The Anime Vanguards Marksman trait is the most accessible damage capstone in the game, a 6.5% roll that layers +25% critical chance and +50% critical damage onto any unit that lands it. This guide shows how Marksman stacks against Deadeye, Blitz, Solar, and Scholar, which ranged carries convert the crit bonus into the biggest DPS gain, and the reroll crystal routes that make chasing it affordable.
How the Marksman Trait Rewrites Damage
The Marksman trait sits near the top of the Anime Vanguards damage-trait ladder, and players chase it for one reason: it converts a portion of every hit into a guaranteed critical strike. Each successful roll attaches +25% critical chance and +50% critical damage to the unit, layered on top of the unit's base stats. For a long-range carry that already lands dozens of hits per wave, that single line of math is the difference between clearing Infinite mode in eight minutes and getting walled at wave 18.
| Trait | Roll Chance | Effect | Effective DPS on 200-damage base unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marksman | 6.5% | +25% crit chance, +50% crit damage | ~225 avg / hit (~12.5% damage lift) |
| Deadeye | 0.375% | +45% crit chance, +50% crit damage | ~245 avg / hit (~22.5% damage lift) |
| Blitz | 1.85% | 20% SPA reduction, +25% DPS | +25% effective DPS |
| Solar | 0.5% | +15.8% DPS | +15.8% effective DPS |
| Ethereal | 0.175% | +50% DPS | +50% effective DPS |
| Monarch | 0.1% | +300% damage (one placement only) | +300% damage / single placement |
What separates Marksman from the surrounding trait pool is the combination of crit chance and crit damage in one roll. Range grants flat range, Swift grants attack speed, Vigor grants extra HP. None of those multiply your damage ceiling the way Marksman does, because crit multipliers compound against every other stat your unit already owns. A 200-damage unit with Marksman averages roughly 225 damage per hit once you account for the 25% crit chance and 50% crit damage bump, and that average climbs further when the unit also carries a damage-gem roll or a Solar trait underneath.
The trait list published across the community shows eleven total traits, with Marksman sitting at a 6.5% drop chance. For comparison, Range, Swift, and Vigor each sit at 26%, Scholar at 10%, Fortune at 2.5%, Blitz at 1.85%, Solar at 0.5%, Deadeye at 0.375%, Ethereal at 0.175%, and Monarch at 0.1%. The full breakdown and roll rates are catalogued in the Anime Vanguards trait list breakdown, which pairs well with this guide if you want to compare Marksman against Ethereal and Deadeye side by side.
The trait lands hardest on units that attack frequently from range. A melee brawler with Marksman still gains the crit bonus, but the value is diluted by the unit's lower hit-per-second profile. A backline ranger with rapid fire rate, on the other hand, converts every additional percentage of crit chance into hundreds of extra damage per wave. That scaling is why Marksman has become the default target for any high-rarity ranged unit, including the mythic carries listed in the mythic unit guide.
Players who want to see the trait in action can reference the official Beebom trait coverage, which documents the crit and damage values shown above alongside the full roll table.
Marksman vs Scholar: Choosing the Right Damage Trait
The Scholar trait is the other damage-adjacent roll that beginners often confuse with Marksman. Scholar grants a 10% boost to experience gained by the unit it is rolled onto, which sounds unrelated to combat until you realize that leveling a carry faster is its own form of damage scaling. A Level 100 unit outperforms a Level 60 unit by a wide margin, so the experience bump has indirect combat value even though it never appears in the DPS tooltip.
The two traits serve different team roles, and the right pick depends on what you are trying to clear. The table below summarizes the trade-offs so you can decide which reroll target matters most for the squad you are building.
| Trait | Drop Chance | Primary Effect | Best For | Stack Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marksman | 6.5% | +25% crit chance, +50% crit damage | Ranged carry units, Infinite mode, boss rushes | Very high on DPS units |
| Scholar | 10% | +10% experience gain | Early leveling, low-rarity units, new player progression | High on units you plan to main |
| Blitz | 1.85% | -20% SPA, +25% DPS | High fire-rate units, mid-game carries | High on rapid attackers |
| Solar | 0.5% | +15.8% DPS | Universal damage boost, any unit | High on any damage dealer |
| Deadeye | 0.375% | +45% crit chance, +50% crit damage | Glass-cannon snipers, single-target deletes | Highest on boss killers |
| Ethereal | 0.175% | +50% DPS | Boss soloing, raid carries | Very high on carries |
| Monarch | 0.1% | +300% damage, one placement only | Memes, showcase runs, achievement hunting | Extreme but limited |
Scholar at 10% is roughly 1.5x more common than Marksman, which makes it a more realistic target for players who do not want to burn through reroll crystals chasing the rarer roll. The community treats Scholar as a "safe pick" that pays off across the long term, while Marksman is the "big swing" that turns a competent carry into a wave-clearing engine.
