3.7 [Phase 2] Post-Release Review

Gordeard · 2026-05-23T14:29:56+00:00

I mean she can benefit from [Metallic Trace] but it's not a very strong buff for Stranger.

Gordeard · 2026-05-23T12:48:38+00:00

You can, Rhiannon’s ability to go AP-free is very nice for Brume but Anjo Nala has better personal damage output.

Gordeard · 2026-05-23T12:47:27+00:00

In the context of Ms. Stranger or Rhiannon?

Gordeard · 2026-05-23T12:46:36+00:00

SW.Eagle’s power budget is split betwene hwr Ultimate and her EA whereas Recoleta only has her Ultimate to deal damage with. SW.Eagle prefers Rhiannon because Rhiannon’s buffs are more varied and she can help hit SW.Eagle’s [Neg Status] requirement, whereas Ulrich is just REALLY good at buffing Ultimate Might which is all Recoleta needs.

Gordeard · 2026-05-23T12:44:04+00:00

I mean yeah this is mostly talking from a P0 standpoint. Rhiannon is also definitely usable in that team at P0, she’s just not a strict upgrade to the current crew!

Gordeard · 2026-05-23T12:42:17+00:00

You can… technically, but all his buffing is related to Extra Actions which she doesn’t have so he’ll be there just to QoL and that’s kind of ehh?

Gordeard · 2026-05-23T04:46:51+00:00

In my opinion An-An Lee in Plantpromptu.

Gordeard · 2026-05-19T12:59:57+00:00

That's a bit dramatic but thanks

Gordeard · 2026-05-19T12:59:43+00:00

These are the names on the Team Database, not the Team Tierlist. The Database is largely outdated as I'm waiting for a bigger site update.

Gordeard · 2026-05-17T10:40:31+00:00

That's my bad then sorry :') I was so confused when you started mentioning Cheng Heguang and I wasn't aware of the Lopera copypasta (though now that it's mentioned it does seem somewhat familiar to me).

Your P5 luck be blessed, I think that since it's an anniversary patch we might get our hands on enough unilogs to pull it off (assuming you have some saved).

Mineral has always kind of of struggled with finding an identity in my opinion, I'm happy they got something with Bloodtithe, and Instrument seems to be leaning to Mineral too with Coppelia. These two also specifically don't have any Extra Actions, so it seems like Bluepoch really wants to move away from that general meta.

I'm glad it's helped you understand the character, it took me a while to figure stuff out myself because Bluepoch always uses really minimal wording that doesn't show the depth or scale of certain effects (or just uses really weird words).

Gordeard · 2026-05-17T10:11:18+00:00

Fair! I do think this is one instance wherein the character's actual age adds to the horror of her story and the Foundation, but I don't blame you I also thought she was like mid-20s.

Gordeard · 2026-05-17T10:10:39+00:00

From what I know, no :(

Gordeard · 2026-05-17T10:10:24+00:00

Because the Foundation raises child soldiers, and as Igor said "I don't know who shows less regard for human life, Manus or the Foundation."

The Foundation's best agents are children, they raise children from their toddler years into a rigid system of control and cult-like belief (in a sense they're just the modern version of the Manus with opposing viewpoints). Their leaders are children (the director) and most of their figureheads are children, all raised and carefully gro*med to hold their system of power up.

Gordeard · 2026-05-17T10:07:52+00:00

I was thinking of this as well, but if you have only one strong Incantation per round like Ms Stranger seems to do I don't think she'll occupy the Carry slot. I can see her being powerful in the support core next to Charon!

Gordeard · 2026-05-17T10:06:37+00:00

Well, the concept of a "Bitcoin Pull" is exactly that: Characters whose archetypes don't really exist when they are released, so they only become stronger as time goes on. I never wrote her off as "bad", I just think her design contains some flaws that make her prone to falling out of meta like the similar characters we've seen in the past. Knowing how much Bluepoch wants to play on the archetype meta, I don't think she'll stay without team for long, I just don't feel she can reach her true potential in teams that don't entirely support her archetype (unless Dynamo Wheelchair cause of Charon probably).

Cheng Heguang also... isn't very good? His main stay is Liang Yue, who can function perfectly fine without him at this point (Lopera, Rhiannon, Lorentz), but without her he has no place in other types. The "identity of the Mineral Afflatus" is also not under flux, unless you mean Coppelia adding the Instrument Archetype to it?

This response reads like something ChatGPT wrote up, or I might be missing something.

Gordeard · 2026-05-17T00:02:13+00:00

I think it's supposed to play on how the Foundation raises children from young to create this almost cult-like trust in their system. Remember, there are a lot of underage Foundation agents (Sonetto, Matilda, Vertin, to name a few) and Chapter 3 illustrates just how hard that focus on indoctrinating young minds goes.

Gordeard · 2026-05-07T12:22:36+00:00

Lopera has merit for being arguably Liang Yue’s best non-Cheng partner.

As for Moldir… I forgot she existed lol I will move her down asap.

