Should You Pull?
Very optional, but maybe if you believe in miracles. Our next Relic Friend is one that has experienced a lot in her time in Gensokyo, taking the memories of the Outside World with her. Coming from the Moriya Shrine Treasure Relic Prayer comes L80 Sanae Kochiya (Hand in Hand with a Miracle)...who was ironically punished by the Lost Word incident by losing her miraculous powers, but she is tirelessly working on restoring that power. You could say she still has faith! This faithful Moriya Shrine Maiden’s Prayer also comes with 2 Story Cards, one old and one new! So what does this Wind Priestess have in store? Well speaking of “store”…
…The elephant in the room when it comes to L80 Sanae is her “Stored Power” mechanic! How this works is that once in effect, depending on the current amount of HP, Barriers or Spirit Power, there will be an increase in damage! L80 Sanae takes advantage of Stored Power by making sure her HP is at 100% via multiple means like a Passive, Skill and Spell Card Post-ATKs, and once in activation, she provides the whole team a 20% increase in damage for 3 turns! If you are in tough situations where you are struggling to deal enough damage, this could make all this difference, even from a purely supportive standpoint, and it definitely helps her stand out to have a more unique effect. Here is a small explanation of how it works as shown from the most recent Dev Letter!
the new "Stored Power" mechanic that L80 Sanae has!
More miraculous perks that L80 Sanae can use to her advantage include her anomaly prowess, such as both Skill 1 and Spell Card 1’s Pre-ATK both inflicting 3 Paralyze anomalies each to all enemies, potentially anomaly breaking 6 barriers of multiple enemies in a single turn! Speaking of anomalies, this Living God is able to benefit from anomalies by using Freeze, Burn and/or Paralyze anomalies, demonstrating them all via a Skill, Spell Card 2 Pre-ATK and some bullet lines on Shots. It is worth noting that for her Skill, it does inflict Freeze on the whole team, so if turn order is important, it may be worth making sure they don’t suffer from it, or you can try other means like Grazing them away.
Generally speaking, L80 Sanae is rather strong when it comes to support, with ways of doing so like Spirit Power, Yang ATK and Accuracy to go alongside Stored Power, and when it comes to power, she does have a strong selection of Killers with the main ones being Human, Youkai, Youkai Mountain, God, Parallel Presence and Mastermind (LW). This also comes with general self-sufficiency with part of that being as a result of the aforementioned support, part of that also being part of her anomalies she gives to herself and partly to do with being able to maintain those barriers with her Skill 2 to preserve her anomaly buffs.
Unfortunately, there are some slight downsides, one being her very spread out distribution of elements. With a Last Word that is mostly Star but also being the only place you see Star, to her other elements of that Last Word being as scattered as her other attacks, it really can be tedious to try and juggle 6 elements: Star, Metal, Earth, Wood, Sun and Moon. Granted, she does get a 25% boost in resisted elemental damage, but it is still very awkward if you want to pull off elemental breaking or if Paralyze anomaly breaking for whatever reason isn’t available. Another slight issue is how it might take some effort to pull off maxing out her Agility and Yang DEF buffs to further enhance both her Hard and Slice Scaling, which is decent in its own right, but there is always room to grow and improve.
With that said, Story Card Spotlight Season is back, with the returning 5★ Story Card, Dropping Keystones serving as a solid Yin stat stick, and a new 4 Star Story Card called Alice in Distress! Unfortunately, it’s not a Wonderland-worthy card as its effects entail an Evasion debuff on a target by 2 stages (3T), and grants a 15% damage reduction against those with bad luck (3T).
Featured Story Card "Dropping Keystones"!
Featured Story Card "Alice in Distress"!
So as we reach the near end, the new mechanic does look tempting, but if you have some strong Relics/Genics or are struggling with increasing your Relic Paper Disk count, it might be an idea to save up Seal Crystals for the time being, not just for the reasons above but we don’t know what to expect once the year 2023 is officially over. If last year was anything to go off of (C3 Koishi Komeiji and C3 Satori Komeiji to kick off 2023), then it’s fairly likely we will get something huge to introduce us to 2024 as well. Who will make that big statement by then? Only time will tell, but if you want to wait to see what happens with that, L80 Sanae’s Relic Prayer does last for the rest of this year, days after we get that Live With Phantasma Livestage in the Discord server which could potentially help you decide how to proceed with L80 Sanae’s Relic Prayer depending on what gets announced. There is also a certain Pseudo Backup Dancer that is One of a Kind, locked up in the basement of doors until December 28th, but she will most likely also fall under optional territory too depending on the impact of whoever may kick off 2024.
