Othin

Kitsune and Wolfkin is certainly the strangest, but I think it makes sense if you think of it as basically an additional Farfetched Heroes banner. Which is also what makes Panne fit in, even though she doesn't match the name. It's a banner for the beasts that got a ton of votes on CYL2 but couldn't show up earlier due to beasts not being in the game yet: all five of them were the five highest-scoring units on CYL2 not yet in the game at the time the banner launched. Also, like the Three Houses banner, the units were part of a route-based set, making it make sense for them to be handled symmetrically - it'd be odd for just one house leader or beast type representative to be a demote while the rest are 5* exclusive.

I think the best explanation for units like Gray is that standards for what's okay to demote have evolved over time. In the past, all units had less impressive skill sets.

I'm trying to reverse engineer Valber's stats, but I don't see a match for the Sword Fighter he's fighting anywhere. Closest thing I can find is the one in Book 3 10-1, but I don't see any version of it with 39 max HP. I don't see any other story/paralogue maps with a Sword Fighter with an Armorslayer/Armorsmasher and a Special. Anyone found any other candidates?

In addition to Three Houses and Brave Echoes, the Kitsune/Wolfkin and Darkness Within banners also did not have any demotes. So that's four out of the ten previous New Heroes this year - Reyson, Thea, Mordecai, Brady, Mercedes, and Norne demoted from the other six. I do think all of the non-demote ones had extenuating circumstances, though - factors specific to the entire concept behind the banners. This banner has no reason to be a non-demote one, and Python's skillset makes no sense for a 5* exclusive. Have we ever had a 5* exclusive with zero new skills?

The problem with Dark Hel is that the current schedule suggests we won't be getting another Dark mythic until at least March.

Catria is an odd return to 2018, but with 5 new characters alongside her, I can't really complain. The 2018 banners only had 3-4 new characters per banner, so this still a big improvement. Forsyth and Silque are both neat but nothing I need. I'll probably use my free summons to try for Forsyth. Python demoting does seem likely, as much as I hadn't expected demotes for R/B/G missile weapons. Unfortunately I already have a green bow cav, but maybe future ones will cover unit types I don't have. Valbar may be the most relevant of these to me. Getting 11 copies of him will take a while, and I'll have to see his stats to be sure, but he sounds like an excellent merge project.

Selkie was also skipped on the second since beasts weren't in the game yet.

Daylight Savings isn't in effect, but the current calendar is written as if it was in effect, resulting in everything being off by a day. All events have been starting a day later than it says.

1 character completed every 2-4 months is easily within the range of doable with the current dragonflower rate, as long as you diversify your movement types enough. It sounds like your problem isn't enough total dragonflowers, but just putting too heavy of a demand on infantry specifically. Suppose, over the course of a month, your dragonflower income is: Free unit Heroic Ordeals: 40 x 2 = 80 AR Tier 21: 34 x 4 = 136 AR Top 50k: 28 x 4 = 112 AR Defense -240: 10 x 4 = 40 Allegiance Battles Top 100k: 24 x 4 = 96 That's a total of 464 dragonflowers per month, well over the amount needed to complete one character every 2 months, and I'd say those are all easy enough to get. Personally, even on a slow month, I'd say my own dragonflower income would be unlikely to go below: Book 3 Heroic Ordeals: 40 x 3 = 120 AR Tier 23: 36 x 4 = 144 AR Top 20k: 36 x 4 = 144 AR Defense -165: 16 x 4 = 64 Allegiance Battles Top 50k: 28 x 4 = 112 That's a total of 584. All things considered (those are a fairly lowball estimate for my scores, the average number of weeks per month is a bit over 4.33, and it's pretty easy to get more Heroic Ordeals flowers than that), I'd say my actual average dragonflower income per month is at least 650. If you distribute your dragonflowers evenly among the four movement types (so about 0.7 infantry for every 1 armor, 1 cavalry, and 1 flier), 650 is pretty much exactly the amount needed to do one full upgrade per month, and that's without growing any additional dragonflowers at all. So I'd say the supply is fine.

My +10 rate, which I stated in that quote, is easy to keep up with. What's yours?

This is a good point. I often use Fury/Desperation blade tome builds with Legendary Azura, this could be a convenient way to get to +7 without even having to worry about positioning. Only when I don't need another seal like Brash Assault, though.

Got my seventh gold throne! I think my previous six were all from the first two months of Aether Raids, so it's been a while. Team was Naga +1, Naga, Fjorm, Fae +6, and Aversa +1.

If they're not willing to do that, featuring units without prfs could work. Or just decreasing how often the prfs show up.

Personally, as a f2p player, for me the grail shop is a way for me to build +10 merged GHB/TT units - the same way it is for whales. There are some free units I used for fodder long before grails were added, and now those are units I can't build to +10 without being willing to spend way more grails than normal, and those would be grails I can't use for other cool free units. None of them would be particularly high on my list of units to merge regardless, but some of them (Camus, Zephiel, Lyon) are cool characters I with I still had the option for. Most of the units I gave that inheritance to are units I don't use anymore, or don't use the skills much anymore, or could have just as easily gotten the same skill or another one that's just as good from some common unit I have piles of from regular summoning. So it doesn't feel worthwhile to me. Like Ice Dragon said, it depends on how you value your resources, but I think it's not usually a great tradeoff even if you're not spending much. Admittedly, I value SI less than most people seem to - I'd rather have a "good enough" build with more readily available skills than put a lot of work into a perfect one that might rarely get used. At least merges are a strict upgrade to units among my few best, rather than taking up a slot that could be filled with something else. Plus, rare SI shows up occasionally on its own from duplicate 5*s I don't need anyway, so I try to get whatever mileage I need out of that.

That sounds like a good balance. --- Just beat Chamber 20! Needed one extra play compared to the minimum of 21 since I died once on Chamber 15, but I got a better map on my next try and things went pretty smoothly past that despite the level disadvantages. My team: