Introduction

You know, I’ve never especially liked the CNY patches. I dislike how disconnected the Sui story feels from the rest of the universe, and a lot of the early ones were painful to read which soured me on the whole thing from the start (although it has admittedly been better written the last few years). I don’t find a lot of the Suibilings to be terribly compelling characters either. That makes it a whole lot easier to hate how absurdly broken this patch is! Stupid Wang…

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.

Announcement - Web Version of the Mastery Guide!

I’m happy to announce that I have finally finished something that is long overdue. The web-based version of the Mastery guide is now live! It should be much faster than the Sheets version, contains links to lots of other guide works, and will even include a place for me to blog things that don’t warrant a full article.

The guide will 100% continue to be updated on the existing Sheets version, and the articles continue to be published at the usual places. I have no intention of stopping any of those to favor this new site! One bit of fallout for me from Gamepress dying suddenly was how awful it felt that I had no way to reach certain people that came looking, so I plan to maintain the existing versions for as long as I reasonably can.

I’m also not a web developer by any means, so please feel free to share any feedback!

Iron Carrot Archives - https://ironcarrotarchives.com/

Anyway, onto the guide!

FAQ and Discussion

Q: I’ve heard a lot about Wang. Is he really that good?

A: Yes, he is. It’s actually remarkable. I’ve said a lot over the years about how Hypergryph has made design mistakes that disrupt the game. I sound a bit like a broken record as I prepare to say the same for Wang, but it’s true. Wang does so much damage, so easily, against virtually every enemy that it’s tough to quantify in words how stupidly powerful he is. His RES-ignore is so high that he does more damage vs 100 RES enemies than most True Damage units do. And he does it anywhere on the map. And against air. And on undeployable tiles. And- Well, you get the idea, hopefully.

Maybe the worst sin though, is his kit is a boring design too! You have a Trapmaster with Go pieces! There’s so much interesting that could have been done there, but instead it’s just “pieces go boom”. I don’t, strictly speaking, mind broken units. I’ve also long said over the years that powercreep is inevitable. But Wang is just so boring for what he could have been. He’s just absurd power for the sake of absurd power. Even CC risks designed specifically to nerf him don’t matter! Just bring more Vanguards! Aiiiiieeeeee.

Anyway, a final note on Wang, is if you’re one of the… umm, lazy players and are scared off by him being a Trapmaster, don’t be. He’s honestly easier to use than Wisadel who you at least kinda have to think about her cycle with. He renews his traps very easily and they do so much damage that you don’t need anywhere close to ideal play to be effective. He really is as simple as “throw bomb, thing die”.

Q: Hold me tight daddy Tac and tell me everything will be ok! Tell me I don’t need that much meta!

A: Shhhhh baby, it’ll be alright. We’ll survive the bad man together. Now put on that dress I like and go- err wait, wrong article.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a question like this. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten so used to the absurd power levels which have been going on for over a year now. This is here to remind you that Arknights isn’t a game that requires absolutely absurd amounts of power to clear. There are players out there (a lot of them) that only want the strongest units available, and the path of least resistance to clear content. And that’s fine! I am absolutely 100% still telling you to pull for Wang!

However, there are some players out there that will find Wang supremely boring. There are also players who will be reading this after his banner is gone and fearing they’ve missed out. So this here is your reminder that Arknights is a game where no one is absolutely required. Yes, there is some crazy endgame content that does, but that’s all optional prestige stuff. Yes, there is some content that will be made easier by units like Wang too. However, there is a lot of power in the game. You will be fine if you don’t have Wang. We’ve survived seven years of content without him after all! We survived just fine post-Wisadel, and we’ll survive just fine post-Wang too.

Probably anyway…

Q: What about Ch’en the Dawnstreak?

