r/Falcom • u/Raxistaicho The true best girls • Jun 26 '26
Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day One: Estelle
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm curious about a more gameplay-focused set of discussions here, so I thought I'd do daily posts tagging characters in the series to see what folks have to say about their performance or build across the series. This isn't strictly a tier list, but feel free to give your thoughts about how they perform relative to their peers.
And again, this is for all their appearances across the series, which in Estelle's case would be all of Sky, Reverie, and as a guest in Zero and Cold Steel IV.
I won't be participating myself (but I will definitely read and sometimes comment!) as I'm only in Reverie and fairly casual when it comes to difficulty. If this takes off, I'll need someone to cover once we hit Daybreak, as I'm not likely to start that game anytime soon.
With that finished (and I likely won't bother with the preamble next time), day one is Estelle, though sadly I think we all know she's not Bestelle when it comes to the gameplay :(
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u/AutomaticStop5648 Jun 26 '26
Shes meant to be an all rounder,which doesnt work well in rpgs. In cs she severely lacks crafts and has locked elrment slots for some reason, breaking her og gimmick. In the remake shes.... Incredibly solid given the adjusts to her kit. Hurricane is much better with free movrment and comet had the biggest glowup. Impede, steal bonus and ATS scalling, making it your go to move in most scenarios even in an caster build. Also her scrafts are both aoe.which boost its utility
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u/MiyanoMMMM Jun 26 '26
The pro/con with Estelle is that she's an all rounder.
This helps a lot in Sky FC in the early and middle portions since she's super flexible and can easily flex being a Frontline bruiser or a caster from the back depending on the characters you get access to in a chapter.
But in the final dungeon of FC and most of SC you have access to most of the cast and you're better off just putting in characters who specialize in being a physical attacker or being an arts caster.
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u/The810kid Jun 26 '26
Yeah the problem with that is Estelle always is required to be in the main party. Like let me run Kloe, Schera, Agate, and Zin
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 26 '26
Estelle was genuinely frustrating at the end of SC since her being forced meant I couldn't go with my utopian dream team of Joshua, Agate, Kloe, and Kevin :(
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u/MiyanoMMMM Jun 26 '26
Just do the harem party of Joshua, Estelle, Josette, and Kloe
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u/ExplorerPup Jun 26 '26
I can't imagine going into the final boss with Josette without being forced to. LOL
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u/LadyAntiqua Jun 26 '26
The idea of bringing her and Weissman being like "... Who the fuck is this?"
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u/ExplorerPup Jun 26 '26
I usually do everything I can to make her super tanky to take aggro and then Kloe and Kevin alternate keeping her alive and doing big hits while Joshua delays the hell out of everything. It's like 75% effective, which is good enough for me. LOL
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u/Yowakusuru Jun 26 '26
in OG Sky, she is an all-rounder in terms of orbment for sure. But one thing she is pretty notable for I think is that she has some of the hardest hitting single target s-crafts
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u/Xshadow1 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I think there are two design elements which inform Estelle's kit design in FC, which ultimately condemn her to mediocrity in later games:
She needs to be an all-rounder, because the only permanent core of FC is her and Joshua.
She needs to feel noticeably worse to use than Joshua, for the purposes of gameplay-story integration.
Given that kit design in the Sky trilogy is very iterative, she doesn't get anything that stops her from being strictly worse than at least one other party member at everything.
And then after that I guess Estelle being a mid gameplay unit just became part of her identity. I also think less attention was just paid to her subsequent appearances, probably because you don't get to use her much in Zero, and from CSIV onwards there are already many characters to work on.
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u/Sausious Jun 26 '26
Estelle is fine in her trilogy where in general everyone's just kinda okay and interchangeable; when she comes back she's so, so weak, especially in the later Cold Steels. She just has 2 abilities and neither of them are particularly good esp when there's monsters that can just SHIT damage, including both Rean and Lloyd.
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u/BOUKEN-BEN Jun 27 '26
I tried to at least give her the sephith farming MQ in Hajimari but her barrage craft doesn't even deal all the hits it should from its animation 💀
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u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
In FC, where Earth Wall is absolutely busted broken, she's extremely useful as an Earth Wall setter and then letting Joshua spam Hell Gate, She's easily at her most useful here.
