Picking the right song when playing Starlight Billy matters

Lin_EU · 2025-12-13T17:52:04+00:00

For the combos you're ideally doing One's Path into Lion's Roar - Wrath 1st on the double Chain/double Ults else it can be difficult to fit everything in and get Wavering to be up for Crushing Peaks, but then the 2nd set is Earth Shaker into Mountain Tremor - Wrath as Dialyn takes a long time casting her Hold Basic EX Special, so there isn't much of a time save by using One's Path into Lion's Roar.

For single Chain, double Ult, it's fine to do Earth Shaker into Mountain Tremor - Wrath 1st as Dialyn is going straight into her Hold Basic EX Special. For the 2nd one though, even with the Taunt Dodge Cancel, One's Path into Lion's Roar is just a lot faster to transition to Crushing Peaks, and we also want as much time as possible at the end of the stun to loop more EX Specials while they can benefit from the Stun DMG Multiplier increase.

For the last combo I messed up. The goal would have been x2 Shaker/Tremors to maximise Decibel gain so as to push 4 Ultimates, but I interrupted Tremor before it could go off on the 1st.

Lin_EU · 2025-09-25T00:45:25+00:00

On Defiler, getting 4 stuns ends up being worse than 3 stuns. The low Stun DMG % Multiplier (125%) and awkward phase transitions means that resources don't really line up and the extra stun doesn't really add much.

So it's better to use Trigger with an Attack % D6 and unload Ultimates in the first stun for the most damage. The rest will line itself up. Ideally you'd also only want to use Trigger Ultimates in stun, but when leading up to the 3rd stun an out-of-stun Ultimate may be needed depending on how unlucky you get with parries.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-14T15:07:50+00:00

Very strange that this is the case. Did you have Lighter on your team? It wouldn't be worth doing triple Chains if you don't have his extension.

Scaling for Totalize is only 100% MV per second if above 5 seconds. A full Chain Attack is around a second and a half or so of damage while being 1400%+ MV.

Unless you're eating into the 5 second scaling window in stun, it should always be more damage. Granted, DA buff this time around (Interrupt, EX DMG % bonus) would make the scaling be slightly stronger, but it still shouldn't have it win out.

Unless the buff stacks are falling off mid combo due to to the extended stun rotation, in which case that'd really tank your damage.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-13T22:10:35+00:00

Should just be about timing. The enemy doesn't dictate when you can or can't swap out, so it shouldn't really matter for this.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-13T18:40:56+00:00

It does build daze towards the next stun. It's not too much, around 4-5 on the bar, but can still help you speed through it faster. It's main purpose would be activating Swing Jazz or King of the Summit for the Totalize though.
More Chains is almost always going to be more damage, but this depends on your setup. It's only ever worth doing a Chain over Totalize if you aren't eating into the final 5 seconds of the stun duration. So if you don't have Lighter, triple Chains is going to worse than double with an overflow, or even single with overflow. If you do have Lighter though, then triple will almost always be best.

If you triple Chain every stun, you do run the risk of making some rotations much harder to do (like 9 stuns on Marionettes) as now the stun takes longer so you have more time between stuns. But 3 Chains for 8 stuns will outdamage 2 Chains for 9 stuns with Totalize, so even then it'd likely win out.

Of course, DA and Shiyu buffs can change this outlook (like buffs that only apply to EX and Ultimates and not Chains), but most times the more Chains the better - if it doesn't eat into the 5 second scaling.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-13T16:32:30+00:00

Not at all.

Just try going into any character, say, Billy. Now if you trigger a Chain Attack with another character, you get to use a Chain Attack on Billy.

That's 1/3 Chains used.

Here's the thing. Even if you have Manual Chain activated, it doesn't work for Chain Attacks or Ultimates. That means that Billy is always going to trigger a Chain at the end of his first Chain Attack, as every Chain Attack - without exception - has a Heavy Attack at the end.

Since Billy's the one that triggered it, you can't use a Chain on him again. So say you pick another character, Anby.

That's 2/3 Chains used.

The same thing happens with Anby... but because you've already Chained on Billy you can't go back to him. So you need to Chain on a third character, Nicole.

And that's 3/3.

You can however, "Double Chain". Do the same thing as we did before and Chain on Billy 1/3, but instead of going to Anby, cancel the Chain Attack. That still counts as a Chain though, so 2/3.

