Ran Yakumo (Cherry Blossom)

Though she serves as a Shikigami to the Gap Youkai, Ran Yakumo herself is no slouch in the least. Her vessel is a nine tailed fox, and she is powerful enough to have a Shikigami of her own, in Chen. Her mind is comparable to a super computer, and she is said to have calculated the width of the ever-changing Sanzu river, an unimaginable feat, simply to pass the time. However, she primarily serves as a caretaker for Yukari and Chen, as Chen herself is not yet ready to be doing Ran’s tasks, and can be seen shopping in the Human Village, or working at repairing the boundary. With all of these in mind, it comes as no surprise as she is an SS Tier friend.

For farming, Ran, while a decent farmer for event stages, struggles in farming the current story card stages due to her elements. While she may have the potential to do a good deal of damage with her Last Word, Falling Petals - Demon-Binding Chain, the full metal elements present hold her back from being effective in most of the relevant story card stages. As such, the only relevant stage that she may be able to farm is Mysterious Sword Master (3-3-3). 

Don’t be fooled though. What makes Ran a good character is her power in more challenging content. Ran shines when it comes to utility in her skills, ability, and Spell Cards. With her 1st skill, Inari Recipient, she can provide 3 levels of Accuracy to the party for 3 turns. In addition, she also provides herself with quick and the party with 0.4P. In terms of usage, this skill can let Ran use her Spell Cards to help the team with their useful pre-effects in addition to potentially letting the team get an extra boost for extra breaks or damage. Her 2nd skill, Sun Circle Sign, brings additional  utility by providing the team with 3 levels of Agility and Yin DEF for 3 turns. In particular, characters who scale with either Yin DEF, Agility, or even both can appreciate these buffs. This skill also provides Ran with 0.8P which allows her to buff teammates’ yin attack  by boosting more often, have access to even more barrier breaks, or deal more damage. Finally, her third skill, Forbidden Arts, provides 3 levels of Accuracy to the party for 3 turns as well as 0.5P to the party. While the 1st and 3rd skill have overlap by both providing accuracy and P to the team, this actually can come at an advantage as Ran can stagger her skills to have indefinite uptime on Accuracy for the party by using either skill 1 or 3 on the first turn, and using the other skill after 2 turns. That way, there is no downtime on accuracy support for the team. As all of these skills provide power for her to use, Ran can make great use of her ability, Capable of using Shikigami. With this ability, both grazing and boosting provide the party with Yin ATK which can come useful in boosting the team’s damage output. However, this does come at a downside–unless you utilize a particular story card or her Last Word to extend her Yin ATK buff, she won’t sustain the Yin ATK for longer than a turn.

Ran’s spell cards also showcase her excellent utility.. With her 1st spell card, Illusion God: Descent of Izuna-Gongen, she provides 2 levels of Agility for the party for 4 turns as well as 0.8P for the party as a post effect. This spell card also can inflict up to 3 layers of freeze anomalies to all enemies with 3 boosts. Her 2nd spell card, Shikigami: Channeling Dakiniten, heals the party by 45 % of her own HP and restores 0.8P. Finally, her Last Word can provide 2 levels of Yin ATK, CRIT ATK, and Yin DEF for 3 turns. Her Last Word does have the ability to break freeze barriers with 2 boosts, but the damage may admittedly top out a bit lower than the more powerful characters due to her lackluster scalings.

Barrier break wise, Ran does possess a good amount of Metal barrier breaks. Possessing a P0 Metal focus shot, Ran’s 1st spell card can provide a total of 3 Metal and Moon breaks with the potential for more thanks to the freeze anomalies she inflicts. Her 2nd spell card also shares the same elements with one boost allowing her full access to all three moon breaks. Finally, her Last Word can provide 6 Metal breaks with an ability to break either burn or freeze anomalies with 2 boosts. 

Ultimately, Ran provides a great deal of utility but outputs some relatively mediocre damage compared to her compatriots. Don’t be fooled though, as the shikigami of one of the sages of Gensokyo, Ran does have power in spades and can certainly help you out