Arena Guide

A guide to help you through Siralim 3's Arena.

Preamble

Hello and welcome to my Arena guide for Siralim 3.

This guide sets out to help the reader gain a better strategic understanding of the Arena and which creatures and combinations do well within it; whether you are already acquainted with the Arena or are completely new to it, I hope this guide is able to cater to players of any skill level.

This guide was last updated on 1/3/2019 and is current as of game version 1.3.5.

What is the Arena?

What is it and How to find it

The Arena is a game feature that can be found in the castle once it is unlocked by raising Gonfurian's favor level to Honored - however, since Gonfurian is the last god you will meet during the story, the arena could be considered a post-game feature as you will not be able to unlock it without playing the game for quite a while.

Once unlocked, the Arena's entry can be found south of the teleport shrine, between the Library and Stables - the upper staff member allows you to enter the Arena for a fee of 2000 granite per game, and the lower staff member is a vendor who allows you to spend the arena points earned by playing the Arena on various prizes that you'll unlock as your Fame rating grows.

Fighting in the Arena

In each arena game, you will face a series of five consecutive battles against random creatures, in which you will use creatures that you choose from a randomized selection - you can't use your own creatures inside, which is part of the challenge. All creatures in the arena (both friendly and enemy) have no artifacts, are equipped with random spell gems, and are all evenly leveled.

As usual, whichever side knocks out all of the opposing side's creatures first wins. Unlike the main game however, the restoration of health between battles is only partial, healing roughly half of whatever the creature was missing at the end of the previous round. Dead creatures are revived and start the next round at 50% health. Mana is fully restored between rounds like usual.

For winning battles, you will be awarded Arena Points and Fame, with more being earned the more consecutive matches you win. Certain items you can find can increase the point or fame yield for winning. Once you reach rank 50, you also earn a selection of random treasure every time you increase your fame rank further.

Matches Won	Points Gained	Fame Gained
1	100	100
2	250	250
3	500	450
4	850	700
5	1300	1000

The Draft Phase

Before entering an Arena game, you must construct a team of six creatures from the picks you are offered. You will be shown a set of three creatures you can choose from - if you don't like anything on offer, you can "mulligan" to get another set of three - however, you are only allowed to mulligan three times per slot before you must pick from what's offered to you. This process is repeated for all six slots until you have assembled a full team.

Setting up your team is part of the Arena's challenge, so the choices you make here are important and can make or break your run - in this regard, mulligans can be used to "gamble" on finding a good synergy at risk of ending up with a bad pick.

The randomized creatures provided for your use are selected from creatures you have obtained during your adventures, so getting more creatures in the main game will diversify what you are offered during the drafting phase.

Draft Strategy

A main part of the Arena's integral challenge is that you cannot use your own creatures and the selection offered to you is random, so chances for synergy between your team will only occur if you are lucky enough to be offered the opportunity. This section will contain advice and explanations on various strategies for doing well in the arena.

Pay Attention to Stats

Though traits are a big part of what a creature brings to the table, their stat line is also quite important. This is what makes certain gimmick-based lines such as Smogs perform very well in the Arena regardless of whether or not they can use their gimmick. Traits that effect stats such as the Dragon line are also quite effective in the Arena due to everything being evenly leveled, as long as the conditions for the stat gain or stat loss traits occur commonly.

Hit Down to see the Spells

You can hit down on the drafting screen to see which spells your creatures have equipped in advance of actually picking them - this can make it easier to decide if you used up your mulligans and have to pick what you've been offered, or if you're on the lookout for game-changer spells such as Dark Transformation.

Physical Attacks are a Safer Bet than Magic

The fact you can't choose what spells your creatures come with in the Arena, as well as the fact you may not be able to get access to mana restoration makes casters more risky picks than physical attackers in general - a fantastic caster like a Lich or Grimoire might end up having no useful spells to actually use with their high Intelligence, whereas a powerful physical attacker like a Fiend will be able to attack most of the time and doesn't have to worry about mana.

Some Creatures are Just Better than Others

In the main game, all creatures have a use, even if that use may be a seldom-occurring niche - in the Arena, this is not so. For example, an important factor is that no creatures in the Arena carry artifacts - this means creatures with artifact-based traits such as the entire Smith line are far less powerful here than they would be anywhere else. Other creatures, such as ones that play around certain buffs or debuffs, are far less reliable here since the randomized spells mean they may not have access to the specific status effect they need to get the most use out of them.

Specific picks will be discussed in greater detail in a later section of this guide.

Basics First, Synergies Later

While it's great to pull out a team of four Hunters or a Dragon Queen/Pit Wraith Redeemer combo, picking specific creatures early on and hoping the rest of the pieces of the puzzle will show up before you're done picking is a risky gamble that will more often than not leave you disappointed. Using up a mulligan when you've got viable creatures on offer in the hopes that a specific thing you want will show up just means you passed up on something reliable - it is much better to pick out something reliable if it shows up, since they can carry your team much easier than being forced to take something crappy due to a bad gamble.

If you do see something that synergizes well with what you already have though, then there's no reason not to grab it.

Gimmicks and Specialists are Risky Picks

As discussed before, creatures that rely on specific conditions being present to get the most out of them are risky picks, because the random nature of the creatures you have to pick from as well as the random spells they come equipped with. For instance, Efreets like to play off the Burn debuff, but there's no guarantee you'll be given anything that can actually inflict Burn - in which event, Efreets will just be weak links on your team and not pull their weight.

This can be offset by stats somewhat - Smogs are reliant on the Poison debuff, but have very high attack and defense stats which allow them to hit hard even if they don't have access to Poison.

