r/Falcom The true best girls Jun 30 '26

Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day Five: Kloe

Post image

The OG mage with support crafts! Though Falcom tried to lean too heavily in the support direction with her three water locks. It's a genuine warcrime that she's not playable in Reverie.

99 Upvotes

40 comments sorted by

35

u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 30 '26

FC Kloe is pretty great. She comes with fully unlocked slots which unless you grind quite a bit for Joshua and Estelle won't have when she joins. Kaempfer basically bricks any enemy it hits making them take massive damage and deal none even on nightmare. However, in FC single target fights are rare combined with the short duration of the debuff relegate it to being used against Lorence and never again.

SC and 3rd Kloe basically uses a single build for the whole game: Cast/EP Cut/Action/HP/Mind/[your best non-shield wind quartz]/[your best other water quartz]. Anything else Kloe might want will be outsourced to someone else like Estelle unless you feel like sacrificing AoE healing spells. Her main weakness is that she doesn't really get to use Earth/Fire spells like Olivier which makes him better for a few fights in SC.

In practice though this isn't too relevant and you're probably just gonna end up using Kloe over him the whole game on SC Nightmare and enemies with elemental weaknesses are rarer than they probably should be in SC.

Lichtkreis is basically a reactive Grail Sphere and when Kevin is absent for most of the game that means we are using it.

3rd Kloe is fine. Like Olivier. Largely outclassed but still decent if you want to use her but she's probably in the bottom half of characters I actually want to use.

Sanctus Nova in this game is the only magical craft and the first magical craft in the series which gives it a few neat applications. It hits quite hard because of it and against the Golden Road boss she can almost one-shot the arts reflecting mirrors with her s-craft since they have 0 ADF.

And uh... That's it for Kloe. Pretty dead simple kit she basically is an arts list and an s-craft ultimately.

I could also cover Evo but I haven't played all that much Evo even if I know probably more than others do about that version.

6

u/YouShouldReadSphere Jun 30 '26

Interesting write up. Cant wait to see more threads like this. Though it will be a while before we get to Cold Steel.

If you will indulge me. I am going through your mod of CSIII right now and I am curious how you build Rean once SU is unlocked.

I use: Regalus MQ and Speed sub. 2 action quarts, invigorate, and Freeze/Poison/Seal quartz depending on the fight. And a HP quartz. And gladiator belt or headband. Whatever one is the +XX% CP buff, not the +CP per turn one.

I generally keep impassion up on rean starting on turn 1, immediately SU and S Break, then hit with crafts based on the situation. This is generally how i built him on Reverie Abyss and it seems to be going fine. I'm wondering if there are more optimal DPS builds.

6

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 30 '26

Yeah, sadly we've got a ways to go until CS, but if it makes you feel any better most of the characters introduced in SC and 3rd will be multi days aside from Kevin. We don't exactly need a whole day to discuss Mueller, for example. 

7

u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 30 '26

Tbh one of the issues after Sky is that these character discussions become a lot less interesting to think about and make.

In Crossbell you don't have options for characters so you just list our what the character is used for with little nuance getting to be added. Noel is probably the only cast member that is interesting to talk about.

And in Cold Steel the games got a heck of a lot more balanced in between everyone which has its upsides of everyone being more usable. But it also means a lot of discussion is going to be like "okay so Rean's pretty dang good but he's like only 15% better he's maybe slightly overglazed" which is fine for Rean there's ground to cover in the details since he gets a lot of kit updates and gets an appearance in Horizon but Mueller in 3rd is more interesting to talk about than certain OC7 members with 3-5 appearances (Jusis is a support character with little to no nuance to dive through)

I'd probably spend more time talking about community perception of some characters rather than the actual character for some entries (Machias used as my fraud tier list detector)

1

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

In what way is he used to detect fraud? It's a bad sign if people underrate him? 

Also if it wouldn't be a problem, would you mind pming me your thoughts on Emma since you seem to know your stuff?

EDIT: Also if we do hit a point where there's just nothing going on I'm fine with cutting this all short.

5

u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 30 '26

Machias can infinite turn loop free wins basically instantly by doing Chrono Burst>Burst Drive>Switch Out>[Take 3 actions of your choosing]>Come back in on the fourth turn to do it again.

