How Good is Costumed Francine? Empires and Puzzles Review
Costumed Francine is a crazy buff on base Francine, so there’s a lot to be excited about. Francine is, of course, part of the Empires and Puzzles Halloween event (Return to Morlovia), and in this review, I’ll be comparing her with her non-costumed counterpart and a few others.
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This post may contain speculation, personal opinion, and adult comedy. It is not advice and is solely for entertainment and informational purposes.
Costumed Francine’s Element, Class, Special Skills, & Talents
Here’s her info:
Element: Nature (Green)
Class: Sorcerer
Mana Speed: Fast
Special Skills (Electric Stab) 1. Deals 225% damage to the target and nearby enemies. 2. Cleanses status ailments from all allies at the end of each turn for 3 turns. This effect can’t be dispelled. 3. All Ice enemies get -54% defense against Nature for 3 turns.
Talent: DELAY ~ +15% chance to drop the mana generation of the enemy by -50% for 2 turns after dealing damage. The effect is applied at the end of the turn.
Family Bonus (Morlovia): 2/3 Halloween Heroes on the same team benefit from a 5%/12% mana generation.
Is Costumed Francine worth Levelling? (Empires and Puzzles)
Yes. She’s a monster.
A couple of days ago, I reviewed Costumed Vanda, explaining that she was my favourite Halloween Hero. But I missed something key -Something that elevates Francine to Deity status.
What’s worse than facing Vanda’s Status Ailment Immunity? Facing Francine’s Status Ailment Cleansing. Why? Because you can’t Dispel Francine’s.
And if you rely on Status Aliments, then facing Francine is going to be problematic.
Let’s compare her to her non-costumed counterpart and a few other Heroes:
| Hero | Mana Speed | Bag Of Tricks |
| Costumed Francine | Fast | Deals 225% damage to target and NB, Cleanses status ailments from allies for 3 turns (can’t be dispelled), & Ice enemies get -54% defense against Nature for 3 turns |
| Francine | Fast | Deals 225% damage to target and NB, Cleanses status ailments from allies for 3 turns, Deals extra damage against Ice. |
| Costume Vanda | Very Fast | Deals 115% damage to all, caster steals 51% of all healing for 3 turns, & all allies are immune for 3 turns |
| Grazul | Very Fast | Recovers 22% health for all allies & All allies are immune to new status ailments for 2 turns |
| Garnet | Ninja x1 Charge | 180 HP for all allies (over-healing if already maxed) & all allies are immune for 2 turns |
| Costume Kadilen | Fast | Deals 170% damage to all, all allies get +45% chance to dodge Specials for 3 turns, & each dodge summons a Minion (15% HP / 15% Attack) |
| Morel | Fast | Deals 180% damage to all & all enemies get -34% defense for 3 turns |
Note: While reviewing these Heroes, it’s important to know what order their Special skills occur. To learn more about Hero Cards, see this post.
Costumed Francine’s Electric Stab
Costumed Francine is clearly an improvement over her non-costumed counterpart. While they share near-identical Specials, the costume is supercharged. The main difference is that C.Francine’s Cleanse is Undispellable (which is no small buff). Also, she actually casts Defense-down for Ice against Nature (but we’ll come back to that).
Next, we have her Halloween partner in crime; Vanda. Defense-down aside, I liked Costumed Vanda’s strike against all enemies and her Very Fast mana speed. But the matter of Immunity is key for me, as neither of them is going to flatten the opposition with their strikes. And an Undispellable Cleanse, surely has to take priority over a Dispellable Immunity?
Still, we have to acknowledge a small window of opportunity presented by Francine, but all things being equal, I’d take Costumed Francine’s Cleansing over Vanda’s Immunity.
Against the others on the list, Costume Francine more than holds her own. She is one of the best Heroes in the game.
Finally, we return to the -54% Defense-down for Ice, against Nature. And this makes Costume Francine even more formidable against Titans, and when in a nature-stacked team.
This version of Francine is epic and does a lot for a Fast mana charge.
Related: Empires and Puzzles Tips
Costumed Francine – Empires and Puzzles Halloween Circus
My final thoughts:
Costumed Francine offers a lot for a Fast charge, and my fear would be seeing her paired with a good mana-booster like Xnolphod. Imagine the loop these two could create.
Now, Francine doesn’t need to be any quicker than Fast. I’m actually concerned with the time after she first fires off because there’s an opportunity to have her charge her mana while protected by her own Cleansing. The goal is to have her fire off again -ASAP. Ideally, keeping the entire team protected by her Cleanse for as long as the battle rages.
And that would be my tip for best utilising her; teaming her with a Mana booster and a solid healer. Because she doesn’t create any healing herself, and lord knows if I see her, I’m gunning for her.
Also, let’s not forget about her Family bonus, which would also help in making her quicker.
