Democalypse

Democalypse

Democalypse is a bi-weekly event in which factions compete against one another by defeating Calamities (boss demons with extremely high HP, shared across faction members), in three areas across Tokyo.

Overview

Each Democalypse event is divided into three phases: Before Cull, During Cull, and After Cull.

In the Before Cull phase, faction leaders will choose one of three available areas to target: Shinjuku, Akihabara or Odaiba. Each of these areas corresponds to an elemental weakness that is shared across all enemy demons in that area. In this phase, players may do simulated practice battles.

In the During Cull phase, players are able to fight their faction's selected Calamity twice each day. Each battle requires that players prepare a team of 6 unique demons, divided into sub-teams of 3: One sub-team to use elemental All Targets (also known as AoE, area-of-effect) attacks against a horde of demons, and the other sub-team to use elemental Single Target (ST) attacks against the Calamity boss. Once a demon has been used in a battle, it cannot be used in a Democalypse battle until the next day. This means players must prepare 12 unique demons, to be used across 2 daily battles.

In the After Cull phase, faction and player rankings are displayed, and rewards are distributed.

Etiquette

Democalypse is a team effort, and 1 person not participating drags everybody down a lot.

If you are going to be absent please make sure to inform your clan as to minimize drama from lack of participation. The Democ system will unfortunately not allow clan leaders to see detailed stats, meaning that players can troll by not participating, bringing everybody down coins not only in the overall score if you get knocked down from a percentage tier, but downed bosses as well. Accountability is the most desired trait if you are a player looking to join a high end Democ clan above sheer account power level.

Scoring

During the Horde wave of a battle, players score in the form of a bonus multiplier. The multiplier increases based on damage done, and how many times the elemental weakness of enemy demons is exploited. During the boss wave, all damage done to the Calamity is multiplied by this bonus multiplier, and is added to the total score.

In-depth multiplier explanation

• You start off with 1.0 base multiplier
  • On day two, and three, the base multiplier will be increased based on your faction's participation bonus. Maximum increase is by 0.8 points for at least 20 participants, netting you a 1.8 base multiplier
• You get 0.1 per weakness hit (max 0.4 per spell), and 0.05 per 1% of the horde's HP
  • a maximum of 4.8 for 12 skill uses, in addition to the multiplier rewarded for any damage you do
  • The Prelim Horde demon is actually coded as 4 separate demons. Weakness hit is capped at 0.1 per demon per spell. This means skills like Ashura, Dragon Blade and MahaLantine will only give +0.4, despite hitting weakness more than once.
    • This also makes Random Targets attacks bad for Prelim, since if you hit the same demon twice, you will not gain multiplier from the second hit.
• You can gain additional multiplier by using specific demons:
  • Demons like Agni, Ym, and Anzu can increase your multiplier due to their passive's additional hits.
  • Demons like Mot and Masakado A can increase your multiplier due to gaining extra press turns
  • Flauros is unique in that his chain effects all come from separate skills (Iron Fist chains into Hell Leopard, which further chains into his Panel 2 Bonus). This allows him to farm an absurd amount of multiplier, since he can bypass the "only once per skill" limitation on weaknesses hit bonus.

Schedule

Democalypse has 7 Calamities, each based on a different weakness. These cycle with the following order:

1. Phys
2. Force
3. Fire
4. Dark
5. Elec
6. Ice
7. Light

Each Democalypse season uses a "sliding window" of 3 elements, continuing from the last season.

• For example: If a season has Dark, Elec, and Ice weaknesses, then the next season will have Light, Phys, and Force weaknesses.
• Akihabara will use the first item of the window, Shinjuku will use the second, and Odaiba will use the third.

