#protocore guide

𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲── .✦

Protocores are upgradeable items that you equip onto your Memories. This guide assumes that you have a basic understanding of protocores. If you don't, I recommend reading the ones listed here to get you started.

Decomposing is the process of breaking a protocore into raw protocore upgrade materials called Core Energy. You also get back a portion of the gold used in upgrading.

Feeding is the process of using a protocore as upgrade material directly.

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬── .✦

Before going into it, here are some general considerations that you should keep in mind when deciding between decomposing and feeding:

Decomposing gives you back raw materials which then makes leveling easier to keep track of. You have more control over how many level increments to raise.

Feeding gives you the exp from the core all at once, meaning you have less control over how many level increments to raise. i.e. feeding a +15 core into a +0 core will raise it to +13 - what if all 4 rolls go into substats that you don’t like?

Feeding is quicker to do - adding in only the one upgrade material instead of adding in many upgrade materials.

Decomposing will free up your gold to use for other things like ascending Memories.

Now, let's get into the numbers.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩 & 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬── .✦

𝐄𝐱𝐩 & 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧── .✦

Note: The figures above can also be found in the Protocore Main Stat and Substats Values Spreadsheet.

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬── .✦

SSR protocores have an inherent exp value of 400 exp, which is always accounted for in full when decomposing/feeding.

Adding exp to a protocore has a cost of 4 gold per 1 exp.

Taking #1 and #2 into account: This is why when you feed a protocore you must pay 400 exp inherent exp * 4 gold = 1,600 gold.

The 20% loss is applied to the exp and gold that you already put in.

There is no "loss" from decomposing a +0 SSR protocore, because you have not put anything into it yet to "lose".

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬── .✦

Based on the findings and the cost breakdowns, we can conclude the following:

When repurposing a protocore, decomposing vs. feeding has no difference in exp and gold loss. Doing it one way is not more resource efficient vs. the other.

+6 is an ideal stopping point to assess whether to keep investing in a protocore or not, as it would take only 48 stamina (4.8 hours) to recoup the loss.

It starts getting costly at +9 and up, adding up to 96 stamina (9.6 hours) to recoup the loss.

𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐬── .✦

Thanks to Yeefu, Orodalf, Charm, Wiwi, Aiko, and Asianpizzamonster from Discord for their feedback and corrections!

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐠── .✦

If you have any feedback, send me a message or an Ask! Changes will be logged here.

2025-04-03 2:58 PM · Updated tables. Corrected conclusion: Decompose vs. feed has no difference for exp or gold efficiency. 2024-06-11 6:32 PM · Original conclusions: Decompose at +0 to +3, feed +4 and above, for gold efficiency.

1. ATK / DEF / HP ideal (yellow star)

This is the *chef's kiss* protocore. It will only filter for this specific stat and ignore the other scaling stats. You will want to save these.

For example, DEF Ideal's substats will look like this: DEF%, flat DEF, crit rate (crit damage and damage boost to weakened are possible)

It will ignore: Mainstats: ATK%, DEF%, HP% Substats: ATK%, ATK+ HP%, HP+, Oath's Strength (this is why X-02 has his own category)

If you want to edit this to be even more precise, edit the substats to DEF%, flat DEF, crit rate and crit damage

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2. X-02 Ideal (yellow star)

I'm not X-02 player, so I'm sorry if it's wrong, but it's to my understanding what you should get for him. It's similar to ATK Ideal, but with these changes:

In addition it will ignore Expedited Energy Boost (because you don't need it with him)

Filters for ATK%, Oath's Strength, Crit Rate (crit damage, flat ATK and damage boost to weakened are possible)

Of course you won't need this if you don't have X-02 or plan getting him.

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3. ATK / DEF / HP Enhance (green arrow)

This is the "this looks good, but can still get ruined by bad luck" protocore. Much more loose than the "Ideal" protocores, and offer more of your companion's main scaling stat.

For example, DEF Enhance's substats will look like this: DEF%, flat DEF (crit stats, damage boost to weakened and Oath's Strength are possible)

It will ignore: Mainstats: ATK%, DEF%, HP% Substats: ATK%, ATK+ HP%, HP+

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4. ATK% / DEF% / HP% Cube (green arrow)

These are filtering for good stat% cubes. I didn't include them in the "Enhance" section just in case because they are very situational. For example, there's not yet any companion that actually would be recommended to use ATK% cube, and DEF% and HP% cubes are only recommended for the 3rd myth companions (which I would still argue only work with awakened 5* pairs and higher rank ones). So, definitely not your typical "I have no idea what I do with my protocores" place.

