Yakuza: Infinite Wealth - aka The Old Men JRPG

[Tide]

Hi. We all knew this was coming. Before starting, we need to determine some ground rules and answer some questions for stat topic purposes. I've listed them at the top. Feel free to grab them if you want to help out:

1) How does Speed work? It's definitely CTB (you can double turn). But is it linear? Is there recovery lag on moves? Figuring this out will be pretty important. Confirmed to be linearly with True Speed +125 = Actual Speed (see below).
2) Does someone know if there are character specific helmets and footwear? I'm aware that there are ultimate weapons and armor for every character, but not sure if there are any specific helmets, accessories or footwear. On that note - the list of equip options at end game would be good. There is an Equipment List in one of the guides. This is resolved.
3) Sujimancer stats and skills. This is another big one and will require someone to dig into it. It is a hidden class so for now, we're going to treat it persona non grata until someone can grab its stats and move set.
4) Reiska attached an Excel with the damage formula and proc notes for every PC skill form the Yakuza speedrunning discord. I'm going to use this to calc all the numbers mainly. There are a couple of questions which if someone knows the answer to, would be very helpful! Namely - What is the min mod and max mod? It looks like Min mod already factors in the success of action prompts. So then what is max mod then? Do Action prompts increase success rate on proc skills? Figured this out as I was mathing. Max Mod is the maximum amount of realistic multipliers that a particular attack can stack without the use of buffs. So if an attack gets a Guard Break bonus, max mod assumes that the opponent is guarding so you'll get the extra multiplier to the attack. See the damage formula section for more comprehensive notes.
5) Does Defending = same as Perfect Guard? It looks like Perfect Guard only reduces damage by about 20-25% - So this is a bit more complicated. I break down in the Guard section. See below.
6) How does Ichiban's status parameters alter his in-battle performance? For example, at Passion 8, how much extra range is it giving to his special skills? How much additional Rage resistance is he getting? etc. - While the Range boost is tough to tell, the status resistance boost appears to be neatly divided into 4 upgrades per parameter. Anecdotally, having 3 of these status resistance boosts seems to cut status from hitting by maybe 75%. It is notably significant as Kasuga appears to be the one party member who constantly resists negative status. However, he can still be hit occasionally. If we presume that each of these levels give status resistance at equal amounts, the logical max boost would be either full immunity (100% guard) or half resistance (50%), like everyone else's. It would not surprise me that Kasuga does indeed have full immunity to a particular status when that parameter is maxed because the flip side is that Kiryu's default job gives him elemental resistances to all 3 magic elements. In that way, there's a neat parallel - Kasuga wards status and Kiryu wards magic damage. Still, this is merely an educated assumption. I'll go over more of the topic's assumption for Kasuga's parameters in his section. 
7) The same applies to Kiryu's memoirs. How does every increase in level alter his battle performance?
8) EDIT: Forgot this, but it is pretty important. If someone knows the details of how Poundmates works exactly, do enlighten the rest of us. I went through the whole game without using it. To my understanding, it is basically a summon command but it looks like some are traditional summons (they perform an attack and leave) and some are more akin to having like a secondary NPC join you for battle. - I've played around a bit with this to understand it more. There's also a list describing all the poundmates, so we're likely okay here.
9) Please list out your average Endgame Level and Average endgame job levels. This will help in determining stat averages.

INTRODUCTION
Yakuza: Infinite Wealth is the second game in the Yakuza series where the combat is completely turn based. Take part in being a middle aged Japanese dude and go around exploring the cityscape, unravelling government conspiracies and beating up dudes with your fists / improv weapons as if you were Jackie Chan. The game features a lot of side quests and subsystems but as far as JRPGs go, it's pretty open-ended in terms of your approach. The maps are rarely gated, so you often have free reign to travel in even the high enemy level areas early. You can take on as many quests as you want, ignore the bonus dungeon if you want, go fishing and bar hopping as much as you want, etc. All this means that when it comes stat topicing such a game, we have some assumptions to lay down as well as breaking down relevant subsystems to the DL format. Expect this topic to be a WIP for a while. Any help you can provide (answering the above questions for example) speeds things up and is appreciated!

GAMEFLOW
IW is broken down into 13 chapters and they all proceed in a similar format. You get some story scene that break down the goal of the chapter, then you are given free reign to do whatever you want. When you are ready to progress, you activate the story trigger and the game will often bring you to a dungeon or a series of fights leading to a boss that then ends the chapter. Rinse and repeat. Overall, it's not unlike Cold Steel with its Exploration/Free time and Operation phases. Unlike Trails where doing all the sidequests for a max AP score seems reasonable because there are seemingly ends, here, it is a little bit less so. While the game will introduce you to certain mini-games (like batting cages, Sujimon, etc.), progressing in those things is completely up to player discretion. As a result, the power levels can wildly fluctuate between player to player. Some sidequests do have endings to them sure, but if they have a mini-game attached to it...well if you suck at it, it's going to take awhile. You can be stuck playing Mahjong for 20 hours if you're not great at it.

Why this matters
It should be no surprise that due to this open-endedness, where you see end-game as well as boss stats (if we ever get around to it) can be pretty nebulous. Trails suffered in boss rankings due to completely broken mechanics. IW on the other hand, is a lot more of a traditional DL scaling problem. In general, this topic assumes you have at least completed the first 3 sectors in the optional dungeon for both Kasuga and Kiryu. This is because of the optional content available, it provides the greatest degree of rewards - levels, good equipment, crafting material, MONEY (more on this later), etc. Completing both puts Kasuga's party at around 48 and Kiryu at 50. Reiska has mentioned his ending levels are around 55 when most side quests are done, so I think end-game levels are around 50-ish.

For Job Levels - this is trickier. Job EXP scales pretty harsh and getting the first 18 or so levels at end game is pretty trivial. However, getting to 30 to learn the final ultimate skills in each class is another story. Anecdotally, at end game, I have 2 classes of the available set at 30 only. Some are at 0, but like I said, it's trivial to level up when on the low end. For this reason, I think it is pretty reasonable to assume Level 20s in the other classes and 30 in the PCs' unique DL class. This allows them to dip their toes for relevant stat boosts AND if you're a super lenient person like Djinn, give them some options for skill inheritance (see below).

For the record, by the time I was done getting at least level 20 for all jobs on all PCs sans their main job and maybe one additional side job to 30, the PC level range is between 56-58. Kiryu and Han were the exceptions with the former at 59 and the latter at 54. Han's level deficit is due to his extreme late joining time (literally before the last chapter of the game). Kiryu has the advantage of always being in the party and could not be removed as I was doing the grinding necessary to the proposed stat topic parameters. I feel that these small nuances reflect the in-game scenario rather well. Note that Team Hawaii (see below) naturally fight less things so their levels tend to be on the lower end, where as Team Japan ends up being the higher. I'm primarily grabbing stats based off of my own file since there are no level up charts as in P3R or FTNW. You'll just have to accept and maybe shift up a bit for Team Hawaii and down for Team Japan to get to the happy medium.

Between the periods of free time, you can improve the bonds of the party with Kasuga/Kiryu. This directly influences a couple of things. The first is that participating in these events will give Bond Level effects to that party member – not unlike Persona games. The difference here though for IW is that most of the bond levels don’t have a direct DL impact…except that Bond Levels is how you unlock Job access for the rest of the party. Note that playing the game normally will open up Bond levels to be about 50+ for most of the party which gives full access to the job tree. The two main exceptions to this are Zhao (who joins in Chapter 10) and Han (see above). If you want to take a more accurate in-game view then both of these characters are likely to suffer from a Bond level penalty (-10 for Zhao and -20 for Han) which will restrict some job access and hence some passive stats. For the purposes of this topic however, it is assumed that full access to the job tree is given for every character.

The second effect of participating in party / bond events is it gives all party members a paired special attack with the corresponding leader. The game calls this the “Hype” meter, although for all intents and purposes, it is basically a limit gauge. Once it’s full, you can utilize a powerful skill from this character and the leader (Kasuga or Kiryu) as long as neither person is incapacitated. Since it technically requires the leader in order for it to be used, for DL purposes, these attacks are assumed to not be available. Note that Kasuga and Kiryu have their own Hype meters and can perform a limit attack individually, although in Kasuga’s case, his power is determined by whether or not other party members also have a full Hype gauge. So by himself, it’s going to be pretty weak.

Speaking of Job levels, this is a good segway to look at the major combat system of the game.

