Brands
Contents
Basics
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 bonuses and upgrade potential.
- 1★ can be upgraded till Lv. 6.
- 2★ can be upgraded till Lv. 9.
- 3★ can be upgraded till Lv. 12.
- 4~6★ can be upgraded till Lv. 15.
- 5~6★ have a hidden extra bonus that can be uncovered and changed.
When multiple of the same type are equipped, a set effect can be also applied to a demon. Set effects range from increasing Demon stats, like +50% HP, to granting Skills, like auto-casting Barrier at the beginning of a fight, even if the Demon wearing the Brands doesn't have that Skill.
The effects of a Set are independent of other equipped Brands, so, for example, wearing 4 Brands of the same 2-Set type will activate the same effect twice.
The effects of all Brands/Sets are summed before being applied, so getting +10% bonus from one Brand and 15% for the same attribute from another one will result in +25% bonus, not +10% x +15% = 26.5%.
The bonus only affects the Demon wearing the Brand. For example, if the total Heal% bonus of a Demon is 1% and it heals another Demon that has a total Heal% bonus of 100%, that Demon will be healed by the casting Demon's power +1%, that is, the 100% Heal bonus of the target makes no difference whatsoever to the amount of HP gained.
Brand bonuses matter more than the rarity, so make sure the bonuses 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.
Set Effects
Each brand is of a certain "Set" type (see below).
When a Demon has enough Brands of the same Set type, a special effect is activated. Some Set types activate their effects when 3 of the same Set are equipped, while others require only 2 or even 1.
3 Piece Set
- Divine - MP regeneration +1.
- Life - HP +50%.
- War - Physical Attack +20%.
- Spell - Magical Attack +20%.
- Sick - Ailment Infliction rate +20%.
- Hasty - Battle Speed +50%
2 Piece Set
- Ward - Auto Barrier (prevents status ailments for 3 turns) at start of every wave/battle.
- Speed - Battle Speed +25%
- Guard - Physical Defense +30%.
- Shield - Magical Defense +30%.
- Lead - Act one turn earlier in your party (how valuable this is depends on your team order).
- Trail - Act one turn later in your party (how valuable this is depends on your team order).
- Heal - Healing Amount +30% (how valuable this is depends on the demon's skills).
- Aim - Physical Accuracy +10%.
- Dodge - Physical Evasion +10%.
- Glee - Critical hit rate +35%.
- 6th Sense - Critical hit rate of damage received -50%.
- Embattle - Auto Bulwark +650 (negates up to 650 HP damage for 1 turn) at the start of every wave/battle.
1 Piece Set
- Destruct - Physical Attack +5%.
- Lost - Magical Attack +5%.
Leveling Brands
- Brands can reach a maximum Level based on their rarity:
- 1★ can be upgraded till Lv. 6.
- 2★ can be upgraded till Lv. 9.
- 3★ can be upgraded till Lv. 12.
- 4~6★ can be upgraded till Lv. 15.
- Each level-up raises the Primary bonus.
- Levels 3, 6 and 9 raises or unlocks a Tertiary bonus (see below under "Bonus").
- From Level 9 onwards, leveling is called "Advanced Enhancement".
- At level 15, a Tertiary bonus will be raised.
- Every upgrade from there onwards has a chance to fail. Failing does not level up the brand and still consumes the Macca.
- Every Advanced Enhancement also raises the Secondary bonus.
- 5★ and 6★ Brands have a quaternary Hidden bonus, which can be Unleashed by sacrificing similar Brands or using Potential Shards of the same rarity.
Advanced information
Common newbie mistakes
The most important quality of a Brand is NOT from Set effects, high rarity brands, or high level brands:
- Usually, set effects are only a fraction of the boost Brands can give your demons, bonuses (see below) are the main drivers.
- High rarity (i.e., high number of stars) Brands with poor bonuses will often be inferior to low rarity Brands, but good bonuses.
- There is little point in leveling Brands with poor bonuses beyond Level 9.
Bonus
Each Brand has a Primary bonus, a Secondary bonus, and up to three Tertiary (called Terts, for short) bonuses. Each Brand starts at Level 1, and no one can be upgraded above Level 15.
