Orphie & Magus Best Builds, Teams, Guide & Review

Fundamentals & Bottled Heat

Gameplay Style

Orphie & Magus is an Aftershock unit, both in the traditional sense and in regards to damage type.

Whenever an ally attacks an enemy and Orphie is off-field, she will perform an Aftershock attack with a 5 second cooldown. This is either Special Attack: Corrosive Flash orEX Special Attack: Crimson Vortex, which changes depending on the amount of energy she has.

If she has more than 60 energy, 30 is consumed to use the EX Special variant. Otherwise, the standard  Special is cast, with no enegy being used up.

Additionally, most of Orphie's attacks are treated as Aftershock damage, even if they are used while she is the active character. The only skills that do not deal Aftershock damage are Dodges, Assists and her non-Fire Blade Basics.

Bottled Heat

Whenever an Aftershock attack is used - regardless of variant - Orphie will generate 20 Bottled Heat. This is tracked via the gauge under her portrait, having a cap of 125.

Generation is not exclusively dependent on Aftershocks, as many other skills build Bottled Heat.

EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step

Pressing the  button when Orphie has 30 or more energy as the active character will have her fire a beam in a straight line and generate 20 Bottled Heat.

The skill does not need to hit enemies to generate Bottled Heat, and although the damage of this skill is low compared to her Aftershocks, it is still worth using.

As Orphie will Aftershock every 5 seconds regardless of energy, the damage of one regular  Aftershock followed by a EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step is greater than that of a single EX Aftershock - all the while building twice as much Bottled Heat and doing significantly more Daze and Anomaly application.

So despite being an Aftershock character, this does not mean Orphie is always played as an inactive, "set and forget" type character. Swapping into her between Aftershocks for the occasional hardcast EX Special use can be optimal, so long as it is not detracting from more damage gains by on-fielding other characters.

On Seed teams, using EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step is even more important, as Orphie may overcap on energy without doing so.

Note that pressing Basic Attack after it will shortcut to the Fire Blade portion of Basic Attack: High-Pressure Flamethrower. This can be useful at building energy, but isn't always worth using due to the extra time that needs to be spent on Orphie.

Chain Attack: Overheated Barrel & Ultimate: Dance With Fire

Both skills will build 20 Bottled Heat.

Chain Attack is decently fast and with good values, so it's worth using if time allows during stun periods.

Ultimate functions similar to Burnice's - Orphie will do an attack and trigger a Quick Assist. If used, its duration is extended, dealing more damage, Daze and Anomaly.

In practice this means it takes up very little active time, allowing for it to slot seamlessly into rotations and stun combos.

Do note that it has a long casting animation if extended - almost 6 seconds in total - where Orphie cannot be swapped to and will not execute Aftershocks due to being on-field.

Heat Charge

Once Heat Charge is at 100 or above, it unlocks access to a new EX Special Attack: Heat Charge.

This can be acessed by holding down the EX Special button and it functions as a 2-part attack. It has a "low-power phase" and a "high-power phase" - if Orphie is hit in the low-power phase, she will parry enemy attacks and shortcut to the high-power phase.

The high-power phase also has a high interrupt level, with most bosses being susceptible to it.

When using EX Special Attack: Heat Charge, Orphie will trigger a Quick Assist prompt to the next ally and apply the Zeroed In buff to the whole team.

Core Passive, Additional Ability & Zeroed In

Team-wide Buffs

Orphie is of the Attacker role, but she also functions as a Support due to the Zeroed In buff, which provides:

• Up to 700 Attack to all Allies (Core Passive: Taming Wind and Fire)
• 25% DEF Ignore on all Aftershocks (Additional Ability: Forged in Flames, requires Stun or Support Agent)

The Attack bonuses that she gives scales with Energy Regen. Orphie needs an Energy Regen D6, 2-piece effect and W-Engine mainstat to max out the buff.

Even with these, she still has strong personal damage, and her personal energy generation can be helpful with certain allies, such as generating more Steel Charge for Seed or Morale for Lighter.

The buff itself only lasts for 12 seconds, however every hit of EX Special Attack: Heat Charge will re-apply it. In practice, it tends to last 15 seconds.

If there are Aftershock units on the team, then the duration is much greater, as Aftershock attacks will add another 4 seconds to the buff timer, capping out at 20 seconds of extension. Note that it is 20 seconds of extension, not total duration, so it can last for up to 32 seconds total.

