Artery Gear Fusion Harpist 6-9 Guide [F2P Options Available]

Welcome to the Artery Gear Fusion Harpist tutorial! Much like the Centaur guide, we will go over the key pieces you need to know to clear up to stage 9 and start farming the sweet 6 star sets like Crit Rate, Riposte and Immunity. They are all good sets, with Crit Rate being sought after early game for gearing up your DPS units.

Table of Contents

Harpist Basic Mechanics

The Harpist, unlike Centaur, has 3 minions accompanying her in battle. Let’s take a look at her skills.

Harpist

Requiem Waltz (Basic Attack) – Deal damage to 2 targets and make 1 random ally use Support Attack. If the target has Harpist’s Curse, also inflict “Mourning Concerto” on them. “Requiem Waltz” priortizes targets that have Harpist’s Curse.

To the New World (Active Skill) – Grant Emergency Device to 1 other random ally for 2 turns. Deal damage to all enemies and inflict Harpist’s Curse on 2 random targets for 2 turns. Revive 2 random dead ally.

Mourning Conterto (Passive) – Deal damage to all enemies and inflict DEF Reduction for 2 turns.

Ensemble (Passive) – Upon taking a hit, if there are no other alive allies, reduce the cooldown of all skills by 1 turn. This effect can only activate 1 time every 1 turn.

Cymbal Puppet

Bang the Gong – Deal damage to a single enemy and inflict Harpist’s Curse for 2 turns.

Music Preparation (Passive) – Won’t gain or lose Action bar.

Muffled Army Drum Puppet

Play Drum – Deal damage to a single enemy and inflict DEF Reduction for 2 turns.

Music Preparation (Passive) – Won’t gain or lose Action bar.

As you can see, Harpist’s attacks are all focused around heavy debuffing using Harpist’s Curse and defense break. Her 2 puppets can do the same as well and they cannot be pushed back with action bar manipulation. Every turn, she will call either of her puppets for a dual attack, causing your the main target to do a lot of damage.

If you don’t have immunity or cleanse, it is highly unlikely the target will survive for more than 2 turns, especially if defense broken. Every 4 turns or so, she will revive her puppets if they are dead.

To beat her, the easiest way is to do a lot of damage within the first 2-3 turns before your entire team takes too much damage. Also, she tends to focus on fire units first, so if you have a tanky Morris or another fire unit, they will target them over another element. That will buy you some time. Keep in mind that Harpist hits 2 targets, with the main target taking more damage and debuffs due to the puppet’s dual attack.

Roko will be the easiest way to cheese this stage, which we will get into in the team building section. Other methods require you to build an AoE team that can also kill the puppets, which lowers the damage dealt to your team.

Difficulty and Rewards

Harpist 1-4 is pretty straight forward. Once you get to difficulty 5, it starts getting a bit harder even when you have a full 5 star team. At level 7, you will start to need at least a 6 star DPS or 2 with decent gear to do it well. 7-9 is a lot trickier and will depend on whether you have any damage over time debuffers to handle it. Having 1 or 2 will lower the gear requirements a bit. Below is the drop system on the difficulties:

Difficulty 5 – Drops 5 star Weapons, Power and Shield Systems
Difficulty 6 – Drops 5 star Propulsion System, Aiming and Amplifier Component
Difficulty 7 – Drops 6 star Power and Shield System
Difficulty 8 – Drops 6 star Weapon and Propulsion System
Difficulty 9 – Drops 6 star Aiming and Amplifier Component

The goal is to be able to clear and auto difficulty 9 as soon as possible. Harpist 9 is a bit easier than Centaur 9 as you can use a very accessible 3 star called Roko to cheese it alongside your main damage dealers. The ideal combo in early game is to farm Centaur 7 and 8 for the first 4 slots and Harpist 9 for the Aiming and Amplifier Components. This will give you the most dominant set pairings:

Speed/Crit for DPS
Speed/Immunity for Supports
Riposte/Crit or Immunity for PvP

As for which stats to look for, you will want to search the following:

Propulsion System – SPD main stat, Hp%, Atk%, Def%
Aiming Component – Crit Rate, Crit DMG, Atk%, Hp%
Amplifier Component – Atk%, Acc%, Hp%, Def%, Resistance%, Accuracy%

Avoid all flat main stats here unless you use them temporarily until you find better gear. DPS units will want Atk%, Crit Rate and Crit DMG stats while supports will benefit from HP% mostly. As for accuracy, for doing Harpist 9, you need about 48% accuracy.

Team Building (F2P and Luxury Options Available)

When it comes to building a team, the easiest way early on is to field a team like this:

1 Healer/Cleanser, 1 Support or 2-3 DPS/Debuffers

My team is Roko, Morris, Ginga and Chihaya. Here is an example run.

