#halloween maritimus

[sleepingwires]

─ Halloween Maritimus stimboardwith marshmallows, plushies & slime for @diilucs!

🔖 | 🔖 | 🔖 - 🔖 | 💙 | 🔖 - 🔖 | 🔖 | 🔖

[dreamdropdorks]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween Maritimus didn’t come home for me (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀) but at least I still have his OG form!!) 

[murasaki-murasame]

Now that we’re all done with the free summons in Dragalia, here’s how the last few banners went for me.

For the wind focus banner, I got a dupe Tobias on the first day, then nothing until like a week later when I got a dupe Grimnir, but then the day after that I got Nino, so that was cool.

I think that was around when I did the platinum deluxe summons. The first one gave me Civilian Leif, along with a surprise Summer Patia [and maybe a dupe Summer Celliera if I remember right], and then the second one gave me Yukata Cleo. They weren’t my main picks for who I would have wanted, but at least they weren’t in the bottom rung.

I also got my scratcher summon around there, which got me a dupe Azazel. I think I already had a spare one sitting in my inventory, but maybe I’ll eventually grind for a second MUB copy through essences.

Then for the Halloween gala banner, I got Chronos from one of my early free summons, and then Halloween Laxi on my final free tenfold, and I did about 120 more summons to get Halloween Sylas. Along the way I got Summer Cait Sith, and dupes of Mid-0, Eugene, Curran, Ryszarda, Kimono Luca, and probably a couple of dragons I can’t remember.

And then for the hundredfold banner all I got was two H-Maritimus dupes and a Zhu Bajie dupe, lol. And I think I already have all the extra non-limited units they put in the spark pool so I’m not gonna summon any more on this banner.

Finally I cashed in my free dream summon to get Summer Verica, and my paid one to get Formal Noelle.

So all in all I think things went pretty well for me here, aside from the hundredfold banner which was kinda disappointing considering that I was missing most of the 5-stars on it. But getting eight new adventurers and two new dragons from all of this is really good. Not to mention the characters I got from the other recent banners like Regina and Basileus.

Mostly I’m just glad I didn’t have to do an entire spark on the Halloween banner to clear it out. I had exactly enough to spark without needing to dip into my unread stories, but I’m still glad I could stop partway through. I wasn’t entirely sure if that banner would be worth summoning on, but all three units in it ended up being really good. I dunno how much I’ll get out of Laxi since I already have Gala Audric, but Chronos is incredibly powerful [and helps make me feel better about still not having Gala Jeanne, lol], and Sylas looks extremely good as well. I still think his design is kinda bland, but at the very least he goes well with Curran, Lathna, and Heinwald on my shadow team. Both on an aesthetic level, and also on a gameplay level since he provides poison and shadowblight, and lots of defensive utility.

Funnily enough I feel like getting Halloween Sylas might have kinda invalidated the Summer Patia that I just got, but it’s still nice to fill out my roster, lol.

Realistically I don’t think I’ll ever use C-Leif, and his force-strike makes him feel really awkward to play so I’d rather just bench him, but there’s definitely units who I would have been more disappointed to get. Y-Cleo is also in a kinda weird spot, mainly because I have basically every good flame unit in the game already, but I really like her design, and i have a bias towards wand units.

I think i also won’t use Nino much, but at least I got something new from the wind focus banner, lol.

It’s nice to finally get Summer Verica and Formal Noelle, though. I haven’t actually touched the SinDom fights yet, but they should make them a lot easier to break into. I think I still need Summer Verica’s spiral materials to come around again before I can upgrade her S1, which is kinda annoying, but even without that she should still be worth using. Formal Noelle might be a little unnecessary, especially with all the times I see people use Summer Verica in off-element fights, but I still have a bit of a soft spot for Noelle, since I used to main her in the eHMC days, lol.

There also just weren’t many other units I was interested in dream summoning. Whenever we get our next one, my current target would probably be Sandalphon, and she wasn’t available on this one.

Since I didn’t have to go all the way to a spark, I now have around 130 summons left [plus the 1.5k wyrmite from the Trials of the Mighty that I haven’t picked up yet], and I still have all of my unread stories, so in theory I might be able to spark on both Christmas and New Years, but realistically I think I’m still planning on skipping Christmas unless it’s as strong of a banner as Halloween ended up being.

