Special Interception: Grave Digger

This guide is specific to Special Interception: Gravedigger, though most of the same concepts apply to other instances of Gravedigger.
For general information on Special Interception, click here.
For Interception S: Gravedigger strategy, click here.

General Tips

Gravedigger has 2 ways of dealing damage to your team.

1. Gravedigger fires 2 drill missiles, which if left alone will deal massive damage to one or two of your Nikkes and also stunning them. These drill missiles can however be blocked by cover, i-framed and also destroyed by firing at them.
2. In Phase 1 and Phase 2, Gravedigger unleashes its drill attack when you fail the first set of red circles and the second set of red circles, or fail 3 sets of QTE/red circles in a row. Drill attack from Phase 1 and Phase 2 could be tanked if your units have stronger gears (full T8 at least, slightly better gears for higher HP required for Water units like Poli and Viper) and have full cover+full HP. In Phase 3, Gravedigger unleashes its drill attack that pierces cover when you fail the first set of red circles or when you fail two sets of red circles in a row. Drill attack from Phase 3 will one shot your entire team and end your run.

In short, if you can destroy or i-frame the missiles, and destroy QTE/red circles to avoid Gravedigger from using drill attack, you will be able to full clear. These 2 are done by having enough DPS and/or having good aiming, which means healing/shielding are not needed for this boss.

It is recommended to have at least 1 Shotgun unit for this fight to have enough burst generation to activate burst whenever it’s off cooldown, and also at least 1 CDR buffer to have more frequent burst rotations.

Shotgun units are exceptional against red circles but can struggle to destroy missiles outside of full burst, switch to an AR or MG user (Scarlet/Modernia) and manually fire at the missiles to destroy them without full burst.

Red circles are much easier to deal with if you have full burst mode available. This means that you should seek to have full burst available right before Gravedigger enters the next phase, especially Phase 3 where you have to destroy the first set of circles.

This can be done by purposely delaying your damage when you are about to enter the next phase but still have 2-3 seconds of full burst mode left. You can simply fire at missiles or take cover, and only proceed to deal damage to send Gravedigger to the next phase when full burst ends, so that you have enough time to charge up burst gauge before the next phase begins.

Team Composition

Shotgun Isabel

liter	Dolla	Isabel	Sugar	Noir
Volume			Drake	Guilty

The core units here are Isabel, Liter/Volume/Dorothy and Dolla. (DO NOT use Dolla unless using Isabel, there are much better B2 options for teams without Isabel)

Note: Dorothy has to be paired with Privaty to ensure cooldown rotates smoothly.

Isabel is a Shotgun unit that when activating her burst, decreases duration of full burst mode by 5 seconds, allowing you to use burst more often. However, this also means a higher amount of CDR is required, therefore 2 CDR units have to be used. Dolla is the only B2 with CDR, therefore she has no replacements.

Volume can replace Liter, but you will need much better gears on DPS units to compensate the lack of ATK buff compared to Liter if you use Volume.

Noir, Sugar and Drake can be replaced by any other units that do good DPS (remember that you do need at least another burst 3 here though). Maiden, Guilty, Viper, Neve, Modernia and Scarlet are good replacements. (Pick 1 more Shotgun for better burst gen)

For Phase 3 using this team, you should aim to break 1 set of circles and fully charge up burst gauge during the 2nd set of circles when using Isabel’s burst. This will allow you to have full burst ready for the 3rd set of circles, where you should aim to break 3 sets of circles within the usual 10 second full burst duration, and charge up burst gauge during the fourth set.

Shotgun without Isabel (Highly Recommended)

liter	Guilty	Sugar	Noir	Modernia
Volume	Viper	Drake	Maiden	Scarlet

Liter/Volume, the usual B1 buffers providing CDR which is very crucial in this fight. Liter way better than Volume since Liter provides huge ATK buff while Volume provides crit buff which is very medicore. Dorothy can be used here as well but has to be paired with Privaty.

Guilty/Viper/Rupee are the top options for B2, with Guilty and Viper being Shotgun units which help a lot with burst gen and breaking red circles. However, Viper is a water element unit, which means she needs better gears to survive a drill in Phase 2. (at least full T9 with a level 3 chest)

Rupee provides a decent ATK buff to team and also deals decent DPS which helps breaking red circles, but not to the extent of Viper and Guilty. Dolla and Admi can also be used for B2, as they provide useful buffs to the team, but they do poorly in dealing with red circles.

Noir, Sugar and Drake are the top 3 Shotgun options vs Gravedigger. Noir is now the most crucial unit here, providing all allies with decent ATK buff, hit rate and most importantly bonus damage to red circles for shotgun units. Sugar is also a crucial unit here, provides max ammo increase to other Shotgun units, which enhances their ability to deal with red circles as they can reload less. Drake deals good damage and also provides ATK buff and more importantly hit rate buff, which helps to deal with red circles.

