Farming Strategy

 

Introduction

Farming makes up a large part of Onmyoji.  There are mainly 4 things players farm for in the game: Experience, Coins, Soul, and Evolution Material.  In general, harder stages will give out better rewards per energy.  In short, the goal is to repeat the hardest stages you can beat.

Farming for Coins, Souls, and Awakening Materials is relatively simple.  Players would bring their best Shikigamis and repeatedly fight the hardest stage they can win.  Farming for Experience is a bit different.  While the players are fighting the hard stages, they want to bring as much fodder as possible.  That was the reason I did the Farming Team strategy.  The following guide is to complement the Farming Team.

Usually, there would be the following roles in a Farming Team: Fodders, Farmer, and the Main Character.

 

 

Fodders

 

In Onmyoji, fodders can be defined as the Shikigamis whose purpose is to feed to other Shikigamis for level up or star up.  To that effect, N-Shikigamis are very much default fodders.

I do not recommend using Rs as fodders unless you have a fully upgraded copy.  There are few reasons for this:

1. Many Rs are useful
2. Rs are easy to acquire, and therefore easy to max skills
3. Players can exchange Rs in the Shrine for Charms

Many players do not realize fodders also need good Soul setups to farm effectively.  This is because players are only running a partial team with limited support for the DPS.  Fodders can act in varies support roles with proper Souls:

 

 

Orb Provider

 

Lantern Soul would be a good choice for his ability to generate Orb upon getting damaged.

In essence, any fodder equipping Azure Basan or Fortune Cat could act as Lighter.  Azure Basan would be more effective because fodders don’t usually last long enough for Fortune Cat to kick in.

 

 

Accelerator

 

Amongst the N-Shikigamis, Akashita is very capable of the AB Support role.  In fact, he’s useful in many other team set-ups.  Many players underestimate Akashita because he is an N.  With his innate ability to clear move bars, I like to equip him with Soul Dawn Fairy to increase chances to push enemies back.

Another N that is good for Dawn Fairy is Blue Imp.  His value is not in his special attack but in his three-hit normal attack.  Having multi-hit attacks increases the chance of Dawn Fairy taking effect.

 

 

Secondary DPS

 

With Mirror Lady, fodders can deal additional damage even if their own attack is weak.  This is because Mirror Lady reflects an equal amount of damage to the enemies.  On a side note, I would like to mention that Mirror Lady is a very useful Soul in the late game.

An ideal fodder for the Mirror Lady is Red Imp.  His special attack would taunt enemy so that the enemy’s attack is increased and defense lowered.  Red will receive more damage as a result and thus more damage will be reflected onto the enemy.

If you are using the main character to solo, Mirror Lady is very effective to increase damage.

 

 

Farmer

 

One way to farm is to have a strong main character, such as high-level Kagura, carrying all fodders.  However, each fight takes longer when the character has to fight alone.  Not all players have the patience to do character solos, so some would use a Farmer.  A Farmer is an AOE DPS that would finish the fight faster while carrying the fodders.  Using a Farmer is definitely faster than having the character solo.  Players need to consider the Exp/EN efficiency since a maxed Farmer would not get any Experience.  Though a maxed sushi box in Realm would conserve 60% of the excess Experience.

In terms of the best farmers in Onmyoji, I would say Ootengu > Ubume > Kuro Mujou > Momiji, Jorogumo, etc.

 

 

Ootengu

 

He has the highest multi-hit-AOE attacks in the game: 4 hits at 37% attack damage each.  His Soul of choice would be Seductress x4, which is common.  The downside is that he’s SSR, which is hard to pull.

 

 

Ubume

 

She’s the best SR in Onmyoji.  She’s much easier to get than Ootengu.  The best way is to join a good Guild and ask for Shards.  She’s likely to be the main DPS for many players.  With Seductress x4, she can wipe enemies out fast, making her an ideal choice for farming.