There’s also the ongoing gala dragon platinum summon to consider, but I don’t think that’s worth going for. I’m missing three out of ten of them, including Jeanne, but especially now that I have Chronos I don’t think it’d be worth the gamble. I’d rather just start slowly stockpiling diamantium for future dream summons, more interesting platinum summons, or to finish out a spark if I get desperate.

Also, while I remember, even though I won’t spend anything more on the current banner, it’s really neat that they’re lowering the spark count to 200 for it. I’m curious to see if this ends up being a sort of trial run for them permanently lowering the spark count for all banners. I think PriConne did something like that recently, so it wouldn’t be unprecedented. It’d feel a bit pointless if they do that but do another summon income reduction, but having a lower spark count would at least limit how much you’d have to whale in order to spark.

[redwylde]

I haven't posted my pulls from the Halloween event yet so here's my haul!~

x3 Silkes, Edward, Althemia, Odetta, Lowen and Mariti!~

Honestly, this showcase went down as the best case scenario. Silke and Edward arrived on single tickets earned from the event rewards, I waited until Saturday to make use of the free tenfold summon and got Althemia and Mariti! Odetta came home with some diamondium I had left over from purchasing a summer pack and then Lowen came home in the free tenfold on Sunday!~

I didn't have to spend ANY wyrmite at all to get anyone so I'm reeeeeally happy about that as I was really panicking about it being a limited showcase and being so low on wyrmite lmao and I really do love Halloween...

I really was not interested in Mym at all and I never would've used Halloween Elisanne so I'm glad they didn't show up and block another character from getting through. Odetta and Lowen were top priority and I'm so glad I was able to get them both. Maritimus was a complete surprise! I was fully okay with not seeing him at all since my luck with dragons is so bad but he decided to join us! I'm quite excited about that actually, he'll be my next MUB priority~

Overall wonderful haul, I'm so glad my luck decided to come back after Summer and Fractured Futures royally shafted me lmao Now to save up til Christmas~

[chromaji]

SO NO HALLOWEEN IEYASU?

SO NO HALLOWEEN FELICIA?

(ok but in all seriousness i like the banner hgkghgj. I like Odetta as a character & her outfit is so cool!! Lowen & Maritimus are so cuute! Mym’s outfit is cute too!!)

[princeshroob]

Despite getting H!Odetta, I still wanted to continue summoning and get H!Elly. Results under the break as usual.

First up, I got Pop-Star Siren. I didn’t have this version of her, and...honestly, I’m not sure how good she really is, but I do like Siren so I’m not gonna complain.

Next up, I got Halloween Maritimus. He’s apparently good for when you need to get your skills out in a hurry, whether that’s on a healer or Vanilla Elly, or maybe even the eventual water-element strength-up adventurer I’m about 60% sure we’re going to get. As it is now, though, I don’t have much use for him, but hey, he’s adorable.

Thirdly is WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY-wait, I think I forgot to mention some earlier pulls before today. Hold on, let me go back in time a bit.

Okay, so I ended up getting another Leviathan, who’s at 3UB now so I might as well use my sunstone on him (I did summon another Long Long that I didn’t screenshot, so he’s MUB now.)

hisssssssss-Seriously, I don’t normally hold grudges, but I still can’t make myself forgive her for bamboozling me on Sarisse’s banner even though I ended up getting her off-focus on Ranzal’s. I think I might need help. @_@

Last thing of note I got on my past summons was Rena. I...guess she’s cool, though I like Ramona more. Anyways, back to the present!

Somehow, I managed to get a pic of Emma without skipping over her, but I managed to get her so my Fire team might get a nice boost with her S1 now.

Next up I got Lea, who I think lot’s of people wanted since the beginning solely because of her being on that wyrmprint, and I can’t exactly say I’m one of them. Mainly because there’s a million fire swords out there (at least 3 5* ones if you include Marth) and literally everyone has access to Euden, so...meh.

...Unfortunately, that’s all the wyrmite I had, but I still had the Dream Summon (I’ll say who I got with that in a separate post) so I got the voucher from that and-

DANGIT MYM, CAN’T YOU TAKE A HINT!? I don’t want you, and I especially don’t want you to give me eldwater! Oh, also that dragon is another H!Maritimus. Ugh, that’s two years in a row that H!Ellisanne eluded me. I guess we’re still getting wyrmite from the login bonus, but I’m not optimistic about that tbh.

