Author: James

Summoners War 2020 Guide – From a list of Jargon to all the Vero Essence you need 

Summoners War is one of the first gacha RPGs on mobile. Hence, it is not surprising if new players get caught in a tangled web of complex mechanics. In fact, Reddit, the world chat, and the best Summoners War resource websites will bombard you with jargon. Thankfully, everything is worth it once you reach mid game and especially late game. 

 

If you are a new player who loves the game but is somehow overwhelmed by all the stuff the game has to offer, then this guide is for you.  

 

Introduction 

• Understand gacha to avoid frustration (you can skip this and proceed to the actual progression guide) 
• Learn the jargons, the culture, and the etiquette (you can also skip this) 

 

Your First Month 

• Get 50 friends 
• Finish scenarios to unlock content 
• Get a Faimon hell farmer 
• Get Belladeon 
• Get Veromos 
• Finish GB10 

Summoners War Jargon and Culture 

List of Important Jargon 

This is not an exhaustive list of jargon and terms. However, it can get your Summoners War knowledge up and running. 

+6 Rule – in guild war, powerful enemy summoners provide additional guild points (+3, +2, +1). The plus 6 rule means that you should only attack a total of up to +6 extra points (e.g. +3, +2, +1) 

2A – second awakened. certain 2* and 3* monsters can be second awakened by bringing them through the Dimension Hole. 

AD – arena defense, your defense monsters in the arena 

AOE – area of effect, refers to skills that can hit entire teams. 

Cleanser – a monster that can remove the debuffs of its allies. 

DB10– Dragon’s Lair 10F, aka dragon boss floor 10, your ticket for getting the best Violent, Focus, Guard, Revenge, Endure, and Shield Rune 

DOTS – damage over time, a status effect that deals 5% damage per turn 

GB10 – Giant’s Keep 10F, aka giant boss 10, your ticket for getting the best Energy, Swift, Fatal, Blade, and Despair runes 

Gz– grats, short for congrats.  

GW – guild war 

HOH – hall of heroes, a monthly dungeon that features a different 4* monster. If you finish at least 2 floors, you can get enough summoning stones to summon a copy of that monster. 

Ignore Def – a skill that does not take a target’s def into account in damage calculations. 

Lab – labyrinth, a guild content where you will explore a randomized labyrinth with your guild. The goal of the Lab is to find and kill Tartarus. You’ll get hefty rewards for participating alone. 

LD – light and dark monsters. These are monsters that can only be summoned using light and dark scrolls. Light and Dark scrolls are extremely rare and have lower pull rates. It’s most likely that you have consumed your luck for the rest of the year if you manage to get an LD nat4 or nat5 monster. 

Lightning – when you manage to summon a 4* or 5* monster, the summoning circle plays a lighting particle effect. Hence, 4* and 5* summons are called lightnings. 

MS – mystical scroll, a scroll that lets you summon 3* monsters and above. 

Nat5 – a monster with natural 5 stars even without evolution. These are top tier mons with unique skills. Nat5 pull rate is 0.05% per mystical scroll. 

Nuke – a monster with an extremely powerful attack stat/skill.  

RTA – real-time arena, a PVP mode with pick-and-ban. 

SD – secret dungeon, a dungeon that appears by chance when farming elemental essence in the Cairos dungeon. This is the perfect opportunity to farm fusion materials.  

Speed Tuning – monsters fill up their ATB first depending on their speed. There’s no such thing as “pass” that will help you organize the turns of your monsters. Hence, their speed stats should be in tune so that you can execute your combo properly. For instance, you may want your stripper to move first before your debuffer so that immunity won’t be a problem. 

Stripper – a monster that can remove enemy buffs. 

TOA – Tower of Ascension, a 100F content full of generous rewards. TOA resets every month. 

TOAH – Tower of Ascension Hard 

TOAN – Tower of Ascension Normal  

Trash Waves – the waves of monsters before a dungeon boss. 

 

Culture and Etiquette 

Secret Dungeons 

Secret Dungeons provide an opportunity to get fodder monsters and useful monsters like Belladeon, Kro and Loren. As a bonus, it is the perfect chance to become generous and help beginners.  

