Maple

Kaede Honjou (本条楓, lit. Honjō Kaede), known as Maple (メイプル, Meipuru) in NewWorld Online, is the main protagonist of BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.

Kaede was invited by Risa Shiramine, her real-life best friend, to play the game NewWorld Online, in which she accepts to do so. She had no prior professional experience in gaming before entering the said game.

She is a curious, air-headed girl who unwittingly gains overpowered skills due to bizarre actions, such as when she ate a dungeon boss.

She takes the great shield as her primary armament. She focuses solely on defense, leaving her avatar almost impregnable to all damage while being incredibly sluggish due to her nonexistent AGI stat.

After the addition of Guilds in the game, Kaede becomes the guild master of Maple Tree as per the request of Sally. She ranked third in the first event of NewWorld Online.

Appearance
Maple has fair skin and black hair that extends beneath her chin, with a short Ahoge. Her eyes are dark grey.

In the real world, she is commonly seen wearing a white and pink-striped hoodie sweater with matching shorts that reach only her upper thighs.

She wears a white clip as an accessory in the real world, which is carried on to the game world. The clip comprises four rhombuses, each facing the cardinal directions, connected to a presumed diamond-like piece. The clip's shape is similar to a compass.

Her in-game character is entirely identical to her real-world appearance.

After she defeats the Hydra, her beginner outfit is replaced by a black suit of armor with red accents. It has a crest of a flower, and an image of a rose on the armor's chest piece. Underneath is a red leotard, matching gloves, and thigh-high stockings. The armor's focus points of durability are the gauntlets, shin guards, boots, and breastplates.

Red mesh fabric covers her body's least-protected parts, but some skin remains exposed. Her armor descends into a cloak-like drape with a dark exterior and red underside. Her avatar usually carries her armament, a heavy-looking shield, the Replica of the Dark Night. The shield is mainly black with red patterns carved geometrically unto its surface. A large red gem plated with the same black material is at the shield's center.

Aside from her shield, she carries another weapon, an ornate short sword used to cast paralysis abilities on enemies, usually kept hidden inside the sheath strapped to her waist.

After she defeats another boss in Episode 8, Maple gains a monstrous, black-skinned Atrocity form. It has four muscular shoulder arms with spiky elbows (which can regenerate after one of them is sliced), four clawed fingers and red handprints, and red leaf-like hair on its back. It has armored plates on the head, a tail, and a cyan tongue within its mouth; its chest has a redesigned flower, its legs are spiky, and its face is grotesque and alien-like. During the sneak peek for season 2 of Bofuri, she also has a black tentacle after defeating an unknown octopus monster.

Personality
Kaede is a simple girl, but her defining traits are her air-headedness and love for fun. She isn't that competitive and doesn’t hold grudges against anyone, viewing nearly everyone as a potential friend. Her open mind has led to her becoming friends with most of the other top players, such as Kasumi, Payne, Mii, and much more.

Aside from her absent-mindedness, she also tends to be clumsy most of the time, once biting her tongue in a live broadcast and instantly getting embarrassed. This also applies to the real world — when she got addicted to NewWorld Online, she would unwittingly show habits she would typically do in-game.

She also tends to be reckless, especially as a beginner. Her reason for allotting all her status points into VIT is not because she's absent-minded, but because she does not like to feel pain, as evidenced by her titular statement, "I don't like to get hurt, so I'll put all of my status points into defense."

She is also a quick thinker and makes practical decisions in most situations, sometimes making her seem odd, such as when she tried to clear the Hydra dungeon all by herself single-handedly.

While not fit for fighting in general, Maple has a hard time attacking other in-game entities, particularly other players, even if it's for her benefit. She doesn't like to feel pain and dislikes hurting other people even more. When the situation calls for it, however, she is willing to inflict harm, such as when against the boss Silverwing and in the battle against the Congregation of the Holy Swords.

She loves cute things and enjoys special promotions. She has collected obscure and limited-edition items that seem interesting or useful to her.

Plot
Maple has never played such a game before, and not wanting to get hurt puts all her points into defense, making her slow, weak, and much harder to gain skills when starting the game. As she moves on, she gains useful skills which help her in the game and annoy the creators having no way to stop her.

Description

 * Out of the fear of getting damaged and laziness to evade, she instinctively set all allowable skill points on (VIT) Defense to minimize or completely negate any damage she is to receive from any attack. Inadvertently, finding and exploiting a game quirk yet to be discovered.
 * She also chose her Job Class to match her chosen attributes and skills, taking a large shield and short sword as primary equipment.

History
Kaede is a regular girl with a gamer friend name Risa. Risa had been forcing games on Kaede, but nothing really stood out to her until she tried NewWorld Online (NWO).

NWO would later provide Kaede with an experience that she would not forget and be addicted to. Her real-life dreams and knowledge would dictate how she acted in the game. These actions would be far off from the common sense of gamers and would lead to much work for the administrators.

