Comprehensive Gweon Sua Guide for Big-Brain Literature Enjoyers

Appendix

For the benefit of those new to the game or not up to date on specific definitions and/or abbreviations, I'll have this small section here so you can update yourself on these terms or follow along with what the heck I'm talking about during sections of the guide.

Yes, I know an Appendix comes at the end of a book, but it's easier to go back to the start than the end, having these at the beginning will help anyone who wants to know now read them first, and also appendix placement is dumb.

So, anyways, here's the terms I may be using across the guide:

HP - Health Points: If you've played any sort of game, you know what these are. If you have some, you're fine! If you have none left, you're not fine!

SP - Stamina Points: Functionally the same as anything like "Mana" or whatnot in other games, Stamina is used for everything from searching, to crafting to using skills.

AP - Attack Power: The stat that determines your damage, and is also what your skills "scale" off of. When I define a skill as having "60% AP" scaling, for example, this means that 60% of your total AP is what is added to that skill as extra damage.

Def - Defence: The stat that defines your, well, defence. It affects the damage you take from enemy attacks and skills - the specific formulae I'm not sure of, personally, but the higher your number compared to their damage, the less you're gonna hurt.

EXP - Mastery Experience: This refers to the experience you'll gain from various things you'll be doing that'll contribute to your overall level. I've made a guide that goes into the basics of ER:BS as a game, including the Mastery System, so if you don't know what that's about, I'd recommend you go read through that section or do some independent research.

Amp - Skill Amplification: This is a stat you'll see being very common throughout some plans/routes in this guide. Amp/Skill Amp is a stat that specifically influences only your skills - including some passives - in percentage amounts, meaning they increase the damage that your skill would normally be doing by that amount, calculated after AP scaling. If it sounds complicated, don't worry about it, because it boils down to: BONK HARDER.

ESD - Extra Skill Damage: Like Skill Amplification, this augments your skill damage. However, ESD only does so by a flat amount which is added on after calculating skill damage with Amp. Does what it says on the tin; just a bit of extra skill damage.

AS - Attack Speed: How fast your character can normal attack.

Crit - Critical Strike Chance: The chance you have to land a critical hit, dealing 125% of your original normal attack damage.

ENAD - Extra Normal Attack Damage: Functionally the same as ESD, but for Normal Attacks. It applies a flat amount of additional damage to your normal attack.

Red - Damage Reduction: How much of a specific damage type you're reducing by a certain amount. I'll be using this with a relevant prefix to denote that an item includes that specific type of damage reduction. E.G: ENAD Red = Extra Normal Attack Damage Reduction.

CDR - Cooldown Reduction: Reduces the time needed for your skills to "cool down" before they can be used again.

Regen - Regeneration: This is how much HP or SP your character is regenerating passively during an Experiment. I'll be sure to note which we're talking about whenever it's applicable.

MS - Movement Speed: The speed you're walking, running or skipping at.

CC - Crowd Control: A general term used for any ability or effect that impairs a character's ability to move or attack. This'll typically be used for things such as Slows or Stuns, however.

Skillshot: A term used very widely in MOBAs to define a skill that you need to aim, rather than being a targeted ability.

AOE - Area of Effect: Meaning the area of which an ability or effect applies, like a large circle, or cone or trail.

DoT - Damage Over Time: This is a term for any effect or ability that causes the target to take, well... damage over time. Things like Wickeline's buff you gain for hunting her grant you these effects on enemies.

Unstoppable: Any character with this status is unable to be crowd controlled while they have it. Nothing can knock them back, stun them, and so on; they are a force of NATURE.

Blind: A character that's been Blinded can no longer connect with Normal Attacks on enemy targets, and any effects that would apply alongside them - like Yuki's Q, From Head to Toe [eternalreturn.fandom.com] - won't be applied to the missed Normal Attacks.

1/2/3/4/5 (+AP n%): This is an example of how I'll be presenting some damage values for skills during their breakdowns. Whichever number is in the slashes, (/) dictates the base values of the skill at levels 1 through 5. As an example, in 45/75/105, 45 is the value at level 1.

Opening Up

To get us started, I'm going to establish a few things about the character you're going to be learning and playing, assuming you're sticking with Sua for a good long time. So here's some basic facts about the character, alongside some small character details.

Character Details and StatsName: Gweon Sua

Age: 28

Height: 159cm

Nationality: Korean

Test Subject #: 17M-RFT33

Occupation: Librarian

Notable Traits: Exceptional Mnemonic Ability and Empathy.

Stats

At Character Level 1

HPSPAPDEF 7204802323

Masteries: Hammer

Range(s): Melee

Playstyle: Skill Weaver/Sustained or Burst Damage

Difficulty Grade: A

Sua, released on Early Access Patch 0.31.0 (Season 2, Patch 1), is a character with a set of skills focused around hitting a precise target in one of her abilities in order to create multiple combinations by using her defining ability, "Memory", which allows her to recall the last basic ability used and repeat it. This allows her a variety of options during fights, and offers her utility that most characters have to wait for.

Skills & Combos: The Handheld Guide

Since I have a lot to talk about, I'll be breaking down each skill into it's own sections after this one, which'll cover a breakdown of their statistics, uses, notes - if any - and some personal thoughts and recommendations surrounding the skill's general application. Afterwards, I'll be covering combos you can use from level 2 for all sorts of situations. I'll go into which skills you want to level and in what order later in routing and builds, as it can vary depending on your items or route.

Passive/Trait: Bookworm

Whenever Sua uses a skill, she gains a stack of "Bookworm". Each stack remains for 5 seconds and refreshes the duration whenever a new stack is gained (to a maximum of 3 stacks).

Each stack of Bookworm increases her attack speed by 40%.

When Sua has a stack of Bookworm, her next normal attack is enhanced into an overhead BONK, dealing additional damage to her target and half as much damage to targets within 2 meters of the original target.

30% of this damage dealt is recovered as HP to Sua, and every time she hits a BONK, it reduces her basic skill cooldowns by 1.5 seconds. This only applies once if multiple targets are hit with the area damage.

Skill Damage: 30/75/120(+AP 60%)(+DEF 40%)

Within 2m range: 15/38/60 (+AP 30%)(+DEF 20%)

Duration: 5 Seconds

Attack Speed (Per Stack): 40%

Cooldown Reduction On Hit: 1.5s

Healing: 30% of Damage DealtWhile most character's passives can be ignored for the most part, outside of specific builds, (looking at you, Yuki) Sua's passive is the butter portion of her bread and butter, and ties together her whole skillset.

You'll know it's enhanced when you see the skill icon above your skills - with a number marking the number of stacks - and Sua's next attack swings down in a large hammer swing that lifts her off the ground.

It's not just strong, it's cute, too!

On top of that, It reduces your skill cooldowns by 1.5 seconds after every normal attack following a skill use.

What this means is that late-game, with a bit of CDR and proper skill-weaving alongside your normal attacks, you can CC-chain a single foe for over 3 seconds. I'll explain this later in this section.

The way you want to be using this is attempting to get a BONK in between each skill to maximise your damage and reduce the cooldowns of the skills you've already used. You'll generally have enough time after each instance of CC to get a quick attack in and cancel the animation by using the next skill - with some exceptions we'll get into with the combo sections.

As a note, If you have the maximum three stacks, be sure to use them, as additional stacks won't stacked on top beyond that or - you're just losing potential damage, CDR and healing at that point. Gaining new stacks won't refresh the timer, so be sure to keep that in mind.

Don't feel like you're wasting time, too, because thanks to the 40% AS per stack, the more BONKs you have, the faster you can put the first of three out - in which case, it's absolutely viable to hold onto two stacks and continue skill-weaving until you have to start reducing Memory's cooldown, which we'll talk about later.

I recommend putting an extra point in this as soon as you can, as it's the source of your most consistent damage early on. 45 extra damage early on is nothing to sneeze at, but if you'd rather put this into Odyssey or Don Quixote early on, I can understand that, too. But given it regenerates a percentage of HP you deal, it can be the difference maker. I myself generally bump it to level 2 and leave it there until after I've maxed out E. In squads and duos, however, I generally take this over Don Quixote max, as the additional AOE damage can be super useful.

Notes

Here's some things to keep in mind about Bookworm's big BONK that I've discovered that helps inform what you're going to be building. So, first of all, the enhanced attack is Skill Damage. Now, your mind is probably already working; use ESD. You're right there, friend! Stuff like Straightjacket Sneakers that offer ESD are pretty solid on Sua, as they enhance her already consistent damage with Bookworm's enhanced attacks and compliment the rapid rate you're firing off skills, given the extra CDR each enhanced hit offers.

However, there's more.

Despite it being skill damage, it seems the skill converts your normal attack damage into skill damage. Or, at the very least - it applies ENAD.

Not a clue why, but this offers so many extra angles for potential routing and armour options, and allows Sua to make good use of other hammer options.

On that topic, I'll add that sadly, due to it being skill damage, it doesn't apply Lifesteal. Bummer.

However, with that in mind, effectively transforming your basic attack into a skill means that items, augments or abilities that apply normal attack reduction don't apply to Bookworm's BONK.

After some testing, and given the nature of ESD itself and how much better it works with skills as a whole, ENAD-focused builds are generally a lot weaker and bottleneck you into going to Chapel, but offer an upside that most of those routes offer more Defence-heavy items.

On that note, remember that this scales with AP and DEF - dealing more damage the more you have - meaning that it's pretty effective to just walk around as a Mithril Librarian and still be majorly effective. Makes sense, a heavier book means a bigger bump.

- Ability 1 (Q): Odyssey

Anywhere within a moderate range, Sua creates two open books at two ends of a rectangular area, with a slim center section in the middle. After one second, the books fly towards each other and collide in the center, damaging any target along their paths and applying a Bookmark for 3.5 seconds.

If a new Bookmark is applied on a target who already has one, the previous Bookmark is removed, dealing additional damage. Any enemy in the center is stunned for 0.75 seconds.

Bookmarks can be applied to multiple targets at once.

Skill Damage: 45/75/105/135/165 (+AP 40%)

Bookmark: 20/40/60/80/100 (+AP 60%)

Range: 8m

Damaging Area: Length 6m, Width 2m

Stunning Center Radius: 0.4m

Cost: 50/60/70/80/90

Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8sThere's actually a lot less to talk about or note with Odyssey, despite it's being a skillshot and the most difficult part of her skill set. The most notable part about it is the size of this skill's AOE. It's a pretty large, damaging area that applies a Bookmark to everything that it damages, regardless of whether they're stunned or not.

On that subject, the stun doesn't last too long, but it's all you need to set up your other skills, which we'll go into when we talk about those. Hitting it is probably going to be the part you have to get used to; the skill has a fairly large delay before it stuns, and the area in which it does stun is incredibly narrow, so it's amazingly easy for other test subjects to dodge, especially if they move as you aren't expecting.What you'll want to be doing is - like with any skill - aiming where they're going to be. You have a lot more options whenever someone makes a move first; Jackie's jump, Luke's E - these are their only ways to dodge on reaction, and if they're spent on making a move on you, you're more than capable of chaining this with your other skills to make a move. Again, the delay makes this skill Sua's hardest factor to get used to, and why I consider her to be higher on the difficulty.

As I've mentioned above, adding a new Bookmark onto a target will activate the old one and deal a pretty significant amount of damage later into the game. If you can reduce your Q cooldown substantially enough to be able to re-apply another one and deal additional damage before the 3.5 seconds expire, I'd definitely recommend that over another follow-up, as it offers more damage.

This is made easier thanks to your fourth ability, which we'll go over later, but for now, keep these points in mind:

While the skill is fairly large, remember that the actual area in which you can stun is incredibly narrow, and the wind up before the books collide is substantial enough to allow reaction time enough to step to the side.

Late in the game, this gets to an incredibly low cooldown - even without CDR - assuming you're clocking people with the BONK from Bookworm, to the point where you should pretty much be able to use Odyssey in combination with your enhanced normal attacks for the whole fight thanks to the 1.5 second reduction to your skills from every hit.

Bookmarks you apply can only be removed through 3 different means. Activated by another bookmark being applied, expiring after the 3.5 second duration, or whenever you hit the affected enemy with Don Quixote or Memory of Don Quixote. I'll explain these later.

- Ability 2 (W): The Curious Case

This ability can be cast on both allies and enemies and functions differently depending on the target.

Ally Target

Sua sends her Blue Bird to her ally to grant them a small skill damage shield for 3 seconds, making them Unstoppable for the duration.

Enemy Target: Sua's bird flies at the target enemy and deals a small amount of damage before Blinding them for a duration that increases based on the level.

Shield Strength: 100/130/160/190/220(+AP 20%)

Shield & Unstoppable Duration: 4 Seconds

Blind Damage: 25/50/75/110/135(+AP 40%)

Blind Duration: 0.8/0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2 Seconds

Range: Targeted 6m

Cost: 70/85/100/115/130

Cooldown: 26/24/22/20/18 SecondsThe Curious Case is Sua's more surface-level complex skill given it's two different functions and situational applications of the shield. Outside of those situations, it's fairly simple: self or ally apply it when you need to get out of being CC'd, enemy cast when you need to blind someone to avoid Normal Attacks.

However, as implied, it has a few specific applications or tricks that make Curious Case more versatile than just "Unstoppable Shield" and "Blind".

Let's break it apart into pieces for now to keep it a little more focused on one half of the skill at a time.

Since it's the least complex of the two, let's talk about the Blind portion for now, as it also has the least situational applications and neat tricks and features.

The Blind BirdWhat you'll immediately notice about the Blind portion of Curious Case is that despite it being targeted, it has a travel time, since you have to wait for Sua's bird to travel to the target's destination and only then will it blind them. You'll know when they're blinded by either the "Blind" status effect that hangs over their HP bar, or by the Blue Bird circling their character. You'll have to keep this in mind if you're aiming to blind a character who you may believe is going to turn on you, because in effect, it increases the time it takes for the blind to land. There isn't much additional counterplay this offers, since "Pre-Blinding yourself" isn't really that impressive a tactic.

However, it does also delay the damage, meaning they have time to regenerate, wait for cooldowns and so on before it could potentially hurt them. So don't get lazy and try for a fadaway bird on that low HP Cathy, as she may just have time to swipe a nearby bat and grab her shield, movement speed and scamper away.

The biggest notable thing about this Blind - and all blinds - is that it makes Normal Attacks and all of their on-hit effects completely miss. This means anything such as Yuki's Q Ability and the stun/slow it may come with are evaded and effectively nullified.

As a final note, if you're looking to add an extra stack of Bookworm for that extra lil' BONK, using Curious Case on an enemy is definitely the best call. As opposed to using the Shield, the Blind has little to no animation, allowing you to activate it, gain a stack of Bookworm and then get another quick BONK in. For that purpose, if you've no need for the Shield (which isn't ever the case, pretty much everyone in this game as some form of CC) but want that extra damage, 1.5 seconds of CDR and some more damage, have at it.

The Benevolent BirdAs we eluded to earlier, using Curious Case on an ally will give them a small barrier against Skill Damage instantly. The caveat is that you - the Sua - enter a small animation period of which you can't normal attack, and that's pretty substantial given her identity as needing to weave normal attacks between skills. We mentioned this earlier, so instead I'll move onto the meat.

Sua's W is one of the only non-ultimate (fourth skill) skills that grant the Unstoppable status on demand. Hyunwoo is one of these - though his Bluff applies it only to himself for a short time.

So suffice to say the ability to target an ally, say "Hey, go nuts." and just let them ignore anything CC-related for 3 whole seconds? That's insanely potent.

However, there's always a drawback and asterisks attached to this jar of sweet, life-saving honey, so here's some notes - both negative and positive:

Here's the biggie. As mentioned, it's a skill damage shield. A small skill damage shield that can be easily broken, alongside the Unstoppable status. The ideal scenario is that you pop this on yourself or an ally when you want to ignore something like Silvia's slowing gate or when Chiara's Mania chain is about to root you to the spot. What may end up happening is that this is broken ahead of time if you use it too early in anticipation of the big immobilising effects. Leon, Chiara, Isol - they all have substantial CC that you can absolutely squander your timing on and lose out on everything due to their consistent skill damage that'll shred your shield.

A lot of these downsides come along with it being a skill damage shield, don't they? Well, needless to say, this does nothing to protect you against sharp swords or hot lead. But that's why you have the Blind. However, for cases like Aya, having to make the choice between one second less of gunfire or shrugging off her Blank Cartridge is a situational toss up that will jumble you on your first outings.

The final huge note I can give you about the shield is the ability to make any other character able to have three seconds to get out their game-changers uninterrupted. Hyunwoo's Haymaker needs a while to get to it's max power when he begins to charge; not only can you stun the poor souls pinned to the wall for him, you can also ensure it's going to take more effort to interrupt him. This is just one example of many skills you, as a Sua player, can facilitate. Folks, no more worries about interruptions mid-charge or your escape being snatched from the sky - Sua has your back.

- Ability 3 (E): Don Quixote

Sua manifests a lance around her pen, flying in a straight line charge forward for a good distance. She stops on contact with the first enemy she charges into, dealing a chunk of damage and slowing the target for 1 second. If the target has a Bookmark applied to them from Odyssey, the target takes more damage and is knocked airborne for the same duration, instead.

Damaging an enemy Test Subject causes the cooldown of Don Quixote to be reduced by 20%.

Skill Damage: 90/120/150/180/210 (+AP 40%)

On Bookmarked Target: 120/160/200/240/280 (+AP 60%)

Range: 8m

Slow Amount: 50%

Slow Duration: 1s

Knockup Duration: 1s

Cost: 90/110/130/150/170

Cooldown: 20/18.5/17/15.5/14sThis is your premier engage & escape tool as Sua. You pick up your lil' librarian platform sandals and take off and slam into the first enemy you make contact with. More often than not, you're using this as your way to get in and either slow them or knock them up, since it's a large chunk of your CC. As mentioned above, if Sua collides with any target or any form of environment, she stops short, so keep that in mind. I'll address why this sucks later, but for now, I wanna go over the offensive use, because this is absolutely how you're incentivised to use this; 20% reduction to it's cooldown when you damage targets and additional damage when combined with Odyssey definitely pushes the agenda.

Speaking of the combo with Odyssey, there's an error made in the ability notes, even on the wiki, too. It mentions that "Enemies stunned by Odyssey are knocked up..." and so on, so forth. However, this is misinformation, because what it should actually say is that any target with a Bookmark applied by Odyssey are knocked up and dealt additional damage. In effect, this is a more indirect way to get the additional damage you'd get from applying a new Bookmark, but Don Quixote actually removes the Bookmark on the target. This is just to stop you from doing a double knock-up using Memory - but again, we'll address that later.

