Beginner's Guide

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Welcome! If you're here, that probably means you're looking for more information on how to get started, or you're keeping this bookmarked for its various resources. All of these are down below.

Basics

Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei Liberation is a turn-based JRPG with gacha elements developed by Sega for mobile devices. In this game you summon various deities and mythological creatures as demons of various rarities and use them to progress in the game by fighting other demons.

Your team is composed of a Liberator and four demons. The main objective of the game is creating different parties of powerful demons to complete all the game’s content, and since Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei Liberation has PvP (also where gems as a F2P comes from), you'll be motivated to build better demons and party compositions.

Dx2 is a complex game with many mechanics but the in-game tutorials will introduce you these concepts at a steady rate.

For some Terms, you can look at the Glossary.

Mistakes beginners must NOT do

Pictures of the important resources mentioned in this Section. The objects are: Kasane Magatama (top-left), Blank Genome (top-right), Yasaka Magatama (bottom-left) and Karma (bottom-right)

Below is a list of actions beginners should absolutely avoid doing. Not all the items of the list are inherently bad : a few may be viable for experimented players. However they should not be performed by beginners under any circumstances.

  • Do not use natural 5★ demons as evolution sacrifices to evolve another 5★ into 6★.
    • See Leveling for information on how to evolve demons into 6★.
  • Do not use natural 5★ demons as skill point sacrifice to give skill points to another 5★ demon.
    • To raise a 5★ demon's skill points: use Yasaka Magatama.
  • Do not sacrifice a natural 5★ demon in order to transfer its skill to another one.
    • If the skill you wish to transfer is in the 5th or 6th skill slot, you can harvest the skill with a Blank Genome without sacrificing the demon. (see Skill Transfer)
  • Do not sell natural 5★ demons in exchange of karma. (See Karma)
    • Natural 5★ demons you don't want should either be spiritized or used as Fusion material. This is your two viable options.
  • NEVER EVER use a natural 5★ demon as fusion material to create a 4★ as fusion result.
  • Kasane Magatama should ONLY be used to level up unique skill (they are recognizable by the fact their skill point cost is "-")
  • In the Karma shop, do not buy Hell Buns or the 4★ demons in exchange of Karma. (this action is viable for veterans though)
    • Save up Karma for Selectors and Shifters, you will need them.

Action Beginners SHOULD urgently perform + advices on limited packs

Yoshitsune Beginner Banner : Start Dash Step Up Summon

Yoshitsune banner for Beginners only. An excellent banner that stays up for 2 weeks

Gems are the in-game currency primarily used for summoning demons

The summoning portal proposes to Beginners a special banner that guarantees at the end of a Step Up summon the best PvE demon of the game : Yoshitsune

  • The banner is a Step up banner with 6 Steps
    • Each Step represents 10 summons (i.e. a multi-summon)
  • There is only 1 round/cycle (i.e. after the 6 Steps, the banner is gone)
  • Step 1 costs 500 gems, the other Steps costs 1000 gems
    • One 5★ demon is guaranteed at Step 3 (randomly selected from the general 5★ pool)
    • Yoshitsune guaranteed at Step 6
  • The banner stays up for 2 weeks

This is an excellent banner for newbies. But you want to do the full 6 Steps as Yositsune is an incredible asset. Moreover he is not a fusable demon (see Sections below for info on fusion) and thus would be quite hard to obtain if not for this Step Up.

It means you need to gather 5500 gems in 2 weeks or less. This is a very feasable thing to do for beginners : simply rush through the content and complete the many one-time missions that give gems. In other word the full Step Up is totally Free To Play.

Remark: Aside from the 2 guaranteed 5★s, it is possible to summon other 5★s as the rate of 5★ for "non-guaranteed summon" is 3%. And with 58 non-guaranteed summons, you have a good chance to pull other 5★s. All of this should be more than enough to go through early PvE.

Advice on other Beginner deals

There exists 2 other notable special deals for new players. None of which are nearly as good as Yoshitsune banner and both are obtainable only using real money :

Start Dash Demon

Limited time offer, approx USD$5 for a Teal Huang Long
  • A limited time offer that disappears after a week or so. For approximately 5 USD, it offers a Teal Huang Long.
  • Pros :
    • Huang Long is widely regarded as one of the best support demons for PVE. He possesses the unique spell Five Elements, a buff that allows your party to reflect non-piercing magic once, and can be repeatedly spammed to keep your party safe from spells. This is very useful for cheesing otherwise difficult PVE fights like several Aura Gate and Brands of Sin bosses.
    • Has a good spread of resistances and high agility, allowing him to function as your team's Speedster.
    • Opens the door to effective Brands of Sin Deceit 10 and Sloth 10 auto-runs, which allow you to farm high-end Brands.
    • Has a niche role in PVP to counter pure Almighty damage teams.
  • Cons :
    • Unlike Yoshitsune, Huang Long is fusable (although not a simple fusion). While it does cut down on the Magnetite grind, you are ultimately paying for something that you can grind with time.
    • Teal is not his best color; consider shifting him later down the road.
    • His Spirit Merge panels are pretty lackluster. If you pull another copy later on, you might end up regretting this purchase.
    • Falls off at higher Tier PVP where Pierce sweeping becomes commonplace.
  • Overall Judgement: Good value compared to other similarly priced packs, but does not offer anything exclusive. Consider it a "pay to skip the grind" pack while deciding whether or not to buy it.

Beginner's Pack I

  • Offers 600 gems for the price of 60 gems.
    • This is around 2 USD.
  • You can only pay for this pack once.
  • Pro : This pack has a rate of 10 times the base gem rate. Though the game often proposes Gem Packs (on a monthly basis) but these packs are at best only at 2 times the base gem rate. So the Beginner Pack I is at 5 times the best gem rate.
  • Con : Since you can only pay this once; that's just 600 gems. There isn't much to hope from 600 gems (100 gems = 1 summon , and the rate of 5★ is only 3%). There is little point in buying this pack.

