Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN)MaribellBuild and Guide

• Defense Scaling: Like other Vanguards, all of Maribell’s damage-dealing abilities scale off both DEF and ATK (DEF is more important). This allows her to improve her damage and shielding capabilities all at once, on top of improving the team's general tankiness.
• Counterattack: Maribell can stack up Counterattacks, which allows her to deal Defense-based damage when hit by the enemy. If the hit is completely blocked by a Shield, the Counterattack deals more damage. This is great against enemies with Consecutive Attacks, but the backloaded damage output can make clearing stages very slow if enemies barely attack.
• Pulverize: Does more damage to enemies with Shield. It’s not a huge part of Maribell’s kit, but a few cards have the tag.

4

Unbreakable

Ego Skill

350% Shield.

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Unbreakable

Maribell’s Ego Skill might be the most straightforward one in the game: put up the big shields. That’s it. Huge hit from a boss incoming? Four elites about to bring the smackdown? Maribell says ‘nope.’ and builds a wall. Knowing when to use this skill is going to come down to either a) knowing what enemy abilities to wait for or b) seeing a big red damage indicator on your health bar and panicking. Either way, 350% shield baseline and 450% with Maribell’s E4 will go a long way towards keeping you alive.

1

Shelter Kick

Attack

100% Defense-based Damage.

Shelter Kick

A basic Attack card in a deck where you want to draw your Shield cards more often. A good removal target, since it doesn’t get any upgrades outside of the basic +20% from Potential 2.

1

Shelter Defense

Skill

100% Shield

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Shelter Defense

Maribell’s staple 1-cost Shield applier. Good for blocking chip damage. Gets a nice upgrade with her Potential 3-1, adding Counterattack to the card.

2

Shelter Hold

Skill

220% Shield.

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Shelter Hold

More AP spent = more Shield. This is the card that will get you through tough early situations and soften heavy hits from elites and bosses. Gets a nice upgrade with her Potential 3-1, which adds Counterattack to the card.

1

Resolute Blitz

Attack

[Pulverize]

100% Defense-based Damage.
1 Counterattack.​

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Resolute Blitz

A Defense-based attack that has Pulverize, which means it hits enemies with Shield harder than normal, and Counterattack. This is an all-around better version of Shelter Kick.

1

Maribell Shelter MK.II

Attack

[Pulverize]

100% Defense-based Damage.
Fixed Shield equal to Damage dealt (Does not exceed 20% of Max HP).​

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Maribell Shelter MK.II

At its base, this card deals damage and returns some of the damage dealt as Shield, hitting enemies with Shield harder via Pulverize. A decent defensive option into stages that incentivize you to attack often.

1

Wolves' Dome

Upgrade

2 Counterattack.
At the start of the turn, 1 Counterattack.​

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Wolves' Dome

An Upgrade card that grants 2 stacks of Counterattack and generates 1 Counterattack at the start of each turn. If you want Maribell to Counterattack consistently, this card guarantees that she’ll have stacks every turn.

1

Oh... I see.

Skill

100% Shield.
1 Counterattack.
1 Weaken to all enemies.

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Oh... I see.

Shields, Counterattack, and the only instance of Weaken in Maribell’s kit. This is the ‘all-in-one’ card that hits on everything we want from Maribell. Weaken is a powerful effect that reduces enemy damage by 25% and this card applies it to all enemies, which can have the same effect as stacking a ton of Shield at times. And you still get some actual Shield out of it anyway.

1

Shelter Strike

Attack

[Pulverize]

Fixed Damage equal to Shield owned.​

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Shelter Strike

An interesting card that does Fixed Damage (damage that cannot be modified in any way). If you are focused on a heavy Shield-stacking build, this can hit pretty hard, but it won’t match the damage of a dedicated DPS character. If you need a little more punch in your deck, it’ll do the trick, but if you are going for a Counterattack-heavy strategy or just find your Shield not stacking very high, it could be a removal target.

Maribell’s first signature Potential is a priority early pickup, as it adds more Counterattack to her kit, increasing her utility and offense on the team. You can invest in her other signatures if you want more Shields or damage and can meet the stat requirements to get their full benefit.

