Ice Dragon

The main reason to use Atk/Spd Oath 4 (or Atk/Spd Pledge) is because of the additional +3 Atk/Spd in combat that both skills come with. As long as the unit doesn't have a glaring need for a specific other skill in that slot (like a mobility skill, Time's Pulse, etc.), you almost always want a skill that grants an in-combat stat boost in the C slot. In the long run, the best setup (with existing skill series) would be Atk/Spd Pledge + Def Oath Echo / Res Oath Echo. Pledge is there to give you the in-combat boost to Atk/Spd, while the Oath Echo is there to give you the teleportation without stepping on each other's toes. Godlike Reflexes is only really viable on a unit that has both the Slaying effect and either +1 Special charge rate or Special Spiral (or an equivalent effect). You need to be able to guarantee that the skill will be fully charged at the start of every round of combat (except the first if the first round of combat is on player phase instead of enemy phase). Nino should do fine with Arcane Caliburnus. She'll miss out on getting the Litrblade effect from her base weapon, but the extra Spd and being able to more reliably land a Special should make up for it. Atk/Res Ploy 3 isn't great on her because her Res stat isn't particularly high. Even with Resplendent boosts, she has a maximum of 34 neutral Res with max Dragonflowers before merges and skills, which hits only 40 visible Res with merges and G Duel Infantry 4. While that'll hit most enemies (44 visible Res or lower), it misses pretty much every slow Res-based tank (as those typically have 50+ visible Res) and even has a decent chance to miss Brave Corrin, as a +10+5 Brave Corrin has 45 neutral Res. You can, of course, give up more Spd to run Still Water 3 or Phantom Res 3 in the Sacred Seal slot to help out and rely on Arcane Caliburnus's guaranteed follow-up, but it'll be even harder to contest any fast unit that has Null Follow-Up. However, I think it's better to build her with a more normal build instead (Remote Sparrow / Mag. Null Follow / Atk/Spd Oath 4). If you're looking for a good unit to make use of Sonya's Atk/Res Ploy 3, Bastian is by far the best unit for a single Sonya inheritance (and also the best recipient of Arcane Caliburnus in general). He has the highest Atk and highest Res among all viable candidates for Arcane Caliburnus (matching Brave Soren in Atk and only 1 point short in Res) and also has a base stat total high enough to not need G Duel Infantry 4 (180-181 after the first merge bonus) to max out his Arena score. He'll probably want to run something like this: Bastian [+Atk / +Res] Arcane Caliburnus [Res] [Assist] Flare Remote Mirror / Atk/Res Finish 4 / Fireflood Boost 3 / Still Water 4 Escape Route 4 / Null C-Disrupt 4 / Guard 4 / Mag. Null Follow / Sabotage A/R 3 Atk/Res Ploy 3 [any skill that boosts Atk/Res] / Still Water 3 / Phantom Res 3 No real order for slashed skills. Just make sure they play nice with each other and don't duplicate any of the effects that don't stack. Remote Mirror, Null C-Disrupt 4, and Guard 4 grant percentage damage reduction in case you don't want to rely only on debuffing opponents' Atk stats into the ground. Remote Mirror is obviously for player-phase use only, whereas the other options for the A slot are active on both phases. Finish 4 obviously doesn't play nice with Escape Route 4. EDIT: Areone [+Atk / +Def] Heired Gungnir [Assist] Aether / Ignis Atk/Def Clash 4 / Atk/Def Catch 4 / Sturdy Surge Gambit 4 Atk/Def Hold / Guidance 4 / Soaring Guidance [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Def] You don't really need Atk/Def Hold, as Atk/Def Rein 3 is good enough. The only advantage of Atk/Def Hold is 1 extra range for the debuff, so unless the Hold will boost your score by enough to matter, you can just run Rein until A/D Rein Snap is released. Aether gives a bigger Gambit boost and scores better. Ignis gives better performance if you have a teammate that can grant +1 Special charge rate, but comes at a cost of Arena score. Brash Assault 4, Guard Bearing 4, and A/D Near Trace are all decent alternative options for the B slot and let you run Ruptured Sky on him instead of Aether. Guard 4 is also an option (until we get Caldera Boost 3).

