Should You Pull? Festival: Yin-Yang God & Yamawaro

Maybe. As the debut of playable Unconnected Marketeers (the latest integer Windows Touhou Project entry) Friends in Touhou LostWord Global, Misumaru Tamatsukuri and Takane Yamashiro serve as great offensive Friends with both buffs and debuffs for the whole party. Outside of sharing the Technical Class, both Friends share many other similarities, from being All-Target Yang nukes to their good dual-elemental coverage to even having a special anomaly break.

Misumaru serves as a mixed attacker that uses both Yin and Yang on spells, similar to Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu. Her Last Word focuses on Yang to make it somewhat easier to optimize the damage compared to buffing two different attack stats. This god’s other purposes include debuffing defensive stats on foes, buffing Yin ATK and Yang DEF for the team, and providing breaks in Earth, Star, and Blind anomaly breaks.

Takane is a bit more selfish, mainly only buffing her own Yang ATK, CRIT ATK, and Accuracy. However, her second spell still gives partywide CRIT ATK UP and she can debuff all foes’ Yang DEF and CRIT DEF for further utility. Her breaks revolve around Wood and Metal for elements and she can break Paralyze anomalies as well. 

Coming along with the Technical trend is the new 5* story card, Figure of Hourai. Its main buffs depend on being a Technical Class Friend, in which case they receive 3 levels of Yang DEF and CRIT Accuracy for 3 turns. Sadly, these stat buffs are very situational, as CRIT ATK UP is definitely preferred over CRIT Accuracy, especially if CRITs are ensured via Killer bullets, but this card can still have its uses, especially for Yang DEF Hard scaling. It provides pretty good Yang ATK and Yin DEF stat sticks as well.

Both Friends featured here are good, but the other options, mainly F1 Reimu Hakurei and B3 Sagume Kishin are definitely more powerful. B3 Sagume especially trumps over any offensive buff utility that either Friend here tries to provide, and along with being more powerful than them, she is “safer” to go for due to having an ensured spark on her prayer compared to F1 Reimu. A8 Eirin Yagokoro and Mystia Lorelei are co-running with this prayer as well, but the choice between those Friends and these mainly revolves around if your team would prefer the heavy self-buffs of A8 Eirin or the utility present here.

This prayer will last until July 22nd, which is exactly 2 weeks from its start. There is the ever-popular Ascending God Crystal Step-UP for anyone looking for a cheap 60 God Crystal 10-pull to test their luck. The exchange rates for units are, as always, 50 Exchange Points for the 5* story card Figure of Hourai, 100 for the General Friend Takane Yamashiro, and 150 for the Festival Friend Misumaru Tamatsukuri.

+ 0P All-target Earth break on Focus shot
+ Very balanced Earth and Star breaks on spells
+ Buffs herself a decent bit for a strong Last Word
+ Variety of Yin, Yang, and CRIT-related buffs and debuffs
- Confused mixed attacker; doesn’t buff Agility for Slice scaling
- Not so focused on a specific stat to buff

+ 0P All-target Wood on Focus shot
+ Spells full of Wood and Metal breaks
+ Sets up good damage all by herself
+ Includes partywide offense buffs and enemy debuffs for utility
- Can’t really take full advantage of Paralyze anomaly breaks on shots
- Doesn’t fully excel in Yang or CRIT support

Figure of Hourai

Numbers in brackets are buffs at Max Limit Break or stat sticks at Max Enhance:

• When used by Technical Class Friend, Yang DEF 2 [3] levels UP (3T)
• When used by Technical Class Friend, CRIT Accuracy 2 [3] levels UP (3T)
• DMG taken from Hourai People 15% DOWN (2T)
• Yang ATK +30 [+90]
• Yin DEF +30 [+90]

Misumaru Tamatsukuri is another crafty god out of the many within Gensokyo, but instead of crafting schemes, she crafts objects you might be more familiar with. While nowadays she crafts magatama, divine items that Misumaru can use to store people’s souls and identify their thoughts, she claims to be the one that crafted Reimu Hakurei’s yin-yang orbs, an important artifact that Reimu relies on for youkai extermination. The power of the orbs themselves still remains a mystery, which also puts into question Misumaru’s relation with the Hakurei line as a whole. Still, she has proven that she wants to protect the current Hakurei shrine maiden by assisting her multiple times during the incident revolving around the mysterious cards, so she should be a trustworthy ally.

Misumaru takes full advantage of her crafting skills to actively attack opponents with a flurry of Earth-element and Star-element attacks. Not only is her Focus shot, Plentiful Jewel Making, a 0P Earth break that targets all opponents, but all of her spells (including her Last Word) have 3 Earth breaks and Star breaks to make her great at breaking either element when needed. As for the attacks’ effects, her first spell, Orb Sign: Yin-Yang Divine Orbs, primarily serves to debuff a single target’s Yin DEF and Yang DEF by 2 levels (3T). Misumaru is a mixed attacker, meaning she attacks with both Yin and Yang on her spells, making this a good damage buff for her, but this can serve well for Friends who attack in either bullet type. Her second spell, Queenly Gem: Beyond the Rainbow Door, is a partywide 2 levels of Yin ATK UP (3T) to help any Yin nukes on the team. Her Last Word, Yin-Yang Planet, is a bit strange, buffing her own Yin ATK and Yang ATK by 3 levels (3T) on a Yang-only strike. At the very least, she makes up for the semi-pointless Yin ATK buff with good Hard and Slice scaling. This attack, along with her Spread shot, String of Magatama, can also break Blind anomalies, something that synergizes well with Queenly Gem: Beyond the Rainbow Door’s post-ATK effect of applying 3 layers of Blind on all targets.

