Character Skills (キャラクタースキル, Kyarakutāsukiru) are passive skills exclusive to each of the Blood Maidens which are only active when they are apart of the party and meet its restrictions. While some character skills, such as Snow White's and Sleeping Beauty's, are references to their fairy tales, others are simply reflective of their character traits. Viability when it comes to character skills is dependent on how easy it is to meet its restrictions and how useful its effects are; however, different party compositions, skill load-outs, and strategies can make others more viable than others, and other factors should be considered when choosing a party.
Character Skills[]
Alice[]
As Jack cannot be KO'd in the second game, Alice's skill received an overhaul while keeping its original name.
- Favoritism (幼馴染ファヴォティスム, Osananajimi Favuotisumu): Increases the party's physical damage output when Jack is KO'd (Nightmares, Finale)
- Favoritism (ギ者ファヴォティスム, Gisha Favuotisumu): Lowers magic damage received when Alice's HP is 1% or less (Mary Skelter 2)
The first version of the skill can be relatively easy to trigger, either by having Jack guard a frequently attacked Blood Maiden or keeping his blood level low. However, this comes at the cost of not having Jack available to purge corruption or use items for a few turns. As long as the player can keep the Blood Splatters on the most corrupted girls low by using the Lick command, it shouldn't be a large issue.
Contrastingly, the second version of the skill is incredibly hard to obtain and maintain. As Alice does not have access to the Endure skill, she cannot purposely reach that threshold and must take hits from enemies to reach it. Once reached, Alice will likely be KO'd in a few more hits, so the player would likely try to heal her before this happens, thus placing her out of the skills trigger range.
Red Riding Hood[]
- Bulwark (姐御のバルウォーク, Anego no Baruuōku): Increases party's damage output when Red Riding Hood's HP is 75% or less
- Bulwark: Increases party’s damage output when Red Riding Hood’s HP is 50% or less. (Finale)
Red Riding Hood's skill has a wide range of effect and is easy to obtain. Ranking up the Endure skill from the Pierrot to its second rank will put Red Riding Hood right below 75% health, triggering the character skill. Kaguya and Rapunzel's skill works similarly but instead increases magical and physical defense respectively, so the player can switch out the Libero-Style characters depending on the circumstances or switch out Kaguya with her.
Thumbelina[]
- Dignity (長女のディグニティ, Chōjo no Diguniti): Boosts party's magical damage output when last 2 digits of Thumbelina's HP are the same
The trigger rate for Thumbelina's character skill is entirely up to luck, as enemies do not deal consistent damage amounts and it is difficult to maintain. Additionally, the skill's viability depends on the party compositions; if the party does not have many magical damage characters, the skill will be mostly wasted. Consequently, it can be incredibly useful in a party with many magical skill-users, such as Magician-Style Science-Style, and Libero-Style depending on how it is built. It can work well in tandem with Snow White's character skill, but as both are luck-based they are not likely to be triggered at the same time.
Snow White[]
- Concern (次女のコンサーン, Jijo no Konsān): Boosts party's damage output when last digit of Snow White's HP is 7.
Similarly to Thumbelina's character skill, the trigger rate of Snow White's is entirely up to luck and is difficult to maintain. As it is likely that the damage boost is for physical attacks only, Snow White's character skill suffers similarly to her older sister's depending on the party composition: if there are not many physical damage dealers, it will not be that useful, but in a party of mostly physical damage dealers, such as Fighter-Style, Archer-Style, and Libero-Style depending on how it's built, it can be incredibly useful. Ironically, due to her designated job style, being Science-Style, she likely won't be an effective physical damage-dealer, and thus, won't be affected much by her character skill triggering. It can work well in tandem with Thumbelina's character skill, but as both are luck-based they are not likely to be triggered at the same time.
Sleeping Beauty[]
- Tribute (三女のトリビュート, Sanjo no Toribyūto): Reduces party's elemental damage received when Sleeping Beauty is poisoned
Tribute is a character skill rarely to be seen, especially in the early game, as most enemies don't have any status effect skills at the early levels. The later dungeons, and especially theTower Base in Mary Skelter 2, will see it be triggered more often. Additionally, having Sleeping Beauty poisoned can be a significant hindrance and the length at which she will be poisoned is up to RNG. Once it is triggered, it can be pretty useful, as it can reduce the damage received from weaknesses and cover both physical and magical elemental skills.
Kaguya[]
- Resistance (高飛車的クラージュ, Takabishateki Kurāju): Chance of reducing party's magical damage when Kaguya's HP is 75% or less (Nightmares, 2)
- Resistance: Chance of reducing party’s magical damage received when Kaguya’s HP is 50% or less. (Finale)
Kaguya's skill is similar to both Rapunzel and Red Riding Hood's character skills, as they all have the same threshold to trigger the skill. However, Kaguya likely does not have a large health pool or easy way to get below 75% health, making it a little more difficult and risky to reach it. Unlike Red Riding Hood's character skill but similarly to Rapunzel's, Kaguya's skill only has a chance to trigger once that threshold is reached, making it somewhat unreliable.
