Introduction

And thus kicks off our long string of ultra powerful limited banners. Oh boy. That’s not even the worst part. The worst part is there isn’t one good 5★ the entire time! The nerve! Although I suppose most people care more about Kal’tsit and Closure. Normally I’d taunt them for either being basic or being meta-brained, but they’re the lucky ones this time. Well, I’m gonna roll for them too, so maybe I have no room to talk…

A couple quick announcements. First, the paid selector guide is back! You can find it here and you can find some brief discussion about it down in the FAQ. Second, I now apparently have a Discord. A few other AK site admins and I got together to pool efforts. Feel free to stop by and say hi.

As always, you can find the full Mastery guide here (Sheets) and here (web). This update is also available on Sanity;Gone, which you can find here.

Should You Pull? And Pull Related FAQ

Yes, absolutely. In the past few write-ups, I’ve been talking a lot about the upcoming stretch of limited banners. Well, this is the start of that. Many people would probably be pulling here regardless, due to who the characters are, but if you are one of the rare few who doesn’t care for either, it could be tempting to think of skipping a banner that features a Medic and a Vanguard, two of the “less essential” classes. That, however, would be a mistake.

I will say that Kal’tsit·Esperanta can be a bit more “subtle” than many recent meta units. In fact, she tripped me up a bit on my initial lookahead. With someone like Wang or Ch’en the Dawnstreak, you can feel immediately how good they are. The first time you use Kal2, there’s a good chance you won’t feel that, but the power is there, and you realize it once you see how much she bypasses. As with other Take-Off units, she is outright immune to 99% of the game and mechanics, but hers is permanent with no conditional. While her S2 isn’t the highest total damage True Damage skill, it is the most wide-reaching and versatile, while not forsaking her healing. And she has an incredible flex skill that is an endgame essential, which allows her to bring two companions on her “ignore the gimmicks” ride.

Closure meanwhile gets a bit more nuanced. We’ll discuss that more in the next question, but regardless, she is also incredibly strong. She doesn’t just do good damage “for a Vanguard”. She does good damage period, on an absolutely massive range, while also generating DP. Then she has the best effective DP skill available, albeit with some limitations. While a bit less essential than Kal2, Closure is the sort of limited co-star where you won’t be at all disappointed if she comes first.

Then there’s the “opportunity cost” thing I like to bring up at times like this. When you reach a certain level of power, the differences don’t matter nearly as much. I could write ten thousand words or more comparing Kal2 to Angie2 or Orchid2, but it doesn’t actually matter. The difference is situational, at best. Even if you assume Kal2 is somehow the least valuable (she isn’t), because she is a limited, you give up value by skipping. You open up better outcomes by pulling now, and you remove those outcomes by skipping, while only gaining a small amount of “safety”. In other words, in Arknights, if all other things are equal, it makes much more sense to roll on who comes first.

All in all, this is just a very powerful banner, and a limited one. If you skipped the last two, it was for this banner. About the only vaguely justifiable meta-reason to skip here is that you have no pulls banked and feel you absolutely can’t live without the collab units (Orchid2 and Yato2) who will be coming up shortly after. In terms of the opportunity cost argument, collabs are “more” limited, which could be a deciding factor. But meta-wise, you absolutely should not skip here.

Time to go bring Kally Wally home.

Q: If I get Kal’tsit·Esperanta first, should I continue pulling for Closure?

A: First, three easy cases.

If you like her, then yes, absolutely. While the limited gauntlet ahead of us could make the waifu argument a tough sell (roll for Thumpy ;_;), Closure is extremely meta herself, so this isn’t a situation where a lot of nuances have to be considered to balance desire vs meta.

If you’re an endgame player, who likes to push CC risk, then yes. Closure is very important for the endgame, especially CC-type content. Endgame accounts will have all three top Vanguards.

If you are a more casual player, and don’t have either Ines or SA2, I would strongly consider continuing to pull. Players in this situation will benefit the most from having her. While there are subtle differences, not having either of the others bypasses that debate entirely, and she is a powerful “carry” sort of unit for a lot of content. Closure will be a significant powerspike to your team.

