Oh, have I interrupted your conversation with yourself?
Eh, it was about over anyway.
Oh, good.
Well, I was curious—the Captain, Miss Fudoji, and Agent Nagataka all operate at least partially under their own bodies' specific powers, but you and I operate mostly using tools. I haven't really gotten a chance to ask you how exactly they function yet.
(He's curious! Score!)
I can schwing that. Teach Me, Miss Satsuki in session?
Oh, are we having another tactical overview session?
Happy to not be the one having to explain this time?
Oh yeah.
Wait, did I miss Chisa explaining what she can do?
You did.
Awww, but I like seeing her show off!
Only so you can see me get embarrassed!
Well, sure, but I like it.
thats hella gay. anyway,
Stats
as one is no doubt already aware, i'm very fast. i'm like, the fastest person i know. and i know lotsa people.
my dream is now to one day outspeed chisa's nudist friend.
I'm sure he'd be glad to hear that.
For someone in your profession, you're also oddly buff.
Yeah, well, a girl's gotta have some build if she wants to do some sick flips! Not like I'm as juicy as you or Chisa, but I can shank a guy.
Did you just call me 'juicy'?
Your muscles are juicin', girl! You can give 'em the juice! I can give them less juice, even if physically I'm much more akin to a finely grilled burger than the health-conscious bowl of sushi you are.
Oh, for the record, Mama Fudoji is a hefty, well done steak, Mio is a nice stack of cheesecake pancakes topped with strawberry sauce, Richter is a tall glass of otherwise-unflavored mineral water, and Koron is an unspecified container of pureed ghost pepper.
...I see?
Thank you for the bizarrely vivid metaphor, Satsuki.
no problem, i'll be here all week. try the veal
Now I'm hungry...
Tier 1 Skills
Tarantella
Dagger skill. Deals ATK-based damage to one enemy. Attempts to inflict paralysis on the target. Can deal critical hits starting at level 5.
SO.
A proper agent of the nimbly-bimbly variety can do the stabby-stabby in a number of various ways. Now, naturally you've seen me do the stabby-stabby and cause our various enemies to go all jitter-jitter. See, when Ricky first brought me in, I saw a jar of shellfish goo they had and I went up to Kirino all, "Hey hey, I bet I can use that!"
You stabbed Miss Neko with a knife coated with saxitoxin?
I mean not exactly? Obviously we needed to workshop it a bit so it wouldn't be particularly fatal, so we wound up doing a bit of genetic research to mess with the neurotoxins inside shellfish so that we could maintain their properties of being survivable through heat and cold without giving me a weapon that can insta-kill a person by paralyzing their nervous system, because I don't really feel comfy with that level of power, you dig?
Your restraint is surprising, but appreciated.
Yeah, uh-huh. So, what we wound up putting together was an artificially modified sort of paralytic shellfish poisoning that works on most stuff but can't cause fatality in humans unless you're, y'know, stabbing them a lot so they bleed out. It's not quite as effective as the raw thing would've been, but it's portable, survivable, and it definitely works!
it's not potable though. do not drink miss satsuki's goo.
Don't worry, the status of your goo is something we all understand is a very intimate thing.
That was a surprisingly technical explanation. You had that idea on your own?
mmhm. mmhm.
Portable, non-lethal shellfish neurotoxin... So this is what happens when you use your brain.
I use my brain plenty!
One of the Dagger Trickster's bread and butter skills. The chance for paralysis to go off isn't too large, but it can crit and ailments can stack, so there's no reason not to go for it if you don't have something more pressing to do.
Scorpio
Dagger skill. Deals ATK-based damage to one enemy. Attempts to inflict poison on the target. Can deal critical hits starting at level 5.
Is there a similar principle behind the poisoning?
That one's something me and Unit 4 worked on! See, that fella with the sore stomach in the shelter, remember him?
The one who ate Bloom?
yeah yeah that one. So, we took a look at the chemical reactions that caused Bloom to be toxic to humans.
