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Loving the new dark mode, thank you very much for adding it! I also didn't know Shred was more effective than elemental slashes; I'm off to test it out ASAP. Been itching to optimize some of my builds.

@Serpenthyne - Yay, glad you like dark mode! I'm using it too myself. Maybe one of these days I'll add the ability to choose themes on the tool itself (and add more themes), plus the ability to save settings locally.

So, the only downside of Shred is that it's got to get the bleed portion off completely for its full effect. For the toughest bosses, it's likely that you'll be getting 1 or 2 max Shreds off only. In that time, you could probably fit in one or more 2x effective Elemental Slashes as well. I use both Shred and Blazing Slash on my Kelp Beds duo trainer team now. I'm a huge fan, but people who prefer autopilot mode won't have a fun time with this build because it requires constant decisions and lots of memory of KO thresholds.

I use one Fire caster and one Fire physical (Sear is such a good elemental ultimate, and the healing is extremely useful to keep the chain going, since you only need the Rallied physical dragon to do Eliminate anyways.) We DESTROY the Mantarune and Wave Sweeper so decisively that it's not slower to fight them instead of skipping them, re: training times. If you get lucky with Sear Burn, a run with lots of bosses is actually faster, haha. :) At worst, it's neutral for timing.

Lemme share this Kelp Beds trainer build real quick, I just started using it recently during NotN 2023. I used to use double physicals with Reflect but that was super slow on bosses and wasted a lot of breath if I decided to fight, plus if I wanted faster training speeds it was better to skip bosses anyway.

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2x Fire trainer Kelp Beds boss-slaying build: (1 caster, 1 physical)

Caster: 126 INT, 57 QCK, 14 VIT with Meditate, Contuse, Aid, Rally, Sear. Use Ambush, Discipline, 3x Scholar.


Physical: 126 STR, 58 QCK, 11 VIT with Scratch, Shred, Eliminate, Rally, Blazing Slash. Use 2x Ambush, 3x Berserker.


Next, I'll explain my choices and process.

1) Controversial Fire element

Fire is a risky element with high payoff on bosses. You should not start your breath-building turn on 3x Abyss Striker (Shadow), 3x Maren Wavesinger (Water), or 3x Octoflyer (Water). It's also best to avoid Maren Seahunter (Water), 3x Kelp Tender (Water), and 3x Corrosive Depin (Shadow) because you take so long to ramp up on your breath-building turn that they have enough time to get breath for their 2x effective elemental slashes. Also, don't start on 4x packs. However, this build can and should easily start on both bosses.

Just keep in mind your elemental weaknesses and focus on removing all 2x effective elemental enemies before they use their elemental skill. You don't always have to target them first, but adjust your targeting order such that you finish off the last one before it uses its elemental skill, if possible. Abyss Striker is the highest priority to stop before it Dark Bolts you since it's the fastest and gets more turns; removing Maren Wavesinger and Octoflyer before they use their elemental skill is very high priority. The next high priority is Maren Seahunter, Kelp Tender, and Corrosive Depin before they use their elemental slash, though these build breath slower and you've got more time for them if you need to remove other threats first such as the hard-hitting Depin. Cloud Chaser (Wind) does neutral damage to Fire but is also a high priority target because Disorient Berserker is one of the most horrible debuffs in the game.

2) Why 57 QCK on caster and 58 QCK on physical?

Similar concept as one of Maki's previous Kelp Beds builds that utilized one 58 QCK physical trainer and one 59 QCK physical trainer. The faster trainer gets more turns in a row so you can Rally it with the 58 QCK one. And of course, as a caster, you want your physical to get to move as much as possible since it's the sole source of Eliminate.

I dropped to 57 QCK and 58 QCK because the single physical needs to survive. Going to 59 QCK makes you lose too much survivability, especially if you have to tank a 2x effective hit (which might happen if RNG doesn't go your way with misses etc.). You don't lose much from your caster having 57 QCK either, since your 58 QCK physical is the one doing the Eliminating.

3) Why Discipline instead of second Ambush?

