How to Beat the Returned Dungeon in Anime Vanguards (Dragon Ball Team)

The Returned Dungeon is Raid Stage 6 – Act 1 Nightmare in Anime Vanguards, and clearing it on Nightmare is a required step for the Ascendant / Transcendent Song Jinwu questline. The fight runs 17 waves and ends against the Axe Statue and God Statue. A Dragon Ball lineup built around Holy Deceiver (Dark) clears it reliably because his Tier 3 passives buff every Dragon Sphere ally on the field at once.

Quick answer: Place the Dragon Ball team, rush Holy Deceiver (Dark) upgrades, fuse Roku (Super 3) into Super Vegito, and fire Big Spirit Beam twice uncharged to stack amp until Holy Deceiver hits Tier 3 — the team then clears all 17 waves.

Recommended Returned Dungeon team

The core of this run is a Dragon Sphere (Dragon Ball) category team plus Song Jinwu, who must be on the field for quest progression. Six slots are used in total, with one slot dedicated to money farming.

Unit	Familiar	Memoria
Holy Deceiver (Dark)	King Birb	His Vow to your God
Roku (Super 3)	Birb [III]	Battle of the Strongest
Rogita (Super 4)	King Birb	Battle of the Strongest
Boo (Evil)	Candy Ball	Bond of Master and Disciple
True Shadow Monarch (Song Jinwu)	—	—
Sprintwagon	—	—

Team Slot Adjustment — The six equipped slots in the units menu — Song Jinwu and Sprintwagon sit alongside the four Dragon Sphere attackers. Shown at 02:10 in AB Plays’s video. Image: Kitawari

Match the familiars and memorias before you queue. Holy Deceiver (Dark) with His Vow to your God (ideally rolled with a Jack of all Trades stat) is what makes the ramp-up work, so check that loadout first.

Team Loadout & Memorias — The loadout screen where you confirm each unit's familiar and memoria before entering the dungeon. Shown at 01:29 in AB Plays’s video. Image: Kitawari

Placement and upgrade order

The same sequence works whether you practice it in Sandbox on Planet Namek Act 1 or run it live on Nightmare. Follow the order below without skipping the early farm step, since the whole plan depends on getting Holy Deceiver (Dark) to Tier 3 quickly.

Place your Sprintwagon money farms first. These generate the starting income that pays for the rest of the lineup.

Send Rogita (Super 4) toward the path’s front, then place Boo (Evil) and Holy Deceiver (Dark) nearby. This lets them begin attacking right away.

Early Placement & Upgrades — Early placements lined up along the track as the first upgrades go out. Shown at 02:43 in AB Plays’s video. Image: Kitawari

Upgrade the Sprintwagon farms so your income ramps up. This funds the aggressive Holy Deceiver upgrades that follow.

Pour upgrades into Holy Deceiver (Dark). Every tier he gains feeds back into the rest of your Dragon Sphere units, so he is the priority over any single attacker.

Farm & Holy Deceiver Upgrading — Holy Deceiver (Dark) selected, where you spend the bulk of your early gold. Shown at 02:48 in AB Plays’s video. Image: Kitawari

Toggle Auto on the abilities for Roku, Rogita (Super 4), and Boo (Evil). This keeps their damage flowing while you focus your attention on manual upgrades.

Auto Ability Setup — The AUTO ability toggle enabled on Boo (Evil) so its ability casts on its own. Shown at 03:13 in AB Plays’s video. Image: Kitawari

Give Roku (Super 3) two upgrades to activate Potara Fusion and turn him into Super Vegito. Next, invest in both Rogita and the newly transformed Super Vegito.

Potara Fusion Activation — The Potara Fusion tooltip on Roku (Super 3), the second upgrade that forms Super Vegito. Shown at 03:25 in AB Plays’s video. Image: Kitawari

Cast Super Vegito’s Big Spirit Beam twice without charging it. The quick, uncharged taps build amp stacks on Holy Deceiver (Dark) far faster than waiting for a full charge.

Keep maxing Rogita and Super Vegito. Once Holy Deceiver (Dark) reaches Tier 3, his buffs carry the team through Wave 17 and both statue bosses.

Why Holy Deceiver (Dark) carries the clear

Holy Deceiver (Dark) gains amp stacks, and the amp stacks are what push him to Tier 3, where his two passives unlock. Firing Super Vegito’s Big Spirit Beam repeatedly is simply the fastest way to generate those stacks.

Holy Retribution buffs 150% Damage and Active Ability, applies 5 Slow for 5 seconds on attacks, and every 4 seconds generates 400 Mana plus a 20% active cooldown reduction for all Dragon Sphere allies.
Inviting Oblivion triggers an extra strike for 125% of this unit’s max damage whenever a Dragon Sphere ally uses a damaging active, and follows up allied abilities with a 1,200% damage hit on all enemies.

Because Holy Deceiver upgrades buff every other Dragon Ball unit at the same time, the whole team ramps together. That shared scaling is how the lineup keeps pace with the very high boss HP on Nightmare rather than relying on one carry.

Substitutions if you are missing units

The clear leans heavily on Gogeta, Vegito, and Goku Black, so it is hardest to replicate without them. If a slot is missing, these swaps keep the run functional.

No Boo (Evil): replace with Whitebeard for damage, Elastic Captain for stall and slow, or a second money farm.
Without a Dragon Ball core, you can use Fynon with Graceful, Katakuri, or a complete Berserk / Falcon category team instead.

How to confirm the clear

You have beaten the Returned Dungeon when the Victory screen appears after Wave 17 is completed, labelled Act 1 Nightmare. A successful run lands around 6 units placed, roughly 3.97B total damage, and about 1,562 takedowns over a five-minute clear. With the dungeon cleared on Nightmare, the Song Jinwu questline can continue toward its Ascendant / Transcendent evolution.