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 Evolving 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 1: Even if you already pulled a Yoshitsune before the last Step, it is still worth it to continue the Step Up until the end. He has excellent Panels (especially Panel 2), Panels/Spirit Merge are the dupe-system of the game: duplicates 5★ can be spiritized and spirit merged to strenghten the demon (see Spirit Merge)

Remark 2: 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.
  • Vince: Liberator focused on strength and crits. Interesting alternative liberator for Hell Gongen/Physical teams.
  • Honey Sweet: Liberator focused on ailments. Unlike Shionyan, she doesn't focus on making ailments stronger but rather giving you additional bonuses when you manage to inflict them. Honey 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 an Aura Gate, there's a chance that one of the opposing demons will have a Talk bubble above their heads, which allows you to negotiate with 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, 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.
  • Their Archetype is always Common (Clear), which is perfect 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 (Remark: Parchments and Tomes are different and are more similar to Summons using Gems).
  • Summoning using Gems is where the Gacha in "Gacha games" really is. This is where time-limited banners for new or/and exclusive demons will be! Use your Gems wisely.
  • Low rarities demons will quickly flood and fill your Inventory and Storage:
    • "useless" colored 3★ Demons can either be used as Skill Transfer donors, Fusion materials, or be sold for Karma (arguably, they could also be used as Evolution fodder, but that's a waste of their value in Karma.)
    • "useless" colored 4★ Demons can either be used as Skill Transfer donors, Fusion materials, or be sold for Karma (never use them as Evolution fodder).
    • Please refer to the article Skill Transfer and Karma for skill donations or selling. For Evolution fodders, a Section below is dedicated to Evolution and Leveling.
    • "Useless" or duplicate 5★ are either to be used as Fusion materials, for Spirit Merge or Armament Fusion. Do not do anything else with them, that is, don't sell or use them as evolution fodder.


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

Gem Hunting

There is no 'order' that things must be done with, you can do things in whatever order you'd like.

However, since you want to summon on the Yoshitsune.jpg YoshitsuneBeginner's Step Up banner, you'll have to gather as much Gems as possible.

  • The First 2 Chapters of Story Mode give an enormous amount of Gems.
    • All Chapters also give a bit of Gems in HARD and HELL difficulty modes, although just once per player, that is, only the first time the player beats them.
  • Beginner Missions, appear as a green icon on the Home screen, give a lot of Resources, including 500 Gems for each "batch" of Missions completed.
    • After completing a "batch" and retrieving the 500 Gems rewards, you get another batch. There are a few batches (around 6 or more), so that's at least 3000 Gems.
  • "Normal" Missions usually give a few 10s Gems each. You can see them in the HQ menu. Don't hesitate to do them if you have stamina to spare.
  • Character Quests. Go the the Dx2 Menu and click on Limit Break tab for a character to see the condition for unlocking his or her Char Quests.
    • In total, completing all Char Quests in Normal/Hard/Hell, can fetch you around 2K Gems.
  • Daily Missions, Weekly Missions, and weekly PvP Ranking give you several hundreds Gems each week.
    • In the PvP area, there is a Training room with six simulated challenges, which are reset after 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 and 32 hours since the last time they are defeated. They are easy to win and, although they don't grant EXP or ranking points, each gives three Gems.
    • After winning seven PvP Battles, the player gets a reward of ten Gems. The reward is granted every 24 h (reset at midnight, JST) and simulated fights also count, so, for beginners, running the training simulations is a good way to get a small, but continuous amount of daily Gems.
    • Training simulations are also good to get achievement bonuses for each Dx2 (unfortunately, they are rewarded just once per player.)

Team Building

The Game is pretty generous to beginners, giving at least 3 natural/base 5★ Demons in the course of a week. Just playing normally and leveling them will allow you to complete nearly all the early game PvE content of the game.

