“What should I spark or select this Anniversary?” Understanding priorities.

This is hands down the most asked question I receive every day since the start of the game. With us now rapidly approaching our 1st anniversary and with an influx of new and returning players since Summer Events, this question has become even more frequent.

In light of that situation, I have to start by saying that responding to this question accurately, on an individual basis, is very hard. This game only has a meta in one piece of content, that one being Roman’s Tournament. Everything else in the game is essentially a single-player game, where almost any single team composition can work with enough effort, rng and gear.
During my time playing the game, I have played all characters and have videos for all of them. I can confidently say that there are no bad characters. Yes, even Elie, even Keithgriff, even Nady or Sterk, who are usually considered the worst characters in the game. They can all be used in multitude of ways in many many fights as long you are creative and work around their strengths.
Before you say it, no, I’m not advocating for you to go now and spark Elie or Keith. My point is that, outside of Tournament, there are no bad selections. Pick what’s fun for you and what will fill holes in your roster. If you really like Fire-Escha, for example, she is a great character to get instead of Fire-Resna. Both have the same role, types and functionality, with Escha being weaker, but both will get the job done just fine. This game is not a competition, and normal content does not need you to deal 99.999.999 hits. Always prioritize your own fun first and foremost.

Moving on with the topic, it’s important to clarify that Resleriana is heading into a direction that’s much more similar to games like Granblue Fantasy in its strategic elemental sense. Teams right now can be composed of multiple different affinities without any compromises. At most, they will be separated as magical and physical teams, but this will change in the near future with teams becoming much stronger alongside allies of the same affinity.

The right choice to spark will always depend on several factors, with your personal game goals being the primary ones:

• Do I want to just clear normal content?
• Do I want to compete in Roman’s Tournament? Am I aiming for top 50 or am I fine with just top 500?
• Am I interested in clearing all towers?

Other important factors are:

• Who are my favorite characters and what role do they have in the game?
• What characters I want to play the most?
• What characters do I already have?
• What’s my spending level? Am I Free to Play (f2p)?
• What content I’ve left to clear that interest me?

All these things will define what characters you should be striving to get, with very different results from one player to another. Allow me to get deeper into this.

Normally, aiming for a very high ranking in Roman Tournament (top 100 or even top 50), is perfectly doable as a f2p player, especially after today with Resna: Awakened Future‘s release, but this will almost always result in other aspects of the game being neglected since the pool of characters and the necessary gear is very strict and you will need to allocate almost all  your resources to stay competitive. If your pull luck or synthesis luck are not on your side, this will almost always result in you having to spark 3 or more characters and spend thousands upon thousands of Mana in gear for just 5 or 6 characters.
I strongly discourage you to chase this path as a free to play player. The Tournament rewards for top ranks do not nearly justify the level of investment and commitment to it and they are purely a for fun factor if you have a competitive mindset. If you are set in chasing this, you may or may not need to make peace with missing out on other areas of the game, depending on your luck.

Top 500 on the other hand is extremely achievable with anything. Truth is, Global version of the game is a lot less competitive than the Japan version, and you don’t need perfect teams and perfect gear to achieve these ranks. In fact, having a consistently good set of supporting characters (more about this later) and 1 Attacker of each affinity will be more than enough for this.

Synthesis is another area of the game where making the right spark decisions will facilitate the game moving forward. Synthesis is everything in this game. You can have all the characters in the game but if your gear is bad, you will totally underperform versus a person with 1/3rd of the total roster and the right perfect gear. Keep this in mind, because having a couple of characters dedicate exclusively to the task of synthesis or enabling specific synthesis combos will absolutely make a world of a difference.

But that’s enough of preambles. I’m gonna list a series of characters I consider spark and/or selector worthy, and the reason why. PLEASE pay attention to the reason, and if it aligns with your current situation. If it does not, I’d suggest you to just don’t do it. Define what your own goals in the game are first, and prioritize filling holes in your roster according to what those goals are.

• For Tournament:
  • Resna: Awakened Future: Resna is a tournament cheat code. She will trivialize unlocking all 7 Gold Emblems and has the potential to get top ranking positions in all 7 tournaments, given she has the right allies and gear to support her. Unlike what many people think, she is not THAT great in regular content. She is very strong, but her Skill 2 is single target and she needs a turn to transform first, making regular fights much slower than they need to be. Other common AoE sweepers like Izana: Return of the Knight or Resna: Loved Rookie do much better in these types of fights.
  • Sophie: Pure Angel, one of the allies Resna needs to shine. She does really well in general content too, but she only plays around Fire Affinity characters so she is not quite as universal as other supports. She is really strong in Fire Tower.
  • Klaudia: Fragrant Elegance, another one of the most important tournament characters to have, and also one of the strongest characters in the entire game for anything. She plays insanely well with all 4 magic affinities and can participate in those 4 towers as well, and is absurdly easy to play. If you don’t have Klaudia, this is an extremely solid Spark choice.
  • Saskia: Master of Alchemy, another tournament beast, but also a very universal supporting character that can play with any team and anywhere. She can even play with physical teams and in all 7 towers. She is an item gauge related support so she is not quite as easy to play as others. A certain level of knowledge is required to play her to her best, or she could seriously underperform. She is a superb Spark candidate in the late game, but not quite as much for beginners.

