order of importance:
**Heartache → Immolation Ignition → Otherworld Dreamflower → Afterglow → Eroded Sand → Path of Doom → Melodious Belltower → Behind the Mask → Heavy Contamination → Against the Light/Tempestuous Void**

*Heartache (1,2)

***Upon breaking the Core of an enemy, increases the damage they take by 20% for 15 seconds.***

Heartache is lowkey a game-changer, and easy to slot onto any Corebreaker *(Labyrinth, Thistle, Enfer, Raven etc)*. It only costs two slots compared to Melodious Belltower, making it easier for new players to obtain for a big boost to their boss-killing power.

Immolation Ignition (2)

***When the battle begins, two spirits available for capture are created. When a Sinner captures a spirit, gain 5 energy.***

Immolation Ignition is an interesting set for a support Sinner in BFL: For example, this fits in perfectly with Nightmare Revelation. This set allows you to grant another ally (say, a Main DPS) up to 10 bonus energy as the battle begins. Considering even the highly prized Corridor Echo only grants 8 energy, this is valuable as a single piece Crimebrand to replace Hope while allowing your Main DPS to bring a full damage set. Even in longer fights, it can be a “whoops I need a bit more energy to corebreak quickly” backup plan if you leave the spirits on the map until you need to grab them. Great single slot piece, can universally replace Hope. Extremely good (and funny) synergy with Cassian as he keeps dying and reviving, triggering this effect many times in a single fight for free.

Otherworld Dreamflower (1) - Surveillance Order: Rise

After Chief uses Potestas, the user recovers 1 energy every second, lasting for 8 seconds. Can only be triggered once every 20 seconds.

Finally a good Energy-related slot 1 that isn’t Tuning… Assuming you perfectly proc every single Tuning window in a 3-min fight (which you don’t), you’d get 54 extra Energy (180s/10s=18, 18x3 = 54). This piece would grant you 72 extra Energy in that time (180s/20s=9, 9x8 = 72). Definitely a high priority piece, especially as a single slot one. Makes L.L. even more OP than she already is, and makes Shield Stacking slightly less agonising. However, on Summoners with multiple summons like Summer and Eleven, Servant outperforms this.

Afterglow (1,2)

***After using an Ultimate, Attack of all Sinners within a 3x3 square, except the caster, increases by 10% for 12 seconds. Can be triggered once every 20 seconds.***

Afterglow provides a neat boost in ATK to all allies, which is pretty valuable in PTN in the late-game. However, it is conditional to position and timing as per its description, so you have to understand how to use it clearly. If you don’t want to be fussed with either of those conditions, you can simply use the B-Rank Justice set instead from farming Stormy Memories. This set is ranked higher than Eroding Sands as it can be used on any damage type team, and above Path of Doom as Afterglow can be used across multiple types of content easily.

Eroded Sand (3) - Surveillance Order: Rise

Normal attacks mark targets with [Erosion] once every 6 seconds. When a target has 1/2/3/4/5 stacks, they receive 1%/2%/4%/8%/12% more Physical damage and 2%/4%/8%/16%/24% reduced healing received.

Stonks for a Physical Damage team! A nice support slot 3 option; can work well with Sinners like Jasmine, Labyrinth, or 000 who are taking a supporting (corebreaking) role in a Physical team, taking a Heartache+Heartache+Eroding Sands set. You could also potentially do an Afterglow+Eroding Sands set.

Path of Doom (1)

***During battle, whenever a unit dies, gain a 3% Skill Damage increase, lasting for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.***

Path of Doom’s condition of a unit dying is hard to fulfil 10 times quickly on some stages, and sustaining it for the entire duration which you need it for can be tricky. However in terms of pure stats, 30% Skill Damage increase on a Slot 1 piece is very spicy (Illusory Moon uses 2 slots and comes with a downside), and sees strong use in game modes full of weak mobs like RoTD, or BFL seasons with many mobs (which, to be fair, is a lot of them currently). Best used on big AoE Skill Damage Sinners who can mob well like 000, Vautour Bleu, Yingying, and so on.

*Melodious Belltower (1,2,3)

***After the battle starts, damage dealt to elite and boss units is increased by 50% for the first 30 seconds.***

Melodious Belltower is a perfect fit on Main DPS Sinners in the Broken Frontlines game mode, as you aim to speedrun and kill the boss in under 50 seconds for max rewards. You can use it on any damage type (Physical, Magic, True), so it’s not limited like Behind the Mask. It’s pricey as a full 3 piece set, so you can use Embrace of the Dead as a decent alternative, but this set is definitely worth working towards slowly.

Behind the Mask (1,2,3)

***At the start of battle, gain 100 Physical Penetration. After using Ultimate, gain 125 Physical Penetration for 10 seconds.***

Behind the Mask is a great set for Physical Main DPS Sinners overall, as Physical Penetration is valuable in PTN. This set does well on Sinners like Lady Pearl, Jane, and Bianca, though can be applied to others as well. 100-125 Physical Penetration is similar or more than most basic enemies defense values, allowing you to deal near True damage values. However, as this set is a pricey 3 piece set and limited to only Physical units, other Crimebrands take a higher priority.

Heavy Contamination (3)

***After using the Chief's skill, own damage increases by 15% for 8 seconds.***

Heavy Contamination is not difficult to keep decent uptime on, and can be a nice single flex piece to slot into Main DPS sets. However, Pioneer exists and new SO sets get added fairly regularly, so you might be better off skipping Heavy Contamination if you’re F2P and/or short on Emblems.

Against the Light (1,2) - L.L. Surveillance Order

When landing a critical hit, gains an 18% Attack Speed boost and an 18% Magic Damage boost for 3 seconds.

Likely intended to be used on the Main DPS of 3Y/Arcane CRIT team (Main DPS + Yingying, Yugu, and Jelena). Fits well into Vautour Bleu’s kit (and Wuhuanzi, to a lesser extent) because of the Attack Speed, though Wuhuanzi still does best on either Inversion Slash or Judgement.

