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Should You Pull? Fire Elemental Festival (Part 2)

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Should You Pull?

This banner is the exact same Prayer as the first Fire Elemental Festival, just with a "refreshed" Step-UP while your Exchange Points from Part 1 are kept intact. However, the value for this banner is slightly decreased due to what it is co-running with. Both B3 Watatsuki no Toyohime and A6 Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame are very valuable assets to a team and might see more use than the featured units here. Like before, the value of this Prayer will heavily depend on if you need more heavy-hitters for Fire EX Battle Stage. However, with refreshed Ascending Step-UPs, this is still a very cheap opportunity for some guaranteed Friends and Fortune Dust.

Friends aren’t the only prize for grabs this time. In addition, the 5* story card Bonds of Blood has an increased chance of being pulled, a very handy 50% Fire element Power UP for any spell card it is equipped to. This will clearly support the Fire attacks of any other featured Friends you might get from this Prayer.

The God Crystal Step-UP is special for this Prayer, though in a different way compared to the Moon Elemental Festival. There will be two Step-UPs running simultaneously, both of which will have ascending cost (60 GC, 160, 260, 360, then 460). Instead of one Friend guaranteed on the first four steps, the fifth step will guarantee two Friends! Since both Step-UPs will be available at the same time, players can access the first 60 God Crystal steps twice, making for some rather cheap shots for one of the featured Friends as well as an easy 20 Fortune Dust.

As stated above, Rin Kaenbyou pawed her way into this primarily Festival prayer, meaning that Suika Ibuki, Kasen Ibaraki, and Shion Yorigami are limited Festival Friends that will not be added to the General Pool after the Prayer ends. Even though Rin is General, all of the Festival Friends require 150 Exchange Points. As for the card, Bonds of Blood can be exchanged for 50 Exchange Points.

Of course, Fire breaks aren’t the only benefit these Friends provide, but in service of the Prayer, the quality of their Fire breaking will be ranked after their overviews. For more information on what the battle stage will be composed of, check the article below!

Quick Overview

+ Extremely damaging All targeting Last Word at 1 Power that scales well with additional Spirit Power.
+ All Last Word inflicts 2 Levels of Yin & Yang DEF Down for 3 Turns
+ Graze provides 1 Level of Yin ATK Up for 1 Turn for entire team
+ Second Spell Card provides 3 Levels of Accuracy Up for 3 Turns for Suika’s entire team
-LW is entirely metal at 1 Power, so she might run into some problems with Metal resistant foes for farming.

+ Powerful Solo Last Word that deals high damage in 1 turn and an incredible amount at 3 Power
+ Access to both Water and Earth element as well as Fire Last Word
- Entirely selfish damage dealer with no utility
-Quick can make it tricky to support her at times
- The number of Element Breaks on her Spell Cards is merely average; both Spell Cards and her Last Word have 1/1/2/3 Breaks at 0/1/2/3 Power.

+Extremely potent DEF DOWN support, especially for Yin attackers
+2 layers of Burn to all enemies, on a skill to boot
+Extremely strong, front-loaded Last Word useful for harder fights and farming alike
-Purely an average Fire breaker

+Purrfect levels of Yin DEF DOWN & Burn Barriers
+Solid Breaks, including P0 Solo targeting Moon on a basic shot
-No Accuracy UP
-Low levels of Yin ATK UP

[Numbers in brackets are buffs at Max Limit Break]
Spell Card's Fire power 30% [50%] UP (1T).
When Spell Card is used, DMG from Sages of Gensokyo 20% DOWN (2T).

Fire Accessibility Ranking

Unlike the Moon Elemental Festival, half of the Friends here aren’t exactly the most affiliated with their Fire breaks, which was hinted at in their quick overviews. However, this should not rule them out from being worthless in a fight relating to their respective breaks. Additionally, the Fire EX Battle Stage will include Bomb Item Drops, which restores a Friend’s spell cards so they can reuse their Fire spells. 

