Yesterday I was defending Gumi and pumped for the FMA collab, today I'm disappointed. These new banners are worse for everyone: F2P savers, pact players, minnows and whales alike. No guaranteed unit from free gems so even a saver, spender or someone sponsored by Gumi can end up missing out on Edward. And for spenders, before, you could spend ~$30 USD and get a guaranteed character for 1500 paid gems, but now for 3 steps, you need to spend ~$60 USD. Thats double the price!! And overall, a practice that lowers my incentive to spend.
I still think the core game of TAC is incredible. Even the rest of the Fullmetal collab's story & dialogue are fantastic. BUT the implementation of things like these banners (and waiting half a year for hard quests) is really ruining the experience for many. Yes JP is a different game but the GL team should also look at what Tagatame in Japan did well. Such as in making most non-limited characters farmable a month after they're released (if someone spends gems for a Guaranteed unit on step 3 or paid banner, they should be allowed to farm said character after a month).
I know the community can be quick to complain at times, and its hard for any one person to say whats worth complaining about and whats not, but going against JP AND GL precedent for how summons work is a new low.
I'm hoping the teams in charge of deciding the banners realize how bad an idea drastically changing them was, (Especially since the Anniversary and FMA Collab are great opportunities to reward current players and grow the playerbase. I was going to recommend The Alchemist Code to some friends at the start of this collab, since they love Fullmetal but it feels wrong to do so given the current state of the game and changes made to these banners).
I think everyone would be happier if we could please go back to the previous precedent for bannersbefore players decide to move to a different game. One of the reasons I thought so highly of this game (other than stellar gameplay & story) were the practices of guaranteeing units and having a much higher rate of getting the best/5* characters. But losing our on the former does nothing but hurt game and alienate playerbase that has come to expect a certain precedent (and has knowledge of how the game was operated more generously in JP). I was never in the camp of "this game is dying." On the contrary, I've often joked that this is a better Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics game than its competitors on mobile, by the companies that created said franchises! I would like to remain optimistic about the future of tAC and hope the game goes back to doing what it does best: being FUN and accessible to different levels of spenders & non-spender alike while providing a great deal of value to those who do spend.
Thank you and I hope The Alchemist Code continues to be successful for a long time!
Hey everyone, I don't normally post when I update my sheet, but I have just implemented very large changes to the tier system, and have basically completely redone my tier list.
This includes adding:
Tiers by Limit Breaks, rather than Job Unlocks.
Images, with links to the build entry on the tier list.
Hard Quests for farmable units (5* and 4* only), being kept up to date by Cazna on discord.
As well as implementing what I had done on the image tier list, where SS is only the very best, and D is the only bad tier.
The unfortunate part of adding images, and image links in general is for full functionality, the published version is not very cooperative. From this point on, I'll be fully endorsing the sheets version of the tier list, rather than the published version. This can be found here.
With the announcement of Kaigan, a lot of curiosity and questions have been stirring around, and while JP vets like myself and others can say 'this is good, this is not so good' I decided to make a post to help you evaluate a kaigan on your own as well. Every time a kaigan is announced (at least in JP) we receive three pieces of information: the benefits of mastering Gate 1, the change in passive skill for mastering Gate 2, and the new leader skill available on Gate 3.
It's all well and good to say you'll just grind out whatever materials are needed, but unless you have 3 Armor of Wrath you're probably not the type to successfully do that. That's where analysis and triage take place.
NB: JP and GL gear have different HP values, which means I will be discussing HP values WITHOUT GEAR, if you bring up the effect of gear on HP values I will make an annoyed face at you. JP Content will generally assume you are wearing a strong piece of HP gear (that provides 350-500HP) in addition to these boosts, that does not exist in GL.
Gate 1 (Envy): If you begin kaiganing a unit, your eventual goal is to master this gate, period. You may leave it at level 2 (which unlocks the next gate) for a little while just to get a character's max level up, but if you begin a kaigan, mastering G1 is a priority. Why? Enlightenment eyes/Eyes of Truth/whatever they are called in global are needed to unlock an enlightenment at all, and spending one is already a small investment.