Here’s the monstrosity of a sheet I made specifically for this crimebrand, TLDR here’s the conclusion

Assumed Arcane CRIT ECB3 Jelena, P1 fully stacked

Tower+Judgement is king in single target fights (multi too ridiculous)

Path of Doom+City+Arrival is better than Moon+Arrival if you can sustain Path of Doom's effect

Tempestuous Void (1,2,3)

***When dealing Core Damage, gain 15 M-Value. Each point of M-Value increases physical damage by 1%, up to a maximum of 60%.***

A great set on Dreya, as she has a max M-Value of 80, or Vanilla and Pylgia, who max out at 60. Pylgia especially loves this set as she can sustain it well with her waveclear-based kit. Mantis unfortunately caps out at 50. This bonus fluctuates according to current M-Value, it is not permanent once gained. An extremely strong set on the Immortal Sinners, just low priority because of how few Sinners can use it.

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Tides of Ashes

• Ash Core for currently running ToA, and Ash Solidus for reruns

*These cost 250 Ash Core each for current season Crimebrands, 300 Ash Solidus for rerun Crimebrands. Many of these Crimebrands are considered extremely strong, so it’s highly recommended that you participate in ToA even if you cannot get all the rewards.*

We recommend buying full sets of these, in order of importance:

**Inversion Slash → The City of Sins → Oasis  →  Rift Palace → Overthrown Tower → Judgement  → Heart’s Betrayal →  Asura → Illusory Moon

Situational Crimebrand Sets:
Illusory Ache → Pyral Rebirth → Crimson Bloom (if you own S1+ Coquelic) → Servant (if you play Summon) → Homecoming (if you play Summon)  → Fleeting Vision (if you play Bleed team) → Rising Wind → Dawn after Darkness → Solo Dance**

Inversion Slash (2,3)

***After a normal attack, the next normal attack will be 2 quick attacks, with the second attack returning 3 points of energy. Triggers up to 1 time every 5 seconds.***

Inversion Slash deserves special emphasis: it is overpowered, and sees use nearly everywhere all the time due to how much extra Energy it grants a Sinner. Its only “bad” trait is that you can only own one set of it. (You can sort of get around this in some modes by borrowing an Assist Sinner from another Chief who also has Inversion Slash equipped.)

***Inversion Slash is the absolute priority set to buy from ToA.***

The City of Sins (2)

***Every 1 crimebrand set activated by the equipped Sinner = HP +5% and Attack +3%. Maximum 3 stacks.***

The City of Sins is an excellent flex piece, allowing for nice bonuses to stats with many other sets and thus frequently used.

Oasis (2) - Tide of Ashes Season 8

***Reduces the Magic Resistance of enemies in a diamond shaped area around self by a value equivalent to 12% of own Magic Resistance. The Magic Resistance reduction effect of this Crimebrand cannot be stacked.***

Makes up the BiS for Dove and Yugu, usable on other Endura units to help with shredding enemy Magic Resistance. Good practical set overall for a Magic team. Slots nicely with Nightmare Revelation in BFL.

*Rift Palace (3)

***After receiving damage from an enemy unit, its damage will be reduced by 12% for 8 seconds.***

Rift Palace is a very strong crimebrand on a tank or support Sinner towards the endgame, as some enemies start dealing ridiculous amounts of damage. No need to rush getting this early on, but highly valuable when you start tackling endgame content EX stages or Hysterical Mania Training.

Overthrown Tower (1)

***CRIT Rate +12%***

Overthrown Tower is nice in that it only takes up one slot for a neat boost in CRIT, so it happens to go well with things like Inversion Slash and The City of Sins.

Judgement (2,3) - Tide of Ashes Season 8

If the number of enemies on field does not exceed 3, self CRIT Damage +70%. If there is only one enemy on field, gain an additional +70% CRIT Damage.

If you have Jelena, it is technically her BiS in single-target fights and will turn her into a monster of an amper. However, if you have her at ECB3, this is overkill and hits the cap of her buff effects. As such, if you are building into CRIT (as implied by having Jelena and this set), you should instead actually give this to the main DPS that she is buffing as you will gain a lot more that way.

Heart’s Betrayal (1) - Tide of Ashes Season 8

When dealing Core Damage, if the target is already in the Corebroken state, deal an additional (Attack * 400%) True Damage.

A better version of Premonition? Can find use on support corebreakers like Pine or Labyrinth. It does actually get multiplied by things like Damage Dealt/Taken bonuses, but because it doesn’t count under Skill Damage/PhysMagic Damage multipliers, not so suitable for DPS units. Tuning: Zero remains a strong contender for Slot 1 because of energy regen.

Asura (1,2,3)

***At the start of the battle, gains a (Max HP * 20%) shield. This shield effect resets every 20 seconds. While the shield is active, magic damage increases by 15% and skill damage increases by 15%.***

Asura can be a significant damage boost for Magic Damage Sinners, but comes with the caveat of being 3 full pieces and having a condition attached to it (keeping up its shield). Often given to Sinners like Etti, Raven, or Du Ruo, who can stay in the safety of the back line.

Illusory Moon (1,2)

***Skill damage increased by 20% and normal attack damage reduced by 30%.***

Illusory Moon works best on non-summoning units that mainly rely on their Ult for damage, such as Hestia, Raven, Etti, a high-shackle Du Ruo, etc. This set is nice because you can use the last slot for Pioneer/Heavy Contamination for more damage, or Corridor Echo for some extra starting Energy. You also do not want to give Illusory Moon to a Sinner who does a decent amount of damage from their Normal attacks: Yao for example, actually does a chunk of her damage from normal attacks.

From this point onwards, the buy priority of these ToA Crimebrands depends on what Sinners you play or plan to pull for.

Illusory Ache (1,2,3) - Tide of Ashes 9 幻悸之痛

When dealing core damage, gains a 5% Physical Damage boost, stacking up to 6 times. For Umbra Sinners, the effect can be stacked up to 10 times.

