Blue Archive is Nexon’s school-city tactical RPG where you command squads of students in semi-auto 3D battles, trigger cut-in EX skills, and build teams around damage types, armor, and terrain. If you want a Blue Archive that clicks from day one — who to pull, how to build a 4+2 squad, and how to save Pyroxene for the banners that actually matter — this is your 2026 starting point.
Note: Verified September 18, 2026 against the Miraheze Blue Archive Wiki (
Characters,Recruitment (Gacha)) and GameWith Blue Archive. Current meta and gacha data reflect the post-5.5 Anniversary (July 2026) Recruitment Charge system.
What Blue Archive Is (and Isn’t)
You are Sensei, leading Schale’s students across Kivotos. Each operation is a 3D semi-auto squad battle on cover, Urban/Outdoor/Indoor terrain: your Striker squad moves and shoots on its own, you decide when to fire each student’s EX skill, time Specials from the backline, and manage cost and positioning. Outside combat you are in the scheduler — Cafe, Schedule, Tasks, Crafting, Shop, Affection (bond) — and every system feeds back into how fast your students scale.
Striker vs Special is the first filter. A Strikers (frontline, 4 slots) actually stand on the field, take hits, use cover (Yes/No on the wiki), and care about terrain adaption (S/A/B/C/D for Urban/Outdoor/Indoor). Specials (backline, 2 slots) cast from off-field and never take direct damage — that’s why your best buffer often lives there. Inside each you then filter by Role (Tank / Attacker / Healer / Support / Tactical Support) and Position (Front / Middle / Back).
Damage Types, Armor, and Why Matching Wins
Every student has a fixed Attack Type and every enemy has an Armor Type. The game applies a type-effectiveness multiplier, so matching is not optional on hard content like Total Assault and Grand Assault. Since 2024 there are five attack types, not three:
| Attack Type | Icon | Strong Into | Example Students |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penetration (yellow) | ● | Heavy armor | Aris, Azusa, Mika |
| Explosive (red) | ● | Light armor | Hina, Iroha, Hoshino |
| Mystic (blue) | ● | Heavy / Special | Aris (alt), Seia, Saya |
| Sonic (purple) | ● | Elastic / Heavy | Satsuki (Swimsuit), Kisaki (Swimsuit) |
| Normal | ● | None (neutral) | Starter Serika, Nonomi |
Armor types are Light / Heavy / Special / Elastic / Composite. Check the stage banner before you queue — the wiki’s Characters table now shows Attack Type, Armor Type, Combat Class, Weapon Type and cover at a glance, so you can see at a glance whether Aris (Penetration/Special) or Hina (Explosive/Light) is the right call.
Rule of thumb: build one team per type, not one team for everything. Your piercing squad wipes Heavy, your Explosive squad handles Light, Mystic covers Special — Sonic picks like Satsuki (Swimsuit, Healer/Middle/Sonic/Elastic/Striker) fill the newer Elastic-heavy raids.
Best Students Tier List — September 2026
Tier lists shift every banner. This one is dated September 18, 2026, post-5.5 Anniversary, and assumes you are building for Global. Limited and Anniversary units are flagged.
| Tier | Students (role + note) |
|---|---|
| S — Must pull / craft around | Mika (Anniversary, Attacker/Front/Explosive/Light, SG) — fest-level burst; Ako (Support/Back/Sonic, Special, HG) — best single-target buffer, raid staple; Iroha (Swimsuit) (Anniversary, Attacker/Middle/Explosive/Special, HG) — fest AoE; Aris (Attacker, Penetration/Special, SR) — piercing core |
| A — Top sub / flex | Azusa, Shiroko (Terror), Hoshino (Battle), Wakamo, Ui (Special/Back/Penetration, energy loop), Hibiki (Support/Back/Explosive) |
| B — Strong where they fit | Yuuka, Tsubaki, Hasumi (Swimsuit), Seia (Swimsuit), Satsuki (Swimsuit) — Sonic healer meta pick, Hifumi, Hoshino, Karin (Bunny) |
| C — Starters / early | Serika, Ayane, Nonomi — you own them, they clear story, replace once you pull an S/A |
By damage type (so you cover the chart):
| Damage Type | Best picks (Sept 2026) |
|---|---|
| Penetration | Aris, Azusa, Mika, Toki |
| Explosive | Hina, Iroha (Swimsuit), Hoshino (Battle), Mutsuki (Dress) |
| Mystic | Mika (Swimsuit), Seia (Swimsuit), Rio |
| Sonic | Satsuki (Swimsuit), Kisaki (Swimsuit), Shun (Swimsuit) |
Support picks that win raids: Ako (single-target ATK+crit buff is the reason she is S), Ui (low-cost EX feeds cost for Himari-style loops — pair Ako 3-cost + Ui 3-cost to spam), Himari (Battle) (Tactical Support/Back/Penetration, HG, anniversary-tier buff). Use them in Special slots so they never compete with your Strikers for cover.