Maple's VIT summary:
 * During the Silverwing fight: 1104 + 110 (cover) (251 + 25 Inhumane, resets daily) x4
 * and Armor/Shield breaks 1st: 1224 + 122 (cover) (281 + 25 Inhumane) x4
 * and Armor/Shield breaks 2nd: 1344 + 134 (cover) (311 + 25 Inhumane) x4
 * After acquiring Fortress: 2040 + 204 (cover) (180 + 135 + 25 Inhumane) x6
 * and with angel armor: 1230 + 123 (cover) (180 + 25 Inhumane) x6
 * and with angel armor HP: 1300 (40 + 30 (skill) + 130 (two rings) + 1100 angel set)
 * WN ch. 191: 12180 + 1218 (Cover) (250 + 1755 + 25 Inhumane) x6

Active Skills

 * Machine God: Skill with sub-skills. Sacrifice armor for armaments (quality matters).
 * Deploy Armaments, Deploy-(section; ie:barrels), Commence Attack, Break Core
 * Loving Sacrifice: Skill with sub-skills. Protect and heal your allies. Skills cost HP.
 * Loving Sacrifice, Aegis, Self-Offering Love
 * Pandemonium I: Summon “Red Oni” and “Blue Oni” for 1 minute. Seals your skills for the duration.
 * Cover Move I: Move to a nearby party member.
 * Cover: Protect a nearby party member. VIT +10% while active.
 * Meditation: User recovers 1% HP every 10 seconds for 10 minutes or until they attack.
 * Provocation: Gather the attention of nearby monsters. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
 * Psychokinesis: Float a monster. Resistance affects success and MP cost.
 * Shield Attack: A [STR] based attack with the user's shield. Knockback (small).
 * Counter: Add damage suffered from a previous attack to your next attack.
 * Inspire: Nearby party members have [STR][AGI] +20% for 1 minute.
 * Sheep Eater: Skill with sub-skills.
 * Wooly: User produces sheep wool in a ball around themselves. Once per day.
 * Pierce Guard: The user's shield nullifies the effects of piercing attacks.
 * Quick Change: Change to preset equipment. Use it again to change back.
 * Frozen Earth: Freeze enemies within 5 meters for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
 * Throne of the Heavenly King: Create a chair that reduces damage and heals you and blocks the use of skills with 'evil' origins within 30 meters. Use it again to dismiss the throne.
 * Heavy Body: Immunity to knockback for 1 minute. MP cost:10. Cooldown: 3 minutes. Maple can't move.
 * Great Eruption: A delayed lava spout with a lava field afterward. MP: Cost 50. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
 * Crystallize: Immunity to bad status and [AGI] -50% for 1 minute. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
 * Unbreakable Shield: Halves damage for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes.

Passive Skills

 * Hydra Eater: Poison and Paralysis Immunity.
 * Total Defense: Boosts VIT by x2. Increasing [STR][AGI][INT] costs x3 points.
 * Fortress: Boosts VIT by x1.5
 * Giant Killing: If four of your stats (not HP/MP) are lower than the opponent's, double stats (not HP/MP).
 * Savage: Intentionally received attacks give VIT+1 (max +25). Resets daily.
 * Great Shield Mastery IV: Reduces damage by 4% when using a shield.
 * Parry: Reduces Damage by 1%.
 * Evasion: Reduces Damage by 1%.
 * Bomb Eater: Reduces Explosion damage by 50%
 * HP Strengthening (Small): HP +30.
 * MP Strengthening (Small): MP +10.
 * Stout guardian: Great Shielder exclusive skill. Once per day, survive any lethal attack with 1 HP.
 * Venom Incantation: Poison attacks have a 20% chance of instant death, regardless of immunity to poison.
 * Connection to the Underworld: Doubles the effects of items.

Equipment Skills

 * Hydra: Skill with sub-skills. Skills that deal poison damage. Access to Poison Magic.
 * Hydra, Paralyzing Shout, Deadly Breath, Venom Capsule, Acid Rain, Venom Cutter, Poison Lance
 * Seeping Chaos: Skill with 3 sub-skills. Demon guards, their boost, and a hydra-like attack.
 * Predator, Seeping Chaos
 * Atrocity: Transform into a demon. You get improved stats and lose armor benefits. Usable once per day. Gain HP+1000. When HP drops to zero, she is returned to her original form and completely healed.
 * Devour: Passive skill that consumes and stores things as MP. Usable ten times per day.
 * Invitation to the Ocean Floor: The user's left arm becomes tentacles and their left eye changes.
 * Crystal Wall: Creates a wall nearby with HP equal to the users. Cooldown: 5 minutes.
 * Poltergeist: A magical skill that allows the user to manipulate objects at will. Allows for control over up to 10 large objects simultaneously. MP Cost: 10. The effect lasts 5 minutes. The caster must own the objects.

