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Class Showcase: Samurai
The Samurai is another potential front line unit like the Fighter, though they’re a bit less straightforward in what they do. Samurai can choose a stance to take up to gain access to certain skills, but cannot do much without a stance set up, forcing them to spend their first turn doing so. They have access to several different stances, each giving a different benefit to the Samurai and granting them access to their own set of skills. Of course there’s also the option to use all the stances at once as well...
Stats
Stat-wise, they’re pretty middling. They have the 3rd best life stat, and the 3rd best POW stat, so they can take hits okay. But when it comes to offenses, don’t be fooled by the seemingly below-best POW stat, as they have access to the strongest weapons in the entire game that more than makes up for that. Their SPD is middle of the road as well. However, they have the worst mana pool out of all the classes, so they can run dry with a few casts. On the plus side, they do get more out of mana restoration since most of their skills don’t eat up too much mana. They also have the 2nd worst INT stat, so they don’t take spell damage too well.
Katana Art
Skill Type: Passive
Maximum Level: 10
Prerequisites: None
Boosts the attack power of Katanas.
Notes:
- The effects of this skill will not be seen in the status, equip screens, nor the in-battle status screen.
- Despite the fact that Samurai can equip Swords, this has absolutely no effect on them.
- Katana Art at level 10 will boost the strongest Katana in the game from 208 ATK to 270 ATK.
You pretty much have to invest in this first thing in order to really unlock the Samurai’s skill tree, as Zanbato and Iai Arts are locked behind level 3 Katana Art. However, there’s really no point in investing in this skill beyond level 3 in the beginning of the game, as you don’t have access to Katanas until after the prologue. The earliest you can get one will be the true visit to Rorakka Cavern. Once you obtain one, feel free to invest in this as you progress through the game to boost your damage even further.
Of course if you plan on making heavy use of Unarmed Arts, this skill won’t do much for you and should be ignored.
Zanbato Arts
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 5
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: Katana Art – Level 3
[Switch Skill] Places a buff on the Samurai that puts them in the Zanbato Stance, boosting their ATK for the duration of the battle and allowing them to use Zanbato Stance skills.
Notes:
- ATK is still boosted even if the Samurai is using a Sword, or is unarmed.
- It is only possible to receive the ATK boost in the unarmed state if the Samurai used Rumble while the Zanbato Stance is active.
Overwrites another Switch Skill if one is in place.
This is a Switch Skill, meaning that the buff is unpurgeable. It cannot be forcibly dispelled by enemies, nor can it wear off from having too many buffs and debuffs. The only way to get rid of it is for it to be overwritten by another Switch Skill, or for the Samurai to die.If you’re familiar with Ronin from Etrian Odyssey 1, right here you can see a bunch of buffs they got in the transition to 7th Dragon. Their stances got turned into Switch Skills, meaning that the buff lasts forever and it can’t be gotten rid of by enemies, nor can it be eliminated through buff mismanagement. Which eliminates most, but not all of the weaknesses of stances. The remaining ones being that they have to spend their first turn setting up, and that they can only have access to a portion of their skills at a time. Which only matters if you multi-stance, but all in all, it’s far more manageable to deal with compared with EO1 Ronin.
The Zanbato Stance is pretty much all about dealing damage. The skill itself gives a sizeable ATK boost to skyrocket the Samurai’s high ATK stat even further. A pretty straightfoward stance to invest in, and one that really plays to the Samurai’s strengths. Max this out once you’ve maxed out the important skills in this branch, and you’ve got better Katanas to take advantage of the ATK boost with.
Downstroke
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 85%
Prerequisites: Zanbato Arts – Level 1
[Zanbato Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to one enemy.
This skill is basically the bread and butter of a Zanbato Stance build. It’s a pretty straightforward skill, but it’s also strongest consistent damage skill out of all of them. Definitely max this one out ASAP.
Now if you’re planning on camping Musou Stance, I don’t advise taking this skill. Instead, you’ll want to invest in Sente Dachi, as that’s just a better version of Downstroke. More on that later.
Thunder
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 90%
Prerequisites: Zanbato Arts – Level 3
[Zanbato Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Lightning damage to one enemy.
For those of you coming from the Etrian Odyssey series, let me get this out of the way now. Composite damage does not exist in the 7th Dragon series. Skills can only dish out one damage type at a time.