Arcane Caliburnus is the new Arcane green tome. It grants the usual Slaying effect, +5 to all stats, and a guaranteed follow-up. Its additional effects are +1 Special charge rate and stat bonus nullification on the opponent's Atk/Res. The +1 Special charge rate means it's compatible with Flare + Desperation 4, which is very nifty. You can also run it with Aether and actually have a functional Special as long as the opponent can counterattack and doesn't have Guard or Tempo. It's worth noting, though, that it has actual competition on fast units with Tea Party Ferdinand's Teatime Set, which grants +5 Atk/Spd, Canto (1), and Null Follow-Up, which grants the same boost to Spd and comes with Canto, but loses out on damage output due to the lower effective Atk and lack of Special acceleration of any kind. Rearmed Sonya being an infantry unit gives her some pretty good options for skill duplication. Flare is the most notable, and she can get that along with Mag. Null Follow and Time's Pulse 4 from Brave Soren at the same time. She also gets access to the Finish skills, Remote Sparrow, Remote Mirror, and the Oath skills. The only notable skill that she won't be able to duplicate is Flared Sparrow. As far as the best users of Arcane Caliburnus, Bastian easily comes out on top, having the highest Atk stat of all green tome units that don't already have an up-to-date exclusive weapon and having a massive Res stat to use Rearmed Sonya's Atk/Res Ploy 3. And here's everyone else:

Now that I'm back home and have a proper keyboard to type things on, here are the usual translation notes: The banner name, "Attuned: Peony & Triandra", is "響心ピアニー＆響心スカビオサ", (kyōshin pianī & kyōshin sukabiosa), "Resonance Peony & Resonance Triandra". The word for Attuned Heroes and Attuned skills is "響心" (kyōshin), "resonating hearts". Sonya's epithet, "Beautiful Mage", is "美しき魔道士" (utsukushiki madōshi), "Beautiful Mage". Arcane Caliburnus is "魔器カリブルヌス" (maki kariburunusu), "Arcane Weapon Caliburnus". As usual, the word for both Rearmed Heroes and Arcane weapon is "魔器" (maki), "magic weapon". Beyond Witchery is "魔女を超える者" (majo o koeru mono), "One Who Has Surpassed Witches". Atk/Res Ploy is "攻撃魔防の謀策" (kōgeki mabō no bōsaku), "Atk/Res Scheme". Mycen's epithet, "Zofia's Champion", is "ソフィアの英雄" (sofia no eiyū), "Hero of Zofia". Worldly Lance is "老練の槍" (rōren no yari), "Veteran's Lance". Joint Close Guard is "近距離相互警戒" (kinkyori sōgo keikai), "Close-Range Reciprocal Vigilance". Triandra's epithet, "Reverent Dream", is "献身の夢" (kenshin no yume), "Dream of Dedication". Flower of Tribute is "犠牲の花" (gisei no hana), "Flower of Sacrifice". Harrowing Dream is "こわいかこのゆめ" (kowai kako no yume), "Dream of a Frightening Past". Flow Refresh is "怒涛・再起" (dotō: saiki), "Surging Waves: Recovery". Death Blow Echo is "響・鬼神の一撃" (hibiki: kishin no ichigeki), "Resonance: Fierce Deity Strike". The prefix for Attuned skills is "響" (hibiki), "resonance" or "echo", which is an abbreviation for the word for Attuned Heroes and Attuned skills, "響心" (kyōshin), "resonating hearts". I'm unsure if it's intended to be read "hibiki", which is how it is read as a standalone word, or if it's intended to be read "kyō", which is how it is read in compound words, as this is clearly meant to be an abbreviation. Peony's epithet, "Cherished Dream", is "親愛の夢" (shin'ai no yume), "Dream of Deep Affection". Flower of Caring is "親愛の花" (shin'ai no hana), "Flower of Deep Affection". Tender Dream is "やさしいひとのゆめ" (yasashii hito no yume), "Dream of a Kind Person". Rockslide Dance is "疾風大地の舞い" (shippū daichi no mai), "Gale/Earth Dance". Cross Spur Spd is "速さの十字紋章" (hayasa no jūji monshō), "Spd Cross Emblem". "紋章" (monshō), "emblem", is the name of the Spur skill series. Atk Oath Echo is "響・攻撃の信義" (hibiki: kōgeki no shingi), "Resonance: Atk Loyalty". Hestia's epithet, "Duma's Witch", is "ドーマの魔女" (dōma no majo), "Duma's Witch". Marla's epithet, "Duma's Witch", is "ドーマの魔女" (dōma no majo), "Duma's Witch".

I really don't understand all of the commotion over this banner. We're literally at the bottom of the barrel for Echoes, and I don't see the value of making a banner full of characters that are at the bottom of the barrel, even with the novelty of finishing out a game's roster. I honestly would've preferred it if they made Mycen the instant demote and added an Ascended Hero to the banner if they were going to add yet another special unit type to the game and further reduce the rate that we get florets going forward. The thing that actually annoys me about this banner is the fact that they made both of the new skills in the X slot be offensive skills as if offensive units needed any more help killing things these days. According to the accompanying announcement explaining Attuned units, X skills cost zero SP to learn, so they wouldn't affect your Arena score either way.

