[DMM] Tentacles Tactics

Girl Information:


You can strengthen a girl's usefulness in three ways:

Leveling her up through battles:
This raises attack and health I believe, but the statistics are hidden (The wiki is still trying to map these out). It's very noticeable though once you level a girl up to 10 or so and make her fight level 1 versions of herself in story mode.

Training Obedience:
Go to the Training Icon, use a whip item on her (Obtained from battles or bought from the Shop) and play the minigame you played in the tutorial (Remember the heart hits only count on mouse release, not on click, so don't hold it down or you'll miss hearts). This raises her obedience level to a maximum of 10. Obedience level increasing lowers wait time and energy cost, so you can summon the girl much easier/faster into battles. This is almost necessary on some of the stronger girls if you want to be able to use them well.

Card Evolution:
Every girl can evolve at least once to my knowledge, when she reaches her specific max level, she'll be available in the evolution window (Two female signs). Evolving a girl costs ST and resets her to level 1, but she becomes much stronger. Her wait time and energy cost may also increase. Girls with special abilities will probably have them enhanced when they evolve, ex: Mid range attackers usually have their attack range increased or gain damage.


Growth Type:
I think this affects the way a girl increases in strength as she levels. Some girls start out strong and end up so-so at high level, others start out weak but become very strong, some are average all around. The translations on the wiki leave much to be desired, so if anybody knows more about this, please let me know.





Team Building Guide:

Unlike most games where throwing your strongest fighters at everything is best, this game requires a bit of strategy because every girl has an amount of downtime and energy cost before you can send out another one to the battlefield. Stronger/rarer cards generally have a much higher wait time/energy cost than weaker cards. This means that sometimes a weak girl can be more useful than a much rarer/stronger girl, because you can send out a handful of the weak card in the same time it takes to send out one of the rarer card.

Example:

N+ Porco at max obedience costs 15 energy and has a wait time of 3
SR Comet at max obedience costs 350 energy and has a wait time of 48

That means that you can send out 16 Porco's in the same amount of time as 1 Comet and have spare energy to summon other girls during that time. Comet, although strong, is only one character that can be knocked back and killed fairly quickly by a few strong attackers gathered together. 15 Porco's in battle at once however, will be a nightmare for any enemy formation to deal with.

So you may be asking, why even use higher cards? Well there is a limit of 15 girls per side at any given time. Spamming Porco's and other low cost girls can get you through most beginner and intermediate levels, but soon you'll have enough energy and energy regen that you can't spend energy fast enough or the enemy team may be able to destroy your weaker girls quickly with mid range attackers. This is where higher cost/stronger cards come into play. Higher cost cards are also more likely to have special abilities that make them more useful against certain attackers.

A balanced team consists of a variety of different cost/wait types, as well as girls with special abilities or traits. Below I'll list some of the card types you want to look out for to add to your roster.



Team Building Strategies and Recommendations:

These recommendations here are just for beginner and intermediate players. By the time you are at the harder levels, you should know what to aim for. Most these recommendations can be obtained on your first day of playing, but there are plenty of other options that you can obtain later on.


Grunts:

These are your foot soldiers, very weak on their own but they have an extremely low energy cost and wait time. Their huge strength is in numbers as you'll be able to send out tons of these very quickly to mob enemies, and create a difficult wall for them to pass through. These are helpful throughout the entire game because some story levels will spam enemies at you and you won't be able to spawn stronger girls fast enough to hold them back. It's recommended to have one of these on your team. Also who doesn't want an army of squirrel girls on their team? <3 Porco.

Recommended:



Flyers:

Flying units are useful because they usually can't be hit by mid range attackers, which can basically make them impervious to damage on missions that only have those. There are some story mode maps that spam mid range attackers at you and you can be quickly overwhelmed without some flyers to take them out. They do usually have a higher wait time and cost than usual though so they can't be used too often. It's recommended to have 1-2 of these.

Recommended:




Mid Range Attackers:

These are some of your most reliable damage dealers because they can damage enemies from behind your defenders/tanks, out of harms way. They do have a weakness in usually being unable to hit flying units though, and their damage seems to drop if enemies come in melee range of them. Still, used properly they wreck havoc on your opponents. Faw Maw is an exception to the mid range attacker weakness because she flies as well. Most of them have their range increased upon evolution, so they can become much more useful than they may initially seem.

Recommended:



Long Range Attackers:

These are very rare and difficult to obtain because of their usefulness. They can usually harass and attack enemies from half a screen away. Though they typically have low attack and a high wait/energy cost, once you're able to create a mob of these, enemies will cease to be able to advance on you. They are usually very weak in melee combat.

Recommended:



Support Types:

It's difficult to recommend any because the only ones I know about that are really worth using are only obtainable from gacha currently, so they are somewhat rare. Some of them can heal friendly units and buff friendly unit's attack.

End Game:

The strategy changes significantly once you reach the final stages of the current levels. Instead of worrying about efficiency with your energy usage, you need girls with special traits and abilities that can handle all the enemies you'll be facing that can damage your whole team with aoes and such. Though most R girls can be useful, these are the girls that I've found that seem unique and special for what they can bring to your roster.

AoE = Area of effect, meaning they'll hit all enemies in range of them when they attack.

Elfella - 4-4, 4-5, 4-6, Gacha:
Rating: Unevolved: 5/10, Evolved: 10/10

Evolved she shoots three arcing arrows at a time. A mob of these will block out the sun. She is almost required on some maps and will absolutely decimate any team without projectile immunity. Half a dozen of these at max level will stop most armies in their tracks. Like most mid/long range attackers, she will be quite a bit less useful on projectile immunity heavy maps, even still, she's so useful in most maps I can't lower her score. One of the girls you may want two of because of her long wait/cooldown.

Jeanne d'Arc - 9-5, Gacha:
Rating: 9.5/10

The only girl I would say is almost mandatory on any roster. She has a shield ability that blocks all missile skills unless she's attacking or flashing from a previous hit. That's almost all mid and long range attacks (She can't block guns though). You'll laugh at all those mid range spamming maps once you acquire her. As I test other R's, I realize that Jean actually has very good dueling capabilities as well with respectable damage, a long melee range, and one of the fastest attack animations around. So she's better 1on1 than I originally figured. She does have a higher wait/cost than most R girls, so you'll usually be waiting on her CD to spawn your other forces behind her. That and that she has no way to damage multiple enemies quickly is the only thing keeping her from a 10 in my book.

Gaius Ilius Caesar - 9-6, Gacha:
Rating: 7.5/10, +Cleopatra: 8/10

Has an AoE mid range attack, she also becomes much stronger with Cleopatra in your roster, which is a great choice for another girl to have. She's the best mid range attacker I've found by far. I don't think there are any current N/R mid range girls as useful as her. She will get stuffed if the enemy has projectile immunity and her range is a bit short, which keeps her from a higher rating. She works best with support from long range or other mid range fighters (multiples of herself are great) on your roster as only using one at a time isn't all that useful because of the long CD on her.

Minamotono Yoshitsune - 5-5, 5-6, Gacha:
Rating: 9/10

A bit faster than normal, has an AoE short range attack and a chance to dodge attacks. The kind of girl it wouldn't be a bad idea to have multiples of on your roster. She's just very reliable. Her dodge chance improves a bit when she evolves.

She has a somewhat short attack range so will often be attacked first in your melee wall and her attack animation takes a while to strike an enemy even though she has decent attack speed. Girls with longer melee range can usually hurt her badly, and her damage isn't all that high to single enemies, that's why she's not a pure 10. She's still the best unit for her cost/wait time for AOE damage that you desperately need, and her chance to dodge can proc quite often, so she's an amazing option for a front row fighter.

Oda Nobunaga - 11-6, Gacha:
Rating: 7.5/10

Has an AoE short range attack and is just an overall strong fighter. Minamotono might be a better choice for a balanced team if you're short on space since Oda has no defense against projectiles. They seem mostly identical in use other than Minimotono also having a dodge ability. Oda has short range so she will usually be taken out first on your team, but she's still pretty useful because of her decent damage and aoe ability.

