A group of teenagers wake up in a strange "academy" where they are promptly forced by a cute-yet-sinister mascot character to fight against a mysterious enemy force. If they can hold out for a hundred days, that will save humanity! (Or so said mascot character claims.)
When it's not busy being one of the most sprawling visual novels ever created,
The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy is also a strategy RPG from the studio which gave us Wild Arms.
Stats and APHP: Lose all of this and the revive-o-matic sees use.
Attack: Base damage value... as in, it's literally the amount of damage attacks deal. Each of PC's moves has a separate attack stat, but any buffs/debuffs to attack apply to all of them equally.
Move: How many squares you move before using attacks. Note that ALL non-ranged abilities, when upgraded, grant +1 move when using them, so in practice this number is usually one higher than listed. (Ranged attacks get +1 range instead; this is factored in.)
AP: Tied to the entire team, this is a currency used for actions. It costs 1 AP to have any character take a turn (which includes a move and action at the end of the move). At the start of each player phase, you receive a number of AP which is determined by the individual battle. You also gain 1 AP each time you kill an elite enemy (elite enemies are almost any enemy with more than 1 max HP).
Notably, you CAN have a PC take multiple actions in one player phase. However, after taking an action, PCs receive the Fatigue status, which reduces their move to 1 until the phase ends.
There are no defences or speed. The game is phase-based. Battles are frequently fought in multiple waves. Enemies don't have an AP pool and largely play by rules you'd expect in a more straightforward SRPG: they will move and then act, once each (except for a few bosses who double-act).
VoltageVoltage is a limit gauge shared by the entire PC team, which starts at 0 and can rise all the way to 300. Most PC actions increase voltage. If a PC dies, voltage is increased by 100. Once voltage reaches 100, it can be used in several ways:
-
You can spend 100 voltage to gain 1 AP and simultaneously heal one PC of fatigue (can target an unfatigued PC if you wish). This would probably be the most common usage of 100 voltage in a duel, and certainly the simplest.
-You can spend 100 voltage to give a PC a +1 bonus to attack which lasts until the end of the current battle, including all waves. Does not stack with itself (i.e. can't be reused on the same PC in a given battle). Useful if you expect to have many more attacks after reaching 100 voltage.
-You can spend 100 voltage to activate various other passive abilities. These are learned through the game's skill system and are not unique to the characters in question, so I won't be considering this, but some are quite useful!
-You can spend 100 to use special attack, specific to the character. On Normal Mode, this attack consumes 0 AP, but on Hard Mode it consumes 2 AP. These attacks deal damage to big area of effect (how much damage and how big depends on both the PC and their number of boss absorbs) but stun the user for a turn.
Most attacks (including buffs/debuffs/healing) add 10 voltage when fully upgraded. If an attack kills an enemy, this default voltage gain receives a bonus of +10% voltage gain per minion enemy killed, and +50% voltage per elite enemy killed, stacking additively.
Some moves have a tag of "Increased voltage gain". These moves gain +100% voltage, and then the kill bonuses add onto this, stacking additively. One move has "greatly increased voltage gain", which appears to be either +120% or +125%.
Every PC has access to Dash (move at +3 move, then don't act) and Defensive Stance (gain 3 armour, move 0 for this action) in addition to their attacks. The base voltage gain for these is 3. (Since these are not unique I probably wouldn't consider them, but they're good to make note of.)
Many bosses can be "absorbed" by one PC at the end of the battle. Each such absorption on a single character will cause the character to permanently see an increase to their voltage gains, from 1x to 1.1x to 1.2x to 1.3x and so on. This multiplier is increased by +0.2x for each PC ally who is currently dead. This is is applied multiplicatively with other bonuses.
All voltage gains are rounded down to multiples of 1%.
Examples:
1. A character with 1.2 voltage multiplier attacks, killing two minions and one elite enemy. They will gain 10*1.2*1.8 = 21.6 voltage, rounded down to 21.
2. A character with 1.1 voltage multiplier attacks with a move that has "increased voltage gain", killing three minions. They will gain 10*1.1*2.3 = 25.3 voltage, rounded down to 25.
