Magical Princess Tier List: The Best Friends to Bring into Battle
Do not let a bad party composition send you back to the lobby during a Crimson Moon defense.
Raising your daughter involves a lot of trial and error, but combat is one area where mistakes are punished instantly. When you step into the Monster Hunt zones or prepare to defend the city, you can bring up to two friends with you. The problem is that developing an affinity with these characters takes a massive amount of time and energy. You cannot afford to spread your resources thin. You need to pick your primary combat companions early, shower them with attention, and drag them into the woods to level up their battle rank.
Before you commit your weekends to hanging out with a character who will absolutely crumble against endgame bosses, you need a plan. I am going to walk you through the optimal weapon styles, how your chosen school track impacts your party, and exactly who deserves a spot in your roster.
The Foundational Combat Styles
Your daughter can equip three main types of weapons. What you choose dictates your role in the party and determines which friends will complement your build. If you are still deciding which curriculum to pursue, my Magical Princess Best Track Beginner Guide breaks down the optimal stat paths for each of these playstyles.
The Sword and Shield
Swords scale primarily with the Stamina stat. If you chose the Gladius track, you are going to be the main physical attacker. You get access to powerful melee skills like Slice & Dice and Windshear. You hit hard, and you can take a punch. This setup requires you to bring friends who can either buff your physical damage or provide reliable healing.
The Magic Staff
Staves scale with Intelligence and turn you into a glass cannon. If you went with the Magia track, you will unlock massive area-of-effect spells that can wipe out entire waves of monsters. The massive downside is your complete lack of physical defense. A stray attack from a strong enemy will knock you flat. You absolutely need tanky friends to absorb damage while you sit in the back row and cast.
The Bow
The bow is the ultimate New Game Plus weapon. It requires heavy investment in both the Stamina and Charm skill trees, making it difficult to optimize on a fresh file. Once you have the stats to support it, the bow becomes completely broken. Your damage does not decrease from the back row, and skills like Laser Arrow hit multiple enemies for absurd numbers.
Synergy and the Nobilis Buffs
Before we rank the companions, you need to understand how they get stronger. A friend's battle rank relies heavily on their affinity with you and the amount of battle experience they have earned.
However, your own Charm stat directly manipulates their power. The Beauty attribute grants a passive Male Buff to your party. The Social attribute grants a passive Female Buff. If you are running the Nobilis track, you excel at healing and support because your passive buffs turn mediocre allies into absolute powerhouses. Keep your party gender makeup in mind when assigning your skill points.
The Companion Tier List
Here is the quick breakdown of who you want watching your back.
S-Tier: Shail
Shail is the undisputed king of the companion roster. His kit is completely overloaded. As long as you can provide a bit of support, he will rotate between buffing your entire party's attack, boosting your defense, and dropping crippling speed debuffs on all enemies. If that utility was not enough, he also scales incredibly well into the late game and delivers massive burst damage when you need it most. He is the perfect partner if you are running a heavy Stamina build on the Gladius track.
A-Tier: Hasis and Fran
You want Hasis in your group when you need raw, single-target damage. He hits like a truck and has a solid chance to inflict poison. When you pair him with Shail's attack buffs, Hasis can easily push 5,000 damage per turn while remaining fairly durable.
Fran brings a different kind of utility to the table. She is extremely tanky and comes equipped with burn and paralysis effects. Paralysis is a complete game changer. It will allow you to lock down and defeat bosses that out-level your party significantly. If you are playing a fragile Magia caster, Fran is the perfect shield to keep you safe while you prepare your incantations.
B-Tier: Crois and Noah
You can safely leave these two at the academy. Crois and Noah both offer decent damage, but they fall incredibly short when compared to Hasis. Worse still, they do not take hits very well. They lack the durability to survive prolonged boss fights and they do not synergize effectively with Shail's buff rotations. You are better off investing your time elsewhere.
C-Tier: Chocolat
Chocolat is a trap. During your first few months, her healing magic feels incredibly valuable. She will carry you through your early Monster Hunt runs when you lack your own recovery options. The moment you enter the mid-game, she falls off a cliff. Even when fully maxed out, she only has one hard-hitting spell. Everyone else in the roster out-damages her, and she practically sits idle during turns where your party has full health. Use her early, then bench her permanently.
As a quick note, Cornelia cannot fight alongside you. No matter how high her affinity gets, she is completely useless in combat.
Preparing for the Endgame
Having a top-tier party is an absolute requirement if you plan on surviving the secret dungeon detailed in my Magical Princess True Ending Guide. The final encounters feature enemies that will easily two-shot your strongest companions if you are not prepared.
When fighting normal groups of monsters, use a war of attrition. Always leave one weak enemy alive at the end of a wave. Let it hit your tank while you use your other characters to heal up and defend. This ensures you walk into the next wave with full health and zero fatigue.
The dragon in the Dragon Ruins is the hardest standard fight you will face. Once it hits 40 percent health, it activates abilities that will wipe your friends out instantly. If you do not have Fran available to paralyze it, you need to save all of your cooldowns and unleash massive burst damage to burn it down before it can cast.
