Building SF around a Ringleader

By BigStupidJellyfish | 2022-August-12

"I just got x ringleader, how do I build a team around them?"

There's a few variations, but this seems to be a very common question players have. This has a few problematic underlying assumptions making answering this question difficult - let's go over some of these aspects.

What purpose does a team serve?^#

All echelons should be built for a reason. If not, they're wasting a valuable slot and should be disbanded. Setting aside your assortment of dolls shoved in logistics, there are a number of purposes an echelon might fulfill:

Dragging echelon & resupplying echelon
Dummy for AP
Semi-fixed echelon for basic map clearing/clearing sims
Cheap farming comp for a specific map(s)
Built-to-order echelon for a particular challenging map
Affection "grinding" (sitting around in a dorm)

All of these should be subject to change, depending on what you're doing with the echelon.

SF echelons are expensive, so they're mostly for roles (3) and (5). Pilfer farming is occasionally efficient, but that gets into specific cases.

Basic Map Clearing^#

Using SF for this at all is a bit questionable due to their fixed 360/360 supply cost and inability to be used in combat sims, when AR/HG/SMG or 5HG echelons (with proper fairies) can do similar things for less. But if you insist, teambuilding is trivial. Simply use your favorite ringleader, 1-2 Manticores, and fill the rest in with Jaegers/Nemeums/Jaguars depending on what you have available. Manticores tank most threats quite well, and the rest are good DPS options. This will work well enough for almost all general content.

For two arbitrary examples:

As always, please don't blindly copy these 1:1.

You're also completely fine to replace some Nemeums with Jaegers in the above examples. It really doesn't matter for basic clearing.

Advanced Map Clearing^#

As with Griffin echelons, when against challenging content, you should not use fixed echelons. Build your teams for the map and for the enemies in the map. This is even faster with SF - no need to swap equipment between mooks.

In this context, the question of how to build around a ringleader makes no sense. Instead, you should be asking what units most effectively counter the enemies you're facing.

If there are Cherubs, you probably want a SWAP Ripper to tank (though you may be able to get away with Alchemist if there aren't too many).
If the enemies don't have AP or Hydra levels of FP, Manticores/SWAP Aegis are effective tanks.
If you need backline targeting, bring Jaegers.
Against high-HP enemies, bring Nemeums.
If you need to buy your main tank some extra time, Goliath factories may be useful.

This also applies to ringleader selection.

Consider Hunter for single-target DPS.
Destroyer/Architect are good against crowds, while also offering weak HOC support.
Scarecrow has decent combat capabilities and can capture nodes in enemy territory/move more efficiently with her Shadow Predation skill.
If the fights are just too easy and you want to increase the challenge, you could bring Executioner or Adeline.

... and so on. For some more rough examples of teambuilding considerations you might take, see also Hassium's SF teambuilding flowchart.

Ringleader tiles & synergy^#

Alchemist's tiles, at 0 petals, offer machines 9% ROF/ACC and melee units 9% FP/EVA. These are decent bonuses, but do not define the team you bring. If you need backline targeting, Nemeums with 9% more ROF still won't do that. Bring Jaegers. Adding 9% EVA to a SWAP Aegis won't suddenly change how it does relative to a Manticore. Alchemist herself is used when her shield generation and invincibility are useful for tanking - not because you're building a team with a bunch of machines.

Agent's fourth skill gives herself a 10% FP buff for 5 seconds when reinforcement units die. This has caused some players to include Goliath Factories in "generic" echelons with her. However, unless you have some major reason for using them otherwise (e.g., their spawns are necessary to support tanking some gunners), this is silly. You're spending 8 cost on a unit for a minor damage bonus to Agent some of the time. Why not instead spend 6 cost on a SWAP Vespid, who gives an 8% ROF bonus to all ranged units? Or better yet, why not add some more Jaegers/Nemeums/Jaguars for more DPS? (Also, Agent's main value is in her parachute skill. If you're fighting enemies under a 60% debuff, you better be building very carefully for the specific enemies you'll face.)

Architect increases friendly explosion damage by 20%. This may make Jaguars a 20% better idea than they were before, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are good enough to replace other units. As before - if other units fulfill a specific need, buffing units that don't do that won't help. Do not build an "Architect echelon" with 5 Jaguars.

Similar idea to Liu/P22 "interactions."

Chip priority and uses^#

"Chip" really is an overloaded word in this game, isn't it? Here, I'm talking about the things you get in the Tactical Chip Research Station in exchange for batteries that you equip on ringleaders. These take 2 seconds to swap, and as always should not be fixed to any particular echelon. In approximate order of priority, here's what they're good for:

Phantom Stance effectively gives a free action point every turn, which is incredibly helpful on many maps. Probably the closest to a must-use chip.
The Night Vision (acc) chip is essential for night combat, and the vision range chip is occasionally useful as a budget, always-on Illumination fairy.
Pilfer and Frugal Mobilization allow for certain cheap/fast farming strategies.
Weaken/Fighting Spirit are recommended if you have SF set as friend support. Generally decent for helping nearby echelons. Weaken has an extra use for helping Alchemist tank harder/lowering armor requirements.
Lone Wolf is +damage with minimal conditions, which is nice.
Defend is important for 8-2 SF dragging, but that's not recommended for almost all players (and got replaced by SC 3-1 EX).
Ample Fuel, Quick Resupply, Support, and Strength in Numbers see limited use.

Note that almost none of this mentions specific ringleaders. Pick chips based on what you're doing with the echelon.

Fun fact: Lone Wolf/Fighting Spirit do not affect SF HOC support. I'd still recommend equipping Fighting Spirit on your friend echelon to assist the user's echelons in normal combat.

Conclusion^#

While they shouldn't be entirely ignored, ringleader tiles are largely unimportant in coalition echelon building. Pick both ringleaders and mooks based on their utility against the current threat, not by weak synergies or fixed rules. There isn't really such a thing as a "Scarecrow/Hunter/Architect/... echelon."

Test your teams in Target Saving when possible. If it works well, go ahead and use it. If not, find out what went wrong and address that.

Notes^#

Echelon	Full-supply Ammo	Full-supply Rations
Coalition	360	360
Coalition (Ample Fuel)	432	432
3AR-2SMG	350	300
2AR-1HG-2SMG	320	270
3AR-1HG-1SMG	295	270
2RF-3HG	200	270
2RF-2HG-1SMG	255	300
2RF-2HG-1SG	260	380
5HG	150	150
3MG-1HG-1SG	540	440
2MG-2HG-1SG	430	380
3MG-2SG	600	550
4MG-1HG	590	390
3MG-2HG	480	330
1RF-4HG	175	210
1AR-4HG	180	180
1AR-2HG	120	120
1AR-1SG(1-link)	90	100