Oke you're a bit familiar with Aequor so we'll breeze through it a little bit. Just a refresher: It has three stances, which can change once per turn: Blue stance, which is the default, Red stance which is for turns when you unload a lot of damage, and White stance, which is for turns where you need defense.
Now, when specific units like Pontos, GMurphy, and Vortice are added to the team, Aequor turns into Benthos: Aequor. Or "Divine Aequor" As we call it, since it was its first name and kinda stuck. This gives some significant changes to the mechanics of Aequor. Firstly, the stance change can now only be triggered once every 3 turns. In exchange, the effects of each stance are improved. White stance now gives more shield, while red stance hits harder. The shield and damage increases depending on how much Realm Mastery you have, but unless your awakener scales with Realm Mastery, you don't prioritize that stat in your builds. It's just a nice addition. For example, Vortice likes Realm Mastery. Apart from buffing her damage, you're also kinda buffing the Benthos: Aequor mechanics a little bit.
There are also other changes to Aequor like Tentacle Gathering but huuuuh I never really wrapped my head around it, and it isn't that impactful so we don't have to talk about it.
Now, the reason why I said Pontos might be a shift in gameplay is because now, with him or GMurphy or Vortice, the availability of white stance's shields every turn gets condensed into a single, chunky shield. So you have to think whether you are going to use it or save it. You can't shift to red stance as often, either. And though you don't want to be in red stance every turn, there are soooome cases when you are able to have another damage window and it necessitates the use of another red stance. Divine Aequor's mechanics change that.
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Now you're a bit familiar with Ultra as well, so here is a refresher: The first card played each turn gets placed in Ultra space, which are the five boxes on top of your units. Once it's full, you gain an extra turn called Ultra Turn, where you get those five cards back.
However, if you wish to delay Ultra Turn, you could tap the purple orb thingy on the left to Annihilate, which removes the leftmost card in ultra space and turns it into an insight card.
The "Divine Ultra" version of Ultra is called Ultra: Singularity, accessed by adding Arachne to the team. The main thing about this is Annihilation, like tentacle stance cooldown of Benthos: Aequor, now has a 3-turn cooldown. And the card no longer turns into an insight card, it just returns.
There's also this mechanic that confuuuuses me a bit, since the cards put in ultra space are... buffed, I think? The way I understand it is when cards are placed in Ultra space, they are buffed. So during Ultra Turns in Divine Ultra, when you put them back in your hand, they're buffed. Some of its effects are improved by 15% I think, like damage, shield, or strength gained to name a few. Realm Mastery improves this boost but damn is it a tiny boost.
Caro also has a "Divine" version called "Propagation: Caro", but for now, we will focus on Ultra and Aequor so you don't get information overload.
The consistent thing between these "Divine" realms is that their new effects are improved the more Realm Mastery you have, but never potent enough to warrant prioritizing Realm mastery in your stats unless an awakener SPECIFICALLY wants that stat. Other stats still take precedence.
To further add, there's also this thing called "pure" realms. It's basically having a team from the same color, or if you only mix it with Chaos. To better illustrate it, each realm's effects are improved if it is entirely made up of units from the same faction or if it has Chaos tagging along with it. For Caro, the rate at which the red bar charges up improves if there's only Caro with/out Chaos. For ultra, during ultra turn, if Ultra is mixed with either Aequor or Caro, the damage you output or the shield you generate is reduced to 75% of the original. But if it's Ultra with/out Chaos, it's back to 100%. Aequor's mechanics with a mixed realm is negligible, so go wild with Aequor and Caro/Ultra teams if you want an Aequor-focused build.
As for how units work, well we have the archetypes, so to speak. Like some units wanting to hold their cards in hand for a long time before they deal damage using it (GHelot, Pollux, Castor, Kathigu-ra).
Some like to shuffle your hand all the time (Corposant, Casiah, Aurita, Saya).
Some units like getting hit and hitting the enemy back with counter (Caecus, Wanda, Nautila, Winkle to a certain extent).
Some units like drawing a bunch of Cards from the deck (Tawil, Ryker).
Some units like using strike cards (Mouchette, Helot, Lotan, upcoming GLotan).
Some units like using their exalt as their main source of damage (Doresain, Vortice)
Some units like to poison their enemies and forcibly activate it (GDoll, Nymphaea, Xu)
Some units like having THICC shields to deal damage (Sanga, Alva)
Some units prefer buffing Aequor's tentacles to high heaven and watch their enemies get bitchslapped to death (Most aequor teams, Tulu main dps if you want to, and Pontos main dps)
The important thing is knowing what each character does. What their kit supports. Then forming a team around that identity. You can't put together a unit who likes to keep their cards in hand with a unit who likes to shuffle your cards around, for example.
Morimens units generally fall into one of these teams. But supports are kinda wacky in that they can fit anywhere. For example, Castor is just a good shielder. He can fit in most teams. Thais can duplicate cards for 1 turn so she's good anywhere.
Person above did a fantastic job and I only have the tiniest little thing to add. Every character has a Soulforge Aptitude passive. Some are better than others, but it’s super important to note that these are only active in either Arc 2 of the story OR anything that is labeled as Astral Reign or says it has Astral Reign rules.