This skill is a nice alternative damage source if an enemy happens to be resistant to Slash damage, or is weak to Lightning damage. Definitely a nice secondary pick up after you max out Downstroke, so your Samurai isn’t left helpless.
If you have a Princess in the party, then [REDACTED]
Rumble
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 85%
Prerequisites: Zanbato Arts – Level 4
[Zanbato Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to one enemy, and has a chance to inflict Stun. The enemy is hit so hard that the Samurai’s weapon is sent flying, causing them to be unarmed for the current turn and for 3 more turns on top of that.
Notes:
- Even if the attack misses, the weapon will still be sent flying, and cause the Samurai to be disarmed.
- Does not actually delete the Samurai’s weapon, it simply sets the ATK power of the Samurai’s current weapon to 0, and flags them as unarmed.
- This means that if the battle is ended while the Samurai has lost their weapon, they will still have it after the battle.
- Secondary bonuses on the weapon will still be in effect, such as POW bonuses.
If used before the Extra Turn phase, the Samurai will be disarmed during it as well.
The Samurai will regain their weapon on the 3rd turn of being disarmed after any Extra Turn phases are completed.
Does not cancel out the Samurai’s current Stance when used.
If the Samurai is killed, then revived, they will immediately regain their weapon.
The disarm is a hidden debuff, meaning that it does not use up a buff slot and that it cannot be dispelled by any means other than death.Rumble is a fairly odd skill, and not one that’s particularly liked. It’s a bit more damage than Downstroke, but causing your Samurai to lose their weapon really tanks their overall damage output, limiting the potential use cases of this skill. Fortunately the Samurai isn’t locked out of their skills altogether, so you could switch to Unarmed Stance and keep going from there. Though that’s still less damage than just spamming Downstroke.
Alternatively, you can toss this out if you know your Samurai won’t be able to attack for the next 3 turns, or want to switch them to support duty for a bit. It can also work if you want to take the time to set up the Samurai’s other buffs, such as Pain React. Though Lionheart and Trueguard are rather dubious buffs to set up unless you expect the battle to take a while. Something to keep in mind is that an EX-boosted Rumble is one of the strongest attacks in the entire game, so it can be a good finisher at the very least. The Stun is a nice kicker, though not something that will make or break fights a lot of the time.
Knock Flat
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 90%
Prerequisites: Zanbato Arts – Level 5
[Zanbato Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Blunt damage to one enemy, and has a chance to inflict Sleep.
A disable skill in the Zanbato branch? Well, while it is a disable, remember that Sleep functions as a 30% damage boost against physical attacks, so you can bomb the target afterwards with a big attack to deal some heavy damage. The chance to land the Sleep is rather low, especially in the big fights, but if you do land it, you’ll cause your target to lose at least 1 turn, and can deliver a big follow up attack afterwards. If you happen to have access to Rumble, an EX-boosted version of it will deal a ton of damage to a sleeping target. A Fighter with Status Down could boost the rates slightly, but don’t count on this landing too often even then.
Twin Sparrow
Skill Type: Active
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 100%
Prerequisites: Zanbato Arts – Level 5
How to Unlock: Once you have learned the Aizo language, check the drawer in the back of the northwestern building in the Miross Federation, or [REDACTED]
[Zanbato Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to one enemy, and has a chance to inflict Bleed.
Notes:
- The skill’s description saying the attack hits 4 times is merely flavor text. It only deals damage once.
In high offense parties, you may be better off just using that EX on Downstroke instead, since the damage is inferior to Downstroke, and the Bleed likely won’t make much of a difference in those cases. If you have a low damage output party, like one filled with supports, I suppose this can be okay, since Bleed can take off decent chunks of the target’s HP the longer it stays on them, and Bleed as an ailment gets stronger as you get further into the game, and it never wears off on its own.
Iai Arts
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 5
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: Katana Art – Level 3
[Switch Skill] Places a buff on the Samurai that puts them in the Iai Stance, boosting their SPD for the duration of the battle and allowing them to use Iai Stance skills.
Notes:
- SPD is still boosted even if the Samurai is using a Sword.
- Overwrites another Switch Skill if one is in place.
