Introduction

Bologna is a sandwich meat I never quite liked, but that should not be confused with Bellone, a unit who is also not especially respected, although one who is actually quite decent. This is the worst joke I have ever written. Sorry, but I can’t stop hearing bologna whenever I hear his name. I’ve also learned that “baloney” is an acceptable spelling in modern English. But why am I researching the etymology of a funny word for no reason other than it sounds similar to his name if I misspronounce it? Incidentally, as a teen I liked to say it “buh-log-nuh” as an intentional mispronunciation, which sounds nothing like his name, even if you say it funny. Also incidentally, one of my favorite sandwiches is an Italian sub, which is the inspiration for Siracusa, but it’s a sub that doesn’t have bologna in it! Err. What was this article about again?

As always, you can find the full Mastery guide here (Sheets) and here (web). This update is also available on Sanity;Gone, which you can find here.

Announcement - Web Version of the Mastery Guide!

I’m happy to announce that I have finally finished something that is long overdue. The web-based version of the Mastery guide is now live! It should be much faster than the Sheets version, contains links to lots of other guides and works, and will even include a place for me to blog things that don’t really belong here or on Reddit (for those rare few who care).

The guide will 100% continue to be updated on the existing Sheets version, and the articles will continue to be published at the usual places. I have no intention of stopping any of those to favor this new site! One bit of fallout for me from Gamepress dying suddenly was how awful it felt that I had no way to reach certain people that came looking.

I’m also not a web developer by any means, so please feel free to share any feedback!

Iron Carrot Archives - https://ironcarrotarchives.com/

Anyway, onto the guide!

Should You Pull?

No. Bellone is actually a perfectly fine unit, so this is a value situation. While he’s fine to great, depending on the circumstances, he’s still one of the “weakest” units ahead of us and additionally comes ahead of a long string of limited banners, while he will continue to be relatively obtainable after his banner. A unit really needs to be of an extremely high level of power to be a consideration in this situation, and neither he nor Zima the Raging Tide (the next unit) reach that bar.

To get into a little more detail, Bellone does a helluva lot of damage with a huge amount of DEF-shred. This lets him have some pretty consistent and powerful DPS, and he even has some decent control to boot. However, outside of that he’s quite awkward. As with Chen3 in the last patch, his S3’s move gimmick often causes more problems than it’s worth. His “bulk” comes in the form of dodge, which even in the best case, is still RNG dependent, and he’ll often just get one-shot by dangerous enemies. Even when it works, it can leave him in undesirable places with some unpredictable outcomes (although he is better about this than Chen3 is). Most damning though is his S3 is only a single-target. It hurts to write that as a flaw, because it doesn’t feel like that should be a big deal, but in the modern game with so many ultrapowerful units, it’s a big one. Meanwhile, his S2 solves many of those issues, but he’s quite a bit more fragile and his DPS isn’t nearly as good (although still great). In another era of the game, that would all seem like nitpicking, but in 2026, and especially when sandwiched between two other great Guards, it makes him far less appealing as a pull target.

The bigger problem though, and the same problem that will plague Zima2 next patch, is that the upcoming stretch is brutal. It was already brutal before the summer livestream, but now we know it will be even worse. The stretch is Closure/Kal2 (both powerful, Kal2 is limited) > MH2 (Orchid2 collab limited) > MH1 rerun (Yato2 collab limited) > Summer (limited, early review looks very powerful) > Persona 3 collab (another collab limited). That’s 4-5 limited banners in a row (except for Aphrissa between MH2 and the Summer banner, who is also an easy skip)! And that doesn’t even include the Tragodia rerun! Sadly, the nature of the gacha means it simply doesn’t make sense to pull for a “weaker” and non-limited unit like Bellone.

As a brief aside, yes we do know the likely Persona 3 date. It was easy to miss (and maybe unintentional) but the livestream showed the expiration date of the free pulls. The collab should start September 3rd, which is about 11 days after the summer event ends, although this is technically still unconfirmed (could be an old graphic or something like that).