• For General Content:
  • Heidi: Merciful Bride: Pure damage support for magic teams. She has a secure slot in every single magic team, for any fight in the game including towers. She is extremely easy to play and needs very simple gear to work well.
  • Empel: The Gate Closer: Exactly the same as Heidi above, but this time for physical teams. Physical teams are slightly outclassed right now but this will bounce back in their favor in some months after some new character releases.
  • Resna: Loved Rookie: Absurd levels of power and sweeping potential. In my opinion the strongest character for casual players. She will quickly and easily delete stages given she is supported well. She is terrible in Tournament, however.
  • Izana: Return of the Knight: Another very strong sweeper and boss killer. She is weaker than Resna: Loved Rookie for fast stage sweeps and easy general content, but she perform extremely well in Tournament in comparison. Izana can do everything in the game but will not be the absolute best in any of it, maybe except Bolt Tournament.
  • Ryza: Sunlit Beach: Another fast sweeper, with the ability to penetrate enemy defenses and damage reduction buffs. She is the weaker of the main 3 fast sweepers on their own, but if played alongside Klaudia: Moonlit Beach, she becomes much stronger. Only Spark worth if you have Klaudia.
  • Klaudia: Moonlit Beach: The same applies in reverse. Klaudia is a superb breaker that will play great with all magic type damage dealers, but it’s only really really good when playing with Ryza: Sunlit Beach. Recommended to spark if you have her so you can play them together.
  • Ayesha: Twilight Fairy: Defenders are far from ideal in terms of raw power because most fights in the game are not lethal and can be handled without them. There are exceptions, however, and this is more apparent the newer to the game you are. Ayesha is an absolute cheat code of a character for these stages. She will tank anything and everything and make your life much easier in story modes, dungeons, score battles and even towers.
  • Flocke: Angel of Rose: powerful buffs attached to the best healer in the game. Nothing to add except that. Still a super solid spark candidate for general content at all levels of play and difficulties. She can also be used as a damage dealer with incredible results.
  • Heidi: Thief of Rose: perhaps the strongest Breaker in the game. Forced AoE stun against strike weak enemies and the ability to create this weakness herself make her another very attractive choice if breaks is all you need. Her Leader Skill is incredible too.
  • Ryza: Blooming Energy: Extremely strong debuffer. Guaranteed spark worthy if you have and regularly play Resna: Loved Rookie. She can be played with all magic characters too, performs insanely well in magic oriented tournaments and also has one of the best Synthesis Gifts in the game.
  • Lydie: Witch of Rose: Very similar to Ayesha: Twilight Fairy, but much harder to play effectively. She has the potential to totally outperform Ayesha in most content, offering better team and personal survivability on top of damage. She can played in all 7 towers, even up to floor 30. That said, she requires certain game knowledge to use properly or she will underperform, while Ayesha is more plug and play.
• For Synthesis:
  • Linca: Valkyrie of the Sun: The best magic breaker gear crafter in the game. The only Magic Stun character who can use the Altare material to pass both Magic Stun Damage Boost and Enhanced P./M. Resistance Down traits to an item at the same time, which almost all relevant magic breakers desire now and in the future too. Without Linca, you will always be at mercy of getting dead traits in your crafts.
    She works fantastic in general content with fire teams, and in tournaments along the meta Fire team too, but will not achieve the absolute best ranks.
    She is only spark worthy if you have Lila: Jet Black Bodyguard to link with her during synthesis.
  • Marie: Violent Beauty: Only worth picking if you have Corneria: No Milk, No Life. While Corneria is the only Skill Power gifted character that can use the Summertime Shell material, Marie is the only Skill Power gifted character who can link to her and start the recipe. Together they can create items with 3x Skill Power Up and 1x Enhanced Damage Buff [A] traits which almost all attackers desire.
    She performs well as a bolt damage dealer and semi-support for other attackers.
  • Totori: Snow Adventurer: Great synthesis character to crate items with Skill Power Up. She will also link to Ruven: Hot-Blooded Adventurer, which you most likely already have. She is a fantastic general content Defender too.
  • Resna: Starry Heavens Gift ideal to craft items with Burst Skill Power Up and Enhanced Damage Buff [A] traits. She needs Totori: Snow Adventurer to enable her synthesis. Not worth the spark, in my opinion, but it’s worth selecting her.
  • Lydie: Rainbow Canvas: more relevant than ever before, Lydie is the best Support gear crafter for traits like All Recovery Boost, Enhanced Damage Buff [A] and All-Target Attack Resistance Up traits. Not worth the spark, again, but very good selector pick. She is also a great buffer and healer for general content, especially in Bolt Teams.