Mei Lin Best Build Guide

Last updated: 02/July/2026

Introduction

Best guide and build for Mei Lin from Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN). Mei Lin is a 5✦ character from the Striker class and Passion attribute, who belongs to the Terrascion [Planet-Born] faction.

To learn more about Mei Lin check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.

Update tracker

Last review update

Season 2

Last build update

Season 2

Last profile update*

15/Mar/2026

*Profile update means updates done to reviews/builds/gear within a season - showing the last date we changed anything on this page.

Kit

Review

Epiphanies

Gear

Deck & Teams

To learn more about Mei Lin check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.

Cards

Starting Cards:

Strike

Attack

100% Damage.

Flame Dragon Guardian

Skill

100% Shield.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Jewel

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increases Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 20%.
When an Attack Card is used, 1 Passion Weakness to the target.

Show Effects

Epiphany Cards:

Rising Dragon Spire

Attack

100% Damage.
2 Ember.
Combo: Add 1 hit(s).

Show Effects

Unity of Attack and Defense

Skill

Draw 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit.
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1 for 1 turn.

Spirit of the Aromata

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card +20% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Sovereignty

Attack

[Weakness Attack]

300% Damage.
Destroy: Retain Embers.

Show Effects

Ego Skill:

Heavenly Flame Dragon

Ego Skill

Next 4 own Basic Attack Card(s), 1 extra Hit(s).

Epiphany Variants:

Epiphany cards are special evolutions for the cards you can obtain while playing the roguelike mode. Only some cards in the character's deck can get Epiphany effects. Since there's quite a lot of them, we don't display them by default - press the button below to show them.

Flame Dragon's Jewel I

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increases Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 30%.
When an Attack Card is used, 1 Passion Weakness to the target.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Jewel II

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increase Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 20%.
When using an Attack Card, 1 Tenacity Damage to the target.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Jewel III

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increase Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 20%.
When using an Attack Card, 1 Ember and 1 Passion Weakness to the target.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Jewel IV

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increase Critical Chance of this unit by 30%.
On Critical Hit, 1 Tenacity Damage, 1 Ember.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Jewel V

Upgrade

[Initiation]

Upon Ravage, 300% Damage to the target.

Show Effects

Rising Dragon Spire I

Attack

100% Damage.
2 Ember.
Combo: Add 2 hit(s).

Show Effects

Rising Dragon Spire II

Attack

150% Damage.
3 Ember.
Combo: Add 1 hit(s).

Show Effects

Rising Dragon Spire III

Attack

200% Damage.
Next Passion Card used, 1 extra Hit.

Show Effects

Rising Dragon Spire IV

Attack

100% Damage.
Next own Basic Attack Card used, 2 extra Hits.

Show Effects

Rising Dragon Spire V

Attack

150% Damage.
For 1 turn, each Passion Card used, 1 extra Hit.

Unity of Attack and Defense I

Skill

Draw 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit, decrease Cost by 1, increase Damage and Shield Gain Amounts of those cards by 50% for 1 turn.

Show Effects

Unity of Attack and Defense II

Skill

Move 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit to hand.
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1 for 1 turn.

Unity of Attack and Defense III

Skill

Draw 2 own Basic Card(s).
Choose up to 2 card(s) in hand to Exhaust. For each card,2 Morale, 2 Resolve for 1 turn.

Show Effects

Unity of Attack and Defense IV

Upgrade

Create 2 Strike card(s).
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1.

Unity of Attack and Defense V

Upgrade

[Unique]

Increase Damage Amount of Basic Cards of this unit by 100%.

Show Effects

Spirit of the Aromata I

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using a Passion Card +20% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

Spirit of the Aromata II

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card +30% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

Spirit of the Aromata III

Skill

[Initiation]

For 1 turn, when using an own card +20% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

Spirit of the Aromata IV

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card, 1 Ember on a random enemy.

Show Effects

Spirit of the Aromata V

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card, +50% own Basic Card Damage Amount.

Show Effects

Potential

Epiphany Bonus

Potential 1

When entering Chaos, obtain 1 random Rare Card with an activated Epiphany.

Basic Card Upgrade

Potential 2

Increase Damage, Shield, and Healing Amounts of Basic Cards by 2/20%.

Common Card Upgrade

Potential 3

Increase Damage, Shield, and Healing Amounts of Common Cards by 2/20%.

3-1

Basic Card Proficiency

Potential 3-1

Strike cards gain an additional 1 stack of Ember.

Unique Card Upgrade

Potential 4

Increase Damage, Shield, and Healing Amounts of Unique Cards by 2/20%.

Critical Chance Proficiency

Potential 5

+2/10% Critical Chance.

5-1

Basic Card Proficiency

Potential 5-1

+5% Mei Lin's Strike Damage.
If Mei Lin's Attack is above 500, an additional +5%.

5-2

Divine Epiphany Adaptation

Potential 5-2

Increases the chance for a Divine Epiphany to appear by 25%.

Critical Damage Proficiency

Potential 6

+2.4/12% Critical Chance.

Unique Stat Upgrade

Potential 7

If Mei Lin's Attack is greater than 600, +4% Weak Point Damage.
For every 50 Attack exceeding that value, +1% (up to an additional +8%).

Manifest Ego (dupes)

Sleeping Memory

Manifest Ego 1

Flame Dragon's Sovereignty card now strikes Critical Hit to Ravaged targets,

Awakening Memory

Manifest Ego 2

If Mei Lin’s cards deal Damage, apply 1 Ember on the target

Vivid Memory

Manifest Ego 3

Heavenly Flame Dragon's effect, which adds an extra Hit for the next 4 Basic Attack cards, now changes to the next 6 cards.

