Manato Best Builds, Teams, Guide & Review

Manato is a Fire Rupture Agent who - despite being an A-Rank - can match or even exceed the damage output of S-Ranks.

He fully showcases the identity of the Rupture role by making use of his own HP as a resource, and being unique as the only character that does not generate any Energy/Adrenaline passively.

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Core Passive: Mighty Molten Edge

As with all Rupture Agents, Manato's matching elemental attacks (Fire) will ignore all enemy DEF and scale with Sheer Force instead of Attack, which itself is converted off Max HP at a rate of 1:10.

Manato's Enhanced Basic Attack, Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash, and his Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang both consume HP if Manato is over 30% HP - 3.5% and 2% respectively.

To play Manato effectively, his HP should be kept above 30%, as Core Passive: Mighty Molten Edge provides 50% CRIT DMG and 100% Adrenaline Generation bonuses to those attacks when they consume HP. This is not just more damage, but key to managing his resources due to him having a 0 passive Adrenaline Generation rate.

Although Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang consumes HP with every use, Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash can only be accessed if Manato is in the Molten Edge state.

During this state, he gains a flat 10% CRIT Rate and 20% Fire DMG Bonus to all attacks. It is only in Molten Edge that Manato gains access to his singular EX Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Fall.

To enter Molten Edge, Manato must build 75 Blazing Heart points. These are tracked via the gauge under his portrait and have a cap of 100. Once the 75 points are built, Manato automatically enters the Molten Edge state and the gauge will begin decaying at a rate of 3.3 Blazing Heart per second.

Blazing Heart can be built either by landing a Defensive Assist: Lone Shadow - Mountain Stand - which will immediateluy generate 75 points - or by holding down  to access Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Sacrifice, which will sacrifice up to 10% of Manato's HP to build 10 points for every "theoretical "1% sacrificed.

"Theoretical" as HP consumption will only take place while Manato is above 30% HP, however even if there is no HP that can be sacrificed, Blazing Heart points are still generated.

Additional Ability: Rekindled Heart

To sustain the steep HP spend from Basic Attacks and Assists, Manato can make use of Remnant Flame stacks, granted by Additional Ability: Rekindled Heart.

It needs either a Stun or Support Agent in the team, and it will generate 4/8 Remnant Flame whenever Manato's Chain Attack: Blazing Eruption/Ultimate: Musou Aratama are used.

The stacks last 60 seconds and have a cap of 20, being automatically used up whenever Manato consumes HP with his attacks, restoring 2% of his HP per stack.

As Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang consumes 2% HP per attack, this makes it effectively a net-neutral move in terms of HP spend, whereas Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash's 3.5% consumption means Manato would still lose HP, but at a much slower pace.

Skill Overview

As Remnant Flame can only sustain or slow Manato's HP loss, he has other ways of healing as part of his kit. To go through all skills:

Basic Attacks

Manato has 3 variants of Basic Attacks.

Basic Attack: Blazing Wind Slash, which deals Physical damage and therefore does not scale with Sheer, making it a terrible skill.

Basic Attack: Blazing Wind Slash Scorchwind, which deals half Physical and half Fire damage. It can be triggered by pressing  Special Attack at just the right time. Despite it being an interactive mechanic, this is also not worth using, as it does not consume any HP.

Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash, which deals purely Fire damage and is the only Basic Attack usable while Manato is in the Molten Edge state. Until M2, this will be Manato's likely primary source of damage and Adrenaline Generation.

Assists

Defensive Assist: Lone Shadow - Mountain Stand is a unique Defensive Assist as it is the first to outright deal damage to enemies when blocked. Attacks that lead to multiple parries at once will lead to multiple instances of damage.

As it recovers 75 Blazing Heart, it's Manato's primary method of maintaining Molten Edge mid-fight.

Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang is a shoulder tackle into a slam, which can be extended up to 7 times for 8 slams total, ending with a swing finisher.

This is better than Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash as far as damage scaling and Adrenaline Generation goes for the time spent (in addition to being net neutral to HP when using Remnant Flame), and although the description claims it reduces damage taken by 60%, in practice it gives full invincibility.

