Raiko Horikawa

Raiko Horikawa was released on September 16th, 2022 in the "Prayer: Capsule-Crazy Gensokyo." For more up-to-date analysis, be sure to visit the  Official Discord Server.

Raiko Horikawa is another among an increasingly large collection of tsukumogami; objects that have gained sentience 100 years since their conception. Like her sisters, she was given power from the Miracle Mallet wielded by Shinmyoumaru Sukuna. Instead of joining in the youkai rebellion however, she decides to trade in her traditional Taiko drum form with a modern drum set from the outside world, lending to the contemporary look she sports in Gensokyo today. This process involved the cleansing of her current self, removing all traces of the Miracle Mallet’s power and substituting it with a separate source. This creates a magical storm above the skies of Gensokyo, leading Reimu to confront her in an effort to resolve a possible incident.

These calmer times have seen her form a quartet with the Prismriver Sisters, spreading the joy of music to the residents of Gensokyo who happen to be present at one of their legendary performances. She is passionate about creating a paradise for other tsukumogami like herself to live freely in peace, though only time will tell what results her efforts will yield.

For farming, Raiko is fairly average across the board. With her Last Word, Thunder and Lightning of Battle, she is able to dish out good damage against enemies who are weak against Wood, especially in certain event stages. However, due to how current the story stages are constructed, Raiko can be heavily disadvantaged when it comes to farming multiple Story Cards due to her lack of elemental variance.

When facing challenging content, Raiko serves a more selfish role in the team rather than a helpful one. For example, her Skill 1, Backbeat, provides a decent speed and accuracy boost for multiple turns, however only to herself. This self-buffing theme is present throughout her Skill 2, Downbeat, providing only herself with a Spirt P boost and inflicting Electrified onto the enemy, and Skill 3, Blast Beat, boosting her own Yang Attack by 3 levels, but only giving her allies two levels of speed. While her skills boost her own damage output, they do almost nothing for her team. This trend follows through with all her Spell Cards as they also only provide self-buffs. Raiko’s first Spell Card, xxx, provides 2 levels of speed to herself, with her second Spell Card, Eighth Drum: Thunder God's Anger, following suit and buffing her own accuracy by 2 levels. Her Last Word, Thunder and Lightning of Battle, provides 3 levels of speed similar to her first Spell Card, and buffs her Yang Attack by 3 levels.

All in all, Raiko can deal a decent amount of wood breaks while dealing some decent damage towards enemies weak to the element. While she may not be able to reach the peaks that other characters may have, her electrifying performance is sure to leave a mark!