Anime Adventures Best Team

How to build a team in UPD 21

Creators and players split a team into three jobs: damage, utility and farm. Bulby, a farm unit, appears in most rosters on this page, so slot it first.

Next, pick one damage type. Commander buffs physical units and Elfy buffs magic ones, so a mixed lineup leaves part of the team outside each buff. One player puts the gain at 2x for matching units and 4x for Zombie (Risen) on summons. Griffin (creators call it Griffith) gives a 100% damage buff once you sacrifice 100,000 yen to it, stacking with other supports.

Then cover soaring enemies. Only hill units can target them, so bring one: Water Goddess and Dark Mage (Fallen Star) are the usual picks.

Last, do not fill every slot with your highest-ranked pulls. One source says top units alone do not beat a balanced lineup, and leaves room for supports such as Water Goddess, Bloodcry, Zombie or Operator. The anime adventures tier list helps once the core is set.

Starter core: Elyssia (Abyssal) and Zombie (Risen)

For new or returning players, three sources agree on Elyssia (Abyssal) plus Zombie (Risen), a pair they say clears most content.

Elyssia sits on the gem banner, and its evolution needs only stars, with no evolution item. Zombie is the multiplier: each copy placed buffs every summoned unit on the map by 25% damage and 10% range, up to eight placements, and the buff stacks with Griffin, Commander and Elfy. At capture time on November 3, 2026, Zombie was a featured Mythic on the Special banner and took 50% of its Mythic rate.

That same day, other players in the lobby had both units out beside Fishi (Obsession), Water Goddess, Griffin, Shadowgirl (Time Traveller), Menace (Terror) and Bulby. Full kits are on the Elyssia and Zombie pages.

Team comps compared

Three cores most teams start from

Summoner coreWater coreBurn core Who and why Several sources recommend Elyssia (Abyssal) plus Zombie (Risen) as the core for new or returning players, saying the pair clears most contentWater Goddess buffs water units (two creators say by 50%), so creators pair it with water damage dealers such as Fishi and Elyssia; one creator runs Water Goddess, Fishi and Explosion Mage for the Summer EventOne creator rates the burn build of Phoenix (creators call it Marco), Shinobi (Eternal) and Troy Flame near the top overall but very endgame; another calls Phoenix worth a look if you build around burn damage

The chart at the top of this section puts the three cores side by side; the table adds full rosters and creator counts.

Team	Units	What each unit does	Sources
Summoner	Shadow Sorcerer, Elyssia (Abyssal), Zombie (Risen), Iron Sentinel, Supreme Being (Sovereign), Sky God (Rumble), Bulby	Zombie buffs every summon. Elyssia, Iron Sentinel and Supreme Being all add summons. Shadow Sorcerer adds a 30% damage debuff. Zombie raises only the HP of the Sky God ship.	1 creator
Water	Water Goddess, Fishi (Obsession), Elyssia (Abyssal); the event version swaps Elyssia for Explosion Mage (Archdemon)	Water Goddess buffs water units (two of the four put it at 50%) and covers the hill. Fishi and Elyssia deal the damage.	4 creators
Magic	Explosion Mage (Archdemon), Illusionist (Transcended), Operator, Snow Reaper (Final), Chuuni (Delusion), Bulby	All magic, which is why it works. Chuuni makes marked enemies take 50% more magic damage. Illusionist on a hill reaches soaring enemies.	1 creator
Burn	Phoenix (creators call it Marco), Shinobi (Eternal), Troy Flame	Built around burn. Rated near the top overall, though it needs late-game units.	2 creators

The water core has the widest backing; the summoner and magic rosters are each a single creator’s lineup, so treat them as templates. The burn team needs Phoenix, Shinobi (Eternal) and Troy Flame built together.

Fishi turns up across comps, and one creator rates it among the best boss killers. One player’s dungeon plan runs Elyssia, Fishi, Water Goddess as hill unit and buffer, Chuuni and Bulby, swapping Chuuni for a bleed unit when needed.

A Summer Event team

For UPD 21 and its Summer 2026 Event, two creators call matchmaking easier than solo, though a solo clear works.

The most detailed solo run comes from one creator: Fishi for damage, Shadowgirl (Time Traveller) for time stop, Zombie for its 40% currency boost, Commander for the physical buff, Griffin for another 100% damage, and Bulby. Snow Reaper (Final) can replace Shadowgirl for less currency. Open by upgrading Bulby, then place units at the base in the middle of the two-lane map. The team is all physical, so take magic-resistant modifiers first, then enemy health, then speed, and skip regen and physical resistance.

Shadowgirl time-stops enemies on placement and every 15 seconds at later upgrades. A second creator clears the event with a summon team, credits the slow of Snow Reaper (Final) for carrying the stage, and notes that owning the new banner units adds 20% to currency.

Water Goddess and Fishi were featured Mythics on the Summer banner on November 3, 2026, each a third of its 0.25% Mythic rate. More is on the anime adventures summer event page.

Infinite and Infinity Castle

Long runs reward stalling. Operator (creators call it Law) has two creators behind it: one rates it highly for Infinity Castle and leaderboards, the other suggests it when a team needs stalling more than another damage dealer.

Illusionist (Transcended) adds crowd control. By one creator’s account, its active stuns every enemy on the map for 5 seconds and leaves enemies at 25% health or below fragile. One player says Infinite is the only mode where Griffin is worth fielding as a damage dealer.

For more slow, stun and stall options, see the anime adventures slow units list.

Bleed teams and when Bloodcry is worth it

Menace (Terror) (creators call it Stain) is the bleed payoff. At a later upgrade, two creators show, it gains an ability that hits every bleeding enemy in range for three times its current damage, 4.5 times on a crit, and stuns them for 2 seconds.

Bloodcry is worth a slot only next to bleed-focused units; outside a bleed team a creator calls it very situational. At capture time on November 3, 2026, it was a featured Mythic on the Special banner at 10% of the Mythic rate, so own bleed units before you chase it.

Shadow Sorcerer makes enemies take 30% more damage, and sacrificing it calls a summon that Zombie amplifies, which ties it to the summoner team more than to bleed. We have not confirmed a full bleed roster, so this page does not list one.