Key takeaways
- Shield units across the board. DEF-scaled shields made tanky supports better and made flat-HP shield builds worse. Re-check any support still running HP main-stats.
- Six support units got cheaper skills. Lower energy costs mean more uptime on shields and cleanses, which compounds with the shield change. Units you benched in 22.0 may be usable again.
- Elemental Rift ascension mats. Slightly better drop consistency, which mostly helps accounts in the 30–60 day range rather than veterans.
Update 22.5 is a balance-and-economy patch rather than a content drop: per the official 22.5 patch notes it adds two new units, reworks how shields scale, and roughly doubles Awakening Core drops in the two hardest raid tiers. If you only have a few hours this week, spend them farming Awakening Cores in Nightmare Raid — that one change moves more account power than either of the new units does at base rarity. The new units are good, but they are not “reroll your account” good, and the nerfs hit two popular carries hard enough to change arena teams.
A caveat worth taking seriously: live-service patches get hotfixed within days, and drop-rate numbers are the first thing to move. Treat the figures below as patch-day values from the published notes and confirm them in the in-game notice before you commit a full week of stamina.
Our top picks
![Roblox Digital Gift Card - 1,000 Robux [Includes Exclusive Virtual Item] [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419axeltOqL._SL500_.jpg)
![Roblox Digital Gift Card - 2,500 Robux [Includes Exclusive Virtual Item] [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41p8GJ7ZLdL._SL500_.jpg)
![Roblox Digital Gift Card - 2,000 Robux [Includes Exclusive Virtual Item] [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41HFZ1Pdg2L._SL500_.jpg)
![Roblox Digital Gift Card - 5,250 Robux [Includes Exclusive Virtual Item] [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41TsWfyqleL._SL500_.jpg)
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
What 22.5 changes, at a glance
| Area | What changed in 22.5 | Who feels it most | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shield scaling | Shields now scale off DEF instead of a flat value | Tanks, support units, arena defenders | Re-gear tanks toward DEF; flat-HP builds lost value |
| Awakening Core drops | Nightmare Raid and Abyss Trial drop rates roughly doubled | Mid- and late-game accounts | Farm cores before the next hotfix rebalances it |
| New units | Two units added to the standard pool | Accounts missing a support or a fire DPS | Pull only if you have a genuine roster gap |
| Crit damage caps | Top-end crit damage trimmed on two meta carries | Arena and boss-rush players | Re-check arena teams; the replacements are cheaper to build |
| Support energy costs | Skill energy costs reduced on six support units | Everyone, indirectly | Support units got quietly better — reassess your benches |
Quick comparison: what to farm first in 22.5
This is the table most players actually need. Priority is ranked for week one after the patch, when Core demand spikes and everyone is competing for the same mats.
| Mode | Entry cost | Time per run | Main drop | Week-one priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abyss Trial | 30 stamina | 7–9 min | 22–28 Awakening Cores | 1 — best cores per stamina (≈0.83) |
| Nightmare Raid | 24 stamina | 4–6 min | 16–20 Awakening Cores | 2 — best cores per minute (≈0.75 per stamina) |
| Elemental Rift | 18 stamina | 2–3 min | Ascension mats, 2–4 cores | 3 — only if you are actively ascending someone |
| Arena | No stamina, 5 tickets/day | 1–2 min per match | Coins, honor tokens | 4 — do the five dailies, then stop |
| Story Hard Mode | 12 stamina | 1–2 min | Gold, XP, first-clear gems | 5 — clear once for the gems, do not repeat-farm |
New units: what they do, and whether they’re worth pulling
The new support unit
The support addition is the more consequential of the two. Per the patch notes it applies a DEF-scaled shield to the whole team on its ultimate, which means it benefits directly from the shield-scaling rework in the same patch — the two changes were clearly designed together. If your roster has been leaning on a healer that overheals and under-shields, this is a genuine upgrade, and it slots into arena defense without a full re-gear. The trade-off: its damage contribution is close to zero, so it is a bad pick for accounts still clearing story content, where a second DPS clears stages faster than a shield buys you time.
The new damage unit
The damage unit is a straightforward single-target carry with a fire element tag. Its numbers are respectable but not meta-defining, and it lands in the same patch that trims crit damage on the two carries it would compete with — which reads more like an attempt to broaden the pool than to crown a new best-in-slot. Pull for it if you have no built fire DPS for elemental content. Skip it if you already have two carries at ascension 4 or higher; the resources are better spent on Awakening Cores this patch.
Balance changes that actually matter
Buffs
- Shield units across the board. DEF-scaled shields made tanky supports better and made flat-HP shield builds worse. Re-check any support still running HP main-stats.
- Six support units got cheaper skills. Lower energy costs mean more uptime on shields and cleanses, which compounds with the shield change. Units you benched in 22.0 may be usable again.
