Holy Night Gangstar – Gacha Review

Merry Christmas! Lifewonders coming in with some early presents, as usual. Let’s get right to it:

I am more entertained than I should be by the fact Simurgh’s 3 and 4★ icons don’t change all that much – his face just fills more of the frame. Does this mean his 5★ will just be his beak? Time will tell.

There’s not too much to talk about here – he brings some healing, Healing Reversal, and a team-wide (effectively) passive damage buff.

It’s mostly this last effect that you’re going to be running him for – at turn 3+, it’s essentially a 1.7x damage boost for your team, which is certainly nothing to sniff at.

Boosting your team against Oppression (the extra effect from his CS) is potentially interesting, if you’re able to take advantage of it, but it’s probably not something you’ll use most of the time.

Teda

As salty as I am about Teda stealing Yasuyori’s Christmas look, he’s at least got a pretty decent kit to back it up.

Pulling enemies forward is the kind of effect that you want at least once, particularly for short-range teams.

Outside of that, Teda’s going to have two main uses: as a CP battery, and as a buff relay (both for a single target). If you need either of these, Teda’s a pretty solid option; if you don’t, he’s not going to do much for you.

Bertro

Holy colour palette, Batman!

Between Evasion, Tenacity, and Blessing Strengthening, you’re really not going to worry about Bertro having Taunt here – your team is going to have pretty free reign for the first two turns of each phase (provided they are out of range to begin with).

He also turns Freeze into a 5.5x damage boost (between Crit+ and Crit++), so he’s no slouch on the damage support side either.

Once turn 3 rolls around, though, he’s just going to be a very tanky unit (that can Freeze enemies) – but if you’re running any other units that aren’t dead weight, you’re not going to see turn 3 too often.

Fuxi

Fuxi has two skillsets here: support/murder machine, and murder machine/murder machine.

His first skillset, when he’s at full HP, sees him handing out Nullify Debuff to his adjacent allies, and smacking the enemy with Crit+ (and Concentration)

His second skillset, when he’s below 50% HP, sees him smacking the enemy with Limit and Crit++ (and Concentration).

He’s also got tools to get him straight into his second mode, with a large HP decrease when he moves. On top of this, he also gets a large CP boost when he moves, making it pretty easy to set up a turbocharged CS from him when required.

Being immune to HP-draining statuses is interesting, but compared to the rest of his kit, it’s basically just flavour.

Zhurong

Eats, shoots, ~~leaves~~ sticks around and makes your team hard to kill.

Offensively, Zhurong comes in with his CS ready to go, and gets Crit and a boost against Madness for a 8x damage multiplier on top of his CS. Of course, you don’t have to set his CS off – if you don’t move him, he’ll apply CS lock to himself and remove it next turn (barring any other debuffs that get in the way).

Defensively, he gives out both Blessing and Blessing Strengthening (though not at the same time) for a 0.3x defensive boost – this isn’t quite the classic two-defensive-buffs-and-a-heal combo (that’s around a 0.2x boost), but for something this easy to activate, it’s very strong. As a side note, tt’s not clear whether his Blessing Strengthening will stack with Bertro’s, but if it does, that’s pretty bonkers.

There’s not much else to say here – running him alongside a friend’s copy is going to make for some pretty fast farming teams.

So there we have it! Some very good stuff in this one – as always, good luck if you decide to roll!

Personal Update

First off, I’d like to apologise for missing the 6th anniversary gacha – I thought it was going to run for longer than it did, and didn’t get to write about it in time.

Now, the actual update: I got a new job. It’s not actually bad news (I’m really excited for it), but it does mean that I’m going to be out of range for months at a time.

With that in mind, this is (probably) the last post I’ll be making here – I don’t really see it providing value if I can’t keep it up consistently.

I have yet to decide whether I’ll keep playing the game. Housamo has been a pretty significant game for me (I’ve written a good 60 thousand words about it, after all), but I have found my interest in it waning, particularly over the course of this year. I’ll probably keep tabs on it – I’m still holding out hope for a Makara or Ophion variant, and I’m keen to see where they take the story (if they ever decide to finish the thing!), but I’ll be spending a fair bit less time on it.

If you want to reach out, drop me a line over on Reddit.

Thank you to everyone for reading and the support over the last couple of years – it really means a lot ❤

-The (Jaws4President)

AGF2022 – Gacha Review (??)