Combat Strategy

This section contains tips on how to actually fight effectively in the Arena - strategy in battle is just as important as strategy in picking out your creatures, after all.

Look Before You Lunge

It might certainly be fun to steamroll your way through the Arena round after round, but against certain opponents it only takes a few slip-ups to make a round go completely wrong for you. When starting a battle just wait for a moment and see what the enemy has first, and then plan accordingly. Foes such as the Dragon Scout are the bane of hasty attackers, for example - they punish physical attacks by harshly reducing your whole team's attack, so if you don't watch what you're doing, then before you know it you've basically dumpstered your team's damage output and are on the fast track to a great big embarrassing L.

When In Doubt, Inspect

The Inspect command is a very useful tool in any battle, not least of all in the Arena - it will allow you to see your opponent's current stat boosts and penalties, as well as what spells they currently have equipped, and allow you to read their trait if it's a creature you're not familiar with. If a creature is giving you a thrashing and you don't know why, inspect it - from there you'll hopefully be able to figure out its weakness and give it some payback; or in less hopeful cases, see where you went wrong so you can keep the strategy in mind in future rounds.

Priorities are a Priority

Knowing which target to go for first is an important part of battles in the Arena - certain creatures are better off left for last, some should be taken out first before they cause trouble, and others can be dealt with in any order you wish. Memorizing traits or using Inspect to read them before you act can save you a lot of trouble and lost rounds. In particular, certain creatures that react to their allies or themselves dying are usually good targets to take out first, as are ones that like to throw debuffs at you in reaction to certain actions.

Spelling is Imoprtant

The advice about focusing on physical attacks in the draft advice section still holds true - however, it should be noted that does not mean you should forget about your spells altogether. Certain situations may come up that physical pummeling and trait trickery cannot solve, in which case it's time to have a look at what magic you might possess. You will still come up short sometimes even in this situation though - don't despair too much, it's just how luck of the draw goes sometimes.

Particular cases will be discussed in the "Significant Opponents" section.

Indepth Draft Picks - Chaos

Apocalypse

Arena Desirability: Bad

Apocalypses are poor picks due to their paper-thin defense. They can do massive damage if they can survive to get a turn, but it's a big if because anything so much as lightly sneezing on them will cause them to die instantly. Their traits ironically make the whole team stronger the longer the Apocalypse survives, which rarely happens due to its terrible defense.

Asura

Arena Desirability: Poor

Asuras have middling-to-poor statlines, and rely on your team scoring critical hits for their traits meaning they not only have to hit, but crit to get the most out of them. Despite their imposing appearance this sadly makes them a bit lackluster overall, and there are better things to choose from.

Basilisk

Arena Desirability: Decent

With solid defense and decent attack, Basilisks are fairly competent physical fighters in lieu of anything else. Their traits are somewhat unreliable - if they don't take damage during between the end of their turn and the beginning of the next, they'll do something nasty. If you can get something to cover for them so they don't get hit this could come in handy, but it's nothing to rely on.

Bat

Arena Desirability: Good

Bats are quick and hit decently, but don't expect to be casting any good spells with them - their defense is also middling to poor, so either take out the enemy's prime threats first or have something to keep the Bats alive or they'll be swatted down. Their traits rely on their allies landing attacks against enemies, which should be happening often so they're a nice enhancement.

Carver

Arena Desirability: Mixed

These fellows have stats pretty close to Bats, making them quick hard hitters with iffy defense. Their very mixed traits however are much less reliable than the Bats, making quite a few of them rather poor picks.

Standouts:
Carver Sadist
When this Carver defends it launches a flurry of attacks in addition to getting the usual benefits of defending, which makes it a desirable pick.

Carver Heartseeker
If it can survive its allies long enough, the stat gains it receives from its trait will make it nearly unstoppable. This talent is wasted if it dies first, though.

Cerberus

Arena Desirability: Bad

These doggies have traits that prevent them from casting spells manually, but cast automatically for free upon certain conditions. Unfortunately their intelligence stat is utterly awful, meaning those spells will have the potency of a wet sack of crap. They don't have much else going for them statistically other than large health pools.

Standouts:
Ashmouth Cerberus
This Cerberus actually provides its spells to the rest of the team, making it an actually decent support pick; especially if you can find some Gargoyles to cast chaos spells with.

Clutcher

Arena Desirability: Poor

Similar to Asuras, Clutchers rely on a specific occurrence to do their thing - in this case, enemies dodging. While this is somewhat easier to invoke than critical hits, it is still not particularly reliable. Their stats also make them good casters rather than attackers, which isn't the first thing you'd expect from flying hands...

Devil

Arena Desirability: Good

While a little slow and with low defense, Devils are solid brawlers with traits that specialize them against a certain class each, making them able to assassinate certain monster races very quickly. They also have solid intelligence in case you need to cast spells.

Standouts:
Krampus
Only take Krampus if offered if you have at least one Devil already in your lineup - its trait makes all Devils on your team share their traits, meaning they all gain each other's class-sniping abilities. Without any other Devils around, it's a wasted pick.

Diabolic Horde

Arena Desirability: Bad

One of the "tribal" families that only synergizes with itself, unless you can assemble four or more of these then you're not going to get a whole lot out of them, as unlike Hunters they just don't do all that well by themselves thanks to stats on the low end of average.

Doom Fortress

Arena Desirability: Decent

THE tank race. These things are a giant pile of health, defense, and not much else. They're quite desirable as support creatures; just make sure they have something to support, because these things are not going to accomplish much by themselves.