Primary
The Primary bonus is the big, dark blue stat listed at the top of the brand. This is visible on every brand, starting from level 1.
The intensity of a Primary (that is, how much stats you get) is completely dependent on the rarity and level of the brand.
- Example: two 6★ brands with PAtk% as the primary, will give PAtk +25% at lv15.
HP+ | HP% | PAtk+ | PAtk% | MAtk+ | MAtk% | PDef+ | PDef% | MDef+ | MDef% | Heal% | Ailm. Res. | Ailm. Infl. | Speed% | Phys. EV% | Crit% | Acc% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5★ | 80 | 23 | 71 | 21 | 71 | 21 | 71 | 25 | 71 | 25 | 21 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 21 | 17 | 21 |
6★ | 114 | 27 | 89 | 25 | 89 | 25 | 89 | 29 | 89 | 29 | 25 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 25 | 19 | 25 |
The Primaries available will vary based on the type of body part:
HP+ | HP% | PAtk+ | PAtk% | MAtk+ | MAtk% | PDef+ | PDef% | MDef+ | MDef% | Heal% | Ailm. Res. | Ailm. Infl. | Speed% | Phys. EV% | Crit% | Acc% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Head | x | ||||||||||||||||
Right Arm | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||
Left Arm | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
Body | x | x | |||||||||||||||
Legs | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
Secondary
The Secondary bonus is the medium, light blue stat listed on the second line of the brand. This is visible on every brand, starting from level 1.
Secondary bonuses are always "flat" (+), and can only be one of the following:
- HP (HP+)
- Phys Attack (PAtk+)
- Magic Attack (MAtk+)
- Phys Defense (PDef+)
- Magic Defense (MDef+)
Secondary bonuses have a max value based on rarity:
- On 5★ Brands, Secondaries max at 35.
- On 6★ Brands, Secondaries max at 42.
Tertiary (Terts)
The Tertiary bonuses (Terts) are the small, purple stat bonuses listed on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th line of the brand. 0, 1, 2 or even all 3 terts can be visible on a brand at level 1.
Tertiary bonuses can affect any Stat - there are no restrictions based on type of body part.
Tertiary bonuses can already be present on a level 1 Brand.
- If a Tertiary is not already present, it will be unlocked at Levels 3, 6 and 9 for the first, second, and third Tertiary respectively.
- If you already have a Tertiary at level 1, those existing Tertiaries will be upgraded at the would-be unlock levels, instead of unlocking a new one.
- For example, if a Brand at level 1 already has 2 tertiary bonuses, one of them will be increased at Brand level 3 and one of them will be increased at level 6. The tertiary bonuses that are increased are random and it's possible that the same tertiary bonus is increased twice in this scenario, once at level 3 and again at level 6. This Brand will receive its third tertiary bonus, as normal, at Brand level 9.
- Leveling a Brand to Level 15 also upgrades a random Tert.
- No Tertiary bonus can be a duplicate of a Primary or Secondary bonus (i.e., a Left Arm Brand with a Phys Atk% Primary cannot have Phys Atk% as Tertiary).
Regarding Tertiary stat intensity:
- On 5★ brands, Terts start from 1-4% (2-4% for 6★ brands) and gain 1-4% (2-4★ for 6★ brands) each upgrade.
- On 6★ brands, Terts start from 2-4% and gain 2-4% each upgrade.
- For flat terts, bonus increments are random, but the end result will never exceed 42.
Unleashing Hidden Bonus
5★ and 6★ Brands have a Hidden Quaternary bonus, which can be Unleashed.
Unleashing a Brand's Hidden bonus requires sacrificing Brands of the same Set type (War, Sick etc.) and rarity (★ stars), but not necessarily of the same type (Left Arm, Head etc.). Alternatively, you can use Potential Shards of the same rarity.
- Each Brand sacrificed adds 3% to the chance of Unleashing a Brand's hidden bonus.
- Each Potential Shard adds 10% to the chance of Unleashing a Brand's hidden bonus.
- Up to 10 Brands and/or Potential Shards may be used at once to try to Unleash a Brand's hidden bonus.
