Should You Pull?
Depends, but generally recommended. Firstly, to everyone who was at Anime Expo on July 1st, we hope you had an awesome time there! We also got some happy news from…you guessed it, Caroline and Michael from NextNinja! However, if you want a recap of what transpired there, you can go here for that. (shoutouts to Delta Rune for the article!) For now though, just before some of the Friends teased there eventually do come, what we will go over is an Ultra Festival for E9 Remilia Scarlet and E1 Flandre Scarlet!
Before we do go into these two, since they are rerunning again, there will be no shared exchange points on this specific Prayer. For more about that, check out this article!
With that out of the way, how do these 2 Scarlet Sisters fare in Touhou LostWord over a year after their release? Honestly, they still hold up incredibly well, especially E1 Flandre! When it comes down to it, damage is a very appealing factor when it comes to what makes a unit great in Touhou LostWord, and what helps with that is to have a great Killer range, thus being able to guarantee CRITs on as many enemies as possible! Human, Youkai, God, Doll, Gensokyo, this covers an immensely vast majority of enemies you may come across, with a lot of Moon-themed enemies and some other misc foes escaping this range, that’s still a lot better than a lot what some of the recent Friends would be able to CRIT without fail. Some would even argue they are still worse than the 2 subjects of this very article!
Now let’s focus on one at a time for a bit, starting with our chair bound mistress, E9 Remilia. Fate was very fortunate to her in terms of her kit, as on top of her Killers, she can also provide herself (and sometimes, the team) the important buffs necessary to get herself off the ground in the first place. Spirit Power, CRIT ATK, and a lot of Yin ATK that also gets provided to the team. She also has the potential to be able to rack up Poison anomalies on an enemy, especially on a specific enemy with her Spell Cards alone (can break them with Solo Spell Card 2). It is important to stock her up on Spirit Power support of any kind as she can really assert her dominance with a fully boosted attack at 3P.
Next up is E1 Flandre, who is beloved by many, and for great reason. Not only does her design go so hard, but she has a fantastic kit to back it up! Using Poison and Freeze anomalies to rack up her Yin ATK and CRIT ATK quickly as well as provide herself and the team more Accuracy, Spirit Power, and CRIT ATK buffs outside of anomalies! As mentioned earlier, damage is huge here, and E1 Flandre more than demonstrates this flantastically, not just with her Last Word but with her Spell Card 1! Whether it’s Turn 1 or a few turns in, she will not disappoint!
Of course, no Friend is perfect, and these downsides do not discredit these 2 from being as amazing as they are, but we can’t ignore them. For E9 Remilia, while her Poison anomaly breaking is solid, her breaks with just her Moon and Fire elements are a little lackluster for an Ultra Festival Friend, which part of that is to do with some of her non-elemental bullet lines, such as on her Spell Card 1. Meanwhile, E9 Flandre’s Skill 3 falls into double-edged sword territory (not the sword she wields), because she provides the team CRIT ATK and CRIT Accuracy buffs, as well as give the team 2 layers of Freeze. For herself, this is a phenomenal damage boost, but for allies, this could either be beneficial if they benefit from Freeze anomalies, or it will potentially mess up their priority in their own attacks. On top of that, the aforementioned buffs only last 1 turn which is a shame, since CRIT ATK support is very valuable, so Story Cards might help with that.
Again, these downsides do not take away from how strong these two Friends are, taking everything into account! These two have held up reasonably well, having their special moments of farming past Story Card stages on their own, and having the damage potential and Killers to back up their superiority! If you do not have either of these Friends, you will definitely not regret your decision to borrow their strength. It’s fate after all.
Looks like this is going to be a fun Prayer.
Looks like this is going to be a long Prayer.
If you agree with the fun part above and have made the decision to seek out one of these Scarlet Sisters from a distorted paradise, let’s hope that fate is on your side when it comes to the luck needed for one/both of these Friends to come to you!
Quick Overview
E9 Remilia Scarlet is a Destroy-Class Friend with great support capabilities for Yin nukers, and destroys her enemies with critical power.
Amazing Support via Mainly Yin ATK
E9 Remilia’s Skills 1 and 3 are great ways to really bring up the team’s Yin ATK, collectively reaching 5 stages with ease. For other tidbits to back this up, we have Skill 3’s other effects that slightly boost CRIT Accuracy and Spirit Power and Spell Card 1’s Yin DEF buffs.
Amazing Damage All Around
As expected for an Ultra Festival threat, E9 Remilia can easily reach 2P on turn 1, heavily increase her preferred attack stat of Yin ATK, and sprinkle in some CRIT support for good measure. If there were any doubts about her damage even after that, simply look to her wide-ranged Gensokyo and Youkai Killer bullets!
Poisonous Vampiric Fate
E9 Remilia is no slouch with Poison and Freeze anomaly breaks. With the ability to inflict many Poison anomalies with her Pre-ATK effects on her Spell Cards, they can potentially be stacked up on a specific enemy for breaking via her Spell Card 2. You can also break some Freeze anomalies on top of Poison if you wanted.
Elemental Breaks are Somewhat Lacking
This is more as a result of E9 Remilia’s kit giving away its age, but the Moon and Fire breaks that do appear leave more to be desired. Part of this is to do with some of the non-elemental bullets appearing, such as on her Spell Card 1, but more often than not, E9 Remilia will rely on damage, Poison anomalies and Yin ATK buffs over her elemental breaking.
E1 Flandre Scarlet is an Attack-Class Friend with a newfound drive to protect her older sister, going a very long way to deal very high damage, leaving enemies in critical condition.
Amazing Damage, Both via Turn 1 and Peak Output
E1 Flandre's Last Word goes all out; debuffing every target's Yin DEF by 2 levels, increasing her own Yin ATK by 4 levels, and even raising her CRIT ATK by 2 more levels. Her CRIT rate is already high, and combined with Gensokyo Killer bullets, you will see the damage ramp up rapidly very often. With Spirit Power as well as her own Accuracy support, further CRIT buffs, and even more buffs from self-inflicted Freeze and Poison anomalies while setting up, E1 Flandre can end up dealing terrifyingly high damage.
Spirit Power and CRIT Support for the Party
The party-wide CRIT support comes specifically from her Skill 3, granting 3 levels of CRIT ATK and CRIT Accuracy UP, making for a very immediate boost to any of the party's critical hits. E1 Flandre herself gets even more CRIT ATK and CRIT Accuracy upon applying Freeze and Poison to herself. While it may seem like E1 Flandre does not boast many buffs, the ones she does provide are rather helpful and the skill cooldowns are rather low to keep constant pressure up.
Decent Star and Water Elemental Access
E1 Flandre has some solid Star and Water breaks, mainly coming from her Spell Card 1 and Last Word. If access to these elements wasn't enough for you, then you can always go for Poison and Freeze anomaly breaks at 2P or 3P of Spell Card 1 respectively. With how high E1 Flandre's damage output is, she doesn't even really need to go for Full Breaks herself, but the ability to do so only makes her better.
Skill 3 is a Double-Edged Sword (Flandre’s Sword?)
While Skill 3 is very good in terms of CRIT support, the buff only lasts a single turn. This is somewhat mitigated by its lower 4 turn cooldown, but it still means that you have to be more precise when optimizing damage while taking full advantage of this Skill in particular. On top of that, be cautious when going about the Freeze anomalies inflicted to the party, as it could mess up their turn. However, this becomes a pro once it is paired with Friends that relish in these anomalies, like her fellow E1 Patchouli for example.
