Chained Echoes: Sienna, The Ronin Guide

Chained Echoes Sienna, The Ronin Guide: Stats & Build Suggestions. Also check; Chained Echoes Character Guide.

Chained Echoes: Sienna, The Ronin

Sienna is arguably one of the most characters in the cast. Her damage output and speed are second to none, and she can even solo the secret super boss, with proper setup. She can reach whopping +80% critical chance, not counting in-battle buffs, meaning she’ll ALWAYS crit. With her superior speed she can have many turns before the enemies and allies alike.

She has access to Pilfer, which allows to steal items from enemies. While the Bandit Class Emblem also has a stealing ability (Easy Robbery), Sienna’s Pilfer is superior as at rank 3 it has 100% chance, as opposed to Easy Robbery‘s 60% chance.

Sienna has a unique mechanic where certain abilities have a chance to proc her Petal Storm buff, which allows her to use said ability (if equipped). This is quite potent in the early game until she learns Dragonfang, with a damage multiplier of x3.4, one of the highest in the game tied with her own Iaijutsu.

She can actually be built into a dodge / counter tank, which can be useful in fights where bosses use mostly physical attacks.

Strengths

• Fits a mix of Samurai / Thief archetype: lots of speed and high damage.
• Has one of the highest damage-output potential in the entire game, alongside Lenne and Ba’Thraz.
• Boasts high offensive and defensive stats.
• Highest AGI and CRIT in the game.
• Her stealing is guaranteed at max rank.
• Has plenty to increase AGI and dodge rate.
• Powerful Ultra Move that increases her crit chance.

Weaknesses

• Has the third lowest TP, tied with Robb. Given that Sienna takes a lot of turns due to her high AGI, she can quickly burn her skills.
• She is so fast that the Overdrive gauge will rise a lot if there are no skills types available to Sienna for lowering it.
• Nearly all her buffs except of Nukitsuke are selfish, only applied to her.
• Petal Storm’s proc is too RNG based to be relied on.

Baseline

• Petal Storm: very potent skill, especially in the early game, solidifying Sienna as a nuke character right off the bat. The drawback is that it can only be used once Sienna gets a proc of the Petal Storm buff when using certain abilities. Becomes less useful in the endgame since Dragonfang is superior once Sienna hits higher AGI.
• Yoko Giri: useful through pretty much the whole game, as area-of-effect is always good for normal battles. The chance of triggering Petal Storm is increased per enemy hit.
• Pilfer: while there are no exclusive items obtained through stealing (mostly loot and materials), it’s nevertheless a useful ability to have equipped pretty much at all times.
• X-Slash: until the player gets Mikah, X-Slash is the only source for Bleed damage.
• Blade Reflection: an emergency panic ability to inflict Blind on all enemies. Sadly it can only be used once per battle.
• Nukitsuke: one of Sienna’s most important abilities, granting +15% CRIT for the whole party. While additional ranks don’t increase the effect, it increases the number of turns for the buff.
• Quickstep: possibly Sienna’s most important self-buff. It increases her AGI by 35% until being hit (whopping +75% on max rank). This makes her a speed-demon, and she can circumvent the drawback with…
• Shadow Step: gives Sienna two dodge charges to avoid physical attacks, useful to keep her Quickstep active at all times. And in addition, she can also use…
• Calm Water: increases her chance to dodge, and it scales with her AGI, meaning it has direct synergy with Quickstep. Truly formidable!
• Dragonfang: this ability is the culmination of Sienna’s potential. She can deal up to 5 hits, and the chance increases with her AGI. So with Quickstep + Drunken Master she can guarantee 5 hits all the time.

Class Abilities

• Ether Sucker: from Vampire. Sienna has one of the lowest TP and burns skills fast, so this is especially valuable on her.
• HP Sacrifice: from Vampire. A passive skill where you lose 5% of your HP but deal 5% more damage (up to 15% when maxed).
• Search: from Chemist. Obtains a random item. Since Sienna is really fast this is good to spam on non-dangerous fights when trying to farm items and save money.

Crystals

• CRIT Damage Up: with her whopping 80% crit, she can hit even harder!
• AGI Up: more AGI means more turns, more damage, higher dodge chance and more hits on Dragonfang.
• ATK Up: to hit even harder!
• HP Drain: very straightforward. Hit enemy, get HP. The amount seems to scale with damage done, so the harder you hit, the more you heal. Useful on pretty much all characters.

Early Game

Sienna starts strong, with Petal Storm being a priority to learn. Focus on improving her AGI, CRIT and TP.

Mid Game

On tier 2 Sienna already hits her first powerspike. Get Nukitsuke and Shadowstep as soon as possible, and continue to focus on her AGI. Getting Increased Rare Drops is also very useful for material farming.

On tier 3, you’re pretty much set for the rest of the game. Get Shadowstep and Dragonfang and Sienna will start doing big numbers.

For Class Emblems, either Warrior, Bandit or Monk are good picks for her.

End Game

All that is left in the final tier is getting Quickstep and Calm Water and Sienna becomes a monster. Max her stats after that and you’re set.

As for Class Emblems, equip her with Gambler for the extra CRIT.

For accessories, Life Thread (+15% CRIT) is pretty much mandatory for her. Otherwise give her anything that increases her AGI.

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.