Inner Memory

Manifest Ego 4

If Mei Lin’s attack Ravages an enemy, gain 1 Flame Dragon Awakens.
Flame Dragon Awakens: For 1 turn, Mei Lin’s Attack Card Damage Amount +20% and Damage against Ravaged targets, extra +20%.

Complete Memory

Manifest Ego 5

Increase the level of [Basic Card Upgrade], [Unique Card Upgrade], and [Common Card Upgrade] in Potentials by 3.

Liberated Memory

Manifest Ego 6

Whenever Mei Lin gains Flame Dragon Awakens twice, 100% Fixed Damage to all enemies and inflict 3 Ember

Stats (level 60)

376

DEF

155

ATK

467

Gallery

Introduction

Performance Profile

ST Damage [5/5]

AoE Damage [1/5]

AP Efficiency [3/5]

Utility [2/5]

Mei Lin is a 5-Star Striker that belongs to the Passion attribute. Mei Lin excels at dealing single-target damage to knock her enemies out.

Mei Lin is capable of constantly applying Passion Weakness to enemies, ensuring she almost always has an Attribute advantage to maximize her damage output. Mei Lin can also inflict "Ember" on her enemies, which provides extra damage to Attack Cards when they're used on enemies that will be put into a Ravaged state or are currently in one.

Mei Lin has phenomenal AP efficiency and consistency thanks to her "Unity of Attack and Defense" card. She has great self buffs and can dish out some incredible damage without much help from other Combatants. Mei Lin is primed to be your key DPS in a team and benefits best from other Combatants who can provide buffs to supplement their damage output.

Her glaring weakness is her lack of AoE damage; none of her cards or various Epiphanies have the ability to provide in this area. In content where AoE is needed, she may fall short. Whilst Mei Lin has Card Draw on her own, it's limited to her own cards, so she will still want to be paired with another unit who can assist with Card Draw to ensure she can activate as many of her cards as possible in a single turn.

Mei Lin plays almost like a fighting character, chaining together long strings of Attack Cards to form potent ramping combos to continue her assault.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Self Card Draw/searching and AP cost reductions.
Incredible self-buffing capabilities.
Can apply Passion Weakness on enemies to always deal Tenacity Damage and gain attribute damage bonus herself and Passion Allies.
Outstanding burst single-target damage.

Cons

Ego Skill is expensive
No AoE Cards.

Ratings

The ratings below are based on the Season Save Data, Chaos Manifestation, and Great Rift modes. Each of the modes values different mechanics, so some characters may shine in one of them, while being underwhelming in the other.

T0.5

Chaos Mode

T0.5

Season Save Data

Great Rift

Key Mechanics

Passion Weakness: A debuff that causes the enemy to be treated as though they are Passion weak for all Combatant attacks while it remains active. It is duration-based, not hit-count-based.
Attack Weakness/Weak Point Damage: Makes an Attack Card deal damage as if it had an elemental advantage.
Ember: Applies a stacking debuff to the enemy. When the enemy is Ravaged, or hit while in a Ravaged state, deal +30% damage per Ember stack and consume all stacks (up to 5 stacks).
Combo: Gain additional effect after activating another card of the same elemental type.
Ravage/Ravaged: Enemies in this status have had their Tenacity Bar fully broken.
Tenacity Damage: Depletes enemies' Tenacity Bar. 1 Tenacity Damage is 1 Bar of the gauge.

Potential

Mei Lin’s 3-1 is one you’ll want to pick up quickly, while her other signature Potentials add damage stats to her kit based on her Attack stat. If you’re hitting those stat thresholds, they are also definitely worth grabbing.

3-1: Causes Strike to add 1 Ember stack to the enemy on use. Makes it easier to generate stacks of Ember for more bonus damage when breaking or hitting broken enemies.
5-1: Adds an extra 5% base damage to Strike. Additionally, if Mei Lin’s Attack is greater than 500, an additional 5% is added, for 10% total.
7: Adds 4% Weak Point Damage if Mei Lin’s Attack is greater than 600. For every 50 Attack over 600, +1% Weak Point Damage is added, up to 8% extra. Mei Lin is almost always dealing Weak Point Damage, so the extra damage here adds up fast.

Dupes Review

Base

Base performance of the character.

100.00%

Ego 1

Mei Lin’s first Ego to be unlocked buffs her “Flame Dragon’s Sovereignty” card, which now causes it to always Critical Hit when hitting a Ravaged Target. Not a terrible first node, but in hyper-optimized Mei Lin decks, this card is often removed. Unfortunately, this will mostly help with some extra damage when completing Chaos runs with Mei Lin, whilst this card is still in your deck.
Note: Our calculations for Mei Lin do not have Flame Dragon’s Sovereignty present, so this Ego Point cannot be calculated.

100.00%

Ego 2

Her second Ego now grants any of Mei Lin’s cards that deal damage the extra effect of inflicting 1 “Ember” stack on the target. This helps maintain Ember on enemy units, further increasing her potential damage output. As the majority of Mei Lin’s Ember generation comes from her Basic Attacks, it almost functions as doubling the Ember generation. Note: How valuable this Ego Point is depends wildly on how you align the extra Ember Stacks you’ll have access to and whether or not you can line both a Ravage plus optimal stack size of Ember alongside one or all Dragon Spire V attacks. Because of this variability we’ve held off calculating it as this Ego Skill is either a solid damage increase or very easily wasted depending on the fight and the player.

100.66%

Ego 3

The third Ego to be unlocked increases the number of Basic Cards to be buffed by her Ego Skill from 4 to 6. As Mei Lin’s Ego Skill is rather expensive, this can often go underutilized; however, it is still a boost that you can reliably access every fight.

