Weapon	Priority	Notes
1 Staff of Renunciation	★★★★★	Only required for Leviathan
1 Staff of Repudiation	★★★★★	Only required for Varuna
1 Wand of Charmtide	★★★★★
1 Ultima Staff	★★★★★
1 Ultima Gun	★★★★★
1 Doombringer Edge	★★★★★

The most basic thing you should have leveled is your opus as that will be your mainstay for all grids. Level 200 is the baseline due to gaining the incredibly important 3rd skill slot. 230 is the most important transcendance level as it adds boostable damage amp to the opus. 250 is a minor upgrade to the skills but is still a strong upgrade if you can afford it.

When it comes to Ultima weapons, the most useful ones are Ultima Staff and Ultima Gun. The former pairs with the many strong staff characters in Water as well as Manadiver. The latter is for Relic Buster and Soldier bursts. Additionally, it works well for any strats using Gwynne. For RB, Ultima Sword can work if you can’t afford to make Gun, but for Soldier or Gwynne you will really want it.

Doombringer Edge is an upgrade over Ultima providing a larger 30% Seraphic amp as well as bonus Destruction damage. If you can get it, it replaces Ultima is most situations. The main situations Ultima has the edge on is unboosted setups. This is because the Seraphic amp and cap up on the Destruction weapon requires 280% aura boost.

Weapon	Priority	Notes
1 Altruism-Soul Staff	★★★★★
1 Twinpain-Wolf Gun	★★★★★
1 Worldscathing Leon	★★★★★
Worldvexing Angelos	★★★★★
1 Reflection of The Moon	★★★★★	Doubly important to get Haase FLB.
1 ATK Exo Antaeus	★★★★★
1 Norden Labrys	★★★☆☆
1 ATK Iron Fist of Severed Chains	★★★☆☆
1 Exo Ephialtes	★★★☆☆
1 Xuanwu Shellfists	★★★☆☆
1 Draconic Buster	★★★☆☆
1 Judgment of Torrential Tides	★★★☆☆
1 Worldbreaking Tauros	★★★☆☆
1 Worldstorming Aetos	★★☆☆☆
1 DEF Royal Deliverance	★★☆☆☆
1 DEF Lux in Tenebris	★★☆☆☆
1 Rise of Justice	★★☆☆☆
1 Xuanwu Mace Malus	★☆☆☆☆	Generally phased out but good if you lack the better cap up sources.

The need for Celestials is the same as for Ultimas. As for the awakening, generally ATK is the safest. However, if you can afford to, it would be best to wait on awakening until closer to UnF for most testing.

Moving onto celestial weapons, Altruism-Soul Staff hits the most characters that Water can use. Twinpain-Wolf Gun will be the choice for Relic Buster and Soldier setups.

As for NWF weapons, Reflection of The Moon is beyond essential. This is in big part to it being neccesary for Haaselia who will dominate across UnF. Additionally, with her Full Moon buff, the weapon itself provides 50% unique ATK and 30% cap up on top of its existing mods and 5% cap.

Draconic Buster and its upgrade Judgment of Torrential Tides will both be great defensive investments for FA especially if you wish to tackle the higher NM fights or have weaker characters in general.

With NM250 allowing Extra Slots, weapons that can go in those slots are a lot more valuable. Ultimas are an easy fill. For FA, Judgment of Torrential Tides is easy slot. World weapons, NWF weapons, Bahamut weapons, and Militis weapons are all options.

The Viking CCW Norden Labrys is also a strong investment for OTK. This is thanks to its 3rd skill casting Banahogg 2-hit superior Elemental damage to a foe (Damage cap: ~370,000 per hit).
Inflict DEF Lowered (25%, 180s).
If main or auxiliary weapon is a sabre: Boost to number of hits (2 times).
If main or auxiliary weapon is an axe: Also inflict status DEF Down (25%, 180s). at the end of a turn where 40 or more hits dealt. Banahogg is a very large skill damage nuke making it a lot easier to pull of an OTK.

