Should You Pull?
Recommended if you want to bring the phantom pain. It’s Relic Season again! She was announced on the last Dev Letter and was expected to arrive the week after the Beach Dullahan that is C3 Sekibanki, but here we have L80 Kasen Ibaraki (PHANTOM PAIN) from the Shattered Blade Sage Relic Prayer, who is…yes, armed and ready for action, as she now wields the Onikirimaru the Phantom-Limb Blade to slice and dice her way to victory! But what does L80 Kasen Ibaraki’s kit have in store for us?
Well let’s address what makes this Attack-Class Friend unique, which is that Stored Power mechanic! However, unlike L80 Sanae, this one is based off of Spirit Power rather than HP, and upon activation, for the next three turns, all of L80 Kasen’s allies will benefit from a damage increase multiplied by Spirit Power acquisition:
0P = 0%
1P = 20%
2P = 40%
3P = 60%
4P = 80%
5P = 100%
With L80 Kasen (and other Friends) potentially getting up to a 100% damage increase as a result of this Skill, and in L80 Kasen’s case, has the Spirit Power to keep this up through her Skills and Spell Cards, there is a lot going for her when it comes to raw damage output and with the Spirit Power required, any unit could effectively double their damage thanks to L80 Kasen which is a rather massive feat!
As for her other means of power, L80 Kasen likes her Yin ATK II buff on her Last Word and a damage increase to both effective and resisted elements by 25% and 40% respectively, thus making any elemental distribution issues slightly mitigated when it comes to damage, with her Burn anomaly inflictions and breaks on enemies always there to help. She can also back this up with solid Slice Scaling (and in the case of Spell Card 1, Hard Scaling too), with a general sense of L80 Kasen being able to grant herself the buffs required to thrive, whether it be self-inflicted anomaly buffs via Burn/Blind inflictions, or the conventional buffs via Yin ATK, CRIT ATK, Accuracy, Agility, Yin DEF, and of course all that Spirit Power! Those very buffs can also be granted to the team which is always a plus!
If there had to be a glaring downside, it would have to be the Killers to work with. Granted, they aren’t the worst in the world as it’s a given that Relic Friends will have Parallel Presence and Mastermind (LW), the former having that niche for Ultra Festival/Epic enemies. The rest of what there is to work with includes Human, Shrine Maiden, Swordswoman, Hermit, Celestial, Tengu, Youkai Mountain, Human Village, Hakurei Shrine, Outside World, Shinigami, Sage, Vengeful Spirit, Oni, God and Hell. Maybe one can find the right enemies to take advantage of them, and if so, well let’s just say L80 Kasen’s foes will be subject to a lot of pain!
And now for Story Card Spotlight again! For the first time in what feels like forever, we don’t have a new Card to go over, but instead we have a returning one that could be a decent option for L80 Kasen’s Spell Card 2, and it’s called Protection of Cerpinus, and it boosts Wood elemental bullets by 40%, Energy type bullets by 20% and an Agility boost by 2 Stages (3T).
Featured Story Card "Protection of Cerpinus"!
So with all of that covered, it’s safe to say that this version of Kasen, just like her W5 variant, proves to be an amazing Friend in terms of kit. Maybe you are missing a strong Sun Friend such as LR1 Renko + Shinki, F1 Reimu, E1 Sakuya, L80 Reimu, A6 Sunny Milk and A6 Yuuka or maybe you’re a Kasen fan! Whatever the reason, if you have the Seal Crystals necessary (1750 Seal Crystals to secure her) and/or aren’t waiting for anybody specific that you are anticipating that you may have seen, what would be stopping someone who’s armed with Seal Crystals to pick up this version of Kasen? Whatever the situation, you won’t be disappointed with this Wild and Horned Hermit if she finds her way to you!
So with all of that said, best of luck to those who are ready to spend Seal Crystals in a hopefully painless endeavor in getting themselves this hermit armed with the Onikirimaru!
Quick Overview
L80 Kasen Ibaraki is an Attack-Class Friend that can bring the pain with her version of Stored Power increasing her damage output based on Spirit Power, the Ability to work well with Burn anomalies, helpful offensive support and great self sufficiency.
Armed and Ready with Stored Spirit Power
L80 Kasen’s Skill 3 is a massive factor to her raw damage output, as it can grant not just herself, but her allies a massive boost in power! From 0% assuming 0P available, to a massive 100% if this wild and horned hermit’s Spirit Power has climbed up to the Spirit Power cap of 5P, this skill alone does so much for her, and with easy access to Spirit Power, it will be such a painful time…for her enemies at least! Other ways for L80 Kasen’s damage to stay strong include her Ability’s power increase for resisted elements by 40% and a similar increase for effective elements by 25% as well as her usage of Slice Scaling going up to 110% in her Last Word. As for the cherry on top, we have a Yin ATK II buff in her Last Word.
Self-Sufficient Sage’s Spirit
With the power, or rather her Stored Power doing wonders for her power, naturally L80 Kasen has some strong Spirit Power gain. With it all located in her Skills and Spell Card Post-ATK, it’s easy for her to maintain that strong damage potential. In addition, she also has access to Accuracy buffs to ensure consistency as well as the more offensive ones like Yin ATK and CRIT ATK, both via conventional means and through self-inflicted Burn anomaly buffs. She can also give herself Agility buffs for that Slice Scaling too.
Wild and Horned Hermit’s Helpful Support
With the aforementioned Stored Power also benefiting the whole team with a potential 100% raw damage boost, as well as the self-sufficiency in Yin ATK, CRIT ATK, Spirit Power, Yin DEF, Agility and Accuracy also spreading to the team. Her Skills are full of helpful effects for both herself and the team, especially benefiting Yin-based Friends, but anyone will greatly appreciate those helpful Spirit Power buffs.
Semi-Painful String of Elements
L80 Kasen is also armed with a large number of elements, in fact, all 8 of them appear in one way or another! However, this isn’t as bad since her Spread Shot is the only source of Metal, Wood and Fire. As for her Spell Cards, it’s more focused towards Sun (Spell Card 1, Last Word) and Star (Spell Card 2), plus she has that cushion of having an Ability that boost any resisted elemental damage by 40%. In terms of the breaking department, should Sun and Star not get the job done, L80 Kasen does at least have her Burn anomaly breaking potential to fall back on.
Severed Killer Range
Possibly the main thing holding back L80 Kasen is her Killer range, due to its quantity over quality approach. With many appearing ones like Parallel Presence, Mastermind (LW), Human, Shrine Maiden and many more appearing, it doesn’t quite hit the largest amount of enemies compared to other Friends out there, although it’s not as bad as other Friends’ Killer ranges out there.
