Events

In Granblue Fantasy, events are sets of quests that provide limited rewards and items, but are only available for a certain period of time. There is usually always at least one active event, and it isn't uncommon to have multiple active events concurrently. Between the rewards from these events being limited in availability and there being many SSR items available without using real money, taking part in events is important for the progress of the average player.

To see a list of current events, refer to the Main Page.

Showdowns
Showdowns consist of a simple set of solo quests. Typically, there are trash enemies followed by the event's featured boss. Drop chests contain items that can be exchanged in the Shop for rewards like consumables, Champion Merits and Supreme Merits, and event-exclusive weapons and summons. The bosses themselves have a low chance to drop these exclusives as well, with higher difficulties having higher chances. Rarely, upon the completion of a Hard or higher difficulty quest, a Nightmare quest may become available. This challenging battle costs 0 AP, features only the boss, and has a first-time completion reward of a. There may be multiple difficulties of Nightmare based on the event.

Originally, these events were run as sets with multiple bosses available at once. There have been eight showdown events to date: Ifrit, Sagittarius, and Corow as one set; Vohu Manah, Cocytus, and Diablo as another; and Cerberus and Fenrir as the last set.

As of the 2nd Anniversary update, Ifrit Showdown, Cocytus Showdown, Vohu Manah Showdown, Sagittarius Showdown, Corow Showdown, and Diablo Showdown are now permanently available on a 3-day rotation in the Special Quests tab, but they cannot proc Nightmare quests. Cerberus Showdown and Fenrir Showdown remain infrequent, limited-time events.

Rise of the Beasts
Rise of the Beasts also features battles with powerful bosses, but they instead are multiplayer raids. The event bosses are the mythological beasts Zhuque, Xuanwu, Baihu, and Qinglong. Repeatedly defeating these bosses will unlock a harder Extreme+ boss like Zephyrus or Neptune. While a fight against Qinglong might typically involve three or four people, it isn't uncommon for one against Zephyrus to have 15 or more. As of June 2016, Rise of the Beasts appears to have permanently merged all four elements into one event, instead of each event featuring a single element.

Unite and Fight
Unite and Fight events are the only competitive event thus far, where crews compete to kill raid bosses for points. The top 2400 crews after the first day proceed to the finals to compete individually against other crews. These are highly competitive events, and a guild of new players should not expect to rank. However, there are still valuable rewards from earning honor and emptying the token draw boxes, primarily Revenant Weapons.

Story Events
Story events feature a voiced, extensive scenario with multiple starring characters. The main story quest costs 0 AP the first it is completed, and progression unlocks free quests and/or raid bosses. New story events feature a SR loyalty character, who joins you for free, takes part in the story, and has a loyalty gauge that, upon completion, binds the character to a player's roster for use outside the event. If the gauge isn't completely filled when the event ends, the unit will be removed from the player's inventory. Story events use any of a number of reward systems; solo battles usually have an item exchange shop while multiplayer battles usually have a ticket draw box and honor point rewards. There are typically event-exclusive SSR summons and weapons in the rewards.

Partway through the event, a Challenge Battle may be introduced. These battles have story-related characters join your party as guests and are typically used to showcase newly-released Draw character skills, so they are either extremely easy or require uncovering some kind of gimmick using the guest characters' skills. The Challenge Battle costs 0 AP the first time, and awards a when completed.

Collaborations
Collaborations feature story and characters from other games/franchises. They are typically Showdown-style events with short story quests, but reward "Unknown"-type weapons, which are desirable due to how damage is calculated in Granblue Fantasy.

Defense Order
Defense Order is an ongoing, periodic world raid-style event. Players have a limited amount of time to defeat invading enemies and bosses, culminating in a final boss that has multiple health bars. Instead of honor, players earn Siege Shields, used as currency in the Defense Order shop.

Due to negative player feedback, Defense Order will be suspended indefinitely after the Order of the Lord event has ended on September 21, 2016. It may be brought back as a crew-only quest/event in the future.

A somewhat similar type of event, Arcarum:_The_World_Beyond, was introduced in September 2016 as well, but quickly ended due to negative feedback and many issues. It is not clear if and when it might make a return at this point.