Overview
Yeah. It’s Helia & Selena time.
v1.55a Impressions
– Bomb Clown seems a little underwhelming; he doesn’t attack you directly so it feels more like a game of solitaire with your deck, which more than often or not ends up in your favour
– I fully expected some sort of twins and boy, I was not disappointed with what we got!
– Being forced to start with both twins makes team building a little trickier. Depending on your skill draft, the early game can get rough so try to supplement aspects you’re missing eg AoE clear, crowd control, etc
– Johan adds an interesting dimension to the game through his fixed skills manipulation, lowering their costs and casting them twice
– I have not tested rebalanced characters extensively, so expect the tier list to shuffle in future updates
Introduction
I have way too many hours (200+) in Chrono Ark and have reached the current end of the game with all characters on Expert difficulty.
This guide aims to help players struggling to get their first win in Normal or Expert difficulty.
Hopefully this will also help to provide feedback to the creators of this amazing game and spur some discussion on the balance and viability of every character. Feel free to experiment and comment if you found success with other setups.
——Gameplay Tips——
General Team Building
The general team composition that I find the most success with is 2 DPS carries, 1-2 Support, 0-1 Flex.
All characters will be about LVL 4-6 by end game.
Level whatever you need more of in your team composition, (healers for more healing, DPS for damage)
You should start with either 1 DPS Carry and 1 Support or 1 DPS carry and 1 Flex
I usually upgrade to 6-7 mana and have around 3-4 Draw skills.
Note that the DPS does not strictly need to be an ‘Attack’ role character.
Likewise the supports do not need to be from the ‘Support’ role.
Some characters can work outside of their designated roles which I will elaborate in the character sections.
The new categories I created in this guide are based on my own opinion.
Fixed Skills
Fixed skills are a crucial part of Chrono Ark.
Treat them as skill cards that you always have in your hand at the cost of +1 mana. In boss fights especially, you want to always use your fixed skill for the turn so you do not run out of cards. A typical fixed skill setup for a team might look like this:
DPS
Single target skill
Healer
AOE healing skill
Flex
Basic/Utility skill
Backup Healer
Single-target healing skill
OR
Backup DPS
AOE attacking skill
“Tier” List and Explaination
This is my “Tier” List, it doesn’t make sense to rate characters between roles since they cannot replace one another. This is the pick order I would followed if I was purely concerned with winning the run. Regardless, Chrono Ark is a single player game so feel free to experiment and pick whatever is fun for you.
Tier 0: These characters are just so much better than their counterparts that I think its a mistake to not pick them every time if you want to win.
Tier 1: I consider these characters well balanced and they can fufil their role well enough.
Tier 2: These characters are lacking in some way or another and are generally weaker then their counterparts.
Supports
Tier 0: Joey
Tier 1: Pressel, [Selena]
Tier 2: Sizz, Huz
Explanation
Tier 0: Joey’s healing vapor and healing potion combine to form the best healing kit for a support. No other healer can provide such good general healing. His regeneration effects counter the pain debuffs that the end game bosses all use and pair very well with Ironheart.
Tier 1: Pressel is now a competent AoE healer with the introduction of Double Heal and Shining Pillar, with a side of card manipulation.
Selena’s single target healing is on par if not better than both Pressel and Joey’s arsenal. However, her AoE healing is more conditional – so you may need to use two or more heals to achieve the same result as other healers.
I’m placing Selena in brackets as you can’t really draft her into just any composition, except at the start, so her tier is not a very fair assessment.
Tier 2: Huz and Sizz have weaker AOE and single target healing than Joey. Their gimmicks aren’t enough to make up for it. I would rate Sizz over Huz as Huz’s healing is highly situational, being dependent on Phoenix to take full advantage of her skills. I also tend to play Sizz now as more of an enabler, mainly using Eve,Guard! and Collect Eve to set up powerful combos.
DPS
Tier 0: Silverstein, [Helia]
Tier 1: Narhan, Charon, Hein, Lian, Johan
Tier 2: Trisha, Azar
Explanation
Tier 0: Rapid Shot. Nuff’ said. Imagine doing 30 damage on a one-mana skill and setting up for more damage AND you can do it twice. He only has very few dud abilities – only Quick Fire and Ricochet Shot (somewhat) come to mind. Reassessing, but buffs to his mark seem to be adequate compensation for the Rapid Shot nerf.
