August 5

New Banners

Junior Innkeeper Silbal [Limited, Rerun]

Recommendation For Newly Starting Players

Reroll for Layla (Optional).

Simple Rerolling (Don't start with limited units): Same process as always (Link to guide)

Advanced Rerolling (Start with at least 1 limited unit): Use the Advanced Rerolling guide (Link) 

Recommendation For Regular Players

Silbal should be skipped.

This is the last week to pick up Mead - Next banner is most likely a Dark select banner, where you can pick up important units like Julia, Obsi, and Mits. Worth skipping Mead if you don't have those.

(Not) New Event

It's a rerun, so.

Elite Mode

Mirabelle (Boss), Cosma

VERY HIGH single target damage output from Mirabelle.

Cosma will force-trigger Flanking from a random ally.

Recommended Strategy

Leaving the minions alive reduces the chances of Cosma triggering Flanking on Mirabelle. 

To brawl out the boss, painting debuffs like ATK Down, ACC Down, SPD Down, etc can effectively reduce your incoming DPS pressure. 

If you are trying to blitz Mirabelle down, Invincible or Skill Nullifier can give you an extra turn to pump out more damage.

You can use a Green element unit to act as bait for Mirabelle. Protect them with Invincible, Undying, or Aoi to buy even more time. Alternatvely, let them die and use the tempo to use the friend unit you've borrowed.

Don't try using Midsummer Carolyn as a bait, Cosma's S3 tends to ignore Pain Tolerance.

Event Shop

Featured 5*: Hestia

Hestia is not useful.

Unit: Junior Innkeeper Silbal

Descriptions available at Limited Units page.

Real Time Arena Season II

After a literal year of delay, RTA is back.

Rules

1. Once you are matched with an opponent, you and the opponent can choose any 2 units to ban (cannot be drafted).

2. You and the opponent take turns drafting 5 units. The first person to draft can pick 1 unit.

3. The second person can draft 2 units, then the opponent can draft 2 more, etc., until both sides pick 5 units.

4. After that, both sides pick 1 unit from the opponent's lineup to ban, resulting in a 4v4.

5. Units drafted on SLOT 3 CANNOT BE BANNED by the opponent. Keep this in mind when drafting. 

6. Finally, you may freely adjust the position of your units (for example, move someone to Slot 4 so that they are protected by Aoi) before the battle begins.

7. After that, both sides control their respective units during their turns.

8. If the battle goes on for too long, all units receive a Frenzy effect, which increases damage, decreases healing efficiency, and discourages stalling.

Rewards

It appears that the Rank Advancement Rewards can be received again even if you got them last season, which means you can get thousands of gems just by climbing to Gold or Master or so (which shouldn't be that hard even for newer players). 

The accompanying RTA daily event gives you Energy for simply participating in matches. Players who have no interest in climbing or trying for the Top 200 End Of Season rewards will be intentionally abandoning matches to get their participation rewards. Use this opportunity to climb later during the season.

Tips

You can preemptively shut down 2 of your least favorite units to fight against to better suit your approach (For example, if you're a Cleave-heavy player, banning Obsidian and Urd removes a ton of counterplay options).

Slot 3 should be used tactically since the opponent cannot ban the unit. If you are the first to go, you may place the unit who most strengthens your current team plan (For example, if you've been drafting for Cleave so far, put your Opener in Slot 3 so they cannot ban it). If you are the second one to go, place a hard counter on Slot 3 to force the opponent to pivot, or place your own core unit to strengthen your own game plan.

Slots 4 and 5 can be used to "Drift" AKA suddenly changing your team plan to throw off the enemy's response. For example, you can pretend to go full stall/turtle on Slots 1~3, then suddenly Drift to a midtempo brawl by drafting an opener to challenge the enemy's speed or picking a counteropener. 

You can pick 2 of the same types of units so that the enemy cannot ban both of them. For example, if you are locked into a speed race against the opponent, if you draft two 10-speed imprint units, the opponent will only be able to ban one at most, leaving you with a 10 speed advantage no matter what. However, be careful not to sacrifice too much utility doing this, because if your speed imprints are useless on their own, the opponent can simply ban one of your stronger units and leave you with a very fast, but weak, team.

Other News

Bond Shop Refreshes

Silbal's bond is only useful for DPS Knights which there are very few of. Not worth picking up.