Theater Teambuilding Guide (2021)

The Theater System that is expected to release on GFL EN may seem intimidating at first, but it's not a big deal for players that can put together a few combat echelons. 

4/20 update: Updated the enemy infographics (thanks Arcus)! Updated the page for Theater Season 4. Season 4 is largely identical to Season 3, so the changes mostly involve minor errata and optimizations. 

1/17 update: Added a video showing one way to defeat the backwards tarantulas in Advanced 8. 

1/13 update: Updated the CE of known enemies to reflect EN values up to E4/I2/A2. 

12/31 update: All enemy formations in all zones have been updated!

12/25 update: Updated to reflect Theatre 3 changes. It's not too different aside from some new things in the Core Zone!

4/10 update: Added a Low Rarity Fairy Core 8 Clear example to the Core 8 section. 

4/9 update: Added four different videos of EN Core 8 being cleared with various team compositions. 

Similar to Defense Drill, players can see what enemies are coming up next in Theater - once you prepare a few teams that can handle everything relevant, you can simply choose the right echelon before each fight and roll over the enemies. 

Editor's Note: This article was made possible by Yuko#1428 from GFLCorner who created the contents of this guide as a PDF file when Theatre was announced on EN. It's been converted to a web-friendly format with his permission. 

PREFACE: This will show you the most meta comps and the laziest comps for Theater. You may CTRL+F the CE to find the comp that you are facing (although I do not guarantee the comp has the same CE as displayed here, due to recent CE calculation changes that affected GFL EN).

For video footage of today's Theater clear, please check the TL;DR in the Theater Full Guide (which is updated daily). 

If you are unfamiliar with enemy unit names, you can check the two below infographics for a quick reference. 

Honestly, this zone doesn’t require a lot of handholding. If you really need help with this section and you have multiple level 90 x5 linked echelons, you need serious help and should probably uninstall. If you’re a newish player, disregard the title and good on you for participating in this event.

What are "Backwards Tarantulas"?

Some enemy waves in the Hard Zone contain a very large number of Tarantulas that spawn behind other tanky mobs. The enemy formation could look like this, for example:

This makes MGSG echelons very bad at dealing with those particular nodes, because they will empty their clip into the enemies in front and have nothing left when the Tarantulas come into range.

For this reason, ARSMG with C-MS (as she can equip AP ammo) or RFHG with Airstrike Fairy is highly recommended. 

ARSMG

RFHG

This is the zone where most people will have to drop back to the lower stages to farm because they cannot handle the enemies in the upper stages.

The Core Zone starts off relatively easy but its difficulty ramps up to obscene levels extremely quickly. It is recommended that you farm the last boss stage you have unlocked in this zone if you cannot handle any higher stages due to boss stages giving a substantial bonus compared to normal stages.

You must set formation correctly before starting Theater! Just like in combat simulation, you are unable to change your T-Doll formation when savescumming fights here.

While the system remains largely identical to previous seasons in Theater 3, new and difficult enemies have shown themselves! Players who cleared Shattered Connexion may be familiar, but here's a primer to them: 

389168 CE Patroller

They usually come with MAX Force Shield! HOC like BGM-71/AT4 are mandatory or you won't be able to win. 

Patrollers are intimidating enemies, wielding a rapidly firing minigun and doesn’t hesitate to pop off some lasers once in a while. The important attributes of the Patroller are as follows:

• Possesses a very big HP shield while it is using its gun and not jumping around.
• While it jumping around, switches to a piercing attack at the closest target. Additionally, increases its Evasion by a lot.
• When jumping, Patrollers will target any Doll in the front column in a sequence of Jump, Shoot, Jump, Shoot. After this they will return to Shield Mode. 

The recommended way to fight these is to utilize the Sure-Hit feature of certain rifles. As getting through the HP shield itself is a difficult task, the best bet is to wait (by disabling Auto-Skill) until the Patroller takes the shield off itself for its hopping phase, then unload your burst damage into the Patroller by re-enabling Auto-Skill during this phase.

The Patroller's high Evasion during this hopping phase discourages the use of any DPS that doesn’t have the Sure-Hit feature, as missing a lot during this means you will have to wait through more rounds, causing you to take a lot of incremental damage throughout.

Team Recommendations

The Recommended Dolls listed below are therefore going to be units who can guarantee landing their shots during this period (M4A1 Mod can work if you use her cannon mode): 

HGs can be flexible as long as they either boost DPS or provide a shield. 

Example Echelon

31965 CE Pyxis

Pyxis are turrets that have Judge’s targeting mechanic and traits; they split their damage in half to target 2 units instead of the standard one. The important aspects of this node are the following:

• The escorts are SWAP Prowlers. They do not have wonderful offensive capabilities but their evasion will make it a pain for MGs to chew through (35).
• The Pyxis have 52 FP, which means each shot deals 26 damage. They have moderate accuracy but make up for any deficits by their high ROF.

The way to deal with this node is simple. Your shotguns should preferably have at least 26 Armour (very easy to acquire if you have 5x linked shotguns and more or less any Armor Plate). Your DPS can be anyone, but preferably someone who can deal with moderate Armour and chew through 3 Pyxis worth of health (97,000 health).

Overall, a very simple node. If one wants to reduce chip damage in this stage, it is recommended to bring shielders of some sort like S.A.T. 8 or a HG who can do it like HS2000 or P22.

As Core 8 is RFHG-centric, it is heavily recommended to bring a RF backline so that you can grab the maximum advantage score (and bring an Accuracy handgun so that you get that accuracy up).

