#whb analysis

So, Minhyeok thought that what happened with Gabriel/MC was a dream. Which was also said in the Halloween event.

But this reinforces that Minhyeok died. He sacrificed his life for MC.

Maybe when Minhyeok died he lost his memories relating to angels and heaven, etc. because of the trauma of dying.

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In the Halloween event, Minhyeok meets the three Seraphim. Minhyeok doesn’t show any recognition of them, but they’re acting a bit oddly towards him.

Michael talks about sorrow, attacks Minhyeok, Leviathan saves him, Michael is about to try again, then stares at Minhyeok’s chest where he was cut by Gabriel, and smiles. He says “Now that I see you, I am no longer in sorrow”. Then he leaves.

Minhyeok sees Raphael, who starts the meeting by saying, “Hey, you’re here. Since you’re here, leave that tasty looking head behind”.

Raphael stomps towards Minhyeok, rips his shirt open, stares at and then places his ear to Minhyeok’s chest. Raphael listens, sniffs and licks at his chest. Then he bursts out laughing and smacks Minhyeok into a wall hard enough to leave a hole. Raphael stares and then leaves.

Gabriel shows up and immediately slashes Minhyeok with his scythe, but Minhyeok was fine. Gabriel stands in front of Minhyeok and says, “Ahh? Aren’t you…? Why are you alive? Did I say? That we’ve met?”

Minhyeok: “You! The angel I saw in my dream!? Wait… that wasn’t a dream!"

Gabriel: “Dream? Ahh, you consider it to be…”

Satan attacks Gabriel, who recognizes the situation is now unfavourable to him. He relaxes and looks at Minhyeok with something like a smile. Gabriel says “Did I say? That I’ve never said anything like this before. See you again”. Then he leaves.

Satan explains Gabriel’s scythe and why Minhyeok didn’t die from being cut by it for a second time. The scythe is bound by a rule of God. Anything that it cuts dies. No exceptions.

MC made a contract with Satan in exchange for Minhyeok being brought back to life. Which falls under another rule of God. The first promise must be kept because God liked miracles.

These two rules of God clashed and created a loophole. Since Gabriel’s scythe never needs to cut something more than once to kill it, any cut past one isn’t included in the rule of God, so it doesn’t result in death.

It’s rare for the Seraphim to show up in Hell, except for Gabriel, and even more rare for all three of them to come at once. So, the fact that they all show up when Minhyeok's there is notable.

So, the question is do the Seraphim know Minhyeok in some way or are they simply reacting to Gabriel's scythe scar on his chest?

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Minhyeok suddenly collapses in Chapter 7. And I find it very notable that it shows what’s happening to MC at that moment. They don’t usually check back in on MC during the Minhyeok side stories. So, the fact that Minhyeok collapsed at the same time MC is being strangled to death is suspicious to me.

Minhyeok seemingly collapsed for no reason. There’s nothing physically wrong with him.

The game specifically makes note that Minhyeok touches the back of his neck for some reason.

Minhyeok calls out to his brother and his brother asks who he is, surprising everyone including himself.

Minhyeok is physically fine, and yet he feels heavy.

Minhyeok touches the back of his neck and feels heavy. This could be connected somehow. Something entered through the back of his neck to make him feel fuller? A different soul? Forgotten memories? Angelic energy?

The crucial thing here is that Minhyeok’s brother doesn’t remember/recognize him for a moment. This could be for several different reasons. Like something has so fundamentally changed about Minhyeok that now his own brother doesn’t recognize him. Or maybe the magic that made Minseok think of Minhyeok as his brother was disrupted for a moment.

Minhyeok is acting much more subdued than usual.

Minhyeok is still acting odd. Sadly mentioning his want for a family and his wish to have grown up faster.

Minhyeok is acting very out of character. He references growing up again, but he seems negative about it this time, not positive.

Minhyeok has a lot he wants to forget. He never discussed anything like this before chapter 7, which leads me to believe that he regained memories or knowledge when he collapsed that he wishes he didn't.

He talks about Fererere being garbage when it's clear he's really talking about himself. So, he has a lot of guilt/regret/self-loathing.

Minhyeok basically flat-out states that he's actually an angel. How exactly he relates to the angelic faction is left for debate. And then, just as Minhyeok is about to open up about himself, he disappears right in front of Ppyong.