THE JOB SYSTEM
Every PC in Infinite Wealth has an innate class along with the different generic classes which are gender sorted.

For the men, these include: Breaker, Chef, Host, Action Star, Aquanaut, Desperado, Samurai, Pyrodancer
For women, these include: Idol, Maid, Night Queen, Geodancer, and Ninja

Yes, the men have a couple more classes available than the women. A side effect of this is that the women will likely end up having a few more class levels concentrated in one class - in this case, I assigned them primarily to their unique class. Access to classes requires a certain Bond level to be reached which is unique to each individual PC. For example, Han doesn't unlock Samurai until Bond Level 50 (his last class unlock). On the other hand, Adachi has access to this class immediately upon unlock. This, coupled with the fact that the classes are gender locked, means that in theory, there are some theoretical builds that are unique to each PC only. However, for DL intent purposes, I don't think this is wholly practical. The main reason for this is because unless your name is Han (even Zhao doesn't really have this problem), PCs stick around long enough such that they will typically have all their class unlocks by the end-game. You don't need to do a lot of grinding for the earlier joiners because you can get bond points from a variety of activities (including fighting enemies) that can easily boost up Bond levels. For example: going to a restauraunt, going to a cabaret club, completing the friend bingo as you explore the cityscape, etc. As such, the uniqueness is pretty much non-existent in practice.

What job levels do for DL purposes is provide minor statistical boosts to primary stats. As you level up Jobs, there are notable permanent boosts that you can get around every 5 levels or so and every level increases stats by a minor amount. Again, if you feel like it, you CAN apply a slight penalty to Han for his very late join time. I will note though this penalty is theoretically already baked in from his level deficit (which provides much bigger stat gains) as well as him being the only PC who could not get to Class Level 20 in other jobs while everyone else did. It is pretty difficult IMO, to justify allowing skill inheritance for DL purposes. I also won't be taking individual jobs for the averages at the moment (aka generics ala FFT, FFV and XF). But if someone is interested in grabbing them, feel free to send to me and I will incorporate them once the numbers are up.

One last thing to note about classes is that every class has an innate resistance and innate weakness. For generic classes, these are often elemental/physical typing. But for the unique classes, the strengths and weaknesses apply to status conditions. How much they influence success/failure isn't documented super well, but I suspect it is around 50%. There is some evidence for this guess. Notably, Saeko's innate resistance as a Barmaid is to drunkenness. Since IW takes place in the modern world, there's a lot of booze floating around and it takes roughly 2x the amount of consumption for Saeko's drunkeness to increase to the same level as a PC who doesn't have this resistance. I'll be noting these resistances and weaknesses as we examine the PCs individually.

PCs and EQUIPMENT
The open-worldness of each chapter also means there is some debate regarding what PC equipment should be and this is actually slightly more complicated than I initially imagined. First, the easy part: Every PC has a unique armor which only they can use. Obviously, this is assumed to be their DL default as it has good stats and supplies them with a unique passive. A separate armor piece that can be subbed in is the Wedding Dress. This is largely useless for most of the cast, except for Kasuga and Chitose as it strengthens their healing by an additional 15%. Most of the time, they won't want to trade in their armor passive (or stats for that matter), but this can matter if both PCs want to stall a bit. Headwear and Footwear are a bit more nebulous but it assumed that the best storebought equipment is available. For Headgear, this is the Feather Lei Hat, which provides the 2nd or 3rd best defense stats but also has 10% innate evade. For Footwear, this appears to be the Pointy Toe, which doesn't appear to have any other notable advantages. There are some pieces of footwear which do boost Speed but they are much weaker on defensive stats (we're talking about maybe +20 Defense vs. +60 Defense). Due to the way the damage formula works, this may still be worth it - especially for someone like Han, who really wants to go first to apply his status game. For now, the Pointy Toe is assumed as the default for leg wear.

As I noted at the top, I am not aware of PC unique equips in these slots, so there's no reason to assume different equipment outside of generic ones. Accessories are also a bit of an unknown quantity. Status blockers are not that freely available (notably they are not storebought) and there aren't any unique accessories either. As a result, this is presumed to be an empty slot. Kasuga and Kiryu both technically have a unique equip that increases their Job XP gain by 1.2x regardless of what class (normally these are class locked) but this is obviously DL useless.

Weapons is where it gets complicated. It's true that each PC has their own unique weapon in their innate class, so that's not the issue. Instead, the issue is what to do about forge enhancements. Every weapon in the game can be enhanced up to 50 times through the use of junk materials and each time it is enhanced, it gives +1 Attack and +1 Magic. At levels 10, 30 and 50, an open slot becomes available to slot a passive ability. Now you might be thinking, "But Tide, that's easy. Just don't allow enhancing at all". And sure, that IS one way of doing things. However, because weapons are unique to PCs, there are unique weapon passives to each PC as a result. Often times, these weapons will be weaker on stats compared to the ultimate/penultimate equipment available. What makes this a point of discussion is that weapons don't require the same amount of materials to power up. A penultimate piece of equipment requires 48 units to increase by 1 level, whereas a weaker weapon might only need 16. You can quickly see why this matters now. If a weapon is within 30 points of another, it may be able to make up the lost stats through enhancement. Not only that, this equipment can open up 2 passive slots that the better equipment on base cannot. For the most part, money can purchase like 99% of the weapons available. The only weapon that I actively disallow is the ultimate weapon in each class. This is because the ultimate weapon requires the use of a very rare material (squid tentacles or Shark fin), which you have maybe only 1-2 of. They are prohibitively expensive to exchange for versus the Empty Bottle Cap, which is like 1/6th the cost. I also discounted weapons that were too weak - basically if their attack was still -100 Attack or so compared to the penultimate one after 50 upgrades. Keeping in mind the damage formula (see below), the PC would be losing close to 200 damage at that point so it would be incredibly prohibitive bar the weapon having a match winning status that relies on it (and at that point, attack strength doesn't matter).

Regarding Seals, when a weapon is upgraded to levels 10, 30 and 50, it opens up a slot that lets you slot in a bonus passive. This is similar to custom equipment in FFX but with a much more limited set of options, limited to weapons and doesn't require additional materials - just money and pretty reasonable amounts at that. Most seals run into the uniqueness problem where most of the cast would love to take the same seal, thereby making it illegal. However, a couple of the status boost seals such as the Seal that boosts Sleep is pretty unique because only Han has an attack that inflicts that status. Allowing this is pretty important for the 60% unique with fairly unique status (see Adachi's Rage and Chitose's Charm) as one of these Seals appears to increase status hit rates by 10%, turning them from DL Turn 2 to DL Turn 1 status. YMMV. A weapon with +30 means they can slot 2 Seals instead of just one. 

So how much enhancing should be allowed? Junk materials are plentiful, but they aren't free. Anecdotely, I can basically boost every penultimate weapon (including for generic classes) up to level 10 before feeling a severe bottleneck. This gives us roughly 480 units - which can then be applied to the different weapons. YMMV of course. Most notably, a lot of the resources for equipment comes from the optional dungeon so if you disallow this you'd probably need to adjust things. As for weapon passives, the list of available passives isn't unique, but there may be pseudo unique ones. I'll make a note of these as they come up. Just know that brands are largely affordable. It's the materials that's the main question.


COMBAT NUIANCES AND SPECIAL NOTES
Battles take place in a set arena, often depicted by the landscape of your current surroundings. There are some oddities to this. For starters, characters can move on the battlefield. The amount of movement is the same per character per class and can be expanded by levelling up (the last expansion at level 44). Movement does a few things - good positioning can allow GT skills to hit a wider number of PCs for starters. Movement can also be used to set up combo attacks (DL irrelevant) and in some cases, manipulate enemy placement. While enemy formations and their spots LOOK random, it isn't entirely so. What do I mean? If you try pushing an enemy using your PCs' body, you'll find they will shuffle about but wind up in another spot that functionally is the same to prevent you herding enemies this way. This can however, influence future movement, place obstacles in enemy pathing and so on.

Typically enemies will have a "lock" on a particular PC or direction. With multiple PCs, sometimes you can flank a particular target and attack from behind. A back attack in this game ignores the Guard command and is an automatic crit. This is also true for PCs but PCs will typically automatically face their attackers so the chances of being struck from the back is very miniscule. Still there may be some way that this can be DL relevant so noting it down for documentation.