[chaorelance]

‘halloween mym is here’

weak, pathetic, break banner-

‘HALLOWEEN MARITIMUS BABY’

OH FUCK

[sleepingwires]

this took me so off-guard /pos thank you ^^ take your time completing these , i’m not in any rush to get them !!

soft orange shiny bewear twitter layouts

a hatsune miku moodboard with themes of music , dancing , and friends . no kin/id/me tags , please !!

halloween maritimus stimboard with themes of plushies , marshmallows , and fluffy slime

soft peach arataki itto ( gi ) twitter layouts , no f/o tags please ^^

pink shiny sylveon wallpapers , size 828x1792

don’t be afraid to tell me if you want me to replace any of these with a different prize , just contact me in any way and i’ll give you a different prize ^^

─ Posted! x2 x3 x4 x5

Hii there!! Everythings been posted!! Apologies these took a while to get done ( had a few irl things to get done （ •́ .̫ •̀ ）) but these req were super fun to do! ( especially the stimboard ٩(*´∀`*)۶ ) so they hope you like them!! Have a lovely day/night!!

[murasaki-murasame]

I feel like I just made a whole post about my Halloween summons, but then they went and gave us another weekend of free tenfolds, and we have some datamines now about the next event, so I have a whole new batch of things to talk about lmao.

I’m just gonna put it under a cut like usual.

First off, I managed to get Halloween Maritimus [and my third copy of Halloween Mym lmao] off of the second batch of free weekend tenfolds, so yeah I’m just gonna call it quits on this banner now that Halloween Elly is the only one I don’t have from it. She’s the one I’m least interested, and I have a feeling the next banner will be a lot more tempting.

We also got datamine stuff about how the next event is going to be an Accursed Archives rerun, along with a new story event that goes along with it in some way. On the one hand I’d be more interested in getting the two water facilities I missed out on than the shadow one, but on the other hand Curran and Heinwald are some of my absolute faves and I’ve always regretted joining the game after their event had ended, so this will be fun. And this also seems like a really nice way to do new story events. It kinda feels like after the Valentines one they’ve had no real idea how exactly they want to go about doing any new ones, so hopefully this’ll set a precedent going forward.

I don’t think any of the datamine stuff specifically says anything about what the new banner will be, but at the moment my guess is that, even though this is a shadow facility event, it’ll be a light element banner. Or at least a partially light banner. The Stirring Shadows event synopsis page thing has a more yellow tone to it, and it literally references ‘The King in Yellow’, so it feels like it’s pointing more toward a light element banner. And we just got a new set of Halloween units who weren’t useful at all in the Halloween event itself, so it wouldn’t be too odd to get another set of units that don’t match the event they’re released along with, lol. [Also we just got the Fractured Futures banner earlier this month, whereas our last light element banner was two months ago, so there’s that]

My current guess for who’ll be on the new banner is that we’ll get Lathna, a new Lovecraftian dragon, and alts for Curran and Heinwald, since those will probably be the characters most prominent in the new story event. It’s also worth noting that [even though this doesn’t exactly prove anything about the new banner units] we also got datamined voice files for three new stickers based on Curran, Heinwald, and Lathna, which we’ll probably get as event rewards. And right when this new event drops they’re going to also update Nyarly’s kit a bit, which now makes me think that the new banner dragon might have the same sort of kit as him. Like how they buffed skill damage dragons right before releasing Siren.

Lathna and some kinda Lovecraftian dragon seem almost certain to me, but Curran and Heinwald alts would be a bit more up in the air. If we don’t get them, we might just randomly get Leif as a light version of Patia, but I’d be a lot more interested in getting Curran and Heinwald alts.

I’m assuming it’ll probably be a light banner, but it could be a shadow banner to fit the event better, but in that case I wouldn’t want to get Curran and Heinwald alts if they’re the same elements as their regular forms.

At least if it’s a light banner, I think the new dragon will basically just be a light version of Nyarly, for better or worse, and for the banner units, I could see us either getting Lathna as a 5-star and two 4-star alts for Curran and Heinwald, or two 5-star alts for Curran and Heinwald, and Lathna as a 4-star. I’m not sure which I’d prefer. But since I’m biased i’d like for any Curran and Heinwald alts to be as good as possible so i’d prefer it if they were 5-stars, even if it made them harder to summon, lol.

