Cores are one of the most important elements in your Lineup and it’s one of the deciding factors on whether or not you win the battle. Cores are similar to “Leader Skills” in other mobile games. It provides you with a buff and allow your characters to use their skills. In ONE PUNCH MAN: The Strongest, characters require Energy Orbs to be able to use their skill abilities. The Core you choose to use will affect the amount of additional Energy Orbs that you gain during the battle.
Currently, there are 6 different Cores in the game provided by 6 different Heroes and Monsters. They are; Genos, Mosquito Girl, Amai Mask, Doctor Genus, Deep Sea King and Child Emperor. In this guide, I will try to list out the strengths and weaknesses of these Cores so that hopefully, it can help you decide which core to use when facing different enemies.
Note: This guide is based on my personal opinion so feel free to comment below whether or not it is accurate.
Child Emperor – Prodigy Power
| Basic Effect | Grants 2 Energy when allies land a critical hit. Can only trigger 4 times per battle. |
| Advance Effect Lv1 | Increase ally ULT DMG by 30% in the first round. |
| Advance Effect Lv4 | When your characters are in the “Shatter” status, you immediately gain 1 Energy. Can only trigger once per round. |
| Advance Effect Lv10 | Increases the Crit DMG and Hit of ally characters by 30% at the start of the battle. Lasts for 2 rounds. |
| Advance Effect Lv17 | Increase ally ULT DMG by 40% in the first round. |
The Basic Prodigy core is currently one of the best Core in the game that can be used in almost any situations. However, it works best if you expect the battle to be a short. The Basic Prodigy core provides enough Energy for five of your characters to use their skill on Turn 1 which by then, your enemies should be dead or almost cleared out. Do note that in order for the basic effect to work, your party members must have decent Critical Rate.
Other than high Critical Rate, you will want to use characters that can deal AOE damage or characters with multiple hits. This will increase the chance of doing a Critical hit. Examples of characters to use in the Basic Prodigy Lineup are; Atomic Samurai, Terrible Tornado, Golden Ball, Subterranean King, Messenger of the Seafolk and Sky King.
The down side of using the Basic Prodigy Core is that, it will not do well in prolong fights. This may not be a big problem when tackling PVE content but can be quite detrimental during PvP. As mentioned above, the Basic Prodigy Core is powerful because you can use all your characters skill during Turn 1. However, if you are unable to do substantial damage to your enemies, you will be Energy starved starting from Turn 2.
In conclusion, the Basic Prodigy Core is best used for short fights especially in the early parts of the game. Its usefulness will fall off in prolong battles.
| PVE | PVP | Conqueror Challenge | Hero X Monster | Club Boss | |
| Ratings | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 |
Deep Sea King – Deep Sea Power
| Basic Effect | When your characters block attacks, you immediately gain 1 Energy. Can only trigger 4 times per round. |
| Advance Effect Lv1 | Increases your team’s DMG Reflect by 30%. |
| Advance Effect Lv4 | At the start of each round, seal 2 enemy Energy points (seal 2 Energy for 1 round). When same effects coexist, the one with highest effect shall prevail. |
| Advance Effect Lv10 | All ally characters are immune to one fatal attack when near death. |
| Advance Effect Lv17 | Increases your team’s DMG Reflect by 30%. |
Definitely one of the best Core for PvP especially during later part of the game. The Deep Sea Power core ensure that you have constant supply of Energy throughout the whole battle. As we improve the Block Rate of our tanks, it becomes easier for us to gain Energy through the Deep Sea Power core especially if your opponent has many front-row hitting AOE characters.
If you look closely at all the Advance Effects, all of them screams PvP compatible. At default level 1, if you have a Carnage Kabuto in your party, you can deal tons of reflect damage on your opponent’s characters whenever they do a multiple hit. In fact, it is cheaper to build your characters when using the Deep Sea Power core. All you have to do is stack HP and just wait for your opponent to “kill themselves”.
The level 4 Advance Effect limits your opponent’s ability to use their skills. This can be a game changer especially when your back row is one hit away from death. The level 10 Advance Effect is probably one of the best Advance Effect in the game as it allows all your ally characters 1 turn of “Unyielding”. This is useful when both teams are equal in power and are one hit from finishing off the other.
All in all, the Deep Sea Power core is best used for PvP content. In future, there will be many exclusive characters with high defensive capabilities, making the fights longer. Most players will be using the Deep Sea Power to ensure that there are sufficient Energy to last throughout the fight.
| PVE | PVP | Conqueror Challenge | Hero X Monster | Club Boss | |
| Ratings | 6 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
Amai Mask – Idol Power
| Basic Effect | Restores 6 Energy when defeating an enemy character. Can only trigger once per battle. |
| Advance Effect Lv1 | Your first character to take action each round gains the [Berserk] effect. |
| Advance Effect Lv4 | Grants 2 Energy at the start of the battle. |
| Advance Effect Lv10 | When any character is defeated, you gain 30% Drain until the end of the battle. |
| Advance Effect Lv17 | Your first character to take action each round gains the [Berserk] effect. Increases power by up to 50%. |
If you don’t know by now, Amai Mask is one of the best single target damage dealers in the game especially when you roll the higher end of the dice. Sadly, his Power core is lacklustre when compared to the others. The Idol Power only provide 6 additional Energy. This does not help especially when you can only trigger this effect once per battle. It will be better to stick to your Justice Power core for a constant stream of Energy.
