Dark UnF 2024 Preparation

Dark Advantage Unite and Fight is up next with a set start date of June 21st. With that I’ll go over again the things you will want to have in preparation for it for those actually choosing UnF over Erdtree instead.

Celeste

To start, let us cover the weapons needed for Celeste grids. The following goes over weapons achievable before Rank 200.

Before going over the weapons, the major note here is with M3 set for the May 2nd grids will see big changes. If the new weapons are like the prior release, you will want 3-5 copies of the Exalto weapon and probably two each of the others. Light UnF really proved how strong the Exalto weapons were with many grids running 4-5 of them.

Celeste Zaghnal Omegas and Celeste Claw Omegas are the standard ATK mod slots for Celeste. Zagnals provide more attack at full HP where Claws are geared towards enmity. Claws very likely won’t be used but is still a solid mod slot for enmity and you should already have some laying around from freebies.

When it comes to farmable supplemental sources, your two main ones are Abydos for stamina grids and Ramsund Militis for enmity. If you have two copies of Pain and Suffering, neither are required.

Abyss Spines and Fediel’s Spines are the main CA weapons. Fediel’s Spines generally take priority for OTK while Abyss Spines take priority for FA thanks to being the main HP source for dark. The other main HP option is Zechariah. Zechariah provides stam with its HP.

Agonize and Worldbreaking Tauros are two sources of skill damage boost. Agonize will be a must slot on any skill damage team as 100k skill supp is too strong to pass up for them. Worldbreaking Tauros provides skill cap and skill amp to fist and harp allies. Since many of dark’s characters are fist, this will usually hit most of the party.

Pain of Death will be used on burst teams both thanks to the 5% cap up provides as well as being a strong mod. After using Death (SSR) to kill off an ally, you get a unique stackable 15% (45% max) ATK buff. With a single death, it will outdamage even the grand slot of Parazonium.

Now onto the weapons locked behind Rank 200.

The highest priority is getting a ULB ultima. Ultima Claw and Ultima Gun will generally be the most useful ones for this UnF. Claw is for general Dark setups thanks to the large number of Fist Prof characters. Gun is specifically for setups with Ilsa (Yukata) where it will be the best choice as she’s the main damage dealer. Lastly, Ultima Axe is for setups with Cidala (Valentine).

As for Agastia’s weapons, Forbidden Agastia are an excellent mod source thanks to both the the Big ATK from Bloodshed and ATK awakenings. Depending who you ask, you’ll get different answers to how many you want. You could go up to 5 copies, for the purpose of capping crit, but I think this is overkill. Its a lot of grid space for only raw mod. The more reasonable amount is 3 ATK which is great for Kaguya x Kaguya farming for EX+ and NM90. But even if you want to farm 3 MKII and ATK 20 staves, I would wait to actually use the mats until M3 drops to see if its actually worth it. For me, I can’t see going more than 2 ATK 20 to be worth it once M3 drops but we’ll see when we get there.

Forsaken Agastia is an option for DEF awakening or as a mainhand, but I wouldn’t consider it a priority for either when it comes to UnF. If you do think you’ll need to run Lumberjack or Rising Force, it will actually be your best mainhand option so you might want to get one at least. That or if we get a new Harp class before the end of June though none have been announced yet. The weapon does provide normal cap up, but either you are using Eresh and normal cap is already maxed or you aren’t and you aren’t capping normals anyways.

And from the gacha there are two weapons to look out for.

Getting two Pain and Sufferings will be the biggest priority. 50k supp and 7% cap up is too big to ignore. Since M3 will likely provide cap up with its Exalto weapons, you are safe to not bar them if you can’t afford not to

Eternal Signatureprovides 7% special cap up when slotting four of the same weapon type. Being yet another cap up source makes them great to have around. Presently Celeste grids will slot them at 0* and they might still stick around for M3.