Iron Fist of Severed Chains is a top tier mainhand for Sumaibito. It adds 3 turns of Bonus DMG (50%) Deals bonus DMG for one-foe one-ally attacks to In the Face of Adversity Gain Jammed (40%-120%, 3T), DMG Amplified (20%, Multiplier: Seraphic, 3T), and DMG Cap Boosted (20%, 3T).
(Consumes 25% of max HP.) which is great for any multi turn setup. For single turn setups, the ATK Sharply Boosted (1 hit) added to Ultimate Palm Strike 700% Elemental damage to a foe (Damage cap: ~635,000).
Inflict DEF Down 2 (25%, 2T) and DMG Taken Amplified 1 (30%, 6 times, 1T). is incredibly powerful.

Thanks to Boogeyman being excellent for NM250, its CCW Lux in Tenebris is also highly reccomended. While its not the craziest weapon, it provides solid upgrades to all skills especially with reducing Bespoke Tailoring’s Gain Unchallenged (2 times), Veil, and Dispel Cancel (1 times).
(When Dark Reputation is 5: Affects all allies.) cooldown and giving MC additional bonus damage.

Royal Deliverance is another strong CCW investment for 100% uptime on Debuff Resistance Boosted (100%) and Dispel Cancel as well as Dispelling Removes a buff from a foe. on CA. This will make NM250 a ton easier if you lack the important characters that can dispel or prevent debuffs.

Weapon	Priority	Notes
0-1 Hraesvelgr	★★★★★
0-1 Shishio	★★★☆☆

As for Gold Moon weapons for Water, the main one to consider is Hraesvelgr. The weapon is generally considered to be five grands in one weapon. This is thanks to it granting MC 30% normal amp and 4 hit flurry as well as providing the team 100k supp, and 10% cap up. The main drawback is that it has a 100% hit to multi attack rate which needs to be compensated for namelt through MA weapons, TA buffs, and the summon Trigger of Awakening: Shinji and Rei. It will be widespread for OTK, NM200, and NM250 grouping for both Leviathan and Varuna. It will likely also see use for NM150 FA setups.

There is often a debate for many on whether a level 149 or a level 150 is better. If don’t level your Hrae to max, you avoid unlocking the third skill and its 100% hit to MA debuff. This is the cost of losing out on the 100k supp and 10% cap up. Some extremely dedicated water players will even have one gun of each. If you want a more in depth analysis of 149 v 150 Hrae, check out this document by resilient. But if you are an average player looking for something for UnF, keep it unleveled until after prelims. That way take advantage of the lack of MA debuff for low button setups and then you can level it when you need the additional fire power for longer bursts.

As for bullets, the typical configuartion is 3 Beezlebub (Chaos Legion) or 3 Belial (Expert Model: Anagenesis), 1 Hexa (Rationale Exitium), 1 DRZ (Anti Vasileia), and 1 SUBHL (Genesis Nova) bullet. If the Hexa and DRZ bullets are too much, you can use 5 Beezelbub or 5 Belial along with 1 SUBHL instead.

Shishio is basically a premium version of a Kaneshige that offers a strong upgrade for CA setups. This makes it pretty strong for NM250 setups and BIS for any Kengo or Onmyoji CA setups. CA setups are typically on the slow end even for NM250 so its not a strong suggestion.

Weapon	Priority	Notes
4 Leviathan Gaze Mare	★★★★★	4 required for Extremity
1-2 Leviathan Cranium Mare	★★★★★
2-3 ATK MKII, 2-3 DEF Schrodinger	★★★★☆	For FA and NM250
3-4 Demonsword of Mortality Verboten	★★★★☆

Like most other elements at this point, the core of Omega grids are its M3 exalto weapon. In this case, that would be Leviathan Gaze Mare. Four of these will cover all your needs from OTK to burst to FA. 4 is also needed for Super Lucilius Keys for burst setups.

