The most important thing to know is that Golden Spirit is a strategy auto-battler: the fight plays itself, and your job is everything that happens around it — the formation, the Fighting Styles, when you fire an Ultimate, and where the first batch of materials goes. It's also not a very F2P-friendly game; unlocking skills requires shards (dupes) from a character, and it can get pretty expensive to fully level up a character.
Last verified: October 27, 2026 · Reading time: ~12 minutes
You place up to five units on an 11-tile formation grid, start the battle, and the units move and attack on their own. Your meaningful inputs are the formation, the team composition and the moment you tap a portrait to trigger an Ultimate. Everything else is preparation.
That makes Golden Spirit less about reflexes and more about team construction. A balanced team with cheap units will beat a pile of strong units with no front line, no healer and no way to chain Ultimates.
Every unit has one style with an always-on passive. The passive is the reason a unit belongs in a slot, not just its damage numbers.
| Style | Role | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Defense | Front-line protector | Takes 30% less damage during the first 5 seconds of every battle. |
| Assault | Self-healing fighter | Below 40% HP, a basic attack heals for 150% of Attack (once every 10s). |
| Agility | Flanker / crit attacker | Opens on the opposite enemy. Gains 5% Crit Rate while untargeted; below 60% HP it enters Stealth for 3s after being hit (10s cooldown). |
| Ranged | Long-range damage | Deals 5% more damage for every tile of distance from the target. |
| Special | Energy generator | A basic attack restores 20% of max Energy (once every 10s), speeding up the team’s Ultimates. |
| Support | Emergency healer | When an ally drops below 30% HP, heals them for 10% of their max HP (once every 10s). |
Positioning matters most for Ranged and Agility. Ranged units gain damage with distance, while Agility units open on the opposite enemy and want to avoid being targeted.
When three characters with different Fighting Styles use their Ultimates, the team enters RUSH. The next Ultimate in the chain gains roughly +25% final damage and restores some energy, and the Rush window lasts around 10 seconds.
In practice: do not dump every Ultimate at once. Fire one from each of three styles in sequence, then use your main damage dealer's Ultimate inside the window. That is the single highest-value habit in the game.
Use five slots unless you have a specific reason not to. This shape covers every role without wasting a slot:
| Slot | Style | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Tank | Defense or Assault | Absorbs the opening burst and holds the front line. |
| Damage 1 | Ranged or Agility | Main damage. Ranged wants open ground; Agility flanks. |
| Damage 2 | Ranged, Agility or Special | Second damage profile, ideally a different style from Damage 1. |
| Support | Support or Special | Healing, shields or energy generation. |
| Flex | Any missing style | Usually a second Special for energy or a second Assault for pressure. |
Almost every mode is gated behind Account Level, and most levels also ask for a story chapter. From Level 7 onward, some levels additionally require a minimum number of days since you started, so you cannot rush the entire progression in one sitting.
| Level | Story requirement | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapter 1 | — |
| 2 | Chapter 2 | — |
| 3 | — | Interview Trial |
| 4 | Chapter 3 | Extreme Trial |
| 5 | Chapter 4 | World Boss, Badges |
| 6 | — | Bloody Battle, Guild, Arena, Ranked Match |
| 7 | Chapter 5 | Uncharted Journey, Guild Boss, Extreme Trial (Team) |
| 9 | Chapter 6 | — |
| 11 | Chapter 7 | — |
| 13 | Chapter 8 | Double Clash, Spirit Board |
| 15 | Chapter 9 | — |
| 17 | Chapter 10 | Guild Exploration |
| 18 | Chapter 11 | — |
| 19 | Chapter 12 | — |
| 20 | — | Current cap |
Levels 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 are not listed because they raise existing caps rather than opening a new mode. The current cap is Level 20.
Once the systems are open, this is the loop that keeps an account moving:
| Layer | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Character Level | Courage Essence / Crystal + Coins | Raises HP, Attack and Defense. Keep your five main units at the Account Level cap. |
| Ability Level | Ability Essence / Crystal + Coins | Improves skills and the Ultimate. Do this after the character level is current. |
| Star Rank | Character Shards (duplicates) | Unlocks the rest of the kit and adds flat stats. Expensive — only for units you will keep. |
| Star Tree | Stone of Destiny + Coins | Permanent stat nodes. A steady, low-risk place for spare resources. |
| Stand | Stand Shards (duplicates) | Improves the Stand and its abilities. The second Ultimate sits behind the first Ability stage. |
Novice banner first (30 pulls for a guaranteed SSR). Then decide what you are saving for:
Full breakdown, including the ten selectable SSRs and the duplicate priority: gacha and pity guide.
| Mistake | Why it hurts |
|---|---|
| Using auto-battle everywhere | Auto mode fires Ultimates whenever they are ready, which breaks your RUSH sequence. Turn it off for bosses and any fight you are losing. |
| Spreading materials across the whole box | Five built units clear far more content than twenty half-leveled ones. The game itself recommends keeping your team at the Account Level cap. |
| Building only SSRs | SR supports and tanks cover their roles well and are far cheaper to raise. Rarity is a ceiling, not a shortcut. |
| Stacking one Fighting Style | Without three different styles you cannot trigger RUSH, and you lose the class passives that make a team survive. |
| Pulling with no guarantee in sight | A handful of pulls outside pity is a lottery ticket. Bank toward 60 on a Featured banner or 180 on Standard. |
| Ignoring positioning and weather | Ranged units lose damage in melee, and some weather conditions weaken entire styles. Check the preview before starting. |