A: Chen3 hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention due to Wang, but Chen3 is also a very powerful unit, and probably the best DPS Guard currently in the game (although I still favor Ulpianus as a general use unit). She’s more interesting to use too. Her S3 dragon requires some thought to optimize, but the results are well worth it due to some absurd AoE damage that’s always the favorable type. Even if you don’t like to optimize your clear, throwing it in a straight line is still very effective thanks to the short cycle. Plus she has a lot of survivability built into her Talent2 too.

If your roster is already stacked, she is more likely to fade into the ever growing power ceiling than Wang is. Wang is still certainly the best unit here. However, Chen3 should maintain a lot of long term value with how she scales, and will be a powerful boon to anyone with a younger roster.

Q: Any thoughts on a character getting a second alter?

A: Alters have always been a hot topic amongst certain people. There are those out there that absolutely hate them. I’m not one of them, however. Arknights has an absolutely massive roster (almost 400 units now!). In recent years, HG has been a lot better at ensuring they at least get screentime in their own events, but nevertheless, most never appear again, and many older units still haven’t had major appearances, which I think is a real shame. There’s a saying along the lines of “inch-deep, mile-wide” which I think describes a lot of the Arknights roster and I would much rather things go deeper than wider. So, in general, I’m more than happy to see characters get more screentime! Not only does Chen3 not bother me, I think it’s a good thing!

That said, I have two comments.

First, I really wish they didn’t start with Ch’en. She’s a pretty divisive character, and I find myself on the negative side with her. Of all the “main” characters AK has had, she’s one of the least compelling. She hasn’t even been involved in the story for a long time, always just lurking as random cameos near the end for no particular reason other than reminding us she exists. While I want to see new stories for our existing characters, I can’t say I’m excited by the fact it’s Ch’en specifically.

Second, I really hope HG doesn’t just continue the trend and repeat the same ground for the next few years. There are so many interesting characters in the game and so many fun places to take the story, that I really hope we don’t just get a third rehash of the popular launch characters. Give me a Plat2 or Red2, not SA3!

Q: Does CCBP#5 change anything with Ch’en the Dawnstreak (or any other OP)?

A: No. Older readers won’t be surprised by this answer, and I don’t often bring up the topic for every CC. However, it’s been a long time since the last CC and there are a lot of new players now, especially with Wang, so I’ll talk a bit about it here.

An Operator, such as Wang¹ or Kal2, can prove themselves in CC, but the absence, such as Chen3 shouldn’t change your opinion. CCs fundamentally cater to niche value. The stage and risk setup always favor certain strategies over others, and that result has virtually no impact on the rest of the game. An Op that’s great in one CC may never be seen again in high-end gameplay (this has happened multiple times), and an Op that never appears in CC may still be great (i.e. Wisadel).

In this case, the stage setup really hurts melee Ops so pretty much all Guards and Defenders saw little use. Further still, very very few people will be pushing high levels of risk. For many casual players, making any sort of decision based on this extreme min-maxed gameplay would be a mistake. In other words, even though Chen3 was a no-show, it shouldn’t change your evaluation of her.

¹ Not that there was any doubt Wang would be great. He has a higher solo clear risk than many full team niche clears do.

Q: Are there any spark considerations for this banner?

A: Generally speaking, the Suibilings are pretty low powered, which is surprising considering two of them are incredibly good. That makes the spark discussion a bit simpler this time. There are essentially two scenarios for sparking on this banner.

First, the only units worth dedicated focus are Shu, and maybe Yu. While they are both great units, I would not spend a lot to spark them here given the Kal2/Closure banner followed by dual MH banners. If you naturally get close to 300 due to bad luck, I would spend maybe 50-60 additional pulls for Shu, and a bit less for Yu, depending on what you have banked. More than that, I’d lean towards saving.

Second, it may be worth targeting a 200 spark Suibiling to take advantage of Shu’s Talent2. That Talent provides a huge team buff if there are 4 Suibilings on the team. Of course, you have to own Shu first to consider this, and Wang would make 2. So it’s a somewhat rare situation, but there may be a case where spending another 30 pulls or so to spark Nian or Dusk (pick Nian), even in prep to reach 4 next year instead, makes sense.