Aftershocks only extend the buff for the Agent that used it. So if Orphie does an Aftershock, her own buff duration increases, but her allies get nothing. The result is that agents without Aftershocks are limited to the base duration of the buff, with no way of extending it.

Personal Buffs

Orphie's Core Passive also provides her with personal stat increases, namely:

• 25% Crit Rate
• 85% Aftershock Damage Bonus

These are active at all times and apply to Orphie alone.

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

Reasonings

Core Passive: Taming Wind and Fire takes precedence. It's gives:

• Crit Rate
• Aftershock DMG Bonus
• Team-wide Attack (Zeroed In Buff Scaling)
• Energy Regen

It covers too many aspects of Orphie & Magus' kit for it to not be prioritised.

EX Special is the most important of the skills, as all Aftershocks and EX Special Attack: Heat Charge fall in this category.

Ultimate is strong and has decent utility, especially as it also increases the damage for Chain Attack: Overheated Barrel. Levelling it is the next most consistent increase to damage output.

Basic Attack is useful to level, as the shortcut from a EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step into Fire Blade can help supplement damage.

Assist is good for damage and daze, although not particularly important.

Dodge is very rarely, if ever, used. It's safe to leave this at 1 to save on mats.

Orphie & Magus Signature, Bellicose Blaze, is very strong, as it both increases her own personal damage and is necessary to max out the Zeroed In buff, but she can still do surprisingly well with other weapons - like Heartstring Nocturne - meaning it doesn't come across as mandatory.

Bellicose Blaze

Bellicose Blaze (P1) provides:

• 60% Energy Regen
• 20% Crit Rate
• Up to 30% DEF Ignore

Being the only S-Rank Attacker weapon with Energy Regen, this is a big deal for Orphie. Not just in the sense that it provides her with more resources for skills, but how, without this W-Engine, Zeroed In will cap out at just under 520 Attack, even with Energy Regen D6 and 2-piece set effect.

The passive Crit Rate gain on it makes it much easier to build Orphie, all the while also providing DEF Ignore which scales strongly with the 25% from Additional Ability: Forged in Flames.

Considering that Orphie isn't just providing buffs to the team but does a sizeable amount of damage herself (circa 30-40%~ estimated on a team with Seed), having both benefit means it is a strong weapon overall.

Hearstring Nocturne

Heartstring Nocturne (P1) provides:

• 24% Crit Rate
• 50% Crit Damage
• Up to 25% Fire RES Ignore on Chain Attacks and Ultimates

Evelyn's Signature is a surprisingly strong pick. It is a fair bit worse than Bellicose Blaze, given the lack of Energy Regen, but as Orphie is a Fire Attacker, all of the bonuses from this weapon work for her too.

Chain Attack: Overheated Barrel and Ultimate: Dance With Fire are not particularly strong, so the RES Ignore is not as strong as it would be for Evelyn or even Soldier 11, but it is still significant enough to make it stand out.

The difference between it and her signature is lower than what it usually is for other Attackers, making this a highly competitive option.

Other Limited Attacker W-Engines:

• Severed Innocence
• Myriad Eclipse
• Cordis Germina, Riot Suppressor Mark VI, Deep Sea Visitor, etc.

If neither Bellicose Blaze or Heartstring Nocturne are available, other Limited Attacker Signatures are fine.

Severed Innocence is the best, as Orphie can build up to 3 stacks. Unfortunately, each move can only build up one stack, so Special Attack: Corrosive Flash only gives a  Special stack, not an Aftershock stack, and EX Special Attack: Crimson Vortex has to be used for the Aftershock stack.

In practice 2 stacks is the realistic uptime, but even then it's a step above other weapons.

Myriad Eclipse follows after, having decent base stats. All other options are a little worse, but still valid nonetheless.

Event A-Rank W-Engines

Gilded Blossom (P5) provides:

• 25% Attack
• 9.6% Combat Attack
• 24% EX Special Damage

Among A-Rank options, this would be the strongest, with so much of Orphie's damage coming from  EX Aftershocks and  Watch Your Step.

It does mean trying to avoid regular  Aftershocks so that  EX Aftershocks are used instead for the effect bonus, but overall it's a consistent in its increases.

Marcato Desire (P5) provides:

• 20% Crit Rate
• 9.6% Combat Attack for 8s when  EX Special or Chain Attacks hit enemies
• 9.6% Combat Attack when enemies are under Attribute Anomaly

With the frequent use of  EX Aftershock and low energy cost of  Watch Your Step, Orphie is near guaranteed a constant 9.6% Combat Attack, with a bonus when Anomaly is inflicted.