Can be placed permanently on Graves, also works well on a Sinner like 000 and is competitive with Behind the Mask on stages with lots of cores to break early on.

Pyral Rebirth (1,3) - Tide of Ashes 9 焰召新生

When using Ultimate, all allied summoned creatures gain a 45% Attack Speed boost for 10 seconds. This effect can be triggered up to once every 20 seconds.

Works well in a team with CRIT Slaps Eleven or Hypatia (e.g. being placed on a support such as OwO or Eve). Though, the value of these teams are currently weaker/incomplete compared to other Magic options, so the priority drops because of that.

Crimson Bloom (1,2,3)

***Gains a 2% increase in Normal Attack Damage for every 1200HP recovered for allied Sinners (including overflow), stacking up to 25 times.***

Crimson Bloom is the dedicated set for Coquelic; if you plan to invest in her and have S1 or above, it’s worth grabbing this as it is a natural synergy to her kit.

Servant (1)

***Has 40% change of adding 2 energy to owner when the summoned item deals damage. Can be triggered once at most for every 3 seconds.***

Servant is only useful on Sinners who can summon, but combining it with Inversion Slash makes for a LOT of energy regen that has its uses. You can also use this as the Servant, City of Sins, and Creation set for a great balance of damage and energy regen on a summoner. How much is a lot? If we assume it triggers every 4s, that’s a gain of 90 Energy in 3 mins. In reality, with its good users such as Eleven or Summer, this will almost certainly trigger every 3s, for 120 Energy. For reference, the paid Surveillance Order piece Dreamflower which is also very strong, “only” grants 72 Energy with perfect Potestas procs every 20s.

Homecoming (1,2,3)

***All allied Summoned Creatures gain a 6% increase in Attack, HP, Defense, and Magic Resistance.***

Homecoming is a decent support set if you are running a Summon Sinner as a Main DPS. It does end up being Eve’s BiS as a Summon team support, but not a priority as the gain isn’t huge.

This being a 3 piece set is a huge setback to its value too.

Fleeting Vision (1,2,3)

***When the user inflicts [Life Loss] damage, the Sinner recovers 3 points of energy. Triggers up to 1 time every 4 seconds.***

Fleeting Vision is pretty much used exclusively on Levy as part of the Bleed Team. As Bleed has been powercrept by Weakspot, this 3 piece set’s priority has also gone down the list.

Rising Wind (1,2)

***When dealing normal attack damage, the enemy receives a [Rising Wind] mark that lasts for 8 seconds. For each [Rising Wind] mark on the field, physical damage increases by 4%, stacking up to 4 times. If the Sinner belongs to the Reticle class, each [Rising Wind] mark additionally grants a 4% increase in physical damage.***

Rising Wind is considered the dedicated Lady Pearl set as you want it on a Reticle Physical Damage Sinner who can hit multiple targets with their Normal Attack. This really only leaves Lady Pearl and Bianca as options, as Jane and Korryn suffer in success from killing multiple targets too fast. Even Bianca also suffers in success to some degree at higher levels for the same reason.

That being said, Rising Wind isn’t actually that good on Lady Pearl either; she benefits more from straight up using Embrace of the Dead/Melodious Belltower in many situations as a true Main DPS.

Dawn after Darkness (2,3)

***When releasing the Ultimate, if the original Energy cost of the Ultimate is greater than 30, Physical Damage and Skill Damage increase by 12% for 6 seconds. If it is greater than 35, the attribute enhancement effect is doubled.***

Dawn after Darkness is essentially made for Angell to use, as the other Physical Damage Sinners who have an Ult cost over 35 are all off-meta, weaker units like Lynn, Zoya, and Wolverine. NOX’s Ult does not count as Skill Damage (it is Normal Attack Damage) thus she doesn’t gain the full effect either.

Solo Dance (1,2,3)

***When there are no enemies within the surrounding 9 tiles of the holder, basic attack damage increases by 25%. Conversely, ultimate damage is increased by 25%.***

Solo Dance is very pricey as a 3 piece set, and is fussy with its conditions. Many better sets exist for Main DPS Sinners now, so while the bonuses it gives are not bad, this is considered low priority for new Chiefs to obtain.

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Excluded from the buy list:

Ground Zero (1,3)

***Adds 1% Attack for self every 3 seconds. Stacks for 10 times at most. Resets after moving.***

Maxim (2,3)

***After 15 normal attacks, the next ultimate skill will have the skill damage increased by 25% for 5 seconds.***

Maxim can have some niche uses but there are always better options, while Ground Zero isn’t particularly useful at all.

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Echoes of Phantasm

• Phantasm Fragments for currently running Echoes, and Opposition Fragments for reruns

*The price of these vary as there are various ranks here.*

We recommend buying full sets of these, in order of importance:

**Pioneer → Arrival → Primordial Maw → Spawn → Imaginary Gambit → Prisoner of the Deep → Diverged Ends → Lightless Sea → Motley Crew → Voidborn**

Pioneer (3)

***If the wearer's height is below or equal to 155cm, attack increases by 6%, otherwise attack increases by 3%.***

Pioneer can be placed in a lot of sets as a flex piece. It doesn’t matter if the Sinner is too tall to get the full set effect, as it comes with a neat 10% damage up stat by default.

Arrival (3)

***When attacking, if the enemy's HP rating reaches S, CRIT Rate +12%, lasting for 3 seconds.***

Arrival is an interesting CRIT piece, and typically goes with Overthrown Tower and The City of Sins to form a CRIT set. Can find use in the new CRIT meta.

Primordial Maw (3)

***When an enemy with exposed but unbroken cores dies, or their cores become unexposed again, 1 Chief Energy is recovered. This effect can only be triggered up to 2 times per battle.***

The trigger limit is kind of oof. But it is nice to use on a support or tank if you’re on a fight where you keep missing elite cores (since there can be billions of them on one map at a time now) as it’s only one slot, and extra Chief energy is nice. This can see use in a team with Jelena/Weakspot that tends to suffer in success from deleting Elites instead of breaking the cores.

