Hey guys, welcome to the latest New Unit Analysis! Today we'll be looking at Lira, the first Arena God(ess) to reach their 6* evolution and the last of this batch of new units.

We'll be looking to see how Lira does against some of her fellow dark units as well as a quick rundown of how Lira compares against the rest of the Arena Gods all at once since Lira's a 6* while they aren't yet.

We'll of course then talk about how she fares in the current metagame and what her role is in the future. Straight forward one today!

Let's get started.

Disclaimer: As always, I try to keep these as objective as possible, but they're ultimately my opinion and yours may differ. Please read them with an open mind and a view to make your own decisions. :>

God Eater Lira vs. Kikuri, Logan, Arena Units

Unit Stats:

Lord: HP 5944 ATK 1941 DEF 1795 REC 1795

Max Imp Bonuses: HP 750 ATK 300 DEF 300 REC 300

LS: 25% boost to ATK for all allies, chance of inflicting random status when attacking (Curse 7%, Injury 10%, Paralysis 7%, Poison 7%, Sick 10%, Weak 10%)

Hit count: 8 (drop check count 2/hit)

BB: 11 hit multiple target Dark damage (15BC to fill, damage modifier 160% (BB9 150%))

SBB: 13 hit single target Dark damage (30BC to fill, damage modifier 600%)

• While Lira is an arena specialist through and through, her stats are actually fairly balanced. She has a slight edge in ATK over her other stats which is very suitable for an arena unit and just really high numbers all round. Her leader skill isn't particularly noteworthy; 25% ATK isn't very impressive in the long run and the chances to inflict those random statuses are pretty low and unreliable for general use. There are definitely better candidates for the leader position, that's for sure. Her hit count improves this evolution with 2 extra hits which may not sound like much, and she's certainly not a BC generating machine or anything, but those 2 extra hits mean quite a bit in the arena where every BC counts so she appreciates the boost. Her BB is her shining glory, it has a pathetically low damage multiplier and no added effect though its hit count is decent which would make you think that it was terrible at a glance, but its fill rate is phenomenal at 15BC for a multiple target attack making it one of the best BBs you could ever hope for for Arena play. Not very good outside that domain though. This evolution, she gains access to an SBB which does massive damage to a single target for a relatively low fill cost, presumably this was intended to give her some utility outside the Arena as a boss killer and the damage modifier is impressive enough that she can handle that role pretty okay.

• First up today is Kikuri. Compared to the blood loving demon lady, Lira has better ATK ( 10), DEF ( 145) and REC ( 75) but less HP (-205). Really small differences between these two units, as you can see. The ATK difference might as well not even exist, same with the minor REC advantage Lira has, so we're really just weight up Kikuri's HP advantage vs. Lira's DEF advantage. Lira's DEF translates to about 53.5 extra damage mitigation per attack which means that she starts to outscale Kikuri's HP advantage once she's taken 4 or more hits. I think in most battles, and certainly the important ones where DEF/HP actually matter, taking more than 4 hits is probably the norm so I'd argue that Lira probably wins defensively in the long run and therefore wins statistically overall, though I'll re-iterate, only by a small margin. Kikuri wins in hit count for sure with her fantastic 12 hit combo vs. Lira's 8 hits though. Comparing their BB/SBBs, Lira's BB obviously dominates in the Arena with the lightning fast fill rate, but is pretty useless outside that domain. Kikuri on the other hand has nice damage multipliers and hit counts on her BB/SBB as well as a high (70% on SBB) chance to inflict curse on non-resistant foes which make her suitable outside the Arena. However Lira's SBB changes things a bit, eclipsing Kikuri's SBB in damage ( 600% vs. Kikuri's 460%) with a lower fill rate, though it's only single target. This probably actually makes Lira the more effective boss killer if you unlock her SBB (though there might be reasons why you wouldn't which we'll get to in the In-depth section). Overall though, you should probably stick with Lira for the Arena and Kikuri outside of it, but keep in mind that Lira's actually probably a better boss slayer than Kikuri so she's worth considering for that role over the death idol.