Sarutobi Sasuke - 11-1, 11-5, 11-6, 15-5, 15-6, Gacha
Rating: Unevolved: 3.5/10 , Evolved: 7.5/10

Incredibly fast, attacks twice at once (For lower than average damage even combined) and once evolved, has a stealth ability that makes her impervious to damage while she's moving. Ranged enemies will still attempt to stop and shoot her anyways, making her a great way to halt enemy movements. She does seem a bit squishy and can't hit an entire row of enemies like the above girls though. Her attack motion is a bit long and her range is average/short, so she will usually take hits to give them.

Sarutobi certainly isn't a great choice for a straight up fighter but makes a great scout or rusher if you're into that, since she's very capable of finding holes in the enemy defense. She along with Jean are basically the only short range girls with an ability that allows them to take out mid/long range girls reliably without being injured or killed. She can block bullets that Jean cannot as well. She's a liability until she's evolved though because she'll step in front of your tanks and other girls and get killed very quickly because of her speed and low health.

Hybrider 1 - 8-6, Gacha
Rating: 8/10

The fastest girl to date, she has an aoe attack and very high attack/knock back chance. She seems to have a very good range and will usually get the first hit in on an enemy, which combined with her other attributes makes her an amazing pusher. Her attack speed however is quite slow so she becomes less useful if she is forced to stand still for a while. She is good for a spare slot on your team once you have 7-8 or more spaces but her high cost/wait time makes her a so-so choice for your main 5 soldiers.

Cleopatra Ⅶ Philopator/Otomono Yakamochi - Gacha
Rating: 8.5/10

I usually try not to recommend gacha only girls since it's difficult to farm them, but you should find plenty of these because they're only N cards. I tested Cleo's attack bonus once she's evolved and it's 20%, it should be the same for Otomono. The big difference between the two is that Cleo gives a temporary buff to your team whenever she would attack and Otomono channels her buff constantly when she's in range of enemies. Both have strengths and weaknesses and it really just comes down to preference.

For instance, Cleo has a longer range and moves faster than Otomono, so she will almost always buff your melee wall before a clash begins, but she has gaps in her buff because of her slowish attack speed. Otomono will lag behind your melee wall but once she's planted, her buff is continuous until she's hit, forced to move, or killed. I'd give a slight nod to Cleo because clashes don't usually last long enough for her buff gap to matter much, but Otomono lagging behind your melee forces can suck. Cleo also has a teammate buff with a better partner (Cleo/Gaius Julius Caesar vs Otomono/Hiraga Gennai ')

Space pirate SAPPHIRES - 10-6, Gacha
Rating: 8.5/10

Her main draw is that her attack speed is insanely high at 0.8 seconds (tested with a video recorder). She basically attacks as soon as her last attack motion completes. It along with her decent attack damage (75 at max level R+) means that she will outperform any other R girl in damage per second BY FAR (Three times as high as most R girls) to single targets. Her wait time is a bit shorter than some of the high performance girls at 16 seconds against their 21, which means she can be used more often in fights as well.

She does have a very short attack range and because duels/clashes are often won on attack range/attack motion speed rather than attack speed, her DPS doesn't mean much in some situations and her dueling capability is quite low, which keeps her from a higher rating. The good news is that if you use many girls with very short melee range and send them all out in a wall, she will be an absolute powerhouse if she isn't picked off first. She's a beast in Hell Mode especially because there isn't any R girl that can tear up a projectile immune tank enemy like her. She also works wonderfully with long range fighters to open up projectile immune enemies to damage from their missiles.



Special Mentions:

These are girls who are above average in specialized situations. There are usually better options (above) than these girls because of how they aren't as widely useful, but they can still be a great addition to your team.


Akeno Hibika - 7-5, Gacha
Rating: ??/10

Probably the only N card that isn't support that I can recommend end game. It's difficult to judge her because her use is so specialized. She has a special ability to dodge that improves when she evolves. Her dodge ability alone basically makes her an R girl and she can be spammed like crazy to fill in gaps in your defense because of her extremely low cooldown. Of course she does almost no damage and has pretty pathetic other stats, so she should really only be used when you can't stall the enemy from advancing with your R cards in time.