Standouts:
Mouth of Hell
This thing is practically an I Win Button provided it survives until its turn comes up. Making it provoke kills it and deals out damage to the whole enemy team based on how much health it was missing - now remember that creatures that die during one round start at 50% health during the next round. And in case you were wondering, the explosion hits REALLY hard by default.

Doomguard

Arena Desirability: Poor

Supportive tanks similar to the Doom Fortress line, but with much more specialized support traits that fall a bit short - while they're great in adventure and tavern teams, they just don't bring as much to the table here as other options do.

Fiend

Arena Desirability: Good

These things are utter brutes - they won't win any magic contests, but their ferociously high attack and speed stats are more than able to speak on their behalf. Many of them use the Berserk status for their trait gimmicks, which lends extra power to an already competent arena creature if the opportunity appears.

Harpy

Arena Desirability: Bad

Harpies have a lot of speed, and... that's about it. Their traits are meant to be disruptive, but only tend to function in niche situations that don't come up too often. There are many, many better things you could take than a Harpy, in most drafts of three.

Gargoyle

Arena Desirability: Decent

While their stats are generally average-to-poor apart from their attack, Gargoyles usually have very solid traits that synergize nicely with chaos-class spells. Even if they are the only chaos class member of the team, the boosts they provide to their own spells usually make up nicely for their poor intelligence.

Manticore

Arena Desirability: Decent

Bulky defensive brawlers, with a mixed bag of traits that usually give them offensive or defensive options. While they're not particularly incredible in any way, you could do a lot worse with your picks if nothing else is available.

Minotaur

Arena Desirability: Decent

Solid physical brawlers that tend to react to getting physically attacked or being at low health, which can be relied on to happen quite often. While Fiends and Smogs are better brawlers, Minotaurs aren't a bad pick by any means.

Salamander

Arena Desirability: Decent

Similar to the Cerberus line, Salamanders are reactive casters, except 1) they can cast manually, and 2) they have an intelligence stat that can back it up. If you want a chaos caster or have found some Gargoyles to synergize with, these might be decent to take.

Smog

Arena Desirability: Good

Ridiculously high attack and defense, and traits that synergize with the Poison debuff - in truth, their stats are actually so good that even if you don't have access to Poison, Smogs tend to lift their weight pretty admirably in the Arena. They just get even better if you have Poison to work with, which makes a good pick even more solid.

Wyvern

Arena Desirability: Poor

With conditional anti-magic traits and average stats, Wyverns just don't bring all that much to your team given it's far better to have a plan of action than planning to react to what may or may not be present in the enemy team.

Indepth Draft Picks - Death

Abomination

Arena Desirability: Decent

Solid physical brawlers and tanks with traits hinging around the Weak and Vulnerable debuffs. The traits are somewhat niche and unreliable, but their nice stats make up for the lack of opportunities you may find to use the debuffs.

Banshee

Arena Desirability: Poor

An odd line of casters who either manipulate mana or gain advantages depending on how much they have or don't have - their unfortunately rather sub par stats don't do much to make them stand out comparative to other picks.

Carnage

Arena Desirability: Good

Possessing good attack and speed, Carnages also benefit well from their traits in the Arena - though they need to directly score kills themselves in order to get the most out of their traits, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. If nothing else, your other creatures can soften up foes for the Carnage to deliver the kill, and have the round snowball in your favor from there.

Forsaken

Arena Desirability: Decent

A rather odd line, the gimmick of the Forsaken is that they start off strong and get weaker, or start off weakened but get stronger. They do have pretty good stats, and the front-loaded trait users such as Bonescraper or Rotmongerer are desirable as long as you are able to finish your fights quickly - which is something you should be trying to do anyhow.

Ghoul

Arena Desirability: Decent

Ghouls are fast and hit pretty solidly, and have traits that like to either supplement your own team's speed or mess with the enemy's. While something like a Carnage or a Fiend would be a better choice, Ghouls are by no means a bad pick.

Hound

Arena Desirability: Poor

Another fast and physically competent line that trades in defense for a modest amount of magical ability, Hounds unfortunately aren't that good in the Arena due to their "tribal" traits that rely on more Hounds being present to work well, in addition to their poor defense.

Leper

Arena Desirability: Good

Lepers have absolutely incredible stat lines apart from their defense, which is utterly atrocious. As a result, they have the same problem as Apocalypses where anything can easily wreck them - unlike Apocalypses however they have enough speed to consistently get a hit in before anything can hit them. Their debuff-reliant traits are more reliable than most due to them working off any debuff rather then specific ones, making up further for their lack of defense.

Lich

Arena Desirability: Poor

Squishy spellcasters with good intelligence and large mana pools, Liches tend to be largely reliant on the spells they have equipped to get the most out of their traits, making them somewhat unreliable in the Arena where you can't choose their spells.

Standouts:
Lich Shadowcaster
It gives itself and your other team members doubled intelligence when casting death spells, meaning it hits far harder than other Liches and is much more reliable.

Lich King
Gets access to every death spell in the game, but has heightened mana costs. Generally you can cast one death spell of your choice with it, which is consistently good.

Mummy

Arena Desirability: Bad

An unfortunate case of stats and traits not supporting each other, Mummies rely on inflicting the Curse status to perform well, but are so lumberingly slow that everything will have moved before them by the time they can put a Curse on their enemies, wasting the potential. This also ironically makes them quite vulnerable to being hit with debuffs before they can act.

Nix

Arena Desirability: Poor

Very quick but otherwise average statistically, Nixes have a mixed bag of disruptive and reactive traits but just don't have much staying power beyond that.

Standouts:
Nix Informer
Silences the whole enemy team at the start of the battle, which is very powerful whether you have synergies with it or not - don't expect the Nix to perform well beyond that, though.

