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13 Min read Firefly is the poster child of the Super Break team throughout the 2.x patch. Despite having one of the strictest team requirements, Firefly’s team has an incredibly high floor and is very player-friendly. It can consistently handle Memory of Chaos and Apocalyptic Shadow as long as the enemies do not lock their Toughness Bar, and she can even function decently in Pure Fiction when combined with AoE Fire DPS thanks to her powerful Fire Weakness Implant.
Firefly’s banner will rerun in the second half of Version 2.7 released on December 25, 2024, and will run until January 15, 2025.
Firefly locks most of her combat power behind her Ultimate – Fyrefly Type-IV: Complete Combustion. Upon using her Ultimate, she enters the Complete Combustion state, which immediately increases her Base Speed to 60, her Weakness Break Efficiency by 50% and her Break Damage dealt to enemies by 20%. It will also grant her a full 100% Action Advance, and change her Basic Attack and Skill to Enhanced Basic Attack and Enhanced Skill. Upon entering this state, there will be a countdown timer on the Action Order with a base 70 Speed. Upon reaching this timer, Firefly will exit her Complete Combustion state.
Both Firefly’s Enhanced Basic Attack and Enhanced Skill will recover a portion of her max HP before attacking. While both versions of her Basic Attacks are rather uninteresting and mostly irrelevant in practice, her Skills and Enhanced Skills are central to how Firefly functions. Outside of her Complete Combustion state, her Skill – Order: Aerial Bombardment is a Blast attack that consumes her own HP, regenerates 60% of her max energy upon use, and Advances her next action by 25%. The main purpose of this is to quickly charge her Ultimate bar so she can enter the Complete Combustion state as soon as possible. In this state, her Enhanced Skill will also implant Fire Weakness onto all enemies hit by it and deal damage that scales with her Break Effect (which is capped at 360% Break Effect). This attack deals massive amounts of Toughness Damage and is Firefly’s primary source of damage when combined with units that give Super Break buffs such as Harmony Trailblazer or Fugue.
Firefly Talent is a Damage Reduction buff in proportion to how low HP is. This is capped at 40% and is permanently at max value if she is in the Complete Combustion state, with an added 30% Effect Res to ensure she stays well protected during its duration. At the battle start, it will also ensure she always starts with at least 50% of her max energy. Once she reaches max energy, she will immediately dispel all debuffs currently on her.
Her first major trace allows her to deal Toughness Damage even to enemies without Fire weakness with a 55% value of the original Toughness Damage of her attacks. Her second major trace is a source for Super Break damage if her Break Effect reaches 200% / 360% in combat, with the value being 35% / 50% of a Super Break instance. This is largely weaker than what the Harmony Trailblazer and Fugue provide, thus it is highly incentivized to run Firefly with at least one of them. Her last major trace is a stats boost, giving her more Break Effect depending on her Attack beyond the 1800 mark. The conversion rate is worse than straight-up getting Break Effect, but it is still a good source of extra Break Effect.
Firefly has an extremely powerful Technique. When entering battle with this technique, she will apply Fire Weakness to every enemy at the start of each wave. This is already quite strong in normal content as it lets her kickstart her Super Break train earlier, but it is even more potent in content with enemies that continuously enter the field, such as in Pure Fiction, and enable Fire DPS like Himeko or even Lingsha.
Basic Attack – Order: Flare Propulsion: Deals Fire Damage equal to 100% of SAM’s ATK to a single target enemy.
Skill – Order: Aerial Bombardment: Consumes HP equal to 40% of this unit’s Max HP and regenerates a fixed amount of Energy equal to 60% of this unit’s Max Energy. Deals Fire Damage equal to 200% of SAM’s ATK to a single target enemy. If the current HP is not sufficient, reduce SAM’s HP to 1 when using this Skill. Advances this unit’s next Action by 25%.
Ultimate – Fyrefly Type-IV: Complete Combustion: Enters the Complete Combustion state, advances this unit’s Action by 100%, and gains Enhanced Basic ATK and Enhanced Skill. While in Complete Combustion, increases SPD by 60, and when using the Enhanced Basic ATK or Enhanced Skill, increases this unit’s Weakness Break Efficiency by 50% and the Break Damage dealt by SAM to the enemy targets by 20%, lasting until this current attack ends.
A countdown timer for the Complete Combustion state appears on the Action Order. When the countdown timer’s turn starts, SAM exits the Complete Combustion state. The countdown timer has a fixed SPD of 70.
SAM cannot use Ultimate while in Complete Combustion.
