Should You Summon: April Prize Showcase Ft. Alberius and High Chthonius

Hello and welcome back to Should You Summon, an article which provides in-depth initial analysis of newly released adventurers or dragons summonable from the current banner. This time around the Prize Summon Showcase has returned and brings along two units which can very well define the shadow meta going forth. Like previous Prize Summon Showcases, on top of the normal performed summon you will receive an additional prize randomly chosen from one of several different reward tiers. As is the case, the better the prize, the higher ranked reward it is considered, but the rarer it is to receive it. As such, consider these items as bonuses on top of what you get, and not the sole reason why you should summon. The items on offer per tier, while nice, are not as important as summoning the focus adventurer and dragons on the banner. Besides this, all other normal rates apply, including the standard 4% 5 star summon rate.

For this Should You Summon article and others going forward, I plan to also include a general recommended setup up for the best usage of an adventurer or dragon based on their kit at the time of writing. While I will provide general wyrmprint, dragon and co-ability recommendations, Dragalia Lost is an experimental game for team building, and as such players may find more optimal ways to get the best out of an adventurer or dragon’s kit than what I advise. Either way, I highly recommend visiting the WildShinobu DPS Simulator website for the most of up-to-date damage setup of a given adventurer as more co-abilities and wyrmprints are added to the game over time.

Starting with his Skill 1 Circlet Dawn, Alberius will take the form of High Chthonius and deal 3 hits of 327% damage, which will inflict Shadowblight, enabling for Shadowblight punisher effects, and then revert to his original form, dealing an additional 1 hit of 200% and 1 hit of 1100% damage. With an SP cost of 3360, it does seem slightly above average for the typical damage dealing skills. However, this skill comes with the catch that while he deals damage while taking the form of High Chthonius, abilities that activate while shapeshifted will also affect this attack. More importantly, abilities which boost dragon damage, such as wyrmprints like The Bridal Dragon, co-abilities like Gala Euden’s Shapeshifting Boost IV, chain co-abilities such as Alberius’s (Shadow) Dragon Damage +12% or the dragon affinity bonus from a wyrmprint set.  As such, the advertised modifier will be typically instead reach closer to a combined total of 2400%+ damage with a good build, making it a lot more potent for the SP cost.

His Skill 2 Exalted Inception meanwhile allows Alberius to take the form of High Midgardsormr instead, dealing 8 hits of 271%, having the capabilities of inflicting stun, and raising the dragon gauge slightly. Like his Skill 1, Alberius is in the dragon form for the entirety of the skill animation, meaning that his modifiers are boosted entirely by any dragon damage bonuses. With a proper dragon damage set, this skill again has the capabilities of dishing out a 2400%+ combined modifier, making for another excellent potent source of damage.

To round out his excellent damage resources, the rest of Alberius’s kit brings some nice added utility to boot. His first ability Shapeshift Prep & Dragon Defence grants Alberius 25% dragon gauge at the beginning of quests, enabling him to shapeshift into his first dragon sooner, and increases his defence while shapeshifted by 25%. It is important to note that his Shapeshift Prep ability effect all adventurers on the field, meaning running two of him in cooperative play allows you to immediately summon your first dragon. His secondary effect meanwhile not only provides him the capabilities of tanking certain attacks without losing as much dragon time while shapeshifted, but also provides him with some more defence if hit by a purple non-avoidable attack during a skill animation, allowing him to have some more survivability where needed. His second unique ability Dragon’s Fierce Rule adds another layer of utility, granting any dragon attack the ability to dispel one enemy buff. This ability also applies to both his Skill 1 and Skill 2, allowing him to have excellent dispel uptime in an element which does not have many excellent dispellers. Finally, Alberius boasts the unique chain co-ability Dragon Damage 12%, further boosting his skill damage modifiers.

Overall, Alberius’s kit is very well rounded not only for the current shadow endgame boss fight (Legend Kai Yan), but also positions himself excellently for future Rise of the Sinister Dominion boss fights. His high damage and ability to have consistent dispel plants him as an excellent option to rival Bellina’s place in the Legend Kai Yan fight, which is not an easy feat to accomplish. Due to his kit not being buff reliant also, his damage will translate excellently to the Rise of the Sinister Dominion fights, where the Curse of Nihility debuff nullifies most beneficial buffs to adventurers. His dispel utility may also come to be useful such as it is in the current Lilith fight, where the ability to remove her attack buff stacks enables improved survivability for adventurers. Because of these reasons, I recommend summoning for this adventurer.

Recommended loadouts: As Alberius plays well as a dragon-centric adventuer, I recommend the Dragon Claw chain co-ability present on Cleo and Forte to boost his strength per shapeshift, up to three times. I also recommend the strength co-ability, particularly Ieyasu’s, who provides 20% dragon haste additionally as apart of his chain co-ability. In the instance that you run a Rise of the Sinister Dominion quest, where Dragon Claw abilities are nullified, to run instead the skill damage and critical rate co-ability, typical for most general damage setups. If you have Joker you also have the option to run the attack rate co-ability in the critical rate coability place, or additionally if you playing content that is not locked to the shadow-element, you can run Gala Euden’s Shapeshifting Boost IV, which adds 6% to the damage modifier of dragons, directly effecting Alberius’s skills and dragon form.