Lifewonders has definitely pulled a fast one on me here – I have no idea what to do when they only release one new unit in a gacha lineup.

We’ll take a look, anyway:

Ixbalanque

There’s not really a ton that stands out to me with Ixbalanque’s kit here – he’ll do some ok damage with Brawn and Break, he’ll act as an ok CP accelerant, and shrugging off debuffs once his CS is ready is nice, but there’s nothing that makes me want to build a team around him.

A wide-ranging Charm on his 4★’s CS is probably the strongest part of his kit, but I’m still not sure whether it justifies him a spot in your teams.

…Well, that’s the gacha review. There’s some decent value in there in Jamboree Aizen and Beach Andvari, but I would probably steer clear of this one unless you’re chasing either of those two. As always, good luck if you do decide to roll!

Kabukicho Night Festival – Gacha Review

The best part of Halloween – new Housamo variants!

Let’s take a look:

New Units
	Some solid support abilities combined with some niche (but very welcome) effects
	Debuff spreader, good miscellaneous support
	Mild healing, major Possession
	Defensive buffs are for chumps
	Gets a good suite of buffs, then shares them with allies

Sphinx

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of buffs that provide other buffs – yes, they provide better value for units that care about receiving buffs, but they make it a bit harder to parse skillsets.

Sphinx is pretty interesting in that he’s able to decrease allies’ CP – for that reason alone, I can see him making it onto a farming team somewhere.

Otherwise, he brings some cute abilities to the table – decreasing enemies’ weapon range is a pretty effective tactic, and increasing your allies’ is also pretty welcome.

Mixing that in with some reliably good effects (Limit, Concentration (4★), Stigma, and Curse/Doubt), and you’ve got yourself a pretty interesting unit.

Tsukuyomi

Tsukuyomi fills a very similar niche to Zhurong in that you’re mainly running him for debuff distribution.

Unfortunately, Tsukuyomi’s debuff distribution is not quite as reliable as Zhurong.

Fortunately, he makes up for it by 1) triggering this distribution [After Attacking], which means that he’s likely to spread the debuffs to someone, 2) he brings good debuffs to spread by himself, and 3) he’s actually got some really solid support abilities, with access to Ardour, Regeneration, Crit, and very good CP generation options.

Though not as specialised, it’s going to be a lot easier to justify putting Tsukuyomi on any given team.

Ellie

Ellie’s kit here is… kind of wild?

Though it’s arguably pretty sparse, applying Possession to any enemy that has their HP drop below 50% has the potential to straight-up end some fights (particularly some of the more recent ones where enemies start with Guts).

I’m very keen to see what people get up to with her.

Kresnik

Kresnik here asks the question: do you even need defensive buffs?

The answer to this is look, probably not, given the enemy will be dead. Which they will be.

As with most damage-dealers, he works best later in the team lineup, particularly since he’ll want someone to hit his target and apply Weakness so that he can murder them even better.

Sandayu

Not much to talk about here: Sandayu gets a very respectable set of buffs that he passively (and regularly) shares with allies behind him, and is able to slot easily into just about any team and improve it. All-round, a very strong unit.

There we have it! Pretty short review this time – the lineup is pretty straightforward, and all quite good. As always, good luck if you’re rolling!

Akiba and Dragons – Gacha Review

No pictures on this one for a bit – I’ll be out of range of decent internet until Friday or so. I’ll update as soon as I’m able, and apologies for any autocorrect goofs!

For an event that literally has the word Dragons in the title, there’s a surprising lack of, you know, dragons. Still, there’s a decent bunch of eye candy – let’s take a look!

New Units
	Paralysis and Evasion-piercing on tap; can apply Weapon Change (All) to enemies
	Passive DPS
	Passive DPS/Offensive support
	Strong passive damage along with 60% Bind rate with a snipe range
	Very strong Taunt-based tank with some DoT and Buff Reversal

Vapula

Vapula is a bit unusual in that there are some very clear caveats to his kit, without necessarily enough else to justify them.

Let’s look at the positives first: Paralysis on demand is nice to have, and giving Evasion-piercing to allies is great. His CS has a decent spread of effects, too, with Bind and Nullify Debuff both useful to a team.

Freeze, if you can line it up to trigger off a Paralysed enemy (to minimise incoming damage), is also an excellent uncommon debuff.