Parazonium would generally be the weapon hurt the hardest by M3, but it is still a great normal mod and cap up source and an excellent mainhand for Manadiver. I wouldn’t personally bar it now but if you have an FLB you’ll mainhand it for any manadiver FA setup and use it as a grid piece for sure til M3 drops and maybe after still.

And last but not least, Gold Moon weapons.

0-1 Ereshkigal

Ereshkigal is such a dominate force in Dark in right now with it being the best mainhand for almost everything except Hard Content. The weapon is an incredible source of cap break providing 30% normal attack amp and 20% normal cap to the team. The signature feature of it is the pairing of its CA granting teamwide double strike with the weapon starting MC with 100% charge and a buff that grants instant charge at the end of the next two turns for three turns of teamwide double strike.

This weapon will be used at all stages with the only exception being NM200 setups for FA players. It is a huge QoL for OTK and all burst setups. While it definitely is not required to do well and top 90k, it will make it a lot easier.

Hades

Like with Celeste grids, Hades grids will likely see major changes before UnF with the probable release of its Exalto weapon. So keep in mind that, unless they make it really bad, when it drops it will be instantly slotted into grids with three copies being ideal.

Pain and Sufferings provide 50k supp and 7% cap up making them invaluable sources of cap break with two slotted in every grid.

Eternal Signatures are presently one of the main grid pieces thanks to providing 7% special cap up, 40% EX ATK and 25% DEF as well as a small majesty. However, based on the past history of Resonator weapons and Exalto weapons, they will likely drop heavily in usage once Dark Exalto releases.

For burst grids they will probably be dropped completely. Dark grids would have two open slots with 3 Exaltos slotted. Since dark teams generally lacks strong teamwide buffs from its characters these will more than likely want to be strong mod slots.

That said for FA, because they provide HP and DEF, they will still be present as well as for higher level bursting for the same reason. Additionally, if you don’t get 3 copies of it, which will be most people, Eternal Signatures can replace the missing the copies.

Since we talked about the mod slots,. the following are the typical mod sources for Dark. Here there is some flexibility so I wanted to mention them seperately from the main list.

With the present Eternal Signature grid, the main mod sources are Parazonium and Forbidden Agastia Mk II. Parazonium is an excellent mod and cap up source thanks to its ATK awakening. It is also a dagger which means with triple ES you reach the four of the same weapon types required for ES. Its main competitor is Pain of Death since its another cap up dagger. Pain of Death is stronger in cases where you call death and weaker when you don’t so pick whichever one is appropriate. Parazonium as well is the stronger choice as a mainhand thanks to the teamwide echoes it provides. And to not forget about Fobidden Agastia, there isn’t too much to say about it other than it provides a lot of mod for one slot.

Once Exaltos hit, Fallen Sword may return as the dominant mod source. Its a strong mix of primal mods and the MA awakening may prove helpful for reaching 100% for Cidala (Valentine) in particular. Time will tell though.

The last one I’ll mention are dark’s crit weapons Bab-el-Mandebs. These are generally phased out, but I choose to mention them since Light’s crit weapon Ivory Arks recieved a major boost from having a crit focused Exalto so there is a change that it could happen again. I would not consider them a priority however.

As for the skill supp weapons Agonize and Skeletal Eclipse their value heavily depends on whether you have Eresh or not. With it you don’t need to worry about them. Without, you will definintely want them. As well if you plan to primiarly play in FA you will want them too.

On that top, the last weapon overall to mention but not least is the 150 GM weapon option.

0-1 Ereshkigal

To not repeat myself too much from what I said in the Celeste section on it, Ereshkigal is a top tier mainhand that caps normal cap and normal amp and makes both burst and FA better and faster. You aren’t required to get it but it will make every aspect of UnF easier as well as any Dark farming outside it.

What to Spark

Before UnF, there will be two more legfests and two more flashes. Barring new character releases, the following are the main characters you want to aim for.

Lich

Lich is primarily listed first for her weapon Pain and Suffering. It comes with 50k supp, 7% cap up, and axe voltage and will always be slotted.