The time zone for the English calendar is U.S. Pacific time, which is the literal worst time zone to pick because daylight savings time moves the daily reset from midnight during daylight savings to 11 PM the day before outside of daylight savings. (If they had picked U.S. Central time or anything east of that, we wouldn't have this problem even with the existence of daylight savings time.) Daylight savings time in the U.S. ends 5 November this year. This means that any event starting on 5 November or later needs to have a day added to the start date for most of the world, and all events need to have a day added to the end date for most of the world. @Diovani Bressan's vertical calendar listing uses the dates for any time zone UTC-6 or higher (U.S. Central time or east of that).

You just explained how they keep making more new game modes and events, though, and that's by sunsetting older game modes or events or at the very least running them less often. The difference here is that it's harder to really justify reducing the rate that any of the existing special unit types are released. Even with the diminishing pool of eligible Legendary Heroes, I don't think it's really in their interest to replace some of them with a new unit type due to the new bonus Legendary Hero mechanic in the Arena making it more worthwhile for competitive players to spend orbs on new Legendary Heroes. Duo Heroes could viably be partially replaced with a new unit type since the only major selling point of them over other units is their Duel scoring effect, but Duo Heroes currently occupy a slot on Special Heroes banners, and at least this time around, if we're getting a new unit type for Peony, it's not going to be one that goes on Special Heroes banners.

I wouldn't be surprised if we simply don't get a new unit type this year, and the new Peony is just Ascended Peony. As it is, we don't really have space for more unit types. Legendary and Mythic Heroes trade off one banner each month. Duo and Harmonized Heroes also trade off a unit slot in one banner each month. Ascended and Rearmed Heroes vie for spots on the other banner each month. We're no longer getting Ascended Florets every month anymore, and we still have a ways to go with filling out Arcane weapons. I think it would be better for them to make an improved version of Ascended Heroes in a similar fashion to how they made Pair-Up Legendary Heroes and extra-team-slot Mythic Heroes instead of introducing something brand new this year.

Embla Sheena is next up: Embla Gordin Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin Muspell Brave Roy Askr Innes Muspell Brave Lyn Ljosalfheimr Palla Ljosalfheimr Aversa Dokkalfheimr Cecilia Hel Surtr Nifl Ninian Hel Sigurd Hel Female Robin Ljosalfheimr Nina Muspell Lucius Jotunheimr Nephenee Muspell Male Morgan Dokkalfheimr Rhajat Dokkalfheimr Ursula Nifl Shigure Embla Sheena Embla is the second least recent outfit to be released with the previous one being Gordin at the very beginning of the year. That's almost as old as Nidavellir, but it's still not Nidavellir.

And the next Resplendent Hero is surprise, surprise yet another not-Nidavellir outfit. Embla Sheena is next: Her art is very pretty. Her stats, however, are pretty underwhelming. Axe armors are a fairly saturated class, and there simply are better options. There's very little reason to use Sheena over Murdock or Brave Edelgard. With max Dragonflowers, she has 52/37/32/43/40, which is too many points in Spd that could have gone to Atk. While the Resplendent boost makes her no longer the axe armor with the lowest base Atk stat in the game, Picnic Felicia's weapon is way stronger than anything Sheena has access to, so she functionally is still the axe armor with the lowest Atk stat. Defensively, she's not bad, being on par with Legendary Edelgard, but again, she lacks a weapon that can actually compare to refined Aymr. Her only real strength is that she has a higher Res stat than any of the other free-to-play axe armors, but in a meta where you no longer need to run Distant Counter on armors, Res isn't as useful anymore on an axe armor.

Lute is possible. Ewan is too recent. I have this post in the 2023 Resplendents thread that lists all of the units currently known to be eligible based on their release date: Right now, Surtr is the most recently released unit with a Resplendent outfit, but everyone up to (but not including) CYL 3 should be theoretically possible (since that's when Dragonflowers start to allow units to catch up to modern ones in terms of stat totals and Resplendent boosts are no longer needed in addition to do so).

