#attack down

[magiamemoriareview]

The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything

Obtainability: This memoria is limited to the Ranked Mirrors memoria gacha.

Single Effect: Attack Down [20%] & MP Gain Down [45%] (All Enemies / 1 Turn)

MLB Effect: Attack Down [25%] & MP Gain Down [50%] (All Enemies / 1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Attack Down is a Debuff that will decrease the target’s base attack.

MP Gain Down will decrease the target’s MP Gain when using discs, when they’re attacked, or when they activate a skill that gives them MP Restore.

TLDR: "The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything" is a very specialized memoria that is excellent for Ranked Mirrors, but only if you're in for a prolonged fight. If you don't care about Ranked then you should feel no pressure to roll for this memoria.

Review: Apologies ahead of time, this will be a long review.

This is yet another good Ranked memoria. It qualifies as a stat stick with its high def passive stats, it offers a decent amount of Attack Down, and it will decrease the amount of MP gained by the enemy's team-- all things you want when trying to protect your team and prevent enemy magia/doppels.

Before going further, we need to compare this memoria to other memos in the game to examine why this is so good for Ranked, especially as we'll see that some memoria are better than it in other areas.

First we should note that this isn't the highest Attack Down memoria in the game, nor does it come close to being so:

(Limited 4*) “Even Games Are Serious” Attack Down [65%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Up [52.5%] (Self / 1 Turn)  

(Limited 4*) “The True Gift Was the Smile” Attack Down [65%] & Dazzle [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “For This Fine Day” Attack Down [50%] & Damage Down [45%] (One / 1 Turn)

(4*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Mito)” Attack Down [50%] & Defense Down [45%] (All / 1 Turn)

(4*) “Hiding the Real Me” Attack Down [50%] (One / 1 Turn) & Skill Quicken [100%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “Ascending Cherry Blossom Front” Attack Down [35%] & Magia Seal [100%] (One / 1 turn)

(Limited 3*) “Light Attributed Characters” Attack Down [35%] & Dazzle [45%] (One / 1 turn)

(3*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Leila)” Attack Down [35%] & Darkness [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

(4*) “An Inhabitant from Another World” Attack Down [30%] & Charm [42.5%] (All / 1 turn)

(Limited 3*) “Keep Promises in the Heart” Attack Down [30%] & Defense Down [30%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited 3*) “A Place of Ease” Attack Down [30%] (All / 1 Turn)

(2*) “Busy After School” Attack Down [30%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything” Attack Down [25%] & MP Gain Down [50%] (All Enemies / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “The End of an Ordinary Day” Attack Down [25%] & Magia Damage Down [50%] (All Enemies / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “Lively Summer (Momoko/Mitama)” Attack Down [25%] & Magia Damage Down [30%] (All / 1 Turn)

(Limited 3*) “Floating in the Starry Sky” Attack Down [25%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Up [15%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(Limited 3*) “Changing into Swimsuits” Attack Down [25%] & Charm [35%] (All / 1 Turn)

(Limited 3*) “It Seems I Wasn't Good Enough” Attack Down [20%] & MP Gain Down [25%] (All / 1 Turn)

(2*) “Towards the End” Attack Down [20%] (Target / 3 Turns)

(Limited 3*) “Passing Dreams” Attack Down [10%] & Damage Down [10%] (One / 3 Turns)

There are many memoria that offer more Attack Down than this one does, including the ever-popular Mito Rain. However, what makes this memoria so good is that inclusion of MP Gain Down, where it tops the list:

(Limited 4*) “The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything” MP Gain Down [50%] & Attack Down [25%] (All Enemies / 1 Turn)

(4*) “What Flavor Is Break Time (Touka)” MP Gain Down [50%] (All / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “Wishing for the Final Act” MP Gain Down [40%] (One / 3 turns)

(Limited 4*) “The Beginning Is Here” MP Gain Down [40%] (One / 3 turns)

(Limited 3*) “It Seems I Wasn't Good Enough” MP Gain Down [25%] & Attack Down [20%] (All / 1 Turn)

(3*) “The One Who Waits” MP Gain Down [25%] (All / 3 turns)

Notably, "What Flavor is Break Time (Touka)" (which we will just refer to now as "Touka Tea") has the same amount of MP Gain Down offered. Obviously, "The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything" is going to be better than "Touka Tea" given that it has the same exact effect at the same percentage with a higher passive DEF stat and an additional secondary buff with a lower cooldown to boot, but you should consider that "Touka Tea" is unlimited. That means, for most players, it's more probable that one will have it max-awakened, and a max-awakened "Touka Tea" will have better stats and effects than a single copy of "The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything". However, even a non max-awakened copy of "The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything" is still good, having 45% MP Gain Down.

