User blog:Linathan/Squad Spotlight & Guide: Trial X3

Trial X3 is a Trial available in the Summoner's Research Lab once Trial X2 is cleared. The trial features Temptress Xie'Jing, a capturable Mock Unit based off of Xie'Jing from the Vortex Dungeon, Witch of the Abyss.

This trial has been giving a massive majority a rough time, especially during post-buff where Xie'Jing was buffed to work as intended. Pre-buff was when Xie'Jing was bugged. This trial was released a few days before the release of Grand Quest and people became frustrated with the trial and decided to wait for Grahdens's 6* form to come out to make things easier. Even then, people still had trouble.

I have come up with a combination of a detailed guide and a Squad Spotlight on how to go about with Trial X3. This Trial did cost me 24 runs before I finally managed to defeat the post-buff version of Xie'Jing. This is not to say that Trial X3 was easy. It was definitely the hardest trial I have ever done, possibly topping Trial 007. There was a ton of RNG that was involved in this trial and that mainly determines your success in this trial sadly.

Let's go over the details of what to be careful of when taking this trial on. I assume that you've read the Trial X3 page on this Wiki. If you haven't, I highly suggest taking a look before reading further.

Specifics of Trial X3
To succeed in this Trial, you must know Xie'Jing's attack pattern and pray that RNG doesn't mess you up. Here are the following:


