Seed Best Builds, Teams, Guide & Review

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Core Passive

Seed's Core Passive: Flower Chain Protocol revolves around the "Vanguard", who is an Attacker that isn't Seed with the highest base Attack. Without a Vanguard, Seed will not gain any benefits from her Core Passive!

While it is active, it can provide:

• 1,000 Combat Attack
• 30% Crit Damage
• 25% Damage

For both Seed and the Vanguard. This means that Seed functions as both a damage and support unit, providing similar values to that of Astra Yao to herself and the second Attacker.

Whenever the Vanguard uses an energy as the active character, every 1 point of energy spent is converted to 0.5 points of Steel Charge, Seed's unique resource.

The buff portion of the Core Passive does have restrictions though, which means Seed is not quite as straighforward as traditional supports.

Onslaught & Direct Strike

When the Vanguard uses an EX Special, Seed gains Onslaught. When Seed uses EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals, the Vanguard gain Direct Strike.

Each buff lasts 40 seconds when applied and ticks independently of one another. Both of these buffs do the same thing, providing the 1,000 Combat Attack and 30% Crit Damage to the respective unit.

When both buffs are up, the Besiege buff is granted to both Seed and the Vanguard, which is what provides the 25% Damage buff.

However, these buffs only work while the character is active.

Active characters are those you are currently piloting, so an Aftershock attack where a character comes in and appears on screen has them be on-field, but inactive, which means they do not receive the buff.

The buff will linger if you swap out of a character until they go off-field or 3 seconds pass, whichever comes first. So it is safe to swap-cancel out of attacks, as the buff will not disappear straight away.

The buff may not work when a character is inactive, but it is still applied and ticking down its 40 second duration. Swapping back to the character will re-activate the buff, but the remaining duration is only refreshed when an EX Special is used by the other Attacker.

All 3 buffs are also applied when entering the battlefield. This means that if you load into a fight, like Shiyu Defence or Deadly Assaults, the buffs will be ticking down immediately, even while the character walk-in animations play. Enemy spawns/entering combat does not refresh the buff.

Additional Ability

Additional Ability: Surprise Strike can provide:

• 30% DMG Bonus to specific skills
• 25% Electric RES Ignore to specific skills
• 2 energy to Vanguard when Seed deals damage as the active character (1s CD)

The DMG Bonus and Electric RES Ignore work on:

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter
• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
• Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!

The 2 energy generation is very helpful at supplementing Core Passive: Flower Chain Protocol, as it gives the Vanguard more EX Special opportunities, which in turn means more Steel Charge for Seed.

Do keep in mind that it is not 2 energy every second, but 2 energy when Seed deals damage as the active character. Swap-cancelling out of attacks means those attacks will stop generating energy for the Vanguard, and it is unrealistic to expect frame perfect hits every second.

Steel Charge & Basic Attacks

Steel Charge is tracked via the gauge under Seed's portrait.

It has a maximum value of 150, with a notch visible at the 120 mark. Almost every attack will generate Steel Charge, and when there are 120 points or more, the gauge will turn from blue to yellow.

Basic Attack: Chrysanthemum Wheel Dance has decent values and can do some good damage on its 4th hit. It also has a special property where it automatically dodges attacks between the 3rd and 4th hit cast, linking to Dodge Counter: Blossom Burst.

After the 4th hit of her Basic, Seed will transition into Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter

This is when Seed Senior gets summoned to do a punch attack. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter does not generate Steel Charge and can be shortcutted into from most of Seed's attacks:

• Dodge Counter: Blossom Burst
• Quick Assist: Barrage of Raining Flowers
• Assist Follow-Up: Crimson Core Burst
• EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals (if fully cast)

Note that its damage modifier is less than half that of the 4th hit of Basic Attack: Chrysanthemum Wheel Dance, so it isn't a particularly strong attack.

As getting more Steel Charge can be more important than the little extra damage from Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter, it's fine to skip it in favour of extra build-up, but given how quickly it's cast, it's still worth using when possible.

Falling Petals - Downfall

When at over 120 Steel Charge, Seed unlocks an enhanced basic attack, Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall. This can be used after Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter by pressing or holding Basic Attack.

Unlike Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter, which only has a 333% Damage Multiplier, Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall has a value of 3037%, adding up to 3,370% total. For context, Soldier 0 - Anby's Ultimate: Voidstrike deals 3,470%.

It's this attack that makes up the majority of Seed's burst.

Unlike other Attackers that need to build and save up resources for stun, the ease in which Steel Charge is generated means that its possible to fit multiple Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall both before and during stun. In practice, Seed functions as a sustained damage unit who also has access to heavy in-stun burst.

In addition to the previously listed shortcuts to Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter, once the 120 Steel Charge threshold is reached, new shortcuts are unlocked:

• Holding Basic Attack (only once, can be done after any action)
• Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals
• Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!
  (skips straight to Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall)

Remaining Skills

EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals has the highest potential Steel Charge generation out of any skill, with solid daze and damage on top.

It is a channelled skill, where it costs 10 energy at first, is extended by holding down on the EX Special during cast, consuming up to 60 energy total.

While channelling, Seed can move around freely, and if the full 60 energy is used, it will shortcut to Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter.

It can be ended early, which will instead lead to a weak explosion (with Heavy Attack properties), but doing so is not recommended. There explosion attack animation locks Seed for as long as Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter and does barely 1/10th of its damage.

It should be noted that the rocket attacks from this skill are not Finishers or Heavy Attacks. This can delay the start of stun by holding the daze bar at 100, which can be good (if trying to stall for extra Steel Charge) or bad (if needing to speed through to stun).

The rest of Seed's kit is straightforward:

Quick Assist: Barrage of Raining Flowers: Fast, but unremarkable, generating little Steel Charge and having middling stats.

Assist Follow-Up: Crimson Core Burst: Decently strong, but very slow. Still worth using despite its lengthy animation due to its Decibel generation.

Dodge Counter: Blossom Burst: One of the most time efficient ways of generating Steel Charge while also having very good damage and daze. Great all around.

Special Attack: Withered in Frost is a very weak skill with barely any redeemable qualities. Other than its Finisher properties (like for trigger an Anomaly) it should never be used.

Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals: Has good damage and Steel Charge generation, however it is also slow and sometimes lead to combo issues (see "Steel Charge Breakpoints" in Additional Tips).

Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!: Generates a lot of Steel Charge and has the highest single damage multiplier out of any skill in the game, but this comes with by far the longest casting animation. It allows Seed to move and reposition during its cast.

Steel Charge Generation per Skill

1. Core Passive | Basic Attack | Ultimate
2. EX Special
3. Dodge
4. Assist

Reasonings

• The Onslaught, Direct Strike and Besiege buffs all scale directly with Core Passive: Flower Chain Protocol, in addition to giving higher Base ATK and Crit Damage %.
• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall is what makes up the majority of Seed's damage.
• Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! has the highest raw damage multiplier in the game, as well as being integral to rotations, so it should be levelled.

Assist is not too important, but Dodge Counter: Blossom Burst has a good stat spread and will be used often. Since Seed on-fields for most of the fight, it's worth investing in it after levelling Core Passive, Basic Attack and Ultimate.

Seed's Signature makes building her a lot easier and can help her synergise with other characters, but other W-Engines can make do just fine.

Cordis Germina

Cordis Germina (P1) provides:

• 39% Crit Rate
• 25% Electric DMG
• 20% DEF Ignore on Basic Attack and Ultimate

Unlike most other Attackers, Seed has no inherent way of gaining Crit Rate as part of her kit, so she has very steep substat requirements - especially if running Crit Damage % D4. The high Crit Rate from this W-Engine goes a long way at remedying this issue.

With DEF Shred/DEF Ignore getting better the more its stacked, running Cordis Germina with characters like Trigger or Nicole can further increase its value. This does mean PEN % has less value as D5 (and it's outright the worst option if running with Agents that can DEF Shred), so this bonus is partially offset.

