Carl Clover

Official Biography:

• Height: 144 cm
• Weight: 35 kg
• Birthday: May 5
• Blood Type: AB
• Race: Human
• Hobbies: Violin, chess
• Values: His sister
• Likes: Cookies
• Dislikes: Lies

He seems to think like an adult and always carries out his duties effectively and efficiently. Ever courteous, Carl always has a smile on his face, even when he’s staring down a target. A first-class vigilante, Carl has brought many criminals to justice with his mysterious doll, Nirvana. His sights set on his next target, the infamous Ragna the Bloodedge, he heads for the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi.

Calamity Trigger

The way to best describe Carl Clover would be a few gears short of a working machine. He was a brilliant student prodigy who entered the military academy of the NOL at the same time as Jin, Noel, Tsubaki and Makoto. However, he soon left under mysterious circumstances, and emerged sometime later as a vigilante with a large Nox Nyctores known as "Nirvana" following him around. The story makes it pretty clear that Carl has a sister complex, as he usually refers to Nirvana as "Ada" or "Sister" and is so emotionally attached to her that he will respond violently if he even thinks she is being threatened.

Carl is one of the many vigilantes pursuing Ragna the Bloodedge, partially for the reward and partially because he thinks the Azure Grimoire that Ragna carries might be able to return his sister to her original human form.

Most of the main characters in the story seem a bit bewildered when meeting Carl, as whenever he talks with Nirvana it appears to be a one-sided conversation that only Carl can hear the response. However, some aside from Carl have been revealed to understand Nirvana, like Valkenhayn, who also seems to recognize Nirvana from the past, but the others who feel the power of the Nox Nyctores don't believe Carl should be holding it, which causes Carl to respond violently and attack them. In one story arc, Rachel tests Carl's strength without the power of his doll to back him up, and after sending him away she remarks that he could have been a great hero except for his fixation on his sister.

Continuum Shift

In Continuum Shift, Carl has decided to search for his father, Relius, in order to find out more information about any connection between his sister and the Nirvana doll. Near the start of the story, he comes across a wounded Ragna and nearly finishes him off, but Nirvana won't let him kill Ragna for good. Instead, he decides to follow his sister's lead and head elsewhere. He ends up running into a handful of his old NOL classmates, like Noel, Tsubaki and Makoto. Despite being wounded in his fights, he keeps himself going with a drug that was apparently used to keep soldiers awake on the battlefield during the Ikaruga Civil War. However, he seems to be no closer to finding information about his father.

After fighting Litchi in the Library, Carl's emotional barriers break down. He carried with himself a great deal of hatred of adults after his father apparently tortured his sister Ada while he watched in order to transmute her soul into the body of Nirvana. However, both of them are shocked when Relius himself appears at the top of a stairway, referring to Ada as an obsolete model. When Carl accuses him of torturing Ada, Relius responds that she was a willing test subject. Relius then reveals a new fighting doll called Ignis, who looks similar to Nirvana. Relius orders Ignis to finish them off, but Nirvana teleports both Carl and Litchi away to safety before Ignis can harm them. At this, Relius replies "Interesting response... Ada."

When Carl comes to, he becomes very upset, as he tells Litchi that Ignis "was his mother". Because of this, it's inferrable that Relius transformed Ignis Clover into Fluctus Redacium: Ignis, just like he had with Ada Clover.

Later on, after Relius leaves the scene, Carl decides to head to Ikaruga with Ada to find a way to change her back, as well as find more information about Fluctus Redacium: Ignis.

Strategy

In the game, Carl Clover is possibly the most difficult character to use, as his offense, defense, HP and range are among the lowest in the game. However, this is balanced out by the fact that the player can control both Carl and Nirvana at the same time, and with careful zoning can trap the enemy between them to launch clever combos and Distortion Drives, whittling down the enemy's health to zero. This is not easy though, as Nirvana's actions are controlled by different combinations of the D button and the stick.

One of the keys in using Carl is to create combo chains with Nirvana, either by trapping opponents in between the two and stringing combos together, or a barrage of attacks into the corners. To get opponents into this situation, the best moves are to use air dashes back and forth to essentially force the enemies into a desirable position. Also using Nirvana's upper attack can negate blocks and is often the best way to trap opponents into a loop. Only Hakumen and Iron Tager have the ability to break away from this by countering. Carl is also one of the few characters to have an infinite combo, his throw, combined with Nirvana's up D attack, can cause high damage in a short period of time, provided it is done constantly on opponents.