Despite Movement being a combat element, there is no terrain in battle. Every arena is similar in that there is no increased movement cost, defense bonuses or anything like that. There are often obstacles and objects though strewn about and your PCs can grab these if they approach them and use them as consumable weapons. Often, these environmental attacks are a little stronger than a weapon attack (not by much) but they can vary in things like elements and status attached. For DL purposes - we're going to assume these are a non-entity. Put simply, there isn't a PC like Midnight Suns that specializes in them, so for the most part, they just homogenize the cast.

Physical attacks are often a combo of hits but not always. They are divided into 3 types: Blunt (default), Slashing and Piercing. Base physical attacks do not require any prompts and will always do a similar amount of damage. Special attacks are anything that consumes MP. These often have a better multiplier, increased chances of status or effect and an action prompt that improves their effectiveness. For DL purposes, it is assumed all action prompts are successful. The timing, once you've seen them, never changes. So outside of using it the first time, your chances of missing a timed hit should be pretty limited. Magic attacks are similarly classed into 3 types: Fire, Water/Ice and Electric. One special note regarding mixed attack types (for example, a fire piercing physical) is that the game defaults to the stronger resistance when counting for defense. If an opponent is weak to fire but strong to piercing, the game will treat the attack as being resisted instead of netting the two (like Pokemon) or going after the weaker resistance (like FFX). This makes dual type attacks somewhat of a disadvantage in game. It is often mitigated by the fact that most enemies have weaknesses and not resistances so it doesn't come up super often but obviously very DL relevant.

Status conditions are also treated pretty uniquely. In general, while there are multiple status effects, most status effects are negative in nature. Furthermore, status effects can be subclassed into types. If you're already hit by one type of status, being hit by another in the same group overrides the old status effect and replaces it with the new one (effectively dispelling the old one). For example: Colds/Burns/Poison are all from the Damage over time (DoT) group of status. If you hit an enemy with Bleeding, then use an attack that can proc Burn and it succeeds, the enemy will now be burned and no longer bleeding. I have an idea as to why this was done, but that's less important here than the DL implication. As for Buffs/Debuffs, they are measured in 3 tiers. From manual testing, the increase per level appears to be about 33.333% for each tier (so 33.33% at tier 1, 66.67% at tier 2), but I'll run another set to confirm. This isn't definitive science since the random variance range appears to be quite large (+/-5%) but it lines up with the numbers I am seeing. Speed and Evade will be tested separately.  Buffs last only 3 turns but they can be recast and when done so, refreshes the duration and improves it to the next tier. Note that once buffs hit the max boost, no further extensions can be done and will wear off naturally. If the PC wants to retain those buffs, they will have to recast. Buffs also net against each other (unlike negative status conditions). If you are hit with attack down, then use a skill that raises attack by the same tier, it will net to zero and return you to neutral condition.

Some attacks will knock back when they hit a target. Knockback has a couple of notable effects in-game - the main one being that you can use an opponent's body as a projectile missile and slam them into each other. Doing so let's you inflict damage to the other bystander. You can also wall-slam someone this way and they will take +50% more damage from the same attack. The game will show the trajectory of where your target will be flown. Note that Knockback damage is only active within the first half of the knockback animation itself. Basically, the attack needs to have force behind it for the damage component to kick in. For DL purposes, I've assumed no Knockback effect, but it is pretty common in-game. This is because if we assume the DL if a flat neutral ground (and some arenas in the game ARE like this), then there is no walls to bounce enemies on or enemies to fling into. Might matter for team matches so it's also being noted.

GUARDING
There are two levels of Guarding. For reference, I'm going to refer to the Guard command as "Regular Guard" or just "Guard" but the Guard that is performed with a timed pressed as "Parrying Guard" or "Timed Guard". When you select the Guard command, you will adopt a defensive stance and any attacks made against you will be automatically blocked, reducing damage by 25%. Guarding also prevents knockback and stops combo attacks from PCs. You can also block incoming attacks with a parrying guard. This happens when a PC has input some other command and thus is not in guard stance but times a block right as an attack is about to hit. A parrying guard also reduces the damage by 25% and is in all ways identical to regular guarding. The notable thing here though is that the Guard commands can stack. Meaning, if you use regular guard, you can still time the prompt for a parrying guard and reduce incoming damage by 50% instead of 25%. Just that when you fail the timing, using Guard means you still get the benefit of one level of Guarding. Note that if an attack doesn't juggle or knock you back, you can input a parrying guard at any-time in a combo string. Moves that are multi-hit for example require multiple button presses to guard against each one, but that also means you can input a parrying guard for each. The most important time to correctly score a parrying guard is at the end of a combo as this prevents you from being knocked off your feet, which can cause enemies to follow up and OTG for bigger damage.

Guarding is a universal command and enemies can do it as well. You can bypass an opponent's guard by either attacking them from behind OR using a move that breaks Guard, usually a Grapple type move. When a guard is broken in this way, the defender takes a bonus 30% extra damage. Note that Grapples don't work on all enemies (some enemies are immune) so there are limitations.

Parrying guards can only be done by the selected target. If an enemy has an AoE attack, surrounding PCs cannot input a parrying guard. This makes MT and GT damage in-game much scarier since often times, multiple team members will be struck with the full brunt of the attack and only one person can reduce the damage.

STATS AND WHAT THEY MEAN:
HP: Lose these and you become a legend. Note - Legends may or may not require you to die.
MP: Consumed anytime special skills are selected. If you lack the MP, you can't use it. Note that base physicals restore 10% of Max MP.
Atk: Physical attack power (raw). Needs to be added to Weapon Power when calculating for physical damage
Def: Physical defense (raw). Needs to be added to Armor values for actual reduction value. From rough glances, Every 2 points of True Defense = -1 point of damage taken.
Mag: Magic Attack (raw). Needs to be added to Weapon Power when calculating for magical damage
Will: Magic defense (raw). Needs to be added to Armor values for actual reduction value. As with defense, every 2 points of True Will = -1 point of magic damage taken.
Agi: Speed. Determines opening turn order. From a glance, operates on a CTB basis. A very fast PC can double slow ones, but not sure how this works yet exactly.

STATUS CONDITIONS
As already noted, status types can be put into groups. When a target receives a status of that type, applying a status of the same group overrides the old status. There are also some unique statii (ie: no overlap).

DoT Status
Burn - The character will take fire damage at the beginning of every turn. Take more damage during the initial turns. Goes away after a few turns.
Cold - The character will take ice damage at the beginning of every turn. If a character ends their turn beside another ally, there appears to be a roughly 50% chance of passing the Cold to an unaffected ally. Goes away after a few turns.
Poison - The character will take poison damage at the beginning of every turn. Damage builds up over time in later turns. Goes away after a few turns.
Bleed - The character will take damage at the beginning of every turn. Goes away after a few turns.

Restrictive Status
Paralyze - There is a chance that the character will miss their turn. Goes away after a few turns.
Fear - There is a chance the character will miss their turn. Goes away after a few turns.
Stun - The character cannot move, attack, or defend themselves. Goes away after a few turns.
Sleep - The character cannot move, attack, or defend themselves. Will go away after being hit.
Charm - The character cannot move, attack, or defend themselves. Goes away after a few turns. During this time, will perform follow up attacks on allies if opportunity arises.

Unique Status
Silence - The character cannot use Skills. Goes away after a few turns.
Blind - Halves attacking accuracy and effectively cuts evade to 0 as target cannot "lock" on to any PC. Goes away after a few turns.
Rage - The character will lose control and only attack the character that enraged them using base physicals only. Goes away once the target character is KO'd.
Drunk - A pretty complicated status effect. There are 4 levels of drunkenness (Sober, Drunk, Wasted, Shitfaced). Between levels 1-3, nothing really happens. At level 4, you will start having a chance to miss your turn or attack/input commands outside of your control. Drunkenness gets reduced after a few turns but you need to wait a while to go back to Sober
Curse - Basically FF Doom. Starts a count (typically from 3) and ticks down every time they take a turn. If it reaches 0, you die.

Positive Status
Regen - Possibly the only known positive status I could find. Restore 15% Max HP at the start of character's turn. Not effected by Wedding Dress' passive.
Auto-Life - Applies to Adachi and Kasuga. Revives once after receiving fatal damage.

