Welcome to another post on Granblue Fantasy, the game I made a huge fuss about quitting a year ago today. To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Quitting Granblue Fantasy is easy: I’ve done it hundreds of times.”
Today it’s time to look at all the things I have magically achieved despite “dropping” the game last year. It’s a miracle, I tell you. I just woke up in the morning and there were all these grids!
Disclaimer:This post will mainly be of interest to people already helplessly trapped by Grindblue Farmtasy. If you’re not one of those, stop reading right now lest you be drawn away and enticed and end up like the rest of us. You were warned.
Achievements in Grinding
✦Built a Class Champion Weapon. I said I wouldn’t but I did it anyway. The story of my life. I don’t have any real memories of doing it because the grind was very easy. I suspect Cygames sensed my ambivalence and tweaked the drop rates to keep me from quitting. It’s the only explanation.
What I do remember is that Cygames announced a reduction in the weapon stones needed for a CCW barely a week after I finished my own. There are no words.
✦Unlocked and mastered all Tier IV classes. The old lady you have to fight in “Search for an Heir” is pretty manageable if you take green potions and a healing skill along. Now that Shiva is a thing, building up a charge attack and letting her have it might be an option too.
I use Chaos Ruler for solo content and Berserker/Warlock/Elysian for raids. Very occasionally I run Sage, Spartan or Luchador. Gameplay-wise I favor Chaos Ruler because it’s a very stable and self-sufficient class. Also dem debuffs.
Looks-wise Berserker is my hands-down favorite. Not because it’s powerful, though it is, but because it’s one of the few classes where Gran looks genuinely happy in the art. I’m going through all this trouble because he couldn’t keep his hands off a pretty lady, the least he can do is flash a smile once in a while.
So strong it makes me Shiva
✦Finished the main story up to the current update (chapter 105). However I started skipping the text for most events even before I “quit” so I have no idea what’s going on.
✦Finished all the Arcarum quests available and unlocked all the SR summons except Justice and Temperance. I’ve decided to focus on developing Judgement for now because the kitty cat is cute. You’d be surprised at the number of decisions that get made in this game “because he/she/it’s cute.”
✦Unlocked and mastered all Extra classes. I’d ignored them for a while but finally got round to finishing up Assassin and Mechanic last week.
✦Became capable of beating almost all event raids/bosses by myself. If nothing else, this helps ward off Granblue Lonely Heart Syndrome, that strange phenomenon where raids die almost instantly when you join them but linger forever with no one joining when you host them.
I called for help right at the start :'(
✦Sparked Summer Zooey. I documented it here so no need to go over that. I have about 29,000 crystals and 38 tickets saved up for the next spark. It would be more, but I blew 9,000 crystals and a ticket trying to get Grimnir. I didn’t get him, of course. Of course. Here are the characters I’ve picked up since September:
✦Raised five characters to level 100: Yuel, Amira, Lancelot, Gawain and Silva the Great. Four other characters are in their 90s: Charlotte, Magisa, Vaseraga and Lady Grey. My current lineups are far below.
✦Unlocked two Eternals: Seofon and Threo. Seofon is an ougi/triple-attacking beast and a staple of my Wind party. Threo is much less impressive but has her uses. Also she’s kind of cute with her big axe. I was going to build Seox or Tweyen next, even farmed up most of the material. But with the Granblue 4th Anniversary less than two months away it’s better to wait and see how the game changes before making any major commitments.
✦FLB’d almost all my omega weapons. MLB = filling three stars on a weapon. FLB = filling the three stars and the extra blue star at the end. I’ll post my grids further below.
✦Upgraded my Bahamut dagger from Nova to Coda. Pubbed/Twitter Proto Bahamut HLs fail 90% of the time, but Co-op raids succeed 90% of the time so it’s no big deal. Finding a PBaha HL room that accepts players under 120 is harder than finishing the raid itself.
However I do remember one room that allowed even level 101 players in. It was being run by a bunch of 150+ veterans. At the start of the battle the leader was like “Okay newbies, try not to die before it hits 50%.” One minute later… 50%. Eeeeeh?!!! Paralyze. Paralyze Extend. “Get ‘im, boys!” 90 seconds later, dead Baha. “So long, kids! Always brush your teeth!”
