Introduction
now updated for 2024!!
What is the "Affix" System?
Affixing is a system that can provide additional bonuses to your character through refinement.
There are different grades of Affixing and the quality can be simplified into three rarities.
Purple > Blue > White, ordered from strongest to weakest with purple being the best and having higher maximum rolls.
This is mostly important in the late game so don't be in a rush to affix, especially if the gear you are using is temporary.
I wouldn't recommend using Affixes on temporary gear at all.
The affix system does have some elements of RNG but there's a certain amount of control given to you.
You are able to reroll it if you don't like the stat you got, lock good stats... and even enhance already existing stats.
Because of this, despite the RNG elements you can also work to improve your affixes and get the best ones possible over time.
This guide will cover everything that has to do with affixes, what the different elements are, when to use them and how.
How to unlock Affixing
After you click a Stigmata, you will see the "Affix(es)" menu, click it and it will take you to the next screen.
Stigmata can come with up to two pre-existing affixes but there is a chance that it has none at all.
In the event that your stigmata has no affixes it will cost 200 Normal Crystal Cores to unlock the first slot.
The second slot may be unlocked with a Crystal Flash-tank and 90 Normal Crystal Cores.
The amount of Normal Crystal Cores can vary if you are trying to affix low grade Stigmata which is not recommended unless you know what you are doing.
Alternatively, you may unlock it if you keep rerolling it until it unlocks, however I do not recommend this, almost all the time it's better to use the easily accessible material from Open World tasks instead of gambling.
For more information on Crystal Flash-tanks please see the dedicated section later on in this guide.
Different Affix Materials
The next section will focus on introducing you to the various materials used in Affixing and what they do.
Some of them are easily obtainable, others are quite rare so pay attention on which you can readily obtain and which to save.
Normal Crystal Cores
Normal Crystal Core
The main way to Affix Stigmata is through the "Standard Reroll" option using Normal crystal cores. ( NCC )
This will cost 40 Normal Crystal Cores per attempt, giving you random stats on your stigmata.
You can reroll the Stigmata until you get stats that are beneficial to the specific character you are rolling affixes for.
NCC is of low value and easily obtained, but initially you may find it hard to amass a decent amount of them as a new player..
One way to obtain NCC is from salvaging certain rare grade or Gacha Stigmata. This will earn you a neat 240 NCC but you can also get them in other ways such as...
Purchasing them with coins from the Coin Shop - 140k coins for 100 NCC, 30 Daily limit.
This should only be done if you are a late game player and have reached a point where you have a massive surplus of coins. New players should not be doing this at all because they will find their seemingly excessive amount of coins to suddenly rapidly decrease once they start actually investing into things. You can and will commonly run out of Coins so spend wisely!
Purchasing them with Asterite from the Asterite Shop - 500 Asterite for100 NCC, No Limit
This is actually quite cheap and the main thing purchased when you have finished with your SP Valkyries, but for new players you should wait until you have finished ranking up important SP Valkyries to SSS rank, the ones you will be using anyway.
It's also recommended to unlock every SP Valkyrie that's present in Elysian Realm for the 620 free Crystals.
Purchasing them with Stardust Shards from the Supply Shop - 10 for 100 NCC, No Limit
This isn't worth it, I would highly recommend you instead save for the "Reroll Device" if you are trying to improve your affixes.
Even if you aren't it's better to wait for Stamps of characters you regularly use to appear in this shop, currently we have HoH.
While we are on this topic, Source Prisms are a really inefficient material to buy with Stardust Shards I'd recommend against it.
Purchasing them with Witch Orbs from the Witch's Corridor - 100 NCC, No Limit
This shop is unlocked by obtaining any type of Witch Orb.
Witch Orbs are obtained by maxing a Valkyrie to SSS, excess fragments will then be converted into Witch Orbs.
You can also convert any non Gacha ELF fragments you have into Witch Orbs, it is harder to come by because they aren't sold in the Logistics Terminal for Coin anymore.
After you have an SSS Valkyrie you can go to Equip -> Fragments then click the button to proceed.
After hitting the "ok" button the excess fragments will be converted into Normal Crystal Cores.
The main ways to obtain these fragments are as follows.
- After you get Midnight Absinthe to SSS from Elysian Realm, every patch you can buy her fragments and get alot!
- Expeditions, late game you will largely be converting your stamina into Valkyrie Fragments for more Normal Crystal Cores.
Wafer Dataflows
Wafer Dataflows are an extremely rare item that's not easily acquired.
The main way to get Dataflows would be to purchase them from the "Witch Corridor" using "Pure Witch Orbs."
You can buy up to 4 per version at 300 Pure Witch Orbs each.
Wafer Stabilizers are used to "Enhance" the affix you have with a chance to increase the value of a random affix stat.
The higher the stat of the affix, the harder it will be to enhance it with this item. It's completely possible to gain nothing from it.
It's still recommended to use this on higher stat affixes because you can only use "Wafer Dataflows" up to 10 times per Stigmata.
Pure Witch Orbs are obtained from converting excess fragments from an SSS Valkyrie from War Treasury )
You can also get them at a rough 2% rate from the "Mini Wafer Blackbox" in the Asterite Shop.