Spawn (3)

***At the start of the battle, if no other unit of the same class is present on the field, gains a 20% HP boost and recovers 160 HP per second.***

A good set to go on an Endura in rough stages where they take a lot of damage as an alternative to Rift Palace. Can also be used for interesting clears of various content by enabling a Sinner to self-heal (e.g. Path of Doom, The City of Sins, and Spawn on Yingying enables some very wild solo clears). Generally speaking Sinners have around 4000-5500 HP at level 90, so 160 HP per second is a lot of self-healing.This can also be good on Sinners who scale off HP for damage, particularly Moore (e.g. Tuning + The City of Sins + Spawn gives 55% bonus HP total).

Weird niche thing: Spawn seems to count enemy units tagged as a certain class (Tendency). For example, Yugu using Spawn on EX6-2 won’t worry, as the candlesticks are apparently typed as Endura? Additionally, it’s unclear if allied summons bonk this status effect or not as we don’t have a way of summoning a unit instantly at the start of battle at the moment. For what it’s worth, giving this set to Eleven, summoning Eleven’s hands, killing her, then reviving her with Du Ruo (which triggers most other “at the start of battle” crimebrands, has Eleven still trigger Spawn’s effect.

Imaginary Gambit (1,2,3)

***Receives different effects based on the number remaining movement count: Gains a 27.1828% damage increase if it's an odd number. Recovers 3.1415% of Max HP every 2 seconds if it's an even number.***

Imaginary Gambit requires that you maintain the correct condition of move count for damage, but if you can achieve it, this is technically the best damage piece for some sinners such as Lamia.

Prisoner of the Deep (1,2,3)

***Sinner's active skills will be unavailable after equipping this Crimebrand. Sinner's Normal Attack Damage +20%, Skill Damage +20%, Attack Speed +30%.***

Prisoner of the Deep sees niche uses in modes like Remnants of the Depth and Mania Training. Not a priority at all, but some fun strategies can be done with it.

Diverged Ends (1,3)

***After killing an enemy, deals 12% more damage for 10 seconds.***

Diverged Ends requires that you can maintain constant killing of mobs (and it has to be the Sinner using this set who lands the killing blow to count), so this is a low priority set. Though, it’s not bad in Remnants of the Depths or certain BFL stages.

Lightless Sea (1,2,3)

***When the battle begins, if all allied Sinners belong to the same Libram, all Sinners' Attack, Defence, Magic Resistance +10%.***

Probably most useful in the Pestilence Libram. Example team: Shawn (user), Bianca, Golan, L.L., Moore, 000.

Motley Crew (1,2)

***At the start of the battle, for each allied Sinner born in [Syndicate] on the field, the Sinner's Attack +3% and HP +4%.***

Motley Crew theoretically can grant a spicy 24% Attack and 34% HP bonus in total, but is difficult to use in practice: its page lists all Sinners that come from Syndicate which count towards its effect, but it’s not easy to build a full team from that selection. https://s1n.gg/crimebrand/motley-crew 

Voidborn (1,2,3)

***All units take 10% less damage and receive 10% less healing. When a unit’s HP falls below 50%, these effects are doubled.***

A really specific set? Might come into play one day if there’s a boss with a particularly annoying HP-regenerating or healing mechanic, but I’m not optimistic for now. It’s strange, as it says “all units”, which should apply to both allied and enemy units, so I’m not sure what the intended niche here is.

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Excluded from the buy list:

Skyfall (1,2,3)

***Inflicts 10,000 True Damage to all units (Sinners and enemies) within the 3x3 square of the user in 10 seconds after the battle starts, and stuns them for 4 seconds.***

This is just not very useful in general, and considered a meme set. That being said, the memes can be extremely funny sometimes.

Sentinel (2)

***On the death of an allied Sinner, the user's Attack is increased by 5% and Damage Taken is reduced 5%. Stacks up to 4 times.***

There is no known way to easily stack this that’s practical; even if you manage it, it’s “just” a 20% increase in ATK, while you lose 2/3rds of your entire team.

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Generic Good Sets

So you’ve gotten this far; now, what about actual sets you can use on your Sinners in practice? Here are some examples of commonly-used sets for certain purposes, and notes about them.

Of course, Sinners may have specific sets that work well with their personal abilities; check their specific page for those recommendations. The ones listed here are intended as guidelines to help you better understand what stats are important for each role in PTN.

**Note: Generally throughout these recommendations, Hope can be exchanged for Immolation Ignition, and Pioneer can be exchanged for Heavy Contamination.**

Main DPS

*A Main DPS is a Sinner whose primary job is to deal damage to enemies. The sets listed in this initial section are widely applicable.*

Examples: 000, Deren, Shalom, Mantis, Shrooma, Lady Pearl, Dreya, Bianca, Yao, Hestia, Angell…

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General

**Embrace of the Dead, Embrace of the Dead, Embrace of the Dead**

Very common set to see in runs posted online, for good reason. The set effect just synergises well overall with the gameplay style of PTN (breaking cores and burst windows). Even in long battles, there’s often no better alternative than this; many top runs of arguably the hardest game mode, Tide of Ashes, use this set.

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**Melodious Belltower, Melodious Belltower, Melodious Belltower**

99% of the time, for speedrunning through BFL. 50% bonus damage done for the first 30 seconds in a mode where speed kills happen between 10-25 seconds? Absolutely perfect match. If you can kill the boss in 30-35 seconds or so, this set is very worth taking on your Main DPS.

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**Tuning: Zero, Inversion Slash, Inversion Slash**

This set gives a pile of Energy, and is worth taking just for that fact. However, it also has the bonus of making some normal attacks hit twice, making it extra nice on Sinners who do a lot of Normal Attacks.

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**Behind the Mask, Behind the Mask, Behind the Mask**

Great stats for a Physical main or sub-DPS. Good use of Embrace or Belltower will likely out-damage this, but still a solid set all around.

