URBLAAARGH MRGRGROGH!
That means “Good morning and welcome to another update on my Granblue Fantasy progress!” As I mentioned a year ago, I’ve quit pretending I’m capable of quitting this game. It’s just that I’m largely satisfied with my grids and have no serious intention of upgrading (what’s Magna 2? Is it tasty?) so a yearly progress report is more than enough.

Earlier posts from my Granblue Fantasy journey:
Levels 1-13 (I must admit that contrary to my fears at the time, stamina limits never materialized. I have more AP than any sane gamer could ever use)
Level 40 (so cute, I actually thought I could stop playing any time I wanted)
Level 50 (to think that now Proto Bahamut raids are as common as dirt and I have like 500 Champion Merits…)
Level 80 (lol, that “fire” grid. I miss those days)
Level 90 (I was so proud of MVP’ing those Omegas)
Level 103 (my grand “I quit” post. Yeah, about that quitting thing…)
Level 140 (the more things change, the more they remain the same)

What have I achieved in a year?

⚔Built a Varuna grid. I had to spark twice for a second Murgleis and a Blue Sphere, but there’s nothing hard about pressing the ‘Draw’ button a few hundred times. I was hoping this Anniversary Roulette would overlap with March’s Legfest so I could spark a third Murgleis at a discount, but not even Cygames is that generous. I’ll post the grid later with the rest of my stuff.

⚔Got 17 characters up to level 100: Gawain, Altair, Lady Grey, Yuel, Sarunan, Cagliostro, Charlotte, Magisa, Arulumaya, Lancelot, Siegfried, Vaseraga, Uno, Vira, Silva, Amira, Yngwie (most recent). A few others are between 99 and 91: Scathacha, Hallessena, Metera, Ghandagoza, Albert, Jeanne d’Arc.

⚔Made 8 out of the 10 eternals. I have everyone except Eahta and Funf now. If I could scrounge up another 45 Rainbow Prisms right now, I could get Eahta. Maybe this is a good time to use those Cerulean Stones. I mean, what else are they good for? There we go.

I’ll beat him up later, there’s no rush. After all, apart from Siete and FLB Uno, none of them have made it to my party front lines. They boast so much in cutscenes, but they’re not impressive at all. I’m only getting them all because I have nothing else to do with my time and stamina.

⚔FLB’d the following summons: Lucifer, Bahamut, Tiamat, Colossus and Yggdrasil Omega. I don’t need to FLB Leviathan, Celeste and Luminiera because I have Varuna, Lucifer and Bahamut. Lucy and Baha were a PITA because of the Silver Centrum requirement, oh how I hate those things.

For the others, I find Magna 2 trains tedious and Magna 2 battles unrewarding. I get irrationally angry when I put in a lot of effort only to get Soul Animas and fodder weapons, and at my age I need to watch my blood pressure (only half-kidding). So I just joined whatever raids I found in the wild for many, many, many months until I finally had enough anima for the FLB.

I finished all three just recently, just around October/November. And then of course March rolls around and Cygames increases the anima drop rate… I have nothing to say :-<

⚔Got my first MLB Arcarum summon: the Sun. I was aiming for Judgment, but then I realized what a tedious process it was with the Primach anima and Silver Centrums (again) so I picked the one everyone says is the most useful. …Except I hardly ever use him because I use Auto-Battle 90% of the time these days. But I’m still working on FLB’ing the Sun for lack of anything better to do. I also want Justice for my water team, but one thing at a time.

⚔Made an Ultima Sword without hosting Proto Bahamut HL or fighting Ultimate Bahamut HL. I leeched for the Proto Baha horns and painstakingly bought Ultima cores from the pendant store, one a month for almost a year. Would it have been faster to just fight UBaha HL? Of course. But I don’t wanna, so there. I can’t tell if I’m getting any benefits from the Ultima Sword, but I must be… right? I’d have to remove it from my grid, test, put it back, test… faster to assume something that annoying to get must be really powerful.

I made the sword Wind because I heard it was a good mainhand. It’s only just now that I’m typing this that I realize… I’m still using the Revenant Dagger as my Wind weapon. Not only that, but the last Proving Grounds event dropped an even better mainhand? …I don’t know what is going on any more. Granblue Fantasy is just too frustrating when it comes to stuff like that.

