Should You Pull? Rerun Ultra Festival: Lunar War Shaman and Lunar War Enchanter

For a limited time, until March 17th specifically, two of the Lunar War combatants have returned for a duo-Friend Ultra Festival Prayer! Both of these Friends may have struggled in their own universe, B3, with the sealing and loss of their powers, but it looks like they have more than made up for it with their new mechanical modifications. Taking the role of Shaman, Reimu Hakurei remains one of the best units for any longer fight through very powerful defenses and set-up, while the Enchanter Marisa Kirisame strikes back with pure firepower, laying several Burn anomalies on her foes and raw firepower. You can't go wrong with picking up either of these powerful Friends.

As an Ultra Festival Prayer, 250 Exchange Points are required to exchange for one copy of either Friend. Additionally, as these are both Ultra Festival Friends, Divine Paper Dolls or duplicates are the only way to limit break these Friends. On top of the higher material cost to upgrade both of these friends, consider the cost of these Friends before going for them. Still, either of them are very strong for challenging content, making the investment well worth it.

Both of these Friends were featured on their own Ultra Festival Prayers previous, as some of the first 3 Lunar War combatant Friends (Myon didn't join the fun this time, busy with her own alternative world versions...). We will quickly go over the two with their previous information, as their top spots have been mostly unrivaled since their release.

+Obscene damage potential
+Fantastic team support, among the best if not the best in keeping a team alive
+Great Breaks, including P0 Sun and Wood on her basic shots
-Backloaded nature makes her ‘merely’ great in shorter fights

+Incredible damage output.
+Great support for Yin & CRIT attackers, with decent support for Yang attackers.
+Good Element access, including P0 Fire and Star on her basic shots.
+Can put out a lot of Burn Barriers.

█████. A vital part of the world and of Gensokyo, and one day, simply lost. In the midst of the fallout and in a race against time to keep the world from ending, Reimu Hakurei steps back into the fray. With her dual guns “Chen” and “Ran” (not to be confused with the shikigami they’re named after), Reimu is utterly strapped with technology to resolve the incident of a lifetime. She’s equipped with an outfit based on the powers of Yukari Yakumo, possessed by several low-level shikigami of Yukari’s, and augmented with jet thrusters with tech based on Aya Shameimaru’s mastery of speed and gales, energy packs based on Suika Ibuiki’s Ibuki Gourd, systems which make her physical might on par with her former self, a Yin-Yang Orb Drive based on Misumaru Tamatsukuri (a god you’ll meet later), and more. With all this tech on her side, she could fight anywhere, not that she’d want to. 

As befitting an utterly jaw dropping array of tech from some of Gensokyo’s greatest, Reimu’s got a wide array of tricks and skills. For starters, False Barrier/Shinra boosts her party’s Agility by 2 levels (3T) and her own Yang ATK by 2 levels (2T), alongside 1 Spirit Power UP for the miko. False Barrier/Hope provides a remarkable 70% heal to Reimu herself alongside 0.25 Spirit Power UP and Charge (on a 4 turn cooldown, notably). Lastly, False Barrier/Hakurei provides 3 levels of Yang DEF UP (3T), 3 levels of Yin DEF UP (3T), and 0.25 Spirit Power UP for Reimu’s entire party.

Next, her passives - and for once, they’re all spectacular. Virtual Senjutsu grants a 75% chance for 1 level of Focus UP (3T) every time she’s attacked - which quickly stacks up and lets her maintain high levels of Focus indefinitely, even with poor luck. To complement this, Equippable Shikigami has a 50% chance of giving her a Barrier each turn, and Yin-Yang Orb Drive restores 20% of her HP every single turn. Combine these with her skills, and she’s practically immortal.

To further compliment this, she has two of the best basic shots in the game - Hakurei Amulet packs 1 Solo targeting Wood Break at 0p, and Youkai Buster features the same for Sun. Best of all, both of them have a 100% chance to boost her Focus on use, which combines well with Virtual Senjutsu to let her build up to, and indefinitely maintain, high levels of Focus UP - which, as a reminder, not only redirects Solo target attacks, but lowers the damage her allies take from All targeting ones too (and means she takes more, good thing she’s got so much DEF UP and healing). Charm: Fantastic High-Speed Prayer Talismans packs a solid 3 Wood and 1 Sun All targeting Breaks at 3 Spirit Power, alongside 3 levels of Agility UP(3T) and good Slicing scaling, and Charm: Anti-Youkai Houi-Yoke Prayer features 3 Sun and 2 Wood Solo targeting Breaks at 3 Spirit Power alongside 3 Yang & Yin DEF UP (3T) - perfect for keeping her alive, on top of making the most of its Hard scaling.