Either way, I think Lathna would be a light wand if she’s a 4-star, or a light dagger if she’s a 5-star. I could pretty easily see her as basically being the light version of Noelle, at least. Which light probably needs a lot at this point. And I could see her having a more supportive/defensive playstyle all around if the new banner dragon is the same as Nyarly, especially since the event print with Lathna on it is about shields and an HP regen that happens when you drop below 30% HP.

For Curran and Heinwald, I’d like for both of them to swich to a different weapon type for any alts they get, but I could totally see Curran getting a 5-star curse res light axe alt [in which case rip in pieces Summer Luca lmao]. I’d be happier if he got a 5-star curse-res light dagger or blade alt. I could go for either one, but a blade would probably be more useful overall. I know that Yachiyo is meta for HZD, but I feel like she’s mostly just an OK unit who people use because the only 5-star light blade at the moment isn’t any better than her, so getting a really good light blade unit would be nice. At least Fleur is genuinely really powerful now that they’ve changed how afflictions work.

Considering that light is basically drowning in staff units, I’d be a bit let down if we got a light staff Heinwald alt. I think a light wand alt would work nicely. He’s already more offensively-oriented than most healers as it is, so it’d be a natural change. It might be weird if both he and Lathna are light wands, but it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve gotten a banner like that, and if Heinwald gets a DPS-focused light wand alt while Lathna is more supportive, they’d at least serve different roles.

The only other options I can think of for banner units other than them would, as I said, be Leif as a light sword unit with the same sort of kit as Patia. But he’d feel really out of place.

This would also be the best time to give Curran and Heinwald alts to begin with. It’d feel a bit sad to give only one or the other of them an alt and not both since they’re pretty much a matched pair, so giving them both alts at the same time in a banner themed around their event rerun would be cool.

We still really need a light element skill damage dragon, but the upcoming change to Nyarly’s skills make me think that won’t be what the next banner will give us.

I know at this point I should start saving for the next gala, but Curran and Heinwald alts would be way more tempting to me, lol.

Also, in Dragalia Lost liveblogging news, after getting a few HMS clears with H-Lowen, I managed to get a few HMC clears with Noelle. On paper I’m probably ready for eHMC since I have a MUB Freyja and whatnot, but I’m gonna just stick to standard HDTs for now.

In general HMC wasn’t as difficult as I thought it’d be, but it feels a lot more punishing towards mistakes than HMS. It’s one of those fights where I really wish I could zoom the game out more since it can be hard to keep HMC in frame all the time while still staying outside of her attack range. But overall I feel like I have the pattern down.

I don’t even think I want to attempt any of the other HDTs just yet, though, even though I have the right sort of units for them. They all seem way harder and more demanding.

I think I said this in the last post I made, but they really need to have standard HDTs drop the materials for making HDT weapons, even if it’s at a lower rate to the eHDT material drops. The whole key-in-a-locked-box set-up going on with them at the moment is really off-putting and makes eHDTs feel impenetrable. It should be more like how you get the materials for HDT bane weapons from doing void battles, not from doing HDTs themselves. In general, making the barrier of entry into eHDTs way less steep would go a long way toward fixing the issues with it. 

[murasaki-murasame]

More Dragalia Lost liveblogging under the cut where I talk about my Halloween summons, the upcoming version update, and my thoughts on high dragon trials now that the HDT weapons are a thing to work toward.

First off, I can’t remember exactly how many summons I’ve done on the Halloween banner, but I got all of the Halloween units except for Elly and Maritimus, and as much as I want to get H-Maritimus, I think I’m gonna wait until they announce the next banner to see where I want to put my resources. I have a feeling we’re going to get a water banner next that might give us our first 5-star water blade, which might be really tempting. So I’m gonna wait it out for now.

I also got Lin You as a random pity break along the way, which was really nice, since I was considering dream summoning her in the future. Now my wind roster is pretty much fully rounded out, except that I don’t have Wedding Elly yet. And funnily enough, regular Aeleen is still the only 4-star in the summoning pool that I don’t have yet.

And on the topic of dream summons, I decided to go ahead and get Xander from the current one. Which really took me by surprise since I figured we weren’t getting one anytime soon, since they didn’t announce it during the anniversary, but here we are. I felt a bit awkward about how just a few hours later we found out that the new Halloween banner was gonna have a new stun-res water sword on it, but I don’t regret getting Xander. My water team really needed him.

