Chained Echoes: Raphael, The Inquisitor Guide

Chained Echoes Raphael, The Inquisitor Guide: Stats & Build Suggestions. Also check; Chained Echoes Character Guide.

Chained Echoes: Raphael, The Inquisitor

Raphael is the final character you can recruit, and the fourth optional. While Egyl is a physical tank, Raphael is a magic tank, having many abilities to mitigate magic damage. He has less Hate generation than Egyl, but compensates it with party utility and more damage.

Strengths

• Fits the typical Paladin archetype: sturdy and with support-oriented skills.
• Second highest HP and DEF.
• Third highest ATK.
• Third highest DEF, tied with Glenn.
• Second highest MND.
• High MND makes him useful as a healer.
• Ultra Move makes party immune to magical damage.

Weaknesses

• Not very effective on fights where enemies don’t use magic.
• Only has one taunt skill.

Baseline

• Flash: area-of-effect taunt. Combine it with certain passives (such as Warcry) to make enemies focus on him right off the bat.
• Holy / Devilish Spirit: very similar to the Shaman’s Spirits. The Holy spirit replenishes TP to a random character on Raphael’s turn, while the Devilish Spirit will deal damage (based on Raphael’s ATK).
• High Cross: gives 100% taunt for 1 turn. Useful when everyone is low.
• Exorcise: negates all magic damage until Raphael’s next turn. Given he has below average AGI this actually plays in his favor.
• Soul Eater: taking damage gives allies TP. Very useful overall. Should be one of the first abilities to cast after Flash.
• HP Drain: deal damage, recover health. Simple as that. The beauty of this passive is that it works with multi-hit moves and also area-of-effect, meaning you’ll gain HP per hit and/or enemy hit. This even works with Ultra Moves.

Class Abilities

• Ether Sucker: from Vampire. Useful on all characters, period. Since Egyl has the lowest TP, it’s especially useful on him.
• Heal All: from Cleric. Given Raphael’s very high MND, he works surprisingly well as a healer, further reinforcing his paladin-inspired archetype.

Crystals

• HP / DEF / MND Up: not much to say. Just reinforce his strengths.

Raphael joins pretty much at the endgame, with all tier available. So just pick those aforementioned spells and dump the rest on his defensive passives.

As for the Class Emblems, either Warrior or Monk works just fine. Rune Knight is also a good pick if you plan on making Raphael a healer of sorts.

For accessory Bracelet of Wisdom is good just to further increase his MND.

General Tips

Setups are everything

Combat in this game, especially in the late-game, is all about setups. Your characters will unlock plenty of buffs and debuffs and it is key to lay those down to empower your team while simultaneously cripple the enemy.

For instance, Sienna alone has four really important buffs she should have active nearly all the time, while Glenn should always make sure the enemy has Break debuffs on, With certain setups you can see some really big numbers (I’ve been able to crit +18k with Lenne during the final boss) so it’s important to have your team cover everything.

Don’t bother with Crystals (until later)

The Crystal system at the blacksmith anvil is a potentially powerful, yet a bit obnoxious system (because of RNG and how the combining functions), way to make your characters REALLY powerful, allowing you stack passives to reinforce their strengths or to circumvent a weakness. For instance, stacking Crit Damage Up crystals on Sienna can make her dish out some really insane damage, while adding debuff crystals (i.e. Poison, Blind) on characters with multi-hit moves can make inflicting those easier.

However, I strongly recommend waiting to tamper with this system until the endgame. It’s not really worth hunting down crystals or farming, and the game is already relatively easy enough that you can clear the vast majority of the content without worrying about crystals.

If you want more details on the Crystal crafting, check Xenocite’s excellent Crystal Guide.

Agility is everything

Agility (AGI) is the single most important attribute in the game, hence why Sienna is so busted since she has the highest in the game. Improving your AGI in any way (passive skills, buffs, crystals) is key to get as many turns as possible before the enemy.

Drunken Master (a skill from the Monk Class Emblem) is an ability you should have learned with one or more characters and equipped at all times, and use it as soon the fight starts. It’s party-wide.

Additionally, crippling your enemy’s AGI with Robb’s Leg Shot (and also Kylian’s Leg Aim) is key in any boss fight to further enable more turns for you and less for the enemy.