Should You Pull? Genic Prayer “Sealed Evil Spirit"

Recommended. It's the 2.5 Anniversary Season, and what a way to celebrate it. New Buddy System, new Hifuu Code L?, and of course, a pair (or is it a quartet?) of Genic Friends! Part of a new rarity with Relic Paper Disks still required to Limit Break them, one of these two special pairs of Friends we will cover here is LM1 Maribel Hearn (Interpreting an Evil Spirit), with that Evil Spirit being the one and only Mima!. How did these two come together like this, as part of the Sealed Evil Spirit Genic Prayer? Only time will tell…

Before we jump right in, for simplicity’s sake, we will refer to this unit as “LM1 Maribel and Mima” most of the time (might even refer to Maribel as Merry as her nickname), even though Mima is the one who will be in battle instead of Maribel. Having a 2 in 1 unit like this is new territory, but we’ll get used to it!

Now does the destructive Evil Spirit and Merry the Magician have what it takes to thrive? Absolutely. And their Resonance Skill reserved for those of the Genic rarity could be described as critically acclaimed! This is because these effects benefit the team by boosting both CRIT Damage and CRIT Chance both by 4% for every unit on the front guard, and since Genic Friends count as 2 Friends instead of the usual 1, the minimum percentage provided is actually 8% for both! It is also worth noting that the CRIT Damage boost is not to be confused with CRIT ATK and that the CRIT Chance boost will help increase the CRIT Rate of the team’s bullets, and with almost any Destroy-Class Friend, with enough CRIT Accuracy, getting those guaranteed CRITs on those later lines will be much appreciated, and in some cases, negating the reliance on Killers! This is especially the case for LM1 Maribel and Mima, but we will get into that later. For now though, considering this is new territory, let’s go over all the current possible ways this Skill can be utilized for the front guard (this doesn’t include effects from a secondary Genic Helper from the Buddy System):

• Genic: 8% CRIT Damage and 8% CRIT Chance
• Genic + Non-Genic: 12% CRIT Damage and 12% CRIT Chance
• Genic + Genic: 16% CRIT Damage and 16% CRIT Chance
• Genic + Non-Genic + Non-Genic: 16% CRIT Damage and 16% CRIT Chance
• Genic + Genic + Non-Genic: 20% CRIT Damage and 20% CRIT Chance
• Genic + Genic + Genic: 24% CRIT Damage and 24% CRIT Chance (NOTE: As of now, the only way to do this is to have both LR1 Renko and LM1 Maribel, then have a Helper Genic via the Buddy System)

The fact that this effectively removes a lot of the reliance on Killers can really help LM1 Maribel and Mima a lot, considering the Killer range of Human, Hakurei Shrine, Outside World, Hell, Makai, God, Lost Presence, Shrine Maiden, Magician and Maid isn’t particularly impressive or awful, but thankfully that isn’t a worry now, provided that the CRIT Accuracy buffs are covered of course! Speaking of CRIT-related stuff, LM1 Maribel and Mima are more than capable of covering CRIT ATK and CRIT Accuracy in the conventional ways we are probably familiar with. Skill 3, and Boosting can help out the team with their CRIT ATK buffs, with CRIT Accuracy buffs provided for the team via Spell Card 2 and Last Word. On top of that, LM1 Maribel and Mima themselves also benefit from anomaly inflictions, being Burn or Blind, with Yang ATK, Yin ATK, CRIT ATK and CRIT Accuracy being increased by 1 stage per infliction, and these self-inflictions are executed via Skill 2 as well as Bullet Lines in their Focus Shot and Spell Cards. So needless to say, we have a critically acclaimed Friend (or Friends) here.

Aside from CRIT buffs, she is also able to work with buffs pertaining to Yin ATK, Accuracy, Agility and selfish Spirit Power, as well as Evasion and CRIT Evasion debuffs. The selfish Spirit Power buffs can be obtained via Skill 2 (2.00), Spell Card 1 Post-ATK (1.75) and Last Word Post-ATK (2.75), the Evasion and CRIT Evasion debuffs on enemies are achieved via Skill 1, Agility buffs are all over her Spell Card 2 (Pre-ATK for the team and bullet lines for herself), Accuracy buffs for the team are granted by the same Spell Card 2 Pre-ATK with selfish ones are provided via Last Word Pre-ATK, and of course, we have Yin ATK. The two ways for this to be provided to the team is via Grazing, and of course, Spell Card 2 Pre-ATK, and it’s to the team too. There is also a slight Yin ATK buff for LM1 Maribel and Mima on Spell Card 1’s first bullet line too, which will help keep her personal Yin ATK buffs alive.

