Karma
Karma is mainly obtained by selling Demons in the Pandemonium which is the easiest way to get rid of demons you consider useless.
Karma is not a "farmable" resource, but more a resource that is accumulated.
For non-veteran players, Karma is mainly used for Arch-Shifters to change the Archetypes of Demons.
Contents
Archetypes
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Each demon may exist in 5 Archetypes : Common (clear/grey), Aragami (red), Protector (yellow), Psychic (purple), and Elementalist (teal). The color/archetype your demon has is visible on its status page.
- The Archetype of a demon only determines the Awaken skill it possesses (see each demon wiki entry to see the different Awaken skills it may have).
- Awaken skills are locked until the demon is Awakened in Pandemonium in exchange of Aethers (items you can farm in Strange Signal).
- For a given demon, some archetypes may be better than others (see Tier List or the demon's wiki profile page to know what is the best Archetype for a given demon).
- Archetypes are attributed to demons when you summon (Gacha) them. Except for "Normal Summon" and "Hell Bun Summon" (both only summon Common/Clear demons), the Archetypes of summoned demons are chosen completely randomly among the 4 non-Common Archetypes.
- However fusing a demon allows you to fully decide which Archetype the demon will get: you need 1 of the two fusion materials to be Clear, and the result of the fusion will inherit the Archetype of the other fusion material.
This poses a problem : whenever you pull/summon a demon, you only have a 1/4 chance of getting the demon's optimal Archetype. This is even more serious if the demon you wish to summon is not fusable.
This problem is solved by items called Arch-Shifters and Arch-Selectors that allow you to change the Archetype of a demon. They are either obtained through events or in the Karma shop.
Archetype Shifting Items
Arch-Shifters are consumable items that can be used on a non-Common Archetyped demon and, when used, randomly change the demon's Archetype.
- 2 types exist : one that can only be used on Natural 4★ (Arch-Shifter 4★) and the other on Natural 5★ only (Arch-Shifter 5★), that is, it doesn't matter that a demon was evolved, if it's originally a 4★ or a 5★ demon, it'll still require a 4★ or 5★ Selector/Shifter.
- The random aspect of the Archetype change means you will often need to use more than one Arch-Shifter on the same demon to obtain the desired Archetype.
- Arch-Selectors will allow you to change to the Archetype of your choice. They also come in the 2 same types.
- On a price per utility basis, Arch-Shifters are better than Arch-Selectors (on average you only need 3 Arch-Shifter to get the desired Archeype while Selectors cost 5 times more Karma).
Managing Arch-Shifters
Arch-Shifters 5★ are very expensive: 3000 Karmas represent 10 non-Common 4★ demons sold... And 3 of them are usually needed. The 4★ version is also expensive for what it does. As such, Arch-Shifters should be kept for:
- Non-fusable Demons. Fusable ones should be fused with the correct Archetype instead.
- Demons you plan to use immediately and who would benefit a lot from having the correct Archetype. If you don't plan to use the demon in the near future, it is smarter to wait as there is a chance you would summon the Demon again but in its correct Archetype.
- Very expensive fusable demons. It can be acceptable to use Shifters on very high Grade 5★ demons (Lucifer, Metatron, Shiva etc.) if you absolutely need them now.
Aside from the very expensive Karma shop, Arch-Shifters can be obtained through events. It is not impossible to get one Arch-Shifter 5★ each month, from events, if Sega is being generous.
Karma management
Accumulating Karma
There is no place to directly harvest Karma. You accumulate Karma by selling 3★, 4★ and 5★ demons. The profit for selling demons depends on several factors, including which demons are sold, how they are obtained, how hard it is to obtain them, and how much and what it costs to obtain them. The table below contains the costs for some of the cheapest demons (rounded up):
| Demon | Cost | Profit | Rates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3★ Clear | rare demon talk | 1 Karma | 1 Demon/Karma |
| 3★ Colored | 50~100 Gems | 10 Karma | 5~10 Gems/Karma |
| 4★ Clear | Sandalphon: 171k Mag + about 13 1★ Clear Demons | 30 Karma | 5700 Mag/Karma |
| 4★ Colored | Sandalphon: 50-100 Gems + 2 1★ Clear Demon + 330k Mag | 300 Karma | 5-10 Gems + ~1100 Mag/Karma |
| 5★ Clear | Alilat: about 1M Mag + 60 1★ Clear Demons | 250 Karma | ~3850 Mag/Karma |
| 5★ Colored | Lilith: 50-100 Gems + about 36 1★ Clear Demons + 3.7M Karma | 2500 Karma | 5-10 Gems + ~1500 Mag/Karma |
As can be seen, the best Karma rates are obtained by selling fused 4★ Colored Demons, because the procedure to obtain "Gacha Demons" with Gems will surely crowd up the inventory with lots of useless 3★ Colored Demons, so fusing them into 4★ Colored Demons makes their 5 Gem cost irrelevant (they'd be spent anyway).