The other M3 weapons will also be useful. Particularly Leviathan Cranium Mare with its Stamina III mod is an excellent damage slot and will be used in many burst and OTK setups. Get two to be prepared.

CA setups will see plenty of use for NM250. For that, going for 2-3 ATK and 2-3 DEF Schrodingers if possible would ideal to be fully prepared. Ideally, the ATK copies should be MKII. Prioritze DEF Schrodingers first for FA.

Demonsword of Mortality Verboten is a new addition via the Odious series that provides big ATK, big HP, and big amp via the new Taboo skills. These are boosted via the summon Nihuyvintae but are strong enough to be used even unboosted. 3-4 is the general reccomendation with 3 probably being the sweet spot and 4 to be safe for anything that come up.

On the topic of Odious weapons, each comes with a befoulment that lowers a stat. The stat that is best to lower does depend on your setup. Typically CA damage followed by skill damage are the best ones to get since CA’s aren’t a major damage source in NA setups and both CAs and skills are easy to cap. If you are doing Orologia OTK, avoid skill damage lowered to maximize the nukes. The last major one to consider is having HP cut or DEF hit befoulments for burst setups. Many Soldier/Relic Buster bursts make heavy use of killing off characters in order to stack as many buffs as possible on MC. The hit to HP and DEF will make that process easier.

Weapon	Priority	Notes
2 Tyros Zither	★★★☆☆
3 Ancient Auberon	★★★☆☆
2 Wamdus’s Cnidocyte	★★★☆☆
1-2 Leviathan Blade Mare	★★★☆☆
2 Cyclestaff of Mortality Verboten	★★★☆☆
2 ATK Uraeus	★★☆☆☆
1 Terrorbow of Mortality Verboten	★★☆☆☆
2 ATK Esna	★☆☆☆☆
1 Bow of Sigurd	★☆☆☆☆
2 Colomba	☆☆☆☆☆	Only if can’t do Revans.

For CA based FA setups, you will want the boostable CA damage and cap weapon Tyros Zither. 2 will be more than enough. Go for 3 for OTK especially if you can’t do Revans yet.

Leviathan Blade Mare is a great defensive weapon for FA thanks to its medium HP and healing cap up mods as well as having medium TA which is always a plus. 1 should generally be enough but you can uncap a second if you want to be fully prepared.

The other two Odious weapons both pack a defensive slant. Cyclestaff of Mortality Verboten is the generally stronger of the two thanks to it having skill cap and supp along with garrison. This is the only farmable source of skill supp for water making it likely to see use in skill teams in general. Terrorbow of Mortality Verboten offers some more HP and healing. Generally, it will be low priority as water has many stronger sources of HP available.

The older crit grids for water can still be farmed for if you need some extra options. Particulary, it would be good for EX+ and NM90 thanks to the supplmental damage from Wamdus’s Cnidocyte. 2 Cnidocytes and 3 Ancient Auberons will cover most cases. If you don’t have M3 access, go for a 4th aub as well.

Haaselia

If you don’t have Haaselia at FLB already, hard prioritize her before UnF. She is a top tier support with a wide variety of buffs available. Those buffs heavily revolves around her Full Moon buff she gains now on swap in. During full moon she provides teamwide 40% bonus damage. It doesn’t stack with Falsehood, but since its much stronger that frees you to use other keys like Extremity. During Full Moon, her Tears of Lunacy buff provides 100/20 DATA, 20% bonus damage that stacks with anything, and 10% damage cap up. Additionally Full Moon activates her evoker weapon Reflection of The Moon for 30% cap up and 50% unique ATK to team. And to add more to this, her skill 4, which you should get, deals a 4 hit skill damage on ally multi attacks for tons of free skill damage.

Her sole downside is requiring a swap in, but once she is in she will instantly be a major boost any burst or FA setup.