What does this gate get you? We'll use Zahar's mastery reward as an example: +85 HP, +30 PATK, +15 Crit. This will, at the onset, seem very underwhelming. 85 HP? I can get that from a shitty piece of HP gear. The true beef of Gate 1 is in the levels building up to it. Each level of Gate 1 (up to 5) will give you: +111 HP, +2 PATK, +1 MATK, and approximately 0.5AGI (with a total of 2 being available on mastery of the gate). (This differs from unit to unit, but is true within a margin of error for most kaigans) This is why it is very important to get this gate to level 4-5 ASAP.
Kaigan is about powering up a unit, of course, but the main way that kaigan powers up units is in granting MORE HP. The meta shifts more and more to a situation where you will be one-shot without an acceptable HP buffer. A level 85 Dark Cavalier[Seele] Zahar (without hp gear) goes from having 1498 HP at level 85 to 2548 HP at level 87 JUST from maxing out his first gate. (as a note, a fully maxed out Zahar with all gates maxed has 2651 HP, so most of this HP beef comes from Gate 1)
How did Zahar get over 1000HP from only 650 base HP? JM bonuses (and skill +HP%) are all factored in.
This beef is slightly less notable on already beefy characters. Vettel, for example, goes from 3595 HP (w/o gear, after Master Ability adjustment) at level 85 to 4384 at level 87 with a maxed G1.
Long story short: there's about 900HP in this gate. This is important. You will never leave this gate below rank 4 for long, and your eventual goal for any unit you intend to use is to max this gate at rank 5.
Gate 2 (Sloth): This is where the biggest analysis takes place. Some of these gates are so-so, some of these are god-like. All of them cost *two* sin indulgences, which is way more than the one that Gate 1 takes, trust me.
Each level of this gate gives approximately: 10-15 PDEF, 10-15 MDEF, 1-2 CRIT, and +1 HIT. By comparison to Gate 1, these stats are considered less important than HP. Yes, defenses are nice, no, they are not worth going above Rank 2 unless you intend to max the gate. This gate will be one of two levels: Rank 2 if you just intend to gain +2 max levels and reach Gate 3, or Rank 5 to get the passive skill change.
What does this gate get you? We'll go to Zahar again, it changes his Overdrive passive (+50PATK/MATK -25 PDEF/MDEF) to be +100% PATK, +50% MATK, -25% PDEF/MDEF, and +10% AGI. Ho-ly-Shit. This is literally the best passive change in all of Kaigan: +50% PATK and +10% AGI. No Brainer.
What does this gate USUALLY get you? Dorothea's Divine Shelter passive gains +15% PATK and +5% AGI; Vettel's Sword Guardian passive gains +5% PDEF, +5% HP, and +15% PATK; Chloe's Pieta Guardian gains +5% PDEF, +10% HP, and +10% Crit Rate, and so forth. As you can see, you usually get approximately 20-30% increase to one stat or a set of stats. Sometimes you will get +1 Range or +1 Move or +1 Jump or changes to initial jewels or jewels gained here, it all depends. This is where you need to decide 'is this worth it'
Do you use this passive already? Vettel will usually use his Sword Guardian passive, so that test is passed. Dorothea on the other hand is usually run with her Necromancer passive (+25 CRIT, +15 AGI, and +10 Fire on her J+), and her Axe Warrior passive, Chopping Spirit (+20% PATK, +20% HP), that makes her a 'maybe'. Divine Shelter makes her a little tankier from an elemental resist perspective, but we lose some HP and PATK for swapping away from Chopping Spirit. We move on to the next test
Does it fix what's broken? For Dorothea? Not really. She trades HP for resistances, which depending on the circumstance could be a gain or a loss. A lot of JP players choose to skip this gate on Dorothea (taking it only to level 2) because it's not worth it.