It is hands down the coolest thing I had ever seen in this game. I really wanted to grow up to be a kakkoii sempai like that. Unfortunately in the year since then I haven’t even hosted my own Proto Bahamut HL. So… yeah. Don’t wait up.
Other stuff I haven’t bothered to do yet
✧Haven’t bought Christina from the Casino shop. I make 10 million chips in poker, lose 5 million at Bingo then spend the rest frugally until I drop down to 100,000. Rinse and repeat.
✧Haven’t hosted or joined any of the SSR Carbuncle raids. I’m talking about Prometheus, Ca Ong, Anubis and the like. No special reason, just haven’t gotten round to it. Come to think of it, I haven’t hosted Nezha HL or Dark Angel Olivia HL either. Leeching is just too efficient in this game.
✧Haven’t 5-starred any Eternals. I looked at the requirements and went NOPE FOREVER. I want to go so far as to say I would never undertake such a time-crushing and soul-consuming endeavor, but then someone will point out “You’ve been playing Granblue Fantasy for two years!” and I won’t have a leg to stand on. It’s highly unlikely I’ll ever get one, but never say never.
✧Don’t have any Atma weapons. I didn’t have that many sword characters at first. Now I have Summer Zooey, Black Knight, Vira and Dark Jeanne so it’s worth it at least for Dark. Maybe later in the month.
✧Haven’t FLB’d any summons yet, gacha or free. I got a Sunlight Stone from the Christmas freebies, Unite and Fight just gave me a second and Arcarum should give me a third within two weeks. Then I have to decide which summon gets the honor. Most likely Lucifer because he has an excellent call and is one of the best stat sticks in the game. Besides, he’s already level 60. I’ll wait and see what’s announced during the Anniversary then decide.
My Granblue weapon grids at Level 140
A lot has changed in Granblue Fantasy since I last posted my grids. Back then Xeno weapons weren’t a thing and Seraphic weapons, Atma/Ultima weapons and SSR Carbuncle weapons all didn’t exist. There were no character EMPs, Arcarum summons hadn’t been announced, Grand Series weapons hadn’t gotten final uncaps, a lot of summons didn’t have FLBs… I even referred to Setekh as “that useless Setekh summon.” I hope he doesn’t still remember ^^;;
So there’s a good chance the grids I’m going to post will be obsolete very shortly. Magna/Omega II summons and Shiva-tier raids have already been announced, after all. But I’m going to post them anyway because they’re my grids and I put a lot of work and love into them. For posterity!
Let There Be Light
A vast improvement over my non-starter of a grid last year. It would be even better if Luminiera would just drop one tiny little sword for me. Just one. I have a ton of pendants stored up ready to buy the last 3 swords in the store, see?
All she has to do is give me one sword and everything will be peachy. I’ve tried everything. Arcarum. Trains. Begging. Beating up Apollo and Odin pour encourager les autres. Nothing seems to work. If my Ultimate Technique “Complaining on my Blog no Jutsu” doesn’t work, I’ll have to use a damascus bar and call it a day. Xeno Corow will most likely kick out one or more of the guns and I may or may not replace the Katana with a Huanglong weapon so there’s still a long way to go with this grid.
My lovely light ladies. The front row is largely unchanged from last time, except I kicked Amira out and replaced her with Clarisse for strike time shenanigans.
Other Light SSRs: Sarunan, Rosamia, Albert, Dorothy & Claudia, Baotorda, Mikazuki, Sakura. None of them have impressed me enough to make it to the front row, though Albert does have his uses. My backline is always filled with characters I’m trying to get to level 100.
I’ll only post my summons once because I run largely the same set of stat sticks for all my grids. Back when I used to do 6-man HLs I had carbuncles in there for the damage cuts but now I don’t bother.
The Heart of Darkness
Another massive, nay, MASSIVE improvement over last time. The grid is actually full of dark SSR weapons, unbelievable! The second Celeste axe is there because I had planned to replace it with a second Xeno Diablo Katana. In the end I didn’t bother so I’ll put the Atma Sword there instead. The Ancient Cortanas came from the Prestige pendant store. Dark Angel Olivia only laughs when I talk to her about dropping them.
‘Sup girls? Why are there so many girls in this game anyway? I’m supposed to replace Lady Grey with either the Black Knight or Vira but somehow I just like her. Maybe when I finally get the Atma Sword.
