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Should You Pull? Eternal Exiles of the Moon

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Should You Pull?

As far as banners go, both characters here are pretty great, especially for longer fights. Kaguya’s packing a potent All targeting Last Word with great Hard scaling that can do a solid job farming or pack a huge punch in longer fights, alongside Metal and Fire Breaks. Meanwhile Eirin’s a potent healer well suited for longer fights, with a backloaded Last Word, access to Poison Barriers, and some below average Moon breaks. This is a Festival banner, so they will not be added to the general pool when the banner is over - so you will need to wait for a rerun if you want them and opt to not pick them up this time.

Quick Overview

+Highly damaging All targeting Last Word with fantastic Hard scaling that hits hard right away and scales well too for longer fights
+Average access to two elements, Fire and Metal. She's also got Wood access if you're willing to burn her Last Word on that.
+Gains a lot of Spirit Power

-Selfish attacker with no utility outside of Breaks
-Kaguya's second Spell Card hurts herself

+Fantastic amount of Healing and Barrier restoration
+Great Poison Barrier support, for either Anomaly Breaks or supporting Yang Attackers
+Last Word can deal a lot of damage if given a turn to set up
+Possesses the always handy Power Link

-Poor Barrier Break potential
-Backloaded Last Word
-Hard to support due to mixed Last Word

Kaguya Houraisan

Kaguya Houraisan, the Eternal and Instant Sinner, is one of the rare cases in Touhou Project of a character who is quite literally the myth they’re based off of. A princess from the moon who one day requested that Eirin Yagokoro create a legendary elixir for her - the Hourai Elixir, a medicine which makes one utterly immortal. However, once Kaguya consumed the elixir, she was permanently impure in the eyes of the moon (as drinking it associates one with death), and the princess was promptly executed. Which - did nothing, given she was now immortal. Afterwards, she was promptly exiled, which led her to live on the earth with a bamboo cutter. Eventually, tales of her beauty spread across Japan - leading to numerous individuals seeking her hand in marriage, and Kaguya in turn providing them with the famous Five Impossible Requests. In the myth, they were impossible because they were utterly fictional objects - in Touhou, they were impossible requests because Kaguya herself already owned all of them. Among the many suitors, the father of Fujiwara no Mokou also attempted to court Kaguya’s hand - which lead to numerous other things, and eventually Mokou became Kaguya’s eternal rival.

One day, Lunarian emissaries eventually descended to the earth to give her a chance to return to the moon, but Eirin came down with them, and helped Kaguya flee to continue living her life on earth. Afterwards, the two settled down in Gensokyo, which lead to the events of Imperishable Night. Since then, as Eientei has opened up to Gensokyo, Kaguya's done her best to settle into her new life and try to, for the first time, figure out her place in the grand scheme of things rather than sit around in a dull, static, unchanging mansion - well, when she's not busy holding expos, petting every rabbit in Eientei, and either hanging out with Mokou or dueling her eternal rival to the death. Sometimes both at the same time. 

Beyond that, she's kind of pampered, and constantly bored. She's still polite, of course, but her thrill seeking nature leads her to be a bit more reckless and wild  As an eternally bored princess always seeking out her next thrill, Kaguya’s here to lend you her aid, with her ability to manipulate eternity and the instantaneous - a bit of a vague ability, but far less vague is the assortment of treasures she has to chuck at your enemies.

There’s no better way to introduce Kaguya’s kit than to talk about the Jeweled Branch of Hourai, the pretty branch she's got in her hands. Allegedly a tree branch ending in gemstones, it’s the star of the show for Kaguya’s powerful All targeting Last Word - Hourai’s Sea of Trees. Due to possessing an extremely potent Hard scaling (meaning between 80% and 85% of Kaguya’s Yang DEF is factored in for damage calculation, depending on the bullet), it hits pretty dang hard, and even moreso if Kaguya is given a turn to hit 3 Power. This is complemented extremely well by all three of her skills - between them, Exiled Princess and Instant Determination grant her a whopping 1.5 bonus Spirit Power to work with on the first turn, and then between Instant Determination, Impossible Tasks, her Character Ability, and her Last Word, Kaguya's boasting 6 Yang ATK UP, 8 Yang DEF UP, and between 2 and 3 Yin ATK UP even without Story Cards. That's no mean feat.

Beyond her Last Word, Kaguya also has pretty alright, though not quite spectacular Break abilities thanks to some extra treasures she’s got lying around. Divine Treasure: Buddhist Diamond provides 1/1/2/3 Metal Breaks for 0/1/2/3 Spirit Power, and Divine Treasure: Salamander Shield provides 1/1/2/3 Fire Breaks for 0/1/2/3 Spirit Power. Whilst both of these are rather average values, and a bit on the pricer side, the fact that both of them also give 1.5 Spirit Power on use makes it extremely easy for Kaguya to perform 3 Breaks per turn. Just make sure to watch out for the Rebound on Salamander Shield.

