ARTs part checklist + building guide

This guide will teach players how to build a strong ART. Or at least try to. No guarantees.

You DO know how to tune, right?

I really hope you already know the basics of using the Cosmos Pot before reading this guide.
If you don't, here's a handy guide.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2841721673

You should also have a general idea of what each level-up cartridge does before coming here.
If not, there's another guide for that.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2929971550

Baby's first P2W: Kisaragi Anko

I'll start with Kisaragi Anko, simply shortened to Anko, as everything you need for her can be purchased from the shop.

Anko will be an example of an alpha-ART. She's probably one of the most famous examples in CBU.
Like with Artpako (see F2P guide), Anko will need lots of TEC.
She has only a stun subweapon and no utility subweapon for mobility, so it'll be better to tune her for FLY rather than WLK.
Anko will be relying heavily on weapon tunes.
Anko will have no spare capacity to tune HP, making mobility even more important.

The cartridges to choose are:
Blast Guard and Beam Guard, as usual.
Moving Burst, because Anko is an alpha-ART that lacks any sort of barrier gimmick.
Quick Boost*, as we'll be adding an external movement cartridge.
*You can replace this with Float Dash if you're not yet used to having to spacebar before dashing - remember, you can Float Dash into Accele Roll. Keep holding spacebar while Float Dashing and double tap the direction you want to go in, and you can Accele Roll. Note that this will consume a LOT of boost, but travels far.
Accele Roll, as our external 11th cartridge.

Well, first of all, buy Anko from the shop. She costs you 50 Rt.

Stock Anko as seen in the shop.

Notice the Anko AM2, and the DNG Cannon.
They have ⇆ symbols next to them
That means they're conversion parts - which only connect to other, specific parts.
In this case, it means Anko AM2 only connects to Anko BD, and the DNG Cannon only attaches to Anko AM2.

Since Anko wants BIG FIREPOWER, buy a spare each of Anko AM2 and DNG Cannon. This increases your spending from 50 Rt to 80 Rt.

Anko AM2 for sale in the PARTS section of the shop. The DNG cannon is available for purchase right below it.

And since I can't guarantee you'll like Anko, start with the 1-day Accele Roll.

Accele Roll and other movement cartridges for sale in the ITEMS section of the shop. Never buy the 7-day version of movement cartridges, it's not worth it.

Something the game doesn't teach you is that the projectiles from Anko's DNG Cannon speed up the longer they're in play. This means they're ideal to use as her overrange weapon. Please always use this as your selected main weapon so that your other weapons follow its travel path.
The cannon has:
About average ammo (220 ammo on 700 int = 154s of firing)
Lacking speed (230)
Average range (330)
Good force (28)
So even though they lack speed, their unique property + high force carry them.

Anko with tuned DNG Cannon.

The secondary DNG Cannon won't be tuned with range. Remember, most homing weapons are capable of following your overrange weapon. The DNG Cannon happens to be one of them. The secondary DNG Cannon will be, for the sake of tuning, treated like a handheld.

Now onto the Bamboo Launcher, Anko's BS@
Its main has:
Good ammo (240 ammo on 800 int = 192s of firing)
Average range (330)
Lacking speed (240)
Great force (30)

Its range actually doesn't matter for us as we're going to overrange it with the DNG Cannon. I used 2x Grapid Alpha as that makes it run out at the same time as the DNG Cannon. I also tuned a Paralyze because it makes Anko BS@ stun harder - to the point where it drops AIRs. It's not always a good idea to tune Paralyze on your weapons, even if they're high in force. Gamma Lightning Gun doesn't stun well, so don't tune Paralyze on it. Plasma Gun stuns alright though.
If you're AFRAID OF DET, then you can tune the BS@ 2x Grapid Beta. Or even 3x Grapid Beta.
But you do not have the capacity for the vanilla 30 cost Grapids with this build.

Anko with tuned BS@.

Anko's subweapon (attached to BS@) is a SPECIAL STUN that forcibly stuns whatever it hits. This includes that Blazed Baron trying into Accele Roll into your face and kill you. It targets up to 3 people at once. It can only be used when locked-onto someone, so you need to be within range to use it.

This Anko build uses very specific parts.
The only choices to make are on which accessories you want, which will be one each of a 5 capacity/1 stat TEC and FLY accessory.
Tune TEC until it hits an even 40.
Tune FLY until your WLK hits 1.

Quick Boost and Float Dash have the same cost, so either way you'll have a 1390 cost Anko, and one of the most powerful ARTs ready to use.

You don't have to follow the glass cannon build to the max, if you're dying frequently. Or if you're fine with a bit less hitrate in favor of some HP cushioning.

This Anko has less weapon tunes in favor of some HP.

