u/TheBubbanator

A couple days ago (I think) I saw a post talking about Special Actions that only work with teammates. I wanted to try my hand at making some for the 7 characters who are teammate locked.

- Deku: I've seen this thrown around a few times, and I like it. A little boost to his speed, and in turn his attack speed, could do wonders for him.

- Ibara: The main thing was avoiding an outright mobility option, as it think that kinda fucks with her design as an intended weakness. However I think something like Tech Shouto's beta ramps could be interesting.

- Asui: Satan's greatest gets more satanic.

- Kendou: She's a very melee oriented character, so improving that in some way is neat to me. I thought about the shockwaves acting as additional attacks at the end of the melees, but that would mess with her combos.

- Cementoss: Just a little something for him. In my mind it's essentially Dabi's old Special Action, but way stronger since you're fully immune until they break the casing.

- Compress: Less of an ability and more of a passive like Iida. Three extra item slots since he compresses the items for more room 🗣️

- Kurogiri: I think this one would be really fun, imagining snagging a gold chest from someone just as they're about to open it. Would work pretty much exactly like his SpA, but with boxes. I debated it being Civilians, with a 5% chance of Kouta, but that still felt super team-oriented at the end of the day.

Like I said in the images, these are not accounting for the current balance and would obviously require tweaks to be done.

As season 16 comes to a close, many people have arrived at the conclusion Miruko will be our next release for season 17, thanks to the burger poster conundrum given during National Puzzle Day in Japan last week. Miruko's addition would mark our 6th post-launch pro hero addition to the game, not including AAM. With that, there has been quite a lot of discussion regarding one specific character, that I think folding into a larger overall topic that has been discussed briefly before, that topic being 1A.

Since the game's launch, a roster of 18 characters, we've seen a total of 19 added characters, soon to be 20 with the season 17 release. The distribution of the characters is pretty interesting though.

- As said before, Miruko being added next season would bring the pro hero additions to 6, the grouping with the most added characters come next season.

- UA Students outside of 1A have had 5 additions, seeing the entire big 3, Monoma, and Shinsou added.

- The villains have had 5 additions so far, coming in a tied second with UA Students outside of 1A.

- Variant characters currently sit at 3, with the likelihood of more always plausible, both pulled from AJ or made up entirely.

- 1A sits at the bottom of the totem poll with only a single new character since launch, Tokoyami. Even if one were to distribute the variants to their given subclasses, 1A would still be at the bottom with only 2 additions.

Why?

To put it bluntly, 1A is a cheat code. With this subreddit, the general mindset one sees is that 1A are the "uninteresting" and "dead" releases, while characters like Stain, Miruko, Star and Stripe, etc are what players *really* want. This mindset may be true for a decent portion of the subreddit, but it couldn't be further from the truth, especially in Japan, where the game is marketed to.

When All's Justice was revealed, the main point of marketing, alongside that it was adapting the final battle, was that all of 1A was playable. It was the first thing they revealed and continuously brought up in interviews during the marketing season for the game. It was the major sell for the game, and that isn't just some random coincidence.

Weekly Shonen Jump polls are something, again during AJ marketing season, that Byking takes into account when planning their roster. Looking at the final WSJ poll, we see 7 of the 10 slots in the poll belong to 1A, with an additional 7 in places 11-30. Diving a bit deeper, Mineta, Mina, and Ojiro all places within the top 50 as well, leaving only 3 of 1A unable to make it in the top 50.

Let's look at another poll, the Best Hero poll, which we have an undisclosed reason to believe is also on Byking's radar. In Japan (the region they'll pay most attention to) 18 of 1A placed in the top 50, 12 of which in the top 25. To put it into a bit of perspective

- Mirio placed 23rd, below Sero at 22nd.

- Miruko placed 29th and Nagant placed 31st, both below Shouji at 27th.

- Twice placed 33rd, below Ojiro at 32nd.

- Overhaul placed 37th, below Aoyama at 36th.

- Gentle placed 42nd, below Hagakure at 39th.

- All For One placed 45th, below MINETA at 43rd

- Star and Stripe placed 49th, below Mina at 48th.

- Every character I listed placed below Jirou, at 16th

Merch is another aspect to look at, as it's made from supply and demand. Jirou has a 8x more catalogued merch in comparison to Miruko, who is often regarded the community's "most in demand" character. Even accounting for Jirou's 5 year headstart, she has an average 4x more merch yearly.