Now, the downsides: his LB3 is essentially a dead skill – planning to lose an ally is a questionable strategy at the best of times, and only getting ATK and DEF Up out of the trade is almost insulting.

On his 4★, applying Weapon Change (All) to the enemy is a pretty risky move – there are several enemies in the game that I would worry about one-shotting your entire team if you do this. Most of the time, it’ll be fine (particularly with Paralysis involved), but it does make me hesitant to auto-include him on a team.

Babe Bunyan

I haven’t loved Confusion since it has shown up – much like skill trigger reduction effects, it seems to be geared much more towards frustrating the player rather than something you’re trying to apply to the enemies.

It’s not awful here, but that’s largely thanks to his 2x attack boost against it.

His LB1 is interesting, but also not likely to make a huge impact – 3000 HP isn’t a ton to be shaving off, but it’s a nice boost from defeating an enemy (and I can see it cascading in a satisfying manner, given the right conditions)

The rest of his kit is pretty good, if unexciting – Fear when he shows up is solid, but only going off once hurts it, Ardour/Guts/Concentration are all common enough that they’re almost not worth mentioning, and his heal On Buff is pretty neat, but nowhere near enough to sustain a team.

It’s worth mentioning that his CS will hit very hard, particularly if he’s got the rest of his buffs up (which he should!).

Overall, he’s a decent option for parking over to the side and leaving alone – he’s pretty likely to one-shot his column, leaving you free to deal with the rest of the board.

Catoblepas

Will adding 1200 damage to Spirit finally help it become the buff it has always been destined to be?

…No.

That’s got to be one of the strangest ways we’ve seen to grant ATK Up yet – a debuff that grants it to the attacker – but at the end of the day, it’s still a buff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Between this and Ardour, Catoblepas provides a solid offensive base to work with for both himself and his allies, but he doesn’t really do too much to set himself apart from the myriad of other options we have these days.

Akiha Gongen

Though he’s not exactly penalised for having Burn (15 CP/turn is pretty decent), the opportunity cost of 2x damage is a pretty steep price – it’s probably worth running him with some sort of debuff clear to get rid of the self-Burn from his CS.

Outside that, there’s pretty much only good stuff here – Crit/Crit+/Crit+ on the first three turns of the phase is only ever going to be good (on top of his already-solid passive damage from Burn/Conflagration-related effects), and Bind at 60% is great to have on a snipe-range unit.

Tindalos

I didn’t even think that enemies could get Taunt? I think this is largely in Tindalos’ kit here to act as a meaningless buff to trigger Buff Reversal.

Between this, Protection, Tenacity, and Taunt, Tindalos is going to be a very effective tank (that’s about a 95% damage reduction). This might actually be enough to allow his Flat Damage Strengthening/Fatal Poison to do real work, but I think he’ll still do more damage through normal attacks.

So there we have it! It definitely feels a little bit like they’re trying to reign in the power level of the cards in this one – if you’re just after strong cards, then this is perhaps a gacha to steer clear on. Otherwise, good luck if you’re rolling!

Summer Pool Twilight – Gacha Review

The new attribute types are here! New types! New types! New types!… Why aren’t you chanting?

…Let’s take a look.

New Units
	(Event unit) Mixed frontline support (buff/disruption)
	Buff-based tank
	All CS, all the time (also, source of Weapon Change (All) to allies!)
	Wide Slash board manipulator
	Reliable CP battery
	Alternates between hitting things really hard, and acting as a passable defensive support

Gorozaemon

Free!

It’s really rare that I build a team without at least one unit with increased horizontal movement, so it’s nice to have a decent option available for all players.

Break’s a great debuff, Fear is a bit redundant (though sometimes nice to trigger other effects), and Tenacity combined with DEF Up makes for a solid defensive base.

Combo is a little out of place (though will help ensure Break goes off), but not unwelcome.

They’re lacking a little bit in terms of self-sustainment, but that certainly shouldn’t put you off. Definitely farm for them!

Jormungandr

True story: I almost named my dog Jormungandr.

Taking 15% damage for the first 4 turns of the fight is pretty great – it’s going to be pretty easy to leave him alone while you get the rest of your team into place.

Once your team is in place… you’re probably best off still leaving him where he is, and either using him as a passive damage dealer (his 5★) or a buff-based CP battery (either form) – he has a better generation rate than Ulaanbaatar, even on his 3★.

