[The Lord of Hongyuan] Hong Lu

The Lord of Hongyuan Hong Lu is a complex Identity, which combines many properties within itself. However, the most stable and yielding playstyle for him is to rely on his abilities to interact with the Heishou packs. At the moment of the review there are only 5 Heishou IDs but he will become even more stronger with the addition of them. But what are his interactions? Is there anything to look for inside this block of text of an ID? Let’s find out through his kit.

We will start with his Passives, and there are two of them.

Let’s talk about how his first and ALWAYS active Passive interacts with his allies:

• The first part heals SP for allies that entered the battlefield and makes them use EXTRA Skill 1 on combat start. If said ally was from Jia Family or Heishou, they will heal DOUBLE SP and use Skill 3 instead. Keep in mind that this skill is used on top of the Chained Skill therefore doubling the amount of skills the ID will use upon entering combat.

• The second part gives 2 unique effects and makes him deal more damage based on another effect that will be discussed later. The two effects are “Leash-holder of all Heishou” and “Life from Death”. Leash holder provides him increased stats based on the amount of Heishou ID’s that are on field or in the backup, and if there are at least 5 of them, he also gives them Damage Up. The second effect, Life from Death, is an effect that is gained from Heishou's death, maxing at 5 stacks. This effect buffs his damage significantly and improves his 3-3 (We will discuss that later).

His second Passive that requires you to own five Gluttony and is aimed at his survivability through the following effects:

• If he is being attacked one-sidedly while he hasn’t used a Defensive skill, RANDOM Heishou will perform an Assist Defense with his “Lordguard” Clashable Guard.

• If he is about to die from any effect but his Tears of Tarnished blood E.G.O., he will nullify any damage that is about to kill him and set his HP to 1. On top of that, he will gain Tarnished Blood effect (Same as ToTB E.G.O.). Keep in mind that while this effect may kill him, he will deal slightly more damage based on this effect’s stacks.

• He nullifies the death effect from ToTB E.G.O. completely, recovers his HP to 60% and gains a permanent Damage Up which is busted.

To sum up his Passives, they are aimed at his interactions with his allies and ensure that he will be able to keep interacting with them through enhanced survivability, since his base HP and defense level are quite low, making him very fragile.

Next, we will take a look at his skills:

• Skill 1 - I Wish to Open The Path - Base roll 12 - Max roll 14 - 15 Clashing - is a bit underwhelming for the modern standards Skill 1, but is quite friendly for his resource management, as it is neutral on Poise and Rupture Count he spends by that skill. It also buffs the Defense skills of allies.

• Skill 2 - Tarnished Blood’s Absolute Cleaver of Ambitions - Base roll 15 - Max roll 23 - The strongest Skill 2 at the moment of his release at its ceiling, yet it is very handicapping to use. It is very negative on Rupture Count, while also consuming a lot of his Poise count for the price of significant damage if used at the right time. This skill also applies Gluttony Damage Up for his allies. 

• Skill 3-1 - Answer Me Heishou Packs - Base roll 22 - Max roll 25 - This is a command skill that debuffs opponents with Offense and Defense Level Down, and generates a significant portion of Poise, yet not enough to sustain his demands. This skill launches a sequence of checks. First of all, it seeks a Heishou ID that is not staggered by the time this skill is used and has unlocked Skill 3. If it fails, he will use Skill 3-3 instead. If there is a viable Heishou that can act, he performs a unique Assist Attack that makes a Heishou ID based on the deployment order to perform a Skill 3, after which he will follow up with his own  Skill 3-2. 

• Skill 3-2 - I Carve a Path of a Lord - Base roll 14 - with normal Heishou Max roll 20 - with Heishou Adept 23. This skill animation and properties will depend on which Heishou has performed his unique Assist Defense. While Adept Heishous (currently only Mao Adept Faust) will buff his rolls, every Heishou will provide him with a unique permanent buff in the form of “Heishou Bolus Contamination” status effect. This effect was mentioned in the first Passive before and will further buff his damage for every stack on top of unique buffs from Heishou. Beyond that, this skill will apply strong Slash Resist Down debuff on the next turn and buff Heishous on kill for 1 turn. 

• Skill 3-3 - Lonesome Stand: Sacrifice to Claim The Garden - Base roll 18 - Max roll 27 - Quite a strong Skill 3 at the moment of his release, which scales with the amount of dead Heishous based on “Life from Death” stacks. At low HP and 5 dead Heishous, this is the strongest Skill 3 in the game, yet it is not worth playing for.

• Clashable Counter - Heishou Keenclaw - Max roll 13 - One of the most unique skills in the game that is worth playing around with. First of all, it will provide Slash Power Up to Heishou IDs. Then, on skill use, it will select the lowest HP Heishou ID and command retreat to it on turn end. But before that, it will use an extra Skill 1 after Hong Lu’s counter. Keep in mind that this skill does not cancel the Chained Skill of retreating ID, making it use 1 more skill than it is supposed to.

To sum up, Hong Lu is a quite strong ID that is reliant on his Heishous to be useful on the field, while providing significant support for them while he is at it. He is strong in short encounters through juggling his Heishous and forcing them to use extra Skill 1’s and Skill 3’s, while gaining permanent buffs through his Skill 3, although it will take a very long time to collect all of them.

Notable Teams/ID Synergy: 

• Heishou IDs team: Strongest IDs in the game at the current state of the game, which provide Hong Lu a lot of support through their interactions and making it easier to sustain Rupture on enemies. 

• Poise team: Even though Rupture is present in his kit, he does not rely on it as much as he relies on his Poise, which is why Poise sustaining allies might be a great addition to him.

• Rupture team: On his own, Hong Lu is more of a parasite that will eat all of the Rupture Count, while outputting less damage than in his signature Heishou team.

Notable E.G.O. synergies:

• [Tears of Tarnished Blood] Hong Lu - With this E.G.O., he can get a Tarnished Blood effect that will reduce his HP and increase his damage, while this E.G.O. cannot kill him with its effects.

• [Dimensional Shredder] Hong Lu - This E.G.O. will apply another layer of Immortality through its Passive over this ID while providing Fragility and Rupture Count on use.