If you have been following our weekly articles you should be up to speed on the Awakening system and have an idea of what type of defense units to prioritize in your progression. If not, I recommend reading on the awakening system here and the top defense types to awaken here.

That said, this guide will focus on the top attack types that should be prioritized for awakening. As most of you will only have a single defense type on your main PVP/PVE teams, you will more than likely have 2 or 3 attack types in your backline to compliment your strong frontline tank and support. This makes it important for you to decide early on which attack type units you should build and awaken first to maximize your team’s potential while also using your resources most efficiently.  

There are a few items to consider before making the jump to awakening due to the high-level resources required. Given the increasing popularity of Signature Force and Core Memory sharing, picking units with fatecores and a team that revolves around a nation is typically a safe option and will give you a specific direction to take when awakening. Additional tips that players should take into account prior to awakening your attack units:

1. Complete Chapter 11 to unlock the final stages in the Solar and Lunar Sanctums to farm materials to craft Ranked gear.
2. A full 6 flame guard stone set is highly recommended for awakening due to the HP bonus and damage reduction. A 2 machine set/4 flame guard stone set is viable for final hit types to bypass provoke tanks, but not necessary with Signature Force level 1 upgrade.  
3. If you do not own enough fated level ranked armor to equip 2 or pieces on a single unit, do not awaken more than 1 unit at a time. Having a single guardstone on a unit makes it too vulnerable to breaks which will render your damage dealer useless in PVP and PVE content.
4. Prioritize heroes with fatecores as the stat and skill enhancements from fatecores added to the awakening bonus can make a rare hero as good or better than a fated hero. 
5. Prioritize Generals (Bathory/Rachel/Jinai/Shufraken/Garff/Dorka) if you have them, and build a nation team around the General’s nation.

Considering the notes above, here are 5 heroes I recommend awakening (in no particular order as no two accounts are the same):

1. Zeon

• Attribute — Flame
• Guard Stone Set Recommendation — 6 Flame
• Nation — Lenombe 
• Fatecore — Gold, First Guardians Theme

Many may disagree with me listing Zeon here as a priority given the current PvP meta. However, what makes Zeon a solid choice for all players is that he is free, he has a First Guardian fatecore, and he is a viable choice for both PVP and PVE content. If you are free to play, maxing his Unleashed Potential tree will make him even stronger, giving him more value as an attack type for awakening. Also, you can pull for his gold fatecore in the String of Creation banner when you have free Xes to spend, making him future proof. If you are a high spender, you likely have his gold First Guardian fatecore and awakening Zeon will greatly increase his Dragon Scale barrier given the defense boost. 

In addition, his fatecore has synergy with Lenombe General Rachel and can benefit from the Lenombe Signature Force upgrades. Building a Lenombe national team around Zeon and Rachel can be a strong option for free to play and low spenders as the damage output from them alone will help greatly in all content.

2. Rachel

• Attribute — Flame
• Guard Stone Set Recommendation — 6 Flame
• Nation — General of Lenombe
• Mark — Dishearten
• Fatecore — Black, Awakening Theme & Blue, Forgotten Memory Theme

Next on our list is the General for the Lenomb nation, Rachel. Due to his rank as one of the six General tier fated heroes, there is no reason not to prioritize awakening Rachel if you have him. He also is one of the few heroes with two fatecores, which provides more incentive to recruit him through a selection ticket or the Nation recruitment.

Like the other Generals, he can apply a mark known as Dishearten to enemies with a lower attack stat than himself. Dishearten decreases dodge by 50 and defense by 20% which is a great benefit to have in PVP and in PVE content, excluding bosses. As Rachel has more balanced stats compared to other attack types, he benefits greatly from awakening as the attack boost will significantly improve your chances of applying Dishearten to an entire enemy team and not only the tanks and/or supports. A full flame guard stone set awakening will add to his tanky stats allowing him to counter more often.