Liberators

The Liberator is the party leader who boosts your demons’ abilities in unique ways. As you progress in the game you will unlock more Liberator.

Liberators level up and you can unlock different skills using skill points specific to Liberators. A max level Liberator will have enough skill points to unlock all of his or her skills (so you do not have to worry too much about which skills to unlock). Special Dx2 Quests must be completed to allow each Liberator to reach their max level. The different Liberators are:

  • Main Character: Best Liberator to use for Leveling Demons: has the ability to increase the exp your demons earn up to a +35%.
  • Megakin: Best Liberator for recruiting demons through Negotiations. Best used to farm Leveling Quest and Aura Gate.
  • Eileen: Best Liberator for farming Brand of Sin and Strange Signal: increases Macca (in-game money) and item drops.
  • Templar Dragon: Great Liberator for difficult Boss Fights: boosts the effects of the demon skills Charge and Concentrate. Boosts healing skills. Allows you to use items without consuming all your turn.
  • Chalk Eater: A Liberator who casts buffs when your demons hit your opponents weakness.
  • Kangaroo Boxer: Strong Liberator for offensive strategy. One of the best Liberator for Hell Park.
  • Meat Balloon: Strong Liberator for defensive strategy. One of the best Liberator in PVP.
  • Shionyan: Liberator specialised on status effects/ailments.
  • Seiran: Reward for completing Aura Gate. Liberator focused on Speed and Aura Gate exploring.
  • Xana: Reward for completing Hollow World. Liberator focused on Speed and Hollow World exploring, best Liberator for Turn 1 PVP strats. Xana does not currently have a Limit Break Quest.
  • Vince: Liberator focused on strength and crits. Interesting alternative liberator for Hell Gongen/Physical teams. Vince does not currently have a Limit Break Quest.

Demons

You should build as many demons as you can to make use of different party setups for content. You can check the Tier List to know which demons are worth your time, but once you learn how to build demons, you can make almost anything work.

Below are the different ways to obtain new demons:

Negotiations & Summoning

Examples of Summon Files, summon items (Hell Buns), Parchments and Tomes

Negotiations

Whenever you’re in a battle in the Story Mode or in Aura Gate, there's a chance that one of the opposing demons will have a “Talk” bubble above their heads; this allows you to negotiate with them and recruit them.

The in-game tutorial is complete and there are only few things to add:

  • "Talk" mainly recruits 1★ and 2★ demons and conversely this will be your main source of 1★ and 2★.
  • The main use of 1★ and 2★ demons are as fodders : mostly Fusion fodder or evolution fodder (see Leveling).
  • Their archetype is always "Clear" (see Archetypes) which is percfect for fusion fodders.


Summoning

Summoning is the Gacha part of this game : performed at the Summon portal, this is where you get a shot at having the most powerful units of the game.

There are multiple types of Summoning but we can divide it into 2 types : Summoning using Gems and summoning using some Files or items.

  • The different Files / items can not be exchanged for anything else. There won't be time-limited banners for them (except for Parchments or Tomes) and as such you can just use them (or not) the moment you get them (from events mainly) (Remark: Parchments and Tomes are different and are more similar to Summons using Gems).
  • Summonings using Gems is where the Gacha in "Gacha games" really is. This is where time-limited banners for new or/and broken demons will be! Use your Gems wisely.
  • Both Summoning types will be the main source of 3★, 4★ and 5★ demons. Conversely they nearly all give only 3★, 4★ or 5★ demons.
  • They mainly give you non-Clear-archetyped demons (red, purple, teal, yellow). Conversely they are your only source of colored-archetyped demons.
  • Low rarities demons will quickly flood and fill your Box; "useless" colored 3★ and 4★ can either be used as Skill Transfer donors, Fusion materials, Evolution fodders (do not use 4★ as evolution fodder) or be sold for Karma.
    • Please refer to the article Skill Transfer and Karma for skill donations or selling. For Evolution fodders, a Section below is dedicating to Evolution and Leveling.
    • "Useless" or duplicate 5★ are either to be used as Fusion materials or for Spirit Merge. Please do not do anything else with them.


For more information : Summoning

The Gacha Rates (the odds of pulling demons) for most Banners and Gem Summons are the following: 3% for a 5★, 7.5% for a 4★, and 89.5% for a 3★.

The Gacha Rates (the odds of pulling demons) for Superior Summon Files are the following: 1% for a 5★, 5% for a 4★, and 94% for a 3★.

Be sure to check the Demons and the Rates by pressing the i-Button on the top left of the banner!

Fusion

Main Article: Magnetite

Fusing demons will be your most used method of getting better demons at the beginning. You need two demons with at least one of them being a Common archetype and some Magnetite (another in-game currency) and you will be able to fuse a new demon.

Many 5★ can be obtained through fusion. But a lot of very powerful demons (and basically nearly all new demons) are non-fusable demons and must be Summoned. 5★ fusable demons are also quite expensive in terms of Magnetite which is farmed at Aura Gate. In other words, fusing a fusable 5 stars require a lot of grinding.

You can (and should) use the Fusion Calculator @ https://oceanxdds.github.io/dx2_fusion/#en to know what demon combination will get you the demon you want. If the site is in a language you cannot understand, locate the 'Setting' option and select your desired language.

Besides rarity, demons have grades, and that determines how they behave in fusion (higher grade demons fuse into high grades). Fusion of high grade demons are initially locked:

Player Level Unlocked Fusion Grade
10 40 ~ 50
20 51 ~ 60
30 61 ~ 70
40 71 ~ 80
45 81 ~ 85
50 86 ~ 90
55 91 ~ 95
60 96 ~ 99


Fusing 4/5★ requires a lot of Magnetite, and Magnetite is a scarce resource so be careful with which 4/5★ you fuse as it’ll be a long-term investment.

Flooded by "useless" demons?

