Rift Raid (R5) Guide - Team Builds, Monsters, & Runes

What is Rift Raid (R5) and Why Farm It?

Rift Raid Level 5 (R5) is unique content in Summoners War where you party up with 2 other players to fight the Raid Boss together.

You will have a team of 6 monsters that can be placed in either the front or backline with frontline monsters taking most of the damage and backline monsters taking much less.

R5 gives you some of the best rewards in the game, here you’ll get Grinds and Enchants that will allow you to replace and increase the substats on all your runes. Farming R5 will give you a massive boost to the power of your runes and monsters.

In the image below you can see how I can use Grinds to increase the power of my already strong runes:

Common Terms

Here are some common terms used in Summoners War you should learn before reading this guide:

• ATB - Attack Bar (attack gauge)
• Debuff - Harmful Effect
• Cleanse – Remove Harmful Effects
• Proc - Activation of Skill or Rune effect
• Nat 5 - Natural 5-Star monster

Raid Boss Overview

Understanding the Raid Boss’s mechanics is the most important thing that will help you successfully build an R5 team.

Here are the important skills and passives that the R5 Boss has that you need to be aware of:

Breath of Doom

Attacks all enemies and decreases their Attack Power and Attack Speed for 2 turns. Puts them in an oblivious state for 2 turns after the attack. The harmful effect activation rate will increase as the level of the Raid increases.

Crush of Doom (Front Line Only Attack)

Targets the frontline of the enemy and unleashes an attack that ignores all beneficial effects. The damage increases substantially as the target’s Defense decreases. This attack will target the backline if there are no Monsters left in the frontline.

Rageful Roar

Becomes enraged whenever an enemy gets a turn and the skill will activate automatically when enraged 16 times. Attacks all enemies, removes all beneficial effects and recovers the HP in proportion to the number of removed beneficial effects. This attack will also stun all enemies and permanently increase the Boss’s attack power.

Total Annihilation

Attacks all party members whenever the boss loses 25% of the HP. All harmful effects will be removed and the boss’s stats will substantially increase when this skill is activated. Crush of Doom and Breath of Doom will gain an additional hit whenever Total Annihilation is activated.

Carnage

When the boss eliminates an entire team of Monsters, the boss’s attack speed will increase and will start attacking all of the nearby enemies.

Destroyer’s Revenge (Passive)

The damage of the next attack will increase in proportion to the number of the enemy’s turn. The damage will reset after the attack.

Ruler of Chaos (Passive)

The 3 heads of the boss will share the attack gauge at the start of the battle using its chaotic strength. Also, the boss will mitigate HP proportionate damage it receives by sharing a single HP among the 3 heads

Important Skills and Debuffs

1. Leader Skills (Def%, Res%, Crit Rate%)
2. Cleanse
3. Attack Break
4. Heal Block
5. Attack Speed Slow
6. ATB Reduction
7. Defense Break
8. Damage Reduction Passive
9. Glancing Hit
10. Other Non-Important Skills and Debuffs: Attack Power Buff, ATB Boost, Branding

R5 Team Builds (Rift Raid Level 5)

Team Layouts:

Stat Requirements

Frontline Monsters:

• 2-Man Frontline:
• HP: 25k
• Def: 1.5k
• 4-Man Frontline:
  • HP: 22k
  • Def: 1.3k

Backline Monsters:

• HP: 20k
• Def: 800

Speed, Accuracy, & Resistance:

Cleansers and Healers:

• SPD: 200+
• Accuracy: 15%
• Resistance: 70%

Frontline Tanks:

• SPD: As low as possible
• Accuracy: 15%
• Resistance: 70%

Damage Dealers:

• SPD: 150-200
• Accuracy: 15%
• Resistance: As much as you can without losing out on damage

Team Compositions

Double Damage Dealer

• Frontline Tank - A very tanky monster that provides a lot of the important skills. (Most of the time will be Darion or Dias for their damage reduction passives)
• Frontline Tank/Backup Healer - A very tanky monsters that provides a lot of the important skills and heals if your cleanser doesn’t heal.
• Main Healer - Your main healer should pretty much always be Colleen, she provides the most important skills and debuffs with a powerful heal. There aren’t even any Nat 5’s that are better than her as a main healer in R5.
• Cleanser/Backup Healer - Must have an AoE cleanse on a 4 turn or lower cooldown. Should either provide backup heals or another important skill.
• DMG Dealer #1 - You need your damage dealers to provide at least 2 important skills. The most common skills you want to provide with your damage dealers are Attack Speed Slow, ATB Reduction, Defense Break, and a Leader Skill. (Monsters that do increase damage based on number of debuffs are very strong here since the boss will have tons of debuffs on him)
• DMG Dealer #2 - You need your damage dealers to provide at least 2 important skills. The most common skills you want to provide with your damage dealers are Attack Speed Slow, ATB Reduction, Defense Break, and a Leader Skill. (Monsters that do increase damage based on number of debuffs are very strong here since the boss will have tons of debuffs on him)

Triple Damage Dealer

For this team composition to work you will need to use a 4-man frontline with your tank, main healer, cleanser, and one damage dealer in the frontline.

