Sonya

Weapon: Dark Excalibur (+Eff)

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Glimmer / Ruptured Sky / AoE Special / Moonbow

Passive A: Sturdy Impact / Life and Death / Death Blow / Heavy Blade

Passive B: Special Spiral

Passive C: Joint Drive Atk / Res Smoke / Odd Atk Wave / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Death Blow / Sturdy Blow / Quickened Pulse / Heavy Blade

• This set is centered around maximizing the usage of Sonya’s exclusive Dark Excalibur for general gameplay. Since she will be primarily dependent on OHKOs (as her Speed is barely okay for offensive purposes even with her Resplendent), a +ATK IV is recommended to frontload as much raw damage as possible.
• The crux of Sonya’s success lies in exploiting her bonus +10 damage from Dark Excalibur’s Wo Dao effect through the combination of Special Spiral and a two-turn cooldown Special: her refined weapon provides two free charges at the start of the battle for immediate access without outside assistance, and Special Spiral ensures she can loop her Special in every subsequent combat. 
  • Of such Specials available to her, Glimmer offers the greatest damage potential and Ruptured Sky stands out for its unique enemy-based mechanics, though Moonbow works better at lower investment to help against magically bulky foes. 
  • Another popular (and potentially even more lethal) combination is to use an AoE Special instead of one of the aforementioned options, as they can be looped as well and present the benefit of bypassing the Weapon Triangle altogether; however, using such Specials requires additional set-up since they have a starting cooldown of four and the use of Heavy Blade in either her A or Sacred Seal slot. 
    • The way this works is that following their initial activation, AoE Specials will only have a two-turn cooldown via Special Spiral — and since they activate before combat, Sonya’s in-combat attack allows her to make up the remaining two charges with Heavy Blade to loop such Specials. Combined with Dark Excalibur's damage boost, this is quite potent for general gameplay to easily strike down enemy threats. 
    • Blazing AoE Specials are recommended for their higher damage modifier; this helps boost Sonya’s chances of landing OHKOs while still featuring a respectable radius for applying damage to nearby enemies. 
• Sturdy Impact is an excellent A skill to provide Sonya some additional safety in case she somehow fails to OHKO an opponent, since her abysmal Defense and lacking HP pool places her at risk of any stray hit from a physical attacker. Another option is Death Blow for straightforward damage boosts. However, if using an AoE Special, Sonya’s A skill should either be Heavy Blade (if not used as a Sacred Seal) or Life and Death since AoE Special damage scales off visible stats. 
• Any C skill that improves her raw damage output works well (such as Res Smoke, Joint Drive Atk, and Odd Atk Wave), though Time’s Pulse also merits consideration for AoE spam sets to reduce the amount of set-up needed for her looping. The same essentially applies to her Sacred Seal options; Death Blow, Sturdy Blow, and Life and Death are all fantastic to boost her effectiveness, but Special-related skills like Quickened Pulse or Heavy Blade may be considered specifically if aiming to use AoE Specials.

Weapon: Dark Excalibur (+Eff)

Assist: Assistless / Rally Assist / Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Glacies / Blazing Light

Passive A: Mirror Impact / Sturdy Impact / Life and Death

Passive B: Lull Atk/Res / Wings of Mercy / Special Spiral

Passive C: Time’s Pulse / Joint Drive Atk / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Quickened Pulse / Death Blow / Life and Death / Sturdy Blow / Hardy Bearing 

• Although this build similarly places an emphasis on Sonya’s damage potential, it narrows down her usage specifically to her niche within Aether Raids Defense team; her ability to target Resistance and deal exceptional Special damage helps her shine in such settings to apply considerable offensive pressure. A +ATK IV is once again coveted over everything else. 
• The typical strategy with units of Sonya’s archetype is to equip with powerful Specials like Glacies and provide reduced cooldown support (through other allies equipped with Infantry Pulse) to maximize the impact of their first initiation — and with her +10 Special damage from her PRF, Sonya can utilize this strategy to easily OHKO or at least heavily wound incoming threats.
  • Where Sonya is a bit unique from other comparables, however, is that she can instantly reduce such a Special’s cooldown entirely by herself without outside support; her refined Dark Excalibur grants two charges from the start, and she can get the remaining two by equipping Time’s Pulse as her C skill and Quickened Pulse as her Sacred Seal. 
  • Thus, she sports great flexibility as she can leave some wiggle room for her allies to equip other useful C skills instead, or may potentially even be used outside of Infantry Pulse teams altogether. Such support can be used, though, to free up room in Sonya’s build for other powerful skill options.
  • Either way, Glacies will typically be Sonya’s ideal Special choice for this purpose to heighten her OHKO as much as possible; its long cooldown makes it unfavorable for general gameplay, but it works better in Defense since killing the right unit in the challenger’s team may be enough to force them to forfeit. Blazing Light is also a potential alternative.
• Mirror Impact is ideal from a damage viewpoint if using Glacies since its +10 Resistance increases her Special nuke by eight points; this on top of a base +6 Attack, enemy follow-up denial, and Dark Excalibur’s +10 bonus damage helps her pose a greater threat. Life and Death is preferred if using Blazing Light, though, since AoE Specials calculate their damage based on visible stats, and Sturdy Impact is a good candidate if safety is preferred instead. 
• Sonya’s B skill is somewhat flexible. Lull Atk/Res is a standard choice for Aether Defense picks to deny enemy bonuses (which are especially prominent on Offense teams due to the ubiquity of Mythics who provide them like Peony, Plumeria, and Ashera to a lesser extent), but Wings of Mercy is also notable to incorporate some unpredictability into your team. Although not nearly as effective here as it is for general gameplay, Special Spiral is an option if expecting Sonya to frequently engage in combat. 
• If not using the Time’s Pulse + Quickened Pulse combination, Sonya is free to use anything in either her C or Sacred Seal slot that aids her damage; some standout skills include Joint Drive Atk and Death Blow. Hardy Bearing may be worth considering if her Sacred Seal slot is open as well if Vantage units are a particular concern.