A Look At The New GFE: Grandis, Yuri, and Jiraiya
On April 16, 2020, Grandis, Yuri, and Jiraiya made their debut in the Spring Forward Super Godfest. These three new Godfest Exclusives can be informally grouped as the “Spring Forward” GFEs because GungHo gave everyone a Spring Forward Medal
that can be exchanged for one of these three GFEs. In this article, I will share my thoughts on the uses and roles of these new GFE. If you disagree, feel free to comment down below with your own thoughts.
NOTE: If you haven’t already collected your Spring Forward Medal, STOP READING THIS AND GO COLLECT YOUR MEDAL RIGHT AWAY. (You can thank me later.)
Grandis
| Stat | Lv.99 | +297 |
| HP | 9569 | 10559 |
| ATK | 2230 | 2725 |
| RCV | 0 | 297 |
Divine Mech King, Grandis機神王・グランディス
Active Skill: (30 ➧ 30) Not Inheritable
For 3 turns, reduce damage taken by 75%; Changes to [5955] for the duration of the dungeon
Leader Skill: [4/144/1]
2x HP & ATK for Fire Att.; Increase orb movement time by 2 seconds; 6x ATK when 5 or more combos
| Stat | Lv.99 | +297 |
| HP | 9569 | 10559 |
| ATK | 2230 | 2725 |
| RCV | 0 | 297 |
Bright Crimson Divine Mech King, Grandis真紅の機神王・グランディス
Active Skill: (3 ➧ 3) Not Inheritable
For 1 turn, increase combo count by 1; For 1 turn, 3x ATK for Fire Att.; Change the bottom row to Fire orbs
Leader Skill: [4/144/1]
2x HP & ATK for Fire Att.; Increase orb movement time by 2 seconds; 6x ATK when 5 or more combos
Base Grandis is purely a sub (except for newer players) since the leader skill is pretty weak at 2x HP and 12x ATK. He has decent awakenings pre-transform, but nothing special, and requires a staggering 30 turns to transform. Since the leader skill remains the same between forms, there is little value for advanced players in using him as a leader. However, post-transformation Grandis has a brutally powerful active (generates row of Fire Orbs + Fire Att. spike + extra combo on a three turn cooldown) and has a more optimized set of awakenings (essentially removes the 2 SB for a TE+ and a VDP). In comparison, Christmas Uriel
‘s active adds no skyfall for one turn and generates a row of Fire Orbs on a four turn cooldown. Base Grandis will most likely see little use outside of arena-style endgame content because other dungeons are too short for him to transform in time to accrue value from the exceptional post-transformation active skill.
As a leader, Grandis is exceptionally suited to newer players due to his simple teambuilding requisites, built-in move time, and combo-based playstyle, all of which substantially help new players develop the skills needed to improve at the game. His leader skill is very similar to that of Valkyrie – Ciel
.
| Stat | Lv.99 (+297) | Lv.110 (+297) |
| HP | 6518 (7508) | 7496 (8486) |
| ATK | 2565 (3060) | 2950 (3445) |
| RCV | 113 (410) | 130 (427) |
Scorching Iron Divine Mech Emperor, Grandis灼鉄の機神帝・グランディス
Active Skill: (8 ➧ 8) Not Inheritable
Change Light and Dark orbs to Fire orbs; Lock all Fire orbs; For 10 turns, Fire orbs appear locked
Leader Skill: [1/324/1, 75%]
9x ATK and reduce damage taken by 50% when matching 2+ Fire combos; 2x ATK when matching 6 or more connected Fire orbs; 50000 additional damage when matching 6 or more Fire orbs
As a sub, his primary value stems from his niche as a Fire VDP option with plenty of SB. Unfortunately, there are already a plethora of options for Fire VDP (although all are quite rare), such as Suou
, Alatreon
, Mega Awoken Red Odin
, Mega Awoken Baldin
, Valentine’s Sonia
, Pixel Guan Yu
, and even Echidna – Sara
, which may decrease his value due to his niche being filled with many powerful and viable alternatives.
Evo Grandis’s active generates Fire Orbs from two attributes and then locks all current and future Fire Orbs for ten turns. Since the cooldown is eight turns, Evo Grandis can self-sustain the locked skyfall (barring skill delays). To me, it feels like a counter to spinners, which may be valuable against certain spawns such as Cauchemar or Hatsume in Colosseum 2. The short length and unique locked orb clause is Evo Grandis’s differentiating factor from all the other Fire VDP options, as most teams that utilize Evo Grandis as a sub are probably orb-hungry blob leaders (like Raoh
) that would value the relatively quick generation and protection of Fire Orbs that Evo Grandis provides.
