Should You Pull? Village Publishing Pair

If you’re in need of a CRIT ATK supporter, a chapter 2-7 farmer, or the Wood or Water Elements, this is a pretty solid banner. Akyuu’s fantastic at bolstering CRIT ATK, although she does poorly outside of that and it is a narrow niche. Kosuzu is great at farming chapter 2-7, comes with Wood and Water breaks in reasonable amounts, and can pack a decent punch in harder fights. Both units are general pool, but the banner is also a Step-UP one which partially mitigates the cost when pulling with God Crystals (essentially granting you 50 pulls for the price of 20 once on this banner), so it's worth keeping both of those factors in mind when making a decision.

Want to know more about either Friend? Check out our introduction to the cast of the Kosuzu Motoori case files, in which both Kosuzu and Akyuu get a more complete breakdown! 

+Provides useful buffs in the form of CRIT ATK, CRIT ACC, Yin ATK, and Acc UP

+Can apply Blind barriers

-Whilst Akyuu's buffs are potent, not a ton of units benefit from CRIT buffs.

-Below average Barrier Break potential

-Low damage

-Acc UP support requires a turn to use her Last Word

+Last Word deals a lot of Piercing damage

+Average access to Water and Wood Breaks, at 1/2/3 Breaks for 0/1/2 Spirit Power

+Some Cri EVA DOWN Support for teammates

-Second Spell Card deals self-damage to Kosuzu

-Her Piercing isn't as good as you'd think

-Overall low damage output outside of Piercing shenanigans without heavy setup

The Child of Miare is born every hundred to a hundred fifty years, for a single purpose: to write the Gensokyo Chronicle, an encyclopedia for the land and its inhabitants. To facilitate this, the Child is a reincarnation of the same historical person, Hieda no Are, who inherits the ability to recall everything they have ever seen, at the price of a shorter lifespan. Hieda no Akyuu, the ninth in the line, lives in a time where humans and youkai are - at least, relatively, at peace. As such, her version of the Chronicle is a guide for humans and youkai both. Due to this peace, she also has plenty of time for activities - such as battles of bullets (at least, in LostWord).

In LostWord, Akyuu serves the role of a supporter. The most defining aspects of her kit are her first two skills: School Texts, which provides 2 Levels of CRIT ATK UP for 2 turns with a 80% chance for +1 Level, and Insight of Miare, which is the same but for CRIT Acc. The first skill makes her a fantastic support for any attacker with a Killer relevant to the current fight, whilst both combined make her good support for any Crit based team. To further facilitate her support in Crit teams, her Last Word, Ninth Volume of the Gensokyo Chronicle, also provides 1 Level of Accuracy UP for 1 turn with a 80% chance for +1 Level. Additionally her character ability, Capable of not forgetting things seen once, provides 1 Level of Yin ATK UP for 1 turn every time she boosts to her party. Finally,  both her Solo targeting Spread Shot, Ink Shower, and her first Spell Card, the All targeting Rain Man: Memory Savant can apply Blind Barriers to their target(s), which can be of use if you have a Blind Barrier breaker. She can also break them with her second Spell Card, Narration: A Voice to Be Trusted, but due to its Solo targeting it is somewhat lackluster for doing so and should be seen as a last resort.

Whilst that’s certainly a lot of team support, Akyuu pays for it in a few ways. First of all, whilst Crit support is really good when it’s good, it is rather narrow in scope, and for many players, having to spend the time to set up Crit is undesirable, further narrowing her viable targets to simply those with fight-relevant Killers. Additionally, her own personal damage is rather low, to the point where she’s also rather incapable of farming (outside of farming Chapter 2-7 with Toyohime and Kosuzu). Lastly, her access to elements is extremely poor, leaving her with ultimately below average Barrier Break potential.

Overall, Akyuu’s a solid unit, with some extremely powerful synergies (most notably with future S+ superstar Toyohime, effectively doubling Toyohime’s power when paired with her). Just keep in mind that the scope of her buffs are very narrow, and that you will need to team her up with the right Friends (or Pray for them) for her to accomplish much. 

The Bibliophile with a Deciphering Eye, Kosuzu Motoori works for the book store Suzunaan. Whilst it specializes in foreign books from the outside world, Kosuzu herself prefers a different type of book: youma books, which are books written by youkai. These demonic tomes which took on a life of their own lead Kosuzu down many trials and tribulations, ultimately leading her to question the relationship of youkai and human - which you can find more about in Forbidden Scrollery! Suffice to say, Kosuzu these days is pretty chummy with youkai, and is more than happy to join in a good battle of bullets (in LostWord, at least!). 

In LostWord, Kosuzu fulfils the role of a rather unique attacker. Due to possessing the extremely rare Piercing bullets on her All targeting Last Word, Privately Published Night Parade Scroll - Final Chapter Annex, Kosuzu specializes in one thing: taking on enemies who buff their own DEF up, as Piercing bullets completely ignore all DEF buffs. This makes her a notable farmer of Chapter 2-7, when paired with the right partners, and a solid enough attacker against enemies who raise their own DEF besides. Additionally, she packs some pretty solid access to Element Breaks: Flying Book: The 6th Vision of Zechariah is an All targeting Spell Card with 1/2/3 Wood Breaks for 0/1/2 Spirit Power that gives all targets 2 Levels of CRIT Eva DOWN with a 60% chance for +1 Level (perfect for supporting Crit teammates and herself!), and Original Text: Hotsuma Tsutae is a Solo targeting Spell Card with 1/2/3 Water Breaks for 0/1/2 Spirit Power that gives Kosuzu 2 Levels of Yin ATK UP for 3 Turns with a 60% chance of +1 Level (just be warned it also damages Kosuzu herself!). 

However, there are some big caveats to Kosuzu’s kit. First of all, she is somewhat on the low end of the damage spectrum without time to set up - her second skill, Ancient Tengu Book, only provides her with 2 Levels of Yin ATK Up for 2 turns with a 50% chance for +1 Level, with her third skill, Read Demon Books, providing the same but for CRIT Acc instead, and her Last Word provides 1 Level of CRIT & Yin ATK UP for 3 Turns with a 60% chance for +1 Level, which all combined plus her need for an Acc Story Card leaves her doing only half the damage of the upper end attackers without setup time, and thus poorly suited to farming events. Additionally, her piercing is only on the first and second bullets of her Last Word - whilst it is front loaded to an extent, this still puts a heavy cap on how much piercing damage she actually gets. Lastly, units with Piercing damage on their Last Word are virtually nonexistent - meaning you will usually need to back up Kosuzu’s teammates in some other way or bring extra damage dealers to make up for the difference, thus partially negating the usefulness of the piercing in the first place.  

Still, overall Kosuzu is definitely an above average attacker, with a solid niche. Just don’t expect Piercing to be an instant win button against any enemy with DEF Up.