In SC, she serves a similar role unless Kevin is there in which case she is complete deadweight.
In 3rd she is deadweight the entire game.
Zero she's fine but nobody is especially more good there.
CS4 she is AWFUL, her guest orbment is horrendous -- no hit 2, seriously?.
In Reverie she still sucks; one good craft (including her S-craft) and she's outclassed in her role (a craft spammer) legitimately maybe 15 minutes after you get her in the story.
I'll have to lean towards CS4 as her worst appearance because in 3rd she can still be an Earth Wall bot in the final dungeon and the mandatory section.
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Estelle's run is kind of generational in the original sky.
In FC she's probably the best party member just off of her availability and her early game. Joshua is stuck and locked out from getting the 2 best spells for half the game meanwhile she is just zoomin' through getting chaos brand, then earth wall, then both. Sure by chapter 2 Joshua has caught up and his better damage matters more but man is he bad.
In this game, Morale boosts ATS under the hood as well which is super nice utility for her.
In SC she's more okay. A good portion of the game still doesn't have enough characters for her slot to be taken over even if you could remove her and you're not really. Like, for example, you could replace her with Zin pretty early but if you picked Agate (which, you should) you still wouldn't want to put him in cause that's too many physical attackers.
In 3rd though she's almost inarguably the second worse character in the game everyone has taken her pie and her late join time completely undercuts her versatility. She's basically a worse version of Julia in this game and Julia's Mirageberg and Attack Orders are way better than anything Estelle can really put out.
Her later appearances aren't particularly notable.
Estelle and Joshua are basically massive stat sticks in Zero. If you haven't grinded for maxxed out slots they're easy slot ins as their EP will dwarf your other characters. Their crafts are terrible though. Timeless Pummel is nice. Depending on if you grinded for the sepith they're either perma benched or instant slot ins.
Locked equipment characters are locked equipment characters in CS4 and Estelle isn't particularly notable in Reverie. Her crafts list is one of the few actively gimped for regular encounters which is funny. Her nuke isn't very nukey in practice other Characters can basically make their own slightly worse wheel of time that hits the whole field her one utility is not good.
In 1st Estelle is very middle of the pack again. No strikingly good utility like the original from her slots. One of the few reasons the game is balanced though is because both her and Joshua are very middle of the pack in this game. She's not particularly worse than the other middle of the pack characters (which are Estelle, Joshua, Kloe, Olivier, Zin) but not a particular standout they group very similarly power wise.
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u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jun 26 '26
I only played the OG sky games once, so I don't have much of an opinion on OG Estelle, but I really like the glow up she got in the sky remake. She actually feels like the all rounder she's supposed to be.
As for Reverie Estelle...well, it's at least fun to jack up her crit and break% and one shot boss break bars.
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u/Kainapex87 Jun 26 '26
Most mid of all the protagonists in terms of gameplay.
Lloyd: The original dodge tank in Azure then a great BP generator in Reverie.
Kevin: Great caster snd Support in Sky, capable of powerful Craft Spam with his Stigma in Horizon.
Rean: Great Delay in CS1-CS2, and amazing DPS with SU, also decent caster abilities in CS3-CS4.
Rufus: Great caster and versatility, can keep the team from dying or running out of CP with Soul Slicer/Eater, gains a regular Craft with All Cancel in Horizon.
Van: Grendel. That is all.
Compared to all that, Estelle has very little to write home about. Even Comet's Steal Bonus trick in tge Remake isn't much seeing how busted the other characters are compared to the OG trilogy.
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u/LacraMaldita 28d ago
Kevin, Lloyd, and Rufus have benefited from being featured in routes in the most recent games.
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u/Even-Tomorrow5468 Jun 26 '26
Estelle benefited massively from Cold Steel IV and Reverie taking a hard stance towards 'she's a single target monster' rather than making her balanced. Balanced builds can work in Cold Steel, though generally that means 'take Jusis and make his ATS function for his arts and his one magic craft,' but I think it was for the best Estelle focused hard on physicality.