Following up on point 2) above, we really don't care as much about our caster's turns. They're important, but we don't need them all the time, so Discipline for extra breath flexibility gives us more mileage in the long run. Especially since this build is not expected to get KOed ever as long as you're careful with your targeting priority.

Discipline also generates much more breath on average against bosses, which is important because Sear spam wrecks them. Not only does Sear do a heckton of damage while only costing 2 more breath than Contuse; it can also Burn, which makes bosses take 30% more physical damage. Do you like huge Shreds, Blazing Slashes, and Eliminates? I sure do! (With this build, only use Eliminate for the last hit KO as you don't need to waste breath on it. You're 2x effective against both bosses elementally.)

4a) Breath-building turn (regular enemies)

Again, remember that you've got a Fire element and there are certain packs you don't want to start against, highlighted in point 1) above. You do resist some others, though, e.g. you can ignore Maren Ambusher (Nature) and Kelp Caretaker (Nature) for last if needed because they only tickle.

Generally:

1. Rally your physical if applicable, otherwise Meditate. (Some enemies can't be KOed in 3 Rallied Scratches and should be 4-non-Rallied-Scratched, while some can't be KOed in 4 non-Rallied Scratches and will need at least 1 Rallied Scratch, so pay attention to when it's useful to cast Rally vs. when it's useless.)
2. Scratch to build breath.
3. Contuse or Scratch to KO or damage enemy to prep for Eliminate later.
4. Aid if needed. Overheal is not preferable but ok if you need to top up to prepare to take a 2x effective hit due to poor RNG. DO NOT CAST AID on dragons with the Contaminate Virus debuff, because they will take damage instead of healing.
5. Eliminate to KO. (On the Nature/Ice/Plague enemies, Sear can replace Eliminate for KO if needed, but keep in mind that it costs breath. It doesn't need to go last, though, so you can Sear + Scratch.)

I'm not the best type to explain every possible step because my brain quickly adjusts the correct course of action automatically given the situation, but I'll do my best to share my basic priority list.

Priorities:

1. Focus on removing enemies in such a way that you receive the least amount of damage. High priorities are 2x effective casters/physicals with enough breath to use their damage skills, high STR physical enemies (especially the ones with Shred), and fast enemies that take multiple turns such as Relic Eel (Earth). Also remove Cloud Chaser (Wind) with reasonably high priority because Disorient can cause Berserker, which is a VERY bad debuff.
   Abyss Striker (Shadow) is the most important enemy to remove before it can cast its skill. Remember that Relic Eel (Earth) only has Bite, so sometimes in the worst case when RNG makes things not go according to plan, you can leave it up until you remove higher priority targets.
2. If applicable, remove enemies in such a way that the least amount of turns is taken (saves time not watching their animations and/or taking extra damage).
3. If you're in a situation where you're going to use both Scratch + Contuse that turn and KO one enemy while prepping an Eliminate for another, Scratch to KO and Contuse to prep Eliminate. This usually reduces damage taken, though if you're unlucky and Scratch KO misses, then you may take more. It's still worth it to make this optimization on average.
4. If you get bad RNG with missed Eliminates and need to choose which enemy to Scratch for KOs, and you'll be able to build breath to Eliminate the other remaining enemies, choose the non-Contused enemies to Scratch down for KO; leave the Contused enemies up longer for when you can Eliminate (unless they're a higher priority KO target).
5. Your caster's breath is important, don't waste it unnecessarily. For example, if the final enemy is one Contuse/Scratch from a KO and both your dragons still have their turn, do a Meditate and a Scratch (or, if you have a ton of breath and someone's low on health, you can Aid instead). Of course, if there's a good reason to use your breath, don't be afraid to use it! Make sure to manage your breath, though; don't build breath only when you need it.
6. Use free turns to Meditate if your caster doesn't need to Rally/Contuse/Sear, or if someone's critically low and you need extra turns to catch up with breath + healing. For example, let's say your last enemy is a caster that doesn't have enough breath to attack before you KO it, and you're pretty low on breath/health. If you really need extra turns for your own caster, you're safe to "waste" a turn on your physical with Scratch (+6 breath) or Rally (+5 breath) to avoid damage if Scratch would KO. Then just KO the last remaining enemy caster before it uses its damage skill.

