Ice Dragon

Close Call 4 and Repel 4 give better combat performance (+4 Atk/Spd, +7 Phantom Spd, and up to 50% damage reduction), whereas Escape Route 4 gives more mobility (+3 Spd/Def/Res, Canto (1), and teleportation effects). Between Close Call and Repel, the main difference is whether or not you want your unit to move after combat. Close Call can be useful if you're running Def/Res Smoke 3 to make better use of the Pathfinder effect, but it can also just as easily screw you over since its movement is forced. Escape Route doesn't have as good of effects for combat performance, but it also pairs well with Def/Res Smoke 3 due to granting Canto (1) and actually letting you choose where you move with it. Escape Route also grants a higher ceiling for Spd creeping when run with Clash, though you lose out on the damage reduction and the Phantom Spd effect. Which is better is really down to preference and whether or not you have the resources to get them normally (Close Call 4 and Repel 4 are both in the standard pool, but Escape Route 4 is not).

If you haven't already spent dew to refine Beloved Zofia, you can grab it to save on spending dew. Otherwise, the best inheritable weapons are either Petalfall Blade+ [Spd] or Florid Cane+ [Spd]. For reference, Petalfall Blade comes from Valentine Hana, who is a 4-star Special Hero, and Florid Cane comes from Thief Rickard, who is a Grail unit. For the Assist slot, any skill worth 300 SP is fine. However, I typically prefer Rally Atk/Spd+ or Harsh Command+ because they have the most general utility. However, you can pick a different Rally if, for example, you run a lot of units with Atk/Spd boosts in the C slot where Rally Atk/Spd+ would end up useless. Vital Astra is probably her best option for the Special slot, followed by Ruptured Sky. While she can't reliably have Vital Astra fully charged at the start of combat unless she's running Special Spiral, it grants more consistent damage compared to Ruptured Sky and will occasionally still give you its damage reduction effect at the cost of having less power against dragons and beasts. She also has access to Godlike Reflexes, but lacks the skill effects to make use of it unless you replace her weapon with Arcane Devourer. Due to the fact that Beloved Zofia prevents Celica from being at full health at the start of combat except for her first round of combat, you don't usually want to run Atk/Spd Ideal on her because then you're reliant on her having a Bonus to get just one stack of stats. Her best skills in the A slot are Atk/Spd Finish 4, Surge Sparrow, Atk/Spd Clash 4, Atk/Spd Hexblade, and Distant Pressure. Surge Sparrow grants more sustain, but is restricted to player-phase usage. Atk/Spd Finish and Atk/Spd Hexblade are the strongest options with reliable performance, with Finish granting a bit more sustain and Hexblade granting a bit more damage against units with high Def, but low Res. Atk/Spd Clash is inconsistent, but pairs extremely well with Escape Route 4 and is also a good enemy-phase skill against certain pesky 4-movement cavalry. Distant Pressure is the best general-use Distant Counter skill. It can be substituted for Distant Dart for a pure enemy-phase build or if you already have the resources to give her Distant Pressure normally, but those are really the only reasons I see for running it over Pressure. Her best options for the B slot are Close Call 4, Repel 4, and Escape Route 4. Escape Route is notably always active after her first round of combat due to Beloved Zofia's recoil damage. Special Spiral 4 is a decent alternative option depending on what you want to do with her, and she also has access to Velocity 3 if you don't mind waiting to get its tier-4 version normally for whatever reason. The best skills for the C slot are Atk/Spd Oath 4, Atk/Spd Menace, Time's Pulse 4, and Def/Res Smoke 3. Time's Pulse is currently the rarest option, but it's also not entirely necessary since Celica can activate Ruptured Sky or Vital Astra on her follow-up as long as the opponent can counterattack and doesn't have Guard. Atk/Spd Oath is the next rarest option and is probably the most valuable option to grab because Atk/Spd Menace has pretty decent distribution. However, Def/Res Smoke is currently only available from Special Heroes and has good support utility. EDIT: Forgot about Def/Res Smoke.