So yeah, when you're starting out, don't feel too pressured to hit the stun thinking you lose all your CC if you don't, because the character information is incorrect, and all you have to do is manage to get them somewhere within that huge AOE we mentioned before and you'll be set with that Bookmark! Who says reading doesn't help?

I remember Day One of Sua's release - so many people thought this ability was ridiculous. Eight meter dash that deals damage and can knock up? Fully ignoring the many negatives of this skill and definitely picking and choosing.

With that in mind, let's run through the huge positives and huge negatives in a note form to recap some stuff, too:

Pros This skill has a fairly large area it can hit in, so if someone's trying to sidestep a bit too late, they're about to make like Fortunato in The Cask of Amontillado and get buried in the brickwork.

As we mentioned before, hitting the stun portion of Odyssey helps, but it's not a necessity. So if you're worried about needing to take your time getting used to the delay of the skill and whatnot, you don't have to pass up the chance for the knock-up if you miss the stun.

In terms of sheer distance for a basic ability, Don Quixote probably comes in second in the cast just under Eleven's "On Air" in terms of sheer distance for a basic ability, being the one that requires a channel time or use of her trait to allow her to even go the same distance unrestricted that Sua's does without caveats. As a result, it makes an amazing escape tool, especially if you're willing to expend Memory's cooldown to go even further, as well as effectively giving Sua's some of the best potential to chase after a fleeing Test Subject, even if they use all they have.

During the wind-up of the skill - as Sua's hammer is transforming into the lance - Sua can't be interrupted. This gives you some resources to additionally avoid something like a knockback you might see coming, like Bat's weapon skill or Silvia's Spare Tire.

The knock-up duration usually affords you just enough time to squeeze one, maybe even two BONKs (depending on build), which means two times you're getting a 20% CDR on the skills, plus the three seconds from Bookworm. Later on, that'll usually mean Don Quixote is ready to use almost immediately after.Cons This skill has a fairly large area it can hit. Yes, in the right situations is is a pro, but let's say you've been jumped by a Cathy, and she decides to use her extra movement speed to run in front of you or just stand on top of you, and she's too fast for you to run away from after stunning her to get distance; you just bumped into her and went basically nowhere, while using your only escape option. Someone can also jump into your path or on top of you. Shoichi, Jackie - these two are particularly nasty, since their mobility are either instantaneous or incredibly fast and able to get past you. So, to note, don't panic and use this immediately - you can and will be blocked if you do.

At Level 1, this skill has a cooldown of 20 seconds. Compared to most escape skills, this is incredibly long for how limiting it is. As an example, Jackie's Leaping Strike allows her to cross terrain at a shorter distance, but can pass over most obstructions incredibly quickly. Due to the 20% CDR you benefit from by way of dealing damage to enemies, this skill was absolutely designed to be used on the enemy as opposed to retreating with Bookworm's CDR also in mind; using it to run puts you at an even larger disadvantage than most if you can't clobber someone after you're out.

With that out of the way, let's move onto Sua's meatiest skill.

- Ability 4 (R): Memory

Using her incredible Mnemonic ability, Sua remembers the last basic skill used and can replicate it at no additional cost. The replicated skill utilises Memory's cooldown and doesn't share a cooldown with the original skill.

Whenever a skill is replicated via Memory, it takes on a pink hue instead of the usual green to visually portray that it's her memorised skill.

Cooldown: 60/50/40Memory of Odyssey Skill Damage: 95/130/165 (+AP 40%)

Bookmark: 40/70/100 (+AP 60%)

Range: 8m

Damaging Area: Length 6m, Width 2m

Stunning Center Radius: 0.4m

Memory of The Curious Case Shield Duration: 4 Seconds

Shield Health: 110/220/330 (+AP 20%)

Blind Damage: 50/100/150 (+AP 30%)

Blind Duration: 0.8/1.0/1.2 Seconds

Range: Targeted 6m

Memory of Don Quixote Skill Damage: 100/160/220 (+AP 40%)

On Bookmarked Target: 150/240/330 (+AP 60%)

Slow Amount: 50%

Slow Duration: 1s

Knockup Duration: 1s

(For information on the Memory variants of each skill, you can refer to the original skill's chapters, as they operate exactly as their original variants do, with the exclusion of their cooldowns and damage.)

Sua's a clever lady, and naturally, her incredible memory and brains come into play; so should yours. Memory opens up so many avenues in how you play and approach specific situations as Sua. There's not too much to talk about for Memory in terms of the skill at it's base, but a good general tip is that learning the skill won't queue up a skill retroactively. As an example, say you use Odyssey to smack a couple of wolves down and you hit level 6 from that. Odyssey won't be ready to be used by Memory. So if you're looking to have a Memory skill ready to lead with, be sure to use that skill at some point afterwards if you want it prepared.

As we mentioned before with Odyssey, you can use Memory to activate the Bookmarks you apply to instantly deal more damage to a target you've stunned by using Memory to re-activate Odyssey. This opens you up to combo this with Don Quixote to knock up your target and deal additional damage by consuming the new Bookmark created by Memory - which will also be pink, incidentally. It's your general all-purpose option for how you'll be using Memory, and typically part of your bread and butter gameplay. We'll talk about this more in the combos, but for now, all you gotta know is that this is how you're gonna smack heads in-between your copy of Order of the Phoenix and keep them still and dazed.

Memory of The Curious Case is incredibly situational, definitely coming in much more of use in team-based modes. As we mentioned before, a 3 second-long shield and unstoppable status attached to it is incredibly powerful. So imagine if you could do it twice? This gives you a second chance to avoid some CC, or even apply it to an additional target if you're playing Duos or Squads, allowing you and an ally to say "nope" to that long trail of oil keeping Adriana away from you. Keep in mind, as well, that the shield does not stack, so if you're using it for the skill damage shield - which I don't advise, save it for substantial CC making their way to either your or your team's lovely faces - be sure to keep that in mind.

The blind option is a lot more universally helpful, but especially damning for specific matchups, given that it ruins the days of characters like Luke or Cathy, who rely on those initial hits to facilitate their game plans - stacking this after the initial one second of blind can be incredibly frustrating. This is typically what makes normal-attack builds against Sua particularly frustrating - especially for those with limited windows of normal-attack enhancement, like Luke or Li Dailin.

Again, however, using this is typically not as advisable as just using Memory of Odyssey for a 0.75s stun as well as the enormous burst of damage, especially considering that the basic blind duration on Curious Case is typically more than enough to buy you some time.

Or I guess you could use it to snag a kill from long range - I'm not high school, I ain't gonna force you to read anything.

Now, Memory of Don Quixote is a unique case and I honestly feel can contend with Odyssey for Memory priority, depending on the situation. Need to chase someone down? Using Don Quixote, followed by the Memory variant offers you 16 whole meters of movement in a straight line, a large chunk of damage and a slow or knock-up if the target is still affected by a Bookmark. The opposite is also true - if you need to beat a hasty retreat, click your platform sandals together and zip away further than most characters can reasonably catch up to. As I talked about earlier in the Don Quixote section, connecting with the skill removes the Bookmark, and due to the nature of Memory, getting two knock-ups in a row with Memory of Don Quixote isn't really possible. The alternative was only possible with maximum possible CDR, but after having the cooldown of Odyssey nerfed over time, that option is in the bin, too. Understandably so, since an effectively endless string of CC isn't exactly healthy for the game.

So with that all covered, you know how Memory works, and probably have ideas of how and when to use all this. Now, with the meatiest skill out of the way, let's move on to combos!

Stacking Books (Combos)

Here, I'll be including an assortment of combos from Level 1 to 6, as well as match-up dependant ones. So I don't take too long and keep your attention throughout, I'll save the detailed notes for the more situational combinations. I'll also include some videos, so feel free to make use of good ol' visual learning, if words aren't doing it for you. Oh, also, as a note, whenever you need to weave a normal attack in, the shorthand will just be "BONK", and when I refer to a Memory Variant of a skill, I'll prefix it with "R". As an example, Memory of Odyssey will be "RQ".

There's chiefly 4 different stacks of books/sets of combos:

Basic Combos (From Level 1 to 20, without Memory)

Memory Combos (From Level 6 onward)

Weapon Skill Combos (Including Weapon Skill into Memory Combos)

Situational Combos (Match-Up/Spacing Specific)We're gonna go over all of these in their own categories, and I'll also include specific sections for applications of different weapon skills as they're added to Sua's repertoire.

- For Ages (& Levels) 1 To 3

"Fundamental Reading"

> + x2This is your bread and butter combo from Level 2 until 6, and hurts a fair bit assuming you actually land Don Quixote. From maximum possible range, landing the stun in the center of Odyssey(Q) gives you enough time for the wind up and travel time of your dash to make it to the enemy and knock them up, dealing a good chunk of damage. This also gives you two stacks of Bookworm, meaning two enhanced BONKs, two extra chunks of damage, and 3 seconds off of your skill cooldowns - and shaving Don Quixote's cooldown further down. Granted, most people will start running at this point in the game unless - for some reason - you decided to fly at someone already packing a weapon this early.

"One-on-One Tutelage"

> > > This is for the most part, your basic rotation throughout most of the game from the start to the end - whenever Memory isn't available, anyway, and your most reliable damage. This order of skills and weave of normal attacks depends on your initial distance, of course. Ideally, this combo is for when you'll be close enough to get to them and get in a BONK before you use Don Quixote to knock them up. Otherwise, make sure you use your E immediately so your (un)fortunate target isn't given time to escape from Odyssey's stun. Doing it in the order shown above in "Fundamental Reading" also has the benefit of putting Don Quixote on cooldown earlier so you can recover it faster.

"Little Extra"

> The Curious Case (W) > > + x3Basic modification to your basic combo on hitting Level 3 to provide a little extra damage and blinding the enemy in the process. You can also use the skill on yourself to avoid any CC they may throw out in retaliation - if you do, I'd recommend doing this after the first normal attack is out, since the shield delay can be intrusive. This combo also gives an extra stack of Bookworm, so be sure to make use of it. You can, of course, put the BONKs between each skill to make sure they can't run from you, but we'll get to that later.

, It's a Summer Dress!"

Don Quixote (E) > Odyssey (Q) > BONK x2 > > x2Now, I've no clue why you'd prioritise this for damage over the first two combos, but in some instances, you maybe have things out of order, and Don Quixote is back up, but Odyssey isn't; take off with your E, slowing them down, allowing for an easy stun with Q, allowing you to easily BONK the heck out of them. Again, don't make this your typical damage choice, since you'll lose out on a huge chunk of damage and CC from Don Quixote's knock up.

- For Ages (& Levels) 6+

"Bag, Book and Quill"

> > > > > This is your bread, butter, ham and cheese in a quiet park on a beautiful day reading the library-borrowed volume one of Lucky Star, and your maximum damage possible with Sua's own skills. If you land Odyssey's stun at close range, you go for this combo. Landing Memory of Odyssey after your Q on a now-Bookmark'd target will cause that original one to pop and effectively apply the same damage again on top of the damage Memory of Odyssey is inflicting. Naturally, Memory is going to apply a Bookmark to detonate and replace the old one, meaning - after you land a quick - you can follow up with Don Quixote for 2.45 seconds of delicious CC and another unavoidable . Also keep in mind that using Memory before you start ing allows the cooldown to begin immediately so you can have it back ASAP.

"Are You Sitting Comfortably?"

Odyssey (Q) > Memory of Odyssey (RQ) > Don Quixote (E) > > > > Variation of your bread and butter combo above that you'll probably be using a lot more than usual, given that you'll usually be landing Odyssey from range most of the time and won't be able to afford risking their escape from the very small stuns. It means you lose out on some -weaving, but it's your safest and most guaranteed combo.

"No Running in the Library!"

Odyssey > > Don Quixote > > Memory of DQ (RE) > > > > > >

An option for if your opponent has a form of mobility and you want to assume they'll run, allowing you to keep on their heels. While it impacts your initial burst, this gives you the option to also damage check fairly safely. Land the regular combo, assess damage and then immediately turn tail and run with Memory of Don Quixote if things are going to go sour. This is also what you'll probably do if you want to keep an enemy CC'd and make a quick run for it, but if that's the situation, just stun them and use Don Quixote alongside Memory to fly off at a comfortable 16 meters away. Just be sure to space correctly, since the back of your E - because maybe Sua's packing some triple-tiered cake or something, I dunno - can catch on targets too close to you, as we've discussed in the Skills section.

- Proper Hammer Usage For 1st Grade Readers

> > > An extension of your basic distance-engage combo, which you'll use if you don't have Memory available or are holding onto it. Sliding Hammer Skill in after Don Quixote to add extra damage and make your s hurt more isn't the ideal scenario, however. If you can land Odyssey at a closer range to make Hammer Skill connect immediately while they're stunned, you can use this order instead:

Odyssey (Q) > Armour Piercing (D) > Don Quixote (E) > > > > This offers you the defence shred from Armour Piercing on Don Quixote as well as your s, which makes the overall value you're gaining from your skills a lot more worthwhile. Just be sure to get your Weapon Skill out ASAP, since the stun/knock-up doesn't last as long. This is much easier to do with the distance version, given the longer CC duration, but chances is that if you're close up enough to land Odssey, they're not going to escape the AoE, even if you miss the stun.

"Order of the Pheonix: Hardback Edition"

Odyssey (Q) > Armour Piercing (D) > Memory of Odssey (RQ) > > Don Quixote (E) > > > > > > Now, this is Sua's highest damage output possible. It requires catching the target at near point-blank range and probably mashing out Memory of Odyssey to make sure it connects, but landing this results in a massive burst of inescapable damage and up to 35% Defence reduction for 7 seconds at Weapon Mastery Level 14 which is effective for 80% of the entire sequence. Again, landing Q is key, but even if you don't land the stun, due to the lack of a delay, you can immediately push RQ to try to land it's stun and get the damage regardless.

Proper Study Techniques And Direction (General Tips)

Okay, I can be a little less formal and directly informative for this part of the guide (thank Nadja) and use a lot more neat pictures. It's not going to be long, sadly, since I'm just covering a very broad gameplan for how you'll approach Sua as opposed to most other characters.

Okidoki, first things's first, your big rule when you're playing Sua is to always make use of your stacks of Bookworm. Sua's one of the few characters in this game where her passive is a huge part of her gameplay and identity and influence a lot of what she's able to do directly. I mean, the Hammer is huge and was a substantial part of her model sheet, so it's not very easy to ignore. Anyways, just make sure that after every skill, every combo: you need to BONK. Besides regenerating health, it lowers cooldowns, so making use of extra stacks while passing a chicken to bring Memory's cooldown lower is something you've gotta keep in consideration, so remember to always give 'em a good ol' smacc in the head when you've finished that book!

At the start of the game, most character's gameplans are just about the same: Collect items, craft, cook, travel to the next area, rinse and repeat. There's some plan-specific exceptions, but we'll go into those when we talk about the plans, keep your cute sandals on, friend.

For the most part, you're not much different, but keep in mind that most of your damage is tied to having skills available to activate your passive and use Bookmarks for damage and CC; with that in mind, just remember you're a lot weaker than most at lower levels. As an example, Magnus at least has increased defence at low HP. Without your skills, you... don't really have a passive, especially with the huge cooldowns they suffer from at level 1.

Make liberal use of Bookworm if you're running a lil low on HP, too. Twatting animals with a good ol' BONK later on can restore a significant chunk of HP and prep some skills that're on cooldown.

As with a lot of characters, be cooking food. With Sua, be making a lot of drink, too. Reading is thirsty work, so take plenty of sips to keep your SP topped up, since you'll be burning through a lot of it while you fight an kill animals, because as I mentioned before, you need your Book skills. Without your skills, you got no passive, and without all of that, you are not Sua, and you're not doing the hurts. You're a librarian just swinging a very slow, very weak hammer. I'll recommend you good foods during routing, later.

As a good rule of thumb for Black Survival's Best and Most Goodest Girl, while you're wandering around, being all cute and overly empathetic, be careful about what you choose to fly into with your E. Missing Odyssey can absolutely cost you, so sometimes it's worth to back out entirely if you whiff. As opposed to some characters with CC skills, missing yours completely loses you out on a Bookmark application, which means extra damage and a knock-up. So while someone like Cathy can miss their CC and still be totally fine for a fight, remember that when you start out playing Sua, you can't afford that miss, since it enables your entire combo to even happen in the first place.

In cases like this shot to the right, however, where you do hit the skill and apply the bookmark, but don't stun the target, it's up to you to recognise the situation and decide what to do next. In this scenario here, Girl with Bow ducks inside the building, meaning landing Don Quixote is impossible, so my best option is to back up or immediately use Memory to attempt another stun and give me time to move closer, as well as a huge chunk of damage.

As a reminder, this isn't normally possible, due to the delay between using a "book" skill and Sua "memorising" it for her Memory skill is as half as long as Odyssey's stun.

Neither option really puts me in an amazing position, but it's great having options. Ideally, in a more open area, flying in with Don Quixote to try and catch them and activate the Bookmark is the best option you'll have! Just keep in mind that a miss costs you pretty heavily. Unlike most characters, when you aim the skillshot, you are the projectile, so it can be pretty deadly to miss and very upsetting when someone moves behind a wall.

How it it fair that they can shoot through walls but Sua can't "Kool Aid Man" her way through them? Help a girl out, Nimble Neuron.

Also, let's just cover a quick thing that's more to do with a combination of matchups and builds, but I'll mention here, anyway, since it's a good thing to BONK into you early. Make sure you don't blow your cooldowns immediately whenever specific characters engage onto you; you're very soft, cute and scared, I know, but be brave and wait for certain skills to be used first, because that can be the difference between Odyssey whiffing or connecting.

I don't have to tell you that's a bad time.

Weapon skills like those of the Parry[eternalreturn.fandom.com] can be extremely deadly for your health, so watch out for those, too. Aim carefully and don't rush more than you need to, since you'll usually have a moment when most characters will stay still for a skill or normal attack - that's your window to grab your collection of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories and send their skulls to the shadow realm.

To boil it down:

Take your time aiming Odyssey.

Don't engage if you miss Odyssey entirely.

Queue up Memory for the skill you want in advance if you're looking to take advantage of it immediately.

Avoid continuing fights in obstructed areas.

Avoid dumping your skills into a Parry or Quick Spin[eternalreturn.fandom.com] .

