Investment Guide

Five progression axes, each with a different bottleneck. The most important to plan around is Character Star, because it gates which skills a character can cast at all.

100 Char Level cap EXP scrolls
11 Stand Stage cap Boss fragments
132 Star Tree nodes Per character
1

Character Level

1 → 100
High priority

The continuous power axis. Each level scales HP, ATK, DEF linearly via the growth-rate columns on the character row. Levelling consumes EXP scrolls and gold.

Cost / materials

EXP scrolls (story / daily), Gold (story drops, exchange).

Unlocks

  • Lvl 40: secondary jewelry slot opens
  • Lvl 60: unlocks first Stand Stage promotion
  • Lvl 80: unlocks Hell-tier Infinity Boss matchmaking
  • Lvl 100: hard cap; no further stat scaling
2

Character Star (★)

★1 → ★6
Critical priority

The skill-slot gate. Star rank is the most important axis to plan because it controls which skills a character can actually cast. A ★4 SSR has 80% of their kit hidden behind one more star.

Cost / materials

Duplicate copies from banners, or universal "Spirit Shards" for some characters.

Unlocks

  • ★1: Passive + Basic Attack
  • ★2: Active Skill 1
  • ★3: Active Skill 2
  • ★4: passive upgrade (second passive)
  • ★5: Ultimate slot opens
  • ★6: full kit + 3rd jewelry slot
3

Stand Level

1 → 100
High priority

Mirrors Character Level but for the Stand. Most of the character's offensive scaling actually lives here — the Stand carries the bigger ATK growth rate.

Cost / materials

Stand-specific EXP material from the Stand event and weekly raid.

Unlocks

  • Lvl 30: Stand auto-cast enabled
  • Lvl 60: Stand passive 2
  • Lvl 100: hard cap
4

Stand Stage

0 → 11
Critical priority

Discrete promotion tier. Each stage adds a flat stat block on top of Stand level scaling and unlocks one Star Tree node. Stage gates are the longest grind in the game.

Cost / materials

Boss-specific Stand fragments (5 per stage at low tier, 25+ at Hell tier).

Unlocks

  • Stage 3: first Star Tree branch (HP / DEF)
  • Stage 6: second branch (ATK / Crit Boost)
  • Stage 9: third branch (Final DMG / Speed)
  • Stage 11: capstone node (kit-defining passive)
5

Star Tree (132 nodes)

132 nodes
Medium priority

The Stand Stage promotions unlock nodes; the Star Tree is where you actually spend the points. Total 132 nodes per character, distributed across three to four branches.

Cost / materials

Star Tree points awarded per Stand Stage advancement and per Stand Level milestone.

Unlocks

  • Stat nodes: flat HP / ATK / DEF / Crit Boost
  • Slot nodes: an extra "Echo" jewelry slot at certain branches
  • Passive nodes: re-roll a chosen passive at higher %
  • Capstone: a unique named passive per character

Recommended F2P pacing

  1. Get main DPS to ★5. Trade duplicate fodder; the Ultimate slot is worth more than any stat investment.
  2. Char Level to 60. Unlocks first Stand Stage. Don\'t overlevel before this gate — EXP scrolls are cheap, Stand mats aren\'t.
  3. Stand Stage 6. Second Star Tree branch usually carries the kit-defining passive.
  4. Stand Level to 60. Stand passive 2 unlocks here and is roughly equivalent to a +20% Final DMG.
  5. Star Tree branches in order. Take the capstone of each branch before fanning into stat nodes.
  6. ★6 last. A second copy of an existing 6★ DPS is almost always worse than building a second character to ★5.