DON'T PANIC!

Managing your runes might look insanely complicated, but it is said that despite its many glaring (and occasionally fatal) inaccuracies, the Hitchhiker's Guide to Summoners War: Rune Quality Edition itself has outsold the Encyclopedia Summoners War because it is slightly cheaper, and because it has the words 'DON'T PANIC' in large, friendly letters as the headline.

The reader can therefore be assured that, as long as they know where their towel is, managing their runes should be a mostly harmless process.

• A towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a newly summoned monster discovers that a summoner has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of Shield runes, a team composition, second-awakened monsters, a nat5 or two, Faimon farmer, many Violent runes, an ATB booster, defense buff, defense break, Will runes, etc., etc. ... What the monster will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of Summoners War, farm runes, obtain elemental and magic essences, evolve six-stars, progress through early and mid game, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a summoner to be reckoned with.

Hi all!

I see a lot of people asking about runes in the DAT, I checked the wiki and noticed that an updated guide on judging rune quality hasn't been given in a long time, and the ones there are not really helpful in a general way (most answer specific questions like nysra's great guide on Fatal vs. Rage).

So today we'll be looking at answering the following questions:

• "What runes do I roll? What should I just immediately sell?"

• "When do I stop rolling on a rune and sell it to recoup my losses?"

These questions seem simple, but there are a lot of things going on in the background with rolling runes that may not be immediately apparent. Therefore this guide will be more in-depth (and long) than most others here on the sub. Sorry, if you want quick-and-dirty, that's not really my style, I'd rather people understand why they're being told to do things.

"Why no TL;DR?" - I actually had them in here, but after looking at them mixed in with the post itself, it just bloated the post and made it more confusing, so I removed them. I may add a TL;DR in the comments if it's requested, if so I'll link it here.

Note that this guide also assumes you know the basics of stat synergy. If you don't, check out this guide I made two years ago. It's just as relevant today as it was then, even though Artifacts and B12 dungeons were not around back then. It might have a few outdated concepts due to things like Tricaru existing now (DEF is a lot more important now than it was two years ago), but for the most part it will lead you in the correct direction.

RULES ABOUT UPGRADING RUNES THAT ARE SET IN STONE

First let's establish some rules regarding runes that always hold true:

• If it has 6 SPD, is not slot 2, and is at least a purple quality 6* rune, you roll it until it stops rolling Speed. Doesn't matter the set, main stat, or other substats on the rune (it can be an ENERGY set, 6* purple with 6 SPD, 15 ATK and 13 DEF and you will still roll it until it doesn't roll SPD).

  • This still has a potential for 24 SPD. You need to roll any rune that has this potential, unless you are intensely end game, at least. (And even then there's an argument for it, honestly).
  • Up to you whether you want to roll a rune that has 4 SPD instead of 6. If it rolls 4 again, I'd stop rolling, though.

• If it is Swift and has SPD at all (and not slot 2), you roll it until it misses SPD twice, no matter the set or main stat. Early on this even includes blue quality, though you can tighten that to purple later on as you start getting more and more runes that are 15 SPD.

  • Until you have 2 runes in each slot that have 30 SPD (ungrinded) each, you don't have enough SPD. You will literally never obtain this level of quality. NOBODY in the entire game will, even those that have spent upwards of $100k on the game and have been playing since launch. Keep rolling SPD runes always.

• If the slot is 2/4/6, and it is a 6* Legendary rune, is a desirable set (Violent, Swift, Will, Shield, among others), and has a desirable main stat (ATK%, HP% or SPD slot 2, HP% or CD% slot 4, HP% or ATK% slot 6), you NEVER sell this. You upgrade to 12, no matter the substats, and use reapps if it rolls into garbage.

UNDERSTANDING RUNE RNG

I won't get too deep into the math, here, because it's kind of complicated. I can clarify in the comments if anyone asks, though. Here is a high-level overview of how Rune RNG works, and why it's important to note for what to keep:

• Slot 1 cannot have Flat ATK, Flat DEF, or DEF% as a substat. Slot 3 cannot have Flat ATK, Flat DEF, or ATK% as a substat. In both cases the only "objectively bad" substat these two slots can roll is flat HP.

• Slot 5 cannot have Flat HP. Therefore it has two objectively bad substats it can roll: flat ATK and flat DEF. Every other rune can roll all three flat stats at all times, because you will never keep a flat main stat rune (unless it follows the SPD rules in the first section above).

• On top of Slot 1 and 3 only having one bad substat possibility, they also just have less possibilities overall: 8 substats as opposed to 10 on the other four slots: fHP, HP%, ATK%/DEF% (slot 1/3), SPD, CR%, CD%, RES%, and ACC%.

