How to Rank #1 in Anime Expeditions Solo Tournament Guide

Climbing to the top of the Solo Tournament leaderboard in Anime Expeditions isn’t just about having powerful units. The highest scores usually come from smart positioning, efficient upgrades, and knowing which units should receive your resources first. If you’re aiming for the exclusive tournament rewards or simply want to push your personal best, having a proper strategy makes a huge difference. This guide explains one effective tournament setup that helped achieve a first-place score in an Easy bracket. While future modifiers may change the meta, these tactics remain useful for maximizing kills and surviving into the later waves.

Why Ranking #1 Matters

Finishing at the top of your tournament bracket offers several valuable rewards, including:

• Exclusive tournament characters or skins
• Additional summon rolls
• Higher leaderboard placement
• Better seasonal rewards

Since every bracket has different competitors, improving your own score is usually more important than comparing yourself with players in other groups.

Recommended Tournament Team

The strategy revolves around maximizing area damage while maintaining crowd control throughout the run. A balanced lineup should include:

• Itachi as the primary damage dealer
• Inumaki for slowing enemies
• Megumi for late-game utility
• Judar for copying attacks and boosting damage output
• A buffer/support unit to strengthen your main DPS
• Summoner or utility unit with optimized equipment

Before entering the tournament, make sure your equipment and traits are properly optimized. Even small improvements in cooldowns or attack speed can noticeably increase your final score.

Best Early Game Strategy

One common mistake is rushing to eliminate every enemy immediately. Instead, focus on building a stronger economy and preparing your main damage dealers. During the opening waves:

• Place Itachi near the back of the map.
• Avoid spawning enemies too aggressively.
• Allow a few early leaks if necessary.
• Prioritize building a stronger setup for the mid game.

The goal isn’t perfect defense during the first few waves—it’s reaching the late game with a fully upgraded team.

Optimal Itachi Placement

Itachi serves as the core of this strategy thanks to his large cone-shaped Area of Effect attack. Rather than placing him near the entrance, position him farther along the path where enemies naturally group together. Benefits include:

• Better cone coverage
• More enemies hit per attack
• Higher total kill count
• Improved efficiency after upgrades

As his attack range increases, the cone becomes large enough to cover entire sections of the path.

Use Inumaki for Crowd Control

Slowing enemies is just as important as dealing damage. Place Inumaki near areas where enemies begin stacking together, then adjust his targeting priority to Last whenever possible. This creates consistent slow effects while giving your damage dealers more time to eliminate large enemy groups. Perfect slowing becomes especially valuable during the later waves when enemy health increases dramatically.

Upgrade Your Support Units Early

Instead of immediately spending every resource on damage dealers, invest in your support buffer first. A fully upgraded buffer increases the effectiveness of your entire team, making every future upgrade significantly stronger. Once your support unit reaches its final upgrade, begin focusing on your primary attackers.

Upgrade Itachi to Level 9 First

Rather than instantly pushing Itachi to maximum level, stopping at Upgrade 9 can be a more resource-efficient option during the middle stages. This allows you to:

• Increase overall team strength sooner.
• Deploy additional utility units.
• Maintain consistent wave clearing.
• Save resources for other important upgrades.

Once your economy improves, you can return and finish upgrading your remaining units.

Max Out Megumi for Mahoraga

Megumi becomes much more valuable after reaching his final upgrades. His upgraded abilities provide:

• Mahoraga summon
• Additional stun potential
• Domain Clash utility
• Better boss control

Mahoraga helps stabilize difficult waves by providing another source of crowd control while dealing respectable damage. Even if Itachi remains your primary DPS, Megumi plays an important supporting role during the final minutes.

Place Judar Near Your Main Damage Dealers

Judar performs best when positioned close to your strongest attacker. If you’re using Itachi as your primary carry, placing Judar nearby allows him to duplicate stronger attacks, increasing overall damage output throughout the run. This setup works especially well once Itachi gains his upgraded Area of Effect attacks.

Managing the Late Game

Once the tournament reaches the final few minutes, your priorities shift. Focus on:

• Finishing key upgrades
• Adjusting targeting priorities
• Maximizing Area of Effect coverage
• Keeping enemies grouped together

During this stage, every additional kill matters.

Rather than constantly moving units around, spend your remaining resources finishing important upgrades while maintaining crowd control.

Target Priorities

Changing target priorities at the right time can noticeably improve your score. Useful settings include:

• Last for slowing units like Inumaki.
• First when pushing through boss waves.
• Closest for certain damage dealers.
• Weakest in specific cleanup situations.

Experimenting with priorities during different stages can help squeeze out additional eliminations before the timer expires.

Expect Performance Issues

Large tournament runs can become extremely demanding on your device. As more abilities activate simultaneously, you may experience:

• Lower FPS
• Input delay
• Visual lag
• Slower upgrades

Lowering your graphics settings before starting the tournament can make the experience much smoother, especially during the final waves.

Reaching the top of the Anime Expeditions Solo Tournament requires much more than simply bringing high-level units. Smart positioning, efficient upgrade paths, and understanding how each unit contributes to the overall strategy can easily make the difference between an average run and a leaderboard-worthy score. While tournament modifiers and future balance updates may introduce new strategies, focusing on strong Area of Effect damage, reliable crowd control, and efficient resource management remains one of the most consistent ways to improve your ranking and compete for the best tournament rewards.