Those three groups out of the way, that brings us to our nuance. Comparing the top three Vanguards, Ines, SilverAsh the Reignfrost, and Closure can get to be a very “in the weeds” sort of topic. It would take far more space than we have here in this already long article, and you can find my attempt to be brief about it down in the full FAQ below. However, for our purposes of pulling thoughts here, there’s no easy answer. Closure is a very powerful unit, but she is not limited, among a sea of high-powered limited units. If you already have one of the other two 6★s, but especially SA2, Closure can feel like an expensive sidegrade. If all you want out of your Vanguard is a lot of DP and damage, without fussing about the nuanced details, Closure can feel less vital than many upcoming units.

So for a lot of people, it makes sense to keep pulling for Closure. But I do think there is a fairly significant subset who will look at the upcoming stretch and decide that stopping early if they get Kal2 first makes more sense.

Q: Given the stretch of upcoming banners, what are the spark considerations?

A: That’s a pretty tough question this time.

Only three units are worth particular attention. The two primary ones are Wiš’adel and Exusiai the New Covenant, with Lappland the Decadenza bringing up a pretty distant third. None of the 200 spark units are worth much either. So unless you have a specific target in mind, I wouldn’t think much about it unless you’re extremely close to 200, or fairly close to 300. The problem is just how strong the upcoming stretch is, and a Collab Limited banner (or two) is right after. Although I would rank both Exu2 and Wis above Orchid2, I don’t think it’s worth missing Orchid2 for either. So the exact threshold to push towards 300 would depend on what you have saved. Generally, if you’re at 250 already, I’d strongly consider the spark. Below that, it gets pretty tricky, especially if you don’t have a lot of pulls or aren’t a spender. And if you already have Exu2 and Wis, I wouldn’t consider the spark at all, unless collection matters to you or you are extremely close already.

Two additional things to keep in mind. First, SilverAsh the Reignfrost is not a spark option for this banner. He’ll be available next Celebration limited in April. Second, Texas the Omertosa drops to 200 on that same April banner, and is still 300 this time. Especially with the Yato2 rerun soon, I wouldn’t spark her at 300 unless she’s literally your only choice.

Q: Does Specter the Unchained’s new ISW Module make her worth spark consideration?

A: Not really. I won’t go too deep into it here (check Mal’s article), but for now, I like the design, but it’s ultimately pretty gimmicky, and like Ho’olheyak’s, it promotes suboptimal play. The Specialist ticket is the one of the strongest too, so there’s some intense competition to use it. It’s not awful, but it’s certainly not worth spending pulls to obtain, given the current stretch.

That said, she is reduced to 200 this patch, and you may reach that threshold unintentionally if your luck is poor. Rosmontis is the better ISW pick from the 200 pool, but after her, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to grab Specter2 if it interests you.

FAQ

Q: Anything more to say about Kal’tsit·Esperanta?

A: Not that isn’t already covered in the Should You Pull or Mastery sections. She doesn’t have a lot of comparables or anything, so there aren’t a lot of extra topics that require nuance. I could probably yap about the narrative implications (and I’m tempted to), but this article is extremely long, so let’s just move on. In fact, this question is only here so people don’t think I forgot.

Q: Will there be a lore rant about Kal2?

A: Nah, probably not. I’m not happy about it, and I definitely think they should have waited longer. It’s barely been a year which really blunts the impact, but overall they’ve done a decent job recently. Kal2 feels like an exceptional case since she’s a headline character. This is a gacha game after all. If the price we have to pay for IS#7’s lore (tag spoilers in comments for my spoiler friends please), Botani having to literally kill a man, and Ukusik losing her surrogate family, is Lowlight’s OC being treated like a special princess, then that’s fine. I guess.

It’s still stupid though.

Q: How does Closure fit in with Ines and SilverAsh the Reignfrost?

A: Vanguards (and Medics, incidentally) are slightly unusual when it comes to the classes in Arknights because while there are very obvious differences between them, the fundamental job remains the same. Most of what they do is just generate DP and hold early rushes, hopefully while adding some useful utility. In this way, Ines ends up being the most unique of the three meta choices. The FRD nature of Agents makes them a lot more flexible, and that lets Ines make good use of her control, in addition to those two core roles. However, that FRD nature means Ines requires a bit more finesse and expertise to reach her ceiling compared to more “classical” Vanguard options.

So, at least in my opinion, SilverAsh the Reignfrost is the more apt one to compare to Closure. They both do those core roles in a more direct way, by throwing out a ton of damage with big DP numbers backing them. Now, of course there are plenty of direct differences. SA2 has buffs, and his DP generation tends to be “effective” generation by reducing cost. Closure has better range, and her DP debt, plus the strongest DP generation of the three. But the fundamental behind them is still those two core roles, plus some utility.