It’s also worth noting that he’s a pretty effective counter for short-ranged units – pushing them back and Oppressing them is a strong lockdown if they’re vulnerable to it, and you’re not going to mind taking a hit if his defensive buffs are still active.

The CS dream team: Oz, whoever, whoever, Oz (support). It’ll take forever to clear anything, but it’ll be entertaining! (?)

Um. There’s not a stack to say here – he’s going to be CS’ing absurdly often, and he’s a good option for getting Weapon Change (All) onto your allies, if you’re into that sort of thing (and can stomach that many charge skills).

The Smoky God

Smoky God’s pushback effect here reminds me of Nightglows Kurogane, with a better trigger (but on a worse attack range). This is quite a strong option to have available, particularly on a 4★.

I’d almost expect the rest of his kit to be icing on top of his board control skills, but there’s some really strong stuff in there:

On-demand Guts at a 90% trigger rate is… kind of nuts? I’m not really sure it’s got much of a place at the moment (Horus‘ off-turns, maybe?), but definitely keep it in mind.
A global 1.5x damage boost for the first few turns of the fight is quite solid, particularly since it doesn’t clash with any other buffs.
Weakness applied to the enemies a row back (i.e. the enemies that got pushed back from his Default skill) is a very nice touch, and quite easy to build around to get damage out of.

Yamasachihiko

~~I didn’t forget to review a unit again, I swear~~

I’m hoping that’s a typo, and that Yamasachihiko doesn’t restore health to enemies – if he does, you need to be really careful on which teams you slot him into.

If you can line him up to hit two enemies a turn, 24 CP to allies is quite respectable; combining this with another 10 CP on odd turns means it’s hard to go past him if you’re looking for a CP battery.

Though he’s not great as a damage-dealer, Weakness and Ardour allows him some wiggle room if things go sideways, and Fear and Charm resistance are both good options to have around.

Heracles

When did “A 5★ unit that hits real hard” become a trope?

Thinking back on it, it may have been Heracles’ normal variant that started the trend, in which case it’s fitting that his event variant carries it on.

Much like Oz, there’s not a ton to write about here – he either hits things and they die, or it’s an even turn of the phase, in which case he hits things (and they still probably die), and he also gives out Protection and Tenacity to allies on either side of him (so they don’t die).

All of his skills are passive, so you’re free to run a movement-based support around him (but a lot of the time, you’re not going to need it).

There we have it! Pretty good lineup this time around – definitely worth a look if you’re keen on any of the units. As always, good luck if you do roll!

Chapter 13 – Gacha Review

First off:

Why ;_;

Anyway, the gacha. Let’s take a look!

New Units
	Punches enemies; makes enemies punch back
	Extremely stationary support
	Can act as a Charm-based disruptive support or a Nullify Debuff-based damage dealer as needed
	Burn/Conflagration-based damage dealer with some passive HP recovery built-in

Taishakuten

As far as gimmicky blow units go, Taishakuten seems pretty decent. Forcing an enemy into Blow-range can be pretty useful for keeping the heat off the rest of your team, and a built-in 2x damage against this status coupled with Limit will mean you’ll often be outright winning fights before they can hit back.

His lack of any sort of defence is going to hurt him, though – unless you’ve got some sort of backup lined up for him, I’d recommend sitting him back for the first few turns in a phase, and only bring him in to deal with higher-priority targets.

He’ll be a reasonable pairing for Licho, if you’ve got him handy.

∀Isaac

Gr∀tuitous use of symbols aside, I’d like to draw attention to ∀Isaac’s 4★ charge skill as one of the most bonkers things we’ve seen for some time.

The rest of his kit is fine, if a bit unexciting – there’s definitely some play in applying Confusion across such a wide area, but the rest of his kit is pretty replaceable.

Losing 60% off his activation chance after 9 turns also really hurts if you go that long – if you’re planning for an endurance game, the only way to get anything useful out of him is to bring a strong CP accelerant and some healing to offset his self-destruction.

Ulaanbaatar

Speaking of strong CP accelerants, it’s worth noting that Ulaanbaatar (Ul∀∀nb∀∀t∀r, Lifewonders?) has a pretty strong one tacked on to his Default skill for his 5★ – though it’s not quite as strong as Cthugha’s, it does extend the effect to allies, which could be very interesting.