Feower

Feower is a debuff and skill spammer. Before his rebalance, he was always pretty solid thanks to a great CA that gives partywide data along with bonus damage with transcendance as well as offering a lot of useful debuffs. With his rebal, he becomes a very strong dispel unit. His skill 2 Carnage 4-hit Water damage to random foes (Damage cap: ~155,000 per hit).
Inflict Gravity (Accuracy: 100%) on all foes.
Level 75:
Damage increased.
Level 95:
Number of hits increased to 6.
Also removes 1 buff on all foes. carries a dispel and resets on enemy special. Then, his skill 4 Four-Sky’s Sorrow Gain Holy Haste 4 (100%). End cooldown for Feower’s damage skills.
(Can’t recast.) gives him a 3 turn buff which causes his two red skills to dispel on usage as well as resetting his skills that turn and for the three turns after. In short, Feower offers a total of 9 dispels across 3 turns. This will make short work against any major omen. The main downside will be needing to time its duration against such an omen as outside of it his dispel output is much lower.

He is usable at FLB though even 110 transcendance is a strong boost. Getting him all the way to 150 is great for letting him get his skill 4 fast if you push through triggers quickly.

Anre

Anre has a few useful aspects in regards to UnF.

For OTK, he will autocast his skill 1 Spiral Spear 1000% Water damage to a foe in Overdrive (Damage cap: ~1,160,000).
Inflict Mode Bar Cut.
Level 55:
Damage increased to 1100%
Level 85:
Damage cap increased to ~1,430,000. when targeted for a sizable reactive nuke. Then starting at 150, he deals up to two counter hits make him output lots of end of turn damage.

His skill 2 Fleeting Spark Gain Substitute (1T) and Counters on Dodge (3 times, 3T).
Level 95:
Also gain Fleeting Spark (280%, Multiplier: Assassin, 1T) is a 1 turn assassin which will be great mostly for NM95 setups especially without some of the strong characters.

For FA, he can provide a lot of strong defensive boosts once maxed all the way to 150. Even earlier, his radiance ablity of healing and debuff removal on CA are great. However, there is a chance he won’t be overly useful. While he does offer a very high amount of defense especially for solos or Mugen FA, most of his kit doesn’t match typical UnF specific demands. Other characters can compensate it as water has many characters with dispels, dispel cancels, and other useful abilities to offset Uno’s own weaknesses. Basically, his mileage as an FA unit may vary a lot depending on boss mechanics.

Maria Theresa

Right now there is not much reason to invest in Maria Theresa outside her backline passive which deals a skill nuke and stackable debuffs on dispel. This said, she is first up for evoker trascendance. If it drops before UnF that can greatly boost her viability.

High Priority

Characters that are a strong reccomendation to get.

Erika

Erika is a must have in long form Water burst setups thanks to synergy with existing Relic Buster and Soldier. Particularly, she provides another round of normal attacks from a targeted ally, in this case MC, which is great for making the most of damage turns. She can also provide 100/20 crit, keen, and 15% amp for more damage output. She will be widespread in NM200 and NM250 grouping.

Medium Priority

Characters that fill some strong niches.

Gwynne

Gwynne pairs a 1-4 turn assassin with spammable instant normal attacks for a high damage per turn potential. On top of that, she also has access to double strike. She saw plenty of use last year especially among suboptimal setups.

She is also a solid OTK unit offering GTA and 50% bonus damage at 0 buttons.

Zeta (Water)

Zeta (Water) is an outdated attacker that still brings a lot of value thanks to her guarenteed TA and 10% echoes on ally TA. Those echoes stack with basically everything in water making her an excellent 0B buffer. And her skills offer some solid damage output if you need to push a bit more.

Her best use now a days is as the best OTK unit in Water. For CA setups she offers an Unworldly CA with a skill nuke after it. She does have reduced charge gain so you will need to keep that in mind to make sure she can reach 100% by time she CAs. For normal attack setups, the prementioned TA and passive echoes makes her invaluable.

