Introduction

Yeah, sorry for the bad pun.

After the debut of Mystics & Spectres, Seina had deservedly taken the shining spotlight as the next meta-defining leader in the then-new landscape dominated by the dungeon Ruler of Hell’s Halls (Shura 2). In the same vein, Mikage had also gained considerable respect for his unmatched potential, though his daunting orb requirements and intensive playstyle led many to favor Seina.

However, as unrealistic as it sounds, there was actually a third top rarity mystic in the event.

Though Ryumei did get some hype before his release during Christmas due to the release of “Santama “, he was widely considered to be the worst animated card during the event’s debut. However, Ryumei recently received several substantial buffs as a birthday gift to NINNIN, Ryumei’s artist, which increases his relative value in comparison to fellow contemporaries such as Seina and Mikage. The question is, by how much?

In this article, I want to first see what changed for the better in terms of endgame content, and then go over some basic team construction ideas specifically tailored for Alt. Ruler of Hell’s Halls (ASR2). Keep in mind that my intended audience consists of endgame players with extremely well-developed boxes and that the dungeon context is mainly Ruler of Hell’s Halls (SR2) and its alternate version (ASR2), so some of the rhetoric may feel foreign if you are not part of said intended audience and/or aren’t familiar with the aforementioned dungeons. I will also primarily be focusing on Ryumei as a lead, so I won’t be talking about his sub potential.

Cover Art Credits: https://twitter.com/Carbona_ramen/status/1337776929705869312

Impact of Buffs

Before

After

What Changed?

When Ryumei first debuted, I was pretty optimistic about his potential despite the vast majority of players dismissing him due to his inferiority to the other two mystics. In fact, I had a lot of fun running a full system team in Alt. Guardian of the Demon Gate (ASR1) and watching him absolutely demolish every spawn in the dungeon. However, it was when I started to tackle Ruler of Hell’s Halls (SR2) that I realized how glaring his weaknesses were.

Though there are a couple difficulties that are inherent to Ryumei regardless of buffs, the main problem before the buffs was his brutal shield activation inconsistency. Previously, Ryumei would activate his shield off of matching an L of only Fire or Light Orbs, which meant that you were pretty much screwed if you didn’t have enough orbs of either color. Though Ryumei himself does reduce the inconsistency quite a bit with his active, the potential of orb troll is still very present, especially when you factor in enemy skills that remove Fire and Light Orbs from the board. Think about Floor 2 of SR2/ASR2; if you didn’t get Flamie or Shynee, you had to hold your breath and pray that either Fire or Light Orbs were spared by the unfriendly slimes.

Now, you can match an L with any five orbs, even with hazards or hearts, so the shield activation is guaranteed on every floor unless enemy skills interfere with the board. Going back to the slimes, the buff allows Ryumei to stall much more freely, as orbs are now only needed for damage and not for survival. Though you still have to be wary of a couple spawns (Will-O-Wisp on F6 of ASR2), the newfound orb flexibility of the leader skill means that Ryumei can stall much more easily on any given floor. Furthermore, the buff also reduces the extreme dependency on the active to generate orbs just for survival and lessens the requirement for poison and jammer resistance.

Speaking of the active, another major difference is in the impact of the active on overall team construction. Previously, Ryumei only generated orbs and added three combos in exchange for having no skyfall for one turn, but now he buffs time and unlocks orbs as well. Essentially, what this means for the team is that you can completely ditch whatever sub you were previously using for active unlock and time buff, which would probably be Venus (but could also be Horus). Now, you have an extra sub slot to fill in whatever utility you need.

Don’t forget about the additional in the pre-transform form. Having even one more greatly aids in teambuilding flexibility, so potentially gaining two (by running two copies) is immensely valuable especially when you consider the solutions to Ryumei’s inherent inability to pierce void shields.

Though the multiplier buffs may be a bit minor, increasing the health multiplier made it easier to reach the threshold of 150K HP, which has become an unofficial benchmark for SR2/ASR2 because that amount of health allows you to tank hits on floors that would otherwise require a shield; think of the Ogre Floor (F5 in SR2, F4 in ASR2), Sun Quan (F10 in SR2, F9 in ASR2), and the Gem Floor (ASR2). And while a slightly improved attack multiplier doesn’t significantly any interaction with specific enemies (at least to my knowledge), more damage is always helpful in a dungeon where the spawns have health and defense values in the hundreds of millions and the billions.

Team Construction

Alright, time for the team building part. I am going to be assuming that you are running Ryumei for both the leader and helper due to his overwhelming multipliers.

