Rate the Unit-Three Houses, Day 27: Cyril

[Punished Dayni]

For those wondering why Flayn isn't next, see the Seteth thread.

Rules

- Ratings are assumed to be on Hard or Maddening Mode. Also, they should be based on when the unit is first available. (When rating a unit, please specify whether you are rating assuming Hard or Maddening.)

- Votes need some explanation regarding their gameplay performance to be counted (unless they fall into the general parameters of the average rating, but reasoning is still strongly encouraged on those even if you just wanna quote people) — incredibly low scores or high scores without proper justification will not be counted. Don't put in some random text thinking it'd count as justification. Put in at least a little thought and give REAL reasoning.

- Numbers for votes, please - not something like "Marcus/10", etc. Proper Justification will be determined by me and whoever decides to help.

+/- ≤1 point extra regarding personality/appearance is okay, but no more.

- Votes out of 10, or something proportional to it. Makes it easy to calculate, please and thank you~!

-The rating you give to a unit assumes a good build for said unit-nothing among the lines of, "Dedue is 2/10 because he's a bad mage."

-The ranking assumes no grinding of any form, no DLC and minor, (one or two stat boosters per month) use of the Greenhouse.

- Make votes easily visible, please! "[Explanation text]: So, overall, I think X unit is a 7.5/10, with a +1 bias included for being hawt/cute/funny/etc.."

- Every ranking phase ends approximately at 20:00 PST. Do the math for your timezone, please!

-We will ask you to not use the "Not X unit" reason. Because it will be used a lot. I.E, do not say "Linhardt bad because not Lysithea."

-The Black Eagles may be assessed based on their performances in either Silver Snow or Crimson Flower, other than when not applicable.

 

Scores:

Dimtri: 9.14

Byleth: 9.05

Edelgard: 9.00

Claude: 8.977

Felix: 8.625 

Lysithea: 8.472

Petra: 8.34

Leonie: 8.2

Ferdinand: 7.78

Sylvain: 7.66

Ingrid: 7.34

Hilda: 7.31

Seteth: 7.2273

Bernadetta: 7.125

Linhardt: 7.11

Marianne: 6.9769

Mercedes: 6.756

Dorothea: 6.375

Dedue: 5.8571

Annette: 5.5375

Hubert: 5.525

Ignatz: 4.88

Caspar: 4.32

Lorenz: 3.8077

Raphael: 3.7273

Ashe: 3.69 (nice)

 

 

Underscore: Black Eagles

Bold: Blue Lions

Itallics: Golden deer

Purple: Faculty

Boldunderscoreditallics: DLC

Average score for Black Eagles: 6.94

Average score for Blue lions: 6.82

Average score for Golden Deer: 6.543

Average score for Faculty: (Will we count Byleth for Faculty?)

 

Day 27: Cyril

[DriftingWaterBottle]

8 / 10 on Hard AM/VW

The good:

• Good HP and Excellent Spd growth when factoring in Aptitude
• Joins with at least C rank for Axe and Bow: guaranteed certification for Brigand and Archer, and very close to learn Point-Blank Volley.
• Proficiency in Lance, Axe, Bow, Riding and Flying: can access Wyvern, Paladin or Bow Knight relatively quickly.
• Interesting personal combat arts:
  • Point-Blank Volley for automatic double, and can learn it earlier than other doubling art users.
  • Vengeance for one hit big damage, although he learns it later than Bernie and Dedue.
  • Monster Breaker situationally useful to break barriers

The mixed:

• No crest, thus penalty when using relics, but can be beneficial for Vengeance build

The not-so-good:

• Underwhelming base as a Ch5 recruit, although he can soon get rolling if rushing for PBV.
• Effectively no personal ability to boost combat performance on the field.
• 40% Str growth when factoring in Aptitude, not ideal for a physical unit, but not too problematic on Hard.
• Missing Authority ranks compared to in-house members, although it's partially mitigated by his relevant proficiencies and base skill ranks. 