4. Kasen Ibaraki

Kasen’s only Fire breaks are on her Last Word, When the Ice Melts, the Waves Wash the Old Moss’s Beard, with 3 Breaks spread out at 0 Spirit Power, 1, and 3. Seems rather unimpressive, additionally when you consider that it’s only a Solo-target Last Word, but don’t underestimate the nuking power that she holds onto. The Quick on her second skill might get in the way of this, but if the opponent is already fully broken, Kasen can unleash a rather powerful Solo finisher with some Fire within it. Otherwise, don’t expect her to do all of the breaking.

Last Word (Solo): 3 Breaks (0P, 1P, 3P)
Total: 3 Breaks

3. Suika Ibuki

Suika fares a bit better than her definitely-not-an-oni-friend, having Fire breaks on both her spread shot and a spell instead of her Last Word. The spread shot, Kishin’s Will-o’-Wisp Art, is especially useful because its one Fire break is at 0 Spirit Power, making it spammable and a cheap single break if needed. Her final Fire breaks are on her second spell, Night Parade of a Million Demons, with 3 Breaks spread between 0 Spirit Power, 1, and 2. Since she can use this twice, she has 6 breaks on spells and an additional spammable Fire break. Not the most amazing, but don’t rule out Suika’s other strong options. As a matter of fact, since her first spell, Oni Sign: Missing Power has no elemental bullets on it, this attack will not be resisted by opponents in the Fire EX Battle Stage!

Spread Shot (Solo): 1 Break (0P)
Spell 2 (All): 3 Breaks (0P, 1P, 2P)
Total: 7 Breaks

2. Rin Kaenbyou

Ironically, the General Pool kitty outranks half of the competition here when it comes to Fire breaking, being on multiple parts of her kit. Her focus shot, Fire Punch, with 3 breaks at 1 Spirit Power, 2, and 3 probably won’t be seeing much action though, unless you have the Spirit Power to spare and really need the breaks. More promise is shown on her second spell, Youkai: Blazing Wheel, an All-target attack with 3 breaks on 0 Spirit Power, 1, and 3. Finally, her Last Word, Morgue Street Grand-Prix - Dead Heat mixes in 4 Moon breaks with 2 Fire breaks at 1 Spirit Power and 2. It can be argued that Suika’s 0P Fire break on her Focus shot is more practical, but Rin can scratch up the competition with Burn barrier debuffs from her second spell as well as Yin DEF debuffs otherwise, something Suika cannot boast.

Focus Shot (Solo): 3 Breaks (1P, 2P, 3P)
Spell 2 (All): 3 Breaks (0P, 1P, 3P)
Last Word (All): 2 Breaks (1P, 2P)
Total: 11 Breaks

1. Shion Yorigami

Shion is by far the best in this Prayer when it comes to Fire breaks, having Fire in most of her attacks. Like with Rin, the 2 breaks on her Focus shot, Impoverished Tackle, likely won’t be doing an incredible amount of work, although having both breaks at 1 Spirit Power is a lot more practical. Both of her spells, Poor Sign: Super Poverty Bomb and Mischance Scatter, share the same break spread, at 3 breaks at 0 Spirit Power and two more at 2. Last but not least is her Last Word, The Lost 20 Years, which while it is a Solo attack, has 4 breaks: three at 1 Spirit Power and one more at 3, devastating for any singular Fire-weak target. She is definitely doing the most as your average Fire breaker here, but don’t forget about her other skills. Not only will she heavily debuff the opponents’ defenses, but their Evasion as well, serving as Accuracy support for everyone in the party. You definitely can’t go wrong with obtaining Shion for any upcoming struggles.

Focus Shot (Solo): 2 Breaks (1P, 1P)
Spell 1 (Solo): 3 Breaks (0P, 2P, 2P)
Spell 2 (All): 3 Breaks (0P, 2P, 2P)
Last Word (Solo): 4 Breaks (1P, 1P, 1P, 3P)
Total: 18 Breaks

0. Bonds of Blood

This is a story card, meaning it holds no Fire breaks whatsoever. It’ll increase the power of any Fire-focused spell card it is attached to, at least…?

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About the Author(s)

I mainly go by Neku on Discord and primarily focus on writing articles for Touhou Lostword. You can usually find me on the Touhou Lostword Official Discord (Neku#9644) if needed for edits regarding any information on that side. 

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