Worth noting in particular: while this technically isn’t Bianca’s fastest or highest damage set, it does tend to let you kill all the mobs in better timing with the boss in Broken Frontlines, instead of suffering from success and killing the boss way too fast, then having to awkwardly move her around to clean up mobs.

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**Path of Doom, Inversion Slash, Inversion Slash**

This is an excellent set to bring both huge Skill Damage bonuses and Energy regeneration for a Sinner that primarily deals Skill Damage (000, Hestia, Mantis), but only if you can sustain the bonus on Path of Doom. Typically sees use in RotD as many stages constantly produce numerous, fragile mobs. An alternative for this is Path of Doom/The City of Sins/Pioneer for a pure damage set.

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CRIT

*These Sinners do well with CRIT-related stats as they have some way of increasing their CRIT rate or damage.*

Examples: Deren, Mantis, Bai Yi, Adela…

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**Overthrown Tower, Judgement, Judgement**

The purest form of CRIT Damage build. This works best in stages with only one boss due to the conditions of Judgement, but grants a massive amount of bonus damage to Sinners able to CRIT.

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**Path of Doom, The City of Sins, Arrival**

This set is BiS on some CRIT Sinners such as Yingying or Hestia. Replacing Arrival or Heavy Contamination or Pioneer is also often seen.

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**Overthrown Tower, Inversion Slash, Inversion Slash**

A CRIT variation on the Tuning/Inversion set. Inversion Slash grants tons of energy by itself, so if you don’t need any more Tuning, you can run this instead for a slight damage increase via CRITs.

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**Overthrown Tower, The City of Sins, Arrival**

This set maximises the bonus on The City of Sins by having 3 different sets active, while granting CRIT stats on the 1st and 3rd pieces. Worth considering if you don’t feel like malding for CRIT procs (though the rate still probably won’t be 100%, so you will still mald a bit).

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**Reunion Day, Reunion Day, Reunion Day**

Niche use for regenerating energy fast on Deren, Mantis, Bai Yi. Inversion Slash is better than this, but if you don’t have it or it’s already on another Sinner, this can work in a pinch. Not great damage, though.

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Spell/Magic Damage

*These Sinners deal Magic Damage, and can be thought of as the spellcasters of PTN. Much of their damage comes as Skill Damage.*

Examples: Lamia, Du Ruo, Eirene, Raven, Hestia, Vautour Bleu, Victoria…

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**Asura, Asura, Asura**

You have to maintain the shield (aka avoid damage), so some stages where the enemy hits the entire map for damage may not play nice with it. Otherwise most of the time, a skill damage dealing, magic damage unit is a squishy backline caster, so they should be tucked away safe anyway.

It’s worth sometimes just letting the shield absorb some damage to prevent your squishy DPS Sinner from dying, so don’t worry if it breaks sometimes.

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**Illusory Moon, Illusory Moon, Pioneer**

This set works particularly well for Sinners who don’t rely on their Normal Attacks for most of their damage. Hestia in particular is short enough to benefit from the full Pioneer bonus, so it’s very worth taking this set on her.

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**Path of Doom, Tethered Souls, Tethered Souls**

If you are playing Arcane CRIT, you can put this on one of the DPS units (e.g. Belltower on Vautour Bleu, and this set on Yingying). You need at least 3 Arcane units total and Yugu (who will copy the Arcane tendency) for 4 Arcane Sinners counted total, granting the full effect of this set. If you can’t sustain Path of Doom, you can use Overthrown Tower in the first slot instead.

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**Syndicate: Glory, Syndicate: Glory, Syndicate: Glory**

A budget set for when you don’t have any of the other recommendations.

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Mobbers

*These Sinners mainly aim to clean up groups of weaker enemies that may otherwise overwhelm your team through sheer numbers.*

Examples: Lamia, Jane, NOX, Oak Casket, Langley, Wendy…

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**Overthrown Tower, The City of Sins, Pioneer**

Sometimes called “TCP”. A classic general DPS set pushing for general damage stats. Doesn’t come with in-game conditions like Imaginary Gambit does, so it’s much easier to use.

Of note, Korryn is a good user of this set as she has a very high base ATK, gaining a strong bonus from The City of Sins allowing it to stand next to Embrace as a BFL set for her, which is a bit unusual among Main DPS units.

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**Imaginary Gambit, Imaginary Gambit, Imaginary Gambit**

Speaking of Imaginary Gambit: the damage increase is pretty good, but the condition can be a pain to manage sometimes, especially in tougher stages that require you to move around a lot. However, the DPS dealt by this set is indeed up there, and can be similar to or even exceed the Tower/City/Pioneer set above.

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**Diverged Ends, Hope/The City of Sins, Diverged Ends**

Assuming you can keep good uptime on Diverged Ends, this set either helps grant a bit of extra starting Energy (nice on Sinners like NOX), or more stats through The City of Sins.

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**Solo Dance, Solo Dance, Solo Dance**

A usable set as the bonus of 25% extra damage is nice, the conditions can just be tricky to manage for newer Chiefs. This is considered the de-facto set for Oak Casket, as it synergises perfectly with her kit and can help her wipe out mobs very quickly.

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**Prisoner of the Deep, Prisoner of the Deep, Prisoner of the Deep**

Often used on NOX in Mania Training with her personal buff, which locks her out of using her Ult anyway, and Langley in RotD for a big stat boost to execute weak mobs instantly, stacking hits of her P2..

Note that this still works on Jane despite her Ult being automatically cast; she will stop at full Energy, and simply not cast her Ult.

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**Eastside: Dream, Eastside: Dream, Eastside: Dream**

Budget set for Sinners that primarily deal Normal Attack damage when you have none of the other options.

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**Syndicate: Glory, Syndicate: Glory, Syndicate: Glory**

Budget set for Sinners that primarily deal Magic damage when you have none of the other options.

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Healers

*These Sinners are able to heal other allied Sinners.*

Examples: Hamel, Ariel, Letta, Anne…

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**Final Prologue, Final Prologue, Final Prologue**

Very straightforward “heals more” set. If you are suffering too much damage, take this. Otherwise, you can safely equip sets from the Amper/Support category on Healers as well.

