Perfect Lock Team building guide (kinda)
Introduction (not really)
So you wanna build an optimal Perfect Lock Team, uh? Or maybe you're just here because of the link in the notices out of curiosity? Either way, welcome to Kach Again's first guide! Because I like writing guides, there's just not much to write about SIF that hasn't already been addressed elsewhere. This, however, is a topic that I'm particularly close with, and so I've decided to share.
I'll be honest: I'm not good at the game. I wouldn't consider myself to be bad, either, but yes, there are some songs I can't FC without Perfect Locks. Yes, there are some songs I would not have FCed without my Perfect Lock Team. I mean - Perfect Locks are here to help. If you need the help, then why limit yourself?
I know some people don't like the idea of using Perfect Lock Teams to FC songs. That's totally fine. This guide isn't for you. If you have the skills to do without, then go ahead. Some people don't have those skills - I know I don't. I don't feel ashamed because I have to use my Perfect Lock Team to FC Otomeshiki EX when there are people who can FC it with a full N team. To each their own. Just because I use a team filled with 9 Perfect Locks doesn't make me worthless... or my FCs less worthy of an 'Achievement' flair.
With that being said, I'm hoping there are people who are the same as me - who know they need the help, and don't mind using it. This guide is for you all.
Basics
First off - what is a Perfect Lock Team (which I'll refer to PLT from now on because it's a lot of letters to type)? Well, it is a team full of Perfect Lock cards, as simple as that.
The aim of a PLT is to help FCing songs where you usually get a bunch of Goods, as Perfect Locks turn Goods (and Greats) into Perfects. It does not prevent you from missing or getting Bads unfortunately - but with a full PLT, and a lot of practice, you'll eventually get that damn FC.
If you do not have 9 Perfect Locks to fill a full team, then you might want to fill the remaining spots with scorers - simply because if you're going to FC a song, then you have no need for healers as you're not going to lose any stamina.
There is a page on this site dedicated to Perfect Locks, which lists all(!) of them and their skill - here it is, list of Perfect Locks. We'll be using this (because I mean, it's there to be used) to make our optimal PLT.
There are three possible triggers for Perfect Locks:
- Combo, or amount of notes hit in a row;
- Notes, or amount of notes flying in (not necessarily hit);
- Time, or... well, time.
The duration of the lock varies from card to card and ranges between 2 and 9 seconds. While you might think that a longer lock is the best, the trigger and activation chance are to be taken into consideration to see how efficient the Perfect Lock really is. And this is what this page is for!
The page linked above has a link at the top pointing to "useless data" (I'm calling it like that because usually noone bothers checking it) - it'll give you a few numbers about Perfect Locks if you're interested in that.
Also, I'll be assuming from now on that you only have cards with a lv1 skill. Because that's what I and most people have.
Building
There is currently only one Perfect Lock that triggers with Combo, which is #61 Initial Nozomi SR. The skill of the card is actually pretty good in a PLT - for every 17 notes hit in a row, you have a 36% chance of activating a 3 seconds long Perfect Lock. 36% is pretty decent, and since the goal of a PLT is to hit every note, this skill can come in very handy. The stats of the card are not that good as it is an Initial SR, but if you're building a PLT and have this card, you might actually want to consider putting it in.
Now, for the rest (as there are surely more of "the rest" than Initial Nozomis) - I'm going to assume the song you want to FC and need a PLT for is either some really hard Hard, or an EX. This is important - an optimal PLT may also depend on the song you're going to use it on.
Most of the time, timers (cards that trigger with time) are considered to be a bad pick, because you'd be benefiting more from note-triggered locks as EX songs have a looooot of notes. That is not entirely wrong, but that is also not entirely true. Depending on the song you'll be facing, you might have to change your build a bit - there are also timers that are actually pretty good despite being timers.
But we'll look at this a bit more in-depth later - let's talk about activation chance first.
I consider any percentage under 33% to be low and not optimal. There aren't a ton of Perfect Locks that activate under 33%, but I still usually do not consider them into my PLT. The reason is that, ultimately, you'd like a PLT that can give you a permanent lock throughout a whole song. Even if the trigger chance is high, the actual activation chance is not, which is why I usually privilege locks with over 33% chance.
As well, I usually don't work with locks that are shorter than 4 seconds. Given, you can have 30 notes appearing in the span of 2 seconds and you'll be glad you had that 2 seconds lock active, but in most cases it won't happen like that and your 2 seconds lock will be meaningless. The longer the better, though you're building a team full of Perfect Locks to seek a permanent activation, so you don't necessarily have to look for the absolute longest locks you have - a bunch of 4 seconds can do.