I personally haven't had too much trouble getting Nerthuz transformed since I have Ash and Mila on every Light offense team for points and functional value. Light season also has Freyja and Askr as on-season Mythic Heroes that don't impede Nerthuz's transformation. Additionally, Nerthuz isn't really in significant need of the Impact effect anyways. I've found that she has a pretty bad habit of one-shotting things and failing to activate Galeforce because of it.

Every 5-star standard pool unit that gets a refine is in the 4-star SR pool (or will drop shortly after). These weapons are still just as good as they were before within the usual amount of variance. Regular Edelgard has access to Tempo, so as long as she gets counterattacked at least once in the two rounds of combat she gets with her weapon's Raging Storm effect, she's guaranteed to activate Galeforce anyways. Edelgard also doesn't sacrifice her B slot for Raging Storm, so she gets access to whatever newfangled things come out in the future, whereas Legendary Edelgard is stuck having to run Raging Storm in her B slot for the effect. Edelgard's refine would've been plenty good enough even if all it got were the obligatory stats and Raging Storm. I think you're undervaluing having Raging Storm not take up a skill slot.

Yeah, that's not happening. The developers go out of their way to give a justification to every banner that isn't just normal characters, no matter how flimsy the justification is. A banner with no in-universe justification isn't happening. I personally would rather not have a banner like this and would rather just get characters as they are in different costumes, but I'm here giving you some way it could be done. Just take it.

Most Fallen heroes don't need an explanation because they are already canon. I believe the rest can all be explained as "post-game over" states summoned from a world after the player failed a chapter.

And I'm not sure why you're so opposed to "shenanigans happened" as a justification for this to happen. You asked what Loki had to do with any of this. And I'm telling you that Loki is their best option to justify making this happen.

Added Linus's weapon to the translation notes. Unrelated to the translation, but I'm a bit disappointed Linus's weapon doesn't have Distant Counter since its design is clearly based on the Tomahawk that he has when fought as a Morph. That said, I find it amusing that it has Freyja's Binding Necklace's effect.

The reason why shenanigans are required is the fact that these genderswapped characters don't canonically exist in any known alternate universe. The child characters do canonically exist, but aren't canonically stronger than their grown-up versions and need Thorr to patch that up. Also, there is an in-universe justification for these specific characters to canonically have genderswapped versions. The fact that they are the avatar of the player and therefore have the ability to see the map from above is at a minimum semi-canon in-universe (it's at least mentioned in Warriors, and I don't remember if it's mentioned in Blazing's tutorial due to how long it's been since I've played the game). Even if they are unaware that they are the player's avatar, they are aware that they have that ability, and it seems like this would be more than a coincidence in-universe for these two traits to consistently appear on the same character. (And the non-avatar characters that can be genderswapped are all children of the avatar character and are just a downstream consequence of the avatar character being able to be genderswapped.)

To be entirely fair, the last time we got a Nifl outfit was June of last year with Matthew, so it's been a very long time. But I wish they would've picked a character that didn't literally have the exact same color palette as the outfit theme. Ninian was already white, cyan, and gold. As far as stats go, the Resplendent boosts bring Ninian HP up to 49 with max Dragonflowers. Given that she doesn't have an exclusive weapon and isn't expected to get one anytime soon, this gives her an additional 2 points against melee units with refined exclusive weapons, 3 points against ranged units with refined inheritable weapons, and 5 points against ranged units with refined exclusive weapons and all units with unrefinable exclusive weapons. Ninian already had the highest HP of all dancers if you didn't replace Nils's and Fallen Ninian's weapons with inheritable ones, but the stat boost allows her to tie with Nils for the highest HP before accounting for refines, meaning she's now strictly the best dancer to use for HP comparison debuffs. Resplendent Ninian is still not recommended for combat use with her 31/40 offenses or her 30/34 defenses for that matter. Arcane Grima can patch up her Atk a little bit, but there's still no reason to actually use her for combat unless you absolutely have to.