When it comes to her skills, Misumaru gives herself a lot of benefits but still takes consideration of her team’s status. Her first skill, Izanagi Object Item, restores her own barrier for 1 or 2 layers (a 50% chance of the latter), provides all allies with Yang DEF UP by 2 levels (3T), and inflicts Blind on herself, which provides more defense thanks to her character ability. Her second skill, Imperial Regalia Spell, is more offensive thanks to its 2 levels of CRIT DEF DOWN (3T) on all foes and self-Burn anomalies that increase Misumaru’s offensive stats. Finally, her third skill, Mysterious Regalia, is a great support tool through its 1.00 Spirit Power restoration for herself along with 2 levels of Accuracy UP (2T) for the team. While Izanagi Object Item and Imperial Regalia Spell have some lengthy cooldowns at Level 1, they can be heavily decreased to make Misumaru a very practical supportive ally in longer fights. She also has some silly passives, particularly her first and second ones that have a 35% chance to block any Yin or Yang attacks respectively. Being random, they really shouldn’t be relied on, but they are a fun nod toward her mastery of the yin-yang orbs.

The main issue with Misumaru is that, while not having a real significant weakness, she is somewhat confused in her purpose. The strange Yin ATK buff on a Yang Last Word was already mentioned, but her several buffs and debuffs cover so many different stats that she ends up not being significantly great at a single one, a factor that other Friends can beat her at if a fight need a specific type of support or stat change. But Misumaru still holds up well in offense and the slight support that she can provide, with her likely ending up as an offensive nuke that can provide some supportive buffs and breaks on the side.

At first glance, Takane Yamashiro may look like your everyday kappa youkai like Nitori Kawashiro, but you would be very far from the truth. Rather than making their home in rivers like Nitori’s kappa group, Takane and her yamawaro tribe have migrated from the river and can be found within forests around the Youkai Mountain. Naturally (get it?), Takane manipulates powers of the forest, or “forest qi,” in comparison to Nitori’s manipulation of water. Although she is very different from the river-types, Takane still maintains the kappa’s skills in business and is very protective of their hideout, especially being wary of humans. The yamawaro and kappa are also still in a healthy rivalry and peaceful state, aware that maintaining relations will keep the market in fine shape and their hideouts safe from danger.

Takane takes advantage of her forest manipulation and kappa intuition to attack opponents with both Wood and Metal breaks. Her Focus shot, Leaf Spin, comes with a 0P Wood break that can hit all foes, and the rest of her spells have a good mix of both elements. Her first spell, Forest Sign: Tree-Veiling Technology has 4 Wood and 2 Metal while her second spell, Leaf Skill: Green Spiral, and her Last Word, Dynamite Armor, have an even split of 3 Wood and 3 Metal. Her other barrier breaking capabilities are on her basic shots, as at 1P they can break Paralyze anomalies. As for her spells’ effects, Leaf Skill: Green Spiral stands out as great support due to granting all allies 2 levels of CRIT ATK UP (3T), something that both her and allies with Killers or good CRIT Accuracy can easily use for more damage. Dynamite Armor’s best Killers are Human-killers for the more common Human foes you may face, but the Last Word is also a great All-target Yang DEF DOWN by 2 levels (2T) to optimize her own Yang damage and other Yang nukes’ power. 

Takane’s skills are a bit more selfish like the average Technical Class Friend, but they still get the job done. Her first skill, Anti-Kappa Fence, is the main exception to this, inflicting 2 layers of Paralyze on all foes, something that Takane herself takes advantage of via her Paralyze anomaly breaks, and decreasing all foes’ CRIT DEF by 3 levels (2T). Meanwhile, her second skill, Military Rations, is definitely more selfish, giving herself an increase of Yang ATK and Accuracy by 3 levels (3T). Prospector Lecture, her third skill, continues this trend with both a 1.00 Spirit Power increase and 3 levels of CRIT ATK UP (2T). While those last two were selfish, they certainly increase Takane’s power a lot, and with the right setup will demolish anyone who dares fight against her. 

Takane is rather good at support, especially when it comes to CRIT-related offense, but she still lacks a lot of notable support options, especially with her greedy last two skills. Her Paralyze breaks are also, while always nice to have, rather minor when she can only apply 2 anomalies at a time and otherwise rely on her spells to maybe inflict them or reflect Paralyze back onto the foe via her character ability. However, Takane really does not have a major flaw and these drawbacks mainly exist when comparing her to the higher-ups of LostWord’s meta. On her own merits, Takane is a downright strong Friend, which is ironic when you realize that her stat spread is the same as Nitori Kawashiro, a very low-tier Friend. Takane Yang-related stats are swapped with Nitori’s Yin-related ones, but everything else is the same. This just really goes to show how a different utility-based kit (and coming out later in the game) can really change your viability!