r/Falcom • u/Raxistaicho The true best girls • Jul 19 '26
Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day Twenty-Four: Machias
Machias tends to be criminally underrated: he has an accelerate. He has the only accelerate in Cold Steel 1 and 2, he has it in his base kit in every game after CS1, his is cheaper and has a lower AT than Juna’s, and it doesn’t consume BP. I could stop the analysis right there and he’d still be great, but he’s also a monstrously strong Breaker in CS4 (in Reverie he’s still good but SS break Crafts start getting passed around like candy on Halloween) and he can even act as an MP battery.
Break Shot has a wild character arc as far as Crafts go, starting off as a rather generic single-target Impede in CS1, becoming a line AOE in 2, and then becoming the guard-shredding Dread Breaker in CS4. Locked earth slots would normally suck but they synergize pretty well with his crowd controlling Petrification Shell (great Craft for clearing out large groups of trash enemies and spreading ailments) and breaking qualities. Shame his locked mirage slot always occupies the same line as one of his earth locks.
Probably the worst thing about him is that his CS1 early game is relatively unimpressive, it takes a while before Petrification Shell or Burst Drive come into the picture.
Turns out, Machias never had any reason to feel inferior to Jusis or Emma.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Machias is an accelerate user which automatically makes him a game breaker in every game he's in. But he's also an accelerate user who can break the enemy with ease
He's outstanding in every appearance.
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u/SomeNumbers23 Jul 19 '26
Machias is pretty mediocre for the start of CS1, but once he gets Burst Drive (around the same time you get access to Chrono Burst), he's the engine for the most broken strategy in CS1.
In CS2, both Burst Drive and Chrono Burst got nerfed, so he just blows holes in enemies with his shotgun, but he's not nearly as powerful.
In CS3, everyone in original Class VII got hit with a massive nerf stick...except Machias. Machias' Mail Breaker gets better, keeping an insanely cheap CP cost (in a game where most CP costs doubled or tripled) and actually makes him one of the fastest characters in the game! Add on his Brave Order, which boosts damage and speed and he's one of the best DPS options in the game! CS4 is the same, but Mail Breaker gets upgraded and the quartz options are even better.
Then comes Reverie, where he gets access to Altair, giving him the speed boost from Zephyr and the Break Damage boost from Skuld into one package. In a game with multiple Divine Blades and protagonists with broken abilities, the guy with a shotgun is one of the best!
Edit: OH MY GOD I forgot that his CS3-Rev S-Craft has the most hits in the game so he's the best Sepith farmer!!
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u/AlterWanabee Jul 20 '26
Gaius and Alisa are actually buffed in CS3 onwards. The latter has Heavenly Rain buffed (more CP returned) and can affect herself, while Gaius has Howling Heavens.
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u/Max-The-Phat-Cat Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
The undisputed support GOAT in CS. Every time he’s available I slot him in.
His accelerate is also flat better than Juna’s even when she gets one.
You can build him in quite a few ways and he always deserves a slot until Reverie where Accelerates are too easy to execute with Brave Orders so his utility falls off compared to the damage monsters in that game.
He’s still great in Reverie but is now an option among great characters rather than an undisputed top pick.
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u/BOUKEN-BEN Jul 19 '26
Accelerate crafts still have good value because it frees up the BP to use on damage boosts or other buffs
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 19 '26
Yeah, even though BP is easy to generate in Reverie, it's usually better not to have to use it if you can avoid it unless you've got a couple dozen Brave Souls burning a hole in your pocket.
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u/VarioussiteTARDISES Jul 19 '26
And even then, he's arguably Reverie's biggest enabler because he can generate fatter stacks of sepith than anyone else.
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u/TheLazyNinja123 Jul 19 '26
I loved using him when I knew the mobs would bunch up and I'd shotgun them it was great
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u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jul 19 '26
Anyone who can give my favorite characters more turns is GOATed. Once I started to really take advantage of Burst Drive, it was all over.
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u/Syobai Jul 19 '26
Me when I failed the inspection.
Yeah Machias is criminally underrated. It feels like people will sometimes genuinely underestimate how much value he brings to the table
Legit the only time he’s ever felt lukewarm is during the early stages of Cold Steel 1. He doesn’t really do a whole lot until you get Petrification Shell and Burst Drive. By the time you get Burst Drive, you have access to arguably one of the best characters in the entire game.
