The [Blue Archive] meta no one told you about.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro/Average Gacha Behaviour
4:30 - Why the clickbait
6:38 - What is Blue Archive’s character meta?
13:37 - It’s normal to fail
17:48 - Outro and Mission Statement
Useful tools and guides:
General Raid Guide - docs.google.com/document/d/1b...
Schale.gg - schale.gg/
Repository of community guides, resources, and tools - hina.loves.midokuni.com/Resou...
Other videos used:
My raid guides - • Schale Tactics [Blue A...
Valiant’s guides - • [Blue Archive] Should ... • [Blue Archive] You sho...
Exon’s guides - • Should you Pull or Ski... • Ako's Banner Returns, ...
GuitarRock’s guides - • HIMARI RERUN IS FINALL...
Yumie Tsuchinoko’s streams - • 【Blue Archive】Cyber Ne...
Nurupo’s Speedrun - • 【ブルアカ】シロクロ(市街地) INSANE...
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My Twitter: x.com/Causew_BA

[@causew]

Just in case a misunderstanding occurs, I want to clarify that I mean no shade to any of the guide makers or content creators mentioned in this video. I genuinely respect the effort and knowledge they bring to the public and I acknowledge that their work is, ultimately, helpful. The purpose of this video is to spotlight the deeper parts of the game people don’t talk about. At the very least, I wish for everyone to listen to the outro of this video and hear my mission statement. I… have a lot I want to discuss, and I’d really love for people to come along. Cheers. Side note: This is like my 4th video in a row where I sound different lmao. I was finally happy with my audio settings in my Kurokage guide video and just when I thought I’d settled into something I liked my boot drive crashed and took all my settings with it. Because of that there’s prob a bit of mic scuff in this video cause I wasn’t able to iron everything out. This will get better overtime again, I hope.

[@Midokuni]

Holy fuck I accidentally refreshed and now I can't find my comment that I was editing. But anyways ill just write a new comment here so I can backtrack easier. I'm late by like a day because I was taking the JLPT but better late than never. I mentioned this in passing in our discord channel but I just want to put it out here too so people can see. #1 is that I felt like for the fact that this talks about mechanics and "niche" or I would say "roles." There's a lack of attention to 2 of the most basic mechanics in the game. "Dealing damage" and "Taking damage." For the "Dealing damage" part this is the oldest "pull advice issue" we have where people just say to skip DPS which leads to... not having DPS for the 2nd team. Of course this can be expanded into 3rd team or 4th team but no need to delve too deep into those. You may have all the mechanic-handlers and the buffers -- but without DPS, or with only 1 borrow -- you only have 1 team. You will need your own DPS at some point. It can be a farmable or a gacha student. DPS itself is another "role" that needs to be fulfilled. For the "Taking damage" part, every boss will deal SOME damage regardless of how perfectly you handle mechanics (Except Hovercraft Tower Phase). Being able to survive these or actually recover from these. I would say this is actually the role that sees the LEAST advice for -- students that heal or shield. And this is even after people have repeatedly gone thru different phases of "comfy." Having Koharu makes your Extreme comfy. Having Onsen Nodoka makes your Insane comfy. Having TYuuka makes your Torment comfy. the list can go on. These students do not DIRECTLY handle boss mechanics, but they definitely help you actually be able to handle the mechanics. Sure you need to DIRECTLY handle mechanics -- but raids aren't JUST mechanics. At the root of it all: You need to live. The boss needs to die. You say that they need to pull for niches to progress but just pulling for the mechanics still has the same bottlenecks as pulling only for the "Meta Buffers" -- you are still limited to the first teams. I understand that the vid is already long enough and you probably want to cover the fancier mechanics first though but just wanted to let this out here. I also understand that its also less advisable to pull just for DPS/Survival but its in the same logic as your video -- you will NEED to do so at some point. ---- Another thing is that the lessons people pick up here do not only apply towards gacha. They are also applicable to FARMING STUDENTS. The same arguments can be made for deciding if you want to farm students or not -- raising students or not.

[@causew]

@@Midokuni Listen to this guy, hes got an idea. Basically what Mido is trying to say is that "niche" in the context of my video really just means "roles". You can replace my mentions of "niche" here to mean "roles" and you'd get what Mido replied here with. DPS is a role you need to pull(/farm/build) for too, and survival is a role you need to pull(/farm/build) for as well. All in all same idea: Figure out wdf the boss is doing and then figure out howdf you're gonna deal with it, then go out there and go get the thing to deal with it. Sounds extremely obvious but, well, it's not uncommon for the typical gacha gamer to be conditioned otherwise. Or maybe me and this guy are just pretending to be smart, I wouldn't dismiss that possibility.

[@raymondoh49]

@@causew I feel like DPS and Healers/Shielders are some of the most recommended units tho? As a 5-month old player who sought after pulling guides and opinions all I've heard is how great Mika is, how good T.Yuuka's survivability and repos is, how Kokona is the best healer, how good S.Hanako is for purple content. How good S.Izuna is for blue. But I have not heard someone say I should pull for someone like Mine or Natsu for example.

[@sachiotakli9674]

​​​@raymondoh49 ​ As Midokuni said, DPS the easiest of the roles to make a recommendation for, because you can ungabunga with the biggest baddest one. That doesn't mean though, that Mika is the only good DPS, even if she is THE yellow DPS. You'll need to consider the AoE DPS, the ST/AoE hybrid DPS, the Atk Spd DPS, the multi-hit DPS, the Debuffs DPS (Miyu and Meru, iirc), the substitutes to a DPS like Mika if she's too squishy to take hits (Curse you Chesed!). It's not that Mika, T.Yuuka, Kokona, and S.Hanako aren't worth the amount of praise they get, but there are different reasons as to why you *might* prefer Kazusa to Mika, Kaede to T.Yuuka, Koharu to Kokona, Izuna to S.Izuna, and as of yet we don't have any reason to promote any purple dmg unit as much as was done for S.Hanako because we haven't found the situations yet where someone else might do better than S.Hanako as the primary purple DPS. Edit: It's when you get to the highly specific situations and when you sit around the more serious high rank players that you often hear Mine and Natsu being important, being a Tank/Debuffer hybrid and a Self-heal/Self-cleanse/Buffer/Tank hybrid respectively. Edit2: And Causew already stated in the vid why it makes sense that people promote the big gun meta ones. They can solve the most problems without needing to interact with the specificity of certain problems. But that only works to a certain point. You can't keep brute forcing a fight when interacting with the mechanic of a raid boss or getting characters that make interacting with it more efficiently can make a raid significantly easier.

[@blendyblender5230]

@@Midokunioh hi midokuni your guides got me to clear insane raids within half a year and less

[@Lonaticus]

Instructions unclear. Waifu > Meta and pulling is determined by the amount of cuteness a char has (hint:they are all cute)

[@kusada3035]

busted my savings just to get hare & kotama camp because comfy & i like camping. now i have busted my arse to get Hina dress ver. 200 pulls LES GOOOO

[@Svenderman]

Not that exclusive to one another. Doing meta still enables you to get more pulls for your waifus compared to doing completely waifu route only.

[@stokesia0622]

Pull for comfy clear > Malding 204893473 hours for a clear Yet we dont have unlimited pyroxene so its all about your own decision

[@causew]

@@stokesia0622 Summed up my video in 2 sentences.

[@eoezxeoezx9728]

Yeah i malded the hovercraft total assault for like 470893 times while using HIMARI and ako

[@randomperson4198]

​@@eoezxeoezx9728Are u doing insane?

[@randomperson4198]

​@@eoezxeoezx9728are u doing insane or torment?