As a leader, Evo Grandis provides 18x ATK, automatic follow-up attack, and a 50% damage reduction shield when matching two (or more) Fire combos AND 6+ linked Fire Orbs. This is extremely orb hungry and will probably require a dedicated orb generator as well as an asymmetric big board leader pairing such as Fasca
or Nakoruru
to work. I think Evo Grandis works better as a sub than as a leader, but while I feel that the leader skill is a bit too awkward, there is definitely some potential for Evo Grandis as a leader.
Yuri
| Stat | Lv.99 (+297) | Lv.110 (+297) |
| HP | 2819 (3809) | 3242 (4232) |
| ATK | 2308 (2803) | 2654 (3149) |
| RCV | 1378 (1675) | 1585 (1882) |
Ice Floe Guide, Yuri氷原の案内人・ユウリ
Active Skill: (10 ➧ 5) Inheritable
Change the far left column to Water orbs; Lock all Water orbs; For 10 turns, Water orbs appear locked
Leader Skill: [4/289/1]
2x HP & ATK for Water Att.; Increase orb movement time by 2 seconds; 8.5x ATK on the turn a skill is used
With the full poison resist, FUA, and triple Team RCV awakenings, Base Yuri reminds me of Cherun
as they are both pure utility sticks with no personal damage awakenings. This niche has recently gained a lot of value due to the plethora of lethal damage subs and partly due to the high demand for Skill Boosts from the new transformation leader archetype (think of Kanna
). Unfortunately, Team RCV and FUA are of lower priority nowadays because Heal OE is far more effective than Team RCV, while the current prevalence of the automatic follow-up attack leader archetype means that FUA has become slightly more obsolete (still a great awakening, but not as ubiquitous as it once was). Even though the full poison resist is extremely convenient and the Skill Boost+ is certainly desirable, Base Yuri only provides a middling amount of value.
However, Base Yuri’s active is unique and thus may be her saving grace. The ability to lock all current and future Water Orbs for the next ten turns (as well as create a column of Water Orbs on a short five turn cooldown) is part of a new type of active skill common to other forms of the Spring Forward GFE. I can see this being used as an indirect counter to an overwhelming number of spinners (examples previously mentioned) for mono-color teams. Even if it is fairly niche, Base Yuri has her own role as a somewhat versatile anti-spinner option for Water teams.
As a leader, Base Yuri’s dependency on constant active skill usage makes her slightly difficult to use. However, if overcome, a flat 289x ATK multiplier is nothing to sneeze at. Lutina
from Draconic Orchestra is the ideal sub, but Tardis
from DBDC, a pair of Rimururu
from Samurai Shodown (similar to a system of Rex
, or even Plessie-bean
can also work. (Deena
is also an option, but the 18 SB requirement to transform is pretty harsh for most teams.) Furthermore, because the attack multiplier is tied to skill activation, subs can be flexible in their sources of personal damage. For example, you can use Dark Zeta
and Zaerog – Core
to cheese dungeons with one combo swipes. The lack of a RCV multiplier can be remedied with Heal OE subs such as Mel
, Super Reincarnated Lakshmi
, Mut
, or Base Minaka
.
| Stat | Lv.99 (+297) | Lv.110 (+297) |
| HP | 3038 (4028) | 3494 (4484) |
| ATK | 2680 (3175) | 3082 (3577) |
| RCV | 1088 (1385) | 1251 (1548) |
Ice Axe Warrior Princess, Yuri氷斧の武闘姫・ユウリ
Active Skill: (2 ➧ 2) Inheritable
Create 2 Heal orbs over non Water orbs; For 2 turns, Heal orbs appear locked
Leader Skill: [1/324/9, 75%]
3x ATK & RCV when matching 3 or more colors; increase combo by 2 when matching 3 or more colors; 6x ATK and reduce damage taken by 50% when matching 6 or more connected Heal orbs
The aspect of Evo Yuri that stood out the most (to me, at least) was her active; a quick skill that generated Heal Orbs from non-Water Orbs and, more importantly, locked all current and future Heal Orbs in a self-sustaining loop. In this way, she is somewhat similar to Super Reincarnated Lakshmi
, who also has an active that generates Heal Orbs from non-Water Orbs. The emphasis on the protection of Heal Orbs makes her already an excellent sub choice for orb-hungry teams based on Heal Orbs like herself and Super Reincarnated Parvati
. Evo Yuri can also be more simply utilized as a minor healing augmentation option or even as a support for more consistent FUA.
