{ "name": "Space Zodiacs official player knowledge", "schemaVersion": 1, "contentVersion": "93423e32aabcfd92", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/", "scope": "Public official guides. Availability and account-specific costs must be checked in the current game. Historical review dates are retained per article.", "guides": [ { "id": "starter-learn-to-play", "title": "Learn to play: visual walkthroughs and your first adventure", "summary": "Find a short walkthrough for each feature, resume where you stopped, and follow the next objective for your chosen battle mode.", "category": "beginner", "tags": [ "tutorial", "walkthrough", "first adventure" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-learn-to-play/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-learn-to-play/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## Where are the step-by-step tutorials?\nOpen Codex and choose Learn to play. Search for a feature or choose a category. There are 97 topics, including all fourteen life skills. Each topic has short numbered steps and a screenshot captured from the game. The pictured heroes and balances are examples, not your account.\n\n## Do I have to finish a lesson at once?\nNo. Next saves your place. Close the lesson and reopen it to continue. Back lets you review an earlier step. Your first complete viewing of each topic adds 10 gems to the same saved account; replaying gives no additional gems. If a save fails, the lesson stays on its current step and asks you to retry.\n\n## What should I do in my first session?\nReveal the free starter trio, then choose action RPG (recommended) or turn-based RPG and confirm with \"Start with these three?\". You can reroll before keeping the trio. Turn-based players begin on the Ladder; action players enter Meridian Forest with their first quest already taken, so the next step is talking to Ranger Kael beside the forest gate. The choice does not lock away the other mode.\n\nA new account starts quietly. In the Overworld, enemies do not start fights with you and your heroes cannot fall until you finish Wolves on the Path or reach Overworld level 5. Event cards, chat and mail, banners and red dots, and the skills' notices appear as you level up. The Cash Shop and starter offers appear after your first own summon, not the free starter summon.\n\nFollow Your next objective: summon, choose your team and mode, win a short fight, receive the saved result, and see a hero improve through training, equipment or battle growth. The checklist reads saved progress and does not charge extra resources or invent another battle reward. It resumes on your next visit. Use Show me how to open the matching lesson.\n\n## What if the starter confirmation fails?\nRetry the same choice. If the trio saved but the mode did not, the revealed team stays available while you retry the mode. You do not summon another trio or get sent to the other battle mode.\n\n## What should I do when I return?\nCheck available rewards and your next Ladder stage or Overworld quest. Choose one improvement for the hero who needs it, then attempt that challenge. In the Overworld, Menu keeps the next objective, quests, where to train, skills, heroes and map together, and its Go buttons walk you to a place; the phone field leaves more space for movement and attacks." }, { "id": "starter-account-setup", "title": "Finish sign-in and resume account setup", "summary": "Sign in once, complete eligibility, choose your public username, and wait for your saved game to open.", "category": "beginner", "tags": [ "Google", "sign in", "username", "setup" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-account-setup/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-account-setup/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## What are the setup steps?\nSign in, confirm eligibility, save your public username, then play. With Google, sign in first: one short screen then asks only for a username, with a suggestion filled in that you can change, and one 18+ and terms confirmation. Anything you already entered on the sign-up form, such as a username or the confirmations, is not asked again. A returning account with completed setup goes straight to its saved game.\n\n## Will a failed connection erase my choices?\nThe same tab keeps your selected country and time zone through sign-in and retries. An unfinished public username is saved for the identified account, so reloading that account can restore it. The server remains the authority for accepted eligibility, locked reset time zones and username availability. A pending acknowledgement or profile save is retried with its original request details.\n\nPasswords, birth year and month, and unchecked or checked consent declarations are not stored as setup preferences. A changed legal policy can require you to confirm the current declarations again.\n\n## Google was cancelled or opened inside another app. What next?\nIf a Google sign-in does not finish, tap Tap to finish signing in on the same page. It starts a fresh Google sign-in there; an expired or already-used link is never reused. Google sign-in does not work inside a social app's own browser, so the page offers Open in your browser, or email sign-up instead. You do not need to create a second account.\n\n## My saved game is still loading\nKeep the tab open while it loads. If loading fails, use Try again; if the game is open in another tab, close that tab first. The game does not replace your online progress with an empty local account when a connection fails." }, { "id": "starter-first-session", "title": "Your first session: build a team, find your rhythm", "summary": "Choose action or turn-based play, follow your saved first-adventure objective, and give every upgrade a job.", "category": "beginner", "tags": [ "new player", "first team", "daily loop" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-first-session/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-first-session/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## Choose your first adventure\nReveal your three starter heroes, then choose Action RPG (recommended) for Meridian Forest or Turn-based RPG for the Ladder. Both modes remain available later. An Action start begins with its first quest already taken: talk to Ranger Kael beside the forest gate. A new account then plays a short guided first session: one glowing button at a time, everything else out of the way until it is taught. In about fifteen minutes it covers moving, fighting and dodging in the Overworld, catching a minnow at Brookside and cooking it at the campfire (Action start), a turn-based Ladder climb by hand and on Auto, your free daily summon, one Gear Summon worn at once, a first Dungeon run on the Beginner difficulty with its Sigil worn and powered up once, and your home screen. Beginner, an easier difficulty before Very Easy, stays open after that; Very Easy and the rest open at Ladder stage 10. Controls you have not met yet appear as each step introduces them. Follow the saved next objective through your first fight, its rewards and a visible improvement. The Show me how link opens a short visual lesson for that step. Codex > Learn to play lets you search all walkthroughs and resume a lesson.\n\n## Start with your collection\nOpen Heroes and inspect the skills on the units you actually own. Pick a small core you can explain: someone to finish a target, someone to keep that damage dealer alive, and a third hero who solves the problem you are facing. A familiar kit is easier to improve than a team picked only for its art or rarity.\n\nRead the exact variant name. Male and Female Zodiacs can play very different roles. Cancer Male provides protection; Cancer Female has healing. The shared sign does not make their kits interchangeable.\n\n## Use Ladder to find your next problem\nOpen Ladder for turn-based battles. Choose a skill and target when prompted, or use Auto when available. Watch who falls first, whether your damage spreads too thinly, and whether healing arrives in time. Change one thing, then compare the next attempt. If every hero changes at once, it is hard to tell which change helped.\n\nHeroes, Training Grounds, Equipment and Sigils are useful places to investigate an auto Ladder wall. Upgrades help progression modes. Check each mode's current stat preview rather than transferring a build assumption between them.\n\n## Make Daily Adventures part of your loop\nChoose the resource you need in Adventures. Crystal Vault gives Gems, Nebula Refinery gives Casino Tokens, Starlight Spring gives Energy, Astral Workshop gives Upgrade Points, Celestial Treasury gives Armory Points, and Treasure Keep gives boxes. Read the reward preview for your current personal expedition step.\n\nEach resource advances after one successful clear per day. A missed day does not reset that resource's progress. Start with a legal team of three to five available heroes of different species. A loss does not use the daily clear; regroup and try again with a different team.\n\n## Follow the Beginner Week\nThe 7 Days button on the Ladder toolbar opens your first week of tasks: three a day, each teaching one part of the game and paying a small reward, a chest for every finished day and a Grand chest on Day 7. A new day opens each local day, but you can work ahead, and everything stays claimable for two weeks.\n\n## Let the timers work for you\nYour Ladder team keeps earning AFK treasure while you are away, for up to 12 hours, so collect it before it fills. Fast Rewards hands you two hours of it at once (the first each day is free). You also get one free Premium summon a day on the all-signs Zodiac banner and one free Casino spin a day.\n\n## Spend with a purpose\nTrain and equip the core you use before spreading resources across every new pull. Keep promising support and control options, even if they are not in today's team. A new enemy can turn a bench unit into the missing answer.\n\nFor exact summon tables, open the Codex. This guide does not promise a particular pull or a universal best starter. Campaign is currently removed or awaiting repair; it is not a required step in this route.\n\n## Once Tower becomes available\nThis paragraph covers Tower rule version 2: exactly three owned, available heroes, manual 3v3 and Easy, Medium and Hard with 100 floors each. Rule 2 normalizes stats, so gear and levels do not supply combat advantages. Learn target selection, Guard and Interrupt. A stat-enabled Tower rework is being prepared; this rule-2 advice is not a claim about that unreleased version.\n\n## Keep equipment dungeons separate\nForge, Venom and Eclipse are equipment encounters, not the daily resource tracks. Their preview tells you the counter and entry requirements. A team that beats one boss is a starting hypothesis for another, not a universal recommendation. The v13 dungeon articles include tested full teams and finite build budgets; begin with the matching run policy and one complete recipe." }, { "id": "starter-daily-rhythm", "title": "Your daily rhythm: energy, AFK treasure and free rewards", "summary": "Where each day's resources come from, when they refill, and a ten-minute routine that keeps every timer working for you.", "category": "beginner", "tags": [ "daily", "energy", "afk", "routine" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-daily-rhythm/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-daily-rhythm/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-17", "content": "## Energy\nEnergy pays for Adventures, Dungeons and Training Grounds. It refills by one point every five minutes, up to 288 stored, which is a full bar in a day. A level-up also hands you 10 Energy. When you want to keep going, 20 gems buy 60 more.\n\n## AFK treasure\nYour Ladder team keeps earning while you are away, for up to 12 hours, and climbing the Ladder raises the hourly rates. After 12 hours the chest stops filling, so collect it at least twice a day. Fast Rewards gives you two hours of treasure at once without touching the chest: the first each day is free, then 50, 100 and 150 gems, four a day.\n\n## Free every day\n- A free Premium summon on the all-signs Zodiac banner.\n- A free Casino spin.\n- The Daily gift and the day's missions.\n- One clear of each Daily Adventure resource.\n- During your first week, three Beginner Week tasks and their day chest.\n\n## A ten-minute routine\n1. Collect your AFK treasure and the free Fast Reward.\n2. Take the free Premium summon and the free Casino spin.\n3. Claim the Daily gift, then pick up missions as you play.\n4. Run the Daily Adventures for the resources you need next.\n5. Attack the Weekly Titan and check in with your guild.\n6. Spend Energy on the mode where you are stuck, then set your Ladder team before you leave.\n\n## Before you log off\nThe AFK chest's resources grow with your highest Ladder stage, and its experience goes to the heroes on your Ladder team, so leave the heroes you are raising there. A full Energy bar stops refilling, so spend it before a long break." }, { "id": "starter-friends-guilds", "title": "Friends, guilds and the Weekly Titan", "summary": "What friends, mail, invites, the Weekly Titan and guilds give you, and the small daily habits that collect it all.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "friends", "guilds", "titan", "community", "events" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-friends-guilds/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-friends-guilds/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-17", "content": "## Friends\nAdd players by username or from the suggestions in Community, up to 50 friends. Cheers go out to every friend once a day on their own, and the cheers you receive pay a small reward. In a Dungeon you can borrow a friend's hero: five borrows a day, one from each friend. When a friend borrows yours, you get a reward too.