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Heyo all!

This is a sub-guide that is mostly here to flesh out things in my previous guide
(https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3588949574)

As that guide was mostly to cover everything so anyone could get into the game. This one will focus heavily on characters and better explain all my thoughts

With that being said lets cover some basics (Controls for M+B)

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Movesets

All characters have the same moveset consisting of:
Basic Attack Combo (LMB)
Charge Attacks (Hold LMB)
Barrage/Shot (RMB)
Retreat Shot (RMB after an attack)
Slam Attack (Jump + LMB)
Dash Attack (Dodge and Attack shortly after)
Special Attack (Fill meter in bottom right then follow button prompt)
Grab Attack (Basically the same as above, different button and the meter is tied to the enemy)
Ultimate (Changes per character)

Now much like the Ult some of these do change, for example Both Marisa and Youmu have a basic attack combo, but they perform different attacks for them and Youmus has more hits in it than Marisa's.

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Standard Combos

Everyone has at least 2 easy combos they can follow which will always be good

Survivalist Combo(Retreat shot is a puesdo parry)
Basic > Retreat Shot > Basic > Retreat Shot, repeat ad infinitum.
This combo is great because your combo will REMAIN after using Rereat shot. So if you have Something like Youmu's Halo Talent you don't have to worry about losing big damage because you want to stay alive.

Quick Burst
Slam Attack > Dash Attack > Retreat shot
This combo is good for literally everyone because its(from my testing) the best damage you can deal in a short while without ANY commitment plus its fast, allowing you to quickly pull it off when you don't feel comfortable going for bigger combos or in a tight Window.

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Every Character gets a special talent at the start of their runs, I will list some of them in the potential section of each character followed by some recommendations for builds for some of them.
However, as always everyone plays different so feel free to experiment and find what works for you!

Overall: Single Target Focus, Fast, Able to Build Energy Quickly.


Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Strength: ★✬☆☆☆
Survivability: ★★✬☆☆
Potential: ★★☆☆☆

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Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Youmu is pretty easy to pick up as her base kit has no real tech to it, she's very basic, but this works against her. Her shot is not very good and the shot will be your main way to clear enemy projectiles. This means Youmu is pretty empty handed against certain bosses if the run doesn't go in her favor. On top of this her overall damage output is pretty low. She is a single target burst focused character but her bursts deal middling damage. Likely because her speed is SUPPOSED to let her get off bursts faster than other characters. But without the ability to make those openings with a lackluster shot with no real gap closer outside of her special(which is hard to get at range due to her bad shot) her bursts are few and far between.

Strength: ★✬☆☆☆

As mentioned above her bursts are pretty mild compared to other characters. She struggles immensely against projectile spam bosses with little openings outside the natural ones, and her ult is one big damaging move instead of a "State" like Flan and Mokou can enter. As both of them pretty much go invulnerable for a while and are able to spam their strongest moves. Youmu can only really use her ult for one free combo as it USUALLY stuns the target after being used.

Survivability: ★★✬☆☆

I feel the need to stress the fact Youmu is the only starter with 3 dashes at base. This lets her be slightly more aggressive as you can use one dash to recover from mistakes. as opposed to other characters who need to perfect both their dashes to get in and out of some situations. Sadly, this is "balanced" out by her shot being downright awful. Flan and Marisa both get incredible damage or Beam attacks letting their shots cut through infinite projectiles where youmu gets a peashooter. This is 100% not a worth while tradeoff in my eyes as the shot is INCREDIBLE for creating free openings giving you more room to breathe and deal damage.

Potential: ★★☆☆☆

Ok so, with a pretty weak base kit surely her talents/upgrades can make up for it right? Eeeh kinda.
Youmu is VERY RNG dependant as her upgrades really do make or break her. I didn't want to make it seem like she's nothing without them but really getting a god run on Youmu is like getting a decent run on everyone else.

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Builds

Mostly a suggestions section, every character has a bunch of builds you can go for these are just some I or others have come across

Insta-Burst Youmu, Grab the Halo slash Talent at the start, and hope to obtain the Dash attack starting into your 3rd basic combo later on, this gives plenty of energy and does good damage

Immortal Youmu, Big Props to Shyguymask for this one! You combine the health on energy use talent and any high energy obtaining talents, every ult will give youmu a chunk of her health back + you can effectively spam it with a specific Yellow Talent that gives energy back when you use energy. Pretty good!

Karmic Insight Youmu, This combines her of her Unique talents, Parry on charge(Insight) and multiple charge level attack(Karmic) Either way you're getting great damage and with how fast Youmu charges you'll be doing this pretty much every 2-3 seconds.

