Once upon a time, raid free units were game changing. Nowadays, people barely even notice them outside of their trust masters and former fusion-hell. This is understandable, given that most reviews are in terms of resource management, which includes pulls, enhancement spendings, and the occasional rare "others". That, and raid free units typically kind of suck in comparison to their current equivalent-star bases. These units, however, do benefit newer players with a limited unit pool, and as such, will be written with that in mind.

As this is a new unit with a 7★, I'll go a little more in depth than I would normally do. Without further ado...

Popstar Katy - Raiders of the Free Review

Limit Burst

Eye See You (7★, 26 LB)

• 3-Hit Evoke damage (12.5x-15.4x) to all enemies
• Decrease SPR (40%-69%) for 3 turns to all enemies

Things to note: PSK's LB has a 20% damage boost at level 120. As a result, the effective modifier becomes 15x-18.48x, ignoring EVO MAG.

Trust Reward

Instrumental Rhythm (Materia)

• Increase MAG/SPR (30%) when equipped with an instrument
• Unstackable

Super Trust Reward

Popstar's Pendulum

• HP 10%, MP 10%, MAG 10%
• Increase EVO MAG (20%), only on Popstar Katy

Notable Skills

Appetite for More

• Use Command skills twice in one turn

Command - Cue the Spotlight

• Fire magic damage (2x) with consecutive increase (4 times, 1x each, 6x max) to all enemies
• Inflict blind (30%) to all enemies
• W-Castable

Non-spell version of Firaja, except on a faster frame. Has potential as an ondemand finisher, especially if you bring the proper imperil. The blind is nice too, but it is very niche on what bosses it can affect.

Command - Bass Blast

• 8-Hit Magic damage (2.75x) to all enemies
• Inflict confuse (30%) to all enemies
• W-Castable
• Quake Frames160-22-21-22-23-23-22-23

This ability cannot be spark-chained due to quake frames. In addition, this is non-elemental damage, which means it loses out on imperils. The confuse has more arena application due to both the AoE chain and confusion.

Stage Rehearsal

• Increase evocation gauge (2-4)

Command - Backup Dancer Rush (3 Esper Orbs)

• Evoke damage (7x) to all enemies

A decent non-elemental move, though not having an element hurts due to not being able to use imperils.

Touch-up (Lvl 105)

• Recover MP (30) to all allies, except caster
• Cure all status ailments to all allies, except caster

Lowish MP recovery ability, though having it on demand is pretty good. Having an unit that can cleanse all status ailments is pretty neat, especially if your dedicated healer is tied up elsewhere.

Dress Rehersal (Lvl 110)

• Increase evocation gauge (4-5)
• Enable skill for 3 turns for 1 use to caster: Command - Showtime
• 4 turns CD, available on turn 1

Ignoring the unlocked ability, it is a pretty is fairly accelerated means of getting the Esper ready. In fact, due to being available on turn one, you can use this on multi-battle missions to quickly build the Esper bar. That said, the 80 MP cost is fairly restictive to spam it in this manner.

Command - Showtime (Lvl 110, Requires Unlock, 3 Esper Orbs)

• 12-Hits Evoke damage (8x) to all enemies
• Tornado Frames80-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12

Words of warning: It's only good for one use, so it cannot be casted twice (though it can be part of a W-Cast). According to this comment from u/bungleguy, it can be W-Castable with itself, but only good for one turn regardless if you double it up or not ^{so weird}. In addition, if PK.Katy dies the turn before, you lose access to this ability and have to wait for the CD again. Otherwise, this is part of her hardest hitting skill rotation.

Notable Others

• Can use any Esper equipped in the party
• Has 30% innate EVO MAG
• Can counter attacks with Curaga-strength heals
• Can use Curaga to help the dedicated healer
• Has 50% LB gauge fill rate (from Trust Master ability)
• Has 5% innate MP refresh (from Trust Master ability)
• Immunity to Paralyze
• Really easy to level up to 7★ max, due to experience and awakening needs
• Can equip event gear for Sleep/Confusion Immunity, and more EVO MAG
• Can equip light shields, which has application for elemental resistance

Notable Issues

• Really bad stats for a 7★ unit (comparable to a really good 6★ unit)
• Lacks resistance to several big status ailments
• Cannot benefit from killers for her evoke skills
• Cannot fully self-cap own chains, due to fast finishing frames and late chaining frames
• Both chaining skills are non-elemental, leading to both slower chain build and no imperil/elemental weakness bonus
• Bass Blast cannot be sparked chained due to Quake frames
• Her better chaining skill, Showtime, is locked behind a CD which can lead to issues, particular if reraised.
• No additional bonus stats from equipped Espers, unlike other summoners