Other Dark SSRs: Vaseraga, Beatrix, Christmas Rosetta, Cagliostro, Marquiares. The last three are still at level 1 and will almost certainly stay there forever.
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies
I use this dagger grid for Chaos Ruler:
And this harp grid for Elysian:
Next time Vohu Manah comes around, I’ll get a second harp for min-maxing purposes. An FLB Baihu Claw is supposed to go in there somewhere but I’m too lazy to check. Otherwise I’m mostly done with Earth.
Almost the same as before but with Threo instead of Arulumaya. The beauty of this lineup is that it allows me to run Alexiel x Yggdrasil or Yggdrasil x TasteTheTapioca depending on what shows up on the summons list. Threo’s Ground Zero is always welcome in Arcarum too.
Other Earth SSRs: Siegfried. Meh.
Fire Consume My Enemies!
I need a second Xeno Ifrit Scythe badly, maybe even a third. I’m not seeing any difference with the addition of that Ancient Ecke Sachs. Okay maybe I do a little more damage at very low HP levels but that’s about it. But I have it so I might as well use it.
I pulled Magisa during Golden Week and got Zeta from the Christmas roulette. Magisa’s veil + Yuel’s Clarity means I almost never have to worry about status attacks. Zeta is there for Break Assassin purposes. I miss the sustain and extra cuteness Zahlhamelina brought to the team but otherwise I’m pretty happy.
Other Fire SSRS: Agielba, Summer Io, Heles. They all suck.
Water, Water Everywhere
That Rose Queen sword and Gabriel Staff are ruining the daggeriness of my grid! The sword at least I will do something by replacing it with a GW dagger. I missed out on the Xeno staff because I was in the midst of No Game November when Xeno Cocytus ran. That’s why I’m using the Pinya Cleaver as an EX for now. I suppose I should replace the Cosmos Dagger DEF with a Cosmos Dagger BAL or SPEC. One of these days.
I pulled Altair just recently and put Lilele away. My nieces were sorry to see her go because they liked to watch “the little dancing girl.” Aww. The good thing about Altair is that he will theoretically free me from having to run Chaos Ruler all the time. As if I want to be free. His 5* crit rate and water ATK buffs sound promising.
Other Water SSRs: Lancelot, Romeo, Charlotta, Summer Narmaya. I’ll be able to make a nice Atma Sword-friendly frontline with the first three when the time comes.
Yo Ho and Blow the Man Down!
Almost unchanged from last time apart from the Seraphic weapon and the Xeno Sagi spear. I FLB’d the first two Tiamat Bolts with damascus bars. My regret at the time was that I didn’t have enough dama bars to finish the job, but now that I’ve gone through the whole process, eh, it wasn’t so hard. Especially now that Shiva is so common and co-op trains are a thing. FLB’ing a wind grid should be a cinch.
The +41 on the Xeno Spear was supposed to be a “floating bonus” kind of thing where I would transfer it from grid to grid based on the event of the day. But seriously, who has time for that?
With Seofon and Feena’s triple attacks and the GW dagger’s boost to multi-attack, this party just piles on charge attack upon charge attack upon charge attack. Metera is mainly there for the charm and the delays, but I’m open to replacing her if necessary. Feena was my first ever SSR so she has tenure.
Other Wind SSRs: Gawain, Summer Siegfried, Wind Lancelot, Arriet, Levi. Gawain is supposed to be good but I don’t see it. Windcelot will come in handy when I get the Atma sword. Oh Korwa, when will you come home?
Baby Varuna and Agni gridlets
The strange glove on the last row is called a Wilhelm. Grani gave it to me, such a sweet old lady. Next time Fenrir Showdown comes round I’ll farm up a Fimbul or two (doubt I’ll have the strength for three) and that will be my Varuna grid. It’s pretty pain-free so far.
I almost have enough gold moons for a weapon. The question is, should that weapon be a Crimson Finger or not? So far signs point to “Yes” but again I’m going to wait for the Anniversary before pulling the plug. Apart from that and a Xeno Scythe or two, I’m as done with Agni as I’ll ever be. TBH it looks pretty meh on paper, but maybe MLB Agni x MLB Shiva can put out some interesting numbers.