Considering the initial Inventory and Storage spaces start kind of low, you will quickly be overrun by demons after a few Summons.

Please refer to Beginner's Guide#Resource and Demon Management for more info.

Progression

There is no 'order' that things must be done with, you can do things in whatever order you'd like. However, it's recommended to complete content on the training missions at the home page because it provides freebies such as Macca, Magnetite, and Gems.

The game can be divided into 3 parts:

  1. Early Game: Story Mode Chapters 1~6 NORMAL difficulty, Chapters 1~3 HARD difficulty; Demon Buster [Stages 1~5], Aura Gate 1~30F
  2. Mid Game: Story Mode Chapter 1~3 HELL difficulty, Chapters 4~6 HARD difficulty; Demon Buster [Stages 6~8], Aura Gate 31~40F
  3. Late Game: Story Mode Chapters 4~6 HELL difficulty, Demon Buster [Stages 9~10], Aura Gate 41~50F, Hell's Park

To get towards late game, we need to make our demons stronger. Several things can be done to make our demons stronger, which are (in order of priority):

  1. Leveling and Evolving
  2. Equipping Brands
  3. Transferring Skills
  4. Awakening

Cheap Demons for Early Game

What you should focus on really depends on what demons you already have, but here is a list of Cheap early - mid game demons as well as their optimal Archetype:

  • Magical Attackers/Weakness Exploiter: 4★ Clear/Red/Teal Loki, 3★ Purple Efreet, 4★ Purple Anubis, 4★ Red/Yellow Sandalphon
  • Supporter (Buffer/Debuffer): 4★ Yellow Cerberus, 4★ Purple Fenrir (Transfer a buff/debuff on him)

Please to get their fusion path use : @ https://oceanxdds.github.io/dx2_fusion/#en

Leveling & Evolving

Image of the "Leveling Quest" at Chapter 8. At the bottom are the difficulty levels of the quest (Normal, Hard, Hell). The stamina cost indicated for this quest is 11.

Main Page for more information and further reading: Leveling

PvE contents grant EXP points. However in order to level up demons, the best way is to use "Leveling Quests". Every Story Chapter has a Leveling Quest. Leveling Quests not only let you bring two parties (e.g. two Liberators and 8 demons) to level them up, but will give you much more EXP than a regular quest.

EXP/Stamina Leveling Quest Efficiency Table

Leveling Quest Stamina Exp Exp/Stamina Exp/Stamina (1/2 Stamina)
Chapter 1(NORMAL) 2 66 33 66
Chapter 1(HARD) 3 182 60.6 182
Chapter 1(HELL) 4 342 85.5 171
Chapter 2(NORMAL) 3 133 44.3 133
Chapter 2(HARD) 4 301 75.2 150.5
Chapter 2(HELL) 5 410 82 205
Chapter 3(NORMAL) 4 234 58.5 117
Chapter 3(HARD) 5 356 71.2 178
Chapter 3(HELL) 6 499 83.1 166.3
Chapter 4(NORMAL) 5 336 67.2 168
Chapter 4(HARD) 6 465 77.5 155
Chapter 4(HELL) 7 585 83 195
Chapter 5(NORMAL) 6 474 79 158
Chapter 5(HARD) 7 573 81.8 191
Chapter 5(HELL) 8 716 89.5 179
Chapter 6(NORMAL) 7 576 82.3 192
Chapter 6(HARD) 8 691 86.4 172.7
Chapter 6(HELL) 9 840 93.3 210
Chapter 7(NORMAL) 8 638 79.7 159.4
Chapter 7(HARD) 9 765 85 191.25
Chapter 7(HELL) 10 957 95.7 191
Chapter 7a(NORMAL) 8 693 86.6 173.2
Chapter 7a(HARD) 9 831 92.3 207.7
Chapter 7a(HELL) 10 1039 103.9 207.8
Intermission Ep3 Leveling (NORMAL) 8 733 91.625 183.25
Intermission Ep3 Leveling (HARD) 9 898 99.8 224.5
Intermission Ep3 Leveling (HELL) 10 1097 109.7 219.4
Intermission Ep6 Leveling (NORMAL) 8 767 95.875 191.75
Intermission Ep6 Leveling (HARD) 9 912 101 228
Intermission Ep6 Leveling (HELL) 10 1168 116.8 233.6
Chapter 8 (HELL) 11 1370 124.5 273.9
Chapter 9 (HELL) 11 1425 130 285

In terms of EXP/Stamina efficiency, the quests highlighted in Red are the most efficient. The "1/2 Stamina" column indicates the efficiency of leveling quests during the monthly event called "half-stamina" where by Leveling Quests have their costs halved, thus changing their efficiency. Chapter 1 HARD is a good alternative for half-stamina events if your team isn't ready for the higher chapters.

Leveling Quests of lesser efficiency still have their uses. Since each Leveling Quest has different demons, you can use specific lower-efficiency Quests to recruit en mass specific demons you need for example: Chapter 3, 4 or 5 Leveling Quests.

To maximize the amount of EXP you get, bring your Main Character as the Liberator of one of the groups, as they have a passive skill to increase EXP. Bring a Kanbari demon in both parties (2★ demon that is fused in multi-fusion), as it has a skill to increase EXP gains too.

Steps to fuse a Kanbari:

  1. First, make sure you already completed Chapter 3-5
  2. Collect 5 Slimes in Chapter 1’s Leveling Quest
  3. Collect 2 Melchoms and 1 Preta in Chapter 2’s Leveling Quest
  4. Collect 1 Nekomata and 1 Sandman in Chapter 3’s Leveling Quest
  5. Fuse Bicorn with Slime x Nekomata
  6. Fuse Inugami with Bicorn x Slime
  7. Fuse 2 Kurama Tengu with Slime x Melchom
  8. Fuse Yomotsu-Shikome with Preta x Kurama Tengu
  9. Fuse 1 Koppa Tengu with Slime x Sandman
  10. Multi-Fuse Kanbari

Now onto evolving:

Evolving a demon increases their level cap and slightly increased base stats as their rarity will increase. To evolve a demon you need to sacrifice demons with the same actual rarity (unlike with skill points where you needed to sacrifice demons with the same base rarity - if you have a 4★ Pixie, which is a base 1★ demon, and want to evolve her to 5★ you need to sacrifice demons with 4★ rarity) or use a Yata Mirror, an item that can substitute a sacrifice; Yata Mirrors come with different rarities so you need a 2★ Yata Mirror to evolve a 2★ demon, for example.

