Archetypes

Archetypes: Aragami (Red), Protector (Yellow), Psychic (Purple), and Elementalist (Teal/Cyan).

Each demon may exist in one of five possible Archetypes:

• Common (素体 [sotai] = primal form, Clear/Grey)
• Aragami (荒神 [aragami] = wild god, Red)
• Protector (加護 [kago] = divine protection, Yellow)
• Psychic (異能 [inou] = supernatural power, Purple)
• Elementalist (防魔 [bouma] = defensive demon, Teal/Cyan).

The color/archetype of a demon is shown on its status screen, or in some places on its avatar, as a hexagonal icon with Japanese ideograms inscribed.

Overview

Archetypes are assigned to demons when they are first obtained:

• Demons from Talk and Event Rewards (such as login bonuses, item trade shops, etc) - These will always be Common/Clear.
• Demons summoned through "Normal Summon" and "Hell Bun Summon" - These will always be Common/Clear.
• Demons summoned through any other means - These will be assigned one of the four non-Common Archetypes at random.

Purpose

The Archetype of a demon is solely used to determine the Awaken Skill it possesses (check each Demon's wiki entry to see the different Awaken Skills it may have). Generally speaking:

• Common skills can vary widely.
• Aragami skills will be an attack skill such as Agi or Mow Down, and its MP cost is reduced by 1.
• Protector skills are support skills such as Charge, healing, ailments, buffs, or debuffs, and its MP cost is reduced by 1.
• Psychic skills are passive skills such as Fire Boost. These do not affect elemental resistances (only Elementalist can do that).
• Elementalist skills are Resist, Null, Repel, or Drain passive skills for one or more elements.

Awakening

Main Article: Awakening

Awaken Skills are locked until the demon is Awakened in Pandemonium.

• Awakening a Demon requires Aethers, items that are mostly farmed/harvested in Strange Signal quest area.
• Some Event-exclusive Demons require special types of Aethers, which are only available during those Events.
• Aether Crystals may be used to Awaken Demons without using Aether, but they are rare and expensive, so only use them if really in a hurry, or if the Demon requires a special Aether and not enough is gathered during its Event.

Preferred Archetypes

For a given Demon, some Archetypes may be better than others (see Tier List, or the demon's wiki profile page to know what is the best Archetype for a given demon).

• Some Archetypes may be better for specific uses, which may differ from those recommended in the Tier List.

Fusion

Fusing a demon allows you to fully decide which Archetype it will have: it requires one of the two fusion materials to be Common, and the result of the Fusion will inherit the Archetype of the other Fusion material.

• Multi-fusions usually require only Common Archetype Demons as materials, thus they usually cannot yield non-Common Demons.

Changing Archetypes

Whenever a Demon is Summoned, there's only a 1/4 chance of getting the demon's optimal/desired Archetype. This problem can be solved by items called Arch-Shifters and Arch-Selectors, which change the Archetype of a Colored Demon.

• Common Archetype Demons cannot be changed to Colored and vice versa.
• Shifters and Selectors can be obtained as rewards, mostly from Events, or in the Karma shop.

Archetype Shifting Items

Picture of the different Arch-Shifters

Arch-Shifters are consumable items that can be used on a non-Common Archetype demon and, when used, randomly change the demon's Archetype.

• These come in two types: one that can only be used on Natural 4★ (Arch-Shifter 4★) and the other on Natural 5★ (Arch-Shifter 5★). That is, it doesn't matter that a demon was evolved, if it's originally a 4★ or a 5★ demon, it'll still require a 4★ or 5★ Shifter, respectively.
• The random aspect of the Archetype change means you will often need to use more than one Arch-Shifter on the same demon to obtain the desired Archetype.

Arch-Selector 3★

Arch-Selectors are similar to Arch-Shifters, but they allow you to choose the resulting Archetype. They come in three types:

• 3★ (only changes the Archetype of Demons below Grade 60). Usually only available in time-limited events.
• 4★ (only changes Demons of Grade from 60 to 79)
• 5★ (only changes Demons of Grade 80 or above).

On a price-per-utility basis, Arch-Shifters are better than Arch-Selectors (on average, you only need 3 Arch-Shifters to get the desired Archetype, while Selectors cost 5 times more Karma).

Beware about the availability of the Arch-Shifters/Selectors though, as they are offered in limited quantities per month. Although expensive, it may be a good idea to have one or two Arch-Shifters in case of need.

Managing Arch-Shifters

Arch-Shifters 5★ are very expensive: 3000 Karma represents 10 non-Common 4★ demons sold... and you usually need around 3 Shifters per demon you want to shift. The 4★ version is also expensive for what it does. As such, Arch-Shifters should be kept for:

• Non-fusible Demons - Fusible ones should be fused with the correct Archetype instead.
• Demons you plan to use immediately, and who would benefit a lot from having the correct Archetype - If you don't plan to use the demon in the near future, it is smarter to wait as there is a chance you would summon the Demon again but in its correct Archetype.
• Very-expensive fusible demons - It can be acceptable to use Shifters on very-high-Grade 5★ demons ( Lucifer, Metatron, Shiva etc.) if you absolutely need them now.

Aside from the very expensive Karma shop, Arch-Shifters can be obtained through events. It is not impossible to get one Arch-Shifter 5★ each month from events, if Sega is being generous.