Some notes:

• Take note of enemies that need Rally to KO vs. the ones that don't. There are many that you can 4x non-Rally Scratch and 1x non-Rally Scratch + 1x non-Rally Eliminate, or, if you've finished building breath for the final one, many can be 1x Rally Eliminated to KO (but this shouldn't happen unless you've missed at least 1 Scratch, cause the enemies should all be damaged by then, normally). A few enemies can be 1x non-Rally Scratch + 1x non-Rally-Eliminated, but not 1x Rally Eliminated (Kelp Caretaker, Maren Harvester, Kelp Tender), so be careful with these. The tankiest ones will either need a Rallied Scratch + non-Rallied Eliminate or a non-Rallied Scratch + Rallied Eliminate (both work). (Note that the caster is configured with enough INT such that Contuse can replace 1x non-Rally Scratch.)
• Non-rallied Scratch + 1x Sear will KO Kelp Caretaker (Nature), Maren Ambusher (Nature), Maren Harvester (Ice), and Ruched Sojourner (Plague). You don't always want to do this since it uses breath, but sometimes it's a very good option depending on the turn order / misses. This allows your physical dragon to build breath with Scratch if it's either too low or has barely enough breath for one Eliminate. Breath padding on your physical when applicable is important since it's the only one that can Eliminate.
• Your physical is more important than your caster on regular packs if you need to choose between one of them for healing, because getting KOed in Coli 2.0 will remove all your breath.

4b) Breath-building turn (boss)

Generally:

1. Rally your physical.
2. Rallied Scratch to build breath. Make sure to cast one Rallied Shred asap before the boss takes its next turn, to maximize bleed turns.
3. Meditate to build breath. Sear whenever possible. You can stop to build breath / heal / refresh Rally if you get the Burn debuff up. (Physical should refresh Rally on itself if needed, as an early Sear Burn is the highest priority.)
4. Rallied Scratch for as long as possible while waiting for a potential Sear Burn debuff. You may never get it, so switch to Rallied Blazing Slash if the boss has gotten low or if you've got near full breath.
5. Put Rallied Shred bleed back up when it falls off if the boss will still remain up for many turns. If bleed ticks for a while, it's even more efficient than Rallied Blazing Slash.
6. Cast Aid if needed, but DO NOT CAST IT on dragons with the Contaminate Virus debuff, because they will take damage instead of healing.
7. Eliminate only to KO, using Scratch or Sear instead if you don't have enough Eliminate breath for that last hit. (Sometimes non-Rallied Eliminate will also KO where Rallied Eliminate would have, but if you're not sure, just Rallied Eliminate.) You don't want to Blazing Slash the last hit because if you don't have enough for Eliminate, you want more breath before the next battle starts, not less.

Notes:

• Don't Contuse bosses, it only costs 2 less breath than Sear and Sear does so much more damage. The Contuse damage reduction is far less useful in comparison. Sear Burn is important for your physical too.
• Your caster is more important than your physical on bosses if you need to choose between one of them for healing, because 2x effective Sear is very breath-efficient, and unless you get the Virus debuff, you can heal infinitely without the boss taking you into KO range. Sear spam still has the chance to take out the boss in time even if you can't heal due to Virus. It's very rare for both dragons to be in KO range against a boss, though; they're pushovers with this build!

5a) Fighting regular enemies

Similar to 4a), sans the breath-building ramp-up. You'll be doing more Eliminating since you hopefully have breath now.