Between Closure and SA2 though, I think it becomes more a discussion of side-grades, since both do great damage, both have great effective DP-generation, and both have great range, albeit expressed in different ways. It ultimately means there isn’t a strict way to call one better than the other. They just differ. Even the “ceiling” debate gets muddy, because while most would generally regard SA2 to have the higher overall ceiling, Closure’s S2 might be the highest ceiling skill of all of them!

I will say that in my view, Closure is a lot easier to use. Her S3 is a more “classic” style of DPS skill. It cycles fast and does direct damage without a lot of “fiddliness” or consideration beyond optionally deploying some friends to extend the range. Compared to SA2 who requires lots of redeploys, or a very long cycling S3, Closure’s S3 is a much more reliable option. However, I think most Advanced players would regard SA2 as having the generally higher ceiling. He tends to be the IS draft, not Closure (or Ines) for example. Although, as said, Closure’s S2 brings some nuanced balance to that equation.

Another factor here is how Closure tends to be a bit more specific in her endgame value. Were she just her S3, she wouldn’t be at the same level of the others. Her DPH is relatively low, and early holds are rarely a problem for full meta accounts. Meanwhile her S2 is great, but it’s not quite as generally applicable as all the ceiling SA2 brings. It’s extremely powerful, but relatively specific. You need enough DP pressure to justify losing SA2’s utility (or even her own S3’s power and range), and you’re restricted to the 3x3 square. I think this is why some very meta-oriented players don’t view her quite as strongly as the others, although personally I’m of the opinion that’s a mistake. Again, Closure is just different.

So there really isn’t a definitive answer on who is best between the three of them. It really just depends on the situation. That’s why I say that endgame accounts will have all three, and in fact, in CCBP#5, all three (and then some) appeared in a large majority of the clears! But that nuance may also be lost on more casual players, so it’s a very “your mileage may vary” sort of deal.

Q: What’s the deal with Viy? Is he worth anything?

A: Viy is really hard to write about because he doesn’t do anything special. No one has him raised, he’s hard to find on support to use, and there’s almost no footage or highlights of him. He isn’t even used in niches. And while that’s all true of a number of 5★s I’ve written about before too, his kit is “complex” enough to make the math behind it a pain as well so it’s hard to even write about him “in theory”. But even with absolute certainty in the numbers, despite that “complexity” he doesn’t actually do anything but damage either, so there’s no real nuance to get into. I’ve used this before, and will again, but he’s just kinda… there. I can definitively say, without question, that he is an operator that exists.

I can also definitively say one other thing about him as well, which is that you shouldn’t be raising him. Were he a 5★ we could talk around his value in niches or relative to his rarity or something like that. But as a 6★, his competition absolutely destroys him (even Astgenne2 has some good value!), and he costs way more than the lower rarities too. This means that even if you’re brand spanking new, you shouldn’t be raising him. You could raise almost three full 4★s for the cost, who will be a lot more valuable. About the only reason to raise him is because you like him, and even Welfare niche players will find he doesn’t have much value.

I do have one other comment on him, although it’s not gameplay related. Twice now, I have gone to make a joke about how I prefer Pozy as my Russian pink wolf, only to realize he’s actually a horse. I did this when I first wrote his lookahead six months ago, but fixed it in a draft. Then I totally forgot, and did it again as I wrote this, before remembering again. This is also the second horse that has made me think they’re a wolf! Weird.

Q: What about Crackborne?

A: Also no, but Crackborne does show me that being a mediocre 5★ is more forgivable than being a forgettable 6★. Crackborne is incredibly similar to Philae, to her detriment. She triggers her element as reflect damage, and she can do so faster, on a better cycle. However, Corrosion does less than half the damage of Necrosis. Crackborne also loses all of her bulk right away, which works against the debuff, since anything you’d actually want to debuff probably hits pretty hard. So even with the shorter cycle time, she usually performs far worse. Considering Philae has been readily available for a while now, and is already mogged by Cairn, who herself isn’t even meta, it’s hard to give Crackborne much credit or consideration. Yet, she isn’t exactly bad either, with 5k AoE True-ish damage on a 25 SP cost. And somehow being 33% cheaper makes it easier to say that about her than about Viy…

She still pisses me off though. Why are you making the rarity so bad HG?

Q: Is there a selector tier list this time?

