AQ6 guide for newer players

[Slashley]

So, AQ6 has been out for a short while. Long, long, LONG time after AQ5, long enough that the game is entirely different. As such, I must put this disclaimer here: I was way too strong for AQ6 when it came out. As such, this guide will be far from perfect as I didn't struggle with anything here. This thread is nowhere near as researched as my AQ5 thread since I've had zero struggles in AQ6. On that note, as I'm writing this, AQ7 has recently come out and is... also very easy for me.

Difficulty wise, I'd assume that when you can unreliably AAB AQ5, then you're strong enough to manual AQ6. This is a worthwhile upgrade, since AQ6 will always drop 2x SSR Accessories, both of which CAN be Ancients (if you're lucky enough). In other words, AQ6 will literally double your Accessory progress speed.

Monday, Thunder

->Open Spoiler<-

Wave 1:
Top, 750k, 1 turn, 3x 5k damage
Middle, 600k, 2 turns, AoE 150k heal
Bottom, 600k, 2 turns, AoE Atk Down (-low?%) + Burst Generation Down (-5) (deals 0 damage)
Kill priority: Top

You have two turns to kill deal 750k damage to Top or risk one death. The other two don't matter one bit as they deal literally ZERO damage to you. So rush top, then just auto-attack the other two gain time. Since the next fight is ASS:

Wave 2:
30k, 2 turns
Normal: 1x 7k? + burst-30
Rage: 3k AoE + heal self for 1000
Def: 9999999999
Gauge behavior:

Yes, you read that right, this guy has a mere 30k HP. The trick is that he is nigh-immune to all damage. So what can you do? Well, there are two things which deal damage regardless of Def:
1. Eidolon summons (SSRs deal roughly 20k)
2. DoTs (typically 4-5k per turn)
Wind has little access to good hime with DoTs, so your best bet are Eidolon summons. ALWAYS enter Thunder AQ6 with a Friend Eidolon so that you have one Eidolon available right away, and then on your turn8 you can summon a Kaiser. Notice that the first SSR you summon WILL Rage this guy, so keep that in mind.

Oh, and finding a -5 turns to your main Eidolon drop in wave1 (the little clock that vanishes right away) is a real treat against this wave. That means you can just use your Friend Eidolon and your main Eidolon before this guy can even Overdrive.

Tuesday, Fire

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Wave 1:
Top, 700k, 2 turns, AoE 2k?
Middle, 700k, 2 turns, 2x 5k? + Def Down (-?%) 5t
Bottom, 750k, 3 turns, 1x 7k?
Kill priority: Middle, bottom, top

All of these guys are pretty rough. Hopefully you can blast your way through 1.4m HP in 3 turns and still kill the third one by the end of the fourth turn. If not, focus fire on middle and then bottom.

Wave 2:
6m, 4 turns
Normal: Buff trpl+ (guaranteed?) + enter Rage
Rage: 5x ?k damage
Gauge behavior: Stuns near death (if normal OD has not happened)
Trigger: Normal mode, not full bubbles: Buff Atk+ on self (stacks)
Trigger: Stun mode: Remove all buffs from self

This is an interesting fight. She deals about 900 damage per hit without stacks, 1300 with 1 stack and 2000 with full 4 stacks (assuming you don't manipulate orbs). Be careful if you take it slow with her, since if you let her do normal OD you're looking at ~6k single target damage per turn. As long as you can prevent normal OD from happening, this fight will probably not be a problem at all.

Wednesday, Water

->Open Spoiler<-

Wave 1:
Top, 800k, 2 turns, 5k AoE (take 240k damage to self)
Middle, 800k, 1 turn, 1x 8k damage (take 160k damage to self)
Bottom, 550k, 2 turns, heal allies to full (take 550k damage to self and die)
Kill priority: Middle, top, bottom

You'll need a good amount of burst damage to get away from this wave without massive amounts of damage. Thankfully, Thunder excels at this, so you probably won't have much trouble. Remember that you can just entirely ignore bottom, as she will suicide and deal no damage at all to you.

Wave 2:
6m, 1 turn
Normal: 5x 5k? (take 600k damage to self)
Rage: AoE 5k (take 600k damage to self)
Gauge behavior:

She has massive amounts of damage output, but will also kill herself very quickly. Be aware that during Rage, if you don't bring BP, she will be blasting you for 5k damage EVERY TURN (and die very quickly from her recoil). It's a simple DPS/endurance check, so good luck.

Thursday, Wind

->Open Spoiler<-

Wave 1:
Top, 700k?, 1 turn, 3x Charm (2t) (0 damage)
Middle, 700k?, 1 turn, 1k AoE + AoE 1x Cleanse
Bottom, 700k?, 1 turn, 1x 5k
Kill priority: Bottom

Top deals no damage to you. Middle deals pitiful damage to you (and Cleanses 1 debuff, but you don't need debuffs against this wave). So the only thing even remotely a threat to you is bottom. You might want to take your time here because...

Wave 2:
6m?, 2 turns
Normal: 3x 10k? + self Atk- (? frame, -?%) + self Overheat (50k/t)
Rage: AoE 7k + self Atk- (? frame, -?%) + self Def- (? frame, -?%) + self Overheat (50k/t)
Gauge behavior:
Trigger: When reaching Rage with Overheat applied: Remove Atk-, Def- and Overheat from self (only applies to the frames she casts upon herself?)

I'd say that this is one of hardest ones. She has extremely powerful Overdrives, and the downsides aren't bad enough to balance things out. I'd say Full Burst this fucker on sight.