 * Xie’Jing will cast Cursed Strike on the first turn. This deals an average of about two-thirds of units’ HP. This isn’t fixed damage as Light units will still take more damage than other units. Guarding is highly recommended.
 * Xie’Jing will do a special move at every 10% threshold.
 * Xie'Jing will cast Malignant Wave, which is a weak AoE attack that removes all buffs, every four turns from the Turn 1 of the trial. She will start casting when below 70%.
 * Xie'Jing won't use any other AoE attacks after using Malignant Wave until she reaches 40%.
 * At these turns, GUARD WITH ALL UNITS. This is extremely important as Xie'Jing will wipe your squad if she starts spamming Blighted Harvest after using Malignant Wave. Again, Xie'Jing will start using AoEs after using Malignant Wave when below 40% HP. Failing to guard could cost you your entire team and potentially, the entire run itself.
 * Xie'Jing won't cast Malignant Wave on the turn you pass any of Xie'Jing's 10% HP thresholds or during Soul Siphon phases. For example, on your 16th turn of the trial, you pass Xie'Jing's 60% HP threshold. Xie'Jing won't use Malignant Wave on that turn due to the fact that her AI is telling her to summon Fei.
 * At 90% HP, Xie’Jing will summon Fei in his 4* form.
 * Fei doesn’t deal much damage at all. However, he will reflect 25% of the damage taken to the attacking unit. If you have a healer, heal AFTER all units take damage from the reflect. Elimo is a highly recommended healer as she mitigates and heals with her BB and SBB.
 * Using an HC buffer is recommended. Feeva and Griel are the best options. It’s not a necessity to have, but the damage you take a lot easier.
 * On the third turn in which Fei was summoned, Fei will heal all of his allies by around 35,000-55000 HP. This
 * Fei will kill himself when he reaches 20%, thus buffing Xie’Jing with a 50% Atk or Def buff. This isn’t all that threatening as the buffs are quite small. If you feel very skeptical about the amount of damage you are going to take, it is highly recommended that you kill Fei before he kills himself and buffs Xie’Jing.
 * After Fei dies, Xie'Jing will cast Demonic Atrocity, which is her SBB. This 35 combo massive Fire, Earth, Thunder, and Dark elemental attack will inflict a Damage Over Time (HoT) debuff. Having mitigation along with a high Def buff is highly recommended. You will be taking on an average of about 4000 damage per turn for 2 turns under this debuff. Selena is a highly recommended unit to use as she has one of the best gradual heals in the game. Remember that gradual heals apply last once the turn ends, thus negating the DoT debuff.
 * At 80% HP, Xie'Jing will summon two Bozdells and casts a Light shield on herself for 3 turns.
 * On the third turn, the Bozdells will explode and commit suicide. I highly recommend killing them off first. They shouldn't be hard to kill as they have very low HP (500 HP).
 * The reason why it's recommended to kill them is because there is too much RNG involved with these Bozdells. There is still a chance that Xie'Jing will use Depraved Punishment even when the Bozdells are kept alive.
 * Whatever you do, GUARD ON THE THIRD TURN OF THE SHIELD. Xie'Jing will cast Depraved Punishment. The effects are randomized and will do ONE of the following:
 * Deals 120% of the units' HP. This attack pierces through mitigation so guarding is the only way to survive this. This move will also cancel all Leader Skills for 5 turns.
 * If you have a healer and your team is low on HP, use an Angel Idol or Goddess Idol on the healer and heal and guard with everyone else.
 * When guarded, there is a chance that Depraved Punishment will deal 80% of the unit's current HP. This move will also cancel all Leader Skills for 5 turns.
 * Will not occur at all if YOU kill Fei on the third turn of the shield. This is the only way to cancel this attack.
 * At 70% HP, Xie'Jing will start using one Soul Siphon each turn for 2 turns and use two Soul Extinguish on the third turn.
 * Xie'Jing won't use Malignant Wave during these 3 turns.
 * Xie'Jing will only use Soul Siphon once during the first two turns of this phase. Mitigation is not required since this only deals 60% of one unit's HP.
 * Xie'Jing will cast Soul Extinguish on the third turn twice. This deals 666,666 damage. The only way to survive this attack is to have 100% mitigation up. Magress's UBB is the only mitigation buff that utilizes 100% mitigation. There's also Ultor with Xentar if you are using double Cardes leads, but this method won't be viable to use in the future.