Buffs, debuffs, status effects, and armourA key mechanic in Hundred Line is armour. Various PCs/bosses can generate armour, which basically acts as a shield to absorb damage. Overkill damage does leech through and do real damage; for instance, if a unit with 2 armour receives an attack which does 3 damage, they will lose their 2 points of armour AND take 1 damage.
A few attacks have the "piercing" attribute which mean the damage they do is dealt to both the armour AND the target underneath (e.g. if a unit with 3 armour takes 2 piercing damage, they will be reduced to 1 armour AND take 2 points of damage to their HP). Piercing is a very useful attribute. In the DL I would probably take piercing attacks as both ITD and ignoring any defensive buffs.
Gaining armour multiple times will always stack.
Other buffs and debuffs largely do not stack with themselves or similar effects. If you inflict Move -3 once, you can't use it again to make it Move -6.
List of status effects:
-Bleed: unit takes 2 damage at the end of their phase, as the status wears off.
-Enraged (enemy only): unit will attempt to target the person who inflicted this. Usually. I think it overrides "standard" enemy AI but I've seen some bosses ignore its effects.
-Fatigue (PC only): unit's move becomes 1, overriding any buffs or upgrades to move. Effects which raise move have no effect, unless they heal fatigue.
-Reflect: any time unit is attacked, deals 1 damage back to the attacker (infinite range). This is not affected by attack buffs/debuffs.
-Stun: unit can not take any action or counter-action.
Most effects (including armour) last until the start of the user's next phase (so for PCs, this would be the player phase and following enemy phase). One exception is self-inflicted stun: if a character inflicts stun on themselves, it will last until the END of the user's next phase, so they are guaranteed to lose a meaningful opportunity to act.
Interpretation stuff and other notesAll PCs are taken assuming 3 AP per turn, which is fairly typical in battles with a very small number of PCs (it tends to get higher the more PCs there are). It provides a decent balance of letting PCs multi-act like in-game but getting too out of hand. Taking this lower hurts PCs who (a) heal, or (b) use buffs/debuffs. Taking it higher would make me think about voltage gains too much and inflates some buff/debuff effects more than I'm comfortable with.
I'm not sure how I feel about letting PCs store AP between turns. In-game holding on to a bunch of extra AP is often not practical because you need to clear out enemies or they'll start attacking the defence point, which is a loss condition. Storing AP will mostly benefit characters who can buff attack at the start of a phase (and Yugamu), since they get more attacks to take advantage of this. Of course the entire cast enjoys it as a way to bust healers/limits.
All attacks are taken as fully upgraded. Depending on what counts as "endgame" it'd be reasonable to only take some of them here, but it seems simplest not to make characters choose which ones.
I'll leave the choice of voltage multiplier up to individual voters, but I'll note that a voltage multiplier of 1.1 is reasonable and would lead to 100% voltage getting hit on turn 4 for most PCs, which would mean it would not affect a 3-turn damage average. 1.2 and 1.3 would also be plausible depending on how one defines "endgame" (or even differing values by PC) which would put 100 voltage within reach on turn 3. Regardless, the damage average will not account for the possibility of reaching 100 voltage.
All attacks in Hundred Line are IFF, that is they don't target allies in their range (or in the case of healing/buffs, don't target enemies).
I've tried to describe all areas of effect. If not stated otherwise, assume all areas of effect originate and/or are centred in a panel adjacent to the user.
I would suggest using threat range to stand in for turn 1 speed, because it is quite significant in-game. Certainly all characters are average on subsequent turns, though.
Tsubasa's threat range of 19 is kinda overkill for most purposes, so I chose to drop her from the average, and also drop Hiruko (lowest threat range) to compensate. This is functionally equivalent to treating Tsubasa's threat range as about 15 instead of 19 (which would still be game-best). I've kept the higher standard deviation. Scale as you will.
Evade does not exist in Hundred Line, and hence neither do evade-ignoring attacks, but I would personally give attacks which strike more panels some accuracy credit; a comparison is provided with the averages at the bottom.
Averages up topHP: 11.9
Damage: 10.9 (kill point 27.2)
Threat range with best damage: 9.7 [10 if counting Tsubasa and Hiruko] (SD 3.18)
Panels hit by best damage: ~3.8
Takumi Sumino"Everyone, this is it! We're going to put our lives on the line and end this war!"