Q: Are either Ju or Taraxacum worth raising?

A: No. Sadly, our long string of great 5★s is over. The good days are behind us! Ju and Taraxacum are both low tier units. They have low impact, and limited or no niche value. It’s really disappointing given the last year-ish has been a pretty strong showing from the rarity!

For Taraxacum, he is yet another 5★ Medic who only heals, of which there are a massive amount. He has the Take-Off gimmick which might give him some rare occasional low-rarity niche value due to the survivability, but his healing is poorer than a lot of other 5★ Medics, so odds are he’ll rarely be the best choice. Plus, his Take-Off is tied to his skills and they cycle worse than Skyrangers, which is limiting, and the upcoming limited after this does it without any limitations.

For Ju, he’s not even better than Totter. There is some detail about who has better DPS/DPH in which scenarios, so he’s not strictly worse, but when you consider how much more 5★s cost to raise and the fact Totter has a very valuable niche and is free to recruit in IS, it’s not even that close who is the better unit. Ju just has a very shallow kit. At least Taraxacum has a gimmick (albeit a meaningless one). For Ju, he’s pretty much just mediocre DPS with a minor amount of SP feed that doesn’t work well. He’s honestly one of the worst designed kits in a long time. At least Kichisei was thematic (kinda…)! What a waste of a really cool design.

Q: Any Module thoughts for this patch?

A: A few, but I’m going to be brief here. This is already a long write-up and I’m a bit pressed for IRL time, so I can’t go in too deep even on the ones that interest me. As always, be sure to check Mal’s write-ups for more indepth Module discussions.

• EN - First of a Thousand Autumns

  • Irene’s ISW - I won’t get into the mechanical details here (which would be quite long), but I like Irene a lot and this mod is right up my alley. It’s decently strong too, although not up to the level of Gnosis’s. It actually has some situational value in high-end IS gameplay, but requires specific setups and isn’t a general solution. I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to obtain Irene to use it, but if you already have her or are looking for a fun option, she’s a great choice.

  • Passenger’s RA - Passenger’s RA mod is actually a good one, but sadly, the RA3 implementation kills a lot of the value. It is actually good there too, but RA3 is even more of a “one and done” thing then RA2 was. The weather bypass is nice if you already have him, but is just not necessary otherwise.

• CN - Thunder in the Azure Dream

  • Violet Mizutsune Orchid - On one hand, a lot of Modules are pretty boring. On the other hand, I really dislike when a fundamental of the kit is locked behind the Modules. The ARC-X base mod is absolutely necessary to make good use out of her, and the upgrades, especially mod3, are pretty valuable too. It’s a must get if you plan to use her.

  • Zinogre S Catapult - As with Chilchuck, we get a preview of the Mercenary modules ahead of time. However, unlike Agents, I’m not sure why they didn’t just give Hadiya hers now too since there aren’t any other Mercs and it’s a pretty empty patch Module-wise. Anyway, this is a pretty strong Module. The base effect can total a lot of attack and her upgrades add even more. Catapult2 herself is pretty average, but if you plan to use her, this Module is well worth it.

  • Vulpisfoglia 2nd - Vulpis is a funny unit for me. I love her kit and design, but have been a long time Pioneer hater, so I’ve never been sure (on a personal level) how much I should dunk on her. So that said, her 2nd Module makes me pretty sad. It was very anticipated, but it’s just so… disappointing. The DP gen bonus is minor and the camo doesn’t matter. The base effect is about the only nice part. Given how powerful Vanguards are now, it’s depressing they didn’t throw her a bone at least. I guess it is probably better than her first though, sad as that is to say.

