Summary
- A squad's success in Blue Archive relies on strategic cost management, exploiting enemy weaknesses, and utilizing specialists for missions.
- Key characters like Rikuhachima Aru and Tsurugi Iori excel in high-impact damage and cost-efficient wave clearing.
- Buffers like Amau Ako and Akeboshi Himari are essential for critical buffs, resource management, and ensuring consistent high-score clears.
When it comes to tackling missions in Blue Archive, every seasoned Sensei should know that stacking a squad with raw power isn’t enough; real victory comes from a clever mix of cost management, synergy, and meta-defining specialists who thrive in the game’s layered, ever-evolving content.
Blue Archive: 8 Best Characters for Beginners, Ranked
For players just starting out on their Blue Archive journey, these are the best characters for beginners to try out.
A well-chosen squad, composed of four frontline "Strikers" and two rear "Specials," can turn a desperate struggle into a dominant clear. Success hinges on exploiting enemy armor weaknesses with Explosive, Piercing, or Mystic damage types while carefully managing the regenerating "Cost" bar needed to activate powerful EX Skills. The characters on this list are the masters of this system and the game’s most impactful mission specialists.
8 Rikuhachima Aru
AoE Specialist Who Turns Chaos into Control
- Attack: 451
- Defense: 19
Rikuhachima Aru, the leader of Problem Solver 68, is the quintessential damage dealer for any mission filled with Light Armor enemies. Her explosive attacks can dismantle enemy waves in seconds, making her an essential pick for stages that demand fast, high-impact AoE damage.
Aru’s EX skill deals a powerful single-target blow and then explodes in an AoE around the primary victim, letting her wipe out both bosses and their minions with ruthless efficiency. She thrives in teams built around critical damage buffs, and when paired with buffers like Ako or Himari, Aru can even pull off one-shot clears in notorious Total Assault raids like Kaiten FX Mk.0 or Gregorius.
7 Kasuga Tsubaki
The Indispensable Early Game Wall Who Never Falls
- Attack: 189
- Defense: 30
Kasuga Tsubaki is the undisputed queen of survival and the foundation upon which strong accounts are built. She is the ultimate early and mid-game tank—a specialist whose ability to soak damage and pull aggro redefines how safe a team can feel. Her EX taunts enemies into focusing solely on her, while boosting her own defense, creating the perfect opening for DPS units to clean up.
Tsubaki’s real magic lies in her layered survivability: high evasion, a built-in self-healing that triggers during emergencies, and natural resistance to explosive damage. She’s the unit that lets players focus on building out offensive options, knowing the frontline is handled. Paired with a healer or AoE DPS, Tsubaki sets up devastating combos by grouping enemies.
6 Shimoe Koharu
Hybrid Healer Who Breaks the Team-Building Mold
- Attack: 254
- Defense: 24
No unit in Blue Archive changes team-building slots quite like Koharu. Part healer and part AoE damage dealer, Koharu’s “Holy Grenade” EX skill is a two-for-one that heals allies while dropping explosive damage on enemies.
For missions with persistent damage, like the notorious Hieronymus raid, her hybrid kit is a game-changer, freeing up precious Special slots for meta-defining buffers like Ako and Himari. Koharu’s value skyrockets in boss fights or stages where constant healing is essential, yet raw damage output can’t be sacrificed.
5 Natsume Iroha
The One-Student Artillery that Breaks the Rules
- Attack: 336
- Defense: 20
Natsume Iroha, the tank commander of Gehenna's Pandemonium Society, is a character who fundamentally changes how the game is played. Her EX Skill summons her personal tank, Toramaru, onto the field as an autonomous "fifth Striker" that relentlessly bombards enemies with Mystic AoE damage. This summon can single-handedly clear waves of enemies, making early missions a breeze.
Blue Archive: Best Teams, Ranked
Blue Archive features a number of team compositions for tackling the game's content. Here are some of the best teams in the game.
Iroha’s unique mechanic truly shines in the endgame, especially against the Perorodzilla Total Assault. She can be the target of buffs from other Special units like Ako and Himari, and those buffs are then transferred directly to Toramaru on the field. This creates a powerful feedback loop that is impossible with any other character, allowing Toramaru to achieve staggering levels of damage.
4 Shiromi Iori
The Queen of Cost-Efficient Wave Clearing
- Attack: 391
- Defense: 20
When it comes to clearing the screens of Heavy Armor enemies with ruthless efficiency, no one does it better than Shiromi Iori. Her “Total Arrest” EX skill blasts three massive shots in a wide arc for just 3-cost, making her one of the most efficient skills-per-damage units in the game. She’s indispensable for grinding resource missions, credit stages, and endgame raids against bosses like Binah and Kaiten.
Iori’s cost efficiency doesn’t just boost damage; it accelerates the team’s entire skill cycle, letting players rotate back to expensive, high-impact skills more often. Her high durability as a Heavy Armor Striker means she can stick around to deliver shot after shot, provided a tank keeps enemy focus off her.
3 Amau Ako
The Non-negotiable Architect Who Destroys
- Attack: 176
- Defense: 18
Ako is the backbone of Blue Archive’s famed “hypercarry” meta, funneling massive critical chance and critical damage buffs into the squad’s top damage dealer. Her 3-cost EX skill, “Reconnaissance Report,” turns single-target DPS into boss-melting monsters, making high-score clears not just possible, but consistent.
With Ako in the team, damage is guaranteed, and in a game where raid scores and reliability mean everything, that’s priceless. Her passive team-wide crit damage buff is a cherry on top, and while her own damage is negligible, her impact on the team is invaluable.
2 Misono Mika
The Overwhelming Princess of Pure Destruction
- Attack: 302
- Defense: 22
When only the best will do, Mika takes the spotlight as Blue Archive’s premier single-target destroyer. Her “Kyrie Eleison” EX skill is a 6-cost nuke that scales its damage based on the enemy’s HP, making her the ideal opener against bosses with a full health bar.
What truly sets Mika apart, however, is her Sub Skill: every hit is a guaranteed critical, removing the need for luck or extra setup. Her damage ceiling is only possible thanks to careful support and survivability, but in the right setup, no unit can match her for single-target devastation.
1 Akeboshi Himari
The Mastermind of Damage and Resources
- Attack: 268
- Defense: 109
Akeboshi Himari is the single most impactful support unit in Blue Archive. Himari’s 3-cost EX skill delivers the highest single-target ATK buff in the game, turbocharging any DPS lucky enough to receive it. Even more impactful is her passive, which boosts cost recovery speed for the entire team. A buff so strong, it effectively lets squads play faster and harder, enabling expensive skills like Mika’s to come online sooner and more often.
Other elite students force a choice between power and efficiency, but Himari provides the best of both in one character slot. Himari is the unshakable constant in the meta-equation and the unrivaled commander of the battlefield, making her the ultimate choice when it comes to missions in Blue Archive.