Helia gives Silverstein a run for his money in terms of raw DPS. Black Sun hits almost double of Snipe with a lower or equal mana cost. Overload, which almost all carries suffer from, is actually beneficial for Helia since her skills scale off Mana Cost, namely Flame Arrow and Black Sun.
Tier 1: Narhan is a DPS with 50 HP and who scales off HP items which no one else wants. You can thus give all your good Attack items to your other DPS. The Mentalist is absolutely amazing, but with the addition of some dud skills like Plant Spite and Trauma, he can be left at the mercy of RNG.
Charon is still very strong despite the nerfs. Focus on applying Pain damage via Focus Encroachment and Scatter Darkness. Ignore gimmicks like Soul Stigma and Soul Strike.
Hein got a hefty buff with the addition of End of the Line, Rage Slash and Bloodied Revenge.
The latest addition to this list is Lian. Preparation is Rapid Shot tier – way too powerful for how much mana it costs. The reworked Parry is a buff as well.
Johan brings some new tools to the DPS table. In exchange for his fairly average damage, he gets card advantage and fixed skill manipulation. This can help set up some nasty damage combos for other carries.
Tier 2: Trisha has lost a lot of DPS due to the Double Team changes and Illusion Strike being reworked. The new DPS skills – Heart Pierce and Caught Off Guard. are rather unimpressive and only work in specific compositions. I’d argue that Trisha is more of a flex now but she’s way too squishy without investment.
Azar lost a significant chunk of his DPS as Hollowed Sword: First Scroll’s effect of duplicating Hollowed Swords was moved to Ascending Slice. While his new rare skill Dancing Sword is impressive, it’s gated by RNG. You’ll need to pull off the perfect combo to do more damage than the other DPS characters on this list, which results in inconsistency.
Flex
Tier 1: Ironheart, Phoenix, Miss Chain
Tier 1: Ironheart’s passive alone makes him worth using as it makes your heals preemptive shielding. Good utility doesn’t hurt either. Casually slams for 100 damage when you have too much healing in hand.
Phoenix’s passive also alone makes him worth using. His rework is most welcome. More details in his own section but he’s no longer just a gimmick, being able to trivalize most of the boss mechanics, except the final boss.
Miss Chain is strong as ever in a Pain composition, but her skill rework makes her a fine pick in other compositions too. Reducing armour with Zoom! and Shred Them All! is a huge damage boost for most characters. Both of her rare skills are incredible.
—— Support ——
Joey
Role: Support
Joey is an excellent basic support that can fit into any team composition as the main healer.
His passive Conjure Potion gives you a identified potion on level up.
Healing Vapor
– Heal good, many heal better
– Regeneration is extremely effective at patching up small attacks and bleeds
– Joey’s best skill, take as many as possible
Healing Potion
– Solid single target heal skill.
Healing Ray
– A mix between healing potion and healing vapour
– Useful for Pain compositions
Chemical Weapon
– Works very well with spammable low cost attacks (Azur, Silverstein, Trisha)
– Weaker with reduced stack count
Weakening Smog
– Decent Aoe debuff and damage
Chemical Substance No. 12
– Good against certain enemy types and cheap
Self-destructing Healing Drone
– Team buffs are hard to come by, let alone stack
– Even in an ideal scenario, it only does mediocre damage
– Good way to apply chemical weapon as Joey
Paralyzing Dart
– Your standard stun skill
– 2 Mana for 1 turn stun is a bad rate
Healing Vapor
– When you need AoE Healing
– Default Choice
Healing Potion
– When you need Single Target Healing
Sizz
Role: Support
Sizz is an amazing support with both offensive and defensive capabilities. She excels with skillful management of Eve for maximum damage.
Her passive Doll Eve is an excellent boost to any DPS especially DPS with low cost attacks (Azar btw). With the changes, Eve refreshes itself at the start of your turn.
Her doll does no damage now, Mr Developer pls fix.
Note that her passive works on all single target ally spells (yes, even curses).
Edit: I’ve switched to an enabler playstyle on Sizz, opting to use her Eve stacks to proc Collect Eve and Thread of Fate.
Healing Wave
– Cheap AoE heal and debuff remover
Eve, Guard!
– Insanely cost efficient 1 mana chain heal
– Protects healing gauge
Collect Eve
– Great for setting up huge combos and usually protects your carry
Time To Move!
– Increases healing received
– Most cost effective way to refresh Eve to 2 stacks
Hindering Attack
– Refresh one Eve stack and provides a guaranteed crit
Eve, Help!
