Onmyoji players have long worn a badge of honor: this game doesn't force you to pull duplicate characters (known as 'constellations' or 'stones' in gacha slang) to unlock full skill functionality. Skill upgrades use black eggs, which are farmable through multiple channels. Compared to the sea of gacha games that gate power behind dupes, Onmyoji was considered generous. Well, the Zen dev team just torched that reputation with a single new SP shikigami.
Meet SP Morning Light Ebisu. On paper, her kit looks solid: she can transfer her own 4-piece Soul set effect to an ally, and when casting on a target already under the transfer, she instead cleanses all crowd control and grants them a bonus turn. Sounds great, no dupes needed — except the devil is in the 'casting on an existing target' part.
Through player testing, a brutal truth emerged: the Soul transfer effect only lasts 1 turn and **expires before Ebisu's next action**. This means with a single SP Ebisu, after you apply the transfer to an ally, by the time she takes her next turn, the effect is already gone. You can never trigger the 're-cast → bonus turn' interaction with just one copy.
The conclusion is devastating: **you must field TWO SP Ebisus simultaneously**. The first one applies the Soul transfer to an ally, and the second one re-casts on that same ally to trigger the bonus turn. This isn't a bug — it's baked into the design. The official trial stage literally runs double Ebisu as the default setup, confirming it's 100% intentional.
Players did the math: two max-skilled SP Ebisus require 24 black eggs total, and they occupy 2 of your 5 team slots. A top-voted comment puts it bluntly: 'The team only has 5 slots, and you're giving 2 to ONE character?' Another adds: 'In the future, Zen will have plenty of chances to release dupe-dependent characters with higher power levels — this negative-one-constellation mechanic is just a畸形 (deformed) precedent.'
The term 'negative-one constellation' (负一命) is a community-coined phrase for this situation — Onmyoji never needed dupes, but now players feel like not pulling a second copy means they're 'missing a constellation.' One commenter nailed it: 'This shikigami is basically free for most players — they can claim it tomorrow by logging in. The devs didn't want to give it real power, but they still wanted revenue, so they pulled this stunt.' But someone immediately hit back: 'It's NOT free — Fate Tickets cost real money to pull. The devs want to have their cake and eat it too.'
The community is split on whether this is stupidity or malice. Some argue it's just 'dumb design' — a result of zero playtesting and thoughtless implementation. Others break down the mechanics: 'Ebisu's skill transfers the Soul effect before her next action, so a single Ebisu can NEVER re-cast on an ally still under the transfer.' In other words, the kit is mathematically locked into requiring a duo.
But veteran players are throwing cold water on the outrage: 'There are barely any scenarios where you'd actually want two SP Ebisus.' For short fights, better comps exist; for long fights, there are plenty of support alternatives. Others point to history: 'Ever since SP Miketsu, Onmyoji has been very cautious about allowing duplicate shikigami on the field — every time someone finds an infinite loop in testing, it gets nerfed in the next patch.'
Some players have even started memeing by theorycrafting a '4-Ebisu infinite loop' comp: Ebisu 1 and 2 buff Ebisu 3 and 4, then 3 and 4 buff each other in perpetuity. It technically works, but 'climbs ranks slowly, costs a fortune, and has too many weaknesses to count.'
Bottom line: Zen used a seemingly free SP shikigami to plant a seed of anxiety — 'pull two or your kit is incomplete.' Onmyoji's 'one copy is enough' reputation, built over years, just got demolished by its own devs. Whether this translates into revenue depends on how many players are willing to swallow what one commenter perfectly described as: 'One turd doesn't taste good — roll two together with some sugar and suddenly it's edible?'
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