Should You Pull?
Mostly recommended if you have the resources. Surprise! Traveling to a world of eternal summer at the speed of light comes the original variant, the Witch of Scarlet Dreams from the Scarlet Devil Tower! Enter Cz1 Marisa Kirisame (Witch of Scarlet Dreams on Vacation) on the Epic Prayer “Supernova Summer”, which comes with a new Story Card too! So with this new version of the Witch of Scarlet Dreams spicing up the competition with her blazing firepower and Sniper Soaker cementing herself as a strict instructor for incident resolving, can she prove she is qualified to be in that position?
No doubt about it, yes she is! This Speed-Class Friend has a monstrously high amount of both Yang ATK and Agility at 1950 and 1700 respectively, which is only scratching the surface in terms of her firepower. Let’s add her absurdly high Slice Scaling on her Line 1 bullets (150% Scaling on Spell Cards, 240% Scaling on Last Word), with ways of buffing her Agility and Agility II for additional damage and of course her amazing Killer range mainly including Gensokyo, Youkai and more is not to be underestimated as well. A combination of the above makes her Spell Cards do insane damage as well as her monumental Last Word, and with the buffs covered, it’s satisfying to wipe out specific enemies!
More perks to go over include Cz1 Marisa mix of self-sufficiency and some handy support, with one of them coming in a currently unique way compared to other Friends! Firstly, self-sufficiency, which includes Yang ATK. Agility, Accuracy and Spirit Power. There is a slight gap in the Yang ATK as it is hard to stack on her own outside of her Last Word, but this is sort of mitigated by the Yin DEF debuff potential (Cz1 Marisa has Specular bullets making her benefit from debuffing enemies' Yin DEF) and anomaly benefits she has, inflicting herself with Burn to up her Yang ATK and CRIT ATK. As for the support, it's a handy mix of Accuracy, Agility, Agility II, Yang ATK, CRIT ATK, and of course Spirit Power. The main one being Spirit Power, since the buff on Skill 3 grants the whole team an additional 0.50 Spirit Power not just for that turn, but for 3 turns! Even if it’s just for Cz1 Marisa’s sake alone, this is still very beneficial.
We briefly dabbled in Burn anomaly inflictions on Cz1 Marisa benefiting her, but she also can inflict a large amount of Burn anomalies onto her enemies when taking into account one of her Skills, Spell Cards and Last Word. These can be broken via Spell Cards, Last Word and Spread Shot all at 1P which is rather cheap. That said, an elephant in the room that breaks the trend of 1 Solo + 1 All Spell Card theme in newer Friends is that Cz1 Marisa has 2 Solo-Targeting Spell Cards. It must be said that these have massive damage potential against specific enemies, for reasons like Killers, high Slice Scaling and more, but what if the stage isn’t friendly to Friends who like to snipe off 1 enemy/gauge at a time? Otherwise, this is not the biggest worry of them all if Solo-Targeting is more preferred. A similar kind of issue arises when it comes to anomaly breaking too, since the only way for her to break multiple anomalies is through her Last Word, which could be awkward when looking to Full Break a group of enemies. Ultimately, this would depend on the situation, in terms of her sniping theme, it makes sense with the Sniper Soaker picking off an enemy with her Spell Cards.
Now let’s dive into her Prayer’s new Story Card which is called Sisters’ Endless Sightseeing. This one's effects include 3 Barriers added, a Focus DOWN debuff on a specific enemy by 5 Stages (3T) and a 35% Water Bullet Boost. The Focus DOWN effect is rather niche but currently unique, and the Barrier effect makes it sort of related to Choose an Animal Spirit, but if you want to experiment with damage distribution on enemies with All-Targeting attacks, this could be worth a try, but compared to previous cards on Epic Prayers like Divine Spirit Tajikarao and Let the Oil Money Flow, this doesn’t quite hold up as well sadly.
Featured Story Card "Sisters’ Endless Sightseeing"!
So is it worth praying for the Witch of Scarlet Dreams in a swimsuit? She will bring something new in the form of her Spirit Power support and will help out a lot with her damage output, but this depends on your Seal Crystal count, especially if you are recovering from Genic drought. If you have enough Seal Crystals to afford this friend (2000) or just really like Marisa in general, she will absolutely be worth it for you, even if you’re potentially struggling with Epic Paper Dolls. However, if you can’t secure her for various reasons like the Genic Friends, you may want to proceed with caution, and if you’re interested in the Story Card, 50 rolls wouldn’t be too costly overall too. But of course, playing the game is manageable without her, especially with other strong Friends so don’t worry too much if you don’t get her. Plus, reruns are always something to look forward to if you’re in a better position to go for her by then, whenever that may be.
But if you are looking to enter incident resolving bootcamp with the Witch of Scarlet Dreams on Vacation, best of luck to you, and hopefully you can enjoy a spicy hot dog from her too!
Quick Overview
Cz1 Marisa Kirisame is a Speed-Class Friend who spices up the competition with her Agility II buffs, anomaly buffs via Burn, Freeze and Paralyze, a mix of Specular bullets and Yin DEF debuffing, Burn anomaly inflicting and breaking, and some team support, mainly with Spirit Power given to the team across 3 turns.