– Generally awful heal and extremely costly buff, after the loss of swiftness
Sacrifice
– Disables Eve
– Low AoE damage and costly AoE shield
Incise
– Low damage, attack buff is too low
Patch up
– ‘Free’ constant healing if you’re not using Eve’s stacks to attack
Thread of Life
– Awful AoE healing, even when the Eve stack requirement is met
Any Healing Skill
– Usually ends up being Eve, Guard! for me
Pressel
Role: Support
Pressel is an support that can fit into any team composition as the main healer.
Her passive Prophecy allows you to manipulate your card draw, allowing you to select the card that best fits your situation.
Double Heal
– Double duty: Both a single target and AoE heal
– Use it preemptively heal/mitigate damage before and after an enemy’s attack
Shining Pillar
– Insane scaling, efficient healing and damage skill
– Excellent Prophecy target
Healing Coil
– Good single target heal without Prophecy
– Great heal with Prophecy
Blinking Heal
– Good single target heal
– Aggro manipulation can be used to increase aggro on tanks and decrease aggro on low health allies
God’s Blessing
– Card manipulation, helps to thin your deck
– A nice buff to attacks
Holy Light
– Ok team heal
Kill it!
– Not useful in most scenarios
– DPS Pressel maybe…
Purifying Barrier
– Meh dispel
First Class To Heaven
– Costs too much, let the DPS handle the damage
Blinking Heal
– Great heal with aggro manipulation
Double Heal
– Crazy good heal for bosses or hard encounters
Huz
Role: Support
Huz’s is a support with a strange gimmick, her healing skills apply a pain debuff on the target that heals on expiry or when their health hits zero. Even ignoring this gimmick, her numbers check out so it’s fine to treat her as a standard healer.
Whip of Love
– Powerful Single Target heal
Whip of Healing
– Strong AoE heal that works only on non-full health targets
Carrot and Stick
– Cost efficient damage buff and heal
– Can apply Joey’s chemical weapon to your own team so watch out
Constrict
– Armor reducing cheap spell
– Returns to hand after debuffed enemy is killed
– Good for softening targets
Domination
– Evasion reducing cheap spell
– Can cast twice
– Good for softening targets
Life Barrier
– Broken with Phoenix (Target Phoenix for free barriers)
– Meh with everyone else
Crack!
– 2 mana is pricey
– Better to find DPS elsewhere
Rabbit Doll MVP
– Just… don’t do it
This Might Sting!
– Hurts way too much for the healing it gives
– Best used with Phoenix
Give and Take
– Costly AoE heal
– Need to meet prerequisites for extra card draw
Whip of Love or Basic Heal
– Single Target
Whip of Healing
– AoE
Selena
Role: Support
The Moon twin, focused on healing. Selena offers high base healing abilities while applying her signature buff Lunar Curtain for her twin.
Star Breeze
– Easiest and cheapest way to apply Lunar Curtain
Radiant Moonlight
– Healing Moonlight works as pseudo double healing, very cost effective
– Another easy way to apply Lunar Curtain
Lunar Ring
– Lunar Ring works as pseudo double healing, very cost effective
– Another easy way to apply Lunar Curtain
– … Except it can be fixed
– Second effect can come in clutch at times
Power of the Full Moon
– Huge chain heal
– Can be difficult to get the cost reduction
Healing Stars
– Another easy way to apply Lunar Curtain
– … Just a little harder than Star Breeze
Blessing of the Moon
– Conditionally good
– Can be difficult to cast the chosen skill on the same turn
Dark Moon
– A cheaper Overcharged shot
– Her twin is better suited for damage but can be helpful in a pinch
Bloody Moon
– Setting up for the payoff is very difficult
Lunar Ring
—— DPS Carries ——
Hein
Role: Attack
With the recent buffs to his accuracy and skills, Hein is now one of the best DPS. Most of his AoE abilities can now deal additional damage to a single target, allowing him to fufill both AoE and single target roles.
His passive Madness is amazing for clearing general mobs and procs occasionally during boss fights.
