Anubarak (Blue) Hunt Guide

Blue Hunt is not hard! Normal blue teams are easy to set up & doesn't need a lot of special units.

The key to a conventional blue team is consistent debuff removal. To that end, it is prudent to use as much green units as possible, since the 50% evasion chance avoids a lot of poisons.

A slow-clear team needs:

• At least 1 healer to manage debuffs

• Non-Red element DPS units

The Debuff Healer

A unit particularly suited to this task is Pamela. Her skillsets work as follows:

• S1: 75% chance for ACC Down debuff. If the Spider has ACC down, he will miss his poison attacks more often.

• Passive: Cleanses 1 debuff from the team every time she takes a turn.

• S3: Applies Continuous Heal and SPD Up to allies. Since Continuous Heal is based on self max HP instead of the caster's max HP, Pamela does not need to build lots of HP to increase her healing potential.

With a maxed Sharp-tongued Pride bond, Pamela will clean 2 debuffs every time she takes a turn. As long as she is faster than the Spider, Pamela can (almost) single handedly manage the debuffs of the team. To that end, she should have at least 170 SPD and 55% EHR. She can stay at lv.50 if you would like to save purple crystals.

If the runs keep failing, try including another cleanser or an AOE Immune unit. Joyce, Noclyn, Dawn, Moira, Euphemia, Ermes, Saika, Guardian Ariel, Olive, etc... work here. Experiment with the units you already have. Red element units are OK to use as this role.

The DPS

The rest of the team (2 or 3 units depending on how many healers you use) can be your conventional DPS units.

Your DPS cannot be red element, but green/blue/yellow/black is fine. Red element units with a 50% base accuracy (Anastasia, Akaoni) or an element-ignoring attack (Springtime Celeste) are also acceptable.

There are lots of great and cheap options. Some of them include:

• Erica, Celeste: You are supposed to start with these units if you follow the starting guide.

• Units from your Red Hunt team: Reusing your PvE units will save tons of resources. Reuse your DEF breaker and your DPS!

• Louis: Consistent DEF down and high damage.

• Layla: High damage and cheap to build.

• Chaldea (Neno), Delina, Annin Miru, Abyss, Bartoz: Manages their own debuffs.

The requirements are not picky. DEF Down helps, and AOE units can help with defeating Life Chain. Use your existing units as much as you can to save on resources.

Certain units can clear Blue Hunt alone. Thus, you can bring 3 piggybackers to get free XP and Affection.

Currently, only two units are capable of this:

Chaldea (Neno)

Chaldea is a unit specifically designed to counter blue element units. Since she always dodges attacks from blue units and then immediately counterattacks, she can dodge all of Spider's poisons (except the 3 applied on phase two) and take her down in 3~5 minutes.

To achieve this, she needs Lifesteal set gear and an evasion bond. Candid Affection is best, but Necessary Enhancements at +15 or higher is also acceptable. To make the runs faster, build for at least 70% Crit Rate (85%+ preferred), and as much ATK and Crit DMG as possible. 

The VR Lifesteal set is a quick way of setting Chaldea up, but unfortunately it has no CDMG stats. Make it a priority to farm suitable replacements; If you have a Red Hunt team, try crafting a Crit necklace with CDMG main stat for your Chaldea. Crit/Lifesteal Chaldea will serve you very well not only in hunts but also in PvP.

Penetration/Lifesteal will work even better as long as you can fill the steep Crit Rate requirements.

Zaphael

Zaphael can be a low-budget solution if you must get a Shepherding team running. Unfortunately, runs with Zaphael are VERY SLOW.

The basic premise is to completely resist Spider's poisons by building 155% Effect Resistance or higher. Although Spider's Curse ignores RES, it is only triggered if the target is poisoned, and Zaphael will always resist all poisons. Her passive heals her every time she takes a turn, so all she needs to do is survive & chip the Spider to death.