Generally:

• Aid if you have to, Rally if you have to, otherwise Meditate / Contuse / Sear. DO NOT CAST AID on dragons with the Contaminate Virus debuff, because they will take damage instead of healing.
• Scratch/Contuse to prep for Eliminate if you need to. Sometimes you will have a mixed group where some can be KOed with 1x Rally + Eliminate while others will need to be prepped. For example, with Cloud Chaser + Depin + Golden Porpoise, I like to Rally, Rallied Eliminate Golden Porpoise, Rallied Scratch + Rallied Eliminate Depin, Rallied Eliminate Cloud Chaser. (If I miss Scratch on Depin, I Rallied Eliminate Cloud Chaser instead.)
• Eliminate to KO. (On the Nature/Ice/Plague enemies, Sear can replace Eliminate for KO if needed, but keep in mind that it costs breath. It doesn't need to go last, though, so you can Sear + Scratch.) If you're doing Scratch/Contuse + Eliminate, keep in mind the Sear option and usually leave those enemies for the last Eliminate(s)... e.g. With mixed Ruche Slug (Light) + Ruched Sojourner (Plague) packs, Eliminate Ruche Slug first.

Priorities:

1. Focus on removing enemies in such a way that you receive the least amount of damage. High priorities are 2x effective casters/physicals with enough breath to use their damage skills, high STR physical enemies (especially the ones with Shred), and fast enemies that take multiple turns such as Relic Eel (Earth). Also remove Cloud Chaser (Wind) with reasonably high priority because Disorient can cause Berserker, which is a VERY bad debuff.
   Abyss Striker (Shadow) is the most important enemy to remove before it can cast its skill. Remember that Relic Eel (Earth) only has Bite, so sometimes in the worst case when RNG makes things not go according to plan, you can leave it up until you remove higher priority targets.
2. If applicable, remove enemies in such a way that the least amount of turns is taken (saves time not watching their animations and/or taking extra damage).
3. If you're in a situation where you're going to use both Scratch + Contuse that turn and KO one enemy while prepping an Eliminate for another, Scratch to KO and Contuse to prep Eliminate. This usually reduces damage taken, though if you're unlucky and Scratch KO misses, then you may take more. It's still worth it to make this optimization on average.
4. If you get bad RNG with missed Eliminates and need to choose which enemy to Scratch for KOs, and you'll be able to build breath to Eliminate the other remaining enemies, choose the non-Contused enemies to Scratch down for KO; leave the Contused enemies up longer for when you can Eliminate (unless they're a higher priority KO target).
5. Your caster's breath is important, don't waste it unnecessarily. For example, if the final enemy is one Contuse/Scratch from a KO and both your dragons still have their turn, do a Meditate and a Scratch (or, if you have a ton of breath and someone's low on health, you can Aid instead). Of course, if there's a good reason to use your breath, don't be afraid to use it! Make sure to manage your breath, though; don't build breath only when you need it.
6. Use free turns to Meditate if your caster doesn't need to Rally/Contuse/Sear, or if someone's critically low and you need extra turns to catch up with breath + healing. For example, let's say your last enemy is a caster that doesn't have enough breath to attack before you KO it, and you're pretty low on breath/health. If you really need extra turns for your own caster, you're safe to "waste" a turn on your physical with Scratch (+6 breath) or Rally (+5 breath) to avoid damage if Scratch would KO. Then just KO the last remaining enemy caster before it uses its damage skill.

Some notes:

• Take note of enemies that need Rally to KO vs. the ones that don't. There are many that you can 4x non-Rally Scratch and 1x non-Rally Scratch + 1x non-Rally Eliminate (if you want to build breath), or 1x Rally Eliminate to KO (if you're good on breath). A few can be 1x non-Rally Scratch + 1x non-Rally-Eliminated, but not 1x Rally Eliminated (Kelp Caretaker, Maren Harvester, Kelp Tender), so be careful with these. The tankiest ones will either need a Rallied Scratch + non-Rallied Eliminate or a non-Rallied Scratch + Rallied Eliminate (both work). (Note that the caster is configured with enough INT such that Contuse can replace 1x non-Rally Scratch.)
• Non-rallied Scratch + 1x Sear will KO Kelp Caretaker (Nature), Maren Ambusher (Nature), Maren Harvester (Ice), and Ruched Sojourner (Plague). You don't always want to do this since it uses breath, but sometimes it's a very good option depending on the turn order / misses. This allows your physical dragon to build breath with Scratch if it's either too low or has barely enough breath for one Eliminate. Breath padding on your physical when applicable is important since it's the only one that can Eliminate.
• Your physical is more important than your caster on regular packs if you need to choose between one of them for healing, because getting KOed in Coli 2.0 will remove all your breath.