A: Yes! I’m happy to announce the return of the Paid Selector Tier List! It’s been a couple years now of it missing, but it had just become too unwieldy to regularly do. However, I came into a little bit of time recently, and instead of writing some more smut, I spent it retooling how the article is done to hopefully make it more maintainable. Additionally, the fact I now have IronCarrotArchives, which means I can give it a consistent updatable home, means that it should hopefully be less of a boat anchor this time.

You can find the new Paid Selector Tier List over here on IronCarrotArchives.

Masteries

Kal’tsit·Esperanta

Rarity: 6Limited

Kal'tsit Esperanta

Medic

Watchman

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

Repuŝado Defenda

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

S++

S++

Renaskiĝo Malkatena

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S3M3

A-

S

Kal’tsit makes her extremely predictable return to Rhodes Island with an annoying non-standard character in her name that isn’t on my keyboard and… is still a Medic that does True Damage. I’m not sure what I expected. In any case, her new form is incredibly powerful, albeit in a slightly subtle way. I say subtle because while AoE True Damage isn’t exactly subtle itself, the total value of her kit including that True Damage, strong AoE healing, control, permanent Take-Off that makes her immune to most damage and mechanics, and an Advanced flex skill, come together in a very powerful and flexible package that tends to be even more than the sum of the parts. Especially considering Medics tend to be fairly rare, Kal’tsit dot Esperanta should be meta for a good long while.

As with many units with a lot of parts and flexibility, she has two key skills with differing usage. However, in Kal2’s case, one skill has a significantly more valuable Mastery, her S2. With it, she gains 10 shots, each of which deals a wide swath of AoE True Damage to enemies, and big healing to allies. Then add in a long 5 second Slow that will keep enemies in range snared for the entire duration, while permanently floating, and you have an extremely powerful all-in-one skill that can solve a lot of problems. There is some mechanical “fiddliness” to it due to her prioritization of enemies, but unlike the now ancient Folinic, the splash range is wide enough, and the impact per shot big enough, that an occasional misplaced shot doesn’t really matter much.

Mastery on it is quite valuable as well since it double dips on increases to both damage and healing, which in turn both double dip off of two different ATK increases. The damage per shot increases by 20%, while the healing per shot increases by over 30%, which is a staggering total gain! Many units who have this level of gain can have Masteries that feel “essential”, but in Kal2’s case, the effect is already really good at SL7. That’s a pretty nice feature because it means Kal2 is still great in IS before her E2 promotion, or for just starting rosters! But S2M3 really amps the skill up to another level, and is thus among the highest priority Masteries.

Next, her S3 is one of the real “highlight” skills. It can pull off some really crazy stuff, and can be a key solution to a lot of really tough mechanics. She can entirely reposition herself while pulling back two allies to the bench to be redeployed for free. Since she has permanent Take-Off, this can be done at the start of certain dangerous thresholds, keep herself safe, then redeploy her allies when it’s over. Or it can be used to reset long cooldowns. Or it can be used to rapidly adjust between phases. Or a number of others! It’s really the kind of skill where the sky is the limit (get it, because she floats) in terms of creative play.

However, the weird thing with it is that her S3 Masteries aren’t all that essential to that function. They do matter and do have an impact, but often not in a way that more casual Story centric players will care about, especially for an occasional use skill. Mastery represents a 15 SP improvement to her initial wind-up, a 10 SP cycle time improvement via reduced SP cost, plus some additional healing. The initial SP is probably the most notable part since it is a rather large amount, but it’s not often a skill that’s helidropped. The cycle time via SP cost is also quite strong, especially given the high base cost, but it’s also rarely the kind of skill that gets activated immediately off cooldown. Finally, the healing on it is actually pretty strong, and can very much matter, especially in the high pressure situations the skill is used in, but isn’t the key aspect of the skill. These are all things that absolutely will matter in min-maxed scenarios, but may not matter at all in casual gameplay. So whether her S3 Masteries are worth pursuing or not depends on the kind of player you are, and for many with limited resources, it may be a skip entirely, at least in the short-term.

Last, probably pass on her S1. The interval reduction on her S3 means that the healing difference between the skills is comparable, so the main difference comes down to SP cost and the extra block count vs aerial enemies. The former doesn’t justify an expensive 6★ Mastery, especially when her S2 is a far better daily driver, and the latter, like so many similar skills, just isn’t valuable with the current design of the game.

Closure

Rarity: 6

Closure

Vanguard

Tactician

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

Q.E.D.

