irinya's notes: Kiri Teambuilding in February C10

Introduction
As with last time, here's a guide on how to build Kiri for this month's Challenge 10 with a very gentle REM requirement aside from Kiri herself. I've presented a few different options to hopefully make the build accessible to as many players as possible. As such, these builds do not require you to own Zeus Verse. In the same vein, this guide assumes that you do not have the unbindable leader badge.

I do actually think that Kiri is one of the better ways to approach this month's final Challenge. Even for players who do have the tools in their box to take down the diversity of mechanics this dungeon has to offer, clearing with Kiri is likely to be at least as reliable (if not more). Further, contrary to some of the horror stories you might have heard about cheese, this clear should take no more than 20-25 minutes total even if you zone out a bit, as you are simply making 1c without any further thought on the vast majority of your turns.

Because I'm only covering one dungeon this time, instead of three, I'll also take this opportunity to go into build options in more depth and detail, and it's thus my hope that this writeup will outline the thought process behind sub selections and cheese teambuilding better than the previous one did, and in doing so be more informative to players as well.

All of these builds use a friend's Kiri with Zeus Verse inherit and SDR latents. If you have not finished Challenge 10 and are in need of such a friend, I will be accepting friend requests for my Kiri (Verse) for the remainder of the month. Please feel free to send me a request at 317 798 354 in this case. As a courtesy to both myself and others, please do not send me a friend request if you have another readily available Kiri (Verse) friend, or if you have already completed the challenge.

Special thanks to Estina for helping me refine build options and test alternatives.

Finally, here's a quick recap of Kiri.

HP: 4189 | ATK: 1920 | RCV: 290 | WT: 899 | Dragon/Attacker LS: 3x ATK when clearing 6 connected Water Orbs, 5x when 8+ connected; Reduce damage from Fire Att. enemies by 75%. [1/25/1, 93.75% reduction] AS: Changes all enemies' Att. to Fire (ignores status shield); other allies' skills charge by 1 turn. [CD: 16]

Onto the challenge! The first build below will use Isis as the only REM requirement outside of Kiri herself and is the most straightforward and reliable of the bunch.

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Challenge 10 - 7x6 Board, Isis version
Overview. This is the preferred and most reliable team, able to deal with everything the dungeon tries to do and clear very consistently. It is also probably the easiest build to run, as you are not required to do anything more than make one combo on the vast majority of floors and spawns. If you have a max skilled Awoken or Revo Isis, this is what you should be running.

Team Setup. Unlike many other Kiri builds, Skill Boost takes a bit of a backseat due to how Volsung's skill set works. It's still nice to have and we'll still have 10 in total, but in this specific case it's not a mandatory teambuilding consideration. This allows us to work better tools for the rest of the dungeon (such as Isis!) into the build. Because not all the floors are Dragon-type and we don't want to be in this dungeon for twelve years, we need a way to actually kill floors as well, and so gravities become the tools of choice.



You may click on a component of the team below to show/hide a detailed explanation of its selection and explore possible alternatives.

• Zeus and Hera, in conjunction with the Zeus Verse on your friend's lead, are capable of one-shotting a floor with actives alone. No mechanics in this dungeon meaningfully get in the way of this strategy, so it will be your default way to clear most floors. Zeus and Hera are the preferred cards here for several reasons. They have the highest gravity in the game, combined with three Skill Boosts and a much shorter cooldown than true gravity actives. For this lead specifically, the autoheals are magnificent as well. These traits all add up to make them valuable and useful in a variety of situations, not solely for this challenge. Their autoheals also help make them the vastly preferred option for these slot.
  