A common mistake new players make is rolling Scholar onto a unit that is already at the level cap. Once a unit hits the level ceiling, the experience bonus becomes wasted value because there are no more levels to gain. Marksman has no such cap. The crit bonus applies on every attack indefinitely, so the trait keeps scaling with the unit's raw stats as you equip better gems and upgrade the unit's star rank. For a fully maxed mythic carry, Marksman is almost always the better target, because the experience bump from Scholar has nothing left to add.
For mid-game players still raising a roster, Scholar is a more efficient use of crystals. Rolling Scholar onto a Level 40 unit you plan to push to Level 100 saves you hours of grind, and the trait keeps paying off for the entire leveling window. Marksman on the same unit still helps, but the value gap closes once both units hit the cap.
Reroll Crystals: How to Spend Them Without Burning Out
Reroll crystals are the only consumable that lets you re-roll traits, and they drop from a small set of reliable sources. The fastest way to farm them is the Infinite mode clear, which awards one crystal per clear plus bonus rolls past wave 30. Daily quests give a small crystal stipend, and the weekend login bonus grants three crystals on each Saturday reset. The rarest source is the Monarch-themed challenge stages, which drop a single crystal per clear but are gated behind having a Monarch-traited unit in the squad.
The reroll process itself happens at the NPC Mandra, who stands just outside the Evolve room in the main hub. Walk up, spend one crystal, and the unit's trait rerolls into one of the eleven possible traits at the published drop rates. The trait reroll respects the unit's slot, so a unit that already carries Scholar will not roll Scholar again in the same slot. That anti-duplicate rule is the only pity system the trait system has, so plan your reroll sessions around units that have already burned through the common rolls.
The cost curve is brutal at high rarity. A mythic carry with the wrong trait might need 20 to 40 crystals before Marksman lands, because the 6.5% drop rate means an average of 15 rolls per success. Players who chase Ethereal or Monarch on the same unit can easily burn 100 crystals without a hit, which is why most veterans recommend burning rerolls on common units first to test drop rates, then committing to the mythic reroll only after the reroll session is warmed up.
When to Stop Rerolling
The honest answer is that you should stop rerolling once the unit has any damage-positive trait. Marksman is the dream, but Blitz, Solar, and Deadeye all deliver strong damage value, and burning 30 more crystals chasing a marginal upgrade is rarely worth the opportunity cost. The exception is units you are using for a specific challenge run, like a Monarch showcase or an Ethereal solo clear. For those targets, save 50 crystals per unit and accept the grind.
The Anime Vanguards trait chances reference lists the full roll table with percentages, which is worth bookmarking before any reroll session so you can set realistic expectations on how many crystals you will need.
Which Units Deserve a Marksman Roll
Not every unit deserves a Marksman reroll. The trait is wasted on a tank, useless on a healer, and only average on a support. The trait delivers value when the unit has three properties: high attack speed, long attack range, and a base damage stat that scales with level. Units that meet all three are the right targets, and the table below lists the most common picks from the community.
| Role | Unit Type | Why Marksman Works | Farm Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main carry | Ranged mythic with rapid fire | Every hit gets crit scaling, clearing waves in seconds | High for Infinite mode |
| Boss killer | Single-target sniper with burst damage | Crit chance lands hardest on big damage numbers | High for raid and dungeon |
| Farm unit | AoE ranger with wide range | Clears early waves fast, accelerates yen and gem income | High for farming sessions |
| Early carry | Ranged rare or legendary | Cheaper to roll, still benefits from crit scaling | Medium until upgraded |
| Tank | Any melee or shield unit | Crit chance wasted on low attack speed | Low, reroll later |
Farm units deserve special attention because the community often underrates how much faster a Marksman-traited farmer clears early Infinite waves. A standard farmer with no damage trait might take 90 seconds to clear wave 5, while a Marksman farmer finishes the same wave in 55 seconds. That 35-second savings compounds across a 30-minute farming session, which is the difference between 20 clear cycles and 32 clear cycles. The yen and gem yield difference is substantial, and it funds the next round of reroll crystals. The yen farming guide covers the full farm loop if you want a deeper breakdown of how trait choice feeds into economy.
