Fairy Reviews

By BigStupidJellyfish | 2022-May-17 | Updated 2023-November-04

Most pages offering commentary on all fairies have gotten pretty outdated - referring to "future" past rankings, missing new additions/rebalances, and so on. Following are my thoughts on the whole lineup currently available to EN.

DPS boost values come from this spreadsheet of mine, and range from low-crit/plenty of acc settings to high-crit/low acc. 0-EVA conditions are not included, but don't come up much anyways.

For a general overview of the fairy system, see this primer or this overview. Comments here are focused on the long-term uses of each fairy. Short-term priorities may vary. 500x4 is the recipe 500/500/500/500 in heavy equipment production. .5/2/2/1 and 2/.5/2/1 refer to 500/2000/2000/1000 and 2000/500/2000/1000.

Talents aren't a concern at low rarities, but if you have the slots available I'd normally try to wait for one of the recommended talents before raising a fairy - it can save you a lot of calibration tickets later on.

Having high-rarity fairies is typically more important than duping fairies. Aside from paras, there's no reason to invest in a second copy of a fairy while your first is <5 stars.

Table of Contents

Standard fairies

Airstrike^#↑

Skill: Fatal Airstrike

In the next battle, call in an airstrike when the battle starts, dealing 500 damage to all enemies.

This airstrike takes ~3.4 seconds to impact, has no damage variance, ignores armor, and is multiplied by enemy links.

Once a powerful option to eliminate ≤500 HP/link Jaeger backlines, Airstrike has largely been powercrept by HOCs. Its stat bonuses are subpar, and it struggles to knock off even a single link against many tougher modern enemies. Airstrike mainly sees use now as a way to dump fairy commands on 8-1N, which requires no investment beyond SL2.

Recommended talent: Damage II>Fervor>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Armor^#↑

Skill: Riot Control

In the next battle, increase the armor of all SGs in the Echelon by 50% for 20 seconds.

It's hard to miss what the Armor fairy is all about. With the highest armor aura in the game and a skill boosting it even further, this is the go-to pick for extreme armor stacking. Armor II talent is recommended to make hitting thresholds easier. Her DPS aura is not great, working out to a 39% DPS boost in typical MGSG echelons. But if your tanks are immortal due to that armor buff & flash shells, does that really matter?

Recommended talent: Armor II>Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1 copy.

Artillery^#↑

Skill: Riot Control

In the next battle, launch a mortar shell that deals 1200 damage to enemies within a radius of 2.5.

This mortar shell takes ~7.5 seconds to arrive, and has some major targeting problems. To avoid disappointment, assume it'll deal no damage.

Despite this setback, Artillery has an impressive aura with the highest straight FP buff in the game. While there are a number of crit-oriented fairies that give better overall DPS numbers in most echelons, it's a solid pick for skillshot/grenade/farming-type echelons.

Recommended talent: Damage II=Fervor>Damage I. Raise 1 copy, don't level its skill.

Barrier^#↑

Skill: Armor Fortification

In the next battle, put up a barrier for all armored allies. Each barrier can absorb damage up to 150% of the unit's armor.

Barrier is easily the worst fairy of the 500x4 pool. Its armor aura is worse than Armor's, its offensive stats are basically nonexistent, and Shield Fairy/M500 mod/Flash shells provide better mitigation than its active skill.

Recommended talent: Armor II=Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0 copies.

Combo^#↑

Skill: Secret of Continuation

In the current round, this echelon gains one stack of Combo before each battle, up to a maximum of three stacks. Each stack lasts for one round. Combo effect: When battle begins, raise all allies' damage by 15% and their accuracy by 30% for 20s.

Combo goes all-in on offense, in a spectacular fashion. If you can set up two easier battles first, no other fairy can compete for sheer damage. Being an expensive-recipe fairy, however, the cost of getting one fully raised is tremendous. Its applications in ranking maps tend to be limited, and you'll likely have to come up with a strategy yourself due to the low number of players with one on hand.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Command^#↑

Skill: Super EXP

Increase the EXP gained by the Echelon in the next battle by 25% (ineffective in EXP Simulation).

Given to all players on their first fairy craft with Damage I, Command is one of the best and most accessible combat fairies. Its combination of crit & straight damage produces excellent numbers in almost all echelons.

Its skill is entirely optional, though - fairies cost a lot of data, and it provides no combat advantage. Airstrike can be used to convert fairy commands into XP at a much lower (SL2) cost.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. However, it's not worth calibrating your Damage I copy until it's 5 stars, if ever. Raise 1 copy.