Weapon, Armour And Stat Choices For Optimal Bonking

Now, I'm going to outline the few ways you're probably going to want to approach playing Sua in terms of equipment and stats, and then I'll cover some of the weapons and examples of equipment best for you and notes on each. I'll highlight any differences in playstyle during planning and routing. I stress "probably", because this is a video game and you're welcome to build and play however you want. In fact, I absolutely support the madness and memes. However, if you're looking to utilise everything Sua has to offer in varied ways, you'll want to approach her either of these three ways:

"Paladin Librarian": Sustain Tank/ENAD-Focused (Team Mode Specialized)

"Holiday Reading Material": Cooldown/% Skill Amp Sustained Damage

"Ten Pounds of Leather": ESD/% Skill Amp Combo-FocusedNaturally, every style utilises different hammers and item sets, resulting a different collection of stats, but each has a set of stats you'll want to focus on for each. With that, let's go into each of these one by one - I'll cover the playstyle/gameplan as well as plans and routing for each later on - and list everything you'll need to get started. Keep in mind, this is based on what you're planning and routing for.

This is a playstyle and method of playing Sua I feel works way better in Duos and Squads. Given it's overall tendency to leave Sua with less overall increase to her skills and more of a focus on Bookworm's scalings with the higher Defence values, you're relying on your allies to deal the majority of the damage and mostly using your CC and utility to keep enemies pinned down and your allies bowling through. However, this can all be done with the other two playstyles with a small exchange in AP, Def and HP Regen, so whether or not it's worth doing really depends on what areas are being contested and the mode you're in.

For your stats for these types of builds, you should focus on planning for:

Defence

HP

HP Regen

ENAD (Though this is more as a result of what you may be building)Your best weapon for these kinds of builds is typically going to be Dagda, given it's large base AP, ENAD and HP Regen offering you all you need. You'll most likely aim to swap this out for a stronger hammer later on since it's one of the less effective hammers for the late game, but we'll address that in routing and building.

Crusader Armour offers some of the highest Def values in the game for an Epic Quality chestpiece, and alongside it's ENAD and HP Regen, it's a fairly ideal choice for your "Paladin Librarian". You can probably swap this out later on for Mithril Armour if you're still looking to be tanky, but again, we'll address that later.

Following an influx of CDR items added to the game, it made CDR-Focused Sua builds far more accessible. It's a good mid point between the pure Amp plans and the more defence-oriented ones. You can lower the cooldowns to the point of making them fairly spammable and make your window of vulnerability much smaller, as well as giving you avenues of extended CC chains with proper use of your Bookworm passive. However, with that in mind, most of the premium CDR items are usually a little harder to make or take longer, which exponentially extends the time in which you may be in a bit of danger. Of course, because of how much you're going to be throwing out skills, a large SP pool or a crap ton of SP Regen is your best friend.

For these types of builds, focus on:

SP & SP Regen

CDR

ESD

% Skill AmpA hammer that came out a good while after Sua herself, WotW is a solid hammer with some absurd stats that makes it an ideal fit for this playstyle - alongside a passive that Sua also can't use effectively because it's an on-hit effect, as we've learned - but a longer than average crafting time due to not requiring typical components.

An option for you before grabbing Queen of Hearts or Prominence later on - both of which we'll address later - High Priest Robes offer you SP Regen to compliment it's CDR, as well as increasing your CDR cap by 5%. It suffers from the same problem as WotW, requiring more time-expensive components, but can be supplemented in Duo & Squad modes by sharing resources. At the end of the day, it's up to you with what you're going for.

I will absolutely confess that I've been building mostly CDR focused or ENAD in my normal games - in duos or otherwise - since Sua's release. I just wasn't a fan of how fragile you had to be in favour of how little it felt you did. However, the summer that I'm writing this, I was given a plan to test out by one of my friends. I was converted, and this is now my favourite way to play Sua. Before, my attitude was:

"I can survive and whittle them down with more defensive stats.".

Now, however, my attitude has change to:

"I have ten pounds of condensed paper and leather and I'm going to crush their skulls before they can do so to mine.".

This playstyle leaves you incredibly squishy and often having to play extremely safe just to Suavive, but has the upside that quite literally everything you do hurts like a toe catching on a bedpost. The caveat is often that a lot of what you need is usually contested or in areas with stuff that people fight hard for - and these builds are slow compared to most, so you're usually a lot weaker until your third area. Regardless, this is my favourite way to play Sua, and I can only hope that as new Hammers or equipment becomes available, the routing is a little less mentally taxing.

With that in mind, focus on:

% Skill Amp

ESD

Healing Red (Skills)

SPI've come around to Fang Mace recently after realising that certain situations sometimes call for a much heavier book to BONK the most aggressive roaches. In plain terms, lowering your time to kill later on in exchange for defensive stats is sometimes not the most lucrative. So until they release another Hammer in future, Fang Mace is your best gambit for making the most of Bookworm, due to the ludicrous amounts of ESD it provides.

You want Amp? Commander's Armour is all you could want. Low defence, but a large amount of Skill Amp is a staple for melting someone's HP in moments. On top of that, grabbing a meteorite will offer you the opportunity to upgrade into a Kabana. We'll talk about that later, but in terms of investments, this is a great piece of armour to go out there and put some heads under your hammer like dropping "The Buddha and His Dharma" on them.

Building & Stats 101 - Page 1 - Stats To Pursue & Avoid / Equipment (Head, Chest)

Okidoki, so now that you know what you're looking for in terms of weapons, we're going to go over more specific items that work well on Sua for her variety of playstyles, as well as items you'll generally want to avoid.

Let's start off with the holy trinity of stats that make for Sua's least nutritious lunchbox in order of general ineffectiveness:

Crit

AS

On-Hit EffectsAs we've covered before, Bookworm's enhanced BONKs counts as a skill, meaning it cannot crit, and cannot apply on-hit effects, like Biotic Infusion. I won't talk too much about why crit sucks for Sua, but I'll just pose you a question: If Sua cannot crit after using a skill, has all of her utility attached to her skills, of which she needs to survive, what happens when you build crit?

That's right, one of two things happen. You either just have to basic attack the whole game to use the crit, or you use your skills and completely waste the stats because Bookworm cannot crit.

Attack Speed is a generally inoffensive stat on Sua, since it still helps you get your BONKs out, but aiming to make this the core of your builds is generally ill-advised. In short, if things like Tactical Ops Helmet comes with AS, it's inoffensive considering the other stats they come with, like CDR.

Hammer of Thor, too - despite having good base AP - isn't a good choice as your planned weapon due to the routing not being congruent with ideal equipment pieces, as well as missing out on ESD or such provided by other Hammers. Just, please... I know the AP and Def stats aren't awful, but don't build Plasma Arc on Sua. I've tried, it didn't go well.

On-Hit effects are a different case, because besides one or two specific cases, you're generally not building any items that feature these. Biotic Infusion - on-hit effect that deals Cellular Damage (additional damage that is affected by Def) and scales with Amp - is a particularly upsetting waste of a potentially amazing passive for Sua. Since Bookworm stacks last up to 5 seconds and the BONK can't apply On-Hit effects, you're required to get rid of these before you can use a normal attack, and because Biotic Infusion lasts 3 seconds itself... well you see the issue. Thankfully, the outliers are usually those items that have super beneficial stats you may be building for, anyway.

Chief among them is Kundala, which is a very expensive item to make, requiring Moonstone and Mithril, but offers - alongside Biotic Infusion, vision range and HP - 20% Skill Amp, which is insane. (And has probably already been nerfed if you're reading this.)

To round out, you can deal with On-Hit Effects for the sake of stronger whole - though this is hardly Sua-exclusive, as it applies for a lot of skill-focused subjects like Lenox or Zahir.

Okay, so with that teaser deployed, we'll go over a few all-purpose equipment choices that work across all Sua builds. We'll go over more finely specific choices in Planning. I'll keep it short and sweet for now.

These cover your generally Sua-friendly stat choices that're good across almost any build and playstyle:

ESD

Amp

DEF

CDR

HPBecause I promised earlier, let's go over your Hammer "upgrades" you'll try to go for further into late game.

Used to be an awful option, but following the Omnisyphon addition and general AP buff, Peacebringer is now a viable option for Sua, allowing you to heal more from Bookworm and regenerate quickly if needed, on top of just having an absurd amount of AP. Requires VF Blood Sample to make, meaning you'll need to fight Wickeline or pray for a good supply or random drop from a high level Bear, and also pass up some other options.

Evening Star requires a meteorite for Moonstone, but sports an absurd amount of Skill Amp, making it your ideal target mid/late game if Skill Amp is a priority and you don't need Kabana.

Let's go from head to toe, starting with Imperial Burgonet and Helm of Banneret, which both build similarly, but have two different niches.

This is a headpiece featuring SP, lots of Amp and CDR, but requires Gold to make, contested Skill Amp build components.

The other is a more defensive alternative, with some CDR, Skill Damage Red and SP, but only requires Rubber in additional to the Close Helm Components.

Imperial Crown is your premier "balanced" Skill user headgear, offering Max HP & SP, as well as moderate Amp gains. However, it requires a lot of contested components, such as hammers.

There's a few alternatives, like Tactical Ops Helmet, but I feel those tend to be more a part of a route rather than a preferred choice; I'll explain next section.

As we mentioned with Commander's armour before, using it in your plan means a single meteorite allows you to upgrade to Kabana, offering a metric crap-ton of Skill Amp and higher DEF - which you're really gonna want.

If you want CDR and you're already rocking something like High Priest Robes, Queen of Hearts is basically a straight upgrade. It offers the most CDR of any item in the game, as well as offering a Unique Passive of raising your CDR cap by 10%. This is one of the only items that offer this passive and enable you to access some absurd levels of CC chains you can't normally if you can reach the new cap.

Blazing Dress is certainly a little less effective since losing it's HP & SP Regen, but it's still a fairly decent pick for a tankier Sua, since you spend a lot of time in close proximity, pinning enemies down so they're forced to take the passive Flame Barrier damage. However, this requires a Tree of Life, which is typically better spent on better options, those of which we'll address in the next segment.

Continued on Page 2!

Building & Stats 101 - Page 2 (Arm, Leg, Accessory)

ArmDraupnir is a solid Amp option that offers you some SP and a good amount of defence on top of a lot of Amp. Again, the running theme with much of these is that they require Gold, which is typically contested in lobbies full of Amp characters, so keep it in mind.

Surprisingly enough, Burnished Aegis can be a super beneficial item for Sua's offence-heavy builds, since it gives you a large HP and SP buffer as well as a fair spread of AP and Def, which both benefit Bookworm's BONK. Although fairly small, it's these small defensive stats that can often be the difference maker in your survival during later fights.

Your first choice for a Tree of Life craft, given you'll have half of the components left over from making Aegis, Bracelet of Skadi is a fantastic step up from Burnished Aegis, offering a huge amount of scaling stats that will keep you surviving and dealing damage throughout the late game. I cannot stress that this item is often damn near essential for most skill-based users, so prioritise this if you can.

Prominance is a fairly new inclusion at time of writing, and it's a great option for if you need the CDR cap but don't want to give up your chest piece for Queen of Hearts. It offers a little less, but it's a good option for replacing Burnished Aegis when you can't secure or don't want Skadi.

LegTachyon Brace is a leg piece I'm fond of for being fairly cheap and easy CDR and a decent defence bolster, and can help a lot for Sua's early game, since your cooldowns are fairly lengthy, and any small increase helps.

If you've ever played any skill damage character, chances is you've run or seen someone use Straitjacket Sneakers in their plans. Offers some ESD and a fair bit of SP Regen. However, if anyone's building the components of these, they're typically aiming for...

Glacial Shoes, which are - for all intents and purposes - better Straitjacket Sneakers. They provide HP & SP Regen, and ESD - which also increases per level. I generally take Skadi over this, but in general, this is always a solid use for Tree of Life.

AccessoryUchiwa's a staple for a lot of builds and a lot of characters. For Sua, I don't have much more to say besides "It's fine". SP Regen, ESD - Life Steal, too, which isn't much help, which is why I don't really go for this accessory much. Though it does fit nicely into specific builds as an option that doesn't require a feather.

This item actually isn't a bad option for the "Paladin Librarian" playstyle, as Veritas Lux Mea provides a lot of ideal stats for Sua in general as well providing for the playstyle. As with a lot of items using Saint's Relic, however, it locks you into going to Chapel, so it's not usually a good option to just throw in there unless Chapel really provides other things you're looking for.

Very little to say about White Crane Fan; it's a good, simple-to-make Healing Red item with a small amount of ESD. It's one of your best options for the Accessory slot as Sua, since it provides you a means to slow recovery during your main combos so your BONKs will be able to whittle them down more effectively.

Schrödinger's Box is a simple item with a bit of ESD and always-helpful HP, and besides that, there's not much else to say. It's a staple in a few tankier "Paladin" builds, but I definitely feel there's better options.

Since we discussed Kundala earlier, let me give an honourable mention to Sanguine Gunbai, which is basically a straight upgrade to White Crane Fan. While you lose some ESD, you gain CDR, retain Healing Reduction, and gain the Swift Strides item effect. And which you can't really use the on-hit, the extra movement speed it provides is always helpful. However, it's only an honourable mention because it uses VF Blood Sample to make, and you have several better uses for it. If you find it in a Supply Box or get extra blood from a bear or something, feel free to use this. If not, it's not a priority.

Planning...

Now here's what a lot of you are probably looking for if you're struggling to find new ways to play Sua. We're gonna go over some of the Plans you'll be using for the playstyles we mentioned earlier - one or two for each - and very briefly breakdown any notes about each, but I'll save general playstyle notes for routing. You'll also note that - at time of writing - Sua only has one weapon type, so her options for decent builds and plans are fairly limited due to the weapons she can effectively use.

"Paladin Librarian" Plan 1This was my go-to plan from Sua's release, since I was mostly playing her as a frontline CC engage character in Duos. It was given to me by a friend when they popped by while I was streaming, and it was a good while 'til I changed from this and my other CDR/Amp Plan. This plan finishes fairly fast and works off of the absurd amount of DEF from the items you'll be building. You're capable of handling anyone you come across in Chapel if you've made good time and have your armour and weapon fully completed. Keep in mind that due to your lack of any substantial Skill Amp or ESD, you're overall a lot weaker later on as other subjects collect armour and your scalings don't hold up too much. So for the most part, you'll be operating as a CC frontline for teammates. Look to replace a lot of this later for more painful items - consider Peacebringer a good option for your weapon.

"Paladin Librarian" Plan 2This is what I was running originally before I used the plan above. Draupnir offers good defensive stats for all the % Amp it offers, and you have a decent amount of survivability thanks to your total Def & HP Regen across the build. However, as mentioned before in previous sections, going to Chapel for just mainly Saints Relics really impacts your overall efficiency. Your food options aren't horrible, but on top of the Saint's Relics and finishing your armour in fourth zone, you can do better for defensive Amp plans. Overall, it's a decent route to take if your find a lot of your usual starts are contested.

"Holiday Reading Material" Plan 1Much the same kind of story as most Relic-rich plans, you have to route to Chapel. However, I feel this works better as a whole due plans including High Priest Robes taking a minimum of 3 areas to finish. As a whole, a slow plan to get started, but once completely, you're rocking a fair bit of CDR and % Amp, as well as some good defence. It's an awkward plan that's definitely a more unique way to go about with Sua's limited selection of options.

"Holiday Reading Material" Plan 2Weight of the World is a bonkers hammer with crazy stats. However, it takes a while to make, which offsets just how much of a pain it prove to other players. Rush through Pond, don't worry about looking for Gems if it's contested, just get to Temple and frisk it clean. You need to get to Hotel before Tree of Life is spawned, because by then, it'll be flooded with potential enemies excited to cave in your skull over magical salad leaves. Do your best to have WotW and HPR finished, and if you can get it, grab Tree of Life and hang onto some of the ice used for Purified Water. If things go wrong by this point, it's going to be rough for you to recover. Your only other option is probably Avenue, but strive to do the planned route. TL;DR: High risk early plan that can offer you some absurd early damage and CDR, be ready to adapt if things go horribly wrong.

"Ten Pounds of Leather" Plan 1My personal favourite plan right now. We'll go into specifics in routing - since it's fairly expansive - but to cut a long story short, this is a plan that makes you incredibly squishy compared to most builds, but you can easily beat anyone who comes into Factory as long as you make good time and are there by Night 1, due to the nature of ESD not being affected by the little DEF that most characters build and your potential to exploit it being one of few characters with enough ways to apply it multiple times. You'll have to go after Meteorites to upgrade Commander's Armour to Kabana and get your best weapon replacement in Evening Star. That said, Peacebringer also works, but your priority should be using your huge powerspike to contest Tree of Life for Bracelet of Skadi and Glacial Shoes for even more ESD.

In the next section, I'll go over your routing for a few of these plans - ideally one for each playstyle - which will include more notes on how you play them as well as food and drink available on each route.

...and Routing!

Alrighty, here we go. This would normally be a doozy, but I'm going to keep this split into micro-segments within each section to keep it concise. For both your sakes and my own sanity, because having to do this over and over for future plans - I can already see this driving me mad.

We're going cover each area you'll be planned to be in, as well as specific goals for each area per plan while you're moving through them. I'll also include food options along the route so you'll be able to fill your empty librarian tummy when you get the munchies or thirsty while reading.

- 1st Editions! (Primary Plans) Page 1

"Paladin Librarian Plan 1" Move through Dock as fast as you can, grab everything you need, alongside an extra Lighter if possible, otherwise, just get to Chapel ASAP. If you finish near a chicken, take it out for a chance at Leather to upgrade your hammer. If you've got no success, don't worry.

Once you're in Chapel, you have a surplus of animals that offer Leather - mainly Chickens - and now have your Dagda and Crusader's Armour done alongside your finished Accessory. Make grabbing these your priority, because if you run into anyone at this point, very little people have as much damage as you have early, so whack them around a bit on your way to Cemetery. Be absolutely sure you get leather for your shield by now, as the only certain chance you'll have soon is Hospital.

Cemetery is a typical start/second area for people starting Factory or Hospital, so if you've made it here before Night 1, you should be able to fight for contested materials like Feathers or Chains. If you can't get a feather here, don't worry, just move onto Hospital and try there. This'll be where you'll be finishing a lot of the food you've been preparing for until now, as well as chances for other starts.

