Should You Pull? Scarlet Devil Tower Pick Up #1

Maybe. The quality of this banner is rather good overall - Remilia is a top-notch combination of DEF Down support and attacker, Alice provides rather above average support and the highly valuable Power Link, and Patchouli provides remarkable Barrier Break support alongside Power Link. However, all of these units are general in the pool, so if you’re just looking to casually toss out a few Prayers, and have limited resources, you may wish to wait for a future banner. If resources aren’t a concern, or if you’re willing to spark to get one or more of these units for sure, this is a pretty good banner.

+ Very damaging All Last Word at 1 Power, scales extremely well with additional Power

+ Fantastic team support in 2 Yin DEF Down to all foes and an additional 2 Yin DEF Down to one foe.

+ 2 Fire Breaks at 1 Power on Solo Spell Card, 1 Fire Break at 0 Power on All Last Word, with an additional 2 at 3 Power. 

- Only has Fire Breaks, and only on one Solo Spell Card and All Last Word

- Damage to secondary targets is not as impressive

+Extremely potent support - can easily provide 2 Levels of Accuracy Up and Yang ATK Up in a single turn for 2 Turns from skills

+If given turns, can also provide Yin or Yang DEF Down, Yin ATK and/or Def Up, and an additional 2 Levels of Evasion Down to all targets for 3 Turns

+Provides the highly coveted Power Link switch effect

-DEF Down, Yin ATK & DEF support all take up turns

-No Barrier Breaks

-Low damage

+Extremely potent Barrier Break capabilities: with access to every element save Star, alongside stellar access to Sun and Moon

+Provides the highly coveted Power Link switch effect

-Low damage

-Extremely Spirit Power hungry

The Scarlet Devil, Remilia Scarlet is one of only two vampires in Gensokyo, and a rather powerful one at that. As the owner of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia is an impulsive, proud, and boastful individual whose primary concern tends to be driving off her own boredom. As such, she hosts constant parties, investigates all sorts of novel things, and even hatches grandiose schemes and plots just for her own amusement. She also claims to be able to manipulate fate, but there’s no real proof of that.

Yet for all of her pride and impulsiveness, there’s a tender side to Remilia. She takes good care of her servants, and can be rather prone to act rather childishly. Even so, she’s not one to be underestimated, proving to be a rather fearsome foe in combat. She’s fast, brutally strong, incredibly tough, and can skewer anyone who crosses her with a laser lance made of scarlet-colored energy. She even utilizes cross imagery in some of her attacks to mock the very idea of the supposed weaknesses of Vampires. They don’t call her “The Scarlet Devil” for nothing.

In LostWord, Remilia Scarlet is a powerful attacker with some offensive support as well. Her Last Word, Scarlet Destiny, boasts rather impressive damage. Whilst never quite the strongest Last Word in the game, it still deals plenty of damage at 1 Power, and scales upwards to rather destructive heights at 3 Power - one could put her somewhere between Reimu and Yuyuko on her primary target. If that wasn’t enough, it also lowers the Yin DEF of all foes by 2 Levels, which is amazing support for Yin attackers. Her first and third skills, Magic Enhancement and Fate Manipulation, perfectly complement this by granting her 2 Levels of Yin ATK Up and 3 Levels of Accuracy up - meaning she is perfectly accurate by herself, without the support of Story Cards or teammates.

There is a caveat to this; she deals roughly a third less damage on her secondary targets. This is due to her second skill, Gaze of the Devil, lowering a single target’s Evasion and Yin DEF by 2 Levels. Combined with her Last Word, this means one target will suffer significantly more punishment than the other two - perfect for taking out a priority target. Do note this damage loss doesn’t impact her farming ability, as Full Auto will always target a boss, and side enemies are typically far frailer.

Remilia has one additional flaw outside of this somewhat narrow focus - she is also somewhat lacking in Barrier Breaks. She has access to only Fire, and on only one Solo Spell Card, Divine Spear: Spear the Gungnir, that provides a rather average 2 Breaks at 1P. With that said, a team utilizing Remilia typically will not need to break foes - if you make sure to bring other Yin attackers, the Yin DEF Down that Remilia provides will often be enough to get the job done, without having to go for a Full Break. 

Overall, Remilia is unquestionably a top tier unit, combining both powerful offense and Yin support into one. You can’t go wrong with her. 

The Seven-Colored Puppeteer, Alice Margatoid lives in the Forest of Magic alongside her neighbor, Marisa Kirisame. Unlike her neighbor, who’s a human with the profession of magician, Alice is a magician by race - she undertook the necessary rituals to discard her humanity, and is now a youkai. It’s a bit odd, but youkai are just odd like that. Alice is a rather kind individual, both to the residents of the Human Village, alongside any who get lost in the woods and stumble upon her home. However, hospitable as she is, she’s not one for idle chatter most times - thus, many wind up spooked and flee from her. Though at the same time, she enjoys a good reputation for putting on enjoyable puppet shows in places like the Human Village and Scarlet Devil Mansion, so perhaps her guests really should know better.

