TLDR

• Avoid spending your red tickets and Free Dia on anything other than pickup banners
• Spend your purple selective draw tickets freely on the 12Pick, avoid the 1Pick if it's available
• Focus on obtaining costumes that will help you earn more F2P draws
• Draw a few copies on a new costume banner if you want, but wait until the last day to +5 it
• Avoid spending draws on exclusive gear banners
• Expect to spend around 250-300 draws to +5 a costume while it is on banner

Monthly F2P Income

There are quite a few sources of deferrable draws that can be saved for spending on the banner of your choice. If you're able to consistently clear level 10 Fiend Hunt and finish Mirror Wars in rank Dia I every season, you should be able to accumulate around 300 draws per month. There are a few sources of purple tickets that can only be spent on the selective draw banners, but those are not included here.

Anniversaries and half-anniversaries hand out even greater rewards. The season pass has more draws in it. In the past, we've also seen multiple daily login events handing out 35 tickets over a two-week period.

How Pity Works

• The odds of getting a 5* costume or a 5* UR exclusive is 3%
• You are guaranteed a 4* costume or any SR exclusive every 10 draws
• You are guaranteed a 5* costume or 5* UR exclusive every 100 draws
• There is no 50/50 protection in place on featured banners, it's possible go 600+ draws and not get the featured item

Each draw you make generates a draw point on that banner, which can be used as a currency that will let you purchase one copy of a costume once you have 200 of them, regardless of what you get from your draws. For pickup banners, this can be done using the exchange to obtain the featured item (costume or exclusive). If the banner has a time limit on it, unspent draw points automatically convert to Powder of Hope and sent to your mailbox when the banner ends. Permanent banners need to convert the draw points to Powder of Hope manually. Exclusives do not appear in the shop, only costumes.

The exception to this are banners that require a special draw token that guarantees a specific type of reward. There is no pity counter to worry about resetting, you just get the item.

Pickup Banners

This should be your first choice for spending draws, assuming there is a useful costume on banner. Exclusive banners should be avoided unless you're a veteran (see: exclusives section).

Banners that have a rate-up for a single featured item are called pickup banners, where the 3% rate for 5* costumes or 5* UR exclusives is divided: 1.5% for the featured item and 1.5% for anything else from the same pool.

There will be at least 2 costume banners running at all times, typically one for a new costume and one for an old one. There will also be a corresponding exclusive banner for each character who has an active costume banner. If there happens to be 2 active costume banners for one character, there will only be 1 exclusive banner for them. Pickup banners typically last 14 days, but special ones can last as few as 7 or as many as 28. Special events like anniversaries or collaborations will have additional banners available.

You get one free draw every day on each costume and exclusive gear pickup banner. Unless you're a competitive player and need the item for ranking purposes, the most common strategy is to only draw on costumes up to +2 or +3 early on and wait until the last day to finishing maxing it out. If you get a copy of a costume you already have maxed out, you get Golden Threads instead. They're a lot less valuable than a copy for a non-maxed costume, so it's best to leave room to get some upgrades from free draws.

Once you accumulate 200 draw points on any pickup banner (costume or exclusive), you can exchange them for one copy of the featured item. When the banner ends, non-limited costumes will enter the standard pool in the next update (for most new costumes, this happens the very next day) and you can find one copy for sale in the Powder of Hope shop. Unspent draw points turn into Powder of Hope automatically when the banner ends.

Pickup Missions

Every costume pickup banner has a corresponding pickup mission that gives you 10 tickets every time you get a copy of the costume, up to 50 tickets. For a +5 costume, you get Ancient Crystals instead, so most people will just go to +4 while the banner is active and get the last copy in the powder shop (note: limited costumes do not enter the powder shop, they must be obtained from the banner or it's exchange). Costumes you got before the banner started are eligible for these refund events, too! The ticket rewards are one-time only: you can only claim previously unclaimed rewards when there is a rerun.

Selective Draw

This should be your second choice for spending draws, ideally only if you have any selective draw tickets.

The selective draw banners let you narrow down the standard pool to make it easier to get the things you really want. The original selective draw banner let you pick 6 costumes, but you only had a 1.5% of getting any of your picks. It was reworked into the 12Pick during the 2nd Anniversary. The 12Pick is the best choice among the selective draw banners for a young account.

As long as you have at least 12 costumes you need, there are several reasons to draw on the 12Pick.

• Unless you hit the 100 point pity for 5*s, only the selected 5* costumes can appear
• If you have selective draw tickets, they can only be spent on selective draw banners (and this is the best one)
• You're missing key costumes for the content you're focusing on
• You're in desperate need of Powder of Hope and none of the current banners are worth drawing on
• If you're buying draws, selective draw tickets are cheaper than regular draw tickets

There are three drawbacks to this banner.

• There's no draw point exchange, so you can only convert the draw points to Powder of Hope
• There's no pickup event giving you tickets back (but you can still get them on a future rerun)
• It takes longer to get a single costume maxed out, due to the rate-up bonus being distributed across 12 costumes

List of recommended costumes for new accounts.

12Pick vs 1Pick

Only use the 1Pick banner if there are only one or two specific costumes you need or the costume in question will be on banner soon (allowing you to share the exchange for multiple banners). If you need lots of costumes, then the 12Pick is always better.

The 1Pick appears for a limited time during special events. It essentially lets you create your own pickup banner: 1.5% chance to get your chosen costume, 1.5% chance of getting any other 5* costume. It does have an exchange just like a regular pickup banner, but no pickup mission to grant you tickets back. You can change your selection up to 10 times.