Three areas are available: Akihabara, Shinjuku, and Odaiba. One of these areas per season will be a "Bonus Area", cycling with the following order:

1. Akihabara
2. Shinjuku
3. Odaiba

Therefore, there are 21 possible season layouts. Seasons cycle through these variants in the following order:

• Bonus areas are written in BOLD and have a star (★)

Variant	Akihabara	Shinjuku	Odaiba
1	Phys ★	Force	Fire
2	Dark	Elec ★	Ice
3	Light	Phys	Force ★
4	Fire ★	Dark	Elec
5	Ice	Light ★	Phys
6	Force	Fire	Dark ★
7	Elec ★	Ice	Light
8	Phys	Force ★	Fire
9	Dark	Elec	Ice ★
10	Light ★	Phys	Force
11	Fire	Dark ★	Elec
12	Ice	Light	Phys ★
13	Force ★	Fire	Dark
14	Elec	Ice ★	Light
15	Phys	Force	Fire ★
16	Dark ★	Elec	Ice
17	Light	Phys ★	Force
18	Fire	Dark	Elec ★
19	Ice ★	Light	Phys
20	Force	Fire ★	Dark
21	Elec	Ice	Light ★

Area Information

Phys

Horde	Calamity
Hathor	Tsukuyomi
Skills	Skills
Amrita	Maragi
Zan	Mabufu
Zionga	Mazan
Meposumudi	Mazio
-	Affinity Shift: Phys
Notes	Notes
-	-

Fire

Horde	Calamity
Makara	Mastema
Skills	Skills
Makara Break	Mabufula
Bufu	Rakukaja
Rakukaja	Mabufu
Null Weak	Affinity Shift: Fire
Notes	Notes
Uses Rakukaja	Uses Rakukaja

Ice

Horde	Calamity
Ammut	Seraph
Skills	Skills
Rebellion	Maragion
Agi	Tarunda
Madness Nails	Maragi
Agility Amp II	Affinity Shift: Ice
Notes	Notes
-	Uses Tarunda

Elec

Horde	Calamity
Unicorn	Zaou-Gongen
Skills	Skills
Zan	Mazanma
Null Charm	Force Boost
Mazan	Mazan
Bufudyne	Affinity Shift: Elec
Notes	Notes
-	-

Force

Horde	Calamity
Kresnik	Mother Harlot
Skills	Skills
Sukunda	Mazionga
Null Elec	Elec Boost
Zio	Mazio
Mana Aid	Affinity Shift: Force
Notes	Notes
Uses Sukunda	-

Light

Horde	Calamity
Baphomet	Black Frost
Skills	Skills
Mamudo	Mamudoon
Life Drain	Mabufula
Mudo	Mamudo
Mana Gain	Affinity Shift: Light
Notes	Notes
-	-

Dark

Horde	Calamity
Ares	Quetzalcoatl
Skills	Skills
Herculean Strike	Mahamaon
Counter	Mazanma
Hama	Mahama
Dekunda	Affinity Shift: Dark
Notes	Notes
Uses Dekunda	-

"Affinity Shift: <Element>: Becomes Weak against <Element>. -70% to all (including Almighty) attack damage received excluding <Element>. -100% to Critical hit rate of damage received."

• Note: "Affinity Shift: Phys" is the only one of these that does NOT have the crit rate reduction.

Rewards

• You earn two kinds of rewards:
  • Based on your faction's placement on the rankings
  • and based on your personal placement on the rankings

Faction Ranking Rewards				Faction Ranking Rewards (BONUS AREA)
Top	Gems	Demo Coins	Magnetite	Top	Gems	Demo Coins	Magnetite
0.1% - 3.0%	300	250	500,000	0.1% - 3.0%	450	375	750,000
3.1% - 10.0%	250	200	150,000	3.1% - 10.0%	375	300	225,000
10.1% - 40.0%	250	150	50,000	10.1% - 40.0%	375	225	75,000
40.1% - 70.0%	200	100	30,000	40.1% - 70.0%	300	150	45,000
70.1% - 100.0%	200	50	10,000	70.1% - 100.0%	300	75	15,000

Personal
Top	Yasaka Magatama 1★	Prize Cube (Personal)	Kasane Magatama
0.1% - 3.0%	10	10	1
3.1% - 10.0%	8	5	1
10.1% - 40.0%	8	1	-
40.1% - 70.0%	6	-	-
70.1% - 100.0%	6	-	-

Prize Cube (Personal) can contain
Kasane Magatama	1
Blank Genome	1
Skill Extraction File	2
Yasaka Magatama 2★	2
Macca	100,000
Macca	50,000

In addition to the distributed rewards, a participation reward of 20 gems is given to players every time they participate in a Democalypse battle. A reward of 10 Democalypse Coins is also given to all faction members each time the faction defeats a Calamity.