 * If you nuke Xie'Jing below 60% within the three turns, Xie'Jing will not use Soul Extinguish.
 * At 60% HP, Xie'Jing will summon Fei in his 5* form.
 * The attack patterns are relatively the same as his 4* form.
 * Again, Fei isn't much of a threat when he's attacking you.
 * This time, Fei will reflect 40% of the damage taken back to the attacking units.
 * Kill Fei before he kills himself. Like his 4* form, Fei will kill himself if he's kept alive below 20% HP.
 * When Fei dies, make sure that you are not on a Malignant Wave turn and have mitigation and a Def buff up.
 * Make sure a gradual heal buff (Heal Over Time) is active as Demonic Atrocity's Damage Over Time (DoT) debuff will be active for 2 turns. Again, Selena is the best option here.
 * Failing to kill Fei will result in Fei buffing Xie'Jing with either a 100% Atk buff or a 75% Def buff before killing himself.
 * After Fei dies, Xie'Jing will cast Demonic Atrocity, which is her SBB. This 35 combo massive Fire, Earth, Thunder, and Dark elemental attack will inflict a Damage Over Time (HoT) debuff. Having mitigation along with a high Def buff is highly recommended. You will be taking on an average of about 4000 damage per turn for 2 turns under this debuff. Selena is a highly recommended unit to use as she has one of the best gradual heals in the game. Remember that gradual heals apply last once the turn ends, thus negating the DoT debuff.
 * At 50% HP, Xie'Jing will summon the two Bozdells and cast the Light shield for 3 turns again.
 * Same thing as the 80% HP threshold. Kill the two Bozdells.
 * Guard on the third turn of the shield. Again, DO NOT MITIGATE.
 * At 40% HP, Xie'Jing will start using one Soul Siphon each turn for 3 turns and use three Soul Extinguish on the fourth turn.
 * Xie'Jing won't use Malignant Wave during these four turns.
 * Xie'Jing will only use Soul Siphon once during the first three turns of this phase. Mitigation is not required since this only deals 60% of one unit's HP.
 * Xie'Jing will cast Soul Extinguish on the third turn twice. This deals 666,666 damage. The only way to survive this attack is to have 100% mitigation up. Magress's UBB is the only mitigation buff that utilizes 100% mitigation. There's also Ultor with Xentar if you are using double Cardes leads, but this method won't be viable to use in the future.
 * If you nuke Xie'Jing below 30% within the four turns, Xie'Jing will not use Soul Extinguish.
 * Overall, this is the easier of the two Soul Siphon phases as you have more turns to nuke Xie'Jing below 30%.
 * At 40% HP and after the Soul Siphon phases, Xie'Jing will start using specials, like Blighted Harvest and Grim Malice, after using Malignant Wave. Xie'Jing will also start spamming Blighted Harvest. Xie'Jing can use Blighted Harvest up to three times in one turn.
 * At 30% HP, Xie'Jing will summon Fei in his 6* form.
 * The attack patterns are still relative the same as his previous forms. Even in this form, Fei's attacks aren't that threatening.
 * You have to be careful in this phase as Fei is much tougher than his previous forms. If Fei kills himself in this form, Xie'Jing will become an even bigger threat to your squad.
 * Fei will reflect 50% of the damage taken.
 * When Fei dies, make sure that you are not on a Malignant Wave turn and have mitigation and a Def buff up.
 * Make sure a gradual heal buff (Heal Over Time) is active as Demonic Atrocity's Damage Over Time (DoT) debuff will be active for 2 turns. Again, Selena is the best option here.
 * At 20% HP, Xie'Jing will summon the two Bozdells and cast a Light shield for 3 turns again.
 * Do the same thing as you did before. Kill the Bozdells and guard on the third turn of the shield. Again, DO NOT MITIGATE.
 * At 10% HP, the real challenge starts here. Xie'Jing will cancel all Leader Skills for 10 turns.
 * KILL XIE'JING AS FAST AS YOU CAN BEFORE SHE KILLS YOU.
 * Be EXTREMELY careful and make sure you have mitigation and Def buffs active.
 * Guard on the turns Malignant Wave is casted. Make sure you're still turn counting as Malignant Wave will still occur every fourth turn.
 * This is EXTREMELY important. If you're not guarding and Malignant Wave is casted along with the Blighted Harvest spam, IT'S GAME OVER.
 * At 0% HP, Xie'Jing finally dies and you receive Temptress Xie'Jing, 1 Gem, 60,000 XP, and 3,000,000 Zel as a clear reward.

