Last updated 6/29/2021

Moonlight connections guide omg wowo

Click to each of the lines in the table of contents to the left to navigate.
(Pretty barebone at the moment, wait some days for proper editing kek)

What is “Moonlight Connections”?

A new feature, updated on 5/27. After completion of ep 1 (Ritania), you can choose one of the 6
ep 1 ML5 (Moonlight 5*)
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Note:
- You cannot use the ml5 in most of PvP until you complete all quests and do a “complete
summon”. You can use the ml5 from ML connections everywhere after completion of all quests.

- Unlock quests are the same for all offered ML5 heroes. They are very easy so don’t worry, you’ll
get them soon.

- If you choose to have a Moonlight Connection with a Hero that you already own, you will be
granted 10 Galaxy Coins after having completed all the missions.

-You could change the selected ML5 before all quests are completed, but ONLY ONCE.
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Who to get from ml5 connections?!

I'll say this: Ml5 picks aren't to be taken lightly, if you have time PLEASE READ THE
LONG ANSWER.

Short answer (not recommended):

Ignore pve, except for abyss, when making the choices. Why? read the long answer.

If you are:
+A new player who doesn’t want to read too deeply

Then:
+Go with ARBY.

If you are:
+A player who already has some idea of your current roster synergy.

READ THE LONG ANSWER AND CONSIDER ACCORDINGLY because both Stene and Arby are very
strong picks.

If you have a waifu unit in mind you know what to do. If you’re scared of missing out you clearly don’t love
them enough.
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Basically:
1. Stene = arby ( 2 perfectly viable and meta DPS, read long answer)(if you have 1 picking the other is still
a GREAT choice)
2. Ruele (never a bad choice)
3. Mlken=DCorv (niche units that is shoe-horning to an unorthodox playstyle)
4. Pile of crap
5. Jkise (nice badonkadonk covered by holy light)

Long Answer

Disclaimer

Why was most of pve ignored in this evaluation post?

I expect the sole, free ml5 choice as of the present to last more than mere pve. Both are strong,
but none are essential for it. BOTH OF THEM are good pve units (Stene stronger in abyss, Arby
stronger in fast farming, the rest of pve content they're on nearly equal footing, dealing big ass,
half aoe/aoe dmg and being harder to kill)

This guide isn't meant to be resistant to upcoming heroes/future meta changes because
literally no one could make a good guess. Either get a ml5 now or just wait (usually to no avail
though, metas usually take months to change completely). I'm not responsible if your Arby or
Stene turns trash 3-6 months later.

NOTE: IF YOU THINK meta will largely change and affect either stene or arby after collab heroes
are out (there’s of course a chance), feel free to wait till collab is out. I personally do not wait since
it’s not easy to sway meta against one of these unit’s favor.
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All other ml5 except arby and stene

ML Ken: niche last pick. Still a good unit however.

Ruele: a very solid unit and sees a lot of play in gw and rta, prefers stall meta or picked vs comps
with low damage
Jkise: cleave isn't as good (getting better with flan and elp buff in arena). speed jkise is bad.
Dark corvus: Still a good unit. Free wins in GW (Almost). Same but very slow in arena. Niche last
pick in RTA but prefers being vs tank, stall comps.

Arby (Arbiter Vildred)

NOTE: Don't choose Arby just because "he farms well". I expect more of you. ml tieria is a fast
farmer too, and she's free.

Arby is much easier to build to start using in pvp and beyond: It's just true with better base stats as
opposed to Stene's 30% eff awakenings. Also Arby can be built glass cannon and still be used
competitively. It's hard to say the same for a glass cannon Stene, even more so with F2P
researcher carrots being around.

Arby is the better unit in the arena: He's as great in offense, he's definitely better than Stene in
defense. Especially more people are scared of him on defense which paves the way for newer
players to get to a comfortable skystone farming level sooner. You can do the same with Stene but
it requires more than merely spamming s3 (plus Stene is a pretty mediocre def unit, both gw and
arena).
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Arby is more flexible when it comes to building. He has unpredictability. He has 2 builds and
beyond. Stene has 1. Even if you use glass cannon Arby it's also easy to pivot to a bruiser draft
(however strictly bruiser-wise, Stene wins.). Do note the higher you go the less the surprise
element will help because you're likely to see the same face more than once.

Arby is better overall when it comes to pivoting to cleaves He's still good in bruiser drafts as a free
pick, aoe dmg option, but Arby is the most powerful when you want to cleave your opponents. Not
just traditional cleave, but when you need and want to dump aoe (for example with ml krau), he'll
do the job gracefully.

Arby has a VERY impactful s3, OR TWO! Basket Arby. Not really a lot can survive 2 of that unless
you let your opponents stack at least 2 of the 3 buffs of shield, def buff and anti crit (must be doing
something horribly wrong at this step). Another of Arby's strong points is that if they don't draft
bmh or proc with a.shadow into you, they might pay the price HARD if they kill him too soon
(especially with unpredictable procs, like ssb's s2). Which leads to my next point:

Arby's 1st turn is more impactful than Stene's , dmg wise, aoe, chance for basket. boom. Can
even remove landy's stealth for subsequent attacks.