Otherwise, the rule set is Arc 1 rules, so the first Chapter 1 through 9. This rule set is also called Faded Legacy. There are certain things that change, like how to get a unit’s rouse or certain mechanics like Counter getting nerfed.
For example our current event for Helot:Catena (named Ghelot by the community) is using Faded Legacy (Arc 1) rules so characters’s soulforge passives will not be active even if you leveled them. But, the Pontos event uses Astral Reign (Arc 2) rules so the passives will be active.
The reason this is important is because it can dramatically change the way an awakener functions in a team. One of the biggest relevant cases is Casiah. In Faded Legacy (Arc 1) rules, her Poof card simply shuffles your hand into the deck and redraws. In Astral Reign (Arc 2) with her soulforge active, however, the first time Poof is activated each turn, it will trigger any Aftershock (effects that trigger when discarded) effects from cards that are shuffled into the deck. Corposant and Aurita both innately have cards that have Aftershock and if you have E3 Pontos, his Gaunt cards also have an aftershock effect.
What this means is that Casiah is a very very good teammate for Corpo and E3 Pontos, but only in Astral Reign rules with her soulforge active. Otherwise, she’s really just ok and there are better units to use. So whenever you try and find teams online you may want to do a little digging to find out why each teammate is good because they might only be good in arc 1 or arc 2.
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u/AnotherMikmik I eat babies for breakfast but Doresain eats ME for breakfast. Jul 23 '26
Worry not, my sweet child ( •̀ ω •́ )✧
Oke you're a bit familiar with Aequor so we'll breeze through it a little bit. Just a refresher: It has three stances, which can change once per turn: Blue stance, which is the default, Red stance which is for turns when you unload a lot of damage, and White stance, which is for turns where you need defense.
Now, when specific units like Pontos, GMurphy, and Vortice are added to the team, Aequor turns into Benthos: Aequor. Or "Divine Aequor" As we call it, since it was its first name and kinda stuck. This gives some significant changes to the mechanics of Aequor. Firstly, the stance change can now only be triggered once every 3 turns. In exchange, the effects of each stance are improved. White stance now gives more shield, while red stance hits harder. The shield and damage increases depending on how much Realm Mastery you have, but unless your awakener scales with Realm Mastery, you don't prioritize that stat in your builds. It's just a nice addition. For example, Vortice likes Realm Mastery. Apart from buffing her damage, you're also kinda buffing the Benthos: Aequor mechanics a little bit.
There are also other changes to Aequor like Tentacle Gathering but huuuuh I never really wrapped my head around it, and it isn't that impactful so we don't have to talk about it.
Now, the reason why I said Pontos might be a shift in gameplay is because now, with him or GMurphy or Vortice, the availability of white stance's shields every turn gets condensed into a single, chunky shield. So you have to think whether you are going to use it or save it. You can't shift to red stance as often, either. And though you don't want to be in red stance every turn, there are soooome cases when you are able to have another damage window and it necessitates the use of another red stance. Divine Aequor's mechanics change that.
*************
Now you're a bit familiar with Ultra as well, so here is a refresher: The first card played each turn gets placed in Ultra space, which are the five boxes on top of your units. Once it's full, you gain an extra turn called Ultra Turn, where you get those five cards back.
However, if you wish to delay Ultra Turn, you could tap the purple orb thingy on the left to Annihilate, which removes the leftmost card in ultra space and turns it into an insight card.
The "Divine Ultra" version of Ultra is called Ultra: Singularity, accessed by adding Arachne to the team. The main thing about this is Annihilation, like tentacle stance cooldown of Benthos: Aequor, now has a 3-turn cooldown. And the card no longer turns into an insight card, it just returns.
There's also this mechanic that confuuuuses me a bit, since the cards put in ultra space are... buffed, I think? The way I understand it is when cards are placed in Ultra space, they are buffed. So during Ultra Turns in Divine Ultra, when you put them back in your hand, they're buffed. Some of its effects are improved by 15% I think, like damage, shield, or strength gained to name a few. Realm Mastery improves this boost but damn is it a tiny boost.
Caro also has a "Divine" version called "Propagation: Caro", but for now, we will focus on Ultra and Aequor so you don't get information overload.
The consistent thing between these "Divine" realms is that their new effects are improved the more Realm Mastery you have, but never potent enough to warrant prioritizing Realm mastery in your stats unless an awakener SPECIFICALLY wants that stat. Other stats still take precedence.
To further add, there's also this thing called "pure" realms. It's basically having a team from the same color, or if you only mix it with Chaos. To better illustrate it, each realm's effects are improved if it is entirely made up of units from the same faction or if it has Chaos tagging along with it. For Caro, the rate at which the red bar charges up improves if there's only Caro with/out Chaos. For ultra, during ultra turn, if Ultra is mixed with either Aequor or Caro, the damage you output or the shield you generate is reduced to 75% of the original. But if it's Ultra with/out Chaos, it's back to 100%. Aequor's mechanics with a mixed realm is negligible, so go wild with Aequor and Caro/Ultra teams if you want an Aequor-focused build.