Cook Falsch - October 14, 2018

Name: Cook Falsch

DOB: July 26, ?? (story takes place in 1919)

Element: Fire

Weapon: Metal fist, boomerangs and chakrams (and a boulder)

Playstyle: Statistic/All-range

Maximum Stats (through Soul Triad only, no weapons)

Learnable Active Abilities:

Body

Pushback (initally unlocked) - Inflicts Stagger at close range. Can be customized so that a successful Pushback grants Cook one second of invincibility.

Knockdown (initially unlocked) - Inflicts Knockdown at close range.

Stun Strike - An attack that deals Attack x 1.8 damage and Stun. Can be customized to deal more damage and increase Stun time.

Pummel - Unleash a series of 5 punches that each deal Attack x 0.8 damage. Can be customized to deal more damage and inflict Knockdown on the final hit of Pummel.

Viper Cudgel - A powerful attack that deals Attack x 6 damage. Can have its damage boosted and its damage doubled during the Body Field Effect. [EDIT: As of 2019/08/06, is now Attack x 4]

Mind

Far Shot (initially unlocked) - Cook throws his ranged weapon, and if already thrown, alter its destination to the farthest location in the direction he is facing. Has 1 second of cooldown. Despite being labelled as a Mind ability, it is essentially his second basic attack and does not contribute to the Mind Field Effect. Can be customized so that Far Shot deals more damage after a melee attack, and for a melee attack to deal more damage after Far Shot lands. [EDIT: As of 2019/08/06, is now Attack x 0.5]

Fatality (initially unlocked) - For 8 seconds, Far Shot deals double damage. Can have its cooldown reduced and have it so when Fatality is active, triggering Far Shot when it is out triples its area of effect.

Strength - For 8 seconds, Cook's basic melee attacks and Body abilities deal double damage. Can have its boosted to triple damage.

Provoke - For 8 seconds, all enemies will be forced to target Cook. Can be customized to be 15 seconds under the Mind Field Effect.

Discus Doom - For 8 seconds, the area of effect of Cook's ranged weapon is tripled. Can be customized for shorter cooldown and to boost Defense of allies (but not Cook) it passes through by +25% for 3 seconds.

Fire Siphon

Viper Beam (initially unlocked) - Fires an aimable battlefield-length beam that lasts for 3 seconds. Can have its damage and duration boosted, and if the Fire Siphon Field Effect is active, can be customized to leave a large trail of fire in a straight line on initial triggering of the beam.

Viper Blast (initially unlocked) - Fires a projectile that deals Attack x 2.5 damage and explodes on collision, dealing an additional Attack x 1.5 damage to a large area. Can have its damage boosted, and if the Fire Siphon Field Effect is active, can be customized to create 6 more sets of flames if the explosion makes contact with other battlefield fire.

Field Flame - Creates fire in front of Cook, similar to the Fire Field Effect's flames (unlike the Fire Field Effect's flames, does not hurt non-Fire elemental allies, but does still hurt Fire elemental enemies). However, Cook's flames can be customized to deal higher damage over time than the Fire Field Effect. Can also be further customized for shorter cooldown, have it triple influence towards the Fire Siphon Field Effect and can have it so Cook can spread one more flame per Far Shot triggering if his ranged weapon passes through the flames.

King's Rays - Inflicts Knockdown to a small area at close range. Can have its cooldown lowered and its area of effect boosted by a large amount.

Life Shield - For 8 seconds, Cook gains Defense + 30%. Can have its cooldown lowered and have it restore Cook's HP by 20 on use.

Weapons

Frisblade (default weapon) - Boosts Attack stat by 5% per weapon level (allowing Cook's max Attack stat to reach 75). Like all default weapons, good for practically any style of play.

Blade Boomerang - When Cook deals melee damage with a basic attack to an enemy, his next Far Shot attack is boosted in power. Good for just about any build, as Cook needs to make use of both his melee and ranged basic attacks.

Chakram - When Cook deals damage with Far Shot to an enemy, his next basic melee attack is boosted in power. Good for just about any build, as Cook needs to make use of both his melee and ranged basic attacks.