A peculiar detail about Anko that doesn't apply to other alpha ARTs is that her body can't tilt up or down while alpha striking. The BS@ projectile flies directly towards airborne targets but the DNG cannon shots always start out traveling horizontally so they will hit nearby walls or slopes before their homing kicks in so pay attention to that to avoid losing damage.

Shoot 3 dango -> click subweapon is the way, BTW. This preserves your ammo to more effectively deal damage since less of your shots will be affected by TGH reduction. You may want to extend alpha strikes to secure kills at times but sticking to the loop otherwise should yield good results.

Other Humanoid ARTs?

Well... it's possible to make them work.
But in general, humanoid ARTs are trash. Single-shooter ARTs are also effectively dead, as there aren't any good enough handheld weapons. I'll go over some single-shooters here, and explain.

Let's start with Homura, who's quite "popular" since a version of her came out in a battlepass.
She has a decoy dash and can afford to get both quick land and quick boost, making Boost Step possible on her.

Well, for starters, her main weapon deals pitiful damage to AIRs. It also does not stun well. This means that AIRs don't fear her, despite ARTs supposed to be the counter to AIRs.
Her shots do overrange, but they have trouble actually hitting, even with Rapid tunes.
Her WB can also be dodged as long as the target keeps moving.

Apparently she was a terror in the previous game, but she's mediocre now.

It's possible to score well with Homura, but you'll have to sweat quite hard compared to someone using an Anko. Homura is usable, but not strong.

Next up is Calin.
Nukes! Nukes! Nukes!

While Calin's main weapon missiles have the same property as Anko's DNG Cannon, they have a long cooldown and poor hitrate. This means she relies on her cannon for damage.

The cannon is actually quite good - it has a large AOE and debuffs with the status effect booster trouble, preventing the use of air dashes such as Accele Roll.
The cannon is also spammable, as it can be used up to 5x in a row without reloading. It also stuns AIRs. These are good things!

However, the cannon's cluster missiles use up a charge that would be much better used on the giant cannon, and the cluster missile subweapon itself is poor.

Calin's BD has a decoy step that, like Homura, makes her harder to kill. This is in her favor.

However, Calin is overly reliant on her cannon as the rest of her kit isn't good. If the enemy team is clumped together, such as on River Bridge, a Calin can score well because her cannon will envelop many people at once. Otherwise, good luck.

The 3rd single-shooter I'm going to show off is more for the weapon than the character: the Missile Cluster.
This is very much a meme build.

The Missile Cluster (purchased in the Shop for 15 Rt) has such low force that it can be modded, get penalized for force, and still not actually lose any force. It also homes in well. This means it can be tuned for ridiculous range.
However, it has quite high INT, and its low force means it doesn't do a lot of damage.
Monica is a viable user for it as she has empty hand slots, as are Rinka and Asphe.
However, with the slow rate of fire and low damage overall, don't expect many kills.
You'll have to bring your own ammo item if you want to do good damage with this, because you'll be dealing chip damage over time.

Overall, single-shooter ARTs are gimped by the subpar weaponry currently available. Basically every humanoid ART obtained from Garapon is gimped too - even Shivatris' main weapons are subpar, forcing her to rely on her wonderbit.
IDK why Anko gets a pass, she's special like that.
Regardless, it's possible to use them, and it can even be fun in smaller rooms. Just... don't expect to score too high.

Edit 2/13/24:
CS seems to have taken a 180 turn and loves ARTs now, as Ripley, Naiah, Shannon, and Amelia have shown. Perhaps this section of the guide will soon become obsolete.

Naiah and her Huge... Mecha

Naiah Serval is a single-shooter ART... humanoid.
Yes, single-shooter.

Despite her stock configuration, she performs best when parking right up next to a wall and spamming only her core, occasionally flinging out her WB.
She does especially well in 30v30's, since both her core weapon and WB do AOE damage. Perhaps "especially well" is underselling her.
Naiah Serval is absolutely broken in 30v30 mode.

Combining the wallhacking AOE missile rain with Jamming score from her WB, she can get a stupid amount of score. Finally, a viable single-shooter ART humanoid. Unfortunately, it's on a scummy character that nobody asked for.

The new face of single-shooter ARTs is this monstrosity.

Naiah's core, after both EIW's, gets 380 range. It also goes through walls, caves, floors... basically any terrain you can think of. It's essentially a remote weapon that summons missile rain on top of your target's head. Her WB is similar but causes Light Melt. The WB casting range is also long enough to span the entire bridge in Divided River, and Naiah cannot be stunned out of the casting animation. You're getting mortar shelled by Light Melt whether you like it or not.