[@eoezxeoezx9728]

@@randomperson4198 ins for me torment is my personal skill issue so i stick with ins

[@foxdenmodels]

Every guide i see it's always mika, mika, mika... 😂 i don't have mika 😢 i have gotten good at working around my mika-less situation 😂

[@elizasleynmelody2993]

and NY Fuuka, which I regret not pulling every damn day, without her Torment is near impossible

[@crisdanpadilla9861]

You have no idea bro, Mika is a life saver. You have to pull for her at fest

[@hakurou8960]

fortunately, there will be fest gacha in 2 weeks from now. I wish you get your Mika there

[@cannasue]

3rd fes is just around the corner bro. how much have u been saving? as for me, i think i will hit 100k pyro when the fes banner comes

[@dr.hououin6638]

@@elizasleynmelody2993 don't worry bro. I'm day 1 JP player and can only clear Insane, some bosses I even stay in Extreme because the amount of investments required for Torment. Believe me, Torment is such a high ceiling that having 1 unit is not enough, you gotta completely max all of her skills, gear and sometimes even get her to Bond 50 with dps unit, PLUS you gotta do all that with the entire team and ANOTHER TEAM if you want comfy clear. All that investment just isn't worth it tbh

[@goudaonion]

Sometimes niche units are the units you can farm but don't pay much attention to. Hifumi and Utaha are the only 2 units in the game that can spawn an expendable minion to tank which can be used to invalidate mechanics. Baiting out a wide variety of dangerous attacks be it peroro laser, Goz bombs, S.wakamo phase 1 rockets/deathmarks. The fact that they haven't released another unit in the past 3+ years with the ability to spawn a expendable minion on demand goes to show how powerful this ability is.

[@Midokuni]

Actually there are. For one, Umika who can spawn up to 5 summons. And before her there's the TS (Tactical Support) students that as of now are spawned in a fixed spot but later on will get updated so players can select there they get spawned in

[@NeroLordofChaos]

Utaha trivializes Wakamo/Hovercraft phase 1... and since her bond item makes her skill drop 3 minions instead of just one every 30-40 seconds, it really helps for splitting damage. all the extra turrets equals out to about a student and a half worth of auto attack damage.

[@tanaka_keitoyt780]

Man I actually think the same with hifumi as a distraction and also even level 1 subskill of cost recover is already good being at 980 that's good man

[@abstract7272]

11:52 Causew pulling a "🤓☝️" voice was something i wasnt expecting lmao

[@Midokuni]

he's done it before too in the SHOSHINO BRICK video :)

[@A.Martinez152]

My pulling philosophy in BA is basically "is limited? Yes. Pull./ No. Is she meta? Yes. Pull/No. She'll pop up eventually" those 200 pulls on Ako hurt

[@randomperson4198]

😂😂😂😂😂😂 For me Is limited? Yes. do i have enough? Yes. pull Is limited? No. Is she interesting,cute or meta? Yes 10 pull or 50 pull. Didn't get her. Oh well eventually they'll spook me. Or Is it collab? Yes. No more questions

[@faisdarkmaster6352]

I forever regret not pulling for miku instead pulling ako only to got ako randomly shortly after.

[@hikaleo]

I think instead of thinking "this character is niche/meta", we should be asking "is this character easily replaceable?" Some characters might not be useful now, but they can be extremely useful or even be the only god for future content, especially those with very unique skillset.

[@Midokuni]

Or the other way, "how many raids will this student help me in solving mechanics"

[@jamesyoung151]

Nice is good. Sometimes you will need students in a later team because something went wrong and you're low on time. Sometimes, niche students can make particular content easier. Sometimes, those same students that may not be good in a main raid, they often work in many Torment runs. I'm a day 1 player and I've pulled every single student. From day 1, I couldn't get Iori to save my life. I played for an entire year of not having Iori. I managed to clear all but Gehenna C and Trinity C at the time. By knowing your students abilities and limitations, you become a better player. The one thing I emphasize is to do mock battles. Mock battles can help you manage your time because it's exactly the same as the real battle. That will be the difference between a wasting a ticket and getting a score. I know I can't memorize everything, I do a combination of keeping notes and recoding my actual runs via OBS on my computer.

[@S1Gdb]

"You fucking DIE" and showing Wakamo murdering the tank sums up my raid experince quite well XD, I've been learning this game's raids after a year of slacking and this hits close to home quite a lot

[@Rikuu0]

At these times is when i realize shizuko and shimiko were useful all along

[@rafaelferreirasantos7819]

Shimiko saved my early game ass in shiro kuro when i was throwing wave after wave of students. I was out of meta but i wasn't out of options

[@dannyn6558]

Wakamo is a boss killer unit.

[@Imp_Ale]

Great work in addressing the issue with new players falling into the speedrun videos trap.

[@johninenglish8236]

11:32 "every student in this game is worth pulling" *Chirino hotspring has entered the chat*

[@lunafreed]

crit dmg buff for your 5th team in torment

[@swag9374]

regular cherino sub fuel fodder 😭

[@LittleTilde]

@@swag9374 The number of times I have thrown Cherino for sub slave for a lack of better options...

[@johninenglish8236]

@@lunafreed tragic...

[@Midokuni]

For one, Onsen Cherino WAS the best CDMG statstick until SSerika. Two, As much as I hate Cherino, she does have around 60-70% of Izuna's DPS which says a lot. Just that in this sense, shes a student that conflicts a lot against strong farmables like Aru

[@Keymon69]

I got really lucky with my acc by pulling only limited characters (with some exceptions) to the point I can beat every insane and even try some torment. Your vid made me realise how lucky I was to get off rate characters that I didn't know I need at the time

[@causew]

@@Keymon69 That's one of BAs secret ingredients in it's unknowingly deep gameplay. The spook rate in this game is reaaally high, in a game where you're expected to eventually raise 100+ students all for their own niches you want acquisition rates to allow for that. Being able to do 200 pulls every 2 months + a spark is what enables BA to be that toolbox game. Of course, luck is still involved in what you spook. Good thing you did get lucky, cause while rare I think there is that one person out there somewhere who can't do anything lol.

[@Keymon69]

@@causew knowing every banner for the next 5 month is a huge advantage, also choice ticket is a neat options for those who are willing to pay

[@jksupergamer]

Torment is literally the ultimate mald fest. Looking at it I actually have the units I need but I ain’t doin that. I’ve already Malded my life away on insane without checking torment clears

[@AsianRailgun]

@@jksupergamerYou can take away the mald by adding another team.

[@jksupergamer]

@@AsianRailgun was goibg for a high score

[@melchizedekpsj]

I'll forever be a noob but I will be a noob that is willing to learn. Probably. Thanks a lot for the video! Appreciate it! 🙏❤️✨

[@themiko1210]

OP might not be picking the right words by associating those who wants to stick to the easier part of the game with being a "beginner." Listening to his choice of words might be triggering to some - equating anyone who does raids outside of torment or outrights skips it all together is a "beginner." I got the gist of his message tho.

[@daunda5409]

I still remember when HOD first time raid, everyone just panic that they didn't have any CC chara, other than Hoshino and everyone say need to pull chihiro, but everyone forget that Tsubaki and Kayoko do have CC, and rn Hovercraft everyone hate it, because they need atk speed student, everyone need like Meru or Neru but I don't have it, Utaha (with 4th equipment unlock and T2) and Pina, Pina the chara I build from beginning because I didn't have Iori, become some kinda meta for this raid because her atk power and speed is really good if you build it enough. don't ever underestimate the power *1 if build it really become good student.

[@himedo1512]

Hod got me real fucked up using saki and tsubaki for CC

[@BoneyGaf]

Bro dropped a banger video. I just got a great lesson of how useful niche units are by having Tsukuyo ready to tank S Wakamo insane despite not having her built.

[@tosanyu23]

Not a lot talk about how indepth the game is and how certain pull deciosions can affect some Raidboss experiences. Thanks for bringing up the topic and the good work on the vid. 🙏✨

[@M829A]

😂,,

[@nh3345]

You don't learn until get bass kicked...I feel called out

[@causew]

@@nh3345 Game is actually really hard, but you dont know it until it happens. Getting pwnd and folded over is like a coming of age ceremony for BA players - during which you make the decision to waifu game or aim to clap the boss back. Welcome to Blue Archive~

[@marshmallow3347]

And this video is perfectly timed as we are having Wakamo Hovercraft right now, as a raid with lots of "niche" units being meta, Hifumi team being a comfy part1 and Utaha being a strong forgotten unit for part2

[@octopusoup]

Speaking of niche I've actually managed the first part using Shokuhou from the Railgun collab. I don't think I've seen any guide using her. She's a decent replacement for Kayoko's RNG.