At this point there’s only a handful of units in the regular pool that I’d be interested in dream summoning eventually. It’s basically just Delphi, Ramona, and Lucretia at this point. Mainly Delphi at this point. I’m still salty about how I got a dupe Wedding Aoi in the last banner instead of him. And to make things worse I also got a dupe Ezelith during my Halloween summons, lol.

I was really surprised by the new Halloween units being a mix of flame and water ones, but they all serve nice roles, even if they’re awkwardly useless for the Halloween event itself. I also ended up being completely wrong about which characters would get alts for this in the first place. Mostly since I wasn’t expecting them to branch so far outside of the launch unit pool. I vaguely thought we might get a Mym alt, but I figured that it’d go to a different party member instead. But I’m actually happy that H-Mym is a thing, because I didn’t have a flame axe built up before I got her [which is why Ramona’s still high on my priority list for dream summons], and axes are one of my favourite weapon types to use. Sadly it sounds like G-Mym is better than her, but I’ll probably still just use H-Mym since I like her more as a unit.

Most of all I love and adore H-Lowen. He’s the best thing ever and he’s never leaving my flame team, lmao. On the one hand I still dislike it when units get alts where the only real difference is their element type, but I’ve been specifically hoping for us to get a good sleep-res flame healer for ages, so I can’t complain. He’s also just a really great healer all around, aside from not having the right resistance for HMS. He at least seems equally as good if not better than Verica. His kit is less specifically focused on healing potency than hers, but he has some really valuable support utility, especially since he has skill prep. I actually ended up using him last night in my very first HDT clear, against standard HMS. He doesn’t have the right resistance, but he can easily pass the HP check, and with his skill prep he can get off his defense buff and his HP buff, which is really nice. It doesn’t seem super essential for standard HMS, but for expert and master it might be a lot more important, like why Choco Thaniel is so important to HBH. And honestly even though H-Lowen’s sleep res, I found that it was pretty easy to avoid getting hit in the first place after the opening blast.

I still have my Xania set up as a DPS-focused alternative to use in HMS, but I really like using H-Lowen, and I’ve kinda resigned myself to the fact that Xania probably won’t be very good for anything above standard HMS. I have units like Mikoto, Sarisse, and both Myms who I can use in the fight instead if I need to, but I like Xania so I want to use her wherever I can.

Even though I’ve been playing this game for like six months, I’m only just starting to get into HDTs, lol. Part of it’s just that there really hasn’t been that much of a need to do them in the first place before they introduced HDT weapons recently, but mostly I’ve just been going through the typical motions of performance anxiety that you get with online co-op stuff like this.

I’m still really happy that I got my first clear, but I was kinda surprised by how relatively . . . simple standard HMS ended up being, in spite of knowing in advance that it had been heavily powercrept as the game’s gone on. I don’t really know what I expected, though, especially after knowing that the void dragon fights were specifically designed to prepare people for the HDTs. I really shouldn’t have been surprised that in the end, the HDTs would just feel like harder versions of the void dragon fights I’ve already done, lol. I actually feel like Void Zephyr almost feels harder than standard HMS right now, from what little experience I have with the latter, since Void Zephyr has way more unavoidable damage, and the tornadoes and stuff are a lot more frequent and get in the way a lot.

I might just stick to HMS for a while, but I have units I can use for the other ones. For HMC I have all the meta units except for W-Elly, but I’d lean more towards using Noelle or Lowen since I prefer playing as ranged units for these sorts of fights. For HBH I have a Choco Thaniel set up, but I don’t have a great dragon for him [which is why I’d like to get H-Maritimus but I can live without him], though I also have Lily, Summer Celliera (and I’ve promoted Elly and Orsem]. For HJP I have Gala Cleo, who I’ll probably stick to since I prefer ranged units, but I also have Curran, Heinwald, and Natalie. And then for HZD I have Gala Euden, and then Fleur and Yachiyo who I haven’t promoted. I’m kinda hoping we get better 5-star units I can use instead, so I’m not interested in investing a lot of resources into those two, so I’ll probably stick to Gala Euden. Sadly ranged units don’t seem to be very in favour for HZD, but I have S-Cleo in back-up.

