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Getting to Diamond: Counting to Ten

Brother Null

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You need ten fighters to beat a Rift map. Ten.

Ten solid, capable carries with a developed moveset and a killer finishing combo. Ten fighters that you are comfortable driving against all manner of opponents. Ten.

Let's get some obvious things out of the way here. We are talking about Diamond ranking, so there will only ever be 200 of us in total. 200 of the best players in the game. If you do not have ten fighters, you are welcome to reuse your best but you will not be joining us at Diamond; you simply do not have the velocity to get here.

If you are using gold fighters in your top ten, you will likely not be joining us. If you are using fighters that do not have their marquees, you will likely not be joining us. If you are using silver moves, then...you get the idea.

Diamond rank is the very top of Rifts. Diamond players have team velocities that exceed all measure of expectation. Getting here is a test of will, of determination, and of character. Getting here requires *planning*.

And so, let's plan. You need ten fighters. You will want more, but lets focus on your ten.

Get them to Diamond. That's an obvious way to improve your Rift velocity. Better fighters = more wins, and diamond fighters are better than their Gold counterparts by level 27. Get them to Marquee. The boost to their utility varies from fighter to fighter, but there are no useless marquees and some are quite powerful. Get them kitted out with the best moves in your arsenal, and pay close attention to the move bonuses.

So, how do you pick your ten?

If you want Diamond rank, then two or three of your best fighters should be diamond, and over level 50. These are your Trio node carries: they fight at the highest levels and you can pilot them through a nest of vipers and come out smelling fresh. Your Atk% and Meter Gain should be above 30%, combined with defense, HP% and Crit rate and damage as needed. Best candidates for this role include: Bio-Exorcist, Primed, Rainbow Blight, Buzzkill, Bloodbath, Wulfsbane

Your next focus should be the "can-opener" fighters. These four or five fighters are built to solve specific problems in the meta. (You know who you are.) These fighters should be close to diamond level 40, and their build should emphasize attack and their particular specialty. Typical specializations (and good candidates) include:
Unbleedables: Bloodbath, any Val with ICU
Armor Pierce: Ultraviolent
Hex Magic: Red Velvet, Rainbow Blight
Meter Control: Toad Warrior, Regally Blonde
Heal Block: Wulfsbane, Rainbow Blight
The Buff stops here: Purrfect Dark, Doublicious, Silent Kill

There are subtleties and move-based strategies that allow for greater flexibility in your approach. Here are a few of the most important ones:

Chaos Banish is maybe the best Special move in the game. If you are not fighting with Eliza, then you do not have access to this game-breaking move. Get it, get good, and watch how easy certain fights become. Meow and Furever, Painwheel (with Grudge), Resonant Evil: all of these defensive traps fail with a well-placed Banish.

Armor is a common problem, but one of the easiest defensive strategies to work around. Armor Break can be applied with Drag n Drop (Squigly), Battle Butt (Cerebella), and Argus Agony (Peacock). If you don't have access to Ultraviolet, then Harlequin or Poltergust are pretty capable substitutes.

Finally, we have two to four fighters remaining. In these fights, we are usually looking at the early battles that have a lesser defense with little or no boost to the defenders HP and Attack. These fights can be beaten by Gold fighters, but your best tools are your your diamond defenders. My current best defender is a level 51 diamond Armed Forces Cerebella. She is a big slab of steak with a boosted HP and defense, but she is still plenty big enough to handle offensive duties for the lower Rift nodes. (We will talk about defenders in a later post, but suffice to say you will have some defensive experts on your team.)

Since you will be investing in your defense, use that investment to handle the early fights. If you build your team with this flexibility in mind, you can concentrate that work (the grinding for levels and the spending of coin) on ten fighters.: ten diamond fighters with marquee abilities and a set of five solid gold moves. So what are your ten, and where are they now?
 
My Ten (all Diamond):

Boss-level:
Lv 60 - Rainbow Blight
Lv 57 - Bio Exorcist
Lv 52 - Epic Sax

Can-Openers:
Lv 51 - Assassin's Greed
Lv 44 - Red Velvet
Lv 43 - Jawbreaker
Lv 40 - Ultraviolent

Defenders:
Lv 53 - Surgeon General
Lv 51 - Armed Forces
Lv 43 - Harlequin

Beyond this, I have a number of defenders and new projects that will keep my team fresh and flexible. But these are my ten, and they are given the highest priority for my time and coin.
 