Friday, Light

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Wave 1:
Top, 700k, 2 turns, 2x ?k
Middle, 500k, 1 turn, AoE 1k + Charm
Bottom, 450k, 1 turn, AoE random stuff
Kill priority:

My Dark team tears through Light so badly that these guys might as well be made out of paper. Bottom can buff allies or debuff you, but none of the effects are game ending (for example, there is no Doom there) so it probably doesn't matter.

You might as well use your debuffs in this wave if you're having any trouble, because...

Wave 2:
5m, 3 turns
Normal: AoE ?k + Curse (prevents heal effects)
Rage: 2x buff nuke (0 damage if target has no buffs up, scaling unknown)
Debuff resistance: Nigh-immune
Gauge behavior:
Trigger: First action: Cleanse all debuffs and applies debuff resist+ (cannot be Dispelled)

She is basically debuff immune. She is also basically a complete joke, although my view may be flawed due to just how strong my Dark is.

Saturday, Dark

->Open Spoiler<-

Wave 1:
Top, 700k?, 2 turns, AoE ?k damage + AoE Atk+ (+?%)
Middle, 700k?, 3 turns, 2x ?k damage + Doom (2t)
Bottom, 700k?, 2 turns, 5x 750
Kill priority: Middle, top, middle

Don't get hit by Doom. I don't know how likely it is to apply (AQ5 basically never landed even off-element), but there's no reason to risk it. Bottom is insignificant, so take top out after.

Wave 2:
6m?, 3 turns
Normal: 1x ?k + Def Down (-?%) + Taunt 3t
Rage: AoE ?k + self Atk+ (large?%)
Gauge behavior: Rage -> long stun -> unstuns ~16% HP
Guaranteed combo attacks?

This guy specializes in single target damage, and will continue to punch you in his long Stun phase. So she is basically yet another damage/endurance check, this time with added RNG thrown in.

Boss in third Wave is the same in all, only the element changes:

->Open Spoiler<-

Wave 3:
Andromalius, 10m, 2 turns
Normal: Removes 20% of current HP, ignores everything like damage cuts
Rage: Removes 20% of MAX HP, ignores everything like damage cuts
Debuff resistance: Nigh-immune
Gauge behavior:
Trigger: First action: Cleanse all debuffs and applies debuff resist+ (cannot be Dispelled)
Trigger: Turns 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30: AoE nuke, damage increases with number of debuffs

She doesn't do normal attacks at all. Instead, every turn that she isn't Triggered or Overdriving, she will cast one of these AoE:
Attack Down (-50%)
Paralyze
Sleep
Charm (not particularly strong)
Blind
Overheat (damage cap 500, is considered a buff and therefore cannot be Cleansed)
Flame (damage cap 500)
Drowning (damage cap 500)
Poison (damage cap 500)
Corruption (damage cap 500)
All of these last for 3t. I sorted these in order of how problematic they are. Honestly? The first three are a complete game-over scenario. Thankfully, with a total of 10 debuffs and only 3 horrendous debuffs, chances are high you will rarely need to deal with them. Still, she is a much weaker version of GO Jack, which means that the clownfiesta she starts on her second turn CAN make the fight 100% impossible for you if the stars align right. So uh, good fucking luck.

Usually though, she isn't a big challenge. If you're on the weaker side, you can take things slow in the normal phase and Full Burst her once you reach Rage. As long as those three bad debuffs aren't up, Andromalius probably isn't a problem. Honestly, despite having almost triple HP compared to AQ5 (which have 7.5m and halve that due to debuffs = 3.75m HP), the damage output of AQ6 Andromalius is so mellow that she might be easier than AQ5 boss on average.

And to clarify things:
About damage: Numbers are with inaccurate due to lack of testing, but numbers without ? are with elemental advantage, no debuffs and no damage cuts. Damage numbers taken from DMM wiki have a ? to them and seem to be without elemental advantage.

About turn timers: This means the amount of bubbles. So 2 turns means that the actual Overdrive happens on turn 3.

About Gauge behavior: I have not done exact science here. Numbers are rough. Considering normal game mechanics, "does not free" will probably free if you just wait long enough.

[Yukarichan]

Hmm, so AQ6 difficulty around the same as AQ5? I can manual AQ5 with ease now (cant trust aab yet). And thanks for the guide

[Slashley]

Hmm, so AQ6 difficulty around the same as AQ5? I can manual AQ5 with ease now (cant trust aab yet).--

If you can manual it with ease, then probably? Maybe. Probably maybe.

Remember that despite wave3 being possibly even easier than AQ5 boss, wave3 doesn't exist in a vacuum. Wave1 is fairly stronger (but probably not an issue) and Wave2 is significantly stronger than in AQ5. If Wave2 tears you apart, you won't do well against AQ6 Wave3 - especially if you get hit by one of the stronger debuffs.

[Chrestomancy]

Thanks Slashey.

I personally love the 2nd wave Thunder boss. She's a complete bad-ass, right up until you realise she's wrecked by Eidolon summons. Just take a little more time than usual on wave 1, and scoot through wave 2 with your full burst and all your skills still intact in 2 Eidolon hits.

[dreamlitz]

Thanks Slashey.

I personally love the 2nd wave Thunder boss. She's a complete bad-ass, right up until you realise she's wrecked by Eidolon summons. Just take a little more time than usual on wave 1, and scoot through wave 2 with your full burst and all your skills still intact in 2 Eidolon hits.

If you're willing to go off-element, there're other niche solutions to thunder AQ6 such as Takeminakata's echo burst, and this one is more for meme, but fire Charis also works

->Open Spoiler<-