Spicy Damage Output
The Witch of Scarlets Dreams has massive damage potential that one could dream of, and there are multiple factors making this possible. From a very strong Killer range that mainly includes Gensokyo and Youkai, to an absurdly high Slice scaling especially present, especially in her Last Word (240% Scaling on Line 1) to a mix of both Yang ATK and Agility being just as absurdly high at 1950 and 1700 respectively, to the backing of Agility II buffs on top of the above. With even her Spell Cards having a massive damage potential in their own right, it’s probably an understatement to say that Cz1 Marisa has the ingredients required to create a spicy concoction of power in her arsenal!
Support With a Twist
Having ways to support the team is always welcome, and in Cz1 Marisa’s case, that is present here! From Agility and Accuracy on Skill 1, to CRIT ATK on Spell Card 2 Pre-ATK, to Yang ATK when Boosting and through Last Word Pre-ATK, to Agility II and Spirit Power on Skill 3. However, what makes the Spirit Power support stand out here is that this is granted to the team across the span of 3 turns instead of the usual 1 turn. That free 0.50 Spirit Power buff for the team lasting multiple turns has never happened before, making it special for Cz1 Marisa! It’s also worth noting that she might struggle stacking up Yang ATK for the team outside of her Last Word Pre-ATK, team support and potential Story Cards so that could be worth keeping in mind. As for the Agility II buff to the team, this could really benefit some allies that use this for Slice Scaling, most notably L80 Marisa who already has Agility II buffs and high Slice Scaling.
Well-Rounded Instructor
When it comes to self-sufficiency, Cz1 Marisa has it all covered, and doesn’t need too much help when setting up for damage. She can gain more Yang ATK and CRIT ATK when inflicted with Burn anomalies, also backed up by aforementioned team support that also benefit her just as much as in Yang ATK, CRIT ATK, Agility, Accuracy, Agility II and Spirit Power. This is even backed up by CRIT DEF and Yin DEF debuffing on enemies, and as for Spirit Power, an additional 0.35 Spirit Power from her Passive 3 every turn as well as Skill 3 continuously granting 0.50 Spirit Power for 3 turns is not to be underestimated, making the need to reach the full 3P less tedious.
Witch of Scorching Dreams
Cz1 Marisa’s Burn inflict potential on her enemies…or on a specific enemy is massive, as demonstrated by both Spell Card Pre-ATKs inflicting 4 layers of Burn on a single enemy, as well as 2 layers of it on all enemies via Skill 2 and 3 layers of it on all enemies via Last Word. These are broken via Solo Spread Shot, Solo Spell Card 1, Solo Spell Card 2 and All-Targeting Last Word (All 1P) with additional Freeze breaks also covering most of the above. There is a problem though, the only way to break the Burn barriers of all enemies is through her Last Word, as the rest are achieved on just 1 enemy. Those are achieved via low boost requirements, and the amount of anomaly breaks that could be pulled off is massive, but it could be an issue if you’re looking for a friend to Full-Break multiple enemies right away.
Specular Summer Shenanigans
From one of her signature Story Card’s effects, to a Skill, to bullet line debuffing, there are a good chunk of Yin DEF debuffs despite Cz1 Marisa being a Yang unit. This is because nearly every single bullet line here is Specular, with her Yang damage targeting the Yin DEF of her enemies instead of Yang DEF. Being potentially useful with Yin allies (such as Z1 Marisa) as well as strengthening her Yang ATK if necessary, it can really benefit Cz1 Marisa here, although you might have to keep this in mind when it comes to other allies going about these debuffs.
The Heat of my Elements
There are 3 elements that appear in Cz1 Marisa’s kit: Sun, Star, and most commonly, Fire. Fire appears on all 6 bullet lines of her Last Word, and is the main element of Spell Card 1 and Spread Shot, with Star really getting a chance to shine on Spell Card 2 and even her Focus Shot. Finally, Sun is a little scattered across her non-Last Word attacks which is a bit difficult to work with. Since Cz1 Marisa can deal massive damage, worrying about elemental weaknesses on enemies and/or her 30% damage boost with her effective elements might not be overly important here, but if the abundant Fire element here can’t hack it, the Sun and Star elements might not be enough to fall back on.
Sniper Soaker’s Spell Card Limitations
For an Epic Friend like Cz1 Marisa to have 2 Solo-Targeting Spell Cards instead of the now common trend of a Friend having 1 All-Targeting and 1 Solo-Targeting Spell Card is a bit of an elephant in the room, since if on some stages she is faced with multiple waves/gauges, her Focus Shot, even for her can only do so much, especially compared to the colossal damage that Cz1 Marisa can deal. It may be somewhat appropriate for the Sniper Soaker wielder to have Spell Cards that can effortlessly shoot down 1 enemy at a time, and it has to be noted these Spell Cards are still incredibly strong in their own right, but struggling to wipe out multiple enemies in one fell swoop outside of her Last Word could be a problem on specific stages, especially without support.