Masteries

Wang

Rarity: 6Limited

Wang

Specialist

Trapmaster

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

All-Dominating Fight

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S3M3

S++

S++

Wall of Stars

Auto TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

A

S+

Power Play

Auto TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S1M3

None

C

Older readers of this guide may remember a time when the S++ grade could have an arbitrary number of +s. Once upon a time, the mighty SilverAsh (the first one) had an S++++ grade! So I have to wonder how many Wang would have if I kept up the trend. He is by far the strongest OP in the game as of his release. Would ten be enough? Twenty? I bring up this digression for one reason. Both here and the Tier List now have a “cap” on their rankings. This is for practical reasons because outliers make an overall ranking much harder. Wang is such an outlier. Don’t be “fooled” by his mere S++ grades here. He should be the first Mastery you do, and is the highest priority OP in the game, and will likely remain so for a long time.

Anyway, to discuss his actual kit, Wang is a Trapmaster, although that’s putting it mildly. He more accurately throws tactical nukes shaped like Go pieces. Each “trap” deals a ton of damage in a big range, with a lot of flexibility built in such as appearing on undeployable tiles and hitting air. Most notable, however, is the RES-ignore built into his second Talent which ensures he has high damage against virtually everything in the game. He is incredibly easy to use as well, despite a rather wordy kit, with plentiful traps and bypasses for common Trapmaster issues. He really is as good as people say.

His main skill, and that mentioned high priority Mastery, is his S3. It’s quite confusing at first read, but isn’t actually that bad. What happens, in addition to the trap effect of huge AoE damage, is he gets ammo which automatically converts into additional traps when deployed in his now massive (5x5!) range. It also renews his traps, and don’t forget, can be ended on-demand to begin the refresh cycle early and get even more traps. Despite all the words, the Mastery itself is very simple. The only gain is to the damage the traps do, and a small amount of SP. However, this is one of the best skills in the game, and that damage gain is significant!

After that, the next skill to pursue is his S2, but it’s tricky to evaluate. It is an extremely powerful skill, and if this guide was just a skill ranking, it would easily be an S++ tier of skill as well. However, this guide is an investment priority instead, and the issue is his S3 is so incredibly dominant that many players will never even bother with his S2, which results in a wide gap between Story and Advanced recommendations. If you are the type of player who doesn’t overthink stages, you can probably pass on the Mastery entirely, and will get better value from your resources elsewhere. However, if you like to optimize your clears, even a little, then his S2 is well worth the investment!

His S2 is simpler to understand. It does more damage per trap than his S3 does, albeit in a range that tends to be more “restrictive”. Instead of a fancy ammo mechanic to deploy a ton of new traps, it renews in a more typical Trapmaster method. But because Wang is broken, he gets two traps per cycle instead of one like every Trapmaster before him. This gives it a damage and uptime advantage to his S3. As for the range, it covers the same total area as S3, but in a cross-shape instead. For general use, this can be functionally smaller, but is also capable of reaching out further, which gives it a situational advantage. Due to these factors, some players may even find S2 more valuable than his S3. However, it is much less brain-dead to use than his S3 so a lot won’t find it worth the “trouble”, minor as it is. Mastery on it is more valuable than his S3 as well, although that shouldn’t be a major factor here. The SP gain matters more, the damage gain is bigger, and the snare effect gets a significant improvement. None of that changes the difference in skill value though, so don’t take this difference to mean you should start with S2 instead!

Last is his S1, which is likely not worth the investment for most people. It’s mainly notable for its long Slow that can be applied almost anywhere on the map. That can have value for real min-maxed gameplay, however, there’s better control options out there, so it’s surprisingly low value for such a strong unit, and will only be particularly useful if you want to specifically use Wang.

Ch’en the Dawnstreak

Rarity: 6

Ch'en The Dawnstreak

Guard

Arts Fighter

MeleeMelee

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

Chi Xiao - Heaven's Plaint

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S3M3

S++

S+

Chi Xiao - Shadowless Speed

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

B

B+

Our first double-alter, Ch’en the Dawnstreak returns to Ch’en’s roots as a DPS Guard, but with upgraded modern power. That power is in the form of a potentially abusable dragon with great range, strong base DPS, a “new¹” Weakness damage that expands her targets, our first instance of HP scaling damage, and some surprisingly decent self sustain. That all makes her a powerful general consideration, with enough potential to really shine in some advanced content.

