Other updates:

1. BD special quests are open for a limited time
2. U20 upgrade: Adelle, Agnes, Edea, Elvis, Magnolia, Gloria, Ringabel

Edit: Magnolia gets CN buff too

Guiding page "Black Flames" to show all anni events

Log in bonus: 10 pulls per day for 10 days, 1300 rubies

One free gen pool selector

Paid step-up selector: 3 rounds at max, includes all gen pool, sparkle, OT/SS memory, and Sacred Blaze units released before April 16th, 2026.

Anni special quests: 30 special seals for paid selector, 8400 awakening shards

Anni deals including a pack that lets you choose a unit from OT memory, SS memory, or Sacred Blaze+gen pool released before April 26, 2026 each, and randomly get one from the 3 chosen

SS final/true chapter

Free chest for either DK or DP

Harley is added to Sparkle banner (120 pity)

Add Sparkle Banner Thief/Merchant is open: can only get thieves and merchants from gen pool and sparkle (120 pity)

Beginner QoL:

• Reduce red dot notifications
• New pop-up for claiming feats/quest rewards without entering feat page.
• One tap to claim rewards in both regular mail and devs mail. Rewards in the same category will merge before being displayed
• Provide tips upon a defeat
• After downloading the game, beginners can play the game as resources are being downloaded

New event "The Universal Post Office 万象邮局": finish quests to get pulls. Rewards are 240 rubies, 24 sacred seals, 800 gold guidestones.

World Boss "13th Day without God" returns!

• No stamina requirement for first 2 phases. Players can challenge bosses for unlimited times per day, but have only 2 chances to get rare rewards per day. These chances can add up, but will be reset after each phase
• In the 3rd phase, players can toggle the difficulty of the boss and get different rewards accordingly

Add new "Beginner's Guide #3", available after finishing "Beginner's Guide #2". Can only do 1 round. Step 5 guarantees a 6-star Primrose EX

14th Cascade Log

U20 unlock for DK, DP, Sail. TP and 6-star unlock for DK and DP.

All characters get bonus in hunts. Cait hunt is open

Soul exchange update: DK, DP

Anni photo event in Memoir

Before Lynette EX banner goes away (which will probably only return in a year), I'd like to talk about the the goated combo between her and Setzer to be released in June. I'm not saying everyone go grab Lynette EX now, but I hope your decision is an informed one if you decide to skip her and this combo.

Synergy in mechanics: Weakness implant + Implant freeze

Setzer's EX skill is a single target 7-hit bow with a debuff (4-7 turns) that freezes implants so that they aren't consumed when hit. He also has a passive that randomly auto-implants 2 elements for 2 times on all enemies at the end of turn, and when an broken enemy is present by then, also auto-implants all 6 elements for 3 times on the broken enemy. Remember Setzer's passive also allows him to natually not consume implants with his attacks.

Auto-implants 2 times of fire/ice and wind/dark for the two enemies respectively (cr. to しゅう)

The problem with his mechanics is obvious:

• He only auto-implants at the end of turn, which means you can miss the current turn of weakness exploitation. This is especially true for T1.
• His implants on unbroken enemies are random. There's a chance that you can miss weakness exploitation, especially for rainbow team that requires all elements.
• His EX skill (implant freeze) is only single target, although it can be used 3 times.

Lynette EX solves 1 and 2 with her ult that implants all 6 elements. So the ideal setup is that you pair the two in the same row, let Lynette EX backsurge while Setzer uses EX skill. In one action you can freeze all 6 element implants on a single enemy. This setup is optimal because

• The combo is doable on T1, although you need 200% ult on Lynette EX (from ult accessory or 3BP pet).
• Setzer EX skill does not consume Lynette EX's implants before the freeze is applied.
• Setzer EX skill has priority, meaning you don't have to speedtune him. And your other units can fully exploit weakness on the same turn.
• Lynette EX being paird with him puts a rainbow user in this row, maximizing damage potential in rainbow team. On the second turn she can come back to the front and trigger all of Xerc's FUA.
• The two replace DP in rainbow team, but requires one less backsurge. Before, both DP and Lynette EX want backsurge, but now only Lynette EX wants it. This reduces the pressure on ult gauge management.

