Blue Archive is an anime RPG published by Nexon and developed by Nat Games. It’s a waifu collector game with lively animated live 2D graphics and a rich story, featuring voice acting for many characters. In this game, you step into the role of a Sensei in the mysterious city of Kivotos, where you solve various incidents and mysteries. To help you get started on your journey, this Blue Archive Beginners Guide will walk you through the essential aspects of the game.
If you’re new to the game, check out our reroll guide to get the best characters from the start. Use our character tier list to find out which characters are the strongest. Customize your cafe with our furniture crafting guide. Use our cafe leveling guide to level up quickly, and our tactical challenge guide to handle tough battles. Don’t forget to check for available redeem codes for extra rewards. If you need help, just reach out the customer support for assistance.
Blue Archive Beginners Guide: Gameplay Basics
Sensei Level
Your account’s main level, known as Sensei level, directly impacts how high your characters can level up. For example, if your Sensei level is 50, your characters can only reach level 50. To increase your Sensei level, you use Action Points (AP), which is essentially the game’s Stamina. AP regenerates at a rate of 1 point every 6-8 minutes, allowing you to keep playing steadily.
What’s great is the conversion rate of experience is 1:1, meaning that using AP anywhere contributes equally to leveling up your Sensei level. This straightforward system makes it easy to manage your account’s progression and advance through the game efficiently.
Campaign Missions
In Blue Archive, the campaign is where I find the core gameplay and explore all the content the game offers. The campaign consists of missions that make up the main story, which I progress through by completing different stages. Completing these missions is needed to unlock new content.
Each mission stage has two difficulty options: Normal and Hard. Normal stages let you move forward in the story, while Hard stages offer the Character Eleph as reward. Eleph is useful for unlocking new characters and accessing Mystic, which is similar to a character’s ascension.
When you look at the mission info, you’ll see the enemy’s lineup and the requirements for achieving an S rank, or three-star clear. These requirements are consistent across different stages and include completing the mission, achieving S rank a set number of times, and clearing the stage within a specific number of turns.
The only thing that changes is the number of times an S rank is required and clearing the stage within a variable number of turns. So be sure to see what they are and attempt accordingly.
Checking your Enemy Lineup
Checking the lineup before the battle is highly recommended, so you will better understand how to counter them. Now enemies have attributes of two types just like your characters, which are an Attack attribute and an armor attribute and there is an attack and defense effectiveness mechanic in the game, the table below will show how that relationship works.
The key relationships between attributes in Blue Archive are straightforward and can greatly impact your combat performance. When my attack attribute is weak against the enemy’s armor attribute, I’ll deal only 50% damage (Resist). Conversely, if my attack attribute is effective against the enemy’s armor attribute, I’ll deal 150% damage (Effective). If my attack attribute is strong against the enemy’s armor, I’ll deal 200% damage (Weak), and if there is normal effectiveness, I deal 100% damage. (Normal)
This attribute synergy applies across all game content. Even if you have slightly lower power units, aligning your main team with the optimal attributes can give you an advantage. Aside from some characters in very particular situations, it’s better most of the time to use this advantage.
Leveling and Upgrading Your Character
Leveling and upgrading your characters are essential for strengthening your team and progressing through the game. One of the easiest ways to upgrade a character is by increasing their level. Keep in mind that character levels are capped based on your Sensei level, so characters can’t level up beyond your account level.
To level up a character, I use Activity Reports, which come in four types: Novice, Normal, Advanced, and Superior. The best way to farm Activity Reports is by farming Base Defence Stages from the Commissions.
Another important aspect of upgrading your characters is unlocking Mystic, which is the ascension of a character to the next tier. For this, I use Character Elephs, which can be bought from the shop using the special currency Eligma. Eligma is obtained by pulling duplicate characters through the gacha.
Ascension requires different amounts of Character Elephs for each tier:
- 1 Star to 2 Star: 30 Shards
- 2 Star to 3 Star: 80 Shards
- 3 Star to 4 Star: 100 Shards
- 4 Star to 5 Star: 120 Shards
While some Character Shards can be farmed from Hard Stages, most of them are limited and only available from the shop, so it’s important to plan your Eligma spending carefully. This strategy will help you maximize your resources and efficiently level up and upgrade your characters.