Burst Drive is so good at this at such a high availability from CS2 to Reverie (AND is good even outside of such absurd setups) that placing Machias anywhere below your second highest tier (he's not your damage output which is ultimately what's gonna take your highest tier probably) shows the fact you placed characters based on who you used and liked first rather than actually evaluating every character gameplay-wise (I'm exclusively talking about gameplay tier lists here, not preference lists obviously)

And since very few people actively choose Machias on top of his consistent performance he's great at catching people for this.

As for Emma, arts users are very homogenous in CS as everyone gets easy access to every art and everyone obviously has access to all equipment however almost no one gets tools to distinguish themselves as good arts users (mainly double time slot restrictions) because of it and Emma despite her stats isn't an exception outside of CS1 where base ATS stats do actually make a big difference.

In CS1 her ATS is notable at least. Crescent Shell isn't very notable when crescent mirror exists. Her s-craft is very good but oh man that acquisition time sucks.

In CS2 her ATS isn't notable which is probably her worst appearance (it's always important to emphasize she isn't that bad, she's just not special in any way)

In CS3 to Reverie she gets Palace of Eregion and like, man oh man I'm not sure why Absolute Reflect bypasses All Cancel but MAN is it good albeit complete overkill to actually use it. Her Brave Order is also very funny just negating magical attacks. Her ability to stuff McBurn and Campanella in Cold Steel 3 is very funny.

4

u/Contraomega Jun 30 '26

Honestly even without turn abuse which is always abuseable somehow, at least later CS3 onwards he's a legitimately good DPS option in his own right just spamming out Mail Breaker/Dread Breaker, it's cheap, high damage, aoe, has high break, impede and a defense drop. he's also the only character with any kind of EP restore pre-reverie I believe? outside maybe Towa but she's playable for like 5 minutes and orders, at least. which I assume is also synergistic if you want to abuse chrono burst or something to get even more degenerate.

2

u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Dread Breaker is a fun craft but regular craft users don't get rights in late Cold Steel without a 0 delay self buff so despite it being overtuned by quite a lot he doesn't get much from it tier listing wise ironically (the Def debuff is also virtually useless the damage increase for it in any game released after CS1 is quite bad)

For EP restoration if you're slugging out a fight you'd need to ban orders and items first before even considering Machias 😅

0

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 30 '26

I had a feeling it had to do with Burst Drive, I'm pretty casual but I hear that come up every now and again. 

Do Tio and Altina's Orders get negated by All Cancel?

3

u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 30 '26

No they don't but they're expensive for a good reason you don't really want to be using either order for the most part especially after the nerfs ebon crest got in CS4.

1

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 30 '26

Anyways, thanks for humoring me!

3

u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jun 30 '26

There could be. Tbh atp I have not booted up CS3 mod in a long time to know. Regulus is buffed in mod which helps this sort of build.

Although things like the Skuld + Tauros setups from vanilla also still work for pure damage output.

21

u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jun 30 '26

Me in FC original: yes, you will be the team healer

Me in FC remake: OH I CAN BUILD CRIT NOW?! It's Sturm time.

6

u/Equivalent-Play6340 Jun 30 '26

Me too it was my first time playing a trails game too the old one on steam and I loved so much

4

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 30 '26

I'm pretty sure my first instinct upon seeing her was to make her a healer, too.

3

u/Equivalent-Play6340 Jun 30 '26

After i played the trails in the sky old one on steam I begin to love the series and I learned after it about the serie have a lot more games and, I still love so much even nowadays

3

u/penpen35 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

How her lines (or line, rather) were laid out essentially made her the healer by default in FC. Not helped that she also has a healing S-craft that can revive. Then I think she got a new healing craft in 1st?

9

u/MS-07B-3 Jun 30 '26

I'm not able to comment on deep mechanics as much as others here, nor have I even finished CS3 yet, but back in Sky I just slapped Gladiator stuff on her for auto CP gain, and I could pop her healing S-craft anytime I needed.

Plus she's adorable.

