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In my experience? Bluntly and to the point? Overwhelmingly powerful. It is a hopeless, futile struggle to attempt to win against her. You cannot stop her.
Stats:
To start off, her stats are anything but weak, which is despite what most people would love to argue. Why, you may ask? Her stats (-1/-1/-1 with 7HP) make her very tanky and give her a innate advantadge against Robo-Ball and Chicken, giving her an equal defensive power to their offensive power, and those two make up 2/3 of the total enemies encountered on NPC Tiles.
With 7HP, she can realistically take up to 6 hits from such occurances before she is KO'd. Likewise, a lot of the cast has -1 to 0 ATK and does not inherently focus on offensive capabilities, with "Bullies" as they are called (think: Characters like Yuki, Marc, Tomomo, etc) being only a minority in the cast.
HP Tanks:
Lets talk "HP Tanks" a little here because it is mighty relevant to Poppo. Like mentioned above, they have a innate advantadge vs a lot of the cast and NPCs due to having equal defensive power to their offensive power, but superior HP to soak up more damage.
Now, "HP Tanks" also benefit of something else, less RNG reliance. Someone can roll a 7, they a 1, and they will still live. Compare: Peat vs Poppo. They both get attacked, the enemy in both scenarios rolls a 7, they both roll minimum DEF.
Now, lets say they both use Quick Restoration: Peat would die and the effect is null. Poppo would be barely alive after defending, and restore back all her HP. Now lets say they used Pudding afterwards instead: Peat would die and not be able to use Pudding. Poppo would be able to.
The point I'm trying to make here is, they have more leeway to make up for their bad luck with strategic use of cards. Likewise, should a enemy player utilize a temporary battle boost like another Peat using Blue Crow, or a QP in Hyper Mode, they have increased chance of failure against "HP Tanks" because all they need to do is survive and heal or use some other card to escape.
Also, "HP Tanks" benefit more from cards then regular units typically do. If we compare, say, QP and Poppo, both using Rbits. QP's +2 DEF and 5HP makes less of a difference then Poppo's 7HP and +1 DEF a they both take 1 damage, and taking 1/5 damage is considerably more then taking 1/7 damage.
They are also able to use cards like Reverse Attribute Field or Serious Battle to their maximum power, and needless to say, there's more to gain out of healing 6/7 via Pudding then 4/5.
Ah well, point is, HP tanks are anything but weak, defense-wise, and have more leeway to counteract bad luck or enemies' special abilities with their cards.
Hyper:
This is the part a lot of people love or hate about Poppo. In my experience, it is too powerful. Lets go through this piece by piece.
First off, it ignores the Stats/Battle mechanics, and does not allow the user to play any card to counteract or mitigate it's effect in any capacity. For many characters, their stats or cards are the only way they can combat certain units' counter-strategies against them, and thus the only way they can realistically win.
"Tanks" are especially hit hard by this, as they lack the offensive capability and lack additional means of gathering stars through combat/oppertunities or passive means. Poppo can just Ubi them and walk off unscathed. Only "Bullies" tend to have a chance at retaliation. Keyword being "chance". See below.
Lets look at the fact it can target anyone, anytime, anywhere (well, except when they're KO'd, using Stealth On or Special Stage). This is a highly exploitable element. You would think you can strike back at Poppo after she Ubi's you, correct? Wrong, sadly.
Consider:
-Poppo can Ubi targets who lack the capacity to strike back (low ATK, low HP, no cards, etc).
-Poppo can Ubi someone who's infront of a dead-end with a Warp-Move tile, ensuring her escape.
-Poppo can Ubi someone infront of her home and Norma without any chance of retaliation, often winning the game.
-Poppo can exploit events such as Backtrack or Sprint to pick a target who has by now already become unable to retaliate against her as she becomes unreachable.
-Poppo can bide her time, strike when the target is level 5, and keep cards on hand to avoid or minimize retaliation.
A common trend you'll see everyone "enjoy" is Poppo using Ubi when at 150> stars and level 5, on someone near her home, and win before anyone has ever had the chance to stop her.
With all these factors, it's safe to say she is too powerful. Only question is, why has she not been nerfed yet? Do the developers insist on keeping the "Poppo always wins" meme alive?
Suggestion(s):
-My main suggestion remains: "Steal 5 x [enemy level] Stars and warp to their tile. You cannot norma this Chapter." A simple reduction, which may likely not prove to be enough, but atleast it's some leeway to the other units.
Though some other ideas float about too, like...
-Stealing +10 stars for every point of positive ATK, and reducing it by -10 for each point of positive DEF.
