u/Dracozion

Making this poll to see where most players are aiming for in the long term. No shame in just not enjoying Dtide. Feel free to elaborate in the comments as to reasonings! Polls do not let you have more than 6 options but I would have put a 375, 350, and 325 option if I could have!

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0 limited OE and no whale borrow Dtide 425 has been a long time goal of mine and I am so happy to have gotten it before some of the AA buffs got moved to the base unit kits. Clem, Kath, Gmurphy, and Gdoll are OE so I do have to use a borrow to grab the E3 varient of the unit if I want to use them though I wanted to try to be a bit more creative than just replacing my OE unit with an E3 borrow this time thus W3 A5 is a Xu Faros team and Gmurphy ended up benched entirely. I think I could also have managed replacing all of my standard unit OEs with E3 varients too except for Caecus but standard units are much lower impact than limited units so did not see it as worth the effort.

https://preview.redd.it/6kj9mawiad0h1.png?width=1902&format=png&auto=webp&s=748a52d2fd197995cbe3be4d1b1d8cf443f3ef73

https://preview.redd.it/dhdbe2ggad0h1.png?width=410&format=png&auto=webp&s=a8fa63b909565676c95e9a5cf6a6f1b1da05d745

I try to do these clears to help show that Dtide A5 or even 425 is more possible than it seems. I remember when I first started, I used to think A4 was impossible because of how hard the mobs were hitting but as I have grown my account, Dtide has become by far my favorite game mode even if I make some silly mistakes at times.

Special thanks to Monchi, Frost, Lens, Angbak, and Spooky and to everyone else who has cheered me on during this journey.

Stream playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASu9uUl3Y3M&list=PLhUZU9Mqb1YXMg1vb7j6Ed-7y_E4zy1su&pp=sAgC

(Apologies, I did not get recordings for W3 A5s or W2 A5 with Kath for the no limited OE varient, was trying to get it done before reset and I play faster and a little bit better offstream). Approximate total time for these clears is 10-15ish hours.

Companion post of my semi-speedrun 425 clears: https://www.reddit.com/r/Morimens/comments/1t8b93q/sub_6_hour_425_ultra_ring/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_but

I hope this post helps show the different team building choices and decisions for how to allocate resources change depending on investment level compared to my semi-speedrun. Low investment 425 is not about making the strongest team that is the best but more so looking at how many resources you need to spend on the team and how much you can spare/saving the best resources for the weakest teams while starving the stronger teams.

W1 [Apostle of the Sea (Miryam)]

https://preview.redd.it/k73c4c3nzc0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=6b70bea4849082a9935b53e07df18eb649286ee8

Replay: 824ee3e8-1b05-32c6-8668-4cbb30e6712a#E#a

This run took me the longest lowkey, not because it was hard but because the way to win was unintuitive to me. Waiting until turn 4 when it summons its mob in to burst at all feels strange since I am more of a burst when you can kind of player, but once I got that it went well. I think it is funny I ran Faint despite not taking any DR. Another wave would have appreciated Faint much more.

https://preview.redd.it/68hzsv1tzc0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d920a01a327386b7cf6cc55dd0f9fe876489632

Replay: 4c05f975-dd8e-36e5-8ef1-23d0534e12ff#E#a

Castor Pollux were 100% overkill into this wave. For this specific tide, E3 Castor Pollux can clear W5 A5 and I debated between swapping this to W5 A5 and Vortex to W2 A5 and running a dumpster team into W1.

W2 [Major]

https://preview.redd.it/ht3okogyzc0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=3238c6da1e0f4a02f5b6130aae6fcf74f06a891b

Replay: 6639fd6a-4da4-3aa8-b383-1be0cd02386a#E#a

Begrudginly after suffering trying to run a level 70 Mouchette into this boss and kill it in 2 or 3 turns and failing I pushed her to level 80. I do think she can do it at level 70 in 3 turns, but requires incredibly optimal relic luck. The main problem is the mobs to be honest. This was very much a reset if you did not get Salvador's weak turn 1 or turn 2 in mob fights. The last mob fight before boss flickers between -2000 strength down every other turn which means you either need to be able to kill it turn 1 or survive getting smacked at least 2 turns without taking a dr. You can technically rouse Salvador to negate one of the big hits from the mob but it does not feel good to rouse Salvador in a mob fight. The elite was also nasty since it was a multihit on turn 3 after your hp is likely to be low.

https://preview.redd.it/uuijdii10d0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=d47f46ee128f0959473dbce4cf8d1b2e57085aae