Burnarang - Boosts the damage of Fire Siphon abilities by 10% per level. In this case, this applies to Viper Beam, Viper Blast and Field Flame, and is invaluable for Cook's Fire Siphon builds.

Boulder - Makes Cook Earth elemental as well as Fire elemental, and both basic melee attacks and Far Shot add to the Earth Siphon Field Effect. Not so much useful for Cook, but for assisting Tara, Pound and/or Brooks with their Earth Siphon builds. Better for Cook's Mind builds, since he can attack at long range while not having to worry so much about moving towards the enemy. Provoke, in particular, is useful here, since the enemies will waste their time slogging through the low move speed sandstorm to cross the battlefield trying to get at Cook. This is great for forcing the Earth Siphon Field Effect, as well, as both Cook's melee attacks and ranged weapon add to it, and Far Shot's high speed and re-damaging bounces make for very quick gains to the Earth Siphon Field Effect.

Sleeparang - While the Mind Field Effect and Fatality are both active, Cook's Far Shot triggering inflict Knockdown. Since Cook's Mind abilities take too long to force the Mind Field Effect himself, this is better when on teams that are better at forcing the Mind Field Effect.

Titan Boomerang - Boosts the potency of Strength and Fatality by up to +50% each when at max weapon level. This is great for Body builds and Body/Mind mixed builds for Cook, and unlike Blade Boomerang and Chakram, this will affect Cook's Body abilities, making it more effective if using them more frequently is a larger part of the player's strategy.

Gallant GCDN-48 - Gives Cook the Assault Drone ability, where triggering Far Shot fires out 8 projectiles that each deal up to Attack x 1 damage at max level. Like most of Cook's weapons, this is good for just about any build, though more effective if multiple enemies are in battle.

Pros

Compared to all other characters, Cook has the best overall stats in The Demon Rush: Legends Corrupt by a long shot, sporting the highest HP, Attack and Defense (though no Combat Movement), giving him great damage output and survivability without relying on Active or Passive abilities. His skill with the basics and fundamentals is even more pronounced, as when he has not used Far Shot to throw his ranged weapon, he deals an additional 50% damage, making him have the highest DPS for basic melee attacks by a long shot, beating out Tara's already high-damage 2nd place by just a little less than double her DPS. However, it is best to make use of Far Shot where possible, as Cook still has the highest basic DPS without it, and he can fight multiple opponents at once at any range as a result. Far Shot is the crux of any of Cook's builds, as his ranged weapon will re-damage enemies if Cook triggers Far Shot again (1 second cooldown), or if it hits a wall or boundary, and the ranged weapon travels very quickly.

As Cook is more strongly attached to the basics of fighting, his builds can be specialized or versatile, with just about any choice of weapon, without any big issues. Strength (Mind) meshes very well with Body abilities and Provoke (Mind) and Life Shield (Fire Siphon) make Cook a very high defense tank for a short time, and can be great when paired with any build.

His Body abilities are very solid and powerful on their own, and should be used when Cook is holding his ranged weapon to take advantage of the +50% melee damage. Though his Body abilities are useful on their own, he can chain Stun Strike -> Pummel -> Viper Cudgel if he specializes in all of his Body abilities; basically Stun Strike should Stun the enemy long enough to have Pummel's last hit inflict Knockdown (as Knockdown overrides Stun) and can have Viper Cudgel take advantage of the +50% Knockdown damage to deal massive damage. Ignoring the Body Field Effect or any other offensive buffs, this scenario would result in damage of output of Attack x 22.2 damage, just off of a hit-confirm with Stun Strike (and this value is even higher with Stun Strike Damage, Pummel Damage and Viper Cudgel Damage/Legend Viper Cudgel passives).

Cook's Mind abilities are more about providing buffs. Strength is fantastic, being able to go up to triple damage (and making the previously mentioned Body ability combo Attack x 66.6 damage), and his ranged weapon can have massive damage and area boosts from Fatality and Discus Doom.