Tear Up
– Excellent clear for general mobs
– Decent single target with 30% buff
Mutilate
– Good finisher that will often proc Madness
– Random targeting
Assault Slash
– Good AoE Clear that becomes absurd with Madness procs
Identify Weaknesses
– Good 0 mana swift skill that pairs well with any of Hein’s attacks
– Also works with allies
End of the Line
– Good finisher that will often proc Madness
– Be aware of its Count property
Rage Slash
– Almost always costs 1 mana, making it a very cost efficient attack
– Ignores taunt
– Be aware of its Count property
Merciless Explosion
– Insane damage but Hein needs immediate healing afterwards
– Best paired with Sizz’s Eve or Joey’s Chemical Weapon as it cannot kill
– Only take with enough support for Hein, 1 copy at most
Intimidation
– Okay debuff skill with swiftness
– Also disables taunt
Blood Reflux
– Very situational and difficult to use but ok in theory
– As with Merciless Explosion, take only with enough support
Assault Slash
– AoE Clear
Mutilate
– Single Target
Trisha
Role: Attack
Trisha is a great DPS character with the potential to deal high amounts of damage depending on your neutral card selection.
Her passive Double Team allows your team to take advantage of expensive skills. Backstab is a decent payoff but some neutral skills have higher numbers. Alternatively, let your other carry make use of the double team buff.
Shadow Slash
– Great attacking swift skill which ignores taunt
– Tag each enemy to soften them up for the kill
Shadow Illusion
– Flexible skill, copy skills that create skills such as Azar’s to stack up Double Team quickly
– Still uses Trisha’s stats, so avoid copying heal skills unless necessary
Illusion Strike
– Bleed’s back, tell a friend
Shadow Curtain
– 0 cost skill that allows you to avoid an often run-ending attack completely
– Helps to build Double Team
Apply Bandage
– Free heal that also sometimes
– Double Team
Shadow Step
– Self buff with a copy effect similar to Shadow Illusion
– Drags enemies out by applying the Taunt status
Heart Pierce
– Only take on pain debuff based compositions
Backstab
– Costly finisher, best used with Double Team
– No longer stuns… why tho
– Critical damage scaling is useless, bad damage scaling for a 3 cost attack
Caught Off Guard
– Unimpressive damage scaling for its cost
– Cost refund is difficult to pull off without the right team, let alone bosses
Shadow Slash
– You always want this at the start of a fight
Azar
Role: Attack
Azar is an excellent DPS with a plethora of attack options that ignore taunt.
His passive Hollowed Swords creates a 0 mana swift attack that can ignore taunt and works well with supports like Joey and Sizz that like cheap attacks.
It’s easy to get carried away with big turns of comboing off with 10 hollowed swords but I find this depletes your resources too much during boss fights and you end up with no cards and 3/4 of the bosses’ health bar left to go. Stick to small combos and depend on Ascending Slice for the majority of your damage.
Ascending Slice
– Key skill of Azar’s main combo
Hollowed Sword’s Calling
– Ok on its own but elevates the rest of Azar’s kit
Hollowed Sword: First Scroll
– Okay damage skill that ignores taunt
– Can be difficult to take full advantage of
Storming Blade
– Excellent finisher, usually free
– Take only one copy
Veiled Sword
– Low impact
– Requires enemies to target your ally to take full advantage of
Sword of Infinity
– Very costly
– Need a full hand to take advantage of
Cresent Slash
– Low damage
– Can only compete with other similar cost skills with Hollowed Sword buff
Shining Aura
– Combo piece, otherwise useless
– Can be interesting with Trisha’s Double Team
Hollowed Slash
– Too costly for the damage it does
– Need a lot of cards with the Hollowed Sword buff to make it even remotely worth it
Storming Blade
– When you can generate enough Hollowed Swords to cast it for free
Charon
Role: Attack
Charon, with the recent changes, is now a solid DPS with equally fearsome support abilities. General mobs and bosses fall alike to Encroach damage. Also cute megane.
Her passive Soul Thurible is very useful but often forgotten. Use it often and keep track of your stacks.
Enemies with the same turn count take their move order from the right to left. Take this into account when applying Encroachment.
Focus Encroachment
– Bread and butter of Charon
– Good AoE clear and decent Single Target pain damage
– Throw on enemies faster in the turn order so they pass Encroach when they die
Scatter Darkness
– AoE pain damage at a cheap cost
Evil Phantasm
– Free swift skill that usually gives a decent outcome
Dark Heal
– Low cost heal or damage, best used on dying targets (both enemies and allies)
Vigil of Darkness
– 0 cost debuff skill that helps to amplify damage
– Also generates encroach
Soul Stigma
– Hurts enemies when your allies take damage
– Good against most bosses
Absorb Soul
– Recharge your Thurible and apply encroachment
– Meh if your Thurible is full
Soul Strike
– Costs way too much for how much damage it does
– Would prefer to keep my Thurible stacks
Dark Barrier
– A meh shield for how much it costs (compared to other shield skills like Narhan’s The Mentalist)
– Secondary effect is unlikely to proc as the shield would be depleted in 2 two turns
Focus Encroach
– Bread and Butter DPS skill
Silverstein
Role: Attack
Silverstein fits both the DPS and Flex role well with a mix of DPS and utility skills.
