Sandeep: Now... this is a theory... one may even say a game theory... but I think Sandeep is meant to be a tank of sorts. I haven't had a chance to try it out though. Not in the sense of Paul or Rock standing in the middle of the front actively taunting and protecting and all that, but rather holding a spot in the front where he can take strays and things happen around him as a result. Doom Prophecy and Nirvana can both get buffed to where they automatically cast on things damaging or healing him, and I wonder if there's any synergies with him being the target of a protect or forced damage redirect effect over him taunting.

Baptiste: I sincerely want to know where he's carrying all of his grenades. On a gadget based team, where damage is usually fixed amounts, Baptiste can copy those gadgets and not care about his low stats. Invisible Wall + Grenade/Pulse Grenade = George's Bunker + DPS.

Tank: Lead Fists is a bit of a booby prize skill in practice. You don't build around it as much as it being a compensation for when things don't go the way you want. With that in mind, instead of headbutts, I build around his Body Blows and use him to shut down turn order. You'll probably get at least one hit for damage, if you miss one you get an extra shot of Resolve which is nice, but hitting twice will just shut down all progress on the enemy turn. *EVEN AGAINST BOSSES.*

Brand: Cold Crush. This bumps him up to an S-lister for me because it's real easy at that point to reliably put out 200+ HP healing a turn to everyone while putting out some scary damage too. I'd assume there's other relic-granted skills that can do similar that can just rack up more and more damage on more things which means more healing.

Daniela: Has anyone checked if Daniela can benefit from the two relics that add stats to summons and then add summon stats to the summoner? This might save her middling stat woes, but I haven't had much conclusive on my own.

Kazuo: I actually think the goal with him is to be more ramping DPS with tanking as an extra. I ran Boxing Glove + Antagonist on him while dropping his Honor Code, and the amount of hits that generates actually makes him great at slowing down the enemy team while using his actions to just get to Extorting for stats. Each shot can put out some respectable damage numbers, you get stun from the Boxing Glove, and this basically means he can regen his whole HP bar each turn so long as he's dealing stun damage. Doomstack Kazuo does work, and if you don't mind eating the return fire, can do some work shredding reflector shields. His Dragon Rush just gets used as an execution tool exclusively, after you've stacked and ready to end someone. A great support target for Harry, IMO, given Support double-dipping is possible I think and Kazuo without Honor Code can go down and just immediately be Amputated back up.

So... a few things I noticed... take my opinions with however much salt you like, but here's a listing.

Charlie: There's a very obvious boss perk item he'd want with the Shredder Saw. If he needs 3 turns of two actions, this crams another one in there, meaning you can drop his alcohol needs and get to dropping Inspires turn two. If paired with an MP battery for him, he has quite literally hard carried certain boss battles for me through his unwillingness to let anyone die as he just stacks actions and turns squishy characters into beefy survivors. Bonus points if someone's giving him stats from something too or he's getting free turns, since all that will add up over time.

The main thing that Gladius does is give Edgard some extra damage, the real power comes from how bite is both an attack *and* a debuff, so you can run him with valeria's root, blitz stance relic whose name I forget, and agent's watch and hit massively low turn reduction on bite spam. Previously I ran Iana's bow in the 4th slot to build stacks up for ageless but now Gladius builds those stacks while also giving him a huge damage buff.

Yep, I actually re-used Edgard recently, and he did surprise me at being more solid than I first remember (I actually brought him along to give Alpha a bunch of attacks to copy for his mission, but he ended up being a decent tanky DPS). Although I can't review anyone purely on the basis of Gladius (or any Relic), since it's basically amazing for all physical bruisers, and I'm ALWAYS first and foremost looking at how kits work without needing too much customisation.

As for OClaire, I mean, when built for, Rake is actually very strong, but I guess I see your point about the latter even if I rarely personally use the two together. Might add something.

Edgard at B seems off to me, especially now that the Gladius is in the game getting him to constantly act with large damage output while being basically unkillable is not particularly hard. He'd be an easy A to me if not an S because, while he's not the most powerful unit he's incredibly self-reliant and doesn't really need outside support to operate at all, letting him slot easily into any team.

Also, either Occultist Claire or Illia should mention how synergystically powerful they are. The OClaire build you mention is pretty close to mine and it's crying for Illia possession to give her a better attack to use her procs with than Rake.

Fun fact: Iana also used to require POW for damage, rather than TEC, and was pretty awful back then. But yes Pincushion is dubious, which makes the related mission a pain. She's a very average B-Tier DPS. With Lucien's Might, Jed's Cap, her own Bow, and Primal Bond, she's decent, as Cana gets +50% more stats and then she gains 25% of those stats back again. Split Arrow & Snakebite fully levelled give her a decent opener to debuff the enemy, then it's quick shots all the way.

Not sure what I was smoking with the Rafael calculation, so I removed it, thanks for the heads up. His entry was a bit old anyways, so I updated it at the same time.

Love the guide, lots of useful insights. You made me realize Iana doesnt suck i just needed to spam Quick Shot and let Cana do all the work.

Just in case you'd care, in Raphael's analysis you have a calculation of (820*4 = 3280); the 820 is actually already accounting for the 300% increase. His base mana with 50 Wis is 205. You can see this in Claire's Power Armour form (also 50 Wis), when you add Matrix Capacitor she'll go from 205 to 820.