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Soul Scouting: Forma Building Guide - March 2022: Archanea

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For this iteration of Hall of Forms, we have a solid round-up of viable units. Our options include two Swords, one Infantry and one Flier, as well as an Infantry Green Tome and Infantry Lance, none of which are accessible via Heroic Grails. Players have the chance to build up and possibly add the following units to their roster permanently by spending a Forma Soul:

We will briefly display optimal inheritance options for each unit and the advantages/disadvantages of spending your Forma Soul on them. As Forma Souls take a considerable amount of resources to acquire, it is important to get the most out of your Forma units before purchasing.

General Considerations

Forma Unit Rules

  • Any Forma unit you purchase will come with their base skills already. Therefore, there is little need to inherit these base skills during Hall of Forms unless you need to save refinery costs (especially PRF weapons needing Divine Dew) or simply don’t care for hyper-optimal inheritance.
  • Formas are acquired completely neutral with no Assets and Flaws. If you desire a certain Asset/Flaw combination, you will have to utilize Trait Fruits. Since you cannot merge Forma units into existing copies, this may pose an issue on resource spending if you already have the same unit with an ideal Asset.

Skill Considerations

  • When rolling skills from the current Forma skill pool, unique PRF skills are often prioritized over inheritables. It's a good idea to take PRF skills first to improve your chances at finding good inheritable alternatives; Hall of Forms will pretty much constantly hound you to take the PRF skills if you don't take them otherwise.
  • Due to their extreme rarity and superior SP value over most other Special skills, Ruptured Sky (typically available only on Byleth and their variations) and Blue Flame (available only on Owain) will vastly be preferred as a final Special choice. For bow-using units, this extends to the bow-exclusive Deadeye, and for dagger-using units, this extends to the dagger-exclusive Lethality.
    • Don't worry about not getting them too much, though! These skills are often not necessarily optimal; certain units may prefer running Specials from the low rarity pool like Sol, Glimmer, or Galeforce to achieve their goals. 
  • For the same reason as above, high-tier Assist skills like Rally+'s and Harsh Command+ are preferred on a potential purchased Forma to increase the unit's Arena scoring slightly as well as their overall value.
    • These, too, are also not necessarily optimal as positional Assists like Reposition are vastly preferred in most situations, and those can easily be inherited from lower rarity units like Norne or Barst.
    • Inheriting rally skills or Harsh Command+ too early in your Hall of Forms run can also inhibit your unit's ability to support other Forma allies and escape enemy range as well, increasing the likelihood of wasted Torches (the stamina currency for Hall of Forms) and thus wasted opportunities to get better skills.
  • Though optimal C Passive skills exist on a case-to-case basis, Joint Drives are essentially the most universal there is as they boost the stats of the unit as well as surrounding allies. Go for these (especially Joint Drive Atk) if available and there aren't better C slot options for your unit in particular. Likewise, Time's Pulse has fantastic overall value on infantry units due to the importance of frequent Special triggers in combat.

Young Marth

Special Spam

Galeforce

Summary:

I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people that wanted Young Marth had already obtained one. After all, Young Marth was quite a popular merge project for many given that he was the demote on his respective banner. I think it’s also fair to say that said people who wanted him had already invested quite a fair amount of resources into him which may be the biggest reason why it’ll be hard to recommend him. Young Marth’s gameplay niche hasn’t changed since his debut and it’s only recent that Vantage units got more toys to play with. However, those skills, Distant Storm and Vital Astra, are not currently available in Hall of Forms, so there isn’t much else available for him to take advantage of beyond ditching Rapier entirely and running a Galeforce set with Ninja Katana+. Even so, he can still prove quite valuable in the Vantage department, so if you are looking for something of that caliber, consider the following skills and recommended builds before you decide to pursue building him up.