While I would like to get Resplendent Catria to finally complete the Whitewings, she's unlikely to be next because it's unlikely that they'd release two 4-star lance fliers in a row. She also probably wouldn't get a Nidavellir outfit. As everyone probably already knows by now, I don't care who it is as long as it's a Nidavellir outfit. There are only 5 more Resplendent outfits left for this calendar year and there still hasn't been a single Nidavellir outfit. Similarly, Echoes, Thracia, and Radiant Dawn also haven't gotten an outfit yet this year, though Radiant Dawn only has 2 guaranteed eligible units left, so I also wouldn't expect one (though Nidavellir Zelgius would probably be pretty cool). From Echoes, Boey and Genny are still relevant due to their refined weapons, and from Thracia, I would personally like to see Finn get a Resplendent outfit. It's of course also worth noting that Myrrh, Tharja, and Camilla still don't have Resplendent outfits. And as far as other units that I haven't mentioned above that I'd like to see get outfits, there's Laevatein, Laegjarn, Hardin, Zephiel, Marisa, Black Knight, Owain, Hana, Hinoka, Peri, and Xander. More resplendent dancers would also be welcome since we only have Ninian and Azura (and they happen to both be Nifl outfits).

The main point to keep in mind between Ruptured Sky and Vital Astra (when you aren't building for the Dodge effect) isn't so much the fact that you have control over your damage with Vital Astra, but that in order for Ruptured Sky to hit the same amount of damage as Vital Astra against a human opponent, the opponent needs to have an Atk stat that is 1.5× higher than your Spd stat. A reasonably built Lumera will easily hit 60+ Spd, so the only time Ruptured Sky is hitting for more damage against human opponents is if they have 90+ Atk, and while it's not too uncommon for units to hit this much effective Atk, it's rare for them to hit this much actual Atk. Obviously, if you do need Ruptured Sky's damage boost against non-human opponents or if you are building towards Vital Astra's Dodge effect, that effect is obviously more meaningful than the couple points of regular Special damage. Time's Pulse 4 feels a bit weird on Lumera since at best, all it will do is lower her cooldown to 1 for the start of each round of combat. On player phase, the only difference is that she can land her Special against opponents that can't counterattack, and on enemy phase, the only difference is that she will land her Special on her first counterattack instead of her second, which really only matters if both Lumera and her opponent can double. I would personally lean more towards Atk/Spd Oath 4. Between Phys. Null Follow and Dodge 4, I think it mostly depends on how often you expect to run into opponents with weapons with the Brave effect compared to guaranteed follow-ups. Phys. Null Follow does better defensively against opponents with guaranteed follow-ups, whereas Dodge 4 does better defensively against opponents with the Brave effect. While you can run the Null Follow-Up Sacred Seal with Dodge 4 to get both effects, you're losing out on a Spd-boosting Sacred Seal, which I think is too high of a cost. (But if you have a teammate that can provide Null Follow-Up as a status effect, then definitely go with Dodge 4.) Spd/Res Hexblade is fine as a placeholder, though you'd ideally run something that boosts Atk/Spd instead. In general, the only time I would suggest running anything other than Atk/Spd on a fast unit is if the unit's primary role is as a fast tank and has a defensive effect that is based on their Def or Res. I'm always a bit leery of running an AoE Special without any way to charge it up on the first turn. But at the same time, this is coming from someone who runs Aether on a lot of my Legendary Heroes in the Arena, which is even worse in terms of performance, but they still do well enough even without a functional Special, so it probably isn't too big of a deal. Ideally, you'd find space for Infantry Pulse 4 somewhere on the team (on a unit with more HP than Soren, not on Soren himself since he really wants to keep his Ploy), which will fully charge Soren's Special by the start of turn 3, but that's not strictly necessary.

So I gave in and bought another orb pack in addition to the Otherworld Bond pack and did a few more pulls on the Legendary Hero banner. 71 pulls on the Legendary Hero banner: 1 Elincia 1 Hinoka 3 Chrom Total 208 pulls: 4 Elincia (+1 spark) 10 Hinoka 6 Chrom 9.6% focus rate is still about 2 or 3 pulls above average. But as always, the pulls are skewed towards the older units, and I'm 2 pulls below average on Elincia. So in the end, I have a +4 Elincia with an Atk Asset, 10 total copies of Chrom for skill duplication with a Spd Asset on the merge base, and a +10 Hinoka with a Spd Asset and 2 spare copies for... Deadeye or something.

Just one. You can check by using the button to go to the banner announcement from the banner screen, tapping on the blue text at the top about Celestial Stones, and seeing how many pulls it says you need to get one. If there is more than one spark, then there will be red text saying you'll get a spark and Celestial Stone at 40 pulls and 80 pulls (and 120 pulls and 160 pulls if there are that many sparks). On the notifications board (on the screen before opening the announcement), banners with more than one spark will have text in red and bold that uses the same wording.