Construction^#↑

Skill: Emergency Fortress

Build an immovable fortress at this node. Any allies standing on this node within three turns will gain 30% damage, accuracy, evasion, armor, and crit rate if enemies run into them.

While part of an expensive pool, increasing rarity is optional for this fairy. It works as a support, where you can place a fortress next to some dangerous enemy and swap in your combat team.

AP requirements, and the limitations it puts on the team using it, make Construction relatively niche. But you may want to have one on hand just in case you need to kill a particularly troublesome deathstack and are short a little damage.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies (only skill needed).

Defense^#↑

Skill: Temporary Protection

At the start of the battle, T-Dolls on the front row gain a buff that reduces 60% of their damage intake. The damage intake reduction will gradually diminish to 0 over the course of 30 seconds. While the buff is in effect, units are immune to one instance of damage that would cause them to lose a Dummy.

80% EVA isn't terrible, but there's very little else Defense offers aura-wise. Its skill/aura is broadly similar to Shield's, with a few minor upsides (higher DR initially, stops link loss once) but some bigger downsides (no HP shield, no damage buff, expensive recipe). Just use Shield.

For more details on the rework and testing, see my analysis here.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Fury^#↑

Skill: Power Overwhelming

In the next battle, increase the Echelon's accuracy by 50% and critical rate by 25% for 20 seconds.

Fury ultimately falls into a similar range as a number of other 500x4 fairies: decent DPS aura, okay skill, but nothing exceptional.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. May consider Critical II for Bleeding Jane fun, in exchange for making it useless elsewhere. Raise 0-1 copies.

Illumination^#↑

Skill: Night Illumination

During night missions, this echelon can see 1 node farther for two turns, during which accuracy and night vision of the whole echelon increase by 30% and 10% respectively for 20 seconds in all battles.

Illumination is mostly used for its vision range increase. In particular, it enables rapid deployment of parachute echelons to distant helipads in night rankings. The Night Vision chip for coalition echelons cuts into Illu's niche slightly, though they're not usable everywhere.

Keep in mind that the accuracy increases are multiplicative, and do not cancel the night penalty. From aura alone, at 5 stars: your accuracy would be 0.1*1.9=19% of your pre-night accuracy. With its active skill and 0 taclights, (1-0.9*(1-0.1))*1.9*1.3=46.9% of your accuracy is kept - about on the level of a white PEQ. With 3 taclights, that jumps up to (1-0.9*(1-0.25))*1.9*1.3=80.3% of your daytime accuracy, functioning like a green PEQ. Before Illumination's skill was reworked, its active only buffed accuracy by 30% (no night vision). It thus preserved no more than 25% of your accuracy and was substantially weaker.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1-2 copies, depending on how seriously you intend to take night ranking reruns (Singularity+ onwards).

Landmine^#↑

Skill: Mines Frontline

Bury a mine in an adjacent empty node that lasts for two turns. Enemies who step on the mine will receive damage equal to 50% of their current HP. Ineffective against bosses.

The very hardest enemies tend to be encountered in ranking. Dealing out-of-combat damage like this reduces their CE, which in turn reduces the points you get. Landmine has no real usecase.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies (only skill needed).

Parachute^#↑

Skill: Heliport Liberation

The Echelon can parachute to any Heliport on the map, but the Echelon will have its damage, accuracy, evasion, armor, and crit rate reduced by 40% for two turns.

It's really hard to overstate the power of the parachute fairy. In normal combat, it has an even stronger aura than Command and will double many echelon's DPS after factoring in the talent. While the stat penalty is harsh, being able to teleport anywhere on the map allows for all sorts of cheese.

In ranking, the action points saved and mobility provided by parachute offer incredible scoring potential. The very best ranking strategies can make use of 6-12 parachutes, and often need multiples at high rarity to handle challenging debuffed fights. Of course, for more casual gameplay, the requirement is much lower - I'd recommend keeping 1-4 in that case.

Raising duplicate Parachute fairies is perhaps the biggest endgame resource/time-sink out there. While expensive, there's no proper substitute. See also: para raising strategies, optimized HEC logistics.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Aim/Critical II/Armor II are potentially viable options on duplicates for ranking/min-maxing. Raise 2-12 copies.

Prototype^#↑

Skill: Panic Termination

My honor and dreams, I entrust them all to you.