[Dark Holy Elf]

Every "Aptitude" character has been less extreme than the last. Donnel had an absolutely wretched start but eventually reached ludicrous stats. Mozu had a better start but her growths were merely very good. And then Cyril... barely fits the archetype at all. His stats still follow it a bit.

The good: Cyril's stat growths, after factoring Aptitude, are very solid, being similar to Petra (same str/spd/def/cha, slightly ahead in other less important stats). Cyril has a very strong talent list, which includes axes, bows, flying, riding and lances. This is basically Petra's talent list, trading swords for lances amd riding, and that's certainly a good place to be. He's well set up to excel in the best physical classes in the game. Being comparable to Petra is obviously a good thing.

He also gets some cool unique combat arts. The best of these is Point-Blank Volley, a brave combat art also rocked by Leonie. The best thing about Cyril's PBV is he gets it at C+, so he can actually reasonably have it in Chapter 6. While his stats prevent him from excelling right out of the gate, that's still a big edge, and means he can start being a decent contributor relatively quickly, especially for a growth-based character. He also has access to Vengeance. See Dedue/Bernadetta for that; since it comes later for him (he doesn't auto-train lances), he misses out on the window where it's extremely good, but it's still worth noting.

The less good: Cyril's bases are, politely, trash. 7 str/6 spd is the worst base offence of any physical unit (next worst is Caspar's 9/6), 24 HP and 5 def is the same as Linhardt, 2 res and 4 charm both suck. This means that even with his good growths, his stats never get THAT great. His str, in particular, is comparable to Ingrid's 8+35% in practice, and his speed is only slightly above average... until we consider he can't get Darting Blow. So while he gets PBV earlier than Leonie, once she earns it too (around 3 chapters later), it's hard to find something he actually does better than her, for instance.

Joining in Chapter 5 is, of course, also a negative. Axes and bows are both good auto-trains, but he'll start a bit behind on other ranks such as flying or armour (to patch up his bad AS/def) or authority.

Overall, Cyril is a mediocre choice, but not a terrible one. There's only so bad you can be when you can strap yourself onto a wyvern and have a brave combat art. But he's rather clearly the worst of the five units who can do that. Cyril gets a 4/10 (Maddening).

Edited November 6, 2020 by Dark Holy Elf

[Sooks]

8/10, Cyril is basically the villager unit of this game. He has bad bases but aptitude but that just... makes his growths average? Oh. Well 60% in speed is great at least. His strength growth is middling but nothing some brigand action can’t fix, and with his rank in axes (iirc) being high enough for him to certify for that class at base, I wouldn’t really label that grinding. Heck I’m not sure he even counts as one of those villager units since he really doesn’t take much investment to be good. Booms in axes, flying, lances, and riding give him all the necessary boons to certify for the two most broken classes in the game, bow knight and wyvern lord. He also learns point blank volley, a guaranteed double at one range, which is always nice on maddening. This combined with his already serviceable speed and his easy booms for boosting his strength and getting him in one of the best classes. He gets a point off for being basically unusable on Silver Snow, and another one for still managing poor based on other routes.

Edited November 6, 2020 by Sooks1016

[Dark Holy Elf]

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

Average score for Faculty: (Will we count Byleth for Faculty?)

Obviously it doesn't matter too much, but I'll cast a "no" vote. The game places the Eagles, Lions, Deer, and Faculty/Church together as groups when listing the characters in the in-game menus. Byleth is not placed with the faculty, but at the start of the list.

[Ownagepuffs]

Qualifies for Brigand at base, can get PBV by the start of chapter 5 when Leonie is still a long ways off. With a steel bow forge he unironically has some of the best combat on your team and its smooth sailing from there.

Has every boon a physical unit could possibly want. Crestless is good for vengeance late game when PBV no longer does the job. Does Bow Wyvern earlier than most.

 

Maddening VW/AM, 8/10

Maddening Silver Snow, lmao/10. No availability really sucks.

[L3xandr3]

Sod off janitor man. I greatly dislike this toad. Did you know he likes Rhea? Or that he likes working? What about liking Rhea? Did I already mention Rhea? … … … I said enough on this front.