Compared to her base form, Evo Yuri’s set of awakenings are probably far more synergistic with most teams; the extra two seconds of time (2 TE+) is always useful (more important for big board teams like Fasca
), while the Enhanced Combos awakenings are usually welcome as they are still “king” of all personal damage awakenings due to the consistency to activate, strong attack multiplier, and synergy with other damage awakenings. FUA is also nice, although its relevance has diminished somewhat due to the popularity explosion of the automatic follow-up attack leader archetype in the ten months since Ina
was released. Sadly, Evo Yuri only has one SB, which may make her somewhat less desirable in this current age of transformation leaders.
As a leader, Evo Yuri requires a significant number of Heal Orbs as well as multiple colors to fully activate. With such a large RCV multiplier (especially with a lack of an HP multiplier) and a significant shield as well as the aforementioned orb-hungry activation requirements, it would probably be best to pair Evo Yuri with a big board leader that provides an HP multiplier such as Fasca
, Minaka
, or even Nelle
(although an Evo Yuri/Nelle pairing would probably be orb-hungry to the point of near unplayability). It is somewhat awkward that Heal Orbs are used to shield; therefore, using them to recover when lacking 6 Heal Orbs severely reduces survivability and thus makes it difficult to stall without an HP multiplier.
Jiraiya
| Stat | Lv.99 | +297 |
| HP | 6093 | 7083 |
| ATK | 3140 | 3635 |
| RCV | 495 | 792 |
Phantom Ninja, Jiraiya幻忍・児雷也
Active Skill: (10 ➧ 10) Not Inheritable
For 10 turns, Wood orbs are more likely to appear by 15%; Changes to [5947] for the duration of the dungeon
Leader Skill: [4/306.25/1]
5x ATK and 2x HP for Wood Att.; Increase orb movement time by 2 seconds; 3.5x ATK when matching 2+ Wood combos; 1 additional damage when matching 3 or more Wood combos
Base Jiraiya is the first transform card to rotate between multiple forms in a cycle; while we do have a transform card with multiple forms in Kamen Rider Super-1
, no card rotates between forms like Jiraiya. He rotates through multiple different “disguises”, which are copies of existing cards with modified active skills; however, he keeps the same set of awoken skills and his leader skill throughout the transformations. The cycle is as thus: Base Jiraiya, Roche
, Rex
, Freyja
, Sonia – Fio
, Odin
, Zela
, and then back to Base Jiraiya. Unfortunately, this transformation cycle makes it difficult to use any active consistently without extreme planning of the timing, which somewhat reduces his sub potential. His awakenings are geared towards damage with two VDP and two Enhanced Combos awakenings, but is a little awkward due to the lack of specialization; in my opinion, it would have been better if he had three VDP and one Enhanced Combos awakenings or vice versa because then he would either be more specialized as a VDP option with triple VDP or would consistently output more damage with triple Enhanced Combos. Still, he does possess a significant amount of personal damage and also provides a nice little bit of utility in the TE+ and the L-Unlock awakenings.
As a leader, Jiraiya is extremely similar to SAO’s Alice
in that both are based on multiple combos of Wood and Light Orbs respectively to provide an attack multiplier and an automatic follow-up attack. Because of his combo-based playstyle and lack of a recovery multiplier, Jiraiya (like Alice) pairs extremely well with Fasca
. (Seems like everything pairs with Fasca nowadays.) Unlike Alice, Jiraiya does not provide any Skill Boosts for Fasca’s transformation, so the burden of providing 18 SB is placed entirely on the subs. Some ideal subs include Academy Valeria
and Reincarnated Ruel
. Furthermore, Jiraiya’s orb-hungry leader skill means that one would also want fast actives that generate Wood Orbs, although Jiraiya’s initial active does help temporarily alleviate the orb-hungry nature.
