Should You Pull? Star EX Festival

Maybe. This is a return of the Elemental EX Battle Stage-related banners, with this one including more Festival Friends than General ones. This already raises its value up, especially considering Star is still a difficult element to come by, mainly requiring some premium Friends to take full advantage of the element. In that sense, this prayer can be the chance to pick up both good Friends for the Star EX Battle Stage and good Star Friends in general. It helps that most of these Friends are rather useful in multiple situations as well!

Of course, this banner’s rating is held back thanks to the many other competitive options currently around. E1 Flandre Scarlet and A7 Yukari Yakumo might be on their way out, but both B5 Reisen Udongein Inaba and A7 Alice Margatroid are impressive Friends in their own right, with Reisen having heavy Star-element utility as well. This is not even considering the other 1st Anniversary Prayers, including but not limited to the Festival Collection (that is almost on its way out as well!) and Lunar War Ultra Festival Collection. Still, this prayer’s assortment of Festival Friends and longer runtime, lasting until June 3rd, definitely helps its value. 

A new 5* Story Card, Serene Sage, will be featured alongside the Festival Prayer. However, unlike other Elemental EX Prayers, this card is not an element-related buff, and instead does stat buffs. Only activating on Defense-type Friends, this card increases your own Yang DEF while decreasing an opponent’s Yang DEF. Certainly helpful for attacking with Yang nukes, although it is strange to see this card released on a prayer in which there are no Defense Friends that can take full advantage of the card. (...perhaps a certain space youkai can do so instead?)

Like with every other prayer, the Exchange rate for Festival Friends (Shinmyoumaru Sukuna, Doremy Sweet, and Okina Matara) is 150 Exchange Points, the General Friend (Seiga Kaku) is 100 Exchange Points, and the 5* Story Card (Serene Sage) is 50 Exchange Points. There is also an Ascending God Crystal Step-UP active on this prayer to give a boost to anyone pulling on this prayer.

For more information on the Star EX Battle Stage, click the article below! Elements of this stage will be referenced within this article, so it is recommended you at least give it a look! 

+ 0P Star on Focus shot
+ Fully Star Last Word hits hard with set up
+ Comes with her own Accuracy support
- Lacking in elemental breaking on spells
- Team support mainly on spells instead of skills
- Evasion debuff on Last Word is a tad excessive
- Rather fragile; little Yang DEF buffs

+ Abundance of Elemental Breaks, including P0 Fire on a Basic Shot
+ Very high damage potential in longer fights
+ Solid CRIT and Killer support
- Somewhat inconsistent due to CRIT based nature
- Reliant on (very common) Killers

+ 0P Star on Spread shot for spammable Star Breaks
+ Very damaging All-targeting Last Word both for farming and longer fights
+ Provides some Yang DEF Down support for Yang teammates
+ Has Power Link, which is pretty much always good
- Very reliant on Killer for damage
- Slightly below average breaks on spells
- Self Quick can make her a little harder to support

+ All-target, Energy and Star-only Last Word
+ Heavy amount of self-Agility UP
+ Small debuffs on skills that quickly recharge
+ Decent Earth and Water coverage
- Selfish attacker/buffer; no ensured team buffs
- All spells are backloaded (1-1-3)
- Risks health of teammates due to Focus DOWN and Poison anomalies

[Numbers in brackets are buffs at Max Limit Break or stat sticks at Max Enhance]

• When Spell Card is used by a Defense type Friend, own Yang DEF 2 [3] levels UP (3T)
• When Spell Card is used by a Defense type Friend, target’s Yang DEF 2 [3] levels DOWN (3T)
• DMG from Shikigami 15% [20%] DOWN (2T)
• Yang ATK +45 [+125]
• Yin ATK +15 [+55]

Just like previous Elemental EX Prayers, this section is dedicated to pointing out each featured Friend’s ability to break barriers using the Star element, with no other methods considered. Obviously, this ranking does not imply their placing in the tier list or on an overall scale whatsoever and is just an activity related to the Star EX Battle Stage. Having a more uncommon element such as Star is already a benefit, especially in the kits of these Friends. 

This time, we will also be delving slightly into more aspects of the Star EX Battle Stage, primarily to point out where these Friends might be useful outside of their Star breaks. Breaking is still the focus, but some more insight never hurt anyone!

4. Seiga Kaku

Starting off this list is a Friend in a peculiar case, Seiga Kaku. In terms of elements, her spells are rather handy in the Earth and Water department. When it comes to Star though, that all comes from her Last Word, Wormhole Prophetess, boasting a massive 6 out of 6 Star breaks! Having only one attack to focus preparing and using Star breaks on makes Seiga easy to use, but likewise difficult to get much usage Star break-wise outside of this. In fact, using a Last Word first makes it so you can’t even access her other spells, making going for it right away usually a terrible option.