- This is a Switch Skill, meaning that the buff is unpurgeable. It cannot be forcibly dispelled by enemies, nor can it wear off from having too many buffs and debuffs. The only way to get rid of it is for it to be overwritten by another Switch Skill, or for the Samurai to die.
And now we get to the Iai Stance. This stance is all about speed and crowd control. The SPD boost makes the Samurai’s middling speed a non-issue, and it’s nice for increasing the Samurai’s accuracy and evasion, and of course, their turn speed. However, it’s not really as vital to have more SPD compared to more ATK, so feel free to stop investing in this if you don’t need the boost, or if the skills unlocked at the later levels don’t interest you.
Sente Dachi
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 100%
Prerequisites: Iai Arts – Level 1
[Iai Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to one enemy. Has offensive priority.
Notes:
- This skill has offensive priority, meaning that it moves before most other actions, but moves after defensive priority skills.
The bread and butter of the Iai Stance build, and like Downstroke, it’s the most consistent damage skill of the bunch, and one of the cheapest ones to use. The guaranteed priority is also a very nice boon, though be warned it will still get blocked by shield skills and trigger counter skills.
If you’re planning on camping Musou Stance, this skill is pretty much what you’ll be using most of the time, as it’s basically just Downstroke but better. Has the same damage output, but also has priority. There’s no reason to take Downstroke when Sente Dachi exists.
Fubuki
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 90%
Prerequisites: Iai Arts – Level 3
[Iai Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Ice damage to one enemy.
Most of what I said with Thunder also applies here. Though Ice is a really good element to make use of, as quite a few dragons and bosses are weak to it, and lets the Samurai deal more damage to certain enemies that Zanbato Stance skills couldn’t damage as well, which is nice for making this stance stand out on its own a bit more. Really good skill to make use of when the situation calls for it. Max it out after maxing out Sente Dachi.
Like with Thunder, a Princess using [REDACTED]
Zeppa Uchi
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: Iai Arts – Level 5
[Iai Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to one enemy, and has a chance to inflict Skill Seal.
This is probably the biggest selling point of the Iai Stance branch. Skill Seal is an incredibly strong ailment, as landing it basically shuts down the enemy completely. However because it’s so strong, the chances of landing it are pretty low all around. Status Down can help slightly with it, but don’t expect that to do a lot. Another thing that makes this skill stand out, is that this is the only normal player skill that can inflict Skill Seal. All other sources of Skill Seal? They’re locked behind EX skills. So this is the only one that can really be spammed in big fights if you choose to go that route.
If you have access to the Princess’ [REDACTED], congratulations on snapping the game over your knee, as [REDACTED]
Behead
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 70%
Prerequisites: Iai Arts – Level 5
[Iai Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to one enemy, and has a chance to inflict Instant Death.
Oh hey, it’s Sente Dachi, only slower, especially since it has no priority, and more expensive in mana Cost. Not to mention it inflicts an absolutely worthless ailment. Instant Death doesn’t work on Dragons until they are at 10% life, at which point they’re likely dead anyways. Leaving random encounters as the only thing you can really use this skill on. Except random encounters in this game are easily taken down by several other attacks, so there’s basically no reason to ever take this skill. At least the Fighter’s Purge skill had the courtesy to deal the highest amount of damage in the Axe branch, and the Rogue’s Head Shot skill is the strongest single arrow skill, but no such traits are found here.
Behead All
Skill Type: Active
Equipment Needed: Katana or Sword
Speed Modifier: 100%
Prerequisites: Iai Arts – Level 5
How to Unlock: Once you have learned the Aizo language, check the bookshelf in the northwestern area of the Aizhen Palace, or [REDACTED]
[Iai Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to all enemies, and has a chance to inflict Instant Death.
I guess this is marginally more useful than Behead? It’s the only AOE attack the Samurai has in its entire toolkit, so it can be useful for clearing out encounters instantly, but that’s pretty much its only use case. Whether that’s worth 3 SP and using up EX each time is up to you, but personally I don’t find the need to use such a skill.
Unarmed Arts
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: None
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: None
[Switch Skill] Places a buff on the Samurai that puts them in the Unarmed Stance, disarming them for the duration of the battle, but massively boosts their remaining ATK stat, gives their normal attacks a chance to inflict Instant Death, and allows them to use Unarmed Stance skills.
Notes:
- Overwrites another Switch Skill if one is in place.