Interesting Tidbit

• [Insert Was-Expecting-Arianna Comment]

Nude Expeditions

^{Subject to rounding errors
Success capped at 16%, anything above is solely for comparison purposes
No gear equipped, or using a 0-statted variant for mastery
Parentasis denote with Harp mastery
7★★ denotes with TMR equipped, with TMR stats calculated}
Expedition Charts

Nude Comparisons

• If any passive are conditional on equip, assume that the unit have a 0-statted variant of it equipped. For example, Marquis de Leon is wielding an I-can't-believe-it's-not-Not-a-knuckle ^{or a 0-calories Diet Knuckle, but with all the great taste}.
• Also assume spark chaining, whenever chaining math is done
  • Assume exactly 2 chainers, with the result calculation being damage dealt by a single chainer
  • Assume single-element for physical/hybrid, unless otherwise stated
• Base stat's only, no pots of any sort.
• If Limit Burst is used, calculation is done using a Lvl 1 version (unless noted otherwise).
• All units will get a minimum of 40% stat boost while in battle (via Leadership - Rain)
• All units will get a minimum of 35% imperil (Crazy Day)
• Using the below formula for calculations and comparisons, unless noted otherwise:
  • Reg Damage = (Stat²⁾ * Skill.Mod * Chain.Mod * Imperil / (1-Break)
  • Evo Damage = (Mag² SPR²⁾ / 2 * (1 EVO.MAG) * Skill.Mod * Chain.Mod * Imperil / (1-Break)
  • Esper Modifier = (1 EVO.MAG)²

Popstar Katy Popstar Katy^7★★

^{I might change the picture when I can find the code specific for her. Keyword: Might}

HP: 4504
Mag pre-buff: 300
Mag post-buff: 360 (via Leadership)
Spr pre-buff: 282
Spr post-buff: 348 (via Leadership)
Imperil: 35% (via Crazy Day)
Break: 40% (via LB for SPR)
Esper Orb (Spam): 2~4
Esper Orb (Limt): 4~5 (4-turn CD)
Evo Mod: 1.3 (1.7 if DW with event gear, not being used in calculations)
Esper Mod: 1.69 (2.89 with event gear, not being used in calculations)

Command - Bass Blast (Off-Chained, W-Cast)
  360^2 * 2.75 * 2.665 / (1-0.4) * 2 (W-Cast) = 3,166,020
Command - Showtime (Chained, W-Cast)
  (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.07 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast) = 12,314,580.46
  (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.07 / (1-0.40) * 2 (W-Cast) = 13,340,795.5
Command - Cue the Spotlight (W-Cast)
  T1: 360^2 * (2 3) / (1-0.4) = 1,080,000
  T2: 360^2 * (4 5) / (1-0.4) = 1,944,000
  T3: 360^2 * (6 6) / (1-0.4) = 2,592,000
Command - Backup Dancer Rush (W-Cast)
  (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 7 / (1-.35) * 2 (W-Cast) = 3,509,856
  (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 7 / (1-0.4) * 2 (W-Cast) = 3,802,344
Command Bass Blast   Showtime
  360^2 * 2.75 * 2.95 / (1-.35)   (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.424 / (1-.35) = 8,484,791.66
  360^2 * 2.75 * 2.95 / (1-0.4)   (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.424 / (1-0.4) = 9,191,857.63
Command Showtime   Cue the Spotlight (Max Stack)
  (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.32 / (1-.35)   360^2 * 6 * 3.2 / (1-.35) = 10,486,882.86
  (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.32 / (1-0.4)   360^2 * 6 * 3.2 / (1-0.4) = 11,360,789.76
Eye See You (7★ LB, ignore chaining)
  35% break: (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 12.5 / (1-0.35) * 1.2 (LB Boost)= 3,760,560
  40% break: (360^2   348^2)/2 * 1.3 * 12.5 / (1-0.40) * 1.2 (LB Boost)= 4,073,940

Recommended Rotation
  Dress Rehersal
  Eye See You (LB)
  Showtime x2
  Backup Dancer Rush x2 =or= Bass Blast x2 until LB (Depends if you have a finisher)
 Avg: 5,304 Mil (4-Turn Rotation)

For the comparison, I'll be mostly looking at each units innate damage and how much harder they can make Espers hit for.