The last consideration here is a minor one, but still worth mentioning since it will affect the decision for a few people. Bellone’s banner will not get rerun. For whatever reason, these story collection banners never get rerun. It probably wouldn’t matter anyway because few rerun banners are worth considering (Tragodia is the only one worth considering in the last two years or more), but if you really like Bellone and are thinking you can just wait a year, well, you’d be mistaken. However, he should be on the paid selector for the limited banner that will run in roughly April of next year.

FAQ

Q: If I get him, should I raise Bellone?

A: Supposing he spooks you later, or you came here after the fact and wasted your pulls¹ (rip), then yes, Bellone is worth raising. As mentioned, he has some great DPS and his strong DEF-shred is a great, if specific, team utility. Of course that’s not as valuable as many other upcoming options, so you do have to consider the priority of your resources, but he’s not the sort of unit you should just leave at the back of your roster at E0 either.

If you’re a new player, he may not be the highest priority unit to raise, but the good news is he works pretty well at E1. His DEF-shred isn’t as strong, but still present, and his SL7 DPS is still respectable. So other upcoming (as of this writing) units will generally be worth the advanced resources more, but throwing a few for the basic upgrades on Bellone may be a good idea, with the E2/M3/Mod3 type upgrades saved for later.

¹ I’m assuming that if you intentionally pull for him, you already plan to raise him. Although if you’re based, like me, he spooked you on the way to Ripresa. There’s dozens of us! DOZENS!

Q: How do the three recent/future 6★ Guards compare?

A: I hate Guards so much. There’s so many of them, and many are so functionally similar that ranking them becomes a fool’s errand. It’s one of the biggest problems we deal with on the Tier List! HG did get a bit better with it in recent years, but as if to remind us that we’re still playing Guardknights, we now have three in a row. Ch’en the Dawnstreak (last banner), Bellone (this banner), and Zima the Raging Tide (next banner).

I think the differences between them are actually pretty academic. The reason being, Chen3 was a co-star in the Wang banner, while Bellone and Zima2 are banners you should probably be skipping for the next ultra-powerful limited banner. However, this article is fairly short, so why not ramble briefly?

Chen3 is the clear winner between them, so it’s a bit lucky she was on the limited banner which simplified the decision (and why I didn’t have this question last update). She has that great combination of range, potential, damage, and bulk that just fits together perfectly.

Between the two remaining, most people would rank Zima2 over Bellone, and that’s may be how they’ll end up ranked on the tier list. However, I personally have the opposite opinion, and why I’m writing this question at all! There will be plenty of time to discuss Zima2 next patch, but the brief overview is that I don’t value AFK OPs highly at all¹. The exception is for units who are great regardless of being AFK, like Pramanix the Prerita, where the AFK “value” is merely there rather than the primary feature. Of course, as a modern unit, Zima2 is still very powerful, so this is all speaking in relative values. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a non-gacha 6★ that wasn’t absurd relative to the older units!

However, that same fact leads me to value units that do something “special”. Pram2 is like this. Her snow tiles are incredible! However, Zima2 has no such feature. She charges fast and does a ton of damage, and for many people that will be enough. But she doesn’t even have self-sustain, so for me, Bellone’s high DEF-shred feels like a much more useful tool. I likely wouldn’t run either as a default member of a full meta team (except when I’m feeling lazy, Zima2 is still great, as I keep saying), so if I’m treating them as flex / situational options, I’d much rather have the one with a relatively unique and strong bit of utility!

So, all that said, should you pull for either? No. This question doesn’t actually matter. Save for Kal2 and Closure. If you’re going to pull for one anyway, should you take my advice? Eh, probably not. This question is mostly here to share a differing opinion and perspective on the game. For a great many people, Zima2 will be the far better option when you consider usability. Throw her down with a healer, and she’ll clear most of the game with no further input required. She’s basically a modern Thorns, and Thorns was so popular despite being powercrept long ago for a reason. But if you’re looking to elevate your skills as a professional Doktah a bit more, consider that usability might be a pretty small factor!

¹ I’m not saying it’s wrong to value AFK, so save your angry comments. If that’s how you like to play the game, by all means, have fun! That isn’t the point of this article, however.