- This is a Switch Skill, meaning that the buff is unpurgeable. It cannot be forcibly dispelled by enemies, nor can it wear off from having too many buffs and debuffs. The only way to get rid of it is for it to be overwritten by another Switch Skill, or for the Samurai to die.
- Does not actually remove the Samurai’s weapon, it simply sets the ATK power of the Samurai’s current weapon to 0, and flags them as unarmed.
- This means that if the battle is ended while the Samurai does not have their weapon, they will still have it after the battle.
- Secondary bonuses on the weapon will still be in effect, such as POW bonuses.
Does not actually increase the Samurai’s POW stat, only the ATK stat derived from it. Meaning that this skill does not increase the Samurai’s DEF stat.
If the Samurai is killed, then revived, they will immediately regain their weapon due to no longer being in the Unarmed stance.
Without any POW bonuses aside from POW Bonus level 10, a level 75 Samurai will have 278 ATK with level 10 Unarmed Stance active.
The Instant Death component does not affect skills.Unarmed Stance is a rather unusual stance that makes use of the Samurai’s natural power instead of their weapons to deal damage. If you intend on camping this stance, you want to increase their POW as much as possible to really buff up the Samurai’s ATK. Even though they won’t be using their weapon, it’s good to equip a weapon that comes with a lot of POW to help increase their offenses.
As for the stance itself, while it does have some basic attacks in it, the Unarmed Stance branch focuses quite a bit on counterattacks. These counterattacks dish out a lot of damage while also protecting the Samurai from what triggered them in the first place. Generally this stance gives the Samurai a much stronger earlygame due to the ATK boost it gives, though it’s commonly found to fall off later. At that point people tend to swap over to Zanbato Stance to give the Samurai more damage, though if you feel like sticking with Unarmed, you won’t set yourself back that much if you know what you’re doing. At any rate, if you’re going to use these skills, max out this skill as soon as possible to give the Samurai a massive damage boost.
Myouou
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Unarmed
Speed Modifier: 100%
Prerequisites: Unarmed Arts – Level 3
[Unarmed Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Fire damage to one enemy.
Myouou is the bread and butter of the Unarmed Stance branch if you don’t feel confident in using the counters, or know they’re going to be useless in the battle you’re in, as it’s the highest damaging basic skill they have. Fire isn’t exactly the best element, but any weaknesses you run into are nice for boosting it’s damage, and like with the others, if you have a Princess in the party, their [REDACTED] is great for boosting it even further.
Do not use this skill if you’re in the Musou Stance. It is absolutely not worth it and you will deal no damage.
Swallowguard/Thrushguard/Shrikeguard
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 5
Equipment Needed: Unarmed
Speed Modifier: 100%
Prerequisites: Unarmed Arts – Level 5
[Unarmed Stance Skill] Once per turn, when an enemy hits the Samurai with a Slash/Blunt/Thrust attack, the Samurai will negate the damage and strike back at the attacker. The counterattack deals melee-ATK based Blunt damage, and has a chance to inflict Instant Death. Has defensive priority.
Notes:
- This skill has defensive priority, meaning that it moves before all other actions.
- If an incoming attack hits multiple times, the damage negation and the counterattack will only activate for the first hit.
- Does not actually nullify attacks. The skill is coded to have the Samurai take 0 damage if the counter activates.
- This means that any attacks that have additional effects will still have the additional effect go through, as the Samurai technically took damage.
- If the attack is avoided, the counter will not activate.
- The range of the attack does not matter. As long as the damage type is the correct one, the counter will activate.
- Counterattacks cannot miss under any circumstances.
- Ignores counter skills.
- Damage output can be boosted by EX.
The big mainstays of the Unarmed Stance branch. These counterattacks dish out a ton of damage whenever they get triggered. Sadly, you can’t counter repeatedly on a given turn, but the high damage modifiers make up for that at least. Unfortunately, in order to make great use of these skills, you have to know exactly how the enemies operate. You’ll need to know their damage types of their attacks and skills, which the game doesn’t really provide the information for. So if you’re playing blind, you’re playing a big guessing game, reducing how effective these skills are. Of course if you do have that information, these counterattacks can be big boons, and if you’re feeling great about your chances of the Samurai being attacked, an EX-boosted counter can deal a severe amount of damage!
