Great Rift Rules
Vanguard / Rearguard
Increase Damage and Extra Damage Amounts of Passion and Void Cards by 15%.
Each time a card is Discarded, +5% Damage Amount to Linked cards (max 30 stacks).
Decrease EP Gain Amount by 100%.
+0.5% Same-Season Save Data Score Bonus to Final Score (max 6 stacks).
Removes the Stress that Combatants receive when attacked during combat.
There is a max ceiling to the amount of score that can be acquired from the Damage Amount inflicted by a single Attack Card.
You will gain Combat Score based on the Damage Amount, and once you reach a certain threshold of damage, the score you receive in this manner will gradually be reduced.
Limited to 10 turns for the Vanguard and 5 turns for the Rearguard.
Turns left over from the Vanguard will increase the Rearguard’s turn limit (max 5)
Breakdown
On Breakdown
Transform broken Combatant’s cards into Breakdown Cards
Exhaust Corroded Armaments
Discard all cards from Hand to Discard Pile
Boss loses its buffs outside of Morale and Elasticity
Remove Fallen Hero / False Hero
Create phantom Breakdown Cards in Draw Pile
Combatant has 4 or less cards in play
Move all Breakdown Cards to Hand in this order: Combatant Cards > Created Cards > Phantom Cards
Activate any Discard Effects of cards that were previously in hand
Boss changes action to
During Breakdown
Cards in hand are arranged in a specific order
From the left side: Combatant Cards in order specified in
Deck View in Top Left Menu, then created cards, then phantom cards
Using a Breakdown Card puts the corresponding card into the Used Cards Pile
If the turn was passed / ended, Boss performs attack and the next turn begins normally with him still in his stance
On Recovery
Transform Breakdown Cards into corresponding Combatant Cards
Recovered Combatant loses 100 Stress
Allies lose 10 Stress
Draw 5
Gain 3 AP
Gain 1 EP
Reduce Ego Skill EP Cost of recovered Combatant by 4
Boss changes action to
Boss gains 1 Break Threshold
Attack Patterns
Attack percentage values were recorded on Hell difficulty.
Name | Condition | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Tragedy | Activate after 4 Action Count(s) | 325% Damage 1 Morale for 1 turn |
Endless Resentment | Activate after 3 Action Count(s) | 390% Damage 1 Vulnerable 1 Morale for 1 turn |
Longing For Revenge | Activate after 2 Action Count(s) | Increase Stress of all Combatants by 5 |
Corrosion of Despair | Activate after 2 Action Count(s) | 130% Damage x 2 3 Morale for 1 turn |
Remnants of Despair | Activate after 2 Action Count(s) | 976% Damage 10 Weaken 3 Morale for 1 turn |
The End of Despair | Activate at the end of the turn | 5206% Damage |
Tragedy | Activate at the end of the turn | 325% Damage |
Vanguard/cHAOS
Skills
Fallen Hero - Decrease Damage Amount taken by 20% (max 4 stacks). Remove when a Combatant breaks.
Corroded Armament - When 3 cards are used manually, create 1 Corroded Armament in hand. When a Combatant breaks, Exhaust all Corroded Armament cards.
Corrosion of Dreams - On Draw through an ability, increase Stress by 4. On activation, decrease Corrosion of Dreams by 1.
Elasticity - When Hitting more than 7 times at one time with a Targeting Attack, gradually decrease Damage (max 1).
Extra Action - Can act continuously.
Break Threshold - Increase Damage Amount taken from Ego Skills by 500%. On effect activation (or turn end), decrease Break Threshold by 1.
Action Sequence
Phase =/= Turn
Start of Battle
Gain Elasticity
Gain Corroded Armament
Gain Extra Action
Rearguard
Skills
False Hero - Decreases Damage Amount by 70%. Decrease Heal Amount of Skill Cards by 75%. Remove when a Combatant breaks.
Corroded Armament - When Damage is inflicted on a Combatant, create 3 Corroded Armament. When a Combatant breaks, Exhaust all Corroded Armament cards.
Corrosion of Existence - When a card is used manually, increase Stress by 1. On activation, decrease Corrosion of Existence by 1.
Inner Corrosion - When a card is Discarded, increase Stress of the Combatant who activated the Discard effect by 2, then decrease Inner Corrosion by 1.
Elasticity - When Hitting more than 7 times at one time with a Targeting Attack, gradually decrease Damage (max 1).
Extra Action - Can act continuously.
Break Threshold - Increase Damage Amount taken from Ego Skills by 500%. On effect activation (or turn end), decrease Break Threshold by 1.
Action Sequence
Phase =/= Turn
Start of Battle
Gain 3 Regard
Gain 1 Designation
Gain Extra Action
Gain Elasticity: Perseverance
Begin Phase 1
Observations and Rift Strategy
In Vanguard, Exhaust Cards can be brought back from Exhaust Pile by Breakdown, but only their Neutral epiphanies work. (needs more testing)
Some 2-cost Ego Skills don’t work, even though you start with 2 EP, some work only after performing any action (relog helps) on Rearguard.
Lonesome Wedding Ring might cause the wearer not to gain stress from discard chaining Dream World (needs confirmation)
You can use cards twice per turn, if you break the Combatant that played them, since cards return from the Used Pile after Breakdown in the form of Breakdown Cards. On Recovery, non-phantom Breakdown Cards transform back into corresponding Combatant Cards.
On Breakdown all cards are discarded from hand, meaning that unstressed Combatants can trigger on-discard effects of their cards.
If you happen to break your
Heidemarie by ending the turn with 0 cards in your Draw Pile and letting the Boss hit you with a Stress-inducing attack, then you will start the next turn in Breakdown Phase with a forced deck reshuffle.You can use Immunity to remove the False Hero debuff that is inflicted on you at the end of the Recovery Phase.
This Great Rift triggers multiple Mindbreaks, allowing for ego skills to be used. Because of this, the meta became an extremely dominant Heidemarie + 
Cassius + 
Nia synergy, using Heidemarie’s ability to do extra attacks on Blades discarded, combined with Cassius’ ability to move them to draw, and Nia’s Ego Skill which can discard them from Draw resulting in a massive amount of Extra Attacks from Heidemarie for every Cassius’ Shuffle you could play (greater numbers on later turns, obviously).
In order to manipulate mindbreaks, it was important to keep in mind the mechanic that gives target stress to the unit who discards, which was especially important for high rankers who would mind-break Heidemarie on an early turn, which required special finesse since Heidemarie has to be the unit who triggers the [Link] + [Quietus] chain in order to count as the discarder.
Deck Recommendation:
Decks used by Global Rank 3 (Global + Asia Rank-5) Quan. Keeping in mind the Rift strategy, this deck just aimed to push as much morale as possible, with Dominion and Stronger Quest Popeyed on Cassius.