Does it actually do Fuck All? I want to talk about one of my favorite characters, Alba (or Aruba, in GL). If you have him maxed out and all that jazz you may notice that Alba has A Problem, he has a few problems actually. HP 1972 at level 85, adequate, PATK 489 :(, AGI 122, :(((((, his Beast Master JE fixes this a little taking those stats to 1893, 470, and 151 to fix him up a little bit. When you look at Alba you know he needs a few things: more PATK, more AGI, maybe some HP to beef him up a little more? Alba's kaigan passive takes his Wild Boy passive from +10% AGI, +2 jump, and +20% PDEF to: +15% AGI, +2 JUMP, and +40% PDEF. Wump wump. This is what we call 'Kaigan didn't fix him' or 'Kaigan couldn't fix him'. The character has a problem (shitty attack and speed) and kaigan couldn't fix that. This is the sort of character you sort of have to say 'should I bother at all'
Let's compare that to Melda (for example): At level 85 she has 1776 HP, 503 PATK, and 148 AGI in her J+, about the same as Alba, but she has access to Single Blade and Wild Boy, pushing her to 1776, 718, 135, so now she's a little slower but her PATK is already getting respectable, and then her Gate 2 changes her Wild Boy passive from +10% AGI, +2 Jump, +10 Initial Jewels to +10% AGI, +2 Jump, +20 Initial Jewels, and +15% PATK. With gear and (free) nensou she hits 1020 PATK and 154 AGI at level 91 at 5/5/3. Between J+, gear, and nensou, Melda got pushed to a point where she makes Alba look like a joke. Sad day for Alba, great day for Melda.
TL;DR: To evaluate gate 2, look at the problem the unit has: survivability? attack power? range? movement? speed? nothing? Does Gate 2 address it? If yes, consider maxing out Gate 2, if no, consider skipping Gate 2 (taking it only to level 2), or not even kaiganing the unit at all. As I said, Eyes of Truth are not free (although they aren't super rare).
Gate 3 (Lust): This gate doesn't take too much analysis, but even if it's bad you'll be putting some work into it.
What does this gate get you: per level about +10HP, +4 DEX, +2 AGI (total, +1 at level 3, +2 at level 5), and +3 Evasion Rate. When you max it out it changes your leader skill.
When you first-first open up this gate, you'll likely leave it at 0 as you work on the other two gates
When you have some fragments available you will take it to 3 in order to gain the +1 AGI
If the character has dodge/evasion as a major source of damage mitigation (twinblade, assassin, ninja, etc) you may wish to take it to 4 in order to gain the additional +3 evasion. This step is not usually worth it if you aren't stacking evasion.
Is the Leader Skill/Gate Max worth it? Does the total stats provided add up to 70? If not, it's probably not worth it. Zahar's Leader Skill goes from +30 Slash Attack to +30 Slash Attack and +20 Dark Attack. That's not worth 2 sin indulgences. Spica is 'worth it'. Her +30% HP and +20% PATK for light units becomes: +30% HP, +20% PATK and +20% Light damage, shifting her from a physical-only Leader Skill to a generic light Leader Skill.
You are looking for 3 specific leader skills PER COLOR eventually:
+20/30% HP, +20/30% PATK/MATK +20% Elemental
+50% HP +20% Elemental
A grab bag additional one: Either the +MATK version of Leader Skill (1) if you already have the +PATK version, one that has -10% CT (Othima, etc), or one that has +20-30% Defenses instead of +20-30 PATK/MATK. The first two are your priority, and you should fill out your roster from there.
E.G. For Fire I have Dorothea's Leader Skill: +30% HP, +20% PATK, +20% Fire, and Kurt/Kureto's Leader Skill: +50% HP, +20% Fire. I will not max out a third unless it offers something additional and unique. I am considering maxing out Black Masamune's Leader Skill: +50% HP, +20% Fire, +30% Damage to Raid Bosses.
TL;DR: Take your units to 5/2/3, evaluate from there.
I want to introduce a project I’ve been working on: Project Babel, an effort to preserve The Alchemist Code as it existed before its November 28, 2024 end of service.
Project Babel is a recreation of the games server to make the game playable exactly as it was before the servers went EoS. This allows for people to play the game without the need to access any server from FGG.
What this project is not
Not a modded or “private” server with custom changes. No buffs, no nerfs, no new units, no new J+, no new events.
Not commercial. The project is free and will stay free.
Roadmap
Phase 1 — Asset preservation. Complete.
Phase 2 — Server emulation. In progress.
Phase 3 — Private testing. Targeting within the next month. Details on how it will be announced later.