You should not fuse Natural 3/4/5★s for evolve fodder. The recommended way to evolve is by using Yata Mirrors, base 2★s, or useless gacha 3★s to save Magnetite.

If you need 4/5★ evolution fodders but lack the mirrors, simply use natural 2★s, evolve the 2★ to 3★, then evolve it again to 4/5★. This is the best way to evolve demons into 6★.

Evolving a demon increases level cap and slightly increased base stats as their rarity will increase.

Evolution Example (3★ => 5★)

  1. Level 3x 2★ to level 30.
  2. Evolve 3x 2★ to 3★.
  3. Sacrifice these evolved 2★ to my 3★ Ose. Ose is now 4★.
  4. Level 16x 2★ to level 30.
  5. Evolve 16x 2★ to 3★.
  6. Level 4x evolved 2★ to level 35.
  7. Evolve 4x 2★ again to 4★ rarity (sacrificing the other 12 evolved 2★).
  8. Sacrifice these double-evolved 2★ to my 4★ Ose. Ose is now 5★.
Max level for each rarity is
1★ = 25
2★ = 30
3★ = 35
4★ = 40
5★ = 45
6★ = 50

Kanbari Evolution

Mirrors are limited, and natural 4★ and 5★ are too expensive to be used as evolution fodder. The solution to this is to use Kanbari as fodder.

Indeed, Kanbari provides experience bonuses, and as such will constantly be on your leveling teams meaning he will inevitably reach the level cap. In order to avoid wasting EXP on a level capped demon the solution is to evolve him: eventually, he will become a 5★, and then he can act as fodder for your best demons to evolve to 6★.

Now, how to evolve Kanbari to higher stars?

  • From 2★ Kanbaris to 3★: natural 2★ can be used as evolution fodders. Natural 2★ can be cheaply fused from 1★ or recruited from higher floors of Aura Gate and Leveling Quests from later Chapters.
  • From 3★ Kanbaris to 4★: natural 2★ demons (excluding Kanbaris) that have evolved to 3★ are the best fodders. Natural 3★ demons obtained from summoning are potential fodders too (even though it is preferable to sell these 3★ for Karmas).
  • From 4★ to 5★: other Kanbaris, natural 2★ or natural 3★ that have been raised to 4★ through the process above can now be used for Kanbari's the final evolution.

This does create the question of where additional Kanbaris will be sourced:

  • a guide listed above tell you how to fuse Kanbari: simply run the aforementioned leveling quests while farming XP in order to get the demons needed for a Kanbari.
  • The Compendium is an easier route: either directly summon Kanbari for 20 Karmas or summon the fusion ingredients you lack to get him. **But Karma is precious though, so it should only be used when you are really feeling lazy.

So, in essence, Kanbari is the quintessential evolution fodder for (4★s and) 5★s.

Brands

Main Article, more indepth: Brands

Brands are items that raise the stats of a demon and can be equipped in 5 slots: Head, Right Arm, Left Arm, Body, and Legs.

They come in 1~6★ rarities and with higher rarity, they contain more stats and upgrade potential.

When multiple of the same type are equipped, a set effect such as +50% HP can be also applied to a demon.

Brand stats matter more than the rarity, so make sure the stats are what you want before fully committing to upgrading it. You will quickly run out of Macca if you try to max upgrade every Brand.

Please read Brands for in-depth Stat-brand build and advices.

Brands of Sin quests at Demon Buster is the easiest place to farm Brands, and they are available all of the time. The other option is Aura Gate past Floor 40+.

Skill Transfer

Main Article: Skill Transfer

Skill transfer allows a demon to learn a skill from another demon, increasing its combat options and creating powerful combinations. To transfer a skill, the demon that receives the skill needs skill points, and you need another demon with the skill you want to transfer. Skill points are per-demon, and they are acquired by sacrificing other demons or special items (either demon's souls or Yasaka Magatamas) in Pandemonium, more precisely the possible sacrifices/fodders are:

  • A copy of the same demon (ignoring level and rarity). (1 + demon's base rarity skill points) (recommended practice ONLY for 3★ and below)
  • A demon of the same base rarity. (1 skill point) (not a recommended practice)
  • A demon soul (obtained from encounters in the Aura Gate) of the same demon. (1 skill point)
  • A Yasaka Magatama item (1 to 6 skill points, number of points equal to the item’s Stars) Don’t use your Yasaka Magatama on 3★ or lower rarity demons as duplicates or the same rarity can easily be fused or pulled from the gacha for skill points!

Transferring skills can be done in two ways:

  • Using a demon with the skill you want to transfer, a donor. The donor may only transfer certain skills, marked with a DNA tag in their description. This is always the first skill, any skills received by transfer, and the bonus skill a Summoned demon receives (colloquially called "Gacha skill"). The user interface (UI) is well done, so there will be no problem performing what you seek to do.
    • By default, the donor will die during the transfer process.
    • If the skill you wish to transfer is on the last two skill slots, meaning the skill was a skill received by transfer or a Gacha skill, then you can use a Blank Genome to "harvest" the skill. Harvesting does not kill the demon.
  • Using a Skill Genome with the name of the skill you wish to transfer. Skill Genomes are items that are obtained by summoning the skill (through gacha) or through the "harvesting" previously mentioned.