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**Bloodbound Oath, Bloodbound Oath, Bloodbound Oath**

A generally better (but harder to farm since it’s S-Rank) set for healers to use.

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Tanks

*These Sinners have high defense stats, and are primarily used as the front line to block enemies and protect the rest of the team. They are usually Endura units.*

Examples: Demon, Demolia, Rahu, OwO, Uni…

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**In Host’s Name, Bulwark, In Host’s Name**

This set synergises well for when you are getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies, and/or need just a bit more defense to hold out against the damage they are dealing to you.

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**Depth of Restricted Area, Bulwark/The City of Sins, Rift Palace**

Helps if there’s a huge hit of damage in the first 20 seconds of the fight, as the Sinner with this set will be invulnerable to it. The City of Sins will get full HP bonuses with this set, and Rift Palace helps reduce the overall damage dealt by the enemy, which can be extremely useful in challenge stages or certain story stages.

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**Depth of Restricted Area/Tuning: Zero, Paradise Regained, Paradise Regained**

You can choose between 20 seconds of invulnerability or more Energy regeneration as your situation demands. Many Endura units are unable to corebreak (and even if they can, more corebreak is always nice) so you can give them Paradise Regained to increase their utility if you are lacking core damage in the rest of your team.

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**Fury, The City of Sins, Rift Palace**

If the boss is seriously dishing out the damage, this set is likely your best bet for surviving the onslaught. Fury will heal your Endura a bit, Rift Palace will cut down on the damage dealt by the boss overall, and The City of Sins will gain the full HP bonus in this set.

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Corebreakers

*These Sinners have fairly low-cost ways of dealing high amounts of Core Damage.*

Examples: Labyrinth, Thistle, OwO, Raven, Hecate

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**Tuning: Zero, Hope, Corridor Echo**

This is what is known as the “Energy set” in the community. It grants 13 Energy instantly at the start of the battle, allowing most Sinners to use their ult within the first 20 seconds of battle or less. If you have no idea what to take, you can’t go too far wrong with this set.

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**Heartache, Heartache, Corridor Echo**

This is a very strong set on Corebreakers. If a Sinner using Heartache lands the final Core Break on an enemy, that enemy will take more damage from all sources for the next 15 seconds (which usually covers the entire Breaking time and thus your burst window). Highly valuable set, almost always worth bringing along if there is a boss to be corebroken.

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**Justice, Justice, Corridor Echo**

As a Corebreaker Sinner will usually use their Ult to corebreak and begin the burst phase, this set syncs up well to grant the rest of the team a little ATK bonus while throwing out as much damage as they can.

Particularly good on Labyrinth, as she tends to be constantly using her Ult.

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Ampers

*These Sinners generally do not deal a lot of damage themselves, but function to amplify the damage of their allies and support them in various ways.*

Examples: L.L., Cabernet, Enfer, Shawn, Dudu, Hecate, Mr. Fox, Lisa, Kelvin…

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**Tuning: Zero, Hope, Corridor Echo**

Again, the energy set is very nice overall. It grants 13 Energy instantly at the start of the battle, allowing most Sinners to use their ult within the first 20 seconds of battle or less. If you have no idea what to take, you can’t go too far wrong with this set.

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**Nightmare Revelation, Hope, Nightmare Revelation**

Grants a nice boost to stats for the first 30 seconds, which is particularly relevant to the Broken Frontlines (BFL) game mode. Hope helps bump up starting energy a little, allowing your whole team to get going just a little faster.

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**Tuning: Zero, Paradise Regained, Paradise Regained**

When your team is lacking in corebreaks, you can pick this up. Widely used in battling the Tide of Ashes (ToA) as many strong damage/utility units don’t have corebreaks (probably to make the game fair, unless that Sinner’s name is Shalom). Can also see use in other game modes for creative and interesting strats; overall, grants more flexibility in team building.

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**Justice, Justice, Corridor Echo**

Seen pretty often on support as it’s usually easy to keep uptime on Justice’s ATK buff with this, and Corridor Echo’s energy is always nice to have.

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**Afterglow, Afterglow, Corridor Echo**

Technically a better set than Justice, as the ATK bonus is higher. However, there is some downtime, and a positional requirement. You must have the Sinner who is using Afterglow be standing in one of the tiles next to the Sinner you wish to buff for it to work. Still often used, especially on Sinners like Cabernet who already want to be standing next to allies due to their Ult’s range.

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**Nomad, Nomad, Nomad**

Particularly nice on Sinners who either cannot get enough Energy in time to Ult (e.g. support Etti) or SInners who don’t rely on energy (e.g. Du Ruo or Shin).

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Summoners

*These Sinners mainly deal their damage by summoning other units to attack on their behalf.*

Examples: Eleven, Shrooma, Eureka, Eve…

A “summoned item” or **Summon**, is something called to the battlefield by a Sinner.

• Distinguishing what counts as a summon is important, as many bugs in PTN are related to summons.
• Sinners with summons include: Pricilla, Eleven, Eve, Shrooma, Countess Chelsea, OwO, Hecate, Summer, McQueen, Eureka, Stargazer, Crache, Shalom.
• You can test if something is a summon by checking if Eve’s [Family Workshop] counts it as a stack.
• Note that this is not a perfect list; for example, there is currently no known application of Shalom’s Prism as a summon in relation to crimebrands, but it adds a stack of Eve’s [Family Workshop].

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**Embrace of the Dead, Embrace of the Dead, Embrace of the Dead**

This set works on summons, thus retains its general strength for summon Sinners who are main DPSes (i.e. Eleven and Shrooma).

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**Servant, The City of Sins, Creation**

A balanced set that grants bonus Energy regeneration through Servant, and damage through Creation. The City of Sins being fully stacked here is just another bonus.

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**Servant, Inversion Slash, Inversion Slash**

A full-on Energy regeneration set. Pretty fun in game modes like Remnants of the Depth where you don’t have to worry about dealing high damage, but frequent bursts of damage using a Summoner who wants to Ult frequently (Eleven, Eureka, McQueen, Shrooma, Pricilla etc).