Alt. Ruler of Hell’s Halls (ASR2) is just a really annoying dungeon that is packed full of mechanics while also amping up enemy damage to ridiculous levels. Over time, players have figured out some general guidelines for team building that usually improves the chances of successfully clearing the dungeon, such as the health threshold of 150K HP.

In my mind, every team running Ryumei in ASR2 should prioritize these three things first before filling in the rest of the team.

1. 25 Effective
2. Void Shield Solution
3. Cleric

Without these things, I am going to be extremely skeptical about the viability of your build.

Skill Boost Options

Though it seems like are being heavily supplemented by haste and/or delay equips such as Harvest Lute and Red Ford Card (amongst many others), these equips are generally quite expensive, which means that not everyone will have access to them. Thus, it may just be easiest to simply run a card loaded with in order to ease skill boost requirements on the rest of team. Keep in mind that Ryumei already brings along , so running two of him means you already have 8 out of the 25.

In terms of pure skill boost sticks, there is none better than Base Valeria . What’s great about her is that not only does she carry around the most in the game, but she also has a great active that can be very valuable in dealing with various situations, such as Will-O-Wisp’s potential full heart board and the floor with Okuninushi and Liu Bei, as her refresh negates Okuni’s full mortal poison board while her recovery buff overwrites Liu Bei’s recovery debuff. The recent run of DBDC was also very valuable as Valeria recently received and has the option to either gain yet another or stick with for her super awakening. Valeria’s major downside is that she has absolutely no personal damage, which is a little unfortunate for a dungeon that squeezes every ounce of damage from the teams that attempt to clear it. However, I will say that Valeria is full to the brim with utility and can definitely serve as a sub of successful teams running Ryumei.

Other alternatives include Mayoi Hachikuji , Super Reincarnated Thor , Mega Awoken Kanna , Reincarnated Ra Dragon , Mega Awoken Yog , and Kamen Rider EX-AID amongst many others, but all of them feel quite subpar in comparison to Valeria since each option brings a lower amount of and provides less utility despite having better damage.

What I personally prefer nowadays over pure sticks are subs with low base cooldowns that you can inherit a haste or a delay on for more effective , since you can treat the inherit as a one-time use and then spam the low cooldown active for the rest of the dungeon. Viable bases include Base GH Minerva , Mega Awoken Raijin , Super Reincarnated Venus , and maybe even Base Shinji Hirako from Bleach. In terms of personal preference, I have to say that I really enjoy using Base GH Minerva, but I also feel that Mega Awoken Raijin is an interesting sleeper option.

Some great haste and delay equip options are Harvest Lute , Demon’s Blood Talismans , Shinji&Rei Keychains , Glavenus Hellnova , Spirit Dragonwd Horn , Swords of Revealing Light Spell Card , Dark Magician Card , Kaname’s Paper Fan , Dream Dimension Detective, Shelling Ford Card , and Spirit Ally, Morphea . Of course, there are definitely more than just these, but these equips are the ones that caught my eye while looking around.

Void Shield Solution

One large aspect of Ryumei that has remained the same despite the buffs is his interaction with damage void shields. Ryumei, for all his personal damage, does not have and probably wouldn’t even want it due to the way the awakening interacts with . Furthermore, because the leader skill also requires matching to activate, matching a box on top of that makes the board quite cramped when matching combos. Thus, Ryumei must outsource a solution for killing spawns with damage void shields.

There are a couple ways to solve this issue. Of course, you can run subs with and deal with it that way, but I dislike this due to the reasons mentioned above, not to mention that the subs with will also need to be able to deal tremendous damage since all the damage void shield spawns are quite tanky in SR2/ASR2. Some options include Halloween Cotton , REMDra (5 Pulls) with VDP SA, Mariel from Draconic Orchestra, Super Reincarnated Thor , and Academy Apollo . The unfortunate part about running as the solution to damage void shields is that Ryumei will not be able to leverage any of his massive personal damage against shielded spawns at all, since the team is forced to rely only on the subs with to pierce through.

In my mind, the cleaner solution is to use an active that negates damage void shields so that Ryumei can blast through the enemy spawn. If running a void void active, I think there are three viable options.