In this game, natural 5★ Demons are much much stronger than 4★s. Normally, with your 5★ starters, you should not need to fuse any more Demons for all the Early PvE Game. However, if you still want to fuse demons, here are a few tips/trivia:

  • Fusing costs Magnetites, and Magnetite is a pretty precious resource, even though beginners get a large amount as gift, you should be careful with spending them.
  • 5★ Demons cost Millions of MAG. You should play the game, adapt to it, and understand it before starting to spend MAG on 5★.
  • 3★ are inexpensive, fuse them as you wish. 4★ are somewhat inexpensive, don't worry too much about fusing for them (but do it in moderation still).
  • There's a full Guide on Fusion and Magnetite farming (Magnetite), but basically you farm MAG in Aura Gates.

Now onto Team Building. For early PvE, a full Team of Attackers is largely enough. And even in Mid Game full Attack is still very potent.

Now, we can talk about other roles than Attackers:

  • Healers: surprisingly, not a very important role in this game, though may have some niche uses, e.g., crawling Aura Gate dungeons.
  • Buffers/Debuffer: Have uses against Bosses.
  • Speed Battle boosters: Very Important upon entering Mid Game. Typically Demons with high AGI with the passive Speedster. In this game the Team with the highest TOTAL Speed goes first, and in PvE, there is no reason not to go First.
    • Usually a single Speed Battle booster in your Team will allow you to outspeed nearly all of the game PvE.

Here is a list of okayish 3~4★ demons. Keep in mind that 3~4★ are destined to be replaced by 5★ one day or another (it can be 6 months from now or a year):

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

About healer:

  • healing from Demons usually doesn't heal for much in this game (it's dependent on their Magic Stat).
  • In PvE, you can replace healers with healing items: Bead and Revival Balm heal you to Max HP.
  • The Dx2 Templar Dragon also has an unlockable skill allowing you to use Items for half a press turn only.
  • A notable exception to this is the fusible 5★ Erlkonig, which heals due to a Passive Skill, which means, it spends no Press Turns to heal the whole Team. It can almost alone cheese all Lv. 12 Brands of Sin, as well as Hell's Park with P3 unlocked.

There also exist Generic PvE Teams to strive for:

  • Hell Gongen Teams: Basically if you managed to summon Hell Biker, just add other Phys Attackers and Zaou-Gongen to make an incredible Phys Team.
  • Balanced Team: refer to Aura Gate 1 article. Mostly for Mid Game.
  • Anti-Boss Battle Demons: This is for Late Game Content. See the 'General Strategy' Section of Hollow World for more info (but you shouldn't need to think about it now).

Farming and Spending Resources to upgrade demons

A more detailed rundown is found in the next section, but here are a few info.

When you find a Demon you want to truly invest into (it should be a natural/base 5★) you need to go through:

  • Awakening: cf. Tutorial in-game in Pandemonium. This is the first thing to do and the easiest, too. It simply requires easy to farm Aether in Strange Signal, the resource isn't rare, so don't worry about Awakening anyone you like.
  • Leveling to Max. Level: leveling is called Enhancing in the game, and it's done by accumulating EXP through:
    • PvE battles: Leveling Quests are the best places to earn EXP.
    • Dispatch: a game area unlocked by completing some quests in the beginning of the game, accessible in the Hideout. Dispatched Demons can still be used in Battles, so Dispatch as many as it allows (don't forget to check the Dispatch area regularly, as it also gives out rewards for using it, aside from Enhancing the Demons).
    • Sword of Kusanagi: consumable item that adds EXP to a Demon. They are otherwise useless, so use all of them when in a hurry (gaining EXP in Battle is always better, because besides EXP, a lot of other rewards are collected).
    • Daily Quest: as of October/2021, the game will offer a daily quest (or more than one, during some commemorative events) that gives humongous amounts of EXP, as well as items (e.g., Aether, high rarity Brands), in a single Battle against very easy Demons (usually, just one Wave of Lv. 10 1★ Demons). If running Daily Quests with Lv. 1 Demons for evolution fodder purposes, put Brands on them (use 2★ Demons for that, as some Daily Quests give EXP enough to evolve a Demon to Lv. 30, when using two Kanbari and the main character, so running with 1★ Demons would waste EXP, as they'd stop at Lv. 25). Using the main character and Eileen Dx2 will grant the most EXP, Macca, Brands, Aether, and whatever other rewards it is giving out. Eileen or the main character may be replaced by another Dx2 that is still below Lv. 50, to haste its Enhancement.
    • Special Aura Gate: Aura Gate SP, available exclusively during some events, usually feature higher Talk rates and lots of EXP, as well as rewarding with rare items.
  • Evolving it to 6★: much harder, requires days if not weeks of Farming EXP and fodderizing Demons. So choose carefully who you want to Evolve.
  • Talk to Demons: recruiting Demons through Talking is essential to Evolve other Demons (Yata Mirrors of corresponding rarity may be used instead of Demons, but they are very rare.)
    • To do it automatically (using Auto Quest), the best place is the Leveling Quest of Chapter 1 (Normal difficulty), because Slime has a very limited repertoire of questions, some of them yielding neutral reactions ("ugh?"), regardless of which answer is chosen, so the random answering method of Auto Talk results in more Demons recruited than in any other LQ (also, Normal difficulty costs only 2 Stamina, while Hell difficulty costs 4, what is not bad if trying to accomplish global achievements for their reward). So, although Slimes are 1★ Demons and would, therefore, require other 1★ Demons to be Evolved to 2★, the greater easiness of collecting them usually surpasses the hassle of that extra Evolution step (and Slimes can be used to evolve other Slimes or fused to get better Demons).
    • The second best place to collect Demons automatically is Leveling Quest of Chapter 5 (Normal difficulty), because Pisaca also have a limited conversation repertoire, it's a 2★ Demon, and although the quest requires 6 Stamina, there's a chance of recruiting Shikome, cutting some steps of the Kanbari's fusion.
    • After some time playing, there'll be lots of Normal Summon Files earned. Use them to summon Common 1~2★ Demons for evolution/fusion and 3★ for fusion.
  • Mitama and Essence of Sin Infusions: Mitama is gathered in Aura Gates, and Essence of Sin, in the Tokyo Abyss. They are similarly used to raise basic Stats of a Demon, regardless of its Level, so even a Lv. 1, just summoned Demon, may receive Infusions. Both Resources require time to collect and there're limits of how many of each a Demon may receive, so spend them wisely.
Assorted items available in the Black Market.
  • Black Market: accessible in the Hideout, and may feature very rare items.
    • Prices are random, but within ranges, with better/rarer items being more expensive than the more common ones.
    • Offered items are refreshed after an hour of the last time visited, so check it every hour, as many times as possible per day (even if you have to Take a Break from an Aura Gate run or Stop a Tokyo Abyss incursion).
      • It's possible to spend 5 Gems to immediately refresh the Black Market items, but never do that, as Gems are extremely hard to collect and the offers are too random to risk so many Gems.
    • The most important items are Yata Mirrors (from 1★ up to 5★ may be available), Summon Files, and Skill Extraction Files, always buy all of them (so, have at least 500k Macca saved, because very rare items, like 5★ Yata Mirrors, Superior Summon Files and Skill Extraction Files are expensive, but well worth the money.)
    • There may be 6★ Brands available in the Black Market. Click on the Brand's banner to see its Stats before buying, because they are expensive and there is a small chance of them being worth the price (and better Brands, that is, with more undisclosed Tertiaries, are more expensive than those with less).
    • Purge Extracts: used to remove Mitama Points given to a Demon, are only available in the Black Market. They're also necessary to complete an Aura Gate 2 specific quest (an NPC will request 3 Purge Extract Ag).
  • Skill Transfer: some resources used for it are quite rare for beginners, so be careful.
    • Related to Skill Transfer is Leveling up Skills. As a beginner, the only skill you should be interested in leveling up are Unique Skills from a good 5★ (Unique Skills can be recognized by the fact that their Skill Cost is "-", also their Lv. bonuses are usually better than normal Skills). Leveling Skills up consumes Kasane Magatama, which are very rare (expect 3 per months as a newbie, and 5 once you get into a Faction and do good in Faction events).
  • Brands Farming: farming for Brands is something players will constantly do, as getting the perfect Brands with perfect Stats and Sub-stats is an eternal quest. Brands are one of the most important things in Dx2. The difference between a Brandless Demon and a very well Branded one is night and day.

The basic flow of the Game is the following: you alternate between advancing in the PvE content, upgrading Demons, and do PvP as a side activity, until you've completed all the PvE content, when PvP and Democalypse (faction event) become the main activities and you'd upgrade Demons for those contents.