Overall it's just a stat-booster, but a very strong one.

Limited Attacker W-Engines

The exact stats vary, but any Limited Attacker W-Engine with a Crit Rate Substat can do just fine. In order of best to worst:

• Heartstring Nocturne
• Myriad Eclipse
• Zanshin Herb Case | Riot Suppressor Mark VI | Deep Sea Visitor | Severed Innocence

The strength depends predominantly on passive buffs:

• Heartstring Nocturne has the highest base stats and no conditionals, followed by Myriad Eclipse.
• Zanshin Herb Case's Crit Rate bonus outside of stun is dependent on Anomaly application, which means mono-Electro teams (like with Trigger | Soldier 0 - Anby) will do better.
• Riot Suppressor Mark VI and Deep Sea Visitor are just used for their stats, but with lower total values than others.
• Severed Innocence should be able to maintain 2 stacks always, but as Seed has no Aftershock attacks, she cannot get the 3 stack bonus.

Cordis Germina would be between 14% to 25% better (depending on which Limited Attacker W-Engine is used), but if any of the above weapons are available, then they are likely to be the second best choice.

The Brimstone

The Brimstone (P1) provides:

• 30% Attack
• Up to 28% Combat Attack

The lack of Crit Rate on this W-Engine can make it very hard to build around, often requiring Seed to run a Crit Rate D4, but even then it's a strong option.

This is because Seed can maintain 100% uptime on all stacks of the Combat Attack buff, having it be active in full for most of her burst. Although it may need bespoke routing in stun combos (such as refreshing stacks before using Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!), most of the time it's doesn't need any active management.

It is barely any worse than most Limited Attacker W-Engines (namely any that aren't Heartstring Nocturne or Myriad Eclipse), and at higher Phase levels it can become the second best W-Engine.

Steel Cusion

Steel Cushion (P1) provides:

• 24% Crit Rate
• Up to 25% DMG Bonus (when attacking from behind)

The Brimstone would be a better Standard S-Rank pick, but barring that, Steel Cushion can work. Since Seed is able to move while casting her EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals and Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!, she can reposition right before a stun and during it to benefit from the DMG % Bonus on back attacks.

Unfortunately, its unlikely this bonus would apply during the out-of-stun period, as bosses are constantly turning around to face the player when attacking, so it falls off in comparison to other options.

Other W-Engines

Marcato Desire would be best, mostly due to it having a Crit Rate substat. Its Anomaly bonus means it'd do better on mono-Electro teams (such as with Trigger | Soldier 0 - Anby), but overall it's about as good as you can get.

As it's an event W-Engine though, newer players will be missing out on it.

Cannon Rotor is a good alternative, and could even be better than Marcato Desire. Since Seed on-fields a lot, she should be able to trigger its Additional Attack almost on cooldown. It also has a Crit Rate substat, making building around it much easier.

Unfortunately, it is not available to F2P, being restricted to the Battle Pass.

Starlight Engine and Street Superstar as craftable options are not particularly good. Both have Attack % mainstats, making them hard to build around.

With Seed being mostly on-field, the special effect from Starlight Engine is easy to upkeep, but it will require a Support Agent to have it up in stun periods.

With Core Passive: Flower Chain Protocol requiring a second Attacker, using this W-Engine means giving up on running Stunners, limiting team comps to a Support | Attacker shell.

On the other hand, Street Superstar can make the already high damage multiplier from Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! go even further, but as it needs Chain Attacks to build stacks, this means it will do worse in teams without Stunners.

So Starlight Engine is best used with a Support 3rd and Street Superstar with a Stunner 3rd.

Stats

D6 - Attack %

There isn't any other offensive stat on this slot for Seed, so Attack % is the only option.

D5 - PEN % | Attack % | Electric DMG Bonus

Which stat is used depends on gear and team comp.

Seed already gets a high amount of Flat Combat Attack from Core Passive: Flower Chain Protocol, then she gets even more of it from Drive Disc substats and the D6 slot, lowering its effectiveness.

