#hopefully the event changes on cn will make it more enjoyable

[verdantspringcourtyard]

Land of Gagaku Event

Yet another long "tower" type event that coincides with Kinnara's release. The event format doesn't share many similarities to other events, but the actual activities are like most multiple stage/boss clearing events that have happened this year. Consists of 3 major parts; Sonata, Recalling Voices and Night Aratama boss. During this event, Kinnara will have a buff for damage dealt and damage reduction.

Sonata

Upon starting this part of the event, you must select 1 of the 4 chapters and 1 of 3 musical instruments but can change them at any time. At first only chapter 1 will be unlocked, the rest will be gradually unlocked. Each chapter has 3 instruments that provide buffs, the buffs can be viewed in one of the below sections.

When the server collects certain amounts of sheet music, rewards for the entire server will be unlocked. Sheet music is obtained by defeating bosses or by purchasing with jade. Buying sheet music can reward you with items like event AP, event currency, blue summon tickets, black daruma shards, gold, etc.

To fight a boss you must pick 1 of 5 "notes" on the music bar, which one you pick will not affect the difficulty or your rewards. However, if you pick 1 of the 3 "notes" with a ball of light in the same column as it, a bar next to the button used to switch difficulties will slowly fill up. When the bar is filled up, you won't have to fight a boss plus you'll get event currency and sheet music. Costs 6 event AP to challenge bosses (solo only), may cost more if you need multiple attempts. Cannot switch difficulty after picking a "note". Can be done on auto.

Sonata will not be accessible on the last day of the event. So please make sure you have maxed out the "Ray of Hope" stat boosts and has unlocked the bonus effects before then.

Ray of Hope

"Rays of Hope” are really important for Sonata and the Night Aratama boss. They are obtained by defeating bosses in Sonata. There are stat boosts and bonus effects for having certain amounts of them, which are listed below.

Stat boosts:

Gain +2% ATK and +2% HP per 1 (max +80%)

After gaining 40, gain +1 SPD and +1% Crit per 1 (max +40 and +40%)

After gaining 80, gain +2% DEF and +2% Crit DMG per 1 (max +80% and +40%)

After gaining 120, gain +1 HIT +1% RES per 1 (max +40% and +40%)

Bonus Effects:

21: Gain 20% HP Steal.

41: If Crit exceeds 100% then every excess 1% is converted in Crit DMG, when dealing damage also have a 30% base chance to inflict freeze and when receiving damage the attacker's SPD is reduced by 30.

61: Can negate 1 lethal attack and recover HP by 10%, only works once per battle.

81: Damage dealt to enemies inflicted with control effects is increased by 15%.

Although it isn't mentioned ingame, the bonus effects act as additional soul effects. So when dealing damage the icons for Nightwing, Snow Spirit and House Imp will pop-up above your shiki in battle.

Musical Instruments

Chapter 1

Koto: When dealing ST (and random target) damage, also deal 60% splash damage.

Gakubiwa: Skills cost -1 onibi.

Kagurabue: Indirect damage is increased by 40%.

Chapter 2

Miko Suzu: Indirect damage is increased by 40%.

Shakuhachi: Enemy DEF is decreased by 50%. 

Tsuzumi: The shiki with the highest ATK has an 80% chance to gain a new turn.

Chapter 3

Ekiro: Enemy DEF is decreased by 50%.

Shami: Crit for normal attacks is increased by 20% and if the normal attacks crit, damage is increased by 50%.

Dadaiko: Damage dealt outside of turn is increased by 50%.

Chapter 4

Shinrei: Crit for normal attacks is increased by 20% and if the normal attacks crit, damage is increased by 50%. 

Doura: When dealing ST (and random target) damage, also deal 60% splash damage.

Horagai: Skills cost -1 onibi.

If you’re unfamiliar with the jp names of the listed instruments and would prefer images of them, please refer to the wiki version of this guide.