  Note that I highly dislike the idea of "farmable teams" for the sake of being farmable, as this can often lead players to waste resources on cards that are mostly useless and will probably never be used again. Zeus and Hera, fortunately, have wide general usability due to all the traits listed above, and I would actually suggest that most players in general, independently of this build, make two of them.
  • Zeus and Hera do not need to be skilled up.
  • They are preferred in this dungeon even over Zeus Verse himself due to the power of autohealing on Kiri teams. 4000 autoheal might not seem like a lot, but is actually sufficient to allow progress through almost the entire dungeon without ever needing to match Heart orbs, maximizing the convenience and minimizing the effort of the cheese. Aside from this, any combination of gravities and true gravities that can hit 100% damage is usable. If you are not using either Zeus and Hera or the much more uncommon Van Crow, you will have to bring a strong true gravity of your own.
• Swallowtail might seem like a strange option, but turns out to be perfect in a variety of ways. Some kind of mechanic is needed to counter Volsung's resolve, or else killing him proves to be really unsafe, as he spawns too much water too consistently to stall on. Fortunately, Flower Dragons are in the current coin rotation and Swallowtail is a required material for Odin Dragon, currently one of the best subs in the game and, for many players, a great candidate for this month's 300k Monster Points. If you do not already have Odin Dragon, there's very little reason not to make one, so he's an easy choice here.
  • Furthering this disposable nature, Swallowtail does not need to be skilled up; his active will be up on Turn 1 regardless, which is the only place it's needed.
  • This isn't an absolutely essential part of the team. It does, however, significantly increase consistency against the first floor. Because of Volsung's relatively low HP and water skyfall buff, it is possible to one-shot him simply by skyfalling too much water. Unfortunately, he has a resolve hit that will waste you despite Kiri's substantial tankiness. Having a poison that is up on the first turn allows you an extra contingency in this case.
  • The preferred alternative for this slot is a max-skilled Jormungandr. Technically, a max-skilled Jormungandr-Ullr is perfectly fine as well; however, since his active also makes a tricolor board, you have to be very careful to clear as few orbs as possible to minimize the odds of killing Volsung too early, which makes this not a tremendous increase in safety.
• Isis is the only REM sub, and unfortunately the least generally replaceable. She must be max skilled to counteract Machine Goemon's potential full team bind every 3 turns. Awoken or Revo are preferred since they are the only forms with both unbindability and the necessary Skill Boost. Max level is not necessary at all but is recommended simply for the added safety of having more stats. Without Isis, it's most likely best to explore alternative builds; technically it is possible to run something like two Light Metatron TAMADRA to get around Goemon's full team bind, but this is a prime example of a farmable that is not worth using anywhere else and is therefore a pretty awful option.
  • As mentioned above, Isis must be max skilled.
  • Isis can be replaced more meaningfully if you happen to have two Revo Ceres, Light Metatron (with delay protection inherits if fully skilled up), or other short cooldown bind clears to system. However, the only place to run a second bind clear is in place of the poison, which does make Volsung a bit more scary.
• Hel is recommended to increase consistency as well. Linthia's 99-turn poison skyfall looks to not be a big deal on paper, since most turns you're only clearing minimal combos, right? The main issue is Machine Goemon's bomb mechanic. Every three turns, he has a chance of turning 22 orbs to bombs. While the bombs themselves are not threatening since they spawn in a fixed pattern and can be trivially swiped, the subsequent poisons that fall down do stand a chance of leading to your death, either immediately or over time. Thus, a way to cancel Linthia's skyfall is recommended to eliminate the odds of dying to this nonsense.
  • For this purpose, Hel does not need to be skilled up at all.
  • Technically, Hel is optional. If you really do not wish to make one, or cannot manage to get your hands on her before the dungeon expires, you instead can opt to stall out the poison skyfall by spending 99 turns on Linthia. If you make minimal combos every turn, this is completely safe (though a bit time consuming). It is strongly recommended that you do not enter Machine Goemon's floor with poison skyfall regardless of how you choose to get rid of it. Finally, Fenrir is the only possible alternative to Hel.
• Your own Kiri needs a (long) protection inherit to counteract Whaledor's long delay preemptive. 5 SDR latents are a perfectly acceptable alternative, but a long protection inherit is typically easier to find for most players and doesn't come with the cost of, well, having spent 5 SDRs. Thus, it's perfectly fine to inherit the longest thing you can find. Unless the inherit is another Kiri, make sure it's not up when you're entering non-red floors.
• Your friend's Kiri preferably has at least 3 SDR and a Zeus Verse inherit. Verse will be used to actually kill most floors. Not too much more to say here; this is what you'll be stalling for most of the time.

Floor-by-floor. The general strategy is to simply stall, autoheal through hits, and one-shot with two Zeus and Hera followed by Zeus Verse. Again, make sure that whatever protection inherit you put on your Kiri does not come up. Below are some important notes or things to keep in mind for each floor:

• Floor 1 is actually one of the trickiest. Use your poison right away. Though unlikely, it is possible for your run to instantly end when you somehow skyfall a clump of 17 water orbs, knocking Volsung to resolve and immediately being obliterated by him. On this floor, you want to prioritize doing as little damage as possible. Only match one combo at a time, preferably not water, and try to unmatch around that combo to reduce skyfalls. Volsung won't actually hit you and will just delay you repeatedly. None of your other actives will charge, but the SDR Kiri should be up pretty quickly. As soon as that Kiri is up, use her immediately and continue making single combos until you have her back.
  