DMG Bonus is even worse, being saturated by the Besiege buff and Additional Ability: Surprise Strike for the important Basic Attack and Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!. With the 4-piece bonus from Dawn's Bloom this is goes even further.

PEN % then is the best stat to use, but Cordis Germina has DEF Ignore. Since PEN % and DEF Shred/DEF Ignore effects interfere destructively with one another, that lowers its effectiveness.

Still, PEN % is the best option for Seed even when using Cordis Germina. If using teammates that further contribute to DEF Shred, (like Trigger or Nicole), have M2 "Light Absorption Technique" or there are endgame buffs providing DEF Shred, then Attack % is the best option.

Attack % does lose value when using other Flat Combat Attack buffers (like Lucy, Soukaku, Astra Yao or Yuzuha), in which case Electric DMG Bonus could become the best option, but that would only be the case if at M2+ and/or having significant DEF Shred on endgame buffs.

D4 - Crit Damage % | Crit Rate %

The pick here will ride on which W-Engines are available and the total substat spread.

Cordis Germina means that it should be possible to sustain high Crit Rate with a Crit Damage % D4, especially with support from a 2-piece Woodpecker Electro.

Other Crit Rate mainstat W-Engines may be able to achieve this too, but they would require far more rolls in Crit Rate to make up for the 15% loss (or 19%, if using A-Rank W-Engines) compared to Cordis Germina.

So if struggling to hit high Crit Rate, be it from unlucky substats or using non-Crit Rate mainstat W-Engines, then Crit Rate D4 is best.

A 1:2 ratio of Crit Rate to Crit Damage is standard, but with so much damage being loaded on the final hits of Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall and Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!, performance can be inconsistent if Crit Rate is not prioritised.

Drive Discs

Dawn's Bloom is easily the best 4-piece.

With most of Seed's damage coming from Basic Attack, be it through the burst from Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall or just chipping away at the enemy while on-fielding with Basic Attack: Chrysanthemum Wheel Dance, there is no better alternative.

2-piece has some variance, depending on W-Engines, substat rolls and team comps.

1. Woodpecker Electro

With how difficult it is to get high Crit Rate on Seed - even with Cordis Germina - this is almost always going to be the best-in-slot option.

2. Puffer Electro

If able to sustain high Crit Rate without Woodpecker Electro (90%+ at least) and not using teammates, Mindscapes or buffs that provide DEF Shred, then stacking a PEN % D5 with Puffer Electro would offer the greatest amount of damage.

3. Branch & Blade Song

As Puffer Electro does not work well with DEF Shred, it's fine to use Branch & Blade Song instead, being the best damage Drive Disc alternative in such a situation.

Other damaging Drive Disc sets, like Thunder Metal, Astral Voice or Hormone Punk work too, but they would be worse than the 3 above at equivalent substat counts.

Seed teams are simultaneously very open and restrictive.

As the character does not work without a second Attacker, a slot has to be reserved for one. This means that building a team comp will ride on the Additional Ability criteria of the Vanguard, in addition to how their kit synergises with Seed's.

With how the energy to Steel Charge conversion works, EX Specials with 30 or 60 Energy cost are the most effective for combos, but this can be made up with good energy management on the Vanguard.

Vanguards do not need to be run as secondary damage dealers though. It's fine to ignore their Additional Abilities and just outfit them with Astral Voice, Swing Jazz or Proto Punk, possibly even with an Energy Regen D6 and Housekeeper (although this would ride on if it leads to enough extra Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall in a rotation to make up for the Vanguard damage loss), and they would still perform well.

Vanguards - Good

Soldier 0 - Anby is one of the best teammates available currently. There's multiple reasons for this:

• Additional Ability: Voltage Surge works with both Stunners and Supports.
• 60 energy cost EX Special Attack: Sundering Bolt.
• Does not need to pre-build resource for burst, as EX Special Attack: Sundering Bolt and Ultimate: Voidstrike max the Silver Star mark easily.
• Burst rotations are fast and slot easily alongside Seed's burst.
• Electric element and high Anomaly build-up on EX Special Attack: Sundering Bolt, which means more Shock build-up which can be triggered by Seed for extra Decibels.
• Shares a weakness match with Seed.

