User talk:Mokoi

Introduction

Democalypse is a Faction-based gamemode that is all about who can do the most damage using a specific element. This guide is intended to provide in-depth information on how to build demons and teams for this gamemode.

For general information on how Democalypse works, rewards or an in-depth explanation on how the multiplier works in Prelim phase refer to: https://dx2wiki.com/index.php/Democalypse

Generalists

With the addition of Bonus Areas a lot of factions will tackle every single element and switch between them every week. With 12 Demons needed per element and 6 non Physical elements that would be 72 different demons specialized for each element. Not only is it basically impossible for Beginners to build enough demons for each element this way, it will also be fairly wasteful since the personal returns are low compared to the required investments.
Therefore it is usually good idea to invest in a group of Generalist type demons first, that only need minimal investment, like a transfer of a skill of the appropriate type and element, to perform well. This way you can save resources like Mitama, Evolving materials or Magnetite.
Generalists are the first demons you should focus on building for Democalypse.
A good guideline is to have around 6 or more generalists to vastly decrease the initial investment to prepare for an element. Once you have enough left over resources you can start optimizing your teams by slowly switching out the lower performing generalists with more specialized demons.

Generalists

	Boss	Prelim	Any
Fusable or Exchange
Gacha

Damage Optimization

In this section I will try to explain ways to increase your damage using a very simplified way of looking at the damage formula that breaks it down to the parts you can influence the most with how you set up your teams and demons.
For the full non simplified damage formula check out: https://dx2wiki.com/index.php/Formulas#Damage]

DAMAGE = Offensive-stat * Skill-Power * (1+(Damage Boosts/100)) * Buffs

Offensive Stats

The offensive stat a demon uses will usually be either Phys ATK or Mag ATK. There are special exceptions like Phys DEF for demons that use Earthquake or Muscle Punch and Ragnarok which scales with both MAtk and PAtk.
Base stats are dependent on a demons stats (STR, MAG, VIT) and their level.

PATK = STR * 2.1 + LVL * 5.6 + 50
MATK = MAG * 2.1 + LVL * 5.6 + 50
PDEF = VIT * 1.1 + STR * 0.5 + LVL * 5.6 + 50

This means the most basic way to increase a demons damage is the obvious way of awakening your demons and leveling them to 50.
From Personal testing damage increase from a higher base stat scales linearly. This means that damage dealt increases by less percent for each additional point of Magic or Strength the higher the stat already is, meaning percentage based damage transfers are generally better for demons unless they have a really low base stat.
Offensive stats can also be increased through Panels by a flat amount (usually Panel-2 on most demons).

Brands

The main way to increase your demons stats after they are fully leveled and awakened is Brands. In general a well branded demon will deal 3 times or more damage compared to an unbranded one during Democalypse.
For information on how to Brand your demons and specifics for Brand stats refer to this: https://dx2wiki.com/index.php/Brands#The_best_Stats_to_look_for

The following is a quick reference table to evaluate the quality of your PAtk and MAtk brand sets.
For most demons every [8 Flat]-bonus will be about equal to a [1 %]-bonus on your brands.

Primaries

	Brand %	Flat	Set Bonuses in %
Optimal	95-	200-	30
Good	75-95	100-200	20-30
Usable	60-75	0-100	20
Bad	-60	0	0-20

Brand Management

Assembling a decent full brand set for Democalypse is already hard enough, even more so 12 or possibly 72. Therefore it is much more ideal to make 6 Brand Sets each for Phys Atk and Mag Atk and use the switch brand function to move them between your teams and between elements depending on Democalypse. Doing this requires a large administrative overhead, but will increase your scores significantly.

