Introduction
Breaking the Ceiling, also known as "Breakthrough" or "Breaking Through" is the mechanic that increases the level cap
from 80 to 88 and is commonly referred to as your completion of the "tutorial" phase in the game which lasts for roughly a month.
This guide will go over the benefits to breaking through, some widespread misconceptions and go into the rewards you can potentially gain from reaching "Exalted" First things first, I will address the different "Tiers" in the game and corresponding levels.
Elite (Captain Level 56- 69 )
Master (Captain Level 70-80)
Exalted (Captain Level 81-88)
If you are reading this, you are most likely in Masters tier and nearing the "Breakthrough" phase where you enter exalted.
I will try to help your transition to the endgame be as smooth as possible and let you know what to expect.
I made a character to level 80 for the purposes of this guide :teehee:
If you don't breakthrough, then EXP will accumulate but you will remain level 80 and in "Master" Tier.
You can see the accumulated EXP under "EXP Overflow"
The maximum limit to this seems to be 25,000 EXP but you shouldn't let it get this high, ideally breaking through right away.
Upon breakthrough you will be promoted from the Masters tier to the Exalted tier in Abyss and Memorial Arena.
This allows you to reach the endgame, stages will get harder but the rewards will increase significantly.
The Misconceptions
credits on image to Deus Ex Impact, an old amazing content creator who quit years ago :(
There is are a few very common misconceptions that you may have heard before, most of them involve waiting at level 80 until you have one or more of the following.
- A Fully geared team.
- Multiple fully geared teams.
- A DPS for Lightning, Ice, Physical and Fire.
- An S rank Gacha character.
- Random amounts of Gacha gear.
I get the idea behind this notion, people think they would be better off waiting before they Breakthrough until they are stronger.
I am here to explain why that is so far from the truth and camping would be actively restricting your progression.
Why you should breakthrough
The fact of the matter is you should always breakthrough from 80 to 81.
This statement holds true even if you have no Gacha characters, no Gacha gear and only one single team.
The only exception being if you are a casual player or someone who doesn't care much for progression, crystal acquisition...
or building stronger teams. In that case you can feel free to do whatever you want as long as you are comfortable.
Don't feel like having a harder time in Abyss or Memorial? that's fine don't feel pressured, but be aware you are falling behind.
Even if you aren't performing as well as you would like, you would technically still be getting more resources simply by being level 81 compared to had you sat at level 80, even if somehow you are unable to clear a single stage in the new Abyss you should be getting a lot more materials compared to if you decided to stay at level 80 and you will eventually "demote" until you reach a bracket that's right for you, this will be explained under the "Superstring Dimension" Section.
As I stated earlier, there is a large misconception going around that staying at level 80 can be beneficial, but that is just untrue.
It can however feel like that, you go from having an easy time in Memorial Arena to struggling and getting a lower percentage.
Note:
Keep in mind, you are very unlikely to get the maximum rewards as soon as you breakthrough, realistically you won't even be able to clear both SSS Memorial Arena bosses. It's something to work on over time so don't get demoralized if it looks like the world is against you. It will take some time to build up to the point where you can consistently retain "Red Lotus" in exalted which is the general goal for most players. It's more likely for you to be in Agony 3 which is still an increase in crystals.
Why you shouldn't put it off
There are several reasons why staying at level 80 will only hurt you rather than help you as you may have been led to believe.
- Think of this game as a race to the finish line, stalling Breakthrough is letting other players who started at the same time as you get further and further ahead as time passes, many game modes like Abyss and Memorial Arena is competitive.
- Other players will be getting more time-gated materials such as Source Prisms, Torus, SC-Metals.
- Players who broke through are more likely to be getting more crystals than you.
- You can start farming for Ancient Legacy and get more Ancient Willpower, this enables you to start catching up on Dorm buffs and farm more characters who cost Legacy for use either in Abyss / Memorial Arena or just for 620 Crystals from ER.
- Bosses at 81+ aren't just damage sponges waiting to die like they were in Masters tier. Bosses now have actual mechanics including multiple phases and transitions. Skill plays a much larger part now than it did previously so it's recommended to start practicing the mechanics sooner rather than later.
I will warn you though, this process cannot be reversed so I recommend you read through this if you are unsure to learn about all the benefits as well as the rarely spoken about potential drawbacks to Breakthrough without the misconceptions included.
