Kanako Yasaka (Faith)

A7 Kanako Yasaka was released on June 19th, 2022 in "Festival Prayer: Mountain God & Umbrella Surprise." For more up-to-date analysis, be sure to visit the  Official Discord Server.

The Avatar of Mountains and Lakes, Kanako Yasaka(Faith) is a formidable god of Yamato who conquered Suwako Moriya’s kingdom by annihilating her opponent’s advantage of steel weapons through extending a vine to rust them away. However, Kanako was unable to tame the Mishaguji(curse gods) of the land, and was thus unable to garner the faith of the people, Kanako and Suwako settled on an agreement, Suwako acting as the true power of their shrine, while Kanako took over in name to gather faith. Kanako still commands Moriya shrine today with the same overwhelming authority and cunning with which she conquered it in the first place.

Kanako’s primary purpose will be to hit hard with her largely Metal All, Last Word: Suwa’s Dragon Faith. Before attack, her Last Word raises her Yin Atk and CRIT Atk by 3 levels for 3 turns. meaning that in conjunction with her skills, which give a total 4 Yin ATK UP, and a story card which gives a Yin Atk UP by 3, she can hit 10 Yin Atk UP on turn 1. This makes incredibly good use of her very strong 1725 max Yin atk stat. Alongside this, her CRIT buffs and debuffs include a total CRIT ATK 5 levels UP, and All targets' CRIT DEF 2 levels DOWN, to take advantage of her various Killers, which include Human-Killer, a quite widespread attribute. Still, she is too back-loaded for optimal turn 1 damage, with her boosts activating bullet lines in a 1-1-3 order, but the Hard scaling on her first three bullet lines is decent, with 60%-80%-100%, again, respectively. Her final bullet line also has 100% Hard scaling, so once more, at full power her strength is absolutely nothing to scoff at. She will likely need some assistance in buffing her Yin DEF however, to reach maximum damage potential. Adding to this, her ability, Capable of creating heavenliness, raises her Accuracy by one level every time she boosts, so there is little chance that she will miss at full power(the real meaning of her ability is just as ambiguous in the source material).

Unfortunately, her farming ability isn’t fantastic, as of now, it’s only confirmed that she can farm 3-3-3, so her value as a unit definitely lies elsewhere. Largely in Challenge content where she can nuke, and in providing decent breaks and support for CRIT focused units.

Her breaking ability overall is average, though quite strong in the Metal department, which is valuable, and decent at hitting Wood. Her access to elements in her basic shots is quite varied, and a little lacking, which is unfortunate as both of them are All. Her Spread shot, Yamadashi has three different elements, Wood at 1p, Metal at 2p, and Water at 3p. Her Focus shot, Satobiki, has Metal at 0p, and then Water and Wood at 2p. This trio of elements is the same in her Spell Cards. God Sign: Beautiful Spring like Suiga, is an All card which hits Metal at 0p, Water at 1p, Wood twice at 2p, and Metal once more at 3p. Her second Spellcard, God Sign: Ancient Fate linked by Cedars, is a Solo targeting Spellcard with 4 Metal lines total at 3p, with one Wood and Water line throughout. Her Last Word is more impressive, as it targets All but with the same breaks in a different order. Metal at 0p and 1p, Water at 2, and 2 Metal and 1 Wood at 3p.

The buffs her Spell Cards provide aren’t of much note besides Ancient Fate Linked by Cedars giving a Yin ATK 2 levels UP(2T) to the party, allowing her to extend Yin ATK buffs throughout.

Her skills are surprisingly generous to her team, unlike her demeanor towards her Shinto rivals, perhaps something she learned from her time with Suwako. Kanako has to gather faith after all. Her first skill Rich Harvest Ritual gives her Yin DEF 2 levels UP(3T), to contribute just a bit to her Hard scaling, as well as applying CRIT DEF 2 levels DOWN(3T) to all enemy units. Her second skill Legend of Boiling Water grants her 1.20P and Yin ATK 2 levels UP(3T). Her final, most generous skill High and Low Tide is a party wide Yin ATK 2 levels UP(3T) and CRIT ATK 3 levels UP(1T). This skill comes at the cost of being on cooldown for 7 turns, so it is to be used sparingly, and pretty much always timed with her own Last Word.