The frontline damage dealer will have to have some tanky stats and be on vampire runes so they can survive the frontline.

• Frontline Tank - A very tanky monster that provides a lot of the important skills. (Most of the time will be Darion or Dias for their damage reduction passives)
• Main Healer - Your main healer should pretty much always be Colleen, she provides the most important skills and debuffs with a powerful heal. There aren’t even any Nat 5’s that are better than her as a main healer in R5.
• Cleanser/Backup Healer - Must have an AoE cleanse on a 4 turn or lower cooldown. Should either provide backup heals and another important skill.
• DMG Dealer #1 - You need your damage dealers to provide at least 2 important skills. The most common skills you want to provide with your damage dealers are Attack Speed Slow, ATB Reduction, Defense Break, and a Leader Skill. (Monsters that do increase damage based on number of debuffs are very strong here since the boss will have tons of debuffs on him)
• DMG Dealer #2 - You need your damage dealers to provide at least 2 important skills. The most common skills you want to provide with your damage dealers are Attack Speed Slow, ATB Reduction, Defense Break, and a Leader Skill. (Monsters that do increase damage based on number of debuffs are very strong here since the boss will have tons of debuffs on him)
• DMG Dealer #3 - You need your damage dealers to provide at least 2 important skills. The most common skills you want to provide with your damage dealers are Attack Speed Slow, ATB Reduction, Defense Break, and a Leader Skill. (Monsters that do increase damage based on number of debuffs are very strong here since the boss will have tons of debuffs on him)

Twin R5 Teams

You can run both double damage dealer and triple damage dealer R5 teams with twins (note with the triple damage dealer setup you will use 2 twins in the backline with a third non-twin damage dealer in the frontline).

The best Rift Raid Level 5 (R5) team you can build is a triple damage dealer twins team for the following reasons:

1. They are very reliable.
2. They have faster runs than any other team competition with equal runes (Not counting any cheesy Katarina teams because the vast majority of players do not have the runes for those teams to work.)
3. Will allow you to save runes because you can use the twins for your dungeon, rift beast, and ToA teams as well.

Best Monsters For Rift Raid (R5)

Frontline Tanks:

Dias (Dark Death Knight)

R5 Rating: 10/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 30% Resistance Leader Skill
2. Damage Reduction Passive: 15% less damage + 50% lower chance to be crit
3. 100% chance to land Attack Break with second skill (Double Hit)
4. 80% chance to put up Heal Block debuff with first skill
5. 100% chance to land Defense Break with second skill (Double Hit)

Notes:

Dias is the best frontline tank for Raid because he provides so many of the most important skills you need all in one monster. He is also one of only 2 good resistance lead monsters for R5.

Since his base defense is so high and his passive reduces so much damage—it’s easy to make him tanky enough for the frontline even on Revenge or team wide stat sets like Fight or Determination runes.

Darion (Light Vagabond)

R5 Rating: 9/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Damage Reduction Passive: 20% less damage to your team
2. 70% chance to land Attack Break with second skill (Double hit)
3. 100% chance to land Defense Break with first skill

Notes:

Darion is a great free-to-play substitute for Dias if you don’t have him. While Darion isn’t quite as good as Dias be provides 2 important debuffs along with a much-needed damage reduction passive. The damage reduction passives don’t stack so make sure not to use both Dias and Darion on the same team.

Bastet (Water Desert Queen)

R5 Rating: 9/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 33% Defense Leader Skill
2. 80% chance to land Attack Break on first skill
3. 75% chance to land Heal Block on second skill (Triple Hit)
4. 75% chance to land Defense Break on second skill (Triple Hit)
5. 75% chance to land Glancing Debuff on second skill (Triple Hit)
6. 25% Attack Bar Increase for your team with a shield and Attack Buff

Notes:

Bastet is basically an improved version of Xiong Fei, she offers similar debuffs with a higher chance of landing them. She also provides a back up attack buff and her shield is better sustain than Xiong’s heal buff.