Participation Reward (up to 2 times daily)	Gems x20
Vanquish Reward	Demo Coins x10

Democalypse Coins

Coins can be exchanged in the Cull shop for a variety of prizes, including Seraph and Norn, their spirits, their transcend stones, Absolute Summon Files and Ultimate Summon Files.

Exchange Lineup	Democalypse Coin cost	Cap
Seraph (1st time) × 1	1,500	1
Seraph (2nd time and after) × 1	2,000	No cap
Seraph Spirit × 5	25	120 (total of 600 spirits)
Seraph Transcend Stone × 1	100	94
Norn (1st time) × 1	1,500	1
Norn (2nd time and after) × 1	2,000	No cap
Norn Spirit × 5	25	120 (total of 600 spirits)
Norn Transcend Stone × 1	100	94
Absolute Summon File × 1	1,000	No cap
Ultimate Summon File × 1	100	No cap

Note:

• The Spirits and Transcend Stones are available after exchanging the first copy of each demon.

Ranking

Past (and future) rankings can be found on its own wiki page: Democalypse Ranking

Guide

This section is intended to provide in-depth information on how to build demons and teams for Democalypse.

AI Behavior

You cannot control your demons during Democalypse - they will act on their own according to the Democalypse AI. This AI tends to be very hungry for immediate damage, instead of prioritizing buffing itself first.

Democalypse AI behavior can be summarized as follows:

• Skills that deal damage as their base effect (before chain effects) - The AI is most likely to use these kinds of skills. Chain effects are not considered in this decision.
  • For example, the AI will think Demonsbane is just a buffing skill since that's its base effect, even though the chain effect is a Phys attack.
• Debuffs - These will never be used, because they do not deal immediate damage.
• Single-stat buffs (Tarukaja, Sukukaja) - These will never be used, because they do not deal immediate damage.
  • Double- or Triple-stat buffs - There are ways to force the AI to use them: see Manual Buffing in the Buffs section below.
• Good Status Effects ( Charge, Concentrate, Rebellion) - These will never be used, because they do not deal immediate damage.

Other important notes

Some quick rules to remember when building teams:

• MP cost doesn't matter - Your demons recover 10 MP each time they act, so the MP cost of their skills is completely irrelevant. Divine Brands' set bonus is therefore useless: focus on DPS sets like War, Spell, Lost, or Destruct instead.
• Ailments don't work - Neither Prelim nor Boss can be inflicted with ailments. Passives or chain effects that rely on ailments therefore won't trigger.
• Kills don't exist in this mode - even when the enemy's HP bar is emptied, they'll still stick around for you to hit them, until you're out of turns. Passives or chain effects which trigger off a kill won't work here.
• Off-element attacks are heavily discouraged against Boss - Any attack that doesn't match the Boss's weakness deals 70% less damage ( Almighty also gets reduced).
  • BUT Prelim doesn't punish off-element attacks - If your demons can deal absurd enough damage, being on-element for Prelim might not even be required. A prime example of this is Hachiman, whose damage output with physical teammates is through the roof in all prelims.
• Crit Rate Reduction - All Bosses except the Phys Boss apply -100% to Critical hit rate of damage received. Prelim does NOT reduce crit rate, though!
• You need 12 unique demons for a single element of Democalypse. No dupes! - You cannot, for example, run a Titania on your first set of 6 and a second Titania on your second set of 6 for the same element. That's not allowed.
• Regarding Archetypes:
  • Purple tends to be preferred - This archetype often grants damage-boosting passive skills, increasing your demon's damage potential.
  • Red's attack skills can be good - Sometimes this gives a better attack skill than those innate to your demon. In a few cases, you can even get an attack skill of a completely different element, potentially giving that demon an alternate role in that element.
  • Yellow is usually for dual/triple buffs, or rarely auto-buffs - As described in the "AI Behavior" section above, the AI will not cast buffs unless it's a dual/triple buff AND you specifically manipulate the AI to force the buffs to be cast. On rare occasions, Yellow might be Auto-Taruka or Auto-Rakunda, which will work without AI manipulation.
  • Teal is generally not helpful - The enemies don't deal significant damage, even if they hit your weaknesses and get extra turns. Your awaken slot is much better spent on something that will increase damage.
    • Small note: technically Repels can reflect damage at the boss for a tiny bit of extra score, but this isn't enough of a score boost to make Teal worthwhile.
  • Clear - The skills on Clear vary widely, but generally you're looking for something like what Purple or Red can provide (damage-boost passives, high-power attacks, etc).