Steps to proper brand management:

• Assemble at least 6 brand sets for both Magic Atk and Phys Atk. You might need to make additional ones for demons with special brand requirements (Surt, Gogmagog) and for demons you are using to cast Buffs
• Organize your teams in such a way that you can quickly look up from who you have to switch brands to whom
• Run a simulation before every actual run to make sure you didn't mess up one of your brand switchups

Skill Power

The Base Power of the attack skill your demon will use is a large factor in determining the final damage value. Unique skills frequently have higher Base Power than transferable skills so demons with Unique Skills for the specific element and stage of Democalypse are always preferred. If you also do not have access to higher power transferable skills, you should instead use demons with those skills innately when possible, even if they are theoretically lower when it comes to maximum possible damage.
Multi Hit skills should generally be avoided when the option for normal Single Target skills exists for the Boss phase, since they are worse than the best Single Target options on average (~165 BP vs 180 BP) and they will lead to a much larger variation in scores (Damage range for Single Target 95% - 105% vs Multi Hit ~60% - ~140%)

For non physical transferable skills availability depends on Element, Base Power and type of attack move.

Single Target:

• Tier 4 - 180 BP: Usually only available as Gacha skills from 5* demons are as the transferable of banner exclusive demons. Exceptions: Hell Gaze and Thunderclap as Wukong's Gacha skills
• Tier 3 - 160 BP: Available as transfers from fusable 4*s. Zandyne and Mudodyne are more expensive to obtain via fusion than others.
• Tier 2 - 140 BP: The lowest you should go and even then only if you have no resources to spare. Obtainable as transfer skills from 2*s available in the compendium

Multi Target:

• Tier 3 - 120 BP: Rare as gacha skills on various demons or as transferable skills on 5* demons. It is possible to obtain equivalent versions to these skills by ranking in at least Diamond1 at the end of a PvP week
• Tier 2 - 100 BP: Similar availability to Tier3, except some elements also have easily fusable sources (Ice - Tiamat, Elec - Tlaltecuhtli, Force - Jikokuten)
• Tier 1 - 80 BP: Obtainable as transfer skills from 2*s available in the compendium

The best way to get good transferable skills for specific elements consistently is by buying Genome Cubes from the Duel Point exchange shop for that element.
The best ways to find out availability for each specific skill is by looking it up on the Dx2wiki or on the skills tab in the fusion calculator.

Damage Boosts

Damage Boosts refers to anything that mentions a %-increase towards damage. These can come from the following sources:

• Skill Levels
• Skills
• Panels
• Team Boosts from unique skills

All of these percentage boosts are added together and then multiplied with the original damage, therefore leveling a skill until it gives 20% increased damage is the exact same as transfering Merciless Blow when it comes to damage for Democalypse.

Damage Transfers

Usage	5%	10%	15%	20%	25%
Element specific	-	-	<Element> Boost & Elemental Cycle	-	<Element> Amp & <Element> Enhancement
Single Target	-	Assassin	-	Master Assassin	-
Multi Target or Multi-Hit	-	Serial Killer	-	Butcher	-
Universal	-	Back Attack & <Element> Enhancement & Berserker	-	Merciless Blow	-
Physical Attacks	-	-	-	Death Blow	-

Buffs

Buffs and Debuffs are one of the most essential ways to further increase your damage. Exammples for some damage calculations depending on buff situations that can appear during Democalypse

• Own Attack up: +20% to damage you deal
• Enemy Defense down: +20% to damage you deal
• Own Attack up + Enemy Defense down: +40% to damage you deal
• Own Attack down: -20% to damage you deal
• Enemy Defense up: -20% to damage you deal
• Enemy Def up + Own Atk up: No change to damage dealt
• Enemy Def down + Own Atk down: No change to damage dealt

Since you are unable to give manual commands to your team during Democalypse, the process of obtaining buffs is frequently a bit more involved.

Prelim

The most effective way to obtain buffs during the Prelim phase is by using Auto-Taruka and Auto-Rakunda. These skills are only rarely obtainable as transferable skills and therefore the easiest way to integrate them into your teams is by using demons with those skills innately.
Examples: Garuda, Agni, Ananta, Hresvelgr, Pale Rider for Magic based elements or Zhong Kui, Nergal, Orochi, Fenrir for Phys

During Prelim you usually do not want to use Press Turns for anything but casting Multi Target spells to maximize the Weakness-multiplier and since the damage multiplier has a Maximum anyway. Therefore actively casting buffs or using Single Target or Multi Hit skills to obtain buffs is not advised.

Boss

There are two essential differences to consider between the Boss and Horde waves when it comes to buffs.

