Marisa Kirisame

“It ain’t magic if it ain’t flashy! Danmaku is all about firepower!”

A human magician with a flair for firepower, and quick to make friends with everyone she meets, Marisa Kirisame is one of Gensokyo’s premier incident resolvers. She’s all about big, flashy magic and can be considered Touhou Project’s deuteragonist alongside Reimu Hakurei. She shines in the early game, which wonderfully compliments her status as one of the game’s two free Friends. Due to her status as a selfish DPS with a lacking kit, Solo Last Word that hits averagely hard, and average ish damage overall, she is firmly a C Tier Friend.

When it comes to farming, Marisa’s is limited typically to Solo friendly Event stages, ideally those weak to Star. Her powerful All Spell Cards do give her something of a niche in some 3-wave stages, so long as you either avoid Full Auto or, in the case of certain boss farms such as 3-3-3, pair her up with a partner.

For difficult content, Marisa’s main use is her 0 Power All access to Star element on both Spell Cards. Unfortunately, she is only able to do 1 All Star break per turn this way, even with additional Power. Her Last Word does have 2 Solo Star breaks on it, but that requires 3 Power. Her kit is otherwise average in every department - average overall damage, a Solo LW that deals average damage, no team utility, and mixed Yin and Yang damage making her hard to scale all combine to leave you with a somewhat average Friend.

Overall, for any new player Marisa will be your best Friend for some time, helping to carry you through the early game. Once you get past that stage, she will be overall average - never the worst option to bring, but certainly far from the most powerful too.