Dark Genesis is the themed event that brings Superman Death Metal to DC: Dark Legion. You earn Madame Xanadu’s Tarot Cards across several modes and trade them for his shards in the Occult Curiosa. This guide covers how every mode works, the actual drop rates, what he costs at every star, which packs are worth it, and how far a free player can realistically get.
The drop rates, prices and milestones below are the event’s own numbers. Sun Tarot Card totals are averages, because Unchained Payback is random.
Schedule
- October 22: Mystic Search, Solar Sonar and the event pass open. Needs War Room Lv. 10.
- October 23: Mystic Alignment opens (it still ends on the original date).
- October 25: Unchained Payback and the Occult Curiosa open.
- The in-game rules say the event lasts 17 days, so it runs to around November 7. Event items are recycled when it ends.
The Currencies
- Sun Tarot Card: 1 per attack in Unchained Payback. This is the currency everything else flows from.
- Madame Xanadu’s Tarot Card: what attacks and kills drop. You spend it in the Occult Curiosa, including on Superman Death Metal’s shards.
- Disk of Ra: from Mystic Search and kills. Submit them in Solar Sonar for milestone rewards and the Supercharged skill.
How Each Mode Works
Mystic Search
Send squads of up to 4 champions on 2-hour missions, 4 times a day. Each champion can only go once a day, and you start with 2 squad slots (a 3rd after 4 dispatches, a 4th after 12).
Each dispatch pays 10 Disks of Ra × (100% + bonuses), and every champion in the squad adds to it:
- +200% for each Superman Family or Death Metal champion: Superman Death Metal, Batman Death Metal, Wonder Woman Death Metal, Superman, Supergirl, Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow, Superboy and Krypto
- +100% for each Mythic+ champion, +40% Mythic, +20% Legendary, +10% Epic
- Example: Superman, Supergirl, Superboy and Krypto in one squad is 100% + 800% + 340% = 1,240%, so 124 Disks of Ra
The story board unlocks a page at 1, 4, 8, 12, etc. dispatches, and every page gives 1 Sun Tarot Card (12 in total).
Solar Sonar
Submit Disks of Ra to Constantine. Rewards by total submitted:
- 100: 2 Sun Tarot · 200: 10 AC/DC Shards · 300: 2 Sun Tarot · 400: 10 AC/DC Shards · 500: 5 World Anvil Fragments
- 750: 3 Sun Tarot · 1,000: 20 AC/DC Shards · 1,250: 5 World Anvil Fragments · 1,500: 5 Sun Tarot
- 2,000: 5 World Anvil Fragments · 2,500: 5 Magic Eyes · 3,000: 5 World Anvil Fragments · 4,000: Premium Mythic Legacy Piece Supply
- 5,000 / 8,000 / 12,500 / 17,500: Memento Box · 6,000: 5 Magic Eyes · 10,000 and 15,000: 10 Magic Eyes · 20,000: 30 Magic Eyes
- After 20,000: 5 Magic Eyes for every 5,000 more
Submitting also unlocks the Supercharged skill for Unchained Payback: 1 use a day at 1,000 Disks, 2 at 3,000 and 3 at 10,000. Each use instantly defeats the enemy in front of you, and it doesn’t cost a Sun Tarot Card.
Mystic Alignment
A 4×4 board of everyday tasks. Each tile pays 20 Madame Xanadu’s, each full row or column 1 Sun Tarot Card, and clearing the board gives 5 World Anvil Fragments. That’s 320 Madame Xanadu’s and 8 Sun Tarot Cards for things you’re mostly doing anyway:
- Use 20 Sun Tarot Cards · submit 250 Disks of Ra · dispatch 12 times · redeem 5 times at the Occult Curiosa
- Log in 3 days · 5 Meta Brawl battles · use 10 World Anvil Fragments · 4 Expedition infiltrations
- Defeat 3 Dark Legions · craft 10 gear · help league members once · 10 league donations
- Star up a champion once · 10 Mystery Store purchases · spend 200 Intel Points · 3 Combat Cycle challenges
A $2.99 pack doubles every board reward, including ones you’ve already claimed.