| Stat | Lv.99 (+297) | Lv.110 (+297) |
| HP | 3950 (4940) | 4543 (5533) |
| ATK | 4030 (4525) | 4635 (5130) |
| RCV | 10 (307) | 12 (309) |
Luminous Frog Phantom Ninja, Jiraiya秘輝蛙の幻忍・児雷也
Active Skill: (5 ➧ 5) Not Inheritable
Change Water orbs to Wood orbs; Change Light orbs to Fire orbs; Lock all Wood orbs; For 10 turns, Wood orbs appear locked
Leader Skill: [1/324/1, 75%]
9x ATK when matching Fire and Wood at once; 2x ATK when 7 or more combos; Reduce damage taken by 50% when matching 2+ Wood combos; 1 additional damage when matching 2 or more Wood combos
While Evo Jiraiya has a nice Super Jammer Resist, the four 80% or more HP Enhanced awakenings is disappointing due to the nature of the awakening itself; if HP is above 80%, the awakening provides a personal 1.5x ATK multiplier. The problem is that not only can pre-emptive strikes reduce health below that threshold (thus rendering the awakenings useless barring instant healing actives), but the awakening itself is not very potent in comparison to other sources of personal damage (such as the Enhanced Combos awakening, for example). However, with such a high attack stat, Evo Jiraiya can output immense amounts of damage with only one combo provided that HP is above 80%, which can be useful for cheesing/farming/possibly ranking in which speed and ease are prioritized. He could also technically function as a button base as well (though there are generally better options for that, such as Reincarnated Vajrayaksa
or Reincarnated Vajrabhairava
).
Evo Jiraiya generates Wood and Fire Orbs from Water and Light Orbs respectively on a short cooldown. Furthermore, like other evolutions of the Spring Forward GFEs, Evo Jiraiya locks all current and future Wood Orbs for ten turns and can indefinitely sustain the locks by itself (barring skill delays). It feels somewhat awkward that Evo Jiraiya generates Fire Orbs, but this is probably to synergize the active skill with the leader skill. The double attribute generation of Fire and Wood Orbs reminds me of Grigory
, and indeed, Evo Jiraiya does function as a sub for Grigory since he is Physical.
As a leader, Evo Jiraiya is extremely orb-hungry (even more so than his base form) in that he requires multiple combos of Wood Orbs as well as a combo of Fire Orbs. While the leader skill is certainly potent in providing 18x ATK, a 50% damage reduction shield, and an automatic follow-up attack, the activation requirements are so severe that an asymmetric big board leader pairing (like Fasca
) or multiple dual orb generators (such as Academy Yog
, Lyserg Diethel
, Mikihisa Asakura
) are required at minimum to effectively play Evo Jiraiya; realistically, both are probably needed to make it work. The problem is that Evo Jiraiya’s survivability is entirely dependent on a conditional shield which requires 6 Wood Orbs; if the shield is not active, the team becomes extremely fragile.
The Real Question
“Alright, Lumon. I’ve read your stupidly long-winded analysis about these three Godfest Exclusives (which nobody needs and no one has the time for) because I thought you would answer my question, but you didn’t. Just tell it to us straight; who should we trade for with our Spring Forward Medal?”
None of them.
“Wait, what? I’ve got this medal of which its only purpose is to exchange for one of Grandis, Yuri, and Jiraiya, and you say ‘Don’t trade?’ Bruh.”
You’re right; the medal’s only purpose is to exchange for one of Grandis, Yuri, and Jiraiya. That doesn’t mean you should trade it in right away. Remember, the exchange is permanently available in the Monster Exchange within the Shop, so keeping the medal around means keeping the flexibility to choose one of the three at any given moment. You should NOT trade for any of the three Godfest Exclusives until you have a definite need for one of the three; a decision made on this basis of “definite need” is far less likely to induce regret than a decision made on a whim. You don’t trade in because you can; you trade in because you need something.
Furthermore, I would advise to wait until these three Godfest Exclusives receive their weapon assist evolutions. The past sets of exchangeable Godfest Exclusives (PAD Appreciation Medal
with Ciel
, Non
, and Giga
; Spring Fest Medal
with Sara
, Rex
, and Luna
; and PAD Appreciation Medal 2019
with Rai
and Core
) have all received weapon assist evolutions, and for some, this has completely changed the perception of their value (most notably Gravitia
, the equip form of Luna); choosing to trade now means you choose to trade with incomplete information.
Therefore, when you decide that it is time to trade, look back at the uses and niches of each card and its evolutions and figure out exactly how you are going to use the card you intend to trade for; maybe you’ll find that my blocks of text aren’t so redundant. In the end, I hope that this article helps you make a better informed decision with the very valuable Spring Forward Medal.
I still have all my medals… do you have an opinion on generally accepted “best” trades for the previous sets? I have a pretty developed box, i.e. nothing seems particularly necessary, I think.
What I said about this medal exchange applies for all the other medal exchanges; you only trade when you have a specific need for one of the GFE. Since the decision to trade is dependent on box/team context, there is no “general” best card to trade for.
For example, I would personally have a hard time picking between Fagan-Rai and Zaerog-Core because I simply have no present need for either, despite both being incredibly powerful and useful cards. Thus, I hold on to my medal and will do so until the day I actually need another Rai or Core.