Mystic Codes are interesting as a part of the teambuilding process. If you’re around for each release they tend to be very easy to get, but miss one and the price is insanely high in the Rare Prism shop. On top of that, though, they take a ton of investment to get into usable shape. So knowing whether or not they’re worth your time is a huge boon.
Keeping track of your Mystic Codes is a huge boon to overall team quality and shouldn’t be ignored. Make sure you have access to all of the permanent codes, and never forget you have them; the abilities they give you can make a huge difference in a team’s viability.
Leveling Mystic Codes
The first step to understanding which MCs you should be focusing your time on is considering which ones are worth leveling. Quite a few MCs that are good don’t need levels, like the Mage’s Association Uniform. Others scale very heavily with their level and need more attention to show their value, like Anniversary Blonde.
It can be pretty simple to figure out which options work without levels and which need to scale. Simply put, many Mystic Codes have effects that don’t scale at all. The Atlas Academy Uniform features no scaling at all, the only benefits to leveling it are reductions in Cooldown at levels 6 and 10. Even at maximum level Mystic Code cooldowns are extremely long, 13 turns in the case of the Atlas uniform.
It can become apparent that a decent number of codes have one particularly important skill with the others being more supporting; if that skill doesn’t meaningfully scale, don’t bother working on the level, just use that code when you have a node it is useful on.
The particularly notable codes with little to no scaling are: Atlas Academy Uniform, Mage’s Association Uniform, Chaldea Combat Uniform, and True Ether. The general rule of thumb is that AoE damage benefits scale very little, and that utility benefits scale either well or not at all. Single target damage is almost entirely patterned on ‘mana burst’ style skills, and will usually be 30% at Lv.1 and 50% at Lv. 10.
Top Mystic Codes
Skills
Buff All Allies
Increase Attack for all Allies for 1 turn (20% at Lv.1 → 30% at Lv. 10)
Cooldown: 12 turns → 10 turns
Gandr
Stun one enemy
Cooldown: 15 turns → 13 turns
Order Change
Swap one active party member for a sub member
Cooldown: 15 turns → 13 turns
Source: Chaldea Gate, permanent quest
Easily the winner, the Chaldea Combat Uniform (often called the plugsuit) could have only one skill and still likely be the best Mystic Code. Order Change is a huge gamechanger, and can be thought of as trading one skill for three. The number of uses that you can find for that singular skill is immense, and the other two aren’t bad. Buff All is a solid attack buff, and Gandr can delay enemy NPs, buys turns against bosses, lets you skip the final turn of enemy buffs, and more. Better yet, it only has a very small benefit for leveling, which makes up for the absolutely mammoth EXP requirements.
It’s hard to go wrong with the Chaldea Combat Uniform, but it does have some downsides. It naturally cuts down on your team space, and it’s all but guaranteed to be slower than other options because of the long animation on Order Change. You would be hard-pressed to find a better MC, but it is fairly easy to find a more efficient one.
Skills
Mana Burst
Increase Buster Performance for one ally (40% at Lv.1 → 60% at Lv. 10)
Cooldown: 15 turns → 13 turns
Confident in Victory
Add Crit Stars to the pool (10 at Lv.1 → 20 at Lv. 10)
Cooldown: 12 turns → 10 turns
Knight’s Oath
Apply one-time Guts to one target for 1 turn (2000 HP at Lv.1 → 4000 HP at Lv. 10)
Cooldown: 15 turns → 13 turns
Source: Da Vinci’s Shop costing 5 Rare Prisms
Probably the single best option among the Single Target Card Type boosters, Anniversary Blonde is notable for doing pretty much everything you would want for its card type. It provides a solid defensive in Knight’s Oath that faces the least pierces, but that’s probably the least meaningful ability. The combination of Mana Burst and Confident in Victory provides the punch that makes this MC so powerful. 20 stars is nothing to sneeze at, and they help no matter what you’re trying to do. Mana Burst here is also 60% as opposed to every other MC Card Type buff at 50% or less. This means it can provide a turn of extremely potent buster crits all by itself.
Skills
Cure-all
Recovers HP for all allies (800 at Lv.1 → 2800 at Lv.10)
Cooldown: 12 turns → 10 turns
Spiritron Transfer
Charge one Ally’s NP gauge by 20%
Cooldown: 15 turns → 13 turns
Command Shuffle
Reset the command deck and draw a new hand
Cooldown: 15 turns → 13 turns
Source: Chaldea Gate, permanent quest
The Mage’s Association uniform is a farming powerhouse. Cure-All is pretty non-ideal for that purpose and trying to use the Mage’s Association Uniform for other roles will make it seem pretty underwhelming, so it’s not quite perfect. However, Spiritron Transfer is a free NP battery for anyone that you don’t have to roll. It’s only 20% but short of having an extra targeted battery in sub members, it’s the highest available charge on Mystic Codes.
As far as the final skill, it can solve problems with several common farming compositions. Many event teams will be described as RNG-reliant, this usually means they need to draw particular cards on particular turns to clear a node. Command Shuffle protects you from drawing cards too early and gives a second chance when a hand isn’t going to work. With farming teams that can be imperative as they often fall apart if their plan doesn’t work out on the first attempt. Mage’s Association also doesn’t need levels, so you don’t need to focus on it when your MC choice isn’t important.
Skills
Code: F
Increase one Ally’s NP damage for one turn (30% at Lv.1 → 50% at Lv. 10)
Cooldown: 12 turns → 10 turns
Code: U
Increase Star Weight of Buster cards for one Ally for one turn (5000% at Lv. 1 → 10000% at Lv. 10)
Cooldown: 12 turns → 10 turns
Code: H
Increase NP Generation rate for one Ally for one turn (30% at Lv. 1 → 50% at Lv. 10)
Cooldown: 12 turns → 10 turns
Source: Heaven’s Feel Event Quests
This MC is the only one that isn’t permanently available even with spending. However, there is a chance it will be available again during the upcoming release of the third Heaven’s Feel film. That’s currently on delay, but was set to release before the pandemic. Fragment of 2004 is an extremely solid choice for loop farming.
Code: U is unimportant here, unfortunately, it’s also the only skill that doesn’t demand leveling. Code: F provides the NP damage that can sometimes be the difference between enough overkill and failing to refill on a wave. Code: H gives a boost to flat NP generation that helps in the same way, but sidesteps the need for overkill. That can make situations where overkill just isn’t possible still loopable and open up extra nodes for your teams. If it becomes available again, get it and spend time when your MC isn’t necessary leaving it on for leveling; it’ll help immensely if you have an Arts or Quick looper.