[@Midokuni]

To be fair. Utaha has always been a strong unit just not in the "Solo Student Burst" sense. Utaha, even before Bond Gear, has seen actual use as the Main DPS in some raids but these were done by sensei's of a certain sentiment. The hitcount mechanic just made Utaha more apparent.

[@marshmallow3347]

@@Midokuni that's right, but I have been helping some friends new to the game to clear raids and most of them didn't touched Utaha even at lv87, I even heard a "to think I got to use Utaha in a raid" when she's absolutely good...

[@Amsel_616]

Wanna know the best part? Utaha's favorite gift is in the Camping Veritas item shop so is the best time to hoard it for an easy Bond 20 Gear.

[@Kez_DXX]

An example that comes to mind was that joint firing drill we had earlier this year where the only students who could do damage were explosive students, and they could only do 1 point of damage per shot. So levels, damage, crit, and equipment didn't matter. Units with skills to increase their own dps or the team's dps, and units with fast shooting weapons for those skills to influence were the key to success. Hina's EX skill makes her shoot slower, so in that specific circumstance it was a waste to use it. And 1 star welfare unit Izumi (swimsuit) was well suited to that JFD as well. If you had regular Izumi to go with her alt, then all the better.

[@manoi8]

I learned it the hard way from the last 2 Goz raids where everyone used Hinata as the main dps well the problem isn't her actually, UI just fucking dies every time she gets random damage I think having a leaderboard with used 1-2 teams can be deceptive. People can see them as team suggestions but the thing is not only do they have cracked and max units, but they also get lucky (infinite rerun). The crazy 5-6 teams to clear torment are more possible comp suggestions instead

[@polkaomaru9449]

HoD GA made me realize that I need to build my students especially the niche ones, I even went out of my way to farm elephs for S. Izumi cuz she really saved my ass for both Red and Yellow HoD (I don't have S. Chise for Blue) now the other problem that made me build my Healers (especially Serina) is the Camp Challenge 3 (I don't have Koharu as backline healer) so yeah after 5 months of playing this game, all students are important in specific situations

[@AsianRailgun]

There is one thing that should be covered, and that is don't be afraid to try and experiment around. You can mock battle and cook up strats as many times as you want, and this is how I managed to push myself into Insane difficulty release as well as Torment difficulty release. Even though I only started playing BA nearly 6 months after its release, it all comes down to farming units and resources regularly, knowing what you want to pull and taking a bit of time to practice. You absolutely can clear possibly every season on the highest difficulty despite being resource starved as long as you try and practice, and even if you fail that's fine. I only failed the first Hiero insane due to not having Arius unit and just being completely resource starved, and the first Greg torment due to not having enough debuffers to do the raid. I think a lot of this speedrun meta mentality comes from people wanting to get a platinum trophy on every season with the least amount of effort or spending possible. While it's certainly easy to keep up after playing for a while, if you have to bite off more than you can take it's probably not worth it. It's better to take things at your own pace until you're ready to tackle on higher difficulties.

[@lks178]

I started after the first bunny banner and same. I remember cooking a 7 team srkr insane clear. Ofc if you play the diff below the highest one you can always replace pieces, where i've only seen korean ccs show off in videos

[@novaboy1174]

I can only speak on this based on my experience on a day one JP player. The first event was Izuna and it was the first 3* blue character that was released for this game. Honestly, back in the day, it was simpler. Color = meta. We needed to build teams revolving red/yellow/blue and purple later on. I was using Izuna and Arisu for a while clearing all the blue maps in the campaign. I did use Izuna elsewhere, but I realize that raids in the beginning (Binah,Cheesed/Shiro/Kuro) all were considered difficult since the game was brand new and we do have very limited options. Fast forward to now, we have a whole range of characters to use and that topic involves the Niche vs Meta argument. In my experience, niche is only niche at one point in time. They might become meta later on. To your video's point, this is the argument for people to pull on so-called Niche characters. However, I realized that BA also has a pretty stable meta and really a very mild power creep. Units like Aru/Iori/Hibiki from day one are still considered meta even now. The raid shops and others give you the opportunity to obtain Koharu and Midori which are also very good characters. Given that this video is on meta vs niche, I'd say that people should pull how they like according to their playstyle. I'm a day one casual JP player. Yet, there are times where I try torment when it's doable in one team (D.Hina vs Hiero). On average, I just do insane challenge and if I can't do that pretty comfortably, then I just do extreme. Do I have the students and guide videos to really do torment? Yes, but I don't feel like I need to compete that badly on a meta stage. Rather, I just want to play how I want and spend my rocks how I want. I'd advise people to do the same. Look at your playstyle and find what makes you happier. There's really no right or wrong answer here. I get that each boss has their mechanics, but I rely on video guides over in JP way more than researching that stuff on my own. Another person could do exactly the opposite of myself and that's totally fine. When it comes to pulling, I just horde a lot of currency and pull to 400 during the anniversary rate up banners. It works for me in the past since I'm missing a lot of "Niche" characters. What makes me happy playing BA is different than everyone else. TLDR: This is my subjective take, but I think players should just decide whatever method is best for them to enjoy BA. Casual, hybrid, or hardcore..it doesn't matter. Just play in a way that makes you enjoy the game. For me, meta is fun and convenient and niche characters are nice to get randomly too!

[@causew]

@@novaboy1174 This is a good mindset, and I do try to say that in the video too but I didnt spend much time on it. There's a lot of ways to play this game, and at it's most fundamental level it is easy enough that you can just do whatever you want no worries. There are certainly a lot of people who say they care about meta and gameplay though; and I wanted to make aware that there's a lot more to the game for these people in particular. Rather than "Niche Vs Meta", its more "Niche IS Meta". There's pretty deep misconceptions about how this game works, and Id like to air them out for discussion, one thing at a time. Thanks for commenting about your experience!

[@corban5364]

One thing to point out is, that at first, the Raid bosses were fairly simple. Binah is a DPS check, nothing to write home about (well, torment Binah is to write home about but I don't even consider doing it, not worth my time). ShiroKuro where mostly a DPS check, although with reposition which helped push Izuna (which is still a viable student). Chessed was the same as Binah, but for AoE, and in higher difficulties is even more obvious since Insane/Torment Chessed discards the RNG of the waves in the control room. But then, let's look at the rest of the bosses: Kaiten has two distinct phases with different requirements and also "hidden" mechanics that only hint themselves due the MK aura color. Hiero required you to play with the lantern mechanics and special debuffs. If you wanted to bruteforce your way in the battle you had already lost (even more, funnily enough, in lower difficulties where there's the instakill attack in phase 2). Hod with Crowd Control. Peroro is mostly AoE but has the "you should really plan when to stagger the boss" for the miniperoros. Goz (albeit nerfed already) with both reposition and priority targeting, also being a boss that really requires you to pay attention. Wakamo requires you oppossite ends of the spectrum for both phases, one built around CC and high damage hits and a second one centered around hit rate. Kurokage is the most straightforward in a while, but I put the """blame""" on it being from a new armor type.

[@novaboy1174]

@@corban5364 I actually enjoyed Kurokage since I did just went to pity for Kikyo when she first came out in JP. As for Greg, I was honestly freaking out because that raid announcement caught people off guard and I only had Aru. By miracle, the Aru strat worked for insane and I did my insane clear on a new boss. So that was satisfying too.