     Skill Levels:     Boons are Lances, Axes, Bows, Riding, and Flying. Banes in Reason and Faith. His base skill levels depend on the route you’re playing: In SS he starts with B Axes and B* Bows, but in AM and VW he has C+ Axes and C Bows. Pretty good base Ranks in AM and VW, but SS… Oi.

*In Maddening, he starts 1 rank lower, at C+ Bows.

     Abilities:     Aptitude… Why? Why bother with this? +20% growth is great! Not on a unit whose highest growths are ≤40%. If they wanted to make him a good growth unit, then they should’ve given him +15 - 20% more growths and an actual personal skill. Ok, so Aptitude rant over, moving on. Battalion Desperation (C) is as useless as ever.

     Arts:     Welcome to the fun show! You want Lance Arts? How about Vengeance (C+) and Lance Jab (A)?! For Axes we’ve got Armored Strike (A)! And for Bows, behold the mighty Point-Blank Volley (C+)!!! Oh, and Monster Breaker (C+) is sitting in its cage back on the bench. Yeah… To say Cyril has good Arts is an understatement.

     Stats:     Like his Skill Levels, his base stats depend on the route. His growths are the same, though. Speaking of, they’re worse than I had though! With Aptitude counted, his growths are:

     55% Hp, 40% Strength, 35% Magic, 60% Skill and Speed, 50% Luck, 30% Defense and Resistance, and 35% Charm.

       I’ll hold off until I go over his Bases to break this down.

            Speaking of: In AM and VW- Lv 9, 28 Hp, 10 Strength, 7 Magic, 11 Dexterity and Speed, 10 Luck, 7 Defense, 4 Resistance, and 7 Charm.

            In SS- Lv 21, 35 Hp, 15 Strength, 11 Magic, 18 Dexterity and Skill, 16 Luck, 11 Defense, 8 Resistance, and 11 Charm.

       So, because he doesn’t get any free Certifications, his Bases suffer for it. And his growths aren’t even that grand. So what are we left with? Frail, fairly weak, and wide open to Gambits. At least he has his Arts and speediness.

     Classes:     Beginer- Skip this, unless you really want Reposition.

Intermidiate- Brigand or Archer

Advanced- Wyvern Rider, Sniper or Paladin.

Master- Wyvern Lord or Bow Knight

     The Verdict

Better than the other ‘Speedy Archers’ (Ashe, Bernie, and Ignatz). Correction, he would be, if he joined as early as possible (e.g. Chapter 1 or 2). But he doesn’t. Like his Skill Ranks and Base Stats, his rating varies between routes. In AM and WV, I give him 6/10, mostly due to those Arts. SS, however… He joins so late, with such bad Bases and without any Base Ranks in Riding or Flying. For SS, he is useless, so… 0/10. To make him useable in SS, you’d have to baby him for far too long to make any use of him. So, in 2 routes, he gets 6 and in the other, he gets 0. His average rating is 4/10.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Well, I certainly intended to use Cyril in my Maddening run to try and prove people wrong that he worked, but I didn't know back then that he was just unavailable if you choose the Black Eagle house, with a special middle finger to those playing Silver Snow. Level 23 with 15 strength and 18 speed. Yeah, thanks game. So I'm guessing we're looking at the other two routes where he is available. Kid's got pretty meh base stats that only get worse as you wait to recruit him, so thankfully he has no requirement other than Byleth's level. I think it's definitely possible Byleth could hit level 10 somewhere in chapter 5, but not probable unless you prematurely benched some of your starting units. Again, more reasons why Cyril should be available in BE, half those students deserve the bench. What Cyril lacks in stats he makes up for with the best proficiency and combat art list in the game. Vengeance and especially point blank volley are game changers. Altogether he's a lot like Leonie, a unit who can provide Sniper-level combat prowess on a class with Canto. But unlike Leonie he has an easier time reaching Wyvern Lord in addition to Bow knight. Regardless of what you ultimately choose, if you did recruit him in Chapter 5, he's joining with C+ in axes, and C in bows which should be competitive with the rest of your crew's progress outside of his E authority.