Hospital is the home stretch. You don't need too much here, thankfully, so get in and out quickly, maybe kill a Wolf or both at a chance for a Motor to save you some time and also Leather if needed. Fight someone a bit if you get the chance and they're sufficiently weak. You'll now want to go to an area with Hats available there - Pond is closest to save you time - and finish your Helm. After this, look to pick off anyone who's behind and work towards replacing your weapon, arm piece and maybe accessory as the game goes on, as this build falls off fast due to your lack of Amp and Sua's need for ESD to remain a threat. If Duo/Squad, join your team.Food & Drink

Dock / Dock + Chapel:

Lighter (1) + Water (1, can restock in Chapel) = Boiling Water

Coffee + Boiling Water = Americano

Ramen + Boiling Water = Hot Ramen

Coffee + Milk = Latte

Chapel:

Milk + Whiskey = Cowboy

Cemetery / Dock + Cemetary / Chapel + Cemetary:

Hot Ramen + Garlic = Garlic Ramen

Garlic + Bread = Garlic Bread

Garlic + Meat = Bacon and Garlic Sticks

Coffee + Ice = Iced Coffee

Whiskey + Ice = On The Rocks

Ice + Boiling Water = Purified Water

Hospital + Chapel / + Cemetery:

Alcohol + Glass Bottle = Baiju + Flower = Flower Liquor

Hospital / Hospital + Cemetery:

Alcohol + Water = Soju

Soju + Bread = Rum Raisin Bread

Bread + Lemon = Citrus Cake + Egg = Birthday Cake

Alcohol + Coffee = Coffee Liqueur + Bread = Mocha Bread

"Holiday Reading Material Plan 1"Try not to spend too much time in Pond. If you've spawned at the Bridge, and you can see others in the center, take what you can and pick the Bridge clean. If you can, work up towards Avenue side so you can maybe grab some components for your hammer from Avenue passing through to Temple. If you've not spawned at Bridge, quickly pick everything clean, and move to Temple right away. Don't worry too much about missing a single gem, you have places to grab them later.

People who start Temple tend not to check the bottom corner, as they pick the centre clean before taking the Hyperloop. There's exceptions, but this is your best option; you have Don Quixote to speed up your way to get to the Hyperloop. You can grab a Short Rod here if you couldn't get one at Pond. Be careful, as this tends to be a very common second area for many weapon rushes (Bernice, for one). Don't be afraid to run around if you need to.

Hotel is where everything kicks off, and once you've made most of your equipment available here, you can likely smack around anyone looking to fight for Tree of Life if you made it in time. Again, be sure to keep in mind that you're lacking in specific areas - specifically movement speed with your lack of Straitjacket Sneakers. You don't need much here, so move quickly into School unless you can grab ToL easily, since being unable to get what you need from Hotel can be recovered from Avenue.

Most of the time you'll be screwed out of Lighters in school, but hunting down dogs while you search for the rest, you should come across one eventually. In the event that you can't find one, move into Alley to try there. Your plan should be abusing your low cooldowns on Odyssey to cut down the animals you can find and eventually look into contesting Wickeline for Holy Blood. From there, Queen of Hearts is best to continue abusing cooldowns as is your want.Food & Drink

Pond:

Oriental Herb + Turtle Shell = Herbal Medicine

Oriental Herb + Flower = Orchid

Temple:

Garlic + Meat = Bacon and Garlic Sticks

Garlic + Bread = Garlic Bread

Hotel:

Lemon + Bread = Citrus Cake

Lemon + Carbonated Water = Lemonade

Lemon + Whiskey = Cocktail

Ice + Whiskey = On The Rocks

Ice + Water = Ice Water

Whiskey + Carbonated Water = Highball

School:

Water + Lighter = Boiling Water + Ice = Purified Water

Water + Alcohol = Soju

Avenue (After finishing route/needing additional items): Orchid + Glass Bottles = Health Potion

- 1st Editions! (Primary Plans) Page 2

"Ten Pounds of Leather Plan 1"

Pond should be a quick in and out job for you. You'll typically not wanna do this Plan if it's flooded with folks, but one or two should be doable; spawning on the bridge or in the center is your best bet for success due to the concentration of boxes. Take Don Quxiote first to use it to move around faster, grab everything you need, and depending on whichever side you finish on, head to the Hyperloop - this'll be either Hospital or Avenue for left or right respectively. While you make your way there, check nearby boxes for anything you need, but don't go looking beyond the immediate boxes. Prioritize tights (and glue if in Hospital) and teleport ASAP to Cemetery.

Cemetery is one of the scarier parts, since a lot of weapon rush builds can force you out or kill you. Either way, quickly search all you need, don't waste time on bats for Leather. It's too low to quantify spending the time. Make all the equipment you can, you'll need it in case you're caught out here or in Factory.

First thing is first, make a beeline to the console, grabbing anything you can afford to on the way. This'll keep you safe while you loot and craft. Prioritise your Fang Mace; grab the rocks near the console if they're there, kill the wolf if you can't find a Lighter, since they can drop one and also give you the leather you need for your shield. Assuming you have everything from here you need, this is your powerspike. AP, DEF and ESD from your Hammer makes you basically un-contestable this early on, especially in Factory. If a meteorite is about to land in Factory, stick around to contest it, this'll help you finish your Evening Star later or upgrade into Kabana if you need it. Consider hanging onto your extra Spiked Plank, too, if you have room.

You've not got a lot to make in Chapel, so breeze through, grab water if needed, and make your food. You can consider fighting for Tree of Life or running to go grab some Meteorites now if you're already done.

If you haven't got tights yet, stick to the route, finish your boots here and look to get total 2 Meteorites. One for a Moonstone to later use with a short rod and hammer to make Evening Star and one for your Kabana. If it's absolutely free or easy to fight for, grab Tree of Life for a Bracelet of Skadi, since you can make this easily in Pond alongside Evening Star. As an extra note, be sure to always stay stocked on SP, since you rely on your Book skills to deal any form of damage to anything. Also, don't worry about fighting for Wickeline too much, since you barely benefit from the stuff she provides - besides the medkits and the poison buff - but look to instead maybe deny it from a player taking it/killing them after they do and denying the items.

Food & Drink

Pond:

Oriental Herbs + Flower = Orchids

Cemetery:

Coffee + Ice = Iced Coffee

Water + Ice = Ice Water

Factory

Lighter + Oil = Heated Oil

Heated Oil + Curry Powder = Curry Croquettes

Heated Oil + Meat = Fried Chicken

Water + Lighter = Boiling Water

Factory + Cemetery

Coffee + Alcohol = Coffee Liqueur

Coffee Liqueur + Bread = Mocha Bread

Ice + Boiling Water = Purified Water

Chapel/Chapel + Factory:

Milk + Whiskey = Cowboy

Milk + Branches = Butter

Butter + Bread = Pound Cake

Orchids + Glass Bottles = Health Potion

Alcohol + Glass Bottles = Baiji + Lighter = Kaoliang Liquor

Cemetery + Factory + Chapel:

Baiju + Flower = Flower Liquor

Forest/Forest + Chapel

Water + Honey = Honey Water

Oriental Herb + Flower = Orchids

Honey + Milk = Honey Milk

Forest + Factory

Boiling Water + Oriental Herb = Oriental Concoction

Boiling Water + Honey = Hot Honey Water

Augments For Dummies

At the time of writing, Augments are still fairly new and everything is still subject to change. I'm just going to be outlining a few of your ideal Core Augments. You're free to use whatever you'd like in terms of sub or Core Augments, naturally, so I won't give you example pages - seeing what works for you is part of the fun! I'll include one Core from each category in case you have a preference, as well as one or two others as honourable mentions. Okay, with that, let's get cracking.

Most of the line are pretty good on Sua - not exceptional, but at least one of them are a good fit for her. Though one of which is a core Augment that's universally suitable for everyone. There's more likely more coming in the future, but for now, these are your best options:

Vampiric Bloodline Vampiric Bloodline - to keep it short and sweet - is an Augment that grants you Omnivamp (life steal properties on all of your damage) per stack, gaining a stack on each skill hit. At max stacks, you gain a base amount of Skill Amp increasing based on your character level, refreshing on each skill hit. For most characters, it's pretty difficult for them to use this early - but with Sua, you can stack it fully at level two, due to each BONK from Bookworm counting as a skill. On top of the Omnivamp, the extra Amp just generally helps you in extended fights with more healing and damage, so it's definitely up there for me as one of Sua's better Core Augment options, especially for solo experiments, since there's a better option for duos and squads, but I'll get into that later.

Frailty Infliction Frailty Infliction is a generally good Core Augment for most characters, since it just applies a defence shred and burst of damage after three attacks within short succession, including skills. It's fairly helpful for Sua, but given that you're more of a burst damage character and a lot of your damage is front-loaded, all you really get after the first three hits of your combo are some BONKs that hurt a bit more, so you're really just benefiting from the reduced defence, so there's better options.

The Core Augments are in the majority not super amazing for Sua. Ironclad is fine, Oblivion Can Wait is terrifyingly situational, but there's a single Core that's downright amazing for Sua:

Diamond Shard This Core Augment has already been nerfed to high hell and for good reason. It grants you Defence - a flat amount plus an amount increasing based on your character level - and a shield around you that detonates after the duration is over, inflicting damage and slowing everyone around you whenever you immobilise a target. Basically, if you land Odyssey, this triggers, and by the time your combo has been finished and you're on their tail BONKing away. While you're doing so, Diamond Shard is still active, which gives Bookworm a little extra kick because of the DEF scaling. The shield explosion and slow afterward also let you stay stuck onto them while you're getting those few whacks in and maybe force a mobility skill. It covers you during your main combo, strengthens one of your main damage sources, and makes you difficult to fight once you have the upperhand. Until something else gets added, I personally consider this your best choice for Sua. Infact, run it on anyone with CC, it's absurd.

I'm sure you can get a lot of the Cores to work with Sua - especially the Amp drone - but given her difficulty in landing Memory of Odyssey first or whatever first, you lose a lot of the areas the amp can help. Either way, as the one Core I've found works fairly well:

Healing Factor More of an honourable mention than anything; increased healing, more health regen from Bookworm. It's fairly simple, but definitely weaker than a lot of the prior Augments. I'd suggest maybe running Healing Factor if you're running Squads or whatnot, since it offers more instant healing than Vampiric Bloodline. Then again, you're looking for instant healing in a group scenario, Healing Drone is typically way better. I only put this over the others simply because it doesn't require you to go about a weird skill order to make the most of it.

Studybuddies And Disruptions (Matchups & Partners)

Okay, now we're going to go into a very variable guide for match ups for Sua. As of right now, we have at total of 29 Test Subjects to play as, 29 of which - including Sua herself - are liable to be against you. We're going to cover how high or low a risk they all pose and how liable they are to be a huge slice of trouble for you.

However, they are likewise able to be partners in the various Duo and Squad games you may play if you enjoy taking part in those modes, so we're going to be talking about that, too. The Protagonist can never win on her own, after all; she needs her friends to push her on!

We're going to cover their strengths - as individuals and what they contribute to a team with Sua included - and rank them accordingly for their compatibility. However, keep in mind that these are purely subjective and I'm considering them as subjects I'd love to team up with as a Sua player based on their talents; if your or your friend's character has a D for Studybuddy rating, it doesn't mean you can't do amazing as a team. Conversely, a low Disruption rating for a character doesn't mean you can take them lying down, it just means that - based on numbers, experience and mechanics alone - things are heavily weighed in your favour on equal grounds with typical builds you'll see for those characters.

I'm also going to organise these in order of their Test Subject IDs, because sorting by alphabetical order feels alien having come from OG Black Survival. Please also keep in mind that some stuff in this section may include content from the ISBS Research Journals, and can be considered lore spoilers for certain characters.

Page 1: RFT01 > RFT03

: Jackie () Jackie's one of many fairly straightforward characters with a plan to get on top of you and murder you. Being one of the first character in both of her games to be out, she's been fairly prominent across the year and a bit of Alphas, Betas and Open Betas. With that in mind, you can expect Jackie to pull out the chainsaw, leap on top of you and Hack and Slash if she catches you at range. Close up, she cuts out the jump for later. If you catch her close up and see her pull out the Chainsaw, throw everything at her unless you can get to her before that, which is the preferred scenario, as you avoid a lot of time she could have Chainsaw Murderer up to rack up time for the reactivation damage. Keeping her CC'd and putting out damage stops her from applying her bleed and letting her get a head start. By the time you've put out your damage, you'll have 1 to 2 stacks of Bookworm left to sustain a bit through her hits and wait for your cooldowns. Kite her out and save Curious Case's blind for after you've hit her with Odyssey and Don Quixote, and you shouldn't have much trouble on even footing, otherwise she's a super credible threat - especially with an Axe.

As a teammate, Sua benefits from anyone who can apply sustained damage or be a credible threat while she waits for cooldowns or keeps a target pinned down. Jackie is one of those characters who can't be ignored, with a huge amount of sustained damage or burst damage depending on the build. Sua can also make up for her lack of defensive options outside of Parry with her shield, as well as her lack of CC. I don't need to tell you how scary Jackie is while on her Adrenaline Burst, speeding towards you with her chainsaw in hand, brimming with up to 30% extra power. Now, what if you literally couldn't slow her down for potentially 3 whole seconds? Terrifying stuff, love. While there's definitely better options for a good damage partner, Jackie will always remind you why she's the poster girl. Not Yuki, not Hyejin; Lumia is where Jackie is Queen. Because believe me, this is her Island - it's just not your turn to leave yet.

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: C+

: Fiora ()Fiora's potentially a tricky matchup. A patient Fiora that can make use of weapon skills like Parry, or utilise her mobility to take a guess at where you're aiming Odyssey and either move out of the way of the stun/damage area, or just immediately turn on you after costing you a significant amount of your combo. Don't get predictable and try to use your blind when you think she'll use her enhanced normal attack - doing so will consume a lot of her damage. However, as with a lot of melee characters, if they engage first, just aim to hit Odyssey, don't worry about stuns - unless you have Memory, in which case, absolutely try - since point-black, Don Quixote is fairly hard to miss and not proc the Bookmark. Your best shot is to try to hit them in the middle of a skill/normal attack. Bottom line; just don't give her a second to start hurting you, because then she'll have the upper hand due to her passive offering her more damage or a very crippling slow.

So Fiora's your new Studdybuddy, here's the good news. She's always up and grabbing you coffee. Bad news, she's horrible at sitting still and keeping others still. Like Jackie, characters who offer not a lot outside of outstanding damage can still provide a lot of the sustained damage Sua lacks after blowing her cooldowns. Fiora does, however, have the potential for a frankly absurd 70% slow, which all but ensures landing Odyssey or Memory of Odyssey later into the fight. Likewise, Sua can make up for Fiora's lack of meaningful ways to stick on enemies and avoid CC by way of her massive amount of CC and Curious Case's Unstoppable shield. This'll help her easily apply her passive and activate the Touche markers for extra damage or that aforementioned 70% slow. Be prepared notice a lot of overlap for most of these "pure aggression" characters' notes, since there's generally not much in the way of subject synergy. Either way, Fiora's another middle-of-the-road studybuddy and helps to cover for a few of your shortcomings.

Disruption Grade: C

Studybuddy Grade: C+

: Zahir ()Zahir, as many people know, is a character who takes a lot of game knowledge and practice due to his lack of guaranteed mobility and all-skillshot skillset. As such, he tends to be fairly uncommon in exchange for simpler characters like Luke or Cathy. With that in mind, I honestly believe him to be one of Sua's roughest match ups in capable hands. His consistent skill damage cuts through your shield easily if not timed right, losing your Unstoppable effect, and he can easily react to Don Quixote and knock you up with Vayvayastra (that's the tornado) if you haven't stunned him prior, on top of his passive movement speed offering him a easier way to sidestep Odyssey and Memory.

Here's all the advice I can offer; focus on dodging his projectiles, save Curious Case for when you see the tornado pop out to avoid the knockup, and pray you can blow him up before he makes distance on you and kites you. If you miss Odyssey, follow the general advice and don't go in - if you do, you'll have no real CC to keep him down and you'll die unless you have some sort of insurmountable lead on him. In short, he excels in longer fights, so keep it brief as you can and try to close the distance only when you can confirm the Bookmark activation.

Zahir's a very quiet Studybuddy, helps you with your research, but he's not much help during finals and focuses much on himself. However, the second he gets into any trouble, he's going to need you to help. He lacks a decent way to quickly escape from aggressors, as well as being messed up by specific matchups. On top of that, you're a team entirely reliant on landing skillshots, which can provide some issues. However, Zahir provides a good amount of consistent damage Sua lacks, but he comes with the benefit of a large amount of AoE damage and area denial, as well as his knockup working well with your skills and vice-versa. Zahir knocks up a target, you have a guaranteed Odyssey stun, Memory following after, Don Quixote - bam, that unfortunate friend is now probably long gone or on the backfoot. However, this won't usually happen, given many Zahir's tendancies to save Vayvayastra if anyone closes in on them.

You can CC a lot of those pesky Luke or Eleven aggressors and give him time to re-position while you act as a frontline. Likewise, he can offer a way to keep people at bay while Sua waits out and uses her BONKs for her cooldowns to recover, allowing you to cut down a target and have someone to provide a consistent threat from a distance if you both need to recover. In summation, Zahir definitely makes for a great Studybuddy if you can keep him safe and cover for him with Curious Case and your book-loads of CC to allow him to put out all of his damage safely.

Disruption Grade: A+

Studybuddy Grade: B

Page 2: RTF04 > RTF06

: HyunWoo ()Phew, okay. You wanna talk about a matchup decided by literally a press of a button? Look no further than HyunWoo - ERBS's premier "You activated my trap card" character. If you are anywhere near a wall and you don't hit Curious Case on yourself as a reaction or prediction? You can picture my thumb sliding across my neck, nail first, because you're dead as hell in most cases. Skill Amp, ENAD, AP focus? Doesn't matter, First Attack makes the build matter very little, and gives him so much of a leverage that if he does miss it, you can typically fight him on even ground until it comes back. If he does land it, immediately hit Odyssey and try to stun him and apply the Bookmark - you're going to need to interrupt his Haymaker if he's charging it, and even if he's not, get the damage in. If he uses Bluff to avoid the first stun, BONK him afterwards, instead, and then go into your combo. You might be able to hold him down so you can re-position. With that said, he has fairly low base cooldowns and can be built to hurt like hell, so keep in the open so he can't pin you to the wall, and try to quickly blow him up. To wind it all down, keep in the open, avoid bushes, and keep Alt+W ready so you can spin past his angry tackles and remind him of Sua's lessons in studying habits and the value of seeking his own path. (This is real lore. Sua helped a lot of the other subjects, go look it up!)