Q: Should I raise Ripresa?

A: No. Ripresa broke my heart. When I first saw her, I thought I had finally gotten another new bunny! But alas! Treachery was afoot, and it turns out she’s actually a horrible goat. Easily the worst race after S*rkaz! She should be derided and shamed, not promoted! Fortunately, the summer banner is here to sooth my broken heart. We’ll be together soon Jacinta!

OK, enough memes. Ripresa is actually “decent” (for her rarity) but you still shouldn’t raise her. Her DPS is pretty good since her S2 cycles very fast, however she will rarely reach her potential and lacks any utility to make up for it. The problem is her fireballs each have to have an independent target. It’s three targets, not three attacks. This means her DPS falls quickly if there aren’t three targets in her range, which is often, considering the short Splash Caster range. Similar units already exist, such as Leonhardt (ironically, an actual bunny) who has utility too and he still barely sees use in niche play. So Ripresa may be usable if you really want, but she’s the type of unit who, while passable, isn’t even especially valuable to niche players.

Q: Any early thoughts on IS#7?

A: Nope. I haven’t actually had a chance to play it yet. Summer is a busy time for me. I hear good things though, which is nice to hear because I cannot get myself to care about IS#6 anymore. Between that, the Wang patch, and being stuck in Wuling in Endfield, I am quite sick of Yan!

In any case, this question is mostly here just to remind you that there won’t be any major changes to the guide due to IS#7. The game (and the guide) just don’t flex to individual iterations like they used to, so sweeping adjustments no longer make sense, not to mention are a nightmare for maintainability. The top meta units are just too powerful!

Q: Any Module thoughts for this patch?

A: For once, I have close to nothing to say on the Modules, for either EN or CN. Modules in general have been pretty dry lately in the first place, but both this patch and the recent one on CN (Bolivar Diagnosed) are story collection events which tend to be lighter in the first place. It’s just Modules for the new units plus a small group of second Modules, none of which are especially inspiring. I’ll leave it up to Mal to divine out if there’s anything worthwhile here.

I guess I do have two notes though.

First, Bellone’s mod3 is somewhat important, if you plan to use him. That’s mildly annoying because it’s really only for one effect at a high cost, however the additional 1% of DEF-shred at mod3 multiplies out to 8% (with S2) which is actually a huge amount. If you plan to use him, you should definitely plan to grab it.

Also, Blaze the Igniting Spark’s 2nd (in the CN patch) is better than I expected to be, which is nice to see, although I still don’t think it has any real relevance. Her immortality gimmick already had some value, but now she can dole out some damage on top of it. Not too bad considering how hamstrung she is otherwise.

Kind of a bummer there’s so little to say given how short this article is. It’s the one time I’d have the space to ramble about something!

Q: Are you excited for this summer patch?

A: Oh baby, yes I am. It almost doesn’t matter if they’re any good or not. My bunnyknights get two much needed additions that also look fun? Hell yea. I also love the general vibe of the event. In fact, I love it and the other summer events so much (usually) that I wrote a brief blog post about it on my fancy new website.

Yes, I did just include this here to shill myself. Attempting to be objective for a moment, it’s actually pretty hard to not be disappointed here. I didn’t expect Jacinta to be better than Elysium, but somehow she’s not even definitively better than Wanqing, a 2.5 year old Welfare. Remember Matsukiri before a 5★ Welfare Vanguard from the last summer event and is one of the best units at the rarity? Sigh. Meanwhile, Thumpy looks fun, and still has 6★ power, but doesn’t even have the ceiling of Yu, let alone competing with NI. I’m going to have to write a paragraph for that patch update, saying to stop pulling and skip her if you get Angelina first! SIGH.

I’ve wanted a full Rim Billiton event for a long time. I also wanted a Vanguard and Defender for bunnyknights. I got all of that, but the monkey paw curled. Oh well, I’ll still raise and use both of them, and the vibes of the event are still perfect. But… man…

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH.