We get our first Nifl outfit this year on a character that already looks like they're in a Nifl outfit. Embla Gordin Dokkalfheimr Female Corrin Muspell Brave Roy Askr Innes Muspell Brave Lyn Ljosalfheimr Palla Ljosalfheimr Aversa Dokkalfheimr Cecilia Hel Surtr Nifl Ninian Meanwhile, Nidavellir is still sitting here with only 4 outfits. The second lowest, Jotunheimr, is a full 2 outfits ahead despite their first outfit being released half a year later. EDIT: Added a list of "how long it's been since the last time we've had this theme": It's now been 6 months since the last time we've gotten Nidavellir. Though to be entirely fair, the last time we had Nifl was way longer ago with Matthew, just shy of a full year ago (2022-06-25).

The next Resplendent Hero is Nifl Ninian: This feels like a giant cop-out. Her eyes are a bit off on her idle art, but otherwise the art is good. But it's literally just regular Ninian with corners and thus doesn't really have any of the flair I'd expect out of Resplendent outfits.

Fallen Ike appeared as a Cipher card before he was released in Heroes. Child versions of characters necessarily exist in-universe, even if we never see them. Genderswapped versions of characters don't yet exist for any character other than the playable characters. Thorr is canonically the one that makes the child alts into what they are. Loki can surely pull her own shenanigans to make alts, and she's known to pull shenanigans.

"Rating" is the unit's visible stat total, i.e. the original Arena scoring method that was ditched after only a couple months because everyone just ran Fury.

Melee cavalry and melee flying dancers typically want Near Trace. Ranged cavalry dancers can run Far Trace or Firestorm Dance 3. The former grants Canto (Rem.), whereas the later grants Canto (1), which is sometimes the superior option. Ranged flying dancers have a greater argument for running Firestorm Dance 3 over Far Trace due to having less movement to activate Canto (Rem.) off of. Infantry dancers don't have access to Trace skills and only have access to Firestorm Dance 3 for Canto. Wings of Mercy is always a decent option regardless of the class. Aerobatics and Flier Formation are also good mobility options for fliers depending on who their teammates are, even if they are both available as Sacred Seals. Escape Route 4 is a really good mobility option, but is only really viable for dancers that have the combat performance to actually fight a round of combat now and then (and isn't Legendary Ninian, who has Sweep to avoid taking damage). Cantrip skills are decent, but are hard to get, and it might be worth waiting until tier-4 versions of them are released before going for them. Ninian, Fallen Ninian, and Nils can run HP-comparison debuffs like Sudden Panic or Pulse Tie. Rafiel can run Res-comparison debuffs.

Japanese skill descriptions are usually better worded, and here's how that particular line reads there: 以下の効果は、自軍で１マップ１回のみ。 Ika no kōka wa, jigun de 1 mappu 1 kai nomi. The below effect [occurs] for one's own team only once per map. Compare the wording to the condition on Meisterbogen's follow-up prevention, which is definitively for the player only: プレイヤー操作時のみ pureiyā sōsa-toki nomi Only when under the player's control However, compare the wording to the disclaimer on Duo and Harmonized skills that do not refresh (Harmonized skills use identical wording, but with "Harmonized" instead of "Duo"): 比翼スキルは　マップ中１回、「比翼ボタン」を押して使用可能。 Hiyoku sukiru wa mappu-chū 1 kai, "hiyoku botan" o oshite shiyō kanō. Once during a map, the Duo Skill can be used by pressing the "Duo button". And the disclaimer on Life Unending's healing effect and Circlet of Balance's Miracle effect (Life Unending does not have the period at the end): １マップ１回のみ。 1 mappu 1 kai nomi. Only once per map. There does not appear to be another skill in the game that specifically uses the same wording as Sacrifice Staff, which is a bit weird, but the wording uses "one's own" instead of "the player". If anyone remembers any other skill effects that activate only once per map or that activate only when under player control (and explicitly says so, not just references a mechanic only the player can use, like supports), let me know, and I'll grab the Japanese text for it and see if it's different.

I traded my Legendary Eliwood for the opponent's Brave Seliph on turn 2, so it didn't end up being an issue in the long run, but it was annoying not having Canto (1) on my entire team to set up on the first turn. I was also feeling lazy, so I stopped playing after 1 match after realizing that the 1 win put me safely in the top 400 and instead just went to test out the extent of this strange behavior. The weird part is that this presumed bug only applies to Legendary Heroes matching the current season, which meant that my Robin and Ninian could get extra stats from Pair Up (Robin didn't have a partner at the time, but Ninian did and was getting extra stats and Eliwood's buffs), but Eliwood couldn't (and he's the one that would've benefited most from it).