Put together, owe have a memoria that is a decent way of making the enemy team deal less damage for one turn and gain less mp. There are other memoria in the game that offer way more Attack Down, including the very accessible "Mito Rain" and the newly released "I'll Have You Cooperate," but the amount of Attack Down offered by "The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything" isn't necessarily bad. What really stands out is its amount of MP Gain Down, sharing the top spot with the unlimited "Touka Tea" but with the addition of its Attack Down and a shorter cooldown.

With that, we can see that the true draw of this memoria is its MP Gain Down, not the Attack Down. The Attack Down is an excellent bonus, but that MP Gain Down is what really makes it shine.

This makes it an excellent memoria for content like the Hundred Evils, where you'll want to prevent enemies from gaining Magia. It also makes it perfect for Ranked Mirrors.

Note that for Ranked Mirrors, you need this memoria to be max-awakened and max-leveled. You need that short cooldown for it to work properly and you're going to want those stats as high as possible so that it can work as a stat stick.

Stat Sticks are Active memoria that beef up a character’s passive DEF through its stats, not its effects. These kind of memoria are helpful in Mirrors, where some Actives serve little more than, well, “stat sticks.” This blog considers anything about 2200 DEF a Stat Stick. Note that the memoria needs to be Max Awakened to qualify as a Stat Stick.

A cooldown at five turns means that the memoria will be usable at the start of round three in mirrors (or even less than that if used on a character with Skill Quicken in their Spirit Enhancement). In prolonged fights, that means you can continue to debuff the enemy's mp gain along with debuffing their attack power.

This is especially notable as many units with debuffs on their active Spirit Enhancement will only last between 1 - 3 turns. This includes characters such as Darkness Mitama, Mitsuru Inami, Akuma Homura-chan, and Amaryllis; all who see popular play in Ranked. You don't want their debuffs on the enemy team to run out with nothing to back them up afterwards if you're in for a prolonged fight. You need to be able to follow up with something that will keep your characters safe.

Of course that doesn't mean you can't also use this memoria before round 3-- you can, especially in emergencies. But it's excellent to have on hand for when your potential debuffs run out.

Of course, as you're reading this memoria review you can also probably see how this memoria is tightly made for one area of the game in particular. Meaning: if you are not using a very specific strategy for a very specific part of the game (Ranked Mirrors) then this memoria is not necessary to acquire. Using "The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything" assumes that you:

Care About Ranked Mirrors

Are using a gameplay strategy that will extend how many rounds you fight

Have the slots necessary to consider even getting this memoria

Are whale enough to care about having the best possible memoria on your team

Are whale enough to max-awaken this extremely niche memoria so it's actually usable.

If none of that applies to you... then there's no point to grabbing this memo.

There are better Attack Down (and Damage Down) memoria you can acquire, and "Touka Tea" will work just fine if you need MP Gain Down in PVE content such as Hundred Evils.

Overall, this is a very good but very specific memoria. Unless you are a hyper-whale who is aiming for S3 with Ranked Mirrors and you can guarantee max-awakening "The Scenery of the Hospital Room is Everything," you shouldn't feel the urge to roll for it.

[magiamemoria]

I Will Solve the Problem!

Obtainability: Limited to the “Nagisa’s Wish” event.

Notes: Thank you to @leafbladie for taking this screenshot!

Effect: Stun Chance [37.5%] (Target for one turn) / Blast Damage Down [22.5%] / Attack Down [20%] (Target for two turns)

[magiamemoriareview]

Eternal Darkness Party

Obtainability: Limited for the “Dark Halloween is the Color of Love” event shop. This is a event bonus memoria and it should be kept in case of a rerun.  

MLB Effect: Attack Down [35%] (All / 1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Attack Down is a Debuff that will decrease the target’s base attack.

TLDR: “Eternal Darkness Party” is good for Magia Stall Teams and for Free-to-Play players who don’t have many memoria to use. However if you do have better memoria to field, this becomes Enhancement Fodder (or alternatively it belongs in the Memoria Vault Jail if you want to save it for the possibility of an event rerun).