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S3M3

S+

A+

Model Expansion

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

S-

S+

At long last, Closure moves out of the procurement department where she puts us in real money debt, to field operations, where she puts us in DP debt instead. Some things never change. Fortunately for us, Closure makes for an extremely strong Vanguard. She has DPS that rivals some dedicated DPS units, the best DP generating potential available, albeit with some caveats, and the mentioned “DP debt” mechanic via her Talent 2 that proves to be surprisingly clutch. It makes Closure an incredibly strong option, even despite two meta-tier Vanguards already existing at her release. In fact, she will often be better than them, depending on the circumstances, and will tend to be easier to use as well.

In that vein of thinking, Closure’s “best” skill will depend on what you want out of her. Some players will find her S3 to be the most valuable, while others will find that to be her S2! Starting with her S3, it leans a bit more towards being a “daily-driver” sort of skill. It’s the skill that has the high DPS, which can be done on an absolutely massive range, in addition to generating solid DP. Story-centric players will likely find it to be the best Vanguard skill in the game due to these aspects, allowing Closure to perform triple duty as an early hold, a DP generator, and even a straight-up DPS unit. The new “Sluggish” is notable too, although at least as of this writing, hasn’t found much meta use. Because of that, Advanced players may not find it as valuable, especially if you’re already using the other 6★ Vanguards on your team. It’s a great combination of abilities, but isn’t unique or essential in high-meta situations, and the DPH on it is relatively low.

Mastery on her S3 is quite good as well. The most obvious improvement is to her DPS, which increases by around 33%, but the more notable one is to her initial SP. At SL7, she requires a painfully long 18 SP for initial activation, an eternity for a Vanguard, but that drops to just 7 SP at S3M3. Part of that is a 6 SP drop in base cost, which is also a nice improvement considering the DPS potential of the skill. The debuff improves as well, although as previously mentioned, that hasn’t proven to be all that essential yet, with the main benefit being the MVSPD reduction thanks to her big range.

Meanwhile, her S2 will likely be the more appealing skill for Advanced players, although the Mastery gains on it are more muted. There are a lot of features to the skill, but the only one that really matters is the DP refund. With it, plus the native DP generation, she can effectively dump out an entire roster as soon as the skill is up. This makes it tremendously valuable in terms of effective DP generation, and she’ll be a key part in many (if not all) CC-tier DP-constrained strategies because of it. However, that is restricted to the 3x3 square around her summon, so it’s not quite universally great either, and it lacks her S3’s damage which can often hold a map on its own.

As far as priority goes, while there are a lot of gains over Mastery on her S2, most of them don’t especially matter. She does gain more damage, and more DEF, which also applies to allies within that 3x3 square, but those aren’t the main feature of the skill. Instead, the main value of Mastery is to the initial SP and the extra DP gained. The DP gain is actually subtly important since she needs a bit of a DP bank built up before she can really pour out the team, but the total gain is still less dramatic than her S3. Advanced players especially will better appreciate those gains on a skill like this, but Story centric players will find S3’s Masteries more valuable.

Last, you should probably pass on her S1. There’s two problems with it. First, while the DP generation can get very high, it’s poor to start and takes some time to ramp up. By the time it does ramp up, it probably doesn’t matter anymore. There aren’t a lot of situations where her S1 is better than her S2! Second, the Auto Activation that probably makes it appealing to some makes the shield aspect unreliable, limiting its niche value. That leaves it as a desire-only tier of skill, to show off your love of capitalism, although it has had a few small highlights for the true min-maxers.

Crackborne

Rarity: 5

Crackborne

Defender

Primal Protector

MeleeMelee

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

Cracking Dam

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

B-

B

Crackborne can feel like a rather uninspired unit. She is extremely similar to the original Primal Protector, Philae, with only some minor tweaks to better align with Corrosion. However, that combination tends to be weaker than Philae, who is not a new unit anymore and is already not a common recommendation. Worse, she doesn’t stack with Cairn, one of the best Defenders at the rarity, since the Elemental types are incompatible. This means she doesn’t have much niche use either. However, while Corrosion’s damage is much lower, as is Crackborne’s bulk which quickly vanishes, she can cycle and trigger it faster than Philae can. It’s hard to call 5,000 AoE true-ish damage plus a debuff on a 25 SP cycle bad!

If you do have a particular fondness for off-meta bears, then Crackborne’s main skill is her S2. As with Philae, she reflects hits back as her injury type. But unlike Philae, she does this much faster. There’s two notable things. First, the reflect has no cooldown timer, meaning it can trigger extremely fast depending on the enemy. This can be a huge boon for swarms, although the relatively low damage per injury burst holds this back. Second, the skill applies as a buff to herself, meaning it doesn’t have a typical uptime and begins charging right away. This means she can trigger it as fast as every 25 seconds, although this is still dependent on the enemy.

As with all Elemental Injury dealers, there are a million different permutations that impact a multitude of trigger thresholds. This is made even more complex here due to the fact the injury increases at every Mastery level, meaning going through all of them is simply untenable, but Crackborne’s Masteries do end up being relatively valuable. For example, Mastery is required to trigger Corrosion in a single skill activation (5 hits) if her Module condition can’t be triggered. It’s also required to reach 4 hits without also having max level. While there are many common scenarios where Mastery doesn’t matter, the scenarios that do, plus some meaningful SP improvements, make it a Mastery worth pursuing if you plan to actually use her.

As for her S1, it’s a very fringe consideration. Skills like this do have some niche value, but Philae’s S1 is a better version of it. Their net effective Elemental healing is actually pretty similar, but Philae’s version cycles faster, and it’s already an extremely fringe tool. Considering that even in the rare circumstances that you did need such a skill, Philae is easily available from the shop, the only reason to really consider Crackborne’s S1 is because you specifically like Crackborne more.

Viy

Rarity: 6

Viy

Caster

Mystic Caster

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

'With Iron Engraved'

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S3M3

C

None

'By Blood Cleansed'

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

None

None

Even by the standards of welfare 6★s, Viy is extremely uninspired¹. He’s a Mystic Caster, who are already weak in the modern meta, but doesn’t even do the thing Mystic Casters are good at all that well. A four year old unit who wasn’t great when he was new either, Ebenholz, does it better. Viy instead trades the big single-target blast for chain damage. Then, as a 6★, he’s also very expensive to promote. Other recent welfare 6★s have had some respectable niche value, but that isn’t the case with Viy, meaning he’s a unit to avoid raising at all. However, that said, he isn’t actually bad enough to be completely ungraded by the standards of this guide. If he appeals to you, he does enough damage to be usable. Just keep in mind that he is entirely a desire-only promotion!

If that’s you, his only skill worth much consideration is his S3, which has his best damage on it and gels with his kit better. Essentially, what he wants to do is trigger his Talent 2 on everything in range, which will make him save charges, and thus trigger the extra damage from his Talent 1. S3 accomplishes this much better than his other skills due to the bounce and extreme amount of ASPD, resulting in far better total damage. Mastery is fairly valuable too since it grants him a lot more ammo, in addition to dual increases to ASPD and ATK.

Meanwhile, his S2 will have better single-target damage, so may be worth considering for the true husbando maximalists, although it’s relatively hard to use compared to Ebenholz (who also does more damage). If he can get all 9 of his charges up in advance, and you trigger the skill first, he can stack all of the buffs at once, resulting in some respectable damage. However, he has no way of managing those charges, so under any semblance of pressure, it just becomes a slow ramp-up DPS skill.

Last, his S1 is… a skill that exists. I’ll admit I’m having a tough time finding things to say about it because it’s uninspired filler on an uninspired unit. Amusingly, it’s actually his only skill with records on arkrec, as of this writing, but to the point, it’s almost all within the E0 niche!

¹ Yes, I’ve described two units this patch as uninspired. That’s because they are. It’s easy to overlook because of Kal2 and Closure, but this is a pretty bad patch outside of them.

Pull Priority

October update: Two changes this time. First, I’ve added Makoto as a Strong Pull, as expected. However, I’m actually relatively low on him given the initial hype. See the full lookahead below, but his low “uptime” (it’s complicated actually) can get pretty rough despite all the upside. He probably won’t slip to Lean though, even if the stretch after him is high-powered. His unkillable nature is just such a strong tool and has already proven its value!

Second, I’ve decided to move Closure down to Lean Pull. I’ll admit I’m not sure I like this since I’m very high on her, but I want this to be consistent with the main article, and I think there’s some legitimate scenarios to skip her given how insane the upcoming stretch is. Plus, the Strong Pull group is getting crowded. I’ve often said I can’t rank everyone there, and even I must admit she’s a step behind the others.

