In order to fight on the battlefields of Master X Master (MXM), you may have to make numerous decisions, starting from choosing a Master to weapon upgrade types, skills, and Node.

How to make these decisions are naturally absorbed through tutorials. You will still be able to proceed the game without obtaining pre-knowledge before playing, and you’ll still be able to play even if you don’t choose them properly.

However, knowing how your decisions influence your game experience will help you clear the stages with more ease or give you good ratings in PVP. Since there are many parts where you have to set up before playing such as weapon upgrade types or skill unlocks and upgrades, it is important to be always prepared.

◆ The importance of the two Master combination! How to choose a Master

Choosing a Master to play before anything else will have the biggest influence on your battles. A Master refers to the character you will be playing, and because you always play 2 Masters in a group, you have to choose 2 Masters. You cannot choose the same Master twice.

You’ll be using the Tag system to play 2 Masters you’ve picked in the battle, so you must consider their combination as well as their individual powers, and you’ll be making that decision based on each Master’s role, range, and Attunement.

Roles are indicators that tell you what each Master has to do in general. There are 8 types of roles- nuker, skirmisher, assassin, marksman, assault, juggernaut, support, and summoner. The range tells you, well, basically the range of the Master’s weapon attack, and is divided into Melee, Mid-ranged, and Long-ranged.

There are 3 types of Attunement, Ardent, Kinetic, and Helix, and each Attunement is stronger or weaker depending on the enemy’s Attunement. Ardent Masters can deal 15% additional damage to Helix Masters, and have an increase in defense by 15% against Helix attacks. Likewise, Helix is strong against Kinetic, and Kinetic is strong against Ardent with a 15% increase in attack damage and defense. It may be simple, yet powerful, so it’s crucial to play Masters with Attunements that give you an advantage over your enemies.

Two masters with different role, range, and Attunements are generally chosen in order to be prepared for any battles. But in case of PVE where all monsters have the same Attunement, it is better to pick two Masters with the same Attunement. Sometimes the strategy of choosing the Masters with the same Attunement is used depending on the combination of your teammates’ Masters.

There’s one thing you need to be aware of- you can’t choose all Masters when you start out. You can only pick a Master you have already purchased or is from the free rotation. If you have a Master that you’d like to play, you’ll have to wait for the rotation to change or actually pay for it.

◆ Choose attack damage for stages! How to choose skills

Skills refer to the active skills that each Master uses in the battle. All Masters have 4 active skills besides their ults. But they can’t use all active skills in one battle and instead choose only 2. Skills can be selected by Q or E, and they work like quick slots.

2 out of 4 active skills are locked by default so you can’t use them right away. You must unlock them on your Master page in the lobby or from the skill tab before using them, which will cost you gold. However, the Masters in the free rotation have all skills unlocked for use.

It’s possible to enhance skill power by upgrading active skills, although that is limited only to PVE. There are 6 upgrade levels for skills, and 3 and 6 level upgrades give your skills a big boost. You can both upgrade and unlock the skills in the skill tab from the Master page, and it requires gold. Once upgraded, it stays upgraded.

Generally, skills with powerful attack damage are used for a fast clear in PVE, so you’d want to upgrade the skills with high attack damage to use in the stages. Skills with healing or trap effects are not usually picked except in certain stages, so leave those to upgrade later.

Skills for PVP are much different from the ones for PVE. You should make a note that skill upgrades done in the skill tab from the Master page aren’t going to be any help at all.

Skill upgrades for PVP are done using points Masters get whenever their levels rise during combat. They don’t require gold, and each upgrade is reset in a new match. Also, if you upgrade your skills while engaged in a battle, the skills in your quickslot will be upgraded; so if you want to upgrade skills quickly during PVP, then put that skill in the quickslot.

It is best to choose a balanced combination for your skill set unlike PVE. For example, choosing a skill set with more than one CC, or having both short and long-raged skills. Of course, it is always up to you. There are many combos for you to choose from, like choosing only skills with CC or powerful skill damage, based on your team combination or your opponent Master’s Attunement, or the strategies you’ll be using.

◆ Focus on one weapon to upgrade! How to choose weapon upgrade types

Weapon upgrade types are effects that can boost several weapon abilities like damage or attack speed. There are 3 types of weapon upgrades in total, from which you have to choose one. The effect or the type of weapon upgrade types vary from Master to Master.

If the Masters you chose aren’t from the free rotation, then the weapon upgrade types will be locked, aside from the default ones, so you must unlock them first on the Master page in the lobby or in the weapon tab using gold.

You can also upgrade augments to maximize the effect of weapon upgrade types in the weapon tab. If you enhanced a weapon to the maximum, its efficiency will increase by a lot, so it’s important to upgrade your weapon upgrade type.

You need materials to go on with upgrading.You can upgrade augment to max 3 levels, and as the level increases, so does the material class and quantity. You will especially need a lot of materials when upgrading to the last level, so it’s better to focus on upgrading one weapon upgrade type. Weapon upgrades have 100% effect in all PVP and PVE.

◆ General guide on choosing the right Node

The last thing you’d choose is a Master Node. Master Node is an item that enhances different stats like attack damage, defense, or move speed. You can only choose from the ones you’ve already set before the game, and cannot change in the middle, so you must complete your set-up before the battle starts.

1 Master Node consists of 6 Nodes, and are 3 types of Nodes: red, blue, and yellow. Red Nodes increases attack-related abilities, and blue defense-related, and yellow auxiliary-related. Even if it is same coloured, Nodes can have different options, and the higher the class, the better the efficiency is.

You can only change the Master Node settings in the Nodes tab on Master pages. You can set 2 Master Nodes by default, but you can add more by using gold or X-Coins if you want. However, a Master Node that you’ve already used cannot be used for other Master Nodes to overlap, so you need many Nodes to set several different Master Nodes.

Getting the highest Node applied isn’t everything, as you have to consider the Node Efficiency. Node Efficiency shows how much efficiency you can pull out of using certain Nodes, and each Master has different Node Efficiencies.

For example, 100% Node Efficiency for Vita requires 1 Offensive, 1 Defensive, and 4 Auxiliary Nodes. You can use 6 Defensive Nodes if you want, but that will give you only 50% of its max efficiency due to its low Node Efficiency.

Since you’ll be picking 2 Masters, you must prepare at least 2 Master Nodes. For example, if you want to play Jinsoyun, who has Node Efficiency of 3 Offensive, 2 Defensive, and 1 Auxiliary Node, and Jintai, who has Node Efficiency of 1 Offensive, 3 Defensive, and 2 Auxiliary, you should have 2 different Master Nodes ready for them.

Nodes have 100% efficiency in PVE, Custom Match, and Ranked from PVP, but only 50% in Normal PVP and AI Bot Matches.

◆ Increase your power in real time! ‘Traits’, only for Titan Ruins

One of the PVP modes, Titan Ruins, has ‘Traits’ that you can use to enhance your Master additionally. Each Master has 4 Traits, and the type of Traits differ per Master. You can get and check the Traits by clicking on the portrait on the bottom part of your screen.

In order to increase your Trait, you must get the Trait points. 3 Trait points are given to each Master whenever their levels increase by 3. Since there are 2 Masters, you’d be getting 6 Trait points. Based on how you invest, your Trait points will differentiate your Master Efficiency.

For example, if you invest your Trait points in ‘Boost Health’, your HP will increase, allowing you to sustain longer against enemy attacks. Investing in ‘Boost Weapon Damage’ will increase your attack damage. You’ll need to plan your investment since there are only 18 Trait points maximum, so use these points wisely to enhance your Master’s strength.