 

 

Kuro Mujou

 

He’s even easier to get because he’s quite common in Encounters.  He’s Soul partner in crime is Shadow x4.  Both the Soul and his special attack synergize to inflict huge amount on the first strike.  Even if the enemies survive the first hit, they would be too weak to last.

Momiji/Jorogumo/Yuki Onna and others are similar.  The idea is to equip them with good Souls to finish the fight fast.  I would like to mention that Umibozu is very useful but I didn’t recommend him because of his looks.

 

 

Main Character

In my mind, Kagura and Hiromasa as more suitable for farming.

 

 

Kagura

 

If you are using a Farmer, Kagura does not have to be high level.  Her skills can be [Purgatory] and [Wind].  She acts in the support role here to debuff enemies and let DPS act more often.

If she is soloing, you would want to use [Purgatory] and [Summon: Fish].  In addition, she needs to have high skill level, high rank, and high Guardian Beast Level.   By that I mean both skills maxed, rank at least 48, and have a maxed Guardian Beast.  I used to recommend a lower requirement for her but people had difficulties with that.  Ideally, fodder needs to have high-level Soul too.  Although soloing gets more Exp/EN, it also spends more time.

 

 

Hiromasa

 

He’s more attack-oriented than Kagura but has fewer AOE attacks.  Usually, he will equip [Exorcist Arrow], [Multi Shot], or [Shadow].  I find Kagura more suitable though.

 

 

Farming Spots

 

Exploration Hard are the best places to farm.  Other missions offer way too little Experience for the level of difficulty.

Check out the [Exploration table] for the amount of experience each stage give out.

Upon entering the Exploration Stage, players can see how many Experience buffed enemies are around.  They are the ones with Experience label around them.  I prefer to fight the stage that has 3 or more Experience buffed enemies.  That way, the chance of boss appearing is higher.  Bosses usually have all three types of buffs: Experience, Coins, and Items.

 

If there are not enough Experience buffed enemies, just quit and re-enter.  The enemies would refresh and you can check again.

I would recommend the following stages for Farming: Chapter 2, 4, 6, 11, 14, and 16.  The enemies in these stages are easier to fight than others.  They do not use powerful AOE attacks nor use crowd control skills.  Boss fights in Chapter 14 is quite hard though.  If players are thinking of fighting bosses, Chapter 11 and 16 would be the way to go.

 

 

Farming Solo

 

Sometimes you may not want to bring a Farmer to maximize the Exp for Fodders.  To consider whether to farm solo or use a farmer, let’s use Chapter 14 Hard as an example.  Since this is Exploration, I would assume the team set up to be a max Main Character with 3 participating Shikigamis and 2 observing.  Sake Bottle has 20% Exp retention initially.

• Buff – 100% automatic buff when there is an Exp Buff icon floating around the enemy
• Buff 1 – 10% buff from Guild x Buff
• Buff 2 – 50% buff purchased with Jade in Shop x Buff 1
• Buff 3 – 15% buff monthly pack purchased with real money in Shop x Buff 2

 

 

Scenario 1

 

Chapter 14 Hard Total Exp
One Farmer with no Sake Bottle upgrade
	Fight	Buff	Buff 1	Buff 2	Buff 3
Farmer Ch 14	2016	4032	4435	6653	7650
Solo Ch 14	2464	4928	5421	8131	9350
Solo Ch 9	2024	4048	4453	6679	7682
* Sake Bottle conserve 20% Exp at level 1

Under Scenario 1, the Farmer is maxed so any Exp it gets will be sent to the Sake Bottle at Realm.  The Sake Bottle will only take 20% when it’s not upgraded.  I am also assuming the main character is maxed so he/she would not get any Exp except for the 20% Sake retention.  As it shows, using a Farmer would lower the Exp gain considerably (by 1700 Exp).  In fact, if the players can solo Chapter 9 in the case, they’ll be better off.

Now, what if players upgraded their Sake Bottle?  The scenario below assumes a maxed Sake Bottle.