For now though, if you aren’t a loyal devotee to L80 Sanae, it’s not a bad idea to wait and save up Seal Crystals for the next 10 days and see what other news comes around, especially if you are in fact short on those resources at the moment.
And for those who believe in miracles and are faithful to the Moriya Shrine’s Wind Priestess, best of luck to those going forth and praying for that miracle in the form of L80 Sanae to arrive to them!
Quick Overview
L80 Sanae Kochiya is an Attack-Class Friend with a mix of self-sufficiency, and support, a mix of Hard and Slice Scaling and of course, her Stored Power mechanic allowing the team to get a 20% Boost in damage when her HP is at 100%
Miraculous Power
Whether it be her wide range of Killers (both quality and quantity), or her power-enhancing Stored Power, or any other means like her Hard and Slice Scaling, L80 Sanae very much does what her role would entail as an Attack-Class Friend. With the main Killers she has being Human, Youkai, God, Youkai Mountain, Parallel Presence backed up by much more, she is more often than not going to find enemies to land her Critical Hits.
Super Supportive Shrine Maiden
L80 Sanae also brings a good chunk of support too, such as her Yang ATK buffs from Skill 1 and Spell Card 2’s Pre-ATK, both lasting 4 turns, a good amount of Spirit Power from Skill 3 and Spell Card 2’s Post-ATK, some Accuracy for the team when Boosting (can go hand in hand with aforementioned Spirit Power buffs. There are also some team buffs with Yang DEF and CRIT ATK in her Last Word Pre-ATK, but of course, her unique support lies in, again, that Stored Power in her Skill 3! Serving as another method of helping strong allies get even stronger, this kind of miracle could make all the difference in some battle scenarios!
A Moriya Shrine’s Worth of Self-Sufficiency
Whether it be offense, defense, utility or healing, L80 Sanae is definitely able to fend for herself and stay strong whatever the situation may be, she will most likely keep finding herself with 100% of her HP by her many ways of healing up, such as her Passive, Spell Card Post-ATKs, Skill 3 or some Absorb bullets, really making sure her Stored Power is in effect. She has a way of gaining more Barriers via Skill 2 so that Grazing and preserving her anomaly buffs won’t be an issue, and she has the potential to inflict and break 6 Paralyze anomalies from the jump, using a combo of Skill 1 and Spell Card 1. And of course, she has the Yang ATK, CRIT ATK, Spirit Power and Accuracy needed to stay afloat and miraculously wipe out her enemies!
Too Chilled Out?
L80 Sanae’s main way of making sure she gets those anomaly buffs off the jump is by her Skill 2. However, this isn’t just for her, but also for her allies. Lasting 3 turns, it may be idea to make sure these allies do not suffer the downside of having their turn priority messed up, although if they benefit from it in some way or can inflict it back, it’s a bonus instead.
Hand in Hand with 6 Different Elements
Unfortunately, L80 Sanae struggles with elemental consistency, which may make it hard for her to know what element to specialize in, whether it’s Star that only appears in her Last Word, Earth appearing in her Spread Shot or Spell Card 1, Metal appearing in her Focus Shot or Spell Card 2, or Wood, Sun and Moon appearing more scattered and to a lesser extent. While this is heavily mitigated by her strong Paralyze breaking potential as mentioned above, it’s still going to be awkward to try and land effective damage on enemies, especially if they have as few as 1 elemental weakness.
Not Enough Faith for Every Buff
L80 Sanae’s self-sufficiency is definitely strong, but it doesn’t cover every little thing. Having the Hard and Slice Scaling to further increase her damage output, her Yang DEF and Agility buffs are unfortunately a bit limited, appearing on some bullet lines and in Yang DEF’s case, in her Last Word Pre-ATK. Should these buffs be maxed out, L80 Sanae can further reap the rewards of both Scalings, even though their base stats aren’t the highest with 1200 Agility and 925 Yang DEF. On a lesser note, should L80 Sanae not have access to Boosting whether it’s by being binded by Boost lock, or just having less than 1.00 Spirit Power, Accuracy could be a potential issue.