For example, DEF% Cube's substats will look like this: DEF%, flat DEF (crit stats, damage boost to weakened and Oath's Strength are possible)

It will ignore: Mainstats: anything else than DEF% on cubes (Beta) Substats: ATK%, ATK+ HP%, HP+

If you want to make it more strict, exclude Oath's Strength from the possible stats and add Crit Rate to the required stats

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5. High ATK% / DEF% / HP% Custom (green arrow)

I wasn't really satisfied with the featured preset with this one (it doesn't filter mainstats which is quite bad), so I edited it a little to my liking. This one is the only one that will allow the matching pyramid stat% for the filter, but it's not generally recommended to upgrade those.

It will simply filter all protocores that have more than 12% bonus to the substat of that chosen stat.

It will ignore: Mainstats: ATK%, HP% Substats: ATK%, ATK+ HP%, HP+

If you want it to be stricter or more relaxed, adjust the Value Range for the bonus. For example, 10% is the max amount of stat% when it doesn't have any upgrades, 15% is the max amount for a stat% that has been upgraded once. I chose 12% so it will find bonuses that have been upgraded atleast once and overall had a good roll on the stats.

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6. Discard: STAT% pyramids (red trash bin)

The featured Discard presets are pretty good already, but it was missing just discarding all stat% pyramids (like ATK% and such). You really don't want to upgrade those for now, even if you would have the most perfect stat% pyramid ever, so you're pretty safe to discard them all (especially if you use the High stat% filters above).

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How to find the filters:

Go to your protocore list from Core Hunt -> All Protocores -> Tap on the funnel icon -> Filter protocores (choose whichever) -> Custom Presets. There you can add your own, share yours and import this QR code I have attached on this post. The QR scan icon is the square with a line going horizontally in the middle.

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Featured Filters:

I didn't look too much at these, but some of them seemed quite well put out there. What I saw and recommend:

Discard:

Select all. All of these are great filters.

Enhance:

Honestly, none of these unless you know what you're doing. It doesn't filter the main stat, which means it will recommend whatever main stat + substat combinations out there which isn't good.

Prized:

These practically only look for highly enhanced protocores, so I don't know if there's any use of these filters.

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FAQ:

Why do you recommend DEF/HP bonus with flats instead of ATK%? Don't they use ATK as well?

Yes, they use ATK as well, but it's about 1/3 of their damage compared to their main scaling stat. Imagine if you had a 10% ATK bonus with a DEF companion - that basically becomes a 3,3% ATK bonus for them. Flat DEF(/HP) is much more effective on DEF(/HP) companions than ATK would be.

Why didn't you include more discard or stricter options?

I did make DEF + ATK and HP + ATK discard filters for myself, but I feel they might be too brutal for people who are starting out with protocores. I wanted to approach this more on a gentler side - you can always delete protocores, but you can't return a protocore that could have been better than the one you had.

Why didn't you make more companion specific filters?

Because I believe you don't really need them. All DEF companions want DEF, crit stats and D2W in varying degrees. Same goes for ATK and HP companions. And these are easily customizable - for example Colonel, you could just remove the crit stats from the filters and add D2W as the recommended stat, and take away Expedited Energy boost from the filter options.

Which I should focus, the card talent stat or companion stat?

Always the companion. I would even advice forgetting the card talents existing until you're truly at a point when you can focus on optimizing your protocores.

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Ending note:

These obviously are just filters for some end-game protocores, they aren't going to guarantee you're still getting the perfect protocores, but it should prevent you using your stamina into completely useless protocores. And of course, filters can't replace understanding protocores, you still will need to understand what stats you will need for your companion, but this should help you being more lazy with protocores and less anxious about losing good ones.

Also, a lot of people have different opinions on protocores - these seem good to me with my experience, without being too strict on numbers. The important part is that you'll get good combination of stats, you can worry about the minimal numbers later.

I hope this helped you! I'm really glad they introduced these filters, I'm having way too much fun with these, and I'll gladly take some feedback on these if you have any.