Should You Pull? Prayer “Spooked Scarlet Swordswoman Festival”

Only if you’re a Youmu myonnoisseur. Another week, another A6 friend, and as we are well and truly on the month of spooks, this Friend in question follows the Ghost Lead of her mistress in pale pink! Being a bit of a newbie when it comes to her skills as a swordswoman, A6 Youmu Konpaku still has a long journey ahead of her if she wants to reach her potential, but hard work pays off, and good things come to those who wait. As her Spooked Scarlet Swordswoman Prayer comes along, featuring 2 Story Cards one old and one new as well as an Ascending Step-UP (60 God Crystals on Step 1, 460 on Step 5), does this Half-Human Half-Phantom in a yellow raincoat have what it takes to hold her own, or does she need to hone her skills a little further? Let’s cut into what we have in store…

Just like how her mistress, A6 Yuyuko was the second Healer of any A-Series Friend to come around, A6 Youmu is also the second Defender of any A-Series Friend there is, after A13 Miko, and while the subject Friend is definitely better, unfortunately there is a bit of inconsistency with how A6 Youmu goes about her role. Firstly, for a Defense-Class Friend to have relatively low base Yang DEF and Yin DEF being 1275 is a little confusing, but also to have gaps in terms of fulfilling that very role is a little concerning. Having access to Barrier restoration is always handy, but against some enemies, it can only do so much on its own. There are some helpful Yang DEF buffing methods though, but we then get into hit and miss territory which is those 80% resistances for the team that we see on her Skill 3 and Spell Card 2 Post-ATK. The ones we see on Skill 3 are Fire Element and Slash Bullet resistance whereas Spell Card 2 Post-ATK entails the Moon Element and Scarlet Devil Mansion enemy resistance. Should any of these guards not come in effect, it could be seen as a wasted buff. There are just too many ways for A6 Youmu’s flaws in her role to be noticeable whether it’s her susceptibility to having all her Barriers broken by specific enemy attacks, not providing the most useful defensive support for her team and in some cases, being selfish about it like with her Barrier restoration on Skill 2. She does take advantage of her Freeze anomaly inflictions on herself to provide more defensive buffs though, which may be of some use.

Regardless, maybe in some cases you can make use of her tools to tank, as she will still find herself taking the brunt of an All-Targeting attack, or step up to take the Solo-Targeting hit thanks to her Focus UP in her kit mainly via Skill 2. In addition, she does have a lot of Absorb bullets in her attacks making her able to heal up HP fairly well, and she also has a Spell Card Post-ATK that helps restore the team’s HP a bit. Either way, it still seems like A6 Youmu is only half-committed to being a defender which may come off as perplexing, although maybe her offensive capabilities may be of interest…

Well let’s focus on those offensive capabilities. Does this Half-Human Half-Phantom have what it takes to hit extremely hard should the opportunity present itself? Definitely, because whether it’s her very good Hard Scaling, Yang ATK buffs, or even her Killers that consist of Youkai, Scarlet Devil Mansion, Vampire, Undead, Devil, Maid and Magician, A6 Youmu can do some respectable damage. There is a bit of self-sufficiency there too with her Spirit Power gain on Skill 1 and to some extent, her Accuracy buffs for the team when Grazing. She can also bring some Yang DEF and Yin DEF debuffs on some Spell Card bullet lines which could be an interesting niche to take advantage of. With all the Barrier access A6 Youmu has, she may not struggle too much with Accuracy buffs making sure her hits are consistent, but if Grazing is no longer an option for whatever reason, there may be a bit of an issue there. If Accuracy buffs cannot be provided via Grazing, this becomes a bit of a flaw for A6 Youmu when it comes to consistently landing her hits, but this isn’t as lacking as her CRIT ATK buffs which would have helped a ton with taking advantage of Killers. As usual though, Story Card and ally support can fix this.

One more little area to cover is A6 Youmu’s Barrier Breaking. She juggles three elements around her kit which are Water, Fire and Metal. Water appears on both Shots and both Spell Cards, Fire appears on both Spell Cards and Last Word whereas Metal only appears on both Shots and her Last Word. It’s hard to take full advantage of this in some situations, as maybe 1 or 2 of these elements could fall short against some enemies, but it’s ultimately a situational thing. Something else that A6 Youmu can bring are some Poison anomaly inflictions on Spell Card 1 (2-3 Layers) and those can be broken with either the same Spell Card 1 at 3P, or with her Last Word also at 3P.

So after the Half-Pros and Half-Cons for the Half-Human Half-Phantom, let’s go over some Story Cards in the spotlight of this Prayer! The first one returning is the 5★ card, Congress of Sages. It’s a classic Light-Boosting Card by 40% with a favorable Yang ATK stat stick, so it could be of some use for A6 Youmu’s Spell Card 2 for example. However, the new card is a 4★ one called Dazzling Diamond Dust, which boosts Water element Bullets by 30%. It’s alright for 4★ standards, but not something to go out of your way for really.

As we nearly reach our destination, it’s a shame Youmu is generally associated with the term “half-baked” because that could apply to how this version of her goes about her role as a tank, and her Half-Offense Half-Defense approach just makes her too awkward to set herself apart from many other Friends. Granted, she is definitely better than A13 Miko who is her fellow A-Series tank, but not many recent Festival Friends would get outperformed by A6 Youmu, especially her ghostly mistress for example. While solid damage is nothing to sneeze at, if one already has strong damage dealers, especially Festival ones, the fact that A6 Youmu finds herself so torn in terms of what she wants to be as a unit is a bit of a shame, especially for the Youmu supporters who are undoubtedly myon their way to pick her up. Expect strong results with a Last Word backed by CRIT ATK and Yang ATK buffs and an appropriate Story Card, but outside of that, unless you really like Youmu and/or want to solidify a full party of Youmu variants (L1, R8, B3, A7, L80, now A6), it’s recommended to just stick to the 60 God Crystal Prayer via its Step 1. Outside of that, proceed with caution as there is a spooky Dev Letter on the horizon…

So with that said, for those who are on the spooky road to picking up a shy Netherworld Dweller in a yellow raincoat, best of luck to those who are myon their way to meeting her, and a potential team of 6 myons!