Blue Festival Cusack

Published September 7 2021

Last Updated April 30 2023

## Skill Effects

Cleave, Depletes Ultimate Move Gauge orbs, Power Strike, Abyss, Increase Damage Dealt

## Location

Festival Draw

[Napping Reaper] Dual Swordsman Cusack's Cleave effect does not result in critical strikes, but he can deal great damage based on his Crit Damage.

## Skills

 Rank 2
 Rank 3

 Rank 2
 Rank 3

## Hero Guide

Blue Festival Cusack was made available on 7DSGC Global’s September 7th, 2021 update. He was released as a Holy War Festival unit on the game’s 1.5th Anniversary, following Blue Festival Ludociel, Green Festival Zeldris, and Green “Assault Mode” Meliodas in the previous banners.

Cusack and Chandler were first introduced in the story during the prelude of the New Holy War arc, revealing them to be the former masters of the demon princes. Long before the first Holy War, Cusack trained Zeldris in combat as ordered by the Demon King.

He is very much attached to his student and believes Zeldris is worthy of reigning the Demon Clan instead of Meliodas. Cusack holds an unmatched skill in wielding swords and can use two identical sword hilts on both sides of his hips which he channels his darkness through to create two blades.

In the game, **Festival Cusack is a utility and damage dealer**. He inflicts Cleave damage and depletes Ultimate Move Gauge orbs to prevent enemies from using their Ultimate Move. Cusack gained the moniker "Napping Reaper" from his Ultimate Move called “Resonant” which allows him to link with someone through eyesight, eventually inflicting Power Strike damage to the enemy.

Cusack is widely used in PVP to counter enemy teams with HP-increase abilities, notably Red Purgatory Ban teams. He is also viable in Red Demon Death Matches due to his hero-type advantage. **Stat-wise, Cusack has a high Attack, Pierce Rate, Crit Damage, and Lifesteal, giving him the potential to dish out heavy single-target damage**.

### Pros

* High Attack-related stats (Attack, Pierce Rate, and Crit Damage)
* Does not rely on Crit Chance to inflict significant damage
* Able to deplete the Ultimate Move gauge orbs from the opponent

### Cons

* Countered by heroes with Attack Disable
* Unique ability is very limiting as it only works in PVP. and those who are demons The damage increase only applies if the enemy has increased Max HP.
* His second attack card and ult move are still able to inflict critical strike which can trouble you sometimes for enemies that penalize those who lands critical strikes

### Skill Review

**Demonic Blade** - A single-target attack similar to Green Festival Zeldris’ “Black Road” skill. It inflicts Cleave damage which cannot be a Critical Strike but instead gains additional damage equal to 75% of his Crit Damage. This skill complements well with Green Festival Zeldris’ Commandment, assuring Cusack to be safe from its debuffs.

Formula:
Cleave damage = Card Multiplier% + [(Crit Damage - 100%) x (0.75)]

**Evil Sword Beam** - A single-target attack that depletes the enemy’s Ultimate Move Gauge. Use this skill to disrupt the enemy from using their Ultimate Move. It only has a 120% attack multiplier at rank 1, which isn’t much, but it scales higher at rank 3 with a 450% attack multiplier and depletes up to three (3) orbs.

**Ultimate: Resonant** - Festival Cusack’s ultimate is a single-target attack with a Power Strike effect, inflicting additional damage based on the target’s Resistance. It has a 56% multiplier increase per level starting at 560% and maxes out at 840%.

From levels 3~6, his Ultimate gains an Abyss effect that inflicts damage on all enemies at the start of the enemy's turn. The additional damage is equal to the percentage of damage dealt from his Power Strike attack.

Note: The Ultimate Move itself is a single-target attack, but the Abyss (damaging buff effect) is AOE.

**Unique: Swordmaster** - Festival Cusack’s Unique ability is effective against teams with Increase HP or Increase HP-related stats buffs. It inflicts additional damage equal to 40% of the enemy's increased Max HP in PVP whenever a Demon ally lands a non-critical hit on a single target.

His Unique ability, however, is very limited to PVP and Demon ally teams only and only works against specific teams (Ex: Purgatory Ban team).

