Symphogear XD starter guide

The long awaited mobile phone game will finally be released tomorrow. If you've ever played a Japanese mobage then it shouldn't be hard to understand. However for those of you who don't understand the game mechanics and want help navigating the menus I've put together this little guide.  

The basic goal of the game is to collect character cards and form a team of 3 characters to use in quests or against other players in the battle arena. The combat system runs automatically and the only input required from players is the use of character's “Signature Skills” and switching songs to control the boosts that your characters get. There are 2 types of cards to collect: Symphogear Cards and Memoria Cards. Each type has various rarities from 1 star to 5 star (with 5 being the rarest).

Symphogear Cards only feature the main playable characters: Hibiki, Tsubasa, Chris, Maria, Shirabe, Kirika, Kanade, Serena and Miku. The Symphogear Cards feature different gears which change the character's in-game sprites depending on which you use. Each card has a leader skill, passive skill, and two “Signature Skill” attacks that are used in battle. Each card also has 3 base stats: HP, ATK and DEF. The cards are divide into 7 different types:

Strength (力)     STR (red)

Intelligence (知) INT (blue)

Physical (体)       PHY (pink)

Technique (技)      TEQ (yellow)

Spirit (心)              SPR (orange)

Dexterity (巧)      DEX (green)

Extreme (怒)       EXT (Silver)

There is a hierarchy where each type has resistance and weakness to others, which changes the amount of damage they do in battle. Right now the entire system is not known, but from what's been shown we know that DEX > SPR, INT > STR and TEQ > SPR. The only exception is EXT types, which are effective and weak against everything.

Memoria Cards are support cards that can be equipped to characters to boost their stats or give them additional effects. 5 star Memoria Cards also unlock side quests that explore “what-if” scenarios in the Symphogear universe. Memoria Cards can feature any character, including villains. To collect the cards you have to use the gacha, where both Symphogear and Memoria cards are randomly distributed by spending “Song Stones” which you can buy with real money from the in-game shop but are also obtainable through in-game rewards via missions or quests.

Once you have a team set-up, you can embark on quests to play the game. In order to do this you need Action Points (AP) which you start with a set amount and gain more as you raise your player level. When you spend AP to go on a quest it will regenerate at a set amount per x amount of time. For example, 1 AP for every 3 minutes.

Okay, that's the basic overview of how things work. Now let's get into the finer details. Once the game actually releases I am planning to put together something a bit more solid, but for right now I have translated the menus from the preview builds they have shown so far to help give everyone a place to start.

This is the main menu. From here let's go to the Quests page.

From here you can chose to play through Main Quests (which cover the story), Event Quests, Side Quests and Item Quests.

The Main Quests are sub-divided by season.

This is the quest select screen. From here you can see available item drops and enemies you will face. By clearing a quest 5 times you can get a free Song Stone. As you complete quests you unlock new ones and progress through the story.

This is the preparation screen. You can form and adjust your team before you embark on a quest. The character on the far left is the leader, and on the far right is your friend unit. Both of these character's skills are displayed at the top. You can change the character in your team by tapping them and selecting another. You can fill the space below each character with Memoria Cards. You can also change which song to equip.

This is the song selection screen. 

This is the Memoria Card selection screen. You can tap a card to check the boost it gives.

Here's an example of a a Memoria Card. When equipped to a character it gives them a boost in HP, ATK and DEF as well as giving them a passive skill. 

This is the Card menu screen. You can improve your cards in various ways.

The first method is enhancement. You can use other character cards, or music sheets, as material to raise the exp of a selected card and max out its stats. You get more exp for materials of a matching type, for example if you are enhancing a STR card then you want to use STR materials. There is a chance for an extra bonus if the result is very successful.

This is the material selection screen. The music sheets are available in 8 different types, 7 of them matching the character types mentioned earlier and 1 extra type that gives extra exp to any type (全).

The next method of improving your cards is awakening. To awaken a card you need to collect the necessary crystals from item quests. A card can be awakened a total of 5 times until it is fully awakened and the card art changes.

The last method of getting stronger cards is by performing a limit break. Doing this will raise the max level of the card allowing you to enhance it further. You can only do a limit break by using a duplicate of the same card as the material.

This is the Musicbox screen. You can scroll through the available songs and check what characters they can be used by and what effects they have. You can also enhance them by spending gold you've collected from quests or missions.

You can enhance a song to improve its effect in battle. When you enhance a song there is a chance of failure.

Finally, this is the battle screen. At the bottom you can see all the available commands that can be used in the game. The hexagonal buttons underneath each character are their two “Signature Skill.” There are 2 types, Direct (orange) and Special (purple). You can activate them at any time, but once you've used one they require a cool down before they can be used again. You can pre-select up to 3 in advance. Or you can let the game do everything automatically by hitting the “skill auto” button.

The only other thing that can be done during battle is switching the active singer. The character with the word “SING” above their portrait is the current singer, and by selecting another character portrait you can change the song and activate the effect on your entire team. There is a 70 second cool down before the singer can be changed again.

And that's about everything. As more details come out I will be making more posts and maybe even some videos to go over strategies and other possible features that haven't been covered in the preview videos we've been shown so far. Enjoy playing Symphogear X-Drive Unlimited!