Her main skill to that effect is her S3. She throws out her dragon which can travel any distance, giving her massive range. The dragon turns clockwise any time it hits a barrier of some kind, and it can hit an enemy after each turn, meaning that depending on the scenario, along with its HP scaling damage, it can obliterate high HP enemies by bouncing the dragon around for multiple hits. It’s particularly great against the “raid boss” (multi-tile) type enemies! It’s notable that the HP scaling is based on current HP, not max, so it does reduce over subsequent hits, but also has a very high minimum damage. However, the flip side is this is map dependent. It’s more usable than you probably think it is since it’s the type of skill that makes you rethink stages, but there are stages that she can relatively “struggle” on. And if you’re the type of player that’s allergic to thinking, keep in mind that her S3 is still her best skill. Even firing off dragons randomly on her short 25 SP cost will have great results.

As for the Masteries themselves, they’re on the strong side, but not absurd. It raises the minimum damage, but not the HP scaling, of her dragon which is the skill’s main selling point, and the minimum damage gain there is nothing special. However, it’s often easy to overlook the followup strikes which do improve by a good amount thanks to the triple strike. Perhaps more important however, is the cycle time improvement. As always, it can be a bit difficult to appreciate a few SP of cycle time and initial wind-up, but for high caliber units like this, it can make all the difference. These factors knock down her grades slightly compared to other upper crust units, but while the Masteries on this skill aren’t absurd by any means, it’s still one of the highest priority options in the game.

Her secondary skill is her S2, which may be the one that pulled your attention in the previews. It calls back to her first form’s S3, with upgraded damage, and new movement tech! However, that tile-moving ends up being far more trouble than it’s worth. The skill doesn’t return her to the original position (unless there’s no valid move target) so it will very often end up leaving her in an undesirable or unexpected position. It’s a skill that requires a lot of effort to use properly, otherwise she’ll just teleport herself somewhere useless, and while thinking is rarely considered a problem in this guide, the real problem is for that effort you don’t really get better performance than her S3!

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s useless, and it is still graded here, but it becomes a situation where the cost of Mastery slides it more towards the luxury or niche side of things. It has some decent gains as well, but I suspect that this is the sort of skill that a lot of people will do because it’s flashy and because she’s Ch’en, but won’t actually ever use.

Last, her S1 is probably not worth considering, but the true Ch’en simps may find it useful. It’s similar to Guardmiya’s S1 and has high DPS, but lacks any special value besides the Silence which is of limited general use. It’s not a bad skill, strictly speaking, but it’s extremely rare it will ever be better than her other two skills.

¹ We’ve seen it before, but this is the first time it’s appeared on an Operator kit.

Taraxacum

Rarity: 5

Taraxacum

Medic

Watchman

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

Upon the Wind

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

None

None

Where To?

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S1M3

None

None

Oh boy, another 5★ Medic that only heals. We have so many of these and I can only say the same thing so many times. This is the situation where the 5★ value problem comes to the front, where the extra cost 5★s bring just don’t justify using them over cheaper OPs who are also great in IS, like Purestream, Sussurro, and Perfumer. At least Taraxacum has a gimmick in his Take-Off, but Take-Off isn’t widespread enough in the overall roster for his Talent to be viable¹, nor is his uptime good enough for consistent safety or aerial blocking that the gimmick would otherwise bring. However, his HPS is decent, the Watchman range is unique among Medics, and despite the flaws in his up-time, the Take-Off may still be useful in niche play. That’s far from enough to be a general consideration, but could be enough for a rare few out there.

If that’s you, both of his skills are options, without an especially great deciding factor between them. His S2 will probably be the better overall skill, however. It has more targets and avoids the RNG on his S1. It’s just more consistent with better total HPS. However, it has notably poor gains over Mastery, with only a paltry 7% improvement (as if having a bad kit wasn’t enough).