Outside of this, Ulaanbaatar basically has two modes: if he’s not moved, he slaps enemies in Slash range with Charm at 70%, which is pretty great.

If he is moved, he acts as a reliable damage dealer, with an in-built 3/5x damage multiplier when he has Nullify Debuff (which he gets After Attacking), and extra damage to most defensive buffs.

He also hands out a bunch of Resistances to himself and allies – Burn (eh), Break (great), and Fear (also great). Not always useful, but these are really good statuses to have an answer for.

Tadatomo

I’m a bit whelmed by Tadatomo here. A built-in 4.5x damage multiplier is nice, but that’s basically all he has – the HP recovery that he has is kind of meaningless, when typical enemies hit for several times that amount, and the only defensive ability he has is Guts when appearing, which really doesn’t achieve a lot.

I’ll still be rolling for him, for reasons, but he falls well short of the 4th-variant power level we’ve been seeing on other units.

The best comparison I have is to Horkeu Kamui’s vanilla 5★ – that was pretty bland on release, and did eventually get a pretty solid skill quest, so maybe that’s what they’re shooting for here?

There we have it! I’m keen to see what sort of shenanigans people get up to with ∀Isaac, and Ulaanbaatar is legitimately great, even if Tadatomo seems to have fallen a bit flat. Good luck if you’re rolling!

New School Campaign Part 2 – Gacha Review

The second one of these always sneaks up on me! Let’s jump right in and take a look:

New Units
	Crit/++ buffer that can enable debuff shenanigans if you need them
	Debuff-based support that can switch up which debuff he applies
	Possession-based disruptive support
	Reliable DPS that likes to move into a position and stay there

Hekate

Though there’s a lot written in Hekate’s skill block, most of her contribution to a team is going to be through the Grant Crit (Crit++, for her 4★) After Debuff status she can give to an ally.

The rest of her kit is built around this status – she applies a number of different debuffs at the same time, so it’s a pretty effective offensive spike, and she’s got enough healing to mitigate any damage she does to her allies.

One (rather large) downside in her kit is the duration of her applied debuffs – all of them are 5 turns – makes it difficult for her to boost damage very frequently.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to work around – debuff cleansing will allow her to retrigger it at her leisure, some units get other boosts from debuffs, and there’s always enemy units in a pinch 🙂

Yoshito

Yoshito has access to an excellent set of supporting buffs/debuffs, with Freeze, Break, and Vigour for damage, and Protection (and Bind for his 4★) for defence.

The catch, of course, is that he doesn’t have access to all of these at the same time – which combination he has access to depends on how your movement phase goes – but they’re all strong enough effects that you should be able to make use of him in most scenarios.

His 4★ has the extra benefit of changing up his attack type to match his supporting effects, and a self-buff of Crit to ensure his damage starts from a decent baseline.

Just don’t expect him to be useful with Burn up (bring something to clear the effect if you’re running a long quest) and you should have a good time.

Perun

Calling Perun a ‘Possession-based disruptive support’ is a bit like calling Cthugha a ‘buff-based DPS’ – it’s accurate, but it doesn’t quite describe how well they work.

Perun is very good at Possession. He doesn’t really do much else, but this is fine – any backup skills here would just make him worse at both roles.

Takeminakata

There’s not a ton to unpack here – move Takeminakata to the column you want dead, then park him there for the rest of the phase and leave him alone. He’ll be a good option for farming, if you don’t have one.

There we have it! For a vanilla gacha, the lineup here is quite decent – glad to see we’re back to normal after part 1. Given that all these units will be added to the general pool, though, it’s pretty safe to skip this one unless you particularly like any of the units. As always, good luck if you decide to roll!

New School Campaign Part 1 – Gacha Review

It’s that time of year again – the introduction of 8 or so new units that are (eventually) going to show up in the main story.

The power level for these units has historically been all over the place, with units at the extreme ends showing up. What will this year’s crop have to offer? Let’s take a look:

New Units
	Mixed damage dealer/offensive support that can prevent enemies from getting Guts
	Frontline tank that is limited from doing anything else
	Turns enemies into hazards for their own team
	Fragile damage dealer that can steal both CP and HP from his targets

Barong

Barong has a surprising amount of utility packed into his kit.