His passive S.P.O.R.T.S adds a nice damage boost to your single target skills which aids in finishing off foes. His attacks do high damage, with the downside of having high mana costs.
Rapid Shot
– Absurd swift 1 mana damage skill
– Sets up for even more damage by applying mark
– Did I mention you can do it twice?
Freezing Bomb
– Excellent 1 cost stun skill
– 2 turn stun for mobs, 1 turn stun for bosses.
Snipe
– High damage but equally high mana cost
– Use when high total mana
Bear Trap
– Debuff and damage skill that works well against AoE attacks
– Repeatable and cheap
– Activates before enemy’s attack
– Target on one of your tanks as it greatly increases aggro
Closed Quarter
– Decent damage and ignore taunt
Grapeshot Blast
– Decent damage and swiftness
– Adds some AoE to your S.P.O.R.T.S
Ricochet Shot
– Decent damage skill, somewhat RNG dependent
– Excellent for specific encounters (eg Sun God)
Quick Fire
– When Silver’s mark is on a target (a single target skill is used), each skill cast will trigger a shot for as long as the mark remains (will not shoot after you trigger the mark by using another single target skill on the target until you place another mark on it)
– Basically too complicated to use and bother with
Rapid Shot
– Excellent opening skill in almost every scenario
Grapeshot Blast
– Can be used with other skills on the same turn with swiftness
Snipe/Closed Quarter
– If you do not have many other skills to use on the same turn
Narhan
Role: Defense
Narhan is a consistent damage dealer disguised as a tank. Instead of scaling off attack like typical carries, Narhan scales off maximum health. This allows you to invest all your attack equipment and potions on your other DPS character while Narhan takes all the HP items which other characters do not use well. Nightmare Syndrome is your bread and butter, get as many of these as possible.
Nightmare Syndrome
– Scales off maximum health
– Does absurdly high damage in both single target and groups
– Can be awkward to target with taunting enemies
– Counts as two attacks for breaking shields
Mental Shock
– Scales off maximum health
– Decent swiftness single target attack
The Mentalist
– Ridiculously cost efficient, one mana for a massive shield
– I also heard it can remove a random CC debuff and all Overload, but have not tried it myself
Paranoia
– Decent AOE stun
– Not many situations where you would need one though
Cold-Hearted
– Good team healing buff that effectively negates damage
Sleep…
– 2 turn stuns are good especially on certain bosses
– Time your stun after your attacks so you don’t wake bosses
Trojan Horse
– Enabler for DPS characters without ignore taunt
– … which there aren’t many of
Plant Spite
– Low impact
Trauma
– Low impact
Mental Shock
– When you have enough nightmare syndromes in your deck already (3-4)
Nightmare Syndrome
– When you don’t have enough
Helia
Role: Attack
The Sun Twin, focusing on DPS. Helia’s kit allows her to deal massive amounts of damage and rewards her for overloading.
Black Sun
– Absurd damage for its cost
– Can also be fixed for more consistency in boss fights
– Remember that it excludes itself when calculating additional damage
Flame Arrow
– Insane damage scaling that pairs well with the rest of Helia’s kit
– Residual Flame Arrows helps with stragglers
Solar Bolt
– Decent damage skill
– Serves an enabler role for the rest of the Helia’s kit
Sun Ring
– Excellent mobbing skill
– Best way to apply Solar Flame
– Helia doesn’t have much in terms of fixed skill options anyway
Combustion
– Another good way to apply Solar Flame
– Decent damage for its cost
Prominence
– Better combustion as long as you have the Lunar Curtain buff on an ally
Flame Eruption
– Overshadowed by the rest Helia’s kit
– Combustion is generally better
Blessing of Stars
– Generally not worth the trouble
Sun Ring
– Best fixed skill for mobbing
Black Sun
– Helps with consistency in boss fights
Johan
Role: Attack
Johan is a monster of card manipulation and cost efficiency.