This week's free Arena ticket gets me Echoes Catria: 40 pulls on the Hall of Forms banner: 3 Leila (+1 spark) 1 Ninian 1 pity breaker Priam Really good luck with Leila pulls. Leila is now +7, and I now have a copy with a Spd Asset that I can use as a merge base. 42 pulls on the Forging Bonds banner: 1 Alfred (+1 spark) 1 Alear 1 pity breaker Ascended Idunn Continuing to be an Ascended Hero magnet. Also got another copy of Duo Ephraim from the 4-star SR pool, which brings him up to +8, but it's yet another one with a Spd Asset. 289 pulls on the wind festival banner: 4 Kagero (+1 spark) 2 Dagr 1 Claude 4 5-star Catria 7 4-star Catria 6 pity breakers Brave Eirika Monica Gregor Brave Byleth Rhea Ascended Celica I think my complaining about Claude being broken as fuck made him not want to come home. I originally intended to pull less on this banner, but I had already gotten 11 copies of Catria and stopped pulling blue altogether before he finally came home. 3.8% focus rate is about 1 and a half pulls above average. 5.9% 5-star rate is about 1 and half pulls below average. None of my Kagero copies has an Atk or Spd Asset. But Dagr and Claude are both [+Atk, -Res], which is nice. 137 pulls on the Legendary Hero banner: 3 Elincia (+1 spark) 9 Hinoka 3 Chrom 10.9% focus rate is about 3 or 4 pulls above average, and they were all Hinoka. I now have a +10 Hinoka with 1 spare copy and have a copy with a Spd Asset as a new merge base. Hinoka reaching +10 is really nice since it means I'll actually have a fire team for Allegiance battles that doesn't suck at scoring. I now also have a Chrom with a Spd Asset. Elincia has an Atk Asset. There's a chance that I might put another orb pack into this banner before it ends since there aren't remix banners this month and hope for another copy of Elincia and Chrom, but we'll see.

Added translation notes for Tempest Trials boss Peony's epithet and weapon.

Don't worry too much about double posts in this thread. Making sure questions are seen and answered is generally more important than avoiding double posts. Special Spiral 4's percentage damage reduction nullification excludes AoE Specials, so the only benefit you'd get from it over Special Spiral 3 is the additional 5 damage. Unless you have a lot of Special Spiral 4 fodder or you have extra empty inheritance slots left over while transferring a different skill, it's probably not worth getting Special Spiral 4 for an AoE Special. Cyril's weapon pretty much just gives him something like +25/13/10/10, penalty nullification, and nothing else. And while his stat total is extremely high, pretty much all of those extra points are in HP. That's not a bad thing, though, since his other stats are all still comparable with other modern units, and the introduction of Infantry Pulse 4 gives him a potential use for the high HP. His best builds will probably center around which A skill you pick for him, as I can see him running any of Remote Sparrow, Flash Sparrow, or Atk/Spd Finish 4 pretty decently. Since Cyril has basically no skill effects on his weapon, these are all basically cookie-cutter builds, so you can run them on pretty much anyone with adjustments based on what skill effects they get from their weapon. (It's worth noting that for these cookie-cutter builds even low-HP units can viably run Infantry Pulse 4. You obviously lose the support effect, but Infantry Pulse 4 activates at the start of every turn with no condition, unlike Time's Pulse 4, which is conditional on your Special being fully uncharged. For units that aren't running a 1-cooldown Special and aren't running Special Spiral, this makes a pretty big difference.) With Remote Sparrow: Cyril [+Spd] Aptitude Arrows [Assist] Ruptured Sky Remote Sparrow Phys. Null Follow / Escape Route 4 / Spd/Def Tempo 3 Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Pledge / Infantry Pulse 4 / Time's Pulse 4 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Null Follow-Up 3 Pledge and the Pulse 4 skills are there to get the Special to land if the opponent can't counterattack. You can also use them with Deadeye (either Pledge or Pulse) or Astra (Pledge only) against an opponent that can counterattack and doesn't have Guard or Tempo. Oath 4 is really only usable if you are expecting the opponent to be able to counterattack. Obviously, don't run the Null Follow-Up Sacred Seal if you're running Phys. Null Follow in the B slot. With Flash Sparrow or Atk/Spd Finish 4: Cyril [+Spd] Aptitude Arrows [Assist] Ruptured Sky / Deadeye / Astra Flash Sparrow / Atk/Spd Finish 4 Desperation 4 / Brash Assault 4 / Special Spiral 4 Atk/Spd Oath 4 / Atk/Spd Pledge / Infantry Pulse 4 / Time's Pulse 4 [any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd] / Null Follow-Up 3 Obviously don't stack effects that don't stack and pick your Special based on what you can actually land on your follow-up attack. Note that Desperation 4 gives you fewer options for the other slots (Ruptured Sky + Flash Sparrow + Oath 4 // Ruptured Sky + Atk/Spd Finish 4 + Pledge // Deadeye + Flash Sparrow + Pulse 4) than Brash Assault 4. Def/Res Smoke 3 is also an option for either of the above builds as an alternative to Atk/Spd Oath 4 if you are willing to pass up on the mobility and combat performance in exchange for the Pathfinder effect for support. Duel skills are only worth using if the increase in score is enough to move you up above or keep you above a scoring threshold that you're targeting. More specifically, they are only potentially worth running if your Arena team includes units that aren't fully merged and you have older fully merged units that could replace them. As a reminder: 1 stat bucket (5 stat points) is worth an average 0.5 Arena points per match Includes base stats, Asset, Flaw, and first-merge bonus (nullified Flaw or 3 +1 stats) Excludes Ascended Asset, Dragonflowers, blessing bonuses, summoner support bonuses, stats from skills, and anything else not listed in "includes" 1 SP bucket (100 SP) is worth an average 0.5 Arena points per match 1 merge is worth an average 1.0 Arena points per match If you're using the bonus Legendary Hero, check with an Arena score calculator to see if a change of less than 2 Arena points will change your maximum score.

