Since all games need new blood, and Kamihime is fucking AWFUL towards new players, I thought I'd try and see if I could make things just a little bit easier for them. So this guide is meant for them. Many of things I say that you can't/shouldn't might be easily doable by veterans/whales, but those guys don't need this guide. I will try to be as short and simple as possible when it comes to explaining what the bosses do. If you care for the details, please refer to this thread originally by Laventale instead.
One thing that newer players should know about raids in general - NEVER use "Give Up" button!!! Simply "Request Support" for help, and then use the "Go to My Page" button instead. The raid will last for an hour, somebody else will (hopefully) join and clear the raid for you. Then you get your rewards. Nothing makes me sadder than joining a raid of some newbie when it has 10 minutes left, and when I check Combat Log the last thing that reads there is "newbie has retreated", which means that he hit the Give Up button. That means that I wasted my Seeds for some content I didn't even need anymore, and that player didn't receive any rewards. So please, don't. If you yourself are hosting and went to My Page, you cannot do any hosting or single player content until your hosted raid is cleared. You can, however, join up to 3 raids (hosted by others). This can be useful during Raid events in particular.
Remember that you can send an emoticon to the raid (for 100% free) and get a 100% free AoE pot for it, once per fight. That's 25% HP to your team. Use these, love these.
About Disaster Standards and Experts in general:
Standards should be very easy for you to AAB very quickly. You might not be able to do it on day2, but you might be able to do it on week2. You should do these daily if you can, as they're your best source for T2 Cores forever, plus SR weapons.
Speaking of T2 Cores, that means the "Prison of (element), Idea Core" item. There is also "(element) Idea Core" which are the T1 Cores, and honestly, abundant and useless.
When Experts become easy for you, you can farm those too. But honestly? I don't think their drops are any better than Standard drops, despite being way harder and more AP expensive to start.
About Disaster Ults in general:
You need 3x T2 Cores to start these, each.
These things ARE soloable. However, it will probably be a long time before you can. If you have rerolled into a 100% Eidolon you can probably Manual the element you're strong against fairly soon, but being able to AAB them will take much more time. It'd be for the best if you found yourself into a strong Union and asked for them to help clear your Ults.
Drops in these are set in stone:
Host: 1 Regalia
Everyone: 2 Gem Fragments
MVP: 3 Gem Fragments
Vice: 1 Gem Fragment
So host who gets MVP will always find 1 Regalia and 5 Gem Fragments. Also, I believe these will change in December. No more guaranteed Regalia and more Gem Fragments, so... for the worse? Thanks devs!
Oh, and for some reason Ults have only 8 Def, compared to the normal 10. Don't brag about your damage against Ults - it is always higher here than in any other content in the game!!
About Disaster Rags in general:
You need 3x Regalia to start these, each.
These things are NOT soloable. You will need a swarm of players to clear these. They are also generally debuff resistant, which makes debuffs... more important than ever! If anyone tells you otherwise, tell them they're stupid. Having -50% Atk and -50% Def up on Rags makes them wayyyy easier and is generally THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. You will want to bring a supporting team so that stronger players can clear this stuff for you, and that usually means bringing as many powerful debuffs as possible and/or Joan/Andro.
Please don't get yourself killed. Damage in Rag raids is very predictable. If you know that the next turn will kill you? Just don't take that turn until you have one or two Joan Damage Cut stacks, or until friendly Andromedas have healed you to full. You will help nobody if you're dead. Just. Fucking. Wait. I only AAB even when supporting, but I keep a loose eye on the fight and pause my AAB when it looks like I'm about to die. Please do at least that much.
Rags have adds to them. That means that you need to change targets. The easiest way to do this is to click on their small portrait at the top - the hitboxes of the mobs themselves are really fucking wonky in Rags. Each Rag has four Silver drops (that contain stuff like Seeds), and the adds always drop one of those Silver drops (leaving the boss herself with 2-3 Silver drops). You need to have done damage to that add to get its drop. If you join a Rag and see that one add is about to die, use an AoE skill immediately.
Rag droprates are awful:
Host: 1 Magna + 2 Relic Fragments + small (25%?) chance of Magna
Everyone: 50% chance of Magna + small (10%?) chance of Relic Fragment + tiny (1%? 2%?) chance of Phantom weapon
MVP: 1 Magna + tiny (1%? 2%?) chance of Phantom weapon
Vice: Small (10%?) chance of Magna
I believe these will change in December, I think T4 Crystals can drop instead of Magnas? So for the worse? THANKS DEVS!!!
So, let's get down to the fights themselves:
Fire Ult:
Relative difficulty to other Ults: Easy.