He’s mostly a second-line support – with increased horizontal movement and access to Protection, Ardour, Reflect Debuff, Purification, and conditional access to Crit (4★), he’ll cover many of your support needs by himself.

On the disruptive side of things, he’s able to remove Guts (and stop them getting it again) with both good range and reliability. While you might not need this all the time, it’s a really nice trick to have available.

He’s also got some pretty decent offensive capability – with options available to reduce his own HP, he’s able to take full advantage of Limit to put out some good damage if you need it.

His 4★ takes this a step further by getting him access to Evasion (provided he can keep an ally in front of him), as well as both Crit and Crit+ from his CS.

All this does come at a cost – you need to move him, or most of his kit won’t trigger (and he’ll even slap himself with Weapon Change (None)), but the value he brings is definitely worth it.

Enigma

Enigma… lives up to his name.

Being immune to offensive buffs is a pretty severe handicap, and the strengths of his kit don’t even come close to patching that up.

Defensively, he’s pretty good – he’s got reliable access to DEF Up, Tenacity, and Protection (as well as Darkness to reduce enemy damage) – but outlasting enemies simply isn’t a viable option for a lot of quests these days.

It feels like he had a slightly-too-strong skillset during development and they nerfed it into the ground before release.

Tuaring

Tuaring is a pretty solid disruptive support – removing defensive buffs from enemies and preventing them from getting Remove/Reflect Debuff (I see we have hit the point in the game where we effectively have Remove Remove Debuff), and slapping them with the new Logic Bomb effect.

Logic Bomb is pretty neat – when the enemy carrying it gets hit, it causes a whole load of grief for their nearby teammates, reducing their HP, removing buffs, and applying Break.

His CS doubles down on disruption, with further buff removal and Skill Lock thrown in the mix.

Israfil

Israfil is far less gimmicky than Enigma or Tuaring, and he is better off for it.

He slaps Stigma on enemies and hits them, stealing some HP and a decent amount of CP while he’s at it.

He also punishes enemies for not moving with a pseudo-Countdown effect, which is a nice bonus.

His 5★ is also great for mobility, with a bonus 2 squares of horizontal movement (though do note that he reverts to normal movement for 1 turn after he moves).

He does come with a pretty sharp downside – he gives himself Weakness whenever he’s hit. This, combined with his attribute, means you’ll need to take great care in positioning him on the board, as he’ll be quite susceptible to being smacked off the board immediately.

There’s… not much in this gacha. Unless you’re chasing one or more of these units because you like the look of them, I’d probably give this one a miss.

Of course, this being a part 1 gacha means we can expect a second one shortly – stay tuned for a review of that one when it drops!

Valentine Fantasy – Gacha Review

And we’re back!

With the wiki running into some issues, I’ve pulled most skillsets for this review from the JP wiki (the icons in the tl;dr below will link to individual units) – I’ll include a bit more of a run-down of each unit’s skills than usual, but my Japanese is pretty bad, so I apologise in advance if I get something wrong!

With that in mind, let’s take a look:

New Units
	Your new go-to for board manipulation
	Formation-based buffing support
	CP-based single-target buffing support (hooray hyphens!)
	Hits things very hard – has some CP shenanigans, but you’re unlikely to need them
	Bimodal damage dealer/support – switches modes based on whether they moved or not

Boogeyman

Default skill draws allies (3★) / everyone on the board (4★) 1 square towards him when he appears (100%). If he misses, he’ll pull again at the start of the next turn (at a slightly lower activation rate)
He gets bonus damage against Fear, and dishes it out after attacking (or as part of his CS).
He gives out Curse when attacked, and his CS deals bonus damage against Curse
His 3★ has the Mentor skill, so he’s extra useful in dungeon farming teams
Reduces (3★) / drains (4★) enemy CP on hit

Boogeyman seems tailor-made for wide quest maps – drawing your team closer together at the start of these maps can often mean the difference between a smooth run and one where you immediately lose half your team. If you run any sort of dungeon XP farming team, 3★ Boogeyman probably has a place on it.

His 4★ is also great for general use – pulling enemies closer really helps to enable short-range units, and the ability to do it repeatedly will help some teams function much better than they otherwise would.

Outside of that, he’ll do some decent damage, but nothing to particularly make him stand out. You’re definitely going to be running him for his positioning abilities – there are better options if you just want damage.