- Elemental Rift ascension mats. Slightly better drop consistency, which mostly helps accounts in the 30–60 day range rather than veterans.
Nerfs
- Crit damage caps on two meta carries. The ceiling came down enough that some arena one-shot setups no longer kill through a DEF-scaled shield — the two changes reinforce each other.
- Flat-value shields. Not a unit nerf, but functionally a nerf to anyone who built around them. This is the change that will cost players the most resources if they ignore it.
Do not dismantle anything yet. Historically, the biggest nerfs in this game have been partially walked back in the following mid-cycle patch, and gear investment is the hardest thing to recover.
Farming order: a worked example
Say you want to awaken one unit from ascension 4 to ascension 5, which costs roughly 1,200 Awakening Cores. Here is how 22.5’s numbers change the math:
- Abyss Trial, if you can clear it. 25 cores per run at 30 stamina = 0.83 cores per stamina. 1,200 ÷ 25 = 48 runs. At 8 minutes a run that is about 6.5 hours, and 48 × 30 = 1,440 stamina.
- Nightmare Raid, if you cannot. 18 cores per run at 24 stamina = 0.75 cores per stamina. 1,200 ÷ 18 = 67 runs, roughly 5.5 hours, and 1,600 stamina. Slightly worse per stamina, slightly better per hour because the runs are faster.
- Compare against pre-22.5 rates. At the old drop rates the same 1,200 cores took roughly double the stamina — about 2,900–3,200 stamina. That is the entire reason cores are the priority this patch.
- Budget your daily stamina. Stamina regeneration plus dailies lands most accounts somewhere around 330–360 stamina per day. At 0.83 cores per stamina that is roughly 275–300 cores per day, so a full awakening takes about four days of spending everything on one mode.
- Do not split your stamina. Splitting between Elemental Rift and a raid tier cuts your core rate to roughly half. Finish the awakening first, then go back for ascension mats.
Decision matrix: what to do based on your situation
| Your situation | Farm this | Skip this | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| New account, under 30 days | Story Hard Mode, Elemental Rift | Abyss Trial | You likely cannot clear Abyss; cores are useless without units to spend them on |
| Mid-game, 1–3 awakened units | Nightmare Raid | Arena beyond 5 dailies | Best cores-per-minute ratio you can actually clear |
| Late game, 5+ awakened units | Abyss Trial | Elemental Rift | You are almost certainly stockpiled on ascension mats already |
| PvP / arena focused | Arena + Abyss Trial | Story Hard Mode | DEF-scaled shields changed the arena meta; you need cores to build the new supports |
| Under 30 minutes a day | Nightmare Raid with sweep tickets | Abyss Trial | Sweeps preserve the drop rate; Abyss runs are too long to fit a short session |
Week-one mistakes to avoid
- Re-gearing every tank at once. Test the DEF build on one unit first — the shield formula change affects some units more than others depending on their base DEF growth.
- Pulling on the new banner with no roster gap. Neither new unit replaces an existing carry; they fill holes.
- Dismantling nerfed crit gear. Crit damage is still the best stat on everything that is not a shield unit.
- Ignoring support units you benched. The energy cost reductions are quiet but real, and support uptime is what wins long fights.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Update 22.5 a big patch?
It is medium-sized. There is no new story chapter or game mode, but the Awakening Core drop-rate change and the shield-scaling rework both shift how accounts are built. Most players will feel it more over two weeks of farming than on patch day itself.
Which of the two new units should I pull for?
Pull for the support if your team lacks reliable shields, and for the damage unit only if you have no built fire-element carry. If you already have a strong support and two ascended carries, neither is worth chasing — spend the currency on cores instead.
Did my main carry get nerfed in 22.5?
Two high-usage crit-damage carries had their top-end damage trimmed. The units are still strong; what changed is that one-shot arena setups are less reliable against DEF-scaled shields. Check your arena win rate over a few days before rebuilding anything.
What is the fastest way to get Awakening Cores after 22.5?
Abyss Trial gives the most cores per point of stamina at roughly 0.83, while Nightmare Raid gives the most per minute because the runs are shorter. If you can clear Abyss, farm it; if not, Nightmare Raid is close behind and much faster.
Should I spend stamina on Elemental Rift or a raid tier?
Only farm Elemental Rift when you are actively ascending a specific unit and short on its element mats. Otherwise the core rate is roughly a fifth of a raid tier, and cores are the bottleneck this patch.
When should I expect the next balance pass?
Mid-cycle patches in this game have historically followed the big update by roughly six to eight weeks, with hotfixes sooner if a drop rate or a unit proves overtuned. Hold off on dismantling nerfed gear until at least one hotfix has landed.