Pit Worm

Arena Desirability: Good

Another physical specialist line, Pit Worms bring very good traits with them that go off at the start of a creature's turn - usually disrupting the enemy team's stats or just straight up damaging them. Even if there are harder hitters, these are consistently an excellent way to get around defensive walls.

Standouts:
Pit Worm Gladiator
Gains attack every time one of its allies gets a turn, meaning its damage output will constantly increase over the course of the battle. Extremely useful.

Pit Wraith

Arena Desirability: Mixed

These things are honestly just kind of weird. Average-to-decent stats in everything but speed (which is low), and have a very varied set of traits that range from amazing to mediocre. Redeemer, Lord and Obliterator are the good choices, with the rest being fairly unreliable.

Reaper

Arena Desirability: Decent

Good offensive stats but lackluster defenses, Reapers are similar to Carnages except they need to specifically attack low health creatures to trigger their traits, which tend to have pretty drastic effects. A slightly unreliable pick but not terribly so.

Standouts:
Incursion Reaper
Attacking allies that are below half health with this creature brings them back to full health and gives them a stat boost, making this Reaper a fantastic support choice.

Revenant

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Featuring very high attack and not much else in the way of stats, Revenant traits often use some kind of sacrifice to boost their attack output even further, which means they can do very high amounts of damage so long as they're able to land their hits.

Standouts:
Revenant Soldier
The health sacrifice for attacks isn't too bad, and cause it to hit really, REALLY hard.

Shade

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Yet another low-intelligence physical brawler (Death class sure has a lot of these), their reliance on Invisibility isn't great as Invisibility isn't that reliable in the first place.

Standouts:
Gateway Shade
Able to cloak itself at will and hits insanely hard when attacking out of Invisibility, Gateway Shades are a solid offensive pick.

Sin

Arena Desirability: Poor

With low-average statlines and mixed self-serving traits that aren't that great in most instances, it's probably better to pass on Sins unless there's absolutely nothing better.

Skeleton

Arena Desirability: Good

Guess what? It's another brawler race! These ones are pretty fast and hit decently hard, but their traits make them stand out even among the brawler races, giving them huge damage boosts under certain conditions.

Spectre

Arena Desirability: Poor

With average generalist stat lines and traits that react to specific situations by causing stat losses, Spectres just don't have all that much worth picking them for over other choices.

Standouts:
Transient Spectre
Enemies take a significant hit to their Speed and Defense whenever it provokes. An excellent support choice that can crack even the hardiest of walls.

Wight

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Another brawler line, the difference being Wights are fairly slow, so they might have trouble landing hits. Their traits tend to do nasty stuff when they or their allies die - despite this being a common occurrence this is not as reliable as it sounds due to enemies having a habit of taking them out first to waste their potential.

Indepth Draft Picks - Life

Angel

Arena Desirability: Decent

Angels hit fairly hard and apply debuffs due to their traits, but their stat line isn't generally much to get excited about. A pretty straightforward mid-tier offensive pick.

Apis

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Tanky and defensive, Apis traits are kind of all over the place but usually skew towards protecting themselves in some way. They hit modestly hard physically but have terrible intelligence.

Standouts:
Apis Majesty
If you are offered this, take it. It gets a 200% boost to its stats, and has no drawback since artifacts are not a factor in the Arena. This thing can easily murder entire Arena teams by itself.

Crusader

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Slow but tanky, the bulk of a Crusader's defensive potential tends to come from their traits rather than their stats, making them a bit less reliable than most other tank lines.

Standouts:
Holy Crusader
It gets Shell whenever it attacks or is attacked, making it nigh impossible to kill if it comes down to a one-on-one battle. Something of a backup plan pick.

Demigod

Arena Desirability: Poor

Featuring high intelligence and not much else, these casters have a really mixed bag of traits that tend to skew towards quite unreliable due to their synergistic nature or requirement that the Demigod lands a physical hit without the stat line to ensure it can do that.

Griffon

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Griffons are very fast and hit decently hard, but unfortunately they are a "tribal" family that relies on the presence of other Griffons to get the most out of their traits; without that, they're just a slightly underwhelming fighter compared to other options available. You could do a lot worse, though.

Ophan

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Check their spells before you pick them - Ophans have the worst physical attack stats in the game bar none, but are fantastic casters. The majority of life-class magic leans heavily towards support spells however, so keep in mind that's the role they'll likely end up forced into rather than an offensive one.

Paragon

Arena Desirability: Poor

While you'll likely see these fairly often in Tavern Brawls, the gems unfortunately do not shine in the Arena due to them having traits that work best in a team build specifically designed to work with them, as well as an aggressively average stat line.

Priest

Arena Desirability: Bad

THE support race - as in, they are literally unable to do anything other than play a support role due to not being able to take turns manually. Having a creature that cannot act on your team tends to narrow your flexibility in combat - this is another line best left to the Tavern Brawls it does well in.

Rift Dancer

Arena Desirability: Bad

Fast and pretty much nothing else with traits that amplify the effects of certain other traits for both sides in battle - again, you need a plan to use these effectively, not a randomly selected team. They can even veer into being outright liabilities if the enemy happens to get anything that would benefit from its trait.

Sanctus

Arena Desirability: Bad

The "good" counterpart to the Sins - unfortunately, they aren't that good due to a combination of hideously slow speed and niche traits. They can hit decently hard physically, but good luck landing a hit with that awful speed.

Seraph

Arena Desirability: Decent

Solid brawlers that tend to come with an extra "ability" usually triggered by defending or provoking. They can hit hard enough to count even though they likely won't be one-shotting anything, and have enough staying power to last a few rounds. The extra abilities tend to be supportive in nature, potentially giving you extra options to escape from bad situations.