Ah, I remember this! I organized Mr. Ayafumi's files on it. There are certain chemicals within it that our body can't recognize—it has a caustic effect on our mucous membranes, but the real issue comes from when it reaches the stomach. It causes our body to overcompensate and generate more stomach acid than it should in an attempt to break down an object it can't break down, and the acid, along with burning the stomach, carries within it the substance that causes the caustic effect to our innards, so it burns through the lining of the stomach at a much more rapid rate than an ordinary reflux of stomach acid. Unless it's surgically removed, it will continue to burn the digestive system all the way through, leaving a trail of scarred flesh all the way from the throat to the intestines.
That's horrific.
yeah
BUT. So, we took a look at how exactly that worked, and managed to reverse-engineer the bits of the Bloom that caused it to create what we thought was going to be a sprayable weedkiller by turning it around on them. It did work on the Bloom, sure, but it actually caused an adverse effect on the dragons that spawned the Bloom more than anything. Since I was already carrying around my goo, ol' Waji told me to give spraying it on my knives a try, and whaddya know! Blub blub blub! Poison! That's the power of teamwork, baybee!
Considering what we've found out about the Bloom, that would make sense.
How does it debilitate monsters and humans, then?
Do you wanna ingest pesticides, Koron?
...
Point taken.
The other of Dagger Trickster's bread and butters, and the more important of the two. Poison is a DOT, so it makes up for the slow downscaling of Trickster's relative ability for single-hit numbers to juice out more damage. Plus... well, Poison is, shall we say, important. You'll see.
Aimed Shot
Gun skill. Deals non-contact ATK-based aerial damage to one enemy. At levels 6 and above, attempts to inflict blind on the target.
So this is my gun.
You'll never guess what I do with my gun.
I know! Do you calculate the trajectory using atmospheric vibrations?
No way, she totally uses her Stand to change the bullet's flight path in midair.
I was presuming that she ran up and hit the dragons with the butt of her gun.
...Doesn't she just shoot them?
RICHTER THE GENIUS OF THE HOUR
They were joking, Richter.
Oh! Ha ha, I get it.
A reliable earlygame damage skill that happens to have a pretty steep cost, as is the trend with Gun Trickster, which is about the only class that really needs to worry about MP management. The Blind status rider unfortunately isn't very noteworthy—even if a lot of attacks didn't have accuracy multipliers or, heck, could miss at all, 15% at max level isn't great. You're liable to phase Aimed Shot out fairly quick.
Dancing Bullets
Gun skill. Deals non-contact ATK-based aerial damage to all enemies.
Surprise! I HAVE TWO GUNS. Pew pew. With my two guns, I can shoot lots of bullets at things! Do You Love Your Satsuki And Her Two-Hit slash Multi-Target Attacks?
We sure do!
Yeah, we do!
BWAH
I-I wasn't expecting such direct praise...!
Dancing Bullets is an amazing random-clearer option. You push it and a random encounter usually either ends or can be mopped up that round. If you've got several aerial dragons in a fight, it can be decent damage, too. Unlike Aimed Shot, it doesn't fall off for its central purpose, but it is still fairly expensive.
Ready to Run
Attempts to flee from the current battle, with an increased chance. If Ready to Run fails, its escape chance increase continues to apply if other party members attempt to escape.
and now, the most important skill in my arsenal... my ultimate, secret technique...
RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIFE
That's a wall.
I mean yeah but you get the picture
I've literally never seen this fail. If you have a Trickster in your party, escape is guaranteed. This has perfect priority and, again, I've never seen it fail. Nice utility, Miss Satsuki!
Tier 2 Skills
Vampire
Dagger skill. Deals ATK-based damage to one enemy. Restores the user's HP for a percentage of damage dealt. If the target is afflicted with bleeding, the healing multiplier is increased. Can deal critical hits starting at level 3.
That's that doohickey Mom sent you, right?
yeah hey richter how did you say this thing works again
Of course! Dr. Akaneno's 'Fullmoon Vamper' seems to operate on a similar principle to my healing programs—that is to say, it takes a certain amount of the informational energy caused by the meeting of Satsuki's blade with an enemy's body to take some of their informational energy and drain it to patch up any wounds taken in battle. It's quite a fascinating object.
