Introduction

What’s better than a new GFE being introduced? How about three! Sitri , Dantallion , and Paimon  are all coming to North America and are following the cross-meta pattern to trigger their leader skills along with powerful actives alongside. In addition to all sharing the cross formation, they all are heavily skewed towards orb enhances as their primary damage enhancement as crosses can only utilize 5 orbs at a time.

Video commentary

Sitri review

Sitri – 5* GFE

Devil / Healer
3,306 HP / 1,442 ATK / 835 RCV
897 Total
    

Active Skill:
   
8 turn CD

Leader Skill:
1.35x HP / ATK for Devils. 3x ATK for clearing a water cross (max 2 in a 6×5 board)
1.82x HP / 147.62x ATK

Pros

• Is only a 5-star GFE
• One of the best double orb changers as you do not remove hearts
• Amazing burst damage potential
• Can control your damage via 16x with 1 water cross
• Not as orb hungry as Sarasvati  or You Yu 
• Has a small HP multiplier
• An amazing sub or assistant via skill inheritance
• Could be a pretty girl, but my vision is still blurry

Cons

• A lack of time extends  on your leaders
• Full multiplier will result in low combo count
• Cannot overflow the board with water orbs
• Requires water devils to gain full multiplier (results in a 81x ATK otherwise)

Impressions

Sitri is yet another glass-cannon in an era of heart-cross leaders. This automatically puts her at a disadvantage as she has no real defensive capabilities (the health is nice, but less meaningful than recovery). However, this simply means she will be used in a similar manner as You Yu or Sarasvati: drowning the boss with only 10 water orbs. This puts her as the least orb hungry as Sarasvati requires 12 to reach her full potential (this will change in the future) and You Yu needs 11 for 100x. Unfortunately, you need to use water devils to fully take advantage of her multiplier (discussed down below). One other concern will be a lack of time extends on the leaders along with a low combo count due to spacing issues.

On the flip side, Sitri is going to make a fantastic sub due to her unique active that provides a massive amount of water orb generation along with not removing hearts. Not removing heart orbs is the main selling point as this will allow her to combo with other board changers and give you the opportunity to heal while dealing lethal damage. This means she will also be a wonderful assistant through skill inheritance as you can upgrade various subs if you wish to take advantage of a better body/awakenings.

Water Devils

It is of course ideal to use water devils to fully take advantage of Sitri’s multiplier; however, you can still get away with not using a few if it means you gain access to stronger cards/actives. Non-devils would be only contributing 81x ATK which is still a very high multiplier and the health component is less important when you play in coop.

A few possible water devils that come to mind include, but not limited to: Awoken Hermes , Awoken I&I , Rinoa , Awoken Isis , Hatsume , Amon , Awoken U&Y , and Merlin Rider .

When choosing non-devils, simply pick the best cards at your disposal for either orb changers, utility, or time extend.

Summary for Sitri

Sitri is a powerful glass cannon leader who requires less water orbs to deal lethal damage than other glass cannon leaders. However, she has the annoying devil clause that will dampen her team building potential. Thankfully, she comes with one of the strongest actives in the game as she will allow you to generate numerous water orbs along with not removing your hearts orbs. One of the better assistants through skill inheritance.

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Dantalion review

Dantalion – 6* GFE

Devil / Attacker
4,504 HP / 2,303 ATK / 266 RCV
1,000 Total
    

Active Skill:
3   
3   
1 turn haste
7 turn CD

Leader Skill:
3.5x ATK for each fire cross match (max 2 on a 6×5 board). 3x ATK when 2+ heal combos
1,350x ATK

Pros

• 1,350x ATK
• Has some damage control as you can either match 1 fire cross OR 2 heal combos for 9-10.5x ATK
• Can form a system due to a 7-turn active with haste
• Can use the now dated Scarlet System  as subs
• Enough damage to trivialize any boss without resolve or funky mechanics
• Uses a more diverse sub pool than Xiang Mei 
• Has some confusing masks

Cons

• Is a 6-star GFE
• Ideal subs are himself for system
• A lack of time extends  on your leaders
• No survivability and has some issues with damage control
• Will struggle on content that requires heavy stalling
• Haste has less value in coop
• Full multiplier will result in low combo count

Impressions

 

Oh look, 1,350x ATK for 4 combos. This is a little absurd and reminds me of the Kenshin Collab cards. Thankfully, Dantalion is a little easier to activate for max damage as he only requires 6 heart orbs and 10 fire orbs. In addition, his active is quite powerful for himself as it provides 3 fire and 3 heart orbs and the valuable haste that could be potentially looped with 2 of himself as subs for a system. However, as stated many times, outrageous damage is great for some content, but will be heavily shut down by bosses with damage absorption shields, resolve, or places where you must stall. Furthermore, Dantalion will struggle with super end-game content as all of these bosses have some sort of mechanic that will hinder his progress (the Arena 3 Radar Dragons come to mind).

However, if that kind of content is not your goal, Dantalion will still burn his way through content provided you have access to enough actives, orbs, and matching skills. I do foresee Dantalion being challenging to use effectively as you need the hearts to deal lethal damage which can make stalling difficult. However, dual fire crosses achieve a 150x ATK multiplier which should be more than sufficient for most bosses. Unfortunately, a lack of time extends may challenge some players as you require a lot of orb manipulation for activation.