HP 14 (118%)
Move 5
Threat 8 (-0.53)
Special Redo: can rewind to retry a battle
Special Revenge: +1 atk for every dead ally
Side Slash: 3 atk. Hits a 5-panel row.
Impact Stab: 4 atk. Piercing. Hits a 2-panel column.
Air Blade: 2 atk. Ranged, +2 vs flying. Hits a 5-panel column which can begin 1, 2, or 3 panels in front of Takumi, and also hits the panels on either side of the second panel hit by the column. (7 panels total)
Comments: His attack ranges are quite flexible, but in a duel the only really notable thing about him is decent damage/HP and access to piercing. The option of striking first with Air Blade to get the drop on average speed and probably still 3RKO likely gets him to
Low Middle.
Takemaru Yakushiji"No way, man! That shit's against the goddamn law! Don't make me kill you!"
HP 14 (118%)
Move 6
Threat 8 (-0.53)
Special Rampage: Takemaru gets +1 armour for each space moved.
Outta My Way: 2 atk. Hits every adjacent and diagonally adjacent panel.
Eat This!: 3 atk. Inflicts Move -3. Hits a panel adjacent to Takemaru, then two 2-panel columns on either side of that panel (5 panels total).
Put 'Em Up!: 4 atk. Inflicts Enraged. Hits three panels adjacent to Takemaru.
Note: The most common melee enemies have only 4 move, so Takemaru CAN prevent them from reaching him with Eat This!, just barely. Does not deserve credit against anyone with above average mobility or range of any sort.
Comments: Being able to generate up to 9 armour (though just 6 if he wants to target an adjacent enemy) is a cool trick, walling some duellers hard; he is easily the cast's most durable member in practice. The move debuff of Eat This! lets him spoil some folks as well.
Heavy of some flavour.
Hiruko Shizuhara"If I got mad over every clash of opinions, I would have killed you all in the first ten days."
HP 12 (101%)
Move 3
Threat 5 (-1.48)
Special Discipline: +1 atk for each enemy previously killed this phase, max +3.
Cranial Fracture: 5 atk. Hits one panel.
Intestinal Laceration: 2 atk. Hits a 3-panel row.
Life-or-Death Shot: 4 atk. User recovers 1 HP. Hits a 2-panel column.
Comments: Hiruko is the damage queen against bosses in-game thanks to an easily achievable 8 atk before any buffs. Here she's still... pretty good at damage, at least, but not as special relatively, and has bad threat range, so she's a slow 2HKOer. She can give up a little damage in order to heal and in some fights this will let her survive one hit while still killing in the same number herself.
Light/Middle area.
Darumi Amemiya"It's killing game time!"
HP 10 (84%)
Move 4
Threat 9 (-0.22)
Special Sick Day: User's skill change when fatigued
Homicide!: 2 atk. Ranged, +2 vs flying. Increased voltage gain. Hits a 5-panel cross centred on a line ranging 2 to 5 panels from Darumi.
Stay With Me!: Inflicts Move -4. Increased voltage gain. Hits a 3-column, 5-row area (15 panels total).
I Feel Fine!: 3 atk. User recovers 1 HP. Hits a 4-panel column.
While fatigued, Darumi's skillset is replaced with the following. Note that ALL of these moves will heal the user's Fatigue, essentially toggling her back to her first skillset after using them:
Kill Me Now...: 3 atk. Ranged, +2 vs flying. Inflicts Move -3. Hits a 5-panel cross centred on a line ranging 2 to 5 panels from Darumi.
Die With Me...: Inflicts Attack -2 and Bleed. Hits a 3-column, 5-row area (15 panels total).
I Feel Nothing...: 5 atk. Inflicts Stun on both the target(s) and the user. Hits a 4-panel column.
Comments: Friendly reminder that self-targeted stun results in a loss of turn for both sides in practice, and bleed only lasts for one turn, so neither of those are as cool as they sound. Still, she can easily kite with move debuffs, and her best damage involves both healing her for 2 and inflicting move -3 for said kiting. She can also give up some damage to debuff her opponent's attack. And finally, if she gives up a little damage to use Homicide!, she can reach 100 voltage one turn sooner than most characters.
