Spirit Point Cost Cut: How Does It Work?

Spirit Point Cost Cut is a new feature that has been implemented into the game since June 9th 2023, and it allows the player to toggle and adjust the Spirit Point Cost of their Party. This is mainly going to be used when farming stages for people who want to fine tune their team for efficiency. Of course, less Spirit Points spent means less Party Power, meaning the stats of your team’s Friends (HP, Yang ATK, Yang DEF, Agility, Yin ATK, Yin DEF), will all be reduced. However, any Spell Card effects (Pre-ATK, Post-ATK) that scale with Awakening are left unchanged.

On the Homescreen, select “Set Party” to go to the Party Formation section, then select the “Cost” icon with the current Spirit Point Cost, and it will show up with the screen that allows you to adjust the Cost of the Party. You can either press the “+” or “-” icons to increase or decrease the cost by 1, at the cost of a percentage of Total Power. You can also slide to the left or right below using the yellow bar. The less full the yellow bar, the less Spirit Points.

If you are accessing the Party Formation section just before entering a stage, you can click on the small “Set Party” icon that is in blue on the top left of the screen, then you can go ahead and proceed with pressing the “Cost” icon. You cannot access this function otherwise, so don’t forget about the steps above.

If your Party consists of a single Friend, it’s definitely more simple. The Cost will range from the Friend’s default Spirit Point Cost all the way down to 5, the initial Spirit Point Cost for any new Friend. The Total Power will also decrease depending on the Spirit Point Cost too, with it being even lower than a naturally lower cost version of that Friend. (A natural 5sp Friend will have a higher total power than a 12sp Friend with its Cost Cut to 5sp, but with Awakening Effects intact). This also applies to Superior Enhanced Stats and Friendship level too.

However, if you are bringing a team of 2 or more units, it may get a little more complicated depending on who you bring at what initial costs. This is because with the Total Power being reduced, this affects every Friend, not just a specific one. If a higher cost Friend is paired up with cheaper Friends, even at 5sp, everyone on the Party will be subjected to a lower Total Power, with lower Cost Friends being affected by it more. For teams of 2 or more Friends, the minimum Spirit Point Cost is 5 x the number of Friends (10sp for 2 Friends, 30sp for a full team of 6).

For those who are interested in the calculations, the formula for the Cost Cut is: Original Stats x (Cost After Reduction/Original Cost) = Resulting Stats). For example, if a 12sp Friend is paired up with a Friend at 8sp, the 12sp Friend's HP will effectively be cut in half assuming their reduced SP is a total of 10sp.
Credit goes to Fivetales#4139 on Discord for coming up with the formula for the Cost Cut!

You may have noticed above, but with the reduced stats in blue, another set of stats, coming from Story Cards will be left unaffected. If you are looking to use a specific Friend to farm a stage while taking advantage of this function, the importance of Story Card Stat Sticks goes up the higher the Cut.

Even Friends who have unlocked Fantasy Rebirth will definitely enjoy this, as you can greatly reduce their cost from 14 to 5. Granted, it’s a huge Total Power reduction, but it’s not going to hurt too much in the grand scheme of things, especially if you want to level up that Friend via means such as both School and Event Farming, for example. The effects earlier also apply to Fantasy Rebirth, and a full team of units with Fantasy Rebirth can also be set from 84sp all the way down to 30sp. And this isn’t even mentioning the Fantasy Rebirth 2.0 enhancements, as any upgrades made on the Progression Tree will remain no matter what! Do note that Total Power Cuts with these Friends will be more taxing on other Friends without Fantasy Rebirth (lower Cost Friends), simply just as a result of the Total Power distribution.

One could argue that more than one copy of that specific Friend might be unnecessary, but it is possible that they might come in handy one way or another. Whether you want a duplicate Friend for never-ending farming fodder (yes, the dreaded purple heart) or you want to get super intricate with the Total Power distribution. Their value in some ways has reduced overall, and casual players understandably won’t need to keep multiple copies of the same friend if they did before, but others will most likely be able to come up with more technical uses with them in whatever farming compositions are brainstormed.

More incentive than ever, but still be careful. Due to the effects that may alter the way the Total Power Cuts are distributed across a team of 2 or more assuming varying initial Spirit Point Costs, it’s not as simple as just Awakening everyone, but it’s more of a case of having to be careful with who you pick, and who would benefit greatly from the Spell Card effects before and after an attack. If you’re bringing a team of similar costs, you most likely won’t notice anything wrong at all, but naturally lower cost units will suffer a little more in the Total Power department.

Even so, it is more recommended to Awaken your Friends than before, thanks to the fear of Spirit Point Cost being greatly alleviated!

Some of the issues with Awakening, and by extension Fantasy Rebirth was that when it came to farming, 12sp or 14sp would be too much to spend per run, compared to a potential 5sp cost per Friend, and with the new Spirit Point Cost Cut feature, you’re not going to feel those pre-existing downsides as much anymore. Aside from Total Power cuts and how they are distributed to team members with varying base Spirit Point Costs, it’s rather straightforward and easygoing once you know what you are doing.

Another thing worth mentioning is that due to the abundance in free Spirit Points given out in the game, you might find yourself far exceeding the soft cap, thus unable to collect your free Spirit Points from the Shrine or from your daily dose of Reimu’s Great Exorcism, making the need for this not as necessary in those situations, but even then, it’s never a bad idea to experiment and play around with the feature when it comes to whatever strategies you want to try out!