Brave Frontier Cardes Team Building F2P Guide

Brave Frontier Cardes Team Building F2P Guide by Rekktor

Hello dear summoners, First time writing a guide here and thought this would be a good place to start :) I’m currently a level 160+ summoner (totally f2p) and I’ve faced this problems before. People say “Oh you have so many good units and i have none that why I cant beat Cardes/Maxwell/Grah/Karl” With the addition of not finding a guide for this, today I’m going to make a F2P guide on how to beat Cardes :)

Content

1. Introduction
2. Basic Cardes Team Building
3. Good Units to use
4. Example (possible) squads

Introduction

First off, I’m going to state a few facts. Firstly by F2P I mean “One has no access to gems at all” which technically isn’t true. But the point is to make the guide as applicable to as many people as possible without relying on summons even though a F2P, in actual fact, does get a few summons along the way. So if you happen to have something that works better (such as an elza) than feel free to just slot it in, the advisable teams here are just skeletal teams. Secondly I will probably be using units you can farm now (hereby dubbed Fully Farmable Units [FFU]) instead of farmable units (hereby dubbed Event Units [EU]) such as stya’s batch which are limited time units. I will make some references to EU but most of the time I’ll stick with FFUs

Basic Cardes Team Building

As always we start off with the skeleton of the skeleton. For Cardes trial do take note that you can bring a BB spam team in, no healer or cures needed. Thus you should have units with high drop checks (not necessarily high hit count, see below) and a BC drop/HC drop buffer. Next, while risky, status ailment curer/preventer is actually not needed. Below will be a link to MilkoGaming’s YOLO run to prove that. But to be safe (and save on item slots) I won’t recommend that. Lastly (and most importantly) you’ll need a mitigator. Does not have to be yours, as long as you have one. Mitigators are important to help you survive against the relentless attacks from Cardes, Luther and Phee. No matter what make sure you have a mitigator on your team.

Good Units To Use

Now on to the actual units you can bring.

Leaders

Grahdens

Even though Grah is a 5* units and thus has lower stats than what is usually recommended as a sub-unit. But as a leader Grah is actually a very viable unit. Grah is a free trial unit you get from beating trial 2, which you will certainly have done before being able to access trial 4. His Leader Skill (LS) boosts all your unit’s stats by 20% and gives a 15% reduction in damage from dark/light types. This can help boost your unit’s stats by quite a bit and can give them a bit more survivability. In addition, his BB adds dark/light elemental attack to all allies to deal more damage.

Lario

With the arrival of 6* for Lario’s batch, Lario has become a very viable unit, comparable to the 6* now in my opinion. Lario’s LS gives a reduction in BB gauge needed to fill to BB/SBB (15%) and a increase in BC drop rate (70%) during spark. His 40 hits SBB with BC drop rate increase synergies very well with his LS, able to provide an easier sparking background and a high BC drop chance (maximum of 40BC for SBB)

Stya

Stya is a EU, only obtainable from vortex event. However with her recent 6* evolution I feel it is only right to add her into the Leaders section (dont want to miss anyone out do I?) Her LS boosts BC (70%) and HC (35%) drop rate during spark. This again synergies well with her 30 hits SBB that boosts her own BC drop rate further, getting close to 100% BC drop rate. needs confirmation as SBB description on wiki says single target

Deemo

Deemo, being a 5* EU unit, suffers from lower than preferred stats but his LS is extremely useful. His LS allows your units to fill BB gauge through sparking, letting your units sustain at least BB easily even against a single unit. Deemo’s BB gives a 50% spark damage increase, boosting your damage by a huge amount if you can spark, and a 20 hit attack which synergies well with his LS, helping your units spark easily and taking the most out of his LS and 50% spark damage increase buff.

Miku

Miku, like Deemo, is a 5* EU unit that also suffers from weak stats but with extremely useful LS and BB. Her LS fill BB gauge by 3BC after each turn and gives a 25% faster BB gauge fill rate, both being very useful in maintaining your squad’s BB. Her BB is useful for BC generation at a whole 27 hits and also bestows the BB gauge fills (by 3BC) after each turn for three turns buff.

Sub Units

Lario (Again!)

Read above tl:dr Lario has high hit count on sbb, use him

Maxwell

Maxwell is the free unit you get from trial 3 which you need to finish to get to trial 4. Maxwell is a awesome, awesome unit. Not looking at her LS, her SBB is the star of the show here. Her SBB is 33 hits with the addition of giving your units a 30% crit buff. 33 hits=more BC produced (maximum of 66BC according to newest information, please confirm) and her crit buff, abide a weak one, is a crit buff nevertheless, giving your squad a higher damage potential.

Weiss

Weiss is the eagle loving unit from Lario’s batch and he is a awesome looking unit. Looking at his BB/SBB, BB bestows a 115% attack buff while his SBB is a 18 hits attack with the chance to lower enemy’s def and atk by 50%. While his BC drop chance is not as flashy as Maxwell or Lario, the chance to lower enemy’s def and atk (or mainly atk) can help your team survive better (Note the atk cut doesn’t affect fixed damage)

Zephu

Another unit from Lario’s batch, this time although his 16 hits SBB is not too attractive, he redeems himself by being able to inflict random status ailments with his SBB. All the enemies in Cardes Trial is able to be affected by one or more status ailments and one of the more important ones is paralysis on Luther, who can removes your buffs. Zephu is a more optional one as there are people who has finished Cardes Trial without caring too much about Luther or Phee.