- Potential Shards are obtained as rewards in some quests, missions, events or duels. The Battle Tower in Alter-World is a common source of them.
Unleashing is completely independent of the Brand's level, or already-uncovered Tertiary bonuses.
- It can be done at any time, that is, it doesn't require the Brand to be levelled up.
- Unleashed bonus can be anything, even if that same bonus stat is already present on the Brand.
- Unleashed bonus stack with already uncovered bonuses, instead of increasing them (e.g., getting MAtk% bonus will not add to any MAtk% already present on that Brand, staying as an independent Unleashed bonus).
Unleashed bonus can be changed by Unleashing it again: the game will offer to keep the currently Unleashed bonus or to pick the new one, losing the previous.
- Due to the scarcity of Potential Shards, only use them to Unleash Hidden bonus of already-very-good Brands.
- Regularly sacrifice unwanted Brands trying to Unleash Hidden bonus, making up space in the game's stash (even if on less used Brands, like Lead, because you might eventually use it, but, if not, you'd end up scrapping them anyway).
- Because the game allows choosing between keeping the Unleashed bonus or picking a new one, it's always worth sacrificing unwanted 5★ and 6★ Brands to try getting better bonuses.
Reforging Secondaries
Reforging allows you to re-roll a Brand's Secondary stat to a different one at random. Performing this requires Spirit Stamp Subs matching the brand's rarity
- Up to 10 stamps can be used a time.
- Each stamp increases the success rate of the Reforge by 10% (so 10 stamps makes it 100%)
- If a Reforge fails, the Brand will be unchanged, but you still lose the stamps.
- Spirit Stamps are obtained as rewards in some events.
If a reforge is successful, you will have the option to keep the old Secondary, or accept the new one.
However, unlike Unleashed, when reforging a Secondary, you CANNOT get a duplicate of a bonus that's already in Primary or Terts.
- For example, if you had a Brand with a PAtk% Primary and a PAtk+ Tert, you CANNOT reforge the Secondary to make it PAtk+, as a Tert has already taken that boost type.
- Therefore, it's only worth Reforging if your desired Secondary is NOT already taken by a revealed Tert.
- Due to the scarcity of Spirit Stamps, it's only worth Reforging already-very-good Brands.
The best bonuses to look for
When looking at a brand's stats, prioritize them as follows:
- High priority: Primaries (look for %)
- Mid priority: Tertiaries (look for %)
- Low priority: Secondaries (look for a flat boost that matches your Primary)
However, there are a couple exceptions to the above:
- "Head" brands always have flat HP+ as their Primary, so ignore that and prioritize their Tertiaries first.
- "Body" brands always have either flat PDef+ or MDef+ as their Primary, so ignore that and prioritize their Tertiaries first.
Important note: Stat Consistency
Primaries of same bonus are the same. Secondaries follow this rule too.
- This means if two (let's say, Left Arm) brands both have HP% as the Primary bonus, then they will give the same amount of HP% boost, granted the brands have the same rarity and level.
- In other words, how much a HP% Primary will increase your HP is entirely given by the brand rarity and its level. The same is true for Secondaries.
- This rule is broken for Terts : there's no uniformity among HP% (or other bonuses), since Terts start at a random base amount, increase a random amount per upgrade, and a single Tert can receive anywhere from 0-to-4 upgrades, again at random.
- Due to this, you must actually look at the amount your Terts give (not just "is it HP% or not"), to assess the quality of the Terts.
Primaries
Left Arm, Right Arm and Legs are the brands you need to be careful with their Primaries. (as Head and Body do not propose % Primaries, only +)
- % boosts are better than + boosts (HP% is better than HP+ etc.). The gap is humongous! - Flat + boosts must be avoided at all costs, even high-rarity flat + will lose to low-rarity %.
- HP% is superior to MDef% or PDef% in most situations - (see Formulas for more understanding). Even if you want to protect your demon against Physical attacks only, HP% will do the job better than PDef%. Specific counter-examples may exist, but the rule stands.
- Match your Primaries for both Arms and the Legs - For example, having a demon equipped with a Right Arm, Left Arm and a Legs brand all with MAtk% as primary, or all HP%. This is extremely potent and standard.
