NTE Best Team Compositions for Version 1.3

Team building in NTE is governed by one rule that overrides raw character ratings: only elements adjacent on the Esper wheel react. A squad of three top-rated characters who cannot trigger a single reaction will underperform a squad of mid-tier characters who chain Scorch every rotation.

If you have not read it yet, the Esper Cycle guide covers the wheel and every reaction. This page turns it into squads.

The template

Every good NTE team fills three jobs:

1. The carry — the character you spend field time on and pour Ascension materials into
2. The reaction partner — an adjacent element on the wheel, so swapping fires a duo reaction
3. Support or survival — team ATK buffs (Sakiri, Haniel, Iroi) or damage mitigation (Fadia, Edgar, Adler)

Chase the third element only once the first two are consistent; a triple reaction is worth less than a duo you actually trigger every rotation.

Free-to-play squads

Esper Zero + Mint + Haniel — the default starter squad. Both damage dealers are Cosmos, so you are not triggering a reaction between them; the value is that all three are free or effectively free. Replace one Cosmos slot with any Anima or Lakshana character the moment you own one, and you turn it into a Blossom or Remora team.

Esper Zero (Cosmos) + any Anima + Haniel — the first real upgrade. Anima neighbours Cosmos, so the swap triggers Blossom, and Vita Pistils cover the AoE that a single carry cannot.

Mint (Cosmos) + Skia (Lakshana) + Haniel (Psyche) — Skia and Mint trigger Remora for the slow, Haniel keeps the ATK buff running. Skia is an A-Class per the official 1.2 phase-two board listing, so this is achievable without a limited pull.

Version 1.3 pull teams

Zankou (Incantation) + a Chaos character + support — Incantation and Chaos neighbour each other, producing Scorch, the longest duo DoT in the game at 15 seconds. Lacrimosa or Daffodill fill the Chaos slot; Sakiri buffs the whole squad. See the Zankou build guide.

Zankou (Incantation) + an Anima character + survival — the alternative pairing, producing Hexed for follow-up damage. Nanally, Iroi, Jiuyuan or Mint’s Anima counterparts fit here.

Nanally (Anima) + a Cosmos carry + support — Nanally’s rerun slots naturally next to any Cosmos character for Blossom. If you own Shinku, Hotori or Chiz, this is the strongest reaction-consistent team of the version. See the Nanally build guide.

Aiming for a triple

Both triples are two overlapping duos:

• Charge — Cosmos + Anima + Lakshana. Example shape: Chiz or Shinku (Cosmos), Nanally or Jiuyuan (Anima), Hathor or Skia (Lakshana).
• Discord — Incantation + Chaos + Psyche. Example shape: Zankou or Baicang (Incantation), Lacrimosa or Daffodill (Chaos), Fadia or Haniel (Psyche).

Discord is particularly worth the effort against anomaly bosses because it drains the Break meter outright — see the anomaly guide for the fights where that matters.

Support priority

The honest ranking: a free Haniel in a team that triggers reactions beats a limited S-Class in a team that does not. Element adjacency first, character rating second.

Where each character sits overall is on the Version 1.3 tier list, and the full roster lists every element and role in one table.