1. Dyer (Sacred Relic Dragon Saga): Dyer is probably the best option for SR2/ASR2 due to his low cooldown, the additional shield effect, and his , which compresses quite a lot of value for a card that was originally slotted in just for the active. For example, I personally use the shield as a nice insurance policy for the potential full heart board on Floor 6, and then the active will recharge in time for when I need it versus Ganesha on Floor 9. The attached shield is also great when going up against Gilles, because as you pop the void void active to bring Gilles below 50% HP, you also want the shield to protect yourself from the ensuing moveset of awoken bind into gigantic hit. The main drawback of using Dyer is that he carries no , which places a larger strain on the rest of the team to make up for the lack of . Dyer is also bindable pre-transform, which means he either needs an equip with or the team needs to use a cleric active on Floor 1 to remove the preemptive bind.
2. Fagan-Rai (GFE): Though Fagan-Rai may look like the inferior option compared to Dyer, he does have some advantages. Fagan’s void void effect lasts for four turns (as opposed to Dyer’s active lasting one turn), which is valuable when going after Gilles Legato because it gives you a much larger window to kill the boss. Furthermore, the additional burst is also quite nice since you want to kill the enemy as quickly as possible when using Fagan’s active. Another advantage over Dyer is the consistency of personal damage; while Dyer technically has the higher ceiling with , ten combos is actually pretty difficult to reach while matching , even with Ryumei’s active. Thus, Fagan’s will most likely output more damage over the duration of the dungeon and will be far more consistent if and when you need the damage. The problem with Fagan is that his active cooldown is a lot longer, which really stinks when there are frequent void shield spawns that are separated by a couple floors (such as Ganesha into Sherias) or when you need to reuse it again on Gilles Legato. Granted, this isn’t that big of a deal since Ryumei is exceptionally good at stalling due to his ridiculous recovery multiplier. Furthermore, the burst is more useless than useful, since if you use Fagan’s active is to deal with Sherias, the spike will be overridden immediately by the next floor’s debuff unless you somehow get the rare invade of Scheherazade Dragon . It also only buffs Dragon Type, which means no burst for the cards with only God Type.
3. Suruga’s Devil Hand (Monogatari Series): Last but not least, we have the much-vaunted equip of Suruga Kanbaru . This equip is actually strong not only for its short cooldown and void void effect but also because it carries a valuable and boosts damage with . The drawback of this equip is probably the loss of the base card’s active as you reach the later floors, since you will need to use the void void active quite often. It also sucks that the cooldown will be somewhat long, although as previously stated, Ryumei is exceptionally good at stalling, so recharging the inherited active shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Some great inherit base options include Super Reincarnated Venus , Base GH Minerva , Reincarnated Diaochan , and even Ryumei himself.

Though there are definitely other void void active options such as Crimson Dracoblader, Akine and Sin Dragon of Envy, Jevi , I feel like the rest have too many glaring weaknesses that would require the rest of the team to heavily compensate for. Akine, in particular, stands out to me as a massive stick that also has a shield with her void void active and has great utility in her awakenings with and on top of her super awakening selection of , but her long cooldown mandates a ridiculous amount of stalling that I find slightly distasteful.

Cleric

While this last requirement isn’t strictly mandatory, I find that a cleric is usually the best way to deal with the various binds, awoken binds, and unmatchable orb statuses that are repeatedly applied as you progress through the dungeon. A cleric can be defined as a card with an active that clears multiple statuses that the enemy applies, such as binds, awoken binds, and unmatchable orb statuses. Of course, with Ryumei’s activation flexibility, it might be possible to simply ignore some of the awoken binds and unmatchable orb statuses, but having a cleric will most likely improve your chances of success. It’s why Christmas Gremory has attained such popularity due to the dominance of Seina.

For Ryumei, I see two cleric options that stand out above the rest.

1. Christmas TAMADRA (Santama): An amazing cleric that reduces binds, awoken binds, and unmatchable orb status on a reasonably low cooldown while also including a haste, Santama is amazing because it can be used on almost every floor with a bind, awoken bind, or unmatchable orb status; the only floor it can’t solve on his own is Floor 1, but you can make it work by using Santama and then stalling the rest of the bind with a delay. The haste is also really useful as an extra effective . Santama is also pretty great because it can survive the lead swap on Floor 5 of ASR2 (Floor 6 of SR2) and packs a ton of utility in its awakenings; and are both nice to have to help alleviate player skill issues, while could theoretically be used to lower health requirements even further. And of course, is very welcome in reaching the 25 needed to transform Ryumei.
2. Lagiacrus (Monster Hunter): Buffs from the last run made Lagiacrus into a beast of a cleric, as it fully clears all binds, awoken binds, and unmatchable orb status and generates enough Light and Water Orbs to match , which could’ve been great against Will-O-Wisp on Floor 6 of ASR2 except for the fact that Floor 7 casts an awoken bind and unmatchable orb status lasting five turns. Lagiacrus’s awakenings completely focus on damage with , as the dragon is nearly as strong as Ryumei and can surpass him by equipping another . Unfortunately, Lagiacrus’s LS is nowhere near as tanky as Santama’s LS, so Lagiacrus will probably need a shield, delay, or possibly a lead swap latent to survive Floor 5 of ASR2 (Floor 6 of SR2).

