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.

Core	Auxiliary	Notes
Essentials
		Sacred Justia is versatile and easy to use. She does more damage the more enemies she hits and her range is exceptional. 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 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.
		Blade is a glass cannon: high damage, low HP. Young Lady is incredibly strong and one of the few physical 3x3s. 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.
		Loen is the 2nd best magic character 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.
		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. Dalvi often teams up with Venaka for general content and Fiend Hunt, though you really need Bright Moon for the later.
Honorable Mentions
		Luvencia is a dual-purpose character, but her range is less useful than Blade's for general content. She's strong as a damage dealer and a chainer. Both costumes are considered essential for Fiend Hunt and Last Night.
		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.
		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 +3 for Laid-back Lifeguard and +4 for Labyrinth Gatekeeper, 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.
		Levia's primarily used as a damage amplifier for other magic characters, but she's capable of doing a respectable amount of damage on her own. In multi-turn combat Overheat is typically as a follow-up to Track and Field Captain, but she can be used on turn 1 with the help of costumes like Priestess (collab) or Shadow Bunny Eleaneer. Overheat can be used for Tower of Pride 1F. Night of Jealousy is one of the few single-target oriented magic costumes. She's good choice for Last Night and is pub recruitable. For Fiend Hunt, Levia tends to be joined at the hip with Loen.
		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. 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.).