102.88%

Ego 4

The fourth node to be unlocked grants Mei Lin a 1-turn buff “Flame Dragon Awakens” whenever she Ravages an enemy via an attack. This buff grants Mei Lin +20% Damage to all of Mei Lin’s Attack Cards and +20% damage amount to enemies who are in a Ravaged State. This is an absolutely amazing node for Mei Lin, thanks to how consistently she can Ravage enemies. Additionally, as there is no limit to how frequently she can gain this buff, it can be extremely powerful in some cases where you’re able to Ravage multiple enemies in a single turn.
Note: Our calculations are single target so Mei Lin is only able to maintain a single stack of this buff at one time.

104.45%

Ego 5

This node increases the base and maximum level of their [Basic Card Upgrade], [Unique Card Upgrade] and [Common Card Upgrade] Potentials by 3. This is a strong Potential Node increase for Mei Lin, as a significant portion of their damage comes from Basic cards.

104.45%

Ego 6

Mei Lin’s final Ego node to be unlocked interacts with her 4th Ego node. Whenever Mei Lin is granted “Flame Dragon Awakens” twice (1, 2, apply. 3, 4 - apply etc.), she deals 100% Fixed Damage to all enemies and inflicts 3 Ember. This provides a small amount of AoE damage that she’s definitely missing in her kit; however, as it's Fixed Damage, there isn’t much scaling Potential for this to enable Mei Lin to function as an AoE unit and should be considered as a nice occasional benefit, opposed to reworking her playstyle.
Note: How powerful this Ego Point is, is completely reliant on how easy enemies' Tenacity Gauges are to deplete and how many enemies are present in the fight. Because of how variable this is, we haven’t opted to calculate this Ego Point as any result likely wouldn’t be an accurate representation of its power.

Cards & Ego Skill

Heavenly Flame Dragon

Ego Skill

Next 4 own Basic Attack Card(s), 1 extra Hit(s).

Heavenly Flame Dragon

Mei Lin’s Ego Skill is expensive, costing 6 EP to use, but doubles the hit count of her next 4 Basic Attacks, offering a tremendous amount of burst potential when combined with Unity of Attack and Defense. These additional basics have no time limit on them, so you can use this Ego as soon as it's available and reap the benefits whenever it’s convenient.

Strike

Attack

100% Damage.

Strike

Mei Lin’s Basic Attacks are a core part of her kit, which are discounted, empowered and used extensively by the rest of her kit. You’ll be using them very… very often. Also applies 1 stack of Ember per use after unlocking Potentials!

Flame Dragon Guardian

Skill

100% Shield.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon Guardian

Basic Shield card that can be drawn and used for 0 cost via Unity of Attack and Defense, but is otherwise unremarkable.

Flame Dragon's Jewel

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increases Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 20%.
When an Attack Card is used, 1 Passion Weakness to the target.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Jewel

Mei Lin’s signature card is one of the strongest upgrades available. It costs 1AP to use and grants all of Mei Lin’s Attack Cards a multiplicative +20% boost while also causing them all to apply 1-turn of Passion Weakness, essentially ensuring she’ll always have elemental advantage and the damage bonus that comes with it. Even better is that this card has [Initiation], meaning you’ll always be able to use it at the start of fights! It also has the [Unique] tag, meaning it cannot be stacked.

Rising Dragon Spire

Attack

100% Damage.
2 Ember.
Combo: Add 1 hit(s).

Show Effects

Rising Dragon Spire

A 1-Cost Attack Card that deals damage, applies 2 Ember stacks and has a Combo effect that causes it to hit twice. An incredibly efficient damaging card with very loose restrictions, given the high AP efficiency of the rest of Mei Lin’s cards. If you’re worried, though, you can pair Mei Lin with another Passion character to guarantee it’s always active.

Unity of Attack and Defense

Skill

Draw 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit.
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1 for 1 turn.

Unity of Attack and Defense

Mei Lin’s best card, which, when upgraded and copied, can form truly degenerate combos when built around correctly, but is still incredibly strong at a baseline as well. It is a 0AP cost skill that draws 2 Basic Cards (Strike or Flame Dragon Guardian) and reduces their cost by 1 for the current turn. It's straight up a 0-cost draw 2 gain 2 AP, which is incredible
Note: If there are not enough eligible cards for this card to draw, it will draw them from the Grave as well. ALSO, if a card has already been played this turn, it CANNOT be drawn again; this can be BYPASSED with an Epiphany that changes DRAW to MOVE.

Spirit of the Aromata

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card +20% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

Spirit of the Aromata

Another buffing card for Mei Lin, but this time a temporary one. Cost 1 AP and grants Mei Lin a unique effect that causes her to gain an additional +20% DMG multiplier every time she plays a card, stacking infinitely. This effect and its buff last 1 turn. This is absurdly potent when combined with Mei Lin’s many low or no-cost cards. Also has [Retain], allowing it to be saved for the perfect moment.

Flame Dragon's Sovereignty

Attack

[Weakness Attack]

300% Damage.
Destroy: Retain Embers.

Show Effects

Flame Dragon's Sovereignty

This card has [Attack Weakness], meaning it will always deal damage as if it has an elemental advantage. It hits for 300% damage before whatever buffs you might have/give it. On top of everything else, if you break an enemy with it, it deals all the extra Ember damage you have stacked onto the target without consuming the stacks.

Best Epiphanies

Note
We have given a star rating for each Epiphany, showing how strong and useful it is - with 1 being the lowest rating and 5 the highest.

Card 1

Neutral Epiphany

★★★★

Flame Dragon's Jewel I

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increases Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 30%.
When an Attack Card is used, 1 Passion Weakness to the target.

Show Effects

★★★★★

Flame Dragon's Jewel II

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increase Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 20%.
When using an Attack Card, 1 Tenacity Damage to the target.