Reasons you may not want to Breakthrough
While this is generally recommended to the large majority there are some reasons you may not want to personally breakthrough.
- You could be a super casual player that doesn't care about additional crystal gain.
- You play for the Lore and only care about Story mode.
- You can't stand not being high ranked in your Abyss tiers or Memorial Arena and would drive yourself crazy.
- You aren't willing to even try to deal with the increased difficulty ( more mechanical even if bosses have the same HP )
I will say however that if you care about progression the benefits vastly outweigh the potential drawbacks.
If you have any questions or want to talk about your situation, please leave a comment or add me on discord!
Changes in Exalted
So you got over your fears and hit that big scary button to unlock Exalted, you have now reached 81... congrats!!!
This section will introduce you to the changes to Abyss and Memorial Arena when you reach Exalted.
Superstring Dimension ( Abyss )
Q-Manifold is turned into Superstring Dimension, the new version of Abyss for 81+ Captains.
Upon breaking through to Exalted you will find there are quite a few added Abyss tiers and you should aim to stay at Agony 3 and go higher if possible, with the main goal to retain Red Lotus down the line.
There are added "Trophies" think of them as "protection points" so if you reach a rank you don't demote immediately.
Instead of fighting against 10 stages like you did before, you now fight 3 side stages before fighting the "Boss Stage"
Players compete on the boss stage to try and get the fastest run.
Abyss Rewards.
First of all, there are "Abyss Missions" like before, these will renew with every Abyss.
Agony 2 Rewards
Agony 3 Rewards
Red Lotus Rewards
Nirvana Rewards
Note:
You aren't expected to retain Redlotus (RL) right after you breakthrough, instead you should settle for Agony 2-3.
Memorial Arena
When you reach Exalted you will find there's an added difficulty mode "SSS" on two of the bosses.
After clearing the SS boss you will be put up against the SSS boss with multiple phases and a transition mechanic.
Of course this difficulty increase comes with better rewards as well!
Increased Rewards
To get these rewards all you have to do is clear 10 bosses, it does not require you to beat the SSS bosses to get all rewards.
We currently have up to two SSS rank bosses per week in Exalted with the third staying an SS boss.
You will gain additional rewards for clearing the SSS bosses and getting a certain amount of points.
To gain the max rewards you would need to clear with 3:01 left remaining on the timer (38400 points) the stage with 20% bonus score requires you to get 46080 points but goes by the same time requirement as the other boss does.
And finally that brings us to the "Ranking Rewards" with some new materials, the goal for endgame players is to hit 2-7%.
If you were able to retain 17% Masters Memorial Arena you could get top 65% for Exalted and still profit compared to Masters.
Getting top 65% is pretty much just logging in and doing the 10 clears, you won't even need to defeat the SSS bosses.
You aren't going to be expected to have amazing performance here either, with the goal being 35% if you just broke through.
Additional rewards
The main issue players see behind breaking through immediately, is the fear that they will end up losing crystals in Abyss, if you could retain Red Lotus in Master then you will be maintaining Agony 3 in Exalted, which leads to an increment in crystal acquisition. If you could retain Agony in Masters then you should be retaining Agony 2 in Exalted.
Even if somehow you did end up performing worse and losing some crystals, the vast amount of materials you get would easily overcompensate for said loss. There are multiple currencies in this game so I would not recommend you just look at crystals.
Even if you did lose 20 crystals or more the materials hold higher value and will help you get more crystals overall in the long run.
Everything has some form of value or payout over cost, You should prioritize investment by what has the best value relative to said cost. Think of it this way, the faster you hit 81, the faster you get stronger, the more crystals you get over time anyway.
I have compiled a list of the rewards and shop changes accessible to you below.
Crystal comparison
If you are Red Lotus in Masters, then you will be able to retain Agony 3 in Exalted which leads to the same amount of crystals from Abyss but more crystals from external sources as well as other rewards. If you are retaining Agony in Masters then you will get an increased amount of crystals retaining Agony 2 in Exalted.