[@corban5364]

@@novaboy1174 Oh right, Gregorious. I completely locked him out of my mind. I SHOULD have had no trouble for him since Nagisa being limited meant that I had her and pulled Saki because love the kind of arcs characters like her or Noire's from the first HDN go through. But the mechanics were horrible and not even the music was to be enjoyed given that it doesn't sound when you are interacting with the organ. Overall an horrible experience and I pity whoever that got Greg as their first taste of a Raid on BA.

[@jborgs69]

@@causew exactly niche IS meta. a lot of people dont realize these "niche" units are actually really good especially if youre going to tackle harder content. as you take on each raid, eventually youll be able to clear it in 1-2 teams very easily and thats when you should realize its time to step it up. and guess what will help you achieve that? the niche units

[@fianieffu]

To me its more like pull essentials and have the backup if needed, core students obvioisly cuts the team needed, but you can compensate it with good planning and decent investment Comfy is always preferred than tryhard sweating anyway

[@bileygr5007]

I'm nearing my 1-year playtime of BA and this vid sure was a wake-up call

[@WittyFalls]

playing consistently since last year and i can only do extreme recently 😂

[@DanielGrad12]

Damn... watching this after malding for 1 hour for Wakamo Hovecraft made me... Skip her and keep going with my original plan to take revenge when she comes back on a Grand assault and get the title LOL. It also helped me open my mind and start actually thinking about team building (I was kind of doing that but not intentionally) Update: Actually kept trying by using my brain and managed to clear it, we're in plat baby

[@shocksword6847]

I consider Blue Archive to be more of a resource management sim first and a strategy game second. You have to plan months ahead, knowing which students you'll pull/borrow/skip, knowing which resources to farm so you get the most out of your AP use, etc. The only time I totally failed at this was Greg, when the Aru strat got patched so the students didn't huddle up anymore and couldn't be healed at once. Beating Insane was impossible for me unless I spent elephs on Mine. Turns out, it didn't matter because so many people refused to understand Greg and gave up, so a nice extreme clear landed me a top 2000 spot

[@amai2307]

But it is an idle waifu hoarding simulator.

[@crossba9992]

If you keep rolling safely you will get nowhere safely. I remember not rolling for Mine because Mika was coming, and there wasn't much enthusiasm for her meta-wise. She's considered "Niche". Midokuni's guide still says "Proceed as usual" without her. Then I spooked Mine on the Mika banner. I didn't realize Mine would be pivotal in clearing torment for Binah, SK, Kaiten, Greg, Kurokage, and even bodythowing for Peroro and Hod, and all their grand assault counterparts, and be quite useful for a few joint fire drills on top. Mika, Ako, Himari, and Fuuka are all super cool girls, but you really learn gotta appreciate the Mine's of the world to get anywhere in the game.

[@causew]

@@crossba9992 Honestly at this point Mine is a "Meta" student on the same tier or barely a tier below as Ako Himari imo lmao. She easily makes or breaks so much content in this game, and I think to a greater degree than Ako Himari does sometimes. If it were me Id put Mine as must pull and, in another timeline, she'd be on the "Meta" side of this video rather than the "Niche".

[@crossba9992]

@@causew I'd put her on the same tier as wherever T.Yuuka is, but definitely not with the big 3. Absolutely essential in binah torment, and replaceable elsewhere with varying degrees of pain. 100% worth pulling if clearing those raids are your intention. Still, her being not limited and right before Mika banner caused all videos, guides, and players to give her the "skip" verdict despite torment binah and greg already having been a thing on the JP server, and I ate it all up. A little bizarre in hindsight. I'm sure glad she came on her own.

[@Midokuni]

​@@crossba9992 firstly, uhh sorry, I haven't had the time to backtrack on older students in my sheet and this 20th would be the first time in a while where I can write up stuff for the newer students. secondly, I do still abide by the "proceed as usual" mindset for Mine but I probably should add more thoughts if I find time. We are at the stage in the game where there are multiple students that fill the same role and Mine is simply one among the many -- but this holds the same for everyone. No one is truly must pull. But going back to Mine, in the same vein that people say X isn't needed because of Y. Calling a student M pivotal also needs the qualifier of "if you dont have N" I'm not saying that Mine isn't pivotal for you for those content -- its definitely due to the combination of tools available to you -- but understand that the same might not hold for people with a different toolset. Moral of the story is 99% of the students are replaceable if you cook and mix enough students together -- some just taste better or are easier to cook.

[@Framed_Dinato]

When I was starting at the game stokkie's/causew guide helped me a lot on understanding student strenghts. I pulled Natsu as first spark of the account after considering the info on their guide, and she still carries me on torment today (peroro/greg p2/hod p1 as atk buffer/krkg, I wouldn't even call her niche after all she has done). Guides are excellent means to learn about the game, and at some point you will develop your own playstyle that might not 100% fit what other people understands as "Meta". It is fun when you learn enough of the game to see a guide and think "wait, this doesn't 100% apply to me, I can deal with this content in a different way, i don't exactly need X unit to clear, there is another valid workaround". -even better when you can avoid some scorechase brainrot-

[@bottle_o_kin]

This is why I love your guides. I'm trying to find teams for boss raids but all I see are those speedrun videos which contain some students that I don't have or require me to mald. But on the other hand, you here thoroughly explain how the boss works and tell which students (that I already own) I can actually bring. I think I saw one your streams where you defeated bosses like Greg without using any 3⭐ students. I really hope that there are more guides out there that can provide good team building like how you do in your videos. Keep up the good work 😁

[@arkimanti]

Unbelievably good advice. Coming from normal RPGs, it's insane to me just how tunnel visioned the average gameplay leaning gacha player tends to be. Blue Archive might be on the lighter side of this since the game's raids are relatively easy with some cheater units (aoe shielders, exponential damage inflaters, etc.) but seeing people play GFL or Genshin and rating their account strength based on the number of high tier list characters they have made me lose my mind.

[@sachiotakli9674]

In GFL, it kinda makes sense as long as you are actually doing high-end content and you've cleared the basic set of knowledge needed and progressed enough to play through the game normally. The problem is that the average GFL newbie hasn't cleared step 1, which is to understand how the game functions and what it expects from the player, because of how unusually obtuse and uncommunicative the game is. It's gotten better after more recent major updates, but it's still tough to sit down and read guides one how team comps work for some people, especially when resources are getting abandoned.

[@WittyFalls]

because unlike normal rpgs you can do whatever you want with them and get everything in the game compared to gachas where everything is limited. From your pulls to resources and it can take months to get them back and nobody likes waiting that long to make up to their mistakes in the game. You either wait months or pay up to speed up your progress

[@arkimanti]

@@WittyFalls resource investment in normal rpgs and gacha games are practically the same thing. if you don't invest (pull) into a character you don't and can't use them. it's just that gacha progression is timegated usually and rpg progression only accounts for playtime

[@WittyFalls]

@@arkimanti its the same but as you said gachas are timegated compared to normal rpgs where you can grind for how long as you want. That's why almost every gacha player is fixated on being careful with the resources they're investing

[@CrnaStrela]

I came from GFL where things are actually just puzzle and I have to find the perfect piece (not even m4xodia or scar sister is master key anymore these days). So niche is actually not a bad term there, but people who came from other game might not be used to it yet.

[@Kurto.]

when i started playing it was insane to me how I couldn't find a single video explaining raid boss mechanics. glad you're around o/

[@kazzyleo]

nice vid, some people don't pay attention to farmables. eimi and utaha were very useful in my wakamo hovercraft torment clear

[@exonBA]

Yo, just wanted to say, appreciate your featuring of my video, and overall, an amazing video that you have made, as always from the legendary Causew Just wanted to clarify that I definitely do try to fit into my scripts to get ppl to pull for niche units (maybe except my Natsu video cause that was the first ever vid that I made so I was still quite evergreen 😂), and I definitely dont have the intention to clickbait ppl by putting must pull and stuff (i know you didnt mention it, but just wanted to throw it out there to clear up any misunderstandings if there are any), but again, I totally understand, agree and acknowledge your points, and its definitely something for me to think about in future videos that I make, tho personally, I usually try to cater to the more casual players (e.g - those who do Insane or lower) which is why I don't always suggest to pull unless its a great student, but again, it might be something for me to think about moving forward! Again, thank you very much, and apologies if i sound "mad" (I really ain't), and it's an absolute honor to even have a minor appearance in a Causew video 🙏

[@causew]

Honestly your content is fine as it is because I know you're speaking to a newer/casual player base. From what I can tell your advice is very much in line with a new players interests and you leave them juuust enough clues to consider what they could be good for if they try to roll anyway. What would actually be disastrous is if you started mixing end-game advice into your newbie videos! Then it might sound like you're giving conflicting information and in the end it wouldn't help much 😂 Keep up the beginner focus, I appreciate your content for what it is!