Sua and HyunWoo have already had some interaction in the lore - and HyunWoo's arguably best boy - so naturally, as a teammate, it turns out he's a pretty incredible partner for Sua. As you can imagine, having two of the most CC-heavy Subjects in the whole game teaming up can absolutely render an entire team immobile and little more than two to three straight lines on a heartbeat readout. HyunWoo lands First Attack, pinning one of or all of an opposing team, allowing Sua an easy Odssey, Memory and Don Quixote, which in turns leaves HyunWoo all the time he needs to ensure a fully-charged Haymaker. The opposite is also true, that Sua can offer HyunWoo a chance to re-position for the perfect tackle. They both also scale well on DEF stats - HyunWoo more so - have opportunities to reduce enemy DEF values (Hammer skill and First Attack respectively) and each have Unstoppable effects built into their skillsets. Yup, you know what that means; with proper timing, HyunWoo can be Unstoppable for a whole 4 seconds. On top of both having a variety of playstyles via different builds and plans that allow anything from a bruiser combo to a CC-locking burst damage terror, I honestly believe these two to be an incredible combo full of potential synergies.

Disruption Grade: A

Studybuddy Grade: A+

: William ()(Currently lacking in gameplay experience, I have barely got to play against William, I'm convinced nobody plays him.)

: Rosalio ()(Rosalio is currently yet to be added or model sheet yet to be revealed at time of writing. Will update once he's been included.)

Page 3: RTF07 > RTF09

: Jenny ()I've thankfully had a lot of time and experience against Jenny, given how popular she was on release day because of various reasons, I'm sure. To fight against, she's typically a fairly easy match-up if you can blow her up before she can land skills and build "Rehearsal", her secondary resource that allows her to activate Play Dead.

Your main goal is to stay on top of her, making use of Odyssey to hold her still and keeping her from closing the distance any further by using Curious Case to avoid her Red Carpet's CC, as well as her ultimate. Though in that case, her Acceptance Speech is a little less damning if she's in too dire a spot to immediately fight back. However if you're in a situation where it's the most immediate issue - such as Jenny missing/ you dodging the carpet - make good use of your shield to avoid this. Don't let her keep her distance and kite her out, or her enhanced shots from Persona can let her cut you down quickly. As long as you can keep in melee range with her and burst her down before Play Dead activates, you should be sitting pretty. As with most matchups, your success is player-dependant, but playing against Jenny's strengths in extended fights at her optimal range make things easier on your end.

(Currently low in experience with Jenny as a Studybuddy, will update once more has been collected.)

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: TBA

: JP ()(This one'll be a long time 'til we get to him, given JP's built around the Hacking mechanic from the original game, so we'll probably not see him until it's introduced. This'll be updated when he's out and we understand how Hacking is different from ISBS. And whether or not it'll still able to kill you if you're not JP and mess up. )

UPDATE: We're onto you, Nimble Neuron.

: XiuKai ()XiuKai's another character who's a little rarer to see, but given recent buffs and general awareness of how strong he can truly be, everyone's favourite jolly - maybe even cannibalistic, but you didn't hear it from me - chef can provide you a very serious challenge. Much like HyunWoo, if you don't block his initial CC or block the follow up, you're going to get caught in a combo that'll slowly burn you down. A good XiuKai will also inevitably have more HP than you can chew through with your burst combo most encounters, but it's easy enough to kite around or avoid his damage if you avoid being crowd controlled in the first place, which enables his skills' additional effects and damage. Also keep in mind that if you do get the drop on him, if he's trying to run away, keep yourself positioned close to him, since XiuKai suffers from the same problem Sua does of their escapes stopping on first enemy hit. So, you can stand close to stop his escape and continue to BONK him into next Sunday for showing up when the library's closed. So when you're down to it, use Curious Case to avoid his slow or knock-up, avoiding his CC combo and the DEF shred on Burn to a Crisp.

XiuKai's the kind of friend who pops by to bring you lunch while you're at work, and it's always so much larger on the inside, and super delicious. As a teammate to anyone, XiuKai's biggest supportive value is making absolutely every single bit of food he cooks, an enhanced dish with higher HP or SP recovery properties. I don't have to explain why this is good, so let's move onto what makes Sua and XiuKai good Studybuddies.

Simply put, XiuKai really benefits from any partner with substantial CC or ways to compensate for his lack of easy ways to hold people down, allowing his own abilities to really do what they without stipulation. Sua doesn't really need much besides making Odyssey easier to hit to take advantage of the Bookmark and all the benefits that comes with it. In tandem, they work to cover each others shortcomings and also have a ridiculous amount of AoE skill damage, being able to set up and create absurd CC combos to keep other Subjects held down for a long time. Just be aware that XiuKai can cross over terrain, but you cannot, so when he's packed up his lunchbox and is making a beeline to catch the train, you're gonna be catching your heels on some stray rubble.

Disruption Grade: A

Studybuddy Grade: A

Page 4: RFT10 > RFT12

: Nadine () Your key to dealing with Nadine is to hold onto Don Quixote for a moment after landing Odyssey and Memory of Odyssey unless you're confident you can blow her up before she can get away with her wire leap. You need to know which way she's going before blowing your dash, since giving Nadine that large a distance advantage on you will let her kite you out using her ultimate and large attack range. Take your time aiming Odyssey, use your blind well and dump all your damage on her while being careful of her mobility and you shouldn't have too many issues if you can get close to BONK her. Besides this, the general counterplay remains the same; kill animals whenever you can afford to so as to deprive her of Hunts and make her weaker in the event that you run into her.

I'm very on the fence about Nadine as a teammate, personally, but objectively, she's a very effective backline for a frontline Sua player. You'll have to give up pretty much any and all Hunts to keep her stronger, and while you do gain Mastery yourself, you'll be proceeding at a slower rate; you're very much placing a lot of your chips on her to stay alive in fights, and if she gets knocked down, you're probably losing out. However, most Nadine players are good at using ally CC to set up traps and keep their distance, so you only need to worry about getting in there and being a cute lil' nuisance. Besides this, she kinda falls into the same net Fiora does with having some substantial CC to assist your landing Odyssey, but lacks overt synergy.

Either way, Nadine's always going to have your back if you're getting into trouble at work, and she'll always bring her adorable dogs with her to brighten up your day.

Disruption Grade: B-

Studybuddy Grade: B

: Aya () Aya drives me mad as a Sua player. Every single variation has something to watch out for that makes your time doing your thing as your cute librarian self incredibly awkward. Her sustained damage with Steady Shot, her trait's shield - it all serves to cull everything you need to do unless you can get on her first. You also have to pay attention to what she's building, since you either need to:

Use Curious Case's Shield when Blank Cartridge comes out to avoid the root, since avoiding the damage is wishful thinking at your optimal range, and you need to be able to keep up with her.

Or blind her to avoid about a second of normal attack damage and deprive her of time off her passive.I'd also definitely recommend BONKing her first after triggering her shield if possible, since it'll cut through the shield and give you Odyssey back sooner to chase after her if needed. Again, you need to adapt based on what's coming at you. To boil it down, be sure to walk around her Steady Shot or CC her to stop it - don't get lazy and just try to tank the whole thing. You won't be able to. Use Curious Case for her ultimate or sustained Assault Rifle fire, and try your best to keep the distance closed, or it becomes a very difficult fight for you to win, since she's more than capable of dashing over a wall and completely ruining your chance at a kill. Get the first move in and wait out her dash if possible before using Don Quixote and you shouldn't have too many problems - just remember to respect the police, or Aya's more than capable of throwing you in jail and locking away the key.

Working with Aya as your teammate is a lot like Alex - we'll get to him - and others with substantial AoE CC like XiuKai; they offer an area of denial or hard CC that makes landing your skills way easier. Alongside that, stunning a target for up to 2.45 seconds allows Aya to pretty much dump an entire round of bullets into them. Alongside your own damage, this can effectively end that unfortunate friend near-immediately. Her variety of build options that can also work to make up for your sustained damage or assist in effective burst is also incredibly relevant, since it can offer more flexibility in your routing for duos and squads to make up for your own lack of options in terms of optimal Hammers. On that note, Sniper and Hammers being two of the highest base AP value Weapon Types allow you to offer some huge pressure the second your weapons are finished, so if you can catch someone out with that aforementioned 2.45 seconds of CC you have, be sure to go for it to try and secure that lead that can turn Aya into a terrifying monster. Besides this, I can't really mention much more for Aya, given that she doesn't provide much more to the team besides raw damage and a pretty huge AoE root. Oh, but also keep in mind that if she decides to dip out of a fight via the nearest wall, well... you won't be following.

Disruption Grade: A

Studybuddy Grade: B

: Hyejin () I do and have always considered Hyejin to be the epitome of "first to hit wins" match ups. If Hyejin makes contact with any of her skills on you, she's got more than enough in the way of damage to easily pop your shield, cut the Unstoppable status, and send you running in fear into her whirling talismen of "dear sweet Pond Bears, save my soul". At that point, it's a very rough fight to win - especially against a good Hyejin, who're also more than capable of easily kiting you out to take advantage of the range difference. Try to avoid the projectiles, land Odyssey and go in. Save Curious Case to avoid the expansion of Five Omens (R) and the fear status, or avoid being rooted by her W's AoE; failure to do so turns you into a Sua-shape ghost. Give her a good few BONKs while keeping inside the ring of purple pain and within your optimal range.

Hyejin likes her personal space at the library, and as the librarian, it's your job to put on your nicest smile and gently usher away anyone bothering her. As her studybuddy, both Sua and Hyejin operate at about the same kinda ranges and processes:

Hit a long-distance attack to crowd control the target and facilitate the rest of your abilities.

CC chain them to hold them still for the rest of your damage.

Kite out anyone who isn't dead just yet and slowly cut them down.However, given that you're much more prone to staying close up and personal after landing your combo, you're well equipped at keeping them in Hyejin's effective range while she makes enemies move predictably due to the fear she'll afflict on people, while also ensuring they stay at that range. You'll both likely be extremely squishy, but with all of the utility you both offer in being able to effectively detonate a single target - or sometimes multiples - before it becomes an issue. You're both incredibly dependant on your skillshots and positioning, though closed off areas that limit enemy movements benefit you both heavily. Keep enemies off of Hyejin and she'll give you the space you need to wait out your skills and effectively kite out the pesky sustained damage Test Subjects. . You both also benefit from some very substantial zoning abilities with your large AoEs and can make the final restricted areas hell-on-Lumia for anyone unfortunate enough to make it that far. All in all, they compliment each other well in terms of making up for each other's shortcomings or areas of weakness; covering for the effective ranges of whoever is being surrounded at the time and keeping the bad guys away from your cute outfits.

Disruption Grade: A+

Studybuddy Grade: A+

Page 5: RFT 13 > RFT 15

: Alex ()

Now, depending on the build you're facing, Alex can vary between annoying and a serious problem. The one connecting piece of advice between all instances is that you need to make sure you use Curious Case to avoid his taunt, because getting caught in that will lead to a suffocating EMP Barrage and a lot of damage - skill amp or not - so make sure to pop that shield up the moment he dives in on you. I can only about advise you to not let him keep the distance and poke you down - it'll differ depending on what the Alex is focusing on, given his ability to build a variety of items, so you need to use your ability to adapt with Curious Case.

He's a fairly difficult character to really nail down in terms of matchups, given his seemingly ubiquitous selection of weapon skills and subsequent weapons, as well as the fact that he's fairly scarce in games; his changes have since made him a lot better to play in general, but for fighting against him, he's gonna be a very polarising matchup dependant on the player you're facing and whether or not he can make use of his tools.

Alex is a strange friend - he hangs around the back of the library, always seeming to reach, but never checking anything out. However, the second someone raises their voice or harasses you at the main desk, he's suddenly there, stepping out from thin air to remove the problem with a nod and a smile.

As a teammate, Alex provides a lot of CC, himself, as well as some good long-range damage and AoE that can't be ignored with his ultimate. Now here's why he makes such a good teammate, and I wish there was more Alex players:

EMP Barrage leaves your enemies with two options: stay in and fight, or try to leave. If they try to leave, then it affords you an option to CC them with Odyssey, and if they back up or sidestep to dodge, that's more time they remain in the EMP Barrage. If they get hit by Odyssey, then you just go ahead and do your thing - whether they remain in the EMP Barrage or not. Bottom line, it offers you so many avenues to control or predict enemy movements much easier than you would alone. This offers you so many chances at huge duo/squad team burst ambushes that can single-handedly ruin a team's day. As well as offering your Unstoppable shield to Alex, you also give him a lot more hard CC than he has alone, which gives him time to gain stacks of Incursion/Gauss Pistol and reach his maximum potential. Alex's ultimate alone makes him terrifying, but having a CC machine like Sua to hold them in place while he does his thing is your worst nightmare - especially if he's rocking an Amp build.

Disruption Grade: C+ ~ A

Studybuddy Grade: A

: Cathy () Ah, Cathy, the menace herself. Fighting Cathy is quite literally a race against time and about whoever can land their big CC or damaging skills first; Cathy being allowed to do so will trigger her passive and let her start bleeding you out and refresh her dash, which also gives her more chances to avoid your CC. Needless to say, you don't want this.

Avoid standing near walls - kite around after using your skills if you have to - to avoid Suture stunning you and offering her a chance to smack you around. If you can land Odyssey, get the combo out and hold onto your blind for a chance to punish Cathy for trying to fight you afterwards. This does mean you're always given the incentive to play against your preferred confined spaces to make landing your skills easier. Reacting to her ult and placing it where it ends can usually net you a big payout and deprive her of time to benefit from her full-stacked passive.

If you have to use your shield, be careful about it, given Cathy's ability to easily break them with her enhanced normal attacks - your best use of it is to react to her Amputation skill to avoid being grounded and deprived of your use of Don Quixote. To summarise, just watch out for her dash before throwing out Odyssey, and keep away from the walls - besides that, it's very much about how well you play the fight after you hit Q.

Cathy very much fills the same role as a lot of "damage focused" characters like Jackie or Fiora, but with the exception of having so many useful tools as a teammate. She has crowd control that can pin two targets together, giving you a perfect area to bring Odyssey down on multiple targets and blow them up with Memory and your BONKs. Her ultimate offers a healing zone for a not insubstantial amount of healing, which can be the decider. As we also mentioned before, Amputation can hold targets down when it hits, meaning your targets have even less options of moving out of the impending literary epics slamming down on their skulls. Besides all this, she does generally fall under the same sort of "just hurt them" category, but that aside, her CC and utility options make her a much more mutually helpful partner - however, given that it's Cathy, it's barely a surprise.

Disruption Grade: A-

Studybuddy Grade: A

: Barbara ()

Barbara's a character I admittedly haven't had much experience with in recent memory - given she'd been nerfed into the ground and people dropped her like a pot of hot fondue. From my experience, Sua struggles a lot against sustain-damage characters; Barbara is different. Played correctly, she becomes a Burst Per Second character. Her ultimate in conjunction with her laser and turret tear through you like you were pudding, so often your best bet is to try to destroy her turret to put it on cooldown. Failing that, just CC'ing her during her ultimate and piling on damage is another perfectly good option, a lot like what you'd do for Jackie. If she spaces out correctly to avoid you hitting her turret and her at the same time, however, it can ruin your day; she can also place her turret in front of her to stop Don Quixote. Overall, she has a lot of tools to make things hellish for you - a second hitbox for you to crash into, movement speed increase, consistent damage - if all used correctly. With that in mind, aim carefully, step back from the fight if you miss Odyssey, as ever, and don't stand near the turret.

As a teammate, Barbara's much like Hyejin having an area of offence and effective range, but is a lot more defensive until she's given the chance to establish that area. Here's where the issue is for you, as Sua. Unless you're reacting to an enemy entering Barbara's "No-No Zone", you're going to be flying from max range - which is 8 meters, as a reminder - and you're leaving her behind. She then has to set up, and if the enemies kite away, Barbara's even worse off as they leave her turret, leave you behind to try to catch up and recover cooldowns. In a nutshell - defensively, Barbara works well with Sua to keep them standing still within her effective range. However, that's true for any character like Emma or Bernice, who also have the benefit of being able to keep their distance with Barbara. You suffer with the same problems as Luke or distance-engage characters by leaving her behind - ripe ground for Cathy or Daniel players to dive in and swipe at her.

Disruption Grade: B - ~ A

Studybuddy Grade: D

Page 6: RFT 16 > RFT 18

: Isol ()The thing you'll notice about this page of Test Subjects is that they all give Sua the same amount of crap; Isol is no different, and letting him avoid Odyssey, roll away and kite you out is basically the point where you leave. If you can't apply Bookmark and/or stun him, back away, because you won't be able to hold him down long enough. As a general rule of thumb for Isol, you keep cameras on you to avoid his mines and camouflage, and for Sua, hold onto Memory after landing Odyssey or just fly right in with Don Quixote if you think you can blow him up. You do this because of the small gap between Odyssey's stun and Memory's activation, which allows most characters with mobility to dash out during the gap. Besides that, hold onto Curious Case if they're a Pistol Isol, since popping it before his W is over will just cause it to pop and immediately get CC'd by Semtex Bomb. Besides that, keep these in mind, don't let him take over the final zone, and you shouldn't have too many problems if you can land Odyssey.

As your teammate, Isol offers an absurd amount of stuff Sua doesn't have: no-string-attached consistent damage, long range, area of denial tools - the works. He can force people into specific areas which makes landing your skills significantly easier. Sua also gives Isol the frontline he needs to keep people away before he needs to cash in his get-out-of-jail-free card. They easily set enemy teams up for one another and can compensate for their respective range differences, but unlike Barbara, Isol can easily make up distances to put out some absurd AoE skill damage, which can be incredibly difficult to deal with late game after building flat amp items like Bracelet of Skadi, considering the amount of times Isol's hail of bullets triggers the extra damage.

Disruption Grade: C

Studybuddy Grade: A+

: Leon ()So if you asked me back within the first month of his release, I'd say to avoid Leon like the plague. Now? He's not really as huge a deal. Be sure to use your shield after his pools are laid down to avoid Duck Dive's knockup and score yourself an easy opportunity to cave his head in with Odyssey. If you know he's going to miss, instead hold onto it to blind him and scam him out of the enhanced normal attacks he'll follow up with. Being hit by Surf's Up isn't as huge a deal unless you're lower on HP, so just pound away at his ice-cream-eating, hamster-having face until you send him back home to his couch. The bottom line is just not to get lazy and play around the pools, trying your best to keep away from walls if you can.

I've personally not had much experience with Leon as a teammate. I have, however, played a lot of Leon around the time of his release before dropping him and just going back to Sua. To cut it short, Leon basically benefits from/provides the same kind of positives that Hyunwoo does: a form of set-up CC, follow-up CC that benefits from being close to a wall, but also having some true damage to cut through resistances definitely helps his case.

