Team Compositions

In the Dungeon, parties can be composed of up to 6 members, so Team Compositions are typically shown as 6 abbreviations in the order they are placed.

Normally the position shows the order in which characters fight. However characters with higher speed such as the Chef fight first no matter the position, but they may be placed in different positions for various reasons, such as getting back attacks, tanking damage, or allowing other characters to take a specific position.

## Abbreviations

In addition to character abbreviations, here are a few terms:

* WD — Warrior's Dimension
* FPH — Floors per Hour, it is basically the speed of your team in climbing the dungeon.
* DPS — Damage per Second, a term used for a character who deals damage in the team.
* Comp — Team Composition.
* AoE — Area of Effect, refers to skills that affect all enemies instead of single targets.

Team compositions often vary based on which point of the game you are at.

## Pre-Warrior's Dimension

There is not much to say about team compositions here. It is recommended to experiment with all the characters to see which ones you like.

Nonetheless, there are some characters who deserve a special mention:

* Carpenter — Very good versus Dimension Bosses.
* Nurse — Important for keeping your team alive.
* Darkmage — Has a strong group attack skill.
* Mystic — Sustains MP.

## The Meta

After a lot of people play a particular version, certain builds and strategies become preferred and may even be determined to be optimal. The meta has changed significantly in some versions, such as in 1.2 when The Primal Lands was released.

The best information about the meta can be found in the Guides section.

Some of the builds described later on this page are not part of the current meta. That is, they are not currently optimal, although they can still be played, and they still help understand how the game works by giving information on strategies that are a good fit for a particular character or item.

## Meta for 1.2.1

* In the early game, Withering and Battle Credits gear help progress.
* Stein Cheese is a way to exploit Stein+BC to skip through much of the early game.
* Visit The Castle for Uranium Ore with a Mining team.
* The mid and late game are centered around Speed in The Primal Lands.
* Other than the Nurse, characters with 2 accessory slots are important, including the Huntress and Owner.

## Pushing

One of the main goals of the game is to dive deeper into the dungeon. The builds in this category help your team to go farther faster.

### Damage

The goal of this subgroup is to do high damage in order to kill tougher enemies with fewer or faster attacks.

#### Physical

Typically involves single-target attacks at some point in the progression.

#### Magic

Typically involves multi-target attacks requiring a lot of MP.

#### Physical/Magic Hybrid

Works well in Dimensions 1 to 10—for example, clear floors with Darkmages and then switch to Carpenters for Dimension Bosses.

Not as good at damage as pure builds in the WD unless using the Soda Stein to improve all available Relics — see Stein Cheese.

#### Huntress Capture

Can potentially become more powerful than Darkmages, although it takes longer so a Darkmage team may be ahead on Relics by that point.

### Speed

Skip floors when possible. Combine with Battle Credits to maintain a power advantage over enemies.

### Minimal Healing

These builds are designed to reduce the healing requirement. If the Nurse is needed less often, then the team advances in fewer turns.

#### Evasion

Require less healing by getting hit less often.

#### Damage Reduction

Require less healing by limiting damage so that healing is not necessary until multiple hits accumulate.

## Battle Credits

Gain power to support pushing builds that would otherwise fall behind, especially Speed. Or use them to gain resources. Combines with many other builds.

## Power

These compositions are about building up your team through relics or experience. After the team is strong enough, return with a different composition for pushing.

### Gold and Essence

All teams gain income, but some builds focus on getting as much of it as possible.

### Stein Cheese

Gain relic levels especially quickly by hitting a transmuted ore node with the Soda Stein.

### Mastery XP Farming

Characters that are played will eventually reach full mastery anyway, but the process can be expedited.

## Resources

Not all compositions have to be about pushing through floors in the dungeon or even about directly getting power. There are builds that are made to be efficient in other aspects of the game, such as mining. These compositions are good to use every now and then to grind for your main pushing team.

Recommended for floor 1500 and beyond.

### Mining

Ore is important for Crafting. Unsurprisingly, Miners are usually involved.

### Ingredient Farming

Get more materials so The Chef can do what he does best—cook.

### Item Drops

Increase your odds of getting hard-to-find items.

## Challenges

Choose limitations to make the game harder or more interesting, especially if you have already played it through at least once the normal way.

## Previous Versions

### Meta for 1.2.0

* Speed and Battle Credits.
* Thief no longer needed due to PL gold scaling and Treasure Optimizer oddity.

### Meta for 1.1.1

* Soda Stein for Stein Cheese
* There is no longer a need to choose between physical or magic damage builds because the Soda Stein levels up Relics indiscriminantly.
* The Owner passives are valuable in many builds.

### Meta for 1.1.0

* Sweeping Smash gives Physical builds many of the benefits of Phantasmal Claw.
* Battle Credits from Boss Rush.
* Early to Mid WD page
* Late WD page

### Meta for 1.0.9

* The Wizard introduced warping for Speed builds and replaced X in many builds.
* Minimizing Healing is not as fast as warp increases.

### Meta for 1.0.6

* The Chef for mining.
* Huntresses no longer require extensive grinding, making them more useful in the mid WD.