Best Melisandre loadout in Unicorn Overlord

Bringing Melisandre to your party is a smart idea in Unicorn Overlord, but she requires some additional aid if you want to make the best use of her abilities. Let’s talk about this potent Swordfighter.

Best unit composition for Melisandre

The Unit screen for Unicorn Overlord, showing the Cavalry unit Abel. — Even a lord of blades needs some backup spears. Screenshot by Dot Esports

In Unicorn Overlord, Melisandre’s strengths involve soloing lower health and armor units while dodging most attacks—especially melee. However, her weaknesses come from her low health and Physickal Resistance, making her take a lot of damage when she gets hit, and her low armor penetration. We suggest pairing her with great defensive units, like Fighters and Hoplites, as well as Warriors or Wizards, to hammer through heavier armor characters.

The following classes can have great synergy with Melisandre strategies:

All Cavalry: Cavalry units work great as backups for Melisandre. Not only do horses bring her to the frontline faster, but Melisandre is excellent at putting infantry into critical condition for a Cavalry unit to walk all over—especially when built to tank a hit, like we prefer. Flying units like Hilda can also work, since Melisandre naturally counters enemy fliers.
Fighters/Vanguard: Colm is paired with Melisandre for a reason. Hunters and other highly accurate characters can carve holes through Swordmaster formations. They are also more specialized than Hoplites at defending these squishy targets.
Magic Users/Warrior: Punching through armor is a big problem for Melisandre. It usually requires her to find very specific gear, which has its own downsides. Pairing her with Wizards, Witches, or even a Priestess like Scarlett can help her cover weak matchups. Warriors work similarly well and can honestly be even better if you plan to run multiple Physickal buffs for the unit.

We recommend running Melisandre as a frontliner. While she serves well on the backline, many of her passives let her automatically dodge attacks. As long as you pair her against melee combatants, she’ll be fine, gaining AP for catching melee attacks and getting a relatively easy dodge every now-and-then.

Best equipment types for Melisandre

The character portrait of Melisandre on a Unit Selection page. — That HP stat needs some work. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Melisandre has one Sword slot and two Accessory slots as a Swordfighter and keeps these equipment types as a Swordmaster. We recommend the following for her:

Weapon—Healing or Crit Rate: Swords like the Sanguine Blade can keep Melisandre alive if she gets clipped by a Hunter or Magic user during scrambles. However, The Stingray is an excellent option for improving Critical Hits and guaranteeing K.O.’s against Mages and squishier Infantry. We recommend the latter, though the former is great for some comps.
Accessory One—Health: The Swordfighter suffers from a massively reduced health pool compared to most frontliners. To compensate, a +10 Health item like the Vitality Talisman can work wonders early on. Relying on her to dodge everything vaguely dangerous isn’t the best idea, but you can throw an evasion item here instead if you’re the gambling type.
Accessory Two—Damage: Swordfighters hit often, so raw damage can be very useful. The Warrior’s Medallion is a good choice for a Melisandre who plans on tearing through backrows, with that extra crit improving her Hastened Strike and Impale. Keep up with improvements to your damage slot, as her relatively low Phys. ATK Growth can be fixed with a good enough Accessory.

Tip: Damage Melisandre

Melisandre has good Strength and Crit growths, but the random nature of levels in Unicorn Overlord can force her in a tank-focused direction. Keep a close eye on her to see if she’s capable of easily clearing crowds of Infantry or not. If she can, consider further bolstering her moveset with two Damage accessories and more support-focused allies.

Best conditions for Melisandre

The Unit Selection screen of Unicorn Overlord. The character Melisandre selects some conditions to follow. — She can either go for quick kills or be a pseudo-tank. Your choice. Screenshot by Dot Esports

We like Melisandre as a high-damage enemy softener that allows Cavalry units to sweep up. That said, there’s no reason she can’t grab a kill every now and then with the right conditions prepared. Here are a few conditions we recommend for Melisandre:

Keen Edge—Scout Enemies Present, Target HP > 50: Melisandre is capable of one shotting faster and annoying units with her incredible Initiative. This prioritization will keep those targets down before setting up enemies for a Cavalry sweep.
We like Hastened Strike to share Keen Edge’s qualities.
Parry needs no conditions. Melisandre won’t have anything better to do with her Passive Points.
Impale—Target HP < 50, Flying Enemies Present: As Impale is a finisher move, this setup makes it easier for Melisandre to identify kill options and take them out. However, we like to add Flying Enemies to chance a one-shot on annoying backline haters like Gryphon Knights.

The next two abilities require her to become an Advanced Class, so don’t expect her to get here quickly.

Once she becomes a Swordmaster, Meteor Slash should prioritize Lowest Phys. DEF. If Melisandre wants to spend two of her AP on a target, it should be something that’ll probably die to nine 20 Potency stabs.
And Charged Impetus is just amazing, so we recommend leaving that online at all times.