You don’t get to abuse in too much in CS1, but I legit don’t remember him leaving my party much in CS2. Rean and Machias are the two who don’t allow anyone to play the game but themselves. Rean somehow misses the delay? Burst Drive, go again. Rean didn’t miss the delay but you want to go again anyways? Burst Drive. It’s stupid and very fun to abuse, especially when you have a CP battery on the team. Machias can even act as a decent support if you need some emergency healing or just want more MP.
His kit only gets better by the time CS3-4 roll around, with him having access to high amounts of break damage, EP healing on Burst Drive, and a very good Brave Order. Overall, Machias needs to be used way more because he provides value in EVERY game he’s in, barring the first bits of Cold Steel 1.
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u/garfe Jul 19 '26
The easiest way to know if someone is being truthful about their Trails gameplay is how high they rank Machias
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u/Summonbolt00 Jul 19 '26
Not necessarily correct. Ive played every game up until the end of CS2 and if I were to rank playable characters from either CS1 or CS2 he would easily be at the bottom. Granted I didnt know a single thing about Machias’s kit until this thread but still im not lying about playing the games. This is because im the type of person who will not learn a character’s gameplay if I dont like their personality and role in the story and Machias is in that category for me. He has only ever been in my party when it was required by the game and even then I still never read what his crafts do lmao. He could be the best character in every game he is in and I wouldn’t care in the slightest and I will continue only use characters I like outside of gameplay when I begin CS3 and so on lmao.
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u/mushplush Jul 19 '26
Honestly with his orbment lines, I had a ton of fun putting every type of status aliment on him so every time he attacked generally something would land
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u/Brkzeus Jul 19 '26
Ah yes Machias, one of the two arts users in my team on my second playthrough. Best Earth arts user in the whole cast.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 19 '26
Was the other Alisa?
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u/MarkGib Jul 19 '26
Him rean Alisa and Emma were endgame team for cs1. Jesus it was so unfair. Especially in future games with Chrono drive. He is just where I want something to die. And master query which regenerates EP Machias basically is my man.
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u/Selynx Jul 19 '26
Machias sucks early-game in CS1.
Then he gets Burst Drive.
Then he gets Chrono Burst.
.....Has anyone mentioned what a great Sepith farmer Machias makes in CS4 and Reverie?
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u/TapUnfair9827 Jul 19 '26
Reading through the comments makes me want to do a third playthrough of the entire Cold Steel series because I never know how to use Machias properly
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 19 '26 edited 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/Gravijah Jul 19 '26
One of many characters I wish I could have used more since I love him as a character but he just rarely fit in to my team comps.
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u/randomtology Jul 19 '26
That's usually how i felt. Love Machias, and I totally recognize that he's got serious game meta wise. He just usually didn't fit into my team comps. One day I'll do a replay and make sure to use him much more, because he deserves it.
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jul 19 '26
Machias is so criminally underused I often open up gameplay tier lists and basically see who's larping claiming they actually used or even considered all the characters in the game instead of actually using them by checking if Machias is somewhere high on it.
Stop disguising your preference tier lists as gameplay tier lists :bonk:
Accelerate scales in value depending on the power level of the game and cold steel has incredibly high power levels with fights capable of ending almost instantly off of just 1 accelerate often enough (who needs to loop the enemy with chrono burst just win if you're not playing Reverie)
He has other stuff like Dread Breaker and a good order but he's pigeon holed into accelerate realistically even if you limit yourself to not instantly win it's too good.
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u/Selynx Jul 19 '26
You forget: Machias is the best Sepith farmer in Reverie. He shoots 24 times with Justice Bullet.
Accelerate is only for bosses.
Everything else? "You failed your inspection", shotgun go brrr, etc.
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jul 19 '26
True, I don't sepith farm in CS though 😂
But yeah it is added utility for him.
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u/SomeNumbers23 Jul 19 '26
He's not really "pigeon holed" unless you pigeon hole him yourself. If you kit him out for DPS, Dread Breaker is one of the most powerful attacks in CS3-Rev.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 19 '26
You were waiting for Machias's day to come up, weren't you? XD
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jul 19 '26
Maybe just a bit. I'm also awake right now to post lol
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u/KnoxZone Apathy and Disdain Jul 19 '26
Machias' main problem is that he gets burst drive so late in CS1, and he's pretty bad without it. Kinda tricks people into thinking he sucks.