Middle.
Eito Aotsuki"Oh, this is no time for a monologue, is it? Sorry, you know how bad I am at reading the room."
HP 10 (84%)
Move 5
Threat 7 (-0.85)
Special Fortunetelling: User gains a random buff after taking an action. The buff can be +1 atk (does not stack), +1 armour, or recovery from fatigue.
Judge: 4 atk. Hits a 3-panel row.
Jury: 3 atk. +2 vs flying. Hits 3 panels along each diagonal away from Eito (12 panels total).
Executioner: 5 atk. Inflicts bleed. Hits one panel.
Comments: He hits hard, adds bleed for even more damage, and on average will end up with +1 armour per turn, which helps offset the fact that he's a bit squishy. Respectable slugger as such.
Middle.
Tsubasa Kawana"I'm taking the wheel!"
HP 15 (126%)
Move 15
Threat 19 (+2.92) [should probably be taken a bit lower in practice]
Tsubasa occupies 4 panels instead of the usual 1.
Special Mechanic: User is immune to Fatigue
Deadlights: 2 atk. Inflicts Attack -1. Hits a 2-column, 3-row area (6 panels total).
Accelerate: Heals Fatigue and adds Move +15. Hits all allies within 2 panels of Tsubasa (20 panels total), but not Tsubasa.
Decelerate: Adds Attack +2 and Armour +4. Hits all allies within 2 panels of Tsubasa (20 panels total), but not Tsubasa.
Comments: Well she only has one move in a duel and it's not really great, low damage. Durable (even more than she looks thanks to the attack debuff) and fast, at least! The move, fatigue immunity, and large AoE make her pretty much the best non-boss-fighter in the game, though.
Light.
Gaku Maruko"I'm not a loser! I just have a lot of unfulfilled potential!"
HP 10 (84%)
Move 3
Threat 9 (-0.22)
Special Vibes: +1 atk when voltage >= 100.
Crazy Shot: 2 atk. +2 vs flying. Hits a fan (one panel, then a 3-panel row, then a 5-panel row) which can begin 2, 3, or 4 panels in front of Gaku (9 panels total).
Take This!: Adds Attack +2. Greatly increase voltage gain (~2.2x). Hits a 5-column, 2-row area (10 panels total), but not Gaku.
On The Hunt: 3 atk. User recovers 1 HP. Hits a 5-panel column.
Comments: Wishes he could self-target his buff so badly (both for the buff and for the voltage gain). With that out, he'll mostly just want to use On The Hunt, which provides a little healing to go with the mediocre damage. That healing does make him very dangerous in
High Light.
Nozomi Kirifuji"Stop it! I won't let you hurt my friends any more!"
HP 8 (67%)
Move 5
Threat 12 (+0.72)
Special Health: Recovers 1 HP to allies within 8 spaces when user moves
Rescue Bullet: Recovers 4 HP and heals all status effects including Fatigue. Ranged. Hits a 3-by-3 area centred on a panel on a line 1 to 5 panels of Nozomi. If placed adjacent, will include Nozomi as a target.
Paralyze Bullet: 3 atk. Ranged, +2 vs flying. Inflicts Stun. Hits a 2-panel column which may begin anywhere on a line 2 to 5 panels from Nozomi.
Bolstering Bullet: Adds Attack +2 and Move +6. Ranged. Hits a 3-by-3 area centred on a panel on a line 1 to 5 panels of Nozomi. If placed adjacent, will include Nozomi as a target. (Does not heal fatigue, so Nozomi will not buff her own move unless she takes another action to heal her fatigue after.)
Comments: If you're not immune to stun, you're dead. Otherwise, have fun dealing with someone who can fully heal and attack on the same turn. Bolstering Bullet can add a bit to her damage if she's not healing, and she's good at getting the drop on opponents. Her only weakness is her terrible HP.
Heavy.
Kurara Oosuzuki"I hate secrets and lies more than anything. More than I even hate Kyoshika."
HP 12 (101%)
Move 7
Threat 10 (+0.09)
Special Crafting: Recovers 3 HP to structures within 9 spaces when user moves
Flight: Ignores obstacles and enemies when moving
Oosuzuki Nightmare: 3 atk. Inflicts Stun. Hits a 2-panel column.