• 1. Auto-skills of any type do not activate on Boss waves. This is true for any skill that uses the words "at the beginning of the 1st turn", which also means Auto-Rebellion for example will not work. On the other hand skill that activate at the beginning of a boss battle like Moment of Fate or Lord of the Abyss will work.
• 2. It is not necessary for every attack to exploit the weakness of the opponent for the highest possible score. While it is still optimal to use demons that apply buffs/debuffs as part of their skills (i.e Susano-o, Panel 3 Vasuki, ...) it is still possible to make a demons AI actively use it's turn to cast a buff spell.

Manual Buffing/Teching:

While it is impossible to get a demon to cast any debuff skill (Rakunda, Acid Breath, War Cry, Debilitate, Offensive Cry) it is possible to get the demon AI to cast a buff skill as long as a few conditions are met.

These conditions are:

1. The buff has to increase at least one other stat aside from Attack (Defense, Ev/Acc). This means skills like War Dance, Blood Rush, Luster Candy, Barong Dance are viable for Manual Buffing
2. Demon AI has to be changed to Support using an AI tendency selector from the Karma shop.
3. The demon casting the buff has to be below a certain offensive stat threshold. This threshold varies depending on the attack skill the demon uses to attack, their HP (higher HP = higher threshold) and how many things their buff increases (Luster Candy has a higher threshold than War Dance for example). Depending on how much extra HP the demon gets from brands (Life set bonus, +HP%) or skills the thresholds are somewhere around: 
	 War Dance / Blood Rush : 1000-1500
	 Luster Candy-type buff : 1500-1800
(4. The demon casting the buff needs to go second. This is not a requirement, but otherwise you will have suboptimal Press Turn usage, making you lose out on a solid amount of damage. Exception: Panel 3 Mot wants to go last)

Using a demon for Manual Buffing will give higher returns the harder the other demons in the team hit, because increasing the damage of your hardest hitters will frequently give higher returns than just using a third mediocre damage dealer.
Demons that are commonly used for manual buffing are: Abaddon A, Panel 3 Mot, Agni
Demons that can be used for manual buffing without a buff skill transfer: Rama, Huang Long, Vishnu, Barong, Cerberus

Element Specific

This section will try to provide rankings for damage potential and things to look out for on each element.

Tierlists:

• Tiers are generally sorted from Left > Right
• For demons without a skill of an innate skill of the appropriate type and element the highest tier transferable skill is assumed for the evaluation.
• Ratings can vary slightly depending on investment. Investment consists of Transfers/Panels/Skill-Levels/Mitama/Demon-Level/Archtype. Gaps between tiers are generally larger than gaps within tiers.
• The primary ranking criteria is maximum damage potential, though ease of investment, minimum damage, average damage and utility (providing boosts to other demons) are also factored in. While most of these were determined through testing and calculations, it is still possible for some of these ratings to have a margin of error.

General Tier Explanation:

• Utility Demons: These demons are in general used to provide buffs for your team either through manual buffing or through Unique Skills. You generally want to have a maximum of one Utility Demon per team. The major exception is Panel3 Mot, who can still be paired with demons that already generate buffs themselves (Susano-o. Tokisada, Panel3 Mahakala) just for the extra turns.
• Innate Auto: List of demons that have a damage increasing Auto skill in their innate kit.
• Extra Multiplier: Demons that have ways of achieving a higher maximum multiplier, than which is normally possible through clearing the prelim health bar. This is done through Chain Effects that allow generating more weakness multiplier (extra Press Turns, extra Attacks of a certain element).
• Tier 0-X: Ranking of general damage potential for assorted demons. The lower the tier number the better. Tier 0 are the most outstanding demons that you should always use as long as you are able to.
• Filler: Demons that usually have an attack move or boost for the corresponding element. These are not worth investing in for Democalypse and should only be used to fill up slots if you have no other option.
• Panel3-, 3xHerald- and 3xLady-: These prefixes apply to the demon listed immediately after them and imply that only under the condition the demon actually ranks there. Panel3 denotes having Spirit Panel 3 of the demon in question completed. 3xHerald requires that all demons in the team that the demon is used in are from the Divine or Herald race. 3xLady requires that all demons in the team that the demon is used in are from the Femme or Lady race