Quick Assist: Lone Shadow - Regroup is an unremarkable attack and does what it needs to.

Dodges

Dash Attack: Radiant Blade - Zanshin should never be used, dealing low amounts of Physical damage.

Dodge Counter: Radiant Blade - Battle Sweep is another unremarkable attack. It should rarely be used after M2, as at that point Manato should be able to go into Assist Follow-Ups after  Special Attack counters.

Specials

Special Attack: Return to Ashes is an upwards slash that deals negligible damage, activated by tapping  Special Attack. It has a unique counter property, where Manato still takes damage while executing it, but at a 40% reduced rate. If an enemy hits Manato during its active frames, he will restore 10% of his HP, with a 20s cooldown.

Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Sacrifice is activated by holding down  Special Attack. As mentioned before, it generates Blazing Heart, and it has the same counter and healing properties as its tap variant, with shared cooldowns for the healing.

EX Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Fall is activated by tapping  EX Special when Manato is both in the Molten Edge state and has 80 Adrenaline. The skill has a significantly high damage modifier (especially for a Rupture Agent), being over 1,500% at Level 12, and it has the added benefit of healing Manato for 33% of his HP. This is his primary healing ability and the way he recovers HP lost from attacks.

Note that if Manato is in the Molten Edge state, he is unable to use regular  Special Attacks, as  EX Special will take priority!

Chains & Ultimate

Both Chain Attack: Blazing Eruption and Ultimate: Musou Aratama are straightforward, high burst damage attacks. As they give Remnant Flame, doing 2 Chain Attacks into Ultimate is part of Manato's standard combo.

Most of his damage takes place in stun via these 2 skills, so although they are simple, it is important to maximise their use in fights. Be wary though, as using Chain Attacks close to a wall can lead to bugs where Manato will either be too far to link into attacks afterwards, or miss the Chain Attack entirely.

1. Core Passive
2. Ultimate | Basic Attack | Assist
3. EX Special
4. Dodge

Reasonings

Core Passive: Mighty Molten Edge is what gives Basic Attacks and Assists CRIT DMG and Fire DMG increases when using up HP, all the while also giving Manato higher Base ATK and HP %, all of which are big increases for his total damage output.

Ultimate, Basic Attack, Assist and are the main damage dealing skills. With most damage happening in-stun Ultimate is always important as it also improves Chain Attacks.

It should be levelled alongside Basic Attack if under M6 or Assist if at M6.

EX Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Fall has a very high damage multiplier, but as it costs 80 Adrenaline and Manato has no passive regeneration, it's a good boost but not as important as others.

Dodge is rarely used, as from M2 onwards, Manato should just be making use of Special Attack: Return to Ashes to counter and go straight into Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang instead.

Rupture Agents are lacking in W-Engine options, but Manato's signature is incredibly strong and highly accessible, leaving him in a great spot.

Grill O'Wisp

Grill O'Wisp (P5) provides:

• 25% HP
• 24% Fire DMG Bonus
• 25% CRIT Rate for 5s after losing HP

For most A-Ranks, their best-in-slot weapons are usually other S-Rank characters' signatures, but not for Manato. Having a good main stat and an unconditional Fire DMG Bonus make it great, but a whopping 24% CRIT Rate on top solidifies it as the superior option.

As Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash and Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang are always being used and consuming HP, the CRIT Rate buff should have near 100% uptime.

It does demand some adjustments to in-stun rotations: namely using Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Sacrifice between Chain Attacks so as to refresh the buff, but besides that there is little conscious effort needed to get full value from it on Manato.

Qingming Birdcage

Qingming Birdcage (P1) provides:

• 30% HP
• 20% CRIT Rate
• Up to 16% Ether DMG Bonus
• Up to 20% Ultimate and EX Special Ether DMG Bonus

Being a feature character's signature, it benefits from a higher than average Base ATK stat - except that as Rupture Agents scale with HP far more than ATK, the difference between it and Grill O'Wisp does not amount to much.