Zaphael's extremely low base ATK of 553 and base SPD of 101 means that no matter what you do, she hits like a noodle and moves like a slug. There is an upper limit of her offensive ability due to an Effect RES main ring being mandatory. This means that you should expect runs to take more than 5 minutes, potentially 8 minutes or longer depending on your gear. More importantly, there is a possibility that quick-battle attempts may fail due to runs going over 150 turns.

There is a possibility that Chaldea will not be able to solo Blue 13 (if it ever comes out); This could potentially leave Zaphael as the only unit who can shepherd Blue 13, as long as you're okay with spending all day autoing hunts.

One Shot Kill is a VERY advanced team setup that requires very specific units. As a reward, OSK runs are extremely quick.

An OSK team needs to be perfectly speed-tuned, and is usually built with the following:

• Wave 1 cleaner: Unit who can solo-nuke Wave 1 to prevent the nuker from wasting their skills.

• Nuker: Unit responsible for one-shotting the Spider.

• ATK Buffer: Unit who acts first and buffs the team with ATK UP (at least 2 turns).

• DEF Breaker: Unit who acts before the nuker and DEF breaks the Spider.

Wave 1 Cleaner

The wave 1 cleaner should be a high-damage AOE DPS who can do about 10K damage. This includes units like Janis, Apostle, Delina, Apathy, and Gaeta. If your ATK Buffer is fast, they can buff your W1 Cleaner, making gear-spec easier.

Nuker

Since green units enjoy a 30% extra damage against the Spider, green element single-target nukers are employed most often. Depending on your turn order and team setup, your nuker may need to deal anywhere between 40~60K damage in one attack. Using the Damage Calculator helps fine-tune. Stats for all enemies can be found in the wiki.

Celeste is the easiest and most popular Spider nuker, but other candidates include Drizella, Abyss, Bartoz, Clone Matilda, and Layla.

ATK Buffer

Almost anyone whose AI starts with a team-wide 2 turn ATK UP buff can take this role. The buff has to be 2 turns because going across waves will spend 1 turn, and your Nuker needs to keep the buff.

Rafael has a 3-turn ATK UP buff, which means that your entire team can carry the buff into Wave 2. This could potentially lower your gear requirements.

DEF Breaker

If your DEF Breaker has no special AI and has a DEF Down on S3, they must be slower than the Wave 1 cleaner and only act on Wave 2. Lots of units can be used this way as long as they are not Red element.

However, units with special AI or units who use DEF Down later can be allowed to act during Wave 1. This includes highly unconventional units like Marsha, Trist, or Berserk Galornia. These units can deal additional damage during Wave 1 to help clear them with less gear.

The Strategy

The most important factor - and the reason why Blue OSK Teams are so rare - is the difficulty in tuning unit turn order and damage. Too much damage done before the Nuker, and Spider will go into Life Chain. Too little, and your Nuker needs more stats to meet the damage requirements. I can't give you the exact formula or team composition because it depends on which units you use and what gears are available. OSK is already an advanced strategy and most likely requires you to have a good set of Rage gear, so I assume you're not a complete newbie and can figure it out with the information given.

A basic flow for an OSK team is as follows:

1. Start of battle - ATK Buffer acts. 

2. W1 Cleaner kills Wave 1.

3. Wave 2 starts. ATK Buffer acts, attacks Spider.

4. W1 Cleaner acts, attacks Spider.

5. DEF Breaker acts, inflicts Spider DEF Down. Spider HP must be higher than 70% at this point.

6. Nuker acts, one-shots Spider.

Depending on your team setup, you could deviate from this formula entirely. Not all teams feature the same 4 roles, and some units could fill multiple roles at once. Some OSK teams take two or more turns on Wave 1, while others may even play with Action Gauge manipulation. Just remember that every debuff done to the Spider has at least 15% failure rate and every S1 attack carries a 3% chance of triggering Flanking, which could potentially bring Spider into Life Chain.

This Epic Seven Banshee 13 Guide can be used as a reference, although do mind that we're on Hunt 11 & several of their key units are missing in Ark. If we ever get Hunt stage 13, this info is sure to come in handy...