Recommended Skills:

Weapons: Rapier / Ninja Katana+

Assist: Any Rally+ / Harsh Command+ / Reciprocal Aid

Special: Hero’s Blood / Ruptured Sky / Blue Flame / Galeforce

A-Passive: Distant Counter / Distant Stance / Distant Pressure / Flashing Blade 4 / Fury 4

B-Passive: Special Spiral / Null C-Disrupt / Spurn / Null Follow-Up / Frenzy

C-Passive: Joint Drive Atk / Joint Drive Spd / Time’s Pulse / Odd Tempest / Even Tempest

Young Marth doesn’t have too many notable options when it comes to inheritable swords as his best performance will either come from his enemy phase niche with Rapier or a player phase niche with Ninja Katana+. It’s worth noting that all forma units comes with their base kit regardless, so there’s no reason not to go with an inheritable other than attempting to clear the mode.

If running Young Marth with Rapier, any Distant Counter skill will work well for him. Distant Stance and Distant Pressure in particular are solid, the former providing additional Res which can pair well with DR skills on the off-chance he misses a Vantage kill, allowing him to tank more in general while the latter provides more damage output for Hero’s Blood but will chip away at his health. Meanwhile, Flashing Blade 4 and Fury are solid for Galeforce strategies, the former providing accelerated cooldown for easier Galeforce triggers and the latter providing chip damage so that he can act as a Wings of Mercy beacon.

Young Marth will benefit from skills that allow him to perform as a Vantage unit to his best potential. Given that Rapier has innate Vantage, his B Passive is rather flexible. Special Spiral is great if you want him to constantly output Hero’s Blood triggers while Null C-Disrupt can allow him to go against all units. Spurn can be nice if you want a failsafe, especially since Vital Astra isn’t readily available in Hall of Forms. Meanwhile, if running a Galeforce set, he can opt for Null Follow-Up or Frenzy, the former good for securing quads and the latter good for the damage reduction failsafe.

Depending on the weapon in question, Young Marth can either opt for a Joint Drive, Atk or Spd, or skills that help him with Galeforce. Joint Drive Atk and Joint Drive Spd are good for damage output, the former being better, while the latter is good for DR tanking and can help boost Hero’s Blood damage. Time’s Pulse and either Tempest are good for Galeforce, the former for having a more secure Galeforce trigger and the latter for Hit and Run.

Young Caeda

Windsweep Check

DC Vantage w/ Bulk

Summary:

Young Caeda still proves to be rather formidable with her Vantage niche due to recent meta shifts moving away from singular units omni-tanking. Young Caeda now benefits the most from acting as a Melee Specialist where most of the effectiveness of her weapon can take effect. Granted, it lacks Beast and Dragon effectiveness, however it covers the most common archetypes and while the Bow effectiveness may go to waste as a result, Young Caeda would otherwise struggle as a Vantage unit if she were to take on Ranged foes other than Bows. That’s not even to mention Colored Bows being able to bypass her 100% Vantage effect and take her out with ease given that her HP and Def stat are relatively low. Even so, Young Caeda can still hold herself fairly well if you decide to use her with Far Save support, but that’s the extent of it. Otherwise, she may not prove to be as useful otherwise since modern day units are only getting harder to take down in one hit. So, if you do plan on using a Forma Soul on her, consider the following skills and recommended builds before you decide to pursue building her up.

Recommended Skills:

Weapons: Feather Sword

Assist: Any Rally+ / Harsh Command+

Special: Ruptured Sky / Blue Flame

A-Passive: Distant Counter / Distant Stance / Atk/Spd Catch 4 / Atk/Def Catch 4 / Atk/Def Unity / Atk/Spd Unity

B-Passive: Belief in Love / Guard Bearing

C-Passive: Atk/Def Rein / Spd/Def Rein / Joint Drive Atk

Young Caeda heavily relies on her PRF as her Atk stat is too low to take advantage of other weaponry. It’s not the worst given that Feather Sword is still rather competitive. However, she’ll still be locked to her role as a Vantage unit since she doesn’t excel in much else. You could attempt to run other skills with Feather Sword, but they don’t synergize all too well and since using a Forma Soul on a given unit will only provide an unmerged, neutral variant, it’ll be hard to bolster her stats without additional resources.