It gives 5% more HP, but as the Ether DMG Bonuses are unusable on Manato, sacrificing 4% CRIT Rate and 24% Fire DMG Bonus means it's just barely better than a P1 Grill O'Wisp and can't compare to it at P5. A decent filler weapon and stat-booster to hold one through until phases are obtained on Manato's signature.

Other Options

The only remaining options are:

• Radiowave Journey
• Puzzle Sphere

Radiowave Journey is the better option, as Puzzle Sphere has an ATK % main stat and needs low HP to increase EX Special damage. Since EX Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Fall heals Manato before damage occurs, it will rarely (if ever) benefit from the bonus, and the CRIT Rate buff only lasting 12 seconds means it might not last for a whole stun combo if used early.

To be fair, Radiowave Journey isn't much better - Manato wants to double Chain Attack, but refreshing M6 buffs would entail using Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang before Ultimate. As the Sheer Bonus is too good to pass up on, it'd alter combos to prioritise using Ultimate after Chain Attack so that the Assist Follow-Ups benefit from the buff.

Even a P1 Grill O' Wisp would be better than either, so that'd be the priority.

Stats

D4 - CRIT DMG | CRIT Rate

D5 - Fire DMG Bonus | HP %

D6 - HP %

A rather straightforward lineup of stats for Rupture Agents. D4 would only ever be CRIT Rate if using Radiowave Journey, as Grill O'Wisp, Qingming Birdcage and Puzzle Sphere all provide enough of it to support a CRIT DMG Disc.

Although Manato does have a lot of DMG Bonuses (20% from Core Passive: Mighty Molten Edge, 20% from M1, 15% from M6, 24% from Grill O'Wisp), it still pulls out ahead of HP %. The difference is small, so an HP % Disc with better substats or endgame buffs that provide more DMG Bonus would shift the balance. Either way, both Fire DMG Bonus and HP % are fine choices.

No option other than HP % for D6.

Drive Discs

Unfortunately, Manato does not have a good 4-piece Drive Disc set to use.

Woodpecker Electro and Hormone Punk do not perform well due to the inefficient 30% ATK to Sheer conversion.

Most of his damage comes from Ultimates, Chain Attacks and Assist Follow-Ups, so even with Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash, Dawn's Bloom isn't contributing much.

Inferno Metal is the best set, but Manato alone cannot sustain enough Burns to make it worthwhile, even when paired with other Fire Agents like Ju Fufu. Bosses like Wandering Hunter also have high Anomaly thresholds, so despite having Fire Weakness, it won't be inflicted with enough Anomalies to make the set good.

So all that is left with is Yunkui Tales. Due to the high Adrenaline cost of EX Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Fall, it isn't possible for Manato to maintain stacks of it outside of stun. This isn't too bad as most damage is dealt in stun, so one EX Special followed by double Chain Attacks is enough to max out the buff for all Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang uses in a combo.

It does make it all the more important to have enough Adrenaline for stun, but it's the most consistent set available despite it not being ideal.

Manato's teams are going to be a shell of:

• Manato | Stunner | Support

Supports

It is possible to run double support, such as Pan Yinhu | Lucia, Pan Yinhu | Astra Yao or Lucia | Astra Yao, but this is not recommended.

As Basic Attacks and Assists are constantly consuming HP, Manato needs a fast turnaround of stun cycles to be able to restore Remnant Flame stacks through Chain Attacks and M6's bonus when Special Attack: Return to Ashes hits stunned enemies.

Without it, he will struggle to maintain his HP and lose out on bonuses from Core Passive: Mighty Molten Edge, so fast stuns are a necessity.

Other supports (like Nicole, Rina, Lucy, etc.) fall short on Rupture teams, as they either deal with DEF Shred, PEN, or ATK, which has no or limited effect respectively.

Stunners

There's a lot of flexibility in which Stunner to use.

