Royal Battle is a new gameplay that will be available at the March 7th update. To my surprise, Royal Battle is coming to Global rather fast. I guess Global does not follow CN release schedule at all.
This new gameplay is another form of PVP. Players would still battle each other real time. However, this time players are not using their own Shikigamis and Souls but have to choose from a pool of Shikigamis available.
Contents
Mechanics
Royal Battle is available Friday to Sunday. The exact time is to be determined.
Each week, the game would randomly pick 20 Shikigamis in the Royal Battle pool for players to choose from. Players (above level 25) would choose 5 Shikigamis from the pool and use own Onmyoji to battle one another.
The good thing is that the Shikigamis and Souls are maxed so players are battling each other on a level playing field. The trade-off is you don’t always get to use your favourite Shikigamis.
Before the battle, players can add points to Shikigamis’ stats to customize them. Therefore, the Shikigamis are a bit different in the battle. One thing to note about speed is that the attack order is random for the Shikigamis with the same speed.
The goal of the battle is to win 12 battle in order to gain bonus prize. The winning count would reset after 3 losses or when the week is over.
Strategy
The Strategy is heavily dependent on which Shikigamis are in the pool. I see Royal Battle as a testing ground to try out different Shikigamis.
Because of the limitations of Shikigami selections in Royal Battle, players will need to rethink their normal PVP strategy. The interesting fact is every week the selection is different so it forces players to strategize differently every time.
I will attempt to analyze the 20 Shikigamis available in the pool but since my site is public, there would be players developing counter-strategies to what I am purposing in here. Use my guide at your own risk lol.
March 9 – 11, 2018
Available Shikigamis:
| Shikigami | Role | Soul | Stat Points | Note |
| Shuten Doji | DPS (no orb) | Soul Taker; Dice Spirit | ||
| Enma | Control | |||
| Ryomen | Control | |||
| Shishio | Control | |||
| Yoto Hime | DPS | |||
| Inugami | DPS (no orb) | Claws; Dice Spirit | ||
| Puppeteer | DPS | |||
| Youko | DPS | |||
| Maestro | SPD Support | |||
| Yumekui | Control | |||
| Ebisu | Heal Support | |||
| Jorogumo | DPS | |||
| Oguna | Heal Support | |||
| Doujo | Heal Support | |||
| Gaki | DPS | |||
| Karasu Tengu | DPS | |||
| Ame Onna | Support | Senecio; Clam; HP | ||
| Kyonshi Ototo | DPS (DOT) | |||
| Ushi no Toki | Support | |||
| Satori | DPS |
Analysis:
Right off the bat we are seeing a few of the popular Shikigamis missing:
- Shuzu is not there to mitigate damage
- There are no Kamaitachi and Yamausai to accelerate the team
- Zashiki is not here to provide orbs
- Hitotsume is not here to reflect attacks
- Ubume is nowhere to be found
Needless to say, some players are starting to feel the pressure of not knowing how to create a team. After all, I’ve been advocating new players to try the conservative F2P team build where the basic roles of a team are standardized.
As is with life, we must always look at the bright side. Instead of indulging in what we don’t have. Let’s look at what we do have and go from there.
We have:
- Quite a few of strong ST DPS to choose from
- Enma and Yumekui are there for control
- Maestro is here instead of the other two more popular accelerators
- Inugami is here to counter attacks
- One of the top healers, Ebisu, is still around
There we have it. Now we know the cards we have been dealt with, let’s start building a team around that.
Teams
Without orb and speed support, the popular one wave double accelerator team build is not feasible here.
Instead, I would look to counter teams for damage. These team builds require much less orb and speed than others.
Inugami would be a key player. His counter consumes no orb and is perfect in this case.
Shuten Doji is another great DPS under these circumstances.
With less popular choice, Gaki and Karasu Tengu can also be used here thanks to their assisting passives.
These types of teams are vulnerable to control effects from the likes of Yumeikui and Enma, so I suggest using Ame Onna to mitigate.
Ebisu and Doujo are very capable healers. In addition, Ebisu provides some orb support in the absence of Zashiki.
Other team builds include
- Using Maestro and Kagura for two immediate actions for DPSs but I have doubts regarding orb supply
- Building a team around Kyonshi Ototo for DOT damage together with Kagura
- Control teams with Yumeikui and Enma but this build is hard countered by Ame Onna
To be continued