The anniversary event thing got me to start trying Gold and Gears again, and managed to do it at conundrum level 12. I'd previously made it through level 10 with Qingque+Propogation path and the Occurrence dice before I just kind of stopped trying.
This time I was using Double Sustain Acheron (Fu Xuan, Aventurine, Silver Wolf, Acheron) with the Erudition path, which felt somewhat better based on my memory. Being able to run 2 sustains made it a lot less glass cannon-y and dependent on specific blessings, and Acheron being so absurd meant I was still putting out enough damage. I don't know how the team handles all the final bosses but it's at least well set up to handle the double robot one.
Also I really like Aventurine in simulated universe generally. Just a good sustain but he also synergizes well with both Preservation and Elation blessings.
I didn't do guru this year but azuarc can be in my sig anyways.