Oh, and I also have Zeus and Zephyrus but lack the gacha weapons to build them.
Where to now?
Now that I’ve stopped pretending that I’m capable of quitting Granblue Fantasy, you can expect slightly more regular updates on the subject. But not too regular because there isn’t much left for me to do. A lot depends on what’s announced in the next months and what events are available (Fenrir rerun when?). Grid updates every 6-12 months. Otherwise it will be business as usual on this humble little blog.
Next time: Either a progress report on Raidou Kuzunoha or impressions of the Project Octopath demo.
Recently found this blog a little earlier today (I actually started from the post where you said you were quitting) and ended up here.
After looking through this post and thinking about the fact that you’re only 5 ranks above me at the time of this post, I have to wonder how you somehow have all these FLB grids and I’m still sitting on mostly MLB stuff other than earth (which still has that damned 1* Xeno harp!). Have I been rushing too much?…is the thought in my mind.
On the post though, nice to see that GBF is addicting enough to draw somebody back when they sounded like they were assuredly quitting. Makes me feel a little less disappointed in myself for being this into the game (okay, I’m lying).
On my end, I’ve recently thrown all my sunlight stones at Alexiel since earth is my main grid. Just watch me regret it when I draw something amazing later in RNG spite. 5* grind is a pain, but 40 box method is a horror. I don’t want to spend 17 hours straight again slapping EX+ during GW, even if I can do it fast-ish. I get the feeling if you do end up doing that 5* grind, you’ll end up pulling the gold brick method (which I’m guilty of for Sarasa/Threo).
This might be a touchy subject for some but… did you perhaps slime or Angel Halo your way to level 135? Otherwise you must have spectacularly bad luck to not have FLB’d most of your grids by now. 1 HL 30-man train and 1 HL 6-man train will give you enough centrums and urns to FLB two weapons. I actually envy you a little bit because you still have a lot of stuff left to do.
I will almost assuredly go the Gold Brick way if I ever deem an Eternal worthy of 5*ing. Possibly Uno if that Varuna grid ever gets off the ground. I did 10 boxes this past GW and it almost destroyed me. Just when I thought I’d use the current event to take a breather, they came up with Double Pendant week. Cygames is evil, evil I tell you! But we can quit anytime we want 😉
I have barely slimed at all. The reason I haven’t FLB’d stuff is actually mostly related to quartz than anything else. I made a golden relic for Song/Tweyen and I’m currently gathering them up again for Sarasa/Threo again. That’s 300 quartz in every element…again. I think for a couple grids, I’m going to bottom out on weapon stones too, sadly.
As for centrums and urns, I can actually grab those any time I want (and in fact, I have an excess of them for most elements too). Other than earth because I need like 30 urns for Ultima, not that I can participate in ubaha HL just yet.
The real reason as to why I’m hitting these problems is most likely just how fast I’ve gotten here, which is approximately 6 months. Not enough free draws and stuff to balance out my consumption of paid resources…
Makes sense. Quartz are an extremely limited resource even if you reduce every free summon you get your hands on. I would argue that FLBs take priority over GW characters since you need grids to bring out their full power, but the nice thing about Granblue is that you can play it as intensely or as casually as you want. So it’s okay if you take a little longer to finish those grids, don’t rush yourself.
RE: Ultima weapons I’m just gonna save up 15000 prestige pendants and buy the units from the store. UBaha HL can go jump in a lake.
Complaining-on-my-Blog no Jutsu worked! Kinda. I was going through my stash just now and realized I’d put a spare Chev Sword away long ago until I had enough to uncap it. Added to the three in the store, that’s enough for another FLB sword. Tadaa!
I have just finished reading your entire granblue journey from the start, i must say i really enjoy it.
I myself got into the game because my friend keep nagging me about it and to be honest i would have called it quit if it wasn’t for him. He helped me a lot on the one thing that prevented me from enjoying the game early on which is building my weapon grid.
To get stronger you will need to know how a proper grid look like, make a habbit of doing/leeching magna raid and cap pendant every week. The list go on even further when you pass the tutorial (lvl 101+).
I want to ask you one thing.
Why are we till here?
Just to suffer?
