Featured image by Ely.

Swords (and Sinon’s booty).

See here for more details on this machine.

  6 Stars 

Kirito

Despite being the protagonist of his show, Kirito is pretty underwhelming.

Being a 2 color match lead with combo aspect, attribute restricted subpool, and bicolor board active, Kirito is quite similar to Yusuke . The main differences beyond subpool and lead awakenings is Kirito’s built-in time extend and a lower multiplier. Subpool wise, dark lacks a particularly powerful sub like what LIdeal is to light, but this may be amended in the future. Overall there’s nothing particularly wrong with Kirito leader skill and it’s strong and flexible enough to tackle everything in the game (given some good team building), but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

As a sub Kirito hits quite hard with his high attack stat and offensive awakenings. Having TPAs in addition to 7c allows for low end damage control, though his high attack tends to be counter productive for that purpose. Kirito’s bicolor board brings both unlock and +1c for only 1 extra CD than Blonia . Unfortunately, attacker typing has a mediocre selection of latent types and his HP isn’t the greatest. A decent sub overall, but not exactly a must have on any teams.

Most other TPA assists has a secondary supporting awakening, while Kirito’s assist evo went all in on the swords aspect and simply grants an extra 200 attack instead. This thing is pretty average among TPA assists overall, but at least the active is definitely better than the only other dark TPA assist available, even if it’s not quite as versatile as Weld ‘s tricolor with hearts + delay active.

Which Kirito do I make?

Kirito is a pretty decent lead and sub for early/mid game players and he’s good enough for all game content available, but endgame players will likely have better leaders and may consider the TPA assist instead. Do keep in mind that he doesn’t have a super awakening yet and could get buffs in the future.

Asuna

As a brutally simple 5 match-of-anything lead, Asuna is very capable for speed-running A3.

Since Asuna requires only light attribute subs, her team building is fairly flexible. Lack of combo requirements is a blessing as Asuna can sweep trash floors with just 1 5 match plus a few combos then take care of radar dragons with a VDP match. She can utilize strong light sub-attribute subs like Red Ilmina to sweep floors without needing light orbs and she has access to an excellent farmable sub in Odysseus who has some killers and triple L attack. Asuna’s 3 rows usually go unused, but may come in handy for extra damage. Active skill wise, Asuna is notably the first 2 turn +2c active and can be quite useful for consecutive floors where high combos are needed either for combo shields or VDP purposes. 3 turns of 2x RCV is nice as she only has a HP multiplier, but usually her healing can be handled by high RCV subs alone.

The 3 rows Asuna brings to the table are rarely desired, even blob leads like Ameno prefer orb enhances or 7c/tpa. Triple SB is a bit more meaningful, but farmable cards like Orpharion work better as skill boost sticks due to lower cooldowns.

Compared to previous 6* collab unbindable assists , Asuna’s active isn’t as universally useful as Bolas’s 100% shield or Kamui’s low CD damage absorb null, but the single poison resist helps teams meet 100% poison resist with 1 Rathian assist (or equivalent) and 1 other poison resist from something like Hakuryu or Trojan Horse .

Which Asuna do I make?

Asuna is a nice leader for A3 farming but not particularly useful as a sub. If you already have other fast A3 leaders then consider the assist evolution.

Yuuki

Yuuki has an interesting active and 4 TPAs on a high attack stat, but she’s otherwise pretty average.

The leader skill is a hybrid of TPAs and match any 5. Her damage control is pretty good, since neither multiplier is tied to combos. Yuuki depends on red orbs to have a shield, 4 reds may be a fairly low requirement but there will be boards that simply do not have 4 red orbs. Overall she’s a flexible leader with good damage but also a relatively low shield.

With her quad TPA and high base attack, Yuuki hits about as hard as some triple 7c cards. However her HP and RCV are both pretty low and her attacker typing limits her killer selection. Yuuki’s active may be the biggest reason to run her as a sub: it’s the lowest CD full awoken bind clear active and it also creates orbs to attack with. If you are running a red team that needs an awoken bind solution, Yuuki is a solid option as long as you can make up for her low HP/RCV and take advantage of her TPA damage.

Yuuki’s assist evo has second lowest CD of all skillboost assist evos , with only assist amen being lower. However, she’s also the first SB assist with a column making active which is actually usable for swipe farm purposes, especially against spawns that preempt awoken binds like Uvo Kaguya. SB assists with longer CD are still more flexible, but Yuuki’s sword has a niche.

Aside from the SB, Yuuki’s sword is also the first assist evo to grant two Team RCV. It boosts team total RCV by 1.2x and unlike heart OE assists, it’s not dependent on the RCV of the assisted card.

Which Yuuki do I make?

Yuuki herself is a nice lead and sub, most notable for her full awoken bind clear utility. If you have no particular need for SB assists or already have better SB assists with longer cooldowns, make the uvo form.

Sinon

Sinon is the most outstanding leader in this collab due to the numerous RCV solutions available for 4x HP leaders, and makes up for a rainbow team’s lower damage ceiling through a high attack multiplier.