Don't you just love how good he is at explaining things?
It's a blessing.
so yeah like, i stab them and i get better. it's neat. poke poke.
The less I have to heal anyone, the better.
Sometimes I'm surprised you can heal at all.
As am I.
Oh but one thing I did notice though—it looks like it actually does work better if there's some blood loss on the thing. Like I'm one of Mio's vampire manga characters.
I have no idea how that works, but that's awesome.
AIN'T IT
Vampire is a fairly nice utility skill that can be used for higher damage in midgame, since it's much cheaper to master than Scorpio and Tarantella even if they do more damage by endgame. If a midgame enemy's already poisoned, or you need some healing on your Dagger Trickster, go ahead—a 30% drain ain't half bad, and it's 40% if you're with another character that can inflict Bleed (I.E. a Samurai, a Psychic, or a Hacker wielding the Bloodgear weapon, which we'll get later.) It falls off later, but sometimes one must drain.
Assassin Eyes
Dagger skill. Increases the user's ATK-based damage and critical hit chance for a set amount of turns.
The critical hit chance increase applies only to normal attacks. The ATK-based damage increase does not stack with other ATK-based damage buffs.
If you could see death, you wouldn't even be able to stand... Life and death may be back to back, but they will never face each other. I'll show you—
This is what it means to kill something.
Eyyyyy
The Tsukihime remake is never coming out now, is it.
NOOOOO
it was never coming out anyway
Yeah...
What the hell are you two blathering about?
It's my Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. I can witness the fated death of all living things in the forms of lines and dots on their person. If I cut the lines, they'll split apart, and a living being whose dot is stabbed will die instantly. That's the purpose of the goggles, you see—they block my sight from seeing them so the strain doesn't kill me too fast.
Don't bullshit me! You don't have anything like that!
Is that why sometimes your eye glows, and you become much better at pinpoint strikes?
It's a dark fate I bear...
You do not have 'Mystic Eyes' of anything!
Hehehe, they're referencing an old game.
Damn otaku.
The buff on damage is nice enough, but the crit chance only applying to normal attacks is pretty sad—Dagger Trickster would really rather prefer to continue critting with skills. If you've got a spare moment in a long fight, it might be decent if you have no other Attack boosters.
Hiding
Gun skill. Reduces the user's chance of being targeted by enemies, and increases their critical hit chance, for a set amount of turns.
The critical hit chance increase applies only to normal attacks.
...
...
...
Alright, I give up. This wad of paper?
Yes, right at my forehead.
On the other hand, Hiding is a lot more important. Target chance decreasing is quite useful for a relatively frail class like Trickster, and dovetails greatly with the skill that it sets up for. Depending on the party or situation, Hiding can be invaluable... and unlike Dagger Trickster, Gun Trickster doesn't get quite the access to crit chance skills as Dagger Trickster does for a while, so normal attacking might be a good option.
Bush Trap
Gun skill. Only usable while Hiding is in effect. If any party members besides the user are attacked on this turn, the user will counterattack the attacking enemy with non-contact ATK-based aerial damage, which is guaranteed to be a critical hit.
Owie, my head!
SURPRISE HUG
Gah!
Ugh. How do people stand these things?
hugs are nice, silly
Thank you for serving as a volunteer, Koron.
hug da koron. nuzzly nuzzly
*sigh* Until you're satisfied, then. I suppose it could be worse.
Wow, your hair is silky.
...and here's Bush Trap. So, Bush Trap is amazing. Its relative damage is fairly low per hit, but it can activate multiple times per turn, along with being a guaranteed crit (which will be relevant in a minute here.) The fact that this is a game where Destroyer is a class that exists means that Counters.Party is a fantastic strategy for many a situation, and a Destroyer and a Gun Trickster together can really lay on the counter hurt. It's not even very expensive! Aside from having a one-turn setup, it's hard to go wrong with Bush Trap.