Other Notes

 * Reflect damage cannot kill you, leaving units at 1 HP.
 * Malignant Wave will remove all buffs before damage is dealt.
 * Xie'Jing won't use any other attacks during Soul Siphon attacks.
 * Xie'Jing has the following values:
 * 80% chance to inflict Poison
 * 30% resistance to damage done by Light types
 * 10% resistance to base BC drop rate (35% -> 31.5%)
 * 20% resistance to buffed BC drop rate multiplicatively
 * 20% resistance to base HC drop rate (base is reduced to 8%)
 * 30% resistance to buffed Crit damage multiplicatively (e.g. Colt LS 150% -> 105%)
 * 30% resistance to elemental weakness damage additively (e.g. Kira 125% -> 95%)
 * 10% chance to be inflicted with Sick and Weak & immune to all other status ailments

I apologize if this is a ton to read, but there are so many important things to point out in this trial. Remember, this is all post-buff, NOT pre-buff.

Unit Recommendations
When composing your squad, be sure to have the following:
 * All units have over 10,000 HP.
 * A very good Def buffer.
 * Heavenly Emperor Kanon, Leviathan Sage Elimo, Dark Legend Magress, and Grave Carver Aaron are good Def buffers to use.
 * Cyclopean Ultor is a good unit to point all enemy attacks toward him. Ultor also receives a 210% Def buff when taunting.
 * An anti-debuffer Lead and/or Sub.
 * Valkyrie Archangel Griel Lead & Leviathan Sage Elimo Sub combo is highly recommended.
 * Heavenly Emperor Kanon as the lead.
 * A healer.
 * Ice Legend Selena is currently the best HoT buffer in the game. She vastly helps with negating the DoT debuff from Xie'Jing's Demonic Atrocity and Fei's reflect damage.
 * Leviathan Sage Elimo can fulfill three of the most important roles in this trial. Healing status ailments, providing a 140% Def buff (this is the best in the game, tied with Kanon's SBB), and recovering HP. This is perfect, especially when Fei reflects damage.
 * Crescendo Megurine Luka can fulfill two of the most important roles in this trial. Buffing everyone with a HoT buff and a BB regen when attacked buff.
 * Galactic Treasure Ivris heals with her BB and SBB and provides the ever-so-useful Angel Idols buffs on two random allies with her UBB.
 * A damage mitigator. This shouldn't have to be said.
 * Leviathan Sage Elimo, as explained before, fulfills three of the most important roles in this trial. She is also the most efficient mitigator to use thanks to her Extra Skill, which reduces Elimo's BB and SBB down to 16 BC.
 * Thunder Savior Shera is perfect when using Raaga. She provides an 80% Atk buff and has the most hit counts out of all of the damage mitigators released in the game so far.
 * Grave Carver Aaron is one of the most efficient damage mitigators in the game, allowing himself to regen his BB gauge when attacked thanks to his Extra Skill.
 * Armor Goddess Edea heals status ailments when her BB/SBB is used while equipped with Lafdranya. She is currently not available yet, however.
 * A buffer that utilizes "BB regen when attacked".
 * Demonic Idol Kikuri utilizes this buff the best as she fills 5-7 BC, filling great chunks of units' BB gauges.
 * Thunderbird Sabre Diana boosts BB gauges by 4-5 BC when attacked and 5 BC every turn with her SBB.
 * Crescendo Megurine Luka boosts BB gauges by 4-6 BC when attacked and provides a HoT buff with her SBB.
 * An HC & BC buffer.
 * Cataclysm Empress Feeva and Valkyrie Archangel Griel fulfill this role the best.

Tools
HP Marker: http://touchandswipe.github.io/bravefrontier/hpmarker#_=_

Squad Spotlight
Here are a list of squads that have succeeded in completing Trial X3. If they can clear the trial, you can clear it too!

Squad 1: Linathan Clear
Units= Items= Spheres= This squad took at least an hour to complete this trial. Whittling Xie'Jing's HP down was rather tedious, but worth it in the end.
 * Fujin Potion x2
 * Fujin Tonic x3
 * Goddess Idol x2
 * Revive Light x2
 * Crescent Dew x2
 * Magress w/Fallacy Orb & Leomurg
 * Selena w/Virtue Stone & Lexida
 * Colt w/Heresy Orb & Ice Blade
 * Griel w/Heresy Orb & Malice Jewel
 * Kikuri w/Alzeon Pearl & Scarlet Pin
 * Elimo w/Ihsir's Guise & Drevas

With Colt and Griel as my leads, all of my units exceeded over 10,000 HP and with the Def buffs provided by Magress and Elimo (they don't stack, however), I was able to tank a lot of the special attacks dealt by Xie'Jing, especially Demonic Atrocity and Blighted Harvest spams. This squad cleared Trial X3 after the buff was patched in and before 6* Grahdens was released. Colt was able to help me deal a sufficient amount of damage, despite the critical damage and chance resistances. I re-entered Trial X3 and managed to clear it again with a Grahdens lead to replace Colt so Grahdens works very well here.

On the first turn, I guarded. On the second turn, I popped a Fujin Potion on Kikuri and attacked with everyone. Xie'Jing doesn't do much damage on the second turn anyway.

During Fei phases, I managed my units' HP quite well with Selena's HoT buff and Elimo's healing BB/SBB. Usually, my units would get reflected to 1 HP, but because my HC production is high and I use Elimo's BB/SBB after reflect damage takes place, HP management wasn't much of an issue.

When Demonic Atrocity's 2-turn DoT debuff took effect, my units still managed their HP quite well with Selena's HoT buff.