Mastering the Character Skills
Skills play a very important role in a character’s damage potential aside from team synergy and equipment. Each character in the game can have four different kinds of skills, Normal skill, Passive Skill, EX skill, and Sub skill. Normal and EX skill are available from base rating and subsequent Passive Skill and Sub Skill are unlocked at 2 stars and 3 stars respectively.
- Normal Skill: Normal skills are frequently used by the characters on the battlefield after a certain number of turns, leveling it should provide some damage increase.
- EX Skill: The most important skill for any character as it determines their role, and has some very powerful effects, from providing high damage output to team buffs and more. This skill should be the top priority for investment except for some characters.
- Passive and Sub Skill: These skills provide self-support for the character, and they can provide increased stats, and buffs, or even increase the damage potential of already powerful EX skills.
Priority of skill leveling depends on the character’s role for the most part, as some have powerful EX skills, and others have important Sub Skill, so keep that in mind when you level them.
Taking the Lessons
You can take Special Lessons in various schools of Kivotos, at the start of the game each player will have a limit of 3 Lesson tickets per day which will get increased as you level up various School Ranks through the lessons. The tickets will get refreshed every day, however extra tickets can be bought from the Shop through Pyroxenes.
In my experience, Lessons are mostly used to increase student bonds but can also provide some extra rewards, which have a relatively low probability of showing up, so should not be considered a reliable source of items. In different locations, you will see groups of three students, two students, or only a single person, try to optimize the ticket usage by teaching more students, in a single lesson.
Understanding the MomoTalk and Increasing Bonds
You can increase bonds with various students by interacting with them during lessons or in the cafe. As your relationship with them progresses, you can communicate through MomoTalk, a messaging feature that allows you to learn more about the characters and their personalities.
As you strengthen your bond with a character, you unlock special rewards and insights into their stories. Once you reach a certain relationship rank, you can access the live 2D animations of various characters and see them in the main lobby.
Blue Archive Beginners Guide: Tips and Tricks
1. Remember to upgrade your cafe rank
Remember to upgrade your cafe rank for more passive AP income. You can upgrade your cafe using Cafe Facilities Cores, which you earn automatically by clearing the following Normal Missions for the first time: 2-1, 3-5, 6-5, 9-5, 12-5, 15-5, and 18-5. Completing these missions will help you boost your cafe and increase your overall efficiency in the game
2. Spend your AP wisely
Every AP you spend contributes to your Sensei experience meter, steadily increasing your level. It doesn’t matter where you spend your AP, whether you sweep Normal Missions for gear blueprints or Hard stage nodes for character Eleph, all AP usage helps you level up. Keep spending your AP to progress your Sensei level
3. Focus on progressing through the campaign missions
Focus on progressing through both Normal and Hard campaign missions. Normal missions advance the main story and unlock new content, while Hard missions provide valuable rewards like Character Elephs for character ascension. Achieving S ranks requires strategic planning, such as completing stages within a set number of turns and obtaining S ranks multiple times. Pay attention to these requirements to maximize resource gains and improve tactical skills.
4. Check your enemy’s attributes
Before battling, check the enemy’s attributes and adjust your team setup accordingly. Match your squad’s attack types to exploit the enemy’s armor weaknesses, such as using Piercing attacks against Heavy armor or Mystic attacks against Special armor. This strategic approach optimizes your damage output and boosts your combat effectiveness.
5. Prioritize skill leveling
Focus on leveling up your characters’ skills, starting with their EX skills. These abilities are often the most powerful and can deliver high damage or provide crucial team buffs. EX skills define a character’s role, so investing in them can greatly impact your combat performance. Additionally, consider each character’s strengths and weaknesses when leveling skills. Don’t overlook Normal, Passive, and Sub skills either, as they can offer important boosts to your characters’ overall performance and synergy.
Final Thoughts
Blue Archive offers an engaging and immersive experience. As you begin your journey in Kivotos, take the time to understand the core mechanics, utilize the various tips provided, and focus on building a balanced team that suits your playstyle. Stay attentive to the resources available in the game and manage them wisely. By prioritizing strategic decisions and continuous learning, you can fully enjoy the dynamic world of Blue Archive and achieve success in your adventure.
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That’s all for today’s Blue Archive beginners guide. Did you find our Blue Archive beginners guide helpful? Do let us know in the comments!
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