Xiong Fei (Fire Panda Warrior)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 33% Defense Leader Skill
2. High chance to land Attack Break on skill three
3. High chance to land Attack Speed Slow on skill three
4. 50% chance to land Defense Break on skill one (Triple Hit)
5. High chance to land Glancing Debuff on skill three
6. Provides small amount of backup healing

Notes:

Xiong Fei is great as a second dedicated frontline tank because he provides a very important leader skill and tons of debuffs. He is good to use when you don’t have the runes to let your healers, cleansers, or damage dealers tank the frontline yet but once you have good enough runes you will replace Xiong with an extra damage dealer.

Fedora (Water Death Knight)

R5 Rating: 7/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 25% Defense Leader Skill
2. Backup Cleanse on 5-turn cooldown
3. 100% chance to land Attack Break with second skill (Double Hit)
4. 80% chance to put up Heal Block debuff with first skill
5. 100% chance to land Defense Break with second skill (Double Hit)

Notes:

While Fedora does provide a good amount of important skills & debuffs I don’t recommend building him because Xiong Fei is just better and is fusible. A lot of players will kick you from their R5 runs if you are using Fedora instead of the better frontline tanks. 

Main & Backup Healers:

Colleen (Fire Harpu)

R5 Rating: 10/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 70% chance to land Attack Break on first skill (Double Hit)
2. 100% chance to land Heal Block on second skill (Triple Hit)
3. Decent Heal with 3 turns of Attack Power buff

Notes:

The reason Colleen is the best Raid healer is she provides 2 of the most important debuffs in a very reliable way because of all her multi-hits gives the debuffs multiple chances to be applied. Because her first skill puts up the most important debuff for R5 (Attack Break) you can build her with Revenge runes to make sure Attack Break is always up on the boss.

Praha (Water Oracle)

R5 Rating: 9/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 41% Resistance Leader Skill
2. Huge 50% HP Heal

Notes:

Praha’s 41% resistance leader is amazing because it greatly lowers the stat requirements for your monsters. The 50% HP heal is also pretty big giving you a ton of sustain and allowing you to build Colleen on full Revenge or team stat rune sets instead of Violent. She also has great base stats so it’s easy to make her tanky enough for the frontline.

Mihyang (Water Sky Dancer)

R5 Rating: 9/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Backup Semi-Cleanse
2. Backup Heal
3. 50% chance to put up Glancing Debuff on first skill

Notes:

Mihyang’s backup cleanse will keep debuffs off your team more often which will not only give your team more survivability but it will give your team more damage by keeping attack break off them. The backup heal is also great for more sustain, allowing your Colleen to not have to be on Violent.

Chasun (Wind Sky Dancer)

R5 Rating: 7/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Powerful Heals with Attack Buff
2. 50% chance to put up Glancing Debuff on first skill

Notes:

Chasun can be used as a frontline tank healer but she’s not that good because she doesn’t provide many important skills or debuffs and takes too many turns which adds to the bosses stun counter.

Cleansers:

Amarna (Light Anubis)

R5 Rating: 10/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Cleanses your team and Heals for 30% on 4-turn cooldown (Will also revive a dead allies incase someone on your team dies)
2. 50% chance to Block Healing on first skill (Double Hit)
3. 50% chance to put up Defense Break on first skill (Double Hit)
4. 60% chance to put up Branding debuff on second skill (Triple Hit)

Notes:

Amarna is the best Raid healer because she provides a cleanse and powerful heal all in one monster while also bringing a few important debuffs along with the rare Branding debuff to speed up your runs considerably.

She also has a safety revive built into her third skill that could save your run if your frontline damage dealer dies.

Amarna is also a smart healer/cleanser because she won’t use her third skill unless your team is low on HP or has debuffs on them.

Lisa (Fire Neostone Agent)

R5 Rating: 9/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Cleanses your team and teams up with 2 allies which adds more damage and reduces their cooldowns by 1 turn. (On a 4-turn cooldown)
2. 50% chance to put up Glancing debuff on first skill (Double Hit)

Notes:

It might seem like Lisa doesn’t bring much but you have to realize that when she teams up with other monsters on your team they will apply the debuffs on their first skills and then also have their second and third skills back up quicker. Lisa is one of the best cleansers for certain R5 team comps.

Nicki (Dark Occult Girl)

R5 Rating: 9/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Cleanses your team and heals based on attack power on a 3-turn cooldown
2. 35% chance to Block Healing on third skill (5x Hits)
3. Backup Attack Power Buff on third skill

Notes:

Nicki is a great R5 Cleanser because she has a cleanse that also heals on only a 3-turn cooldown. Her heal also heals damage dealers by an enormous amount because it heals based on attack power not HP.

