Gyumao/Strategy
(This page is for Gyumao strategy guide. For the standard Gyumao page, click here.)
Overview
☆3/☆5 Gyumao
Gyumao, being one of the early 
All-ranged nukers, is notable in a lot of ways especially with his skill evolution. One of the most noticeable aspects of his skills is having access to a phase start 
Crit+, which lends itself to a strong board clear if he has proper support and his CS is timed right. Furthermore, he can also bolster his team's damage by giving 
Ardor to allies and with his skill evolution, 
Break to enemies, thereby giving two sources of offensive power. Additionally, he has an ability to drain HP and CP through his own Dark Lord-like skill. This makes him someone who is both able to provide offensive support but also have the capacity to dish out damage himself if timed properly.
As an All-ranged nuker, he stands out due to his CS applying 
Fear, pushing back enemies, and buffing himself with 
Guts and Ardor. For challenge quests where the enemies are not immune to movement restriction, this makes it possible to control the field before retaliating by buffing allies. It also improves his survivability, especially if the team allows him to CS often. For dungeons, he can be paired with phase start CP boosters like 
Ryota (Christmas) to wipe the board almost every phase using his phase start Crit+. This flexibility further cements Gyumao as both someone who can support his allies through enemy control or deal damage himself.
☆4 Gyumao
Gyumao (Valentine) is a support unit who gives numerous buffs to allies and is quite proficient at healing. Moving Gyumao bestows 
Nourishment and 
Acceleration to nearby teammates and 
Limit to those to his front and back, giving them nearly on-demand passive CP gain and a 1.5x to 3x attack modifier depending on their relative position to him. He also gives himself 
Tenacity, heals himself, and heals in a large 2x2 cross shape every time he’s moved, which helps him shrug off damage he may take by utilizing his skillset, and his role as an on-move support is further cemented by his expanded horizontal movement, which lets him serve as the team’s ferry.
Aside from his skills that trigger on-move, Gyumao can reliably inflict 
Oppression on enemies, which lets him stall, and is immune to 
Immobility and pushback, which helps with team positioning and supports his role as said ferry. His Charge is an All-range pulling attack which heals in a large 2x2 cross + 1 square around him per enemy hit, and due to him netting +40 CP per Phase start he’ll likely be firing off a Charge every other turn or so, which further boosts his healing capabilities.
Highlights
☆3/☆5 Gyumao
Class: Glass Cannon, Offensive Support
Gameplay role:
Pros
- Gives Ardor to allies and with his skill evolution, Break to enemies after moving, helping to improve the team's damage output
- Phase Start Crit+ makes for great one turn damage, potentially a board wipe through CS if timed right
- CS gives Fear to enemies and pushes them back, allowing for board control
- Minor flat damage/CP drain from LB1
Cons
- Low damage outside of first turn of phase without proper support or timing
- Needs to move for several skills
- Can have better proc rates especially regarding the skill evolution
☆4 Gyumao
Class: Team Support, Healer
Gameplay role:
Pros
+ Default, LB1 LB2 offers multiple nearly on-demand buffs, CP, and healing in a generous range around him.
+ LB1, LB2, LB3 lets him become a reliable pillar and ferry.
+ LB1 and Charge grants him frequent, potent healing, and the ability to pull in enemies for other front-line units.
Cons
- Although Nourishment and Acceleration last three turns each, most of Gyumao (Valentine)'s support skillset requires him to be moved constantly.
- Gyumao does not bestow any of his offense-boosting buffs to himself, and as a result will be dealing only paltry damage.
Gameplay Role
☆3/☆5 Gyumao
Gyumao is a character most useful on 5x4 and 5x6 maps, mostly because of his All-range CS, and his weapon type which can easily reach enemies. On smaller maps, he has less of a use, as you'll probably want to use units with vertical range.
Offensive Support
With his LB2, he can give Ardor to adjacent allies after moving, with an 80% activation chance. Because of the short duration of Ardor (2 turns) and because of the feature of his CS, you need to move him constantly.