- Attackers/DPS should have PAtk% or MAtk% primary for both Arms and the Legs - Mixing is in HP% or something else is ill-advised for DPS, especially in PvP, as offense is so potent in this game compared to durability. (On the other hand , support demons need no MAtk%/PAtk% at all, as hybrid Support-DPS demons are not usually a thing in this game).
- Certain demons use different stats than PAtk% and MAtk% for attacking. Some examples:
- HP%: Arioch, Shaddai.
- PDef%: Mozgus, and anyone using Earthquake or Muscle Punch.
- MDef%: Amon.
- For special cases like these, treat that alternate stat as their main attack stat.
- Certain demons use different stats than PAtk% and MAtk% for attacking. Some examples:
- Mixed Physical/Mage is generally not a thing in D x 2 - Please do not mix MAtk% with PAtk% primaries on the same demon.
- Certain demons like Cu Chulainn can technically do both jobs, but they shouldn't do both jobs at once. It'd be better for them to have two separate brand sets focused entirely on PAtk% or entirely on MAtk%, rather than a single mixed set that is poor at both jobs.
- Exception: Surt's Ragnarok uses both MAtk% and PAtk%, but it favors MAtk much more heavily. Therefore Surt wants MAtk% Primaries, and PAtk% Tertiaries.
Advanced advice:
- Only the Right Arm may have Phys EV%, only the Left Arm may have Ailment Inflict% and only the Legs may have %Speed. - If you want to build, respectively, an Evasion tank, an Ailment inflictor or a Battle Speed booster (these three roles are very common and important in PvP and sometimes in PvE), please look out for these brands.
- Crit%, Ailment Res% and Phys Acc% are low priority - These are typically viewed as subpar primaries: the bonuses themselves may be important, but it's often preferable to boost them using Tertiaries instead of Primaries.
- Heal% is a bit subpar as Primary - Healing is usually not very powerful in Dx2, except for some support Demons, like Erlkonig.
A quick summary table, for reference:
Group | Stat % |
---|---|
High-priority stats |
|
Stats with niches |
|
Subpar stats |
|
Tertiaries
The quality of a brand's Terts is mostly invisible at level 1. It is therefore required to level up a brand to fully uncover its Terts.
Leveling a brand up to lvl 9 will reveal all 3 Terts, as well as the amount of upgrades each Tert receives.
- Levels 10-14 will do nothing to your Terts.
- lvl 15 boosts one of the 3 Terts by a small amount, but checking that for every brand is expensive and not really necessary.
A single brand cannot have a duplicate of the same bonus - if it has HP% as the Primary, it won't have HP% as a Tert (but it may get HP+ as Tert, as + and % are not considered the same bonuses).
Some brands already have a few Terts, even at lvl 1. If you level up these brands, the existing Terts effectively get an extra chance at an upgrade, that initially-hidden Terts don't receive. If a brand had less than 3 Terts, then new ones are added until it has 3 Terts.
- This means brands with pre-existing Terts are quite important, as they give you a taste of what Terts the brands will have at lvl 9.
- Since the pre-existing Terts get a chance at an extra upgrade, the pre-existing Terts may end up with higher final amounts than non-pre-existing ones (randomness makes this uncertain, though).
- Lastly, brands with 2 or 3 pre-existing Terts may have one of their 2 (resp. 3) Terts be boosted 2 (resp. 3) times. Meaning these brands can reach incredible amounts of boosts. They have the potential to be your best brands.
In a nutshell, an ideal Tert:
- Grants a % boost in a desired stat.
- Is already present on the brand at level 1.
- Receives multiple upgrades by level 9 (dependent on RNG).
Secondaries
These are of lesser importance, but still need to be taken into account.
Secondaries can only grant a flat +, however this will usually be higher than a flat + from a Tert.
Common practice is to match your Secondary to a % Primary - for example, a MAtk+ Secondary to go with a MAtk% Primary. This is better than having MAtk+ as a Tert.
- In the case of Head or Body brands, Tert should be a % and Secondary should be a matching +.
