Automaton Tower lives up to its name, as for those of us who have been playing since day one, the entire 25 floor tower can be autoed with one soul weaver and three Rangers. However, even for those with perfect gear, max skilled units, and every character in the game – nothing will prepare you for the RNG gauntlet that is Abyss. Over time, Abyss stages leaned away from decisive tactical gameplay, and more into RNG fiestas that eat up both your time and patience. So with that said, what are some of the hardest Abyss stages to clear? We’re taking a look retrospectively at Abyss stages that are likely to act as a brick wall – unless you get extremely lucky! And while obviously floor 120 is harder than floor 100, we’ll be taking into account the likely power level of your account by the time you reach these floors, or how difficult they were on the first release before being nerfed.
5. Floor 86
Despite us being able to challenge up to floor 120 currently in Abyss, floor 86 will live on in infamy for being the first real challenge when it comes to this content. Arguably, you can breeze your way through Abyss 1-85 just by playing the game and abusing poison strategies with Kiris. This will likely be the first roadblock on your quest to acquiring those coveted gold transmits and your thirteenth copy of Elson. Abyss 86 features Ken, and eventually ML Ken alongside an exploding mushroom. If this mushroom explodes it’ll deal heavy AOE damage to your entire team. No problem, right? Kill off the mushroom and handle the incoming boss. Unfortunately, this mushroom will revive with full HP every time it dies. Meaning you need to carefully time when to tank the explosion damage and plan out your defensive buffs and healing accordingly. Rest assured, this will not be the last time an exploding mushroom ruins your Abyss run.
4. Floor 90
Floor 90 is not insanely difficult once you learn the proper mechanics. However, it will go down in history as being one of the longest Abyss stages to sour this game’s PvE experience. Floor 90 sees you facing off against the titular trio of Ras, Mercedes, and Aither, alongside an invincible Tenebria. You’ll need to deduce which of the three targetable characters is able to be hit before bursting them down & moving onto the next. Once you figure out how to fight these enemies, it becomes nothing more than a battle of attrition, in which one mistake will send you all the way back to the start of the floor.
3. Floor 119
Abyss floors 111-120, arguably, aren’t as frustrating as the ones that came before them. However, what seems to be a recurring theme in these later Abyss stages is the necessity to bring certain units. Abyss floors 111-120 can be summed up with “bring Taranor Guard and Kitty Clarissa and you can beat everything on the first try”. While making a three-star unit strong in Abyss (like Taranor Guard or Kiris) is great, since everyone will have at least one copy – this also makes an ML 4-Star (pre-pity) required in order to beat the stage – it’s just sadistic! It’s upsetting that, as time goes on, more and more PvE content seeks to limit the viability of certain units. E7 gives us so many characters with so many abilities, such as provoke, defense break, stun, sleep, and more. But these secondary effects can rarely be utilized in later stages of Abyss. Additionally, it seems certain characters who make Abyss very easy (Kiris, Dizzy, Tamarinne) are unnecessarily targeted by giving enemies immunity to poison, immunity to multiple debuffs, or passive reactions based on non-attacking skills. Kawerik here will steal your buffs, transfer his own debuffs, and summon Liches that inflict injuries – and they can only be killed by Soul Weavers. So many units are countered by his kit that it becomes near impossible to beat him.
2. Floor 102
If ever there were an Abyss floor that came down to little more than RNG, it’s floor 102. This features Celine and several robots. The main gimmick of this floor is that Celine will circulate who she attacks (highest attack stat, highest HP stat, etc) depending on your actions. That all sounds fair and seems like a very interesting mechanic. It just becomes important to pick who Celine will attack at each moment, potentially risking the health of your damage dealers in order to land a meaty hit. However, things go south when Celine reaches a certain HP threshold. At this point, she will unleash a flurry of devastating strikes to units on your team AT RANDOM. If you don’t have Specter Tenebria or Roana, you better start praying. Because if Celine decides to target your only damaging source, your run is over.
1. Floor 105
Question: what is the hardest Abyss floor of all time and why is it Abyss 105? The stages from 100-110 seem to be a lot more punishing than those from 110 onwards. And don’t get me wrong, floors 110-120 are still extremely painful – but these floors in particular, at least at the time, were hellish to get through. Floor 105 sees you squaring up against BBK and two sentinels. However, the first phase of this fight can also be quite difficult to get past – as Scorpetra can one-shot your front line. If you somehow manage to claw your way to BBK, she puts up a reflect every time you use a non-attack skill – meaning that healing is extremely risky in this fight! You need to damage the sentinels to prevent her from cleansing debuffs. Just hope you can do it before turn 12, otherwise she’ll wipe your entire team.