Siren

Arena Desirability: Poor

Proficient casters with decent speed and disruptive traits, Sirens suffer from the same problem Ophans do in that life spells don't have quite as many offensive options for them to actually use their intelligence stat with. On top of this they also have poor defense, pushing them towards unreliable in general.

Sphinx

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Casters with possibly the lowest speed in the game, massive defense, and a quite generous mana pool, Sphinxes carry traits that get stronger the more creatures of the same class are fighting on their side. This is somewhat easier to get synergy for than most tribal traits, but unfortunately since you can't change their class in the Arena, this means you'll have to pick Life monsters only to get the most out of them. It's a gamble, but one that will pay off if you can find enough good Life picks.

Spirit

Arena Desirability: Decent

Another support caster line, Spirits are quick with high intelligence and have traits that react to heals - since they're life class, the chance of them having access to healing magic is also higher than it would be for other classes. Good if you want to keep your creatures alive or leverage the Spirit's traits.

Standouts:
Frozen Spirit
Improves the defense of any creature on your team that gets healed. If you have access to decent healing options, this will make your creatures take a lot less damage.

Stag

Arena Desirability: Bad

Average stats and traits that interact with spell gem properties, which are random in the Arena - on top of the spells themselves being random to begin with. Leave these to the tavern brawls where they belong.

Unicorn

Arena Desirability: Poor

Solid support traits that require the Unicorn to land damaging physical hits to trigger, on a creature line that has middling speed and poor attack. Yikes. I'm not sure what's with so many life class races having mediocre stats...

Valkyrie

Arena Desirability: Decent

Quick, with decent physical attacker stats and very nice supportive traits. Certain Valkyries might be better when used in particular strategies and combos, but most of them are ones you'll get generally good use out of.

Vulpes

Arena Desirability: Poor

The fastest creature line in the game outside of nature Godspawn, Vulpes traits allow them to automatically cast certain spells at the start of the round - unfortunately since they have random spells here, it makes an already chancey trait even more unreliable than usual. Which is just a damn shame given how cool they look.

Indepth Draft Picks - Nature

Arachnalisk

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Fast, intelligent and a little fragile, Arachnalisks rely on Snare and Poison to get the most out of their traits, making them slightly more appealing than most status-reliant picks due to Snare and Poison being among the more common statuses.

Aspect

Arena Desirability: Bad

They really like dodging physical attacks, but aren't much good at anything else. Dodge gets less reliable against fast creatures, which are usually the ones you'd want to dodge the most.

Standouts:
Autumn Aspect
Provides Grace to its entire team, which slows down the enemy's physical damage output by quite a bit, even if it's somewhat luck based. It still can't do much, but it's a good trait.

Brownie

Arena Desirability: Decent

A competent line of physical brawlers with traits that supplement their damage output quite well. They're straightforward, but fairly reliable.

Centaur

Arena Desirability: Good

Fantastic attack along with decent stats everywhere but Intelligence, Centaurs also come with reactive traits that usually give them free attacks to leverage their great attack stat even further.

Standouts:
Centaur Raider
Gets three free attacks any time an enemy dies - including if the enemy died because of being hit by the free attacks. This often results in a spiral of free attacks that wipes out the enemy team outright, quite often within the first three moves of the round.

Dryad

Arena Desirability: Poor

Average stats other than poor attack, and traits that are most often built to synergize with particular strategies, making them unreliable in the Arena. There are a lot of much better options to be found.

Elf

Arena Desirability: Poor

Very fast and very intelligent, but dangerously fragile. Their traits block other traits from triggering, which can range from incredibly useful to near-useless. The problem is that you can't predict what you might come up against, so blocking certain things might just never come up.

Standouts:
Elf Barbarian
It's a gamble, but this Elf blocks enemy traits that trigger when something dies - which are often fairly nasty or annoying to deal with. If you really don't want to deal with Wights being a pain, bring this fellow along.

Ent

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Defensive casters that tend to like the Mend debuff a whole lot. They're not great on average unfortunately, but the ones that give your creatures a source of healing can be pretty decent.

Standouts:
Ebony Ent
Gives your whole team permanent Mend. Great for staying alive unless you run into Blight.

Gargantuan

Arena Desirability: Decent

Another race of reactive hard hitters similar to Centaurs. They're also considerably bulky, making them fairly hard to kill - not as reliably awesome as Centaurs, but certainly a good pick in and of themselves.

Giant

Arena Desirability: Good

Absolute physical powerhouses, boasting massive Health, Defense and Attack, and pretty much nothing else - because they don't NEED anything else. Their traits usually relate to the Health stat in some manner or another, usually giving them extra Health or letting them use Health to supplement their damage output.

Hunter

Arena Desirability: Good

While these are a "tribal" race, they actually have stats good enough to function well by themselves, being fast and fairly hard hitters with traits that allow them to hit multiple times for every Hunter that's present. If you can get a few of them, great; but even by themselves they're not too bad.

Imler

Arena Desirability: Decent

Imlers have very similar stats to Giants, but have "tribal" traits that are actually aimed at Imlings rather than themselves. While this usually makes them fantastic elsewhere in the game, they're a bit inconsistent here due to there being no guarantee you'll be offered Imlings. Nevertheless, their stats alone can carry them to a degree.

Imling

Arena Desirability: Mixed

The total inverse of Imlers - super fast and intelligent, but very fragile. Their traits require Imlers to be present to get the most out of them, making them not terribly reliable for the same reasons outlined in the Imler entry.