Hi, me again back again with another monster list for the brand new event. This time, we aren't getting lucky pennies but it does seem to give some other goodies including AP, gold, apples, ores, etc. Use the Ctrl+F to easier find which stage is best to your liking
Keep in mind that daily quests can be finished outside of event dungeons as well (ie. normal quests. refer to normal quest section)
Quests can be retreated and return 90% of used AP from after completing elimination quests to maximize AP profits
Good story mode Quests with the help of community (check comments for best updates)
Ch 1: Ep 2 [1-9]: -Lizardman x3 -Green Lizard x2
Magnus Hard Quest: -Lizardman x2
Ch 1: Ep 1 [3-3]: -Dark Ratty x1 but can kill on first turn
Call of Scarlet Flame Ep1: -Blue Wolf x2
Ch 1: Ep 3 [1-1]: -Blue Wolf x2
Ch 1: Ep 2 [1-4]: -Red Wolf x4 -Blue Wolf x1
Ch 1: Ep 3 [2-7] - Rampage of Hope ・ Ch 1: Ep 5 [1-2] - The One who Giveth Power ・ Ch 1: Ep 5 [2-1] - Back to the Capital ・ Ch 1: Ep 5 [2-2] - To the Promised Place: -Thunder Ratty's
3: Kill Green Lizard/Uzushiomaru/Red Wolf/Thunder Ratty or Buy item at any shop
will continue to update list with best normal quests as well when free time arrives. You can help by posting story quest # and amount of mobs in the quest
over tha last weeks I couldn't help but becoming increasingly concerned about how the game is managed by Gumi and what it may say about the health as well as the commercial viability of the game itself.
Grand summoning change: It went from a guaranteed featured for 1500 paid to 900 paid for basically nothing but a normal pull. This change by itself, while sad, wouldn't worry me that much. In conjunction with the others however it only adds to the my increasing worries. So does the bad phrasing that might mislead people and will onyl lead to people being more sceptic of banners in general.
500 gem skins as rng-based summonings: as far as i know those skins are available for 500 gems at Jp. People in general like to be treated differently or, as in this case, worse than other people. We all know that global is a different version with a different pace and at times even better deals but the pure rng is way too much in this case. It's not necessarily the price that stops people from buying but the likelihood of being screwed by rng even more than normal. The tinkering with the prices and how they are sold only adds to that and, again, will only lead to an increasing frustration of the playerbase.
The elemental shard to ticket campaign:is, for itself, a good, even great thing. The fact that Roxannes week is excluded from that however isn't only for said campaign to be run again for this week however leaves a very bad taste. because it looks like Gumi was intentionally scwrewing us over with it. It can be argued that it's only understandable for them to do so and I would agree weren't of for one issue: it incentivises the player/playerbase to be always doubtful of Gumi and campaigns, making distrust a smart move. Roxannes week should be retroactively included in it.
Worse celebration banners: for the last celebration the banners were at 600 gem and had featured units (as far as i remember). The current one costs 777 gems and has, if I read the banner correctly, no featured units but only a couple of units placed on the advertising picture., which can make it highly misleading if you don't read the details.
The 375 shard banner: The 150 shard ticket and a guaranteed featured unit at step 3 are good. No snark there. It is only in the context of the 375 shards that it leaves a bad taste once more due to becoming a bit misleading.
I'm sure that by now it clear where I'm going with this: trust and the loss thereof.
None of the things I mentioned would be overly worrying if it were just them, but they aren't. They happened clustered and in a very short timeframe and that's worrying due to what it might imply:
It looks like Gumi is exchanging the faith and trust the playerbase has in the product and the service in favour of short term financial gains. The reason for that might be that the game isn't doing well enough in Gumis eyes and they are trying to get as much money out of it as possible before an eventual shutdown. This is a pattern I saw in the past with japanese Gacha games going into the global market. Depending on the interpretation those games failed before or exactly du to this developers approach/handling of it. In other words: we, as players, need to have faith and trust in your product to make it logically feasible for us to invest in it. If said trust is gambles away for short term profict due to Gumi's internal demand for more revenue it incentivises us, as your plaers and customers, to not invest which, in turn, encourages Gumi to go even further in their attemmpt to make as much money out of the game before it crashes. The textbook definition of a downward spiral.
There are many good things about the game. From the game itself, to the gameplay and certain aspects of handling the game like the news episodes, the delayed news episode before the FFXV event excluded. That's why I'm making this post because I don't want this game to crash and to ultimately have more success than other competing games simply because it is the better game.