### Usage

**Equipment Set**

Utility build (High Combat Class) : Life (HP) / Iron Wall (Defense)

Damage dealer build: Onslaught (Attack) / Congeniality (Crit Damage)

Substats:

Bracer/Ring - Attack

Necklace/Earring - Defense

Belt/Rune - HP

Gear recommendations will be attack and crit damage set. The attack set will increase basic attack stats, and the crit damage set will increase the “cleave” multiplier. The second set is health and defense; this set is mostly used for CC in PVP.

Cusack is used in PVP and end-game content to counter enemy teams with HP-increase abilities, notably Human teams. Cusack is a good choice inside Hraesvelgr and Eikthyrnir as his cards can hit damage cap while his ultimate can inflict Power Strike and Abyss. He is also viable in Red Demon Death Matches due to his hero-type advantage. Stat-wise, Cusack has high Attack, Pierce Rate, Crit Damage, and Lifesteal, giving him the potential to dish out heavy single-target damage.

PVP - Cusack has multiple uses inside PVP. The first is that Cusack’s passive can play a decent role in battle because it allows older demon units or low-built demon units to hit for good numbers even if they are less likely to land crits on the enemy. Since the extra damage comes from the enemy’s Max HP, Cusack’s passive can allow a unit like Assault Meliodas to deal good damage against a team notorious for having high crit defense and HP like the human team, even if Meliodas is at a disadvantage attribute wise. The next useful utility that Cusack has is one card ability that removes the ultimate gauge from the enemy. This helps keep ultimate rush teams under control and greatly assists in drawn-out games when the enemies have a high ultimate gauge. The last bit of utility Cusack has to offer is his ultimate when at a high ultimate level (3/6 or 5/6). At a high ultimate, it comes with an additional “abyss” effect, the same effect as Demon Lord Rimiru’s ultimate. Since the ultimate is high single-target damage, the follow-up from the abyss will have a high multiplier effect dealing additional heavy damage.

Hraesvelgr and Eikthyrnir - Cusack performs positively in these difficult battles because he has a full kit revolved single-target damage. In Hraesvelgr, Cusack’s ultimate deals a great amount of damage to the boss, most notably on Floor 1 Phase 4 due to the damaging effect of “Power Strike”. This applies to Eikthyrnir as well in later floors when the boss has naturally high resistance and passives that will further increase Eikthryir’s resistance. If Blue Festival Berserk Estarossa on the team he will be able to inflict Darkness on the bosses as Estarossa's unique allows Darkness to be inflicted on enemies whenever a demon and/or Commnadment damages a enemy as Cusack's race is a demon so it will allow Darkness to stack much faster and be able to stack it in Floor 1 Phase 4 since the boss has high protection in that phase.

Red Demon - Cusack thrives in this boss battle because he has two single target cards that deal immense damage to the boss and an attribute advantage. Just because his passive is restricted to PVP does not mean he can’t perform well in hell mode Red Demon.

**Training Grotto** - He is mainly used as a counter to Strength-type (Red) Illusion Ambers, especially against Level 3 stages. He is also effective against [Red Amber] Bishop of Love, [Red Amber] Frenzied Giant, and [Red Amber] Explosive Giant.

## Story

Cusack is one of the highest-ranked demon of the Demon Clan as well as Zeldris' former master. He and Chandler were once a single entity known as the "Original Demon".

The "Original Demon" was created by the Demon King as his most trusted retainer. Acknowledging his own immense power, the demon rebelled against the Demon King only to be dealt with and punished. For rebelling against the Demon King, the "Original Demon" had it's body and soul split in two, and was tasked with the duty of being instructors to the two demon princes to become candidates for the throne of the Demon King.

Like Chandler's attachment to Meliodas, Cusack is very much attached to his student, Zeldris, expressing the utmost confidence and loyalty to the Demon King's second son. This extends to the point that he believes Zeldris to be worthy of reigning the Demon Clan next instead of Meliodas. This attachment led him to express complete anguish and shame along with rage when he ranted about how he failed to protect Zeldris when Meliodas pinned him down upon his arrival to Camelot.

Source: https://nanatsu-no-taizai.fandom.com/wiki/Cusack