Unchained Payback (the odds)
Each attack costs 1 Sun Tarot Card and rolls a die worth 100, 200 or 300 damage (a 1 in 3 chance each). Every 4 attacks charge Superman, and the next attack rolls all three dice. Each attack also has a 20% chance of an assist: half the time Batman Death Metal makes your next attack free, half the time Wonder Woman Death Metal makes it deal double damage.
Normal enemies have 1,300 HP, and every 5th enemy is an elite with 3,000 HP. What each attack drops:
- Normal enemy: 40% 5 Madame Xanadu’s · 20% 10 Madame Xanadu’s · 15% 2,000 Alloy · 10% 5 AC/DC Shards · 10% 1 Quantum Component · 5% 1 World Anvil Fragment
- Elite enemy: 50% 10 Madame Xanadu’s · 25% 20 Madame Xanadu’s · 10% 1 World Anvil Fragment · 5% 3 World Anvil Fragments · 5% Firepit Afterburners · 5% 1 Magic Eye
- Kill: 100 Madame Xanadu’s + 10 Disks of Ra (elite: 200 + 20)
Spending Sun Tarot Cards pays some back. The first 500 you spend return 100 across milestones (at 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 120, 160, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 and 500), and after that every 100 spent returns 20. That’s 20% back, all the way up.
The top 200 spenders also get ranking rewards: 5 Magic Eyes and 5 World Anvil Fragments for 51–200, rising to 40 of each plus a league gift for 1st. Leftover Sun Tarot Cards turn into 60 gems each when the event ends, and leftover Madame Xanadu’s into 1 gem each.
The Event Pass
Five dailies give 500 points each (log in, use 1 Sun Tarot Card, craft 10 gear, 5 Crisis Response tasks, 3 Meta Brawl battles), so the 10 levels take 4–5 days. The free track gives 10 Sun Tarot Cards and The Bottle City of Kandor for 24 hours. The $4.99 track adds 25 Sun Tarot Cards and 300 gems; the $14.99 version (or a $9.99 upgrade from $4.99) adds 75 and 900 in total.
The Occult Curiosa
- Superman Death Metal Shard: 40 at 125, then 200 at 180, 400 at 240 and 400 at 360 Madame Xanadu’s each
- Arm of Apokolips: 25,000 (1) · The Bottle City of Kandor, permanent: 18,000 (1) · Premium Mythic Legacy Piece Supply: 2,000 (1)
- Magic Eyes: 10 for 2,000 (×20), 20 for 6,000 (×10), 1 for 900 (×100)
- Custom Mythic Champion Shard: 35 (×40), then 50 (×40) · World Anvil Fragment: 40 (×10), 60 (×20), 240 (×100)
- Quantum Component: 25 (×10), then 50 (×30) · AC/DC Shard: 15 (×40) · Source Wall Fragment, Firepit Afterburners, Inertron, Mirror Cells, Energy Keys and Dollars
- The Sun Tarot Card: 5 a day for 60 gems each
What Superman Death Metal Costs at Every Star
He needs 40 shards to unlock and 1,000 more to reach 5★ Red, and the Occult Curiosa sells exactly 1,040. Unlocking him takes about 136 Sun Tarot Cards. 5★ White (all three skills) takes about 330, and 5★ Red about 7,700.
In money, the 0★ unlock is about $26 from nothing, or about $11 for a player who collects the free rewards. Past 5★ White the cost climbs fast, because the shard price climbs (125 → 360) and the cheap packs run out early. 5★ Red is around $4,600 either way. The free rewards decide whether you unlock him, not how far you star him.
The Free Path
A free-to-play player gets about 50 Sun Tarot Cards: 12 from the Mystic Search story, 12 from Solar Sonar, 10 from the free pass, 8 from Mystic Alignment and about 8 back from spending. The gem shop can add up to about 70 more if you’re willing to spend 4,200 gems.