-Giving Poppo -3 to -5 MOV in addition to not being able to norma that Chapter after using Ubi.
-Taking away the free-target element of Ubi and making it "Nearest player" or random.
So, that's my in-depth feedback on the most controversial character in the game. Say what you like, but just keep it civil and avoid personal attacks and whatnot.
That being said, totally OP when the bots use her.
Ryuu's probably one of the few people that are constantly replying to CarThief tbf
With the added recognition that disingenuous passive-aggressive snipes in recent posts like "hostility and resistance from the various forumgoers for often no apparant reasoning or sensible counter-argument" should be considered as failing to be civil, sure.
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Civil response to the idea that Poppo needs to be ruined:
Poppo's fine. She possesses both one of the game's best hypers and one of the game's worst stat lines. Reducing the hyper of the game's original hyper-reliant character to being average would make her a blend of poor stat line and average hyper, and that doesn't emerge as a balanced character.
The classic criticism that she can pop Ubiquitous at norma 5 and 150 stars to 1-roll to her home for a free win while everyone else is still norma 3 is a comical verbal exaggeration of the likelihood of that scenario. For one thing most of the time most of her opponents won't be under 3 spaces away from her home point. For another, if they see Poppo in a winning position they can often choose to avoid landing there.
But more important than those, she's Marie Poppo. Almost everyone should be bullying her. She fears encounter panels, and where many of the route splits in this game force a choice between an encounter panel and a drop panel Poppo players will often choose the latter while many would take the fight and win or evade, reducing her star gain through a game.
Lastly, with no passives she has one viable play: Try to hide from everyone and Ubiquitous only when it's a sure thing. This means she's predictable and hugely vulnerable to attacks and hand disruption, covered by Assault, Bad Pudding, Brutal Prank, Dash, Dark Side of Business, Exchange, Flamethrower, Gentleman's Battle, Invasion, Mimic, Gift Exchange, Out of Ammo, Party Time, Piyopiyo Procession, Present Thief, Scrambled Eve, Sealed Guardian, Sealed Memories, Tragedy in the Dead of Night, Treasure Thief and Unpaid Work.
For Poppo, getting to 150 stars may be comparable to other characters getting 200. If Poppo is in a winning position, let alone in first place at all, it means she either got revoltingly good luck with the dice rolls (maybe sniping a boss) or the play styles of her opponents, or the other players were playing badly by ignoring her for too long which is the greatest gift you can give a Poppo player.
Honestly the only question I feel that'd be worth asking is whether Ubiquitous should be adjusted from being a Boost card to an Event card. Thematically it should be a Boost as Event cards affect the board or everyone (if sometimes conditionally) and don't let you choose a target (e.g. Mimic is a Boost card). But if it was an Event card it would also be vulnerable to Play of the Gods for a very hard counter to Poppo. For me that'd probably be too harsh though.
"Above Average Stats": Yeah I'd have to disagree. Poppo has as much if not more survivability as the likes of Aru, Hime, and most other -1 DEF units with 5 or more HP.
And I wouldn't go attributing "net values" and basing it on how good or bad a character is. It's a remarkably flawed system as is when it does not take into account what stat, nor gives them different values (ATK is worth a lot more then DEF or EVD, and DEF is generally superior to EVD, whereas with how low-value EVD is, you see many characters with +1 or +2 of it). Starbo would techincally be a +1, yet no-one would ever tell you she is strong, with how crippling her passive is.
Though if you insist, Poppo has to face NPCs whose net-value is typically -4 (3HP, and two stats in the -1 range), which sure cannot top hers (-1). So, that's why I wouldn't put any value into the "net value" system, myself.
And as someone who mainly plays "gatherers" who tend to be on the fragile side, like Merchant, Mira or Tomato&Mimyuu, etc, I would not qualify surviving as being too hard. So Poppo's stats should not be a hinderance to surviving if one plays it smart. (My trick? I avoid battle/damage as much as I can within reason.)
"Enemy Hypers": I'm adraid the hypers you're referring to are of maybe 5 out of what, 70+ characters now? Many characters do not have any "tactical nuke" such as boosting their ATK, rolling double dice, or otherwise being able to KO Poppo and steal her stars.
The majority of the characters also lack the tankiness or offensive power to effectively bully Poppo or retaliate against her hyper (by being able to KO her in one or two battles).
I'm not sure who you're playing with/as, but it is easy to make the mistake to assume Poppo is easy to counter if all you play is the small pool of characters who are able to retaliate against her. Try to look at it from the view of the gatherer/tank characters, who do not have any recourse to stop Poppo.
