Last year I made a post about climbing to Champion V in Epic Seven‘s regular arena (not RTA, all my homies hate RTA). More recently I decided to make the push to Emperor V just to see if I could. I actually made it to Emperor III before dropping all the way back to Champion V, it was pretty crazy. How quickly you climb and how long you stay there depends on the day of the week and where in the season you are, but the whole point of this post is to say that it is very possible to climb to Emperor V after lurking in Champion V for a while.

“Possible” is not the same as “worth it,” though. All you get is an extra 50 skystones a week which is yes, an extra 2500 skystones or so per year, but is it really worth the effort of building teams and spending precious minutes on selecting and beating other players’ teams versus just auto-ing NPC teams? I don’t think so. The bigger draw is getting a few more conquest points to spend on gear charms, but even then, it’s like mehhh… So really the main gain is the one-time rewards for making it to Emperor V and above for the first time, after that you can just coast.

Now then, the 2024 post is hopelessly outdated when it comes to the meta at the time. Most of the terrors back then like Navy Captain Landy, ae-Karina and Ocean Breeze Luluca are nowhere to be seen even in Guild Wars these days. However the main principle that led me to Champion V is the same: find counters to the most common teams and then farm them exclusively. Easier said than done, though. Let’s break it down into two not-so-easy steps.

How to find counters

Two ways. 1) Get advice from others. In my case I watched a lot of YouTube videos about people fighting Guild Wars and Arena battles, and even RTA sometimes. Just search for things like epic seven arena defense or whatever. For example, here’s a video that straight up says “HOW TO BEAT EVERY ARENA DEFENSE CURRENTLY! OCTOBER 2025! Epic Seven.” Other people might have characters and builds that aren’t attainable for you, but you’re bound to get some powerful clues that lead to a solution.

2) Set the offending team as your own defense and see all the ways people counter them. Of course this method only works if you have the common units. I don’t have Bystander Hwayoung or Witch of the Mere Tenebria, so I can’t do that, but I have most of the others. I would never have thought of using Benimaru against Rinak and Setsuka if someone hadn’t done it to me first, of course.

How to farm them

As I did steps 1 and 2, I compiled a Word document showing the most common teams and how other people handled them. Here’s a screenshot showing several the possible counters to the Genesis Ras / Lady of the Scales / Setsuka / Frieren team I used to have so much trouble with at first.

The ones crossed out are the teams I tried to use but failed. Other people reported great success with New Moon Luna, for example, but I was never able to get the speed tuning right on mine to avoid getting cut by Lady of the Scales, so I abandoned it. The team in bold is the one I eventually found success with. So much success, in fact, that I actually auto-battle those teams. Genesis Ras, Lady of the Scales, Setsuka and Frieren have turned from an object of dread into free points that I eagerly hunt for. And that’s the whole purpose of this exercise.

But then you might ask, “What if I don’t have any of the common counter units?” I’m going to post my most commonly used counter teams below, and they will contain a lot of moonlight, collab and limited characters and artifacts. That’s just the kind of game Epic Seven is. They make their money by creating problems and selling the solutions. The good news is that the meta is constantly changing, and eventually Smilegate will release enough counters to send whatever unit is terrorizing you into hiding. In the meantime, you should try to get at least one copy of every limited and collab unit and artifact. The unit part, at least, is not hard as long as you don’t waste skystones. Moonlight units are a little more challenging. You just have to collect them over time, focusing on the meta-defining ones, i.e. anyone who does something really annoying or unfair.

Then you might also ask, “What if I have the units but I don’t have the gear?” Uh… welcome to the club? Epic Seven players who are fully satisfied with the builds of all their characters don’t exist. The beauty of the “hunt specific teams” method is that you don’t need to gear your whole roster, you just have to put your very best gear on your hunters and go to town. You’re bound to have some good gear somewhere, even if you’re relatively new. Otherwise you wouldn’t have made it to Champion V in the first place.

Moreover, to be honest, unless you’re trying to outspeed everyone, you’re unlikely to run into any crazy strong builds between Champion V and Emperor V. It’s only from Emperor onward that people try all kinds of psychedelic builds just to mess with your sanity. You won’t win 100% of the opponents you challenge, but as long as you win most of them, you’ll naturally climb.

Last note, what about arena defense? LOL IDK. Mine has like an 8% win rate, not gonna lie. It’s a good place to put annoying characters (like Belian) and assorted trap builds, but I can’t be bothered.

