GameplayHelp FAQs

What are the gacha rules? What’s a spark?
- The rates are 3% for a 3★, with 0.7% for the rate-up within that 3%. For full details, click the Rates Info button on any gacha page. - BA uses the spark system, which is trading 200 recruitment points to pick a featured banner student. That’s 200 pulls, or 24,000 pyroxene worth. - There are only 2 guarantees; a 2★ or better in every multi pull (10 pulls at a time), and the spark. - Recruitment points do not carry over, they convert to small crafting shards when banners rotate. We highly recommended only pulling if you can spark in case you get nothing (except when rerolling of course). - For more info, see the gacha page.

What’s the server status?
- Japan (JP) is about 5 months ahead of Global. (Global is the name of Europe’s server, but we also use it for “all non-JP servers”). - Global follows JP’s schedule for the most part. They have smushed banners together or rarely swapped them around, but we have never skipped any. - There are 6 servers, with a new one coming: Japan (JP), Korea (KR), North America (NA), Global (Europe), Taiwan (TW), Asia, and later on, China (CN). You cannot pick your server unless you do VPN shenanigans. You can only add friends & join a club on your server. - To find which server you’re on: homepage in-game -> Settings -> Account -> Version Info

Is Blue Archive F2P friendly?
- Depends on your definition, but generally yes. You can be as casual as you like, and you will eventually beat all missions by over-leveling & over-gearing it. You can farm a ton of great students to max. PvP is RNG, the reward differences are pretty small, and brackets are about a few hundred players. Raid rewards also don’t differ too much, and a max dps borrow will carry you through every hardcore raid. - While F2P income is pretty good (1 spark every 2 months), you’d have to whale or be insanely lucky to collect all the gacha-only students. There’s about sixty in Global, more in JP, and that pool will just keep growing. On the bright side, most students are permanent, and they’re pretty good about rerunning limited and permanent banners.

Who do I reroll for?
- Use Midokuni’s reroll guide. Note that limited characters can only be summoned while their banner is active, and Himari is not available yet! You can see her estimated arrival on Midokuni’s “banner summary” tab. - There are over sixty 3★s in the general pool. You can reroll to your heart’s desire, but keep in mind your chances of specific students outside their banner is crazy difficult. - The tutorial multi pull guarantees one 3★ or more, but it’s limited to the seventeen 3★s at launch. They are: Iori, Hibiki, Aru, Hina, Haruna, Shun, Maki, Shiroko, Karin, Izumi, Saya, Hoshino, Eimi, Sumire, Neru, Tsurugi, and Hifumi. Your best chances at Hibiki, Iori and other good dps are there. - If you’re missing a lot of essential 2★s (especially Tsubaki, Momoi, Mutsuki and Chise who take a long time to farm & summon), you can consider doing a few more multi pulls. There are twenty two 2★s in the pool.

Do I have to reroll?
- It helps secure useful units at the start, but it’s not required to succeed since you can farm a lot of great students. A decent compromise is grabbing any of the good dps in the tutorial multi pull. - Reroll if you don’t mind, just play the best account if you’re tired. - If there’s a meta banner up like Himari, Mika or Iroha, try to get them.

How do I reroll?
- Play until the tutorial ends. Collect the mail and use all the free pulls you have. You want the essential 2★s for easier progression. - Reset the guest account by Settings -> Account -> Reset Account - You can bind potentially good accounts to dummy emails, then compare and pick one at the end. - You cannot unlink an account and still save it. You have to “close account” and wait a week for it to delete (this action is reversible). Once it’s wiped, then you can bind your guest account to it. - If you’re hardcore rerolling, do it on an emulator. Google or YouTube how for your particular program. Bluestacks example. Install and patch the game in one instance. Make 4 clones of it. Sync them, reroll 4 at a time. Save any potential good accounts. Add more clones to replace them. (Your computer needs to be beefy enough to run multiple instances at once).

How do I login to a linked account?
- The game should prompt you which account to use on the title screen. If you’re stuck in guest mode somehow: Complete the tutorial on guest. Link the account to the email you want. It’ll say “this is already linked, do you want to login instead?” Say yes.