To illustrate, here's my own PLT:
First off - yes, off-colored. I'm not enough of a whale to build a single attribute full PLT, but this is my best PLT. On the other hand, my team F is a full Pure team, just with a bunch of Pure Perfect Locks (but I don't have enough to make a full team). Up to you to decide what you want, based on what you can do.
Now, here's my team:
- #397 China Dress Nico UR, 5 seconds lock every 32 notes (41%)
- #507 Seven Lucky Gods Eli UR, 5 seconds lock every 17 notes (23%)
- #608 Magician Maki UR, 6 seconds lock every 15 notes (14%)
- #586 Cyber Kotori SR, 5 seconds lock every 34 notes (34%)
- #703 Rock Maki SR (event), 4 seconds lock every 24 notes (31%)
- #478 Santa Maki SR (event), 4 seconds lock every 30 notes (37%)
- #376 China Dress Rin SR, 3.5 seconds lock every 22 notes (30%)
- #661 Bathrobe Nozomi SR (event), 4 seconds lock every 30 notes (40%)
- #600 Cyber Honoka UR, 7 seconds lock every 25 seconds (71%)
As you can see, I'm not really applying the things I said above (hence my use of "usually") and I have 4 cards with a chance below 33%, including one that ALSO has a lock shorter than 4 seconds (boo!). Shit happens.
Anyway, one of my rules would have been - do not put two cards that have the exact same trigger in your PLT. I unfortunately just now am realizing that I did that with Bathrobe Nozomi and Santa Maki, which both activate at 30 notes. It's not fatal, as in if one doesn't activate, the other might to save the day. But the point is that they might also activate at the same time, rendering one of them useless, which is why I don't advise to have two of the same trigger in your PLT. (I might have to replace that Santa Maki... mhm...)
Now, let's break it down.
China Dress Nico is, in my opinion, easily one of the best Perfect Locks in the game. A 5 seconds lock is really good; and a 41% activation chance is really good. While you can't expect a 100% activation rate from a 41% chance, I usually have way, way more than that on all songs I play. While every 32 notes is not the best because it's still pretty high (the highest notes trigger is every 37 notes as of time of writing), I don't usually consider 30 notes to be that bad, simply because most high EX songs have a LOT of notes and 32 comes by really quickly.
41% might not sound like much when you say it like that - but trust me, it's actually pretty high when you're dealing with Perfect Locks.
Theorically: let's take Angelic Angel EX, the longest song in the game. 577 notes - that's 18 possible activations for that Nico right there. 18 activations that are 5 seconds long would be a whole minute and a half long lock - 30 seconds less than the actual song. While most likely she won't activate 18 times (I mean, 41% is high, but not 100% let's not dream), she definitely has some of the best Perfect Lock stats out there.
If you have her? Put her in your PLT, no exception. Even if you hate Nico - she's an amazing Perfect Lock.
If you don't? Well... onto the next best thing I guess.
Seven Lucky Gods Eli has a pretty low activation rate as you can see - 23% is not what I usually deal with.
However, she's a 5 seconds lock, which is pretty nice, and she has a very frequent trigger despite a low activation chance. It's a bit like she's half of the China Dress Nico - she activates half as much, but twice as often, which makes her almost as good to me.
I mean - that's 34 possible activations on Angelic Angel EX, for 5 seconds each time... with a higher activation rate she'd definitely be OP because she could lock the whole song with just that, but that's still pretty nice.
Magician Maki is... honestly, I don't know. To me, she's broken. A 14% activation chance is low. Really low - actually, the lowest (as of time of writing). But she seriously activates often, like REALLY often. I don't know if I'm just lucky that she's always falling in the 14% rather than the 86%, but it happens. But in a normal talk, I wouldn't really recommend her if you have better as her activation chance is pretty low and that's her weak point. However, a 6 seconds lock is amazing, aaaand she can trigger pretty often (more than the Seven Lucky Gods Eli which was already really often) - 15 notes is actually the shortest notes trigger (as of time of writing).
She gets 38 activations on Angelic Angel EX. Sometimes she just activates four times in a row for me. I'll let you imagine how great that is.
Cyber Kotori is honestly a really decent Perfect Lock for a SR. 5 seconds is pretty nice, and so is 34%. Every 34 notes falls in the same category as the China Dress Nico, which honestly doesn't bother me.