Anne

Anne is an great teamwide defensive buffer with her skill 1 Anti-Collision Spell All allies gain DEF Up (100%, 3T) and Armored (30%, 3T).
(All allies gain DEF Boosted (Stackable) (10% per Spirit lvl upon cast (75% Max)) based on Spirit (Anne) (Multiplier: Perpetuity) lvl.)
Level 90:
All allies also gain 40% Fire Cut (1T). providing 100% DEF up, 70/30 armored, and stackable DEF up for 3T as well as a 1T fire cut. This also casts on her CA which also dispels and provides teamwide dispel cancel. The main drawback to her CA is she can only use at 200% bar, but much of her kit makes it easier to reach that either through bar gain or instant attacks. All around she’s a great defensive option for FA that could see use in NM200 and NM250.

Low Priority

Good characters that may be replacements for stronger characters or fill too niche a niche that you could work around for not having them.

Macula Marius

Macula Marius’s recent rebalance offered her a much needed glow up. While she does need time to fully build Glaciate on the enemy, once that is up she deals tons of skill damage and useful debuffs on the enemy. She also provides a bunch of healing via her skill 2 and CA. Her passive provides 2% (10% max) skill cap per crest even from backline which is another solid plus.

Yngwie

Yngwie, specifically in his Style Yngwie (Legend of Bravado and Revelry), can deal a lot of skill damage per turn with two red skills, a skill reset, and instant recast and on top of that he frequently gets his skills back. This makes him great for pushing lots of damage per turn. The main drawback is that he’s on the slower side, but is a great FA option for filling out weaker character rosters.

One major thing to note is that his Style is locked behind his event Full Metal Man VII: The Last Mission. Since this has not be rerun since 2022 nor was added to side stories, if you didn’t do it before, then Yngwie is not worth using.

Summons

As always, summons are always a great option. The usual suspects of the bonus damage summon Charybdis, the 50k supp summon Tetragod, the 6 Dragon Optimus sub aura summon Wamdus or the Optimus main summon Varuna are all great to pick up if needed.

Payila

Payila is simply put the best unit in water at the moment for all content from OTK to burst to FA to HL. I could go into why she’s so great, but any quick glance at her kit says everything you need to know. She will be core to UnF and anyone without her will be gapped.

Yatima

Gonna be honest, its the middle of the work week and I don’t feel like writing so I’ll keep it brief. Do you want to FA NM250? Get Yatima. She offers so much defensive utility and damage output that she will likely be on 90% of NM250 teams this year like she was last year.

Gabriel

Gabriel is Water’s 20% boost to weapon skills character. In addition to this useful passive, she is also a great frontliner thanks to her teamwide 20% bonus damage and 50% TA up. Also after every four ally TAs, she will a large 2 hit skill damage nuke and dispel that is both a great damage source for OTK and an excellent source of frequent dispels for FA. On top of being a great Unit, she comes with Water’s 50k supp and 7% cap weapon Gospel of Water and Sky which pushes her value even further.

Sylvia

Sylvia is an excellent CA character with great CA utlity. She dispels on CA and resets her skill 2 Just Punishment which heals the teams, cuts debuff durations by 2, and gives everyone 20% battery. On chain burst she raises her personal stacks to give the team ATK Up (4%, 20% max, Perpetuity) ATK is boosted , DEF Up (10%, 50% max) , C.A. DMG Boosted (20%, 100% max) , C.A. DMG Cap Boosted (10%, 50% max) , C.A. DMG Cap Boosted (6%, 30% max) , and Supplemental C.A. DMG (100k, 500k max) C.A. DMG dealt is supplemented .

Europa

Europa is an excellent defensive and offensive unit that is great for both mitigating a ton of damage tanks via 50% fire damage lowered, buff removal immunity, and heals as well as for dishing out strong skill and normal attack damage. Additionally, her CA buff provides 50% TA to party for more consistent damage output. Expect her to see plenty of use in FA setups for NM200 and NM250. She is also great as a 0B damage dealer thanks to her skill damage on TA and 10% cap up to party when affected by water attack up.