Teams I actually used

Time to share what I targeted and how I did it. I learned from others, others can naturally learn from me. Besides, there’s no point gatekeeping any of this stuff anyway: new characters like School Nurse Yulha and Rider Sigret are bound to shake up the meta in the coming weeks.

Enemy team 1: Basically anything without Harsetti or Lady of the Scales

Solution: Cleave with Straze and Amid. Those teams are the most likely to be booby-trapped, so I honestly avoid them until nothing easier is showing up. A Ruele of Light could be 300 speed for example (almost certainly not at the Champion level but you never know), or 280 with Sole Consolation to cut and apply Invincible. If your Amid is 310 or higher, Straze cleaves become much safer, and then you can aim for unprotected Rinak teams as well (i.e. still no Harsetti or Lady).

Example:

Stats on my team:

Amid

My fastest unit, but considered slow as far as Amids go. I pulled her on release and she was a bench warmer for the longest time, but she’s useful now I have some speed gear. That’s why I say you should pull every limited unit if you can. I occasionally give her Young Senya’s Proof of Friendship artifact to make sure Straze goes after her.

Straze

The legend. Probably my favorite character as far as design and cool factor goes. I would love to get that crit damage to 350 and the speed to about 200. Triple torrent is in the cards for him in the future as well.

Watcher Schuri

The same one I use for Dark Constellation. He’s mostly here for the speed imprint, which brings Amid to 306 speed. He usually doesn’t get a turn, but something slips past Briseria and Straze sometimes, and then he finishes the job. Ka-blammo!

Briar Witch Iseria

In this team, her job is just to prevent revive by existing. Since she often cuts Straze, I can fish for defense breaks with her S3 if I think it’s safe. However AOEs can be risky depending on who you’re fighting.

Enemy Team 2: Genesis Ras/Yulha with Lady of the Scales, Harsetti, Setsuka

Enemy Team 3: Genesis Ras, Lady of the Scales, Setsuka, Frieren

Solution: Empyrean Ilynav, Shadow Knight Pyllis, Roana, Lionheart Cermia.

I use the same team for auto-battling both of the enemy teams I mentioned, with a very high win rate. Shadow Knight Pyllis is sorta, kinda replaceable in this setup (Boss Arunka, Belian or some other fixed damage knight should work). And maaaybe you could replace Empyrean Ilynav with Diene to stop defense penetration? Haven’t tried it myself.

Empyrean Ilynav

Didn’t understand the hype until I got her. And then still didn’t understand the hype until I fought Genesis Ras first with her, then without her. My knight in shining armor, please protect me forever more. A Protection Set build would be great when going up against Frieren, because your whole team needs to survive her initial S3.

Shadow Knight Pyllis

Shadow Knight Pyllis has two purposes in this comp: to reduce damage through her passive (reduces counterattack damage) and to beat up Frieren using the extra damage from Rocket Punch. You have to outlast Genesis Ras/Yulha’s damage-absorbing phase, but after that Frieren goes down in like two hits max. Getting Collapsed by Genesis Ras can be a real problem, but it only happens once in a blue moon.

Roana 

Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted Roana in last year’s Champion V post as well. She really is evergreen because of her passive that heals from extra attacks and counter attacks. When it works, it REALLY works. Setsuka, Harsetti and Frieren are all about the counters and extras, so Roana has a field day just standing there. Heck, she even heals up all of the damage from Setsuka’s S3, as long as you don’t die from the initial hit. Get Roana from the next RGB selector if you don’t have her already. I think Stella Harpa and Shimadra’s Staff are the best artifacts for this team.

Lionheart Cermia

Also one of my MVPs last year. And this year. And every year. Another evergreen unit due to her passive and recent Exclusive Equipment. As long as enemies insist on spamming counters and extra attacks, there will always be a place for Lionheart Cermia. I recently switched her from a Lifesteal to a Destruction Set build. Her DEF went down but Crit Damage went up so she hits about the same. I intend to pour more resources into making better gear for her, e.g. both the helmet and the armor need urgent replacement.

Enemy Team 4: Lady of the Scales, Harsetti, Setsuka, Blood Blade Karin

Solution: Aram, Argent Waves Hwayoung, Briar Witch Iseria, Silver Blade Aramintha.