This weapon can be on par or better than Gilded Blossom depending on context (such as with Lighter and another Fire unit, and/or against Fire-weak enemies).

Cannon Rotor

Cannon Rotor (P5) provides:

• 20% Crit Rate
• 12% Combat Attack
• 200% Attack as DMG Inflicted every 6s when attacking

It has a good main stat and Combat Attack % is always appreciated. Given Orphie's frequent Aftershocks, the damage effect should have high uptime.

Other Options

Without any of the above, there are no good picks left.

Housekeeper's Energy Regen does not apply to Orphie's Core Passive and when she comes in for an Aftershock, that is considered "on-field", meaning the passive stops working.

Starlight Engine will rarely get use, as Orphie is the one that triggers  Quick Assist prompts rather than being the one assisted to (although it can see use with Astra Yao or Nicole comps).

The Brimstone will always have 0 stacks, so it'd just be used for its Base Attack.

Metanukimorphosis has no bonuses either, but at least has Energy Regen and a high Base Attack, so it can work as an alternative.

Other Energy Regen weapons can be used (be it Drill Rig - Red Axis or Kaboom the Cannon - none of the passives would apply to Orphie anyways), but the lack of base stats and effects means they fall short.

Stats

D4 - Crit Damage % | Crit Rate %

This is a straightforward choice, as it's determined primarily by which W-Engines are available.

If using Bellicose Blaze or a Crit Rate Mainstat W-Engine, like Heartstring Nocturne, then Crit Damage is best. If not, then Crit Rate, as Orphie & Magus will likely not have enough.

D5 - Attack % | Fire DMG Bonus

This is dependent on context, such as what team is being used and whether Shiyu or Deadly Assault buffs saturate stats.

• The Combat Attack from Zeroed In saturates an Attack D5 pick, as it is a Flat Attack buff, not %.
• Core Passive: Taming Wind and Fire 85% Aftershock DMG Bonus saturates Fire DMG Bonus, making it less effective.
• Additional Ability: Forged in Flames 25% DEF Ignore plus 30% DEF Shred from Bellicose Blaze destructively interferes with PEN, making it a bad stat.

Generally, Attack > Fire DMG Bonus, with PEN not being worthwhile to run even without Bellicose Blaze.

If, however, there are other Flat Combat Attack buffers in the team, such as Seed and/or Astra Yao, then Fire DMG Bonus could be best. Unfortunately, as Damage % Bonuses are very common in endgame seasonal buffs, it can still fall behind Attack.

Since Seed's Direct Strike and Besiege buffs only apply to active Agents, it means that a significant amount of Orphie's damage will go unbuffed anyways.

As a result, Attack D6 is recommended for most circumstances, but Fire DMG Bonus is still strong depending on context.

D6 - Energy Regen | Attack %

Energy Regen is the natural choice, as Orphie needs it to max out Zeroed In. The standard recommendation is to use it if available.

As it gives Attack, using Energy Regen is providing not only more resources, but also more Attack to both Orphie and all her allies.

Yet Attack D6 can still be a good pick. This is because the Attack gains that Orphie gets from it would be significantly higher than from the Energy Regen conversion via Zeroed In. This may exceed 340 Attack in difference.

That means that when enemy weaknesses or buffs favour Orphie, the personal damage increase could match - or even exceed - the gain in damage contribution from other allies that'd come with the extra 180 Attack on Zeroed In from an Energy Regen D6.

This is especially significant for Seed teams, where Orphie - if not being frequently swapped to to expend energy on EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step - may overcap on energy, lessening the benefits from Energy Regen D6's additional resource generation.

All in all, Energy Regen D6 is the safest pick (in particular for Soldier 0 - Anby and/or on optimised rotations, where the extra resources are well managed), but barring good Drive Disc substats or in fights where Orphie deals a higher proportion of damage, Attack D6 can be competitive.

Drive Discs

There isn't much variety for Orphie Drive Discs. To meet the relevant thresholds, running an ER 2-piece, be it Swing Jazz or Moonlight Lullaby is a necessity, so this will always be used regardless of the D6 slot choice.

Considering that she contributes a significant amount of the team damage - even moreso in Soldier 0 - Anby teams - running her with Shadow Harmony is going to be the best bet in the majority of cases. It significantly increases her damage and makes capping in Crit Rate a lot easier.