Skill points and transferred skills are lost when fusing. Skills are not lost when evolving, so feel free to power up! Once you have transferred a skill, you can replace it with another transferred skill using the same process. If you transfer the same skill again, the skill will level up and become more powerful!

A list of recommended transferable skills and their sources can be found here (basics) and here (advanced).

Awakening and Archetypes

Awakening a demon unlocks their Archetype Skill (which varies depending on the demon and its archetype - that's the colour on the demon) and slightly increases their stats. Every demon requires Small, Medium, or Large Aether of specific type(s) to awaken them. You can also use Aether Crystals to instantaneously Awaken a demon, but don't use an Aether Crystal on 3★ or lower rarity demons! Even 4★ demons are relatively easy to awaken, so save them for 5★ if possible.

Strange Signal quests grant the Aether of varying quality depending on difficulty required for Awakening a demon. Every Strange Signal quest will drop only one type of Aether, and Strange Signal quest availability rotates based on the day, with Neutral being open all the time.

Strange Signal Schedule
Monday - Light, Dark, Neutral
Tuesday - Lawful, Chaos, Neutral
Wednesday- Light, Dark, Neutral
Thursday - Lawful, Chaos, Neutral
Friday - Light, Dark, Neutral
Saturday - All are open
Sunday - All are open

Resource and Demon Management

Main Article: Resource Management Guides


The above wiki page lists all the advanced guides related to resource management, however a quick rundown on the matter is :

There are numerous resources that you will acquire in this game. These include, but are not limited to:

The general rule is: Keep those, until you really need them.

The game also has in-game "currency". Magnetite used for Fusion, Macca mostly for Brands improvement and Gems used for Summoning.

As for Demons management: you will very quickly run out of room in your inventory and be flooded by demons you pulled through the summoning portal. So the question is what to do with those?

  • First, there exists a "Storage" where you can put demons.
  • If both your Inventory and Storage are filled you can expand their size by spending gems. This is not a bad use of gems.
    • Increasing by 50 more rooms your Inventory then expand the Storage (if you want) is an okay route.
  • If your Inventory is full, any demons summoned will be sent to the Gift Box. The thing is the Gift Box has infinite size and there is no time limit for your demon's stay in there.
    • That being said, only the most recent 99 items can be displayed when you look at your box. So older demons may be burried and in this case you will have to dig into your Box to fetch these old ones.


That being said we have not responded to the question "what to do with dupes or useless demons?". Here are the main options

  • Sell those demons (Go to Pandemonium and click on the button at the bottom of the screen). Do not sell natural 5★ demons. See Karma for what is worth selling.
  • Using them as Evolution fodders (see Leveling or see the Subsections above dedicated to "Evolution and Leveling"). Do not use 5★ or 4★ as Evolutions fodders.
  • Keep them in your storage in case you need their Transferable Skills in the future (see Skill Transfer)
  • Keep them for future fusions you may want to do. 5★ demons can be extraordinary fusion materials as they may make you save up 1.6 millions or more Magnetites.
  • For Duplicates 5★ (or even 4★), you can use them for Spirit Merge (to unlock Panels). See Spirit Merge.

Summoning Guide

Here is a guide for Summoning/spending gems in the summoning portal.

Basics

2 examples of Tome/Parch summons. The banner on top is a generic non-time-limited banner using "parchment pieces". The bottom one is a limited banner using "wings of judgement" as their tomes.

Here, we detail what has been said in Beginner's Guide#Negotiations & Summoning.

The 3 important types of banner are: banners using Gems, banners using "parchs/tomes" and generic banners using "files" (or Hell Buns):

  • Banners using Gems are the main banners of the game. This is where you will spend most of your Gems. Most of them are time-limited and proposed either new demons or older (banner exclusive) demons!
    • Step 1 of most Step Up banners costs only 500 Gems instead of 1000: this is a really good deal.
    • There is also 1 generic/non time-limited "Gem banner": like in most gacha games, this is the worst banner; don't pull on it.
    • Banners (using gems) where you summon Skill Genomes instead of demons exist too.
  • Banners using "tomes" or "parchs" are what some other gacha games would call fragment summons. They are extremely important banners since you are guaranteed one of the banner demons from it.
    • Unlike some other games, you do not have a different parch/tome for each banner demon. Instead you have a different parch/tome for each "category" of banner demons, and the parchs/tomes of a corresponding category can only be obtain in a banner dedicated to that category of demons.
      • You have categories and tomes like: "dimensional demons" (dimensional tomes), "Tenmas" (tomes of Temna), "Masakado" (tome of Masakado), "the three Archangels" (wings of judgement) etc. (new categories are regularly created)
    • For each summon in Gem banners you are guaranteed to get as many parchs/tomes as the numbers of demons you summoned.
    • The tome banners are refered in-game as "Absolute Summon". They are time-limited (except for one), they guarantee you to summon one of the demon of that category, but you usually don't get to choose which one, though it depends on the banner.
    • Among all these specific tomes, there is a generic parch/tome called "parchment piece" with a non time-limited Absolute Summon banner (see the picture on the right). Be careful: time-limited Fiends/Heroes/Reapers only Absolute "Parchment" banners exist! Therefore do not waste "parchment pieces" on the generic Absolute Summon one.
  • Banners using files or Hell Buns: there is no time-limited banner for any of them. You cannot exchange these files for anything either. You can hoard them or use them immediately: it doesn't matter.

Guide

First, if you just started the game read Beginner's Guide#Action Beginners SHOULD urgently perform + advices on limited packs. This banner is excellent.