Strong Pull - Kal’tsit·Esperanta (limited), Angelina the Mellow Wish (limited), Tragodia (rerun), Makoto Yuki (collab limited)

Lean Pull - Closure, Violet Mizutsune Orchid (collab limited), Kirin R Yato (collab limited, rerun)

Lean Skip - Thumpy

Strong Skip - Aphrissa

Meta-value 4-5★s: None

Niche-value 4-5★s: None

Pull Priority Blurbs

Kal’tsit·Esperanta - Kal2 is a unit who is more than the sum of her parts. No individual aspect will likely blow you away, and there’s some details in her kit that can cause headaches, but when you combine her strong healing, good range, AoE True Damage, strong control, great survability, and a powerful flex skill, you have a great total package that is valuable in all sorts of gameplay.

Angelina the Mellow Wish - Angelina’s alter is yet our most recent of an ever growing list of absurdly broken limited units. She’s really fuckin’ good. However, unlike many of them, Angie is quite straightforward. She’s everything that makes Contrail good, but turned up to 11. Crazy good DPS against multiple-targets, and can fly making her functionally immune to most danger and mechanics. She’s not quite a Wang-tier of broken, but is definitely a can’t miss meta unit.

Tragodia - In his release article, I wrote that the design of his kit meant Tragodia was the kind of unit that would be hard to ever powercreep. And so far that looks pretty accurate. While the last year of extreme power has lowered the value of other EX units like Wisadel and even Exu2, Tragodia is still the best or second best unit in the game. His control is incredibly powerful, and multilayered. If you missed him the first time, don’t miss his rerun, unless you plan to buy him on the paid selector or value limited FOMO more.

Makoto Yuki - Gee Makoto, why does your mom let you have two dolls? Wait, I’ve already made that joke before. Anyway, Makoto has two dolls on his S3, which share the same cycle, one of which also blocks and heals, effectively meaning he’s damn near impossible to kill and a great staller. He also does some incredible DPS against multiple-targets, which makes him an extremely strong general purpose unit too. However, his uptime is tied to the first doll, which makes for inconsistent and often short uptime, and while that can be micromanaged to an extent, it takes a lot of effort to reach a good uptime, which can’t even be done in all cases. The stall portion often requires even more micromanagement, so a little caution is warranted.

Closure - Yet another extremely powerful Vanguard, Closure is the more powerful story-carry of the three. She has some really crazy damage and range, plus an extremely powerful DP skill that should see her viable even in advanced gameplay. The three top Vanguards all have different strengths compared to each other, but Closure is a more than worthy entrant to the competition. However, if you have the other two, she can feel less impactful, especially with so many limited banners coming up.

Orchid2 is a Fast-Redeploy Sniper that ends up being quite flexible. She can be deployed to melee tiles, and has a pretty big range and multiple-targets. Considering that Snipers have tended to struggle in Advanced content, this flexibility has actually given Orchid2 a leg up, especially in IS#7. In some strange (i.e. Advanced) ways, she could actually be the best Sniper! However, that says more about the state of Snipers than it does about Orchid2. Although she’s great, her DPS isn’t as crazy and we’ve gotten used to, and many other upcoming units will be more valuable. Despite that, as a collab unit, you probably don’t want to miss out on her.

Kirin R Yato - In years past, Yato2 has shown the problem with meta units being in collabs. She is by far the best FRD in the game, but was forever locked to new players. FRDs tend to retain some of their value (relatively) even as the power increases and Yato2 is still a top-tier unit. Her DPS has waned a bit, but her utility more than makes up for it still to this day. If you don’t already have her, you probably don’t want to miss your chance to pick her up!

Thumpy - Thumpy brings a strong combination of bulk and quality damage, which makes her a pretty decent unit overall. That’s not an especially unique combination, nor is she overwhelmingly good at either, but she also has some very unique shift-esque mechanics that make her both fun and novel, and creative oriented players may find her the most appealing upcoming unit. So she’ll be valuable to some, but in the meta-sense, amid a sea of hyper powerful limiteds, she’ll be a skip for many if you get Angie2 first.

Aphrissa - Aprissa is a decent unit and a creative twist on the Blast Caster archetype. I personally love her kit design! However, the archetype is also innately underpowered. Her S3 has the numbers behind it to keep up, but is still pretty far behind the top Casters, and her other two skills don’t have the numbers, which kills a lot of potential flexibility.

Lookaheads

New this update is the Persona 3 collab, which ends up really highlighting the differences in how the rarities are being treated lately. Never thought I’d say this, but take me back to Ave Mujica!