I've included two seperate build below: one for maximizing her skill damage, and the other for boosting the Esper damage. Both ignore STMR, limited, premiums, and IW stats, but does include her event gear and her own STMR. I won't use these gears for comparison purposes in my main discussion, but they will be mentioned for veteran comparison sake.

Non-Esper Damage Build

HP : 6,101
MP : 535
DEF: 282
MAG: 1,011
SPR: 762
Evo Mod: 2
Esper Mod: 4

Eye See You (LB)
  (1011^2   762^2)/2 * 2 * 15.4 * 1.2= 29,619,097.2
Command - Showtime (Chained, W-Cast)
  (1011^2   762^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.07 / (1-0.69) * 2 (W-Cast) = 165,074,454.58
Command Showtime   Cue the Spotlight (Max Stack)
  (1011^2   762^2)/2 * 1.3 * 8 * 3.32 / (1-0.69)   1011^2 * 6 * 3.2 / (1-0.69) = 152,564,058.58
Command - Backup Dancer Rush (W-Cast)
  (1011^2   762^2)/2 * 1.3 * 7 / (1-0.69) * 2 (W-Cast) = 47,048,908.06

*Ignoring in-battle buffs, breaks, and level correction in damage math

Esper Nuker Build

HP : 6,101
MP : 535
DEF: 282
MAG: 897
SPR: 629
Evo Mod: 2.15
Esper Mod: 4.6225

Rain Rain

HP: 4052
Esper Orb: 0
Evo Mod: 1.2
Esper Mod: 1.44
No Evoke Damage, or strong damage due to skills

• Rain has an ^outdated 30% Full Break
• Rain has an ^outdated 40$ Full Buff
• e.Rain has 50% fire resistance
• PS.K can build Esper meter
• PS.K can summon any Esper in party
• PS.K has more EVO MAG (even more with event gear to due being able to equip instruments)
• PS.K can chain and deal more damage
• PS.K has innate paralysis immunity
• PS.K can recover 30 MP to all other party members
• PS.K can emergency heal with Curaga or Curaga-strength counters, in addition to curing status ailments

With the exception of the fire resistance, almost everything Rain is better at is outdated. For plain old damage and Esper nuking, Katy wins.

Rydia Rydia^5★

HP: 2369
Esper Orb (Spam): 0
Esper Orb (Limt): 5~8 (LB)
Evo Mod: 1.6
Esper Mod: 2.56
No Evoke Damage, or actual damage due to stats and skillset

• Rydia can build Esper meter faster if built for LB
• Rydia has higher innate EVO Mag
  • Rydia makes Espers nuke for about 50% harder in comparison
• PS.K has much better damage
• PS.K has much better stats/survivability
• PS.K has innate paralysis immunity
• PS.K can recover 30 MP to all other party members
• PS.K can emergency heal with Curaga or Curaga-strength counters, in addition to curing status ailments
• PS.K has an ^outdated 40% ATK/DEF buff

Ultimately, it depends on what is needed. If you are looking for an unit that can deal consistent damagea or has better survivability, PS.K wins. However, if you just want to nuke someone really hard with an Esper, go Rydia.

As for Rydia Esper Nukes, her Esper capability actually drops below PS.Katy's variant. Also, if you are using that build, why are you using adult Rydia if you have Kydia?

Garnet e.Garnet

HP: 3808
Esper Orb (Spam): 3
Esper Orb (Limt): 6~10 (LB)
Evo Mod: 1.7
Esper Mod: 2.89
No Evoke Damage, or actual damage

• e.Garnet can build Esper meter faster and better
• e.Garnet can ^almost Full-Life
• e.Garnet has higher innate EVO Mag
  • e.Garnet makes Espers nuke for about 71% harder in comparison
• e.Garnet has innate sleep and silence immunity
• e.Garnet has 30% innate resistance to all elements
• e.Garnet has 40% all elemental-resistance AoE buff
• e.Garnet has an innate 20% magic evasion
• PS.K has much better damage
• PS.K has innate paralysis immunity
• PS.K can recover 30 MP to all other party members
• PS.K can counter with Curaga-strength heals
• PS.K can AoE cure status ailments

This one is a bit trickier due to one being build for damage, and the other for party support.

In terms of stat, it's a bit trickier. If you look at base stats alone, PS.K has better survivability. However, e.Garnet is fairly resilient to both magic and elemental attacks due to her innate evasion and full elemental resistance. For raw damage, PS.K is better. But if there a bunch of elemental attacks, then e.Garnet can come out on top.