Rock Maki is a card I spent 26 lovecas to T2 LOL (no seriously I overshot by a lot but I still spent 26 lovecas) but it's a pretty nice Perfect Lock honestly. She's also in my Pure team, and she activates quite often despite a 31% activation chance (truthfully, most 30%s activate quite a lot, which is why I don't mind them). 4 seconds is decent, and every 24 notes is pretty often. Verdict? Kach Approved.
Santa Maki was also one of my best Perfect Locks in my Pure team - 4 seconds is decent, 37% works pretty often, and again, 30 notes is not that bad. Bathrobe Nozomi beats her by a very slightly higher activation chance though, but she's more recent; for the longest time I only had Santa Maki.
China Dress Rin is a bit out of place in the team but to be completely honest I don't actually have other notes triggered Perfect Locks which is surely why she's here despite a 3.5 seconds lock which I'll consider as "short" and a 30% chance which well, could be higher (despite not that bad). She has a nice trigger rate though, 22 notes is pretty often.
And Cyber Honoka is honestly my safety card. 25 seconds is LONG. She gets only 4 activations on most songs and there are only a few where she'd get a 5th one (which would be at the very end anyway). However... she has a 71% activation chance. 71%. I tell you that my Magician Maki activates super often with a 14% chance, and this girl over here walks in with SEVENTY ONE PERCENT. Crazy. That's why she's here for safety - because I'm 71% sure that she's going to activate 4 times in most songs. Well, I'll admit: as much as the coin can fall in 14%, it can fall in the 29%. She's not a 100%, so she doesn't always activate, but she's REALLY close - actually, the closest. I've pretty much learned by heart where the 00:25 mark is on Anemone Heart.
As much as I like my PLT, it might be a bit too note-based. While a full timer PLT is a pretty bad idea (well, in my opinion anyway, but I wouldn't advise to try), replacing Santa Maki and China Dress Rin with timers could help having more diverse triggers and ensuring that you have enough locks to cover a whole song.
Timers are tricky to deal with however - most songs are 110 to 125 seconds long, quite a few are shorter (Cyber Honoka is nearly useless on Shocking Party). Timers only activate a few times during one song. Even a 11 seconds timer, which is honestly pretty short, would activate less than 10 times on Love Novels for example, while China Dress Nico gets 13 activations on that song - with 32 notes, that is pretty long.
Which is why a full timer PLT is not ideal. A few might be good for safety, but most of your PLT should be note triggered cards.
Then of course, checking activation chance and length is important. #545 White Day Eli SR is a pretty short timer (9 seconds), and activates pretty often with a 45% chance - however, she's a 2 seconds lock. 2 seconds is ridiculous, I'll admit. It's like you don't even see it because it's so short. Sorry Eli, but you get pretty useless there.
Unfortunately, most of the best timers are URs, taking into consideration that a "good" timer would have a frequent trigger, an activation chance over 33% and a lock that lasts over 4 seconds. Most timer SRs don't fit all requirements. The closest SR would be #642 Marine Nico SR, with a 4 seconds lock every 10 seconds, but with a 30% activation chance.
Then again, since you're not building full timer, you can actually try to invest in a less frequent Perfect Lock. For example, #512 Seven Lucky Gods Rin SR is a 4 seconds lock every 16 seconds, which would be 7 activations on a 125 seconds song - that's not often; she has a 38% activation chance however. As an owner of this card I can say she does activate decently often, but the longer frequency is not a hundred percent optimal.
Always check all the trigger elements before deciding if a card would be optimal in your PLT or not - eventually, try a few games with a card, eventually try with another and decides which one activates the most or at the best times.
Quite a few people consider #88 Initial Kotori UR to be the best Perfect Lock because she's 9 seconds long at lv1, and quite a few times I've heard "if I was a whale my PLT would be 9 Initial Kotoris". I'm not going to deny that 9 seconds is really nice, but she's a timer and activates every 17 seconds. That's 7 activations on a 125 seconds song. Even with a 100% activation chance (which could be pretty likely if you have 9 copies), it wouldn't do. She'd activate at 17 seconds for 9 seconds, but the lock would end at 26 seconds, and you'd have 8 seconds empty until the next activation. This is exactly why having the same trigger twice or more in a team is useless: you need to fill every blank space you can possibly have, and this is why you need different triggers, to make sure that all possible blank spaces can possibly be covered.
(Kotori-related: her lv8 skill is 16 seconds long, so even with 9 lv8 Initial Kotoris you wouldn't have a full lock on a whole song, ha!)
At this point I think I've pretty much said everything. I sincerely apologize if this wasn't explanative enough because I have a feeling it wasn't.
Regardless, I hope this helped. I might throw a video of my own PLT in action on here sometime.
Have fun, and go for those damn FCs!