Kutaka Niwatari

Kutaka Niwatari was released on June 10th, 2022 in Festival: Gods of Clay & Chickens.

Kutaka Niwatari is the one of the lesser of the eight million gods, being a god of chickens, and works in Hell as a subordinate to Shiki Eiki, Yamaxanadu. Her memory is pretty poor, and she sometimes forgets her orders (likely due to being part bird in some way), but she still carries out her duties to the Yama faithfully. Her ability, “to cure throat illnesses”, is a perfect match for the Yama, and she spends most of the day talking as a part of her judge duties, so Kutaka can heal her throat when it runs dry or sore. This birdbrain is an A-Tier Friend.

Kutaka joins us in Lost Word as a Recovery type Friend, which are rare as things currently stand. She’s nothing crazy, and not exactly on the levels of B3 Toyohime or anything, but she’s still a solid healer with party wide healing, barrier restore and barrier cleanse throughout not only all of her Skills but also her Spell Cards. She also has a decent amount of party wide Speed UP support, allowing for her to be slotted into Speed type teams as a tank with some synergistic benefits, not to mention Kutaka has a good bit of Slice scaling herself, upping the damage of her own Spell Cards.

Starting with her Spread Shot, Delivery, it’s really pretty solid. Has some Water, Wood and Sun, self Dodge UP allows her to dodge-tank a little in tandem with her healing, and it even has a little Slice. Her Focus Shot, Three-Wheeled Foot, has Wood at 0P, is sure-hit, and also has a chance for some Speed UP, synergizing with her Slice scaling throughout her kit. Then, just like the Spread Shot, there’s some Sun and Water elsewhere in the bullet lines.

As mentioned in the previous section, Kutaka’s Spell Cards are pretty straightforward and what you’d expect from a Recovery class Friend: lots of pre and post-effect healing and barrier restore with some Dodge and Speed UP sprinkled in there too. Her first Spell Card, Water Sign: “Water Sharing (Ultimate Tribulation of Mikumari)”, is AoE, with Pre-Attack effects of party wide Heal 30% and increase Barrier by 1. Its elements are 2 Water and 2 Wood, and it has a good bit of Self Dodge UP, playing off of her Focus Shot’s same ability. Her second Spell Card, Bloody Battle: “Oni Passage Highly Spirited Oniwatari”, is ST, with 3 Water and 3 Wood for elements, and its Pre-Atk effect is target Dodge 2 levels DOWN (2T), which is a little strange, but it’s technically team support, so it’s not useless or anything, so long as your party capitalizes on it. The interesting part is how it has Melting at 3P, allowing for Kutaka to synergize with a whole set of Friends in those who apply Freeze barrier anomaly to enemies. And her Last Word, Divine Cock-A-Doodle Do, has 4 Sun, 1 Water and 1 Wood for elements, Pre-Attack effect of party wide Speed 3 levels UP (3T), Post-Attack effect of party wide 75% Heal, a bunch of Slice (present on 4/6 bullet lines), and more Melting, but this time at 2P. Don’t expect insane damage out of her Spell Cards or anything, but they might hit surprisingly high numbers if you’re running a speed-based team that gives out a lot of boosts just like she does, due to the Slice.

Kutaka’s personal ability makes her immune to Burn, Freeze and Poison, which is certainly welcome in her role as a healer. As for her Skills, they are just about as straightforward as you could imagine for a Recovery type Friend. Skill 1, "Please Move!", has party wide 35% Heal and Speed 2 levels UP (2T). Skill 2, "Don't Run On Stairs!", has party wide 45% Heal and 1.5 Barrier cleanse. Skill 3, "The Line Ends Here", has party wide 1.5 Barrier restore and self Yang ATK 2 levels UP (2T). There’s a little bit of Speed and Yang ATK mixed in there, but for the most part, it’s Heal, Barrier and more Heal, which is pretty much what you’d expect. Not that that’s a bad thing.

Kutaka is a healer through and through, but with the spice of being a bit nice for Speed-based teams as well. While it’s not necessary to run her in them, it’s a nice option that has a little bit more synergy with her kit than just outright healing. Otherwise, she will get the job done for healing, making her a solid choice for when you might happen to need one.

The secondary effects and Slice scaling for Kutaka's attacks are as follows:

Niwatashi:
Slice: 30%/0%/0%/30%/30%/0%
Own Evasion UP: 50%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Miwatari:
Slice: 0%/30%/0%/0%/0%/0%
Own Agility UP: 50%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Water Sign: Ultimate Tribulation of Mikumari:
Slice: 0%/0%/0%/30%/0%/0%
Own Evasion UP: 0%/75%/0%/0%/100%/0%

Bloody Battle: Highly Spirited Oniwatari:
Slice: 30%/40%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Divine Cock-A-Doodle-Do:
Slice: 40%/40%/0%/0%/50%/60%
Impact: 0%/0%/25%/0%/0%/0%
Absorb: 0%/0%/%/25%/0%/0%