Evelyn is also a very strong option for a Vanguard:

• Additional Ability: Ambush Point works with both Stunners and Supports.
• 60 energy cost EX Special Attack: Binding Sunder - Final Form.
• Can still build unique resource due to Seed's energy generation bonuses (although some timed counters may be needed).
• Able to fit in much of her burst in stun without sacrificing Seed's rotation.

Dealing Fire damage can be an issue, as most Electric Weak enemies are Fire Resistant (and vice versa), but against Fire neutral enemies the sheer amount of damage she contributes is more than enough.

Zhu Yuan has a few more limitations, but can also be a good pick, depending on the fight:

• 60 energy cost EX Special Attack: Full Barrage
• Does not like to on-field and can build resources in time for stun with little commitment through Assist Follow-Up: Defensive Counter and EX Special Attack: Full Barrage.
• Fast Chain Attack: Eradication Mode, Ultimate: Max Eradication Mode alongside swap-cancellable Basic Attacks synergise well with Seed's in-stun burst.
• Good element compatibility in enemy encounters (UCC double weakness, Marionette weakness with Electric DMG Bonus Stage Buff, most enemies even in Shiyu are Ether Weak or Neutral, etc).

Unfortunately, she does fall behind Soldier 0 - Anby and Evelyn due to her Additional Ability: Tactical Coordination and Evasive Assist: Guarded Backup.

A lot of either Electric or Ether Weak bosses (Typhon, Miasmic Priest and The Defiler) need at least 2 Agents with Defensive Assists for their mechanics. This means Astra Yao cannot be used alongside Zhu Yuan on those fights, and since she needs a Support it means Nicole is the only real option.

She is still a strong choice regardless, and can be surprisingly competitive despite being 1.0 unit.

Vanguard - Others

Remaining characters are not particularly outstanding. Rather than building them as secondary damage units, it's likely better to run them as supports instead.

Nekomata:

Positives:

• Chain Attack: Claw Swipe, Ultimate: Claw Smash and EX Special Attack: Super Surprise Attack! all execute fast and integrate well in combos.
• Surprisingly good Anomaly build-up potential (good for Decibels).
• Physical element makes her work well against The Defiler.

Negatives:

• Low damage output, to the point she may be better built as a support.
• 40 energy cost EX Special Attack: Super Surprise Attack! is a problem, with 2 casts being needed for enough Steel Charge (80 energy cost total).
• M2 Cat & Mouse only works while Nekomata is on-field.

Harumasa:

Positives:

• 60 energy cost EX Special Attack: Nowhere to Run with very fast execution.
• Animation cancelling Ultimate: Zanshin helps in stun combos.
• Does not take up much field time.

Negatives:

• Additional Ability: Overclock is limiting.
• Combos are not easily integrated with Seed's burst rotation.
• Not enough opportunities to make use of his high damage Dash Attack: Hiten no Tsuru - Slash.

Billy:

Positives:

• 60 energy cost EX Special Attack: Clearance Time.
• M1 Dazzling Entrance can help with extra energy generation during swap cancels.
• Available to all players and can do fine if built for support.

Negatives:

• Additional Ability: Team Starlight is limiting.
• Core Passive: Steady Shot can be difficult to work around in combos due to Crouching Shot maintenance.
• Evasive Assist: Flash Spin restricts the remaining slot to a Defensive Assist character.

And so on. There just isn't much to remaining characters.

Ellen's EX Special Attack: Tail Swipe into EX Special Attack: Sharknami can be an effective way of getting over 60 energy spend for Steel Charge, but it's tricky to integrate shortcuts to the third hit of Basic Attack: Flash Freeze Trimming and her lenghty animations can be hard to work around.

