A list of Early and Late Game Meta Teams that will help you progress through the story in NIKKE.
Last updated: 04/July/2026
Foreword
This guide is dedicated to modes that use the Stage Penalty system (or deficit). Currently, the Deficit system is applied in Campaign, Event, Tribe Tower, Lost Sector. You can learn more about the Stage Penalty here:
Disclaimer: This guide is intended for new players to help them understand the cards in their hand and prepare for later stages of the game. If you are a veteran, chances are you already know what is best for you.
Now, if you have just rolled a (bunch) of character(s), and you want to know whether you can form a good hand of 5 Nikkes, follow us down the rabbit’s hole. The deeper it is, the fewer teams will be available to push through, mind you!
Starting Tips
If you are a new player, chances are you won’t have all of these characters to fill in your roster, even at a Low Deficit. Just remember this rule:
This is the “easy mode,” and only new players, whales, or veterans can enjoy it. All of your Nikke will have stat reduction, which ranges from 0 ~ 25% based on the deficit.
Playing in blue is like seeing a rainbow, not so often
Most, if not all, teams work in this deficit. As long as you can put a proper team with at least 1 Burst I, 1 Burst II and one Burst III, you are good to go. Because there are too many teams that can be used here, let's dig deeper.
Higher Deficit's
First Dive: 5 - 10% Deficit
This is when it starts getting a little bit hot, but if you have the right setup, sometimes even ONE character, you can still push through them easily.
One-Nikke-Army
Team 90
One-Nikke-army
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
These teams only require 1 CORE Nikke, and you can fill the 4 rest slots with your strongest characters in the tier list (check them here). The structure will be X - X - Core Nikke - X - X. Note that Privaty and Alice are free here.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Vesti: Tactical Upgrade (aka Vesgod) Team
Team 91
Vesti: Tactical Upgrade (aka Vesgod)
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
B1
B2
flex
flex
About the team
When they first dropped her, people were kinda disappointed with her Bossing power (which is the most famous mode in Nikke - Solo Raid). But eventually we figure out what a monster Shift Up has let loose onto their game. Vesgod is the one woman army. On burst, off burst, buffer has or not, it doesn’t matter. If loving you is the work of God, then Vesti’s work is sending you back to Him.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Rapi: Red Hood Team
Team 92
Other One Nikke Army Teams
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
B1
B2
flex
flex
About the team
The SSR version of our female protagonist brings shame to all current Nikkes ingame. She excels in both single target and AoE wiping, just like SBS (below) without the distributing damage fallback. She can even help you as a decent B1 CDR when you lack a proper team and just have her + another One Nikke Army below. Disadvantage? Require your device to run at 60 FPS consistently.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Substitutions
- Snow White: Heavy Arms: At this deficit, one SW shot should delete everything. God tier.
- Red Hood B3: Same as Snow White, Red Hood is also one-Nikke-army on her own. Throw whatever B1/B2 in this team and you are good at this level of penalty.
- Scarlet: Black Shadow: SBS is one of the best screen wipers + single target DPS in the game at a low level of penalty like this. The best part? She can hit a target and everyone else on the screen just dies. Completely automatically, perfect!
- Neon: Vision Eye: Every fear comes from lacking Firepower, quoted by Neon, the wise firepower god.
Anis: Star Team
Team 101
Solo Anis: Star
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
B2
B3
B3
B3
About the team
Anis is that strong, she can solo carry as a solo B1, doesn't care about your B2 or B3 too because she gives CDR too. Dmg, buff, CDR and burst gauge, she's basically Siren on steroids
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Duo Idols Team
Team 93
Mint-ka Team
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
B1-CDR
B3
B3
About the team
The latest duo, they are insanely strong with a lot of buffs which vibes well with meta DPS too, and if your B1 is Anis Sparkling Star, it's set in stone
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Mast - Anchor the Duo Maids
Team 94
El Ma-chor
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
B1
B3
B3
About the team
There were once Blanc and Noir, but let’s be real, they are outclassed heavily by this duo. El Ma-chor gives way stronger buff unconditionally, strong healing and comes with insane reload speed which allows you to ignore Ammo OL completely.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Time to Auto but Seriously: 10-20% Deficit
If you are a new player, you can still play Nikke automatically till around chapter 7 with this much deficit. Once you pass that point, you will find yourself losing A LOT by playing auto at this level of penalty (35 ~ 47% stat reduction).
At this point, you won’t be able to use the “one-Nikke-army” teams anymore, but need to draft proper ones. We will go through each of them.
Auto Team
Team 95
Auto Team Story
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
At this level, this team brings a lot to the table, and unless it’s a very nasty stage where a lot of oneshot mobs are spawned, you can use this team to play automatically. It’s balanced and well-rounded with heal, offensive, buffs.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Vesti: Tactical Upgrade: Vesgod, of course. In fact, the deeper we go, the more you see her. Try putting her in your team as much as you can.
Modernia: She is clapped hard by Rapi, both in single target and AoE, but if you don’t have Rapi, Modernia is still very good.
Cinderella: The better Scarlet. Huge wipe, strong DPS.
Scarlet: Black Shadow: Since the penalty starts breathing on her neck, her clearing power is not as impressive as at a lower penalty. Still a great choice.
Neon: Vision Eye: Also a good choice here. At this deficit, she can even clap Vesti.
Anis: Star can also be replaced if you don’t have her, of course:
Siren: She is just a worse Anis. She provides little to nothing to the offensive side of the team, but the utility makes up for it.
Rouge or D: Killer Wife: They also provide Cooldown Reduction (CDR) just like Anis, except their other buffs feel pale compared to Anis.
N102 : When you don’t have any of the above Nikke, go N102.
Crowntr Team
Team 32
Crowntr Team
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
This team is less comfy than the team above, but they can deal way more damage. By using this team, you may want to turn off “Auto Burst” and control Burst time yourself, because these Nikkes have very impactful Bursts that need to be used at proper time to make the most out of them.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
They used to be the most braindead team in Nikke until Blanc-Noir were released. This team has wipe, strong DPS, CDR, a shield that blocks most instant death attacks once in a while, and a nice passive heal from Rapunzel that doesn’t even require her Bursting. Rapunzel can even come in clutch with her revival Burst, saving your run from a disaster. Heavily out-classed by any other duos, but if your duos are not completely, you can go this route.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Manual Play with Lots of Clicking
Team 34
Manual Play with Lots of Clicking
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
This is the traditional team pushing story. They have semi wipe with Privaty (mostly, just stun), boss killing with Alice (requires extremely high investment but she’s worth), and damage buffers with Maxwell + Liter + Privaty. Problem is, they require you to “aim” manually, and it’s not a good experience aiming those small flying Raptures from afar. Highly NOT recommended, just putting them here as a tribute to the past.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Manual Sometimes: 20 ~ 35% Deficit
This is where the comfy has to stop. Sometimes enemies slap so hard that you will suffer a loss. When that time comes, turn off your auto, it’s about time to play serious, mate!
Vesgod Team
Team 35
Vesgod Team
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
Did I just say this is where most auto teams stop? Definitely not with this team. Vesti will Burst first, make her way to the boss stage then Rapi finishes it.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Another version of Vesgod team which has a lot of heal but is vulnerable against one shot KO Raptures.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Duo Maids Team
Team 97
Duo Maids Team
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
At this level, Anchor’s Storage buff will still protect you from being one shot, so it’s still relevant. As long as you don’t die, you will be healed back just fine.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Improvised Alice Maxwell Team
Team 37
Improvised Alice Maxwell Team
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
Updated version of old Alice Maxwell team, but this time you have super strong buffers which are Crown and Naga. You also replace Maxwell with Alice 2.0 - yeah she's named Milk. Worst part? Milk is even more difficult to play than Alice.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Substitutions
Crown can be replaced with Grave , but in that case, please change Naga into Helm (Treasure) version or Ada Wong, because Naga without a shield on herself is basically a waste of slots.
Pure Evil: 35 ~ 45% Deficit
Everything kills you. You take forever to kill enemies. Yes, welcome to the malicious level of penalty!
Vesgod Team
Team 98
Pure Evil Team #1
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
Surprisingly, this is where you start relying heavily on Crown and Mast instead. Their offensive capabilities allow you to “cheese” through a lot of stages by killing enemies before they can kill you. And Crown even has a cheese mechanic that allows her to soak a lot of damage during a certain window (When she taunts, she’s immortal. Time the taunt well will reward you nicely). Still Vesti will make sure you don’t even know what a wall means. Youtube Video Notice how he timed the Crown’s taunt to avoid the instant wipe phase
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Substitutions
Crown can be replaced by Nayuta if you don't have Crown, but your B1 will be Moran (Treasure) (Phase 2+) instead. And your B3 must have either Helm (Treasure) or Ada Wong because the holy trinity Moran (Treasure) - Nayuta - Healer will keep your team alive long enough to tank through hardship.
Idols or Maid Team
Team 99
Pure Evil Team #2
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
The healing amount from Prika and Mint will be enough to keep you alive against sustain damage, but against one shot enemies, you need Moran instead.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
At even 45% deficit, you start questioning yourself, why do you keep doing this? What’s the reward for torturing yourself like this? If you still want to push, then there’s technically only 1 team left to use. It has a lot of variations so be sure to stick around for all of them.
God Comp #1
Team 38
God Comp #1
Mode: Campaign || Element: All
Characters
About the team
To push at this level, not only you have to fully invest in these Nikkes, but also you have to rely on good Overload roll, and Elemental advantage. And of course, your own SKILLS! This is where you can brag among all other commanders how good you are, because you are pushing under a penalty that feels impossible. By the way, in this deficit, the enemy's defense will feel so high your Nikke deals very little damage, except Vesgod - she ignores all defense! In fact, if you don’t feel like running those teams below, you can just spam this team, it works.
This team works on one concept - True damage funneling. It has zero defense which means either you kill enemies before they start dealing damage or you die.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
Okay these teams will blow your mind, not only from how you craft them, but also you will say: Is that even possible? Key Point to Note:
Red Hood is the Solo Burst I Unit, and DO NOT USE RAPI: The Hood here because she will be B1 version This team can deal with stages by relying on 2, or at maximum 3 full Bursts to pass a stage.