Still you might ask, as far as weakness exploitation is concerned, replacing 1 unit with 2 units doesn't sound like a gain at all. So....

What you get besides weakness exploitation

Currently Lynette EX's passive is never up because of DP's ult, but with this combo with Setzer, her passive is almost always up. Actually, both Setzer and Lynette EX have a passive that gives bonuses according to number of weaknesses/implants. If you can pull off the above combo, then the enemy should instantly have at least 3 stacks of implants in each element, with at least 6 revealed weaknesses. This gets you

• 15% E.atk up for all frontrow (Lynette EX passive)
• 15% all elemental damage up for all frontrow (Lynette EX passive)
• 20% P.atk and E.atk down on all enemies (Setzer passive)

In reality though, most enemies have at least 1 physical weakness, so the total revealed weaknesses should be 7 or above, in which case you get from Lynette EX:

• 50k cap for all frontrow (7+ revealed weaknesses)
• Active cap for E.atk increased to 50% for all frontrow (8+ revealed weaknesses)

If you manage to get Rai Mei A4 (exchangeable btw), you get 9 implants of lightning, which further gets you:

• 20% physical and elemental res down on all enemies (5+ implant stacks)
• 30% damage up when hitting weakness for all frontrow, and increase passive cap for on-weakness damage to 50% (7+ implant stacks)

This section of bonus is too good. I highly suggest people get Rai Mei A4 for this sooner or later (it caps 30% E.def down with Varkyn A4 as well)

If you still have Tatloch EX A4, you get 9 implants of dark, which further gets you

• 15% P.atk up for all frontrow (5+ fire/dark implant stacks)
• 10k cap for all frontrow (7+ fire/dark implant stacks)
• 50k cap to bow attacks for all frontrow (9+ fire/dark implant stacks)

These last 3 buffs don't really matter for rainbow team except for that 10k cap, but what you already get from other things is crazy. All the above is achievable on T1 first action.

And don't forget one buff from the fundamental logic of weaknss implant:

• Enemies take 20% more damage from implants they're originally weak to. Implants are not just for exploitation. It can be a buff too.

Ok, so in general the 20% res down is crucial for F2P who don't have a lot of res down accessories to go with rainbow. If you break the enemy with Lynette EX, then you cap 30% passive res down for all elements. The 30% on-weakness damage along with 50% passive cap is also immensely valuable, because many DPS do not come with innate 50% passive damage (except Viola EX, Final Empress, Temenos EX). For example

• Xerc has up to 30% passive damage
• Osvald has 30% passive damage
• Eltrix EX has 0% passive damage
• Relm has 30% passive damage
• Pardis EX has 20% passive damage
• Alaune EX2 has teamwide 15% elemental damage and 15% on-weakness damage

Clearly the Lynette EX + Setzer combo can be valuable for non-rainbow elemental teams too.

Potential downsides

Still I must say a few downsides of the combo

• The combo doesn't work on multiple enemies. Even though technically Setzer's EX skill can be used 3 times, by the time you do it 3 times, Lynette EX implants are most likely gone. It's just very inefficient in the first place.
• While Lynette EX is triggering rainbow FUA during burst, Setzer at the back gives little value due to him not having a backsurgeable ult. Alternatively, Molrusso EX is better in the sense that she has a backsurgeable ult that gives 100k cap, and her weakness exploitation works on multiple enemies besides also giving a ton of buffs. She will be much more competitive when she gets TP2 and gives weakness exploitation on T1. I must also say, however, that unlike Setzer's implant freeze that lasts for up to 7 turns, Molrusso EX's lasts for 2-3 turns and is more geared towards ultra speedclear. Setzer literally covers the entire cycle of Xerc's potency buff.
• Setzer's EX skill cannot be used after T7, but tbh modern rainbow team should finish the fight before then.
• The combo provides much less for physical teams, but Setzer alone still gives a lot because of that 20% all type res down, 30% on-weakness damage, and 50% on-weakness damage passive cap increase (for some ungodly reason Final Emperor has 0% passive damage).

Ok...so much for this write up. Above is my theory, and I'll certainly pull for Setzer and see if the theory holds, or if the combo gives me additional surprises. As always, experiment is king. Hope we all get free Setzer from free 10 pull.