I’m way too early to be thinking about the whole expert HDT thing just yet, but thankfully I have Noelle and a 2UB Freyja who I can use to get my foot in the door with expert HMC when the time comes.

I have mixed feelings overall about the entire concept and implementation of expert/master HDTs [and the time attack rankings are their own whole mess], but I can’t really say much about them since I’m so inexperienced with this whole part of the game in general. I do get the feeling that they gave us too much too fast, though.

Mostly I just hope that they don’t start balancing new endgame content around the assumption that everyone has HDT weapons, since that’s just not going to be the case for the most part, and it’d just be boring if new content becomes effectively locked to anyone outside of the top 1% or whatever of players. In the short term, I’m worried about how the new wave of humanoid endgame bosses they’ve teased at will go. They’re said to be ‘harder than high dragons’, but it’d really suck if they’re basically gated behind expert HDTs. Getting a whole new wave of permanent endgame content that I can’t even begin to access for who knows how long would just be kinda . . . demoralizing. I really hope that, even if they’re presumably harder than standard HDTs at least, they instead exist parallel to those fights, and you can basically get into one or the other first, instead of one being gated behind the other. That way it wouldn’t take as much grinding for people to be able to even start challenging the new bosses.

I also have a feeling that, like how you can grind the HDT fights to get the high dragons from the trade store, you might be able to grind the new endgame bosses in order to obtain them as playable adventurers. Which on paper I like the sound of since they at least seem to have really neat designs, but I can’t help but worry that it’d be like the HDT weapons where they basically create their own meta in the community, while suffering from a sort of ‘key in a locked box’ scenario where you’re expected to have those units/weapons/etc in order to even start doing the content you need to grind to obtain them. Which definitely seems to be a problem with HDT weapons, with how there seems to be barely any wiggle room for entering the expert HDT grind cycle if you don’t have a HDT weapon.

I’m at least assuming that the new bosses will be basically the same as HDTs in terms of being co-op content with four players using one unit each against a single boss. In which case it’d be pretty easy for similar issues with the meta and whatnot to arise with it. I kinda hope they shake it up a bit, though. It’d be pretty nice if it was actually solo content that plays out more like facility event bosses. We really need more solo endgame content in general. But I think it’ll probably still be co-op focused.

And then there’s the new version update coming out in a week or so. Which mostly just seems to be quality of life improvements and stuff, but I’m really happy about the improvements to the regular log-in bonuses. Getting five times more wyrmite from it is pretty neat. Which reminds me of how they’ve recently started implementing tenfold vouchers as rewards for clearing raid/facility bosses for the first time. So overall we’ve been getting a lot more regular access to summoning resources, which is nice.

I’m also happy that we’re getting the ability to put facilities into storage while keeping their effects. I recently maxed out my elemental altars and slime facilities, so it’d be nice to put them all in storage to free up space in my halidom.

We’ll see what happens at the start of November when the Halloween event ends and we get our next This Month In Dragalia Lost post, but I hope we get a Celliera event rerun next, both so we can get a good new water banner, and so I can finally get OG Celliera since she’s one of the few event units I don’t have yet.

[murasaki-murasame]

Since the Christmas event/banner should get announced any day now, I might as well post my predictions for what we might get out of the new Christmas units [and from the New Years units afterward].

I’m in a bit of a weird position with the Christmas banner where I want to skip it in order to save for the New Years banner, since that’ll probably be better to summon on, so I’m caught between wanting units I like to get Christmas alts, and wanting them to instead go to units I don’t care about so it’s easier to skip them, lol.

Either way, that one leak/rumour that’s pretty much been proven correct after the official reveal of The Agito Uprising said that we’d get a Christmas alt for Phoenix, so I’m just gonna assume that’ll be the new dragon on the banner, but I think that’s the only thing the leak said about the banner, so I can only guess about the new adventurers. But going by how regular Phoenix works, I have a feeling that she might be a light element skill haste/HP dragon, like Halloween Maritimus. Which would kinda suck because with how good Freyja and H-Maritimus are, that’d be a really tempting dragon to get, but I specifically want to skip the Christmas banner. Welp.