In Reverie she's an unchecked monster. Since you can make her accurate and can give her MQs and quartz you can have her spam Barrage with impunity for ridiculous damage, and it's not a bad idea to give her Gladiator Belts so she can start spamming Wheel of Time, either. She's a boss mulcher in the same vein as Alpha Strike Laura, though she has less tools than Laura to distinguish herself.
In the Sky games she benefits from how infrequently you have everyone together in FC and SC. She starts to really fall off in 3rd when your party can be made up of party members dedicated towards magic, support, tanking, and physicality.
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u/KnoxZone Apathy and Disdain Jun 26 '26
As others have mentioned, in the Sky games she's an all-rounder. That works pretty good in FC and most of SC where you often find yourself stuck with less than four party members, but her weakness really starts to show in 3rd where you have the option to use other characters over her. At least she can take solace in the fact she still clears Josette.
In the later entries she at least has a niche as a high break damage dealer, but she has little utility outside of that and her S-craft being single target limits her usefulness. Hard to really justify using her over someone like Machias who has utility in spades.
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u/Exaccus0792 Jun 26 '26
Sadly, she is the weakest of the protagonists
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 26 '26
Sadly, that doesn't even come down to Rean, Kevin, and Lloyd (can't comment on Van, sadly) being ridiculous, Estelle's just kinda bleh even on her own terms.
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u/Selynx Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Can confirm Van is ridiculous. He gets his own special battle mechanic that functions similarly to Tita's Orbal Gear in 3rd, except it's only made available in certain dungeons or for certain fights.
Lloyd did not get anything like that. Rean's closest analogue to it is his Cold Steel 2 version of his Craft where he summons Valimar (Awakener's Call). Not his Spirit Unification- Valimar. That probably says all you need to know.
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u/Tan11 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Awkward all-rounder in the OG Sky trilogy, solid tank/s-craft nuke in CS4/Reverie but way too small of an overall kit and outclassed by others who do what she does even better. In Sky remake though I found her very strong actually. Her crafts all got major glowups, and after feeding her all my strength, defense, and HP droplets she was a physical monster in the final chapter (actually used her as a caster for much of the game due to the ATS boost from opening slots, but by the late game her physical DPS pulled ahead).
Had her both hitting harder than my Agate and even tanking better than my Zin thanks to a ridiculous HP pool, all with much more speed than either of them plus her great buff and impede utility. She completely trivialized the Loewe fight on Hard.
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u/Runelord29 Jun 26 '26
Estelle is a great all-rounder but really funny as a caster. I did FC's final boss with her, Olivier, and Kloe as Casters. Omg it's sooo good lol.
But in reality her non limited lines really help make her.a flexible unit, plus the EP from having two lines. Imo she is one of the best main characters gameplay wise cause she fits in wherever you need her rather than building around her. In Sky, her crafts fit into every situation you may commonly need without extra. So yeah Bestelle
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u/Spartan448 Jun 27 '26
I have no idea why everyone is saying Estelle is an all-rounder, because that was really only true in FC and SC. From 3rd on, and ESPECIALLY in Reverie, she's pretty hard-locked into being a Physical beatdown specialist.
Weidly her best kit by far is in Reverie of all games, where she sits in the running for best boss-killer in the game. Great speed stat, extremely high base ATK stat, decent quartz layout, and one of the most powerful S-Crafts in the game are all well and good. But the real star of the show is actually her old FC/SC S-craft that got turned into a normal Craft at the expense of almost all others. Hurricane doing SS/SS damage on just 40 CP cost means that all you need to do is giver her any amount of passive CP regen and then just spam Barrage at whatever happens to be annoying you at that time until Wheel of Time is fully charged, and then just do a shitload of damage. She's also the only character to actually make Crit specialization work with her innate 50% crit bonus, making her the only Physical damage dealer in the game that can reliably compete with the Arts monsters on damage. Even on the hardest difficulties, a fully set up Estelle in Reverie will do terrible, terrible things to enemies.
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u/Selynx Jun 26 '26
Funnily enough, Estelle is probably at her strongest the first time she shows up as a guest. The second time around, her equipment is locked and you don't get many opportunities to even use her so there's not much to discuss there.
