
As someone who once couldn't clear Fearless, and has made her way up to 180s Dire without being a leviathan, here is my take on the minimum requirements to clear each difficulty.
Notes:
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"COMFORTABLE" means achievable by 95% of players, as long as they are willing to put in the effort:
- Sustainless (unless already built in)
- Includes advanced combos such as CDC Mavuika, but not astronomically hard, macro requiring combos
- Top 1-15% artifacts
I'm aware of absolutely insane Dire clears like all 4 stars or 1 cost Mavuika 3 star weapon. Those are beyond of what 95% of players can do.
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IMPORTANT:
Non Shill refers to a TOP meta team who does not get hard countered by the boss. This refers only to teams like Mavuika, Lunar, Varka Premium, Skirk...
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I used the Nefer team as a visual example of each level of investment because all top meta teams are structured exactly like this. I'm aware Lauma sig is really bad compared to other dedicated support sigs like Escoffier, Ineffa, Linnea...
Investment priorities always goes:
DPS > Dedicated Support >>> General Support > 4th Slot.
C2R1 matters alot for Main DPS
C2 matters alot for Dedicated Support (e.g. Lauma, Ineffa, Citlali, Durin, Linnea, Escoffier)
C0 matters alot for General Support (e.g. Columbina, Furina, Xilonen)
Do not invest in 4th slot unless they share a banner, such as Prune, Illuga...
Any modern C2 is almost always worth more than it's equivalent cost in non C2s. In this example, the team for Shill Dire becomes stronger if you replace Lauma Sig and Columbina Sig with Nefer C2 or Lauma C2. Likewise, the team right under would be stronger if you replace the signatures for Nefer C2 + Lauma C2. I opted to show signatures over C2s because they are more realistic for non whales and can be obtained over a longer period of time.
Any modern C6 DPS one shots any boss with 0 investment required in their supports. A C6 main DPS is almost always the most efficient 10 cost team.