Foreword
A big thank you to Requiem who came up with most of these facts while TAing the fluffy boy. I am just here to convert this into a more vieweable format, as well as adding some of my own observations to it.
Curse stacks
On Turn 1, Cernunnos has 3 actions. Each attacking action has a 30% chance to get a new stack of curse. If Cernunnos gains a curse stack with an attack during the first two actions, Cernunnos stops and does not perform the third action.
The important thing is that he can’t have more than 10 stacks of curse. Once Cernunnos reaches 10 stacks, 3 curse stacks are released. This means the minimum amount of curses he can have by Turn 4 is 9 stacks. Ideally, you don’t leave him at 10 stacks by the end of turn 3. Otherwise, Cernunnos won’t release 3 stacks, as the corresponding skill cannot be cast.
If you successfully manage to dodge the random curses gained by attacks, you can go for 2 brave chains and 2 attacks to get the minimum amount of curses for turn 4. One of his skills let him eat his own curse, it happens rarely but can save your run.
Curse gains
- At the end of each turn 1 stack of curse is gained
- The fight starts with Cernunnos getting 7 stacks of curse
- Turn 3 five stacks of curses are gained
- Turn 4 seven more curse stacks are gained
Fight effects
Turn 2 Cernunnos starts with casting irremovable skill and np seal. This does not affect backline party members, so if you manage to cycle supports on the first attack turn you have their full set of skills to use.
Actions
- Turn 1: Cernunnos has three actions if no curse stack is gained by attacking, otherwise two actions
- Turn 2: Only two actions, meaning Cernunnos can attack only twice.
- Turn 3: He again has only two actions
- Turn 4: Again, only two actions
Skill Cooldowns
On the first break Cernunnos skill seals your servants. This means on turn 2 your servant won’t lose 1 cooldown on that turn.
As an example: Let’s say I used Alteras third skill turn 1. She has to wait 5 turns to reuse it and on turn 3 Vitch gives her 2 times cooldown reduction. Ideally you would be able to reuse her third skill on turn 4 but because she gets skill sealed she can’t do it.
Resulting runs
Both Requiem and I managed to get unique TAs done with Scathach (Requiem even with more servants). Those runs are embedded here:
Firq
This run doesn’t use the support Castoria provided by the game and instead makes use of Sherlock instead.
Requiem
A frontline only run with double Castoria