In terms of party support, e.Garnet is overall better, though it will vary on what the need is. She has most of the basic white mage kit: okay heals and full-life. In addition, she can buff the parties elemental reistance which can also heals (better-than-curaga strength). However the lack of both an innate dualcast and status ailment heal does hurt, although the former is rather easy to remedy. PS.K, on the other hand, only has the has MP recovery and an AoE status ailment cure, in addition to curaga.

In terms of Esper support, e.Garnet comes out much further ahead. Just with her spammable ability, she can build the Esper gauge much faster than PS.K can. If you factor in the LB (which can almost be used every turn with a LB build), then it's conceivable to have an Esper ready after just 2 turns. Finally, e.Garnet has a much higher EVO Mod, meaning that Esper actually hit harder, and by a significant amount.

In short for this comparison:
Esper: e.Garnet
Damage: PS.Katy
Support: e.Garnet, though depends on party makeup and enemy
Survivability: PS.Katy, swinging to e.Garnet if there are alot of elemental attacks

If building for Esper nuking, e.Garnet's Evo Mag is about on par, though slightly ahead.

CG Citra Citra^{Unenhanced 7★★}

HP: 6688
Mag pre-buff:  316 (ignoring  20% TDW)
Mag post-buff: 395 (via Leadership)
Spr pre-buff: 435 (ignoring  20% TDW)
Spr post-buff: 514 (via Leadership)
Break: 35% (via World Destroyer)
Imperil: 60% (from LB)
Esper Orb (Spam): 2~4
Evo Mod: 2.1 (with TMR)
Esper Mod: 4.41

Holy Mind (Chained)
  514^2 * 3.5 * 3.5875 * 1.6 = 5,307,697.64
Evocation - Light of Supremacy (W-Cast)
  (395^2   514^2) / 2 * 2.1 * 9 * 2 (W-Cast) = 7,961,625
Evocation - Fierce Light of Supremacy (CD - 6 turns)   Light of Supremacy
  (395^2   514^2) / 2 * 2.1 * (25   9) = 30,077,250
Limit Burst
  (395^2   514^2) / 2 * 2.1 * 13.1 = 5,794,293.75

• Citra has better stats
• Citra has better damage
• Citra has more EVO Mag
  • Citra makes Espers nuke for about 161% harder in comparison
• Citra has a much more impactful MP restore (that doesn't need MP)
• Citra can imperil light (via LB)
• Citra can confer 100% light-resistance to the party (at a -50% dark-resistance penalty)
• Citra builds Esper gauge more consistently and overall faster, with some bonuses attached
• Citra can mitigate magic damage for party (20%)
• Citra has innate petry immunity, in addition to paralysis
• Citra has innate dual wield (staves/rods only)
• PS.K's MP recover doesn't require Esper orbs
• PS.K can counter with Curaga-strength heals
• PS.K can AoE cure status ailments

Not much to say. Almost everything that PS.K can do, Citra does it better.

Here are Citra's summon damage build and her Esper nuke build, and note that her damage is still better overall, though the Esper damage gap has strunk.

Kid Rydia PS Rydia^{Unenhanced JP 7★★}

HP: 6259
Mag pre-buff: 545 (ignoring  50% TDH/TDW)
Mag post-buff: 707 (via Tradition)
Spr pre-buff: 324 (ignoring  50% TDH/TDW)
Spr post-buff: 477 (via Tradition)
Break: 35% (via World Destroyer)
Imperil: 35%/50%/75% (via Crazy Day, Tornado for wind, or CD for water/wind/earth, respectively)
Esper Orb (Spam): 3
Esper Orb (Limt): 7~10 (3-turn CD)
Evo Mod: 2.3 (with TMR)
Esper Mod: 5.29 (with TMR)

Eidolon Chocobo Kick (W-Cast, Chained)
  (707^2   477^2) / 2 * 2.3 * 6.5 * 1.95 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 32,622,903.3
Eidolon Cockatrice Peck (W-Cast)
  (707^2   477^2) / 2 * 2.3 * 11.5 * 1.35 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 39,958,230.67
  (707^2   477^2) / 2 * 2.3 * 11.5 * 1.75 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 51,797,706.42
Eidolon Mindflayer's Chant (W-Cast)
  (707^2   477^2) / 2 * 2.3 * 17.5 * 1.35 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 60,806,003.19
  (707^2   477^2) / 2 * 2.3 * 17.5 * 1.75 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 78,822,596.73
Eidolon Bomb Explosion (Requires 1-T setup)
  (707^2   477^2) / 2 * 2.3 * 22.5 * 1.35 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 78,179,146.96
バーストストーム (Chained, CD ability)
  707^2 * 16 * 2.8375 * (1-0.35) = 34,912,530.15
Tornado (W-Cast)
  707^2 * 2.5 * 3.778 * 1.50 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 21,789,571.41
  707^2 * 2.5 * 3.778 * 1.75 / (1-0.35) * 2 (W-Cast)= 25,421,166.64
Limit Burst (Chained)
  (707^2   477^2) / 2 * 2.3 * 22.2 * 3.775 / (1-0.35)= 107,848,615.82