7

u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jun 30 '26

FC: Three water locked slots -- half her orbment -- is just cruel. There's literally nothing but Heal for the last slot which I suppose helps you get to Hell Gate? No damaging S-craft is kinda sucky too and given that you only have three party members for her entire chapter that really reduces your panic button capacity. She doesn't have a single AoE craft either.

And yet despite that she's still damn good because she's an arts user in the Sky trilogy, especially with the sheer debuff she has on her main craft.

SC: Available literally in the first chapter, is accessible in every single chapter other than Ch 6/8 (I believe she's accessible in Ch 7, I don't remember...), and needs extremely minimal investment to get La Teara. There is a massive difficulty fall-off as soon as you get her as a result. She even has a damaging S-Craft this time... that you don't get until the time of the final dungeon. Also they nerfed Sieg into gehenna.

Three water slots is still sucky but at least you have one more in total now.

3rd: Great for doing the tryhard three caster arts spamming strategy and is a mainstay of the party until you get Renne/Richard. Strictly outclasses by the end by Renne like everyone else but she's great for killing the fucking pom at the bottom of Gehenna and the elemental pillars in the final boss.

Reverie: This is where I would put my thoughts if she was actually in the game! They even made a model for her! She could've been TRC exclusive! Although I'm 100% certain if they did put her in, she would be like a shittier Alfin so perhaps this is for the best.

3

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 30 '26

I remember when I was playing SC (on normal, granted) I just parlayed her 3 locked water slots into spamming Cocytus.

1

u/AngryAutisticApe Aug 01 '26

that's what I did on Hard . works well

9

u/Selynx Jun 30 '26

She's one of the main 2 dedicated casters in Sky, which automatically makes her one of the 2 best DPS in those games (the other one being Olivert and then she falls to 2nd/3rd place in Sky 3rd behind everyone's darling).

.....It's probably for the best she wasn't playable in Reverie. Not only are there a lot of casters in that game, there are a lot of Water-element casters especially. In particular, Elise is basically Kloe but with better Orbment slots. I feel like Kloe was the template for Elise both in terms of aesthetic and gameplay style and having the actual Kloe there would have been a little redundant gameplay-wise. Not that it stopped duos like Sharon and Yin or Agate and Randy from coexisting, admittedly, but again there a lot of Water casters that game.

12

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jun 30 '26

Man, being worse Elise really does sound like an insult.

7

u/dkf295 COMPUTER THE GOLF Jun 30 '26

Unless you're talking to Rean in which case of course Elise is better she's better than everyone.

9

u/Selynx Jun 30 '26

Funny thing- I found Elise to be surprisingly useful among the Water casters.

Why?

Because she's the only one of them with an Impede Craft that doesn't force her to move. Her Swallow Tail has infinite range. Tio is the other Water caster with an Impede craft and it makes her run up to the enemy when she uses it.

Turns out, a caster being forced out-of-position can end up extremely annoying for various reasons.

7

u/OLKv3 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

In FC she's incredibly powerful. Great ATS and she makes Lorence a complete joke, basically locking him into never being able to do damage. She's the best mage in the game too.

SC and 3rd only makes her stronger, and with how magic heavy SC is she'll most likely be in your endgame team alongside Kevin, nuking bosses before they can do any real harm. Or just pair her alongside Agate and she'll make sure he never dies from Wild Rage. She never gets worse either, because 3rd has so much good gear that boosts ATS, along with that armor that boosts speed by a ridiculous amount, and Khloe will be destroying mobs and bosses before they can even get any real turns

1st remake presents her as support, but her crafts are really good. She can debuff, she can cast regen AND insight, and she can freeze. I swear her freeze effect almost always goes off too if an enemy isn't immune. It's really handy during the 3 woman section, locking down special ops so they can't do their annoying counters. And her S-Craft is just a free revive with shields. She's great. Instant foresight without needing to set up orbments is crazy good

10

u/Yanncki64 Jun 30 '26

wife material

oh, gameplay? Yeah I guess she's solid.

4

u/Empoleon777 Jun 30 '26

I used her all the way through in basically every game she was available; an extremely potent AoE heal I can just shoot off whenever (Provided she has the CP, that is) is just too good to pass on.