Prototype fairies are intended to help you enhance other fairies, always offering 100 development XP (or 150 if talents match). If your fairies are all low-rarity and you have no event fairy you can rush to 5 stars, they're also decent for their 5-star talent multiplier. But their miniscule aura ultimately makes them something to quickly set aside and feed to your parachutes. Important: do not feed these to any common pool (500x4) fairies! Those should only be raised with dupes of themselves.

See also: para raising strategies, optimized HEC logistics.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0 copies, but make sure not to miss them whenever they're handed out.

Reinforcement^#↑

Skill: T-Doll Reinforcement

Reinforce the T-Doll with the lowest HP % in the Echelon with one dummy and increase the Echelon's evasion by 10% for 20 seconds in all battles for one turn.

Reinforcement comes with a sub-par aura but a unique skill, being able to heal damage. There's a problem, though - Shield protects an effective 1 link's worth of damage, on all your dolls, every battle, with a stronger offensive aura. It's funny as a way to be cheap with SG repairs on 12-4E, but there's no real application for this fairy outside that. Even if you do decide to raise one for some reason, pass on the skill - it barely improves from SL1 to 10, as it heals a link no matter what and only goes from a 3% to 10% EVA buff.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0 copies.

Rescue^#↑

Skill: Efficient Rescue

Increase the chance of obtaining a rare T-Doll in the next battle by a huge amount.

Most players will tell you that it's "powered by faith," but Rescue does have a measurable impact on core farming. The gain in farming limited dolls is a bit harder to detect, but it's not like there's much else to do with fairy commands. Rescue's aura is nothing interesting, but it is passable for farming. Note that this skill does not work on SPEQs.

Still, training data is limited and you can also get more cores by grinding more. I don't recommend leveling Rescue's skill unless you are overflowing on data.

Recommended talent: Damage II>Fervor>Damage I. Raise 1 copy.

Rocket^#↑

Skill: Battlefield Reaper

Deploy a rocket launcher on a designated node. The launcher lasts 3 rounds and can provide battle support 3 times. Friendly echelons within a range of 2 nodes will receive RPG support: Every 5 seconds, deal guaranteed AoE damage to enemies within a 2-unit radius that equals 15% of their current HP. This damage ignores armor and does not scale with Dummy-Links. It is capped at 30000 and is not fatal.

While Rocket's aura is odd, it can take a similar role to Construction/Landmine and doesn't need to engage in direct combat. Its reworked skill no longer reduces enemy CE/points, making it potentially viable in ranking events for assisting against particularly tricky enemies (AP/routing permitting).

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1 copy (only skill needed).

Shield^#↑

Skill: Energy Shield

At the start of the battle, grant all friendly T-Dolls a shield with a value that equals 100% of the unit's single-Dummy HP, lasting 20 seconds. When protected by the shield, units deal 20% more damage and take 30% less damage.

Originally a disappointing ARSMG-oriented fairy, Shield's skill rework has made it one of the best 500x4 fairies around. With its active skill, you get competitive DPS and one of the strongest echelon-wide shields available.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1-2 copies. Avoid Assault.

Sniper^#↑

Skill: Sniper Command

Every 3 seconds, fire a sniper shot at the enemy unit with the highest HP, dealing damage that equals 15% of their maximum HP and inflicting 20% vulnerability on them, lasting for 5 seconds. Damage dealt to units below 50% health is doubled. Baseline sniper shot damage is capped at 20000.

Previously known as one of the worst fairies in the game, Sniper's skill was also reworked and now works reasonably well. It does very little in normal fights, but against boss-type enemies it can put out respectable amounts of damage all on its own. If your dolls are prevented from dealing damage properly due to fight mechanics or a poor armory, it can be extraordinary. More detailed analysis here.

Its aura is commonly criticized, but works out to be fairly average as long as your echelon can crit and can use at least some accuracy.

Recommended talent: Fervor>>>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1-2 copies.

Taunt^#↑

Skill: Taunt Target

In the next battle, deploy a target dummy to attract enemy fire. The dummy will have 1600 HP.

Taunt has a decent aura spread, but its real strength comes from the dummy it creates. Certain enemies can shred even 1600 HP in seconds, but in many other cases it can stall out enemies for quite a while. Paradeus enemies are particularly susceptible to this, as many of their attacks depend on their targets having multiple links to multiply their damage.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1 copy. A second could have some sort of ranking application, but para spam seems to be the preferred strategy for a while.

Twin^#↑

Skill: Double Protection

In the next battle, summon 2 symbiotic Fairy clones with 750 HP. A Shield Fairy clone has 20 armor and deals 150 DMG every two seconds to enemies within a radius of 2 units of the nearest enemy. A Missile Fairy clone has 30 EVA and deals 450 DMG every two seconds to the furthest enemy.

