Special Thanks

• u/hans483 , u/Yappi1486 here on Reddit, and Jans from Discord - This will forever be here since I owe them the correct translation to TW Preview
• Rain on Discord as the owner of rsrsdb.com . Even though it doesn't have the most up-to-date information, I still look up old information there :)

Quick Note

Apologies for my absence, was adjusting to my new workload and real-life stuff so I have deprioritized creating guides and videos. I do hang out on the Different Discord Channels giving my 2 cents on whatever question goes my way. Will try to keep up now that things have normalized.

Video References:

• Spiral 200 - Garuda Wing - OG SS Anya, Shirei, Astrologist Wagnas, 4.5Y Jo, Saga Elysed
• Spiral 190 - Basil Greios - School Bertrand, 4.5Y Jo, Astrologist Wagnas, Saga Soul Patrick, 4.5Y Ludwig
• Spiral 180 - Kirin > Time Lord - Finale Kami, Finale Macha, Astrologist Wagnas, Saga Labelle, Saga Elysed
• Spiral 170 - Magnate, Shogun, Koi Fishes - School Bertrand, RSMS Saruin, Finale Subier, Saga Jo, True Form Razem

Short Summary:

• This is one of the starting point of going for an OD Approach for a battle thanks to Astrologist Wagnas. OD is the strategy to go to if you want to be successful for Spiral 200 later on with Garuda Wing. OD Approach isn't as usable today as it is later when we have more capability supporting the OD Approach. To name a few, Saga Labelle, Saga Elysed.

• Cousin C rode the tide when they started giving Passives as a Battle Permanent Buff since the New Year Bunny Banner with Emelia giving everyone but herself 25% AOE XS Heal at End of Turn (so 4 chances for AOE XS Heal). His S3 along with debuffing is what he brings to the table. Giving passives as buffs whether it be temporary or permanent for the battle is the new norm.

• Bertrand steps up the Counter Tank capability with self buffing, self healing, and having Intrinsic. Later on, we will also get RS1 Monica who is good with DPS, and RS3 White Tuxedo Julian being the top tier Counter Tank with party buffing. Bertrand stepped it up knowing GLEX exists where he was given extra Defense Boost to his kit. To a certain extent, Bertrand's attribute buffs may become useless if the enemy cleanses buff. I have utilized Bertrand for Spiral 170 (Magnate and Shogun), and Spiral 190 (Basil Greios).

• Nurse Byunei is all about buffing and healing, very niche Attack Boost. If you have Summer Style, that would work well on this to benefit the Defense Up passive. I only have Dragonlord so I would be helping with Morale Down as an emergency since I would love her to focus on Healing and Buffing.

• Valdor is the opposite of a BP Battery, but benefits the party in the same manner about BP Management. Extra Attack and Defense Passive are always welcome. Overall good to have, but if you can wait for Shirei, Shirei can do it way better.

• Bokuohn got the shorter end of the stick and becomes an RNG-heavy DPS. If you get a good roll and you have him proc all of his abilities, then he becomes a DPS Machine.

SS [Time Goes Slowly] School Bertrand

Character Summary: Counter Specialist with lots of self sustain capability. 2 layers of RNG to consider with Intrinsic having 37% chance to dodge, and 50% chance to mitigate counter a direct attack. Having Frost Bite as inherit will still be my go-to so that he is able to gain 6 BP per turn and be able to cast S3 every other turn (or more) considering he is able to Counter a lot as well. If Int Debuffing is not needed, then Twin Goldfish is a good inherit for more Attack and Defense Boost.

Strengths: Self Sustain really strong Counter Tank along with Intrinsic may be able to help clear the battle.

Weakness: His attribute buff may deem useless or trigger some battle mechanics due to reaching threshold or getting cleansed. Also, he is focused mostly on self sustain whereas upcoming White Tux Julian has party buffing included that greatly helps on certain battles.

Best Style to work with: Saruin, each time he does a Dominant Blaze counter, he gains 1 BP from it rather than nothing. Other Defense / Heat Up that can benefit Bertrand to sustain a battle better.

Veteran Players: I would recommend to pull for Bertrand if you don't have a decent Counter Tank yet. We have had some serviceable Pseudo Counter Tank, but we have seen how useful it is in my previous showcase with Khalid having Intrinsic to counter better.

New Players: Highly recommend to get Bert, and if possible his GLEX (Koi Fishing one), or the one with Dominant Blaze to target on a ticket selector if we are given one. Bert can be useful for a while until we get White Tux Julian. RS1 Monica is top-notch for Counter DPS if we are wanting to see who the best damage for Counter DPS is like.

