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Merging

What is merging?

A limited number of characters have alternative versions ("styles") that come with different skills and disciplines. “Merging” allows you to combine the standard and alternative style into one adventurer. You can switch between styles at any time in the Training Room. Merging requires you to have at least one copy of the standard and alternative style in your Adventure List or Log. After merging the character will gain a new passive called “Contiguous States of Mind” that provides a minor increase to base traits. There is no downside to merging.

Important terms

  • Base unit: The unit selected in the Training Room that serves as the “base” of the merge. You can use either the standard or alternative style as the base unit. The base unit is important because its IV or “boosted trait” and its current class carry over to the merged adventurer.
  • Fodder unit: This is the second unit that you select in the Merging screen. Ideally, it will have a different IV or boosted trait than the base unit. This generally leads to better bonus trait gains with the “Contiguous States of Mind” passive.
  • Discipline skill: Each character has a unique set of 2-3 stats or status tolerances that receive a small boost per discipline level. They are generally referred to as “featured stats” and their bonus per discipline level can be viewed here. Note: The featured stats of Legendary units are higher than General units.

What units can be merged?

At the time this article was written the following adventurers can be merged:

How do I merge?

  1. Adventure’s Guild > Training Room
  2. Select the base unit from your current party or Adventurer List. This unit must be registered
  3. Select “Merge” at the bottom of the Training Room menu
  4. In the Merge menu select the fodder unit from the available copies to merge into the base unit. Fodder units do not have to be registered
  5. Select “Merge” at the bottom of the screen
  6. Reallocate BP (Optional, you can hold off on the very last point to re-allocate all BP to something different if you wish)

How do I change styles? How are styles different from each other?

To change styles: Adventure’s Guild > Training Room > select merged unit > “Change Style”

The style you select as “active” in the Training Room determines what discipline (“featured stats”) and passive skill is available to the adventurer. Each style has a unique pair that is unavailable to the other version. They are mutually exclusive. Let’s use Asha as an example:

Unique Skill (Passive) - Standard Asha: Increases tolerance of poison, paralysis, and stone for user and all adjacent Good allies - Witching Mage Asha: Increases the success rate of status afflictions and debuffs inflicted by the user

Discipline Skill (“Featured stats”)
- Standard Asha: HP and Poison Tolerance - Witching Mage Asha: HP and Sleep Tolerance

It is important to switch between styles depending on the situation or enemy you are facing. For example, if you are fighting a boss that employs constant poison attacks you would opt for the standard Asha style. Why? Her passive increases poison tolerance for adjacent Good team members; and, her discipline skill increases it even further for herself.

What carries over to the merged unit?

You do not lose anything by merging an adventurer. And, there is no benefit to leveling a recently pulled standard or alternative style.

  • The highest Fortitude and BP of either unit is used
  • BP can be re-allocated
  • The highest grade level, class EXP, skills, spells, passives, unlocked classes, relicbrew EXP, and equipped relicbrews. The merging process is not additive. For example, Heavy Attack 1 + Heavy Attack 2 ≠ Heavy Attack 3
  • The equipped relicbrews on both units will stack on the merged unit. This could potentially push you into Stage 3 side effects after merging
  • The base unit’s IV and current class. You may need to use a class handbook or class change request to switch back to your preferred class, so plan accordingly

How does the shared discipline mechanic work with merged units?

Shared discipline levels between styles is one of the greatest benefits of the merging system. However, this mechanic does not activate until both styles have been disciplined at least once to D1. This means you need to pull at least 2 copies of limited banner units, so plan accordingly based on your pull strategy.

  • Disciplining or merging can be done in any order
  • Merged units can reach a maximum discipline level of D18 (versus D9). Units do not gain additional stats past D9, but receive 1 BP from D10-D18
  • “Overall Mastery” in the Discipline menu determines how much experience you need to reach the next discipline level. Copies of either the standard or alt version can be used. However, standard copies cannot be used to discipline the alt version and vice-versa. You will need to change styles and then discipline with the correct copy
  • The "Overall Discipline Level" in the status menu is your effective (actual) discipline level (D1, D5, etc.) and determines what stat bonuses you receive

What determines the trait bonuses in the merging screen?

Bonus trait points are an additional benefit of the merging system and are capped at +4 for each trait. The value of the merging bonus comes from two sources: 1) trait points gained at each grade level and 2) trait growth determined for each unit at creation. Consequently, the trait bonuses shown in the merging screen depend on the grade of the units being merged and their hidden trait growth rates. For example:

  • If using a level 60 base unit + a level 1 fodder copy, then the bonus values shown come only from the level 1 unit trait growths because the grade trait bonuses are already included on the base unit
  • If using a level 1 base unit + a level 60 fodder copy, then the bonus values shown come from both the grade-up bonus points and the unit’s inherent bonus value. Note that the lion’s share of the bonus points are coming from the grade-up, which is why it is almost always +4 to all traits with this combination.
  • If using a level 60 base unit + a level 60 fodder copy, then you will not see any meaningful trait bonuses (usually 0 or a small point gain on a few traits) on the merge. The grade-up bonuses from two level 60 units will easily exceed the +4 bonus cap. There is no real evidence to suggest that leveling the lower-level unit, base or fodder, will significantly impact the trait gain.

Ultimately, it does not matter whether the base unit is level 1 or 60 since you will receive the same total merging bonus points either way. This holds true for any combination of levels for the two units being merged. If you have multiple fodder copies available, then use the one with a different IV trait and/or the highest bonus(es) to the trait(s) that are important to that unit’s role on your team.

I'm F2P, how do I benefit from the merging system?

F2P can benefit the most from the merging system if you are using one of the 6 standard Legendary units (Lanavaille, Adam, Yekaterina, and Debra) or any of the General units (Flut, Marianne, Chloe, Asha).

The way this works is to get 2 copies of the alternative version during their limited banner run to activate the shared discipline system. Now you can use the more commonly available copies of the standard version to raise the discipline level of the alternative version. For example, Lanavaille’s alternative style, Wandering Princess Lanavaille, has a Discipline Skill (“featured stats”) that is strictly superior to standard Lanavaille’s version as it adds additional HP and Critical Tolerance. You now have access to D9 Wandering Princess Lanavaille, but only spent gems on 2 copies.

For General units the same logic applies. Chloe’s featured stats are SP and RES. Her alternative version, Summer Chloe, has SP and SUR, which is more desirable for both her classes.

The shared discipline system also allows you to switch styles without sacrificing stats (D0 versus Dx) if you need a particular Unique or Discipline Skill depending on what you are facing. For instance you can use standard Adam for auto-farming due to his higher MAG, ASPD, and lower MP costs; then switch styles to Chadam when fighting a Dark boss to take advantage of his unique skill.

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