Should You Pull?
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 of Genic Friends! Wait, is this a pair or quartet? More on that later. But here we have a new rarity with Relic Paper Disks still required to Limit Break them, and one of the two pairs of Friends we will be discussing here will be LR1 Renko Usami (Investigating a Makai God). Who is that Makai God, you ask? Why, it’s the one and only Shinki from the days of old, joining forces on the Secret Makai God Genic Prayer! How did we get a combination like this? Will the new Hifuu LostWord installment answer this? Only time will tell…
Before we jump right in, for simplicity’s sake, we will refer to this unit as “LR1 Renko and Shinki” most of the time, even though Shinki is the one who will be in battle instead of Renko. Having a 2 in 1 unit like this is new territory, but we’ll get used to it!
So what makes the Creator of Makai and this human from the outside world stand out from everyone else? A lot. Aside from the obvious points mentioned before, there is a new Resonance Skill associated with Genic Friends like LR1 Renko and Shinki which entails a party boost in Spirit Power and damage for every unit on the front guard. What makes this better is that Genic units count as 2 Friends instead of 1 (basically everyone who was released before), and with the Spirit Power and damage increases starting off being 0.25 and 5% respectively, these automatically get doubled, making the minimum possible boost being 0.50 Spirit Power and a 10% damage boost. Since 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: 0.50 Spirit Power, 10% Damage
- Genic + Non-Genic: 0.75 Spirit Power, 15% Damage Increase
- Genic + Genic: 1.00 Spirit Power, 20% Damage Increase
- Genic + Non-Genic + Non-Genic: 1.00 Spirit Power, 20% Damage Increase
- Genic + Genic + Non-Genic: 1.25 Spirit Power, 25% Damage Increase
- Genic + Genic + Genic: 1.50 Spirit Power, 30% Damage Increase (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)
This alone is such an awesome mechanic, and it’s welcome to see in the game, but there is more where that came from when it comes to LR1 Renko and Shinki’s greatness. Even if it wasn’t for the resonance Skill, their Spirit Power boosting capabilities is rather impressive to say the least. To add to the Spirit Power Support above, Spell Card 2’s Post-ATK gives the team 0.85 Spirit Power which is always handy, but LR1 Renko and Shinki pretty much also have the self-sufficiency when it comes to keeping their Spirit Power afloat through using Skill 2, Passive 3 and Post-ATKs from Spell Card 1 and Last Word!
Part of why the above is so great is that being able to break enemy barriers is rather smooth sailing, and LR1 Renko and Shinki’s potential in that field is already strong. Filled to the brim with Sun breaks and having Water breaks as backup, while able to execute Blind and Poison inflictions and breaks with ease thanks to the combined efforts of Skill 2 and Spell Card 1’s Pre-ATKs inflicting Blind and Poison anomalies respectively, you could say it’s a broken record to talk about how great LR1 Renko and Shinki’s breaking is here. To anomaly break, simply reach 2P and use Spell Card 1 for the Makai Creator to Destroy both Blind and Poison anomalies on all enemies, whereas her Focus Shot can also break Blind anomalies if needed. There is also the option to add Burn breaking on top of Blind and Poison on that All-Targeting Last Word at 3P if you need it for whatever reason.
Now for that sweet damage! The Makai God asserts her authority on the rest of the competition when it comes to hard-hitting power, and covering her Resonance Skill earlier may have served as a bit of foreshadowing to her greatness in her commitment to the Attack-Class. Let’s go over all the ways this is achieved:
- A strong Killer Range including Human, Youkai, Soul, Makai, Lost Presence, Devil, Demonic Person, Shrine Maiden, Magician and Evil Spirit.
- Lots of Yang ATK to ensure high numbers such as with Yang ATK to go around and Yang ATK II on Last Word Pre-ATK. Also don’t forget that base stat total of 1977 Yang ATK.
- A 40% damage increase on her bullet lines if they are effective against an enemy (either Sun or Water, most likely Sun).
- Self-anomaly inflictions via Blind and Poison as an alternate way to buff Yang ATK and CRIT ATK, executed via ways like Skills or bullet line effects.
This isn’t even covering everything LR1 Renko and Shinki have going for them when it comes to really bringing the hurt onto their enemies, they just can’t go wrong…or can they?
Well not everything is perfect, but these downsides aren’t too bad in the grand scheme of things actually. But when it comes to the aforementioned CRIT ATK, while the self-inflicted anomaly buffs help in that regard (as well as a CRIT DEF debuff on all enemies), with the only other way of increasing it being on her Last Word Pre-ATK, if something goes wrong that gets in the way of LR1 Renko and Shinki setting up CRIT ATK buffs (anomaly buffs are removed, nullified or other anomalies are inflicted first), it may be a bit of a spanner in the works unless you have Story Cards or team support (like a certain other Genic) to make up for this. Another pressing issue is that as great as the Resonance Skill is for it’s uniqueness and effectiveness, 8 turns is a rather long time when it comes to cooldown durations, and with these effects also lasting 2 turns, you will definitely want to make sure you pick the perfect time to use this Skill, because it might be the only time you get to in that battle, unlike with other Skills that have lower cooldowns.
