Valour Rift Guide (Event/LE Version)

Valour Rift Guide (Events/LE version) - Courtesy of wOne

V1.1 - 24/01/2022 - Updated by wOne

This is meant to be an add-on to the main guide (https://pastebin.com/UCAqCgGg) about Valour Rift, and covers what to do if you have an LE trap component (usually base, maybe trap or charm in the future) or want to push during Events. Read the main guide first, then read this. Knowledge of Valour Rift terminology assumed. If unspecified elsewhere, X/Y/Z where X, Y, and Z are numbers mean your levels for Speed, Sync, and Siphon, respectively.


A - LE Trap Components (Trap, Base, and Charm)

Currently the only trap component with a significant effect on VRift is the base. There is 1 LE base (the Elixir Exchanger base (EE base)), and 1 Ronza non-LE base family (the Denture base (DB) and its upgraded variant, the Signature Series Denture base (SSDB)).

1) EE Base (GWH 2020)
This rift-type base converts 1 Gauntlet Elixir (not cheese) to 2 Tower Sigils. Most useful at the start of Valour Rift. You can achieve 3/3/2 and skip the early grind before entering the tower. You'll need a total of 360 sigils (180 elixirs) to reach 3/3/2 upgrade levels. You can get elixirs inside the Valour Rift Treasure Chests (not Unstable Celestial Timechests), and hunt anywhere with the base equipped to make progress. Otherwise, you'll be hunting outside the tower to get elixirs as you convert them to sigils. Probably takes 2-3 days of active hunting to get the sigils necessary.

This base has weak stats. If you're not converting sigils, you should use any other appropriate base.

Using this base within the tower gets you more sigils to sustain augment usage, but this needs a large source of elixirs to be meaningful. Additionally, your CR is reduced because of the weak stats, so your runs won't do as well as if you used other bases. It's up to you to decide if the reduced CR is worth the marginal reduction in runs needed, and the resources that go into them.

2) (Signature Series) Denture Base (Ronza)
The Denture Base (DB) (20m gold) and its upgraded variant (SSDB) (5m gold; requires DB) each have 2 forms. While you have toothlets (15 from smashing Ful'Mina's Tooth or purchasable during Ronza, consumed every catch), the bases gain a large stat boost, putting them ahead of any other base except a TE23 base (current strongest PB is TE17). This base is most useful during the Prestige Push of a Valour Rift run, where you go as high as you can to get the best PB you can. Toothlets are expensive so you'll only want to use them during your actual run or during your first run (read below to know if you should do it or not). It's not worth using otherwise, but make your own evaluations. Outside event season, you can probably substitute this with AERB and get similar numbers.

If you have the DB, just buy and use the SSDB. You've already fronted most of the cost. This base is also essential if you want a decent chance of getting TE13+ outside event season, TE14+ within.
You can use this during UU1 LNY to have a decent chance to maximize upgrades, probably not worthwhile otherwise. Evaluate and use as you wish.

Some good alternate uses after your big push are:
- Another big push to try for a run with better RNG
- Wardens or Paragons in FI


B - Using events to push

There are 3 events that can influence your VRift life - LNY, Halloween, and SEH. Guide was written with the 2020-2021 event season in mind (some sections have been updated for the 2021-2022 season); applicable until the mechanics change. It's good to remember that outside of Events, you're really only likely to hit TE3/4 duing your first UU. Events can improve your run by 1-2 TEs and that spills over into how fast you get all upgrades or how good your PB is.

1) LNY
The Lunar New Year event is currently the event that influences your VRift life the most. The biggest influence is the bonus luck, but the triple candles also make your life much better. Remember that you don't get bonus luck without candles on. You can currently extend the GWH Winter Aura (+5) luck until LNY, try to do it if you can. 5 luck isn't much but it all adds up.

a) UU push
Straightforward, have 50 luck for as much of your run as you can. 50 luck + Ember Charms (500% power bonus) mean you have a very easy time with most mice. You'll get pretty far. Don't forget to turn on your auras. Event is pretty short, so time your run properly. A good run (~800 hunts) takes about 10 days of semi-active hunting, event is usually 14 days long.

b) Getting more upgrades
The way the numbers work out is that if you do your first UU run (UU1) during LNY and triple the cores dropped by every TE from TE1 through TE7, you have enough cores (not necessarily secrets) to buy all the upgrades for VRift, as well as the CDT and the PB. You have some wiggle room with TE1 and TE2, but you definitely need to triple TE3-7 to have enough cores to upgrade everything. Having said that, if you triple TE1 and TE2 properly, you have faster speed upgrades, and so you have a higher chance of making it to TE7. You might need auras to help achieve this, recommended to use SSDB/Triple Aura + RULPC + CF for this since if you do this one run properly you save on potentially 3 runs worth of CF/Charms/GSC/time with non-optimal upgrades.

One possible upgrade order:
   i) Speed 7  - TE1
  ii) Speed 8  - TE3
 iii) Speed 9  - TE4
  iv) Siphon 5 - TE4
   v) Sync 7   - TE5-7
  vi) Speed 10 - TE6
 vii) CDT      - TE5 if possible, else TE6
viii) PB       - as soon as you have 2 cores to spare without slowing upgrades. Buy this as late as possible if you're using SSDB.

Upgrading perfectly, you'll have a coinflip at TE8 during LNY. The hard part of this is the secrets required to upgrade, it's probably most efficient to go in with 1.5k-2k secrets and upgrade the rest of your augments after the run itself. Then you farm half you secrets with lower upgrades and the other half with higher upgrades. Get the cores first and the secrets during regular runs later, or from chests.

2021-2022 season change: You can now activate the Spooky Aura whenever you want, consider activating it during LNY for higher chances at higher TEs.

2) Halloween
Very straightforward, the Halloween event gives the Spooky Aura which gives a 30% power bonus, and a few accessory effects. Use this power bonus with other auras to improve your run. Does not directly affect your upgrades because you don't get more cores, but you have a better run which indirectly gives you more cores.

2021-2022 season change: You can now activate the Spooky Aura whenever you want. You now have more flexibility when to push, and have more time to prepare if necessary. You can stack the Spooky Aura with other events.

3) SEH
The Spring Egg Hunt has no stat bonus that affects your CR. Instead, the TE mouse drops Umbra Eggs which contain Core(s) of the Eclipse. This lets you upgrade faster than otherwise, and improves your overall VRift life.
One possible upgrade path for SEH UU1:

  i) Speed 7 - TE1
 ii) Speed 8 - TE3
iii) Speed 9 - TE5

Not as significant as LNY for upgrades, but better than Halloween.

4) Other notes
- You can use Halloween to do your first UU, so you have a better time in subsequent UUs. You might make it in time to do your big push during LNY.
- If you do UU1 during LNY, you can use SEH to catch up on any upgrades missed due to a bad run
- If you do UU1 during LNY or SEH, you probably will want to wait till Halloween minimum or next LNY for your big push. Consider doing a "casual" UU run during non-event season so you can have a good base during the intermediate period. A good goal is to aim for TE10; that allows you to maximize the secrets from your UCTs and you can save on farming some secrets.

One suggested progression timeline:

1) LNY for max upgrades
2) SEH in case you don't achieve it during your LNY run
3) one casual push to TE10+ after SEH (so you have a good base while you wait and can maximise your UCTs)
4) Halloween/LNY Push - Both if you have enough toothlets to try twice, else Halloween if you can't afford the ~800 candles for a LNY push.


TL;DR

Run during LNY, if not Halloween, if not SEH. Buy SSDB and use during big push during LNY. For anything else, just read the guide. The area is complicated.