Guidelines for branding your Demons
From all the talk above, we can established a few guidelines for branding your demons (these guidelines are not absolute, but newbies should initially stick with them):
Start by choosing (in your mind) 1 bonus among HP, MAtk or PAtk you want to prioritize (1st priority bonus). Then choose 1 other bonus, this time, among all bonuses (not just HP/MAtk/PAtk) as 2nd priority. Then the best branding for you demon will be :
- % (percentage boost) Primary of the 1st priority bonus for Left Arm, Right Arm and Legs.
- + (flat boost) Secondary matching the 1st priority bonus for all the 5 brands.
- High-value % Tert of the 1st priority bonus for Body and Head.
- And, preferably, high-value % Tert of the 2nd priority bonus on at least Left Arm, Right Arm and Legs, also on Head and Body, if possible.
- High-value % Tert can only be obtained from brands that already had 3 pre-existing Terts, where those Terts include the desired bonus. The Tert can be in any position (1st, 2nd, or 3rd slot) in any position, as which one gets upgraded is random anyway. (you'll then need to pray that the desired bonus is boosted four times during the Lv. 1-3-9-15 leveling process).
- A good minimum for judging a "High-value" Tert is a Tert that's least 5% when the Brand is at level 9.
- If you use war brands or spell brands (see Set Effects section above), your 1st priority bonus must be PAtk% or, respectively, MAtk%. - No point doing anything else.
- The same is usually true for Heal Set - Healing% should be 1st priority.
- However, remember that Legs is the only body part that can get Healing% as a Primary! The other body parts will have to rely on Terts.
- While HP% is important for a healer's survival, healing moreso benefits the whole party (that's usually also true for HP drainers, which only benefit themselves, but may carry powerful Skills, like Recarmdra).
- Life brands or divine brands tend to be very flexible for a variety of roles: DPS, Healers, Supports, etc.
- Correct bonuses (primaries/sec/terts) are more important than the Brand's rarity (number of stars), at least up to a certain point. But all other things equal, rarity becomes very important.
- For an attacker, 1200 PAtk (resp. MAtk) is very low. 1500 is decent, but effort should still be spent to further increase it.
Demon builds
Here are some example setups to help you get started (though these are just ideas, not 100% set in stone! Feel free to experiment):
Physical Attackers
Main Set Bonus: Divine/War + Ward/Aim Desired bonuses: Physical Atk % (1st priority), Physical Accuracy %, Critical %
Magical Attackers
Main Set Bonus: Divine/Spell + Ward Desired bonuses: Magical Atk % (1st priority), Evasion %
Healers
Main Set Bonus: Divine/Life + Heal/Ward Desired bonuses: Healing Amount %, HP %, Magical Atk % - (Note: MAtk% increases healing amount, though not as much as Healing% would)
Supporters
Main Set Bonus: Divine + Ward/Dodge Desired bonuses: HP %, Evasion %, Magical/Physical Atk %
Debuffers/Ailmenters
Main Set Bonus: Sick/Life + Ward Desired bonuses: Ailment Infliction % (1st priority), HP%, Evasion %
Farming Brands
Brands of Sin
Brands of Sin is the primary farming method of acquiring Brands. Please click on each of the Brands of Sin for strategies to beat the stages.
To farm a Brands of Sin means to be able to run the stage on "Auto"
Each Brands of Sin has 13 stages. The higher the stages is the better the brands will be; but the difficulty also increases.
New players should progressively farm levels from low to high as they progress in the game: indeed, high BoS levels (starting from 7 or 8) will require your demons to be equipped with decent Brands in order to farm it. So you may need to farm level 7 and get good brands before being able to farm level 8 etc.
- In early game, aim to do stages 1-5 at least. The boss here won't use much gimmicks compared to later stages.
- Move on to stage 6 and onwards one-by-one as you gain better brands.
- Make stage 10 your goal for mid-game (around when you're doing Aura Gate 2)
- Stages 11 to 13 are a massive difficulty spike compared to stage 10 - they often require heavy investments such as panels. Don't worry about them until you have lots of resources stockpiled.