Twin is effectively a sidegrade to Taunt - its aura is substantially weaker, but its two dummies counter a somewhat different set of enemies and can buy your dolls lots of DPS time. For example: it's great for stalling an entire set of Minotaurus, as long as you have shielding for their missiles. Taunt would only be able to block the center one. Note that either clone dying causes the other to die as well, so enemy positioning/targeting on the twins can make a big difference. The clone's damage is (a) fixed and (b) small, so I wouldn't put any extra value on that.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1 copy.

Warrior^#↑

Skill: Combat Efficiency

In the next battle, increase the Echelon's damage by 20% and rate of fire by 10% for 20 seconds.

Warrior is pretty much the definitive DPS combat fairy. It has a weak aura, but produces excellent numbers when combined with its active skill - especially if you can use some more accuracy. More useful at low rarities when its skill can carry. Command/Para do about as well for DPS later, and Taunt/Beach/Shield have more utility.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1 copy. Skill leveling is required to be useful.

Ranking/collab fairies

The remaining fairies are exclusive to ranking and collaboration events. As ranking reruns are on an exceptionally slow schedule and collab reruns are best to assume nonexistent, you're unlikely to be able to acquire these fairies if you missed them the first time. While some of these aren't worth raising, I would not recommend feeding your copies as fodder to something else due to that exclusivity.

Anna Graem^#↑

Skill: Nano Ghost

In the next battle, T-Dolls in the front column gain 30% evasion but lose 20% damage while other T-Dolls gain 20% damage but lose 30% evasion for 20 seconds.

Often said to be a Warrior sidegrade (trading ROF for EVA), Anna Graem is an acceptable combat fairy. She's mostly notable for being trivial to raise to 3* with the buyable dupes, and it's relatively easy to finish the job after that to get a 5* fairy with guaranteed talent procs. Otherwise, don't expect anything crazy. See here for additional commentary.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Auspicious^#↑

Skill: Reciprocation

Place a peach within 2 nodes. This peach lasts for 2 turns and can be eaten by both sides. If an enemy touches it, their firepower is reduced by 30%, lasting for 5 seconds. If a friendly unit touches it, their move speed in the next battle is increased by 6, lasting for 10 seconds.

While a 30% FP debuff sounds okay, its 5-second duration seriously limits its applications. At best this is an unconventional support option to help your team run up to Dreamer a little faster.

Still, Auspicious has a decent spread of stats, and could be considered a slightly worse Golden fairy. Acceptable to raise as your first 5-star fairy for newer players when PL ran, but its long-term use is questionable.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Beach^#↑

Skill: Slothful Tide

At the start of battle, summon the tides of summer to push back the enemy, while also reducing all enemies' move speeds by 25% and their ROF by 25%, with a duration of 5 seconds.

While commonly referred to as a 0s-ICD debuff, this effect starts at ~2.5s and lasts until ~7.5s. Either way, Beach fairy is one of the best combat fairies. Its command/para-like aura is incredible for DPS, and buying an extra second or two for skills to kick in can be invaluable.

Beach was almost mandatory for the infamous Polarized Light deathstacks, and overall sees significant use in competitive content. If the game makes it to the year 2037 and we get SC+, make sure to pick these up.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Aim is an option for a dupe. Raise 1-2 copies.

Cheer^#↑

Skill: Ardent Cheers

If the next battle takes place on a friendly-controlled node, place a 40% vulnerability debuff on all enemy units at the start of the battle for 15 seconds. When the debuff expires, all enemy units gain a shield with HP that equals 40% of a Dummy-Link's health, lasting for 5 seconds. If the next battle takes place on a non-friendly-controlled node, grant all friendly units a shield with HP that equals 50% of a Dummy-Link's health, lasting for 12 seconds. When the shields expire, increase all friendly units' damage according to the ratio of the shield's remaining HP to the Dummy-Link's health (capped at 50%), lasting for 8 seconds.

Most fights in GFL are offensive - so expect to see the second mode a lot. I'd only expect the amp to come up if you have a team dedicated to heliport camping or something.

The duration of its first mode is a little shorter than the standard 20 seconds from combat fairies, but a 40% damage amp is hard to ignore. It is impacted by armor, but you shouldn't send ARSMGs for that anyways. And, more importantly, this benefits your HOCs. 2B14 just got much scarier. If the fight lasts beyond 15 seconds, surviving enemies get a 5-second shield. Cheer may not do as well in boss battles or other prolonged fights. How much the extra DPS from the damage amp counterbalances this will vary by encounter.

