Chained Echoes: Glenn, The Fighter Guide

Chained Echoes Glenn, The Fighter Guide: Stats & Build Suggestions. Also check; Chained Echoes Character Guide.

Chained Echoes Glenn, The Fighter

As the main character, Glenn is the most balanced character out of the cast, with a decent array of offensive and defensive abilities, making him a mixed fighter of sorts. He can work as a budget tank since he has access to a taunt (Decoy) and Defense Stance (increases defense at the expense of decreasing attack).

At heart, Glenn is formidable as a “Breaker”, as he has access to abilities that can decrease enemy offensive and/or defensive stats, which can turn the tide of battles. His Ultra Move, Power Armor Salvo, and his All Break ability both apply all detrimental debuffs except for lowering agility; the Ultra Move is notable as it hits all enemies.

Strengths

• Fits the typical fighter archetype: versatile at pretty much everything.
• Boasts high offensive and defensive stats.
• Third highest HP.
• Second highest ATK.
• Third highest DEF, tied with Raphael.
• Third highest AGI, tied with Tomke.
• Can be played as hybrid tank / damage dealer.
• Has access to powerful Break abilities to cripple enemy stats.
• Has one of the most useful Ultra Moves in the game.
• Amazing self-sustain in the endgame thanks to HP Drain combined with his already high attack.

Weaknesses

• Not very reliable as a proper tank since he has no innate abilities to increase Hate other than Decoy.
• Mostly single-target damage aside from his Ultra Move and Whirlwind Slash (which is obtained much later in the game).
• Has the fourth lowest TP, meaning he’ll starve really fast when using abilities in quick succession.

Baseline

• Armor Break / Arms Break / All Break: Glenn’s bread and butter is his stat debuff abilities, which makes him formidable for boss fights. Once you get All Break, you can forgo the other two.
• Cross Slash: his most reliable damaging ability. Hits like a truck, and has direct synergy with HP Drain later down the reload.
• Lend Energy: incredibly useful to help fuel your main damage dealers and supports. Even though Glenn tends to burn through skills very fast himself, there still plenty of value.
• Whirlwind Slash: pretty decent area-of-effect ability with a pretty cool animation, and when combined with HP Drain means he can top his healthbar easily while fighting multiple opponents.
• HP Drain: deal damage, recover health. Simple as that. The beauty of this passive is that it works with multi-hit moves and also area-of-effect, meaning you’ll gain HP per hit and/or enemy hit. This even works with Ultra Moves.

Class Abilities

• Ether Sucker: from Vampire. Useful on all characters, period.
• Drunken Master: from Monk. Works fine equipped on any character, but since Glenn tends to have free ability slots in the endgame, it’s a pretty decent filler ability.
• Power Swing: from Warrior. Useful for normal battles against multiple opponents. Keep this on him until you unlock Whirlwind Slash later in the game.
• Blindman’s Buff: from the Gambler. Can be useful in certain fights with multiple targets, but its reliance on RNG makes it less desirable. Still a pretty decent filler skill. Can fully heal Glenn if you get at least 3 hits when combined with HP Drain.
• HP Sacrifice: from Vampire. A passive skill where you lose 5% of your HP but deal 5% more damage (up to 15% when maxed). Combining this with HP drain means you’ll never be a disadvantage, and the extra +15% damage is juicy.

Crystals

• Break Extender: you’ll absolutely want this on Glenn, maxed, since it guarantees 100% of extending any existing Break debuff for 3 additional turns. The beauty of this is that it works with area-of-effect skills, such as Whirlwind Slash, allowing you to extend it on multiple enemies. With this crystal you pretty much only need to use All Break once in the entire fight as long Glenn continues to attack.
• ATK Up: Glenn already hits pretty hard, so further increasing his ATK is a no-brainer.
• Dry Strike: this is a filler crystal that can be useful for a certain combo involving Lenne and Victor that will be discussed further.

Early Game

Glenn starts with a solid kit: Cross Slash and Armor Break being the bulk of his character through the entire game. Oil Slash is quite useful with Lenne’s Fire Thrust for some extra damage.

Focus your points on getting Lend Energy as soon as possible, while spreading points on stat bonuses (HP, ATK and DEF) and getting passives such as HP Up and ATK Up. I recommend giving him the Warrior Class Emblem as soon as you get it. He is one of the best characters for it.

Mid Game

Glenn (and Kylian, until he leaves the party) will be your frontline fighters for quite a while until you get Egyl. While Glenn can be built into a tank of sorts since he’s the first character to get a taunt in the form of Decoy, I’d advise against it. The taunt system as a whole is not very reliable even for the dedicated tanks (Egyl and Raphael) who have ways to increase Hate, so I’d skip on making Glenn one. Picking Decoy is decent, however, in order to (attempt) keep enemy attention away from your more frail characters.

Once Egyl enters the party, you can focus on maximizing Glenn’s offensive capabilities and utility. I recommend getting Restrain and Counter Attack as soon as you can. The Stance abilities are useful; I usually roll with Attack Stance to maximize his damage.

At this point you can swap the Warrior Class Emblem for the Monk to give him tons of HP and AGI, if you want. He can be kept as a Warrior through the whole game, however, since the stat bonuses are pretty good for him.

End Game

Glenn truly becomes an unkillable powerhouse in the endgame. Get All Break first and foremost, followed by HP Drain, Shield Ally, and Whirlwind Slash. With Cross Slash + HP Drain he can top his health in boss fights without any issues.

Focus on giving Glenn all the ATK Up passives he can, and he’ll be hitting hard, healing himself hard, counter attacking hard, all while taking damage for his allies and healing back anyway. This pretty much makes him the best tank in the game without actually tanking and taunting.

For accessories, Reaction Armlet (30% of counter attack chance) can be stacked with the Counter Attack passive for whopping 80% counter attack chance.

General Tips

Setups are everything

Combat in this game, especially in the late-game, is all about setups. Your characters will unlock plenty of buffs and debuffs and it is key to lay those down to empower your team while simultaneously cripple the enemy.

For instance, Sienna alone has four really important buffs she should have active nearly all the time, while Glenn should always make sure the enemy has Break debuffs on, With certain setups you can see some really big numbers (I’ve been able to crit +18k with Lenne during the final boss) so it’s important to have your team cover everything.

Don’t bother with Crystals (until later)

The Crystal system at the blacksmith anvil is a potentially powerful, yet a bit obnoxious system (because of RNG and how the combining functions), way to make your characters REALLY powerful, allowing you stack passives to reinforce their strengths or to circumvent a weakness. For instance, stacking Crit Damage Up crystals on Sienna can make her dish out some really insane damage, while adding debuff crystals (i.e. Poison, Blind) on characters with multi-hit moves can make inflicting those easier.

However, I strongly recommend waiting to tamper with this system until the endgame. It’s not really worth hunting down crystals or farming, and the game is already relatively easy enough that you can clear the vast majority of the content without worrying about crystals.

If you want more details on the Crystal crafting, check Xenocite’s excellent Crystal Guide.

Agility is everything

Agility (AGI) is the single most important attribute in the game, hence why Sienna is so busted since she has the highest in the game. Improving your AGI in any way (passive skills, buffs, crystals) is key to get as many turns as possible before the enemy.

Drunken Master (a skill from the Monk Class Emblem) is an ability you should have learned with one or more characters and equipped at all times, and use it as soon the fight starts. It’s party-wide.

Additionally, crippling your enemy’s AGI with Robb’s Leg Shot (and also Kylian’s Leg Aim) is key in any boss fight to further enable more turns for you and less for the enemy.