Craft Mounted Turret: Craft a turret within 3 panels (no more than 2 panels in 1 direction) with 5 HP which deals 4 damage to each enemy in range at the start of each player phase. Maximum 2 turrets on the field at once. Turret's range: all enemies in any 3-panel row in the second row from the turret in each direction (12 panels total).
Craft Support Tower: Craft a tower within 3 panels (no more than 2 panels in 1 direction) with 7 HP which adds +2 armour to all allies (including Kurara) in range at the start of each player phase. Maximum 1 tower on the field at once. Tower's range: all allies within 3 panels horizontally and 3 panels vertically (no more than 5 panels total).
Comments: If you're not immune to stun (or melee attacks), you're dead. If you are, Kurara is... not that dangerous an opponent. The mounted turret provides a little action economy but only if an enemy is stupid about where they stand. Support Tower's a bit better since it lets her give up a single action on turn 1 to get +2 armour per turn the rest of the fight... but not getting it until the start of next turn sucks. So realistically she's losing most slugfests if stun is blocked.
Middle/Heavy.
Kyoshika Magadori"Lady Kurara, don't give them the wrong idea! It's not every night!"
HP 10 (84%)
Move 5
Threat 11 (+0.41)
Special Bushido: +2 atk against enemies with no other enemies currently adjacent to them
Jumonji Slash: 3(+2) atk. Piercing. Hits one adjacent panel then 2 panels on each of 2 diagonals away from both the origin panel and Kyoshika (5 panels total).
Shigure no Mai: 7(+2) atk. Inflicts Stun on both the target and the user. Hits one panel.
Shin Senpuu Yaiba: 3(+2) atk. Pushes targets back one space. Hits three panels adjacent to Kyoshika, and the two diagonally adjacent between those three (5 panels total).
Comments: Hits hard, has Shigure no Mai as an extra 4-damage finisher, can't be walled by defence. She's basically Takumi trading HP for damage and threat range... probably a winning trade since she can at least claim some good-initiative 2HKOs against typical HP. In-game her thing is basically ignoring all the nonsense bosses can do (armour and counters) while doing good damage to them. Decent
Middle.
Yugamu Omokage"I'm about to alter his body in a way that spits in the face of ethical science, after all."
HP 10 (84%)
Move 4
Threat 8 (-0.53)
Special Biology: +2 atk against enemies with status effects or debuffs
Twisted Whip: 2 atk. Inflicts Attack -1. Hits a 3-panel column as well as the two 2-panel columns on either side of the main column (7 panels total).
Sacrificial Viper: 3 atk. Inflicts Bleed. Hits a 3-panel column.
Fatal Contagion: Inflicts Attack -3 and Move -4. Hits a diamond (one panel, then a 3-panel row, than a 5-panel, then a 3-panel, then one) originating in a panel adjacent to Yugamu.
Comments: His personal gives him pretty good damage against anything which isn't totally debuff-immune, and he can do the same "debuff move and kite" thing that Takemaru and Darumi can do. Another
Middle of some flavour.
Shouma Ginzaki"My best won't be much, but..."
HP 18 (151%)
Move 5
Threat 8 (-0.53)
Shouma occupies 4 panels instead of the usual 1.
Special Shut-In: Nullifies status effects. +1 atk per attack received on the immediately previous enemy phase
Aggression Signal: Inflicts Enrage. Hits all enemies within 4 panels of Shouma, but no more than 3 panels in any one direction (48 panels total). Grants user Armour +3.
Defense Mode: Adds Reflect to user. Grants user Armour +3.
Omega Punch: 2 atk. Hits a 2-by-2 area adjacent to Shouma. Inflicts Stun on user.
Comments: Uh. Well his direct offence is pathetic, 2 damage every two turns! But he can generate 9 armour a turn and hope the enemy attacks him to trigger reflect. With enrage in there to help you, the voter, be convinced to let his opponent be stupid and fruitlessly attack him. (If they don't, both sides just stare at each other, and if you do the thing where you force both duellers to attack, Shouma will stun himself and the enemy will get in a free attack on the subsequent turn.) This lets him slowly own anyone vulnerable to enrage who deals less than 0.75PCHP unless they have ITD or other ways to pierce barriers. Weird, weird dueller. I have on idea where to rank him...