Glass Cannon
His LB3 gives him Crit+ on the start of each phase, which can easily kill every enemy within his weapon range. Furthermore, if you manage to time his Charge with the beginning of the phase, Gyumao can kill everyone on the map. To achieve this, you need to play with his LB2 such that he reaches 100CP just after the last enemy dies.
☆4 Gyumao
Team Support
Gyumao (Valentine) serves the role of a support unit well, giving his teammates Nourishment, Acceleration, and Limit at reliable rates (boosting their attack, healing them, and giving them passive CP gain). That supportive role is only strengthened with his expanded movement and his resistance to enemy pushback, which allows him to also function as a very capable team ferry.
Healer
Per move, Gyumao heals himself and teammates in a large cross area. The wide range supplements his ability as a ferry; this healing combined with his Nourishment lets Gyumao easily heal other units from a distance after repositioning. In addition, Gyumao's Charge hits the entire enemy board, and per hit, Gyumao heals himself and his teammates in an even wider range. Both of these factors allow Gyumao to grant healing in most team formations and setups.
Comparison to Leanan Sidhe
Due to the relatively narrow gap in time between the introductions of Valentine Gyumao and 
Leannan Sidhe and their similarities in gameplay role, one might wonder why one would use Valentine Gyumao instead of Leanan Sidhe, who is known for her offensive boosting prowess which greatly overshadows Valentine Gyumao's own capabilities. There are a few advantages that Valentine Gyumao offers which bear repeating:
- Defense/healing - as Valentine Gyumao gives Tenacity and healing to himself, he can handle more easily situations in which damage is unavoidable. For example, challenge quests have introduced several ways to allow enemies to retaliate, with the most glaring being
Nullify Damage which appeared during the level 70 challenge quest for Virtual Summer Memory. As a healer in general, this leads to a more resilient team composition which is good for when a quest requires both damage and defense. - Debuff cleansing - as mentioned later,
OJT: The Gyumao Way allows Valentine Gyumao to clear one debuff from the ally in front of him after moving. This is a very strong ability to have since challenge quests sometimes feature debuffs which are unavoidable, which was shown again in the level 70 challenge quest for Virtual Summer Memory in which phase one enemies gave debuffs upon leaving. Having a source of debuff cleansing on demand is a great niche which is one advantage Valentine Gyumao over Leanan Sidhe. - Enemy AI manipulation - since Valentine Gyumao applies Oppression to enemies, he can be used to manipulate the enemy AI's behavior to an extent which can be useful in some situations.
The next few points are areas in which Leanan Sidhe outperforms Valentine Gyumao, but not as much as shown on paper:
- Positioning - Leanan Sidhe having omnidirectional movement is definitely stronger than Valentine Gyumao only having expanded horizontal movement. In practice however, this difference is not as drastic as immediately described. The reason is that Valentine Gyumao prefers to occupy the middle row of the player's battle zone due to the range of his Limit application. Within this row, his movement range for repositioning allies is the same as Leanan Sidhe's. Of course, this is untrue if he ever moves out of the row or if the enemy line is pushed forward, which in the latter case Leanan Sidhe would have the advantage of being able to advance the player's units forward through her extended vertical movement. On the other hand, due to Valentine Gyumao resisting forced movement, he can also stop backline allies from being attracted to the front of the line while still offensively buffing them. So while Leanan Sidhe has better movement options, it's not as cut and dry of an advantage as shown on paper.
- Offensive buffing - while Leanan Sidhe can give much more offensive power to a unit in comparison, this is done through the buffs
Vigor and Ardor which are relatively common offensive status effects. As these are common status effects, Valentine Gyumao and Leanan Sidhe will have about the same efficacy when paired with units who have innately or give these buffs to allies, since these buffs will overlap with Leanan Sidhe's. She will still outperform Valentine Gyumao in this department, but the difference is not as drastic.