"Statline": Well, I'm not explaining this twice, what I said to the other guy, is the same thing to say here.
Her statline is not weak. I have survived matches with far, far worse. Take for example, Mimyuu or Robo-Ball. What do I do? Avoid battle/boss tiles, deck optimally to heal/defend, space myself from any would-be bully going after my stars by going faster or slower routes as needed, choose routes with less encounters/bosses, etc, it's frankly an art I've perfected over the years. Heck, feel free to look at my game stats if you need proof. I think my wins are above-average for my level.
"Ubi-winning": No this sadly happens a fair bit. Granted one part is true, it's tricky to one-turn it. Regardless, if she attempts this and fails, she is best maybe 1-2 turns away from her home.
That's only one or two turns other players have to stop her. Not a lot of time to stop a bulky 7HP character who likely at that point has Rbits/RAF/Pudding/QR ready for use. Only a very rare few - like Suguri - could potentially one-shot her.
I believe the point still stands, there's little to nothing you could do about this if Poppo Ubi's to someone near her home at level 5. She has likely calculated that the victim of Ubi does not have the capacity to KO her. Gotta remember, Ubi can be activated anytime on anyone, she can exploit any field event or circumstance in her favour with it.
Also, I have to debunk the "just avoid her home" part. Because just, no. Many maps act like a race track, you pass by players homes as you make your way back to yours, sometimes straight over it, sometimes you merely get close. It's actually hard to think of a map that lets you avoid it entirely.
"Everyone should be bullying her": Well, you're not wrong about that, that they should, but many can't due to their 0 or -1 ATK and/or less then stellar statline that is poor at surviving prolonged combat. A QP could chase Poppo, but they both have pretty equal chances of killing eachother, and many units have worse survivability then QP.
The fact you say everyone should bully her just speaks volumes of Ubi's power. "Quick, it's the ultra-powerful boss! Attack it with all you got or we're doomed!" Many people are ignorant of Ubi's power and refuse to attack her, though. You cannot justify a hyper this powerful by expecting players to act like that, sadly.
"Viable play": I'd have to disagree on both points. Firstly, she can roam about fine as a passive unit if the other lack the statline or ability otherwise to oppose her, and as said many players are just ignorant of her abilities and the threat she truly poses.
Secondly, a lot of the card disruption tactics mentioned just won't work.
-Bringing Trap Cards isn't going to reliably work, you don't know who'll step on em, or when, and they may heavily backfire on you.
-Many characters themselves are card and/or hyper-reliant, and would rather not put their own abilities and chance of winning at risk. Even neutral units won't deck all that much (if any at all) disruption cards.
-Some of these disruption cards are double-edged swords. Mimic and Gift Exchange come to mind, seeing as someone will duplicate/be given a Ubi, and if it isn't you, you're in for a rough ride.
-You cannot tell who your opponent will be in advance, so you cannot prepare these cards for Poppo, nor can you "counter-pick" a more suitable character.
The fact card disruption is mentioned implies you're aware this is one of the few ways to stop Poppo. After all, what else can you do if she is secluded and evasive, hard to kill, and holds that much power in her hands?
Characters like Suguri or even Sora rely on RNG (only somewhat in the latter case) and stats, and the battle system. Since Ubi bypasses RNG, stats, gameplay/battle mechanics for a instant steal effect, we have little recourse to stop her and must bully her to stand a chance. Not what I'd call a "weak" character. Neither in stats or hyper.
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Edit: Overall, it seems people treat Poppo as if we're still 3-4 years earlier or whatever when we hardly had Kyosuke as fresh DLC. When everything could be balanced by the abilities of the base-game units, expecting the likes of Sora or Suguri to counter the likes of Ubi.
But we're beyond that. We went from whatever that amount to a whopping 70+ characters now. Most DLC units rely on below-average offensive power to wield some other gimmick. Card disruption has lowered in use drastically as more useful cards appeared and units became more reliant on cards.
Maybe back then it was "fair", but now it sure as hell isn't. It seems about time the cast gets another look at their abilities and some stuff gets nerfed and buffed to accomodate for the modern gameplay meta.
Aru can wear Poppo down on her own. Fernet can hit her with out-of-battle damage beforehand with her hyper or just mimic Ubiquitous and use it on Poppo (the latter can be used by anyone with subpar hyper). Cook with her hyper can keep the pressure on Poppo since you can't outrun someone with 2 dice. Even average characters like QP or Lulu on their raw stats can handle Poppo just fine. Since luck is a major factor in OJ, I don't see any reason to blame it all on Poppo when the game just don't like you and make all your attack against her weak or miss. And on top of that, Poppo herself is designed to be good at gathering stars since she can't go for wins unless she gets some lucky kills early on.