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-Phys 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 a 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.

Prelim

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Damage

Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Manual Buffing
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Damage

Generalist Notes

General Notes:

• Multi-element mages: Quetzalcoatl and Schierke (for Prelim), as well as Atropos (for Boss) all have innate access to a variety of elemental attacks as well as damage-boosting panels, allowing you to use them on several elements with minimal investment, should you lack better options or the resources to develop them.
• Manual Buffers: Ishtar, Yellow Huang Long, Yellow Vishnu and Barong (see Manual Buffing in the Buffs section below for more details). Other options like Yellow Wu Kong and Yellow Zhong Kui exist but their low MAG stat makes their use in other elements less reliable. Ishtar in particular can provide a full Luster Candy + Debilitate combo with Mesopotamian Star, while her very high MAG makes her not worthless in terms of damage dealing. Her low AGI stat may be an issue if you want to fine-tune turn order in your party, though.
• Ananta Panel 4: The 1-turn Debilitate activates on the enemy turn, or you can trigger it early if an ally receives any form of healing, including life steal and chain effects. This means you can trigger it with skills such as Seth's Ouas or Huang Di's panel 3, rather than using up a turn on a standard healing skill.
• Anubis and Titania panels: For their primary elements ( Dark for Anubis and Elec for Titania), go to panel 3 for the 10% damage boost. For other elements though, only unlock panel 2 for the +50 MATK.
• Mot: He very much wants Purple's Life Surge, so it's easier to force his AI to cast buffs (Make sure to transfer Luster Candy, War Dance, or Blood Rush onto him). General rule of thumb: If Mot is Panel 3 then use him in the Boss Phase, otherwise use him in Prelim.
• Trumpeter Panel 4: will get a 50% buff to damage dealt to enemies under Gloom, as well as apply said effect on all enemies at the start of his team's turn. This could potentially make Nyarlathotep viable in the Boss wave, and/or allow elemental physical attackers a chance to land critical hits.
• Vishnu A: can, through Nirvana, provide one more Press Turn Icon per turn. This, in combination with Mot, gives incredible turn generation power. Since there is no current way to make him cast Nirvana for his first move, then cast an elemental transfer attack, it's best to not transfer any attack skills to him, to ensure he casts Nirvana every time. This means he will do almost no damage to non- Light calamities (except Dark, where he can do some proper damage due to God of Ubiquity at the start of the turn), so you will need an incredibly strong unit as your main DPS to make up for what is basically dead weight in terms of damage, such as Adramelech for Fire, Vasuki for Ice, etc.

Prelim Notes:

• Mahakala Prelim: While normally one of the best Fire Boss demons, The Great Darkness will provide him with automatic Concentrate on the second turn, letting him unleash a very strong attack regardless of element, paired with Merciless Blow in Purple.
• Nyarlathotep Prelim: As long as he's alive, Nyarlathotep will boost the entire party's magic damage by 25% towards enemies affected by Gloom, which he will apply at the beginning of the first turn. This means that Nyarlathotep will apply Gloom during the Prelim phase but NOT the Boss phase. Using him with one strong magic attacker (for example, Baal on Force) in addition to Masakado A with a magic All Targets attack (so no Rending <element>) of the corresponding element will allow you to get large amounts of multiplier.