\n\n## Mail and invites\nRewards from the team arrive in Mail, and you claim them there. Share your invite link and a new player can use it during their first seven days. When they qualify, you are both rewarded.\n\n## The Weekly Titan\nA new Titan arrives every Monday (UTC). You can attack three times a day, and each attack adds your share to everyone's bar, up to 2,500 an attack. Chests open as the bar fills, and attacking once that week lets you claim them. The fight is the same for everyone, so the high scores compare like with like.\n\n## Guilds\nA guild holds up to 30 players. Create one with a name, a tag and a crest, or join an open guild or ask to join one. Check in once a UTC day for gems and Energy. Check-ins are the guild's experience, and the reward grows as the guild levels up, to level 20. The guild chest has four tiers that open as members' Weekly Titan shares add up. Only attacks made while you are in the guild count, and you can claim once you have attacked since joining. Guild chat keeps everyone in step.\n\n## Events\nLimited events bring their own currency, path and shop. Read the current event panel for battle availability, claim deadlines and shop closing times. Those windows can differ. An old event date in a guide or video does not confirm that an event is active today." }, { "id": "starter-daily-routine", "title": "Daily Adventures: choose the resource, respect the boss", "summary": "Six resource expeditions with personal clear progress. Learn what resets, what persists and how to prepare a useful squad.", "category": "adventures", "tags": [ "resources", "daily", "bosses" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-daily-routine/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-daily-routine/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-07", "content": "## Pick the reward your account needs\nCrystal Vault supplies Gems, Nebula Refinery supplies Casino Tokens, and Starlight Spring supplies Energy. Astral Workshop supplies Upgrade Points. Celestial Treasury supplies Armory Points, which are different from premium Star Credits. Treasure Keep supplies summon boxes; check the preview for the Regular and Premium rewards at your current step.\n\nA sensible habit is to ask what you are trying to do next. Casino Tokens for the Casino, Energy for eligible runs, Upgrade Points for a hero project, or Armory Points for equipment summoning each supports a different plan. The reward preview is more useful than an old fixed difficulty payout chart.\n\n## Your clears set the pace\nThe current system tracks a personal clear count separately for each resource. New runs use that progress to choose the encounter; they do not let you jump to a selected difficulty. One successful clear advances that resource each day. The local midnight reset and current availability are displayed in the game. Missed days do not erase your progress.\n\nCasino Tokens, Gems and Energy currently begin at 100 per expedition and increase by one for each prior successful clear. Other reward tracks use their own gradual progression and caps. This distinction matters: do not assume every reward grows without limit or that every difficulty label selects a new payout.\n\n## Build three to five available heroes\nDaily Adventures require three to five heroes of different species. Units unavailable because of an expedition cannot be selected. If another battle is active, finish it or use its existing resume or retreat controls first.\n\nThese expeditions prepare your actual combat stats and equipped items. Bring a trained core and read the boss mechanics. A support slot is valuable when it keeps your damage dealer acting; adding support indefinitely is not a solution if nobody can finish the boss. Tower's rules are checked separately by version; do not assume a future Tower rework uses this expedition model.\n\n## React to the encounter, not a tier list\nAgainst repeated damage, consider healing and protection. Against a protected target, focus pressure and disruption can matter more than spreading damage. Bosses have authored resistance rules, so ordinary control or damage-over-time assumptions are not a guarantee. Check the encounter and battle status descriptions.\n\nThe recommendation button can propose a team from your roster. Treat it as a starting point and inspect the skills. A suggestion cannot promise that every roster or battle seed wins. Late Forge, Venom and Eclipse results are evidence for separate equipment encounters, not a tested clear rate for these daily bosses.\n\n## If a run goes badly\nA loss does not consume the successful daily clear. Return to the team screen, check which hero failed first, and change the slot responsible for that failure. Keep a saved active run through the offered resume flow. Repeated clicking is not a way to collect extra daily rewards." }, { "id": "starter-tower", "title": "Tower: win the decision, not the gear check", "summary": "Rule-2 snapshot: read chapters and universal controls in the normalized three-hero mode. The stat-enabled rework needs a separately checked guide.", "category": "tower", "tags": [ "manual combat", "rule 2", "counterplay" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-tower/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-tower/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-07", "content": "## Check the rule version first\nThis is the checked Tower rule-version-2 article, not a preview of the stat-enabled Tower rework. Rule 2 is the inspected source's normalization model. Apply the following stat, mode and reward details only when your run uses that version; new rules need their own checked guide.\n\n## The rules that change your team choice\nTower uses exactly three owned, available heroes and normalized combat stats. Levels, rank, equipment, Sigils, mastery, Overdrive and account bonuses do not provide a stat advantage. Native kits and elements still differ, so a unit with the right utility can earn its slot even when you have not invested heavily in it.\n\nEasy, Medium and Hard each contain 100 floors. Clear floor 100 to unlock the next mode, then explicitly enter it. Each mode keeps its own progress. This is manual battle: choose a skill and its legal target on each player turn. There is no automatic climb.\n\n## Read the next enemy action\nEvery hero can use Guard and Interrupt in addition to its native skills. Guard shields the acting hero against an incoming attack. Interrupt cancels one enemy action and then goes on cooldown. Save it for an announced order that would undo several of your turns.\n\nWhen a burst or execution marks a victim, plan the victim's defensive turn. An unrelated hero guarding itself does not protect that marked ally. Native ally protection can also help, but inspect the target and timing rather than guessing from the animation.\n\n## Ten chapters, different answers\n- Shield sentinels: focus one target and interrupt the leader before its barriers return.\n- Venom court: interrupt poison pressure and preserve sustain before damage accumulates.\n- Renewal circle: focus the healer. Spread damage gives restoration room to undo your work.\n- Storm relay: stop the relay leader before allies gain turn readiness.\n- Flame battery: watch the marked victim; Guard or interrupt the charged burst.\n- Frost tribunal: keep a useful healing turn and time interruptions between control effects.\n- Mirror conclave: avoid spending your largest hit into an active mirror. Use an exposed target or stop the ward.\n- Predator pact: protect the marked ally and finish a predator before focus repeats.\n- Resurrection watch: prioritize support and interrupt restoration of the fallen team.\n- Eclipse council: solve healer, barrier and burst together; keep an interrupt ready for the leader.\n\n## How modes become harder\nThe enemy HP budget does not simply balloon with floor number. Medium and Hard use stronger announced mechanics, more frequent orders and tighter targeting pressure. The same team can need a different turn plan. Use the scout and chapter hint before starting; swap a slot when its job no longer fits the encounter.\n\nPhantom Knight offers an ally barrier and Silence. Cancer Female offers team healing and a long-cooldown single-target recovery. Those are useful tools, not a guaranteed clear team. Universal Interrupt is often the direct answer to an announced order even when native control is unavailable.\n\n## Rewards are first-clear rewards\nEasy pays a Regular box on each first clear and a Premium box every tenth floor. Medium and Hard pay a Premium box on each first clear and a Chaos box every tenth. Receipts are permanent per mode and floor; completing Hard does not reset it into a repeatable box farm. Losses cost no Energy, so study the feedback and retry a better plan." }, { "id": "starter-ladder", "title": "Auto Ladder: diagnose the wall before upgrading", "summary": "A repeatable way to judge survival, damage and auto skill timing using your own roster, instead of chasing an unverified meta.", "category": "ladder", "tags": [ "auto", "progression", "wall" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-ladder/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-ladder/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-07", "content": "## Let the auto fight show the problem\nLadder is automatic. Your main decisions happen before combat: the roster, investments and available setup options. A clever manual Tower turn sequence does not prove the same team will perform well on auto.\n\nWatch a loss once before changing the team. Ask whether your damage dealer dies early, your support cannot keep pace, or the enemy survives with very little pressure. Those are different problems. Use the battle details and current stage preview to choose the next experiment.\n\n## When survival is the bottleneck\nTry a protection or healing role if it gives the rest of the team more useful turns. Cancer Male can shield allies and protect one teammate; Cancer Female heals allies. Phantom Knight brings an ally barrier with status protection while it lasts. Match those tools to the damage pattern and check their cooldowns.\n\nYou still need enough damage to finish. Replacing every damage slot with sustain can keep a losing fight alive longer without making it winnable. If an added support does not buy meaningful turns, compare another option.\n\n## When damage is the bottleneck\nInspect your damage dealer's training, equipment and skill behavior. Aquarius Male has area damage and buff theft; Capricorn Male builds enemy stacks and spends them through area pressure. They can be candidates against groups when the auto sequence has time to work. Neither is proven strongest at every stage or investment level.\n\nIf an enemy support keeps undoing damage, more distributed damage may be the wrong answer. Compare a kit with focused pressure or disruption from the units you own. Check exact variant skills in Heroes; a shared Zodiac name does not imply a shared rotation.\n\n## Change one thing at a time\n- Keep the stage and your core as consistent as possible.\n- Change one hero or one upgrade choice.\n- Observe which enemy remains, who falls first and whether the fight's failure changed.\n- Repeat enough to avoid treating one lucky control proc as a permanent solution.\n\nThis is a testing habit, not a promised win-rate calculation. Outcomes depend on enemy composition, investment, cooldowns and battle randomness. Power totals and screenshots from another account do not tell the whole story.\n\n## Keep modes separate\nProgression investments can help Ladder, Daily Adventures and equipment dungeons, but the relevant kit and sequence differ. A specialized dungeon team is not a measured auto Ladder ranking. Tower rule 2 normalizes its combat budget, so revisit the scout and manual decisions before buying a stat upgrade for that version." }, { "id": "starter-roles", "title": "Useful heroes by job: read the variant, then the matchup", "summary": "Source-backed examples for sustain, protection, control and damage. These are candidates to test, with limitations, rather than a universal tier list.", "category": "heroes", "tags": [ "role guide", "support", "damage" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-roles/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-roles/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-07", "content": "## Start with a job description\nChoose the problem first, then look for a kit. The examples below are verified against the current native skill assignments. They are role recommendations based on mechanics, not measured rankings across every mode, rarity, investment level and opponent.\n\n## Sustain: buy another useful turn\n**Cancer Female** has Mother Nature for team healing and Passionate Love for single-ally recovery and protection. Consider her when damage is wearing your team down. The large recovery has a long cooldown; she cannot rescue every ally every turn. In Tower, reserve recovery around announced pressure. On auto Ladder, watch whether its timing actually helps.\n\n**Taurus Female** mixes a self-shielding attack, an ally heal that builds stacks, and a team heal that spends them. She is a candidate for sustained fights where that sequence has time to work. A short damage race may not give the full stack cycle value.