EXCLUSIVE / TOP PLAYER INTERVIEW ⑤
"Can I Beat Kabioji?"
"Can I Beat Kabioji?"
Norinori's Criterion
There's someone he wants to beat. That becomes the blueprint.
708,452,389TOTAL POWER
708M total power — matching the highest figure in this series. Norinori, of guild Porcini on server J-11, described his play style in four words: "offense, damage first." And when we asked what criterion he uses to judge a team, the answer was striking. "Whether I can beat Kabioji." That's the player from interview #3.
- Player
- Norinori
- Guild
- Porcini
- Server
- J-11
- Command Level
- Lv.174
- Abyss Progress
- Floor 324
- Total Power
- 708,452,389
- Cards Owned
- 109 (27 at Lv.200, all fully awakened)
- Interview Date
- September 14, 2026
01Play Style — "Offense, Damage First"
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PARALABO Editorial
How would you describe your play style in one line?
Norinori
Offense, damage first.
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What's the most enjoyable moment for you?
Not thinking about defense at all and just charging in!
Editor's note
The first word out of a 708M-power player was offense. Not raising his win rate by shoring up defense — winning by finishing the job. That consistency runs through every answer below.
02The Design — Keep Them Standing, Then Clear the Board
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Why is your team built the way it is?
Norinori
Nayuta's Heal & Detox and Stun Survivor, aimed at supporting Evening-Rain Reika's counter Survivor and Wake Ryoko, then leaning on poison-team damage.
I also raise the damage on AoE holders, so I can take out Guts holders and everything else together.
1
Nayuta — Heal & Detox / Stun SurvivorKeeps the field alive with healing and status removal, and stops enemy actions
2
Evening-Rain Reika — counter SurvivorA high multiplier that requires surviving; step 1 makes the condition happen
3
"A Smoke and a Wake" Ryoko50.5M solo power — the single biggest hitter on the team
4
Poison team + AoEDamage-boosted AoE clears Guts holders along with the rest
Editor's note — Enduring is how he attacks
At a glance the healing, cleansing and stunning look defensive, but the purpose isn't defense. Survivor-type skills require surviving for a set time before they can fire, which means Nayuta keeping the field alive is the procedure that unlocks Reika's multiplier.
Then the finisher: AoE. Enemies with Guts (surviving lethal damage at 1 HP) can slip out of single-target kills, but a damage-boosted AoE clears them all at once. Even the protective pieces are placed in service of finishing the fight.
Then the finisher: AoE. Enemies with Guts (surviving lethal damage at 1 HP) can slip out of single-target kills, but a damage-boosted AoE clears them all at once. Even the protective pieces are placed in service of finishing the fight.
03The Criterion — "Whether I Can Beat Kabioji"
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What's your criterion when building a squad?
Norinori
Whether I can beat Kabioji.
Editor's note — The criterion is a person
Everyone else in this series has offered a structural rule: build backwards from the card you protect, sandwich damage with status effects. Norinori's rule is one specific human being.
There's someone he wants to beat, and whether a build can beat that person decides whether the build is good. Not an abstract optimum, but a concrete opponent to plan against — for a player whose main arena is PvP, it's hard to imagine a more practical criterion. The 708M total power is what accumulated while meeting it.
For context, Kabioji appears in interview #3 at 694M total power and Abyss floor 328, and described his own criteria as "decided together with guild members." One player chasing, one player deliberating with a team. Two very different ways to build at the very top.
There's someone he wants to beat, and whether a build can beat that person decides whether the build is good. Not an abstract optimum, but a concrete opponent to plan against — for a player whose main arena is PvP, it's hard to imagine a more practical criterion. The 708M total power is what accumulated while meeting it.
For context, Kabioji appears in interview #3 at 694M total power and Abyss floor 328, and described his own criteria as "decided together with guild members." One player chasing, one player deliberating with a team. Two very different ways to build at the very top.
04The Synergy He Rates
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Is there a synergy you find especially strong?
Norinori
A Heal & Detox holder combined with a Guts-holding counter Survivor, plus entry stun.
Editor's note — Three layers to guarantee survival
This package exists to make the counter Survivor fire reliably.
Guts absorbs the lethal blow, Heal & Detox restores HP and strips status effects, and entry stun reduces the number of attacks coming in at all. Triple-covering survival turns a skill gated on time survived into one that fires almost every match.
