Cherche

• Preferred IV: +ATK / -RES or -SPD
• Weapon: Cherche's Axe (+EFF or +Atk)
• Assist: Reposition / Flexible
• Special: Glimmer / Galeforce / Bonfire
• Passive A: Death Blow / Heavy Blade
• Passive B: Chill Def / Hit and Run / AxeBreaker
• Passive C: Odd Atk Wave / Goad Fliers / Hone Fliers
• Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade / Quickened Pulse / Attack +3

Cherche can pack a significant punch with her Cherche's Axe, a refine which functions like a Brave Axe, but with 3 more Might and refine capabilities. This set works to have her completely demolish opponents by activating Glimmer on every single initiation with a Brave Axe/Heavy Blade combination. This allows for Cherche to do an incredible amount of damage on every turn before the enemy can counterattack. Of course, this only works perfectly when her Attack is higher than her opponents, which shouldn't be too difficult if built optimally- on Odd numbered turns, Cherche will have 66 Attack (67 with an Attack refine).

Alternatively, if you'd like to attempt a 1 turn Galeforce build so that Cherche can kill two opponents in the same turn, you would need to sacrifice an Ike to put Heavy Blade in Cherche's A slot to run Quickened pulse in her seal slot. This way, Cherche will attack and proc Heavy Blade (with an Attack of 58 on odd numbered turns), which will allow her to use Galeforce for a turn reset.

The rest of the set is self explanatory- if you're want to maximize your possible damage, Chill Def turns Cherche into a one woman army, capping this set out with a maximum of 73x2 damage. Chill Def may be needed to secure kills on bulkier armor units, however her B slot is flexible enough to run skills like Hit and Run for a more defensive playstyle, or Axebreaker for handling axe-weilding armors more easily.

Odd Atk Wave is perfect in her C slot as it allows her to function entirely independently, without the need of Hone Fliers or other ally buffs to reach her maximum potential. However, she can still give and receive flier buffs in a flier-oriented team, which can help her function better in even numbered turns.

As far as her refine goes, Panic Ploy is a bit of a niche skill, but can be extremely helpful in certain situations, such as against blade mages or when baiting certain units. Whether or not that benefit outweighs an extra 1 Attack (2 damage per initiation) is up to you.

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +DEF / -RES
• Weapon: Cherche's Axe (+Def)
• Assist: Reposition / Flexible
• Special: Aether / Bonfire
• Passive A: Death Blow / Atk/Def Bond / Fury
• Passive B: Quick Riposte
• Passive C: Odd Atk Wave / Panic Ploy / Fortify Fliers
• Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade / Atk/Def / Panic Ploy

Cherche's offensive prowess with her new prf axe is not to be underestimated, but her above average defensive bulk shouldn't be forgotten either. While she's obviously stronger during Player Phase, this is a set which sacrifices a little bit of her minmaxed Player Phase build for a more sturdy Enemy Phase, meaning that you don't necessarily have to worry about leaving her in enemy range after a Cherche's Axe initiation in Player Phase.

Through this set, Cherche is meant to attack an opponent and use her high Attack and Heavy Blade seal to prime up an Aether proc during Player Phase. In the Enemy Phase, her opponent will attack into her 36 Defense bulk and be immediately rewarded with an Aether to the face, effectively making up for her lower attack power in Enemy Phase and healing any damage she may receive. If her opponent somehow survives that, then Quick Riposte is there to ensure that she attacks twice in order to secure her kill.

Due to the dual phase nature of this set, Atk/Def Bond also functions very well as an A skill, though it would be more difficult to line up the buff during Player Phase when considering her flier mobility. Fury could work as well as a budget version of Atk/Def Bond, but the recoil damage may hinder her bulk in longer engagements.

The Heavy Blade seal is vital to being able to charge her Aether- if unavailable, you'll want to go with Bonfire instead for her Special for the same effect.