However, with those in mind, Leon doesn't really benefit as much from Sua holding people still as Hyunwoo does. The kicker is that Leon's shield on his W - and yes, I'm unsure why you'd ever use it on Sua in the first place - doesn't benefit her at all. Sua's still does, naturally, as it does for most characters.

With all that, though, I think Leon is definitely a step above just being a damage front liner in terms of making your life as a Sua player easier. At the same time, however, while offering burst and consistent damage, neither are substantial enough to warrant picking him above anyone else more focused.

Disruption Grade: D

Studybuddy Grade: B-

: Magnus ()I'm shaking in my cute lil' platform sandals whenever I see a Magnus, and so should you. Magnus is the OG freight train and pushes through any and everything you can throw at him.

Fighting a Magnus on even footing is an uphill battle. Before we get to why, lemme say that your general gameplay is to CC him and then use Curious Case to avoid his Heavy Strike slamming you into the wall if you picked a fight near one. Otherwise, use the Blind if he's running Vajra or Thor's Hammer set ups, since getting CC'd in that scenario basically lets him whale on you, anyways, and you need to avoid that initial critical hit. Skill Amp Magnus is simple: don't let him hit his projectile rubble or Heavy Strike you into a wall, because then his 1 VS 17 will tear you apart - and your CC can't stop him while he's spinning and pounding your skull in. CC him first, get your damage in and try to kite him out. You can easily close any distance he puts between you unless his rides his bike, which is a substantial amount of his damage gone, either way.

Now, back to the uphill battle. In the event that you're fighting Magnus, his passive grants him defence as he gets lower on HP. This sucks for you because after you've put your whole combo into someone, you're generally able to BONK them to death and give chase if they run. Magnus is at his strongest on the backfoot - especially if he can regenerate and stay at that threshold. So yeah, in summary - get the first hit in and avoid being CC'd or your life is going to be miserable.

Magnus is a horrible person, so I'm not writing a cute little Studybuddy thing for him. He doesn't deserve it.

Regardless, Magnus has been a force of nature since his W gaining the Unstoppable buff, and in combination with that, Sua can allow him to approach, get on top of folks by pinning them down and just joining in for a Hammer dogpile. Needless to say, having a potential extended uptime on Hammer's weapon skill is incredible, too. Again, though, Sua enables Magnus a risk-free approach to get in close without using his ultimate out the gate.

Any character with CC also synergizes with Magnus by making his spin hurt more when enemies are immobilised. Sua can pin an enemy down for up to 2.45 seconds, offering Magnus extra damage for an extended time - made easier by his crippling slow and wall stun, much like Hyunwoo. They both also benefit from some huge AoE skills that make it fairly difficult to dodge both or either of them; you're going to get hit eventually.

All of this to the side, Magnus and Sua are a fairly straightforward team that compliment each other well and can also make easy escapes with their ultimates if needed and can almost contest Hyunwoo for what I feel is the best composition for later fights.

Disruption Grade: A+

Studybuddy Grade: A+

Page 7: RFT 19 > RFT 21

: Silvia ()I feel bad for Silvia, and definitely empathise with the Silvia players. While Sua started to be continuously nerfed before someone screamed "ENOUGH, SHE'S HAD ENOUGH.", and she remained safely in the mid-tier of characters, they didn't stop with Silvia. She's continued to do super well and kept being nerfed until the point where you're lucky to see her outside of squads - maybe duos. Regardless, Silvia's not a hard match-up with proper use of Curious Case and Don Quixote. If you save Don Quixote until after you've stunned her, wait a second for her wheel to come out and then use it, you can avoid the knockback during the wind-up. This'll save your Curious Case to either use your shield to walk through her slowing gate or use it to blind her. She's also a fairly squishy characters compared to most, and while you can't really hope to catch up to her if she tries to get on her bike and run, you're more than capable of giving her a hurting. Again, just be sure to use Curious Case reactively, since it can be popped by her Radar Gun or the Stampede passive from certain Pistols.

As your teammate and Studybuddy, Silvia's a similar case to Zahir or Jenny in which they benefit from your being able to peel enemies away from them and allow them to keep in their optimal range. Unlike cases like Barbara, however, Silvia actually benefits from you engaging at a distance and facilitates her CC combo by holding them still and then allowing her to disengage. On top of that, because you're such a good friend, Curious Case can stop enemies from CC'ing Silvia and slowing her down in her Bike form, allowing you both to make a quick escape if required. She's a fairly good supplement to your CC and burst damage, as well as being able to contribute to healing. Her gate is pretty helpful too, allowing you to stick onto Test Subjects running away from you a little easier. Besides that, I've very little else to say about Silvia, since she's not super exceptional in terms of complimenting Sua, and often works at a range that can probably be a do-or-die type situation if they can't get those problem characters away from each other's respective squishy insides.

Disruption Grade: C-

Studybuddy Grade: B-

: Li DailinEveryone's favourite adorable, croc-wearing drunk loafer. We love her, I love her - she's also a potential enormous pain in the butt. Much like Alex, it can depend on the player, the stats they're shooting for - skill amp or basic-attack focused routes - and also how you play, yourself. You have a lot of things that work against Li Dailin, but with her massive amount of mobility, it only takes a single mistake for her to close in on you and send you to the back of the young adult section shelf.

In the case of the normal-attack focused routes, your priority is to avoid the double attack from her B.A.C levels being increased by blinding her with Curious Case. This avoids a chunk of damage and buys you a second to land Odyssey. Don't worry too much about her supression skill - the flying kick - since it's mainly used as an execute or escape with these routes. In the event of a skill amp Li Dailin, save this for the suppression, since the damage and CC can be very painful. Otherwise, try to time Odyssey to land on top of you, using the delay to cancel it after it hits.

Besides all this, all you have to contest with is her exceptional mobility, since the normal-attack invulnerability from her Drink Up ability usually comes out when you're firing off Odyssey or after the CC finishes, so you'll have some time to get in at least one beforehand. Just be sure to always take your time landing Odyssey, as usual, and watch out for her silence from Bottom Shelf if she chooses to use it, since it can cripple your ability to avoid key abilities.

Li Dailin is too drunk to Studybuddy, and will usually shuffle into the enemy team before you have a chance to react to the fights she's picking. As a teammate, she's pretty average, unfortunately - besides her ultimate, she doesn't provide much in team utility and falls behind most other characters on the damage front. She's very much an all-rounder, but even then, kinda doesn't do much well without a leg up. Thankfully, you can make her Spirited Kicks unstoppable as she closes in, as well as holding the enemy in place to compensate for her lacklustre CC ability. Her silence is also super good to set up your combos to go through hassle-free; again, though, having to sacrifice B.A.C for damage in exchange for utility really makes her very see-saw-ish. Again, if you have a friend who loves Li Dailin and plays the heck outta them, I'm not asking you to immediately disown them, because we all love her. Just keep in mind that if you're looking to capitalise on any team synergy with Sua, Black Survival's favourite drunk is maybe not your first choice, but she's definitely no slacker or horrible pairing.

Disruption Grade: C ~ B+

Studybuddy Grade: C

: ChiaraAnother terrifying case of "who hits first, wins", Chiara was a demon who haunted Early Access Day 1 when every single MOBA player and their mother just rushed skill amp on everyone and built no Healing Reduction. Who knows, in her prime, she may have been more of a challenge due to raw numbers, but nowadays, she's one of the most straight-forward characters to play around. A good Chiara will hold off on it, but for the most part, try your best to dodge Mania (her chain) and then slam some books over her head with Odyssey. If you're trying to beat out a Chiara later on, during the last restricted area, for example, waiting for her to use her ultimate and then just getting out of there with Don Quixote and waiting out the duration is your best way to absolutely soil her plans. Her passive is a huge part of her gameplan, and only by using her ultimate can she quickly apply it - without it, she won't make the distance on you or really do any significant damage. However, when it comes down to throwing hands, just keep laying on the CC, dodge Mania - or use Curious Case to block the root if you have to, but again, time it right or it'll pop from her sustained skill damage - and try to apply your blind to block more stacks of her passive from applying. It's fairly straightforward, and when it comes to one-on-one combat without her ultimate, Chiara doesn't stand too much of a change on even footing.

As ever, the best teammates for Sua are CC frontliners who can get in the mix with her and help pin down an enemy and blow them up, or DPS monsters who the enemy can't ignore. Chiara is a lil' bit of both - her CC, while not guaranteed, is good for holding targets down so you can land your combos. Chiara's consistent damage and the huge threat she poses the second she activates Plague is made all the more terrifying by way of your Curious Case making her Unstoppable among all your CC allowing her to close the gap easier. She also provides Sua with a large, impossible to ignore frontline to provide you some cover if you're going with the squishier routes that can leave you with openings in your cooldowns that you need to recover. You both also have a good amount of HP regeneration through your respective skills that can sustain you through long fights, as well as not an insignificant amount of burst damage in the right conditions. I don't think she'll ever be beating characters like Hyunwoo in terms of good CC frontlines, but as a happy middle ground, she's a wonderful Studybuddy.

Disruption Grade: C

Studybuddy Grade: B+

Page 8: RFT 22 > RFT 24

: Hart ()Bless Hart, she's come such a long way since Alpha and being the worst character in the game. Now, she's a versitile - if underused - Subject with plenty of route options. As with so many of the characters based around movement and kiting around other Test Subjects, with a slew of routing options, she can either be incredibly difficult to fight or flattened under a few quick BONKs; it really depends on the player you're fighting, like with Alex and such. Letting Hart keep her distance from you as a Sua player can be incredibly deadly, and it's definitely not any easier given her Flanger's multiple dashes allowing her to avoid Odyssey easily. Your main focus should be landing Odyssey - don't worry too much about the stun, just hit her somewhere in the AoE. This'll allow you to use Don Quixote to close the gap and continue whaling on her. If you're confident enough, feel free to try to land Memory of Odyssey, but in most cases, just keeping Memory to use for a second dash can help you get back on top of Hart as she kites away. As a last note, it may be worth holding onto Curious Case to shield yourself - unless it's a normal attack-focused Hart - and enable yourself to just waltz right through her Peace Zone. While it's up, you can freely walk through the Peace Zone and BONK away.

Because peace was never an option.

I've not a lot of experience playing with Hart, except with a certain player who was one of the best Harts I'd ever seen, and the strategy for playing with these two as teammates changes slightly depending on the Hart you're with. A burst damage, skill amp Hart is looking to prep her Delay ahead of time and then dash in to blow them up. Your job is to do as Sua does and land your combo to pin them down and - with proper timing - detonate one unfortunate target. In Duos, this basically wins you the fight, since Hart can then activate Peace Zone, your Curious Case will stop you from being affected and let you whale away on the remaining friend as their dance through tears.

On-Hit Harts will look for you to hold them in place and either help them kite or keep the enemies crippled enough so that Hart can easily keep her distance; it's a lot of the same you're used to doing with Silvia or Isol, just ensuring that they don't die while you peel away from the fight.

Again, the benefit of Peace Zone affords you time to get those length cooldowns back, keeping that CC stream risk-free afterward.

In all, Hart's a solid teammate and has a lot of fun synergy with Sua. The only issue is typically finding people who play her - at least in EU.

Disruption Grade: B- ~ A+

Studybuddy Grade: B+ / A

: Shoichi ()Shoichi is probably the biggest case of "If they're good, you're probably screwed". Shoichi has terrifyingly exceptional mobility and you have exhaustively long cooldowns and one chance to catch him. For this particular matchup segment, we're gonna assume any Shoichi you run into is terrifyingly adept, since they're so rare outside of events. In the event that you can't get the jump on him, and he ults and sets up the anime nonsense he wants to do, you need to immediately pick a direction and leave through that area, preferably the one where he went to first. You're typically too squishy to just stand in the middle and let him hit you with repeated dash attacks; by moving away, you limit the range his daggers and dashes can reach, and bottleneck his options and the directions he can come at you from. Hold onto Odyssey until you can get a clean shot, and don't use Curious Case unless you can dodge the slows from his Risky Business (the leaping dagger throw) or his ultimate, Ruthless. You're going to need to try to block the rare crit he may benefit from thanks to his passive, which grants additional crit chance on skill hits. You need to be patient, but not taking too much time, since it can easily ruin your chances. The first hit in this match-up usually decides it, so do your best to take initiative and make it count, always playing to your range - just don't be afraid to run if things go sour.

Shoichi, as a Studybuddy, counts on you to set up the table, pull out your books and pencils and get everything set up. Once he comes back with coffee, he's going to help you to punch out your assignment in one all-nighter. The morning's going to be, rough, though.

Shoichi suffers with a lot of the issues that characters like Barbara suffers for engaging, in which getting into their effective range is the hard part. Sua can thankfully facilitate Shoichi in a much better way, however, and also render his one weakness - point and click CC - completely obsolete, allowing him to dash to his heart's content. Stunning targets gives him an in, and while he definitely falls under the same situation as Jackie or Fiora in just having a terrifying amount of damage in their optimal ranges and little CC, a stationary target can get erased by Shoichi faster than most of the subjects in the game. Sadly, however, once he's done his thing, in most team modes, he's going to need a moment to catch his breath and recover his cooldowns, which is one of his largest general drawbacks.

All in all, another terrifying damage-dealing companion you can help do their thing, but falls shorter than subjects like Jackie who can start cutting and never stop to cover that gap in your general gameplan.

Disruption Grade: A+

Studybuddy Grade: C+

: Arda ()Best boy Arda still isn't in ERBS for some reason at time of writing - but literally almost every single 2020 & 2021 character so far has at least been shown off - so we're going to have to wait. In the meanwhile, have a picture of him from the original game.

Page 9: RFT 25 > RFT 27

: Camilo ()Terrifyingly enough, I see more Camilo players than I do other Sua players. Probably because he looks and feels so cool to play, dancing around, while Sua just BONKs - but it's part of why I've come to love this game's version of her. We're seemingly a dying breed in EU, though.

That aside, the match-up isn't one I've had much the pleasure of, but from what I have experienced, you don't have too much trouble against him if you play properly and work around your two ranged and his preferred spacing. To actually get the most out of his Q, his sword swing, Camilo needs to hit you in a particular range - at the edge of the swing - and being melee and staying on top of him can make that difficult for him. Your general plan should be to engage from a distance with Odyssey and Don Quixote, watching out for his dash being used to close the distance and avoid it. You can either hold Curious Case to blind him or use it in reaction to Duende if you don't manage to get out of the way of both of the spins. While we're on that, you can also very easily stun Camilo or hit him with Don Quixote - or maybe even both - after the ability is over and he remains in place while flourishing. After your main rotation of spells, BONK your way backwards, while trying to step into his Q whenever you can. This'll avoid him gaining movement speed and being able to move around to avoid Odyssey or hit the edge of his slashes easier.

(Currently lacking in any Studybuddy information for Camilo, I'll update this once I have some better information outside of just theorycrafting based on other characters with similar contributions to team compositions.)

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: TBC

: Bernice ()Bernice was actually my main character for a while until Sua released, but I got real tired of his lack of accessible escape options, and after the nerfs, it got a lot harder. So naturally, I'm going to teach you how to exploit the hell out of it with Sua.

It's absolutely no surprise that up close, you've no chance against him. Again most melee characters, Bernice loses in their range - Sua, not so much. Whatever you do, don't engage on him unless you can hit Odyssey and combo him. You need that time to lay on damage and cut him down. You'll also be thinking, "Okay, what about Curious Case's blind? Surely that'll help me?", and you're not wrong; Bernice's normal attack hurt, but what's far more of a threat are his Bolas and Traps. Being rooted by Bernice means his projectile attack deals more damage, so you need to prioritise avoiding that. Using your shield as part of your combo for the extra stack of Bookworm and to catch a panic response of throwing out his ultimate saves you far more damage and stops him from making a bit of distance. Another important detail is that if Curious Case catches the Bola, it just absorbs it; if the Bola doesn't latch on, it can't detonate later, so keep that in mind, it's pretty damning for Bernice when it happens. Also, if you're aiming for Bernice with Odyssey, aim on top of or a bit ahead of him, given his mark debuff gives him additional speed moving towards you that makes it easier for him to dodge out of skills you're aiming with the assumption that he's going to back up into them.

As a teammate, all you can really afford to give Bernice is harder CC in the form of stuns and knockups to secure targets or peel for his lack of mobility. However, you are both characters that operate from and into the same effective ranges, which actually makes for a perfect duo set up, especially in Sua's case, in which it can become an enormous pain to chase down a ranged teammate to try and shield them or peel for them as they're running, screaming for their lives from a man who just wants some candid photographs. As a reminder, Bernice's projectile only benefits from roots, but holding a target still lets him have the time to move into his effective range without needing to immediately blow his Bolas to do so. On top of that, it gives him a second to lay a trap under their feet and extend your CC chain even further. Again, most of your character synergy comes with being a pair that revolves around the "all-in" style that functions from a distance going into melee range and stopping a character from moving at all amidst a barrage of damage. As a result of that, however, you do both suffer from a lack of escape after clicking your cute lil sandals and flying in - should the enemy survive - but with the benefits of being able to fascilitate the gaps each other suffer in. Bernice allows Sua to easily give chase with quick, long ranged slows and damage, and Sua provides a slew of non-conditional CC and general utility to help cut down on some of his hardest matchups.

Disruption Grade: A-

Studybuddy Grade: B+

: Sissela ()God, I love Sissela, she's such a sweet bean and she deserve hugs. As of writing this, I've started to learn her, and she's super fun. One of the game's more unique characters, too. From the time I've had to play as and against her, I'll definitely say that she suffers pretty hard against characters who want to stay on top of her. Save Curious Case to avoid the knockback from Girl in a Bubble, since you can easily predict and sidestep Wilson's lil grabby tendril from Play With Us![eternalreturn.fandom.com] and avoid the stun. Your main aim is to keep piling on the damage and not afford Sissela breathing room to regenerate - Healing Reduction helps with this, too, and thankfully a lot more items lately have this. Giving her distance on you is basically inviting her to pelt you from a distance with normal attacks and Wilson's adorable body. So yeah, in writing, it's fairly simple, but getting the practice is definitely going to be the hardest part - not to mention being a character who can pull you or herself over a wall and ruin your entire ability to combo her. Cute, but potentially a huge pain to combat, so keep your cute lil' head on your shoulder when fighting her.

Sissela is a fragile, sweet bean, and you must protect her. As a teammate, she works best from a distance, throwing Wilson into the fight and pinning enemy Test Subjects alongside your own CC to keep them away from her. That said, you can make use of Curious Case in tandem with her own Girl in a Bubble to let her walk away from any trouble.