Soldier 11 has strong stun burst potential if Heartstring Nocturne is available, and her M1 Rapid Heat can offset the 80 energy cost EX Special Attack: Fervent Fire, but without these she deals too little damage, is too demanding on energy spend and Additional Ability: Fields of Fire is limiting.

Corin's Defensive Assist: P—Please Allow Me! is incredibly useful - especially against The Defiler (which she has Weakness advantage to), but the channeling nature of EX Special Attack: Skirt Alert makes it too slow to build Steel Charge in critical periods and her burst just takes too long.

Anti-Synergies

There are some characters whose abilities do not synergise well with Seed, or at times even get in the way of her rotation:

Anton may generate Steel Charge for Seed when using Burst Mode attacks, but he cannot refresh the Onslaught buff, as that only applies when using EX Specials. This means Burst Mode enhanced attacks that consume energy do not count. The slow rate of consumption also makes it unwieldy for combos.

Hugo can make combos difficult, as EX Special Attack: Soul Hunter - Punishment's "Totalize" property will immediately end stun. Attempts to build Steel Charge mid-stun will lead to it ending early, robbing Seed of burst potential.

Caesar also suffers, due to her buffs being removed upon swap cancels. This means that stun combos rarely get to integrate the Vanguard's burst, and - as a Defender - she has very few Attackers whose Additional Ability will activate with her.

Remaining Team Slot

Whatever character runs on the final slot is in part dictated by the Vanguard's Additional Ability, although if running them exclusively as a support, it doesn't really matter.

The best options are:

Astra Yao

• Little to no field time required.
• Strong buffs that can support both Seed and the Vanguard's burst potential.
• Best unit to run with support-built Vanguards, due to easy maintenance of both Moonlight Lullaby and Astral Voice.
• Can use Unfettered Game Ball on Ether Weak enemies that makes up for Seed's Crit Rate issues.
• Likely the best non-Vanguard unit from a "cost" perspective.

Trigger

• Little to no field time required.
• Out-of-stun DMG % Modifier enables constant bursting from Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall.
• DEF Shred from Spectral Gaze has good synergy with Cordis Germina.
• Good personal damage.
• Shares a weakness match with Seed, which is particularly helpful due to higher daze application on Electric Weak enemies.
• Has Defensive Assists.

Ju Fufu

• Little to no field time required.
• Ultimate DMG Bonus is particularly strong given the high damage multiplier on Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!
• Decibel cap increase and refund make for much easier rotations that are not dependent on Attribute Anomalies to line up Ultimates.
• Since her bonuses also work on the Vanguard, it's not as difficult for them to keep up with Seed when it comes to Decibel generation.
• Has Defensive Assists.

Nicole

• Little to no field time required.
• Generates a significant amount of Decibels and has good Attribute Anomaly application (which means even more Decibels).
• DEF Shred from Core Passive: Mechanical Case has good synergy with Cordis Germina.
• As her DEF Shred can be applied with Basic Attack: Do As I Please, swap cancelling to Nicole means it is always up for Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
• Has Defensive Assists.

A common pattern is that all good units here are those that do not use up much field time. Seed wants to on-field not just for damage and Steel Charge, but because that also gives energy to the Vanguard.

Swapping to a Vanguard isn't too much of a problem, as many can use the opportunity to build their unique resources, burst, or use their EX Specials for Steel Charge, but the remaining unit in a team has no interaction here.

So the less time that can be spent with them, the better.

This does not mean that on-field units like Qingyi are bad, but rather that Agents who allow for Seed to be the primary active unit tend to do better.

Considering that many Stunners and Supports do just fine only being swap cancelled into for their EX Specials means most units do fine.

Pulchra is an Aftershock stunner with little commitment needed.

Koleda, especially with M2 Kinetic Recovery stuns very quickly.

Rina's PEN % bonuses work well with Seed's penchant for PEN % D5.

The list goes on.

Seed's strength is that she isn't particularly good with any single unit, but she isn't all that bad with them either, being a pseudo-buffer who dishes out damage.

With her buffs being almost as strong as Astra Yao's, there's no issue to use Seed as a replacement for her, treating another Agent as a main damage dealer in content which may be Electric Resistant or Neutral.