I think by now players have proven that Cyril can work, because it's really skill proficiencies and class base stats that make underwhelming units work in Three Houses. Sure he's lacking a personal skill, big deal. The only personal skill that would be a suitable trade for Point Blank Volley is maybe Mastermind. Those first chapters are going to be rough though. I think he can certify as an armor knight at base, that'll get him some more defense. I would probably ignore Vengeance and just make a mad dash for Point Blank Volley. I rate him a 6.5 out of 10. I'm a little skeptical he'll be a super star on your team like Leonie is, especially late game where his lesser stat growths start to matter, but he's far from dead weight on join time with those decent base stats, and has a massive list of paths to viability. Honestly the biggest hindrance is how his early recruitment is kind of disruptive to your roster by spreading the experience just a little more thinly. With most units, chapter 7 would be the earliest I grab them since that's when paralogues show up anyway, and they'll be in helpful classes like Pegasus knight or Cavalier which also further augment their excellent base stats. And the fact that, unlike other potential recruits, Cyril isn't adding anything to your team you immediately need. At least not until you can tutor him to A bows which takes a long time. If you don't add him to your roster, that's fine. He's still contributing as your earliest candidate for a guard adjutant and doesn't require as much combat exp to reach level 10 like Benched!Raphael would. I just wish he had a special ally bonus with Shamir. Or anybody. Seems like an oversight. Anybody else get a kick out of how Shamir and Cyril's support is just a metatext about how she relies on Hunter's Volley and he relies on Point Blank Volley? And that it would be a waste to class him into Sniper? That's pretty funny. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by Glennstavos

[LoneStar]

Cyril can potentially be a strong unit, as he has the proficiencies to be in some pretty strong master classes. The main issue with him are his stats. He stays as a Commoner and doesn’t upgrade over time like other unrecruited characters, so he doesn’t benefit from auto level ups very much. This means you have to get him ASAP if you want to use him. Those factors nukes his viability with the Black Eagles. They even went as far as making his base growths bad, then using Aptitude to get him to Leonie’s standard basically.

Anyway, he has some excellent combat arts. Vengeance is a strong nuke when set up. Point Blank Volley has more might than Hunter’s Volley and can be used in any class. Lance Jab and Armored Strike can one shot low Defense enemies, and others when used with a type effective weapon. Battalion Desperation is nice for safely, unfortunately he can’t get Darting Blow, so he’ll struggle to double some things in Maddening.

For classes he has proficiencies in Axe, Bow, Lance, Riding, and Flying. So he can get into Wyvern Lord or Bow Knight no issue, and both are superb classes.

My Rating: 6.5/10. He’s pretty solid, but like I mentioned you want to recruit his ASAP for him to be viable.

[Barren]

Now we get to talk about Donn-- bah...it's Cyril. Cyrils is from Almyra and he's in endless debt to Lady Rhea it seems. He's always busy working and he never stops. But outside of that, how well does he do. This is assuming hard mode and no dlc. Also I will be covering him on Blue Lions and Golden Deer. I will say to get to out of the way that on Silver Snow, while you could still get some use out of him considering what he comes with, he'll be harder to justify to put on a team spot since he'll be available so late when starting out.

Cyril is this game's villager. He has the aptitude ability which allows each of his stats have an additional 20% chance of increasing when he levels up. His growths are also quite good because of this. 55% HP growth along with a 30% defense and resistance growth are quite decent. His strength his a little low though, 40% is not the highest but thankfully that can be salvaged. His speed and dex being at a 60% growth is quite high as well. These qualities make him worth training right? Well in theory yes, but at chapter 5 he starts as a level 9 commoner and his stats are really low. 28 HP with 7 defense and 4 resistance isn't really good. 10 strength and 11 dex and speed are not what you would like to have starting out as well. At that point, he's likely to be doubled and probably killed in one round pending on the enemy. So you would have to baby him if you want him to get good.