Team building Dantalion

Dantalion has no type restrictions and should ideally bring fire/heart orb generators. Even pure heart-makers can be powerful as 2 heart combos and a single fire cross is still 110.25x ATK. Conversely, you could also bring heart breakers as you are able to hit 150x ATK with 2 fire crosses. The point is, you have lots of options. You could also bring more utility based subs to either help mitigate damage or clear binds as your leaders are not bind immune.

Some wonderful options include, but not limited to Gadius , Urd , Uriel , Yamato , Cao Cao , Sanada , and Scarlet . If you run a full team of Scarlets/Dantalions as subs, you will have a powerful system that could use 3 actives every turn. If you only have 2 subs with haste (on a 7-turn CD), you can use 1 haste active per turn. You could even do the full multiplier every other turn if you use 1 Scarlet  + 2 Dantalions then your other 3 Scarlets.

Summary for Dantalion

Dantalion became more positive the longer I wrote about him as you have the potential to form a full system with farmable Scarlets. This results in 10-12 fire orbs per turn and 150x ATK (I am ignoring hearts) which should be enough to sweep content. Furthermore, Scarlets all have a time extend awakening which should help with orb manipulation.  Dantalion may feel like a more bursty Cao Cao (outside of full fire board swipes) and gives fire boxes a new and powerful leader.

Paimon review

Paimon – 6* GFE

Devil / Physical
5,502 HP / 1,746 ATK / 302 RCV
1,000 Total
   

Active Skill:
3  
3   
1 turn haste
7 turn CD

Leader Skill:
3x ATK for each light cross matched (max 2 in a 6×5 board). 3x ATK & 35% damage reduction for a heart cross
729x ATK / 57.75% Damage Reduction

Pros

• 729x ATK paired with 57.75% damage reduction
• Joins the ranks of the powerful heart-cross meta
• Has some damage control as you can either match 1 light cross OR 1 heart cross for 9x ATK
• Can form a system due to a 7-turn active with haste
• Enough damage to trivialize most bosses without resolve or funky mechanics
• Best leader of these three new cards
• Damage reduction allows him to tackle end game content as you effectively have 50% more HP/RCV
• Has modest time extention awakenigns  on your leaders
• His crown is so big and heavy with all the magic stones it took to roll him

Cons

• Is a 6-star GFE
• Ideal subs are himself for system
• Very challenging to fully activate your leader skill
• Will struggle on content that has absorption mechanics
• Haste has less value in coop
• Full multiplier will result in very low combo count

Impressions

Paimon is the best of the three newly released Godfest Exclusives as he combines both high damage and survivability. Blisteringly high damage will still lose out to a lower multiplier with defensive capabilities, especially when a heart cross is involved. Paimon brings the best of both worlds and his main draw back is the somewhat orb hungry nature (needs 15 specific orbs) and innately low combo count. The 10 light and 5 heart orbs required for your full multiplier is not horrible as most cards do require actives to burst down bosses and Paimon is no exception. Unfortunately, 3 cross formations effectively means you have no other space for additional combos and it will be challenging to over come combo shields even if you only make 2 crosses. Thankfully, a heart and light cross will still result in 81x damage which should be reasonably sufficient for most content even without the addition of TPA or rows.

Paimon will use very similar subs to Myr  as both are light based-cross leaders. However, it is possible to bring heart breakers as two light crosses is still 81x ATK. If just has a bit more spacing issues (as a light and heart cross can touch), but is still effective. Unfortunately, you will not be benefiting from damage mitigation which is the signature of heart cross teams. Regardless of which cross you try to match, Paimon may suffer from a lack of time extends which could place constraints on orb manipulation. By comparison, Myr adds 4 additional seconds while Paimon only provides 2. This may or may not be an issue and comes down to planning and individual skill.

Paimon could also function as a sub on Myr teams as he has a favourable active.

Team building Paimon

As stated above, Paimon will build similarly to Myr, but does have more flexibility when bringing orb changers as you can still proc 81x ATK without heart orbs. Some strong subs include, but not limited to DQXQ , Baal , Saria , Apocalypse , Apollo , and Wukong. I recommend you read my Myr team building guide for a more expansive list as they essentially share the same subs.

It is challenging to build a system team for Paimon as you require at least 2 duplicates of himself to use 1 Paimon active per turn.

Summary for Paimon

Paimon is the strongest of the three new GFE released due to the damage mitigation component. Spectacular damage means nothing when your team cannot survive mechanics. Thankfully he combines the best of both worlds and his main drawback is a lack of time extend and perhaps to a certain extent, the lower shielding value. The 57.75% damage reduction may not be enough to survive some execution abilities a 75% shield would.

Conclusion

Sitri, Dantalion, and Paimon all bring value to your monster box as either glass cannons, high end leads, or wonderful skill inheritance options. None of them will shift up the meta, but simply add some diversification to your monster box.

Let me know what you think about these three new cards.

Happy Puzzling!

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