Lastly, Hakurei Talisman - Fantasy Nature packs an incredibly high 100%/100%/0%/100%/100%/125% Hard and 80%/80%/0%/90%/90%/100% Slicing scaling - some of the highest in the game, on both forms of secondary scaling, and on an All targeting Last Word to boot. There is a catch - she has no Accuracy UP in her kit, and it has a 1-1-3 layout. As such, she’ll need a turn or two to fully setup before unloading - which isn’t really a problem, those are the sorts of fights she excels at to begin with. It does mean she’s not suited to farming fast, but if you want to farm everything and aren’t too bothered by taking a extra turn or two in the process, she’ll easily get the job done.

Overall, this Lunar War combatant is more than capable of taking down any challenge in her way - even if she’s not exactly the fastest about it. The more longer and challenging fights that come out, however, the more worth it her setup time she requires will be, leaving her easily one of the best, if not the best unit in the game for harder fights. 

Marisa Kirisame (Lunar War Enchanter) comes from a version of Gensokyo where her powers were sealed away. For the time being, as the chapter just was released, I’ll refrain from mentioning more so people get a chance to read it - but suffice to say she’s armed to the teeth with technology and weapons to more than make up for her lack of magic. She’s so well armed, in fact, she’s also the game’s first EX Tier Friend, with the only real complaints one could have about her being the Divine Doll cost and that her Last Word’s animation is a bit on the slower side.

Since all of Marisa’s kit is useful, we’ll start with her skills. Her character ability, Capable of using magic (Sealed), grants her whole party 1 level of CRIT ATK UP for a turn each time she grazes. This is further accented by her skills - Syntax.VariableStar() gives herself 3 Accuracy UP for 3 turns alongside 1 Spirit Power UP and 2 levels of CRIT Accuracy UP for 3 turns for her whole party. Next, Syntax.Comet() provides her whole party with 3 Crit ATK UP for 1 turn, alongside 0.25 Spirit Power UP and Quick to herself. Finally, Syntax.Meteor() gives her whole party 2 levels of Yang ATK UP for 3 turns and 0.25 Spirit Power UP. 

Sure, those fancy programming skills (literally) might be great, but the real firepower is in her attacks. For her basic shots, Spread Star and Magic Drain Missile both have a 0P Solo Break; Fire and Star respectively, perfect for people who like squeezing every ounce of value out that they can. Then, both of her Spell Cards cause burns just like a overheating laptop - Love Sign: Machine Gun Spark and Love Sign: Wide Master both inflict 1 layer of Burn Barrier to all targets for 2 turns, and an additional Burn to their primary target. Furthermore, Love Sign: Machine Gun Spark also packs 2 Fire and 3 Star Solo targeting Breaks at 2 Spirit Power, and Love Sign: Wide Master has 3 Fire and 1 Star All targeting Breaks for 3 Spirit Power, on top of 2 levels of Accuracy UP for 3 turns to ensure they land (and to deal with more troublesome foes with Evasion UP). 

She even has fantastic characteristics, in a departure from passives being normally forgettable. Flare Automaton adds a layer of Burn to a single target every wave, fantastic for Solo-friendly stages, when a priority target must die as soon as possible, or simply ramping up the damage in longer fights. Additionally, Mana Generator gives her 0.25 Spirit Power UP each and every turn, letting her squeeze in more Breaks than most other units might. 

Finally, her Last Word is perhaps the most absurd in the game’s history. Remote Master Sparks does it all: 6 levels of Yang ATK UP, 3 levels of Accuracy UP, 2 layers of Burn Barriers to all targets for 3 turns with 1 more for the primary target, and that’s just the pre-attack effects. It also possesses a 1-3-1 layout which abuses her ability to have 2 Spirit Power on the first turn, alongside impressive base CRIT rates. One might think the Burn on it is only useful for Yin attackers, but Bullets 1, 2, 5, and 6 all have Specular on them, meaning they check Yin DEF instead of Yang - meaning she fully benefits from Burn and Yin DEF DOWN (but does not benefit from Poison or Yang DEF DOWN). 

All of this combined means Marisa is an utterly absurd attacker with a ton of support and good breaks. Demolishing both hard content and farming alike, there’s only two other units currently who even compare to her, those being the the Lunar War Soldier and Lunar War Gardener. She’s truly in a tier of her own, and if all you care about is power, she’ll blow up your enemies with style, lasers, and missiles.