What's Light Melt? Just a little status effect that eats away at your HP while also hindering your mobility. Yeah, in an AOE. It sucks. To get hit by, that is. It's great for the Naiah spamming it, especially with how large the WB's AOE is. Did I mention that her WB auto-charges without Naiah needing to attack? Because it does.

Her core weapon's damage isn't very high, and doesn't stun so well. But it has AOE. It's spammable. IT GOES THROUGH WALLS. Her LG also gives her a backdash with invincibility frames, letting her disengage for free. The LG is also detachable if you wish to put it on a less-scummy character.

That not enough for you? Her special cartridge, Stand Shooter, gives her a damage buff when she shoots without moving. That means for the low price of standing there spamming left-click, Naiah gets a power up. Potentially without you being able to even see or hit her, because she's behind a wall.

And being L-size, she can get a stupid amount of HP, too. Even my build with Scram Launcher (to deter AIRs from getting too close) has over 700 HP. And that's while adding in 30 cost for external Accele Roll.

Big Brain Time: Mecha ART

Ok, so you prooobably understand what ARTs are supposed to do now, what tunes to use and what cartridges to take.

I'm going to preface this by saying again that some parts are utter garbage.
This means that many effective builds will end up looking sameish, because there are only so many parts that actually work. If you want to be unique and original, you will be using subpar or even nonfunctional parts.

Usable mecha cores are generally:
-M to L size
-Have only a Main Weapon and no Subweapon

Example ART cores:

-Hoverion (Shop, UC)
-Sturbanger (Robo Garapon)
-Sturbanger Standard [BD2] (Garapon)
-Tempole (Robo Garapon - stack the BD@'s)
-Teitarotes (Garapon)
-Theoreigne HW [BD3] (Garapon - no BS slot, use booster AMJ to fill requirement)
-Blastoid (Arena Coin)
-Zeta Arsenal (Garapon)
-Snailbokswagen (Garapon)

Sturbanger as seen from the Garapon screen. His BD@ is the important part.

Don't use these parts stock. Please. Even the Tempole.

Overrange handhelds:

-Musket (Only for S to M size robots)
-Flint Musket (For L size bois)
-Micro Bazooka (the cheapest moddable weapon to overrange with - not usable by L bois)
-Handy Bazooka (The cheapest moddable weapon to overrange with for L bois)
-Blast Bazooka (You might have some from a past battlepass. Otherwise the regular version is moddable)
-Driver Cannon (Obtained from Minaria's Angel Boxes)

A Hoverion using a Musket to overrange with. It's tuned -speed because the Musket won't hit anything anyway.

Damage-dealing handhelds:

-Scram Launcher (You get one for free - otherwise Shop [Rt])
-Volcano Grenade Gun (Shop [Rt] - tune it 3x GRapid Beta, the -range one)
-Bamboo Launcher (Angel Boxes given to NPC Anko in Angel Academy - they have low ammo)

NPC Anko in Angel Academy.

Overrange Parts:

HD Parts:
-Tsuchigata HD (past Arena Coin - sadly high cost)
-Psycho Formula HD2/3/4* (Garapon)
*As indicated in its description, Psycho Formula HD4 does not fire while alpha-striking. However, it can still be used to initiate alpha-strikes.
-Synoris HD2 (Garapon)
-Misside HD2 (Garapon)

BS Parts:
-Teitarotes BS (Garapon)
-Hygerkun BS2 (Garapon)
-Armed Build Arm BS (Garapon - not for L bois)

A Sturbanger Standard using Teitarotes BS to overrange. For some reason, lowering the speed of Teitarotes BS below 200 results in the missiles blasting off into the sky and never hitting ground, so don't do that.

Damage-dealing AM:

-Gathima AM2 (Garapon - big cost but big damage)
-Bloody Star AM2@ (Garapon - lowest cost, runs out of ammo fast)
-Theoreigne AM (Garapon - lower cost than Gathima AM2)
-Toybox AM (Shop [Rt]/Garapon)
-Gyaster AM2 (Arena Coin/Daily Shop)
-Misside AM (Shop [UC] - low ammo, high cost)

Gathima AM2 on a Hoverion. It's tuned -range as it overranges well. Test for overrange on trees in Training Arena Step 3.

Damage-dealing BS:

-Misside BS2 (Garapon - high cost)

Movement Parts:

-Hecatocles LG2 (Garapon) - backstep LG
-Hecatocles LG (Union Coin - basically a fat Swift Jet BS)
-Aero Raider LG (Arena Coin - very cheap in cost)
-G Rimoire LG (Garapon) - can be used twice in a row. Spawns a weak gravity field.
-Sturbanger Mark 1 [BD3] - can be used immediately after Hecatocles LG2, covering a wide distance
-Swift Jet BS (Shop [Rt] - one is given for free by Lily Rain in Angel Academy)
-Naiah Serval LG (Garapon) - alternate backstep LG
-Artilus LG2 - backstep (Garapon)

Stun Shot part:
-Dreiblitz BS (Garapon)

A Hoverion that uses Dreiblitz BS.
It also uses Aero Raider LG (mobility), Gathima AM2 (damage), a Musket (overrange), and Bloody Star AM2@ (damage).