Dishearten also synergizes with other Lenombe damage dealing units such as Zeon, Baraka, and Xiakhan by upgrading their skill set with unique abilities. If you choose to focus a national team around Rachel you would have a fast first turn nuke/mana steal in Baraka, a hard-hitting tank in Xiakhan, and a strong finisher in Zeon. If Rachel is the only general tier in your possession, I would recommend focusing on a Lenombe team and awaken Rachel first.

3. Bathory

• Attribute — Frost
• Guard Stone Set Recommendation — 6 Flame
• Nation — General of Green Land
• Mark — Tranquil 
• Fatecore — Gold, Forgotten Memory Theme

The next damage dealer recommended on this list is the only other General tier attack hero, Bathory. Although she is a magic type, and not physical like Rachel, she has a very high base attack making her a significant offensive threat. She also has a gold fatecore, available in the String of Creation, which is one of the best fatecores to own in the game due to the 20% HP boost to your party.

The mark Bathory provides is Tranquil, which prevents all allies from death for one turn. However, it requires her to have a higher attack than all other party members. Given this requirement, awakening is a must if you were lucky enough to recruit her as this mark can tilt a match in your favor by preventing your team from wiping due to an enemy AOE burst. Using a full flame guard stone set is highly recommended and will prevent her from dying to a first turn snipe. 

Although Signature Force has dropped her value in the current PVP meta, Tranquil still provides benefit in tag matches and in PVE content. She will also likely reclaim her seat as a top backline unit when the Green Land Signature Force is unlocked and she is paired with FC Annie, FC Rera, and the new gold fatecore Jinai.     

4. Brook

• Attribute — Flame
• Guard Stone Set Recommendation — 6 Flame
• Nation — North Von Frosty
• Fatecore — Black, Alternate World Theme

The legendary hero Brook is next on this list mainly due to his high single target burst damage. His rarity as a legendary type is another factor to consider as he will be much easier to recruit than his fated counterparts. He is also part of the North Von Frosty nation and has a strong fatecore that was recently upgraded.

Enhanced with Signature Force, Brook is one of the best single-target damage dealers in the game. Equip his fatecore, and he becomes the strongest. Having a burst active 2 skill places him in league with Rachel as his damage potential increases with more mana. If you are free to play and have yet to recruit his fatecore, then you can unlock his full Unleashed Potential tree and his skill multipliers increase significantly as well. Awaken Brook with a full flame guard stone set to maximize his efficiency as a counter type hero. 

5. Morris

• Attribute — Machine
• Guard Stone Set Recommendation — 6 Flame
• Nation — Lenombe
• Fatecore — Black, Banga Theme

Morris is the last on this list as he is a strong candidate for awakening due to him being a rare type, having the strongest single target nuke, and also having a strong Banga fatecore. Like all the others, awakening him on a full flame set is my recommendation. He has the potential to one-shot an enemy with his active s2, so the attack gain from awakening is a huge benefit to his damage potential.

Free to play players will likely have him in their roster, so you should definitely complete his Unleashed Potential skill upgrades prior to awakening to maximize his potential damage. If you decide to focus on a team around him, consider pulling his black Banga fatcore on the Jinn String of Creation when you have enough free Xes. The ability to apply the heart strike debuff makes him a very deadly attack option in PVP.   

Honorable mentions

Below is a list of honorable mentions that I did not want to leave out as they are also solid options to awaken given they all have strong damage-dealing abilities complimented by fatecores as well. If you don’t have any of the five above, you may want to awaken one of the five below if you are having issues with your progression and need solid damage options.

1. Annie
2. Scarlet
3. Adams
4. Otard
5. Bernadette (a free reward from Summer Festa event)

I hope this guide has helped you decide on a path to take when building your roster. Awakening is a costly enhancement and many factors should be considered when deciding who to prioritize first. Reminder, if you decide later that you made a mistake in awakening some heroes you can always unawaken them at a cost of 500 Xes. However, you should try to avoid using this option as it will not return your fated gear. Good luck on the grind and continue to visit the Inven Global Exos site for weekly updates!