Aside from her HP, her stats IS really weak. With -1 to ATK, she can't do okay damage. With -1 to DEF, she takes more damage on average. And with -1 to EVD, she can't handle small scratches like evasive characters (or even characters with 0 EVD) do. In practical, for characters with 0 or lower ATK, it's easier to kill Poppo than killing Aru. Not to mention that Poppo is the only character that has -1 to everything aside from Mixpo.
These two only lose 1/4 stars when KO'd, Poppo loses 1/2, let alone that she doesn't even revive as fast as those two. Use better examples next time.
You don't underestimate the power of delaying something for just 1 turn. Anything can happen and turn the tide.
Same can be said for any character that is 2 steps away from their own home and winning and has a full hand of strong defensive cards ready to deny any possible attacks, or under the effect of Accelerator/Extraordinary Specs/whatever (hyper) cards that denies battle. Why picking solely on Poppo?
Face it, most evasive character can handle Poppo in battle with relative ease. It might take longer for them to kill Poppo because they don't pack enough attack power like bullies do, as well as Poppo's high HP. But they barely take any scratches from Poppo. If you still die to someone with -1 ATK when you have +4 EVD, blame that on your bad luck instead.
They don't know because they are either new players that have yet to learn more about OJ and dive deeper into Normal Mode strategies, or casual players that just play for fun and don't really care about winning or losing. Any player that has some game sense will know that Poppo is always the prime target when present on the field, and will actively target her whenever possible.
Have anyone ever said that Poppo is weak and even asked for a buff for Poppo? No. In fact, most of us agree that Poppo is a strong character, but gameplay-wise, she's nowhere near to be considered OP or busted.
Why is +atk generally so... biased against? It's something I've noticed while looking through the wiki and it makes me wonder just what atk does that makes it so highly disliked.
I get that +atk makes battles "easier" but its just something i've noticed. i'd expect some level of bias because it's a good stat, but not to the extent that exists within the game. in boss cards, in shop prices, in co-op's roles... Is it just not allowed to be equal without a downside?
we also don't get any raw bullies anymore, either. so far the characters added have been either stargen tanks (Halena, Fernet Noble), have some sort of gimmick about them (Lone Rider, Merchant) that changes their playstyle depending on the circumstance, have an evasion focus that is cool (Hime Moonlight, Cook), and that's about it. the last bully, if you want to count her as one due to her switching gimmick, was Yuuki (2019). otherwise, it's either Tomomo Casual's Sweet Eater transformation (2017), or Star Breaker as the last static +2 atk character, all the way back in 2016.
1. Allowing manual switching between Mimyuu/Tomato at the cost of going KO or losing next turn
2. Allowing switching of Yuuki's stats during battle to Odd/Even stats per battle at the cost of 1 HP (Can't use if at 1 HP)/skipping the next turn in which the stats of that chapter (Odd/Even) was used for that battle.
3. For Tsih, can hold one extra card but only a gift card. This way she is able to still use regular cards instead of having to throw away gift-cards that are useful like say 3 Red Bean Ice Cream or 3 Red & Blue (Co-Op mode)
4. Allow Mei to use (card level X 2 Stars) to discard a card without using it manually to help get Red & Blue instead of using expensive cards just to get rid of them like cards that cost 30+ (Hypers and level 4 cards)
5. Nico has the ability to either copy another player's hyper to transform her Miracle Walker's cards into or random hypers as usual. This way, if there is another character who's hyper is actually useful, her Hyper Miracle Walker acts as a Mimic and turns all her cards into that character's hyper with Miracle Walker itself being discarded because it wasn't turned into a Hyper via random hypers
Also, I feel the argument that popo does well against certain characters is kind of bizarre. You're entirely right, Popo does better against certain characters, but so do all of the other characters. Put Repa in a match with only characters that have -1 attack and she could run circles around them. Put Tomomo on a map with only squishy characters (or anything in singleplayer) and she runs everyone over. Put popo in a game of only tanks and she will win just by getting stars faster than all the other tanks. I agree she does match up pretty well against many characters. She also happens to get used for target practice by many other characters.
-Well, higher HP is indeed a higher margin for error, AKA more leeway to deal with bad RNG if you got just the card for it. And the rest I already said before, needless to say, in skilled hands, a "HP Tank" is harder to kill then your average gatherer, though easier to kill then a proper +2 DEF Tank.
