Nine

Hew (Extreme): Extreme is the only Hew Epiphany with different level scaling, having lower starting ratios but much higher ending ratios and overall higher damage potential. Because of this, it’s the clear choice for most Damage-based Nine builds, provided you can play in a way that allows you to get through all levels each turn.

Hew (Ironclad): Nine’s most defensive option for Hew. The Ironclad Epiphany has a flat 240% Shield at all levels of Hew and the same damage ratios as all Hew Epiphanies besides Extreme. The Ironclad Epiphany can be used to allow her to generate substantial shields, repositioning her as a DEF-damage hybrid character if that’s what you’re after.

Hew (Massacre): The AoE variant of Hew. When used, instead of attacking a single enemy, it targets all enemies, but deals 10% less damage per target. This is a multiplicative reduction, which is a significant trade-off for multi-target damage. Can be taken if you absolutely need pure AoE damage, but puts Nine in competition with other dedicated AoE order damage dealers like Yuki and Amir.

Hew (Ambush): Removes the [Ephemeral] tag whilst adding the [Retain] tag. Whenever an ally Counterattacks, it activates itself. While this might seem conditionally strong, it can currently activate only once per turn (no matter how many Counterattacks you activate), which means its relative value is quite low on top of being very conditional.

Hew (Flash): Flash receives Cost Reduction upon [Exhaust] card used, including ally [Exhaust] cards. This allows [Exhaust] heavy teams to remove Hew’s biggest downside and allow all its levels to be played each turn freely in theory. To do this, though, you’ll need a very specific team capable of spamming a huge amount of [Exhaust] cards each turn, something which isn’t always possible to achieve.

Neutral: Unfortunately, as Hew exhausts itself and creates a new copy of a card, Neutral and Divine Epiphanies are only applied to the base version, so besides the Hew created from the max level: Start of Turn create effect, you will not get any additional value from Neutral or Divine Epiphanies. Thus, they are not recommended.

Divine: Similar to Neutral Epiphanies, Divines will only be applied to the base version (the starting version and the version created through max level Hew Start of Turn effect). While this makes Divines significantly less valuable on Nine, if you have excess Save Data, which is common on Nine, you can consider taking the ‘Vulnerable 2’ Divine for up to 2 Vulnerability per turn.

Experienced Strike I: Provides a slightly higher damage value and a 30% multiplicative damage buff compared to 20% on the base card. Not a bad choice, but definitely not the most optimal if presented with a strong Neutral Epiphany.

Experienced Strike II: Increases the Experienced Strike II card damage by 30% (multiplicative) if a card was exhausted. Because of the inherent 20% DMG-Based shield of this card, it will be one of the better shielding options for Nine. However, taking this card comes at the cost of buffs, which are usually more important to Nine’s strategies, making it a less common choice to use.

Experienced Strike III: Changes the buff to increase all shield gain from Skill Cards, including allies, by 30% (multiplicative). This makes it a strong option to pair with shield skills of a high base ratio. If all you want is to maximize shielding, this Epiphany is strong, but in most Nine builds, damage is the focus, making this Epiphany less attractive compared to other choices.

Experienced Strike IV: Adds an effect which gives +60% additive bonus based on the number of [Exhaust] cards in hand for a max value of +540% ratio, but this version has no base increase in ratio from other Epiphany options, leaving it at 186% base vs the 252% of others. If you can get max value from its buffs and afford to play it, it can be a good additional damage card. However, it usually requires a lot of focus to maximize its value, which can interfere with Nine’s core Hew strategy, making it tough to include easily.

Experienced Strike V: The Counterattack option for Nine. Whenever a card with [Exhaust] is activated, gain 1 Counterattack. This is the best option for Counterattack-based Nine builds, as Nine doesn’t have any other ways to generate Counterattack built into her kit. This card has its uses in Counterattack builds, but doesn’t fit into Nine’s usual game plan outside of that, reducing it to a specialist niche option.