However, there is the option to run Astral Voice if using a team that has Astra Yao, as that allows the team to benefit from both Moonlight Lullaby and Astral Voice simultaneously. This can be useful for Seed teams, but as it is reliant on Astra being present, the safest choice is always to use Shadow Harmony and focus on getting good damage stats for Orphie.

Orphie & Magus is an Attacker, but one that functions more like a Support.

Her kit is structured primarily at buffing Aftershock units, which means she will work best with them, but it's possible for her to fill a slot in other teams if no better choice is available.

Best Teams:

Seed | Filler | Orphie & Magus - At first it may seem like there's a lot of anti-synergy between them, as Seed's buffs need Orphie to be the active character. Despite that, Orphie's passive damage still makes her Seed's best partner, and there are ways to bypass active agent limitations (see Additional Tips).

Soldier 0 - Anby | Filler | Orphie & Magus - This team is the one Orphie is tailor made for, with every character's skill playing off each other. Be it the Aftershock buffs S - Anby provides to Orphie and vice-versa, or the fact S - Anby wants an inactive damage dealer to benefit from Silver Star, it all lines up.

"Filler" here would be a Stunner or Support unit. The best options for Orphie are:

Trigger - High personal damage that's further buffed by Orphie and plays off of her kit, with out-of-stun DMG % Multiplier increasing the bulk of Orphie's Aftershock damage in addition to having good DEF Shred synergy from Spectral Gaze.

Ju Fufu - Aftershock stunner that benefits strongly from Orphie's buffs. As Orphie is an Attacker, this means Additional Ability: Aura of Authority's Decibel refund applies to her too, making it much easier to sync up Ultimates with the second damage unit.

As with almost all other units, Astra Yao and Nicole are also very strong picks.

Astra Yao may further saturate Combat Attack, but she can enable the Astral Voice Drive Disc set for greater buff potential on the second damage unit.

Nicole is overall very strong as a result of their stacking DEF Shred, but given Orphie's damage comes predominantly from Aftershocks, just make sure to refresh Core Passive: Mechanical Case with Basics in time.

Alternative Teams:

Orphie & Magus | Lighter | Filler - It is possible to run Orphie as the primary damage dealer with Lighter's support, although this isn't recommended, it is viable. The strength of this comp is less about Orphie, and more about Lighter's Additional Ability: Fighting Spirit being fulfilled, allowing for Rupture units to benefit from his buffs as well.

Attacker | Filler | Orphie & Magus - Given Orphie's Zeroed In buff and general damage contribution, she can also just fill in a support slot on Attacker teams. She could run with Evelyn for example, if better Support units can't be used, like Astra Yao or Nicole. She can even be run with them if no Stunner is available, making for a somewhat effective double Attacker | Support team.

Mindscape 1

Luxurious Cat House provides:

• 20% DMG Bonus to all Agents with the Zeroed In Buff
• 15% Fire RES Shred to:
• • Special Attack: Corrosive Flash
  • EX Special Attack: Crimson Vortex
  • EX Special Attack: Heat Charge
  • EX Special Attack: Fiery Eruption

This is a stat-boosting Mindscape and decently strong. Estimations place it at a personal damage difference of 20%.

In Soldier 0 - Anby | Trigger teams, you can expect a team damage increase of around 10-15%. This is quite sizeable, in large part due to Orphie contributing to at least a third (often more) of the team damage while simultaneously buffing teammates, who then go on to do more damage themselves.

Since Aftershock Agents are able to refresh the Zeroed In buff, this guarantees permanent uptime when well managed. For non-Aftershock teams however, especially those with Seed, it is far weaker.

Without being able to extend Zeroed In, the 20% DMG Bonus will see a lot of downtime. Current non-Aftershock teams can also get highly saturated in DMG %.

For example, Seed with Dawn's Bloom, Cordis Germina and the Fiery Assault Deadly Assault buff would already have 205% in DMG Bonus, making this excessively diluted. If using Astra Yao in a comp with Moonlight Lullaby and Orphie & Magus with Astral Voice, saturation would mean that in practice, it's barely over a 7% increase in damage.

Seed in particular suffers, because the 15% Fire RES Shred does not apply to EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step. As Orphie is frequently swapped to manually to use the skill for Steel Charge generation, it means that her personal damage is also lower than in a team where she can be fully passive.

So overall this is a great Mindscape for Aftershock teams, but rather lacklustre for non-Aftershock teams - especially Seed ones.