But if we're going to just focus on HP and DEF, then 7HP and -1 DEF is more or less equal-ish to 5 (or 4-and-a-half) HP and 0 DEF. So there's that QP-level of sturdiness when defending.
And her EVD may be -1 and render it hard to avoid scratch-damage, but seeing as the majority of foes she faces has -1 to 0 ATK, her HP will let her tank the hits and give her time to heal/escape/whatever. That or she could roll a lucky 5 and kill someone. Or that's been my observations and experiences anyway.
Also, EVD-reliant characters in my experience just... Have problems unrelated to Poppo. Suguri's a good example. She dies. A lot. Now, fortunately, she is designed to have a "catch-up" style hyper, take down whomever's rich/in the lead, and try again.
And while +2 (or more) EVD characters do well against Poppo, they are a minority (more details in a later argument).
-Can't say I can agree much with this one. Aru can dodge a lot and has HP to tank high rolls with, and Cook can dodge but gets worn out fast, but don't expect much out of the rest. Mimic is a double-edged sword, someone else can draw and get a Ubi instead. Then you got two "Poppos" to deal with.
-Poppo having -1 ATK doesn't bother her, with how Ubi is her big money-maker and game-winner, and beyond Ubi she just acts as your average gatherer unit. Having -1 DEF is made up by her bloated 7 HP. Having -1 EVD is also made up by her HP. Tanks (units with +2 or more DEF) often also have -1 EVD or at best 0. They use their DEF, Poppo uses her HP, instead, but same result.
Granted, ignoring her ATK, X/-1/-1 and 7 HP is a slight bit meh, but not so weak it validates the current power of Ubi. Besides that, I just consider her to be akin to QP in terms of survivability stat-wise.
-Yeah OK Mimyuu and Robo-Ball are terrible examples when including their loss ratio. Hm... Ceoreparque, perhaps? Or Nico? I sometimes play Nico, not great stats, but I can make it work survival-wise (lets just pretend in this scenario her EVD is 0, +1 EVD is ineffectual anyway).
Nico's basically what ya get when you translate Poppo's stats to neutral and compensate her HP (4HP 0/0/0). Though Poppo still does better survival-wise because of more anti-RNG leeway against big hits, many enemies having -1 ATK, etc.
-I assume you're referring to Hime's hyper? Eh. To make use of those 1-2 turns, you need a LOT of firepower, and you need the ability to challange Poppo NOW. Most characters do not posses those resources or abilities, even less have means to strike down Poppo across the board (like Islay/Seagull).
-Poppo, actually. Poppo can stop someone in that position. Her hyper ignores Battle Mechanics and by extension, the unit's stats, it ignores their cards as they cannot counter-play it with any of their cards.
Islay/Seagull with a hyper+battle card are also powerful contenders (stoppable w/ RAF/Shield-Counter/etc though). Beyond that, it'd require someone with a lot of firepower to be conveniently nearby (like Suguri, or +1 units with Hyper Accel).
This brings up another issue with Poppo. In order to get to such proximity of one's home to be able to win, they have to get there first. Traverse many obstacles like Warps, Drop and Battle/Boss Tiles, other players who WILL definitely make an attempt to kill you, and so on.
But Poppo? Ubi just bypasses that, she doesn't even need to set a marker like Mira. Well, assuming her victim is unprepared to defeat her, which it will be, seeing as Poppo can choose what time is best to activate Ubi.
-Hm, +2 EVD units do have a innate advantadge against -1 ATK, yes. Their minimum roll to do damage against +2 EVD has to be a 4. So that's only 2/6 odds of landing a blow for the attacker, and with a attack total (after deduction) of 3, the evader has only 1/6 chance to fail and take damage with +2 EVD. That advantadge however, becomes considerably less vs +1 EVD units, needing a 3 (a straight 3/6 chance or otherwise known as 50/50 odds) to be able to hit.
Unfortunate part is, +2 EVD units are pretty rare, and most still succumb to a lucky 4 or 5. And with Poppo's bulk, the odds of losing increase more and more for the evasive unit, so if they also have 0 or less ATK, they may very well lose.
Ultimately, I dunno, they're supposed to work on paper, but it's not that great from what I've seen. Kinda works, but not as well as you'd like. And Ubi still acts as a crutch if Poppo does have problems against them.
-I suppose that is the definition of ignorance, yes; to be unknowing of something. That said, those who know may not have much of a option to attack her. Many units lack the firepower and/or sustainability to be effective, or do not have the time as units drift apart due to the random nature of MOV rolls, events, warp tiles, etc. Or if the other one decides to flee.