• Next up is Logan. Compared to the dual wielding dark warrior, Lira has better HP ( 5...lol), DEF ( 20) and REC ( 325) but less ATK (-160). As you can see, again pretty close, these two units have basically identical bulk since the HP and DEF differences are super small. So we're weighing up the difference between Lira's REC advantage and Logan's ATK advantage. In this case, I think Logan probably wins overall statistically, not based on numbers alone, but because his BB carries a health drain, so he's not actually really dependent on his REC to be sustainable. With judicious use of his BB, he's probably just as or more sustainable than Lira but hits appreciably harder so he wins the stats war. Their hit counts are just about identical (9 for Logan, 8 for Lira). Comparing their single target BBs, they have the same hit count, but Lira has the better damage modifier ( 600% vs. Logan's 520%), however Logan has a 50-60% HP drain attached to his and only costs 16BC to fill compared to Lira's 30BC (by virtue of being SBB only). In addition Logan's higher base ATK means that the difference in damage modifier isn't as pronounced as it could have been. I haven't actually run the maths but Logan might come out pretty close to even in damage output or even overtake Lira because of the ATK difference. In any case, Logan's single target options are clearly better. Comparing their MT BBs, Lira's is her patented, low damage, lightning fast fill rate BB compared to Logan's relatively high damage, ATK buffing, DEF halving suicide bomb. I think in most cases you'll get more use out of Logan's MT option as well since Lira's can't really amount to much of anything outside the Arena while Logan's does at least have good damage output. I think it's pretty clear that Lira's not going to be a great non-Arena unit at any point, but this is a useful comparison so we can illustrate that clearly. Outside the Arena, Logan wins, inside the Arena, Lira's still a monster

• The final slot for comparison today will just be a brief rundown of how Lira compares to the other Arena Gods (Farlon, Ophelia, Uda) as they are. That is, how they compare to her now that she's in her 6* forms while they're in their 5* forms. It's pretty obvious, but she dominates them. She's not only in an element that's just a bit intrinsically better (Dark is unresisted), but her stats are now superior, her hit count is better and her damage multiplier has gone up slightly too. This section is just to illustrate that she's probably the best Arena unit in the game at this point in time. When the others evolve she'll have a bit more competition but that's a comparison for another analysis.

• Lira's still a pretty bad unit outside the Arena, though she now actually has some value as a boss killing unit, but it's definitely not her forte. She's still the ass-kicking, God eating Arena unit that she always was with a nice stat upgrade, hit count upgrade and damage multiplier upgrade. She's good in her one area of expertise and that's where you should use her.

God Eater Lira: Indepth Look

• Will probably be a pretty quick one today, Lira's not exactly a multi-dimensional unit.

• Her stats are very strong. They're not like, jaw dropping in any way, but they're solid in all areas and they remain pretty solidly even with future releases which is definitely good.

• The fact that she's slightly offensively skewed is a good thing for an Arena specialist. In this respect she actually probably beats 6* Farlon statistically.

• Her Leader skill is still bad even with the addition of 25% ATK. If you really want to inflict status, use an actual status inflictor, don't use Lira. Heck, at least use Vishra since his crit damage boost while weak compared to Zebra is definitely more powerful than 25% ATK.

• Her hit count went from 6 to 8, which doesn't seem like a huge jump but it's actually pretty significant in the Arena especially if you're using her on a team with Kikuri or Lodin as the leader since that 1-2 extra BC that you generate could easily mean the difference between filling your BB-gauge or not filling it. If you're running multiple of these low fill rate units, you'll definitely start to notice a difference in BB-gauge filling consistency as you add more and more hits from evolutions.

• Her BB is the same as ever, just better. More hits (not terribly important since ideally once you unleash it, the battle is pretty much over), increased damage multiplier, can't expect much more.

• She gains an SBB this evolution which as I've mentioned already was presumably so she could have a larger role in non-arena play as a boss killer. The damage multiplier on it is fairly impressive, but it's single target with no added effect making it limited in its scope of use.