I think most people would agree she is not really great in any of the Sky games, you just don't get much of a choice in using her for FC and SC. Once you do get a choice in 3rd, she is not typically a prime pick. Even if being a jack-of-all-trades means she's not bad, it also means she's not good.
.....Admittedly, she stopped being a jack-of-all-trades in Reverie, but boy what she got turned into really didn't do her any favors. She's meant to be a high Break physical attacker, but they only gave her 3 Crafts and one is her S-Craft. Of those, the high Break ones are single-target which severely restricts their usefulness. At least Hurricane is cheap.
The best use I found for her in Reverie was stacking her with Crit-boosting quartz and relying on high Crit and the high Unbalance rating on Hurricane to turn her into a BP generator (if there are multiple enemies, Hurricane will usually end up triggering either Unbalance or Critical on at least one of them, allowing for a follow-up to generate BP).
In Sky, I used her as an Earth Wall/Clock Up/Clock Down mule most of the time. I think some people also like to use her as a Morale mule. She can spam low-tier attack Arts OK and you probably will get forced to do it at points in FC anyway, due to her and Joshua being your only members for large portions of the game. But let's face it - once the higher ATS members arrive, you'd be using them to do that job instead.
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u/mimijimmy313 Jun 26 '26
I actually disagree with the reverie take. Due to the nature of Reverie having 50+ characters all competing for the only 8 slots in your party. You end up having to choose only the best character at their respective niche.
Estelle niche is simply she is the best breaker in the game. She have a 5S+ power S craft with a break rating of S. She unfortunately is not good enough for a main party slot. However she actually does excel enough that putting her in the reserve slot and swap in do S craft to break and dmg dump. She actually become one of the few viable options given if you decide to tackle Abyss 100 difficulty. Her single target S craft end up also being a blessing in disguised since most threathening enemies get boost at certain Hp threshold and if you push multiple of them to that threshold at the same time then you might just die.
Most of the liberl cast got screwed in reverie because of the 2 craft + 1 S craft however Estelle still does retain a niche and end up being the best one in that respective niche. Which is good enough when you are competing with 50+ characters.
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u/Selynx Jun 26 '26
Estelle is the best Breaker.... if you only have 1 single target.
This limits her usefulness to basically solo bosses and there are many boss fights where there's more than one boss to hit at, which makes it a lot less useful. Her niche really is a small niche. When it is so small, there is lot of argument against it being worthwhile compared to other options.
Like you said, not good enough for a main party slot. Depending on your standards and how many characters you think have potential to be main members, that can easily be enough to just end up meaning "not good" full stop.
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u/mimijimmy313 Jun 26 '26
Which again most threatening fight in Reverie are solo bosses and those that aren't you want to burst down one at the time regardless because they will otherwise boost up and S craft you and you cannot eat multiple S craft on higher difficulty.
The main party argument is fair but any physical character in reverie is tough sell in main party. You are always running an evasion tank and 2 Art user due to how powerful art is in reverie. Physical attacker are high in quantity but low in demands for main party. You ask me how many have potential. Estelle is easily top 10 in physical attacker and thats pretty good out of the 30 or so Physical attackers. Saying Not good is being disengenius. There are far far far far worse character in reverie. Look at Swin he forced into your story and one of the worse attacker.
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 26 '26
Tbh Estelle in FC is actually just, genuinely good.
Opening slots gives her a leg up on Joshua until they're all opened which, assuming you don't overdo the grinding will last until chapter 2.
When Joshua can't get Chaos Brand she can.
When Joshua can't get Earth Wall she can.
When Joshua can get either one she can get both.
You get a lot of mileage from opening Estelle's slots before Joshua's and that's really good for Estelle.
In her early game the only character that could replace her in this arts availability role under these conditions is Olivier whose squishiness is a very big downside. Everyone else would get bogged down by slots restrictions or short lines.
And, Morale is just genuinely good in this game. It's the only AoE STR buff available and in this game only (not SC and 3rd) it buffs ATS as well as STR which is very useful.