Review: “Eternal Darkness Party” is okay. There are many better memoria to use in the game, and its usage is diminished by how good your account is. 

Attack Down is a good effect for Magia Stall teams (and to a lesser extent, so is Damage Down). At a percentage of 35% and with a relatively low cooldown at six turns, “Eternal Darkness Party” should be helpful in debuffing the enemy, ensuring that troublesome bosses deal as little damage to you as possible. On a Magia Stall team, you can equip multiple Attack Down active memoria, allowing you to blanket the enemy in debuffs for as many turns in a row as you can. So if you plan on using Magia Stall strategies in situations such as the Hundred Evils, multiple memoria with Attack Down are a good thing to have.

Other Attack Down memoria include:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Even Games Are Serious” Attack Down [65%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Up [52.5%] (Self / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Gacha 4*) “The True Gift Was the Smile” Attack Down [65%] & Dazzle [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited Gacha 4*) “For This Fine Day” Attack Down [50%] & Damage Down [45%] (One / 1 Turn)

(4*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Mito)” Attack Down [50%] & Defense Down [45%] (All / 1 Turn)

(4*) “Hiding the Real Me” Attack Down [50%] (One / 1 Turn) & Skill Quicken [100%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(Limited Welfare 3*) “Eternal Darkness Party” Attack Down [35%] (All / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Wash Away The Past” Attack Down [35%] & Fog [100%] (One / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Light Attributed Characters” Attack Down [35%] & Dazzle [45%] (One / 1 turn)

(3*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Leila)” Attack Down [35%] (One / 1 Turn) & Darkness [100%]

(4*) “An Inhabitant from Another World” Attack Down [30%] & Charm [42.5%] (All / 1 turn)

(Limited Gacha 3*) “Keep Promises in the Heart” Attack Down [30%] & Defense Down [30%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited Welfare 3*) “A Place of Ease” Attack Down [30%] (All / 1 Turn)

(2*) “Busy After School” Attack Down [30%] (One / 1 Turn)

This is a long list, even when editing it for what most players are likely to have. Still, it’s unlikely a player will have all of these, as several are limited and even the four-stars might be hard to grab considering how large the unlimited pool is these days. Additionally, free-to-play players, for whom the Magia Stall strategy is most useful for, are probably going to be lacking in memoria selection. Therefor while “Eternal Darkness Party” isn’t as good as several of these, it’s also still helpful when you don’t have many on hand.

So... the usefulness of this memoria depends on what memoria you have and what teams you’re using. If you need to use a Magia Stall team, then this will be helpful. If you don’t have a lot of Attack Down memoria, then this will be helpful. 

Outside of that, you can chuck it into the Memoria Vault Jail in case the event is eventually rerun. Alternatively you can use it as Enhancement Fodder.

[magiamemoriareview]

Even Games Are Serious!

Obtainability: Limited gacha for the “Rainbow Colored Summer” event. This is event bonus memoria and it should be kept in case of a rerun.

Single Effect: Attack Down [60%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Up [45%] (Self / 1 Turn)

MLB Effect: Attack Down [65%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Up [52.5%] (Self / 1 Turn)

Effect Definitions:

Attack Down is a Debuff that will decrease the target’s base attack.

Defense Up increases the target’s base defense stats. Defense Up is generally worse than Damage Cut.

TLDR: “Even Games Are Serious” is an excellent memoria for Mirrors Ranking but it’s less useful for the casual player as it focuses on defensives and not damage. It should be helpful for difficult content like the Hundred Evils, Witches’ Paradox, and the occasional Battle Museum (whenever it pops up again) but it’s not going to be helping you in Kimochi.

Review: “Even Games Are Serious” is very similar to another memoria in the game:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Chill With the Devil While Waiting for Rescue” Damage Down [50%] (One / 1 Turn) & Damage Cut [50%] (Self / 1 Turn)

Both memoria offer around the same amount of DEF stats at 2447-ish, qualifying them as stat sticks, both are very defensive memoria, and both give one way of decreasing the enemy’s damage while increasing the user’s defense. 

All of this is only notable if you’re a whale. If you’re not, then you probably don’t have either of them and even if you do, you probably don’t have them both max-awakened. Even then, you might not need them for what they’re perfectly designed for-- Ranked Mirrors.

But before we go into that, is “Even Games Are Serious” going to be useful outside of Whale strategies? Well, yes and no.