POUNDMATES
As CK noted, Poundmates are basically just summons, but it has some caveats. For starters, Poundmates are NOT summoned through MP. Instead they are summoned by using Money. If you've been reading about things I wrote regarding Infinite Wealth and Like a Dragon, you will know that Money is a killer resource in both games. It is used for many things so normally, throwing it away isn't something that you'd do willy nilly. There are a couple of notable DL legality issues that arise from this:

1) Poundmates is locked to the leader only. In short, only Kasuga and Kiryu can access this command. And while this SEEMS to pass the uniqueness test on the surface, it also means that when Kasuga and Kiryu are no longer the leader (by being moved on to the other person's team), they lose access to it. So it's not a truly unique command. Rather, it is leader locked. Put another way, if Nanba all of a sudden became the party leader in some way, he'd be able to call Poundmates.
2) Normally, summoning is done using individual resources (such as MP). Or in Yuna's case, Summoning an Aeon is 100% unique to her. Poundmates using Money poses a dilemma because all of a sudden now, you are throwing party resources into using it.
3) Poundmates expand based on the amount of questing that you do. If you beeline the main quest, you won't have many of them on call. Go and explore around though is how you get the full list. For the most part, this doesn't bother me. We certainly allow FF5 Summoner all her summons for example, or FFT Summoner. But if you want to reign it in, I can understand. To avoid needless clutter, I will be listing mainly the notable/relvant Poundmates. Several of them are basically doing the same damage type but one is stronger than the other, in which case I'm only listing the stronger one. Will there be times when Kasuga/Kiryu may want to call a slightly weaker Poundmate? Sure, if they are threading some Limit range. We can address that when it comes up though.

There are 2 types of poundmates - Instant effects or Turn by Turn effects. The former is very basic. You call them, they do the thing, then leave. Easy. With the latter, there's a bit more complicated stuff going on because they will now spawn on the field and have their own individual turns and CAN BE A VALID TARGET. So yes, Kasuga spoiling Loki or something. I don't know much about the stats of the summoned Poundmate on field or if they can be knocked out. It seems to be that they operate on Kasuga/Kiryu's speed and just represent an extra head. More testing into this is probably required. Although, I highly, highly suspect that for DL purposes, the only Poundmate that matters is Asakura as calling him gives Kiryu and Kasuga a massive one shot damage burst (think DQ8 Jess Magic Burst or Johnny's Ether Purge). One other important note - Instant effect Poundmates appear to NOT use up your current turn. This is obviously great news for the 2 leads as it lets them drop a damage nuke anytime. I will double check this to confirm though.

Before selecting the Poundmate, you can also pay 3x more money for an enhanced version of them. This enhanced version requires you to have spent a certain amount of money to begin with it. It's pretty easy to hit. In return, the called Poundmate's effect is usually 50% stronger. It's usually worth it to pay for the extra, but again YMMV. Because while calling them once or twice may be reasonable, calling them every single battle will easily bankrupt you.

Once a Poundmate is called once, the command, for all intents and purposes is "consumed" for the fight. Calling a 2nd poundmate (regardless if it is the same one) in the same fight raises the summon cost by 10x. No, that is not a typo. So enjoy paying like 100 million yen for a second phone call. For obvious reasons, we're going to assume this is DL illegal. The only poundmate where this would even be feasible would be a cheap one like Mamaoka and his Expresso Regen (since this costs only $300 on base).


DAMAGE FORMULA
The formula is the same as the one used in Like A Dragon to our knowledge. It is:

True Attack / Magic - (True Defense or Willpower /2) x Effective mult

Where True Attack/Magic = Raw Attack/Magic stat + Weapon stat
True Defense / Willpower = Raw Defense/Willpower + Summation of all armor boosts (hat, body, footwear and accessories)

Effective multiplier differs from each move. In-game these are labeled as "Light, Medium, Heavy and Extreme" but that doesn't mean much. Based on the notes I've been provided as well as the spreadsheet linked by Michael and Reiska, the effective mults range from as low as x0.45 to as high as x3.9. I'll be largely using the spreadsheet numbers but will double check with in-game numbers when possible. Note that there are additional bonus multipliers that can stack on to the effective multiplier. For example, when an opponent's Guard is broken, the attacker deals an additional 30% bonus damage. These bonus multipliers can all stack together and are independent of buffs and debuffs. The known and relevant list of Bonus multipliers is as follows:

Guard Break - +30% Bonus damage. Already noted several times
Proximity Bonus - +15% Bonus damage if this attack is used at very close range to the target
Weakness Bonus - +50% Bonus damage.
Sleep Bonus - The first strike against a Sleeping opponent wakes them but also does +50% more damage.
Back Attack Bonus - +50% if attacking an opponent's flank
Critical Hit - +50% Bonus damage. Obvious. Note that some moves will auto-crit if the prompt is successful. Since we are assuming prompts are always successfully performed, this one is included for those attacks.
Wall Slam - +50% Bonus damage. Occurs primarily when an opponent or PC is thrown backwards into a wall. How easy or hard it is to set this up really depends on where a fight takes place. If it starts in the middle of park, road or empty areas, have fun trying to get the Wall Slam bonus. OTOH, if you are fighting within a building office, wall slams take place super often. The end result is that I won't factor in Wall Slams for the damage figures, but you should definitely consider it for long matches. As I was telling Tal, if you keep using a knockback move, you are EVENTUALLY going to push your target to some solid structure.

 
Speed Formula
The basic speed formula is:

Agility + Equipment Agility + 125 = True Agility

Was testing this yesterday and had Zhao with 113 Speed and Kiryu with 147 Speed. If Speed was linear, then Kiryu should 4-3 Zhao (being roughly 30% faster), but instead he 8-7'd. Cue testing various constants being added until I found one that matches to what I was seeing. Later, I dropped Zhao's speed to 83. This would make displayed speed 147 vs. 83. With the 125 constant being added we get 272 vs. 209, which should result in a 4-3. That ended up happening exactly. There are still some odds and ends here to be tested such as how much the Agility Up Buff really boosts speed and whether there are undocumented delay effects / recovery lag on moves.

Tentative theory is that there is no recovery lag but there is undocumented delay. During testing, Saeko, who has 116 Speed, somehow ended up being overtaken by Zhao who is 3 Speed slower. Under normal CTB, this shouldn't be possible. The main thing that I did notice during this time was an opponent constantly attacking Saeko. So perhaps that enemy has an undocumented delay effect on his attacks, since I'm not sure how someone slower ends up being ahead on the turn order in a CTB system. And yes, just for the record, both Saeko and Zhao were performing the same action (Defending), so if there is recovery lag, it should be the same for both PCs.

NEW TESTING AND TO DO LIST:
- Find out Weapon status/debuff proc rate. Should test with 2 different weapons to see if the proc rates are similar. - CK tested and found this to be roughly 40% from roughly 50 tests. I had about 50% from around 15 tests or so. On average, this means status rates on weapons will be about 42.5%. Not great news for Nanba. Since it is relevant, it also means for the dual status weapons that Zhao has, the rate at which at least one of them will take effect is 67%, 15% chance for only one to hit and 18% chance for nothing.
- Need to find out the effectiveness of Weapon Brands
- Certain numbers need to be determined such as HP Recovery amounts and damage from DoTs
- Kiryu's Limit needs to be calculated for optimal damage
- Han's unique gauntlet needs to be tested for the damage boost
- Buff and Debuff changes needs to be confirmed
- Evade is going to be pretty important for Zhao and Han...possibly Kasuga too. Need to determine possible accuracy formula

[Tide]

And with that - here's the cast. For reference - Team Hawaii refers to Kasuga, Tomizawa, Chitose, Adachi and Han. Team Japan refers to Kiryu, Seon Hee, Saeko, Zhao and Nanba. It doesn't really matter for DL purposes since you do get the option to combine teams once the final is beaten. But if you want to do something weird where you're only comparable PCs to their own team or something, here it is. I suspect the most relevant use of this would be for boss scaling (if some poor sucker wants to do this work).

Regarding Kasuga's Personality parameters, I have assumed that Kasuga hit level 8 for all 6 categories (Intellect, Charisma, Kindness, Style, Passion and Confidence). This is because Level 8 is where I more or less got Kasuga to by the time I finished the game. While I didn't finish every quest, I also didn't beeline directly for the plot. This means that Kasuga has all the parameter upgrades outside of the last 2 for each one. The notable skills this ends up effecting is Hero's Guts and Hero's Kindness. It also, as noted above, influences his status resistance. Based on my own experience, at level 8, Kasuga is highly resistance to the corresponding parameter status, but not fully immune. It is quite possible that attackers aren't using 100% status so there's an innate miss chance (we will never really know) but it feels like he stops every 3 out of 4 status attempts that would hit one of his allies. Unless someone wants to do more in-depth testing into this, I'm going to go with this assumption for now.

