Simulated Universe

Simulated Universe is a roguelike game mode where the player will build a team of four Characters to challenge enemies in an enclosed world with the goal of clearing it by defeating the boss at the end of the enclosed world.

This game mode will unlock shortly after you finish a side quest given to you by Herta after you finish the tutorial mission and can be entered through the Master Control Zone in Herta’s Space Station.

Simulated Universe is divided into different nodes call Worlds. Each World is a set of semi-randomized stages that ranges from combat stages to rest areas to random text event stages that culminates in a boss stage at the end of each World.

You start with only World 1 unlocked and can unlock the rest of the Worlds as you progress through the game and defeat the boss at the end of each World. Starting from World 3, each World will also have a set number of Difficulty Levels with each Difficulty offering more challenging enemies and better rewards. Note that you only need to clear the first Difficulty Level of a World to unlock the next World.

To enter the Simulated Universe, you will need to head to Herta’s Office in the Master Control Zone in Herta’s Space Station which is located at the bottom left of the area. Upon interacting with the Simulated Universe portal, you will be able to select the Simulated Universe World that you would like to challenge. From here, you will need to select four Characters from your roster to take with you into the Simulated Universe. These four Characters will be the only ones that you can use while inside the Simulated Universe, though you will be able to add more Characters to your team when you reach one of the Simulated Universe’s rest areas.

Once inside the Simulated Universe, you will need to progress through a set number of stages culminating in a boss fight to complete the run. You can pause or leave a run early by opening the Menu screen and selecting the appropriate option. A run will also end if your whole team is wiped out.

The different types of Simulated Universe stages are:

Combat Stages

• These stages will have you fight either some mob enemies, an elite enemy, or a boss enemy. They are denoted with a red portal.
• You can identify what type of enemy you will be fighting by looking at the stage name:
• Domain - Combat is mob battles.
• Domain - Elite/Challenge is an elite battle.
• Domain - Boss is a boss battle.
• Domain - is a special combat challenge stage.
• At the end of each victorious battle, you will be presented with three random Blessings and you can select one of them to keep. Blessings are buffs for your team that persist for the duration of the current Simulated Universe run.
• Defeating the elite enemy on certain stages will also grant you a choice of three random Curios in addition to the three random Blessings. Curios are either buffs for your team that persist for the duration of the current Simulated Universe run or a one time use effect.
• You must defeat all of the enemies in a combat stage in order to progress to the next stage. Defeating the boss at the end of Simulated Universe World will complete the current run.

Random Event Stages (Domain - Occurrence/Domain - Transaction)

• These stages are non-combat stages where you will receive a random event that generally allows you to obtain new Blessings or Curios at a cost. The cost can range from expending Cosmic Fragments to fighting enemies. They are denoted with a blue portal.
• Cosmic Fragments is a Simulated Universe currency that can be obtained by winning battles and destroying the breakable objects in the Simulated Universe.

Rest Areas (Domain - Respite)

• These are non-combat stages that have breakable objects that let you restore a portion of your team’s HP and Technique Charges. They are denoted with a green portal.
• The rest area also lets you revive fallen Characters by spending Cosmic Fragments once you have unlocked the ability to do so from the Simulated Universe Ability Tree.
• There is also a terminal that you can interact with which lets you add one additional Character from your roster to your Simulated Universe team.
• You can talk to Herta in this area to do one of the following:
• Purchase a random Blessing for 80 Cosmic Fragments.
• Purchase a random Curio for 120 Cosmic Fragments.
• Randomly upgrade two Blessings for 180 Cosmic Fragments.
• Note that for the Domain - Respite that is right before the boss battle, talking to Herta will instead open up a menu where you can spend Cosmic Fragments to select and enhance the Blessings that you have collected.

Your party’s HP and Technique Charges do not replenish at the end of a battle. You will need to either heal your party members in combat or destroy the green or purple containers to regenerate them. Similar to the overworld, the green containers will regenerate your party’s HP while the purple containers will restore 2 Technique Charges.

The random buffs (and debuffs) that you can obtain during a Simulated Universe run comes in two forms: Blessings and Curios. Whenever you receive a Blessing or Curio, you will be able to choose from one of three randomly generated Blessings or Curios that you do not already have.

Blessings are permanent buffs to your part that can be obtained by either winning battles, selecting certain options when inside either a Domain - Occurrence stage or a Domain - Transaction stage, or by purchasing them with Cosmic Fragments from Herta while you are inside a Domain - Respite stage.

