Sanae Kochiya (Faith)

A10 Sanae Kochiya was released on June 5th, 2022 in Festival: Wind of Faith & Mountain of Plates.

Sanae Kochiya is a human like Reimu and Marisa, but far from normal. She’s a descendant of Suwako Moriya, the Goddess of the Moriya Shrine, and therefore a Living God (in some small part), and the current shrine maiden of Moriya Shrine. Sanae and Suwako are not originally from Gensokyo, either; Sanae, Suwako, Kanako Yasaka and the Moriya Shrine originally lived in Suwa, Japan, but on Kanako’s suggestion moved both themselves and the entire shrine to the top of the Youkai Mountain in order to collect more faith, and thereby causing the events of Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith. Sanae’s ability, “to cause miracles”, has a wide range of useful applications and potential effects, albeit probably with some unintentional ones, due to the nature of miracles as a phenomenon. As a descendant of one of the most powerful Gods in Japan and no pushover in a battle herself, Sanae is a S-Tier Friend.

In terms of raw damage and power, Sanae can be relied on with her Yang-only Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith. Her Last Word consists of only Heavy type bullets and so, it can be easily supported by a certain farmable story card, not to mention that Sanae comes with 2 Accuracy UP from her second skill, Fantasy Preaching, which allows her to properly deal with adversaries. Add these up with YANG ATK buffs (2 levels from her first skill, Anti-Shrine Order, 2 levels from her third skill, Anti-Faith Barrier, and 2 more levels from when she uses her Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith) with some Agility buffs to be taken advantage of by her decent Slice scaling, this version of Sanae can definitely be a good choice for when you need a good nuker to set up with.

Sanae may not have much to offer in terms of party utility buffs, but she compensates for it through her elemental breaks. Starting off with 0P Star on her All targeting Spread Shot, Ancient Prayer Art, she will be able to shred enemies’ barriers without needing boosts, particularly if two or all of them share the same element. Her Focus Shot, Preliminary Starfall Ritual, is rather lackluster as while it may have 3 elements embedded on it (Water on 1.00P, Wood on 2.00P, and Star on 3.00P), all of them are only 1 bullet each. So there is a literal need to have high accuracy if you want to utilize this. Her first spell card, Esoterica: Secretly Inherited Art of Bullets, features a full combination of 3 Water and 3 Star elements, with all the Water elements being easily accessible at 1.00P. Her second spell card, Great Miracle: Yasaka’s Divine Wind, features a mix of 2 Wood and 2 Star elements, which starts off at 0P Wood. Lastly, her Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith, is a consolidation of 3 elements (2 Star, 2 Wood, and 2 Water) which you won’t usually use for elemental breaks unless you are certain that it will deal a finishing blow.

In the perspective of her skills, one can see that Sanae is a selfish buffer with some consideration to her party. Her first skill, Anti-Shrine Order, and third skill, Anti-Faith Barrier, both provide 2 levels of Yang ATK UP each, with Anti-Faith Barrier being party wide. The only other party wide buffs that Sanae provides is the 3 Agility UP buff from her first skill as well as the 2 Evasion UP from her second skill, Fantasy Preaching. However, this particular skill won’t be useful for the party on its own although it can be used as an extender for an already existing evasion buff. In order to further solidify her stand as a selfish nuker, Anti-Faith Barrier additionally provides 1.00 Spirit Power UP and 1 barrier for herself which allows her to access the majority of her bullet lines. To make sure it’s consistent, Fantasy Preaching also provides herself with 2 Accuracy UP, and just like this, you will be certain that she can properly nuke using her Last Word, Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith.

Overall, this version of Sanae is certainly a generic nuker with some capability in supporting the team mainly through some elemental breaks with a small amount of party utility.

The secondary effects and scalings of Sanae’s attacks are as follows:

Ancient Prayer Art:
Slice: 0%/35%/0%/35%/0%/0%
1 Agility UP (2T): 100%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%
1 Yang ATK UP (2T): 0%/100%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Preliminary Starfall Ritual:
Slice: 0%/0%/35%/35%/35%/0%
1 Agility UP (2T): 0%/100%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Esoterica: Secretly Inherited Art of Bullets:
Slice: 40%/0%/40%/40%/0%/0%
Hard: 20%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%
Absorb: 0%/0%/0%/0%/0%/25%

Great Miracle: Yasaka Divine Wind:
1 Agility UP (2T): 100%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%
1 Yang ATK UP (2T): 0%/0%/100%/100%/0%/0%

Grand Moriya Summon - Wind of Faith:
Slice: 40%/40%/50%/50%/60%/60%
1 Agility UP (2T): 0%/0%/100%/0%/0%/0%
1 Yang ATK UP (2T): 0%/0%/0%/100%/0%/0%