Pure Fiction does not ask "can your team survive?" It asks "how much can your team kill before the clock runs out?" That is the whole difference, and it is why a tier list built for Memory of Chaos will actively mislead you here. MoC is a boss race that rewards concentrated single-target burst. Pure Fiction is a scoring mode that throws packed, continuously-replenishing waves at you and pays out points for volume. Point your best single-target duelist at a screen full of trash and you will watch the timer beat you. Point a real AoE hypercarry at it and the score bar fills before you finish your rotation.
So this ranking sorts teams by one metric that actually matches the mode: damage across a full enemy wave, fast, repeatedly. For where PF sits against the other two endgame modes in the first place, the MoC / PF / AS breakdown is the companion piece; this page is the Pure-Fiction-only overlay for 4.5.
Read the Fictional Prompt before you read the tiers
Every PF rotation carries a Fictional Prompt, the global buff that rewards a specific behavior, usually hitting many enemies at once, stacking a debuff, or triggering a certain hit type. It is worth real score, and it reshuffles the board for that cycle. When the prompt rewards AoE hits or a hit type your bench carry happens to spam, a B-tier team can out-score an S-tier one for that rotation. Check it on the mode screen before you lock anything in. The tiers below are the durable ranking; the prompt tells you which side each team takes this week.
One more mode rule that decides your team order: PF has two independent stages, each wants its own full squad, and a full 12-star means clearing the point threshold on both. Like MoC, this is a two-team mode. Your job is not one perfect team, it is two wave-clearers that do not fight over the same supports.
S tier: the wave-clearers that end the stage early
These are the cores that hit the point threshold with cycles to spare against a full board. If you own one, it is the backbone of your PF account.
The Herta + Herta + Erudition/Harmony + Aventurine (or any sustain). The reigning Pure Fiction queen, and it is not close. The Herta's follow-up engine scales with how many enemies are on screen and how often allies act, which is exactly the situation PF manufactures every wave. Pair her with the original Herta as an AoE feeder and the team snowballs into a point machine that treats a packed stage as free real estate. This is the first team most accounts should build for the mode.
Rappa + Ruan Mei + Harmony/Nihility + sustain. The Break specialist, and PF loves Break because Toughness bars break in bulk when every hit is AoE. Rappa's enhanced state clears whole rows at once and the Break payout piles on top of raw damage. Ruan Mei is non-negotiable glue here as everywhere. On a wave-heavy stage this is one of the fastest score curves in the game, and the Super Break guide covers the mechanics under the hood.
Himeko + Jade (or The Herta) + Harmony + Huohuo. The follow-up AoE core. Himeko's counters and blasts trigger constantly when a stage keeps spawning fresh targets, and Jade turns the whole team's follow-ups into a second damage stream. It rates a hair below the Herta duo only because it wants tighter energy and follow-up tuning to hit its ceiling, but a built version 12-stars comfortably.
A tier: 12-star engines with a condition
Strong enough to clear both PF stages, just slightly more rotation- or investment-dependent than S.
Kafka + Black Swan + Harmony + sustain. The DoT core ignores enemy count and positioning, spreading damage-over-time across the entire board at once, which is a brutal fit for waves. It drops just below the burst-AoE kings only because DoT ramps, and PF's cycle clock occasionally out-paces the ramp on a stage that a burst team would simply erase. On the longer, tankier waves it is genuinely S-tier, and it is one of the most durable teams to own long-term.
Argenti + Harmony x2 + sustain. The forgotten AoE workhorse. His enhanced Ultimate blankets the field and his energy loop is generous, so he asks very little to slot into whichever half your Herta team did not take. A reliable, low-drama second team that a lot of accounts already have half-built.
Firefly / Break secondary + Ruan Mei + Nihility + Break healer. Firefly is a MoC monster first, but a Super Break line still clears PF when the Fictional Prompt or a Break-weak wave suits it. Rate it A here rather than S because her single-target lean is a slight mismatch for the mode; she is your flex when your other carries collide on supports.
B tier: clears PF, wants the right stage
These 12-star the mode, but you point them carefully and accept a cycle or two more.
Hypercarry hold-overs (single-target carries + double Harmony + sustain). A Seele or a lone-target duelist can grind a PF stage out, but you feel every wasted tick spent killing one enemy while three more spawn. Fine as a filler second team on an add-light stage, mediocre on a packed one.
F2P AoE: a four-star blast carry + Harmony + Break support + Gallagher. Not glamorous, but a well-tuned four-star AoE team genuinely clears current PF. If you are stretched thin, the free four-star options are the reason you never have to pull to hit the point threshold; you just take an extra cycle doing it.
The two-team plan that hits 12 stars
Ranking teams is the easy half. The stars come from the resource plan, and it is subtly different from MoC:
- Build one AoE hypercarry to completion first. A finished Herta or Rappa team that erases one stage is worth more than two half-built teams that clear neither. Depth before breadth, every time.
- Make your second team a different damage source. If your first stage is Break, your second should be follow-up or DoT, so a single wave that resists your main hit type cannot lock you out of a full clear.
- Do not double up Ruan Mei, your Harmony, or your sustain. You cannot field one unit on both stages. The most common PF wall is two great teams that both want the same support. Plan the shared pieces last and patch the gaps with the best four-star supports.
- Chase the Fictional Prompt, not just the tiers. In a scoring mode, a rotation buff you actively feed is worth more than a marginal team upgrade. Read it first, then assign your two teams to the stages that reward them.
For the pull decisions behind every unit here, the 4.5 warp schedule carries the "should you pull" verdicts, and the full character tier list ranks the individual pieces. Grab the current redeem codes for free Stellar Jade before your next run, and if you want the deeper mode walkthrough rather than the team ranking, the Pure Fiction guide covers the point thresholds and wave patterns stage by stage.
Pure Fiction is a killing-volume contest wearing an endgame-mode costume. Build two AoE engines, feed the prompt, and 12 stars turns from a grind into a formality.