\n\n**FairyKnight** brings targeted healing and team Swift. Consider the turn support when it helps the rest of the team act. Do not confuse a speed tool with guaranteed survival against an immediate burst.\n\n## Protection and disruption\n**Cancer Male** has Hard Shell Nature for allied shields and Passionate Protector for one teammate's immunity. He fills a different job from Cancer Female. A protected damage dealer still needs to turn that protection into progress.\n\n**Phantom Knight** has Phantom Ward for an ally barrier that absorbs damage and blocks negative states until depleted, plus Spectral Rebuke for Silence. He is a candidate against dangerous status pressure or enemy skills. A broken barrier no longer supplies its status protection. In Tower, native Silence and the universal Interrupt are distinct tools; inspect the announced action.\n\n**Aquarius Female** supplies targeted healing and Swift, copies an ally debuff to an enemy, and can copy enemy buffs to an ally. Consider the utility when those states matter. Copying a debuff does not promise it is removed from the ally, and there may be nothing useful to copy in a particular fight.\n\n## Damage and setup\n**Aquarius Male** combines single-target buff theft with multihit area damage. Consider him against groups or buffed enemies. Broad damage can be wasted if a healer restores everyone; focus the threatening support when the mode allows it.\n\n**Capricorn Male** builds enemy stacks and spends them with Executive Command. He is a candidate when a fight supports that setup. It takes turns to establish pressure, so compare immediate damage if your team cannot survive the setup.\n\n**Anubis** brings single-target pressure, Curse and strength reduction, plus a stun and buff theft tool. Consider disruption against a dangerous attacker. Chance-based effects and boss resistance keep control from being a guaranteed plan.\n\n## A useful bench beats one forever-team\nTower rule 2 values owned utility at equal stats. Ladder values auto sequencing and actual investments; Daily Adventures values a legal available team and the resource boss. Keep alternatives for these jobs. Check Heroes for all native and additional skills before committing resources, because this starter overview does not list every option.\n\n## Dungeon jobs have narrower evidence\nRepeated-hit pressure, Curse/ailments/cleanse, and theft/grounding answer different equipment bosses. The v13 articles name the tested five-hero combinations, including Phoenix Female in Forge and Eclipse. Keep the complete build and its finite budget in view; a role example is not a validated substitute by itself. Non-Chaos baseline evidence does not establish that a hero is strongest in every mode or that its Chaos form uses the same plan." }, { "id": "starter-teams", "title": "Build teams around failure points, not matching rarity", "summary": "Three practical team patterns, how to adapt them to each mode, and why a support slot should earn its place.", "category": "teams", "tags": [ "synergy", "lineup", "bench" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-teams/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-teams/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-07", "content": "## Give every slot a purpose\nA starting pattern is pressure, sustain, and utility. Pressure finishes a target. Sustain keeps useful turns coming. Utility handles a specific enemy mechanic. That is a checklist, not a forced class system: some kits cover more than one job, and some encounters reward extra focused damage instead of more healing.\n\nUse owned units as substitutions. You do not need a particular premium pull to begin thinking this way. Compare the actual skill descriptions, cooldowns and targets in Heroes.\n\n## Pattern one: protect the finisher\nPair a damage role with ally protection and a flexible support. Cancer Male or Phantom Knight can offer protection; Cancer Female offers recovery. Choose the actual variant you own. In a manual battle, time a protective skill around the enemy intent and current legal targets. In auto Ladder, watch whether the automatic sequence protects the hero who needs it.\n\nThe weakness is tempo. Too much protection can leave you unable to finish a healing enemy. If the battle drags, consider replacing redundant sustain with targeted pressure or disruption.\n\n## Pattern two: setup and payoff\nStack-based kits, such as Capricorn Male's enemy-stack pressure or Taurus Female's healing cycle, need turns to prepare. Surround them with tools that keep the plan functioning. Read which hero or target receives stacks; different stack labels are not automatically interchangeable.\n\nThe weakness is early pressure and control. If the setup hero falls or loses key turns before its payoff, the theoretical synergy does not help. Try a faster answer rather than assuming higher rarity fixes the sequence.\n\n## Pattern three: counter the encounter\nScout the enemy and assign a counter slot. A barrier can help against negative states while it survives. Buff theft or copying can create value against buffs. Focused disruption can matter against a healer. An area attacker may help against groups, but can be the wrong tool when restoration undoes spread damage.\n\nTower rule 2 gives every hero Guard and Interrupt. Select native utility that complements those controls rather than duplicating a job everyone already has. Against a marked burst, the victim's timing matters more than a generic defensive label.\n\n## Respect each mode's roster rules\n- Daily Adventures: three to five available heroes of different species. The selector enforces the composition rules.\n- Tower: rule 2 uses exactly three owned, available supported units with normalized stats; this is not the unreleased stat-enabled rework.\n- Equipment dungeons: three to five different owned species; entry readiness and boss-counter readiness are different checks.\n- Auto Ladder: use its own saved team and setup controls; manual turn timing from Tower is not transferable.\n\nAvailability matters. If a hero is on expedition, use another legal option rather than planning around an unavailable slot.\n\n## Review one loss with a clear question\nWho failed first? Which enemy action caused it? Was the problem damage, survival, status pressure, or cooldown timing? Swap the slot with the weakest answer, then compare. A team recommendation is a hypothesis you can test, not a promise that the same lineup clears every mode.\n\n## Tested combinations are not a mixing chart\nForge has three evidenced v13 options, Lycan, Storm and Phoenix, plus Lycan-Storm as a bounded attacker substitution. The Phoenix team uses Phoenix Female. Venom and Eclipse retain separately evidenced v12 cores under the unchanged non-Forge compatibility check. Shared heroes and limited substitutions are allowed; recovery is useful but is not a mandatory role in every successful Forge build. Stronger investment may overpower earlier floors. No screened late team qualified as a universal across all three bosses; a finite search does not prove universal teams are impossible." }, { "id": "starter-progression", "title": "Progression priorities: invest where the next goal needs it", "summary": "Keep a useful core, choose the right resource expedition, and separate permanent account growth from Tower counterplay.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "training", "equipment", "planning" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-progression/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-progression/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-07", "content": "## Pick one near-term goal\nDecide whether you want a better auto Ladder result, a daily resource clear, a new roster option, or a Tower chapter. Write the goal in plain terms: survive the first burst, finish the healer, or obtain the resource for an upgrade. That makes the next investment easier to judge.\n\n## Build a core before widening every project\nTraining Grounds levels heroes; Upgrade heroes changes rank; Equipment and Sigils shape combat builds. These are different systems. Inspect the preview and cost in the relevant screen instead of assuming that one type of progress substitutes for another.\n\nDevelop the units you regularly use in progression modes. Keep a utility bench, but avoid pouring resources into five simultaneous projects just because each new pull is interesting. A coherent core is easier to test.\n\nHero rank caps differ: S stops at level 125, while Z stops at level 200. An SSS equipment grade or +50 refinement label is not a hero rank/level promise. Read the training and promotion preview before estimating the cost of a project.\n\n## Let resources support the plan\nDaily Adventures offers a separate expedition for the resource you need. Personal successful clears advance each track; skipped days do not reset it. Read the current reward and encounter preview. The difficulty labels and old reward tables do not mean you can skip directly to a chosen new-run tier.\n\nUse the in-game controls for Training and equipment runs, including their access requirements and current allowances. A guide cannot override a lock or promise that a particular resource budget will bypass it.\n\n## Know when investment is the wrong answer\nTower rule 2 normalizes stats. More levels, gear, mastery or account bonuses do not fix an incorrectly timed Guard, a missed Interrupt, or spread damage into a healer in that version. Study the enemy's counter hint and native kits as well as its numbers.\n\nOn auto Ladder or in Daily Adventures, investments can improve the team, but utility still matters. If the enemy's mechanic is defeating your current lineup, compare a counter role before blindly increasing damage.\n\n## Budget a dungeon recipe before farming\nAn equipment-dungeon floor's trained-core unlock is an entry minimum, not a winning build. Stronger gear is allowed on earlier floors. The late v13 examples use Z200 non-Chaos heroes, finite prior-floor whole-item pools and legal five-star Sigils, without Overdrive, mastery or account/collection multipliers. The build-plan article itemizes candidate counts and Armory Point costs and discloses the unpriced ownership, drop and farming-time costs. Keep performance samples separate when their rules, inventories or loadouts differ.\n\n## Protect useful collection options\nRead every sacrifice, fusion or rank-up preview carefully. A spare unit may still be your only copy of a needed utility kit or variant. Keep the option until you understand the tradeoff. This guide does not prescribe a universal fodder list or recommend sacrificing named rare heroes.\n\n## Revisit goals after a clear\nOne successful change does not establish a forever build. Enemy compositions and mode demands change. Check the next encounter, update the goal, and use the same deliberate process. Campaign is currently removed or pending repair, so no Campaign farm is part of these priorities." }, { "id": "starter-summoning", "title": "Summoning: boxes, banners and guarantees", "summary": "What each box can give, how the 100-summon guarantee, the wishlist, Stars and the weekly Featured Zodiac work, and how to choose a banner.", "category": "summoning", "tags": [ "loot boxes", "guarantee", "wishlist", "featured", "gacha" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-summoning/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-summoning/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-17", "content": "## Three boxes, three jobs\n- Regular Lootbox (one box or 10 gems): monsters only, 80% common and 20% rare. Their rank, F to B, improves with the highest Ladder stage you have ever cleared, and you always get B or better within 10 pulls and A within 40. Ten pulls give ten heroes.\n- Premium Lootbox (one box or 50 gems): where Zodiacs come from. Each summon has a 1% chance of an A-rank Zodiac; otherwise it is a B-rank rare monster. A 10+1 gives eleven.\n- Chaos Lootbox (one box or 1,000 gems): 5% A-rank Zodiac, 94% B-rank rare monster and 1% Chaos Zodiac, the rarest art in the game. It has no guarantee and does not move the Premium counters.\n\n## The 100-summon guarantee\nEvery Premium banner counts your summons since its last Zodiac, and the 100th is always a Zodiac. A Zodiac from a paid summon resets that banner's counter, and the bonus eleventh of a 10+1 does not count toward it. The meter on the Summon page shows how close you are.\n\n## Choose your banner\n- Zodiac Summon (all signs): every Premium Zodiac can appear. Your free daily Premium summon is here.\n- Fire, Water, Air and Earth: every Zodiac result comes from that element's three signs, in both forms, and each has its own counter.\n- Featured Zodiac: one Zodiac a week, changing every Monday at 00:00 UTC. When a Zodiac arrives here it is the featured one at least half the time, and after a different Zodiac your next one from this banner is guaranteed to be featured. That promise carries over to later weeks until it is used. It costs the same as Premium and shares the all-signs counter.\n\n## Wishlist and Stars\nName up to four Zodiacs on your wishlist and a quarter of your Zodiac results on the all-signs Zodiac Summon come from it (the element and Featured banners do not use it). Every Premium summon, the bonus eleventh included, also earns a Star. Spend 150 Stars to arm a random A-rank Zodiac for your next Premium single or ten-summon, using that banner’s eligible pool. One guarantee can be armed at a time; extra Stars stay banked. Arming does not summon a hero or pay the next summon’s cost.\n\n## A head start for new players\nUntil your first three Zodiacs arrive, paid Premium summons have a 5% Zodiac chance instead of 1%. The Beginner ribbon on the Premium banners shows how many you still have.