Lastly, we're going to cover Kiryu LAST, even though his join time is roughly after Tomizawa. This is because Kiryu's default job (Dragon of Dojima) has a lot of bits and pieces - it is virtually 3 jobs in 1 and like Kasuga, he has his own parameters he can build, although only in 3 categories. So stick around to the next post if you're looking for details regarding hm.

Anyway, onward:

ICHIBAN KASUGA
"Ass-kicking time!"
Resistances:
Weaknesses:

Kasuga also has a small list of completely unique skills which he can pick up through the completion of sidequests. There are 2 notable ones - the first is completing Donoko Island. This gives Kasuga access to a MT mass powered Magic attack, that again seems to lack documentation. If someone has details on this, please let me know. The second is the ongoing quest with Asakura. This sidequest takes the form of a competing series of duels with another young street fighter. Completing this quest gives Kasuga access to 3 additional moves. These skills are always with Kasuga once they are learnt and will always be available regardless of job class. Note that in terms of time commitments, Asakura's quest is much more convenient and much less of a time investment compared to Donoko Island. YMMV.

Class:
Note that unlike other characters, Kasuga has access to 3 unique classes: Freelancer, Hero and Sujimancer. They are basically his fighter, balanced and magic classes. Sujimancer is hidden and as noted above, no one seems to have stats for this job. Based on some scouring online, it does seem to be weakest of his 3 available jobs. I'll make a note of some relevant skills if they come up. Note that skill inheritance, which is typically a non-issue for non-Kasuga PCs, is a thing Kasuga gets that the rest of the cast doesn't due to him having 3 unique classes. He can transfer up to 5 skills, although there is a big caveat to this. Notably, skills from Sujimancer cannot be transferred. So effectively, he can transfer 5 skills from his other 2 classes. In DL practice, this means he will basically have his entire skill set available regardless of choosing Freelancer or Hero as his go-to for the duel. Freelancer cannot equip weapons but its attack scales much faster than other jobs due and might be Kasuga's preferred classes against folks like Meliadoul who can weapon break. 

AS HERO
HP - 1272
MP - 303
Atk - 426
Def - 413
Mag -  413
Will - 386
Agi - 130

SKILLS
Bat Breaker - 10 MP, 543 Damage to one target. Has Knockback.
Hero's Wisdom - 10 MP, Very Wide AoE. Raises Crit Rate Up by 1 Level
Grand Liner - 15 MP, small Line target, 463 damage. Damage improves by up to 20% when target is very far away (max of 555 damage)
Hero's Flair - 10 MP, Very Wide AoE. Raises Def Up by 1 Level
Hero's Healing - 20 MP, Small AoE around Kasuga. Heals HP.
Mega Swing - 30 MP, Medium AoE, 543 damage.
Hero's Blessing - 25 MP. Revives a KO'd PC with an estimated 85% HP. HP restore goes up based on Charisma Level.
Tornado Liner - 38 MP, small Line target ending in a small AoE at the end point. Does 625 damage. Damage improves by up to 20% when target is very far away (max of 750 damage)
Hero's Encouragement - 15 MP, Very Wide AoE. Raises Atk Up by 1 Level
Giga Swing - 45 MP, Large AoE, 651 damage.
Hero's Guts - 45 MP, Auto-Revives Kasuga on KO with roughly 45% HP. HP restored goes up based on Confidence level.
Essence of Buster Geyser - 60 MP, Large Line Fire, 696 damage.
Essence of Full Swing - 65 MP, Large AoE. Damage varies based on Kasuga's HP. Deals 543 damage at max health and increases exponentially to a maximum of 1628 damage at 1 HP.

AS FREELANCER
HP - 1269
MP - 302
Atk - 420
Def - 434
Mag -  334
Will - 386
Agi - 129

SKILLS
Tenacious Fist - 8 MP, 543 Damage to one target. Has Knockback. 30% Chance to Stun
Rock Swing - 13 MP, 597 Damage. Grapple Attack. Crit Rate +30%.
Hyper Swagger - 10 MP, Self Only. Boosts Attack and Evade by 1 Level.
Drop Kick - 20 MP, 857 Damage to one target. 80% Accuracy only. Guaranteed Crit on Hit. Has Knockback 
Headbutt Barrage - 25 MP, 746 Damage. Grapple Attack. 30% Chance to Stun
Ruffian Kick - 30 MP, 1020 Damage to one target. 80% Accuracy only. Guaranteed Crit on Hit. Has Knockback
Atomic Drop - 35 MP, 868 Damage. Grapple Attack. Crit Rate +30%.
Release German Suplex - 35 MP, 897 Damage. Grapple Attack. 50% Chance of ID
Essence of Roadside Weapon - 60 MP, one enemy only. Damage varies based on surrounding weapons and props. 897 damage by default.

ALWAYS AVAILABLE
Merciless Melee - 30 MP, 768 damage. Grapple attack and has a 50% chance to decrease Defense by 1 Level
Heart of a Champion - 10 MP. Self only - Increases Atk and Def by 1 Level.
Knockout Combo - 40 MP, 937 damage. If target is suffering a debuff, deals an additional 15% damage, for a total of 1078 damage.

POUNDMATES - See Intro post
Espresso Express - $300 or $3,000 Yen. Summons an ally who helps restore 300 HP/turn for 3 turns (not boosted by Wedding Dress)
Tempestuous Tempest - $5,000 or $50,000 Yen. Deals 1000 Water/Ice damage on base.
Doomsday Drop - $5,000 or $50,000 Yen. Deals 1000 Lightning damage on base.
Crooked Cooking - $100,000 or $10,000,000 Yen. Restores base 1000 HP to all. Boosts Defense and Willpower by 2 stages.
Eviscerating Enka - $100,000 or $10,000,000 Yen. Deals 2000 base Pierce damage to all.
Urban Hospitality - $100,000 or $10,000,000 Yen. Deals 2000 base damage to all. May ID
Yakuza Crackdown - $100,000 or $10,000,000 Yen. Deals 2000 base Slash damage to all. May Silence
Millionaire Strike - $100,000 or $10,000,000 Yen. Deals 2000 base damage to all. May Charm
Do or Dive - $100,000 or $10,000,000 Yen. Deals 2000 base Fire damage to all.

HYPE METER SKILL
Ultimate Tag Team: Essence of Friendship - Attacks all enemies. Damage increases based on the number of full Hype Gauge attacks currently available. If an PC is incapacitated, his/her meter is not considered. Deals 708 damage with just Kasuga alone, to a max of 2832 with a full party.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Supernova Bat +10 - +190 Attack, +179 Magic (already factored). 236 Fire Elemental Physical damage. Restores 15% of Kasuga's Max HP as he attacks.
Armor - True Hero's Armor - +10 Attack/Magic/Agility, +84 Defense, +78 Willpower (already factored). Buffs all stats at the start of Kasuga's turn, every turn as long as HP is 20% or below.
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapon - Wolf Fang +20 -+161 Attack, +151 Magic (drops damage from attacks by 50-80...more for higher damage skills). Has an innate chance to Stun on attack.

COMMENTS
Kasuga's got a couple of tricks up his sleeve and various avenues that he can put together for a winning game plan. He really has a mish-mash of stuff versus one synergistic kit (so nothing like P3R Yukari for example) but it all comes together to make him a solid dueller. For starters, his sustainable damage output is pretty good. Knockout combo is very strong and can be pumped from landing a debuff, which Kasuga does have in his wide kit. Even without it, he has some more risky attacks like Ruffian Kick, that in a long match, get devastating because of the threat of wall slams. He also has Turn 2 ID against those that don't block it and of course he has a damage nuke in the form of poundmates as well as a very damage limit. Full Swing rises up in intervals, but if an enemy knocks Kasuga below 20%, his armor bonus will also trigger, which in practice, means he's probably doing close 1800 damage alone. Most of his buffs are kind of whatever otherwise, but they do help against slower stallers since it lets him set up both offensively and defensively. Likely some form of High Heavy due to the burst damage. He's held back primarily by his stats being mostly averagish - slightly above HP, negligibly below in Speed (seriously. Average speed is 131). He's also the only PC cast member who has more comprehensive status defense due to his personality upgrades. All that bundles up nicely, even if not cohesive.


