Tsathoggua/Strategy
(This page is for Tsathoggua's strategy guide. For the standard Tsathoggua page, click here.)
Overview
Tsathoggua is a quite decent damage soaker and zoner. With Amorphous Creature, he can keep annoying enemies busy trying to take him down while the rest of his team wipes out their allies (or does so himself if you give him a damage buff). He's able to heal himself if his HP reaches or is close to critical levels thanks to Elder Cynokrash's self-heal, and can slow down the enemy's Charge Skill thanks to his CP decrease. Because of this, Ruler, the way his Charge Skill works and the fact he can't do big amounts of damage by himself, Tsathoggua is a team player, and one that works especially well with units with skills on movement since none of his require this to activate. It's also very important to have someone in your team who can buff his defense or decrease the enemy team's damage, or both, to make him more durable, even more so in high level quests. Make sure he's the first one to hit who you're trying to distract so they'll focus him.
Space Traveler and King of the Dark Realm make him great to push slash and strike units to a safe distance in small maps, it situationally works against pierce units too. However, where the skill truly shines is in 3x6 maps, where the aforementioned attack types can be left completely defenseless. He's effective against all three, in all situations, if matched with an ally that can reliably apply Fear or a similar status effect to his opponents (unless you are using his 3-stars, which won't be able to damage pierce units without being damaged back). While not completely effective against ranged and magic attack types, pushing them away can minimize damage against your team. It's recommended to have him attack as late as possible since, sometimes, he can blow enemy units back at unfortunate times.
Another thing to take note of is that Immobile is a blessing in disguise. It doesn't really impede Tsathoggua greatly thanks to him not needing to move to activate his skills, but it also helps him get his CP back up quickly to get heals and deal greater damage. While not vital, it's a good idea to have another CP battery in the team besides him to get that first ult as soon as possible and then keep the self-heals rolling in.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that while his 3-stars has many of the capabilities of his 5-stars, the latter is better due to better range, King of the Dark Realm and higher stats that compensate for the change in the damage multiplier and allow him to survive longer.
Highlights
Role: Zoning Tank
Pros
+ Great self-sustaining thanks to Amorphous Creature, Elder Cynokrash and Gourmet.
+ Doesn't need (or want) to move to activate any of his skills.
+ Very effective zoning at 3x6 and 5x6 maps.
Cons
- Very reliant on allies, requires defense buffs and/or damage debuffers to be effective at high level quests.
- While it helps his sustaining, Gourmet is ultimately a bad skill.
- Blow back can put enemies at advantage if misused.
- His 5-stars is better, but this means you need to deal with the huge team cost if you want to make the most of him.
Checks and Counters
Skill sealing units
Units like Hougen, Fenrir, Hakumen, Benten and some mobs from special quests can leave Tsathoggua defenseless if they apply Bind or similar skill sealing effects on him just as Regeneration wears off or before he buffs himself. However, since Bind lasts just as long as Regeneration, this can be somewhat mitigated by having Tsathoggua proc Amorphous Creature before risking getting debuffed by the aforementioned units.
Omen units
The most dangerous effect for Tsathoggua. By instantly reducing his HP to 1, Tsathoggua becomes defenseless if he didn't activate Amorphous Creature previously, since from there on any damage he receives will result lethal. The only ways to prevent this is by going into next phase and getting the Gourmet heal (which, let's be honest, it's the worst case scenario), charging Elder Cynokrash or by having a reliable healer in your team. Be extremely wary of units with Harbinger of Death and Chernobog's Night on Bald Mountain. If you are against any of these units it's recommended to have a good skill sealer or a unit able to Cleanse. If you are feeling gimmicky you can use Zaou's Ajna Chakra as countermeasure.
Blow backs on big maps
This is an admittedly ironic weakness of Tsathoggua. If he were to use his Charge Skill and then got blown back multiple times in a 3x6 or bigger map, he'd get trapped down there without a way to get back up to the action on his own. Having units with Swimmer is important on these maps when facing this kind of enemies, but it's especially important for Tsathoggua to prevent this from happening.
Teambuilding Options
This section consists of user-submitted builds that may not necessarily be viable for high level quests.
The Rod's Flavor Build
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An overall well-rounded team for Tsathoggua. Arslan is undoubtedly the best unit you can pair with him in any team. His Oil Painter and Kingly give both more durability and attack to his team, besides being pretty beefy himself, and he can apply them constantly since he's the only one that needs to move unless he gets feared or skill sealed, in which case Jamba comes into play with Destroyer of Evil. When the medicine student isn't moving, he can buff Arslan, and if possible Benten, with Spinner of Fate. Benten's Bind will help with those pesky counters while making the team even more durable by reducing the enemies' damage with it and her Charge Skill, not to mention removing annoying buffs with Flow Changer. Protag and Evils are there since additional Cleanse and debuffs might be needed in worst case scenarios, since Jamba and Benten usually are in the most vulnerable positions in this comp.
The Angry Pillow Build
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A more offensive rendition of the team above. Despite lacking proper skill seal, Shirou is better against movement reliant units and at decreasing CP thanks to Embodiment of Terror, not to mention he synergizes better with Tsathoggua's Space Traveler and King of the Dark Realm and can sort of be a CP battery. Since he can cover Jamba's cleansing duties, if you don't feel like you absolutely need Insight, you can switch Jamba out for a damage dealer like Ibaraki, Melusine, Shuten or Kotarou and wreck havoc. Snow can be a substitute for Arslan, but I don't really recommend him over Arslan in this particular team unless you use Melusine, but so many Water units would make the team vulnerable to Wood units. However...
The Good Gods, Bad Gods Build
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Now this is very costy team, one 5-stars will need to be a support and you'll need to be at least rank 56 to fit all these units. You can use Tsathoggua or Ophion's 3-stars version (Tsath would be better since 5-stars Ophion has so much more to offer over his 3-stars), but not Snow since this team relies on his Embodiment of the Trikaya skill. The idea behind this team is to create a formation that's both safe and allows for CS spam to compensate the loss of damage buffs. Put Snow above in the middle, Shirou behind him and Ophion and Tsathoggua to Shirou's sides. Ophion and Tsath can both tank and defend their respective sides, Snow attacks frontliners while buffing his team's defense, Shirou can apply Cleanse to the entire team from his position or move up to apply debuffs to enemies above if needed (make sure he attacks early since he needs alive targets to proc his Cleanse). This way Ophion will apply Regeneration too everyone but Tsathoggua, who doesn't need it, and you can also make Snow move him to the middle if you need his Dragon Successor to deal with enemies there. Overall this team is about maxing your capacity to hold your position and dealing damage with CS. Don't be afraid of breaking the position a bit if you need to, though.
The BFF Build
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Ryouta and Chouji can cover healing and defense buffing duties, while Hanuman is a decent CP battery. Fill the rest of the slots with slimes, although beware of the yellow one as Tsathoggua might try eating it thinking it's made of honey. Not recommended for serious or high level quests, just for fun with friends.
You can also check out this neat Lovecraft-themed build at Nyarla's strategy page.