\n\n## Read the outcome before deciding its job\nCheck the full species and variant, its rank, its native skills and what you already own. Male and Female forms of a sign can play very different roles. A utility pull may fill a gap even if it is not your strongest attacker, and a new damage hero may be redundant if your team lacks protection or healing. Compare upgrade and sacrifice previews before consuming a unit.\n\n## Avoid the usual gacha traps\n- A lucky screenshot does not establish a rate. The rates button on the Summon page shows the real ones.\n- Counters belong to banners. Switching from Fire to Water does not carry your Fire progress, though the Featured banner and the all-signs banner share one.\n- The counters and Stars are the only guarantees. There is no hidden pity beyond them." }, { "id": "starter-dungeon-investment", "title": "Equipment dungeons: a finite build plan before the next floor", "summary": "Separate access from clear readiness. Read the tested non-Chaos budgets, legal gear and Sigil choices, and the limits of the evidence.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "dungeons", "v13", "build budget" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-dungeon-investment/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-dungeon-investment/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-08", "content": "## Match the run before copying the build\nUse this article for newly entered dungeon-balance-v13 runs. An already-paid run keeps its pinned rules; do not apply a new counter window to an older saved encounter. These optional full-team examples are transcribed from the committed editorial guide. They do not guarantee a clear for every account; keep experimenting with the heroes you own.\n\nDaily Adventures are the personal daily resource expeditions. Equipment dungeons are the separate Forge, Venom and Eclipse encounters under Adventures. Their eight floors are Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Medium-Hard, Hard, Very Hard, Insane and Insane+. A stronger account can overgear an earlier floor; late specialization does not forbid that.\n\n## Unlocks are an entry check, not a winning team\nForge opens at Ladder 10. Venom needs Ladder 30 and a Forge clear; Eclipse needs Ladder 60 and a Venom clear. Previously earned access is retained. New floor entry also checks a trained core of three different species, a previous-floor clear, available owned heroes, Energy and inventory room. Passing a lock does not mean the minimum entry levels can beat the boss.\n\nUnit rank and equipment grade are separate. Heroes cap at Z level 200; S caps at 125. An SSS+50 gear comparison does not mean a hero has an SSS+50 rank. The late baseline teams below use Z200 heroes without Chaos, Overdrive, mastery, collection/account multipliers or refinement.\n\n## Earlier-floor examples are stepping stones\nThe historical reference recipes use F10 with no gear on Very Easy; D30, floor-1 gear and Rare +3 Sigils on Easy; B60, floor-2 gear and Rare +6 on Medium; A80, floor-3 gear and Heroic +9 on Medium-Hard. Hard's corrected examples use Forge S110, Venom S100 and Eclipse S120, floor-4 one-line gear and Heroic +12 Sigils. These are examples at stated budgets, not newly retested clear-rate confirmations or mandatory levels for every account.\n\nFor Hard Forge, the corrected ordinary team is Gemini Male, Samurai, Tengu, Lycan and Gemini Female. The original early Forge reference should not be promoted into the corrected Hard clear. Keep the tested full team together before experimenting with one change.\n\n## The finite late baseline\nEach hero wears three whole prior-floor Bastion equipment items and six legally generated five-star Sigils. Damage/hybrid recipes use four Fury Sigils with legal slot mains; support recipes favor Bastion Sigils and HP. Main-stat choice is slot-bound: an attack main cannot simply replace every defensive or HP slot. Substats and upgrades are finite rolls, not perfect lines chosen independently.\n\n- Very Hard, floor 6: floor-5 gear, two active affix lines, Heroic +12 Sigils; eight whole candidates per gear slot.\n- Insane, floor 7: floor-6 gear, three active lines, Legendary +15 Sigils; eight candidates per slot.\n- Insane+, floor 8: floor-7 gear, four active lines, Legendary +15 Sigils; sixteen candidates per slot.\n\nThose pools are finite whole-item choices across a five-hero team. Candidate upgrades are part of the recipe; it does not grant free affix rerolls or undo failed rolls. This is an investment reference, not a required farm count or a prediction of real elapsed days.\n\n## What the budget leaves out\nHero, fusion and Soulbound ownership, drop odds, set/main-stat/quality acquisition, Energy and real farming time are not priced by this recipe. The same named five heroes with weaker or differently allocated items are not the tested build. Phantom Knight's Venom recipe specifically uses support-weighted whole-item selection from the same finite pool.\n\nThe SSS+0, +10 and +50 controls retain the same heroes, item IDs, affix kinds and Sigils while assembled stats increase. They test those paired builds; they do not promise every random upgrade is faster, because turn order changes. Choose a counter team first, then invest toward the failure you observe." }, { "id": "starter-forge-v13", "title": "Aegis Forge v13: break armor, then spend the opening", "summary": "Three tested team options and one bounded attacker swap. Learn what repeated hits solve, why solitary attacks still matter, and what the clear data covers.", "category": "teams", "tags": [ "dungeons", "Forge", "multi-hit", "v13" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-forge-v13/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-forge-v13/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-08", "content": "## Read the armor and Heat together\nUse this article for newly entered dungeon-balance-v13 runs. An already-paid run keeps its pinned rules; do not apply a new counter window to an older saved encounter. These optional full-team examples are transcribed from the committed editorial guide. They do not guarantee a clear for every account; keep experimenting with the heroes you own.\n\nRepeated damaging hits remove armor. A solitary damaging strike does not do that job. On v13 Very Hard and above, each attacker can weld plates and add Heat only once between Colossus turns; further solitary strikes by that attacker are neutral to plates and Heat, not armor breakers. A support cast is different from a solitary attack. This is a scoped late-Forge rule, not a buff to single-hit damage in every mode.\n\nPeriodic Reforge preserves progress while armor remains and rebuilds an exposed shell. A completed break vents Heat. Watch the next HP gate and the visible response-cycle pressure; spend burst when the shell is exposed, before repeated failed cycles overwhelm the party. Overheat can melt barriers and bypass defense. Damage prevention can help, but stacking ordinary defense indefinitely does not replace breaking the shell.\n\n## Three named team options\n- Lycan: Gemini Male, Lycan, Tengu, Orion Male and Gemini Female. Lycan's triple-hit pressure and self lifesteal, Tengu's variable six-hit burst, and Gemini Female's two-hit basic/recovery give this lineup a coherent cadence.\n- Storm: Gemini Male, Samurai, Tengu the Storm Raven, Orion Male and Gemini Female. Samurai's two-hit basic, lifesteal and wounded-target execution pair with Storm Raven's ramping six-hit attack and critical-chance cast.\n- Phoenix: Gemini Male, Lycan, Tengu, Orion Male and Phoenix Female. Phoenix Female (10004) replaces Gemini Female's cadence with wounded-ally healing, party healing/barriers, revive/cleanse and once-per-battle Last Dawn protection.\n\nThe bounded Lycan-Storm alternative replaces Tengu with Tengu the Storm Raven in the Lycan team. It is a tested complete combination, not permission to mix every listed hero freely. Gemini Male and Orion Male are the only two heroes shared by all four combinations; that overlap does not prove either is individually irreplaceable.\n\n## Build and evidence scope\nAll four complete combinations are fresh frozen v13 Forge examples from the committed editorial guide, covering floors 6–8 and paired SSS+0, +10 and +50 equipment variants. These documented finite fixture builds provide no clear-rate or speed guarantee.\n\nThe ordinary non-Chaos late recipe uses five Z200 heroes. Floor 6 uses three floor-5 Bastion items per hero, two active affix lines and six five-star Heroic +12 Sigils; floor 7 uses floor-6 gear, three lines and Legendary +15; floor 8 uses floor-7 gear, four lines and Legendary +15. Choose whole items from the finite pool in the build-plan article, with support-weighted HP or four Fury Sigils for damage/hybrid roles. No refinement, Overdrive, mastery or collection/account multipliers are assumed. These are finite fixture builds, not proof that names alone win.\n\n## Diagnose a failed attempt\nIf the armor never breaks, inspect landed hit counts and whether the attacking skills are actually available. A single-hit healer is not a substitute for the repeated-hit counter. Missing repeated-hit coverage is a warning to recheck the team. If the break happens but the team collapses, inspect Heat, exposure timing, recovery and the complete loadout rather than replacing every attacker with another healer.\n\nRecovery is useful, but the editorial guide also records reduced-recovery Forge examples. Whole-hero changes alter more than healing, so they do not prove a particular heal is universally required or useless. The older v12 Phoenix/Pisces failures remain older-policy evidence and are not silently combined with the v13 wins.\n\n## Keep your other dungeon teams\nThe tested Venom/Eclipse specialists did not become Forge teams, and Phoenix did not become a Venom/Eclipse universal. The editorial screening did not establish a universal squad across all three bosses. That supports specialization in this tested set; it does not prove no possible universal roster can ever exist. Serpentress is excluded from general recommendations, and untested hybrid lineups remain experiments." }, { "id": "starter-venom-v13", "title": "Venom Sanctum v13: handle reservoirs, Curse and the marked ally", "summary": "Keep the ailment, recovery-block and cleanse jobs together. Two evidenced teams and one full-team alternative explain how to answer late Renewal.", "category": "teams", "tags": [ "dungeons", "Venom", "Curse", "v13" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-venom-v13/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-venom-v13/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-08", "content": "## Read the whole Renewal sequence\nUse this article for newly entered dungeon-balance-v13 runs. An already-paid run keeps its pinned rules; do not apply a new counter window to an older saved encounter. These optional full-team examples are transcribed from the committed editorial guide. They do not guarantee a clear for every account; keep experimenting with the heroes you own.\n\nOn Very Hard and above, landed Poison or Burn collapses the three Toxic Reservoirs. Direct damage cannot destroy them. Then land Curse on Vesper for the recovery check. Three successful checks reopen each HP gate; each successful check creates new reservoirs until all three are earned. Successful checks stay earned. Curse alone still denies healing, but it does not replace reservoir collapse.\n\nEach living ally gets a response turn before a check. An incomplete response window waits without advancing Enrage or consuming the check. A landed Curse is remembered for the current check even if the visible status expires; the check consumes that response. Reserve the next ailment/Curse skill for the next fresh check rather than treating one earlier application as a permanent solution.\n\n## Keep the marked ally alive\nCleanse the fresh Seed marks before the recovery check, or use appropriate protection. The Seed detonation is a different threat from ordinary damage. Repeated failed checks accumulate visible poison pressure: the frozen late rule allows twelve reservoir misses and thirty Curse-only misses before additional pressure begins. Beyond those allowances, each extra reservoir miss adds 12% maximum HP and each Curse-only miss 5%.\n\nDefense and attack reduction do not reduce that accumulated poison. Barriers absorb at most 25% maximum HP from its pulse. A large shield therefore does not excuse leaving the counter sequence unanswered. Check which ally is marked and whether cleanse is actually available; an icon for a heal is not proof that the Seed was removed.\n\n## Two evidenced core teams\n- Poison-transfer: Valkyrie, Ophiuchus Male, Scorpio Female, Ganush and Cancer Female. Keep Curse, area Poison, transfer/cleanse and recovery coverage together.\n- Phantom-poison: Phantom Knight, Ophiuchus Male, Scorpio Female, Aquarius Female and Cancer Female. This combines Curse/ward utility with area Poison and growing recovery. The tested Phantom build uses support-weighted whole-item selection; the slower stock allocation is not the same farming recommendation.\n\nThe full Poison-Aquarius alternative is Valkyrie, Ophiuchus Male, Scorpio Female, Aquarius Female and Cancer Female. It replaces the tested Ganush slot as a complete evidenced lineup. It does not validate arbitrary swaps between all three rosters. Aquarius Female copies an ally debuff; copying does not itself promise the original mark was cleansed.