Final Beta Account Review – Neva
With the Global Launch of Etheria: Restart quickly approaching us, I have decided to take the time to evaluate my Beta Progress, not only as a personal reference point to ensure I don’t fall behind my previous progress when the global launch comes around, but also to help with some insight to anybody else entering the game on Global Launch to get a feel of where you can aim to reach within a 10 day window.
Now, before I get into this, I will say that I was not a Free-to-Play player; I invested in my account from the get-go to help increase my chances of qualifying for the EWS Arena Tournament, and also to provide a means to create content on the game as we advance.
Account Progression
During the short Beta window we were able to play, I ensured that I never missed a single bit of usable energy (Until the final day). This meant I used all 10 Gem Refills every single day, and in doing so I was able to reach Level 53, effectively unlocking every area of content in the game, including Inferno Difficulties in both Grim Pursuit and Threshold, giving me access to ‘Endgame Gear’.
The push to Level 50 feels incredibly important for that reason, I strongly recommend that everybody in Global Launch rushes to Level 50 as quickly as they can, which should be even faster this time around due to the announced increase in “Free Energy” each day.
Once you have hit Level 50, it’s not as important to burn gems every single day, although, at that point, it becomes very valuable to farm end-game content to maximise your builds. I will likely continue to use the maximum amount of energy possible each day for at least the first month to push my progress to compete in PVP.
Hyperlink Charter and Missions
Unlike many games I have played, the missions in Etheria: Restart truly feel like they are pushing you on the right path as your account develops, forcing you to progress in content at a steady pace, whilst also giving you the respite of needing to hit certain level requirements, so you are able to focus your energy into developing your account rather than just smashing through mission after mission.
In terms of the rewards, they felt very valuable early on, especially those that gave big-ticket items such as SSR Lattices for upgrading your skills.
I was able to fully clear both the Arena and the Animus Fate Charters, with the latter rewarding duplicate copies of the SSR Lian to increase her prowess, in fact, during the 10 day beta window, I was able to get her to Prowess Level 5, completing her bonuses, without pulling a single copy from my summons, these all came from missions, or the Summon Shop.
The hurdles I reached at the end stopped me from completing more of the Commission Chronicles, Module Modification, and Shell Tuning, however, some of them were just a case of not having enough time and needing to focus on Summit Arena for the EWS qualifications.
Arena Rankings
Arena is where I spent the majority of my time, whether that be physically playing or thinking about how to improve my team, and the chances of finishing in the Global top-16 to guarantee qualification into the EWS Tournament. I was almost always running a Speed-based team consisting of DokiDoki and/or Lily, Massiah and 1 Flexible spot, until the final few days where I bit the bullet and finally invested in some powerhouse SRs (Kraken, Marvell, for example).
I also had a fully built Tiamat, which I often paired with either Lingluo or Sania, sometimes both if my opponents allowed. This created an incredibly strong Stall-comp that could wear my enemies down until Tiamat triggered her Dragon Form and obliterated anything in her path.
I went into the Beta wanting to nearly exclusively use SSRs to see how much value I could get with limited access to Lattices, and the answer is, quite a lot. But investing in SR units earlier on is almost certainly the way forward due to the ease of upgrading their skills and getting bonus speed, and effects.
I slept on Marvell and Kraken for far too long, and despite their recently announced nerfs, I still think they will be up there in the Meta going into the Global Launch.
Regardless of my hesitation in investing in lower rarity units, I was able to compete at the top levels of all arena modes throughout the entire beta, which is where the fun came in… the final day of Summit Arena, Top 16 spot on the line with a chance of guaranteeing my spot in the EWS Tournament… It was going so well until in the final 10 minutes, I was knocked out of the top 16, into 18th.
Thankfully, I was available at the time, and pushed to try and get back. After sadly losing my first fight, I managed to win my second very quickly, although it wasn’t meant to be, as in the final 2 minutes of the timer, I failed to match with any opponents. So I ended up at 17th place, 11 points outside of the top 16 (Most wins give 18-20 rating, which would have pushed me up to 13th)
The dream was over, I would need to take to the arena in Global to secure another chance of qualification…
Unless… someone was silly enough to not register for the EWS Tournament and make it to the top 16… But that wouldn’t happen, right?
I convinced myself there was a possibility, nonetheless.
About a week after the beta had closed, I woke up to an email from the Etheria team, inviting me to the final 16, someone HAD forgotten to register, and the spot was automatically given to me as they were not counted. The dream is back alive, we’re going to the EWS!