Fest vs Limited: Anniversary/Fes units (Mika, Wakamo, Aris fest alts) sit at 6% combined 3★ rate on their banner (0.7% featured + 0.9% shared among other anniversaries + 4.4% off-rate) and only rerun ~18 months later. Regular limiteds (Swimsuit, Dress) rerun faster via Encore. Don’t confuse base Hina (permanent) with Dress Hina (limited).
Team Building — The Standard 4 Strikers + 2 Specials
The game forces 4 Striker + 2 Special. Striker order is not cosmetic — Front tanks eat the first shots, Back DPS stay in cover longer.
| Position | What to play | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Striker 1 | Tank — Front, uses cover Yes | Hoshino (Battle, SG, Front/Explosive/Light), Yuuka (SMG, Front) |
| Striker 2 | Main DPS — your damage-type answer | Aris (Penetration), Hina (Explosive), Satsuki (Swimsuit, Sonic) |
| Striker 3 | Sub-DPS / flex | Match terrain or second type |
| Striker 4 | Flex attacker — often another DPS or Support-Striker | Shiroko, Toki |
| Special 1 | Buffer — never takes hits | Ako (ATK+crit), Himari |
| Special 2 | Healer or second buffer | Ui (energy), Hibiki (AoE support) |
Terrain before stats. A DPS with Outdoor S will out-damage a higher-rarity Outdoor D on an Outdoor map, even if the D has better base ATK. Check Urban/Outdoor/Indoor on the Characters page before you lock the squad.
A real early comp that works: Hoshino (Tank/Front) + Aris (Penetration DPS) + Shiroko (flex) + Shun (Mid/Sonic/Light) in Strikers, Ako + Ui in Specials. Ako buffs Aris, Ui feeds cost so you EX every 8-10s instead of 14s.
Progression That Actually Sticks
Who to level first
- Your main DPS to 60-70 — levels add raw ATK and EX scaling; a Lv70 Aris beats a Lv60 team.
- Your Front tank to 50-60 — enough to not die before second EX cycle.
- Your Special buffers last for raw levels — Ako’s buff % scales less with level than DPS ATK; raising her from 40 to 70 helps, but not before your DPS is done.
- Bond + Favor gifts in parallel — gifts raise Affection which raises base stats passively. Gifts are free via Cafe and schedule; never sell them.
Gear — T1 to T9 and then Unique Equipment
Every student has 3 gear slots (hat, gloves, shoes) from T1 to T9. You farm each piece from Campaign missions (Normal for early tiers, Hard for late). Story-clear teams can farm T3-T4 day one; T7+ needs Hard stage unlocks.
At T8/T9 cap you unlock Unique Equipment (UE) and later UE50 — this is the real 2026 endgame, not “T9 and done.” Weapon > gloves > shoes for DPS; reverse for tanks (shoes/gloves give survivability).
Skills — Tech Notes and Blu-rays by name
Mystery “skill books” are actually Tech Notes / Advanced Tech Notes / Superior Tech Notes and Tactical Training Blu-ray (you spend them in the Skills menu). Priority:
- EX skill (the cut-in) to 3-4 first — your biggest damage jump.
- Normal/ Passive to 6-7 — flat team buffs.
- Sub skill last — nice but not run-defining. Check the wiki’s
Unique weaponsandUnique gearlists before you spend Superior Blu-rays on a bench unit.
Pyroxene Farm — Premium Currency, Honest Numbers
Pyroxene is the freemium currency. One roll is 120 Pyroxene, ten is 1200 (10th is guaranteed 2★ or better). 3★ rate is 3%, rate-up is 0.7% on their banner. Duplicates give Eligma (1/10/50 for 1★/2★/3★) and Eleph for that student (1/5/30, rate-up 20/100 for 2★/3★).