\n\n## Build and retained evidence scope\nThe two cores and named alternative come from the retained frozen v12 completion bank for floors 6–8 and paired SSS+0, +10 and +50 equipment variants. The Forge-only v13 change preserves non-Forge results through compatibility checks; these are retained v12 results, not fresh v13 fights. These documented finite fixture builds provide no clear-rate or speed guarantee.\n\nUse ordinary non-Chaos Z200 heroes: three prior-floor Bastion items per hero and six five-star Sigils. Floor 6 has floor-5 gear with two active affix lines and Heroic +12 Sigils; floor 7 has floor-6 gear with three lines and Legendary +15; floor 8 has floor-7 gear with four lines and Legendary +15. Damage/hybrid slots use four Fury Sigils with legal mains; supports favor Bastion and HP. Phantom Knight needs the stated support-weighted whole-item allocation. No refinement, Overdrive, mastery or collection/account multipliers are assumed. Read the finite pool in the build-plan article before investing.\n\n## If your roster is missing a piece\nSearch your owned kits for the missing job, then test the complete team at a floor you can afford. Replacing an entire hero changes affinity, attacks and utility together. The retained editorial controls warn against missing Curse, ailment or cleanse coverage; this is not an exhaustive ban on every unlisted hero.\n\nBurn can collapse reservoirs, but the older conditional Burn team is not part of the minimum general recommendation. Serpentress is also excluded from general recommendations after disclosed unreliable allocations. Neither exclusion makes Curse/ailment coverage unavailable: the named cores above cover it. Earlier floors are more permissive and may be overgeared; a late fusion recipe is not an entry requirement for Very Easy." }, { "id": "starter-eclipse-v13", "title": "Eclipse Spire v13: steal Empowerment and ground the charge", "summary": "Two tested approaches to late Nova, plus a complete theft substitution. Learn which counters stop aftershock and which defenses only soften the hit.", "category": "teams", "tags": [ "dungeons", "Eclipse", "Nova", "v13" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-eclipse-v13/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-eclipse-v13/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-10-08", "content": "## Answer both late-Nova jobs\nUse this article for newly entered dungeon-balance-v13 runs. An already-paid run keeps its pinned rules; do not apply a new counter window to an older saved encounter. These optional full-team examples are transcribed from the committed editorial guide. They do not guarantee a clear for every account; keep experimenting with the heroes you own.\n\nMortex fights alone. On Very Hard and above, buff theft removes Empowerment and defense reduction grounds the stored charge for that battle. Attack reduction is useful mitigation, but it is not the grounding response. Read the status and preview: stopping one job does not silently complete the other.\n\nThe warning lasts at least ten allied actions and lets each living ally take a response turn. If theft or grounding is missing, the existing aftershock stays active. Protected phases stop HP damage; a large attack into that phase does not bypass the counter. Save the relevant skill for the warning rather than spending it just before the HP gate.\n\n## Shields have a job and a limit\nRenew protection and heal between charges. Barriers absorb at most 25% of each ally's maximum HP from the late protected pulse; leftover barrier can still absorb other attacks. Defense does not reduce that pulse, while attack reduction and damage prevention can help with it. A shield is useful, but it is not immunity to the complete Nova sequence.\n\nAn unanswered major Nova also adds an Eclipse Scar. After two complete living-party response cycles, each further eligible cycle adds 15% maximum-HP poison pressure per Scar. That Scar pressure ignores defense and attack reduction and has the same 25%-max-HP barrier absorption limit. Mitigation can buy a turn; answering the warning prevents accumulating the debt.\n\n## Two tested team approaches\n- Burst: Aquarius Male, Sagittarius Male, Ophiuchus Female, Phoenix Female and Leo Female. Theft, attack reduction, protection/recovery and a damage carrier work together.\n- Recovery: Goblin, Sagittarius Male, Phoenix Female, Aquarius Female and Pisces Male. Theft and the late response jobs remain covered while repeated healing/protection supports the damage plan.\n\nThe complete Recovery-Aquarius alternative is Aquarius Male, Sagittarius Male, Phoenix Female, Aquarius Female and Pisces Male. That replaces Goblin in the stated full lineup. This does not prove every thief or healer is interchangeable. The two cores share Sagittarius Male and Phoenix Female; no test established either named hero as individually irreplaceable.\n\n## Build and retained evidence scope\nBoth cores and the named alternative come from the retained frozen v12 completion bank for floors 6–8 and paired SSS+0, +10 and +50 equipment variants. The Forge-only v13 change preserves non-Forge outcomes in compatibility checks. These are retained v12 results, not fresh v13 fights; these documented finite fixture builds provide no clear-rate or speed guarantee.\n\nUse ordinary non-Chaos Z200 heroes with three prior-floor Bastion items and six five-star Sigils each. Floor 6 uses floor-5 gear, two active affix lines and Heroic +12; floor 7 uses floor-6 gear, three lines and Legendary +15; floor 8 uses floor-7 gear, four lines and Legendary +15. Damage/hybrid slots use four Fury Sigils with legal mains; supports favor Bastion and HP. The full build-plan article describes the finite whole-item pool. No refinement, Overdrive, mastery or collection/account multipliers are assumed; unlimited perfect gear is outside this recipe.\n\n## Read the failure before adding damage\nIf aftershock stays active, check landed theft and defense reduction. If the response succeeded but a hero dies, inspect its protection, recovery timing and whole loadout. The retained editorial controls warn against missing theft or grounding. They replace whole heroes, so these are warnings about missing jobs rather than pure single-skill causal proofs.\n\nThe older Burst-Pisces pilot is not promoted into a new recommendation. Likewise, a Forge team clearing an early Eclipse floor does not make it a tested late universal. The editorial screening did not establish one late team for all three bosses. Keep that bounded conclusion, and treat a new hybrid as an experiment." }, { "id": "starter-chaos-overworld", "title": "Chaos Zodiacs in the Overworld: forms, skills and combat loops", "summary": "Choose from 22 powerful Chaos forms, learn their individual combat identities, and turn their gifts into stronger real-time combos.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "chaos", "overworld", "skills", "combat" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-chaos-overworld/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-chaos-overworld/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## How do I use a Chaos Zodiac?\nOpen the Overworld party selector and choose an owned Chaos Zodiac. There are 22 supported forms: male and female versions of every sign except Libra. The party still contains three owned heroes, with one active at a time. Regular heroes remain available; fusion and Soulbound heroes do not gain access from this update. Viewing a form in the Guide does not grant ownership.\n\n## What unlocks as I train one?\nThe first skill opens at Star Level 1, the second at 3, the individual Chaos gift at 5, and the ultimate at 10. Later Star awakenings still grow skills, Astral Form and Trinity. Each owned hero keeps its own Star XP and skill-use progress. Chaos Leos also retain Solar Lion Cannon at the gift awakening; that cannon keeps its existing fixed timing and damage rules.\n\n## What does each form do?\n### Aries Male — Blood Comet\nBasic hits build up to 5 Fury. Your next damaging skill spends it for 20% more damage per stack. Damaging skills steal 15% life.\nSkills: Blood Comet Rush → Unchained Heart → Crimson Extinction.\n\n### Taurus Male — Obsidian Sovereign\nTaking a hit stores up to 5 Bastion. Your ultimate spends each stack for 25% more damage and steals 35% life.\nSkills: Obsidian Stampede → Sovereign Aegis → Crown of Retaliation.\n\n### Gemini Male — Paradox Thief\nAlternating your two skills gives the new cast 35% more damage. Your double copies basic attacks at 65% power.\nSkills: Stolen Second → Impossible Twin → Paradox Reunion.\n\n### Cancer Male — Abyssal Gaoler\nYour barrier feeds the execution: while shielded, damaging skills deal 35% more damage.\nSkills: Abyssal Harpoon → Blackwater Prison → Depth Sentence.\n\n### Leo Male — Eclipse Emperor\nBasic hits build up to 5 Embers. Shining Cataclysm spends each Ember for 25% more damage. Solar Lion Cannon keeps its fixed rules.\nSkills: Eclipse Roar → Shining Cataclysm → Black Sun Coronation.\n\n### Virgo Male — Void Surveyor\nBasic hits mark a target for 4 seconds. Event Horizon deals 80% more damage to a marked target, then consumes the mark.\nSkills: Parallel Trajectories → Event Horizon → Celestial Calculation.\n\n### Scorpio Male — Night Reaper\nSoul Erasure deals 150% extra damage below 50% target health. A kill shortens your first skill wait by 2 seconds.\nSkills: Widow Step → Night Harvest → Soul Erasure.\n\n### Sagittarius Male — Storm Rail\nRail of Truth deals 60% more damage when no other living enemy is within 3 metres of its target.\nSkills: Forked Thunder → Rail of Truth → Thunderhead Dominion.\n\n### Capricorn Male — Debt Colossus\nForeclosure brands enemies with Debt for 8 seconds. Final Collection consumes Debt for double damage and steals 35% life.\nSkills: Foreclosure → Hostile Takeover → Final Collection.\n\n### Aquarius Male — Current Usurper\nRiptide Theft weakens enemies by 25% for 5 seconds and empowers you for 4 seconds. Your ultimate refreshes part of the party skill waits.\nSkills: Riptide Theft → Slipstream Rift → Liberation Current.\n\n### Pisces Male — Dream Ferryman\nBasic hits build up to 5 Tide. Dream Eater spends each Tide for 20% more damage and steals 50% life.\nSkills: Dream Eater → Ferry the Lost → Martyr Moon.\n\n### Aries Female — Ruin Valkyrie\nTaking a hit stores up to 5 Vengeance. Worldbreaker spends each stack for 25% more damage.\nSkills: Ruin Sweep → Challenge the Heavens → Worldbreaker.\n\n### Taurus Female — Grave Garden\nEvery third basic hit grants the most wounded living party hero a barrier worth 15% maximum health.\nSkills: Nightbloom Rampart → Silverroot Refuge → Garden Beyond Death.\n\n### Gemini Female — Discord Siren\nAlternating a basic hit and a skill builds up to 5 Harmony. Discord Finale spends each stack for 20% more damage and steals 65% life.\nSkills: Dissonant Stars → Resonant Refrain → Discord Finale.\n\n### Cancer Female — Pearl of Oblivion\nWhile Black Pearl is active, surviving an enemy hit heals the most wounded living party hero for 6% maximum health, at most once per second.\nSkills: Undertow Halo → Black Pearl → Return from Oblivion.\n\n### Leo Female — Dawn Huntress\nAfter Rallying Dawn, your next damaging skill gains 50% damage. Basic hits shorten Rallying Dawn by 0.3 seconds.\nSkills: Dawn Pounce → Rallying Dawn → Four Suns Hunt.\n\n### Virgo Female — Forbidden Archivist\nForbidden Index marks enemies for 8 seconds. Erase the Record consumes those marks for 75% extra damage.\nSkills: Forbidden Index → Erase the Record → Rewrite Tomorrow.\n\n### Scorpio Female — Venom Saint\nVenom Requiem deals 70% more damage to enemies suffering damage over time. Basic hits against poisoned enemies heal the weakest living ally for 3% maximum health once per second.\nSkills: Black Benediction → Venom Requiem → Grave Mercy.\n\n### Sagittarius Female — Starfall Ranger\nDamaging skills deal up to 50% more damage with distance (maximum at 10 metres). Eclipse Retreat vaults backward before unleashing starfall.\nSkills: Horizon Scatter → Three Fates → Eclipse Retreat.\n\n### Capricorn Female — Astral Magnate\nBasic hits earn up to 5 Dividends. Black Market Crash spends each Dividend for 20% more damage; Promotion gives the party a larger barrier per Dividend without spending them.\nSkills: Hostile Acquisition → Promotion → Black Market Crash.\n\n### Aquarius Female — Entropy Engineer\nEach skill cast gains one Capacitor, up to 5. Liberty Singularity spends each charge for 20% extra damage. Cascading Current pulses four times along a fixed beam.\nSkills: Entropy Bomb → Cascading Current → Liberty Singularity.\n\n### Pisces Female — Mirror Ocean\nEvery third basic hit restores 5% maximum health to each living party hero. Mirror Embrace reflects attacks for 2 seconds.\nSkills: Compassionate Flood → Mirror Embrace → Ocean Without End.\n\n## A first combo to practice\nChoose Chaos Aries Male. Reach Star Level 5, land basic attacks to build Fury, then use Blood Comet Rush through the enemies in front. Fury is spent once for that cast. Use Unchained Heart to gain three Fury and empower attacks, then build the ultimate meter for Crimson Extinction. Keep watching enemy warning circles: high damage does not make every form invulnerable.\n\n## How do aiming and interrupted casts work?\nAim before releasing a skill. A Chaos beam keeps the direction selected at cast time, and a lasting field damages enemies that remain inside it. Switching heroes or falling cancels pending Chaos beam, bomb, leap and field impacts; switching back does not restore them. The skill wait remains spent. Damage-over-time effects already applied to enemies continue normally. Tanks retain the selected, warned control effects; a large animation does not automatically stun enemies.