As seems to be the case with many fairies, the reworked Shield Fairy makes the second component of Cheer's skill far less interesting. The shield is weaker, and while the FP buff can be stronger, it takes 12 seconds to kick in and only lasts for 8 afterwards. Just use Shield.

So: Cheer is a potentially strong combat fairy, but only when you're sitting still and it ultimately lacks the strategic capabilities to be a ranking staple.

Recommended talent: Fervor=Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies. With-skill numbers assume its first mode. In combat simulations/Theater, you get the self-shielding effect.

Cooking^#↑

Skill: Chow Time!

Randomly apply one effect to your Echelon for 30 seconds in the next battle: increase damage by 20%/increase rate of fire by 20%/increase accuracy by 30%/increase evasion by 25%.

A poor aura and an underwhelming random effect make Cooking Fairy completely outclassed by standard options. If you desperately need ROF - Warrior does that, every time.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0 copies.

Drive-In Chicken^#↑

Skill: Fiery Dance

After every 6 seconds, execute a dance move that generates 20 heat points, and also adds +20 points to all friendly units' shields for 20 seconds. When heat points reach 100, increases all friendly units' damage, rate of fire, evasion, and armor by 25% for 5 seconds, then reset heat points. If there are no fewer than 7 friendly units on the battlefield, dance moves generate 30 additional heat points.

Best case: you get a significant DPS buff 12 seconds in, for only 5 seconds. That's not very good. Normal case: you get a significant DPS buff 30 seconds in, with an even longer wait afterwards. This is awful. The aura is barely passable, and the skill's startup time kills about any chance at usability.

Shield/Taunt/Twin offer much better mitigation. Almost any fairy offers better DPS without skills. Even setting aside the incredibly long startup, Combo/Construction/Cheer/Witch/Sniper are still reasonably competitive with Chicken's 25% FP+ROF buff in various scenarios.

Recommended talent: Fervor>>>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0 copies.

Fireworks^#↑

Skill: Summer-End Fireworks

Color this small piece of the sky and the future red! Increase the echelon's accuracy by 80% for 10 seconds in the next battle.

Fireworks has an aura similar to Rescue, but adds a combat-relevant skill offering even more accuracy. Night battles are few and far between, and surehit options like AS Val mod and M200 make this not super helpful.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Golden^#↑

Skill: Golden Law

Revelations of destiny shall fill you with determination.

With a purely decorative skill, Golden fairy must rely on its aura to be useful. Thankfully, it comes with a reasonable amount of everything and puts out decent numbers.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Kouji^#↑

Skill: Phantasma in the Snow

At the start of the battle, reduce rate of fire by 30% and place a 30% vulnerability debuff on all allies and enemies until the end of the battle. When an enemy unit loses Dummy-Links, their damage is reduced by 10% for 15 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.

Kouji's aura is weak, and its active skill is only usable on MGSG echelons - the ROF debuff doesn't affect their firing speed, and vulnerability applies after armor. Vulnerability on enemies could be nice to help your HOCs, but that comes at major expense to your echelon's power (and you can just use HP-35). Kouji has no real use.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0 copies.

Preiya & Camilia^#↑

Skill: Oblivion

In the next battle for 30 seconds, allies standing on the special red tiles will gain 30% damage and accuracy but lose 20% evasion and armor, and allies standing on the special yellow tiles will gain 30% evasion and armor but lose 20% damage and accuracy.

Preiya & Camilia spawn a single red tile in the back two columns, and a single yellow tile in the front two columns. This variance makes it difficult to reliably get the offensive buffs, leaving you with its average aura. Even in M4 exodia-style echelons, where you can more easily reposition your sole DPS, the crit/accuracy components are less valuable.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Sand Dancer^#↑

Skill: Confusing Sands

Creates a sandstorm on the specified map location. The sandstorm decreases friendly and enemy move speeds by 30% (does not stack with Slothful Tide's [Beach Fairy] slowing effect), attack speed by 20% and decreases accuracy by 10% every 5 seconds, to a maximum of 5 stacks. The sandstorm remains on the battlefield for 2 turns. Echelons with an attached Sand Dancer Fairy reduce the negative effects of the sandstorm by 100% and the echelon leader gains 20% damage intake reduction.

Desert Fairy reads as if someone read RO635's mod skill and asked "how could we make this even more broken?" If you're looking at a long fight that needs a really durable tank, bring this fairy. It will see use in a number of ranking events post-DR.