Middle seems safest as a guess.
Ima Tsukumo"You know how it goes—there are rules for me and rules for thee!"
HP 12 (101%)
Move 8
Threat 13 (+1.04)
Special Conduct: +2 atk when Kako is near death
Flight: Ignores obstacles and enemies when moving
One-Winged Hammer: 3 atk. Pushes target back one space. Hits one adjacent panel and the three panels adjacent to that panel (4 panels total).
Twin Wing Gale: Pushes target back 4 spaces and inflicts Move -4. Hits a 5-column, 3-row area (15 panels total). Heals user's Fatigue.
Aerial Engagement: 3 atk. +2 vs flying. Hits a single panel which is 2 away from Ima in a single direction, and all panels diagonally adjacent to that panel (5 panels total).
Comments: Basically a less interesting version of Darumi; like her, he is mediocre at damage but can debuff move and kite (his damage is even worse than hers since he needs an action to do this), but he doesn't have her extra tricks beyond this. Still, move debuffing is too powerful for Light, so to
Middle he goes!
Kako Tsukumo"If Ima says anything weird to you, it's okay to punish him with your undying flames."
HP 10 (84%)
Move 4
Threat 11 (+0.41)
Special Good Conduct: +3 atk when user attacks without moving
Energy Sniper: 4 atk. Ranged, Piercing. Hits a single panel on a line 2 to 7 panels away from Kako. Inflicts Attack -2 on user.
Spirit Rain: 2 atk. Ranged, +2 vs flying. User has 0 move when using this. Hits a single panel anywhere which is 3 to 8 panels away from Kako. Inflicts Attack -2 on user.
Hellfire: 4 atk. Hits a 3-column, 3-row area. Inflicts Stun on user.
Comments: Fortunately, Kako's unfortunate attack self-debuff does NOT stack with itself. Kako will usually need to move to use her Energy Sniper. Subsequent attacks will be dealt at a net damage of +1 (+3 from her personal, -2 from the debuff) so she's quite damaging, with good range, but not very durable.
Middle again!
Moko Mojiro"You know what they say—bad times don't last, but bad bitches do!"
HP 14 (118%)
Move 5
Threat 10 (+0.09)
Special Wrestling: +1 atk per attack received on the immediately previous enemy phase
Moko Dynamite: 3 atk. Hits a single panel which is 2 away from Moko in a single direction, and all panels adjacent to that panel (5 panels total). Grants user Armour +1.
Moko Shooter: 7 atk. Inflicts Stun on both the target and user. Hits one panel.
Mokomania: Adds Reflect to user. Grants user Attack +2 and Armour +3.
Comments: She's got a version of Shouma's game without status immunity or enrage, but with the ability to use a real attack while doing it. Usually she'll want to use a mix of Mokomania and Moko Dynamite, either doing 5 damage and getting 7 armour or doing 10 damage and getting 5 armour, with her damage being buffed by attacks on her opponent's previous turn. Against stun-vulnerable opponents or as a finisher she can get an extra 4 damage with Moko Shooter, though note that the dual stun will lose out on any possibilities for reflect or her personal next turn. Walling up to 0.59 PCHP per turn while doing real damage is hard to argue with as a strategy, though.
Heavy.
Eva"There's not a single doubt in my mind now. I'll use this power to protect those dear to me."
HP 12 (101%)
Move 5
Threat 12 (+0.72)
Special Fitness: +2 atk when user attacks after moving
Hollow Blade: 2(+2) atk. Piercing, +2 vs flying. Hits a 5-panel column.
Eye of the Storm: 2(+2) atk. Ranged, +2 vs flying. Inflicts Bleed. Hits a 5-panel row, either 3, 4, or 5 distance away from Eva.
Samsaran Sword: 2(+2) atk. +2 vs flying. Hits every 3-panel row which is 2 distance away from Eva (12 panels total). Grants user Armour +1.
Comments: It's easy for her to move continuously while attacking due to the flexibility of her ranges. Against most foes she'll want to do 12 damage while adding 3 armour, or she can trade a point of armour for bleed, or give up the armour for piercing damage. Lots of neat options, but nothing overwhelming.