• PS.Rydia has better stats
• PS.Rydia has better damage
  • PS.Rydia has better elemental coverage and innate imperils
• PS.Rydia can build Esper meter faster and more consistently
• PS.Rydia has more EVO Mag
  • PS.Rydia makes Espers nuke for about 213% harder in comparison
• PS.Rydia has innate disease/petrify immunity
• PS.Katy has innate paralysis immunity
• PS.Katy can recover 30 MP to all other party members
• PS.Katy can counter with Curaga-strength heals
• PS.Katy can AoE cure status ailments

I have a little more to say here. With the small exception to PS.Katy's support skillset, Rydia is just better.

Here are PS.Rydia's summon damage build and her Esper nuke build. Just like Citra, the damage gap is still huge, but the Esper gap has strunk considerably.

PS: Please don't use PSK and PSR to denote between the two, as speed readers like me get confused really easily.

Conclusion - New Player Variant

Popstar Katy is a really good starter summoners. She has reliable means of building the Esper meter, and has access to two chaining families, one of which is very common and mainstream. Also, thanks to her "I can summon any equipped Esper" ability, you have additional esper-equip flexibility. With a decent HP/MP/ailment recover kit, she can potentially sustain your party in multiple ways. And most importantly, thanks to her innate EVO mag and the event-exclusive equipment, PS.K can get really high EVO mag, cause both her damage and esper nuke to pack a good punch.

Conclusion - Veteran Variant

For starters, her stats are very bad. For the most part, it is comparable with a good 6★ max at her 7★ form. This means that both her damage and survivability is very low compared to pretty much all other 7★'s. Next, she has only one status ailment protection. This is less of an issue due to the prevelence of ribbon-like effects, but it still takes a toll in equipment and party slotting.

Her support kit is close to non-existant. Curaga is outdated, especially without any innate dualcast for it. Her stat buff is so bad that it is actually worse that that of the first unit in the game, story Rain. Lastly, while the instantaneous MP refresh with status cures is nice, the restore is fairly weak (worst than Roselia's, a 3★ base), and status prevention is more important than status cures nowadays.

Moving onto her damage kit, it's problematic. First off, being primarily an evoker, she loses out killers to boost much of her damage. This is partially mitiaged from having EVO Mag acting as an unconditional Killer in terms of calculation, but the sources are less accessible/abundant. Moving on, due to her finishers having very fast frames, but her chains starting very delayed, there is no way to self-cap her own skills. Next, her on-demand chaining skill is an non-elemental Quake, meaning that there is very low chain building, leading to lower damage output. Finally, while she does have a Tornado move, it is non-elemental and locked behind a CD move. Even her limit break has issues, with lowish unchained modifiers. That said, the SPR break is nice, but it requires considerable investments to even break the 50%-break threshold, with the high significantly lower than various CD's and LB breaks.

I think I'll leave her as two seperate 7★ ^{for expeditions}, due to restrictive STMR and poor stats. If she was an upgrade to Garnet, I would have considered the STMR fusion.

^{Can I have my 7★ CK.Arianna now? Please?}

But Wait, There's More

Thanks to our 9001 Arianna, there is hope ^{not really}. Just like how a certain unit got re-released as PSR, there is a very slim that she could be re-released as a new PSK. But this time, with all of PSK kit, but better than PSK original to the point of usability like PSR, just like PSR being better than not-PSR. In fact, we can even hope that this new PSK is better than PSR, even though past experience show it is unlikely that new PSK won't surpass PSR just like how current PSK doesn't surpass PSR. So, hope for PSK > PSR.

This entire last section has no point other than to reiterate that the terms PSK/PSR are super confusing now. Especially how K looks like R at certain times.

^{Math Fix Status: Satisfied}

^{Edit 1: Fixed being able to cast Showtime more than once. Calculations changed to reflect it.
Edit 2: Ninja correction on chaining Mod of Showtime Spotlight. Now higher.
Edit 3: Reverted back to using double Showtime rotation, due to this comment: https://redd.it/a68zvc; also corrected rotation}