Boss Notes:

• Beelzebub☆ Boss: He requires that your party attack first for King of Hell to apply Atk up/Def down. Normally speed is not an issue, but something to keep in mind when your faction is able to reach a high Calamity level.
• Elohim Boss: He has 65% (20% from Light of Elohim 25% from Godly Power in Purple archetype and 20% from a Merciless Blow transfer) before panels, which add another 45%, for a total of 110% extra magic damage on any element on top of a top 3 MAG stat, making him the best generalist unit in terms of raw damage.
• Michael Panel 4: will boost the damage of all other Divine/Herald demons by 15%, letting you slot him in along with Uriel and a third Angel of your choice for a increased damage and buff control. Also, try to avoid having Michael in Red, as Thunderclap does less damage to boss than Soul Judgement would.
• Seraph Boss: He will boost allies' damage by 10% when hitting a weak point, 5% more when panel 2 and 10% more when panel 3, for a total of +25% damage to all allies. This, in addition to his high MAGIC stat and passive skills, make him supremely useful for all elements.

Damage Optimization

This section 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: Formulas

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: Brands

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 don't 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 - it's better to have the spell in some form than to not have it at all. Plus, having the skill innately means you have another slot for a damage-boosting passive.

Random Targets 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 Random Targets ~60% - ~140%)

Transferable skill availability depends on the Element, Base Power and type of the attack move.

• Click each skill's name in the tables below for their availability details.

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.

Single Target:

• Tier 4 - 180 BP: Usually only available as Gacha skills from 5★ demons, or as the transferable of banner-exclusive demons. (Exceptions: Hell Gaze and Thunderclap as Wu Kong's Gacha skills)
• Tier 3 - 160 BP: Available as transfers from fusible 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.

Single Target spells

Element	Tier 2 (140 BP)	Tier 3 (160 BP)	Tier 4 (180 BP)
Fire	Agilao	Agidyne	Trisagion
Ice	Bufula	Bufudyne	Ice Age
Elec	Zionga	Ziodyne	Thunder Reign
Force	Zanma	Zandyne	Killing Wind
Light	Hamaon	Hamadyne	Thunderclap
Dark	Mudoon	Mudodyne	Hell Gaze

Phys skills have an additional 5th tier:

Single Target Phys spells

Element	Tier 2 (140 BP)	Tier 3 (160 BP)	Tier 4 (180 BP)	Tier 5 (200 BP)
Phys	Fatal Sword	Berserker God	Megaton Raid	God's Hand

Phys also has a separate set of skills with different base power and +30% critical rate:

• Note: these skills have a 0.95 accuracy modifier, instead of the usual 1.0.

Single Target Phys spells (crit bonus)

Element	Tier 2 (135 BP)	Tier 3 (155 BP)
Phys	Oni-Kagura	Mortal Jihad

All Targets:

• Tier 4 - 130 BP: Only available in the monthly PvP exchange, or by ranking in at least Diamond 1 at the end of a PvP week.
• 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 Gold 1 at the end of a PvP week. (Exception: Hades Blast as Ose's innate transfer skill)
• Tier 2 - 100 BP: Similar availability to Tier 3, except some elements also have easily-fusible sources ( Phys - Ares, Ice - Tiamat, Elec - Tlaltecuhtli, Force - Jikokuten)
• Tier 1 - 80 BP: Obtainable as transfer skills from 2★ or 3★s available in the compendium.

All Targets spells

Element	Tier 1 (80 BP)	Tier 2 (100 BP)	Tier 3 (120 BP)	Tier 4 (130 BP)
Fire	Maragi	Maragion	Maragidyne	Maragibarion
Ice	Mabufu	Mabufula	Mabufudyne	Mabufubarion
Elec	Mazio	Mazionga	Maziodyne	Maziobarion
Force	Mazan	Mazanma	Mazandyne	Mazanbarion
Light	Mahama	Mahamaon	Mahamadyne	Mahamabarion
Dark	Mamudo	Mamudoon	Mamudodyne	Mamudobarion

Phys skills have different power for Tier 4, and an additional 5th tier:

• Note: these skills have a 0.9 accuracy modifier, instead of the usual 1.0.

All Targets Phys spells

Element	Tier 1 (80 BP)	Tier 2 (100 BP)	Tier 3 (120 BP)	Tier 4 (140 BP)	Tier 5 (160 BP)
Phys	Mow Down	Herculean Strike	Hades Blast	Vorpal Blade	Gigantomachia

Phys also has a separate set of skills with different base power and +30% critical rate:

• Note: these skills have a 0.85 accuracy modifier, instead of the usual 1.0.