Do not use this banner unless you are a veteran and have a small handful of specific costumes you need copies of. New players need everything and benefit more from the 12Pick.

Exclusive Gear

Generally speaking, drawing on exclusive gear banners is not recommended. They're a smaller upgrade than what a costume duplicate would give you (about 12%). Unless it's for a collaboration character that will never enter the standard pool, you'll get plenty of these from free draws if you're patient. If you still insist on drawing, there are some things you should keep in mind.

• Only the character it's intended for can wear it
• Duplicates do you no good, so it's better to get it from a free draw if you can
• Only draw on the last day of the banner if you didn't get it from a free draw
• Only draw if it's for a damage character, and only if you're going to take their costume to +4 or +5
• Do not waste draws on exclusives for pure supports: they do not help those characters do their jobs better (if you're not sure, just skip exclusives that have HP for the exclusive attribute)
• If it's for a brand new character, there will be another chance to roll on the exclusive when they get their second costume in the near future

If it's for a collaboration character you really love and you've maxed out their costume(s), by all means, go for it. You might not get another chance. Just wait for the last day of the banner before you do.

Property Selective Draw

This banner only appears if you have the corresponding ticket for it. It guarantees a random 5* costume from the standard pool belonging to the element of your choice. By the time you can generate enough threads to buy all of the higher value things in the thread shop every month, they're kinda not worth buying anymore. Besides the one-time reward from clearing floor 50 and floor 100 of the Tower of Wrath and the Tower of Jealousy (4 total), there are a few other places you can get them.

• Level 4 clear of Tower of Salvation (4 week reset)
• Golden Colosseum shop (monthly reset, limit 2)

Wind has the best odds of getting a high-value costume. The weakest options are for Olstein and Lecliss, 2 costumes each. Gray is valuable to ranking players in Fiend Hunt, but he's of no value to a new player because of how his damage scales.

• Diana (Adventurer of the Unknown)
• Diana (Anti-Dystopia)
• Diana (Magical Innovator)
• Zenith (Robin Hood)
• Zenith (Poolside Guardian)
• Nebris (Labyrinth Gatekeeper)
• Nebris (Laid-back Lifeguard)
• Nebris (New Hire)
• Tyr (Starlight Guardian)
• Tyr (Innocent Bunny)
• Venaka (DJ)
• Venaka (Wind Dancer)

Dark has the smallest costume pool. Fire and Light have the largest costume pools, dominated by Lathel and Justia respectively.

Powder of Hope

Powder of Hope is limited by the number of draws you do: one draw = 1 powder. Unlike Golden Threads, you don't get a varying amount based on the rarity of the costume you get, but you can get it from drawing on exclusives. If you're at +4 or less and fairly close to the exchange, it's usually better to draw to 200 than to wait for it to go into the powder shop.

The Powder of Hope shop always has at least 4 costumes for sale and the contents change every update (2 weeks). It follows a semi-predictable pattern.

• All non-limited costumes who's banner ended since the last time the shop changed will appear, unless otherwise stated in the patch notes from the previous update. Most of the time, there's only be 2 eligible costumes.
• If there are less than 4 costumes from expired banners, wildcards will be chosen. They are typically of the same element as the current season's Fiend Hunt. It's not unusual for one of them to be an alternate costume for the character who has a new costume on banner.

Costume Selective Enhancement (Selective Upgrade or Unidupe)

The Golden Thread Shop restocks these tickets every month and they are the highest priority item in that shop. You can use them to upgrade any costume you currently own. During anniversaries and half anniversaries, a bonus ticket is added to the shop. As long as you average ~420 costume draws per month, you can afford to buy this every time. This may sound like a lot, but it's pretty doable, even for a new player.

When in doubt, supports are almost always the best targets. If Fiend Hunt or Guild Raid is your priority content, then check the Fiend Hunt specific list. Be mindful of costumes that get a significant increase in performance at specific upgrades, those are usually your best targets.

My Draw Strategy

I'm committed to spending 200 draws on 2 pickup banners per month, with a hard limit of 400 per banner unless it's limited. Spending 200 draws typically yields a +2 or +3 costume if you include the exchange. As long as you're able to get all of the F2P draws, this should be doable thanks to the pickup mission reimbersement.

• Decide what my goals are for the costume I'm drawing on. Track and Field Captian Levia's best upgrade levels are +2 and +4, while +3 and +5 is best for her Overheat costume. Sometimes there's a minimum upgrade needed to make it effective in the current Fiend Hunt, which can be as low as +1 for SP reduction.
• On the first day of the banner, draw until I've reached my minimum goal (usually +2 or +3) or 200 draws minus the days remaining on the banner, whichever comes first. This leaves plenty of room to get copies from free draws without risking getting threads. Unless I had really bad luck and needed to do an exchange for that first copy, I save exchanges until I absolutely need it for Fiend Hunt. Otherwise I wait until the end of the banner.
• On the last day of the banner, evaluate how important it is to reach my final goal. If it's really important to reach my final goal for that costume and I won't reach it without spending more draws, then I'll do that before I use the exchange.
• I never draw on a new character's exclusive on it's debut banner. If I am drawing on an exclusive, I do it on the last day of the banner unless I need it to get into the top 1000 for Fiend Hunt.
• If I have any purple tickets for the selective banners, those go into the costume 12Pick whenever I get enough for a 10-pull. Never spend the red tickets here.

If there are limiteds on the horizon, then I'll spend a little more conservatively leading up to them to try and save up some extra draws to ensure I can max them out.