What all of this is trying to say is that, despite what a lot of people may believe, 1A are much much more popular than they are given credit for, especially in the region the game is marketed towards. If that's the case though, why have we only gotten a single member since launch?

My guess, is that they know these characters from 1A are heavily marketable. They know that their target audience is very much fans of them, and eager to see them added, so they gave a handful of surefire hits in their back pocket for release at any time. Season 15 is a great example of this. Tokoyami released just a week before All's Justice did. Any fears or worry that UR would lose its playerbase due to the new game could be squashed by releasing one of their trump card characters, and to great success if the Steam Charts are anything to go by, nearly cracking 10k concurrent on launch. Characters like Jirou, Sero, Shouji, etc may not seem like huge profitable characters to some of us, but they are, and saving them for times of need makes a *lot* of sense, and explains why characters like Kurogiri, Star and Stripe, Overhaul, the Big 3, etc have all been added to the game so quickly in comparison to them.

I think that, after the anniversary in September, we'll begin to see 1A characters a bit more frequently. The game will be entering it's 4th year of content (crazy to think it's been that long), and will want to keep it's momentum going, similar to Tokoyami's release at the start of this year.

Anyways this has been a certified Yap session, I just wanted to give my thoughts the 1A situation given talk about it, and specifically Jirou, has been on the rise lately. My prediction is that we'll be seeing at least 3 1A students in year 4 (Seasons 20-25).

This was the season ever, if I do say so myself. Felt pretty largely like nothing ever happens, with a dash of genuinely nothing ever happens. Wonder how much the no mods/Datamines contributed to it, cause largely felt like there wasn't much going on in the sub this season.

Here's hoping for a better s17

As of now, we can say with a decent amount of confidence that Spinner and Redestro will make up 2 of the 3 remaining DLC for the game thanks to the Datamines we have received. With that, we are left with a single slot left to round out the first and potentially last DLC season for the series. I'm sure everyone has a character they *want,* but alongside that who is your realistic prediction? (Note this DLC order isn't something set in stone or anything, just a mockup)

To address the giant sized elephant; Mt Lady was obviously planned for the game at some point. She has a playable character ID as well as an entire TUM quest line. The problem simply lies in where her character ID was located, snugly between the new 1A students and the new Pro Heroes. It is very likely that she was a character on the base roster that didn't make the cut, with the reason for that more than likely being her size and inability to work within the confines of the game. Giant characters can work in an arena fighter, as seen with stuff like Great Apes or Susanoo, but because something can work doesn't mean it always will, which seems to have been the case here. Her chances are never going to be zero, but I do not see it happening personally.

Smaller elephant; If Before Style is re-added, I think he'd end up a free DLC. Super doubt we end up paying for a character that's been in both previous games.

Recently there's been a lot of talk in terms of how unique someone like Nana would be if she were added to the game, so I went ahead and made a list of as many candidates as I could think of and listed how unique they'd be from the rest of the cast.

- 1st Tier: I generally think these are the characters who ultimately cannot be similar to existing ones. All 5 have such unique quirks that would make for kits that we've never seen and wouldn't ever see again.

- 2nd Tier: Characters that have a gimmick that largely steps away from the current roster, opening new doors to what can be done. Characters with transformations like Spinner, Ryukyu, or Redestro, characters with quirks that could interact with the environment like Mustard or Kinoko, etc.

- 3rd Tier: Characters with your sort of standard UR identity. They have some samey abilities like basic projectile alphas or dash punches, but still have some stuff that can be made unique. Juzo mud traps, Jirou recon, Midnight sleep gas, etc.

- 4th Tier: These characters can have most of their potential kit found in the game already, with maybe 1 unique element that's true to them. Mineta for example, had his bag largely stolen by AAM's freeze alpha, and now only really is unique in the possibility of deployable bounce pads, or Nana who generally has abilities that AM or Deku can do, but has a free flight mechanic that's not seen in game.

- 5th Tier: This is where the clones go. Anyone here is pretty much just a jumble of copied abilities from other existing characters, some even just being a copy of a singular character like Muscular or Miruko to Kirishima and Iida. Lots of "bind" characters are here, as we currently have like 7 or 8 characters that use some type of grapple ability in their kit, with most already just being repeats of one another.

- 6th Tier: Just characters that I don't see working in the game.

I can explain my thoughts on any individuals if anyone is curious, but thems my thoughts 🫡

Since it's Twice's birthday, I threw together a kit concept for him. 