[@exonBA]

@@causew Appreciate the advice! Can't wait to see the future videos you're cooking up as well 😁

[@Kreekakon]

Wild Exon!!

[@lcelerio993]

this is a great video, and I agree about the building for one boss and moving onto the next as that was what I did too. Its great to see you trying to bring light to the gameplay aspect of BA, as its following the touhou path now of art and memes overshadowing the gameplay which I am still fond of (even if I have PTSD of malding countless hours to get a slightly better score), I look forward to seeing your future videos about the gameplay itself, the game is really fun to learn and play (until the speedrunning part) and I look forward to seeing how you can make it interesting to watch. All the best Causew!

[@aewinhero4466]

This video described my thoughts on the game pretty well. I have a friend who started right before S. Ui banner and always asked me "Who's good?" and "Should I pull?" and I was always conflicted on outright saying "No" to certain characters, because I'm always thinking of when each unit is useful. I do have a bunch of popular units built rather well, but I also have "niche" units I like at a good enough degree to comfortably clear most raids at lvl. 70 so once I set my mind to clearing harder difficulties I have a solid foundation to work off of instead of starting from 0. It's all about mindset, really. I've personally had a lot of fun delving deeper into boss clears instead of just slamming my head against the wall hoping I'll clear it. Great video.

[@VodkaVodoka]

Looking forward to those gameplay discussion videos. Will be interesting to see what you have on your mind! Also, I realize that I have occasionally fallen into the "this character is specialized" type of advice giving when answering people on Discord or Reddit, by sometimes forgetting that not everybody has full roster. I'll try to be more mindful in the future.

[@poiseboat2383]

That's how I noticed I really needed nyKayoko and more investment for Blue content. Started playing in Oct2023 (during Izuna Rerun banner). I do play more hybrid, but some offrate really saved my ass even if they were "niche", such as Atsuko and Kazusa. Now I'm planning to go for nyKayoko because I've got defeated by INS Blue Goz on GA (and thus not getting the last badge), but I know I'll need her a lot of more than Goz. This makes me mindful about my future pulls

[@bernkastel_.7956]

Really important video especially considering how it's a rare gem in the sea of content about BA. Thanks for that. Helped me deeply understand an important factor regarding my future pull decisions that I was not fully aware of despite not being a beginner at this point.

[@DosonTheGreat]

I figured this was going to happen. That's why I've been pulling for the odd niche unit here and there.

[@cuwon.g8925]

Thank you for answering my most self-asked question "Should I pull this banner/is this meta?". I had like 3 months in playing BA, so when I heard people say something like "This *Student name* is a must-pull/meta so you should pull", I just immediately pull for that specific student and consider other students "Not meta enough". Even though, I had couple of pretty damn strong students (Azusa, Aru, Iroha, Himari,Iori, etc.) It somehow feels harder to me when doing specific events: 1. lacking shield and reposition on the bird and blue mouse thingy event. So my team is wiped, which force me to borrow students which is not the best solution imo. 2. I didn't pull for blue dmg and purple dmg which makes fighting the big demon dog AND the toy box commission a pain in the butt, since Iroha doesn't have enough DPS and doesn't have a striker dps too. Now I'm pulling for the cuteness of the character AND the use of my situation. Happy Blue Archive-ing!

[@andrewlawrence3308]

Finally it is here time to unbrick

[@BarneyDesmond]

That'll be Causew's next video, about how bricking is just a wall you built inside your own mind 😂

[@RedWeeb4926]

I just started playing around kurokage release and only got himari. the recent goz boss has made me realised units like fuuka made a world of difference between me clearing hard rather than just normal. I think your videos have piqued my interest, thank you!

[@AquaticIdealist]

Thank you so much for the video. The funniest part about it is the core advice you give, that after a certain point of progression players need to start understanding gameplay and why units were called niche in the first place, becomes relevant for all kinds of games, far from just Blue Archive. I see the mindset of niche = bad in most gacha games like you said, but people who start focusing on those niches as a part of their playstyle or encounter situations when those niches become very relevant pretty quickly realize (and in the hard way as I have) that not paying close attention to niches will ruin you in the long run. As someone who's about to quit Arknights, the annoying aspects I've encountered in that community should be watching this video. The TLDR is probably "if you know what you're doing, you'll understand why your waifu excels if she is not meta." And of course if your waifu is meta there may be situations where she actually isn't always meta. I really appreciate this video. It had to be said

[@TheFT4444]

I feel this, back before TOR and even before INS was implemented I had difficulty clearing raid for the simple reason that I didn't pull the necessary units for each of these raids. I've had my INS breakthrough last year iirc with Hiero and it was only possible cuz I got lucky getting key units with offrate. Nowadays I can do raid with relative comfy, still not good enough for TOR but I'm quite happy with my current position. I do admit I still need those speedrun clears as ref even when I can never replicate them exactly, learning the raid mechanic is at times challenging and seeing something that works do help me reevaluate my roster. Anyway thanks for the insight Case, I've already shared this with my BA thread hopefully it can help them plan their raid.

[@hoanghatran2022]

Watching this video made me realize this was the way I played FGO for more than 4 years (I quitted by now). The gameplay of FGO was the thing that kept me playing that game for that long. Yes, the story is good, but the struggle of finding optimal team for clearing 3 turns on farming maps, the excitement and sadness that I almost beat the challenge maps. That was so good. I tried to find many guidance and made myself calculator for material back then, checking the next event (I played on NA) to form teams. Well, the gacha part is big different since there was no guarantee, so it was hit or miss even though I saved gems or not (I spent more than 1k gems for Skadi...) Maybe this is the time for me to play BA the same way as in FGO back then.

[@amanloki6449]

Only One Rule: Pull anything you like because it's just a game.

[@nopenope5035]

I cant believed i hadnt subbed lmao. Your guides carried me for a while. Left the game and came back and now im just getring back in the groove of things

[@RaccoonBL]

I have been playing since a little after Wakamo’s first banner, I think it was in October of that year. I have beaten 3 torments now, (Chesed, Kurokage, and now Wakamo hovercraft), and this video absolutely needed to be said. I remember one of the most annoying statement I saw was that someone was annoyed that Hod was designed around Kayoko’s rng. Now of course, Hod wasn’t designed around Kayoko it was designed around throwing a bunch of CC units. The problem definitely is efficiency. You tell people to build like 4 or so cc units and they will probably panic. I think another problem is Mika. Mika did and still does make a lot of bosses very easy like Binah. Using the basic speed run strats for someone like Binah really wouldn’t be painful. So people really don’t expect things to get as complicated as they do. Skipping is also good advice. I didn’t want to pull for Minori and the summer rabbits so I only did extreme Greg. Some other thoughts. I saw people say that Kurokage was rng bull like Goz. As well as the confusion status was pointless since you “automatically lose if they get confused anyway.” As someone who did torment I disagree with a lot of what is said. First off, I was able to make a team that survived phase 2 even if they got confused. It was Momiji, Eimi, Natsu, Ui, Ny Haruka and Serina. If Eimi and Natsu got confused, they would just start attacking each other and do no damage to each other. Also, unlike Goz, Kurokage has a character that invalidates all of its mechanics with HS Shigure. I know for certain that a ue40 HS Shigure can’t be stopped even on torment. Bonus points if you have Cherino. Literally because you get extra Cost recovery for pairing her with a red winter student. I do really like the combat of Blue archive. So many interesting design decisions. Like the “element” system being divided into offense and defense has actually made the combat surprising open even if you do need certain characters here or there. Amplified further by raids allowing, (and I suppose sometime requiring) multiple teams. You can really come up with multiple solutions for problems. I had a lot of fun especially with Chesed torment. Trying to figure out a way to refill the groggy bar was an interesting team building challenge. And I guess a hot take to leave thing. I like Wakamo’s raid. I know both casuals and experts seem to hate her, but I love her boss from a team building perspective. Having to account for both the first and second phases. It has a certain restrictiveness to it, but it still has a lot of units you can use. Especially free ones. The 4 minutes of waiting on phase 2 really doesn’t bother me.