Stuff I haven’t done and like to pretend I won’t do but maybe I will

– Haven’t unlocked any new classes except Glorybringer since I finished Tier IV last year. The mastery bonuses aren’t worth it IMO.

– Haven’t uncapped any weapons or summons to level 200. I know up to level 100 is called MLB (max limit break?) and 150 is FLB but 200? SLB? ULB? MFSLXYZB? Whatever it is, I haven’t done it. And I just checked the requirements for Lucifer…

Actually very reasonable except those Malice Fragments. Guess I should FLB Lumi quickly and run native Lumi x borrowed Lucifer instead.

– Haven’t unlocked the new light and dark Seraphic weapons. I checked just now but I’m gated by Rainbow Prisms. AGAIN. And I won’t be surprised if Primarch animas and Silver Centrums are needed further down the line, because why not? Let me use Cerulean stones to find out… Yuuuuup. At least there are no Silver Centrums.

– Haven’t unlocked any of the Arcarum Oracle characters. Naturally, since I haven’t FLB’d any Arcarum summons.

– Haven’t added a single Magna 2 weapon to my grids. Thanks to the Anniversary weapon ticket, I can get one if I want. I just don’t know what’s worth it. I hear Grimnir Harps and Earth Axes are good. How many and what should they replace? I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue.

– Haven’t fought the new Huanglong & Qilin or Akasha or Tiamat Malice or whoever the latest ultimate mighty boss de jour is. I’m not even sure what they drop. Something about FLB materials or a new kind of weapon? Are they even any good? When I think about all that effort for something that might be outdated when the next FLMLSLB ultra weapon comes out, I feel so lazy. My regular magna grid will have to suffice.

State of the Grid Address

And with that, it’s time to post my current grids, barely upgraded over last year’s edition! Just like all those FIFA and MLB and NFL video games. Parties, grids and summons in approximate order from most powerful to least.

Water, water everywhere

I started out as a Wind main but Varuna is so hardy and HP-ful and easy to build that Water is my go-to party these days.

When I spark the 3rd Murgleis, it will replace the Wilhelm fist, which is cutting into my HP. The issue is that this party crits pretty often, which I credit to the Wilhelm. What to do, what to do… Eh, I’ll worry about it once I actually have that Murg.

Varuna for double Varuna. I have Bonito but no desire to spend Sunstones on him and no Kengo, Vajra or Summer Grea to take advantage of Kengo memes. Lucifer is for healing and stats, Baha for charge attacks and stats, Yggdrasil is for healing cap up and stats. Athena for… legacy reasons? I’ll replace her with Justice if/when I build her. Or better still, I’ll replace her with MLB Grand Order for the drain. Right after I finish this post.

I used to wonder where people got all those + marks for their weapons and summons, but you’ll pick them up naturally as you play. Especially as you do HL battles and Arcarum. Doubly especially if you gacha draw frequently.

The nice thing about mainhanding a Murgleis is that between the 35% damage cut on ougi (which is pretty much on demand because I usually run Berserker) and Uno’s damage reduction options, I actually have really good sustain. This party doesn’t go down easy at all. If I could just hit harder so battles don’t take so long.

Speaking of battles, I beat Xeno Ifrit NM120 in two turns in the most recent re-run. I remember how unbeatable he seemed the first time round. And now it’s almost as if they nerfed him, I can’t believe it’s still the same boss. Progress like that is why I can’t stop playing Granblue Fantasy.

I’ll be sniping MVPs everywhere this week, so if you see me, say hi!

You Light up my Grids

I haven’t replaced the last gun yet because it’s not that easy to get Lumi swords. That, and I’m sure there must be something else that fits better in that slot, like the enmity dagger Metatron dropped for me the other day. Same for the EX Katana in the top, is it really the best I can do? And there might be better mainhands out there as well. Plus the new Seraphic harp might have a place as well. This is where I should do some research and find out what’s optimal for a light grid, and I will, but not today. I’ve come a long way with Light but I’ve still got a long way to go.

