Illusion Connect · Content
Every PvE mode worth your stamina: the story Dream Map, Explore Map farming, the daily resource Trials, Arcana, Dream Exp, and Nightmare Lab.
Eden of Gaming maps every PvE mode worth your stamina, what each one pays, and the order EOG runs them in.
Story progress on the Dream Map is the gate for almost everything else. It unlocks modes, hands you Connectors and Leader upgrade materials, and opens the daily content you will farm forever. EOG advice for a fresh account: drive the General Illusion storyline as far as your roster allows, claim every Daily Trial up to the highest grade S you can hold, run one full Explore Map per day for the free summon ticket and Intimacy items, and use Arcana as your standing SSR shard and Gear currency farm. Save Collapse Illusion and Nightmare Lab for once your core team is built.
Dream Map is the main story mode of Illusion Connect. Clearing it is the primary way to unlock game features, earn Connectors, gather upgrade materials, and acquire new Leaders. It splits into two tracks that cover the same chapters at different difficulty.
The standard storyline. Your main progression path and the source of most early unlocks.
A harder version of the same chapters. Extra rewards, but it punishes thin rosters. EOG holds it until a core team is built.
Clearing the map unlocks:
Do not force 3-star clears on day one. Progressing the story unlocks the modes and resources you actually need first. Perfect clears can be backfilled later once your roster catches up. When a chapter walls you, the tier list and roster pages point to the units that break through it.
Exploration is the open-map farming mode. The goal of each run is to explore 100% of the map and then claim the rewards. The map is regenerated daily, so it is a once-a-day loop. Along the way you fight, open chests, and trigger scripted encounters.
What a run pays out:
Stages marked with the Rec. logo guarantee extra rewards: SR Gear plus Fantasy Gear Soul and Elite Gear Soul. Both Souls are currencies you spend at the Gear Exchange Shop on Random Gear Boxes or Amplification and Honor Gems. You get one Rec. reward per day, and the system randomly places the Rec. bonus on the daily map.
Rec. Partners are recommended units you can bring into the exploration lineup. Their Attack and HP are boosted on the map, but they do not affect rewards, so bringing them is optional.
Exploration Quests are tasks you complete during a run. Finishing them grants exploration points, which you spend to claim reward boxes. Many quests are RNG-gated: their NPCs and items spawn in random positions and are not present every run, so a full clear can take several days of maps.
Find a mound and talk to it. Whatever you answer, you get 1 free summon ticket. Only triggers once per map, so never skip it.
The White Rose spawns randomly. Hand it to Ida for a Gift Box. Repeatable, so do it on every map.
The cat sits on a bench near the start (it does not always appear). Talk to it, then find it again by the bridge next to the balloon for a Gift Box.
Talk to the hat and choose "Put it on" for a tip. Once both its quests are done, always choose "dig into it" for extra resources.
Meet the handsome frog: talk to it, gaze calmly, then kiss it. It rewards you for the trouble.
Donate gold from your run for a reward scaled to the amount. Even after the quest clears you can keep donating for EXP potions and affinity items.
EOG flag: the Intimacy items from Exploration are the quiet reason this mode matters. Raising a Partner's Intimacy raises their move speed, and speed decides who acts first in PvP and who lands the opening play in Ten Saint. Treat the daily Explore run as a speed investment, not just a gold faucet. The once-per-map free summon ticket and the daily Rec. reward are the other reasons to never skip a day.
Daily content where the more runs you bank each day, the more you earn. Each attempt costs 10 stamina, and each trial favors a specific connector type. Without the recommended connectors you need a large combat-power lead to clear, so build the right team rather than brute-forcing it.
The enemy Leader is a punching bag that AoEs the field if you hit it too often. Spread your formation so a single AoE cannot wipe your line, and pace your damage.
A range-dealer trial. Catch 3 to 4 fugitive cats, each within a 20 to 30 second window. Grade S requires catching all of them in time, so prioritise reach and burst over tankiness.
Pure survival. Protect the stone statue and your Leader against Effie and her mobs for 30 seconds. The enemies cannot be killed, so this is a stall check. Bring filler units to soak special-move cutscenes and keep your front line alive to the timer.
Grades run lowest to highest:
EOG priority: push each trial to the highest level where you can still secure a grade S, then farm that level for the bonus shards. Because a low-grade clear at a higher level outscores a perfect clear at a lower one, the climb itself is the optimisation. Slot the three required team archetypes into your roster plan early so you are never locked out of a daily faucet.
Arcana is a roguelike trial built around three repeated decisions per run. You pick a Leader and a buff, then push through stages stacking power as you go. Winning stages pays Fusion and stage rewards, and the mode is one of the two main sources of universal Gear exchange currency.
Three decisions per run:
EOG note: Arcana is gated by time-based progression, so you cannot rush it. Treat it as a slow, reliable drip: run it daily, plan fusions around the Partners you are trying to star up, and bank the exchange currency for universal SSR Gear duplicates rather than spending it the moment you have it.
Dream Exp is an EXP farming stage built to level Partners quickly. When a new unit enters your rotation, this is where you close the level gap before pushing them into harder content.
EOG note: spend EXP here on the Partners you will actually field, not the whole bench. Once a stage is cleared you can sweep it near-instantly, so a quick daily Dream Exp run keeps your active line topped up without eating your schedule.
Nightmare Lab is challenge content featuring special enemies and rare rewards. The encounters are tuned above standard story difficulty, so it is end-of-progression content rather than a daily faucet.
EOG note: do not rush Nightmare Lab on a young account. The rewards are rare but the fights assume a finished core team. Build through Dream Map, the Daily Trials, and Arcana first, then return here once your line can hold its own.
Mode mechanics compiled and translated by EOG from the Illusion Connect China wiki (biligame). Some values shift between server versions and will be refined as the relaunch settles.
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