For wyrmprints, it is always recommended to run punisher prints where applicable for endgame boss fights. Considering Alberius comes with innate Shadowblight infliction, it is recommended to run the Welcome to the Opera! wyrmprint, which increases damage to Shadowblighted foes by 25%. If another adventurer is running a consistent source of poison affliction, you can also consider running the 5 star A Man Unchanging or 4 star The Plaguebringer wyrmprints for additional damage to Poisoned foes. As a character whose skills are boosted by sources of dragon damage, it is also recommended to run any wyrmprints which boost damage in dragon form, after each shapeshift or provides the dragon damage affinity. Examples include:

5 Stars

• Pecorine’s Grand Adventure (HP above 70% = 13% strength)
• The Red Impulse (Dragon’s Skill (increases skill damage up to 24% after three shapeshifts))
• The Bridal Dragon (18% Dragon Damage)
• An Ancient Oath (Dragon Claws (increases user’s strength up to 30% after three shapeshifts))

4 Stars

• Sisters of the Anvil (10% Strength Doublebuff)
• Duelling Dancers (10% Flurry Devastation)
• Entwined Flames (14% Dragon Damage)

Along with Alberius, High Chthonius has arrived to add as an additional alternative to strength dragon slots within the shadow elements. Unlike those who are available though, High Chthonius’s passive abilities will enable him to a capable damage option for future Rise of the Sinister Dominion quests.

High Chthonius comes with two intrinsic passive abiltiies. His first (Shadow) Strength & High Dragon’s Might, which grants Shadow attuned adventurers a base 65% strength increase and increases strength further by 20% each time they shapeshift, up to twice per quest. Unlike other abilities that boast this type of skill description like Dragon Claws that are displayed during a quest, High Chthonius’s strength increases, even after a shapeshift, will always be passives, meaning they can never be removed by the Curse of Nihility debuff. This enables High Chthonius to have the highest passive strength increase out of any dragon in the game after two shapeshifts, at an outstanding 105% increase. His second passive meanwhile (Shadow) Steeled Dragon’s Endurance grants shadow attuned adventurers 30% increases to their maximum HP after their second shapeshift. Like the first passive, this increase is not displayed on the field of battle, and as such cannot be removed by the Curse of Nihility debuff.

Boasting impressive offensive and defencive utility, you would think this would be one of the best dragons to summon for in the game. However, due to the nature of the Shadow agito weapon this is not the case. Currently a lot of the Shadow element’s DPS favours skill abuse overall because of the attack rate buff provided by the Shadow Agito weapons, which allows damage users to acquire and abuse skills significantly faster than any other element. This has led to the rise of skill damage dragons such as Arsene and Gala Cat Sith being preferred as best in slot (BIS) for this element. As such, I cannot recommend summoning High Chthonius based on usage in the Agito boss fights for most adventurers unless you do not own Arsene or Gala Cat Sith already. However, not all of the Shadow element relies on skill damage as their main source of damage. For example, force strike focus units like Gala Chelle and Linnea, or standard attack focused units like durant, prefer strength boosting effects to significantly increase their damage output. Due to this, I can recommend summoning High Chthonius for these types of adventurers as he is currently best in slot in most cases compared to his competition. In the end, his strength boost is signifcantly greater than the 80% effects currently provided by dragons such as Fatalis and Andromeda by a decent margin. However, do be warned that if you are unable to shapeshift quickly or at all in a quest, it may still be preferable to run these reliable 80% strength dragons.

However, as has been learnt in the Lilith boss fight, the Rise of the Sinister Dominion quests currently nullify agito weapon effects on the Master difficulty, including the attack rate bonus provided. This reduces the overall effectiveness of skill damage dragons due to the reduction of skill damage usage that Shadow adventurers will be able to perform. In this scenario, I can recommend summoning High Chthonius based on being used in the Rise of the Sinister Dominion fights, as his passive will rival the skill damage bonuses currently provided by Arsene and Gala Cat Sith. High Chthonius will be strongest for adventurers who are dragon-centric, as the sooner they are able to shapeshift, the sooner they are able to gain the full effects of this amazing dragon.

To finish off this analysis, High Chthonius boasts respectable standard attack damage modifiers while shapeshifted. His Skill Netherblast deals 5 hits of 397% damage and 1 hit of 477% damage and can inflict Shadowblight. This skill, having impressive modifiers, is also able to draw in enemies together, allowing High Chthonius to clean up in boss fights where additional enemies may spawn. While it has been a long time coming, it is great to see Chthonius finally get the love he deserves within Dragala Lost.

On Free Summons

This banner presents a daily tenfold event for 3 resets, meaning that you can pull at least 30 times before requiring any additional summoning currency. As such, it is always recommended to hold off on using any of your own currency to see if you can free pull the focus units of this banner, thus saving for future banners.

On Summoning Rates and Wyrmsigils

This is a typical focus banner, with 5-star adventurers and dragons appearing at a shared 4% rate.

• Alberius being the featured adventurer has a 0.5% summoning rate, while High Chthonius boasts a larger 0.8% summoning rate.
• For wyrmsigils, you can spark for not only Alberius and High Chthonius, but also Sylas, Louise, Linnea, and Midgardsormr Zero. If any of those characters appeal to you now is the best chance to get them in a guaranteed (but very costly) method.

Final Verdict: Yes

Alberius alone makes it a worthwhile banner to summon on, boasting impressive damage and utility, and being future proofed to tackle any future endgame challenges coming his way. High Chthonius meanwhile seems like an excellent pick for Rise of the Sinister Dominion fights, even if his place outside this fight will always be usurped by the skill damage dragons available with the Shadow element. However, I will note that both these units are permanent additions to the game, so if you are a player who prefers to save for limited showcases I suggest holding off on spending as per usual. If you are also in the scenario that you have teams built that are already able to run Legend Kai Yan both solo and coop variants fine, as well as future Rise of the Sinister Dominion challenges, then your needs to summon will be more on a personal basis. While Alberius is certainly fun, if your wyrmite stocks are tight and you would prefer to build a safety net for future Gala showcases then by all means consider skipping this banner as well.