Lunara or Helion: which starter to pick

Take Lunara if this is your first action RPG, if you expect to play co-op, or if you want the opening hours to be forgiving. Take Helion if you play solo, like committing to one button, and want a starter whose payoff keeps growing after the tutorial.

Both starters share a stat block, an Ultimate, a mobility skill, a progression path and the first half of their trait. They differ on one number: how much damage each one returns for the basic attacks its trait makes you spend. Melee versus ranged is the surface of that difference, not the substance.

Shared base stats

Identical on both

Ultimate might

167 on both

Return per 4 basic attacks

Helion about 3x

Self-healing per EP

Helion about 1.5x

The official index publishes one stat line for both starters, and the two columns match on every row.

You will see the total quoted as 504 in most places. That figure leaves out Magic Attack, which is the stat Lunara actually scales off. Count all seven and both starters land on 620, so the tie is deeper than the number being passed around, not shallower.

Because Attack and Magic Attack are equal, a Physical skill's might and a Magic skill's might rest on the same base, so the two kits can be compared press for press. Every comparison below relies on that.

The overlap keeps going. Both Ultimates cost 0 EP, run on an 8 second cooldown, land at 167 might and grant the caster 15% extra damage until combat ends. Both basic attacks are 6 might on a 0.1 second cycle. Both use Hustle in the field. Both take Light Stone to advance a stage, so neither one sends you to a different farm than the other.

Helion

Physical, close range

Lunara

Magic, ranged

Both traits open identically: when not attacking with an advantageous element, final damage increases by 20%.

Light beats only Wind and Dark, and is resisted by Electric and by Light itself. Run it against the 92 Aniimo in the Aniilog that are not the starters:

The clause pays out on 67 of 92 matchups, exactly where a Light attacker would otherwise be ordinary. Average multiplier across the roster is 1.26x against 1.12x without it, and the floor never falls below 0.75x. That is why both starters hold their value all game regardless of what you are hunting, and it is why the community board rates them a hair apart: Helion takes 9 top-tier ballots out of 13, Lunara 10 out of 13, both settling into S on the tier list.

Then the second half of each trait splits them.

Solar Grace gives Helion Solar Halo every 4 basic attacks, and the halo enhances his next skill. Basic attacks are the toll. The skill is the payoff.

Lunar Power runs backwards. Casting a skill or Ultimate grants Lunara 4 stacks of Silver Moon Mark, and each basic attack that lands spends one for 100% extra damage plus 0.5% HP. The skill is the toll. The basic attacks are the payoff.

1. 1Helion: four basics, then cast

   The basics charge the halo, and the enhanced skill is where the damage lands.

2. 2Lunara: cast, then four basics

   The skill loads four marks, and each basic cashes one in at double damage.

Both traits ask you to weave basics and skills together, and neither rewards mashing. What the weaving returns is where they part company.

Lunara's side is simple. A basic attack is 6 might. A marked one is 12. Four marks is therefore +24 might, plus 2% HP, and she has to cast again to reload.

Helion's side compounds. Four basics grant one Solar Halo, and a haloed Light Bombardment deals 30% more than its base 62, so +18.6 might, restores 4% HP, and carries a 75% chance of not consuming the halo at all.

At 75% retention, one halo survives an average of four Light Bombardments before it breaks, so long as he keeps pressing the same button. Those four basic attacks return roughly +74 might rather than +18.6.

That gap explains the split in the early hands-on reports. Lunara is easier for the first several hours: she is ranged, she auto-targets, she heals a sliver on every swing, and she never has to chase anything.

Her weave is worth less later, though. A marked basic attack is 12 might against skills worth 45 to 60, so once a team is feeding you energy, stopping to spend marks costs more damage than the marks return and her trait quietly stops paying. Early players who ran her across several builds describe that falloff. Helion's weave has the opposite shape: he pays the four basics once and then keeps cashing.

