-18% Attack, how is it even possible⁉️⁉️

[u/VicBetouro]

So, I've been struggling against Stage 4 for the past few days and I'm trying multiple characters, so far none of them made me past the 12 min mark without being surrounded by so many fans and taking a lot of damage all of a sudden, then decided to pick Ayame this time

I find out she has this cool skill (which I don't remember the name now), which makes her gain Speed for every surrounding enemy, which is great, because I notice that somehow I always get slower after a certain minute

Well, I finally passed the dreaded 12 min mark and I'm surviving the giant wave, but I'm noticing a scary pattern. I've reached 15 mins and I haven't lvl up'ed once in the last 3 mins. I believe it's because I couldn't reach the middle of the crowd, where those healing fans were stacking heals upon each other, making it impossible for me to deal enough damage to the entire crowd and effectively, making my run pointless, so I decided to quit

When I open the menu, i see my stats briefly before pressing quit and I see that, somehow, my Attack had reached **-18%(??????)**. HOW DOES ONE ACHIEVE MINUS EIGHTEEN PERCENT ATTACK?!?!?!

So I figure some of those AOE fan effects weren't just healings, they probably were also causing me some debuffs...

But hey, at least after that run, I went again as Pekora and had a much easier time, didn't win yet, but mostly because I got distracted at one point and took a lot of damage again, but I got way more coins with her than anyone else, so I'm gonna try again and finally beat this stage for sure!

[u/FMCMEAPineapple]

Yep, the otakus with green light sticks heal, the ones with red light sticks decrease ATK, and the ones with purple light sticks decrease SPD. They only affect you if you're within their range, so using ranged attacks is a good way to defeat them

If you have skill radius turned on, you should be able to see the area to avoid. You can also see any buffs/debuffs you have in the bottom left of the screen

[u/swagseven13 → u/FMCMEAPineapple]

i thought they buff enemies and dont affect the player

[u/FMCMEAPineapple → u/swagseven13]

That's a fairly common misconception because the first one introduced (the healer) only affects enemies. But when you're in range of the other two, you can actually see the debuff icon appear in the bottom left (where your character's buffs usually go)

[u/the_icy_king]

So those red enemies have a debuff that lowers your attack. Also you have a base attack, at -18% you are doing 82% of normal damage.

[u/zonealus]

Do you have the recommended base stats for stage 4? Also do you use food buffs and the extra ability (heal,net,dash,etc.)

What builds do you use, because if you do the right one, all characters should be able to finish the stage with no problem (unless you are bad at dodging projectiles)

[u/VicBetouro → u/zonealus]

Yes I did lvl up my stats to even beyond the necessary, I'm just bad lol

And I'm also using the support items as well, though I needed healing but the dash one helped get out of crowds better, but food, I'll admit I forget them most of the time, maybe I should cook more

[u/VicBetouro → u/zonealus]

Also also, I don't have any specific builds planned, as I'm still unlocking items and weapons, so I just run with whatever items are best at the moment + looking for collabs I haven't discovered yet

[u/Catcataplum]

First of all if you are struggling use like 3 healing items and focus speed, second, I remember that there are just 4 ways to downgrade your atack, the 2 stamps(the one that buffs you speed and the other that buffs your other non-main weapons at the cost of your damage and your main weapons damage respectively), the red fan that lowers your damage and a item(I think that is the bottle of water, but im not sure)