Imp

Arena Desirability: Decent

Quick casters, though not quite as statistically stacked as the less reliable Imlings, their traits enhance the casting of nature spells, making them quite competent. Unlike Imlings they can also hit decently hard physically if they need to.

Standouts:
Imp Hexer
Grants your whole team free access to the Shellbust spell - a fantastic siege breaker that can be used to quickly ruin otherwise insurmountable defensive walls.

Mite

Arena Desirability: Poor

While they can hit quite hard and have decent enough speed, Mite traits usually like to play with specific debuffs, making them shaky picks in general. There are better options.

Pilwiz

Arena Desirability: Mixed

A somewhat modest brawler race, their traits relate to the Bleed debuff, meaning if you don't have access to it then they lose a lot of potential.

Standouts:
Pilwiz Peasant
Hits surprisingly hard and inflicts Bleed, making its damage output actually pretty good.

Pilwiz Herbalist
The entire enemy team starts with Bleed, which is not only excellent for softening them up but synergizes well with debuff-related traits.

Storm

Arena Desirability: Poor

While they have traits with powerful effects, the traits only work if they're at or near maximum health meaning a light scrape will just completely take the wind out of it and leave you with a very mediocre creature.

Standouts:
Blizzard
It's a Christmas event monster so you may not have access to it depending on when you started playing, but your whole team being able to cast Snowstorm for free is massively powerful.

Tremor

Arena Desirability: Poor

Very fast disruption creatures with not much else going for them. They tend to be that one creature that's infuriating to fight, but disappointing to actually use once you get it.

Troll

Arena Desirability: Good

They're pretty much what you'd expect from classic mythical Trolls - big old brutes who are great at just punching you in the face but not at thinking. Their traits often give them extra damage output too, which makes them an even more desirable pick.

Waspid

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Consistently good stats except for Defense, the problem with Waspids is they're another tribal family that only play nice with each other, making them risky picks.

Wolpertinger

Arena Desirability: Decent

Wolpertingers like going fast, hitting hard, casting scourge spells, and dying to a light breeze. They can actually be pretty decent offensive options, with mixed traits that either enhance or grant access to scourge spells for even more damage - pick the ones that grant access and you'll do better.

Indepth Draft Picks - Sorcery

Bard

Arena Desirability: Bad

Below average stats and traits that are either too disruptive for their own good or synergistic to specific strategies unfortunately make these blobby fellows really not a competitive choice here.

Djinn

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Decent stats except for defense, which is so bad they'd probably die if they were looked at funny. They're similar to Banshees in that their traits lean into mana manipulation, making them require some setup before you can use them to full effect. Not really all that reliable.

Standouts:
Djinn Evoker
A walking nuke. Having this Djinn provoke causes it to spend a huge amount of mana on damaging the enemy directly, and it hits extremely hard. Just make sure it can survive until its turn.

Dragon

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Decent defensive stats but somewhat lackluster damage output. Their traits react to certain actions taken by the enemy, meaning they range from decent to useless depending on what action they react to in particular.

Standouts:
Dragon Scout + Dragon Revenant
Scout reacts to enemy attacks by reducing the whole enemy team's attack, and Revenant reacts to enemy spell casts by reducing the whole enemy team's intelligence. Good if you want to nerf the enemy into uselessness after a few turns.

Dragon Queen
Reacts to enemies gaining buffs or debuffs by damaging the whole enemy team. It requires some setup, but it can do some crazy amounts of damage if you hit every enemy at once with a debuff, which isn't too uncommon in spells.

Efreet

Arena Desirability: Poor

Another line with good stats everywhere except Defense, Efreets like to play with fire by using the Burn debuff, making them a very unreliable choice. They might be better if they had better defense, without it they just don't have the staying power to ensure their Burn strategy pans out.

Familiar

Arena Desirability: Poor

Above average casters that suffer from the tribal trait problem. Familiar teams are an utter menace anywhere other than the Arena, but it's just too risky to gamble on setting them up here.

Golem

Arena Desirability: Decent

Tremendous attack and defense, terrible intelligence and speed. Their traits are very varied, doing all sorts of different things.

Standouts:
Regal Golem
Your whole team gets a big heal at the start of the Golem's turn. Very nice to have.

Iron Golem
Krampus, but for Golems. Only take it if you already have some Golems in your lineup.

War Golem
Gets to attack or cast spells twice without even having Multicast or Multistrike.

Gorgon

Arena Desirability: Poor

Good offensive stats and poor defensive stats, with unreliable traits that like to mess with the Stun debuff. If they can actually manage to stun things before they get a turn they get a lot more use, since they tend not to last long in most fights otherwise - but since they're kind of slow that rarely happens.

Grimoire

Arena Desirability: Poor

Another fast caster line, Grimoires have a rather odd selection of traits which tend to work off very specific strategies, making them generally a poor pick since the chances of being able to use their niche traits is somewhat poor.

Masochist

Arena Desirability: Bad

Good casting stats, horrible paper-thin defense, and traits that make them more powerful when they have debuffs on them, which is something you want to avoid - plus the fact that they still suffer from the effects of their debuffs, so a stunned Masochist can be as powerful as it wants, it's still not going to be able to DO anything.

Occultist

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Very fast casters with traits that work off casting sorcery spells. They're not quite as good at raw casting power as Grimoires or Djinns are, but generally have better traits overall.

Phase Warrior

Arena Desirability: Poor

Supportive creatures with generally average stats. Their damage output is somewhat poor, and while the boosts they grant their whole team are more useful than more niche traits, the power of the boost tends to be somewhat lacking.

