[Haute Couture::Alteration Shop] Rodion

The release of bootleg Knight of Despair Rodion into the current pool of Rodion IDs is certainly a design choice and definitely does not make her the coughing baby in comparison to the hydrogen bomb that is the other Rodion IDs!

Haute Couture::Alteration Shop Rodion is a Charge-based identity with Tremor sprinkled into it. Haute Couture Rodion hyper-specializes in supporting allies that have base skills that apply, gain, or consume Charge or Unique Charge by giving them buffs such as Shield, Offense Level Up, and Attack Power Up (she can support normal identities, but the effects are extremely diminished, so it's better to use Princess Rodion).

Starting with her unique effects:

• Second is Welcome-snipping - Essentially +3 to Offense and Defense Level to the ally with this effect, SP heal on hit (if Charge ID), and does 5% extra slash damage based on each coin’s final damage, and is also used to launch her S1-2 and S2-2. Might sound good, but it actually doesn’t add much to overall damage compared to the opportunity cost of using this ID.

• Mark of Shearing - Rodion gets 1 Offense Level Up and heals 5 SP next turn if the target that has this status is defeated (stacks up to 3). 

• Blossom Scissors - Permanent +7% damage boost, which… stacks up to 14%, I guess. Mainly used for the damage conditional on S3. Gained by consuming Mark of Shearing on S2-2

• Inertia of Drifting - Unique Charge. Will be referred to as Charge in this review for convenience.

Her passives are as follows:

• Built-in ones: typical “gain Charge potency when spending Charge count, and allows her to follow up with S1-2 or S2-2 depending on Mark of Shearing stack on target, if an ally with Second is Welcome-snipping has finished attacking a target. This unfortunately is capped at once per turn.

• Her sin-based passive (2/1 Sloth/Envy owned) gives her Shield based on Charge count, and at 2+/3+/5+ Charge Potency she gains +1/+2/+3 to base skill final power.

Now for her skills:

• Skill 1-1 - Retouche - 1 Coin - Base roll 12 - Max roll 15 - What this skill rolls does not matter, as it is unclashable and has the Duality trait (allows targeting on an ally, does not trigger Defensive Skill and activates at combat start if the target is an ally). This skill gives buffs such as 4+ Charge Count, a Shield worth 10% of Rodion’s max HP, 1 Offense Level Up, 2 Attack Power Up (if Charge ID), and the Second is Welcome-snipping status. This means that while Rodion uses this skill, she cannot clash, and it should not be used to hit the enemy, as it provides no benefit. Also, a reminder that this effect is capped at 2 times per turn, so no shenanigans with hyperbuffing a single ally with multiple slots.

• Skill 1-2 - Patterning - 1 Coin - Base roll 9 - Max roll 12 - Reuse 15 - This skill is mainly used to gain 3 Charge Count and inflict Mark of Shearing;

• Skill 2-1 - Pin and Trim Along the Patterns - 3 Coins - Base roll 16 - Max roll 27 - This is pretty much her AoE buffing skill, as it gives herself, an ally with the earliest deployment order (Charge ID prioritized), and another ally with the lowest HP Percentage 2 Offense Level Up, Shield based on 5% of Rodion’s max HP (extra 1 Offense Level Up and 5% Shield if target is Charge ID). Aside from those buffs, she also gets +6 Charge, so you can use another S2 the turn after while fulfilling the conditionals. Lastly, it inflicts Sloth Resist Down (Time Moratorium upscale). 

• Skill 2-2 - Cutout - 2 Coins - Base roll 15 - Max roll 20 - Used to gain 5+ Charge Count and convert Mark of Shearing into Blossom Scissor

• Skill 3 - Coupez dans le Biais - 3 Coins - Base roll 17 - Max roll 30 - Pretty much a better Skill 2, as it applies more Shield and gives the Second is Welcome-snipping status to herself and 2 other allies. There is also an attempt at dealing damage here, but it kinda failed. Overall, a pretty powerful skill for early turns for easy ramp, as the payoff when used later is actually very mediocre, and the early 2 Mark of Shearing infliction can benefit in the long term

• Defensive Skill - Trimming - 1 Coin - Base roll 11 - Max roll 18 - Mainly used to gain Charge more consistently than S1, and can also allow her to clash if her dashboard is bricked with S1, while also applying Shield.

As we can see, Haute Couture::Alteration Shop Rodion’s kit sounds solid on paper, but actually encounters quite a lot of problems. Firstly, she applies Shield on almost all of her skills, which can be useful since most Charge IDs are built like paper; unfortunately, in a game built around damage, its value is very low. Not to mention the Shield are mostly used to tank chip damage from unbreakable coins, as heavy-hitting skills such as Furioso-Replica or even Big Heng’s 5 unbreakable coins still chew said IDs regardless as the shield value is based only on 5~10% of Rodion’s max HP. Secondly, her Charge economy is very clunky, needing 6 whole turns just to reach 3 Charge potency, and that is with support. Thirdly, you might have noticed there was no mention of damage or status application; that is because both of them have wacky numbers.

Now let us finally address the elephant in the room: the other Rodion IDs. Is she better than KoD Rodion or the infamous beer thrower? HELL NO, and that is even considering her peak performance. What she does is act as Princess Rodion for Charge, as even T Corp has a slight edge over her simply by having Time Moratorium status.

Teams

• Charge - While she is built specifically to support this team, KoD Rodion unfortunately outputs better performance overall. As of writing this review, Charge is not a team with a win condition based on Charge.

• Tremor - Can be used for Time Moratorium and non Tremor - Scorch based team, but the evil and intimidating Thumb Nursefather Rodion exists and is way better lol.

No Notable E.G.O. Synergies