[@RaccoonBL]

Oh one other thing, the reason I started doing Torment. I rng malded for Chesed indoor to get platinum. Had a bad time with it but succeeded, so I wanted to push to be able to do torment so I can get the matching outdoor chesed platnium trophy. Since after all, at least right now doing torment guarantees a platinum trophy.

[@shinri7608]

9:44 This right here, I choose the speedrun way after seeing many vids of it. I was like "Ye I can do that" and learn the consequences of knowing how stupidly rng it is. Here is also when I learn how useful my other students can do, they came in clutch and help dealing with remaining hp as backups. 14:38 In my case, right now, I have students needed for insane Wakaboat, but I choose to do Extreme because they are low investments and I want to focus on doing Hiero Torment after 3rd anni, I can always come back to this raid later in 3 colors when my students are well built.

[@ohyeamisterkrabbs]

As a day 1 NA player this is spot on. Those "niche" pulls I have done throughout the game (from Chihiro and Natsu to Reisa and S.Saki) are the reason I've been able to clear the max difficulties as they come. That lesson along with learning the deeper mechanics of how the game works (positioning etc) are very important if you actually care to "git gud" Great vid, keep it up

[@tukmol2]

You're fucking good at guiding beginners bro i didn't even realize I'm already using these tips without watching tips

[@supersonic2545]

Thank you for making this video. You perfectly explained the situation I'm in. Every single guide for raid bosses I watch includes multiple students I don't have. It's a tough battle without them...

[@GDKoish]

Thank you, this is genuinely really helpful. The reality check you gave was seriously eye opening and what you said about beginners completely hit the mark for me, I was following the meta guides but now realize I should switch up my mindset. 🙏

[@jiaqishao4357]

I joined during the C utaha banner, and finally this week cleared torment for the first time as a f2p. Despite being the easiest torment raid, I still had to invest in so many units. A big part that helped is knowing which prebuilt students I had which can act as alternatives to the guide videos. For example in team 3 of Hovercraft Wakamo, I ran healerless Junko Momoi Midori, and used their aoe to deal with the missiles.

[@Olabruh]

so well said man. one thing i noticed when I tried to learn everything on my own without hoping on the discord for help is how useful a lot of characters are without being 'meta'. characters like serika, kanna, natsu, kotama, and more helped me so frickin much in clearing and progressing in the game simply because I studied the mechanics and spent time to cook my own team. cooking your own team to tackle problems is something a lot of new players are lacking or are not willing to do but really want the rewards that come from it. again, fantastic video! edit: now that I think about it, the one player that saved me and arguably a lot of ba players is guitar rock. that guy understands the struggles vs enjoyment balance of the game as even to this day, he still cooks his own team which is inspired by the meta team. I think the most important thing he said regarding ba was 'after you feel like you no longer want to become a casual, the best starting point is to pick a color, and buff the shit out of the niche/meta units in that color'. you can have you cake and eat it too is essentially what he keeps on saying. yes ako and himari are a must have, yes at some point in the game u need to get cost reducing units and cost regen units. but building students, (especially strikers) is such a heavy commitment, you gotta take things slow and grow one side before you even attempt to grow the others. the day I got spooked by iroha and maxed the shit out of her AND ONLY HER for 4 months straight was the day I understood the beauty of this game. cause like you said, you don't need to do insane or get all points in drill or clear all ex stages in events. you will still get massive pyroxennes, massive activity reports, notes, and blue rays, and still get cute girls doing cute things in cute stories. tryharding is up to you and only you and you gotta respect the time and effort needed.

[@Amsel_616]

After 4 months of making routine to buy Mashiro's elephs on PvP she's almost UE50 and is a big factor of me barely clearing Area 14 Normal to sitting right now on Hard 23-1.

[@cyberfox3110]

i already got the feeling niche characters so strong in certain situation but i still ignored it because its situational benefits but looks like i just need this wake up video for me to accept this solution to finally escape extreme level bosses and enter the insane realm. thanks for this video now i know which student i should invest my resources on.

[@Venven01]

I cleared a torment within 6 months of playing (F2P) while completely accepting the fact that I would suffer immensely for lot of future incoming raids due to the amount of investment I put for this one goal. Is it worth it? Absolutely for me (I get to brag at least 😎). Don't be afraid to do/pull whats necessary for your goal. As the video said; Set your goal, prepare for said goal (In this case, pull for niches) , and accept that you won't be able to do everything at first.

[@Zee-qb4yr]

Not mentioning my don't pull Azusa video smh

[@originaldarkwater]

Perfect time for me to see this video. I've been playing since Sports Fest last year, so I've just gotten to the point where I have most of the "meta" students and I've got enough of them leveled and geared to consistently clear Extreme on the last few raids. But I get hopelessly destroyed stepping into Insane, so picking up some of the niche students for one particular raid or another is my next step forward.

[@shucksy]

8:56 XD thank you for making this video Causew, I feel like anyone who cares about the gameplay and wants to have a better experience in raids needs to watch this. I still vaguely remember that there was some major misinformation/misconceptions about Swimsuit Shiroko and that she was "skippable if you don't care about PvP" which was utterly incomprehensible to me 😭

[@targe4070]

The most painful experience for me as new player is a period between the first spark, that is when you will not roll and get new student. So you as a new player, should also aim for good mission clear student. And "meta" student is meta only when you build it, which will be very long way for new player. Meta chase as new player (ako, himari) is sometimes not feasible or very far (3+ months) before you can actually use them

[@NiffisWorld]

really good video, i always get reminded of this when new players ask streamers, which student to reroll for. There really arent many non limited "must have students" (and really not many limited ones either) that universally help you especially when it comes to raids. It additionally helps, that most students in blue archive are usable, just not "best in slot" for the very best speedrun tactics out there.

[@Masterthai777]

Very interesting mr causew. I am very intrigued in more blue archive game discussion. I love the story and the art and all but I also enjoy raising the characters and using them in raids and JFD (if only it didn't cost so much material, the woes of starting during Mika banner...). The gameplay is surprisingly simple but also deep, would love to see more of these videos!

[@remuisslackin]

I really get you about the 'speedrun' guides. Some become really annoyed when they can not make it like in the guide. They are resetting a lot for the RNG, they do not have X character o can't make it with 1 team. When I got tired of the about the RNG, I understood that it's okay to be creative and fight the raid by other ways. After all, I accomplished what I wanted: Beat Insane and reach Platinum Rank. In fact, Torment is when you have be more creative than ever. If you check the teams of the top 100, you'll see dudes that use like 6 teams to beat it. That's really dedication, haha.

[@Midokuni]

6 teams "was" the average experience for a newly released difficulty so that's as expected I would say. The real dedication comes from the people who end up using 15 ACTUAL teams to clear. This is also one thing people fail to consider -- people want a "mald 1pan" over a "comfy, 0-reset 6pan" and suddenly bam, they cry.

[@remuisslackin]

@@Midokuni omg midokuni-chan hii Haven't played for that long, didn't know people would go for that many teams. Haha, that's real love for the game. And yes. For the sake of our hair (and specially, our time) it's much better go for the comfy strat. It took me a little to realize that.