  • Because of this, and because the two substats taken out of the possible rolls are both objectively bad, the chances of obtaining a slot 1 or 3 rune that looks really good is much, much higher than the other slots.
  • This is why, when you go into rune management, you'll have several more rows of slot 1 and 3 than the other slots. You're keeping more because more look good.
  • This means that you need to be a lot pickier with Slots 1 and 3 than the other slots. It shouldn't have a bad stat on it, and the stats should be higher than average, generally.

• Slots 2, 4, and 6 have another layer of RNG with the main stat. This means that Slot 5 likewise has "better" RNG than 2/4/6, even though it's objectively worse than slots 1 and 3. Therefore you should be pickier with slot 5 as well, but not as picky as slots 1 and 3.

  • For reference, just to give you an idea of how the RNG looks: If you run DB12, it will take approximately 15,135 runs on average to obtain one Legendary Slot 4, CD% Main Violent rune. That's not even considering the substats synergize. That's about 125,000 energy, which equates to roughly 40,000 crystals, by the way.
  • A slot 1 Legendary Violent rune takes about 1,900 runs on average. Slots 3 and 5 have the same probability. It's 8x more likely.

• Even-numbered slots are mostly about the main stat, and while godlike substats are still desired, you should relax your standards for these slots.

  • A single flat stat, RES%, or ACC% where it doesn't synergize are generally considered to be "okay" for an even-numbered slot. Anything beyond this should only be rolled if you're desperate for that slot/main/set combo.
  • This is what you should be using reapps and gems on. Grinds you can use everywhere, but gems should be reserved for even-numbered slots, because it reduces the RNG of these slots to be more in line with the odd slots. You may be tempted to gem in some SPD or ATK% or something on a slot 1, but you also probably have a backlist of 10-20 runes of that specific set and slot already that are pretty good, that are just waiting on even-numbered slots to pair with.
  • Note that you still can use a gem on an odd slot if it is already godlike as hell other than some flat stat or something that it never rolled into, but you will generally want to reserve gems for your even slots. The same principles apply for the odd slot RNG for gems: Slots 1 and 3 should be near perfect to be considered, where slot 5 can just be "really really good".

"GRADING SYSTEM" FOR RUNES

This system is not mine, I've seen it used here before, and in other gacha communities like Epic Seven and F:GO. However it is excellent at judging rune quality. Keep in mind it doesn't tell the whole story, though. Stats still have to synergize, even if the rune itself scores highly. For instance, ATK%, DEF%, RES% and CD% is a weird combo for a rune, even if it's on a legendary and it max rolls every single time, you're gonna have a hard time finding someone to put that on (unless it's a slot 2 SPD main, I guess).

For this system, we will be assigning "points" to the stats that roll on a rune, and adding them up to judge the quality of said rune.

Grading System

• Each point of SPD is worth 2 points. Therefore 6 SPD = 12 points.

• Each % of Crit Rate is worth 1.5 points. Therefore 6% CR = 9 points. I round up for this, so 5% CR = 8 points, not 7.

• ATK%, DEF%, HP%, and CD% are all worth 1 point. 7% of any of these stats = 7 points.

  • You can convert flat stats to a sort of 'average' of what it would be as a % of base. Or you can count them as 2-3% per roll and call it good.
  • For quick reference: 10,000 HP, 750 ATK, and 600 DEF are slightly under average for base stats. Under average is best because few if any monsters will have all three of these stats this high.
  • 250 HP = 2.5% HP, 15 ATK = 2% ATK, 12 DEF = 2% DEF.

• Each % of Accuracy is either worth 0.5 or 1 point. Depends on your current needs and how much it synergizes with other stats on the rune.

• Each % of RES is either worth 0 or 1 points. Depends on how many rolls hit RES. High RES% runes are desired, but the monsters they go on are niche, so a rune that has RES% is generally considered a dead stat. If it doesn't roll at least 2 times into RES, mark it as 0.

Grading Upon Obtaining a Rune

• The max point value a 6* rune can have at base is 37 points.

  • 6 SPD 6% CR 8% ATK 8% HP = 12 9 8 8 = 37.
  • This is increased to 45 with an innate 8% DEF or ACC if you need ACC.

• Assuming stats still synergize (and no flat stats), the minimum a 6* purple rune can have is 15 points: 5% HP, 5% DEF, 5% ATK. Generally you would not roll this rune, as stats barely synergize (it would need to roll SPD at 12, and highly roll all three times into the stats given, to be considered worth keeping).

  • You can consider, then, that 15 points is "too low to roll" in general, after looking at trash stats like flat HP or RES% that may be on the rune. Ergo "15 or less is instant sell" is a good rule of thumb, though not that useful, because runes that are less than 15 will usually look bad anyway.