Mindscape 1

"Hibernation Period" provides:

• Lowered Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall cost from 120 Steel Charge to 100 Steel Charge.
• 40 Steel Charge bonus when entering the battlefield (Seed now begins with 100 Steel Charge).
• 20 Steel Charge bonus when using Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! (total 80 Steel Charge generation, up from 60).
• 35% Crit Damage Bonus on Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall.

This Mindscape is very strong. The 35% Crit Damage Bonus is nice, but what makes it good is the lowered Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall cost.

When factoring in the increased Steel Charge on battle start allow for an instant Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall, which is a nice Quality of Life for farming, but also a very strong option for Shiyu mob clears.

The lowered cost combined with the ability to Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall right out of the gate means its almost guaranteed that Seed can fit in 1 extra cast between every stun period - sometimes more if not using Stunners - which is a significant increase to her damage output.

And this, combined with the additional Steel Charge gain on Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! mean can open up the potential for 3 Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall in a single stun period.

Better yet is that issues with Steel Charge Breakpoints (see Additional Tips section) are no longer present, as 60 energy cost EX Specials generate enough extra Steel Charge that the missing 0.48 from Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals is no longer an issue.

Although Cordis Germina makes building Seed much easier, if a player has the substats to push high Crit Rates and has a Heartstring Nocturne sitting about, this Mindscape may just be a better option than her Signature.

Mindscape 2

"Light Absorption Technique" provides:

• 20% DEF Ignore on Agents with Besiege (Seed and Vanguard)
• Extension on EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals for an additional 60 energy cost,
• Up to 120% DMG Bonus on Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughterafter EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals (5% per 5 energy used).

Another strong Mindscape for Seed, especially in terms of stats.

DEF Shred/DEF Ignore is highly valued as a stat due to saturation, and since it gets better the more you have of it, when this is paired with Cordis Germina, characters like Trigger or Nicole, or endgame buffs, it can massively increase Seed's total damage output.

There's no catch either, as the total team damage does not suffer. Burst from the Vanguard also benefits from the DEF Ignore, which also scales with their Mindscapes (such as Evelyn M1 Dreamweave).

The extension on EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals is also very helpful, as there may be times where a little extra Steel Charge is required, but the 60 energy consumption cap means Seed is left without. Having fine control over how much energy is spent makes rotations and stun setups much smoother.

It also allows for more freedom on when to use Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter, as it will automatically activate even without "fully casting" EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals; stopping at any point after 60 energy is consumed will still link.

Just be wary of expending too much energy, as Seed still needs to be able to refresh the Direct Strike buff on the Vanguard every 40 seconds.

It may seem like channelling for longer is important, given the 120% DMG Bonus, but that isn't particularly good. Seed is already massively saturated on it and it applies only to a Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter used after EX Special Attack: Raining Iron Petals.

Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter is not hitting so hard that such an increase is meaningful, but it's a nice bonus regardless.

Mindscape 4

"Fragrant Tune" provides:

• 10% Decibel Generation Rate
• 20% DMG Bonus to Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!

When Seed's Besiege is active

This is arguably one of the strongest M4s in the game.

As Dawn's Bloom only applies to Basic Attacks, DMG Bonus to Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! is welcomed as it sees less saturation, but that alone does not make this a good Mindscape.

It's the increase to Decibel generation that makes it so desireable.

It can be difficult in many rotations to have enough Decibels on Seed ready for stuns. Even fights that hand them out freely, such as The Defiler or UCC, still need specific rotations, like multiple back-to-back parries or timing Shock Attribute Anomalies with Seed respectively.

Having a 10% bonus applied to Decibel Generation from all sources is absurdly good.

Everything will give Seed more Decibels. This applies to Seed's attacks, as well as Decibels gained from ally attacks, from bonuses (such as Attribute Anomalies, Perfect Dodges, Quick Assists, etc.) and even from boss stage mechanics - the 1,000 Decibels from UCC leg breaks become 1,100 Decibels instead.