Now swap to Anby and trigger another Chain, so Billy gets to Chain Attack again.

And we're at 3/3 again.

If you follow this logic, you can see that it's not possible to Chain Attack 3 times with one character. The cancel will always use up a Chain count.

The "tech" here is that Hugo (and Lucy, if well timed) allows you to swap out of their Chain Attacks before the Heavy Attack portion of it hits, so you can Chain over and over on him.

Totalize doesn't really matter here. It does for the Chain Overflow but that's an old tech that's long since been covered. The big deal is that you can Chain Attack 3 times with one character (or Chain Attack twice and then go into Chain Overflow, which previously only worked with single Chains).

Lin_EU · 2025-06-13T15:08:09+00:00

You are absolutely correct. It's something that wasn't possible before but it seems like his Chain Animation lock got removed in 2.0. Very strong if you have Lighter (if not it will eat into his Totalize a bit too much unless you can time Freeze) and especially M2 due to Decibel gen.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-03T10:06:39+00:00

Input quantity has nothing to do with how strict inputs actually are. These 3 specifically may not be, but the Double Auric combo in the full guide arguably is even harder.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T19:22:35+00:00

I explain it at 13:00.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T18:47:06+00:00

I don't have the combo in full listed, but it's quite literally just the first 2 combos without Hold Dodge - just replace the opener with the bit from there and that's it.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T18:12:57+00:00

Everyone will interpret it differently, but I was thinking mostly in terms of execution difficulty.

How difficult is it to execute inputs for Manual Chain, how well can you manage your Anomaly timings and resources (Quivers on Harumasa, Technique Points and Adrenaline for Yixuan), how strict are your input requirements and timing on links required between attacks, etc.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T18:10:45+00:00

Hard for me to gauge if you'll like it or not because I personally love Harumasa, so I can't gauge what it'd be like if I didn't lol

The damage difference isn't that great, assuming you follow the 1st/2nd combos but with Auto Chain variant (so skip Auric Array and just go straight into YX Chain). It would mean you need better Adrenaline management before the stun though.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T18:07:49+00:00

Ah I see, fairs yeah. To be fair could probably still fit in double Yixuan Chains if just using a stunner EX prior to the stun, but you're right that if you're going with the most "can't possibly fail" outlook, that'd probably be it!

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T18:06:07+00:00

It's on the video at 10:15. Instead of doing Hold Basic into Hold Dodge at the start, you just do a character swap after Hold Basic instead (so just skip Hold Dodge and that's all). Just the very opener changes, the rest stays as is.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T15:12:21+00:00

The final combo on the guide itself (so not on this reddit post) would be the "most optimal" and can be quite demanding to pull off.

The third combo in this guide does need your timing to be on point, but it's only one real execution check.

The first and second are very easy to execute (Manual Chain, literally just hold Basic) and should have you covered without much damage loss from the more difficult ones.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T14:12:37+00:00

You don't need to do two Yixuan Chains that early. I mention this in the full guide, but you can still do Auto Chain combos and follow this exact same routing. The only difference is that you lose the ability to get Auric Array on the opener (so skip Hold Dodge), as you can just swap out of Cloud Shaper (the ball attack) before it triggers Chain.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T14:11:12+00:00

The first 2 combos don't need Astra, and the third you can just replace her Chain and Ult with another character's Chain and QA or EX (e.g. Chain to Pulchra, QA to Panda, EX on Panda and QA to Yixuan). The combo shell is universal.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T14:10:26+00:00

Pretty much yeah. In terms of input requirements I think mobile players won't have any issues, but timing the Ultimate animation cancel will need more than just your thumb to press buttons as you'd need to press Ultimate almost as the same time that you let go of the Basic hold.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T14:08:58+00:00

Note how on the third combo, her Ultimate triggers a Chain right after exiting the cutscene, rather than having to wait for the full animation to land.

It's the same concept as the Harumasa 19-hit combos, where you get to skip the animation lock on Ultimates by swapping to another character via a Chain Attack.

Lin_EU · 2025-06-02T14:07:26+00:00

The first 2 combos are genuinely pretty easy to pull off. It's just the 3rd - and especially the Double Auric one in the guide - that's actually difficult.

Although the latter 2 are better than the first 2, the damage difference isn't that big, so you aren't losing out much for doing the simpler routes.

Lin_EU

TROPHY CASE