Chances are, you’ll meet people saying “lf bella sd” and “lf loren sd” during Sundays. In fact, you’ll likely do the same if you know what those nat 3 monsters can do. 

A rare photo of someone who sa 

 

Secret dungeons are shared with your friends. Hence, it will be generous to add people who are looking for the dungeons they need. As a bonus, you will also get summoning pieces when they enter your dungeon!  

If you discover interesting SDs, you should head to channel 1050 (the de facto SD channel) and ask around if anyone needs the SD you have. Likewise, it is a good idea to head to 1050 if you are looking for a specific SD. Remember not to spam the channel, otherwise people will miss those who are offering SDs. 

 

Lastly, it will be great if you will not be one of those pricks who ask people to Go FiNd YoUr OwN sD. After all, Com2us designed SDs to be shared. 

 

Guild Content 

 

If you have seen guild ads in the global chat, you have likely seen the phrase “+6 rule”. Let me repeat what I wrote in the jargon section: 

+6 Rule – in guild war, powerful enemy summoners provide additional guild points (+3, +2, +1). The plus 6 rule means that you should only attack a total of up to +6 extra points (e.g. +3, +2, +1) 

Don’t be a dicchead and hog all those extra guild points unless you are a farming guild that does not enforce that rule. Further, you should try to target opponents that are equal to or above your level. This way, even your low level guildies can participate. 

You should also take note that you should prioritize attacking enemies with higher hp bars unless you are in a farming guild. This is because attacking an enemy with a low hp bar will have a diminished effect (50% reduction at first win, 25% at second, etc). 

 

Labyrinth 

As for the labyrinth, all you have to remember is that you should choose the tile you attack smartly. Keep in mind that the bosses will only appear on large tiles, so it is a good idea to path towards these tiles to discover the bosses early. 

 

Rep Trades 

Most of the time, players choose monsters that can solo clear Faimon Hell or further. This is because if you use a friend rep instead of your own monster to level up your fodders, all the xp you will get will be divided into your fodders. 

If you set a Faimon farmer like Lapis as your rep, then you can go and “trade reps” with high-level people to get a roster of up to 50 farming reps. 

Do take note that there are people who will go like “eew Lapis”, but hey. It’s a game and there will always be people with a false sense of superiority (though their 20 second Faimon clear times are indeed superior to what Lapis can do). 

 

 

Summoners War as a Gacha Game

If you understand what a gacha game is, then you can skip to the next section. Otherwise, I suggest that you read this section to avoid future frustration. 

Gacha games are games where players draw units from a fixed pool of units. Thus, there’s no guarantee of what units you will get. Thankfully, Com2us does a really great job of keeping the units balanced. In fact, even common monsters can outshine LND nat 5s in certain parts of the game. This is true even in PVP where monster synergy matters more than their rarity. 

The Gacha nature of Summoners War provides a unique game dynamic that you’ll either worship or curse. Personally, I love the fact that each player has a unique set of units. They have to be creative with what units they have and what runes they get. It’s perfect if you love managing resources. In addition, this makes PVP extremely dynamic as you’ll encounter different units formed from whatever pool the player has. 

Unfortunately, we can’t deny that the ever-present RNGod is there to be fickle. It will be easy to breeze through the early game if you manage to pull an early game monster. Likewise, there’s also a chance that you’ll pull a late-game unit on the early game. In my case, I pulled a Chiwu early. He’s a stripper that won’t help me progress much, so I had to let him collect dust in my storage until I can finally do PVP. 

 

Will I Eventually Get all the monsters? 

Well, sure! Then, you can tell us about your plans for the game because you are most likely the CEO of Com2us. Jokes aside, it is objectively impossible to collect all monsters even if you spend tons of cash. 

LND scrolls are expensive and hard to come by. In addition, there’s only a 6% chance to get LND nat 4 and a 0.03% chance to get an LND nat 5. Throw in the fact that F2P players will only get 2-5 LND scrolls a month and you know that a complete LND collection is none but a dream. 