My Decision: I would still love to pull for Bertrand, he was my ticket to clear Spiral 190 and Spiral 170 because I didn't had the correct units back then. While I have some decent units now in GL, I still want Bertrand, and then go for White Tux Julian later.

SS [No Anomaly Unnoticed] Wagnas

Character Summary: Support character giving everyone AOE XS Heal when performing an OD Attack Command, he also does Guard Down to the target enabling for a tad better overall damage for the party. About his OD Buff, here are some samples to make it clear for all:

• Liam doing 6 attacks (skill 5 bullets) would trigger 6 total XS Heal to the party.
• Medea and Tatyana triggering 4 attacks would trigger 4 total XS Heal to the party.
• Final Empress' Quadruple Moon Strike triggering 4 hits on her command would trigger 1 total XS Heal to the party.

I believe the working comparison the team has believed is 3 of XS Heal equates to 1 of S Heal. Considering Mirsa exists and he can Still Blade Light and chain to his AOE Heal skill at a 50% chance works as well. The difference is solely relying on Mirsa for healing, vs everyone pitching in on Healing.

Current RS2 Stage Wagnas will have little benefit from this style, perhaps S2 or S3 from Astrologist style, but most likely having Self Burning inherit would still be applicable to nullify nasty heat element attacks.

Strengths: Enables the party to heal everyone. He can tank on Heat Element type of battles too since he can inherit and stack Self Burning to himself just like how I tackled Spiral 190, and Spiral 200 and chip in some heat damage on counter.

Weakness: Outside of OD XS Heal, he doesn't bring much to the party as a passive or an active buff. Some other folks may deem to be more useful like Maria with S3 and Scrum Guard to name a few.

Best Style to work with: Multiple Attack Command characters like Medea and Tatyana, later on works really well with Saga Labelle and Saga Elysed.

Veteran Players: I would recommend to pull mainly because you don't have to worry about healing be included in your party in-exchange of having Wagnas in there. If this is not how you want to tackle a hard content, then there will be better ones coming that may suit your play style.

New Players: I would recommend to skip, especially if your account is at a very early phase. We are going to get some more OD Folks coming in soon and they are better options than Wagnas.

My Decision: I would still love to get Wagnas since I love approaching a battle with Overdrive. Later on, Wagnas is completely overpowered by Saga Yukata best-character-in-the-game Virgil with the healing, self BP, and attack boost on Combo and OD Combo (Wagnas' buff only triggers on OD). For those of you new to reading my stuff, I love Virgil, so take the best-character-in-the-game part with a grain of salt lol.

SS [You Seem Feverish] Nurse Byunei

Character Summary: Healer and Buffer type of Byunei that can compliment her other styles from Dragonlord and Summer where she can have Morale Down or Damage Block duty. Main role is healing hence why she has LOV buff on her allowing for potentially 300-400 XS Heal. Her primary role if possible is to keep on using S2 every single turn, unless you need to deviate and do Morale Down or Damage Block accordingly. The other skill good for her to inherit is AOE Heal from Summer Style. The AOE Heal, when combined with her A2 allows an AOE Defense Up effect as well.

Strengths: Buffer and Healer into 1. Her S1 is considered a Recovery action, which means it can revive. She has a lot of utility she can bring to the party thanks to inherits.

Weakness: Other party members may be able to cover what she can do from a Healing and Buffing perspective. While having high amount of heal per turn is good, it can be worked around with more defenses for less healing for example. Beachside Narwhal's Daughter can also heal per turn with her S1 and S3 (S3 has Ailment Resistance too as GL change), and she can deviate from healing with more buffing if needed with Water Festival, or debuffing with Trick Carnival.

Best Style to work with: Hard Content Characters. She can be your dedicated healer, and along with Summer Style's AOE Heal would solve for all your healing needs.

Veteran Players: Skip, as much as you want a nurse check for fever lol. Even with the current JP Saga Byunei, I feel this style is a little redundant of capability that is already available. JP Saga Byunei is a better choice, and will have very minor benefit from this style. This is the latest Saga Byunei from gamerch.

New Players: Pull for Byunei as she will help with a lot of your needs to tackle some of the early hard contents available, and will become a part of your core hard content party until the better options come. I believe I watched Saigon from Discord do some JP content and Saigon still uses Nurse Byunei from time to time.

My Decision: Target is Wagnas, so if she comes along with Wagnas, she is more than welcome and I will use her. If I get Wagnas early, I will skip or wait for reprint.