The rewards for the total accumulated sheet music collected by the entire-server are; 2 red daruma, 10 orochi scales, 5000 event currency, 2 demon parade tickets, 10000 event currency. These rewards can be unlocked for every instrument.

At the bottom of the screen for Sonata is a progress bar. When it reaches 100%, the current instrument you're using will become "cleared" and you'll get a special kekkai/realm card as a reward.

Recalling Voices

Spirit Fragments

Collect spirit fragments to unlock short sentences of story. Fragments are obtained by defeating bosses in Sonata. There are a total of 83. Only 20-21 fragments can be obtained per chapters.

Recalling the Story

Can reread the event’s daily story dialogue.

Ancient Nocturne

Can rewatch the event CG videos.

Night Aratama Boss

At top of main event page, there is a music bar with a boss icon / multiple boss icons with a timer under it. When the timer ends, the boss/es can be fought. Costs 3 AP to challenge, battles have a 3-minute timer and "Rays of Hope" are also applied here. There are 5 types of bosses, each one has its own ranking. Ranking rewards are the same for each boss.

 Opening Note (Boss)

Can be challenged within an 8-hour time period.

Has 5 difficulties.

Format is similar to vanquish or boss challenges, ie goal is to KO the boss as fast as possible.

Boss has 2 phases, has 2 skills and nuribotoke in phase 1 and gains 2 more skills in phase 2.

Summons waves of minions.

There are 1st time clear rewards for each difficulty.

There's ranking. Ranking rewards include; black daruma, white daruma, blue summon tickets, gold and event currency.

Broken Song & Hurried Music (Netherworld Gate)

Can be challenged within a 24-hour time period.

It's kind of like Netherworld Gate.

Clear up to 150 stages of bosses.

Can change teams inbetween stages.

Enemies change every 10 stages.

Which enemies can be fought per 10 stages can be viewed on the boss page.

Enemies gradually become tankier as you progress through more stages.

Total rewards for the 1st 50 stages of Broken Song are; 60000 gold, 50000 event currency, and some white daruma.

Total rewards for the 1st 50 stages of Hurried Music are; 55000 event currency, and some white daruma.

There's ranking. Ranking rewards include; black daruma, white daruma, blue summon tickets, gold and event currency.

Sound Spirit: Wish & Curse (Boss Netherworld Gate)

Becomes accessible on the last day of the event. (at 12 noon & 4PM)

It's like Broken Song and Hurried Music, but if they were server-wide and the enemies had crazy high HP.

There are 10 stages.

Enemy HP seems to be shared server-wide.

Enemies don't hit very hard.

Shares the damage rewards with The Final Note.

Night Aratama (Boss)

Becomes accessible on the last day of the event. (at 8AM)

It's a server-wide boss.

Boss has 2 phases, has 3 skills and nuribotoke in phase 1 and gains 1 more skill in phase 2.

Summons waves of minions.

Shares the damage rewards with The Final Note.

The Final Note:

Becomes accessible on the last day of the event. (at 8PM)

Can be challenged within a 2-hour time period.

Requires special event AP to challenge the boss.

When you run of special AP, you can use another's team to challenge the boss.

Format is like the Sealand Defense part of Battle of Mt Oe, ie the boss will not take any damage and endless waves of minions will be summoned.

Enemy HP is shared across the server.

Total rewards for dealing 10-100mil damage are; 160000 gold, 20 demon souls, a 2* special kekkai/realm card and 13 black daruma shards.

Recommend newbies to ignore Night Aratama and Sound Spirits and unlock the damage rewards via this instead.

Exchange Shop

The most notable items are: 2 event icon frames, ? loading screen illustrations, new Kinnara skin, random SSR/SP, random SSN (frog N shiki), black daruma, 3-4-5* white daruma, 2 blue summon tickets, orochi scales, demon souls, AP, mochi, gold, evo and soul boosts, 5 event packs, etc. The icon frames are the exact same, one is still and one is animated.