Good for Average Play?

Defensive memoria in this game aren’t as good as offensive ones. Take a look at the review for “Call On the Alchemist Duo” for more detail, but to summarize: you’re better off increasing your damage than you are protecting yourself from it. Most gameplay will encourage more damage over protection-- Kimochi is a prime example. Additionally, you’ll probably be able to protect your characters always without needing to use defensive memoria just by playing naturally. For example, a Magia team will want to use a Madoka Kaname or a Madoka & Iroha who can heal and protect their teams through their connects and Magia/Doppels. If your natural gameplay will keep your characters safe, then why bother equip defensives like this?

Magia Stall Strategies-- that’s one answer. If your units are lacking, then you might rely on Magia Stall strategies to bring down your enemies, particularly in long battles like the Hundred Evils. I’ve written a guide on how it works here, but “Even Games Are Serious” is a great memoria to bring for it. Even as a single copy it has a low cooldown and high effect percentages.

In fact, unless you’re a mega whale, you might want to consider keeping this memoria sperate and not using up each copy to max awaken it. That’s because you’ll be able to blanket the enemy with debuffs, one for each turn, by equipping as many single copies on your characters as possible.

Outside of the Hundred Evils, this memoria might be useful for difficult content like the Witches’ Paradox or the Battle Museum. It can give you more time to prepare. Just keep in mind that you’re sacrificing an active memoria slot to use it. It may be more beneficial sometimes to go for extra damage (or for more mp gain) to end a fight faster over prolonging it.

But with all of that said, let’s bring it back to why Whales might want this, and why it’s good for Ranking.

Whales and Ranking

For Mirrors Ranking, you need this one max-awakened. The biggest reason is that it functions as a stat stick. Stat Sticks are Active memoria that beef up a character’s passive DEF through its stats, not its effects. These kind of memoria are helpful in Mirrors, where some Actives serve little more than, well, “stat sticks.” This blog considers anything about 2200 DEF a Stat Stick. Note that the memoria needs to be Max Awakened to qualify as a Stat Stick. That last part is the most important issue here-- it’s all well and good if you have this as a single copy, but a single copy isn’t going to have stat stick stats, it’s going to have a piddly 750 or something like that. 

Next you want this memoria to be max awakened so that the cooldown is lowered from six to five. This means you can use it as soon as possible in mirrors, aka by turn three or even earlier depending on if you have Skill Quicken on a character or not. This is important not only because this is a protective memoria (more on that in a moment) but because the more active skills you use in Mirrors Ranking, the better. There is one additional reason (to get rid of anti-debuff shields) but let’s address that a little bit later.

Now let’s take a look at what the memoria actually does in terms of its effects:

Attack Down [65%] (One / 1 Turn) 

Defense Up [52.5%] (Self / 1 Turn)

Let’s address the Attack Down first. Attack Down at 65% is kind of stupidly overpowered and it should definitely protect your characters from danger. Of course, the problem here is that the Attack Down also only targets one enemy. You’ll have no idea who in the lineup will get discs or not, so using it might seem like a gamble... maybe.

It also might be easy to predict who will attack next and who won’t. Enemy teams might be built around one damage dealer and a bunch of supports, all of which serve to inflate the player’s score before their primary attacker deals the final blows. If your enemies are generic supports and then one powerful Kyoko Sakura (Doppel ver.), you know who you’ll need to use this memoria on eventually. Additionally, anyone who gains Magia quickly through Regenerate MP as part of their Spirit Enhancement is going to be a problem. Two particularly dangerous enemies include:

Kyoko Sakura (Doppel ver.)

Kuroe (Swimsuit ver.)

These units have the potential to hit Magia by round two, or in some horrifying cases, round one. You might not be able to prevent their magia/kill them right away, but this memoria means you can at last try and protect your team. One very important thing to note about Mirrors Ranking is that you score better when your team’s HP is healthy and high. Preventing damage is very important for this reason.

The last thing to consider for Attack Down is that it’s a debuff, and every debuff you throw at the enemy can cut into their Anti-Debuff shields. With units like Madoka & Iroha, Ashley, or Little Kyubey, you might be facing an enemy that a few Anti-Debuff shields on them, preventing you from using other effects like Defense Down instead.