Trick Hand
Increases the efficacy of LIFE and MANA-restoring items used by the party for a set amount of turns.
Yo but what if we used medicine, but like, more?
...I don't get it.
y'know, like, more.
Satsuki is surprisingly efficient about the usage of curatives. Sometimes I'll take pointers from her while we're performing triage, if necessary.
y'know, like, more.
Trickster doesn't really do direct skill healing like Psychic or Hacker, but their speed makes them great item hurlers, and Trick Hand makes it even better. The efficiency on this puppy's great, especially on multi-target heals or revival skills, which it also works on. It's a great utility.
Tier 3 Skills
Venom Boost
Dagger skill. Deals non-contact ATK-based damage to one enemy. If the target is afflicted with poison, the duration of the poison is set to 5 turns, and the amount of damage the poison deals is increased. Can deal critical hits starting at level 3.
The poison damage increase caps at 15 applications.
SO. Poison. Yeah?
Mmhm?
We've been workshopping a way to intensify the reactions while they're still inside the enemy's body. Still on the backburner and it's probably gonna require a specialized weapons, but we'd really be able to mess 'em up from the inside.
That sounds unpleasant.
I agree, it's fantastic.
soon, the beautiful satsuki will be able to hit 'em with the nothing personnel, kid...
I can barely even manage waiting this long to talk about Venom Boost. Venom Boost Venom Boost Venom Boost. Venom Boost fucks. Venom Boost is an absolutely sickening skill. Every time I have made gestures at Poison and started laughing in this LP it's because of Venom Boost. Venom Boost is disgusting.
So, it's a pretty weak skill damage-wise, even if it crits, but here's the thing. It doesn't need to be strong. I mean, first off, it sets the duration of inflicted Poison. That's not "once", it's "always". If you continue using Venom Boost then your Poison will have an infinite duration. Second, you might think, 'oh, so it adds 50% of the original poison damage'. No. No, no, no, this puppy is multiplicative. It's a 1.25x multiplier every single time.
That's right, baby, Satsuki's got the QUADRATIC POISON CURVE. 1.25, 1.5625, 1.953125, 2.44140625... A max-level Scorpio will go from its 203 base DOT tick to an ungodly 5796 per turn with 15 Venom Boosts, which, mind you, also keeps the duration up so it won't run out! For how insane that number is: the superboss of this game has 50,000 HP.
Venom Boost can turn Satsuki from a middling offensive character to a DOT god who can cackle madly as she watches her enemies wither and die before her.
Or... wait, that's me. That's me who does that. I'm the cackler. I love Venom Boost.
Ricochet
Gun skill. For a set amount of turns, the user will deal non-contact ATK-based aerial damage to one enemy at the start of the turn. Each attack deals less damage than the last. Cannot be used until the duration has ended.
So anyway, for this next trick—
PEW PEW
Where'd they go?
they'll be back in a bit. my bullets always hit home.
Why don't you just shoot them?
Well y'see, if I shoot them right away, then my bullet is in them. But if I pew pew and make my bullets bounce around, then I can shoot them while I shoot them. They'll never see it coming! It's the element of surprise.
But if you shoot them, they die.
you're just not on my level, i guess
Well, I knew that already. You're a smart young lady, Satsuki, I'm sure you get something I don't.
It's not quite as god-tier as Venom Boost, but Ricochet's a solid addition to Gun Trickster's arsenal, giving them a bit of DOT themselves that can interrupt a start-of-turn attack with a kill in certain situations. There'll be times you've got nothing else to do but set up Ricochet, and it can add up to some pretty solid damage that's basically hands-free. It's not a bad toy.
Cheetahman
Gun skill. The user has a 12% chance to, at the end of a turn, give all party members maximum speed on the next turn.
hey... do you wanna get... like... so fast
I can show you the speed... shining, shimmering, splendid...
I appreciate it, but I would also appreciate some personal space please.
Seriously though, sometimes you can just get the jump on 'em, y'know? Even when they're looking right at you. It's great. Follow my lead and I'll set you free.
hey zach, do you remember 'action 52'?
Who's Zach?
