Last Month in Dragalia: January 2022

Welcome to the first ever edition of Last Month in Dragalia, a retrospective of all noteworthy happenings that occurred in…well, the last month of Dragalia Lost. We are already a month into the new year and so far the game has continued to march on at a steady pace. This article will primarily focus on January 2022, but seeing as this is the first iteration of Last Month, it’s only fitting for us to also provide a brief recap of noteworthy content that dropped late last December.

It should be no surprise that the main focus of last December was the kickoff of the newest series of endgame bosses, the Primal Dragon Trials, and the introduction of the new Kaleidoscape game mode.

On December 23, Midgardsormr was the first of the Five Greatwyrms to challenge us in a new set of endgame boss fights in Primal Midgardsormr’s Trial. Unlike the Dragon Trials and Advanced Dragon Trials that came before, the Windwyrm now boasts two phases: first in his humanoid form, and second as Midgardsormr Zero. The reward for conquering this new challenge comes in the form of materials used to craft a brand new series of 6-star weapons, the first major weapon grind since the release of master Tartarus in November 2020.

Personally, I found the appearance of the new weapon set a bit lacking. The Primal Dragon Trial weapons are simple recolors of the older High Dragon Trial weapons—whose aesthetic I was not very keen on to begin with—with an added visual affect akin to those gained from the second refinement of the Agito Uprising weapons. But feelings about the looks of the new weapons aside, I thought Primal Midgardsormr’s Trial was an incredibly challenging and rewarding fight. The Lord of Storms has certainly set a high bar for the other primal Greatwyrms to meet. My favorite aspect of the new fight has to be the incorporation of some of our favorite wind adventurers into Midgardsormr’s attacks, even if Halloween Melsa’s super tickle time has ended an uncountable number of runs.

On December 26, the Kaleidoscape was added. This new mode is Dragalia Lost’s take on the rogue-lite genre. A dungeon crawler that sees players traverse a randomized set of up to 50 floors littered with fiends, Dyrenell soldiers, Agito…and occasionally, a giant Snapper fish? Depending on how far player’s traverse they will be granted up to five portrait wyrmprints. The new portrait wyrmprints are capable of boasting some fairly powerful effects, but the downside? The print effects are randomized. So on one run you might get a print that offers a full 20% strength…or you get a healing potency bonus exclusive for blade adventurers. In addition to hours of tortuous randomized portrait print grinding, the Kaleidoscape also offers a consolation prize in the form of Dawn Amber and Dusk Amber. And wow are they an incredible consolation prize! The Kaleidoscape has a treasure trade that resets monthly, and within it players are capable of exchanging Amber for 2 whole Sunlight Stones.

Indeed Lea. Each Sunlight Stone is able to be purchased in the Treasure Trade after approximately one successful 50-floor clear of the Kaleidoscape. If a player is diligent in grinding out this new mode, then that means they can obtain at least 4 Sunlight Stones every other month, which allows players to freely max unbind each new Gala dragon as they come out. In addition to the Sunlight Stones, the monthly treasure trade also allows players to acquire two Omnicite a month, requiring about 3 successful 50-floor clears to purchase each one. The two monthly Omnicite essentially corresponds to the approximately two new spirals we get with each month from Trials of the Mighty. So the drawn out snail-pace progression of Trials of the Mighty is all but in the past now that players have a new avenue for immediately upgrading their favorite adventurers once their spirals drop.

Speaking of Trials of the Mighty spirals, why don’t we look at the two new ones we got last January?

Following the successful spirals of Victor and Annelie in December, last month brought us two new upgrades for Quinbell’s sweetheart Catherine and Ieyasu’s dependable retainer Sazanka.

Little Miss Perfect received a nice spiral befitting of her tremendous spiraling locks of hair. In summary here are the buffs she received from her spiral compared to her prior kit:

Skill 1: Beck and Call
○ grants an additional +5% strength

Skill 2: Perfect Order
○ gains a dispel
○ additional +518% damage at 3 stacks of Perfect Escort

Ability 1: Perfection Embodied
○ Perfect Escort buffs now grant 5% attack rate for each stack
○ Perfect Escort no longer is lost upon taking damage
○ using Skill 1 Beck and Call grants a defense amp (Max Team Amp Level: 2) with a 30 second cooldown

Ability 2: Potent Stun Res
○ upgraded resistance to Potent variant

Ability 3: Skill Damage
○ +5% skill damage

Overall Catherine received a fairly substantial increase to her personal damage, solidifying herself as a viable choice in most endgame content. In addition to the power increase, Catherine is just much easier to play now that she no longer loses stacks of Perfect Order upon taking damage. The quality of life changes brought about by this spiral cannot be understated.