Replay: 02b5f723-959d-3dac-a977-d844975157a7#E#a

Thank you to Aurora for setting his E3 Kath as a support with the wheels I needed to ensure no dupes. Apparently the play here is to stay as high hp as you can, with my own OE Kath I intentionally used the blue pool to go low and the fight was much more of a struggle. You do not do much damage in the start of the fight since Kath is a ramping awakener who gets stronger over time so the boss having a lot of fortress isn't too bad at the begining. I took an intentional DR later on to lower my health once I was ready to do damage. Winkle is a must for this wave as she can clense the barrier on the mobs and boss. I was so sad my Ryker had 495/500 sigils needed to upgrade a relic. E3, Feast, Land of Nonexistance, and Will Unyielding Kath is such a beast and I should have never doubted her ability to do this wave. Tinct is really good for helping fix a tankier Kath's poor crit rate and when roused can apply weak/vuln. Ryker was ran for a similar reason as his relics are great and his 1 cost can fetch winkles barrier removal card.

W3 [Corrupted Brain (Gdoll)] 

https://preview.redd.it/wes1ycg50d0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=92d72ad0af46777cc20fcfd9c30439ac9530a9df

Replay: 932fddfe-3924-3a4d-82f7-f7d463c2a918#E#a

Let me just say I hate W3, there is so much RNG from the mob spawns! I chose to reset until my opening hand offered me a xu card that I had enough Arith to resonance on turn 1. I wish I had Faint on this team since a praying on a 60% DR or less if you get unlucky with mobs is scary. This was a fun run though, Miryam and Xu are both great poison triggers and Aurita with her rouse is able to cause a lot of tentacle hits which works off of Faros 1 cost that applies poison per every hit during that turn. Dreams is ran on Faros so you can have 2 and the posse draws 2 of Faros cards so if you fill your hand with Faros other cards with her exalt the posse is guarenteed to draw her 1 cost for a total of 4 of her 1 costs played in 1 turn with all of Aurita's multihit. Xu can poison trigger and immediately kill phase 2 and then phase 3's hp is low enough to die once the poison ticks down. The mobs were the real scary part.

https://preview.redd.it/ccoyx8e67d0h1.png?width=1917&format=png&auto=webp&s=3fead9dc7c99c9d1ed10da290af202f693ab65a8

Replay: 42c4ea4e-398c-3c51-a775-baa0a07b2896#E#a

Arachne is able to dumpster Gdoll pretty easily since Gdoll has a very low max hp and her final phase is only 40k hp which is essentially 1 pursuits. The posse is ran to give Arachne a strike and defense which can trigger her pursuits when she has her portrait. This is very much an ultra ring only team. Lily, Ogier, and 24 were all there to boost survivabillity with weak/shield/healing.

W4 [Wick Attendant]

https://preview.redd.it/ffg25qwc0d0h1.png?width=1918&format=png&auto=webp&s=0aae87b4dc08e669e1c6dfadc8a8dd09d0dd68cc

Replay: 90a21ddd-f451-3a40-ac3b-3bb0880b53d6#E#a

I was hoping to do this without any standard unit AA's too and I definitely know it is possible with just an OE Caecus for W4 A5 but I was short on time since finals season and I had a lot of other waves left too so begrudingly pushed him to AA.

https://preview.redd.it/zda8o6ef0d0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=6daf1621158601f880cd6df720e05944656ef6eb

Replay: e16c82cd-a9d3-3bc6-9c39-720262cbb392#E#a
This run took forever, I had pretty bad relics for what I was trying to do. Definitely a relic that allows you to scale counter would have allowed this to go much faster but it did work ultimately! Angbak helped a lot with ideas for this run.

W5 [The Great Magician Houdini]

https://preview.redd.it/e62kpmak0d0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=729b116c189b6b2dac3303ea782b77823c16068a

Replay: e6afa267-7237-34ee-96e2-6c9af9fe5173#E#a

Typical Ghelot doing Ghelot things. I was a doubter of how Ghelot would do since she heals % missing hp while having little to no shielding capability and this boss is constantly reducing your hp while hitting decently hard, but it worked out perfectly fine esp since Ghelot makes and plays a lot of cards. Daff can be a nice support unit since she lets you accelerate Ultra turn and her 0 cost can give weak/vuln/arith which is nice.

https://preview.redd.it/u987mt1m0d0h1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=e310a102639add70ecb3cc0664f997d4986e51f1

Replay: 5a9c5d13-9731-3cf9-a2f6-1d7bed4d6ed6#E#a

This is my first time running Ultra Vortex, ty for Frost for helping me figure out who to put in it. Clem was such a nice healer at 100 hp x 4 when roused per each soulsalve. My Clem is only level 62, however the level 80 Clem was the only E3 Clem on my friends list and I do not think level 80 vs 60 would have mattered in the long run especially considering there was 0 DR. (Level 60 is 74 x 4). Clem can dumpster the elite by removing its madness stacks too.

If you have gotten this far thank you so much for reading! Feel free to ask questions.