In terms of the new adventurer alts, I’m gonna guess that it’ll be like the Halloween banner we got a little while ago, and that there’ll be one 5-star, two 4-stars, and that all of them plus the dragon will be a different element to the old units on the banner. So I don’t think any of the new units will be water element, like how none of the new Halloween units were light element. We haven’t really gotten many light or wind units in the last few months, so I think we might get two light units and two wind units. I can’t really tell if Christmas Phoenix would make more sense as a light or wind unit, but I’d probably prefer it if she’s a light unit since then the 5-star adventurer would probably be a wind unit, and since wind is my most fleshed out roster at the moment it’d probably make them less tempting to pull for, which would work out better for me. But it could be the other way around.

I’m gonna just go ahead and assume that the 5-star adventurer is probably gonna be another 5-star alt of one of the main female characters, since we get one for basically every new banner like this, lol. I’m guessing it’ll probably be Alex or Sarisse. I could see Alex working pretty nicely with a 5-star light dagger alt, or something like that. But I feel like Cygames might keep ignoring her for a while longer. Who knows, maybe we’ll get Christmas Ranzal as a 5-star instead, lol. I don’t think we’ll get a Christmas Luca one way or another, though, if only since we’ll probably get Gala Luca in January.

For the 4-star adventurers I think there’ll be one wind one and one light one, and I think it’ll be like Halloween where they’re both alts of regular characters from the summoning pool. I think we’ll get one female and one male 4-star alt, and I have a few guesses/hopes for male characters, I’m at a loss as to what female characters might get alts here. But anyway, for male characters, Xanfried still needs an alt and I think a Christmas one would be really fitting for him, but it’d kinda suck to see him get a 4-star alt. I also think that Waike could work really nicely in a Santa get-up since he’s already basically Robin Hood. But realistically I think that the most likely male character to get a Christmas alt would probably be Elias. Summer Celery opened up the doors to us getting alts of event units, and Elias as a Christmas caroler is just too perfect to not happen, lol. Also he just desperately needs a good alt.

I’m at a loss as to what female characters might get alts, but for some reason Sinoa keeps coming to mind as an option. I don’t really have any specific reason why, though. I think we also got an illustration of Sarisse and Hildegarde in Christmas outfits last year, but I don’t know if Hildegarde would get another seasonal alt this soon. If they give Elias an alt, though, it might be nice if they also gave Pia one, since they’d go really well together, and she’s also a bit of a meme unit who needs a good alt.

In terms of their kits and stuff, as I said, I think Alex could get a 5-star light dagger alt here, if she gets one at all. If it’s Sarisse, she’d probably be a 5-star light/wind bow. And I could see Christmas Phoenix basically being the light version of Freyja.

If we get Christmas Elias, I could see him being a light wand. But I wouldn’t want him to have a kit like Noelle’s, since that’d be too important to lock behind a limited banner. If Xanfried gets a Christmas alt, I think he’d be a light/wind lance, with a similar kit to his OG version, but maybe with some energy mechanics thrown in if he’s a light unit. And then Waike could maybe get a light/wind bow or dagger alt.

I could also see Sinoa still being a wand if she gets a Christmas alt, but we probably wouldn’t get both that and Christmas Elias as a wand unit at the same time.

If we get Christmas Pia, she could maybe be a light lance, or if she stays as a wind unit, maybe she could be a sword or dagger or something. No weapon types except for wand and staff really make sense for her, but she’s already a lance unit as it is, so anything’s possible.

Also part of why I’d be on board with Elias and Pia getting alts is because they’d be easy for me to skip, lol. But I do feel like they’d make a lot of sense in general.

As for the New Years banner, it’s a fair bit further away, but I still have some hopes and predictions for it. I’m trying to hoard my resources for it at the moment, so I’m a lot more invested in having it turn out nice, lol.

Like with the Christmas banner, I think the New Years banner will be either light or wind element [with maybe one wildcard off-element unit]. Personally I’d want it to be light-based, just because my light roster’s weaker and that’d make for a more exciting and tempting banner. But either would be fine.

If it’s a light-based event/banner, then I think the datamined Tsukuyomi dragon might be the equivalent to Shishimai, which could work since, like with most event dragons, Shishimai was the opposite element to the old New Years units, so having a shadow event dragon with light units would make sense. I could also just see her design working nicely as a raid boss in addition to a playable dragon. And since she was datamined around December last year it’d make sense if she ends up being related to the upcoming New Years event. She might be the banner dragon like Marishiten, but that’d imply it’d be a shadow banner/event like the last one which would be kinda lame. Also her design doesn’t really seem inspired by the year of the rat, unlike how Marishiten had boar familiars floating around her and stuff.