Bring BP! Fire Ult was the first Ult and was created just before Triggers existed, so she is simple. All you need to know is that she has a 50% chance of buffing his Atk during normal Overdrives, and if she has that buff up, YOU WILL DIE TO HER RAGE OVERDRIVE! So, don't get hit by the Rage Overdrive. This makes Manualing this fight really easy, just gather up Burst during normal Phase and Full Burst as soon as she hits Rage. If you're not strong enough to one-shot that Rage bar, then you're not strong enough to clear Fire Ult. Hint: Bring SR Belphegor, her -30% Rage Bar is no joke and will make one-shotting the Rage bar much easier.
Technically you can also just bring Dispel and remove the buff, but neither Dispel nor BP are common skills to find... and BP is more important.
Fire Rag:
Relative difficulty to other Rags: A joke.
Recommended Ex-skills:
Vicissitudes of Fortune: Debuffs are important, and VoF will make everyone in the raid hit them much more often.
Black Propaganda: Fire doesn't really have access to this, and it is really good in this fight.
Forget the adds. Target the main body. Win.
Fire Rag is the easiest of the bunch. Just bring 2 veterans/whales, 2-3 newbies with debuffs, target main body, AAB, win. It can be done with less. All you need to know is, past turn 10, you die. The end... ... well, that and let me say it again: Forget the adds. Only the main body matters. IGNORE. THE. FUCKING. ADDS.
Honestly, the hardest part of this fight is finding people who are willing to fight it. Fire Rag was farmed the shit out of when she first came out, so many veterans just don't join the fight anymore.
Water Ult:
Relative difficulty to other Ults: Hard.
Water Ult was the first fight in the game with Triggers, so oh boy. They overdid this one, so buckle up.
Normal Overdrive will give Def Up to the boss that halves the damage she takes. This is obviously very, very, very bad. Either bring Dispel or don't let it happen. The Rage Overdrive basically murders one person.
Every time you see her start Rage, the next turn you take she'll apply a 100% Damage Cut that lasts for 5 hits. This means that your Full Burst will be reduced to effectively 0 damage. THIS HAPPENS FOR EVERY PLAYER IN THE RAID, and can thus be extremely annoying to deal with. If you're weak and having a Union member carrying you, it might be best for you to not fight at all. Just hit the boss once (with a skill) and wait.
And the cherry on the cake is, once she hits 30% she'll kill two people from you (unless you get lucky and both hit the same target). Combined with all the previous bullshit, this usually just ends the fight for you.
Even as a full Thunder Baka, for a very, very, VERY long time I had to have a separate team to AAB Water Ults (with Dartagnan HP weapon for better debuffs). For those who aren't full Thunder Bakas, even manualing this fight can be rough.
Water Rag:
Relative difficulty to other Rags: A giant fucking chore.
Recommended Ex-skills:
Vicissitudes of Fortune: Debuffs are important, and VoF will make everyone in the raid hit them much more often.
Sniper Shot: Thunder has very little access to B frame debuffs, and it is important that you debuff the main body's Atk while fighting the add.
Chaos Magic: Dispel is needed throughout the fight and particularly when Rage happens. But chances are somebody else will bring this.
Bring Andromeda. Kill the add first. When the add reaches 50% HP, it will buff the main body. When the main body is buffed (this cannot be Dispelled), she will nuke you HARD (once). This is the only dangerous thing in this fight, so if you're joining the fight later on be ready to immediately get hit for a ton of damage.
Water Rag has one tactic and one tactic only: To whittle you down with tiny little damage every single turn and outlive you. So the best tactic is just adopt the same tactic: Bring Andromeda, outheal that fucker and just AAB. Water Rag can be cleared with 2 AABing veterans who brought Andromeda, but it takes fucking 40 minutes. It is NOT fun and nobody enjoys fighting this little shit. So the hardest part is finding players who will join this stupid fight.
Wind Ult:
Relative difficulty to other Ults: Easy/Hard
Wind Ult is nigh-immune to debuffs. And debuff immune content is stupid. So soloing this fight is really just a simple matter of: Do you have Uriel/Svarog? If yes, you can solo it. If not, get fucked. Not much you can do since debuffs don't work.
Wind Rag:
Relative difficulty to other Rags: Medium.
Recommended Ex-skills:
(VoF: Do not bring this, top add will remove a debuff whenever a blue ability is used, making VoF useless here)
Ambush: Fire has access to this, but there isn't much else useful to bring. Because debuff immune content is stupid.