If you have multiple Debuff memoria equipped, you can “sacrifice” some active debuffs to prioritize other ones instead. Do you want that pesky Madoka & Iroha to take increased damage, but they have three Anti-Debuff shields on them? Use this memoria and “An Uncrossable Gap” (which gives Accele MP Gain Down and Magia Damage Down, both debuffs) to get rid of that Shield, then use a helpful “The Way Home after the Rain (Mito)” to lower the enemy’s defense! 

Next, let’s take a look at that Defense Up. One important thing to note about Defense Up is that it’s generally not as good as Damage Cut. I don’t have exact numbers on how much equals what, but just keep in mind that Damage Cut gives more bang for its buck. However, that’s not the only thing to know about it-- Damage Cut and Defense Up have interesting interactions in Mirrors.

The Mirrors AI will always prioritize the target with the lowest Defense (along with whatever is its weak element). Defense Up will contribute to the AI’s calculations, but Damage Cut will not.

This means that you can manipulate who the AI attacks by keeping Defense low on some characters (by providing them less DEF stats and not giving them Defense Up) while still protecting them through Damage Cut. The opposite is true too-- you can keep the AI from attacking a character by giving that character high defense through DEF stats and Defense Up buffs.

That’s where this memoria comes in. This memoria has a high amount of Defense Up, meaning that for one turn, you can make one unit very unattractive to hit. Of course, by the time you actually use this memoria, it might be too late in the game and you’re close to finishing up with a Magia or Doppel, but who knows. 

Of course, you can still use this on a character who you want to take aggro. You might activate this on a Sudachi at the same time you use Provoke on her just to keep her extra safe-- there will be some overlap because her Spirit Enhancement Active combined with “Even Games Are Serious” should push you over the 100% cap ceiling for Defense Up, but at least your Sudachi should be protected utmost. Just make sure the enemy doesn’t have some form of Anti-Provoke to ruin your plans with.

Devil Homura Memoria versus Swimsuit Madoka Memoria

At the beginning I mentioned that “Even Games Are Serious” is similar to another limited memoria:

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Even Games Are Serious” Attack Down [65%] (One / 1 Turn) & Defense Up [52.5%] (Self / 1 Turn)  

(Limited Gacha 4*) “Chill With the Devil While Waiting for Rescue” Damage Down [50%] (One / 1 Turn) & Damage Cut [50%] (Self / 1 Turn)

“Even Games Are Serious” has Attack Down and Defense Up, while “Chill With the Devil While Waiting for Rescue” has Damage Down and Damage Cut.

Damage Down is less efficient than Attack Down, but Damage Cut is more powerful than Attack Up, and as mentioned, you can use Damage Cut to manipulate the AI into thinking a unit’s defense is lower than it actually is.

When comparing the two memoria, “Chill With the Devil While Waiting for Rescue” is better on units that want to feign having less defense than they actually do while “Even Games Are Serious” is better for units that want to bluff a little and fend off an enemy attack. Just keep in mind that “Chill With the Devil While Waiting for Rescue” still has a lot of passive DEF so it’s actually possible to use this to increase a unit’s defense and make them less attractive to the enemy AI too. In fact, as of writing this review, both memoria have the highest DEF stats in the game:

It’s possible that some Hyper-whales might equip both “Chill With the Devil While Waiting for Rescue” and “Even Games Are Serious” on a unit to inflate their defensive stats as much as possible!

Conclusion

However, everything I just said is more important for a Hyper-Whale than it is a regular player. If you’re a Hyper-Whale, you don’t need me to tell you this stuff-- you’re probably already tuned in to Japanese forums that are discussing this in even higher detail. But if you’re an average player, hopefully this review helps explain why this memoria is both very useful and not useful at all. 

For the common player, this will be helpful in some of the harder challenges, especially if you don’t have great units. If you rolled for Swimsuit Madoka and managed to get five copies of this memoria, you’ll have a touch choice-- keep them separate in order to keep an enemy from dealing out as much damage as possible, or take advantage of the high DEF stats you can gain from it? It’s a difficult choice and one only you can make for yourself.

Overall this is a good Whale-tier memoria, but casuals shouldn’t feel the need to roll for it.

[magiamemoriareview]

Passing Dreams

MLB Effect: Attack Down [10%] & Damage Down [10%] (One / 3 Turns)

Effect Definitions:

Attack Down will decrease the target’s base attack. 

Damage Down will decrease the target’s damage on attacks. 

