Rinoa
Character Notes & Recommendations
Have updates or suggestions? Contact us via Reddit or Discord, find our info Behind the Scenes!Summon Board Passive selections:
Odin choose 4 / 6 / 7
Bahamut choose 3 / 4 / 6
Usuals:
Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, Brothers 4 / 5 / 7
Leviathan, Pandemonium, Alexander, Diabolos 4 / 5 / 6
For more details and help with summons, check Summon Hub!
Sphere Recommendations
NOTE: The sphere letters below are hyperlinked to our Sphere Hub which lists all available spheres sorted by effect!A Sphere - BRV DMG, ATK & mBRV, MATK and ATK Spheres that she can hit conditions for. Her own or Dark Knight Cecil's fit a specific condition Rinoa can hit consistently which may interest you.
C Sphere - Garnet Sphere to boost Rinoa's ATK. Maria, Alphinaud or Llyud's sphere to boost ally stats otherwise.
D Sphere - Any ATK/mBRV boosting Sphere. Wakka ok!
How-to-Play Notes
Rinoa can hop between her supporting role (Angelo Recover buff active) or her hyper-offensive magic nuke role (Angel Wings) and do well in both stances depending on what the fight asks or what you want to lean into.
Angelo Cannon (S1) heals the party and provides her with her Angelo Recover buff and cancels Angel Wing if she has it. Angelo Recover provides numerous buffs for the party as well as both BRV regen and HP Regen. This also changes her HP and BRV to her Angelo variants which are safe buttons, but you can still hit S1 or LD if you want to stay in this stance for a few turns to wait out a dangerous enemy phase.
Angel Wing (S2) removes Angelo Recover, batteries Rinoa and gives her a free turn. This move can be used to charge up the FR gauge or Hypercharge her (or any applicable) FR HP DMG Bonus as it'll grant +50% on top of any other conditions it meets.
Angel Wing provides Rinoa with a large list of buffs and gives her access to her HP+ and BRV+ HP attacks. Another way to get this effect is through:
Angel Wing Meteor (EX) is a strong AoE attack that provides her Angel Wings buff.
If used while in Angelo stance, it also provides her Seething Power buff which provides a bit more oomf to her BRV gains.
Wishing Star (LD) removes Angel Wings and gives Rinoa her Angelo Recover buff as well as Pet’s Warmth.
Pet's Warmth changes all her abilities to Magic BRV damage and provides some more strong buffs enabling her and her party to deal even more damage (Thanks Angelo).
BRV+ (Angel Wing) and HP+ (Angel Wing) are Rinoa’s most used attacks as they deal the most damage as well as increasing her EX gauge by 20% when used. They do reduce her HP by 10% and 20% of her current HP respectively so keep this in mind when attacking.
Double Holy (FR) drains 30% of the party's current HP and unleashes a huge AoE attack. Her conditions ask for:
Magic ability on turn : 20%
Special effect on turn : 20%
Be under 100% mHP on turn : 40%
Wings of the Heart (BT) points aggressively at enemies, grants Rinoa some defensive buffs, grants the party her good BT effect and unlocks her biggest buttons: Ultima & Ultima (Angel Wing) 6 uses per BT finisher used, she can only hold 10 Max.
Ultima is an AoE 7 HP attack with decent BRV gains in between HP attacks, but if you have Angel Wings active, it becomes an AoE 9 HP attack move with much stronger BRV gains which can melt many enemies especially under Force Time.
That said, if you needed emergency healing from Rinoa and have to rely on base Ultima that's ok as it's still very powerful and you can lean on the party's auras to make sure all hits deal max damage.
Her Force into BT combo varies on the fight, but generally you want to BT to have the effect up, FR have allies take a turn and if possible enter BT with 7T/6T left. Make sure not to have too much HP regen so the allies right after Rinoa can fulfill the under 100% HP requirement!
With Lunafreya LDCA, she can FR -> BT -> press Angel Wing a couple times and then enter BT phase (with 7T/6T left of Force Time) and Ultima (Angel Wing) your way to victory. Note using this method will make using an LD call very difficult
Thanks to FR Echo, there's less of a rush to supercharge with S2 when you can pass the turn and have allies echo to bump up the FR gauge but if you do BT phase later, 7T/6T is the goal to enter BT phase with for biggest funny number.
"Ok but do I end with Ultima or FR?" If she's FE50 and her allies have BT effects up or if you use Enna Kros (not shown) then you want to use Ultima.
The exact tipping point is +122.5% HP DMG Limit which Rinoa with 5/5 UW, HA+ 3/3 and BT+ 3/3 already provides (+145% HP DMG Limit).
Fight mechanics may influence this if BRV gains are heavily lowered or if BRV DMG is heavily lowered you may have an easier time capping with one attack over the other but Ultima should almost always do more damage unless severe misplays occur.
Team Synergy
Pair her with supports; she likes Queen or Ursula paired with Enna Kros BT the most as they raise her HP DMG Limit extremely high.
Her own FR lacks an HP DMG & Limit aura so finding her one like Enna Kros, Ciaran, Setzer etc will make her hit even harder.
She also likes linked attackers and launch enablers to make the most of her BT phase under Force Time.
She can act as a support and enable another unit with her auras, BT effect and/or Force conditions if you wish to enable another favorite. This is very useful if you plan to use 3 units that all do big damage instead of focusing on a BT rushdown strategy.
You may need a bit more mitigation than what her BT provides in fights where the enemies hit harder than normal.
If you want to use her FR Time, be careful with units that overheal or provide strong regens as they may bump others out of the "Below 100% mHP" condition.