High Middle.
Averages and comparisonsHP: 11.9
Damage: 10.9 (kill point 27.2)
Threat range with best damage: 9.7 [10 if counting Tsubasa and Hiruko] (SD 3.18)
Panels hit by best damage: ~3.8
HP:
18: Shouma
15: Tsubasa
14: Takumi, Takemaru, Moko
12: Hiruko, Kurara, Ima, Eva
(11.9: Average)
10: Darumi, Eito, Gaku, Kyoshika, Yugamu, Kako
8: Nozomi
Three-turn damage, ignoring AP storing and voltage gain:
16.3: Kyoshika (Shigure no Mai finisher on turn 3)
15.9: Eito (includes probability of gaining a random atk buff)
15: Hiruko
14: Kako
(13: Yugamu against an opponent vulnerable to Bleed)
12: Takumi, Takemaru, Yugamu, Eva
11.3: Moko (Mokomania + Moko Dynamite x2; Moko Shooter finisher turn 3)
(10.9: Average)
10: Nozomi (Bolstering Bullet + Paralyze Bullet x2)
(9: Yugamu against an opponent immune to both Bleed and debuffs)
9: Darumi, Gaku, Kurara, Ima
6: Tsubasa
1.3: Shouma (Omega Punch, turn loss to stun, Omega Punch)
Threat range with best damage:
(23: Nozomi using Bolstering -> Rescue -> Paralyze)
19: Tsubasa (16 move, 3 range)
13: Ima (9 move, 4 range)
12: Nozomi (5+1 move, 6 range), Eva (5 move, 7 range)
(12: Takumi using Air Blade at 50% his base damage)
(12: Eito using Jury at 60% his base damage)
(12: Gaku using Crazy Shot at 67% his base damage)
11: Kyoshika (6 move, 5 range), Kako (4 move, 7 range)
10: Kurara (8 move, 2 range), Moko (6+1, 3 range)
(10: Takemaru going for move debuffing)
(10: Average with Tsubasa counted literally)
(9.7: Average with Tsubasa and Hiruko excluded)
(9: Eva using Samsaran Sword for max armour)
9: Darumi (5 move, 4 range), Gaku (4 move, 5 range)
8: Takumi (6 move, 2 range), Takemaru (7 move, 1 range), Yugamu (5 move, 3 range), Shouma (6 move, 2 range)
7: Eito (6 move, 1 range)
5: Hiruko (4 move, 1 range)
Panels targeted by best damage:
(12: Eito using Jury at 60% his base damage)
(12: Eva using Samsaran Sword)
9.7: Eva (one turn of Eye of the Storm, two turns of Samsaran Sword)
(7: Takumi using Air Blade at 50% his base damage)
(7: Yugamu using Twisted Whip at 83% his base damage)
6: Tsubasa
5: Gaku, Kyoshika, Ima, Moko
(5: Takemaru using Eat This! at 75% his base damage)
4.3: Darumi, Yugamu
4: Shouma
(3.8: Average)
3: Takemaru
2: Takumi, Nozomi, Kurara
(2: Hiruko using Life-or-Death Shot at 80% her base damage)
1: Hiruko, Eito, Kako
Appendix: avoiding countersAvoiding counters is important for fighting bosses in-game and has obvious applications to the DL. Boss counter patterns vary but frequently will hit an area which covers several panels forward and one panel to either side of them... and they can turn any direction before countering. This means that in order to reliably avoid counters, you need to attack from at least 2 panels away in BOTH directions from the target. Here is the list of attacks which manage this:
Eito's Jury (3 atk)
Gaku's Crazy Shot (2 atk)
Kyoshika's Jumonji Slash (3+2 atk)
Kako's Spirit Rain (2+3 atk... 0 move means she would need to use Dash to set this up, though)
Eva's Eye of the Storm (2+2 atk)
Additionally once you reach 4 range in one direction, you avoid all but the longest-range counters. I would typically see attacks of range 4+ avoiding melee counters, and the previous list of attacks avoiding pretty much any damage-dealing counters period (except those which deal full multitarget damage, naturally).
