INFORMATION
FROM:
- ACCEL WORLD
LEGION:
- AURORAL OVAL
SPECIAL ABILITY:
- ACCELERATION
MAIN ELEMENT:
- WIND
ROLE:
- RANGED ATTACKER
UNLOCK:
- Clear endgame Side EP “Mystification/Emblem” #05. Purchase in BP Shop
~SPECIAL MOVES~
Show/Hide Special Moves
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
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Frontal Thunder | Area of Effect Attack. Calls down a heavy bolt of lighting on the target in front of Purple Thorn.
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Cyclonic Thunder | Area of Effect Attack. Calls down torrents of lighting around Purple Thorn to damage an area.
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Thorn Punish | Projectile Attack. Purple Thorn ensnares the area around her in vines. Then she proceeds to unleash condensed lightning from her staff in a horizontal arc.
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~INCARNATE SKILLS~
Show/Hide Incarnate Skills
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
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Sweet Paradise | Combo Attack. Thorns harden around Purple Thorn’s staff as she performs 3 close range swings of her weapon.
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Electric Discharge | Projectile Attack. Hits the ground with the staff to bring out several orbs of electricity around Purple Thorn. These orbs detonate a few seconds after completing the skill.
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~HEALING & BUFFS~
Show/Hide Healing & Buffs
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
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Recovery Shed | Recovers Self Status ailments.
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Static Electricity | Increases Self Wind Based Damage. Increases Self Wind Resistance.
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~PASSIVE SKILLS~
Show/Hide Passive Skills
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
| Neo Acceleration | Allows the use of faster Accel Move & Super Jump techniques. |
| Purple Scepter | Purple Thorn’s unique fighting style. |
| Increase Magical Defense | Decrease amount of damage received by magical attacks by 10%. |
| Increase Wind Attack | Increases damage of Wind based attacks by 10%. |
| Increase Wind Resistance | Reduces damage received from Wind based attacks by 20%. |
| Stamina Saver | Reduces the cost of stamina based actions by 20%. |
| Increase Special Gauge | Increases Max Special Gauge by 10%. |
| Increase Special Gauge Regeneration | Increases the rate of gaining Special Gauge by 10%. |
| Cooldown Time Decrease | Decreases the cooldown time of Sword Skills & Special Moves by 10%. |
| Increase Physical Defense | Decrease amount of damage received by physical attacks by 10%. |
| Increase Status Ailment Recovery | Increases the rate of recovery from bad statuses by 20%. |
| Increase Down Resistance | Increases resistance to DOWN and Stagger status ailments. |
| Skill Connect Boost | Increases power of Skill Connect by 10%. |
| Cooldown Time Decrease+ | Decreases the cooldown time of Sword Skills & Special Moves by 20%. |
| Switch Boost | Increases the power of Switch by 10%. |
| Increase Special Gauge+ | Increases Max Special Gauge by 30%. |
| Increase Special Gauge Regeneration+ | Increases the rate of gaining Special Gauge by 30%. |
| Increase Wind Resistance+ | Reduces damage received from Wind based attacks by 36%. |
| Increase Wind Attack+ | Increases damage of Wind based attacks by 20%. |
| Increase Magical Defense+ | Decrease amount of damage received by magical attacks by 20%. |
| [Lv1000] Increase Physical Defense+ | Decrease amount of damage received by physical attacks by 20%. |
| [Lv1050] Increase Jump Efficiency | Decreases the amount of stamina used by jumping related actions. |
| [Lv1100] Boss Attacker | Increases the amount of damage dealt to Boss type monsters. (Likely between 20% & 30%) |
| [Lv1200] Increased Guard Efficiency | Reduces the amount of stamina used when guarding attacks. |
~HOW TO PLAY PURPLE THORN~
This section is written as an more in-depth extension to the AW & SAO Character Overview post and is meant to be used hand in hand with the General Leveling Guide. The purpose of this How-To-Play is to offer players of all levels a skeleton plan which enables them to build their characters up to their full potential. With that being said, it is indeed recommended that you do follow the steps described here.
Accel World characters need a solid team (In particular, a competent Buffer) in order for them to truly shine. They serve as mainly Elemental Attackers and should only typically be used when the team already has all of the key characters that make up Buffer, Debuffer and Healer.
I am aware that AW characters are PvP oriented but I don’t really care about PvP so this How-To-Play is written with co-op play mind.
-Equipment Selection-
Purple Thorn’s Main Element is Wind so she is highly compatible with Wind Engraved Stones and Enhanced Armaments that Increase Wind Abilities.