Ultimately, she doesn't offer much different from any other AoE-based Test Subject, but the amount and range of the damage she provides is outright insane. Free At Last damages everyone in the area she's currently in on use, and her passive provides her consistent skill damage from a decent cooldown whenever she picks up Wilson; she can provide covering fire during an escape that doesn't cost her much besides HP that Sissela can quickly recover, anyway. Her CC is fairly strong and can also pull you over the wall to compensate for your lack of mobility to cross terrain, and this can save your bacon in tight spots. It's fairly dependant on some player execution and team synergy, but if you're playing squad or duo, chances are that you're communicating in some way, so it's not much of a hurdle. So yeah, she's a Studybuddy who lumps onto your already extensive CC chain and provides pretty good consistent damage, but definitely requires someone who knows how best to play her and get the most out of her.

Disruption Grade: B+

Studybuddy Grade: A-

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: Adela ()Hoo-boy, what a journey this character went on over the months. Now, she's pretty good, especially with the Augment system. As we talked about earlier, sustained skill damage characters and subjects that can cross obstacles are some of your rougher matches. Adela can not only do both, but can also blink from her position and become untargetable with her ultimate. Don't stand within any chess pieces she has lumped together, attempt to side-step the Queen whenever she has it up. You also need to keep your eye on her Rook, since she may her swap with it to avoid Don Quixote. Make use of Curious Case to avoid her CC chain and you should be fine getting on her. You can't give her time to set anything up or get her Queen ready. Otherwise, it's potentially even worse than Sissela. If you miss Odyssey, do not fight her - leave immediately. I've not much else to offer on the match-up, since it really boils down to the general advice for her, being: "Don't stand in the middle of all of her pieces!".

As a teammate, Adela provides a huge area of threat, but her main difficulty is keeping people there when she uses her ultimate, because everyone and their grandma has mobility in this game. You have more than enough ability to keep them there and extend her CC chain, and allow for her absurd damage combos. In exchange, Adela has incredibly low cooldowns that can be used to funnel or poke out enemy subjects into your ideal choke points or damage percentages, respectively. Her consistent damage also compliments your lack of such once you're out of cooldowns and Bookworm stacks in the mid-game. She's probably one of the best teammates for you in terms of amp-focused skill users, since she isn't as dependant on actually landing hits as Zahir and really compliments your very precise (for the most part) skillshots by forcing people to walk certain ways. So while not as handy as a front liner as Hyunwoo, she works for a great backline that can create a terrifying burst of damage if a single one of you land a stun. All you really suffer from is having a teammate who isn't as effective in short, sudden fights as most subjects.

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: A-

: Adriana ()Second verse, same as the first! Adriana feels about the same as Adela or Sissela to fight - they all usually have a zone of control you have to work around. Adriana's a lot less annoying for you than most characters, due to Curious Case. Her Molotov Party is all that really tips her over the edge when it comes to chasing her. Again, though, as we mentioned earlier, just make sure you hold onto it for any unlit oil slick; step around the ones that're on fire, since your barrier will usually break before you're over, unless you're crossing one placed horizontally. A lot of Adriana players will immediately use Fire Escape after they're stunned out of sheer panic, so just do as you normally do and you might steal that escape from them. Just remember you can't use Don Quixote while standing on an oil slick. Same rules for most of these "kiting" characters: keep on top of them and you'll do fine. But with Adriana, keep the molotovs in mind, as they prove much more of a genuine annoyance than any Wilson or Queen. Sidestep what you can, and know when you gotta keep your distance and retry, making use of Curious Case to give you a bit of extra distance on her and avoid being knocked back.

There's no time to Studybuddy with Adriana. She's already covered the library in kerosene at 4AM before anyone's there and you've arrived to a crime scene with tears in your eyes.

As a teammate, Adriana really gives you much the same as Adela does, but a much harder line of where they should or should not walk - it also shouldn't understated that CCing them on top of a burning oil slick will really mess them up. If you throw out Odyssey, they can either move back into the oil or get hit by Odyssey. Even if they dodge the stun, they'll still likely be hit, which affords you the Bookmark to knock them up. Adriana also very easily makes up for your issue with being able to disengage by affording you a very comfortable path of oil to skip along. Likewise, you can give Adriana the Unstoppable status and make Fire Escape all but guaranteed. You both also become miles more terrifying during the final area, in which your AoE abilities are a lot harder to step around. However, I will say that in terms of being sustained damage, my opinion of Adriana as a teammate is affected a bit by her lack of hard CC, which definitely benefits you more in your general set ups, given that your kit is much more suited for the grounding and BONKing of enemies fairly quickly and hovering around to recover your CC - complimenting it definitely feels better in the grand scheme.

Disruption Grade: B+

Studybuddy Grade: B+

: Nathapon ()I haven't gotten a lot of personal time to fight Nathapon - a lot of good ones, anyway - but those I've fought know how to make your life hell. Like Adela or Adriana, you cannot give him breathing room. Use Curious Case to avoid the pullback from Panorama if he lands it. You can walk around Timelapse easily, but if you're not sure you can, use Don Quixote or just expend Curious Case if you need to - but it's much better used to avoid his Stasis ultimate or Panorama's drag, since both would keep you in his preferred range and make the fight absolute pain. Generally, he's a lot easier to get on and stay on top of, since his only means of escape is CC - and I dunno if you've been paying attention, but you can ignore CC. On top of Don Quixote always giving you a means to move out of his ranges, you can usually just keep on BONKing and he's got very little options to peel you off from up-close. Just make sure to keep him there; give him a big warm hug and never let go.

As your teammate, Nathapon actually super compliments Sua well and vice versa. A lot of Nathapon's skills rely on people hanging out in a particular spot and your ability to keep them there makes his life way easier. He's got a lot of what Adela provides, but also with the benefit of - ahem - being able to completely ignore F-Stop. Seriously, you've never seen someone happier than a Nathapon dropping his ult on himself and suddenly being able to move away from the enemies screaming, frozen in time. It's a wonderful feeling.

If you're on the backfoot, just peel for him and stun them in Timelapse to let it tick away so he can save Panorama for later. His unique weapon skill causes a special Blind termed "Nearsight" which obstructs vision to those affects outside of about a meter range. This'll make dodging Odyssey incredible difficult and make you life so much easier. I really don't have too much more to add besides the very obvious note that you can both help set up for an explosive combo - by way of F-Stop or landing Odyssey - and then slowly melt people with sustained damage after your active skills are blown. Just always be mindful of the huge gaps you leave yourselves open to afterwards, since Nathapon's one of the worst cases of lacking distance and CC ruining him.

Disruption Grade: B-

Studybuddy Grade: A

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: Yuki ()Oh no, you better watch out, it's Boy with Sword! In all seriousness, Yuki can be an absolute menace depending on how he's played. I won't even bother trying to explain how to fight against Skill Amp Yuki - once that kid is on top of you, he'll blend you into adorable Parmesan cheese. Just don't let him stun you - use Curious Case to blind him or shield yourself - and put everything you can into blowing up his health bar. Anyway, for most normal attack-based Yuki players, they're typically kinda tanky and difficult to cut through, given his Button Up being used to soak up a good amount of damage due to the 50% DEF buff it gives him during the action. Your best bet is usually just to slam his head between your books and BONK away before you blind him, since it'll rob him of the stun From Head to Toe grants his next normal attack if he has a Cufflink - his unique resource - which he'll usually always have. From there, it's a matter of avoiding his ultimate by stepping behind him and slowly trying to avoid being chopped down by this ready-salted-flavoured isekai protagonist. Kite away from him like you would Jackie or any other melee character while laying on BONKs from Bookworm.

As your teammate, Yuki provides a lot of stuff you'd like from Fiora or Jackie - and while he's not as fast an attacker and doesn't hurt about as much as those stat-fueled mad people, he's got a terrifying amount of utility to compensate. Stuns, disarms, AoE percent HP-based true damage that comes with a slow; it still staggers me as to how people ignored him in the first month of Early Access in favour of just playing Axe Jackie every day. Anyway, he's a pretty incredible frontline that can help lock down targets that you can both then detonate with ease. You both have the ability to easily escape from enemies as long as you've made some distance prior, and some disquieting AoE damage that can let you put an enemy team on the backfoot immediately. Not as easily as Hyunwoo, mind, since stunning two at once is a thing only you can do - Yuki only gets the single bop - but he's still a very solid and invaluable ally to have.

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: A

: LenoxOpinions about getting rid of her shirt, the dumb sports bra, and why Capo Lenox should have just been her base skin if they had to drop her original look aside - I think Lenox isn't too difficult if you stay on top of her. She accels at her optimal range, but thankfully, you have Don Quixote and Curious Case to avoid her knockback and slow from her Whiplash. Just be careful that you don't shield yourself early, since she can easily pop the barrier with a quick spin. Snakebite - her harpoon thrust - is a little trickier. It silences you and speeds her up, so about all you can usually do is tank it and instead try to close the distance if you can't sidestep it.

Her ultimate is crippling for any character, but you have to keep in mind that it'll rip you apart if you Don Quixote while affected, since the damage is based on your distance made while bleeding. Don't move predictably and try to keep close as you can, and you shouldn't have too much trouble, since your ability to close gaps from outside her effective range is pretty difficult for her to contend with.

As your teammate, Lenox actually synergizes pretty well, since she works within your optimal range, having a plethora of tools to keep people within that range. Lenox's ultimate also stops people from running, which - wouldn't you know - is fantastic for characters with precise skillshots. You can easily hit targets in this time and benefit incredibly from their choosing to be stationary and avoid the bleed damage. If they move, then they take the damage freely; it's a win situation either way. Lenox's biggest weakness is definitely her lack of CC you don't have to aim and everything being on a delay. You can give her easy outs, as well as peel for her, and she provides consistent, low cooldown skills to keep damage rolling while you BONK away and recover your main skills. The whip skill is also incredibly useful for making subjects move in a predictable manner and getting them back in after you've blown your substantial gap-closers. She lacks some of the all-in qualities that works best with you, but she makes up the difference with good, consistent AoE damage and varied tools to make things easier.

Disruption Grade: C

Studybuddy Grade: B+

: Sua ()What a cute and wonderfully wholesome lady - oh wait, it's you! So you're very well acquainted with playing Sua and what she does, and in the rare chance you encounter another Sua out there in the wild west of PVP matchmaking, you'll know how to fight her. This'll also help for folks who don't play Sua but are reading this guide - for some reason - and want to know how to deal with her.

Like we mentioned, try to side-step Odyssey, but if you get stunned, you still have a moment to start up Don Quixote to run away or use Curious Case to avoid being knocked up by her own Don Quixote once she's landed the Bookmark. Don't worry about being Blinded, it doesn't work on you. Just focus on avoiding Odyssey - a good general bit of advice is to move around her, since it's ungodly awkward to hit Odyssey when someone's moving around you up close. Also always keep in mind what she last used when fighting her, because if Sua decides to use Don Quixote or Curious Case after Odyssey, it means she won't have access to Memory of Odyssey until she can get the original skill up again. It also goes without saying that you should always try to fight in open spaces, since bottlenecks make Don Quixote difficult to miss, outside of the odd box.

You can't team up with Sua, because I art thou and thou art I and all that other stuff. Until there's some kinda mode that lets you play two of the same character in a mode, I've no notes for you on possible synergy - but I do imagine being able to proc Bookmarks four times over with four seconds of chained CC would be insane.

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: N/A

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: Mai ()(Image clipped from her concept art) Mai's making her appearance in the Eternal Return branch in a few months time, and I'm super excited. That aside, the usual applies; I'll update this once she's out.

Disruption Grade: TBC

Studybuddy Grade: TBC

: Jan ()Jan is my character I can somewhat claim to actually be somewhat decent at, so whenever someone asks if Sua's the only character I can play, I can tell them: "Yes, but also no!".

Regardless, dealing with Jan as Sua is a little difficult, since he accels at longer fights and wants to get in close, which is something he struggles with in certain matchups. Not against you, however, since you need to be close to do anything. The way you can combat this is by trying to blow him up with the first hit. If you can put Jan on the backfoot, he struggles a lot more, especially if you use Curious Case to walk through the ropes of The Tetragon. If you do that and rob him the benefits of having you in the ring, you'll have it easier. Stun him after he dashes in to avoid the CC combo, and try to pile on the damage; you'll need to immediately move out of the Tetragon if he puts it up, making sure to use Curious Case to avoid the heavy slow, since that will just let Jan do whatever he likes if you're caught by it. It also goes without saying to fight in the open to avoid being kicked into a wall. That's bad news. Kite him out after landing your BONKs and do your best to avoid letting the fight go on too long, since his healing, cooldowns and sustained damage easily beat you out on even ground. CC is your best friend, and Jan's worst enemy, so make the most of it.

As a teammate, Jan is a nice middle ground between Hyunwoo and characters like Zahir. Consistent skill damage, good CC and zoning tools, with the key difference that your ability to chase people down gets much greater when in the Tetragon. With Jan, you tag team and become a terrifying consistent CC force. You make up for Jan's lack of distance engage and ability to get into range by being the one to get in and start things. Curious Case helps make up for Jan's suffering with CC so he can actually build stacks of his passive to enhance his abilities. He's generally a solid character for filling in the gaps between your cooldowns, as well as just synergizing as a character who can quickly recover his cooldowns and health through use of his skills and passive.

Disruption Grade: A-

Studybuddy Grade: B+

: Luke ()Luke was my most played character for a while as I was waiting for Sua, before I dropped him because I got incredibly bored of his feast-or-famine style and suffering with not being able to run. He hits like a freight train, though.

To that end, Luke being a credible threat depends on the mind games going on between you and them. If they fly on in with his targeted dash, Luke has the option to jump to the other side with his Dirty Work teleport and avoid your Odyssey entirely. However, if you choose to wait patiently for him to jump to the other side, he can whack away with his mop. As you can imagine, there's a lot of patience requires to avoid pain - but not too much, or you're definitely losing.

Your best shot is usually just to avoid his projectile to begin with to cut down his range of options. If you see him use his W, Elbow Grease, immediately try to CC him. Like Jackie, you have to run down the clock on the buff that constitutes most of his damage. Use your blind to buy some time and land Odyssey or Don Quixote before you BONK away as you kite back. To that end, try to avoid his ultimate, since it will waste you - especially on certain plans.

Again, just try to be patient and before firing off skills, quickly figure out what kinda Luke you're dealing with; a Janitor or an actual Assassin.

You played with Jackie before as Sua? Congrats, because as a teammate, Luke basically does about as much for you as they do: an library's worth of synonyms for "murder". However, between benefiting from all of your CC hugely, Luke also snowballs harder than any character in the game thanks to his passive enhancing his skills and also restoring his health - so most times, he'll either be focused down or you will be, leaving him ignored. Which is usually all you need to win. Keep him shielded if he needs to avoid a stun while he's swinging away, and help keep his target pinned down; cutting one down as fast as you can to activate Neat 'n' Tidy's heal before his window of power is over. His ult is also super handy for Luke to assist in you catching up to targets kiting away from you, as well as his Bat Weapon Skill to add to the CC chain. Besides that, I don't have much more in the way of advice to give you that isn't general advice, since your synergy isn't that incredible - definitely more notable than Jackie, though. Not to hate on her, though, I will always love Lumia Island's killer queen.

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: C+

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: RozziWhy does a covert ops mercenary have so much gold on her design? This is somehow more distracting than all the lace in her original design. I digress; Rozzi makes me sweat and get all anxious whenever I fight one. You know when you're dealing with mobile or fast characters and it feels like they're constantly leaving afterimages and like you just can't hit them? She's that for me. You got to be super careful dealing with Rozzi, because if you stun her and try to land Memory after, she can spin out of the area of effect or raindance her way over your head, be invulnerable and - in worst cases - cause you to fly right past her with Don Quixote. She has so much consistent damage, instant mobility and access to healing reduction innately. I can't stress this enough - If you can't hit Odyssey: Do not. Go. In.

Unless you're in final area and she's quite literally against the wall, you lose too much without Odyssey. She will close in on you, move around your stuns and you will never catch her. Also, this goes without saying, but make use of Curious Case to avoid the knockback from the second part of Gun Vault. It's more use to you to avoid the CC oftentimes than to block two out of a billion shots she's going to fire at you over the next ten seconds.

As a teammate, Rozzi works a lot like Silvia - though with less CC - so leaning more onto the "just damage" end of the scale. She has a fairly negligible slow and her healing reduction isn't much help in a group fight scenario, but her mobility keeps her more self sufficient than most characters. Most of your synergy comes with helping her comfortably chase and stay at mid-range without having to commit too many important resources, much like playing with Silvia or Jenny. Besides that, there isn't much more to the combo besides just keeping her peeled for and pinning down targets to keep Rozzi a priority target they can't really ignore. So, y'know, usual Sua stuff.

Disruption Grade: A

Studybuddy Grade: C+

: Emma ()I'm sure a lot of characters and players have issues with Emma, but there's no other character I struggled against her more than with Sua. Her consistent and burst damage options and long range as well as ranged teleport lets her keep her distance fairly easily, and your success it dependant on getting on her and staying there. Just always keep in mind where you're standing, since keeping your butt on her hat can let her swap any time with her Change skill for a burst of damage. Keep Curious Case for her Bunnymorph whenever you see it coming or after you fly in to prevent being completely de-BONK'd, and always try to avoid Dove Dealer's projectiles on your approaches. Every little bit matters against Emma. As always, don't try to hard to chase after an Emma past obstructions, it usually ends horribly - definitely if you just keep missing Odyssey. Hit Odyssey, get your lil' librarian butt on over there and do what you can until she dies or escapes. Take the little victories, since you'll have a much easier time taking her out in final restricted area if it comes down to it.

Emma's putting on a show, leaping from table to table as the other patrons try to remove her from the library. But you're fond of Emma, so as her studybuddy, you're going to help her set up her big combos and ensure she can get around without being dragged down from her "stage". In turn, Emma assists with some good CC and a long range, low cooldown ability to compensate for your larger cooldowns you use to set things up. Hang onto Curious Case if you need to peel for her or stop anyone from jumping on top of her. You're gonna be there to slap hands aside and suplex them so Emma can pile on the hats and doves. Just also keep in mind that if you need to back up, ensure that your Emma friend doesn't leave you alone if she crosses a wall; a kind reminder that you can't. Your gameplan is to act as a frontline to keep targets pinned down so Emma has a comfortable time getting into range to throw her hat down - this also has the benefit of giving Emma a safer area to move to and reposition if any of the other subjects jumped her. Her Polymorph also gives you an additional second or so of downtime to recover cooldowns alongside Bookworm, or even just make Odyssey near impossible to hit. Like many of the other characters with CC, Emma's a huge help in just letting you do your thing. Like we mentioned, though, her only issue with Sua is that their gameplans kinda don't match up, but using them as a way to patch up each other's shortcomings is a great combo, too.