Across this series, Chanyuki named the 6x Survivor and Kabioji named Tomoya plus Reika — the same principle, that surviving is damage. Norinori adds healers and entry stuns on top, squeezing the randomness out of it.
Guts absorbs the lethal blow, Heal & Detox restores HP and strips status effects, and entry stun reduces the number of attacks coming in at all. Triple-covering survival turns a skill gated on time survived into one that fires almost every match.
Across this series, Chanyuki named the 6x Survivor and Kabioji named Tomoya plus Reika — the same principle, that surviving is damage. Norinori adds healers and entry stuns on top, squeezing the randomness out of it.
05Sleep Gets Grouped, Not Mixed
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Is there any build you deliberately avoid?
Norinori
I keep sleep effects grouped together with other sleep as much as possible.
They work badly with AoE in particular, so I keep them apart.
Editor's note — Three schools of thought on sleep
Sleep breaks on even minor damage, so putting it in the same squad as an AoE means waking enemies with your own attacks. What's interesting is that this series contains three different answers to that problem.
Saizeriya Musashi says he avoids sleep characters entirely — they don't fit his poison build, so he never raises them. Norinori says he groups sleep with sleep — not avoiding it, but making it work by not mixing it.
And Maron said: never make your strongest squad a sleep-focused one. Avoid it, isolate it, or keep it out of your main squad. Three ways of handling the same mechanic.
Saizeriya Musashi says he avoids sleep characters entirely — they don't fit his poison build, so he never raises them. Norinori says he groups sleep with sleep — not avoiding it, but making it work by not mixing it.
And Maron said: never make your strongest squad a sleep-focused one. Avoid it, isolate it, or keep it out of your main squad. Three ways of handling the same mechanic.
06Favorite Card — "A Smoke and a Wake" Ryoko
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Which character do you like most?
Norinori
"A Smoke and a Wake" Ryoko — my old lady.
Editor's note — The highest solo power in this series
50,577,762. Attack 14,478,527, HP 12,593,371. That is the largest single-card power we have seen across these interviews.
The affection shows in what he calls her. A favorite card doubling as the team's biggest damage source is a pattern that keeps repeating here: Kabioji kept raising "the first SSR I pulled," and Musashi poured an S-rank Core into a card nobody rated. You raise it because you like it, and it gets strong because you raised it. The order never seems to change.
The affection shows in what he calls her. A favorite card doubling as the team's biggest damage source is a pattern that keeps repeating here: Kabioji kept raising "the first SSR I pulled," and Musashi poured an S-rank Core into a card nobody rated. You raise it because you like it, and it gets strong because you raised it. The order never seems to change.
07Spending, and Advice for New Players
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What's your approach to spending?
Norinori
Whatever I can enjoy, I guess?
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Any advice for people just starting out?
Build one maxed character first.
Raising a single card gets you further in Abyss than spreading out horizontally.
Editor's note — A conclusion this series keeps reaching
"Build one maxed character first. Raising a single card gets you further than spreading out." This advice has now appeared, in different words, from nearly everyone we've interviewed. Chanyuki said to focus on a single character; Kabioji kept raising one favorite from the start; Musashi decided what not to raise at all.
In a game where materials are finite, top players independently arrive at the same answer. Go deep before you go wide.
In a game where materials are finite, top players independently arrive at the same answer. Go deep before you go wide.
Five things we learned from Norinori
- A criterion can be one specific personRather than an abstract optimum, ask whether the build beats the opponent you want to beat. For PvP, nothing is more practical.
- Defensive pieces exist to enable offenseHealing, cleansing and stunning are the procedure for meeting Survivor conditions. Enduring converts directly into damage.
- Guarantee survival in three layersGuts to absorb, Heal & Detox to restore, entry stun to reduce incoming attacks. Turn a conditional skill into a reliable one.
- Clear Guts holders with AoETargets that survive single-target kills get swept up by damage-boosted area attacks.
- Don't mix sleep — group itPut sleep next to an AoE and you wake enemies with your own damage. Not avoidance; separation.
Interviewed September 14, 2026 / With thanks to Norinori (J-11, Porcini) / All images published with permission. All figures are as of the interview date.
PARALABO interviews players across servers on an ongoing basis.