Theater Teambuilding Guide

The Theater System that is expected to release on GFL EN on Mar. 31 may seem intimidating at first, but it's not a big deal for players that can put together a few combat echelons. 

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 most lazy 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. 

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.

EN Theater Core 8 Clear Video by FantastGRD

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 w/ Low Rarity Fairy

This is an example to show that Core 8 is clearable without high rarity fairies.

The kiting and team compositions are not necessarily optimal, though it proves the point that you can do this even with just average kiting.

Team comps, skill levels, and fairy levels/rarities are in the video description. 

EN Theater Core 8 Clear Video by kfourit

EN Theater Core 8 Clear Video by HibachiMan

EN Theater Core 8 Clear Video by Yuko

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.

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.

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

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%).