While locked to Feather Sword in most cases, she does have the benefit of either being ran as a Vantage carry or a Melee Specialist. The former is easier to build around since all she’ll need is a Distant Counter skill, which her base kit already provides. However, if you’re looking to go more premium, she can go with Distant Stance, and when paired with Belief in Love and Atk/Def Rein, she’ll be more likely to survive a hit from a Res-targeting foe. Otherwise, she can attempt to stack her Atk and Spd or Def with skills such as Catch and Unity. Stacking Spd can allow her to bypass Brave Alm’s Windsweep effect and knock him out in a single hit while stacking Def can allow her to take more hits from Beasts and can act as a failsafe if she happens to miss a kill.

Being that Young Caeda is built around the enemy phase, she doesn’t have too many notable options for her B Passive. Belief in Love is going to provide much more utility for damage output than Trace will, so there’s no reason to ever go for that unless you want to run a hybrid Hit and Run set. However, she can also run Guard Bearing for Vantage strategies so that she can properly set up Feather Sword. However, that will come at the cost of additional damage output, so results will vary.

Young Caeda will absolutely want a Rein skill of some sort. Spd/Def Rein is great not only for Brave Alm checks, but for overall damage output while Atk/Def Rein is good for survivability. That being said, the most important stat will be Atk since she’ll be relying on OHKOs in most cases, so if Rein skills don’t show up, she can default to Joint Drive Atk.

Young Merric

Maximized Merric

Aether Raids Defense

Summary:

Despite the overbearing presence of Ascended Fjorm, Young Merric is still able to perform quite well with his PRF. Having innate Slaying and Null Follow-Up with additional offenses to boot makes Young Merric quite scary to face in general. That being said, his base kit pretty much covers everything he needs to function at the highest level, minus the C Passive. So, unless you don’t own a Young Merric, it might be difficult to recommend him based on being able to obtain new skills alone since his statline doesn’t allow him to run much else effectively and/or doesn’t perform nearly as well as Winds of Change. You could always go with the most hyper-optimized skills possible when rolling for skills, however, it will barely, if at all, affect his overall performance. Even so, if you own a Young Merric, it may be better to roll for Time’s Pulse fodder rather than spend a Forma Soul on him. That said, if you are in need of a strong Green Tome, he’s not a bad option whatsoever.

Recommended Skills:

Weapons: Winds of Change

Assist: Any Rally+ / Harsh Command+

Special: Righteous Wind / Ruptured Sky / Blue Flame

A-Passive: Atk/Spd Ideal 4 / Atk/Spd Unity / Life and Death 4 / Swift Sparrow 3

B-Passive: Windsweep / Watersweep / Lull Spd/Res / Lull Atk/Spd

C-Passive: Time’s Pulse / Joint Drive Atk / Joint Drive Spd / Fatal Smoke / Rouse Atk/Spd 4

Young Merric, similarly to Young Caeda, doesn’t have the proper allocated statline to take advantage of other inhertiable weaponry and will perform best with their PRF. As such, there’s no reason to choose an inheritable over the PRF, unless you want a silly inheritable for general usage.

Winds of Change having innate Null Follow-Up and Slaying also makes Young Merric’s inheritable options much more limited in scope as there isn’t much available to him that will bolster his performance significantly. His best A Passive will undoubtedly be Atk/Spd Ideal 4 since it provides the largest statswing for offenses and is easy to maintain since he can run Windsweep or Watersweep as his B Passive. He could opt for Atk/Spd Unity if you want to bypass any sort of debuff he may receive, and since he’s Infantry, he’ll more than likely always be within two spaces of an ally. Of course, if you can’t get any of these skills, it’s nothing to fret over since he naturally comes with Swift Sparrow 3.

Young Merric ideally will either want Windsweep or Watersweep, the former he comes with naturally and the latter being readily available from Soren. Of course, he can go with a Lull if you want a bit more additional damage and could help against faster units that attempt to stack Spd.

The only skill Young Merric is missing from his base kit is Time’s Pulse, which has fantastic synergy with his PRF and Special. Given that Winds of Change provides Slaying, he’ll already start out with a one-cooldown Special, so having Time’s Pulse will always reduce it to zero and is self-sufficient. He could also opt for a Joint Drive, Atk or Spd, for either more damage output or securing doubles. Fatal Smoke is an option as well if you want to run him on Aether Raids Defense. For general use, Rouse Atk/Spd 4 is a good option too since it’ll activate his PRF conditional of having a visible buff.