I actually think Francine’s non-dispellable Cleansing is OP because managing Status Effects is how a player like me competes with the Top tier. If I can’t make them miss, silence them, or stop them from casting Status Effects, well, I’m in for a long night.
Congrats to anyone who pulled her!
Old Cynic’s Hero Grade: Archangel
[Please always check in-game Hero Cards to confirm details and never chase Heroes]
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Definitely a really good hero. I agree she’s better than Vanda. Francine was good before but now she’s great.
How does Victor compare with Francine and Vanda since Victor was one of the original Morlovia heroes? I noticed both Vanda and Francine have 812 as their power but Victor has a respectable 790 for being an older hero. So far with 30 of 40 hero tokens used I have pulled 2 Victors, Vanda and Frank (although I already had Frank albeit without the costume) and already had Valeria, Jack and Vlad, too.
I actually like Victor and if he were part of another family, he’d really stand out. He does a lot for Very Fast, and has a chance of healing. His stackable ailment looks great on Raids (as you can manage it better), and the defence down at V.Fast is akin to Morel (-34% defense) -making him an option on defense in my mind. That said, sounds like you have 5 better options, but he’d be awesome for many! I do plan to review him but have an eye on the Clash of Knights around the corner… Thanks for stopping by!
needed 2 kills to fill up my pvp chest and I went with mono dark against holy tank team on my last attack with my team of TP lower than 900 points. killed wing by luck and then killed the tank with 3 specials and I was left with 1 dark emblem on the board. did couple of ghost moves and didn’t get anything. when his heroes charged I was dead on 2 moves (Khufu Sobek Bastet sigh)
Anyway opened the chest and what do you know – epic hero token.
So I decided to use it (at this point motivation of saving tokens for a minimum chance of pulling Pengi on xmas event has vanished) and… welcome C.Francine 😀
*I didn’t have many usable nature heroes like 2-3months ago, but had enough spares to get Quenell (best choice ever!). Since I did get her, I pulled: 2x Grace, 2nd copy of Elradir (duh I have one at 80/4 don’t use him anyway, I rather pick epics) Iku-Turso, Lady Locke 2 days ago and today C.Francine (I also have Balbar from before)
Not that I had mats for them, but now I have a dilemma who to do first once the opportunity will arise.
My plan (from last to the first one):
Lady Locke
Balbar(?)
-can’t pick Grace vs Iku-Turso leaning twds Iku cos of water dmg
and C.Francine should be top pick I reckon – also based on your superb review 🙂
Talking about SE and spares I’m seriously considering wasting all my <4/1 heroes on next SE. I'm c2p – can't get any blades to ascend my heroes (I have 10 tomes 0 blades) and it will take me years to ascend all those couple of heroes that I own that are better than s1. By that time I will probably pull their copies anyway (although I still don't have them all despite playing for couple of years lol *was missing Justice and Obakan and pulled 2 Obakans (w/o costume :((() in 1 week 3 weeks ago. I soooo wanted C.Obakan and then they released 2nd costume and now he's one of the best heroes out there 🙂 my dream hero (after Gosek :DDD)
Congrats 🥳 🎉, great timing with Anne now in the mix. I got C. Francine too and am currently trying to level her asap!
Oh, and I have grace. But C. Francine is my priority now! Thanks for visiting!
Completely overlooked costume Francine after I got her. I already have Evelyn who does a lot of similar things. Do you think she is still worth levelling for me? Right now I have enough ascension items for one more green – trying to decide between Costume Francine and Kai. Any thoughts?
Gimme 5, brb.
Ok, C. Francine is great because of her defensive abilities (that reoccurring Cleanse). Plus the hit & the reduced Defense. She is better than Evelyn for that reason imv.
Kai is a brand new, top of the line, fiend based sniper. It depends on what you need. If ailments are hurting, C. Francine. If you’d like a decent chance to off one or two enemies, Kai.
I’m levelling Francine for the Cleanse as well as the hit. Titans are a secondary bonus for me. As you already have Evelyn, the question is, what do ailments mean to you. In time, it would be nice to level them both of course.
It’s a tough choice, but those two points are relevant to your end decision! Kai may be simply more fun as he’s something different. And fun is important too. Sadly, this is not advice, just my 2c. Hope it helps tho.
And thanks for reading!
Thanks for the reply, you make some excellent points that I hadn’t considered. I also got Costume Alberich….Slow…yes, but his skill set is pretty awesome as you know. So…I am actually trying to decide between Kai, Costume Francine and Costume Alberich. Probably going to be one of the Costumes. Just have to level up Khepri first!
Which emblem path would you take?
It’s a tough one because she doesn’t hit that hard as it is. I always try to go Health/Shield so that doesn’t help. I explain my thoughts here, but if you want more bite, you might wanna go ATK.