Key Animus’ on my account
DokiDoki
Dokidoki played a huge role on my account, not only as my Speed Manipulator in the arena, but the value she provided in PVE content by reducing my cooldowns, whilst providing a huge amount of debuff control with her cleansing meant that I was able to keep incoming debuffs under complete control, whilst also cycling my turns quickly.
In hindsight, I actually wouldn’t invest in her as early as I did – not because she isn’t worth it, but because the amount of resources that go into an SSR is massive, and there are SR’s who can work just as well if not better as a Speed lead, and Helkid fills my quota for debuff management.
Tiamat
Tiamat fills so many roles in your teams in Etheria: Restart, and truly is an amazing progression unit. Since her recent buff, I think keeping her alive might be a bit more challenging, although we’ve not been able to test the impact that has had, but I still think she has a huge job to do in many content areas, most notably in PVP.
Tiamat falls perfectly into the ‘Brawler’ category for slower teams that don’t need to go first, you simply need to keep her alive whilst she builds stacks before turning into an absolute beast and cleaning up with her Dragon Form.
Pairing Tiamat with strong supports and healers is imperative to success, and during the beta my go-to was Sania, although with her nerfs that may no longer be the case!
Lily
Lily… what can I really say, she was outright the biggest carry on my account, and weirdly wasn’t banned half as much as she should have been in Summit Arena – she just brings a huge amount of value to any team. The way Lily can rotate your main damage dealer whilst resetting the cooldowns and increasing their damage dealt, but also increasing your whole team’s speed is invaluable; and to top it off, the extra hits from her Skill 1 just make quick work of enemies!
Lily is 100% somebody I will hopefully have the pleasure of investing in on the global launch early on!
Massiah
Massiah, my main damage dealer for anything I faced, granted, there are better options on single-target fights, he proved to be of huge value.
I actually levelled Massiah as soon as I was able to complete the Lian missions. I reset her and instead sunk those resources into Massiah, upgrading his Skill 3 to provide 70% Ignore DEF meant that his AOE damage was truly exceptional from an early stage.
I will absolutely be investing in Massiah again, worth every bit of investment in both PVE and PVP!
Helkid
Helkid, I got very early on in the beta, before I’d spent too, and instantly levelled him as one of my “core” team. Early on, I feel like the damage output from Helkid is really under appreciated, since building out high C.Rate/C.DMG on your Animus’ is difficult till we reach later stages of gearing, you can funnel all his stats into ATK which not only gives him a solid amount of damage but also helps your team to stay alive massively with his shields and immunity.
If I am not fortunate enough to pull myself a Helkid from the Permanent Banner, I am fairly confident he will be my targeted summon pick, and I will invest in him from the get-go again.
Marvell
Marvell was a very late addition to my team, not because I didn’t have him, but because in early testing before the beta. I undervalued how impactful Decrease SPD would be during progression, stupidly, actually.
There’s only so much impact a debuff can make when testing on a fully maxed account, and as such Marvell just didn’t really appear to be “that strong” when we looked over his skills and ran him through content, he was doing a job that many supports did – but when the beta launched, he excelled and helped progress through every single bit of content in the game.
I finally bit the bullet and invested in my Marvell with about 4 days to go, and it made a massive difference and is likely part of the reason for finishing so high in the Summit Arena.
Despite his nerf, I still believe Marvell provides a huge amount of value, largely unchanged in PVP, and still incredibly strong in PVE despite his extra 1 turn Cooldown on his Skill 3.
Kraken
The undisputed king of control in Beta – while I didn’t level him early on because I decided to commit to SSRs to test my limits with limited Lattices, a time came when I simply had to level Kraken for Summit Arena.
The ability to completely lock out the enemy team with Freezes whilst also knocking back their Turn Meter is insane, paired with Marvell the duo can nearly lock out any bit of PVE content you’re facing. This combo largely makes Dokidoki a trivial piece of content as long as you can cycle your cooldowns properly between waves.
Once again, since his nerf, I don’t think he will drop off in value massively, maybe surpassed by Mio the new SSR, but still of huge value and cheap to invest in!
Lian
Everybody has to invest in their Lian at the start of Etheria: Restart, due to the fact that the missions force us to do so. As soon as I was able to, I reset my Lian back to level 1, returning all resources I had put in her – and I don’t regret it at all. I did end up re-levelling my Lian, but resetting her allowed my to regain the lattices we need to put into her during the missions (I think it was 2?) and put them to better use elsewhere.
