Table of Contents
Potential upgrade details
| Bond stats | Skill upgrades |
| HP 62.4% DEF 13.4% | Energy Guard HP +15% of the target's HP Energy Guard HP +15% of the target's HP Improved Range (3x3) |
Overview
Pros:
- The second costume in the game that increases property damage
- The only costume in the game that buffs allies' chain stacks (other than MB.Celia, who only buffs herself)
- Chain stacking ability works at full power at +0, and no investment in potential is necessary to make good use of her
- No cooldown on skill, can be re-applied every turn with no down time
- The second unit in the game to have reverse knockback (the other being Dalvi)
Cons:
- High ongoing SP cost, as the buff needs to be re-applied every turn
- Property damage buff is not as good as Diana
- Limited buff range
- Energy Guard is nice, but not very strong compared to other buffs (even with potential boosts)
Can Refi replace your other buffers?
In the early days of the game, buffers like H.Lathel and B.Helena were must haves because they were the only available buffers.
In the last few months, a lot of new great buffers have been released, and we are now approaching "buffer saturation", i.e. there are more good buffers than we can fit into a team. The challenge now is to pick the right combination of buffers for maximum damage. Therefore when reviewing Refi, the question is not just to look at whether she is good, but whether she is better than the existing buffers.
To start with, it's important to understand how damage works in this game. The formula below gives a simplified overview of how damage is calculated.
As you can see, different kinds of buffs multiply each others' effects. Therefore, it's usually best to have as many different kinds of buffs as possible in order to achieve the highest damage.
The table below shows the total buff effects of various 4-buffer combos. For simplicity, this calculation assumes that you are running a team with 4 buffers and a final attacker, and the final attacker is a physical single-hit skill against a single weak-element enemy. It also ignores the extra attack damage that would be dealt by Rafina, Celia, and Zenith on their own attacks.
| Buffers | Damage | |||
| No buff (base property damage only) | 150% | |||
| Diana | Lathel | Refi | Celia | 3,351% |
| Diana | Lathel | Teresse | Rafina | 3,367% |
| Diana | Lathel | Refi | Rafina | 3,459% |
| Refi | Rafina | Zenith | Celia | 4,300% |
| Diana | Lathel | Rafina | Celia | 4,595% |
| Refi | Lathel | Zenith | Rafina | 6,440% |
| Diana | Lathel | Zenith | Rafina | 6,468% |
As you can see from the table above, the lowest damage output was obtained by using multiple buffers with the same kind of buffs. For example, Diana+Lathel+Refi+Celia is low because Refi is the same kind of buff as Diana (both property damage). Diana+Lathel+Teresse+Rafina is low because Lathel is the same kind of buff as Teresse (both ATK buffs).
The highest damage output was achieved by using a "rainbow" mix of buffers, with Refi or Diana (property damage), Lathel (ATK), Zenith (damage amplification on enemy damage received) and Rafina (damage amplification on physical damage dealt). Note that Refi and Diana had very similar damage output in the table above, though Refi takes the advantage if your final attacker is a multi-hit attacker (since Refi would provide a further damage boost from your final attacker's chain stacks).
What this all means is that Refi can achieve better damage than Diana in some situations, but not by a big margin. She's a great pick for players who don't already have a +5 Diana, but only a "nice to have" for those who already have +5 Diana.
Refi's drawbacks
Refi's biggest drawback is that she's a big SP hog. Diana costs only 2 SP for 8 turns of buff, then she can generate 1 SP per player turn from normal attacking. After 8 turns, that's effectively +1 SP net. On the other hand, Refi costs 2 SP every player turn. After 8 turns, that's effectively -8 SP net. The high SP upkeep cost can make a pretty big difference in battles where SP is scarce.
Refi's range is also pretty small, even with the potential upgrade. Forcing you to bunch your team together can be risky against bosses with strong AOE attacks.
Refi's Energy Guard skill can be nice to have, but it's a lot less powerful than the Energy Guards from RH.Rou (150% max HP) and AD.Diana (1100% M.ATK).
Where to use Refi?
First of all, Refi is absolutely essential now for Last Night high scoring. In Last Night, the biggest damage amplification comes from chain stacking, so Refi's power makes a huge difference to total damage output.
Refi is also great for challenging story battles, and fiend hunts where her ongoing SP cost is not a big issue.
In particular, for high level fiend hunts, you need to have enough buffers to support multiple teams. Refi therefore does not need to compete with Diana if Diana is in your first team and Refi is in your second team.
Refi is unfortunately not great for Tower of Pride (not much room in your team to stack multiple buffers) or Tower of Wrath/Jealousy (property damage does not work).
Refi is also not good for PVP, since property damage is very situational, chain damage makes very little difference, and her SP cost upkeep is unaffordable.
Conclusion
It's definitely worth getting at least one copy of PWB.Refi for her power in Last Night alone. However, anything more than +0 currently looks like a somewhat situational investment, other than for players wanting to reach high scores in fiend hunts.
If you're thinking about investing beyond +0, I'd recommend holding back until the next patch notes are released (usually around a day or two before the patch comes online). This is because we'll be getting Refi's next costume, Gluttonous Refithea, in the next patch scheduled for 1 May 2024. It's possible that her next costume will have great synergy with PWB.Refi and make it more powerful, but we won't know until the patch notes come out.
