Granado Espada M Clock Tower Ancient Gear Strategy Guide

To clear the Byron Clock Tower and farm Ancient equipment in Granado Espada M, replace full auto-battle with manual Multi-Character Control (MCC) movement. Anchor the boss facing away from your team with a sturdy melee tank, position your ranged attacker and support diagonally behind at maximum range, and dodge telegraph indicators to survive heavy burst damage.

Recommended 3MCC Squad Composition

Relying on three damage dealers will lead to squad wipes against Clock Tower boss mechanics. A stable clear requires a standard frontline, ranged DPS, and support healer setup.

Squad Role	Character Archetype	Primary Function	Priority Stats
Frontline Tank	High-Block Melee (e.g., Coimbra Trooper, Fighter)	Lock boss position, hold aggro, absorb tank-busters facing away from team	Max HP, Defense, Block, Status Resist
Primary DPS	Ranged Physical or Magic (e.g., Jaina, Cadet Lionel)	Deal sustained damage from outside boss cleave ranges; burst priority targets	Penetration, Critical Rate, Elemental Damage
Support Healer	Healer and Buffer (e.g., Scout, Emilia)	Sustain squad health, cycle defensive barriers, clear movement debuffs	Cooldown Reduction, Max SP, Healing Power

Using a ranged carry rather than a melee attacker reduces incoming damage from close-range cleaves and lightens the healing burden on your support.

Positioning and Hazard Management

Clock Tower bosses rely on wide frontal cleaves, ground-targeted area-of-effect (AoE) traps, and arena-wide ultimate attacks.

Apply these rules during the encounter:

Face the boss away: Direct your tank straight into the boss while keeping the boss turned away from your backline so sweeping frontal cleaves hit only the tank.
Maintain a triangle formation: Separate your ranged DPS and healer diagonally behind the boss at maximum range to avoid sharing splash damage.
Dodge ground telegraphs: Pull characters out of red circles and frost zones immediately to prevent stuns, freezes, and fatal burst damage.
Prepare for arena-wide attacks: When the boss charges an arena-wide ultimate, rotate barrier skills or defensive stance abilities to absorb the incoming burst.

       [ Boss ]  <--- Faces north
          ^
          |
       [ Tank ]

  [ Ranged DPS ]      [ Healer / Support ]

Battle Controls and Stagger Windows

Full auto-battle pathing causes characters to stack together inside dangerous hazards. Set your controls to minimize automatic movement:

Restrict auto-pathing: Keep skill automation active for cooldown cycling, but control character positioning manually.
Handle mechanics manually: Reposition individual squad members when floor traps appear beneath them.
Focus targets during adds: When clockwork minions spawn, manually retarget your damage dealer to clear them quickly.
Unload burst skills during staggers: Coordinate offensive buffs and stance skills during boss vulnerability phases to beat the enrage timer.

Ancient Gear Upgrade Priorities

Clock Tower bosses yield Ancient gear recipes, finished items, and enhancement materials. Because enhancement resources are limited, allocate your initial drops in this order:

First priority (Main DPS Weapon): Upgrading your primary carry's weapon boosts penetration and base damage, which shortens fight duration and reduces the chance of execution errors.
Second priority (Tank Armor): Equipping your frontline tank with Ancient defensive gear stabilizes aggro retention and prevents sudden deaths from tank-buster attacks.
Hold off on secondary characters: Avoid spreading early Ancient equipment across off-spec units until your core Clock Tower clearing trio is fully upgraded.