GamePress

Should You Pull? Hifuu LostWord EX Guaranteed Ultra Festival (Step-UP Prayer)

Submit Feedback or Error

Prayer Overview

The Step-UP

Unlike other usual God Crystal-only Prayers, let alone basic Prayers, this Hifuu LostWord EX Prayer provides a very rare, valuable, and tempting opportunity. Rather than bundle up several high-value units with 3 chances to obtain them, this prayer has a full Step-UP made up of 5 steps, promising the chance for a Friend from the Hifuu EX storyline, also known as Bm3. Practically every Friend featured here, all of them being Ultra Festival Friends, are very useful and can be applied to plenty of teams or just be powerful by themselves.

Step-UPs are not a new mechanic to any veteran player, as they come in Ascending or Descending varieties on any new Prayer (that isn’t an Ultra Festival, Relic, or Epic) and are very common on reruns. However, this Step-UP is very different, with the first pull costing 300 God Crystals (50% off a normal God Crystal 10-pull), but the other steps costing the usual 600 God Crystals. Where the second to final steps cost more and do not scale up or down like a usual Step-UP, they make up for it with higher rates of ensuring a featured Friend with the rates being as follows:

  • 150% Drop Rate on Step 2
  • 200% Drop Rate on Step 3
  • 300% Drop Rate on Step 4
  • Guaranteed Featured Friend on Step 5

The rates can also be found on the graphic posted below.

Click on the Friend profiles to learn more information about them via their pages:

The Prayer

While the Step-UP is the primary way that this Prayer is being advertised, there is still a normal Prayer that can be used with Seal Crystals and 600 God Crystals. Just like the Step-UP, any featured Ultra Festival Friend has a chance to be obtained here. However, there is no ability to use Exchange Points for any Friend. Instead, 50 Exchange Points can be used to obtain the featured 5* story card, Youkai Mountain Anniversary. Youkai Mountain Anniversary itself is a decent card, but the farmable The Witch of Scarlet Dreams can easily do its job while not needing to pull on this prayer.  Given the lack of a safety net for sparking Ultra Festival Friends via the normal prayer, it is really not recommended to pull on this prayer unless you are using the Step-UP. 

That being said, the rest of this article will only focus on the very special deal related to the Step-UP described above.

Should You Pull?

It heavily depends on your God Crystal status and amount of Featured Friends already obtained.

For the positives, this Prayer is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as the only other way to realistically guarantee an Ultra Festival Friend before was to obtain 250 Exchange Points from their initial Prayer or rerun Prayer. Not only does this Step-UP guarantee one Ultra Festival Hifuu EX Friend on the final step, but it increases the chances to obtain even more while performing the previous steps. It helps that practically all of these Ultra Festival Friends are high tier and have some sort of use for most difficult battles, with the only slight exception likely being B3 Reisen. On the topic of her, B3 Kaguya Houraisan, B5 Reisen Udongein Inaba, and B3 Reisen have currently had no Rerun Ultra Festival Prayers yet, making this a potential way to obtain them if you missed them before.

Of course, all of these upsides are assuming that you have the God Crystals necessary to even participate in this Prayer. For newer players, this cost will very likely be harder to determine, especially if no facilities have been upgraded yet. While some of these Friends are definitely some of the best, especially B3 Watatsuki no Toyohime or B5 Reisen Udongein Inaba, newer players are better off saving if they have a lower amount of God Crystals and cannot ensure the final step. After all, not reaching Step 5 still means that getting at least one Ultra Festival Friend is a risk, and a risk shouldn’t be taken when another great Friend can be guaranteed later.

As for older and veteran players, the field looks slightly better for them, mainly if they have the God Crystals prepared for this type of Step-UP. If the deal appeals to you, the next step is to check over the Featured Friend compared to the ones you already have. It is important to remember that this Prayer guarantees one Ultra Festival Friend, not one unowned Ultra Festival Friend. Of course, obtaining a copy of an already-owned Ultra Festival can still be great, as it can be a free duplicate for Limit Breaks if you are lacking Divine Paper Dolls or a cheap farming unit for more serious players. Still, remembering the chance of obtaining copies is a must for these types of Prayers. On the same note, not having any of the Bm3 Ultra Festival Friends and the God Crystals to burn makes this a very appealing Step-UP to use, especially considering you are leaving with at least 1 Ultra Festival at worst if performing all of the steps.

One other relevant point to mention is a topic likely on many players mind: skipping this Step-UP for Ascending God Crystal Step-UPs on future Prayers, as 60 God Crystals per a 10-pull racks up Fortune Dust for Paper Dolls a lot quicker than 300 or 600 God Crystal Steps, and is also just cheaper. While this can be applied to other Step-UPs, especially Descending Step-UPs, this argument does not really consider the current opportunity at hand. As mentioned before, Ultra Festival Friends never debut with a Step-UP opportunity, and if their initial Prayer or rerun Prayer do, it will very likely be Descending anyway. This is a very rare opportunity, being a chance to ensure one Ultra Festival Friends with a lot less pulls than expected on top of the opportunities provided before the final step. There is still high risk involved, but overshadowing this Step-UP purely because it is more expensive than Ascending God Crystal Step-UP is overlooking the entire value of the Prayer. Ascending God Crystal Step-UPs have also been rarer nowadays, so make of that what you will.

Final Thoughts

With this Step-UP costing 600 God Crystals past the first step, this Prayer is definitely targeting more medium spenders than compared to Lucky Bag, which cost 300 God Crystals per 10-pull, just like this Prayer’s first step. In that sense, it is difficult to recommend this to pure Free to Play players that do not have the God Crystals for all 5 steps or just want to save. But that still does not take away the fact that this Prayer is a very rare chance to obtain one or more out of seven powerful Ultra Festival Friends. The value slightly goes down if you already have some of these Friends depending on your perspective of having duplicate Friends, but anyone without any of these Friends faces a great opportunity. If you want, you can wait for the possible reruns for B3 Kaguya, B5 Reisen, or B3 Reisen if you only care about them. Otherwise, good luck with your decision, as you only have a week to pick your answer!

Enjoyed the article?
Consider supporting GamePress and the author of this article by joining GamePress Boost!
Join!

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. 

Comments