It’s been quite some time since we last saw Chesed, this heavy armored Yellow raid will test your ability to pivot from AoE to single target damage.

Not much has changed in the past few months but we’ve gotten a handful of students who can shine in this raid compared to February. Here’s what you’ll need to know to break through his defenses and maybe manage to hit harder at higher rank fights:

Core Mechanics

Chesed is a heavy armored boss with a unique mechanic. Rather than fight the boss directly, most of your time will spent clearing waves of adds.

First you’ll need to reach Chesed through two separate zones and he’ll continue to summon more adds when you finally approach him.

Killing adds will fill Chesed’s “Groggy Meter”, for most bosses stunning them is merely a bonus. For Chesed it’s mandatory.

When he’s “Groggy”, Chesed is surrounded by a layer of thick armor that mitigates your damage. When you fill the meter that’s your time to strike. Clearing Chesed requires ample wave clear, but also a dedicated single-target damage dealer to exploit those opportunities.

It might be tempting to use more single target Strikers, but when adds are left alone too long they will self-destruct and do massive damage to your team.

Our Team Suggestion

Strikers

• Renkawa Cherino: Cherino is non-negotiable. Not only does one of her passives increase your EX Meter speed, but she has the best wave clear EX ability in the game, at max level it only costs 5 meter and does substantial damage to most of the field. If you have her, we suggest maxing her out quickly both for future Chesed fights, and also for her use in Activity Report Commissions.
• Saiba Momoi: One of the gamer twins. Momoi has a 3 cost EX ability that does substantial damage in a cone. She can cover waves of enemy while saving your Cherino’s EX ability for a larger wave. You can also aim it at more powerful adds that threaten your backline.
• Saiba Midori: The second gamer twin. Midori is less important than Momoi but should absolutely be run with Momoi when possible. Midori will provide some basic healing with one of her passives, and her EX ability to mop up the stronger adds that can survive Cherino’s EX. Her ability can also do moderate single target damage when there’s only one enemy on the field like when Chesed is Groggy. Most notably, Momoi and Midori receive a substantial buff when fielded with each other.
• Shiromi Irori: Irori is inconsistent but her EX ability is a mixture of single target and AoE damage. Irori blasts three targets, doing massive damage to the unit she hits and as an AoE behind it. All three of these shots can hit Chesed in his Groggy state for massive damage.

Support

• Kakudate Karin: Karin is a damage dealing Support whose EX ability does massive single target damage. This is invaluable for clearing large adds that can quickly kill your squishier Strikers, and also for doing respectable damage to a Groggy Chesed.
• Akeboshi Himari: The new queen of Support, Himari gives the same EX boost that she gave in Binah and it’s still just as good.

Substitutions

• Konuri Maki (Replaces Irori): Maki is a single target damage powerhouse. Her EX ability increases her own attack and then unloads a huge barrage of bullets into one enemy. Her single target damage could outperform Irori, but the AoE baked into Irori’s EX makers her the overall more desirable of the two.
• Hinomiya Chinatsu (Hot Spring ver.) (Replaces Midori): Chinatsu (Hot Spring ver.) is ideal for stacking damage onto Maki, Irori, (or whoever your single target damage dealer is) by increasing their attack speed. Her self-shield allows her to soak damage if you can get her into position.
• Otose Kotama (Replaces Himari): Kotama’s EX ability gives an AoE damage buff to all the Strikers you can get in position. This ability lasts longer and affects more targets, so it’s arguably more useful than Ako during the add waves. Ako is still more desirable when burning Chesed directly.
• Izayoi Nonomi (Replaces Momoi or Cherino): Nonomi is a more difficult Momoi, with her EX ability costing 5 vs. Momoi’s 3 and possibly doing less damage depending on the position of the enemies. However her AoE is a bit wider and she can replace Cherino if you don’t have her, but you definitely won’t get as far as you would with her.
• Amau Ako (Replaces Himari or Karin): Ako is still a strong unit even though she’s been dethroned by Himari. In fact, if your Strikers don’t need the backup that Karin provides, you can stack Himari’s and Ako’s buffs on a single unit like Maki or Irori when Chesed is vulnerable.

If you choose to beat Chesed with two teams instead of one, you can stick less than ideal students onto a team and make some headway.

A Second Team?

In Total Assault raids, you can tackle the same battle with up to 3 teams. The points are greater the faster you do it, but beating a higher difficulty with 3 teams is generally better than beating a lower difficulty with one.

This fact is particularly poignant on Chesed since he has two drastically different modes. In his first mode, Chesed is purely a wave-based fight with hordes of small enemies.

On the second phase he spawns adds but becomes vulnerable to single target on his main body. So theoretically you can use weaker students to clear phase 1 and then your ace team to clear phase 2 more reliably.