Show Effects

★

Flame Dragon's Jewel III

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increase Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 20%.
When using an Attack Card, 1 Ember and 1 Passion Weakness to the target.

Show Effects

★★★★★

Flame Dragon's Jewel IV

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increase Critical Chance of this unit by 30%.
On Critical Hit, 1 Tenacity Damage, 1 Ember.

Show Effects

★★★

Flame Dragon's Jewel V

Upgrade

[Initiation]

Upon Ravage, 300% Damage to the target.

Show Effects

★

Epiphanies:

Neutral [★★★★] - Target Neutral Epiphany: N/A.
The Neutral Epiphany effects on this card don’t even matter that much, it’s rated as 4-stars merely because the base card already gives its most important effect (Passion Weakness Imprint) so it’s completely acceptable to take any Neutral Epiphany on this if not offered Flame Dragon’s Jewel I or III and focus on meditating another card with stricter options like Rising Dragon Spire.
Flame Dragon's Jewel I
[★★★★★] - The card gains a small buff to its damage increase effect. The Passion Weakness Imprint on this card is essential for any scenario where the enemy isn’t already weak to Passion units, as it is the final multiplier on your damage and Mei Lin’s final Potential node enables her to have a higher multiplier for Passion Weakness than other units do — giving her an even greater advantage from this effect.
Flame Dragon's Jewel II
[★] - The card loses Passion Weakness Imprint but will now do Tenacity Damage for every attack. Not only does Passion Weakness Imprint already increase your Tenacity Damage (if the enemy isn’t already Passion weak), making the change rather low-value, but Tenacity Damage in general is just not that high value and can actively interfere with her capitalizing on ember buffs.
Flame Dragon's Jewel III
[★★★★★] - You will now make Embers for every attack you do, which can be a nice bit of additional damage on Ravage (especially if ravaging with Spire, as it applies to all hits of it). But more importantly, the Passion Weakness Imprint on this card is essential for any scenario where the enemy isn’t already weak to Passion units, as it is a final multiplier on your damage and Mei Lin’s final Potential node enables her to have a higher multiplier for Passion Weakness than other units do — giving her an even greater advantage from this effect.
Flame Dragon's Jewel IV
[★★★] - While this card is SIGNIFICANTLY worse versus any enemy who doesn’t have Passion Weakness (or if you are playing with an ally who can give Passion Weakness Imprint to Mei like Selena or Lucas), it is exceptionally strong in scenarios where you have Passion Weakness from another source already and can allow you to easily hit 100% Crit Rate, vastly increasing her DPS ceiling (again ONLY when you already have Passion Weakness, though).
Flame Dragon's Jewel V
[★] - You lose all previous buffs and effects, but you do one extra 300% hit on Ravage. The gain from having around 1 attack extra a turn is much less than the buffs the other cards will allow you to utilize for all Mei Lin attacks.

Divine Epiphanies:

Which Divine Epiphany to go for will depend on what your team needs and which Epiphany you chose, but here are the main ones to look out for if you have spare Save Data: Morale/Resolve.

Card 2

Neutral Epiphany

★

Rising Dragon Spire I

Attack

100% Damage.
2 Ember.
Combo: Add 2 hit(s).

Show Effects

★

Rising Dragon Spire II

Attack

150% Damage.
3 Ember.
Combo: Add 1 hit(s).

Show Effects

★

Rising Dragon Spire III

Attack

200% Damage.
Next Passion Card used, 1 extra Hit.

Show Effects

★★

Rising Dragon Spire IV

Attack

100% Damage.
Next own Basic Attack Card used, 2 extra Hits.

Show Effects

★

Rising Dragon Spire V

Attack

150% Damage.
For 1 turn, each Passion Card used, 1 extra Hit.

★★★★★

Epiphanies:

Neutral [★] - The Neutral Epiphany on this card is not recommended; all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.
Rising Dragon Spire I
[★] - The card now gains one additional hit on combo for a total of 3-hits. This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.
Rising Dragon Spire II
[★] - The card now has a slightly higher base ratio value for its damage. This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.
Rising Dragon Spire III
[★★] - Instead of increasing its damage directly, this card now gives an extra hit to the next Passion card. This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.
Rising Dragon Spire IV
[★] - This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.
Rising Dragon Spire V
[★★★★★] - The card now gives you an extra hit for every Passion card played before it, including allies. This is the hallmark of Mei Lin’s kit and the number one reason why every boss is now given ‘Elasticity’ (they will take effectively no damage past 7-hits from multihit cards). It allows you to scale her hits to rather crazy amounts, especially alongside Veronica, who acts as both your Draw unit and also a unit who will give you around 5-10 extra Passion cards, which translates to 5-10 extra hits on this card.

Divine Epiphanies:

Which Divine Epiphany to go for will depend on what your team needs and which Epiphany you chose, but here are the main ones to look out for if you have spare Save Data: 30% multiplicative damage increase, -1 Cost Reduction (if not using Line Memory Fragment).

Card 3

Neutral Epiphany

★

Unity of Attack and Defense I

Skill

Draw 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit, decrease Cost by 1, increase Damage and Shield Gain Amounts of those cards by 50% for 1 turn.

Show Effects

★

Unity of Attack and Defense II

Skill

Move 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit to hand.
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1 for 1 turn.

★★★★★

Unity of Attack and Defense III

Skill

Draw 2 own Basic Card(s).
Choose up to 2 card(s) in hand to Exhaust. For each card,2 Morale, 2 Resolve for 1 turn.

Show Effects

★★

Unity of Attack and Defense IV

Upgrade

Create 2 Strike card(s).
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1.