Something to note about Wormhole Prophetess in terms of Star EX, however, is its high potential. Since both generic enemies in Star EX drop Spell Card Items upon defeat, it is possible to regain Seiga’s Last Word and use your 6/6 Star attack up to 3 times in the fight! Of course, this takes heavy setup time, and Seiga is practically relying on the other Friends to take down the enemies to ensure she gets the Spell Card Item back at the right time. It also doesn’t help that Seiga needs 3P to get access to 3 of the 6 Star bullet lines. Unfortunately, even with this benefit Seiga must stay at the bottom of the list, but in a sense this just shows the amazing capability of these Friends!

Last Word (All): 6 breaks (0P, 1P, 2P, 3P, 3P, 3P)
Total: 6 breaks

3. Okina Matara

Next up is Okina Matara, another Friend that is good in elements outside of Star, but can still bring Star to the battle if needed. Okina brings the Star in a normal spell this time, that being 2 breaks from Back Sign: Halo of the Secret God. Additionally, she also has 3 Star breaks on her Last Word, Fantasy Simulation Hypothesis. Her last, and sadly mediocre, Star access comes from her Focus shot, Unusual-God Laser, granting 2 Star breaks. At the very least, it can be used once you are all done with your spells and Last Word. 

While not the most adept at Star breaking, Okina will still be handy in this EX battle stage due to her high CRIT support, which can be taken advantage of with Friends that can hit the boss’ killers. In case you need a refresher on Marisa Kirisame (Witch of Scarlet Dream)’s character tags, click on her character page located here! Thanks to Okina’s Youkai Killers on the first and fifth line of her Last Word, even she can target Marisa’s weaknesses and do a bit more damage than usual. One of her skills can buff the party’s CRIT ATK as well, in the case that they hit Marisa’s Killer tags as well.

Focus Shot: 2 breaks (1P, 2P)
Spell 1: 2 breaks (1P, 3P)
Last Word: 3 breaks (0P, 2P, 3P)
Total: 7 breaks (2 on shots)

2. Doremy Sweet

Doremy Sweet may have 7 Star breaks, the same amount as Okina, but she arguably edges out the competition with one move: her Spread shot, Doremy Popping. With 3 Star breaks in total, one of them is at 0P, making it a superior Star-spamming option, especially when compared to Okina’s Focus shot. Otherwise, Doremy’s spell option is more Spirit Power-efficient as well, giving 2 breaks at 0P and 1P of Dream Sign: Azure Dream Catcher. Her main drawback when compared to Okina is having only 2 breaks on her Last Word, Pillow Agarta, instead of 3. Still, Doremy’s more efficient breaking makes her both faster and easier to use when it comes to Star breaking.

Pillow Agarta has a similar use to Okina’s Last Word as well, as it contains Youkai Killer bullets throughout the entire attack instead of just the first line. Combined with Doremy’s ability to heavily buff her own Yin ATK to make the Last Word stronger, Doremy can be a very useful threat for this battle, especially when taking advantage of the Spell Card Items!

Spread Shot: 3 breaks (0P, 1P, 3P)
Spell 2: 2 breaks (0P, 1P)
Last Word: 2 breaks (0P, 2P)
Total: 7 breaks (3 on shots, 1 spammable)

1. Shinmyoumaru Sukuna

Shinymoumaru Sukuna is by far the greatest Star breaker here, ironically combining elements from everyone ranked below her. For one, she also has a spammable Star break in the form of her Focus shot, Ebiichi’s Giant Rotation, which has 2 breaks with one of them at 0P. Afterwards, she gets breaks on both of her spells, with Mallet: Grow Bigger! having 2 breaks and Bewitched Sword: Shining Needle Sword having 2 breaks as well. Last but certainly not least is her Last Word, Giant Killing, with a giant 6/6 Star breaks! All of these factors combined make her one of the best Star breakers in the game, which is pretty significant for such a strong element.

Unfortunately, as Giant Killing implies, her Last Word is for killing giants and not youkai supernova stars, meaning Shinmyoumaru does not hit any of Marisa’s Killer tags. However, if the great Star access wasn’t enough for you, you can take advantage of the same trick as Seiga and utilize Star EX’s Spell Card Item drops to allow Shinmyoumaru to utilize her Last Word even more over the whole fight! It definitely helps that Shinmyoumaru has many methods to increase her own attack and Spirit Power, making for a Friend that is definitely viable for this fight.

Spread shot: 2 breaks (0P, 3P)
Spell 1: 2 breaks (0P, 2P)
Spell 2: 2 breaks (1P, 3P)
Last Word: 6 breaks (0P, 1P, 2P, 2P, 3P, 3P)
Total: 12 breaks (2 on shots, 1 spammable)

0. Serene Sage

Strangely enough, this is the second time Yukari is showing up (second-hand this time, at least…) on an Elemental EX Prayer without any true viability regarding the stage’s elemental focus! Is she rigging the prayers for herself somehow?! Well either way, this card isn’t the absolute worst, as it works as a rather high offensive stat stick and on Defense-type Friends is a great Yang debuffer. As hinted at before, this can work well with B5 Reisen Udongein Inaba, as well as Reimu Hakurei and Yukari Yakumo.