Though her attacker sub requirement is restrictive, Sinon has access to Mel , one of the best healing subs in the game. Mel works nicely with the ≤80% HP requirement, as you can choose to heal lots or just a bit by doing/not doing a heart TPA plus she conveniently covers red and blue, so the remaining subs just have to cover green. While Sinon requires all 5 colors for 400x ATK, 4 colors still gives a respectable 256x. Although she lacks access to some powerful rainbow subs like LIdeal , Sinon’s damage output is excellent due to her high multiplier and two leads with powerful offensive awakenings. There’s no need for a dedicated suicide active sub, as Sinon’s own active guarantees activation by lowering HP and providing 5 color board with unlock on 7 CD. The biggest obstacle is Sinon’s vulnerability to binds, so make sure to have a strong bind clear sub or an unbindable assist when dealing with bind throwing spawns like LIzanami.

With her triple ≤50% attack boost, Sinon has a 8x personal damage multiplier for being under 50% HP backed a high attack. She also has a useful guard break for dealing with high defense enemies with ease. Although she is strong, the only team where she really fits is her own team. She may have a use for low HP farm leads like Raizen , but strong killer subs will out damage her against the right spawns.

Sinon’s rifle amounts to a glorified version of Otae’s Omelette from Gintama Collab, as both grant a ≤50% attack boost when assisted. It gives a bit more attack and is 1 CD longer, but overall the improvement is marginal.

Which Sinon do I make?

If you missed Gintama, is desperately looking for a ≤50% attack boost assist for farming purposes, and don’t care about leading with her, you can consider the assist evo. Otherwise keep base Sinon for an interesting and powerful lead and potentially a good sub for more than just her own team in the future.

Leafa

Leafa is one of those cards that look strong until you notice the HP conditional.

As a leader Leafa can be thought of as a more extreme version of Zela . Both leaders fully activate on 3 green combos and have HP conditional shields, but Leafa’s ATK multiplier is higher and her shield is stronger in exchange for a stricter HP requirement of 80% vs Zela’s 50%. Though it may seem that a higher shield would make up for the higher HP requirement, it does not work out that way mathmaticallyTo put you under 80% of your HP through a 75% shield, the enemy needs to hit for 0.8x of your total HP and thus any 99% gravity would do it. To put you under 50% through a 57.75% shield, the enemy needs to hit for 1.18x of your total HP. and as soon as you are under 80%, you must use an active or somehow take a free turn to get the shield and damage back. Leafa’s saving grace is her low CD self heal active and green’s nice selection of self recovery subs plus the ability to utilize autoheal for consistent self-healing in longer contents, as each 1k autoheal translates to 4k effective HP. Her playstyle is ultimately rather slow, given the number of orbs needed for full activation.

As a sub Leafa boasts 4 ≥80% HP attack boost awakenings that multiplies to roughly 5x personal multiplier for being above 80%. In addition to self heal, her active brings some orb change and hazard clear utilities, but ultimately 7c subs are more consistent for normal content and killer subs are preferred for Zeus Verse farming.

Leafa’s assist evo is extremely similar to assist Caladbolg , down to both having some green OE, attack boost, and identical active cooldown. Extra two OE does add more damage but overall, it’s a marginal improvement. Both are worse than assist Mo Ye in coop farm situations anyhow.

Which Leafa do I make?

Since you can roll Caladbolg from regular REM and there was a PEM assist that gave ≥80% HP attack boost, I doubt many people will have need for assist Leafa. Her base form isn’t particularly great either, but like other Diamonds in this collab she may get super awakening buffs in the future.

  5 Stars 

Note: All 5 Stars have limit break but no super awakenings. Their stats increase by 1.3x at lv110.

Alice

Alice’s only niche as a sub is the time extends, her stats are bad and her only other awakening is SB so I’d use any other TE stick over her.

Her active locks light orbs, but since it’s a orb changer and not a orb generator like Indigo , the number of locked orbs she can create is uncertain. Since she only locks light orbs, Bufu does a better job at countering spinners.

Silica

Silica’s active is a blue + heart column active, useful for making a FUA. The secondary effect is nice as well, potentially letting a swipe build survive small preempts after using HP to 1 actives earlier.

Correction: It was pointed out in comments that Cyber N World from Duel monsters is the first blue + heart column maker.

Lisabeth

Lisbeth combines Facet with orb generation that guarantees enough orbs for 1 red TPA and help fix bad bicolor boards. Her CD is also 2 turns shorter than Facet, but in exchange the burst only lasts 1 turn so you won’t be able to kill 2 floors with her.

Agil

Agil hits about as hard as Reiner against machines but has a much more reasonable base cooldown for inherits, making him easier to build around. His active is also pretty decent, being a low CD delay active that removes hazard orbs.

Klein

Klein’s active is nearly identical to Rathalos Hunter in that you can use it to quickly make a VDP. His actual shield value is much higher than Rathalos Hunter, so he may be used for creating enough orbs to kill and then tanking a big preemptive. Lastly he can serve as a poverty red double 7c sub if you have nothing better.