\n\n## Healing, resources and movement\nOnly some gifts store power; their five-slot indicator appears above the combat buttons. Stored power is local to the current fight and is cleared on defeat; it is not a currency. Support skills specify living-party healing versus reviving one fallen hero. Barriers use the strongest current barrier rather than stacking without limit. Lifesteal uses damage actually dealt, with a 25% maximum-health ceiling per hit. Assassins move faster and selected casts reposition; other roles rely on aim, range and their ordinary dodge.\n\n## How does a Chaos form look and sound?\nA Chaos form shows its Chaos portrait everywhere in the Overworld: the party cards, the Heroes menu, level-up and awakening cards, the co-op party bar and Guardian Raid seats. Other players see it in its Chaos look too. Each of the 22 forms also has its own Japanese voice, different from its regular form and from every other form: battle cries, hurt cries and ultimate calls, in the Overworld and in turn-based battles. Settings > Character voices turns every voiced line off.\n\nThese rules describe real-time Overworld combat. Turn-based skill descriptions and balance remain separate. Existing awakening, rank, equipment, summon and ownership rules continue to apply." }, { "id": "starter-upgrading-heroes", "title": "How to upgrade heroes and finish a rank-up", "summary": "Choose the hero to keep, fill its Rank XP with spare heroes, meet its training goal, and check what the promotion will consume.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "rank up", "upgrade", "spare heroes" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-upgrading-heroes/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-upgrading-heroes/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## How do I rank up a hero?\nOpen Upgrade and first select the hero you want to keep. Read its training goal and Rank XP bar. Select spare heroes only after choosing that main hero, then review the result before confirming. Consumed heroes leave your roster, so keep useful variants and protect heroes you still use.\n\nTraining levels and Rank XP are separate requirements. Training Grounds raises a hero's level. Feeding eligible spare heroes fills Rank XP toward promotion. If the screen says the hero needs training, filling its Rank XP again will not solve that requirement.\n\n## Why is the upgrade button unavailable?\n- A hero must meet its current rank's training goal before promotion.\n- A hero already at the maximum rank, Z, cannot rank up again.\n- You must retain at least three heroes and three different species after the selected spares are consumed.\n- Locked heroes cannot be consumed. Read the reason shown for any unavailable spare instead of unlocking your whole roster.\n- A full Rank XP bar does not need more spare heroes. Remove extra selections and check the promotion preview.\n\n## Do I need exactly five heroes of the same rank?\nNo. The current system uses Rank XP rather than a fixed five-hero recipe. Eligible spares can have different ranks, and their contributions differ. The preview shows whether the selected spares fill the required bar. A bar already filled earlier can be promoted without feeding unnecessary extra heroes once the other conditions are met.\n\n## How should I choose spare heroes?\nStart with duplicates that do not fill a role you need. Check the full species and variant name; two forms of the same Zodiac can have different skills. Preserve the three-species roster requirement and a working team for the next fight. Check the remaining roster in the preview before confirming.\n\nAuto Fodder can also identify surplus heroes for salvage. Salvage contributes Upgrade Points, not Rank XP. Read the two results separately so you know which selected heroes help this promotion and which are being converted into another resource." }, { "id": "starter-training-grounds", "title": "Training Grounds: unlocks, XP, energy and carry heroes", "summary": "Compare the three training grounds, understand shared XP, and avoid spending energy on a team that cannot win or heroes already at their rank cap.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "training", "XP", "energy" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-training-grounds/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-training-grounds/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## Which training ground should I use?\nChoose the highest unlocked ground your selected team can win reliably. These unlocks use Ladder stages cleared, including earned progress retained through Ascension; a hero's level is not the unlock counter.\n- Wildwood Academy: clear Ladder 5; 8 energy per started run; 6,000 shared XP per victory, or 750 XP per energy.\n- Tidal Crucible: clear Ladder 40; 12 energy per started run; 12,000 shared XP per victory, or 1,000 XP per energy.\n- Royal Proving Grounds: clear Ladder 180; 20 energy per started run; 24,000 shared XP per victory, or 1,200 XP per energy.\n\n## How is training XP divided?\nThe displayed XP is a pool shared by the eligible fighting trainees. It is not the amount each hero receives. For example, four uncapped trainees share Tidal's 12,000 XP as 3,000 each on a win. A designated carry earns no training XP; its job is to help the trainees win. A trainee can still receive its share if it is knocked out during a victorious run.\n\nThe selector supports an optional carry. Without one, the eligible selected fighters are trainees. Side training spots are separate: eligible heroes placed there do not fight and each receives a trainee's share. Follow the slot and XP preview for your actual team.\n\n## Why did a hero stop gaining levels?\nTraining stops at the hero's current rank cap. Promote a hero that is ready before spending more training energy on it. Put a fully trained hero in the carry role if it helps the team win; do not count on training to bypass the rank cap or grant Overdrive.\n\n## What happens if I stop a queue?\nEnergy is charged for each started run, not all unstarted battles in the queue. A defeat stops the remaining queue. Leaving the screen preserves an unfinished run so you can resume it. Retreating from an unfinished run refunds that run's charged energy; a completed run settles its verified result. Read the final result before starting another queue." }, { "id": "starter-overworld-progression", "title": "Overworld progression: account levels, hero levels and skills", "summary": "Understand which progress bar an unlock uses, prepare for exploration, and choose a useful next goal when your journey slows down.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "overworld", "levels", "unlocks" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-overworld-progression/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-overworld-progression/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## Which level does an unlock mean?\nSpace Zodiacs has several kinds of progress. Your account's Overworld level comes from Overworld progress. Individual heroes also have their own training and Overworld progression. Skills such as Fishing and Hunter have separate levels. Ladder requirements count cleared stages. These numbers are not interchangeable.\n\nRead the name beside a locked feature's requirement. For example, Fusion needs both Overworld level 20 and Ladder 100 cleared. Training a hero to level 20 or reaching a fight at Ladder 100 does not satisfy those two account requirements.\n\n## What should I do before exploring?\n- Regular heroes and all 22 supported Chaos Zodiacs can join your three-hero party. Read the Chaos Overworld guide for their form-specific gifts and skills; Chaos Libra, fusion and Soulbound forms are not included.\n- Inspect the party and the active hero you will control.\n- Carry usable cooked food and check the quick slots.\n- Check the destination's level range and available exits before moving farther from town.\n- Pick one useful objective: a quest, an accessible resource, a crafting ingredient or an unlock you are close to earning.\n\n## Where should I train, and how do I get there?\nOpen Menu, then Where to train. On a wider screen, tapping the area name at the top opens it too. It lists the training grounds for your Overworld level: the best one first, then the next one up and an easier one, plus fighting areas on other worlds. Each shows its level range in colour (blue outgrown, green your level, yellow a few levels above, red ten or more above), the enemies that roam there and why it suits you or not. An outgrown ground pays a fifth of the Overworld XP and a fifth of its Coins. A hero whose own Star Level is still in that ground's range keeps earning full Star XP there, and the card names those heroes.\n\nGo walks your party there through each area's exits. For a place on another world, it walks to the Starport and opens the star chart on that planet. With a starship it flies on by itself; without one, the chart shows the starship's price, and only your own tap buys it. A place your Overworld level has not opened shows the level that opens it instead of Go. If an enemy hits your party on the way, the trip pauses and goes on once the fight is over; if you steer during the fight, tap Go on the quest card to carry on. Steering while the party walks, a raid, the Star Carnival or a duel ends the trip. The Bestiary has Go for every enemy too: it walks to the area where that enemy roams that suits your level best.\n\nA Slayer contract has Go as well, on the Adventurers' Board, the Slayer skill page and the contract card that shows after a kill on it. It walks you to the area where that family of monsters roams that suits your level best, through the Starport when they live on another world. It only travels: once you arrive, fight them yourself or tap Auto Hunt, which costs Coins as usual. A place your level has not opened shows the level instead, a flight without a starship says so, and a finished contract tells you to take a new one at the board.\n\n## How do I improve a team that keeps losing?\nWatch what happens before the defeat. If the active hero falls quickly, review enemy level, positioning, incoming attacks and food. If the team survives but cannot finish enemies, examine skills, target selection and upgrades that apply to that mode. Make one change and compare the next attempt.\n\nHero variants can fill different jobs even when they share a Zodiac sign. Read their actual skill descriptions. Advice for auto Ladder, manual Tower and real-time Overworld combat should name the mode; a team that succeeds in one is not automatically the best in the others.\n\n## Where do I level after Overworld level 30?\nMeridian's own wild areas end at level 35: the Elder Grove covers 30–35 and the Hall of the Fallen Star 31–35. Past 35, every Meridian area counts as outgrown and pays a fifth of its usual Overworld XP and Coins; a hero still at ★35 or below keeps earning its full Star XP there.\n\nThe next levels are earned on other worlds, reached with the starship:\n- Verdance: the Grey Acres (30–35) and Blackroot Hollow (35–40), past Verdance Fields.\n- Tidehome: the Saltspray Cliffs (35–40) and the Drowned Shallows (40–45), past the harbor's lighthouse.\n\nEvery wild area on another world pays 10% more Overworld XP, Star XP and Coins than Meridian's, also where its levels overlap Meridian's. Its title card shows the bonus when you arrive. Each band of levels pays more Coins a minute than the band before it, so the newest area for your level is also the best place to earn Coins.\n\n## What is Auto Hunt?\nIn a wild area or training ground (not towns, Gobbler Grove, raids or the Star Carnival), tap Auto Hunt to see what it costs, then start it. Your party fights every enemy nearby on its own while the game is open, and earns the usual Overworld XP, Star XP, drops and Coins. Moving the party yourself, a fall, Auto Quest, Go or leaving the wild stops it. Only time the party is really fighting counts: menus, conversations and a hidden game pause the clock.\n\nAuto Hunt is paid with Coins every 15 seconds, and the cost follows your Overworld level, not the area: about 214 Coins a minute at level 10, 1,228 at level 30 and 7,126 at level 60. It always costs more than the Coins the party picks up while it runs, and the gap grows as you level: however strong your team, its kills pay Coins only up to three quarters of what that hunt has cost so far. It is a way to trade Coins for hands-free XP and drops, not a way to earn Coins. When the next step cannot be paid it stops; sell gear, Sigils or goods on the Free Market for more Coins.\n\n## What is a good next goal?\nChoose a goal whose required level, materials and route are visible. Train the skill that supplies a needed ingredient, earn the next account unlock, or strengthen a hero that fills a missing role. When asking for advice, include your mode, Overworld level, highest Ladder clear, roster variants and the specific fight or requirement blocking you." }, { "id": "starter-skills-and-crafting", "title": "Skills and crafting: what to train and how materials connect", "summary": "Choose useful gathering and crafting goals, find the right tool and station, and understand why a recipe can remain unavailable.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "skills", "crafting", "materials" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-skills-and-crafting/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-skills-and-crafting/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## Which skills can I train?