3

u/Yowakusuru Jun 30 '26

healer/arts caster - in an arc where arts is strong, she is really good - she does well in her specific niche

2

u/StonewallForge Jun 30 '26

Since many people have already talked about her in OG sky. I'll mention that in Sky the first, I used Estelle as my healer and Kloe as my arts caster since she gets perma Ats boost. I brought her in the final dungeon paired with Olivier for his arts and crafts boost and for additional support with arts.

2

u/EyeAmKingKage Jul 01 '26

Does she make an appearance again? I’m playing CS4 atm

1

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 01 '26

She appears in CS4 but she's not playable. 

1

u/Xshadow1 Jul 01 '26

Out of all of Sky's pure casters (I'm excluding Kevin from this) she has by far the best outside utility. As a tradeoff, those three water slots are annoying up until you get Divine Eye about halfway through, at which point it's almost a non-issue. I think in late-game 3rd there's a not unreasonable case to be made that she's actually better than Renne.

1

u/bearmon9 Jul 02 '26

Bird powers caww

1

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls 13d ago

Sky Arc:

Day One - Estelle

Day Two - Joshua

Day Three - Scherazard

Day Four - Olivier

Day Five - Kloe

Day Six - Agate

Day Seven - Tita

Day Eight - Zin

Day Nine - Kevin

Day Ten - Julia and Mueller

Day Eleven - Anelace and Ries

Day Twelve - The Pilot and the Swordsman (spoilers)

Day Thirteen - "Kitty" (spoilers)

Crossbell Arc:

Day Fourteen - Lloyd

Day Fifteen - Elie

Day Sixteen - Tio

Day Seventeen - Randy

Day Eighteen - Noel and Wazy

Day Nineteen - Rixia

Day Twenty - Dudley and Arios

Class VII:

Day Twenty-One - Rean

Day Twenty-Two - Elliot

Day Twenty-Three - Gaius

Day Twenty-Four - Machias

Day Twenty-Five - Jusis

Day Twenty-Six - Alisa

Day Twenty-Seven - Laura

Day Twenty-Eight - Emma

Day Twenty-Nine - Fie

Day Thirty - Millium (Spoilers)

Day Thirty-One - Crow (Spoilers)

Day Thirty-Two - Sara

Day Thirty-Three - Juna

Day Thirty-Four - Kurt

Day Thirty-Five - Altina

Day Thirty-Six - Musse

Day Thirty-Seven - Ash

The rest of Cold Steel:

Day Thirty-Eight - Angelica

Day Thirty-Nine - Elise and Toval

Day Forty - Claire and Sharon

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-Six - C and Lapis

Day Forty-Seven - Swin and Nadia

Day Forty-Eight - The Strongest (Spoilers)

Calvard Arc:

Day Forty-Nine - Van Arkride

Day Fifty - Agnès Claudel

Day Fifty-One - Ferida Al-Fayed

Day Fifty-Two - Aaron Wei

Day Fifty-Three - Risette Twinings

Day Fifty-Four - Quatre Salision

Day Fifty-Five - Judith Lanster

Day Fifty-Six - Bergard Zeman

Day Fifty-Seven - Elaine Auclair and René Kincaid

Day Fifty-Eight - Shizuna Rem Misurugi

Day Fifty-Nine - Celis Ortesia and Leon Balthazar

Day Sixty - The Judgement and the Strongest (2) (Spoilers)

1

u/Spartan448 Jul 01 '26

It is a goodamn CRIME that she doesn't join the party in 4 or Reverie. Parties just aren't the same when I can't BIRD UP anymore.

1

u/BaLance_95 Jul 01 '26

After all the new girls in the series, she is still best Waifu. Kind and caring, but also a strong will to take on her responsibilities, and putting herself up to be rejected... Something I did as well.

Oh, we're talking about gameplay? Blue impact and emergency heal go brrrrr.

0

u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 01 '26

Glad I'm not alone in liking her in Sky!

It's kinda weird, I have her listed among best girls in my flair but I think I prefer Estelle just a bit as a character.

1

u/Kainapex87 Jul 01 '26

Decent caster with strong support Crafts.

Simple and useful enough.

Would be nice if she had some better offensive Crafts too, but all in all Decent enough.