Remora
Lakshana + Cosmos
Slows enemy movement and attack speed for 5s. Decays over time.
Beginner Roadmap
Day 1 to Mid-Game in NTE
A no-fluff path from your first login to a built team — what to do today, this week, this month, and how to set yourself up for the long haul. Every detailed guide on the site is one click away below.
- 4Phases
- 6Esper Elements
- 8Reactions
- 17Espers at launch
Verdict — the five things that matter on Day 1
If you only do five things tonight: claim your mailbox, finish the tutorial, talk to every NPC at Eibon, make one Standard Board pull, and collect your first business income. Everything else can wait until tomorrow — those five unlock progression, currency and habits that compound for months.
NTE rewards consistency over burst sessions. The single highest-impact habit is logging in once a day, every day — even for 5 minutes — to collect business income and spend Character Pixels before they cap.
1
Day 1 — your first session
~30 to 60 minutes · Setup that pays off all month
Claim your mailbox and any active codes
Pre-registration rewards, milestone gifts and patch announcement codes all land in the mailbox (top-right corner of the screen). Some have an expiration counter — do this before exploring.
Finish the full opening tutorial
The tutorial walks you through basic combat, dodge, parry, and the Esper Cycle. Don't skip it — parry timing and cycle swaps are the two systems you'll use every fight from now on.
Visit Eibon, your home base
Eibon is the antique shop that anchors the story. Talking to every NPC inside unlocks early story flags and the City Tycoon / Business Management features.
Make your first Standard pull
Spend your starter Fabricated Dice on the Standard Board (Scarborough Fair). The Standard Board ships a one-time Beginner Bonus: your first 50 cumulative rolls grant a Character Selection — pick one of six common S-Class characters for free. That selector is the single best early pull target — prioritize it before any Limited banner pull. See the Economy guide for the exact pity and rate numbers from the in-game probability disclosure.
Collect your first business income
Once City Tycoon unlocks, your shop and any owned property generate passive Fons every few hours. Collection is manual — uncollected income sits idle, so check it every login.
2
First week — story and your first carry
Days 2-7 · Unlock features, build one main
Push the main story
Story progression is what unlocks higher stamina caps, the Weekly Boss, co-op, new districts and the better farming domains. On your first week, prioritize the quest marker over repeatable content.
Activate every Fast Travel point you pass
Each landmark, shop and mission site you visit adds a checkpoint. Unlocking them early shortens every future daily routine.
Pick a main DPS and invest in them only
Spreading EXP and ascension mats across four characters at once leaves you with four weak units. Pick one carry — the protagonist Zero is a fine free Cosmos option — and pour everything in until the current level cap.
Learn what triggers your Esper Cycle reaction
Every two adjacent elements on the cycle produce a named reaction (Blossom, Hexed, Scorch, Nova, Stain, Remora — all detailed below). Knowing which two characters in your team trigger a reaction together is more important than character power at this stage.
Start completing daily commissions
Commissions are the most reliable daily pull income. Get into the habit now — the value compounds over months.
3
First month — routine and gear
Weeks 2-4 · Habits and your first Cartridge set
Run Gold Heist every Monday or Tuesday
Gold Heist resets each Monday at 05:00 server time. It is the highest-EV weekly habit you can build — running it early in the week protects you from missing the window after a busy day.
Stop letting Character Pixels and City Stamina cap
Both resources cap over time and any overflow stalls regeneration. Spend them daily on whatever your current bottleneck is — for Character Pixels, ascension mats first, then skill mats, then modules. For City Stamina, the urban activity that pays best at your current Tycoon level.
Clear your Daily Quests every day
Daily Quests (issued by the Anomaly Hunter Guild as part of Circle Bounty) reset at 05:00 every day. They are a free, reliable source of materials, Hunter EXP and Circle Bounty experience. Always clear them.
Collect business income on every login
Even quick 30-second logins to claim Fons add up. Skipping a day means lost income — never paused income.
Start farming a Cartridge set for your main
Once story progression unlocks the better domains, farm an element-matched Cartridge set for your main DPS (e.g. Lost Radiance for Cosmos, Diabolos for Chaos). The 2-piece + 4-piece bonuses are the biggest single damage gain you'll get.
4
Toward mid-game — second carry and trio reactions
Month 2+ · Where teams come together
Build a second character
Once your main is at the current cap with their best Arc and a set, start investing in a second character. Pick someone who shares an Esper Cycle reaction lane with your main (e.g. a Cosmos main pairs with Anima for Blossom or Lakshana for Remora).
Learn the trio reactions
Charge (Blossom + Remora) and Discord (Nova + Scorch) only fire when three elements are present on your team. They are massive — Discord shreds boss Break gauges, Charge generates Ultimate energy on every hit. Build toward one as your team comes online.
Adopt gacha discipline
Skipping a Limited banner does not lose your accumulated pulls — read each banner's in-game probability disclosure before committing. Plan two patches ahead, write down which upcoming characters complete your reaction lane, and save specifically for them.
Optimize Modules instead of stacking levels
Once your main is at the level cap, the next ~10-20% damage comes from Module substat rolls (CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, ATK%, elemental DMG%). Expect this to take weeks — that's the intended endgame loop.
Esper Cycle in 60 seconds
Every Esper has one of six elements. The six elements sit on a wheel — adjacent pairs trigger named reactions when one character builds the Cycle meter and the next character swaps in.
- Cosmos
- Anima
- Incantation
- Chaos
- Psyche
- Lakshana
Duo reactions (two adjacent elements)
Blossom
Cosmos + Anima
Spawns Vita Buds — auto-attacking flowers that explode in an area every 2s. Up to 3 on the field.
Hexed
Anima + Incantation
Triggers follow-up damage equal to 20% of any Anima/Incantation damage taken in the next 12s.
Nova
Chaos + Psyche
Marks the target — after 5s, deals a large burst of Mental Damage.
Scorch
Incantation + Chaos
Inflicts a Damage-over-Time effect for 15s.
Stain
Psyche + Lakshana
Target takes +20% Psyche and Lakshana damage for 12s.
Trio reactions (advanced, three elements on the team)
Charge
Blossom + Remora (same target)
When a Vita Pistil hits a Remora-marked target, your active character gains +10 Ultimate Energy.
Discord
Nova + Scorch (same target)
When both Nova and Scorch are active on the same target, deducts a percentage of the target's Break gauge.
Numbers and durations above come from the in-game reaction descriptions in our codex. For the full reaction wheel with the matching characters per element, see /nte/esper-cycles/.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Letting Character Pixels sit at the cap. Once full, regeneration stops — every hour at cap is an hour of free farming wasted. Set a daily login reminder before bed.
- Spreading EXP across four characters at once. A single fully-built main outperforms four half-built ones, every time.
- Pulling on a Limited banner without checking the unit's reaction lane. A meta unit you can't trigger reactions with is dead weight in your team.
- Skipping the tutorial parry section. Parry instantly fills the Esper Meter — without it, your reaction uptime is half what it should be.
- Ignoring business income for days. It's free Fons, every collection takes 10 seconds, and it never costs anything.
- Pulling on Arc banners before you have a character to put them on. Arcs use a separate currency (Tri-Key) but it builds up slowly — spend it only when a signature Arc is for a character you already main.
All NTE guides, organized by topic
When you're ready to go deep, every guide below is data-sourced from the game and updated each patch.