Digest 5

Welcome to the third issue of the Dx2 Digest! Finally an exciting week after two slow ones!!

All times and dates mentioned are in JPT.

• Issue: 5
• Date: 2021/05/13 - 2021/05/19
• Written by User:Reika

Featured Banner

File:Smt4banner.png

• Featured Demons: Mahamayuri, Pales, Cernnunos

A special commemoration event for Shin Megami Tensei IV! Three new demons are featured this time, offered at 0.33% each. There is also a bonus tome step-up and a one-time Absolute summon that guarantees each of them for a discounted 200 tomes. See the section below for more details!

Special Salvation Step-up Summons

Brief Description: 16,500 gems for 300 tomes (100 tomes per cycle of 5,500 gems).

Verdict: This is the best banner to roll if you are chasing any of the new demons. You don't even need to finish it - stopping after Cycle 2 will give you enough Tomes to perform an Absolute Summon for whoever you want! This is pretty good value especially for Mahamayuri, who is currently the best Cleric for Battle Tower.

Salvation Step-up Summons

Brief Description: 27,500 gems for 300 tomes (60 tomes per cycle of 5,500 gems).

Verdict: This banner is for those who need more Salvation Tomes to tome more than one demon. Only roll this if you want to Tome a second demon (after finishing the Special one), though doing just the discounted step 1 isn't a bad idea. Note that this Banner will reset next week, you will lose your step progress when that happens!!

Salvation Gem Summons

Brief Description: 100 gems for 1 try and 1 Dimensional Tome.

Verdict: This is for those who have exhausted every single step-up available. Avoid this like 16 Scourges.

Salvation Absolute Summons

Mahamayuri / Cernnunos / Pales Absolute Summons

Brief Description: 200 Salvation Tomes for a guaranteed demon of choice, available once. Don't mistakenly roll the wrong banner.

Verdict: 200 Tomes for a non-random guaranteed demon is incredible. It essentially means you can pick whichever you want if you invest 11,000 gems, though whether or not any of these demons are worth 11,000 gems is up to you. Also worth to note, Moirai sisters had the same discounted Absolute Summon on their debut, which never came back on their rerun, so it's not a long shot to say this might be the only chance to grab one of these for 200 Tomes.

Salvation Absolute Summons

Brief Description: 300 Salvation Tomes for a random Mahamayuri, Cernnunos or Pales.

Verdict: This is purely for those who have exhausted the Absolute summons and wish to gamble. Stay away from this unless you are whaling hard for P3 or something.

Other Banners

Masakado Step Up Summons

General Masakado returns after a long absence!

• Featured Demons: Masakado

Brief Description: 9,000 gems for a Guaranteed Masakado at the end, plsu 100 bonus tomes.

Verdict: While Masakado is still a very strong demon (especially at P3), 9,000 gems is a pretty steep price to pay, especially since he was included in the 3rd Anniversary File which they handed out early this year. Judging by how often the Special Choice File (which debuted during the 2.5 Anniversary) is given out, you might want to consider holding out until they eventually distribute it again.

Skill Box Summons

There are two new skill box summons available this time.

Box 1

• Available Skills: Force Survivor, Auto-Tarunda

Verdict: The only source of Force Survivor so far. This is a great skill for Baal and Cu Chulainn A, as it ensures they won't be blown up by Surt A's Twilight Inferno. Auto-Tarunda is a generally useful skill, though it might be hard to find a slot for it nowadays.

Box 2

• Available Skills: Dark Survivor, Auto-Taruka

Verdict: The only source of Dark Survivor so far. This is a great skill for Tzitzimitl if running the counter build against SurtA Sisters, or for your Dark nukers in general like Hecate and Lilith A who already have innate Dark Amp. Auto-Taruka is always useful to have especially for Democalypse.

New Demon Analysis

These are preliminary observations, full writeup will be added to the Tier List after some testing this week.

