Brave Roy

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -RES
• Weapon: Blazing Durandal
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Aether / Draconic Aura
• Passive A: Distant Counter
• Passive B: Vantage / Swordbreaker / Quick Riposte
• Passive C: Hone Cavalry / Varies with Team
• Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte / Close Def / Distant Def

Despite what his base kit might suggest, Brave Roy is actually a fantastic Enemy Phase unit thanks to Blazing Durandal’s powerful effect. Built-in Heavy Blade in his weapon allows him to run other skills like Distant Counter without having to sacrifice his Special charge rate. This build functions best when run in a full cavalry team, with Hone Cavalry and Fortify Cavalry buff support.

The key components of this set are Distant Counter and the Quick Riposte seal; these two combined allow Brave Roy to have huge coverage over a myriad of enemies. Despite Brave Roy’s high Speed (particularly with a Speed boon and/or buffs), Quick Riposte is useful as it allows him to guarantee doubles even when facing units with obscenely high Speed or running skill that negate doubles like Swordbreaker or Wary Fighter.

Choice of Special is mostly preference; Aether works great because the built-in Heavy Blade effect of Blazing Durandal means that Brave Roy can fully charge Aether in a single combat (assuming he can double). This pairs especially well with Vantage, as Brave Roy can instantly activate Aether on the next combat if he’s within the HP threshold, preventing him from otherwise being in danger due to his bulk. Alternatively, Draconic Aura will give Brave Roy significantly higher damage potential in every combat, at the cost of losing sustain from Aether.

Swordbreaker is a good alternative to Vantage if needing a reliable check to powerful swords like Ayra and Zelgius. Swordbreaker is much more reliable than Guard in this regard, as Brave Roy’s bulk is too low to be able to utilize Guard effectively. Quick Riposte can be utilized as a B skill if looking to make Brave Roy a bit bulkier with either the Close Def or Distant Def seal.

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -RES
• Weapon: Blazing Durandal
• Assist: Reposition
• Special: Galeforce / Draconic Aura / Glimmer
• Passive A: Swift Sparrow / Life and Death / Fury
• Passive B: Swordbreaker / Desperation
• Passive C: Hone Cavalry / Varies with Team
• Sacred Seal: Quickened Pulse / Attack +3 / Speed +3

Brave Roy’s offensive power with cavalry buff support is such that he often does not even need a Special to KO his opponent; this is likely the reason he even has Galeforce in his base kit. This build is a natural extension of his base kit, and turns Brave Roy into an offensive powerhouse with very little investment required.

Even as an offensive nuke, Brave Roy still has several different playstyles, determined by his choice of Special and B skill. His base Galeforce turns him into an offensive sweeper, allowing him to plow through enemy teams by taking out multiple units per turn or abuse his movement by retreating far away after combat. Draconic Aura and Glimmer both substantially increase Brave Roy’s damage output; the choice between the two boils down to Draconic Aura if running Swordbreaker, or Glimmer if running Desperation.

Swift Sparrow synergizes quite well with Galeforce, as Brave Roy will be almost entirely focused only on his Player Phase prowess. Life and Death offers slightly more offensive stats, but at the cost of lowering his defenses to dangerous levels (64/59 to 59/54 physical/magical bulk, assuming a -RES bane). This can easily be compensated for if Brave Roy has access to Fortify Cavalry buff support, and is mostly a non-issue if he is only interested in handling green threats. Fury is a cheap alternative that is good all-around. It offers less offensive stats than Swift Sparrow and Life and Death, but the increased bulk can come in handy if not running Fortify Cavalry.

Swordbreaker drastically improves Brave Roy’s matchups versus the speedier sword units; he tends to struggle against them otherwise, as they can be difficult to double. Brave Roy’s base Desperation works very well with the sweeping nature of this build, but it can be awkward to fully utilize depending on the choice of Special; Brave Roy won’t be able to activate Galeforce on subsequent turns while in Desperation range due to only getting 4 charges from the two hits.

For the Sacred Seal, Quickened Pulse will allow Brave Roy to activate Galeforce regardless of whether his opponent can counter him or not. If this is not a concern (ranged units are rather rare in higher tiers of arena, for example), then either Attack +3 or Speed +3 will work well.