Thankfully the character that comes with Lich is also good. Lich is a skill damage dealer with a large nuke at the end of each turn depending on how many debuffs they have that she also provides. When it comes to UnF, she is pretty mid tier as a burst character but is strong as an FA character thanks to providing a strong array of debuffs, delays, and synergy with Fediel.

Halluel and Malluel

Halluel and Malluel will primarily be an FA character this UnF. The main reason for it is she’s great for dispels with her skill 3 Stella Repentina 8-hit Plain damage to a foe based on 10% of foe’s current HP (Damage cap: 222,222 per hit).
Remove buffs based on number of foe’s debuffs (Max: 5).Inflict Everbane (20% / 1% of Max HP, Accuracy: g). dispelling once per debuff on the enemy up to five times. This will also activate any time the enemy ends the turn with five or more buffs. Last year she was a must slot for NM200 FA and this year she will probably be again.

On top of this, she comes with Eternal Signature. Each copy provides 40% ATK, 25% DEF, and 7% special cap when 4 or more of the same weapon type are equipped. Both Celeste and Hades grids can make strong use of it. The main note to make however is with the Exalto weapon likely dropping before UnF, I would wait to spark directly for ES.

Fediel

Fediel is a strong attacker and supporter thanks to her field. When its up, she provides 100% DEF, 100%/30% DATA, 100% CA DMG and 50% CA Cap to the team. As well when its up, she deals double CAs and 6 hit skill nukes after normal attacks.

For FA players, she does require pressing her field, but more than makes up for it with all she provides. Her field effect does cause everyone to take 1k damage each turn, but when paired with Lich for FA setups, this gets converted to healing making the combo very strong together.

For burst players, she’s a great option to pick all around thanks to her nukes. That said, she falls off in Eresh comps pretty significantly due to Eresh reducing skill damage which takes a big hit to Fediel’s potential in them.

Olivia

Olivia (Grand) has remained a core burst character for UnF the last couple of years. This is primarily thanks to her skill 1 Sterling Sea 500% Dark damage to all foes (Damage cap: ~830,000).
Inflict DA Down (100%, Accuracy: 100%, 180S), TA Down (100%, Accuracy: 100%, 180S) and Twilight Terror 2 (Accuracy: 90%, 2T).
Level 55:
Effect enhanced. inflicting 100% DATA down and more importantly Twilight Terror preventing their charge bar from filling and from using special attacks. As dark needs to take turns for its burst setups, this is invaulable for survivibility. Her damage output also too isn’t bad too. She gets 30% normal amp when affected by dark up. But overall that is not why she’s used.

Vikala

Vikala is another FA oriented character also with a focus on dispels. Vicky is a CA support providing very strong teamwide CA buffs including 10% CA cap and 50% charge bar gain. Her main issue is that her field and Fediel’s can’t be used at the same time which limits a lot of her kit if you use both. But if you use her alone you can gain access to the heals, DMG mitigation, teamwide dodge all, and teamwide double strike on her skills.

Orchid

Orchid (Grand) is both a solid FA character and a common sac target for Dark. A big part of this is she provides 10% bonus damage and 20/20 DATA via a unqiue buff to team. For FA, she has solid damage output as well as being able to provide veil to team. She does fall apart quickly at harder bosses as when she loses her personal shield her damage falls apart and the harder bosses will remove it quick. That said she will still be a good option for up to NM150.

I don’t really think Orchid is worth sparking but since she is useful I did want to mention her anyways.

What to Suptix

As for suptix options, here are some notable releases from the last couple of years to consider.

Bowman

Bowman is an great burst character packing GTA and auto nukes. For a long time he was one of the mainstays on dark burst teams, Recently, he’s been replaced at the top end by Cidala, but if you didn’t roll her during Valentine’s he’s the next best option.

Tyra

Tyra! Tyra Tyra! Tyra!

Tyra is a solid burst option and NM95/NM150 FA character. She does require pressing her skill 3 The Evolution , but with that she gains GTA and 2 hit flurry. Additionally, on enemy special she autocasts her skill 1 Tyranno Roar which will dispel one buff.