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**Overthrown Tower, The City of Sins, Creation**

The Summoner variation of TCP. Considered the best general set for Eve, and very strong as well on Shrooma as both are able to CRIT and thus benefit from Overthrown Tower.

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**Melodious Belltower, Melodious Belltower, Melodious Belltower**

Summons use this set better than most Sinners, as if you summon a unit (e.g. Shrooma summons a Popshroom) within the 30-second timer on this set, it will actually snapshot and keep the buff forever, ignoring the time limit. You may refer to the [Snapshot tab](https://s1n.gg/articles/shrooma-guide) in the Shrooma guide for a better explanation of how this tech works.

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**Year One: Perishing Star, Year One: Perishing Star, Year One: Perishing Star**

As Summoners tend to not have to move themselves (since their summons are the ones doing the damage), they are better able to benefit from this set’s bonuses without feeling the downside of being unable to move as much as other units.

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**Homecoming, Homecoming, Homecoming**

An amp/support set targeted towards Summons. Finds decent use on Eve while supporting Summoner Sinners.

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**Pyral Rebirth, The City of Sins, Pyral Rebirth**

Mostly for Eve as she can freely use her Ult often, but can also go on Sinners like Stargazer as a support for a main Summon DPS like Eleven or Summer.

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Known Bugs & Tricks

All games have bugs, and PTN is certainly no exception. Let’s have a look at a non-exhaustive list of known bugs/issues related to Crimebrands!

(Yes, most of them are related to summons. Yes, that is why I wrote this guide.)

Heartache

***Upon breaking the Core of an enemy, increases the damage they take by 20% for 15 seconds.***

Many Sinners in PTN can corebreak, and some through summons. For example, there’s McQueen: Her Ult, [Sculpture], is classified specifically as a summoned item, and the Core Damage is specified to be dealt by the summon as per “When [Sculpture] disappears, it deals”, **not McQueen herself.**

This is important, because many Crimebrand set effects work strangely on summons. Heartache’s set effect **does not work if the source of the Core Damage is the summon. It only works from the Sinner.**

Our current hypothesis is that some Crimebrands are coded for their effect to work on only “Sinners”, not Units; therefore, these effects fail to snapshot onto summons. We believe that Heartache falls under this category.

**These Sinners do not work with Heartache: McQueen, Shrooma, Eureka.**

OwO is another fringe case; you must ensure OwO is the one who lands the final Core Damage hit, not her Lion Head. Heartache will not work if the Lion Head is the one that hits last.

Eleven actually works, as her Core Damage is dealt by her. Heartache also works on Hecate (despite the vague phrasing).

This is why you frequently see Heartache on certain Sinners like Hecate, Raven, Che, Thistle, Matilda, and so on. They are capable of dealing 2 Core Damage without using summons, and don’t personally have a lot of damage, making them much easier to use this strong set on.

Rift Palace

***After receiving damage from an enemy unit, its damage will be reduced by 12% for 8 seconds.***

Like Heartache, Rift Palace does not work on summons. This means you cannot make use of the set bonus through using Summons as tanks, such as Countess Chelsea’s Sitri, or Eve’s Raging Bear. You will need to get the boss to hit the Sinner themselves for the effect to work.


Syndicate: Glory (1,2,3)

***Magic Damage +15% and damage received +25%.***

Eastside: Dream (1,2,3)

***Normal attack damage +15%.***

Again: These both do not work on summons.

Illusory Moon

***Skill damage increased by 20% and normal attack damage reduced by 30%.***

Illusory Moon functions mostly normally, except on summons. This can be observed as the Skill Damage bonus works on Eleven’s Ult (which is dealt by her, the Sinner), but the bonus doesn’t work on her summons’s slams despite also being classed as Skill Damage (i.e. L.L. and BFL buffs work on it).

Do not use Illusory Moon on these Sinners: Shrooma, Eleven, Luvia Ray, McQueen, Lady Pearl, Bianca, Deren, NOX etc. Either they rely on their Normal Attack Damage a lot, or the Skill Damage effect simply does not work on them as summoners.

Asura

***At the start of the battle, gains a (Max HP * 20%) shield. This shield effect resets every 20 seconds. While the shield is active, magic damage increases by 15% and skill damage increases by 15%.***

Weirdly enough, Asura’s set bonus works on summons unlike Illusory Moon. Only the “Skill DMG Up” stat on the 3rd piece doesn’t snapshot onto summons. This otherwise functions normally on most Sinners.

Depths of Oblivion

***Ultimate damage is increased by 1% every second, up to 30 stacks. The effect will be reset after the Ultimate has been used.***

If you move while casting an Ultimate, the set effect of Depths of Oblivion does not get used up. The current reasoning for this is that the effect is used up at the end of the Ultimate animation, thus if you cancel it with movement, it does not apply. There are some Ults/ECBs where this doesn’t work (e.g. Serpent’s ECB) but this is so inconsistent we can’t tell what the logic is.

Final Prologue

***Healing is increased by 25%.***

This set does not work when equipped on Macchiato in terms of healing. Our guess as to why this happens is because Macchiato’s healing is based on the allied Sinner’s own max HP% and gets procc-ed by the ally, and not Macchiato’s own stats (besides the skill levels). *However,* this also means if you equip Final Prologue on Macchiato’s ally, that ally will correctly gain increased healing from Macchiato’s skills.

Melodious Belltower

***After the battle starts, damage dealt to elite and boss units is increased by 50% for the first 30 seconds.***

There are two ways of extending this set’s effect past 30 seconds:

1. Snapshot it onto a summoned creature/item. See the full page Snapshotting for a detailed explanation. TLDR: This means this set is excellent on Eleven and Shrooma.
2. Allow the Sinner wearing this set to die, then resurrect them with Du Ruo’s ECB. This will cause the game to think they have “freshly” entered the battle, and it will start the 30 second timer of this set effect again.

