Foreword

Guides

In this guide, we offer information about the basics of team building and examples of pre-made teams. Please note that these are just guidelines, and not hard rules. Due to the existence of several key factors — that we will go over in a minute — that somewhat restrict the ways teams can be built in AFK Journey. If you don’t see your preferred character in this guide, it doesn’t mean they’re not viable; in that case just refer to our Tier List or character page to see what place they have in teams.

If you're looking for late game or PVP teams, check our other guide:

Faction Bonus

Guides

While creating a team, it is important to maximize your faction bonus. Whenever more than 2 characters of the same faction are put on a team, the entire team’s stats are increased by a certain percent. This means you’re incentivized to keep your teams to two factions at most, though the

Celestial
Celestial
and
Hypogean
Hypogean
factions are here to help mitigate the issue.

Celestial
Celestial
and
Hypogean
Hypogean
are interesting, as they serve as ‘neutral’ characters that can count towards any faction. To make it easier to understand: if you run 4 characters of the
Wilders
Wilders
faction, then add either a Celestial or Hypogean character, it’ll activate the 5 character matching faction bonus.

Note that it’s not worth it to go for a mono-faction set-up. Not only do most factions not have 5 characters that both are good and synergize with one another, the extra stats are just not worth it when compared to the utility of some of the meta characters. Instead, most teams function on a ‘core’, which is a set of 3 characters of the same faction that dictate what faction the team will run around. The other two units are then added based on synergy or power.

Standard Team Setup

Even though there are many possible teams in this game, more often than not, they will follow the same style of building when deciding between which characters to use.

  • Pick a Tank. Tanks are the key figures in a team, even if their presence doesn’t often decide the other characters that will make up the team. Tanks have an exceedingly small roster, so be careful with who you pick to build around the faction bonus.
  • Pick 2x DPS. At the time of writing this, there is no real reason to run just 1 DPS. There aren't enough characters that can support that kind of playstyle, so most teams opt to run at least 2 DPS.
  • Pick a Support Supports are often the backbone of a team. Though most Supports (depending on the character) can provide enough sustain on their own, sometimes their kits trade raw healing output for things like buffs or debuffs.
  • Flex spot. Pick a Specialist, a second Support or a second Tank.
    • Specialists are either characters with quirky kits, or characters that focus on multiple roles at the same time. A key observation you may have is that the “good” Specialists often provide something in terms of buffs, debuffs or enhancements for your other characters,
    • You can also run a second Tank to split the agro, allowing the frontline to survive long enough for your team to use their Ultimates or a second Support - so you get more healing and more buffs. There's no one team setup to rule them all and who you choose for the flex spot depends a lot on the enemy formation.

Team Suggestions

Team compositions typically feature a core of 3 units of the same faction (so you can activate the +10% stat bonus), with the other 2 being flexed either between another faction or non-matching units. Below you will find beginner core teams for every faction - while some factions are better than others, we decided to review each of them to give you guys a choice on who you want to play (and also since we're at the mercy of RNG - despite the wishlist, you might get only dupes from one faction and you will be forced to play them).

Maulers
Maulers

This team is focused mostly around comfortable AFK Stage progression as a F2P player. From all the core teams, the Mauler team is probably the strongest and makes progressing through the game easier.

Maulers
Maulers

Tank

Antandra
Rarity A
Tank
Antandra
Brutus
Rarity S
Warrior
Brutus

Support

Smokey & Meerky
Rarity S
Support
Smokey & Meerky

Support

Koko
Rarity A
Support
Koko
Information about the core team

Damage dealer

Alsa
Rarity S
Mage
Alsa
Rhys
Rarity S
Marksman
Rhys
Odie
Rarity A
Marksman
Odie
Seth
Rarity A
Rogue
Seth

Alternatives

Rowan
Rarity S
Support
Rowan
Shakir
Rarity S
Rogue
Shakir
Thoran
Rarity S
Tank
Thoran
Information about the non-core spots

If you want to see this team in action, check Volkin's video:


Wilders
Wilders

A very potent core comp. This team is focused on cycling energy through the use of Rowan in order to quickly get Florabelle and Granny Dahnie's ultimates up and start a crowd control chain with the rest of the team, backed by powerful healing.

Just be aware that the 3 core members of the team -

Granny Dahnie
Florabelle
Florabelle
Hewynn
Hewynn
- are all S-Level characters and while you can buy dupes for all of them from the shops, it will still take you longer to ascend them.

Wilders
Wilders

Tank

Granny Dahnie
Rarity S
Tank
Granny Dahnie

Damage dealer

Lily May
Rarity S
Rogue
Lily May
Florabelle
Rarity S
Warrior
Florabelle

Support

Hewynn
Rarity S
Support
Hewynn
Information about the core team

Damage Dealer

Arden
Rarity A
Mage
Arden
Bryon
Rarity S
Marksman
Bryon
Parisa
Rarity A
Mage
Parisa

Flex spot

Rowan
Rarity S
Support
Rowan
Cassadee
Rarity S
Mage
Cassadee
Lyca
Rarity A
Marksman
Lyca
Information about the non-core spots
Graveborn
Graveborn

The core Graveborn composition functions and is viable in PVE from Early to Late game, and only gets more potent as Exclusive Weapons are being unlocked over time.

Graveborn
Graveborn

Tank

Thoran
Rarity S
Tank
Thoran

Damage dealer

Cecia
Rarity S
Marksman
Cecia

Damage dealer

Viperian
Rarity A
Mage
Viperian
Silvina
Rarity A
Rogue
Silvina
Information about the core team

Support

Rowan
Rarity S
Support
Rowan
Hewynn
Rarity S
Support
Hewynn
Ludovic
Rarity S
Support
Ludovic

Flex spot

Lucius
Rarity A
Tank
Lucius
Brutus
Rarity S
Warrior
Brutus
Reinier
Rarity S
Support
Reinier
Information about the non-core spots
Lightbearers
Lightbearers

By far the weakest faction as far as team-building power goes. Most of the good Lightbearer characters are used to supplement other teams rather than forming a core of their own. Despite this, there are options for a Lightbearer based team, as Lightbearers generally have a mix of offense and defensive capabilities, it’s just that you typically don’t need the amount of defensive options they provide.

Lightbearers
Lightbearers

Damage dealer

Vala
Rarity S
Rogue
Vala

Specialist

Korin
Rarity A
Warrior
Korin

Support

Rowan
Rarity S
Support
Rowan
Information about the core team

Tank

Lucius
Rarity A
Tank
Lucius
Thoran
Rarity S
Tank
Thoran
Granny Dahnie
Rarity S
Tank
Granny Dahnie

Flex spot

Cecia
Rarity S
Marksman
Cecia
Hewynn
Rarity S
Support
Hewynn
Reinier
Rarity S
Support
Reinier
Florabelle
Rarity S
Warrior
Florabelle
Information about the non-core spots