Eyvel: Freeblade's Edge Base effect is: With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Guard effect 30% damage reduction from non-Rokkr AoE Specials and opponent's first attack Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat Guaranteed follow-up Additional damage equal to 15% of Def, including AoE Specials Eyvel keeps the Guard effect from her original Guard Sword and gains a guaranteed follow-up to make up for her middling Spd and additional damage based on her Def stat to make up for her middling Atk that comes out to about 7-10 extra damage depending on her build. She also gets percentage damage reduction from AoE Specials and the opponent's first attack, which wasn't in my predictions, but is commonplace at this point. Unfortunately, she doesn't get any form of Special acceleration at all, making it difficult to run her default Ignis or any Special with more than 2 cooldown, for that matter. This puts her at least on par with or slightly ahead of Gregor, Flame Rinkah with either Arcane sword, or Skasaher with Arcane Eljudnir for physically bulky sword infantry, but the lack of Special acceleration really hurts her since it prevents her from running stronger Specials like Bonfire or Ignis or Specials with defensive boosts like Vital Astra or Godlike Reflexes. Ewan: Pupil's Tome Base effect is: With a Blow condition or if opponent is a ranged weapon class: +4 to all stats in combat 30% damage reduction from opponent's first attack Nullifies penalties to Atk/Res Refine effect is: If there is an ally within 3 spaces: +4 to all stats in combat Reduces opponent's Atk/Res by 20% of unit's Res at start of combat Guaranteed follow-up Ewan does get the guaranteed follow-up that he needs, which is good. Additionally, they don't lean into his base kit, which I think is the correct choice. Instead, he gets a bulky build with damage reduction on the opponent's first attack, a reduction to the opponent's Atk/Res based on his own Res that comes out to about 8-11 points depending on his build, and nullification of penalties to his Atk/Res. This basically makes him a better version of Julius with a larger stat boost and guaranteed follow-up in exchange for potentially less damage reduction, though it cannot be nullified by the opponent simply having more Res. That said, he lacks Special acceleration, Guard, follow-up prevention, and damage reduction against AoE Specials and ultimately still falls behind more recent bulky tomes like Duo Askr, Duo Mark, Arval, and Gotoh. Nullification of Atk/Res penalties is cool, but is now a double-edged sword. It gives immunity to tier-4 Seal skills and allows Ewan to function as a counter to Ninja Camilla, but it also prevents him from using Grand Strategy shenanigans. Valbar: Valbar's Lance Base effect is: If there is an ally within 3 spaces: +5 Atk/Def in combat With a Stance condition: 60% damage reduction from opponent's follow-up attack(s) Refine effect is: With a Stance condition or if opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: +5 Atk/Def in combat +1 Special charge rate 7 HP regeneration after combat I'm a bit surprised he loses the Brave effect and doesn't have it on either phase. On the other hand, he at least switches his skill effects to function on enemy phase like a traditional armor. He gets +1 Special charge rate, but no Slaying effect, which means he can run Hardy Fighter, but only with Escutcheon and not Pavise, though I don't think that's really much of an issue. However, he doesn't get a guaranteed follow-up, so he'd need to run the Quick Riposte Sacred Seal if you want a counterattack follow-up. Otherwise, he's still perfectly viable for a traditional Crafty Fighter build. With his refine, I think Valbar makes a pretty solid pick for a Near Save tank. Cormag: Revenger Lance Base effect is: Slaying effect With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +4 to all stats in combat If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat: Guaranteed follow-up Refine effect is: If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat The offensive half of Tempo Reduces damage taken by 15% of Def Cormag keeps the Slaying effect from his original Slaying Lance, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the previous units on this list. He also gets his expected guaranteed follow-up. Tempo is a great effect to have on a flier since they normally can't get the effect otherwise, and he gets flat damage reduction based on his Def, coming out to about 7-10 points. His obligatory stat boost also grants a boost to Spd instead of being limited to Atk/Def/Res. Flat damage reduction obviously combines well with Guard Bearing if he goes for an enemy-phase build. Guard 4 also gives him an option for a dual-phase build. You can still opt for the more standard Trace, but I think that's a bit of a waste. The Slaying effect and Tempo gives him a guaranteed activation of a 2-cooldown Special on his follow-up attack if the opponent cannot counterattack or a 3-cooldown Special if the opponent can. If you don't mind restricting him to player phase, he can run Surge for healing off of the Special activation. He'll probably still have trouble with fast units that have Null Follow-Up, but most of them are swords, which at least makes them less threatening. Lif: Sokkvabekkr Base effect is updated: If there is an ally within 4 spaces (previously 3 spaces): +6 to all stats in combat (previously +4) Guaranteed follow-up Inflicts 20 damage to nearest ally after combat If Special is fully charged or already activated during the current round of combat: +5 additional damage in combat, excluding AoE Specials (new) 7 HP regeneration per unit's attack (new) Refine effect is: Slaying effect 2 stacks of Quickened Pulse If HP is 25% or higher at start of combat: +4 to all stats in combat 30% damage reduction from opponent's first attack For reference, Lif's