Ju Fufu is the best choice: being an Aftershock stunner, Manato gets the time he needs to on-field and build resources. With so much of his damage coming from Ultimates and Chain Attacks, the buffs from Core Passive: Fu-rocious Might are very strong and the higher Decibel cap and refund makes it easy to have Ultimate for every stun.

Trigger is a strong pick even without Additional Ability: Silver Lantern's Gaze active or Spectral Gaze, as her raw damage buffs and personal contribution are competitive. It also opens up the ability to use an Impact W-Engine, which makes up for the loss of Daze from her Additional Ability.

Pulchra is a viable A-Rank choice if at M6, being a low commitment Aftershock stunner and working with Rupture Agents. Koleda does well too, as her Chain Attack DMG increase helps and she offers significant Daze with little field time required.

Qingyi can work as well. It can be difficult to play with her as Manato may struggle with Adrenaline generation, but he can still come in via Defensive Assists out of Qingyi and benefit from constant Blazing Heart refills as a result.

Lighter can work, but would only ever be worth using with Orphie & Magus, as Lucy and Caesar do not offer enough to Manato. It can be a surprisingly effective team if Zeroed In and team Ultimates are well managed, but would still fall far behind any Lucia comp.

Mindscape 1

Drifter's Rules of Survival provides:

• Up to 20% Fire DMG Bonus to Assists and Basic Attacks, accumulating with Manato's lost HP (0.4% DMG Bonus per 1% HP lost).

At first it may seem like this Mindscape needs Manato to always stay below 50% Max HP to max out the buff, but "accumulating" is the key word here. Once HP is lost, it builds towards the buff and this is not lost for as long as the stage is not reset.

So once Manato has lost 50% HP, he will have the buff until he exits the instance. This can make it worthwhile to pre-cast Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Sacrifice before fights to build early bonuses, but only if it does not mean running out of HP to use in Assists and Basic Attacks mid-fight.

Mindscape 2

M2 Day & Night, Kitchen & Love provides:

• 8% Fire RES Shred while in Molten Edge
• If Special Attack counter is triggered, Manato can transition into Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang.

This is a decisive Mindscape to allow Manato to deal damage out of stun. Without it, he can only access his Assist Follow-Up after a Defensive Assist, having to use Basic Attack: Blazing Wind - Misty Slash as his main damage tool.

Given the higher scaling and more efficient HP consumption of Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang (when using Remnant Flame), it's better to use it over Basic Attacks, and M2 allows for this without needing to swap out and back.

Mindscape 4

Childhood Oath provides:

• 8% Max HP increase
• If Manato takes fatal damage during a Special Attack, he will remain in battle with his HP not dropping below 1, with a 10 second cooldown.

This is mostly a stat-boosting Mindscape, as the Max HP increase provides more Sheer Force. Manato should never be in a position where his HP is so low he'll get killed through a Special Attack counter, however Battle Tower scaling could lead to potential deaths, so this is a useful safeguard.

Keep in mind it does have a cooldown, so Manato can still die while its down.

Mindscape 6

Beyond Dreams of the Past provides:

• 75 Blazing Heart and 4 Remnant Flame on hitting stunned enemies with Special Attack: Return to Ashes (20s cooldown on Remnant Flame stacks)
• Up to 15% Fire DMG Bonus after hitting enemies with Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang (5 stacks at 3% each, 8s).
• After hitting stunned enemies with Special Attack: Return to Ashes, Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang can be used.

It is at M6 that Manato becomes a true powerhouse.

The Blazing Heart generation can help remedy issues where Manato cannot drops off Molten Edge mid-stun, Remnant Flame stacks make it even easier to sustain HP after stun ends.

The Fire DMG Bonus has near permanent uptime as Manato can loop Assist Follow-Ups back-to-back with M2 out-of-stun.

And most importantly, being able to get the high damage scaling and net-neutral HP spend with Remnant Flame from Assist Follow-Ups in stun ensures both higher combo burst and near constant uptime of the Fire DMG Bonus.