5b) Fighting bosses

Generally:

1. Sear if you have breath for it that doesn't need to be used for healing. Otherwise Rally your physical (or heal if you have to prevent a KO this turn). If you didn't Rally your physical, your physical should Rally itself.
2. Rallied Shred once before the boss takes its turn for max bleed uptime, or Rallied Scratch if you don't have breath. Rallied Scratch for as long as possible while waiting for a potential Sear Burn debuff. You may never get it, so switch to Rallied Blazing Slash if the boss has gotten low or if you've got near full breath.
3. Sear whenever possible. Meditate if you need to build breath. You can stop to build breath / heal / refresh Rally if you get the Burn debuff up. (Physical should refresh Rally on itself if needed, as an early Sear Burn takes priority.)
4. Rallied Scratch for as long as possible while waiting for a potential Sear Burn debuff. You may never get it, so switch to Rallied Blazing Slash if the boss has gotten low or if you've got near full breath.
5. Put Rallied Shred bleed back up when it falls off if the boss will still remain up for many turns. If bleed ticks for a while, it's even more efficient than Rallied Blazing Slash.
6. Cast Aid if needed, but DO NOT CAST IT on dragons with the Contaminate Virus debuff, because they will take damage instead of healing.
7. Eliminate only to KO, using Scratch or Sear instead if you don't have enough Eliminate breath for that last hit. (Sometimes non-Rallied Eliminate will also KO where Rallied Eliminate would have, but if you're not sure, just Rallied Eliminate.) You don't want to Blazing Slash the last hit because if you don't have enough for Eliminate, you want more breath before the next battle starts, not less.

Notes:

• Don't Contuse bosses, it only costs 2 less breath than Sear and Sear does so much more damage. The Contuse damage reduction is far less useful in comparison. Sear Burn is important for your physical too.
• Your caster is more important than your physical on bosses if you need to choose between one of them for healing, because 2x effective Sear is very breath-efficient, and unless you get the Virus debuff, you can heal infinitely without the boss taking you into KO range. Sear spam still has the chance to take out the boss in time even if you can't heal due to Virus. It's very rare for both dragons to be in KO range against a boss, though; they're pushovers with this build!

@Sylvandyr
Kelp Beds is the venue I've been struggling the most to work out a proper team for - thanks so much for this detailed writeup! I use a Fire mage and physical as well, but had yet to figure out which stat allocations provide the most benefit in longevity without sacrificing speed. (Can't go fast if they can't take some hits, and I don't like refreshing for bosses.)

I figured that'd be the issue with Shred, yeah. In some venues I found elemental slashes to be more effective for my playstyle, but in the lv25 venues and particularly where it's harder to cover both bosses with a single element, I definitely want to play around with it a bit more.

@Sylvandyr

I'm not entirely sure, but it looks like some of the enemies and/or rows in FP and GW have the wrong required stats in the tool?

@Mohenjo Any specifically? Which skill combination column are you referring to? The first column in either of those venues represents the requirement for Scratch x4, but that's admittedly a less common combination. I should change it to Rallied Scratch x4 instead and drop the Rallied Scratch x3 column.

@Sylvandyr

The Bearded Pupowl and the enemies below it in FP should have 103 Str for one of the columns iirc, but I don't remember which Rally, Scratch, Elim combo it is. Same for the Monkey Wrench and the enemies below it in GW

@Mohenjo Thanks, I'll check on that. There may be a bug in the way it's calculated, which can affect more than one column and venue. That's a top priority fix if true.

I'll follow up with you once I investigate! :)

[EDIT]: Ah, the combo was Lv25 Rally Scratch + Lv25 Rally Eliminate. There's something wrong with the algorithm that calculates skill combination damage. This affects everything that uses any buffed/unbuffed combination of Scratch + Eliminate. Not all of the thresholds will be incorrect, but many cases may be. I'll work on a fix.