As with many Auto Skills, there's really no reason to not take Cheetahman if you're running a Gun Trickster. Like... your entire party gets to go first in a round sometimes, that's pretty great. I guess that might make some things tricky with Nanomachine 119? Shrug. It's good.
Assassin's React
For a set amount of turns, if the user deals a critical hit, they will gain an extra turn.
Sometimes when you go fast, like, you go really fast. You'd be surprised how fast you can fast when you fast.
Oh! Yes, I understand this.
If you capitalize the advantage you obtain off of a pinpoint shot, you can blindside an opponent repeatedly, you mean?
Yeah, that's the stuff. See, I had to dodge the cops a lot? And I started realizing that there's only so much a person can process in a single motion, so if you just fast 'em good enough you can start doing things faster before they can keep up. Nyoom!
'Fast' doesn't even sound like a word anymore.
Words mean things, but semantic satiation is also a tricky subject when dealing with a woman like Satsuki.
OOH HOO HOO HOO THAT'S THE GOOD STUFF
Here's where all those crit chances for Satsuki's skills, or Bush Trap's guaranteed crits, come back around. Assassin's React is the best React the party has access to—Satsuki's critting Dagger skills have 50-70% crit chances, or Bush Trap is guaranteed. It can only give her up to three extra actions in a row, but that's still four actions in a turn. Letting loose Assassin's React will turn a Trickster into a multi-action whirlwind.
...oh yeah, and Venom Boost can crit, too, by the way. In case you forgot. In case you wanted four Venom Boosts in a single turn. It's theoretically possible if you nail every crit to get 15 Venom Boosts off in the span of five turns with Assassin's React, then Scorpio and 15 Venom Boosts.
Assassin's React is That Real Shit.
Stinger
Dagger skill. The user has a 12% chance to, at the end of a turn, deal ATK-based damage to one enemy. Attempts to inflict poison on the target.
speaking of surprises, sometimes i can get all yoink and get in there.
The number of ways in which you apply speed is really incredible. How did you get so good at this?
hanging out with cats'll do that to you. sometimes you gotta be territorial
It's free damage, but Stinger is the one Auto Skill that I think there's a case for not taking: namely its Poison proc deals less overall damage than Scorpio, so its Venom Boost scaling doesn't get it to quite as ridiculous numbers. This is a bit of an edge case, though, so go ahead and take it, honestly. It's free damage.
Surprise Hunt
The user has a chance to turn any battle into a preemptive attack. At levels 3 and above, all surprise attacks from a dragon running into the party's back are nullified.
I can't help but notice how good you are at noticing things, Satsuki.
You've gotta have sharp eyes if you're foraging for food at night because you're locked out of the house! It's a skill I picked up through necessity.
What?
This one's a damn good one. Being immune to dragon surprise attacks is really nice, and having the chance to just get a free action at the start of any battle? That's cash, especially at a rate as good as 1/3, geez. Surprise Hunt is no joke, and you should definitely take some levels in it.
Tier 4 Skills
Fullmoon Vamp
Dagger skill. Deals ATK-based damage to one enemy. Restores all party members' HP for a percentage of damage dealt. If the target is afflicted with bleeding, the healing multiplier is increased. Can deal critical hits.
Oh, I think I heard Mom mumbling something about making the Vamp better for you eventually.
SICK
It would be awfully nice if it could heal more than just her.
Yeah, that's the idea.
miss satsuki does one thing but she does it awful good. stabby stabby.
It's the last-unlocked Dagger skill, and it does deal more damage. The heal's pretty small, though it gets better when the enemy's bleeding, but if you just want raw damage it's definitely a dagger's best option. It's a bit of a narrow-use skill, but like, you have Venom Boost, so do you really need anything else?
Rush Shot
Gun skill. Deals multiple instances of ranged ATK-based aerial damage to one enemy. Can deal critical hits.
but my dream... it's to shoot really fast. like what if I just shot like a billion times. what if i had machine guns.