Phys

Phys Prelim

Tier	Demons
Innate Auto
Extra Multiplier	Panel2-Panel1-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Filler

Phys Boss

Tier	Demons
Utility Demons	Panel3-Panel3-
Tier 0	Panel3-
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Filler

Phys Notes

• Crits: Physical attack type skills have the chance to land a critical hit which is 1.5x the normal damage of the attack, which is a significant difference. This leads to a large damage variance depending on how often your teams manage to score critical hits. Therefore I chose to evaluate demons that can minimize this variance slightly higher. Some examples:
  • High Critical Rate Attacks: Susano-o A
  • Crit Aura: Asura Lord
  • Rebellion from Skills or Panels: Panel3 Zaou-Gongen, Kali
• Missing: Physical attacks also have the possibility of missing. This needs to be taken into account, because a miss will be disastrous during either part and vastly hurt your score. If during simulations you notice one of your demons repeatedly missing even if you have to decrease the damage for additional accuracy it will be worth it for the sake of consistency. Ways to increase a demons accuracy are Brands or skill transfers like Good Aim or Great Aim
• Jack the Ripper Prelim: His unique ability Terror of London will hit randomly 1-3 times at the start of prelim poviding +0.1 extra multiplier per hit. On the other hand his base stats and innate skills are fairly bad for Democalypse meaning his damage potential is fairly low. Therefore you need to have two demons that can almost fully clear the Prelim healthbar by themselves to fully utilize this bonus multiplier.
• Flauros Prelim: Due to Hell Leopard Flauros will usually produce +0.5 Weakness multiplier per activation of Iron Fist. With Spirit Panel 2 there is an additional increase from +0.1 to +0.3 to each Iron Fist, depending on how many different "parts" of the Horde are hit. Probabilities for this: +0.1 = 20%; +0.2 = 60%; +0.3 = 20% (somebody that's good at math please check if these are correct)

Fire

Fire Prelim

Tier	Demons
Innate Auto
Extra Multiplier	3xLady-
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Fire Boss

Tier	Demons
Utility Demons	Panel3-Panel3-3xHerald-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Fire Notes

• Boss Rakukaja: The very first move the boss will use is Rakukaja. After that no matter what he will not cast it again. Ways to deal with this in descending order of effectiveness:
  • Mahakala's Wrathful Flame
  • Panel 2 Uriel in a team consisting of only Herald or Divine demons
  • Abaddon A's Lord of the Abyss
  • Agni's Ignite
  • Quetzalcoatl A's Aztec Pulse
• Prelim Rakukaja: Similar to the Boss the first move the Makara Horde will cast is Rakukaja. This means if you want to maximize damage you will need to apply a Rakunda effect during the second turn even if your team has an Auto-Rakunda. Efficient ways to do this:
  • Agni's Ignite
  • Quetzalcoatl A's Aztec Pulse
  • Schierke's Summon Elementals
• Atropos Prelim: Atropos' unique skill Passionate Rage can give up to +0.8 additional multiplier if used in an all Lady and/or Femme team. The highest potential team for this would be Kikuri-Hime, Cybele and Atropos, though even with large investment it might be hard for this team to fully clear the bar.
• Ragnarok: While Ragnarok gets additional scaling from PAtk the primary stat you need to focus on with your Brands is still MAtk
• Vairocana Boss: Radiant Mantra can remove the bosses Rakukaja at the start of the second turn allowing you to stay at neutral buffs. (Thanks for the suggestion to SemperPi)
• Azazel: Due to Democalypse bosses' innate Critical Chance reduction, Guillotine Blaze will crit probably around 1 in 3 uses, even with investment into crit% through transfers and brands. Thus it might be better to transfer Trisagion for Boss, when using him.