Grading as You Level It

• The same point values apply as you level up your rune (other than RES, which actually gains value if it rolls a few times).

• You are kind of looking for an average "increase" in point value of more than 6 per roll, as 6 is about average (taking into account RES/ACC/CD% being lower, and SPD/CR% being higher) across all non-flat stats.

  • Once again this fluctuates a bit depending on the rune slot. Slots 1, 3, and 5 have less leeway (e.g. you might want 7 or more) than slots 2, 4, and 6 (maybe 6 average is fine).
  • It also fluctuates depending on your progress in the game. End game players will have stricter requirements (that usually involved SPD rolling a few times regardless of the slot, set, main, or whatever) than newbies.

Tailoring The Above to You Personally

• Keeping all of the above in mind, you'll have different "final point" cutoffs depending on where you are in the game, what slot you're looking at, what slot(s) and stats you need for certain monsters and teams, and what the set is.

• A general guideline for point cutoffs for early to mid game players, without including the innate stat, is anything under 40 at 12 is instantly sold. Anything that is 35 or under at 9 should also probably be sold. Around 50 points, give or take a few, is usually a good filler rune that can finish a set or grab those last few points of whatever stat that you need to round out a build. 60 or higher is generally considered very good, and anything over 70 is godlike, and usually requires multiple speed rolls on a legendary rune.

  • Add 5-7 points to each score if you want to hunt good innate stats. I personally don't, because it makes this already-somewhat-complex method even more complex. I just keep the above values in mind and add the innate stat to that. The RNG requirements get a lot more strict when you're looking at FIVE substats (and sometimes a main stat on top of that) to synergize.

• Late and End Game players are going to increase those point values by 5-10. Sell anything less than 50, search for 60, and be happy with 70.

• As always, take these values with a grain of salt, they aren't set in stone, and you need to do some personal analysis of what you need to determine when you should be more lenient on these point values. These just give you a baseline for grading the rune, using your head is the final step.

Max Values (pre-grind and gem)

• For a theoretical, "absolute" max (30 SPD, 6% CR, 8% ATK, 8% HP) would be 60 9 8 = 8 = 85. Including 8% DEF as an innate stat would be 93 (more realistically you'd probably want 7% CD innate, so it's 92). The odds of obtaining this rune are less than one in one trillion. I'm serious. That's why I call it theoretical. The odds of getting a rune comparable to the bullet points below are much more common, thus using THOSE as an actual ceiling is more reasonable.

• For realistic max for a Support/Tanky character, if we hold SPD to only rolling twice (to 18) and no CR%, then the max point value possible on a rune is 36 24 8 8 = 76. This would be like 18 SPD, 24% HP, 8% DEF, 8% ACC or RES.

• A semi-realistic max for a damage dealer for slot 1 or 5 would be 18 SPD, 18% CR, 8% ATK, 7% CD, which would be 36 8 27 7 = 78. A DEF- or HP-based DD would have the same value on slot 3 and 5, only with DEF% or HP% instead of ATK%.

MANAGING RESOURCES

Something that kind of goes hand in hand with this discussion, and something I want to touch on briefly, is managing your resources. Specifically mana in this regard. People tend to have two problems when managing resources:

• Too much mana. They have so much they don't know what to do with it.

• Not enough mana. They never have enough to upgrade, summon, awaken, evolve, or purchase things in the store.

These are two sides of the same coin, and have everything to do with how "picky" you are with your runes:

• IF you have WAY too much mana, then you are being too picky with your runes. Even at end game, you can afford, clearly, to be a bit less choosy with your runes and take some risks on runes that will probably just roll garbage, because there will be rare occasions where that one rune with 5% CR, 253 HP, and 5% HP triple max rolls into CR, rolls SPD at 12, and you can just grind out the 253 HP for CD% or ATK% or whatever.

• IF you never have enough mana, stop rolling on blue runes, green runes, white runes, crappy purple runes, etc. Start selling more and be more picky with what you're 'accepting'.

  • Along with this, you probably have a VERY messy rune page. Go through, use the principles above, and sell all of your shitty runes. Anything below 40 that isn't currently equipped should be instantly sold, just get rid of it.

There's an alternate case for not having enough mana, and that's for people that constantly refresh the shop looking for scrolls and LD/Legendary summon pieces (and the occasional rune). This is VERY expensive. If you find yourself doing this and you are constantly out of mana...maybe stop? Unless you're just playing this game like pokemon - gotta catch em all - I guess. I'm not your mother, I can't tell you what to do, haha.

CONCLUSION

That's all I got. The post is long enough as it is, I hope this was helpful, informative, and most of all accurate and intuitive. Feel free to discuss and debate the points I've brought up below. Who knows? Maybe you have a better way of rating your runes, I'd love to hear about it.

So long, and thanks for all the karma!