That might not remain a dream, you know. One day, I'm sure you'll have full auto.
yeah... thatll be the day. then i could shoot like, a lot. what else does a girl need, really, than lots of shooting
Where did you get your license to own those guns, anyway?
Fell off the back of a truck.
On the other hand, Rush Shot here, while an expensive skill, is a Gun Trickster's best source of damage easily—it's the only on-command crit skill they have, and the sheer number of hits can really pile on the damage, especially if you've got Assassin's React for multiple. The operative issue here, of course, is that massive cost—but if you can broker it somehow, a Rush Shot crit chain can deal an incredible pile of damage very fast.
And then there's—
Sacrifice
Permanently kills the user. In exchange, all enemies are dealt damage equal to 40% of their max LIFE, and all other party members have their LIFE and MANA fully restored. Does not revive dead party members.
The user is afflicted with "Lost" after using Sacrifice. Lost prevents the user from being targeted for the rest of the battle. After the battle is over, the user is removed from the party, and erased from the guild. If the user is the last party member alive, and manages to kill all enemies with Sacrifice, it will still count as a game over.
UH
nah actually that's about it i think, aha. yeah.
Yup. That's about it.
Are you alright?
Peachy.
...I... can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.
I don't make 'jokes'. I'm 100% serious, 150% of the time. As you know, I'm a very serious person.
...Yeah, I still can't tell.
The superboss of this game doesn't save the game, so there's no post-postgame clear save data to be had. As such, if you have two Tricksters in your party, you can take him down 20% of his HP, then hurl out two Sacrifices to end the fight very, very quickly and not actually take any penalty.
This is the only case in which Sacrifice is at all a good idea to use. Your character is now dead. Boom! They are now an ex-Trickster! The game is not joking! Your character will fucking die! Boom! Gone! Kapow! You have now emptied one of your three party slots! Don't push the Trickster Eraser Button. Just don't do it! All of that time you've spent will vanish into mist! You'll have to train up a new Trickster from level 1! Don't do it!
That's about it, but I have been wondering about something. Like, what if I had a grenade launcher? Then I could really do stuff.
You could ask to borrow Reimi's.
yeah if i was a monster. But seriously though, you can do a lot with explosions. You can blow up a lot of things.
I mean, I've got the goggles, so I'm already good to go for demolitions. I think I could do some good stuff if I could just blow people up. Like happy festival fireworks! Kaboom!
You are a frightening woman, Agent Kazuki.
?
EX Skill: Ragweed Ammo
Deals ranged ATK-based damage to one enemy. Attempts to inflict sleep, burn, freeze, curse, poison, bleed, paralysis, and blind on the target. The infliction chance is static, and ignores resistances and immunities. However, it also cannot be increased through buffs on the user or debuffs on the target.
Unlike other sources of burn, Ragweed Ammo's burn effect only reduces damage dealt and increases damage received by 5%, instead of the usual 10%.
I'll have words about Ragweed Ammo when we unlock it in the game itself, but, um... well. You know. Like, just... just fucking look at it. Just look at it! Ragweed Ammo is nonsense and that's all I have to say on it until we get it.
Man, I didn't realize until now just how much less spectacular the stuff I do is than Captain Isekai. Sorry. Was that boring?
Not at all! Your footwork is really incredible.
At the very least, I have a greater respect for your sense of application. A good scavenger is evidently indispensible.
NICE koron thinks i'm indispensible
Of course you are! Who else is going to go fast and find people?
And you've got that wonderful nose of yours.
HEEF HEEF
Don't be so self-conscious. You're quite a capable woman, Satsuki.
What?
did y'all see that?
Oh, I was looking at Mio's new manuscript, what?
well first off is it good
It's great! I'm really excited to start getting to work on it!
I mean, it's about time. Usually my dark scrolls don't take nearly this long to start being put into their unholy runes, y'know.
Aha, sorry, Mio. I've been a bit busy.
I'd love to take a look once you're finished.
It's been ages since I read any good manga.
I'd like to take a look, as well.
Well, it might take a little while...
(She's got a cute smile, doesn't she?)
So she can smile... Evidence added to the Court Record.
