If you are trying to reach the top of the leaderboard in the Anime Expeditions Solo Tournament, your team setup and upgrade order can make a huge difference. A strong lineup can push your damage toward 500 million, but you also need to pay attention to modifiers, unit placement, equipment, and wave skipping.
The strategy below is based on a high-damage setup that can reach around 450 million damage even with some mistakes. With better placements and cleaner wave management, the same approach can be pushed closer to 500 million or more.
Best Team for the Solo Tournament
The main team focuses on powerful DPS units, support, crowd control, and an economy unit. The recommended lineup is:
- Dark Mage
- Itachi
- Shadow
- Salmon Sorcerer
- Stone Alchemist
- Forbidden Teacher
Dark Mage and Itachi are used as the main damage dealers. Shadow provides several useful effects, including buffs, stuns, and enemy manipulation. Salmon Sorcerer helps slow and stagger enemies, while Stone Alchemist provides additional income through kills.
Forbidden Teacher is another important support unit because she can teach spells to your magical units every three waves.
If your tournament modifiers are different, you may need to adjust this team instead of copying it exactly.
When to Change the Team
The lineup above works best when your tournament modifiers support the required elements. However, there are several situations where changing one or two units can make the run stronger.
If you have less than six Hydro or six Flame bonuses, consider replacing the affected DPS units with characters that benefit from your current tournament buffs.
For example:
- Use Gohan for a Light-focused tournament.
- Karen can work well for Gale.
- Kachi or Eighth Sword can be useful for Terra or Gale when those elements receive weaker modifiers.
- If there is an upgrade cap, consider adding Cell.
- UT can also be useful in an upgrade-cap tournament.
- If farms are unavailable, replace Stone Alchemist with another support or damage-boosting unit.
Cell is useful because he provides a 40% damage boost to the strongest unit when placed, without requiring upgrades. However, he only buffs one unit, so his value can be lower when you need several powerful DPS units.
UT can copy 40% of the strongest unit’s power when placed, which makes him more interesting when upgrade limits prevent you from fully upgrading your main units.
Recommended Equipment
Equipment can also have a noticeable effect on your final tournament damage. The setup used for this strategy focuses on boosting DPS while giving utility units the equipment they need.
For your main DPS units, Shining Sword is a strong option because of its damage bonuses. Magic Book can also be used for magical damage-focused units.
For Shadow, you can use a combination of damage and utility equipment. A setup using Shining Sword and Bamboo provides a balance between the two.
For Salmon Sorcerer, use:
- Pirate Slingshot
- Magical Orb
- Inverse
Stone Alchemist should use the Kunai to improve the money generated from kills.
Forbidden Teacher does not require special equipment for this strategy.
Use the Training Grounds
Before entering the tournament, make sure your units have good stats. The Training Grounds can help improve your unit potential, so it is worth keeping your characters training whenever possible.
The upgraded Training Grounds can give you more opportunities to improve your stats. If you are trying to compete for the top position, this is something you should not ignore.
Better stats can make your units stronger throughout the entire run and improve the final damage total.
Recommended Settings
Before starting the tournament, check your settings and make sure they are configured properly.
Use these settings:
- Auto Farm Start: Off
- Auto Retry: Off
- Auto Upgrade: On
- Auto Abilities on Placement: Off
After entering the tournament, begin by placing two farms. Your early economy is important because you will need enough money to build your DPS and support units later.
Early Wave Strategy
Start the run by focusing on your economy. Place two farms and begin upgrading them as quickly as possible without allowing enemies to escape.
Once you have enough money, start bringing out your main damage units. Dark Mage should be one of your first important combat placements.
The basic early progression is:
- Place two farms.
- Upgrade your farms.
- Place your first Dark Mage when you have enough money.
- Continue upgrading your farms.
- Add Stone Alchemist to improve your income.
- Continue upgrading your main damage dealer.
- Begin adding your support units as the waves become stronger.
Do not spend too much money on unnecessary upgrades early. You want to reach your important damage and support units while maintaining enough income for later waves.
Take Advantage of Wave Skipping
Wave skipping is one of the biggest parts of this strategy. Properly managing your skips allows you to progress faster and generate more resources.
