>>5 It seems like act 9 is the hardest in most cases. I had the same feeling with pyro abyss mages and slimes. I expected to clear it hyper fast with my best team which is mono hydro and I struggled (at first I didn't try to optimize anything thinking it would be too easy with that team and I had to restart the fight). Iniquitous baptist in act 10 is really easy if u have the right team on the other hand. Act 9 >> Act 10 for sure.

whatever you do do NOT choose the pyro abyss lector on stage 9. it is BY FAR the hardest one to clear, I took several attempts using MONOHYDRO and I couldn't do it with my best charas. prolly skill issue but even then, I decided to switch to the ice lawachurls instead, (used fodder units) and cleared easily. just not worth the attempt. tbh this season was our hardest so far

In visionary mode, if you have 26 characters included, unless all you chars are equally good the best is to pull as many companions as possible and only a few buffs. I had exactly the right amount of pulls at the end, with only Barbara out and after some point I spent pretty much everything on pulling companions. I was unlucky with mystery cache, with no good choice I ended up choosing the one that adds 10 cost for companion pulls, and it was a terrible decision. Dont do that in this mode.

I was surprised for Act 9, I brought literally my best premium team (Neuvi team, signatures weapons on all, C2 on Furina) and still struggled a bit at first, I chose the pyro abyss mages and slimes, thinking with my team it would be a piece of cake, but I didn't realize I needed to focus only the mages that were the bounty units, and since they tend to not group at all, I had to restart it twice to place myself on the edge in order to get them group around me. Act 4, 8 and 9 were the hardest.

I just completed the visionary mode with 10 stella. I had 26 characters and ended up pulling all but Barbara. I restarted the whole thing once, having like 6 dendro, 1 pyro and 1 hydro to fight for the defense of the monolith it was a bit doomed... Next time went pretty smoothed, I focused on picking all my worst chars first, especially the worst main DPSes, and keeping the good sup/sub dps for the later stages and Iniquitous Baptist was weaker than expected (did it in 38s, my fastest stage).

this was a bit harder than season 1, especially bc I didn't know the aeonblight was on floor 8 lol, I ended up using scaramouche to knock it down and ayaka killed it pretty quick. not too bad tho monohydro is lots of fun in this one!!