Should You Pull - Beyond Darkness Edition

Another High Speed Bow

While Speed is always a great stat to invest in, archers with Speed as their primary stat face a mountain of competition. Luckily, Sue outstrips them all and with 38 Speed, she is the second fastest archer in the game after Halloween Niles. She pays for this by tying for 9th place in terms of her Attack, which rests at 32

Cavalry Stats

Sue seems to follow in Brave Lyn's footsteps as being a mounted archer who does not take a stat penalty due to being mounted. At 149 stat total, she matches Lyn and finds herself only 2 points below recent non-cavalry archers such as Nina and Summer Noire.

Compared with the free Fallen Takumi

Compared with the (potentially) free Brave Lyn

Compared with the 5 star NY Fjorm

Wo Bow

• Sue comes with the Wo Dao effect on her Bow in the Short Bow, a weapon which grants her +10 damage when her Special triggers
• This offers her (and other archers, as it’s inheritable) the potential to help supplement a poorer Attack stat with flat additional damage
• The Short Bow can also be further refined, granting Sue additional stat options

A Perfect Setup

• Sue has all the right skills she needs to be good- from Swift Sparrow in her A slot, to Chill Def in her B slot, to her Short Bow combo with Moonbow- ensuring that if she doubles, she will do lots of damage on her Special activation.
• Sue is also the first unit to carry Hone Speed 4, a passive buff that grants her adjacent allies +7 Speed at the beginning of her turn.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

While Sue may ordinarily be a logical powercreep of the always-powerful Brave Lyn, she faces several limitations that makes her a sidegrade, if that. The first is the most obvious- the fact that she is a colored archer, rather than colorless. This severely limits her effectiveness against red units, while making her perform better against blue units, but stepping away from an archer’s niche of a ‘one size fits all’ category makes Sue difficult to place in an established team. Additionally, the lack of prf weapon and skill severely limits her viability in comparison, making her performance closer to New Year Fjorm than Brave Lyn.

Still, she is a very fast archer, is a cavalry, and comes with a highly optimized kit- so there are definite upsides to her as well.

Should You Pull?

Here are some reasons to try your luck on green orbs:

• You like Lugh and Sue, as you could get both
• You want an archer to fill your green slot in a cavalry team
• You want a very fast ranged green unit with great mobility

Here are a few reasons you may want to stay away from green orbs:

• Unless you’re looking specifically to counter blues, she is a sidegrade to Brave Lyn at best
• Her lack of prf limits her scoring potential as well as her team utility
• You don’t like Lugh and would prefer to wait for a banner where Sue is the sole green focus

Blue Lance Flier...

As the 14th blue lance flier in the game, Thea has some big shoes to fill, but she doesn’t quite succeed as well as one would hope. Thea ranks 6th in terms of Speed, 3rd in terms of Defense, and 8th in terms of Attack, making her one of the more mediocre units we’ve seen in recent banners.

Compared with the free Valter

Compared with the 3 star Catria

Compared with the 5 star Tana

We’ve Seen This Before

• Thea comes with the Vanguard Lance, a new lance which gives the user +7 Defense during the Enemy Phase and can also be refined for further stat benefits
• This makes her a direct comparison to Tana, whose Vidofnir grants her Def/Res +7 against melee enemies during the Enemy Phase
• While Thea has more stats than Tana, they’re not quite in the right places (lower Attack and Speed for higher Defense and Resistance) to make her as good in Player Phase, and her Vanguard Lance won’t protect her from dragon units in Enemy Phase.
• Still, her higher Defense makes her better at being a purely defensive unit than Tana, which plays well into her having Ignis and Steady Posture in her base kit

New Skills

• Thea comes with the new Vanguard Lance as well as Seal Spd/Def
• We haven’t seen a duel seal skill in quite awhile, but this one is brand new, and with it, she can prove to be an excellent debuffer in modes like the Arena, where Thea can tank enemy attacks while debuffing them for another ally to come in and finish them off.

Overwhelmingly Average

While Thea’s has the highest combined Defense/Resistance among blue lance fliers, she trades a lackluster 31 Attack and average 35 Speed for it. Her niche overlaps with units like Valter and Tana, both of whom have prf lances to eclipse her power.

Nevertheless, she’s a serviceable all rounder unit, who is capable of handling both magical and physical threats, unlike Valter and Subaki. Her Speed can help her to avoid doubles in the Enemy Phase, while her lance and A slot offer her big damage on an Ignis activation.

Should You Pull?

Here are some reasons to try your luck on blue orbs:

• You want to inherit Vanguard Lance, Steady Posture, or Seal Spd/Def to another unit
• You want to reunite Shanna and Thea
• You like collecting fliers

Here are a few reasons you may want to stay away from blue orbs:

• Most blue fliers from launch have prfs that outshine Thea’s Vanguard Lance
• Thea is remarkably average in all stats

Red Armored Dragon

Idunn is the second red armored dragon we’ve gotten, sharing both a unit type and a base stat total with Halloween Myrrh- as a matter of fact, she’s extremely similar to Halloween Myrrh in many ways and will undoubtedly share an identical niche.

Compared with the free Black Knight

Compared with the 5 star Halloween Myrrh

Demonic Breath

• Idunn is the only unit on this banner with a prf, Demonic Breath. This weapon has effectiveness against other armored units and grants her immunity to debuffs, as well as granting her all stats +4 if she has less than full HP or has any negative status effects (ie: gravity/flash) applied to her.
• This weapon is absurdly powerful and makes Idunn one of the best counters in the game for powerful green armors such as Surtr and Legendary Hector
• What this weapon doesn’t do, however, is grant her immunity to followups, making her vulnerable to high Speed units and units with Bold Fighter

Can’t Improve on Perfection

• Other than her prf, Idunn carries no new skills but notably has the rare Fort Def/Res, as well as the always-powerful Vengeful Fighter
• This gives her the ability to double her opponents, although they will be able to double her first- still, she’ll generally be able to shrug off the damage due to neutralizing potential debuffs and having a 45/40 Defense/Resistance split after Fort Def/Res is taken into account

An Armor To End All Armors

It takes an armor to counter an armor, apparently- and Idunn counters more than just armors. The only time she can be debuffed at all is when she has 100% HP, otherwise she’s simply immune. In addition, her Demonic Breath’s effectiveness against armors grants her a definite edge against units like Halloween Myrrh or Zelgius.

The only drawbacks to her is that she can’t carry enough skills- her prf doesn’t give her Distant Counter and if she runs it over Fortress Def/Res, she loses out on a lot of her bulk. In addition, running something like Bold Fighter with the Quick Riposte seal makes her unable to run the Close Defense seal. Regardless, Idunn is exceptionally strong and seemingly designed to put units like Duma and Surtr in the ground.

Should You Pull?

Here are some reasons to try your luck on red orbs:

• You want a unit who can delete most armors in the game
• You want a powerful red dragon on your armor team
• You want a good red unit for high tier arena
• Idunn is one of the few units with unique art for both attacking and Special activations

Here are a few reasons you may want to stay away from red orbs:

• You don’t like using armors
• You already have Halloween Myrrh built up
• Statistically, pulling red on a 4 unit banner yields lower odds of success