Nicki is a semi-smart healer/cleanser because she won’t use her heal/cleanse unless your team needs it, however sometimes she will use her third skill if it off cooldown even when your team needs a heal or cleanse.

Nicki also provides the important Heal Block debuff and a backup Attack Buff for when the boss strips your Attack Buff from Colleen.

Anavel (Water Occult Girl)

R5 Rating: 9/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Cleanses your team and heals based on attack power on a 3-turn cooldown
2. 50% chance to Defense Break on third skill (Triple Hit)

Notes:

Anavel is great for the same reasons Nicki is only difference is she brings Defense Break instead of Heal Block and doesn’t have the backup Attack Power buff. For these reasons Nicki is a little bit better than Anavel but they are very close.

Jamire (Wind Dragon)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Cleanses your team and refreshes your teams cooldowns so they are ready to be used. (5-turn cooldown)
2. 70% chance to put up Attack Break on second skill.

Notes:

Jamire is the only cleanser you can get away with having on a 5-turn cooldown because of his cooldown refresh which will give you much more sustain because your healers will have their heal back up.

I would however consider using a second cleanser or Mihyang as your healer. Jamire is also great because he has very tanky base stats which makes it easy for him to tank the frontline.

Delphoi (Wind Undine)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Cleanses your team and gives immunity buff for 2 turns, also heals for 15% HP on a 4-turn cooldown.
2. 50%-80% chance to put up Attack Speed Slow debuff on first skill

Notes:

Delphoi is a pretty good cleanser because she also provides some heals so you don’t need a second healer and the immunity buff can sometimes come in handy to prevent debuffs from going on your team.

You should be able to get her crit rate to around 40%+ which means she will also get another 19% from the crit leader skill making her Attack Speed Slow land pretty reliably. 

Konamiya (Water Garuda)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Cleanses your team and gives them a small 15% HP heal on a 3-turn cooldown
2. Fills the attack bar of one team member on second skill

Notes:

The reason Konamiya is so great is his cleanse is on a really short cooldown and he also heals so you don’t need a second healer in your comp.

Damage Dealers:

Melissa (Wind Chakram Dancer)

R5 Rating: 10/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 60% chance to put up Attack Break on second skill
2. 60% chance to put up Defense Break on second skill
3. Third skills damage increases by 10% for every harmful effect on the boss

Notes:

Melissa is the best R5 damage dealer because not only does she bring 2 important debuffs but she also does insane damage because her third skill gets a huge damage buff from all the debuffs on the Raid Boss.

Sabrina (Water Boomerang Warrior)

R5 Rating: 10/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 60% chance to put up Attack Break on skill two (Triple Hit)
2. 100% chance to put up Heal Block on skill two (Triple Hit)
3. 60% chance to put up Defense Break on skill two (Triple Hit)
4. 75% chance to put up Defense Break on skill one
5. 35% damage increase for herself and the Chakram Dancer

Notes:

Even after the twins nerf Sabrina is one of the best damage dealers for R5 because she brings 3 of the most important debuffs along is huge damage and a damage increase for your Chakram Dancer.

Full Sabrina Monster Guide

Talia (Water Chakram Dancer)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. Self-Cleanses debuffs on skill two
2. 50% increased damage when the bosses HP is below 50% for her and the Boomerang Warrior

Notes:

Talia is good but her Wind sister is better for R5 because she really doesn’t bring anything but damage to the table. Melissa the Wind Chakram will also do more damage than her in Raid most of the time while also bringing important debuffs.

Talia’s skill 2 will also add an extra stack to the bosses Rageful Roar.

You will also want to build Talia with pure damage for your dungeon teams but if you want to use her in Raid you will need to sacrifice some damage to make her a little tanky to survive the backline.

Full Talia Monster Guide

Hwa (Fire Rakshasa)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 19% Crit Rate Leader Skill
2. 80% chance to put up Attack Speed Slow on first skill (20% chance to Double Hit)
3. ATB Reduction by 25% on all skills (20% chance to Double Hit)

Notes:

Hwa is one of the best and most common damage dealers for R5 because she is the only good crit rate leader for Raid. She also provides 2 of the rarest important debuffs you need for a successful R5 team.

Xiao Lin (Water Kung Fu Girl)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 100% chance to put up Attack Speed Slow with second skill
2. 80% chance to ATB Reduce by 50% with second skill
3. 50% chance to put up Defense Break with skill one
4. Third skill does huge damage that is increased by 15% for each debuff on the boss.

Notes:

Xiao Lin is similar to Melissa where she brings big damage combined with multiple important debuffs.

You can also use the Light, Dark, or Fire Kung Fu Girl as a substitute if you don’t have the Water one.