Like always, the more appealing items like the random SSR/SP and new skin are locked by a requirement. In this event the requirements are event points, however, they are not obtained as drops or rewards for doing anything. Instead, event points simply represent your total accumulated event currency.

The type of items that can be obtained from the 5 event packs are all the same, items include; gold, AP, guild feats, demon souls, orochi scales, bio affection items, evo/soul/gold/EXP boosts, daruma shards, full daruma, 3-5* white daruma, EXP souls, etc. For every pack bought you'll get 1 random 6* soul, so if you buy 20 you'll get 20 random 6* souls. The types (2-set effects) of souls obtained are determined by the pack;

"Do" Pack 1: Crit%

"Re" Pack 2: ATK%

"Mi" Pack 3: HP%

"So" Pack 4: DEF%

"La" Pack 5: HIT% and RES%

Each pack can be bought a max of 300 times. The pack names should match the names of the musical notes in Kinnara’s skill 2.

Just so it's extra clear - the types of souls obtained refers to the 2-set effects, not the main stats.

Music from the Past

The unlabeled button in the top right corner of the main event page will become accessible. Here you will be able to listen to some BGM from past events and songs from CG or recent animated memory scroll videos. Can also create a small playlist so you can listen to your favourite songs while doing the event (doesn't work in battles).

Unsure if this will be a CN only feature.

Recommended Teams

Reminder - Kinnara has a buff for damage dealt and damage reduction for this event. So if you're lucky enough to get her and have enough materials to 6* her, then please use her in the event to take advantage of the buff. 

Sonata

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

2 Random Target attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

2 Random Target attackers + SP Kiyohime + Kiyohime + Enmusubi

SP Ootengu + Kinnara + Kiyohime + Aoandon + Enmusubi

Takiyasha + Ryoumen + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

Ryoumen + Menreiki + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Double Shuten + Shiranui + Enmusubi + Ushi

Double Shuten + Shiranui + Enmusubi + Kiyohime

Recommended random target attackers are; SP Ootengu, SP Tamamo, Kinnara, Kisei, etc. Best combos are; double SP Ootengu, double Kinnara or 1 of both SP Ootengu and Kinnara. Recommended AOE multi-hit attackers are; Takiyasha, Ryomen, Ootengu, Ubume. If you don't have Enmusubi, the alternatives to her in this event are Ushi, Kosode or even Shoyou.

By default, Kiyo should always have snow spirit equipped even outside of events. However, after you unlock the 2nd bonus effect for "Rays of Hope", you should either swap her soul set to something else like seductress or fortune cat.

You should try using multiple teams to take full advantage of the buffs provided by the instruments. There are a couple of other teams that can be used but they require targeting, so I personally don’t recommend using them.

The Night Aratama

Boss:

SP Iba + Oitsuki + Ushi + Enmusubi + Aoandon

SP Iba + Oitsuki + Ushi + Enmusubi + Shoyou

SP Iba + Kinnara + Oitsuki + Ushi + Shoyou

Netherworld Gate:

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

Takiyasha + Ushi + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Ryoumen + Ushi + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Takiyasha + Kinnara + Ushi + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Boss Netherworld Gate 

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

The Final Note

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Ushi + Oitsuki + Kiyohime

Takiyasha + Kinnara + Ushi + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

For Opening Note and Night Aratama (boss), the same teams are used for it.

For Takiyasha in the Netherworld Gate type stuff, she can use the following soul sets; seductress + songstress, hyousube + tsuchigumo, house imp + tsuchigumo, tsuchigumo + gashadokuro + songstress/namazu. So use whatever set you have or works best for you.

Hurried Music is a bit easier than Broken Song, so Kiyo and her def shred aren't really needed for it.

For The Final Note, recommend newbies to use up all your special event AP and borrow another player's team. By doing this you’ll be able to quickly boost your total damage and unlock all the total damage rewards. If you can’t play when this boss is available, then fight the Sound Spirits instead.