Cait Sith

Default skill makes the units in the three squares in front of him give out different buffs to horizontally-adjacent allies
Immune to Drain and Paralysis
Clears debuffs (70%, after attacking)
Numerous CP boosts for the rest of the team

For a conductor, Cait Sith is pretty one-note (sorry).

Fortunately, that note is a good one. Arrange your team in a T-shape with Cait Sith at the back, and he’ll effectively give Tenacity, Ardour, and Concentration to the front row. This is a pretty great suite of buffs to be giving out, particularly since he doesn’t need to move to apply them.

Since you’ve positioned him like this, he’s in a great position to clear debuffs from your team and boost their CP, too – the trigger rate on his debuff clear is high enough that you probably won’t need much else in terms of support there.

Where he will need support is in durability – he has next to nothing to keep him alive, so consider running a frontline defensive support (Marchosias, for instance) to keep the music going.

Itzamna

Default skill gives Evasion to the unit in front (after attacking, 50%) as well as provides an offensive boost to allies 1 square away based on how much CP he has at the start of the turn.
Can give out Crit+ to the unit in front when he has more than 50 CP
CS removes debuffs, heals and grants Evasion to allies 2 squares away, in case you needed non-offensive options
LB3 focused around increasing his own CP (60% after attacking, 100% when appearing)

~~aaaaa I love him so much~~ This is a fair and unbiased review.

Setting aside personal preferences, Itzamna is a pretty amazing damage-boosting support – his default skill goes from 1.2x (at 0 CP) to 3x, meaning he can give out an attack multiplier of 15x.

Though Leanan probably still wins out in most cases (her multiplier ranges from 11.5x to 23x, depending on how much health her supported unit has left for Limit), Itzamna doing this off two buffs (one of which is rare, and the other one that is unique to him) is pretty bonkers – get any common damage buff involved, and he gets relevant pretty fast.

It’s worth noting that he effectively spends 50 CP to give Crit+ (as well as a hefty CP boost); thankfully, his LB3 should help ensure he’s >=50 most of the time.

His CS, if you need a defensive option, is a great toolkit to have around; with the damage that your supported unit will be putting out, though, I don’t think it’s something you’re likely to use a lot.

Balor

Guaranteed Crit on Phase Start
CP increase when appearing and at the start of turn
CP decrease after attacking
Applies Paralysis to the enemy when CP >= 60; Countdown when CP >=80; deals bonus damage to both effects
40% chance to give himself Crit when attacking
CS gets further bonus damage to Countdown (and applies it to enemies)

I like units like Balor, if only for the reason I don’t have to write stacks about them.

Balor is very strong – he hits things, they die. You’ll probably have difficulty in out-pacing his CP increases, so don’t expect to be applying Countdown with normal attacks too often. It’s not like this will matter too much, though, since his CS applies it anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Arc

Protection/heal combo in a 1 square radius
After not moving (and not moved by other units) applies CS Change: All to self
Burns enemies, deals extra damage to Burn
Applies Prayer to all allies (not including self) when appearing
Applies Burn to self on turn start
Deals extra damage to Conflagration
Recovers HP on buff
Gains CP on debuff
Gives Crit to self after moving, or Limit to self after not moving
CS applies Burn and Conflagration to enemies and applies Ardour to self

There’s a bunch going on with Arc’s kit, and all of it is good. On the support side:

Prayer is a really uncommon buff that will last for the entire duration of most quests. Combine it with the Sweet Dreams AR (yes, they can equip it) for a team-wide +20% skill activation rate (what?!). The Protection/heal combo, though it has fallen a little out of favour for sheer damage, is still useful for when you can’t simply blast your way through a quest; to have it on such a strong unit will really help teambuilding, as it will often be the only support you need.

On the offensive side, they’re a bit more straightforward – take your pick between Crit and Limit and go to town.

The ability to not fire off their CS is also particularly notable here, as it lets you save it for when it will be most effective (or, if you need a massive damage spike, to unleash it on a single target!).

It’s also worth noting that they provide themselves with both buffs and debuffs, which should give them a little bit in the way of self-sustain (though not really enough to solo things).

There we have it! I’m a big fan of this gacha – there’s a good balance of units in here. Good luck if you’re rolling (or, if you’ve already rolled, I hope you had good pulls)!

