Update 14.5 in Anime Vanguards has been rolling out in parts, and Part 4 brings a new batch of Vanguard Familiars attached to five units: Sol Badguy, The Smith, Medea, Saber, and Griffith. Each one bolts extra passives onto its host unit, and in a couple of cases it rewrites how that unit plays entirely. Here is what each familiar actually does on the field.
Quick answer: Griffith (The Falcon) and Sol Badguy are the two strongest familiars in this batch, Saber and The Smith sit in the middle as support picks, and Medea is the weakest of the five.
Update 14.5 Part 4 familiars: Units and signature mechanics
| Unit | Signature mechanic | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| The Falcon (Sacrifice) | Sacrifice stacks during the Eclipse phase, then transforms | Strongest of the batch |
| NotGoodGuy | Dragon Install raises damage and range, adds burn and slow | Close second |
| Saber (King of Knights) | Blight debuff plus the Excalibur ability | Solid support damage |
| The Smith (Forged) | Crafts Masterwork weapons, runs Hunter Quest for materials | Utility and farming |
| Medea (Witch of Betrayal) | Dragon Fang Army summons, cheaper Fate upgrades | Weakest of the batch |
How to test a familiar in Sandbox before committing
Sandbox is the fastest way to confirm what a familiar is doing, because you can max a unit out and spawn a boss on demand instead of waiting for a real wave to cooperate.
Griffith familiar: Sacrifice stacks, Eclipse, and the two Falcon forms
Griffith is the standout, and he is also the most conditional. He starts as The Falcon (Sacrifice) and does very little on his own. The whole kit revolves around banking sacrifice stacks during his Eclipse phase.
Once the stacks are there, he transforms into The Falcon (Darkness) and The Falcon (Light), with passives named My Dream, King of Darkness, What I Hold Dear, and Causality Flows carrying the scaling. At maximum stacks he reaches extremely high crit multipliers, topping out around 6x crit damage. That is the payoff, and it is also the failure point: if you never feed the Eclipse phase, he never gets there and stays a weak placement for the whole run.
Sol Badguy familiar: Dragon Install, burn, and slow
NotGoodGuy is the least fussy of the five. Dragon Install is the ability that matters, pushing up both his damage and his range while applying burn and a slow to what it hits. That combination means he contributes damage and crowd control from the same button, which is why he holds up without any setup around him.
His passive list includes Gatling Combo, Ready or Not, Smell of the Game, and Find Your One Way alongside Dragon Install. Max the unit out first — the ability’s numbers are much less impressive at partial upgrade tiers.
Saber familiar: Blight and the 30% Holy and Curse damage bonus
Saber (King of Knights) applies a status effect called Blight. Enemies carrying Blight take 30% more damage from Holy and Curse units, which makes her value depend almost entirely on what else is on your board. Pair her with Holy or Curse damage dealers and she is worth a slot; run her next to units of other elements and the debuff does nothing for you.
Her own damage comes through Excalibur, backed by passives including Sealed Blade of the Wind King, Golden Blade, Promised Victory, and Sealed Wind.
The Smith familiar: Masterwork weapons and Hunter Quest
The Smith (Forged) is the only one of the five that behaves like a system rather than a damage dealer. He crafts Masterwork weapons, and each one hands a large stat buff to a specific elemental category — Berserk, Fire, Holy, Cosmic, Nature, Spark, and Water are all covered. The buff lands on the matching units on your board, so the weapon you choose should follow your team composition, not the other way around.
Craftable items include the Dragon Slayer, Salamander Dagger, Dragon’s Greatshield, Berserker Armor, Sword of Actuation, and Pirate’s Gun. His passive list covers Salvager, Master Craftsman, A Smith’s Legend, and Material Fetcher.
Hunter Quest is his active ability, and it is the part worth learning. It lets you spawn custom quest enemies at Easy, Average, Hard, or Nightmare difficulty, and clearing them pays out crafting materials and Yen. Harder quests are the faster route to materials, but only if your board can actually kill what you summon — a Nightmare quest you cannot handle costs you the run.
Medea familiar: Dragon Fang Army and Fate upgrade discounts
Medea (Witch of Betrayal) summons a Dragon Fang Army made up of warriors, archers, and a beast, and she reduces upgrade costs for Fate units when Sakura is on the field. Her passives run through Grand Thaumaturge, Oathbreaker, Witch of Colchis, Teeth of the Dragon, and Broken Oath.
The problem is that both of her selling points come with strings attached. The upgrade discount needs a specific Fate lineup to matter at all, and the summons do not carry a board on their own. She comes out as the weakest familiar in this batch, and there is no roll or placement that changes that.
If you are deciding where to spend your effort first, Griffith gives the biggest ceiling but demands that you actually build around his Eclipse stacks, while Sol Badguy gives you most of his value the moment he is maxed. Saber and The Smith are worth holding for the teams that use them. Note that Vanguard Familiar passives have been flagged as subject to change, so the exact percentages can shift between patches even when the underlying mechanic stays the same.