Ice

Ice Prelim

Tier	Demons
Innate Auto
Extra Multiplier
Tier 0
Tier 1
Filler

Ice Boss

Tier	Demons
Utility Demons	Panel3-3xHerald-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Ice Notes

• Boss Tarunda: The very first move the boss will use is Tarunda. After that no matter what he will not cast it again. Ways to deal with this in descending order of effectiveness:
  • Uriel in a team consisting of only Herald or Divine demons
  • Norn's Moment of Fate. Additionally Panel 3 reapplies buffs during your last turn.
  • Manual Buffing (refer to the corresponding section earlier in this guide)
• King Frost Boss: If your team already has a way of reducing the enemies defense using Red Archtype will be more optimal otherwise you will want him to cast Cold World except if your other two demons are very weak
• Vairocana Boss: Radiant Mantra can remove the bosses Tarunda at the start of the second turn allowing you to stay at neutral buffs. (Thanks for the suggestion to SemperPi)

Elec

Elec Prelim

Tier	Demons
Innate Auto
Extra Multiplier	3xLady-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Filler

Elec Boss

Tier	Demons
Utility Demons	Panel3-3xHerald-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Elec Notes

• Overture: After the first cast it becomes equivalent to a 180 Skill power Multi-Target move, because of the concentrate effect. This means if Nero☆ is used for Boss usually it will be better to not use Red Archtype or transfer Thunder Reign
• Atropos: Atropos' unique skill Passionate Rage can give up to +0.8 additional multiplier if used in an all Lady and/or Femme team. For Elec the issue is though that there are no demons that are particularly good or even decent from the Lady and Femme races. As of now I believe that it will be impossible to clear the full Prelim health bar with such a team, which is why eventhough she provides more multiplier than Anzu I have rated her lower (though I will adjust the rating in case I see that it is indeed possible to still clear the health bar)

Force

Force Prelim

Tier	Demons
Innate Auto
Extra Multiplier
Tier 0
Tier 1
Filler

Force Boss

Tier	Demons
Utility Demons	Panel3-3xHerald-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Filler

Force Notes

• Oberon:: Red Oberon has slightly higher damage than other colors, but will have higher variance for damage and is therefore not recommended
• Baal: The main consideration factor of consideration for if you should use Baal for the Boss or the Prelim stage depends on the demon you would substitute him with for the corresponding phase. Additionally it matters how your Baal is built, Red Baal for example is usually stronger for Boss.

Light

Light Prelim

Tier	Demons
Innate Auto
Extra Multiplier	3xHerald-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Filler

Light Boss

Tier	Demons
Utility Demons	3xHerald-Panel3-
Tier 0
Tier 1	3xHerald-
Tier 2
Filler

Light Notes

• Light is pretty straightforward. Mainly you will have to test where to apply Archangel synergies if you have them.

Dark

Dark Prelim

Tier	Demons
Innate Auto
Extra Multiplier
Tier 0
Tier 1
Filler

Dark Boss

Tier	Demons
Utility Demons	Panel3-3xHerald-
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Dark Notes

• Prelim Dekunda: The Ares Horde will use Dekunda as its first move, if they are debuffed in some way. The only way to reapply Rakunda currently is by using Agni
• Lilith A: Even with Spirit Panel 2, Lilith's critical chance when attacking with Temptation is too low to crit anywhere near consistently. This means a Single Target transfer like Hell Gaze or Mudodyne will most likely lead to a much higher score when using her.

Team Composition

This section will give specific builds for some common teams and strategies as well as explain some of the ratings of the more commonly appearing demons in the previous section.
One major general guideline is that you will want to have your stronger Prelim team paired with your stronger Boss team. If you want to optimize your teams you can not get around running a lot of simulations and adjusting your teams based on those results.

Extra Press Turns

There are a few demons that have the ability to give your team extra Press Turns, which is incredibly valuable. Since usually there are demons for every element that deal way more damage than the others (examples: Garuda A for Force Boss, Quetzalcoatl A for Fire Prelim) giving these demons more opportunities to attack will vastly outweigh just using another mediocre damage dealer.

Mot:

• Harmonious Death gives an extra Press Turn and increases all of Mot's damage
• Spirit Panel 3 gives another Press Turn on your third turn, which allows for a total of 2 extra Press Turns in Boss Phase
• General rule of thumb: If Mot is Panel3 use him on the Boss Phase otherwise on Prelim

P3 Mot Boss Team (Example Elec)

Indrajit Brands - Requirements -

Thor Brands - Requirements -

Mot Skills Luster Candy Thunder Reign Brands Manual Buffing Brands Requirements P3 unlocked, going last/3rd

Above is a generic example of what a Boss team using Panel3 Mot looks like. Always use the two heaviest hitters you own in the first two slots of this team. To quickly identify those you can reference the ranking section above. By setting your team up this way you can ensure that your heaviest hitters get what's equivalent to a full fourth round of attacks while also getting the damage increase from buffs, which means on average around +33% to your total score.
Mot's Luster Candy can also be either War Dance or Blood Rush for manual buffing. His Thunder Reign can also be any other Single Target or Multi Hit skill and has to be exchanged for a skill of the appropriate element for the other elements.