As you can see, the pros easily outweigh the cons when it comes to this brand new 2 in 1 Genic unit in the form of LR1 Renko and Shinki! Being 1/2 of the 2.5 Anniversary edition of Genic Prayers taking the game by storm is no small feat, and most players will definitely want to get their hands on at least one of these, whether it’s because they like Renko and Maribel, or Shinki and Mima, or some/all of the above! When it comes to LR1 Renko and Shinki specifically, this unit is possibly among some of the best in the game, making her hugely worth considering going for! If you do not have enough Seal Crystals to reach the safety net of 1750, maybe that will change, since this Prayer will last until November 24th and players will also enjoy 2x Errand Reward season, making Seal Crystal gain a lot faster until November 17th! Of course, the other Genic counterpart Prayer is appealing in its own right, and both will be of great use to you in their own ways. If you have the Relic Paper Disks and lots of Seal Crystals, it would definitely not be a bad idea in the slightest to pick up one/both of them! Or would that be all four of them?
Anyways, for those who have taken the path of LR1 for Renko and Shinki, may your Genic Prayers be blessed enough for their arrival of the Makai God and the human physics prodigy!
Quick Overview
LR1 Renko Usami is an Attack-Class Friend who together with the Makai God known as Shinki, is capable of massive Spirit Power gain, great access to Sun and Water elemental breaks, mastery of Blind and Poison anomalies and reaps the benefits of their Resonance Skill 3, increasing the party’s Spirit Power and Damage for every Friend at the front guard.
Legendary Illusion ~ Infinite Damage
LR1 Renko and Shinki have it all figured out when it comes to staying very true to their Attack Class. Potential 40% increase in damage if said target is weak to Sun or Water (preferably the former)? Check. Lots of Yang ATK via base stat total of 1977, Yang ATK buffs and Yang ATK II on top? Check. A solid range of Killers that can also be capitalized on with CRIT ATK buffs via self-anomaly inflictions and CRIT DEF debuffs? Check. A new Resonance Skill effect that further increases the team’s damage for every Friend on the frontline, with Genic = 2 Friends instead of 1? The same Resonance Skill effect having an immunity to Buff Removal on harder stages like VS Divergent Spirits? Check yet again! It’s ironic, but may also be no surprise how the Creator of Makai easily destroys her opponents with pure power!
Here Comes the Sun, and Anomalies
Not only is LR1 Renko and Shinki broken in damage, but they break the mold, and then some via easily breaking the barriers of her enemies by focusing on a lot of Sun and Water elements (mostly Sun) and can easily pile up the Blind and Poison anomaly inflictions on all her enemies (Blind anomalies via Skill 2, Poison anomalies via Spell Card 1 Pre-ATK), to set them up for breaking, like with her Focus Shot or Spell Card 1 at 2P. While the Water breaks are on the more modest side, that is because there is an incredible amount of Sun breaks to go around, like the All-Sun Spell Card 2 and Last Word.
”That’s The Spirit!”
To complement the above, whether it be damage or anomaly breaking, LR1 Renko and Shinki are always going to be stocked up on Spirit Power, whether it be selfish or given to the team. For the selfish side, we have Skill 2 (1.50), Spell Card 1 Post-ATK (1.75), Last Word Post-ATK (2.75), and Passive 3 (0.35 every turn). As for the supportive side, we have Spell Card 2’s Post-ATK (0.85 for the party) and Skill 3’s Resonance Effect pertaining to Spirit Power. This boosts the party’s Spirit Power by 0.25 x the number of Friends at the front. With Genics reaping the benefits of this by counting as 2 Friends instead of 1, this will be a minimum of 0.50 gained, with a hypothetical 1.50 granted should there somehow be 3 Genic Units at the front of the party.
Crit or Miss?
As great as the selfish anomaly inflictions are for keeping afloat that all-important CRIT ATK, or there comes a situation where those inflictions are lost, nullified or other anomalies are inflicted first, it’s going to be a bit difficult to set up more CRIT ATK outside of her Last Word Pre-ATK. There is also the CRIT DEF debuff effect on Skill 1 that could mitigate this, but overall, it’s probably not too big of a worry, but that’s where a certain other Genic unit can help out…
One-Time Resonance
As fantastic as Skill 3 is for its ability to ramp up the party’s damage and Spirit Power unlike those that came before in Touhou LostWord, one could see its 8 Turn cooldown duration as an unfortunate sting in its tail. With these crucial effects only lasting 2 turns and most likely only going to be used once per battle, you will definitely have to think more about how and when you use this Skill to get the most out of it, as the chances of waiting 8 turns to use it again in the same battle aren’t might be rather low.