 

 

Scenario 2

 

Chapter 14 Hard Total Exp
One Farmer with max Sake Bottle
	Fight	Buff	Buff 1	Buff 2	Buff 3
Farmer Ch 14	2464	4928	5421	8131	9350
Solo Ch 14	2688	5376	5914	8870	10200
Solo Ch 12	2496	4992	5491	8237	9470
* Sake Bottle conserve 60% Exp at level 9

In this case, there is only 850 Exp lost even at the highest Buff level.  The players will need to be able to solo chapter 12 to be better off than using a Farmer for chapter 14.  In this case, I see the argument of using a Farmer.  After all, using a good farmer such as Ubume would grind much faster than soloing.  In addition, sometimes there are events that give out time-limited Exp buffs.  As an example, an event just ended in the Chinese server that gives out a 1-hour 100% Exp/Coin buff every day.  Farming as fast as possible is the best way to utilize those buffs.

At the end of the day, players need to make their own choices.  Players should use a farmer if they have a good one and a high-level Sake Bottle, or if they are simply just impatient.  For those who have a high-level Kagura or Hiromasa, soloing is more EN efficient but is more time-consuming.

 

 

Preparation

 

To farm efficiently will take a lot of EN and Experience Buffs.

 

 

ENs

 

I suggest players save EN in mailbox then use them all at once when farming.  Mails are saved for 14 days so players can save few hundred ENs to burn on weekends.

Notable sources of ENs that come in mail form are: Event Rewards, Bounty Rewards, and ENs bought from Shop.

Event Rewards are random so there is not much to talk about.  The players just have to make sure to leave those in the mailbox.

Bounty Rewards are sent to mailbox when the players don’t collect them.  Bounties are refreshed two times a day and the players get rewards by defeating monsters in the bounty.  Rewards include Shards, Coins, Jades, and, on rare occasions, Awakening Buffs.  Completing Bounties is a great way to get resources so I encourage everyone to do it daily.

Players can also buy ENs from the shop and just save them in mailbox.  I recommend players to buy 1 to 2 ENs from Shop every day but not use them until farming time.  Note that buying EN gets more expensive when buying multiple in a day.  The first 100 ENs cost 60 Jade, and the second 100 ENs cost 80 Jade.  The third 100 ENs, in my opinion, is not worth it for F2P.  Also, note that refilling EN from the “+” sign on the top bar does not get sent to the mailbox.  This is for an immediate refill.

Another way to get EN is from Fighting Fish Realm Card.  However, the players need to time the card activation carefully.

 

 

Experience Buffs

 

There are several places to get Experience Buffs: Guild, Shop (Jade and Money), and Event.

This is another reason I keep emphasizing about joining a good Guild.  Guild masters can activate 10% Experience and 10% Coin buffs for the whole Guild.  An active Guild should be able to keep the buffs up 24/7.

The Shop sells two types of buffs: 50% Experience buff available to purchase with Jade and 15% Experience and Coin buff to be purchased with real money.  I recommend buying the 1-day buff with 100 Jade on Farming Days.  This is the most efficient way to use Jade.  The 15% buff is from the monthly package.  If you are willing to spend a little bit of money, this is a very good deal.  You get reward throughout the entire month.

Sometimes Events give out buffs too.  One of the past events on the Chinese server gave out 100% Experience and Coin buffs for one hour a day.

Note that all of these stacks.  The max Experience buff was {2×1.1×1.5×1.15×2} = 7.59 times with Exp buffed enemies.

 

 

Takeaways:

 

• Choose stages with many Experience buffed monsters
• Try to fight Bosses as well for more drops
• Don’t ignore Realm Raids (both Personal and Guild)
• Remember to switch out fodders when they are maxed level
• Be mindful of the time to do PvP, Cleansing, etc.
• Sake bottle is worth upgrading as a quality of life feature
• For your sanity, I suggest using one strong DPS to carry fodders even if it means sacrificing some Exp