Introduction

With the release of Liu Zhigang, we're not just getting a new Fire Team — we're also seeing the introduction of a brand new class: the Burster.

As always in my guides, I'll walk you through the best team compositions, along with recommended Artifacts, Cores, Stats, and Shadows.

Units

The release of the Burster class brings our total class count to 5. The good news?

You only need to worry about 3 of them - two classes have effectively been pushed out of the meta entirely.

For the Fire Team, the following units are used:

• Liu Zhigang: Burster

• Gina: Support

• Christopher Reed: Infuser

Team Composition

While there are technically several team configurations to choose from, the gap in damage output between the strongest and second-strongest option is so significant that I'll only be covering the optimal setup here.

Unit Advancements

To unlock the team's full potential and tackle increasingly difficult content, I can only recommend A5 as the advancement level at this point.

This not only saves me a considerable amount of time, but also helps avoid any misconceptions - some players might assume that a team built around, say, A3 units could come anywhere close to the damage numbers that A5 units put out.

Spoiler: it can't.

Artifacts and Cores

With the recent introduction of class-specific sets, this section has become pretty straightforward. You'll simply always want to run the class-specific set - no exceptions.

Note: The Architect’s Blue Poison performs better for Liu Zhigang in Huntermode.

Unit Stats

With the Evolution Update came a massive increase to our overall stats, which means there are significant changes to the benchmarks you should be hitting. More is always better - the numbers below represent the bare minimum.

No one expects you to reach those stats as a beginner, but that is something you should aim for.

Team Rotation

The rotation should always begin with the Hunter in Slot 1 to apply the most important buffs and debuffs before the main DPS takes over.

You can find the exact rotation for each Hunter directly in-game under their respective profiles. These provided rotations are already optimal, so there is no need to invent alternative setups or overcomplicate things.

Simply repeat this rotation as many times as needed until the enemy is defeated.

Alternative Hunters

While the Fire Team has received several buffs recently, as mentioned at the start, the gap between individual hunters is simply too large to offer any real alternatives.

On top of that, in the current content all Breaker units are effectively dead in the meta, and Striker units don't even come close to matching what Burster units bring to the table.

Weapon Advancement Priority

Weapon priority is a frequently asked question, especially when players didn't play during the unit's release and have to craft the weapons afterwards.

As a rule, you should always craft and upgrade the weapon of the Main DPS Unit first.

1. Liu Zhigang

2. Christopher Reed

3. Gina

Recommendation: Craft all weapons at least once and then upgrade them in this order.

Shadows

For the Shadows, we have the option to choose between two teams:

Even though the Fire team already has a built-in critical hit mechanic, we still bring Igris into fights because he grants us an additional 8% critical hit chance, which is essential in higher-level stages.

Remnant Power

To get the most out of the Fire Team, we'll be running Legia, since he provides boosts to all 3 of our classes.

Should we receive a Fire Successor down the line, you can swap them in for Legia at that point.

Note

The guide structure will be changing going forward. I haven't fully decided on the exact direction yet, so if you have any wishes, suggestions, or feel like something is missing, feel free to let me know!