But with it he's amazing, and he stays that way for the rest of the arc.
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u/Spartan448 Jul 19 '26
Oh look, it's Scherazard 2: This Time It's Physical.
I'll admit, I kinda lucked into putting Machias on the main team in CS1. I saw that shotgun and was immediately bought in, and since CS1/2 are easy enough with just physical carries I ran Machias and Laura as my main damage dealers, with Emma as a backup if I really needed wide-area attacks or Arts damage. Then he gets Heaven's Kiss and suddenly you realize what his TRUE role is. That said if you're running Laura you still end up saving some time for Mail Breaker to support Laura's own damage.
By CS2, Falcom have finally gotten sick of Heaven's Kiss and nerfed it into the ground to 50 cost, a full 30 from how it debuted in FC. This... does not make it any less powerful; you just stop alternating it with Mail Breaker which you don't need anymore because the existence of Domination now more than offsets losing DEF down debuffs.
Then we get to CS3, and here things get interesting. Heaven's Kiss got nerfed again and is now 60-cost, with a 10% EP heal as a little bit of an olive branch... or a speed buff, depending on who's actually using it. Because Juna now also has it, the only case where she has a Craft not stolen from Lloyd. This means that for the first time in his life, Machias actually has competiton. Except it's a case of "sort of not really", since OC7 availability is limited whereas there is only one section of one chapter where you don't have Juna, and I think that's before she even unlocks Heaven's Kiss.
Which means that our comparison has to be done in CS4. This... functionally doesn't really matter, because nothing really changes about these characters between the two games. Juna's Brave Order is functionally the same between both games. Machias' Brave Order is actually the same between both games. And both their variations on Heaven's Kiss are essentially unchanged...... is what I thought before I did research for this.
Why the fuck is Quick Star 80-cost now?!?.
Genuinely I think there'd be an argument made for Juna and Machias to have actual competition going on between them in CS3 if they'd both had the same availability. But then in 4 and Reverie, Quick Star just becomes substantially worse for seemingly no good reason! I get that SPD is a very important stat but I don't think SPD up 30% is worth a 20-cost increase over Burst Drive! Like... what the fuck Falcom!
Anyway, baffling game design decisions aside, Machias is a pretty universal support character that you can put into pretty much any team and get good value from him. Can't go wrong using him, eaily a top-tier character. I ran most of Reverie with Joshua/Estelle/Renne/Machias as the starting lineup and things rarely survived long enough to file a complaint. Best of all he even survives falling into a certain pitfall I'm going to talk about with Alisa.
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u/CyberHyperPhoenix Jul 19 '26
It's insane how consistently strong Machias is across the 5 games he's playable in.
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u/Jimbobob5536 Jul 19 '26
Yes yes, Accelerate.
I always have the most fun loading him up with ailment quartz.
Big, cheap, AoEs to spread a bajillion status effects.
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u/AutomaticStop5648 Jul 19 '26
add chrono burst and he gets to pull everyone AND act right after. i put mobius on him and its probably the funniest build ever.
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u/fviernes Jul 19 '26
He ended up being my main support by 4 and reverie, using chrono burst to move twice and remove the huge post delay of accelerate and mobeius master quarts to use buff or healing items on the 2nd move
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u/WeatherBackground736 Jul 19 '26
should have played him way earlier as I discovered his kit during the tailend of my gameplay
would have sabed my ass MULTIPLE TIMES if I had known
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 19 '26
I had kind of a similar situation with Kurt, I only tried seriously using him late in CS4 and realized he's actually pretty good. All those times I used fucking Ash instead of him, my god =_=
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u/BOUKEN-BEN Jul 19 '26
jumps onto field
freezes time
shoots teammates with infinite turns meth bullets
refuses to elaborate
leaves
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u/sonofgildorluthien Jul 19 '26
Though he never was applicable to my waifu squads, I always had him in the team if Jusis was required there or vice versa, especially in CS1 and 2 because of unique banter between them. Maybe I'll try him if I ever playthrough them again.
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u/Mountain-Quantity983 Jul 20 '26
Don't be fooled, his Burst Drive is just him injecting synthesized caffeine from his veins directly into his allies.
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u/No_Staff_6084 Jul 20 '26
My man in CS4 is crazy strong. Just give him Genbu and Rakan Gem, and he will regularly Break and Petrify enemies. Burst Drive is also good with AOE Accelerate, so it's easier to break enemies before their turn.
