Nue Houjuu

Nue Houjuu was released on May 27th, 2022 in "Festival Prayer: Search for the Unknown."  She was initially a Festival on release and later added to the general pool. For more up-to-date analysis, be sure to visit the  Official Discord Server.

Nue Houjuu is a mysterious and mischievous Youkai who, like Kogasa Tatara, loves scaring people and playing pranks. Even among Youkai, Nue is something of an outsider; she isn't particularly friendly with most of Gensokyo due to being sealed underground for a long time. However, Nue does have some kind of relationship with Mamizou Futatsuiwa, as she contacted her from the Outside World to tell her of Gensokyo and lead her there. After secretly assisting Reimu, Marisa and Sanae with Byakuren Hijiri's resurrection, Byakuren took her in at Myouren Temple after the events of Touhou 12: Unidentified Fantastic Object. Her ability, to conceal "true forms", allows her to modify the appearance of herself and objects at will, in such a way that the modified appearances look completely different based on who is viewing them.

Like most of her kit, Nue's Spread Shot, Indefinite Sasarindou, is very solid. it's single target, with Water at 0P, which is good regardless, then she gets 1 star at 2P and 1 more water at 3P. It also has Yin ATK UP (100%) at 0P and 2P, making for an easy and consistent way to keep her Yin ATK rising in prolonged fights. Her Focus Shot, Unknown Swallowtail Butterfly, isn't half bad either, being single target with sure-hit and Fire at 0P, with 1 more Fire and 1 Star at 2P. It also has some self Speed UP at 1P, which is an easy way to raise her speed and take advantage of her high Slicing scaling on her Spell Card 2 and Last Word.

Nue's Spell Cards are fully elemental, and mostly split into 3 types: Star, Water and Fire. Nue's Spell Card 1, Nue Sign: Danmaku Chimera, is AoE, with 3 Water and 3 Star bullet lines. The bullet lines themselves really don't have many bells or whistles, but the Pre-Atk effect is quite good, with all ally Speed 2 levels UP (2T) and self inflicts 3 layers of Darkness, which in conjunction with her passive skill effectively means it gives her 0.60P upon use. Nue's Spell Card 2, Nightmare of Heiankyou, is ST, with 3 Fire and 3 Star bullet lines. This Spell Card's bullet lines have a bit more to them, with a good bit of Slicing scaling throughout, a lot more Killers, and some target Yin DEF down. Its Pre-Atk effect is pretty good too, with ACC 2 levels UP (2T) and inflicting 3 layers of Burn to target (2T). Then, her Last Word, Who Goes There?, capitalizes on the Pre-Atk effects of her previous Spell Cards, with lots of Slicing scaling, and inflicting AoE evasion 2 levels DOWN (3T), which when paired with the ACC granted by her Spell Card 2 and Skill, makes this a near sure-hit, plus it also inflicts AoE 2 layers of Darkness (3T) to boot.

Nue's main interesting Skill is her passive, which has already been discussed due to its synergy with her Spell Cards; she gains 0.20P for each layer of Burn, Freeze and Darkness and is immune to the negative effects of them. This allows her to gain Spirit P in an uncommon way through either putting her against enemies who will attempt to inflict barrier statuses on her which would actually help her, or to synergize with Friends who inflict barrier statuses to their teammates. All of Nue's Skills inflict 3 layers of a barrier status to herself as a result, which ends up giving her an additional 0.60P per skill. But interestingly, her Skill 3, Unidentified Seed, inflicts Darkness not just to herself, but to the entire team, which provides some interesting synergies with Friends such as Rumia. However, this can naturally be detrimental for many other teammates, so be careful when using Skill 3. But outside of the barrier anomalies, Nue's Skills are quite simple and straightforward; Skill 1, Abyssal Water, provides party ACC 2 levels UP (3T), Skill 2, Fire in the Sky, grants Yin ATK 2 levels UP (3T), and Skill 3 provides party Yin ATK 2 levels UP (2T).

Nue's secondary effects and scaling is as follows:

Indefinite Sasarindou:
Slice: 0%/30%/0%/0%/0%/0%
Own Yin ATK UP (3T): 100%/0%/100%/0%/0%/0%
Adhesive: 0%/0%/0%/35%/0%/0%

Unknown Swallowtail Butterfly:
Slice: 30%/0%/0%/30%/0%/0%
Own Agility UP (3T): 0%/100%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Nue Sign: Bullet Chimera:
Own Agility UP (3T): 0%/100%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Nightmare of Heiankyou:
Slice: 20%/30%/30%/0%/0%/0%
Target Yin DEF DOWN (3T): 0%/0%/100%/0%/0%/0%

Who Goes There?:
Slice: 80%/80%/100%/0%/0%/0%
Own Yin ATK UP (2T): 0%/100%/0%/0%/0%/0% (Line 2 is +2 Levels)
Own Accuracy UP (3T): 0%/0%/100%/0%/0%/0%

Overall, Nue is a very unique and high damage Yin attacker that also does a good bit of Yin and ACC-based supporting through her Spell Cards and Skills, while also being immune to over half of the barrier anomalies.