But since a AW characters rely on Elemental Damage for their main damage output, they can benefit greatly from simply using the appropriate Elemental Engraved Stones & Elemental Equipment for each corresponding Boss Weakness. It may appear as a hassle to constantly change equipment for every Boss Weakness but the difference is effectively Double Damagesince elemental damage is multiplied by 2 if a boss is weak to that element (Also, if a boss resists an element, that specific Elemental Damage will be reduced by 90%).
For information on which each Bosses weaknesses and resistances, there are Weak/Resist spreadsheets on the Boss Guides page.
In the event that a boss is indeed Resistant to all elements, pick the Engraved Stone and the Elemental Equipment that the team will most likely end up using. Example: a Team with Strea, Seven & Kirito will result in a definite use of Enhance Earth since there is no other Elemental Enhance in the team makeup.
**For some tips on how to select the appropriate Accessories for your character, consult the Selecting Equipment guide.
-AW Combat Guide-
AW characters cannot fly. On top of this, using Special Moves consumes the Special Gauge which is only filled by landing Square & Triangle attacks. This makes AW Combat a lot more complicated as you constantly have to be attacking to build the Special Gauge meter while at the same time trying to control your altitude. But don’t worry, a little bit of practice and picking up some good habits will help you become effective at combat as well as gain enjoyment from using these characters.
Building Special Gauge Meter:
When a fight starts, you will typically always have 0 meter. It would be ideal if there was a nearby mob monster you could smack around for meter gain but if there isn’t do not rush straight to the boss. If you rush straight to the boss you could become out of range of the SAO characters buffs with increase your strength tremendously. Patiently wait for your SAO teammates to cast all of their buff skills and once they are finished, Accel Move in for combat.
Spend the first few moments of the Boss fight restricting yourself to Square and Triangle attacks in order to build a good amount of meter. You can use your Incarnate Skills to punctuate your normal attacks but the purpose here is meter building, not damage output.
Triangle attacks build the most meter but don’t use them if you have below 50% stamina. If you run out of stamina, you will simply fall straight to the ground since you will become unable to Jump, Dash, Super Jump & Accel Move which are important for maintaining altitude.
Once you have around 60%+ meter, you can start using Special Moves rather aggressively and do Skill Connect combos into Incarnate Skills. Just keep in mind that you will be restricted to building meter if you completely exhaust your meter gauge. Because of this, it is recommended that you can get into the good rhythm of using short Skill Connect combos into Incarnate Skills and then building meter while the Incarnate Skills are on cooldown.
The reason why is a good idea to never completely exhaust your meter gauge is for CHRISTMAS. “Christmas” is what I call it when a boss is either DOWNED or does an attack with long duration and is rendered completely helpless for around 30 seconds. This is the time when everyone drops what they are doing and focuses completely on damage output. A lot of AW characters wait for Christmas so they can activate their Mega Buffs and deal high damage. So if you don’t have any meter when it’s Christmas, you will miss out on your biggest chance to deal maximum damage.
Controlling Altitude:
Majority of the Bosses in this game do in fact fly. Therefore it is extremely important for characters who cannot fly to know who to maintain a stable altitude where they feel comfortable and are in full control of the situation.
Your 4 main tools for controlling altitude are Square Attacks, Jumps, Super Jumps and Accel Moves.
Since all of the tools used for Vertical Movement consume a considerable amount of Stamina, there are times when you will just have to float in a safe place and use Square Attacks in order to maintain altitude while regenerating Stamina. Square Attacks don’t use any Stamina. So if you ever run out of Stamina, use Square attacks so that you don’t fall all the way to the ground.
For advanced players, would be ideal if you could land these Square Attacks on a Boss since you could build meter at the same time. If you spot an incoming attack you can simply Jump Cancel the Square Attack into a a quick Guard. If your timing is perfect, you can Instant Block the attack and go right back into Square Attacks without losing any altitude.
Jumps can be used to maintain altitude but be careful. If you use many jumps in quick succession you will rapidly drain your Stamina Gauge and fall right to the ground in failure. For this reason, you should train yourself to use basic jumps simply for maintaining your level of altitude as opposed to long distance upward movement.
Super Jumps and Accel Moves are the tools used to cover large amounts of distance. Quite often when you use one of these techniques, you can move a lot more than intended to and be caught off guard that you are now more displaced than you expected to be. This is especially the case with the Super Jump.
