Touhou Pocket Wars EVO Plus : Help Please!

[Zil]

Ok, It's completely stupid of me to have to create a thread just for this, but I really can't figure this out. I got my character to level 500, but how do I reform? I checked both wikis, and looked through past threads, but I can't find the info.

[Yukarin]

Have you checked the wiki? I think it's right there.

[Starxsword]

You need to beat the character that you want to do reform in. So, let's say you want to reform Youmu, you need to get Youmu to level
500 and go talk to Youmu, there is some kind of thing that is called reform. Do that fight and beat her, then you can reform your Youmu.

[Sophilia]

Before you can attempt a reform though, you need to clear that character's Encounter battles.  So if the AI's affection score for, say, Komachi, isn't zero yet, you need to get that taken care of first.

[Hanzo K.]

I will warn you though, they're tough cookies, much tougher than the story bosses at most points.
A good start is Remilia, she's glassy enough that you can just come in with a squad of Yuuka(Or Marisa, or any other Beatstick-Type if you're so inclined) and Double Spark her until she gives in, and she's a pretty reliable fig as well, so it balances out.

[Zil]

What are these Encouter battles, and how do I see the AI's affection for the characters? I saw some that in what I found on the wiki, but I don't know what it means.

[Hanzo K.]

That's pretty simple.
You just go to gensokyo and meet with a character. Your affection levels will be displayed, as will the Rival's, usually at a number of 500 or so.
Each of the Rivals has a name pertaining to who you're fighting for.
For example, the person who uses the name "Little Girls" will be your opponent for Satori, Koishi, and Chen, as well as a couple others I might be forgetting.

And when you go to Gensokyo, you might find that there's an exclamation point on one of the locations that isn't a story area. The even there is an Encounter Battle, in which you face your Rivals for the affections of one of the girls present there. For example, at the SDM you might fight for either Remi, Flan, Meiling, Patchy, or Sakuya. It's completely random which of the girls you'll fight for, so I just go in guns blazing, leaving it up to chance.
If you win, their Affection Level will take quite a hit, you can usually drive them off in 3-5 battles.

I liked going in and imagining myself as this rowdy brawler sort who just went around getting into fights, and just winning the girls as an added bonus. :3
(Largely because that's how I'd do it if I ended up in that kinda situation.)

[Zil]

OK thanks very much. I thought that name with the number down there meant you'd get something if you got your own affection number high enough.  :V Guess it may be a while before I can reform, but I'll want to save up exp anyway.

[Hanzo K.]

It's actually pretty easy to unlock the reformation process.
The Rivals aren't much stronger than the 2nd Round opponents in the...C Rank Tourneys right?
Which is to say that you can easily steamroller them, even with no reforms.
It's the actual Reformation Battle itself that is a real challenge. But stockpiling EXP is just fine, I recommend having a Keine in your backup slot for that, you can get up to 25% extra EXP.

[Sophilia]

Ah, the rivals are a bit stronger than that, their levels are around 400, but they're still not really that tough to kill if you have a good nuker.  The reform battles themselves can be either a pain or incredibly easy, depending on how you approach them.  The weakness all reform battles have is that they are only one opponent, so you're getting a lot more actions than they do.  Admittedly, it's a really strong opponent, and only gets more powerful the more times you reform.  My way of dealing with this was rampant defensive buff abuse.

Also if you want to unlock an Encounter quickly, concentrate all your gift-giving on that girl - it'll get the rival's attention really fast.

[Zil]

Also if you want to unlock an Encounter quickly, concentrate all your gift-giving on that girl - it'll get the rival's attention really fast.

Ah! That should come in handy; thanks for mentioning it. Also I agree with the defense buff use against bosses. I've been using Nitori's evade buff on them and it makes things much easier. Combined with Narrow confines of Avici, single enemies just can't get through.