Unique combinations

 * Wooly + poison magic: The ball of wool spreads your poison status.
 * Wooly + Crystallize: Allies and enemies become trapped in the ball of crystallized wool.
 * Syrup's (pet) Megamorph + Psychokinesis: Flying transportation.
 * Spirit Cannon: A light beam emanates from the companion's mouth.
 * Mother Nature: Vines from underground emerge and bind a target from movement.
 * Syrup's (pet) Rampart + Deploy Barrels: A way to rocket into the sky. Other Machine God skills can be used to fly in one direction. Requires high VIT to survive.
 * Venom Capsule transport uses the Venom Capsule as a giant hamster ball to move quickly, like a drop pod from great heights and takes no falling damage. However, it tends to make the passengers very dizzy afterward. However, unless you have poison resistance or immunity, it will eat away at your HP, so be careful if you want to use it.
 * Deploy Barrels + Poltergiest: Lasers that Maple can control the trajectory of.
 * Invitation to the Ocean Floor + Devour/Bizzare Eater: The tentacles have the properties of Devour.

Equipment
Maple acquired a unique set of armor early on in all media. The set debuted in the web novel's ninth chapter and appeared in the anime's first episode.

The boss is a Poison Dragon that uses lethal poison. Her high VIT significantly reduced the poison damage she should have taken and worked alongside her poison resistance to make it an easy fight.

Maple defeats the giant bee in episode 1 and receives Forest Queen Bee's Ring. Its wearer receives [VIT +6] and recovers 10% of its max HP every 10 minutes. It was later given away during the Benevolent Knight chain quest.

¹Destruction Growth after sacrificing armor for Machine God to defeat "King of Junk".

Note:


 * Maple's Unique Series equipment has the auto skill 'Destruction Growth', which significantly increases its durability and automatically repairs itself more each time it is destroyed. Unlike other armor that may have the auto skill 'Indestructible', Destruction Growth allows the armor the advantage to increase the level as it breaks and gains more skill slots to utilize as it evolves.
 * As of web novel chapter 191, Maple's unique series has a combined total of 1755 VIT. This means the pieces have broken a combined total of 104 times after the King of Junk battle.

Relationships

 * Sally: Sally is Maple's best friend in real life. In-game, she was Maple's mount before Syrup came along.
 * Syrup: Syrup is Maple's monster companion. Maple is happy she tamed Syrup.
 * Oboro: Oboro is like Maple's other child. She likes him and enjoys his company.
 * Chrome: Chrome is a friend Maple trusts. She also sees him as her great shield-user senior.
 * Iz: Iz is a friend Maple gets along well with. Maple likes the things she creates.
 * Kanade: Kanade is a friend to which Maple has a unique attraction.
 * Kasumi: Kasumi is a friend who Maple gets along with.
 * Mai & Yui: The twins are friends Maple plays with.
 * Mii: Mii has been a friend since the guild competition after the party. They got along well and have even fluffed cute creatures together.
 * Payne: While Payne appears to view Maple more or less as a rival to be defeated, Maple has viewed Payne as a friend ever since the guild competition after the party.

Trivia

 * Her in-game nickname came from the English translation of her name, Kaede, which means Maple or Maple tree.
 * She has the same given name as her Japanese voice actress, Kaede (楓).
 * Her surname also is similar.
 * When Maple inherits The First 's power, she becomes The Third (Machine God).
 * Apparently, NewWorld Online considers the act of eating an enemy as draining its life or HP Drain, which would entail that performing said the act would also restore HP. (So Maple is already a Vampire...)
 * Even though Players have their IRL statistics uploaded with their character (as Sally demonstrated with her agility and speed), Maple is shown to be comedically slower than Syrup (pun intended). However, Episode 12 shows her running as fast as Mii and Payne while working together in the credits.
 * "They knew that something would happen the moment they took their eyes off her."
 * What the admins thought Maple was doing after the fourth event rankings were mostly decided:
 * “She's playing a board game with the other guild members.”
 * “She's practicing flying in the sky with the machine god.”
 * “The twins are juggling her.”
 * “She's testing to see if she can gain skills by biting weapons made with 'Smithing.'”
 * “Eh? Don't you think those are a little too normal?”
 * “Maybe you're right...”
 * “She's inside the mouth of a giant turtle.”
 * “She's fighting Sally for some reason.”
 * “She's biting the turtle.”
 * Maples's actions have led others to believe she's a poster child of sorts. She draws them to her, and they even support the game sales. And so, without Maple knowing it, management had authorized her abilities.
 * Maple's Machine God form resembles the "Great Sacred Treasure" from Kid Icarus Uprising.
 * It also resembles the "Dendrobium" mobile armor from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory.
 * Maple's Atrocity form bares a somewhat resemblance to Godzilla from the Godzilla series.