I do not think they are anywhere in the 10f area leading to tenshi.
I meant 11F, heading to Tenshi. Unless there's another route I didn't notice, you have to go through the right side of 11F (the stairs down to 10F is fairly close to the Patchy event needed to fight Yuyuko) because the way to her from 10F would be blocked by a blue barrier when the switches are all off.
So, after losing to Suwako seven or eight times in a row and completely losing motivation to continue the game last time, I decided to restart a playthrough soon.
Suwako was a bitch the first time I fought her, which was before I had even cleared 8F. Mishaguji-sama was capable of wiping out everyone not named Meiling, and that assumed Meiling was at max health. NTR affinity gear would have helped, but I was lacking that. In the end, I think I had mapped out 9F before trying again and she was easily doable.
Does anyone have any advice(s) on spending skill points? It's one aspect of the game I'm having problem understanding, as I just threw them on whatever I felt like on my last runthrough (it's the main reason why I'm restarting).
Don't waste points on evade, don't waste points on character stats that aren't going to do anything. Most characters use either MAG or ATK for their abilities, so don't spend points on the wrong one. Some characters have composite attacks (uses ATK and MAG, is resisted by both DEF and MND) like Reimu, but since her group heal only uses MAG you shouldn't be boosting her ATK at all except through skill points when it's cheap to do so.
Some characters might have abilities that use ATK and some that use MAG, but odds are you'll probably be wanting to focus on one or the other...I see no reason to not pick ATK for Suwako considering that her MAG based nukes are pretty weak and other characters are better suited for the job. For boss use (where there is usually a single target) she has an ATK based NTR element ability that is a better pick than Mishaguji-sama. That leaves her CLD nuke, which is the point where I'd say that the trade-offs aren't worth it.
When you can afford the skill point cost, try to get affinities for the characters you're using to 100 if they are below that. Higher is better, but when their affinity is <100 they take extra damage from attacks of that element.
Some characters have attacks that won't be terribly impressive unless the enemy is weak to them, but have other uses. Iku's nukes don't deal great damage compared to some characters but two of them reduce an enemy's DEF, letting your physical attackers do considerably more damage to them. If your characters are equipped so that they are immune to PAR, she can buff their ATK and MAG by 72%. Buffs are more valuable than you might think, because they are applied after your equipment and skill points. An item that gives you +40% ATK is basically like another 13 SP into a stat, not a 40% boost to the overall value.
For instance, my Nitori currently has 1897 ATK. Two +30% ATK items bring that up to 2217, or a 320 point improvement. With Iku's Thundercloud Stickleback, her ATK becomes 3262, or a 1365 point improvement. If I gave Nitori just one 30% ATK item, with Thundercloud Stickleback her ATK is then 3538.
At lower levels I've been neglecting SPD, but that's mainly because the base values are so low that it takes quite a few points to get a visible improvement.