On the bright side, it is realistic to collect all non-LND 4* monsters in the game. They have an 8% chance to appear in every mystical scroll, so you’ll likely get 8 for every 100 summons. For reference, you can get 11 ms for 750 crystals. Early game players will get tons of free stuff from the challenges and account level-up rewards with a total of 1150 crystals and 7 mystical scrolls. Since there’s always an ongoing event that is easy to do even for beginners, it’s easy to rack up 30 or more summons before you even hit the max account level, summoning at least 2 nat4 monsters on average. Mid to late game players have even more resources, so they have more chances of pulling nat 4 monsters. 

After 1 or 2 years, you’ll have most of the useful nat 4 monsters like Galleon, Lushen, Chasun, and Tyron. If you are somehow not lucky enough to get them, Com2us occasionally runs events where you can pick a 4* monster!  

In a nutshell, 0.05% and 8% may be small numbers, but if you manage to summon 600 times in a year, you’ll most likely have 3 nat 5 monsters and 48 nat4 monsters, not counting what you will get from Legendary scrolls, Summoning Stones, and HOH. 

P.s. If you do all the events, 600 summons a year is realistic. 

 

 

THE ACTUAL PROGRESSION GUIDE 

Do take note that with the exception of Veromons and GB10, you can work on the Goals on this guide without a specific order. If you go full tunnel-vision mode and focus on a single goal, you’ll find yourself quitting early as RNG hampers your way.  

 

The Dynamics  

Your progression in summoners war will be determined by the runes and monsters you possess. Both these factors tend to be the hard cap to what you can achieve. For instance, you’ll need to have both the right monsters and progressively powerful runes to clear the upper floors of the Giant’s Keep. 

Notice the emphasis on the “right” monsters instead of saying “powerful monsters”. This is because Summoners War is all about having the right tools for the job. As a result, you’ll constantly find yourself looking for Secret Dungeons, farming runes, and farming materials to awaken and evolve your useful monsters. Specifically, you’ll prioritize fusing Veromos and progressing through the Giant’s Keep so that you’ll have access to a versatile LND nat5 monster and powerful runes to fuel your progression. 

 

Resource Management 

As a beginner, you’ll get tons of rewards and experience points from achievements and challenges. Before, you will have to empty your energy and arena wings before you claim the rewards. This is because you will likely level up from the exp you will get from the achievements and will get a free energy recharge in the process. If your energy is full, the recharge is wasted! Thankfully, the energy recharge will now stack above what energy you have, 

 

Goal 1: GET 50 FRIENDS AND 5 MENTORS 

Chances are, few people will add you if you do not have a good rep monster. Your best bet is to join a guild and look for people to help you. However, feel free to ask around the global chat. A courteous way to do so is to ask people before you send them a friend request. 

Once you have a fully awakened 6 star Lapis, it will be easier to add friends because Lapis is a valid Faimon Hell Farmer. In the meantime, you can ask around and look for mentors. People are more willing to accept mentor requests because they can get free energy if you use their rep and because they can’t use your rep anyway. 

 

GOAL 2: FINISH SCENARIO TO UNLOCK CONTENT 

The scenario offers tons of rewards that will help speed up your early game progression. The most interesting rewards include the water magics knight and the rune tickets. Don’t be pressured about what runes you’ll get because you’ll trash these runes once you can finish Giant’s Keep floor 10. 

 

 

Scenario	Reward
Garen Forest	Elven Ranger (Light) x1
Mt. Siz	Magic Knight (Water) x1
Kabir Ruins	3* Magic Energy Rune x6
Mt. White Ragon	Mana Stone(s) x30000 + Energy x30
Telain Forest	3* Magic Blade Rune x6
Hydeni Ruins	2* Rainbowmon x2
Tamor Desert	4* Rare Fatal Rune x6
Vrofagus Ruins	Energy x100 + EXP Booster 1 day(s) x1
Faimon Volcano	Scroll of Light & Darkness x1
Aiden Forest	5* Hero Rune Ticket x1 (choose between Energy, Fatal, Blade x6)
Ferun Castle	King Angelmon x3 (Water, Fire, Wind)
Mt. Runar	Summoning Stones x100
Chiruka Remains	5* Hero Rune Ticket x1 (choose between Energy, Fatal, or Blade x6)

 

Eventually, you can clear Chiruka Remains in Normal mode and get that tasty 6* vampire and revenge set, but you’ll probably need the help of some of your friends for this. 