When you are in a boss fight and you have fallen considerably far underneath a boss, use the Accel Move in order to get back onto the Boss’ same Altitude level. Note that this will only work if you can still lock on to the boss. Do not use the Super Jump if you can still lock on to the boss unless you are prepared to elevate much higher than the boss. If you cannot lock on to the boss it means that you are really far below a boss and a Super Jump will be needed to put you into lock-on range.
But be careful since using an Accel Move from underneath a Boss puts you directly in front of the boss and you will be vulnerable its attacks.
-Video of Offensive Skills & Sample Play-
-Using Purple Thorn-
Accel World characters are built for combat. They do not have many buff skills so they do not have to worry about constantly casting buffs the way SAO characters do. Because of this, they have a lot of freedom in their playstyle and benefit a lot from being played aggressively. But keep in mind that there is a huge difference between playing Aggressively and playing Recklessly. AW characters don’t have free access to Healing Skills so you have to play with caution.
Purple Thorn has a 3-2 split of Special Moves to Incarnate Skills with the favor being in her Special Moves. On top of this, her Special Moves have a really really high cost. This means she has to spend a lengthy amount of time building up Special Gauge meter during a fight. But given her long range Square attacks, this isn’t that difficult to do.
Purple Thorn’s movelist incorporates projectile, close range attacks and AoE. Her incarnate skills form the foundations of her offense. Since Purple Thorn’s more damaging moves are her Special Moves which require meter, her Incarnate Skills are to be be mixed in her normal attacks as you generate meter.
Her Incarnate Skill’s cooldown’s are short and the one with the longer duration is not that useful inside Skill Connect combos so you just constantly use it in neutral play. When you are in the process of generating meter you should restrict yourself to using her Frontal Thunder Special Move. It has a so-so DOWN potential, but repeated uses will eventually net a DOWN which will allow Purple Thorn to move in for some damage (since none of her moves have Super Armor).
If you land a DOWN during the middle of Frontal Thunder, combo into Sweet Paradise to close the distance between you and the target. After this, combo into her grade 3 and 4 AoE special moves for some solid damage.
-Using Buff Skills-
Accel World character buffs typically provide a larger increase than SAO buffs but have a considerably shorter duration. Since Buffs can be overwritten in this game I would like to emphasize that AW chara buffs do in fact overwrite SAO Buffs, but once the AW buff duration is over, they revert back to the SAO buffs. However, This doesn’t hold true when an AW buff changes the kind of element used when it comes to Element Enhance buffs (Same Element overwrites are still good though).
“Turbulance Wrap” yields the largest Wind damage increase in the game. In addition to this, it grants the highest Wind resistance in the game. This buff should only be used when the boss is weak to wind and when you are equipped with Wind Engraved Stones and Wind enhancing equipment.
“Recovery Shed” recovers self status ailments. Use this whenever you are inflicted with a bad status.
-Healing-
AW characters have no access to Healing Magic. Therefore, Healing Items become their main source of HP Recovery outside of relying on Healer teammates. Since they have few skills and end up having lots of free space in their Pallet, you can equip tons of Healing Items directly to their Pallet for quick healing access.
Since using a Healing Item leaves you vulnerable to attacks, its good form to first super jump as high as you can and then use an item while falling to the ground.
When you take damage with AW characters, don’t be a hero. Pop a quick HP Regen item and then continue fighting cautiously. If you have taken considerable damage, fall back to safety and use an Ancient Fruit (Full Recovery item) or a Pure Healing Crystal (Party HP 50% Recovery item).
It would be the best thing for you, as an AW character, if you had a healer who would care about you and heal you constantly. But don’t be a burden to the team. Understand that you don’t have free access to healing and don’t fight recklessly.
-BK’s Opinion on Purple Thorn-
Well. If this was a fighting game, I would most likely be a Purple Thorn main. A balance of zoning projectiles, trap projectiles, close range attacks, AoE and – on top of all this -Tsundere?
That’s a BK character right there (>.<)
This character is extremely enjoyable if you understand the properties of her moves. I personally consider her to be one of the stronger AW characters. Unfortunately, she’s not a Low Tier God like Black Lotus, Blue Knight, Cyan Pile, Ash Roller or Unica-chan. But her damage output is rather surprising given her low attack power.
The main thing that holds her back is that she’s element based (;_;)
Wind is an Okay element. But Enhance Wind not used all the time. Purple Thorn will indeed shine when the boss is weak to wind. But when it resists wind she’s just above average at best.
But hey.
Damage isn’t everything.
Sometimes you just wanna play the Tsundere Dark Magician girl that ends sentences with “wa yo!”
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