Bring Andromeda, kill adds first. Both of them are super annoying but at least you can debuff them. Just target whichever one the raid is fighting first - this varies greatly depending on how the host prefers it. Once the adds are murdered, it's still a long, long, loooong chore of fighting the 0% Def debuffed main body, since she is nigh-debuff immune. Wind Rag doesn't do a lot of damage but lasts forever, so Andromeda helps to keep people alive. Debuff immune content is stupid.
Thunder Ult:
Relative difficulty to other Ults: Medium.
Thunder Ult is a very much a "kill before you get killed" fight. She deals a TON of damage to you, especially when Raging, so if Manualing Joan should make this into an easy fight. Those who are lucky enough to have found Gaia will also probably not find this boss challenging.
Oh, and one thing to note: Thunder Ult is VERY weak to debuffs. This is quite rare and opens up windows of opportunity for you. Maybe you can just Paralyze her? Still not reliable (and Paralyze isn't very accessible), but can lead to some easy wins. Off element teams can also easily debuff her, which can make this Ult very reliable to kill with those teams as well.
Thunder Rag:
Relative difficulty to other Rags: Hard!
Recommended Ex-skills:
Vicissitudes of Fortune: Debuffs are important, and VoF will make everyone in the raid hit them much more often.
Ambush: Wind already has access to this, but Hastur has awful hitrate.
Eternal Serpent: This Gilgamesh's skill rarely sees use, but it is super useful here when used right. Use this if you're Manualing.
Trial by Jury: Hopefully there are enough Joans in the raid, but if not, this REALLY helps on the main body.
No short version here, sorry.
Thunder Rag will basically be in Rage throughout the fight. The first turn taken will immediately Rage both the add and the main body. One thing to note here: THE OVERDRIVE BUBBLES ARE A LIE IN THIS FIGHT. The add (when in Rage, so almost always) will add one Bubble to the boss every turn. This means that the boss will Overdrive you when ONE SHORT of full Bubbles when the add is alive. Be prepared for that, since that HURTS. If the add is dead, the boss will basically just outright murder you EVERY TURN (when in Rage, so almost always) AND add one bubble to herself. She will need full Bubbles to Overdrive now, but gaining two Bubbles per turn makes BP near useless - don't bother with it.
There's effectively two ways to fight this boss:
Kill the add first: This is by far the most common tactic. This is how the fight should go:
Everyone nukes the add, and once Stunned, SWAP TO THE FUCKING BOSS. Keep smashing the boss until the add is back to Rage, then finish the add off. If done right, the boss is either Stunned or almost Stunned at this point, which means that your raid won't wipe from the pissed off boss (notice: If boss is still at full Rage bar at this point, your raid has wiped). Everyone uses the Stun and normal phases to build up Full Bursts, and waits until the boss is Raged. Everyone unleashes their Full Bursts and kills the boss before being horrendously murdered by the extremely angry boss.
For this tactic, bring Joan since Andromeda does fucking nothing against the pissed off boss.
Ignore the add: Just... let the add do his (her?) thing. When the add is alive, the boss will be annoying with her debuff spam sure, but that's better than being murdered every turn, right?
Bring Andromeda for this tactic. I've seen a single Andromeda keep the entire raid topped up, and that wasn't even an Ascension Grid. Good job, WhatIConceal.
You might see why this boss is hard: AABing this fucker basically just gets you killed. Notice that ignore the add tactic will probably become irrelevant when December nerfs halve the amount of damage Thunder Rag does. At that point this fight will probably be easy and AAB city.
Light Ult:
Relative difficulty to other Ults: Hard.
The first half of the fight is nothing. She just uses Dispel on you and AoE damage. The problem is the second half: she will Rage at half HP and buff the fuck up. If you're weak, just wait for those buffs to expire. However, please note that this will happen once per person in the raid. It isn't uncommon that you Rage her, wait her debuffs out, have some random idiot join your fight and take a turn to rebuff her. Aaaand then you need to wait again. Aaaaand then some other idiot joins and rebuffs her. Aaaand again. Aaaaand again. You get the idea. So, if YOU are joining a Light Ult that is Raged and isn't buffed: DO. FUCKING. NOT. TAKE. A. TURN. Just use a skill and let whoever is fighting it finish it up. If they wipe? Then take your turn and wait for the buffs to expire. Or just AAB it if it's low enough even with the buffs, up to you.
So anyway, the problem with her Rage is that every single Overdrive, she will just end one person. So bring BP. She also has Triggers for the very same skill at low HP, so she might just kill three people in three consecutive turns. This makes her extremely annoying to fight.
Light Rag:
Relative difficulty to other Rags: Hard!