Blessings are divided into different groups or Paths with each Path corresponding to a different playstyle. Currently, there are 8 Paths available. They are:

• Preservation - focuses on providing shields and buffing shielded Characters.
• Remembrance - focuses on freezing the enemy and making frozen enemies take more damage.
• Nihility - focuses on inflicting DoT and buffing DoT damage.
• Abundance - focuses on healing and providing buffs to teammates that have been healed.
• Hunt - focuses on speed and manipulating the turn order while providing damage buffs.
• Destruction - focuses on providing buffs that get stronger the lower a Character’s HP is.
• Elation - focuses on enhancing follow up attacks.
• Propagation - focuses on enhancing basic attacks (you need to unlock this path via Swarm Disaster mode as it's not available before that).

At the start of the game, you will only have access to the Blessings of Preservation, Remembrance, and Elation. However, more Paths will be unlocked as you progress further into the Simulated Universe.

Blessings can also be enhanced via random events and at a Domain - Respite stage. An enhanced Blessing provides a stronger version of the buff that it is providing.

Curios on the other hand have more varied effects and are unlocked after you gain access to Simulated Universe World 3. They can provide you with either permanent combat and non-combat buffs, a temporary boost or effect that expires after certain conditions are met, or even debuffs for your party. They can generally be obtained from Domain - Occurrence and Domain - Transaction stages or by purchasing them with Cosmic Fragments from Herta at a Domain - Respite stage. You also have the option to start a run with a Curio as well after unlocking the appropriate node in the Simulated Universe Ability Tree. There are also random events and a Curio that give you a chance to obtain Curios as well.

Ability Points can be used to unlock permanent upgrades for your Simulated Universe runs. These can range from providing stat bonuses to your team when inside the Simulated Universe to unlocking new abilities for you to use during your Simulated Universe runs.

After unlocking the Path Resonance node in the Simulated Universe Ability Tree, you will be prompted to select a Path when you start a new Simulated Universe run. There are currently 7 different Paths that you can select from and they correspond to the 7 Paths of the Blessings that you can obtain in this game mode.

Selecting a Path will provide you with a small party-wide buff as well as increasing the chance that Blessings of that Path will appear during your Simulated Universe run. Additionally, the Path that you select will also dictate which Path Resonance ability that you can obtain during your run. After you have obtained 3 Blessings of the Path that you selected, you will unlock the corresponding Path Resonance ability which is a powerful active ability that you can trigger during battle at any time as long as it has been fully charged.

As you progress further down the Simulated Universe Ability Tree, you will also unlock the ability to enhance your Path Resonance ability. Each Path Resonance ability has 3 different enhancements that you can choose from. You can choose the 1st enhancement after obtaining 6 Blessings of the corresponding Path, the 2nd enhancement after obtaining 10 Blessings of the corresponding Path, and the 3rd enhancement after obtaining 14 Blessings of the corresponding Path.

List of available paths:

Path of Preservation

This path is one of the best ones for F2P players as it allows them to turtle up and deal damage based on the Shields. Sure it will take you ages to kill the boss, but you will do it. Eventually.

Perks

• Increase the max DMG absorption of the shield received by characters by 10%,
• Increases the chance for Blessing of Preservation to appear.

Resonance Skill

Spend 100 points of Energy to use this ability and resonate with the Path of Preservation, dealing Physical DMG to all enemies based on the total Shield between all Allies.

Path of Remembrance

This path focuses on controlling the battlefield and Freezing enemies. While the Blessings can do it by themselves, you can also use M7 to apply even more Freezes - basically turning the enemies into statues that wait to be slaughtered. If you gather the right Blessings, this path allows you to cheese all Worlds available in the SU currently.

Perks

• Reduces target enemy's Effect RES by 10%
• Increases the chance for Blessing of Remembrance to appear.

Resonance Skill

Spend 100 points of Energy to use this ability and resonate with the Path of Remembrance, dealing Ice DMG to all enemies with a 120% base chance to Freeze all enemies for 1 turn(s).

Path of Elation

This path focuses on follow-up attacks so it isn't as universal as the other two, as there's only a few characters that actually use them (sure, there's a Blessing that turns any Ultimate into a follow-up attack, but it's sadly not enough). Still, if you have Clara, this Path is perfect for her as Counters are by default treated as follow-up attacks.

Perks

• Increases DMG dealt in characters' follow-up attacks by 24%,
• Increases the chance for Blessing of Elation to appear.