Mindscape 2

Weird Food List provides:

• 65 Decibels on landing an Aftershock attack with Orphie (4s Cooldown)
• 20% Combat Attack increase for 45s after using Ultimate: Dance With Fire

Orphie has notoriously bad Decibel generation. Her regular  Aftershocks generate 0 Decibels.  EX Aftershocks give around 57, as does EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step (so in practice Decibel economy is the same regardless of how you choose to spend energy).

Given that these are the only attacks she is performing regularly, it only affords enough Decibels to use 2 Ultimates in most Deadly Assault runs.

The extra Decibel bonus guarantees 3 Ultimates with ease, and the extra Combat Attack is a significant personal damage increase to Orphie. With 45s of uptime, it can be active for 3/4s of a run.

Unlike M1 Luxurious Cat House, this bonus is also granted on EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step - any Aftershock label attack gets it.

The faster generation can help better align resources - Pompey for example, has smoother routing with M2 Weird Food List as Decibels start syncing up with stun periods.

With both M1 and M2 active, Orphie should be doing roughly 40% more damage than at M0, which in many teams would make her become the primary damage dealer in a party, even if not being played actively.

Do keep in mind that this increase is very much dependent on fight routing. Such steep personal damage should, in theory, be providing around 25%~ or so more total team damage, but in practice this can be a lot lower.

Defiler, with constant invulnerability phases, means that Orphie is squandering much of her Combat Attack buff, and good routing with some teams ( Soldier 0 - Anby | Trigger in particular) enables 3 Ultimates without the need for the extra Decibel generation, meaning you'd be looking at little more than a 15% total team damage increase over M0.

So although this is an incredibly strong Mindscape, it is highly dependent on the encounter design, with extended invulnerability phases and alternative Decibel generation methods (be it things like UCC leg breaks or frequent parry strings) diluting its value.

Mindscape 4

Pink Holster provides:

• Increase in the Zeroed In buff duration from 12s to 16s
• 40% Fire DMG Bonus to:
• • EX Special Attack: Heat Charge
  • Ultimate: Dance With Fire

This is either one of Orphie's best Mindscapes, or inconsequential, depending on the team that's being run.

The 40% DMG Bonus is appreciated, further increasing Orphie's personal damage contribution, but with the high DMG % saturation from both Core Passive: Taming Wind and Fire and M1 Luxurious Cat House, the gains here are good but not outstanding.

This is in large part because the bonuses to EX Special Attack: Heat Charge does not apply to its followup, EX Special Attack: Fiery Eruption, so in practice, a little under half of its damage sees no bonuses.

The significant gain comes from the extension to Zeroed In. For Aftershock teams, this does nothing, as Agents should not struggle to maintain full uptime of the buff by extending its duration.

For non-Aftershock teams, this is a significant increase to buff uptime and allows for full uptime on all critical burst periods. Seed in particular sees huge benefits, as Orphie no longer needs to save up Bottled Heat for the start of a stun period.

The longer buff duration means she can use it well before stun begins, then generate resources back in time to refresh it halfway through a combo, allowing for higher burst from both Seed and Orphie.

With far more comfortable routing and a higher ceiling for in-stun combos, this is a great Mindscape for any who plan on using Orphie in non-Aftershock teams.

Mindscape 6

Magic Seed provides:

• Higher interrupt level on the low-power phase of EX Special Attack: Heat Charge
• An extra attack with 250% Damage Multiplier every 0.5s during the laser portion of:
• • EX Special Attack: Heat Charge
  • Ultimate: Dance With Fire
• 10 Bottled Heat Generation when using Fire Blade
• EX Special Attack: Crimson Vortex can be used while Orphie is the active character by pressing  after Fire Blade.

As far as M6s go, this is arguably one of the most significant for any Attacker. It has the potential to fully overhaul how Orphie is played.

The higher interrupt level on  Heat Charge kicking in earlier means its more responsive and much easier to use for advanced techniques, like interrupting Pompey to delay invulnerability of necessary or skipping Typhon jump. It also leads to fewer moments where one may attempt to Defensive Assist or Dodge Counter an attack that gets interrupted halfway as Orphie transitions into the high-power phase. It's a great quality of life upgrade.

Extra damage on  Heat Charge and Ultimate is significant because this isn't a DMG % Bonus or stat that can be saturated, but an extra damage multiplier. It's around 4 hits on  Heat Charge and 5 or 6 on Ultimate. This means that  Heat Charge alone is doing almost 2,000% in damage, being over 2,500% when EX Special Attack: Fiery Eruption is factored in.