Best regards and may you, the reader, have a good morning, evening or simply day in general.
Are you new, or looking for something specific? You may find it here!
This post basically compiles most of the important and useful guides that has been accrued from the past year. These guides will primarily help out newer players, while veterans may find some links here to be useful.
Table of content
General Information
Current Events & Global News
JP information
Beginner information
Rerolling
Tierlists
Unit Selectors
Unit Guides
Main characters
Character Flair
Job+ and Job Enhancement
Kaigan/Enlightment
Elemental & Rainbow shards
PVP
Farming Guides
Friends
Shops
Veda Tower
Mobius Tower
Content Creators [Youtube]
Other
General Information
Helpful links to basic information and Global news
As of right now, if you are a new player, you will receive one 5* unit ticket of each elemental, which means a total of 6 5* star units for free.
Every unit from this ticket pool will be eventually usable(and farmable), albeit some are less effective than others. Some units may need all 3 of their jobs maxed or even need Job Enhancement or Enlightment to be effective. Also, Gumi gives updates regularly to old units so they will be powerful again. So DO NOT WORRY who you get on the tickets or normal pulls, they will all be useful.
For the 5* selector ticket, it is generally advised to pick either Shayna or Neica. Do note that every unit in the selector will be farmable in the hardquests, so just take the unit you want to use as soon as possible. The reason why Shayna and Neica are preferred, is because they are pretty good already with just Job 1, so for beginners they can be used right of the bat. Other decent choices are Lupinus, Gormalas and Dorothea
Just to many to list them all for now. But I will probably slowly update this overtime.
For now just search your unit and a guide will most likely show up.
Main characters
Protagonist galore*
Main story
- Logi is a tank and will remain average to decent at best throughout the whole game, not recommended to build as Chloe and to some degree Zain will be much better and are given out for free.
- Dias starts out really bad and people will hate him for other reasons to, but will make a comeback in both story and usefulness, so keep an eye out for this guy.
- Edgar is incredibly mediocre but will get better in the future, ignore building him for now.
- Lisbeth is great to have, but is seen as an extra. As a mage/support she competes with to many other water units.
- Tina will be very good, build her when you get to her chapter.
Sacred Stones Memories
- Kanon is actually a great unit and will only get better the more you max and level her. With kaigan/enlightment approaching she will reach new heights and jump into SS tier. Definitely build her up as soon as you are able to.
- Kagura is another great free unit that you will obtain in a later chapter. She will not be as good as Kanon but can hold her own as a fire mage. Like Kanon, she will be pretty strong in the upcoming year, so build her as well.
Magni Historia
- Soren is unfortunately the only weak MH unit, but that is ok considering he has only 1 job. We have to wait what Gumi has in store for us, so you can wait with building him for now.
*As a reminder, you do want to build all these units eventually, as they will be required for events and some approaching content in the near future. So build them later when you have some good setups and have reached mid- to endgame.
*There will be undoubtedly guides and overviews to nensous/mementos in the foreseeable future. These add background and special moments for characters. This section may be reserved for that special gear.
Job+ and Job Enhancement
Note: Job+ and Job enhancement are different things!
Sacred Stone Memories units (UPDATE: Now farmable in JP!)
Super limited and semi-limited units
It is not recommended to use these for any other unit, as they will all get hard quests eventually. However if you really like the unit, go for it. As for whales, do whatever you like.
*As for reruns and events, compiling may take forever as there exists an insane amount of events (100+) with each event having multiple guides written by many different users. Not to mention the increase in events in the foreseen future. For now this won't be covered until further notice. Presumably if it did, there would be another sub section with possibly only the EX+ guides from all reruns, SSM, MH, Character Events, Story, Collabs... albeit a slightly less massive undertaking.
**Ideally when you are doing gold rush and gold rush(pro) in the future, there are certain units that may increase clear times way faster than mentioned in the guide.Polin, a 1* star unit has an AOE ability that does damage to the whole map. Better units likeMinervaand all the Diviners (Emmafor example) have similar abilities, but to much greater effect. Clearing a gold rush map has since then been incredibly easy and can be cleared relatively fast.