-Poppo is litterally the definitition of overpowered. Many people did complain, especially if she dominated a match with 2-3 Ubi's or even just held onto one and used it at a critical moment.
All because there's nothing we could do to stop her from using it. Couldn't kill her (too tanky), couldn't stop it from being played (card-disruption is ineffective, risky to bring for many, and can't predict we'll fight Poppo and pre-emptively bring it), couldn't use our stats or cards or the movement or battle RNG to stop it... It's kinda hopeless, man.
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This part is unrelated to any argument but really, consider the power of being able to avoid or ignore RNG, stats, cards, etc. These are the only lifelines available to many units, their only means to win or defend themselves. This is why I object to so many cards that serve this purpose.
Bypassing RNG also makes these cards extremely exploitable and problematic to balance out. Though I think I'll refrain from throwing out an entire essay about Specs, Inferno and the likes for now. Just this whole Ubi thing is filling pages.
(But I must say, it was HELL to deal with Inferno on Lone Rider's stage. Never seen someone get kicked that fast post-match. I don't blame my friend, it was awful to deal with.)
I'm rambling a bit now but hopefully there where some points to agree on.
I also enjoy a good bout of Tomato & Mimyuu (I played them a LOT, pity the records on them got wiped globally, they where like #3 on my most-played or so), but I never found much value in their Gift element of their hyper. Like you said, it's easy suicides for enemies, it sucks for Mimyuu if she draws it and dies because you want Mimyuu to be your meatshield (1/4 loss ratio), and it's a whopping 20 stars!!
Mira works, though, somewhat. If Poppo doesn't lucky-5-roll them to death. And not sure what the argument is with Tanks and Poppo, but yeah both are pretty tanky and have to deal with low but frequent scratch-damage. Only difference there is Poppo has more issues with Boss tiles. Hm...
Eh, -1/-1/-1 might look bad, but with 7HP she may as well be a 4-to-5 HP QP instead. Or something like Ceo or Nico. It translates to roughly that, though her "HP Tank" nature does let her tank more hits from -1 ATK units who fill 2/3 of the NPC roster, so it's a wee bit more tanky then QP at times.
Definitely doesn't warrant Ubi's power in my opinion, though. If anything I'd argue for that powerful of a hyper, she needs 5 HP and -1/-1/-1 to compensate.
Counter-picks do exist, yeah. Sherry just "loves" dealing with Castle, Cook Hime(v2), Aru or the likes can run circles around -1 ATK units, Bullies do poorly against Tanks, and so on... But Poppo goes beyond all that. She counters just about anything but +2 ATK bullies, all because of Ubi.
-Gatherers? Ubi em, they can't stop you.
-Tanks? Looks like free Stars to me.
-Bullies? Well, if they're near her home and she's level 5, or if she has some powerful cards, etc...
Well, better argument, actually: Consider how Ubi straight up ignores the Stats and Cards of a player, bypasses the Battle mechanic, and instantly with 100% succes steals 10 x [level] stars. To a Tank this is devastating as their DEF was useless, and in many other cases a character's special abilities where straight up ignored/bypassed by Ubi.
In effect, by ignoring anyone's defensive mechanics, Ubi just counters everything, well, except Starbo, the weakest unit ironically (who suffers greatly from her Wins-only passive).
Well, I suppose ATK is straight up the best stat to have in the game. You could have a unit with +4 ATK but 2HP and -1 DEF/EVD and it'd be the strongest thing around (even by Poppo standards) because it could just get Wins like crazy, even if it dies a lot.
All that'd matter is pulling off that shot. With sufficiently high ATK, there is no counter-attack to worry about afterwards. Kinda why I object to Sweet Eater, too.
Having +2 ATK puts it in the 3-8 range, which against all odds has been reasonably survivable, especially considering most units with +2 ATK have some severe downside (Manager, Starbo) or have -1 DEF (Yuki) or low HP (Tomomo), and 1-6 DEF rolls can still stop them.
When it starts going in the 3-9 range, even +2 EVD can no longer guarantee succes, and even +1 DEF starts to have trouble defending against +3 ATK. With there already being Yuki and Tomomo as the default +2 ATK bullies who don't hold a special gimmick, is there even room for another gimmick-less bully with base +2 ATK? I could see more gimmicky can-be-at +2 ATK units appearing like Yuuki or fully-powered Alte, but the role of Yuki has already been fulfilled.