I recommend buying this weekly!
As I mentioned before, I would recommend you use Wafer Dataflows sparingly, you can only use up to 10 per stigmata before you are locked out from ever using it on that same stigmata again.
Crystal Flash-Tank
Crystal Flash-tanks will unlock the second slot without changing the stat of the affix you have already unlocked.
The benefit to this is saving a large amount of Normal Crystal Cores, rather than having to spend NCC rerolling
at a very low chance to unlock the second slot you can instead use one of these alongside 90 NCC to guarantee it.
This in turn can save you 1000~ Normal Crystal Cores.
Crystal Flash-tanks can be obtained from the open world weekly task finalization.
Wafer Stabilizer
Wafer Stabilizers, also commonly referred to as "Affix Locks" are quite valuable, having the ability to "Lock" a good stat on an affix and only reroll the other stat.
This is the main time-gated thing about affixing, you obtain them weekly from the following.
- Superstring Abyss - 25 per week
- Memorial Arena Ranking Rewards - 50 per week
- Elysian Realm - 40 per week
- Witch's Corridor - 200 per version ( uses Pure Witch Orbs )
Of course, you may also get some from Events when applicable.
You generally need a large amount of them on average to get a good affix, sometimes costing well over 1000 if you are unlucky.
Because of this you really don't want to lock something easily replaced or subpar and end up wasting the resource.
The threshold for locking affixes will generally depend on who you ask. I personally would not lock anything under 22.7 ATK but there are those who say that 22 is enough.
The reasoning behind this is you don't want to spend a rare commodity, such as Affix Locks on something mediocre like a low stat roll. Gaining higher stats consumes one of the least valuable and easily accessible materials.
You can just keep using Normal Crystal Cores until you get a good affix, then lock it and roll for a better one.
It's just harder to amass a large amount of NCC early game, but in the late game you can get 10,000 per week F2P
by spending all the Asterite you get weekly on purchasing NCC.
This is why it's not recommended to focus too much on this if you aren't established and at a point that allows you to do so.
If you affix too early then by the time you are able to be competitive you could have used it on the wrong character.
Oriented Reroll
The items to be here are mainly obtained from events.
They help you remove the RNG from affixing by either providing specific stats or providing a range for you to obtain affixes.
Energy Devices
Energy Devices are only obtainable from events such as the "Meow Town Escapade" event ongoing right now.
They are mainly used on supports due to providing 0.4 SP/s and reducing skill cost by 2.7%.
This can greatly increase the efficiency of a support by enabling them to save SP gain more SP and cast their ultimate more.
Herrscher of Truth is a prime example of a support who greatly benefits from this affix on her stigmata.
"Reroll Device: Type-ATK (Orange)
You can normally only obtain these from events, sometimes getting one or two per year.
It's also in the Battlesuit Supply shop for 3000 Shards.
These are the most sought after of the bunch, providing you the max attack possible on your affix twice.
I would highly recommend you to think twice or ideally ask someone before using this item if you are looking to optimize.
There are other reroll devices, which will still be covered momentarily.
But you should know that they are essentially worthless due to the high cost for little to no actual value.
"Reroll Device: Type-ATK (Purple)
For new players who could still need certain materials from the Foundry these are not touching. They cost a large amount of G3 materials from the mirage store which could be better utilized in other areas such as crafting stigmata.
The stats they provide are also fixed giving 15-20 ATK which is often worse than what you can find using Normal Crystal Cores.
On average, you can expect to get 35 total ATK from using one of these.
That being said, for older players who have nothing else they need to craft this is a very good method.
Buying this allows you to get some of your supports geared or get some temporary affixes for a new character.
"Reroll Device: ATK / Support
Support on the left ATK on the right
"Reroll is guaranteed to grant 2 defensive / offensive 3* Affix Skills"
I will be blunt, this is a total waste of materials. By using either of these you can only get 3* Affix materials that's poor quality.
It would be better to use Normal Crystal Cores.
When do I affix?
You will want to hold off on Affixing until you have obtained permanent / endgame gear ideally for an important Valk.
A Good example of this as of patch 7.4 would be Senadina or Thelema.
It is not worth pursuing very good affixes if you have yet to obtain best in slot gear, and why bother getting good rolls on temporary gear if it's only going to be replaced in the future? With us having craftable Stigmata this is even more true than it was in the past, investing into temporary stigmata is likely just outright wasting whatever materials you spent.
What affixes Are there?
It's finally time to cover the potential affixes and go over the good ones.
ATK -
The stat that's sought after for most DPS characters, this is flat ATK added directly to your characters base attack stat.
Damage done is equal to Base damage x Character damage multiplier x TDM taken multiplier X Type multiplier.
If you have 1200 ATK and get another 120 ATK for instance, that would result in a 10% undiluted increment in damage.
This makes ATK affixes very important for the DPS character.
There will be two different kinds of ATK.
- Unspecialized ATK - "Gain x ATK " The maximum value this can gain is 19 ATK.
- Specialized ATK - The maximum value this can gain is 23 ATK.