When you use Red Hood as Burst 1 only, you have an insanely high amount of attack buffs over 10s, and you can even do it twice before she goes on cooldown. It allows you to bring 2 DPS, which will a lot of times be Modernia + Nikke that matches the “Weak Element” of the Stage. Ideally, the B3 choices depend on the stage, and aren’t as easy as - this stage is Wind Weak, so I will pick Vesti: Tactical Upgrade / Scarlet: Black Shadow
Huh? Why is Vesti in Wind weak? It’s because there will be a time when you face so many Raptures at once that your SBS damage is splitted too much; it deals meme damage. When that time comes, please remember praying to Vesgod and she will answer. (1145F for example).
You want to study the stage step by step and see what best helps you progress from one wave to the other wave, and what the next wave requires. At times, you might need to i-frame to dodge Remnant Raptures, or hold your Burst while your Modernia kills off Raptures outside of Burst.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
ℹ️Info
How to Use: In a 2-Burst Win, you shouldn’t feel much different from using your usual teams. You might need to be more patient between your 2 bursts, and may need to kill raptures outside of Burst. In this, you use the first burst to clear waves, and the 2nd burst to focus the stage boss and kill it fast. A 2-burst may be used when the player wants the same Nikke to burst 2 times, while the other Nikkes provide support damage.
In a 3-Burst Clear, you use the first 2 Bursts to clear the wave, then the 3rd Burst to rush down and kill the boss. You should easily be able to do 2 bursts without any major hindrance. But after that, if you want to burst a 3rd time, you’ll face the trouble of Red Hood B3’s cooldown. This is something most people should be unfamiliar with if they’ve been using normal CDR B1. To reach your 3rd burst, you will have to save one Rapture from a wave by killing all enemies but one, and then covering all your Nikkes.
Ideally, this should be a harmless rapture like a healer, buffer or elite that doesn’t do high damage, so that you can wait out 30 seconds after full burst ends, to have your burst ready again. Now we can uncover our Nikkes and kill the one rapture we left alive, and when the boss drops, we burst again and focus on the boss!
📝Note
Make sure that your Red Hood B3 does not have super high ATK on her overload gear! Otherwise she might steal Naga ’s skill 2 from your main DPS when they need that extra 40% core hit bonus! If your Red Hood B3 has too many ATK rolls, you might need to use specific Nikkes that boost their own ATK during burst so they can benefit from Naga’s Core Hit buffs to the fullest! Just make sure that she doesn’t steal that core bonus from our beloved Modernia !
Other B3 choices all God Comps
Situational Utility
Neon: Vision Eye: During her burst, she hits like a wrecking ball. Normally, she will delete stage enemies under 3-4 hits!
Milk: Blooming Bunny: The pseudo-true damages Nikke because she has too much ATK, which will somewhat compensate for the penalty.
Privaty: Used for her unique Stun mechanic, while she also buffs ally ATK. It will be even better if you have the Privaty (Treasure) version.
Helm (Treasure): She is an excellent buffer and DPS together. She will hit super hard during water-weak stages.
Cinderella: Her use case is very niche here, because as you can see from all the videos, players stalled a lot after the 2nd Full Burst to wait for the 3rd one. During that window, Cinderella won’t have her S1 ẠTK Buff, which makes her deal 1 damage to enemies most of the time.
Red Hood B3 may also be used as a Burst 3! But in very specific situations. This confirms the limit of your Bursts in the stage to 2. The use of this depends on the stage. You will sometimes find this useful in iron weak stages. Due to the nature of this suggestion, the following video reference should help understand how it works
How is this even possible? Back when we started this guide, 45%+ seemed impossible, but then we have this Youtube Video This team builds on one basic concept: True Damage. True Damage ignores all defense, a thing which may seem underrate at surface level, but it becomes more and more evil the deeper deficit you dive. Most Nikkes deal 1 damage at 45+% Deficit, with only a few Nikkes who can still deal some damages due to high ATK amount self buff. Vesti is the main damage dealer, with Ada acts as both buffers and semi damage dealer. Takina also buffs a lot for true damage DPS.
Substitutions
This Team is part of Meta Teams - Story Guide. Check here
for further information and viable substitutes.
At a Lower Deficit (the original team can push up to 55% Deficit), you can replace Takina Inoue with Mast: Romantic Maid because she gives a lot of ATK.
Anything above 55% will be technically impossible because the game prevents you from playing. Congratulations, you have exploited Nikke’s system to its own limit.
N102.
Anis.
Rapi.
Snow White: Heavy Arms: At this deficit, one SW shot should delete everything. God tier.
Red Hood B3: Same as Snow White, Red Hood is also one-Nikke-army on her own. Throw whatever B1/B2 in this team and you are good at this level of penalty.
Scarlet: Black Shadow: SBS is one of the best screen wipers + single target DPS in the game at a low level of penalty like this. The best part? She can hit a target and everyone else on the screen just dies. Completely automatically, perfect!
Neon: Vision Eye: Every fear comes from lacking Firepower, quoted by Neon, the wise firepower god.
