The new Dragalia Lost Mercurial Gauntlet quest can be a tricky beast to tame. While most will burst down the first 10 waves with ease, progressing much further requires a little more finesse and thought. In this Mercurial Gauntlet tips guide, we’ll mix some of our experiences and dish out the details on how changing up your strategy can push your teams beyond their usual limits.
Dragalia Lost’s Mercurial Gauntlet came out of nowhere. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a new timed event, when in actuality, it’s a permanent addition to the quest pool. It’s also not quite the gauntlet we were expecting. Rather than being waves of increasingly tougher enemies – like most facility events – it’s a fight against a single increasingly more tanky stationary enemy – Fafnir Roy III. There are no ailments or debuffs to worry about, and chip damage is gone in favor of large AOE hits (which can be iframed) from time to time. It might sound easy, but it can get pretty tricky if you go in expecting your average MMO tank n’ spank brawl, as there’s only a single minute on the clock.
Because of the unique fighting pattern of Fafnir, Mercurial Gauntlet runs benefit from high raw attack power. Offensive adventurers matched with powerful Wyrmprints and Dragons essentially to fully clearing the fight.
Mercurial Gauntlet Rewards
So why should you bother running the Mercurial Gauntlet in the first place? It’s a bit of a tough call, honestly. Loot is accumulated and dished out on the 15th of each month, with earnings increasing as increase your Combined Level by progressing in each elemental variant.
Long-time players can use the Mercurial Gauntlet to earn a few extra Twinkling Sands for weapon upgrades, while newcomers will manage little more than a light pile of Mana, Rupies, and Eldwater. It’s enough to power up adventurers and pick up a few extra wyrmprints, but nothing out of this world.
With the Combined Level marker already having space for 4-digit numbers, expect the Mercurial Gauntlet to evolve over time, leading to additional rewards for the truly dedicated.
Universal Tips
There’s little need for a dedicated healer thanks to invincibility frames (iframes), allowing a fourth slot to be taken up by someone capable of buffing team DPS to buy you valuable seconds. Befriending someone with Elisanne set as their helper will give you 3 charges of a 10% strength increase that can occasionally stack.
Don’t rely too much on characters who’s toolkits revolve around things like Poison Punish, either. Fafnir starts off being susceptible to all ailments, but quickly gains increased resistances to all but Bleed as you go up in the levels. Focus on raw attack power and buffs when you can, but fill any available slots with normally powerful 5* adventurers.
Those introduced during the Fire Emblem Heroes event can be extremely useful even in off-element runs. Veronica’s powerful low-HP skills, Marth’s low HP skill resets, and Fjorm’s almost suicidal tendencies with Ice Mirror can deal enough damage to make a real dent.
Mercurial Gauntlet – Element Guides
Light
Shadow’s premier 5* adventurers make light work of Fafnir by amassing some of the highest base STR stats in the game. Axe-user Curran and Blade-user Ieyasu can deliver crushing blows, with Ieyasa greatly benefitting from the potent chip damage of Bleed.
Veronica’s passive Skill Damage, Skill Prep, and bonus Skill Damage on low HP grants her some incredible horsepower after taking the initial blow. Kleimann is your next best Wand user, but Althemia can sit in if you’re able to iframe Fafnir’s hits. Outside of the top adventurers, you’re looking at setting up a Blind Punisher team with Nefaria, Orion, Norwin, and Sazanka (who can step in for Curran over Alex these days).
Botan can fill a melee slot thanks to a team-wide STR buff, but her limited availability will mean most who have her will have better options.
Shadow
Fafnir’s overdrive gauge fears the Light team, as it contains plenty of Sword and Axe users to chop it down. Lucky players can bring Albert, Lucrecia, Julietta, and Annelie for an easy go at Level 20.
Sword users like Odetta and Alfonse can easily step in for Albert. For those without many native 5* adventurers, the combination of Fleur and Yachiyo can make a real dent in Fafnir’s massive health pool thanks to their combined Paralysis Punisher toolkit.
Just know you’ll need to effectively iframe each AOE hit to survive the fight. A promoted Xiao Lei can fill in for Lucretia, but she isn’t nearly as effective.
Flame
Turning Fafnir’s slow, powerful blows against it, Fjorm steps in to utterly destroy its HP bar with each attempted strike thanks to the unique Ice Mirror skill.
Laranoa benefits greatly from Fafnir’s large body, ensuring her volleys connect and help build her stat increases. Xander remains the go-to Sword choice for knocking Fafnir into Break state. Water’s lack of Sword users means anyone without Xander should look into bringing any other Sword if needed, while Lily remains the go-to Wand user who’ll be on Force Strike duty regardless given Water’s lack of other viable options.
What Water lacks in Break capabilities is more than made up for with high damage potential from Lance and Dagger users. If Fjorm or Dragonyule Cleo isn’t available to you, Xianfried, Elisanne, Luther, and Orsem can step in just fine, with Orsem knocking Luther to the curb thanks to unusually high Crit rates.
Water
Wind teams drag their heels a little outside of obvious 5* adventurer options. Sword users are strictly limited pulls, and many others rely on Poison – an ailment that struggles to show it’s worth in higher levels.
Lin You and Maribelle are powerful options here, while Hawk beats out Louise thanks to his higher base STR. If you happen to have Addis on hand, hold him tight. Bleed capabilities, Broken Punisher, and powerful and frequent 20% STR buffs make him one of the better damage options.
Sylas would have been a solid recommendation if his buff skills didn’t have a 66% chance of applying something that won’t help here whatsoever. A promoted Melody can fit the bill with decent team STR boosts and her own personal Crit Rate buff, but Musashi is the clearly more competent Blade user if he’s available to you.
Wind
With plenty of adventurers to choose from, rocking into the Wind Fafnir with a competent Fire team is pretty simple. Like the rest, Axe, Sword, and Wand users are great not only for their exemplary damage output, but their powerful Force Strikes, making light work of the Overdrive gauge.
Marth shines bright here as a blow from a later-level Fafnir can proc his skill reset with ease. Skill Shift manages to boost the team’s STR and ATK Speed by a good margin, helping the whole team whittle down Fafnir in a way other elemental teams could only dream of. Karl and Euden are acceptable 4* alternatives.
Any typical Tier-1 picks like Mikoto, Studen Maribelle, or Gala Mym/Sarisse will get most of the job done here. Ezelith’s rapid attacks, team buffs, and Broken Punisher will help, too. Going down to 3* and 4* adventurers, Aoi and Xania can be up to the task once promoted. A built-up Sinoa can drastically speed things along with her own team buffs and boosted buff time, but being a random buff each time meaning success in later stages will be down to luck.