KOICHI ADACHI
"Oh yeah?!"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Silence
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Charm

Class:
Level 34 Detective

HP - 1448
MP - 258
Atk - 428
Def - 441
Mag -  413
Will - 394
Agi - 61

SKILLS
Slick Tongue - 10 MP, Medium Cone targeting. 60% chance to inflict Rage and 50% to inflict Attack Down 1 level. Lasts 2 turns. 
Monkey Flip - 10 MP, 547 damage. Grapple Attack
Beatdown - 15 MP, 616 damage. Has Knockback.
Arrest - 25 MP. Functionally, 100% ID
Detective's Determination - 15 MP, Large AoE around target. 60% chance to inflict Fear for 1 turn. 65% chance to inflict Agility Down 1 level for 4 turns.
Reckless Charge - 30 MP, Line Fire, 657 damage.
Throat Punch - 25 MP. 752 Damage. Has Knockback
True Grit - 35 MP. Auto-revives self on KO @ 20% MHP. OPB
Breaking Top - 45 MP, 712 damage. Grapple attack, which swings target around in a circle. Adachi can move while this move is active, letting him hit multiple enemies for the same.
Heavy Beatdown - 35 MP, 714 damage. Has Knockback, is ITE and Ignores Guard (but doesn't break it).
Essence of Handcuff Harbinger - 40 MP, 881 damage. Grapple Attack
Essence of Cut and Run - 65 MP, 678 magical Fire damage, Very large AoE. 50% chance to stuns targets in area.

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Double Lariat - Large Line Attack that inflicts all enemies hit with Defense down by 1 level. Deals 952 damage. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Stun Rod +10 - +190 Attack, +179 Magic (already factored). 238 Lightning Elemental Physical damage. Chance to Paralyze targets.
Armor - Veteran Detective's Jacket - +81 Defense, +80 Willpower (already factored). Restores 3% of Adachi's Max MP per hit (so a 5 hit attack would restore 15% Max MP)
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
Chromium Alloy Club +20 -+143 Attack, +133 Magic (drops damage from attacks by 80-180). Increases the Crit Rate on Grapple attacks by 25%. May inflict Attack Down 1 level when attacking or using Skills.
Brutal Slap Jack +20 - +161 Attack, +151 Magic (drops damage from attacks by 60-100). May cause Rage on Attacks / Skills

COMMENTS
The Good? 100% instant death in the form of Arrest. Lots of duelers would give their left kidney for that. The Bad? The Speed. Good lord. Adachi is slow as molasses, clocking in at 73% Average Speed - meaning he just beats the likes of Clive and Raquel and isn't much faster than fucking RICO. And the rest of his stuff isn't all that great either. Rage does kill Mages who don't have reliable physicals but despite what it says on the tin, Adachi isn't *that* durable. And most of IW's status rates outside of Arrest isn't guaranteed unless it is a super move. So being behind the ball whenever he's in a fight and needing maybe a second turn to lock down someone isn't great. Middle, I suspect. He will largely rely on ID for the win, but his damage is still passable so he may win the occasion slugfest.

YU NANBA
"Have fun with this"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Poison
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Silence

Class:
Level 32 Homeless Man

HP - 1130
MP - 332
Atk - 346
Def - 394
Mag -  451
Will - 396
Agi - 120

SKILLS
Pyro Belch - 12 MP, Line fire. 600 Fire damage. 
Pitiful Look - 5 MP. BEGS FOR ITEMS AW YEAH
Pigeon Raid - 30 MP, Medium AoE. 660 Magic damage.
Gnarly Breath - 8 MP. Decreases Defense by 1 level.
Stashed Bottle - 30 MP, Large AoE around Nanba. Recovers HP. Adds 1 level of drunkness
Sizzling Spitter - 30 MP, Large Line Fire, 632 Fire damage. Nanba can control the direction he spits the fire. 50% chance to inflict Burn
Malodorous Stench - 15 MP. Medium AoE around target. Drops Attack and Defense down by 1 level.
Pigeon Storm - 45 MP. Large AoE, 825 Magic damage
Power Slumber - 30 MP, self-target. Fully restores Nanba's HP and all damage type status
Umbrella Barrier - 8 MP, self-target. Increases Defense and Wippower for 2 levels.
Essence of Pyro Prison - 60 MP, Large AoE, 752 Fire damage. 40% chance to Burn targets.
Essence of Big Ass Bird - 65 MP, Large Line Fire, 960 Magic damage. 

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Fiery Breath - Large Line Attack that buffs all allies Magic by 1 level. Deals 952 Fire damage. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Charm Cane +35 - +144 Attack, +161 Magic (already factored). 156 Physical damage. Chance to inflict Doom and Silence on target.
Armor - Street Soul Jacket - +15 Magic, +78 Defense, +63 Willpower (already factored). % chance to survive fatal damage with 1 HP. Can trigger multiple times in a fight.
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
Lightning Staff +10 -+174 Attack, +196 Magic (increases damage from attacks by 80-120). Lightning Element.
Intoxicane +20 - +147 Attack, +166 Magic (increases damage from attacks by 10-20). Provides a damage boost based on level of drunkness.

COMMENTS
Nanba does a little trolling. His weapons skill offer the Laggy-approved victory by COUNTDOWN. Only instead of 60 SECONDS TO LIVE, you have 2 active Turns. The counter says 3, but it ticks down at the start before you go, so in practice, it is 2. Almost everything in his kit goes to support this game plan - from his full heal, to his random Endure chance to his Umbrella defense buff. Once he hits you with Curse, that's it. Nanba then just turtles until your time is up and you die. If you BLOCK Doom, then like Adachi's, he's also not in a great spot. He does have really good damage with Essence of Big Ass Bird, but the MP Cost is so harsh, he can't use it for much. If he opts for damage, he can cast that with the Lightning Staff to get to almost 1100 damage, which is obviously great. But if it does come down to raw damage, poor Nanba isn't very well suited. Likely a Middle, but a very funny one.


ERIC TOMIZAWA
"Gotcha now!"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Rage
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Fear

Class:
Level 32 Cabbie

HP - 1133
MP - 362
Atk - 395
Def - 397
Mag -  395
Will - 362
Agi - 120

SKILLS
Lug Launcher - 10 MP, 496 Piercing damage. 
Battery Shock - 10 MP, 496 Electric damage
Tire tumbler - 22 MP, Line Fire. 449 damage.
Jawbreaker - 20 MP, 625 damage. ITE and Ignores Guard
Scrubdown - 20 MP, 590 Water/Ice damage. Grapple Attack. Decreases Electric Resistance by 1 Stage
Fusee Doozy - 25 MP, 648 Fire damage. Has Knockback
Toolbox Toppler - 38 MP, Line Fire. 519 damage
Battery Storm - 45 MP. Very wide AoE. 566 Electric damage.
Oil and Toil - 30 MP. 707 Fire damage, Decreases Fire Resistance by 1 Stage to area surrounding target.
Tire Tornado - 45 MP. Line Fire. 590 damage.
Essence of Steer Clear - 60 MP, Large AoE, 594 damage. 65% chance to decrease Defense by 1 Stage
Essence of Buckle Up - 65 MP, Large Line Fire, 615 Magic damage. 40% chance to inflict Fear 

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Cross Slugger - Large Line Attack that buffs all allies Crit Rate by 1 level. Deals 820 Piercing damage. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Spacecraft Wrench +10 - +173 Attack, +173 Magic (already factored). 205 Electric damage. Attacks and Skills may grant increase Crit Rate by 1 level on proc.
Armor - Star Ride Jacket - +77 Defense, +72 Willpower (already factored). Boosts Weakness damage.
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
None. Tomizawa technically has weapons that can cause Charm and a rather unique one that can automatically dispel enemy buffs. The problem though is that these weapons have very low base power. Even giving them +50 refined levels won't bring them near close to the Spacecraft Wrench so they are more novelties than actual match winning options. Given how his damage already flounders, he wants all the damage he can get, not less.

COMMENTS
In many ways, Tomizawa and Nanba have many similarities. However, in the DL, Tomi is probably the cast scrub. He's not scrubby in the way that Sacred Slayer or Rico are scrubby. He's scrubby in that his default job doesn't offer much to the DL environment. Cabbie's greatest strength is that it carries all 3 element types in-game, allowing you to use your skill inheritance slots for non-attack options. In the DL, this doesn't work. Like Junpei, it just ends up being like 5 different flavors of "hit the guy" but one maybe has a flamethrower attached to it or something. He's below average speed, below average HP and below average in damage...yeah. That's not a good combination at all. I imagine he's sort of like Gepetto or Garet. Competent in Light (maybe even High Light) but doesn't have anything that he can ride on in upper divisions. 