Phoenix

Arena Desirability: Poor

Yet another quick and fragile caster line. Sorcery has a lot of these it seems. Their traits react to things being resurrected, which is nice if that particular situation occurs - which it doesn't all that often, making these birds a bit of a poor Arena choice.

Plague Doctor

Arena Desirability: Poor

High intelligence, below average everywhere else. Their traits like to make debuffs or stat drains worse, but often in specific ways that don't really play well to their stat line. Unreliable.

Raven

Arena Desirability: Decent

These casters are extremely fast - only Vulpes and nature Godspawn are likely to outspeed them. In addition, their traits are often pretty good and can be used in many situations. Like so many other sorcery creatures though, their defense is appalling.

Slime

Arena Desirability: Bad

Another race that likes to synergize with particular strategies, they just don't have the level of general-purpose use you need for the Arena, nor the stats to make them desirable in spite of it.

Standouts:
Cursed Slime
Its trait basically means any time it hits something physically, it will get an extra hit using the target's own attack stat - and it's trait damage too, so it's good for bypassing defenses to a degree.

Smith

Arena Desirability: Bad

Even their decent attack just can't make up for the fact their traits are literally useless in the Arena, where Artifacts are just not a factor. They're great elsewhere in the game, but this just isn't where they shine at all.

Vortex

Arena Desirability: Poor

Low-average stats and disruptive traits. They are usually good for one or two disruptive tricks per round, but not much else.

Watcher

Arena Desirability: Decent

Slow with good intelligence, their traits give them damage boosts depending on certain situations. However, these damage boosts tend to scale up very quickly if the situation does occur, so if you can find one that relies on a fairly common condition, then it can hit very hard.

Yeti

Arena Desirability: Decent

Slow and unintelligent, but with brutally good physical stats. The only thing keeping them from the Good category is their reliance on the Freeze status, which is difficult to inflict and often doesn't stay on a creature for long - combined with their slow speed, Yetis sometimes have a hard time taking advantage of this.

Indepth Draft Picks - Special

Alemental

Arena Desirability: Bad

Their stats vary depending on their class, but most of these unfortunately tend to be poor choices due to access to the Drunk debuff being considerably rarer than most other debuffs.

Standouts:
Lagergoyle
With a good attack stat and a trait that reliably stacks up Drunk debuffs on the enemies, Lagergoyle is a fantastic brawler and support rolled into one.

Construct

Arena Desirability: Mixed

Ironically despite them being exclusive Arena prizes, Constructs rely on Artifact Spells which you may not have access to, making several of them shaky picks in general for Arena runs. As a general rule, if the trait requires spells to be equipped or cast regularly, then they are poorer picks.

Magma, Silverbone, Heavenshield, and Treewall are the better picks, with the rest being dubious choices at best.

Shapeshifter

Arena Desirability: Poor

While Shapeshifters are capable of some absolutely crazy things, their strategy-synergistic nature makes them unreliable as Arena picks unless you've already picked something they can work with before being offered them. In addition their stats are nothing to be particularly impressed with, further adding to them being unreliable choices.

Standouts:
Nature Shapeshifter
This Shapeshifter is actually a fairly decent pick due to it converting friendly-fire damage into healing, which has much broader use than its counterparts in no small part to the fact you can just have your creatures punch each other to heal up.

Master Shapeshifter + Shapeshifter Apprentice
These are even worse than other Shapeshifters due to them synergizing only with other Shapeshifters rather than all creatures.

Godspawn

Arena Desirability: Good

While they might be ludicrously rare other than your starter, Godspawn usually do very well in the Arena due to their very high stats. The traits vary in usefulness quite widely, so to quickly summarize each:

Ottum: An absolute juggernaut in physical combat.
The Lost: A generally unreliable and underwhelming trait.
Iconus: Largely dependent on your first two picks.
Mumu: Stacking debuffs goes well with its high defense.
Tisya: An absolutely fantastic pick.
Walken: Its trait flat out doesn't do anything in the Arena.
Emlai: Passable, but unimpressive.
Laglor: One of the best magic users in the game bar none.
Dikya: Another one that does nothing in the Arena.
Ugat: Another extremely solid pick.
Yllor: Very unreliable trait.
Alakadan: Can carry whole battles by itself if it gets lucky with spells.
Aja Birku: Unreliable to the point of occasionally being actively harmful.
Elqor: Trait does nothing useful in the Arena.
Kalasag: A very good support pick.

Mimic

Arena Desirability: Good

Mimics are ludicrously hard to obtain in the main game, but if you happen to get your hands on one it can show up in your draft picks - in which event you should absolutely take it, as it has some of the highest stats in the game AND an incredible trait that makes it go first AND get five free buffs. There's just no reason not to take it - it's that good.

Dumpling

Arena Desirability: Bad

I hate to say it, but Dumplings just aren't viable in the Arena. They have a perfectly flat average stat line and traits that relate pretty much exclusively to adventuring. Sorry cuties, this just ain't your scene.

Significant Opponents

This section details particular creatures you should watch out for in the Arena, and how you should go about dealing with them should they appear.

Chaos

Carver Heartseeker
When its allies reach low health, it will murder them to gain a large stat boost. Two or more of these boosts and it will start ripping through your team like a hot chainsaw through butter, so take it out before anything else.

Minotaur Earthshaker
It will hit your whole team as hard as you hit it if you attack it physically, so be very careful about using physical attacks on it. Use traits, spells or debuffs unless you're left with no other options, in which case put your defenses up before you attack it.

Death

Avarita Sin
This creature steals 15% of the stats from the rest of the creatures on its team, leading it to it being quite a bit stronger than the average Arena creature at the expense of the rest of its team's performance. Stat boosts and stat drains can help here, as can sticking the Vulnerable debuff on it if possible.