Masakado A:

• Guardian of the East gives an extra Press Turn.
• Butcher and his Panel 1 allow him to not be completely useless in the damage area during Prelim slightly compensating for his low Magic stat
• Because of his high Agility you will need to use Lead Brands, Agility Mitama or high Agility Demons so they can go before him to fully utilize the extra Press Turn

Archangels

Uriel has the ability through both his Panel 2 and his unique skill God's Fire to provide full offensive buffs to your entire team in the Boss phase, if combined with two more Herald or Divine demons. Full offensive buffs are a significant bonus (40% score increase) that would even make slightly suboptimal team compositions better than ones consisting of mainly higher tier demons. Thankfully Seraph, which is usually within the top 3 best demons for all elements, is also a Herald demon and almost every element also has very good Herald and Divine demon options for the third slot

Generalist Archangel Boss Team

Uriel Brands - Requirements Ideally P2 unlocked

Seraph Brands - Requirements -

Metatron Brands - Requirements -

Above is a generic example of a Generalist Archangel Boss Team. For each of those demons you will have to transfer a Single Target attack skill of the appropriate element. Other than that transfers brands and everything else can be focused on maximizing their individual damage. The following will list some options for the third slot in the Archangel team for each element in descending order of maximum potential:

• Fire: Metatron | Azrael
• Ice: Metatron | Red Mastema
• Elec: Gabriel | Aniel | Dominion
• Force: Raphael | Sandalphon
• Light: P3 Aniel or Michael | basically any other Divine or Herald Demon
• Dark: Azrael | Metatron

Generic Boss Team

This is a generic boss phase team example. An optimal Boss team generally should consist of two main damage dealers and a Utility demon that provides some form of support (usually Buffs).

Basic Boss Team

Izanami Brands - Requirements -

Abaddon A Skills Luster Candy Brands Life, Lead Requirements Wants to go second in turn order

Anubis Brands - Requirements -

Every single demon of course has to get a transfer of a skill of the appropriate element. In this team Abaddon A would fill the role of Utility demon and can of course be replaced with any other demon that could fill that role. Similarly Anubis and Izanami can be replaced with any other strong damage dealers.

Closing

Thanks:

• For various information and general resources: Sushimuffin, Reika, Puddi, Maaster, Rancher
• imheeout faction members that helped with testing and ideas: Maho, Big B, Ryuchi, Putri, Noa, Nobody

Release version notes:
This is the final major update to this guide. From now on I will mainly be updating this guide for new demon releases or to fix errors.
If you have questions or complaints, you can try to get in contact with me by asking imheeout Faction members that are on the global discord or by leaving a note at the bottom here.

Question to Mokoi: Have you evaluated using Vairocana's Radiant Mantra to deal with de/buffs on Fire and Ice demo?

Response:
I haven't no. Never actually thought about this (mainly since I don't have Vairo). The largest case I could make for Vairo would be if you use Agni in your Fire Boss team since he could get rid of Rakukaja before Agni applies the debuff with Ignite.
In most other cases it would compete with the slot that would cancel out the buff in the first place, i.e. Abaddon A, Norn, other manual buffers, while also giving up some advantages like having de-/buffs on the first turn.
Mainly Vairo really doesn't excel for damage dealing himself for boss phase unless you use Multi-Hit stuff, which is hard to get and kind of inconsistent. It's an alternative for the mid tier options for sure, just hard to evaluate exactly without being able to test him myself. Though I am fairly confident in saying he still falls behind the top tier options (Mahakala, P2 Uriel, Luster Candy P3 Mot). So I'll put him into the mid tiers for that for now.
Thanks for the suggestion, definitely never thought of that myself!