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Should You Pull? Festival: Wind of Fates & Mountain of Plates

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Should You Pull?

Probably. This banner is in a similar position as the Nue and Nazrin banner where the new Festival Friend is good (as you'd usually expect), but the general pool Friend is also surprisingly good in her own ways.

Sanae is a strong Yang attacker with a balanced spread of Water, Star and Wood elements with lots of self barrier regen and heal, making her good for drawn out battles. Her AoE Spread Shot has Star at 0P, which is also good for those longer battles. She also has a lot of self and party wide speed UP, which combos with her own Slicing scalings on her Spell Cards as well as making her a solid addition to a speed-based team.

Futo isn't as outright strong as Sanae or other top Yang attackers (although her damage is still pretty good), but she has a lot of her own quirks that make her very useful, such as her famous Spread Shot 3x Fire break at 1P, and Focus Shot Earth break at 0P, and her own helping of party wide speed UP effects.

The new 5* Story Card that goes along with this banner, Our Dream, is pretty similar to Dancer in the Puddle, granting 1.75 Spirit P UP at Max Limit Break when Spell card is used, increases the power of Metal bullets by 25%, and reduces damage from Human enemies by 20% (2T). The first effect is for sure the best part, but Witch of Scarlet Dreams (which gives 2.00 Spirit P UP) is farmable and kind of overshadows it.

The concurrent competing new Friend Prayers include Nayotake (B3 Kaguya), Rabbit 2 (B3 Rei'sen), Rabbit 1 (B3 Reisen), so if you're not interested in them or would rather go for non-Ultra Festival Friends, this Prayer is a solid choice, with both featured Friends being pretty strong.

Futo is a general Friend, meaning she only costs 100 Exchange Points to obtain, while Sanae (A10) requires 150 Exchange Points due to Festival status. And like other 5* Story Cards featured on Prayers, Our Dream costs 50 Exchange Points to exchange for. As with many other 1st Anniversary Prayers, the Ascending God Crystal Step-UP combined with 2x Fortune Dust provides a quick and cheap way to stock up on 20 Fortune Dust with a 60 God Crystal 10-pull.

Quick Overview

+AoE 0P Star on Spread Shot
+High Yang ATK
+Lots of Barrier restore for longer fights
+Good Slicing Scalings

-Squishy without Barrier
-Unfocused team support, with only a couple levels of Party's Agility, Evasion and Yang ATK UP throughout skills

+ 0P Fire and Earth on Spread and Focus Shot; 3x Fire on 1P Spread Shot
+ Can get good damage off of her Yang-only Last Word
+ Good amount of Agility buffs from whole kit; helps Slicing scaling

- Mediocre elemental breaks on her Spell Cards besides Last Word
- A very selfish buffer that offers little for her team
- Very squishy without Barrier

[Numbers in brackets are buffs at Max Limit Break or stat sticks at Max Enhance]

  • Spirit Power 1.25 [1.75] UP
  • Metal Power 15% [25%] UP (1T)
  • Own DMG from humans 15% [20%] DOWN (2T)
  • Health +150 [+550]
  • Yang DEF +30 [+70]

Sanae Kochiya (Faith)

Sanae Kochiya is a human like Reimu and Marisa, but far from normal. She’s a descendant of Suwako Moriya, the Goddess of the Moriya Shrine, and therefore a Living God (in some small part), and the current shrine maiden of Moriya Shrine. Sanae and Suwako are not originally from Gensokyo, either; Sanae, Suwako, Kanako Yasaka and the Moriya Shrine originally lived in Suwa, Japan, but on Kanako’s suggestion moved both themselves and the entire shrine to the top of the Youkai Mountain in order to collect more faith, and thereby causing the events of Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith. Sanae’s ability, “to cause miracles”, has a wide range of useful applications and potential effects, albeit probably with some unintentional ones, due to the nature of miracles as a phenomenon.

In terms of raw damage and power, Sanae can be relied on with her Yang-only Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith. Her Last Word consists of only Heavy type bullets and so, it can be easily supported by a certain farmable story card, not to mention that Sanae comes with 2 Accuracy UP from her second skill, Fantasy Preaching, which allows her to properly deal with adversaries. Add these up with YANG ATK buffs (2 levels from her first skill, Anti-Shrine Order, 2 levels from her third skill, Anti-Faith Barrier, and 2 more levels from when she uses her Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith) with some Agility buffs to be taken advantage of by her decent Slice scaling, this version of Sanae can definitely be a good choice for when you need a good nuker to set up with.