  Once you hit Volsung below 90% (which is actually reasonably likely before Kiri comes up again, even with single combos) he'll start making water orbs for you. Matching 9 water orbs with 3 combos in total will one-shot him, and poison will allow you to kill him through his resolve. DO NOT try to damage control Volsung. It is possible, but is on the whole much more dangerous than worthwhile. There's a reason poison is the preferred option.
• Floors 2 and 3 are extremely straightforward -- just stall for gravities and blow them up. Remember to convert EKMD to red. DO NOT use any gravities on Floor 3 if you cannot immediately one-shot, as he will bind your entire team and you will die. Additionally, DO NOT kill this floor without making sure sure your own Kiri has more than 4 turns of delay protection.
• Floor 4 is extremely unremarkable. Convert immediately and stall. You might have the option to kill this thing before your gravities are even up, which is totally fine as long as your Kiri is ready to convert the next floor.
• Floor 5's awakening bind does not matter whatsoever. Convert immediately, use Hel, and stall. Don't be too afraid of Linthia: no part of her skill set can really touch you, and even her execution hit is peanuts compared to your massive tankiness. This works greatly in your favor, because you actually must kill Linthia without using your gravities. Make sure all your gravities are up, then save blue orbs and kill her. Save up 12 water orbs, then make three combos: one with 9 water, one with 3 water, and one additional combo of any color. It's fine if your own Kiri's protection inherit comes up, as you do not need her base skill anymore. However, you must make sure not to enter the next floor while skill bound.
• Floor 6 should be killed with your gravities immediately.
• Floor 7 is actually not difficult at all. The bombs spawn in the same place every time and can just be swiped, but make sure the locks don't get in the way and leave you with stray bombs, as that's probably the easiest way to die here. Use Isis when your team gets bound. When your gravities come up, button Goemon into the ground for glorious, glorious success.

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Challenge 10 - 7x6 Board, no Isis
Overview. Though the build with Isis is the cleanest option, it can't really be helped if you just don't have her! Don't worry; it's still possible to reliably clear with an alternate setup using different cards. The biggest difference is that without Isis, Goemon must be dealt with immediately, as he cannot be stalled on anymore. This has the side effect of making the build slightly faster as well (though that wasn't the primary goal).

Team Setup. Taking these new factors into account, we arrive at the following:



Any team options that differ from what was presented in the previous build are discussed below. Again, click to show/hide.

• Zeus Mercury is the only sub difference, and, like Zeus and Hera, is a useful farmable as well! The reason we use Mercury will be apparent when we look at the floor-by-floor plan, but, in summary, he is necessary because in order to kill Goemon with gravities immediately, we must now kill a floor without gravities.
  • Mercury does not have to be skilled up.
  He should, however, be in his final evolution in order to have the Skill Boost.
  • The best alternatives to Mercury are other full water boards, such as Noah Dragon, Happo, or Toshiro. Like Mercury, none of these need to be skilled up to function properly. Even Noah will work: despite the HP cut, you will still survive Goemon's preemptive as long as you have least four autoheals and, wonder of wonders, that's precisely what two Zeus and Hera give!
  • More generally, a double water maker (such as Hermes) is usable but not as reliable; if you happen to get an unsuitable board, there's no guarantee that you can safely stall for a good one. (I know, I know, imagine Kiri not being able to stall, right?)
• Your Kiri's gravity is necessary to bring Orochi below an HP threshold and prevent him from totally screwing you over. Any amount of gravity or true gravity will work as long as it is inheritable (technically, it has to be at least 5%, but all inheritable gravities are higher than this). Picking a longer gravity reduces the amount of micromanagement needed with Kiri's active and may make your run more convenient.
  • Whatever your gravity inherit turns out to be, it does not need to be skilled up.
  • Again, any inheritable gravity will work perfectly fine. If you somehow do not have an inheritable gravity, you can use the farmable Equip Zaerog.
• An unlocker is needed to deal with Orochi's board lock move. This can come in the form of an actual unlocking active (ex. Diaochan) or a board refresh (ex. Maeda Keiji). Anything inheritable that removes locks from a board is fine.
  • Your unlocker does not need to be skilled up.
  • Any unlocking or board refresh active will work. Various Pixels have unlock, as well as all of the Three Kingdoms 2 pantheon (which includes the aforementioned Diaochan), Raijin, Awoken Ganesha, and a few others. Board refresh inherits are more limited, but include Maeda Keiji and Legiana.
  • One final option is to use base Machine Goemon as a sub in place of Zeus Mercury, then inherit a fire to water active (such as Andromeda) instead of an unlocker. This adds up to the same net effect: unlocking the board and turning into water. I wouldn't really go out of your way to pursue Machine Goemon for this purpose specifically if you don't already have one, but this is a perfectly legitimate solution if you do have one around.

