Legendary Caeda

Weapon: Wing-Lifted Spear

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Moonbow / Glimmer / Ruptured Sky 

Passive A: Distant Storm / Atk/Spd Unity / Atk/Spd Push / Atk/Spd Solo / Atk/Spd Catch

Passive B: Faithful Loyalty

Passive C: Atk/Def Rein / Menace Skills / Guidance Skills / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Iote’s Shield / Atk/Spd Form / Aerobatics / Ground Orders

• Legendary Caeda’s abilities were quite clearly designed for her to shine in mixed phase applications, bringing an abundance of goodies between Wing-Lifted Spear and Faithful Loyalty that secure a competitive edge whether on the offensive or defensive. This build stays true to this intention, with one’s choice between +ATK or +SPD for her IVs working well to complement her damage lean.
• Realistically, her base kit itself works phenomenally with her designated playstyle and can be left untouched for most purposes: Distant Storm builds on her versatility so that she may leverage her Vantage nukes regardless of enemy type and even carries neat bonus damage, while Atk/Def Rein and Moonbow continue solidifying her base damage output further. However, as always, alterations can always be made for specific cases.
  • Assuming she’s the team’s primary carry, Distant Storm genuinely should not be removed as any ranged threat will otherwise trample her immediately. That being said, even with this skill, those that can deny Caeda’s counterattack — through means like Firesweep Bow, Windsweep, and Dazzling Staff — will still steamroll her, and it doesn’t help that they remain ubiquitous in the current meta. 
    • For this reason, it may be worthwhile considering pairing Legendary Caeda with a Far Save ally; this removes any worry of having to deal with ranged combat, instead enabling her to focus fully on melee matchups and use a standard stat-enhancing A skill instead. 
    • Anything that augments her Attack and Speed is generally most worthwhile, though those that can activate in either phase easily — Unity, Catch, Solo, and Push — deserve the most priority to keep with her dual-phased nature. The choice between which ultimately boils down to which activation requirement you prefer. 
  • Legendary Caeda’s base Atk/Def Rein is a perfectly respectable C skill, as its modest in-combat debuffs come into play every round of combat without fail and can even aid allies as well. The main reasons to consider replacing it is if a Menace is preferred for greater stat differentials between Caeda and her opponents (though it does place her at a disadvantage against Unity effects), or for something with a supportively-tuned purpose like Guidance or Ground Orders.
  • Lastly, Moonbow’s reduction to her foe’s Defense during combat upon activation helps the queen push through durable foes while coming on a short cooldown, but Glimmer and Ruptured Sky are possible replacements that feature identical activation rates. 
• Any Sacred Seal that hones Legendary Caeda’s offensive potential is a natural fit here, but Iote’s Shield is an interesting candidate that helps mostly as a “just-in-case” tool against archers who manage to land an attack; she doesn’t have the bulk to endure multiple engagements, but this should give her a fighting chance at survival in case of any mishaps. Movement-based seals like Aerobatics and Ground Orders can be considered as well to expand either her own range or that of her team.

Weapon: Wing-Lifted Spear

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Galeforce

Passive A: Heavy Blade / Distant Storm 

Passive B: Faithful Loyalty / Flow Guard / Wings of Mercy

Passive C: Savage Blow / Odd Tempest / Atk/Def Rein / Smoke Skills / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Quickened Pulse / Heavy Blade 

• This build offers an alternative approach to the Beloved Queen’s assets, emphasizing her functionality within Galeforce compositions in Aether Raids Offense — a setting she can perform admirably in thanks to her stellar mobility and faculty for eliminating pesky Save units through the glory of armored effectiveness. She’ll typically want +ATK over anything else to ensure Heavy Blade activations, but +SPD can work decently as well. 
• Galeforce naturally stands as the essence of this build. Its self-refreshing quality, paired with allied refreshers and other Galeforce-equipped teammates, allows for multiple initiations in quick succession so Caeda may sweep through the enemy forces alongside her friends. However, the Special’s glaring five-turn cooldown at base requires that Caeda be equipped with Heavy Blade in some capacity to ensure it actually activates in time.
• Savage Blow and stat-targeting Smoke skills are notable C skill candidates to improve the quality of Legendary Caeda’s subsequent matchups (as well as that of any other allies participating in the Galeforce chain), though her base Atk/Def Rein works solidly too. While relatively costly, Odd Tempest may be considered to obtain cavalry-esque mobility with the advantage of being unhampered by terrain.
• As for the remaining build specifics, Legendary Caeda has two main courses of action she can adopt in terms of her gameplan, depending on personal preference. 
  • Traditional Galeforce: 
    • This essentially has the Beloved Queen equipped to operate as any other typical Galeforce unit. Maximizing Special charge accumulation is key so that she may activate the Special without wasting turns, making it highly recommended that she utilize Heavy Blade as an A skill with the Quickened Pulse seal. 
      • This lowers the minimum amount of initiations required to activate Galeforce down to two, assuming Heavy Blade triggers and Guard isn’t in play.
      • Players with access to Velouria support can consider slotting her in alongside Caeda for the greatest amount of safety, as this at worst guarantees the Special’s activation in two rounds even against Guard.
    • For her B skill, though Faithful Loyalty can certainly be kept on a budget for its Null Follow-Up effect, those with the resources available may consider replacing it with Flow Guard for more safety upon initiations (as Faithful Loyalty’s Vantage won’t really be coming into play here). Wings of Mercy is another option as well to enable quick proximity to the enemy composition without needing outside assistance. 
  • Mixed-Phased Galeforce:
    • While the majority of her combat will still ideally occur during the Player Phase, this strategy has Legendary Caeda stick with the original intent of her Faithful Loyalty and essentially uses Galeforce’s refresh (and any other actions provided by allies) to eliminate the most pressing threats first, such as foes with counterattack-negation. Those remaining are then dealt with during the Enemy Phase via Vantage. 
    • Distant Storm is highly recommended for her A skill here, as it makes it much easier for Caeda to simply plug-and-play. However, since this means she’ll need to use Heavy Blade as her Sacred Seal and thus cannot use Quickened Pulse, this does place a greater strain on actually accumulating the charges needed to trigger Galeforce.
      • This can be alleviated through specific ally support selection, though, with units like Valentine’s Chrom, Rafiel, Velouria, and Legendary Hector all bringing methods of providing Special charges without requiring combat.
    • Do note that utilizing Savage Blow in her C skill and destroying the enemy Healing Tower bears far greater significance here, as she will be relying almost entirely on landing OHKO’s for her Enemy Phase combat, and lowering enemy health as much as possible beforehand massively improves her chances of success.