★★

Unity of Attack and Defense V

Upgrade

[Unique]

Increase Damage Amount of Basic Cards of this unit by 100%.

Show Effects

★

Epiphanies:

Neutral [★] - As you will likely play Mei Lin with Veronica or some other form of draw, the value from merely drawing your Basic Attacks is quite low. Moreover, this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it.
Unity of Attack and Defense I
[★] - This allows you to draw your Basic Attacks once and increases their damage if drawn by this. However, this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it since it can move them from the used pile–not just draw.
Unity of Attack and Defense II
[★★★★★] - This enables Mei Lin to play her Basic Attacks an extra time every turn, per number of Unity of Attack and Defense II’s that she has in her deck. This not only gives her 2 Extra Attacks for every use, but will also activate 3 buffs from Aromata and Spire V, since every Unity II will be 3 Passion cards played.
Unity of Attack and Defense III
[★★] - Now, the card will draw your Basics and allow you to target [Exhaust] 2 cards for an extra buff. This can be useful if Mei Lin is used with characters who make cards that you want to [Exhaust], like Incinerate effects, but she typically isn’t. Moreover, the cost of 2 makes it hard to play and this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it.
Unity of Attack and Defense IV
[★★] - For OTK setups, this can effectively give you the same amount of value as Unity II, as it will allow you to play 1 Passion card (Unity) and play 2 extra Basic Attacks. However, it will not only give less value after Turn 1 but will fill your draw with the extra basics it made, making it extremely hard to use after Turn 1 and, even worse overall, even if you can use it.
Unity of Attack and Defense V
[★] - Your Basics now do more damage. With no other buffs, this is basically doubling the damage of her basics, but Mei Lin has a lot of self-buffs that dilute the value. Moreover, this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it.

Divine Epiphanies:

Which Divine Epiphany to go for will depend on what your team needs and which Epiphany you chose, but here are the main ones to look out for if you have spare Save Data: 1 AP.

Card 4

Neutral Epiphany

★★

Spirit of the Aromata I

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using a Passion Card +20% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

★★★★★

Spirit of the Aromata II

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card +30% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

★★★

Spirit of the Aromata III

Skill

[Initiation]

For 1 turn, when using an own card +20% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

★★

Spirit of the Aromata IV

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card, 1 Ember on a random enemy.

Show Effects

★

Spirit of the Aromata V

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using an own card, +50% own Basic Card Damage Amount.

Show Effects

★★

Epiphanies:

Neutral [★★] - Target Neutral Epiphany: N/A.
The Neutral Epiphany on this card doesn’t matter, but the base card can be situationally as good as Aromata, if all of Mei’s team’s Passion card usage is Mei herself (which is not typically the case, but can be for certain OTK set-ups). Still, it’s flat-out worse than Aromata I or II, making it not the recommended choice.
Spirit of the Aromata I
[★★★★★] - The go-to choice, as this allows you to gain an effective 1 Morale (20% additive buff) for Mei Lin for every Passion card played, including allies. This allows characters like Veronica to buff her damage for every card they play. Additionally, it synergizes amazingly with Spire V, which also increases her hit count for every Passion card played.
Spirit of the Aromata II
[★★★] - This will be superior to Aromata I, ONLY in scenarios where Mei Lin is the only Passion unit on your team. This is essentially a 1.5x increase in value compared to the base Epiphany or Aromata III.
Spirit of the Aromata III
[★★] - The card now costs 0. For the same reasons as Neutral Epiphanies, this can be a solid choice for certain teams where Mei Lin is the only Passion unit. Still, it’s flat-out worse than Aromata I or II, making it not the recommended choice.
Spirit of the Aromata IV
[★] - You lose your buff gain, but the card now gives 1 Ember on own card use. Because Embers cap out at 5 and only affect one attack, this will basically always be worse than just using another option.
Spirit of the Aromata V
[★★] - The card now gives a 50% additive boost to Mei Lin Basics, which can be situationally useful for OTK set-ups with boss Elasticity (hit-count capped at 7) built around Mei Lin Basics. However, it will typically still be worse than playing around buffing Spire V versus alternative options.

Divine Epiphanies:

Which Divine Epiphany to go for will depend on what your team needs and which Epiphany you chose, but here are the main ones to look out for if you have spare Save Data: Draw 1, -1 Cost Reduction.

Memory Fragments

The Memory Fragments & Equipment suggestions below are based on calculations we did. If you want to check the damage formula and how scaling the damage works in CZN, check this guide.

Recommended Loadout

98.96%

Executioner's Tool [2-PC]

Black Wing [2-PC]

Seth's Scarab [2-PC]

The safest of all set combination for Mei Lin to use in Chaos and Save data based game modes but which can lose out to more specialised sets under the right circumstances. Check out Mei Lin's other gear options to know which scenarios they beat out 2/2/2 for.

95.28%

Spark of Passion [4-PC]

Executioner's Tool [2-PC]

Loses out to all other sets in Save Data based game modes but can work as an alternative to 2/2/2 in Chaos based game modes although it's not specifically a direct upgrade and more of a side grade thanks to how competitive 2P Seth's Scarab is alongside the other 2 DPS 2P sets.

Specialist Loadout

Line of Justice [4-PC]

Executioner's Tool [2-PC]

In save data based game modes Rising Dragon Spire V is the majority of Mei Lin's damage and baseline it has an AP cost of 2. So long as you're not reducing its cost via discounts or Divine Epiphanies 4P Line of Justice is a large damage upgrade thanks to the Crit Rate it grants to Dragon Spire making it a strong choice but only if your Mei Lin build aligns with it.

Conquerer's Aspect [4-PC]

Executioner's Tool [2-PC]

Similar to Line of Justice 4P Conqueor's can be used to boost Rising Dragon Spire V as well but only when it's discounted which is most common via a Divine Cost Reduction Epiphany. When you can guarentee your Dragon Spire V costs exactly 1 AP consistenly this is a damage upgrade over 2/2/2 .

Main and sub-stats

In a lot of cases, flat sub-stats are better than percentage ones when it comes to HP, ATK and DEF. The reason behind this is that in CZN the characters stats are pretty low and you get more value from flat bonus rather than percentage one based on calcs.

Ideal

CRIT Rate > CRIT DMG

Desire

Passion DMG% >= ATK%

Imagination

ATK%

Substats:

CRIT Rate% = CRIT DMG% > ATK > ATK%

To activate Mei Lin's potential 7, ensure she has at least 601 ATK in the character screen, but ideally aim for much more than this to get as close to maxing out its effect as possible. The Weak Point Damage from Potential 7 is one of the strongest multipliers available to Mei Lin, so getting more of it is ideal.

Partners

Our best Partner recommendation try to balance both the raw damage boost they provide based on our calculations with the additional utility provided by the skill - combined with how it interacts with the character's kit. We have rated each Partner based on how much additional damage and the utility they provide. Read the comments under each Partner to better understand our reasoning.

No calculations in Chaos Zero Nightmare are completely accurate for all scenarios, including the ones below. What team, decks, epiphanies, gear, equipment, and enemies you're facing all impact them. Because of this, take the results as guidelines and combine them with the explanations to make your decisions. Calculations use endgame save data set-ups, including 5 turns of combat using the whole deck with all Ego skills unless otherwise stated.

5 Turns 135.16%

Scarlet(E4)

5 Turns 121.77%

Marianne(E4)

5 Turns 120.70%

Scarlet(E0)

5 Turns 114.18%

Priscilla(E4)

5 Turns 111.90%

Marianne(E0)

5 Turns 110.41%

Lilian(E4)

5 Turns 105.01%

Priscilla(E0)

5 Turns 100.39%

Lilian(E0)

5 Turns 100.00%

Douglas(E4)

Equipment

In the Zero System, it's incredibly easy to access all items acquirable via the shop thanks to the two free refreshes you get each shop node - that's why the recommendations below are limited to them only. ATTENTION! Area-specific items can sometimes be more powerful than shop items, but are far less consistent to get or require running a specific world or giving up certain event options. Use the shop list as a starting point for building up your deck saves.

Weapon

Criticism of Discord
Tentacles of Chaos
Dagger That Tricked the Shadow
Singing Sword
Shell Bug Horn

Armor

Fairy King's Crown

Trinket

Verdant Day
Verdant Night
Verdant Shackles
Amorphous Cube
Quantum Collector
Pulsating Egg

Comments - Weapons

Criticism of Discord
- Offers a huge amount of passive Attack, which for most Attack scalers makes this weapon the de facto best in slot weapon if you're able to acquire it from the rare Senectus / Cthulu event after a fight.
Tentacles of Chaos
- Provides 8% Attack to all characters in the team making it the go-to support weapon for most characters not acting as the main DPS when supporting Attack scaling carries but also a very viable option for ATK-based carries since it means you can no longer get Discord (as only one is offered from same event).
Dagger That Tricked the Shadow
- One of the best non-mythic options that is typically the go-to when Criticism of Discord cannot be acquired in the run, when in Swamp.
Singing Sword
- It's a competitive option if randomly happened upon while farming the Foretold Ruins, but not recommended to specifically farm for because of lackluster other slot options in the zone.
Shell Bug Horn
- It's a competitive option if randomly happened upon while farming the Twin Stars, but not recommended to specifically farm for because of lackluster other slot options in the zone.

Comments - Armor

Fairy King's Crown
- The Crit Rate this armour provides is almost always in demand and a competitive option making it a piece worth seeking out unless you're able to obtain better more specialized options.

Comments - Trinkets

Verdant Day
+
Verdant Night
- Provide a unique buff-type that is a massive damage increase while active, without taking your Mythic slot. The choice between Day and Night depends on the content and the turns you are planning to do more damage, with even-turns favoring Night and odd-turns favoring Day.
Verdant Shackles
- A strong option that works on all turns, but locks you out of Mythic options in other slots.
Amorphous Cube
- The go-to generic damage accessory for most characters that is trivially easy to use and always for the most part a solid addition for any character that can make use of additive damage. Wont beat out more specialized options but always a great fallback.
Quantum Collector
- Grants 20% (multiplicative) damage to the wearer any time any combatant uses an upgrade card (no limit) but only for 1 turn. In specific teams targetting low turn count kills this can be the best accessory available, but in longer fights, or low upgrade teams it loses a lot of its appeal.
Pulsating Egg
- A strong alternative to Criticism of Discord, when it isn't offered but can't be found in Swamp where you already have access to extremely strong equipment alternatives for all slots.

Recommended Build

Mei Lin Builds

Check the best builds for Mei Lin below.

Standard Dragon Spire

Elasticity Build (OTK)

Elasticity Build

Setup Summary

Character

Partner

Equipment

Criticism of Discord

Fairy King's Crown

Verdant Night

Fragments

Conquerer's Aspect

Executioner's Tool

Cards Summary [10 selected]

Strike

Attack

100% Damage.

Flame Dragon's Jewel I

Upgrade

[Unique][Initiation]

Increases Damage Amount of Attack Cards of this unit by 30%.
When an Attack Card is used, 1 Passion Weakness to the target.

Show Effects

Rising Dragon Spire V

Attack

150% Damage.
For 1 turn, each Passion Card used, 1 extra Hit.

Reduce the cost of this card by 1.

Unity of Attack and Defense II

Skill

Move 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit to hand.
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1 for 1 turn.