Modernia deals great DPS as a B3 who will not be using her burst here. She also deals with missiles extremely well, manually control her when you need to clear missiles but is not in full burst mode. The same goes for Scarlet, although using Scarlet means you cannot tank drill in Phase 2. If you use Modernia, DO NOT put Modernia in the middle slot as there seems to be a bug where she takes more damage from the drills and will die.

For Phase 3, you should aim to break 3 sets of circles within the usual 10 seconds of full burst mode and charge up burst gauge during the fourth set.

Bunny Twins (Noir+Blanc) (Highly Recommended)

liter	Blanc	sugar	Noir	Modernia
Volume		drake		scarlet

Or

Bunny Twins (Noir+Blanc) Scar Reload Ver.

liter	Blanc	Anis: Sparkling Summer	Noir	scarlet
Volume

Liter/Volume, the usual B1 buffers providing CDR which is very crucial in this fight. Liter way better than Volume since Liter provides huge ATK buff while Volume provides crit buff which is very medicore. Dorothy should not be used here as max ammo from Noir will mess up

Core units are Blanc and Noir. Note: Blanc has to be paired with Noir. (Do NOT use Blanc without Noir)

Blanc’s shield and healing won’t matter here, however she does provide the crucial damage taken debuff by enemies for 10 seconds from her burst. This helps the entire team to deal way more damage to Gravedigger.

Noir, Sugar and Drake are the top 3 Shotgun options vs Gravedigger. Noir is now the most crucial unit here, providing all allies with decent ATK buff, hit rate and most importantly bonus damage to red circles for shotgun units. In this team with Blanc, she also grants extra hit rate+bonus damage to red circles, while reducing Blanc’s 60s CD to 20s.

Sugar is also a crucial unit here, provides max ammo increase to other Shotgun units, which enhances their ability to deal with red circles as they can reload less. Drake deals good damage and also provides ATK buff and more importantly hit rate buff, which helps to deal with red circles.

Modernia is a good B3 DPS without having to use burst. Other replacements include Scarlet and other shotgun units.

For Scarlet Reload variant, this team’s main focus is if you have trouble breaking QTE circles. Summer anis reducing reload speed and increasing attack for scarlet combined with the damage taken debuff from blanc should make breaking circles rather trivial. Despite Noir + Summer anis anti-synergy, Scarlet having less downtime outweighs that negative.

Scarlet Reload Speed

liter	admi	scarlet	Noir	Privaty
Dorothy		Drake	Sugar

Core unit is Scarlet, who can shred red circles with her high ATK. She does has the weakness of needing reload speed, which is where the other 2 units, Admi and Privaty come into play.

Both Admi and Privaty provide reload speed for Scarlet, Privaty also provides a decent ATK buff for Scarlet.

Liter the BIS B1 makes her appearance again, providing huge ATK, CDR and other buffs to the entire team. Dorothy is the best replacement for Liter though she has to be paired with Privaty, who is already used in this team in the first place. Volume can replace Liter in terms of providing CDR, but you need much much better gears on Scarlet to compensate for the lack of ATK buff, as Volume only provides crit buff which doesn’t do much in this game.

The final slot should be a B3 Shotgun unit to provide burst gen. Noir and Drake are the top 2 options. Noir provides ammo reload and decent ATK buff while Drake provides decent ATK and hit rate buff, both without using burst. Sugar and Maiden are 2 other options that will work too.

If your Shotgun units are stronger and your Scarlet is relatively weak, you can look to transition into the Shotgun without Isabel team instead and use Scarlet as a good DPS unit that helps to deal with missiles.

Noah Cheese (For Stage 7 with weak gears)

liter	Noah	Sugar	Drake	Guilty
Volume		Maiden	Modernia	Poli

This team is used particularly when you have lower DPS due to weak gears (T7 and T8) and have relatively poor aim, where you are unable to get through Phase 2. You can of course full clear with this team, but that will require better gears, and with better gears, using the other teams mentioned before should be better anyway.

Core unit is Noah, allowing you to tank a drill from Gravedigger without taking any damage every other burst rotation. This means if you have full T8 and full cover, you can tank 1 drill using your HP and cover, and tank another drill using Noah’s burst. This should buy you enough time to deal enough damage to get past Phase 2.

Liter/Volume, the usual CDR buffer with Liter being much better since Liter provides huge ATK buff.

Guilty is a Shotgun unit that deals great DPS which helps to break red circles. Poli is a good replacement being a defender unit, which means she can tank a drill with full T8 (level 3 chest might be required) despite being a water unit. Viper is not recommended here as she requires full T9 and a level 3 chest to tank a drill. Use the other teams if you have strong enough gears that allow Viper to tank a drill, since it is very likely you can go through Phase 2 the normal way, not requiring Noah’s burst to do so.

Sugar and Drake roles are explained here. Maiden and Modernia are decent replacements here since they both do decent damage and can tank a drill with weaker gears.