Miku/Deemo

Not much to say about these two other than them being EUs and both have extremely good hit counts on BB (Deemo 20 vs Miku’s 27). Both of them gives a unique buff (deemo spark buff at 50% and Miku’s bb gauge recovery of 3BC per turn for 3 turns). Other than the low stats there are extremely viable in this trial and are both good free units.

Friend Units

When picking friend units to bring there are two scenarios. First is whether you have a mitigator. Secondly if you have a status ailment curer. As such I have classified those without both as A, those with mitigator as B and those with status ailment curer as C.

Darvenshel

Darvenshel fits the bill for A as his LS prevents status ailments for your team and also he is a mitigator (second best mitigator in my opinion) Recommended spheres for him (if you can contact your friend) is Dandelga and evil shard/fake stone/any BB fill after each turn sphere

Ronel/Twins/Exhvel/Priscilla/Reeze/Ulkina/Rin

Now all this units are meant for those who fit into C. All their LS nullifies status ailments and each also give their own benefits. Ronel gives a 10% boost to HP and 25% boost to BC and HC drop rate, Twins gives a 15% boost to def and rec and heal over time buff, Exhvel (LS doesn’t prevent but his BB/SBB cures and prevents, ask your friend for drevas/refined gem if you want to use him) gives a 30% boost to HP and high hit count SBB, Priscilla gives chance to recover HP when attacked (20% chance to recover 20%-40% damage taken from enemy attack) and she gives all your units a chance to inflict paralysis (currently bugged so it doesn’t work), Reeze gives a 100% chance to recover 1-2 BC when attacked and Ulkina (LS doesnt prevent buffs but her BB/SBB cures and prevents) gives 15% reduction in BB gauge cost, 25% boost to Atk and as a unit is able to heal as well. Rin gives a hp recovery buff on her LS ((650-850)+10% of rec) and a 25% bc drop rate buff. She also acts a pseudo-healer with her SBB (1500-2000HP+122.5% of her own rec) and also buffs def by 50% Personal preference is Rin>Ulkina>Exhvel>Ronel>Priscilla>Reeze>Twins

Narza/Oulu/Shera

All of these units are mitigators, thus fall under friend units for people in B. They offer different LS benefits and BB/SBB benefits. Narza gives a 40% boost in BB fill rate and negates status ailments for 3 turns (does not cure so if luther removes the buff and the units gets inflicted than you cant do anything) and increase BB gauge when attacked by 5-6 BC on his SBB. Oulu gives a 20% boost to HP/DEF and offers a 100% def buff. Shera offers a 20% reduced BB cost (saves 20% BC when BB used) and offers a 80% attack buff on her SBB in addition to being able to attack with quite a high hit count amongst the three mitigators here. My Personal Preference is Shera>Oulu>Narza

Example Of Squads

Squad One (Grah-Darvenshel squad)

Grah Leader

Lario

Lario

Weiss

Lario

Darvenshel Friend

Squad Two (Stya-Darvenshel Squad)

Stya

Lario

Weiss

Zephu

Lario

Darvenshel Friend

TL;DR section

To beat cardes you need to protect yourself against status ailments, have a mitigator and be able to sustain at least BB gauge throughout. The best free units to use are Lario, Grah, Weiss, Zephu, Stya (EU), Miku (EU) and Deemo(EU). Friends cover for what you don’t have (example mitigator).

BC drop check vs Hit Count

BC drop check refers to the number of potential BC produced for one hit. Thus if a unit has 2DC/hit and has 10 hits than that unit’s maximum BC drop is 2×10=20BCs. The reason I said to use units with high drop check and not necessarily high hit count is because there are certain units that have low hit count but extremely high drop check (e.g Dilma). However, do take note that HC drops are dependant on hit count so if you are going to do it just relying on HC drops for heals you might want to bring units with high hit count.

So this is the end of my first guide, hope you guys like it and I do hope it helps those who don’t have the meta units to beat Cardes with actually beat him. Note I might have missed out some units that are good for this and that or have gotten the figures wrong so comment below and I’ll change it when time permits. All the best for your Cardes runs!

Milko’s YOLO video- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vrB7F4HlnC0

More about Drop Checks vs Hit Count

EDIT

So someone suggested Finkell in the comments and I’m sure some of you might be wondering about her. For those of you who don’t know who Finkell is she’s the 3* form of the fairy you meet during quest. Now her BB heals and cures status ailments, meaning technically she’s viable. But being capped at 3* hinders her survivability by a lot. So I decided to do the maths here on if it’s possible to use Finkell for Cardes. So the basic stat distribution for HP and DEF (the two stars that affects survivability) is at least 8000Hp and 2000Def to be in the ‘safe’ zone.

Finkel anima stats: 3434(HP) 1169(Atk) 882(Def) 1121(Rec)

So the spheres I’m gonna use are Drevas and than double grah leader to see if the extreme can take her there (with and without imps)

Thus max HP (no imps) is 3434x(100+25+20+20)%=5666 (way lower than the 8000 I set)

Max HP (with imps) is (3434+400)x165%=6325 (still lower)

Max DEF (no imps) is 882×165%=1455 (still lower)

Max DEF (with imps) is (882+160)x165%=1719 (again lower)

While I’m not saying Finkell is unusable, she isn’t, but her max possible HP and DEF is too low for a unit to be fighting Trial 4. Even so, I don’t think anyone will want to spend imps on Finkell when there are even better units to spend them on. So if you’re going to use Finkell keep in mind that you should guard when you don’t need the heal and when you do need to heal pray for RNG not to kill her.

NOTE

For those who don’t know, stat boosting percentages are additive not multiplative (ie you add them up before using that percentage on the base stat instead of finding the percentages of percentages)