Hahahahahaha XD We’re here because Cygames has tapped into that hidden masochistic side lurking behind all our psyches. And the greater the pain, the greater the joy when you finally finish that grid or unlock that character or reach that high level. Or so I keep telling myself :D. Thanks for reading. Good luck in your draws!
Pulled Korwa from the Anniversary Roulette! Heh heh heh, I knew I’d get her. No one can resist my devilish charms forever.
I started the game because I once saw Vira in some Facebook post, and later found out she was voiced by Asami Imai, who I am a huge fan of.
Started on December 2017, just on time to catch the Attack on Titan event and the Christmas Roulette. Hoped to get any Vira copy, no luck. Told myself that there would be a next time.
Sparked for Vira during subsequent rate-ups, got an awful lot of Dark characters but no Vira. That’s alright, there’s the Anniversary Roulette.
Still no Vira in the daily roulettes. Wanted to just cry on a wall somewhere, but told myself to wait patiently.
100 guaranteed rolls was announced, I danced my dance of joy. Maybe a chance at a Vira character, any character, even the SR Dark one. Just want to hear that Onee-sama.
100 rolls come. I get a Grimnir summon, 2 Gilgamesh summons, 3 decent SSR characters, a bunch of stuff that I could reduce.
Still no Vira though. Not even SR Dark appeared.
I just want to cry in a corner now.
Gacha is not simply a glimpse into hell, it is Hell itself.
There there, it will be all right. I wanted Korwa from May 2016 and finally pulled her in March 2018. I don’t even have a use for her any more. Compared to that, you’ve only been playing for 4 months. You haven’t suffered enough at all! 😈
But you know, since she’s not a limited character you can just buy her outright the next time a suptix rolls around. If you do that, I guarantee you will pull a duplicate of her sword in the very next Legfest…😈
Haha, that’s some dedication to Korwa right there. I think I can understand, though. Korwa’s top tier for Wind, not to mention that character design. Best girl material right there, really.
And yeah, I guess when I look at it all objectively, I am doing pretty well right now. I have overall good teams and characters. I even have Summer Zooey and Summer Beatrix. Guess I can’t just lose heart that easily, eh? Vira WILL be mine someday… hehehehehe…
I did notice that weapons seem to come more easily when you already have them. There’s three SSR Vampy-chan daggers lying around in my inventory right now, and I recently reduced five copies of SR Will’s weapons. Not sure if it’s supposed to be some kind of game feature or I’m just that lucky/cursed.
Just RNG being RNG. I have like 3 copies of Light Clarisse’s weapon and 0 of any other Clarisse, for example. You’ll get Vira eventually, but she might be totally powercreeped by that point.
Always nice to see a Granblue post 😀 Great work, as always!
I see this was back from January, but how have things been since then? Having fun with Magna II??
Nope! I gave up on them after doing a 30-man train and getting only two silver anima. Regular magna is strong enough to clear 90% of content anyway. For everything else I have Varuna. I’ve been coasting ever since with no clear goal. How about you? Did you make a clean getaway or did they manage to pull you back in?
If you consider “infrequent raiding and using sunlight stones on magna summons to avoid the grind” as making a getaway, then I guess so haha. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ah, I feel ya. That’s what I wanted to do, but maxing out Lucifer and Varuna and pulling Bahamut means my stones are booked for the rest of 2018. And “infrequent raiding” is what I’ve fallen into now that I’m out of things to do. I think I’m done here… is what I want to say, but they’ll get me somehow. They always do.
Your posts give me hope for my grind. But how do you manage to get into train and HL raids and such as an English player? I want to run more proto bahamut, and 6 man HLs Qilin/Huanlong, etc. Ive had perfect luck with 6 man raids in Co op but it’s always me hosting and then everyone leaving.
My current goals are
-Getting an Atma wind sword (because I have wind Lancelot, and melissabelle, and other sword characters in other elements).
-Unlocking tweyen (need more light scales but have most of the mats from when I was trying to get six)
-obtain and uncap Lumi swords (I have 1 at 4 stars. No quartz, been beating her for months and 0 drops). Would you recommend I buy the last 4 shop swords to make one MLB or use Damascus maybe?