Sanae may not have much to offer in terms of party utility buffs, but she compensates for it through her elemental breaks. Starting off with 0P Star on her All targeting Spread Shot, Ancient Prayer Art, she will be able to shred enemies’ barriers without needing boosts, particularly if two or all of them share the same element. Her Focus Shot, Preliminary Starfall Ritual, is rather lackluster as while it may have 3 elements embedded on it (Water on 1.00P, Wood on 2.00P, and Star on 3.00P), all of them are only 1 bullet each. So there is a literal need to have high accuracy if you want to utilize this. Her first spell card, Esoterica: Secretly Inherited Art of Bullets, features a full combination of 3 Water and 3 Star elements, with all the Water elements being easily accessible at 1.00P. Her second spell card, Great Miracle: Yasaka’s Divine Wind, features a mix of 2 Wood and 2 Star elements, which starts off at 0P Wood. Lastly, her Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith, is a consolidation of 3 elements (2 Star, 2 Wood, and 2 Water) which you won’t usually use for elemental breaks unless you are certain that it will deal a finishing blow.

In the perspective of her skills, one can see that Sanae is a selfish buffer with some consideration to her party. Her first skill, Anti-Shrine Order, and third skill, Anti-Faith Barrier, both provide 2 levels of Yang ATK UP each, with Anti-Faith Barrier being party wide. The only other party wide buffs that Sanae provides is the 3 Agility UP buff from her first skill as well as the 2 Evasion UP from her second skill, Fantasy Preaching. However, this particular skill won’t be useful for the party on its own although it can be used as an extender for an already existing evasion buff. In order to further solidify her stand as a selfish nuker, Anti-Faith Barrier additionally provides 1.00 Spirit Power UP and 1 barrier for herself which allows her to access the majority of her bullet lines. To make sure it’s consistent, Fantasy Preaching also provides herself with 2 Accuracy UP, and just like this, you will be certain that she can properly nuke using her Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith.

Overall, this version of Sanae is certainly a generic nuker with some capability in supporting the team mainly through some elemental breaks with a small amount of party utility, who can maybe cause a miracle or two by regenerating her Barrier enough for a long fight.

Mononobe no Futo

Mononobe no Futo is a Taoist hermit, specifically a Shikaisen, who serves under Toyosatomimi no Miko and lives in the Divine Spirit Mausoleum with her and the other Taoists in Gensokyo. Unlike the other very old Taoists that Futo was resurrected alongside in Touhou 13: Ten Desires, such as Miko and Tojiko, Futo didn't really catch up with the times, and often uses antiquated language that confuses the present day Gensokyo residents, misunderstands present day language herself, and generally has a carefree attitude. Her ability, "to manipulate feng shui", is something of a way to manipulate the qi of fixed areas like buildings or shrines to invite fortune upon those who enter them. Futo spends most of her time maintaining her hermit status by practicing Taoism with Miko and the others.

In terms of raw damage and power, Futo can do rather well with her Yang-only Last Word, Inferno Reformation. A Last Word with only Energy bullets can easily be supported by Story Cards nowadays, and Futo comes with her own 2 levels of Accuracy UP via her third skill, Dunjia Divination, to make sure she can concentrate her story card buffs elsewhere. Combined with a decent amount of Yang ATK UP (3 levels from Dunjia Divination and 3 more upon activating Inferno Reformation) and even some decent Slice scaling to take advantage of her Agility buffs, Futo can definitely be a good damage dealer upon setting up.

As for what else Futo offers, her gameplan is rather straightforward: heavy Agility buffs mixed in with some elemental breaking. Her elemental breaks are strangely hit and miss. While she does have 0P breaks on both shots, Fire on her Spread shot, Liuren Holy Fire, and Earth on her Focus shot, Standing Mountain, the rest of her breaks aren’t the best. Her first spell, Wind Sign: Miwa Plate Storm, is a mix of four different elements, which makes it inconvenient for Full Breaks, whereas her second spell, Blaze Sign: Taiyi True Fire, is only 2 Fire breaks and 1 Star break, though they are at least all accessible at 1P. Inferno Reformation is at least a nice mix of 4 Fire breaks and 2 Star breaks, but you wouldn’t really want to use a Last Word for breaking unless it’s a finishing hit. 

When it comes to her skills, Futo is really a selfish buffer that is trying her hardest to be a hard-hitter. Her first skill, Nigihayahi Blessing, and her second skill, Bowyer’s Blood, provide 2 levels of Agility UP each to help with Slice scaling, with Bowyer’s Blood being a teamwide buff. Futo’s only other teamwide buff is the Accuracy UP from Dunjia Divination, which is nice, but not the greatest if other teammates come with their own accuracy support. Bowyer’s Blood also has the benefit of granting Futo 1.00 Spirit Power, which she can put into an early 2P Inferno Reformation or other general power. 

One other major flaw of Futo is her durability. With a low HP stat and even lower defensive ones, it may be wise to make sure the Taoist doesn’t find herself without Barrier or she won't last through more than 1 or 2 hits. Still, Futo does do a pretty good amount of damage and her Spread and Focus Shot breaks are considerable. Bring Futo along, and maybe burn down a house or two if you get the chance.

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