MC and their demon comrades have been looking for the Ark of the Covenant, which holds the Tabot in real life (the Ten Commandments inscribed on a stone tablet), but, in WHB, it holds the 'True Seed of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil'. A cursed relic containing the power of the purest good and most chaotic evil, that turns good into evil, evil into good, life into death and death into life. Only God can handle it.

But when they reach the Ark of the Covenant, it's open and nothing's inside. Eventually, they find a human child that resembles Minhyeok in the room that holds the Ark. This happens at the same time Minhyeok disappears from the human world.

The child part is throwing me off. Minhyeok does talk about growing up, but I really don't know how or why he would turn into a child at the same time the Tree Seed went missing. MC didn't open the Ark, someone else did and maybe they did this somehow. But why? And MC is supposed to be the only one who could open the Ark anyways. The only other two should be Solomon and God, and they're gone. So who opened the Ark? The child Minhyeok somehow? Implying the child is somehow related to God?

Maybe this is not the real Minhyeok, but like some kind of manifestation of MC's desires. Or like maybe it's the manifestation of the Tree Seed itself? And the real Minhyeok just got yoinked back to heaven for some reason at the same time.

At the end of the PG13 trailer, Gabriel seems like he's reuniting with a high ranking angel that looks very similar to Minhyeok. The hair is not a one-to-one match, but it is very close, and a specific tuft of hair on the right side of his head is exactly the same. To me, this has to be Minhyeok in some form.

Here's my Minhyeok theory:

Minhyeok is some way related to angels/God, but he also somehow has a human side. I'm not too concerned about the specifics. The important part is that he knows about angels and demons. For some reason, he's near Solomon's Descendant, who he's supposed to hate, but eventually he falls in love with them, and he disguises himself as Minseok's brother to be close to them as a human.

So, Minhyeok saves MC from Gabriel, but when he dies he loses his memories (and maybe angelic powers), so that's why he doesn't know anything about angels or demons in the main story. Something happens when Minhyeok collapses in Chapter 7 and he regains his memories.

Then, at that moment he disappeared, Minhyeok was split in two, his old angel self that despises Solomon's Descendants and his new human self that loves MC, which looks young because it is young compared to his angel self. And the two selves got sent to their most important places respectively: heaven for Angel!Minhyeok and 'wherever MC is' for Human!Minhyeok. Lots of angst ensues!

I don't expect this theory to be true, other than Minhyeok being related to heaven in some way. But I think this concept could be really interesting.

Some corrections regarding the symbols:

Angel wings are enemies remaining, paw prints are movement opportunities remaining.

Whatever that last icon is, it's supposed to be is your HP.

Two tilesets is real, but it's only used to indicate pathing.

There doesn't seem to be a distinction between low ground and high ground tiles - it's just the lighter tiles are the enemy paths, and you place units on lighter tiles if you want to block enemies.

The limits of the battlefield are the black picket fences along the edges!

But holy shit some of these abilities sound so fucking broken on paper, but the applications...

Marbas's skill, if handled properly, can act like Bard Supporters in Arknights. However, the healing seems to be very limited, at 1 HP per tick? How would it scale based on skill level and stats? Is 1 HP a lot for friendlies? At least it seems to be an infinite duration skill, so...

Paimon's slow is manual targeting. Personally I'm not a fan, or maybe it's because I think in the realm of tower defense, Suzuran is a slower done right. Or Snow Peas. These sorts of units, in essence, slow enemies down so our units can burst them down easily. Which might be uh...let's just say, underutilized based on the DPS options we have down the line.

At this point, Paimon seems to play a lot like May, and even then May is more effective in slowing down enemies with her first skill.

Anyways, what in the fuck is going on here?

That 'Miss' in blue text. Is that a damage instance miss, an ailment miss, or something else? If it's a damage instance miss (which is what I think it is) then mygod I think I'm actually going to rage while playing this game. That is, unless it's due to a unit's passive - then for my own sanity I won't be using them, ever. Because hey, fellow Arknights players, remember these fuckers?

Yeah. Silence and freeze came in clutch, honestly. There's a reason why a lot of players would rather not deal with dodge enemies and just want to nuke them out of existence with true damage and status effects. Though to be fair it's the Nethersea Brand that makes Stultifera Navis a hard event/Intermezzi...

ANYWAYS! The next skill I'll be looking at is Eligos's skill.