Issues and Workarounds

Unfortunately Manato has quite a few issues, namely:

• Special Attack: Return to Ashes has Manato step back, which alters his hurtbox, leading some enemy attacks to miss him.
• Special Attack: Return to Ashes has low priority, so it cannot interrupt other skills. Be careful as Manato will always commit in full to his current animation before transitioning into a Special.
• • Try to use Dodges to interrupt animations if a fast cast is needed.
• Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang will not re-target after the shoulder tackle, so mobile enemies can move out of range.
• Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang's swing has no attacks be considered "finishers" except for the swing at the end, of which every hit is one.
• • This can lead to awkward interactions with Aftershock Agents who listen to finishers as cues to attack.
• Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang is fully animation locked (as is the case with every Assist Follow-Up). This means that Manato cannot use other skills (with the exception of Ultimate) or swap to other Agents while executing it.
• • He can, however, dash cancel out of all hits except the finisher swing, and doing so will break him out of the animation-lock. Keep this in mind for situations where a fast swap is needed.
• Chain Attack: Blazing Eruption's attack is determined by Manato's starting position on cast. This means that when close to walls - be them beside, in front or directly behind - Manato can end up too far away from enemies his and teammates' attacks to land after. In rare cases, the Chain Attack itself can miss entirely.
• • Try to avoid being near walls if possible, but this is very difficult in practice. If it seems likely that Manato is too far, prepare to either briefly dash forwards before attacks and look to make use of long-range ally skills to trigger Chains just in case they're too far on swap.

Be mindful of the above when playing him and adjust accordingly.

Gameplay Approach

When starting a fight, it's worth it to spam Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Sacrifice a few times to drain Manato's HP to pre-built the M1 Drifter's Rules of Survival buff.

Don't do it too often though, maybe thrice or twice, sometimes even just once to enter Molten Edge and no more. This is because until Manato has built Remnant Flame stacks, he will lose HP quickly while attacking, and its better to build the DMG Bonus from M1 through attacks than having it fully built but getting no enhancements from lack of HP consumption.

This is important when going into stun periods too, as Manato will want to have some kind of HP consumed before going into Chain Attacks to maintain the Grill O'Wisp buff.

When out-of-stun, the rotation is simple: prioritise using Special Attack: Return to Ashes at least once every 20 seconds for its healing and a shortcut into Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang. If the enemy isn't attacking, just spamming Basic Attacks will do.

There's no harm in swapping to other units to expend their resources and - where possible - getting Defensive Assists back to Manato for more Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang and a nice Blazing Heart restoration bonus.

Remember that as Manato has no passive Adrenaline generation, using as many Basic Attacks and Assist Follow-Ups is important to build resources to get access to his EX Special before stun begins.

Things can get tricky if too much is built early, as this means that Manato can now no longer use Special Attack: Return to Ashes (it will always prioritise the EX Special if enough Adrenaline is in stock). Try to time it so that he has 80 Adrenaline around the same time that the enemy is about to go into stun.

If possible, try to use Assist Follow-Ups shortly before to max out the M6 Beyond Dreams of the Past buff as stun begins.

When in-stun, open with an EX Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Fall just as the bar turns rainbow and the Stun DMG Multiplier is active. From there, swap to another character and trigger a Chain Attack just as all hits from Manato's EX Special connect.

From there, do one Chain Attack: Blazing Eruption and after, use Special Attack: Return to Ashes - Sacrifice for only a split second - enough to lose some HP and refresh Grill O'Wisp - then swap to another character and trigger another Chain Attack back to Manato.

Before going into Ultimate: Musou Aratama, use Special into Assist Follow-Ups to max out the M6 buff. If there isn't enough time in stun to get all hits of the Assist in, that's fine, as much of the Ultimate damage is backloaded, so the priority is to get all of its hits in.

Be mindful that Lucia will only Aftershock on "finisher" hits, and only the very last swing of Assist Follow-Up: Lone Shadow - Breaking Fang counts as one. This means that Dreamer's Nursery Rhyme can fall-off halfway during stun, so quickly check buff timers and make sure to allow enough time to land at least one hit of the swing so that its refreshed in full for the Ultimate.