Illusion Arrow
– Reduces the cost of all fixed skills by 1 for three uses
– Stack a few of these for consistency
Sonic Blow
– Gives card advantage at 0 net cost
– Procs Johan’s passive twice
Burning Arrow
– Adds to Johan’s versatility and DPS output
– Actually is Single Target Fixed! Now a cost effective AoE attack
Hook Shot
– Versatile low cost attack
Tempest
– Excellent finisher for Johan’s big hands
Lightning Shot
– Decent attack skill with sufficiently large hands
Rain of Arrows
– Can pull off some insane numbers with proper setup
– Still a solid pick otherwise
Imitate
– Too heavily reliant on RNG to be any good
– Ideally you want to copy a debuff/pain skill
Tracking Scope
– Shining Aura v2, mainly for Johan
—— Flex ——
Miss Chain
Role: Defense
Miss Chain best use is to sit around like Phoenix and Lian, protecting her own health gauge with Burnnn! and providing support with armor/pain debuffs and backup healing with skills.
Her passive Burnnn! protects her health gauge while adding additional effects to her skills.
Engine Burner
– Great scaling single target attack
Leave This to Me!
– Cheap basic skill that procs Burnnn! and also taunts
– Decent damage with counter
– Grants Death’s Door immunity
Shred Them All!
– Core skill of the Pain composition
– Adds a lot of (AoE) damage
Fire Ground
– AoE alternative to Engine Burner
– Excellent against enemies that deal AoE damage
– Massive damage mitigation for Miss Chain
Engine Reload!
– Great way to proc Burnnn! when set as fixed skill
Zoom!
– Reduce enemy’s armour
– Great for Pain compositions against enemies that are immune to Pain
Bazzuum!
– Good self recovery skill with some damage
Playing with Fire
– Good for Pain composition
Pursuit
– Blessing of God : You take damage Edition
Engine Reload!
– Triggers Burnnn!
Lian
Role: Defence
Lian is basically a more DPS orientated version of Phoenix, but requires you to keep her attack skills in hand to remain effective.
Preparation!
– Absurd mana to damage ratio skill
– No targeting required
– Never a bad time to cast it
Relentless Swipe
– Good AoE damage with a decent debuff
– Occasionally costs less
Riposte
– Low cost skill with high damage
– Hits harder when casted with Parry
Dropdown Slash
– Very high damage scaling but somewhat costly
Stunning Smite
– Decent damage and stuns
Protect Ally
– Great when playing Lian as a flex
– Reduce the damage taken by her allies
Combat Roar
– Too difficult to use effectively
– Hits all skills, even heals
Come at Me!
– Gutted
Preparation
Protect Ally (as Flex)
Phoenix
Role: Defense
Phoenix, although often regarded a gimmick and a flying deadweight, can actually work well in the flex role.
His passive Undying Divine allows him to be a punching bag, soaking in hits and debuffs.
Most of his value comes from being unkillable rather his own skills (as long as you feed him).
Very useful against certain bosses like Witch, Sun God. Place all your debuffs on him.
Efficient Use of Bread
– Get this ASAP to start accumulating bread
– Gives Phoenix a cheap and effective way of dealing damage
Lecture
– Good Filler to let your carries cast more attacks
– Pick expensive/AoE heals and many copies of this to lower downside
First Hit
– Excellent opening attack that can one shot most enemies
– Make sure you have enough speed to go first
Scratch
– Standard single target that can trigger twice on hunger (and might hurt allies)
Fiery Wings
– Normal attack, use it as a opener or finisher to avoid healing damaged enemies
– It can miss, so try not to use it on boss summons to avoid healing the boss
– Fetch is great, if you remember to use it, but I would rather Throw Bread
Leer
– 2 Mana is costly for a taunt
– Also buffs enemy’s damage
Blazing Regeneration
– Heals allies but has a chance of drawing their skill and killing them
– Also burns them
– Risky last resort heal
Leer
– 2 Mana is costly for a taunt
– Also buffs enemy’s damage
Nibble
– Damage your ally to heal yourself
– Gives an ok buff I guess
– Would rather eat bread to heal myself
Face Slap
– Not many good skills cost 3 mana unoverloaded
Phoenix Kick!
– Imagine casting a 4 mana skill more than once in a battle
NA
Ironheart
Role: Defense
Ironheart is a versatile character which can further boost the effectiveness of your supports or as a primary damage dealer in a barrier focused composition.
His passive Overwhelming Barrier converts overhealing into a 1 turn barrier which he can use with most of his skills or just to defend his team.
Weapon Breaker
– Now basic so it is spammable while using other fixed skills
– Great debuff
Shield Bash
– Single target healing payoff
– Take with good healing on team
Duel
– Negates Aoe attacks from target
Protective Shield
– Converts excess barrier that is otherwise wasted
High Energy Emission
– Good opening skill that costs 0 and ignores taunt
– Combo with a AoE healing skill to heal your team to full
Shield of Retribution
– Core to Ironheart + 2 healer composition
– Ok pick otherwise
Charge of Faith
– Core to Ironheart + 2 healer composition
– Insanely cost efficient AoE attack in this composition
– Ok pick otherwise
Frontline Cover
– Costly, although heal protection is hard to get for most characters
Innocent Armor
– Doesn’t do much, doesn’t cost much
Shock Wave
– Almost always worst than Charge of Faith
– Scaling with healing is no longer sufficient
Weapon Breaker
– Basic skill allowing you to use other fixed skills in the same turn
– Great debuff
Shield Bash or Shock Wave
– Ironheart comp
——Misc——
Rare Skills
Work in progress. Not sure what’s the best way to assess these.
Recommended skills in bold.
Joey: Protecting Gas, Biotic Field, Create Potion
Sizz: Marionette, Thread of Fate
Pressel: Celestial Wing, Guardian Angel
Huz: Punish, Restrained Healing, Pain Equal Happiness
Selena: Eclipse, Tears of the Moon
Hein: Rage, Bloodied Revenge
Trisha: Blink Stab, Shadow Illusion, Shadow Dance
Azar: Blade Starfall, Fantasy, Dancing Sword
Charon: Shadow Pillar, Dark Blessing
Silverstein: Overcharged Shot, Blind Fire, Enhanced Mark
Narhan: Brain Lock, Stand United, Phantom Pain
Helia: Tears of the Sun, Solar Storm
Johan: Mirage, Hell Arrow
Miss Chain: Combined Arms, From Head to Toe
Lian: Retribution, Barricade, Parrying Tactics
Phoenix: Nap Time, I’m the Legendary Phoenix, Legendary Beak
Ironheart: Double Armour, Shield Charge, Absolute Defense
Lucy Skills
I look mostly for raw card advantage with Lucy’s skills at a low cost. Lucy’s skills learned from books are mostly high powered and almost always worth learning.
Good skills (General all purpose):
Draw
Continuous Draw
Hasty Counter
Renovate (Dump useless cards and draw 4)
Last Resort (Often times 0 mana draw 4 in boss fights)
Good skills (Situational):
Select the Plan (Cost mana)
Blow Wind (Costs mana)
Ray of Light (Prefer more consistent non-Once card draw)
Bad skills :
Recycle (No card advantage)
Search More (Don’t need specific cards often)
Helia/Selena Composition
Overview
Helia is one of the, if not the best DPS currently in Chrono Ark. Selena’s no pushover either in the healing department. By starting with the Twins as your core, you get a lot of flexibility when building the rest of your team.
You’re likely to draft 2 tanks on the first campfire, so we always start with a tank as our first pick. Depending on how powerful your Helia’s draft is or how much healing your Selena can provide, you can grab either another DPS or Support respectively, as the final pick.
Your final compositions should look something like this:
Helia/Selena/Flex/DPS
– The standard composition
Helia/Selena/Flex/Flex
– If your Helia’s draft is powerful enough for a ‘single’ DPS setup
Helia/Selena/Flex/Support
– If your Selena doesn’t have enough healing (as she usually lacks AoE)
I’ll briefly touch on how each of the tanks pair with the twins, in terms of their synergies:
Miss Chain
– For a Solar Flame (Helia’s signature debuff) centered playstyle
– Key skills are Playing with Fire and Shred Them All!
– Easily double procs Solar Flame through Burnnn! and a wide variety of party buffs
– Works well as a secondary healer to patch up some residual damage
Ironheart
– Every heal becomes a shield which counts as a buff for Solar Flame
– Pairs up well with Selena’s high single target healing abilities as they often result in a barrier
– Helps to mitigate some damage off the Twins as they are relatively squishy
Narhan
– Helps to mitigate some damage off the Twins as they are relatively squishy
Phoenix
– Wait, what are you doing?! It’s a Phoenix composition now….
Skill Priority
Helia’s Core Skills: Flame Arrow, Solarbolt, Black Sun
Fixed Skill: Sun Ring for mobs, Black Sun for bosses
Selena’s Core Skills: Star Breeze, Lunar Ring, Radiant Moonlight, Healing Stars
Fixed Skill: Lunar Ring
Important: Pick Helia’s rare skill Solar Storm and draw skill Celestial Alignment if offered!
Otherwise, pick Lucy skills that draw more cards. Go for quantity over quality.
Strategy and Tips
If you manage to draft both Helia’s rare skill Solar Storm and Helia’s draw skill Celestial Alignment, you can pull off one of the most powerful combos in Chrono Ark:
1) Play Celestial Alignment
2) For the first two targets, pick your highest cost spells – ideally Helia’s Solarbolt
3) If you have only three characters, pick Solar Storm as your third and final pick.
If you have four characters, pick Accelerate as your third pick, Solar Storm as your fourth and final pick.
4a) Recycle one card in hand to draw Solar Storm and cast it.
OR
4b) Wait for the next turn. You draw two cards at the start of every turn (unless you have Continuous Draw active), so you will draw Accelerate and Solar Storm. Cast Accelerate on Solar Storm and destroy your foes!
Does Selena have Blessing of the Moon? Use it before step 4 on Solar Storm. Got a ‘Next skill will be cast twice’ potion? Use on it on Helia of course! Don’t forget to flex your maximum damage output in the Screenshots section!
Item and Potion Priority
Healing power potions on Selena.
Everything else on Helia.
Ironheart Composition (Outdated)
Overview
Ironheart/Joey/DPS/Flex
Ironheart provides his passive and converts shields to damage with Shield Bash/Shock Wave.
Joey provides the bulk of the healing and regeneration.
DPS provides supplemetry damage in between Shield Bash turns.
Flex slots have many viable options.
DPS choices: Any DPS (Narhan, anyone labelled as damage dealer)
Flex: Backup Support or Phoenix. Anything can work in this slot.
Skill Priority
Ironheart Core Skills: Prioritise 1 Shock Wave > As many Shield Bashes as possible > Weapon Breaker/Duel if not avaliable
Fixed Skill: Shock Wave for mobs, Shield Bash for bosses
Joey Core Skills: Healing Vapour > Healing Potion > Anything else
Fixed Skill: Healing Vapour
Pick lucy skills that draw more cards. Go for quantity over quality.
Strategy and Tips
Abuse Ironheart’s passive Overwhelming Barrier to preemptively shield your team against attacks. The final boss in particular can easily one shot your characters by chaining his attacks and using bleed effects if you do not have a barrier up. Spam Joey’s fixed Healing Vapour off cooldown to keep your shields up and your health high. By stacking regeneration effects like Healing Potion, Healing Vapour, you can preemptively stack barriers on Ironheart over two turns. Then, chain healing together on Ironheart to create a powerful Shield Bash/Shock Wave to destroy your enemies, while keeping your shields up with powerful regeneration. Make sure you have some cheap attacks to get rid of the barriers that the Final Boss’ Shacking Swords have.
Item and Potion Priority
Give Accuracy Potions to Ironheart as missing your Shield Bash/Shock Wave is terrible.
Give Healing Power Potions to Joey to maximise regeneration and Healing.
Attack to DPS
Ironheart Gearing: Healing Received is the most important stat as it boosts your damage scaling incredibly. Otherwise, go for Accuracy/Armor. Attack does not boost barrier damage from Shield Bash/Shock Wave.
Joey Gearing: HEALING. Give the best items to Joey as he will do most of the healing.
DPS Gearing: Attack items
Flex/Phoenix Gearing: Passive boosts like Enchanted Ring or Speed
——Credits——
Changelog
01/03/2021 – Updated for EA v1.55
25/12/2020 – Updated for EA v1.5
11/08/2020 – Updated for EA v1.42. Who reads this section though?
10/01/2020 – Updated the guide to EA v1.1e. New skills have been added. Hein moved to ‘Main DPS’ while Miss Chain was moved to ‘Flex’. Added new role “DPS Carries/Flex” for characters that can do both. Moved Charon and Silverstein to “DPS Carries/Flex”. Expect more changes in the future.
I tend to spend my soul stones on increasing maximum mana as it costs too much to level characters past Lv 6 now. Characters dependent on level scaling to deal damage are now less reliable.
07/01/2020 – Moved Trisha from ‘Flex’ to ‘Main DPS’ after reading some discussion posts. I tried her out for myself and was impressed by her consistently high damage.
06/01/2020 – Removed ‘less consistent’ from Advanced Team Compositions. These compositions however allow for fewer misplays compared to the Basic Team Compositions.
05/01/2020 – Recategorized Lian and Ironheart to ‘Niche’ after some solid wins with 2 character compositions
05/01/2020 – Published Guide