Blue Archive guide – HOD February 2023

Get your Yellow students ready because Blue Archive is bringing back HOD in their latest Total Assault Raid!

Unlike most bosses, Crowd Control is the key to winning against HOD, here’s what you need to know about clearing this raid with the students available as of February 2023.

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Core Mechanics

HOD is a heavy armored boss, meaning he takes extra damage from Piercing attacks similar to Binah, or Chesed.

Unlike Chesed, the goal here is Crowd Control and single target damage rather than clearing waves of minions.

HOD has three unique aspects that define how to approach his fight.

First, HOD summons pillars that reduce the EX Cost Recovery of units in the field around them. These pillars also cause turrets in the environment to shoot students instead of HOD.

Second, HOD and his Pillars have great Crit Resistance. This means single target strategies focusing on stacking crit aren’t as effective.

Lastly, HOD and his Pillars take additional damage for 30s after being Staggered. Unlike some bosses who only get staggered by damage, HOD gets staggered when hit by affects that would CC (Crowd Control) him. Even if he’s directly immune to the effects. Example: If you hit HOD with a Taunt ability, he won’t be taunted, but the taunt will increase his Dizzy Meter.

So high single target damage, characters with targetable EX skills to help clear Pillars, and Crowd Control are the keys to victory against HOD.

Our Team Suggestion

Strikers

Kasuga Tsubaki: Normally tanks are a DPS loss in raids, but Tsubaki makes her presence known against HOD. HOD typically targets the closest unit and Tsubaki is one of the tankiest girls out there. Her Taunt EX skill also has a long duration, making it highly effective for raising HOD’s dizzy meter. NOTE: The Insane version of HOD this time does Mystic damage which Tsubaki is weak to. Tsubaki is only ideal up to Extreme.

Nemugaki Fubuki: Now it’s time for a return on your investment if you participated in the Valentine’s event. Fubuki is a straightforward student whose EX ability is just a long-lasting Attack buff. The reason she’s here is one of her passives. The last three shots in her clip do additional damage and stun the target. This gives her one of the few passive stuns in the game and allows her to raise the Dizzy meter even without spending precious EX meter.

Konuri Maki: Tsubaki and Fubuki should have you covered in CC for your Strikers (we’ll add more CC with Special students). Maki is one of the strongest damage dealers for Piercing targets, and that’s true even when she’s not in her ideal environment. Maki can help capitalize on the damage window after HOD has been Stunned.

Shiromi Irori: Irori is another damage dealer alongside Maki. Her EX ability does damage in a cone behind the initial target, making her ideal for popping Pillars and also trying to squeeze some damage onto HOD at the same time with the cone.

Special

Kagami Chihiro: If there was a Queen of HOD raids, it’d be Chihiro. Her passive increases ally CC power, making Tsubaki’s Taunt and Fubuki’s Stun even stronger. However even without that, her EX ability is one of the best HOD killers in the game. She does a mediocre amount of damage to a single target, but inflicts an absolutely massive stun against Yellow armored targets. She’s the reason we can fit more DPS onto our Strikers without adding even more CC.

Kakudate Karin: Karin is just as good in HOD as she is in Chesed (frankly she’s good in all the Yellow raids). Use her EX ability to help clear Pillars quickly, or to stack massive damage on HOD during his damage window. If you’re not confident in being able to do your damage fast enough, you can replace her with a healer.

Substitutions

Takanashi Hoshino (Replaces Tsubaki): Hoshino is arguably better than Tsubaki for this raid. But only if you have her EX skill leveled up. Hoshino’s EX skill gains a small stun effect at levels 3, 4, and 5. If you can’t get her that far, you’re better off with Tsubaki and staying away from Insane difficulty.

Murokasa Akane (Replaces Irori or Maki): Akane has a cheap EX ability that does damage but more importantly lowers defense. This allows her to help clear Pillars or capitalize even harder on HOD’s damage window by debuffing his defense.

Saiba Midori (Replaces Irori or Maki): A good choice if you have a solid tank but just need a little bit of healing to get through some tough spots. Midori’s a damage dealer but her one passive has her toss out a heal every 25 seconds.

Asahina Pina (Replaces Irori or Maki): Pina is not a unit most people should have leveled (unless she’s your waifu) but just in case this raid is one of the only few places Pina can shine as a damage dealer.

Shiraishi Utaha (Replaces Karin): Utaha is an eccentric choice but she’s a more defensive option than Karin. Utaha’s EX ability places a damage dealing turret that can give some great value. But it can also be used defensively, HOD tends to aim his attacks at the closest unit. This means you can place the turret in a corner close to HOD and he’ll shoot his AoE abilities away from your actual team.

Otose Kotama (Replaces Karin): A more offensive option to replace Karin. She mainly just buffs your Striker team to do damage even harder. Kotama is a good all around unit for offense if you’re looking for someone to invest in.