During the first Soul Siphon phase, I used Magress's Overdrive and got his UBB gauge filled on the second turn, which meant that I was able to unleash it on the third turn of the phase and endure the two Soul Extinguish attacks. During the second phase, I repeated the same steps, but I used Magress's UBB on the fourth turn to endure the three Soul Extinguish attacks.

When my units were at low HP on the third turn of Xie'Jing's shield, I used a Goddess Idol on Elimo, healed with Elimo, and guarded with everyone else.

Whenever my Leader Skills were canceled, I made sure that I used Elimo's BB and not her SBB. Magress was able to provide his Def buff so I survived those phases quite well. This is extremely important that you carry a unit that heals status ailments. Lacking a status immunity Leader Skill can be detrimental to your squad, but having a healer, like Elimo can fix things up

I made sure I kept Kikuri's SBB buff active every three turns. This is probably the most useful buff in this trial. You will need this to drive the BB gauge momentum of the squad. Diana and Luka work as perfect substitutes if you do not have Kikuri.

I successfully killed all three Feis in the trial. Because of this, Xie'Jing never had an Atk buff to decimate my team with her Blighted Harvest spams. It is very important to gauge Fei's HP as you want to kill him before he kills himself. At 20% HP, Fei will kill himself and buff Xie'Jing. The 6* form is the hardest part as he has more HP and you need to shoot Fei from above 200,000 HP all the way down to 0 HP.

Now, during the 10% mark, I went reckless and tried release all of the BB and SBB I had available. I used my leftover Fujin Potions. However, because I miscounted at one point, I lost three units, but recovered with the leftover two Crescent Dews I had.

Finally, I finished Xie'Jing off with the five units I had left. If Xie'Jing was left alive on that turn, she would've wiped my entire squad with Malignant Wave and her Blighted Harvest spam.

Squad 2: Lunlaria Clear
Units= Items= Spheres= Huge thanks to Lunlaria for letting me feature his squad in this Squad Spotlight!
 * Fujin Potion x2
 * Fujin Tonic x3
 * Goddess Idol x2
 * Revive Light x2
 * Crescent Dew x2
 * Shera w/Malice Jewel & Magic Ore
 * Selena w/Lexida & Virtue Stone
 * Kanon w/Malice Jewel & Sol Creator
 * Diana w/Omni Gizmo & Malice Jewel
 * Feeva w/Heresy Orb & Malice Jewel

Because Lunlaria came up with this squad, let's hear what he has to say about this squad! Go Lunlaria!

Here is Lunlaria's squad summary:

"Basically, the fight is broken down to how fast you can push the phases and how well you can kill Fei.

I have 3 thunder units here: Kanon, Diana, and Shera. While I do have Aaron and Kikuri, Diana and Shera fill better roles. Diana can still contribute some BC per turn. Shera offers an Atk buff for the entire team, which can help push more damage, even though Aaron does more base damage. And, most importantly, they are Thunder units, which deal more damage to Fei and can survive his attacks better. And, of course, Kanon is for that sexy defense buff and status cleanse when leader skills are down (Kanon lead).

Selena is my healer. With Lexida, she generates tons of bc and heals for the team. Not to mention the Angel Idol buff, which can save her from any fatal attacks.

I was debating to take Griel or Feeva, but, in the end, I took feeva because my Feeva was Breaker while my Griel was Guardian. They provide the BC and HC buff to full my gauges and heal myself as much as possible after the taunt and before the DoT debuff. Not to mention, Feeva does spark more than Griel.

Lastly, I had a Raaga friend. Raaga gives tons of spark damage to my team and offers some BB contribution with his leader skill (when it's up). Being a Light unit, Raaga deals more damage to xie jing. I use Raaga also for his UBB to help push to kill Fei or push the Soul Siphon phase."

Here's how to approach this trial using this squad:

"At the start of the battle I Fujin Diana and Shera typical start.

