Don’t Ignore These Grim Forest Champions

Minaya is secretly one of the best picks for Grim Forest. She combines a Speed in All Battles aura, heal reduction, leech, and huge amounts of team healing. Heal reduction almost hard-counters the Mimic; with it, the fight becomes “how cleanly do you win?” rather than “can you win at all?” That same sustain is incredible against the treasure goblin, and even Isheth (Vampire Boss). She also brings block debuffs and shielding, which are clutch in nearly every boss encounter.

Pairing Minaya with Khoronar pushes things even further. Khoronar’s provokes, AoE decrease DEF and ATK, and turn meter control help with both waves and bosses. When the duo actually shows up together in your roll, his full-team debuff strip plus block debuffs and increased DEF is god-tier in mechanics-heavy stages.

Morrigaine is another standout. Her passive puts unremovable, unstrippable heal reduction on enemies every turn, which is absurdly strong against the Mimic, and Isheth, as well as various healing intense normal stages. On top of that, she brings turn meter pushback, speed boosts, true fear, buff steal, decrease accuracy, and decrease speed – in other words, almost everything you want for waves and several bosses. If you fused her and she’s in the vault, Grim Forest is the perfect excuse to dust her off.

Little Miss Annie deserves a mention as a single-target nuker who fits perfectly into Grim Forest’s hardest fights. She combines heal reduction and decrease DEF on her A1, self-buffs with increased ATK, hits extremely hard on a short cooldown, brings some self-healing, and can manipulate turn meter. Many of the nastiest fights are single-target boss checks, so a self-sufficient nuker who also carries key debuffs is ideal.

Ma’Shalled (if you’re lucky enough to own him) brings heal reduction, buff steal, leech, true fear, increased speed, and strong damage. He’s excellent against Mythical bosses that stack buffs or throw up poison clouds, and leech does a lot of work in a mode where raw damage isn’t astronomical, but attrition is.

Alatreon Blademaster (limited availability from the Monster Hunter Collab) is almost a perfect blueprint. He can fully cleanse your team and apply protected block debuffs so they can’t be stolen or reduced, then layer on increased DEF and shields – also protected. That shuts down Maximoz (Poison Boss), Tauraze (Burn Boss) and anything trying to block your active skills.

Recent fusion Donatello is an all-star generalist. Full-team cleanse with turn meter boost, continuous heals and strengthen, plus increased speed, cooldown reduction, healing on his A1 and a cheat-death mechanic for an ally make him valuable in virtually every single fight. Whenever he appeared in the draft, he was an easy auto-pick.

Michelangelo shines as a standalone control-damage hybrid: AoE decrease DEF and stun, debuff spread, AoE decrease ATK and leech, self-buffed increased ATK, taunt and good base damage. Accuracy in all battles helps too. He brings so much utility that he’s rarely the wrong pick for any stage you may encounter.

The Mad Hatter fusion also impressed: he offers ally attack, weaken, buff steal, debuff spread, buff extension, debuff duration reduction, turn meter boost, and passive healing plus crowd control. He’s a classic “do a bit of everything” champion who makes wave content smoother and supports most boss strategies.

Recent fusion Granyt Doorkeep is quietly excellent here. He offers decrease DEF and block buffs plus strong single-target damage and buff removal. He can also shake off crowd control himself, making him reliable in control-heavy stages.

Esme the Dancer brings block buffs, turn meter pushback, weaken, increased accuracy, increased speed and a full-team buff strip. She’s particularly valuable into poison cloud mechanics or buff-heavy waves, while also buffing your own damage dealers.

Lydia the Deathsiren is a free-to-play MVP for many accounts: block buffs, decrease DEF and weaken, plus strengthen and increased speed for your team. She’s good into multiple bosses and always solid for waves. Just be careful not to over-commit damage into the treasure goblin and explode yourself on his mechanics.

Lamasu (from Siege) gives AoE block buffs and true fear for waves, and into bosses she brings single-target block buffs, decrease speed, decrease ATK, and big turn meter boosts that can help break allies free from the final boss’s ensnare. She also offers a skill reset for key cooldowns if you’re willing to manual.

Finally, Geomancer returns as a budget boss killer. HP burn and weaken on a three-turn duration, enemy max HP hits triggered by AoEs, damage reduction for your team, buff strip, and decrease accuracy make him valuable into the Maximoz, Leshun, and any encounter that spams AoE attacks. The ability to slap decrease accuracy on top of high resistance builds can completely shut down heavy debuff-based bosses.