Shadmalice - 12-1, 12-4, 12-5, 12-6, Gacha
Rating: 6.5/10

Kind of the polar opposite of Space pirate SAPPHIRES but just as specialized in her use. Shadmalice is a bit faster than average and has a slow attack speed, her advantage is her incredible melee range. She will basically always getting the first attack in in a clash, which can help considerably in a fight and makes her an amazing duelist. She has no AoE damage, like SAPPHIRES, and won't be much help to you if she's forced to stand still for a while because of her slow attack speed and that she steps into her attacks (coming into average melee range if an enemy doesn't get knocked back or killed). Still, her increased melee range and extremely high damage (top tier for R girls) means she makes a great pusher. 2 or 3 of these out at once is quite nice.

1. Story mode maps can be farmed for up to 20 minutes before you fail, it's a great way to obtain a ton of ingame currency and items. Just try not to send out too many girls at once and keep the fights about midfield. On levels with bosses this is much easier because you can reach them, and just intentionally fail the humiliation minigame, which will erase all your girls on the field and continue the fight.

2. Have friends! Your friends' favorite girl (Chosen with the Star Icon in the roster list) will sometimes randomly be summoned into your battles to assist you. You get gacha currency for this and I think they do as well.

3. Boss cards are rare, but can be obtained from their final story level (ex: 1-6). You do not need to obtain any item cards during the fight to get them. Whether or not it increases your chances, I do not know, but I've obtained a boss card without finding any items during the map before.

4. Having multiples of the same card on a roster/team decreases their summon cost. They need to be of the same evolution version though. - Information Courtesy of ozms03.

6. Semi Afk farming: Use 3-4 long range cards and a quick/tank/spammable girl or two in your roster to block the occasional sprinter and halt the initial charge of the enemy if needed while you build up your archers/snipers. Unless the boss or enemies you're fighting have long range, you will only have to summon new girls occasionally or every 5-10 minutes when your army of rangers advance too close to the boss. A group of evolved Elfella and/or a bunch of Mitsuyanagi Nishiki work well here.

7. Refresh tonics obtained in a variety of ways allow you to continue a fight after you're defeated, either by time over or having your tentacle monster destroyed. These can be abused to farm a stage for coins beyond the 20 minute limit and save ST.

8. Leveling up fully restores ST, so save your RP to spin the gacha and feed your tentacle monster the cards when you run out of ST and want to continue playing.

9. Leveling up your cards a bit before selling or eating them for exp TREMENDOUSLY improves the amount of return you get on them. It's a good idea to save some spare inventory space and level R cards in your extra roster slots for their exp gain once you reach end game. Even getting them a level or two before you consume them is quite helpful.

1.) Learned from the start. Costs 1 mp. A basic AoE that hits enemies close to your tentacle character.

2.)Learned at level 5. Costs 1 mp. Covers the entire field with slime that slows down all of your enemy advance for a certain amount of time.

3.)Learned at level 10. Costs 1 mp. AoE like the first skill but lesser range.

4.)Learned at level 15. Cost 1 mp. Prevents your enemy from summoning their girls for a certain amount of time. Notice the icon on Nobunaga.

5.)Learned at level 20. Costs 2 mp. Heals all of your units.

6.)Learned at level 25. Costs 2 mp. Summons slow moving mini tentacles to fight for you. They don't count towards your 15 girls max limit in field.

7.)Learned at level 30. Costs 2 mp. Mid range AoE? Need more info on this one since I haven't used it much. Something died out of its range when I used it and that's probably a bug.

8.)Learned at level 35. Costs 2 mp. Buffs all of your girls. Most noticeably is their increased movement speed. Note that some girls isn't affected by this buff. I'm not sure if that's how its supposed to be or if its a bug.

9.)Learned at level 40. Costs 2 mp. Allows you to aim anywhere in the map by using your mouse cursor and clicking that spot. A small explosion detonates where you're aiming after the timer's up, damaging any enemies within range. Default target is in the middle.

10.)Learned at level 45. Costs 3 mp. Meteors rain down randomly on the field causing small explosions damaging any enemies nearby.

11.)Learned at level 50. Costs 3 mp. Decreases your girls cool down and increases your summon point regen. Notice the flaming icon next to the summon points and the red bars on the cool down timer on the girls.

12.)Learned at level 55. Costs 3 mp. Revives the girl who died the latest, where they died. Note that the girl revived still counts towards your 15 girls limit. So if you cast it while you have 15 girls out, nothing will happen.