A Palmon Survival squad is seven Palmon split between a front row and a back row, and most of its power comes from buffs that only reach allies of one element. Get the element and the layout right and a squad of ordinary Palmon beats a pile of stronger ones thrown together. This guide covers the rules; our Best Teams page has the finished squads.
The element wheel
Four elements counter each other in a loop. Electric beats Water, Earth beats Electric, Fire beats Earth, and Water beats Fire. Water and Earth are neutral to each other. Every Palmon's Evolution IV step also raises its Elemental Counters stat, so the edge grows as your squad matures.
Use the wheel when choosing a second squad or a Peak Palosseum lineup, not your main one. Most servers lean heavily on Water, which is part of why Electric squads do well in Peak Palosseum, and a Fire squad makes a sensible second team for an Electric main because it covers the Earth teams that beat Electric.
Pure squads win
The strongest squads at the top of Peak Palosseum are pure element, and the reason is arithmetic. Regalion, Gnashley, Battereina, Fulgairy, Salamantis, Revontulet and Hexkit all buff only their own element. Palmite, the achievement bonuses and your equipped Boss Palmon do the same. A squad with two elements splits all of that in half.
Keep squads to one element, or six plus one at most. The seventh slot usually goes to Mammolith, an Earth Mythic that earns its place in Water and Electric teams through its own defense. Classic half-and-half hybrids fall behind in the late game, so treat a hybrid as a bridge while you build.
In Season 1 the natural bridge is Water with Electric, because the early URs of both arrive together. Put the sturdier Water Palmon at the front and the Electric damage dealers behind them, then move to a pure squad once you have seven of one element.
RegalionWater FrontlinerBuffs Water only
GnashleyWater FrontlinerBuffs Water only
BattereinaElectric BacklinerBuffs Electric only
FulgairyElectric FrontlinerBuffs Electric only
SalamantisEarth BacklinerBuffs Earth only
RevontuletFire BacklinerBuffs Fire only
Three damage dealers, then buffers
A squad needs fewer damage dealers than it looks. Three is enough; a fourth or fifth deals very little until it has top-end equipment, and its slot does more as a buffer or a tank. On Water, that means Ninjump, Lucidina and Fingenue or Glacewing do the killing while Regalion and Gnashley stay in no matter what gets swapped.
Each element has its own buffer pair. Electric keeps Battereina for damage and Fulgairy for damage reduction, with Gryndarr adding Crit Rate once it arrives. Earth keeps Salamantis and, later, Scorphelia, whose Attack stacks grow with every Rage Skill cast. Fire keeps Revontulet, with Hexkit and Escarffier feeding the carry.
Watch for buffs that overlap instead of stacking. Fulgairy's damage reduction and Shadowvolt's do not add together; only one applies, so running both spends a slot for half its value.
NinjumpWater BacklinerWater damage dealer
LucidinaWater BacklinerWater damage dealer
FingenueWater BacklinerWater damage dealer
GlacewingWater BacklinerMythic alternative
Rage decides who acts first
Most fights are won by whichever side lands its big Rage Skills first, so Rage speed is a stat worth building around. Evolution I gives every Palmon 20 starting Rage, one more reason to take your whole squad to 5 stars before evolving anyone further. Some kits speed the bar up directly: Glacewing's Dragon's Roar builds Rage 15% faster, Escarffier's Rage Ignition 20% faster, and Escarffier's evolved form also hands 30 Rage to your strongest Fire ally.
Enemies can slow it down too. Bosses with skills that cut your attack speed delay every Rage bar in the squad, because Rage fills as your Palmon attack. Against those fights, lean on your fastest casters and on Zapantis, whose paralysis stops the enemy's own Rage Skills.
- GlacewingWater Backliner
Faster Rage
EscarffierFire FrontlinerFaster Rage, feeds Fire
ZapantisElectric FrontlinerStops enemy Rage Skills
Formation: who stands where
Tanks and Palmon with self-protection go in front: Dolphriend, Mammolith, Ghillant, Fulgairy and Zapantis. Mammolith in particular belongs in the front row, where Runic Hide's damage reduction does its job.
Put the Palmon whose buff dies with them behind someone sturdy. Regalion's damage boost stops the moment it falls, so on a Water squad with Kungpaw, put Kungpaw forward and Regalion further back. Escarffier is listed as a front-liner but has no defensive skill, so it belongs in the back row too.
Read the enemy's layout as well. Several Rage Skills only reach one row: Zapantis and Hoofrit hit the back row, while Sylphira and Oleana hit the front. Range matters for Glacewing, whose blast only reaches nearby enemies; how far away a target sits changes when it engages and how fast its Rage fills. If a squad keeps losing, rearrange before replacing anyone.
Which element to main
Water is the cheapest to build and the easiest to start, and its early Palmon carry a free account a long way. Electric is the strongest choice for a fresh start or a second account, and it counters the Water squads most servers are full of. Earth and Fire both need nearly every member fully built before they perform, which makes them expensive for free players; Fire in particular spreads its damage across all seven Palmon, so no single carry can hold it up.
Whatever you pick, finish one squad before starting a second. A maxed first team clears more content than two half-built ones, and the second squad is best chosen to cover the element that beats your first.