Meanwhile, his S1 has the better HPS against one target and a much higher uptime on his Take-Off which could make all the difference to his survivability in niche play. It also has better Mastery gains. Don’t be fooled by the lower raw ATK% number. Spread over the reduced interval, it has a bigger impact than S2’s “larger” raw gain. However, the random nature of the healing can be a massive problem if there are more targets, and the higher uptime comes at an unusually high SP cost. So ultimately it becomes a situation where neither skill stands out, and the best option is just to avoid him in the first place.

¹ Maybe someday in the future it’s possible the extra block will be useful, but with how the game is designed, that’s unlikely.

Ju

Rarity: 5

Ju

Sniper

Besieger

RangedRanged

Skill

Mastery

Story

Advanced

Fine Wings, Difficult Flight

Manual TriggerPer Second Recovery

Mastery

Story

Advanced

S2M3

None

None

Despite great visual design and lore, Ju has one of the least interesting kits in recent memory. He’s not even appreciably better than the 4★ of his archetype, Totter¹, so he’s generally a unit to avoid raising. All he does, aside from some minor and inconsistent SP generation that wasn’t good when a 6★ did it five years ago, is restricted DPS (HP% thresholds are never good), and it’s not especially good DPS at that. It is an absolute travesty the extra damage on his S2 only triggers once per enemy since he still wouldn’t be good even if it was every hit! This all means he’s not even notable for niche play!

However, he has “enough” DPS to be viable if you really like him. In such a case, strongly favor his S2 for Mastery, although to rub salt into the wound, the gains aren’t even that impressive. Its DPH is only slightly worse than S1, but he gains an extra target and a lot more DPS over a decent duration. However, as mentioned, the gains are fairly low, and the skill itself is still unimpressive. I can’t imagine what the thinking was behind making the extra damage only happen once².

His S1 could be an option if you really like him, but will rarely have real value. The idea behind it is probably (it’s always hard to tell with units like this) that he’ll save the charges until an enemy is almost dead, allowing him to more easily activate his Talent in a single activation. This, along with the standard “consistency vs burst” difference, could occasionally make it the better choice. However, the targeting restriction greatly neuters his viability, so S2 will nearly always be the better choice.

¹ Seriously, raise Totter first if you want a Besieger. The DPS difference is small and situational, Totter is significantly cheaper, and he is very useful in IS. ² I’m so mad about it, I mentioned it twice.

Pull Priority

July update: New this update are the MH collabs. Orchid2 and Yato2 both slot into Lean Pull. I like Yato2 more between them, and think she might slide up to Strong Pull next patch when Wang and Chen3 rotate off. Orchid2 is solid, but could even slide to Lean Skip depending on the power level in a few months. Meanwhile, Kal2 goes up to Strong Pull. While that kit clunkiness is still there, she has so much of value packed into her kit that she’s proven to be very viable in both general and endgame play.

Aphrissa will be added next update, but unfortunately, she’s very likely to be a Strong Skip.

Strong Pull: Wang (limited), Ch’en the Dawnstreak, Kal’tsit·Esperanta (limited), Closure

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

Lean Skip: Zima the Raging Tide, Bellone

Strong Skip: Necrass (rerun)

Meta-value 4-5★s: None

Niche-value 4-5★s: None

Pull Priority Blurbs

Wang - He’s been nicknamed Wangsdel and for good reason. He does a ton of damage, anywhere on the map. Don’t be afraid by the fact he’s a Trapmaster either. Since his damage is so good, and he gets a ton of traps, he’s stupidly easy to use too. He can solo most of the game, like his sister Ling did long ago, but unlike her, has plenty of ceiling too thanks to a huge chunk of RES-ignore. He is easily the best unit ahead of us, and may be the best unit in the game.