He has a boon in lances, axes, bows, riding and flying. He has what some call "the holy trinity" since he'll go right into Wyvern Lord or even Bow Knight for an end game choice for him. We'll get more into those choices in a bit. He only has banes in faith and reason magic. Plus his magic list is quite barren (get it?). Wind and Cutting Gale are meh for him. And Recover while a nice super heal, his magic growth is only at 30% with a starting stat of 7 so no thanks. For lance combat arts, he gets Vengeance at rank C+, so he could feasibly use it for any of his final class choices. Plus unlike Bernadetta, he can use a hero's relic that will lower his HP every turn so you can easily set yourself up for a one shot without necessarily having to lure in an enemy and get hit. He would still need a guard adjutant in case he needs to survive the first hit. For axe combat arts, he already comes with Monster Breaker. It's fine on occasion. At A rank, he gets Armored Strike which factors in the user's defense. His defense is solid but it is usually better if he is something like a Fortress Knight or Great Knight. For bow combat arts, he gets Point-Blank Volley at rank C+. This is arguably the best of the three since it's a close up double attack and you can potentially one shot an enemy with it pending on the set up.

Cyril starts off with a E rank in lances, riding and flying. His axe rank is at C+ and his bow rank at C rank. If you want to make him an intermediate class immediately, you can always wait until chapter 6 and then promote him right away. He can easily go into Brigand for Death Blow, then Archer for Hit +20. From there it's up to you how you want to proceed from there. You would need to level up his lance rank regardless if you're going to Wyvern Lord or Bow Knight. Both classes have canto so he'll make great use of it. Wyvern Lord is a great option for flight, canto and all the other obvious reasons. Plus Axefaire pumps out the combat art attacks like Armored Strike. Bow Knight, while you get the same 8 move as Wyvern Lord, you won't be able to fly over terrain. However Bow Knights have +2 bow range which is effectively 4 range with a regular attack. You can even use Point-Blank Volley and run away with Canto afterwards. He could go Paladin if you want to use Vengeance more effectively. He could also go Warmaster if you want Quick Riposte. Cyril gets Battalion Desperation at authority rank C. His speed growth might be good, but with his speed stat starting so low, it's very unlikely he'll make any use out of it unless you got really fortunate with his speed growth.

Overall, I think he is a 6.5/10 unit. Aptitude is a nice ability that will help him level up his stats, but he'll still have a tough time starting out. Still, he's not a push over by any means so he might be able to contribute in part 1 and a couple of instances in part 2.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Barren

[Shadow Mir]

4/10. He's designed not entirely unlike Donnel and Mozu before him, which is damning. While he does have some stuff going for him the others didn't, it ain't enough to make up for this, nor his poor start.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Cyril, considered on VW Maddening.

The Bad

Getting it out of the way first: Cyril doesn't join right away. Up until chapter 5, he's too busy doing chores for Lady Rhea. This means he won't be able to help you through some of the hardest earlygame maps. Once chapter 5 comes, though, he's pretty easy to get onto your side. Even with no support, a level 10 Byleth can recruit Cyril.

There are two ways of looking at Cyril - either he has terrible growths, and an awesome personal; or, he has very good growths, but functionally no personal. I'm gonna assess him in the latter context. Since his personal boosts his growths, he can effectively be thought of as having no personal ability. Which is unfortunate. 

Speaking of stats, how does he do? This is with the caveat that he joins as a level 9 Commoner. His Strength (10+0.40x) starts pretty low, and while his growth is decent, it's nothing more. His HP (28+0.55x) is solid, but his Defense (7+0.30x) and Resistance (4+0.30x) somewhat undermine his bulk. His Magic (7+0.35x) is good for a physical unit, but not high enough to specialize in it. And his low Charm (7+0.35x) means he'll struggle with offensive gambits.

How about his skill levels? His only two banes are in Reason and Faith - again, discouraging him from a magical build. Still, outside of two areas, he joins with E all-around. E-Authority means he has some catching up to do. And bizarrely enough, he even starts at E in some of his boon areas (Lances, Riding, Flight), so he'll require some tutoring in those areas. And as a male unit, he misses out on Pegasus Knight, despite having the proficiencies for it.