The best team comp for a Marksman build pairs the Marksman carry with two support units that boost attack speed and one healer to keep the carry alive. The carry sits in the back row, the supports sit mid-row, and the healer anchors the front. Position matters because Marksman crits do nothing if the unit dies before wave 10, so defense layers keep the trait active through longer runs.
Why Monarch Is the Rarest of Them All
The Monarch trait is the rarest roll in the game at 0.1%, which is roughly 1 in 1000 rerolls. The community treats it as a trophy trait because the +300% damage bonus is locked to a single placement per run, meaning the unit can only be placed once on the field before the trait shuts off. Players who land Monarch usually do so by accident during a long reroll session, and the trait is more often a flex than a practical carry choice.
The community-collected drop data shows that out of thousands of rerolls, the average player sees Monarch roughly once every 800 to 1200 crystals. The full rarity breakdown, including the 0.175% Ethereal and 0.5% Solar rates, is documented in the Anime Vanguards trait tier list guide, which also notes how many rerolls each tier tends to require.
The honest read on Monarch is that it is a fun roll but a poor primary target. Spending 200 crystals chasing a 0.1% drop burns through resources that could have funded Marksman or Scholar rolls on three separate units. The community recommendation is to settle for Marksman or Ethereal as a realistic carry trait, and treat any Monarch drop as a happy accident rather than a farming goal.
Putting It All Together
Marksman is the right damage trait for any ranged carry you plan to use across multiple modes, and the 6.5% drop rate is high enough to chase with a focused reroll session. The trait stacks with crit chance from gems, crit damage from star upgrades, and DPS boosts from Solar, which means a well-built Marksman carry clears content that other builds cannot touch. Scholar is a better first target for new players who want to level a roster fast, but Marksman wins once units hit the level cap.
Plan your reroll sessions in batches of 10 to 20 crystals, always test on a low-cost unit first to confirm the current drop rate, then commit to the mythic reroll once the session feels hot. Stop rerolling once the unit lands any of the top-five damage traits, because the marginal gain from a perfect roll rarely justifies the extra crystal cost. Save Monarch chasing for a separate session with 100+ crystals banked, and treat the roll as a bonus rather than a target.
The damage build that wins Infinite mode is a Marksman-traited ranged carry with two attack-speed supports, a healer, and a tank in the front row. The farm build that wins the yen race is the same composition, but with the carry focused on AoE clear speed. Both builds share the same foundation, and both rely on the Marksman crit multiplier to convert every hit into meaningful progress.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Marksman trait do in Anime Vanguards?
The Marksman trait adds +25% critical chance and +50% critical damage to the unit it is rolled onto, which compounds with the unit's base damage on every attack. The trait works best on ranged units with rapid fire rate, because each crit lands against a different enemy and the multiplier compounds across the wave.
How rare is the Monarch trait compared to Marksman?
Monarch drops at 0.1% per reroll, which is roughly 65 times rarer than Marksman's 6.5% rate. Players should expect to spend 800 to 1200 crystals before seeing a Monarch, while Marksman typically lands within 15 to 25 crystals on average. Treat Monarch as a bonus, not a farming target.
How do I get trait reroll crystals in Anime Vanguards?
Trait reroll crystals come from Infinite mode clears, daily quests, the Saturday login bonus, and the Monarch challenge stages. The fastest farm is Infinite mode past wave 30, which drops bonus crystals on top of the standard clear reward. The reroll itself happens at the NPC Mandra outside the Evolve room.
What is the best trait for damage units?
Marksman is the best general damage trait because it adds both crit chance and crit damage in one roll, and it scales with every other stat the unit owns. Deadeye is stronger on single-target snipers, Ethereal is stronger on boss killers, and Solar is a solid universal pick. The full comparison lives in the trait chances reference.
What is the best trait for farm units?
Scholar is the best farm trait for early progression because the +10% experience gain speeds up leveling, which compounds into higher base damage once the unit hits the cap. Marksman is the best farm trait for late-game clear speed, because the crit multiplier cuts wave clear time and increases yen income per session.