\nThe skill catalog includes Woodcutting, Mining, Fishing, Farming, Hunter, Smithing, Cooking, Herblore, Crafting, Carpentry, Wayfinding, Agility, Thieving, Slayer. Each skill has its own experience and a level cap of 99. These account skills are separate from a hero's combat moves and training level.\n\n## What should a new player train first?\nStart from an item you will actually use. Fishing and Cooking provide a practical food route. Woodcutting supplies timber used by Carpentry and other recipes. Mining supplies ore used by Smithing and Crafting. Hunter supplies hides and specialist ingredients. Train the relevant gathering skill, then use its output in a suitable recipe instead of collecting unrelated ingredients without a goal.\n\nBuying goods from other players is another route when listings are available. You do not have to train every skill to use every finished item. Check a product's use requirements separately from the maker level needed to craft it.\n\n## Why can I not gather or craft?\n- Check the required skill level, not just your Overworld level.\n- Equip or obtain the tool family the node needs.\n- Make room in the relevant sack, bag or bank.\n- Bring the exact ingredients and quantities named by the recipe.\n- Use the required station, such as a forge, range, apothecary or workbench.\n- Confirm that the area, node and action are currently available to your account.\n\n## How do I find a resource or a station?\nOpen Skills and choose a skill. Go beside a resource on its level list, or in the Field Guide, walks you to the nearest place it can be gathered; a place on another world goes through the Starport. Go beside a recipe takes you to its station when every ingredient is in your sack or bank, and otherwise to the first missing ingredient: Oak Planks without Oak Logs take you to the nearest oak first. At a station, Get it beside a missing ingredient does the same. A resource above your skill level shows the level it needs instead, and nothing is bought on the way.\n\n## What does Herblore do now?\nFood is the main source of consumable healing. Herblore supports preservation, stabilization and transformation of valuable progression materials with herbs and specialist ingredients. Do not follow an older health-potion crafting plan without checking the current recipe list.\n\n## How do skills earn Coins?\nEverything you gather sells to a vendor, and every gathering skill earns on the same curve, which climbs faster the higher you go: about 3,500 to 4,000 Coins an hour for a beginner, about 8,000 at level 30, 13,000 at 50, 22,000 at 70, 35,000 at 90 and 40,000 at 99. Crops and seeds from Farming patches follow it too. A higher-level tree, rock, fishing spot, herb, burrow or shrine always earns more than a lower one, and a forged tool better than the iron one Rook sells earns more again. Selling to other players on the Free Market can pay more when there are buyers.\n\nThieving earns the most of the skills (fighting earns more still): about 6,000 Coins an hour at level 1, 12,000 at 30, 19,000 at 50, 32,000 at 70, 50,000 at 90 and 65,000 at 99. A stall's till and a passer-by's purse hold more the higher your Thieving level, and each stall and each passer-by pays more than the one below it. After a theft that works the street stays wary for a moment, so moving between stalls does not add up, and the Gem Stall and the Starport Cargo stay wary longer. Pickpocketing Coins stop each day at four hours of Thieving at your level; stalls have no daily stop. A caught thief is stunned for a moment.\n\nAn Apprentice hired with Gems gathers at a node you choose for 4 hours while you are away and brings back goods worth about 1,200 to 1,600 Coins, a little more from higher nodes. The free daily hire that comes with the Guild Pass brings back more: about 3,800 to 14,000 Coins of goods, more from higher nodes. Either gives goods only, never XP.\n\n## How do I run an Agility course?\nAgility courses are in the Academy Yard behind Meridian and in a few pockets further out. The course's start glows by its flag with a Start course label; tap it, or the Start course pointer at the edge of the screen when the start is out of view, and the party walks there and runs the lap. Go beside a course in Skills does the same. A course above your Agility level says the level it needs instead.\n\nDuring a lap the skill chip shows the course, which obstacle you are on, a bar and the time. The next obstacle has a ring and an arrow, a faint line leads to it, and each cleared obstacle gets a check and shows its share of the lap's XP. The XP is paid when the lap ends back at the flag; walking off stops the lap without it. At the finish, Course complete! shows the XP, the lap count for this visit and the time, with Run again.\n\n## How do advanced skills help?\nWayfinding supports travel charts and targeted-hunt atlases. Agility opens shortcuts and supplies route rubbings from eligible courses. Thieving supplies specialist ingredients and ciphers from eligible thefts. Slayer focuses on named monster families, contracts and advanced materials. Read the current unlock list for the level and output of the activity you want to pursue.\n\nTo work a Slayer contract, tap Go beside it on the Adventurers' Board or the Slayer skill page: it walks you to where that family roams best for your level, and you fight there yourself or with Auto Hunt." }, { "id": "starter-food-and-auto-feed", "title": "Healing food and auto-feed: keep your Overworld party ready", "summary": "Find usable cooked food, understand the auto-feed trigger, and troubleshoot food that is in storage but unavailable during a fight.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "healing", "cooking", "auto food" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-food-and-auto-feed/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-food-and-auto-feed/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## How do I heal with food?\nCatch or obtain ingredients, cook an available recipe at a suitable station, and carry the finished food in the Overworld bag. Read each food's healing amount, affected heroes and cooldown. Raw ingredients, decorative goods and an item merely named like food are not automatically usable healing supplies.\n\nFishing and Cooking are a practical starting route. Check the local fishing node, your rod, available storage and the recipe's Cooking requirement. Buy a finished supply when an appropriate market listing is available if you would rather spend time on another skill.\n\n## When does auto-feed activate?\nWhen enabled, auto-feed considers a living active hero after a fresh damaging hit if the hero is below 60% of maximum HP. It needs eligible cooked food in the bag, an available cooldown and an active, ready scene. Low HP alone while idle is not the same trigger. It does not revive a defeated hero or guarantee survival against every attack.\n\n## Which food is used first?\nA valid preferred food is used when stocked. Otherwise the system chooses eligible basic food before stronger options according to its food priority. If a preferred stack runs out, the preference can remain saved while another usable food is selected. You can still use food manually when its conditions and cooldown permit it.\n\n## Why is my food not being used?\n- Check the Overworld bag, not only the bank or a recipe ingredient list.\n- Confirm auto-feed is enabled and the active hero is alive.\n- Check whether the food cooldown is ready.\n- Confirm the food is a usable cooked healing supply.\n- Remember that the automatic trigger needs fresh damage below the threshold; it is not continuous idle regeneration.\n\nKeep enough basic food for routine travel. Save stronger party meals for situations where their actual effects help. When checking an older guide, use the current food tooltip and Cooking recipes to resolve differences." }, { "id": "starter-legendary-mounts", "title": "Legendary mounts: make a snare, capture a beast and ride", "summary": "Learn the snare recipe, the quick-slot aiming flow, and how to equip a captured travel mount when the feature is available in your world.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "mounts", "legendary beasts", "Hunter" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-legendary-mounts/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-legendary-mounts/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## How do I get a Legendary Snare?\nCraft at a town workbench, or buy a frame or finished snare from another player when listings are available. The crafting steps are:\n- Legendary Snare Frame: Carpentry level 95; 8 Elder Plank + 4 Pine Resin.\n- Legendary Snare: Hunter level 98; 1 Legendary Snare Frame + 3 Aurora Pelt + 3 Moth Dust.\n\nBuying a finished snare avoids the maker's crafting requirement. Check the listing quantity and total Coin price before buying. Captured mounts stay with their owner; a tradeable snare is not a tradeable captured mount.\n\n## How do I capture a legendary beast?\nWhen you encounter a roaming legendary beast in an available outdoor area, put a Legendary Snare in a quick slot. Select the snare to aim, then aim at the beast within throwing range. Read the result before throwing again. Hitting a beast gives a chance to capture it; a hit is not a guaranteed capture.\n\nThis is an encounter in the world. You do not need a tracking overlay to search for a guaranteed spawn. Availability depends on the current world and game service. A catalog entry or a guide does not promise that a beast is currently present, that every world is open, or that a specific color will appear on demand.\n\n## How do I equip and ride a mount?\nOpen the bag after a successful capture. Under Mount equipment, equip an owned mount and choose Ride when the action is available. The field also offers ride and dismount controls. Mounts are for travel: you must dismount before attacking, and hostile hits can dismount you.\n\n## Why can I not ride right now?\nYou need a valid owned selection, a living hero, a suitable outdoor area and a safe state. Combat, recent damage, transitions, hazards and restricted modes can prevent riding. Resolve any pending mount action and wait for its confirmed result before trying a new action.\n\nChoose a mount for travel and appearance. Do not plan a combat build around changing into the beast or receiving a new hero kit; mounting does not turn it into a combat form." }, { "id": "starter-fusion-and-soulbinding", "title": "Fusion and Soulbinding: unlock requirements and preparation", "summary": "Check both account requirements, choose the intended recipe and inspect what will be consumed before creating or strengthening a special hero.", "category": "heroes", "tags": [ "fusion", "soulbinding", "unlocks" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-fusion-and-soulbinding/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-fusion-and-soulbinding/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## When does Fusion unlock?\nFusion requires Overworld level 20 and Ladder stage 100 cleared. Both are required. Reaching the stage without clearing it is not enough, and an individual hero's level does not replace your account's Overworld level.\n\n## When does Soulbinding unlock?\nSoulbinding requires Overworld level 30 and Ladder stage 200 cleared. Earned Ladder progress retained through Ascension counts toward these stage requirements. Players who already used Soulbinding when it opened at stage 150 keep it. Owning a special hero preserves its use, but ownership alone does not bypass the requirements for another creation or offering.\n\n## How should I prepare a Fusion?\nOpen the intended result and inspect its recipe. Check the exact ingredient species and the eligibility of the actual heroes you own. Read the result preview and the consumption details before confirming. Do not assume a similar-looking variant or another Zodiac of the same element substitutes for the named ingredient.\n\nKeep a useful fighting roster after the transaction. If an ingredient is currently a key damage dealer or support hero, decide how you will replace that role before committing it. A rarer result is not automatically the best immediate upgrade for every team.\n\n## What should I check before an offering?\nRead the selected hero's current Soulbinding or offering preview. Confirm the target, the required monsters or materials, the result and any preservation option actually available in the screen. Do not treat a guide's description of one recipe as a promise about every other recipe.\n\n## Why is the feature still locked or pending?\nCheck both account counters first. Then check recipe eligibility and whether an earlier request is still being confirmed. A connection interruption can leave the result uncertain; use the offered recovery action before submitting another transaction. When asking for help, include the displayed requirement and recipe name rather than only the hero's level." }, { "id": "starter-housing-and-coins", "title": "Housing: Coins, extra rooms, furniture and resident bonuses", "summary": "Plan room expansions, decorate for comfort, and understand the difference between housing rewards and a resident hero’s combat bonus.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "housing", "Coins", "furniture" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-housing-and-coins/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-housing-and-coins/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## When does my house open?