However, for these counterattacks to go off, the Samurai needs to be attacked. So if you have a Knight or Princess and they have Provoke active, the Samurai won’t get much of a chance to counter.
Asura
Skill Type: Active
Equipment Needed: Unarmed
Speed Modifier: 100%
Prerequisites: Unarmed Arts – Level 10
How to Unlock: Once you have learned the Aizo language, check the bookshelf in the northeastern area of the Nevanplace Palace, or [REDACTED]
[Unarmed Stance Skill] Deals melee ATK-based Blunt damage to one enemy, and has a chance to inflict Stun.
Notes:
- The skill’s description saying the attack hits 6 times is merely flavor text. It only deals damage once.
Asura is the best non-conditional damage skill the Samurai has access to in the Unarmed Stance since it deals more damage than Myouou and Guardbreak. The Stun is a nice boon when it’s tied to a skill you’ll actually be using. Feel free to take this so you’ll have a decent damage skill for whenever the counters are not an option.
Unfortunately this is completely worthless if you are camping Musou Stance, as this skill will deal no damage since the Samurai does not get Unarmed Stance’s ATK boost during it.
Guardbreak
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Unarmed
Speed Modifier: 130%
Prerequisites: POW Bonus – Level 1
Deals melee ATK-based Blunt damage to one enemy.
Notes:
- Because this is not a stance skill, Musou Arts will not allow the Samurai to use this skill if they are equipped with a weapon.
This is not an Unarmed Stance skill, so the Samurai can use this skill from the get-go during a battle. I’m not sure why you would ever use this out of Unarmed Stance, as you have to not be wielding any weapons to be able to use this and the Samurai’s ATK without any weapons equipped is piddly. And likewise, it’s not worth using in the Musou Stance. So far all intents and purposes, this is an Unarmed Stance skill anyways, that just happens to not be classified as one.
At any rate, this is basically your alternative damage option for whenever Myouou is the weaker skill to be using. It’s also a fast skill, so it also has that going for it if you really want to snipe something quickly.
Rentan
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 5
Equipment Needed: None
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: INT Bonus – Level 3
Restores the Samurai’s life.
This may seem like a fairly odd skill for a damage dealer to have, but don’t write this off immediately just yet. It’s definitely better to have other party members heal the Samurai rather than them doing it themselves, but sometimes that always can’t happen, especially if you happen to have a party that doesn’t have any healing skills in it at all in it. Remember that healing skills are boosted by 20%, so a level 5 Rentan heals for 144 life, plus a fifth of the Samurai’s INT on top of that. While there are buyable full heal items in this game, you won’t get access to those until very late-game. This skill also has some very nice synergy with Pain React, but more on that in a bit.
Nukkikake
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 10
Equipment Needed: Sword or Katana
Speed Modifier: 100%
Prerequisites: Katana Art – Level 1
Deals melee ATK-based Slash damage to one enemy.
Notes:
- Because this is not a stance skill, Musou Arts will not allow the Samurai to use this skill if they are unarmed.
Nukkikake is the actual basic attacking skill that lets Samurai attack from the get-go. In big fights, Samurai should be setting up a stance so they can get going with their actual skillsets. If you’re mono-stancing, there’s very little reason to invest a lot in this. One point in this is enough to dispatch most normal enemies, but anymore than that is pretty much unneeded. However if you’re investing in both Zanbato and Iai Stance, you could max this skill out to save some SP and not have to invest in both Downstroke and Sente Dachi. If you’re investing in the Musou Stance, just take Sente Dachi instead.
Lionheart
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 5
Equipment Needed: None
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: POW Bonus – Level 5
Places a buff on the Samurai that gradually increases their ATK for each turn that passes, over the course of 30 turns.
Click here to view the full unbroken table.
Notes:
- Once 30 turns have passed, the buff will wear off, and the ATK boost will instantly wear off as well.
- Recasting this buff will cause the ATK buff to lower back down to the turn 1 value.
This skill is uhhhh, something I guess. If your party can take things down quickly, this is useless for you, as the ATK increase is minuscule, and won’t hit anywhere near full strength if you can end battles before the 30th turn. If your party is slow at killing things, I suppose this can be of some help. Though you won’t get too much out of it until the buff has ran on for long enough. And if the Samurai dies, or the buff gets removed through an ATK debuff or some other method, well I sure hope you got your money’s worth out of this skill before that happened. You pretty much have to use this from turn 1, as using it any later will waste the ATK gains. Use it before setting up a stance, if you use it at all.
