Introduction

I previously rolled in the Draconic Orchestra event along with the 7-Magic Stone Super Godfest and was magically blessed with both Phenom and Ina . These two can combine to make a truly Phenominal team that is able to waltz through the hardest content available despite being a blob-oriented leader.

The past meta was heavily defined by pure combos as they are simple to match along with having solid multipliers. By comparison, blob leaders tended to fall behind as their multipliers could not justify the harder/more orb hungry activation clause.

With that being said, Phenom x Ina throw all of that out the window as they come high Effective Health, built in Follow Up Damage, natural Resists, bonus combo count, and a strong sub pool.

This article will take a closer look at my own team composition along with my rationale for each card along with strategies for tackling Alt. Arena 2 (AA2). As such, not everything here will be relevant if playing through different content.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Alt. Arena 2 Clear

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Alt. Arena 2 mechanics

Alt. Arena 2 is currently the hardest dungeon available in North America (Alt. Arena 3 is coming soon) and offers lucrative rewards from a Monster Experience point of view due to a random Snow Globe + Rainbow Snow Globe Dragon as drops. In all honesty, Arena 5 is better to farm as it is faster, easier, and drops two Killer latents along with special events granting more Rank Experience (from the regular 4x EXP events).

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 ) Ina counters this
• 100% Blind Resist
• 100% Poison Resist
• Cloud Resist
• Awoken Bind Clear
• Effective HP > 162,444 (largest preemptive)

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 ensures the 10 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.

One thing I want to stress is that letting anything attack you is bad as they can throw out a whole host of various abilities or deal massive amounts of damage. As such, it is often best to kill each floor right away if possible and using orb changers helps ensure this. Many lethal mechanics are avoided if the spawn dies right away but there are some where you can take a few extra turns.

Take away message: the best defense is killing them right away.

Why no Jammer Resist?

Due to limited space for awakenings and inherits, it may be difficult to have 100% Jammer Resist and it is the least dangerous mechanic in Alt. Arena 2. There are still spawns that produce Jammers but being able to Resist the above is more important as they tend to be more lethal overall.

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

Phenom x Ina in Alt. Arena 2

Phenom

Active: Reduce unable to match orbs effect by 5 turns; Change bottom row to Dark orbs (6 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x HP & ATK for Dark Att.; Increase combo by 1 when matching 3 or more colors; 4x ATK when matching 4 or more connected Dark orbs up to 8x at 8 orbs [4/256/1/]

Awakenings:    
Super Awakenings:  
Typing: Attacker / Dragon
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1299 (1494)
HP 5925 (6814) / ATK 3063 (3522) / RCV 283 (325)

Ina

Active: Create 2 Dark orbs; For 1 turn, increase orb move time by 1 seconds (3 turn cooldown)

Leader Skill: 1.5x all stats for Dark Att.; Reduce damage taken by 25% when above 80% HP; 10x ATK when matching 6 or more connected Dark orbs; 50000 additional damage when matching 6 or more Dark orbs [2.25/225/2.25/43.75%]

Awakenings:  
Super Awakenings:   
Typing: Attacker / Devil / Dragon
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1202 (1382)
HP 6074 (6985) / ATK 2645 (4531) / RCV 130 (150)
Weapon Assist:  

Pros in AA2

Cons in AA2

Built in Follow Up Damage Fully counters Resolve spawns Makes many dangerous spawns much easier High VDP potential High durability Can survive all preemptives if full health Can easily heal back up +1 combo with 3 or more colours Built in 20% Hazard Resist (  ) Easier to Resist dangerous mechanics Both leaders have fast charging orb changers Built in Time Extend from Ina Overwrites debuffs Rows add significant damage

Naturally low movement time Requires 6 Dark orbs May have to stall or use actives Damage Reduction only occurs when >80% Lost upon multi hit Goemon becomes harder to survive

The most valuable aspect of Phenom x Ina pairing is the free 50,000 True Follow Up Damage. This single handedly trivializes many spawns as their Resolve mechanic is negated. This means players will never have to worry about matching FUA / SFUA , accidentally killing a Resolve spawn and triggering the 1% execute, along with a much easier time performing VDP . This also means they can use a wider range of board/orb changers as Hearts are less important.

An example of a spawn being trivialized is Floor 12’s Alfecca who has Resolve along with a Water, Wood, Light, Dark, and Poison orbs. Normally players must find a way to not kill them along with acquiring 5 Hearts for the FUA. With Phenom x Ina you simply match 6 Dark orbs and proceed. This logic applies to many Resolve + Void spawns as a simple VDP with combos is usually enough to kill.

This built in Follow Up Damage is so incredibly powerful that I would not be surprised if GungHo begins to release more cards with this type of mechanic as they will become chase cards in future events.