Here’s roughly where three rosters end up by the end of the event, split by how many Disks of Ra they make in Mystic Search. Madame Xanadu’s earned:
- Strong roster (~280 Disks a day): about 4,200 with no gems spent, 6,900 with the gem shop
- Mid roster (~150 Disks a day): about 3,000, or 5,900 with the gem shop
- Starter roster (~55 Disks a day): about 1,700, or 4,500 with the gem shop
So a free-to-play player can unlock him at 0★ if they use the gem shop and have a decent roster for Mystic Search. Without gems, nobody gets there for free. The permanent Kandor skin (18,000) is out of reach without spending.
If you won’t reach 5,000, don’t buy a few Superman shards: he needs all 40 to unlock. Spend the Madame Xanadu’s on Custom Mythic Champion Shards, World Anvil Fragments and Quantum Components instead, cheapest tier first.
Using the Supercharged Skill
Per use, an elite is worth about twice a normal enemy (about 4 Sun Tarot Cards saved vs 2.4), because the skill skips the whole health bar and the elite’s kill reward is double. But the uses reset daily and elites only show up every 5th enemy, about every 24 cards. Keep in mind that you get the better rewards from hitting the elites, though, so it actually makes the most sense to go after the normal mobs with the superhcharged skill.
Which Packs Are Worth It
Ranked by cost per Sun Tarot Card (gems counted at the gem shop’s rate):
- $2.99 Mystic Alignment double rewards: about $0.15 per card, if you finish the board
- Event pass, $4.99 or $14.99: about $0.17 per card
- Genesis Bundles: $0.27 ($2.99, 1 a day), $0.29 ($4.99, 1 a day), $0.33 ($9.99, 2 a day), $0.36 ($19.99, 3 a day), $0.38 ($49.99), $0.42 ($99.99)
- Dark Genesis Bundle (frame), $9.99: $0.50 per card. You’re buying it for the frame.
The Genesis Bundles are a chain: the $4.99 appears after you buy a $2.99, the $9.99 after a $4.99, the $19.99 after a $9.99. The cheapest way to a 0★ unlock for a lite spending player who isn’t spending gems is the board pack, the $4.99 pass and one $2.99 bundle, about $11.
Arm of Apokolips
Arm of Apokolips sells in two shops. The Occult Curiosa has it for 25,000 Madame Xanadu’s (about 689 Sun Tarot Cards, or roughly $200 for a player who collects the free rewards). The House of Secrets has it for 200 Magic Eyes.
If you already have 200 Magic Eyes saved, the House of Secrets is the way to go. If you don’t, buy it in the Occult Curiosa: the Magic Eye packs there cost 200 Madame Xanadu’s or more per Eye, so 200 Eyes would run at least 40,000, well past the Arm’s own price.
Starring it up costs Magic Eyes too: 400 total for 5★ White, 600 for 5★ Blue, 1,000 for 5★ Purple, 1,400 for 5★ Yellow and 2,200 for 5★ Red, counting the 200 to unlock. That’s the same for every unique legacy piece in the game.
The Bottle City of Kandor
The new base skin gives +10% Physical DEF while owned and +12% Ultimate DMG while equipped. The permanent version is 18,000 Madame Xanadu’s in the Occult Curiosa, about 500 Sun Tarot Cards; the free pass track gives a 24-hour version.
About These Numbers
- Sun Tarot Card counts are averages that include the 20% spending rebate and the 320 Madame Xanadu’s from Mystic Alignment. Unchained Payback is random, so your result can land a few percent either side.
- “From zero” assumes no free rewards and no gems of your own, buying the cheapest packs first over 14 days and spending pack gems on the daily Sun Tarot Cards.
- “After free rewards” assumes a mid roster (about 150 Disks of Ra a day) that collects everything free and spends no gems.
- The event runs 17 days; check the in-game timer for your server’s exact end.
Final Thoughts
For his full kit and the rest of the October 21 changes, see Superman Death Metal and Dark Genesis. Check the champion tier list and the legacy tier list before you decide how far to go.