As for ATK and Co-op... I suppose it's just the easiest and best way to obliterate the boss, hence they want to nerf it somewhat. It is unfortunate though, seeing as those characters are then rendered invalid or poor choices for non-ATK/AVG roles due to amped up REC.
Ah well, I'm kinda rambling now, too much to think about, but maybe it helps.
As to Popo countering most characters, here are my counter arguments:
Gatherers get hyper'd: theyre good at getting stars, they can get them back same as if a bully killed them.
Tanks being easy pickings: just as easy pickings as popo is to others
Bullies arent a threat because of good cards: The bullies have good cards too, and all it takes is for them to kill popo once to set her back alot.
As for the hyper, I think its intentionally strong. Her stats are bad except for health. Health alone doesn't save popo, it just buys her time. Sure it means most characters won't 1 shot her if she's at full health. However, tanks aren't usually at full health 24/7. Considering she is bad at avoiding hits, she can still get worn down until someone gets close to popo and takes half of her stars. Ubiquitous can be used to help catch up though should she fall behind. That being said, you have to pray you can escape your opponent or they just get all the stars back (and then some). 7 health will mean the first fight wont kill you, but the second, third, or fourth most likely will.
That's ignoring the +1 they have in the remaining stat so it's only -3 overall, not that it really relates I agree because enemy units essentially have instant reviving.
More importantly, fighting enemy units aren't about who has a marginally better stat line but about the consistent chip damage they cause to Poppo in an actual game. If the enemy unit/s have 3 HP, Poppo has a very high chance to take a counterattack (31/36 from Chicken and Seagull's +1 ATK, 35/36 from Robo Ball).
That chip damage along with others from LDS and friends primes Poppo to being KO'd by other players. If she only had 4-6 HP she would severely struggle in every game because of this. Even as it is, as I said before, when the encounter panel is one of two options in a split the other option is very likely to be a drop panel and Poppo more than possibly every other character is strongly incentivised to lose stars directly instead.
This is semantic manoeuvring. "A fair bit" of the times Poppo wins might come from an Ubiquitous use, sure. I didn't say otherwise and could even agree because that's perfectly in line with my description of how it's literally the only play Poppo ever gets.
While other characters are using their better stat lines and hypers to jet ahead of Poppo right up to the end of a game, she's suffering poor stats, no passives and no early-mid game hyper support right up until that point. She can win a game with Ubiquitous because she needs to.
Speaking of which, something I missed in my previous post is that where splits often force a choice between encounter and drop panels, they also often force a choice between bonus and draw panels. As a hyper-reliant character, and especially if the game is lacking Charity and/or Miracle, Poppo players may be forced to choose to not pick up stars if they still need Ubiquitous, which is yet another reduction in her star gain capability.
Poppo does not win games by chapter 2 or 3. The way players stop her is by not letting her get to 150 stars, alive, with Ubiquitous in hand, with an untrapped home panel, that someone's decided to sit in front of. Games usually last 20+ chapters to prevent at least one of those things and that's all it takes.
To say that players only get 1-2 turns implies that Poppo approaching a winning position catches all her opponents by surprise which is either downplaying other players' ability to read the game or expressing a lack of ability yourself. If Poppo is norma 4 with 100 stars and you're norma 5 with 150 (due to being a better character outside of hypers), you should know you've got less than 10 turns to finish off the win just as the Poppo player knows they've got less than 10 turns to make their play before you win.
There's little to nothing you can do if an opponent has 300+ stars and 20 wins and is 1 space away from their home. But what's the point in describing how a game looks long after the mistakes have already been made?
QP is 5 HP 0/0/0. She absolutely gets the better of Poppo when she's the one chasing - and even when she's not, though 99% of the time the Poppo player will pass her by partly because the battle favours QP even when Poppo attacks first and partly in the hope of being left alone by the QP player in turn.
Let's break this down:
Generally it's in QP's interest to evade when Poppo rolls 1-2 and defend when she rolls 5-6. The in-between on paper favours evading but especially for a 4 roll it's safer for chip damage to defend unless QP is on low HP. But until that point those choices mean QP takes an average of exactly 1 damage per Poppo attack.
It is always in Poppo's interest to evade when QP rolls 1 and defend when QP rolls 3+ except when on low HP. When QP rolls 2 it's a perfectly balanced choice ensuring evading on 1 HP, defending on 2 HP and probably defending on 3+. At that point Poppo takes an average of about 1.72 damage per QP attack.