Remix grants him an additional effective +5 Spd, the Guard effect, and all of the effects of Special Spiral 4 except for the additional damage. His new skill is Even Tempest, replacing Time's Pulse. As expected, he gets the Slaying effect to replace his existing Time's Pulse, and he gets damage reduction from the opponent's first attack to make up for the fact that Deadly Balance prevents him from running Quick Riposte 4 or Guard 4 for damage reduction. I was naive to not consider that he'd just get two stacks of Quickened Pulse to let him loop his Special immediately without needing a round of combat first. He also just gets all of the non-stat effects of Finish to take advantage of his ability to loop his Special, which is convenient since he can't run Finish at the same time as Distant Counter. Due to getting Even Tempest as his new Remix skill, they've also updated his base effect's condition to 4 spaces instead of just 3, which is nice. I also didn't realize it when it was announced, but Even Tempest was specifically chosen over Odd Tempest due to the existence of the Safety Fence. Gaining the Slaying effect (instead of the weaker Time's Pulse 4 effect) also means that, with Deadly Balance granting him +1 Special charge rate on the opponent's attacks, he can activate Open the Future on his follow-up attack when initiating combat as long as the opponent doesn't have Guard or Tempo. Extremely good, but that's what should be expected for a Legendary/Mythic Hero refine. Legendary Edelgard: Aymr Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Atk With a Solo-or-Stance condition (previously only Solo): -6 Atk/Def to opponent in combat Follow-up prevention 30% damage reduction from opponent's first attack (new) Refine effect is: If opponent's HP is 75% or higher at start of combat or with a Solo condition: -5 Atk/Def to opponent in combat Additional damage equal to 15% of Atk, including AoE Specials +1 Special charge rate For reference, Edelgard's remix updates the condition on her guaranteed follow-up so that instead of only activating against non-human classes, it now activates based on her HP, with the alternate condition of being Solo unchanged. In addition, it adds the offensive half of Null Follow-Up against non-human classes and additional stats. Her new skill is Atk/Res Ideal, replacing Atk/Res Solo. The secondary condition for her weapon's base effect being Stance is a bit of a bummer, but it at least makes sense since she's less likely to be Solo on enemy phase. She does also end up getting the damage reduction from the opponent's first attack and +1 Special charge rate from Armored Wall, which isn't a surprise since Fallen Edelgard is the version of her most similar to this one. The +1 Special charge rate makes it easier for her to charge up Galeforce, as she could previously fail to activate it if the opponent had Guard or she failed to double. The additional damage is clearly there to make up for the fact that she's usually running Galeforce instead of a damaging Special. Duo Alm: Scepter of Love Base effect is updated: Permanent +3 Spd If unit has a Bonus (previously a stat Bonus) or if HP is 25% or higher at start of combat (previously 70%): +4 to all stats in combat (new) Boost to Atk/Spd equal to 25% of opponent's Def at start of combat (previously just Atk) Reduction to opponent's Atk/Def equal to 25% of opponent's Res at start of combat (previously just Atk) Refine effect is: With a Blow-or-Unity condition: +4 to all stats in combat Nullifies opponent's positive stat Bonuses Tempo effect For reference, Alm's Duo skill clears Penalties, heals 30 HP, and applies +6 Atk/Spd as status effects to himself and allies within a 5×5 square around him. Alm now gets Tempo to allow him to activate Lunar Flash on his follow-up even if the opponent has Guard. He doesn't get Null Follow-Up to nullify an opponent's follow-up prevention, but his refine nullifies opponent's stat Bonuses, which overlaps with his default Lull Atk/Spd and incentivizes switching it out for Null Follow-Up (or putting Null Follow-Up in his Sacred Seal slot and giving him Dodge or Bulwark). Other than that, he just gets a ton of additional stats, especially since his weird base effect which grants stats based on the opponent's stats now adds an additional boost tp Atk/Spd on top of the original boost to Atk/Def/Res. In total, he gets a flat +8/11/8/8 plus Atk equal to 25% of the opponent's Def + 25% of the opponent's Res, Spd equal to 25% of the opponent's Def, and Def/Res equal to 25% of the opponent's Res. Overall thoughts Lif's refine is literally "I can't run the best-in-slot skills because my base kit is in the way, so I'll just put all of those effects on my weapon". Convenient. Legendary Edelgard is now a more offensively oriented Fallen Edelgard, but not as offensively oriented as Harmonized Edelgard. Solid nonetheless. Alm is just an enormous pile of stats, able to get a pretty easy total +22/18/15/15 from his weapon even against moderately frail opponents (28 Def and 28 Res). Cormag and Valbar are solid despite being 4-star units. Eyvel is at least viable if you want to use her, but she's generally going to be out-performed by every actually fast sword infantry, especially those with the Slaying effect on their weapon, and will probably be out-performed by Shannan as a bulky fast sword infantry once he gets his refine, which should be soon. The lack of the Slaying effect hurts her a bit too much given how important Special activations are to melee infantry and how ridiculously saturated her class is. Ewan is meh. Usable, but not particularly outstanding. Hubert has similar offensive combat performance, and his debuffs also help his allies, whereas Ewan's only real advantage is his enemy-phase performance, but he's still weaker than recent bulky tomes due to his lack of strong skill effects on his weapon.