[@Kyee124]

Honestly this... is really well made, wow It's true that niche units are sometimes required to be built for some of the content, like for example fury of sets on the JP server requiring you to build someone like Hanako, Sakurako and the new-ish 10 cost unit Band Yoshimi for easier clear.

[@allainch.7251]

As someone who gets spooked by a lot of students, I’ve built up a decent chunk of specific units for specific bosses. It all really comes down to they’re Lv 1 when I need to use them and I don’t have enough leveling material to get them to where I need them to be

[@Quorum-bs3qk]

Great video! Helps fill in the gaps that the community was missing. Keep up the great work.

[@Chocomint_Queen]

Crazy how down people are on Natsu now, I pulled her on release because everoyne was talking about how she's goat for pero, and she's still great

[@ssjacss2743]

8:40 I find it funny you mentioned that, since that's how long I took to beat my first torment since I started (yellow goz)😂😂 thanks for the video tho, it will be pretty helpful for many people, keep up the good work!!

[@causew]

I didnt make the number up out of nowhere ;) A focused, goal/results oriented player would take around 8-10 months to do their first Torment. Playing semi-casually youll prob get it done in a year and a half, which is where a certain cohort of players are all at right now...

[@dimcross]

Being a 3 week old player and still only at beginners run this video help me. And still learning the difficulty of Blue Archive

[@corban5364]

Things that doesn't get talked about a lot. The strongest healer unit is a 1* unit. Her real problem is that support slots are too competitive for her to watch real use in Raid. The most resilient tank is a 2* tank. The unit with the highest damage potential (but requires a lot of working around her and her toolkit) is also a 2*. Like the video said, every student is viable in their situation, but outside of staying at the top, most 2* make the game viable in ways that other games would ask you to only pull for high rarity, not to mention of them being the meta for a long time in cases like Tsubaki.

[@paimonthetravelbuddy690]

​@@corban5364Who's the 2* with the highest damage potential... Mutsuki?

[@corban5364]

@@paimonthetravelbuddy690 correct Mutsuki's real damage comes from her mines which makes her difficult to use without losing your sanity, like for example on hiero where you had to move her like, 3cm in front just for the mines to hit him

[@thunders.5758]

Great vid discussing gameplay issues that people are having problem with. I personally have to thank you for all the SCHALE raid tactics vids because I feel like I move up from beginner phase thanks to those. Looking forward to more of your vid that focus on discussing gameplay 😆

[@n1ghtmareduck]

Oh yeah I'd really like to see where you're going with this idea. Looking forward to next discussion vid

[@Otaku-fc2hi]

As a beginner to blue archive, I recently had encountered a roadblock in the main story in volume 3, the characters I had were alright and did the job for almost everything. But that changed when I hot whooped by that level 56 boss with infinite reinforcements. At the time i was only level 40 and only noticed the level gap after it beat me several times over, not to mention most of my main party had a terrain disadvantage for indoor terrain(not sure if that poses a significant problem though). I could have just stopped playing the mainstory, returned after I got some more characters and became strong enough to beat it. But I didnt want to leave things off a cliffhanger so I would eventually start lookong for the skills and niches I needed to get thorugh that boss. I would eventually beat it somehow after figuring out who I needed and who was underpreforming and that satisfaction was something else. I dont know why i felt like writing this, but I guess the point of this story was that the game is fun when it challanges you to find who you need when you need them.

[@louistrzepkowski8378]

I’m still in the beginner phase (started in November) but it’s a great thing to keep in mind going forward. Right now I’m in the debate phase of leveling students just enough to clear Insane, or fully level their skills outright so next time the raid comes around torment is a possibility. Been using the Justin planner to try and have the right niche students for each TA raid moving forward, but the balance is hard. Was proud that I didn’t invest in anyone for Goz GA to make sure I could do Wakaboat Insane and just barely managed a 4 team =).

[@chocomint1835]

You can clear most content in this game with only meta gacha students (the cutoff I consider is 15% usage rate on the bluearchive-ranking site) and farmables to fill then niches. I cleared all 3 colors of Insane Peroro without Natsu/Resia, Insane Kurokage without Atsuko/Kikyou, Torment Wakamo without Tsukuyo/Meru, etc. Having 6 months foresight from JP and being able to look up their clears and see who you need to farm in advance really helps, to the point that I don't see the need to roll for any niche student even for all the upcoming torments.

[@MEd3094]

I like ur final conclusion and I feel like this is also a problem that's compounded by the fact that when starting blue archive the "game" at lower levels barely feels like the game at high levels because lots of lower level content seems designed to let new players steamroll through it without much thought cause I didn't have to think a single thing about the mechanics until I was trying to beat story Hieronymus at level 35 with barely any blue units

[@randomperson4198]

Funny i kinda forgot story stage exist after like mission 5 or smt i then when i continue it like in lvl 87 and another few months and i just steam rolled everything 😂 Mainly cause i kinda finally want to unlock gear 7 and 8 upgrade my dorm

[@Draa_]

I hope this video can reach the people who really needs it Looking forward to more of this kind of discussion!

[@liaznova1622]

Amaizing algorithm, I just rushed through the gran assaault of Shiro/Kuro and was only ably to do 1 of the elements in insane. I was just thinking why was I struggleing so much, after all, I have almost all meta students and this is not even torment difficulty. This has been an eye openner for me.

[@Deo_Volenti]

>Showing Yumie playing BA. You sir, are a real one.

[@theorize999]

actually i love how punishing this game can be if you approach it like you do other games

[@ChickenSundae]

This video couldn't have come at a more perfect time since I'm now max level and focused on clearing at least extreme for raids

[@041able]

I really really liked how you made justice to niche students. I entered the game only by the artistic side, but since i beat Binah in extreme after a whole week of planning , i started to enjoy the gameplay more and more. I mean, if the gameplay per se wasnt addicting in itself, i wouldnt have played all the stages as soon as possible, but using students and teams that i wouldnt even imagine in common stages is just awesome. I will still be pulling for waifus and stuff, but aiming for the best of both worlds, since no students are useless, after all.

[@Psi01]

When I started playing BA, the students I pulled for were partly based on the amount of resources I had at the time. If I already used a ton of tech notes and blue rays for a Millennium student, I'd probably be less likely to pull for another Millennium student or maybe the event shop had resources for Gehenna, but I needed those resources for a student I was already investing in so I would opt out of pulling for the newest banner.

[@solidsnake434]

My problem is, raising units is so hard and time consuming that I find myself discouraged because I see the unit recommendations I have them or get them but I am looking at them lvl 1 and my resources empty for their gear and much worse for their skills be cause purples are next to impossible to farm consistently

[@peoplewithnoname1326]

I feel this quite a bit, especially the Reisa and Natsu section. I joined immediately after the S. Hoshino banner, and have passed on Natsu and Reisa. Perorozilla is the one raid that still breaks me in two because I dont have either, but I cleared insane Gregorious as a had the students for it.

[@CelenalPkb]

As a chubby dolphin who started in the tail end of mika's first banner, yea. This video summarizes my experience very well. Even with manual clear of all stages to go as far as fast as possible, having the majority of students available from buying the monthly packs semi regularly, and refilling the first 240AP of refreshes everyday until hitting level cap it still took about 3-4 months before even attempting Insane felt like a possibility just due to how resource gathering works, how I tried to build multiple teams at once, and also missing a tiny handful of key students I'd passed up. Granted, lacking knowledge about a lot of boss mechanics in practice despite reading all skills affected progress, but the point stands. One of the things that helped me quite a bit was watching narrated example runs by people like RS Rainstorm where they often add notes on why a skill is being used at a specific timing during a run. Felt like it allowed me to mentally bridge a lot of gaps I'd skipped over trying to process everything at once. Even not having all the example teams built, I was able to understand well enough to start slotting in what units I actually had to piece together solutions. Causew alludes to it but BA is fundamentally a puzzle game as far as game mechanics go. One where your options to use remain largely the same but they hop between different games with every raid. The most useful thing I've learned is probably that the Practice button exists for a reason. Even if I personally hate having to using it, it's become more necessary every raid as I look higher and Grand Assault continues to grind at my sanity. The most surprising I've learned is probably how few semicasual players I've met, even extremely long term ones, have gear stockpiled to upgrade units they may not realize they need during a raid. Or even farm for student eleph available in hard once they obtain a unit permanently.