Overall: Great Power, Fantastic synergy, hard to master.


Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Strength: ★★★★☆
Survivability: ★★☆☆☆
Potential: ★★★★★

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Difficulty: ★★★★☆

Flandre is fantastic but admittedly, she's pretty difficult to get the hang of. Most people I assume will hang back and go in for damage with her ult which is fine but if you truly master her SLOOOOOW speed and find openings you'll be shredding bosses in no time. Her shot is also kinda wonky and weird to get used to as its the only one that doesn't fire instantly and also the only one that fires on release where you then have to "re-arm" it, this can make it challenging to delete enemy projectiles but if timed correctly it's almost like a ranged parry as the level 2 charge attack explodes destroying projectiles in a RADIUS.

Strength: ★★★★☆

Flandre is capable of putting out INSANE amounts of damage if played correctly, but even if not I'd say her damage is still quite good. If you only take about half the openings the game gives you on bosses and force some with her Ult you will still be able to clear the game. Base kit allows her to clear multiple projectiles as stated above and each of her attacks deal good damage, plus her talents/Upgrades are also quite varied and theres a unique spin to every single move in her arsenal. The only real blockade from giving her 5 star Strength is her speed.

Survivability: ★★☆☆☆

Speaking of speed yikes is Flan slow, slow attacks, slow charge, slow recovery(kinda) Flan requires mastery of timing which means knowing exact boss movesets plus your own to truly dominate them. One mis-timed combo or charge attack and you'll be sent to shadow realm. Plus she has some "Mokou lite" skills, taking away HP for Attack each stage. I would also note a specific talent she has for generating hearts but this is usually just for "I somehow got hit by a regular mob" instead of bossing.

Potential: ★★★★★

Amazing skill-based kit with some of the BEST talents and Upgrades I've seen in this game, and roguelikes as a whole. Pretty much every move or gimmick available to Flandre is viable and powerful if you take the time to learn it. There truly is no limit with what you can do on Flan. I have nothing more to say if you love the idea of your time being rewarded for learning a skill then Flan is fantastic because theres always something to come back, master, and find a whole new way to destroy bosses without cheesing them.

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Builds

Mostly a suggestions section, every character has a bunch of builds you can go for these are just some I or others have come across

Charge + Ult variation, No specific names as theres 2 talents im referencing here. One makes you have no follow ups but 200% more damage and the other gives you more follow ups. Personally I'd go for Charge 1 on multiple followups and Charge 2 on the 200% damage one but both are great and spammable during Ult

Forbidden Barrage + Catastrophe/Forbidden games, One makes your special create multiple explosions, the other gives you a follow up to specials be it more charge levels or a whole new attack. The Burst damage with this one is INSANE and you can clear bosses in seconds if you're fast at building the special meter

Cranberry trap + Destructive Sister, This one is mostly for fun, not as effective as the other 2 cookie cutter builds but it gives your charge 1 Shot 2 beams instead of 1, add some stacking damage bonuses and you have a pretty effective tool for dealing respectable chip damage AND clearing projectiles. A real middle finger to some super spammy bosses.

Overall: Easy mode, fun builds, good if you want to relax with the game


Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Strength: ★★★★★
Survivability: ★✬☆☆☆
Potential: ★★★☆☆

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Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Marisa does not have much stopping her from wiping the floor with her damage, or her base kit just being really simple and easy to use. You charge attacks, release them and get big damage, did I mention they were ranged too? If you want to have a fun time with the game and not think too hard then Marisa is your girl as with minimal effort you're going to be clearing stages and bosses without much of a second thought. Most of her skill ceiling comes from learning how to maximize charges but the thing is you can get away with spamming level 1 charges, as charge levels just determine how many suns she produces.

Strength: ★★★★★

I'm sure this is a shocker to absolutely no one, especially if you've played Marisa, but her power levels are out of this world. With the ability to strike at range and deal damage AFTER finishing an attack as well as upgrades to make them faster or stronger with little to no drawbacks? Yeah she's absolutely insane. Charge a level 3 attack before a boss even spawns and then just keep ramping up the damage with more charge attacks which equals more suns which equals more damage without you doing anything. Truly blissful

Survivability: ★★✬☆☆

Well I suppose she had to have a downside, but it's kinda like Flan where you just need to learn charge timings, but especially for Marisa as sometimes if charging when you dodge you'll be stuck in place so you gotta be precise with those Iframes. But unlike Flandre, she can attack at range a bunch and can kill bosses faster so less stuff to dodge, in case you were wondering why Marisa has more stars for surviving.

