Rumia

Rumia was released on October 29th, 2021 in "Prayer: Little Devil & Little Darkness." For more up-to-date analysis, be sure to visit the  Official Discord Server.

Rumia is a youkai of the dusk, preferring to remain in eternal darkness and steers clear of sunlight and heat. She is capable of covering herself in her own darkness whenever moonlight is not an available option and can manipulate darkness around her during a fight. Although she might appear sweet and innocent, she believes that it is a youkai’s job to hunt and consume humans and will not hesitate to do so when she has the chance. 

For farming, Rumia primarily depends on her Last Word, Twilight Zone, to strike as a Solo-target Yin nuke. It is pretty simple to work with, as it consists entirely of Laser bullets and decreases the target’s Yin DEF by 3 levels before striking. While it might not serve as the most damaging Solo-target Last Word on its own and the dual-element of Moon and Sun can end up being resisted, a 2-1-2 spread means that all of its damage isn’t loaded to 3 Spirit Power only.

Rumia can utilize a lot of interesting strategies for more challenging fights. Her own character ability increases her Accuracy, Agility, and Evasion by 1 level for every barrier of Blind she obtains. Using her darkness manipulation, this means that every skill that inflicts Blind onto herself will end up being a self-buff for Accuracy, ensuring more of her bullets land. Her third skill, Spit-Dark, gives herself 2 Blind barriers to herself, her second skill, Black Mist, gives her entire team 1 Blind barrier, and her second spell card, Darkness Sign: Dark Side of the Moon, will inflict one more Blind barrier to herself, totalling up to 4 Blind barriers, or likewise 4 Accuracy levels UP. As a side note, while inflicting Blind barriers to your entire team sounds purely negative, the penalties of Blind can easily be lost upon using Graze, and even then some Friends such as Kosuzu Motoori will benefit from gaining Blind barriers as well.

Not only can Rumia create darkness to support herself, but she can envelop her opponent in darkness to grant them Blind barriers as well. Her first skill, Absolute Darkness, covers all enemies with 1 Blind barrier, along with Spit-Dark granting a single target 2 additional Blind barriers. Once her foes are blinded by the darkness, Rumia can proceed to use her All-target Focus Shot to destroy the inflicted barriers. This allows for Rumia to be a very capable anomaly breaker in where her elemental breaks lack in quantity, seeing how 2 Spirit Power is required for more than 1 elemental break for either spell card.

Rumia does not offer much beyond what her skills and effects offer, but what she does have makes her stand as one of the better anomaly breakers of the game. Being able to inflict Blind barriers to every opponent and break them from Turn 1 should not be taken for granted, especially with how her anomaly break can be repeatedly used since it is not connected to a spell card. As long as you don’t accidentally blind yourself in her darkness, Rumia is definitely a useful Friend to rely on.