I’m rank 116 just sparked DAO could have gotten Zooey but I don’t (or I guess didn’t because i also got DK in the mix) have the characters to really get the most out of dark enmity. And only 2 celeste claws). Also with her declining light defense I don’t think Olivia would particularly thrive in an enmity team at least not on element. I have a grid of every element not all skilled up. Light and dark are best > earth and fire > water > wind.
I have a crew with a few active members but we almost never coordinate outside U&F.
Ive been playing pretty regularly since I started last August. But I feel like if I don’t get into more HL raids more often my progress will be at a crawl.
I really enjoy our posts, and I’m glad to see you ended up continuing to play. You can suffer like the rest of us! XP
Getting into trains? The easiest way is to join an established crew that runs such trains regularly. Or that has powerful players willing to carry you. It’s okay to shop around a bit till you find a good fit.
The second easiest way is just plain patience and timing. It’s best to haunt Co-Op at times when Japanese players are active, i.e. between 6pm and 12am JST. It’s even better during magfest. If level restrictions are a bother, wait 4 more levels and you’ll be able to get into most stuff if you keep stalking Co-Op. TBH I never host 6-man raids unless it’s a train >:-D
Third easiest way: use Raidfinder to jump into tweeted HL raids. If you go as an on-element Spartan/Holy Saber and learn the triggers, you will be fine. Welcome, even.
Don’t use Dama bar on Lumi swords. Buying 4 Lumi to make one MLB is fine as long as you have the resources to immediately take it to FLB and raise it to level 120. It only becomes better than a gun at that point. Lumi went on a sword drop strike for me months ago so the only Lumi swords I’ve gotten this year (2) are from Arcarum. Arcarum is worth the time for sure.
Levels 101-119 are a strange place where you’re kind of strong but kind of weak at the same time, but stay patient and work on skilling up your grids one day at a time and you’ll be soloing Proto Bahamut in no time!
The Crew I’m in is one I started. So it’d be weird to leave I think, but maybe it’s time I pass the torch and move on. I do like being in control of the buffs though. Do you have any tips for finding members? Admittedly I try to mostly invite english speakers for the sake of communication, but if there were an efficient way to translate I wouldn’t mind adding just anyone. But when I simply search the scouting menu not only is it mostly empty but no one around my rank is an obvious english speaker, and I think it’d be kind of rude to just troll around and ask.
Also I was curious in what direction I should focus my resources. Like should I spend my true anima grinding bahamut, or save them for an eternal.
Sorry for having so many questions by the way ^^ I haven’t for the lack of a better phrase seen (what seems to be?) F2P player having gotten so far.
– If you started the crew and you like the people, it’s a bit sad to leave them in the lurch. It’s more fun getting powerful together. This seems like a good place for recruitment: https://www.reddit.com/r/Granblue_en/comments/8ryxc5/friends_and_crew_recruitment_thread_june_18_2018/ I hear there’s a Granblue discord out there as well, but I wouldn’t know for sure.
– Your priority should be FLBing and fully skilling up your grids. That’s what will make you strongest right now. If you don’t have Tier IV classes unlocked and mastered already, that takes precedence. Animas are easy to get if you fight 30-man HLs so use them freely on whatever you want. Whether you get an eternal or not, all characters need good grids to bring out their power. Grids, grids, grids. Skills, skills, skills.
– Feel free to ask questions. Just note that I’m not a very powerful player. And I hate grinding so I skip a lot of stuff so I’m not the best example to follow.
Haha, noted. Here’s one I’ve been struggling with:
I have one Lumi sword ready to FLB and an aphrodite that Im not spending my next maybe 10 sunlight stones at least on, but she has a good call and when later on she may come in handy, and with +99 she may rival my current summons stat wise, and her call gives some sustain. Should I use her for the quartz? I’m leaning toward yes. Also the same but for grand order.
You can’t ticket Grand Order. Hang on to her in case she gets an FLB in the future. Aphrodite you can reduce in a pinch, since you can suptix her again if you really need to. But if she has a good call you’re happy with, hold off for now. Instead try to get your light quartz from free sources first.
Farm and reduce Corow from the weekly showdown. Then farm and reduce Magus from the Scattering Magic sidestory, Pierre from the SideM sidestory and the mecha summon from the Robomi sidestory. If you have any light SR gacha summons, uncap them with Moonlight Stones and reduce them. If after all that you still don’t have enough then you can consider reducing Aphrodite.