That’s about it for Kaguya however - a very potent selfish attacker with some Breaks on the side. She’s a princess, so perhaps it’s not that surprising…

Eirin Yagokoro

Eirin Yagokoro, the Brain of the Moon, is based off of, and is also almost certainly, a Japanese god of wisdom and intelligence - Omoikane (also known by like ten other names, one of which is Yagokoro-omoikane). In Touhou, Eirin was once one the Sage of the Moon, and one of the individuals who helped shape Lunarian society since its very first days. At some point, between a thousand and two thousand years ago or so, a Lunarian princess, one Kaguya Houraisan,, convinced her to make an elixir of immortality - the Hourai Elixir, which Kaguya thusly consumed, leading to her (somewhat pointless) execution and then exile to the earth. Many years later, Eirin descended with a party of Lunarian emmasaries to invite Kaguya back to the moon, her crimes forgiven - but when Kaguya opted to stay, Eirin chose to remain behind with the princess (out of a sense of guilt), and slaughtered the emissaries to keep their secret. For many years, they lived in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost in secret, in a residence named Eientei - quite literally, a house of eternity. Shut off from the outside world, to avoid the impurities of the earth contaminating them.

They remained like this, forever static and unchanging, living dull, secluded lives, until one day a Lunar Rabbit on the run from the moon named Reisen found her way to their residence, and was taken in. They gave her the additional names Udongein (a nickname from Eirin) and Inaba (a nickname from Kaguya, whomst calls all the rabbits Inaba). For the next few decades, life remained the same, until Reisen got a distress signal from the moon, urging her to join in the war - and then as a result, the actions of Imperishable Night occurred, in which Eirin’s first course of action was to seal the entire Earth off from the moon. Then, she promptly created another dose of the Hourai Elixir and consumed it after the events of that game, to ensure she wouldn’t die on Kaguya.

That should tell you all you need to know about the extent of Eirin’s power, and just what lengths she’s willing to go to. Her genius doesn’t extend to just spells or combat ability, however - she’s also capable of creating any drug, though these days now that Eientei has opened up to the public, she uses it to run a sort of pharmacy for Gensokyo, for dirt cheap prices. The Eirin of old, in Kaguya’s words, would never think of doing such an altruistic act - but as Eientei has opened up to Gensokyo in the modern day, so too has Eirin’s heart opened to the public. She’s still a genius with a complete lack of patience for anyone who can’t keep up with her words, but she's a far cry from the ruthless Sage of the Moon she once was.

Don’t think that means she’s gone soft. She’s still got combat skills a plenty, which she’s more than willing to show off in LostWord. As a healer, Eirin’s distinguished from the pack in a few ways. Perhaps her most attractive element is that she packs a punch for a Healer - her 

All targeting Last Word, Heaven Spider's Butterfly-Catching Web, gives her a whopping 5 Yin and Yang ATK UP. Add onto that the 3 Yin ATK UP from her third skill, Golden Pill Fragment, and she's got a load of ATK UP on the very first turn. Unfortunately due to her Last Word being backloaded, she needs a turn or two to accumulate Spirit Power to make the most of that ATK UP. To an extent, her second skill Moon Intellect helps mitigate this, giving her 1 Spirit Power up right away, meaning she only needs 1 more to hit as hard as possible.

Of course, that’s not the only thing she has going for her. Healing in LostWord depends on the health value of the healer - and Eirin has health to spare, at a show stopping 8400 max HP, the highest in the game. Her first skill, Diluted Ochimizu, restores 30% HP to the party on a 4 turn CD, her third skill, Golden Pill Fragment, restores 30% HP to the party on a 5 turn CD, and her second Spell Card, Revival: Seimei Yuugi -Life Game- grants 1 Barrier to the whole party. Between all of this, she can help any party buy time to build Spirit Power. Do keep in mind that her Last Word also restores a Barrier, but you’re likely not going to use it until the fight’s about to end anyway - still, a nice trick to keep around. Additionally, she possesses the coveted Power Link, always handy to keep around. 

Lastly, she also packs abundant access to Poison Barriers thanks to her first Spell Card, Curse of the Heavens: Apollo 13. Granting 2 Layers of Poison Barrier to all targets with a 60% chance for 1 more, it can either serve as fantastic Yang support, or she can be used in combination with a Poison Barrier Breaker (such as Medicine Melancholy) in order to break Barriers regardless of elemental weaknesses, which is always a handy ability to have. 


That being said, Eirin isn’t flawless, even if she is usually right. Her Barrier Break ability is downright subpar, possessing only Moon Breaks and at only 1/1/1/2 Breaks for 0/1/2/3 Spirit Power on both of her Spell Cards. To an extent the 1 Spirit Power recovery from her second skill Moon Intellect and second Spell Card Curse of the Heavens: Apollo 13 mitigates this, but she’s still definitely below average at the job.

Still, all in all she's a great unit, and the first Friend who can both heal well and do a good amount of damage to boot. Just keep her shortcomings in mind.

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