What are festival banners? When’s the next?
- They’re JP’s anniversary banners with double the 3★ rate, from 3% to 6%. Previous fest units can drop in it, but you can only spark the featured student. The next one is Mika’s. - Rates on Mika’s banner: - There’s 68 three stars in this banner (65 permanent units and limited Mika, Wakamo & SHoshino). You can only spark Mika. - See Midokuni’s “banner summary” tab for estimated dates.
 * 6% total for a 3★
 * 0.7% for Mika
 * 0.3% for Wakamo
 * 0.3% for SHoshino (the extra 0.3% cuts into the 1★ rate)

What’s worth buying for real money?
- Worth is subjective, but the cheapest decent things are: New teacher packs x3, both monthly subscriptions, and the AP pack during good events. The Serika package is alright, but she’s easy to farm.

Should I buy the Start Dash ticket?
- The pool of 8 is small and offers a lot of great units. It also gives a rate-up for dupes (100 elephs instead of 30). However, 3 students are farmable (Koharu will join the raid shop in several months, and Hibiki will be in hard mode ch.22). You can see the whole pool via Rate Info button on its gacha page. - I probably wouldn’t buy it unless you’re already buying the 2 monthly subs and AP packs during good events. - For more info on these units: Midokuni’s guide (“banners” & “farmables” tabs), and Stokkie’s Raid Ratings (extreme tabs have more info).

Will Global ever get another 3★ selector?
- As of now, not yet. JP is ahead of us by 4-5 months, and we get the same products they do more or less. The closest thing was an RNG ticket on Mika’s banner, where you’d choose an attack type (red/yellow/blue), and get a random permanent 3★ from that pool. - Always read the fine print before buying in case our ticket is different from JP’s.

How good is this unit? When will they come?
- Midokuni’s guide. Search the whole document as there are multiple tabs. - Stokkie’s Raid Ratings (extreme tabs have more info). - JP’s banner schedule we follow more or less. - Our roadmap.

So overall, who’s meta and worth sparking?
- Midokuni’s “Banner Summary” tab and Stokkie’s banner picture guide. - Causew’s advice on TYuuka & sparking supports/dps. - There are great dps students, but they need decently high investment to shine. Very generally, dps want 5★s for extreme raids. See Midokuni’s guide for ideal insane raid investments. - Koharu joined the raid shop when JP got Torment difficulty (on Toki/Nagisa’s banners). It will take ~2.5 months to summon her if you buy her out every shop reset.

Is this student limited, permanent, a welfare? Who has bond gear?
- Go to schale.gg. Set to JP in settings. You can search students individually or see the entire group by using filters. - Label meanings: - To search an entire group: Hamburger icon top right in Schale.gg -> Students -> Student List -> filter top left -> unique (limited), permanent, event (welfare), or unique item (bond gear).
 * “Unique” - The character is limited. They do not join the general pool once their banner leaves. You can only summon them when their banner returns. (Includes the expert shop. You cannot summon limiteds from here even with 120 of their eleph).
 * “Event” - The character is a free unit from an event (aka a welfare). You can only get them when that event is available. JP is adding old events so everyone can see the stories & collect the welfare student. One exception is Nonomi, who was from the beginner task & login event. She doesn’t drop in gacha, but soon she’ll join the expert shop.
 * Permanent students won’t have a label. They are in the general pool and you can pull them anytime.
 * If the student has bond gear, they have an “Item” tab. This tab shows the requirements needed to equip & craft up to T2. Aru example.

How can I plan my sparks?
- Use the Pyro Planner (make a copy). Instructions are at the bottom. - Or estimate 12k pyro a month for F2P and use Midokuni’s banner summary for dates. - The latest Reddit monthly pyro report details every pyro income.

Can I pull my favorites instead?
- Absolutely. Club & friend borrows help supplement your roster, but spark Ako and Himari too for a comfier gaming life. - Find good clubs & friends in discord recruitment & friend channels. You can filter for high lvl players in-game too and see who they’re lending via “i” button.