TLDR: “Passing Dreams” is a worse version of other memoria in the game, though this might be more accessible for NA Refugees. Still, the long cooldown coupled with the low effects make it only useful for really new (or really unlucky) players-- this ultimately belongs in Memoria Vault Jail. This memoria is a limited gacha memoria from the event shop “Only Dreamers.” This is event memoria and should be kept in the case of a rerun.

Review: “Passing Dreams” is very similar to another event shop memoria, “Overlapping Strategies.” In fact, both have the same effects with the same percentages-- the two differences would be:

“Passing Dreams” has slightly better stats.

“Overlapping Strategies” has a shorter cooldown (8 turns versus 10 turns).

Unfortunately, stats aren’t that important when it’s a three-star memoria and to a lesser extent, when it’s an active one. That means that “Overlapping Strategies” is pretty much superior to “Passing Dreams.” However, for NA Refugees this doesn’t matter because was an event memoria for “Crimson Resolve,” an event that NA Refugees never got the chance to do, so this memoria is new for them.

Amusingly, “Overlapping Strategies” itself can be considered a worse version of the limited memoria “For This Fine Day” which also has Attack Down and Damage Down. However, for comparison’s sake, “Passing Dreams”  and “Overlapping Strategies” last for three turns while “For This Fine Day” only lasts for one. 

With all of this in mind, what is important to know is that “Passing Dreams” will be decent for slightly lowering an enemy’s offensive power for a few turns. This isn’t going to make them drastically lower the power of their attacks because the percentages ultimately don’t do that much, but it might be useful for Magia Stall teams if you’re missing good memoria to use on them. Unfortunately the long, long cooldown combined with the lackluster effects make this memoria range from “eh” to “terrible.”

Don’t get rid of this memoria in case the event is ever rerun, but most players will end up chucking it into the Memoria Vault.

[magiamemoriareview]

Keep Promises in the Heart

Single Effect: Attack Down [25%] & Defense Down [25%] (One / 1 Turn)

MLB Effect: Attack Down [30%] & Defense Down [30%] (One / 1 Turn)

TLDR: "Keep Promises in the Heart” is a worse version of Mito Rain, but it’s by no means terrible. In fact, this is still an extremely good memoria for a three-star, and will be helpful for the more difficult challenges in the game. This memoria is exclusive to Bittersweet AI Memory gacha. 

Review: "Keep Promises in the Heart” is the three-star version of the memoria:

(4*) “The Way Home After Rain (Mito)” Attack Down [50%] & Defense Down [45%] (All / 1 Turn)

Notably, "Keep Promises in the Heart” has less Attack Down and Defense Down along with a longer cooldown (seven versus five); and it’s also only single-target. However, this memoria is by no means terrible. Attack Down will decrease the target’s base attack, making it useful for helping a character survive the enemy’s turn. Defense Down will decrease the target’s base defense. It’s an excellent debuff that has the additional bonus that you don’t need a character to have disks for it to be useful– since it effects the enemy, any character can utilize it on the team.

Memoria with Attack Down and/or Defense Down are memoria you want multiple copies of because this lets you layer an enemy each turn with debuffs, meaning that you can deal more damage and take less damage in turn.

Now, the fact that this memoria has a long cooldown coupled with single-target makes it not nearly as good as Mito Rain, but that’s mostly because Mito Rain is the best active in the entire game. As is, this is actually a nice three-star memoria and a good one to have on hand for difficult quests such as the EX-Challenges or the Hundred Calamities Challenges. Of course, if you have Mito Rain you should prioritize using that first, but the benefit of this memoria is that you can equip both Mito Rain and "Keep Promises in the Heart” on the same character.

Using cores to max awaken this memoria is nice but not a requirement. In fact, you might be better off keeping many single copies of this one as opposed to max awakening a single one, so that you can better apply the debuff layering.

This can go on support, but as always four-star memoria are preferred. 

[magiamemoriareview]

The True Gift Was the Smile

Obtainability: “Christmas String” event gacha. This is event memoria and should be kept in the case of a rerun. Single Effect: Attack Down [60%] & Dazzle [65%] (One / 1 Turn) MLB Effect: Attack Down [65%] & Dazzle [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

Attack Down will decrease the target’s base attack.

Dazzle is a Status Ailment that causes the afflicted target to have a 50% chance to miss their attacks, make the target take 80% more damage from its weak element, and prevent the target from recovering HP. Dazzle chance can stack.