As for Alice’s powers: All of the magicians of Gensokyo undertake magic in their own way: Marisa prefers flashy and bright with a western flair, Patchouli prefers calm and analytic with a eastern flair, Byakuren likes to buff herself up and get physical, and Alice prefers to fight with dolls. Rather than directly face her opponent, Alice combats via her dolls as proxies - using them to channel spells and fight on her behalf. She uses her dolls to carefully calculate how much power her opponent has, and matches their exact output - it’s an ego thing, she’d never be able to live with herself if she lost at her full power. She also possesses a strange, bound book named the Grimoire of Alice, but she never uses it…

In LostWord, Alice serves the role of a support character. She has two main claims to fame: Firstly, she possesses access to the highly coveted Power Link, which provides 1 Spirit Power to anyone who she switches out to. Anyone who’s spent any time in the Scarlet Devil Tower can tell you how powerful this is for challenging content! Secondly, her third skill, Assist Doll, provides a whopping 2 Levels of Accuracy and Yang ATK Up for 2 Turns - whilst the Yang ATK Up is certainly nice, the Accuracy Up is sufficient to make most attackers perfectly accurate, freeing them up to use a different Story Card if they lack Accuracy in their kit. 

Those aren’t the only tricks she has up her sleeves. In longer fights, Scarlet Sign: Holland Dolls provides 2 Levels of Yang DEF Down against one target for 3 Turns, and Spy Sign: Seeker Dolls provides 2 Levels of Yin DEF Down against one target for 3 Turns. Additionally, her character ability, Capable of handling dolls provides 1 Level of Yin ATK Up for 1 Turn every time she Boosts, and 1 Level of Yin DEF Up for 1 Turn every time she Grazes. Finally, in cases where even more Accuracy support is needed, her Last Word, The Phantom of the Grand Guignol, provides 2 Levels of Evasion Down to all targets for 3 Turns - perfect for, say, Crit attackers.

That said, her laser focus on supporting her teammates comes with a cost. Firstly, Alice has absolutely no access to Barrier Breaks. Additionally, her own personal damage output is rather low. 

Those flaws aren’t enough to detract from her strengths, making Alice ultimately a rather above average unit, and a potent form of team support. Just make sure not to skip out on her tea parties, or anything she invites you to really - she gets rather angry when everything isn’t just how she planned out.

Patchouli Knowledge is a unique existence for sure. Not only because she is a magician but because she is one of the very few magicians who were born into the race. Not only is she best friends with a powerful vampire mistress but she has an unlimited supply of books to read at her leisure inside of her very own library. In fact, because of her relationship with said vampire mistress she is a resident of a massive mansion. However Patchouli's life isn't just limited to reading and lazing about. 

Akin to all magicians is a vast magical ability and one that Patchouli is particularly unique in, being one of the most powerful magicians when it comes to magic. Depending on which day of the week it is, Patchouli is able to manipulate the 5 Chinese elements, making her an "Eastern style Western magician", which read as: Fire (火), Water (水), Wood (木), Metal (金), and Earth (土). She also possesses two more elements that list as: Sun (日) and Moon (月) respectively.

Does this seem familiar? Well in LostWord she is quite the same. Patchouli Knowledge is a potent attacker who uses the in game elements along with her Shots, Spell Cards, and Last Word. Her Last Word, The Last Philosopher's Stone, does some pretty solid damage albeit not the strongest. It also has access to five full different elements. This sort of "Elemental coverage" is what makes Patchouli so unique and this trend follows her with her two Spell Cards that use the remaining Moon and Sun. This means that, when applicable, Patchouli has plenty of answers for many different situations. Her third skill Instant Magic (Sniper) and second skill Firebolt also plays a role in her overall damage, providing her with both Yin ATK Up as well as a valuable Burn barrier, though unfortunately only 1 Layer (with a 90% chance for 1 more) on 1 Target.

In addition, Patchouli has a large number of elemental resistances barring three elements: Sun, Moon, and Star with star being her only weakness. However, Patchouli comes with a whopping 4200 base Health which means she has the lowest base health in the game. Now while some of this is patched up (get it?) by her solid Yang Defense and average Yin Defense it doesn't hide the fact that Patchouli is quite frail. Finally, her damage is also, while not the lowest, still on the lower end compared to the higher tier attackers.

These facts shape Patchouli to be a bit of a "glass cannon" when it comes to her role in LostWord. Though due to her vast inventory of elements, having her at your disposal means that you have a decent answer for some sticky situations. Patchouli Knowledge, if picked up, is sure to see use in your party one way or the other and, if applied correctly, can be quite a force to be reckoned with when put up against the right foes.