Ch’en the Dawnstreak - She hasn’t gotten as much attention as Wang, but I like Chen3 almost as much. She scales with enemy HP and her damage automatically toggles between Arts and Physical, depending on what’s better. She also has crazy good range and an abusable gimmick, which gives her both a high floor and a high ceiling.

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.

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.

Violet Mizutsune Orchid - Orchid2 is a Fast-Redeploy Sniper that can deploy to melee tiles. That makes her very flexible and reasonably powerful. However, her DPS isn’t as crazy as we’re used to so she’s not quite as impactful as many recent 6★s, nor is she as flexible as her fellow MH 6★, Yato2.

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!

Zima the Raging Tide - She has a very powerful and easy to use AFK skill that will appeal to many people, with a powerful nuke skill to flex to. However, her ceiling is relatively low. There’s a lot of AFK units now so her S2 is nothing new, and she does nothing off-skill when using S3.

Bellone - Bellone has really high ST DPS and strong DEF-shred, meaning he will rip up a lot of stages and enemies. He has a really high floor that will appeal to some people, with just enough high end value to warrant at least a look. However, he is far less versatile than many other DPS units, including several upcoming ones. That makes him tricky to recommend. Older players will already have better options, and newer players will get better value from their pulls saving for the better options.

Necrass - She’s a powerful general unit, but has a much lower ceiling than the other upcoming top dogs. If her summon gets stat-checked, she’s just raw damage, and while her damage is good, it’s not special either. She’s a solid carry sort of unit, but we have a lot of those now with higher ceilings.

Lookaheads

All lookaheads can be found in their usual spot on the main guide here (Sheets) or here.

Zinogre S Catapult

Although she’s a bit disappointing design-wise, only granting generic 5★ DPS with the Mercenary gimmick instead of some more interesting interaction, Catapult2 is decent enough to be usable if you want. She has enough DPS, and some flexibility between her two skills that she is more than functional. She’s not a special quantity either, however. S1 is a decent AoE and hit-count skill, while S2 provides a much bigger and viable burst on a relatively low cooldown. However, as said, her DPS isn’t a special-tier and the DP cost is a steep price when better DPS options exist at the rarity. The 5★ Guards are a pretty decent group already, so even her niche potential is relatively muted. Still, it’s enough that she should pick up some grades.

tl;dr If you plan to use her, you’ll need to Master both skills. S2 will probably be slightly higher, but both roughly in the B-tier.

Violet Mizutsune Orchid

Orchid2 is a very interesting unit that I’m personally quite pleased with, however she is a fair bit off of the top level of DPS we’ve gotten used to, which may leave some people disappointed. Similar to April (❤️), her faster redeployment and semi-invulnerability leads to a lot of unexpected flexibility. Orchid2 then brings that a step further by being able to be deployed on melee tiles too! While certainly not earth-shattering, that’s still fairly novel and potentially powerful, depending on the map.

Orchird2 will likely be a graded M9, but S2 is the standout. The DPH on it is nothing special, but it does a lot of AoE damage in a huge area (a questionable design choice for “arrows” but that’s a rant for another day) and is the skill that has her survivability on it, an aspect notably missing from the other two skills. You won’t be killing many boss enemies with it, but it’s a skill that will handle the rest of the map with relative ease.

After that, there’s a relatively interesting decision between her remaining skills. S1 will actually be the “better” choice. Low-SP Charge-based skills always tend to be good, and its stronger ST damage gives her a good and consistent source of damage, on top of some strong Mastery gains. S3 meanwhile is the “flashier” skill and will certainly have some value, especially against “giant” boss types, but anyone who has used Fartooth will know that the straight line range is surprisingly restrictive and the wind-up time leaves her vulnerable. People who favor getting the most use out of Orchid2 should do S1 second, while people who want more “broad” use out of her should favor S3. Probably anyway. I haven’t exactly decided how to handle the nuance in terms of grades or recommendations.

tl;dr S2 the highest priority, likely mid to lower S-tier. After that it gets nuanced, if you bother to do a second at all, but both S1 and S3 will be graded.