[Zil]

Okay, I have yet another question. There are some spells that get a higher mp cost (or sp, whatever it is) when you level them up. It seems like buff spells always increase by at least one, but some of the attack/debuffs don't always increase. Is this always true? Basically, debuffs can be leveled up without becoming more costly, while buffs always get at least a plus one?

[Starxsword]

Not really, it is character specific. Just check the wiki to see which skills scale.
Generally speaking though, buffs tend to cost more when you level them, but how much more or if at all is usually random.

[Sophilia]

Yeah, some spellcards get higher prices for their effects when they level.  Most cards stay the same the whole time, and a few, like Komachi's invincibility, actually go down in cost.  The really annoying thing about the cards whose cost goes up is that in many cases what you end up with is random.  For instance, Yukari has an attack with an SP debuff effect.  It has a 50/50 chance per level of gaining one more point to cast or staying the same.  So it could end up staying at its initial casting cost at level 10 if you get real lucky, or if you're really unlucky it could go up 9 SP.   The cards that go down in cost, on the other hand, may have random level effects as well, but they can get lightbulb effects after level 10 that reduce their cost to the minimum.  Note that there are exceptions as well: Yuugi's damage buff goes up in cost but it isn't random; it'll always go up 2 points per level.  Like Star said, for more about specific cards, go to the character pages on the wiki.

[Hanzo K.]

Those lightbulbs also indicate that the spell is 1) going to hit harder(but not always), and 2) will become stronger.

[Zil]

Yeah I checked the wiki and it's on there. Has all that info on each character been added recently? - because have no memory of it. So for some spells you just have to take the extra cost and others can be kept at the original value the whole way. (by restarting the game until the spell levels up without the cost going up too.) It's seems I've been handling everything correctly so far; everything is the minimum cost it could possibly be at.

[Sophilia]

The spellcard data has been there since last December.  The other stuff dates from any time from then till when we went over the pages in July/August.  Until then, for instance, Yukari didn't even have her assist ability or dream events elaborated on.  Though, my tactics blurbs may have a little bias~

[Zil]

Okay... I decided to face Mokou in the King's Game, only to find that she's the biggest troll in the history of creation. Is there any effective way to counter her resurrection thing, like maybe a character who can negate buffs? Also, is it a good idea to improve stats like speed and recovery when reforming, or should I stick to the "normal" stats?

[Starxsword]

You only need enough speed to outspeed them, anymore and it is worthless. Later on, you get an item that gives 20 speed with bonuses
to all stats. I am not sure how much speed phantasm enemies have, but I don't think it is that much over 30, so get speed, but not too much.
Mokou's buff is a chance to resurrect, so eventually she will fail. Just make sure you have characters that can handle a attrition war. Have
someone like Komachi and someone else with a similar skill to Komachi and it is pretty much over for them.

[Sophilia]

Ah, Resurrection, the one card that makes Mokou by far and away the best tank in the game.  I think the best way to deal with it is Reisen's Illusion Seeker spellcard.  Any enemy tagged with it can't use support spellcards for three turns.  Nue's Red UFO has the same property, but I don't know if you have her yet.  Of course, if you have a good defense buffer or Sanae it's possible to brute-force the fight via your own hax and waiting for hers to fail.

When it comes to reforms, a few points in speed definitely isn't a bad thing, but note the best equipment in the game, the master UFO item, gives 40 SP, 20 REC, and 20 Speed on top of 25% increases to all leveling stats.  You can get a lot of mileage out of concentrating on a stat and reforming toward it, since reform bonuses stack.  With a couple reforms it is possible to have over 500 ATK at level 1!

@Star: Ph enemies are a whole other can of worms.  I don't remember how big their speed boost it, but I know they're almost all over 20 speed at least.  I was more paying attention to, you know, their stats being a flat 10-20 times higher than even the enemies in Shinki's Library.

[Starxsword]

I was sort of paying attention to their speed. I think they sometimes outspeed my Tenshi with 33 speed, so I figure they are in the 30ish.
I know Yuuka outspeeds them with 37 speed. Of course, they one shot me, so yeah I did not try them.