- Sloth drops the following Sets of Brands:
- War
- Guard
- Speed
- Life
- Deceit drops the following Sets of Brands:
- Sick
- Spell
- Shield
- Ward
- Vanity drops the following Sets of Brands:
- Aim
- Dodge
- Heal
- Lead
- Avarice drops the following Sets of Brands:
- Glee
- 6th Sense
- Trail
- Hasty
Aura Gate
Aura Gate is the main way to obtain Divine Brands. These brands simply drop from random encounters, hence you simply need to put your game on auto in AG until you run out of AG stamina to farm.
- Please avoid using "boost mode" (double your Magnetites in exchange of doubled stamina consumed)
General advice:
- The higher the floor, the better the brands you will get.
- AG2 is the best place to farm Divine brands.
- Ward/Speed/Lead does not drop in any AG.
- Avarice's brands (Glee, 6th Sense, Trail, Hasty) do not drop in any AG.
AG1 brands available:
- Divine
- War, Guard, Life - a.k.a. Sloth's brands excluding Speed
- Sick, Spell, Shield - a.k.a. Deceit's brands excluding Ward
AG2 brands available:
- Divine
- War, Guard, Life - a.k.a. Sloth's brands excluding Speed
- Sick, Spell, Shield - a.k.a. Deceit's brands excluding Ward
- Aim, Dodge, Heal - a.k.a. Vanity's brands excluding Lead
Each month, an event called "power week" is held. The second part of each power week increases the drop rate of Divine brands by a large amount.
Magnetite is an article/guide about Aura Gate Farming.
Other
Certain other brand types are not available through the above methods:
- Destruct/Lost - obtained in Alter-World.
- Embattle - obtained in special Embattle brand cubes from events. Unlike normal brand cubes where you choose one body part to receive, each Embattle cube automatically gives you a full set of 5 brands, one for each body part.
Brand Inventory Management
Because the inventory limit for brands is 2500, you may find yourself hitting this limit. When you do, you will need to sort through your brands and sell some of them.
Early Game
- Early Game you should not hit the cap by normal play.
- If you still do, bulk-sell all 1-3★ Brands.
Mid Game
- At this point, most of the demons you use regularly should have brands equipped.
- You can bulk-sell all 1-3★, which should clear up your inventory.
- If you still need space, sell all 4★ LArm/RArm/Legs Brands without a fitting primary % bonus (PAtk%, MAtk% or HP% mostly).
Late Game
- At this point your demons should have 5★ or 6★ Brands only.
- Bulk Sell all 1-4★ Brands
- Sacrifice all 5★ LArm/RArm/Legs Brands without a fitting primary % bonus (PAtk%, MAtk% or HP% mostly, Ailment Infliction % for specific builds) to try Unleashing 5★ and 6★ Brands' Hidden bonus.
- If you still need space, sacrifice all Head/Body Brands without an innate Tert to try Unleashing Hidden bonus.
End Game
- Most of your demons should have very good 5★ or good 6★ Brands.
- Bulk Sell all 1-4★ Brands.
- Sacrifice all Head/Body Brands without an innate Tert to Unleash Hidden bonus.
- Sacrifice all 5★ LArm/RArm/Legs Brands without a fitting primary % bonus (PAtk%, MAtk% or HP% mostly) + the same flat Secondary.
- Sacrifice all 6★ LArm/RArm/Legs Brands without a fitting primary % bonus (PAtk%, MAtk% or HP% mostly).
- If you really are decked out and need space, sacrifice all 5★ Brands.
- If you still need space, sacrifice all Head/Body Brands with only one Tert (requires manually looking through them, though.)
See also
- Brands of Sin
- Aura Gate
- PVP Team Guide for how to properly equip demons.
- Magnetite for Aura Gate farming.
- Resource Management Guides for other advanced guides.
Game Mechanics | |
---|---|
Resources | Items • Talk • Magnetite/Fusion (Fusible Demons) • Karma • Summoning (Demon Summoning Pool, Skill Summoning Pool, Choice File) • Event Reward Demons • Season Pass |
Team Building | Battle Speed • Team restrictions • Liberators • Armaments • Demonite |
Upgrading | Leveling/Evolving • Awakening • Spirit Merge • Transcend |
Customization | Archetypes • Skill Transfer • Brands • Mitama • Sin Infusion • Devil Connector |
Misc | Formulas • AR Scanner • Devicon • Alignment |