Getting back to magic - his spell lists are trash. Only two Reason spells (Wind, Cutting Gale), and the blandest possible Faith list (Recover). Apparently, Lady Rhea never tried to inculcate Cyril into the faith. One more thing - as a Commoner, he has no Crest. So despite enjoying certain Hero's Relics (like Freikugel, Failnaught, or the Lance of Ruin) depending on the build, he'll take a penalty from such tools.

The Good

Cyril's stats aren't all bad. Aside from his prior-mentioned HP, he's also pretty good in Luck (10+0.50x), so he won't have to fear crits. His true strength, however, is in the myrmidon stats - his Dexterity and Speed are both 11+0.60x. So he'll be fairly accurate, and will double most of the slower foes. And notably, with his Aptitude factored in, he's among the very few units with at least 30% growth in all areas.

Returning to proficiencies, he has perhaps the best set of boons among physical units in the game. He joins with a boon in Axes (C+), so he can easily go Brigand, or get Armor Knight certification. His Bow boon also means that Archer (C) is accessible right away. Speaking of which, there may be a case for waiting until chapter 6 to recruit Cyril - that way, he joins at level 11, so he can enter an Intermediate class right away. Then again, going for Commoner or Fighter mastery may also be worth it.

His other weapon strength is in Lances, while he also has movement boons in Riding and Flight. In the short-term, this means he can go Cavalier, if he wants the mobility. And in the long-run, a host of great physical classes are at his disposal. Sniper, Paladin, Bow Knight, and Wyvern Rider/Lord all play to his strengths. And even options like Fortress Knight and War Master are within reason. So even though he doesn't join right away, he's quite versatile on the physical side.

Cyril's weapon boons come with some of the best combat arts in the game. Lance Jab (A) synergizes with his high speed, while Armored Strike can work in a high-defense class. But the true gems are Vengeance (C+) and Point-Blank Volley (C+). Vengeance lets him capitalize off his good HP, especially in conjunction with Blessing, or a Guard Adjutant. He can do great damage as a Paladin, or in the Wyvern classes. Point-Blank Volley, meanwhile, is one of the best arts in the game - and Cyril gets it before anyone else. The disparity in offensive ability between C-Bows and C+-Bows in night and day. He can use it for great brave damage, as a Bow Knight or in a Wyvern class.

The Verdict

Cyril sticks around as Rhea's child labor force, and it's evident why. While his stats start out fairly low, his growths are enough to let him catch up, especially in Speed and Dexterity. His proficiencies are among the best in the game, giving him access to Brigand and Archer (and, thereby, Death Blow and Hit+20) from just after joining, and giving him a clear path to classes like Bow Knight and Wyvern Lord. And he has some especially strong restricted combat arts, in Vengeance and PBV. He's not without his flaws - non-immediate jointime, next-to-no magical potential, low Charm, E-Authority, and no Personal or Crest. He'll require some babying to catch up to the rest - but once he does, he can make for one of your best physical combatants. All things told, I'm rating Cyril a 5 out of 10.

[Shadow Mir]

45 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Getting back to magic - his spell lists are trash. Only two Reason spells (Wind, Cutting Gale), and the blandest possible Faith list (Recover). Apparently, Lady Rhea never tried to inculcate Cyril into the faith.

Cyril is illiterate. Thus, it makes sense that he wouldn't be good with magic.

[Punished Dayni]

18 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Obviously it doesn't matter too much, but I'll cast a "no" vote. The game places the Eagles, Lions, Deer, and Faculty/Church together as groups when listing the characters in the in-game menus. Byleth is not placed with the faculty, but at the start of the list.

  That's what I thought.

It's time for a character who while I understand his priorities really needed improvements in his writing to not be a gimmick character.

Cyril cleans his statline again.

Spoiler

His bases and growths ain't so hot. Working off Chapter 5 bases here so he's level 9.