I’m ready to play! Now what?
1. Read Life’s guide to learn the basics. 2. See Midokuni’s Teambuilding tab for student suggestions. 3. Boost Serina to 2★. Save the rest of your eligma until extreme/insane raids. You do not need 5★ s until then. (If you’re a hardcore player who will push story very under-leveled, you can consider boosting Tsubaki to 3★ for a small stat boost. Tsubaki is farmable in ch. 15). 4. Use Yuuka & Tsubaki or other evasion tanks early on (before T4 bags). Non-evasion tanks need their T4 bag to tank properly. - SHoshino is not a tank, she just can tank under the right circumstances. I wouldn’t use her until she can solo the frontline, which is usually after her T4 bag. - Basic team examples per chapter.

I DONT WANT TO READ!!
- Here’s a video instead: The casual’s guide to BA by Yumie Tsuchinoko.

I’m still struggling in general content…
- Don’t use auto team fill, auto fight, or auto skip battle (unless it’s safe). The AI is really bad. - Level up, gear up. Shotgun tanks will be really squishy before T4 bags. Gear priority guide. - Balance your aoe between teams, check your EX totals aren’t too high. Double check your teams with Midokuni’s Teambuilding tab. - If you’re missing a lot of 2★ essentials (especially Tsubaki, Mutsuki, Chise & Momoi who take a long time farm), consider doing a few more multi pulls. - Stages become difficult 15 to 20+ lvls below enemies due to the level penalty.

What is the level penalty?
- The higher level unit gets a damage reduction buff against the attacker. Your units’ and the enemies’ stats do not change. It’s 2% damage reduction per level, capped at 60%. Basically, your student does less damage when they are below an enemy’s level, and vice versa. - The recommended level and your account level doesn’t matter. The latter just limits your characters’ max lvl. - Level penalty examples: - Enemies in story chapters 13-15, bounties, commissions, and some events are higher lvl than the recommended (check with schale.gg).
 * Level 30 Iroha vs lvl 70 boss. The boss takes 60% less damage from Iroha (she’s at the maximum lvl penalty).
 * Lvl 60 Iroha vs lvl 70 boss. The boss takes 20% less damage from Iroha.
 * Both same level: no effect.
 * Lvl 80 Iroha vs lvl 70 boss. Iroha takes 20% less damage from the boss.
 * Neither Iroha nor the boss’ stats change. Her stats given to strikers as a Special remains the same.

Story gameplay tips?
- Focus fire elite enemies; they have a skull icon above their health bar. - Prep the last wave: pool energy and cycle through cheap EX skills to get your dps ready. - Nuke the boss immediately with 2+ dps EX skills. Place overlapping aoe so it hits enemies multiple times (e.g. 3 with Hibiki, 2+ with Mutsuki). - Tsubaki taunt when enemies do something dangerous (like Iori jumping back to EX, or the giant yellow robot charging up). This forces them to cancel and auto attack instead.

How do I do this map/event challenge?
- For maps: JP Wikiru and Schale.gg (maps tab). - YouTube is your best friend. There’s a video for every stage in the game. Watch a variety for team comp ideas and execution. - For event challenges, use broad search terms like “Blue Archive Sweets challenge 2”, “Blue Archive bunny challenge 5”.

Where should I spend AP? Who do I farm, when, and how much?
- Where to spend AP. - Check your discord’s event or gameplay-help pins for an event guide and Justin’s event planner. - For hardmode farming, see Midokuni’s “Farmable Summary” tab. - Try to avoid commissions unless there’s a 2x or better event. Do it if you must for a raid clear. Commissions efficiency chart. - A commissions strategy; reposition your tank to group up enemies for more efficient aoe. - Don’t farm BDs (Blu-ray discs) from normal mode unless you’re an end game player who doesn’t need gear, and you want to gamble. The drop rates are 1-4%. Example. - Gear Priority Guide for farming gear. - You can also use Justin’s resource planner. Set up chars -> click Gear -> click AP icon.

How do I level faster? Is it worth refreshing? How much free AP do you get?
- You gain 1:1 account experience for spent. Your AP does not regen if you’re capped, so don’t let it for long periods of time. - If you care about optimizing, refresh 3x daily as much as you can afford (even for F2P). The sooner you get higher & max lvl, the more benefits you gain over time. - You can use PvP coins for AP, but events usually offer rare items, so hoard enough for those. You need a day x 7 or 14 days to max refresh (but you also gain some everyday). - Free AP you get per week & expert permit shop info. - Max your cafe comfort when possible for more more free AP per hour. Cafe upgrades are in every third chapter (3-5, 6-5, 9-5, etc.)