Resonance Skill

Spend 100 points of Energy to use this ability and resonate with the Path of Elation, dealing follow-up attacks of a random Type to all enemies 3-5 time(s).

Here are the other paths, listed in the order you unlock them (starting from World 2):

Path of Hunt

If you have the right setup, this Path will allow you to kill the Boss the fastest compared to all other Paths. Seele and Bronya users love this path as it allows Seele to attack the boss multiple times per turn, while its sitting there and staring with venom with his eyes. But even if you don't have Seele, Dan actually works really good with this Path too.

Perks

• Increases the characters' SPD by 6%,
• Increases the chance for Blessing of The Hunt to appear.

Resonance Skill

Spend 100 points of Energy to use this ability and resonate with the Path of The Hunt, dealing Wind DMG to all enemies based on the current ATK of the character currently with the highest ATK.

Path of Destruction

Path of Destruction is a high-risk, high-reward Path that's hard to use, but pretty rewarding if you get the right blessings. Some characters can be basically made unkillable with it and they can safely stay on low HP while killing all enemies.

Also, some of its Blessing are among the strongest in the game. For example Regression Inequality of Annihilation that splits the damage received by 1 character to all of them, making the team much more tankier and allowing you to prevent one-shots.

Perks

• Reduces DMG Taken by the characters by 6%,
• Increases the chance for Blessing of Destruction to appear.

Resonance Skill

Spend 100 points of Energy to use this ability and resonate with the Path of Destruction, dealing Fire DMG to all enemies based on the on the current HP difference between Max HP and current HP for all allies combined.

Path of Nihility

Path of Nihility is perfect for Serval, Sampo and other characters that apply DoT (damage over time) debuffs. The path will amplify their damage and automatically trigger the DoTs on the enemy, which helps with killing them faster.

Perks

• Increases the characters' DoT by 15%,
• Increases the chance for Blessing of Nihility to appear.

Resonance Skill

Spend 100 points of Energy to use this ability and resonate with the Path of Nihility, with a 80% base chance to apply Burn, Shock, Bleed and 2 stacks of Wind Shear on all enemies for 2 turn(s).

Path of Abundance

Path of Abundance is an utility path that provides a lot of Healing, but also makes your Healers much stronger. On top of that it can prevent allies from dying and also resist (and cleanse) debuffs - which makes it perfect against the Kafka boss you fight in World 5.

Perks

• Increases the characters' HP recovery by 10%,
• Increases the chance for Blessing of Abundance to appear.

Resonance Skill

Spend 100 points of Energy to use this ability and resonate with the Path of Abundance, restore HP for all allies by 50% of their respective Max HP, and increases their respective Max HP by 15% for 2 turn(s).

Completing this game mode will reward you with Simulated Universe Points and Ability Points. The amount of points awarded depends on what World you are challenging and how many stages you manage to clear before your team is wiped out or you defeat the boss at the end of the World. The more difficult the stages that you are challenging the more Simulated Universe Points and Ability Points you will be awarded. Note that you will be given Simulated Universe Points and Ability Points, albeit at a lower amount, even if you fail to complete a run.

Upon reaching certain Simulated Universe Point milestones, you will be able to claim rewards such as Stellar Jades and Herta Bonds (currency used in Herta’s Store). Simulated Universe Points are reset back to 0 weekly, thus allowing you to claim the rewards on the point track every week.

Beginning from World 3, you will also be able to spend Trailblaze Power to obtain Planetary Ornaments during a Simulated Universe run. Each World offers two different sets of Planetary Ornament with the higher Difficulty offering better rarity Planetary Ornament drops. After defeating the enemy in either a Domain - Elite stage or a Domain - Boss stage, you will be able to interact with a terminal and spend 40 Trailblaze Power or an Immersifier to obtain Planetary Ornament item drops. Immersifiers can be obtained from the weekly Simulated Universe Points reward or by spending Trailblaze Power. Each Immersifer costs 40 Trailblaze Power to create and a maximum of 8 Immersifiers can be stored at a time. The terminal in a Domain - Elite stage can only be interacted with once while the one in the Domain - Boss stage can be interacted with twice. Note that interacting with these terminals to obtain Planetary Ornaments is optional. You can simply proceed to the next stage or exit the run if you do not want to spend any Trailblaze Power or Immersifiers.

Do you want to learn more about the Builds you can run in Simulated Universe to make it easier? Check out our other guide:

Simulated Universe Builds

For more information about SU, you can check the video below: