Welcome back to Housamo for 2020! Here’s hoping that the game continues to deliver in the new year.

Though I’m still trying to spend all my tokens in the New Years gacha before it expires, Lifewonders has wasted no time in dropping the gacha for Chapter 10 on our heads. I’ll probably get a more general post out about the state of the game towards the end of the month, but for now, let’s take a look!

Shennong opens the show with two new mechanics here: using poison as a buff, and abilities that switch on (or off) after a number of turns.

Poison (and Fatal Poison) is in a weird spot mechanically – it doesn’t really do enough damage to worry about, unless you’re in a pretty lengthy fight, and even then it’s only a concern on your units.

All this means is that it’s fine to use as a trigger condition for other things – Immunity, in this case, is a really strong buff. Combined with Nourishment, you’ll pretty easily outheal any poison damage done to your team with a little bit extra on top.

He’s also a pretty resilient unit, with Immunity, Tenacity and Valiant attribute (for his 4★ variant).

One slight concern is running him on teams that make heavy use of Remove/Reflect Debuff – Immunity doesn’t do anything if the unit doesn’t have Poisoned, so take care with building around him.

Evasion and Heal on turn 1 both effects that are worth moving for, and his 4★ variant giving it to allies makes it hard to beat.

His CS is a bit underwhelming, though the extra healing will usually be appreciated – even when it’s at max level, 2000 HP reduction over 5 turns just isn’t enough damage to care about. Since none of his abilities rely on his normal attacks, though, it’s not going to make him any less effective.

His 3★ will also have an awkward gap on turn 2 of every phase where he can’t yet apply Immunity, but he can’t get Evasion from his LB3 – take care when using him on faster teams.

I have an alternative icon suggestion for Yasuyori:

Ahem.

His default skill is probably his best one: hitting the front line with Break is pretty strong. Break is arguably a defensive ability as much as an offensive one – they can’t damage you if they can’t hit you, after all.

Countdown is a nice bonus, but it’s such a low chance to trigger that it’s not anything better than that.

Ignoring most standard defensive abilities (minus Evasion) and removing ability locks are both handy to have around.

His healing and Evasion are both pretty limited – again, treat them as bonuses, and bring along more reliable units if you want these effects.

I’m not really sure why he does extra damage to ATK Up and Nourishment in particular. They’re not uncommon effects, but they’re not something you see in every mission.

If you can get a couple of levels in his CS, Vigour is a buff you’ll appreciate (and CP reduction can come in handy in a pinch).

That sums up his abilities that are common to both his 3★ and 4★ variants, but I want to take a second to talk about his 4★ one.

Yasuyori’s 4★ variant is pushed pretty far power-wise: with Wide Slash range, reliable Adamantine and Brawn buffs to self, and a Global-ranged CS, it’s pretty easy to see him filling in as a Gyumao-esque board sweeper. Applying Break to the front two enemy rows is great – you’re likely to hit most of the enemy team with it – and he’s got enough buffs that his CS will do some serious work.

Absolutely develop this guy if you get him.

Jacob punches things real good.

There’s been a trend amongst blow units to either be support units or single-target murder machines, and Jacob falls squarely in the latter camp.

I’m a big fan of his unit design – the whole one-two combo is elegantly executed in his kit.

Between Combo and his LB2, he’s going to charge his CS pretty quickly, which will help a little with sustain. Given his only other defensive ability is Blessing, though, you’re going to want to give him some defensive support on longer missions.

His two rarities are going to largely play the same, though they differ in their ideal turns – his 3* will deal maximum damage when both his Combo hits connect (i.e. when the enemy is already in front of him), while his 5* will actually manage to do a bit more damage if he can pull the enemy to him first (triggering Crit).

It’s rare to get a design that feels new while still hanging around existing 5* power levels. Full marks to Lifewonders here.

Another name that is going to take a while to learn.

Darkness is a new defensive debuff that reduces damage and prevents CS. It’s pretty strong, so I don’t think we’re likely to see many easy sources of it (pardon the pun) any time soon.

On his 5★, combining Darkness with Dazzle is some pretty heavy debuffing on the enemy – in most cases, this should be plenty of defence by itself.

Reading through his skillset made me realise why Christmas Aegir is immune to Weapon Change effects – can you imagine that many buffs on a unit with Weapon Change (All)?

Much like Aegir, Tezcatlipoca copies buffs from nearby allies and enemies (with a pretty broad area of effect on his 5★ variant). Unlike Aegir, he also strips these buffs off the original units – friend and foe alike.

This makes him a little bit tricky to use, though his offensive potential from this skill is very high.

It’s worth noting that he applies Remove Buff to allies, meaning his buff removal can be prevented through Nullify or Reflect Debuff (conveniently, his CS provides the latter effect to allies).

Getting rewarded for stealing buffs (with ATK Up and Reflect Debuff) is an added bonus. I’m not sure yet whether this skill can trigger itself (e.g. whether getting ATK Up can trigger the chance for getting Reflect Debuff), but it’s a strong skill either way.

Berserk+ to what should be your whole team (you have 4 turns to get them into range) is great – 1.3x incoming damage is a small price to pay for a 2.6x damage multiplier that isn’t likely to conflict with other buffs from your team. If you’re really worried about it, his LB1 should be able to remove it.

Possession is also great, though I never seem to have any success in getting enemies to hit each other with it. Still, stopping them from attacking you is always handy.

Weakness is a nice little bonus on his CS, but you’re not going to notice it much unless you can get it skilled up.

There we have it! Considering how sub-par the main story gachas have been in the past (looking at you, Chapter 9!), it’s really nice to see a gacha with units that fit nicely into the current power level of the game.

That said, Valentine’s Day is coming; from past years, it’s pretty likely we’re going to get some pretty spicy units out of it. Since all of these units are going to get added into the main gacha, I’d probably recommend holding on to your stones, unless you’re chasing a particular card (Yasuyori).

Good luck if you do decide to roll!