Chapter 9 is here, along with some other interesting game changes!

I’m really keen to see where they go with AR skills – they’re a great chance for LW to make lesser-used units a bit more viable without straight-up buffing them. For now, though, Salomon-kun is very much a ‘test the waters’ kind of card; we’ll hopefully see some more interesting AR units soon.

The chapter 8 gacha is also getting a rerun. In short: Surtr was (and still is!) amazing in both forms, and Arc and Azathoth are both interesting but not spectacular.

Let’s see how the new units stack up!

We finally see our first none-type gacha unit – except he sort of attacks anyway?

I’m a bit underwhelmed with Furufumi. Though the effects from his skills are pretty decent, the number of hoops you have to jump through for them to activate is way too high for what you get.

Though it might not look like much, the timing on his skills is a real pain – even if it does affect the entire enemy team, a 50% chance of applying Curse every 3 turns is pretty useless (since the effect doesn’t carry between phases, there’s a real risk of it triggering when you don’t want it to). Obstruction isn’t much better (and it’s a pretty useless debuff at the best of times).

Blessing is actually ok, since the effect will carry across phases, and the healing you get from it is decent.

Protection and Curse is a really good defensive combo. If nothing else, he’ll make a serviceable front line tank (though his charge skill will never go off if you do this)

Gaining 50 CP every 5 turns is a bit useless – if he’s in the front line, he’s going to be losing more than that, and if he’s not in the front line, he’s not able to take advantage of his ‘attack’ and Curse from his LB1 or his Blessing and Protection from his LB2. The same thinking applies to Arousal, though he does at least give this to allies too (unfortunately, his 3★ doesn’t get this).

You’re almost never going to see his charge skill see play, which is a bit of a shame, since global Fear is quite decent (and HP reduction is a nice bonus).

Much like our first Hero-attribute unit (and AR card), LW seem to be playing it extremely safe with new mechanics, which is a shame.

There’s a paper/rubber tiger joke here, I’m sure, but I can’t think of it and it’s driving me mad. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hombretigre appears to be a bit more useful than Furufumi. Oddly enough, I think I prefer his 3★ form – his skillset seems like it’d work better on a blow unit, plus he’s not going to be yanking your entire team out of position when you move him.

His role on the field is pretty straightforward – you’re mostly going to be using him to disrupt the enemy team’s positioning via Oppression and attraction at thrust range (minor gripe with this: I really wish the range on his LB1 attraction were longer; though we’re lacking tall maps where snipe units really excel, it’d still be nice to have a unit that could disrupt the enemy back line like that. As it stands, thrust-range attraction doesn’t do a ton for a thrust-range unit).

With Brawn and Ardour (though this one’s tied to his charge skill), he’s also going to be dealing a decent chunk of damage; since a good number of units have Berserker, there’s a good chance that will come into play too.

Both his forms should get their charge skills up within reasonable amounts of time (though through different mechanisms), and it’s a pretty good payoff: Evasion is a good defensive effect to have up your sleeve.

Also worth mentioning is that his 4★ can move 3 squares vertically, which is interesting (if not particularly useful, thanks to the aforementioned lack of tall maps).

Now we’re talking.

Weapon Change is used to an interesting effect here: early in the phase, when there are a bunch of enemies on the field, magic range allows Hephaestus to apply Paralysis, Weakness and either Nullify Buff (3★) or Stigma (5★) to a good portion of the enemy. Later on in the phase, when there are fewer enemies left, switching back to shorter ranges will allow him to focus a bit more on damage, especially with Critical in play.

He also performs pretty well in a supporting role, offering Critical and Nullify Debuff to allies.

Having had the chance to play around a bit with Aegir, I’m less keen on Buff Snatch than I used to be – while I love the flavour of the skill, it never seems to trigger at the right point, and Hephaestus’ charge skill is no exception. Remove Buff is also a bit unusual to include in the same skill, though it will come in handy sometimes (Guts+Protection, for instance). Concentration also plays into his Weapon Changing abilities – the skill activation rate is useful for his magic range, and the damage boost is great for his default ranges, though the latter is dependent on CS level.

Also a nice touch to note the prosthetic legs on Hephaestus! Always good to see LW taking care with the lore they borrow from.

It’s a real mixed bag on this gacha. From a gameplay perspective, I wouldn’t say there’s really much to it; I like Hephaestus (and to a lesser extent Hombretigre), but neither are particularly worth chasing. Furufumi is unfortunately a bit disappointing.

If you haven’t got a strong defensive support, I would consider rolling in the chapter 8 gacha to see if you can get Surtr; that is, if you haven’t already grabbed his 3★ with your Golden Salomon Ticket.

As always, if you do decide to roll, I wish you the best of luck!