The main PvE contents to complete are Story Mode, Aura Gates, Hell's Park, and Tokyo Abyss.

Events

SP Effect Golden (left) and Silver (right) Demons. This image is merely illustrative, the same species of Demon cannot be both golden and silver in the same event period.

Usually, Demons related to the current Event get Special Effect Bonuses (SP Effect), denoted by a golden or silver demon icon on the top left of the Demon's avatar or in the top middle of its profile screen.

  • Golden SP Effect Bonuses are, usually, 4 times that of silver ones (e.g., if a silver Demon gives 25% more EXP, a golden Demon will give 100% more EXP).
  • Usually, SP Effect gives three bonuses, more Points (SP Points in AG SP or Event Currency in the other types of Events, which varies depending on the current event, e.g., Dark Crystals, Offerings), more Macca, and more EXP gained from battles.

There are, as of 2021, three types of events:

  • Currency Gathering Events: no special areas are available. Instead, running normal quests/missions on the Map will drop, besides the regular items, the Event's Currency, which can be used to purchase items in a special Event's Shop.
  • Special Mission Events: special missions are available in a specific place on the Map. Completing those missions will reward the Event's Currency, which can be used to purchase items in a special Event's Shop.
  • Special Aura Gate Events: the event's story is set around the appearance of a temporary AG. The main goal is to purchase Cubes, which are obtained in exchange for the AG SP's currency.

The Event's Shop may vary from one Event to another. Some are similar to the Black Market, others, similar to opening Gift Boxes.

Important hint: The game engine rounds fractions up (ceiling function). That means the most fractions are run into, the most rounded-up points the player will gather.

  • E.g., suppose a quest/mission costs 7 Stamina to run and would yield 7 Event Currency. Using 3 silver SP Effect Demons would yield 7 + 7 x 25% x 3 = 12.25, rounded up, 13 Event Currency.
  • Because of the ceiling function, the best quests/missions for gathering Event Currency are NOT the same ran to level up Demons, but the cheapest ones that allows the maximum number of Demons to run:
    • In the Currency Gathering Event type, Auto Quest the Leveling Quest of Chapter 1 (Normal Difficulty), which costs 2 Stamina.
    • In the Special Mission Event type, there is, usually, a Special Mission, which rewards extra Event Currency. Auto Quest the cheapest one, on Normal Difficulty.
    • The AG SP Event type follows different mechanics and should be run only on Master Difficulty to maximize the Stamina usage. Check the Aura Gate SP article for more hints.

General hints:

  • Have as many SP Effect Demons as possible in the Teams to get the most bonus per battle.
    • Use third-party Support Demons with SP Effect, because they also affect the final bonus.
  • From time to time, collect the Event Rewards, as most Events reward players that play regularly.
    • Aura Gate SP also rewards purchases of Cubes, so it's better to spend the Event Currency on them during the Event period.
  • Many Events give out Time Limited Monster Dew, a consumable item that fully restores Stamina.
    • Depending on the Event type, there may not be enough time to use all the Event Monster Dew. When the Event period is over, they simply disappear from the Items Inventory, so, to not let them go to waste, when the end is near, lower Stamina below maximum and use them (the game won't allow consuming Monster Dew if Stamina is at its maximum or over). Use the extra Stamina to Auto Quest some Leveling Quest (try an LQ that might collect Demons useful for Fusing Kanbari, for example), Strange Signal (and possibly a Wanted Demon Hunt), or Brands of Sin.

Guide on Upgrading and Leveling Demons

Leveling

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 at least one Leveling Quest. Leveling Quests not only let you bring two parties (i.e., 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.

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.jpg Kanbaridemon 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:

It is not complicated to fuse him but if you have problems you can refer to the article Leveling

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 current rarity (Warning current rarity =/= natural/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 but this demon can be another Pixie that you evolved to 4★) 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.

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.

Different body parts may have different primary stats available: this can be summarized in this Table

Primaries
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

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+.

Guidelines for Farming Brand?