Wind Homunculus (Whirling Wind Path)

R5 Rating: 8/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 50% chance to put up Heal Block with first skill (Triple Hit)
2. 100% chance to put up Attack Speed Slow with second skill (Triple Hit)
3. 100% chance to put up Defense Break with third skill (Triple Hit)
4. 100% chance to put up Branding with third skill (Triple Hit)

Notes:

The Wind Homunculus provides tons of great debuffs including the super rare Branding which will make your runs much faster.

The problem with him is he doesn’t so as much damage as some other damage dealers and by building him you sacrifice having the Water Homunculus which is much more useful.

Stella (Water Assassin)

R5 Rating: 7/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 70% ATB Reduction on the third skill
2. 75% chance to put up Defense Break on the first skill
3. 100% chance to put up Branding and Silence with the second skill (Double Hit)

Notes:

While Stella is out shined by some of the other damage dealers I mentioned above, having at least one person in your Raid party with a Stella would be optimal to make sure you have Branding on the boss.

Also while Silence doesn’t work on the boss at all what it dose do is add another debuff on the boss giving your Melissa’s, Xiao Lin’s, and Brandia’s extra damage.

Brandia (Fire Polar Queen)

R5 Rating: 7/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 100% chance to put up Attack Break with the second skill
2. 100% chance to put up Glancing Hit with the second skill
3. 55% chance to put up Defense Break with the first skill
4. Third skill does huge damage that is increased by 30% for each debuff on the boss.

Notes:

While Brandia is great the issue with her is that in most team comps Xiao Lin is just better.

Xiao Lin just does more damage while providing debuffs that are not covered as much by your supports.

Mei Hou Wang (Fire Monkey King)

R5 Rating: 6/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 33% Defense Leader Skill
2. 100% chance to put up Defense Break with second skill
3. Immune to the bosses stuns and gains 200% Attack Power after being hit 10 times

Notes:

Mei Hou Wang is good as a Semi-damage dealer and frontline tank. Because of his great base stats and his self-sustain he can easily tank the frontline even on a damage dealer build.

His passive that makes him immune to stuns and gives him tons of Attack Power makes him a decent third frontline damage dealer when you need the 33% Defense Leader Skill.

Argen (Wind Vampire)

R5 Rating: 6/10

Brings To The Table:

1. 100% chance to put up Attack Break with second skill
2. 100% chance to put up Attack Speed Slow with second skill
3. Has some self-sustain on first skill
4. Third skill does pretty good damage and increases by 25% for each debuff on the boss

Notes:

Argen is a great free-to-play (F2P) damage dealer that can replace Hwa or Xiao Lin until you get them.

The only problem with Argen is his debuffs aren’t as good and his damage is lower as well.

R5 Team Lineups

Here are a few basic team lineups you can use.

If you really want to build the best team possible for your stage of the game I would recommend you check out our Ultimate Progression Guide.

In there we go in-depth on what are the best teams to use for all stages of Summoners War, from super reliable early game teams to end game speed teams.

(We even cover some crazy twin speed teams that will allow you to use the twins for dungeons and Raid so you don’t need to build and rune tons of different monsters for PvE)

Example Team #1 (Safer)

This team is a great starter team, its safe and doesn’t require strong runes.

• Frontline: Dias (L), Xiong Fei (L)
• Backline: Colleen, Konamiya, Hwa (L), Xiao Lin
• Replacements: You can replace Dias with Darion but you won’t be able to use the resistance leader if your other two partners don’t have it. You can also replace Konamiya with a higher rated cleanser. You can also replace either Xiao Lin or Hwa with Argen if you don’t have either of them.

Example Team #2 (Faster)

This team will be faster run times but will require better runes to be as reliable as the safe team example.

• Frontline: Dias (L), Colleen, Konamiya, Xiao Lin
• Backline: Hwa (L), Stella
• Replacements: You can replace Dias with Darion but you will only have 1 leader skill option. You can also replace Konamiya with another cleanser that also heals. You can also replace one of the damage dealers with the Fire Money and put him into the frontline while moving Xiao Lin to the backline. You can also replace Stella with another damage dealer like the Wind Homunculus. 

Quick Summary and Conclusion:

• Rift Raid Level 5 (R5) is the most effective way to increase the power of your runes and monsters after you’ve farmed a good amount of GB10 and DB10.
• Being successful in R5 comes down to having a team composition that has multiple sources of each important debuff along with the other requirements listed in the article above.
• After you have a good team composition you will need to make sure you build your monsters with the correct runes and stats, in the Ultimate Progression Guide I breakdown exactly how to rune every R5 monster.