The per-EP picture splits the same way. Helion restores 4% HP for a 20 EP Bombardment, or 0.20% per EP. Lunara restores 2% for a 15 EP Moon Impact, or 0.13%. Helion self-heals about 1.5 times more efficiently. Push it the other direction and Lunara wins: her Moon Impact loop returns 4.6 might per EP against Helion's 4.03 on an enhanced Bombardment.

So Lunara converts energy into damage better, and Helion converts energy into staying alive better. Which one you want depends on whether EP or HP is the resource you run out of first, and in melee, with 65 Defense, it is HP.

The kits mirror each other slot for slot. Each starter gets a core damage skill, an amplifier, an energy skill and a break skill.

The break skills are numerically identical, down to the same 1.5 break power. The differences sit in the other three rows. Holy Roar costs 10 EP, the cheapest skill in either kit, against 20 for Lumin Bolts. Sun-Kissed scales with Helion's trait, returning 25 EP with a halo up instead of 20, where Moon-Washed is flat. And Holy Storm drags enemies to the center before it hits them, adding a stun when haloed, where Lunar Eclipse is pure break damage.

Those differences bite because you can only equip two of the four skills at a time, and the trade does not fall evenly. Helion's strongest pair is Light Bombardment plus Sun-Kissed, which means his loadout includes his own EP engine and that engine gets better as his trait fires. Lunara's strongest pair is Moon Impact plus Lumin Bolts, because Fox Mark feeds bonus area damage into Moon Impact. Both of her slots go to damage, so she gives up Moon-Washed to keep the combination.

Both starters carry a Light amplifier. Only one of them shares it.

Holy Roar raises Helion's own Light damage by 6% per hit, stacking three times for 20 seconds, and a halo applies all three stacks at once. That is 18% on Helion and 18% on nothing else.

Lumin Bolts applies Fox Mark to the targets it hits, cutting the target's Light resistance by 5%, stacking three times for 10 seconds. That is 15% less resistance on the enemy, which every Light attacker in the fight collects, Lunara included.

Solo, they are close to equivalent. In co-op they are not: Lunara's mark scales with the number of allies hitting into it, while Helion's stays locked to one damage meter. The trade is duration and upkeep. Holy Roar runs 20 seconds and carries over to the next enemy; Fox Mark expires in 10 and has to be reapplied to every new target.

That split shows up cleanly in what early players report clearing. Helion's advocates cite solo content, Nightmare Mode Egg Heists and Elite Trainers, where his sustain and break carry a single fighter through. Lunara's cite raids and Holo Battles, where the resistance shred is multiplied by everyone standing next to her.

There is a team-building argument on top of that. Your first easy capture is Emberpup, a Fire physical damage dealer that fights at close range and lives in Nimbus Fields. Pick Helion and your first two slots do the same job at the same distance. Pick Lunara and you cover a range you would otherwise have to go find. The early captures guide covers what to add after that.

Most guides say Helion evolves into Soleon and Lunara evolves into Fennelun. Those guides are not careless. They are just describing an older build.

Earlier builds did give both starters permanent evolutions, and players complained: evolving replaced the small companion they had picked. The system was later reworked. Soleon and Fennelun are now temporary transformations triggered by the Ultimate, and they last only until combat ends. Helios' Judgment turns Helion into Soleon and grants Ring of the Golden Sun. Selene's Judgment turns Lunara into Fennelun and immediately reloads four Silver Moon Marks. When the fight is over, so is the form.

Both Ultimates refill their own trait resource, which is how each loop is meant to restart after a big hit.

The starter you leave behind goes to your rival, and there is no confirmed way to obtain it later.

Two creatures sharing a stat block, an Ultimate, a mobility skill and a progression path are built to be a preference, and the community picks that way. The popular vote runs heavily toward Lunara on design alone, while the players who name specific hard content they cleared are usually the ones holding Helion.

Both are Light, so the more consequential decision is what you catch next. The beginner guide walks the opening route, and the type chart shows which gaps to fill first.