As a reminder, this section is not a statement that Valentine Gyumao is better than Leanan Sidhe as a unit or vice-versa. Rather, it is intended to show situations which Valentine Gyumao is more well-equipped for so that as more people use Leanan Sidhe, the differences between the two are highlighted.
Stats and Seed Usage
| Unit | (Effective) HP | Base ATK | ATK per square | CS ATK per square (SALV1) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unseeded | Seeded | Unseeded | Seeded | Unseeded | Seeded | Unseeded | Seeded | |
    |
7176 | 9337 | 2838 | 4263 | 2838 | 4263 | 1816 | 2729 |
  |
8763 | 10846 | 4042 | 5409 | 1293 | 1731 | 1617 | 2164 |
   |
7145 | 9126 | 4047 | 5627 | 1133 | 1576 | 1214 | 1688 |
☆3/☆5 Gyumao
Gyumao's role is that he can be a glass cannon, a frontliner and an offensive support, so using HP seed, ATK seed and LV seed can be a good idea. Due to his skill evolution, skill seeds are recommended to improve the consistency of his skills so that the double application of Break and Ardor is more likely.
☆4 Gyumao
Gyumao (Valentine) benefits the most from Skill and HP Seeds. Many of his skills turn from nearly-guaranteed to fully-guaranteed with the additional 10% chance, and as a team support unit, he’ll need all the health he can get.
Team Synergy
☆3/☆5 Gyumao
Offensive Buffers
In order to have Gyumao's CS deal a decent amount of damage outside of phase start, offensive buffers are recommended. For these reasons, units such as 
Tangaroa (Canaan), 
Licht, and 
Sitri (Christmas) are recommended.
CP Batteries
In order to use Gyumao's CS, CP batteries which do not have to move are preferable. Units with the skill Spreader of Lunacy, 
Daikoku, and 
Arachne are some examples. As mentioned before, phase start CP batteries such as Ryota (Christmas) are also ideal if the goal is to clear something like dungeons quickly.
☆4 Gyumao
Potent Attackers
Gyumao (Valentine) offers two relatively-rare offensive buffs, Nourishment and Limit, which easily stacks with additional buffs from other units, such as Ardor, Vigor, and 
Crit. A very good example of such a unit is 
Heracles who deals very strong damage, can have his debuffs removed by Gyumao through an AR, and also gives a friendship buff to Gyumao, boosting his proc rates further.
Damage Mitigation
While Gyumao offers notable healing, his sole means of defense is his own on-move Tenacity. As such, another unit who can provide defense passively for the team such as 
Triton or 
Wakan Tanka (Fashionista) would be recommended.
Other Offensive Buffers
Gyumao lacks the Phase-start Crit+ that his vanilla form offers, so while he can use his Charge frequently, it’s not going to do very much damage by itself. Support units who can bolster his attack, such as 
Babalon (Jiangshi) or 
Claude (Christmas), can be used in instances where you’d like him to nuke the enemy team.
AR Equipment
☆3/☆5 Gyumao
Gyumao can use CP/CS boosting ARs in order to reach or power up his CS such as 
The Dog's Battlefield. 
A Teacher and Student from Kamata can provide a nice damage boost, while Valentine Dogs! can give more survivability while boosting CP in a more defensive team. Finally, 
The Way of the Sword Has Just Begun allows him to pull enemies in to his wide slash range.
☆4 Gyumao
ARs that strengthen Gyumao (Valentine)'s supportive abilities are recommended. OJT: The Gyumao Way allows Gyumao to bestow 
Remove Debuff to the unit in front every time he’s moved. This works well with his base skillset, as the debuff removal aligns with the Nourishment, Acceleration and Limit that he normally grants.
Alternatively, CP-boosting ARs like Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining can be used for frequent Charges, as it grants an additional +10-20 CP each Phase start and stacks with Gyumao’s innate +40 CP.