All Targets Phys spells (crit bonus)

Element	Tier 1 (85 BP)	Tier 2 (105 BP)	Tier 3 (125 BP)
Phys	Heat Wave	Megaton Press	Titanomachia

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 transferring Merciless Blow when it comes to damage for Democalypse.

Damage Transfers

Usage	10%	15%	20%	25%	30%
Element specific	Epitome of Martial Arts (Phys)	<Element> Boost <Element> Prana/Accele/Slowda/Survivor/Debuff Elemental Cycle (Fire/Ice/Elec/Force) Epitome of Carnage (Phys)	-	<Element> Amp <Element> Enhancement	-
Single Target	Assassin	-	Master Assassin	-	-
All Targets, Random Targets	Serial Killer	-	Butcher	-	-
Universal	Back Attack <Element> Enhancement Berserker Sadistic Blow	-	Merciless Blow	-	Wretched Blow
Physical Attacks*	-	-	Death Blow Wicked Strike	Sadistic Blow	-
Magical Attacks	-	Epitome of Wisdom 2	-	-	-

• Of note for this list is that the Physical Attacks row is not strictly talking about attacks using Phys element, but instead Physical attacks, meaning attacks that can crit and miss.

Buffs

Buffs and Debuffs are one of the most essential ways to further increase your damage.

Here are some example buff situations you might see in Democalypse, and their effects on damage calculations:

Effect on you	Effect on foe	Combined effect
Attack up	-	+20% to damage you deal
-	Defense down	+20% to damage you deal
Attack up	Defense down	+40% to damage you deal
Attack down	-	-20% to damage you deal
-	Defense up	-20% to damage you deal
Attack up	Defense up	No change to damage dealt
Attack down	Defense 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, therefore the easiest way to integrate them into your teams is by using demons with those skills innately.

Examples:

• For Phys: Zhong Kui, Nergal, Orochi, Fenrir
• For Magic-based elements: Garuda, Agni, Ananta, Hresvelgr, Pale Rider

During Prelim, you usually do not want to use Press Turns for anything but casting All Targets spells to maximize the Weakness multiplier, and since the damage multiplier has a Maximum anyway. Therefore, actively casting buffs or using Single Target or Random Targets 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, skills 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 demon's AI actively use its 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: Ishtar, Abaddon A, Panel 3 Mot, Agni

• Mot: It's recommended to make his Archetype Purple, so Life Surge's HP boost raises his offensive stat threshold.

Demons in the chart below can be used for manual buffing without a buff skill transfer. They're also fusible, making them very accessible:

Fusible Manual Buffers

War Dance
Blood Rush
Luster Candy-type
Invasion-type

Notes:

• Barong and Ishtar can provide buffs in any color, but all other demons in the chart above must be Yellow to have an innate buff.
• Additional non-fusible options: Yellow Rama, Party Pixie

Solar Skills

A new addition to the game are the so called Solar skills, Solar Prosperity and Solar Downfall. These basically work like one turn versions of Auto-skills except that they are activated at the start of every wave allowing them to be used even on the boss wave. This opens up some specialized applications for these types of skills:

Solar Downfall

• Equivalent to Auto-Rakunda for Fire Prelim.
• Gives access to one turn of debuffs for teams that have no way to otherwise apply them.
• For Fire Boss effectively neutralizes the Boss's Rakukaja.

Solar Prosperity

• For Ice Boss, this effectively neutralizes the boss's Tarunda without requiring a manual buffer, making it strictly superior in that specific case.
• Can provide buffs before they would normally kick in through manual or unique skill usage on boss phase. Of note is that, for all elements except Ice this will not substitute getting buffs through another way.