Today I learned that even though you can't use Pair Up in Summoner Duels, Legendary Heroes matching the current season still receive stats from their paired unit. Which was fucking up my Legendary Eliwood shenanigans. Pair Up stats don't normally appear in game modes that aren't enabled for Pair Up, and in game modes where it is enabled, it applies to all paired units, not just ones matching the current season. This doesn't seem intentional.

I went to look at who would be good candidates to inherit Arcane Devourer, and I'm finding it to be really unfortunate that Chrom is a cavalry unit. Fast swords that would benefit from Arcane Devourer are overwhelmingly infantry and would really have preferred it if Chrom had the ability to pass down infantry-exclusive skills like Godlike Reflexes, Tempo skills, and Dodge skills, especially since Arcane Devourer has the Special acceleration effects necessary to make Godlike Reflexes work. And while there were significantly fewer units that could use Arcane Downfall, at least Ganglot was infantry and could pass down infantry-exclusive skills. The fastest sword units that do not have an exclusive weapon, do not have an exclusive weapon yet, or have an exclusive weapon with a refine that is worse than or a side-grade to Arcane Devourer (stats with max Dragonflowers): There's literally only one cavalry unit on this list. Sure, I'm using an arbitrary cutoff of 45 Spd with a Spd Asset and max Dragonflowers (exactly one full speed tier below the lead of 50 Spd, but still arbitrary), but the next-fastest sword cavalry that meets these criteria is Siegbert at 42 Spd, which is 4 points and almost a full speed tier lower than Kent's 46 Spd. Heck, even being a flier would've been better because there are 6 fliers that made the list, and he would've at least gotten access to Rein and Oath skills. I guess the one saving grace of being cavalry is that he can be used to duplicate Alarm, though that still comes at the cost of not giving Arcane Devourer to any of the many good non-cavalry options.