Trueguard
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 5
Equipment Needed: None
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: POW Bonus – Level 5
Places a buff on the Samurai that gradually increases their DEF for each turn that passes, over the course of 30 turns.
Click here to view the full unbroken table.
Notes:
- Once 30 turns have passed, the buff will wear off, and the DEF boost will instantly wear off as well.
- Recasting this buff will cause the DEF buff to lower back down to the turn 1 value.
Many things I said about Lionheart applies here as well. Though this is one of the few defensive skills in the Samurai’s arsenal, so it might be slightly worth it for that. Be warned that the Samurai dying or a DEF debuff will negate this skill, causing it to go to waste if it wears off too early. Not really worth using if your party is capable of ending battles fast, as the DEF increases are even smaller than Lionheart’s ATK increases.
Musou Arts
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 1
Equipment Needed: None
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: Zanbato Arts – Level 5, Iai Arts – Level 5, Unarmed Arts – Level 5
[Switch Skill] Places a buff on the Samurai that puts them in the Musou Stance, granting them access to all learned skills within the Zanbato, Iai, and Unarmed Stances for the duration of the battle, as long as their current life remains at 90% or above of their maximum life.
Notes:
- Does not grant any of the bonuses the other Arts skills do.
- The Samurai will not be allowed to cast this skill if they are below 90% of their maximum life.
- If the Samurai falls under 90% of their maximum life, the stance will be dispelled.
- This check only occurs at the end of the normal turn, but before the extra turn phase. That means if the Samurai falls under that life threshold during the middle of the turn, but they are healed up before the normal turn phase ends, they will still be in the Musou Stance.
This is a Switch Skill, meaning that the buff is unpurgeable. It cannot be forcibly dispelled by enemies, nor can it wear off from having too many buffs and debuffs. The only way to get rid of it is for it to be overwritten by another Switch Skill, for the Samurai to fall under 90% of their maximum life, or for the Samurai to die.
Does not grant access to Katana skills if the Samurai is unarmed before casting this skill. They will only have access to the Unarmed Stance in that case.
However, this will grant access to the Unarmed Stance skills even if the Samurai is wielding a weapon.
If the Samurai is using an Unarmed Stance skill, the game temporarily reduces the ATK power of their equipped weapon to 0 for that attack.The fourth stance grants access to all the stance skills, giving the Samurai extreme flexibility. However, there are some things to keep in mind for this. If the Samurai gets smacked, they’ll almost always be knocked out of this stance. So for best results, you’ll want to pair them up with a Knight or a Princess, who can draw fire away from the Samurai with Provoke. Knights also have a bunch of other defensives that can heavily reduce the damage the Samurai takes, making getting them knocked out of the Musou Stance even more unlikely.
The additional buffs the other Arts skills applied don’t apply to the Musou Stance at all. That means no boosted ATK power nor SPD. This is especially bad when it comes to the Unarmed Stance skills, as using them basically disarms the Samurai, leaving them with their incredibly crappy base ATK stat. This is why I said most of the Unarmed skills are completely worthless in Musou, as you’ll be basically dealing no damage with them. The only Unarmed skills possibly worth using are the counters, and that’s if you need your Samurai to be extremely defensive for whatever reason, and those situations won’t be too common.
Now, let’s move onto the good parts. While the lack of additional benefits means you’re basically stuck using only the Zanbato and Iai Stance skills, this skill enables the Samurai to be extremely flexible and use whatever they have in the rest of their toolkit. So what skills should you be learning if you’re planning on camping the Musou Stance? For starters, Sente Dachi is their best bread and butter attack to be using, as that deals the most damage while coming with priority. Really most of the Iai Stance skills win out during Musou. While more SPD is nice, it’s not as vital as having more ATK. Still, taking both elemental skills, Thunder and Fubuki, can also help round out the Samurai’s toolkit. You can also pick up most of their disable skills to really make the Samurai a disabling machine, and easily have access to the one that fits the situation the best. Despite the fact I said that most of the Unarmed Stance skills aren’t great during Musou Stance, Rumble’s disarm also won’t sting quite as much when you can instantly switch over to Unarmed Stance skills, so there is a possible use case there.
