Recommended builds - You Asked For It Edition: Adult Tiki
she is the easily the character i get asked about the most, and has almost achieved meme status on this blog, so by popular demand here is exactly how i would build tiki. since i get asked about her so often i’ll try to go as in-depth as possible in this post, including what i consider her most optimal setup, alternatives to DC, lightning breath+ options, budget options, teammates, and preferred IVs. pretty much everything you could possibly want to know about her without asking her personally.
in comparison to young tiki she’s much more of your traditional enemy phase unit. she has higher attack and defense at the cost of lower HP, speed and res. the biggest advantage adult tiki has over young tiki is availability. something that can’t really be understated. you have to hope you get a good IV for young tiki since she’s a 5* exclusive. that’s not the case with adult tiki since you can practically hand-pick your choice of IVs given how common she is.
obviously dragon emblem, preferably with an anti-falchion user (blue dragon with TA/swordbreaker). ninian can fit this role well.
a sword or dragon unit is a must if you’ll be running BoF. marth fits the role of a sword unit nicely thanks to his drive spectrum falchion, chrom is another option with bond spectrum falchion. feel free to get creative with your choice as well, flying, armored, and cavalry sword wielders all count towards her weapons requirement as well. the same is true for dragons.
blue mages can prove troublesome if her defenses aren’t balanced. especially since her speed is so low, so run a strong, high-res green unit to deal with those threats. myrrh can fit this role nicely since she can also provide guidance support and her res is pretty nice. fae is another option.
+ATK -SPD (good overall spread, very flexible)
+DEF -SPD (good for making her into a solid physical wall)
+RES -SPD (best spread for balancing her defenses, mixed wall builds)
before i explain her builds, its worth noting that while i do prefer BoF overall its really only firing on all cylinders if she’s running DC. that said, you certainly can run it without DC, but then you’re missing out on taking full advantage of the built-in adaptive damage which is one of the many perks that comes with BoF. if you want more info on the advantages and disadvantages of running BoF over lightning breath, you can check my comparison post here. onto her builds;
#1 BoF + DC (balanced defenses)
this first set is a dragon emblem set focused on getting the absolute most out of BoF. you can run dragon emblem in a multitude of ways including ward stacking, drive def/res stacking, fortify spam, or the more traditional 2 hones and 2 fortifies, which is what i went with here. this setup ignores her defense stat and focuses on rounding out her res to make her a true enemy phase mixed tank. if she’s within 2 spaces of a dragon (protip: she will be) she’ll be rocking 62 atk, 46 def, and 39 res, which means she’ll have no trouble being a solid anti-dragon wall. you can also opt for aether instead for more sustain, especially considering one of BoF’s many gimmicks is the fact that it has built-in renewal 3. when you consider how high her defense gets with 0 investment you can see why i consider this her optimal setup.
if you like the idea of BoF but you don’t have access to DC, or you have other dragon emblem members who already have 1-2 range, then you can opt for a wide variety of other slot A options. in order of highest to lowest investment these include;
pretty much any future skill that works in the enemy phase and boosts atk, def, and or res, while still working on the high end of the HP spectrum (BoF, has renewal 3 built into it, so vantage-like skills won’t mesh well).
keep in mind the higher you go on this list the more committed you are to running BoF without DC, so keep that in mind if you plan on running DC eventually. for this particular example i’ve chosen atk/def bond because BoF already wants her to be near a sword or dragon ally, so fitting the positioning rec shouldn’t be too difficult. with BoF, atk/def bond and fortify dragons buff, she reaches 60 def in the enemy phase so this is a good setup if you prefer her as just a physical wall rather than a mixed wall. although 30 (36 vs dragons) res is not too bad on its own. ignis is a must when your def is that high just for the sheer hilarity that is weapon triangle-ignoring damage, but like her first setup, aether can also be used for even more sustain.
of course, lightning breath+ is still a viable option on her. especially if you know for a fact you won’t be using her on a team with a sword or dragon unit for her built-in atk/def bond effect. these days its more of a vintage build since BoF is such a big improvement for her, but its a viable option nonetheless. with a +RES IV, lightning breath+ (res) and warding breath in slot A, she reaches a perfectly balanced 35/35 defensive spread in the enemy phase. the advantage of this build over BoF is that she can work as a standalone tank, and doesn’t necessarily need dragon emblem support (although it always helps). threaten res is a selfish choice for her C slot but it can be adjusted to suit your team.
last up we have a budget build for those of you who like tiki, or maybe want to start building dragon emblem but don’t have all of these fancy skills to throw at her. she works perfectly fine with a simple atk +3 and QR 2 enemy phase setup. ideally close def would be her seal of choice, but if you’re on a budget you probably have better units to use it on, so def + will work just as well.