How long will it take to reach max level?
- Estimates. - Account exp chart. Level 69 is about the halfway point. - Student exp chart. - The max level at launch was 70, and the game has been out for almost a year and a half. They slowly increased it to 83, which is why it feels daunting to new players.

Should I level and gear special units?
- Yes, if they’re a dps or healer (e.g. Hibiki, Iroha, Serina, Hanae, Ako). Give them their important gear. Gear Priority guide. (3rd slot for dps specials is not as important as you won’t be crit malding in campaign, but you might in raids). - If they aren’t a dps or healer, you can hold off for later. Prioritize your strikers, and dps & healer specials. - Specials give 10% ATK/HP and 5% DEF/HEALING to strikers, so you’ll want to level & gear everyone eventually. (Click the Support info button when looking at teams to see how much stats they give). - Some specials have unique situations. For example: Shizuko needs a minimum HP of X to reflect both balls on Shirokuro. So you’d hit that threshold via mix of stars, levels, gear, and EX lvls.

Who should I skill up? How?
- Your main aoe dps for story, then prep for raids. You can boost healers, but EX3 at most (if you even need that). Tanks don’t have much stats to scale with. You can ignore scaling skills for now. - The Bricc Skill Leveling guide. - Try to stick to the breakpoints; EX: 3, 5. Other skills: 4, 7, 10. These give the most “bang for your buck” since it gets very expensive. - You can use this wiki or Justin’s planner to figure out total resources needed for leveling. - Schale.gg has a quick overview of who uses what. Example.

How do I raid? Why shouldn’t I spend eligma yet?
- General info on raids. - You do not need 5★ s until extreme/insane raids. Prioritize well if you want comfy enough clears in every raid (see the question below for examples). - The eligma cost increases every 20 eleph bought, up to 5 cost. (This never resets back to 1 cost). Eligma/Eleph chart. - Read Causew’s General Raid guide. - Double check your gear & skills are up to par: Gear priority guide and the Bricc Skill Leveling guide. - Make team comps, check videos in that guide & the raid channel’s thread for an idea of unit investment & execution. - Get feedback from experienced raiders, mock it with a strong borrow from your club/friends before you use a real ticket. Boost with eligma as a last resort (preferably on unfarmable important dps). - For the raid schedule, see the pins in your discord’s raid channel.

What investment do I need for extreme/insane? Who’s good to boost with eligma?
- Extreme is tuned to level 70, 5★ dps, no UE. Very generally, you want UE30 dps with 5777 skills and T6 gear, while 3★ supports are fine, assuming they don’t need stats to do their job. - For insane, you start wanting lvl 80, UE40+ for dps (5777 with some skills max). Some supports can stay 3★, but others may need more (e.g. healers in Hiero to one-shot the lantern or heal it in a timely fashion). - Higher investment is comfier, but since boosting is expensive, do it until the raid is comfy enough & reproducible. Then save for the next few raids. The raid schedule is kept in the raid channel’s pins. - Ask the raid channel for good enough char specific UE. Research, mock it, practice it, boost as needed.

Some examples of good targets. This doesn’t mean blindly 5★ all these units! - For the whole farmables list, see Midokuni’s “Farmable Summary” tab. Avoid using eligma on them unless the breakpoint is huge, you need it for a raid clear now, and it’s cheap. - Competitive players can refresh the hard carries; Aru, Izuna, Hina, Iori (Iori has a 2nd stage now in ch. 20). Eleph drop rate is 40%.
 * Shirokuro Indoors: SAzusa, SIzuna, and Wakamo are good targets (“unfarmable”, important dps).
 * Hod: Kazusa (meta dps, best borrowed).
 * Hiero urban: ONodoka, Koharu, SNonomi (meta dps). SHoshino can survive at 3★s.
 * Kaiten: Most units are farmable, and you bring another tanky frontliner with SHoshino.
 * Peroro: BKarin, Iroha, Aris, NY Mutsuki for aoe. Wakamo, SAzusa for shiny hunting (insane).
 * Binah: Kazusa for urban. Most others are farmable.