Nice HP, guys! I’m shuffling through my light characters these days, trying to find the best party. FLB Sarunan is really useful for survivability. Jeanne and Albert are both useless. Lucio doesn’t bring much to the table except that nuke. Silva’s custom debuff is nice and she ougis a lot, but she lacks the sheer murder power of her Water counterpart. You can pry my Summer Heles from my cold, dead hands. Etc etc.

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the Wind…

Almost the same as last year’s grid. If you track my Wind grids over the years, you’ll see only minute changes because Wind is really easy to build. That’s why I still recommend it for easily-confused newbies.

I’ve got a Windhose from Proving Grounds, but I’m not sure where it fits in. I don’t want to replace the sweet multi-attack I get from the dagger but I don’t want to let the guns go either so guess the dagger has to go. 🙁 And now that Xeno Sagi is back with a new weapon, maybe there’s a place for that Arkab fist in here as well. Just kidding, no way I’m grinding for that thing this month. Maybe next time.

Solo to 80% and call for help. It’s the only sane way to play. As with Light, I’m currently experimenting with various party configurations. This is one is… hmm, it works but it’s not very flashy. I’ve heard so much about Scath, but I’m not seeing her powers at all. Thinking of replacing her with FLB Metera for the endless delays. Plus I just got Summer Yuel, Birdman and Carmelina to fool around with as well.

Fire in the hole!

I think there’s some perverse spirit within me that compels me to sabotage my Fire grid whenever I can. That must be why I replaced most of my FLB Colossus Canes with 0-star Ancient Ecke Sachs. It’s also why after so many Xeno Ifrit events I still have only one Ifrit Axe and no Ifrit Sword. That’s why I won’t call this grid “weak” because it’s nobody’s fault but mine.

Until I actually fought him, I thought Grimnir was supposed to be a joke character. What kind of joke character hits like that?! If that’s how they roll, then what are the “serious” ones supposed to do? 999999 Skyfall every turn? Grimnir is just ridiculous. Because of him I had to cycle a carbuncle back into my summon pool for the first time in like a year, and I’m not even convinced one is enough.

It took a while to find a good anti-Grim party. Agielba is really the star of the show, soaking up Tempest Storm with Armored+Substitute and healing back to full with Drain. Summer Ilsa is there solely because she can occasionally paralyze him after his special attacks. Magisa is there for the Blind, but I’m open to replacing her with someone who can cut damage. Maybe Summer Io.

BTW, the Agielba-Summer Ilsa-Magisa combo is for Grimnir/Proving Grounds only. I’m still trying various party combinations, just like in Fire and Light. Yuel, Summer Grea, Theresa, Magisa, Shiva, Summer Percival, anyone I can get my hands on. I’m not happy with any of them. They don’t hit hard, they’re squishy, they have all these buttons to press. *sigh*

The Dark side of the game

I’ve got a good team that hits hard and doesn’t die as easily as you might expect. The only downside is their low, low HP compared to other parties. That means it’s easy to achieve and maintain enmity, but it also means they can’t handle triggers very well.

I’m looking to replace that Cortana because of the HP issue. I need something that provides the same multi-attack boost without the downsides. Just realized I still have a Celeste Axe in there. Yes, that’s getting replaced too, just as soon as I figure out what to replace it with. I’ll have to explore Avatar’s library and see what comes up. The fish mainhand is actually a skin for a Qilin sword. All my mainhands are skinned  because who doesn’t like whacking bosses with a fish or dandelion or fluffy pink pillow?

Colossus’ spot is reserved for the day I fully uncap Anubis-sama. Bahamut is such a cool looking lizard, isn’t he?

Finally a party that takes full advantage of the Ultima Sword. This is the party I feel least inclined to tinker with, simply because Dark doesn’t have any other characters I want to use. That said, Vira’s slot is up for grabs because her kit overlaps with the Chaos Ruler I usually run. I considered running Berserker with a Hermanubis mainhand instead but somehow… hmm. I’ll give it a try sometime.

Salt of the Earth

This is the party that puzzles me the most. It doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong, but they’re just so weak without buffs.

They hit like sissies, I just don’t understand it. I mean, this is the standard Earth grid, right?