A universal gain in all Decibels gained opens up brand new routing opportunities and can scale with characters and mechanics that may interact with it in the future.

Unlike M2 "Light Absorption Technique", this bonus does not apply to the Vanguard.

Mindscape 6

"Theory of the Heart" provides:

• 50% Crit Damage
• Up to 495% additional Damage Multiplier on Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter (3s CD)

A solid Mindscape from a stat-boosting perspective, with an unconditional 50% Crit Damage equating to more than an D4's mainstat in damage.

What makes this good, however, is that it transforms Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter from a mediocre skill that may sometimes be skipped in favour of Steel Charge to a powerhouse.

After hitting the enemy with Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter, 3 beams will shoot down to deal 165% of ATK as damage each, for a total of 495%. These beams will hitstun weaker enemies.

Considering that - at Level 12 - Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter does 339.8% damage, this translates to a near 2.5x increase in the skill damage, for a total of 834.8% damage.

That is more damage than Miyabi's EX Special Attack: Hisetsu or Soldier 0 - Anby's EX Special Attack: Sundering Bolt in a single skill.

With "Theory of the Heart" activated, it isn't recommended to skip Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter for Steel Charge anymore, as the damage each cast contributes begins to add up over the course of a run.

There is a 3 second cooldown, which means it cannot be looped, but the natural cadence of play should yield frequent enough uses.

Manual Chain

Seed benefits significantly from Manual Chain. This is because Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter is a Heavy Attack, so it can trigger Chains.

Even with 120 Steel Charge in stock, the Chain prompt will appear before Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall can be used. Although it is possible to still get the follow-up by quickly cancelling the Chain prompt, this prevents triple Chain or staggered Chain combos.

Other characters (like if using Astra Yao or Soldier 0 - Anby) also need this to prevent their skills from runining combos, and Stun Recalcs means its always best to delay the first Chain trigger slightly.

Since Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter transitions to Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall by holding Basic Attack, this makes the Manual Chain input very easy and accessible, so it should always be used if possible.

Steel Charge Breakpoints

There will often be situations where Seed is less than a single point off having the 120 Steel Charge required for Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall.

It is particularly egregious when using Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals.

For example (150 Steel Charge):

1. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall (-120 Steel Charge | 30 Steel Charge left)
2. Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals (+29.52 Steel Charge | 59,52 Steel Charge left)
3. Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! (+60 Steel Charge | 119.52 Steel Charge left)

Not having the full 120 Steel Charge after Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! ends means it cannot shortcut straight to Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall.

Combos have to factor this in.

Combos

The basic shell for a Seed stun combo is:

1. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter
2. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
3. Swap cancel to Vanguard, use a 60 energy EX Special (Chain Trigger!)
4. Stunner Chain (King of the Summit)
5. Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals
6. Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!
7. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
8. Swap cancel to Vanguard, use Ultimate or Vanguard's in-stun Combo

Different team comps can optimise this in different ways.

If using Trigger, a single hit of Basic Attack: Chrysanthemum Wheel Dance before Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom! is required for Basic Attack: Harmonizing Shot to re-apply her debuffs.

WIth Evelyn, it may be better to not use her EX Special Attack: Binding Sunder - Final Form and instead start with 150 Steel Charge so that time can be spent on Chain Attack: Lunalux - Snare.

Make use of Basic Attack: Chrysanthemum Wheel Dance or Quick Assist: Barrage of Raining Flowers to make up for Steel Charge Breakpoint issues.

Experiment with different character combinations to best optimise how to fit in Vanguard burst rotations alongside Seed.

M1+ Combo

1. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter
2. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
3. Swap cancel to Vanguard, use a 60 energy EX Special (Chain Trigger!)
4. Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals
5. Cancel Chain Prompt
6. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
7. Swap cancel to Vanguard, use a 60 energy EX Special (Chain Trigger!)
8. Support or Stunner Chain
9. Quick Assist or swap to Seed
10. Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!
11. Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
12. Swap cancel to Vanguard, use Ultimate or Vanguard's in-stun Combo