Introduction

The GungHo Collab Super Godfest has blessed me with Dark Karin who has quickly become my favourite leader for farming Arena 5. This is because she combines ease of activation, high and consistent damage, along with flexible team building options that can cover all the required mechanics.

This article will be solely focusing on Dark Karin’s ability to clear Arena 5 and will look at mechanics/counters are required, her strengths and weaknesses, and team building compositions.

As with any leader, the team used should be customized to the dungeon at hand and this article will be solely focusing on Arena 5.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Sample clear

This clear was done right after rolling her and is essentially the same I plan to use moving forward.

Arena 5 mechanics

Arena 5 is often considered the best Arena to farm due to the fact that it provides a hefty amount of Rank experience, two Killer latents (Dragon, Devil, etc.), and a singly Py. Furthermore, the difficulty level has become significantly easier over time due to the introduction of spicier leaders and more options to counter the various mechanics.

The following is a brief summary of the notable mechanics in the dungeon. This may not be an exhaustive list for every team but is the checklist I use when team building for this dungeon.

• Damage Absorb Void (Fujin -style)
• Jammer skyfall buff (eg.  )
• Skill Delay Resists  for the above
• VDP
• FUA (maybe )
• 100% Blind Resist
• 100% Jammer Resist
• Cloud Resist
• Burst damage

Being able to address each of these options will ensure a much higher clear rate overall.

Special mention needs to be made for the Jammer Skyfall buff active as it ensure the 15 turns of Poison skyfalls is cancelled out. Fenrir , Spirit Ally, Tokagero , and Skill Card: Agidyne  all fulfill this role. An exception to this can be made if one is using a Kuroyuri loop.

Why no Poison Resist?

Poison Resist is an invaluable tool in many dungeons but in the context of Arena 5, it is not my priority. This is because there are no preemptive poison attacks and the most notable encounter may not prove lethal.

Hamal on Floor 16 has a 50% chance to appear and will absorb damage from a single colour. As such, there is a 1/5 chance they will absorb your friend’s leader sub attribute for a grand total of a 10% (1/2*1/5) that it will be a problem. While that can become a problem, they only use their full board of poison on their first turn so only a single board changer is required.

As such, I only bring Poison Resist if everything else above is covered.

Dark Karin in Arena 5

Karin

Active: For 3 turns, 2x ATK for Light, Dark Att.; For 3 turns, reduce damage taken by 50% (13 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK and 1.5x HP for Light Att.; Increase orb movement time by 2 seconds; 4x ATK and 2x RCV when matching 5 or more connected orbs [2.25/256/4/]

Awakenings:        
Super Awakenings:   
Typing: Attacker / Healer
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1007 (1158)
HP 3048 (3505) / ATK 2645 (3042) / RCV 521 (599)
Weapon Assist Awakenings:   

Pros in A5	Cons in A5
Strong LS multipliers Easy to activate 2.25x HP 4x RCV Flexible team building High personal damage against key spawns   Promotes easy VDP Does not rely on Gemstone Can use Devil Killer latents Can VDP + FUA with ease 3 Skill Boosts Actives will be ready in time Valuable base active Built in movement time	No Damage Reduction in LS Reliant on active Vulnerable to Gravity + hit on Hera Nyx Super Awakenings lost in coop Loses the VDP potential

As a whole, I feel that Dark Karin was made for Arena 5 as her own kit addresses essentially all issues for the last few floors while having an easy time activating her full 256x ATK multiplier.

Dark Karin boasts 2.25x HP which ensures she has enough HP to survive any preemptive along with 4x RCV to easily heal back up. In addition, she has amazingly high personal damage against the final floors as her Dragon and Devil Killer grants 9x on top of 7 Combo and VDP .

In fact, is it her VDP potential that pushes her over the edge for clear consistency.

Several end floor spawns feature the lovely Damage Void and Resolve mechanic. As such, many teams will struggle to address this as they must match the 3×3 Box, column of Hearts, and usually 7 or more combos for both activation and damage on the VDP card. With this in mind, Karin has a distinct advantage as she can always hit her full 256x multiplier and let her Killers deal a meaningful amount of damage without 7 combos. This is further multiplier by the fact that both leaders have a VDP and can equip Devil Killer latents. To top it off, her base active provides an additional 2x damage for 3 turns which prevents the need to bring a Gemstone.

All of these factors result in sufficient damage to kill Cthugha without 7 combos from a tri-elemental board that will have an FUA included.

Moving beyond this, Dark Karin’s team building options are quite flexible as she can use any Light card including those with Light sub attributes. This should be done to bring a few high damage 7 Combo cards who can deal with the earlier floors to ensure there is sufficient damage so Karin can use her VDP Super Awakening.

The only major glaring weakness is Dark Karin’s ability to survive Hera Nyx’s first attack as there is no Damage Reduction built into the Leader Skill. With that being said, Hera Nyx can be easily killed via VDP + FUA and all of the Devil Killing potential + Light vs Dark damage ensures this occurs. With that being said, Dark Karin is best used in Solo mode in order to abuse her VDP for the later floors.

Team building

The art of team building will vary from Box to Box, but it is critical to determine the lethal mechanics and how to counter them. Karin is able to naturally handle the VDP/burst aspect on her own without + Combo actives so it is a manner of addressing the other mechanics:

• Damage Absorb Void (Fujin -style)
• Jammer skyfall buff (eg.  )
• Skill Delay Resists  for the above
• VDP
• FUA (maybe )
• 100% Blind Resist
• 100% Jammer Resist
• Cloud Resist
• Burst Damage

Due to Karin’s base active being quite valuable, she can equip a Resist card of your choice (more information on optimizing Skill Inheritance and Weapon Assists can be found HERE.) which enables her to cover either the Blind or Jammer aspect (60+40% Weapons result in full coverage).

The Fujin and Jammer Skyfall buff should be placed on cards with reasonably low cooldowns (with desirable base skills) who also have 4-6 SDR latents to ensure they are able to be used right away. From this criteria, Light Cotton is an outstanding choice as she offers triple 7 Combos (or double + VDP), FUA , and a 5-turn base cooldown. Due to this, I give her my Fujin active as it has a longer cooldown.

The Jammer Skyfall buff is carried by New Year’s Yomi as the naturally shorter inherit can be still ready in time with Yomi’s slightly longer base cooldown. Yomi also owns an L awakening which can be used to remove Locked orbs. This is not mandatory but useful overall.

Another important aspect is that both Yomi and Cotton have useful base actives which can be used after their inherits have fulfilled their purpose.

My final two sub choices are Light and Valentine’s Ney for their tri-board changers that produce Light, Dark, and Hearts that can be used for the VDP + FUA combo. Furthermore, Valentine Ney’s VDP potential can help if a board is exceptionally dark heavy (or if no Lights on an earlier floor).

Team set up

This is my own template and works well for what I have while also addressing all of the mentioned mechanics:

Solo Arena 5 – Dark Karin
Card
SA
Inherit
Latent			x6		x6

The above team has 100% Jammer and Blind resist along 40% Poison, copious amounts of movement time, two valuable board changers, High VDP, and Cloud protection.

The positioning of Light Ney and New Year’s Yomi is to help ensure that only a Dark Absorb can ruin my day.

Conclusion

Dark Karin is a phenomenally powerful leader in an Arena 5 setting as she is able to easily overcome all of the difficult spawns in the dungeon. Her biggest asset is being able to execute Void spawns who have resolve without requiring 7 combos. This is attributed to her high personal damage through Killer and non-combo reliant ATK multiplier.

For myself, my team is able to clear the dungeon with relative ease and building your own is a manner of finding the right pieces to cover all of the required components.

Let me know what you think about Dark Karin and how you build her team in the comments below.

Happy Puzzling!

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