Moving beyond this, Phenom x Ina has beautiful synergy with VDP as they will fully activate from the 9 connected Dark orbs along with being able to utilize strong VDP subs. Furthermore, they can ignore the Resolve aspect and simply generate sufficient Dark orbs and match away. While there is no hard combo count required for activation, being able to tap into a +1 from 3 colours along with certain 7 Combo cards can be meaningful. Remember, VDP is the only pattern that must be matched regardless of the spawn so bicolours without Hearts can be used.

In regards to their defensive capabilities, Phenom naturally comes with 20% Resist    which makes it easier to achieve 100% immunity while also giving players the opportunity to inherit actives they actually want to use. This has beautiful synergy with Phenom’s 6 and Ina’s 3 turn cooldowns. Furthermore, Phenom is able to gain either Cloud   or Tape via Super Awakenings or another VDP if those can be covered.

This pairing will also yield 3x HP, 1.5x RCV, and 25% Damage Reduction when above 80% HP. This does provide sufficient Effective HP to naturally tank all preemtives provided players use the HP badge. Just be aware that multi hits will deal their full strength if they occur when below 80% HP.

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. Below is my mental checklist when looking at just my two leaders.

• Damage Absorb Void (Fujin -style)
• Jammer skyfall buff (eg.  )
• Skill Delay Resists  for the above
• VDP  (will want more)
• FUA (maybe ) Ina counters this
• 100% Blind Resist
• 100% Poison Resist
• Cloud Resist
• Awoken Bind Clear
• Effective HP > 162,444 (largest preemptive)
• All 5 colours (3/5 fulfilled)

Team set up

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

Solo Alt. Arena 2 – Phenom x Ina HP Badge
Card
SA
Inherit
Latent			x6			x4

The Jammer Skyfall buff is placed on Ina due to her low cooldown and useful base active. In an ideal world, players utilize Spirit Ally, Tokagero as it provides a board changer along with Team HP and RCV . This adds significant bulk which will make it easier to survive Goemon on Floor 2. There is a 50% chance of it being needed on floor 6 and Ina should be used on a regular basis afterwards to prevent recharging up. If skyfalls provide an unmatchable amount of Jammers, leave them in the bottom row for Phenom to clear later. Phenom carries Eschamali as it provides a massive amount of Dark orbs along with a 15% skyfall buff for 4 turns. While this is at odds with Hiei , his buff is often overwritten by enemies along with both Skyfall buffs overwriting the restrictions imposed by Sumire or Kaede (no Hearts for 3 turns).

Sumire/Kaede floor into the Puppeteers is one of the more dangerous floors as the No Hearts for 3 turns plus Dark Absorb for 5 turns can turn ugly very fast. As such, either a Skyfall buff from Hiei or Eschamali or the Delay from Rathian Weapon Assist makes this significantly easier.

In regards to your Damage Absorption Void active, it can be flexibly placed as it is not required until Floor 13. This means you will have at least 12 turns of charging up (plus your Skill Boosts ) with more stalling happening naturally due to the 6 required Dark orbs. For myself, I have to do a small amount of extra stalling as I wish to use the Cecil Weapon Assist . This active comes with a longer cooldown but also has a beneficial board changer which justifies the stalling for myself.

Core subs for my team are Hiei and Eir as they are best in slot for colour coverage. Hiei provides massive damage output along with a 99 turn Dark skyfall buff whereas Eir ensures I am able to heal back up with a 4-Heart match due to Enhanced Heal Orbs .

I chose Yomi as they have a surprising amount of HP along with a natural L which is occasionally helpful. Valentine’s Ney is quite luxurious as she provides a powerful board changer along with 5 turns of Awoken Bind clearing. I actually have 3 base actives that can clear Awoken Bind (plus one from an inherit) which gives me flexibility when dealing with this mechanic.

This team has VDP on 4 cards which makes it significantly easier to overcome Void spawns or for burst damage as this pattern will grant my full ATK multiplier.

Putting all of this together results in me fully ticking off my mental checklist of mechanics along with 80% Jammer Resist along with Tape Resist .

• Damage Absorb Void (Fujin -style)
• Jammer skyfall buff (eg.  )
• Skill Delay Resists for the above
• VDP
• FUA (maybe ) Ina counters this
• 100% Blind Resist
• 100% Poison Resist
• Cloud Resist
• Awoken Bind Clear
• Effective HP > 162,444 (largest preemptive)
• All 5 colours

Conclusion

Phenom + Ina is a truly Phenominal team as they are able to address virtually every dungeon mechanic while having high Effective Health along with controllable and powerful burst damage.

Being able to completely ignore Resolve Mechanics trivializes numerous spawns as it takes away most of their kit. As a result, this is my go-to team for farming Alt. Arena 2 if I find myself short on Monster Experience. With that being said, Arena 5 is a better place to farm in most cases as it awards more Rank Experience (due to frequent 4x EXP events), two Killers, and is significantly easier with either my Dark Karin or Dark Zeta teams.

Let me know what you think about Phenom + Ina and how you build their team in the comments below.

Happy Puzzling!

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