Blue Archive presents a military-stylized worldview featuring cute live 2D female chibi characters that are trained to combat head-to-head. As the advisor to the Federal Investigation Club, you’re tasked with recruiting talented girls from different Clubs who have potential to counter terrorism activities happening around the beautiful heartland of Kivotos. In this beginner’s guide, we will be explaining about the basic gameplay mechanics and elements that are crucial for new players to understand. Let’s start!

What is Sensei Level?

This is your account’s primary level, and it also establishes the maximum level that your characters may attain. For example, if your Sensei is level 50, then your characters can only advance to level 50. Action Points, which are essentially Stamina, can be used to increase Sensei level. Action points replenish at a rate of one AP every six to eight minutes. Just a beginner tip, Sensei level can be leveled up anywhere by utilizing AP since experience has a 1:1 conversion rate. 

Understanding the Combat Mechanics of Blue Archive

Blue Archive presents a real-time top-down combat system wherein you can take up to 5 heroes in battle. Each character is unique in their own right, and has access to different active and passive abilities. Further, each character is assigned a basic role that they excel at. Forming a balanced team is key to winning battles and progressing through the main story mode. 

Blue Archive Beginner's Guide – Progress as you Play

The entirety of the battles are automated with little to no room for manual intervention. As the game forces a more Idle stylized gameplay, your characters will attack on their own. However, you can choose when you want to trigger their ultimate abilities as well as decide the area where it can be casted by dragging the ability. 

The Campaign Missions

Here, you can view the game’s main gameplay as well as all of its available content. There are missions throughout the campaign. This is where the major plot of the game takes place, and you can advance through it by finishing the different stages. Each mission stage has two difficulties: Normal and Hard. Normal difficulty is used to advance the story, while Hard stages award Character Elephs. Character Elephs are used to unlock characters and Mystic, which is akin to a character’s ascent. 

The game does a great job at telling you about the enemy heroes/line-ups/formations. You can preview it before forming a line-up to combat the mission. Further, each stage has 3 different missions/objectives that you need to fulfill in order to earn some extra rewards such as Pyroxenes. These objectives are quite simple – win the match, acquire S rank x times, and clear stage within x turns. 

Synergy is Key to Victory

It is strongly advised that you review the lineup prior to the match so that you can better plan how to oppose them. Similar to your characters, adversaries now have two sorts of attributes: attack and armor. The game now features a system that relates attack and defensive efficiency; the chart below explains this relationship. We have formed a table to highlight the different synergies between different roles of characters:

TYPE NORMAL EXPLOSIVE PIERCING MYSTIC SIEGE
Light Normal Weak Resist Normal Resist
Normal Normal Normal Weak Resist Resist
Heavy Normal Resist Normal Weak Resist
Structure Resist Resist Resist Resist Weak

Blue Archive Beginner's Guide – Progress as you Play

In the table above, normal means the damage does not get reduced or enhanced in any way, shape, or form. Resist means that the damage will get reduced by 50% against any type of attack used by the enemy. Weak means that your damage will be enhanced by 50% against the type of enemy. You can take help from this table to structure your line-up in a way to counter the type of enemies coming in the stage. 

Blue Archive: Upgrading your Characters

Leveling up a Student is the simplest way to give them an upgrade. Of course, the base rarity of the Student also determines how strong they are, and whether you should invest your resources into them. Character level is limited to your Sensei level/account level, therefore it cannot be higher than your account level. Activity reports are the currency utilized to gain more experience. There are four primary categories of activity reports: Novice, Normal, Advanced, and Superior. Producing an Activity Report is most effectively done by farming the Base Defense Stages provided by the Commissions.

Blue Archive Beginner's Guide – Progress as you Play

What are Character Skills?

Aside from equipment and team synergy, skills are a major factor in determining a character’s capacity for damage. The four types of skills that any character in the game can possess are Normal skill, Passive skill, EX skill, and Sub skill. The standard 1-star base rating grants access to Normal and EX skills, while 2 stars and 3 stars, respectively, unlock Passive and Sub skills.

Blue Archive Beginner's Guide – Progress as you Play

Using MomoTalk to Your Advantage

By mingling with different pupils in the cafeteria or during lessons, you can strengthen your ties with them. You can use MomoTalk to connect with them and get to know them better as your relationship develops. You can even access L2Ds of different characters to view them in the main lobby once you’ve reached a certain rank.

Blue Archive Beginner's Guide – Progress as you Play

Playing Blue Archive on a bigger screen of your PC with BlueStacks without worrying about battery drainage and smooth gameplay is highly recommended.