Patchouli Knowledge

“The essence of magic is to determine the root cause of all things. There's no distinction between science and magic.”

The Girl of Knowledge and Shade, Patchouli Knowledge is a magician living in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Like Alice Margatroid, Patchouli is a magician by race, not just by occupation - unlike a human such as Marisa Kirisame, who is just a magician in occupation. Unlike Alice, however, Patchouli was born as a magician. This has had something of an impact on her physical capability, leaving her with asthma, an overall weak body, and a tendency to lose in contests of strength to even mere humans. Don’t mistake that for weakness - she more than makes up for it with an array of powerful magic that would leave most other magicians in awe, bringing those powers to bear for you as a B-Tier Friend.

For farming, Patchouli’s Last Word, The Last Philosopher's Stone, is unfortunately, in spite of its All targeting and front-loaded nature, not quite strong enough to farm events on Lunatic, as she just needs too much between having mixed attack types and no accuracy in her kit. Stick to Hard or have her bring some backup. 

For harder fights, Patchouli is unparalleled in how many Element Breaks she brings. With access to Spell Cards absolutely flooded with Sun and Moon Breaks, and basic shots and a Last Word with Fire, Wood, Earth, Metal, and Water, Patchouli brings every Element except Star to the table. There is, however, a caveat to this - due to how her Elemental Bullets are spread out, she often won’t manage more than 2 Breaks per target for her Last Word and Basic Shots. Additionally, this spread means she requires an intense amount of Spirit Power to fully utilize those breaks - further complicated by the low hit count of the Bullets, and her own lack of Accuracy buffs. Finally, she won’t be contributing much damage outside of that - between low levels of Yin ATK UP, and mixed damage types, she doesn’t hit very hard and it’s somewhat difficult to support her to do more.

Still, these faults only matter so much. Provide her with Spirit Power or Accuracy support (or if possible, both) from a mix of her teammates and her own Story Cards, and she’ll be shattering Barriers like few others can. Just make sure she’s got a nice comfy chair and a book ready after the fighting’s done, or she might be a bit cross at you.