“The True Gift Was the Smile” has excellent DEF stats, and will be especially good for Mirrors thanks to its low cooldown and excellent effects. The effects synergize very well. Dazzle means the enemy has a 50% chance of missing your character, and the Attack Down means the attacks that don’t miss won’t hit as hard. Additionally, the low cooldown means you can potentially use it more than once in a fight, especially if equipped on a unit with passive Skill Quicken.

Note that the Dazzle is not a 100% chance as a single copy. If you want that 100% chance, you need to get five copies in total to max awaken “The True Gift Was the Smile,” which is no small feat when you consider that it’s a limited memoria in a fateweave that has two four-star rate-up memoria. However, even a single copy of “The True Gift Was the Smile” has 60% Attack Down and a six-turn cooldown, making it still useful. 

The DEF stats, as noted, are very good. That means this memoria can qualify as a Stat Stick. Stat Sticks are Active memoria that beef up a character’s passive DEF its stats, not its effects. These kind of memoria are helpful in Mirrors, where some Actives serve little more than, well, “stat sticks.” This blog considers anything about 2200 DEF a Stat Stick . Note that the memoria needs to be Max Awakened to qualify as a Stat Stick.

Lastly, “The True Gift Was the Smile” can potentially offer an offensive purpose as well. Dazzle won’t just make the enemy miss half the time, but it will also make the afflicted take increased damage from their weak element. If you can counter their weak element, you have a way to both protect your team and deal extra damage.

Overall a very good memoria.

TLDR: “The True Gift Was the Smile” is overall a very good, very solid memoria. It’ll be a pain to max awaken it, but it’s ultimately worth it if you want to benefit from its outstanding passive DEF stats. It can be used even as a single copy however, especially for Magia Stall teams.

[magiamemoriareview]

Overlapping Strategies

Effect: Attack Down [10%] & Damage Down [10%] (One / 3 Turns)

TLDR: “Overlapping Strategies” is pretty good for an event shop memoria, and will protect your team from a single enemy target. It’s a worse version of a four-star limited memoria, but the tradeoff is how long it lasts. This memoria is exclusive to the "Crimson Resolve” event shop. This is event memoria and should be kept in the case of a rerun.

Review: This memoria can be considered a worse version of the limited memoria “For This Fine Day” which also has Attack Down and Damage Down, though for comparison’s sake, “Overlapping Strategies” lasts for three turns as opposed to “For This Fine Day” lasting for one. On the other hand, “For This Fine Day” has 50% Attack Down and 45% Damage Down. But let’s quickly go into what these effects mean, then describe what “Overlapping Strategies” is good for.

Attack Down will decrease the target’s base attack. One of the perks of Attack Down is that the equipped character is not the only one to benefit from its effects as this is an effect applied to an enemy target-- meaning that it will protect the entire party from that enemy target. You can compare this to effects such as Damage Cut/Defense Up, which will buff only one character instead. Damage Down will decrease the target’s damage on attacks. 

“Overlapping Strategies” is going to be great for shutting down a single enemy’s offensive capability for a small amount. The Attack Down and Damage Down combined will help protect your characters without needing to necessarily use Damage Cut or Defense Cut. 10% for both is a little small, but every bit counts, and “Overlapping Strategies” can be used to layer debuffs on the enemy so that you can use different active memoria each turn to better protect your team.

Other memoria to consider would be:

(4*) “The Way Home After Rain (Mito)” Attack Down [50%] & Defense Down [45%] (All / 1 Turn)

(4*) “An Inhabitant from Another World” Attack Down [30%] & Charm [42.5%] (All / 1 turn)

(4*) “Reliable Negotiator” Damage Down [50%] (All / 1 Turn) & Status Ailment Resistance Up [60%] (Self / 1 Turn)

(3*) “The Way Home after the Rain (Leila)“ Attack Down [35%] & Darkness [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

(3*) “Let's Eat Together” Damage Down [40%] (All / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “The True Gift Was the Smile” Attack Down [65%] & Dazzle [100%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “For This Fine Day” Attack Down [50%] & Damage Down [45%] (One / 1 Turn)

(Limited 4*) “The Light to Move Forward Without Hesitation” Attack Down [17.5%] & Status Ailment Resistance Down [7.5%] (All / 3 Turns)

For Magia Stall teams on battles such as the Hundred Calamities, “Overlapping Strategies” is going to be a good choice to help protect your characters. The cooldown is a little long at 8, but this is offset for how long it lasts at three turns.