That's a unique skill, honestly! Mechanically, it's most similar to Mlynar's second talent, which gives him innate Taunt (makes enemy ranged attacks target him when he's in their range) - except Mlynar is Broken Like That and has damage reflect while maintaining that the Talent is always active, all with respectable defenses and a sizable HP pool. Like Mlynar, depending on how much damage the enemy does on average and how strong Eligos's shield is, the skill can easily turn into a double-edged sword, however - in a much more dangerous way compared to Mlynar.

Think of it this way. It doesn't seem like WHB has a redeployment mechanic, as a similar "style" of tower defense with Path to Nowhere. Which means, if an ally is dead, then they stay dead for the entirety of the stage.

Compare that with Arknights, which allows retreating and redeployment.

Losing Texas the Omertosa on the battlefield wouldn't matter as much as losing Eligos, because I know I can still use Texas down the line. Plus, the Executor subclass is built around redeployment, making that mechanic necessary to use her properly. Same thing with me retreating Chen - her positioning wasn't the most optimal after clearing the treasure chest, and if the stage went on any longer I'd redeploy her in a more strategic position/direction. But I know this stage's mobs aren't particularly tanky, and Mountain with Sweeping Stance (S2) would be more than enough to hold that lane, with his 2-block + DPS + self-sustain.

These are the words of a chronic IS player.

Meanwhile, if I lost Eligos, then I'd lose a valuable blocker unit. He's a defender in WHB, and he definitely has more tanking capabilities. But that means you'll have to consider adding either a healer to keep him healed up or more DPS to kill off enemies before you lose said defender to continuous attacks.

The final three skills shown in the trailer all fall under the same category: burst damage over an area.

This is where I can say slowers might eventually be underutilized in WHB on launch. They work the best with consistent, large damage sources over a period of time. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at Suzuran - specifically, her second passive.

Suzuran, in my opinion, reflects the most effective way a slower is used in tower defense. Not only does she slow enemies down, she inflicts them with a debuff that makes them take more damage (Fragile). This effect is doubled with her third skill Foxfire Haze, where she stops attacking - but her slow turns into an area of effect deal, heals allies, and has an increased range. She is oftentimes used in conjunction with damage dealers and an extra debuffer (optional, but typically Saria S3) with steady burst damage over a set period of time - SilverAsh, Surtr, Mlynar, Eyjafjalla, Mostima, and Exusiai, just to name a few.

Granted, she is a 6* unit (L rarity in WHB terms would likely be the closest approximation), but even then other Decel Binders (slowers like Suzuran) without the debuff application still has the 80% Slow on all enemies they attack, and has ways to increase their slowing and damage capabilities.

It's hard to see with how the battle is presented, but if Paimon's slow is only on skill proc, then him in conjunction with these DPS options would be the equivalent of using Decel Binders with Chiave/Pinecone - which isn't bad per se (unless you managed to stack charges - then it becomes good) but less effective compared to using, say, Pozëmka/Schwarz. And let's not forget that some of these characters have huge attack ranges (Satan and Gabriel specifically) - making the entire point of slowers more or less moot.

Also, it would seem that skills may inflict status ailments! Stun seems to work like in Arknights (enemy stops attacking and moving for a set period of time), but Bleed I will assume is a damage over time deal. Kinda like Blue Poison and Thorns's passives.

The final and arguably biggest gripe I have with what I see in the trailer, though?

Mammon has a sleek, polished, and casually luxurious style. The long, flowing strokes and balanced spacing suggest a relaxed and naturally confident personality. There’s a complete lack of sharpness or aggression in his handwriting.

It’s notable that Satan’s and Mammon’s signatures contrast each other in style, energy, and execution.

Levi has a dramatic, extravagant, and carefully controlled style. The artistic strokes, elongated letters, and decorative crown suggest a jealous and perfectionist personality.

Beel has a flowing, indulgent, and slightly unstructured style. The casual strokes, soft curves, and various flourishes and inconsistencies suggest a laidback, forgetful, and pleasure-seeking personality.

Lucifer has a refined, graceful, and commanding style. The smooth, deliberate strokes and soft glow give it an ethereal quality and suggest a reserved, sophisticated, and effortlessly dominant personality.

Belphie has a careless, uneven, and low effort style. The messy, disconnected strokes and irregular letters suggest a lazy, informal, and unbothered personality.