Recommended Ex-skills:
Vicissitudes of Fortune: Debuffs are important, and VoF will make everyone in the raid hit them much more often.
Black Propaganda: Hit the main body with this, for the love of god!!!
Sniper Shot: Dark has very poor access to this skill.
Chaos Magic: Dispel can make this fight faster in the first half. Sadly, since the removed buffs will probably just get re-applied, this doesn't actually make that much of a difference unless you coordinate this skill somehow.
Kill the top add first. Ignore the bottom add, it does fucking nothing.
The problem in this fight is the top add. The very first turn you take? It buffs all your enemies with a Def Up. That's not so bad, but when that fucker hits Rage? It fucking buffs all of your enemies with a strong Damage Cut too! So, ideally, this is how Light Rags SHOULD go:
Union members organize a group during Burst Hour, one person Full Bursts first and takes the add near Rage, the rest of the group nukes the add with skills to Rage it, the strongest person Full Bursts for massive damage before Damage Cut is applied. Then the rest of the group Full Bursts and hopefully kills the top add. Finally, everyone Dispels the main body of the buffs and the raid is opened to Friends too.
If that was always the case, then this Rag would be easy.
But what happens in reality? Everyone just AABs the the top add forever, while the main body simply ENDS one person per Overdrive. Half the raid will wipe to kill the top add, and hopefully the remaining half will manage to kill the main body. Hopefully. If they were smart enough to wait the buffs out...
Lesson of the story is: ONLY HOST DURING BURST HOUR WHEN YOU HAVE FRIENDS WITH BURST HOUR. People will typically NOT JOIN against a full HP Light Rag, because fuck that top add.
Notice that Light Rag will get massively nerfed upcoming December. Then you will probably just target bottom add and AAB your way to victory.
Dark Ult:
Relative difficulty to other Ults: EXTREME.
Here's the short version: Fuck this guy.
Here's the long version: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK THIS GUY. Or girl. I guess it's a girl like everything in this game. FUCK THIS GIRL. Which you can't even literally do since SR Eidolons don't have scenes!!!
Ult Dark is the only Ult that not even veterans are able to reliably solo (in AAB). Here's what this fucker does:
1. Regen. Always up. This doesn't matter much per turn, but it adds up.
2. Damage cut. Always up. This guy ALREADY has like fucking TWICE the HP of the other Ults, and ON TOP OF THAT, she gets an always up damage cut? What the fuck?
3. Deals 1500 damage to everyone. Every turn. Always. No exceptions. Because fuck you.
4. Deals an additional 750 damage to everyone starting from the fight for 10 turns. This is a "buff" and cannot be Cleansed, but this can be removed by:
5. Dispels your group every turn.
6. Overdrive deals massive damage to everyone. Oh, and this also disables your skill usage, so have fun with that.
7. When Ult Dark gets low, she starts to spam Blind and Berserk on your team, making things even more frustrating.
After two years of play, I have only recently been able reliably AAB this piece of shit. Turns out that when you have 15k HP with Andromeda and Sol each healing for 5k every ~5 turns, you can just outheal this motherfucker. Even if you get unlucky with both of them being disabled by an Overdrive, you will still have enough HP buffer to not die from the constant damage.
Fuck this guy. Girl. Whatever. Her HP at least will be MASSIVELY nerfed in December, meaning that I could reliably clear her even off-element, but until then... just do what I did:
Beg for your Union to help you out.
Every.
Single.
Day.
Dark Rag:
Relative difficulty to other Rags: Easy. Kind of. If people pay attention.
Recommended Ex-skills:
Vicissitudes of Fortune: Debuffs are important, and VoF will make everyone in the raid hit them much more often. Light has great access to all debuffs, so you might as well bring this, I guess.
(Maiden's Prayer: Cleanse may sound like a good idea, but all it does is massively lag - or even CRASH - the raid. DO NOT BRING THIS.)
KILL THE TWO ADDS AT THE SAME TIME. Bring Andromeda and have like 10k+ HP. The main body itself is basically just Ult Dark, except easier but with way more HP. You will want Andromedas in the raid because the main body deals 1700 damage to everyone in the raid every turn and massive damage per Overdrive. But as long as you have 6-7 Andromedas in the raid and some HP buffer, no problem. Hell, veterans have Light Grids with 200% Ascension, which means that their Andromedas count as 3 each.
Once one add is dead, the other one will enter Rage. When in Rage, these fuckers (either one) can instantly wipe your entire fucking raid. The good news is, if you do kill the adds at relatively same time, the main body itself is a joke. I have never seen a raid wipe if they didn't fuck up the adds. So the entire fight is literally about one single thing: killing both adds at the same time.