What’s the basic raid progression like?
- If you’re inexperienced, use the safe strategies, not the maldy wanpan (one team) speed runs. All the previous tactics still work, you just have more options now (except rare bugs that’ve been fixed since). - Wanpans are not even the fastest option sometimes. Depends on the boss, terrain, and available units. - Raid process: 1. Get carried in hardcore raids with a max dps borrow. (Build for the next raid). 2. Safe, slow extreme clears. 3. Get stronger and start “speed running”, aka brute forcing extreme. 4. Safe, slow clears on insane. 5. Get stronger and brute force again. 6. Cry in torment because you didn’t farm everyone to UE50 lol. - For example: 2 team Kaiten had an aoe team for phase 1, and a single target & shield breaking team for phase 2. If you’re strong enough, you can brute force it and crit mald with one team. If you’re not, do it the old, safe way. See Causew’s General Raid guide for more info.

Why are clubs & friends important?
- You can borrow units for raids, JE and conquest mode (only 2 story events use conquest mode). Even at end game, they save you from sparking & maxing 1 unit per raid/JE. Sometimes it’s ideal to use two of that character per ticket. - A club also gives 10 AP a day which adds up. - You can use the friends & club recruitment channels in discord. You can also filter for high lvl players in-game and add them. Click the “i“ to see who they’re lending for raids/JE. - Clubs and friends want newer players for more credits from borrowing. - Make sure you set 6 units for borrowing. You earn for 172.8k credits per day with zero borrows. Do it through the club or settings -> friends -> assistant settings.

How do I find which server I’m on?
- In-game homepage -> Settings -> Account -> Version Info

What’s UE? How do I level it?
- UE is short for Unique_weapons. It’s a special weapon 5★ units can equip. The # stands for the weapon level (e.g. UE40 = lvl 40 weapon). - Save your eligma. You don’t need 5★s until extreme/insane raids. - You level UE by doing scrimmage and buying pins from the expert shop.

What’s scrimmage? Should I farm everyday?
- It’s a mode to farm UE materials, tuned for higher level players with multiple 5★ dps. You can skip it until you’re at that point. - Farm stage C or D if you need, don’t bother with lower levels if it costs AP. Most buy UE pins from the expert shop and only farm during 2x events.

How do I do scrimmage A-C?
- The same strategies work for all scrimmage levels. See the videos below for execution (and unit investment for stage C).
 * Rainstorm’s explains the mechanics.
 * Valiant’s No Iori/Azusa/SAzusa.
 * Causew’s no gacha challenge.
 * Midokuni’s all 3.
 * Ahri’s Trinity, Ghenna, and Millenium.

How do I do Scrimmage D?
- See Rainstorm’s video for a refresher on strategy. - Scrimmage D suggestions for all 3 stages. - UE30 is required. UE40 isn’t, but it makes it comfier. Aru is even stronger with her T2 bond gear. - I cleared it with UE50 Maki/Wakamo, UE40 Haruna/Shun/Iori/Aru, and UE30 Hina. 5777 skills and T766 gear.

What’s bond gear and when’s it coming?
- Its 4th slot gear unique to certain chars. Here’s the whole Unique_gear_list. You can also filter for “unique item” in Schale.gg - To see the requirements, go to the Item tab on a character with bond gear. - Turn off bulk upgrade to upgrade T1 -> T2 bond gear. - 1st batch on SHoshino: Aru, Tsurugi, Shun (young), Asuna (Bunny), Yuuka & Hare. - 2nd batch on BAkane: Utaha, Hinata, Cherino (Hot Spring). (A little earlier than JP which was on TYuuka). - 3rd batch on Mika (not available yet): Neru, Shiroko, Junko, Suzumi

Which bond gear should I prioritize first?
- Aru for raids, Yuuka for pvp, Utaha for pvp. Hinata if you use her. Whoever you like really, just equipping it is basically free and a char buff. You might as well do them all eventually. - The T2 bond gear is a bit of a grind, but gift selectors & the crafting revamp helps with that.

How do I level affection? How much pyro do you get from Momo talks?
- Wiki on affection. - Affection calculator. - Checking liked gifts: Pick any char and go to the Profile tab. Yuuka example. You can also search for the gift. - Ahri’s Momo Talk Rewards lists how much pyro you get and what bond level you need to unlock each char’s l2d. Note: some l2ds are not available in Global yet.