Our first non-healer 4-star adventurer to receive a spiral through Trials of the Mighty, as well as our first non-Gala limited adventurer to receive a spiral through Trials. Sazanka has definitely fallen to the wayside since her release in December of 2018. Sporting unremarkable damage and a horribly obsolete kit revolving around the sleep affliction, Sazanka was in desperate need of a pick me up. But did her spiral deliver? Here’s a quick rundown of the buffs she received from her spiral compared to her prior kit:

Skill 1: Dancing Blossoms
○ additional +68% damage
○ additional +14% damage for every instance of bleeding
○ inflicts shadowblight

Skill 2: Blooming Cradle
○ increases Sazanka’s max HP by 10%
○ special force strikes can dispel 1 buff each
○ special force strikes have an additional +10% chance of inflicting sleep and sleep has a 2 second longer duration

Ability 1: Cultured Flower
○ additional +5% gauge acceleration
○ using Skill 2 Blooming Cradle grants a strength amp (Max Team Amp Max Level 2) with a 30 second cooldown

Ability 2: Potent Paralysis Res
○ upgraded resistance to Potent variant

Ability 3: Sleeping, Bleeding, and Shadowblighted Punisher
○ additional +5% sleeping punisher
○ gains 15% bleeding punisher
○ gains 15% shadowblighted punisher

Sazanka received some fairly spectacular buffs with her mana spiral. Having a dispel tied to force strike allows a considerable degree of freedom in that a player is capable of saving dispels for when they are absolutely crucial. This provides Sazanka with a great degree of utility in fights such as Kai Yan’s Wrath which possess high dispel requirements. Additionally, upgrades to Sazanka’s third ability skyrocket her previously subpar damage output. Bleeding and shadowblight are easy enough to apply in most fights which gives Sazanka a whopping +30% punisher modifier. That massive punisher modifier value is even larger than her forehead and we here at GamePress could not be more overjoyed!

The three permanently available HP/Skill Haste dragons all received their 5th unbinds last month. All three received a respectable 10% HP and 5% skill haste increase. In addition, all three gained a 30% Surge of Strength which will help healers provide stronger heals and heftier overdamage contributions.

Simurgh received a 5% Overdrive Punisher increase, a 50% Surge of Strength, and a surprisingly beefy 20% HP increase.

Meanwhile, Prometheus received a disappointing 5% strength increase and a 30% Surge of Strength mirroring his light-equivalent Gilgamesh.

And that covers the character upgrades that dropped last month. Let’s move on to the events and summon showcases.

New year, new zodiac raid event. To celebrate the start of the Year of the Tiger, the Halidom was greeted by the Tiger Clan’s armor-clad general Shingen, his pactbound dragon Fudo Myo-o, his eager protégé Yukimura of the Monkey Clan, as well as Izumo, the young emissary of Amaterasu. The three adventurers introduced alongside this event all come packaged with a brand new combat mechanic called a Burst Gambit. Burst Gambits will apply a countdown onto enemies that progressively decrease each time the affected enemy is pegged with debuffs or afflictions and trigger a unique adventurer-dependent effect once the Burst Gambit’s countdown hits zero. I suspect we will likely see more characters boasting Burst Gambits in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled and your wyrmite stash healthy.

With the exception of the free adventurer Izumo, all of the units introduced during this event are fairly powerful. You can read more about Shingen, Yukimura, Fudo Myo-o, and Gala Beast Ciella here!

Moving beyond the new characters and onto the raid event itself. The theme song for this event is Honoka Watanabe’s “I will be stronger with you” which you can listen to here:

In the Celestial Showdown raid, the Shogunate of Hinomoto joined forces with the Halidom to repel the invasion of the sinister Tsukuyomi. But did you know that although this event was the first official debut of Tsukuyomi, players have known about her for years? Early artwork of this character has actually been present in the files of Dragalia since the beginning, and for the most part, she still looks quite similar all these years later.

After years of waiting, players got to finally see Tsukuyomi in-game in an official manner. But while one years-long tease has found some sense of closure, a whole new set has crept in as Dragalia Lost decided to reveal the appearances of all upcoming Wyrmclan Leaders.

On January 5, following the Gala Beast Ciella Showcase was a prize summon featuring Mitsuhide, Seimei, and Daikokuten. This banner was fairly unremarkable with fairly unremarkable focus characters. Granted, all other New Year’s characters (including the Summer variants) were present on this banner—albeit without any rate-up—and all were capable of being acquired with wyrmsigils. But only the truly desperate would dare to venture down that dark path.

January 12 saw a light-focused Gala Remix summon showcase as well as a rerun of last year’s Fortune’s Fray coliseum event featuring Kimono Elisanne and Kimono Luca. However, this year it was none other than our favorite fairy companion Notte who donned a kimono! Kimono Notte continues the recent trend of staff adventurers such as Sandalphon and Ayaha & Otoha with unique shapeshift forms and a hybrid healer-damage-oriented playstyle. You can read more about Kimono Notte and the other characters featured on her summon showcase here!

