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.

✦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.

✦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.