Alpha: The ground version would work almost like Tokoyami mixed with Tech Dabi's, where the double charges forward with a some homing functions, before hitting the target. As it levels up, instead of a singular double, there are two, then three at lvl9. You could maybe have the aimed in version have all three doubles go to the same target, while the Unaimed version has them fan out. For the air alpha, it's kinda just a standard dive kick projectile, sending out the clones in the same 1-2-3 level pattern. 

Beta: Kinda hard to describe what I have in mind, but basically Twice has a double grab the end of his measuring tape as he swings it out like a fishing rod, hitting opponents. If he does the hold version, he'll grapple towards the opponent that's hit, spawning in a double on impact. Like the alpha, the double spawn would go from 1-2-3 with each level milestone. I'm undecided if he should be able to use the tap version as a grapple or not. I went with no, but I'm not committed.

Gamma: Obviously the star of the set is Sad Man's Parade. I think All's Justice adapted it the best way you can without literally just spawning 20 doubles at once. The ability would function off a meter, opposed to individual rounds. You use the ability and then unleash a continuous wave of doubles. It would have travel time but not too much, and would have exceptionally good range. I'd throw some YAFO gamma armor on it, given you're a complete sitting duck while using it. Additionally, to make the ability more than just a worse Tamaki laser, for each guard break dealt with the move, a double will spawn in. There's no limit, so if you manage a 6 break with it, you get your own little army. 

Tuning: I wanted to keep the theme of Card Duplication, but struggled to think of something. I decided on something similar, doubling the potency of Ability Card level ups, but made it a timer based on each KO. This might be pretty niche, but I couldn't think of anything else really.

Following that Miruko tease from the official account last night, I don't wanna risk a potential super early reveal and lose the chance to do this for s17.

Miruko as Rapid comes mainly from the current theory that each season this year will "double up" on one role. 14 was Tech, 15 was Assault, and 16 was Strike. This leaves Rapid and Support and we know she ain't a Support.

Aizawa also kinda falls into this. In terms of characters getting a Rapid Skill Set, he's probably the most likely character. Likewise, they've been covering year 1 characters lately, s12, 13, 15, and 16 all had year 1 character Skill Sets. Likewise likewise, the Leader Theory has him as one of the possible entries.

Mic also falls into the year 1 skill set pipeline. Additionally, we know Assault is pretty likely next seasons since there can't be a Strike or Tech Skill Set (since we had them this season) and we can't have a Support (since we'd need it in s18 for the double up theory). Between him and Twice, the last Year 1 characters, I think he's def more likely as Assault. Also like Aizawa, Mic is in the Leader Theory.

We know the reruns will consist of the s14 characters and s15 Skill Sets just through patterns. Assault Ochako will also be free in s19 so I could see them squeeze out one last rerun. Skins are just what I could come up with.

As many have seen, yesterday we learned one of the remaining three DLC characters to be none other than Redestro, along with what his PL ID was (pl225).

A while back (like, launch day) when we first learned of the IDs for characters, we found out that there was a strange gap among the new additions for the game. pl203->217 covers all of the new additions barring Hood, Monoma, Nagant, AFO Chaos, and Deku Rising. Hood was found with the OJ2 cast (possibly DLC that never happened) and both Deku and AFO are preorder bonuses found near the end of the IDs (pl249 & 250). Monoma and Nagant however aren't anything special, and aren't lumped in with the OJ2 cast. They are pl221 and pl222, three spaces after the last of the AJ cast, being FoD Dabi at pl217.

Why is this strange?

They happen to be lumped together with Spinner, Star and Stripe, and the recently found Redestro. Back when this theory was first made, we didn't know of Redestro so it really didn't have much evidence. Now however, we have a set of 5 characters, 1 of which confirmed DLC with the other two highly theorized as upcoming DLC, all broken off from the rest of the roster. The theory back then proposed that Monoma and Nagant were initially planned to be DLC picks for the game, as their roles in the story mode didn't require any fights at all (with Monoma not even getting a flashback one). I think with Redestro it makes this theory much stronger, as it would literally be the season pass all together in the files.

So what happened?

Your guess is as good as mine. I'm not sure what exactly made them change their mind about including Monoma and Nagant in the base roster, or just how early it occurred, but they were obviously moved, which opened up two of the 5 DLC slots. This is where Nana was obviously chosen to join the game as one of the 5. What I think strengthens this theory is Nana's placement in the files. Nana pl229. Rather than directly following Redestro, she skips three IDs, just like Monoma skipped three IDs after Dabi, signifying some form of difference between them. On top of this, Nana also has an NPC ID. While this theory as a whole has been debunked, she is an outlier between them, as if she wasn't originally intended to be playable.