Here is an example of Specialized ATK
Deal increased Elemental damage -
This doesn't increase your flat ATK making it useless on most characters.
That being said, there are characters and niches where this is a best in slot or even mandatory option.
An example of this is being the Best in slot is on Shadow Knight, who takes increased damage after taking elemental damage, you could then use this affix on a support or even the DPS to make them take more damage due to the elemental damage affix.
Lunar Vow however is completely different.
She actually wants Lightning DMG affixes, with it being her best in slot for DPS because of a few reasons.
- Lunar Vow has low ATK % multipliers on most of her skills, take her Ultimate for an example which deals 2% ATK each. Because of her low ATK % multipliers she will not benefit from ATK affixes the same way other Valkyries do.
- She has an extremely high hit-count compared to previous characters.
- Lunar Vow's Lightning DMG affixes are actually added to her own damage before the final damage is calculated, this makes her benefit from it alot more than normal characters do.
Crit Damage -
This can sometimes be better than ATK stats for Physical Valkyries depending on how much ATK you have.
This does go on a case by case basis while additionally depending on your gear, weapon, stigmata... and even some rankups.
This is because the performance of Crit Damage affixes are entirely dependent on how much Crit Damage the Valkyrie in question already has existing in her kit, the more she has the less she will gain from having more.
It's good to keep in mind that Elemental DMG Valkyries cannot crit, nor can Valkyrie Quicksand.
CRT - ( This is not Crit Rate % ) -
Unfortunately this isn't recommended, the bonus from Crit is not significant and you can always replay the stage if you got unlucky. Some characters such as Herrscher of Rebirth the core physical support make it so that you Crit 100% of the time.
The scaling on this stat is also quite poor comparatively with the formula being (CRT ÷ ([80l] × 5 + 75) × 100) assuming lvl 80.
If you have 100 CRT then you will have 21% Crit rate at level 80!
SP Regen -
This Gives you additional SP regeneration per second for the Valkyrie on field as long as you aren't terribly far away from the enemy, this is quite important on supports but can even be valuable on certain DPS Valkyries. I must however note that this is more of an isolated case and largely applies to Nirvana so most people reading this shouldn't have to worry about it.1
Casting Skills consumes less SP -
This does as it says and reduces the SP cost to cast an ability such as Weapon Active or Ultimate.
If the Ultimate costs 125 SP and you have 9% then you will be refunded 11.25 SP after using the Ultimate.
This is extremely important on most mana hungry support Valkyries.
A good example of this is on Herrscher of Truth who often wants high amounts of SP cost reduction, especially if she's not S2.
Keep in mind that this works somewhat like a SP cost refund, you still need the full 125 SP to use Ultimate.
Furthermore, if you are using a Stigmata or have a Skill that makes you spend a certain amount of SP to trigger it, having this affix can conflict with that and cause you to lose buffs if you have this affix on and they don't spend enough SP!
There are also defensive type affixes -
Since no character scales on more defense or health those stats are useless.
Deal increased damage to shields is also useless, since you would gain more damage to said shield using ATK stats. .
What affixes do I want?
This question largely depends on the specific Valkyrie, if you have any questions please do ask and I will answer asap!!
Elemental DPS Valkyries -
Valkyries who deal Elemental DMG cannot crit, this removes all crit related stats from the equation leaving raw ATK.
This will be the best option a large majority of the time outside of niche situations.
Physical DPS Valkyries -
Most Valkyries who deal Physical DMG are able to crit and that opens up the "crit dmg" stat for them.
Because of Herrscher of Rebirth full ATK is generally the best but crit dmg won't be far behind and you should take high crit-damage rolls if you find any. Keep in mind that Valkyrie Quicksand cannot crit and doesn't want to stack this stat at all.
Lunar Vow -
As I explained before, Lunar Vow actually benefits ALOT from Lightning DMG affixes and you should target that over ATK.
7 Lightning ATK is actually around the same increase as 23 ATK for her, and with 15 Lightning being the max it's way better.
Supports -
Supports generally want SP Cost reduction and / or SP/s. This can change however and will vary depending on the support in question, some of them want ATK stats because they either have no SP issues or have the ability to function as a sub DPS.
Supports who Generally want ATK include but are not limited to...
Dark lord Coralie / Helia / Cosmic Expression / Sugary Starburst / Terminal Aide 0017 / Jade Knight / Golden Diva
Supports who Generally want SP/s and/or SP cost reduction would be...
Herrscher of Truth / Chrono Navi / Reverist Calico / Herrscher Sentience /
It's best to ask before you affix any given character because of course there are situations where this changes, for instance Senadina has support capabilities but needs to spend 30 SP to provide her her team with Elemental Breach, SP cost reduction would prohibit her from spending 30 SP and prevent you from getting the buff.
Another example of this would be Azure Empyrea ( if you are building her for some reason )
Who needs to use at least 120 SP in a single action to properly trigger Margrave so you can't go above 4% SP cost reduction.
Closing
That's all for this guide~ I hope this helped!
Thanks to everyone that follows or leaves a like I really appreciate it!
If you have any questions feel free to message me here or on discord "Kithicide"