To be honest, picking between Lagiacrus and Santama in terms of the active is like picking between a red pen and a blue pen; the differences are there, but none of them really swing in favor of one card. The major difference between Lagiacrus and Santama is in the awakenings; while the latter carries tons of utility, the former simply focuses on damage. In my opinion, I prefer the utility of Santama over the damage of Lagiacrus since Ryumei is already outputting tons of damage; Lagiacrus would only be useful in killing some of the last floors a bit faster while Santama will provide valuable utility throughout the whole dungeon.

Of course, other clerics can be used, such as Tuala , Diamond REMDra (10 Pulls) , Artura , or Christmas Gremory , but all of these have some undesirable aspect for Ryumei; Santama and Lagiacrus are the clerics I find to be a cut above the rest.

Other Notable Cards

After filling in for the aforementioned roles, it is likely that there is an empty sub slot left. For players without Dyer, that fourth sub slot could potentially be a shield active, such as Super Reincarnated Indra , New Year Maeda Keiji , Reincarnated Tachibana Ginchiyo , and Super Reincarnated Raphael . However, since Ryumei can reasonably reach 150K HP without too much difficulty, it might be preferable to inherit the shield and run some other tech choice to counter a certain mechanic.

One card that has seen quite the resurgence in popularity is Base Ideal from DBDC. In the past, she was once famous for being the first card to have , and though she has fallen off quite a bit since everyone has that set of damage awakenings, Ideal has been buffed significantly to the point where I think she is now an elite sub option for Ryumei. Her active delays for two turns (which translates into two effective skill boosts), generates a full rainbow board, and voids attribute absorption shields for two turns. The delay is great for Floor 1 not just because of the delay providing more skill boosts via stalling but also because it’s the perfect amount to stall out the rest of the preemptive bind if you have chosen to use Santama. Furthermore, the full rainbow board can be used to counter Will-O-Wisp on Floor 6 and the color void is perfect for getting through Sherias. Lastly, her unconditional shield means that Ideal is a pleasure to temporarily swap into when getting leader swapped on Floor 5. I haven’t even mentioned how great her are for reaching the threshold of 150K HP or how powerful she is with her fourth via super awakening. Though I once regretted the fact I traded for Ideal on a whim, I now rejoice at my questionable decision, for once again, Ideal lives up to her name.

Another great sub that I used even before the buffs to Ryumei is Base GH Minerva . Not only does she have substantial personal damage via and great utility through via super awakening, but GH Minerva serves as a great inherit base for haste/delay equips (as previously mentioned) who also has a great base active that provides a gemstone burst based off of on a ridiculously low cooldown. I find the active extremely helpful for killing off the Dragon Seed and for blasting through spawns on the last floors, such as the MP Dragons and Gilles Legato, not to mention the value of overwriting anti-burst effects on a whim.

This flex sub slot will be filled in differently by everyone due to subjective box constraints and team building preferences. Just make sure to cover what you need for SR2/ASR2!

Venus

Though the entire article is focused on running Ryumei in SR2/ASR2, I do want to highlight Super Reincarnated Venus as a far more accessible option that you can pair with Ryumei for the same dungeons. Venus has been significantly buffed in many respects and her leader skill now boasts only slightly inferior multipliers for the same playstyle when compared to Ryumei. The one thing I do want to point out is that Venus boosts Light Att. as opposed to Ryumei boosting Dragon and God Types, so pairing the two together will restrict the possible pool of subs quite a bit. Personally, I’m excited to try Venus out once I manage to clear with double Ryumei.

Conclusion

Ryumei has undeniably risen through the ranks of endgame leaders and has firmly solidified his position at the top of the current meta due to his much-improved consistency in activating his shield to constantly maintain his bulk. In addition, Ryumei’s active skill buffs have not only made it one of the longest animations ever but also compresses great utility into the active via the time buff effect and the unlock, which opens up much-needed team building flexibility alongside the additional added to pre-transform Ryumei.

I’ve already cleared with Ryumei before the buffs, and in my experience running Ryumei after the buffs, it honestly feels like the main constraint is the player, as most of my deaths are simply flubbing or not paying attention and doing the wrong thing. Hopefully I grow some brain cells and get my act together to clear!

Good luck and have fun!