Threaten Atk/Def and Even Tempest are squarely in the "what's the point?" category of Sacred Seals. What do they have against Atk/Spd Ideal or Null C-Disrupt? Or even Atk/Def Ideal? And the sooner they finish the Ideal and Catch series, the sooner I can start complaining about the glacial pace they're releasing the Clash series (since I don't see them releasing Finish anytime soon). We're currently only missing Spd/Res Catch, Atk/Spd Ideal, and Atk/Def Ideal from those series.

Added Kellam's weapon to the translation notes. It's the same as Seadall's, but granting stat bonuses in Atk/Def instead of Atk/Res. I laughed when I saw Kellam's garish outfit, and I can't decide if it's trying to draw attention or trying to camouflage. But probably both.

@Tybrosion Rearmed Lif is named "LIF2" instead of "LIF_WEAPON01" like the other Rearmed units, so the new unit having a "2" suffix instead of a "WEAPON" suffix doesn't actually completely disqualify them from being a Rearmed unit. Granted, this could just be because Lif was the first one and they hadn't come up with a suffix for them yet, but it's also worth noting that Ganglot has no suffix at all. And yes, that was the first version of Ganglot, but Rearmed Eitr was also the first version of Eitr, and she does have the "WEAPON" suffix. There hasn't been any exceptions to Ascended Heroes that I'm aware of, but Heroes characters are already weird as fuck in their internal naming schemes (I believe they're the only ones that don't get the "GOD" suffix as Mythic Heroes, too), so there's honestly no telling if it's Ascended, Rearmed, or something else just from that. As for the actual characters themselves:

Heath: Hyperion Lance Base effect is: Effective damage against cavalry With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's Atk/Spd/Def in combat by 10% of unit's Def at start of combat Guard effect Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats Guaranteed follow-up During first round of combat on each phase: 40% damage reduction on opponent's attacks and AoE Specials, excluding Rokkr Specials During subsequent rounds of combat on each phase: 20% damage reduction on opponent's attacks and AoE Specials, excluding Rokkr Specials Heath keeps his effective damage, as I suspected he would. Additionally, he gains about +12~14 to all stats depending on his Def stat, a guaranteed follow-up, Guard, and a slightly weaker version of Guard Bearing 4, but that grants the boosted damage reduction on both phases instead of only enemy phase. Compared to Trabant's weapon, he receives a smaller boost to effective Def due to the lower scaling (Trabant's is 15% of Def), but instead gets a boost to Atk and Spd based on his Def stat (which Trabant doesn't get). Heath also doesn't get Special acceleration, but instead gets a weaker, dual-phase version of Guard Bearing 4. The Atk boost is pretty useful since it allows him to at least pass up most of the other slow dragon knights in raw Atk, but it still falls behind Spring Michalis and Areone and lacks any form of Special acceleration, which is at least somewhat justified. His previously middling Spd stat gets a pretty huge boost, and he might actually be able to compete with actually fast units when run with a Spd Asset. Even if he gets only +12 Spd from his weapon, that puts him at the equivalent of 43 base neutral Spd for a current-generation unit (if he has maximum-minus-5 Dragonflower levels and the current-generation unit has none) with only weapons equipped, which is actually competitive. The only weird thing is you'll probably want to run him with Spd/Def skills in his A slot and Sacred Seal slot to get additional Spd boosts, which means passing up on Atk, and that's a bit awkward. Chad: Wildcat Dagger Base effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Boosts all stats in combat equal to the opponent's stat bonus on the corresponding stat Reduces all opponent's stats in combat equal to the opponent's stat bonus on the corresponding stat Offensive Tempo effect Refine effect is: With a Blow condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher: +4 to all stats in combat 30% damage reduction on opponent's first attack Additional damage equal to 10% of Spd, excluding AoE Specials Okay, that's one way to fix Chad's stats. They just flat-out give him Binding Necklace, which grants a maximum of +12 to all stats. On top of that, he gets the usual +8 to all stats, additional damage equal to 10% of his Spd, 30% damage reduction from the opponent's first attack, and the offensive Tempo effect. This kit is just asking you to give him Flash Sparrow and Lethality. Nothing else to say because Binding Necklace is just somewhat kind of broken. Lakche: Larcei's Edge Base effect is updated: Slaying effect If unit's Spd is higher than opponent's Spd at start of combat or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher (previously 100%) at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Nullifies opponent's stat bonuses Offensive Tempo effect (new) Refine effect is: If Special cooldown is at maximum at start of turn: -1 Special cooldown If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Additional damage equal to 15% of Spd, excluding AoE Specials If Special cooldown is at maximum after combat: -1 Special cooldown Lakche doesn't get Null Follow-Up, but she does get offensive Tempo. She also gets Time's Pulse 4, but the after-combat part of is conditional on her HP at the start of combat. Other than that, she also gets an additional +4 to all stats and additional damage based on her Spd. Honestly, it's probably better to switch her over to Vital Astra and Phys. Null Follow instead of her default Regnal Astra and Repel. Her weapon effectively having Time's Pulse 4 on it also means her C slot is open to run Atk/Spd Oath 4 instead of Time's Pulse 4. So as expected, she just does fast infantry sword things, just as before. Tsubasa: Mirage Feather Base effect is updated: Effective damage against armor and cavalry Permanent +3 Spd With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +6 Atk/Spd in combat (previously with a Blow condition and if at least 1 ally has ended their turn) Offensive Null Follow-Up effect (new) With a Blow condition and if at least 1 ally has ended their turn: Desperation effect Refine effect is: Canto (2) If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +5 Atk/Spd in combat Nullifies stat penalties to Atk/Spd With a Blow condition and if at least 1 ally has ended their turn: +5 Atk/Spd in combat So Tsubasa ended up still being player-phase-centric, but still gets some decent boosts on enemy phase. The stats from her base effect were moved to a Blow-or-Unity condition, which the Desperation effect remains on the old condition. She gains an additional +5 Atk/Spd, another +5 Atk/Spd with the unrefined weapon's condition, offensive Null Follow-Up, nullifies stat penalties to Atk/Spd, and Canto (2). Overall, she gets a total +16 Atk/Spd on player phase if at least 1 ally has ended their turn, which is a lot of stats, and she has both Null Follow-Up and Desperation to go along with it to avoid taking damage. She also has Canto (2), which means her B slot is open to run something like Wings of Mercy 4 or even Windsweep. Spring Fir: Bun-Bun Baton Base effect is updated: Effective damage against armor Slaying effect Null Follow-Up effect If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat (new) Offensive Tempo effect (new) Refine effect is: +7 Phantom Spd With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's non-Special percentage damage reduction by half Dodge 3 No Canto is a bit of a bummer, but I can't believe she actually got Phantom Spd to match an opponent's Dodge 4. She also gets +8 to all stats, offensive Tempo, Dodge 3, and halves the opponent's percentage damage reduction. That's not quite as much as I wanted, but is about as much as I expected. Dodge 3 means she doesn't necessarily need to Sweep anymore and can run something else, but Windsweep is still a pretty good option. Interestingly, her refine effect uses the Stance condition instead of the Blow condition as its phase-based condition, which is a bit weird, but armors these days are more likely to be weaker on their player phase than on their enemy phase, but the player-phase condition is still easy enough to fulfill. The Stance condition also pairs well with Guard Bearing 4. Overall thoughts Chad's and Tsubasa's look to be the best ones in this batch. Chad getting Binding Necklace came out of left field, and the total potential +20 to all stats is insane. Tsubasa gets a reliable +16 Atk/Spd and Null Follow-Up to pair with the existing Desperation effect. Fir's is extremely solid, but isn't quite as insane as the previous two, and not getting Canto is a bit of a bummer. Lakche's is also solid, but it's pretty much just what every other fast sword infantry does. Heath's is good, but he's not quite as strong offensively as Trabant due to his lack of Special acceleration and not quite as strong defensively as Cormag due to his lack of flat damage reduction. However, he's now legitimately fast, but has to pick between running Atk/Spd skills or Spd/Def skills since he might actually want those 1~2 extra points of Spd.