Neutral: The best Epiphany for Experienced Strike is, in most cases, a Neutral Epiphany, as none of the Signature options are major contributors in most builds. Some of the options to look out for are: Vulnerability 1.

Divine: The best Divines to aim for are -1 Cost Reduction and Vulnerable 2 on hit. These aren’t mandatory, but are both nice inclusions if you can hit them.

Fatal Strike I: Similar to Experienced Strike I, it has slightly higher values than the base card, but ultimately, a strong Neutral Epiphany will be preferred if presented with the option.

Fatal Strike II: Better scaling than Fatal Strike I and also does not consume cards to activate. But the increased AP cost of 2 makes it hard to use and the loss of exhausting a card in some Nine builds is actually a downside.

Fatal Strike III: Able to instantly change Hew into its max level version if 5 exhausts happen while it is in hand or you have the AP to play it. This can be useful in Nine builds that have less interest in using all levels of Hew and instead want a single attack they can stack maximum buffs on. Strong in those combo-based decks, but not generically useful like other Epiphanies.

Fatal Strike IV: The effect is changed to [Exhaust] 2 random [Exhaust] cards of other Combatants and increases the next Attack Card by 30% (multiplicative) until used. This can be valuable for scenarios where you can manipulate your hand to guarantee value on its random [Exhaust], such as having it hit a card with an ‘Incinerate’ effect. Or there are specific ally [Exhaust] cards that you get value from exhausting. However, this takes proper planning and deck building to facilitate; otherwise, you’ll just [Exhaust] the key cards you need.

Fatal Strike V: The bonus effect is changed to give 80% damage for each ally that has Counterattack, up to a max of 240%. However, much like Experienced Strike IV, the highest scaling on it is far surpassed by even low scaling on Hew, so it's usually just better to build around Hew instead.

Neutral: Similar to Experience Strike, the best Epiphany for Fatal Strike is, in most cases, a Neutral Epiphany, as none of the Signature options are major contributors in most builds. Some of the options to look out for are: Vulnerability 1.

Divine: The best Divines to aim for are -1 Cost Reduction and Vulnerable 2 on hit. These aren’t mandatory, but are both nice inclusions if you can hit them.

Counterblade I: The most consistent way for Nine to obtain Honed Edge stacks without another team member fulfilling the requirements. As Nine is focused on exhausting Hew multiple times in a turn, this Epiphany will give you the most consistent damage and uptime.

Counterblade II: Increases shield gain by a multiplicative 15%, which is great for shielding that has high base ratios. But retains Honed Edge acquisition method of needing shielding, which limits its use to Nine compositions that are able to shield multiple times per turn, restricting her team-building options.

Counterblade III: Similar to the base card, but now it is given the [Initiation] tag, meaning you’ll always have this in your opening hand to immediately start gaining stacks and dishing out damage. But you may need to have a consistent shielder on the team to maintain 3 stacks, as the only Shield Nine provides is from Experienced Strike. Gaining shields via sources such as Equipment or a Partner does not grant stacks of Honed Edge.

Counterblade IV: Specific to Counterattack-focused builds. The buff is also changed to Honed Edge+. The buff differs from the standard Honed Edge as it now also affects your teammates, giving Nine some teamwide utility. Strong in Counterattack-based teams but not useful outside of them.

Counterblade V: Sacrifices the ability to generate Honed Edge completely, but activates a Hew card in your hand at the start of the turn. This reduces Nine’s reliance on Fighting Spirit or hard using Hew and removes AP pressure from her. This choice can be very useful for some Extreme builds that aim to use the majority of the cards levels for damage, but the fact that you don’t control when the Hew is used can interfere with rotations. Also, this Epiphany has no use in single-hit Nine builds.

Neutral: The Neutral Epiphanies are not utilized well by Nine herself.

Divine: Divine Epiphanies provide negligible value on this card; therefore, an Epiphany that synergizes with your build should be prioritized over Divines.