  • The higher Stages of Brands of Sin give better Brands. So Auto-Farm the highest you can.
  • Starting at Stage 7 or higher your demons will probably need to be decently Branded if you want to farm (the irony: needing good brands to farm more brands)
    • So farm the lower Stages you can auto, to get good Brands then slowing climb the Stages like that.
  • Enemies in Brands of Sin: Sloth are specialized in Ailments. While the Anti-ailment Brands (Ward Brands) are farmed in Brands of Sin: Deceit. It means you need to farm Deceit and equip Ward to your Demons to advance in the high stages of Sloth.
  • Stages 10 and beyond may require Specific Teams for each BoS (Sloth, Deceit and Vanity), this is Mid Game level of difficulty. Check the articles linked in Brands of Sin for an example of Team composition for each Stage 10 and beyond.

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

Archetypes (from left to right): Aragami (red), Protector (yellow), Psychic (purple), Elementalist (teal/cyan) and Common (clear/grey).

Demons come in five different Archetypes, Aragami (red), Protector (yellow), Psychic (purple), Elementalist (teal/cyan) and Common (clear/grey).

Awakening a demon unlocks their Archetype Skill, which varies depending on the demon and its Archetype, and slightly increases their stats.

  • Every demon requires Small, Medium, and/or Large Aethers of specific types and specific quantities to be awakened.
  • The required Aether types and quantities to awaken a Demon are only dependent on its species, that is, Archetype, level and other factors are irrelevant.
  • Aethers are available in 5 common types, Light (Yellow), Lawful (Blue), Neutral (Green), Dark (Purple), and Chaotic (Red), and several special types, only available during limited events, usually required to awaken Demons also exclusively available during those events.
  • Aethers can be obtained in some missions and in most quests, including Aura Gates, but especially in Strange Signal.
  • Aether Crystal is a special item that can awaken any Demon, regardless of which and how many Aethers would be required for that. They can be purchased in the Shop for 500 Gems, each, meaning, they are very expensive, avoid buying them, as some are offered as rewards for completing some missions.
  • Don't use an Aether Crystal on a Demon that can be awakened by common Aethers, which can be easily harvested in Strange Signal quests. Save them for awakening event exclusive Demons that require special types of Aether, and just in case you are unable to gather enough during its event period.
Aether types

Strange Signal quests drop only one type of Aether, depending on the Signal chosen. The quality is random, but higher levels drop more of the larger sizes.

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 several in-game "currencies," mainly:

  • Magnetite: mostly used for Fusion, quite rare, so use it wisely.
  • Macca: mostly used to level Brands up and Evolve Demons. Not easy to gather in the beginning, but not very rare from mid-game on.
  • Gems: mainly used for Gacha Demon Summoning.
  • Karma: mostly used to buy Arch-Shifters and Selectors.
  • Fame Points: mostly used to buy Monster Dew (Item that restores Stamina), Hell Bull (Item that restores Duel Stamina), and Superior Summoning Files.
  • Duel Coins: mainly used to buy Genome Cubes, Blank Genomes, and Skill Extraction Files.
  • Cull Coins: mainly used to buy Summon Files.
    • Don't buy Normal Summon Files (cyan), except at the Black Market, using Macca, when available (and they are often available), as well as obtained as rewards from Quests, Missions, Battles and Events. Sooner than later, there'll be more Normal Summon Files than needed in daily playing, so spending any currency other than Macca is a waste of very rare resources.

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 Demons' stay in there.
    • That being said, only the most recent 99 items can be displayed when you look at your Gift Box. So older demons may be burried and in this case you will have to dig into your Box to fetch these old ones.

"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.
  • 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.
  • Duplicates of 4★ and 5★ can be used for Spirit Merge, to unlock Panels.
  • 4★ and 5★ can be Fused into Armaments, used in Alter-World areas, quests, and missions.

Summoning Guide

Main Article: Summoning Guide


Summoning Guide (click on the link above) helps you spending your Gems wisely.

Here we will simply mention the 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.

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 propose 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.

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 (depends on the limited banners that are up):

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. PVP Ranking lists those teams for different seasons.

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.


Quest Areas

Story
Main article: Story
Aura Gate
Main article: Aura Gate
Brands 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
Alter-World
Main article: Alter-World
Tokyo Abyss
Main article: Tokyo Abyss

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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