The success rate at the moment is 80%. I had worst gear the day before, and the success rate was about 40-50%. Once the gear improves, so will your success rate.

Roko 5/5/5 Skills (3★ Green)

Roko is the best unit here since she is easy to get and her skillset literally is designed to destroy high hp bosses. Her skill 3 can apply 2 stacks of corrosion, with each stack taking 5% hp off the boss. Her skill 2 extends the duration of debuffs by 1 to 2 turns and grants a bonus turn if the enemy has the corrosion debuff, following up with a basic attack for 1 more chance to apply a corrosion stack. if everything lands, she gets to use her skill 3 again. This entire chain and some damage from your teammates will be enough to take Harpist down.

My Roko’s gear is fairly minimal and doesn’t need a lot of investment for it to work.

Chihaya 0/0/4 Skills (4★ Blue)

She is most likely on many new player’s Centaur farming team and she can be used again here. Due to her being able to apply defense break, she gets to go again, allowing her to extend her debuff with skill 2. This pairs really well with Roko, as it also extends her corrosion stacks. Try to get as close to 100% crit chance.

I upgraded her gear after almost finishing Ginga’s. I did spend a day farming Harpist 6 prior to attempting Harpist 9 clear. She is on:

Propulsion System – Spd main stat with crit rate and crit dmg
Aiming Component – Crit rate main stat with crit damage, accuracy and hp
Amplifier Component – Atk% main stat with crit rate and crit dmg

Ginga 4/4/5 Skills (5★ Blue)

One of the top debuffers and attackers for this boss. Since she can inflict up to 3 stacks of shock, she synergises well with Chihaya and Roko, who can help extend her shock debuffs, allowing her to do a lot of damage with her skill 3 as the debuffs stack up on the boss.

I invested in her quite a bit and she is using the free 6 star attack set from the Pre-mission briefing day 6 reward. It may not be necessary to skill up her skill 1 at all, especially if you are saving it for other units.

Morris 0/0/4 Skills (4★ Blue)

Morris is the least invested and she is using the free gear for the most part. I did put together an immunity set for her on Harpist 6 so she can survive the first and second hits from Harpist and her puppets. Due to elemental disadvantage, she is always targeted by Harpist, making your other DPS safe from getting 1 shot as long as Morris is alive.

I Don’t Have Ginga! Now What!

Don’t worry, there are plenty of other options you can use for your primary DPS.

Sirius (5★ Green)

One of the top single target DPS to have on your team. She always has elemental advantage on her skill 3, allowing her to do very good damage and it also scales off speed. Due to her low cooldowns, you can pretty much cycle her skills with 2 to 3 to 1 and back to 2 again. Since she gets a speed buff on skill 2 and it extends by 1 turn when she kills someone with skill 3, she can deal a lot of damage to Harpist in a short period of time.

Senba (4★ Green)

A strong AoE attacker with the ability to revive herself if she dies via skill 3. Her passive boosts her speed when she is low on health. Her skill 1 can heal herself based off the damage dealt. Since she is self-sufficient with healing, she can do very well here by keeping herself alive as long as you have decent gear.

Grace (3★ Blue)

Grace can help kill the puppets, but she will need an attack buffer. She helps big time in getting you to difficulty 9. With the beginner attack and crit gear, she can help you get to difficulty 7 with ease.

Ruri (4★ Blue)

Ruri is the better version of Grace when it comes to Harpist. Her skill 3 is an AoE attack that guarantees 2 crits on the enemy and she also gets her own attack buff. She can then follow up with skill 2 AoE attack, which always has elemental advantage. She can help destroy the puppets and do damage to the boss.

Healers and Supports

Hearin (5★ Green)

Another good option if you didn’t want to use Morris. She can AoE heal and cleanse on her skill 3 and push everyone’s action bar up. Her skill 2 cleanses one ally and provides regen. Her skill 1 can heal a little as well. Although she my not be necessary, she does have elemental advantage, making her a much better choice than Morris in term of survivability.

Alice (4★ Blue)

A key unit in rotating the skills of your DPS or Debuffer. She provides attack buff to 1 ally and a bonus turn on skill 2. Her skill 3 slows down the Harpist and her puppets, allowing your team to take more turns. She is without a doubt one of the best supports available.

Caroline (3★ Blue)

She can reduce the cooldown of one ally and allow them to cycle their skills quickly. If you pair her with Roko or Chihaya, she will allow them to use their skill 2 and 3 combo back to back.

Winnie (3★ Green)

Winnie can provide immunity for all allies (3 turns) with skill 3 and defense buff for an ally with the lowest health via skill 1. This will ensure the survival of your DPS. She also can shield herself using skill 2. Very good utility, especially if your Roko is having trouble surviving.

Enhanced Repairer (3★ Red)