Strangely, this set effect works on summons. Again, our reasoning is that the effect is probably coded to apply also to Units, and not just Sinners (unlike Heartache or Illusory Moon).

Depths of Oblivion

***Ultimate damage is increased by 1% every second, up to 30 stacks. The effect will be reset after the Ultimate has been used.***
The current understanding is that as long as the animation of the Ultimate is not finished (i.e. interrupted with movement or another cast), the effect will not be reset. You can observe it in practice below:

Cast cancelled: https://youtu.be/I8QEFcXMOnY 

Cast not cancelled: https://youtu.be/WDiW8wx9plc 

River of the Dead

***At the start of the battle, skill damage is increased by 30%. The effect will disappear after casting an Ultimate.***
This is a strange set as a lot of Skill Damage comes in the form of Ultimates. Currently, our understanding of this is that the Skill Damage bonus is lost when the Ultimate animation begins, meaning it is useless on any Ultimates with an animation… which is all of them.

There are still some applications possible despite this: for example, as long as you do not cast her Ult, Serpent’s spin attack (which is her P2, thus classifying as Skill Damage) will have the buff. However, if you Ult, the spins after that will not. Thus, this set works on things like Shrooma’s Popshrooms, and Lamia’s Neurotoxin (until the point either of them use their Ultimates).

You can see an example with Serpent spin below; note that the rapid movement is just to force Serpent to proc her spin faster.

https://youtu.be/ResNu5IvYJM 

The Pandora Cage

***For every 3 normal attacks, 1 extra Physical Damage (Attack*80%) is dealt to the enemy attacked on the 3rd time.***

This set is recommended on Langley. This is because the damage from The Pandora Cage will proc her P1 Causality for another hit of bonus damage, making her a much better user of this than most Sinners. You can visually see this as every 3rd hit, she will deal 3 damage numbers instead of just one.

Fury

***After using an Ultimate, recover 20% self HP immediately. Can be triggered once at most, for every 8 seconds.***

For some reason, Fury’s effect will be procc-ed by toggling Eirene’s ECB, but not others like Justice.

Asura

***At the start of the battle, gains a (Max HP * 20%) shield. This shield effect resets every 20 seconds. While the shield is active, magic damage increases by 15% and skill damage increases by 15%.***

Asura’s effect can be maintained so long as you have a shield on that Sinner (from any source), not just the shield from the crimebrand itself.

Maxim

***After 15 normal attacks, the next ultimate skill will have the skill damage increased by 25% for 5 seconds.***

If you have skill damage from a non-ult source (e.g. Lamia’s Neurotoxin or Shrooma’s Popshrooms), Maxim’s effect does not actually grant the buff until you actually Ult.

Du Ruo Quirks

***要不你试一试... 求求我~***
There is a category of quirks just for our Eastian Harmacist. This is because many effects in PTN have the *“when the battle begins”* or *“at the start of the battle”* condition. Whenever a Sinner dies and is resurrected by Du Ruo’s ECB, the game treats them as if they have just freshly “started” the battle, causing many shackle and Crimebrand effects to proc again. These include the following:

Melodious Belltower
***After the battle starts, damage dealt to elite and boss units is increased by 50% for the first 30 seconds.***

If you kill and resurrect someone wearing this set, the timer resets and you get another 30 seconds of bonus damage.

Immolation Ignition

***When the battle begins, two spirits available for capture are created. When a Sinner captures a spirit, gain 5 energy.***

If you kill and resurrect someone wearing this set, the spirits will appear once again.

Corridor Echo and Hope
***Initial Energy +8 and Initial Energy +5. ***

Resurrecting a Sinner wearing either one or both of these sets will cause them to proc again, being a net gain in energy if used right.

Nightmare Revelation
***At the start of the battle, all allied Sinners will increase both their Attack Strength by 6% and Attack Speed by 10% for 30 seconds.***

Similar to Melodious Belltower, the timer on this will reset if a Sinner is killed and revived.

Depth of Restricted Area

***After the battle starts, does not get damage from normal attacks for 20 seconds.***

Similar to Melodious Belltower, the timer on this will reset if a Sinner is killed and revived.

Tuning: Zero, Inversion Slash, Fleeting Vision
The timer gating the energy regeneration on these will reset, so you can immediately proc them again. However, Sinners do lose all Energy upon death, so in practice this isn’t a trick that gets used much.

Asura

***At the start of the battle, gains a (Max HP * 20%) shield. This shield effect resets every 20 seconds. While the shield is active, magic damage increases by 15% and skill damage increases by 15%.***

The shield effect will instantly be restored to full value upon resurrection.

Skyfall

***Inflicts 10,000 True Damage to all units (Sinners and enemies) within the 3x3 square of the user in 10 seconds after the battle starts, and stuns them for 4 seconds.***

This set’s effect will proc again and the 10 second timer starts counting down upon resurrection.

Afterglow

***After using an Ultimate, Attack of all Sinners within a 3x3 square, except the caster, increases by 10% for 12 seconds. Can be triggered once every 20 seconds.***

Similar to Melodious Belltower, the timer on this will reset if a Sinner is killed and revived.

Do note that other positive effects that rely on stacks or timers (e.g. Shrooma’s buff stacks, Sentinel, Shattered Battlefront, Scarlet Bewitchment, most likely Path of Doom, etc) will also reset if you perform this trick. For example, if you kill a Sinner holding Paradise Regained, the 15 second timer will begin counting from when they re-entered the battle, not the original start time.

Primordial Maw
***When an enemy with exposed but unbroken cores dies, or their cores become unexposed again, 1 Chief Energy is recovered. This effect can only be triggered up to 2 times per battle.***

Du Ruo killing the user of this set will reset this limit. Now I’m not saying use this on the same person as Immolation Ignition, and murder them repeatedly, but it’s definitely a tactic that works…

Soul Rift

Soul Rift’s effect will remain on the boss even if the Sinner who applied it was killed.


Blue Rain
Blue Rain’s effect does not work with Du Ruo’s ECB, as it is not stackable.