CHITOSE FUJINOMIYA
"Prepare yourself!"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Sleep
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Blind

Class:
Level 36 Heiress

HP - 1180
MP - 265
Atk - 410
Def - 388
Mag -  399
Will - 369
Agi - 182

SKILLS
Palm Tree Pose - 10 MP, Self-target. Buffs Attack and Evade by 1 Level.
Grand Jete - 10 MP, 570 damage, Has Knockback.
Spill the Tea - 22 MP, Small AoE. Heals 320 HP to Chitose and surrounding allies.
Epaulement - 20 MP, 634 damage. Grapple attack
Catwalk Trance - 20 MP, Small AoE. 60% chance to inflict Charm
Disarming Fragrance - 25 MP, Large Cone. Debuffs Attack by 1 level
Triple Corsage - 38 MP, Line Fire. 695 damage. Grapple attack and 25% chance to debuff Attack by 1 level.
Violino Adagissimo - 45 MP, Large AoE. Decreases Agility by 2 Levels.
Faire la Pirouette - 30 MP, Line Fire. 634 Fire damage,
Aperitifs - 45 MP, Large AoE. Heals 710 HP and Removes all Debuffs.
Essence of Puppy Playtime - 45 MP, Single Target, 814 damage. 70% chance to inflict Fear
Essence of Ballroom Blitz - 60 MP, Large AoE, 638 Magic damage. Grapple Attack. 

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Tango for Two - Large Line Attack that buffs all allies Agility by 1 level. Deals 840 Piercing damage. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Vermillion Bird Choker +10 - +188 Attack, +167 Magic (already factored). Fire damage.
Armor - Prima Ballerina Dress - +15 Agility, +78 Defense, +63 Willpower (already factored). Chitose recovers 15% of Max MP every time she receives a buff.
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
Love at First Sight Choker +20 - +161 Attack, +151 Magic (damage drops by about 70-100 points). May inflict Charm on hit.
Thunder God's Choker +35 - +141 Attack, +133 Magic (damage drops by about 120-170 points). May increase Agility by 1 level when Attacking or using Skills.

Bridal Choker also exists which allows Chitose to recover HP as she is attacking. But the drop in damage is very severe - by 150 to 200 points of damage. It is very unlikely she has a use for this given she also has healing.

COMMENTS
Probably the biggest surprise for me, Chitose is surprisingly good. It might not seem like it, but that's because the game partially lies to you. It rates Heiress as 4* in Speed, but...Chitose ends up being the 2nd fastest person in the cast, clocking in at just under 120% of average. That speed does a lot of work for her because both Fear and Charm are very dangerous statuses and she pop them out instantly on the vulnerable and gain a massive advantage that way. Outside of just status, if she wants to play the long game, she can. Her armor's passive lets her restore MP at a very quick pace as Palm Tree Pose triggers it *twice*. This combined on a a person who can heal means she can sustain herself for awhile and maybe even stall for doubles as opponents miss from the added evade buffing. The last thing that she brings to the table are the Speed Up and Down effects. I don't know how strong they are right now, but having both the buff and debuff version means she can do some pretty nasty turn splits with it likely. Just a very cool PC with a bunch of duel relevant tools. Just that status slinging alone is likely a Heavy off that speed. As to how good of one will depend on everything else.



SEON HEE
"Did you really think you would win?"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Stun
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Burn

Class:
Level 38 Assassin

HP - 1269
MP - 244
Atk - 463
Def - 397
Mag -  390
Will - 379
Agi - 159

SKILLS
Bloody Bowgun - 15 MP, Singe target. 581 Piercing damage. Guaranteed Crit on Back attack.
Flash Grenade - 15 MP, Medium AoE. 402 Magic damage. 40% chance to inflict Blind
Empress Claw - 15 MP, Single target. 723 Slashing damage
Breakneck Heel - 20 MP, Single target. 816 damage. 70% chance to buff Agility by 1 level.
Voltaic Whip - 30 MP, Line Fire. 628 Electric damage. 30% chance to inflict Paralyze
Gas Grenade - 30 MP, Medium AoE. 494 Magic damage. 50% chance to Poison
Gatling Bowgun - 38 MP, Line Fire. 598 Piercing damage. Guaranteed Crit on Back attack
Queen's Claw - 30 MP, Single target. 942 Slashing damage
Sadistic Heel - 30 MP, Single target. 942 damage, Grapple Attack. 65% chance to decrease enemy Agility by 1 level
Stentorian Whip - 52 MP, Large Cone. 816 Lightning damage. 30% chance to Paralyze.
Essence of Bonebreaker - 45 MP, Single Target, 983 damage. Grapple Attack. +35% Chance to Crit
Essence of Wicked Web - 65 MP, Large AoE, 638 Lightning damage. 60% chance to Paralyze.

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Dual Impact- Large Line Attack that buffs all allies Evade by 1 level. Deals 1092 Piercing damage. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Crimson Lotus Kanzashi +10 - +196 Attack, +174 Magic (already factored). Fire damage.
Armor - Eternal Night Jacket- +15 Agility, +80 Defense, +64 Willpower (already factored). Seon Hee may receive a level 1 Agility Up buff at the start of every turn.
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
Unicorn Horn +20 - +151 Attack, +134 Magic (damage drops by about 70-100 points). Decreases MP Usage by 20%.
Eternal Slaughter +20 - +147 Attack, +129 Magic (damage drops by about 100-180 points). May inflict Blind on hit

Seon Hee also has access to an Ice and a Lightning weapon if need be. These are weaker on base compared to her default by almost 30 points. Weapon upgrading curbs that problem a bit so she shouldn't have much issue between swapping to another element if need. Do note that it will drop her damage slightly though.

COMMENTS
You'd think Seon Hee would be faster than Chitose, but she's not. Go Figure. However, while Chitose has a blend of support skills, Seon Hee is all damage. And she's pretty good at it too. Essence of Bonebreaker is probably the best sustainable skill we've seen thus far outside of Kasuga's Merciless Melee. However, her secondary damage ability in Sadistic Heel also deserves a mention as it does only a little less damage but for notably less cost (almost 1/3). In fights, Seon Hee will typically try to just blitz down as her status rates aren't great like Chitose's and she lacks healing otherwise. The random speed boosting is interesting but probably not a defining factor in most matches is my guess. Probably a Middle of some sort.



SAEKO MUDOKA
"You're going to be in a world of hurt!"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Drunkeness
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Rage

Class:
Level 36 Barmaid

HP - 1125
MP - 348
Atk - 463
Def - 394
Mag -  390
Will - 376
Agi - 123

SKILLS
Boundless Cheer - 8 MP, Large AoE. Increases Attack by 1 level to all allies in range.
Champagne Shower - 12 MP, Small Line Fire. 458 Water/Ice damage. 40% chance to inflict Cold
Clobberbag - 16 MP, Single target. 677 damage. Has Knockback
Sly Pose - 16 MP, Large AoE. Decreases Attack of all enemies in range by 1 level.
Powder Puff Press - 16 MP, Single target. 677 damage. Grapple attack. 40% Chance to inflict Blind
Clobberwheel - 24 MP, Medium AoE. 540 damage. Has Knockback
Champagne Splashdown - 24 MP, Very wide Cone. 603 Water/Ice damage. 40% chance to inflict Cold
Branding Blow - 24 MP, Single Target. 811 Fire damage. Has Knockback. 60% chance to inflict Burn
Jewel Breaker - 28 MP, Single target. 899 damage. Guaranteed Crit when Prompt is successful (already factored)
Shop Dropper - 36 MP, Large Line Fire. 649 damage. +30% Crit Rate
Essence of Remotivation - 36 MP, Single Target. Fully revives a KO'd ally.
Essence of Magnum Bottle - 52 MP, Medium Line Fire. 711 Water/Ice damage. 60% chance to inflict Cold.

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Karaoke Fever - Heals all allies and recovers status. Then buffs all allies' Magic by 1 level. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Explosive Rock Star Bag +10- +185 Attack, +185 Magic (already factored). 235 Fire damage.
Armor - Cabaret Queen Dress +10 Attack/Magic, +78 Defense, +63 Willpower (already factored). Decreases MP Cost of Skills by 20% (Already factored).
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
Femme Fatale Bag +20 - +156 Attack, +156 Magic (damage drops by about 50-100 points). Has a Chance to Charm on Hit
Jag Bag +20 - +160 Attack, +160 Magic (damage drops by about 40-90 points). May inflict Fear on hit
Polar Bag +35 - +152 Attack, +152 Magic (damage drops by about 60-120 points). Restores 15% Max HP when attacking or using skills.