Lian serves as a very strong AOE Damage dealer, a very capable single target damage dealer, and also brings a level of control with her Turn Meter Steal, she was my back up to Massiah in Arena, whether he was already picked, or to prevent myself from being handicapped without a damage dealer if my Massiah was banned.
Unfortunately for Lian, I don’t think she will see a huge amount of gameplay post-reset for me in the Global Launch, if I am lucky enough to get some of the other desirable damage dealers, such as Rahu.
Lingluo
Lingluo is an absolute powerhouse of a support, but I wasn’t lucky enough to pull her early so my time with her was limited after getting her on the 7th day.
She seamlessly slotted into all of my teams where I needed her healing, though, and served as an amazing partner to my Tiamat in Arena, especially on long-drawn-out fights where I knew I wasn’t going to go first.
Lingluo has now been buffed again too, which should make her even better – and the fact that she is free makes her invaluable!
Will I invest in her again? absolutely, I just hope I pull a copy sooner!
Sania
Sania was undoubtedly a top-tier healer for anybody during the Beta, but unfortunately, she was bugged (Her passive was still healing while under control effects), which made keeping her and others alive very easy.
This has now been fixed, along with her healing being scaled back a bit, so I’m unsure if she will see early investment from me this time, but I think her limelight in PVP is over, as controlling her will lock her down completely now.
This will require some testing before I know for sure however, and she may end up being one of my most used Animus still!
Lilith
Lilith is incredibly good for locking down enemies and decreasing their speed consistently, whilst bringing a layer of damage based on her HP. However, in the Global Launch, I will likely lean towards more SR-based Control Units from the get-go, instead of prioritising her because the resources required to get the best out of her are too valuable.
Lilith’s buffs to her damage, however, may make her a great pseudo-damage dealer/hybrid control option, so I may give it a shot; she did serve a huge role in Dokidoki progression for me after all…
Freya
Freya served a huge role for me early on, with her damage amplification, lifesteal effects, and Turn Meter control (boosting and reducing enemies). She was great.
However, I really felt the drop-off from her in the later stages, and I only really picked her if the opponents picked my other speed options before me as a back-up, more as a bait to force the ban onto her than anything else, as you can see from the build below she wasn’t fast.
I do still really like the way Freya works, but with her nerf, I am hesitant to go for her on the Banner, especially if she ends up costing 80 summons. I feel it would not be worth the loss of other options on the Permanent summons (For me, personally).
PVE Progression
The Etheria: Restart beta offered a refreshing and diverse array of PvE challenges, and I was able to clear every dungeon up to, but not including, the Inferno tier without much resistance. Each dungeon had its own identity—no two fights felt the same (maybe because of the stunning visuals), and I found myself constantly adjusting strategy and team composition to counter unique mechanics. That level of variety made PvE progression feel dynamic rather than repetitive. Although we hit level 50 fairly late in the beta and I shifted my focus to PvP in the final days, I did get a taste of the Inferno tier with the Dokidoki Inferno fight, which proved to be a challenging and rewarding capstone to the PvE content available.
What really stood out during this beta phase was how it allowed me to map out a clear, efficient strategy for launch. Testing different teams and seeing what worked across various content helped me avoid the trap of over-investing in too many units. I now have a solid plan for team building that should carry me through early and midgame PvE without unnecessary waste. That said, resource management was a pain point—the double drop events were incredibly rewarding, but the steep cost of upgrading gear and shells made farming sessions feel expensive and limiting. Etheria’s PvE has a solid core, and with some tweaks to progression cost, it could become one of the game’s strongest long-term features.
Gotta Catch ’em All!
As with all gacha games, collecting every Champion is a huge goal. I wasn’t successful in the beta, and there were a few I wish I had gotten my hands on, such as Tsukiyo Mi, Rahu, and Heinrich – all of whom would have been incredibly useful and worth investing in for me.
In total, I had 48/55 available Animus, and outside of the 3 I mentioned above, I was also missing:
Overall Feelings
To finish off this article, I just want to say that the Beta was incredible. I got to experience a competitive side of the game that we hadn’t previously been able to step foot in with our closed server access to the game.
There’s a few things I’d love to be changed, namely the economy and resource management for things like Etheria coin and upgrade chips for Shells, but I also understand that within a 10-day window there is only so much endgame gear you should realisitcally be able to upgrade, this is likely gatekeeping us from reaching endgame builds so early intentionally.
I cannot wait for tomorrow when the game goes live and we get to do this all over again, and more, after learning from the mistakes made during the beta!