Beyond the Dash Start Step up, for beginners, here is a guide:

  • Earnings: if you are a beginner, there will be a lot of 1-time missions giving a lot of Gems. However, you may wonder how much you can gain from resettable Gems earnings only? The short answer is around 4200 a month minimum (i.e. lowest PVP rank) and can jump to 5000 in Gold PVP or even 5500+ in Diamond.
    • This earning assumes you do every resettable gems: Hell Park, PVP Training, dailies and weeklies, and most importantly you need to be in a Faction and participate in Democalypse.
    • Sega also regularly gives free Gems in time-limited Login Bonus or Events, so you could probably increase the monthly earning by several 100s.
  • Perform the Step 1s: if you are a beginner, you want as many 5★ as possible. In most Step Up banners, the Step 1 only costs 500 Gems (half price) for 10 demons and 10 parchs/tomes. So perform all the 500 Gems costing Step 1s you see.
    • Gathering a tons of 5★s is important as a new player because they are likely to be useful to your roster (since you start with very little). Moreover:
      • even the less useful Fusable 5★s can save you up at least 1.6 millions Magnetites if used as fusion material.
      • duplicates can be used for Panels (see Spirit Merge) which grants very strong buffs to a demon.
      • as a beginner, you will severely lack strong transferable Skills. Many 5★ demons have strong "Gacha skills" and you would want to use a Blank Genome on those skills (see Skill Transfer for info on what Gacha skills are) (see Skill Transfer#Gacha skills from 5★ for a list of good Gacha skills) Pulling 5★s is the most consistent way to obtain Auto-Buff/Debuff like Auto-Taruka which are very good in PVP.
    • That being said, after reaching a comfortable roster you may want to calm down on the Step 1 mania. Indeed, at some point you will crave the new banner demons so much that getting twice more random 5★s isn't enough.
  • The Excess of Gems. Even if you are in your "Step 1s mania"-phase. It is possible you accumulate more Gems than you can spend them on Step 1s. In this case, you want to summon all the Steps of a Step Up you find good! (Step Ups are usually either 6-Steps or 10-Steps with very rare 3-Steps) You better verify you have enough Gems to go all the way until the last Step or at least until Step 6 as it usually provides you with a guaranteed (random) 5★.
    • Be careful! Having excess of Gems doesn't mean you should spend it in the first banner you see. There exists many resources to check whether a banner is worth it:
      • The profile page of the banner demon. In section "Role Summary" of each demon, there is an evalution and even a Tier rating of the demon (you can also see the full Tier List here: Tier List). The rating assesses the demon at its Full Potential (Full Panels, Best Skills etc.) however it is rare for a demon to be good at its Full Potential but very bad at its Base. If it is the case, it will be noted in the "Cons". New demons don't immediately have their profile up: you will need to wait a few days.
      • You can learn from PVP Team Guide to get an understanding of the Metagame and assess yourself whether this new demon fits one of the Standard PVP Teams.
      • Discord or Reddit: you can ask people there.
    • Remark: at each new release or rerun, we get Step Up banners and a non-Setp Up version. Step Ups are BETTER than non-Step Ups.
  • Rate of new banners: Usually, we get new banners every Wednesday, and each with an associated Step-Up. (This does not mean new demons, the new banner can be a rerun) The rate of new demons can be as low as 2 weeks.

Advanced Strategies

As we mention previously, Tier List, the demon's profile page, PVP Team Guide and Discord/Reddit are good tools to assess the worth of some featured banner demons.

You can proceed without any kind of "Gem strategies" but, if you need, here are some strategies:

  • Step 1s in moderation. Let's assume you now want to be picky with the Step 1s you want to perform. Your decision should be determined by the parchs/tomes it gives as 10 tomes/parchs for only 500 Gems is such a good deal.
    • Step 1s givng "parchment pieces" (the generic white parch) are a must-do; indeed, we regularly have time-limited Absolute Summon "parchment pieces" banners where the featured demons are either Heroes, Fiends or Reapers (the 3 of them are non-fusable races).
    • For the other Step 1s, the decision should be driven by a ratio between how good the banner demons are and how often you think the banner would rerun. Even then, unlike the white parch summons, you are unlikely to ever be able to get enough tomes to perform an Absolute Summon solely from Step 1s: you will at some point need to do 1 or 2 Full Step Ups to gather the remaining tomes. Therefore, you should probably decide in advance what are the 1 or 2 types of tomes you are aiming to get an Absolute from and avoid spending Gems in all the other Step 1s.
  • Absolute Summon buyout. For Tome Summons requiring 200 tomes (example: dimensional tomes) the Step Ups are usually 10-steps with 1st Step and 7th Step at 500 Gems. As such if you have gathered 18000 Gems and a dimensional banner pop up, you are 100% sure to be able to Tome Summons by spending your 18K in the Step Up. For 300-tomes banners (Masakado and many other), the threshold is 27500 Gems. 300-tomes banners regurlarly hold special banners whereby a Full Step Up (6-Steps) will give 100 tomes instead of 60: this means the threshold can actually be 16500 Gems for 300-tomes banners.
    • The strategy is simple: aim for saving up 16500, 18000 or 27500 Gems, and it is only after reaching this point you will worry about which banners you will spend your Gems in.
    • The "buyout" strategy and the "Step 1s in moderation" strategy are somewhat opposite: the "buyout" strat forces you into ascetism but you get more time to see what are the best type of banners, the "Step 1s" forces you to decide in advance what tomes you wish to accumulate or not but allow you to pull more demons.
    • You can also mix the two strategies.
    • Reminder: your monthly earning of resettable (free) Gems should be between 4200 Gems and 5500+ Gems, so the aforementioned strategy is a 3-months to 6-months planning.
  • Anniversary planning. Sega typically proposes excellent banners during Anniversary of Dx2 (Around January) as well as during half Annivn (end of July). It also proposes very good banners for Anniversary of games of the Series (in 2019 they celebrated SMTI Anniv and in 2020 they celebrated SMTII Anniv, please go to wikipedia for the release date of other SMT games). You should plan to save Gems for Anniv events.
  • Step 1s mania. Even after you obtained a decent roster, you are not forced to switch to the 2 strategies above. Doing all Step 1s and using the remaining Gems for any interesting banner you see is still a valid strategy.