• Even with the addition of her SBB though, Lira's just not a great option. There are just so many other units that can do way more exciting, cool things than Lira who not only doesn't buff the party at all but can't even debuff the enemy. She's okay as a filler unit for mono-dark or rainbow since she's statistically quite solid, but I'd never recommend her as a first choice for any non-arena squad.

• Her SBB unfortunately sort of cripples her Arena function VERY slightly. There's a theoretical risk that if you've unlocked her SBB, she could fill up her SBB in the arena and use it instead of her BB. This is bad mostly because her SBB is single target.

• I still maintain that it'd be pretty unusual for her to fill up her SBB regularly even with a Lodin leader and even if it does happen, her SBB will DEFINITELY OHKO whatever it hits so it's not terrible.

• That said, a lot of players will probably recommend you restrict her to BB9 so she doesn't unlock her SBB to prevent that scenario from happening. What she loses here is 10% to her damage modifier which isn't great seeing as she's already not dealing that much damage anyway.

• I really don't think there's going to be too much difference in her performance if you unlock her SBB or not, nor does dropping 10% on her damage modifier bother me too much either so I'll leave the call up to you but personally, I don't really see the harm in unlocking her SBB.

• Team mates wise? Well pairing her with multiple copies of herself or the other arena gods in the Arena is a good idea, generally, so that's Farlon, Ophelia and Uda. Leader-wise, Kikuri's obviously a good choice if you're stacking multiple Lira's for her 50% ATK boost (important in the first couple of turns of Arena) and her fill rate buff.

• Lodin is also a good choice for leader if you have the appropriate units (Ophelia, Farlon, a water or Light filler - Serin/Xestia/Karl are good chocies). He has the same 50% boost in ATK for rainbow teams as Kikuri for Dark teams and his fill rate buff is actually stronger at 30% compared to Kikuri's 20%.

• Second line leaders for her would be the other dark damage boosting or rainbow damage boosting leaders.

• BB-gauge filling leaders like Aem/Aisha and Ares' Leaders like Felneus are also okay options, but the lack of damage actually really hurts. Being able to weaken/take out multiple units on the opponents team in the first turn is very helpful.

• In terms of future prospects, she's a top tier arena unit for pretty much ever. She obviously faces competition in Ophelia, Farlon and Uda who are basically identical in function to her with varying degrees of statistical superiority/inferiority but she's never really beaten outright by any of them, nor do they outright beat eachother. They're all pretty even.

• What Lira lacks in stats (she probably loses to all of them statistically except maybe Farlon but only by small margins, mind you) and potentially a restricted damage modifier (if you decide to keep her on BB9), she makes up for by being a dark unit and so having unresisted damage.

• Basically, Lira's very straightforward. Pretty mediocre for quests/FH/Trials, FANTASTIC in the Arena.

Typing Discussion

• As always, the most important thing to note here is that if typing is the only thing holding you back from using a unit, you should definitely just go ahead and use them. Please don't discard units because their typing isn't 'optimal'.

• Lira's an Arena unit primarily, so this discussion will revolve around her function in the Arena, just a heads up.

• Breaker number one for Arena play where offence is everything. That 200 or so DEF she drops was never going to save her anyway.

• Anima up next, doesn't drop her offensive capabilities and she gets bonus maybe survival points with a HP bonus at no cost (REC means literally nothing in the Arena).

• Lord number 3, no offensive drop, no defensive drop

• Oracle number 4 preserving offence is probably your priority in the Arena. Dropping HP isn't ideal since you're not getting anything out of it with the REC gain but keeping your ATK intact is fine.

• Finally Guardian is still good if that's the only Lira you have, but probably the least ideal Arena typing since the DEF gain isn't really significant in the Arena while the ATK drop is noticeable.

That's it guys, hope you enjoyed the read! We'll be starting Vishra's batch next, so look forward to that!

As always, I welcome your comments/criticims/encouragements. Please drop an upvote if you found this useful, I'd appreciate the support. <3

Until next time!

Links to previous Analyses