Blue Archive guide – Breakthrough Drill February 2023

It’s time for everyone’s favorite regular Blue Archive content Joint Firing Drills and this time we’re doing Breakthrough Drills.

For those who don’t know Joint Firing Drills sometimes swap places with Total Assaults as the “raid-like” content. With a different setup, and different rewards it’s a more casual and sometimes more frustrating affair than raids.

This time it’s Breakthrough Drills, meaning a well-balanced team is the key to victory. Senseis going for the highest score will appreciate that joke.

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Joint Firing Drills

Unlike Total Assaults (Raids), which only requires you to defeat the boss in three tries or less; a Joint Firing Drill requires you to have three semi-competent teams that can finish the mission in order to place on the scoreboard. Harder difficulty fights reward more points, and players receive tokens based on their score.

Breakthrough Drills

Breakthrough Drills require a well-rounded team that can do damage, but more importantly a team that can heal. Scarecrows will spawn with each wave that debuff the defense of your enemies when it’s healed up. This debuff is stronger than any defense debuff or attack buff that you can do directly so healing is vital here.

The enemies will also be dealing damage so balancing healing the Scarecrow and your frontline is the basic key to victory here.

Mechanics by Fight Level

There’s four different levels of fights for Joint Firing Drills. Not only does the difficulty get harder, but new rules and modifiers are added on levels 3 and 4.

Level 1

Indoor Warfare

Special Armor

Level 2

Indoor Warfare

Special Armor

Level 3

Indoor Warfare

Special Armor

The Scarecrow loses HP every 1 second

Level 4

Indoor Warfare

Special Armor

The Scarecrow loses HP every 1 second

Increase all allies Cost Recovery speed when you form a team with at least 1 Supporter, Attacker, Tank, Healer, and Tactical Support (T.S.)

High End Teams

The highest level of Breakthrough Drill rewards players that have a diverse array of students. Players who field a team with at least one Support, Dealer, Tank, Healer, and Tactical Support will get a massive boost to their EX skill recovery. This frees up one flex spot on your team which we suggest a second dealer for, or a frontline Support that can give out heals.

Example Team for High End

Kasuga Tsubaki (Tank): Almost any tank will do, but if you’re following the meta you probably at least have Tsubaki ready to go. With high defense but most importantly a taunt, she makes good use of the increased EX Cost Recovery by keeping the heat (and thus the heals!) off of your frontline, freeing you up to heal the Scarecrow.

Kuda Izuna (Dealer): If you’re fresh off the recent Shiro and Kuro raid, odds are you have Izuna or her Swimsuit version leveled up. Since the Joint Firing Drill this time features Special armored units, many of the Strikers from Shiro and Kuro work great here.

Waraku Chise (Dealer): The EX buff only dictates five of your units, so double dip on a Dealer if you have a good Healer. In particular Chise gives a good amount of AoE damage to clear waves. If she’s your waifu and you leveled up her Swimsuit version, you could use that instead.

Hinomiya Chinatsu (Hot Spring Ver.) (Support): A damage buffing Support for when you have a strong Healer, you should have her leveled anyways for raids anyways.

Asagao Hanae (Healer): The undisputed queen of Breakthrough Drill healing. Since she has a relatively cheap and strong (but unfortunately single target) Heal Over Time effect, she can keep the Scarecrow topped off constantly.

Natsume Iroha (Tactical Support): Tactical Supports are a rare breed and if you’re going for the max score on a run you might as well take the best Mystic damage one.

What if I don’t have enough students for all high end runs?

Level matters a lot, so if you can only clear one high end run, just throw whatever students are just good enough into your second and third teams to clear lower end content.

Clearing a single level 4 fight and two level 3 fights should get you into the 183,100+ points bracket.

If you’re new to the game just do what you can and don’t worry about high end fights.