What should I buy from shops?
- Life’s Tirade. - Locher’s General Wisdom & Advice. - Midokuni’s “farmable summary” tab for which students’ elephs to buy in the shops. - JE (Joint Firing Drill) shop. - Raid (total assault) shop. - “Hey! All these guides don’t agree with each other 100%.” Yup, and that’s because they’re just guides. What you need can vary depending on which raids are coming up, if a new PvP character or season is coming, etc. Buy what you need. - Each shop has a refresh timer at the bottom. When they refresh, the items stay the same, but the purchase count will reset (except the Bounty shop that rotates what it sells). It’s better to buy things you need than hoard way too much and be limited on shop resets. Buy before they refresh. - You cannot summon units from the expert shop! Do not buy their elephs unless you have them, or plan on sparking them. Exceptions: Fest units like Wakamo and SHoshino. If you’re a max lvl player, you’ll have lots of leftover permits, so you might as well buy them (low priority). Newer players can’t afford it.

What should I craft?
- General info on crafting. - Crafting priorities. - Don’t go past the first node (big circle) if you’re unsure what’s safe to fodder. The 3rd node is very expensive, and generally only gifts there are worth it. - Small crafting nodes are random! Pick whichever you want most. - Crafting drop tables and rates. - You can skip crafting animations by clicking the screen each time.

How should I level lessons?
- Overview: schedule. - It’s up to you, but leveling the schools more evenly gets you the 7 max tickets faster. Click the ticket button on the lessons homepage to see the requirements. - Get whatever you need the most. If you can’t decide, more Ghenna, Millennium (and Trinity) mats is always good. - Generally purple mats > gold > blue, since the first two are harder to farm, you’ll have plenty of blue and grays mats, and you won’t have to worry about skill levels until extreme raids (since a max dps borrow can carry you in all hardcore raids). - To see lesson drop rates, use the Drop Rates doc “schedule tab”.

How do I PvP? What’s the best team?
- How PvP works: Causew’s General PvP guide. - Who you should use: Causew’s PvP Usage Tier List (includes links to JP PvP reports). - PvP is very RNG and expensive to stay at the top. Just do what you can and hoard coins for AP refreshing on good events. - Your daily pvp reward is based on your current rank. Climb ranks before you claim. The reward reset time is on the pvp page in-game. - Battles are determined once you start. Skipping/watching has no impact. - Hop in the discord PvP channels for more guides, strategies & meta discussions.

Joint Firing Drill/Exercise (JE)
- JE is a mode somewhat similar to raid, but you need 3 teams. - The type of exercise and enemies’ armor color will heavily influence your team comps. Go to your respective #joint-firing-drill channel for help. - Only stages 3 and 4 have special gimmicks. Stages 1 and 2 are regular enemies, just shoot them down. - Borrows will help immensely here, sometimes even letting you cheese stage 4 when you’re a new player.

How does this game stat work?
- ItJustWorks stats doc. Hope you like math!

Do these buffs/debuffs stack?
- Ahri’s buff stacking guide. - How to test buff/debuff stacking in schale.gg. - If 2 specials have the same sub skill, the one on the right is used, even if their skill is worse.

Example of a team with BAkane and another attack sub skill: - BAkane’s sub skill: Increases the ATK of all allies who use Mystic type attacks by 12.7%. - Kotama’s sub skill: Increases all allies' ATK by 9.1%. - Cost regen demos:
 * If BAkane is on the left slot, all students will receive a buff equal to the regular attack sub.
 * If BAkane is on the right slot. All the non-mystic students will receive the regular attack sub, and all the mystic students will get BAkanes specialised sub.
 * They do not stack. The buff of the right slot overwrites the buff of the left one.
 * Example 1 (Red icons are Red Winter units).
 * Example 2.

Average eligma from a multi pull?
- Estimates.

What’s bricking? Can you do it in BA?
- It’s more of a meme you’ve done terrible things and permanently ruined your account (comes from an old Priconne issue where investing in your units too much made them take less damage, and therefore gain less energy for important skills. - Short answer, no, you can’t really brick yourself in BA. - (Not) example.

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