Enhanced Basic Attack – Fyrefly Type-IV: Pyrogenic Decimation: Restores HP by an amount equal to 20% of this unit’s Max HP. Deals Fire Damage equal to 200% of SAM’s ATK to a single target enemy.
Enhanced Skill – Fyrefly Type-IV: Deathstar Overload: Restores HP by an amount equal to 25% of this unit’s Max HP. Applies Fire Weakness to a single target enemy, lasting for 2 turn. Deals Fire Damage equal to (0.2 × Break Effect + 200%) of SAM’s ATK to this target. At the same time, deals Fire Damage equal to (0.1 × Break Effect + 100%) of SAM’s ATK to adjacent targets. The Break Effect taken into the calculation is capped at 360%.
Talent – Chrysalid Pyronexus: The lower the HP, the less Damage received. When HP is 20% or lower, the Damage Reduction reaches its maximum effect, reducing up to 40%. During the Complete Combustion, the Damage Reduction remains at its maximum effect, and the Effect RES increases by 30%.
If Energy is lower than 50% when the battle starts, regenerates Energy to 50%. Once Energy is regenerated to its maximum, dispel all debuffs on this unit.
Technique – Δ Order: Meteoric Incineration: Leaps into the air and moves about freely for 5 seconds, which can be ended early by launching a plunging attack. When the duration ends, plunges and immediately attacks all enemies within a set area. At the start of each wave, apply a Fire Weakness to all enemies, lasting for 2 turn. Then, deals Fire Damage equal to 200% of SAM’s ATK to all enemies.
Module α: Antilag Outburst: During the Complete Combustion, attacking enemies that have no Fire Weakness can also reduce their Toughness, with the effect being equivalent to 55% of the original Toughness Reduction from abilities.
Module β: Autoreactive Armor: When SAM is in Complete Combustion with a Break Effect that is equal to or greater than 200%/360%, attacking a Weakness-Broken enemy target will convert the Toughness Reduction of this attack into 1 instance of 35%/50% Super Break Damage.
Module γ: Core Overload: For every 10 points of SAM’s ATK that exceeds 1800, increases this unit’s Break Effect by 0.8%.
Firefly is blessed with extremely powerful Eidolons. Her biggest Eidolons are her E2 and E6. E1 is already a powerful improvement, allowing her to conserve a significant amount of Skill Points for her teammates with a moderate source of Def Shred. Her E2 grants her an extra turn every time she defeats an enemy or breaks their weakness, which is extremely powerful when there are multiple enemies on the field for her to chain her Skill. Her E4 is largely irrelevant in practice, being a 50% Effect Res on a Break unit with self-cleanse. Her E6 is a massive pure DPS boost, giving her a Fire Res Pen buff and even more Weakness Break Efficiency.
For vertical investment, Firefly’s users should always prioritize her Eidolon (at least until Eidolon 2) before branching into her Supports’ Eidolons such as Ruan Mei E1 and Fugue E1/E2. Her Signature Light Cone should take lower priority as it is not usable for other units while also not providing that huge of a boost over F2P options compared to Eidolons.
Whereabouts Should Dreams Rest: Increases the wearer’s Break Effect by 60% / 70% / 80% / 90% / 100%. When the wearer deals Break Damage to an enemy target, inflicts Routed on the enemy, lasting for 2 turns. Targets afflicted with Routed receive 24% / 28% / 32% / 36% / 40% increased Break Damage from the wearer, and their SPD is lowered by 20%. Effects of the same type cannot be stacked.
This Light Cone provides a significant Break Effect Bonus and a rare Break Vulnerability debuff modifier. It is a notable increase from her next-best F2P options (around 18%-20%). While the options for Firefly’s Light Cone are largely limited, Firefly’s Signature Light Cone is not a priority compared to her Eidolon.
Indelible Promise: Increases the wearer’s Break Effect by 28% / 35% / 42% / 49% / 56%. When the wearer uses their Ultimate, increases Critical Rate by 15% / 18.75% / 22.5% / 26.25% / 30% , lasting for 2 turns.
This is one of the very rare Light Cones that gives Break Effect. While the secondary effect is quite useless for Firefly, it is a decent stat stick if there is no better option.
On the Fall of an Aeon: When the wearer attacks, increase their ATK by 8% / 10% / 12% / 14% / 16% in this battle. This effect can stack up to 4 times. After the wearer breaks an enemy’s Weakness, increases Damage dealt by 12% / 15% / 18% / 21% / 24% , lasting for 2 turns.
Aeon is Firefly’s best F2P’s Light Cone due to the massive amount of Attack that it gives, which directly gets converted into Break Effect for her. However, F2P players with a lot of Destruction units will struggle to juggle this Light Cone since each account can only get one.