Checks and Counters
☆3/☆5 Gyumao
Movement Restricting Debuffs
Since Gyumao needs to move for several of his skill effects, debuffs which prevent his movement are detrimental to him, especially considering his weapon range.
Debuff Reflection
Since Gyumao applies two debuffs which prevent movement, enemies with debuff reflection are problematic as well.
Enemies who decrease CP
Gyumao's CS is central to his kit, so enemies who can lower Gyumao's CP can be a check to him.
Skill Locking Debuffs
Gyumao has no immunity to skill locking debuffs, so these debuffs counter him.
☆4 Gyumao
Movement Restriction
Moving Gyumao (Valentine) is the only way to utilize most of his skillset; as such, if he gets afflicted with a movement-blocking debuff, his supportive abilities are completely nullified.
Debuff Reflection
On that note, since Valentine Gyumao applies Oppression to enemies, he'll be stopped by enemies with debuff reflection.
Skill locking debuffs
Since Valentine Gyumao doesn't have any immunity to skill locking debuffs, this will also be a way to stop him.
Teambuilding Options
This section consists of user-submitted builds that may not necessarily be viable for high level quests.
Nuclear Clock
| Nuclear Clock (submitted by Arathun) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost: ≥48 | |||||
The following assumes all units are fully built, but does not assume seeding.
The specialty of this team set-up is constant, hard-hitting All CSes. It's a neat coincidence that these CSes are composed of the main three worldly attributes 
FIRE, 
WATER, and 
WOOD.
The lethatity is sourced from Licht's Vigor, Gyumao's Ardor, and Typhon's Concentration. Occasionally Furufumi will inflict Stigma to all enemies to amplify this damage further, but this aspect is less reliable due to its staggered occurrence over multiple turns, so it's more of a bonus.
The CP sources primarily come from Licht's CP bestow skills Ruler, Agitator in the Shadows, and Frenzy Conductor; Gyumao's CP-on-move Celestial Hot-Head, and
Substitutions
Furufumi's contribution is the least in the group, although he does stabilize the CP gains more with turnwise Arousal to complement Licht's less predictable CP offerings. Furufumi can be substituted with Baron, who also bestows Arousal every turn. Keep in mind substituting Furufumi will also substitute out the only source of healing in the team.
The positions of Typhon and Gyumao are interchangeable. Having two Gyumaos is also acceptable, as Concentration bestows will be substituted with a fully skill leveled Ardor. Having two Typhons, however, is less acceptable, due to the lack of the extra CP gain and damage up from Ardor, being substituted with a weaker Concentration at a more restricted bestow range.
The base rarity Licht can substitute his higher rarity card since they function nearly identically. The main issue is reduced activation rate of his main CP bestow skill, which is a heavy trade-off given this team setup depends on constant reliable upkeep of CP.
Examples
Not Leanan/Cthugha
| Team Details (submitted by milk) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nobuharu 【Offensive Buffer, CP Battery】 |
Gyumao 【Healer, CP Battery】 |
 Kagutsuchi 【Defensive Buffer, CP Battery】 |
 Cthugha 【Damage Dealer, Tank】 | ||
| Cost: ≥48 | |||||
This team is a variation on the combination of Leannan Sidhe and Cthugha in which Gyumao (Valentine) is used instead. Nobuharu (Festival) is used here to supplement Valentine Gyumao's offensive buffing capabilities, while Kagutsuchi (Jamboree) adds a passive layer of defense. Due to all units having relatively quick methods of CP acquisition and large ranged CSes, this team is suited for rapid clearing of the field while also having defensive options. In particular, due to the range of the offensive buffs from Festival Nobuharu and Valentine Gyumao, both of these units can do up to a fairly respectable 10k damage with their All ranged CS in conjunction with Cthugha's already powerful CS which can reach up to 150k damage and higher. For quests with large maps that don't feature frequent detrimental debuffs, this team is suited for clearing out the map quickly.