Since this comes up far too often and people apparently don't like doing complicated math like "aim for enemy evasion x3 as your accuracy stat" themselves, NUMBERWANG!

This uses the old combat simulator we've been telling everyone to use before it was replaced by a better one to determine first-magazine performance of various equip/fairy combinations, with the top three of the big 4 MGs and SAT8 as tank, assuming level 100 for all dolls, skill level 10, 100 affection, equip at maximum calibration and enhancement, and fairies at level 100 and 5*. Your echelons obviously will vary, so just use the damn simulator yourself to figure out what works best for you. Note that the new combat simulator gives slightly different results, but the relative values should still fit.

This obviously also is geared around killing fodder with MG echelons (hence, first magazine performance); boss fights will want custom tailored echelons anyway and you have even less excuse not to run the numbers yourself

Fairies were picked based on having one to emphasize raw damage (artillery), one to maximize accuracy (illumination), and command to have a mix between damage and crit damage. Command is also the most common fairy, so she got preference over Airborne (who has similarly well-rounded stats).

Armoured enemies (0 evasion)#

Surprise: It doesn't fucking matter. 1% difference won't be noticeable in actual combat. Try to bring crit scopes.

Evasive Enemies at Day#

15 evasion is typical for what we'll find in later events and chapters; early chapters will have less, and you shouldn't fight Scouts with MGs anyway.

Result: K5 is pretty nice. Connie isn't optimal, but the difference isn't all that great, again. Mk23 with proper scopes wins over Connie, but if you're too lazy to swap scopes, she'll lose more – but a 3% difference still isn't really worth worrying about.