Makoto Yuki

Makoto is yet another absurdly powerful limited 6★. What a shocker. This time, he comes in the form of an enemy DPS check. He gets two dolls instead of one, but the dolls are both on the same timer, meaning an enemy has to chew through three HP bars, two of them in a 20 second window, to actually kill him. All while he does some pretty crazy DPS. The second doll has strong sustain too just to make him even more unkillable. He’s a very strong and easy to use unit for Story players, and also one of the best stallers in the game for Advanced play. Those unkillable dolls can largely be toggled at will, a factor that has already proven very valuable in the VB#3!

However, he’s not quite as insane as many people regard him. This is, of course, a relative statement with how absurd the game is, but there are a few flaws here. His total damage isn’t quite as cracked as some recent units since it’s restricted by the doll timer. Being unkillable isn’t exactly new either, and the limited right before him, Angie2, is shockingly similar, but has far better total damage! Meanwhile, the stall will make him a must pull for Advanced players, but it often requires a lot of micromanagement that many players will find unpalatable. I still regard him as a must pull for all players, particularly since he’s a collab unit, but these could be something to consider if you’re suffering from meta fatigue by this point.

As for Masteries, he really only has one skill worth considering, which is his S3. It’s the skill that contains all those features, which is what makes him special. Meanwhile, his S1 may have some niche value, and his S2 can be fun for Persona maximalists, but neither will be worth general consideration. His S2 especially is a gimmick, considering a similar skill already exists that doesn’t see any meta use. Plus, his S3 is so strong it really pushes out any situational value.

tl;dr S3 a high S-tier skill. Pass on his others, although that may edge out some low gimmick-tier grades if some use materializes in the next six months.

Aegis

I’ve written a lot recently about how the new 5★s have been in a horrible state starting with the Titi patch, and no one exemplifies it more than Aegis. She’s a popular character in a popular collab that could have justifiably been the 6★, yet instead somehow ends up worse than a Welfare that’s not even a year old. I mean, for fucks sake she has a self-stun! I thought we were past using that as a drawback! Make it make sense HG! I don’t even care for Persona and I’m still extremely pissed about it, so I can only imagine the rant if it was a game I actually cared about!

Anyway, Aegis is a bad unit, although is still usable and will likely end up graded by virtue of her archetype. Take-Off is a pretty strong mechanic, and that really carries her here, because her damage is worse than Skybox and she has no utility to speak of. She’s just mediocre 5★ damage, so although she’ll be graded, she’s still very much a desire-only promotion. As for skills, only her S2 is worth considering. It does more DPS and plays better with the Skybreaker Trait. Meanwhile her S1 is unusually terrible, even by 2026 5★ standards. It gives her more DEF, but is still a very low total value due to her low base value, and she’s forced to land so it can’t even be used to block aerial enemies, the one place it might actually have some fringe value. Then she has a self stun too which keeps her grounded. It’s really a master class in bad skill design. I’d actually be less mad if it was a generic skill. At least I could write that off as them not wanting to bother. This means someone actively thought about and designed this! It does at least have more total damage than her S2, which I guess might have some use for the highest tier toaster enjoyers, but it’s just so bad with her archetype that even that’s hard to justify.

Yes, I’m a wee bit mad about this.

tl;dr S2 low graded, probably C-tier. Pass entirely on S1.

Yukari Takeba

HG doesn’t seem to value buffing especially highly. Or maybe they value it too high so they undertune it. The result is the same, which makes me very curious how the 6★ Supportive Ranger will look, because so far, the two 5★s are very underwhelming. Which is sadly predictable, even with how the trend of the rarity has gone. The values are just not high enough to matter! And that’s Yukari’s problem. While it is usable, if you want, 30% more Arts damage for 15 seconds really just doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t have been enough to matter years ago since there’s plentiful buffer options that are better, who also have more utility, but now against modern DPS, it looks even worse. The upshot is that Arts Charge applies to final damage, meaning it isn’t as potentially “diluted” as +ATK buffs are, but it still comes well short of someone like Warfarin, a launch unit. It’s likely her S2 will end up graded, especially since the gains are fairly strong, but it’s going to be down in those niche and gimmick B or C-tiers. Pass on her S1 which wouldn’t even be good at half the SP. However, unlike Aegis, it will have value if you are a big Persona fan and plan to use Yukari as much as possible, since there’s a lot of places where her S2 won’t be doing anything at all.

tl;dr S2 low graded, S1 ungraded and waifu-only.