Battles

This page serves as an advanced guide on Battles, for players who are aiming to get SSS grades on their Tests or Unified Exam battles. Special thanks to twstgameplay on Tumblr and Shiro#8955 for their advice and information!

Please ensure that you have already grasped the basics of Battles before proceeding further. You can refer to the Guidebook's Battle tab for a basic guide on Battles, if you haven't read this already. Reading this page assumes that you have fully read the "Battle" tab of Guidebook.

=ATK, HP & Damage= All cards have an ATK (Attack) stat and a HP (health points) stat. High ATK is associated with doing lots of damage and being good at tests and the HP stat (and presence of Healing magic) is used to see if the card is suitable in a defensive team. You might have also noticed that for magic buffs and debuffs, there is a distinction between ATK and Damage being made. What is the difference between ATK and DMG? How do I know if my card's Healing magic will heal lots of HP? This section will briefly explain the significance of ATK, HP, & Damage for cards.

ATK vs Damage Buffs/Debuffs
Damage refers to the damage received by an opponent. It is not a stat on cards, but buffs and debuffs cast by characters can manipulate the final amount of Damage dealt or received.
 * Damage UP/DOWN: Affects damage dealt by a character
 * Damage taken UP/DOWN: Affects damage received by a character

Overall ATK buffs and debuffs are better than DMG buffs/debuffs. This is because the multiplier for Damage is smaller than all of the multipliers for ATK. For more details on the calculations behind the effects of damage and ATK buffs, please refer to this post and this post from twstgameplay.

Healing Multiplier
There are two types of heals in this game: single-turn heals and multi-turn heals ("HP regen"). As of this writing, SSR Floyd Beans Camo, SSR Kalim New Year Clothes, and SR Ruggie Scary Outfit are the only cards with a multi-turn heal.

The ATK stat serves as the multiplier for single-turn heals, while HP is the stat that can be referenced for multi-turn heals. Please view this spreadsheet for the list of cards with healing magic, and their respective healing amounts. View [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18Cm-G97dtdZHJfupU2lik1f4cDyEPj0tdd1lsPyLVoE/edit?usp=sharing the Magic Lv. tab on this spreadsheet] to learn more about the calculations behind the healing amounts.

=Team Building= This section only contains general team building advice as it is difficult to give concrete advice on the best teams for every type of Battle. This is because, in addition to the battle styles (Basic or Defense), the type of debuffs & buffs used by the enemy and the amount of HP they have changes every season in Tests or Unified Exams. This means that even if two seasons have the same element test, you might not get the same scores from using the same team.

In general, it is highly recommended that you roll for as many cards as you can in order to maximise your team building options for both Basic and Defense battles, and for every type of test (i.e. Fire, Water, Flora, Cosmic, Omni). Even if you cannot afford to roll in the gacha every time, you can still learn to maximise your cards' potentials by investing in maxed out Magic levels for some of your SRs or Rs.

Consider your current position in the game:
 * 1) Are you a new player or F2P (no in-game purchases at all)?
 * 2) *You might not have all the necessary SSRs, but you can also achieve good Test results by:
 * 3) *#Maxing out Buddy Levels for important SRs and Rs
 * 4) *#Maxing out their respective Magic Levels
 * 5) *#Carefully pairing them with SSRs who have 1 or both of the same Magic elements
 * 6) Are you a long-time player or willing to spend some money on gacha everytime, or once in a while?
 * 7) *It is encouraged that you roll for specific SSRs who are good for Battles, whether for Basic or Defense Tests.
 * 8) *It is also assumed that you have a wide pool of cards after rolling in several gachas over time.

If you need specific team building advice for your own card list, you can direct your questions to twstgameplay.

Good SRs and Rs
With fewer card options, you might need to rely on SRs and Rs to boost the few SSRs you have for the Battle. That's alright, as long as you remember to consider:
 * 1) Who the card's Buddies are
 * 2) Whether the card's elements pair well with your SSRs
 * 3) Whether the card can activate your SSR's DUO magic
 * 4) The type of magic they use (i.e. Healing, Attack)

You do not necessarily need to level up your cards' Magic Levels to 10, especially for R cards. The bare minimum you should level up your card's magic to (regardless of rarity) is Level 5. This is because most magic will have a significant boost to their buff effects or their magic strength upon reaching Level 5.

Here is a short list of SR and R cards that are good for Tests if you invest in their Magic and/or Buddy levels or pair them up with specific characters. This list is non-exhaustive, and there are many more SRs and Rs that have good potential upon closer examination of their skill set and buddies.

For more detailed information, see twstgameplay's SR tierlist and their R tierlist.