Hence to oversimplify it, Poppo gets KO'd in about 4 QP attacks and QP gets KO'd in about 5 Poppo attacks. Even here QP has it better especially since she's most likely to be the one attacking first, but when we start getting to the low-HP side of the breakdown QP is favoured even more because a QP on 1 HP has a 20/36 chance to survive a Poppo attack while a Poppo on 1 HP has mere 10/36 chance.
Battle cards can sway this of course, and both generally have equal access to battle cards. Generally, of course, because the differentiator is hyper cards; Ubiquitous has no battle use while Hyper Mode is a norma 1 battle card costing 10 stars and giving +2 ATK to secure a Poppo KO or turn a counterattack into a free heal that gives Poppo nothing and leaves her open to being assaulted by a full-HP QP.
Lastly, because of who she is, prior to this skirmish Poppo is more likely to have been chip-damaged by encounter panels and other players than QP. So once again that favours QP.
What you're doing here is taking reasonable counterplay to a character and turning it into some exaggerated hyperbole. This could be done with every character one way or another, and isn't really construcitve.
For someone who emphasises how easily Poppo can apparently reach her home point and how often her opponents are within one movement of it, I find it surprising the idea of attacking her during one of her prior normas and then slamming down Exchange, Flamethrower, Go Away or Piyopiyo Procession on her own home point hasn't occurred to you.
And if it is you they're in for a rough ride. I'd point out this is how RNG works but it's deflecting from the most important point: whoever it is, Poppo is completely ruined.
This is a fair point, but one that again applies to most characters one way or another. If you knew you would be up against Tomomo, Yuki and Star Breaker you'd pack more cookies and Shield Counters for instance. In a blind setup against unknown or unpredictable opponent players, you probably want to prepare a deck that can cover the bases rather than taking a selfish deck with no counters to characters you anticipate or fear and praying.
Not a fair assessment partly because I already said the best ways to stop Poppo are offense and disruption and partly because I don't think there's anything wrong with including disruption in your gameplay or disruption being a part of the game.
Do you want disruption to be useless? I don't really agree with that. I think it is and needs to be a viable part of the game to keep it interesting. And as long as it is, Poppo competes with QP (Dangerous) for being most vulnerable to it.
You're unwittingly forcing me to point out the dichotomy in your dislike of Poppo (apparently too hard to get close to) and Magical Inferno (apparently too hard to get away from).
I don't think it's fair to argue that it's too hard to catch an opponent here while elsewhere at the same time you're arguing that it's too easy for them to catch you. Can't you see how this is contradictory?
The hyper of the former is about both reducing bad RNG and raising the soft ceiling on movement and damage potential. The latter is about bypassing RNG entirely. When these come into play neither "rely" on their stats or the battle system - they exploit them. That's what it means to have a good hyper.
This is a misquote that's very hard not to see as deliberate.
See the above breakdown - it's not. But kindly don't just hand-wave away the extra ATK and EVD points QP gets over Poppo too.
You know what else is good catch-up? Straight attacking a Poppo. Condensing the same combat analysis as before: Suguri takes an average 0.8 damage per Poppo attack with wise/safe choices and has a staggering 30/36 survival rate when attacked at 1 HP. Meanwhile Poppo takes an average 2.39 damage and has a paltry 6/36 survival rate on 1 HP.
She doesn't need the "fortune" of her hyper when her basic gameplay offers her this advantage. Poppo does. Hence, Ubiquitous.
It should be telling that you're both struggling to find a character that doesn't want to attack Poppo but also that this isn't your first attempt.
The same analysis again: Repa and Nico take an average 0.8 damage per Poppo attack and deal an average 1.72 per attack in turn. Their 1 HP survival rate to Poppo is 26/36 and Poppo's from their attacks is 10/36. Additionally while Repa takes an average 0.8 damage per Poppo attack, she also does an average 0.58 damage to Poppo per Poppo attack. I'd still attack Poppo as Nico (who instead gets nice star passives), but Ceoreparque enjoys attacking Poppo.
The main reason I can think of to deliberately not attack Poppo is not the character you're playing, but if there's someone like Suguri or Sora 6 or fewer spaces behind you both. Then I'd either move past Poppo or path away from her because if they throw their hyper after you've attacked Poppo they're taking you both down, and if you didn't attack Poppo they're almost certainly attacking Poppo instead of you because she's Poppo and you can use that to your advantage.
What the heck are you on about? If the Ubiquitous target is 2-12 spaces away from Poppo's home panel, she absolutely might land on panels in between. Ubiquitous doesn't give its user immunity to panels she lands on. And I hope you're not implying her opponents are almost always 1 space behind Poppo's home point now.