Mahamayuri

• Kujaku Myo-o makes him immune to Ailments and Auto-cleanses your entire party at the start of turn. This is incredibly powerful for Battle Tower, as the MC is forced to move first - other Clerics cannot prevent him from wasting a Press Turn.
• Hits fairly hard due to innate Force Amp, high BP on Blossoming Cyclone and a good MAG stat. As a bonus, it also heals your whole party, allowing him to provide sustain the same way Ardha does.
• He possesses the extremely coveted Repel Force (for comparison, the only other useable Repel Force demon are Mot and Mastema), which makes Atavaka pairings possible.
• Teal patches up his Elec Weakness.
• On the flip side, he wants way too many stats at once - MATK to deal damage, HP for survivability, Evasion against Phys attacks - which makes him tricky to build. The same goes with his transfer skills - do you transfer Master Assassin to let him hit harder? Epitome of Fortitude to tank better? Evade to capitalize off his P1 bonus? Support skills like Autos?
• Compared with Daisoujou, the former has better stats + kit for a pure support demon - no weaknesses, can focus purely on survivability/evasion, can run a myriad of support skills, while Mahamayuri has more offensive pressure. Pick whichever your team needs more.

Pales

• Basically gives all your Vile, Jaki and Drake demons Intimidating Stance, the best being Demiurge.
• Has three Repel/Drains to further the Demiurge synergy.
• Only requires one other Vile, Jaki or Drake demon to work, unlike the racial trios (Angels/Moirai). It's better to run Pales + Demiurge + another Intimidating Stance demon like Surt A or Masakado for Double IS, instead of trying to cram in a third Vile/Jaki/Drake.
• With P1 he gains +60% Ailment Recovery. Add in Fast Recovery or Rallying Survivor and you have a guaranteed Charm and Bind cure (base chance of 25% + 80%/85%). The last slot can be something like Prayer, letting him act as your team's Cleric.
• Teal patches up his Fire Weakness.

Cernnunos

• Perfect for Dark Democalypse as he has a strong ST skill that casts Rakunda and innate Dark Amp in Purple.
• Life & Death revives a demon the moment an enemy dies. This opens up possible combos with Ixtab, especially against AOE.
• With no usage limit, Life & Death is a powerful tool to keep momentum swinging in your favor, as it also procs off ally kills. This is particularly strong with P2, as it adds a Rakukaja and Tarukaja buff to the mix.
• Innate Enduring Soul+ is useful to let him last around longer.
• He can also run a support set in Yellow, letting his allies do the killing instead and supporting the team with Autos, Recarmdra etc

Events

Special Advent

A special Advent is available this week which hands out 10x Universal Spirits each day. This is an incredible reward you will definitely not want to miss daily!

Democalypse

Democalypse is ON this week!

• Season: 37
• Elements: Dark, Elec, Fire
• Before Cull: 03 May 2021, 12 noon
• During Cull: 07 May 2021, 12 noon

• Fire Tier List
• Dark Tier List
• Elec Tier List

Battle Tower

• Season: 4
• Round: 4

Round four of Battle Tower begins this week!

List of handicaps:

• Attack first at start of battle (-30%)
• Party immune to ailments (-30%)
• +15% to enemy damage output (+20%)
• +25% to enemy damage output (+20%)
• -80% to party Phys damage output (+20%)
• +50% to enemy Fire/Force damage output (+20%) This display is bugged on the Global client, the damage increase is to Force, not Elec!!
• Enemy nulls mortal (+20%)
• +50% to enemy HP (+20%)

List of sidegoals:

• Activate an Almighty skill (+1500)
• Perform a Physical attack (normal attack included) (+1500)
• Win without ally being downed (+1500)

Meta Analysis

This section attempts to analyze the Tower meta. All teams are assumed to be running full debilitating handicaps (+120%) and trying to clear all 3 side goals (+4500).