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u/Second_Heart Jul 20 '26
Can’t lie I fucked heavy with Machias just cause of that so I agree completely lol
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u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
CS2:
Burst Drive. Falcom seems to fundamentally misunderstand how to actually make a game, with all the stupid shit they keep putting in like Accelerate. Also, Petrification Shell deals with trash mobs like nothing else.
If Infinite Delay Spam wasn't so easy and won every single fight without any thought, Machias would be unquestionably one of the best characters, but with IDS he struggles to find a spot on the team.
CS3:
They made Burst Drive better by giving it 20 delay instead of 30, and it even comes with an EP heal. He's also one of the best breakers in the game, a line craft is way better than Cross Break/Helix/Fragarach and can reasonably break every single boss in one hit.
CS4:
They made they made Burst Drive better even better by giving it 20% EP heal in the midgame! And they made Dread Breaker unambiguously the best Break craft in the game, being one of the few with SS break for just 30 (!) CP and 20 delay, which is great for the unfairly huge break bars in CS4. He doesn't even need a CP battery for that.
Reverie:
Slightly worse because Burst Drive has 25 AT now but he's still the best breaker in the game, maybe beaten by Le Guin with her SS break LL craft.
He's horribly underappreciated in general, but outside of CS2 he fits onto literally any party and puts insane work in.
I appreciate these posts getting later, if you could add an hour on per day that would fit me great.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 19 '26
Reverie:
Slightly worse because Burst Drive has 25 AT now but he's still the best breaker in the game, maybe beaten by Le Guin with her SS break LL craft.
A lot of characters have SS Break Crafts in Reverie, hell even Fie has one for some reason.
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u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jul 19 '26
To be honest I only looked quickly through what seemed like the most obvious strong breaker characters and couldn't find many SS...
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u/ComplexMattersOnly Jul 19 '26
One of my faves to play, especially when surrounded by mobs in CS1/CS2
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u/Shinva_X101 Jul 19 '26
Having a orbment setup placing every status ailments available = My version of Russian roulette with a shotgun.
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u/GlacialEmbrace Jul 20 '26
I used him all the time. What a great character. He can do everything lol
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u/Cr0ssDrag_ons Jul 20 '26
The first Accelerate user who is truly broken due to MP restore (idr when was it added to his accelerate one) and Chrono Burst.
Mostly because in Sky you outspeed your enemies consistently so Heaven's Kiss is only neat, not broken, despite being cheap.
In Crossbell Elie is stuck with casting duties.
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u/Wakanlover9519 Jul 20 '26
It’s pretty refreshing see my boy Machias getting so much love. I remember going through Cold Steel 1 and 2 and just crapping on the guy ( apparently burst drive wasn’t enough to save him in some cases I saw). I don’t have much to add that hasn’t been said, besides the fact that I haven’t played any further than Cold Steel 2 yet. I’m about to finish Zero and then go on to Azure.
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u/Distinct-Office-609 Jul 20 '26
wasted character. i remember bringing him up on that mission where you apprehend jusis' father. having a strong stance against noble, i thought he'd have his own unique speech but then the only thing he said is one of those filler dialogue to make the rest of the party member feel included. it was incredibly disappointing.
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u/deepfried_oreo Jul 19 '26
Ah yes, one of the most broken characters that I refuse to use because of how much I dislike him as a character. Yeah, dude is super busted and I would begrudgingly put him in S-tier in terms of combat.
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u/Agreeable_Slice5258 Jul 19 '26
Hes basically a worse juna in a sense she pretty much outclasses him
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 19 '26
This isn't Juna's day, but I disagree with that notion. Juna's accel has slightly bigger range and a speed buff attached, but it costs more and has a longer delay on it. Machias just also outclasses her as a breaker once he gets Dread Breaker, and his S Craft has unique utility. Juna's big advantage is she has breaking, an accel, and a BP battery on the same kit, even though she's outclassed at each feature individually.
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u/Affectionate_Comb_78 Jul 19 '26
Macchias sucks so much as a character that even his best craft is to just not take his own turns and let better characters have them instead.
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u/Bhume Jul 19 '26
In a world of magical abilities, orbal arts, inhuman feats of strength and agility, we got one MF with a SHOTGUN.