Team Recommendations

The Recommended Dolls listed below isn't fully required (S.A.T. 8 and DP-12 just reduce scratch damage a bit due to their shield). Any SG can work, and both RF and AR DPS can work. 

• If you’re bringing RF DPS: Accuracy tile buff handguns will help clearing escorts (K5, HS2000 etc)
• If you’re bringing AR DPS: FP tile buff handguns will help get through Pyxis armor (P22, Mk23)

Example Echelon

145389 Minotaur/Cerynitis

Minotaurus and Cerynitis is a new node that is present in Theatre 3. This node can be a bit painful if one is not prepared:

• Cerynitis spawn behind the Minotaurus.
• Do not be threatened by the Minotaurus, as they are simply big tanks.

The first thing you should do in this stage is to get rid of the Cerynitis as soon as possible. This should preferably be done without needing to use your RF skills. Some ways to delay the Minotaurus from approaching your backline so fast is to use a Taunt Fairy (a Twin Fairy may be used; however, your success may vary) and move your handguns to block the side Minotaurus. This also slightly extends your attack range as a benefit.

Once the Cerynitis units have been dealt with, you will have the Minotaurus left to deal with. The shield that they give themselves reduce incoming damage by a large amount so what you have to do here is to wait until they put it down, and then your RFs can go to town. Carcano M91/38 deserves a special mention here as her skill deals a significant amount of damage even with the shield up, and guarantees a kill if the shield is down.

The Minotaurus units are available in Target Practice as one of the enemy presets; practice there to get used to their mechanics if needed. 

It is important to kill these Minotaurus before they manage to go through 2 rotations, as you are not going to be able to dodge their other ability that propels grenades to your side of the battlefield.

Team Recommendations

The Recommended Dolls here will mostly consist of effective RF DPS as well as defensive HGs. Taunt Fairy remains extremely useful. 

A Taunt Fairy helps a lot for this particular fight as well.

Example Echelon

42048 CE Gladiator/Gunner

Gladiators and Gunners comprise a new possible enemy spawn in Theatre 3. These are the following attributes:

• Gladiators (the rasengan robots) are damage-oriented frontline units. They are not heavily armored, but if you are trying to kill this node without HOC, it is absolutely imperative that they are removed as soon as possible, due to a regenerating Force Shield.
• Gunners (Strelet+)are backline DPS units, and they are characterized by their high damage, moderate accuracy, and poor rate of fire. However, their evasion is high enough that classic RFs will have trouble hitting even with heavy accuracy support. These units deal most of the DPS on this node and if you have a HOC, killing the gunners first will make you take much less damage on this node. 

Gladiators themselves are easily dealt with and since they start with less than 40% force shield, are possible to defeat without spending a BGM charge unlike other Paradeus units who have 100% shield. The way this stage is set up, if you use a Taunt fairy, the Gunners will be outside your attack range, allowing you to focus on killing the Gladiators before your Taunt falls. To deal with the Gunners, it is highly recommended that sure-hit DPS units are used due to their high evasion. ARs can be used here, but it is not recommended due to needing to chew through the Gladiator’s massive health reserves. 

Remember to kite your frontline and retreat kite if necessary, to reduce damage taken.

Team Recommendations

The Recommended Dolls here are the standard Grape, M200, Sure-hit RFs for Gunners, as well as the defensive HGs like P22 and HS2000. Taunt Fairy remains great as usual. 

Example Echelon

Recce Center

EN Theater Core 8 Clear Video by kfourit

A fairly standard run. 

EN Theater Core 8 Clear Video by CosmicArcher

This video uses no special team compositions and is a recommended reference for people that just want to clear Core 8 and move on. 

EN Theater Core 8 Clear by Kazuki

EN Theater 1 Core 8 Clear Video by Yuko

While Yuko's Vid is for Theatre one, it can serve as a good reference for a number of the returning enemies.

The hardest difficulty. This is where some enemies may overwhelm commanders.

Here, there are still AFK strategies to easily finish this stage. I will be describing some of them below for each enemy you can encounter in this area.

Theatre 3 Update: Threatre 3 reshuffles the enemies compositions for this area slightly, with a few challenging additions, a few removals, and a new 'Boss' to beat up at the end of Core 8. This section has been updated to reflect these changes.

Easy Nodes

347901 Uhlan+Strelet

This is a very easy node. Don’t let the CE fool you. For the most AFK of strategies:

Why is this strategy so AFK? We are taking advantage of how low the Uhlan’s firepower is and abusing how shotguns can soak up a lot of the split damage that Uhlans have due to their skills and attacks. 

You can kite the SGs out of the tanks' ram AoE if you want to. 

The only thing you need to watch out for are to use a HOC (BGM recommended) is to activate whichever shield ability you have in time with the tank's forward ram (which will reduce damage taken significantly), or move out of the way.

Uhlans have Evasion now, so bring a handgun that gives FP and ACC if possible or use sure-hit rifles such as M200 (wink-wink).

Taunt fairy + 2RF 3HG also works, provided your DPS is sufficient.

EN Theater Core 8 Clear Video by Kyazuki (Theatre 1)

115094 Strelet+Doppelsoldner

Another easy formation. Just don’t forget your HOC (these things have 100% shield so if you don’t bring a HOC you will die).

The HOC must be able to deal with at least a 2689 shield value (so don’t bring 2B14 here - use your BGM-71 if she's available).

With enough HOC pierce, you do not need anything special for this node; a classic RFHG is able to deal with it. Make sure that you buff your RFs' FP adequately. Of course, Grape is cheating so if can’t find anything to use, she will handle this node for you (provided you bring HOC to reduce Force Shields below 100%).