Cook's Fire Siphon set is his overall lowest cooldown ability set, and though the damage output seems less impressive, as his flames do not deal much damage (up to 30 damage per second when Field Flame is fully customized and with the Burnarang equipped at max level), when there are several flames in a small area, the damage-per-second becomes more impressive, especially given Cook's ability to spread flames with his ranged weapon and his ability to create a very large number of flames during the Fire Siphon Field Effect, and Cook can more easily push for this Field Effect than the other Field Effects due to lower cooldowns and Field Flame being able to shift towards the Fire Siphon Field Effect faster.

Cons

A lot of emphasis was put on Cook's incredible skill with the fundamentals, dealing very high damage with basic attacks at any range, all the while packing ridiculously high defensive stats. While he does excel in basic fighting, he has very little that stands out from an advanced point (as an individual or part of a team), and his abilities and weapons, though good, are also quite basic. Unlike Cherry who can excel at nullifying damage for the whole party (despite Provoke/Life Shield's strong combination for Cook), Knight's easy-to-inflict status effects, Alberto's healing, Tara's instant death/cooldown addition, Pound's high damage/wide-area powers, Claire's defense debuffing/Poison/Knockdown, Jimmy's support abilities, Cook has little that stands out for a more specialized role within a team. Even looking at his impressive long-range damage output, Brooks with a Mind-heavy build has him easily beaten there.

His high expertise in the fundamentals is also a necessity, as, outside of his Fire Siphon-heavy build, his cooldown times for his Body/Mind abilities are massive, with a good number of them stretching into the 30-45 second cooldown time range. That massive Body/Strength Attack x 66.6 combo? 45 second wait to use it again if Jimmy isn't around with Beyond Eternity. Even his Strength and Fatality buffs require 45 seconds of cooldown, requiring him to rely far more on the bare basics than his actual abilities.

Trivia

-Cook's playstyle in the original The Demon Rush had his unaltered stats as being like an archetypal knight/warrior character, with massive HP, Attack and Defense, but the worst MP and Speed and second worst Magic (with Brooks having the worst). He still has that massive HP/Attack/Defense in Legends Corrupt (though still not the Magic/MP/Speed, with no Combat Movement boost and long cooldowns), and his max stats were made higher than the rest of the cast to have his canonically being the strongest of the party members from a story standpoint be more of a gameplay presence, and his ability to fight with both melee attacks and his ranged weapon (or holding his ranged weapon to do more damage) also make this stand out more (a playstyle design choice re-used from Dragooned).

-Outside of the Gachduine reference weapon, Cook's new weapons are the Chakram and the Boulder. Despite its appearance, the Boulder has the same hitboxes as Cook's other ranged weapons, but it needed to have its movement's appearance altered from the other ranged weapons so that it rolls rather than spins and is heightmapped to the floor as opposed to just hovering in the air, but is no different mechanically.

-Ignoring Pushback and Knockdown (which every character gets), Cook's only new ability not originating from the original The Demon Rush is Pummel.

-As said in Knight's trivia, some of the original The Demon Rush's abilities were going to be named after tarot cards, but only two remained. Cook's King's Rays was originally going to be called "Sun", and this reference is actually present in Skylight Freerange 2: Gachduine, as the Sun Biomachine had a Passive Competency called "King's Ray" (but not Rays). In the original The Demon Rush, King's Rays inflicted Sleep; since there is no Sleep in Legends Corrupt, Knockdown was used instead as the closest thing to it. In Gachduine, King's Ray helped reduce enemy turns by slowing their Speed Counter at melee range. This King's Rays/Sun reference is noted further again in Legends Corrupt, as King's Rays also has the Sunlight passive to increase the area of effect of King's Rays greatly.

-Outside of the original The Demon Rush, Viper Cudgel was also one of the rare Sledgehammer weapons in the Skylight Freerange series, and sported part of the Viper tail in its design.

-Cook was left-handed in combat in the original The Demon Rush, back when he could choose between Sword/Knuckles/Gun/Boomerang. In Legends Corrupt (and in Dragooned, as well), though he is still canonically left-handed, he fights primarily with his right metal hand, due to his metal right hand not only being a more damaging to slam an enemy with, but if he is to throw and catch very sharp, high speed throwing weapons, it would be better to do so with his metal right hand (as well as it being best that if he is going to punch while holding his sharp ranged weapons, it would be better to use his metal right hand when doing so).