Frontier Hunter
A ranked mode that opens for a few days with each release. Spend your Hunter Orbs, score as high as you can, and climb the Hunter Rank.
A season
Each release brings one season. It opens at the daily reset (00:00 UTC) a set time after the release goes live and stays open for the time below, closing at a reset too, then the Survey Office stays closed until the next release's season.
| Opens | At the daily reset (00:00 UTC) 2 days after its release goes live |
|---|---|
| Open for | 5 days |
| Hunter Orbs | 3 a day, 15 a season |
| Uncharted Frontier - Entrance 6 | 5 battles |
| Uncharted Frontier - Middle 6 | 5 battles |
| Uncharted Frontier - End 6 | 5 battles |
| Uncharted Frontier - Terminus 6 | 6 battles |
You'll find the Survey Office on the home screen's shortcuts and in Imperial Capital Randall, on the plate reading "Akras Summoners' Hall / Survey Office".
Hunter Orbs
A run costs one Hunter Orb and no energy, and so does a resubmit (below). New orbs arrive at 00:00 UTC, and that's the only way to get them: they don't refill over time, and nothing buys more. Orbs you don't use carry over for the rest of the season, so missing a day costs you nothing. When the season closes, unused orbs are worth nothing.
The quests
The four quests form a chain: clear Entrance to open Middle, Middle to open End, and End to open Terminus.
- Entrance, Middle, and End draw each round's enemies from a pool, so no two runs are quite the same.
- Terminus always fields the same rounds.
A run
A run plays like a quest with a few differences:
- Your own items stay home. Before you start, you pick one of the quest's item sets, and the run uses that. Your items aren't touched, and what's left of the set is collected when the run ends.
- No continues. A wipe ends the run at once. You keep the score you've earned so far.
- Give Up scores too. The turns you finished still count. If you give up before finishing a turn, there's nothing to score, and the orb stays spent.
- No repeat battles, and Spark Assist stays off.
- Auto starts off. Every run opens with Auto off, whatever you last chose. You can turn it on during the run, and that doesn't change how your other battles start.
- Finish in time. A run has 20 minutes, and it can't be extended. A countdown shows it on the run and doesn't pause if you switch away. At 0:00 the run stops and submits the turns you finished, and the turn in progress doesn't count. Anything past the limit is invalid.
- Another battle ends the run. Starting any other battle or another run while a run is in progress, in this tab or anywhere else you're signed in, ends that run, and its orb stays spent. The game asks first, and Cancel starts nothing. The Arena doesn't end a run.
- Leaving submits your run. Closing the tab or reloading after a finished turn submits the turns you finished, so don't reload mid-run. If your turns never reach the server in time, the run scores nothing and its orb stays spent.
Scoring
The server works out your score from a replay of your run, so what you see in the battle's corner is a running guide, and the result screen has the final number.
Each battle scores:
- sparks, overkills, multi-kills, BB kills, and hits on a weak element
- total damage dealt, shields included
- a quick win, more on turn 1 than on turns 2 and 3
- using no items in that battle
- every Heart Crystal and Battle Crystal you pick up
- score crystals: in a run, enemies drop these instead of Zel. Any of your hits may knock one loose, and hits on an enemy already at 0 HP are twice as likely to
The whole run then adds a bonus for each battle won, a bonus for a full clear with nobody defeated, and a bonus each for total sparks, overkills, multi-kills, and weak hits, bigger as each total passes the quest's targets. Each quest pays at its own rates, and harder quests pay more.
Why enemy count matters
Most of that score comes per hit or per enemy, so the number of enemies in a wave decides how much it can pay. More enemies means more sparks and weak hits in one attack, a bigger multi-kill (a turn counts once it fells two or more), and more score crystals to knock loose. Since Entrance, Middle, and End draw their rounds from pools, one run's rounds can be worth more than another's, even with the same squad. Spreading your attacks to spark across many enemies, and letting them all fall on the same turn, is what separates a good score from a great one.
Esteem Rewards
A quest's Esteem Rewards are reached by your best score on that quest. Each pays once a season, and goes to your Present Box as soon as you reach it. The list in the Survey Office marks the ones you've reached with GET.
Ranking and tiers
Your Esteem pts are a share of each run's score, a share set by the quest, and your season's total is every run's added together. Every run counts, so a good score doesn't replace an earlier one. Total points decide your place on the Overall Ranking.
Resubmit in the Survey Office spends one Hunter Orb to add a quest's best score to your total again, with no battle. You gain the Esteem pts that best score earned. It pays no Esteem Rewards and doesn't change the MVP boards, so your entries, sparks, and other totals stay as they are. You need a best score on that quest and an orb to spend.
When the season closes, your place gives you a tier. A tier needs at least one cleared run.
| Your place | Hunter Rank gained |
|---|---|
| Top 1% | +10 |
| Top 5% | +9 |
| Top 20% | +8 |
| Top 50% | +7 |
| Everyone else | +6 |
While the season runs, the Ranking and Hunter Rank screens show the tier your place would earn. It's only an estimate: your tier is decided at the close.
The boards are rebuilt several times a day and show when they last were. Your own points on your row update right after a run or a Resubmit, but your place, and everyone's rows including your own, can trail for a while, up to several hours through the evening (UTC). A first score on a board appears at the next rebuild. Each shows the top 100 and your own place. A tie goes to whoever reached the value first.
If your profile is hidden you're on no public board, but you still see where you would place, and you keep every tier and reward you earn.
MVP boards
Beside the total, there are 11 MVP boards: the best score on each quest, and season totals such as sparks, overkills, and BB kills. Two of them don't take a high score: times participated, and times helped, which counts a friend's cleared run that used your helper. The player at #1 on a board when the season closes earns its own unique Sphere, cleared run or not.
Hunter Rank
Hunter Rank stays with your account from season to season. Each season's tier adds its levels, and each level pays one reward. You can see every reward on the Hunter Rank screen.
Hunter Rank is capped at HR 30 for now, and later releases raise it. Levels past the cap pay nothing: you stay at HR 30, and the reward isn't saved for later.
Your rewards expire
Esteem Rewards and season rewards arrive as gifts in your Present Box, and each gift expires after 5 days. The Present Box shows the date. A gift you don't claim in time is lost, and it isn't sent again. After a season closes, Receive Rewards in the Survey Office shows your result and takes you to your gift.