At first glance, Sakura looks like a Vanguard. The game labels her that way, her positioning kind of supports that idea, and her animations don’t scream “pure support.” But once you sit with her kit for more than five minutes, it becomes obvious that Vanguard is just a disguise. Sakura is a support character through and through, and more specifically, she’s a burn enabler built for the Thermal Conduction core.
If you’re not building around that mechanic, most of what she does will feel underwhelming. If you are, suddenly everything clicks.
Thermal Conduction
Sakura shares an unlisted but very real mechanic with Louis and Laurelai. The game never spells it out cleanly, but all three characters interact with burn damage in the same underlying way. Different wording, same engine.
Sakura calls it After Burner.
Louis calls it Ember.
Functionally, they are identical.
After Burner increases burn damage dealt by 30% for two turns and permanently increases critical damage by 5% every time it stacks. This crit damage bonus is permanent, stackable, counts as a burn-related buff, and cannot be dispelled. That permanence is the real value here. Over long fights, especially bosses, this snowballs harder than it looks on paper.
This is why Sakura doesn’t work in isolation. Her entire kit assumes that burn damage is constantly being applied, triggered, and amplified by multiple units.
Sakura Mark
Everything Sakura does revolves around Sakura Mark.
When a unit holding Sakura Mark takes burn damage, one stack is consumed and it explodes, dealing AoE burn damage in a two-tile radius around that target. This turns burn ticks into chain reactions rather than passive DoT.
Stacks cap at three and cannot be dispelled, which matters more than it sounds when you’re fighting enemies with buff removal or cleanse mechanics.
If Sakura’s ultimate triggers Sakura Mark, it consumes three stacks at once and detonates for 180% AoE burn damage, which is honestly one of the few moments where Sakura herself feels like she’s doing real damage instead of enabling others.
Good Luck, Bad Luck
Sakura applies two special states tied directly to Sakura Mark.
Bad Luck increases damage taken from Sakura by 10%, and later upgrades push this higher. It’s simple, direct amplification, and mostly relevant for boss targets.
Good Luck applies a stack of Sakura Mark to a target before Sakura performs an active attack. It’s another way of keeping Sakura Mark cycling without needing constant skill usage.
Neither can be dispelled, which makes them reliable even in longer or higher-end content.
Skills
Her basic attack, Sakura Bell, is forgettable. Physical damage, long range, nothing special. You only use it when you absolutely have to.
Her first real skill is a mobility-plus-damage tool. Sakura jumps to a tile near an ally or an enemy affected by Sakura Mark and detonates AoE burn damage. This skill feels awkward at first, but once you realize it exists to reposition Sakura while keeping burn pressure up, it starts making sense. With upgrades, the range and AoE increase enough that it stops feeling restrictive.
Her second skill, Sakura Petal Revelation, is where most rotations begin. It applies burn damage, stacks Sakura Mark, and applies Bad Luck. This is usually the opener, especially against priority targets or bosses.
Her ultimate, Realm of Bad Luck, is a wide directional AoE that applies three stacks of Sakura Mark to everything it hits and immediately triggers burn damage. After using it, Sakura gains Good Luck and Convectance Index, letting her accelerate future turns. With higher vertebrae, the area widens enough that positioning becomes forgiving instead of annoying.
In actual play, her turns usually look like some variation of:
open with Petal Revelation, reposition with her jump skill, then detonate with the ultimate when stacks are ready. She’s not rigid, but she does want to act after burn has already been established by the team.
Passive Effects
Her passive grants Heat Transfer at battle start, confirming again that she belongs to the same mechanical family as Louis and Laurelai.
If her ultimate hasn’t been used, she gains Blaze stacks and Convectance Index every turn while randomly applying Sakura Mark across enemies. This sounds chaotic, but it quietly ensures that Sakura Mark is always present somewhere on the field, even if you’re playing conservatively.
Once Sakura has Good Luck, her damage increases by 20%, but this is honestly secondary. Sakura’s personal damage never becomes the reason you bring her.
Fixed Keys
Fixed Key 1 and 2 are mandatory. They improve Sakura Mark application and add Overburn, which directly strengthens her core loop.
Fixed Key 4 is extremely strong for boss content since it automatically applies Bad Luck to the highest-HP enemy at the start of battle. In mob content, it’s less critical, but still useful.
The rest are situational. They’re not bad, but they don’t change how Sakura plays. If you’re short on resources, stop at 1, 2, and 4.
Weapons
Her signature weapon, Crimson Contract, is good. It ignores defense when exploiting burn weakness, which fits her theme perfectly. But it is absolutely not required.
Battle pass weapons like Classified Manuscript perform well enough that you won’t feel punished for skipping her banner weapon. Sakura’s value is in mechanics, not raw stats.
If you’re resource-conscious, skip the weapon.
Dupe (Vertebrae) Recommendations – Where to Stop
This is where things get very clear.
Her big power spikes are at:
- V1
- V3
- V6
V1 is the best early stopping point. It gives a massive boost relative to investment and is the single most efficient upgrade you can make.
V2 is negligible.
V3 is huge.
V4 and V5 are incremental.
V6 is powerful but expensive and only worth it if you’re fully committing to Thermal Conduction long-term.
If you’re pulling casually, V1 is ideal.
If you’re investing heavily, V3 is the next real goal.
The weapon doesn’t change these recommendations.
