For most characters, increasing light/shadow points is done by summoning duplicates of the character from Dreams. However, this cannot be done for characters obtained through the story.
Instead, there is a 10% chance in Hard, 20% chance in Very Hard and 25% chance in 2x Green Key ADs[1] when a story character is in the party while running specific Another Dungeons for their light/shadow points to increase by 1. The corresponding dungeons are as follows[2]:
- Light/Shadow increase happens on the "Congratulations" screen after you get the rewards. It has a special animation that cannot be missed.
- The only exception to this is Toto Theater World AD, where the Light/Shadow increase takes place before you leave the dungeon and get completion rewards.
- The character does not have to be in the front-line of the party, nor do they need to be alive.
- The character does not have to be in a specific style.
In addition to the following list, note that any of the Free Characters who are not already at 255 can gain Light/Shadow from Toto Theater World AD with an effective chance of 24.8% per 1 Red Key, regardless of if they also have a dedicated dungeon. Toto Theater World drops no tomes but does drop treatises, codices, and opuses.
How to decide on character to "farm"[edit]
There is no clear "best" character to farm. Farming of any character with 1 type of key to 255 will take around 7-8 months for a red key farm and 10 to 11 months for a green key farm in Garulea ADs, while Strawboy's light can be farmed without using keys through an RNG-free mechanic. Bear in mind that old characters can receive upgrades from manifests and true manifests and new styles to make them jump in power, or that new content can bring other free characters to the table.
It is also worth considering what else running an AD might offer. For example, some characters might have ADs that drop materials for equipment. It is also worth considering what, if any, tomes drop in an AD, as well as if treatises, codices, and opuses are available from the AD. Note that beyond farming the first or second Light/Shadow unit that Farming for a T. VC Grasta can bring a free character, if there is one avalible, up by ~40-60 light/ shadow points. When in doubt, make sure to check the page for a specific AD to see what is available.
To read in-depth specifications of their skills and roles to help decide on who to farm, check the individual character pages or character strategy pages.
Chances: 1x
=(20% OR ~25% Toto) AND 1x
=(10%)
As the main character of the game, Aldo gets a fair number of buffs and unique equipment especially in the later story chapters, and you can expect future story chapters to continue to augment his power. Your main reason for pushing his Light is that his 5-star skills begin to scale with that stat from chapter 83 - at max Light his X-Slash: Light goes up to 670% and his Dragon God S: Sign in AF does 1670% damage. Not bad for a free unit!
After Stellar Awakening, Aldo can get another skill with up to 1700% multiplier without AF, which also depends on his light. Occasionally it can get up to 8500% if frontline members' total light is 500 or more, which is easier to achieve if Aldo's own light is high enough.
Chances: 1x=(20% OR ~25% Toto) AND 1x=(10%)
Partitio, Cyrus Albright, Tithi – these characters have access to Stellar Awakening, which gives more reasons to farm their Light/Shadow to some extent. Aside from that, Cyrus has access to three elements and their zones, and so can fit many elemental teams even without Kaleido units. Tithi has access to tens of different skills through her Allure mechanic and Call skill, but it's unknown how it will function after collab ends and players lose access to respective areas to change Allured characters.
Chances: 1x=(~25% Toto) AND 2x=(25%)
The following characters can gain 
/
from running 2 Green Key Another Dungeon unlocked starting from Main Story 55. It is recommended to run these dungeons once unlocked anyway, as they provide various grasta materials that is difficult to get anywhere else. If you want to push these character to 255 as fast as possible, then use Green Keys for their corresponding Garulea/Hollow AD, and Red Keys for Toto Theater World AD. Focusing on a character this way gets them to 255 in around ~3-4 months.
Azami, Gariyu, and Cerrine are the first three Chance Encounter units from the game's early days. They also get Manifests, True Manifests and new Styles to update their skills and receive more power and utility over time. For example, Azami AS currently offers so much damage on her obscenely powerful single target skill, that she can skip big part of game superbosses with 1 hit. Gariyu's True Manifest offers a lot of magic support and AOE damage.
Other candidates for this "double key" farming are Altena, Ashtear, and Kamlanage corresponding to Underworld (Another Dungeon), Omegapolis (Another Dungeon), and Entrana (Another Dungeon) respectively. Unlike the Chance Encounter units, these characters join late into the story and don't have Styles or Manifests. Altena suffers from being a poor combatant in general. Ashtear can put out good damage numbers with her unique mechanics and is the only character able to deploy Defense Wall without other conditions. Kamlanage can put out good damage numbers as well and serves as good offensive and support character for Thunder-oriented teams.
Chances: 1x=(20% OR ~25% Toto)
Clarte AS - This character is an excellent mage with multiple elements including crystal, shade, and thunder. He has 4 different dungeons to farm his Shadow, and these dungeons also drop materials for equipment upgrades. To get most of use of this character, start by unlocking his Another Style by completing Sword and Wings Mythos.
Chances: 1x=(20% OR ~25% Toto)
Curio - A strong unit who can also serve as a Grasta-personalities conduit. Between Katana, Sweet Tooth, Bookworm, IDA School, and Lost Lab, he has synergies with plenty of characters. Aim to get him to 200 Light to unlock the extra Grasta slot if you need it.
Other things to note: 1 of 2 Zone-Awakening free character, nice buffer and average damage dealer. To unlock most of his potential and fully upgrade his personal weapon Regret, the player needs to complete Logic and Scales Mythos and beat all of the related superboss fights, the latter of which may be challenging task.
Chances: 1x=(20% OR ~25% Toto) AND 1x=(10%)
Serge, Kid, Harle, Starky - These characters are the only ones that can equip Elements which bestow them a wide variety of skills, so aim to get them to 80 / to unlock their fourth skill slot to make the most of it. It's also worth noting that Serge's skills scale with his Light, but they don't increase as much as Aldo's, so maxing him out is not a priority.
Chances: 1x=(20% OR ~25% Toto)
Mayu is great universal support character with access to unique Sea of Stars Stance zone, she can benefit from getting to 80 to unlock her fourth skill slot to offer player more support. She unlocks after finishing Logic and Scales Mythos, but competes with Curio since both characters gain Light from the same Another Dungeon.
Chances: 1x=(20% OR ~25% Toto)
Nona is a side story character from Wanderer in the Vortex, and gains Shadow from any of the many Mysterious Vortex Another Dungeons, each of which also yield materials to upgrade equipment or battle stations. With her 5-star form and eventual Another Style, she's an amazing flexible support character. Her Normal Style offers good Shadow-based damage, counterattack, and EoT damage, while her Another Style can bestow a powerful single-target buff to a party member and also deploy a Weapon Zone corresponding to whoever she supports.
Chances: 1x=(20% OR ~25% Toto)
The mentioned characters have the ability to be strengthen themselves by Stellar Awakening. Getting to 15 / is required to obtain the skill and ability nodes. To insure access to the full Stellar Board, getting to 80 / is the needed amount which also enable the 4th skill.
Locations[edit]
