Tsukinogi

"Again and again we prance, posture, sing, and pray, with no tolerance for the slightest discrepancies. Some people find joy in filling their lives with these things, and tell others that it will bring joy to the high heavens. How truly sinful."

Tsukinogi has quite the resume: shrine maiden, ceremonial dancer, Catastrophe Messenger, and now, Rhodes Island Operator. By carefully observing the world around her, especially the mental and emotional reactions of others, Tsukinogi has learned how to apply a gentle touch to the world in order to shift it in the direction she chooses. This sensitivity has empowered her Originium Arts, which she utilizes as Rhodes Island’s first 5* Buffing Supporter, bringing survival buffs to her allies and preventing stealth tactics from her enemies.

Tsukinogi’s main method of protecting her allies is her Talent, Blessing, which applies the Sanctuary buff (reduces incoming physical and Arts damage) to allies within Tsukinogi’s attack range once they fall below a certain percentage of HP. This buff can keep allies alive long enough for a Medic to heal them, especially against enemy Casters, since there are fewer options for mitigating Arts damage. Both of Tsukinogi’s Skills supplement this Talent. Her Skill 1, Without a Trace, grants allies in range both Physical and Arts Dodge, adding an extra layer of survivability. It also has the bonus effect of removing Stealth from enemies within range, which gives Tsukinogi a little extra utility. In contrast, her Skill 2, Forest's Embrace, is more direct: it reduces the HP requirement to activate Blessing, increases the power of the Sanctuary buff, and also causes allies within range to regenerate HP for the Skill duration.

Despite her uniqueness, Tsukinogi isn’t ideal for most team compositions. Her Talent only triggers when allies are at low health, so if you have strong enough healing or are running a no-Blocking strategy, you may not see it activate at all. Similarly, if enemy damage is too high, Operators could go from “having HP over the threshold” to “dead” without the buff triggering. Long-duration-blocking strategies (where her steady mitigation would be most effective) are exceedingly rare in high-difficulty content, and most Doctors don't have their squads built to support it anyway (why go slow when you can burn everything to the ground?).  Keep in mind also that her Skills don’t have great uptime -- the charge times are a little long, so they need to be timed carefully for maximum effect -- and her stats are quite low, as is usually the case with Buffer and Debuffer Supporters.

Despite Tsukinogi’s weaknesses, she has a low DP cost, brings extra Arts damage to the table, and has an enormous attack range, which also means an enormous buffing and anti-stealthing range. She’s an excellent way to mitigate Arts damage, especially with her high base RES, and you’ll thank your lucky stars for her presence whenever stealthed enemies hit the field. These aspects might be useful to new players lacking other options that can fill similar roles.  Unfortunately, "unique" does not always equal "good", and Tsukinogi is not an Operator that will typically make much of an impact.  Most doctors will be better off leaving this elegant Elafia cheering on the sidelines, but If you are a Doctor that loves to solve maps in interesting ways with different utility tools, then she might be a fun investment.