Did a full summoning circle on the Echoes picnic banner and got Picnic Genny. I found some patience to pull from the Nerthuz banner. Or maybe it's just indifference since I just decided to deal with having only 11 open slots in my barracks instead of actually cleaning it out. 165 pulls: 2 Nerthuz 1 Shez 6 Diadora 2 Ganglot 6.7% focus rate is below average by about 3 pulls. Total 256 pulls: 4 Nerthuz (+1 spark) 5 Shez 9 Deirdre 2 Ganglot 7.8% focus rate is below average by about 2 pulls. Legendary/Mythic banners continue to be garbage. Shez is still stuck at +9. Two copies of Ganglot is nice, but neither of them have a better Asset than my current one. This many copies of Deirdre is mostly useless as skill fodder since there aren't many units that need her skills, so naturally I get as many copies of her as I get Nerthuz and Shez combined. Updating my numbers for my Legendary/Mythic luck: Counting from Mediuth's banner, I've pulled 69 copies of the new unit out of 217 total focus units of the matching color, not including banners with multiple new units. This remains below average by half a standard deviation. Counting from Bramimond's banner, I've pulled 159 copies of the new unit out of 538 total focus units of the matching color, not including banners with multiple new units. This is below average by one and a half standard deviations. One and a half standard deviations is not out of the ordinary, but assuming there's no foul play going on, it means I'm very unlucky, as it means I'm pulling the not-new unit from these banners a full 1.2 times more often than average. And I'm certainly not taking foul play off the table because this is the only gacha game I've played or watched played (and seen the summon rates screen and actually paid attention to it) (admittedly only a sample size of 5) that doesn't explicitly give the pull rates for each individual thing you can pull and only gives rates by category instead.