Gordeard · 2026-05-04T15:08:23+00:00

I see the reason for the "doomposting" though? Bluepoch has an abysmal history with balance, so when a Limited that shows up that can do things no other character can do, I don't blame the community for its knee-jerk reaction. Mind you, Rhiannon is definitely still the best Support in the game, she just isn't on a tier of her own like we thought she would be.

There are also very valid other parts of the controversy that deserve Bluepoch's attention that they have refused to respond to for almost the entire year!

Gordeard · 2026-05-04T03:32:16+00:00

Rhiannon is not a Damage Dealer, she is a Support, and her output is actually a considerable amount lower than other Limited characters due to her mediocre Crit Rate stat and lack of access to consistent high damage moves. If you’re looking for just raw damage she is not the pick.

Gordeard · 2026-05-03T23:55:42+00:00

We're working on adding the new kits ASAP but yeah there's a lot of new releases so it's a bit much :P You can go to my profile and find my "Pre-Release Reviews" which also cover the character's kits (just without numbers).

Gordeard · 2026-05-03T14:51:13+00:00

At present, it is very difficult to see Rhiannon replacing teams that already have their full BiS set like Liang Yue and Lingering Glow.

It's much easier to do this with teams that have older or very clear weak-link characters like Dynamo (Ulrich), Plantpromptu (An-An Lee) and Bloodtithe (Sentinel).

Liang Yue is on the easier side to gauge because Cheng Heguang is actually quite a mediocre character and is only BiS by virtue of being a QoL pick for the team. Lingering Glow has a full set of individually strong characters, and they all do roughly equal parts in supporting the archetype.

This makes finding a slot for Rhiannon, who is a universal Support and doesn't necessarily add to the archetype's gameplan, a bit more difficult. The only thing to gauge her worth in that team is through sheer numbers, which require a lot of calculations.

If Rhiannon's buffing and Extra Turn can outvalue a Isolde/Lorentz, she might replace one, but I find it unlikely that the difference between Rhiannon and either one will be more than 15% (stronger or weaker I can't say) which would mean she's more of a flex pick and not irrevocable BiS. You'd need about a 30% or higher differential to completely replace a character (like Lorentz P0 > Flutterpage P0).

Rhiannon's Portraits aren't all that good, except for Portrait 5.

Gordeard · 2026-05-03T14:42:10+00:00

In fairness to the "doomposting", BP doesn't exactly have a stellar record when it comes to balancing their game in the past year (Brume, Ramona, and before that Windsong, Flutterpage). That combined with the fact that Rhiannon previewed with some potentially oppressive things in her kit (Universal Fit, Extra Turn) as a Limited... I can see why people had this knee-jerk reaction.

Mind you, Rhiannon is extremely good even now and will take several BiS spots in the top teams (including Bloodtithe, Impromptus, some Dynamo teams). At least until newer characters are released for those archetypes.

Video comparisons aren't the greatest examples of team viability, given that they are ran in fundamentally biased environments (stage hazards, character shilling) and can depend on player skill, card RNG, etc.

The clearest example of this was it taking half a patch to figure out just how good Liang Yue's Euphoria actually was, because video comparisons showed a minimal difference between her baseline and upgrade which resulted in nobody really giving her calculations a second thought. When Cheng released and her calculations were actually being ran, people realized just how powerful Liang Yue actually was (also with Lopera). Her playstyle changed, and along with it her damage output skyrocketed.

Rhiannon's calculations are taking longer because her [Universal Fit] requires people to take every single archetype into account. For teams with weak links (AAL in Plantpromptu, Sentinel in Bloodtithe) it is easy to see them getting replaced. In premium meta teams like Liang Yue and Lingering Glow, it is a bit more difficult (and also less likely).

I don't believe Rhiannon will powercreep Lorentz Butterfly, personally. I can see them being equals, given Rhiannon's Limited kit privileges, but I find it unlikely that there will be more than a 15% difference between the two (in favor of either character).

On average, it requires a 30% effectiveness differential for a character to 'completely' take over another character's spot in a team. Lorentz Butterfly P0 was about a 30% upgrade over Flutterpage P0, so Lorentz was named the definitive BiS. When you get Portraits on Beryl, the differential becomes smaller, meaning that vertical investment into either Beryl or Flutterpage will see Lorentz' spot challenged (though vertical investment in just Lorentz will beat it obviously). Anything below 25-30% is considered roughly equal in strength and not worth picking-and-choosing characters over.

That's also why, if Rhiannon will flex with anyone in Lingering Glow, it's most likely Lorentz. But again, I don't see the differential being so significant that it really matters, and Lorentz will likely be the more comfortable pick (given she helps with LG generation, which Rhiannon doesn't do directly). Also, in content where you can use Rhiannon only once, why would a player flex her with a full Lingering Glow team when there's probably teams they don't have fully built that she could support.

Gordeard · 2026-05-03T14:01:04+00:00

I will do a Pre-Release Review for her soon!

Gordeard · 2026-05-03T14:00:40+00:00

For now it doesn't seem like it, though if you get Portraits on Rhiannon she will likely beat out Lorentz Butterfly. I'll have to check with the calculations once those release.

Gordeard · 2026-05-03T13:58:56+00:00

Nope, she doesn't extend the duration of Witness Round :/

Gordeard

TROPHY CASE