  • Skill Genome banner. Skill Genome banners also exist. There 2 types: "Step up" and "Box". The Step Ups are 5-steps and unlike the demon banners each step are only a single pull (not 10), step 1 costs 100 Gems, step 2 200 Gems etc. The Box is a gathering of 50 or 30 skills (you can look what skills are inside each Box banner), and when you pull 1 of the 30/50 skills, it disappear from the Box. So, by pulling all the skills you are 100% sure to get all the skills of the Box (P.S.: a Box doesn't have duplicates of a same skill)
    • Good skills are only good on excellent demons. A lot of banner-featured 5★s skills have cheaper equivalent anyways, for example Force Amp increases Force damage by 25%: this is a strong 5★ skill but Force Boost, its cheap equivalent, exists and boost it to 15% instead. (There exists however some exceptionally good skills with no cheap equivalent.)
    • For the Step Up, the Step 1 for 100 Gems isn't bad because you are guaranteed a 4★ or 5★ skill. Beyond that it is up to you and whether you already have a good demon roster but no good skill.
    • For Boxes, even if good skills are good on excellent demons only, the "guaranteed" nature of the Box can make some Boxes worth to summon even if you do not have a good roster yet. It depends on the skills in the Box (please check the skills yourself), the most "unique" skills to look for are:
      • Dark Pierce (weak), a near must-have for Alice. And while Alice is not fusable, she is in the general summon pull (summonable from files and present in all banners), so it is only a matter of time before you would get her. Therefore pulling for this skill is not crazy.
      • Recarmdra, this is a 4★ skill not a 5★, so you actually need to look at the Box detail to see if it has it. Recarmdra isn't so hard to obtain since you can get it as Gacha skill of some demons. Only pull for it if you are in a process of building a PVP team with a bulky reviver and can't afford to wait indefinitely.
      • Prayer, also a 4★ skill. Much more scarce. Only pull if you immediately need it (for example, if you are close to finishing a team to farm Brands of Sin 11: Sloth).
      • Null Charm and Null Bind. If you have no counter against Ailment Team and immediately need one, or are in the process of building an anti-ailment Asherah. Don't pull for it unless immediate need.
      • Epitome of Carnage and Epitome of Fortitude don't fall into the "unique skills with no weaker equivalent", as such they may not be worth it if you don't have an established roster yet... at least not alone. If the Box contains one Epitome in addition to several of the above skills (Epitome + Dark Pierce is also enough), you should think about going for the Box.

Notable Recurrent Banners

This list may not be regularly updated

Last update May 2020. Here we give what are the best "banners" to summon in based on the patterns (in terms of rates, or bonus tomes, demons etc.) Sega showerd so far. Saving up Gems for those banners is not a bad idea. The list mostly includes "rerun" banners as we cannot predict the quality of "new banners"; it is is ordered from best to worse:

  1. General Masakado banner: Top Tier demon, the banner usually offer a Special Step Up giving more Tomes of Masakado (300 Tomes would only cost 16,500 Gems worth of summons; and 300 Tomes = Guaranteed Masakado). The rate for General Masakado is usually low: 0.3% per pull. The most efficient way to summon him is through Tome Summon which is usually quite inexpensive: only 16,500 Gems. You can expect this banner to appear every 4 months or so.
  2. Dimensional banner (banners summoning Dimensional/Alt demons such as Shiva A, Susano-o A etc.): Proposes many Top Tier demons. Cost of Tome summon: 18,000 Gems only (Tome summon guarantees a random 5★ Dimensional demon). Very frequent banners: sometimes, it appeared every months.
  3. Hero Masakado A banner: Extremely powerful demon. Top Tier for building a Defense Team for PVP. 27,500 Gems to Tome Summon the demon (guaranteed Masakado A). The rate for Hero Masakado will probably be 0.3% per pull which is low, so your best bet is relying on Tome Summon. As of now it has only appeared in January 2020: very rare banner.
  4. Anniversary banners: usually Anniversary banners offers "Special Step Up" that gives more Tomes. (300 Tomes for only 16,500 Gems). Those are not "rerun" banners: usually the banner is on new demons; but they are often high Tier demons. You could expect 1 every year... Or Half a year, since Sega celebrated the 1.5 anniv year of the game, they also celebrated SMTI anniversary and SMTII anniversary once each.
  5. Tenma banner (Banner for Tenma Race: Asura Lord, Indrajit, Yama etc.): Strong demons. But Tome Summon costs 27,500 Gems and it randomly picks a Tenma (you may get a less than optimal one). Also the rate for each Tenma is usually very low. Quite rare: maybe every 4 or 5 months.

Top Bait banners (listed from the worse to the better):

  1. Lucifer banner: guaranteed Lucifer at Step 6 (I.E. 5500 Gems). This is bad, except for Step 1 which gives you 10 Parchment Pieces for 500 Gems only. Do not go all the way to Step 6 though.
  2. Rider Banners (banners for Red Rider, Pale Rider and/or Black Rider): Guaranteed Rider at Step 10 (=9000 Gems). Each Rider has a Step Up, so you actually choose which one you will get guaranteed. For beginners, this is a bait banner. Pale Rider banner is the better choice out of the 3 banners though.

Rerolling

   Gacha Rates: 3% for a 5★, 7.5% for a 4★, and 89.5% for a 3★

What to reroll for

  • First off: Rerolling is not necessary, it will only give you a headstart and makes your PvP easier. A decent 5* from your Absolute Beginner File will bring you through most of mid and early game and you can fuse the rest that you need.
  • If however you want to breeze through the game and also want to be competitive in PvP early on, you should reroll for a Gacha Exclusive Demon.
    • This heavily depends on what current Banner is available. If in doubt, ask people on Discord!
  • List of 'limited' exclusive Demons, generally not pullable

Steps to Reroll

  1. Complete the tutorial until you get the 5★ Beginner Absolute File.
  2. Pray to RNGesus.
  3. If you want, you can continue the story a bit further to get some more gems to pull more.
    • If you are unhappy with your pulls clear data (or if rooted on Android, delete com.sega.d2megaten.v2.playerprefs.xml inside data/com.sega.d2megaten/shared_prefs) and repeat.
  4. Save account via the Facebook link / Recovery Code.