Potential: ★★★☆☆

Don't let the ranking fool you every run on Marisa is amazing, this is due to that absurd power in her base kit, but all her runs kinda lean into the same thing which is just "Kill really really quickly" It's not a bad thing for the most part but a good majority of her unique talents involve more damage, extra charge, or more AoE. She's a one trick pony but man is she good at that one trick.

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Builds

Mostly a suggestions section, every character has a bunch of builds you can go for these are just some I or others have come across, Sorry if I don't have exact names.

Magicannon Final Spark + energy talents, Final spark lets you get 100 more energy to cap yourself off with and changes you ult upon reaching your new max of 200 energy, but Ult still only takes 100 so with any energy restoration talent you'll be spamming it for great damage, iframes, and fast boss clears.

Meteor Shower + Retreat shot Talent, Meteor shower lets Marisa fire out a large meteor on her 4th basic attack and she has a talent to re-do her last attack on retreat shots, this works with many attacks but I specifically wanted to mention it with a meteors incase people got sick of Marisa's standard charge based playstyle.

Mushroom research + Black magic, mushrooms have varying effects so it is quite random but the beauty of it is that anything could happen, allowing you to possibly spam special attacks which lets black magic throw more potions more often, giving you even more stacking damage on top your incredible charge attacks.

Overall: Trade Health for damage, Functionally Immortal, High Skill ceiling


Difficulty: ★★★✬☆
Strength: ★★✬☆☆
Survivability: ★★★★★
Potential: ★★★★☆

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Difficulty: ★★★✬☆

Mokou is... funky. Her Ult trades her health for free attack windows and restores portions of her health, so it's best used when you're already hurt or following up another ult. Her shot is also not that great so clearing projectiles is possible but not great, however her Ult makes it so she doesn't get swamped like Youmu. Most of her upgrades also add/change parts of her kit so you may to learn how her moveset changes multiple times.

Strength: ★★✬☆☆

Mokou does pretty good damage, she's fast enough to take multiple openings and you're encouraged to take some damage anyway, She also gets good mileage out of her ult. She's perfectly average with her BASE KIT, it gets better as you progress as most talents give her more kit to work with.

Survivability: ★★★★★

Go figure, The immortal is immortal... Kind of. As long as you have your ult charged and ready Mokou cannot die, and she can even restore HP with it. HOWEVER this is entirely dependant on how much damage you can deal in the Ult timeframe, directly turning your skill into higher survivability, allowing you to be riskier, allowing you to deal more damage. its a satisfying loop and lets Mokou survive more and more the better you get at... surviving with her... if that makes sense. Look she restores HP and becomes immortal upon ulting, no one else can do this with base kit, her immortality is entirely possible with no upgrades.

Potential: ★★★★☆

I like the skill ceiling here, I will fully admit I will probably change Mokou around in this guide as my opinions of her change a lot. But, all her talents that give her something new to play with are incredible. The reason I don't have her potential as high as Flan is that it's a bit harder to mix and match all Mokou's unique talents.

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Builds

Mostly a suggestions section, every character has a bunch of builds you can go for these are just some I or others have come across, Sorry if I don't have exact names.

South Wind + Double jump, Giving Mokou a jump attack is great, what if we gave her the ability to do it twice? This is a pretty good combo as it only takes 1 unique and it keeps her really safe while dealing damage, you can also follow up the 2nd jump attack with a slam attack replacing the easy burst mentioned in the intro.

Human Combustion + Flame Whirlwind, One makes you time your basic attacks to deal INCREDIBLE damage and one adds yet another attack to your basic combo. It takes some time learning each timing for each attack especially if you're adding retreat shots into the mix but the damage and versitility is off the charts because they're basic attacks so you are never aniimation locked.

Temperature Feathers + Desperate Claw, Giving your dash 2 shockwave attacks? on top of the dash attack itself and then making that stack damage on your charge attack? Splendid! I love how these 2 go into each other as you wont lose stacks for your charge attack if you dodge AGGRESSIVELY letting you consistently and constantly oblierate bosses as its much harder to lose your supercharge.

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Remember, these are my opinions from playing the game for ages(especially Youmu and Flan) everyone in this game can be used and everyone can feel great to play. This is just what I find consistent and it's here to help people decide on the character they like most or maybe just trying something new or learning a new tech they didn't know about for their favorite character.

As long as you are having fun, you are doing great.

Once again hoping we get Takane as a character in game to play as, maybe future DLC character?

Feel free to give your thoughts in the comments below! and I wish you a wonderful day.

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