• Some notes on the damage reduction handicap: The handicap interacts additively with any boosts you have, instead of being a flat out reduction of final damage. This makes it a lot less painful than one would think.
  • Let's take Ardha for example, with Phys Amp and Master Assassin transfer. Sahasvara (10%) + innate Epitome of Carnage (15%) + transferred Phys Amp (25%) + Master Assassin (20%) = 70% boost
  • So in reality you are going from 170% down to 90%, which is slightly less than half of your "usual" damage. The more damage boosts you can stack, the lesser the effect of the handicap.

• Defense:
  • Bulky Slow IS Teams: A combination of Null Mortal, +50% HP and -80% reduced Phys damage dealt means they will likely survive the first turn, especially if double Intimidating Stance is included.
    • Surt A is perfect for this: Not only does he have Intimidating Stance in Purple, he also gets to abuse the +50% Fire damage handicap. It's also difficult to win without killing him, which in turn ensures Twilight Inferno will go off and likely deny them the third side-goal of winning without casualties.
    • Ward brands are very powerful on defense this season, as it means Angra Mainyu offenses cannot just disable you with 16 Scourges without running some form of Barrier Break.
  • Moirai Sisters: In addition to all the points covered above, Atropos also gets a whopping +90% to the second part of her chain. You can also forgo Atropos for the bulky Xi Wangmu + Lachesis + Clotho core and have the MC solo carry DPS with +40% damage, but this is not recommended unless you have a P3 Rama shield and good Ailment Resist Demonites, as the team is otherwise prone to getting shut down by Ailments like 16 Scourges.
  • Fast teams: These teams can very likely deny the third goal, especially if Huang Di sword is not used (so players can't cheese it with Double Stance + Repel shield tricking the AI into Yinglong Flash) and/or if Masakado A is included. On the flip side, getting outsped will likely mean conferring full points to the attacker.
  • Everyone's favorite purple bug Angra Mainyu is of course unaffected by any of the handicaps, and 16 Scourges is still as strong as ever. The Daisoujou + Xi Wangmu + Angra Mainyu works just as well this season, so you should definitely prepare for this.

• Offense:
  • With slow teams looking to be a popular defense, an anti-slow team core should be greatly considered.
  • Skull Knight is a clear winner this season. Not only will he net you two goals on his own, his damage is unaffected by handicaps and will allow you to quickly assassinate dangerous targets, especially if supported by Masakado A. The last slot can be something like Asura Lord or Shiva A who can serve as extra DPS, or an ailment demon like Angra Mainyu or Motoko Kusanagi to lock down the rest of the team (specifically the MC!) while you mop up key threats.
  • Demiurge + Angra Mainyu is a great counter to Moirai, as it stops the second half of Passionate Rage from firing (haha get it, fire), while also netting you the first goal for free thanks to False God (chain effects count towards side goals). If you pair him with a Drain Elec demon like Mother Harlot or Ardha, his heal might be enough to keep everyone alive for the third side goal.
  • Ward brands work again this season, making splashed Angra Mainyu a bit easier to deal with. Watch out for Daisoujou with Barrier Break though!
  • A fast team should also be considered, though you will probably need some sort of Ailment control to keep everyone alive for the third goal. With 80% reduced Phys damage and +50% HP (mainly concerns their MC), it will be difficult to sweep them in one turn, before their MC inevitably kills your Hresvelgr or Kartikeya on the swingback. Transfer Drain or some cheap Almighty spell to Hresvelgr, and remember to Mortal Jihad once with Kartikeya to complete all side goals.
  • Endure skills like Enduring Soul and/or Fire Survivor are very useful to keep everyone alive for the third goal. Don't overestimate it though - with the bonus damage handicap several demons are able to knock you down to ES immediately after a single skill.

• Risky Picks:
  • Even though Ailments are unaffected by the handicaps, team-wide Null Mortal means a single cleric like Daisoujou will instantly hard-counter your entire team, as you cannot simply mortal him to solve the problem. In addition, panelled Moirai sisters also hard-counter Ailments, making dedicated Ailments a very risky pick this season. On the flip side, they completely trivialize slow teams without Daisoujou, so weigh your options carefully.