Kris (F)

Spurn Tank

Galeforce

Summary:

Last on the list is Kris (F), who also holds up quite well. Spear of Shadow being able to neutralize any sort of debuff inflicted on herself with the added benefit of Slaying and inflicting penalties on the foe during combat allows her to reach high levels of offensive prowess. Likewise, because her base offenses are really good, she can always ditch her PRF for Ninja Yari+ or Ninja Naginata+ and run a Galeforce set. It helps that she’s Infantry as well since she’ll be able to run Time’s Pulse and effectively bypass the need for external support. Of course, that doesn’t cover the issue of Guard effects, but that’s an entirely different problem on its own. Beyond that, Kris (F) can be ran as a Melee Specialist with skills such as Close Def as a means to not only remove debuffs from herself but to remove buffs from the foe, effectively making it much more even-leveled. Kris (F) is quite flexible in what she can do as a unit since she’s not locked to one niche. As such, she may be one of the better Forma Soul options of the four. So, if you plan to use your Forma Soul on her, consider the following skills and recommended builds before you decide to pursue building her up.

Recommended Skills:

Weapons: Spear of Shadow / Ninja Yari+ / Ninja Naginata+

Assist: Any Rally+ / Harsh Command+ / Reciprocal Aid

Special: Ruptured Sky / Blue Flame / Galeforce

A-Passive: Distant Counter / Distant Stance / Distant Pressure / Flashing Blade 4 / Close Def 4 / Steady Posture 3 / Sturdy Stance 3 / Fury 4

B-Passive: Spurn / Null Follow-Up / Frenzy

C-Passive: Time’s Pulse / Joint Drive Atk / Joint Drive Spd / Odd Tempest / Even Tempest

Depending on the role she finds herself situated in, she can either keep her innate Spear of Shadow or ditch it for Ninja Yari+ or Ninja Naginata+ for Galeforce. Spear of Shadow can be used both as a means of general tanking and as a Melee Specialist, the latter being quite decent in today’s meta. Meanwhile, Ninja Yari+ and Ninja Naginata+ are able to open up Kris’ ability to securely double more often or,in some cases, quad.

If you plan to keep Spear of Shadow, Kris (F) can either opt for a Distant Counter skill or skills that bolster her Atk, Spd, and/or Def. A Distant Counter skill will allow her to take on foes in general, and despite not being available in Hall of Forms yet, Vital Astra can increase her survivability tenfold, especially when paired with Time’s Pulse since that’ll activate Vital Astra. Meanwhile, Close Def and Stance are good for the Melee Specialist role, the former effectively removing buffs on the foe which pairs well with Spear of Shadow’s penalty neutralization and the latter providing flat stats to debatably more important stats and Guard. If you plan to run one of the two Ninja weapons, she can either opt for Flashing Blade 4 or Fury 4, the former accelerating cooldown much more quickly for easier Galeforce triggers and the latter providing chip damage for Wings of Mercy beacon shenanigans. It’s worth noting that she innately comes with Fury 4, so the former is worth obtaining instead since you can always switch between them at any given time.

Kris (F) already comes with Spurn in her base kit, so no matter what you plan to run, you’re better off snagging Null Follow-Up since she’ll have access to both skills if you spend a Forma Soul on her. Spurn is solid for general tanking and can be used for the Melee Specialist role. That being said, if you ever end up giving her Vital Astra, she’ll instead be able to run Null Follow-Up. Meanwhile, Frenzy can work well with either of the Ninja weapons and can act as a failsafe if the foe ends up counterattacking.

Kris (F) has plenty of options for her C Passive depending on the role she finds herself in. Time’s Pulse is great not only for Galeforce but also for having an instant two-cooldown Special ready to go. Meanwhile, Joint Drive Atk and Joint Drive Spd are good for general stat-stacking shenanigans and can increase her damage output or tanking prowess. There is also the option of either Tempest skill which can be beneficial for Hit and Run strategies.

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