Kou

Kou is a great tank and teamwide healer. He is a hostility tank that reduces all damage he takes by 80%. If the boss does single target attacks, he will be a top tier way to mitigate damage. The unfortunate flipside to it is if NM200 does AoE attacks his value is greatly diminished.

Summons

As always, summons are always a great option. The usual suspects of the echo summon Zirnitra, the 6 Dragon Optimus sub aura summon Fediel or the Optimus main summon Hades are all great to pick up if needed. Another option is Anubis for Olivia setups.

Farmable Characters

As for suptix options, here are some notable releases from the last couple of years to consider.

Seox

Seox is Dark’s Eternal and the strongest Eternal overall. At FLB he is a great attacker if you lack stronger options. This is both thanks to his skill 1 Gate of Sin Gain Adversity (20%, Multiplier: Seraphic, 3t).
Level 95:
Buff increased to Adversity (30%, Multiplier: Seraphic, 3t).
Also gain Bonus Dark DMG (60%, 3t). providing 30% damage amp and 60% bonus damage as well as the passive Heavenly Howl stacks he builds every turn as long as he can avoid getting hit.

He really jumps in usability at Level 130 where he can start with 3 of Heavenly Howl stacks. This means he starts the battle with 105% perpetuity ATK up, 45% TA up, and 9% cap up. The 150 upgrade overall is less important but it is great for the extra damage and overall he’s one of the top eternals to reach 150.

At 95 he gains a passive Counter Claw. This will deal a 6 hit nuke whenever the enemy special attacks. This makes him an excellent OTK character. With the 130 upgrade as well as the additional potential nuke on dodge from his 150 passive he’s one of the best OTK characters in the game.

Nier

Nier is Dark’s evoker. She is a prime sack candidate for Death (SSR) due to her dying capping DEF down as well as 100% DATA down on the enemy upon dying. She has long been pretty important for dark burst even if many setups now a days no longer use her. She also has a field World of Death and Love Transform the field into a world of death and love.
(World of Death and Love (20% ATK Up / 30% Bonus Dark DMG, Multiplier: Unique, 3t) to the Field Effect|field.) that provides 20% unique ATK and 30% echoes.

For FLB, her main noteworthy upgrade is her skill 4 Eternal Vow Gain Eternal Vow (Multiplier: Perpetuity).
(Love’s Redemption 13 lowers by 4. Can’t be recast.
Can only be used after The Lovers Upright activates.) where she deals a 6 hit skill nuke after normal attacks. After she dies, this ability transfers to MC. Like with all evoker skill 4’s, the main limiting factor on this is needing to swap her in. Her damage output might not be on par with some of the other strong attackers in dark, but along with her field she’s great for extended fights and potentially NM200.

I won’t say she’s a must uncap for this UnF, but she’s still a great investment especially since she’s used for several cases outside UnF. And if you are on the fence it would probably be a good idea to at least be ready to uncap her and get her skill 4 in case it gets used.

New Content

As for new content, there will be a few things of note that are expected before Dark UnF.

M3

As mentioned many times already, the new round of M3 raids drops May 2nd. The first wave contained 6 great weapons so it is probably safe to say at least one of the new weapons for dark will be great. Especially assuming dark gets its own version of the Exalto guns.

Exo Diablo

Exo Diablo is the last of the Exos remaining. With 4/5 of the existing weapons being useful, the same will probably apply to Exo Diablo’s. With M3 on the way, I don’t think whatever this weapon will be will need more than one ATK copy, but I’ll report if something different is needed.

New Releases

There will be four galas before Dark UnF. Very likely at least one of these will contain a new Dark Grand. Presently, Dark is both missing its Exalto weapon and its Primarch character. For people’s wallets I hope these will be the same character. One of the more likely banners this could be is during the Halloween banners the week before UnF. But only time will tell.

This UnF will be right before Summer so there is no need to worry about a new seasonal dropping.

GBF Guide