Lowkey Eleonora passive is awesome for enemy multi-hits

Aviete the new GOAT in Cascade

We already know Aviete is dropping this Thursday, and FF6 in June. And there's this mysterious OT0 physical unit looming somewhere. I wanna give some of my advice regarding gacha plan. Personal ideas though.

1. If you're low on rubies (sub-4500), you might wanna wait a bit. Also make sure you have at least 4500 going into FF6.

In a week CN will have their 2-year anni, where there's a mysterious event marked on their roadmap. The chance of them releasing this OT0 physical unit on anni is pretty high, and based on their wording in previous livestream, this unit will be key to physical teams (likely a support). Considering Xerc's release, this unit will 99% be meta. So just wait until CN's update next Tuesday, and Aviete's banner will still be up. I'm not suggesting that this unit will make Aviete a skip, but your priority/plan may be changed accordingly.

FF6 has two very important units: Setzer and Edgar, and sadly they don't share banner. Considering collab banners are hard to come by, having at least one pity for FF6 is very important (FF6 arrives on anni so there should be many free rubies then)

Edit: they give a free 10 pulls for first and second half banner respectively, which guarantees one of the 3 featured units. You may hit the jackpot (about 11.1%) and get both Setzer and Edgar for free, or have a not-bad chance (about 55.6%) of getting one of them for free.

2. Aviete AU is important (but good news it is exchangeable)

She gains 100% ult upon start (200% when TP2 arrives), which seems to make AU unimportant. But she has a passive that gives 50k cap and divine beast doublecast when having 9pt, and using ult/EX skill gives 3. So being able to use ult twice is useful. In short fights you might not need this, but in longer endgame challenges (e.g., corridor bosses and some later EX3s), this will matter.

If you have AU, then T1 backsurge - T2 EX skill - T3 backsurge will get you 9pt.

3. Like some people said, overpitying Xerc on Aviete's banner is perhaps the best shot if you want to chase a rainbow team but lack Xerc.

4. If you invest in rainbow, Setzer from FF6 second half is a MUST. He has insane synergy with Lynette EX, and the two replace DP/Molrusso EX for single target fights.

5. In general, Edgar from FF6 is also a must

He has a special mechanism that adds 15% of his P.def and E.def to allies' P.atk and E.atk respectively. He also has an 8-hit that ignores multi-hit reduction, so a cheat code to certain fights. He will be on almost every team as a hybrid support until he's powercrept by Rocbouquet from Saga much later.

6. Relm doesn't have rainbow synergy. You can pull for her, but don't do it for rainbow team.

I don't know why many people think Relm can join rainbow team. She doesn't. She doesn't even have the minimal synergy with rainbow (in the sense that her attacks are non-elemental and trigger none of Xerc's FUA). Some people think that her paint mechanics can be used as a weakness-enabler like DP, but this is a very inefficient solution. Not only do you need set up for paint, but also she provides no other team buffs. She's designed as a DPS. As a DPS she also needs potency support (she doesn't have it built in), and her FUA is based on her own stats. So, while she does give FUA to team, those FUA are not hitting nearly as hard as Xerc's without a potency support.

(I probably need to hedge a bit here. While I said Relm doesn't have rainbow synergy, it'd be different logic/strategy to make a hybrid rainbow team with any other DPS including Relm, just like how we can combine ice+rainbow. It is possible that Relm may help achieve overall higher damage with a potency support in your hybrid rainbow team, but this requires your specific tuning/testing and imo should not be framed as mainstream thinking)

Last word: I'll post any news on the OT0 unit as soon as I see it. There might be rumors out there, but I only tag info as news if it's from official sources.

Other updates:

1. New Cascade
2. Awakening stone exchange update: Mydia, Relisha, Sigrid EX, Osvald EX, Ochette EX, Xerc
3. Soul fortunebox update: Mahrez, Esmeralda, Rondo EX, Eltrix EX, Aviete

https://preview.redd.it/w246nohp9izg1.png?width=680&format=png&auto=webp&s=292be0525d623816b00cef52c629e427e92325af

Other updates:

1. Two-year anni celebration: One free pull per day for 21 days

2. Morena is added to gen pool

3. Awakening stone shop update: Sowan, Xerc

4. Soul drop update: Hikari EX and Rai Mei