[@ghostcrow_202]

Great video. On the topic of helping more people try to solve end game raids, I wish there were more raid videos where they avoid using the newest gacha units specifically created for the next raid, but rather use farmable or meta units that most people are likely to own. I know you make no gacha 3* challenges and they're fun to watch but in the end it's an artificial restriction for fun since most people doing insane or torment most likely already have Mika/Ako/S.Hoshino/etc.

[@SpringboardThought]

This was great! I’m still quite new to the game and think this is a much better way of approaching it, for me.

[@Oupzzy]

13:37 Feels like I needed to hear that tbh. I had to settle with Goz ext, and while it certainly didn't feel great, I think I might be able to clear ins next time. I might have been able to clear blue ins actually if I invested in blue units, but I chose to keep these investments for Wakaboat ins instead.

[@theorize999]

man I feel good about how I’ve approached this game after watching this video, and learned a few things too. This is such a good video, I really like how realistically you talk and you are obviously very intelligent.

[@primisto7530]

I identified this a long time ago. Meta still applies. There are units that are must-pulls. But after a while it becomes a "does this student help me beat [difficult content XYZ]?" or better yet "can I beat [difficult content] without ripping my hair out or risking the loss of a reward (like a ticket for a raid)?". With the release of D.Hina, I got my very first torment clear on hiero yesterday. Maybe I could have done it before... maybe. I wasn't sure though and I very much imagined it to be very painful to do, so I never bothered. Same with the other raids. I have Mika and yet I enver thought of doing torment. Oftentimes I looked at 3-4 team runs and was missing several students that were used in those. Sometimes they required precise positioning (feels like everyone is using an emulator for raids to get pin-point positioning...). With more students like C.Kotama, tanks, healers, repositioners etc., making 2nd and 3rd teams becomes much easier. I remember regretting skipping T.Yuuka so much. My stupid self at the time thought "erm, I already have S.Shizuko so why would I need a second repositioner?". Y-yeah...

[@anon12352]

This video is so true, man ALL of the students have a certain degree of utility, there are tons of veterans making "begginer" guides from their +3 year old accounts, on raids of course they can work if you are a whale, then you pull and max out the teams shown in their videos but i haven't seen anyone famous making content and guides from a free to play account that is less than one year old, this is an opportunity for someone to fill, i came back to the game when the trip trap train event was on, a few months ago and i started out watching pull guides and team compositions for raids, "i have this girl but it is not working the way it is shown in the video, how is this a f2p begginer guide?" of course my girl didn't had T8 eq with maxed stats plus UE, etc, etc. This game has so much potential on the tutorial side of things.

[@rouge-gsd3061]

To be honest my instinct in any game like this is to only draw if it is limited and not generally available from normal drawing. Its worked well as a f2p player for many games now

[@yahikodaichi9828]

Great video man. I started playing BA a week before the Mika banner (rip NYFuuka T_T). My first successful insane run was at Perorodzilla GA with red bcos I was lucky to get spooked by Natsu during the SHanako banner and without her, I would not be able to form a 3-pan team with Natsu/Mari/Utaha. Next raid was hovercraft but I didn't have the required CC units nor the multi hit units for the second phase. It was a wakeup call for me to UE40 Kayoko as fast as possible including the fact the Hod GA is coming soon. Although SChise will be nice, I decided to pull for SIzuna and TYuuka (which helped me lot in Goz and ShiroKuro) knowing for the fact that I will mald more with Kayoko but it's the mald that I accepted. On to today's hovercraft raid, it is still one of my weakest insane clears with my rushed build on Neru but thankfully still enough for plat. One of the niche units that I would like to get spooked in the future is Tsukuyo especially in Kaiten and Hovercraft phase 1. It just to show how niche units make runs a lot lot comfier. I do admit I'm one of those people who tries to replicate the speedrun vids because I know for the fact that with the limited resources I got for now, I want to clear raids with minimum investment as much as possible but knowing more often or not that I may not have the exact units nor investment that they have I always try the runs first in mock battles to see if the run can be done comfortably with at least 1 to 2 rotations late or the mald is not worth it at all. Hopefully when I get more resources and investment in the future, I can start attempting some torment runs where niche units are even more important :))

[@AkoreCh.]

This video was meant for me. I've been only doing extreme difficulty bc i just throw in a team with "meta" units in it. Thanks for sharing ur opinion on this. I've been playing for about a year now and am inspired to try and clear insane raids :)

[@cartez4695]

this channel is so underrated..

[@Banana_BOI1]

I’m one of the few staunch believers of waifu over meta. But I know what I got myself into. I know that I’m crippling myself by not pulling for some meta characters I don’t like. Or not using meta characters I did end up getting by accident (like Himari or S. Hoshino). That said, I’m very competitive, and would like to get the highest score possible. So to me at least, I’m always relying on the niche characters anyway to make them work where the universals would shine instead. I guess you could say I have the opposite problem. My only saving grace is the guild, allowing me to borrow a maxed Himari for example. Though recently have had to level her and S.Hoshino due to needing other characters (T.Yuuka and NY Fuuka). But then again, I won’t pull for either when their banner comes, because I know what I’m getting myself into, and I’m content in doing Extreme after starting in December 2023.

[@user-tj1wn5ve3s]

This is so real; everyone was fixated on Wakamo and Maid Aris as a blue dealer but no one told me how good Hinata was. I ended up being the only one to UE50 her in my club and she's so useful for Goz and Peroro

[@NeroLordofChaos]

The big thing is that clubs will almost ALWAYS have at least one person who raised the high spec specialist students to UE50. Try looking for a Mika, a Wakamo, a Himari, S.Hanako or others. easy enough. Now look for some off meta picks for raids and content. lot harder, and they likely won't have their skills at an effective level. There are several students that may not be "best in slot" for what they do, but if you removed that student, they are easily top 3.

[@inanimategaming]

I've been looking forward to this video ever since I saw your community post about it, since as much as I was pulled into BA by the characters (only took me like 2 years to actually decide to give Nexon another chance and download it) I am inherently a person that will gradually want to progress further into a game's difficulty, even if I express my reluctance to do so. This video resonates with me more than I expected to. While I still feel the need to have some form of establishment (I've been playing for a little over 4 months now), I want to be able to punch upwards to insane in any raid by the end of February 2025. Might be a lofty goal, but that's a challenge I'm willing to accept. The boss I decided to tackle in this regard is Hovercraft because that was my first raid experience in this game and I didn't even know about borrows, nor even join the official Discord at the time, so I ended up staying on Hard, not even sure if I should even do more than 1 team. Thus, Hovercraft is personal to me. Plus, one of my waifu plans (S.Nonomi) would be great to have for that fight. So here I am, four months later, satisfied with my Extreme clear, but proceeded to get my ass kicked in Insane. I could feel my initial plan getting closer (closest I got was 1.75m HP remaining), but ultimately I'm just not ready. Fortunately I have most of what I need, I just need to put more investment into them by the time it returns in GA so that I can accomplish my goal of beating Insane. I'm fairly confident I could do phase 2, but when I can't even beat phase 1, my ideas for phase 2 bodythrowing are meaningless until then. I might have been a bit overconfident thinking this too since I don't even have Neru (YET). Plus, throughout this week, I had the realization that Hifumi could have more use applications than I expect, so I'll definitely need to work on her some more to make some other raids comfortable. So overall, to me, this video confirms what I've been feeling in regards to my goal and what I expected. Can't wait to see what more you'll talk about!