Reverse: 1999 - exceptional teams that you can easily compose
Bluepoch’s Reverse: 1999 boasts an extensive roster of characters that offers an intriguing mix of story-based progression and more tactical gameplay. But how exactly do you build your team, and what should you be looking for?
That's where we step in. We have explained how to create some of the most fitting teams in Reverse: 1999, and also gave a few examples of teams that we're playing with. We have also clarified what exactly a Mineral Arcanist is and how the elements a character is associated with affect their performance and damage.
Starting team comps for Reverse: 1999
An easy comp for your first team is going to be Sonetto + APPLe and then whatever two Arcanists you’ve rolled or acquired by that point in the story. Once you leave London during the prologue and progress to the 1920s, mechanics like summoning will open up. APPLe offers mental damage while Sonetto provides reality damage. The former has healing abilities while the latter inflicts debuffs which allow for quick and tactical gameplay.
While it won’t be applicable for a while, you can also begin building and levelling your starting team. For our starter comp, for what we rolled, we went with APPLe, Sonetto, Matilda and The Fool as substitutes.
Naturally, The Fool is a higher-tier character to roll, but Matilda seems to be one of the defaults you acquire, as she references Sonetto’s presence when she’s summoned after you unlock the mechanic. You can swap out The Fool for any other character which utilises a different damage type or element to the rest of the team. Bear in mind, initially, you’ll only have access to two slots for your lineup, so Sonetto and APPLe do the heavy lifting until the story opens up your options.
But, that’s not all, as before any battle you’ll also have a Recommended Lineup for your Crew. This will suggest a number of possible team comps for you to make use of that fit the given situation. By utilising these, you can see which characters you have that are appropriate and which you don’t have before selecting a lineup that works for your approach.
Bear in mind that these are not necessarily optimal. But as you’re learning the ropes, they make for a great way to understand what you should focus on. By the time you’ve learnt the mechanics, you won’t need this. But for early-game players or those with a small roster, it helps to ensure you’re not blindly creating a team that just so happens to be vulnerable to the elements or attacks your opponent possesses.
The inclusion of recommended lineups means there’s technically no “wrong” way to build your team in Reverse: 1999. However, if you do want to do well when put in a given situation, it’s important to build on them as much as possible. So, if you want to know which higher-tier characters to use and which ones may be better to dump, take a look at the tier list of Reverse: 1999 characters. But, enough rambling, let's move on to the best teams for Reverse: 1999!
1
Early Game Team
This is a team that'll carry you through the opening stages of the game, and provides a diversity of damage types. These'll also be characters that you should have available from the get-go; bear in mind you can sub in other unlocks so long as they fill the damage types these roles need.
These are also great characters to help you get to grips with the basics of team-building and understand why different damage types and character types need to be balanced against the enemies you encounter. You can also try out recommended lineups to study potential later builds.
Early Game Team: APPLe, Sonetto, Eilani and Matilda as substitute.
2
Mid Game Team
As we recommend earlier in the article, Sonetto and Regulus are two characters that are both key to the story and great lynchpins for the rest of your team. Sonetto offers a mix of good reality damage as well as inflicts constant debuffs - something Twins Sleep can also do if you roll them - on the enemy, while Regulus does the same by focusing on pure mental damage. You'll also have unlocked a fourth slot, but ideally, you won't need this too often as it's purely for subbing in a character if you lose one.
By this time, you should have moved beyond the recommended lineups and towards experimenting with your own builds. However, don't discount them for guidance - they're based on what other players have succeeded with and can be great for choosing out builds to shoot towards.
Mid Game Team: Sonetto/Twins Sleep, Regulus, Matilda/Leilani.
3
Late Game Team
While some other characters have seen experimental popular builds, Centurion is far and away one of the most popular as a great late-game damage dealer. So a typical configuration sees her paired with other support characters (including the ever-dependable Sonetto) while a third character takes the role of backup to help round out the team.
You'll also see a lot of references to roles devoted to support or sustain. But given that almost all of the support characters in Reverse: 1999 have some form of attack, don't worry if it seems like you're casting their same support ability repeatedly.
Late Game Team: Centurion, Sonetto (or other support) and Medicine Pocket/Dikke.
4
Other Characters & Team Dynamics
There are a few other characters who also come highly recommended for building your teams around. Eternity, for example, is a character that can be drawn (alongside Regulus and Lilya) from the First Drop of Rain summoning deal after 30 summons maximum. At the moment, she's a major character in the meta, and given her relative ease of access (if you're lucky), she can be a huge damage dealer due to her ultimate ability.
Eagle, meanwhile, also forms a key part of some budget team comps. But I've found that Bette, a low-rarity character (with quite a funny amateur dramatics theme) is a top performer when it comes to the support role. Although some suggest running characters like Eternity solo, you could do something such as an Eternity, Bette, APPLe (or even Sonetto for added buffs while eschewing healing) team if you need to build it around her.
The Fool is also a particularly interesting character, not just due to their high mental damage, but also from their unique abilities that cast effects like taunt, which draws enemy aggro to them. So, pairing them with Eternity or Centurion could also help to free those characters up for additional damage. A team such as Eternity/Centurion, The Fool and Support [Medicine Pocket, APPLE if you have nothing better] could be an easy winner.