And the usual translation notes: The name of the banner, "New Heroes & Rearmed Chrom", is "新英雄＆魔器クロム" (shin-eiyū & maki kuromu), "New Heroes & Arcane Weapon Chrom". As usual, I'll be translating "魔器" (maki), "magic weapon", as "Arcane Weapon" everywhere it appears regardless of if it's localized as "Rearmed" or "Arcane". Byleth's epithet, "Vengeance Vessel", is "復讐を誓いし器" (fukushū o chikaishi utsuwa), "Vessel of Vowed Revenge". Captain's Sword is "白銀の剣" (hakugin no ken), "Sword of Silver Snow". "白銀" (hakugin) literally translates as "white silver" and typically just means "silver", but metaphorically can be used to refer to snow. Distant A/S Solo is "遠反・攻速の孤軍" (enhan: kōsoku no kogun), "Distant Counter: Atk/Spd Lone Force". As usual, "遠反" (enhan), is an abbreviation of "遠距離反撃" (enkyori hangeki), "long-range counterattack", which is the name of the Distant Counter skill. "孤軍" (kogun), "isolated army", is the name of the Solo skill series. This is also the first skill in Japanese that abbreviates the names of stats to a single character, shortening "攻撃" (kōgeki), "Atk", to "攻" (kō) and "速さ" (hayasa), "Spd", to "速" (soku). Maria's epithet, "Ritual Sacrifice", is "生贄の王女" (ikenie no ōjo), "Sacrificial Princess". "生贄" (ikenie) more accurately translates as "living sacrifice". Sacrifice Staff is "暗黒竜の生贄の杖" (ankokuryū no ikenie no tsue), "Staff of the Living Sacrifice to the Dark Dragon". "暗黒竜" (ankokuryū), literally "darkness dragon", is the name of Mediuth's Shadow Dragon class. "Dark Dragon" is its official translation in Japan. Holy Panic is "恐慌の聖光" (kyōkō no seikō), "Holy Light of Panic". "恐慌" (kyōkō), "panic", is the name of the Panic status effect when used in skill names like Panic Ploy and Sudden Panic. The status effect is called "パニック" (panikku), which is "panic" transcribed from English. Anankos's epithet, "Seething Silence", is "狂気の透魔竜" (kyōki no tōmaryū), "Berserk Silent Dragon". "透魔竜" (tōmaryū), localized as "Silent Dragon", literally translates as "invisible magic dragon" and is the name of Anankos's Silent Dragon class. "透魔" (tōma), "invisible magic", is also the name of the kingdom of Valla in Japanese. Silent Breath is "透魔竜のブレス" (tōmaryū no buresu), "Silent Dragon's Breath". Savvy Fighter is "慧眼隊形" (keigan taikei), "Savvy Formation". As usual, "隊形" (taikei), "formation", is the name of the Fighter skill series, hence why its skill icons depict formations of dots. Chrom's epithet, "Fell Exalt" is "屍王" (shikabane-ō), "Risen King". "屍" (shikabane), officially translated as "Undead" in Japan and localized as "Risen", literally means "corpse". Arcane Devourer is "魔器・屍王の絶剣" (maki: shikabane-ō no zekken), "Arcane Weapon: Extinguishing Sword of the Risen King". Fate Unchanged... is "運命ハ変ワラナイ…" (unmei wa kawaranai...), "[I...] couldn't change fate...". "運命は変わらない" (unmei wa kawaranai) more precisely translates as "Fate wasn't changed", but because Japanese grammar allows for the dropping of subjects when they are clear from context, "I couldn't change fate" is more accurate (with the potential form, i.e. "couldn't" instead of "didn't", also implied from context). The skill name uses katakana instead of hiragana for its kana characters, which is commonly used for non-human or otherwise abnormal speech in order to dehumanize it and make it look as unsettling as it's supposed to sound. This is analogous to the use of mIXeD CasE in English to convey the same thing. Also, compare with Chrom's other exclusive assist skills, To Change Fate!, which is "運命を変える！" (unmei o kaeru!), "I will change fate!" (literally "Fate will be changed!"), and A Fate Changed!, which is "運命は変わった！" (unmei wa kawatta!), "I have changed fate!" (literally "Fate has changed!"). Spd/Def Snag is "速さ守備の干渉" (hayasa shubi no kanshō), "Spd/Def Interference". Linus's epithet, "Savage Dog", is "闇の中の狂犬" (yami no naka no kyōken), "The Mad Dog in the Darkness". Dead-Fang Axe is "命なき狂牙の斧" (inochi-naki kyōga no ono), "Axe of the Lifeless Mad Fang". I'm honestly disappointed Chrom's English epithet isn't "Risen King" like it is in Japanese.

Oh hey, they finally added Risen King Chrom. Yay! Maria looks amazing for any kind of defensive team. I wasn't expecting Savvy Fighter 4 to show up anytime soon since it's already a good skill, but it's here and it finally grants a counter to opponents with the Brave effect, which was long overdue. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to pull on this banner until the latter half of its duration since I have an anime convention that I need to budget for, and I don't want to spend any more on orbs until after that. However, it looks like I'll be pulling red for the double focus rate and sparking Maria and Chrom. If I get enough free orbs before that, I might spark for Maria first just to put her on my Aether Raids offense teams as soon as possible. It looks like they're only doing this with premium staff units and premium premium units, so I don't think it'll really change anything for 4-star units. Even then, it hardly matters on non-staff units anyways because unless their Assist or Special is one of the new premium Specials or an exclusive skill, it literally doesn't matter if that slot is filled or not since it's not like anyone that isn't new to the game is in need of yet another source of Glimmer or Luna.

As expected, Rebecca lost round 1, so I'll now be on Mark's team with Astra-spam Rebecca as my lead.

This week's Arena ticket gets me Ike: And getting the new sparkable banners out of the way so that I don't have to deal with them later when I go back to finish off Nerthuz's banner when I have the patience to deal with my barracks and/or the urgency of the banner nearing expiration. 40 pulls on the Hall of Forms banner: 2 Katarina (+1 spark) 2 Tiki 1 pity breaker Selena 45 pulls on the The Returning banner: 1 Lif (+1 spark) 1 Lilith Good pulls overall. I got a Katarina with an Atk Asset to replace my original one that had a Def Asset. No other Asset updates.