General PvE Damage Costume Recommendations

This list is intended for general PvE. This will give you a good foundation for completing story and character packs, Tower of Desire, and Tower of Salvation. Some will also be useful for Fiend Hunts and sometimes Guild Raids, but they might not be the best choice for any given fight. Supports are always more valuable than damage costumes, so invest there first.

Note that light and dark characters are the most versatile for a new player because they don't receive a damage penalty when attacking enemies with the element they're weak to. This matters a lot less as your roster grows and you have strong characters in every element.

The following pub recruits are the most easily accessible for a new player since they either appear randomly in any pub or are unlocked by clearing early story chapters. See pub recruitment for more information.

Core	Auxiliary	Notes
Most Likely to be in a Permanent Team Preset
		Sacred Justia is versatile and easy to use. She does more damage the more enemies she hits and her range is very good, though her Very Front targeting can be limiting at times. At +4, she can be used every turn. The only content she's bad at is when there's very few enemies to hit, such as Last Night or the rare single boss fights. She's weaker than most other choices here for Fiend Hunt, but she's a great entry-level character since she only needs the one costume to do the job and can be a good choice for your 2nd team if you don't have enough characters with elemental advantage. She's the best choice for Tower of Pride 4F and 6F.
		Eclipse has lower SP cost compared to most magic characters, which makes her easier to use than some of the other choices for a newer player. For single-turn clears, Beach Vacation is one of the best costumes, but the down side is that it has one of the longest cooldowns in the game for a damage costume at 11 turns. For multi-turn combat, Eclipse is weaker than most of the other choices here and requires her limited Nightmare Bunny costume to be worth using for Fiend Hunt or Guild Raid. Dimension Witch is pub recruitable, Dream Bride is a free +5.
		Individually, Blade's costumes are very strong, but they lack synergy with each other. Young Lady is one of the highest damage large range attacks. Apostle's strongest when she has the opportunity to counter multiple hits, though she usually needs help from someone like Red Riding Hood Rou to survive. Apostle is capable of carrying Tower of Jealousy 51F-90F (possibly earlier floors, too) and is pub recruitable. Since Young Lady is only able to create one debuff on a single tile, Onsen Swordfigher requires teammates that provide them to power her up.
		Mamonir is a high HP magic character, which gives here a little bit more survivability than most characters. Night of Death has a lot of advantages for a new player: large range, can be cast again for free for the next two player turns, and is pub recruitable. Her damage scales based on her own max HP, rather than ATK/Magic ATK like most characters, which can make her a little easier to gear for a new player: mostly Crit DMG with some HP mods.
		Loen is one of the best magic characters for general content. For single-turn clears, Last Hope and the limited Celebrity Bunny can be used interchangeably, though the later has higher damage potential in exchange for a higher SP cost. If you want to be able to use her in Fiend Hunt, Last Hope is mandatory due to Celebrity Bunny's long cooldown. Either costume is good for Tower of Pride 1F.
		Palette is slightly behind Loen for general content in terms of damage, but the upside is that she uses slightly less SP and is pub recruitable.
		Venaka is a lot stronger than she looks. Wind Dancer's wind damage vulnerability occasionally makes her an asset on physical teams for Fiend Hunt and Guild Raid. It's also the best costume for Tower of Pride 5F and pub recruitable. DJ is good for cleaning up stragglers and is incredibly strong in Mirror Wars.
		Dalvi makes the cut mostly because her Summer Vacation costume is a free +5, making it a great choice for new players. Bright Moon is very SP efficient since you can use her ability for free up to two more times after the first use, though this tends to be marginally useful (Mamonir's Night of Death is 10x better). Dalvi often teams up with Venaka for general content and Fiend Hunt, though you really need Bright Moon for the later.
Honorable Mentions
		Liatris shines brightest in multi-turn situations, but she's still pretty good for single-turn fights. Rodev's Star and Neon Stalker provide DoTs, Maid Name R does extra damage to enemies with a DoT. Maid Name R is good for Tower of Pride 1F. She's the character of choice for Tower of Jealousy 91F and up. Rodev's Star is pub recruitable.
		Luvencia is a dual-purpose character. She's strong as a damage dealer and a chainer, but her range is less useful than Blade's for general content. Both costumes are considered essential for Fiend Hunt and Last Night.
		Tyr's gimmick is that she has high damage, but all of her abilities give her a debuff that make her use more SP. Starlight Guardian is the highest damage costume for turn 1 clears, but the range is more difficult to take advantage compared to some of the other choices. It's also the 2nd highest damage in Last Night. Innocent Bunny's damage increases with each SP consumed and is unlikely to be used outside of FH/GR.
		Morpeah can fill many roles: tanking, pushing, and providing explosive damage. She can be a royal pain to crit fish with, but she's well worth having. For multi-turn fights, you summon every turn but wait until you use her Apostle costume before letting them all self-destruct together. She's considered the most annoying character to use for Fiend Hunt because you have to carefully manage any buffs your summons receive from different sources in order to do the most damage. She's also capable of carrying Tower of Wrath 51F-100F (possibly earlier floors, too). Apostle is pub recruitable, and Daydream Bunny is a free +5.
		Nebris is one of the highest damage characters in the game, but her range limits her for general content. Her gimmick involves loading up on buffs from her self-buffing costumes and then dealing explosive damage with New Hire. She's very high investment overall, requiring both of her other costumes (ideally +3 for Laid-back Lifeguard), but well worth it for Fiend Hunt and Guild Raid. She's also tricky to use, since you have to pay attention to what buffs you're receiving from other sources to ensure you're getting the ones you want from her self-buffing costumes. New Hire is the highest damage costume in Last Night and you get a copy for free as part of the Guide Pass.
		Roxy is a collaboration character from Mushoku Tensei. The only thing that makes her remarkable is her element: there isn't another big AoE in water that can be used with Beachside Angel Teresse (if you don't care about using Teresse, then just use Mamonir). She has amazing range but she's weaker than her competition in other elements. She's lackluster for multi-turn combat due to her weak second costume, but she's still good for clearing trash when she has elemental advantage. She's the best choice for Tower of Pride 3F.
		Sword Maiden is a collaboration character from Goblin Slayer. This is the only general purpose light magic character. Like Roxy, she's low damage compared to her peers and can only be used every other turn, making her lackluster for Fiend Hunt. To make matters worse, being 5-hit makes crit fishing more annoying and limits what kind of companions she can have, since taking anyone who contributes as little as 1 extra hit sabbotages the buff from Beachside Angel Teresse (she was originally intended to be a 3-hit, but players rioted over advertisements showcasing an earlier version with a 5-hit and the developers caved to demands.).