Ancient Willpower
This is used to unlock certain Valkyries from the war Treasury
Weekly Willpower
- Weekly Quiz: 20
- Quiz Bonus Round: 4
- Memorial: 25-65
- Memorial boss attempts: 55
- SSS boss: 56
- Abyss box: 20
- Asterite purchases : 48.2
- F2P BP: 10
If you get 6 torus over 20 willpower then subtract 20 per week
Total for 2% MA: 278.2
Total for 7% MA: 261.2
Total for 17% MA: 249.2
Total for 35% MA: 238.2
Monthly asterite conversion was found using the average "A calendar month may contain 28 to 31 calendar days;
the average is 30.437"
Ancient Legacy
This is the other, more rare resource used to purchase Valkyries from the War Treasury
Weekly Legacy
- Memorial: 10
- SSS Boss: 24
- Abyss: 34-44
Total for Agony 3: 68
Total for Red Lotus: 72
Total for Nirvana: 78
Legacy is the material that you should pay the most attention to, you get a-lot less before you breakthrough to Exalted.
Note:
It's worth mentioning that you will not be expected to get this much as soon as you breakthrough, so don't have high expectations. It's good to add that due to the increased leveling speed it will take some time to build up to the point where you can retain Red lotus now, especially if you don't have Senadina and Thelema.
Pri-Arm Cap raised 50 -> 65
Pri-Arms also known as "Prii" is a weapon advancement system that allows you to upgrade certain weapons, normally a characters best in slot / Gacha gear into an advanced form. You can currently craft pri-arms when you reach level 50 but cannot upgrade the level from 50 to 65 until you have broken through to Exalted and reached level 81.
Looking at the chart, you can see quite a difference between the level 50 and 65 weapon in both the attack and the passives.
You can generally expect to gain a 30% damage increase by maxing the DPS characters weapon out.
Note:
It's normally better to unlock and work on or even max out a certain weapon so check first before crafting if you want to optimize!
Some weapons are no longer worth investing into such as "Keys of Oblivion" for Herrscher of Sentience.
Senadina or Thelema are currently very good characters to unlock pri-arms for, after that you want to reference the boss schedule and see which weapon would give you the greatest benefit or see the most use that patch if you are trying to optimize.
Pri-Arm Upgrades
Pri-arm costs
Torus is the material used to upgrade Pri-arms and unlike SC-Metals that can be purchased from the shop at 81+ Torus is harder to get. This is a time-gated resource that can be obtained from the following sources:
- 40 Torus from F2P BP
- 36 Torus from Abyss ( It's 6 per week right? )
- 30 Torus from Memorial (10 challenge reward )
- 60 Torus from ER (Should be able to clear with Coralie )
- 50 Torus from Dorm
- 60 Torus from Realms of battle
- ?? Torus from Gacha ( Average 30 per 10x, will not be included though )
=============================================
Conclusion: At least 276 Torus this patch ( Six week patch )
Next, I will go into the SC-Metal sources
- 150 Metals from Asterite Weekly ( Not recommended )
- 16.6 Metals Weekly from Battle Pass ( 100 Per Patch, optional )
- 20 Metals from Realms of Battle
- 10 Metals from Memorial Arena (2 and 6 challenge reward)
=============================================
Conclusion: 46.6 - 196.6 Metals per week
Including the crafting costs the total amount of resources you will need to max a "Pri" will be 520 Metals, 400 Torus alongside other resources. If you need to max 5 weapons you can see how this can quickly get out of hand, it will take you quite some time to farm the needed resources at level 81 let alone if you tried to stay at level 80 and "pre-farm"
Source Prisms
As of Patch 7.5 we will be getting 1 Source Prism per week from Memorial Arena.
Additionally, we will be getting 400 Normal Crystal Cores!
Weekday Material
Next, lets look into the Material Events stage called "Weekday Materials" which despite the name is now a daily stage.
Level 80 Rewards
Level 81 Rewards
Yeah, I know it's a small increase but it's daily and will add up over time.
I felt it's worth documenting anyway!
Level Up Rewards:
Finally, there are quite a few Level up rewards with some valuable resources to get you going.
Misc:
- Divine Key Level cap will be raised to 10
- Elysian Realm will become easier with maxed Pri-arms ( more potential crystals on higher modes )
- Expedition stamina limit will be increased by 10.
- Open world rewards increased.
Various rewards from the "Break the Ceiling" Missions.
Closing
That's all for this guide~ I hope this helped! Goodluck on your adventures in Exalted!
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"