So what does this mean?

If this theory is correct, which I'm personally in belief of, our initial DLC consisted of Monoma, Nagant, Spinner, Star, and Redestro. Monoma and Nagant were moved to the base roster for unknown reason, opening up two additional DLC slots. Nana was one of these choices, leaving one unknown slot left. This could honestly be anybody. Mt Lady was seemingly cut from the base roster, likely due to her inability to work in the setting, but it's possible they found a work around. Before Style Shigaraki still has some lingering nodes, and could be added however unlikely it is. There's also the possibility that Nana was specifically chosen because she already existed in game, and would be an easy call back for lines. This could mean an existing story NPC or even variant of an existing character like Iron Deku are possible.

Anyways, that's my Brainrot for today. I'm extremely excited for the future of the DLC atm.

With Nana confirmed as the second DLC for All's Justice, I think there's a good chance we'll see her show up in the future for Ultra Rumble.

Alpha: Pretty standard projectile alpha. I think making it a two round burst would help make it feel a bit more unique, and feel more akin to Assault All Might. I'd also give it the effect Rapid Hawks' gamma has where he can knock himself back if he holds the attack.

Beta: Sorta like Rapid Mirio's Alpha, but instead of just a button mash ability with 4 hits, you can time the attack right to increase the hits.

Gamma: The tap version would be a pretty simple AOE attack. The hold version would be almost like a Twice Beta, where the tornado moves around towards opponents. I like the idea of it being a percentage meter, so using the Hold version will cost like 70% opposed to 30% for the normal stationary one. This would work like Twice's Beta where only one is available at a time.

SpA: Free Flight for a set time. Pretty self explanatory. It wouldn't be crazy fast or anything, but be good for positioning. I also like the idea of her having a pickup revive like AM and Deku.

Tuning: It's kinda hard to really explain, but like, holding jump will allow you to walk airborne for a short duration before going on cooldown. If anyone plays overwatch, my mind for this one was Zenyatta's floaty perk.

Despite being a character many think won't ever happen, due to physical constraints, I think Hagakure is pretty likely to happen. The character obviously would need some pretty creative liberties taken, but there's def stuff that can be done.

The elephant in the room is actual body. While there are ways to go about it, I think the easiest would bd to make her a sort of pastel translucent similar to how she was in s8ep9, and then have a prismatic glow over the rest of her body. I included an image of an idea of what I mean, but obviously a 3D model would look way less awkward than a stock pose reference image with some added layers lol.

Alpha: For the alpha, AJ sets her up with a pretty simple beam attack. She reflects the sunlight off of her and fires it out at an enemy. I think making this be an attack similar to Ultron in Marvel Rivals, where the beam sticks for a few seconds before doing a burst would be a neat mechanic to separate her from other beamers.

Beta: So far, we don't really have any visual distortion abilities in the game outside of Brainwash, but the main effect is the slow. For Beta, I'd make the tap version be a short cone in front of her, that acts as a brief stun and short flash bang (like, it's gone by the time the stun ends) while the hold version would be a big AOE around her that has a charge up time, kinda like Tech AFO's Gamma, that flashes for like 3 seconds. Alongside this, after using the flash I'd have her gain the camo effect that Asui and Tamaki have, just to integrate invisiblity into her kit somewhere.

Gamma: This one is a little more complex of an ability. I'd make it a projectile absorption aleu Compress' Beta, but rather than firing out shots back at opponents, she would store the projectile to use as a self buff. Three projectiles could be stored at once. When a projectile is stored, you'd be able to use the held version of the attack. This would function similarly to Strike AFO's Gamma, giving you the option to use either your Alpha or Beta. Using Alpha will consume a charge and fire off a beam that ricochets and homes towards the target, also dealing additional damage. Using Beta would cause the tap flash to become a full AOE opposed to a cone. However if you don't use either Alpha or Beta I within a few seconds, or upon releasing Gamma, you'll do an AOE burst that cosumes all charges and deals more damage per charge.

Special Action: When using your special, you create a dome of refracted light around yourself. Any allies, enemies, civilians, loot, etc inside becomes invisible to anyone outside.

Tuning is pretty straight forward. Using a level up card will temporarily make you invisible, similar to Strike Hawks' Tuning. I think it would be interesting to see people try and utilize it in tricky ways as a niche Tuning, sometimes we need Niche tunings.

Finally for her Banner skin I just threw out a Kunoichi. Thought it was fitting, what with Konohagakure and all.