I do pickup groups rolling the dice trying to skip as many levels as possible. I always do that. That being said, I have never seen/ran into as many bombers before this gate. Shivermist and radiant sun shards.

I however am not a bomber. My only shadow defense is a low UV on my helm. I carry a leviathan, polaris and callahan for this stratum but the leviathan is only for trojans. The polaris is for kats, the callahan for devilites. I have found I like going after the kats first, they are a bigger distraction for me than devilites. I shoot liberally at the kats and let the aeo hit them, it will also hit the devilites. I'm a clip emptier, so it is important to keep moving in the presence of devilites. While the polaris has the biggest aeo for guns, an alchemer with ricochets probably has similar effect. Splash damage and status effects are your friends here. For devilites, I make sure not to engage more than 2 devilites at a time because my shield will not hold up to that many projectiles. One shot, then shield, keep moving. Strafe when moving around devilites. If you don't have a callahan, the only other gun that will work on devilites is an AP or Sentenza but those take more shots. This is slower than fighting other mobs and it takes more concentration, but I have always made it to basil without energy revive.