Masteries

Bellone

Rarity: 6

Bellone

Guard

Fighter

MeleeMelee

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

军师的手段

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

S-

S-

清算

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S3M3

A-

A-

Bellone, is a good DPS Guard, however he has come out at a time where simply being “good” is not good enough. The meta competition is fierce, especially among the Guards, who typically flounder in the top-meta situations anyway. His kit is also a bit deceptive since his “signature” skill is often his worse one. However, he has extremely strong DPS and some very solid utility. That may not measure up to the high-bar set by his contemporaries, but it’s better than many people often think¹ (read the footnote if you skipped the main article!). When you add in some bizarrely strong Mastery gains, the result is a relatively odd mix of pressures when it comes to Masteries, and less straightforward considerations than many recent units!

While he is a relatively decent M6 consideration, his better skill will far and away be his S2. His S3 has higher DPS and is very flashy, as we’ll get into next, but his S2 simply functions better in a majority of situations. It has range, multiple-targets, control, a super fast cycle time, and better application of his primary utility. The range especially is one that’s easy to undervalue since his S3 zooms him around, but it allows for more flexible placement. He can remain safer while doing what he does best (DPS and debuffing) and is far more predictable. The Mastery gains are unusually strong as well. The ATK scale increases by a pretty typical amount, but he also gains a large ASPD improvement, which combined results in over 30% more DPS and total damage from SL7 to S2M3. The SP cost improvement is notable as well. Although it’s only 4 SP, the low base cost makes that proportionally higher, and the rapid cycle is a big feature of the skill.

However, while one might come away from that description assuming that Bellone must be high priority, remember that this guide doesn’t consider large gains as strongly in the high-tiers. While Bellone is certainly a much higher priority than a majority of the old roster, the recent power ceiling is so high that you should still look towards the main meta units first, which keeps his grades at a more reasonable level.

His S3 is a consideration as well, despite its flaws. The DPS behind it is much higher and the movement results in a larger effective range (kinda), but like Ch’en the Dawnstreak before him, the movement ends up being an unreliable gimmick in a lot of cases. Brawlers are very fragile melee units, and while his dodge chance is high, it will still fail a frustrating amount of the time, and many elites or bosses will simply one-shot him when it fails. Additionally, his damage is now limited to a single target, and the lower DEF-shred means it can sometimes actually do less DPS than his S2, depending on the target. While his DPS using the skill is amazing, and the movement can be valuable at times, it’s just much more situational than his S2.

But the skill also has even stronger Mastery gains than his S2, so it may be worth considering even for only occasional use. Like his S2, both the ATK and ASPD improve, but there are some additional large gains to both his crit chance and crit damage. So there’s a four aspect improvement to his DPS, which results in a 42% DPS increase! Unlike his S2 which loses some “value” at the top end of priority, his S3 does gain quite a bit of consideration here compared to other mid-level considerations.

Last, pass on his S1 which is one of those annoying and useless filler skills. It’s just a standard Power Strike type skill, but slightly dressed up. But it’s especially bad on Bellone because it doesn’t synergize at all with his kit. There’s no range, he remains very vulnerable, and the DPS isn’t even impressive considering how fast his S2 cycles. The only reason to consider it is for completion’s sake. It’s only for if you really like him and want to show off that full Mastery icon on your friends list.

¹ If you skipped the main article, you still shouldn’t pull for Bellone even though I’m talking him up here. Although I really like his kit, he’s not as strong as the upcoming gauntlet of limited banners.

Ripresa

Rarity: 5

Ripresa

Caster

Splash Caster

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

直到终曲

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

C+

C+

合奏起拍

Auto TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S1M3

None

None

Ripresa is yet another (of many, recently) examples of the 5★ value problem. She isn’t bad exactly, but the minor power improvement over the 4★s doesn’t justify considering her at all. Why would you pay double the resources for a minor bump in power, especially when so much broken-tier DPS exists in the modern game? Add onto that a subtle drawback to her main skill, and how she’s barely a lateral difference from a 6-year old 5★ (Leonhardt) who has only ever had niche value, there’s very little reason to consider raising Ripresa. Although, as said, she isn’t necessarily bad either if she appeals to you.