Pain React
Skill Type: Active
Maximum Level: 1
Equipment Needed: None
Speed Modifier: 80%
Prerequisites: SPD Bonus – Level 5
[React Skill] Places a react buff on the Samurai for 5 turns. While the buff is active, the Samurai is granted an extra turn if they take damage equal to or greater than 25% of their maximum life.
Notes:
- This is a React Skill, meaning that the buff is unpurgeable. It cannot be forcibly dispelled by enemies, nor can it wear off from having too many buffs and debuffs. The only way to get rid of it is for it to wear off on its own, or for the Samurai to die.
- Multiple instances of such damage will not give out more than 1 extra turn.
- The triggering damage must be dealt in 1 attack. Attacks that hit multiple times will not trigger this if each attack deals less than 25% maximum life in damage, nor will multiple enemies taking off 25% or more of the Samurai’s maximum Life work.
- Any damage instance can trigger this react, such as an ally attacking them, taking Poison damage, or triggering Curse backlash damage.
- This means that Curse backlash damage is the only way to get multiple extra turns to trigger with this skill.
This skill can be a nice way for the Samurai to get some extra damage in, as if they’re taking heavy blows, that just gives them even more opportunities to deal some damage to their enemies. Alternatively, you can use this as a defensive skill. Remember that the Samurai has access to Rentan, which has some great synergy with this skill. Samurai takes a big amount of damage, and they use their Extra Turn to immediately heal up and mostly undo whatever damage they took, leaving them fairly or fully healthy on the next actual turn. Or just plop a full healing item once you have access to those. There are plenty of ways a Samurai can use up that extra turn, so it’s up to you to decide.
However, because this react only activates if the Samurai takes enough damage, that means any defensive skills will reduce the chances of this going off. Not to mention that having attacks drawn away from the Samurai, such as a Knight or Princess using Provoke basically can reduce the chances of them being attacked heavily. So with a party using those tactics, this skill may not be an attractive option to take.
Evil Eye
Skill Type: Active Field Skill
Maximum Level: 5
Equipment Needed: None
Prerequisites: POW Bonus – Level 1, INT Bonus – Level 5
Gives the party a chance to ignore random encounters that are of a lower level than them for a certain number of steps.
Notes:
- When you enter an area that has random encounters, a counter starts at 100, and a value is subtracted from it each time you take a step.
- The game only rolls for the chance to ignore the encounter once the counter reaches 0. Then it compares the average level of all living party members and the average level of all the monsters in the encounter. If the average level of the monsters is at least 1 level lower than the party’s average level, the game rolls for the chance to ignore the encounter. Otherwise, you will get into a battle. This also applies if the chance fails. If the chance succeeds, then the counter immediately resets back to 100.
- Because this skill does not directly reduce the encounter rate, it fully stacks with encounter rate reduction skills and items, as they have entirely different effects.
Are you playing without the USA patch and does your party lack a Healer? Then take this skill, unless you really want to have a bad time with the game! The encounter rates on the world map are absolutely ludicrous, and this skill is pretty much mandatory in order to make the game tolerable! If you’re worried about losing out on experience points, then don’t be. Random encounters don’t give out that much experience points, and if you want to be leveling up, you should be killing Dragons instead. Not to mention this filters out the encounters you outclass, so it basically keeps your party on the level if they’re strong enough already.
Now if you do have a Healer in the party, that means you potentially have access to Invisible, which straight up reduces the encounter rate. Which skill you take is up to you, as they both have very different effects. Invisible directly reduces the encounter rate, however it cannot nullify them entirely. But it’s in effect at all times compared to Evil Eye, which only works if you’re strong enough for the area, so there’s also that to consider. You don’t need to take both skills, as that is complete and utter overkill. I should note that the encounter rates in dungeons aren’t too bad, so you don’t really need either skill in those places.
If you’re playing with the USA patch, then you really don’t need this skill! (Or Invisible.) It’s just plain overkill, especially at high levels!
The Samurai is a fantastic front line attacker to bring along. They may be a bit unwieldy and not as straightforward as the Fighter, but proper usage of one can greatly increase your party’s offensive capabilities.