Rui

Information warfare

**PERFORMANCE**

## Leitmotif

The current vice-leader of Phoenix Corps, Rui stepped into the vacant position after Clover left the corps to pursue her singing career. He is Han and Joel's friend in their academy days.

Rui was a prolific information broker, infamous for his capacity to frame public figures effortlessly and trigger infighting within the enemy ranks. After getting himself entangled with powerful crime syndicates and the underground information network, he was bailed by Han who scouted him to join the Firebirds.

With the corps membership plummeting, Rui proved his worth as a valuable member and quickly contributed to the corps, mainly handling PR and recruitment. Most of the new joiners are all scouted by him, especially Monika and Elizabeth, which Rui said to be harboring great potentials.

Fully using his skills as an information broker, Rui is now handling the more sensitive field of deceptions and subversions. He is well versed in both information wars and full frontal assault.

## Appearance

Leather jackets, sunglasses, ripped jeans; Rui's choice of clothing truly emanates a bad boy vibe. That, combined with his brooding-yet-outgoing persona, Rui has a penchant to attract a certain type of girls.

He is rarely seen without a cigarette on his mouth and would always have a pack ready in his jacket. His favorite cigarette brand is "Wicked King", which is the origin of his callsign: *Wicked King* and many of his combat tactics in which he named them after said brand.

Despite his wild image, Rui neatly styles his crimson flaring locks as slick as possible. One can catch a glimpse of him uncharacteristically combing his hair when a harsh wind is blowing.

## Personality

A mix of charismatic surfer bro and chill stoner guy.

Friendly and chatty, sometimes loud. Rui makes a great duo with Han, with him being a people person covering Han's shyness and general avoidance of the limelight.

Beneath his jovial attitude however, lies an angsty guy who tends to overthink things and notorious for jumping to conclusions.

What makes him, Han, and Joel, click together and act as the corps's engine, is their practicality and efficiency on handling missions and getting the job done as fast as possible.

## Fighting Style

Armed with custom twin guns and an experimental portable magic cannon, Rui is a well armored, mobile ranged combatant. When there are no solid melee vanguards, he can act as one and stay in the frontline for an extended duration. He is proficient in both close range shoot-off and long range bombardment, although his usual strategy is to just unload everything point blank as quick as he can.

In more strategic and major battles, Rui prefers to stay in medium range so he can adjust his offense and support fire accordingly. He will not shy away from diving close to get a few gunshots in if there are clear openings.

Overall, Rui is a flexible ranged offense character. He lacks the sniping and critical shot capability of Eli, but makes it up with his rapid fire shenanigans. Beware of a sudden drop in team morale, Rui is notorious for his pessimist outlook when things do not go his way.

### Strengths

* **Chain smoker**: unique passive. Smoking calms his nerves and increases his dodging and accuracy, but at the same time, it decreases his battle momentum and keeps his morale stagnant.
* **Artillery**: Unique skillset utilizing his magic cannon, has fixed damage output, bypasses damage reduction abilities, and consumes little energy. Awesome for early game and great against bosses with damage reduction.
* Exclusive weapon class (Custom Guns). Highest base damage output in the whole game.
* A simple and solid character that relies on highly damaging normal attacks. Great for clearing mooks and grunts without wasting his battle momentum.
* High HP pool and decent defense enables him to be flexible and perform risky combat maneuvers up close and personal.
* Weapon upgrade potential. Unlike other characters who grow stronger over time, Rui's damage potential is largely tied to his guns and ammo. You can spend all of your budget to upgrade his armaments in the first few chapters and get yourself an early game nuke if you wish so.

### Weaknesses

* Guns are unable to receive elemental enhancement spells. Pure physical damage renders him useless alone against enemies with high physical resistance or ghosts and spirits. His only elemental option is Elemental Ammo, but those are expensive as hell.
* No offense burst capability and lacking offensive arts means trouble in boss fights, not recommended to bring him along against major arc bosses.
* Reminder that for other ranged combatants, Mana can be replenished, but for Rui, his ammo is limited.
* Weapon limitations and fixed damage output limit him from growing stronger in late game.

## Dramatic Battle

**"VS Toby"**

**"VS Anthony"**