If she does, both skills are worth considering, but S2 will be the more unique option while S1 is only a waifu-stretch target. Although S1 technically has the shorter cycle, they’re close enough that S2’s increased damage puts it far ahead. Additionally, S2 is actually controllable with Manual Activation, which will generally lead to better results. Its very short cycle and solid DPS (in ideal circumstances) make it a passable consideration. However, she can only reach her DPS potential when there are three distinct targets in range. The additional fireballs are completely lost otherwise, and given the small default Splash Caster range, that’s a tall order. For most players, this limitation means you should use someone else if it can’t be achieved, but if you really like Ripresa, it gives her S1 some room to flex to instead. It is a much more run of the mill option. Lots of skills like this exist and Ripresa’s version of it does nothing special, so it’s only for players who absolutely want to use her though.

However, even accepting that, before investing, there’s another big flaw to consider. Her S2 Masteries are insultingly bad, not even measuring close to average for her rarity. The ATK gain is below average, and the DoT’s improvement is only 300 total damage since it scales off of her base ATK rather than the fireball’s damage, and doesn’t benefit from her Talent. The net result is an under 15% damage improvement between SL7 and S2M3. Even the SP cost improvement is bad. It’s only a single SP difference, and while this guide usually values even smaller SP improvements on low cooldown skills like this, 1 SP is about as negligible as it gets. If there’s a silver lining to this, it’s that if you don’t like her at E1 SL7, E2 S2M3 probably won’t change your mind. S1 does have the much better gains, but the difference in skill values means you should still start with her S2, if you bother to raise her at all.

Pull Priority

August update: The only new thing this update is Aphrissa joining the list as Strong Skip. She actually isn’t bad (no one is) but lacks anything that would make her a compelling pull option, especially just before a limited banner. Additionally, I’ve decided not to move either Orchid2 or Yato2 yet. The reasoning here is that removing Wang/Chen3 clears the list up a lot, but the summer limited banner will likely cause a large shift, and I don’t want to move them one update only to have to move them back the next. So expect a much larger update next patch.

Strong Pull: Kal’tsit·Esperanta (limited), Closure

Lean Pull: Violet Mizutsune Orchid (collab limited), Kirin R Yato (collab limited, rerun)

Lean Skip: Zima the Raging Tide, Bellone

Strong Skip: Necrass (rerun), Aphrissa

Meta-value 4-5★s: None

Niche-value 4-5★s: None

Pull Priority Blurbs

Kal’tsit·Esperanta - Kal2 is a unit who is more than the sum of her parts. No individual aspect will likely blow you away, and there’s some details in her kit that can cause headaches, but when you combine her strong healing, good range, AoE True Damage, strong control, great survability, and a powerful flex skill, you have a great total package that is valuable in all sorts of gameplay.

Closure - Yet another extremely powerful Vanguard, Closure is the more powerful story-carry of the three. She has some really crazy damage and range, plus an extremely powerful DP skill that should see her viable even in advanced gameplay. The three top Vanguards all have different strengths compared to each other, but Closure is a more than worthy entrant to the competition.

Violet Mizutsune Orchid - Orchid2 is a Fast-Redeploy Sniper that can deploy to melee tiles. That makes her very flexible and reasonably powerful. However, her DPS isn’t as crazy as we’re used to so she’s not quite as impactful as many recent 6★s, nor is she as flexible as her fellow MH 6★, Yato2.

Kirin R Yato - In years past, Yato2 has shown the problem with meta units being in collabs. She is by far the best FRD in the game, but was forever locked to new players. FRDs tend to retain some of their value (relatively) even as the power increases and Yato2 is still a top-tier unit. Her DPS has waned a bit, but her utility more than makes up for it still to this day. If you don’t already have her, you probably don’t want to miss your chance to pick her up!

Zima the Raging Tide - She has a very powerful and easy to use AFK skill that will appeal to many people, with a powerful nuke skill to flex to. However, her ceiling is relatively low. There’s a lot of AFK units now so her S2 is nothing new, and she does nothing off-skill when using S3.