Spitting Pit Worm
Your defense will be constantly drained as long as this creature remains alive, meaning you'll get more vulnerable the longer the battle wears on. Get rid of it early or you'll start taking horrible amounts of damage.

Gravebane Wight
It'll deal out a really hard hit to your whole team when it dies thanks to its Woe ability, so try take it out last, or else put up defenses before killing it.

Terror Wight
Similar to the Carver Heartseeker this fellow gets a big stat boost when one of its allies dies, so take it out first or it'll rapidly become unstoppable.

Life

Apis Majesty
If this thing shows up, luck is not on your side. It gains a massive stat boost but gains nothing from artifacts - except that artifacts are not present in the arena, meaning it just has a huge stat boost with no drawback.

Your best bet is to amp your stats up to match it (or bring its stats down) and pray it's enough to deal significant enough damage before it stomps your team into mush.

Apis Guardian
Not so much a threat as just a gigantic pain in the rear. This thing is a massive pile of defense and nothing else - so it can't do much to you, but you can't do much to it. Quite a few rounds have been lost to these things simply forcing players to forfeit due to its insurmountable defense.

The best approach is to give it a damaging debuff if possible so its defense won't be able to help it, or else use trait damage to chip away at it.

Siren Ascendant
This little golden jerk likes to silence you if you cast spells and scorn you if you take a swing at something, meaning as long as it is alive you have to alternate between casting and attacking. Take it out first to limit the amount of mischief it can cause.

Siren Soothsayer
A more subtle opponent that makes your attacks and spells run off whichever of your Attack or Intelligence stats is lower than the other. For specialized monsters like Fiends this is absolutely crippling, so these should be taken out early to prevent your damage output from being kept down.

Unguided Amaranth
Every time one of your attacks connect on an enemy, this creature boosts the target's defense by 20%, meaning they can quickly become untouchable if the boost are allowed to stack enough. Take it out first using spells unless you have something that can take it down in one or two physical attacks.

Nature

Daunting Gargantuan
It gets a free attack for every creature that dies on either side between its turns, and it hits REALLY hard. Worth taking out early, else if you end up sweeping its team without killing it, it will go berserk and mangle everyone.

Sorcery

Dragon Scout
When this thing is present, ONLY attack if you're sure you can take it out in one hit - launching a physical attack at all while it's around will make your whole team take a huge attack penalty, so after a couple of attacks your damage output might as well be nonexistent. God help you if you brought something that attacks automatically.

Use spells, debuffs or trait damage until it is taken out, unless you have a way to bring your attack stat back up.

Dragon Revenant
The inverse of Dragon Scout - it will trash your intelligence if you cast spells while it is around. While this does make it easier to deal than Dragon Scout, you should still be on the lookout for it and take it out before you need to cast anything.

Mana Vortex
Silences your whole team if any of them cast a spell. Take it out early on so it can't limit your tactical options.

The Arena Shop: Ranks 0-25

Item	Points Cost	Rank to Unlock
Small Treasure Chest	100	0
Core: Redsteel Construct	5000	1
Random Spell Gem	500	2
Spell Gem: Living Necklace	1500	3
Core: War Priest	5000	4
Spell Gem: Living Helmet	1500	5
Core: Nightveil Construct	5000	6
Spell Gem: Living Gauntlet	1500	7
Spell Gem: Living Ring	1500	8
Core: Pumking	5000	9
Spell Gem: Living Cloak	1500	10
Spell Gems: Living Sorcery Lance + Shield	1500	11
Core: Heavenshield Construct	5000	12
Rune: Eda	4000	13
Spell Gems: Living Nature Lance + Shield	1500	14
Core: Nix Scoundrel	5000	15
Item: Random Legendary Material	500	16
Core: Treewall Construct	5000	17
Spell Gem: Living Heavy Shield	1500	18
Spell Gem: Living Boots	1500	19
Core: Nadin Rift Dancer	5000	20
Spell Gem: Living Ribbon	1500	21
Core: Minotaur Battlemaster	5000	22
Spell Gem: Living Sword	1500	23
Core: Bloodmail Construct	5000	24
Medium Treasure Chest	250	25

The Arena Shop: Ranks 26-50

Item	Points Cost	Rank to Unlock
Spell Gems: Living Chaos Lance + Shield	1500	26
Core: Centaur Warrior	5000	27
Rune: Opa	4000	28
Core: Silverbone Construct	5000	29
Rune: Kih	4000	30
Core: Asura Blooddrinker	5000	31
Spell Gem: Living Wizard Hat	1500	32
Core: Magma Construct	5000	33
Rune: Yar	4000	34
Core: Pit Worm Gladiator	5000	35
Spell Gems: Living Death Lance + Shield	1500	36
Core: Skywatch Construct	5000	37
Rune: Tur	4000	38
Spell Gem: Living Armor	1500	39
Core: Phase Champion	5000	40
Spell Gems: Living Life Lance + Shield	1500	41
Spell Gem: Living Mace	1500	42
Core: Willow Construct	5000	43
Spell Gem: Living Bow	1500	44
Spell Gem: Living Staff	1500	45
Core: Shogun	5000	46
Spell Gem: Living Axe	1500	47
Large Treasure Chest	500	48
Core: Astro Construct	5000	49
Talisman: Gladiator's Bane	50,000	50
Rainbow Varnish	50,000	50

[gay moth aunt]

I wrote this guide before the Christmas event came around, so that's a good point. Thanks!

[FDru]

Blizzard is basically a free win in arena. Of course acquiring it is seasonal but it might be worth mentioning.