\nFor a new adventurer, Player Housing at the Townhouses and the house on the home screen open at Overworld level 6. Every account that existed before this change keeps its house.\n\n## Which currency buys furniture and rooms?\nFurniture and added rooms use ordinary Coins. Read the Coin price on the current purchase preview. These expenses are separate from Gems and from other progression currencies, so compare a housing purchase with the other Coin purchases you are saving for.\n\n## How many rooms can I have?\nA house can have up to ten rooms. The first room comes with the house. The current expansion costs for rooms two through ten are 3,000, 6,000, 10,000, 15,000, 22,000, 30,000, 40,000, 52,000, 65,000 Coins respectively. Each expansion costs more than the previous one.\n\n## How do rooms and comfort help?\nEach room adds 1% to AFK rewards, up to 10% from rooms. Furniture and room arrangements contribute comfort; each 40 comfort adds another 1%, capped at 5% from comfort. These are housing contributions to AFK rewards, not a blanket bonus to every reward or every combat mode.\n\nFour or more pieces of a furniture set in a room can add set comfort. A resident Zodiac with enough pieces in its preferred styles can also be happy and contribute comfort. Read the room's current comfort and resident information while decorating.\n\n## Do residents help in battles?\nA resident Zodiac receives a 3% fight-stat bonus where the game applies housing residents. Check the relevant mode's stat preview rather than assuming a house changes every normalized or specially ruled encounter. A hero's identity and actual skills still matter more than choosing a resident solely for this small bonus.\n\n## What should I buy first?\nChoose a Coin budget before shopping. Expand when the extra room and resident space help your plan, or decorate an existing room when its comfort is a better fit for your budget. Check owned pieces before ordering another copy, and compare the next room price with the displayed comfort contribution of furniture you want." }, { "id": "starter-market-and-trading", "title": "Market guide: buying, selling and comparing Coin prices", "summary": "Compare the exact item and quantity, distinguish player listings from merchants, and use the market to support a concrete upgrade or crafting goal.", "category": "progression", "tags": [ "market", "trading", "Coins" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-market-and-trading/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-market-and-trading/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## When does the Market open?\nFor a new adventurer, the Market on the home screen and the Free Market behind Meridian's Market door (with Pip's Provisions) open at Overworld level 6 or Ladder stage 6, whichever comes first. Every account that existed before this change keeps its Market.\n\n## What should I buy from the market?\nStart with a specific need: an equipment improvement, a useful Sigil, an ingredient or an available finished supply. Compare the exact item stats, quality, refinement, quantity and total Coin cost. An expensive listing is not evidence that an item is the best choice for your team.\n\n## Are player listings and merchants the same?\nNo. Player listings depend on what other players offer. Traveling merchants have their own stock and progression rules. Merchant goods can improve with your Overworld level within their configured limits. A merchant restock does not guarantee that another player will list the item you want.\n\n## How should I choose a selling price?\nUse the displayed suggested value and range as a reference, then compare the actual item and current listings. A guide cannot give a permanently correct market price: supply, demand, item details and availability can change. Check any fee and the amount you will receive in the sale preview.\n\nList only goods the screen identifies as eligible. Check what happens to the item while it is listed and how cancellation works. Keep the equipment and supplies your current team depends on until you have a replacement.\n\n## What else are Coins for?\nCoins also pay for Auto Hunt in the Overworld, which always costs more than the Coins it picks up. Selling spare gear, Sigils and goods to other players, selling what you gather to a vendor, and Thieving all earn the Coins to keep it running.\n\n## Can I buy a legendary mount?\nThe legendary workshop supports trading snare frames and finished snares when its service and listings are available. Its price is the total for the whole listing. Captured mounts stay with their owner. Buying a snare gives you a capture tool, not a guaranteed beast or a guaranteed successful capture.\n\n## What if a purchase is still confirming?\nWait for the result or use the recovery action provided by the game. Inspect the current balance, inventory and receipt before starting another purchase. A pending response is not proof that the transaction failed." }, { "id": "starter-equipment-and-sigils", "title": "Equipment and Sigils: spend upgrades on the problem you face", "summary": "Compare gear, main stats, set effects and the actual combat preview before investing in an item or replacing a working build.", "category": "teams", "tags": [ "equipment", "Sigils", "team building" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-equipment-and-sigils/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-equipment-and-sigils/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## What is the best equipment for my hero?\nThere is no single best item for every hero and mode. Start with the job: survive opening damage, finish an enemy, support allies or apply a useful effect. Read the hero's skills and compare the stats and effects that help that job. A higher label alone does not show how much the item improves your actual fight.\n\n## What should I compare on a Sigil?\nInspect the slot, main stat, stars, quality, level, substats and set identity. Consider which set effects will actually be active on the equipped hero. Compare a complete working arrangement rather than assuming one attractive piece outweighs the bonuses you would lose by replacing it.\n\n## When should I refine or improve an item?\nFirst confirm that it fits a hero you use and that the relevant mode applies its benefits. Check the cost and result preview, then decide whether another improvement would address the same problem more effectively. Prioritize a small useful core before spreading scarce upgrade resources over every new item.\n\n## How should I choose a dungeon?\nChoose the desired drop or set, then the difficulty your team can clear reliably. Read the dungeon and boss guide for that encounter. Farming a harder floor is useful only when its clear rate and rewards justify the time and resources spent. Check current reward previews; old screenshots can show an earlier balance version.\n\n## What should I do with spare equipment?\nReview equip, sale, melt or other available actions and their outcomes before confirming. Keep possible replacements until you have compared them. An equipment grade, refinement level and hero rank are different systems, so a gear label is not a promise that a hero has reached the corresponding rank or level.\n\nWhen asking for build advice, include the hero's exact variant, mode, current equipment, Sigils and the enemy or mechanic causing trouble. Those details make a recommendation more useful than a generic tier list." }, { "id": "starter-events-and-rewards", "title": "Daily rewards and seasonal events: what to check each visit", "summary": "Build a short resource routine and use current event timers, reward previews and claim states when deciding what to play next.", "category": "beginner", "tags": [ "daily rewards", "events", "resources" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-events-and-rewards/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-events-and-rewards/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## What should I check when I sign in?\nCollect ready rewards, inspect current tasks and choose the resource that helps your next upgrade. Check the Daily Adventures board, the Beginner Week if it is available to your account, and active events. A short purposeful routine can be more useful than trying every mode without a goal.\n\n## What is Star Feast?\nStar Feast is the Thanksgiving event. Open it from the golden turkey beside the Event pumpkin. It has a Feast Raid at four difficulties, the Endless Feast with a board, a Feast Calendar with one gift a day, a Community Feast meter every player fills, and a Feather Shop for Golden Feathers. Overworld monsters and rare turkeys drop Golden Feathers while it runs, up to a daily limit. Turkey Rush is one minute in Gobbler Grove, past the near end of Meridian's street: Golden Gobblers count 5 and a Starlight Gobbler 25, and the first round each day that reaches Bronze, Silver or Gold pays that prize. Check the event screen for what is open right now and when it ends.\n\n## Which Daily Adventure gives the resource I need?\n- Crystal Vault: Gems.\n- Nebula Refinery: Casino Tokens.\n- Starlight Spring: Energy.\n- Astral Workshop: Upgrade Points.\n- Celestial Treasury: Armory Points.\n- Treasure Keep: boxes.\n\nRead the board's current reward preview and your personal progress. Gems, Coins, Energy, Upgrade Points, Armory Points and event currencies have different uses; do not treat them as interchangeable balances.\n\n## Is an event still active?\nUse the event panel's current status and timer. Battle availability, reward claims and a currency shop can have different closing times. A historical article, video or patch note is not confirmation that the same event is still running.\n\n## Can I earn rewards while learning?\nOpen Codex → Learn to play for short visual lessons. Finishing a topic for the first time adds 10 gems when its completion saves. Replaying is free and awards no more gems. An unfinished lesson resumes at its last saved step.\n\n## What should I spend event currency on?\nInspect the current exchange list, remaining balance and closing time. Choose rewards that solve a real need or fit your collection goal. Check whether a reward is already claimed, whether it is limited, and whether the activity earns the currency you intend to spend. Avoid planning around an old date or assuming unused currency carries into the next event.\n\n## Where can I read what changed?\nOpen Patch notes in Settings. Check a guide's source-check date when comparing advice with the current game. Patch notes describe changes; a guide explains how to use the resulting system. For exact rates, costs and availability, the current game preview is the final check before an action." }, { "id": "starter-player-questions", "title": "Common player questions: stronger teams, locks and missing progress", "summary": "Find the next check when an upgrade is blocked, a team stalls, a resource seems missing, or you need useful advice from another player or an AI assistant.", "category": "beginner", "tags": [ "help", "FAQ", "progression" ], "url": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-player-questions/", "markdownUrl": "https://www.spacezodiacs.com/guides/starter-player-questions/index.md", "reviewedAt": "2026-11-04", "content": "## Which hero is the best?\nChoose for your mode and the problem your team has. Identify whether you lack damage, protection, healing or a particular effect, then read the skills of the exact variants you own. A universal best-hero claim needs evidence across modes and investment levels; a single win or lucky summon does not establish one.\n\n## Where can I get a short walkthrough?\nOpen Codex → Learn to play, search for the feature and follow its numbered steps. Your next objective links the lesson for your first adventure. For an interrupted sign-in, read Finish sign-in and resume account setup in the official guide catalog.\n\n## What should I upgrade first?\nStrengthen the hero or item that addresses the observed failure. If your damage dealer dies before acting, survival or protection may help more than another damage upgrade. If the team survives but runs out of damage, examine attacks, targeting and the upgrades that apply to that mode. Compare one change at a time.\n\n## Why is a feature locked even though my hero is high level?\nCheck which counter the lock names. Overworld account level, individual hero training, skill levels and Ladder clears are separate. Fusion and Soulbinding require both an Overworld level and a cleared Ladder stage. A recipe may also have its own ingredient and maker-level requirements.\n\n## Why did training give less XP than expected?\nTraining shows a shared pool per win. The carry earns no XP, trainees split the pool, and current rank caps limit awards. Side trainees use separate available spots. Read the actual XP breakdown rather than multiplying the pool by the number of heroes.\n\n## What if progress or a reward seems missing?\nConfirm you are signed into the intended account, inspect the relevant balance or inventory, and check whether the action is still pending or needs a claim. Use the game's offered resume or recovery action for an unfinished request. Keep the exact error or receipt when contacting support; do not clear your saved data as a first troubleshooting step.\n\n## What information makes an AI answer useful?\nName Space Zodiacs and give the mode, exact hero variants, account Overworld level, highest Ladder clear, available resources and the displayed blocker. Link the relevant official guide. Ask the assistant to check the page's review date and current rules, explain which advice is conditional, and avoid inventing rates, event dates or unreleased features." } ] }