• Preferred IV: +DEF or +SPD / -RES
• Weapon: Slaying Axe+ (+Spd/Def)
• Assist: Reposition / Flexible
• Special: Aether / Bonfire
• Passive A: Atk Def Bond / Fury / Heavy Blade
• Passive B: Quick Riposte
• Passive C: Panic Ploy / Goad Fliers / Fortify Fliers
• Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade / Close Def / Panic Ploy

Defensive Cherche is a bit of an anomaly in that she can be very versatile depending on how you'd like to use her. Due to her +4 Speed superboon, she hits a Speed of 29- add in a Speed refine to her Slaying Axe for 32 base Speed, which is definitely workable, particularly with merges. With buffs and A-Slot, Cherche can actually find herself resting comfortably at above 40 Speed. This doesn't necessarily mean that she should be considered a Player Phase unit; however, this Speed stat allows her to avoid doubles from the enemy, which is a great boon to her survivability.

Alternatively, you can increase her already-formidable Defense instead- a Defense boon to her IV brings her to 35, and a Slaying Axe refine can pull it up to 39. Furthering her defenses can help you easily get it to over 40 for great tanking capabilities, though you'll be far more likely to be doubled.

The piece that brings this set together is Heavy Blade. A neutral IV Cherche with no A slot or buffs reaches 52 Attack with Slaying Axe.  Her A slot can be utilized to further increase her Attack or can be run with Heavy Blade if you want to run Panic Ploy in her Seal Slot- though if you run Heavy Blade in her A slot, you might want to consider giving her a teammate who can buff her Attack, just to be sure. Heavy Blade's activation means that Cherche can proc Aether either in the same turn combat or during her first action in the following Player Phase- the difference here boils down to whether or not the enemy doubles her.

If she's doubled by her opponent (more likely with her defensive-oriented build) then she will respond with an Aether proc on the second attack, likely killing her opponent and healing herself. If she is not doubled (more likely with her Speed-oriented build) she will hold the Aether until the player phase next turn, allowing for her to attack a new opponent for potentially more healing.

In this way, Cherche's Speed-oriented build offers her more survivability and more healing potential, but slightly less 'finishing' potential in the Enemy Phase.

The last piece to this build is Panic Ploy. After forging her Slaying weapon, Cherche sits at 51 HP which allows her to apply a panic debuff to many enemies that she baits. This works out particularly nicely with a Summoner Support, which helps round out her stats as well as padding her HP up to 56, opening up her opportunity to Panic many more opponents. Even without Summoner Support though, she has the best Panic Ploying potential among flier units.

• Preferred IV: +ATK or +SPD / -RES
• Weapon: Slaying Hammer (+Spd/Def)
• Assist: Reposition / Flexible
• Special: Aether / Bonfire
• Passive A: Death Blow / Fury / Atk/Def Bond
• Passive B: Quick Riposte / Vantage
• Passive C: Odd Atk Wave / Even Spd Wave / Buff of choice
• Sacred Seal: Close Def / Atk +3 / Panic Ploy

Cherche's natural Hammer allows her to be quite skilled at dispatching armor units, even without her prf. On a budget, Cherche makes for a fantastic armorslaying unit, with a massive Attack stat to abuse the 1.5x effective multiplier and a good amount of bulk for tanking counterattacks.

Increasing her Speed through a boon may seem like an odd choice, but with this it allows Cherche to double slow armor units, such as Legendary Hector and Brave Hector on Player Phase, which almost always results in a KO. Against speedier armors, she will have difficulty doubling on Player Phase, but during Enemy Phase she can utilize Quick Riposte in order to attack twice, as long as she can endure two attacks from her opponent. With Close Defense in her Seal slot, this helps her to control which phase she engages her opponent with.

As far as her C slot goes, Odd Atk Wave is useful in helping her to gain the Attack necessary to 2HKO certain armors and Even Spd Wave will help her to get 2 hits in on the first place for speedier armors, but her C slot in general is flexible enough to run other ally buffs if needed.