Statline Parts:

AM parts to use for stats:
-Raystag AM ([Ro] Cube)
-Wolf Rayet AM ([Ro] Cube)
-Sturbanger AM4 (Garapon)

BS parts to use for stats:
-Crystalight Wing BS BETA (Award Coins)
-G Rimoire BS (Garapon)
-Lisel BS (Garapon)
-Dugdriver BS (Garapon)
-K Nonna BS (Garapon - do not use the BS@)
-A Miral BS2 (Garapon - do not use the BS@)
-Theoreigne BS2 (Garapon)
-Spectral Thruster BS (Knightgear Dispatch - do not use the BS@)

HD parts to use for stats:
-Syverlion HD (Arena Coin)
-Wizamel HD/Mach Knight Ace HD (Garapons - they're statclones of eachother)
-Nova Dikaros HD (Garapon)
-Genesion HD (Garapon)
-Rayminous HD (Garapon)
-Aquila Airs HD (Robo Garapon)
-Vector [Eagle] HD (Robo Garapon)
-Mecha Icy HD (Union Coin - WIZ only)
-G Rimoire HD - Garapon
-Airyad HD - Garapon

LGs for stats:
-Brickgale LG (Shop [UC])
-Yaksha LG (Garapon)
-Psycho Formula LG2 (Garapon)
-Lily Rain Alpha LG (Angel Coin)
-Kotengu LG (Garapon)

AMJ:

Gimmick AMJ:
-Hecatocles AMJ (Union Coin shop - shoots a barrier ball)
-Teitarotes AMJ (Garapon - launches a missile that inflicts Air Dash Restrict)
-Sturbanger AMJ (Garapon - launchers a Beam Canceller projectile)
-Mikoto AMJ (Garapon - shoots a remote projectile)
NOTE: All of these AMJs other than Mikoto AMJ increase cooldown time of Moving Burst, and therefore shouldn't be used alongside Moving Burst.
Also don't use any of the cooldown-increasing AMJ's together. They'll... increase your cooldown.

Done your homework?

Example Hoverion with no Moving Burst.
It has a Hecatocles AMJ, which increases cooldown before being able to fire again if using Moving Burst. The barriers fired from the Heca AMJ also diminish the need for Moving Burst. As not taking damage = not dying and not dying early = good, the AMJ is tuned for more ammo.
Accele Roll and Hecatocles LG2 are used for mobility. As Hoverion is M sized, it can Accele Roll twice in a row.
Teitarotes BS is used to overrange with. As mentioned earlier, tuning the speed of Teitarotes BS under 200 results in the BS' missiles going into space and never coming back, so don't do that.
Gathima AM2, Bloody Star AM2@, and the Hoverion core are used to provide damage. Bloody Star AM2 is also good in that it provides us a hand slot. Gathima AM2's missiles overrange well, so it's tuned for speed with -range.

Notice all those "Garapon" notes in the parts section? It's expensive building a mech ART! Stick to Anko if you don't have much money to spend.

Don't do this.

BTW, building an alpha-ART doesn't mean just stacking as many weapon parts on as possible.
That creates a fat piece of garbage with subpar stats and basically no room to tune.

You need a balance of range, DPS, and mobility. Generally one of each. If you can fit in one of the AMJs, do that too.

NOTE: This list of parts is not comprehensive, but as wide as I can make it. The parts for stats, especially, may not list everything that's good to use. However, I've tried to list everything that I know of.

"But what if I want to make a single weapon ART? This is all stuff for alpha-ARTs!"
Unfortunately, it's not viable to make a single weapon ART, as mentioned in the previous section. There simply aren't any good enough weapons, because CS hates ARTs.

Do I need TGH?

Does your chosen core have Stun Regain? No?
Ok, then never worry about TGH.
ARTs, having the benefit of range, shouldn't be taking enough concentrated fire to get any use out of TGH. Tuning TGH on them is literally griefing yourself out of slots.
If you're worried about survivability, it's much better to invest in mobility.

changelog

2/15: uploaded guide
2/15: added Razekiel as contributor
2/16: added blurb about TGH
3/12: added Misside BS2
3/15: added Snailbokswagen BD and Misside HD2
10/28: added Naiah Serval and relevant section
2/13: added note about Shannon/Amelia and Artilus LG2 to parts section