From time to time, some demons get fusion price discounts, usually ranging from 10 to 20% cut, making the conversion rates even more attractive.
It's best to plan for the Colored Demon fusion to be the last, that is, the Colored Demon should directly yield a 4★ Demon, otherwise, more MAG will be spent fusing 1-3★ Colored Demons.
Important tips:
- Do not sell 5★ Demons, EVER! Unwanted 5★ Demons should be spiritized to unlock Panels of same type Demons or to enhance Armaments in Alter-World.
- Karma shouldn't be "farmed," that is, do not pull/summon Colored Demons with Gems for the sake of "farming" Karma. Colored Demons, mainly 3★, will naturally pile up as one goes through banners to try getting rare Demons, so there will be plenty to be sold for their Karma.
Not every 3★ and 4★ Demons are suitable for being sold:
- if they have rare or useful transferable Gacha skills, you should keep them as transferable skill fodders (see Skill Transfer#Advanced skills - Hoarding Demons for their Gacha skills for a list of rare transferable Gacha skills).
- Common (aka Clear) Archetype demons should not be sold as they yield little Karma and are more useful as fusion material.
- Gacha demons (aka non-fusable) are not to be sold.
- 4★ can be useful for Democalypse (bi-weekly Faction Event) at least as long as you still lack 5★s. Anubis and Titania are the most notable decent 4★ to keep for Democalypse (check the Democalypse article and the Tier List to evaluate which ones you want to keep).
- That being said, as you go through the game, gathering Magnetite to fuse 4★ will become quite easy. So, you shouldn't worry too much about selling fusable 4★.
A few "useless" fusable demons should be kept for future fusions you may want to perform. Good fusion materials are high Grade demons, so you may want to keep the highest Grade 3 and 4 ★ demons. You would probably want them to be of diverse colors, in case you need to fuse a demon in a precise Archetype.
Only sell demons if you immediately need an Arch-Shifter or you feel flooded with too many Demons and are urged to do some cleaning.
As of Patch 3.2.00, you can sell 4★ Genomes (100 Karma) and 5★ Genomes (1000 Karma) in the Items menu. However, due to the scarcity of 4/5★ Genomes, it is ill-advised to sell Genomes for Karma. It is possible to obtain a supply of 4/5★ Genome by spending 250 Duel Points on Elemental Skill Boxes which hand out 4/5★ Genomes. The Almighty Skill Box contains not very useful almighty attacks such as Necro Dogma which are considered 5★ Genomes at the cost of 500 Duel Points. As of September 2020, reaching Diamond 1 in PvP at the end of each ranked season will net you a "H" elemental skill such as Maragidyne H which is useful for Democalypse, but also are 5★ Genomes worth 1000 karma.
Spending Karma
Arch-Shifters are the primary items for Karma spending. But you can buy a few other items with Karma:
- Tendency Selectors: this item allows you to change the AI-type of a demon. 10 Karma in exchange of 10 Tendency Selectors; a very good price, good item to spend a few Karmas on.
- Low rarity demons (1 and 2★): they may be purchased in the Compendium (not the Karma shop). Kanbari is one of the best Compendium demons to purchase (see Leveling).
- Other than that, it can be worth it to spend on 2★ if they are complicated to talk/fuse and belong to the road map for a demon you want to fuse.
- You should be very conservative with your purchases at the Compendium. Try to avoid it, as 1★ and 2★ demons are usually easy enough to recruit and/or fuse, at the cost of Stamina and time.
- 4★ (Clear) demons in the Karma shop: a selection of 4★ are available in the Karma shop. These are usually bought to be used in further fusions, saving you the MAG required to fuse them. Of all the 4★ on sale, Odin is the most valuable as he is expensive to fuse from scratch (500k MAG), . Don't buy these unless you have a clear fusion path in mind and want to save on MAG.
- Hell Buns: These are ridiculously expensive, don't buy them.
See also
- Resource Management Guides for other advanced guides.
For another uses of fodder demons:
