Should You Pull?
Possibly worth considering overall. Here comes our 4th variant of Fujiwara no Mokou and our 3rd A8 Friend, and this one is a Speed-Class unit! As the Speed Class represents the Phoenix, and Mokou has the Phoenix theme around her, I’m sure some of us were anticipating a future Mokou variant to have this very role one day! Now when will we get a Shou variant with the Technical role to emphasize the Tiger theme? Anyways, about the Imperishable Flame Festival, it comes with an Ascending Step-UP (60 God Crystals on Step 1, 460 God Crystals on Step 5) and some new Story Cards (more on those later), but for now, does A8 Fujiwara no Mokou have a kit that will stand the test of time?
Ultimately, yes. A8 Mokou’s kit is a rather decent one all things considered. As a Speed-Class Friend, Agility, Accuracy and Evasion buffs are a given one way or another but she also has some strong Sun and Fire elements as well as having Burn anomaly inflictions (both on herself and to a target of her choice). She also has slight Yin ATK buffing for herself and some Yin DEF debuffs to work with, and some Spirit Power gain, with some of it being for the team. Overall A8 Mokou is rather simple when it comes to elements, damage, and what she sets out to do in general, although she has some somewhat interesting tricks up her sleeve like with Bind removal on her Last Word Post-ATK as well as Barrier gain on both that and Skill 3. She also has some Absorb bullets that allow her to gain more HP, and she can actually regain all her HP with her Absorb bullet line on her Last Word if it is at 3P and hits at least 2 foes, as it regains 50% of her max HP per enemy, able to add to the immortality theme.
So what is holding back the immortal human? Well she is desperately lacking CRIT ATK buffs in her kit which is rather unfortunate, even if slightly mitigated by some CRIT DEF debuffs on some bullet lines, but it’s still a flaw regardless. Another downsite, albeit not as glaring is when it comes to Burn anomalies onto a target. While it’s not terrible, especially since A8 Mokou is potentially able to inflict and break 7 of them on an enemy immediately, there should be an emphasis on target, because unlike a lot of other recent Friends, A8 Mokou’s anomaly action struggles with this on multiple enemies, as the only way she can break these anomalies on all enemies are through both Shots with Freeze and Burn respectively (she doesn’t inflict any Freeze). Both anomaly breaks are also performed on her Solo Spell Card 2, and all of the above only requires up to 1P to perform these breaks, so thankfully there are a few silver linings here and there, but we still cannot look past these downsides.
In terms of damage, A8 Mokou can definitely be a force to be reckoned with though, and if the CRIT ATK buffs are granted to her via external support or by Story Cards, she will see those guaranteed CRITs rather frequently since her Killer range mainly includes Youkai, Human and Soul, backed up by Shrine Maiden, Magician, Maid, Half-Human Half-Phantom, Sage, Vampire, Demonic Person, Ghost and Person of Hourai. On top of this, A8 Mokou’s Agility buffs can definitely help with her Slice scaling as she has a rather decent amount of it, especially in her Spell Cards and Last Word.
Speaking of Story Cards, this Prayer also comes with 2 new ones, one of them being 5★ and the other being 4★. The first one is called Grassroots Youkai Network with Wakasagihime and Kagerou appearing on it! For Support-Class units, they can take advantage of the Yang DEF buff for the team, whereas Speed-Class units can give the team more Agility, with one more effect for any unit to use, which is less damage from the Water element. Meanwhile, the 4 Star Story Card with Reimu called First Tea of the Season boosts Ofuda by 30% as well as takes less damage from Gensokyo by 15%. Surprisingly enough, this boosts Ofuda the most outside of Shrine Maiden Reborn and Summer God, Fantasy Sea but will be hard to see much usage due to the last of Friends with Ofuda Last Words.
Featured Story Card "Grassroots Youkai Network"!
Featured Story Card for "First Tea of the Season"!
Overall, these Story Cards don’t have the most impressive effects in the game, especially compared to other pre-existing Story Cards but thankfully, the Prayer in question’s Friend in the spotlight is still worth reaching out for if you are able to do so, especially if you need a solid Speed-Class Festival Friend, or someone with notable Sun and/or Fire breaks. On top of this, 60 God Crystals spent for this Prayer is also recommended, even with the chance of not getting A8 Mokou, as getting 10 Fortune Dust from it alone isn’t a bad deal. Otherwise, if you have some strong Speed-Class Friends, or already have quite a few Sun and Fire breakers, maybe it will be more difficult for A8 Mokou to fill any missing gaps, but she should still do you justice if you do ultimately decide to take this somewhat different Test of Courage. However, while Mokou is immortal, this Prayer certainly isn’t, as it only lasts a single week.
Now for those who opt to take this Test of Courage within the next 7 days, best of luck, and hopefully you can successfully reach out for the immortal human of Hourai!
Quick Overview
A8 Fujiwara no Mokou is a Speed-Class Friend with lots of Fire and Sun breaks, Burn anomalies, Slice Scaling with lots of Agility buffs and some additional immortality-themed utility.
Strong Breaker
A8 Mokou’s distribution of elements is very handy all things considered. With vast Fire and Sun break potential (slightly more on the former), the consistency in her elements will help a lot in capitalizing on any weaknesses to the two elements in question. She also has some slight anomaly breaking to back this up too.
Reach for the Killers, Immortal Range
With Killers such as Youkai, Soul and Human covering a good chunk of foes, A8 Mokou is sure to land many CRITs on a wide range of foes. Backing up those ones though are also some lesser ones, but include Shrine Maiden, Magician, Maid, Half-Human Half-Phantom, Person of Hourai, Sage, Vampire and Ghost, although there is a high chance the aforementioned Youkai, Soul and Human Killers will have already covered those smaller ones. That said though, A8 Mokou is pretty much set to deal a good chunk of damage in most situations, and the strong Killer range solidifies it for her.
Anomaly Action on a Single Foe
If you’re against multiple enemies, anomaly breaking them all isn’t going to be as simple since her only Burn Anomaly inflictions on Skill 3 (4 layers) and Spell Card 2 (3 layers) are both going to be on a single target. While potentially breaking 7 Burn anomalies right off the jump is huge, it’s still unfortunate that A8 Mokou won’t be able to anomaly break multiple foes with ease, as her Freeze and Burn anomaly breaks are relegated to her All-Targeting Spread and Focus Shots respectively.
Eternally Lacking CRIT ATK Buffs
Despite her strong Killer range, A8 Mokou somewhat struggles with capitalizing on this herself, since there are simply no CRIT ATK buffs in her arsenal. While there are some CRIT DEF debuffs on some bullet lines on one of her Shots as well as her Last Word, it’s still rather lackluster in the grand scheme of things. That said, if A8 Mokou gets that CRIT ATK support via other Friends or Story Cards, this problem will be patched up. To an extent, you could also argue her Yin ATK is lacking as well, but not as much as with CRIT ATK.