Bellone - Bellone has really high ST DPS and strong DEF-shred, meaning he will rip up a lot of stages and enemies. He has a really high floor that will appeal to some people, with just enough high end value to warrant at least a look. However, he is far less versatile than many other DPS units, including several upcoming ones. That makes him tricky to recommend. Older players will already have better options, and newer players will get better value from their pulls saving for the better options.

Aphrissa - Aprissa is a decent unit and a creative twist on the Blast Caster archetype. I personally love her kit design! However, the archetype is also innately underpowered. Her S3 has the numbers behind it to keep up, but is still pretty far behind the top Casters, and her other two skills don’t have the numbers, which kills a lot of potential flexibility.

Necrass - She’s a powerful general unit, but has a much lower ceiling than the other upcoming top dogs. If her summon gets stat-checked, she’s just raw damage, and while her damage is good, it’s not special either. She’s a solid carry sort of unit, but we have a lot of those now with higher ceilings.

Lookaheads

All lookaheads can be found in their usual spot on the main guide here (Sheets) or here.

Mechanist will be in the next update. Even though he’s only a week later than Aphrissa, he has a lot more depth to his kit. Aphrissa is actually much earlier here in the lookahead than I generally prefer, but unlike Mechanist, she feels rather set in her evaluation already. I will say though that Mechanist looks solid, but nowhere near what Raidian is. I’m actually glad he’s a welfare because now I don’t have to decide how to rank him!

Aphrissa

Blast Casters are a funny archetype. In the early going, Ifrit was one of the best Casters in the game, because there were only two, and it took a long time for another reasonable Caster to come out. Ifrit also retained some of her value as time went on because she had a huge amount of RES-shred. That all hid the fact that, at their core, Blast Casters actually suck. Their long attack interval meant low DPS, and their restrictive range caused more problems than it solved. Of course, the Blast Casters after were 5★s during a time when almost all 5★s sucked so it wasn’t too shocking, but now we have another 6★ Blast Caster who just shows those assumptions are unfortunately true. A Blast Caster sucks unless they have some really pumped up numbers or some really great utility.

That whole digression is for a point, because that summarizes the skill selection for Aphrissa. Only her S3 has the numbers or utility to actually be useful. And it’s actually a good skill so will be decently graded! It does solid DPS and expands her device usage that can lead to some really creative play. I’m actually a big fan of the design! However, her S1 and S2, despite having some utility, just don’t have the numbers to back them, and they feel really bad to use, especially by modern DPS standards.

In total, she herself is just alright. She’s not bad, because the game power level is extremely high right now (no one is bad right now), but as of her release, she does seem like the weakest 6★ ahead of us on global. However, I will say that I actually really love her kit design. I’m surprised the whole device-changing-direction thing got some pushback because I think it’s a really creative exploration of the archetype!

tl;dr S3 is her main skill and should get a decent grade (low-S). S1 and S2 may be useful to simps, but are pretty weak DPS-wise, and will probably be ungraded, or low-graded at best.

Pedro

Pedro is yet another disappointing iteration of the recent 5★s. He teases a brand new archetype that one can imagine on a busted 6★ in a few months, but is unimpressive himself. For whatever reason, HG just undertunes the rarity, especially recently, and the result is yet another entirely skippable 5★. The idea behind the archetype is that it adds an effect to the target. The effect itself does nothing initially but lasts until some sort of trigger happens, and when it does, the effect finally happens. In Pedro’s case, his S1 does some additional damage when an enemy takes Arts damage, and his S2 heals when the friendly falls below 50% HP. He actually has some decent numbers here, but it’s a situation where why would you bother when other units do the same thing (or better), even at his own rarity, without the extra hoops to jump through? The result is a unit who is probably usable if you want, but feels very gimmicky, even for off-meta players.

Also, I’d be remiss to not mention the absurdity of his base skill. He has class specific training. Yet he’s the first and only one, and he can’t well train himself. And even when there are more in the future, it still won’t be better than Logos or Irene. And requires an expensive 5★ E2 promotion on an otherwise mediocre unit. I know not every unit can have a great base skill, but come on HG!

tl;dr Very likely ungraded. Both skills are options since they have differing roles but similar considerations (are both bad). S2 will be better though since S1 is just bad conditional DPS.