Recommended talent: Fervor>>>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1-2 copies.

Sehra & Nina^#↑

Skill: Ladymade Star

In the next battle, increase the Echelon's damage by 20% and decrease all enemies' accuracy by 10% for 20 seconds.

Between this and Anna Graem, I feel like a lot of fairies get compared to Warrior. Sehra & Nina is another combat fairy with a DPS-boosting skill, with relatively decent numbers and an accuracy debuff as the cherry on top. It's sometimes referred to as an option for KSVK, but you're probably better off using stronger fairies (Beach, Para), stronger dolls (Type88, General Liu), or better enablers (HP-35, M950A mod, HOCs).

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Suee^#↑

Skill: I Want You

Scatter flowers on an adjacent node that is unoccupied by the enemy. Allies will gain 20% damage, accuracy, evasion, armor, and crit rate when battling on this node for the next two turns.

Suee is effectively a Construction fairy with a worse aura and lower multipliers, but different placement and the ability to be used offensively. She saw use in Polarized Light ranking, but action point economy and a weak aura make it difficult to fit in most ranking teams.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies (only needs skill).

Trap^#↑

Skill: Reinforced Beast Trap

Create a trap that lasts for 1 turn on an empty space within 2 nodes. Enemy units entering the trap are dealt damage equal to 15% of their current HP and cannot move for 1 turn. Boss units will not take damage. [IOP wiki unofficial translation]

Trap is pretty much a landmine fairy that does less damage in exchange for immobilizing what walks into it. Enemy CE = points in ranking, and considering the lack of usecases Ouroboros has found, there doesn't seem to be much point to this one. Its offensive aura is okay, but when combined with the complete lack of defensive stats, Trap isn't very appealing for combat either.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

Witch^#↑

Skill: Black Potion

In the next battle, deal 150 fixed damage to all enemies that ignores armour and evasion, and inflict Corrosion status. Deal corrosion damage equal to 10% of lost HP every 3 seconds. Corrosion damage ignores armor, evasion and HP shields, and caps at 9999 damage, but will not kill the enemy. [IOP wiki unofficial translation]

Witch comes with one of the most impressive auras ever seen on a fairy. Para technically still can have an edge on rifles when you really don't need much accuracy, but otherwise it's your best DPS option. On top of that, it has a combat skill without restrictions that deals extra damage. In testing this works out to an extra 1-10% more damage (and an even smaller improvement in clear times). Not a lot, but that's on top of its already beautiful aura.

Witch still doesn't let you teleport around the map, nor does it offer regenerating protection for each battle (like Taunt/Twin/Shield do). But it stands far above the standard combat fairies with an incredible aura and decent skill.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 1-2 copies. Feel free to pause your Warrior/Fury/Airstrike development to raise some of these instead.

Zodiac^#↑

Skill: Firecracker

In the next battle, ignite firecrackers to stun the target for 2 seconds and deal 50 damage per second to enemies within a radius of 4 of the target for 5 seconds.

While the stun effect hypothetically could come up for some red bean defusal scenario, Zodiac is mostly notable for having a decent offensive aura and solid armor tiles. This still isn't something needed every day, and its damage stats are only marginally better than Armor's, so it's a low priority.

Recommended talent: Fervor>Damage II>Damage I. Raise 0-1 copies.

General notes^#↑

• The weekly quest is far too little for efficient fairy progression. 4-16 500x4 crafts/day is recommended (image from Jesse), resources/cores permitting.
• For more of my writings about fairy-related topics, see also: Command vs Artillery against armor, Critical II talent analysis, Fairy talent frequencies, Sniper rework testing, Defense rework testing, Fervor vs Damage II, and Aim analysis.
• Four fairies have had their skills reworked so far (Rocket/Sniper/Shield/Defense). More could happen in the future, so you may still wish to keep/slowly raise some of the less useful expensive fairies. Even if not useful now, it's terribly hard to rush them if they do get fixed later on. Recommendations here don't factor that possibility in, so weigh things accordingly.
• Each ranking will have its own specific set of circumstances. My recommendations are kept relatively general, so if you intend to ultra-tryhard in a specific ranking (think top 10+), you should probably do some extra research. Keep in mind that new strategies will be discovered over time, and Mica seems incapable of not changing at least something weird with the EN port of each ranking.

More like this

The New Sniper Fairy
Reworked skill testing

Picking Fairy Talents
Fervor versus Damage II