COMMENTS
Like Tomi, Saeko kind of gets shafted pretty badly from the DL transition. As an example, Drunkeness isn't exactly that big of a concern. Rage on the other hand, is a much larger issue. So Saeko has a pretty bad detrimental vulnerable but nothing really to show for it. In Game, you would also definitely craft Saeko's Ultimate Weapon with your limited materials because it gives her an extra 50% damage multiplier at the exchange for 50% more MP, which then nicely synergizes with her armor. In the DL? No such luck. At least she has a decently damaging move in Jewel Breaker as well as a weapon that restores *some HP*, even if not much. Shame it also costs her quite a bit of damage. Likely better than Tomizawa, but ultimately not much better. High Light/Low Middle


TIAN YOU ZHAO
"We done with all the fun and games yet?"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Burn
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Cold

Class:
Level 32 Gangster

HP - 1291
MP - 291
Atk - 468
Def - 441
Mag -  400
Will - 343
Agi - 101

SKILLS
Shell Shatter - 15 MP, Single Target. 724 Damage. Has Knockback. 65% Chance to decrease target Defense by 1 Level.
Falling Fang - 15 MP, Small Line Fire. 763 Slashing damage.
Fresh Dim Sum - 8 MP, Single target. Adds Regen and Status Resist Up.
Blinding Viper - 20 MP, Single Target. 829 damage. 65% Chance to decrease target Accuracy by 1 Level.
Rapid Crane Kicks - 20 MP, Single target. 829 damage. Has Knockback. 65% Chance to decrease target Attack by 1 Level
Whirling Blade Dance - 30 MP, Medium Line Fire. 711 Slashing damage.
Dragon's Vortex - 30 MP, Small AoE. 662 damage. 70% chance to decrease targets' Defense by 1 level.
Homecooked Dim Sum - 25 MP, Large AoE. See Fresh Dim.
Dragon's Ascension - 30 MP, Single target. 927 damage. 70% Chance to buff Attack by 1 Level.
Sanguine Blade Dance - 50 MP, Large Line Fire. 861 Slashing damage.
Essence of Wok and a Hard Place - 65 MP, Large AoE. 835 Fire damage. 60% Chance to inflict Burn
Essence of Ladder Acrobatics - 65 MP, Very Large AoE. 835 damage. 50% chance to ID.

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Frying Inferno - Large Line Fire. 1112 Fire damage. Then buffs all allies' Attack by 1 level. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Ice Saber +10- +196 Attack, +174 Magic (already factored). 278 Water/Ice damage.
Armor - Head Honcho's Jacket +10 Agility, +80 Defense, +64 Willpower (already factored). Increases damage by 20% when Zhao's HP is full
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
Insect Venom Saber +35 - +165 Attack, +165 Magic (damage drops by about 70-90 points). Has a Chance to inflict both Poison and Silence on hit
Bewitching Snake Blade +35 - +156 Attack, +140 Magic (damage drops by about 90-120 points). May inflict Poison and Agility Down (1 level) on hit
Champion Saber +35 - +152 Attack, +136 Magic (damage drops by about 100-140 points). May inflict Fear and Bleed on hit

Like Seon Hee, Zhao has a Fire and Electric weapon that he can craft and use but they don't have anywhere near as good stats as his Ice Saber. Notably, they have about 170 Power but they are obviously available if Zhao needs to go a weapon where his damage won't get resisted.

COMMENTS
Zhao doesn't quite have the chops for Heavy (his Speed really holds him back), but in Middle, he's plenty dangerous. With a variety of status sabers, above average HP and decent enough damage, he's got some tricks to shake up just being a straight damage dealer. Accuracy Down + HP Regen is nice and does mean Zhao has more than 1 chance to reactive his armor property (which still needs testing). It also adds Status Resist which means that slower status-slingers aren't going to find their job to be as easy against Zhao has the rest of the cast. Like Kasuga, he also has 50% ID, but Zhao's is way more expensive and he can't use it more than 4 times. However, it is a Wide AoE so maybe that's worth some team match hype. It's possible I'm underrating him, but like most of this cast, High Middle is my kneejerk.


JOON-GI HAN
"Be still"
Resistances: 50% Resistance to Blind
Weaknesses: 50% increased vulnerability to Paralysis

Class:
Level 30 Hitman

HP - 1031
MP - 294
Atk - 418
Def - 385
Mag -  392
Will - 343
Agi - 185

SKILLS
Crescent Slash - 15 MP, Single Target. 474 Slashing Damage. Guaranteed Crit if hitting an opponent from behind. 50% Chance to inflict Bleed.
Rapid Shot - 15 MP, Single Target. 579 Piercing damage. Crit+20%
Stun Smash - 15 MP, Single target. 593 Electric damage. 60% chance to inflict Paralysis
Cheap Shot - 20 MP, Single Target. 632 damage. ITE and ignores Guard.
Sleeping Powder - 30 MP, Large Cone. 70% Chance to inflict Sleep
Divine Shot - 30 MP, Very Large Cone. 263 Piercing damage. Crit+20%
Silencing Slash - 25 MP, Single Target. 554 Slashing damage. Guaranteed Crit if hitting an opponent from behind. 40% chance to inflict Silence.
Poison Shot - 30 MP, Single Target. 818 Piercing Damage. 60% chance to inflict Poison
Point Blank - 30 MP, Single target. 790 damage. 33.33% chance to inflict Instant Death.
Professional Slash - 40 MP, Single target. 632 Slashing damage. Guaranteed Crit if hitting an opponent from behind and adds an extra hit. 50% Chance to inflict Fear
Essence of Trickshots - 60 MP, Large AoE. 653 Piercing damage. +30% Crit Chance. This attack decreases in power by roughly 10% for every additional target over 1.
Essence of Mirror Image - 45 MP, Very Large AoE. 847 Slashing damage damage. 70% chance to increase Han's Evade by 2 levels.

HYPE METER SKILL
Tag Team: Dual Pistols - Large Line Fire. 916 Piercing damage. Then buffs all allies' Agility by 1 level. Requires Kasuga/Kiryu/a Leader along with a full gauge.

EQUIPMENT
Weapon - Glacier Gauntlets +10 - +196 Attack, +174 Magic (already factored). 229 Water/Ice damage.
Armor - Steller Shadow Jacket - +15 Agility, +78 Defense, +63 Willpower (already factored). Increases Han's evade by 25% when HP is full
Headgear - Feather Lei Hat - +54 Defense, +44 Willpower (Already factored). Evade +10%
Footwear - Pointy Toe - +50 Defense, +40 Willpower (Already factored).

Alternative Equips
Weapons -
Inferno Knuckles +10 - +183 Attack, +173 Magic. Gives physical attacks an additional 25% multiplier but Max HP-200. Fire element
Megalodon Knuckles +35 - +160 Attack, +152 Magic (damage drops by about 60-90 points). Increases damage dealt on Critical Hits by an extra 30% (so 180% total)
Ice Gauntlets+10 - +177 Attack, +166 Magic (damage drops by about 30-50 points). May decrease opponent's Agility by 1 tier.

COMMENTS
Han definitely feels the effects of being a super late joiner as his stats suffer from both a level hit and a Job level hit. He's STILL the fastest person in the cast though, so just imagine how much faster he would be if he didn't have that deficit. A lot of Han's kit doesn't look like it does much but there is one thing that ties a lot of this together: Sleeping Powder. Relying on a 70% Sleep move isn't great, but all those "Guaranteed Crit on Back attack" moves? Yeah, Sleep helps set them up. Paralysis works too but doesn't cross the 67% threshold for Turn 1. So against the vulnerable, Han can Sleep, then set up a back attack for *massive* damage. Even though Sleep is removed upon taking damage, to my understanding, the bonus damage dealt from removing Sleep is separate from a back attack and separate from a crit. That means once he puts someone to bed, Han is doing 1.5x from the Crit, 1.5x from the Sleep and 1.5x from the Back Attack, resulting in a massive x 3.375 Multiplier. So god have mercy on you if you're unlucky. Due to his Speed, he's likely going to be able to get Mirror Image off first which should get him to at least Coin Flip evade if not better, letting him stave off 1 Turn kills immediately. So yeah, despite joining late, Han is once again a menace. Just that instead of rocking a 6 MP move that had a ridiculous multiplier, now he needs some set up. Heavy.

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This post reserved for the man, the legend himself: Kiryu-chan

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Reserved for averages and other worthwhile notes