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Great post! In the general rift discussion I just posted some screenshots of using 10 diamonds to clear a map of much higher leveled opponents. It’s extremely important to bring the right move sets to a match rather than going in a fight unprepared. If you’ve never used outtake for fights you don’t belong in diamond.

I’ll just add that certain golds are fine as golds, and there are a couple of bronze worth bringing up to gold/diamond to accompany your boss node mains. When the velocity is high, all you need is that one character to take out the boss node.
 
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I would add Xenomorph to boss-level.
Lots of people find success with Rusty as a can opener.
 
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I would add Xenomorph to boss-level.
Lots of people find success with Rusty as a can opener.

Xenomorph works well for any of the triple nodes. Mine’s not even maxed gold and still gets the job done most of the time.

I want to list variants that are accessible to everyone that can get to Gold tier. Not everyone is blessed with RNG and has access to key fighters like Surgeon General, Rainbow Blight, Xenomorph, Ultraviolent, Blood Bath, Buzzkill, Brain Freeze, Armored Force, etc. Here goes:

Boss Nodes: Silent Kill, Primed, Epic Sax, Poltergust, Bad Hair Day

Can Openers: Divine Intervention, Rusty, In Denile,Purrfect Dark, Doubolicious, Wulfsbane, Silent Kill (again!)

Defenders: Untouchable, Immoral Fiber, Resonemt Evil, Just Kitten, Twisted Metal, Raw Nerve with Grudge, Frayed Ends, Sketchy, any Valentine with Trauma Center.

Honorable Fillers: Harlequin, Claw and Order, Parasite Weave, Cold Stone, Pea Shooter, Toad Warrior, Nearly Departed.

Probably forgot some but think I got most. If you invest in the characters above they will help greatly with rift, probably enough to get to Gold 1.
 
If you’ve never used outtake for fights you don’t belong in diamond.

Agreed, and I will make Outtakes a big part of the battle tactics discussion. I could not beat Boss nodes reliably until I put Basso Buffo on Bio.

I’ll just add that certain golds are fine as golds, and there are a couple of bronze worth bringing up to gold/diamond to accompany your boss node mains. When the velocity is high, all you need is that one character to take out the boss node.

I did give gold fighters short shrift, and it is not entirely accurate to say that you must have ten diamonds - but it makes for a good rule of thumb for the Gold 1s out there, and gives them a clear target to aim for in their development.
 
I want to list variants that are accessible to everyone that can get to Gold tier. Not everyone is blessed with RNG and has access to key fighters like Surgeon General, Rainbow Blight, Xenomorph, Ultraviolent, Blood Bath, Buzzkill, Brain Freeze, Armored Force, etc.

Hm. I agree that these fighters are not essential for Gold 1, but I do maintain that if you want to get to diamond then you *need* a large number of these hard-to-get variants.

Defenders: Untouchable, Immoral Fiber, Resonemt Evil, Just Kitten, Twisted Metal, Raw Nerve with Grudge, Frayed Ends, Sketchy, any Valentine with Trauma Center.

I am going to cover defensive strategy in a later post, and I was only bringing it up in this context because your most developed defenders are likely capable of mop-up duties on offense.


Honorable Fillers: Harlequin, Claw and Order, Parasite Weave, Cold Stone, Pea Shooter, Toad Warrior, Nearly Departed.

Fillers? Harley and CnO are legit contenders! Claw and Order is an excellent can-opener, and can definitely crush Armor node with the right team. Harlequin is trickier, as she defies easy categorization. Her status as a can opener is strange, as she opens cans via punching them really hard. She can work as a defender, and with the right build she can be quite nasty to face. I am certain there are many diamond tier players who use Harley to carry through trio nodes as well. Adding to that is her obvious capability as a support fighter; Harley is the complete Rift package.
 
Hm. I agree that these fighters are not essential for Gold 1, but I do maintain that if you want to get to diamond then you *need* a large number of these hard-to-get variants.
No disagreements here!
Fillers? Harley and CnO are legit contenders! Claw and Order is an excellent can-opener, and can definitely crush Armor node with the right team. Harlequin is trickier, as she defies easy categorization. Her status as a can opener is strange, as she opens cans via punching them really hard. She can work as a defender, and with the right build she can be quite nasty to face. I am certain there are many diamond tier players who use Harley to carry through trio nodes as well. Adding to that is her obvious capability as a support fighter; Harley is the complete Rift package.
I don't have these 2 upgraded to Diamond so can't use them like the way you do. You made great points here!

Looking forward to your upcoming defensive post.