Decision Making: Should You Break the Ceiling?
Is it safe to go past Lv. 80 even if I'm a newer player?
Introduction
If you’re reading this, and you’re currently at Captain Level 80 wondering whether or not you should push the big scary breakthrough button, congrats! The level 80 milestone takes an average of about a month of normal gameplay to reach, and I hope you’ve enjoyed your time playing the game so far. I’ll be taking you through when you should breakthrough, why, what it means to breakthrough, and how to adapt to the difference between Exalted (Level 81-88) and Masters (the tier you’re currently in).
What does it mean to breakthrough?
Officially known as “Breaking the Ceiling”, breakthrough takes off the training wheels you’ve been using for the time you played the game from level 1 to level 80. It increases the level cap from 80 to 88, and promotes you from the Masters tier to the Exalted tier, which changes the format of Abyss from the Q-Manifold you’re familiar with to a more competitive version known as Superstring Dimension:
It also introduces SSS bosses into Memorial Arena.
When should I breakthrough?
Immediately. No question about it, get into Exalted as soon as possible. Do not wait until you have “all 4 teams for the 3 elements and physical”. You will fall behind.
Why so fast? What’s the rush?
This is by far the most important thing I’m covering in this guide.
First off: Despite what you may think or how you perform, your resources will increase.
This is due to the fact that even if you aren't performing as well as you would like, you would technically still be getting a lot more resources simply by being level 81 compared to if you had sat at level 80. Even if somehow you are unable to clear a single stage of Abyss or the SSS boss in Memorial Arena, the fact of the matter is you should be getting a lot more of various materials compared to if you decided to stay at level 80. The debilitating thing is there's a large misconception going around that staying at level 80 can be beneficial, but that is just outright false due to...
The ability to get more Ancient Legacy / Willpower
This enables you to farm for War Treasury (WT) Valkyries more easily. Some Valkyries immediately debut as a farmable unit from WT, such as Miracle Magical Girl (Sirin), Jade Knight (Sushang), and Miss Pink Elf (Elysia), who are or have been relevant in the meta. Moreover, you can acquire older Valkyries too, contributing to your Dorm level, which provides universal buffs.
To calculate some of the weekly income that you can get:
Ancient Willpower:
55 Ancient Willpower from 10 attempts at Memorial
65 more willpower if you are able to get into the top 2%, less if you’re settling for 7%, or 17% which is more likely for a beginner
Another 56 from SSS score = 156 per week
(This is not considering the breakthrough missions which give quite a lot of willpower and legacy but is a one time thing, or the ~20 you can get from abyss if you choose to do so over 6 Torus. It is also not including already available sources such as Weekly Quiz.)
Ancient Legacy:
10 From Memorial arena 10 attempts
34 from Agony 3 Abyss finalisation rewards
24 from SSS boss score = 68 per week
It's worth mentioning that you will not be expected to get this much as soon as you breakthrough, so don't be disappointed if you find yourself underperforming. Due to the increased levelling speed, it will take some time to build up to the point where you can retain Redlotus now, especially if you hadn’t started in a patch where pulling immediately was ideal.
Second point: You get the ability to make your PRI-ARMS stronger.
PRI-ARM is a weapon advancement system that allows you to upgrade certain weapons, normally a character's best in slot/gacha gear into an advanced form, and upgrade the level from 50 to 65. Moreover, it often adds some bonus effects or adds extra skills. Some characters are actually very reliant on their PRI with it being able to remove their holes or weaknesses, and even those who aren't would greatly benefit around a ~30% damage increase simply by having their weapon maxed out. You do need to have owned the base weapon (e.g. Key of Ego to Domain of Ego) to craft the advanced version.
(Note: it is often better to unlock multiple weapons instead of maxing a single one. You would want to reference the boss schedule and see which weapon would give you the greatest benefit or see the most use during that patch and go for that one rather than upgrade your favourite Valkyries.)
This power comes with a fairly large timegate, one that you do not want to fall behind on.
Torus and SC Metals are both extremely difficult to farm, with most sources being locked behind being level 81+. Joining the PRI-ARM race sooner rather than later will make it easier for you to catch up with older players who have already made the important PRIs and can afford to consider making more niche ones.
It will also make Elysian Realm much easier, so that's more crystal acquisition. (Up to 500 a week)
What’s it like in Exalted?
Abyss
The abyss tiers in Exalted are similar to the ones in Masters, with the main difference being the introduction of the new tier Nirvana and a trophy system. Instead of retaining or promoting by finishing a boss in under 120s, now you gain trophies based on your rank every cycle out of a bracket of 20 people.
This may seem daunting to new players at first, especially when they assume they’ll be competing against whales with max gear and SSS rank valkyries. However, most of them are playing in Nirvana with some relaxing in Redlotus. Beginners aren’t expected to start retaining Redlotus right off the bat, they can settle for retains in Agony 3.
The lower tiers, Sinful and Forbidden, are irrelevant. Even with a lack of gear, there should be no way you’d unintentionally demote to those tiers with regular participation.
Memorial Arena
Similar to Arena in the Masters Tier, Exalted’s Arena has 3 bosses. The only difference is that 2 of these bosses now have an increased difficulty tier, SSS, with Crystals, Ancient Willpower and Legacy available as rewards upon reaching certain score milestones. This makes team requirements stricter and overall more challenging. To make things more accessible for newer players lacking gear, there is an option to activate buffed mode, which makes bosses weaker in exchange for a score penalty.
How do I adapt to the change?
Frankly, the best way to make this easier on yourself is to have made smart decisions leading up to breakthrough. Decisions such as saving crystals to pull for investment-worthy valkyries and gear, investing into good farmable valkyries that will see use in Exalted and levelling your Divine Keys for DKey buffs are all excellent choices that will benefit you in the long run. Pulling supports > DPS is a generally agreed upon priority, as supports have much more coverage, usually last longer, and actually let your DPS do damage.
If breaking through is so good, why don’t more people do it?
The main argument players bring up against breaking through immediately, is the fear that they will end up losing crystals in Abyss. However, if you could retain RL in Master then you will be maintaining Agony 3 in Exalted, which leads to an increment in crystal acquisition (even though they give the same amount of crystals per cycle you’d get more from Memorial Arena etc.), and even if somehow you did end up losing some crystals, the vast amount of materials you get would easily overcompensate for said loss.
tl;dr NOT breaking through doesn't give you a chance to catch up, it pushes you further behind.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my guide! I hope it convinced you that Exalted isn’t all that bad. And remember, if someone tells you that you aren’t “ready” for breakthrough, just ignore them. You’re better.
Cayjunn is a Honkai Impact 3rd guide maker and a member of the Hyperion Team. He can be found on Discord as @cayjunn, or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cayjunn1.