Toyosatomimi no Miko (Desires)

A13 Toyosatomimi no Miko was released on August 12th, 2022 in Festival: Legendary Listener of Desires.

Toyosatomimi no Miko is the incarnation of the real life politician named Prince Shoutoku, a historical figure from the Asuka period. As of writing, Miko is 1448 years old and her birthday is on February 7th. In the world of Gensokyo, Toyosatomimi no Miko is a saint and a hermit who initially spread Buddhism, but was taught Taoism by Seiga Kaku. She was also a genius from a young age and is able to listen to ten conversations at the same time as well as impart her wisdom to even her elders. During the events of Ten Desires, Miko was sealed and would fight the heroine once it is known that she is resurrected. It was mainly thanks to the unsealing of another religious monk that was able to be released, causing some religious conflicts in Gensokyo’s future. In this world of divine spirits, we may find that things are a little different to what we are used to, with the reborn hermit cementing herself as an S+ Tier Friend.

Miko, a follower of Taoism, is not one for violence, but that definitely does not mean she lacks the capability to do so. She is a pure Yang attacker when it comes to her Last Word, Divine Spirit Universe, a spell which also raises the party’s Yang ATK by 2 levels (2T) and Yang DEF for 3 levels (3T). The Yang DEF is very practical for damage as well, as Miko has consistent Hard scaling at the beginning and end of the attack. Her immediate, turn 1 damage is decent, but at 2P and 3P the attack grants Miko even more Yang ATK and Yang DEF buffs to make setup damage very high. Getting 1.50 Spirit Power and 3 levels of Accuracy UP from her third skill, Senjutsu’s Arrival, makes this setup time slightly faster and easier. When combined with the other Yang-related buffs on her kit, Miko can flex her hermit knowledge and back it up.

While she is not shy of strengthening herself, Miko is actually a great Friend when it comes to teamwide support, primarily in Yang DEF. Capable of listening to ten people’s conversations at the same time, she raises the team’s Yang DEF when she Boosts and Grazes, which can very easily turn into 6 levels of Yang DEF UP for 1 turn with 3 Boosts and 3 Grazes. Even besides that and Divine Spirit Universe’s Yang DEF buff, she provides Yang DEF in many other ways, including her second spell, Summon: Powerful Clans’ Chaotic Dance, being able to raise the party’s Yang DEF by 2 levels (3T) or her first skill, Fiction to Fantasy, and its 3 levels of partywide Yang DEF UP (3T). This skill also comes with a partywide barrier restore, just like her first spell, Honor: Ranks of Twelve Levels. Given that Fiction to Fantasy can be leveled up to have a cooldown of only 4 turns, Miko not only protects the team with defensive buffs, but she can allow them to Graze many dangerous attacks or even just gain more buffs from Grazing due to gaining more barriers to use. Not every Friend might need the heavy Yang DEF buffs, but any Hard scaling Yang-based Friend will definitely get a boost, especially if they cannot max out the buff themselves.

Outside of the extreme defensive buffs, Miko has a few other tricks up her sleeve. To maximize on her own defenses and protect allies further, her second skill, Rising-Sun Empress, raises her Focus by 3 levels (4T) while also raising resistances to Water and Wood bullets (3T). While the Focus buff is long-lasting, it is sadly her only method to raise Focus outside of using Honor: Ranks of Twelve Levels, which can be problematic in keeping foes’ attention from her allies, even if the skill can get a 5-turn cooldown. As for breaking barriers, Summon: Powerful Clans’ Chaotic Dance has an additional post-ATK effect of inflicting foes with 1 layer of Burn and Paralyze (with a 50% chance of an extra of either anomaly). Both her basic shots can break either anomaly or Honor: Ranks of Twelve Levels can break both at once. It is a shame that this is only Solo-target while Summon: Powerful Clans’ Chaotic Dance targets all foes, but other allies can potentially break the anomalies instead. When it comes to elemental breaks, Miko does have 0P Sun on her Focus shot, Rhus Chinensis Sculptures, but the rest of her kit, mainly the spells, are just mixed with many elements, making them hard to support with element-based story cards or just break in general. At the very least, Divine Spirit Universe is half-Water/half-Sun, which definitely makes it easier to use against foes weak to those elements.

Overall, Miko has a niche in being one of the best partywide Yang DEF support Friends while having a great claim to Yang nuking and damage like any other A-Type Friend. Yang DEF buffs come from everywhere, from her spells to her skills to both Boosts and Grazes. She can even heal herself with Fiction to Fantasy or just get a quick head-start on the battle with Senjutsu’s Arrival. With basically everything in her kit contributing to victory, Miko teaches us an important Taoist lesson of not taking anything for granted. (I actually don’t believe this is a virtue in Taoism, but I’m sure Miko would agree!)