Unity of Attack and Defense

Skill

Draw 2 Basic Card(s) of this unit.
Decrease Cost of those cards by 1 for 1 turn.

Spirit of the Aromata I

Skill

[Retain]

For 1 turn, when using a Passion Card +20% own Damage Amount.

Show Effects

Persona

Skill | Season

[Unique][Exhaust 2]

250% Shield.
Move 1 random Attack Card(s) of this unit from Graveyard to hand.

Striker only

Show Effects

Deck Explanation

Standard Dragon Spire - This build utilizes Mei Lin’s ability to buff herself via Aromata and Flame Dragon’s Jewel via playing passion cards, then plays a lot of her Basic Attacks via Unity II’s move basic effect. Generally, Mei Lin will play with Veronica and/or other passion supports to stack her buffs even further before using her Spires as a massive multihit finisher.
Elasticity Build (OTK) - The 4 Spire set-up can be rather unsustainable outside of OTK for AP costs (without divines), but it’ll be the most effective way to kill OTK bosses. The setup is otherwise the same as the standard build, only utilizing more ally passion cards than her own (such as Owen with Residual Herb).
Elasticity Build - The only change from the OTK version is this having 3 Spires, as it is much easier to play around its AP cost when there are only 3.

Card Removal Priority

Flame Dragon Guardian
- Most Mei Lin builds will opt to remove the shield card.
Flame Dragon's Sovereignty
- Most Mei Lin builds will opt to remove her signature card, as its effect is often lost or hard to play around consistently especially with its 2AP Cost.

Card Copying Priority

Unity of Attack and Defense
- The most popular builds tend to copy this at least once to get extra stacks of Mei Lin’s buffs from passion card use.
Rising Dragon Spire
- Most builds want at least one copy of Spire, especially if against an enemy with elasticity.

Best Synergies

Veronica

Veronica is a Passion unit, which allows her to stack Aromata’s buff. Moreover, she has access to [Retrieve] cards, which allow her to play a greater number of Passion cards than most other allies for Mei Lin.
Veronica doubles as an extremely strong draw unit.
With Rosaria (4-star partner), she can give Morale on skill use occasionally for greater buffing. Veronica can also activate various equipment buffing effects well, like Quantum Collector (20% multiplicative buff on upgrade-use for 1 turn).

Rei

Rei can give many different buffs that all work well with Mei Lin, including but not limited to: 1-cost card additive buffs, 4P Glory Reign and generic additive buffs (Morale).
Rei can buff one card a lot via Dark Condensation, which can be especially strong against no elasticity.

Cassius

Through neutral Morale Epiphanies on cards like Devil Dice or Dice Trick, Cass can give high additive buffing with little cost.
However, it’s worth noting that Cass can be difficult to play with her without Divine Epiphanies, as he generally wants cost-reduction on Devil Dice (with neutral Morale 2 Epiphany) so he can act as both draw and buffer together.

Owen

Owen is one of the best users of Residual Herb, which is a Season-2 Neutral Card with [Retrieve 2] only accessible by Strikers/Vanguards. This allows him to buff Mei Lin a significant amount.
He can give additive buffs at a similar level to Rei, in single-target, via Break Armor I, which decreases Fortitude by 4 (effectively +4 Morale).

Narja

She can buff Mei Lin’s basics, which some builds might do quite a lot of each turn.
She can reduce the cost of Spire, allowing it to receive various other equipment buffs it couldn’t previously: like RFS’ 10% Crit Rate for 0-costs or Foggy’s 40% multipicative buff for 0-costs.

Best Teams

Chaos Teams

Generic - Chaos

DPS

Flex

Healer

Save Teams

Mei Lin Hyper-Carry

DPS

Support

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Neutral [★★★★] - Target Neutral Epiphany: N/A.
The Neutral Epiphany effects on this card don’t even matter that much, it’s rated as 4-stars merely because the base card already gives its most important effect (Passion Weakness Imprint) so it’s completely acceptable to take any Neutral Epiphany on this if not offered Flame Dragon’s Jewel I or III and focus on meditating another card with stricter options like Rising Dragon Spire.

[★★★★★] - The card gains a small buff to its damage increase effect. The Passion Weakness Imprint on this card is essential for any scenario where the enemy isn’t already weak to Passion units, as it is the final multiplier on your damage and Mei Lin’s final Potential node enables her to have a higher multiplier for Passion Weakness than other units do — giving her an even greater advantage from this effect.

[★] - The card loses Passion Weakness Imprint but will now do Tenacity Damage for every attack. Not only does Passion Weakness Imprint already increase your Tenacity Damage (if the enemy isn’t already Passion weak), making the change rather low-value, but Tenacity Damage in general is just not that high value and can actively interfere with her capitalizing on ember buffs.

[★★★★★] - You will now make Embers for every attack you do, which can be a nice bit of additional damage on Ravage (especially if ravaging with Spire, as it applies to all hits of it). But more importantly, the Passion Weakness Imprint on this card is essential for any scenario where the enemy isn’t already weak to Passion units, as it is a final multiplier on your damage and Mei Lin’s final Potential node enables her to have a higher multiplier for Passion Weakness than other units do — giving her an even greater advantage from this effect.

[★★★] - While this card is SIGNIFICANTLY worse versus any enemy who doesn’t have Passion Weakness (or if you are playing with an ally who can give Passion Weakness Imprint to Mei like Selena or Lucas), it is exceptionally strong in scenarios where you have Passion Weakness from another source already and can allow you to easily hit 100% Crit Rate, vastly increasing her DPS ceiling (again ONLY when you already have Passion Weakness, though).

