Updated pre-RR3.
Hong Lu has some strong competition for his IDs, having some of the best sweepers in the game across a variety of content. He also has the K Corp ID, the best tank for rupture teams. Tingtang Hong Lu has very high clashing power, alongside great damage when paired with a bleed team. I would say that his damage IDs are all in competition for a slot on a bleed team, so that’s what our scale of comparison will be.
Why Tingtang Hong Lu?
Tingtang Hong Lu vs Kurokumo Hong Lu is a strange debate dating back to the game’s launch. Cloud Cutter is a great ability, but it creates anti-synergy with a bleed team. Both on-paper and in-game, Cloud Cutter simply doesn’t reuse it’s coins on a bleed team, throwing away the main attraction of Kurokumo’s kit. Kurokumo also simply has too little damage and too low clash power for higher end content.
Hook Office Hong Lu?
The best argument I could make is for this position to be given to Hook Hong Lu, one of my favourite IDs. Great clashing power, decent bleed application and % scaling damage on his skill 3 are all great selling points. Due to this being a speculative team however, I think I’m gonna choose the more consistent option with Tingtang. This is mainly due to the potential for the enemies in RR3 to be too fast, if you have to apply multiple stacks of Bind or Haste to see the bonuses from Hook’s skills – it simply won’t be worth the effort. I will update this if my theories are wrong however.
Table of Contents
Skill 1 – Throat Slit (Envy)
13 Power. 1 Coin.
A middling skill honestly, solid bleed potency application and above average clashing power. The envy resource is great, providing some much-needed support for bleed teams and EGO such as Hex Nail.
Skill 2 – Shank (Lust)
18 Power. 3 Coins.
One of the best skills in the game, hands down the main reason for this pick. A flat +3 damage on coins 1 and 2 are decent, especially for enemies strong to pierce. The strengths of this skill come in its passive 20% bonus damage if the target has 7+ bleed, as well as the reuse and bonus damage on coin 3.
If it rolls Heads, it deals 50% bonus damage and if the target has less than 25% health, Shank reuses the coin and deals a further 50% damage on heads. A great skill for finishing tough-to-kill and scaling bosses, like we’ve seen with Steam Machine from RR2.
Skill 3 – Mutilate (Gluttony)
30 Power. 1 Coin.
All or nothing, You’re either hitting a 5 and instantly losing the clash, or a 30 and instantly winning. While I was hoping for its kill chaining effect to be increased further with Uptie 4, I can’t complain. A static +7 damage on heads is alright, but the real beauty comes from scoring a kill or part break.
Mutilate holds the top spot for on-kill effects, just in front of Pirate Gregor’s plus coin boost. If you part break or kill your target, Mutilate rolls again, dealing double damage as well as 50% bonus damage if the new target has 10+ bleed potency. On this team, if we see an encounter similar to T Corp from RR2, Mutilate can serve as a godsend.
Passives & Defense Skill – Gaiety, Gambit & Evade
Passive Rq. 2 Gluttony Res
Hong Lu heals 2x Gluttony resonance in SP next turn. It’s a great little passive for maintaining and building sanity on arguably the most important ID to have 45 sanity on.
Defense Skill – Evade. 16 Power. 1 Coin.
A gluttony affinity evade with 1 coin and 16 total power, giving a +2 if the target has 5+ bleed. On evade, Hong Lu heals 3 SP – making this a perfectly fine defense skill if need be.
Special Note – Gambit (5 Gluttony Owned)
Tingtang Hong Lu’s support passive. This is a top 3 support passive, no question. The highest SP ally deals 20% bonus damage with Heads coins. Very simple, very effective. It’s a damn shame that Hong Lu has so many good IDs and is used in like 80% of teams because this is a game changing support passive.
EGO Choices
For EGO, Hong Lu doesn’t really have any synergistic options. Land of Illusion, Roseate Desire and Dimension Shredder sit at the top, Roseate Desire is decently useful if we’re fighting enemies with good counter skills. Land of Illusion allows for slightly better SP economy, giving access to some more EGO-intensive team strategies in later parts of RR.
Dimension Shredder comes with 1 Fragile, which is decent. The main use-case I can predict in this team is for the potential one-shots we might see, being countered by the mini K-Corp passive. Dimension Shredder’s Passive revives Hong Lu if he dies with Charge Count, giving a slight heal (up to 25% max health). It’s decent, but nothing to crutch on.