I'm glad this banner doesn't have stupidly broken stuff like Wind Claude on it. Harmonized Anna seems fun, though. And it looks like Brave Marth's refine effect has now been made into Bonus Doubler 4. Seadall's weapon is also an inheritable weapon with Bonus Doubler 4 on it. I'm glad that inheritable weapons are getting stronger. It's probably because of the existence of Arcane weapons since there's otherwise no reason not to use an Arcane weapon if you have access to one. Anyways, here's the usual translation notes: The name of the banner, "Merchant's Harvest", is "商売人の収穫祭" (shōbai-nin no shūkakusai), either "Merchants' Harvest Festival" or "Merchant's Harvest Festival". Timerra's epithet, "Trick or Meat", is "お菓子よりお肉" (okashi yori oniku), "Meat Instead of Candy". Inspirited Spear is "舞い踊る満月の宝槍" (mai-odoru mangetsu no hōsō), "Treasure Lance of the Dancing Full Moon". Bonus Doubler is "強化増幅" (kyōka zōfuku), "Bonus Amplification". "強化" (kyōka), "strengthening", is the term used for stat bonuses. Flayn's epithet, "Silly Kitty-Cat", is "おとぼけ猫仮装" (otoboke neko kasō), "Feigning Ignorance in a Cat Costume". Kitty-Cat Parasol is "妖猫の日傘" (yōbyō no higasa), "Demon Cat's Parasol". "妖猫" is a novel compound and is probably read "yōbyō", though I've also seen "ayashineko". It presumably refers to supernatural cats, similarly to Japan's kaibyō. Dazzle Far Trace is "幻惑・遠影" (genwaku: en'ei), "Dazzlement: Far Trace". "幻惑" (genwaku) refers to Dazzling Staff, which is "幻惑の杖" (genwaku no tsue), "Staff of Dazzlement". As usual, "影" (ei), "trace", refers to a trace as in something that is left behind when the source is no longer there, as the word more typically means "shadow" or "image". Seadall's epithet, "Misfortune-Teller", is "悪戯な占い師" (itazura na uranaishi), "Mischievous Fortune Teller". Pumpkin Stem is "カボチャステッキ" (kabocha sutekki), "Pumpkin Cane". While "ステッキ" (sutekki) is derived from English "stick", it normally refers to a walking stick or cane. Anna's epithet, "Twice the Anna", is "アンナとアンナ" (anna to anna), "Anna and Anna". Payday Pouch is "一攫千金の巨大袋" (ikkaku senkin no kyodai fukuro), "Huge Bag of Windfalls". "一攫千金" (ikkaku senkin) is an idiom that means "to make a fortune all at once" and translates literally as "a thousand gold in a single stroke". A/S Rein Snap is "攻速牽制・運び手" (kōsoku kensei: hakobi te), "A/S Restraint: Carrier". As usual, "攻速牽制" (kōsoku kensei), "A/S Restraint", is an abbreviation of "攻撃速さの牽制" (kōgeki hayasa no kensei), "Atk/Spd Restraint", which is the name of the Atk/Spd Rein skill. Kellam's epithet, "Pumpkin Knight", is "かぼちゃ重騎士" (kabocha jūkishi), "Pumpkin Armor Knight". "重騎士" (jūkishi), literally "heavy knight", is the name of the Armor Knight class, usually localized as "Knight". Farmer's Tool is "農具" (nōgu), "Farming Implement". Peony's epithet, "Cherished Dream", is "親愛の夢" (shin'ai no yume), "Dream of Deep Affection". Flower of Caring is "親愛の花" (shin'ai no hana), "Flower of Deep Affection". The Japanese game is amusingly indecisive with their spelling of kabocha, "pumpkin", which can be seen with Pumpkin Stem's kabocha written in katakana (same as the Hack-o'-Lantern weapon), but Pumpkin Knight's kabocha written in hiragana (same as the Pumpkin Lanterns Aether Resort decoration). Both are standard spellings and there is no functional difference between the two, but it's always amusing to see this happen (especially with instances this close to each other), even when it's pretty commonplace due to the number of words in Japanese that have multiple standard spellings.

Probably because despite the complaints, it probably still has the highest or one of the highest participation numbers compared to other events.

They're all generic bosses from the Akaneia games.

Tellius is missing Nasir and Gareth. Fates is also missing Lilith.