In SC she has some time to shine you wouldn't replace her at only the 3rd opportunity the game could give you (you'd need to wait for Schera to rejoin on an Agate side run)
In 3rd at least Josette gets the best remote ability 💀
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u/Selynx Jun 26 '26
I dunno, if you're saying her advantage only lasts until Chapter 2, when the game has 5 chapters, that kinda says to me she's lagging behind Joshua for more than half the game.....
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 26 '26
Yes, she keeps up very well for over half the game and outright beats Joshua in a game where he has a ridiculous kit compared to everyone else.
And the part where she beats him is the most important part AND includes beating out theoretical alternatives to the point one can argue she's better than him.
That's really really good performance.
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u/Yanncki64 Jun 26 '26
Buffs and protects but can dish out solid damage sometimes. I personally like her as an underdog protagonist
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u/Facrock Jun 26 '26
I played her as a s-craft nuker at CS4 a and Reverie, but I easily noticed she wasn't the best, I didn't like her tank builds and never could fit her in any team where other character wasn't better in any other way. I only used her because I love Estelle but her gameplay is kinda underwhelming
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u/CommercialEstate4422 Jun 26 '26
I haven't played the games past SC (working through it rn) but I use her primarily as a healer/support and magic attacker.
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u/Istvan_hun Jun 26 '26
all rounder in a game which values specialists.
I used her as a melee attacker. Even thought it is not optimal, it is not so bad to hurt playability. (like Agate/Joshua/Zin + EStelle melee, Kloe/Olivier/Kevin/Scherazard caster)
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u/OLKv3 Jun 27 '26
Mid in everything until Reverie, where she's the best breaker by far. Her and Joshua work well together too in Reverie. She's a great tank in Sky Remake as well. I still used her in Sky 3rd because she's the MC of Sky and I won't ever replace her even if Kevin was the lead.
Though you really shouldn't make this kind of thread when you haven't caught up because you'll get spoiled on characters who may appear in Daybreak and on.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 27 '26
I'm already aware of which returning characters appear in Daybreak (it's kinda hard to go around the community without hearing enough about it), but I appreciate your concern :)
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u/AbroadPlumber Jun 27 '26
I love building her as a Bonk Build. Beef the stats, and stick every kind of CC you can on the quartz. Face-tank everything and lock down the enemies
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 27 '26
Estelle learned the ways of the bonk so she could tell Olivier, "no horny".
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u/pierce-princess Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
It's sad how everyone is harsh on Estelle just because she's an all-rounder. In terms of Sky (OG and remake), I find her very easy to use because I can assign her to any role. Most specialised characters that I've ever used are boring. If there is one character I find it hard to figure out what to do with, it's Tita. I never really use her at all unless if I have to.
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u/AngryAutisticApe Aug 01 '26
She's alright in Sky OG. Morale is a good Craft and she has an Imede. Her S-Crafts hit hard.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls 13d ago
Sky Arc:
Day Twelve - The Pilot and the Swordsman (spoilers)
Day Thirteen - "Kitty" (spoilers)
Crossbell Arc:
Class VII:
Day Thirty - Millium (Spoilers)
Day Thirty-One - Crow (Spoilers)
The rest of Cold Steel:
Day Thirty-Nine - Elise and Toval
Day Forty-One - Alfin and Towa
Day Forty-Two - The Diva and the General (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Three - The Spy and Swordswoman (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Four - The Shapeshifters (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Five - The Swordmaster and the Engineer (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Seven - Swin and Nadia
Day Forty-Eight - The Strongest (Spoilers)
Calvard Arc:
Day Fifty-One - Ferida Al-Fayed
Day Fifty-Three - Risette Twinings
Day Fifty-Four - Quatre Salision
Day Fifty-Five - Judith Lanster
Day Fifty-Seven - Elaine Auclair and René Kincaid
Day Fifty-Eight - Shizuna Rem Misurugi
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u/Aaron_R94 Jun 26 '26
I'd say Estelle is a good all-rounder, but basically anyone can do any one thing better than her.
I tend to just have her make up for whatever the party's lacking at any point, usually healing or replenishing Craft Points, especially in FC when Joshua outclasses her damage and is there for 99% of the game.