Trial of Ascension (ToA) Guide - Teams, Monsters & Runes

Trial of Ascension (ToA) is PvE content in Summoners War that is unlocked at lvl 15 - there are two difficulties, ToA Normal (ToAN) and ToA Hard (ToAH).

You should start farming ToA by +trying to get as far as you can once you are able to clear GB7 because you get some pretty nice rewards.

Once you’re able to clear GB7 your team should be strong enough to at least get your energy back and some free crystals at stage 5 and 10.

Later in this guide, I will cover what are the best stats, runes, monsters, and teams for ToA and ToAH.

Both difficulties of Trial of Ascension reset once per month, make sure you clear all the stages you’re able to before each reset day.

You can see when ToA resets here:

Common Terminology:

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

ToA Rewards Breakdown

While clearing ToA you get small rewards for each stage you clear and big rewards every 10 stages. The higher floors you clear the better the 10 th stage reward will be. Here is a breakdown of what you get for each stage (Scroll to the right):

Common Stage Every 5 Stages Stage 10 Stage 20 Stage 30 Stage 40 Stage 50 Stage 60 Stage 70 Stage 80 Stage 90 Stage 100
1x Summoning Stone Crystals 50 Energy 3* Rainbowmon (Max) 1x Mystical Scroll 100 Crystals 2x Mystical Scrolls 4* Rainbowmon (Max) 1x Devilmon 300 Crystals 1x Light and Darkness Scroll 1x Legendary Scroll

Best ToA & ToAH Monsters (Runes, Stats, & Builds)

Each stage in ToA has 3 waves of monsters with some stages having a boss on the last wave.

Some stages can be quite difficult to clear and will require specific monsters to beat—especially boss stages.

The main strategy for ToA is to pair Crowd Control (CC) with Damage Over Time (DoTs) to stop your team from dying while slowly killing the waves of enemies.

The reason you don’t want to go for the standard defense break and normal damage strategy is that monsters in ToA have extremely high HP and Damage.

Their high HP makes DoTs very effective because they do -5% of enemy max HP every turn they take. Crowd Control is also a must because if more than a few enemies get a turn at once they’ll for sure kill one of your monsters.

Starter Monsters

These are the monsters you will use in your early game ToA team. Most of them are monsters from your GB10 team since you will have your best runes on them.

These monsters are also great if you're looking for free-to-play (F2P) ToA monsters since they are all farmable.

Baretta (Fire Sylph)

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Veromos (Dark Ifrit)

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Belladeon (Light Inugami)

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Bernard (Wind Griffon)

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Shannon (Wind Pixie)

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Auto/Standard Monsters

These monsters are great for safely clearing ToA in auto mode.

Mantura (Dark Serpent)

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Spectra (Fire Griffon)

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Water Homunculus (AOE/Ice Mist Path)

ToA Rating: 10/10

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Dark Homunculus (Unbalanced Field Path)

ToA Rating: 10/10

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Chasun (Wind Sky Dancer)

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Verdehile (Fire Vampire)

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Thrain (Dark Grim Reaper)

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Hemos (Water Grim Reaper)

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Woochi (Wind Taoist)

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Woonhak (Dark Taoist)

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Briand (Wind Death Knight)

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Zinc (Dark Living Armor)

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Verad (Water Dragon)

ToA Rating: 10/10

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Ganymede (Wind Fairy King)

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Okeanos (Fire Sea Emperor)

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Poseidon (Water Sea Emperor)

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Jeanne (Light Paladin)

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Jamire (Wind Dragon)

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Tyron (Water Sylph)

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Charlotte (Wind Occult Girl)

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Rica (Fire Occult Girl)

ToA Rating: 10/10

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Lapis (Water Magic Knight)

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Lupinus (Wind Magic Knight)

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Bellenus (Fire Druid)

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Shaina (Fire Chakram Dancer)

ToA Rating: 10/10

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Maruna (Fire Boomerang Warrior)

ToA Rating: 10/10

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Sabrina (Water Boomerang Warrior)

ToA Rating: 10/10

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Boss Floor Monsters

These monsters are great on most boss stages because they stop the boss from wreaking your team since bosses are immune to stuns and DoTs.

Mav (Wind Penguin Knight)

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Hwa (Fire Rakshasa)

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Basalt (Dark Battle Mammoth)

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Speed Clear Monsters

These monsters are used to speed clear through the lower floors, while some of them can be used in specific teams to clear all the way to floor 100.

Akhamamir (Wind Ifrit)

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Galleon (Water Pirate Captain)

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Luer (Water Phantom Thief)

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Frigate (Dark Pirate Captain)

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Lushen (Wind Joker)

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Beth (Water Hell Lady)

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Zaiross (Fire Dragon)

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Teshar (Wind Phoenix)

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Alicia (Water Polar Queen)

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Bastet (Water Desert Queen)

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Sigmarus (Water Phoenix)

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Niche Monsters

These monsters are used mainly on one or two specific floors because they provide a unique skill that is needed.

Groggo (Light Golem)

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Neal (Light Fairy)

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Colleen (Fire Harpu)

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Tesarion (Fire iFrit)

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Emma (Water Neostone Agent)

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ToA Team Lineups

Here are a few decent team lineups you can think about using.

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 auto teams to end game speed auto teams.

(We even cover some crazy twins auto speed teams that can even auto the floor 100 boss stages.)

Early Game Teams

These teams are great if you are still in the early game and only have limited access to monsters and runes.

Standard Teams

These teams are based around building a tanky team with a healer, DoTs, and moderate CC.

Crowd Control (CC) Teams

These teams focus fully on permanently CCing the enemies while killing them with DoTs. For these to work you need a lot of stuns, freezes, and ATB boost or reduction.

Speed Clear Teams

These teams are great for clearing the lower floors of ToAN and ToAH because they kill enemies fast but once your team starts dying you will have to which over to your standard or CC team.

Quick Summary and Conclusion:

If you're looking for more customized advice based on your accounts monsters and runes take a look at our live coaching membership.