SS [Sparkling Clean] Cousin C (Kzinssie)

Character Summary: Kzinssie is just like Wagnas in the sense that he gives a Passive to the party and tries to help more with skills available. For Kzinssie, he allows everybody 25% chance for BP 2 to self at end of turn. This is pretty good when it comes in clutch. Just like Melissa's Phantom buff, it is behind a 25% chance to take that as you will with how much you are willing to roll for that.

After S3, Kzinssie will be focusing on doing Int debuffing with S2 along with Wil debuffing thanks to A2. With his latest RS2 Stage style in JP, it would be noteworthy to carry over his S3 capability and have more utility be available to him with the latest JP style, something good to have but not necessary since Shirei is available.

Strengths: His passive buff is one of the valuable ones right now in terms of BP Management until Shirei is released. If you don't want Kzinssie, then Souchou can be an alternative, though Souchou doesn't do any more than BP 10 every now and then.

Weakness: Hard Content application, so will depend on the scenario on how much he can be used. However, Intelligence debuffing is one of the higher value ones to have, especially when we are now experiencing ailments as part of the Hard Content mechanic that having Int debuff helps along with Wil buffing and/or Ailment Resistance buffing.

Best Style to work with: Not right now, but soon with Saga Fuyou (Azami palette swap) as they may be able to debuff enough to allow the party have a safer battle from Magic type damage or ailments. Outside of Saga Fuyou, as mentioned, Hard Content Characters.

Veteran Players: Depending on your box, Kzinssie may be a big help thanks to S3, or you have enough BP Battery and Int Debuffer to work with until Shirei arrives.

New Players: Should be a skip, there will be better options later for passive buffs.

My Decision: Skip. I would love some Cousin C Janitor sprite and that S3, but I am happy with Wagnas.

SS [Hit Me as Hard as You Can] Valdor

Character Summary: DPS with some utility available. Notably has useful utility / support you would want in a hard content character, lower BP Cost (like a reverse BP Battery), and increase Attack / Defense. His A1 opens up his capability in 2R Farming alongside Anya / Free Hardy to do an 8-8 Auto depending on skill you want to use.

He can become a makeshift tank with Free SS Style's Cross Drill Driver, and may be able to benefit from his A1's Attack Lands segment. Outside of counter, there are some decent MA skills he can inherit for some damage, or self heal with Ki Meditation.

Cross Drill Driver may need to be tested to make sure it aligns with his A1 capability. There are times when an ability would mention that it doesn't trigger on Counter Attacks. As it is now, I feel it will work and be advantageous for the party when Valdor is doing counters.

Strengths: Above average defensive stats along with useful utility. Damage could be good if you hit 4 attacks when using S2.

Weakness: Minor thing about his Cold and Heat element resistance where he is more resistant to Cold in exchange of being vulnerable to Heat. If you opt for the Counter route, then the party won't be able to take advantage of his BP-2 Cost effect from S3 in-exchange of Defense Boost.

Best Style to work with: BP Battery so that he can do more of S3 or go on Counter Stance more. Take note he doesn't benefit from the BP-2 Cost.

Veteran Players: I suggest a skip and wait for Shirei. I think the notable utility he brings is the BP-2 Cost which is something new, but it is the same as having some BP Battery with you in the party and potentially can do more or the same support as what Valdor can do.

New Players: Pull for Valdor. He can become a reliable DPS and has many options from his previous styles you may potentially get as off banner as you pull for current units. His overall style would help tremendously for your box as you stabilize and get the next characters.

My Decision: I will skip. Much more useful characters are coming as we approach Liam's finale chapter, and so I want to make sure I am ready to pull for the characters I want.

SS [Tricks and Gadgets] Bokuohn

Character Summary: DPS output can range from extremely good, to decent thanks to the different layers of RNG he has. A1 is tied up to using S3 which is a Delay Skill, and 3 self utilities locked behind a 50% chance. A2 is a flat 25% chance for BP 10. In a way, he can use S3 all the time given you win the BP 7 or get both BP 7 and BP 10.

Latest JP RS2 Stage Bokuohn though is pretty solid with Debuffs, Party Enervate Passive Buff, and Buff Cleansing. Latest style will have very little benefit from this, S1 inherit if anything, but there are other options available from his other styles.

Strengths: If RNG Gods are smiling to you, then you have some serious ST DPS with you which can help in Remembrance, and to some extent, some Hard Contents.

Weakness: Multiple layers of RNG involved and with main skill being single element makes it less favorable for people to pick him as a DPS.

Best Style to work with: Other Club DPS, most likely on Remembrance Duty.

Veteran Players: Should be a safe skip.

New Players: Should be a skip as well.

My Decision: Skip.