[★] - You lose all previous buffs and effects, but you do one extra 300% hit on Ravage. The gain from having around 1 attack extra a turn is much less than the buffs the other cards will allow you to utilize for all Mei Lin attacks.

Neutral [★] - The Neutral Epiphany on this card is not recommended; all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.

[★] - The card now gains one additional hit on combo for a total of 3-hits. This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.

[★] - The card now has a slightly higher base ratio value for its damage. This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.

[★★] - Instead of increasing its damage directly, this card now gives an extra hit to the next Passion card. This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.

[★] - This is not recommended, as all Rising Dragon Spire cards are primarily damage-based cards and the damage of any version that isn’t Rising Dragon Spire V is incomparably worse.

[★★★★★] - The card now gives you an extra hit for every Passion card played before it, including allies. This is the hallmark of Mei Lin’s kit and the number one reason why every boss is now given ‘Elasticity’ (they will take effectively no damage past 7-hits from multihit cards). It allows you to scale her hits to rather crazy amounts, especially alongside Veronica, who acts as both your Draw unit and also a unit who will give you around 5-10 extra Passion cards, which translates to 5-10 extra hits on this card.

Neutral [★] - As you will likely play Mei Lin with Veronica or some other form of draw, the value from merely drawing your Basic Attacks is quite low. Moreover, this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it.

[★] - This allows you to draw your Basic Attacks once and increases their damage if drawn by this. However, this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it since it can move them from the used pile–not just draw.

[★★★★★] - This enables Mei Lin to play her Basic Attacks an extra time every turn, per number of Unity of Attack and Defense II’s that she has in her deck. This not only gives her 2 Extra Attacks for every use, but will also activate 3 buffs from Aromata and Spire V, since every Unity II will be 3 Passion cards played.

[★★] - Now, the card will draw your Basics and allow you to target [Exhaust] 2 cards for an extra buff. This can be useful if Mei Lin is used with characters who make cards that you want to [Exhaust], like Incinerate effects, but she typically isn’t. Moreover, the cost of 2 makes it hard to play and this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it.

[★★] - For OTK setups, this can effectively give you the same amount of value as Unity II, as it will allow you to play 1 Passion card (Unity) and play 2 extra Basic Attacks. However, it will not only give less value after Turn 1 but will fill your draw with the extra basics it made, making it extremely hard to use after Turn 1 and, even worse overall, even if you can use it.

[★] - Your Basics now do more damage. With no other buffs, this is basically doubling the damage of her basics, but Mei Lin has a lot of self-buffs that dilute the value. Moreover, this pales in comparison to Unity of Attack and Defense II, which allows you to not only draw your basics, but play them an extra time for every use of it.

Neutral [★★] - Target Neutral Epiphany: N/A.
The Neutral Epiphany on this card doesn’t matter, but the base card can be situationally as good as Aromata, if all of Mei’s team’s Passion card usage is Mei herself (which is not typically the case, but can be for certain OTK set-ups). Still, it’s flat-out worse than Aromata I or II, making it not the recommended choice.

[★★★★★] - The go-to choice, as this allows you to gain an effective 1 Morale (20% additive buff) for Mei Lin for every Passion card played, including allies. This allows characters like Veronica to buff her damage for every card they play. Additionally, it synergizes amazingly with Spire V, which also increases her hit count for every Passion card played.

[★★★] - This will be superior to Aromata I, ONLY in scenarios where Mei Lin is the only Passion unit on your team. This is essentially a 1.5x increase in value compared to the base Epiphany or Aromata III.

[★★] - The card now costs 0. For the same reasons as Neutral Epiphanies, this can be a solid choice for certain teams where Mei Lin is the only Passion unit. Still, it’s flat-out worse than Aromata I or II, making it not the recommended choice.

[★] - You lose your buff gain, but the card now gives 1 Ember on own card use. Because Embers cap out at 5 and only affect one attack, this will basically always be worse than just using another option.

[★★] - The card now gives a 50% additive boost to Mei Lin Basics, which can be situationally useful for OTK set-ups with boss Elasticity (hit-count capped at 7) built around Mei Lin Basics. However, it will typically still be worse than playing around buffing Spire V versus alternative options.

Mei Lin Best Build Guide

Kit

Review

Epiphanies

Gear

Deck & Teams

Starting Cards:

Epiphany Cards:

Ego Skill:

Epiphany Variants:

Performance Profile

Pros

Cons

Heavenly Flame Dragon

Strike

Flame Dragon Guardian

Flame Dragon's Jewel

Rising Dragon Spire

Unity of Attack and Defense

Spirit of the Aromata

Flame Dragon's Sovereignty

Note

Card 1

Card 2

Card 3

Card 4

Recommended Loadout

Specialist Loadout

Weapon

Armor

Trinket

Comments - Weapons

Comments - Armor

Comments - Trinkets

Mei Lin Builds

Setup Summary

Character

Partner

Equipment

Criticism of Discord

Fairy King's Crown

Verdant Night

Fragments

Cards Summary [10 selected] Compact

Deck Explanation

Card Removal Priority

Card Copying Priority

Veronica

Rei

Cassius

Owen

Narja

Chaos Teams

Generic - Chaos

Save Teams

Mei Lin Hyper-Carry

Mei Lin Best Build Guide

Kit

Review

Epiphanies

Gear

Deck & Teams

Starting Cards:

Epiphany Cards:

Ego Skill:

Epiphany Variants:

Performance Profile

Pros

Cons

Heavenly Flame Dragon

Strike

Flame Dragon Guardian

Flame Dragon's Jewel

Rising Dragon Spire

Unity of Attack and Defense

Spirit of the Aromata

Flame Dragon's Sovereignty

Note

Card 1

Card 2

Cards Summary [10 selected]

Cards Summary [10 selected]