More damage works out better because  Heat Charge gets to be used more often, due to the Bottled Heat generation on Fire Blade. That's both more opportunities for burst and higher uptime of Zeroed In.

All of this then gets tied together with the ability to use the EX  Aftershock after Fire Blade while active, being a far better option than EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step for damage while still generating Bottled Heat. This use does not interfere with the 5s cooldown for Aftershocks and it transforms Orphie into a character that can be played as a fully on-field DPS.

This also greatly enhances Orphie's synergy with Seed, as all active uses will also generate Steel Charge.

Assuming all M6P5 teams, Orphie rivals - and at times even exceeds - a full M6P5 Evelyn as a Fire Attacker. Although optimal play would still have Orphie be off-field every 5 seconds to keep the Aftershock cooldown rolling, swapping to her between casts for manual uses of the EX  Aftershock becomes ideal.

Considering how most damage units' Mindscapes are rather weak, the strength of M6 Magic Seed is outstanding.

General Tips

A few tidbits of information that may be worth knowing regarding Orphie's kit:

•  EX Aftershock is a Heavy Attack, which means it can trigger Chains. The regular  Special Aftershock, however, is not.
• EX Special Attack: Heat Charge can be linked before, halfway through or just after a EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step. If well timed,  Heat Charge can initiate right as  Watch Your Step ends, making for a smooth transition useful in stun combos.
• • Alternatively, if used early,  Watch Your Step will still consume energy but barely deal any damage. Energy is only consumed when the attack lands, so either hold to activate it early or wait until most hits have connected before transitioning.
• Be careful with  Heat Charge's delay between low and high-powered phases if no parry is triggered. This may interrupt bosses when you do not expect it, leading to missed Defensive Assists.

Seed-Specific Tips

On the surface, Seed appears to be a bad partner for Orphie, given that:

• No Aftershock attacks means no way to extend Zeroed In and no benefit from the 25% DEF Ignore given by Orphie's Additional Ability: Forged in Flames.
• Zeroed In providing flat Combat Attack saturates Seed's own Combat Attack buffs from Core Passive: Flower Chain Protocol.
• Seed's energy bonuses to the Vanguard can lead Orphie to frequently overcap if she is not swapped into to manually expend energy outside of Aftershocks.
• EX Special Attack: Watch Your Step only costing 30 energy means that Seed needs to go into combos with at least 135 Steel Charge, as after a Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall, even with Chain, Ultimate and one Orphie  EX Special, only 105 Steel Charge is left.
• Steel Charge is only generated by active agents, so  EX Aftershocks do not generate any Steel Charge.
• The Direct Strike and Besiege buffs only apply to active agents, which means Orphie's Aftershocks do not receive any bonuses.

Despite the steep anti-synergy between them, Orphie is still Seed's best partner as of release, with the raw damage that she contributes (regardless of Seed's buff), buff value and high energy availability opening up the potential for more Steel Charge generation.

There is also a way to get Orphie to both generate Steel Charge and benefit from Direct Strike and Besiege buffs on her Aftershocks.

Since her  EX Aftershock only consumes energy upon hitting an enemy, by reacting to the "FIRE" text and swapping to Orphie before it lands, she can have the attack consume energy only after she has become the active agent.

This also has the upside of applying the Direct Strike and Besiege buffs before the attack lands, meaning it benefits in full from its bonuses.

Although this provides a significant increase in potential damage output for Orphie, it is unrealistic to do this consistently.

Even if it is possible to react to every Aftershock, interrupting Seed's  Basic Attacks is often a bad idea due to the high damage multiplier and Steel Charge generation on the last hit of Basic Attack: Chrysanthemum Wheel Dance.

As one can't control when Aftershocks will occur, they may happen at bad times, leading to unintentional  Defensive Assists or coming on halfway during Seed's  EX Specials, Chain Attacks and Ultimates.

This can be partially remedied by making use of  Heat Charge as a way to "reset" timings. Due to the long cast time of the skill, Orphie is nearly guaranteed to use an Aftershock immediately after it ends, making the timing predictable.

So by using  Heat Charge into a  Quick Assist then a Seed  EX Special, it sets up in such a way that the Aftershock happens right after the Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter punch finisher.

Look for opportunities to swap and benefit from the Steel Charge generation and buff gains, but not at the cost of greater gains elsewhere. Instead, do so by setting up guaranteed windows via  Heat Charge and rotation adaptations.