When she summons Fei for the first time, I control the amount of damage I do and make sure to never get him past 20%. The main mechanic of this trial is killing Fei and not letting Fei kill you because of the attack and defense buff Xie'jing gets when it happens. If you look at the picture of my clear, she has no buffs at all, meaning I managed to successfuly kill fei 3 times in a row.

When she casts her first shield, I made sure that Selena and Diana SBB's on the second turn of the shield. You don't really have to go all out with damage here because there's a shield. Just make sure the important buffs are there. On the third turn of the shield, guard. This ultimate attack goes through mitigation. Just guard and you will be fine. If Selena's and Diana's SBB is up, Shera should be able to BB the next turn due to the BB drain that happens. If not use, a Fujin Potion.

After around 70%, she will do two Soul Siphon attacks followed by two Soul Extiquish attacks. I used Raaga's UBB here to help push past the phase. If you manage to push from 70% to 60% HP in those two turns, she will cancel it and automatically summon Fei once more.

Remenber, for the second Fei, you must also try to kill him before he kills himself, but this time he is a bit more tanky. Once again, try to control your damage and lower him to about 30% hp before all out killing him.

During this phase she might shield herself up again, but if you did what I did and guarded the Depraved Punishment, she will not use it again. Just focus on managing your damage on fei so that you wont have a buffed up xie'jing.

After that, it's another Soul Extinction phase, this time being 3 of them. Once again, you must out-damage the boss in 3 turns.

If you managed to do that, this last challenge arises, the last form of Fei. It is sort of managable if one of the earlier Fei's didnt die in time but make sure this one dies by your hand. UBB if needed. Fei must not give his soul to Xie'Jing.

If the boss literally has no attack up buffs, you're basically done. There are no more special moves and victory is yours.

Squad advise. Do NOT take crit. It is too much RNG and you can't manage you damage output, which is extremely important in this trial. Get a BB on hit unit like Diana or Kikuri would help a lot. Also, get a unit that gives a good HC buff like Feeva or Griel (for this one I used Feeva over Griel because she sparks more). You MUST have a healer. Preferably, a healer like Selena because it can help negate the dot. Taking a healer like Elimo is alright but during the DoT parts, your units really start hurting. And, of course, bring mitigation. I shouldn't have to say that."

Squad 3: Rowgen Cheese Method
Units= Items= Spheres= The main objective is to get Rowgen's HP below 33%. Stealth Robe will prevent Rowgen from being targeted by attacks. Once Rowgen is alone, Rowgen will only get targeted by normal attacks. With the Guardian Cloak equipped and Hadaron and Kanon's Leader Skills active, Rowgen will only take 1 damage from Xie'Jing's attacks.
 * Cure x10
 * Fujin Tonic x3
 * Goddess Idol x2
 * High Cure x7
 * Divine Light x2
 * Rowgen w/Stealth Robe & Guardian Cloak

Even better, Xie'Jing won't do any special attacks even when passing her 10% thresholds. She will just normal attack.

However, you do need to keep an eye on Rowgen's HP as Xie'Jing has a 20% resistance to HC drop rate. This means that Rowgen's 1 hit count has an 8% chance of producing one HC. Because of this, you need to carry Cures and other healing items.

Special Thanks
I would like to thank Xerte and Deathmax from r/bravefrontier for datamining the information of Trial X3. Without the information, we would have absolutely no idea how to beat this ridiculous trial!

I would also like to thank Yapboonyew, Mich, Starchythepotato, and Lunlaria for keeping the Trial X3 page updated!

Additionally, I would also like to extend my thanks to Lunlaria for letting me feature his squad and giving me explanations in this Squad Spotlight!

Conclusion
After a long week worth of testing the trial over and over again, I finally managed to make a detailed guide on Trial X3. I hope this all helps and I wish you success in your attempt at Trial X3!

Is Xie'Jing really worth the trouble getting? Check out Xie'Jing's Unit Spotlight!

Check out my list of analyses in [http://bravefrontierglobal.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Linathan/Spotlights:_Table_of_Contents! Spotlights: Table of Contents!]