Where it actually comes from
| Source | Pyroxene |
|---|---|
| Daily Tasks (missions + Tactical Challenge etc.) | ~20-30/day base + bonus via dailies that refresh |
| Weekly Tasks | ~100/week |
| Campaign Normal/Hard first-clear | one-time per stage (big early chunk, then done) |
| Total Assault / Grand Assault / Joint Firing Drill | per-season ranking rewards (varies, the biggest weekly income for active raiders) |
| Events (2-week events, e.g., Summer Sky’s Promise 09/09-09/23 now) | 600-900 per event on clear + missions |
| Commissions / Bounty 2× day | not Pyroxene directly but fuels gear so you can clear the modes that pay it |
| Maintenance compensation | varies (often 120-600 per extended maintenance) |
Daily “20” alone is low — real daily income with Cafe + Schedule + Tasks is closer to 50-70 once you clear early Missions.
Banner math that saves you
- Spark was 200 Recruitment Points until July 2026. Since 5.5 Anniversary (July 2026, live on JP now, coming to Global) the system is Recruitment Charge: at 100 Charge you are guaranteed a 3★ with 50% rate-up, at 200 Charge you are guaranteed the banner unit. Two separate Charge pools (normal vs Limited/Anniversary). Charge persists after banner ends and resets only when you actually pull the rate-up. This replaces the old points — if you are on Global, you still see the classic 200 spark; know that the JP change is inbound.
- Fest / Anniversary banners are best value: 6% combined 3★ rate (double the normal 3%) — save for them. Regular Dress/Swimsuit limiteds are good but rerun sooner via Encore, so less urgent.
- Archive Recruitment (July 2025 JP / Sept 2025 Global) lets you pick a legacy permanent unit with Archive Tickets or Pyroxene and sits on its own point pool — Hina/Aru/Aris/Hoshino/Shiroko etc. are in there, removed from the normal pool.
- Don’t spark regular. Save Spark/Charge for Fest where the doubled rate stretches the same Pyroxene furthest.
Essential Tips (Blue Archive-specific)
- Do Schedule + Cafe + Tasks before you spend Pyroxene. Those three are your daily engine; missing them loses more than a single 10-pull ever gains.
- Build one damage-type team first. Pick the type your best DPS uses (e.g., Aris = Penetration) and farm that team’s T6-T7 before you start a second type.
- Join a club (guild) on day 3. Total Assault rewards are club-based; even a casual club beats solo for weekly Pyroxene and Eligma.
- Farm gear on 2× Normal/Hard events. Bonus drops double your T1-T9 clear speed; outside 2×, save AP for event currencies.
- Read the Chasing the Clouds quest. “Where do I get legendary items in LOTRO” style queries don’t exist here — Blue Archive’s progression is its story and Affection. The writing is the retention mechanic, not a side.
FAQ
How much does a 10-pull cost in Blue Archive?
120 Pyroxene per roll, 1200 for ten. The 10th pull of a 10-roll is guaranteed 2★ or better, but 3★ rate stays 3%. Fest banners double the effective 3★ rate to 6%.
What is Sonic damage in Blue Archive?
The fifth attack type added post-2024 alongside Penetration, Explosive and Mystic. Sonic is strong into Elastic and Heavy armor on the current raid rotation. Satsuki (Swimsuit) is a popular Sonic example.
Who are the best students to pull in 2026?
For Global in September 2026: Ako (buffer), Aris and Mika (Penetration carries), Hina and Iroha (Swimsuit) for Explosive, plus a Sonic flex like Satsuki (Swimsuit) or Kisaki (Swimsuit). Anniversary Fes units rerun only every ~18 months.
How do I spark/limit-break a banner student?
On Global, classic spark is 200 Recruitment Points on that banner’s pool. On JP since 5.5 Anniversary, Recruitment Charge guarantees a 3★ at 100 and the rate-up at 200, with two pools (normal vs Limited/Anniversary). Use Archive for old permanents and Encore/Recollection for legacy limiteds.
Do I need Sonic for early story?
No. Early Kivotos missions are forgiving on type. Sonic only matters once you push Total Assault Joint Firing Drill and late Hard stages where Elastic shows up.
Blue Archive rewards planning, not pulling. Build one typed 4+2 around a real DPS, let Ako/Ui stretch your cost curve, save Pyroxene for fest where 1200 buys twice the 3★ chance, and let the Cafe/Schedule/Club loop do the slow compounding while you enjoy the story that actually makes this gacha stick.
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