The second half of Chapter 23 of the main campaign released on January 17. The story continues on from last December when we were left off on the shocking discovery that Beren’s dark and brooding attitude was ACTUALLY NOT A PHASE. While the bridge with our brother Beren has been thoroughly burned, new brotherly bridges have been built. Phares has somehow NOT actually perished following the resurrection of the Progenitor and now seeks to assist the Prince in his mission to preserve a world with possibilities.

But the real spotlight was placed on the Sixth Scion, that whiny little rat bastard Emile who put on a new Gala-befitting outfit, saved the Prince’s crew not once but twice, and played some sweet tunes with the Dyrenell marching band. Maybe there is some hope left for our favorite punching bag.

The next chapter of the main campaign continues in February as we travel to the desert that once housed Gatov’s fallen kingdom.

January 20 saw the second event revival of the month with Princess Connect Re: Dive: A Voracious Visitor returning in which the perpetually peckish Princess Pecorine plus powerful pals packed picnics, pigged putrid petrification-preventing porridge panaceas, plus promptly punched pesky purple…uh…Chronos reskin. Look, it was a filler event. And the awful light focus summon showcase tied to it was filler as well. How crazy is that?

Version Update 2.16.0 went into place on January 24. Pretty minor update all things considered. The Shadow of Mukuroshu event featuring Armored Yachiyo and Saiga as well as the Elementary Escapades event featuring Child Ranzal and Humanoid Mercury were added into the event compendium. Additional changes included reverting Sandalphon’s ability to shapeshift as an AI which was added in the previous 2.15.0 update. This returns Sandalphon to her former throne as the strongest water healer in solo content. Furthermore, Ilia will now have access to her alchemic cartridges while under the effects of Curse of Nihility, akin to her Dragonyule variant.

On January 24 the Legend difficulty for Asura's Blinding Light was released, the third Legend difficulty Sinister Dominion fight. Of the three current Legend Sinister Dominions, Asura is easily the most straightforward. Almost all of her attacks are identical to her Master difficulty, with the one exception being that the strength-buffing orbs she summons now take different amounts of damage depending on the range of a character—blue orbs take increased damage from melee-weapon types and red orbs take increased damage from range-weapon types. The only problem is that this differentiation is only relevant at the beginning of each phase and after The Three Marks of Existence because once players have built up enough strength by destroying previous orbs, any adventurer can easily pop any orb whether it matches their weapon-range or not. All-in-all a pretty lackluster boss.

January 30 will mark the beginning of The Blood That Binds Invasion event, the last event of the month. All of Alberian royal siblings—minus one tiny eldritch abomination—are reunited and now fight for a common cause. This event will see the Alberian scions square off against a resurrected Alberius with possibly a particular focus on Phares and Valyx.

Coinciding with the new Invasion event’s release, the Gala Dragalia summon showcase for Gala Emile as well as the Trials of the Mighty mana spiral for Sarisse will drop as well. Here are the changes for Gala Sarisse:

Skill 1: Brilliant Bolt
○ additional +376.5% damage, +10% damage on extra shots (+446.5% total at max 7 buffs)
○ inflicts burn
○ gains a dispel
Skill 2: Cheerful Assist
○ gains a heal
○ readies Brilliant Bolt
○ decreased skill energy requirement by 2924
Ability 1: Sylvan Strength
○ using Skill 2 Cheerful Assist grants a strength and defense amp (Max Team Amp Level: 3) with a 20 second cooldown
Ability 2: Woodland Blessing
○ upgraded resistance to Potent variant
Ability 3: The Crimson Star
○ gains +10% attack rate when a team strength amp is present
○ gains +20% skill damage when a team defense amp is present

Gala Sarisse and Gala Emile are shaping up to have some potent team support potential as the two are capable of amping both strength and defense at a relatively fast rate. As far as how powerful these characters will end up being? We can only determine that once they've been released. Stay tuned for GamePress' official evaluation of Gala Emile in the coming days!

January 2022 was a moderately content-filled month. With a pretty major opening event in Celestial Showdown and the long awaited release of Emile at the end of the month, January's content was centered primarily at the bookends with a fairly hollow mid-month of event reruns. But it wasn't too bad all things considered because January very much was still riding on the coattails of the massive content drops in late December.

As far as the agenda for February goes, you can likely look forward to the release of our second Primal Dragon Trial with Brunhilda, Legend Difficulty Iblis' Surging Cascade, Gala Zena mana spiral, and possibly the release of Valyx and Phares (and maybe even the debut of Phares’ pactwyrm?) following the Gala Emile showcase. But until then, farewell!