Firefly generally wants only 3 stats: Break Effect, Speed, and Attack, with a much bigger emphasis on Break Effect and Speed. Break Effect is the biggest scaling stat for her Super Break damage in general, so grabbing it on her Rope as well as as much from her sub-stats is the best way to improve her damage. The minimum amount of Break Effect that Firefly wants to get is around 360% in combat (with teammates’ buffs) to maximize her damage.
Firefly will want to reach a certain high-speed threshold to maximize the number of actions she can do within the Combustion State, thus Speed Boot is ideal. After Break Effect and Speed, Firefly gains extra Break Effect from Attack, so for her Armor and Orb, she should run Attack% pieces.
Speedtuning:
This set is tailor-made for Firefly, granting her both more Break Effect and an incredible 25% Def Shred to further improve her Super Break damage.
This set is mostly just a placeholder set until one can get a solid Iron Cavalry set since it does give a 32% Break Effect bonus.
Similar to Iron Cavalry, Kalpagni is tailor-made for Firefly. The Speed boost helps her reach the threshold easier, and since Firefly always implants Fire weakness, the Break Effect boost is essentially permanent.
Talia gives a solid 36% Break Effect but this is just worse than Kalpagni in general.
Ruan Mei: Ruan Mei provides Weakness Break Efficiency, Break Extension, Speed, and Res Pen. These are all phenomenal buffs to improve Firefly Damage Output. It is not an exaggeration to say that Firefly’s Damage would drop off significantly without Ruan Mei.
Harmony Trailblazer: Harmony Trailblazer (or HMC) is completely free and has amazing synergy with Firefly. HMC provides an instance of Super Break from her Ultimate with essentially 100% uptime, provides a ton of Break Effect buff, has great Toughness Damage on her skill, and is a phenomenal holder of Dance! Dance! Dance! which can net Firefly extra turns if tuned well.
Fugue: Fugue is an alternative for Harmony Trailblazer, providing an extra source of Super Break. While her Exo-Toughness mechanic is not as potent with Firefly compared to other Break DPS like Boothill or Rappa, she is still an exceptional Break Support that provides Break Efficiency, Delay, Break Effect, and even shares Firefly’s element to help break enemies faster.
Himeko: Himeko is a decent partner with Firefly only in Pure Fiction as Firefly’s Fire Weakness Implant helps Himeko trigger her follow-up a lot more frequently in Pure Fiction.
Lingsha: Lingsha is the best Break healer with high AoE Toughness Damage and even serves as an amazing AoE damage in the Super Break team. She shares her element with Firefly as well so she can fully take advantage of Firefly’s Weakness Implant. However, it is worth noting that Lingsha is a lot less SP positive than Gallagher, and Firefly’s team might have problems upkeep SP without Eidolon 1.
Gallagher: Gallagher is the single-target-centric and F2P version of Lingsha. Gallagher does have some perks to him for Firefly. Specifically, he is a lot more SP-positive and is a better holder of the Quid Pro Quo Light Cone.
The Bread and Butter Super Break team. The best variant involves Ruan Mei and one of Harmony Trailblazer / Fugue, but any combination of Ruan Mei, Fugue, and Harmony Trailblazer will be sufficient.
Break Team generally does not have survivability issues since they break enemies too fast and have a lot of delay (from Ruan Mei’s Break Extension, HMC’s Imprisonment from Imaginary Break, and Fugue’s Delay). Thus they can run no sustain team with units like Bronya (for extra Firefly turn) or Pela (for more Def Shred stacking).
This team is solely to take advantage of Firefly’s Weakness Implant to enable AoE Fire Damage Dealer in Pure Fiction.
As far as Super Break DPS goes, Firefly is the cream of the crop. The Break team is extremely easy to pilot and has an amazing floor, thus making it the best archetype for newer players to clear the end game consistently. Firefly being able to breeze through both Apocalyptic Shadow and Memory of Chaos, while also having a good team for Pure Fiction makes her one of the best generalist DPS in the game (provided she is used in her team). Outside of the Super Break team, however, Firefly’s value drops off massively. It is not advisable to pull for Firefly without all the necessary pieces (which, fortunately, can be quite cheap).
For people who already have a solid Super Break team with Firefly as the main DPS, the rerun is an opportunity to vertically invest in her early Eidolons which have amazing value, or get Fugue to improve the team’s performance.
However, it is worth noting that we are on the cusp of a new major patch (3.x). The Super Break team has run rampant throughout 2.x patches with a lot of catered content for them, but there is nothing that warrants things will stay the same in the future. For people who want to hedge against future meta change, it might be best to hold off pulling Firefly so close to the new region.
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