 

Do take note that you can’t just breeze through the scenario as a beginner. Depending on RNG, there will come a point when you’ll find it hard to finish a level by yourself. Once you reach this point, you can switch to farming the giant’s keep and look for decent runes. As a reference, 4 star runes are good enough to finish Faimon in hell mode if you have a full line-up of monsters. When you get stuck, just rinse and repeat, or just use your friend reps to breeze through the levels. Take note, however, that you’ll eventually have to be able to solo Faimon Hell mode. 

 

As for your lineup, here is my suggestion: 

• Lapis, Water Magic Knight – you can get her from finishing Mt. Siz 
• Shannon, Wind Pixie – you can get her from viewing the strategy info of Giant’s Keep. Head to the challenges and claim her. Shannon is a great 2* support monster that will be helpful all the way to GB10 and TOA. Your main interest here is her AOE debuff that causes enemies to glance and her AOE buff that will boost both attack and defense of your monsters. 
• Bernard, Wind Griffon – after GB3, you can head over to the challenges to claim him. His AOE attack bar boos and speed  buff will let your team run around your enemies in circles. 

• Belladeon, Light Inugami – you can get from Bella from her SD (more on that later). Unfortunately, it may be tough to find and farm her SD as a beginner. However, her AOE heal and attack bar boost will come in handy when clearing the scenario. Throw in single target def break and strip and you know you have a Swiss Army Knife on your team. 
• Theon, Light Garuda – if you can’t farm Bella, Theon will temporarily do. He’s one of the first mons you’ll get and is a decent reviver and ATB recharge will come in handy. 
• Konamiya, Water Garuda – another placeholder for bella. His AOE cleanse and ATB recharge will come in handy if you’re doing things the manual way. You’ll get him from the challenges when you clear the third floor of the Hall of Fire. he’ll be useful later in other PVE contents of the game. 
•  Colleen, Fire Harpu – yet another Bella placeholder. Her AOE heal and atk buff will help you clear waves faster and safer. You can get her as a reward from the challenges if you clear the third floor of the Hall of Wind. She’ll be useful later in other PVE contents of the game. She will likely even be on your first Raid team. 

 

As you reach the latter half of Faimon Volcano, you’ll find it hard to win with a subpar Lapis and a standard team. However, you most likely have a decent roster of friends at this point, so clearing Faimon will be a breeze. 

Once you finish Chiruka Normal mode, you should check out your challenges and claim the rewards for The Mysterious Giant of the Ruins. Congrats! You just got yourself a 6* vampire-revenge set. Lapis will be thankful. 

The vamp-rev set you just got will make Lapis an effective Faimon Hell farmer. Take note, however, that you’ll eventually put her on Despair runes to become an effective crowd controller. Her farming efficiency will decrease but she’ll be more helpful in other parts of the game. 

 

GOAL 3: GET A FAIMON HELL FARMER 

A Faimon Hell Farmer will help you farm exp with ease. It will also help you get more friends and therefore more friend reps. Ultimately, this will help you farm exp for your Veromos fusion materials. 

Unless you have a Nat5 water monster like Taor or you bought a pack of Legend runes, Lapis is your best bet. Just 6*, awaken, and rune her with the vamp-rev runes you’ll get from finishing Faimon Normal in auto and you’re good to go. Once you get your hands on the Chiruka runes, she’ll be a much better farmer. 

If you can’t solo Faimon Normal mode, farm the GB for 3* and above runes and sell anything below. This will let you save mana stones to power up your rune and finish Faimon Normal. Don’t get too attached to your runes though, you’ll trash these runes once you reach mid game. 