Arby is EXPOSED out in the open: He could be controlled until the other player feels comfortable
to take his s3 (ml haste, skill null/def/anticrit, etc. buffers) or they can just deny Arby a chance to
perform at all (a.shadow, dps-oriented ml luluca). He effectively has 2 bars of hp, but still with
conditions. Very important point because a lot of Arby's aren't properly protected and just die
easily without being able to use the s3, and in comps of 3 tanks/bruiser with no decisive dmg
spike, again tanky opponents (esp with healers even), you might die a gradual death.

After all these points, here's why you need Arby for the team

+Filthy cleave dmg

+Punisher of squishy teams, or teams with stealth (against tsurin it depends.)
+Cleave-oriented drafts that can still be transitioned to bruiser
+Hard to predict build (degen or dps? speedy even). You can even have 2 Arby's prepared for
that.

Who goes exceptionally well with Arby?

-Cleave setups (like all of them) or setups that allow you to throw all aoe you have to kill some
filthy stealth units (landy Stene tsurin)
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-Most protecting knights (fcc a.ras gpurr mlkrau etc.). If you're against a squishy cleave, you might
actually want Arby to die fast at some point to dump s3.
-Units with dual atk (cerise or a.ras for example). He attacks 2 targets, u know what to do.

Stene (Specter Tenebria)

Stene has perma stealth: This is a very unique playstyle. Both Arby and Stene force people to
draft counters for them if they don't want to be destroyed. Arby invites anti revive/super thick units,
Stene invites more aoe picks. If safe stealthy dps is your playstyle, look no further (having fcc
landy and wanting 1 more stealth unit to reinforce the stealth comp for example).

Stene fits better overall for a bruiser-oriented playstyle: An inference from my first point, but just by
being immune to the vast majority of single target skills, your matches are already safer. Not that
Arby is easily controlled, it's just that Stene is a safer pick in a lot more cases because she
automatically eliminates a lot of single target counters.

Stene fits with the protecting unit extremely well: Another inference from point 1. Shield goes with
high defense, mediocre hp units extremely well because shields add a lot of "fake hp" to the
already high def unit. Being stealthy just makes it even harder to reach said units with aoe and in
quite a few cases one has to take down the protecting tank first if they can't dump enough aoe to
destroy the protected units. Trozet/fcc or even diene (or most of the supporting tanks really) is
seen with Stene (or landy) a lot.

Stene's s1 cannot be countered, AND can be soulburned: Another extremely important point. Just
by being resistant to being countered she can already dodge the likes of archdemon shadow,
degen Arby , counter lqc, landy, trozet, ravi, etc. S3 CAN be countered however, so beware.
Stene's soulburn could greatly cripple the other teams (even tanks), especially with atk buffs. In
some cases could be used (but shouldn't be too relied upon since they have their conditions) to kill
Arby and tsurin. Do time carefully with s3 so sb hits 2 targets, twice. Hard to say Arby's s1 is better
in many cases (moreso when his s3 is the main selling point).
.
Stene is a mage and can hold tagehel: Tagehel, for me, is one of the best artifacts in the game. It
enables all other units because all units have soulburn) and makes for gameplay variety. Now it's
your turn to review the points given above, then your current comp synergy and ask yourself "why
shouldn't I use other mages with tagehel but Stene instead?"
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Stene ramps up hard in longer pve content, especially abyss: read s2 +s1.

Stene is weak to unbuffable strippers and aoe dps (or both): Picking Stene means the other side
will try their best to spam aoe to kill her (or in a few cases, try to kill all the other units then her), or
to strip her of debuffs (and a chance to be buffed with atk) then aoe controlled. If you pick fcc
Stene, expect to face lqc splash dmg (same goes for fcc Arby however, but again Arby can
comeback with a powerful cleave)

Stene's 1st turn is less invasive than Arby's Soulburn usually only helps killing a bruiser with atk
buff (doesn't even kill in quite a few cases, and cannot touch landy), but it also won't proc some
stuff you don't want to (tsurin, gpurr, mlkrau, etc etc)

With the advent of carrot, Stene now needs lifesteal more than ever in RTA, and the tanky hard to
kill bruiser buster stene landy carrot triangle has already formed and solidified.

After all these points, here's why you need Stene for the team

+Keeping the stealthy dps play style even when opponents ban Landy.
+Need of a long-term (in-match) option to insta kill a bruiser that's out in the open with soulburn
(recommended with atk buff).
+Want to play safe against the like of counter units/single target dps(ravi, trozet, lqc, etc)
+Bruiser-oriented drafts that can still transition well into cleave (book recommended!)

Who goes exceptionally well with Stene?

-Protecting knights/sw (fcc, trozet, a.ras, ml krau, djb, etc). Fkluri+high dmg is also nice.
-Units that punish aoe, especially low dmg aoe (ssb, gpurr, mlkrau, etc)
-Units with dual atk (cerise a.ras etc). She attacks 2 targets, you know what to do.
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Ez chart for dummies to choose (WIP)

Credits:
naz#0001
CookieInLaw#3089
All the helpers at the official discord
Crownescent#3271
Iseria’s Delusion#8529
dm palea#4125 for missing important points/guide improvement, your help will reach starving
speed cleavers in Bronze.