Hyoh

Hyoh (ヒョウ) also known as Hyoh of the Delta Star is a character, summonable unit in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and a member of The Orders, ranking fourth in the organization's hierarchy. He is a major antagonist during Season Two, serving as a recurring rival to Lasswell.

Appearance
Hyoh is a mysterious man clad in futuristic suit of black armor with an equally dark helmet lightened with a red visor, although strands of short blond hair are still visible. In combat, he wields the Ultima Weapon armament, a reddish energy blade Greatsword reminiscent of a lightsaber. The identity behind the mask is a mystery.

Personality
Hyoh is at large stoic and silent, and only speaks as much as is needed. He dislikes displaying his strength flamboyantly and only prefers to fight when absolutely required. He has great respect for Raegen and his history as a hero on Paladia. He is also shown to dislike unnecessary murder and only sticks to killing those who he deems worthy.

Hyoh believes that true strength comes from discarding everything for the sake of power, which shows his incredible resolve.

Although usually detached, he doesn't seem to have any problem interacting with his fellow Orders comrades as seen with Nagi.

Background
Hyoh's origins are a mystery to nearly everyone. The only thing that is known is that he was capable of quickly climb through the ranks and reach the position of Delta Star within The Orders, making him the fourth most powerful member, and all of that in record time.

Georl
When Lasswell's party ventures in Paladia to search for the missing Rain, Raegen separates from Lasswell and leads the revived Sworn Six of Paladia in order to confront the Emperor of Aldore and end his cruel tyranny. Hyoh is then summoned by the Emperor along several high ranking Orders to stand guard and fight their predecessors.

As the Sworn Six arrive near the Emperor's Chamber, Hyoh and the Orders await for them. Hyoh shares his praise for Raegen having read about him in the past, being heralded as a hero of legend in Paladia and eager to have him killed in combat so as to honor his fame.

The two combatants fight each other and injure each other, but Hyoh manages to gain the upperhand and swipe at Raegen, tossing him from the stairs as the remaining Sworn Six are overpowered by The Orders. Hyoh approaches to deal the finishing blow.

However, he spared Raegen's life along with the Sworn Six because they were not worth to kill because he only kills those who are stronger or equal as him, a while after, he received another order from his Emperor as his next mission was to kill Lasswell.

Crystallis
Hyoh then appears before the party as he begins his mission of killing Lasswell, until Sol decides to challenge him, claiming he is Rain. Hyoh overpowers Sol but the mad sage rushes at him and the two of them fall from a cliff.

The party then finds both of them and Hyoh fights off Lasswell, the latter admitting that he can feel Rain in Hyoh. Hyoh however declares he is not the Rain they know and to prove his points he attacks Fina with the wound crystallizing her body. He was then confronted by Akstar to buy time for Sakura to use a teleportation spell. Sol is displeased at being unable to fight Hyoh and Lid drags him forcefully angrily stating that Hyoh was not Rain. Annoyed Sol blasts Hyoh with a wind spell which allows Akstar to join the party and teleport away.

Hyoh is then joined by Nagi of the Iota Star who teams up with Hyoh to comply with the Emperors' orders. During the way Nagi states her interest in Hyoh and asks how he became as strong as he is. He gives a sound advice to discard everything she cares for.

At the Energy Extraction Station, Nagi fails to defeat Lasswell's party so Hyoh takes it upon himself to battle. Lasswell and Hyoh duel each other with their battle being reminiscent to the last time Rain and Lasswell battle, making Lasswell truly believe that Hyoh is indeed Rain as they clash with their Mirror of Equity. In a final strike, as both Hyoh and Lasswell go with full power, Lasswell holding strongly to his emotions without doubt is able to unleash the Absolute Mirror of Equity and overpowers Hyoh.

Lasswell then asks Hyoh to admit to his identity but Hyoh strikes back, pushing Lasswell away while making his escape with Nagi.

While wounded a projection of the Aldore Emperor appears and is disillusioned with Hyoh's failure as he had thought the Delta Star had the potential to surpass the Alpha, Beta and Gamma Star. This strikes a chord on Hyoh who in a fit of rage unleashes a great amount of power which pleases the Emperor who expects great results from him.

Hyoh then asks Nagi to help him find a place to tend to his wounds which she does. Later on Hyoh ambushes Lasswell's party by swiftly pushing away both Akstar and Sol and blasting the remainder of the party with a powerful wind spell which leaves them weakened. The party is astonished at his impressive boost of strength and as Lasswell attempts to fight back, Hyoh is intercepted by none other than Rain himself with Hyoh seemingly destroyed.

Gameplay
Hyoh's Job is listed as Orders, his role in combat is Physical Damage. He is a rare summon unit with a base rarity of ★5 and can be upgraded to ★7. He can equip Daggers, Swords, Greatswords, Hammers, Spears, Maces, Fists, Light Shields, Heavy Shields, Hats, Helmets, Clothes, Light Armor, Heavy Armor and Accessories.

Assessment
Hyoh is an effective fighter with both chaining and finishing damage abilities. In fact many of his abilities have the peculiar gimmick of starting as single target chaining moves, and finalizing with an attack that affects all enemies. The damage of his abilities is back loaded, meaning the last strike has the bulk of the strength and thus the one that deals the most damage.

Although he has no innate Dual Wield which is popular amongst physical attackers, this doesn't weaken him as he can utilize his abilities twice a turn, furthermore this makes him very powerful with the True Doublehand build if available.

He has affinities with Fire and Lightning, being able to imperil both of them by 60%. Also his Limit Burst is an incredibly powerful (x19) chain attack to all enemies.

Battle
Hyoh is faced repeated times as Boss during Season Two, and is fairly strong for story difficulty standards. He will always opens (as a preemptive strike) with Way of the Selfless, Heat Drive and Elemental Power, granting himself ATK/DEF buff, damage reduction and elemental resistance respectively. These buffs grant him solid layers of defense that will make him very much invincible unless removed.

He can employ a plethora of different attacks such as Bladeblitz or Firaja, being capable of hitting all units or striking one unit at a time. His attacks can be dangerous and decimate even a well prepared party.

If debuffed he applies Straighten Up which removes his debuffs, and subsequently buffs himself with three skills mentioned above.

Strategy
Hyoh has high stats and even without his buffs, damage will likely be around few thousand damage each no matter the form of damage chosen. Chains will help in building damage and get past his strong defense, but no matter the approach taken, Hyoh's buffs must be removed if one hopes to damage him.

Xon is an excellent unit to use as he can steal Hyoh's ridiculously powerful buffs for the party's benefits. Although he can be very strong, Hyoh's battle can be trivialized if he is constantly dispelled and debuffed as he will spend his turns in resetting himself to a buffed state without any debuffs, but doing so will cost him the bulk of his moves, making it possible for him to never attack at all.

The player should however bring strong damage dealers with reasonable MP, as even if one follows this tactic, Hyoh can still take some punishment before going down.

Etymology
Hyoh's name can be read as Leopard or Hail.

A leopard is a kind of wild cat of the five species in the genus Panthera, a member of the Felidae. The leopard occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.

Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from sleet, though the two are often confused for one another. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone.

Hyoh's appearance, weapon of choice and behaviour, however, are more reminiscent of the Sith Lords, major antagonists from the Star Wars franchise.