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
• These lists are not fully complete, meaning not every possible demon will be included. Instead the focus is on only ranking each notable gacha demon, most usable fusible 5★s and at least 3x 4★s and 3x 3★s
• For demons without an innate skill of the appropriate type and element (considering base kit and archetypes), 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/Archetype. 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 Panel 3 Mot, who can still be paired with demons that already generate buffs themselves (Susano-o. Tokisada, Panel 3 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.
• Panel 3-, 3xHerald- and 3xLady-: These prefixes apply to the demon listed immediately after them, to denote special rankings under specific circumstances.
  • Panel 3 denotes having Spirit Panel 3 of the demon in question completed. Similar rules apply to Panel 1, Panel 2, or Panel 4.
  • 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
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Phys Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Filler

Phys Notes

General Notes:

• Missing: Physical attacks 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 demon's accuracy are Brands or skill transfers like Good Aim or Great Aim.
• 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. The physical boss is the only one without innate crit resistance, making it possible to land critical hits without Rebellion effects. This leads to a large damage variance depending on how often your teams manage to score critical hits. Therefore demons that can minimize this variance are scored slightly higher. Some examples:
  • High Critical Rate Attacks: Susano-o A
  • Crit Aura: Asura Lord
  • Rebellion from Skills or Panels: Futsunushi, Panel 3 Zaou-Gongen, Kali, Ose Hallel
• Futsunushi and Panel 3 Zaou-Gongen: Futsunushi and Zaou-Gongen is a really strong pairing - due to team-wide Might from Futsu's skill, Gongen doesn't need to carry Auto-Rebellion, nor does he need to be first in battle to achieve his infinite crit chain. They also make Gigantomachia Kali and Cu Chulainn A viable prelim opitions (Kali receiving a maximum +80% damage total if in Might and Cu Chu A due to his turn 2 Charge).

Prelim Notes:

• 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 = 6.25%; +0.2 = 56.25%; +0.3 = 37.5% (assumption: each hit is equally likely to hit different parts; please correct if wrong)
• Jack the Ripper Prelim: His unique ability Terror of London will hit Random Targets 1-3 times at the start of prelim, providing +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.
• Seraph Prelim: Due to his on Weakness Damage Aura, he can immensely increase your prelim score. However, because of his lackluster Strength he often runs Earthquake. Recall that Earthquake scales off of PDef, so he'll likely need a specialized brand set.

Fire

Fire Prelim

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Fire Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Fire Notes

General Notes:

• Zaou-Gongen's Archetype: It is assumed that he's Purple for Fire Amp.

Prelim Notes:

• 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
  • Surt A's Eruption
  • Panel 4 Lucifer
• 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.
• Zaou-Gongen Prelim: Rending Fire is a consideration over his innate Maragidyne, letting ZG use his better strength stat as well as letting him crit. If he's panel 3, then this can also lead into Rebellion-looping, helping teammates that use physical Fire spells. However, Rending Fire is an event-only genome, so if you don't have it, then stick with the magic build.

Boss 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:
  • Elohim's Light of Elohim
  • Mahakala's Wrathful Flame
  • Surt A's Eruption
  • Panel 2 Uriel in a team consisting of only Herald or Divine demons
  • Panel 4 Lucifer
  • When going second, Intimidating Stance cancels the boss's only press turn, and he won't cast Rakukaja afterwards
  • Abaddon A's Lord of the Abyss
  • Solar Downfall
  • Agni's Ignite
  • Quetzalcoatl A's Aztec Pulse

• Azazel Boss: 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.
• Cerberus A Boss: Even with the innate Democalypse Bosses' Critical Chance Reduction, Cerberus A can reach up to 160% crit chance without brands, this thanks to the boost level 2 and panel 3, making him reliably crit.
• Surt's Ragnarok: While Ragnarok gets additional scaling from PAtk, the primary stat you need to focus on with your Brands is still MAtk. PAtk% should be in his terts, if possible.
• Vairocana Boss: Radiant Mantra can remove the boss's Rakukaja at the start of the second turn allowing you to stay at neutral buffs.
• Zaou-Gongen Boss: Fire Slash doesn't work as well as you might think, due to the boss's crit rate reduction. By extension, ZG isn't going to be able to Rebellion-loop the team, since he can't land his first crit. Since Auto-Rebellion doesn't work on boss wave, it can't solve this problem.