To fully cover anomalies, these are inflicted onto enemies through Skill 2 (All, Blind), Spread Shot Bullet Lines (Solo, Burn), Spell Card 1 Pre-ATK (All, Burn), Spell Card 2 Bullet Lines (Solo, Burn) and Last Word Pre-ATK (All, Blind). As for the breaking side of things, wherever it is possible to break Blind anomalies, it’s possible to break Burn anomalies, and vice versa. Both/either can be broken through Spell Card 1 (All, 2P) and Last Word (All, 3P) as well as a little Poison break sprinked into the Last Word for that tiny bit of additional synergy with another certain Genic counterpart. A few other tricks up the sleeves of LM1 Maribel and Mima that may be of note would have to be that still very rare 100% Stun on all targets, this time, appearing on that Focus Shot at 3P. Only 2 other Friends have 100% Impact that Stuns all enemies, A6 Sunny Milk and A11 Satori Komeiji’s Last Words at 3P, so it’s great that over a year after their releases, we have a new addition to that! Just keep in mind Skill 2’s Charge effect if you want to take advantage of this! Another notable trick would be Spell Card 1’s Post-ATK effect removing not one, not two, but three Binds/Stat debuffs! If you are in a bit of a sticky situation when it comes to having maybe 3 Binds to deal with, this could help alleviate things a little if necessary, but it depends on the situation.

Now things aren’t all smooth sailing here. Obviously we have a strong Genic Friend here, and we can pull off some amazing stuff here with her, such as thanks to her Resonance Skill. However, that very Skill comes with an 8 Turn Cooldown Duration. Maybe one could justify it as a strong Skill coming with a strong price, but it can be potentially tough to decide when is the perfect time to capitalize on a Skill like this, especially since the special CRIT themed effects only last 2 turns. Since you may have to plan carefully with a Skill like this, it could be a case of only being able to pull off this Skill one time per battle. In addition, but a slightly lesser problem is the slight struggle to maintain Yin ATK buffs for the team (maintaining them for herself isn’t as difficult) since the teamwide Yin ATK buff on Spell Card 2 only lasts 2 Turns, and the Grazing effect is of course, 1 turn. You could also say that her lack of Accuracy from her Skills may be a cause for concern, even if it is somewhat mitigated by her Evasion debuffing on Skill 1, as well as there being some Accuracy buffs on Spell Card 2 and Last Word Pre-ATKs. But that said, no Friend or Friends in this game are going to be perfect, even some of the strongest, so needless to say these cons are heavily outweighed by all the pros!

With roughly 2 weeks to decide between the two (if you’re in that position), if you care about who is the stronger Genic, it would probably have to go to LR1 Renko and Shinki sadly, although this doesn’t discredit the greatness of the subject here at all, and both of them being able to shake up the game in such a great way (new rarity, new concept, new mechanics, etc) is an absolute win for the game as well as all of us! Now if you’re in the fortunate position to afford to pull for both of these Friends (at least 3500 Seal Crystals), it’s recommended to do so as they will absolutely do you wonders in all kinds of content going forward, whether it’s LR1 Renko and Shinki for the raw damage and Spirit Power, or LM1 Maribel and Mima for the amplified contagious CRIT power, allowing some other Friends (mainly Destroy-Class Friends) to pretty much be less reliant on needing strong Killers to thrive, especially on their bullet lines that require more boosts! For now though, if there is a time to capitalize on those 2x Errand Rewards and that longer Prayer duration (November 24th being the deadline), the time is now. Even better, Relic Paper Disks are obtainable in campaigns, the current event’s Rare Event P Shop for 100 Rare Event P and the Fortune Dust Shop, making it that bit less tedious to Limit Break these Friends, should you be fortunate enough to pick up one/both Genics!

However, if you have decided to take the path of LM1 Maribel and Mima and are looking to have a “Merry” time, best of luck to those who are hoping for their Genic Prayers to be blessed, and not be left in “Complete Darkness”!