 

GOAL 4: GET BELLADEON 

Bella is your jack-of-all trades. She can heal, strip, and def break, making her perfect for most PVE contents and early game PVP. In fact, she’s a GB10 staple, so you should get her as soon as possible.l 

Belladeon’s SD appears when you farm the light boss, but there’s an extremely low chance for an SD to appear. Worse, you can’t guarantee what SD you’ll get. Hence, your best chance is to head over to channel 1050 and wait for people to find other people who are looking for a bella SD. Talk to them and add them. Take note, however, that you’ll likely need a lot of friend reps if you want to get bella in one day. 

Keep in mind that you should not spam channel 1050 with “LF bella sd”. You’re simply spamming the channel and reducing the chance of seeing the message of people who found a bella sd. 

  

Goal 5: Fuse Veromos (2020 Comprehensive Veromos Fusion Guide) 

Fusing Veromos is an activity that can easily burn you out. However, this LND nat 5 support monster is a vital monster for your future PVE teams. With his S1 DOTS, S2 AOE Stun, and S3 AOE passive cleanse that heals one status at a time, he’ll solve most of your PVE problems, GB10 included. Yep, Veromos looks like a boring support monster, but he’ll be a bridge for your much cooler nukers. 

I understand that tracking what monsters you have can be a headache. Hence, I compiled the list of mats and essence that you will need. 

 

Element	Monster	Where to get
Wind	Vampire	FUSION
Wind	Minotaurus	Chiruka/Challenge
Wind	Lizardman	SD
Fire	Living Armor	Ferun Castle
Water	Pixie	SD/Challenge
Water	Undine	FUSION
Water	Bearman	SD
Water	Grim Reaper	SD
Wind	Inferno	SD/Challenge
Fire	Imp	SD/Challenge
Fire	Succubus	FUSION
Fire	Beast Hunter	SD
Fire	Salamander	SD / Faimon
Water	Harpy	SD
Wind	Harpu	SD / Shop
Dark	Yeti	SD

 

 

Element	High	Mid	Low
Water	10	65	50
Wind	12	65	40
Fire	10	50	60
Dark	0	1	15
Magic	20	132	110

 

Goal 6:  Finish GB10 

Finally! The long awaited GB10! After you fuse Veromos, acquire Bella, and get decent runes, you can finally finish GB10. I can’t give you the exact rune requirements, but I can guarantee that this lineup will work if you have the right runes: 

 

The Mechanics 

The Giant Boss counter attacks every 7 times you hit him. Thus, multi-hit monsters like Lapis will be a liability here. In addition to this quirk, his support towers will also give you def break while buffing the attack of the boss. With this combination, the boss can one-shot your team.  

• Veromos – AOE stun to help survive trash waves (the waves before the boss). The DOTS from his S1 will also let you take away chunks of the GB’s hp. The best part here is Veromos will remove the def break debuff every turn, so the boss can’t one shot your monsters.
• Belladeon – he will be your main healer. He will also def break the boss while also removing the attack buff. Hence, he will be your insurance policy. 
• Bernard – bernard will help you run around the boss in circles. As a bonus, his Atk and Def Break debuffs will soften the boss both in attack and defense. 
• Shannon – her support buffs will further buff up your team. In addition, her AOE speed debuff drastically slows down the boss and the towers, letting you get even more turns. Last but not the least, her glancing hit debuff will further soften the offense of the boss. 
• Any support/offense – any non-fire can fill this slot as long as that monster has a useful utility. It can be a back-up healer, reviver, or even a nuker or dotter. Personally, I managed to pull Orochi before I hit GB10, letting me shower the boss with love and 6 instances of DOTs. Ouch! 
• One farmable monster you can use is Ahman, the light bearman. You can farm him via SD. He’ll provide you with tons of heal with his passive, but his provoke won’t be useful at all. 
• Another useful farmable monster is Darion, the light vagabond. He offers similar debuffs as bernard in addition to his damage reduction passive. You can farm him via SD. 
• Theon and Konamiya are great choices as well but will have higher rune requirements. 

If you want to continue your progress even when you are on PC, you can still play  Summoners War on PC.