Cinderella[]
- Proclamation (お嬢様のリテレイション, Ojōsama no Ritereishon): +1 random hit if Cinderella's HP is 50% or less and the enemy is hit by its weakness.
Cinderella's character skill requires some finesse to pull off but can ultimately be very useful in battle, especially if she is the main damage dealer of the party. As she doesn't have any skills that reduce her health like Pierrots do, she'll have to rely on random enemy hits to get to the health threshold, but as she is a Fighter-Style user, she'll likely have a large health pool to mitigate the risk of having her below half health. The party will also need at least one character who has access to elemental skills, with the most obvious choices being Mimics with the Scholar skill or Magician-Style characters. Once all this is established, Cinderella can help deal extra damage outside of her turn, with it being more and more useful the more elemental skill-users are in the party.
Gretel[]
- Compassion (サイコなコンパッション, Saikona Konpasshon): Chance of party HP recovery when Gretel receives magical damage
Compassion may be the easiest character skill to utilize, as it is completely passive with no thresholds to be met. It triggers randomly but heals the party's HP by a decent amount when it does activate. Some issues with her skill include that it is somewhat luck-based, as she needs to be targeted with magical damage in order for it to work, but as the player goes further in the game more enemies will have multi-hit magical damage, increasing the chances, and the fact that it can throw off other character skills that do require certain health thresholds.
Rapunzel[]
- Fortitude (食いしん坊タフネス, Kuishinbō Tafunesu): Chance of reducing party's physical damage when Rapunzel's HP is 75% or less (Nightmares, 2)
- Fortitude: Chance of reducing party’s physical damage received when Rapunzel’s HP is 10% or less. (Finale)
Rapunzel's character skill is a near copy to Kaguya's and is similar to Red Riding Hood's, with each having the same health limit to reach. However, unlike Kaguya who does not have access to harming skills and may have a low health pool, Rapunzel often has access to Endure (she only needs 2 ranks to get her below 75%) from the Pierrot job and at least a decent HP stat. However, the choice between the three girls boils down to the player's preference/need on whether they prefer more damage output, the chance of reduced magical damage, the chance of reduced physical damage, or some combination of them.
Hameln[]
- Atonement (裏切り者のアトーンメント, Uragirimono no Atōnmento): Increases the party's Critical rate when last digit of Hameln's HP is seven
Atonement is another luck-based character skill that has the exact same requirement as Snow White's character skill. As the player cannot control how much health Hameln has nor can reliably maintain that number for long periods of time, it makes the character skill difficult to pull off. However, unlike Snow White and Thumbelina, Hameln's character skill is useful to all members of party, regardless of the method of damage output, as critical hits will multiply both physical and magical damage.
Little Mermaid[]
Similarly to Alice, Little Mermaid has a different character skill depending on the game.
- Beloved: Party inflicts greater damage when Little Mermaid's HP is 5% or less (Nightmares, Finale)
- Melody (奇跡のメロディ, Kiseki no Merodi): Lowers physical damage when Little Mermaid's HP is 1% or less (Mary Skelter 2)
Both skills are incredibly hard to pull off, as Little Mermaid naturally does not have very high health or defense, making it risky to attempt to put her under either of these thresholds and difficult to maintain as she will likely be KO'd in a few turns unless she is healed. The first of the two increases damage dealt and the second increases DEF, both of which could be useful if the party is in a tight pinch, but yet again, these useful skills will likely go out of effect the very next turn.
Otsuu[]
As the protagonist of the second game, Otsuu does not have a character skill there. However, as the bonus character of the remake and a standard character in Finale, she does actually gain a character skill.
- Infatuation: 1 person randomly attacks when Otsuu's HP is 100% or less, and she strikes an enemy's weak point.
While somewhat oddly worded, the skill itself is a variant of Cinderella's. While less reliable with it being a random trigger, it's health threshold is literally Otsuu's entire health bar, so it will always be active. Additionally, she will always strike at an enemy's weak point, doing significant damage depending on her class and weapon. Otsuu along with Gretel have the two easiest character skills to use as both are entirely passive. If character skills can work in tandem to each other, it's possible that the trigger of Otsuu's character skill could trigger Cinderella's, doing significant extra damage, but this has not been tested.
Mary[]
- Lullaby (陰者の籠り歌, Insha no Komori Uta): When Mary is poisoned, party’s overall attribute damage is less.
Charlotte[]
- Embrace (抱擁のＡネーション, Hōyō no A Nēshon): Occasionally reduce magic damage taken when Charlotte’s HP drops below half.
Shira/Pyre[]
- Passion (燃え上がる魂, Moeagaru Tamashī): When Pyre’s HP is critically low, her whole party’s ATK increases.