Disruption Grade: S

Studybuddy Grade: A-

: Eleven ()B o r g a r girl, Eleven herself. She launched in a terrible state, but since then, she's gotten way better after layers and layers of buffs. Unfortunately, though, she's still not much of a match against you. Melee characters who focus on brief periods of enhancement typically have a rough time against Sua. I've only struggled against an Eleven once, and she was ahead of me and I had yet to finish my items (on top of just playing it badly). If you let her sit there and smack you with her ult and burger slaps, you'll definitely die. But then again, you'd be playing it very wrong. If she jumps on in, try to dodge. Most Elevens will open up with her taunt, typically a full charge - this would be fatal for you, but thankfully, you have Curious Case. Use the Barrier ahead of time if you see her start the channel, and BONK her right after. She can't act immediately, so cut the time she can make use of her ult in half by immediately slamming Odyssey over her head and going with your close range combo. Kite back, BONKing as you go, and you shouldn't have much trouble. Just be ready to chase if you have to, since Don Quixote can't hold a candle to her On Air and it's ability to cross entire buildings.

BONK SQUAD RISE UP, Eleven's your studybuddy and it's Hammers VS the World. Eleven's ability to keep people immediately contained in an area is kinda lacklustre, since it takes a moment to charge her taunt unless she has it enhanced. However, if you both manage to get your CC on a single target, they are in a living nightmare. You can pin them down, and even shield Eleven to allow her taunt to go through uncontested. Together, you can stop a player having free control for over four seconds, which is absurd. Unlike with Hyunwoo, you can only really do this to one player, but you do also both have incredible healing potential with her sliders from her passive, and the healing from Bookworm. Eleven also has fairly decent consistent damage and slows with Burger Queen that'll allow her to cover for you as you make distance after your initial combo. Plus, having two instances of defence shred is never bad - that in mind, though, while you're both Hammer users, your options aren't nearly as fluid, so try to always work around that.

Disruption Grade: C-

Studybuddy Grade: A-

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: Daniel () Look at this Sweeney Todd-looking dude. He's an enigma - I barely see him much, but he's always such a mixed bag. The general counterplay to Daniel is to ensure he doesn't hit you with his big scissor skillshot; sounds familiar, doesn't it? This stops him from getting his enhanced attacks, the attack speed, and all of the extra damage that comes piling on top of you from his Inspiration mark. The rest of his kit doesn't have much in the way of stopping him, but here's your process. Avoid the scissors center, and then immediately try to stun him if you see him apply the mark. You need to CC and then whittle him down before he can take advantage of his window of enhancement, like Luke; as with Luke, too, you're best playing reactively to avoid his dash evading Odyssey. Above all, don't guess where he's going to emerge when he's finished with his Masterpiece. You quite literally can't afford to guess with Odyssey unless you're a page away from the final chapter of your story - dead, I mean. Be patient and wait for him to pick a direction and possibly use his dash, and then finish the job.

When Daniel is trying to practice cutting hair, it's your job as his studdybuddy to keep them still so he can do his work, no matter how much they scream. Daniel, likewise, offers a consistent threat to a single target and is also amazing at making up for the final coup de grace that Sua lacks after she's blown all her resources. While I do think there's better options for your damage-focused partners, Daniel actually offers a lot of utility in CC and being able to limit vision range, stopping folks from dodging your skills as easily. His trait also offers him reduced vision penalty at night, which makes him miles safer Night 1 before meeting or as a frontline as you walk around together at night. Your side of the combo meal is landing your skills to hold targets still so Daniel can get them in the centre of his Dusk Scissors to reduce his cooldowns, and also make it safer for him to pile on damage without being interrupted so his Masterpiece can be completed and really hurt.

Disruption Grade: B

Studybuddy Grade: B

: Rio ()Here she is, it's Girl with Bow! Jokes aside, Rio's far more interesting as a character than Yuki - and I'm still not convinced he deserves to be shipped with him (you know who you are) - but not as much of a difficult matchup in a one-on-one interaction. Let me also clarify - Rio isn't what gives you problems, it's the environment. Like with Aya, Rio getting over a wall is a serious issue to your ability to fight, but her mobility is on a much short cooldown, so there's no much stopping her just jumping over a wall and shooting you. Thankfully, you can pick your fights.

Only engage Rio in an open area where she can't cover too much distance by way of jumping a wall or obstacle, and try to keep on her. Save Curious Case to avoid her Hankyu (short bow) ultimate's knockback if you're not confident in using Don Quixote's wind up to predict it. Using your blind usually isn't worth blocking two of what will inevitably be a flurry of arrows. Stay ontop of her as you would Nadine or Hyejin and you won't have many issues; just don't fight her somewhere she can take advantage of her range, you won't win.

As your studdybuddy, Rio fits a lot of the same role as Rozzi or Jenny, playing in the same range, but with the benefit of being able to fall back and offer long-range fire or some pretty good slows at mid-range. All you gotta do is keep that chunky-cat-loving girl safe and sound from any aggressors diving in, like Luke. So, keep in the front, pin the enemy Test Subjects down and let Rio do her thing in safety, saving Curious Case if she gets into a pinch. She's also incredibly good at helping you kite back and away after using your cooldowns, and supporting your lack of ways to leave after using Don Quixote. Good consistent damage, CC, and a credible threat at all ranges makes me consider Rio one of your better studybuddies for a damage-focused partner. Just be sure to keep in mind that if she's caught, she's about as durable as wet paper towel. She's adorable and has cats on the brain, though, so she's always top tier to me.

Disruption Grade: B-

Studybuddy Grade: A

: Eva ( )Eva's one of the few characters I actually play besides Sua, so I've had plenty of chances to experience both sides of the coin. Here's the short and sweet: Don't let Sua get in.

So that's what you've gotta do. Eva's plan is to poke you out with Light Triad and VF Beads from her trait, place Phase Vortex and then fire beams at you to keep you away. Her dash isn't much of a factor besides being able to sidestep Odyssey, so worry about landing it when she's firing VF Eruption, or anytime before then, and lay on the hurt. You need to stay close, much like Zahir or any other skill-based Test Subject looking to make distance while firing skills. Curious Case helps cut through her very sparse CC and make it matter very little, since getting caught in her beam will destroy your squishy self. Just to bash it into your skull, again: Don't fight her or anyone with a dash and good distance skills near any form of wall or large obstacle. Eva's especially damning since she make that walk towards her especially painful.

Keep on your toes, don't sleep on her and look to interrupt her VF Eruption to secure a kill or you'll be feeling a bit like a villain in a Dragonball episode.

There's a lot of overlap with many of these studybuddies, huh? Regardless, with Eva, you're capable of an amazing CC combo to detonate up to two people that you're both normally incapable of alone - due to Sua's charge stopping on first target hit, and Eva's Phase Vortex taking what is technically termed as a "heccin' long time" to pop them up. However, together, you are an adorable, deadly force. Catch some folks while you're in a bush, keep them in the Phase Vortex and let Eva do the rest - much like the Hyunwoo pairing, I think this alone makes them a super fun combo to play. That aside, Eva's super good at keeping people at the range she wants them, and having a super short, abusable cooldown in Light Triad to poke while you wait for your own cooldowns. Her only huge downside is lacking mobility matching yours for escapes, but considering her range and deadly skills, I think that's peanuts in comparison. She covers for a lot of your weaknesses, and you cover for hers quite neatly, even giving her a nice safety bubble to drink some juice and take a break. You also give her CC with no strings attached and some protection from melee characters which she's not able to peel off her easily. Eva will never beat out characters like Hyunwoo in my eyes, but she's got the whole package of adorable and bloody terrifying in a big fight.

Disruption Grade: A-

Studybuddy Grade: A

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: Nicky ()Okay, I'm still not sure how to best play around Nicky and her angee smol person energy - as in I've not really got a defined method to deal with her. I guess that makes her a rough match-up, then. Even for Sua, who excels in specific melee matchups, Nicky has a lot of consistent damage and CC that's difficult to avoid. I'd suggest you save Curious Case for her Fury Jab to avoid the stun, or use it to avoid her Pure Rage Uppercut chasing you down if you need to cut an escape. In terms of fighting her, avoid dumping Odyssey into her counter, since it negates the damage and effectively kills off your damage potential. Triggering it is a concern, too, since it gets her Angry - which gives her access to Fury Jab and Pure Rage Uppercut - so try to be patient when BONKing away. Get your combo out and try to avoid the big punches. Besides this, all I can really offer is trying to avoid her flying punch so it doesn't reduce the cooldown, and just try to keep kiting her out so you're not throwing hands with Nicky close enough to see the veins popping in her forehead.

As a studybuddy, Nicky is loyal, a true friend, and very much willing to throw down with anyone who says anything mean about you. They have a good amount of mobility and AoE CC, but their combos are fairly reliant on meeting conditions, though thankfully Nicky's gimmick isn't something she has to think much about outside of her parry. It's hard to talk about what Nicky really gives you without saying "it's almost like having another Sua". CC, good AoE damage and absurd capacity to chase those poor souls down. If you wanna be extra spicy, you can even put Curious Case on Nicky as she flies in to quell a bit of that frustration she deals with after losing her Parry. Obviously, your main weaknesses are your lack of good escapes after committing to a fight, since you both reduce cooldowns by landing your dashes on enemies, and using them to run can be rough, as well as both lacking any form of long-range poke. Again, though, your incredible aggressive potential makes for a super good "catch and bully" combo. Being chased by two young women who can knock you down and beat the life out of you for four seconds is a pretty scary thing, after all.

Disruption Grade: A

Studybuddy Grade: A-

: Echion () (At time of writing, Echion is yet to be released - about a month away - and I'm excited to see how they transfer his mechanics and gimmicks, but regardless, it's going to take me a while to collect information.)

: Bianca ()As I write this, Bianca's still fairly new, though with how many people were looking forward to her, as well as a new Arcana character, well...

Let's just say I got plenty of practice.

That aside, I found fighting everyone's favourite lil' chunnibyou as Sua is fairly easy if you get the jump on her. She's terrifyingly squishy, and depends a lot on using her skills alongside taking damage to fill her Blood Bank and regenerate by hopping into her coffin for a lil' sip on the forbidden Capri Sun. That being said, you wanna make sure you have Odyssey off cooldown by way of Bookworm so you can knock her out of the coffin. If you don't, back up, and re-engage, since it's likely that she'll immediately prepare her ultimate, Reign of the Vampire Queen. Not being able to interrupt this or Sanctuary is the deciding factor about whether you leave or not; just step out at max Don Quixote range if you wanna play safe, otherwise, don your shield and get ready to tank some damage and supply her with some healing as a result. If she applies her passive to you while the circle remains, you'll be grounded, too, so keep Curious Case in mind or you can't do your best TeddyLoid and fly away~. Keep all this in mind, get in quick to grab the upper hand, treat her like you would a freakish combo of Shoichi and Eva, and you'll be just dandy.

(I've barely any experience with Bianca in duos or squads yet (besides playing her), so I'll update this as I've gotten more experience, since I don't want to work off of theories from being on both sides of the fence.)

Disruption Grade: C+

Studybuddy Grade: TBC

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: Chloe () (And Nina!) Chloe's definitely a character you rarely see right now, given her high skill ceiling in having to micro-manage Nina. Regardless, she's a pretty difficult match-up for you, since most of the anti-Chloe gameplan is to get rid of Nina first and go from there. Unless you can catch both Chloe and Nina in Odyssey and Memory of Odyssey to deal damage at the same time, it's going to be rough, since Chloe can activate Soul Link and prevent either of them dying to your burst damage. You need to either catch Chloe asleep at the wheel and dump your whole combo into her to give you some leeway to kite around and wait out Soul Link, or try to whittle them both down to the point of being able to take them both out simultaneously - which a good Chloe will never allow. Try to blind either Nina or shield the knock-up from Puppet Theatre, since that can be especially annoying to deal with. The hammer weapon skill can also be extremely helpful for hitting them both at once, and also further increases potential damage that can be transferred via Soul Link.

(I have no experience whatsoever playing with Chloe. Like, with any character. From what I assume, it's most to do with the higher than Once they've added a way to rebind control of Nina, maybe we'll see more of the pair. Until then, this'll remain blank for now.)

Disruption Grade: A

Studybuddy Grade: TBC

: Johann ()Okidoki, so Johann is a rare case: You'll almost never see him in solo games, since he was built part-and-parcel to be a pure support character. If you do, however, see him in normals, you won't have much in the way of issues. He has one major form of CC, and you can easily see it coming and use Curious Case to make it a non-issue. His healing also isn't a massive problem since you'll typically have healing reduction and be able to cut him down afterward, anyways. In Duo and Squads, however, you need to take Johann down as soon as you can, since he can enable specific characters like Jackie to become terrors. There's otherwise not much in the way of advice I can offer for Johann other than destroying his Censer if he leaves it nearby, since it puts it on a lengthy cooldown if you do. He's just not a character you have to worry about directly other than just knocking him out.

In summation, you Johann isn't a disruption - he's very quiet and respectful. It's literally anyone else that becomes the disruption.

I'm... really not sure what to say about Johann as a studybuddy. He's a dedicated healer that combines with your healing from Bookworm to keep you super healthy, as well as having a root in his abilities. His damage isn't terrible, either, also offering attack speed and movement speed buffs alongside a cleanse, with a global shield for every teammate on a takedown. His ultimate also increases DEF of all allies in range (which should be you if you're keeping nearby to protect your friends) that helps with Bookworm's scaling on your BONKs. Here's the thing: as a duo alone, Sua and Johann aren't especially amazing since you ultimately have your burst and are then just assisted by Johann to kite away - he's much more suited for a consistent damage dealer, like Rio or Jackie. With that in mind, you both have exceptional escape abilities, being able to ignore CC and cleanse it, respectively. However, as a duo, you both shine together in Squads, making your third member as slippery as a vinyl book sleeve and holding multiple targets down. As such, I can't really give Sua and Johann a glowing review as a team - but as a support line for a 3rd teammate? They're incredible as the proverbial screaming and panicking parents running after Luke as he sweeps his way into the other fifteen people and pulling him out of the sandpit.

Disruption Grade: D

Studybuddy Grade: Duos: C+ / Squads: A

: Celine () I'm going to wait until Celine has all of her quirks ironed out before talking about fighting her, since so much of what I've dealt with concerning her on release week wasn't a fair assessment, and it's still a week til the next large patch at time of writing.

(Second verse, same as the first, I'll wait til I have some more concrete experience with Celine at her tuned up strength to see how well things work out.)

Disruption Grade: TBC

Studybuddy Grade: TBC

Page 17: RFT 49 > TFT 51

: Laura ()(Laura's had her model sheet revealed for a little while at time of writing, and she'll be added in soon. Until then, though, Lenox remains the only Whip user.)

: Aiden ()(Not too long until Aiden, and inevitability another "cool guy character" we'll see everyone and their mother claim to main. He's is pretty cool, though. Cooler than Alex, too. Anyways, not out yet, you know the drill.)

: Tia ()(When Tia was added to OGBS, I screamed. Likewise, I'm happy she's coming to ERBS. I wanted an artist character ever since I started playing OGBS back when Chiara was new, and now we do! Anyways, she's not in the game at time of writing, so I'll update this all when she's out and I've played her a bunch.)

"Looking Good, Miss Sua!" (Cosmetics & Emotes)

Sua's normal look in ERBS! I have some opinions about this one that're too long for this guide, but here's the short.

Super cute Aran-knit sweater, cute green flowery dress that makes her look like an adequately dreamy fantasy-obsessed lady. I love the old design more, since it felt more "Librarian", but this one has it's own charm and keeps most of the same vibe alive. 9/10, super cute!

Season 2 Ranked Reward for Gold+ rank at the end of the season.

Sua's first skin, and also the ranked reward skin for that Season. Cute, formal "student" look with gold and black trims that changes Odyssey, Curious Case and Don Quixote to gold in colour, and all Memory effects to rose gold. Unfortunately, unless they plan to bring back the Cadet skins in future, folks picking up Sua now won't have an option for a skin. Either way, super cute, shame about the exclusivity.

Animated emote given to those reaching Gold or higher in 2+ different ranked modes.

Same deal as . You'll never be able to get it again unless they bring it back in some form. Shame, too. Sua eating a burger is adorable, and I wish everyone could have this.

"The End" (Final Thoughts And Thank Yous)

And that's all she wrote, for as much as I can think of, I've covered about everything you'll need to start playing Sua - or maybe fill in any blanks you're drawing if you already have. With that in mind, lemme finish up and you guys can get to BONKing!

This guide took me an astronomical amount of time to make. I started back in May, when I felt like I had enough experience with Sua at base, and besides waiting until I had accrued at least 200 games on Sua with various plans and teammates, I had to collect data from every single matchup written about here, images and stats, as well as routing information (that continue to change). To that end, I'd like to give some thanks to a few people - you all know who you are - and resources.

Anti, another player and friend from a fighting game background, who plays the best Camillo I know, for all of his notes on playing against and experience playing with him.

Lynx, for his plethora of notes on multiple characters - mainly Fiora and Li Dailin - and all of the games I've watched on his Twitch and played with his library of characters he loves, as well as the one who devised the plan I continue to use on Sua to this day.

Bear, an incredible Hyunwoo player who's given me hours worth of notes and gameplay experience on our good boy.

Prupru, who coached me on Hart and imbued me with the ins and outs of her multiple options and gameplay scenarios.

Fox and his absurd amount of ERBS blind duo/squad experience on the Asia servers that he's helped me out with.

Holty, who helped me gather information on Sua back when the Practice tool was but a star in the distance.

Every single one of my other friends and viewers on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] who've been by regularly as I've ground out game after game with my favourite character.

The Eternal Return: Black Survival and Immortal Soul: Black Survival wikis for providing up to date stats and information on all of the existing characters, respectively.This guide will probably be updated every time a major change happens that affects the guide's information, but unless it's a huge issue, I'll leave it be for the most part, since her design will remain mostly the same. To close out, I really love Sua. I have since ISBS and my days of going "one more" after every death until the wee hours of the morning. When she came to ERBS, I was happy, and still am to this day. I can only hope that this guide at least helped someone a little bit if they enjoy playing her just as much as I have.

So, if you're read up and prepare, grab your quill, your book, belt up your sandals and go take on the world.

Guide Edits/Changelog

14/12/2021: Guide released.

17/12/2021: Fixed information errors in subject matchups and updated Curious Case. Fixed certain links.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2483468536					

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