However, do not blindly skip waves if your units are not strong enough to handle them. You need to make sure your current setup can survive the incoming enemies.
A clean run should aim to:
- Upgrade farms early.
- Build enough DPS to clear waves.
- Skip waves when your team can handle them.
- Avoid wasting money on unnecessary support upgrades.
- Save enough cash for major DPS upgrades.
The original run reached around 450 million damage despite several mistakes with wave skipping. With cleaner execution, the strategy can potentially reach the 500 million mark.
How to Use Shadow and Salmon Sorcerer
Shadow is more than just another damage dealer. His utility makes him extremely valuable during the tournament.
Use Shadow to:
- Buff your other units.
- Stun enemies.
- Manipulate enemy movement.
- Help control difficult waves.
- Deal additional damage.
Salmon Sorcerer should be positioned where his slowing and staggering effects can affect as many enemies as possible.
Crowd control becomes increasingly important as the enemies get stronger. Slowing enemies gives your DPS more time to attack them before they leave the effective range.
Place Your Units for Maximum AoE
Unit placement is one of the easiest ways to lose millions of potential damage.
Your DPS should be positioned so their attacks hit as many enemies as possible. Avoid placing a unit where its attack only connects with one or two enemies when another location could allow it to hit the entire group.
This was one of the biggest problems in the test run. Several Itachi placements had poor AoE coverage, causing the unit to attack only a small number of enemies.
If you are using a unit with a large AoE, take some time to study its attack range before placing it.
Eighth Sword may also be a better option than Itachi in certain tournament brackets because of its wider AoE coverage.
When to Use Forbidden Teacher
Forbidden Teacher should be included to improve your magical units throughout the run.
Her ability provides spells to magical units every three waves. Because of this, getting her into the setup at the right time can improve your overall damage without requiring you to constantly replace your main DPS.
Try to position her where her effects can benefit the important magical units in your lineup.
Domain and Bamboo Cycling
Getting your Domain active early is another important part of the strategy.
The goal is to use the Domain to help your Bamboo cycle more efficiently. This can give you additional value throughout the run and help maintain your economy and unit progression.
When placing the Domain, try to cover as much of the enemy path as possible. Good coverage means more enemies can remain inside the effective area for longer.
Upgrade Priority
Once your economy is established, begin investing heavily into your main DPS. A simple priority can look like this:
- Build and upgrade your farms.
- Establish your early Dark Mage.
- Add Stone Alchemist for extra income.
- Build your support units.
- Activate your Domain.
- Start heavily upgrading your strongest DPS.
- Continue upgrading the rest of your damage dealers.
- Finish by maximizing your remaining units.
Do not spend too much money upgrading units that are providing little damage or utility. Tournament runs are heavily dependent on getting the most value from every upgrade.
How to Reach 500M+ Damage
The biggest lesson from this strategy is that the team itself is not enough. You also need clean execution. To push the run toward 500 million damage, focus on these points:
- Use the correct team for your tournament modifiers.
- Upgrade farms early.
- Use Stone Alchemist for additional income when farming is allowed.
- Skip waves efficiently.
- Build Dark Mage early.
- Use Forbidden Teacher to support magical units.
- Activate your Domain at the right time.
- Place slow effects where enemies stay within your DPS range.
- Position DPS units for maximum AoE.
- Avoid wasting upgrades on unnecessary units.
- Use equipment that matches each unit’s role.
- Consider Eighth Sword instead of Itachi if its AoE performs better in your bracket.
- Adjust your team if the tournament has an upgrade cap.
The test run managed around 450 million damage, but several poor placements and missed upgrades reduced the final score. With better wave skipping, stronger positioning, and a more suitable DPS choice, reaching 500 million damage becomes much more realistic.
The most important thing is to adapt the strategy to your specific tournament bracket. Not every player will have the same modifiers, so copying a team without checking the bonuses can actually hurt your score. Focus on your strongest boosted elements, maintain a strong economy in the early game, and make sure your DPS units are covering the enemy path properly.
A few bad placements can result in a massive amount of lost damage by the end of the run. If your first attempt only reaches 400–450 million, do not immediately change the entire strategy. Check your wave skipping, upgrade timing, equipment, and unit positioning first. Fixing those mistakes can often give you a much larger improvement than simply replacing your entire team.