SSR Recommendations
Do note that, as with above, this list is NOT exhaustive and only briefly summarises the strengths of the SSRs shown. Only a small handful of SSRs are shown here for each elemental test (except Cosmic). If you don't have the SSRs listed here, it does not mean you're doomed to bad Test grades because you can still invest in your existing cards, their magic levels & buddy levels.

For more information and details, refer to twstgameplay's SSR tierlist.

=Scoring Guide= This section will cover general points to take note for scoring well in Tests or Unified Exams. There are many unpredictable variables (order of selectable Magic, enemy's attack patterns, the Test's buffs and debuffs for the season, total HP that the enemy has for the season etc.) which might make it difficult to guarantee SSS at every try. Don't fret, as you always have time to work towards it.

Information in this section might not be 100% correct since it was mostly gathered through trial and error.

Status Effects
In all types of Tests, the enemy team will apply various buffs and debuffs. Some notable effects are:

HP Continuous Recovery ("HP Regen"): Recovers HP every turn for 3 turns.
 * Some opponents in Tests or Unified Exams will have single-turn heals or multi-turn heals. The icon above is shown when a multi-turn heal is in effect.
 * SSR Vil Dorm Uniform and SR Leona Scary Outfit are the only cards in the game so far with Curse on Magic 1 and can counter the enemy's heals.

Curse: HP recovery becomes 0. Usually takes effect for 3 turns.
 * Curse has to be avoided at all costs in Defense tests, since your final HP directly influences the result you get.
 * Try to take note of the enemy characters who can cast Curse and who it has been applied to.
 * For example, if you use SSR Floyd Beans Camo, make sure that Curse is not applied for the entire duration of his Heal.
 * A good trick to avoid getting hit by Curse is to setting your healing Magic as the in odd-numbered Turns (i.e. Turns 1, 3 or 5). This way, your healing magic will cast before the Curse debuff is cast.
 * This is only applicable to characters with single-turn heals (i.e. all healer cards except SSR Floyd Beans Camo, SSR New Year Clothes Kalim, and SR Scary Outfit Ruggie).

Freeze: Buffs will not take effect. Usually active for 3 turns after it is cast
 * First used in the final battle of Episode 5 of the main story, this debuff was used for the first time in Tests for the 16 ~ 31 August 2021 Water Test.
 * SSR Idia Dorm Uniform is the only card in the game so far with Debuff Removal on Magic 1, which can clear this effect.

Basic Tests
These are the tests that are graded based on your relative damage output, calculated in percentages under the Turn Counter. In general you have to try to:
 * Activate at least 3 Duo Magics in your battle
 * Achieve about 112,000 damage in 3 turns, or 115,000 damage in 4 turns
 * Ensure you end your battle before Turn 5
 * Save the strongest Duo Magic for your last turn

In the best case scenario, your final and strongest Magic should be hitting the enemy when they have very little HP (about 2 to 3 digits). This general strategy is applicable to scoring SSS in all types of tests except Cosmic Tests. It is very difficult to achieve optimal damage in Cosmic Tests due to the lack of elemental advantages and disadvantages that you can exploit.

Cosmic Test Recommendations

 * Use your strongest and heaviest hitters with Duo pairs
 * Ensure that your 5th card provides good Buddy bonuses to most of your other cards, and if possible, trigger Duo magic.
 * Recommended SSR pairs in descending order:
 * SSR Leona Dorm Uniform & SSR Vil Dorm Uniform
 * SSR Azul Dorm Uniform & SSR Riddle Dorm Uniform
 * SSR Epel Dorm Uniform & SSR Rook Dorm Uniform
 * SSR Jade Dorm Uniform & SSR Floyd Dorm Uniform

Defence Tests
Introduced in the game starting from the 1st NRC Unified Exam event, Defence tests are graded based on your remaining HP compared to the enemy's. In general, you have to try to:
 * Last until Turn 5
 * Take less than 30,000 damage in total
 * Have more than 60% HP remaining (after counting healed HP)

Notes and Disclaimer
Hello this is xnotyuki. Although I am the one who put up most of the information available here, I am not an expert on Battles at all. Most information that is shown here were gathered by twstgameplay on Tumblr or Shiro#8955 through trial and error and lots of experimenting. Therefore, this guide does NOT cover all the possible teambuilding and battle strategies possible. Treat this as a safe guide for scoring SS and above in Battles.

Please also feel free to add on to this guide in any way you wish, or inform me if there's any information you think should be added to it.

References & Resources

 * twstgameplay on Tumblr: The mods can give you good team building advice if you send in an ask! They also have lots of information about Battles.
 * Unofficial English Discord: Discuss and seek help on battle strategies with our many friendly and knowledgeable members!

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