HP  Str Mag Dex  Spd Lck Def Res Cha
28    10    7    11    11    10    7    4    7

HP    Str    Mag    Dex    Spd    Lck    Def    Res    Cha
35%  20%  15%    40%    40%   30%   10%  10%    15%

None of this is all that great, his bases aren't all that great even  this early on only 10 Str and 11 Spd is unfortunate. But especially his growths; only 40% Spd and Dex to speak in his favour.... But. Thankfully this isn't his actual growths.

To go out of order here, his personal's Aptitude. So those growths I mentioned? Add 20%. He now has good enough Str, great Spd and Dex, even an alright 55/30/30 HP/Def/Res, making him the Est of our cast and he can easily be a fantastic unit.

However, there's a nasty surprise for those who want to wait: he autolevels in Commoner and it doesn't add Aptitude in growths. You know, the worst class to autolevel in. Combined with him working off his awful base growths. This is atrocious, encouraging recruiting sooner, I thankfully had the sense to go sooner in my Maddening, he might have been trash if I'd waited. The trouble is that his skill actively harms his potential on SS and no matter what Lockpick would have been better if the aptitude growths were just in his growths instead, making it possibly the worst skill in the game due to design fault. However looking at his stats as recorded, it seems to add up to his growths like as if he has no maddening modifier, which is also weird. Ugh.

He's crestless, so let's move on.

Cyril might have the best physical Strengths and Weaknesses in 3H. He gets Strengths in Lances, Axes, Bows, Riding and Flying. These are an amazing combination, 10/10. His weaknesses in Reason and Faith are irrelevant because.....

For Reason he gets Wind and Cutting Gale, Fatih gives him H + N and Recover, his magic's awful.

Cyril has some pretty good CAs. Lances give him Vengeance (If his HP were like Dedue it'd be amazing, but he's alright enough with it.) and Lance Jab (Working off his solid Spd is very nice), Axes give him Monster Breaker (Situational sure, but he gets pretty good access early on to it.) and Armoured Strike (I'd wish his Def was better because of this and wanting axes for class access, but alas) and Bows gives him Point-Blank Volley (Very nice with his canto class access). Authority skills give him Battalion Desperation (If his speed's good, well this is nice to have.).

His availability even in game can be awkward, being he's not available from the start and he also can't be used in Gronder, which is an issue if he was a core member of your squad. And that's ignoring SS where you can't get him before Chapter 12.

How did I find him?

Spoiler

In VW, I got a strong Cyril with 40 Str, sadly only 33 Spd and 30 Skl, but being a natural WL bow user was very nice regardless and despite his alright defences his 58 HP meant he always had bulk to work with. He also mastered Warrior, WR, Brigand, Fighter and Commoner as well as pretty decent ranks with A Axe and Flying, B+ Bow and Authority and C Lance.

Cyril died in CF. This will become a recurring thread.

In AM, he got access to archer as well as ending up much faster at 38 Spd, though weaker at 35 Str, with being otherwise similar to VW and having A rank Bows and Authority as well not mastering WR.

In SS, Yes I actually bothered to train him, I made it my goal to focus on the faculty and I DID IT DAMMIT. Turned out like AM, with less Authority in particular and only Archer, Brigand, Warrior and WL.

In Maddening, I ended up getting him before Chapter 6 and I used him in Part 1. He got a pretty serviceable role during that time and I can't deny having him for his bow use was goo throughout. I ended up dropping him early in Part 2 because I needed to reduce from 18 units. I certainly think that with 25 Str and 27 Spd at level 30 as a Warrior he would have been good jumping into WL and been a good replacement for Lorenz, but I have plenty of fliers as it stood. Also, 49 HP sounds high for level 30. He did struggle at first sadly, but I mean Lorenz was blasting fools, so could Cyril.

I think that with the tools he has access to he can fit into your squad with very little issue honestly. I cannot rank him as low as Ashe or Raphael, but I can can understand the investment. 6/10, partly because of the Aptitude screwover.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Cyril is illiterate. Thus, it makes sense that he wouldn't be good with magic.

