Brown Dust 2 Beginner Guides

Pub Recruitment

As a new player, you should get 4 5* (rainbow) recruitment contracts very early on. This will let you get the most useful characters from the pub. Additional contracts will slowly trickle in through various events and passes.

You can also convert your 3* and 4* contracts into a 5* contract in the shop.

Must Haves

Yes, even if you already acquired them through random draws, they're worth a +1. However, you can delay recruiting for upgrade purposes until later if you have a strong need for one of the other characters.

Liatris (Rodev's Star) - Ch8

  • One of the best DPS in the game
  • Ability does decent damage and has a strong DoT
  • Has strong synergy with her other costume, Maid Name R

Note that getting duplicates of this costume only improves the DoT. If you're winning on turn 1, this won't do anything for you. However, getting to +3 will reduce the SP cost, so keep that in mind for later.

Diana (Adventurer of Unknown) - Ch10

  • One of the best buffers in the game
  • "Dispatch" field ability brings in useful items, such as cooked rice or dia, once per day.
  • Buffs "property damage", which increases your character's damage when you have an elemental advantage

Levia (Night of Jealousy) - Random

  • Range is a 3 tile wide cross with exceptional damage on the main target and weak damage on the remaining targets
  • For most situations, her Track and Field Captain costume is preferred
  • Excellent against Partan (ch11 boss) or for Last Night

Venaka (Wind Dancer) - Random

  • Range is a 3x3 with the main target in the front row
  • Adds a vulnerability to wind debuff to the enemy (stacks additively with other vulnerability debuffs)

Highly Recommended

These costumes are very useful, but lower in priority than the previous group.

Celia (The Curse) - Random

  • "Absorb" field ability will grab all of the glitters (crafting materials & cooking ingredients) on the map for you, make sure to use Lathel's find ability first
  • High chain ability that's often used in end game content like Fiend Hunt (FH) to boost your main damage dealers' damage
  • Ideal if you have her other costumes as well

Olstein (The Fiend Scholar) - Ch4

  • If you already have him recruited (any costume), this costume falls into the "situationaly useful" category
  • "Dispatch" field ability brings in somewhat useful items once per day, mostly gold
  • Ability is a Skip 3x3 silence + SP recovery, which can be useful later in the game when you can't reliably clear fights in 1-2 turns. However, you're more likely to use Lucrezia, despite the smaller range, since her ability is cheaper.

Eleaneer (Piercing Magic Bow) - Random

  • Tied with Pool Party Schera (limited costume) for cheapest dispel, good in PvP if it's +3
  • Most accessible dispel after Schera, who becomes unavailable in ch13
  • As one of the few dark DPS, she'll be helpful against light enemies (chapters 10, 13, and 14)

Situationally Useful

Elise (Lovely Lady) - Random

  • Physical & magic defense reduction in combat
  • Note that this is only useful if the enemy has physical or magical defense
  • Unless you need her range, there's better options (Liberated Marauder Kry, Code Name A Rafina, B-Rank Manager Gray, DJ Venaka)

Notable Pushers

These costumes have abilities that are more than a simple push. Either more tiles or multiple targets.

Character Location Ability
Rou (White Cat) Ch3
Knocks 1 target 3 tiles back
Teresse (Angel of Destruction) Ch7
Knocks 3 targets back 2 tiles (potential increases range by 2 tiles, allowing you to target the side lanes and still hit 3 enemies)

There are a few recruitables with unusual knockback directions. Refithea is worth getting if you also have the Pure White Blessing costume, but the others are low priority if you already have the character from a random draw.

Character Location Direction
Rubia (Thorn of the Desert) Ch5
Very Front
Eclipse (The Dimension Witch) Ch6
Skip
Angelica (Fallen) Random
Very Front
Venaka (Wind Dancer) Random
Very Front
Refithea (The Gluttonous) Random
Skip

Notable Field Abilities

If you already have these characters, it's not a priority to recruit them for this purpose.

Character Location Ability Description
Rubia Ch5 Swiftness Makes your dash gauge recharge 95% faster, useful for field challenges
Sylvia Ch5 Bargan Gives you a discount at the shop, does not work on ability pills (only useful if you want to do the cooking achievements)
Anastasia Random Dash Faster version of Liatris's dash, but half the duration
Refithea Random Assemble Grabs all of the Gluttis in the area, giving you a small amount of gold

Useful if you have the other costume(s), maybe

These costumes are either useless on their own or are eclipsed by the character's other costumes. They might be worth recruiting if you already have one of their other costumes. Listed by chapter order, then alphabetical.

PvP Only

These costumes are generally not very useful outside of PvP (Mirror Wars). If all you care about is getting medals for purchasing the monthly costume from the shop, you can skip them. Doing well in PvP requires a significant investment, don't expect it to magically happen just because you recruit these characters.