Like the Ieyasu banner, I think the new zodiac banner will have one 5-star adventurer, one 5-star dragon, two 4-star adventuers, and then an event welfare adventurer and dragon. I think they might also put Ieyasu and co back on rate-up during the banner but who knows.

If they’re light units, I’d want the new 5-star to be a blade or a wand unit. We really need some more good light units of those weapon types. B-Zardin, Lucretia, and Amane are all kinda meh and don’t really have a place in end-game content, and from what I know Yachiyo is the weak link of the HZD meta group who just doesn’t have a better alternative to replace her with. So we really need something new there, though it’d also kinda suck in it’s own way to lock a good light unit behind a limited banner. Personally I’d lean towards wanting a light wand rather than a light blade, since they’d probably end up being less ‘essential’ in the long run than a light blade, and also I have B-Zardin but I don’t have Lucretia so I want a light wand more, lol.

If they’re wind units, I’d probably want the 5-star to be a dagger or lance since those are probably the weakest parts of the wind roster at the moment.

I dunno what to expect from the new banner dragon, mostly because I don’t know very much about the Japanese mythology they’re drawing from with them, but from some quick wikipedia searching, maybe we could get Benzaiten as the new one. Either way, regardless of the element it is, I think they’ll be a strength dragon like Marishiten was.

For the 4-stars, if they’re light units, I could see us getting a wand and/or a lance. I don’t think we’d get a 4-star light dagger or bow out of the banner, though, since we’ve got several options for those already. Same with staffs. We also only currently have one [non-limited] 4-star option for light blades, swords, and axes.

If they’re wind units, then I doubt we’d get a 4-star blade, lance, or staff, since those options are pretty fleshed out already. In particular i doubt we’d get another 4-star wind blade when we got Addis in the last New Years banner. So I’d prefer to get a sword, axe, dagger, or bow instead.

And in terms of the event welfare adventurer, If they’re light then I at least wouldn’t want them to be a bow, sword, or staff, so they don’t overlap too much with past event units we’ve had . I think a light blade event unit could make sense, but we’ll see. If it’s a wind unit, then we’ve only really had Su Fang so far so anything other than a wind dagger would be fine, but if you want to count Ranzal then it might be best if they avoid having it be a wind axe either. And same as the stuff I said above, I’d prefer it if they avoided having them be a wind blade/lance/staff unit either. So I’d prefer a sword, bow, or wand.

If we get a wild-card unit like Addis then anything’s possible, but we still haven’t gotten a 4-star flame blade at all yet so that’s an option.

On top of my personal bias, one reason why I’d like it to be light-based is so that we can get more light units with energy mechanics. There’s nothing stopping them from making a wind banner with energy mechanics, but I feel like it’d work better to have an energy-themed light banner, since light has way more in the way of existing units who also have energy mechanics in their kits. If we just got a set of wind units with energy built into their kits then I fear it’d end up like the Valentines/Christmas units, or Pia, and they’d have too little energy support from the rest of their element’s roster to really work well.

Also the new banner will be based around the Year of the Rat, and since we’ve already had one light unit with a lightning theme, I can’t help but think of Pikachu, so it’d be kinda fun to get a lightning rat dragon and stuff, lol. I also feel like a lightning-themed light wand unit could also make sense.

So yeah my best case scenario hope would be if the New Years banner ended up with a 5-star light wand, a 5-star strength HP dragon, a 4-star light lance, a 4-star flame blade, a 4-star event welfare light blade, and Tsukuyomi as an event welfare shadow dragon. But who even knows.

I’m fully prepared to be proven totally wrong with both of these banners, but we’ll see how it goes. I mostly just want the New Years banner to be worth hoarding for, lol. But it’d be worth it even if they just bring Ieyasu back since I still don’t have him.

Also I’m hoping that we’ll get some free daily tenfold summons during both the Christmas banner and the New Years banner. And maybe even some log-in bonuses. Anything to make it easier to hoard my resources would be nice at this point after how much I pulled on the gala, lol. [And on that note I did in fact end up caving in and summoning more on the last day of the gala, and even though I didn’t get Gala Elly I did get Cupid, so that’s nice]