Argo

Although 2x coin is no better than Ganesha and definitely worse than Obochama , Argo’s attack multiplier can be useful for clearing Weekend dungeon without leader swap. Of course, this isn’t very relevant for players who can button the whole thing.

Argo has both the lowest CD active that clears 3 turns of awoken bind clear and one of the lowest CD unlock actives available. She’s nice for making swipe builds as the low CD allows the active to be recycled, similar to Diaochan(or skillup) . Her killers and SBR are nice for farming as well, and being balanced typing she’s able to stack latent killers of any type.

Sachi

Sachi is tied with Kim Kaphwan as lowest CD +2c actives in the game, useful in 3p situations where your SB is limited. In addition to + combo, Sachi also generates 3 darks that help fix a board when trying to VDP.

  Farmables 

Dungeon drops

Heathcliff

Since his base attack becomes 2870 at lv110, Heathcliff can be a decent button and nukes for 673,000 to 1 target before latents or assists. That said, Nameless Sword being a thing makes him significantly less useful.

Eiji

Eiji’s active can be situationally useful in farming as it clears awoken bind and creates 2 rows. However, Eiji is not inheritable, has 0 SB, and very few spawns only apply 1 turn of awoken binds. Still he’s a farmable double row maker for breaking combo shields or making VDP boards and he covers different colors than Nidhogg and Draklist .

Ain

Ain has 2 of each awoken, vendor, and enhance killer, useful in normal arena. He’s sadly missing the most relevant evo killer for dealing with Gilles or Hexazeon spawns though.

For someone just starting out, Ain is an easy to obtain SB stick, as you can feed 3 Ain to 1 Ain and unlock 3 skill boosts. His active is too long for him to be particularly useful as a inherit base though, even if max skilled.

Dungeon Clear Reward

Yui

Yui’s base stats are too low for her to be useful as a sub, even at lv110. However she is inheritable and has a neat x3 healer/attacker burst + 3x time extend active.

Edit: Given recent buffs to RCV+ latents, Yui is now a respectable Heart OE based RCV stick.

Rare Drop

Nameless Sword

The nameless sword is comparable to assist durandalf as farmable inheritable nukes. The damage is much weaker and there’s an extra animation, but it’s 9 CD less than durandalf and more plausible to have ready on builds with lower SB. The 6 turn mass attack effect can be useful for Zeus Verse style 1c builds, as you can now hit multiple targets while matching only 3 orbs. As an assist evo, it grants extra attack and light rows, both useful for boosting damage.

Monster Point Store

Note:Yuna costs 500k MP. She has limit break but no super awakenings. Her stats increase by 1.3x at lv110.

Yuna

Yuna has a nice active for for light high HP conditional leaders like Yog or Edward since it provides both leader skill activation and a 2x burst. Her CD is same as Base Ceres/Amaterasu , so if you really want a low CD inheritable full heal active, she may be worth 500k MP to you.

Active aside, she’s a mediocre FUA sub. Two team HP is nice but I’d recommend farming a Myr or a Rushana over buying her if you just want a light FUA.

Monster Exchange

Eugeo

Eugeo is, in my opinion, the best card in this entire collab due to all the farming utility he provides.

As a leader Eugeo is like a better version of Meridonalis . Both are no skyfall blue leads but Eugeo has 1 more skill boost, unbindablity, and much higher damage with just a blue row of 6 orbs, allowing him to kill 2 floors with his own double blue row active. His combo orb awake is of questionable use, but one can use his active for 12 blues then connect them for 1 combo orb or use a full board change + row maker to match 2 blobs of 12 for 2 combo orbs.

Eugeo is the first farmable inheritable double row maker, a type of active that’s very important for making 7c VDP boards. He’s also the first double blue row, and his own leader skill works very well with it. It would have been nice to own multiple Eugeos, but sadly you may only exchange for one of him.

Kirito (Alicization ver.)

Alicization Kirito’s leader skill would be decent if his subpool isn’t limited to SAO collab things. Lead skill aside he’s an average TPA sub and while his quad color board change has a rare color combination shared only by Sha Wujin , it contains no hearts. A new box may find some use out of his unlock aspect, but other than that he’s mostly just for collection.

 Verdict 

Should I roll?

Some of the gold eggs are pretty nice to have, especially Agil for mech killers, Klein for the row maker,Silica for the column maker, and Argo for her coin leadskill and interesting active.

Should I trade?

Sinon is a cool rainbow + suicide lead and fairly powerful too while Asuna’s assist evo gives unbindable and a poison resist. Both are fairly luxury and mainly benefit developed boxes.

Should I get that guaranteed 6 Star roll offer?

For the price of $19.99, you can get 20 stones with a guaranteed diamond roll. If that diamond turns out to be Leafa, then I am terribly sorry.
Statistically speaking it’s not a bad deal, but at the same time the SAO diamonds aren’t actually that great and if you roll at all you probably want more of the niche 5* cards instead.