In theory, this should also work if there’s a different unit in the front instead of BBK, e.g. Elvira. This team can veeeery occasionally fail if you run into a cockroach Setsuka who dodges and counters absolutely everything, but that’s just how RNG works. Team stats:

Aram

She exists mainly to counter Harsetti by triggering Argent Waves Hwayoung. If there’s no Harsetti, you can use Conqueror Lilias to trigger AHwa, depending on who you’re facing. I haven’t had much luck with my CLilias, so I stick with Harsetti-hunting. Use her S3 on Argent Waves Hwayoung (if she survives) or Silver Blade Aramintha to clean up anyone who survives the initial onslaught.

Argent Waves Hwayoung

Summer Photogenic or go home. AHwa is easy to build and does lots of damage, but you need that artifact to make this work.

Briar Witch Iseria: Stats shown above. In this team, her job is not to prevent revives but to block immortality by applying Unable to Buff to the enemy frontliner. To do so reliably, she needs to soulburn her S3. You either need a souls generating artifact on Aram or a mage carrying Tagehel’s Ancient Book to give you enough souls.

Silver Blade Aramintha

Holding Tagehel’s Book is a must, but she has other important roles. First, her passive pushes her up whenever anyone acts, so she takes a turn pretty quickly without needing a lot of speed. With her high Effectiveness, she also has a good chance of inflicting Burn and Stun on the enemies, even on Lady of the Scales with her high Effect Resistance. And you can use her S3 a second time if AHwa is dead, to fish for more Stuns. I can’t believe I slept on this unit all these years.

Enemy Team 5: Genesis Ras, Lady of the Scales, Setsuka, Rinak

Solution: Yulha, Lady of the Scales, Setsuka, Benimaru.

Rinak reminds me of a little rat scampering about the field. I always get great satisfaction from wiping her off the map. The biggest threat to this team is actually Genesis Ras failing to crit Yulha and get his second turn. If he fires his S3 later on when Yulha has lost her damage-absorbing buff, it can wipe my whole team. I’d say this team has an 80% success rate. 50-50 if I auto, which is why I usually do it manually.

Yulha

I love a good rags-to-riches story. Lady of the Scales plus good EEs resurrected Yulha’s career. On defense, I use the EE that increases her reflect damage. For attacks, you should use the one that resets her S3 cooldown, instead of being too lazy to switch like me. One S3 can kill Rinak easily even with a miss, and a second one should do the same to Setsuka. But the real reason I use Yulha here is to kill Genesis Ras once with her spike damage. I get a kick out of people exploding after attacking Yulha, it’s just a ton of fun to watch.

Lady of the Scales

If you can’t beat them, join them! She’s there to turn Yulha into a roach. I hold back her S3 until the enemy Setsuka blinds everyone, then I cleanse. What is she even wearing, tho…

Setsuka

Needs about 3000 more HP  and 50 more Crit Damage IMO. Her job is to hit everyone with Blind and then just hang out until her Fighting Spirit is full. Her S3 is usually enough to kill or severely maim everyone on the field, though sometimes Yulha + her counters + Benimaru finish the job long before her S3 is ready.

Benimaru

Oh, you missed the Slime collab? Whoops, too bad. Benimaru has increased hit chance in his kit, but his main job is to S3 to trigger Genesis Ras’s immortality so that GRas can kill himself against Yulha in his first turn. Once GRas loses his damage-absorbing buff, Benimaru goes after Rinak, Setsuka and Genesis Ras in that order. 4000 attack and 320 crit damage without losing HP is the dream.

Enemy Team 6: Genesis Ras, Lady of the Scales, Bystander Hwayoung, Setsuka

Solution: Boss Arunka, Empyrean Ilynav, Lionheart Cermia, Roana

The enemy team I have the least handle on, and one I avoid unless I’ve refreshed for ages and can’t find anyone easier. I should be able to beat them more reliably with an Empyrean Ilynav on Protection Set and a Boss Arunka with Immunity Set and at least 25,000 HP. Right now it’s around a 60% chance depending on how beastly the Bystander Hwayoung and Setsuka are, and whether Boss Arunka gets sealed by Genesis Ras or not.

Boss Arunka

This HP is way, way too low, and I would like to give her Immunity Set instead of HP, so she has a looong way to go. In my defense, I just got her recently on the 40% discount mystic banner, so I’m still figuring her out. I’ve seen the vision, now I just have to make it work.

Updated Boss Arunka

Much better, and also much better at staying alive against Bystander Hwayoung. Not that it helps when Bwayoung aims for another character, but it’s better than nothing. Just need a better necklace and boots to get rid of the wasted Effectiveness and I’m done. Very simple character to build.

And that’s it for the teams I hunted! If you have any comments, suggestions or tips for other players, leave them down below! Happy hunting!