Floor-by-floor. The overall strategy is still to convert floors, stall, and gravity them down. The specifics of each floor through Floor 4 are identical to the previous build, and have been copied here for your convenience. Starting with Floor 5, there start to be some different considerations; pay attention to those, as a misstep there can likely result in your death.

• Floor 1 is identical to the previous build. Use your poison right away. Though unlikely, it is possible for your run to instantly end when you somehow skyfall a clump of 17 water orbs, knocking Volsung to resolve and immediately being obliterated by him. On this floor, you want to prioritize doing as little damage as possible. Only match one combo at a time, preferably not water, and try to unmatch around that combo to reduce skyfalls. Volsung won't actually hit you and will just delay you repeatedly. None of your other actives will charge, but the SDR Kiri should be up pretty quickly. As soon as that Kiri is up, use her immediately and continue making single combos until you have her back.
  
  Once you hit Volsung below 90% (which is actually reasonably likely before Kiri comes up again, even with single combos) he'll start making water orbs for you. Matching 9 water orbs with 3 combos in total will one-shot him, and poison will allow you to kill him through his resolve. DO NOT try to damage control Volsung. It is possible, but is on the whole much more dangerous than worthwhile. There's a reason poison is the preferred option.
• Floors 2 and 3 also play identically and are extremely straightforward -- just stall for gravities and blow them up. Remember to convert EKMD to red. DO NOT use any gravities on Floor 3 if you cannot immediately one-shot, as he will bind your entire team and you will die. Additionally, DO NOT kill this floor without making sure sure your own Kiri has more than 4 turns of delay protection.
• Floor 4 is identical as well. Convert immediately and stall. You might have the option to kill this thing before your gravities are even up, which is totally fine as long as your Kiri is ready to convert the next floor.
• Floor 5 is where the strategy diverges. The awakening bind still does not matter at all, which is rather nice. Convert this floor immediately and stall. Don't be too afraid of Linthia: no part of her skill set can really touch you, and even her execution hit is peanuts compared to your massive tankiness. The poison skyfall will be slightly annoying, but should be manageable here. Linthia loves to convert your leftmost and rightmost columns, and if you move poisons into those columns, she will conveniently erase them for you. You should not ever have to match poison on purpose.
  
  You're going to kill this floor by comboing: save up 12 water orbs, then make three combos: one with 9 water, one with 3 water, and one additional combo of any color. Before you do this, though, make sure all skills and all inherits are up, as you will need all your skills in rapid succession for the next two floors. For maximum reliability, stall for 99 turns here to get rid of poison skyfall, which has the (admittedly low) possibility of killing you when you do a full board swipe on the next floor. Finally, do not enter the next floor while skill bound.
• Floor 6 is dealt with in two turns. On your first turn, use Kiri's gravity inherit right away and make whatever combos you want. Orochi will lock the board, enrage, and drop his 99% damage reduction shield. Now, use your unlocker into your full water board (alternately your Machine Goemon into your fire --> water inherit) and swipe to kill him.
• Floor 7 Upon entering this floor, use your 100% gravity combination to take him down immediately.

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Summary
These builds are both efficient, robust, and accessible to a large portion of players. They are, however, certainly not the only options available. I've listed numerous alternatives, but they of course do not represent the entire realm of what's possible in terms of cheesing this dungeon. Please feel free to comment or otherwise contact me with any questions you might have.

I'm happy to help you with builds for this dungeon if for whatever reason you cannot make the ones described here, but unfortunately I simply don't have the time to look through player's boxes and craft extremely tailored builds. Thus, if you do have a cheese teambuilding question for this challenge, I encourage you to come up with some ideas of your own first to present for feedback, as this furthers your own teambuilding and critical thinking skills as well!