Christmas Showdown – Gacha Review

‘Tis the season (to spend all your money chasing husbands)! Let’s jump straight into the tl;dr:

New Units
	Niche reversal-based support (that can be very strong in the right situation)
	Gets stronger at either end of his HP
	Fear-based support/durable front-line tank
	Strong DPS option that also extends his buffs to adjacent allies
	Triple-mode attacker, as you require
New AR
	It’s farmable!
	Good effect, but pretty restrictive in what it can go on. Marchosias and Tadatomo should be able to get decent mileage out of it.
	Cute on Yoritomo (and other Limit/Guts buffers), but not much else
	Amazing on Benten (we’ll see why), also a really solid pick for none-type supports
	Terrific on any unit that likes to run with low HP (unless they have a reliable skill to get them Crit+).

Hermes

Hermes’ skillset is largely built around showing off the new status effects HP Loss Reversal, Healing Reversal (on his 4★), and Damage Reversal (also on his 4★).

Both his variants work similarly with HP Loss Reversal: apply it to allies, then don’t move (or be moved) and heal them every turn.

His 4★ extends this to Healing Reversal – he’ll shave a decent chunk of HP off enemies when he doesn’t move. There are some caveats to this, though: the range on his heal exceeds the range at which he applies Healing Reversal, and he applies his heal before Healing Reversal.

If you’re able to play around that, you’ll be able to get good use out of him – stealing buffs, increased horizontal movement, and ATK Up to allies are all excellent utility to supplement his kit.

His CS, though difficult to trigger (he either needs to miss or some other support to pull it off, thanks to his self-CS-suppression), is really something – Buff Reversal is an excellent option for some high-difficulty quests, and Damage Reversal on his 4★ has some pretty amazing potential.

There are a couple of situations where he’ll really shine, if you want to build around him more:

Countdown goes from a liability to a 20k/turn heal (River Jugo, The Smoky God)
His 3★, thanks to the limited range on HP Loss Reversal, is a great way to shave off HP on allies reliant on Limit shenanigans

Jiraiya

I was a little underwhelmed with Jiraiya until I saw that 80% Evasion chance when he’s below 20% HP. Combining that with Crit++ and extra damage against Curse, there’s just not a lot that can deal with him once he gets to that point.

Of course, he has to get there first (and will eventually burn himself out, barring an unlucky non-activation), but that doesn’t stop him from being a great passive DPS.

He also makes for a good support target if you can keep his HP high, as Crit+ and Curse are pretty easy effects to find complementary buffs for.

Ose

Ose’s skillset here is quite odd – it really reads like two disparate units that have been tacked together, rather than one cohesive build.

On one hand, you have an offensive support – apply Fear to the enemy, and give your allies a damage boost against them.

On the other, you have a unit that seems purpose-built for the frontlines – drastically decreased damage from short-range enemies when he’s fighting them, as well as Combo and a heal for adjacent allies.

Both are useful kits to have, but it’s pretty rare you’ll want both on the same unit.

Nomad

Is a support still a support if they also give all their buffs to themselves?

There’s not a ton to write about here. If he doesn’t kill the enemy, your team likely will.

I’m also a little surprised to see Nomad here, given that the year of the tiger is just around the corner, but I can’t say I’m complaining ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Benten

Compared to Nomad, Benten sacrifices a little bit of power for a lot more versatility – with access to three different attack ranges, she’ll be the right unit for the job for pretty much anything.

As mentioned above, the Sauna Etiquette?! AR card is terrific on her, as she can reliably make use of either mode (and on-hit HP recovery is a sight to behold on an all-range card), but even without it:

Ardour, Vigour, and Limit is a great buff base for all-range damage
Crit and Vigour is is also solid for magic-range damage, but you’ll get most mileage out of this if the enemy has annoying buffs you want to purge/steal (Guts)
Rage+ is a terrific supplement to either attack mode, and the ability to suppress her CS will do wonders for speed-farming quests.

There we have it! The 5★ units, as usual, are amazing, and though I’m not super-keen on Ose, the rest of the gacha certainly puts up a good show. As always, good luck if you’re rolling, and I’ll see you in the new year!

New Units
	Passive team-wide damage booster, with some healing thrown in for good measure
	Buff relay, CP battery, enemy puller.
	Evasive tank, Freeze amplifier
	HP-conditional murder machine
	Defensive rock for the team; offensive board-wiper