Ice

Ice Prelim

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Ice Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Ice Notes

Boss 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:
  • Anahita's Hell Stream
  • 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.
  • Solar Prosperity
  • Manual Buffing (refer to the corresponding section earlier in this guide)
• Anahita: will buff magic damage to the entire party when under Bulwark. Since Bulwark expires after 1 turn, Panel 2 is necessary to recast it every turn, and thus maintain the buff. ( Frost Ace's Vengeful Frost Fist is a physical move and thus won't benefit from this)
• King Frost Boss: If your team already has a way of applying Defense down, using Red Archetype will be more optimal. Otherwise, you will want him to cast Cold World except if your other two demons are very weak.
• Mastema's Archetype: It is assumed that he's Red for Ice Age. Panel 2 can add +100 MATK, but otherwise his panels will not help with Ice damage.
• Vairocana Boss: Radiant Mantra can remove the boss's Tarunda at the start of the second turn allowing you to stay at neutral buffs.

Elec

Elec Prelim

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Elec Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Elec Notes

General Notes:

• Atropos: Atropos' unique skill Passionate Rage can give up to +0.8 additional multiplier if used in an all Lady and/or Femme team.
• Nero☆'s Overture: After the first cast it becomes equivalent to a 180 Skill power All Targets move, because of the Concentrate effect. This means if Nero☆ is used for Boss, usually it will be better to NOT use Red Archetype (Ziodyne), or at least transfer Thunder Reign so he doesn't use Ziodyne.

Boss Notes:

• Cthulhu: can apply Gloom on the Boss to help Thor A crit despite the innate crit reduction of Boss phase.

Force

Force Prelim

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Force Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Filler

Force Notes

General Notes:

• Baal: When considering whether you should use Baal for the Boss or Prelim stage, this will depend on the demon taking his place in the opposite phase. Additionally, it matters how your Baal is built, Red Baal for example is usually stronger for Boss.
• Koga Saburo: needs panel 2 to be used reliably, on account of Soaring Blades having only 3 uses without it, which is not enough for either Prelim or Boss phases. In addition, the maximum amount of Soaring Blades charges is 6, just enough for Boss phase, which makes him incompatible with demons who can increase the number of Press Turns.

Boss Notes:

• Cthulhu: can apply Gloom on Boss phase, helping demons like Koga Saburo and Seth to land critical hits despite the crit reduction innate to Bosses.
• Oberon: Red Oberon presents a gamble with Twister, as it can have 110, 165, or 220 power based on RNG, compared to Zandyne's consistent 160 power. If you prefer Zandyne's consistency, use a different color.

Light

Light Prelim

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Light Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Light Notes

General Notes:

• Light is pretty straightforward. Mainly you will have to test where to apply Archangel synergies if you have them.
• Where you use Vishnu A will depend on the rest of your teams, but he should be most effective on a boss team with Tokisada and Mot, to complement Tokisada's Atk buff while not interrupting any Archangel synergies.

Dark

Dark Prelim

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Dark Boss

Tier	Demons
Taruka Effects
Rakunda Effects
Press Turn/Useful Aura
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Filler

Dark Notes

Prelim Notes:

• Prelim Dekunda: The Ares Horde will use Dekunda as its first move, if they are debuffed in some way. Demons that can reapply Rakunda currently is Agni and P4 Lucifer

Boss Notes:

• Lilith A Boss: With panels 1 and 2, Temptation reaches 120% crit chance (without considering transfers or brands), helping her overcome the boss phase's 100% crit rate reduction.

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 Panel 3 use him on the Boss Phase, otherwise use him 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 Panel 3 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 Random Targets 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.
• Due to the introduction of the new Elemental physical skills, Hero Masakado is no longer held back by his poor Magic stat and the constant need of Magic based All Targets attacks.
• if you lack any of the Elemental All Targets Physical skills, 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, Panel 4 Michael being usually the best option since all Herald/Divines receive a 15% boost to their damage.

Generalist Archangel Boss Team

Uriel Brands - Requirements Ideally P2 unlocked

Seraph Brands - Requirements -

Michael Brands - Requirements P4 unlocked

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: P4 Michael | Metatron | Azrael
• Ice: P4 Michael | Metatron | Red Mastema
• Elec: Gabriel | Aniel | Red Dominion
• Force: Raphael | P4 Michael | Sandalphon
• Light: P4 Michael | P3 Aniel or Michael | basically any other Divine or Herald Demon
• Dark: P4 Michael | Red 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.

See also

• Skill List
• Demon List
• Formulas
• Brands, guide on equipment: essential for demons to deal a lot of damage.