• 3-1: Adds Counterattack to her basic Shield cards: Shelter Defense and Shelter Hold. This is a great upgrade to her kit, allowing her to expand on her offensive capability while still maintaining the Shield you’re bringing her to the party for.
• 5-1: Continues to improve her basic Shield cards by adding an extra 5% Shield to them. Additionally, if Maribell’s HP is greater than 600, an additional 5% is added, for 10% total. More Shield is always nice, but this doesn’t feel as impactful as her 3-1.
• 7: Similar to 5-1, but adds 5% to her Defense-based Attack Damage for cards such as Shelter Kick. If her HP is greater than 800, it adds an additional 5% for 10% total. In most cases, if Maribell is on your team, it’s for Shield. Some strategies for Maribell lean into Defense-based attacking as Shield generation, which can make them easier to execute.

Standard Playstyle

Maribell is a lower complexity combatant. Primarily, you’ll want to use her to generate Shield to protect your HP and Sanity. You can do this most easily through pure high-value Shield cards like Shelter Defense or through attacks that also generate Shield, like Maribell MK.II.

As a secondary function, Maribell can deal passive chip damage through the Counterattacks built into her kit, though you would rarely bring her just for that. The damage done through Counterattacks can often finish off opponents or soften them up for your DPS on the next turn

Note

For every Epiphany, we're colored their name based on how useful we think it is compared to the other variants. Here's the key to the colors:

• Epiphany Name - the best variant,
• Epiphany Name - a good variant,
• Epiphany Name - a niche variant.

Important!

CZN is a game of randomness; sometimes you’ll be offered generic or Divine epiphanies that are stronger than a character's standard five options. In these cases, breaking the listed build can result in an even more powerful save. Adjust as you see fit!

Card Removal Priority

• Shelter Kick: When running her as a shielder, you won’t want to waste AP playing her basic attack. Remove when possible.
• Shelter Strike: This card is a brick in your hand more often than not, except for the rare Maribell Shelter MK.II combo. Remove when possible.
• Resolute Blitz: Doesn’t really do much for a pure shielder build, but using the upgrade version or exhausting it usually enough to get rid of it. Remove if you have the spare save data space.

Card Dupe Priority

Dupe Priority

Maribell Shelter MK.II I > Oh… I see. I > Wolves’ Dome I

Maribell Shelter MK.II I is our first priority to dupe, because it’s just good, consistent shielding for stages with multiple mobs that would kill you otherwise. Another option for shielding purposes is the 0 Cost “Oh… I see.” I card, which also offers two stacks of the Weaken debuff and is generally better for boss fights. Wolves’ Dome I is also valid if you want to better stack Counter stacks.

Epiphany Alternatives

• Resolute Blitz: Resolute Blitz V is our first pick because the card doesn’t contribute much to the shielder role, so we want to remove it from our deck by using the upgrade version, gaining some counter stacks, and dealing damage. If you prefer to keep the card and run her as subdps, Resolute Blitz III offers the best damage and counter stack gain overall.
• Maribell Shelter MK.II: We choose the AoE version, Epi 1, because it offers the best shield generation for most scenarios, at a relatively cheap cost. A more boss-oriented version is the Epi 3, which instead deals massive single-target damage and converts it to shields.
• Wolves’ Dome: Likewise, Wolves’ Dome does not contribute much to the build, so we take Wolves’ Dome I to get rid of it for free, getting some counter stacks for our trouble. While the shield version, Wolves’ Dome II, may sound enticing, in actual usage, it does not offer enough shields to be worth the extra AP cost. If you prefer to go all in on counters, Wolves’ Dome V offers some rare fixed damage scaling.
• Oh… I see.: For this one, we go with Epi 1, which increases the shield value, a counter stack, and provides a defensive debuff, fitting right into our shielder build. Oh… I see. IV can be viable if running Maribell as a sub-DPS, and Oh… I see. V works well in counter-heavy builds that can take advantage of it.

Maribell is a universal shielder that works in most teams and is able to help or single-handedly keep the team alive while dealing some supplementary damage herself. If your team is having trouble with sanity or staying alive, trading support or a sub-DPS for Maribell can be a viable upgrade. Here is why she’s so good:

• Huge on-demand shielding from Ego Skill.
• Reasonable sub-DPS potential.
• Has access to good 1-cost shielding to fit alongside other characters' combos, and 2-cost shielding for large hits.
• Can easily apply the weaken debuff to all enemies, lowering their damage output.

Important!

If you’re losing runs when playing a damage-focused composition either to sanity or dying, consider using a team with more defensive characters - so including both a shielder and healer. This is especially important in the Zero System mode.

Balanced Team

Damage

Any DPS

Support

Any Support

Shielder