It is understandable for the Idol Power core to be weaker as Amai Mask is only an SR-rank character. Given the strong single target damage capabilities, it will be too overpowered for him to have a core that is too strong.
| PVE | PVP | Conqueror Challenge | Hero X Monster | Club Boss | |
| Ratings | 7 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
Doctor Genus – Gene Power
| Basic Effect | When your characters restore HP, you immediately gain 2 Energy. Can only trigger once per round. |
| Advance Effect Lv1 | Whenever front row characters are defeated, a clone is summoned. Up to 2 clones can be summoned to each character position. |
| Advance Effect Lv4 | Immediately grants 5 Energy at the start of the second round. |
| Advance Effect Lv10 | Heals all allies for 10% of their Max HP at the end of each round. |
| Advance Effect Lv17 | Whenever front row characters are defeated, a clone is summoned. Up to 3 clones can be summoned to each character position. |
Just looking at the Basic Effect alone, Gene Power may seem underwhelming compared to the other Cores. However, it is the Advance Effect that makes this Core powerful especially in the Monster Tournament and Hero X Monster battles.
The Gene Power core allows you to have decoys at the front of your team to protect your back row. This is especially useful as most of the better Monster characters are either single target damage dealers or they can only attack the front row. This will allow your back-row damage dealers to deal more damage to your opponent before they can even touch your back row.
Since the main purpose of the Gene Power core is to summon decoy, you don’t really have to spend a lot of resource to train Doctor Genus.
The Gene Power core will not do well outside of Monsters-only battle as it provides too little additional Energy orbs. Furthermore, most of the Hero characters can deal full party AOE damage thus the decoys will be useless.
| PVE | PVP / Monster tournament | Conqueror Challenge | Hero X Monster | Club Boss | |
| Ratings | 7 | 4 / 8 | 7 | 9 | 3 |
Mosquito Girl – Bloodied Power
| Basic Effect | Grants 1 Energy per round. Grants 5 Energy at the start of the third round. |
| Advance Effect Lv1 | At the start of the third round, a defeated ally character returns to battle with 60%. |
| Advance Effect Lv4 | When your characters restore HP, you immediately gain 1 Energy. Can only trigger once per round. |
| Advance Effect Lv10 | At the start of Round 3, team SPD increases by 30%. ULT DMG increases by 20% |
| Advance Effect Lv17 | At the start of the third round, a defeated ally character returns to battle with 90%. |
The Bloodied Power core is very situational, as it can be totally useless if the battle does not reach turn 3 or it can be a game changer when your ally is revived into battle. I believe the core can work in the Monster tournament if you have a relatively tanky Lineup. However, if you have Deep Sea King or Doctor Genus, it will be better to use their core.
| PVE | PVP | Conqueror Challenge | Hero X Monster | Club Boss | |
| Ratings | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
Genos – Justice Power
| Basic Effect | When your characters are in the “Berserk” status, you immediately gain 2 Energy. Can only trigger once per round. |
| Advance Effect Lv1 | Increases ally ATK by 10% |
| Advance Effect Lv4 | When your characters are in the “Burn” status, you immediately gain 1 Energy. Can only trigger once per round. |
| Advance Effect Lv10 | Increases strength of ally DoT skills by 100% |
| Advance Effect Lv17 | Increases ally ATK by 15% |
Your very first character with a Core. You will be using the Justice Power core a lot during the early game. It ensures at least 2 additional Energy every turn. For this to work, you will need Mumen Rider to be in your team to give the “Berserk” status.
Mumen Rider has one of the fastest base SPD in the game thus he can easily out speed anyone to do his Justice Roar ability. With that, he can give 20% additional SPD to the targeted ally and more often then not, that ally gets to cut-in with an attack. This will ensure that your party can at least use 2 ultimate skills per turn.
Sadly, the Justice Power core will fall off later into the game. This is because Genos himself as a character, do not bring a lot of power or utility to your party. Furthermore, in order for the Justice Power core to work, it means that you need to have Mumen Rider to be in your party. At late game, the stats for Mumen Rider may not be ideal since he is only a R-rank character.
In conclusion, you will be using Justice Power for most parts of the early game until you are able to get yourself a Child Emperor. Even then, it is still safer for you to use Justice Power until your AOE characters have at least 20% Crit Rate.
| PVE | PVP | Conqueror Challenge | Hero X Monster | Club Boss | |
| Ratings | 8 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
In future, there will be new cores that will be introduced into the game but till then, choose what is available to you and experiment them with your Lineup.