Laughs in Nino

But yeah - even if mages no longer use tomes in Fodlan (the game isn't clear about this, as spells still use books as an icon), it appears that studying (i.e. reading) is a relevant step to learning new spells. One thing that's been pointed out is, every foreign-born character is weak in Faith.

[Dark Holy Elf]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

But yeah - even if mages no longer use tomes in Fodlan (the game isn't clear about this, as spells still use books as an icon), it appears that studying (i.e. reading) is a relevant step to learning new spells. One thing that's been pointed out is, every foreign-born character is weak in Faith.

In the case of faith talent, I'd say that's less about their reading ability (Petra's ability to read Fodlanese is explicitly good, after all) and more about their exposure to Fodlan religion, or the lack thereof. The other faith-weak characters (Edelgard, Hubert, Dorothea pre-budding talent) all have issues with religion. I don't recall Hilda's (the only other Fodlan-native faith-weak character) specific take on religion, though she certainly has an aversion to authority in general.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

In the case of faith talent, I'd say that's less about their reading ability (Petra's ability to read Fodlanese is explicitly good, after all) and more about their exposure to Fodlan religion, or the lack thereof. The other faith-weak characters (Edelgard, Hubert, Dorothea pre-budding talent) all have issues with religion. I don't recall Hilda's (the only other Fodlan-native faith-weak character) specific take on religion, though she certainly has an aversion to authority in general.

In this case though, shouldn't Byleth start out with a bane in Faith? Apparently, they're largely ignorant about the Church, despite growing up in Fodlan. Hapi, too, feels resentment toward the Church, yet she has one of the best Faith lists in the game. It's worth noting that Jeritza is Faith-weak, but I don't know his character well enough to tell if this tracks with either theory.

[Anathaco]

2 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

In this case though, shouldn't Byleth start out with a bane in Faith? Apparently, they're largely ignorant about the Church, despite growing up in Fodlan. Hapi, too, feels resentment toward the Church, yet she has one of the best Faith lists in the game. It's worth noting that Jeritza is Faith-weak, but I don't know his character well enough to tell if this tracks with either theory.

My assumption for the foreign characters is that they mainly just have religious beliefs that differ from those of Fodlan (ie Duscur's pagan religion, Almyra's blessing of the land, can't remember anything about Brigid) that keep them from being able to believe in anything that the Church preaches. As for Jeritza, he probably has the same issues with faith as Edelgard and Hubert since a) he sides with them, and b) his life was screwed over pretty badly by the Crest system in general (compared to somebody like Sylvain, who had similar issues with his Crest but either blames himself or the people around him for his troubles rather than the system as a whole, hence his faith neutrality.). As for Hapi, I chalked that down to her being bitter towards the Church's authority figures rather than the faith itself.

[Dark Holy Elf]

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

In this case though, shouldn't Byleth start out with a bane in Faith? Apparently, they're largely ignorant about the Church, despite growing up in Fodlan. Hapi, too, feels resentment toward the Church, yet she has one of the best Faith lists in the game. It's worth noting that Jeritza is Faith-weak, but I don't know his character well enough to tell if this tracks with either theory.

Well, Byleth does have Sothis inside them... still, I don't think it's a coincidence that Faith is a budding talent, suggesting they need some education about the Sothis religion in order to make good on their talent. Hapi has a great Faith list but notably is only neutral in Faith... you'd look at her list and you'd expect a boon, so to a certain extent I think the theory still holds.

We've kinda gone off topic a bit, oh well.

[Anathaco]

Whoops I never rated Cyril lol

7.5/10

Most people have already said everything worth mentioning about him and this score won’t count anyway, so I’ll keep it brief.

But his starting stats are poor and made up for by his early access to Point Blank Volley. Fun fact, his growth total with aptitude is the highest in the game, but they tended to put his growths in areas that are kinda not necessary, like HP, Dex and Luck. At the very least these stats help his crit rate and damage with vengeance, which he also has. Overall he’s probably one of the highest crit units in the game, can make up for his poor start and get better over time thanks to his good growths. Low bases plus not too much to make him stand out other than PBV keep him from going any higher.