Give or take a few elements. I guess it’s true that all those swords should be replaced with Alexiel axes. Maybe I need a better buffer than Arulumaya so I can compensate for the lack of hard hits with Earth ATK+, multiattacks and crits. Oh right, I called Siegfried “meh” last time. Forgive me Sieg-sama, you’re actually pretty awesome when you get to level 100. Not to mention you and Threo are the only Sabre-specialty SSRs I have.

Lessee, what happens if I run Chaos Ruler and a team of Threo-Sieg-Arulu with this grid instead…

Nothing happens because I’m too busy writing this post to test it. Okay, laziness doesn’t pay, let’s beat up a dummy for a second.

The damage per hit is still crappy, but MC and Threo are doubling or tripling almost every turn and Sieg is no slouch either. I still need a reliable buffer though.

A little introspection

📕Do as I say, not as I do: You really shouldn’t buy Ultima cores with prestige pendants. Really. Pendants are better spent on hard-to-get weapons and distinctions. I’m including this warning here just in case anyone feels inclined to follow in my footsteps. I’m a very lazy and very patient player and you really shouldn’t emulate everything you see me do.

📕If something is too annoying, wait for a while and maybe it will go away – Cygames is fairly decent about making things easier for players over time. They often tweak drops, requirements, exchange limits, etc. Some examples off the top of my head:
-At first we could only get 1 Legendary Merit a day, now it’s limitless.
-Dimension Halos used to transform randomly, now the rate is 100%.
-Now you can fight Ifrit and other showdowns whenever you want.
-Event character loyalty requirements have been eased.
-Co-op was a pain so they gave us solo co-op.
-Hard+ raids take the frustration out of collecting anima and SR weapon fodder.
-AP for hosting Omega raids went down, BP fills up faster.
TL;DR If there’s a feature or a grind that you find too troublesome to bother with, ignore it for a while and see if things get better. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but at least you avoid burnout while you focus on other things.

📕Stay up to date with the meta: All my grids are what was “optimum” when I was starting out. Sometimes not even that. Granblue Fantasy has moved on since 2016 so find out what’s current in 2019. It doesn’t matter when you’re just starting out because just about any on-element weapon will make you stronger. But around level 101 you should start paying attention. If nothing else, it will save you from FLBing more weapons than you need and other huge wastes of time.

📕Characters will level up fine by themselves – I hear a lot about ‘sliming’ characters up to level 100. I’ve never done it myself but I’ll comment anyway: unless there’s a reason to rush or you hardly play the game, they’ll get to level 100 just by staying in your party for a while. You don’t need to force the process.

📕Most event weapons and summons are useless long-term – I worked so hard trying to get and 3-star event weapons when I started and almost none of them are in my grid now. In fact… scrolls up… only the samurai guys’ light katana and the collab fire axe are from events, and both are due for replacement. It’s not like I didn’t get any use from them or that you shouldn’t try to get good stuff from events. Just don’t stress out over them because they’ll be gone in the long run.

📕Start gathering Rainbow Prisms and Silver Centrums ASAP: As well as other annoying-to-farm items like Primal anima and white dragon scales. If you have BP to spare, join a Xeno raid or Grand Order raid, and jump in any primal raids you find (also a good source of creeds). <– BTW, I don’t actually do any of this. But you should.

Don’t forget: you’re here forever

That’s enough for a yearly grid update, isn’t it? Even after 3 years I still have so much to work on in Granblue Fantasy. It’s a testament to how Cygames is always trying to keep things fresh… or tedious. Freshly tedious. And it’s another reason why you shouldn’t burn yourself out trying to get anything in this game.

A lot of the comments I get on Granblue Fantasy posts are from relative newbies stressed out over their progress. To them I say: chill. Either you’ll be playing for a long time and you’ll eventually beat all those bosses and get all those weapons… Or you’ll drop the game from frustration and all the effort you put in will be wasted. Wait, you don’t want to hear that, do you? It’s true though. It’s just JPEGs on a screen, don’t take it so seriously.

Next grid update will be another year from now, or a bit sooner if anything interesting happens. Until then, it’s back to my regular gaming schedule. So long!