For recommended demons please check Tier List.

Note - Any 5★ is better than no 5★ and most 5★s are fusable with time.

PVP Team Building Guide

Main article: PVP Team Guide


Understanding how team building and PVP work is quite challenging (explaining it is also). Examples are the best way to learn: you can simply do some PVP matches yourself, see analyse your opponent's teams and learn how and why you lost. The problem is you will only face low rank opponents at first, and thus may be misled about what is truly good.

To remedy to this: it is possible to look at the Top 100 teams in-game (offense teams) and learn from their team compostions. Lastly, this wiki can provide you with a guide or list of Standard PVP Team Compositions here: PVP Team Guide

Also see D2 Duel for a more basic rundown.

Shops

This section is currently very outdated and needs to be updated.

There are several shops and several currencies to be aware of.

Gems Shop

Gems are the main currency of the game and should only be used in the shop when you have a need for the particular item. Nothing from Pack 1 is necessary for playing the game, and only exists for convenience.

Pack 1 Contents Gems Cost Availability Rating Explanation
Variable Monetary Depends on availability N/A Various packs will circulate in the shop based on whatever events are happening at that time.
30 Day Boost Pass Monetary Once per 30 days N/A This increases macca, magnetite, and exp earnings for 30 days. Includes bonus gems and removal of brands for free.


Pack 2 Contents Gems Cost Availability Rating Explanation
Skill Customization Set 1000 Gems Two times per week ★☆☆☆☆ Skills chosen are completely random. If there is a particular skill you want it is better to spend gems on time-limited Skill Summons.
Monster Dew x5 100 Gems Once per week ★★★★☆ This is the best deal for Stamina Pots in the game.
Yata Mirror 4★ Set 1000 Gems Two times per week ★☆☆☆☆ It is better to grind and level a 4★ demon than spend the 1000 gems.
Magnetite Set 400 Gems 10 times per month ★☆☆☆☆ Not worth it unless you need the magnetite to perform a desired fusion. Better to farm it in AG.
Brand Cube Set 900 Gems 10 times per week ★☆☆☆☆ Not worth the amount of gems required, better to farm for brands in Brand of Sin or Aura Gate.
Item Contents Gems Cost Availability Rating Explanation
Blank Genome 500 Gems 30 times/month ★★★☆☆ Only buy if you have a 5★ skill that you want to harvest.
Yasaka Magatama 1★ 100 Gems 30 times/month ★☆☆☆☆ Only buy if you need to immediately transfer a skill, otherwise better to buy these from Fame and Duel exchange.
Yasaka Magatama 1★ x 11 1000 Gems 10 times/month ★☆☆☆☆ Only buy if you need to immediately transfer a skill, otherwise better to buy these from Fame and Duel exchange.
Monster Dew 30 Gems Unlimited ????? Depends on how much you value Stamina.
Monster Dew x11 300 Gems Unlimited ????? Depends on how much you value Stamina.
Monster Dew x60 1500 Gems Twice per month ????? Depends on how much you value Stamina.
Hell Bull 30 Gems Unlimited ????? Depends on how much you value Stamina.
Hell Bull x11 300 Gems Unlimited ????? Depends on how much you value Stamina.
Everything else Variable N/A ????? Only buy if you have a need for it. Most are definitely not worth it.
Black Market

Macca becomes extremely valuable later in the game, so be careful with your spending.

  • Early on, look for Repel Mag, Repel Phys and Revival Balm.
    • As you stock up on these items, stop buying them.
  • 4*+ Brands with decent Stats (i.e. +PAtk% Primary on War Set) are usually worth it early on.
  • Divine Brands with decent stats are worth it early on.
  • 6* Brands with decent stats are generally always worth it, as these are much rarer and not as easy farmable.
  • Some Purge Extracts are needed for the middle floors of AG2. (Max. 20 of all)
  • SSF (Superior Summoning Tickets) are also rarely available. If you have excess Macca, they can be worth it.
Fame/PvP Shop

Purchase Magatama first.

  • Fame can be gotten by borrowing your friends' demons, helping out in battle, sending & receiving likes, and when your friends use your support demon.
  • PvP points can be gotten by defeating opponents in D2 Duel.

Quest Areas

Story
Main article: Story
Aura Gate
Main article: Aura Gate
Brand of Sin
Main article: Brands of Sin
Strange Signal
Main article: Strange Signal
Eclipse
Main article: Eclipse
D2 Duel
Main article: D2 Duel
Hell's Park
Main article: Hell's Park

Resources (Discord, Fusion Calculator etc.)

These are some extra reading you can catch up on, such as our Fusion Calculator, an in-depth Tier List, and more!

Discord
  • Further Questions? Information missing here or wrong? Just wanna hang out with people that play Dx2? Join our Discord:
  • If there's anything wrong on the Wiki, feel free to message Maaster#1273 on Discord!
Fusion Calculator

Want to fuse something but don't know how? Use the handy fusion calculator here: https://oceanxdds.github.io/dx2_fusion/#en Please note that Red/Yellow/Purple/Teal archetypes can only be fused with a Clear archetype, while Clear archetypes can be fused with other Clear archetypes as well.

Tier List
Main article: Tier List
Reddit Threads

5* fusable demons 

  https://www.reddit.com/r/Dx2SMTLiberation/comments/a2b2kz/discussion_on_currently_fusable_5_demons/

Fiend/Hero demons 

  https://www.reddit.com/r/Dx2SMTLiberation/comments/a4iamo/discussion_on_herofiend_demons/

See also

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